Happy Day!!

About three months ago I was posting about how utterly bummed I was that The Boy had to go back onto his appetite stimulating medication. He had been off of it for almost a year and it was a really big blow to me that he had to go back. The side effects when he first starts it are tough to witness and I just felt so bad for my little dude that for whatever reason, his body didn't make him hungry enough to eat on his own.

But I am happy to report today that it works. That for all of those tears I cried and all of those sad moments I had...it appears to work. And that is really all that matters in the end. If you recall, when he went back on the medication in August he had not gained one ounce in over 10 months. Not a good thing for a 5 year old. I rarely post his actual weight on here because he is just so tiny that I feel bad about 'putting it all out there' on the Internet for the world to see. But because I have good news today, I will share. The weight we were stuck at for over 10 months was 35 pounds. He was just stuck there. He had actually grown about 3/4 of an inch during that time period but that isn't anything significant (an average yearly growth for a child my son's age would be about 3 inches). So at his last weight check he was 35 pounds and 41 inches tall. Yes, I know. Super tiny. Especially for an almost 6 year old.

BUT! But yesterday was his 3 month check after going back on the medicine. I knew he had gained a little bit because not only could I see it in his face, but I had cheated and had him stand on my scale at home a couple of times. So I was hopeful that it was going to be a good appointment. I was hoping that he would be up to about 37 pounds and that because of that he had a growth (height) spurt coming. That was the hope. So when we got called back and he stood on the scale I said to the nurse, "If he's still 35 pounds I am going to kill myself..." She laughed as she slid that little dial more and more over to the right and said, "You don't have to worry about that today..."

He weighed 39 pounds you guys!!! He gained 4 pounds in 3 months. That is un-fucking-believable. This has never happened in all of his life. I have never witnessed a weight gain like that. Never. I was so surprised and happy that I picked him up and swung him around the room cheering. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it.

And then we moved on to get his height and he had grown an entire inch!! In three months!! Crazy. Totally crazy. In the best possible way. So even though he is still a tiny little dude for his age, I am celebrating the fact that he put on 4 pounds of weight and grew an entire inch in just three short months. I Can't even tell you all how happy this makes me.

Way to go Buddy!! Keep eating!!!

Happy Birthday to Peanut!!

My baby is two. Today. This time two years ago…

I had been on bed rest since 27 weeks (SUCKED!), I had been in and out of the hospital trying to keep my baby girl cooking for as long as possible (we made it to almost 38 weeks). I had had countless NST’s, serious contractions, and was generally miserable making it up to this day two years ago. And then, finally, I checked into the hospital for a scheduled c-section. For the first time in several months, everything went smoothly and she entered the world and MY world has not been the same since. I said the day she was born that she completed our family. And she did. I honestly cannot imagine life without her.

And now today? There is no part “baby” anymore. She wants to dress herself…climb in and out of her car seat herself…she would probably like to make her own dinner if I would let her. And the way that she speaks still continues to amaze me on a daily basis. There is nothing she can’t say and there is also never a time when she isn’t saying anything at all. According to my mother, this is the universe giving me the ultimate payback. Apparently as a kid, I never shut up. My daughter is the same way. If she doesn’t have anything particularly interesting to say, she sings. If that doesn’t work she will just start saying her ABC’s, or counting…but if she is awake, at all times she is speaking. Even when she is “sitting quietly” reading books, she is narrating what she thinks the story is saying, for instance, every time she turns the page she says, “…and the NEXT morning…” Classic.

Some of her favorite things right now: Foods? Any and all fruit. Smart dogs. Salmon (I know, right?). Cheese and crackers. “Popcorn” (Pirates Booty). Dry cereal. Chicken breasts (but not “nuggets,” neither of my kids like those; not sure why…) But fortunately she is still at the stage where she will try literally anything and 90% of the time she eats only what we are eating for dinner. She is a GREAT eater. I thank my lucky stars for that every day. She still LOVES her milk. She drinks a full 8 ounce cup of milk twice a day. Once in the morning right after she gets up (while watching TV in my bed), and once after she wakes up from her nap. She drinks them quickly and then moves on. My family laughs at how fast she can take down an 8 ounce glass of milk. She still sleeps with her beloved "Kitty" (her lovey blanket) and her Binky. Binky stays in the bed, and just recently she hasn't been using it that much so I think it might be on the way out...

Favorite TV show is easily Cat in the Hat. No question. She likes others, but this one is her fave. And just recently she has decided that she LOVES the movie Toy Story 3. She thinks ALL movies should be Toy Story 3. She also thinks she should be able to watch it multiple times a day (I don't let her—it’s a weekend only kind of thing). Here she is surrounded by her Toy Story toys while watching the movie...

In terms of favorite toys…pretty much whatever her brother is playing with. That, and only that, is what she wants. And she takes whatever he is playing with from him and then runs away laughing hysterically. He doesn’t find it quite as funny. Other faves this past year have been puzzles, her stroller, her babies, her stacking blocks and (I hesitate to admit this…) her iPod touch. She calls it her “game,” and she totally knows how to use it, navigate through it and all of her “apps,” and of course, put on Toy Story 3. But perhaps the one thing she goes to more than anything are her books. She LOVES to read. She will take it any way she can get it. If you let her sit on your lap and read to her? Perfect. If not, she will happily go and get her books, stack about 5 in front of her, and cop a squat and just sit there and read to herself. She adores books. She pretty much has to have one with her whenever we leave the house.

