Milestones and some pictures

I'm not good at keeping up this blog, but that's ok. I don't even know if anyone reads it, but it's nice to have a place to keep some notes about milestones and the like. Since my last post, Lainey turned 3 and we had a great party for her. We had fun on Halloween too, dressing up as a family with a "Tangled" theme. Brooke is growing and learning and making us smile all the time.

Lainey also started preschool. She says she doesn't like it, but she always seems happy when we pick her up. She's learning a new letter each week and learning to follow directions and share with classmates. She's doing great with puzzles, counting, and memorizing just about anything. She's in AWANAs and has learned about 10 verses so far.

Brooke is 10 months now and she's signing more now. Just yesterday she really started using "MILK" regularly. She's done it here and there, but now she'll sign it when you ask and when she wants milk. She's been signing "ALL DONE" for a while and she's also starting to sign "DADDY." She's less inclined toward communication than Lainey was, but she's more tactile. She seems to learn by doing and it's been fun to watch her grow and change. She is very close to walking. She takes one or two steps now between furniture and seems very, very proud of herself when she does it. No teeth yet, but they seem to be close. She is still not sleeping through the night which is kind of a bummer, but I keep reminding myself that this period of time is not that long in the grand scheme of things.

And now to some pictures. :)

Flynn Rider, Rapunzel, Mother Gothel, and the Flower

The Fearsome Duo

Somebody found a marker...

Getting ready to pick out our Christmas tree

Tree decorating time!

Silly girl

Reading books in the ladybug tent together.

Peek-a-boo!

I can do it too!

Boo!

This sweet hen was Lainey's buddy today when we went to ride Lexi.

The hen was so quiet and gentle. Lainey was smitten.

That's all for today! I would promise to update more, but I know I can't keep that promise. I will try though. :)

Oh no... 3 months later!

Wow, I've been behind on blog posts! I'll have to pull together some pictures and videos soon. We've been overwhelmed by life lately. Between travel and getting back into the groove of life at home, I feel like we are just now getting settled back into a rhythm. Brooke is still not quite sleeping through the night. She'll grace me with 6 hours in a row every so often and it's like a breath of fresh air! Most nights it's still every 3-4 hours. We will get there soon though. She's hitting some big milestones right now and I'm certain it's not helping her sleep.

She started scooting about three weeks ago. It sort of looked like an army crawl with one foot pushing and the other hip scooting to catch up. Just in the last week, she's upgraded to a real crawl, belly up and all. She's not too fast yet, but she knows how to get around to whatever she really wants. She's fun. She's really kicking in with the talking now. She says Mama all the time. She'll say Dada and La-La-La too! So cute! Lainey loves it when she calls her La-La. No teeth yet for this little one and I don't really expect them for another two months or so, despite the massive amount of drool she's able to produce.

Lainey is cruising along toward three years old. This includes dressing herself and choosing her own clothes, (mostly) brushing her teeth (we do a once over after she's done), emptying the silverware from the dishwasher, and talking back. :) That last one is a new development that I'm told is a very 3 year old thing. We're working on it. :) She's in dance class again and she really loves that. She is also going to start preschool in about a month! Holy cow! I can't believe I have a preschooler.

Hopefully I'll get my act together and get a new video posted. I've had requests for a chat with Lainey again. We'll try to do that this weekend. :)

We are in the midst of more travels. We are on trip 3 of 3 with just me and the girls. It's been... interesting. Lainey is in the throes of the terrible twos. And they really can be terrible sometimes. I've had to up my game as disciplinarian with her. It's not fun, but after a couple of weeks of a little more tough love she's really doing better. Not perfect by any means, but better.

The biggest challenge has been sleeping. We have all been sleeping in the same room for the last few weeks on and off. That is a big challenge for Lainey. She is a dark room, no noise, no distractions kind of sleeper. She's been sleeping a lot less because of the sleeping arrangements and that really does not improve behavior at all. We are now at my mom and John's house where she can sleep in her own room. She's doing so much better. She now wants the door open with a little bit of light to fall asleep. And now she is staying in bed when she's told, so that helps so much. Wake up time has been creeping earlier and earlier which is tough on this night owl. But in some ways I actually enjoy waking up earlier and getting my day started. If only Brooke was sleeping through the night and I was rested!

And that brings me to little Miss Brooke. This little munchkin is such a happy little girl. She is all smiles and giggles these days. It's awesome. She seems to be a much more expressive baby than Lainey was. When she's happy, you know it. When she's not, you know that too, but fortunately that's not too often unless she's overtired. She's a much bigger baby than Lainey. She's wearing clothes now that Lainey wore at one year and beyond. It's kind of funny to see such a young baby wearing the clothes Lainey walked in. She's off the charts for height and 93% for weight. And while you'd think that means she should sleep through the night, it actually means she's up every 3 hours round the clock. We're getting through it though. When we are home next month and I have a tag team partner again I'd like to try to night wean her a bit. We are in survival mode right now.

