I spy....

 A tooth!!!!!!!

This is a typical Hadley face, smiling with her tongue out!

 Hadley has been an easy teether (I think I made that word up)!  She has had a little bit of a fever, sleeps a little longer and has had a few more dirty diapers.  The only reason I knew she was getting a tooth is because she was drooling so much, I looked in her mouth. I saw a little white line Monday night and then Tuesday morning the tooth popped through. Her first tooth was on the bottom left.  

Harper is so close to getting her first tooth.  Her gums are swolen and she has the same symptoms as her sister.  It will be any day.

War Eagle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The girls watched their first Auburn Game!

My little Tigers.

Hadley got a little nervous at the end of the game, but the Tigers got a Win!

6 Months Old...just pretend

I am just going to pretend that I made this post on August 10th when the girls really did turn 6 months old.  So I am going to share all their habits and milestones that happened between July 10th and August 10th....because I am going to be posting them at 7 months old in just a few days or so:)

Dear Hadley and Harper,

You girls smile and giggle all the time.  We love to tickle you are make you laugh.  You are becoming a little more independent everyday.  You girls love to play.  I can be holding you and laughing with you, and as soon as you spot a toy, you are done with me.  You both absolutely love your play mat.  You will both lay on your play mat for hours if I would let you.  You like to grab at the toys and suck on anything you can get in your mouth.  You have learned how to roll over.  Hadley you rolled over first.  You were asleep in your swaddle.  I came to get you out of your crib and you were face down without any hands to hold yourself up.  So that was the first time you rolled and the last time you were in a swaddle.  I thought breaking you'll of the swaddle was going to be hard, but it wasn't.  One day I just stopped putting you in and it was no problem.  Harper you started to roll over a few days after your sister.  I thought rolling was going to be a fun and easy milestone, but it was a nightmare at first.  You both roll to your belly and then get stuck and can't roll back over.  You would scream and scream because you were mad.  I tried to keep going in your room and rolling you back over to your back but that was no help because you rolled back to your belly before I could even get out of the room.  I tried sleep positioners and sleeping in a bouncy seat but nothing really worked.  So eventually you learned to just sleep on your stomach.  Now you both love sleeping on your stomach and you don't care that you don't know how to roll to your back.

Hadley, you are still scared of strangers, especially men.  Harper you are not bothered by strangers....for now.  Hadley, you always have your tongue out but you are always smiling. Your nicknames are Michal Jordan baby and smiley.  We started rice cereal this month.  Harper, you loved it and Haldey, you hated the spoon in you mouth.  You gagged every time.

You are both wonderful sleepers.  You sleep for 2 hours and are awake for 2 hours.  Sometimes your morning naps last 3 hours.  You take 2 long naps during the day and 1 catnap in the evening.  You both still love bath time.  You kick and splash.

I have loved watching you grow.  You definitely know who your mommy and daddy are, and we love to watch your eyes follow us around the room.  Thank you for another wonderful month!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Goodbye Summer Vacation

Today was my first day back to work.  Summer vacation was wonderful.  When all of my co-workers asked me what I did this summer, I told them honestly that I stayed in my pajamas all day and sometimes brushed my teeth...and I would not have traded it for anything!

 This is what the girls were up to this summer: 

Holding their toes.....

It was funny to watch the progression.  First they just stared at their feet like they were toys, then Hadley started to hold just her left foot and she thought that was great.  Then she found her right foot, about that time Harper started discovering her feet.  Now they are both working really hard to get their toes into their mouth, sometimes they make it.  Talented.... I know!

They absolutely LOVE their play mat.

I don't know what else to say about this picture other than it is what life is really like.  Hadley always spits up all over her outfit and ends up naked and Harper always grabs at her sister's face, hands, bow...or whatever she can find.

The girls have been eating rice cereal.

Well kinda...Hadley wants nothing to do with it.

The girls have learned to roll from their back to their stomach.

And  now they are really good at holding up their head.

They have learned to "stand" on your feet.

What a wonderful summer break!

Baptism

You were baptized Sunday morning at Roswell United Methodist Church. 

 They girls are are strong enough to hold their heads up, Kenzie showed them how.

We borrowed the gowns from a sweet friend.  Her twin girls wore them last year.  They are so generous to share such a precious heirloom.

 Dr. Long and Bebe baptized the girls at Roswell United Methodist church.  The church where Martin and I met in the youth group and the sanctuary where we got married. How special it was to have Bebe baptize you both.

 

All of our family and friends came to stand with us.

I tried to plan the day perfectly so that the girls would take a cat nap in the car, and be happy for the few hours before and during the service.  My plan worked perfectly for Hadley but Harper did not take a nap in the car and so by 9:30 when the service started she was screaming.  With some bouncing and swaying we made it through the baptism without tears.

After the baptism, my mom had a beautiful brunch at her house.

Thank you to Ruth Flethcher for the incredible photography!

5 Months Old!

Here is what I want to remember about this age

Dear Hadley and Harper,

My favorite part about this month has been to watch the two of you interact.  Although you are still not laughing and talking to each other, you are mesmerized by every move your sister makes.  You love to grab at each other, which doesn't seem to bother either of you.  It is only when you get a good handful of your sister's hair to pull that make you cry. 

You are both sweet sweet little girls.  The hardest part about this age is your new fear of strangers.  You cry and scream when a new face holds you or tries to talk to you.  This is especially challenging when we are out in public and I only have one set of hands to sooth both of you at the same time.  I am sure you will grow of this stage, it is slowly getting better. 
Your personalities still show.  Hadley, you are more of a relaxed  and quite baby. Harper, you are more social and you tell us when you want something.  You both love to lay and play on your play mat.  I change out the toys that hang from the bars and the two of you reach and hold on to the toys hanging down.  Harper, you enjoy the play mat the most.  You will play under the toys for as long as I leave you there. 

