New skills

It's Siena and Aria here.  We wanted to update everyone on some new skills we have learned recently.

Siena:  I've learned to sit up.  I'm pretty good at it but don't like it when I fall over, it scares me.

Aria: I'm learning as well and can do it for a short amount of time...that is until you decide to come crashing into my party.

Aria: We both love sucking on our toes, they taste oh so yummy.

Siena: I like sucking on my toes so much I made a special place for my big toe to go through in my pajamas.  Hmmm, I wonder why mom and dad don't put me in those pj's ever since I did that. I thought it was genius of me.

Aria:  Apparently you like other people's toes too.
Siena:  I'm so not going to be happy with this picture when I get older.

Siena:  I've caught onto the 'Planking' craze.  I think I'm pretty good at it but my mom won't put me up on anything high to really try it out.
Aria: Crazy sister

Siena:  The doctor told mom and dad that we might be responding to our names by now.
Aria:  Yeah so all of the sudden when I hear the word Siena and look up, they just stare at me and look away.  But when I look up at the word Aria, they smile and talk to me.  How am I supposed to know which name belongs to me? 
Siena: And I thought my name was cute girl.
Aria:  I thought my name was sweet girl.

Goopy eyes...be gone!

Ever since Aria and Siena were about a month old, they have each had one goopy eye.  Siena's right eye and Aria's left eye.  You can kind of see it in this picture of both of them.

Well the doctor kept saying it was a plugged tear duct and to massage it each day and eventually it will go away but could last up to a year.  So we didn't worry about it too much although it bugged a lot.  Aria's was worse and we were constantly wiping it.  It got so as soon as I would start to wipe it she would squirm and protest. 

Well we had to take Aria to the eye doctor when she was a couple months old because her eyes weren't tracking correctly.  They told us to come back when she was 6 months and to give it time and it would probably correct itself because she was so small and early when she was born.  So we just recently went back and everything is fine with her sight.  Shane took her to this appt. and mentioned that her plugged tear duct wasn't getting any better.  So they told him they could do a quick procedure to fix it.  So they did it. 

This procedure required them to strap her down, stick a catheter looking thing into a tube that had been poked into her tear duct, clean it out and then wash saline solution down it and out her nose.  Let's just say...Mom was VERY happy she didn't go to this appointment. Shane told me that she cried but not even that hard.  In fact the doctors were surprised how lightly she cried.  That's my mellow little Aria. But I still felt bad she had to go through that.  She's a tough cookie with all the poking doctors have done to her since she was born.

Since then her eye has been perfect.  I no longer have to wipe it a hundred times a day and I hadn't realized that her eye was swollen because of it and it looks so much better now.

Shane kept threatening to take Siena to get the procedure done but hers wasn't as bad so I wasn't that concerned.  Well low and behold, Siena must have realized what we were talking about because seriously within the next week hers completely cleared up too.  Maybe it was Twinspiration.  I now have 2 goopy-less little girls and both parents are so happy!

Girls Weekend Away

Last weekend I went out of town, without Shane and without Siena and Aria.  I got to go out of town with my sisters, sister in law and Mom.  My parents treated us to a girls weekend away in St. George and Las Vegas.  And when I say treated us, they spoiled us and didn't let us pay for one thing all weekend.

It started Friday morning at my parents house where my dad cooked us all omelettes and hash browns and eggs (my favorite).  Then we got in the car and drove down to St. George.  We were so happy we all fit in one car so we could all talk the whole time and talk the whole time we did.  We all had stories and things to share.  You would think for as often as we all talk and see each other that we wouldn't have so much to talk about but we always do.

When we got to St. George we shopped for a little while and I found a great deal on a new pair of jeans.  Everyone was jealous I found such a good deal and I'm very happy with my purchase.  Then we went to dinner at Brick Oven...yum!  We had our own little private room there and it was so nice cuz we could all talk and hear each other and didn't have to fight the loud restaurant.

Saturday morning we slept in.  It was so strange to wake up to silence and be able to just lay in bed snoozing off and on until 9am!  I loved it and in fact my first thought when I woke up was, I should get a hotel room so Shane can do this sometime.  He deserves it.  Jennifer got up and made us all french toast and then we slowly got ready and after lunch headed down to Vegas.  We walked around a few hotels, got a snack, saw the Bellagio fountains (still love them) and then went to dinner at PF Changs (man I ate good on this trip!)  

 

Then the main purpose for our trip away was to go to the Donny and Marie show.  Whitney's dad was nice enough to have some good connections and got us these great seats and VIP tickets to the Meet and Greet afterwards.  We were so excited.  The show was soo good.  I LOVE Donny's voice and could hear him sing anything and it would be great.  I was surprised how much I liked Marie's songs as well and it was such a good show.  We were disappointed to find out after the show that they had cancelled the meet and greet.  Marie had hurt herself during the show (she had this huge purple knot on her face from where her guitar hit her during one of her songs) and Donny had been sick earlier in the week.  So we were sad not to get to meet them but the show was still so good.  We decided to have our own meet and greet with the life size picture of Donny on the side of a wall in the hotel.  Ok we were totally embarrassing but we didn't really care.  Jennifer is obsessed with Donny!

