Sweet Kids

We are all home with runny noses and coughs today, so I thought I would take a minute to share what Kate and Blake are doing (for my own records too). Kate is funnier than ever, she keeps us laughing with her facial expressions and the words she says/tries to say. She has gotten so verbal in just the last month or so. She goes through the families naming everyone she can think of. In my family, my mom and dad are GiGi and Pop Pop, Kelly and Heath are K K and Heaf, and Derek is D. In Brandon's family, Gale and Jody are Papa (supposed to be Papa G, but she hasn't gotten the G yet) and JoJo, Christopher is Cracker, Aaron is Onion, and Eli is E I. She can understand so much more than she can say, so she just jabbers and points at everything. She can say Santa and Ho Ho. We have been trying to teach her about the real meaning of Christmas, but the understanding level is so small that I am just proud that she can point to Baby Jesus in the nativity set and she can tell me that "Jees" was born on Christmas. The other night we went to my friend's house and she has 4 girls from 19 months to 5 years old, and Kate had a ball! She loved being one of the big kids. She even jumped on the big trampoline outside and kept going after wiping out several times. She would stop jumping and say "Mama Dada" and wave to us. It made me stop in my tracks and I realized just how fast time is flying by! She chooses when she wants to give kisses and hugs, but when she does give them, I cherish each one.

Blake is almost 8 weeks old! Kelly and I were laughing the other day because it seems like he is so old since Turner is so new, but he is still just a tiny baby. Tiny may not be the word for this double chin though! He is growing before my eyes! He is getting better and better with sleep. This past weekend, he went 6 hours once and 5 hours a few times at night. We are getting there! I don't know what I am going to do when Brandon goes back to work on the 5th and he can't take night shift each night from 9 until 12 or 1. That is the time Blake seems to be most awake, even if he is not very fussy. Blake has also started smiling and is starting to coo with a little noise here and there. That smile really melts my heart, and one day it did bring me to tears. I had just listened to a sweet girl share her heart about dealing with infertility and it made me realize that I had been so bad about complaining about not sleeping or not knowing how to make these kids happy... and I should just remember that God didn't have to give me either child, but he gave us 2! Brandon and I have been learning a lot about findind contentment exactly where we are in this life instead of trying to rush through things to get to the "next stage." You could spend your whole life trying to be happy by waiting for the next thing, but God has called us to be right here, right now and we are so thankful! I am just excited about the things we have to look forward to rather than anxious to get there.

Picture Updates

I got a few pictures uploaded on our computer, and this was a must-show. Blake loves snuggling on Brandon! That beard would not be comfortable to me, but Blake falls right to sleep on him. When I get exhausted or frustrated, I can just hand Blake off to Brandon, and he calms right down. It is actually pretty annoying, but at least he gets quiet and happy!

We were trying to get a decent picture of the kids for a Christmas card... NOT an easy task with a 6 week old and 18 month old! Kate would be smiling and ready and Blake would cry, which freaked her out, and then she would cry, etc., etc. Anyway, we got Bailey in on the action and they both just stared at her! She had just been groomed and had these cheesy red bows in her hair, it was hilarious. If you had seen her just before the grooming, you would not recognize this dog. She had been living outside at my parents' house and had matted hair with stickers from bushes and who knows what else in her hair. She looks a little crazy here though.

This is one of my favorites! I wanted to put this on our Christmas card and say "Joy to the World." I just had to get a cute one for the card though, so I thought I would at least share this funny one on here. He was really upset and it totally threw Kate for a loop! She did not want him touching her while he was upset. I love that she has the bottom lip all the way out and he is beet red from screaming his brains out!
Life has been nice back at our house. It is a little tough having Blake in the room with us though. He sleeps about a foot from my head, so I hear every little whimper. He is not lasting longer than 3 hours (maybe 4, if we are lucky) in between feeds at night. I am so tired of people asking, "Do you want to know how I got my 6 week old to sleep through the night?" NO, because I cannot let my baby cry it out when he is right next to me and waking up Kate. If I am going to sit through his crying and it just wakes Kate up, it is a lost cause. I am at least trying to establish a routine during the day and let him get used to putting himself to sleep in his bed for naptimes instead of me rocking him or just putting him in the swing. Maybe that will teach him to like his bed at night. Last night, he was screaming and it had not even been 3 hours yet, and I seriously told Brandon that I was moving his cradle to the laundry room and shutting the door. I didn't do it, don't worry... but that option is not entirely out of the question!

