My sister-in-law, Tammie suggested putting a box in front of the girls to try to get them to pull themselves up. Me not wanting to encourage the world of fast movement, was not going to encourage the walking or pulling up to happen any sooner than it should. My sister Laurie put a box in front of Hailey (Tammie’s daughter) and she pulled herself right up a little younger than the girls are now. Well today Ari found her own stupid box, their toy box. It was suddenly way too quiet in my house for two eight month olds to be playing. Here is what I found Ari doing:
Hi Mom...yes I am standing all on my own thanks to this box!
I found Brynn in this same location on Friday. Although I like what she does here much better. All day on Friday she just wanted to sit by the window and look outside.
Mom why does it have to be so cold & windy here? I want to go outside!
Today marks another first for Ari and Brynn, it is their first Halloween. We have have been preparing for the time change this week by making their bedtime 15 minutes later each night. Last night they were up until 8:30, which is almost an hour later than normal for them. We did not hear from them until about 8:00 this morning. This is perfect because they will be waking up about 7:00 on a regular basis now and perhaps we will be successful in this time change deal. The problem this morning was that we had to be at the Halloween costume contest by 9:00. Normally in the morning the girls drink their juice and then about an hour or so after waking up are ready for breakfast. This was not going to work for us this morning, so they were not real hungry when dad was trying to feed them.
Our friend Maddy made it safely back to Minnesota from Arizona late last night. She came with us to the fire hall and even played with us for a little bit afterward. Yeah. It was so great to see her. We miss her and her family so much. Ari and Brynn did not win any prizes at the costume contest but I think they were super cute. Ben was a chicken and he won 3rd prize in his age group. Go Ben go!
This past weekend our cousins came to visit. Johann’s sister Jen, her husband Matt and their kids Connor and Miranda came on Saturday. It was a short visit but the kids had fun playing together. It is hard to believe that Miranda is a week short of one year older than Ari and Brynn but not much bigger in size. I am hoping this means that Ari and Brynn will be slowing down in the growing stage soon. They are almost completely in 12-month clothes and even have a few shirts that are 18-months. We are finding that the pants are getting too short but are too big in the waist.
We also had Paige’s confirmation on Sunday. The girls were pretty good sports and enjoyed meeting all of Paige’s family. I don’t have pictures but perhaps once I get some from Paigey I can post them.
Tuesday night I was gone over night for a conference. Yo and I put the girls to bed on Tuesday and then I drove the three hours to my conference. I was able to get out a little early today and able to see them for about 40 minutes before rushing off to teach my exercise class. But the good news is that I will get to see a lot of them over the next few days and then it is the weekend and Halloween. We are super excited for Halloween as it will be the first time we get to see our friend Maddy since she moved to AZ in July! We are SUPER excited to see her and her family.
Brittney has been watching the girls for us while we are at work and trying to figure out our long-term day care plans, which we are very grateful for. You often see u-tube videos about what animals do while you are out. We are fortunate enough to have Brit here capturing pictures of what happens while we are out. Like me she is quick to snap the picture and then rescue the child, as long as they are not in immediate danger. This week they must have played hard as there are two pictures of Brynn sleeping in odd places. One is in her highchair and the other is a super cute one of her sleeping with her feet on her sister’s stomach. The girls are constantly wrestling with each other so this photo is only appropriate. I have also included a picture showing off our teeth, please do not mind our snotty nose…with teething this is a constant battle at our house!
Hanging with mom before work...
Brynn laying on top of Ari because our living room is not big enough!
...and two seconds later passed out tired but I will keep my leg on her!
The next day Brynn could not make it through breakfast even!
One word "Nemo"
Brynn showing her teeth...Ari's tongue is always hiding hers.
We had a pretty mellow weekend this past weekend. We did interview a few different day cares. I went back to work this week. I was hired at part time but it is sounding like it will be full time very soon. The major difference is we can take out commute time now. My office is a about 12 minute from our house instead of 45-60 minutes each way. I don’t have to be to work until 8:00 at the earliest so for our lazy daughters that like to sleep in this works well for them. Right now we have Brittney watching them at our house, so that is super nice. However, we need to find a day care for them. It is such a big decision to make. However, we have interviewed many very good day care moms and still have a few more to meet this week.
