Three steps

I think Leni is getting more motivated to walk. She is standing up all the time without holding anything and will take steps on her own. Three is far as we've gotten so far, but it's encouraging to see she's more willing now to try. Maybe there's still a chance she'll be walking by my brother's wedding on Thanksgiving weekend!

Two-year molars!

Gemma's sprouting her molars! Right now she has the bottom left and top right molars coming through. She's handling it like a trooper, not cranky, not sleep-disturbed.

What? It's mid August???

Has it really been a month since the party? Crazy. I know I've been slacking big time with this blog, but with the construction of our house, I hate to admit it, but that blog is getting more of my attention.

Gemma is finally getting her 2-year-old molars. I noticed she has been a bit more of a crybaby as of late and also she is more willing to nap, even though she is getting up slightly later. For a little while there, she was getting up right around 6 AM, but now she is back to her usual (and my preferred time) of 7-7:30. Today I looked into her mouth and saw the tooth really close to the gum surface. I think it will poke through soon ???? and hopefully it won't be too hard on my poor little Gem. 

Gemma's so funny. Each and every day I have moments where I'm dumbfounded by the things she says, like where the heck did she learn these things???? She wakes up in the morning and knows exactly what shows are on in what order until Harmony comes home. She'll just turn the TV on herself and knows that 17 is Treehouse and 115 is Disney Junior and so just changes the channels on her own. We try to not have her watch too much TV after Harmony comes home though. I know this is poor excuse, but I let her watch TV in the morning so that I can get some work done, so I don't have to work til the late hours of the evening...

Leni is such a little ham. She really likes to tease you. She loves to climb up the slide we have and just lean back, barely hanging on, maybe swinging a foot out to the side, all just to give you a heart attack. I know that reacting to this makes her do it more, but she scares the bejeebers out of me when she does that! 

She loves the neighbor's dogs and always points to the window, wanting to see out into their yard to see if the dogs are out there. She says "pa-pa" for puppy and it's so cute. She gets so excited when she hears them barking. I think maybe Leni would've liked Reggie more than Gemma ever did. 

She is still extremely reluctant to take steps on her own. She is much better at walking while holding one hand though. It's weird because she is so proud of herself when she is just standing, not holding anything, but she's so scared to take steps. I sometimes wonder if it's because her one foot is turned in a bit, whether that hurts her to put weight on it like that or what. Or maybe it's just because she is the fasted crawler in the world and feels no need to put all that effort into walking. LOL. 

Both of the girls are absolutely crazy about daddy and when he's home, Harmony and I might as well not exist. But really, I don't blame them. He is the ultimate dad - full of love, nonstop play, nonstop attention. They really are lucky.  Then again, so are we.

Little Piggies

Last week, I took the girls for shots - Leni for her 1-year immunizations and Gemma for her third and final hepatitis B shot. The nurse asked if I had any concerns before she began the actual appointment and I asked if I could see a dietitian.

You see, my kids... they love, LOVE to eat. As soon as they make eye contact with me (or any of us for that matter), they ask for food. When they eat, it's never enough. For the most part, unless we've just had a meal, we can't even stay downstairs because both kids just whine for food around the kitchen. I myself feel like they eat more than plenty and am really conscious about trying to feed them healthy food in proper portions. I really put in a lot of effort and even so, Gemma has always been in the 90+ percentile for weight. I'd imagine she'd be off the charts if I let her eat as much as she wanted, when she wanted, what she wanted.

I know it may seem crazy to obsess over my kids' weights when they're not even 3 years old, but I really don't want them to have to struggle with weight when they're older. I myself don't really have a sweet tooth or a snack tooth, and really that's my only saving grace that I'm not bigger. I love fat more than anything and have such a hard time controlling portion sizes. I am always struggling with my weight and unfortunately, other than my mom, no one is naturally "thin" in our family. I just know the kind of a toll weight issues can take on a young girl and I just want to prevent as much of that as I can.

But anyhoo, the nurse commended by concerns but felt that the girls were within the normal range and charting appropriately and so she felt that as long as I was feeding them healthy foods, I didn't need to worry. Of course, I knew she was going to say that....

So I guess that really is all I can do - keep them off the junk and control their portion sizes for as long as they let me...