My kids are awesome. Here's a brief update on the two of them.
Henry is crawling. He started inching along a while ago. Then started conventionally crawling a week or two ago, and just in the last few days he has really taken off. I wouldn't say he's fast yet, but he's getting faster. It's so funny how different my kids are. Blakely started crawling and immediately was fast and efficient. It's taken Henry a little longer to enjoy crawling.
And with that...Blakely now has the annoying little brother. He crawls over to her, no matter what, to take her toy, her food, pull her hair, climb on her, and just pester her in general. She is actually a pretty good sport about it most of the time, but he definitely gets on her nerves. There is a lot of "Mom, get Hankie out of my way!"....."No! Hankie, that's MINE!"...."Henry drooled on my toy!"....etc. Ahhhh siblings. I have a feeling Blakely might get a little short sided with the sibling rivalry considering both Stephen and I are LITTLE siblings. Stephen especially will be able to sympathize with Hankie since he has a big sister who picked on him. :) But we will do our best to be fair, despite having terribly mean older siblings. Kidding. :)
Henry is also standing all the time. He walks around on the furniture, and just yesterday started standing without holding on to things. He is so proud, too. He will look at me and make sure I am watching, then let go and stare at me and smile while he shows off his "no hands" trick. I won't say he's close to walking cause I know he could easily prove me wrong and not walk for months, but he wants it BAD. So it seems like it won't be long.
He's definitely not lacking in courage. The poor guys injury count had skyrocketed since his mobility has increased. Lots of tumbles, pulling heavy objects onto his head, and crawling into objects- I guess cause he's looking down? Should I be worried? He currently has a couple of nice bumps on his head from diving off a chair yesterday (mom fail, I know...) and crashing into his music table as well.
Blakely is a little chatterbox. She has imaginary friends and animals, and also likes to pretend she IS various animals. She is always talking to herself, singing to herself, or talking and singing to her animals.
She is still obsessed with her "buddies"-all her stuffed animals. And insists on sleeping with ALL of them.
Although I am convinced she's a genius, she has some hilarious grammar issues that I am sure are normal, but are just too cute to correct. "Is your gonna go, mommy?" "Where he binky?" Etc. "what color sis it?"
And she's always "just" doing something. Have I already talked about this? It's adorable. "I'm just crying...I'm just watching tv....I'm just playing with this..." Speaking of just crying, she has really started to identify her emotions. She will tell us when she's sad, crying, happy, etc. I think it's really good cause I think she is learning to control her emotions a little better.
Don't get me wrong...she can be a total basket case. The girl is fragile. She is in tears if she can't get the lid off something, if she thinks you are going to tell her no, and many other random times. I don't know if it is just being tired or if she's just that sensitive. She also gets her feelings hurt by others VERY easily. It really breaks my momma heart. If someone takes a toy from her, doesn't want to play with her, or does something mean to her, she remembers every detail and will talk about it for weeks. And she will get upset all over again as she's telling me about it. We take her to a gymnastics place to play- no lessons or anything, just running and jumping on things- and a few weeks ago a kid took a toy from her and pushed her, and she talks about it and gets upset every time we go to or even talk about the gym.
We have also discovered she is a peacemaker/people pleaser like her daddy (NOT like her mommy...) if she has a toy and another kid is throwing a fit for that toy, she will almost always try to give it to them- even when she shouldn't (like if the kid tried to take it from her, etc) Conflict makes her very uncomfortable, and when she sees another kid throwing a fit she will, try her best to give them what they want. A good and bad thing I am sure. She also does her share of not sharing, but for the most part she wants others to be happy. She is sensitive to tension too. When Stephen and I have gotten I to "discussions" (we'll call them that...) we are not raising our voice, but they probably are a little intense, she will always come to us VERY concerned saying, "what are you talking about, guys?!"
She has started being scared. Who knows why. She will randomly be afraid when I put her to bed at night. She will just say she's scared and it will take her a long time to go to sleep. She almost always feels better when we pray and ask Jesus to take care of her and help her sleep. She had also developed a fear of sharks. We have talked a lot about how we are going to live on the beach this summer and she is always super excited about it. Except a few weeks ago she came to me in tears because she didn't want to live on the beach because she didn't want to get bitten by a shark. No idea where she got that.
