Our Girls Lately :)

I have been taking lots of pictures of the girls lately! :) 

Avaree loves to help me give Felicity a bath! :) I forgot how much fun it is to bathe a baby that loves her baths! :) Avaree barely needs any help now, so it's lots of fun to sing and smile at Felicity, while Avaree and I bathe her together! :) (Obviously, this is pre-sickness!)

 I'm pretty sure I have the best view in the world. 

 Felicity loves, love, loves having Avaree around! They couldn't get near each other for 8 days straight, and that was hard. 

 Felicity has gotten so strong!! She loves to play, and she is soooo interactive! Her little smile can light up a room! 

 I love pictures of sleeping babies! :)

 ...and of a sleeping baby with her Daddy! 

 :) They both had a lovely nap! :)

 Felicity playing on the floor in her room on her Miss Pat blanket! :)

 Don't you think she looks into your soul? 

 beauty. 

 ...and naked booty pictures! :) I have some of Avaree at the exact same age doing the exact same thing! :) Look at those little rolls!!!!!!!

 sweet baby doll!

 ...and a little drool to go with those rolls! LOVE!!!!!!!!!

 She has the softest features. Oh how I wish I could pause time. 

And my favorite big girl having a Dance Party! :) 

We have dance parties at least once per day!

 Look at that happy face. 

Everything Felicity does, I catch myself thinking about Avaree at that age.
Oh how I wish I had been able to witness her every stage like I am able to with Felicity.
Someone asked me the other day how many naps per day Avaree took when she Felicity's age, and I just started crying. My answer was, "I don't know." She was born in September, and I went back to work after 8 weeks, so when she was four months old, she spent more time with Mrs. Donna than she did with me. (And praise the Lord that she was with the sweetest, most loving woman on the planet!)
My heart so longed to be with my baby, but that wasn't His plan at the time.
But now, as of this week, it is His plan.
I got my last paycheck today.
Now we step out on faith, and now I get to be with my babies all day.
Is there any greater gift?
Sometimes the thought just pierces my heart with gratefulness.
We are so very, very blessed.
I can't believe that I am living my dream.
I love my girls, and I hope they always know that.
Can you even believe that God loves them even more than I do? What a sweet truth. 

Felicity: FOUR months!!

Felicity turned four months old on Sunday! This little one is such a delight. She brings so much joy to us, and she is pure happiness. The only time she cries is when she is hungry or sleepy, and both of those are easily fixed! ;) Her smile can light up a room, and she has the unique ability to make you feel like you are the most special person in the world by just looking at you! :)

4-Month Stats: Weight: 15 lbs, 3 oz. (71st percentile) Height: 25 3/4 inches (93rd percentile) Head Circumference: 40.6 (50th percentile)

Disposition: Felicity is the happiest baby ever. Unless she is hungry or sleepy and wanting her Mommy, she does not cry! She talks, coos, and smiles all the time! She lights up when she sees us, and she is enjoying watching the world around her! :) She smiles with her eyes, and her joy lights up a room! She gives the best slobbery, open mouth kisses ever!

Playing: She still loves her activity mat and watching the lights, but now she has started to bat at the hanging toys! She also loves to sit up in her bumbo, and (strangely) she seems to really like to watch golf with her Daddy! :) I'm sure you can imagine how happy that makes him! While Felicity does not respond to music in the same way that Ave did/does, she does like three songs: "Happy Birthday", "Far Away Places" and "Felicity is Special!" She also loves to stand up on her feet and look around. She has wonderful head control and strong neck muscles, so she can do this for quite a long time. She loves her rattles, her blanket, and her dolly! 

Feeding: Felcity is still nursing like a champ! She eats every 3 hours during the day, but she can go 3.5 if I need her to! :) I'm so thankful that after a rough start (I was much, much closer to giving up this time than I was with Avaree!), my supply is up and she seems to be very satisfied. The pediatrician asked me this morning if I was going to start giving her cereal this week. I said, "No sir." :) She is clearly thriving, and I am just not ready to get to the next stage! With Avaree, I just couldn't wait for every new thing, but I'm soaking up the baby time with this one! :) She will eat solids for the rest of her life. I'm going to let her be a baby until she is six months old! Oh, AND...she is tolerating caffeine now! YAY! That means Mommy can drink one whole cup of coffee per day! So, I currently drink half a cup in the morning and half a cup in my late afternoon lull! :) (YAY, sissy!!!)

