Birthday Treats

My birthday was this past weekend and I got some fun treats! My mom gave me some Trish McEvoy makeup and some new necklaces and earings (these aren't the exact ones, but pretty close). Some sweet friends brought me beautiful roses that were light pink turning to hot pink on the tips- beautiful!!! Then, my brother gave us a night of babysitting and paid for our movie, so we went to see The Proposal, and it was GREAT! We laughed so hard, and Brandon even enjoyed it! Brandon took me to a great dinner at Brio, and it is so nice to sit and enjoy a meal and talk to each other. Plus, the food at Brio never disappoints! I got some money from Brandon's parents and grandparents and my grandad, so I ordered a new carseat for Blake. It doesn't sound too exciting, but trust me it is! We needed one and don't have a lot extra in the budget these days, so at least I could get the one I wanted! So I am very excited to see this coming soon. My parents took us out to eat at PF Changs last night, which was also great. And they are watching both kids this weekend so that Brandon and I can go to the beach with a friend from college. I am excited to read and relax all weekend! Last week wasn't the best at our house (Brandon's schedule was awful and he was only home 2 nights), so these birthday surprises were a nice treat!

Recent Happenings

Kate turned 2 on May 29th, but she just went for her 2 year appointment on Wednesday. She weighs 26 pounds, which puts her in the 40% for weight, and she is 33 1/2 inches tall, putting her in the 30% for height. When she was born, she was in the 95% for height, so she is falling off the curve a little bit! Kate had to have a finger prick to check her iron, which was low AGAIN, but she did not cry at all! I told her that she could get a sucker if she was a big girl, and it worked. Little did she know, she would get a sucker even if she had cried. I talked to Dr. Peters for a while about Kate's diet, since she would rather eat snacks and crackers all day than any solid meal. I am just trying to make her snacks healthy, rather than goldfish all day long. Evidently all kids do this at some point or another, so the doctor was fine with it, as long as we push the meals.
Kate has had a light heart murmur forever, but Dr. Peters said it was louder than she remembers it being, so we are going to see a cardiologist on July 29th. I am not that worried about it because she had a cardiac ultrasound when she was born and there were no structural problems. I also talked to Dr. Peters about Kate's nonstop repeating and strange OCD behavior. She will replay situations or conversations days after they happen, and she is constantly repeating things I tell her. For example, when we were at the beach, if the upstairs neighbor opened their glass patio door, it sounded like thunder in our condo. She would gasp and run to me every time, until I told her, "It is ok. It is not thunder, it is just the neighbor." Then, every time after that, she would say, "It's ok it's ok it's ok, it's not thunder, it's the neighbor." Repeating it so much that we were going crazy. If an older child displays this much repitition, it can point to autism, so it kind of freaked me out a little bit. She also does things with an OCD nature. I leave Blake's carseat in the car now, but when I used to bring it in, Kate would always have to buckle his seatbelt. Also, she has to have shoes on all the time, but she puts them on the wrong feet... EVERY TIME! When I asked Dr. Peters about it, she laughed in my face. She said that Kate seems like her mind is just running 90 miles a minute and that she is just excited about learning new things and wants to repeat them. She said that she was even a little ahead of the game and just not to worry about it. That made me feel better, and when I told Brandon, my sister, and my mom about it- they all said, "I can't believe you asked her if she thought something was wrong!" To set the record straight, I do not think Kate has learning problems, but I also do see her doing things that seem unusual. I guess I have a girl that marches to the beat of a different drum!
Another recent piece of information- I quit my job, for good. I haven't worked recently anyway, but I at least made it official. I feel like when I have worked since having kids, I have not been fully THERE, but just doing my job and going home. Which, in an NICU, is not good. Your heart really has to be in it or your head can't keep up! Brandon's schedule is also pretty rough right now and he just said that he didn't want to come home from working 36 hours to stay home while I go to work. I also heard that they were not hiring flexi positions because they didn't have anymore and it just made me feel guilty for hogging a position when I am really not working much. I handed in my resignation letter on Wednesday and I feel a real peace about it. I know that the Lord has provided and will continue to provide for us in any situation. That is about it for our house right now!

A Few Of My Favorite Things

This is Blake's "lovey" or "Lamby" that he sleeps with. I have been letting him cry it out for a little bit now and he has done great so far (except for when he is sick). I noticed that he was losing interest in his pacifier, which makes me very happy since I am dreading taking it away from Kate. *Side note- she only gets her pacifier for naps and bedtime, but she frequently talks about/begs for/throws fits for it anyway.* Anyway, I realized what was soothing him instead of it, and it is Lamby! He loves his Lamby, but he is chewing the ears right off of it. Do you see the funky dark colored ears? That is straight out of the washing machine!!! I am loving this though because it is truly soothing him. I guess I will just keep washing it and buy new ones when they get too gross to stand.

My roses make me happy! And, that big tomato that will be ripe soon makes me very happy too! Do you see the rose that is about to bloom in front of the tomato plant? We take walks everyday to look at our plants, since Kate "helped" plant them. It is nice to show her the pretty flowers and see how excited she gets. The kids are feeling better today, but we are still laying low to rest before a fun July 4th weekend!

*New (er) Post Below

Happy Birthday Kate (a month late)!!!