She loves to pray. She always prays with us at supper, and likes to pray for people at night when she goes to bed. It's pretty sweet. One night when we were praying for her to not be scared she wanted to pray that her friend Hudson wouldn't be scared too.
I know there is so much else I want to document on my kiddos but for now this will have to do since Henry just woke up. :)
Friday, April 19, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Oklahoma road trip
Well Henry is asleep in Blakely's bed. He wet through his clothes this morning so his quilt is being washed so I convinced Blakely to sleep in our bed. Both kids went down within 15 minutes of each other, and both are asleep. (For now!) woo!
So my parents live on a pretty cool little farm with chickens and cows and farm toys- tractors electric car, dogs, etc. And I have been telling my friend Katie that she and her son needed to come down with us sometime. Well, since I'm moving soon and we are best friends we decided we really did need to do w road trip together before I leave. So we scheduled it for a few weeks layer, then I realized Sunday that the only time I could go was Monday. So I sprung it on her, fully expecting her to pass. Instead she surprised me and said let's do it. So we hopped into the car (not really, there's no hopping with 3 kids) Monday morning and headed down. I literally told my parents the night before, and both had to work, so our expectations as well as actual plans were slim. We decided to just take our time and enjoy the hiccups that were certain to come with traveling with two toddlers and an infant.
Our highlights for the ride down there were 1. The moment we realized the van DVD player was going, each toddler had an iPad in their lap and Henry's personal DVD player was playing all at the same time. Oh, modern technology... (I'm a little embarrassed, but had to share) 2. We discovered Blakely gets intensely carsick (this is a recurring problem) and she CANNOT handle the iPad in the car. She threw up, but I saw it coming just in time to have Katie hold a bag up for her. We were a ways away from a stop, so unfortunately I was forced to litter said bag. We pulled over on the side of the road and I really felt like keeping it in the car wasn't worth the risk of her or another kid throwing up due to the stink. (Sorry environmentalists!) I now know to ALWAYS keep lots of bags in the car because although this was the only throw up of the trip, she came very close a couple of other times. And 3. We finally made it to town with no less than 5 stops. (Starbucks, pee break, snack break, barf break, and lunch)
We arrived to 80 degree weather, put on our shorts and had a blast. The kids couldn't have been happier. They ran around the pasture, fed and held chickens, collected eggs, fed cows, played baseball, played on a jungle gym, jumped on the trampoline, and got so dirty that there was a ring of dirt around the tub after their bath. Henry was asleep by 7:30, Blakely around 9:30. There were 2 earthquakes that night that were totally bizarre! Apparently not an uncommon thing around there.
The kids all slept in- mine 7:30, and Hudson 9:30. (As jealous as I am, I am still thankful for 7:30!) it was cold and windy, which was a huge disappointment after sweating the day before. Sure made us glad we got there in time to enjoy it though!
All three kids were SUUUUUUUPER whiney, so we loaded them up for errands since it was too cold to okay outside for too long. We stopped at Braums for lunch when I learned Katie had never been. The kids were being crazy and driving us nuts, Henry threw up on the only pair of pants I brought, so we went to old navy to get him some more! After that we stopped by my moms school to say hi. The kids fell asleep on the way home. We played that afternoon. I cooked supper, and after baths we loaded up and left town right at 8pm. It went by so fast, and yet as we were leaving it seemed like there was no way we had only been there a day.
The ride home, of course, didn't go as planned and I think there was only about 1 hour out of the 5 that all three kids were actually asleep. The kids sleeping the whole way and Katie and I getting the whole drive to visit up front turned into me chauffeuring everyone and Katie taking care of each kids endless requests. We did however manage to not stop until Topeka because we never wanted to wake up whatever kid was sleeping as we passed the stops. We only stopped in Topeka for gas- the light had been on wayyyy too long, and we were in a scary area at 1am. Needless to say, we both had to pee like the dickens when we got home. Katie shuffled her kiddo and stuff into her car, and I shuffled both my kids into bed, and amazingly, everyone went right to sleep. Blakely even slept till 8:30 the next day, which she has NEVER in her life done.
It was sooooo much fun, and well worth the tired and whiney kids I got afterwards.