She has had 3 haircuts, and normally wears her hair in a little top pony tail with the back hanging free. I have kept the length at her shoulders because it is easy to manage and because, at that length, the curls come out. And I love me some of her curls. I still couldn’t tell you what color her eyes are. I guess you would have to categorize them as “hazel.” Sometimes they look gray, sometimes they look green or blue, and sometimes they have a brownish tint. They are darker, but they change so much that I honestly have no clue. As of today she wears a size 2T in tops, a size 18-24 months in pants (she will most likely be a shorty like her Mommy), and a size 6 shoe. Speaking of clothes, she loves to get dressed up and will ask almost everyday if it is a day to “wear party shoes.” That always equals a good day. I have no idea how much she weighs and how tall she is (I will update once I take her to her 2 year well-baby appt on the 5^th of May), but I think she recently went through a growth spurt because she just seems to BIG all of a sudden. Here she is on a walk this past weekend...doesn't she just look HUGE all of a sudden? No? It's just me? Well...I think she has gotten HUGE. :)

In terms of personality, she is…well…SO different from her brother. She is sweet and funny and happy. She is confident and tough and fearless. She is loud and vocal and bossy and…oh dear lord the tantrums… When life is going her way, she is the cutest and most precious thing you have ever come across in your entire life. When things aren’t going her way? Well…let’s just say that I sometimes dream of a boarding school far, far away… I think the teenage years are going to SUCK. But right now? A few minutes of ugliness and then she is back to all smiles. But most of all she makes me laugh. Every single day she makes me laugh. And she is SO loving. She loves to give hugs and kisses. In fact every single morning, the first thing she does (while her diaper is being changed) is yell to her brother, “Brother! Come say hi to me! Brother, come say good morning to me!” (Did I mention bossy?) She won’t leave him, or me for that matter, at daycare without at least one hug and kiss. Most the time it takes two or three before we get out the door. She will spontaneously come up to you during the day and say, “gimme a hug,” and grab onto you. She is very affectionate. And as referenced above, she never, ever calls her brother by his name. He is brother and only brother. She knows his name, in fact one of her favorite games right now is to say our names. "Brother name is…" "Mommy name is…" "Gigi name is…" (this is one of her favorites because she knows that Gigi’s name is also her middle name so that always gets a laugh). She can say her entire name perfectly. She can count to 20. She knows all her letters and numbers. She is smart as a whip. Kills me.

I could go on and on, but then I would spend all day long writing this entry and I need to go spend some time squeezing her and saying, “I can’t believe you are two…” all day long.

My dear Peanut: I love you more than words can ever express. When you were really little I used to say you were my ray of sunshine. You are my sunshine. You make my world happy. Your brother and I are so happy to have you as our family. Happy Birthday sweet girl. I love you.

Happy 18 Months Peanut!

My "baby" girl is 18 months old today. It's so cheesy to say but it really does go so fast. She is this whole little person and is no longer any part "baby." But what a wonderful little girl she is growing into. I wish I could somehow save every moment of every day with her so that when she is a horrific teenager (and I have NO doubt that she will be every ounce horrific) I can look back on this time and remind myself why I decided to keep her. But for now, I will just try and capture of few things that she's doing and some of her favorite things.

First the stats: She is 22 lbs and 8 oz. She is 31.75 inches tall and that puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile (!!!) for height. She remains true to her nickname; she is a little peanut. She was charming as all getup for all the ladies in the office and even for the doctor as long as he wasn't trying to, you know, examine her or anything. She screamed bloody murder while she was being weighed and measured and then during her exam, but as soon as those things were over and I was chatting with the doctor she ran around the office and counted to 10 and sang her ABC's and just when he was asking me if she was using two word phrases she marched over to me and said, "Mommy, no want it. I want to go bye bye." He smiled and looked at me and said, "Umm...yeah, I think she's good on the speech front."

Wow. Never heard THOSE words spoken to me before.

She wants so bad to be a big girl. She eats whatever we are eating for dinner every night and she insists on using a fork and spoon (even though half the time she is making more of a mess than not). She constantly asks me to "brush her teeth," but I put that in quotes because what that really means is she wants to stand on the stool big brother uses when he brushes his teeth and she wants me to put water on the tooth brush so she can suck it off and hand it back to me and say, "Again? Busha da teef again?" She wants to try and put her own shoes and clothes on. She wants to brush her own hair. If I give her my hand to try and help her up or down some stairs she knocks my hand away and finds a wall or something to hang onto and makes do herself. Very independent she is.

She has found her voice in more ways than one. She can certainly communicate with you but she can also DEMAND. She announces in the morning that she wants to watch a certain TV show and then 10 minutes later has melt down when she has decided that she no longer wants THAT particular TV show and would prefer another. For the record, she is finally into TV and her favorite shows right now are Cat in the Hat, Caillou, and Super Why. She also enjoys Curious George, but I think that is mostly because it's her brother's favorite show. But the other three are the ones she asks for.

As I have blogged about before, she not only wants music on in the car, but it has to be her choice of music and she wants the song changed as soon as she deems it over even if that happens to be 15 seconds after she initially cheered "Hooray!" for the song that came on. She has learned to ask her brother for help on things. She walks up to him and hands him something and says, "Bruh-der help?" And if he ignores her (which he quite often does), she follows him around going, "Bruh-der...bruh-der...bruh-der?" until he finally gives in. She has figured out how to use him to her advantage.

