Emma Laughs!

Lilah very rarely laughed as a baby (maybe twice), so I didn't have high hopes for Emma. Emma is very ticklish, and she has had a very funny progression over the last several weeks. When she was much younger (it's all relative), she would just look startled when tickled, with a very concerned look on her face. A few weeks later that progressed into an uncomfortable grunting noise when she was tickled. In the past few weeks, she has started to smile (which isn't hard, she does it any time you look her general direction) when tickled. Last week, she laughed. It was a super cute deep laugh. Tonight, she was playing in her bouncer while I was playing on the computer. I kept looking over to her and she couldn't have been happier. I started talking to her and making goofy sounds, and she laughed! No force involved! I caught a bit of it on my video phone. The quality isn't great, and the video is crooked, but it's still oh-so-cute. I've watched it a dozen times already. I hope you enjoy it too! Nothing like a baby laugh.

Mmmm...Bacon!

I made a turkey, bacon, avocado sandwich for lunch yesterday while Lilah napped. I made the bacon while she was sleeping. When she woke up from her nap, as we were walking down the stairs, she starting sniffing her nose. "Bacon!" she said. I don't know when it's supposed to happen, but this was the first time that Lilah had recognized something by smell without seeing it. I was impressed. And Lilah LOVES bacon.

Sweet Sisters

Since we've been back from our trip, Lilah has been quite challenging - Multiple tantrums during the day, battling every request, etc. The past few days however, a switch has flipped. She is now the sweetest girl I could have imagined. I saw glimpses of this child, pretty regularly, before now, but now she is so sweet all the time. She's been ultra-helpful with Emma, and is even faster to respond to her fussing than I am sometimes. She says, "no cry, baby. Toy, Emma?" She is quick with kisses and hugs and has even been pushing for clean up and nap time lately. I don't what happened to my two year old, but I'm loving this new attitude!

Emma's four month appointment is at the end of next week, and I can't believe it. In fact, as I was typing this, I initially wrote two month. Nuts. She's awake much more, loves to mouth toys, and loves to talk. Her sister makes her smile so easily. We are still working on her interest in a bottle, as she has yet to take one, even though I have worked three 8-hour shifts. Tough girl!

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

A New Year

There is so much to catch up on! Just after our last post, we traveled down to Clemson to watch Jonas graduate. We are so proud and so very happy he is finished!

After graduation, Jonas drove with us back up to Valdese. We stayed there through Christmas. Valdese got 8 inches of snow on Christmas day! Lilah slept in (so we did too) and everything was white when we woke up. It was our first white Christmas. So very neat! Lilah loved opening gifts this year and was very excited to see presents from Santa under the tree.

The day after Christmas we drove to Braselton, Ga to the Carmel Retreat Center. It was the prettiest drive with all the snow covered trees!

We spend the week at the retreat center with the Johnsons. It was a lot of fun
with so many people.

Lilah especially loved playing with her cousin Patrick!

On New Year's Eve, we drove down to Atlanta and had a quiet New Year's celebration with Mimi, Papa, Aunt Dottie, and Uncle Bill. New Year's Day was our time to celebrate Christmas in Atlanta. Two Christmases! Lilah loved opening everyone's gift with the help of Patrick and Rhiannon, and then would take her gifts to the side to open them alone. Too funny! The next day we had a special visit from my friend Katie and her daughter. It was so nice to hang out with the babies and catch up! On Monday we headed to the aquarium - even Emma enjoyed watching the fish!

On Tuesday we came back to Washington. It is nice to be back but very sad to leave! We have jumped right back into things with meetings and playgroups. Emma has started to laugh this week, and is getting much better at grabbing at toys. She loves her ring toy from Nana and Papa!

Now, we are awaiting the arrival of our packages sent from the East. It will be a third Christmas for us all! I am always checking flights for our return and reviewing the pictures from our trip. We'll be back before long!