Spring 2014--Audrey 9, Christopher (3), Allen (1)

Audrey & Natalie--Dance 2014

The Haps

I haven't posted since right after Allen's birth....but when he was born, he nursed right off the bat with absolutely no issues!  He has been the best of the 3 at breastfeeding for sure.  In fact, as we approach his first birthday, I'm starting the weaning process slowly over the course of the next few weeks.  My goal is to have him weaned and drinking cow's milk by February 7th.  I can't believe he's already turning 1 and I really can't believe nursing him until 12 months was so easy!  (Audrey got 5.5 months and Christopher got 10 months)

Life is hectic everyday for sure.  Someone always needs mama for something.  In some ways I love this but in others, it is completely exhausting and emotionally draining!  I think to myself sometimes that I don't give enough attention to Audrey because she is older and more self sufficient--I rely on her to do more by herself.  I know this is not the case, but feels that way sometimes.  I spend time with her alone doing her dance stuff.  Reuben isn't too interested in that stuff so gladly watches the boys while I'm away being dance mom :-)

So Allen has learned to crawl very well and pulls up on everything now.  He's working on the motion of picking up his feet to "cruise" but luckily hasn't totally figured it out yet!!  He seems to be a month or two behind Christopher in most milestones.  He's so laid back and easy going, I figure he's just taking his time ;-)

Christopher has changed so much in the last year.  He's definitely starting to look like a little boy and no longer looks like a toddler.  He's pretty sweet, but since about 2 and a half has developed a mean streak.  We attribute it to the terrible twos and are hoping it ceases soon!  His class at daycare is 9 boys and 1 girl, so that doesn't help matters.  He's mostly potty trained.  He still sleeps in a pull up and it's wet from time to time, but at school he rarely has accidents and when he does it's at nap time.  At home, he's been sort of regressing somewhat, or maybe just getting to distracted, but he will be playing or watching something and I'll ask him several times to go potty and he says "I don't want to!" and of course a few minutes later we'll discover him in wet pants or better yet poopy pants.  Not really sure how to discipline this.  I am pretty nice and remind him to tell me when he needs to go or just run to the potty, but it's clear he knows he's not supposed to do it.  We'll get there eventually!

Well that's all for now, hopefully I'll be able to make time for myself to update this more often in the coming year...

Allen on his birthday

Allen in December at 11 months

Christopher's famous stinker face

Sweet Christopher at Uncle Travis' wedding in April

Audrey, the dancing queen

Audrey's head shot from the fall 2013

Reub, me, and the boys at Easter this year

Over a year later!

It's been a LOONG time since last posting, but I would like to get back to regular posting again.  So now Audrey is 9 and Christopher is 2 and a half.  And since my last post, I have had another baby boy!  Allen Raymond James was born on January 29, 2013.  He was 6 lbs 13 oz and was 4 weeks early!!

So I'll start at the 6 month mark with Allen.  He's a healthy guy.  He's weighing in at 15 lb and 10 oz and is 24.25" long.  He's a shortie--this is the 3% for height!  He has started solid foods and likes most everything except the green stuff like normal babies.  He's had a couple ear infections already, so we are pretty sure he will also have tubes like big brother.

Christopher is doing really well.  He can say all sorts of complete sentences and remembers everything we tell him!  His vocabulary seems way larger than Audrey's at this age, but it's hard to remember that long ago!  Recently we moved him to a big boy bunk bed and put Allen in the crib in the same room.  It is working nicely!  I think Chris likes having someone else in there with him and Allen is a great sleeper most of the time so it's worked pretty well.  We painted the walls with some stripes so I think they will enjoy the room for many years to come :)

Audrey is starting 4th grade really soon.  She's doing really well.  She has been doing competitive dance for a year now and will start at a new studio in San Marcos in a few weeks.  She amazes me with her dancing and how she excels at it.  I'm not a dancer AT ALL so I'm not sure where that comes from!!

Sick again and ear tubes (18 1/2 months)

Since the last post a couple weeks ago, we have been to the ENT specialist and Christopher has gotten sick yet again.  The ENT visit went as expected.  She recommended that he have tubes put in so his ears will drain properly and to improve his hearing.  He showed mild hearing "loss" because of fluid that was still on his ears.  So we are scheduled for Tuesday, June 19th for surgery to put in the tubes.  I'm pretty nervous because it is surgery, however I've heard so many positive stories from friends that I'm positive we are making the right decision.  Hopefully all goes well.

He started coughing and having a runny nose and low grade fever over the weekend and today Reuben found him in bed covered in throw up.  I guess he got sick sometime overnight.  So I took him in and he's got a cold that looks like an ear infection is imminent.  She gave us some antibiotics to get him through until the surgery, then hopefully we won't have such a hard time with these simple little colds!

We have Audrey on Monday nights and Tuesdays since she's in summer dance classes.  It was fun to have her back for a day!  She cried the whole way back to her dad's house though :-(  She's having a hard time adjusting to the summer at daddy's.  Hopefully it will get better.  But today she texted me like a 100 times and sent lots of videos and pictures.  It's hard to see her so sad and upset.  She is doing really well in her dance technique classes though.