Last weekend she came up to me and said, "[her name] take baby for walk?" I looked at her a little confused because she has never asked that before and I repeated, "You want to take your baby for a walk?" She nodded and said, "Yeah." And then she walked over to her stroller and put her baby inside it and said, "Let's go!" I was completely amused by this whole concept and got her brother and we went outside and she proceeded to walk down the street pushing her baby in the stroller all the way around our entire block. When she gets an idea in her head she goes ALL for it.

She is also a little obsessed with books and those wooden puzzles. She loves them. And I don't know if she has just memorized them all at this point or if she is just damn good at puzzles. Her brother was never really into them but she LOVES them. She has about 10 of them and she picks them up and dumps them onto the floor and then sits down and picks up each piece and knows exactly where it goes and puts it right into the correct spot and moves on. She can complete an entire puzzle in about 20 seconds. It's a little bit insane.

As I have blogged about ad nauseum on here, when my marriage broke up when the boy was little I was devastated for many reasons. But the one that stuck after all the therapy and after a good portion of the healing was that I didn't feel like my family was complete. I was scared to death to do it on my own, but I just didn't feel like The Boy and I were all that was needed to make our little family. And I couldn't have been more right. About two and a half years after I started this blog saying, "I am single and I think I need to have another child" I was right to trust my gut. I needed this child. She is such a huge part of this family and I can't even imagine life without her. She really has completed us. And not only that she has brought such joy and happiness into both of our lives that I simply can't express it properly.

And I will end on what happened in my living room tonight. You know when you have one of those magic moments where the sun and the moon and the stars all line up and you have one of those glorious moments as a parent where you think to yourself, "THIS. This right here is why I did it. This is why I do it. For moments like these..." Well I had one of those tonight. Peanut got three vaccinations today and a flu shot. So by about 7:00 this evening she was a mess. She had a fever and she was shaking from being cold (just out of the bath) and she had spent the past 20 minutes sitting on my lap under her blanket rocking on the rocking chair and warming up (unheard of for her). I put her down because she had finally agreed to have her night time milk so she was sitting in her chair and I went into the kitchen to make her milk. Her brother went over to her and squatted down next to her and said very softly, "I'm sorry you're not feeling well. Shots are a bummer, but you'll feel better soon..." and then he bent down and kissed her on her hand. She smiled at him and he sat next to her and patted her leg. Then after I had given her her milk and she was drinking it he went back into his room and got out his coveted blocks (that are only shared with her when he is feeling VERY generous) and brought them out and made a tower right in front of where she was sitting. Then he said, "Here you go Peanut, I made you a tower...go ahead and knock it over..." She didn't cause she felt so crummy and he said, "You want me to knock it over for you?" She nodded and he crashed it down in front of her." She smiled and sat up. He built it again for her and said, "How about now?" She grinned, threw off the blanket and stood up and knocked it over. He clapped for her and said, "See? That's what I wanted for you to do. I knew my blocks could make you feel better..."

Could you just freaking die?

Happy 1st Birthday Peanut

Oh my god. You're a year old. How did that happen? Seriously. How the hell did that happen? But here we are. And my daughter...what an amazing year this has been.

I want you to know that you are pure joy and sunshine. You bring smiles and happiness wherever you go. I cannot even begin to list the ways you have enriched my life. I always knew I wanted two kids. Always. But what I didn't know is that I wanted you. I wanted the smiles and the love along with the defiant fist pumps. I wanted the confidence and strengths along with the strong-willed nature. I wanted it all and I wanted you. And here you are.

At a year old you weigh 19.13 pounds, you stand 28 3/4 inches tall (you are a little Peanut just like your Mommy--a delicate flower like I have been saying all along...). You have 6 teeth. Four on the top, two on the bottom. You wear size 12 month pants and size 12-18 month shirts. You crawl everywhere at speeds that amaze people. I am constantly hearing, "Damn...that girl can MOVE!" You stand up on everything and transfer between furniture while standing but don't yet take any steps on your own.

You have a list of words that you use in the proper context: Up, down, Mama, Gigi, all done, uh oh, poop poop, hi and bye, thanks, and you also will try and mimic any words we tell you to say. Today when we told you about the fish on the wall you said fish. You amaze me with your little vocabulary. We have an alarm on the house and therefore anytime a door opens there are three little beeps that sound. Every time you hear the beeps you look up and smile and yell, "HI!!!" as if every time I am going out to the garage it means that someone is here to see you. When Gigi picks up her purse to leave you look at her and say "Bye!!" The little voice is so damn sweet. Remind me of this when you're four and I would give anything to have a moment of silence. Because I seriously see that in my future. But right now, it is a welcome little voice.

You love your kitty lovey most of all. You are pretty fond of your binkys but you know they are for the crib only so when you get up you say, "bye bye" and then throw it over the edge of the crib when I take you out. You love your Mommy and your brother and your Gigi and you have a pretty special relationship with your Poppy as well. There are so many people who love you. Your favorite toys right now are a toy cow that has buttons on it that plays music when you push the buttons. You love that damn thing. You would kill a small army to get your hands on my car keys. Your brother's "Kevin" doll is something so coveted that when you actually get your little hands on it you go tearing out of the room to hide it so he doesn't snag it back. You love to dance to music and clap your hands and you basically just love life.

You are a good sleeper going from 8:00 at night until around 7:00 in the morning, although you get up sometime around 6:00ish to nurse and then go back to sleep. Speaking of nursing...WE MADE IT! I can't believe we did it but together, you and I, we exclusively nursed you for a full year. Mommy is probably more stoked on that accomplishment than you are, but damn girl...we did it. Now the challenge is going to be figuring out how to stop doing it. I have no intention of taking away your before bed and first thing in the morning nursing, but the days? The things that force me to pump? Yeah. Those have got to stop.

