GEORGIA AQUARIUM

We spent a busy and fun day at the Georgia Aquarium with Jean and Gerald, and our buddies the Kennedys. Everyone had a good time, we saw a LOT of different fish, and we managed to wear-out the kids. We started off with the Whale Shark exhibit. That's one of the four Whale Sharks up above Jay's head:

My boys, swimmin' with the fishes... African cichlids:They had TWO albino alligators!Family portrait at the Pacific Barrier Reef (James napped for almost an hour in our arms): The Whale Sharks were so cool, we went back for seconds. (Plus, the ampitheater was the perfect atmosphere for a napping James and nursing Cora.) You can see Al and Christina ahead of me on the moving platform in the tunnel here, with one of the Whale Sharks above their heads:Cora was just as impressed as the rest of us...At the end of the day we grabbed a photo of the kiddos, all nestled back into their strollers. When we tested Will in the stroller next to Cora, James got a bit jealous, so we gave him his spot back.

Oh, and that's not Nemo. It's Deepo, or something like that. We skipped the show because we didn't think the kiddos would sit still (or stay quiet) for it. Though 3D fish DOES sound fun. Maybe next time...

ME AND MY CHUNK

I thought Cora looked far too adorable in her big bro's hand-me-down shirt today NOT to take a picture of her. And since we hadn't taken a photo together in a while, that sealed the deal. She's getting big, isn't she?

WHILE DADDY STUDIES...

...the kids join me for dinner (Sloppy Cups!), take a bath together, hang out in their diapers (these are Doopsy pocket diapers, which we use for overnight), and have a dance party in the living room

"Brother, what interesting feet you have"

Then class is over. And they get to play with Daddy. Who encourages dog-piling on the baby...

THE STASH: UPDATED

Our diaper stash is ever-evolving. We have sold the newborn diapers (long ago), added a couple more AIOs for daycare, added more fitteds and pocket diapers for overnight, added some cute AI2s (with all but one being made by Margie), added some stay-dry doublers and liners (to keep skin dry overnight) and hemp doublers (for extra absorbancy), and sold another set of diapers that wasn't really working for us (the Best Bottoms system - we just couldn't get a good fit, no matter how badly we loved those Gators colors).

This is everything, minus 4 Bumgenius Organic AIOs (now called "Elementals") that were being worn or dirty, and the Elmo pocket diaper:

That makes 56 diapers total, not counting covers (FLIP or fleece) or accessories (doublers and liners), but counting the 6 organic FLIP and 6 gCloth inserts.

Each kiddo has their own box of AIO/AI2 diapers that we use during the day (I'm sure you can guess whose is whose).

The big box in the center is our overnight assortment (pocket diapers, fitteds, and all the covers). And the divided box on the right holds all the inserts and liners and doublers (FLIP up front, gCloth in the middle, and all the doublers and liners at the back - the hemp are the yellowish ones at the far back).

GOOD THING

Good thing we took their Valentine's portraits a week ago, before they got sick, since neither kid was in the mood for photos yesterday...

"Mine!"

"Please Mama, no more pictures!"

Opening Valentine's Day cards from their grandparents and great-grandparents was fascinating though. The novelty of it lasted at least 10 minutes, which is pretty long for two kiddos under two.
(Little monkey girl is holding one card in her hands and one with her feet. And James wanted her hair bow "Off!" - I guess he prefers her unadorned...)

LOVE FROM JAMES AND CORA

ALL ABOUT CORA: 8-MONTHS-OLD

MEASURES: 18.0 lbs and 26.5 in. And she's still holding at 2 teeth (the bottom center incisors), despite all the hand gnawing and toy chomping and drooling going on. She has some fuzzy blonde hair, but only about an inch all around (no Mississippi Mudflap for this girl).