So my parents live on a pretty cool little farm with chickens and cows and farm toys- tractors electric car, dogs, etc. And I have been telling my friend Katie that she and her son needed to come down with us sometime. Well, since I'm moving soon and we are best friends we decided we really did need to do w road trip together before I leave. So we scheduled it for a few weeks layer, then I realized Sunday that the only time I could go was Monday. So I sprung it on her, fully expecting her to pass. Instead she surprised me and said let's do it. So we hopped into the car (not really, there's no hopping with 3 kids) Monday morning and headed down. I literally told my parents the night before, and both had to work, so our expectations as well as actual plans were slim. We decided to just take our time and enjoy the hiccups that were certain to come with traveling with two toddlers and an infant.
Our highlights for the ride down there were 1. The moment we realized the van DVD player was going, each toddler had an iPad in their lap and Henry's personal DVD player was playing all at the same time. Oh, modern technology... (I'm a little embarrassed, but had to share) 2. We discovered Blakely gets intensely carsick (this is a recurring problem) and she CANNOT handle the iPad in the car. She threw up, but I saw it coming just in time to have Katie hold a bag up for her. We were a ways away from a stop, so unfortunately I was forced to litter said bag. We pulled over on the side of the road and I really felt like keeping it in the car wasn't worth the risk of her or another kid throwing up due to the stink. (Sorry environmentalists!) I now know to ALWAYS keep lots of bags in the car because although this was the only throw up of the trip, she came very close a couple of other times. And 3. We finally made it to town with no less than 5 stops. (Starbucks, pee break, snack break, barf break, and lunch)
We arrived to 80 degree weather, put on our shorts and had a blast. The kids couldn't have been happier. They ran around the pasture, fed and held chickens, collected eggs, fed cows, played baseball, played on a jungle gym, jumped on the trampoline, and got so dirty that there was a ring of dirt around the tub after their bath. Henry was asleep by 7:30, Blakely around 9:30. There were 2 earthquakes that night that were totally bizarre! Apparently not an uncommon thing around there.
The kids all slept in- mine 7:30, and Hudson 9:30. (As jealous as I am, I am still thankful for 7:30!) it was cold and windy, which was a huge disappointment after sweating the day before. Sure made us glad we got there in time to enjoy it though!
All three kids were SUUUUUUUPER whiney, so we loaded them up for errands since it was too cold to okay outside for too long. We stopped at Braums for lunch when I learned Katie had never been. The kids were being crazy and driving us nuts, Henry threw up on the only pair of pants I brought, so we went to old navy to get him some more! After that we stopped by my moms school to say hi. The kids fell asleep on the way home. We played that afternoon. I cooked supper, and after baths we loaded up and left town right at 8pm. It went by so fast, and yet as we were leaving it seemed like there was no way we had only been there a day.
The ride home, of course, didn't go as planned and I think there was only about 1 hour out of the 5 that all three kids were actually asleep. The kids sleeping the whole way and Katie and I getting the whole drive to visit up front turned into me chauffeuring everyone and Katie taking care of each kids endless requests. We did however manage to not stop until Topeka because we never wanted to wake up whatever kid was sleeping as we passed the stops. We only stopped in Topeka for gas- the light had been on wayyyy too long, and we were in a scary area at 1am. Needless to say, we both had to pee like the dickens when we got home. Katie shuffled her kiddo and stuff into her car, and I shuffled both my kids into bed, and amazingly, everyone went right to sleep. Blakely even slept till 8:30 the next day, which she has NEVER in her life done.
It was sooooo much fun, and well worth the tired and whiney kids I got afterwards.
In my head and on my heart
I have quite the running list in my head of blog posts. I lay awake at night thinking of great things to blog about, and even usually sit down soon thereafter and begin the post with the best of intentions, only to be thwarted by one of my sweet babies. Nap time never goes as I dream- both babies going down at the same time and sleeping peacefully for 2 hours +. Ha!
Also, I start a post, and often get pretty close to finished, then forget to save it and its gone. Woops.
One more excuse. Both Stephen and my computers are nearing the end of their days. Stephen actually alternates because when one starts pooping out, he switches to the other one. I am full time iPad mini with my Internet- and it is a pain to type on this thing. So many typos. One day I will dedicate a full post to not correcting the mistakes and bizarre autocorrect just for fun.
