Growing Pains

Show me that smile again...

Today was a hard day.  It wasn't an especially hard day because I woke up feeling like death, some sort of summer cold struck me two days ago so I haven't slept.  It wasn't an especially hard day because my daughter was cranky.  It wasn't even an especially hard day because my precious son who is never fussy started crying and wouldn't stop, no boob, no paci, nothing would sooth him.  No, it was an especially hard day because as I put my baby to bed, and read her her books I talked about how today is the last day she is one.  Tomorrow, she turns two. Beginning at midnight two years ago tomorrow, I started having contractions and they continued on all day until she was born at 11:43pm that night.  A mere 7lbs 7 ozs, and now she weighs 22.5.   

Before you start rolling your eyes (too late?), I'm not typically the sappy, where has my baby gone type.  I've actually really enjoyed all of her milestones.  For some reason though this one has been difficult for me. I think it might be because through all of the other milestones, we were having such a hard time that I was glad she was growing out of the baby stage.  But now, now she is offically not a baby any more.  Like officially officially.  She is saying at least a new word, but usually two or three new words, a day.  She is stringing two, three and four words together.  She is trying to do more things herself.  She has become very particular that things are in their place, which translates to her being very helpful around the house.  She helps empty the dishwasher, she fetches and throws away diapers, she puts on her own shoes, she picks up her toys at night and she will do pretty much any thing I ask if it means helping her brother. 
Speaking of which, while she still definitely is a toddler with all that entails, I feel like she is very well behaved.  She may not always like it, but she is a very good listener. 

She is still a toddler however.  She doesn't like it when things fall, or are messed up.  She is very anxious about new things.  She doesn't like to "leave nicely" as I call it.  It makes it difficult to take her places, because I know she is going to be upset when we leave. 

I hate to admit it, but I am now finally so glad that I am staying home with her.  It took until about 15 months or so, because her first year was so difficult.  Now, we wake up every morning and she takes a few minutes to jump or read in her bed.  I go to make her breakfast and we slow dance to "our song" while it is cooking.  We listen to toddler music on Pandora and sing and dance to it.  Our weeks are filled with library story times, indoor and outdoor playgrounds, splash parks, outdoor and mall walks, aquarium visits, playdates with my friends and hers, and lots of reading and playing.  I am glad I get to be there for every smile, hurt, hug, and milestone.  I always had a hard time when people said that their children were the light of their day because didn't feel that way for the first year of her life, but now I understand. She makes me happy in a whole new way, and makes me laugh all the time. 

She is so stinking smart!  She will hear something one week, and the next week mention it.  For example, we read a Dora book at a friend's house last week and Dora used the word "abre".  The next week we were reading another book that said open and Lillian said, "Abre...Open".  I couldn't believe it!  She remembered something that was only mentioned once in passing, but there are so many things like that.  Signs she sees once and then uses them again.  Words she hears and repeats.  She really is a little sponge! 

Lillian loves her little brother.  If I have him with me when I go get her in the morning or after nap she has to have him in the bed with her.  As exampled
here

 

here 

 

here 

 

and here 

So, to wrap up this very long blog post, I'll post some progress pictures

Lillian 36 weeks

 

Lillian day one

 

One Year 

 Two Years

 

 





Funny Diaper Story (not gross)

We came home from the hospital with about two packages of diapers, and when I added that to what I already had it filled up Matthew's top drawer. I actually thought, "man, look at all of these diapers! We are probably going to end up having to donate some." Ugh, yeah. No.

I somehow forgot about 10-12 diaper changes a day, and forgot about the diapers you lose just while you are changing diapers. We ran out before the first week home was up!

We Survived Week One!

I'm not really sure where to start this post. Does anyone else write mental blog posts? At the end of the day or week I'll recap things that I'd like to write about and remember. Well you can see how often those actually make it to the board. I have so many things over the last 19 months that I'd like to recap to remember but now I feel like the best thing to do is cut my losses and move on from here. Having the new baby makes me really disappointed in myself for not writing down somewhere all of Lillian's milestones. When I reflect on her first year all I remember is screaming. I can't remember what the first week is like. I know there were some times where she would sleep quietly in my arms but those moments seem to be so few because of all of the screaming we endured in the months following. But I know we had to have the special newborn moments that I am now enjoying with my precious little son and I wish desperately I could remember those times with her as well.

Point being, once again I am going to try and get back to the blog. At least once a week I'd like to recap everything that has happened.

Anyway, so the first week...we did it!! Today was my first morning to spend by myself with both kids and I managed it with no tears which I feel is a huge accomplishment, worthy of the rainbow sherbet I am devouring as a reward.

