Beach trip 2012

We went to Panama City Beach at the beginning of June. I LOVE going so early in the season (although this is the first time we've been in two years). It's not quite yet sweltering hot and it's not as crowded. I drove down to Dothan with the kids (10 hours in a car alone with a 4 year old and 9 month old---I highly recommend it) a week early to visit family before heading to the beach. We got in lots of family time with great-grandparents, aunts, and cousins. I hate that we live so far away from family. I grew up with ALL my cousins just a stone's throw away, and I hate that Sipsey and Wheeler won't have the same family time that I did. BUT, such is life.

Granny showing Sipsey and Wheeler the same card miniature deck that I used to play with as a child. 

Papa and Wheeler

Cousins!

I would love to know what they are talking to each other about!

Papa and Wheeler on another day. They love each other after only meeting twice!

 

Wheeler loves Granny too but I think he was ready to go at this point!

Stay tuned for beach pictures. I hope it won't be 2 months in between posts!

Do the Bunny Hop

HOP! HOP! HOP! Sipsey's first ballet recital was tonight and she did great! They had a tap routine first in the bunny costumes followed by a tumbling routine. I was one proud mama! Juggling the baby, the camera, and the video camera between Ben and me made for few good photos. But we tried not to be crazy about it and actually WATCH the performance!

SASSY!

Sipsey with Miss Arkansas, Kristen Glover, who is from Stuttgart and who took dance from the same studio where Sipsey takes.

Sipsey and I at home after the show. I wanted a picture of us together with Sipsey in the bunny costume. Unfortunately, we had a major meltdown because of mascara, which had to be washed off and then makeup reapplied. We made it to the recital with minutes to spare. I guess we should have done a practice round of makeup ahead of time!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Easter!

We had a happy Easter this year! The Easter service at church was great. We are still singing "Up from the Grave" around the house. There was no visiting of the Easter bunny this year (Sipsey was not interested in sitting in a strange bunny's lap) but somehow he knew exactly what to bring to put a smile on Sipsey's and Wheeler's faces.We ended the day with a yummy traditional Easter ham and all the fixin's.

The Easter bunny made a visit after many threats that he would not come to naughty children's homes. 

Wheeler with his loot.

Nothing like a 7 AM Easter egg hunt! The youth at church had a fundraiser to hide candy-filled eggs in the yard the night before Easter.

Brrrrrrr

Our sad little cross needed more flowers!

Strike a pose.

My little love muffins. Sipsey 4.33 yrs old. Wheeler 7 months.

Wheeler 7 months

Well I had taken a semi-accidental blog hiatus for awhile there! I decided to be "there" with my kids instead of taking photos and thinking, "oh I need to blog about this!" every waking moment of the day. So I think my posts will be few and far between or I guess I can be more intentional about blogging (quickly) from my phone.

Wheeler turned 7 months old last week! He is such a sweet baby! We are all smitten. Sipsey is a great big sister and I think it's safe to say that we have all adjusted to the fourth member of our family being here to stay! Now if he will just sleep through the night consistently, I won't have black bags under my eyes (as noticed by Sipsey when I explained Wheeler's black eye---"yeah, like yours, Mommy!").

Since I have not recorded any milestones for Wheeler, I'm about to do that right here:
3 M - started drooling and had to use bibs all the time
4 M - rolled tummy to back
4 M - found his feet
5 M - or a little earlier, started rice cereal
5 M - or maybe earlier, rolled back to tummy
5 M - started baby food; sweet potatoes, which he hated but now loves
5.5 M - army crawling; this kid drags himself anywhere he wants to go
6 M - babbles baba and dada and makes the mmmmm sound
6.5 M - pulls up on arms and knees and rocks back forth then lunges and army crawls
6.5 M - pulls up on his crib bumpers (ruining my handiwork by the way!)
7 M - sit up really well unassisted
7 M - gets into sitting position himself

A few more things:

• I'm still nursing 4-5 times a day, but he'll take a bottle if we are out and about
  
• Eating baby food for breakfast and dinner and sometimes lunch
• Goes to bed by 8:00 now and wakes anytime from 6:00-7:30
• Still not consistently sleeping through the night. I'm a big fan of crying it out, which worked in the beginning, but he won't have it now. I nurse him to get him to sleep and fortunately, he falls right back to sleep! As I type at 9:30, he has just started crying but had been asleep since before 8:00...aaaaand he just cried it out
• Wears a size 2 diaper during the day because I had a massive automatic delivery from Amazon and did not realize my baby was growing. He wears a 3 at night.
  
• Can still wear 6 month clothes, but has 9 and 12 month for spring and summer
  
• Still no teeth
• Has blue eyes, but they are a darker blue and they change a little depending on what he's wearing
  
• Gets into "pickles" all.the.time. I find him under furniture, chewing on electrical cords, behind the curtains, etc, etc. He has more bumps and bruises in his 7 months than I think Sipsey has ever had in her 4 years. I hear way too many thuds when I walk out of the room, which really is not that often, but he seems to get into trouble as soon as I walk out!

Yummy sweet potatoes



He has to sleep in a zippered outfit or he pulls his legs up and busts out



I think if Wheeler could talk, he would look like this all the time and scream for help constantly



Before a walk when it was still cold out



6 month checkup: 15lbs14oz (30%-tile) and 27.5in (90%-tile)



Family outing to Lowe's



Starting to push up and lunge forward



Already climbing OVER things



And getting into pickles



Ruining my bumpers :)



How I found him napping one day



Playing outside and out of all the toys, he'd rather chew on the strap



Sweet 7 month old!

Happy Valentine's Day

Sipsey at her party at school and Wheeler in the background!

Sipsey's Valentine to all of her friends. Idea and tutorial found here and here. Super inexpensive, simple and quick (except the part about getting your child to cooperate!).

December Recap

Thank you for the kind comments and words of support for Sipsey. She is such a sweet girl but struggles so much with this clothing thing, it can make all of us in this house act like demons. I now have some ideas for where to go from here. All suggestions point to a specialist.

Here's what happened in December:

We FINALLY bought a house (and it snowed!):

It needs a good washing on the outside but the inside has been completely redone. We are slowly getting moved in and settled.

Wheeler turned 3.5 months old (I forgot his 3 month pic and his 4 month pic is on my phone):

Sipsey had a Christmas chorus recital at church:

Sipsey turned 4 and we partied at the bowling alley:

Look who is wearing socks! I think she was distracted by all the birthday fun and didn't even put up a fight.














Coloring books and crayon tin party favors



Bonus! Santa showed up at the end of the party!

We also had Christmas but I'll blog about that separately. December was a month full of sickness for us as well. Sipsey had strep before her birthday. Wheeler had a sick visit too because I thought he may have it, but it was just a cold. Then Sipsey got sick again in Dothan. Who has to take their child to the pediatrician on vacation? We do. Every year. I got mastitis and thought I was going to die of fever, chills, and body pain that accompany it. All that sickness caused us to bypass our New Year's visit to Georgia, but we got to visit with some of Ben's family anyway! I'll get a Christmas blog up soon.