Reese and Paige

The Mystery of the Red Diaper

2012-02-15T14:57:00.005-06:00

Two weeks ago I took Paige into her room for a routine diaper change. When I laid her on the changing table and peeled off her diaper, this is what I saw:

My mind started racing. Does she have a rash? Where is the blood coming from? Since Paige is no stranger to weird medical ailments I began checking her all over. She was completely calm and I couldn't find any traces of blood.

Seconds later a quick lift of her bottom revealed the source of our red diaper:
Apparently Paige had been "carrying" a red crayon around in her diaper most of the morning. Just another strange happening in the world of a stay-at-home-mom.

Picnics

2012-02-15T14:45:00.004-06:00

When Reese was about 18 months old she received a picnic table from her Grandma and Grandpa Bailey as part of her Easter presents. The table quickly became a fixture in our hallway and was used for many meals and projects. This summer we moved the table outside in our backyard. Since Paige is now more mobile we cleaned it off and it has made a return.

Paige loves climbing onto the benches and joining her sister for coloring and other projects.

We've designated the side closest to the cabinets as "Paige's side" since she is less likely to fall.

I put out peanut butter and apple slices for snack; but for Paige, peanut butter is all she needs.

Sister Love

2012-02-15T14:23:00.007-06:00

Someday when the girls are grown up I know they will be friends. I like to imagine them as best friends, even. There's a lot of time and ground to cover between now and then. There will be arguments over clothes and probably a few wrestling matches to referee, but for now we are experiencing the ups and downs of sisterhood on a constant basis: giggling friends one moment, screaming and biting the next.

At it's best here's the loving sisters in action:

Reese is reading Paige one of her favorite books.

Reese loves to shower Paige with hugs and kisses. Can you blame Paige for being less than enthusiastic if most of the hugs look like this? And, most of the kisses end with Paige on the floor. No matter how many times we've discussed hugs that don't involve strangling and "gentle" kisses, it's just not happening yet.

Christmas

2012-01-23T14:07:00.005-06:00

On Christmas Eve Reese sprinkled the lawn with glittery reindeer food and actually fell asleep quickly. With only one toy to assemble we were in the clear shortly after 8pm.

Christmas morning we woke up and enjoyed a morning of homemade cinnamon rolls (thank you Pioneer Woman!) and opening gifts. Reese ate an entire cinnamon roll and proceeded to vomit it right back up. There were no more episodes later that day so we blame it on the decadence of my creation and her eager sweet tooth.

After a quick morning nap for Paige we packed up the family and headed to San Antonio for Christmases 2 & 3 with each of the grandparents. On the way down Reese declared that she likes San Antonio because her grandparents "spoil her rotten."

December Condensed

2012-01-23T09:59:00.012-06:00

Wow, it's almost February. I've been a little more than behind on updating our dear blog. Blame the holidays, travel, having two kids on the move, doctor's appointments, or insert your own lame excuse here: ________________.

So, in an attempt at redemption I bring you a run down of December.

December started with Kevin's holiday Christmas party. Here's a picture of us at midnight. Need I say more?

Two days later Paige managed to have her first walking accident. To say it was a walking accident is a slight stretch. She was actually standing next to a playscape at the park, there wasn't any lateral movement involved. She suddenly lost her balance and began to fall. If she had fallen straight down onto her bottom it would have been a non event; instead, she tried to catch her fall by grabbing onto the playground equipment. Her fall resulted in a mouth full of blood. I remember the first time Reese sustained a mouth injury (bit her bottom lip) and the amount of blood had me instantly panicked. Now, it nearly takes a protruding bone to get me spun up. I calmed Paige down but couldn't find the cause of the bleeding. Later that day I discovered that she had managed to fall and chip the bottom off of one of her front teeth. Lovely. We're not talking a "Swamp People" quality chip, her two front teeth are now just uneven. I scheduled a dental exam just to make sure everything was ok. After helping pin Paige down at the dentist there was no good news, but not any terrible news either. Yes, she had chipped her front tooth, no they didn't want to smooth it out; yes, BOTH of her front teeth were loose, but no they didn't need to be pulled (yet...we'll wait until they turn black or gray and then they have to go). Basically, if her tooth dies, she'll just be toothless until her permanent ones grow in. Poor girl can't get a break.

All during the month of December we were serenaded by Reese's versions of Christmas songs. I say "Reese's versions" because she knows about 25% of the lyrics to about 20 different holiday songs, and her inability to carry a tune combined with her lyric-osis produced some hilarious creations. One of my favorites was a mash-up of "Up on the Rooftop" and "Away in the Manger." Baby Jesus played a role in almost all of her songs, but was often mentioned int he same breath as Rudolph or Santa. We'll sort out the details in coming years I'm sure. I tried on multiple occasions to get Reese to perform one of her songs on video and she always refused. Days before Christmas I she conceded and produced a surprisingly accurate version of Rudolph.

We have amazing neighbors for many reasons. They have helped us in a number of emergency situations (including child birth and gas leaks) and they associate with us even though our lawn is no where near as manicured as theirs. (We have two young kids and they don't, that's my excuse.) I secretly fear that if we ever move we will have used up our good neighbor quota and be stuck with schmucks. Every year around Christmas we exchange Christmas treats with our neighbors. We have been the recipients of homemade cinnamon rolls, fudge, platters of cookies, and a number of extravagant desserts. This year the girls helped me make treats for the exchange. I decided to make candy coated pretzel rods. The process involved dipping pretzel rods in chocolate and vanilla coating and covering them with all sorts of goodies--crushed peppermints, sprinkles, coconut (dyed both red and green) etc. After about two pretzels there was already one jar of sprinkles on the floor and I realized I was going to be on my own. (No, i didn't give a toddler a jar of sprinkles, I had bowls set out and had a whole system devised...if she was five it might have worked.) While I dipped 100+ pretzels, the girls enjoyed "making" their own. A side note: When I was teaching the OCD side of me always hated art projects involving glitter. No matter HOW you managed the project, glitter was going to be everywhere. My pretzel creations made me realize that sprinkles are the glitter of baking. I swear it has taken nearly a month to feel like my kitchen is finally sprinkle free.

We Have A Walker!

2011-12-14T20:27:00.007-06:00

A few weeks ago I thought Paige may never walk. Realistically, that was my sore back talking, but it was hard to ignore.
For months now, Paige has been cruising around the house and walking with the assistance of a push car or someone's finger. Just before Thanksgiving she was willing to take one or two steps toward someone if you distracted her and removed your support just before she reached them. At any other time, though, if you tried to get her to walk by herself, she would scowl at you and then promptly sit down. If she could talk I'm sure she was saying, "You can't make me do this. What do you think you're doing over THERE? Come back and help me." Sometimes, even the act of setting her down on her feet would bring on body arching and wet noodlism.

Then, last week, she began playing one of her favorite games--climb onto the blue chair.
This time, though, after she turned around and sat down, she slid off the edge onto her feet and walked across the room to me. This was not a wobbly one or two step affair. She stood up and walked easily 6 feet without a stumble. Proud of herself and happy with my excited reaction, she continued to go back to the chair, crawl in, turn around, stand up and walk around her room. By the tenth time she slid down she turned and walked out of her room and down the hallway. And we were off to the races....Here's some video taken during her first day walking.

This walking experience is just another interesting point of comparison for the girls. Reese walked (and crawled) at an earlier age than Paige, but in doing so, she went through EVERY iteration of the experience. When it came to walking, Reese began to stand independently first and then try one or two steps at a time. This process lasted a few weeks before she really began to walk steadily. With Paige, everything seems to click on her timetable. She doesn't make a move until she's sure she can do it perfectly.

It's been less than a week since she took those first steps and she already is carrying items around with her while walking, drinking her cup while walking, bending down to get things, and her balance and ability to catch herself to prevent falls is impressive.

Reese was Paige's biggest cheerleader for the first day...then, some jealousy kicked in. It only took one time out for pushing sister down to straighten things out. Now Reese is ready for Paige to dance with her. I'm guessing in a few weeks Paige will surprise us all with a perfectly executed twirl or two.

Reese Updates

2011-12-14T20:05:00.006-06:00

Just some notes about Reese for posterity:

1. During the week of Thanksgiving she mastered the art of swinging by herself! (Insert angelic choir singing here) The ability to "pump her legs" means no more marathon pushing sessions for Mommy and Daddy, and she's thrilled with the idea that she can swing as high as she wants and for as long as she wants. Since Daddy broke her of her slide phobia the weekend before, she is now a much more independent girl when it comes to the park. With two weeks of cool wet weather lately we haven't been at the park often, and I'm a little worried that our absence may cause some back-tracking, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

2. Reese is absolutely TERRIFIED of the Santa at our local mall. On the two occasions we've visited, she has covered her face and hid behind Paige's stroller. She's unable to articulate her fear, but she felt a little better when I assured her that I wasn't going to make her sit on his lap. We decided to write him a letter this year instead. I'm kicking myself for not scanning the letter into our computer before we mailed it because she even helped with some of the writing. (The letters she feels comfortable with--mainly S, E, C, T, L, and I) We took the letter to the big red mail box at Macy's (since their campaign makes donations based on the number of letters received) after Reese helped address it and stamp it herself. Her "big request" this year? A jack-in-the-box. No problem.

3. Reese and Madeline are becoming best buds. Reese has figured out how to move quietly and slowly in order to approach the cat. Reese also pets her gently, makes her purr, and has even gotten Madeline to roll over for belly rubs.
4. Reese has been very anxious for Paige to walk. She has followed Paige around helping her steer her push-car and is always clapping and cheering for any efforts Paige makes to get mobile.

5. When Aunt Kim recently announced her engagement, Mommy nearly brought down the house with her squeals of delight. I then had to explain to two startled girls the cause of my outburst. While Reese didn't react to the news immediately, several days later, she wrapped her self in this blanket and pranced around the house. She explained that the blanket was her wedding dress. When I asked who she was getting married to she replied, "Ellie!"

Christmas Preparations

2011-12-14T19:43:00.003-06:00

After feeling blindsided by Thanksgiving, we were determined to get into the Christmas spirit before it was too late. After returning from our trip out of town, we got to work setting up the Christmas tree.

As in years past, Reese was a big help. And, actually, this year she WAS. If I had been satisfied with the idea of only having ornaments on the bottom third of the tree, Reese would have gladly hung them all for me. As it was, we worked together during Paige's nap without a single ornament casualty. Every day since Reese has spent time rearranging the ornaments on the bottom of the tree to better "keep Paige safe."

I also decided to purchase an advent calendar this year. I really wanted a reusable one that could become part of our family's Christmas tradition. My main motivation was the idea that an advent calendar could help us count down the days until Christmas and keep Reese from asking me EVERY day when Christmas was coming. I didn't think I had set myself up for such a daunting task. Surely advent calendars are easy to find, right? Well, not when you wait until November 29th to start looking for them. I refused, on principle, to buy one that was made of felt and cost over $40, so I began to momentarily fantasize about making one of my own. Ten seconds later I was searching amazon. You can find anything on amazon, right? Not this time. So, I headed to Target and found two options. Neither were exactly what I pictured, but they fit my budget and with one day until the countdown began, I caved. Here's the one I bought:

How long did it take you to find the egregious error in our advent calendar? If your answer is less than three hours, congratulations, I wish you had been at the store with me and steered me clear. But, after dragging two children out on a mission that involved buying a dressed up candy hopper with promises of chocolate in their future, I wasn't about to return it. We'll use it as a learning experience, and it will just add to the yearly counting whimsy.

The calendar is in place on our mantel and every morning after breakfast we visit it to reveal the day's special treat (and then have a super-duper tooth brushing party afterward). Paige quickly learned that the calendar is a receptacle for delicious, messy treats and she approaches the fire place at least three or four times a day pointing and grunting in an effort to get more candy. Somehow 14 days of repeatedly showing her the empty door has done nothing to dissuade her.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-14T19:30:00.004-06:00

Before I could blink, Thanksgiving was upon us.
Reese's school celebrated Thanksgiving with a special assembly and picnic. Her class dressed up as Native Americans and each child had their own name. As "Dancing Rainbow" Reese was (apparently) the envy of all the other girls in the class. On the day of the picnic, half of the classes dressed up as pilgrims and the other half as Native Americans. They enjoyed a feast of sliced turkey, cheese, pumpkin bread, and a party-mix (a la Chex Mix) that included Bugles (who knew those were still around?!). Daddy and I joked that we were going to save Reese's outfit because its fringe will probably be in vogue when she's a teenager.

For Thanksgiving we visited with both sets of grandparents. We enjoyed two turkey dinners--one before, and one after UT BTHO A&M for the last time.

More Doctor Drama

2011-12-14T14:31:00.004-06:00

Hi, my name is Paige and it's a good thing I've got health insurance. Why's, that? Because I LOVE to scare the &*%$ out of my parents and require lots of really fancy, expensive, and invasive tests.

This is what I imagine Paige would say had she been able to talk to us the week after Halloween. When her congestion didn't subside and she ran a fever one morning I scheduled an appointment at the pediatrician. I figured they'd check her over, tell me it was a virus and I'd be on my way with the comfort of knowing we just had to wait it out. Instead, they decided to do some blood work.

