Chunky Monkey

Esther had her 2-month appointment Monday, and this also began her first round of immunizations. She screamed of course, and Matthew was upset for her as well. But he calmed down when I pointed out her cool Band-aids, and Esther was fine once I picked her up and nursed her. The doctor said she is doing great--that's always nice to hear. And obviously she's growing well, as you can see from her stats below.

Height: 23.5 in. (90th%)
Weight: 14 lbs. 7 oz. (97th%)

I've been so tired lately that I can never think of what to say on here. I know I have stuff to tell you about the kids, but my brain can't seem to put it into words.

Matthew's been losing sleep due to his getting out to bed. It's decreased, but last night he got up in the middle of the night a few times. Fortunately he slept in til 7. His normal lately has been just before 6, and if he doesn't get a good nap, then the losing sleep cycle continues. And when he's tired like that he cries over small, silly things and throws fits easier too. All the ingredients for a fun-filled day.

Esther grabbed a toy for the first time yesterday. She likes to sit up and see what her brother's doing. She's got pretty good neck control too. She's very alert and active, but she lets us know when she's getting tired. She is the queen of short naps though. She'll sleep for like 30 or 45 minutes, and when she wakes up she's still tired and finds it even harder to go back to sleep. Ideally she should sleep about an hour and a half to her next feeding, but when she wakes up prematurely, she wants to eat even though she's not really hungry. And if I feed her she gets too full and pukes all over the place. Ah, another crazy cycle.

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love being a mother, but just like anybody else in the working world, I do get tired of my job from time to time. I take my hat off to working moms, who seem to juggle motherhood and the career world effortlessly. And kudos to the dads out there who are like my husband. They work hard at a demanding job all day, come home late, and then spend time with their kids and help out the wife. They put away dinner and give baths to the kids. And then on top of that, they assist with things that happen in the middle of the night, such as a toddler getting out of bed or bouncing a fussy baby to sleep. By the way, thank you, Josh. You are a wonderful husband and hard worker--we make a good team, you and me. It's a good thing we got married :)

Ok, now for some pictures...

Goofing off under the table

"O"

Not fully awake one morning

Now you know where he gets his goofiness.

Smiles for Mommy

Girl talk

Hanging out together

A true Baptist baby--sporting denim for a church function :)

Aw, his arm is around her!

First time holding her without any help. He was a little nervous.

See? She likes to sit up. Told ya so.

Daddy always has time for us, no matter how long his work day is.

He's usually pretty excited when we specifically give him permission to touch sissy.

Shaking Mickey

Playing in the basement while I did some laundry.

I like her expression here.

Esther...

...and Matthew around the same age. I think they're related, don't you?

Monday Movies

Here's some short videos of the kids I've been meaning to put up here. The first one was taken a little bit ago, but the others are more recent.


He's recently been working on 2-word combinations. It's so neat to watch him communicate and begin forming sentences. Examples: Sit down, stand up, Ashy turn (it was Ashley's turn on the slide in the nursery), Daddy car (riding in Daddy's car), Momma car (same idea), More eat (he wanted more to eat), Dit do (thank you), etc.


By the way, the getting out of bed thing is waning already (praise the Lord). In case anyone doesn't know, I had put on Facebook how Matthew discovered he can get out of bed and turn his light on and come down the hallway. And he did this in the middle of the night. So the gate went up, but that meant we also played room police as we had to keep putting him back in bed over and over and over and over. He seems to always want a tissue when he goes to sleep. He scrunches it up in his hand and holds it, whether he needs to wipe tears or not. He also holds his plush Mickey, which is more of a conventional lovey than a tissue is.


You see how good he's getting at walking? He gets better and better everyday. The ankle braces have been helping, and he loves to wear them.

We had to buy him new shoes to accomodate the braces. For one it had to be a wide shoe, but also we went up 2 sizes.


She's definitely got the smiling down, even if we don't see it too often. Interesting fact: she's got a dimple in her left cheek, and Matthew has one in his right.

All About Esther

So Esther is 7 weeks old today, but she seems older for some reason. I say 7 weeks, and it just doesn't sound like a big number. Yet it feels as if she's been around longer than that. I guess we are sort of getting on a schedule. It's not like it's by the clock or anything, but it's more a pattern I try to follow. She's sleeping longer stretches overnight, which is wonderful. Although, sometimes she'll wake up screaming, and once we burp her she's fine and will drift back to dreamland. She's still sleeping in our room, so it's easier and quicker for me to get her. Josh will get her and change her diaper and then hand her off to me so I can feed her. It takes her about 15-20 minutes to eat, sometimes shorter. It's funny cause I feel like she's not eating enough because Matthew would nurse for 30-40 minutes, but I'm learning that every baby's different.

Sleeping in church

Even though she doesn't eat for very long, she's a total puke machine. She spits up a lot, some days worse than others. Sometimes it has to do with what I've been eating. She seems to be sensitive to my diet, like onions or spicy food. Even caffeine. Matthew didn't seem to care what I ate when I was nursing him. And he pooped almost every diaper in the beginning, but she is a different story. She's gone as long as 4 days between bowel movements.

Little chunker

Esther had a fair amount of hair when she was born, but then it started to fall out. Not all over, just in a C shape on the top of her head. But it's starting to grow back. I can't call her our little baldy anymore :).

She's definitely got the smiling thing down. And she's experimenting with getting her arms moving. It's the funniest thing, because she ends up hitting herself in the head. The startled expression on her face is priceless. I wish I could capture it on camera for you.


I don't think I have anymore to say, so here are a few thousand words :)

Brother and sister

Mom, what should I do?

The three of us

I think she was watching Daddy and Matthew play the Wii here.

