Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Belated St. Patty's Day from my little Irish cuties!

Things are going well this week in the Davies household as warmer weather has rolled in. The hint of spring and summer have been wonderful, and we have spent as much time outside as possible at parks, walking around our neighborhood, on my parent's deck, and playing in the sand at the lake. Megan slept through the night Wednesday, making it all the way until 7:30. That coupled with the warmer weather, made me feel like I could conquer the world. (Most nights Meg wakes around 5 and goes back which is also very nice.) The girls are so cute, so fun, and I can already tell this is going to be a great summer. I truly feel like I am living the best time of my life - right now, and it is a great feeling.

Kate the Super Sleuth

Kate loves the show My Friends Tigger and Pooh on Disney. It is a very cute show and I guess Kate thinks she too is a Super Sleuth. She found this magnifying glass in her toy chest and has been walking around all week "looking for clues" and declaring her toys in trouble and in need of rescue. Her imagination has been so entertaining.

It is amazing to us how much Kate picks up on and understands. When I do things with Megan she loves to imitate. After I'm done changing Megan, Kate takes her baby doll and does the same on the changing table. Kate now insists on feeding her baby complete with boppy pillow.

One of the many many adorable things Kate does lately is take swigs of her juice and announce them, "Ahhhh, De-wicious." It is the sweetest sound and we caught it on tape below.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate saying De-wicious!

Megan at 2 Months and Videos

On Tuesday Megan will be two months old! It is so fun to watch her become more interactive. She continues to be a sweet, cuddly, alert, and a well natured baby. She is holding her head up, looks for her sister, and loves to hear her Daddy's voice. She generally sleeps well at night and according to her parents is absolutely beautiful. We can't tell if she'll keep her dark hair or be blonde like Kate, but her eyes appear to be her Daddy's beautiful blue. It is hard to be certain as of yet, but certainly she resembles her sister quite a bit.

CLICK HERE for Megan's 2 Month Pictures!

In honor of Megan turning 2 months here are some precious videos of our little girl. The first one is of her smiling which she has been doing quite a bit the last two weeks. The doctor said at her last visit that it was too early for real smiles, and at this point they would be accidental. I don't think there is anything accidental about the smiles below.

CLICK HERE for Video of Megan Smiling!

The others are from Megan's first few days. One is dedicated to her first interactions with Kate. As you can tell below at firs Kate didn't know what to do with her, but now kisses her 50 times a day, covers her with a blanket, shares her toys, and loves her so much. Our computer speakers were not hooked up, so I couldn't edit the videos until recently, thus the delay in sharing. I think getting things adjusted in our new home has been more complicated than getting adjusted to the addition of Megan. She has seamlessly entered our little family!

CLICK HERE for Video of Megan at the Hospital!

CLICK HERE for Video of Megan Meeting Kate!

Our Future Olympian

We've gotten to do a lot of neat activities with Kate lately and realized that many of them are in the spirit of the Olympics. For her 2nd birthday my brother and sister and their significant others bought Brian, Kate, and myself tickets to Disney on Ice. They were in the front row and Kate loved the action. She oohed, ahhed, and clapped for the Princesses and the Mickey characters. Surprisingly, she made it through the whole thing. I don't know if it was a better present for Kate or for us, and it could possibly foster an ice skating future for our little one. Another fun activity we've enjoyed is sledding on the incline by my parents' house. Kate is an adventurous little girl and as you can see from the video below enjoys a little speed which leads us to believe we just might have a future Olympian on our hands!

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate Sledding!

Perhaps Kate will be a summer Olympian...We recently joined the Y and started Perch swim lessons with Kate. It is possibly the cutest half hour of my life. My cheeks are sore from smiling when we are done. Kate loves them, listens to the teacher, and is picking up some good skills. It is a blast.

Megan 6 Weeks

Megan's Birth Announcement Picture

Kate sharing her beloved doggies with Megan

Megan loves tubby time

Our little Meg has turned 6 weeks already! She is doing great and starting to coo while smiling. She is alert more, holding her head up, responsive to voices, and loves, loves, loves cuddling. You can tell in the pictures she is certainly filling out. She was 11 lbs 8 oz at her one month appointment. We are certainly busy here with our two girls and couldn't be happier. Here are Megan's 6 week pictures below.

CLICK HERE for Megan's 6 week pictures!

Happy Valentine's Day

Does it get any cuter? Not according to Brian and I. Our two valentine's are doing great and Kate especially loved the matching shirts and bows. Kate has been really affectionate lately especially with Megan kissing her all the time and then declaring, "Awww So Cute!" The shirts read Daddy Loves Me. Brian was thrilled with them and his cookie cake. The girls actually gave me a Valentine present today. Megan slept all the way until 5 in the morning going right back after, and Kate slept until 8:30. It was wonderful! Happy Valentine's Day from our little sweethearts.

