Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

My friend Bridgette was over the other day, and I was telling her how crazy it is that boy babies and girl babies just know how to be boys and girls. (That makes no sense, but you know what I mean.) Macey and John Henry are just so different! Bridgette said, "We are fearfully and wonderfully made!" I knew that, of course, but I had never really thought about it in that context. Amazing when you think about it!

John Henry loves boy things, like lizards, worms, playing in the dirt, and being wild!

Playing with a worm

Looking at Bill, our little green lizard. John Henry loves to hold and play with Bill. He cannot understand why I won't touch him.

Playing in the dirt on the porch.

Being wild in the jumpy thing.

Putting his sister in the laundry room cabinet. :)

Macey loves to wear shoes all the time; she always brings me her shoes and wears them around the house. She loves babies and knows how to feed them a bottle, which is just amazing to me. She never had a bottle or has never seen a baby with a bottle. She always carries John Henry's lunch box around as a purse and strolls her baby around the house.

This is a bad picture, but you can see the necklace around her neck.

Being sweet to Bailey while not letting go of the Elmo balloon.

Macey always has on shoes!

Pushing her baby (that fell out of the stroller :) )

Putting the baby's paci in her mouth.

First Day of School!

Monday was John Henry's first day of PK4. I thought it would be hard for him to go back, but he was so excited! He was ready to go see his friends and he was disappointed that we didn't see anybody at Open House the day before. That morning, he wanted to wear his backpack and put his napmat in his cubby all by himself without me helping at all. He was a little timid when we walked in, but he warmed up quickly. He wasn't even that sad to see me go! I was shocked! It is such a blessing, considering last year I had to go to the Chick-fil-A parking lot and cry. :) John Henry goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this year. He is already ready to go tomorrow!

He said he had a great day and we got him a black angry bird bomb to surprise him with when we picked him up. He loves Angry Birds!

He wanted to wear his backpack for his picture. :)

He has been so sweet lately!

John Henry and Daddy.

John Henry and Macey. I thought she would be sad that he wasn't home, but she didn't seem to notice. She was probably glad not have her toys taken away all day. :)

15 minutes with Macey

This ia picture of Macey a few weeks ago. She loves to say "cheese" when we get out the camera.

I had to work on some Wee Swap stuff this morning, and this is what Macey did in the 15 minutes I wasn't following her around and telling her no.

She pulled all the stuff out of the cabinet, dropped, and broke a bottle of vinegar. I don't know if you can tell, but there is no bottom to that vinegar bottle and it is everywhere.

While I was cleaning that up, she pulled out the wipes and threw them on the floor. (I had already picked up most of them when I took this picture.)

Then I realized that she had found a marker and colored her leg and foot. She also colored John Henry's crocs and some new shoes that I bought at Wee Swap last year and was planning on selling this year b/c she never wore them.

I usually do have to follow her around and take things away, but I had to work on Wee Swap stuff for 15 minutes this morning. Add to these pics the constant screaming for something that she wants, bringing me protein bars every 5 seconds and screaming "bite bite", and that is pretty much my daily life with her. :)

Now for my update on Macey: She can be the sweetest child in the world when she wants to be, but is 1000s of times for difficult that John Henry was. But she sleeps! And that is so huge. I will take the daily stress over the nighttime stress anytime! She loves to give hugs and kisses and is so friendly with other people, like Laudan. She is always going up to her and trying to get Laudan to hold her, like Laudan doesn't have enough kids to deal with! Macey is also obsessed with Kurt. She screams Dad-eeeeeee constantly, especially when she sees a Mt. Dew. :) She loves John Henry so much that it really gets on his nerves, esp when he has just woken up and she is trying to hug him.

She is starting to talk more and more and repeats things when we ask her to and says one word for most things. Her little nod yes and no is so cute! My favorite time of day with her is when I put her to bed. She hugs me really tight and pats my back. It's so sweet. Last week I rocked her for a few minutes b/c she was having trouble going to sleep, and now she points at the rocking chair every time I put her to bed. Macey has turned into a toddler in the past few weeks; she's not a baby anymore!

Interview with John Henry

I saw this on Pinerest and I wanted to do it with John Henry. His birthday has already passed so I asked him these questions on Monday. It was so funny!

