Update on My Kids (Wait, I Have Two Kids! What?!)

I'm starting to wonder if there could be twins in this belly of mine. Not too seriously, but I do wonder. We definitely should have seen them on the ultrasound if that were the case, but I hear of many, many stories where doctors miss a second one until much later in the pregnancy. The two main reasons why this thought has occurred to me (besides that we have fraternal twins in my family) is because of how big I am already even though I know you tend to grow a little faster with succeeding children (like, just wait until you see me in my maternity swimsuit--my mom has pics--the suit isn't actually maternity but pregnancy is the only time it will fit), but also because when I feel the little guy kick me, I'll pause and touch my belly with my hand to enjoy those little taps and a few minutes later he'll suddenly be on the opposite side of my belly doing the same thing! Tenley never did that. She favored a side and pretty much stayed there. This baby seems to be all over. Or there are two. But I'm not truly believing that even though my body seems to hint otherwise :-)

There are some things about Tenley that are very funny. She is just a great girl (and super smart, but I could be prejudiced a teeny tiny bit ;-). I'm realizing that she has a very distinct personality. She's already stubborn and a little bit naughty. She does what she wants because she can, and even when I tell her no, she looks right at me and does it anyway, sometimes with a little smile. It is probably my fault that she is a little stinker sometimes because I have a hard time not laughing at her when she does things she knows she shouldn't be doing, but it's hard because babies are smart and hilarious! She recently got in the habit of smacking her head or face with her hand to get attention which definitely worked--especially at first (she does it less now that we just ignore her) because we kind of laughed at the little smile she gave us while she did it, thinking she was being funny. Now if we have to laugh, we turn our head so she can't see us react. It's kind of hilarious when we're in the car and we hear a little smack! smack! coming from next to us and we are determined to not look at her. Then when we turn back to her, she gives us this funny little look and a smile that says, I know you guys still think it's funny.

Tenley is also walking like a pro now. She started walking on her own the day after her first birthday, and now she walks more steadily than she falls. She has had practice on a lot of surfaces...wood floors (both even and not), grass, dirt, sand at the beach, carpets of all kinds, stairs, cement, pavement. This trip has given her plenty of opportunities for practice anyway!

I've also realized that besides one obvious fear, Tenley is very brave. Her one known fear is and always has been being thrown in the air. Even the motion of being thrown in the air freaks her out--her arms go out and she has a little moment of panic. Apparently (I have not had the opportunity to try this with her) she also does not like the swing. That feeling of falling/insecurity really gets to her.

But funnily enough, she is big into climbing. She climbs things with no fear of falling much to my dismay when I find her in a precarious situation. She loves climbing things and even though she can get down (like stairs and couches for instance), she has not yet perfected her balance which makes me very nervous.

Another thing about Tenley, she has a pretty high (and seemingly random) pain tolerance. She hits her head a lot on tables, floors, walls, etc. and rarely cries or if she does, she is usually instantly better once I pick her up. For example, at the ocean yesterday, she climbed the giant rocks, stepping on barnacles and small rocks without even flinching. When I changed her diaper later, I noticed a nice scrape on her elbow but she never reacted to it so I didn't know when it happened. She seems, if anything, to react more from my reaction half the time than anything because I always feel so bad for her when she hits her head. She also does not bruise easily (thank goodness, because with the amount of times she hits her head on edges I thought someone might call child services on me if they saw all the marks she should have as a result) and as far as I remember has only gotten one actual fingerprint-sized bruise on her forehead and I do not remember what it was from.

Tenley also does not fear the water (there is one exception to this: she does not like being placed in the bathroom bathtub which has no grip or anything on the bottom so her bum slips right out from under her and she gets that panicked feeling that she's going to slip backwards). This is impressive but also a little frightening. I would like if she had a healthy fear of water, but she has always loved taking showers with me (I'm too big belly-wise and my arms too weak now to hold her for so long though) and she loves her own little bathtub to splash around and play in, and in the last few months we've discovered she also is not afraid of the pool or ocean at all. We brought her to a kiddie pool beach area where Dalin and I sat on the edge where the water started, thinking Tenley would need some coaxing, but she came flying right between us on all fours and crawled right up to her face in the water! We were surprised and impressed but she loved the water. We thought maybe it was because the water was warm and there were other kids around playing in the water, but on our trip to the ocean she did the same thing! And let me tell you, the water was not as warm as a pool and we were the only ones there swimming. The few other beach goers that day were all on the sand sitting in the sun. Dalin and I had walked Ten across the sand over to the water's edge and she pulled her hands out of our grip and crawled in the ocean right up to her face again! She only stopped because she tasted the yucky salt water and made a face. It was again really impressive, especially since Dalin and I had been hesitant to put our feet in at first because it was cold. It does make me realize that, maybe even more than other children, Tenley has to be watched constantly because she has no fear of water. I feel like that is so odd because both of my young cousins as babies were afraid of going in the water for a couple of years and they grew up by the ocean! I am not sure where Tenley got her unique bravery. Certainly not from me.

This girl is usually a great sleeper. This trip has screwed her up a little bit but she still has been mostly good. She rotates around the bed the entire night and sleeps on her belly most of the time. She is definitely a "sprawler." And wiggly. But oh so cute! ;-)

So those are my babies. I love them both. It is so strange being on your second pregnancy because all I know is being pregnant with Tenley girl. I can't picture this baby boy of mine looking like anything but Tenley but siblings look different all the time. Either way, our kids all have a very high probability of getting the blue-eyed genes (everyone in my immediate family has blue eyes and half of Dalin's do--the other half has green!). Dalin and I were both pretty much towheads as babies, but obviously our hair has darkened up as we've grown up. I would be happy if a few of our babies stayed blond or got some strawberry-blond in there though ;-) I hope the red in Tenley's hair doesn't go away at least. On this trip, more people than ever before have commented on the reddish tinge her blond hair has in the sunlight and when it's wet. I took some photos but I haven't looked at them yet so I don't know if you can even tell from those alone.

Well, one baby is in the kitchen with Nana Searle saying "mama" and the other baby--and consequently me--is starving for breakfast (and maybe just got over his first (noticeable) case of the hiccups? Let's hope!) so I'm going to go take care of business and hopefully eat some bacon and scrambled eggs. I missed my mom's breakfasts.

You've probably already seen this 16.5 week photo on Facebook, but I'm hungry and lazy:P

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your last moments of summer! I am so happy for fall that any cooler weather (this morning, for instance) is being happily embraced. I just wish Dalin could see New Hampshire here in the fall...it's my favorite! Eek, oh well, some day for sure. :-)

Have a autumny-summer day!