Two blood draws and one blood culture later I got a call from the pediatrician telling me to take Paige straight to the emergency room. Her blood culture had come back positive for an infection in her blood stream and she was going to have to be admitted for IV antibiotics. After speaking to the specialists at infectious disease they were fairly positive it wasn't a contaminated culture and we needed to prepare for at least two days of hospitalization. This was just the news I wanted on my way to pick up Reese from school.

Paige, Daddy, and I spent the next 10 hours at the children's hospital's emergency wing. Paige can now add chest x-ray, THREE more blood draws, and an IV to her growing list of medical experiences. When her second set of cultures came back clear they sent us home with a follow up appointment with an infectious disease specialist.

During that appointment I wondered multiple times: Do you really want your kid to look at the books or toys in the waiting room for an infectious disease doctor? We played with the contents of my diaper bag instead.

I literally spoke to the infectious disease doctor every day for five days following our appointment to analyze Paige's temperature and behavior. In the end, we discovered that Paige's initial blood culture had a rare contaminant--one that had to grow for 5-7 days before they could definitively say "oops, never mind."

I wish the same applied to the bills we are now receiving.

Oh, and just to keep everyone up to speed, the following week she developed a sinus infection and was on antibiotics until Thanksgiving; with two bulging ear drums she is now on another round of antibiotics, and for the first time in MONTHS she woke up yesterday morning and was NOT covered in green snot. It's about time.

Ten days until Christmas? How'd that happen?!

2011-12-14T14:27:00.004-06:00

Fall is over and I have little to show for it in way of our blog. I've more than made up for the lack of posting with a flurry of activity around here. There have been no shortage of doctor visits or milestones to recount as my absence might indicate. So, brace yourselves for a condensed version of Halloween-Christmas and I'll try not to get too behind in the new year.

Look Who's (Almost) Walking

2011-11-09T14:18:00.001-06:00

It won't be long...
Mommy's back can hardly wait.

Spaghetti

2011-11-09T14:16:00.001-06:00

Victory!

Sister Time

2011-11-09T14:12:00.002-06:00

Playing blocks together in the living room. You've got to act quick, peaceful moments like this are still a rarity. Let's just say, we've got a long way to go in the sharing department some days.

Getting "mohawks" in the bath tub.

Halloween

2011-11-09T13:59:00.003-06:00

The girls really got some use out of their Halloween costumes this year. Between a school parade, a celebration in dance class, and a trick-or-treat day at Daddy's office, by the time Halloween rolled around Reese and Paige were pros at the getting into their costumes.

The girls visited our four closest neighbors together then split up: Paige helped Mommy hand out candy and Reese got to trick or treat around the neighborhood. Reese was very hesitant about saying "trick-or-treat" at the houses she visited, but she did manage some "thank yous," which is more than I can say for most of the kids that visited our house.

While our neighborhood is LARGE and packed full of kids, this is the first year we've run out of Halloween candy. Paige wasn't the best helper when it came to passing out candy. She enjoyed taking the candy out of the bowl but refused to surrender it to the visiting trick-or-treaters.

When Reese returned from her trip around the block, Daddy put Paige to bed and Reese helped me pass out the remainder of the candy.

Pumpkins Pumpkins

2011-11-08T20:54:00.005-06:00

Once the girls were feeling better, we visited the pumpkin patch at Reese's school and bought three pumpkins. Each girl got a tiny one and we picked out a large one for carving. The following days were full of pumpkins rolling down my hallway. And, for anyone curious, those small pumpkins are incredibly durable. Paige tested hers vigorously by picking it up and slamming it against the floor repeatedly.

On a cloudy afternoon Reese enjoyed some pumpkin painting.

The weekend before Halloween, we carved our large pumpkin. It got a "happy face" with three square teeth. Reese wanted to help scoop the "goop" out of the pumpkin, but only with a spoon. Paige wanted nothing to do with the process.

Afterward, Daddy roasted the seeds for us-half with olive oil and sea salt, the other half with cinnamon and sugar. Yum!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-08T20:26:00.006-06:00

Last year we decided to skip a road trip to the pumpkin patch in an effort to lessen the odds of an early labor (fat load of good that did!). With no health restrictions in place this year, we packed up the girls and headed out to Sweet Berry Farms to enjoy some fall activities.

I woke up on Saturday morning with a start: "It's 7:30! Why aren't the girls awake yet?" They both slumbered peacefully until almost 8AM--an unheard of hour in our house. I should have known then that something was amiss.

After a quick breakfast and some picnic prep, we loaded up the girls and headed out to Marble Falls. We were sure to bring our double stroller, a blanket, and some picnic food.

Based on Reese's experience at the farm two years ago we were expecting lots of excitement: giggles, running, exploring giant piles of pumpkins. I even dressed the girls in matching outfits in hopes of getting some great "fall shots." Let's be honest, a big part of the pumpkin patch experience is getting adorable pictures of kids in cool weather clothes surrounded by all the accouterments of fall--leaves, pumpkins, hay, scarecrows. We decided to take pictures first, and here's a sampling of what we got:

Not exactly cute, right? Paige kept crawling out of shots to explore and put hay in her mouth, and Reese could barely be bothered to climb out of the stroller and leave her water bottle alone. Smiles were a rare commodity.

Through some MAJOR face making we got these two and called it a day with the camera:

We didn't want to push our luck so we walked by the animals and other craft options then strolled over to the zinnia fields. No requests for pony rides or to feed the animals...nothing. We sure felt like we struck out. Maybe our kids are the Scrooges of Autumn?

Just before leaving Reese finally saw something that caught her eye: the oil barrel train ride. A group of kids load up in barrels mounted with wheels and a farmer pulls them around with his tractor. Of course, though, Reese wouldn't ride alone. Which meant mommy had to buy a ticket too. Then mommy immediately went into a silent panic when I saw the sign reminding parents and children that each barrel has a 150lbs weight limit. Cue copious amounts of sucking in and thinking extra light thoughts. Who wants to be the parent who a) gets turned away from a ride and then watches their child melt down or b) breaks a ride while its full of happy children? In the end no one asked my weight (whew...) and the ride stayed in tact.

After a quick picnic we packed up the car and hit the road. When we got home we finally found the cause for our less than enthusiastic pumpkin patchers---Reese was running a 102 fever. Paige was fine, guess she's just waiting to bust out the big guns for Christmas.

Paige Turns One!

2011-11-08T19:59:00.004-06:00

A few days before Paige's birthday, we celebrated her first year with a small family birthday party. Both sets of grandparents and both sets of aunts joined us between morning and afternoon nap to squeeze in some presents, pizza (no cooking for me!), and the ritual messy-cake-eating-extravaganza.

The day of Paige's party we got an unexpected visitor: RAIN! It had literally been months since our house was graced with percipitation. At one point Kevin and I even joked that our neighborhood was under a protective forcefield. While none of Austin had seen any measureable rain, our house had missed out on EVERY spotty shower since May.

Paige enjoyed her party as much as most one year olds do--she tore paper out of bags, played with bows, tested her new toys by sticking them in her mouth, and marveled at the spectacle of so many big people with their attention on her.

Paige's carrot cake was a hit, although she didn't get quite as messy as we expected. Unlike her big sister who needed some prompting years ago, Paige dug right in to her cake. I guess it helps that Paige has lived under a slightly less sugar-is-bad-regime than Reese did at the same age. Guess that happens with second children, though.

Here's to another great year with our little one!

Typical Trouble

2011-10-06T14:34:00.006-05:00

With her black eye finally faded, Paige is determined to find more trouble to get into. She is daring and independent and takes advantage of a turned back quicker than you can say "Where'd that baby go?"

Here are three examples from her arsenal of "tricks." None of these were staged, and yes she's in the same outfit because they all happened within mere moments of each other...I'm not kidding.

Paige's biggest object of desire? Big sister's trampoline. We were keeping it in Mommy and Daddy's room to keep Paige away but after a couple of late night stubbed-toe-cursing episodes we relented and put it back in the hallway. On the rare occasions that Reese dismounts, Paige crawls over, climbs on top, stands up, and jumps. Yes, I said jump. She barely gets her toes off the trampoline, but she holds the handle and goes buck wild. I can't decide what the more likely injury will be--head injury from a fall, or cracked teeth from banging her chin on the handle bar.

Scoop her off the trampoline, redirect her, and odds are you end up with this:

While picking up the tissues (and trying to decide if they're still usable), she will find one of Reese's two chairs (in her bedroom or the small rocking chair we have in the living room), scale it, and try to dive over the back.

And this doesn't even chronicle the fun she has if the bathroom or pantry doors are left even slightly ajar.

Halloween Sneak Peek

2011-10-06T14:05:00.005-05:00

With two little ones participating in the trick-or-treating this year, I had envisioned themed costumes from the get go. So, when (months ago) Reese announced she wanted to be a butterfly for Halloween, I jumped on the chance to transform my semi-willing children into the butterfly (Reese) and caterpillar (Paige) from Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

This led to an unhealthy and short lived obsession with finding the girls cute costumes to complete my vision. I soon found out that just this year, by coincidence, Pottery Barn Kids introduced just the costumes I was looking for....at a cost that made my jaw drop.
I know what you're thinking: "Why don't you just make your children their Halloween costumes? Isn't that what stay-at-home moms do?" Not this one. My sewing skills are rudimentary at best and I would undoubtedly spend more money constructing my children their costumes through my screwups and constant trips to the fabric store. Luckily, the butterfly idea was short lived for Reese. Only days later she decided that instead of a butterfly, she wanted to be a....LOBSTER.

We obviously don't live in Maine. I'm not sure where this idea came from. But, anything to get us away from the expensive butterfly debacle. Again, I searched high and low for a lobster costume and I found these:

Adorable, right?! The problem? My tiny tot is way too big for the baby costumes, but way too small for the toddler costumes. And sewing something like that? Let's be real. Eric Carle's butterfly and caterpillar are whimsical we might have been able to piece together something from Goodwill, but not when we're going for a passable imitation of a real crustacean. Nix that one.

Her idea #3? An elephant. Perfection. Easy, available in a wide range of styles, and good prices.

Our very excited pachyderm.

Paige was going to be the mouse to Reese's elephant, but when that idea went bust as well, we settled on a pea. We do call her "P" often, and spending any more time on costumes would have driven me mad.

Don't you just want to eat her up?

So, here are the girls trying on their outfits, getting warmed up for the BIG day.

You may be wondering what Kevin and I will be wearing for this excursion. We have no current plans, although the other night at dinner Reese did tell Kevin that she could be his peanut, "because, you know, elephants LOVE peanuts."

Baby Fight Club

2011-09-26T14:40:00.007-05:00

Here's our little bruiser...literally.

I'd tell you how she got so banged up, but what happens in Baby Fight Club
stays in Baby Fight Club.

Ok, not really, here's the deal:
It was a rough weekend for poor little P. She crawled straight into Mommy's elbow (as Mommy was pulling her arm back) on Saturday morning and got her first black eye. To complete the look, she dove head first into Reese's head board on Sunday morning and garnered the scratch across her nose. I see emergency room visits in our future for this one.

Bowheads

2011-09-26T14:34:00.005-05:00

By the time Reese was nearly one she had just enough hair to wear some small bows and hair clips. Nothing outlandish, just something to identify her as a girl when not clad in all-pink. Paige's hair is growing in much more slowly but will potentially be much thicker and darker than Reese's. Alas, there's still no where to perch a bow...until I saw this.

They were free, and yes they are ridiculous, but the girls can't get enough. I am clearly loosing my mind and sense of style.

Music Woes

2011-09-25T19:10:00.007-05:00

Growing up, the radio was always under my parents' control. I distinctly remember driving from New Jersey to California (en route to our new home in Sacramento) and listening to the soundtrack from Les Miserable (Mom's choice) alternated with snip-its of any station that played CCR or Genesis my dad could get find good reception on.

Now that I'm driving two young children around, I realize my music "choices" are changing thanks to my back-seat companions.

I've got plenty of "toddler tunes" that I accrued during my years teaching. I've even made CDs of my favorites. But let's be honest--as fun as those songs may be, listening to Dr Jean or even Joe McDermott on constant loop will drive any adult crazy eventually. I'd like to be in touch with what current music sounds like, even if I decide that I hate it.

Now that Reese is a fluent and opinionated speaker, listening to the radio in the car is getting trickier. I know better than to tune into certain morning shows on our drive to school, and any station claiming to play "all the hits" is definitely too racy for a toddler who loves to ask "why?"

A few weeks ago while tuned into a station that supposedly plays a "mix" of todays hits and blah, blah, blah, insert decade here, Reese heard a recently popular song. The artist is singing about his desire to be lazy for a day (know which one I'm talking about?) and includes a lyric about having his hand in his pants (ala Al Bundy style) "Mommy, why does he have his hand in his pants?" was quickly followed by "What's a birthday suit?" I couldn't change the channel quickly enough.

Just another change that comes with parenthood--diminishing control of your own taste in music. So please don't judge when you see me rockin' the local radio station that spells magic with a j or see me glassy-eyed from the ten millionth round of Old McDonald. I cringe at the idea that Kidz Bop or Disney Radio might be in my near future. I think we'll be switching to Vivadi, Miles Davis, and books on tape soon.

