Stairs

Kate has just learned how to do stairs. She goes from the dining room to the playroom in a snap. It is amazing how quickly she has learned how to go up and down. She has amazing upper body strength and can even go down head first with out crashing. This weekend she crawled all the way up stairs to her room. It is a good thing that we have gates or she would be all over the house. She is also cruising alot too. She walks for quite a distance pushing her hippo. She will be walking in no time. Then, I am sure that she and Alex will be fighting over the shopping cart. He loves his shopping cart. He is constantly filling it with toys and pushing it everywhere.

Army crawl

Kate has started crawling army style! She can go anywhere and fast. Now there is no stopping her. She pulls herself up on her knees, but will only go one move forward before she gives up and goes back to the army crawl. She is now sleeeping just like Alex, on her tummy with her butt up in the air. It is so silly.

Alex is addicted to his cars. Especially Lightning McQueen. He takes them everywhere.

Roll around and around

Kate has decided that she no longer needs to try crawling. She simply has to roll wherever she wants to go. She has improved this skill a lot in the last week and has become quite fast at rolling. She does get hung up on the couch or a toy from time to time.

I'm so sorry momma

Today Alex went down for a nap without his pants. This was a mistake because he took off his diaper and peed in his bed. Fortunately, it did not get on the mattress because we had a good protector on. We heard him yelling Da Da poop and went in to see him looking at the pee st on his bed. Then he looked up at me and said "I'm so sorry Momma". Too funny!

Kate's Baptism

Kate was baptised today. She did very well. We were nervous being as though it was nap time, but she was a trooper. Her dress was beautiful and she was full of smiles. Kevin, Amy, Roger and Tracy were her sponsors. Pastor Mary was the one who baptised her and she was also the pastor who married us. Today was a special day!

First Crawl

Kate crawled for the first time today. She went just two feet, but it is a big achievement for her. We know she is strong enough to crawl anywhere she wants to. It is just a matter of getting the arm and leg coordination down.

First Word

Kate said her first word today. Obviously big brother Alex is an influence on her because it was "Scoop". We thought that we were hearing things, but she said it six times. We also got her first shoes. They are very cute hot pink Mary Janes. The exciting news is that Kate is a medium width and therefore we will be able to shop anywhere for shoes! Hurray! Alex is still a double wide and can only wesr Stride rites. We just keep hoping that his feet thin out.

Alex's party

Alex has a great time at his party today. He said "Birthday" all day and was so excited that he barely took a nap. He got lots of fun toys including: a doodle pro, color wonder markers and coloring books, books, puzzles, a big Lightning McQueen, cars pajamas, a radio flyer wagon, a basketball hoop, a tip tractor, Lightning McQueen backpack and some great clothes. He was overwhelmed with all the fun toys and with everything that we unwrapped, he said "open" and wanted to play with it right away. He made sure to play with every toy before bed and we read his new books before bed too. It was lots of fun. He even ate a hot dog because John was eating one. I guess we should have John over everytime that we grill.

He did not potty very well today. We think that he was overwhelmed with all the party hoopla. He did go potty after the party was over, right before bed, and exclaimed "I did it!". He is up to 11 stickers now. That is pretty good for just two days.

Kate was great. She was in a good mood at the party and let most anyone hold her. It was lots of fun.

Alex goes Potty!

Alex went potty for the first time in his potty today! We rewarded him with a car because we could not find our stickers. The he went six more times! It was amazing, we even tried some big boy underwear for about a half hour. Fortunately we got some more stickers and were able to start a potty reward chart. It was great fun for Alex to flush and wash his hands. He enjoyed picking out his sticker and putting it on the chart. He is such a big boy. Kate was very patient with all the time we spent in the bathroom reading books while Alex went potty. She is so good at sitting and playing. We got her some fisher price balls to play with today and she had a blast.

Alex's Birthday

Alex turned two today! We had a quiet morning and he got his presents from Mom, Dad and Kate. He got a kitchen, a shopping cart and "Flo and Ramone". He loved them all and made us all some cookies in his kitchen. He drove Flo and Ramone all over. We went swimming in the morning and Alex had lots of fun jumping in the pool.

Irrational Fears

Last night and tonight, Alex started showing some crazy fears. He is definately expressing himself and will let you know the he "don't like it". Last night about midnight, he got scared form the lightning. It took us a half hour to get him back to sleep he was so worked up that we thought he was going to wake up Kate. He has never shown fear of lightning before. Then tonight, he decided that he was afraid of the vacuum. We had Kate pretend push the vacuum around and then he decided that he was no longer afraid and proceeded to vacuum much of her room. He was actually hiding in the corner and would not come out and kep saying "don't like it" over and over. Being almost two is bringing new experiences.