Brooke's milestones so far:

-Found her toes last week.
-Rolled tummy to back two weeks ago.
-Rolled back to tummy last week.
-Grabbing toys and reaching for things with more dexterity now.
-Lots of baby babble.

Lainey's recent milestones:

-Two year molars finally broke through! Uppers in late April, lowers in mid-May.
-First dentist appointment! She saw my cousin's husband, Dr. Jeff on our trip last week. All looks good, but she has some decalcification on her upper eye teeth, possibly from a fever during development.
-She surprises us almost daily with her vocabulary and knowledge of concepts (like that she can get away with things if adults aren't watching and asking us to leave).
-If it's a princess, she loves it. Sleeping Beauty is her favorite, but she's going to be "Purpunzel" in the purple dress for Halloween when she turns 3. :)
-Favorite word that she doesn't say correctly, "Leegotard"

Making shortcake with Grandma

Strawberry shortcake time!

Jammie time

Poor Baby!

Brooke fell out of the car seat today. I was hurrying to help John with his costume for the Easter cantata. He was in the other room behind the church and I was in an office with Brooke. I unlatched the handle on her seat to move it to put her in and walk to where John was. I set her in there, but didn't buckle her because we were only moving rooms. I swung the handle up, grabbed the stuff I needed and then grabbed the handle of the car seat. It wasn't locked in place because I didn't pull it far enough forward. In a split second the seat flipped and Brooke was face down on the floor. I scooped her up in an instant to comfort her and when I pulled her away to look at her face, she was bleeding on the side of her nose and her nose was smashed to the side. I then realized she hit the metal pipe bottom of a keyboard stand.  I was afraid of swelling that would block her airway and brain damage from the fall, so I ran out to find someone to take us to the hospital.  I was so happy to see Deb, a nurse and friend, standing outside. She helped me to calm down and did a quick assessment. She thought Brooke would be fine, but she thought it was wise to get her checked at the ER.  So she went with me. Poor John had no idea and we just left because I couldn't interrupt the play to tell him. Deb's husband did tell him when it was done though.

The CT scan was all normal. I asked to see it myself. Not that I know a lot about CT scans, but I saw a lot of them when my Mom was in the hospital. Brooke's nose is straight and her skull is all intact. Praise the Lord it's not worse than a scraped nose. She is a little swollen and I expect a black eye, but it could be worse. She is acting like her normal happy self.

I suggest buckling kids in when you move them, regardless of how far you might be going or whether or not you'll be in the car. You never know when this could happen and if they aren't in your arms, no quick reflexes will save them from falling. No one wants to feel how I am feeling today, let me tell you.

Sweet sleepy baby

Chatting with Lainey

Brooke is sick. :(

Poor Brooke is not feeling well at all. She caught a cold and it has turned into a horrible one. She is coughing a lot and not sleeping well. I took her to the doctor today to make sure her lungs are clear and fortunately they are.  Hopefully she'll be better in a few days.

On the upside she was 14lbs 5oz. The child has gained 11oz in 12 days.  She's going to catch Lainey in a few months at this rate!!  I thought her cold was making her eat less, but I guess not. :)

Favorite dress

Lainey has a favorite dress. We bought it last week and she's worn it 4 out of 7 days. I washed it and made her wait to wear it while it hung dry. I tried to hang it in her closet but she had to put it on again. I got lots and lots of thank you Mommy's for washing her dress. :)

Oh dear

What to do with this kid...
Lainey is in the car with John while I am shopping. She's holding her doll and this is what she says:
"Look into my eyes. No! Look in my eyes. You're killing me."
John said he laughed for about five minutes. Her tone is impossible to share in this post, but the demonstration for me was hysterical.

Obviously I need to watch what I say. I've never said these words to her like this. We do make her look us in the eye when she's being told not to do something. And I've said you're killing me as an exasperated statement. I guess I didn't realize how well she was listening because on the days I've said that it's because she's not listening well at all. Ha!

Talkative Baby and the 2 month Well Visit

Brooke has found her voice. She has been cooing here and there, but tonight we had a little chat. I've been trying to catch it on video, but it took a two man team to get it done. When it's just one of us with the camera, she gets distracted and just stares at the camera. With Daddy videoing from the side, she and I carried on a nice conversation. She talks a bit in the first half and then gets sleepy toward the end.

We had her two month check up on Friday. She is 13 lbs. 9 oz. and 22 3/4 inches tall. She's in the 95% for weight and 85% for height. It just cracks us up how big she is because Lainey has always been so small. Lainey was 10% for weight and 50% for height all along until her 2 year check up when she graduated to the 11% for weight. Haha!

