Christmas, New Years and a whole lot more!

My grandma Barnoff's 80th birthday party

Mama-what is on my head?

I got my bike, but I don't know how to ride it
Santa came

My train

My mom and dad's living room after opening presents

Nakky baby

Opening

Eating paper

What is this!

A microphone!

A scooter

Princess Aaliyah

Aaliyah was drawing with a pen Santa got her and she asks me if I want to see her tatoo. I know cute butt-right!

Things have been crazy for us this past month! I have a lot to update you on-so let's get started:

Ciara is doing well weighing in at 13lb 11oz. She was up to 13lb 14oz, but has been battling several ear infections and lost some weight. She is now crawling and pulling herself up to stand. She is really starting to play by herself and is absolutely crazy mad in love with her sister. Anything Aaliyah is doing is what Ciara wants to be doing. I feel Aaliyah's pain as I remember yelling for my mom whenever Ryan would want to be doing what I was!!! Someday hopefully they will be best friends and want to do things together. Until then I hear "Mom-sister is touching me, Mom-sister is playing with my toys, Mom-sister is looking at me!" Ahhh all I can do is smile. Ciara had a wonderful first Christmas and got lots of books and toys. I didn't get her too much because I went crazy for Aaliyah's first and she didn't even care. Ciara opened up most of her presents and then put the wrapping paper straight in her mouth. She has also started to talk more. She says da da and ba ba. If she hears me saying fish she will make the shhh sound and for kitty or kissy she babbles k k k. This is wonderful to see because speech was the only area she was behind in at her clinic appointment. Since having all these ear infections her sleep patterns are not as good as usual. I definitely need to get her back on a schedule. The past two nights she has been up till 11:30. Last night I did everything I possibly could for her and then just put her in her crib. She cried of course, so I went in every 5 minutes to comfort her and give her a binky. It took probably about 15-20 minutes for her to fall asleep. It was very hard for me to let my baby cry, but I learned my lesson with Aaliyah and that girl still doesn't sleep!! Ciara has been eating a lot more jarred fruits and veggies. She has 3/4 of a jar every four hours through the day so hopefully she will start gaining. She continues to go once a month for her RSV Synagis shoot. I am seeing that she is starting to get some separation anxiety. If she knows I am in the house somewhere she will not let Corey take care of her. She just screams until I eventually get her. If I go to the store she is good for him and lets him feed and bathe her. When I am home if she can't see me she cries until I am in her sight again. Oh my children. I just don't know.

Aaliyah is doing EXCELLENT with her potty training. She only wear diapers at nap time and bed time. She goes on the potty 100% of the time if she has no panties on, but as soon as you put on those panties she does forget. She is getting better, but she does have accidents with the panties. I honestly thought she would have accidents with nothing on, but she does awesome naked! I usually just put a long sleeved shirt on her and some socks and then she runs around the house with her bum out. She actually likes to be naked, so why not. She also had an amazing Christmas and got everything she asked for and more. We had presents at my mom's, our house, and Grandma Bensons all in 24 hours so the girls were exhausted. Actually she didn't even open up all the presents Santa got her at our house on Christmas. She had about 7 or 8 presents that she opened up a couple of days later. She just wanted to play with everything she opened and didn't want to take the time to open up anymore! Honestly I think if I took away half the stuff she got and wrapped it up for her birthday she would never know. Her favorite games lately are hide and seek and tag. She is constantly coming up to me and saying "Mom you go hide and I'll count." She also loves to go out and play in the snow. As soon as she wakes up she asks to go out!

We didn't really do anything for New Years because both of Ciara's ears were infected. We did go to Jim and Jodi Campbell's house for a little bit, but left when it was the girl's bedtime. Corey and I watched the ball drop at home.

I have been healing well from my hysterectomy and everyday I feel better. I had my 6 week checkup this week and I wasn't healing properly so I was cauterized to help. It did help because I can tell a difference. Corey is still working all the time and it has definitely gotten busier these past weeks.

Update on Phalen Manners: The last I checked she was up to 3 lbs and she was starting to "nipple" from a bottle. They are dressing her now and she has been moved from Pittsburgh to Dubois NICU. This is so helpful to her mom and dad. They can see her everyday now. Please continue to keep her in your prayers and praise God for helping this little angel.

Please continue to keep praying for Ciara. It is because of your prayers and God's grace that we have Ciara and are able to love her everyday.