Matthew is such a sweet baby. Like I said, I can't remember if this is what all babies are like in their first week so I keep preparing myself for things to get bad, but in the meantime I am loving how quiet and sleepy he is. With Lillian we had to wake her to eat every two hours for the first few weeks, but since we don't have to do that with Matthew we turned off the every 4 hour alarm after his one week visit. He only wakes up twice to eat at night, which is awesome in my book. Lillian never cared for the swing, except for hanging out while I was in the room. It certainly never lulled her to sleep. If Matthew starts to get a little fussy at night we put him in the swing and homeboy is out for a good 3 hours. It is blissful.

We are having a minor issue with nursing but I was assured it was something that would work itself out by a nurse at his doctor's office so I really try not to stress myself out too much over it.

Lillian is doing wonderful with him. She loves to hug and kiss him, she likes to point out all of his different body parts, she likes to rock his chair and learned very quickly how to do it with one finger and gently, and she is always asking to hold him. There are times where I am tending to him that she wants attention, and she doesn't usually get upset just calls my name incessantly which is annoying, but at least she isn't crying or throwing a fit about it most of the time.

Even though she didn't take it out on him, I do think she had a hard time adjusting to the change. She was all out of sorts for the first few days we were home. At first I attributed it to being with grandparents for three days which means not being told no and not being kept on her schedule which I am very strict about, but it went on for so long I think it must've been a little more than that. It was really hard to deal with, but by Monday she was adjusting back to her playful helpful self.

Speaking of which, she has really stepped up the helpfulness. I think she has had it in her all along, but I just saw it as her getting into whatever I was doing. I would try and empty the dishwasher, and she would pull out the dishes and put them on the floor, I would try and fold laundry and she would undo it all. Well, with a little instruction I turned that into bringing me the dishes to put away, putting away the ones she can reach, and bringing me the laundry to fold. She takes her time with the clothes, shaking them out and putting her arms through them, like we do when we are getting ready to fold them, then she brings them over to put them in their correct pile which is when we fold it and put it up on the couch out of reach. Such a great system! She also will take her laundry to either the laundry room or basket, throw her diapers away, and we are working on putting things away at the end of the night which she is doing a great job at.

I was really scared about having two kids, not thinking there was any way I could handle it. I was especially scared about today, the first day by myself, but all in all I feel like it is going to be okay. Truth be told (but please don't tell him) yesterday I was so scared of Travis going back to work, but really ready for him to go. It is an adjustment having someone there questioning things that you are used to doing, seeing how you are when you start to lose it, and needing your attention as well. I knew this was going to be hard, but I was ready just to go ahead and get it over with!

I look forward to continuing to keep you up to date on things that are going on around here in our world. With that, I leave you with a few more pictures from Matthew's first week. On Travis's last day home we went to the Aquarium at Grapevine Mills and we had such a great time. If you look close, you can catch a peek of Matthew in the first shot.

Full term, what?!?

Where has the time gone?

Yesterday I was talking to Travis and realized that it is a possibility that I could have the baby before my next appointment, now that is a scary thought. This Saturday I will be 36 weeks which is the point in your pregnancy when people start saying, "it could be any time."

While I am trying to convince myself that he could be here late, because Lillian came early and you don't get that lucky twice, I have a feeling he is going to be very early. Travis said he knows it isn't going to be any time soon because last time I went on a cleaning rampage and that hasn't happened. With Lillian I knew it would be close when I finally went through and deep cleaned our office and that is exactly what happened. I told Travis yesterday this time I know it will be close when I do the same to our bedroom. Well, that happened today. So even though we are nowhere near ready, the crib isn't put together, we haven't bought anything for the baby, the nursery is a mess, it could be any time. Yikes!

Ain't Nothing Gonna Break My Stride

For the last two years I have been kind of down and out in the household department. I was so sick with Lillian, I would come home from work and either go to bed or lay on the couch until bedtime. Through most of her life she has had such bad sleeping problems, it was all I could do to stay awake during the day. After I got pregnant again? Forget about it. Worst stay at home mom ever.

Part of the problem is, besides her sleep schedule I never put us in a routine. I would just wake up and sit and watch her play. It was always so hard to get work done anyway because she won't play on her own and likes to get into everything that I am doing. I started having some problems with depression and anxiety and I realized the house being in a constant state of disaster wasn't helping. I also realized that even though I hated doing anything, when I got stuff done, I felt better. Added on top of all of this, I was not being very fair to Travis. He had to work all day, then come home and do the dishes, pick up, etc. Our weekends were dedicated to cleaning and getting everything else done.

