A day of firsts...

Well it is day 6 of the deployment. 359ish to go. Ugh. I am so thankful that I have Elise with me this time. How can you resist smiling back at the goofy toothless grin of a 3 month old? She is such a good baby... we are so blessed! It is very easy to take her places because she loves being in her stroller and her Baby Bjorn. She is so predictable. For the last month, she has been eating 5 times a day around 8, 11, 2, 5, and 7:30... then sleeping from 8-8. I have had a lot of people ask me how I got her on such a good schedule so early... one of these days I will blog about it so that I have it in writing for help with a future Baby Powell :)

My sweet sleeper - 13 weeks, 14 lbs, 25 inches

Now on to explain the title of this post...

This morning I had my first experience as a mother of twins. Lynda dropped William off so that she could go to a dentist appointment sans baby. First, I finished feeding Elise while William chilled in the carrier. Then, we all watched Mike read books to Elise. She squeals and giggles while she is watching her daddy. It is so sweet but sad at the same time. Then, Elise took a nap while William ate and got a new diaper. After that, he played on the mat for a while and she woke up and got a new diaper. I still can't believe that during the whole two hours, there was never a moment where both of them needed me at the same time. I can't imagine how hard it would be to do this every day. Sara White, you are my hero!

William and Elise... he is 7.5 weeks younger (I think)

Next, Elise had her first trip to Chick-fil-a. We met Laura, Madelyn, Anna and Asa for lunch. As I pulled in the parking lot, I heard "the noise" from the backseat. As I gingerly removed her from the car seat, I saw seedy yellow liquid dripping from her backside onto the carrier. Great. Miraculously, it didn't get on her clothes! Her shirt was just far enough up and her jeans were sagging below the diaper line. I quickly pulled out the changing pad, wipes and a diaper (with one hand) and changed her in the back seat. End of story? Not quite. Read on.

We enjoyed our lunch and then went to Old Navy to do some shopping. Elise did great during the whole outing. I love how predictable she is! We arrived home about 5 minutes before she usually eats at 2. I got her out, thoroughly cleaned her, changed her clothes, and fed her.

Fast forward a few hours. Elise was playing on her tummy. She tolerates "tummy time" a lot better than she did in the beginning. Sometimes she pushes her head and chest up and looks around, other times she just lays there and sucks her thumb. Today she kept pushing up with her arms and then all of a sudden she was on her back! She had a "Mom, what the heck just happened?" look on her face. I scrambled for the camera and video camera and rolled her back over... and no luck. I guess she didn't think it was that cool. We'll try again tomorrow.

After the big roll... the little stinker wouldn't do it again though :(
She's 13.5 weeks old.

Next, we got in the car to make a quick run to Barnes and Noble. I opened the car door and a putrid odor permeated the garage air. This smell was worse than the trash when the diaper champ gets emptied. I looked in the back seat to make sure I had thrown the dirty diaper away from Chick-fil-a. It was in the trash can. I look closer and I see it. A big liquid puddle of mustard yellow in the car seat base. Ugh. That poop had dribbled down through the strap holes of the carrier to the base. This also meant that it got tracked into the house from the bottom of the carrier. Lovely. What a first.

Now if only there could be a first day that I haven't corrected Boss with the spray bottle since Mike left... he looks angelic here. Don't let that fool you.