After getting back to St. George really late, and the time change, we were exhausted the next morning.  But we slept in again and then went to breakfast and drove home.  I was soo excited to see the girls and had missed them so much.  A HUGE shout out to Shane who handled the weekend with ease and never one complaint.  I love him and knew the girls were well taken care of all weekend.

Thanks Mom and Dad, we had such a fun time!

6 Months

Aria and Siena turned 6 months last week!  Happy 1/2 Birthday to my 2 cute girls.

Summary of the month:
They love to talk and laugh at each other.  It's starting to happen more and more and it's so cute to watch.
Started rice cereal this month.  Siena loves it, Aria tolerates it.
They love to grab each others toys...it's only a matter of time before it starts making them mad.  Right now they don't care and just get another toy and continue on.
They also hold each others hand quite a bit.  If they are anywhere in close proximity, many time I can look down and they are holding hands.
Both grab their toes and suck on them constantly. 
They love when I get them undressed down to their onsie and are so happy to be free of clothes for a short time.
Siena is rolling in both directions and started sleeping on her side and tummy and each night it's a different sleep position.
Aria is not rolling yet. And while it has me a little concerned she is doing so many other things that I just don't think she has any desire to roll yet, my mellow little girl.
Both are sitting up.  Siena can do it for a longer amount of time but Aria isn't too far behind.

Aria:

15 lbs 2 oz - 40%

27 inches - 90%

Not on the charts for height to weight ratio

Siena:

17 lbs 2 oz. - 75%

27.7 inches - Off the charts!

10% for height to weight ratio..seriously, just 10%? The doctor called her petite. I call her my cute chunky girl. Maybe it's just because Aria is so tiny but I love her rolls and chunky legs.

They each had to get 3 shots at the doctors this month and by far these were the worst.  They were so mad and usually I can get them to stop pretty fast but this time they would stop and then start crying again.  They continued to cry until we walked out the door...it was a long 5 minutes getting them dressed.  They had such hurt feelings.  They fell asleep in the car and when they woke up after we got home were happy and fine.  The next day Aria's leg was all bruised and she would cry if I would bend it or touch it. 

See how much they love their leprechaun hats?

I'm sure the secret leprechaun had no idea just how much fun these hats would be.

Happy St. Patricks Day

The Secret Leprechaun made their appearance this week at our house.  They brought lots of gifts, decorations and treats.  The treats were enjoyed by Shane and I...yay for the girls not being old enough to eat the treats!  So far the favorite gift is these hats that the girls have played with all morning long.

Aunt Jennifer, who is totally obsessed with the girls, gave them these cute outfits.  That might be another post of itself one day.

Thanks Secret Leprechaun and Aunt Jennifer for making these 2 girls the cutest St. Patty's day girls.

First Play Date

About a month ago I was driving home from work and realized I hadn't seen Brigitte in almost a month!  I'm pretty sure that's the longest we've ever gone not seeing each other.  Don't worry too much we talk all the time still.  In fact it's a rare day if I don't IM, text or call her, but seeing her has been a little difficult with our schedules lately.

Anyways, so we decided to plan a play date with the girls.  Really it was a play date for Brigitte and I, we just pretended it was for the girls.  The problem is the only time we could get together where all 3 girls are awake was from 6-7pm.  Which is just about the worst hour of the day for Aria and Siena, they get pretty fussy and this night was no different.  Siena was pretty fussy and ended up sitting in her car seat most the time and Aria sat in a bumbo and spit up on everything she saw.  She was trying to help Brigitte remember and appreciate Holland's spit up days.

Anyways, the one hour went way too fast and yet we were both exhausted by the time I left.  We did catch up on some things and I think we need to start doing this on a more regular basis.  One of these days my girls will be old enough to start interacting with Holland and it's going to be so fun when that happens.

Here's some pictures of the night...none seemed all that interested in taking pictures.  You'll realize just what kind of night it was when you see Siena holding her binky.  It's still rare when I give them their binkies these days but it does still happen and this was one of the nights!  Brigitte and I should have taken a picture, since the play date was really for us!

Sister Friends

The other night after we fed the girls, Shane went out side to bar-b-que and I went to the kitchen to get our dinner ready.  I had left Siena on her stomach and Aria was on her back both on the floor next to each other.  All of the sudden I heard laughing.  At first I couldn't figure out how Shane had come back in and was playing with the girls and I hadn't noticed.  Then I looked into the family room and this is what I saw:

I hope this works and you can view this...I've never uploaded a video before.

Video has been removed for space.

Seriously it was the cutest thing.  Everytime Siena would move on her tummy, Aria would crack up.  I think we missed the best part of her laughing the hardest but this gives you a good idea.  She kept on laughing at her for over 5 minutes.

It's cute watching them notice each other and interact.  Lately they are always grabbing each others hands and just now the other ones ear and either acting like it's some toy they found or just moving it around looking at it.

It looks like they really will be sister friends.