First the Trailer, Now the Show

As I teased with yesterday's video, there has been a lot going on, esp. in preparation of our move to Toronto. Since the last post several weeks ago, we had our house full of guests for Harper's baptism, Finley has finished baby gymnastics and is now in swim lessons and Mommy and Me modern dance, while Harper now has her two bottom teeth broken through her gums and is also in swimming lessons.

Much to show, so given my rate of postings, maybe you want to view all of this is a couple of sessions -- you know, stretch it out.

Finley is certainly in her twos. She will decide there are only certain outfits she wants to wear, then it is a battle to take them off of her. In this one, she's is a tutu that she hadn't ever wanted to wear before, but on this day, she wouldn't take it off. . . no matter what. Not the Cubs rocker she is in. She is a girl of very strong and certain opinions. Shelley says that during swimming lessons, she helps the teachers point out what the other children aren't doing right. So far, none of the other children have tried to drown her . . . yet.

The same day, but letting Harper join her in one of the chairs Shelley brought home from her classroom.

Despite how go, go, go she is all day, she really doesn't want to fall asleep at night. We put her down at 8:00, but we usually hear her talking to herself, or singing, for at least another 30 minutes. On this night, it went much longer, but when we went in there to check, she'd gotten out of bed and must have been playing in her chair. Where she fell asleep in mid-play, it appears. Still in her tutu.

Harper is the same happy baby she's been, even through the teething. Finley likes to get down and play with her in this little padded play yard. As you can see, Harper has been chewing on nearly everything during this time.

More of the same.

Baby Cousin Teddy in from Atlanta. They were here this past weekend for the baptism, as Uncle Shae is Harper's godfather, along with Aunt Sammie as the godmother. We link to his blog -- he has the largest thighs I've ever seen. Finley is adamant that she doesn't have "chunky eyes," just Teddy and Harper.

Jack has really missed his Aunt Sammie, who lived with us in Nashville. You can see he is very glad to see her. Her beagle, Oliver, seems to have missed Jack, too.

Finley kept confusing the two beagles when she would see them. They were their own little hunting party this weekend. Which, as you can see, took a lot out of them, despite not actually hunting anything.

The baby of the hour and her proud mother. Harper, like Finley before her, was well-behaved at the ceremony. She never cried when the priest poured the water all over her head, nor when he anointed her with the oils. I think she liked being the center of attention. Finley, on the other hand, most certainly did NOT like Harper being the center of attention. Nana Pat had to take Finley out of Mass several times to let off some energy.

Little did we know how much Jack missed Grandpa Steve, too.

Finley has really been hugging up on Harper, which is good. Nana Pat was there to supervise.

Baby Cousin Amy (the "Baby Cousin" is what Finley calls both of her cousins) was in town for the baptism, too. She's a little over a month older than Harper, but is already crawling, eating nearly two jars of baby food at a sitting, and is generally twice Harper's size. Teddy, however, still has the larger thighs, despite being about 3 months younger than Amy.

Just a baby with a very nice disposition right now.

After long last, Shelley got her double stroller last Sunday. This will be a common position, as Finley will be yelling for the chauffeur to push faster to keep them away from the paparazzi (their father). Harper is already practising her "No Photos" hand.

Baptism weekend took a lot out of everyone - Grandma Susie, Finley, Jack, and Baby Amy (the name of the doll Finley is holding - rather confusing for her to have named her doll after her cousin).

This video show Finley singing one of the songs she learned in swimming lessons, while the video below shows all the girls playing peekaboo.

More to come in the next few weeks - I hope to be able to post more, but it is hard to do right now. Be patient and I apologize.

Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers out there, esp. Grandpa Steve and Papa Joel.

A Video Trailer of Coming Attractions

So, I have been traveling a bunch, which is why I have been slacking, but I will have plenty to load in tomorrow. Here is a quick video to cure your fix, but turn the volume up to hear Finley:

Sisters are doing it for themselves. . . .

With apologies to Aretha, we got some great pictures of the girls together this weekend, along with some nice individual ones.  Harper had her six month check-up this week - just a bit late, and she is doing great.  She is 16 lbs, 11 oz, which puts her at the 75%tile for babies born 37 weeks, or 50% for full-term babies.  She's 25 1/4 inches - 50%tile/25%tile(37 weeks/full-term) and has a head circumference of 17 1/8 (75-90%tile vs. solid 75%tile for full-term) - great growth all the way around. 

Give her enormous head, this may come as a surprise, but she is also been rolling over for the past week, so it isn't weighing her down.  In most cases, she is following Finley's development pretty closely as measured by percentages, which we are pretty happy about.  She's also been great with tummy-time, so the concerns he had about the back of Harper's head are virtually gone.

Finley continues to do well.  She is really fun to read to -- she's had us read so many of the books to her so often that it is almost like she can read now.  She's memorized many of the books, so if you just start her off with the first couple of words on the page, she can keep going from memory.  She'll also use the stories in conversation;  just a couple of days ago, we found one of her toys outside.  A dog that will remain nameless (big and white) was likely responsible and Finley, to paraphrase one of her nursery rhymes, said, "those naughty doggies, they shall have no pie."  I know that you had to be there, but it is clear that Finley loves her books and always enjoys going to the library to pick out new ones.

Now, on to the photos:

Harper tried her best to stay awake for the overtime win last night, but she just couldn't do it.

  Finely loves her flip-flops ("just like Mommy's"), so she was determined to get them into the picture.  Harper really likes being by Finley and Finley doesn't seem to mind Harper pulling her hair or rolling her feet onto her as she's moving around.  I have a feeling that several years from now (or months) that won't be the case.