I chose not to give you a big birthday party because I don't think that's what you would have wanted. Too many people around and you get shy. You get clingy. You are at your best surrounded by just a few people that you love to death. So that's what we did. And I think I made the right call. I think you had a damn fine birthday. Here are some pictures from the big day. First thing in the morning I sat you on your bean bag for your last "bean bag photo" and I was greeted with this reaction:

I don't know if the excitement was from being done with bean bag photos or because it was your birthday but you gave me your all! Thank you for that. I will stop torturing you with those photos now. But we got a really nice slide show out of it that hopefully one day you will enjoy. I am sorry I had to take you to daycare on your birthday but Mommy got sick with food poisoning the day before your birthday and was so behind on her work that I had no choice. But you partied there all day and when we picked you up it was time to party some more. Here you are with Mommy right after you got home.
After a lovely wholesome dinner it was time to open your gifts. If I'm being honest, your brother did most of the opening and you ate the paper that he discarded but you really seemed to dig the gifts that you got. Here you are playing with a cool wooden walker toy that Mommy got for you.
And then my dear...it was time for the cake. You have never had any sweets up until this point in your life so I wasn't sure if you would go crazy or turn your nose up. You weren't sure what to think initially either... A whole cake, just for you? Is this legal?
You played with the cake but didn't eat a whole lot. Not sure if it's because you were full or if you just didn't really dig the sweets thing. I guess time will tell. You sure made a good mess though and really, that's what it's all about.
My baby girl, you have given me such a wonderful last year. You will never truly understand all the joy and happiness you have brought to my life. You completed our family. I finally feel complete. I feel full. Full of joy and of love and of pride that I am blessed with two of the best kids there are. I have been telling you all year long that you are my little ray of sunshine. And you always will be. I love you dearly Peanut. Happy first birthday.

Happy 9 Months Old Peanut

What a month this has been my love. So many things happened...so many "firsts." You started off the month with your first Christmas. You loved the wrapping paper and the lights and all the craziness, but you didn't so much care about your gifts (that will change). In fact we still have a couple of unopened gifts from Christmas sitting in your room for when we feel like you need a new toy.

Part of the above could be contributed to your very first sickness. You got a nasty cold on Christmas Eve and were sick as a dog on Christmas day. But even though you kept both of us up ALL NIGHT LONG on Christmas Eve, you were in relatively good spirits on the big day. You weathered your cold like a trooper and it seemed to last about 10 days until you were totally healthy again. But during that sickness you seemed to have forgotten how to do something that I deem quite important.

You forgot how to sleep. This past month has been a nightmare with sleeping. You went through a period where you simply could not fall asleep unless I was standing right next to your crib. That isn't so much the case anymore, but you still seem to wake up at all hours of the night screaming. As soon as I go in your room and give you back your Binky and your Kitty (lovey blanket) you roll over on your side and go right back to sleep. For about a half an hour. Rinse and repeat. I am really not sure what is going on with your sleep or how to solve it. I could write an entire post on what I have tried and what seems to work, but this is about all the lovely things you have done in the past month so we are going to move along...

You, my girl, are officially on the move! At the beginning of the month you were barely crawling. Just sort of getting into the position and moving a little bit--sometimes in the wrong direction. And slowly but surely you got better and better at it. Now you haul ass down the hall and into the bathrooms (I always have to make sure your brother's mini potty is clean now...) and into all the rooms and places you only looked at from afar before. You love your new found sense of freedom. At the beginning of the month you would cry hysterically if you weren't in the same room as me. Now you bellow something along the lines of "Dy Dy Dy..." and then disappear down the hall to see what mischief you can get into.

And speaking of that...it was time for the baby gates to come back out. At first you were intrigued by them, but now you just get down right pissed. You will see the door open and you will crawl over as fast as your little arms and legs will let you move. If we happen to slam that door closed on you right before you make it inside the door to eat the cat food, you sit there and look at me like I have just killed your only puppy dog. But you sure do look cute trying to convince me to let you in...
You also got your first official injury this month. You slammed your face on a metal bar at the pediatrician's office and got your very first bruise. It doesn't look like much in the pictures, but let me tell you, it was impressive. You should be very proud. In fact when we went to your doctor's office for your checkup today, the first thing he said to me was, "Um...did she get into a bar fight?" I am so proud I could just die...
Much to my dismay...you got your very first set of pig tails this month. Your Gigi couldn't stop herself. I would like to tell you that it was a one time occurrence, but really...have you met your Gigi? This is just the beginning my girl. And who knows? Maybe you'll grow up to be a pig tail kinda girl... And if that's the case, then you should be very happy that your Gigi is in your life because I have NO clue how to do your hair at this point. I am lucky if I can get the clip in it to keep it out of your face. I promise that I will work on this and hopefully get to the point where I can make you look cute without having to call in backup.
You did great at your appointment today and continue to sail along marvelously with your growth. Your stats: You weigh 18.8 pounds, which is in the 50th percentile, you are 27 inches tall, which is in the 25th percentile (it's okay to be short honey...Mommy will teach you all about it), and you are perfectly healthy. You are doing all the things you are supposed to be doing like crawling and pulling up to a standing position and chatting away and eating all the right things. You are the picture of "normalness" and I couldn't be happier.

