Day 361

Today we (we, meaning Penelope) woke up at 5:15... Not 4, so I guess I'll be thankful for that. Luciana woke up at 7:30, so the girls ended up napping at almost the same time! This means Mama got a break today-- I folded laundry & watched an episode of Dateline, my all time favorite show... I may have eaten a scoop of icecream. (At 10am? Yes, because by that time is already been up so long, it felt like icecream time.) :)  The girls played together before naps, and I took a bunch of pics:

Lulu was putting the animal magnets on the white board on her own! Big moment!  :) 

Penelope built this entire train track on her own.... Seriously, they impressed me today. (Without her pants on-- now that is talent!)

I built them a fort (see Lulu crawling out?) -- they loved it!! So awesome them actually playing together. 

And look at Luciana crawling UP the slide. :/ 

After naps, we went and got Lulu a birthday gift, and stopped at the small park on the way home. Seems like we did nothing, but it felt like a busy day to me! I also went through the girls' dressers and closets to clear out clothes they've outgrown, which has to be done every couple months... So. Yeah. Busy, but I think the girls had a fun day. :)

Papa was home just in time to read bedtime stories, and we'll have one more day of him being gone till bedtime. We can't wait for the weekend! Just one more full day and our baby will be one year old... Wow. 

Goodnight.

Day 360

Hmmm... My numbers are off, and I'm just now realizing it. The 365th day of the blog will be after my baby's birthday.... Somewhere along the line I messed up. Oh well, we get a few extra days. :) 

Luciana is still teething, but it seems to have sort of eased up on her these last couple days. She is still pushing those things through, but it seems to either have lessened in pain, or she's accustomed to it. Ooh, that last option doesn't sound nice. :(  In any case-- she seems okay, and I haven't had to give her pain reliever in two nights. 

We had a regular, long, crazy roller coaster day, and ended it with Papa getting home just in time for bedtime stories. The girls were happy to see him, and got all riled up. :) 

Here are a few pics I snapped today...

Sigh.... She is so beautiful!! :')

And a few more...

The top one in this set is Lulu wearing the slippers Holly & Lily got her (or P??) -- they finally fit her. And the last one is big girl Penelope in her toddler bed (sucking on that darn binkie) she is doing so well in it, and we couldn't be more proud. She always seems to take change in stride. :)

The whole house is silent, my love bugs all asleep... I think I'll join them. Night! (Please Lulu, PLEASE sleeeeeeep tonight!)

Day 359

No pics today, and minimal post-- Mama had a long day, that began waaaaaay too early: crazy kids, too early (and short) naps, errands (P wants to walk everywhere now, making things... More difficult), then made dinner, dessert (that we were too tired for), and finally had a bath. It's 9:29 and I can't keep my eyes open anymore! My To Do list is just running through my mind, but... Tomorrow is another day. 

Good. Night.

Day 358

No pics today, and minimal post-- Mama had a long day, that began waaaaaay too early: crazy kids, too early (and short) naps, errands (P wants to walk everywhere now, making things... More difficult), then made dinner, dessert (that we were too tired for), and finally had a bath. It's 9:29 and I can't keep my eyes open anymore! My To Do list is just running through my mind, but... Tomorrow is another day. 

Good. Night.

Day 357

Loooooooong day. Goodness. Penelope woke up at 4am, feeling like it was 5am. I usually let her watch cartoons in our bed at 5am, if she's really awake, but 4??  No. She sat in her room quietly for about 5 minutes, then called out "MAAAAAAMAAAAAA" for the next 40 minutes. :/ Since Daddy was awake for a class (poor Papa, he had a long day too) I was awake, and let her in our bed. She was completely ready for her nap by 8am! Nuts. Thank heavens Luciana slept better last night, or I don't know how I would've dealt with life today. She was up twice, which is FINE... It's the 4-5 times up nights that are awful. 

Anyway... Sleep. :/

We were all ready for our beds by 4pm , and I didn't even try to keep the girls up past 6:30 tonight. It's 9:20 now, and I'm going to say goodnight. 

Oh! Lulu is getting more teeth on the bottom.... She's getting about 5 at the same time now, woohoo! :/

Ok, for real now-- goodnight!

Day 356

Only nine days until our baby girl is one.... She has grown so much in the last month, it's crazy. She started crawling, standing (holding on), and now cruising along furniture. She "talks more, mimics simple words or claps when we clap, she understands "no", and listens pretty well! Luciana is becoming her own person, and we are getting glimpses of who that is-- a gentle, sweet, laid back girl. We are so lucky we get to love her and her sister. 

I enjoyed spending the afternoon on errands with Lulu, and Daddy ran his with P. Sometimes we split in order to get more done, and let's be honest-- doing anything with two toddlers is next to impossible. It's like a Benny Hill episode: me running in circles, fast-motion around the girls, only to crash into the display of oranges, and the girls laugh! It is exhausting, but I'm also smiling and laughing most of the day. It's interesting how that works!

We are happy that we will be getting to see Daddy all week, evenings. He has to attend a class, so he'll be 9 to 5, and I  just love it that we will get to tuck the girls in together all week. By the way-- P is doing amazing in her new big girl bed!! Just like her transition away from her bottle, she did it without incident. Awesome! Lulu is regressing in the sleep department, so.... She's lucky she's so cute. Yaaaaaaawn. 

Here's P in Luciana's Johnny Jumper-- she was so sad once she saw us laughing at her in it! And look at how happy Lu is! Goodnight.

Day 355

What a day.... What a long day. Well, we usually have good days, sometimes we have tough days due to crazy kiddoes, but sometimes we have really tough days. Today was tough. Penelope fell out of her crib this morning, and somehow dislocated her elbow-- they call it "nursemaid elbow", because old nursemaids used to yank on kids' arms and hurt them! :( Sounds terrible, doesn't it?! She was in a world of pain, and Papa was at work; I had to rush her to the ER, and THANK GOD above, the doctor snapped her ligaments (or whatever) back into place, and then put us in a playroom to see how she did. She started to play, and we saw it would be okay. (Insert huge sigh of relief here, and also a tear or two-- it was absolute torture seeing her like that!!!) Anyway, Grandma Gayle was an angel, and rushed right to the hospital to help us, and we totally needed it. It would have been impossible to deal with both babies (who were crying, tired without naps!) having her help made it much less of a nightmare, we are so grateful for it! :)

After we were released, I got the kids home, fed them lunch and then we all got into bed-- Papa included, he came home from work, thankfully. We slept like four rocks. 

When we woke, Dad made P's crib into a big girl bed, and she is sleeping in it now, as peacefully as ever. She was sore all afternoon and evening, crying and clinging to us... She needed the rest! We'll see what she does at 5:45 am-- cry in bed, or get up and play in her room? Maybe stand at the gate (we put a gate outside her door to prohibit going downstairs, or God forbid, falling downstairs in the dark), and calling for us? We shall see.

Through it all today, Luciana was a trooper. She was a little weirded out at the hospital when I had to leave the room without her, but other than that-- she was amazing. :) 

Here is the only pic I snapped today-- P sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, watching Dora on Mama's Kindle. Goodnight... Goodbye to this tough day!!!