Happy Father's Day!

What A Compliment

This morning I read about my friend Heather's little girl and what she wants to be when she grows up. Not long after I had this conversation:

Me: "Brenden, what do you want to be when you grow up."

Brenden: "I wanna be daddy."

I think that's a wonderful goal. :)

2 Months Old!

Today Lauren is 2 months old! Where has the time gone? She has changed so much! Her hair is growing longer. She smiles, coos, and giggles sometimes. She hates tummy time, just like her brother. If she's not in bed by 8:15-8:30 pm she is a MESS. She's already wearing 3 month clothes and I'm having a blast dressing her up in summer skirts and shorts.

Her well baby check up was today which means we got to learn how much she's grown, which is fun, but it also means she got 3 shots, which is not fun.

Her stats today:

Weight - 11 lbs 9.6 ounces (75th percentile)

Length - 23 inches (75th percentile)

Head - 16 1/2 inches (97th percentile!!!)

She's just like her brother! At least in the head department. They have to have big craniums to hold all those brains. :) Her doctor was very happy with her strength and growth and amazed by her hair. (I've seen babies with more but I'm not complaining!) We are still having problems with congestion and I cannot get anything to come out of her nose so the doctor thinks she's having reflux. So we're trying another formula, just at night, to see if it will help. So far it's no different. We're also raising her head up when she sleeps to try to combat it but we've done that before, too. I think we'll be getting medicine for her soon. She will probably be a completely different baby, which is crazy to think about since she's already a pretty good baby as it is, even with her tummy problems.

Then came the shots. The horrible, awful shots. The nurse actually had to pause after the first one to make sure she would keep breathing. She's like me; when she's upset she holds her breath. Then...watch out! Loud scream is coming atcha! She screamed, and screamed, and screamed some more. I think it took her at least 10 minutes to actually calm down, which was much longer than it ever took Brenden. Poor little Lauren, I felt so bad for her. I gave her some Motrin when we got home and she calmed right down. At least until bedtime. 8 pm rolled around and she was ANGRY. Now she's snoozing happily on her inclined mattress.

These past 2 months have been full of super happy moments and some not so happy moments, but I wouldn't change a thing. Lauren, you complete our family and we are so very lucky to have you!

Happy 2 Month Birthday!

2 months old!

He's Learning Early

A Kay Jewelry commercial was playing on the television.

Brenden: "Mommy, you like that!"

Me: "Yes, honey, I do like jewelry. Tell your daddy."

Not sure if anyone will take the hint. Haha!

Please??? :)

We Have a Problem

Brenden likes to box. He's really good at Wii boxing and he can give our couch pillows a beating like you wouldn't believe. If that was where it ended then all would be good in Brenden-land, but it's not.

Brenden likes to hit other people for fun.

I hate that he does this. I hate that when he went to a birthday party with my mom last weekend he actually hit a little girl in the face. For Fun. He gets excited and flails his arms around like a prize fighter, giggling like a fool. (This can be especially frightening for Tim since Brenden's fists are right at his waist line...eek!)

We've tried time outs, which upsets him and stops him from hitting...for a little while. We've tried taking away toys. We've made sure not to let him play Wii boxing anymore since I think that's where the behavior came from. We don't box with him when we play and we don't spank him. Hitting is not something that we have in our house.

So what else can we do? Has anyone else had a problem with this? What worked for you?

(Spanking is not, and never will be, an option for us. So anything other than that.)

A Show Of Love

Lauren was inconsolable last night. We're still not sure what was wrong. The thing that eventually made her happy...watching her brother eat. She's obsessed with watching him. All morning she sat in her bouncy chair, watching her brother. It's an amazing thing to see. :)

He's not doing much...but it's fascinating.

What I've learned so far...

Things I have learned since bringing Lauren home:

• The 2nd baby really gets the shaft when it comes to pictures taken, naps shared with mommy, snuggling in general, and the amount of time they have to wait for a bottle. I never thought I'd be singing, "Laaaauren! The bottle will be in your mouth in a miiiinnnute! Your brother has to PEEEEE!" Yep...I should write song lyrics for a living, huh? And I had no idea that I would be weighing the needs of my children against each other so soon. Do I want to hear Lauren scream for 30 more seconds or have to clean up a huge mess after Brenden pees on the floor? I think you can guess which one I think deserves my immediate attention.
• It is absolutely possible to take Brenden to the bathroom, feed and burp Lauren, and cook dinner...all at the same time. I never knew I could multi-task quite that well.
• In 5 seconds, 2 year olds can be adorably sweet and then switch to insanely mean. Brenden will stand in front of his sister making funny faces to try to make her happy while I sing the Your Bottle Is Coming song and then, right after I get her to scream just a little more quietly by giving her the pacifier (who knew you could suck on a pacifier AND scream at the same time?! I didn't.) he will promptly yank it back out of her mouth. He's done this several times, sometimes when she's sleeping, sometimes when she's pondering the paint on the ceiling, so I don't know what reaction he's trying to get. Maybe he's just trying to see what both of us will do. Will Lauren cry? Will mom make me sit in time out? Will I be able to get away with this and start tormenting my sister before she can really hold her head up to glare at me?
• Taking two kids to the store by myself is exhausting and makes me crazy nervous...but it can be done. I've actually gone several times and it gets less daunting each outing. This may be partly (or mostly) due to the fact that we've only gone to Walmart and they have been giving away stickers that allow you one free cookie at the bakery. Mommy's reward? Starbucks.
• Having to take care of one child seems ridiculously easy now that we have more than one. There have been a few times where we have only had Lauren while one of the grandparents took Brenden to do something fun. Tim and I have looked at each other and said, "How did we ever think one kid was difficult?"
  