Day in the life: You wake up around 6:30 or 7:00am (could be after a full night's sleep, or could be after getting up every single half an hour for the entire night!!!) and nurse. Then you are on the ground and you are off! You usually go torture your brother in his room while I get ready and get everyone dressed. At about 9:00am you eat breakfast which consists of 4 cubes of fruit and 2 ounces of breast milk mixed with either rice cereal or oatmeal. You top that off with a hand full of Cheerios. Then you play until around 10:00 when you nurse again and go down for your morning nap. Once you wake up you nurse again and then have lunch. Again you have about 4 or 5 cubes of pureed food (usually a veggie and a fruit) and then you eat a ton of finger foods. Your favorites right now are tofu cooked in chicken broth, mac and cheese, peas and your all time fave: sourdough bread. You love you some bread. Good girl. Mommy taught you well. After lunch we head out and do whatever we are doing with our day. Around 3:30 or 4:00 you will nurse again and go into your crib. Sometimes you sleep but most of the time you just play in there for about an hour or so. It depends on how long you slept in the morning. Then you get up and play until dinner. You eat your pureed food around 5:30 and then sit in your highchair with the rest of the family and eat your finger foods during our dinner around 6:30. Then there is more playing until about 7:30 when we begin the process of bed time. We clean up everything, put on jammies and clean diaper, put on our sleep sack and go out into the living room where we nurse in the dark. This is my favorite time of day. Just you and me. Sometimes you fall asleep while nursing and other times you nurse until you are full and then turn your head to the side and smile at me. I cuddle you and put you down in your bed and turn on your mobile and head out (and we pretend like you are going to stay there quietly until the next morning, which up until this last month you used to do but now I see you several times throughout the night but we aren't talking about that right now...)

You are a joy and a delight. Your smile makes my heart soar and to watch you explore the world around you with your new found freedom is just wonderful. You are fearless and curious and smart and perhaps the most adorable little girl I have ever witnessed and I love you more than life itself.

Now. Let's talk about these bean bag photos. You are making it quite difficult for me to get an entire year of you in one shot. I tried to take your picture today and instead of a cute, quiet baby sitting in the bean bag I ended up with shots like this...
...and I got quite a lot of shots of the top of your head as you tried to get out as fast as possible so that you could get your little hands on my camera...
...and when I kept pushing you back in the bean bag to try and get a good shot, you finally got fed up with my mean oppressive ways and threw a little fit...
But in the end...I think we got a pretty good shot. Happy 9 months old my love!

What Happens at the Doctor's Office Stays at the Doctor's Office...

The Boy had his 4 year well-baby checkup (are they still called "well-baby" exams when they are four years old? Well-kid exam?) on Friday. He is still a little dude, but that comes as no great shock. The laugh of the day was when the nurse weighed him and told us he was 35 pounds. I looked at her, "That isn't possible."

"I'm pretty sure that's what the scale said, but let's have him jump back up there again to double check..." (The Boy walked back over and got back on the scale).

"He gets weight checks with his gastro doc about every three months and he was just weighed a couple of weeks ago and had barely broken 30 pounds. There is no way he is up 5 pounds since then," I explained to the nurse.

We both looked as the scale settled with The Boy standing on it and sure enough...35 pounds. No freakin' way!! I thought to myself. How is that possible?

The Boy jumps off the scale proclaiming himself to be "Big. HUGE!!!" And when he gets off the scale I glance up at it and after the nurse had slid the little marker things back down to zero it was apparent that the scale was not calibrated correctly. It was WAY off on zero. So she took him next door to weigh him on a different scale.

She came back in, "He weighs 30 pounds."

Yeah, that's what I thought.

And he is 37 inches tall. And lest you think I am living in the dark ages, I am fully aware that that is tiny for a four year old. But he has grown 3 inches in the past year and gained a few pounds, which is all normal. He continues to be about a year behind in his growth. We lost a year of growth between one and two when he just stopped all growing, but we have been moving since then. And considering his Mommy is only 5' 3", and donor Daddy likes to think he is 5' 8" but is really more like 5' 6" we aren't holding out hope for a basketball player.

He passed his hearing and vision tests with flying colors. Although we failed peeing in a cup because we had just peed before we left the house and "der nofing in der Mommy." So no pee for the doc. He could answer all the questions and hop on one foot and get himself dressed and do all the things he was supposed to do. And his doc was quite proud that he was graduating from speech therapy. He summed it up with, "well we are still dealing with our usual issues but other than that I think he is pretty fabulous." We think so too.

********************

So during his exam I was trying to hold The Girl on my lap. She has NO interest in sitting quietly anywhere these days so she was itching to get down. I put her on the floor where she happily crawled around and chewed on things that were probably filthy with all sorts of disgusting germs. Oh well, what can you do?

At some point during the exam she crawled over to the exam table and was holding onto the metal bars that hold it up and pulling up to a standing position. Well her little hands slipped and she CRACKED her face against the metal bar. I put "cracked" in caps because I seriously heard the crack. She started screaming one of those screams that has about a minute of silence in between the piercing screams. She was hurting poor little thing. It was a nasty fall. She hit her cheek bone and her face right against the metal pole when her hand slipped. Thank God we were sitting in the room with the doctor or he might have thought I had done something bad to my little precious. It took her a good 10 minutes to settle down, so I know she was in pain.

