One of these things is not like the other...

Mira is such a smiley, happy baby. She will give the biggest grin to anyone who will talk to her. She ADORES her big sister. If Emilia walks into a room, Mira squirms around until she can see her sister and give her a big smile (of course, she knows Emilia is in the room because she's talking, as usual). :) She still jabbers and kicks, but her new thing is rolling over. She is a pro at rolling onto her stomach to her right; she can roll back onto her back, too, but she rarely wants to. Rolling to her left is much more of a challenge--although the doctor said the flat spot she was getting on the right side of her head had improved since last visit. She had her 4 month visit on Monday and she weighed 13 lbs 3oz (30%) and was 24 1/2 inches tall (60%). She's more petite than Emilia who was always 95+% for height and 50%-75% for weight. Here are some pics of the two of them.

She has such great facial expressions.  Emilia always did, too.  They get that from their daddy.  Mira smiles more often than not, but when she cries, she really lays it on thick.  Just one look at her face when she's sad and you're done for; you have to do whatever she wants. This isn't a sad face, just a talking one.  I'll have to try to capture a sad face for you to see.  Although, it might be hard to get it before I have to drop everything and help her. ;)

So much hair.  Emilia keeps telling us, "Mommy, Daddy, when I was a baby, I didn't have any hair!" I'm not sure if she sees that as good or bad.

She goes to sleep so easy! I love being able to just give her a binky and her blankie and then leave the room! Now if I could just get her to stay asleep for more than 3 hours at night. :|

I snapped this one because I thought they looked so similar.  The coloring is different, but the face shape and features are very similar in this pic, I think.

And in this one, they look totally different.

Such a cute, naked, little thing!!

She is drooling like a pro right now.  I guess there has to be something gross to deal with.

Pretty, fair-haired Emilia. She is such a sweetie to me and her sister.  She helps us both out multiple times every day, from getting a kleenex for me while I'm nursing, to playing with her sister when she's bored or sad. She thinks a lot about what will make other people happy, which I never realized until Mira came along.  For example, Emilia has a picture frame that she made with rhinestones and stickers and paint.  It's one of her treasures that she'll just carry around because she thinks it's pretty.  The other day, I found it in Mira's crib when it took me a minute to go get her out after she woke up.  Emilia had gone in and talked to her and given her her treasure to cheer her up.  Isn't that sweet?  I need to learn from her in that regard.

A little blurry, but it's such a great pic of the two of them.

And last but not least...our baby praying mantis that was living in my zucchini plant. Behind him is a newspaper, so that's how small he is. And you thought the title of the post had to do with Mira and Emilia. Tut tut.

May and June

Looking at our calendar, and the pictures I took, we didn't really do anything in June.  Here are some cute pictures of Bubby (one of our nicknames for her), Emi, and me.

In May, we went to Steve's sister Heather's house over Memorial Day weekend.  We had a lot of fun and the girls did well on the 6 1/2 drive.  Yea for vacations! These are from our trip to the Denver Zoo.  I think we all had a lot of fun.

 Komodo Dragon.  This sucker was HUGE. Like six feet long before the tail.

Emilia's birthday party

Two views of the table, ready for the girls to come have tea.

I asked Emilia if she wanted butterfly cupcakes or a butterfly Barbie cake.  Guess which one she chose? :)

These are the party favors for the girls (not the cup, just the bag inside). I made the pens--so easy!--and got a few other butterfly things to put in there, like hairclips.

Edible tea cups.  Fun right?

We had the girls decorate sugar cookies as they arrived.  One of the girls was an older sister of Emilia's best friend.  She decorated this cookie for Emilia.  I was impressed!

The girls jumped on the trampoline and chased bubbles for a while, too.

These butterflies I cut out of regular colored printer paper and taped Starbursts to them.  Then I hid them in the trees and bushes on one side of the yard and had the girls go for a butterfly hunt.

All the girls sitting down for tea.

Emilia blowing out her candles.

The aftermath.  Phew!

paintings

I finally got a picture of the paintings I did for my parents for Christmas.  Thought I would share.

I love my smart phone *sigh*

Taking video of Emilia when she was little was a production, trying to get the computer and the web cam out when she was doing something cute generally didn't work out.  But with a smart phone--your camcorder is always at your fingertips.  I love it!  Here are three videos of my cute girls.

Emilia showing her dancing skills:

Mira, talking and kicking.  She likes kicking A LOT. I wonder what that will translate to when she gets older.  Hopefully not kicking people. :)

Emilia helping me give Mira a bath.  Mira is still kicking. haha

more tidbits from facebook

Me: This book is called, "What Mommies Do Best." What do you think Emilia, what do mommies do best? Emi: Umm...clean!

Emi: I wanted to take my panties off Momma. Me: I don't think you should be running around without panties on. Emi: But the panties just jumped off my bum Momma.

