Thursday, May 28, 2015

Bluebonnets

Annual bluebonnet pictures.  It took until May for us to get them because they weren't at the dam and we couldn't find a good bunch around Easter like normal.  We finally heard there were some up by the Texas Information Center at the border so we headed there one day after school.  Harper did great this year and loved her little photo shoot.  Paige was still pretty much just a lay there and sleep baby, but Harper held her and they looked great together.  I had to add the last one because when she was holding her, she sneezed and finally covered her mouth, and held on to Paige at the same time!  It was actually an big accomplishment for her!


















Photo Shoots

So we may be on picture overload right now.  But she is so stinking cute and Harper loves to take pictures.  So I guess it will continue.  Paige is always so smiley and happy.  She is a little confused by the camera though because she seems to freeze when we try to take her picture.  Thankfully, Harper is a fabulous photo assistant and can make her laugh and smile.  When she smiles really big and it takes up her whole face, she looks just like Harper's baby pictures.  They are just little mini versions of each other.  I don't even know why we had this photo shoot; she must have just been super happy this day.





Paige is getting big so fast that I almost forget to use all the different baby things we have.  A friend asked if she was sitting up yet and I realized I hadn't even tried.  So we got out the boppy and sat her up in it.  She loved it and I think she liked sitting up and seeing everything instead of laying down and missing all the action.  I love the last picture because she looks like a little old man who's going bald.  Sweet little girl.






This was Sunday right before church.  Harper has had this dress for over a year but wouldn't wear it.  Something like "it's not my favorite color," which is her favorite thing to say to get out of lots of things.  So I promised to dress Paige in stripes too and they could take a picture together.  These two are so beautiful and I love seeing them together.  They make each other smile and laugh and it's just the best to see them with each other.  






Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Benton's Birthday

Our neighbors down the street (yes, we sort of have neighbors) are the Helm's, Travis, Morgan, and Benton.  They are the sweetest family!  Cody knows Travis from school even though they are a bit younger than us.  Benton is about 1 year younger than Harper, but you almost wouldn't know it.  They are the same size.  We got to know them well because they would walk up and down the street or ride their golf cart up and down the street, so we would get to chat every now and then.  Harper and Benton played really well together so it was always easy to just hang out.  They invited Harper to his 3rd birthday and it was the epitome of a boy birthday.  They were outside by the lake, with campers lined up for kitchens and bathrooms, and a big pile of sand for the kids to dig around in.  Harper was delighted because I usually never let her play in the sand.  We all hung out and the kids had a great time. Harper found a caterpiller and let Cody hold onto it for her.  Towards the end, Morgan was taking a picture of all the kids and I noticed Benton and Harper talking.  They asked him later what he was saying to her and he said "I asked if I could kiss her."  When asked what Harper said, Benton says she said "Yes."  Those two!







3 Months for Paige

Paige is 3 months old.  She is getting so big!  She weighs about 13 1/2 pounds.  She fits perfectly into 3 month cloths and still in size one diapers.  She seems to be just about perfectly average!  She is losing some of her hair and it is getting a little lighter, but she still has a lot.  She isn't chubby yet, but still has some rolls around her neck and thighs.  Plus, we noticed that her toes are so close that they can't all lay flat in line together.  Sweet baby is just too cute!


She is still on the same basic routine.  She wakes around 9, eats and then plays for an hour. Quick catnap while we are usually out and about.  She eats again at 12, plays, then goes down for her long nap.  She eats again around 4 or 5, plays for a little longer, takes a bath with Harper, and then catnaps on the couch until 8 or 9, bottle and bed.  She usually wakes up at 2am and then again at 5am.  If I could only get her to sleep until 3 and then maybe 630, that would be fabulous.  Only getting up once instead of twice would be awesome.  But in general, it's a good routine and I like it.


She is a happy little baby.  When she wakes up in the morning, and from her naps, she is so cute and funny.  She smiles so big it lights up her whole face.  She laughs and coos and talks like crazy.  Her best mood is right after her nap and bottle.  Nothing bothers her then.  She is just so cute!  She talks and sometimes screeches but she loves doing it.  Harper loves to talk to her and is constantly finding new sounds to make her smile.  If she hears me or Harper, she usually smiles, even if she can't see us.  Or she tries to look around and find where we are.  It melts my heart!