Anywho! On my heart right now is how thankful I am for my babies. I have only recently let myself think about the abortion doctor trial drama and the sadness of the Boston marathon. A couple of days ago I was holding Henry before bedtime and I was just looking at his sweet face and I was overcome with thankfulness. At a time when I know SO many people on the road of infertility or adoption, I know I am beyond blessed to not only have two babies, but healthy, fun, sweet, and adorable kiddos. On top of that, the recent abortion horror has reminded me again that it is a fallen world and that far too many babies go unloved. I wish I could save and love all the unwanted babies in the world. I can't really let my mind dwell more than a second or two on these things or I will be an emotional wreck. I am so thankful for my kids and feel so blessed to have them.
Ok, so up next for my posts is another Blakely and Henry update, our spontaneous trip to Papa and Gigi's house with friends this week, and a favorite things post that I am always writing in my head when I am putting on makeup or wearing my favorite clothes. :) maybe ill even write (and finish!) one or all of these posts today! Ha!
Also, I start a post, and often get pretty close to finished, then forget to save it and its gone. Woops.
One more excuse. Both Stephen and my computers are nearing the end of their days. Stephen actually alternates because when one starts pooping out, he switches to the other one. I am full time iPad mini with my Internet- and it is a pain to type on this thing. So many typos. One day I will dedicate a full post to not correcting the mistakes and bizarre autocorrect just for fun.
Anywho! On my heart right now is how thankful I am for my babies. I have only recently let myself think about the abortion doctor trial drama and the sadness of the Boston marathon. A couple of days ago I was holding Henry before bedtime and I was just looking at his sweet face and I was overcome with thankfulness. At a time when I know SO many people on the road of infertility or adoption, I know I am beyond blessed to not only have two babies, but healthy, fun, sweet, and adorable kiddos. On top of that, the recent abortion horror has reminded me again that it is a fallen world and that far too many babies go unloved. I wish I could save and love all the unwanted babies in the world. I can't really let my mind dwell more than a second or two on these things or I will be an emotional wreck. I am so thankful for my kids and feel so blessed to have them.
Ok, so up next for my posts is another Blakely and Henry update, our spontaneous trip to Papa and Gigi's house with friends this week, and a favorite things post that I am always writing in my head when I am putting on makeup or wearing my favorite clothes. :) maybe ill even write (and finish!) one or all of these posts today! Ha!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
10 months
Hankie is 10 months old, as of a few weeks ago. In my mind I had already written this post. I can even remember all that I wrote. So I am honestly not sure if I just dreamed it, or if I actually did and it somehow got erased.
Anywho. A few weeks ago my parents came to visit for the weekend. We had a great time, as always, and they were about to head out on a Monday afternoon and Blakely decided she wanted to go. After freaking her out by OVER communicating that MOMMY WON'T BE THERE! My mom told me I just needed to decide if I was going to let her go, and let that be the end of it. And she was right. So basically from the time Blakely brought it up, to the time they pulled out of my driveway was about 20 minutes. I'm not sure if this was better or worse for my momma emotions. She's spent a few nights away from me, but all were planned way in advance. A tear or two may or may not have been shed over her independence.
Of course she did fine and barely missed me. We were planning to go down to my parents anyway because Stephen was going out of town, so I moved my trip up a day and headed down only one day after she left. I must admit, having only Henry as a travel buddy is quite the treat. Unfortunately the church nursery struck again and both kiddos woke up Wednesday morning with runny noses and not feeling great. But that didn't hold Blakely back. She couldn't be slowed in hanging out with the chickens and cows and keeping herself busy with the wonderful world of Pawpaw and Gigi's house. Lucky for her, my mom is a trinket kind of person, so the things to play with there are endless. Inside and out. Yard ornaments, lawn gnomes, garage sale toys, gardening supplies, a family of ceramic ducks that live in the living room, firefighter toys, etc. she was busy and loving life. She asks to go visit pretty much daily. Not to mention my brave mom decided it was time for Blakely to be in a big girl bed. Of course she slept in it without a hitch. It sure didn't hurt that she got worn out and slept like a rock. Amazingly she hasn't asked to sleep in it here, and I'm glad. We'll switch her when we start traveling.
