Six Months!

Weight/Length- Had your 6 month check up today... 18 lbs 5 oz, and 26.5 inches long.... putting into the 36% for length, 63% for height and 80% for head.  My short, squat, big headed little man.  lol

Eating- Over the last month we've transitioned to 50/50 formula and breast milk.  I'm enjoying the freedom that comes from not having to pump 3+ times per day.  You've also started to munch on some solid foods... mostly cereals (Cheerios and Life).  You also love pancakes.  We've tried bananas and avocados, but I think you get more on your clothes than in your mouth!

Sleep- Still kind of a crappy sleeper.  You got to bed around 8, wake up around 10:30 (put yourself back to sleep), wake up around 1:30 (need comforting), again at 4:00 to eat, and up for day between 6:30 and 7:30.  We're kind of at a loss of what to do at this point. 

 Clothes-Still wearing 6 month sizes... by the looks of your length, may be in them for awhile.  ;)

Personality- Happy, happy, happy little guy... as long as you're being held or entertained.  True story... at your doctor's appointment today the nurse gave you two shots.  You gave her this look like, "What the hell was that?"  And then you laughed!  I commented to the nurse that I bet that was the first time she ever made a baby laugh with a shot!  You're also quite the little flirt.  Always making eyes/grins at everyone and doing the bashful face cover thing.  =)

Likes/Dislikes-

-You like water.  You're quite the splasher and love taking showers with dad.
- You like Cheerios... a lot.  You are doing really well  eating them!
- You like sitting up!  You are finally able to sit up by yourself and you are so much happier not having to lay on your back and look up at the world.
- You like watching the cars go by out the window.  It's a good way to keep you occupied when I'm tired.  ;)
- You like standing up.  You can't do it on your own yet, but you like us holding you so that you can stand and "walk".

-You don't like playing by yourself for very long.  You want to be held/entertained frequently.
- You don't like us wiping your nose... you've been suffering from/getting over a cold for the past week or so and you HATE it when we try to clean your nose up!

Milestones-

-You can it up now!  You do really good at not falling over until you reach too far for something or turn too quickly.  =)
- You have your two bottom teeth... curious when the others are going to come in!
- You've started to eat solid foods.
- You had your first cold (and subsequent pink eye).

3 Years old!

Emily turned THREE years old on April 23rd.  It's amazing how quickly time goes by.  I think she's officially crossed over from "toddler" title to the "preschooler" title!

Weight/Height- We have your 3 year appointment next week, but at home you weight in at about 33 lbs.  Not exactly sure how tall you are, but will try to update after your appointment!
Update:  At your doctor's appointment you measured in at 39 1/4 inches tall and 34 lbs... in the 92% for height and 76% for weight.  =)

Eating- When you're hungry, you can definitely put the food away (some mornings you'll eat 3 pancakes!), but you can also be a picky little goober and eat like a bird.  You enjoy all things peanut butter, cereal and applesauce... and chocolate.

Sleep-You used to sleep SOO well.  Now it's a fight to get you to go to/stay in bed.  Bedtime starts around 8, and you're usually asleep around 9:30 after making several trips in and out of bed.  You're kind of driving us nuts.  You also seem to have a hard time staying asleep at night and often crawl into bed with us in the wee morning hours.  Sometimes I don't even know that you're there until Sam cries... other times you come in and smack me to get me to scoot over! lol 

 Clothes- 3T and moving up to 4T.  You are tall and skinny.  Your clothes are too short, but sometimes it's a challenge to keep your pants up!

Personality- You can be so sweet and caring.  You can be really polite, a great sharer and a fantastic help.  Notice I say "can"?  You definitely have a bit of an attitude sometimes and can also be pretty obstinate either directly refusing to do something, or pretending that you do hear us, or hiding your face thinking that, if you can't see us, we must not be able to see you either.  ;)  For the most part, though, he are a pretty cool little kid and are constantly surprising us with your wit and intelligence!

Likes/Dislikes-

• You like your brother... a lot.  He's YOUR baby and I don't think I've really experienced any jealousy issues.
• You like your "shows"... Daniel Tiger, My Little Ponies, Magic School Bus, Curious George to name a few.
• You like watching music videos... and you LOVE to dance!  Thinking about signing you up for a hip hop class as we think that you'd really love it!
• You like being outside playing with bugs and digging in dirt.
• You like wearing dresses and skirts and seeing how they twirl.  
• You like to talk... a lot.  A LOT.
• You like to clean.  That trait must have skipped a generation.  lol  Tonight you had a spray bottle and a towel scrubbing the kitchen floor.

•  You don't like going to bed.  It's a constant struggle.
• You don't like "dinner"... I don't know what it is about the evening meal, but you tend to through a bit of a fit when it's time to eat (unless you're really hungry, and then you chow down).
• I think that's all I've got in terms of the don't likes... aside from listening/doing something that you don't want to do.

Milestones-

• You can count to 10.
• Your vocabulary is huge and you use it... a lot. lol  You are quite the little talker!
• You are potty trained!  Just this week you went 3 nights with a dry pull up so your dad decided to risk it on night 4 and you had another dry night in just undies!
• You know pretty much all of your colors (though you get black and white confused), and you know most shapes.  You can pick out a few letters, too.
•  You are now a big sister... and you love it!  =)  And Sam loves you... a lot! 