Poor sweetie has suffered her first injury. And after I gave her all the hugs and kisses I could muster, I immediately brought out the camera and tried to capture it on film. She has a nasty purple bruise on her left cheek where her dimple would be. Do you know how hard she had to hit that thing to get a bruise...on her cheek? Pretty damn hard. Of course I can't get the camera angle right and it doesn't look nearly as bad in the pictures as it does in person. Here was my first attempt. This was how she woke up from her nap later that day...
As you can tell in the above picture she was NOT happy that afternoon. I gave her Tylenol but I am sure it hurt like hell. She had no interest in eating solid foods (probably hurt to chew) and only wanted to nurse.

Since then she has been fine. But she looks like she was in a bar fight. When we went to the grocery store on Saturday the checker lady said, "Oh, she's so cute. How old is she?...Is there something on her...never mind." I said, "Her cheek? Yes. It's a bruise."

"Oh, I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't think a baby that little could get a bruise like that. So then I thought it was a birth mark and I didn't want to say anything about that either..." (stop yourself lady...)

"Yes, it's a bruise. And no, I didn't beat her. She fell against a metal pole in the pediatrician's office."

"Wow. That's pretty nasty. She must have really clocked it."

Thanks lady. Yes. Yes she did.

And that is the story of Peanut's first injury.
Again, the camera really doesn't do it justice. You'll just have to take my word for it. That happened on Friday and today, on Monday, she still has a purple and blue mark. Pretty impressive bruise for a first time. I can honestly tell you that The Boy has NEVER in his life had a bruise like that. Never. He doesn't do anything that might cause that sort of outcome. He is very practical and skeptical. But this one? She is fearless. I have a feeling this is just the very beginning of her bruises...

Saturday Bullet Points

• Today is the last day of the 9 days without my mother. I have proved to myself that I can take care of my two children COMPLETELY by myself (The Ex was even in New York all week long so it was seriously JUST.ME.), although it is so exhausting I am not sure I could keep it up long term. But that being said, both kids were fed well, were bathed every other day and in general survived.
• My Mommy arrives home tonight at 9:05pm and it is not a moment too soon.
• One of the fish in our fish tank died last night. When The Boy noticed it today he told me he was so sad that "Charlie" was gone but that it was okay because he was "one with God." Huh? Apparently that is what they teach them at school about death because those words have NEVER come out of my mouth. But whatever, works for right now.
• Today marks the first time I have ever heard my Boy speak with masculine and feminine definitions. He told me that I wasn't allowed to draw a Spider (so sad about that!) because girls don't like spiders. They only like Princesses. I nearly fell off my chair before he got a rather long lecture about how ALL girls don't necessarily like Princesses and how some girls DO actually like spiders. Good lord.
• The Boy is still firmly entrenched in his love of all things Spiderman. I am MORE than done with this phase. Bring on the next phase. But it doesn't show any signs of stopping. Currently he is coveting all the "bad guys" from the Spiderman series. Here he is with a picture of Doctor Octopus, or as he is known in this house, "Doc Ock." (Note the Spiderman shirt and the Spiderman bed spread in the background...sigh...)

• The Girl is growing up WAY too fast for my liking. She can already sit up and here she is on all fours rocking away, getting ready to crawl. I am NOT happy about this. Seriously. She is already scooting backwards all over the place. Leave her alone for a few minutes and you come out to find her wedged underneath the couch or the ottoman. It is too soon. Plus, I never had to actually baby-proof the house for The Boy. You just told him no and he went on his way. I am pretty sure that is NOT going to be the case for this one. She is everywhere. Even now if you hand her one of her toys, she chucks it across the room and reaches for the remote/iPhone/glass of water etc. She is a handful.

• She had her 6 month well baby checkup a few days ago. Here are her stats: 16.2 pounds (a little over the 50th percentile), 25 1/2 inches (a little under the 50th percentile) and her head was 43 1/2 cm (around the 75th percentile). I know I have said this before, but it is just so weird to have a child that is right around "normal." I don't know what you are supposed to talk to the doctor about at the visits when this is the case. It is fabulous, but just so...out of the ordinary for me.
• I need some advice, internets. Either I don't remember The Boy doing this, or else he just never did. One of the other "cute" new things The Girl is doing is blowing raspberries. She puckers up those little lips and lets the spit fly. It's charming. EXCEPT, of course, when I am feeding her. If I am attempting to feed her anything besides apples or pears (which is not a well rounded nutritious lifestyle) she puckers up those little lips and blows. Food goes everywhere. She thinks she is hysterical. I don't remember what the protocol is at her age. Right now I am telling her a firm "NO" and then pushing the spoon against her lips so she can't blow as well. It isn't working so well. Anyone have any other ideas on how to make her stop and just eat the damn food? Here is exhibit A of her last night after my attempting to give her green beans with rice cereal. Note the splatter of green everywhere, and also note the big ass smile indicating that she thinks she is a comic of epic proportions. Any ideas?

What Happens When I Run Out of Time To Blog

Wow, it has been a whole week since I last posted. Life is just plain busy. That's all there is to it. There simply aren't enough hours in the day. I have been thinking about my blog, and wanting to get to you all to post, but just haven't been able to swing it. So I am going to do a random updating post since I can't seem to find the time to do a proper one.