I just LOVE this picture that I took of Kate. She is so innocent and serious looking. It is just a perfect picture. It is funny that when I look back at Alex most all of his pictures are smiling and I used to not like the photos of his not smiling. With Kate, I love the serious pictures of her and the smiling pics do not seem as cute. Each child has a different personality and it is fun to capture them on film just showing off who they are. Kate is getting much more clingy to me. She cries at daycare when I am out of sight. If I reach down to grab the diaper bad and she can not see me, she cries. She did that tonight when I had to go upstairs for a stamping event. She definately misses her mama and I miss her too!

Great Grandma

We got to se my Grandma Todd today. She saw Kate for the first time and had lots of fun with Alex. She and Lori came up for a visit. Alex had so much fun playing cars with his great grandma. He was giggling and laughing hysterically. She said that she wanted to take him home. It was so much fun to watch, we should have gotten out the video camera. He gave her lots of hugs and Lori too. He was quite the charmer today. Kate did well also. I am glad that they were both in good spirits. That is not always the case when they do not see people very often.

I love you

Alex learned how to say I love you tonight. He is such a nice boy. Kate is making all sorts of babbling noises. Her new thing is stifening up her boy and yelling like a bear. It is really funny. She is getting so big and so grown up. She is showing a lot of character and personality lately. She is truly fearless. She even got Alex to finally play with his McQueen shake car. He would not go near it until she played with it first. Hopefully her fearlessness will continue.

Two teeth

Kate has two teeth now. She is biting everything. She has even bit me while nursing several times. It is defiantely time to quit. Those little teeth are VERY sharp. She seems to be getting them in the same order that Alex did. These first two appeared at about 5 months. I have not seen any others in sight yet, but she is drooling alot. I think she would be glad to have nore teeth because she seems to want to eat everything that we are eating. Her favorites are peas and squash. She likes every vegetable, but fruit is really a struggle. She often sticks her tongue out and the food comes with it. She has the craziest tongue that I have ever seen. She also likes to squinch her eyebrows when she has fruit. There have been times lately that she tastes one bite and then closes her mouth and refuses to open for more. It is a good thing that we always feed her the oatmeal first!

A new sound

Kate learned how to make a new clicking sound today. She has been doing it like crazy. It is so cute. She is also a good sitter. She can sit alone for a long time now and she only tis over once in a while. She is getting so big. I bought some sandals for her this weekend and her foot was almost a size two already. I think that she is getting the same crazy feet that Alex has. He is a size 7, double wide right now. He has huge feet and Kate's are starting to get thick on top. Bummer.

Only Veggies

Kate absolutely hates fruit. She eats peas, carrots and squash like it is going out of style, but she just spits out any fruit. The only thing that we have been able to get in her are apples. She loves cereal though.

Alex pushed another boy at barnes and Noble today. It was really embarrasing. I apologised to the other mom and got him out of there quickly. He usually loves reading book, but not today at least not with an audience of other boys. The terrible twos are approaching quickly. We took him along with Kate for her six month pictures and he was quite jealous of her. We could not get any of the two of them together. I was completely dumfounded. Ususally he loves cuddling with Kate, but not this time. He was defiantely jealous that she was getting her picture taken first. There should be lots of cute pictures of them separately, just not together!

Side sleeper

Kate is a side sleeper. She is so cute. She snuggles with her blanket and turns on her side to go to sleep. Alex most always slept on his back and now often sleeps on his tummy. We finally have her aquarium installed in her crib and it is a good soother. She still is not very good at soothing herself, but she is improving!

I'll get it

Tonight Alex would drop toys and then say "I'll get it" and reach down to pick them up. It was so cute. Each day he seems to day more and more words. I am amazed at his vocabulary. He is connecting lots of two word phrases. We bought him a helmet for his trike so that if he falls, he will be protected. They are a little tricky to figure out. I don't think that we have it adjusted correctly yet. Kate has slept through the night for five days in a row. I am so excited. She is becoming a good sleeper. Most nights she falls asleep within five minutes. I still have to wake her up to feed her before I go to bed, but that is a better time than 2:00 a.m.

