finished

for the last 15 months I was contributing to most of ellie and claire’s growth. that has all changed as I am officially done nursing. yeah! with charlie I definitely had mixed emotions, but with the girls it has been different. nursing was much more a way to eat for them than comfort (I was definitely ok with that!) and after they became more interested in things around them than me, nursing became more and more challenging. trying to find a quiet and dark place to nurse 1 baby when you have a toddler and another baby on the loose is pretty challenging. all that to say I think we were all ready for the switch to bottles and the timing was perfect because bill and I were in DC alone last weekend. 

family pictures

remember when i mentioned we had our family pictures taken when we were all sick and charlie and claire had pink eye setting in? here are some of the best pictures from that evening. our super smiley girls would barely crack a smile because they were too absorbed by the beautiful scenery, but i am happy we have some family shots of everyone looking at the camera.

me and my girls, eleanore and claire.

i would love to say charlie was totally into getting his picture taken with me, but as you can tell by my hold on him he had other plans.

charlie leaning in for a kiss. the girls were taken with the grass.

just a little kiss.

remember when it was just us?? i can't imagine how quiet it must have been!

THIS is charlie's real smile. i just melt when i see this picture!

another family shot.

claire showing off her tongue. she constantly has it out to be feeling her two little toofers.

what are you up to c-little?

bill and ellie. 

me and claire.

eleanore and claire. 6 and a half months old.

eleanore. they had to be supported on the chair because when left alone they would try to dive off to attack the grass. 

claire

when i see this picture i think...man - that is a lot of kids!

new besties

the girls had some visitors down this past weekend. eva and elise gunderson came down to visit and to show off their almost 11 month old skills. it was so sweet to see these 4 girls together. ellie and claire think eva and elise are so cool.

here are eva and claire hanging out together.

more eva and ellie playing.

claire hanging out with eva and elise (pink).

all the girls together. I think ryan and katie have a better picture so maybe I will replace the one I snapped at some point, but either way it is a classic picture of 2 – almost 7 month olds, 2 – almost 11 month olds. thanks ryan and katie for driving down. these girls will be great friends!

ellie, claire, elise and eva.

moving moving moving

claire and eleanore are officially moving forward. it has probably been about 1-2 weeks where they have been moving, but just recently it has been consistently forward. thankfully they are still pretty slow and not very motivated to get to dangerous things. once they figure out they can really explore I am in trouble and will be running out to purchase those playpens (I probably used to say parents who used them were irresponsible, but I will now be one of them). they seem to be happier for the most part with their new found mobility, however, they are also really interested in pulling up to standing. my mom found ellie standing in her crib so we had to drop it the next day. they have a hard time pulling up on the couch, but if you are laying on the ground they will crawl/wiggle their way over and push up on you to stand. ellie is more determined to stand up than claire. here she is starting her ascent on the basket.

so proud! pushing all the way up. after this picture she was picking up one arm and trying to stand more upright. her balance is not great so I thought she was going to dig it.

surprisingly, they still prefer to stand on their tiptoes. it makes them extremely tippy and they often fall over. here is claire against the couch. I rolled up her pants so you could see her tip toes.

 

they continue to be so so so in love with their big brother. he is such a help when they are fussing. he runs over and makes them light up.  here is charlie and ellie.

proof

here is some proof of the girl’s teeth and sickness.

claire’s new teeth.

here is ellie showing off her 2 bottom teeth – she popped her first tooth up and then her second followed right after.

this is disgusting, but the reality of my past two weeks. here is ellie. bill snapped this photo of her. I would definitely have wiped her nose and not thought about capturing the moment.

eleanore has a toofer

less than a week after claire got her first tooth eleanore’s first tooth popped up! as we guess it was her bottom left that came in first (claire’s had her bottom right). they have so many mirror image characteristics it is amazing. then to keep ahead of her sister, claire got her second bottom tooth today. we have not been getting much sleep around here with the colds and toofers coming in.

sick

ever since bill came home from greece our family has been sick, sick, sick. it started out with a little cold that morphed into what we call “the sinus” around here. it is just a really horrible head cold with congestion and tons of snot. that grew into a heavy chest cold with hacking and more hacking and today 2 of the 3 chitlins woke up with pink eye. fun times. what makes it even more fun is that we had family pictures scheduled tonight for the first time ever (you can’t even think about rescheduling when you know there is no way to predict bill’s coming home time and the weekends were booked up). so when you get our christmas card this year and you think charlie looks cute, but just a little off…you can recall this post and remember that he had pink eye in his right eye that made it puffy and red. claire also will look a little off because of her left pinkeye and ellie will look serious because she was so stunned by all of the new sites she refused to smile (claire was stunned too). hopefully photoshop can help us out a bit with the pinkeye issue.

