Pre-School Update and Random Pictures

John Henry with my bears from when I was little. B is the one that looks slightly more loved. :) Bow is the one in the background. (They used to look alike before I loved B into a rag.) John Henry likes to play and sleep with Bow, and he likes to play shark with B.

John Henry likes to help feed Macey. He really is good at it!

John Henry with his favorite things in the world. Sharks and pacis. (Yes, he is 3.5 and still has a paci. He sleeps and that is all I care about right now!) Please excuse the mess; he dumped out an entire bag I had full of stuff to entertain him during Kurt's surgery.

This is Ava and John Henry at school. Ava is my friend Emily's little girl. She and John Henry just love each other! When Ben started preschool, Laudan said she thought it would have been so much easier on him if he had known someone in his class. That is the reason I put John Henry at St. Paul's with Ava. I am so glad I did. I really think her being there has made it easier on him b/c he talks about her all the time. Mrs. Munger says they are good friends.

Emily and I took the kids to Cracker Barrel the other night, and when John Henry and Ava would talk next to each other, she would grab his hand and hold it. It was so cute! He just goes right along with it. :) I told him to clean up his toys at Cracker Barrel, and Ava went and cleaned them all up for him. Ava is so sweet!

Playing with sunglasses at Office Max.

John Henry's teacher, Mrs. Munger, had a birthday party last week at school. We got her a glass bowl with a cross, but John Henry kept saying that he wanted to get her a "dinosaur, shark, and a helicopter, so she will have lots of presents to open and be super happy." I finally convinced him that she didn't want toys, and it would be better to get her a shark book for her classroom. This is the one he picked out.

We had to trace our child's hand and write a message to Mrs. Munger in it. This is what John Henry wanted me to write to her.

John Henry is doing so well in preschool. We are so shocked and proud! :) I never thought he would be happy to go and not cry, but he does. He whines a little on school mornings when he asks if he has to go and if he has to take a nap. Then he gets over it and is happy by the time we get there. He loves his teacher and comes home telling me all about his day.

Eating food for the first time

A few days after Macey turned 6 months, we fed her rice cereal for the first time. Just like John Henry, she loved it!

The next week I decided to try baby food. John Henry loved it the first time, and I was expecting her to as well. But the first time I gave it to her, she blew bubbles and spit out every single bite. I even tried 3 different kinds of baby food, totally ignoring the rule about 1 kind every 3 days. Later that night was the night she had the fever, so I think she just didn't feel like eating and trying new things.

The next day I tried again and she loved it! Now she eats peas, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, and bananas. At each feeding (2x a day) she eats 1/2 a jar of a vegetable and 1/2 a jar of a fruit. At dinner tonight she still wanted more, so I gave her another 1/2 jar of a vegetable.

I am loving the baby food thing. Kurt had his hernia surgery yesterday and when Macey got hungry in recovery, I could just feed her baby food rather than having to go to the car to nurse her. The nurse commented on how John Henry and Macey were "angels." That was sweet of her and they were being good, but I am sure the laptop with A Bug's Life DVD had something to do with John Henry being so good for 4 hours in the waiting room and Macey is usually pretty good in public. She is definitely a people watcher like her mom. :)

Here are some pictures of her first real food: (please ignore my messy bookshelf; that is Wee Swap stuff waiting to be finished)

6 months old!

This post is a little late, like always. :)


At 6 months Macey weighs 13 lbs, 15.5 oz, so just 1/2 oz. shy of 14 lbs, and she is 24 inches long. Her doctor's appointment went well. She is right on track for everything, and I think Dr. Amason was impressed that she can already sit up on her own. She got 2 shots and the rotovirus vaccine. That night we got home from Birmingham about 8. When Kurt got her out of her car seat, he said he thought she had a fever. I gave her some tylenol, and checked it 20 min later when she was still hot. It was 102.6! I called the nurse on call and she said that wasn't high. Maybe not to them, but we thought it was really high. It finally broke around 3 that morning, and she has been fine ever since. I don't think I am going to do more than one shot a time from now on. She was soooo miserable.

Macey ate food for the first time a few days after she turned 6 months, but I am putting that in a different post b/c it will be all out of order and I hate moving pics on here.

This month Macey has gotten so much better about not crying. Praise the Lord! When she is happy, she will sit in her exersaucer and play for 45 min. It is so nice. I don't remember John Henry being that way, but I was much more overprotective of him and probably picked him up as soon as he made a peep. :) She loves to watch John Henry and jump in her jumperoo.

