How many times can I talk about how cute Emmalyn is?

Normal life with my cute family - - Mid October 2014

Maxwell enjoying the accessories when we were out shopping for Halloween costumes.  Sometimes he is such a "boy" it catches me off guard.

Hanging with Daddy at the library

Daddy trying to read to them both.

Perfection

He caught one of the bubbles he blew!

Enjoying the warm fall weather

Those cheeks are something else

One of those major baby milestones - eating your feet

Video - She's so good at sitting up and spitting up.  It's disgusting and amazing all at the same time.

Nighttime routine - reading stories

Video - Maxwell has been doing awesome at swimming lessons.  After class, his coach asked if she could take him into the bigger section to see how he'd do with it.  He did awesome at swimming far!  I was impressed.  

She is so smiley but still doesn't laugh very much

It's nice to have clients who make great snacky food but not always good when you find yourself hungry because there's usually something within reach.  I've got my Perfetti Van Melle Airheads Bites, my General Mills Chex Mix, and all I needed to complete the picture would have been some Kraft peanuts!

Video - She's just so happy, even after midnight.  It's hard when she's engaging and being cute like this to turn off the light and go to bed.

I was working from home so I got to be around when she got a bottle (which usually doesn't happen)

I'm sure she was like, "you aren't supposed to be here right now"

Updates:
Maxwell actually did his own glue at school on a project!  This is a big deal since he hates getting his hands dirty.

He still stays in his bed even when he wakes up.  He will just sit there and call for us until we come and get him.

Maxwell can almost to showers by himself, he just needs a little help with his hair.  This feels like a huge accomplishment, to me!

He has staying dry during his nap for 2 days in a row at home.  That hasn't happened for a long time.  He gets to choose a prize out of the "prize bucket" if he stays dry but we haven't had to give out many prizes lately.  (And that's why we still put him in pull-ups at home during nap time and nighttime.)  He stays dry most of the time during nap time at school, I don't know why he can't do it at home!  Lately he has been saying that he will keep his pull-up dry when he is 16.  I sure hope it's not that long!

Instead of saying the word "Disgusting" he says "Bisgusting" and instead of "Remember" he said "Demember"

He is really excited about going to school in the morning, which I love!

He is so polite!

Emmalyn used to suck my face (cheeks) when she was hungry and now she nose dives towards my boobs.  When Maxwell was nursing, he used to draw circles almost with his fists and then would punch my boobs.  Emmalyn however will grab them and squeeze.   I'm just a punching bag. :)

On Oct 17 Emmalyn really started getting up on her knees often and she does it a ton.  She ends up pushing forward a little and getting to what she wants but it's not full on crawling yet.

She has a horrendous mad scream.  It makes Peter nuts.

I gave Emmalyn some avocado to eat and she did NOT like it.  She DID like it when I gave her a little drink of water though.

She can finally take her vitamin drops without choking when they go in her mouth (which is nice because they smell like the iron in them and stain everything)

She's big enough that I gave her a bath in the baby bathtub without the infant sling.

She's not a cuddler unless she is really tired.

She's great at going to sleep at night and will sometimes roll to her belly when she's sleeping but not always.

Right now, she's not as talkative as she used to be.

Best part of my week? Saving $858.44!

Here's what we had going on during the week of 7-21 through 7-27...

Sneaky hand wiggled out of the swaddle.  Doesn't she look comfortable?

We went on a walk.  Max loves his new big trike!

Two kiddos out enjoying the weather

Always smiling

Daddy is so funny!!!

I hit the shopping jackpot.  I just happened to go into JCPenney when they had just dropped their clearance items prices.  Everything that was on clearance was 1.99!!!  I loaded up on clothes for Max and Emmalyn (I bought stuff up to 3 sizes bigger than their current size.  Who can pass up 1.99?!  That's cheaper than a consignment sale!).  I also got some extra stuff for presents/Hayden/Landen.  When the cashier went to tell me what I saved, she stopped and goes, "I don't think I've ever been able to tell someone that they have saved this much."  :)  I LOVE A GOOD DEAL!!!!  The best deal was a great blazer for Max that was originally 45.00!

Max's eyes are really pretty.  They have this ring of brown around the center followed by green and then the outer circle is a dark blue.  It's so hard to capture how pretty they are on camera.  Add the beautiful colors with some great lashes and you have some future girl's daydreams.  :)

My tomato plants are hanging on.  It's tough in the summer heat but I am babying them to try and get something out of them.  I had a few little tomatoes that were growing and one started going red.  I was soooooooooo excited!

The next morning I came out, all excited because my tomato should be ready to be devoured!  This is what I found...someone had already eaten half my tomato!  Those stinkin' birds!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ARGH!  All I want is a homegrown tomato, man!!  I can't win.  :(

Maxwell wanted to give his sister a hug...

Then he wanted to help burp her...

...And touch her

I wanted to get a cute picture of the two of them and of course she spits up just at the right time.

My kiddos

We went and visited my friend Sarah and Max's friend S.  The boys had fun taking turns in the garage with this hot wheels car.  One boy would be the "driver" and the other would be the "fixer" and fix the engine or pump up the tires.  They did a great job taking turns and swapped back and forth more than 10 times. 

Working on the tires

Silly smiles.  It's so hard to get his genuine smile lately.

Life with a 3 month old can be full of "natural" fun and surprises.  I wanted to get a video of her talking.  Go ahead, watch these.  :)  The first two are short but oh so fun.

Video - First try

Video - Second try

Video - And finally, we get what I was going for...

Cuddles at bedtime.  Max loves to cuddle Emmalyn with their heads together.

We went out to dinner.  Emmalyn does much better than Max did at this age with going out to eat.  She's pretty pleasant and easy going (especially if she can watch a tv which is great because they are everywhere in every Dallas restaurant, it seems).

She prefers to stand this way - one foot in front of the other

Max wanted to ride this ride at Toys R Us.  He wanted us to put money in so it would really "go".  This was the first time he ever had an interest in it going.

Love the band-aid on his ear?  He was acting like he had an ear infection so I put some essential oils on a cotton ball and put a band-aid over it.  It may have looked funny but it worked!  The ear infection quickly went away.

Emmalyn update -
I caught her staring at her hands.  It's fun that she's finally realized she has them!

She SCREAMS at night during diaper changes (before I nurse her).

We went to the athletic club twice this week so Peter could work out and Max and I could swim.  We put Emmalyn in the day care there.  Both times I was called over the loud speaker to come to the Fun Club.  When I got there she was throwing a fit, screaming, and not calming down.  It was a bummer because we only got in about 20 minutes of swimming before they would call me.  I'm worried that she was freaking out so much but the girls there are really encouraging and tell me to keep bringing her back because she will get used to it and eventually be okay.

She still spits up a ton!  (did you see the video?)  It doesn't seem violent though so I'm not worried about it be acid reflux.  Apparently some babies just spit up a lot.

She is great at playing on her play mat.

Some mornings she will just hang out happily in her crib cooing and being happy.

She is so loud!

Max update -
We put the protective sheet on Max's bed this week so that we could start to try and have him nap in underwear instead of diapers and he stayed dry during his nap the first time!

Kallie update -
I'm losing my hair like crazy.  I know it's normal post pregnancy and that it's just the hair that didn't fall out when I was pregnant but it's seriously crazy.  I have to clean my brush out each time I use it, I pull out clumps of it in the shower.  It's gross and awful.