Kate got some very fun things for her birthday this year! We love playing outside and now we can stay busy while we are out there! My parents, Gigi and Pop Pop, gave Kate this all-in-one slide that has "rock climbing" on one side, a slide on the other, a basketball goal, a place to throw a football and a place to kick a soccer ball. She has been having a blast with it!

Brandon and I knew we wanted to get Kate a trampoline, but we hadn't found a good deal on one (and we really haven't had much time) until yesterday. I went and picked it up and Brandon set it up all by 4:30 or 5. She LOVES it! She kept jumping until she would fall and say, "I ok mommy." After just a few minutes of jumping, Brandon and I laughed because she was completely out of breath. After her bath, she came into Blake's room (Brandon always dresses Kate and I always dress Blake after baths) and said, "thank you tramp." Good thing I know what she meant! Tramp-oline is hard so she just sticks with tramp. She has already asked several more times, "jump, ok?" She is excited to have some friends over to play with it soon!

Meanwhile, she and Blake both have a random fever virus that just makes them spike a fever and be very irritable. They have been really sleepy though, so at least that has made it ok. A virus doesn't stop her from enjoying her new birthday presents.

Busy Boy

Blake loves to eat real food! I don't think I let Kate have adult snacks until she was closer to a year old, but Blake just grabs anything he can find and shoves it in his mouth. Today, he and Kate were playing outside and she was eating cheese puffs, and he just had to try one too. Can you see the precious smile after he finished it?

Going, Going, Gone! Blake is crawling all over the place and now he has started pulling up on everything too. He pulls up on his Elmo toy, then he is so proud that he has to flash a smile, but then he knocks it over. He hasn't hurt himself on it, but I redirected his attention to the big Pottery Barn chair. He loves it. Kate doesn't love him creeping into her territory, but she is getting better at sharing her stuff. The other morning, she had a bowl of dry cheerios while she sat in her chair and I was in the kitchen when I heard her tell Blake "NO BUBBA!" and when I checked on them, he had his hand in her bowl grabbing a handful of cheerios. He doesn't love milk much anymore, he wants the real stuff! I guess the second one does things a little sooner than the first.

And, I wanted to end with a sassy picture of Kate because she is so funny running through her sprinkler. And, NO, we did not forget her birthday! We just haven't totally celebrated it yet since we all went out of town and life was just a little hectic. More to come on Kate later!

Tagged

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Went to Bible Study

2. Ate yummy lunch at Iz Too

3. Trimmed hedges in my front yard

4. Appliqued 4 burp cloths

5. Made a delicious dinner loaded with vegetables- we are trying to eat healthier around here

6. Worked on smocking a new dress for Kate

7. Read some of my book

8. Kept Kate from shoving an entire animal cracker in Blake's mouth

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Speak another language fluently- I really don't like Spanish, so I would rather speak French

2. Get Blake to sleep through the night

3. Read books more often

4. Keep up with old friends better

5. Hide my facial expressions- they get me in trouble a lot

6. Exercise- and enjoy it... right now it is just so hard to find a good activity for me to do with the kids in a good time frame (not interrupting naps, etc.)

7. Lay out by the pool all day long

8. Keep my house incredibly clean

8 Shows I Watch

1. Tori and Dean- Home Sweet Hollywood

2. Jon and Kate Plus 8
3. Desperate Housewives

4. Army Wives

5. Today Show- yes it is liberal, but I do love it

6. Brothers and Sisters

7. Extreme Home Makeover- Brandon loves this show

8. Criminal Minds

8 Favorite Foods

1. Mexican... cheese dip- yum!

2. Ice Cream

3. Fruit

4. Dips- any appetizer dips, spinach and artichoke, salsa, etc. There is a restaurant in Orange Beach called Cosmos and they have the best homemade non-mexican cheese dip- That was for you Katie Compton!

5. Taziki's Friday Special

6. Macaroni and Cheese

7. Feta Cheese

8. Fish with lemon seasoning

8 Places I Have Traveled

1. Utah

2. Bahamas

3. England

4. Grand Cayman
5. Honduras
6. Germany

7. Mexico

8. Jamaica

8 Places I Would Like to Travel

1. New York

2. St. Lucia

3. The beach more often

4. Africa

5. St. Thomas

6. Cape Cod

7. Canada- it is supposed to have great skiing

8. California- been there but I don't remember it

Oh Yeah, and I would like to tag
1. Katie Compton
2. Katie Finley
3. Jamie Booth
4. Ginger Turner

The Beach

Gigi and her grandbabies. Kate was not sad but it was the only picture where all 3 kids had their eyes open. It was nearly impossible to take a picture with 3 kids.

Thank God for Uncle Heath! The whole time he was in town, he carried both carseats so I could just keep up with Kate. I had to make Turner and Blake matching outfits, but it just made everyone think they were twins who look nothing alike.

We are having fun, but we sure miss Brandon! It just makes me excited to take a family beach trip with him next time. Kelly and I tried to take all 3 kids on the beach- DISASTER!!! Turner didn't even last 4 minutes, Blake and Kate lasted about 10 minutes, and then we were done with the sand for good. At least we tried, and now we know that shifts work better. Kelly goes to the pool in the morning while Turner and Blake nap and I play with Kate. Then I go to the pool in the afternoon while all the kids nap and Kelly stays with them. Kate is having a ball in the water- she would have more fun if Brandon was here. He is a lot more willing to play and get deeper in the water than I am.