Macey is very routine oriented. She doesn't have a schedule really b/c we do things at different times each day, but she definitely sticks to a routine. If she gets off of it and has to stay up late, she screams a lot and sleeps really badly that night.

In the mornings she wakes up and plays for about an hour or two. She is so happy in the mornings! She and I are usually the first ones up so she plays while I clean up or try to wake up. Then she goes back to sleep for an hour or two, wakes up for about 3 hours, then back to sleep for another 1-3 hours. She may take a small nap later in the day, but she is usually in bed from 7:30-9:15 or so. She wakes up anywhere from 2 (a great night) to 4 times a night. Sometimes she eats and goes right back to sleep, but most of the time I am up for about 45 min trying to get her back to sleep.

She still likes to be swaddled and cannot sleep without it. In order for her to go to sleep, I swaddle her, lay her in her bed, and turn on her mobile. Most of the time she turns her head to her bumper puts herself to sleep. Sometimes I have to go put her paci back in or pick her up, but it is sooooo nice just to be able to lay her down. Now she rolls to her stomach and will sleep like that. I was worried at first b/c she doesn't have use of her arms, but she can roll herself back and forth while swaddled. She is also sleeping in her crib all night long! Yay!

Macey babbles some and I swear she copied Kurt saying "da da" the other day and said it back. I know she didn't know what it was, but she repeated the sound.

If you get in her face and kind of wrinkle your nose and breathe fast (John Henry calls it huffing and puffing) she will laugh and do the same thing back. Obviously, she is a genius! :)

No haircut yet, as you can see in the pics, but I have found the hair cutting scissors and we are doing it soon! I have been saying that for 4 months, but I really mean it now. I think she is getting a rat tail, so we are for sure cutting it! After her bath today, she was sitting up while I was brushing her hair and it was down to her shoulder blades! We have moved up to the next largest size in bows b/c the smallest just won't hold her hair anymore.

Pics are in reverse order, sorry!

Check out that mullet! Kurt and I say that she looks like an Alabama fan. :)

Sitting up by herself.

She likes to stick her tounge out!

It's 4 am

And we've been up for an hour! Macey is wide awake; John Jenry is in and out of sleep. He wakes up and asks why it is still dark, then goes back to sleep.

The good news is that I am catching up on my online shopping. I just ordered my sister in law her birthday gift (it was in July) and am about to order my nephew's birthday gift (won't tell you when that was). The bad news is that the roofers will be here bright and early in the am and it will be loud. And John Henry has school pictures at 8:15. If we are up, I am going to let Kurt take him.

My new favorite blog

http://www.rantsfrommommyland.com/

Hilarious!! This is the best one I have read-
http://www.rantsfrommommyland.com/2010/03/sleep-wars-baby-vs-momma.html. I can totally sympathize with her.

:)

5 months old!

Macey is 5 months old! This past month has been challenging to say the least. My sweet baby who was down to crying only 70% of the time went back to crying about 95% of the time and sleeping in only 1.5 hour increments at night. I thought I was going to lose my mind for a few weeks, but things are better now.

This month Macey:
- loves to lie on her back and play with her toys on the living room floor. She rolls all around and ends up a completely different way than she started.

- has been grabbing at toys, but now she grabs at everything that is in front of her.

-still loves to be swaddled to sleep

-laughs and smiles all the time (when she isn’t crying)

-plays in her exersaucer and jumperoo

-takes a bunch of short naps. Occasionally she will take an hour or two nap, but that is rare!

-had pinkeye. She woke up with it one Sunday, got medicine on Monday, went to the doctor b/c

it wasn’t better on Friday, and got better by the next Monday! Kurt was the only other one that got it, and his was awful!

-weighed 12 lbs, 8 oz. at her doctor’s appointment

-got told that she is the nurse’s favorite baby. And don’t say they tell everyone that. I know she really is her favorite. :)

-is still wearing size 1 diapers. We have a few left to finish in the pack, and then we are moving up to 2s.