Say What?!? At Whole Foods

2011-09-18T19:58:00.008-05:00

Last week Social Living was running a deal for half priced groceries at Whole Foods. (More specifically $10 for $20 worth of groceries.) Since I ambitiously planned macadamia crusted halibut for dinner on Thursday night, I bought the voucher and was looking forward to scoring some half priced fish. By the way, macadamia crusted halibut with a pineapple chutney sounds delicious, but my attempt was highly disappointing, and after my Whole Foods experience I may never try it again.

My original plan was to hit Whole Foods with Paige on Thursday morning while Reese was at school. Unfortunately, I ended up spending my entire morning at the pediatrician and pharmacy with Paige instead. No big deal, Whole Foods became our post-nap excursion. I figured: there are tons of cool fruits and veggies we don't usually see, samples to taste, and a pumpkin display outside, this will be a fun trip!

Let me be clear, my children were perfectly behaved during this trip to Whole Foods. Paige rode in the cart and watched the world go by while barely uttering a sound. Reese rode in the large part of the cart, ate lentils as a sample, threw her trash away promptly, and was amazingly cooperative. Which makes my story even more frustrating and bizarre.

After sampling the aforementioned lentils we were approached by an elderly woman. She was dressed in a beautiful red linen shirt, had perfectly straight shoulder length white hair, and (oddly) was wearing her sunglasses indoors. When we rounded the corner she pulled her cart up next to mine and started cooing over the girls.

This is not strange behavior in itself--most times I take both girls somewhere people approach us and ask strange and forward questions: "How old are your girls?" is quickly followed by "How much do they weigh?" "What hospital were they born at?" I thought I had left the realm of strange encounters after the belly-molesting that comes with pregnancy, turns out it was only training.

Back to the lovely lady in the bulk foods aisle: She began by saying, "Oh my, your girls are so tiny. They are just like my grand daughters! My youngest is 2 and barely weighs 23lbs." Yes, I confirmed both of my girls are petite and always have been.

She continues, "They don't watch much TV do they?"
Umm...where is this going?
"No," I say, "I try to limit what they watch and how often."
"Oh, I can tell they are smart and don't watch too much TV because they look at me when I'm talking." Wow, what a nice observation. She then leans over and asks Reese if she watches TV.

Reese went into immediate stranger-danger-silent mode and stared her down. I interjected and said, "Reese really enjoys Sesame Street." The woman recoiled slightly at my response.
"Oh, I remember when that came on. I didn't let my kids watch it. Those characters are so sassy, particularly that Cookie Monster. Hmpf." And she walked off. I was a little stunned. Did I just get criticized for letting my kid watch Sesame Street? That educational puppet show on (gasp) PBS?! Bizarre. I move on.

Before hitting up the check out, we went trough the beer and wine section of the store so I could pick up a bottle of wine. When I put it in the cart Reese asked, "Mommy, what's that for?" I replied, "It's a bottle of wine I'm taking to Caroline's house tonight. I'm going over to her house after you go to sleep." Reese was perfectly content with my response. As I was rounding the corner heading to the check out aisle a woman waving a box of muffins approached me. She was old enough to be my mother, dressed in a coral and white blouse, unmarried (or at least wasn't wearing a ring), and I'd like to imagine that she doesn't have children--for their sake. "Can I ask you something?" she began. Assuming she wanted help reading the ingredient list ("Is this gluten free?" or something like that), I slowed my cart, smiled and said, "sure." She took a deep breath and right then I should have known where things were headed.
"Why did you tell your daughter that?"
What is she talking about? Should I just assume that she's been eavesdropping? "Excuse me?" I respond.
"Well, I just don't understand why you told your daughter you are leaving after she's in bed. I mean, she'll be in bed, why does she need to know?"
Red flags should have been waving, and when I replay this situation in my head Ally-McBeal-style, this is when I promptly tell her off and walk away. Instead, I answer, "I want her to know I'm leaving so that if she gets up and needs something she won't be surprised and upset that I'm gone."
Apparently this wasn't what she was looking for, "No, no, you're not understanding, " she continues, "Now she'll be upset no matter what because you've implanted the idea of your absence in her head."
Again, this is when a sane person would have let the curse words (or at least a tall finger) do their talking. I can only figure that shock kept me planted in my place.
Before even waiting for a response, she grabbed the edge of my cart and continued to explain the flaws in my parenting, "Kids don't need to know everything" was followed by the story of how she is convinced her niece's car sickness was caused by her brother's reminders to try to look out the front window and not to get sick. Eventually my shock and stupor subsided and through gritted teeth I told her "We do what works best for us, thanks."

After that experience I needed some time to clear my head so I made another loop around the nearby aisle and ran into my friend in the red blouse again.

Instead of shunning me and my Sesame Street junkie kids, she actually approached us AGAIN. I'm not kidding, I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Maybe she feared for my children's souls, because this time she began by asking me, "Do you, by any chance, own the Children's Picture Bible written by So-And-So?" (I forgot the name). Still a little shaken up from the psycho-analysis my muffin-toting friend I was probably a little short with her. "No we don't."

I could have told her we were Jewish, Muslim, or Baha'i, but at the time nothing but the truth occurred to me. She went on to tell me about what a wonderful book it was and that I should get it for my children. It was a nice sentiment, to be sure, but when I didn't gush about the opportunity to own this book and instead replied with, "Uh-huh, ok, thanks" she looked right at me, shook her head and with a quick, "Well-I-never!" stalked off again.

By the time I made it to my car I was literally vibrating with rage. Looking back it's funny: two old busy-bodies buying organic prunes and doling out child rearing advice. I've already got my comebacks lined up for my next encounter, so bring it on ladies.

Linguistics

2011-09-18T14:24:00.005-05:00

Part of living in a university town is subjecting your children to experiments by grad students...or so I think. So, when I got a letter from UT's department of linguistics asking for toddler-aged volunteers I took them up on the opportunity to get out of the house and show the girls campus.

The researchers bent over backward to find a time to accommodate our eating and napping schedule, and best of all--I got to park on campus. Anyone who's familiar with UT will likely avail you with horrendous stories of parking, trying to find parking (usually by driving 5mph while following someone to the spot they're about to vacate), getting your car booted, or having your car towed. So, when I received a parking permit in the mail that allowed me to park in front of the tower I was ecstatic. I was waved right in by guards at the security booths, and made my way to Inner Campus Drive. And, yes, I immediately noticed that college students seem to be getting younger every year. Nothing like toting your two small children onto campus to make you feel old.

I won't give away too much about the study, but let's just say that I think Reese succeeded in providing a data point they will likely eliminate.

After twenty minutes of coaxing her into actually speaking (where does this shyness come from?), she participated in the study but didn't exactly perform as expected. Let's just say nonsense words are not her thing ("It wasn't a gorp, Mommy, it was a koozie with a ball attached"), and that the "hidden" camera was immediately obvious to her. She even asked me later if we could watch her video sometime. I played dumb until she explained to me that she saw the camera mounted near the ceiling.

Afterward, she was rewarded with a book and we had a lovely picnic on the main mall where Reese ran around and listened to the tower chime.

I'm hoping that it will cool off sometime this year and we'll be able to take them down during a home football game to experience campus in all it's rowdy-glory, but man will I miss that parking pass.

Almost One? How Did That Happen?

2011-09-18T14:10:00.004-05:00

Everyone who has had kid grow up and move away will tell you that kids grow up so fast. One day they're sleeping in your arms, the next thing you know you're handing them keys to the car. Seriously, I hear this no less than five times a week from patrons at the grocery store. When I looked at the calendar and realized that we're less than a month from Paige's first birthday, I understood the phenomenon for the first time. While she's no where close to getting a hold of my car keys, how did this year pass us by so quickly?

In the last few weeks Paige's skills are really starting to blossom and she's quickly becoming more toddler-esque. Her movement and play is so much more intentional than a month ago, and her receptive vocabulary is already growing daily.

* Paige waves, high fives, gives kisses, says "hooray," shakes her head no (which she thinks is hilarious), dances to music CONSTANTLY, tries to stack blocks, feeds baby dolls from bottles, and will mimic just about anything she thinks is worth trying.

* The only way to keep Paige on the changing table is to sing to her. Her favorite songs are "If You're Happy and You Know It," "The Wheels on the Bus," and "Patty-Cake." She participates in all the actions and generally stays still long enough to change her diaper.

* We're entering the dreaded two nap-to-one nap transition. 9AM is greeted with yawns, but she's starting to protest her morning nap more often than not.

* No walking yet--just lots of cruising. although she did stand up several times by herself this week.

* The cold that Paige and Reese shared a month ago still wasn't gone this week so I took Paige in to the doctor. Turns out she had a sinus infection and ear infection. Four days of the pink stuff down, six more to go. (On a side note, at her doctor's appointment, we discovered she is already weighs more than Reese did at her one year appointment--it's making the hand-me down thing go pretty smoothly.)

The Boys of Summer

2011-09-15T22:14:00.000-05:00

Reese and Paige hanging out at the pool(s) with their boy friends.

First Day of School

2011-09-12T14:55:00.004-05:00

Last week, Reese started her second year of Mother's Day out. She now goes to school three mornings a week. (Tue, Wed, Thur) Getting her ready and out the door was much smoother than last year and she eased right back into the routine.

Reflections on Birthday Gifts

2011-08-26T21:36:00.005-05:00

Reese was showered with many wonderful and thoughtful gifts at her birthday party...and they may be the only things getting me through the last few days of summer before she returns to school.

Some quick observations on a few gifts so far.

1. Because this is the most over-the-top outfit imaginable Reese is in love with it. Yes, my first reaction is "Toddlers and Tiaras," but since she's only wearing it in the house who can blame her for loving all of those bouncy tutu layers? Seriously, there have been days since her party when all she's worn is pajamas and this--we get up, pajamas come off, tutu goes on, tutu comes off for nap, pajamas go on, nap's over, tutu's back on...you get the gist.

2. Reese also got two gift cards to buy some new school clothes for fall. One of her must haves? Headbands. Don't ask me where this intrigue came from, but she HAD to have a package of three plastic headbands. She insists that she knows how to put them on herself. The results are comical.

3. Wow--we've finally reached an age where we can actually PLAY board games. And not just spin the spinner and move the pieces in all different directions while making up a story about going to grandma's house, actually play by the rules. Reese has shocked me with her skill at Memory, and Candyland is a thrill. They've redesigned the board since the last time I played and now ALL of the candy-people are intriguing, not just the ice-cream princess; or was that just me? Then there's Chutes and Ladders....I would now like to make a formal apology to all the babysitters and family members I made play that game as a child. It is essentially the Monopoly of toddler-gaming; and by that, I mean that the game takes FOREVER. I swear no one ever gets the ladder that takes you from space 4 to space 82, but I manage to hit EVERY chute I come across. Reese thinks it's particularly fun to slide down the chutes and the fact that the game takes an hour is no problem for her.

4. Daddy has gotten to watch Beauty and the Beast twice already in the past week. Is it possible to wear out DVDs? I think we may find out. I was surprised at how much Reese understood about the plot the first time she watched it and she wasn't scared by the Beast character at all. Now she likes to conjecture about Belle. Today in the car it was, "I think Belle is a grown up. Maybe she's 17." (She's really stuck on the number 17 lately, she even told Daddy that she thought he had just turned 17.)

I'll spare you the run down on every gift she received, she's enjoying them all and I can't thank you enough for all your generosity.

Reese Turns 3!

2011-08-26T21:07:00.006-05:00

Reese has been talking about being a "bigthreeyearold" (pronounced in the most run-on-way imaginable) for months. Everything important was going to happen after she turned three:
* starting school in a "big-three-year-old-class"
* putting toothpaste on her toothbrush by herself
* sitting in the BIG chair at the dentist's office
* and on, and on, and on....

To celebrate the big 3, we planned a party at our neighborhood pool. This was Reese's first "real" party with non-family members invited. I reserved a pavilion at the pool two months in advance and even checked with the mom of a fellow classmate about their party plans since her son and Reese have birthdays the same week. We ordered three cupcake cakes (shaped like a fish, seahorse, and crab) and got plenty of food, drinks, and balloons for the big day.

Ehren and Aunt Kim dragged themselves over to our house at nearly the crack of dawn (large cups of coffee in hand) to help coordinate lugging coolers and children to the pool for our 11am party. Just as they arrived, the pool called me to report that they had to close the pool due to a "fecal accident."

In planning a pool party, I mistakenly forgot about this possibility. A rained out birthday party? Possible, but not likely considering we going on our 50-billionth day of triple digit temperatures and no rain. A pooped out party? I guess it happens.

Our options were to cancel and reschedule for another day (yeah, I'm not explaining that one to Reese), hold the party at our house (my brain might have exploded), or postpone until later in the day after the pool had been thoroughly disinfected. We opted for the postponement. Kim and Ehren came back later in the day, we got everyone and everything to the pool, lost the large bundle of balloons to a gust of wind and a nearby tree, and no thunderstorms or poopie diapers threatened the rest of the party.

In the end, Reese got to see all of her family and most of her friends. She played with her cousins in the pool, ate at least one icing covered cupcake, and spent most of her day opening and playing with her new presents. She may not remember the "fecal accident" when she looks back on this birthday, but for me it will be a story that sticks.

Paige On The Move....Some More

2011-08-26T20:47:00.006-05:00

Paige began crawling and there's been no looking back. Not that I expected there to be, I just don't think anything can prepare you for having two little bodies in motion that need perpetual observation.