Second Tooth

Kate got her second tooth today. They are coming in just like her big brother's did. She now has both bottom middle teeth. She is a trooper and has not been that fussy. Her hand coordination is just amazing. She grabs at everything and is very busy with those little fingers. She also plays with many toys with her feet. She can move balls and turn on her aquarium with her feet.

Bad Fall

Today I tripped on a toy of Alex's and fell with Kate in my arms. It was not good! I turned and took the brunt of the couch so she did not get hurt, but I got quite bruised and twisted my neck. I had a headache all day from that stupidity. I am lucky it happened on a morning when Justin was home and he could help me.

Many words

Alex is saying so many words now. Tonight he said I love you to me for the first time. It was so sweet. I am so impressed at how much he can understand and do. He was even sorting his toys by color this morning. He can tell you what color they are too. Kate is learning a lot too. She tried peas this week. I am not sure if they are a hit or not. She definitely likes oatmeal though. We got news that our landscaping is on hold again. It all could have been done three weeks ago, but was slowed down due to the final grading not being done. Now it is done and they were all ready to go, but apparently it has to be inspected by the state before the landscapers can proceed. I have lots of plants that I bought from school this week, I keep watering them a lot, but I hope that they do not die. I might just plant them this weekend anyway.

Rough Day

Today started out all wrong. I had to drop the kids off with Justin at work because our daycare provider was VERY sick. I finished my last lesson for the year. Then I spent all day trying to get ready for next week. I ended up finally leaving work at 4:30 and I did not get much accomplished due to computer problems. I fed Kate and we went to dinner and grocery shopping. Alex was crazy at dinner. He has never been like that before. He would not eat and only wanted to grab everything on the table and not sit in his booster. Then when we got home from shopping he had a major meltdown before bed and it took 20 minutes to settle him down. He would not settle down for me, but he would for Justin. I am thankful that at least he finally went to sleep. Kate on the other hand, just cried for five minutes and was asleep. It almost seems as if they have changed places. Unfortunately they both have slight colds right now. Hopefully we can get some good naps in this weekend and everyone will feel better on Monday. It seems that things will work out with my job for next year. Based on the meeting today, I hopefully will not have to teach general music. I hope that it all works out and that I am able to ride out all of this declining enrollment. I really like my job and I don't like the thought of finding another one. I have been quite scattered this week and hopefully I can get caught up this weekend. It seems that there are never enough hours in the day and everything that I have to do takes twice as long as it should.

Children's Museaum

Today was my first outing alone with both kids to a place far from home. Up until this point I have only went somewhere alone that I could go home quickly if needed. All I can say is thank god for double strollers. If I did not have a double stroller I would be running to keep up with Alex! I met my friend Tanya and she brought her two kids too. We were a little bit crazy, but she had a free membership and we knew that we could let Alex and Stella roam in the Toddler room. Alex had a blast. He tried most everything except for the dark tunnels. He even can say Stella now, he calls her "la la" It is really cute. I had Kate in the baby bjorn and Tanya had Lucy in a sling. Somehow we managed feeding both babies, diaper changes and neither Alex or Stella got hurt. We even took them all to Mc Donalds for lunch. That went great, until Alex saw Stella's sippy cup. It looks just like his and he decided that he no longer wanted to be a big boy and drink from a straw. There were some tears, but it was not too bad. If that was the only thing that went sour, it is a pretty great day! I think he will try it again. Kate loved watching all the kids running around. She had a very good nap. Alex did not nap. I guess all the running made him more awake.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo today. Alex had a blast. He said lots of the animal sounds when he saw the animals and enjoyed running around. We knew he would enjoy the baby animals and he did. He even got to sit on a real tractor. That made him a little nervous. Kate slept most of the time at the zoo, but I am sure that she will enjoy it when she is older.

Holding Toys with both hands

Kate can now hold toys with both hands. She loves the play gym. She is so busy. I finally had to get her some Robeez because we could not keep her socks on. They are cute with Strawberries on them.

On that same day, we had to get Alex his next pair of shoes.
He is now up to a 6 1/2!! His feet are so big and they are still extra wide. We went with a pair of velcro shoes which might have been a mistake. He can take them off by himself so we have to watch him like a hawk. He lost one at the mall once and we had to back track to find it.