• The most amazing moments happen when I least expect it. Example: Brenden asked to hold Lauren so I made him sit in a chair and I laid her across his legs. He began playing with her hair and cooing at her. Then, she grabbed his finger and he said, "Awww! I love my baby!" And then their mommy cried. It was wonderful.
• It doesn't matter that we have packed a diaper bag almost every day for 2 1/2 years...it will inevitably be forgotten. OR the new baby will get the shaft, again, and not have a bottle/formula/diapers/wipes. One day we forgot ALL of them. We felt terrible, and not very smart.
• The sound of two children sleeping at the same time = PRICELESS. 'Nuff said.

A Quick Post...Prayers, Please

My dad is currently in the emergency room in Oklahoma City. This afternoon he was having problems with his vision (big white spots) and then lost consciousness. After that he was having trouble standing back up.

My mom called to let me know that they thought it could possibly be a stroke, although they ruled out a bleeding stroke, or something with his heart. He's had heart problems for years now so anything else could be really awful.

Thank you for any prayers, good thoughts, anything at all sent his way.

Bubbles

And not the fun, run in the yard to pop them, kind. The kind that keep babies up at night while their little digestive systems go crazy. The kind that make people say, "Wow...your baby is GASSY." The kind that make Lauren not want to eat and worry me to death.

Until Monday, Lauren was a fabulous eater. She usually ate 4-5 ounces every 2 to 3 hours during the day. We could tell she was gaining weight and definitely growing longer, at least in her torso. Those 0-3 month onesies are getting tight! Then, on Monday, she wouldn't eat more than 2 ounces before stopping to scream at us. We would burp her and then try to let her eat more but she just wasn't having it. Yesterday, after having formula coughed in my face several times because she was angry, I put in a call to the doctor. The nurse recommended bringing her in to check on her.

The first thing they did was check her weight. She's a very healthy 10 lbs 9.5 ounces now. She gained a full pound in 3 weeks! Eating a ton less was not keeping her from gaining! They also checked her length, which is now 22 inches. She's doing very well. The doctor came in and informed me that it looked like she was just done with her growth spurt which is why she wasn't needing as much now. She also chatted with me about Lauren's gas issues, which is something we've talked about before. The drops she recommended last time weren't making a difference so she handed me some different formula, Enfamil Gentlease, which is supposed to help with the type of issues that we've been dealing with.

I hasn't even been a full day, but the new formula seems to be helping. She's a lot more difficult to burp but I'll take that over the random crying and formula being spit it my face out of frustration.

A less gassy, happier baby? Yes, please!

Memorial Day 2010

This Memorial Day weekend was different for one big reason...Mike and Connie didn't go camping. Tom, Tim's uncle, came into town to celebrate his nephew's graduation and his own 50th birthday and we all thought it was going to be over Memorial Day. We were wrong! It was the weekend before and by the time we all realized it the campgrounds were all reserved. It was a great weekend, though!

Saturday we were supposed to head up to Independence, KS, to see Tim's grandparents. On Friday he realized just how tired he was and I agreed. It stinks that we were so exhausted but we plan on being up there over Father's Day weekend which is soon. I can't wait to see them all! Instead of a fun day at the park I spent the morning picking up the house while Tim tore down the beat up shed in our backyard. After Brenden's nap we headed over to see Tim's friend Kelley who got back from Iraq in March. We ate hotdogs and ribs and watched Brenden play in the pool with Kelley's girlfriend, Angie and her son Jarrett. It was great!

The next day we headed to Owasso to celebrate Cooper's 3rd birthday. (Cooper is my brother's fiancee's nephew.) Brenden had a blast squirting people with a water gun, playing on the playground and running through the fire hose that Isaac, Cooper's dad, brought out. He even did okay watching Cooper open his gifts and was especially excited to watch him open the gift we got him. I'm hoping he's learning the joy of giving early. :) He's very excited for his own birthday which he will happily tell you is in September. I made him some notecards with the months on them so that he can tell where we are in relation to September and he's very sad that June, July and August are in the way. Silly kid!

Gonna get ya!

Lauren sleeping on Aunt Meredith.

That night he went to stay with my parents and then we all met up the next morning at Mike and Connie's house to go out on the boat. It was the first time Lauren would be using her infant life jacket and surprisingly I wasn't nervous at all! I was a mess when we first let Brenden ride on the boat. Lauren slept the entire time, only waking up to eat when we stopped the boat to let Brenden, Tim and Mike swim. After some initial hesitation, Brenden had a great time with Tim in the inner tube. He even got brave enough to lay on one of the sides by himself.

We're on a boat! :)

So brave!

The weekend may have had a little less action than we had planned, but we were still worn out from all the fun. I think Tim and I are still recovering. Brenden, however, is ready to go! Anyone want to take a super excited toddler out on the boat?