Interview with John Henry ~ August 8, 2011

1. What is your favorite food: Pretend fish (Swedish Fish)

2. What is your favorite thing to play: all my toys, sea creatures the best (started crying “please don’t give my trucks away.” He thought I would give them away since he didn’t choose them as his favorites)

3. What is your favorite thing to watch on tv: Finding Nemo

4. Who is the coolest person on earth: Lucas, Dylan Holland, and all my friends

5. What is your favorite thing to learn about in school: Hoppers (grasshoppers)

6. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? A lot of places, to 32 degrees for one day (the other day I showed him the building that Yogurt Mountain and Five Guys will be in, and he said, “I think I just want to move in there.” J)

7. What is your favorite color? Purple (there is a purple fish on tv right now, his favorite color is always green)

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? A penguin (what the heck?)

9. What is your favorite song? About sharks and fishies

10. Book I'm Loving Right Now: Hopper book

11. Three words to describe me: John Henry Apel

12. When I was little I used to: pull Mommy’s hair and bite Mommy (he’s thinking about what Macey did)

13. Favorite season: Winter when it is cold and snowing. Cause I love snow.

14. Absolute best thing about camping: hunting cute animals b/c I love to hunt cute animals (we’ve never been camping)

15. Favorite snack: popsicle

16. Food I really don't like: pickles

17. My best friend is: Lucas, Ava, Ben, and Bec and all my friends. I love all my friends.

18. One wish: about turtles (Finding Nemo is on tv right now)

19. My best memory: going to the Aquarium

20. Is there anything else you want to say? fishies

4 years old!

John Henry turned 4 on the 16th! I cannot believe my baby is 4. He is so funny and cracks us up constantly. He finally knows all his letters and letter sounds (he had NO interest in learning them and would tune us out when we started talking about it). He also knows everything there is to know about the ocean and sea creatures; it's amazing to me that he remembers so much stuff! I think that he is very smart b/c he can figure things out that I would never think a 4 year old would think so deeply about. He also asks a lot of deep questions. For example, tonight he asked if Jesus is a man and has a heart, does no one live in Jesus' heart b/c he can't live in his own heart. I had no idea what to say, so I said I guessed that God lived in his heart and Jesus lived in God's heart. (lame I know). John Henry said, "That's not an answer Mommy."

This Easter he was very into learning about Jesus on the cross and him dying for our sins. At school they must have told him that every time he sins it is like Jesus dies again b/c when he gets in trouble, he gets all upset and asks if Jesus just died again. He also had a very hard time understanding that dyeing eggs is not the same as the eggs dying. He asked me if they were going to rise from the dead.

His prayers at night crack me up. Tonight he thanked God for walls b/c if we didn't have wall we would just keep walking and be outside forever.

He and Macey have a love/hate relationship. If he hasn't been around her for a while (like after school, nap, or Sunday school), he is soooo sweet to her and hugs her and talks to her in this funny voice and says, "Hey Macey. Hey Macey. Hey Macey." When they are around each other a lot, it is constant fighting. Today I told him he could sleep in our bed if he were sweet to Macey all day long. He was SO nice to her. In the car she was crying, and he was saying, "It's okay Macey, you're almost to your house. See Macey your house is coming up. Look Macey, we're home! We have bees, wasps, and snakes here." So he got to sleep in our bed tonight. Something I will happily do every few days or week if I can get a day of peace from those two!

For John Henry's birthday we went to the A-day game, so the night before we baked a cake. John Henry helped me with the whole thing. Here are some pics!

He was licking the bowl that the beater was lying on.

He kept asking if he could lick the chocolate when I was making the frosting. The chocolate was unsweetened, so I kept telling him no b/c it was gross. He kept asking over and over and wouldn't listen to me saying no, so I finally just let him taste it. This is the reaction.

He's not sure if it tasted good.

But he loves chocolate so he went back for more.

This time he gagged. Now when he doesn't listen, I say, "Remember when you didn't listen about the chocolate" and he quits asking. :)

1 year old!

Macey is 1 year old! These are the last of our month pictures. I'm sad, but I am sure glad I don't have to remember to take them each month!

Her dress is my favorite outfit she has. I had it made when she was about 6 months old, and I have been waiting for her to wear it on her first birthday.

Her sleeping habits are pretty much the same as they were last month. She is starting to take her 2nd nap later and later, so we have skipped it a few days and just put her to bed really early. I have quit nursing her during the day. The first day of no nursing, she slept through the night! Unfortunately, that only lasted one night.

A few weeks ago Kurt walked Macey out to the car to get the bag of crickets for our little green lizard, Bill. Kurt didn't say what he was going to go get out of the car, but as soon as Macey saw the bag she said, "Crickets!" Now she points to Bill's cage and says crickets all the time. She's a genius! :)

Macey also says thank you, night night, bye, mama, dada, hey, and uh oh. I think there are more, but I can't remember right now. She says thank you when we hand her things. John Henry keeps telling me that she isn't saying thank you, she's saying ga ga, but I know that it is really thank you by the tone she uses to say it.