A week of no sleeping

Kate has not slept through the night in over a week. She has been up two to three times most every night. That is why I have not updated recently. I have been a zombie after the kids go to bed. We finally found the magic number for her bottles. She is drinking five ounces three times a day at daycare. That is much better than four, four ounce bottles. I am barely keeping up with her. I have been drinking as much water as possible and I am pumping three times a day at work and once before bed. Though it is grueling, it is sure helping me get back in to shape. My jeans that were too tight three weeks ago are now too big. I have five pounds to go to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight. I saw a personal trainer last Saturday. I have more than five pounds to go to be in shape again, really I should lose twelve. I have 30% body fat right now, yikes!

Kate is about 12 pounds now. Her cheeks seem to get bigger everyday. She is growing like a weed. I am going to go through her clothes this weekend and start packing some of those cute 0-3 month outfits away. She is getting so long that her feet are getting to the end of many of her sleepers. She is smiling so much now. She is also almost laughing. She is quite ticklish under the chin and we are almost getting her to giggle. I am amazed at how strong she is and she always wants to be sitting up. She can't sit on her own, but she is really good at leaning against something for support. She is supporting most of her own weight. She is just wearing out all her hair too, so much head movement!

Blowing Raspberries

Kate is blowing raspberries like crazy! We need to keep a bib on her because she is doing it so much. She is such a busy girl. I am surprised that her legs have any rolls on them considering how much she kicks.

Alex has been throwing more tantrums. He is getting a bit challenging. Hopefully I will get a handle on it as he went for 30 minutes tonight. All over something so silly. He handed scoop to me and I took it and then he decided that he wanted scoop back. I tried to give it to him, but he just had a melt down. All of this transpired in thirty seconds and then resulted in throwing oneself on the floor and crying for thirty minutes. He a;so gets quite disgruntled when he is coloring and has to put the colors away. Sometimes he cleans up nicely and other times he just throws them on the floor. Max got a purple crayon the other day, that was not so good.

Roll Over

This morning Kate rolled over from her back to her stomach twice! We were so excited. She is so active sometimes she kicks so much that she kicks her pants right off. She seems to be growing everyday. I think she is almost long enough to move on to the 3-6 month sleepers now. I picked up her pictures today after work. They are very cute. She did not have as many smiles as Alex did at this age, but she is smiling more and more everyday. We just have not gotten it on film much yet. She is finally getting back to pooping. She is still not going everyday, but at least three times per week.

Alex had a word explosion again. He is saying so many things. His latest words are "me, all gone and hello" We even got him to say "hola" when Rog was here visiting last weekend. He also can now say "Rog". One new event for Alex is that he is now afraid of ice. When he encounters snow or ice while walking he stops dead in his tracks and starts crying. I have had to carry him alot this week due to all the snow. At least he likes wearing his boots.

First day at daycare

Today was my first day back at work and Kate's first day at daycare. She did great. She drank four bottles though! Apparently she is back on the two hour plan for feedings. I will have to pump three times at work to keep up with her. Today went well for me. I got two cards from the kids and one even cheered when he saw me. All the teachers at Diamond Path were nice and friendly and the day went by very quickly. Hopefully the rest of the week will go as smoothly.

A gift of one more day

Today was a snow day. It was supposed to be my first day back to work, but we had 30 mph winds and 12 inches of snow. March is unpredictable and today proved that. I got one more day to stay home with Kate and Alex. We had a great time and did lots of snuggling and reading books. Hopefully she will not be up four times tonight and I can get a good night's rest for my first day back at work tomorrow.

Play gym

Kate is loving the playgym. She hits the toys that are close to her and kicks her feet like crazy. She is so good with her head coordination. She can follow us around the room and studies everything. She loves to be held up on your should so that she can hold her head up and look around. She also coos a lot. She just started holding on to things when she is sleeping. She is often seen holding on to my shirt, her blanket or her pacifier when she is sleeping. She is most active with her feet and she is always kicking.

Alex actually ate chicken, peas and tater tots for me tonight. Nothing went on the floor either. I am amazed, perhaps he is getting over the food throwing stage. His room is still quite cold and they replaced the thermostat today so hopefully things will be getting better.

Success

I had my first five for $5 today. It went well. I had a couple cancellations, but since I can not find my cards it will give me some extra ones that are made. I got a lot of orders. February turned out to be a good month for me. So things are getting back on track. The lights look awesome. They do not put off a ton of light but they are beautiful. Justin and I felt like we were in a fancy restraunt at night and we are really happy with them. One is a bit of an oddball and is not as blue as the rest. I am not sure if we can get it replaced or not. Alex's room is still cold. We are closing vents to try to force more air that way, but so far it does not seem to be working. It is six degrees colder that the main level of the house.

