My girls

• Last Thursday or Friday, Arianna started smiling - at 1 month plus a few days.
• She is also starting to coo and gargle - lol. Marissa thinks it's so great that she is "talking" already.
• Arianna likes to roll onto her side, especially to sleep.
• She sleeps like a baby, the good way. She takes a 5+ (straight) hour nap every afternoon, and sleeps straight through every night starting around midnight, ending around 7, 8, or 9am (except of course last night she woke up at 4 to eat, but when right back to sleep)
• Other than her wonderful sleeping chunks, she is very awake and alert the rest of the day. She takes little catnaps after most nursing sessions, and is happy as a clam between them.
• She nurses about every hour when she's awake, to make up for all her awesome sleeping chunks.
• Marissa and Arianna take their nap at the same time, mainly because I can tell Arianna when to take her big nap - I just swaddle her up tight, nurse her, and she's out for a while! That also works for bedtime, though it obviously takes longer. I'd rather go to sleep way before midnight (but I will NOT complain!).
• Marissa is super dramatic these days. I got ready to give her a bath the other night, and Arianna's tub was still in the big tub. Marissa dramatically said "Oh my word-y gosh, Mommy! We are in big trouble now! This is a job!" (That last phrase doesn't even make sense, but I thought it was hilarious!)
• Marissa is definitely ready for potty-training! In the mall last week, she made us stop and wait everytime she had to pee in her diaper. Lol. I feel awful for waiting this long. As soon as I feel like I could actually get up and help her at a moment's notice, we'll start. Pretty much that means we have to wait until Arianna's not nursing literally every hour. Lol.
• Arianna's poop schedule is driving me crazy. LOL. She had been waiting a few days in between, so last weekend I thought I was safe when I went away for a night to visit college friends. But she had a big one while we were all in the movie theater (I changed her on my lap - don't worry, we were the only ones in there!) and then a HUGE explosion at the mall (I changed her in a dressing room at Motherhood Maternity because I had been nursing her when it happened - it was all over her clothes, and I didn't have anything extra for her to wear, or any bag to put the outfit in, so I begged them for a Motherhood bag, and she went out to the car in just her diaper - all cozy in her car seat blanket/cover). The funny part is her poops smell like really buttery popcorn, which is so weird (especially in the movie theater), but makes them not nearly as gross as they could be - lol.
• I had so much fun away for 24 hours! I got to meet Nicole's cute baby girl, and we all spent hours talking - up til 5:30am! Arianna woke up at 8:30, I nursed her, and then she slept til 11:30 and so did I! It was so nice to see my college friends, and spend some quality (QUIET) time by myself in the car driving there (Arianna slept the whole drive).
• Last night we went to Olan Mills to get family pictures taken. The lady there is always amazing at getting Marissa to smile her real smile. Our appointment was at 6, and when we got there at 5:55 she was still in the middle of a family of 6 (with 4 little kids). Then she had to show them their pictures, then there was another family of 4 boys next. They had double booked the 6:00 time slot! Dan ended up taking Marissa to get something to eat (we were going to eat after we got home), and we didn't end up getting home until 8pm! Ridiculous! But we got some awesome pictures and I'm so excited to pick them up in a few weeks! It was unfortunately worth the wait!
• It's naptime for the girls now, so I'm getting off here for my alone time!