when you have one kid that gets sick you have to miss out on a few things here and there. I am now realizing with 3 little ones I will be missing out on lots of things and will be housebound for weeks this winter because one of them will have some illness lingering. thank goodness for bubba. laura came down today to help out and it was a lifesaver. it makes taking care of 3 sort of sick kiddos a lot easier. thank you bubba.

our badgers

we couldn’t resist getting our honey badgers some badger gear.

so funny that when claire smiles she pulls her head back a bit to emphasize her double chin.

totally in love with their brother.

toofers

claire got her first tooth on saturday! it is her bottom right tooth. e & c seem to do almost everything in sync  - they often poop in sync, they get fevers in sync (same temp at the same time), etc. so we were convinced eleanore was going to get her bottom left tooth (they have many mirror image traits) any minute, but she hasn’t gotten it yet! anyway, claire is going nuts over her teeth. I think it is super annoying when people use teething as an excuse for any fussiness, sleeplessness, etc. charlie was never really bothered by his teeth coming in – he just drooled like crazy. claire has a cold (we all have it) and is obsessed with chewing on things. today she was only happy when I was holding her on my hip and helping her chew on this vibrating star thingy.

the end of research & more

sadly we have come to the end of bill’s research block. these past 6 months have flown by. he started research the day the girls were discharged from the hospital (praise God!) and ended it last saturday while he was in Greece (more on that later). this has been our first week back to real life and luckily I knew what to expect. we are back to his 7 pm arrival time on most days (he leaves well before we are up for the day), which means he will miss the girls bedtime every single night of the week (since they start baths at 6 pm). that also means that I will be putting the girls to sleep alone most nights except for when bubba comes and stays over or becca is loving enough to spend her dinner time with us. the hardest part has been watching charlie really miss bill. he thrives when bill is around. I am thankful for a husband who works hard and is present when he is home. we definitely enjoy the moments we are all home together.

in other schmitt news - I am done pumping every day – yeah! I am slowly weaning the girls and I am down to nursing them 3 times each day and the rest of their feedings they get bottles. I am loving it. I have my emotional moments of when I think about missing nursing them, but then charlie runs in and interrupts the feeding and I remember why it is better for me, the girls and charlie to stop.

I ordered diapers for the girls this week for the FIRST time since before their birth! I had ordered lots and lots of newborn, size 1 and size 2 diapers prior to the girls arrival with loads of coupons and had estimated the number I would need per size and I was right on. no idea how it worked out so perfectly, but it was awesome.

no words

ok – I have a few words. if you haven’t noticed our girls don’t wear any headbands or bows. bill is against them (i should clarify - against them only when they don't have enough hair to warrant them) and I am too lazy to add an accessory. that doesn’t mean we don’t have any around though. we were going through ellie and claire’s shoes the other day and found a bag of headbands and were having the girls model them. charlie couldn’t resist being a part of the action. I was dying laughing.

he is such a boy – even with a bow on his head.

claire modeling her headband and flower.

a sweet interaction

i caught the girls squealing and giggling at each other this morning. i recorded a quick video of it on my iphone because bill has our camera in greece (jealous!!). the video is a little wack, but it was too sweet not to post. especially since this is a way for bill to see the girls.

E&C 6 Months!!!!

claire and ellie have blessed us so richly these past 6 months. I have definitely had plenty of moments where I thought I wasn’t going to make it to the end of the day. over the past month though the girls are starting to turn a corner. their level of fussing has definitely decreased from what it was and the girls are beginning to have little “chats” and really engage with one another. it is delightful to watch our kids interact and especially to watch ellie and claire when they stare in amazement at their big brother – charlie. the girls’ personalities are becoming more apparent and we are seeing subtle differences between them.

eleanore

• weighs 14 lbs and 2 ounces (14%).
• she continues to be more patient than her sister and will occasionally lay and watch charlie play or watch claire play with a toy.
• likes reading books – whenever we have a chance to actually read them to her.
• is days from crawling. she easily gets up on all fours, moves forward awkwardly, “mountain climbs” with her feet, but can’t get forward because she can’t figure out how to move her arms forward.
• continues to do planks constantly. she is so focused and goal oriented. I swear all along she has been working this hard to get stronger so she can crawl. she is a living ball of muscle!
• is a happy sweet little girl. when she makes eye contact with you she just lights up and gets a huge gummy smile.
• can sit well, but can’t be left without a boppy behind her. she will get distracted while sitting and just plop over while continuing to hold on to her toy.
• enjoys her bath time more than claire because she is able to relax in the tub (claire has her arms in constant motion so water is always flipping everywhere!)
• a bit more gentle than claire.
• still spits up – especially after eating solids. yuck!