We give you a bath together every night.  Hadley you LOVE your bath.  You kick, splash, flap your arms and laugh while you lay in the tub.  Hadley, you splash so much, it makes Harper jump every time the water hits her unexpectedly from your splash. We have had to specifically position you so that you lay head to head, and your feet are on opposite ends of the tub. 

You both have a lot more strength.  I can hold you under your arms and you will put enough pressure on your feet to stand up in my lap.  Your knees buckle after a few minutes, but you are getting stronger.  Hadley you are really close to rolling over, but you haven't done it by herself.  I am ok with that, I can't imagine how life is going to be when you'll become mobile.  I like that I can lay you in one place and you don't move.
You are both still mesmerized by the television, it is hardly on during the day, but I still use it to hold your attention for a few minutes while I am making bottles or putting one of you to bed. 
You are still eating 5 bottles a day.  Each bottle is about 5 ounces.  I still try to nurse you 3 times a day but I think that is coming to an end.  Nursing you at the same time is becoming a challenge, you try to grab at each other's eyes and nose while eating.  I just don't have enough hands to hold you and control you hands.  Hadley, I took you to the doctor last week because your eye was red and swollen.  The doctor thought it might either be pink eye or a scratch.  I am pretty sure Harper scratched you in the eye.  You did not seem too bothered by it and it cleared up in a few days. 
You are able to stay up for longer stretches of time in the evening.  During the day you are both exhausted after being awake 1-1.5 hours and need to go back to sleep, but in the evenings I can keep you awake for a little longer.  You can hardly hold your eyes open to take your last bottle but you sleep great through the night.  You  are both still sleeping 11-12 hours every night.  You wake up around 7:00 or 7:30, and sometimes as late as 10:30. Although we are still breaking you of your swaddles, you  are officially in separate cribs.  You  no longer take naps together.  You sleep in the same room at night, but in separate rooms during naps.  I find that you nap a lot better in separate rooms.  You are both light sleepers.  I can't go in the room to check on you, without waking you up.  It is funny to me, because you can sleep through each other's cry but nothing else.  You seem to enjoy us singing you to sleep at night, it calms you down quickly. What is really funny is, singing is usually the only thing that calms you down after a stranger scares you, so you can imagine what a scene we make when you are screaming and I am singing Jesus Loves Me. I usually sing, This Little Light of Mine or Jesus Loves the Little Children in your ear as you fall asleep at night. 
I LOVE this age to, and I still beg you to stay a baby forever.

I want to start including a "typical day" with each of my monthly post so that I can remember what each stage was like.  I am sure it is going to bore most of you'll, so just skip over it, but this is the only baby book, I have for now.  So I try to record as much as I can.

Wake up at 7:30- You smile so big when I come to get you.  You usually are not crying when you wake up, you are just talking and sucking on your hands in your crib.
7:30-8:00 Nurse (and bottle if necessary)
8:00-8:30 Change diapers, get dressed, play, tickle, sing...you both usually start to fuss which tells me it is time for bed. I put one of you in the bouncy or on the floor so I know you are safe while I go get the other one in bed.  If you are both fussy and tired at the same time, that is when the 2 minutes of TV saves me from listening to screams.
8:30- Lately Harper has been tired first, so I swaddle Harper, give you a paci (You will only take it while I am rocking you), I sit in the rocker in your nursery and we rock and sing for a few minutes. You usually don't fall asleep but you lay in my arms really still staring at me.  I put you in your crib, turn off the light and turn on the sound machine. Then I go get Hadley and do it all again.
You usually sleep for about 2 hours (recently it has been longer). This is when I eat breakfast, pick up the house and take a shower.
11:00 Wake up ready to eat 5 oz bottle.  After this bottle is usually when we get in the car to run any errands we have (usually only 1 or 2 stops is all we can handle) If we don't have anywhere to go, we play, tickle and sing together until you fuss and tell me it is time for another nap...usually around 12:30.
12:00- 3:00 this is a long nap...usually
3:00 You wake up to eat.  I nurse and give you extra in a bottle just to make sure you are full.
3:30-4:00 We play with toys, tickle and sing some more.  You always need 3 or more naps a day.  So your third nap is usually a short cat nap.  Only about an hour.
4:00-5:00 nap
5:00- Eat, play, and bath time
8:00 Last bottle and bed

Fourth of July

We had a wonderful long holiday weekend.  We went to visit our friends, Lindsey and Danial, in Montgomery, Alabama.  We enjoyed wonderful meals, and relaxing hours by the pool.  The girls did great traveling and sleeping away from home. On the way there we had to stop to feed bottles, burp babies, and change diapers.  There was a few moments, of "I am crazy for doing this?" but overall they did great!

This was the girls first "dip" in the pool.  I spent all morning making sure they were coated in sunscreen, putting on swim diapers, hats, and bathing suits.  We put both girls in floats, and they just stared at us, like "whats the big deal?"  Hadley seemed relaxed lounging in her float.  Harper was a little more uncertain.  We took some cute pictures, and then they went back inside for naps.The prep worked took much longer then the actual pool time.

There was a nice shaded cabana were we sat together.

Sunday evening, we had a neighborhood block party.  The baby monitor's signal reached into the street so we were able to put the girls down for the night and then enjoy the party in the col-de-sac.

Thank you to the entire Dean family for such a relaxing weekend. The hospitality was amazing!