Hankie was another story. He also had a bad cold and couldn't breath. He, however, was not distracted by the shiny things at Pawpaw and Gigi's. He didn't sleep much, thus, neither did I. He also decided he was done nursing. I am sure the cold contributed, but he literally wouldn't nurse for 3 days. I didn't have a pump, so I'll spare you the details and just say I was suffering. Finally we got up to leave Friday morning and I got him formula and we haven't looked back. He really didn't have much trouble adjusting, especially once he got to feeling better. He still doesn't love to take the bottle from me though. After the battle over nursing I had with Blakely for so many months, I decided I was not going to do that with Henry. So once he didn't nurse for a few days, it was over and I felt great about it. I really think it was the right decision because he is all around eating much better than he was while he was still nursing.
He also doesn't drink the bottle like a normal kid. Of course. My kids are just not normal. :) he guzzles for as long as he can hold his breath, then aggressively shoves the bottle away to come up for air. Then grabs it and pulls it back in to chug some more. So he takes about 7 oz in 1-2 minutes. And he is showing no signs of figuring out how to just breath while he eats. It's so weird because he breathed while he nursed....
So anyway, he has been drinking formula for 2 weeks now. He is eating a lot better, but its still a stressful time. We are seeing an occupational therapist weekly, and she is really helpful. We will see her until we leave for Kaleo.
He weighs around 20lbs but I don't know how much exactly. He wears mostly 12 month clothes. Some 18month.
He goes to bed around 7 thanks to daylight savings. Now that he isn't nursing, Stephen can put him to bed. He is so easy to get to sleep. Staying asleep is the tricky part. He doesn't search for his binky like Blakely did. Maybe cause we kept 5 in her bed and he has one. Blakely would wake up and scrape her arms all over the bed until she could find several. Henry won't even try to find it when it's right in front of him. He just whines until we come in. He is less and less interested in sleeping with me. If I am around he just wants to play. So naps are hit or miss. He has lately been taking a great morning nap- even in his own bed. Usually 8:30 to 10 or 10:30. And I think I need to keep him up later for the afternoon nap. He has been going down around 12:30 and only sleeping for a half hour.
He takes a 5-7oz bottle every 4 hours and eats breakfast lunch and dinner when we do. He likes mostly fruit, but will eat most things in the squeeze pouches. He LOVES table food and will eat anything you let him have. We mostly stick to soft stufflike bread or crackers.
He is SUCH a boy. He always wants to wrestle and is just rough all the time. He does everything with full physical force and no gentleness or finesse. I get head butted daily. I have had several fat lips and brushed cheek bones thanks to Henry. He has taken my teeth pretty hard to the forehead, and countless head bumps. And not due to clumsiness...he just slams himself around. He's miserable to hold, cause unless he's sleepy, he's squirming and fighting to see something or get out of your arms. He's relentless if he sees something he wants and will plow through anything to get to the baby monitor, cell phone, tv controls, plate of food, and especially any toy in Blakely's hands.
She can get him to laugh unlike anyone else, but Henry is a really joyful and happy guy most of the time. He's not shy, and he'll smile at anyone. He really doesn't have any separation anxiety and will let anyone hold him, but he does get his feelings hurt if I leave him in the room alone.
WHEW that was so long and I have so much more to update on! Easter, visit from Dedad and Bebe, spring play dates and Blakely but I'll save that for another post. ;)
Anywho. A few weeks ago my parents came to visit for the weekend. We had a great time, as always, and they were about to head out on a Monday afternoon and Blakely decided she wanted to go. After freaking her out by OVER communicating that MOMMY WON'T BE THERE! My mom told me I just needed to decide if I was going to let her go, and let that be the end of it. And she was right. So basically from the time Blakely brought it up, to the time they pulled out of my driveway was about 20 minutes. I'm not sure if this was better or worse for my momma emotions. She's spent a few nights away from me, but all were planned way in advance. A tear or two may or may not have been shed over her independence.