This is a picture, taken just before I stop her, of the foot going towards Harper's mouth.

She really is a remarkably happy baby.  Harper has been a pleasure and even though she probably doesn't sleep a long through the night as Shelley would like, in every other way she is a dream.

It is interesting to look at them side by side, because while they look a great deal alike, esp. when comparing pictures at the same age, they have completely different coloring.  Finley's coloring is darker -- her hair, eyes, and skin tone are all just darker than her sister's.  Harper is around the age Finley's eyes turned brown, so we'll see if they remain this blue.

Finley celebrating the Cubs win today in a nail biter vs. the Rangers.

Harper has only woken up angry a couple of times that she's been on her stomach and unable to roll over.  That said, she is constant motion when she sleeps and it is only a matter of time before she wakes us up screaming because she's got her foot caught in the slats of the crib.  Here, on the other hand, she sleeps like the angel she usually is.

That's all for now, but check back next week for more.

The Photo Gallery

As I mentioned yesterday, we had professional pictures taken of the girls about a month ago.  While the pictures are crazy expensive, they were very well done.  If you'd like to see some of the pictures, or if you're feeling flush, order some, here is what you can do:

To view the images please do the following:


Visit our website at www.studiow.com

At the bottom click “order online”

Then click “view your images”

Then click “portraits”

The gallery is titled: Weinstein 4-16-10 and the password is: shelly (all lowercase) -- yes, you must spell her name wrong.
 
Let us know what you think.

Yep, We're Back

So, it has been a long time since you last saw us, so you know it must be time for our Dada's quarterly, "I'm sorry, I'll do better promise."  A great deal has gone on in the five weeks since our last post -- we got professional pictures taken (I'll add the link for you to see them in another post), Aunt Stephie, Uncle Steve, and Cousin Baby Amy came to visit, the whole family went back to Iowa for a shower and to meet Cousin Baby Teddy (this is how Finley refers to them), and finally, the biggest news, we're moving to Toronto during the summer.  Pretty excited about all of it, but let's see some pictures (the one above is from this past Thursday - if Shelley didn't have twins, it won't stop her from dressing them alike!!).

Aunt Stephie showing Finley the flowers she was going to plant.

Finley was helping Aunt Stephie and Uncle Steve, but she became quickly distracted by her bubble gun.

The babies were left to their own devices while the flowers and the bubbles were taking place.  They seemed to pass the time.  As you'll see soon, it is only an illusion that Harper is bigger than Amy in this picture.

When we went to Burlington for Amy and Teddy's baby shower, we stayed at a hotel with a pool.  Harper, as you can tell, is very excited about the prospect of her first swim.

And here it is.  She liked the water, so no melt downs.

Finley LOVES the water, but the regular pool was very cold.  The hot tub was very warm, so little Finley Goldilocks couldn't get just right. 

Shelley and lil' Shelley.

At the shower, we tried everything we could for the Hoschek grandchilden picture, but Finley wanted NOTHING to do with the "babies."  Two of our links, The Stueckers and Teddy's Page both have additional versions of this, including ones with Flash Finley running through the back.  On the left is Teddy, the son of Shelley's brother Shae and his wife, Lisette.  He was born about 6 weeks after Harper and seems to have passed her, while Amy, in the center, is clearly the alpha baby in the group.  As you can see, she is taller and bigger than Harper even without the Bumbo, so the picture above was clearly a distortion.

Finley loves to wear the sunglasses her friend Elton John gave her when she goes out on dog walks.

The sisters are doing it for themselves.  Finley really does like to play down around Harper.  In this picture, for example, Finley has taken Harper's Easter basket and is playing with the toys in front of her sister.  I'm sure just practicing for a couple years from now.

And, finishing like we started, the girls together. While I think Harper continues to look more like Finley did at the same age, the fact that Harper has lighter hair (much less, too) and still has very blue eyes helps to ensure that Harper remains very much her own baby. 

That's all for now -- I will add a post that links to the photo studio where we got the pictures taken if you'd like to see the slide show they have posted on their website.

Another week of Easter, but only for the pictures

We've been trying to figure out how to post videos from a small little Flip video camera we got, which we used for Finley's Easter Egg hunt, so below are some for you to see. We also wanted to get some more pictures up from Easter, since they were pretty cute.

Finley is sort of obsessed with monkey pajamas, so these are a new pair she got; you can tell she is pretty excited to wear them. By the way, she was doing her "cheese" smile, but if I wait her out, I can get a better smile.

Jack had a rough week -- first this horror, then we gave away his couch that was in Finley's bedroom to make room. He may not forgive us. . ..

This is probably the least of the indignities that we've heaped upon Monty in her life. That said, she wasn't happy having to pose in the costumer of a beagle's mortal enemy; she likely won't get voted the Easter Beagle ever again (Charlie Brown reference for those without children).

Finley, on the other hand, loves the ears, the Easter baskets, the chocolate, and her ubiquitous, "cheese" smile. This was the day we learned about delaying the picture.

Finley's hair length is pretty impressive.

The baby gym wipes Harper out. As with every baby, she sleeps like she's been shot -- arms and legs in every direction.

These next two videos are of the Easter Egg hunt. They are later in the hunt -- the first video was abotu 3 minutes, which seems too long to post, so here are two shorter ones. Perhaps I'll get the initial video up at some point when I read the dang directions.

Have a great week!!

Harper's First Easter

Our daycare gave us these picture of Harper during their "Fancy Dress Day," which I think do a great job reflecting the distinct personality that Harper is developing. She is an incredibly happy little girl with a great smile, which I hope you see reflected below.