Crawling very quickly gave way to pulling up, and now we're moving into cruising. This didn't seem to happen as quickly with Reese. If I had to make bets I'd say Paige will be walking before her first birthday.

And with all her walking and pulling up has come more and more trouble. No cabinet, hand towel, electrical wire, or toy with small parts is safe. Paige has decided that Reese's room is the most fun room of the house and she is constantly getting into Reese's toys. Half of the time Reese is willing to share, the other half there are tears on both sides. And if it can be toppled or swallowed, Paige will find it instantly. On the rare occasion that Paige is awake before Reese, Paige will crawl to Reese's bedroom door and bang on it because she wants to go in.

Other fun notes about Paige:
* She LOVES to dance! I guess it's the influence of big sister, but if Paige hears music, whether from the radio or a toy she starts to boogie.
* Paige has started clapping. She'll do it when excited or when we praise her about something.
* She is VERY resistant to drinking from a cup. At the mere sight of a cup instead of a bottle she goes into hysterics. I'm trying not to give in, but geez, she's killing me.
* When Paige gets REALLY upset she vomits. Yes, uncontrollable spewing brought on from her sheer frustration or distress. So, you can only imagine how that's playing into our cup training.
* Paige is a TOTAL ham. Whenever I get out the camera, she stops what she is doing and will start smiling and posing for the camera. It makes getting a candid shot hard, but it's oh-so-cute.
* Whenever Paige takes a bath she plays peekaboo with the bowls and cups in the tub. She will hold them over her face to hide or sometimes "pretend" to sip water out of them and then start laughing hysterically. Even when she gets a mouth full of bath water, she still thinks it's hilarious.

* As all younger siblings do (I imagine), Paige is learning to "fight back" when Reese takes something from her. Initially, if my back was turned I could tell that Reese had taken something from Paige by the terror in Paige's scream--a little over dramatic, but effective. Now, if Reese swipes something, the screams are coming from Reese, because Paige will lash out and hit or pull her hair. There's a lot of stern talking and explanations when I intervene, but secretly it makes me laugh a little to see Paige try and put Reese in her place. Oh the sisterly arguments we have ahead of us...

Buddies

2011-08-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time Reese used to sleep in just PJs with Ellie. Oh how I look back on those days fondly. Reese now has a full fledged crew that must accompany her everywhere.

At bedtime (or non-existent naptime) we must begin with the roundup/roll-call for all her important "friends." Reese MUST have Ellie, pink blankie, Teddy Bear, Birdie, and Clifford before she will even consider letting her head grace the pillow. I completely support having a security blanket or "lovie." Heck, it's probably my doing that she's so attached to Ellie, but I'm having trouble dealing with this new crew. It's not just their number, it's how we must arrange them every night. They are on some kind of rotating schedule that completely eludes me. Their heads must be above the blanket line while sharing some small fraction of Reese's pillow.

They've even moved beyond the bedtime routine recently. Now they accompany her on the couch during viewings of Sesame Street, and we may need to look into starting college savings accounts for them soon....until then, I'll just tell myself she's her Daddy's girl in this respect.

Breakfast

2011-07-31T14:07:00.006-05:00

In the past few years yogurt has been a hit or miss food for me. During my pregnancy with Reese it strangely gave me heartburn, and during my pregnancy with Paige just about everything made me feel ill. But I have discovered a brand and flavor I adore:

Stonyfield Fat Free Lemon Yogurt.

It's pretty fancy as far as I'm concerned--it's organic and it costs $0.88 per cup. I indulged in buying three cups of it last week during my weekly grocery stop. Then, I tried to enjoy it for breakfast. I say "then" because here's what happened to my yogurt this week:

1. My first attempt at yogurt eating came on Tuesday morning. Seeing that Mommy was enjoying something different for breakfast, Reese asked to try a bite. I obliged and she deemed it "scrumptious." After seeing Reese try some, Paige started banging her spoon around, so I gave her a bite too. Fastforward ten minutes and more than half of my yogurt has been devoured by alternating bites between Reese and Paige. I guess that's one way to reduce my calorie intake.

2. On Wednesday morning I got a late start on my breakfast. I opened my yogurt, set it next to my coffee and then promptly had to go change a poopy diaper and get Paige ready for her morning nap. I came back about ten minutes later to find that Reese had abandoned her play and finished off my yogurt for me. I guess she really had enjoyed it on Tuesday. Why did I ever think to share?

3. On Thursday morning I opened my yogurt but got sidetracked yet again after eating only two bites: I suddenly remembered that I HAD to mail our Netflix movie back this morning. (More understandable if you know our mailman's schedule and consider the fact that we had had the said disc in our possession for over a month.) I grabbed the girls and walked across the street to the nearest mailbox to pop it in. Round trip it's not even 100 yards. When we got back I found Annie on her bed with my yogurt cup between her paws licking the cup clean.

I swear I'm not exaggerating...you can't make up this kind of bad breakfast karma.

Lights, Camera, Action

2011-07-31T13:55:00.005-05:00

Last weekend, I took Reese to see her first move in a movie theater. We made plans for Daddy to stay home with Paige, and we enjoyed a matinee of "The Winnie The Pooh Movie" on Sunday at lunch time.

We talked about it and planned for the experience all week. We read AA Milne's collection of Pooh-Bear stories at naptime and bedtime all week long, visited a local grocery store to stock up on some bulk candy (to sneak in in mommy's purse of course), and talked all about how big the screen was going to be ("Bigger than the TV, even?") and how the projectionist would turn off the lights.

The morning of the movie, we packed up mommy's purse, brought pink blankie to help us keep warm in the theater, and set off.

Overall, Reese loved the whole experience. She sat still during the entire film (it was only an hour long), used her whisper voice to tell me things like, "Mommy, I know where Eeyore's tail is!," and munched on candy and popcorn the whole time. I think this was the perfect age and perfect movie to introduce her to.

My own observations on the experience:
* While I felt a little weird bringing pink blankie along, I shouldn't have. I swear some parents packed tents (or at least a small suitcase) full of toys, stuffed animals, and blankets for their children.
* Disney, your previews were nearly the end of me. I'm glad the lights were down, because between the trailer for the dolphin with a prosthetic tail and the orphaned chimpanzee I was admittedly blinking back tears. How would I have explained that to Reese? "Sorry honey, mommy's hormones are permanently addled thanks to child birth, and now the sight of hurt and abandoned animals makes me cry."

Waving

2011-07-31T13:45:00.004-05:00

I remember taking Reese to the grocery store when she was 8-10 months old. She was finally old enough, and stable enough, to sit in the grocery cart and she would watch all the people and things go by. Other grocery store patrons would ooh and ahh or smile and wave whenever we passed by. Reese's response to strangers smiling and waving at her: a serious stare. To this day, Reese still struggles with greeting people. Every morning during the school year, her school's director welcomes her by name and Reese hides behind my arm. The employee manning the checkout lane at the grocery store asks Reese if she wants a balloon and Reese hides behind my leg. If you're a guest at our house, or Reese knows you well, you'd never guess she can be shy. And I should be thankful that she's not overly friendly with strangers, it just makes me stop and think because on the other side of the divide is Paige.

Paige started waving a little over a week ago, and she can't be stopped. She crawls over to the stove regularly so she can wave at her reflection. Tell her "hi!" or "Bye-bye" and she will wave like crazy. I took Reese and Paige to the grocery store today and Paige was like a pageant princess on parade waving at everyone she saw. Will the shyness kick in later? Or is this a trend I'm likely to see forever? Only time will tell. In the meantime, I've got one who knows how to "mean-mug" and another girl who's all-smiles-all-the-time. What a combo.

Trouble

2011-07-28T20:18:00.004-05:00

Sometime in the last two weeks, Paige has gone from belly flopping around the house (her sloppy-inchworm way of crawling) to on the move. I can't put my finger on the day (bad mommy/second child syndrome), but one day Paige got up on her hands and knees and took off. She's been into nothing but trouble ever since.

Unlike big sister who took her time getting comfortable with her new found mobility, Paige began pulling up the same day she started to really crawl. The result: a quick check in on her at nap time = oh, there's Paige standing in her crib trying to strangle herself with her mobile. Cue a panicked mommy and Daddy rushing to remove her mobile, lower her crib, and move the cord for her video monitor.

I didn't realize how un-baby-proofed our house had become in Reese's toddler years, but Paige has been quick to point out any and all weaknesses in our lines of defense. Recent run ins include the only TWO sockets in the house that didn't have covers, the bar full of glassware, and the stretch of flooring that hasn't had its baseboards replaced yet. Add to this our daily bouts of overturned dog and cat food dishes and my house is a constant disaster. While I could watch Reese motor around the house at this age, with two kiddos in the house one of them is bound to get in trouble the second I turn my back.

While I'm thrilled Paige is now happily able to explore her surroundings, the other disgusting drawback to having a crawler in he house again is seeing first-hand how dirty my floors are. I can sweep and vacuum every day, and Paige will still manage to find dog hair or lint to put in her mouth. Almost worse than imaging what she might be squirreling away into her mouth, though, is seeing how filthy her clothes are when you pick her up from her jaunts around the house. It makes this seem like a great idea:

Food!

2011-07-06T14:19:00.005-05:00

Kevin had Monday and Tuesday off to celebrate the fourth, and he used his time to cook up some spectacular meals for the family.

On Monday, ribs that fell off the bone. There were at least three steps, he used the grill and the oven, and it took most the day, but the results were amazing! Served with margaritas for Mommy and Daddy, home made sweet potato fries, and corn on the cobb. Yum!

(This picture was taken before the sauce went on.)

On Tuesday, Kevin outdid himself again. He made whole wheat sourdough crusts for two pizzas. (He's been caring for a sourdough starter for weeks now--so no need to ask what the giant jar of brown goop in my fridge is.) The first pizza was a prosciutto, cantaloupe, and goat cheese concoction. I could probably survive on only this pizza for the rest of my life and still be happy. His second (and more kid-friendly) pizza had pesto and tomatoes from our garden. They both got a quick grilling on our pizza stone outside, and then it was time to dig in. Delish!

I told Kevin that if we hit the lotto he can stay home and cook everyday. He smirked and reminded me that nothing he cooks takes less than five hours of prep....so, it may not be practical, but it was a nice treat.

Fourth of July

2011-07-06T14:15:00.004-05:00

Fireworks were out of the question with this year's drought, but we enjoyed some time out at Horseshoe Bay with Grandma and Grandpa Bailey and the Gabriels.

Paige Milestones

2011-07-06T14:04:00.003-05:00

Paige continues to do great! I decided to wait until after our family photos to introduce her to any kind of milk products (the last thing we needed in the days leading up to our photos was for Paige to break out in a crazy rash!), and so far things are going well. She hates yogurt (Reese didn't mind eating all of her yogurt melts and baby yogurt cups for her), but likes cheese. We're slowly moving away from baby food since her pincher grasp is getting better, and unlike her sister she will eat just about anything we put in front of her. Ribs? Sure. Sweet potato? You bet. Avocado? Yes, please! You name it, she will try it and likely enjoy it. I know better than to hold my breath, though. I'm sure between one and two she'll be eating the tan-toddler-diet like Reese was.

Paige is almost crawling. I can't remember how old Reese was when she began to crawl, but I think she did it a little sooner than Paige. If Paige was my first kid I might be freaking out about her lack of mobility, but I can tell that she's just not in a hurry about things. I wouldn't dare say she has a type B personality, but I think she's on the A- side and is trying to teach her parents and sister how to relax. That being said, she's now getting up on her hands and knees and lunging toward things.

Last night at bedtime, Paige pointed for the first time. We were reading "Good Night Gorilla" and she pointed to the Gorilla on every page. How exciting!

Reese's Summer

2011-07-06T13:55:00.003-05:00

Reese's summer has been full of imaginary play--and the more toys involved, the better.

If left to her own devices, Reese has taken to creating forts in our living room using every pillow, blanket, and cushion she can find. (Which includes plundering every room in the house to find them.)

Reese also enjoys making picnics and parties. She lays out her pink blankie in the hallway or in her room and proceeds to invite all her stuffed animals and use all the food from her kitchen and baby station to entertain them.

We also recently introduced Reese to Legos. Not big toddler-sized Legos, the REAL thing. (Which happen to be Kim and my collection of childhood Legos. Yes, I did save them that long, and they used to be a hit in my classroom during rainy day recess.) The first night we got them out for Reese, I think Kevin and I had more fun than she did. Since Paige gets into everything, Reese can only play with them in her room with her door closed, but those rules have not dissuaded her yet. I must admit that stepping on Legos in bare feet might be almost as painful as stepping on upturned Barbie high heels.

Suddenly Reese knows all her letters and letter sounds. There have been no flash cards or drills, and Mommy has no time for reading instruction, but somehow she's figured it all out. Now she likes to say words and then inform us what they start with. "/P/, /P/, Paige. Paige starts with P! So does penguin, and purple, and pink, and...." You get the picture. I guess reading comes next, but wow, I'm not quite ready for that. On second, thought, if it means she can read to herself, maybe I am...

Family Photos

2011-07-06T13:39:00.004-05:00

Again, I am behind on blogging. I'd like to say my absence is not becoming a habit, but I fear it is.

At any rate....