Last weekend was Wee Swap, and Kurt kept both kids Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon and night. I think he was thrilled on Sunday night when I was finally home for good, but the kids had a lot of fun with him. I am so thankful that Macey is easy to get to sleep! He and John Henry went to Catherine's farm to see baby goats on Saturday. I will post pics of that later. John Henry was so cute holding the goats!

While I was gone for 3 days, she her 5th tooth and started standing for a few seconds at a time. Now she has 6 teeth! All 4 bottom ones and 2 top ones. She has the big space like John Henry does.

She loves whole milk. I don't think John Henry ever really liked it, but Macey will drink a whole cup at a time.

My mom got Macey a stroller walker for Christmas and we finally got it put together the other day. She walks really well pushing it as long as she is on the carpet. I am too scared to let her walk on the hardwoods or tile yet.

We had a little birthday party for Macey, but I will post pics of it tomorrow.

11 months old!

I cannot believe in 1 month I will be writing about Macey being one! In some ways this year has flown by, but if I think back to her first months when she cried so much it seems like it was so long ago. Thank goodness!! :)

She still seems like a baby to me! Maybe b/c she is so small. I don't think I updated after her 10 month appt. but she weighed 16 lbs. 10 oz. I don't remember how long she was, but I know her weight was 25% and her height was 50%.

Macey is still pulling up and walking on the furniture, but she won't stand on her own or try to walk. John Henry didn't walk until he was 15 months old, so I am not expecting her to walk anytime soon.

She points now. She gets so excited in the mornings to see Kurt and John Henry. If I am holding her and walking into a room where she knows where they will be, she starts waving as soon as we start walking that way.

I changed her car seat to her big car seat finally. She was getting so heavy in her baby car seat, but it was much more convenient. I rear face my kids until they are 2.5, so she has a while to go in this one! Thankfully, she seems to like it.

Macey had her 3rd haircut the other day. The back grows so much more quickly than the front that we have to get it evened up.

She is a little escape artist as well. I have tried to barricade her in the living room and kitchen, but she moves the stuff and crawls to Bailey's cage.

She points at Bailey and says dog. I think that might be her only new word since my last post.

The biggest news of the month is that she is going to sleep on her own! I have said that I would let her cry herself to sleep when she wouldn't let me get her to sleep within 5 minutes. A few weeks ago she wouldn't let me get to sleep at all. She would stand up and look around and cry if I really tried to make her sleep.

So one Monday I put her down in her bed after I fed her and she fell asleep within 45 seconds! On Tuesday she did the same thing. Wednesday Kurt was not home that night and the kids were being awful! I tried to get Macey to sleep, but she wouldn't so I laid her down. She cried for about 30 minutes off and on. I didn't feel too badly b/c she would put her pacifier in and fall asleep for a few minutes and then wake up and cry some more. The next night she cried for about 8 min. By Friday she was crying when I laid her down, then would be asleep by the time I got downstairs to turn on the monitor.

This is truly an answered prayer! We never let John Henry cry it out, and we have struggled to get him to sleep ever since. I have said that I would let my next child cry it out, but I didn't think that I could actually do it. Maybe it was since Macey cried so much as a baby, but this didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would. Laying her down in bed and having her go right to sleep is wonderful! She seems to sleep better too. She still wakes up one or two times at night, but I just feed her and lay her back down. In the mornings she has been sleeping until 8:45!

She takes 2 naps a day. One around 10 and the other around 3. She goes to bed anywhere from 7:30-9:30.

11 months old!

Best Friends?

John Henry and Macey have a love/hate relationship. He loves to hug her and be sweet to her, then the next thing you know he is knocking her over and snatching a toy away from her. He is pretty sweet to always say he is sorry and that he loves her if he does anything too mean.

Macey screams like crazy if he takes a toy away from her, and she keep screaming until he gives it back. It's really funny and annoying at the same time.

Yesterday John Henry said, "Mommy tomorrow let's bang Macey out to someone." I asked him what that meant, and he said, "Let's just take Macey to someone who wants a baby and loves her and wants her to stay." I explained to him that Macey is his little sister. She loves him and Mommy and Daddy very much and would be sad if she didn't live with us anymore. He started crying and saying that he didn't mean it. :)

In the jumpy thing in the living room:

Trying to get a picture at the beach:

Our house on Christmas day. John Henry was more excited about the snow than anything.

