What's happening with Ben & Ella...

Ben & Ella are doing a lot better. They don't look like they ever had pink eye. I'm so glad. Jon stayed at home with them on Thursday and Jon's mom watched them for us on Friday. I'm looking forward to the end of February when I'll finally have some vacation and sick time again...even though it won't be that much so I need to be careful how I use those days.

We got some rather cute pictures of them over the weekend, so I need to get around to adding them to flickr. I've already uploaded them onto my computer.

Ella has spoken some new words - it's so cute. I just wish I knew what she was trying to say. I think sometimes it sounds like she says hi - Benjamin too. And Benjamin still loves to sing/talk loudly. It's all very cute!

I don't think I've mentioned before Ella's fondness for tags (maybe I have). If she picks up a toy, she'll find a tag and put the tag into her mouth. Such a silly girl! She also wants whatever toy Benjamin has as clearly it is much better than the one she's playing with - so sometimes, we have a bit of a tug of war going on.

Lately, Ella will not sleep in her own bed at night. She'll start there, but a couple or so hours later, she's screaming for one of us. Sometimes, she goes back to sleep (for another couple hours), but sometimes, she'll scream until one of us picks her up. There's only so much of this we can take - we need to get some sleep too - so we bring her to our bed with us and what do you know, she falls right to sleep.

Some people say to me when I tell them this - oh, you shouldn't do that. She'll get so used to it. And all I can think is - wait until you have your own children and we'll see what you do. Do others have this issue?

I usually let her cry for a while and hope that she'll fall asleep - rarely does this work for Ella, but it does for Benjamin a good amount of the time (like last night). However, I don't want her to get too worked up that she won't go back to sleep or she'll wake up Benjamin! I just don't want two screaming babies in the middle of the night! I know, crazy me.

I just don't know what's going on with Ella. I've read that when babies are learning a new skill, they'll wake up repeatedly during the night, so maybe that's it? I thought they were teething, but nothing is popping through yet. She's not hungry as she'll fall asleep once with a parent. Perhaps separation anxiety? Anyone have any ideas?

In other news, Ella will stay up on her hands and knees for a good 5 seconds when we put her there. She's still trying to get to that position on her own. She's become really good at independent sitting.

Benjamin has gotten a lot better, but will still fall over. He had another fall over on the floor this weekend and he hit his head. Poor little guy. I really want to buy those foam squares like this so they have something soft to play on. I was all set to order them when my mother-in-law said she's going to try to find some. She said she also has a toy chest to give us - we really need one as the basket I'm holding their toys in is overflowing.

Well, that's what's going on here. I'm sure there are other things I should write about so I remember them later when I'm filling out the baby book, but I can't think of it now. Maybe later I will.