Several weekends ago, we had our first family photos taken. During my pregnancy with Paige, Kevin and I discussed how we wanted to splurge on some professional family photos once Paige was old enough to be manageable. We've only taken professional photos on one other occasion when Reese was little--and I'm not exaggerating. There were no professional photographers at our wedding and since Reese's birth there have been no jaunts to the mall for photos. Since we'd waited so long, we were nervous and excited about how things would go.

At Darryl and Kelly's wedding we met their photographer and were blown away by her pictures. When I inquired about having a family photo shoot done with her I found just what we were looking for. (To get lost in some of Carli's amazing photos you can visit her site here.)

The day before the shoot was full of wardrobe snafus that almost sent us over the edge. Dressing the four of us in coordinating, but not matching outfits was just about the end of me: Paige's dress was one size too big and had to be returned, Kevin went to iron his shirt and the pad from our ironing board (which Kevin's had since college) bled blue dye all over it so he had to find another outfit as well, and when I went to try on my dress the shoulder straps were magically too long and I had to take them up two inches on each side--thank God, mom gave me her sewing machine.

The day of the shoot, Kevin and I woke up at the crack of dawn (5AM to be exact) so we could shower and get ready before the girls woke up. The girls were in good moods, but I was worried Reese would play shy, and Paige would have mommy meltdowns.

Carli and John arrived and we hit up the park in our neighborhood and our backyard for the photos. While Reese was a little shy at first, Carli and John were wonderful with her and she came out of her shell quickly.

Carli posted a sneak peek of our photos the next day and we're hoping to see the rest soon!

Summer!

2011-06-16T13:23:00.003-05:00

The summer has been a busy time at our house, and my blogging has suffered as a result.
At the end of May Reese finished her last day of MDO. Even with her only going to school twice a week, the year seemed to fly by. After many reminders, I don't think it sunk in that school was over until the following week when Reese asked, "Do I have school today?" Her sadness was short-lived when she realized that she got to stay home and play instead. She will be attending two weeks of summer school in July and she's already talking about being in her "big-three-year-old-class" next year.

I thought that summer was supposed to be the ONE sick-free season. Unfortunately, it's not panning out for us quite yet. The week after school ended Reese got a bad virus of some kind. She was laid up on the couch with a high fever for a few days. Kevin jokes that she likely caught the bug on the last day of school--the timing seemed right. Usually when Reese is sick it's hard to get her to abandon her activities and rest, but this time she sat on the couch and watched movies without complaint. She even fell asleep during "Follow That Bird."
As always, Paige followed suit and caught the bug quickly after Reese recovered. It didn't seem to bother her nearly as much though.

Once we got everyone well, we started in on our summer routine: mornings are for the park or water play in the backyard, and most afternoons you can find us at the pool. It took Reese three screaming trips to the pool before she remembered that she actually likes to swim. Now she's an independent fish who will swim for hours with her life jacket. Don't try to help her in any way, though, or you're in for an ear full of "I can do it myself!"

Just this week, Reese started dance classes at the community center in our neighborhood. Since she dances around the house constantly I thought it would be a perfect fit. She was very excited about getting to wear a leotard and REAL ballerina slippers. Since she isn't three yet, she is part of the 2 year old dance class. When we arrived for class on Tuesday afternoon we saw that there were five other girls in her class-four very young two year old girls and her friend from school, Sofia. We had no idea Sofia would be joining the class, so it was a welcome surprise. I snuck a few peaks through the window while the girls danced. The young girls had a hard time staying on their "magic dancing spots," and kept trying to run out of the room to find their moms. Reese and Sofia stayed put on their spots, but Reese didn't participate at all. She watched the teacher intently, but didn't move a muscle the whole class time. Maybe she's just taking it all in...She did dance up and down every aisle at HEB yesterday, so having an audience is not the problem.

Paige is finally getting her first teeth. Both of her two bottom teeth have already broken through the gums. She's not drooling at all, and it doesn't seem to be bothering her one bit. Paige has also made a slight rebound from her picky eating and is doing really well. When I weighed her this morning the scale said she's already over 16.5lbs. Since we've managed to wean her from her medications, we're going to try to introduce some dairy (yogurt) next week and see what happens. No crawling from Paige yet, although she does manage to spin her self around on her belly and push herself backwards easily. When Paige sleeps, she pulls her knees under herself so she's in the crawling position, but for some reason when she's awake she can't manage to coordinate all her limbs quite yet.

Two one liners from Reese just yesterday:
* "I only share on Monday and Tuesdays." This was her response when I told her not to take her sister's toys away. I'm still not sure how she knew it was Wednesday.

* "This is getting ridiculous!" This was her expression of frustration when I told her to look for her sandals and she couldn't find them. It turns out she was storing them in her refrigerator...now, that's the ridiculous part if you ask me.

Bathing Beauties

2011-05-14T09:39:00.004-05:00

With Paige sitting up well, we attempted our first "sister-bath" this week. Daddy took pictures to record the momentous event.

Hamming it up for the camera.

Paige is really enjoying herself.

Reese decides Paige is the perfect target for her squirting toys.
Mom is playing shield saying, "If you don't stop squirting your sister,
I will have to take away your bath toys."

After a few confiscations, Reese went in for a hug.
Like any little sister would, Paige countered with a nice strong hair pull.

The girls had fun, and I'm sure practice will make perfect.

Long Time, No Blog

2011-05-10T19:07:00.007-05:00

A few weeks ago (just after Easter) we discovered that a massive leak from our air conditioner was wreaking havoc on the floors in our hallway. The leak was slow and the water gradually seeped under our laminate flooring until it began to buckle. It wasn't until we saw the boards popping up at the edges that we investigated. What seems like an eternity later, we've had the flooring removed, the floor dried, the carpet in Paige's closet repaired, and we're now waiting to have new flooring installed. While Kevin did all the installation the first time around, the demo alone would have broken his heart....and since we made a homeowners' insurance claim, why not reap the benefits of some hired labor in return for our deductible? All of this has kept me on the phone and dealing with repair people in and out of house almost daily...not a lot of time left over for blogging. So, in short here are some tidbits for posterity:

We attended cousin Claire's first birthday party the first weekend in May. Reese had a blast riding around in the new Cozy Coupe Grandma and Grandpa bought for the cousins to share.
The party was a family affair and Claire was a trooper considering she was rebelling against nap time the entire weekend. (We're no strangers to that phenomenon!)
Claire's cake was the most delicious piece of cake I've ever eaten (and that's saying something since I'm not a "cake person.") It was so delicious that Reese devoured a giant piece and felt sick to her stomach the rest of the day. I guess you've got to have your first eat-yourself-sick experience sometime. I doubt the experience will scare her away from cake for long.
I cursed myself by telling Aunt Kate that Paige is a great eater when it comes to solid foods. Within a week of making this ridiculous claim, Paige got really picky really fast. Now she prefers table food and will only eat a small variety of baby food---namely the most expensive, organic, and orange varieties. She's a huge fan of sweet potatoes, pumpkin, corn, and anything i can sprinkle cinnamon on. Her favorite brand is Ella's Kitchen, and I can't say I blame her because the stuff actually tastes really good. Eating table foods sounds like a great transition, and I would completely abandon feeding her baby food except for the small detail that she can't quite feed herself yet.

Reese's imagination continues to run wild. You can't talk to her about anything without her adding on that Ellie does it to. "Yeah, Ellie likes to unload the dishwasher sometimes too." or "Ellie wants to drive to San Antonio today." The line between real and make-believe is in constant flux around here.

Paige is ALMOST sleeping through the night. And as a result, I'm slowly starting to feel like less of a zombie. Still no teeth for Paige, although she's sucking and chewing on everything. Paige is also a enthusiastic hair-puller. I don't recall this hair-pulling phase lasting so long for Reese, but Paige is enamored with my hair and swats at it constantly in an effort to speed up the effects of any genetic predisposition I may have to hair loss.

Inspired by one of Claire's birthday presents, we picked up a water activity table from Toys R Us last weekend. Notice we declined the water/sand combo option. Our house is messy enough with two kids and two pets, we didn't need to add sand to the equation. Yeah, I know the sand table would stay outside, but the mile between our house and the park doesn't seem to keep pebbles from coming home with us. Why invite sand too? The water table is a total hit so far and is keeping Reese occupied long enough that I've managed to get a little yard work done in the back while Paige is napping.

Screeching Sisters

2011-04-26T20:00:00.002-05:00

Just after Easter dinner on Sunday, this is how the girls decided to entertain each other.
This went on for about five minutes before I started filming and at least five minutes after I stopped.

Easter

2011-04-26T19:57:00.002-05:00

The girls enjoyed two Easter celebrations this year--one a weekend early with the Bailey Grandparents and the Gabriels, and a second at home.

Double Stroller

2011-04-26T19:43:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago I decided that life would be easier with a double stroller. Until now I've been driving the girls to the parks in our area instead of walking--my only other options were to take Reese in the stroller and strap Paige to my chest (which can make for a sweaty momma once we finally arrive), or put Paige in the stroller and hope Reese can walk or ride her tricycle to the park (currently the distances are a little too long for that). So, I began searching for a used stroller.

When I perused Craigslist I was in total shock. $200-300+ for a used double stroller?!? Granted I was looking for a jogger , but who were they kidding? Disgusted, I looked up how much new double joggers were selling for--I about had a heart attack. I conceded slightly and pushed up my initial budget estimate for the purchase.

I contacted sellers on craigslist with my "best offers" and even made some bids on eBay. Many disappointing emails later, and lots of cursing at eBay bidders, I found a stroller in Round Rock. It's definitely been well loved, and it doesn't have a ton of bells and whistles, but it was under $100 and the kids love it. On our first trip to the park they made googly eyes at each other and held hands the whole time.

Heart Update

2011-04-26T19:35:00.003-05:00

Paige had her appointment with the cardiologist yesterday at Pediatric Cardiology of Austin. In short, everything is fine. She had an EKG followed by an echo cardiogram. The EKG lasted less than a minute and didn't seem to bother her at all. I was amazed that the technician was able to fit all the stickers on her tiny body, though. The echo was a little more involved--twenty minutes more involved to be exact. Poor Paige, she had to lay as still as possible for twenty minutes while they took pictures of her heart from every angle. Luckily the people at PCA are amazing! They are set up perfectly to deal with infants and their facility is great. They lowered the lights while she was having the echo performed and had me lay on the table with her. Between the array of sparkly mobiles on the ceiling, the soft colored lights on the walls, and the flat screen playing Baby Einstein, Paige hardly moved a muscle during the exam. After all the tests Dr Wong saw us and reassured us that while Paige does have a murmur there's nothing mechanically wrong with her heart. The sound he heard from her heart during the exam is higher pitch than "textbook murmurs," but all her tests looked great. The murmur could go away on its own tomorrow or be around until she's a teenager. Either way, everything should be fine. It's just the news we were hoping for!

Specialist Number 2

2011-04-19T19:41:00.005-05:00

Today was Paige's official six month check up with our pediatrician. Having just seen the GI last week I took for granted that this appointment would go smoothly. I knew it would end with a couple shots and the possibility for a cranky/fevery day, but that was all I was ready for.

After remarking on how good her growth curves were looking (she actually gained another half pound in the last week!) and checking all the boxes on her developmental milestones her physical exam began. He checked her all over and then did a double check of her chest. "Well," he said, "Paige has a heart murmur." All I could think was, "Shit, here we go again. Just when I thought things were getting normal." I should know by now that there's no "normal" in parenthood.

The pediatrician went on to tell me that "it's probably nothing, but I want you to see a cardiologist just in case." So...next Monday we will be attending our first office visit with a pediatric cardiologist. We'll likely watch them stick tiny monitors on Paige's chest for an EKG and maybe even have an echo cardiogram. The appointment falls right at Paige's nap time so I'm sure she'll be a gem during this experience. Who knows, though, she's already breezed through an ultrasound and a upper GI. This kid sure knows how to get the most out of our health care.

April Updates

2011-04-14T13:35:00.009-05:00

* Paige is starting to sit independently! I snapped a few pictures of her during the last two weeks when she was mainly tripod sitting, but now she spends most of her sitting time upright and she is definitely getting stronger. She still falls over if she tries to grab something that's slightly out of reach, but she's been doing great. So far she's used her new sitting skill to ride the swings at the park and sit in the grocery cart at HEB. Since she's always gone to HEB strapped to my chest, it's fun to see her reaction to the store from the cart. For now she seems mesmerized by all the items, colors, and lights. She's absolutely silent during our trips so far and she would rather look around than play with her toys.

* Last night Paige slept through the night for the first time EVER! Now to clarify: to ME, sleeping through the night means 11-12 hours without waking and/or needing a feeding. Reese began sleeping through the night around 7 months old, but beginning around 3 or 4 months she would surprise us with a random quiet night here and there. We've had no such luck with Paige. It's hard to believe I've survived this long without a night of consolidated, uninterrupted sleep. I won't be holding my breath that she'll do it again tonight.

* Paige's nap time sleep was doing great a few weeks ago. I felt like we had finally fallen into a routine...then two weeks ago everything went out the window. Since Paige began sleeping on her tummy and sucking her thumb she's had no problems falling asleep. Two weeks ago, though, she turned into a rolly-polly during nap time and at night. Instead of staying on her tummy and snoozing, twenty or thirty minutes into her naps, she'd roll over onto her back and wake up. (She's a pro at rolling from belly to back, but she can't quite get all the way from back to belly yet--she ends up on her side.) What do we do? Leave her there and see if she can sleep on her back? Go in and roll her back over? A combination of both ideas didn't help matters and it wasn't until yesterday when she gave up the rolling that things may (?) be getting back to "normal."

