A Little Comparison-Mara vs. Maddy

I love taking these monthly pictures and have been dying to do a side by side all year.  Here's months 1-3!

Mara

Maddy

Mara

Maddy

                           

Mara

Maddy

Our Year In Review-2016

2016 has once again been a year of big changes!  Looking back I am shocked and amazed how much our lives have changed since last January.  Here are some of my favorite moments:

January

This month we welcomed Maddy into our world with a crazy experience in the Georgian Health Care System.

February

February was filled with more Tot School for Mara and Maddy had her first bath.

March

This month we had visitors as my mom and aunt came to Georgia.  We kept plugging away with Tot School.

April

We celebrated Easter abroad and potty trained Mara in April!

May

We enjoyed the warmer weather with many weekend adventures and a trip to Lopota Lake!

June

In June we took a quick trip to Germany for some health stuff for Maddy but also had some fun!  We took both girls camping for the first time!

July

In July we took an amazing trip to France and Croatia!

August

We settled back in from our trip and re-adjusted to life in Tbilisi! We took a fun weekend trip to Kazbegi.

September

This month was busy as we started to explore our surroundings..  We celebrated Mara's 3rd birthday with a Neverland themed birthday party!

October

In October Mara and Maddy celebrated Halloween!  We went as the characters in Peter pan!

November

This month we moved to Digomi to be closer to other families and had a quiet Thanksgiving with co-workers.

December

We celebrated the holiday season with visits to Santa, decorating and lots of presents!


20165 has been such an amazing year!  We are looking forward to 2017 with big plans for travel, family time and of course more adventures!

A Little Comparison-Mara vs. Maddy

Because our girls are TWINS!

Mara-2nd Christmas (15 months)

Maddy-1st Christmas (11 months)

The Big Move

Right around Veteran's Day we made the big move from Vake to Digomi.  For those of you who aren't familiar with those terms, Vake is a district downtown Tbilisi with shops and stores most within walking distance.  Digomi, on the other hand, is more a suburb just outside the city with individual homes (versus apartments).

I was honestly struggling being downtown.  Don't get me wrong I really did love our apartment.  It was like a home: Two floors with large rooms and kitchen. But I hated getting the kids and all of our things up to it.  It just wasn't sometimes possible.  You can't leave the kids so the groceries or mail sat.

We were also in Digomi 2-3 times a week anyways.  I was driving over an hour round trip for play dates and embassy runs.  My kids were getting makeshift naps in the car while I was dodging crazy Tbilisi traffic.

Needless to say we took the leap.  Packed up the apartment and moved into a home.  It was a crazy day with movers working from 11-7 but we got it done!  Two trips and all of our things were now in this beautiful home with the best yard.

It took me about a week but we unpacked quickly and tried to really get settled before Thanksgiving rolled around.  It was fairly easy because unlike any other move we did, we packed ourselves.  (Note I will never pack myself again but it did help on the other end for the most part) I knew what was in each box and was able to just restructure it in our new home.  There wasn't a lot of "figuring out organization" because the furniture was mostly the same too!

The girls love the yard and the extra space.  I love that we will still have about half of our tour here and will really get to enjoy days outside in the yard and playdates we can WALK to!

Madeline-11 Months

Weight: Still hanging around the 20 lb point. Not sure about height.

Health: We've all had a slight cold this month.  You've had a pretty runny nose and some minor congestion.  We've also had some fussy night which I can only contribute to potentially teeth.  You should be working on your molars by now!


 Social: You continue to be super social and engaging with others.  You rarely get stranger danger.  You love it with older kids "play" with you and love laughing and smiling.

Diet: You still probably get most nutrients from nursing but will eat anything we give you!  In fact you demand whatever we have when you see us eating.  It's very hard to sneak food past you.  Your biggest love is the water bottle.  You can sip out of any from your simple cup to my camelbak.  You'll even try out of a disposable water bottle and a regular cup.  You had your first taste of milk when you stole someone's cup.  I think I'll have my first milk drinker on my hands!

Clothes: You are in 12 month clothing.  We did the switch when we moved houses.  I was not excited to see that you had almost no long sleeve shirts as Mara must have been in this size when it was summer.  We've borrowed a few things and have sent Grandma on the hunt!!

You just moved up to the 6-12 month robbies but man your feet are tiny.

Mama's Favorites: I love how easy it is to get a smile out of you.  You are a constant joy to us!

Crying: Really only crying when tired or hungry at this point. And only when you want something!  You can be DEMANDING!

