Layla was first to take a keen interest in practicing her walking skills whereas Ruby seemed content to continue crawling and walking along the furniture. Layla wants to stand when she's set down but Ruby collapses to her bottom. Only recently has Ruby decided she wants to practice walking as well. They love being walked around the room or pushing their toy train. Layla has taken to yelling when she wants attention in restaurants, parties and home. Ruby doesn't take quite the same approach; she's quieter when she calls attention too herself and she talks about as much as Layla. Both girls are mimicking us with Layla copying sticking her tongue out and waving it side to side. They also do this thing where they put their wrist against their mouth and wave their hand around... even sometimes while they're crying.
A couple weeks ago I decided to push on in trying to switch the girls to cups and get rid of the bottles. I had tried this before but this time they were finally ready and took right to it. After that I decided to try them on Whole milk since its way cheaper than formula and they took right to that with no allergic or digestive reactions.
Right now they're taking about 16 oz each in a typical day and three meals of solids. Both girls have 3 teeth on the bottom and 4 on top so I don't have to mash things completely. They can feed themselves very well but when they're done eating they usually throw their food on the floor. Their favorite food seems to be steamed yams. Sometimes when I'm in a rush I hand them yams cut in to spears and they gobble them up so quickly that I check their bib pocket and high chair to make sure they didn't hide it somewhere. They also love poached chicken with whole yogurt, steel cut pancakes, green beans, scrambled eggs, carrots, apples, bananas (only mashed with other food), plums, prunes, peaches and steel cut oats mixed in their fruit. Throughout the day I offer them water and they love that as well but sometimes they (mostly Layla) plays with the water by pouring it in her mouth and then spitting it down her shirt until she's soaked down her entire front. As of today I have caught Layla practicing her walking several times so I think it'll be any time now and she'll be walking everywhere.
About a week ago Ruby came down with a fever which we believed was related to teething molars but a day after the fever subsided she developed hives. On the afternoon of that same day Layla developed a high fever which lasted several days and then she developed small rash like stuff all over her body. Larry brought Ruby in to the dr. for the hives and he advised we could give her benedryl to keep her comfortable if they're bothering her. The next day I brought both girls to their Dr. to get Layla checked up and have Ruby followed up on and he believed the girls had some sort of virus. After it was all over I developed the belief that they had roseola which apparently affects all babies between the ages of 6 mo. to 2 years. All you can do is keep the babies fever down and keep them comfortable. They were both incredibly cuddly for the entire time they were sick, which was great for me. Larry was able to watch them once a day so that I could have a break and get to the gym.
Larry started school on the 21st of September and all is well with that; he got a 92% on his first test and it was mainly about human anatomy and terminology. The weekend before school started he turned out for the Woodland Fire department tryout. They had a physical ability test, written knowledge test, and interview. He was notified of his acceptance just a few days later; he was hired as a firefighter intern and he starts on the 20th of this month. He'll be working two 11 hour shifts every Tuesday and Thursday. He'll be getting a small sum of money for the internship which will help make unemployment benefits last a bit longer for us.
Our house was put up for sale some time in September but we've only had one showing so far. We recently found out that after the house is on the market for 90 days we can ask the lender for something called a "Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure". Apparently we hand over the deed and they mark it "paid in full" and we're forgiven the difference between what we purchased it for and what they are able to sell it for. If we get the process completed by year-end then the forgiven amount won't be taxable.
We are planning on moving in with Larry's brother Chris and his wife Pamela and I have been slowly bringing boxes of our stuff to their home in Battleground. The clothes and large furniture will be last so basically I have only moved camping stuff and stuff I was storing for later use. As soon as I get more boxes I'm going to pack up all my videos, books and kitchen appliances I don't use constantly. A week or two ago I went and helped Pamela clean out and organize some areas of her home to make space for our stuff. Since then, she and Chris went through all their stuff in the spare rooms where we'll live and made a lot of progress. We were originally planning on storing our couches and furniture but Chris and Pamela were concerned with the weather and moisture damaging everything so we're going to move it all in to their living room. We realize it will be challenging to have two families living in one space but I'm looking forward to it and I'm excited for Larry's new career.
2 comments:
Oh! I remember when Amy had rosela..it was why she wasn't at your wedding!
Larry the fireman! That is awesome! I'm excited for you all!
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