Here are some very recent pictures of Lily and Arden. I’m too tired to write about our interesting day today, but I will, because it makes me laugh to talk about it and that’s better than crying about it. Suffice to say, it was a day filled with various temper tantrums, hilarious comments from Lily, crying newborns, lack of sleep, brain fog, work problems, and Christmas shopping. In the meantime, enjoy.

Lily discovered the joy of leaves last week and put it to good use this weekend when Mike and I tried to rake up the 10,000 pounds of dead leaves all over the yard. I blew all the leaves into a huge pile and Lily had a field day jumping into the leaves. Later I realized it would have been a good photo op, but I had forgotten the camera.

Lily’s favorite phrase these days is “BY SELF!”, exclaimed loudly and emphatically, and sometimes followed with “GO” or “MOVE” if one of us dares to try to help her with anything. She’s fiercely independent - even when she’s endangering her life by climbing things at the park that 6 year olds can’t do. I usually end up dragging her kicking away from whatever challenge she has decided to attempt if she won’t let me help her. Between her independent streak and her eating habits, I’m reaping what I sowed as a child ten-fold. Just ask my mother

I will post some new pictures of Arden when I get them back from being developed. She has her one month check up today complete with shots (UGH) so I will find out how much weight my little piglet has gained. With the way she’s been eating, it should be plenty!

Halloween has come and gone, and Lily was finally old enough to start to enjoy the spoils of the holiday, including tons of candy, too much intake of sugar, and not being able to sleep because of all the excitement. I’ve posted a picture below of Lily and her cousins Hayden and Matt. They had a great time trick or treating and I had fun staying home with Arden and handing out candy to the neighborhood kiddies (and some teenagers that were a little too old to be grubbin’ for candy).

The days of long postings are gone for right now since I rarely have a moment to do anything that requires the use of both of my hands (usually one of my hands is holding one, or both, of the children). I use the phone a lot more since I’ve mastered the art of nursing and phone usage. Thankfully I have unlimited long distance service; otherwise, we’d be AT&T’s favorite customer.

Lily is finally starting to adjust to Arden being here, but it’s been a rough transition for her and for us. Lots of temper tantrums and attention-getting antics, including more than a few broken objects around the house. This morning she dumped a plant over while I was nursing, but I resisted the urge to yell and simply got out the vacuum cleaner and went to work. Everyone said year 1 would be hard with a two year old and a newborn. They weren’t kidding! Arden’s a good baby, thankfully, and right now only cries when she is hungry or gassy. She’s hungry and gassy a lot, but the hunger part is easy to solve and she’s already sleeping between 4-5 hours at a stretch during the night so I really can’t complain if she wants to eat every two hours during the day.

Today I got my out of control hair cut on the Southside so I could go without worrying about dragging Lily and Arden with me. Mom watched Arden while Lily napped. After, we went to the park, where Lily learned how to feed the ducks. Unfortunately, one of the ducks mistook her finger for a piece of bread and bit it. She was uninjured but freaked out - after that, she kept clinging to grandpa’s legs, yelling “ALL DONE! ALL DONE!” Those birds were quite unafraid of people and were very close to all of us. After we took her to the swings and slide and she forgot all about the “ducths”, as she calls them.

I have added a picture of Arden today as well, since she looked cute while sleeping. She gained 10 ozs in less than 2 weeks, and is now up to 6 lbs, 10.5 ozs, which made me very happy. At least I know she is getting enough milk and maybe she won’t be quite as pea-sized as Lily is.

Today, our neighborhood was supposed to have a Halloween parade for all the kiddies, but only my family and one other was dumb enough to brave the spitting rain in the hopes that the parade and festivities were still on. Alas, they were not, but we had some good photo ops. Here are some taken today of both Lily and Arden. Arden looks a little cross-eyed in the picture, but everyone keeps asking for pictures of her with her eyes open. She rarely has them open, so you get what you get! She doesn’t look quite as freaked out in real life as she does in that picture. It could be simply that my mother kept snapping her picture and her retinas were probably on fire by the time this picture was taken.

Happy birthday to Arden - she’ll be two weeks old tomorrow. We go to the pediatrician in the afternoon for a weight and jaundice check. The way she’s been eating, let’s hope she has put on some weight . . . I’ll post tomorrow when I get the results.