When Alliclaus was born, everyone told me how much she looked like Andres. With very few exceptions, I was basically told that I had been just the gestater for my husband's female clone. Andres and I weren't so sure. She really didn't look like him in the "spitting image" kind of way.

When Mimiclaus was born, we weren't really sure if she looked like Alliclaus. It has quickly, however, become infinitely apparent that she looks just like me.

She's so fair that Sarah likes to tell me, "If she was one shade lighter, you'd have some explaining to do." She wasn't "blessed" with Alliclaus' gigundo head or her thick, dark hair. And really, I can't tell if they look alike or not. I get a lot of comments that they don't look anything alike. But sometimes I'll see a picture of Alliclaus when she was a baby and think it looks an awful lot like Mimiclaus.

In the interest of getting real with myself, I would like your opinion. Do you think my girls look alike? Do they at the very least look related?

Alliclaus on September 19, 2006, when she was almost six months old

Mimiclaus today, almost six months old

So, what do you think? Additionally, I'm considering changing the girls' pseudonyms on this here blog to something a little bit more name-ish and a little less cutesy. Thoughts?

Posted by Bethiclaus at 08:45 PM | Comments (9)

Since I'm pretty bad about taking pictures of my children, and since I know the pain of not having important photos (not a single wedding photo lives in my house), I resolved early to have someone professional take photographs of my children. I've always shared Rebecca's pictures of my children with you before, but since I've been MIA from the blog for so long, I completely forgot that there are two shoots sitting on her blog that I haven't shown you.

You want to see my kids cuteness. I know you do. (Plus, you can see the girls' real names. Please don't use them here, though. We try to keep it un-Googlable around these parts.) Here are the entries.

I'm even more enamored with Rebecca than usual, since she invited me to go see Sex and the City with a bunch of girls this Monday night. Someone has a social life! Heh. We're also starting the eHarmony of Bromances, but that is a post for another day.

Posted by Bethiclaus at 08:00 PM | Comments (13)

Six days ago, I had a baby.

Mimiclaus was born January 9, 2008 at 12:59 p.m.
8 lbs, 12 oz., 19.5 inches, 14.5 inch head
So much for a baby who was "so much smaller" than Alliclaus.

Considering how big she was, we had a super-easy labor and delivery. They broke my water at 7:00, I went into labor at 10:30, I started pushing at 12:55 and she was born before 1:00. It was so different than with Alliclaus that I could hardly believe it was real.

Not so different than with Alliclaus? Big baby, rising bilirubin, poor breast milk supply. We're supplementing some with formula (shut it if you have something to say on that point), but I am cautiously hopeful that things might smooth out since Mimiclaus is interested in breastfeeding where Alliclaus could have cared less for, oh, say, twelve weeks or so.

Alliclaus is relatively good with the new baby. She is certainly struggling with the change in her life, but seems to be mostly taking it in stride. It helps that my mom's in town to help us out.

I'm the mother of two now.

I'm so lucky.

Posted by Bethiclaus at 05:36 PM | Comments (24)