A Tale of Two Babies

I am constantly trying to find similarities in my girls. Some proof that they favor, or that they at least look related. I see subtle things in both of them that are the same...things that are hard to capture on camera, and maybe things only a mama would see. Mostly expressions, or a look...Presley has a look about her when she's fresh out of the bathtub, and laying on her back while I dress her that reminds me *so much* of my baby Mattie, but I can't really pinpoint what it is. Maybe it's the hair and eyebrows that are slightly darker from being wet...maybe not.

For the most part though, these two are different as night and day. They both have blue eyes, but they are shaped a little differently, their haircolor could not be more different, and even their little noses are quite different. Mattie has always had the tiniest little button nose...still does. And Presley's is more nose-like, and is very often scrunched up, which is what she does when she laughs. Their mouths are somewhat similar, although not identical, but that may be it.

So different, but both so cute.

Seriously, if these were two puppies in a pet store, and you had to pick only one to take home...who could chose? Not me. I'll take them both, thank you.

I have this b&w print of Mattie as an 8x10 in my bedroom, and just ordered the one of Presley in the same size to go by it. My favorite kind of wall decor...fat, smiling babies.

It's Hard Being Mattie

Mattie has had a pretty busy summer already. I mentioned that she and her daddy are filling everyday with some kind of activity, and it is leaving Mattie worn out. She still naps most everyday, and lately, she'll nap anywhere. These are two spots I've found her when I've come home recently.

Princess Hair

This is the newest hairdo Mattie is making me do all the time. She says princesses wear their hair like this. Ok, Mattie. I wish princesses didn't have such complicated hairdos.

Eight Months

Already? Really? It can’t be. My precious, tiny (kind of) 8lb 5oz baby girl is already eight months old? No!

Alas, it is true. I feel like these monthly milestone posts are coming closer and closer together. I’m pretty sure it’s just my mama brain feeling the looming one year birthday barreling at us like a freight train.

I know everyone has their favorite kid ages. Some people love newborns, some love toddlers. And although they may love their children, lots of people don’t care for the first year because it’s so much “work”. I am not in that group. I looooove every single month, and I know I said a few months ago that five months was my favorite, but I think now it is eight months. If it were up to me, which it’s not, I would make the first year last twice as long. I think I have “savored” Presley’s baby-hood a lot more than I did with Mattie’s, maybe because she’s my second and I know from experience just how fast it all goes. I just can’t get enough of this:

And this:

The bubble blowing, spit covered face. Those big blue eyes. And that curl. Oh, that curl. It owns a very big piece of my heart forever. I am so in love with that one lock of hair. Please don’t get any bigger, Presley!
Well, Miss PK, what do we find you up to these days?

-You are weighing in at a whopping 21lbs 13.5oz. This is easily above 95th percentile for your age. Yet, as heavy as you are, you still seem so little to me. I think it’s because Big Sister is around, and she makes you seem tiny.


-You are a funny girl, sure to be a clown just like sister. You like to make us laugh, and it takes very little to get you laughing. You are happiest when you are happy. Aren’t we all?

-This month, you mastered sitting on your own, with no help. It’s like a whole new world to you, seeing things in an upright position.


-No crawling yet, thank you, Lord. I think I’m dreading this milestone so much because I remember how when Mattie started crawling, it was like my baby was gone and a toddler took her place. I just want to hold on to my baby a little bit longer. You are starting to raise up higher and try to get up on your knees though, so I think you’ll probably crawl about the time Mattie did, which was 9.5 months, if not sooner.


-Your hair continues to amaze me. The whole time I was pregnant, Daddy teased me that we were going to have a blond headed baby because after having our black-headed baby Mattie, that just didn’t seem to be a likely possibility. However, your hair continues to be pretty light, especially in the sunlight. And it is curling more and more. I can’t hardly picture what you’ll look like as a little girl. I just can’t. Maybe because the images in my mind of what a little girl should look like are dominated with pictures of Mattie, and I think you will certainly look different than her. No doubt beautiful though.