SLEEPS: In our bed, with us, all night long. When she isn't awake or semi-awake to nurse, that is. I haven't been able to lay her into her crib in her room successfully for almost 2 weeks now, so I've given up trying. Perhaps we'll be moving our mattress to the floor. Or installing bed rails. Or even buying another twin mattress to place on the floor in our room, just for her. We shall see. We certainly don't want Baby Doll rolling or crawling off our bed. Not that she rolls. Or crawls. She still sleeps in one spot, on her back, all night long. The most movement I've seen is when she gets furious that she wakes up alone and scoots herself up toward the headboard (like a little upside-down inch worm). She's back to napping in her swing, when she's not napping with me. I admit I kinda like the excuse to nap with her (at least at the start) though. She slept for over 3 hours that way each day this weekend, so I really can't complain.EATS: Lots. She nurses 7+ times per day/night. She very rarely sleeps through the night these days, and will wake anywhere from 1-3 times/night to scoot close to me and grab (literally) a sleepy snack. During the day, she eats 2-3 solids meals. Always dinner, and usually lunch. On occasion we give her some breakfast too. She's a big fan of Cheerios right now, and will demand them if she sees them sitting on the table. Bossy!

(Check out that double chin!)

SAYS: Not much, but she's definitely getting more talkative. I catch her babbling to herself now when she plays alone, or when she's in the car (which is much more entertaining than the crying she used to do in the car)! She can put a few consonants together with her vowels, including 'c/k', 'g', 'y', 'w', 'n', and most recently 'd'. Her first word is 'car'. Yup, you heard that right. Car. All you have to do is ask her "Cora, what do you want for your birthday?" and she'll answer with "cah". And yes, I'm serious. We know she doesn't understand what she's saying, but she still says it. And it's hilarious, considering the car is one of her least favorite places. So maybe she learned it because it's one of James' favorite words (and favorite toys). Of course, Jay and Grambot swear they heard her say 'Dada' while Skyping today. I'll have to double my efforts with teaching her "Mama' I suppose...

DOES: Assisted situps and standups. She's trying to pull up on her own now too. She sits great and can bend completely forward or sideways to grab a toy, then get herself back into a sitting position. She can now sit in a restuarant highchair and grocery cart. She likes to stand or kneel in your lap. She's a great dancer (bouncing and arm flapping and head banging). She can spin herself in a circle to "chase" you or grab a toy if you've stranded her on her tummy, and she can scoot backwards (but not too far).

DOES NOT: Play on her tummy (long). Or sleep on her tummy. Or enjoy anything that has to do with laying on her tummy. I swear this girl is going to skip crawling all together!

HOLD ME!

A Valentine's Day preview...

KISSES AND ZERBERTS

LIFE IS GOOD

Lounging around... And practicing standing...

And talking to Mama...Can sure wear a girl out!Baby Doll had a GOOD nap day. I don't know whether it's just that she's sick (still getting over her ear infection) or that she's finally learning to nap better, but she slept for 2.5 hours all by herself today. After I nursed her to sleep, I snuck out of bed and stuck a pillow in my place (just like I do at bedtime), and it worked (for the first time ever, longer than 20 minutes anyway). I checked on her a million times because I just couldn't believe she was still sleeping. At 4:00 PM I went upstairs again and found her wide awake, just laying there looking around the room. I don't know about this girl...

SICKY POO

When James wouldn't eat yesterday, we knew something was up. We checked his temp when we got home from dinner (low-grade fever) and peeked into his mouth (swollen and splotchy throat). A call to Dr. Mom assured us that we needed to monitor his temp and see how the night would go, and take him in if the condition worsened. We dosed him with ibuprofen, coaxed him into eating a bit of yogurt, and got him into bed. All was well until 3:45 AM when he woke with a nasty cough. NASTY. And he still had a bit of a fever. So off to the on-call morning clinic he went with Jay as soon as they opened. Turns out he has croup again (this makes #5 - he gets it every single time the season changes, or the weather drastically changes, like with our recent snowfall and cold snap) and a likely case of strep throat (the on-call doc was our pediatrician, and she didn't want to wait on cultures before prescribing something). So he's on antibiotics again. Something to knock out both illnesses. His fever spiked to 102 shortly after they got home. He slept for over 3 hours this afternoon though, and seems to be feeling a bit better. I tell ya, this kid really, truly, can't catch a break. I hope that what they say, that frequency of illness in kids starts to subside at 2-years-old, is true. Between him and Cora, the house is full of sicky poo's, and Jay and I are just hoping we don't catch it. Because the only thing worse than 2 sick kids is a pair of sick parents to go along with them. Boo.