Close ups of a beautiful face


And my favorite picture of her to date...

My pretty girl

All About Matthew

It's hard to believe that my baby boy is almost 22 months old. And get this, 2 months from now I'll be planning for his 2nd birthday party! Sheesh, do I really have a 2 year old? Well, he certainly acts like it sometimes :). I'm referring to the terrible, tantrum part of being 2. Most of the time he is his sweet self, helping me out with sissy and playing on his own when I can't be with him. I don't know that he's really been jealous of his sister, but when he wakes up from his nap and I can't cuddle with him on the couch, let's just say he's not in the best mood when that happens. So yes, there are times when he definitely wants his mommy and insists that I put sissy in the swing or the carseat, but he's also really stepped up to the big brother position.

Hanging out with sis

Dude, give me some space.

He tries to play with her. He brings her toys and shakes them in front of her face. He copies anything we do, so we have to be careful how we play with her. For instance, if we are touching her nose as a game, we have to tell him that only mommy and daddy can touch her nose. He tries to cover her with a blanket, which he does so over her face. So I have to keep reminding him to cover her feet and legs only. We don't put anything over sissy's face. (said in Mommy Voice). He's pretty gentle with her, but again, constant reminders are necessary. He can get carried away when he's being playful, which is totally understandable. He's still so young, but yet at the same time he seems to have grown up overnight in some ways.

The cutest Buckeye fans by far.


Part of that could be because he is walking so well lately, and of his own accord. He's now much more willing to walk. A lot of it is just reminding him to do it. He's so used to crawling everywhere, you know? And he's starting to put his arms down by his sides like a real big boy, instead of holding them out for balance like most new walkers do. His PT (physical therapy) is going well. I'm learning new ways to strengthen his legs and such. His ankle braces are in, but the lady who would fit him is home sick, so we'll be doing that next week.

Totally excited about the impending hotdogs coming his way.

As I said before, he's a good little helper. He likes to clean, either by using the little vacuum we have, or wiping his tray with a wet paper towel. He asks to clean in the nursery at church too, when the ladies start wiping down the toys at the end of the service. They usually give him a baby wipe or a tissue so he can clean. He's very good at making a mess all over the house. You can tell where he's been just by observing the toys and where they are scattered. He gives us issues sometimes when we want him to clean up. But I've been working on him cleaning up as he goes along so it's not too daunting at the end of the day. For instance, he's got blocks and legos and tools and play food, but as he wants to move on to each activity, I have him clean up the previous one.

His favorite foods are chicken nuggets, hot dogs, cookies, and pop-tarts, and he loves to dip things in ketchup or tartar sauce. He dipped a cracker in ketchup just today, and he'll ask for ketchup or cheese on his veggies. Hey, at least he's eating them. He's been particular and picky about fruit and veggies in the past, which I think contributes to the constipation issues he's had. But now that he's better at eating those, his digestive system is a little more regular. Which will be good when potty-training comes along. Whoa, that's sooner than I realize, I think.

He's a little copycat, saying things we say, and singing along to songs he knows. He was very sad when the radio wasn't playing Christmas songs anymore. He got so familiar with them and even had some favorites. But he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Special Agent Oso on Disney Channel. He learned the word "tip-toe" from Mickey this week and has been saying it everyday. Another new phrase from him: slam dunk, as he throws a ball up in the air.

This is one of my mixing bowls he put on his head. I think he looks like a storm trooper from Star Wars.

And yet another new thing he says: "Daddy/Mommy, where are you?" I couldn't believe he said a full sentence like that when I first heard him say it. It's amazing how fast kids can learn. He even makes jokes on his own. He does something silly or says something that's the wrong answer on purpose, and then he'll laugh about it.

Oh, we had a decent snowfall recently, so Matthew got to play in it with Daddy, which he loved.

Trying to take off his hat.

Posing with Daddy.





He's recently graduated to his big boy bed. He actually requested to sleep in it one night, the night before we were gonna put him in it. And he's loved it ever since :)
By the way, the walls came decorated like this, the others being green, blue, and red. All we had to do was add the furniture.

Yay! Story time!

Well, that's what Matthew's been up to lately. Coming soon, Esther's update...

A Little Bit More Family Time

These are still sorta Christmas pictures. I forgot to post them.

This was the Sunday after Christmas, and Matthew is sporting a new sweater vest combo from Grammy. It has a choo-choo on it, which he loved. Oh yeah, he's graduated from saying "choo-choo" to saying "choo-choo train."

One of Esther's many Christmasy outfits. Love the reindeer tushy!

A sweet picture with Grammy.

Sarah and Donald weren't with us for Christmas day, so we celebrated with them later that week. This is their daughter Chesney showing off her beautiful Christmas dress.

We opened Christmas presents in the evening, when both Matthew and Chesney could be more comfortable. Chesney gave him a magnet book, and he loved it. The bear they gave him? not so much. No, it was really funny. The bear wasn't wrapped, just had a bow around it, and he picked it up, and we were all like, Hey Matthew, that's for you, and he immediately threw it behind him and went digging for another gift. I laughed for like 5 minutes :)

Another day we spent with the family, because Josh had some time off. Aunt Hannah and Beka said that Esther looked like a watermelon in this outfit :)

Caught this great face at the perfect time.

Hanging out in her pretty pj's.

Matthew's holding a Wii remote here. Josh's family got one for Christmas, so we brought our remotes so we could play together. Josh even lets Matthew play a little bit, and he's not too bad.

Esther is one month old now (7 weeks tomorrow actually). I have to go through some pics and get them up here. I think I have some cute ones. Of course we are talking about my kids, why wouldn't they be cute? ;)