Kate is smiling so much and cooing. She is such a good baby. We are having trouble getting her back on the bottle again. That happens right after I bought three more of them. I hope that it works itself out. I am trying faster flow nipples and hopefully that will help. We have wasted five ounces of breastmilk in the past two days and have only had one successful feeding. We have just under two weeks to get this worked out because she starts daycare on the 13th.

The house is still not sold. We thought that for our fifth second showing it would be a done deal, but they picked a house down the street that was selling for 5,000 less than ours. I am beginning to lose hope. Maybe it was not as desirable of a house as we thought. I hope we did not buy a lemon that no one wants.

Finally well

Today is the first day that Alex finally seems better. He has not run a fever in almost a day. His voice still sounds stuffy, but he is actually playing and talking much more than he has for the past week. He also has learned how to leave his room when he wakes up in the morning. We have been keeping his door open at night because his room is a little cold at night. So when he wakes up he barges in to our room or sneaks up on me. I have to get used to being stared at. It really startled me yesterday.

Kate did really well. She only had a fever one day. We have not feed her a bittle this week because we wanted to make sure that she was eating as often as possible and she would get antibodies from me. It has worked, she was the least sick of all three of us. Somehow, Justin never got the flu. Lucky for him. Alex has been very needy. My back is sore from carrying him and Kate around. Hopefully my big boy will be back soon.

The lights are being installed on Tuesday. I have been working really hard on getting my room unpacked. I have my first five for $5 on Tuesday also. I think I will be able to get it all done. My room has so much stuff and it is hard to organize without a closet. It will be a work in progress for a while. I am excited to have a place to scrapbook and stamp again. Alex has been my little helper though. He unpacks everything that I put away. I got him distracted with coloring, except for now he thinks he should color all the time. He even colored on my table. Oh well, it looks lived in now!

I have to find the camera battery and take some pictures!

Kate is sick

I brought Alex in last night because his fever was so high. It has spiked to 104 several times and the tylenol is just not working. I have been putting an ice pack on his neck and head, but that only seems to help for 20 minutes. I learned about Advil for kids and also got a fever sheet. This is the first time he has had a real fever so we are new to this. The advil has really helped a lot. Hopefully he will be better soon. Kate slept eight hours tonight and when she woke up she had a fever of 101.5 we thought maybe she was too warm in her bassinet so we checked it again 20 minutes later and it was still 101.5 So we had to take her to Children's. She self regulated by the time we got there and was down to 100.4 So that is a good sign. They said that her x-ray was good and too feed her as much as possible. We also can give her tylenol, but are supposed to keep that to a minimum because she is so young. SO far she is doing well and is in good spirits. I am finally felling better and hopefully Alex will soon be feeling better too.

Kate's check up

Kate had her two month check up today. She is 21 inches long and 9 lbs 10 1/2 oz. She is doing great. Though the pedictrician said that she was a snacker. Hopefully she will quit snacking and start drinking real meals so she will sleep longer. I am really struggling today. I am still sick and I have to wear a mask when I feed Kate. My hands are raw from washing them so much and it is really hard to keep her away from Alex. I feel like we are living the RSV incident all over again and that it is only a matter of time before she gets sick. Alex is having quite a fever the tylenol is not keeping it any lower that 102. If it gets any worse we will have to bring him in. I can't wait until this sickness is over.

The flu

Well, I officially have the flu. No one knows where I got it from because I have just been at home unpacking. I hate having a fever. Alex has now come down with a fever too. Hopefully Kate won't get it. Justin is still well and I hope he stays well. So much for having a fun week with Alex and Kate. Maybe we will be well by the end of the week and can have some fun.

Moving day

We moved yesterday. It went very well. It is so nice to be in our new house. Everythign looks fantastic. Alex slept in his big biy bed for the first time and he never left it all night. I am so excited that we did not have to put him back in bed 15 times. I hope every night is as good as last night was. We got a lot unpacked, but I am overwhelmed with the boxes every where and we still have to clean the other house so it is show ready as soon as possible. We are now having a stager come in. I hope this makes it sell. I really do not know what else we could do at this point. Just think happy thoughts.

Kate is doing well. She is still eating every three hours at night. I have just a couple weeks before I go back to work, so hopefully she will begin sleeping through the night soon.