Ari and Brynn have been working on perfecting their crawling this past week. Ari can follow you down the hallway now and Brynn likes to do the “worm” crawl. Brynn reaches her arms out as far as she can and then pulls her lower body to come meet her upper body. This takes a super strong upper body and abdominal muscles! She also will grab onto her sister’s leg and pull herself to her sister. They are starting to play ball with each other a little bit too. Mostly Ari likes to play ball and gets mad if Brynn doesn’t pass it back fast enough.
We are attempting to add milk based formula into their diets. Since about 6-weeks old they have been on soy. So far the transition is going well. We have been adding just a little bit at a time to see if they display any symptoms of discomfort, none thus far!
The girls seem to think Mom and Dad are jungle gyms. Here are pictures of what our Saturday/Sunday mornings look like!
Mommy and her girls snuggling
Brynn, Daddy, Ari
Climbing on Mommy
Arianna doing her morning exercises on Mom's foam roller
Our weekends are often busy with different random things. This past weekend was another busy weekend. However, along with our business we also hit some major milestones. It started out on Friday morning. Johann happen to be working from home so he was able to witness Arianna crawling across the living room floor to get her sippy cup first thing in the morning. We both were in shock and just looked at each other and said “did you see that?!” We thought perhaps this was just a fluke but as the weekend comes to an end crawling is almost second nature to her now. She was chasing after a mini basketball this evening. I am so proud, of the basketball chasing that is, not sure about the crawling yet!
Brynn could not let her sister out do her so to keep up with her but not be competitive she cut two teeth on Saturday. She was a pretty good sport about it and we didn’t even realize that this happened. Well they both have been cranky and we could see them coming but Brynn was trying to chew on Johann’s finger when he realized she had two sharp points. Arianna is trying to compete in the teeth getting. She has one point that you have been able to see for about a week now but it just hasn’t popped out yet. Actually, tonight Brynn did a little crawling too so I guess the competition is alive in our house.
Here is Daddy with his girls in their new fuzzy fire truck pajamas tonight before bed.
Court was short sweet and to the point. We were suppose to start at 9:00 am. The judge walked in at 9:10 and by 9:15 we were taking pictures with him because it was all complete. Johann’s response as we walked out the door was that he spent way too much time ironing this morning for less than five minutes of court! It all went well minus the few miss pronunciations of: Johann, Arianna, and Sonnenberg but there was no problem with Sherry or Brynn. After the quick court we picked up some donuts as an appetizer and then had lunch shortly there after at home.
Papa Bill and Nana Ellen got the distance award for coming all the way from North Dakota for this special event. Grandpa and Grammy also joined us along with Jon, Holli, Zach, Brady, and two of Holli’s day care kids. We appreciate all of these people for being part of our special day. This is the end of our adoption process and the beginning of our lives as a legal family forever. The girls were watching Toot & Puddle when we left the house for the court house. My dad and I thought it would be a good idea to change Arianna and Brynn’s names to Toot & Puddle. However, we did decide to stick with Arianna and Brynn…their now official legal names for one day!
Thank you for your input on the hair decision. The winner was headbands and here are the pictures:
Ari, Mom, Dad, Brynn
Nana Ellen, Brynn, Papa Bill, Grandpa Gary, Ari, Grammy Mona
We go to court early on Tuesday morning. We will be out of the house about the time my lazy daughters typically have been waking up, about 8:00 am. hehe. Now I need your help. I need to decide today how to do their hair for the big court date. Please vote on which style is best by looking at the pictures below.
