0 Good morning!

Project Georgia Sleep is moving along nicely! Here's the basic rundown:
Tuesday night
7:00pm: In bed for the night.
11pm-1am: Scream and yell on and off for two hours. Chad makes frequent visits to assure G we are indeed still in the vicinity. This really riles her up.
1-5am: Give up and sleep.
5am: Well deserved snack from the momma.
5:30-8:30am: Content sleeping.

Wednesday night
7:00pm: In bed for the night.
12pm-1am: Miserable, sad crying. Chad makes less frequent visits to assure G her parents aren't total jerks and are still here for her. 
1-5:45am: Give up and sleep.
5:45am: Well deserved snack from the momma.
6:15-8am: Content sleeping.

As you can see, she cried just a little bit less last night than the night before. So we're hopeful that we are well on our way to getting a good night's sleep. I was checking the blog last night and saw that Leighton sat up in HER crib for the first time a full 3 months after Georgia (I know she was behind because of her brace). Georgia is definitely throwing us for a loop with all this movement. She is just dying to crawl and stand and go-go-go.

3 8 months old!

To celebrate her 8-month birthday, Georgia did something WAY new and exciting: she sat up in her crib all by herself! Like I put her down on her back to sleep, and when I went to check on her, there she was sitting on her behind! I have NO idea how she pulled that off and I WISH I could have seen it. Needless to say, Georgia is definitely on the MOVE.

If I had to summarize Georgia's likes right now, it would include putting everything in her mouth and moving. She's SO close to pulling herself up to standing all alone. I fear we are really in for a shock with how fast she's going to be doing all this stuff. We had so much extra with Leighton moving because of that brace. So this should be interesting!

Yeah, I gave up with the sign. I tried so hard to put it down and hurry and take a picture, but G is just too fast for me!

I also tried to get a picture of the sisters together like in the good old days when they would both just lie there and smile for me. No more!

Leighton had a time out shortly after this picture where she steamrolled Georgia twice and then bopped her on the head.

Once Georgia gets over the hump (of her leg, that is), she will be crawling. She seems to stall out right about here before she sits back down:

Here's that hat my dad brought for Leighton a few weeks ago. It fits Georgia too and she likes to chill in it. So funny...I call her my little homegirl.

Waddup, G?

This past weekend, I decided we had to tough love Georgia a little bit and we have been trying to get her on a schedule during the day to hopefully make her sleep through the night. I realized we have created some behaviors that we shouldn't have because we didn't want to wake up Leighton with Georgia's crying, but it's got to stop. So Georgia is now doing some "controlled crying" in her crib when she goes to sleep, which just means we go in at 5 minutes, 10, 15, 20 etc. to give her a pat and then leave the room. I don't think so far she has cried past the 15 minute mark. It's terribly hard to listen to her cry, but I think we've just got to teach her this self soothing skill that she definitely doesn't have.

Other than the not awesome night sleeping, Georgia is a happy, sweet little girl who is very much like her sister in that she most always seems content. But boy when she's NOT content, you know it! When Leighton was a baby, I remember Chad and I laughing about how we loved her so much we literally wanted to eat her little foot up. I feel the same about Georgie...she just fills my heart up with love and joy and I cover her in kisses every day so she knows it.

2 Tinker Leighton

I bought Leighton and Georgia's Halloween costumes yesterday, and Leighton could not wait to show her daddy! She and Georgia are both going to be Tinker Bell.

0 Achoo!

It has been a rough few days around here: Georgia got a cold, and now both she AND Leighton have it. So we've been wiping noses constantly and sucking out boogies and washing hands. Georgia had a REALLY rough weekend trying to sleep at night (poor thing is so stopped up). But then she had two nights in a row where she slept ALL through the night. We were so excited, until last night when she woke up almost every hour. I'm ready for these girls to get better! Thankfully, they are both fairly cheerful when sick.

Georgia has even been showing signs of starting to crawl and stand up. It is so fun to watch her struggle to move. She often gets stuck and cries, so I'm quick to help her. But she's going to be on the move soon. She's also talking up a storm...rather, going through her "sounds." She's mastered the MMmms and now she's moved on to the BBbuhs. I was thinking the other day how awesome it's going to be when she says Leighton's name. I'm so curious to hear what she's going to call her...Lay-lay? We shall see!

We've had so much fun seeing the art Leighton brings home from school. She's so proud of what she's done, and we have it on display for everyone to see in her play room.

So far, Chad and I have managed to not get this cold. I hope we can stay healthy! We need all hands on deck to handle these girls!