I decided last week, it has to stop. I need to get us in a routine for both the week and every day. I put together a schedule for the day, and a cleaning schedule for the week and decided I was going to set my alarm in the morning, get up and get to work. Then that night Lillian was awake from 10:30pm-2:30am. Uh, yeah. I didn't get up until she did. Immediately following that I got a cold that knocked me out for a few days. Starting Monday, I decide I AM going to do this, and even though it has just been a few days I am loving it. I already feel better, and I think we are all better off for it.

As far as the actual schedule, I had no idea where to even start. I emailed one of my most organized friends and pretty much use her schedule to the t. Of course I made some adjustments for what works for our family but on any day during the week, at any time during that day we might just be doing the exact same thing.

15 Month Check Up

it weird to post a check up post when you have never posted a check up post previously?

Guess what? I don't care!

Even though Lillian is 16 months old, we had her 15 month check up today and for some reason this is the first appointment where I was so proud of her accomplishments. I guess the nurse asking about her milestones just make me realize how much she is growing and learning.

She is in the 10% percentile for weight and 35th for height. Our little petite girl is finally getting some inches on her!! Still in the top of her class for head size.

Some of the things they asked about:

5-6 word vocabulary? Yes. She says mama, dada/daddy, blanket, doggy, ball, baby, and I'm pretty sure she said Kyle (after hanging out with her Uncle Kyle). She can also sign eat, sleep, blanket, bath, milk, banana, please, and thank you.

Can she walk/stand on her own? Yes, this girl is all over the place. Her favorite thing to run to is her daddy. Every day when he walks through the door she runs to him with her chin up high and her hands in the air.


Is she climbing? Yes. She started climbing on some indoor play area equipment one day a couple of months ago and wants to climb on everything since

Can she point out 2-3 body parts? Yes, I didn't even know this was a milestone. I'm so glad we had been working on it. She can point out her mouth/tongue, eyes, nose, ears, hair, belly and toes.


How many fruits and veggies a day? 3-4. This is one that I was particularly glad about because I was beginning to worry she wasn't eating enough fruits and vegetables. Apparently kids her age are supposed to have 2-4 which doesn't seem like a lot. Especially considering he said that a serving is the size of her fist. That is only like 3 grapes!


She still isn't sleeping through the night, she wakes up once a night. She has two teeth on the bottom. She LOVES dogs, if she keeps up her excitement for doggies her daddy is going to be hard pressed to keep her from getting one. She seriously goes crazy at the sight or even sound of a puppy. She has started folding her hands when we pray. When she wants a snack she signs eat then runs to the fridge. She won't watch a tv show for more than 5 minutes.

Oh How Quickly They Grow

You know that annoying saying that everyone tells you when you first have a baby, "I feel like I just brought my own home from the hospital now they're 5, 10, a teenager, in college, etc"

I think I heard that several times a day for two months. Now I find myself thinking all too often, I feel like I just brought her home from the hospital.

Lillian is in the incredible age of learning right now she is picking things up so quickly. Sometimes I put her in a chair and buckle her in while I shower and when I'm done I put lotion on my face. A couple of days in a row after I was done lotioning myself I put some on her legs which tend to be dry. After just two days of this, on the third day she was there during my shower (which wasn't even consecutive to the other two) as soon as I put the lotion on my face she held up her leg.

It is also incredible for me to see how much she understands, even though she can communicate so little. Like any parent, I like to test what she knows so I'll ask her to do something and see if she will do it. I think the most recent thing is helping to put her toys away. We asked her to put her legos in their place and she picked them up and started to put them away. She also used to play with the dishes in the dishwasher while I was loading and unloading, but now she pulls them out and hands them to me to put away. She even takes the tupperware to it's spot, which is her free reign cabinet in the kitchen.

It's hard to believe that a baby that couldn't even look me in the eyes two seconds ago can now understand, follow instructions and learn things so quickly. Even some of the signs we haven't talked about in months (because I slacked off) she is starting to use.

Even though I know you aren't supposed to compare your child to others I was beginning to think she might be a little behind with how many words she knows. It is hard to tell though, because most of her friends are a few months older. We had a play date with a mother of eighteen month old twins who do not communicate at all, no signs no words. It was nice to have that perspective that all children develop at their own pace (and btw mine is a genius)

There are some things I really wish she would pick up faster. Most notably come here, we don't hit, we don't throw our food and please stop fussing. Oh and I will pay you one million dollars if you'll do the dishes