Our Kids

So the other day Piper started to “parrot” Lela which is very funny. When Lela does something, such as choke on a cheerio, then Piper looks at her and starts to choke (on nothing). Then if Lela starts to cough, Piper coughs. It is quite funny. Piper has also fallen in love with the motion detector at the bottom of the stairs. Everytime she goes by she looks at it and laughs and even has to touch it, hilarious.

Piper also officially crawled for the first time today. I was painting some cabinets and off she went, it was quite cool. She did it again and we got it in film.

Lela is being as loving as ever. She has started getting up on all fours and then rocking back and forth like she is going to go somewhere. She loves to jump in her jumpy and gets some serious air. She also loves to feed herself, much more than Piper does, she is a bit impatient (thanks to Jason) and so feeding herself comes in handy:) She seems to really like my cooking, which is nice. Piper will eat anything (thanks to Mystique).

Everyday brings something new with the girls, they are both equally special and different and it is such a joy to see them change every day.

I know it sounds like a lot but that is what the girls just had for lunch. They are getting more and more into food so I am starting to make it all myself. I know what they like and so it is easy to whip up food for them. They are both good little eaters, sometimes it just takes Lela a minute or two to get going.

We will probably have sweet potatos and broccoli for dinner and they always love that spinach lasagna:)

Yesterday, while Mystique was changing Lela, Piper pulled herself up from a sitting position to standing and holding on to the rails of her crib. All by herself, without any encouragement other than seeing mommy. I think the girls are just gonna skip the crawling stage and start running around the place before we know it!

Not much else going on at the haslup house… the girls are doing great, especially with sleeping. Piper is usually able to go from 8pm – 6am (or thereabouts), and Lela is waking up just once, usually around 3am. Sometimes we let her go back to sleep, but other times she needs a bit of food. She usually goes to bed a little earlier than Piper, but I’m expecting her to start going through ’till 6am in the next week or so.

Last night Mystique and Lela had a giggle-fest before going off to bed… it started with some innocent tickling from mom, but then moved to Lela bouncing herself in her chair and giggling at us without provocation. I know we’re funny looking, but it’s pretty sad when your almost-10-month old looks at you and laughs.

Of course Piper does this all the time… if you’re wearing a hat. She absolutely loves hats. And glasses. And the phone. If you’re wearing a hat and glasses talking on the phone, she’s in heaven.

That’s all for now…

jason

Yes that is right, we went to the metropolis we call Billings and visited our favorite pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Wiggins. As always, Lela was happy as punch to see him and was great. She wiggled a little but was relatively calm and happy during it all. We did an EKG and then a sonogram and have good news. She has had a VSD and an ASD, the ASD is the one that they were watching most closely. That one has closed on its own, so this is real cause for celebration. The VSD is still there but is not close to anything that would cause her trouble if it stays open the rest of her life.

The VSD is still considered a heart “defect” but won’t cause her any problems, she will just have to take antibiotics before seeing the dentist and be extra careful during any surgery. So we are all excited at the Haslup house. The girls did great in the car, better than their mom even. We are all tired, especially Jason because he drove the whole time. So the girls are jumping out their tired legs in their jumpy toys, Dad is unwinding at the computer and I am contemplating what’s for dinner. All is right with the world:)

The girls are doing much better now… Lela seems to be back to about 90% recovered from her cold and Piper just a bit behind that. Two nights ago Mystique and I spent a couple hours (1am – 3am) with Piper. She decided that she was not happy at all with her current situation and decided to let us (and the neighbors) hear about it. Wow. That child has got a good set of lungs on her!

Last night, though, was picture perfect… until Rupert woke us up! Yes, last night would have been one of the first nights that both the girls and the parents slept through the entire night, but Rupert decided to spoil it. Not really his fault, I suppose… we’ve been running the heater (!) off and on at night, so sometimes it can get a little toasty and you get thirsty. This happened to Rupert, so he wandered downstairs to slurp up some water. But he was out. And that was unacceptable. Bark. Bark. Bark. Bark.

This was at 2:45am and thankfully the girls slept through it. I went downstairs and got him some water and he was happy. Lela then slept until about 5:30am and Piper until 6:30am. Such great little girls… I wish Rupert would learn from them!

As Mystique suspected… Piper’s now feeling a bit puny thanks to a bout with a cold. Like Lela, though, she’s toughing it out… she still wants to play and she still loves to stand. It’s just now when she’s standing and has her face in the sofa she leaves a little trail of snot. Good thing we have Rupert to clean that up.

We’ve really been doing well with the schedule lately, even with the girls battling a cold. Last night we didn’t have to get up to feed them, which is always nice. Lela woke up once or twice and squeeked a little bit, but went back to sleep. I think Piper pretty much slept through everything, including Lela’s outbusts. Piper woke up this morning around 6am and was nice enough to cuddle a bit in bed before Lela woke up and reminded her that she was hungry. All in all a pretty good night.

Not much else going on… Lela has an appointment in Billings this Friday for her heart followup. At our last doctor’s visit, Dr. Idz said that Lela’s heart pretty much sounded the same as before which means that it’s likely she still has the two openings in her heart. It will be interesting to hear what the next step is. It doesn’t seem like it’s affecting her in any way, so I’m sure everything will be fine.

Well with the turn in weather, cold/flu season is already upon us. Everyone’s kids are getting sick and then their parents get sick and so the vicious cycle begins until Spring. Lela has caught a cold, not a bad one, she feels pretty good but is pretty snotty. The other day she sneezed and shot out some nice stringy mucus that was hanging from her nose and chin. By the time I got a cloth and came over Piper had grabbed it and was putting it in her mouth. YUMMY! It was so funny and gross all at the same time.

I am sure with all the “sharing” that is going on, Piper will have her first cold too. They say germs are good for them so I won’t be too negative about the whole thing. I am grateful that they are so easy going because it doesn’t seem to phase Lela in the slightest. I however used it as an excuse to throw myself a pity party and eat fried onion rings, bad mom:)

Well the doc put us on a new schedule and everyone seems to be adjusting well. The girls are getting more and more happy (and that is saying a ton since they were already happy) due to the extra rest. Even though we all have to suffer through some crying, it never lasts long. We have 4-5 six ounce bottles a day (they rarely eat the whole thing) and 3 meals of “solid” food. So we eat yogurt, carrots, peas, etc. mostly pureed but some really soft chunks.

We had a gagging experience with Piper and an apple chunk (cooked and really mushy) the apple went in and then came right back out with various other fluids. HA! Quite a surprise but she seemed okay with it. Then after all of our real food we get to eat cheerios, oh how we love them. I can see why lots of moms get addicted to cereal, it is so easy to chomp right along side of them until you realize you have eaten more cheerios than they have, oops.

They are napping twice a day (sometimes they sneak in a cat nap or two as well) and going to bed around 7:30. After about a week on the schedule each of them have slept through the night at least once, which is great. They are no longer hungry at night they just need comfort, so we are letting them learn to comfort themselves. Such strong little babies.

Anyway, that’s all for now, I should try to get something done while they are napping.