* Paige had her 6 month follow up with the GI on Monday. He said she's looking great. She's gaining weight great and is even somewhere between the 10th-25th percentiles for her weight and height! She's still on medicine, but the doctor and I made a "weaning plan" for how to VERY slowly wean her from the reflux meds. He also said that "given her history with dairy" that we should avoid any foods with dairy for awhile. He said that if everything's going well and we want to be "aggressive" we could try giving her yogurt around 9 months, but that it may be better if we wait until she's closer to a year.

* Reese got a pair of sunglasses recently. Can you tell she picked them out? So stylish...

* Reese is developing a southern twang, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Yes, Kim and I sounded like little Brits after spending our youth in England, so maybe I'm being hypocritical...but it's driving me a little nuts. Everything has extra syllables and the letter a gets drug out forever. Favorite words that showcase Reese's twang include: that, spilled, and ouch. I'm not sure where it's coming from, school maybe? A true native Texan, I guess.

Paige Babble

2011-04-02T19:03:00.002-05:00

Here's some footage I took of Paige's babbling today. This is just a short segment, so imagine it multiplied for hours on end over the course of a day. I've said it before, but man is our house going to be loud for the next few years...You can even hear Reese baby talking with Paige during part of the video. It's hard to remember that there was a time when Reese wasn't talking, and I really have no clue when she started babbling like Paige is now. It's so cute to hear Paige communicating in a happy way after all she's been through, I just can't get enough of it, and it makes me smile every time.

Goodbye March

2011-04-01T14:12:00.005-05:00

I can't believe March is over already. With the temperatures already rising, it will be summer before we know it. Time is really flying, and I can't believe it's almost been six months since Paige was born.

Here are just a few tidbits I want to remember from March:

Paige:
1. She's our little thumb sucker. When you put her down for a nap, she quickly finds her right thumb and soothes herself right to sleep. It's a million times better than a pacifier since she can't loose it. Our only issue has been that some of the sleeves on her pajamas are still a little long and if they fall down over her hands at night she's lost.

2. Paige is babbling away. She coos, loves to say "boo" and will talk and screech with Reese for extended periods of time.

3. While she isn't drooling, Paige's constant need to have something in her mouth may signal the beginning of her teething. Time will tell.

4. She can successfully tripod-sit for a few minutes at a time.

5. When she's done eating her solids she spits them back at you. Reese just used to turn her head to say "no more," this spitting thing is new to me and I've had to start wearing an apron when I feed her--it's one thing to treat baby food stains on baby clothing, it's another to explain why I have sweet potato stains on mine.

6. I didn't have many clothing items in the 3-6 month range that are appropriate for our warm weather lately. Luckily, Aunt Kate stepped up and donated a TON of super cute outfits for Paige. Today she's sporting a ducky onesie complete with a tail--one of my favs.

Reese:
1. I don't think there's any way Reese will be napping when she's 3. The last month was terribly hit or miss with naps. While she can manage without one, on days when she doesn't nap she's more testy and hard to keep happy--and her bedtime is super early. We instituted some "sleep rules" (1. Stay in bed 2. Stay quiet 3. Close your eyes 4. Go to sleep) and have offered her the privilege of choosing a special afternoon snack if she takes a nap. We're also weaning her off her lullaby habit since it had become nap time entertainment to play with the CD player instead of sleep. So far the combination is working well and she's asleep right now.

2. Reese is very into playing with words lately--she is constantly trying to create rhyming words (whether real or not) and point out opposites.

3. Her vocabulary continues to bloom. Highlights from this month include:
* necessary, as in, "Mommy it's not necessary to push me, I'm a big girl."
* pharmacy, as in "We have to go to the pharmacy to get my medicine."
* syringe, as in, "Mommy I need a syringe to give my babies their medicine."

4. Reese got her second hair cut. While her long hair enabled us to try some new hairstyles (including a braid), it was constantly a rat's nest that she refused to let me comb. Her new shorter do is more manageable. She went to a kids' salon near our house this time and was thrilled to receive a lollipop afterward.

5. Reese is obsessed with her grocery cart lately. She piles what seems like all her worldly possessions inside of it and pushes it around the house.

Eating and Bouncing

2011-03-26T13:27:00.003-05:00

Paige has rebounded from a rough week rather well. When I began to wean her from her reflux medicine things went down hill quickly and we had a return of the screaming feeding sessions. Guess she needs the meds more than I originally thought. After a talk with her GI (I'm glad they have a great nurses line!) it turns out her recent weight gain means she actually needs a larger dose of medicine. After four days of the new dose we're back in the swing of things.

In other news, Paige continues to enjoy solid foods. She LOVES peas and just yesterday ate her first Mum-Mum (a rice husk snack--after a few trips to the mouth it turns into a soggy cracker). This afternoon we're going to break out the mesh treat holder and try some real banana.

I'm also SUPER excited to announce that we've temporarily inherited a Bjorn bouncy seat from Caroline!! While Paige enjoyed her previous bouncy seat, she couldn't sit as up right as she liked. Recently she was becoming fussy after short spurts of sitting in it; perhaps it was irritating her stomach to sit in a crunched position? Who knows. Caroline found her Bjorn bouncer at a consignment sale and I've coveted it for some time--I just couldn't bring myself to spend $$$ on getting a new one of our own. After two failed attempts to procure one through both Craigslist and eBay, Caroline called on Thursday to say she no longer needed hers. Paige is in heaven. She's been happily sitting and bouncing away for two days now. Caroline, you're a life saver!

Play Hard

2011-03-26T13:24:00.003-05:00

During a quick visit to San Antonio this week, the girls got to break in the new playground that Grandpa Righter built for them. To call it a swing-set would be an understatement. You could barely pry Reese off of it during our visit. Much to our surprise, she eagerly climbed the stairs, crossed the bridge and enjoyed the view from the tree house. You really outdid yourself, Grandpa!

Rodeo

2011-03-21T14:09:00.014-05:00

Austin's annual rodeo is held every March and usually coincides with SXSW and Spring Break. Because most of Austin spends spring break either filling their forearms with wristbands and wandering downtown seeing bands or killing their brain cells in drinking binges away from UT's campus, the rodeo is a fairly tame and slightly under-attended event. It's not a large rodeo by Texas standards, but it's still got all the classic components; namely a BBQ cook off, a stock show, lots of tractors, and a carnival with questionably safe rides.

Kevin and I got hooked on attending the rodeo about six years ago when we learned about the BBQ cook-off. The concept is genius: during the course of two days teams compete in a variety of food and drink categories. Their entries are judged by a panel, but their fare is open for the public to enjoy. Basically, you pay the rodeo admission fee and you can wander from tent to tent all day sampling all the BBQ and beer you can stomach. You are encouraged to make donations at each tent you visit and all the money that is raised goes toward scholarships. As young, childless adults Kevin and I would spend all day tossing singles in jars and stuffing ourselves silly; it was basically the only part of the rodeo we bothered to visit....Let's just say the rodeo is a totally different experience with children in tow.

While we took Reese to the rodeo last year as well, she was very excited to visit it again this year. We left Paige home with Aunt Kim and set out with our little cowgirl in tow.
Back story on the outfit: At Reese's baby shower I was given a beautiful modern cowgirl outfit (courtesy of Courtney Johnson and Ramonster). Reese finally grew into this winter and was anxious for a warm weather occasion to sport it. In combination with her cowboy hat from Christmas she made quite a cowgirl. Notice the purple socks that she insisted "match perfect!"

At the rodeo Reese took in all the sights. Our first stops were the petting zoo (full of mainly deer and goats this year) and the cow milking demonstration. We took a LONG stroll through the stock yards where Reese was fascinated by the cows. She wanted NOTHING to do with the miniature ponies but apparently the GIANT bovines didn't bother her.

For lunch Reese polished of a corn dog and we headed to the carnival. With Reese's age and height we planned on killing time checking out the carnival rides until the BBQ cook off began at noon. To our surprise, though, Reese was willing and able to ride quite a few rides.

(She was technically an inch too short to ride most of them unaccompanied, but most of the operators weren't exactly thorough with their height checks and as one lady said, "With the cowgirl hat on she qualifies.") All of the rides she chose were a variation of the same thing: crawl into an object (either vehicle or animal related), sit down, buckle up, and go around in a circle four or five times. She is definitely NOT her daddy's girl when it comes to spinning rides--I thought he might get queasy just watching her go around so many times.

She didn't loose her lunch in the process of enjoying the carnival and we made two stops at the BBQ cook off for beer and brisket for mommy and daddy before calling it a day.
We made it home with a cranky cowgirl just in time for her afternoon nap, but of course she wasn't the least bit sleepy if you asked her....

Our Little Leprechauns

2011-03-17T20:07:00.002-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Patient Patient

2011-03-17T19:59:00.006-05:00

Perhaps it speaks to the number of trips we've made to the pediatrician this winter, but here's some photos of Reese playing doctor to Paige. She's really got the process down: she warms the stethoscope before placing it on her patient's chest and even makes all the corresponding sound effects. Apparently Paige needed a shot today. Luckily Paige either is the right age or the right personality to endure regular check ups from Dr Reese.

Still holding...

2011-03-17T19:52:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to say that things continue to go well with Paige. I started trying to wean her off her reflux medicine this week, but after two days the results are mixed so we're going to continue using it for awhile. It's likely a condition she will outgrow soon anyway, and if she continues to gain weight her current dose will become gradually less effective and act like a weaning anyway. She continues to eat well, sleep much better (almost predictably), and poop by herself. I've started her on solids and she's now gobbling up pears, rice cereal (strangely her favorite), and squash at breakfast and dinner time. She seems much more eager about solids at this age than Reese and she'll likely be eating them three times a day in the next few weeks. She also has gained more than half a pound in less than a week! Suddenly, the 3 month clothes are entirely too small and she's filling out her 6 month clothes easily. Way to go baby girl!

I won't hold my breath, but....

2011-03-10T12:13:00.002-06:00

Paige's soy formula is still doing the trick for her! She's eating almost 30 oz per day now with ZERO screaming!
AND, while this morning's nap was extra short, all aggravation about it was temporarily erased when I realized that Paige had woken up because she had pooped her diaper ALL BY HERSELF--for the first time in months!!
Please let these trends continue....

The Paige Saga Continues...

2011-03-07T20:14:00.006-06:00

First, a little background on Reese that may prove related to our struggles with Paige:
As previously blogged about, when Reese was born she was a terrible breast feeder. She ended up eating pumped breast milk in a bottle for the first four months of her life. Whether related to her tummy and eating or not, Reese also had terrible colic. She screamed day and night and was never happy unless being held (awake or asleep). Around two months old, she began having eating issues--rejecting the bottle mainly--and her bowel movements (while regular) started to change consistency. Eventually we tried an over the counter hypoallergenic formula, and within days her eating issues were solved. Reese stayed on the special formula for several months and we very gradually weaned her on to regular formula. Until recently, milk has always given her tummy issues; namely constipation. I never thought the day would come that I wasn't dosing her with Miralax daily. Finally, she seems to love, and handle, milk products withe ease.

But back to Paige...
When I wrote recently about having perspective with Paige and her eating things were starting to go down hill again. She was rejecting her hypoallergenic formula day and night and there was lots of fussing. I would put the bottle in her mouth, she would suck a few times, sometimes for up to a minute, then she'd pull away and start screaming. She'd straighten her legs, arch her back, pull her legs in and accept nothing except a pacifier. She was getting plenty of rest in her swing for naps but her night sleep was becoming more disturbed and irregular in her bed. Her bad gas came back, her bowels became more mucousy and she was generally unhappy. I took her back to the pediatrician to rule out a virus or ear infection and when they couldn't find anything they spoke to our GI. He recommended upping her reflux medicine dose as well as giving prescription formula a try.
The two theories now:
1. She has REALLY bad reflux and needed a higher dose of meds since she's gained a little weight. (Possible, but with all her bowel issues, I doubt this is the whole culprit.)
2. The broken down milk proteins in the hypoallergenic formula we were feeding her had accumulated in her system and were again giving her problems.

Our GI generously gave us 3 cans of sample prescription formula (a $$$ value) and I crossed my fingers it would be our magic bullet.

The week that followed was full of battles: battles with Paige to get her to eat (she was back to eating 10-12 oz/24 hours and would go 5-8 hours both day and night without eating anything), battles with the insurance company to convince them that Texas law mandates that they cover this new prescription formula, and battles with the pharmacy to order the new formula. I literally spent the greater part of two and half days yelling at insurance customer service reps, pharmacy techs, and anyone who got near me. Yes, that sometimes meant Kevin and the kids. Not my best week of parenting or marital bliss. Many apologies later, I picked up 10 cans of formula at our pharmacy on Friday.

The battle was all for not, however. Paige continued to reject all food all week. The new prescription formula was extremely thin, almost the consistency of water and there was lots of spitting, gagging, and crying at every feed. I tried slower flow nipples, making the bottles warmer, colder, feeding smaller amounts more frequently, feeding in a quiet room, you name it I tried it. I called our GI on Friday desperate and out of my mind. His nurse informed me that the prescription formula tastes terrible and that maybe we should try mixing it 50/50 with something else to make it more palatable. "But mix it with what exactly?" I was thinking. I didn't want to return to the hypoallergenic formula that had just been making her miserable, so my only alternative was soy.

