they grow up so fast

As I'm sure you can imagine (given the newly expanded state of our household and judging from the serious lack of new posts lately), the Jacobs family have had a lot going on the last couple of months. As much as we might want the world around us to slow down a little as we adjust to life with dos chicas en la casa, it does nothing to oblige us - just keeps right on spinning, at times so fast that we feel like we're the ones that are doing the whirling! Some new developments since the last time we posted:

Haven is sleeping through the night and has been since she was just under 2 months. (Remember that poll that we took awhile back about predictions on Haven's timing in reaching this milestone in relation to what Gracelyn did as a newborn? Well, Haven did beat Gracelyn's time, by over two weeks! That made me a happy...and more well-rested...mommie!) It actually all started when we were on our trip to San Diego late-August, early-September. One morning at the beginning of our trip, I woke up around 7am, realizing that Haven hadn't woken up yet; she continued the trend through the rest of our trip (10 days or so). When we got back home, there was a slight regression, but she was again sleeping through the night about a week later! Yay!

Haven -- code name "Origami" because of all her folds

In case you can't tell from the above photo, Haven has also been packing on the pounds! At her 2-month well-baby check-up, she weighed in at 13 lbs, 2 oz (85th percentile, meaning that 85% of babies her age don't weigh as much as she does)! She is now about a week away from three months old, but she's fitting nicely into clothes that a sixth-month-old baby could wear! Must be something in mama's milk!

In Big Sister news, Gracelyn started preschool last month, attending East Hills Preschool three afternoons a week. She is making some great new friends, learning a ton of new stuff, and bringing home lots and lots of artwork!! We recently purchased a small bulletin board to hang in her room, so we could show off some of her best work. She loves going into her room to see her paintings, drawings, and collages. Here are some photos of her first day of school.

Rockin' the Diego backpack

Finding her cubby

Working away with Miss Shelley and classmate Neel

Also, Gracelyn is now potty-trained! She still wears diapers for naptime and bedtime, but during the day, it's nothing but Big-Girl Panties!! We do have the occasional accident here and there, but we've made really good progress in getting ourselves to the potty when we need to go! Mommie and Daddie have a smal dilemma, however; when we began the potty-training process, to help Gracelyn be motivated to use the potty, we incented her with Dora the Explorer videos - go potty in the potty, watch Dora on the TV. It worked great the first week! She would be so excited every time she went in the potty: "I get to watch Dora now!" with a huge grin on her face. As she's gotten better and better at using the toilet, we have realized that this incentive program can't continue this way, or well be watching Dora all day every day (and wanting to shoot ourselves everytime we hear "Swiper, no swiping"!). Any suggestions on a new incentive program (and how to transition from the old one) would be greatly appreciated!!

Wearing her Big-Girl Dora panties on the first day of "Potty-Training Boot Camp"