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Our letter this week was 'K', however Leah decided to start the week with the letters 'E.R.' due to a dislocated elbow. You can read about it here.

To share my Louisiana roots and celebrate Mardi Gras, I hosted a Mardi Gras playdate. Molly helped me decorate one of the two king cakes that I made. She did a great job pouring the colored sugar only where she was told.

We worked on crafting our letter 'K'.

I combined ideas from No Time for Flash Cards and dltk-teach.com to create our K for King.

Molly worked on her counting skills with this kite matching game.

She made a cardboard kazoo and then serenaded Leah with a song.

Aunt Caroline and Will came over for a visit. They had fun stamping paper for our last K project...

a kaleidoscope! Molly enjoyed the kaleidoscope for a few short minutes. She had more fun stamping the cover!

Leah wanted to try out the kaleidoscope too. Ok, so maybe she just wanted to chew on it, but she was looking through it by default!

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Again this year, I hosted a Mardi Gras playdate. It was such a popular activity with my MOMS Club that it filled up in 12 hours and even had a wait-list! Next year, I might just have to host two!

I tried my hand at making a king cake from scratch this year. I even made it with yummy cream cheese filling like Chad prefers. I learned a few things that I know to do differently next year, but overall it was a success.

In addition to eating king cake, we listened to traditional Mardi Gras music, and had fun making jester hats.

Molly and her friend, Allison, happily modeled their new hats.

Molly is her father's child when it comes to cake. She licked all the sugar and icing off the king cake, then asked for another piece. Clearly, she does not need to be able to see to do this!

I made sure that both girls were sporting their Mardi Gras fashions for the day. Here they are taking in a little reading after the party.

Leah beat out Molly for the prize of "First kid to the ER" yesterday. She was admitted for a dislocated elbow, also known as nursemaid's elbow.

It happened just after noon yesterday when Molly rolled Leah from her front to back, and Leah's arm got caught underneath her. She let out a cry of pain and it took over an hour to calm her down. By 3:00 PM Chad noticed that Leah was not moving her right arm, so I called the doctor and was told to come in. After the third attempt to reduce her elbow, we thought it was back in place, so Leah was given some Tylenol and we headed home. The pediatrician called at 7:30 PM to check on Leah, and was not satisfied that we had corrected the problem, so she sent us to the ER.

We were swiftly taken back to the pediatric ER and by the time Chad showed up (he had to put Molly to bed and wait on his mom to arrive) the doctor was walking in. X-rays were taken and showed that nothing was broken. So, the doctor attempted the fourth try at reducing Leah's elbow. This time it worked! She was laying in my arms and immediately reached up toward my face. But then it took another 10-15 minutes for her to move it again. It was like she didn't know she could move it (we enticed her with Molly's sunglasses as seen below). We were given the OK to go home and were out in less than 2.5 hours. Leah was in bed by 10:45 PM and the craziness was over.

It was the best ER experience we've ever had (not that you ever want to have that!), and Leah's doing better now. Her arm is not at 100%, but she is moving it more and more as the day progresses. I was reassured by both doctors that this is very common for infants and toddlers, but I sure hope that we don't have to go through that again!

Leah's started holding onto the ring in the swing when she's sleeping,

as her sister before her.

Leah's also started smooshing her face into the wall of the crib when she sleeps. While using the bumper to roll over, I think she gets too tired to make the effort, so she gives up and goes to sleep.

I really don't like to fly, and I'll avoid it if at all possible. There is a lot of waiting, I feel like a sardine, and my ears don't handle it well (they sometimes don't pop for a day or two). I'm glad my kids appear to handle the flying experience better than I do. This video shows them having fun on our recent trip to Birmingham.

This past weekend we celebrated our niece's 1st birthday! We flew down to Birmingham for the occasion. Leah did really well on her first flights (as seen in this video). She slept on both flights and was generally happy when awake.

Emmie's birthday party was Saturday (though she didn't actully turn 1 until Sunday). Molly, of course, helped Emmie open her presents.

Despite all the excitement, Leah was unphased. She slept for the first hour or so of the party.

Opening presents took a long time, so Emmie took a break to hang out with me for a bit.

Then it was time for cake! It took Emmie a couple minutes to warm up to it, but once she got going she realized how great it was.

Leah did eventually wake up and join the party. Here she is spending some time with her Great Grandmother Dot.

After the party, Molly got some late Christmas presents from her Great Aunt Roxanne, including this rocking horse that she really had fun with. I have a feeling it will be a big hit with our playgroup!

On Sunday, we were finally able to get a picture of all three girls wearing their dresses that G'Mom made them.

There was a lot of music going on during our stay (as seen in this video), including piano, guitar, and these lovely percussionists.

We had a great time visiting with lots of family. The girls did great the entire weekend, even sleeping in the same room! There are a lot more pictures from our trip here.

Little sister, Leah, kicked off our 'O' week wearing her owl dress on Sunday.

I found inspiration for our 'O' craft at No Time for Flash Cards. We began with some sponge painting.

Then gluing on some shapes.

And here you have it. Whoo, whoo guessed we were making an owl?

Continuing our 'O' activities, I helped Molly make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. She's been asking to help in the kitchen a lot lately. It's important to evenly space the dough when spooning it out onto the cookie sheet.

We had to let them cool before digging in.

Molly thought the cookies were excellent, though I think she couldn't have eaten much chocolate since most of it is on her face.

We finished out our 'O' week by participating in stART. A Story + Art = A Great Start!

The idea for our craft came from this blog. Here's Molly's interpretation of Sarah, Percy and Bill.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Leah rolled over for the first time a few weeks ago. She actually went from back to front, which is usually the second way kids go. Ever since, we've been trying to get it on video, but Leah has not been cooperating. This video shows some of the trials in rolling over (and getting it on video). Note that all of this video was shot after she had started rolling over.

I was going through old blog posts tonight, and saw this. I thought it'd be fun to show you this comparison.

Leah at 3 months.

Molly at almost 3 months.

This video is even better. No doubt they are sisters!

We had a great Christmas. My parents were here to celebrate with us and Chad's family. Molly was so excited about Santa and all the presents. She liked passing out gifts, helping to open them, and then immediately wanting to play with her toys. Leah slept through most of it, but had a wonderful 1st Christmas.

My mom smocked the girls' Christmas dresses this year (including a matching one for my niece too!).

My mother-in-law hosted a Christmas Eve Soup and Sandwich dinner. Here is a family photo. There was also 4 family friends there too!

Grammy (the girls' great-grandmother) gave Molly a Baby Huggums for her Christmas Eve gift. Molly has hardly put it down since getting it, and it has been added to Lambie and Bunny in the group of things she needs to go to sleep.

Leah has started to play with small stuffed animals a lot lately. So, Santa brought Leah her own baby Elmo, which she likes a lot. It's soft and furry and light enough for her to handle.

Molly and Leah got a wagon from Grams and Pop. Molly hopped in immediately, put on her seatbelt, and got comfortable.

Chad caught this picture of Molly after naptime. It's one of my favorites from the day.

Another great picture. Leah is having fun with her Grams.

The homemade sugar cookies were a huge hit with Molly. Here she is looking at herself in the mirror while eating cookie number three. Perhaps the one with the green sprinkles was a poor choice. No big deal though, it only took about 24 hours for it to come off.

There are a lot more pictures of our Christmas. And Chad captured a lot of our day on video too.