And a little Christmas stocking update: I have made all of our Christmas stockings, and once we found out we were having another girl, I started my search for a stocking as sweet and girly as the one I made for Leighton (Sugar Plum Fairy):

I use the same brand (Bucilla) for all the stockings and I actually have stressed quite a bit over it because I wanted the girls to have stockings that were both equally cute. I was THRILLED to find this new release for 2010, and I snatched it right up. I am going to start working on it so it's ready for Christmas, but here's what Georgia's stocking is going to be (The Cupcake Angel):

2 School update

I took this picture when I picked Leighton up from school yesterday. As you can see, she's doing JUST fine now. The past two weeks she hasn't cried at all. I think she just needed to get comfortable with her teachers and the other kids and being in somewhere new. I dare say, she likes school!

Chad takes her in the mornings, and I pick her up in the afternoon. I have found myself speed walking to get to her classroom because I'm so excited to see her and hear about her day. And she's always SO happy to see me. It's a nice moment. I also enjoy hearing the little snippets that she shares throughout the day...so I find out about what she does at school eventually. It goes something like this (I LOVE how she's using "but," "so," and "because":

"Madeline is playing, but Madeline fell down. So, Madeline has a boo boo."
" Jude is a little boy, but Jude is crying cause Jude wants his daddy."
"I eat lunch, but my kitty cat got spaghetti on it so he needs to take a bath."

Yeah...a little more about this kitty cat (in picture above). She's had this lovie since she was born. (She has a few of them, actually.) And she's never at all been attached to them or anything else. But the school instructed us to send a lovie with her to school to help her adjust and have at nap time. So we did, and now she has to have kitty cat ALL THE TIME. Ugh. The other night we couldn't find kitty cat, and it resulted in a very upset Leighton. I was cursing the school for doing this to us. On the flip side, I'm glad she has something to provide her comfort while she's away from us.

She's brought home a lot of art in this short couple of weeks, and we have been hanging it all on a cork board in the play room. She loves to show everyone her art and I think it is helping create good memories of school.

1 One more anniversary

Happy anniversary to Nonny and Granddaddy! How fun we have all these wedding anniversaries in one week! This beautiful picture is from Fara's wedding in April...we love you Nonny and Granddaddy!

0 Happy 8th Anniversary!

It's our 8th anniversary today! It's been a wild and crazy 8 years, with highs and lows and everything in-between. I can definitely say we are most proud of the family we have become.

And happy 42 years to my parents today! Can you believe it? 42! Makes our little 8 seem like nothing! Mom and Dad, thank you for being such a wonderful example for us. Even after 42 years, you still love, laugh, and enjoy being together. My mom told me yesterday she was at Hallmark buying cards for my dad, and she heard the saleslady behind her tell someone where the anniversary cards were. She turned around, and there was my dad! Both in the same store at the same time buying cards. Hope you all have a wonderful day today!

We celebrated Saturday night while Matt was here. He took us to Tony's, one of the best restaurants in Houston, for a fabulous meal. We had a great time and were so thrilled to celebrate our 8 years with Matt!

1 Uncle Matt!

Uncle Matt up and surprised us with a visit this past weekend. Leighton woke up from her nap Friday afternoon and was thrilled to see Matt here. They got right to playing...Leighton is always very anxious to show visitors her shoes, dollhouse, or whatever she can think of.

And Uncle Matt brought gifts...special gifts! He's SUCH a sweet uncle. He brought Leighton a cool bag with her name monogrammed on it, and for Georgia he got a beautiful cross with her name on it that we'll hang in her room. Isn't that so sweet for a GUY to pick out all by himself? My girls are so lucky to have such a sweet and thoughtful uncle.

Georgia didn't have fun with Uncle Matt AT ALL...can you tell? She had so much fun with him. I think babies know when they are with family. Georgia was very comfortable with her uncle.

I am getting the feeling that Georgia wants to think about crawling. Oh boy, are we in for it now!

We thought this would be such a cute picture but one of the girls (and I won't name names) had a hard time holding her head up!

Matt very patiently helped Leighton put stickers on her Fancy Nancy Halloween book.

Both days while Matt was here, we all went on bike rides together. Chad got this handy thing that attaches to the back of his bike and Georgia and Leighton can sit in it while he pulls them around. Leighton LOVES it and really enjoyed watching Matt and me on our bikes as well.

We were so sad to see Matt go yesterday, but so glad he got to have some quality 1:1 time with his nieces! We didn't make him do any diaper changes while he was here, so I didn't get any new submissions for my World's Worst Diaper contest...maybe next time!

