22 Months Old & Off to School!

Well it's been a really big month for Miss Kate. As you know she has become a big sister in the last month and adjusted to life sharing her Momma and Daddy with Emily. She has been absolutely perfect with this adjustment. Kate continues to be the sweetest possible big sister! Every morning when she wakes up and when she wakes up from her nap in the afternoon she wants to know where "baby" (she does call her "Emma-me" sometimes but most of the time refers to her as "baby") is and she will go find her to tell her "He-whoa". Kate is really becoming quite the big girl right before our eyes. She is still talking up a storm and now can basically carry on a little conversation (with some jibberish mixed in). Kate still loves TV, especially Mickey with Dora coming in at a pretty close second and now really likes playing on our iPads. She can navigate through apps probably as good as I can.

The other big adjustment this month has been starting "school". We have enrolled Kate in a Mother's Day Out program at the Jefferson United Methodist Church here in Baton Rouge. Nick and I took Kate to the open house last Thursday and from the moment she walked through the door of the classroom she made herself right at home and pretty much forgot all about us. Today was her first day of school and Nick and I dropped her off at her classroom and again she just walked right in, started playing and never looked back. I am so excited for her to have this outlet 3 days a week for just 4 hours each day (9 AM to 1 PM) where she can play with other kids her age. She looked like such a big girl when I picked her up this afternoon, standing there holding her teacher's hand. She is growing up so fast!!

Ready for school. Hard to believe that in September in LA we needed for Kate to wear a jacket this morning. It has been an absolutely gorgeous and refreshing day here today!

Walking in to school with Daddy

On the way to her classroom

She was the first one there this morning so she was surveying the toy situation in her classroom

Playing with one of her teachers, Ms. Mandy

This was taken a couple of weekends ago while Aunt April was here. We have quite the lizard habitat at our house. It is crazy how many there are! Kate had one cornered behind her kitchen outside.

And as a side note, we were able to pretty much finish up Kate's room over the last month as well. Here are a few pictures of the finished product. Be sure to check out the awesome cubby/toybox that Nick and Uncle D built for Kate.

First Game Day of the Season

We are very excited that football season is finally here! Trapped indoors today by all the rain down here we have enjoyed having football things to entertain us. Nick definitely wishes he was in Dallas at the LSU game but has enjoyed spending the day with his little tigers around here. Just thought we would share some pics of the girls in their game day attire. We wish a happy football season to all and particularly a Roll Tide!!! and Geaux Tigers!!! from the Speyrers.

Kate in outfit #1 of the day posting with one of her best buds, Mike the Tiger.

The littlest tiger around here

Kate wasn't much on posing with Emily this morning but I was able to snap a quick pic with Kate checking her out.

Somewhere along the way Kate decided that rain boots would be a great accessory to add to her lovely jersey and jean shorts get up

Daddy and his little tigers. Daddy was sweet to go pick out game day outfits for the girls last weekend. Kate's shirt has a sparkly tiger paw on it and she loves it!

Kate giving Emily a kiss.

One of Kate's favorite things to do with Emily is point out all of her body parts. Here she's saying "Eyes"

And here's a quick video of Kate. Nick has been working with her all week to say "Tigerbait!" and she has definitely said it she just refuses to do so on camera. You'll see what she's not afraid to say on camera though...

She's a Bama girl at heart!

Emily One Week Old and "Cool" Like Her Sister

We've had our sweet Emily home just over a week and things are going great! She has continued to be super sweet and pretty laid back. We had our first couple of post-discharge from the hospital doctor's appointments last week. When we were discharged from the hospital we knew that we were going to have a couple of follow up labs and appointments about Emily's bili (jaundice) levels as well as a an appointment with an orthopedist to check her hips.

We had our appointment with the orthopedist first and were very glad to know what we were probably dealing with this time around since we needed to address Kate's hips right after she was born also. Sure enough Emily wants to be just like her big sister, decided to camp out in Momma's tummy in a breech position and decided that she wanted to be one of the "cool kids" that wear harnesses too (See our post on Kate's hip dysplasia). As a quick explanation--since she was sitting with her head up instead of down while in my tummy her hip joints are not properly formed at birth. The place where the ball should fit into the socket is loose (the orthopedist likes to say the joints are shallow) therefore they put the baby in a little harness that forces the ball into the socket like it should be and since baby's bones are so malleable the problem easily corrects itself with no trouble/pain to the baby. We quickly learned with Kate and see again with Emily that wearing the harness is no big deal at all. It definitely doesn't bother her and if anything I think that she likes being held in a position, kind of like how infants love to be tightly swaddled. So you may notice over the next several weeks (she's estimated to need it for 6 weeks) she may look a little like she has football pads on under her clothes. That's just the little harness under there.