Box Braids
Post Braids
Headbands
Puffs (but our hair is longer now so this is cuter)
Who knew teething could be so much fun. Both girls have more snot coming out of their noses. Honestly, I did not know a nose so small could produce such mass quantities. We just may need to buy stock in Kleenex! I have a pretty funny teething story to share, other than this one story the girls have been pretty uncomfortable. Brynn has always been obsessed with hair, everyone’s hair from her own, mine, sisters, facial hair you name it she loves it. This week with her runny nose she found a nice soft place to wipe it, in her big sister’s hair. It was quite nasty but super funny at the same time. I thought picking fuzz out of their hair was a challenge but this what a whole new ball game. My fix for this was to do those box braids again thinking that would make her hair not such a great nose wiper. Brynn proceded to pull out almost every clip in Ari’s hair. Then in the time it took me to go to the bathroom, just had to pee, I heard Ari screaming. I walked into the living room to find Brynn’s fingers pulling out an entire braid! It takes me several minutes to undo one braid but Brynn seems to have it down pat. Any suggestions on getting her to stop pulling hair or using it as a kleenex would be much appreciated.
My friend Layli left us some Camilia when the were here visiting this summer. It has been a great help. You can see the relief in the girl’s within minute. Camilia is a homeopathic remedy that helps soothe the gums. Today they have been quite cranky but are currently content watching Nemo and swinging. They are happy so watching Nemo is what we will do. They want to be held but when I pick up one the other gets mad and wants to be picked up too. When I hold them both Brynn starts pulling hair and the fighting begins. So I try to take turns snuggling them without our sister seeing!
Ari’s new thing is that she likes to sit up in her swing. Really they only use their swings when they are drinking their sippy cups. However, I was changing Brynn’s diaper and Ari sat up in her swing and was just chilling out. This was a few days ago. This morning after she finished her sippy cup she dropped it on the floor, sat up, started really swinging by rocking herself and trying to reach the sippy cup on the floor. Way cute but probably not too safe. She was strapped in and the seat only rocks so far and is about 4 inches off the ground, so not horrible. Enjoy the pictures below to see this scene as it unfolded.
This past weekend A & B celebrated their seven month birthday. To celebrate we joined my sisters, one sister-in-law, three nephews, one niece, and my sister’s sister-in-law and her daughter at the Mall of America. We were fortunate enough to have my friend Michele join us for the drive there too! Johann was working so it was just a girl’s day…plus three nephews! We had a blast shopping and taking in the rides at the park. Michele even was brave enough to go on the big one with my nephew Preston. Ari took a nap in our stroller and Brynn finally gave up and napped in cousin Hailey’s stroller. They were troopers though and did awesome.
To continue the celebration on Saturday we met up with our Heart to Heart Family and had a family picture taken. There are eleven kids in our area all adopted through the same Utah adoption agency, Heart to Heart. We had one brave photographer take the picture which included the parents. We formed a barrier around the kids while he tried to capture us. I am very anxious to see those pictures! After pictures we went to the MOA again. This time to purchase the girls’ Halloween costumes. They are super cute but you will just have to wait to see them to find out what they will be this year. Next it was on to my brother Kirk and sister-in-law Tammie’s house. My oldest nephew, Dylan, ran in a cross-country meet. He ran a smoking 18:16, a far cry from that 27:50 his aunts ran a few weeks ago! All of my siblings and families minus one brother and family and one brother-in-law were together. It was fun.
Sunday we were able to help Zach celebrate his 10th birthday, one day early by going out to dinner with his family. We went to TGIFridays and I had the most awesome Jack Daniel’s Chicken sandwich. Seriously, I am still thinking about it. Perhaps it is because we don’t go out much any more but it was super tasty.
Today I am going to attempt to make some baby food. I cannot stomach paying 87 cents for two little containers of food when I can buy an entire squash for 47 cents a pound! Hope it goes well and the girls will eat it.
One week from today is our court date. We keep talking about it and the girls are excited. Last night the big discussion was what to wear. Considering we are in Minnesota the weather could be winter or summer or perhaps we might even get a fall day!
Mom, Ari, Tuck, Lenny, Ming Ming too....we LOVE Wonder Pets...absolutely love Ari's expression
Brynn was napping during our Wonder Pets picture
Cousin Preston with Brynn and Auntie Laurie with Arianna
It all went well minus the few miss pronunciations of: Johann, Arianna, and Sonnenberg but there was no problem with Sherry or Brynn. After the quick court we picked up some donuts as an appetizer and then had lunch shortly there after at home.
