First Day of School

We've been busy busy. I'm finding it harder and harder to keep up with the blogging! We travelled to Connecticut this weekend to celebrate the girls' great grand parent's (Austin's grandparents) 65th wedding anniversary. (more on that hopefully in a separate post). My parents left for Shanghai yesterday morning, so it was a bit sad to come home last night. With my parents gone, that means Mikaela officially started daycare today. Austin did a great job of getting both girls out the door, Naomi was an incredible help, playing with Mikaela, helping to feed her a bottle...

Once they got to school though, Mikaela knew something was up and got a bit nervous. By the time Austin and Naomi left her class, she was crying her poor eyes out. We were hoping since she's only 7 months that she wouldn't really go through much separation anxiety, unlike when Naomi went at 14 months. Unfortunately, she's a smart one, and she already knows she's not with family. It's only 9:30am right now, and I'm literally sitting on my hands to hold myself back from calling the center to check in on her already. I'm making myself wait til 10am. Here's a pic from this morning. Her teacher was already holding her in this shot. doesn't she look nervous?

Sleep Rituals....I mean, quirks

They say it's important to set a sort of sleep routine/ritual at a young age to get your babies to learn when it's time to go to sleep. We have a loose routine for both girls, which has definitely helped us get both girls ready for bed at a somewhat decent hour every night (with some obvious hiccups along the way), but still allowing us flexibility to change things up on nights when we stay out late, travel etc.
Along the way, the girls have developed their own quirks which help them to fall asleep. I can't help but laugh each night as we finally get both girls into bed. Naomi has two night lights, a sound machine, a nightstand and her main bedroom light which she has to turn on/off all on her own. Then she jumps into bed, where she gets one story, a bunch of silly songs (courtesty of Dora) and then her bedtime lullabye *Misty". Then Austin or I has to sit on her couch for 5 mins while she tries to sleep, then after 5 mins, we give her another 2 mins before finally leaving for the night, making sure to prop her door open just a tiny bit so she can see the railing outside her door.
Mikaela, we've recently discovered, will cry unless you are touching her cheek. Once I put her down, even if she's fast asleep, she wakes up immediately. As soon as I touch her cheek with my palm, she falls back asleep, no joke, instantaneously. But if I try to move my hand away too soon, she wakes up. It's usually no more than 3-5 mins, and it's nice to be able to watch her sleep because she's so peaceful and has the cutest face. But It seriously is the funniest thing to be standing there, leaning over her crib with one hand on her cheek. But hey, whatever works right?

She scoots!!

Mikaela has been reaching for objects for several weeks now. Today she successfully managed to grab her object of desire (a box to one of Naomi's toys) and is now able to scoot a pretty good distance when she's motivated. As soon as she made it to the box, she flipped it on top of her head, then Naomi came over, grabbed the box and put it up high on a chair where Mikaela couldn't reach it. Ahh Sibling love.

July redux

Ok, putting all things in perspective, yes, it was a tough month with sicknesses, 3 straight weeks to be exact, but taking a look at this video Austin put together, where all the shots were from June or July, I have to say, it was still a pretty good month :) btw, Austin put this entire video with his iPhone. cool huh?

July

July was terrible. We have been sick non stop this month. First Naomi, then Mikaela, then Austin caught something, then me. I was hoping the cycle would end, but nope, Naomi decided to pick up the torch and keep the cycle alive. She woke up irritable and complaining about how her feet and hands were itchy. When we took her temperature, she had a fever of 102 and her hands and feet were getting swollen red and hot. She also started getting splotchy all over her face. We were worried it was hand foot and mouth disease, but a not so quick trip to the pediatrician confirmed she likely just had a bad virus that was causing her joints to swell. "Sometimes that just happens". Great. Our pediatrician recommended we use ibuprofen over tylenol since it would help with swelling. It actually seemed to work, after a nap, Naomi woke up completely sweaty, and it seemed like her fever was gone. She was lethargic but more like herself. But after awhile, I noticed her eyes were starting to swell up. I have issues with medicine. I can't take any derivative of aspirin, and actually try to steer clear of any pain releivers other than tylenol because my eyes swell. Naomi however, has never had this problem. Unfortunately it seems like today she might have grown into one of my allergies. And unfortunately, she decided she was going to go on a medicine strike, and refused to take any medicine (after the first two doses this morning). I was able to get her to get a little bit of children's claritin in her, which I think helped with the swelling. After that, we stuck to tylenol, which just didn't seem as effective at getting her fever down, but thankfully her eyes weren't puffing up anymore. It was such a struggle to get her to take her medicine today though, I'm really hoping she sleeps through the night and doesn't need any more medication. She pretty much lay on the couch for the entire day, had nothing to eat but toast in the morning, some french fries from our lunch, which in retrospect was a bad idea since she puked them all up, and 1.5 saltines for dinner.
I'm praying she gets better soon, and also hoping she is the last leg of this vicious sickness relay we've been racing in. With the help of my parents (thank god for them), we managed to keep Mikaela and Naomi separate for most of the day. So hopefully Mikaela wont' catch anything. Tomorrow is August 1st. Hopefully July will go and take our summer sicknesses along with it.

Tag team

Naomi and MIkaela are tag teaming us. Thankfully last weekend, Naomi was only sick for a day. She did end up staying home the following monday, she could have easily gone in, but since my parents are here and she still had a pretty bad cough, we figured we might as well let her spend as much time with my parents while they're here. This weekend, Mikaela had a fever all weekend. Our pediatrician has sunday hours, so we were able to get her checked out. Other than a fever and a runny nose, she's pretty good. But today would have been her first day at daycare. Although she technically doesn't start until August 15th, I had her booked to go in for one day since my parents needed to head into the city to renew their visas for their trip to China. It's like she knew that she was heading to school! Since she had a fever, she wouldn't be able to go to daycare. So I am taking a sick day with her. Of course as soon as Naomi found out I was staying home, she declared she was too. So I even though Mikaela is a little under the weather, it's nothing serious, and at least I get an extra day with my girls =)

Naomi-isms

last night when I wouldn't ley Naomi watch tv, she said, "I'm going to tell Ama, because you broke my heart."