Sleep: You have officially transitioned to the one nap.  Gosh my kids don't sleep long.  You will now wake up around 8:30 and stay awake till about 12.  Then it is down for 2-3 hours and bed by 8.  You are still my best sleeper although you have your times when its hard to get you back down.  I think these are pretty much timing in the sleep cycle and also influenced by your older sister.

This Month:  You have continued to pull up on things and are now walking along furniture.  You will only walk from right to left so that has been cute to watch.  We have enjoyed watching you during this first holiday season!

Baby Likes: You love to eat.  You love your sister.  You love the computer and squeel everytime it is near you.  You love to skype with family and get into anything your sister doesn't want you to.  You love to get into buddy's food and liter.  You have recently discovered the stairs and want nothing more than to climb like your sister.

Milestones: You are standing now really well and pull up on your own.  You walk along furniture and are climbing into things.  You clap and are saying simple words like: Mama, Dada, this, thank you.

You enjoyed your first sink bath and Thanksgiving.

Best of Times: You're happy attitude always and watching you explore.

Worst of Times: A few nights when you wouldn't go back to sleep.

Sister Diaries: Mara keeps engaging with you more and more.  I see her starting to get frustrated that you can't play at her level yet but girl you sure try to!!

Halloween

This year we decided to go all out and do our first family costume theme!  Mara's birthday party was Peter Pan themed and all she wanted to be for Halloween was Wendy...so we rolled with it.  I made her a simple nightgown and put together a Tinkerbell costume for Maddy.

I got to be Peter pan mainly because I just happened to have this green shirt in my closet :)  We decided that Captain Hook was a bit of an elaborate one for me to make or buy so we went with Mr. Smee for Josh instead.  I loved it!!  I hope my girls will want to do many more years of family costumes in the future!

Again this year we hit up the embassy trick or treat event.  It was rainy and cold that night so we decided against the additional trick or treating in Zurgovani and went home that night.  Mara made out pretty well although we didn't let her eat nearly half of what she collected.  I don't know why all the candy is hard here!  Just not ready to let her go to town on a 2 inch piece of hard candy.

Peter pan gang

Family portrat

Mr. Smee captures Tinkerbell

Tinkerbells

Madeline-10 Months

Weight: I think you're about 20 pounds.  I'm not sure on height but you've defintily grown a little because your 9 month pants are too short!

Health: You've been healthy as normal!!


 Social: I love my social baby.  You'll go to just about everyone as long as they make silly faces at you and talk to you!  You do love your mama and will come back to me if you see me!

You love to play and are very engaged with folks around you and toys.

Diet: You are still mainly nursing but are continuing to eat more and more table food.  We've stopped making anything specific for you during meals and just give you bites of ours.  You're not a huge fan of meat yet but love veggies, fruit, dairy and grains!

You are a water fanatic!  You have the sippy cup mastered already and will crawl frantically towards anyone drinking out of a bottle!


Clothes: You are still in 9 month clothing although we're going to move you to 12 month as soon as we move homes.  We will also start buying size 4 diapers.  Most of your cloth diapers are fully unsnapped.

The only small thing about you girl is your little feet!  You are still in 0-6 month robbies and size 1 shoes!

Mama's Favorites: I love how happy you are constantly.  You are the sweetest to wake up to in the morning and greet every new person who comes through the door.  I love watching you explore new things as you started to crawl this month.

Crying: Really only crying when tired or hungry at this point.

Sleep: You have had your boughts of waking up during the middle of the night.  I think you're teething and/or growing!  But for the most part you are sitll sleeping 8-12 hours a night with two naps during the day.  We're struggling to keep the naps at decent hours during the day because you are waking up after 8:30 and don't want to nap till at least 11:30....I hope we're not transitioning to a one nap anytime soon!

This Month:  You have mastered crawling and are now pulling up on things and testing out standing. You pull things down and are into anything that is in your reach.  

Baby Likes: You love to eat.  You love your sister.  You love the computer and squeel everytime it is near you.  You love to skype with family and get into anything your sister doesn't want you to.  Buddy's bowl is super interesting as well as the magnets on the fridge.

Milestones: You are standing now really well and pull up on your own.  You are engaged with toys for longer than 30 seconds ;)  You are eating more and more table food.

Best of Times: You're happy attitude always and watching you explore.

Worst of Times: A few moments when all you want is mom and I have my hands full.

Sister Diaries: Mara keeps asking me to move you away but the problem is this can't happen now! She is just realizing that you are mobile and will have to keep her things away if she wants you to stay away from them.