Both girls got shots on Friday and neither one cried. We have some brave kiddos. We are getting caught up on Lainey's missed shots. We got behind a long time ago with baseball travel and then some illness that made us miss appointments that never got rescheduled. Brooke got her first DTaP vaccine today (very important as Pertussis is running rampant around here right now). We're following Dr. Sears' alternative schedule for the most part. There's a few tweaks that I made to it, like not doing the rotavirus vaccine. As a breastfed baby she's not at as much risk and the vaccine is too new in my opinion to know that it's totally safe. The first version of it caused some life-threatening side effects so I just don't trust it fully. I know that there isn't any scientific connection to autism from vaccines, but that's not why I'm spacing them out. There's two reasons why I prefer to space out the vaccines. #1: I just can't comprehend injecting my child with so many vaccines all at once. If we'd been on a normal schedule, Brooke would have received shots that cover 8 different diseases. That just seems like a huge strain on an immature, undeveloped immune system. #2: If there were an adverse reaction to a vaccine, how would we know which one was the trouble vaccine? With our selective schedule, if there is a problem, we will be able to discern the culprit more easily. This schedule does mean more visits and every visit will likely mean we get shots. It also means that she'll be older when she gets some of them and so she may show some fear and displeasure. But I think those things are worth it in the cost/benefit analysis of the whole thing. Lainey wasn't excited about her shot today, but she got a Tweety Bird band-aid and Dum-Dum sucker and it was all good. :)

Blogger on my phone!

I just got a blog app for my phone. Maybe we'll actually make this almost daily! And just to make this interesting... here's Brooke's serious eyebrows. :)

Video update!

Life is plugging along here. We've been hit with some kind of cold virus and today I feel myself slowly being taken down. Lainey has been sick on and off for over a week. She seems to get better for a day or two and then the fever or green boogers start all over again. It makes for a tough day for us when she is sick and cranky. Brooke is a bit congested as well and that makes it tough for her to get sleep. But we are getting through it. Summer is coming fast so we need to get healthy so that we can get outside and play before it gets too hot! I took a few videos yesterday. They are kind of cute. Brooke is starting to coo and babble a little bit. She likes to talk to Lainey and Lainey thinks it's great that Brooke will talk to her. The last video is one of the things John and Brooke do almost every night. She likes to sing and dance when Daddy plays his guitar. So without further ado... here's Brooke and Lainey.

Brooke Smiles!

We are starting to get some smiles here and there! It's so fun and I'm excited to get that first giggle. She's not as much of a talker as Lainey was, but it'll be hard to keep up with that chatter box. :)

Picture update

Well, I'm not sure that even "almost daily" qualifies, but I'll keep trying. Here's a few pictures taken over the last couple of weeks. Brooke is already three weeks old! Time flies!!

First day home

Daddy's girls

Hanging out with Grandma Lisa

First bath

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa visit

Great Grandma just sang Jesus Loves Me to Brooke as she has to all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Snow White says, "Shhh, the baby is sleeping."

Brooke Elizabeth!

Brooke decided that her birthday was January 24, 2011. We had a great labor and delivery experience and a healthy baby born! She was 7 lbs. 13 oz. 20 1/4 inches long. She's a beautiful baby. Here is a link to a sneak peek of the newborn pictures we got to have done yesterday. They turned out so well and there's more to come. I'm so excited to see what else Cherise took!

Photos by Cherise Kiel Photography

You do not have to have a facebook account to view these photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273777&id=209615276552&ref=mf

More video fun!

We are just killing time here waiting for Brooke to make her debut. Lainey and Daddy had a fun day yesterday and wore each other out playing hide and seek, soccer, and the spinning game. Here's what spinning and flying with Daddy look like. Lainey loves it!

And here's a video of Lainey at dinner last night. We were practicing some signs. She is still signing really well and I think it'll be really cool as Brooke learns to sign to see them together!

Flying a kite

Lainey got a Tinkerbell kite from Pop-Pop (my dad) for Christmas. We haven't had a good windy day to fly it until this week. Lainey had a lot of fun and we took a few videos. These are a couple of the better ones.

I peeped

"I peeped."

This is the statement I am told when Lainey has an accident. We halted all potty training attempts around Thanksgiving. She was fighting me on trips to the potty and having more accidents which only led to me being very frustrated. I didn't want to have a toddler power struggle over this, so I just let it go and stopped all references to the potty or panties. About a week ago, Lainey started asking for certain pairs of panties. Usually Dora or her ballerina frog ones. And that's when this new phrase came about. "Mommy, I peeped." I think it's really cute.

The best part is, we've had three full days of panties only for little Miss Lainey- all by her request. She has special Sleeping Beauty pull-ups to take naps in or if we have a long set of errands to run and I'm too nervous to try without the back up. But she's mastered that as well. Sleeping Beauty's star fades if she gets wet and Lainey doesn't want to lose the star. We even ran errands yesterday and the day before in panties and she asked in the store when she needed to go! I'm really proud of her. She's only "peeped" once in the last three days and that was today at the park after lunch and no potty to run to. I'm not holding my breath that we are getting close to being fully potty trained though. I have a feeling when Brooke arrives, we'll have some regression. But hopefully it'll be short lived.

And now, being 38 weeks pregnant... I have to go peep... again. ;)