• August was a re-grouping month for me. As I posted about previously I have been financially stressed (to say the least) and I needed to spend a month and work my little arse off and see if it was enough to allow me to stay in my house. The good news is that it seems to be feasible. The bad news is that I literally have to bill 9 hours every work day and not spend a cent on anything that isn't in my budget. Not the most exciting way to live, but for now, if it keeps me in my house, I'll take it. But working over 9 hours a day (I don't bill for driving time) doesn't allow much "fun" time to update the ole blog. So here I am at 9:30 at night trying to throw this together before I go to bed for the night.
• I am getting pudgy. I'm not happy about it. There is no doubt why this is happening as I have been using the breast feeding excuse as a reason to eat like a little piggy. I have been indulging in carmel delight ice cream with semi sweet chocolate chips on top several nights a week. I have been enjoying See's Candies on the other nights. And in between those, I have been eating the dark chocolate mints and peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's. Add that to the Cheetos that I made part of my daily lunch routine and it all seems to make sense... SO! No more. I am now on a very healthy daily diet (I actually eat really healthy, but when I throw in the above sweets it negates my healthy diet) and have cut out the sweets. I am also "working out" again. I put that in quotes because what I really mean is that I am doing about 60 crunches, about 30 leg lifts, and several different arm exercises with 8 pound weights on a nightly basis. I have no time for a gym, or even a brisk walk around the block on a daily basis. Maybe in the future, but for right now, it is all I can handle. I only need to lose like 5 pounds so hopefully I can knock it out soon.
• I never posted about The Girl's 4 month well baby check. That is mostly because we spent almost the entire appointment talking about The Boy and his thumb issue and his speech issues, but we did actually have an appointment. Here are her stats: 14.7 pounds, 75th percentile, 23 1/4 inches tall, 50th percentile and her head was 42 cm and that is also the 50th percentile. The doctor joked that I have never experienced having a child that is right down the middle of those charts before. He's right. I haven't. And I am afraid to jinx it. But basically she is doing great. Keep on keeping on with her. Don't change a thing at this point.
• Speaking of The Boy, he does indeed need to have surgery. Of course, right? We met with a fabulous pediatric orthopedist on Friday and that is really our only option. He is starting to write and right now he switches back and forth between his two hands, but it is clear that he wants to use his right hand more. But I think he isn't because his poor little thumb doesn't work correctly. So surgery is scheduled for Monday September 14th. The surgery itself only takes about 10 minutes but he does need to be knocked out for it. He will also have to have a cast for about a week afterwards basically to make sure that the incision heals properly. Looking forward to that (insert eye roll and sarcasm here).
• Finally, an update on potty training. We seem to have mastered the pee thing. He is a rock star where that is concerned. However we aren't so fabulous on the poop. He has done it in the toilet about 3 times but the rest of the time he either does it in his diaper in the morning before he tells me he is awake, in his pull up during nap time, or (my personal favorite) in his big boy pants. And yes, unlike my mother, I blatantly throw those suckers away when that happens. There is just no cleaning them out. Plus they are only like $3.00 for a pack of three at Tar.get. Simply not worth it.
• And if you stuck around reading this boring and long post I will reward you with some pictures of The Boy. We have had many pics of The Girl lately but not to many of older brother. So here he is, in all his weirdness...Behold the goggle boy!

And just because it happens to be my very favorite perk of potty training, here is a shot of a cute little boy butt in big boy undies. These happen to be his Spider Man undies, which are among his very faves...
Seriously...how cute is that flat little butt?

Two Months Old

My little Peanut is two months old. I can't believe it. In some ways it feels like she has been here forever and in other ways it feels like she just came home from the hospital yesterday.

I would say that going from month one to month two has been quite challenging. Overall I think the 6 week mark is one of the toughest of the newborn phase. They are no longer just sleeping balls of babyness that wake up to eat and then go right back to sleep. But they also can't yet focus on anything or really do anything that hold their attention. Plus, if you have a colicky baby, supposedly they peak at 6 weeks.

We are lucky in that she isn't a colicky girl. But that doesn't mean she isn't fussy. Her fussy time is usually around 6:00pm until midnight. I swear she has a sensor that knows exactly when it is that I pick up my fork to eat dinner. Every single night. That is when she usually starts her "fussy time."

Look at how cute and SLEEPY she was at this time last month:

Such a sweet bundle... However this is how she spent a good portion of her last month:
Charming isn't she? But seriously...she IS fussy but the good news is that she can always be calmed down. I have never had a situation where I am walking a screaming child around the house trying to figure out how to make her stop crying. I can (so far) always make her stop. Little Peanut LOVES to be held. If she is being held, generally she is fine. Sit with her in the rocking chair? Even better. Loves it. And isn't partial to who is holding her either. Any warm body with do. But at the end of the day when all those warm bodies go home and it is just me, The Boy and her...well that's when things get a little rocky.

I think that pretty much every single night when I am putting The Boy to bed, she is screaming. I brush his teeth and read his books and sing him his songs...all with a background noise of child screaming. Like dinner time, I swear she knows. And as soon as I come out there and pick her up, she is fine.

But to combat the fussiness, we have also in the past couple of weeks developed our smile. So freaking cute I could die. She puts that smile on, and I will give her the world. And have you seen the size of those cheeks? Seriously...when she manages to heft those chunky cheeks in the upward direction to give you a smile, well it is the most beautiful sight in the world. She has also started to make this adorable grunting noise when she is sitting on my lap ready to eat. She sees that boob and focuses in on it and makes the cutest noises waiting for the luscious treat to be put into her mouth. And she does like to eat. Yes she does. In fact that is one of the first things people say when they see her. Something along the lines of, "Wow. That baby doesn't skip many meals, does she?" I don't know what they mean. I think she is perfectly petite... Check out those cheeks for yourself...
I seriously munch on those cheeks all day long. I mean how can you not? Look at them. They are practically begging to be eaten...NOM NOM NOM...

