Sisters, Sisters, you've never seen such devoted sisters

Brock and I have been trying to decide if Claire will look like Ashlyn, so here is a study of our two little girls. Definately some family resemblance. I tried to get some similar poses from hospital to one week; Ashlyn is on the left and Claire is on the right. I can't believe she is a week and one day already. Ashlyn seems to be adjusting well. In one of the pictures of Claire you see a little bear and some stuffed animals. Ashlyn brought her the bear when she noticed that Claire's pacifier had a bear on it, and slowly she built a little shrine around Claire with her stuffed black dog that we named Dutchess and another bear. I took that as a good sign that these two little girls will get along just fine.

Introducing Claire Micaela Solano. Born 2:45 am on April 17th. 7 lbs. 14 oz. 20.5 inches long. Look at those skinny little legs. The black band was a security alarm so no one could steal her. The swelling in her face has gone down, and she is looking more and more like Ashlyn did except her hair is darker. Another little miracle. She is a good little baby.

Can you remember the last time you've been this upset? Come on Claire the world isn't that bad of a place.

Ashlyn turned two on April 18th, and hopes that Brock doesn't get his wish of only having to organize one party and buy one gift for her and her little sister to share. I love how Ashlyn got Brock's curls but unfortunately her hair is super fine like mine. It's great that balloons make it stand on end and every time she goes down a slide it flies up in the air. Who knew that static electricity could be this entertaining.

The sad truth is that I have not posted a single thing since January 26th, and I wish I had a really good excuse, like going into labor or something, but I don't. In fact, now that I didn't go into labor conveniently during Brock's spring break last week, I now need to wait until at least Sunday so Brock doesn't miss out on some very important meeting/tests on Friday and Saturday. We'll see how compliant our new little girl will be.

So, I finally got the pictures off our camera, so lets catch up on what the Solano's have been up to lately.

Easter was fun with an egg hunt at the church Saturday morning that Ashlyn seemed to really enjoy after I showed her that the eggs had candy in them. We dyed some eggs Sunday morning, but Ashlyn just wanted to eat the eggs and try to grab the cups of brightly colored "juice". We hid more eggs Sunday morning around the house and Ashlyn got really excited this time raising the eggs up above her head, yelling yeah and shaking it whenever she found one. She didn't know how to react however when she came across the brain-shaped "stress ball" that Brock decided to hide along with the eggs. Ashlyn had also been excited about a new toy provided by Great-grandmother Plumb. An exercise trampoline with a hand crafted denim/sequin spring cover/pad. This girl loves to jump, and she always wants daddy to "come" and jump with her. She'll go grab his hand and "pull" him up off his chair and kind of makes a grunting sound like she is straining and using all her strength to help him up. I guess I just do that whenever I am trying to heft my 200 pounds around the house. If you tell her to jump high she'll jump and wave and say hi while she's jumping...a smart-alec in the making.

We've been enjoying some beautiful weather and try to get to the beach from time to time and take walks around town by the fountain or to the park. Ashlyn is expressing herself more and more with new words, and it keeps Brock and me on our toes. It gets tricky when she combines words into one like minethose and morethis. She is also revealing to me the phrases I must say a lot like "you ok?" and "here you go!" She also says "YES!" and "all right" and whenever we toss a ball to her, even if it hits her in the face, she says, "Nice!" She also just chatters a lot and has lots of things to say where she will intently look at you and thinks you should understand what she's saying. Bibo means rainbow, and Obie is Mowgli from the jungle book, but most of the other nouns she know are very clear like "trampoLINE!!" Ashlyn is now in the process of bringing me all of the plastic food from her kitchen, putting them on the computer desk, and telling me to eat. I guess she might be trying to tell me that she's hungry and that I should post this and get on with the day. Hopefully our next post will introduce the newest Solano to everyone, and that it won't be two months from now.