First Smile

Kate gave us our first smile tonight and she did it four times! It is a good thing that we were cleaning the house at 10:45 p.m. or we might have missed it. She is watching everything now and has also showed us that she is quite ticklish. She has been really fussy at night the past week. It is always around dinner time and I keep trying new things to soothe her. It is hard to make dinner for Alex and have Kate crying the whole time. It tends to send Alex over the edge and then I have two crying children. I am always thankful when Justin comes home from work because that last hour and a half is the most trying time of the day.

We have a showing tomorrow, hopefully this will be the one. I see reading back, that I have said this many many times in previous posts. At the end of this month, our house will have been for sale for seven months. Never, did we think it would take this long. We have now had five second showings and still no offers. We have now dropped the price 40,000 and are looking at stagers. We move next Wednesday and would be much happier if we know that our house is sold. We are now trying to force a sale by pricing our house considerably lower than other comparable houses. Hopefully it will work.

We also have our final walk through with Lundgren on our new house. I am so excited to see it all done. The window treatments were installed yesterday so most everything is complete. How exciting!

Word explosion

Alex has become a parrot. It is definately time to watch what we say very carefully. He repeats as much as he can. I heard the first two word phrase today. He told Max to "drop it". Max took one of his breakfast squares that he was diligently packing into a box and unpacking. He did this for almost thirty minutes straight. He might have a career as a professional packer someday. Later on, Justin had an open box in his room and Alex started taking books off the bookshelf and packing them in the box. He did not stop until he had emptied the whole shelf. I guess he has been watching us pack lately. It has paid off because I have made cleaning up his toys a game every night and he picks them all up and puts them in a crate. He makes sure to get every toy he can see.

Shoes needed

Alex has been EXTREMLY clumsy for the past week. Sadly, it was because one of his shoes was too tight and it was causing him to stumble everywhere. We did not realize this until today and promptly went to get him some new shoes. His feet are still extra wide and thick so we are forced to have Stride Right as our only option. Considering this we are getting him only one pair of shoes and wearing them out as much as possible until he needs the next size. This has been every three months or less. So they tend not to get that worn even though he has them on everyday. He now has a cut above one eye and a bruise, a bruise on his cheek, a puncture wound on his forehead, a scrape on his forehead, and a cut below his other eye, and a bruise on one arm. The boy is a mess. I hope these new shoes help because I don't know if I can take any more falls this week. Every time he falls he always leads with his head. It seems to happen out of nowhere and is impossible to prevent and frightening to watch. It doen not help that he is fearless. Sometimes he jumps off of things he climbs up on, then falls and laughs. I hope he does not grow up to be a daredevil and this is just the beginning...

I could listen to Kate's cute baby sounds all day. She is really starting to get fun. It is great to watch her and Alex interact. She watches him intently.

More falling

Alex fell today. He is learning how to run, it is a jog actually. That in combination with his love of shoes provided for a good fall in the mudroom. He hit the door frame when he fell and scraped one side of his forehead and has a puncture wound in the other. It bleed ALOT and we thought we might have to go for more stiches. After we cleaned it out, it does not look that bad. Everything just seems escalated when there is lots of blood.

Kate finally pooped yesterday. It turns out we were doing the suppository wrong. Hopefully we will not have to do that again. She needs to start pooping on her own. Hopefully that will happen soon. She did much better with the bottle today. We are using the Avent bottles this time. I will have to pick up some more this week.

We had a second showing today. Our realtor said if the lady was going to buy any house, she would be buying ours. Hopefully she will put in an offer soon and this whole mess cold be done!

Cooing and More Words

Kate is becoming very active with her arms and legs. She is also very good at following objects with her head and eyes. She just started making some cooing sounds. They are so cute. She is starting to show more of her personality which is really fun to see.

Alex, Kate and I have been watching his sign language dvd the past two nights. He is trying to say all the words and do some of the signs with his hands. His language skills have been getting better and better. I am amazed and how many words he can say. Flower was the latest one. He also has a book about hugs and he learned to say hug which is really cute. He has not been going to bed very good though. He fights it alot and does not just lay down and go to sleep like he used to. It always seems that Kate is crying too when I am putting Alex to sleep and I think he feels like he is going to miss out on something if he goes to bed. Sometimes it has taken an hour to get him to settle down with lots of crying and tears. I know that is not that bad in comparison to what some parents go through, but for our good sleeping Alex, it seems like a lot. Hopefully the switch to the big boy bed will be okay. It should be interesting!