Paige is doing much better on her acid reflux medicine.  I should have seen the signs earlier, because Harper had it so bad.  But we were busy looking into food allergies and missed it.  So now she is doing better.  She stopped eating and sleeping well for about a week after her 2 month checkup so we took her to the dr.  They gave her meds and it has taken awhile, but she is getting better.  Finally back to eating and sleeping regularly.  For awhile, she was waking up every 10 minutes during her naps and crying in pain.  Poor baby.  I'm so thankful that she is getting better.  At her 2 month appointment we also found out that she has a high palette, meaning that the roof of her mouth is much higher than most kids.  It shouldn't bother her too much in life, except that it made breastfeeding hard for her and may bother her when eating later.   She still doesn't like long drives and oddly enough, she doesn't seem to like being outside.  She is always much fussier outside and seems totally happy when we bring her inside.  It's weird to me, because Harper loved being outside, but it's fun to finally see a few things that are different about Paige and Harper.  They are so similar in everything else!


Paige likes to be held still.  It's just gonna be the way that this sweet girl is.  If she has had a good nap and a bottle, she will play on her playmate and look at her animals or the mirror.  And if she has Harper to entertain her, she will sit in the lamb chair for 10 minutes or so.  She even slept in her carseat after I brought her inside the house for 30 minutes the other day.  That never happened with Harper so I was shocked.  It was nice to be able to come in and get Harper lunch without a crying baby too.  The good thing is that she is easy to put to sleep because she loves being held.  So I can rock her for like 1 minute and she is out.  I have tried teaching her to put herself back to sleep after I put her down, and she does pretty good.  Her only struggle right now is keeping the paci in her mouth.  If she turns her head, it comes out.  Or if she is asleep and then wakes up, it's usually gone.  And she's still too little to know how to find it and put it back in.  So I have to get up and do that every now and then, but it's not as often as Harper used to make me do it, so it's ok.  And we are trying to get her to snuggle her new lovie, so we will see if it helps.


 Harper and Paige are great together.  Every now and then, Harper is loud or sudden and it scares Paige.  But in general, they love each other and are great together.  We went back to the gym and when I saw that there were two other babies there, I just explained that Harper could take care of Paige and not to worry.  I meant it too!  She knows her and what she needs and she is so great at taking care of her.


It's funny because she seems so big, but in reality, she's only been her for 3 months.  90 days.  So little time, and yet it feels like she has been here forever.  Happy 3 Months Paige Marie!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

April Showers

April has pretty much seen a return to normal around our house.  I think we survived the newborn stage and are working on the cute baby stage.  It was definitely hard having two, but these girls are so amazing that life is great these days.  Paige is sleeping a good chunk of the night and Harper seems to be getting to the end of her "threenager" years.  I am seeing light folks.  

We have still been going to the video venue at church so we can keep Paige with us.  She usually eats around that time and then just hangs out, so it's simple to keep her.  Plus, Cody loves the venue because it's empty of people.  I'm happy with whatever, plus Paige is so fun when she just wakes up and I love that time with her.  Paige has definitely turned a corner.  Mid april, we got her on Prevacid for her acid reflux.  She was gulping and not eating or sleeping well and arching her back before so I can't believe I didn't see it before 2 months.  And sadly, it took 2 full weeks for it to actually work, but now that it does, she is so much happier.  For the most part these days, she doesn't really cry much.  She fusses for a few minutes when she is tired, but goes to sleep in about 1 minute flat.  She isn't on a minute by minute routine, but I do know exactly what's coming and about when.  She eats about every 3 hours.  She plays for an hour and a half and then naps for about an hour.  Her afternoon nap is usually about 3 hours which is awesome.  And her first chunk of sleep at night is usually about 5 hours.  I like the routine and knowing exactly what she needs.  She is very easy to read and she is becoming a much easier baby than I imagined.  Paige still mostly wants to be held, and mostly by Mama, but she is definitely coming around.  She even sits in her lamb chair and has even fallen asleep in it a few times.  That's serious progress.  She still likes to play on her playmate and loves to sit on your lap and look at you and babble.  She loves attention.  She loves being entertained by Harper.



These two sisters melt my heart everyday.  If I can get over the million times a day that I have to remind Harper to be gentle or get out of her face or stop forcing her hand to play with a toy, etc. then I remember that all of it is because they seriously love each other.  Like, L.O.V.E. each other.  Harper does anything for Paige, gets her paci, dances for her, makes toys dance for her, and holds her hand in the car.  She is always asking to hold her and check on her.  Paige loves Harper right back and lights up when she sees her or hears her voice.  I know that if Harper goes over to Paige, then she will stop fussing immediately.  When I took them to the gym last week and there were way too many kids for one lady to watch, I just told her to let Harper be in charge of Paige.  I was very confident that Harper would be able to care for her better than almost anyone else.  




