It’s snowing! What an unusual and happy occasion for us Texans – to not only have snow, but on Christmas Eve of all days! We took Huston outside for a few seconds so he could play in it. Of course he refused to wear a hat (and he doesn’t have gloves at the moment), but he squealed with delight and enjoyed his few moments outside.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Catching Up – Arden at 1 month, Huston at 28 months
Arden turned a month old on December 15th. She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces at birth, 9 pounds 5 ounces at 2 weeks, and 10 pounds 6 ounces at a month. She was in the 90th percentile for weight at a month and the 95th percentile for height (at 22 and a half inches). She has gorgeous eyes that are still a beautiful shade of blue. It seems likely that they’ll turn brown, but they haven’t changed yet.
Though it’s difficult to pinpoint when her first smile was (since she smiled in her sleep and gave little glimpses of smiles from time to time), I’m going to go ahead and say it was on December 2nd. She smiled at her daddy and at me at different times that day, and it was clear she was smiling right at us. Since then, she’s been smiling more and more. Her favorite place to be is on her changing table – she always gives the biggest smiles there. She also likes when her daddy moves her legs fast like she’s bicycling. It usually elicits a big smile from her, or at least a very happy look on her face.
Her first two weeks, Arden woke up about every three hours at night and would frequently be wide awake for an hour or two at a time in the middle of the night. At about three weeks she settled into waking up about twice during the night – usually around 1 or 2 am and again around 4 or 5. On December 16th she only woke up once, and the very next night she slept an 8 hour stretch, only waking once at 4 am. Since then she’s reverted to waking up twice a night, but she seems to have gotten her days and nights straightened out and no longer stays awake for long stretches at night.
Huston continues to be an amazing big brother. If he comes into the room and doesn’t see Arden, he’ll yell “Arden!” until I tell him where she is. He frequently leans over to give her hugs and says “Are you okay, Baby Arden?” when she cries. He insisted upon helping give Arden her first bottle and did such a good job!
Huston’s favorite toys of the moment are two of Clarke’s empty deodorants, his collection of three clocks, three screwdrivers (which have been popular since helping Daddy assemble his bookshelves), the lights on Arden’s swing and bouncy seat, and of course, his Bear Bear, who continues to be his very best friend. He likes to put his two deodorants on the floor close together and then spread them apart and say “open them – just like a door!” and then walk through the opening and say “go through them – just like a door!” If one of his screwdrivers or clocks or deodorants is missing, he’ll yell “Blue deodorant!” or “Big clock!” because it’s impossible to play with his toys unless his collection is complete. He’s getting better about looking for his toys by himself, and it’s pretty funny to watch him search for them.
Huston loves playing the “no” game, where he intentionally says something he knows is wrong, like “Arden starts with ‘Q’” and then says “nooooooooo, Arden starts with A.” He’s terrified of the “Happy Birthday” song and will recoil at the mention of it and scream through the entire thing if anyone dares sing it around him. However, he’ll sing it over and over to himself when he’s alone in his bedroom falling asleep.
He is incredibly verbal this days and keeps up a constant stream of chatter. We just love how he talks, constantly mixing up his pronouns and saying “you helped me” when he means “I helped you” or “you fall down” when he means “I fell down.” He likes to says “Are you all done” when he’s finished eating and “Are you so hungry for food” when he wants to eat. He also stretches out the last word of every sentence, creating an adorable style of speaking all his own.
He likes to sing the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He likes watching the “ooh whoo Back show” as he calls the “Dick Van Dyke Show” and knows almost all of his numbers from 1 to 25. He is unbelievably obedient and sweet, with only the occasional flashes of temper and resistance common to two year olds – usually when he’s overly tired. More and more, he’s enjoying playing with his friends and just screams and laughs at everything they do. Most recently he got to play with his buddy Enoch on our trip to Arkansas with friends, and with his friends Logan and Hailey when they came to visit.
We feel so blessed to have these two precious, healthy, beautiful children. Thank you, Lord.
James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.”
Friday, December 4, 2009
2 weeks
Here's a picture of Arden at 2 weeks. (Thanks, Truitt! You're an awesome photographer and father-in-law!)
Things are going well with us for the most part, except for sleeping. Arden continues to think that night time means playtime. Last night she was up from 3 to 5 am, just as wide awake as can be. Huston has been the sweetest big brother so far. He laughs at Arden, talks to her, and asks about her. He cracked me up yesterday with one of his comments. Lately he's been really into telling his "Bear Bear" no to things. He'll say "No, no Bear Bear get in shower" or "No, no Bear Bear go outside." He was doing that yesterday and came into the living room where I was feeding Arden. He held his Bear Bear up to her and said
"No, no Bear Bear eat it Baby Arden."
I don't know where that came from, but at least he's telling Bear Bear "no," and not "yes!"
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