-Still not saying “Mama. There have been reports of hearing you say “Papa”. Still saying “Dada” ALL the time. Mattie and I are both ready for some recognition! This week Mattie told me she thinks she heard you say “Ashley”. She was so sure!

-You only have two teeth, but they have grown in quite a bit. The gummy grin is officially gone. I *think* you may have another coming because the drooling and chewing has started again.

-Nicknames: Pres-Pres, PK, Lovey Kate. When you were just a few days old, Mattie instructed us that when we were lovin’ on you, we were to call you Lovey Kate, not Presley Kate. It stuck. And I swore when I was pregnant with you that I would not call you PK, because I hate when girls have initial names. And now, I call you PK more than anybody. And Sister started the Pres-Pres, but we have all picked it up too. Although she says “Pwes-Pwes”.

-Even though you’re not saying “Mama”, you are showing some real attachment to me and even some mild separation anxiety at times. You want your mama. All the time. Which is fine by me, and very flattering, thank you. Except when I have to put you down in order to do something important, like tend to your sister, and your screaming at me. That’s not so nice.

-In the picture below, you were trying your hardest to eat your dress. Please don’t do this at your prom. It may get some laughs, but it won’t be worth it.

(Those thighs! Kill me now. I could eat them up!)

-Eating all kinds of fruits and veggies, and crackers, and sampled sweet potato fries this weekend.

-Taking four bottles a day, usually 8oz each, sometimes less.

-Size 3 daytime diaper, size 5 overnight diaper.

-Wearing a range of clothing sizes from 6mos to 18mos. Mostly 9mos stuff though. Size 3 shoe, although your feet rarely see shoes. I just can’t put a shoe on a baby in the summertime. Church is the only exception.

- Tomorrow will be one year since we found out that the baby we were expecting was going to be another little girl. No mama has ever been more excited. Little did I know just how blessed I would be. I was excited about the matching sister clothes, and getting to doll up another little girl, but you have added so much more to our lives than all that. We are all so, so in love with you, sweet girl. So in love.

When I made this collage, and found the four month picture on my computer, I was SHOCKED at the change in four short months. She was still so teeny tiny at four months and still didn’t have a neck or much hair. I just didn’t realize until I looked at this what a change we had made. Which is exactly why I take these pictures.

A Random Assortment of Nothing Really

I usually create blog posts based around pictures I take, and since I have not picked up my camera in about a week, I have no new pictures of my precious lambs to share. But even without pictures, there can be a post. Here's a little bit of what's going on in the Nash house right now, in list form to make it more reader friendly.

-When it comes to sewing, I have become a woman obsessed. I have made several really cute things for my girls, and have spent way too much time browsing fabrics and patterns online and sewing when I should be sleeping. Or doing laundry. Or other chores. I justify it by telling myself that I have not spent one cent at Gymboree in 2010, which is just a huge miracle with two girls. I may try to get some pictures taken of a few of my recent creations and do a post on it.

-For about the past month I have been missing something big in my life. A material object, but it was important to me, and I had about decided it was gone for good, and I was just sick over it. It was one of my camera lenses, and was worth a couple hundred dollars. Back in March I bought a new lens for my camera that I have LOVED and have not taken off my camera since I got it. But when dance recital came back in May, I went looking for my zoom lens and could not find it. I am not one to easily lose things, especially things of value, and when I went to where I thought it was the day of dance recital, my heart sank. We turned this house upside down and inside out, and could not find it anywhere. I couldn't imagine where it could be, couldn't remember having left the house with it, but I had decided it wasn't here. Y'all, I have prayed a hundred prayers over that lens...I know God loves me and cares about the details of my life, and I knew He cared my lens was gone. And last night I found it. In a completely random place that I would have never looked, but something led me there. I could have cried! PTL for answered prayers, even for the minor things!