Of course she did fine and barely missed me. We were planning to go down to my parents anyway because Stephen was going out of town, so I moved my trip up a day and headed down only one day after she left. I must admit, having only Henry as a travel buddy is quite the treat. Unfortunately the church nursery struck again and both kiddos woke up Wednesday morning with runny noses and not feeling great. But that didn't hold Blakely back. She couldn't be slowed in hanging out with the chickens and cows and keeping herself busy with the wonderful world of Pawpaw and Gigi's house. Lucky for her, my mom is a trinket kind of person, so the things to play with there are endless. Inside and out. Yard ornaments, lawn gnomes, garage sale toys, gardening supplies, a family of ceramic ducks that live in the living room, firefighter toys, etc. she was busy and loving life. She asks to go visit pretty much daily. Not to mention my brave mom decided it was time for Blakely to be in a big girl bed. Of course she slept in it without a hitch. It sure didn't hurt that she got worn out and slept like a rock. Amazingly she hasn't asked to sleep in it here, and I'm glad. We'll switch her when we start traveling.
Hankie was another story. He also had a bad cold and couldn't breath. He, however, was not distracted by the shiny things at Pawpaw and Gigi's. He didn't sleep much, thus, neither did I. He also decided he was done nursing. I am sure the cold contributed, but he literally wouldn't nurse for 3 days. I didn't have a pump, so I'll spare you the details and just say I was suffering. Finally we got up to leave Friday morning and I got him formula and we haven't looked back. He really didn't have much trouble adjusting, especially once he got to feeling better. He still doesn't love to take the bottle from me though. After the battle over nursing I had with Blakely for so many months, I decided I was not going to do that with Henry. So once he didn't nurse for a few days, it was over and I felt great about it. I really think it was the right decision because he is all around eating much better than he was while he was still nursing.
He also doesn't drink the bottle like a normal kid. Of course. My kids are just not normal. :) he guzzles for as long as he can hold his breath, then aggressively shoves the bottle away to come up for air. Then grabs it and pulls it back in to chug some more. So he takes about 7 oz in 1-2 minutes. And he is showing no signs of figuring out how to just breath while he eats. It's so weird because he breathed while he nursed....
So anyway, he has been drinking formula for 2 weeks now. He is eating a lot better, but its still a stressful time. We are seeing an occupational therapist weekly, and she is really helpful. We will see her until we leave for Kaleo.
He weighs around 20lbs but I don't know how much exactly. He wears mostly 12 month clothes. Some 18month.
He goes to bed around 7 thanks to daylight savings. Now that he isn't nursing, Stephen can put him to bed. He is so easy to get to sleep. Staying asleep is the tricky part. He doesn't search for his binky like Blakely did. Maybe cause we kept 5 in her bed and he has one. Blakely would wake up and scrape her arms all over the bed until she could find several. Henry won't even try to find it when it's right in front of him. He just whines until we come in. He is less and less interested in sleeping with me. If I am around he just wants to play. So naps are hit or miss. He has lately been taking a great morning nap- even in his own bed. Usually 8:30 to 10 or 10:30. And I think I need to keep him up later for the afternoon nap. He has been going down around 12:30 and only sleeping for a half hour.
He takes a 5-7oz bottle every 4 hours and eats breakfast lunch and dinner when we do. He likes mostly fruit, but will eat most things in the squeeze pouches. He LOVES table food and will eat anything you let him have. We mostly stick to soft stufflike bread or crackers.
He is SUCH a boy. He always wants to wrestle and is just rough all the time. He does everything with full physical force and no gentleness or finesse. I get head butted daily. I have had several fat lips and brushed cheek bones thanks to Henry. He has taken my teeth pretty hard to the forehead, and countless head bumps. And not due to clumsiness...he just slams himself around. He's miserable to hold, cause unless he's sleepy, he's squirming and fighting to see something or get out of your arms. He's relentless if he sees something he wants and will plow through anything to get to the baby monitor, cell phone, tv controls, plate of food, and especially any toy in Blakely's hands.
She can get him to laugh unlike anyone else, but Henry is a really joyful and happy guy most of the time. He's not shy, and he'll smile at anyone. He really doesn't have any separation anxiety and will let anyone hold him, but he does get his feelings hurt if I leave him in the room alone.
WHEW that was so long and I have so much more to update on! Easter, visit from Dedad and Bebe, spring play dates and Blakely but I'll save that for another post. ;)
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