She has also gotten much better at sleeping lately. For a while it was a completely different situation every single night. Some nights she ended up in the bassinet, while other nights she was in her crib, or in the swing, or in bed with me...I never knew what was going to happen. I just took it night by night and whatever ended up working was where she ended up.

Lately we seem to be getting into a routine. (Knock on wood...please don't make this go away since I mentioned it...). I take her back to her room around 10:00pm and change her diaper, put her in her sleep sack and then nurse her. After that I take her into her room and turn on the white noise machine and rock her in my arms for about 5 - 10 minutes or until I can tell she is good and tired. Then I put her in the swing and shut the door (monitor on, of course). She will sleep anywhere between 5 to 7 hours usually. Then she gets up and nurses and goes back to sleep for another three hours or so in bed with me. For 8 weeks old, I think this is pretty fabulous. Of course now that I detailed it, all will change tonight and we will start something new. Such is the life with a new baby.

Today was her 2 month appointment and she got 4 shots. It is going to be a long night and long day tomorrow my poor Peanut. But other than that, she was deemed "perfect." Here are her stats: She weighs 11 pounds 10 ounces, which is between the 50th and 75th percentile. She is 22 inches long, which is in the 50th percentile. Her head is 39 centimeters long which is the 50th percentile. She she is pretty standard. Right down the middle on everything.

I cannot imagine my life without her. She was meant to be a part of our little family. She is a great baby who makes my life so much more complete than I ever thought possible. I honestly am enjoying every day I get to spend with her. I love you my little Peanut. Happy two month birthday!

The Things We've Learned In The Past Month

HAPPY ONE MONTH BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE PEANUT!!

I can't believe you are finally here and you have been a part of our lives for a whole month already. I wasn't sure we were going to make it through the end of our pregnancy together, but we did, and I like you SO much more on the outside than I did on the inside. :)

Here are some of the things we have learned together over the past month:

You like to eat and to grow. When you were born you were 7 lbs, 12 oz and 18 inches long. When we left the hospital you were down to 6 lbs, 12 oz. And as of your appointment today, you are 9 lbs, 10 oz and 21 inches long. You are in the 50th percentile in both height and weight. Your head was 36 3/4 centimeters which is in the 25th percentile. After my experience with your brother and growth charts, it makes me more happy than you know to see you doing so well. Keep eating girl!!

You have really "woken up" in the past month. When we got home from the hospital, if you weren't eating on the boob, this is pretty much what you were doing...

Now you are staying awake for longer periods of time. This last week you are even starting to track things with your eyes and I went out and bought you a mobile for your crib (even though you aren't sleeping in there yet). I swear in the last day or so you have given me a real smile. You look right up at me and make eye contact and then give a little grin. I don't care if it isn't real yet, it still melts my heart. We have also learned that you are indeed my daughter and will most likely end up a crazy little girl. In fact, we have already started practicing taking pictures for your mug shot. So far, we think this one is best...
You have learned that your big brother LOVES you with such a ferocity that it is a little overwhelming sometimes. You love to watch him, although when he insists on giving you 50 kisses, IN A ROW, while you are trying to eat...well sometimes you wish he would lighten up on the love a little bit. You are mesmerized by his actions and are learning to watch him and sometimes wonder what exactly he is doing...
You love you some boobie. Mommy wasn't so sure how the breast feeding thing was going to go, but as luck would have it, you have taken to it quite easily. You learned to latch on pretty well while in the hospital and we have both gotten better at it as time goes on. Mostly we still do the "football hold" at every meal. However recently we have learned to do the "cross cradle," although we have really only mastered that at the right boob. On the left boob you think you should only latch onto the tip of my nipple and therefore get pulled off every time. We will keep trying though. We have also very recently discovered the whole "Mommy laying on her side on the bed and shoving the boob into your mouth" hold. We do this right before our afternoon naps together. I lay down and give you one of the boobs and you suck it until you fall asleep. Then I shut my eyes and we sleep together for at least an hour. If I don't give you the boob you lay there and fuss and refuse to sleep with me until my nap time is up and I end up not having slept at all. I am very proud of this new technique and plan to utilize it during our middle of the night feedings sometimes soon.

Speaking of those, we do pretty well in the middle of the night, although at this point you still refuse to sleep more than 2 1/2 or 3 hours at a time. This usually results in a feeding somewhere around 11:00pm, somewhere around 2:00am and somewhere around 5:00am. Then your big brother gets up around 6:00am. So that isn't much uninterrupted sleep for Mommy. However, on most nights you can get up and eat and be back in your bassinet in the period of time it takes for me to watch one DVR'ed episode of Sex and the City. So overall it isn't too bad.

It still blows my mind that I am providing you with all the nourishment that you need right now. The closeness that we share while I am feeding you feeds my heart as much as it feeds your tummy. And that contented "milk coma" you slip into after eating is enough to make all nine months of stress worth it.
Baby girl, I know in the future when you read my old blog posts you will see that I was a bit tentative about your arrival and about the fact that you are a little girl. Let me assure you that you are exactly who you are supposed to be. You are my precious little peanut and you and I were meant to be together. Your big brother and the two of us are the family that I have always dreamt of. We are finally complete. The three of us will ALWAYS be together and loved. And you have enriched my life in ways that I didn't even know were possible. Thank you my daughter. Thank you for the past month and thank you for all the future months we have to come. I love you more than life itself. You and your brother make my life worth living. Here's to many more months of love and happiness!!