8, 9, and 10 month pictures

I have been a total slacker, so here are the 8, 9, and 10 month pictures. I can't really remember what Macey has done on specific dates, but I am going to do my best to get close!

-She started crawling on my 30th birthday, November 10th. I put her down on my bedroom floor and she just took off crawling across it. The days before she had been crawling a few steps, but not much.

-Her first word was "hey" while she waved around 9 months.

-At 9.5 months she started pulling up and standing on the couch and toys.

-Now at 10.5 months she says hey, da da, ma ma, bye bye (buh buh), and uh oh.

-At 10 months we were getting in the car and Macey threw something she was holding. John Henry said, "Uh oh Mommy. Macey dropped that" and Macey looked at him and said, "Uh oh!" Then John Henry started shaking his head and arms and screaming, and she did the same thing. It was so cute!

-She loves Kurt (John Henry did not at this age!) and reaches for him as soon as he gets home.

-She loves to do ride a pony on our legs. She laughs and bounces as soon as we sing it.

-Macey sleeps pretty well now. I am sure as soon as I write this she is going to start waking up tons, but lately she has only been waking up one time a night at 1:45 or 3:45 and sometimes not until 5:45! So wonderful!

-She takes 2 naps a day. Usually a 2-3 hour nap at 10 and then a 1-2 hour nap around 2 or 3. She goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 at night.

-Her hair is definitely getting lighter. She had her first real haircut by Cindy a few weeks ago. That makes 2 by the age of 10 months.

-Macey loves to eat! For breakfast she eats a banana coated in cheerios and sometimes yogurt or nurses, then nurses before nap at 10. When she wakes up from her nap she eats lunch. Usually lunch is turkey or chicken, a vegetable, and a fruit. I was giving her crackers at lunch, but then she choked and I almost had a heart attack, so we don't do that anymore. She nurses before her 2nd nap. At dinner she eats chicken or turkey, vegall or carrots, and a fruit (same as lunch usually). Then she nurses before bed, once or twice during the night and occasionally in the morning.

-At her 8 month checkup she weighed 14 lbs, 15.8 oz. I can't remember her length.

-At her 10 month checkup she weighed 16 lbs, 10 oz and was 26 inches long (I think).

It's a Miracle!

First of all, it is a miracle that I am posting. :) But the bigger miracle is that we have successfully broken the swaddle!

I have been dreading the day we had to quit swaddling since Macey starting loving it so much. At 2 months, when we first started swaddling, she started sleeping 10 hours a night. That only lasted a few weeks and then she was back to waking up several times a night. Lately, she has been waking up 2 times a night and has just gotten strong enough to break out of it. (We were using the miracle blanket and it wraps her up very tight!) She was totally addicted. If we went somewhere all day, she would just stay awake until she could be swaddled. You should have seen the looks I got at the Georgia Aquarium when she was all wrapped up.

Lately, when I would go get her in the middle of night, I would have to reswaddle her in the dark while she was screaming. She had no clue how to sleep with her arms out, so she would wave them around, pull out her paci and throw it, pull her hair etc. all in her sleep. I would have to hold her the rest of the night if I didn't reswaddle. Awful!

Last weekend when we got snowed in at Laudan's (which was so fun by the way!) Macey woke up without her swaddle so put her in the bed with me for a few hours, then decided to try and lay her down. It worked! She slept for 2 hours, not swaddled, which was huge. I texted Kurt this picture at 4:45 am b/c I was so excited.

Saturday night Macey refused to go to sleep b/c she took a late nap. She would scream if she was swaddled, and wake up if she wasn't. I finally left her awake with Kurt while I went to get John Henry to bed. When I came back down, she was asleep with no swaddle. I decided right then that it was over! Kurt put her in her bed and she slept from 11-3:45. Then she was up off and on from 3:45-5:00, so I swaddled her in a receiving blanket and put her back to bed.

The next night I was trying to get Macey to sleep while I was reading Carrie's blog. She said that Miller loves his sleep sack, so I ran to dig ours out. I put it on Macey, and she went right to sleep from 10:30-5:45 am! At 5:45, she nursed then went back to sleep until 8:30. The same thing happened last night, so I think we are officially over swaddling.

I guess breaking out of it was waking her up at night, but it was good to us while it lasted. She knew swaddle meant sleep, so it was pretty easy to get her to sleep. Kurt was afraid she was going to have to have her Kindergarten teacher swaddle her at naptime. :)

We went from this:

To this: