Trying to catch up

I know... I'm getting really bad about keeping this blog up to date. But there's not much excitement around here.

We spent a few days at my mother-in-law's house over the long weekend and had a great time. Amanda kept her Grandma running every single minute. That's them in the picture. (Grandma is getting a well-deserved break after Amanda finally conked out.) They adore each other and have so much fun together.

Now for an update on the girls... Amanda is her usual self... running around, playing dress-up, making lots of noise, dragging out every toy she owns. She tried out her new skates for the first time this month. I hear she did pretty well. I didn't have the nerve to watch. I just bundled her up in safety gear, took a couple of pictures and then left her alone with her dad. I would have ruined the fun anyway by screaming, "be careful" and "watch out" every two seconds. Amanda said it was fun and had no visible injuries so maybe she's not too young for skates after all. (I would have waited until she was either 34 or until they start padding the sidewalks, whichever comes first.)

For some reason everything is about heroes with her in the last couple of weeks. Super Barbie, Super Amanda. She runs around the house with a blanket tied around her neck asking, "Is anybody in trouble? Does anyone need any help?" It's a bird, it's a plane it's Super Amanda... Flying through the house saving her baby sister and her dolls from peril... destroying the house in a single bound. (Sorry about the blurry photo, but superheroes don't slow down or have time to pose for pictures.)

For the life of me, I can't figure out where the hero thing came from. Maybe from Trystan, her friend from next door. Actually it suddenly occurs to me that Amanda's "alter-ego" usually shows up when she's wearing a pair of Trystan's jammies. One night our neighbor sent Amanda home wearing a pair of Trystan's old p.j.'s, (a pair of well-worn Elmo footy jammies with the feet cut off because Trystan had loved them so much that he wasn't ready to give them up even when they started to get a bit too small.) They've been washed and ready to return for months but I keep forgetting to give them back.

When we found out a couple of weeks ago that our neighbors are moving soon (messing up our master plan that Trystan and Amanda would grow up together, fall in love and live happily ever after) I was sad and asked Amanda if she wanted to wear Trystan's jammies that night. Dumb question... of course she did... and has wanted to wear them several times since. No wonder Trystan loved them. They have super powers!

Alyssa had her four month check-up last week and was pronounced healthy, of course. (That's her and Dr. Quan, below.) She was also pronounced an easy baby and happy, happy, happy. That's because the doctor didn't stick around to see how she reacted to her four shots: not happy at all. In fact I'm not sure if I've ever seen her so mad before. And I don't blame her.


She weighs 13 lbs. 8 oz. now and is 24 inches long. For those of you keeping track, that's a full 6 lbs. and nearly 3 inches less than Amanda was at this age. The doctor compares their charts every time we go so this time I asked her to write down the info since people are constantly asking me how big was Amanda at this age? and I can never remember. Alyssa is in the 50th percentile, while Amanda was in the 100th so according to Dr. Quan, Alyssa is officially the little sister.

The doctor asked if Alyssa had been putting her toes in her mouth and I practically hung my head in shame. I've kept them so covered up to keep icicles from forming on them that Alyssa has barely seen her toes, let alone put them in her mouth. Amanda's baby scrapbook has a two page layout about her finding her toes and my, well... somewhat weird obsession with that particular milestone... weird because I was totally laid back about all the other milestones... but the toe milestone was celebrated like no other, mostly just because I find babies playing with their toes completely adorable.

So I've given Alyssa and her toes plenty of alone time this week. And she is fascinated with them. They haven't quite made it into her mouth yet, but they'll get there. Oh and she finally rolled over today, from back to front. She rolled from front to back weeks ago, so now she'll be rolling all over the place.

Alyssa "talked" LOUDLY through the entire episode of 24 last night. That's probably Scott's favorite show at the moment so he was not happy. I like the show too but Alyssa cracked me up. Amanda talks pretty much all day long, non-stop, but Alyssa is pretty quiet unless she really needs something and then she'll cry. Then there are times when she'll just talk and talk and talk. And that time just happened to be during the latest episode of 24.

I remember overhearing my dad tell someone once, "Dione doesn't talk that much so when she does I figure it must be important so I pay attention." I sort of feel that way about Alyssa. Like she might jump in with some wildly interesting tidbit at any moment in between the squealing and the aaaaaaaahhhs.

Scott had finally gotten Amanda to quiet down a bit by telling her to talk inside her head, but when Alyssa started up, well what are you gonna do? He kept turning around to look at us because she was so loud he couldn't hear the show and I'd just give him that sympathetic, "Those darn kids," look and say, "Alyssa, talk inside your head!"