My Week in Review

A business colleague of mine asked me the other day how it was going with two kids.  She said that when her second was born she realized that having two wasn't just a X2 situation, but rather a 2-squared type of deal.  Most days, I would disagree.  Having two has been challenging, but generally speaking not too bad.  This week, however, was the exception to that rule.  Here's the recap of the last week(ish) for our family...

last Thursday:  Emily crawled into bed with us Thursday night and was hot.  She had a fever, even the bottoms of her little feet were radiating heat.  Understandably, she was having a hard time sleeping... if you've ever been in bed with a tossing and turning toddler, you know that when she can't sleep, no one can.  I got up with her and got her some Tylenol and managed to get her back to sleep, but then I had a hard time getting myself back to sleep.  Long story short, that night I probably got in about 4 hours of sleep... total... NOT in a row.

Friday:  Emily seemed to be doing better.  Just some random fever thing I thought.  Took the two kids to daycare thinking it was going to be a regular day.  Got a text at about 4:00 PM letting me know that Emily had a fever and said that she felt like she was going to throw up.  I cut out of a meeting early to go pick her up.  Had to kind of chuckle to myself when I did the stereotypical "read an emergency text message and book it" sort of thing.  ;)  When I got to daycare, Emily was passed out on the couch, looking really flush.  I packed her up and took her home (left Sam there for Jacob to pick up so that I could spend an hour or so coddling Emily.  Within a couple of hours of being home, Emily appeared to be fine again (never vomited).  By that time I was pretty confused.  That night, she crawled into bed with us again.  With another fever.  This time we foregoed the Tylenol and rode it out.  Her fever broke and she seemed to be a-ok.

Saturday:  Emily's birthday party at my parents place.  Thankfully Emily was feeling better and everything went well.

Sunday: Hung out with friends and then drove home.  End of a nice weekend... thank God for that.

Monday:  Background info... our morning routine consists of Jacob taking all of the bags (diaper bag, pump, laptop if needed) out to my car on his way to work so that I just have to struggle with the kids about a half hour later.  This time, however, I had forgotten to take my car keys out of the diaper bag after our weekend adventures.  Which meant that they were in the car, all locked up, when I needed to leave.  So, right as he was getting into the office, Jacob got a call to drive home to rescue us.  Great start to a Monday.  I got the kids to daycare and got to work.  Around noon I get a call from daycare letting me know that Emily's eyes are really blood shot and there's a concern that she may have gotten pink eye (one of the other girls at daycare was diagnosed the week prior).  With my schedule packed solid, I call Jacob to see if he can retrieve Emily.  He does while I call the pediatrician to get her in for an appointment.  Turns out that she has "viral pink eye" which apparently isn't contagious and is just how some kids react to a cold.  They tell us to look out for "gunk" as that could mean that she's progressed to bacterial pink eye, which is contagious.  Jacob spent 4 hours in the car that day, and only 3.5 at work.

Tuesday:  Jacob decides to stay home with Emily and give her a day to rest and try to get her eyes to go back to normal (they are still pretty blood shot).  When I get home from work and am cuddling with Sam, I notice a little bit of sleepy type goo in his eye and wipe it away... three times.  Crap.

Wednesday:  Sam's right eye is pretty wet and gunky, but not red at all.  They don't seem to be bothering him, but I don't want to get another call from daycare, so we decide to drop Emily off and take Sam to his Nana's for the day.  I decide to go ahead and take him to ZoomCare first thing to get him checked out.  Turns out ZoomCare isn't covered by my insurance, so I end up paying way too much out of pocket only to hear that he also has viral pink eye.  I was confused as the pediatrician had told us that it wasn't contagious.  Turns out the pink eye isn't, but the cold that caused it is.  We were told to look out for the red blood shot eyes as that could mean bacteria issues.

Did you read that good?  Emily was red with no goo,  Sam was gooey with red.  WTF?

Thursday:  After dropping Emily off at daycare, I bring Sam home with the plan to get some work done at home and run some work related errands with him in tow.  Jacob is also working from home that day, so I figured we could tag team it.  Sam BARELY sleeps all day.  I have to get to the office in the afternoon so Jacob has to work with a baby (who refuses to sleep) on his lap for the last chunk of his day.  Apparently he didn't get much done.  Jacob calls me at about 5:15 telling me that Sam FINALLY fell asleep... and now he (Jacob) has to go pick up Emily.  Instead of risking waking the baby, we call daycare and get a brief extension to pick up Emily.  I leave work early to go get her.  She's the last one there, but doesn't seem to mind.

Today:  Sam wakes up at about 5:30 with his eye sealed shut and NOT happy about it.  Jacob and I both try several things and ultimately get the eye cleaned up.  But he's (and me) are awake at that point.  I cuddle him, feed him, and rock him and eventually, right after 6:00, he falls back asleep.  My alarm goes off at 6:30, so there's no real point to going back to bed.  Since it's my turn to stay home with a sick kid, I take the next hour to do some work and call in.  I spend the day with a cuddly, snotty, feverish, gooey baby.  Thankfully he wasn't too cranky, just physically gross.

Really hoping that we're all on the mend.