-Presley has been kind of yuck for a few days, nasty nose, runny eyes, kinda fussy, and today she started running fever, which I suspected might be because of ear infection. A trip to the doctor confirmed that, so I spent the rest of this afternoon holding, rocking, and loving on my sick girl. She obviously didn't feel good today, she was just kind of pitiful. And the doctor's appointment threw her schedule off a little, so she had a late nap, and a late afternoon bottle, and then supper. She didn't eat much, wasn't real interested, so I went ahead and bathed her and got her jammies on her. We went in her room to get the Tylenol, and what happened next will live with me until the day I die. She opened her mouth and projectile vomited for what seemed like five minutes, but in reality was probably about 5 seconds....it just kept coming out and coming out with no break...just a continuous stream of spew! It is, hands down, the biggest, nastiest mess I have EVER cleaned up in my four and a half years of parenting. She sprayed the carpet, the glider, the ottoman, the table and everything on it (picture frame, piggy bank, lamp), and me, but managed to not get one drop on her. All I can figure is it was a combination of a tummy that was too full and nausea from the ear trouble. I just hope it never happens again. It took quite an effort to get it all cleaned up. Did I mention she had green beans for supper, so it was a pea-soup color?

-We have officially cancelled our beach vacation, and I am just sick over it. The gulf coast beaches have become so special to us and I think my family would agree...it holds a lot of special memories and even if given the chance to go somewhere more exotic, there is nowhere I would rather go with the people I love to get sunburned. And even sadder than our vacation cancellation are the eleven human lives lost to this tragedy, not to mention the helpless animals, and the effect it is having on the fishermen and the people that depend on tourism to the coast. It's just such a heartbreaking situation on so many fronts. Damn BP.

-What is it about The Bachelor/Bachelorette series that is so addictive? I stayed away from this show for years, and then watched it again last season when it was The Bachelor-On the Wings of Love...every episode made me want to scratch my eyes out it was so stupid, but I couldn't quit. And now I'm getting sucked in again with this new Bachelorette, and it is even stupider/cheesier/more ridiculous than last season. It's on now in the background, and I keep stopping to watch this crap. Ugh!

-Matthew and Mattie are officially on summer vacation, and I could not be more jealous. Let me tell you, it is a practice in self discipline to have to get out of bed and go to work everyday while leaving these two yahoos at home to "play". Matthew is working a few mornings a week, but mostly they're spending their days swimming, or riding the four wheeler, or going to the park, or to the movies, or just lounging around and doing nothing. I am happy and blessed that my girls have a daddy like Matthew that wants and loves to spend time with them like this...he could be doing a thousand other things or working full time, but he cherishes these weeks off with Mattie. But, I am also jealous. There may need to be a career change in my future that involves summers off.

-On a related note, I think I have lost my first-born to her daddy for good. From the day Mattie was born, she was my girl. She loved her daddy, and had him wrapped securely around her finger, but she was a mama's girl at heart. This fall when Presley was born, our family dynamic started shifting. Matthew has always been very hands on, and with Mattie we had always pretty much split parenting duties down the middle, taking turns with baths, etc. But when Presley got here, he basically took over Mattie, while I took care of the majority of Presley's care. During those early post-partum weeks, Matthew bathed Mattie every night, got her ready for school every morning, took care of her meals, took her to school, etc. And even after we started coming out of the newborn craziness, and after I went back to work, we continued with a lot of this pattern. I lay out her clothes at night, and he still gets her dressed in the mornings, he still does most of her baths, while I do most of Presley's. He's learned how to do girl-hair pretty well, and has mastered the pony-tail. He still takes her to school three mornings a week during the school year. Add to that all the summertime fun they've been having together lately, and what I've ended up with now is a certifiable Daddy's Girl. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, and even if there were, there's nothing I could do about it. Those two are thick as thieves these days. He better stay away from my baby PK though...she's still mine for now : )

-Here's hoping I post something more interesting than this next time. Sorry for the randomness!