Our visit with Gina and family!

We decided to take a ride to Pittsfield, MA today (approx. 2 1/2 hrs from Rhode Island) to meet little Natalie Elizabeth Hines! We couldn't have picked a better day for a lengthy drive seeing as how it was 60 degree's and partly sunny out! The ride went smoothly and was uneventful. Kyle has always travelled very well. We only had to stop once for a bathroom break, which I thought was pretty impressive. At this stage in my pregnancy I normally have to use the bathroom every 20 minutes!!

We arrived at Gina's around 1:45p which turned out to be perfect timing. Brad had gone to purchase a ladder so Gina was home alone with the girls. Brad figured Valerie would nap while he was gone - she normally sleeps from 12:30p-3:00p but on this particular afternoon she decided to cut her nap short. She woke up a few minutes before we arrived and was impatiently waiting for Gina to get her out of her crib. Natalie was in the middle of a feeding, and was not about to postpone it for anyone!! I was thrilled to lend a hand and enjoyed feeding Natalie while Gina tended to Valerie. Unfortunately, Valerie woke up on the wrong side of the crib...

But after about 20 minutes she couldn't resist snapping out of her mood to play with cousin Kyle!!

They read some books together...

And then played with some baby dolls. As you can see from the picture below, Valerie is not quite ready to hold her baby sister just yet...she'll have to keep practicing on the dolls first!!

Kyle spent some time teaching Valerie how to make "car noises". It wasn't long before the two of them sounded like they were stuck in a traffic jam!

While Gina was tending to Valerie's snack I decided to see if Kyle would like to hold his newest cousin Natalie. It took some coaxing, but in the end I got this ADORABLE picture of the two of them!! Doesn't it look like Natalie is waving hello?! Kyle, on the other hand, was concentrating REAL hard on NOT moving!!

Jim seemed a bit hesistant to hold Natalie himself. Afterall, she's only 1 week old! But I reminded him how soon enough he will be holding our baby, so perhaps a refresher course was needed!

Although the picture above looks identical to the picture below there IS a difference. In the one above, Natalie was awake and spent a few seconds looking at her Uncle Jim. But apparently she found him to be kind of boring..because she went right to sleep! Jim never even had a chance to change his expression hahaha!

Later she woke up and once again was very alert! Her eyes look dark in these pictures but they are actually blue, for now...

During our visit I really got to spend a lot of time with both the girls. I fed Natalie twice and changed her diaper twice too. Feeding her was a breeze. Changing her was a different story! She's just SO tiny and although she has been out of the womb for 1 week now she still prefers to keep her legs scrunched up in the fetal position, making it IMPOSSIBLE to get her diaper on and off! I was so scared to stretch out her legs to change her - she seems so fragile!!

Valerie is still trying to understand exactly what this baby is doing in her house! But for the most part she is adjusting very well. She does show some slight signs of being jealous - she often will bring Gina a book during one of Natalie's feedings or want to be held when Natalie is being held but at just 14 months of age who can blame her? And it's been such a busy week for her as well - she decided it was time to try out her feet and is now walking full time! Congrats Valerie!!!

Gina is already feeling better and looks amazing! Both her and Brad will face some challenges raising these two beautiful girls who are just 14 months apart in age but I truly believe they won't have any problems at all! Working together as a team they've already got things under control - even if they don't feel like they do! And, on a side note, while we were there Gina kept apologizing for certain rooms in their house not being "clean". Since becoming a "Mom Of Two" she's probably lucky if she gets 10 minutes to take a shower, let alone clean the house (although it looked just FINE to us!!) In any event I thought Gina might like this :

Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there

But Gina's boasts of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere

For smears are on the windows and there are little smudges on the doors

And Gina feels she should apologize, I guess, for all the toys thrown on the floors

But I watched her sit down with her children and they played and laughed and read

And if the windows do not shine, her childrens eyes will shine instead

There may be times when Gina is forced to choose one job or the other

Someday she'll be a housewife but first she'll be a mother!!