After two days of mixing soy and prescription formula I got lazy and tried a few bottles of soy only. I hate to jinx myself (since I've had my hopes up before), but this could REALLY be our cure for Paige. She seems to LOVE it! She hasn't eaten less than 5 oz per feeding since I started giving her the soy and last night she ate 7oz before bed! I couldn't believe it. More that than, her feedings are "normal." By that I mean that I put the bottle in her mouth and she eats until she's full. It doesn't take an hour to sip by sip get her to take 2 oz. Just last night in her bedtime feeding and two night feedings (midnight and 3AM) she had 15oz. And, her gassiness is virtually gone.

Her bowel movements are still a toss up, but after another consult with our GI yesterday we're going to try to see if Miralax can get her going on her own. I've got plenty of experience with that stuff... fingers crossed.

In other Paige sleeping news:

Paige is done with the swing and swaddle. Compounding all of Paige's eating issues were her sleep issues. For the last several weeks Paige has been busting out of her comforting swaddle. The second her hand hit her face, all bets on sleep were off. We were doing our absolute best to keep her well rested in anyway possible so that we could be sure her eating issues weren't a result of cranky over-tiredness, but it was becoming exhausting to deal with.

So..now that her eating is straightening itself out, we've decided it's time to abandon the swaddle and do some sleep training. We're only three agonizing days into listening to her cry and try to self soothe, but we're already starting to see small improvements. She's beginning to suck her fingers for comfort, and there's no more hours of rocking her to sleep. So far it's taken a lot of self-talk ("You're helping her learn an important life skill,"; "She's old enough to handle this now,"; "You know that medically there's nothing wrong with her") to be consistent, but memories of how this same process helped Reese keep me going. That, and lots of coffee in the morning and wine before bed...

Hook 'Em

2011-03-07T20:12:00.004-06:00

Reese came up to me today and said, "Look Mommy, it's my Texas!"
Since football season has ended we haven't been big on pushing our team spirit, so I was caught off guard with what I saw. Check out our little longhorn!

Noisy Girl

2011-03-07T20:08:00.003-06:00

About two weeks ago Paige started "talking" to us. Now when she's well-rested she is a total chatterbox. She doesn't just coo or babble, she screeches. The other day she made her "happy sounds" for over an hour straight while playing. I tried to catch some of them on video. This sample isn't very good since she was distracted by the camera, but it gives you a small sampling of our chatty girl. Add these screeches to Reese's constant commentary and I am only beginning to grasp how loud our house is going to be for the next 16 years or so...

On The Move

2011-03-07T20:02:00.004-06:00

While Reese has been riding her tricycle regularly since her birthday in August, she just mastered riding it without assistance last week. Until now, Mommy or Daddy have been pushing her or helping her steer using the long handle that attaches behind the trike. After a few slow-moving trials during our recent walks, Reese picked up on riding quickly. Now she can be found tearing around the house in a circuit down the hall and through the kitchen and she loves riding around the block. If it weren't for Paige's impending naps and/or feedings, she'd probably spend all afternoon riding around the neighborhood.

Reese also received another "car" from Grandma Bailey during a recent visit. We've dubbed it her "worm car" and she's taken it around the block as well as all over our house.

Rainy Morning

2011-02-24T14:23:00.005-06:00

This morning we got all geared up for a walk to the mailbox. This process includes getting Reese to put on shoes (socks usually optional), getting Paige into the Bjorn, harnessing the dog, remembering my keys (and my own shoes), and prepping the tricycle. We made it as far as the end of the driveway before the skies opened up and poured on us.

In an effort to get Reese to blow off some steam, I asked her if she wanted to play in the rain. I explained that Paige and I couldn't go outside, but that we'd sit at the door at watch her. She quickly donned her new rain coat, rain boots, and umbrella and played outside in the rain for about twenty minutes. The rain was coming down steadily but not hard and it was about 70 degrees outside.

Check Ups

2011-02-24T14:05:00.003-06:00

Today I took two HEALTHY children to the pediatrician. I actually made it almost two weeks since our last trip, and this time we were there for our regularly scheduled well-checks--Paige's 4month, and Reese's 2 1/2 year. Luckily, our doctor would see them both at the same time, so I only had to make one trip.

Reese now gets measured on the "big person" scale instead of the infant scale. I knew she had put on some weight (and height) in the last six months, and her measurements confirmed it. She is now almost 27lbs and 34 1/2" tall. That puts both her weight and height in the 25th percentile. The nurse remarked that she hadn't been above the 15th percentile in weight since she was 4 months old! When the doctor came in he asked Reese "So, how are you this morning?" She quickly replied, "I'm good thank you." I didn't think anything of her reply, but apparently he wasn't ready for a complete sentence to come tumbling out of her mouth. He asked me a few developmental questions ("Does she use pronouns?" etc) and then moved on to her exam. Before he got very far, Reese starting talking to him about her doctor kit. "I have a stethoscope at home too. I listen to my babies hearts. And I have a doctor coat. And I give them shots if they are sick." He proclaimed her in perfect health and told me that her verbal skills are advanced for her age. Oh, and of course we couldn't move on to Paige's exam before she got a chance to show him her new panties and proclaim her ability to pee-pee and poopie on the potty like a big girl.

Then it was Paige's turn. She smiled and cooed during her check up, even during the hip exam which he warned me she wouldn't like. ("Just so you know, babies don't usually like this part," --pushes on her legs and hips, Paige coos--"ok, well, most babies don't like that part.") The only time she fussed was during the ear exam, but she also got a clean bill of health. She, of course, is still on the small side, but her growth is tracking steadily and she's on the percentile charts so they're not worried. She now weighs 11lbs 14oz and is 23 1/2" long. Her weight and height are both around the 9th percentile, but her head is 40.6cm which is the 25th percentile. Paige's appointment ended with three shots.

Reese collected enough stickers for her AND Paige on her way out (although she wasn't willing to share them) and we have our next visit scheduled for Paige's 6 month check up.

Baking

2011-02-24T13:50:00.004-06:00

In the kitchen there are bakers and soup makers, and I've always considered myself the latter. I like cooking without rules--a little bit of this, a little bit of that, stir, mix, taste often, and always end up with something a little different each time. In my few attempts at baking, I often suffer from lack or patience or lack of precision and I end up with flat, sloppy, hard, or inedible creations.

The problem with soup-making, whether literally or as it's looseness applies to other culinary creations, is that it's harder to involve children. "Hey Reese, do you want to help Mommy make chowder?" just doesn't capture her attention like "Hey, Reese, how about we bake some cookies?" So, this winter I've been trying my hand at more baking.

I've discovered that it doesn't take as much time and precision as I previously thought. (At least not the recipes we're conquering.) We're currently making one baked good a week. Sometimes it's bread--banana bread, Grandma Bailey's zucchini bread recipe; other times it's cookies--pumpkin chocolate chip last week; and this week it was carrot muffins. Reese enjoys "helping" me measure and mix, and always wants to lick the spoons.

I think I'm getting the hang of things and I haven't made anything inedible...yet.

Perspective

2011-02-23T14:45:00.006-06:00

As a former teacher (particularly one that taught in Texas?) I was required to know and thoroughly understand the educational goals my students should achieve while in my class (the TEKS). Maybe it's this practice that's got me wondering, "What should my kids be doing at this age?" Yes, I know there are no TEKS for parenthood, but there are "milestone checklists"--and from my experience with Reese, they are a total Catch 22.

Prior to Reese's birth, and in the months shortly after, I read a lot of parenting books. Chalk it up to a combination of factors: I had the summer off, I'd never spent much time around infants, and the neuroses of "nesting." I even went as far as to flag a milestone checklist in one book for quick and easy reference later.

After Reese was born, I consulted the books and all the information that I thought would be comforting and informative was anything but. Reese's weight fluctuated well below the printed curves, she excelled in some areas of development and not others, and she NEVER ate as much or slept as often as all the books described, so I put them away. Now that Paige has been born, I have kept the books on the shelf. I don't have time to read them, and I know that it will only get me caught up in worrying. Still, I sometimes get caught up thinking: What are kids their ages supposed to be doing? Do some of my frustrations come from setting the bar too high?

Here are some thoughts on keeping perspective that have been tumbling around my head lately about both girls:

Perspective on Reese: Now that eating, walking, talking, and potty training are accomplished for Reese, what's next? At what point should she be identifying numbers and letters or completely dressing herself? Seeing the contrast in independence between an infant and toddler, I know that I sometimes expect too much from Reese. She seems so big and she expresses herself so well, I have to remind myself that she's not 5 or even 3 yet. She sometimes compounds matters herself with her fierce independent streak, I need to remember to pack my patience with this one and not let her grow up too quickly--even if she wants to.

Perspective on Paige: Both our pediatrician and every parent reference I've had time to thumb through talks about the challenges that babies born early face. I know that Paige wasn't a true preemie, but when it comes to her milestones, I have to remember she was born almost a month early. That means that many of her milestones (at least for a while) will likely occur a month later than other babies who were born on or near their due dates. So...when I hear about babies eating more than she does, rolling both ways, sleeping more (and more easily) than she does, I have to tell myself that she may need a little extra time. With all her struggles to eat, sleep, and poop, I also have to remind myself that she is making improvements. Time seems to drag by, but in the last six weeks she's gone from eating barely 1-2oz per feeding to regularly eating 4oz. She's now sleeping in her bed at night, and she's more than doubled her birth weight (even if she still remains small). And, most importantly, she's a happy child.

Locus of Control

2011-02-23T14:26:00.003-06:00

Soon after getting pregnant with Reese I went to dinner with a dear friend. I decided to share our news with her--both because of our friendship AND the fact that it was likely that I might have to sprint to the bathroom to vomit during the course of the meal. She was excited for us and we spent part of the dinner discussing pregnancy and it's strange effect on the body. As a mother of two herself, she said, "Being out of control of your body is just the beginning, it's just what parenting is all about." At the time I couldn't see how her advice would play out every day as a parent, but never have truer words been spoken.

I will be the first to admit that I can be the ultimate "Type A" personality. Routine, consistency, overachiever-ness, etc. etc. Parenthood has been a test of me in so many ways and is the hardest thing I have ever done, mostly because I realize that I am (nearly) completely out of control on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, I know there are things about parenthood that you can control--I do discipline my children, I do provide them nutritious foods (even when they want to eat junk), and I try to be consistent in my routines and expectations, BUT that can all go out the window when you take into account the other two developing personalities in the house. No matter how hard I try I can't MAKE my children eat, I can't choose when or if they will sleep, or when or if the need to go to the bathroom will strike (think Paige's recent pooping issues on this one). In the grand scheme of the universe, maybe I was sent unpredictable and sometimes challenging children to help me grow as a person....that, or it's some kind of penance.

It may not be obvious, but staying home with Reese has knocked my A+ personality down a few notches...to maybe an A- on a good day. It is a daily struggle for me, though, to try not to think twenty steps ahead and instead learn to go with the flow everyday. Give me another two years, I may reach Type B-ness yet.

February Begins

2011-02-16T13:50:00.006-06:00

Last week was no exception to our string of illness at the Bailey house: Paige got her first ear infection. Since I've been spending countless hours at the pediatrician lately, our neighbor (who is a doctor with her own family practice) came over to check Paige out. After looking in both her ears, she confirmed that Paige did, indeed, need to go to the doctor. The final verdict was an ear/sinus infection. We caught it before a bad fever developed (although it seems like my kids seldom run fevers with ear infections), and Paige is getting her first dose of antibiotics.

In other news, Reese is completely potty trained!! Hooray! She has been going poopie and pee-pee in the potty for over a week now with no accidents. She even goes without prompting and will sit down to go while I'm busy taking care of Paige and then tell me she has a "surprise" for me in the potty. She's very proud, and I'm super relieved. On the flip side, I think we're starting to see the beginning of the end of afternoon naps for her. Now most days at nap time she talks to herself, sings to herself, plays in her room, or sits on the potty reading books. She's only really napping once every 3-4 days. Most days she seems to manage ok minus the nap, but she does get a little crankier in the evenings. I've tried pushing nap time later, making it earlier, and nothing has worked. There's still hope that when the weather warms up consistently some trips to the park might wear her out and get her back in the habit. Until then, I'm still offering nap as a "quiet time" and we've moved her bedtime a little earlier to compensate (now 7pm).

Paige is finally sleeping well (knock on wood) in her bed at night. We're able to put her down around 7 and she doesn't wake up immediately or within the hour screaming. She's even becoming consistent about have just TWO feedings at night. Reese had one or two feedings a night until she was 7-8 months old, so I expect it will be the same for Paige. Naps are still a struggle for us. She's guaranteed to nap if she's in her swing, but the bed is a total toss up. We're going to give it a few more weeks (particularly since she's recovering from the ear infection and she gets her immunizations next week) before trying to banish the swing for good.

Paige is sitting really well in her Bumbo now and her neck control is pretty impressive. I've noticed that when I put her in her bouncy seat or car seat, she trys to sit up more. It's like she's doing crunches. It's hard to believe she can pull her upper body up so well.