Big Boy Bed

Today we went to IKEA and bought Alex a big boy bed. We decided that when we move he will have no more high chair and crib. We will wait a few weeks before giving the crib to Kate and the high chair will be packed away for a couple months. He is almost too big for it anyway at this point. Kate is doing well in the bassinet for now and she should be fine in that for another month or two. It is amazing to think that Alex will be in his own twin bed soon. He seems ready and not ready at the same time. Our little boy is growing up!

Kate started cooing a bit today. She is making some cute baby sounds. She is also watching everything with much more interest, especially her big brother. I think he makes her a bit nervous sometimes with all of his snuggles. She is very interested in anything he is doing. She also enjoyed her swing today for the first time. The last time I tried it she just cried, so I was glad this time that she liked it. She loves the papasan bouncer. I also wear her in the baby bjorn quite often and that is great for her. Having time for two can be quite the balancing act sometimes. So far it seems to be going okay. Alex is very loving and does not mind bringing books to read when I am feeding Kate. Thank goodness for that!

More sign language

We decided to try some more sign language with Alex today. He did the sign for more several times. He really picked it up easily. We read through the pamplet again after he went to bed and decided to try eat and help for tomorrow. It would be great to cut down on the pointing and grunting when he wants something. We can't always tell what he wants and then he gets frustrated. I had better start him watching the Baby einstein wordsworth dvd again.

He was funny wating his pizza tonight. He took all the pepperoni off and just ate the crust. He did not eat any of the pieces that I cut up for him. He has to be a big boy now!

Lights and Faucets

Our house looks great. They have put in all the plumbing. Unfortunately the faucets are wrong, but they should be fixed by the time we close. The lights have started going in. They look awesome. We are especially excited about the pendant lights in the kitchen. They are blue and they look like a hanging champagne glass. All that is left after the lights are closet shelves and carpet. We close in three weeks.

Alex has been pretty crabby this week especially in the morning. He seems to think that it is time for breakfast as soon as he gets up. He always has breakfast at 8:00 at daycare. He gets milk from us, but lately thinks that is not good enough and throws it on the floor. He definately has an opinion about what he likes and does not like.

Kate is doing lots of tummy time and loving it. She is really strong with her head and can lift it up a little bit now. She is over seven pounds now and seems to get bigger every day. She is still losing more hair, hopefully it will start growing in soon.

The Rooster

Alex loves his rooster. He makes sure that the rooster does everything. It drives the tow truck, sails the ship, rides in the back of the dump truck, and drives the tractor. I have even seen the rooster sitting in the castle on the king's throne. It is definately Alex's favorite animal and he can say cock-a-doodle-doo.

We will have to go to the zoo soon as Alex has gotten really good with his animal sounds. He can say Woof, Meow, Moo, Cock-a-doodle-doo, baa, and duck (I guess ducks dont' say quack).

A Better Day

Today, we are all healthy again. It has been a really nice day. I got the new license plates put on and ran some errands this morning. Alex took a good nap and is playing. He has also given his sister lots of hugs and touched her head many times. He has a fascination with her hair. I am not sure what is so interesting about it, but that is the first thing that he does when he sees her, is touch her head. I am amazed that I actually have a few outfits of Kate's to pack away already because they are too small. She is getting big already. She is still losing lots of skin and is quite dry. Slowly, her eyebrows are starting to fill in. She still has extremely long fingers and toes.

Our house just went back on the market as a new listing and we already got a call for a showing tomorrow. We will be cleaning tonight to make sure that it is pristine. Maybe this one will be the one.

Now Justin's sick

Unbelieveable! Now Justin is sick. We have not had good luck this week. He has a food poisoning version similar to my experience. I guess we will not have any leftovers in our house for a while.

We signed the paperwork to relist our house today. Hopefully we will sell it soon. We are nervous that with it empty, it will look small. Hopefully we will have an agreement in place before we move in February.

Kate has been eating every hour to hour and a half. She is insatiable and is clearly growing fast. She got a clean bill of health from the pediatrican today and she has been gaining almost two ounces a day since we got home from the hospital. She is up to a whopping 6 lbs. 10 oz! I guess we do not need anymore preemie diapers.

Alex continues to be obsessed with Bob. He thinks he should get to watch Bob everytime we ride in the car. He does not quite realize that Justin's car does not have a dvd player like the van does. He says Bob all the way home if it is not turned on. We don't want a tv addict, so we only let him watch it a couple times a week. He now has a couple Bob toys (Scoop and Scrambler) that he carries around everywhere. Sometimes he has even tried to bring them to daycare.

