2 Months Old

I realize that I will not be winning any "mother of the year" awards based on the length of time between blog posts about these amazing little girls. I hope that this post will catch you all up on what we have been up to these past few weeks.

In the time that has elapsed, Aurelia has potty trained. It was an adventure to say the least. She has come a long way and now she comes home from school most days in the clothes (and panties) she was wearing when she left the house.

Feast your eyes and ears on the photos and videos below.

Vivianna had her 2 month checkup today. She is perfectly healthy and weighed in at 10 lbs, 15 ounces.

Vivianna's play mat is one of the girls' favorite spots to hang out together.

They are so sweet together. It is obvious that they already love each other.

Aurelia is busy these days. I take her on mother-daughter dates whenever I can. We went to the children's museum the other day and she had a ball.

Another day we went to the pet store and she got to spend a lot of time looking at the fish - her favorite part.

Thanksgiving Day was a wonderful event at our house. One of my favorite activities is cooking with Aurelia and Koruna. We made banana bread together. It was a well-managed process with a lot of adult participation. What fun!

More Thanksgiving family fun:

Jonathan participated in "Movember" last month to raise money for prostate cancer awareness. Once it was over, he shaved his beard but left this amazing mustache for a few days. I love it!

Mornings are sometimes a very hectic time around here. But we usually spend at least an hour as a family before the madness really gets going.

Story Time

Aurelia woke up from her nap in a particularly funny mood today. I generally find her to be humorous, but today her choice of words tickled me. Here are a couple of our conversations:

Momma (M): Reli, there's a fly on the window screen!

Reli (R): Shoo fly! (waving arm as if shoo-ing a fly away)

M: What's he doing inside our house?

R: He's working.

M: Working at what?

R: Tummy time. . . Bug flew away.

(5 minutes later)

R: Where is the "shoo-fly"? Working in the studio.

We were in the kitchen and Reli was hungry (as usual).

R: Want some kitty cat beans.

M: Kidney beans?

R: Yeah.

M: What color are kidney beans?

R: Red!

M: What color are black beans?

R: Black! (said sarcastically)

M: What color are garbanzo beans?

R: Kind of . . . airplane.

These days are funny, even when they are not always fun.

Sleep-over Fun

Jonathan went to California last weekend to see his family and Jeri Lynn and Marvel went to visit Honey. That left Ian and I here in Austin with the girls for the weekend. We decided to team up on Saturday afternoon for a sleepover, the girls' first.

We had a lovely time together. We baked banana bread, at snacks and the girls got to watch a video - something rare and special in Reli's world. She has seen one of Koruna's videos a few times at the Ingram's house and she LOVES one song on it in particular. In fact, she will randomly yell out "Old MacDonald!!!! Playing the guitar!!!!" days or weeks after seeing this one video.

Here is Aurelia in her own personal heaven, watching the video she so dearly loves:

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween, I took the girls trick-or-treating at my office. We could not, of course, have gone without our dear cousins, Koruna and Marvel. They were sporting enough to come along. Aunties Whitney and Ivy came along as well. We had a blast and the kiddos were unbelievably cute! Proof follows:

These Girls

It has been lovely getting to spend so much time with these two new sisters. They are already good at being sisters. We are very fortunate that Aurelia loves Vivianna. She asks to hold her and kiss her many times a day. It melts my heart every single time. I am in love with my family.

Aurelia loves to hold Vivianna and now she asks for a burp cloth. So cute!

Hanging out in Aunt Whitney's favorite outfit

A walk at the lake with cousin Marvel

Pajama time!

Peeking into the stroller

Story time

Date night!

Pure joy

(Don't worry. Dada was right behind her.)

Little sister, passed out while Reli played on the playground

Dada reading to his girls

Mutual admiration

Smiles

Very happy momma-daughter time

These girls love to "dance". I think Reli may have had a bit too much juice just prior to shooting this video. She's obviously a little wound up. What fun to watch her spin.

Glorious Days

We are still reveling in the novelty of this new life that has joined Team Kaplan. She is breathtakingly sweet and soft. She can melt your heart from across the room. Look out world.

Sweet sisters

"Honey taught me that Band-aids can

cure hurt feelings as well as boo-boos."

Check out this outfit

"I can wave with my hand and my foot!"

Love at first sight

Vivianna is Here!

We welcomed our newest addition to Team Kaplan on Thursday,October 6, 2011 at 3:05 pm. She came into this world weighing 8 lbs, 1 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. Her birth was relatively quick and just about the best experience we could have hoped for. She is a dream come true.

We came home yesterday to introduce Vivianna to Aurelia and are enjoying settling into our new life as a family of four. What wonderful moments these are.

SIGH.

Aurelia on the morning Vivianna was born.

Ponytails and boots. Wow.

At the hospital in labor already

The proud Papa!

Honey with her newest grandbaby - moments old.

Heart melting . . .

Headed home to meet my big sister!

Mittens!

Home at last. What a wonderful feeling.