Harper has had a much better few weeks lately.  Maybe as Paige got better and less needy, so did she. But I'm grateful that she is back to her sweet self lately.  She is finishing up her year of preschool, BSF preschool church, dance class, and library.  Next month, she won't have anything left but we will get to look forward to summer.  She still loves dress up, reading books, drawing/crafting, dancing and singing.  She is vibrant and one of my prayers is that we would discipline her well without squashing her spirit.  It's such a balance to do that well.  She is such a lover, lover of all people she meets.  People comment about how cute she is just passing by her on the street.  She is kind to everyone she meets and polite to strangers.  She loves her dad and tells me that he is so big and can do anything he wants because he is amazing.  They call each other "their best big buddy in the whole big world" and it's the cutest thing ever.  She is also my perfect little mini-me.  She talks just like me, every phrase out of her mouth is most likely something I've said.  She has become an expert eye roller, gets exasperated if Paige cries for no reason (surely, that's not me) and even complains when people don't do things her way.  She requires people to play her way, she will enforce any adults orders for other kids whether she was asked or not, and she hates to be wrong.  If she says something and I try to correct her, she will tell me I'm wrong, she will say "Just let me be right," she will change her answer, or she will just lie and say she was just kidding.  None of these things are done in maliciousness but they are a little too type A control freak for a 3 year old.  So we are working on it.  She is getting so grown up and is a great sport about her food allergies.  She has had made seasonal allergies this month just like every spring so we tried meds again and when they kept her awake for a few hours at night, we switched back to oils.  In all, she is such a sweet kid and we are lucky to have her.






Short story - we got some Frosted Flakes for Cody and she saw a picture of Elsa on the back.  The boxes each had a spoon in them with either Elsa, Nemo, or Mike.  She opened the first box, Mike.  No Elsa.  She opened the second box, Nemo.  No Elsa.  She was so confused.  Why the picture of Elsa if Elsa wasn't in the box?  Poor kid.  She looked and looked and dug around and never found her.  Reminded me of my childhood when most cereals had surprises in them (they don't anymore).  But come on Kellogs, don't put Elsa on the box unless she is in there.  What a letdown.  



This month I have gotten back to working out and it has been so good for me.  It keeps me on my toes and productive and feeling better about myself.  I was mostly just running outside after Cody got home from work or doing P90X in the mornings.  It was good.  Harper would watch me and tell me, "Almost Mommy, you almost got it."  Nice.  Harper liked to go on runs with me in the stroller, but Paige didn't seem to so I quit taking her.  I counted calories for the month and it was so hard.  You can't even imagine how many calories a bowl of Blue Bell Ice cream has.  Or a full meal at Olive Garden.  Sick.  So I decided that I could eat what I wanted but I would have to cut back.  It definitely helped.  Plus, most of the girls in bible study were doing about the same thing so we were able to help motivate each other and keep each other on track.  Bible study girls have been so wonderful lately.  I love getting together for our girls nights and just relaxing and being carefree for a few short hours.  I don't know if I ever laugh as much as I do when I'm with them.  





I haven't gotten to see Taylor and Carleigh as much lately because we haven't been going to Dallas.  It's hard driving with Paige, but hopefully with the meds, she will get better.  Taylor works a ton so we have seen her even less than Carleigh.  Plus, she is graduating in two months - so sad.  But I think we will get to see them a lot this summer so I'm looking forward to that.  


I was sitting on the couch hanging out with Paige and Harper one morning when I saw a mouse climbing up the window of the fireplace screen.  I literally freaked out.  It had been raining so that always sends the mice inside.  But thankfully the bar kept the screen closed and it didn't make it in the house.  I didn't know what to do, hold Paige or get the mouse.  I didn't want to, but I got a broom just in case and tried to scare it away.  I eventually put Paige down and got a tarp and taped it over the fireplace so it couldn't get in.  I didn't want to think about it while I was gone that day.  It stayed like that for a few days until I told Cody that mice were unacceptable in our home.  


I went to the dermatologist for a spot that showed up during pregnancy and they ended up taking 4 spots off.  1 came back severely atypical and had to be cut out.  I guess it was pretty bad because it ended up being a 2 1/2 inch scar with two layers of stitches.  Glad I went!