Who wants to stay up all night and wait for Santa?

Why did I start making rolls at 4:30 am on Christmas morning? And why did I start writing this post at 5 am? Maybe I'm just a real go-getter. Or maybe I was in the midst of a manic episode caused by undiagnosed bipolar disorder. Most likely though, I was a victim of crippling insomnia coupled with the indominable spirit of baby Rose who chose not to sleep virtually all night! For Christmas Eve, I, Chris and the babies went to my oldest sister's house for a lovely Christmas party. We got home fairly early and went to bed at a respectable 10:45 pm. I could tell right away I was going to have a tough time sleeping despite feeling very tired. Chris had given me the chance to take a nap during the day, and while it was a wonderful nap, sleeping during the day often spells disaster for my ability to fall asleep at night. Chris was also having trouble sleeping as was baby Rose, who kept squawking intermittently. Chris decided to read for a while, and I spent some time playing with the Ipad and going back and forth to sooth Rose. After trying unsuccessfully to go to sleep a second time, we got up and watched a movie. At about 3 am, we decided it was time to try sleeping again. The babies both seemed to be sleeping soundly. I laid in bed for what seemed like a long time before the warm fuzziness of sleep started to enclose me. It seemed like the fuzziness had just settled in when I abruptly felt myself being lifted out of it by......you guessed it.......BABY ROSE!!! I blearily look at the clock: 4:23 am. "Maybe she will quiet down and go to sleep" I tell myself. Of course, that was delusional. If it were that easy, she wouldn't be Rose! A mental scream reverberates through my head as I trudge to the baby room and decide to take off Rose's helmet. She quickly fell into the kind of blissful sleep you can only get on Christmas Eve after going to a wonderful party (and having your orthotic helmet taken off apparently). But the possibility of sleeping on Christmas Eve is long gone for me. Oh well. I guess I can try for it again next year. Besides, what is fresher than bread baked at 6 am on Christmas morning?! Hmmm.....I guess bread baked at 9 am (which was the original plan) would technically be fresher, but I'm sure the 6 am bread will be more delicious. I thought this "waking up before dawn on Christmas" thing wasn't supposed to start until the girls are old enough to know who Santa is. I comfort myself by thinking about what a charming story this will make of Rose's first Christmas. Poor little Lili won't have a charming story....she slept like a perfect angel all night!

Rolls version 2.0. Version 1.0 didn't work out as planned...don't ask!

Sparkling Cider deer (a new twist on the traditional Root-deer) we made for coworkers:

Rose and Lili in some Christmas-y dresses for Church a couple of weeks ago:

At the ward Christmas party:

  

I think Lili looks like a baby elf with this coordinating outfit and hat: 

Baby Rose and me:

Baby Lili has had enough partying for one night:

Decorating the Christmas tree (don't worry...these ornaments are plastic!):

Baby Lili will have pine-fresh breath!

On Christmas Eve before leaving for the family party:

Our family Christmas photo courtesy of a patient photographer/niece:

Christmas morning:

Grandpa Bryson's house:

Rose takes a selfie after eating wrapping paper:

 Rose gets in the Christmas spirit:

 Lili, as usual, is an angel!

A New Hat for Baby Rose

Since the girls were born so early, their soft little heads developed some flat spots early on. Plus, both girls had Torticollis (tightness on one side of the neck) which resulted in them only wanting to look to the right. Thus, their little heads ended up resting on the same spot a lot. Poor little Rose had the worst flat spot. Both girls have been doing physical therapy since coming home from the NICU and the Torticollis has improved for both. We have also tried our hardest to make sure they are positioned in such a way that they will want to look to the left and we have tried moving their head position while they sleep. For some reason, Lili's head has gotten rounder over time while Rose's head has not really made any improvement despite lots of effort on our part. She was diagnosed with Plagiochephaly, which basically means she has an asymmetrical distortion of her skull. There is a flattening on the back/side of her head which has also caused one side of her forehead to protrude a bit. When viewed from the top down, her skull looks a little like a parallelogram. I took both girls to Primary Children's Rehabilitation to be checked out, and they measured the asymmetry of their skulls. Lili's was not very bad, but Rose was referred for an orthotic helmet. When we went to see the orthotist, he noted that he would consider Rose's flattening to be in the severe range. I was not very surprised, as I've been worried about it for a while. The orthotist confirmed that a helmet is recommended. I was glad to hear that the helmet does not "squish" her head back into shape. Sounds like it just restricts growth in the areas that are distorted and allows the flat spots to fill in. She will probably have to wear the helmet for three months. Maybe when she is all done I will post some before and after pictures.

This is Rose getting scanned for her helmet. They put a light cloth over her head to cover her hair because the scanner cannot read dark colors. There is an origin sensor placed on top of her head (the little black box in the picture) and then the orthotist scans her head all around with a thing that looks like a grocery store scanner gun. 

Here is Rose wearing her helmet for the first time. She is a little uncertain at first.....

 Shortly thereafter, there is no doubt about it......she hates it! 

She will wear the helmet off and on for several days in order to work up to wearing it full time: 23 hours per day! The first two days have been pretty tough so far. It's going to be a long three months!

Just in time for Halloween

The girls are lions for Halloween this year. I decided to do a baby lion photo shoot just for fun. I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday. Rose was not very cooperative, so I didn't really get any pictures of her alone. After she settled down, I got some super cute ones of her and Lili together. 

A Giggling Rose

Rose is pretty serious and somber a lot of the time, but she also thinks some things are pretty funny. Here is a cute video of her. 

Santa Fe style

My mom always made Santa Fe style tiered skirts for me when I was a little growing up in New Mexico. It is tradition that the girls should wear them too! Here are the girls in their first Santa Fe skirts sewed for them by their grandmother. 

                                                       Rose was willing to smile.

               Lili was not. But she has some really cute big eyes here. 

Oktoberfest

Yesterday we took the babies up to Snowbird for Oktoberfest. We love going to Oktoberfest every year to see the fall colors and listen to the German music. We brought some food up and ate lunch in the big tent where the band was playing. And we bought a super expensive piece of German Chocolate Cake to share. Worth it. Then we walked around the grounds for a while. I carried Rose because she loves to be able to look around and see everything. Lili was asleep most of the time, but I woke her up at the end because she always misses out on everything because she is asleep! Last year when we went to Oktoberfest, we had no idea we would have two sweet babies to bring with us in a year's time. Last year, Chris also got food poisoning. So there are at least two ways in which things went more favorably this year.

                                   

  

Old fashioned pictures

These were taken a couple of weeks ago at one of those store photography setups. Lili was pretty much asleep the whole time, so I am amazed there are any photos with her eyes open. I was expecting her to look intoxicated in all of her pictures. Luckily, there are a few good ones of both girls.