Too much sickness

Today I finally feel better. I got food poisoning from some bad cashew chicken on Sunday night. It was the worst that I have ever felt. I am glad that we did not feed any to Alex. Justin only ate a little nit and therefore was only a little bit sick. I ate alot and was alot sick. It only lasted 24 hours, but it seemed like forever. I am sure that Justin is glad that I am better because I think that I was a big whiner.

Kate is getting better each day and Alex is also doing well. He is saying so many new words. It is fun to hear him talk. We have to be careful about too many DVD's in the van because now when he gets in to any vehicle, he thinks that he should get to watch Bob. He can say Bob now and gets kind of upset if it is not turned on. He will get over it because we are not going to watch Bob everyday.

Everyone is sleeping now, so I had better get some stuff done around the house. Time is hard to come by because it seems that I am always needed. Kate had ate every hour for the past three hours so she should be sleeping for a while.

Happy Birthday Mama

Justin, Alex and Kate made me a birthday card today. It was really cute. Justin should write for Hallmark. Alex had messed up the whole house again. He is just a little tornado. We have to teach him the clean up game. I am sure the minute that we do not clean it up, we will get a showing. No offers yet, but with three second showings, one has to be coming soon.

Kate has not been eating as good today. We have had some trouble getting all the junk out of her nose. It is a good thing that we have saline. We are going to try to figure out some way to keep her elevated when she sleeps so that it does not congest her so much at night.

I am going to go shopping at Marshall Fields this afternoon. I am going to get some normal clothes for myself. I am really excited. The last time I bought some normal clothes was nine months ago. It will be nice to pack away all the maternity clothes finally. I obviously did not have time to find my regular clothes the week I was in the hospital. I was getting pretty sick of the roll panel pants when there was not much of a roll to hold the panel up.

We got some cute pictures of Alex and Kate today. I wish there was sunshine and the lighting would be better, but we think that they turned out pretty cute. Alex was great with her. He only tried to touch her eye once!

Our first day home

It was nice to wake up at home today. Alex, Justin, Kate and I had a nice day together. We put together the double stroller and went to the mall when we had a showing. I finally got to buy my baby girl a dress. She will look very cute once she can grow into it. I made sure to keep her covered up so no one could touch or breathe on her. I think after going through this RSV, I am going to be a bit paranoid for a while. I realize that I can't keep her in a bubble, but hopefully I can prevent as much as possible. I started working with Alex today on washing his hands and using anti bacterial gel. He is doing well so far and that should help keep his hands clean which will hopefully spread less germs. The nurses thought that the gel would be easy for him to pick up on.

Kate had a great day. We had to suction her nose a few times and she seems to get wuite clogged when she is on her back. I might strap her in to the papasan for a few days to see if that helps her not get so clogged at night. The mucous should pass in a few days and that will be great.

Alex was lots of fun. I am amazed at how many words he learned this week while I was gone. Moo, Cock a doodle doo, scoop, Kate and many others. He has become quite the copy cat and is so interested in doing things himself. He is getting to be such a big boy. I took some pictures of him and Kate tonight. They are very cute. He enjoyed holding her and he was very gentle when patting her head. It is fun to see them look at each other.

We went through our house. It is amazing. The countertops are all in and they look great. The first coat of finish is on the hardwood floor. The tile is done and all the hardware is on the doors. It is looking great and there is not much that has to be done. I can't believe that we will move in five weeks. We had better start packing!!

Finally Home!

I can't believe that we were in the hospital for seven days. I am so tired and so glad to be back home with Justin and Alex. I look forward to a shower and sleeping in my own bed. Kate is doing so much better. She went off the oxygen at 5:00 this morning and has done well awake, eating and sleeping all day. We are confident that we can take care of her on our own now and know what to look for in case she gets worse. The chances of her getting worse are slim at this point as she is through most of the sickness and is just healing now. We go back to see the pediatrician for a check up this week and hopefully she will not get any other colds in the meantime. I am so glad that she is doing better. It is so much more fun to hold her when she is not hooked up to an IV, oxygen and two moitors. I always seemed to set something off when I would pick her up and burp her. We are all thankful that she handled the RSV well. We found out that there were four babies in ICU on respirators and we are glad that Kate did not get that bad. Hopefully the rest of the winter will be a healthy one. She smiled today and twice yesterday!