Megan's One Month Old

Megan is officially one month old today! Our cute little angel is sleeping well, eating well, and starting to fill out her 3 month sleepers. We have started to make a few outings and have realized that Kate is harder to take out at this stage of the game than Megan. Megan's hair remains dark, her eyes a very light blue, and her skin a little darker like mine. Of course we think she is gorgeous like her sister but we're not the least bit bias. Meg gave me her first open eyes non-gas related smile as I was blowing her kisses, and it just melted my heart. Our first month has gone so well and we all love the addition of Megan to our family. Kate is becoming especially fond of her sister. She gives her kisses, calls her Mee-gan, soothes her in the car by chanting, "Megan, Megan, we love you!", and as you can see in the video below is a wonderful big sister. What a wonderful month with our little Megan Lynne.

CLICK HERE for Megan's 1 Month Pictures!

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate and Megan!

The weather outside is frightful...

But our life is so delightful...As long as I've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. As a stay at home Mom, I've come to enjoy winter a little more than when I was working and had to commute in it. Brian and I have noticed now that we live in Lake County, we get a good amount of snow (more than any other place we've lived including MN), and I love it. I love to look out and see the puffy clouds falling as we are cozy inside, and I love how a fresh snowfall looks on our otherwise dreary winter landscape. In our sub there is a lake and a pond where our park district maintains ice skating rinks on which many hockey games are played. It is all so picturesque. Kate is also starting to appreciate snow. We got a few inches of snow the other day, and quite a bit more a few weeks ago. Brian and Kate made it outside for some great fun! Here are pics from their outing.

Megan Week Three

Well Megan has been with us for three weeks now and is proving to be a very good baby. She is a good sleeper at night, smiley and cuddly during the day, and largely content! Her umbilical cord stopped oozing and she had her first official bath at the beginning of the week. Kate picked up a little cold and unfortunately Megan caught a slight version of it, but thankfully never got bad and is now pretty much over it. Thank goodness for breastfeeding. Megan also got her first bottle of pumped milk, and Mommy got to go out for the afternoon on Saturday. Kate loves her sister and tries to give her kisses all the time. Kate refers to her as Baby A-Megan. I can't imagine what I did with just one and I can't imagine my life with out both little girls. Below are Megan's pictures from the week.

CLICK HERE for Megan's Week Three Pictures!

Princess Kate the Chatterbox

Our little two year old has been quite chatty lately and what she says is so adorable. Here are some of the adorable little things Kate has been saying.

The other day in the car she was babbling about a tower, a frog, and a castle and then declared, "Mommy, I Princess Kate! Find Kate Castle, Find Castle Kate!" Later that day she was lining up all of her princess figurines (fig-ines as she calls them), and cutely sat next to them in line because clearly she was the 7th princess. She still walks around the house saying, "I Princess Kate."

At her party the kids found it fun to run from one end of the house to the other. They would line up and take off. Kate would adorably yell, "Come on Kids, Follow Me." She would shout this every time they ran regardless of where she was in the pack, though mostly she was in the front. When her cousin Tommy lagged behind Kate quickly pulled him back to the crowd shouting, "Tommy, Where are you? There you are. Come On Tommy."

Since Brian works so close to home he makes it home for lunch and started taking Kate for a "run" when the weather permits so she can have some much needed energy release. Brian walks and Kate runs this little loop around our sub. One day she tripped and fell into a snow bank. Brian picked her up, brushed her off, and she cutely said, "Thanks Daddy, its slippery." She fell again shortly after and said, "Oh, no! Not again."

Whenever we are in the car and go down a hill that Kate notices she shouts,"Weee." When we return to flat land she says, "Oh no! All done Weee."

The other day she saw a picture of herself on the computer and said, "That's Kate. I so cute."

And perhaps my favorite, Kate ran to me to be picked up. When I did she said, "I so happy. I missed you Mommy." Such joy!

Another thing our two year old knows is how to work her portable DVD player. She knows how to put in the DVDs, change them, turn the player on, and what buttons to push to perform different operations. She is such a sponge soaking up everything, and she actually picks up a lot from the TV we let her see. She now sometimes chooses to count in Spanish, only up to five, thanks to Dora and Diego. As you can see from the picture above she is very serious about her player. I call this face her Brian face because he has the same expression when concentrating. We are having so much fun everyday with our little Kate! (Though, she is starting to not seem quite as little.) She is such a fun kid and truly good at heart.

Megan's 2nd Week

One of Megan's Precious Smiles

We've made it through week two and Megan is continuing to do great. Her jaundice levels are good, we didn't need the billy blanket, and are through with the many pediatrician appointments and blood tests. One of the remedies for jaundice is to get sunlight, but with a January baby in the Midwest that can be tough. Brian and I spent several hours these past two weeks "chasing the sun" extending ourselves in uncomfortable positions to try and get Megan some of the very little sun light we did have. I even positioned the van in the drive, blasted the heat in the car, and took Megan outside with me to get some of this rare sunlight. Thankfully, we are done with the jaundice!