claire

• weighs 14 lbs and 6 ounces (20%)
• is not patient. whatsoever! she always gets her bath first so that she can be the first to eat.
• will not sit still to look at books. when you try to read her a book it is almost as if she is appalled at you. she will constantly twist and turn and try to look around for something to grab, but she will rarely pay any attention to the book (the exception to this is the big first 100 words book).
• loves wrestling with toys. she spends quite a bit of time just wrestling with the jingly lion or moose we have and will just attack it.
• can sit well, but can’t be left without a bobby behind her. to really stay sitting though she need to have something that she is engaged in otherwise she will spy a toy somewhere else and just face dive right for it. she has the battle wounds to prove it.
• loves playing with charlie’s cars. if you put them anywhere in her sight she will eye them and then work her way over to them and get her little mitts all over them. thankfully charlie is not too threatened by this yet.
• most of her movement is by rolling, scooting backwards, or by picking up one half of her body and moving it forward.
• when she is sick of eating solids (or full) she will start blowing and playing with her food and it starts spitting everywhere. funny now, but won’t be funny in a few months.
• used to be our teenager when it came to sleeping in, but has now decided to be our early riser. she will consistently sleep through the night, but when she gets up to eat at 6 am she wants to get up for the day! ouch!
• enjoys watching tv! it is hysterical. if charlie is watching doydge (george) during lunch and claire is on the ground you will catch her staring at the tv totally engrossed. charlie never did this as a child. I even tried to get him to watch a dvd when I was sick once and he would have none of it.
• if you even lift up a toy in front of claire her arms instantly come up and her little hands start reaching and grabbing for it.
• when smiling she often has her tongue sticking out.

both

• are saying “ahhs", “bs”, blowing bubbles and moving their mouths around while making noises.
• love squealing! they are such girls. charlie just giggled. it is super hard to get them to giggle. in order to get them to giggle you really have to toss them around.
• teething like crazy. they are chewing on anything they can get their mouths on.
• eating about 2 meals a day. one late morning and one mid afternoon. usually some cereal with fruit or veggie or both.
• really like hanging out in their entertainer or jumperoo. I have moved them both upstairs and they can face each other in them which they really like.
• are sleeping really well. we start baths around 6 pm and they take 9 ounces by bottle right after. they fall asleep and we do a dream feed around 10ish where they both take anywhere from 3-6 ounces. on a good night they sleep until 7 am, but often times one of them is up just once to eat.
• are not napping as well as they were before. I am hoping that now that we have their nights established and will be going to the rac in the mornings they will fall back into taking a long afternoon nap.

sweet twin things:

• the girls are now officially having conversations. I will catch them staring at each other and chatting. one will start cooing or making noises at the other and then they will pause and the other one will burst out in a huge grin and then they will start making noises and it goes in cycles. it melts my heart!! and if you are lucky to catch them talking at this stage (it doesn’t happen that frequently yet) it is quite amazing to see these two little identical people communicating.
• this is a bit odd to discuss and someday the girls will be appalled that I am bring this up but it is weird. they have the same bowel movements! they are now in the pooping every 6-7 days or so stage and will both not have pooped for multiple days and then both squeeze out a little nugget. then a few hours later they will both produce another nugget. I am amazed that they can even keep their bms in sync.
• when ellie smiles her left eye gets squinty and when claire smiles her right eye gets squinty.
• if you place a toy between the girls they both start to go for it. if one of them gets ahold of it first and really starts playing with it the other one will just sit back and admire how her sister plays with it. they really don’t seem to be jealous or continue to go for it (I am sure this is just an age thing, but it is sweet).

ellie and claire wrestling. claire is on the bottom.

 

“we love wrestling!”

claire playing with lightening mcqueen.

ellie stuck under another chair.

their new set up. how cute that they are grinning at each other.

one last smiley one. they just love attention.

half way…

ellie and claire are 6 months today! hallelujah! what am I most excited about??? being able to get back to the RAC! I cannot wait to start putting all 3 kiddos in childcare and getting a workout, shower and some reading time in most mornings. it makes me a better mom.

a big detail post is coming next week after their appointments, but I had to post a picture of me with my 6 month old honey badgers. I love you girls so much! claire is on the left.

go pack go

charlie is obviously a packer fan. while the pack has not played the best football against the vikes - at least charlie was cheering the pack on in uniform.

watching aaron rodgers...

trying to figure out why brett is wearing the wrong jersey!!!