Oh yeah, and his hair looked AWESOME after his nap.

SITTING HIGH

Cora took her first ride in the grocery cart today. And she liked it. Until she got tired at the end of the trip. Good thing I had the Beco under the cart. She made lots of friends today, smiling at all the patrons who smiled at her. Good times!

DINING OUT

Fridays are great days to go out for dinner after work. At least, they are in my opinion. Rather than make another trip to The Hat, we decided to hit up McAllisters for a change, where they serve yummy mac-n-cheese that James normally loves. His teacher had reported that he ate nothing for breakfast (which was grits, so we weren't surprised, since he doesn't like them - and thus we try to feed him breakfast at home on days we know they are serving them) and nothing but applesauce for lunch (which concerned us, because he likes spagetti). We wanted to be sure he ate a good dinner. And just for fun, we decided to let Cora join us at the table in a highchair of her very own (she usually just sits in my lap):

I know, she looks teeny tiny. And she is. Though the tables there are a bit higher than the norm.

James didn't want anything to do with the mac-n-cheese. Or his pizza.

But SOMEBODY enjoyed the mac-n-cheese...

SNOW MUCH FUN

It's our THIRD snow day (read: daycare being closed due to a 'winter storm') in the 'Burg, and we finally have some actual snow! Not much (not enough to build even a mini snowman), but enough that we could teach James to say 'pretty snow'. We haven't bothered going outside, since the temperature most of the morning was "22 degrees, feels like 8". Yeah. No thanks. Besides, we have a sick Baby Doll here, and she certainly doesn't need to be exposed to such harsh conditions. At least I had an excuse to dress her in her winter/snow shirt one more time...

She is feeling better though. Her fever spiked to 101.2 at 5:00 AM this morning, and had been hanging around 99ish until after her nap (which required me laying with her through most of it to keep her asleep), when it went back to normal and has stayed there, even without Tylenol/Ibuprofen. Hopefully the meds are doing their thing now and she'll be well soon.

FULL OF CRAZY, REPRISE

He's still got it...

PERFECT MATCH

Cora's new booties arrived just in time for our latest winter storm - a perfect match to her bear hat.

INFECTED

So bummed! Cora has had a mild fever (barely hitting the mark her pediatrician uses of 100.5 to designate a fever) for over 24 hours, so Jay took her in to get checked out this morning. Turns out she's getting another ear infection, in her left ear (again). We caught it early. We knew something was up (more than teething) when she was picky about her bottles yesterday (drinking slower than usual and not finishing them), and especially when she fussed while nursing at lunch. As you all know, nursing is what Cora does best, so I was understandably concerned to have a fussy baby at my breast. Obviously, she's on antibiotics again.

On the upside, we got to find out how much The Chunk weighs. She's at 17 lbs 14 oz. That's only about a half pound less than James was at 8-months. So no, she didn't gain 10 pounds this month. Or even 2. She'll have gained right at 1 pound from 7-8 months, which is exactly what James did at that age. Of course, she's about an inch and a half shorter than him, so I suppose that explains why she looks thicker to us. Love those rolls Baby Doll. LOVE them!

CAMPING OUT?

Yup, that's our baby boy, sleeping with his booty in the air and his head under a pillow tent. I don't even want to know how (or why) he did that...