-still sleeps in the Nap Nanny on the floor. We are going to try to move her to her bed soon. (Really I am writing this on the 12th and she already sleeps in her bed some of the night, just not all of it because apparently, I am so sleep deprived that I cannot hear my children cry on a monitor. I have to be in the room with them or they will be hysterical before Kurt hears them and goes to get them while I wake up completely confused. I guess we will all be sleeping in the same room until high school. :) )

-still loves to take a bath. We have the best bath seat ever (http://www.diapers.com/product/productdetail.aspx?productid=18673) and she just kicks and splashes until John Henry requests that she get out of the bathtub.

-nurses every 1.5-3 hours during the day and night, never any longer. It’s more like 3 hours when we are out b/c she is entertained I think.

-loves to be out in public. She is so good in public; no one believes she cries like 3 hours a day.

-still has not gotten a haircut, even though Kurt tells me every day that we need to cut it.

John Henry's first day of school

Today John Henry started St. Paul's PK3 program. It is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8-3. I have been really nervous about him going to school, so we have tried to prepare John Henry for it by really talking it up. He is not one to leave us and try new things, so we (mainly I) were really worried that he would be miserable and cry all day. He has never been away from us with people he didn't know. No babysitters or even the church nursery. We tried that one time, and it was a disaster.

He got to pick his lunchbox and backpack. He chose a green backpack because his favorite color is light green. :) He picked a metal lunchbox (that was the only choice he was given) with a train on it. He acted excited about school, but then he would say that he didn't want to go tomorrow "just in a few couple weeks later."

He actually went to bed early last night, which made for a better morning. We got up and I packed his lunch. It felt so strange to be packing a lunch! He had a turkey sandwich in the shape of dinosaurs (I thought I was crafty until I saw this- http://www.anotherlunch.com/), ranch rice cakes, 2 chocolate chip cookies that we made yesterday, and water.

We took pictures before we left. John Henry said his lunchbox was too heavy to hold, so we put it in his backpack. Then he said that was so heavy that he was going to fall down.

We walked him into his classroom, put his lunch and backpack in his cubby, and told him to have a good day. He started screaming and crying. Mrs. Munger tried to hold his hand and he jerked it away (so embarrassing!) and tried to get us to hold him. We left, and I immediately started crying. I went to Chick Fil A to get an unsweet tea and I sat in the parking lot and cried and texted Laudan. I knew if I called anyone I would cry.

I was worried all day, but I am not going to lie, I did enjoy my time alone while Macey took a long nap. I got much more nervous as it was time to go pick him up.

Kurt met us at the school to pick him up at 12:15. Yes, overprotective mom didn't let him stay the whole day. The kids were coming up from lunch when we walked in. I made Kurt hide behind a wall so John Henry wouldn't see us until he got to his classroom. Crazy, I know.

Kurt was giving me the report from behind the wall- (It sounds much more crazy than it was, I promise.) John Henry was smiling and talking to his friends! I was soooo happy that I wanted to cry again. Mrs. Munger said he stopped crying right after we left, probably before we got to the car! I am so proud of him. I thought he would be sad, but he did great. I guess I cried all morning for no reason.

He told us about his day and a little boy that brought fishing worms, playing on the playground, and eating lunch next to Patrick (his friend Ava's daddy). He told me they read a story and Mrs. Munger told the kids to clean up the toys before they could go outside. He said he only picked up one, but I really hope that isn't true.

He got a prize for going to school for the first time- a bag of sharks. He is obsessed with sharks these days. He didn't want to take a nap when we got home b/c he wanted to get in the bath and play with them. He stayed in the bath for 2 hours, playing.

John Henry said he is excited about going back to school! I asked him if he wants me to pick him up after lunch or stay and play longer. He said he wants to stay and play longer. I really cannot believe it, but I am so thankful. God certainly answered our prayers!

We have to go get him a nap mat now. I didn't even buy one b/c I didn't think he would ever stay and sleep there. Who is this kid?! He even rode home from school with Kurt and not me!

My first day of school flowers from Kurt. :)

Happy 7th Anniversary to us!

June 28th was our 7th anniversary! To celebrate we spent 11 days at Kurt's parents beach house. The first 4 were alone and the next 7 were with the Hendersons, Lowrys, and Nixons. I will post some pics soon, but there are some on Laudan's blog and Kelly's blog if you just can't wait.

I was going to post 7 things I love about Kurt but since I am not a cheesy person, I figured he would die of shock. And I need him around to help with the kids, so I'll just post these pictures of us on our honeymoon in Hawaii.







