My Girls

Today it has just been "us girls" here at home. Since Lauren's birth there have been various people here helping with the girls. Ben's mom came for a visit and just left on Saturday. She was a great help- especially with entertaining and caring for Lydia these past couple of weeks. I know it was a luxury not to have to get Lydia up and fed in the mornings and to be able to catch an extra hour or so of sleep. Besides playing with Lydia and taking her to the playground or the pool, Kathy also taught Lydia plenty of "useless" (her words!) words and phrases.
Uh-oh Spaghetti-O's (this began at Christmas)
silly nilly patilly
zippydee doo da
rats!
crikey!
Let's go, Joe
oopsie doodles
exactly! (ezaklee)

Oh yes, and instead of calling Ben's mom Grandma or even Grandma Kathy, Lydia very quickly abandoned the "Gwamma" and just called her "Kaffee." In the afternoons when Lydia felt she'd "served enough time" in her bedroom, she would get down on the floor with her mouth pressed to the crack at the bottom of the door and begin calling, "Kaffee! I'm all done. Come get me! I want out!" (Naps are pretty much a thing of the past -although she happens to be taking one right now - but at least she can still spend time alone and plays up there for a couple of hours each day.)
For those who asked, Lauren's tests have all come back negative, so to my understanding all "serious" potential problems have been ruled out. She continues on the gall bladder medicine for at least another week and then will have an ultrasound to see if the medicine has been effective to clear out that "sludge."
I'm sort of afraid to say it for fear that it isn't true, but we think Lauren may be feeling somewhat better. She doesn't scream and cry as much as she did in those first few weeks. She also seems to be nursing much more contentedly - which was definitely a problem before (and sometimes still is). Another blessing is the couple of nights of good sleep we've had recently! She managed to go about 5-6 hours, wake up to nurse, and then immediately down for 3-4 hours more. These nights (3 so far and not consecutive) are wonderful and I feel SO much more rested in the morning. A more typical night would be 3 or maybe 4 hours between feedings. I sincerely hope she will learn to sleep longer at night sooner than her big sister who was closer to 8 months old before she was sleeping all night without waking. (Yes it was horrible and I hope we never repeat that again!)

And now for the pictures...

One week old

Pink cheeks and homegrown tomatoes from Auntie Liz's house

with Aunt Becky and Kate

Uncle Elias loves babies

Matching outfits

Lydia calls this dress her "ice-cream dress" as there are little ice cream cones on it. She has worn it a few times, but was thrilled to find out that "baby Wah-yen" has one to match!! Knowing my penchant for clothes, it is probably the first of many little matching outfits!