All Is Well

Still no pictures! We had to send our computer off to be fixed and I am trying to upload pictures to our desktop computer, but it is giving me trouble. Anyway, we have had a busy week! Kate and Blake were so excited to welcome their cousin, Turner, into their world last Friday. He was born 3 weeks early, but handled it like a champ! He is so cute but we cannot tell who he looks like yet. Kelly is in the process of starting her own blog that will be up soon, it is heath-kelly.blogspot.com.
We moved back into our own house on Monday, so we are getting adjusted to our own space and schedules now. It is hard to get on any kind of schedule when you are in someone else's house- and I am a big schedule nazi with my kids! Blake is doing great, he doesn't sleep longer than 4 1/2 hours (at the longest) during the night yet, but we are getting there. We went ahead and started him on some reflux medicine as he has gotten progressively fussier and spitting up more. Maybe I gave up too early, but Kate was on it so long with no problems, that I know he will be fine on it.
We are having a great time with Brandon being home. We stay in our pajamas longer than usual and enjoy our coffee each morning, which is probably so hard for Brandon. He hates not having a plan for each day and he feels like he is wasting time if he is sitting around watching a movie... but he is forcing himself to relax as we know we will never have time like this again! He goes back to work on January 5th, so we will enjoy it until then. We are currently watching season one of The Unit, and it is awesome. I had never watched that show before, but I am hooked on it now.
We are going to try and brave the cold to go to Briarwood's walk-thru-nativity tomorrow night (once we see what the weather is really like) and I will be taking Blake along in my sling carrier under my jacket. Kate really misses playing with her friends, so I am excited about getting her out and around some friends. She is talking more than ever! I feel like her vocabulary has exploded in just the past few weeks. Now she will say just about anything we ask her to, and she is putting words together in small sentences. "Where's the ball?" "Where's the baby?" "I see a cup," etc. She is really not a baby anymore! Luckily I have my little baby Blake to watch as he grows up so much this first year. I went for my 6 week checkup today and I could not believe that this time has already flown by! We are working on getting some pictures up for the blog and also Christmas cards- hopefully we won't be too far behind!

One Month and 18 Month Stats

No pictures today... our computer isn't working so I am using my mom's computer.  We got home from Greenville Sunday to find that the siding work on our building had not even started yet.  We gave the crew a full 2 weeks to complete a job that should only take a few days, but apparently that was not long enough.  We tried to stick around through the work on Monday morning, but right at Kate's naptime, they decided to start ripping the siding off of her room walls... so that was not going to work!  We packed up quickly and headed to my parents' house for the week (or however long this construction takes).  We are definitely getting some family time in this holiday season!

Anyway, we had a our first doctor's appointment with both kids yesterday.  That took a LONG time!  Kate weighs 23 pounds now and is in the 30% range for her age.  She is a picky eater (if she will eat) but Dr. Peters said she is still growing fine.  She is in the 50% range for height and the 75% for her head circumference... which means she basically is like a tennis ball on a toothpick.  She had to get 3 shots which was not fun at all.  It is like she has already figured out that she gets shots at the doctor's office because the second I sat her on the table, she started crying.  Luckily Brandon is still off and was able to go with us, so we each had a child to hold.  

Blake now weighs 10 pounds 1 ounce and is in the 60% range.  He is 22 1/4 inches tall, so he is in the 75% range for height.  He is still a little jaundiced, so we had a level drawn to make sure everything is ok.  Dr. Peters called us back last night to tell us that he is fine, and that he just has some breastfeeding jaundice that will go away on its own.  He still has not gone longer than 3 1/2 to 4 hours between feeds at night, but she said that is still normal and that sometimes boys can't go as long as girls at this age.  He is a very sweet and cuddly baby and I can already tell that he is pretty laid back.  I can already see the difference in him and Kate at this age.  She was already addicted to her pacifier and he only wants it when he is starving or really upset.  She had reflux so she was fussy and we had to hold her up for 30 minutes after feeds and he just goes down after he eats.  I am trying to start establishing a nap routine with him, but it is hard to not be at home and to be on the go so much.  I really want to start early with him putting himself to sleep since we had a hard time with Kate.  We are ready to get back to our own house to get some sort of routine going, but we have enjoyed getting spoiled by both families!  I will get some new pictures up soon!