Emilia has very regular bowels. Every night before bed she has a bowel movement. Tonight, she was sitting on the potty before bed and says, "Poopy likes to repeat hisself, huh, Momma?" She cracks me up.

Last Sunday, Steve was telling Emilia we needed to wet down her hair so it would look pretty for church. Walking her into the bathroom, he says, "Let's go in the bathroom and wet down your hair so it will look beautiful." Emilia walks out of the bathroom and over her shoulder says, "Or not!"

Emi: Mom, I just sat on the steps and cried. Me: Why were you crying? Emi: I was sad. Me: Why were you sad? Emi: Because I was a little girl outside all alone.

Emilia gets cranky when she's hungry (nothing like her mom!). ;) So she was pretty cranky today after church. Before we changed her out of her dress, Steve heated up some leftover Mac & Cheese in the microwave. Still, she was whining that it was taking too long, so Steve says, "It's coming! Keep your pants on!" To which Emilia promptly replied, "But I'm not wearing pants!"

Our fish, Nemo, died the other day. It was right after I cleaned his bowl, so the water must not have "aired out" as much as it needed to. It was a beta, so I wasn't too torn up, but I was worried about Emilia's reaction. I shouldn't have been. Me: "Emilia, I need to tell you something sad." Emi: "Okay." Me: "Nemo died." Emi, without pausing: "We'll go get a new Nemo, okay?" Guess she wasn't too attached.

What does it say about your husband's state of mind when he puts your 2-month-old daughter to bed without a diaper on?

The other night, I walked past Emilia's room where she and Steve were playing and I hear her say, "Will she use her pistols, Daddy?"

At Mira's 2 week appointment, she weighed 7 lbs 6 oz. She had a doctor appointment today (one month old) to get some medication for acid reflux. They weighed her at said appointment. 8 lbs 13.5 oz. Sheesh.

I'm sitting here listening to my husband give my daughter a bath--which she loves, except for getting her hair washed. I hear her yelling, "Owie! Owie! Owie!" To which my husband responds, "Why does getting your hair wet hurt your foot?"

busyness

It's been way too long since I've done a blog post. I've been wondering if anyone actually cares if I do blog posts, since I rarely get responses to them, but I've been informed recently that at least one person cares, so I'll try to be a little more diligent. I think I'm also NOT going to try to put everything we've missed into one post.  So you may be getting a few emails close together.  We'll see how ambitious I am.

First up, Emilia turned 3 on Sunday.  Three! So crazy that my little girl is that big (and hasn't killed me yet)! ;D

We celebrated with my family on the 9th of July.  We also celebrated Megan's birthday that day and helped my dad build (most of) a shed as his birthday/father's day gift.  It was a busy day. Here's a pictures of my dad, Steve and Ben working hard on the frame.

Here is a pictures of Megan's youngest, Cari, and Emilia watching a movie together on Nana's chair that day. They look so much alike!

And last, but not least, Ben's baby, Dylan, and Mira were both awake at the same time, so we had them get together. This is what happened. I don't think Dylan was sure what to make of Mira, but Mira was sure excited. :)

Then Grandpa and Grandma Watts took her shopping at Toys-R-Us on Saturday.  She picked out a pool, a Swan Lake Barbie Belle (Beauty), and a Candyland Game.  They also got her chocolate ice cream, so I think she had a blast.  Then today I threw her a friend birthday party.  The theme was Butterfly Tea Party.  I'll have to get the pictures up for that later.  I haven't gotten them off my camera yet.

Then, going backward in time, Megan and I had a day together so we could get out of the house with all our kiddies.  We ended up going to the farm at Thanksgiving Point (kind of a petting zoo).  Then we had lunch at Wendys and went to the splash pad in Highland for a little while.  I think we had a great day. Thanks, Megs! :)

(above) In this one, Emilia was jumping all around and grinning, so I said, "Emi, look sad." This is the face she gave me. :)

On the 4th of July, Steve, my dad, and Steve's dad, all went golfing in the morning.  Then Steve watched the girls while I went to find something for one of our girls to wear so we could all match for the family picture I was supposed to take of our family later that day.  Eventually, I figured out a solution.  (It's hard to find clothes for a 3 month old that aren't pastels!) Here's the best shot.  I haven't photoshopped it yet, so there might be some switching of heads before I'm done.

On Saturday, the 2nd, our little family went to the splash pad to spend some time together.  It was a nice family outing.  Relaxing and summer-y. :)

 You can see Steve and Emi near the middle of the picture next to the guy in the red shorts.

Layin' in the shade. :)

The only other thing to mention for July (so far) I think is this beautiful storm that blew through on the 5th.  These were views from our backyard.  Gorgeous, huh?

I'll have to do another post to catch up on previous stuff. Stay tuned!