Clothes: Felicity is wearing a size two diaper! She is almost out all of 0-3 month clothes, and all of her 3 month clothes fit perfectly. She also fits pretty well into 3-6 month clothes, though some still give her a little room to grow! :) 

Sleeping: Baby girl likes to sleep. (She has come along way from the first 7-8 weeks where she did not sleep much at ALL! Hang in there, newborn Mommies!) She is ready to go to bed at 7:30 pm every night (and she will let you know!!). I try to hold her off until 8pm, but sometimes I can't do it! :) She gets a bath (which she L-O-V-E-S), gets her jammies on, eats, gets her paci and blanket, and then I cradle her while I sit in the rock rock chair. I don't even get a full song out (she does not have time for that--haha!) before she is asleep. She is usually out in just a few seconds. I lay her on her tummy in her crib IN HER OWN ROOM!!!! (I know, right? I finally did it. She was 16 weeks old when I put her on her tummy to sleep (she is 18.5 weeks now), and she has been sleeping like a champ ever since!) She likes to put her head on a cloth diaper, have a breathable blanket around her waste, and her paci, and then she sleeps straight through until some time between 3:45 and 5 am. She wakes with just a few whimpers. I feed her, and she goes right back to sleep until 7-8 (usually about 4 hours after she eats) or so. I feed her again, and then she goes right back to sleep. (This gives me special morning time with big sister!) If I let her sleep (and don't wake her to go somewhere), I have to wake her up at 10:00 am. I KNOW--pure craziness. :) Then, she wakes up happy as a lark, and she is only up for about an hour and a half before she wants another little nap. She usually takes three to four 45-minute to an hour naps during the day, and then everything starts over. :) She can sleep in her bed, in her stroller, in my arms, in the baby bjorn--you name it, she can sleep in it. :) She's amazing! I stay up working on stuff and pump at midnight before I go to bed, and that seems to all work out just fine! :) Every now and then, she loses her paci and needs it put back in, but once she is good and asleep, she spits it out anyway, so it is only in the few hours right after she goes to sleep for the night! :) No complaints here! She's a champ!

Development: She is thriving! :) It is unreal to me that this precious, happy little one struggled for her life just a few short months ago. She is now developing normally with no signs of her traumatic entry into the world! Though she has "perfect" neck and head control, she has no interest in rolling over at this time, but the doctor said that she will when she is ready! She does have a mild case of pectus excavatum (Her sweet Daddy has this too!), but the doctor said it isn't causing any problems, and we will just watch it as she grows!  She's also become a drooler as of late, and she constantly wants to gnaw on her hands or her blanket! I can already feel a tooth! We are so thankful for her health and development! 

Nicknames: Avaree pretty much always calls her Sissy or Sistah (You have to say it with an "h" on the end, or she will correct you!). Mommy calls her Felicity, Licy, Angel, Boo Boo Bear or sissy. Daddy calls her Stister (since Ave is sister), Stinker Booty (sound familiar?), sissy or Licy. :) Poor kid will never know what her name is...! ;) 

Our Favorite Things to do with Sissy! Big sister says, "My favorite thing to do with sissy is snuggle with her!"  --This is so true! Avaree has been sick for the last week and a half or so, and it has been so very hard to keep them apart! We usually spend a lot of time snuggling together! I am so ready for Avaree to be able to love on her sissy again!  Mommy says, "I love it when I am across the room and sissy spots me and gives me the biggest smile. I also love holding her, rocking her, and playing with her. She is just so happy all the time and brings me so much joy! My most favorite thing is seeing both of my girls together. I also love seeing both of my girls playing with their Daddy. Okay, I guess I just love everything about my girls." (At least I tried to narrow it down!) Daddy says, "My favorite thing about "stister" is that she loves me! I can always make her smile or laugh, and she loves to be with me unless she is hungry!" We are certainly all in love with this sweet little baby, and we can't imagine our lives without her! She's just absolutely precious.