A funny story about our honeymoon~ We spent the night at the Tutweiler the night we got married. Before we even pulled away from the B&A Warehouse, I was crying. In the elevator, the bellhop was looking at me like I was completely nuts. I said, "I guess you don't get a lot of brides crying." He just shook his head and said, "No we don't." I definitely don't deal well with change!

We got to the room, and we found a dried booger on the the headboard. Then we found one on the comforter. Kurt called the front desk to come up and change the sheets. I remember Kurt on the phone with them telling them that it looked like someone "blew snot" all around the room. I was crying and laughing at the same time.

They came to change the bed and examined it up close under the light. I guess they wanted to make sure it was old. I am not a hotel fan at all, and this didn't help! The next morning when I was in the shower, standing on a hand towel so my feet wouldn't touch the bathtub, I looked over and there was another booger at eye level. Yuck!!

We got to Hawaii, and for the first 2 or 3 days, I cried, threw up, and used a 1000 minute phone card4. I told y'all I don't deal well with change! Because of this, Kurt would go to the bar every morning and wait for it to open. He said he knew something was wrong when he was waiting at the swim up bar at 9:30 am. Thankfully that part of our honeymoon only lasted a few days. After that we had so much fun! And now we love to laugh about our first few days of married life. :)




I need to add that Kurt didn't go to the bar b/c he was upset with me. He went to the bar b/c I was in the room on the phone with my friends and crying. :)

4 months old!

John Henry was trying to kiss her, and she was trying to suck on his nose. He was so excited that she was kissing him back.

This is how Macey sleeps, with one leg out.

This is how it ended. Both kids screaming.

Only 16 days late! We were at the beach on the 1st, so I took these when we got back on the 8th. It took me 2 photoshoots b/c Macey got tired and needed to be swaddled and put down for a nap both times. The 2nd time I just gave up and didn't try to get anymore pictures.

At 4 months, Macey weighs 12 lbs, .8 oz. :) She has only gained 8 oz. since her 2 month checkup, but Dr. Amason didn't seem concerned. He said she is right on track. She is 24" long.

At her appt., she had to get 2 shots. John Henry said he wanted her to get a shot and be scared about getting a shot. A far cry from how upset he was the first time she got one! I think she gets on his nerves a lot now. I am a little scared about how things will be when they are older! They do have some sweet moments though. He was really excited to hold her at the beach when he saw that their outfits matched. So funny!

Macey's acid reflux seems to have gotten a lot better. She only cries about 75% of the time now, rather than 95%. :) Usually swaddling, mylanta, and a paci dipped in water (or I am in the car or really really desperate- tea. I would have died before I did that with John Henry!) does the trick and she calms down. She mainly only cries when she is hungry, sleepy, or wants to be swaddled. Just wrapping her in the miracle blanket and giving her a paci calms her down if she isn't tired. She has to have her left leg out, or she will kick until she works it out. It's really cute. Really she is a much better baby and at least I know now what will work!

When I was little my great uncle put a poem in my birthday card (I think. I will have to check on that.) Anyway, it said:

There once was a girl with a curl

right in the middle of her forehead

When she was good, she was very good
but when she was bad, she was horrid.

That is Macey exactly! When she is good, she is the best baby. She will play by herself or just lie on the floor and "talk" to us. But when she is bad- watch out!

We aren't going to try food until she is 6 months old, even though she dr. said we could now. She is eating about every 3 hours now, sometimes even longer. At night, she sleeps about 6 hours for her first stretch, 2 for her next few. Most mornings, I end up putting her in the bed with us sometime around 7 or 8 to try and get a little more sleep. I will not do what I did with John Henry though and let her sleep there every night! I have learned my lesson.

Macey loves to play with toys. She picks them up and tries to put them in her mouth every time. She has a little thing in the living room with hanging toys that I sit her in front of in the bumbo, and she will grab them and smile. I need to get the exersaucer out soon. I sat her in Kate's a few days ago and she seemed to like it.

Napping is still unpredictable, but she is starting to take a 1-2 hour nap in the mornings, which is great! Then she usually take a short nap, then a longer one. I love naptime.

Dr. Amason said to keep doing tummy time, but as soon as I put her on her tummy, she rolls right over to her back. We still haven't gotten a haircut, but I think we will this month.

I think that is all I want to remember this month. And, just fyi, it is really annoying to write a blog post through the pink sharpie that someone colored on my computer screen when I turned around for 5 seconds this afternoon!