0 Partay in my crib!

OK, so we were wondering if Georgia's hair is going to stick up like Leighton's did when she was this age. I think we got our answer! I went in to get G from her crib this morning and this is how I found her! Hilarious! I guess Chad and I have passed on some crazy hair genes to these kids!

Leighton got her 2nd haircut this past week. We went to Didi, our across-the-street neighbor, and that made it particularly fun for Leighton because she was so excited to be "at Miss Didi's work."

Quid pro quo, Momma. I am not a particular fan of this picture of myself, but I'm throwing it up on the blog because it's one of the few I got of Leighton getting her hair cut.

As you can see, it was just a trim. Leighton LOVES her hair long and we don't want her to have bangs, so we only have so many options here for our little fashionista! If you wonder why you don't see many pictures of her in pigtails or ponytails, it's because she refuses: she wants her hair LONG!

3 Happy Birthday, Aunt Fara!!

 We love you Aunt Fara! We sure tried to get a good picture for you, but today was just not our day. Here's the best I could do, plus a few outtakes! Have a wonderful, happy birthday!

 

2 Waddup, G?

My parents came to visit this weekend, and my dad brought Leighton this cute little baseball hat that somehow has made it on to Georgia's head. She seems to like it too!

I'm not saying having two kids is easy, but it has gotten a little easier now that Georgia can sit and play for a little bit. I had this lovely moment over the weekend when Georgia and Leighton were both playing by themselves quietly.

I LOVE frosted sugar cookies. Love them. My mom always got them and/or made them for us growing up and she still always brings me some when she visits. This time, she brought some special for Leighton, including some yellow ducks for us to give to her Yellow Duck teachers at school. Thanks, Granna!

Leighton was super excited about her princess cookie. She was sort of odd about how she went about eating it though: she licked at it for a while and then gave it to us. (Uh, thanks?)

Saturday, my dad and Chad went to the UT/Rice football game and Granna and I stayed at home and played with the girls. We had a lot of fun playing in the play room. We also went to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

Everyone sees something different when they look at people. When I look at Georgia, I see my mom. It makes me happy!

Sunday, Chad took Grandpa and Leighton to the zoo to ride the train, and my mom and I took Georgia to the grocery store. I guess that doesn't sound like a lot of fun for us, but I love just hanging out with my mom doing anything, so we definitely made a trip to the store a good time. Georgia slept for most of the time too.

I love this picture. When I was little, my dad's hands were featured on the cover of a dental magazine (holding dental tools). We always said he was such a great hand model. In this picture, I was telling Georgia to behold the hands of a famous hand model!

Sunday night, my dad barbecued some ribs (oh my gosh they were SO good) and we gave Georgia some sweet potatoes while we ate the good stuff. I guess this is a lesson in it being a good idea to use bibs. Here our little homey was all messy and loving every minute of it (I bathed her right after this).

Here's our little rapper hamming it up for the camera.

I know...I guess you noticed Chad has a little beard growing there. I have told him it scratches all his girls' faces, but I think he wants to see how much he can grow it. So for now, don't be scared. This is our shaggy daddy.

Man I have had a hard time trying to get a picture of Grandpa with these two girls. Leighton in particular is difficult to photograph these days.

My mom did NOT want me to take a picture of here here (no hair and makeup!) but I told her too bad. I know she'll thank me for getting this on record. Sweet Georgia fell asleep in her arms for the longest time Monday morning.

We took a couple of family pictures before my parents left yesterday. I took about 10 pictures and only one turned out OK. Whew! I have a lot of respect for professional photographers!

I thought we should get a picture of our family while Chad is still looking like the Unabomber.

Well, I had fun painting this sign. This is often what happens: Leighton wants to paint, I get all the paints out and set up, and then Leighton doesn't want to paint anymore. So I paint.

Last night, we had Lance over to finish off those ribs my dad made and BOY did he get Leighton wound up. He was swinging her and twirling her around and she got quite a huge burst of energy. She was running in circles around the house singing and yelling and screaming. It was wild. She put this little number together all by herself. Sort of looks like Coach Leighton with the whistle!

Leighton LOVES Lance (and Georgia does too). He got quite a workout last night because Leighton just wanted him to hang her upside down again and again and again.

What a fun Labor Day weekend spent with family! Today was back to the grind: Leighton had school and cried a little this morning when she left. I'm leaving her for the WHOLE school day today (till 2:30) so I'm anxious to hear how she does!