Megan continues to be a very good baby. I know she is young, but we are cautiously optimistic about her disposition and sleeping. She is a very alert newborn, up for 7-8 hours a day, a good napper at other times, and a good night time sleeper. She eats twice a night and goes right back in her crib. We can even lay her down a little awake and she just nods off. That is very unlike her older sister. Megan is a good eater and was already up to 9lbs 7oz on Thursday. She is just about out of newborn clothes and really never fit in newborn hats. Megan has long fingers, feet, and toes. She seems very tall and we generally can't believe she was in my stomach two weeks ago.

Megan smiles quite a bit while sleeping and is incredibly cuddly. I love to feel her dark hair as she snuggles on my shoulder. At week two, I kind of look forward to getting out of bed to snuggle and feed her. But that is admittedly week two. Megan looks A LOT like Kate did, but I think a little more like me than Brian. Maybe it's the dark hair. She is really doing very well, and so are we with managing both of our precious angels. We hope you enjoy our pictures from the week below.

CLICK HERE for all of Megan's Week Two Pictures!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kate

Our first little angel is two! We had a low key day Saturday, relaxing and playing, and even had a little cake to celebrate. Kate was very wary of the candles and not so sure of her Mom and Dad's singing. Sunday we had Kate's favorite Lou's Pizza and Nana made a princess cake to celebrate with a few family members. Kate had a blast playing with Ashlinn and Tommy and really enjoyed her birthday celebration!

Capturing all that is Kate in a blog post is difficult. She brings such joy and zest to life. She is sweet, loving, cuddly, bright, active, friendly, and strong willed. She is totally two and her new favorite word is me. Kate is independent and very chatty. She speaks in adorable full sentences, counts to 20, knows her ABC's, recognizes colors, points out different letters and numbers, sleeps well at night, and gives awesome kisses and hugs. She was indifferent to her new little sister, Megan, at first, but is paying more attention to her every day. Today she told me, "Shh, Mommy Baby Crying." And tried to share her precious stacking boxes with Meg. Kate now loves giving Megan very gentle and sweet pats and kisses.

We have some pics from yesterday and I have some pictures of Kate that I haven't shared as of late and think this is the perfect opportunity. Sometimes I think the pictures capture what words cannot. Some are our almost Christmas pics, some of Kate playing, and some of Kate and Meg in their matching sleepers. Hopefully, Kate will find her sibling the best present we could have given her. I know Brian and I both feel that way about our own wonderful siblings.

Megan Lynne's First Week

Meg is almost one week old! We are home and doing well. Megan has had no more episodes of respiratory issues and the pediatrician assures us that there won't be any issues related to the episodes in the future. He said there are normal abnormalities as babies transition from in utero to out in the first 72 hours and that is what Megan was experiencing. She got great observation and one-on-one care while in the hospital and I was actually able to get a little rest. Now that we're home we're still doing well. Megan is having some jaundice issues now that we've brought her home, but we are working through it with little medical intervention and hope by Saturday to be in the clear.

Meg is a calm child, eats well, and sleeps fairly well for a newborn. She is generally very content and very smiley. We know they are not specifically at us, but she smiled seven times the first day she was home. Megan is an especially cuddly child and snuggles right in to the crook of your neck. Brian and I absolutely love having a new baby in the house again and are both so happy to have this precious beautiful little girl as our own. It's only been a few days and we have had lots of help from family, but we are thus far managing well with two. Kate and Meg conveniently nap at the same time each afternoon. Kate is really starting to notice Meg and is very gentle and sweet with her. Kate will pat Megan's head, give kisses, and always let's us know if she is crying. It is so sweet to hear Kate say Baby Megan, and even sweeter to see our two angels interact with each other. I've compiled some pictures from Meg's first week below. Included in the pictures is one of me after my water broke at lunch last Friday, and Brian and I enjoying our celebratory dinner at Lake Forest Hospital.

CLICK HERE for pictures from Megan Lynne's First Week!

Megan Update

All in the Davies family are doing well. Megan had a relapse in her respitory issue early Sunday morning, but for the last 24 hours has not had a repeat episode. Most importantly, she is alert, looks great, and is eating and pooping and peeing (you know you're a parent when . . .) The doctors and nurses feel it is just part of the transition from in utero to in the world.

Beth is recovering wonderfully, and is headed home today, and it looks like Megan will join us as well. Yeah!

For now, we wanted to share her hosptial newborn pictures. Just head to http://www.bellababyphotography.com/, click 'view photos', and enter this password- 20100109megandavies.

Thanks for continued love and prayers!

Meg's First Day

She's not yet 24 hours old, yet she already feels like a part of our family. Megan had some slight respiratory issues, but they resolved quickly and she is doing wonderful. Our new little addition looks A LOT like her older sister, just with a thicker and darker (almost black) head of hair. She seems a bit calmer than Kate, but perhaps she's just taking cues from her now more seasoned parents! Kate came for a visit tonight, and doesn't quite know what to make of all this, especially Mommy being gone. But we can already tell she is going to be a wonderful older sister and best friend. Thanks for all the comments and prayers, this is such a great time of life and it's wonderful to share it with such awesome people near and far.