Emily's biliruben levels were slightly elevated before we were discharged from the hospital so over our first weekend home we made a couple of trips to the lab to get her levels checked and after a little increase the numbers seemed to start to level off. So we had another trip to the pediatrician last Monday to get levels checked and check her weight. Bili levels were still slightly elevated (just in a "need to monitor" zone but nothing that the Dr was concerned about) and our little piggy is definitely gaining weight. We had things checked again on Friday and today and she has gained over a pound since birth already. That's a lot when you only weigh 7-8 lbs to begin with. Birth she was 7 lb, 11 oz, before we left the hospital she was 7 lb, 8 oz, last Monday 8 lbs, 4 oz, Friday 8 lbs, 9 oz and today 8 lbs 12.5 oz. The steady increase makes the nursing Momma feel pretty good. Everything else looks great and we aren't due back for another check up for a couple of weeks.

We are trying to start to settle into our little routine with our two girls. Makes it pretty easy with Nonna here helping with everything!! We are so blessed to have her here helping out! It will definitely be a reality check next week once she's gone but I think we'll make it just fine. We have two little girls that could not be more perfect in my opinion! It really just keeps getting better and better. Kate continues to be a great big sister and seems to be adjusting to all the changes as well as we could ask for. It is crazy to think that just a week and a few short days ago we were still a family of 3 and Emily was still just hanging out in my tummy, but now that she's here it's hard to remember what things were like without her! We hope you enjoy a few of our recent pictures.

Emily sporting her harness

This is how Emily spends a lot of her time...happily snoozing. You can also tell in this picture that she's already getting to be quite the chunky monkey

Emily got a visit from her Aunt Dana and Uncle Kevin, who will also soon be her Nanny and Parrain (Godparents), and cousins Braxton and Karoline

Kate playing outside with Karoline and Nanny

Daddy and his girls before bed time

The rest of the pictures are from my attempts at an at-home photo session with Miss Emily. We got a few decent ones.

Welcome Home Emily!!

We were lucky enough to get to come home Friday afternoon. We are so thankful that our doctor was a fan of letting me recuperate at home so that we didn't have to stay in the hospital over the weekend. We were able to start settling in at home and had a chance to visit with family and friends over the weekend.

Our first few days at home have been great...practically perfect!! Emily is so sweet and laid back and Kate has been the perfect big sister that I knew she would be. She has been super sweet and interested, but not too interested, in Emily and doesn't seem to mind sharing her Momma and Daddy with her new baby sister. We had to go back to the hospital Saturday morning for some lab work (everything's good) and as soon as we got back home Kate asked me if she could hold Emily. I asked Nick if he had talked to her about it and he hadn't, she just came up with the idea all on her own. You can tell when Kate holds Emily and looks at her that she's proud of her little sister. It's absolutely amazing that somebody as young as Kate can seem to grasp what is going on and welcome Emily into her life so openly. I cannot even begin to count all of our blessings!! I am absolutely in love with our newly updated little family!

Loaded up and ready to head home!

Welcome home Emily!!

Papa and Nonna arrived Thursday. Papa stayed through the weekend and we are so lucky that Nonna will be staying for a couple of weeks.

Emily checking Papa out

First bath at home. Momma and Daddy weren't nearly as stressed out as we were for Kate's first bath at home.

All clean after her first bath

Kate holding Emily for the first time. She was so sweet!

Giving Emily a kiss

Sweet sisters! I love my beautiful girls!!

Amelia and Anne Marie checking out baby Emily

Anne Marie and Aunt Lori meeting Emily

Claire and Aunt Brandi hanging out with us on Saturday

Daddy snuggled up with Emily

Momma with her girls

Kate leaning in for a kiss. I really can't believe how great she has been! Kate loves her little sister!