April has pretty much seen a return to normal around our house. I think we survived the newborn stage and are working on the cute baby stage. It was definitely hard having two, but these girls are so amazing that life is great these days. Paige is sleeping a good chunk of the night and Harper seems to be getting to the end of her "threenager" years. I am seeing light folks.
We have still been going to the video venue at church so we can keep Paige with us. She usually eats around that time and then just hangs out, so it's simple to keep her. Plus, Cody loves the venue because it's empty of people. I'm happy with whatever, plus Paige is so fun when she just wakes up and I love that time with her. Paige has definitely turned a corner. Mid april, we got her on Prevacid for her acid reflux. She was gulping and not eating or sleeping well and arching her back before so I can't believe I didn't see it before 2 months. And sadly, it took 2 full weeks for it to actually work, but now that it does, she is so much happier. For the most part these days, she doesn't really cry much. She fusses for a few minutes when she is tired, but goes to sleep in about 1 minute flat. She isn't on a minute by minute routine, but I do know exactly what's coming and about when. She eats about every 3 hours. She plays for an hour and a half and then naps for about an hour. Her afternoon nap is usually about 3 hours which is awesome. And her first chunk of sleep at night is usually about 5 hours. I like the routine and knowing exactly what she needs. She is very easy to read and she is becoming a much easier baby than I imagined. Paige still mostly wants to be held, and mostly by Mama, but she is definitely coming around. She even sits in her lamb chair and has even fallen asleep in it a few times. That's serious progress. She still likes to play on her playmate and loves to sit on your lap and look at you and babble. She loves attention. She loves being entertained by Harper.
These two sisters melt my heart everyday. If I can get over the million times a day that I have to remind Harper to be gentle or get out of her face or stop forcing her hand to play with a toy, etc. then I remember that all of it is because they seriously love each other. Like, L.O.V.E. each other. Harper does anything for Paige, gets her paci, dances for her, makes toys dance for her, and holds her hand in the car. She is always asking to hold her and check on her. Paige loves Harper right back and lights up when she sees her or hears her voice. I know that if Harper goes over to Paige, then she will stop fussing immediately. When I took them to the gym last week and there were way too many kids for one lady to watch, I just told her to let Harper be in charge of Paige. I was very confident that Harper would be able to care for her better than almost anyone else.
Harper has had a much better few weeks lately. Maybe as Paige got better and less needy, so did she. But I'm grateful that she is back to her sweet self lately. She is finishing up her year of preschool, BSF preschool church, dance class, and library. Next month, she won't have anything left but we will get to look forward to summer. She still loves dress up, reading books, drawing/crafting, dancing and singing. She is vibrant and one of my prayers is that we would discipline her well without squashing her spirit. It's such a balance to do that well. She is such a lover, lover of all people she meets. People comment about how cute she is just passing by her on the street. She is kind to everyone she meets and polite to strangers. She loves her dad and tells me that he is so big and can do anything he wants because he is amazing. They call each other "their best big buddy in the whole big world" and it's the cutest thing ever. She is also my perfect little mini-me. She talks just like me, every phrase out of her mouth is most likely something I've said. She has become an expert eye roller, gets exasperated if Paige cries for no reason (surely, that's not me) and even complains when people don't do things her way. She requires people to play her way, she will enforce any adults orders for other kids whether she was asked or not, and she hates to be wrong. If she says something and I try to correct her, she will tell me I'm wrong, she will say "Just let me be right," she will change her answer, or she will just lie and say she was just kidding. None of these things are done in maliciousness but they are a little too type A control freak for a 3 year old. So we are working on it. She is getting so grown up and is a great sport about her food allergies. She has had made seasonal allergies this month just like every spring so we tried meds again and when they kept her awake for a few hours at night, we switched back to oils. In all, she is such a sweet kid and we are lucky to have her.
Short story - we got some Frosted Flakes for Cody and she saw a picture of Elsa on the back. The boxes each had a spoon in them with either Elsa, Nemo, or Mike. She opened the first box, Mike. No Elsa. She opened the second box, Nemo. No Elsa. She was so confused. Why the picture of Elsa if Elsa wasn't in the box? Poor kid. She looked and looked and dug around and never found her. Reminded me of my childhood when most cereals had surprises in them (they don't anymore). But come on Kellogs, don't put Elsa on the box unless she is in there. What a letdown.
This month I have gotten back to working out and it has been so good for me. It keeps me on my toes and productive and feeling better about myself. I was mostly just running outside after Cody got home from work or doing P90X in the mornings. It was good. Harper would watch me and tell me, "Almost Mommy, you almost got it." Nice. Harper liked to go on runs with me in the stroller, but Paige didn't seem to so I quit taking her. I counted calories for the month and it was so hard. You can't even imagine how many calories a bowl of Blue Bell Ice cream has. Or a full meal at Olive Garden. Sick. So I decided that I could eat what I wanted but I would have to cut back. It definitely helped. Plus, most of the girls in bible study were doing about the same thing so we were able to help motivate each other and keep each other on track. Bible study girls have been so wonderful lately. I love getting together for our girls nights and just relaxing and being carefree for a few short hours. I don't know if I ever laugh as much as I do when I'm with them.
I haven't gotten to see Taylor and Carleigh as much lately because we haven't been going to Dallas. It's hard driving with Paige, but hopefully with the meds, she will get better. Taylor works a ton so we have seen her even less than Carleigh. Plus, she is graduating in two months - so sad. But I think we will get to see them a lot this summer so I'm looking forward to that.
I was sitting on the couch hanging out with Paige and Harper one morning when I saw a mouse climbing up the window of the fireplace screen. I literally freaked out. It had been raining so that always sends the mice inside. But thankfully the bar kept the screen closed and it didn't make it in the house. I didn't know what to do, hold Paige or get the mouse. I didn't want to, but I got a broom just in case and tried to scare it away. I eventually put Paige down and got a tarp and taped it over the fireplace so it couldn't get in. I didn't want to think about it while I was gone that day. It stayed like that for a few days until I told Cody that mice were unacceptable in our home.
I went to the dermatologist for a spot that showed up during pregnancy and they ended up taking 4 spots off. 1 came back severely atypical and had to be cut out. I guess it was pretty bad because it ended up being a 2 1/2 inch scar with two layers of stitches. Glad I went!