Been awhile

Totally haven't been posting on here at all in a long time :-(  So I'll do a quick run down since the 10 month mark...which was 8 months ago!!

Christopher has been sick several time since he turned 1 (not sick at all until this point!).  Starting in January until now (end of May) he's had 4 ear infections, several colds, pink eye and Croup.  We went in for his 18 month well visit today and she referred us to an ENT doctor.  He possibly will need tubes in his ears.  Reuben had bad ears as a kid and actually currently has a double ear infection as well.  We figured we'd get to this point sooner or later.

As far as the healthy stuff though, he is growing and developing well!  27 lb, 8 oz (50-75%); 32.25 long (50%); Head is 19.75 (95-97%) are his stats.  He's starting to level out.  He was getting to be a real chubbster with a giant head, but looks like he's starting to stretch and grow into his head size as well.

He's a musical boy for sure!  He sings constantly while he's playing, eating or just riding in the car.  He hums "Twinkle Twinkle", the "ABCs", and "Lullaby and Goodnight".  He doesn't have the words just yet, but can sing on pitch the tune, he just uses "la la la" for the words!  It's so stinkin cute :-)

He's got all of his baby teeth minus the last 4 molars, but I noticed one of those about to cut through last night.  He's started drooling like crazy again the last couple days.

That's all for now!

10 months old

Life keeps us busy around here!  Too tired to blog for too long, but here's the haps.

Christopher is 10 months old today!  I can't believe it.  Time is flying.  He's crawling 90 mph on his belly still like a little soldier.  He's really fast and likes to sneak off into the kitchen and play in the dog water and food bowls.  It sure makes working from home with him here exhausting!  He's very curious about everything and very observant like his daddy.  He studies things very carefully and I really think he's trying to figure out how things work.  It's so interesting how different kids can be.  Audrey was not nearly as curious about everything.  She really stayed put for the most part and focused on her toys and what she was doing.  He has to touch everything and be everywhere!  He can't sit still anymore! 

He's got 6 teeth now...4 on top and 2 on bottom.  His face changes daily as those chompers come in.  He has the big gap in the middle of his top teeth just like Audrey did.  That always makes me smile cause it's just like my Papaw.  I think of him often when I look at my kiddos.  :-)

Audrey started brownies this month.  And poor mama is the leader of the troop :-/  I like organizing and I love being a part of her activities, but I think one year of sole leadership of the troop is enough for me.  I'm fine being the treasurer...not too keen on being in charge of all those moms!!

Audrey is doing great in school and really seems to like it.  In fact, this morning she said to me while doing some math problems, "Wow, I am really learing a lot in second grade!"  Love it.  So glad she likes school and wants to do great.  She is really excited for the weekend too...she is doing a day clinic with the Hays Highschool Highsteppers.  It's the drill team for the local high school.  She's thinking she wants to do drill team when she gets older.  She's doing team stuff for dance and gymnastics, but she doesn't really enjoy the working out at the gym.  And that's really the focus there--strength training.  She prefers to shake her bootie!

10:31 pm...way past this mama's bedtime.  Sigh...sucks getting old ;-)

7 years and 8 months

Well it's been 2 months since I blogged!  Life's been busy these last couple months.  Audrey turned 7 years old, Christopher turned 8 months old and we took a long road trip to Colorado to visit my mom and step dad.

Audrey is looking forward to starting the 2nd grade.  She had a few of her good friends over for a swim and slumber party last week.  They had a blast.  Not too much drama this year!  She's so emotionally driven it can be pretty trying sometimes.  But it seems to be leveling out some as she gets older.  Plus her friends will call her out on it now!  :)  We're excited to get her home on a couple weeks.  This school year she's going to be doing pre team gymnastics and pre team ballet/tap/jazz.  Both of which have competitions in the spring!  It will be fun and I think she will grow a lot as a dancer and athlete.

Christopher is growing and changing daily!  He's pretty close to 20 pounds we think.  He gained 2 pounds between his 6 month and 7 month doctor visits!  No more concern with weight gain!!  He loves to eat.  He will eat just about anything I give him and we've done lots of good wholesome foods.  He's already enjoying bananas, tortillas, cheerios, and pancakes in finger foods! The purees I give him are really thick and most of them have beef or chicken or sometimes tofu in them.  He's not crawling per say, but he is doing a sort of army crawl thing with his head down.  He rolls a lot too.  He's just about crawling though...look out!

He's got his 2 bottom teeth and one of the top just broke through today!  I'm still nursing him, although those teeth have chomped me a few times.  He seems to understand when I tell him not to do it and usually only does it once then stops.  I'm going to do my best to get to 12 months, then wean him over to whole milk from the cup.  He's working on various sounds too, like "da", "ma" and "ba". So much fun!

We drove up to Colorado this summer, which was a long trip but we had a blast up there.  We got to ride 4 wheelers, hike, and go swimming in a hot spring fed pool.  It was really nice to see Mimi and Pawpaw too.  Don't get to see them nearly enough.  We're hoping when we get our mini van (August we hope!!) we can go back around Christmas time.

8 months old!

Audrey's 7th Birthday Party

Family Photo at Palo Duro Canyon