I've been hesitant to introduce solids to Paige since she's been dealing with bowel issues on just formula, but her antibiotics are now giving her the runs so I may try a brand of rice cereal with probiotics and see how it goes. We started Reese on rice cereal right around four months, so it may be time.

Paige has also been enjoying the exersaucer lately. She can't work all the toys yet, but she likes to stare at them, bat at them wildly, and watch Reese show her how everything works. I dug up a picture of Reese in her exersaucer from around the same age. What do you think, do you see any resemblance? (Paige top, Reese bottom)

Memorable Moments

2011-02-07T14:54:00.003-06:00

Here's a quick list of things I want to remember about the girls from the last month. They may not be "worthy" of their own blog individually, but I don't want to forget:

Paige
* Has started riding front-facing in the Bjorn.
* Has started sitting in her Bumbo; still a little wobbly, but getting better neck strength and control
* Coos and "talks" often
* Smiles constantly
* Has discovered her fingers and puts them in her mouth
* Is starting to grab and hold things--if she's wearing a shirt, she grabs it and pulls it over her head
* Stares at her toes a lot
* Loves the taggie Blankie Sara made for Reese as a baby. She can grab it easily and puts it in her mouth often

Reese
* Thinks 1 M&M is the greatest treat in the world. Would rather have 1 M&M than a whole cookie
* When talking about Daddy going to work, she told me "Mommy, you don't belong at work."
* When Paige does something that Reese thinks is neat she'll say, "Paige, that's a holy cow!"
* Loves to ballerina dance. Looks over her should and spins with her arms out. Will lay on the floor and lift her leg in "a ballerina way."
* Is finally eating like crazy. She's a bottomless pit lately. She's even eating veggies!
* Likes playing with her baby station from Christmas but wants to use all of Paige's diapers, wipes, and burb cloths on her babies.
* Was playing with her baby dolls one afternoon and brought me some babydoll clothing and said, "Mommy these need to go in the laundry because the baby pee-peed on herself." Hmmm...wonder where she got that one.
* Will feed her baby dolls and exclaim, "Wow baby, you drank 4oz!"

Paige Follow Up

2011-02-07T14:27:00.002-06:00

Today we had Paige's one-month follow up at the GI.

Paige has shown improvements in her eating in the last few weeks. She now sometimes goes entire days without fussing about eating. She's also starting to eat a greater quantity--sometimes 4oz per feeding! She continues to use the hypoallergenic formula although we switched to the pre-mixed kind. It's expensive but she seems to like it better and it's easy to get her an additional oz here or there since she's still unpredictable.

The doctor told us he can't rule out reflux or a milk allergy at this point, but once things settle down and she gets into more of a pattern we can start weaning her off her reflux medicine and see what happens. He seems to think many of her issues are more likely related to her digestive system farther down.

All in all, we're starting yet another intervention in hopes of getting her bowels moving and we have a follow up in two months.

Snow Day

2011-02-07T14:06:00.007-06:00

Only in Texas can two 70 degree weekends be separated by a week of below freezing temperatures and snow.

After the cold front that blew in last Tuesday, temperatures in Austin stayed below freezing (day and night) until Friday afternoon. Thursday night brought with it snow.

I'd like to say that the snow fall was magical. That I went to bed on Thursday night and woke up to the sight of everything covered in a white blanket of snow on Friday morning. The reality is, I was up at least three times that night so I saw the snow falling on multiple occasions--so it was no surprise to me to see about an inch of snow covering the ground on Friday morning.

I realize, though, that that didn't make it any less exciting for Reese.
During Paige's naps we ventured outside twice to enjoy the snow. Our first trip was into the back yard. There were some major power struggles in the effort to get Reese appropriately clothed for the occasion--including whether or not she was going to wear a scarf. In theory, she wanted to wear one, but once it was on there was nothing but complaints.

Once outside, Annie ran in circles in the backyard and even rolled in the snow. Reese squealed, picked some snow up, and then promptly slipped and fell on the deck. In an effort to keep her feet dry, we both wore our rain boots outside--maybe they weren't a good choice, though, because the snow accumulated underneath forming chunks of uneven ice, hence the fall. Round one in the snow was short lived since the fall prompted a massive panic attack about being covered in snow. (And, yes, I did take a picture before coming to her aide--bad mom move, but I couldn't help it.)

Later that day we ventured out into the front yard and built a snow man. Reese had very specific ideas on what our snow man should look like. Specifically that it should be "huge." She was very interested in overseeing my work, but didn't want to make snowballs herself. Each snow ball I made for construction was met with "No, bigger!" Our knee-high snow man isn't "huge," but in the end it was good enough.

After our snow day, here are some of my personal conclusions:
* Getting kids bundled up for snow-play is a pain. Particularly when they only want to spend 15 minutes outside in it.
* I don't like playing in the snow. Snowmen and snowballs are something I'll do for the kids, but I think snow is for skiing, or maybe sledding. (BOth activities hard for toddlers and infants.)

Sick, Sick, Sick

2011-02-07T13:54:00.002-06:00

I swear I used to have other mom-friends. Sure, not many, but a few. This winter it seems impossible to meet up with any of them. Adding another kid to the equation not only makes it harder to physically get out of the house (consider the packing, hauling, and sleeping/feeding schedules involved), but I swear I haven't had two healthy kids at the same time since Paige was born. I've been joking that it may be spring before everyone has kids that aren't quarantined for one reason or another...it's only half a joke, though.

I don't think there's been a single week in the last two months that I haven't had one or the other child at the pediatrician. Just when I thought the family had recovered from the miserable cold virus of a few weeks ago, Reese started to run a fever. Unlike myself who barely registers as breathing if you take my temperature (I tend to hover in the 96-97 range), Reese seems to run high fevers easily. This time it was 102+ beginning last Saturday night. Fearing an ear infection I took her to the after hours clinic on Sunday when her fever continued. They did a strep swab, a flu swab, and pricked her finger for a blood count. Two hours later the verdict was a virus. Not that you want something to be wrong with your kid, but hearing they have a virus that you can do nothing about is frustrating.

When Reese's fever showed no improvement three days later and she kept complaining of tummy pain I took her back in. After a urine sample and exam they concluded that she had an ear infection and a UTI. Ten days of antibiotics are underway.

Which leads us to...explosive diarrhea. We're giving Reese yogurt daily, but the antibiotics are killing off her stomach bacteria and she's now pooping no less than 3-4 times a day. Combine this with her covert pooping, and our potty training success has almost completely been erased. And, since Reese loves new vocabulary words (the bigger the better), she loves to tell everyone about her diarrhea--since we're not leaving the house much these days that means I hear about it more than anyone.

It all inspired me to create my own Reese-themed verse to the famous "Diarrhea Song" (from the movie "Parenthood.") :
"When you're supposed to take a nap, but your pants are full of crap: diarrhea."
Snappy, huh? Just trying to keep my sense of humor about these things.

Happy Birthday

2011-01-25T14:54:00.003-06:00

Somehow I escaped the family's cold and was able to celebrate my birthday this weekend.

On Friday afternoon, Aunt Kim stopped by with her gift of flowers and fancy bath products. Her logic: "Since you seldom shower, you should get to feel fancy when you do." Right on. She even hung around our house for a few hours that afternoon and bathed Reese (BONUS!) before leaving for a date with Uncle Ehren.

Saturday morning, Kevin informed me of the "real" birthday plans: Grandma Bailey was arriving at 11:30AM to watch the girls for the night, and we were taking off for a nice dinner and a night at a hotel!

The idea of uninterrupted sleep was about the biggest birthday present I could have asked for. Making things even more impressive, he had made reservations at 3 different restaurants for that evening so I could pick what I was in the mood for.

I felt slightly bad leaving Grandma Bailey with one sick kid and one kid who was barely done with her potty training, but she handled it all beautifully.

I decided we'd try a new French restaurant that evening where I tried rabbit for the first time, and (always the romantic) then I passed out at the hotel before 9:30PM. (And not because I over indulged at dinner.)

We came home to cupcakes and cards made by Reese and finished up our weekend at home on a rainy Sunday.

Swaddle Me: The Ongoing Saga of Paige & Sleep

2011-01-25T14:37:00.003-06:00

Paige has been swaddled for sleep since coming home from the hospital. After dealing with a colicky baby Reese, we quickly learned the power of swaddling when it comes to soothing and sleep. (Major Harvey Karp fans at this house!) At first, Paige started off swaddled in a single blanket. When she easily wiggled free, we began double swaddling her in two cotton blankets--one on top of the other. As she got a little bigger we began using our swaddle sack. (A lifesaver held over from Reese's infancy.) Since Paige is still slightly undersized and incredibly strong, she still sleeps double swaddled--in a cotton blanket with the sleep sack over it. Any less binding and she breaks out instantly.

There's no doubt, that even from the start Paige doesn't like being swaddled. She will fight the process tooth-and-nail. But, the second she's swaddled and rocked, she drifts off to sleep. Try the same feat with her unswaddled and she'll hit herself in the face, squirm, and take longer to fall asleep..and unless you hold her, the odds of her staying asleep are dramatically lower.

Two weekends ago (before the terrible cold bug hit our house) we decided to try and see if Paige was ready to be unswaddled. We rocked her to sleep like always, but without her swaddle. With out fail, within minutes of being put down each time, she would startle and wake her self up. Back to the swaddle we went...

Paige's cold made for a temporary set back in her sleep. She was having coughing fits that were waking her up (day and night), and her congestion and drainage made it hard for her to rest. We relented and back peddled to putting her in her swing for sleep.

Now that she's recovered, we made one more attempt at unswaddling--this time seeing if she would sleep unswaddled on her belly in her crib. Gasp--yes, I know what the AAP says about tummy sleeping; but let's be honest, I'd dare say that a majority of babies <1994 were put to sleep on their bellies without incident, Kevin and myself among them. Our logic was that she would startle herself less in this position. Alas, it was also a massive failure.

So, we're back to the double swaddle in her bed at night. I can't remember if Reese required swadddling for this long or not, but to each their own. At this point, we're just trying to get the kid better rested. Since her night time sleep is settling, she's sleeping in her bed at night, but we're still keeping her in her swing for naps during the day. When we put her in her bed at this point for naps, she'll sleep for 20-40 minutes and wake up needing more soothing. Since she isn't old enough for sleep training at this point (and I can't take care of Reese when I'm re-soothing a baby all day), the swing is our temporary solution.

Do people really give birth to babies who they can rock and then put down for sleep without any of this fuss? Since I'm not having any more kiddos of my own, I guess I'll never know.

Ahh..I keep telling myself that Reese never slept either, and now (when she's not covertly pooping) she's a great sleeper.

paige roll over

2011-01-18T19:55:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago, Paige started rolling over from her tummy to her back. Now, she can't be stopped. It's nearly impossible to do tummy-time with her since the second you put her on her stomach, she rolls herself over. I tried to catch some video of her "work" below:

potty time

2011-01-18T19:54:00.002-06:00

The last two weeks our family has been besieged by a terrible cold virus (likely courtesy of Reese's classmates). Reese was the first to go down, followed by Paige, and then by Daddy.
Somehow Mommy avoided the bug--I thank years of teaching small children for building my immune system. That, or the universe knows that someone had to stay well and keep the house running.

The only good thing that came from our virtual house arrest (combine sick kids and cold rainy weather), is that Reese is nearly potty trained. I would claim total victory if it weren't for some sticking points I'll address later.

Before she got sick, we announced to Reese that we had bought our last box of diapers. When they ran out, that was it--no more diapers. Our announcement was met with immediate enthusiasm. She wanted to start wearing panties (cotton training pants) immediately.

There were a few days of accidents on the floor, but after about day three, we had only one accident right before nap time and she was wearing panties to bed at nap also. She's also had multiple days at school in just panties and every day I've gone to pick her up, she's in the same set of clothes--so, no accidents on that front.

We kept our sticker chart incentive program to help her along, but added a bonus that proved motivating in the first few days: Skype calls with Grandpa Righter. In her enthusiasm to announce her successful potties to the world, Grandpa Righter was included in the list of people she just had to tell. (The others on the list were mommy, daddy, Paige, and Annie--as well as anyone else in the house at the moment.)

Like I said, our victory has been sweet, but not nearly complete. For some reason, Reese is terrified to have a poop in the potty. She will withhold her poop until night time (when she's still wearing a diaper) and then poop in her diaper and demand a change. I've got a transition plan in mind--we're keeping diapers around for the poops, then we'll move to pooping on the potty in a diaper, and finally on the potty without a diaper...I figure we've got time. She's got to be fully "trained" by 3 for school, but that's still 6+months away.

You ate what?

2011-01-14T15:34:00.007-06:00

I now have the number for poison control saved in my phone. After my second call in the last six months I thought it was a good "investment."

While the topic is still fresh, I figured a blog about the history of Reese's food "experiments" was timely.

1. In June, the day before we went to the beach Reese I made my first ever call to poison control. While I was taking a shower, Reese brought her step stool into our bathroom, pulled it up to our counter, and got a hold of a tube of toothpaste. She managed to remove the twist off cap, and when I exited the shower, she was spooning finger-fulls of toothpaste into her mouth. Luckily the tube was almost empty, so she couldn't have consumed very much. I was shocked on several levels, mainly: When did she learn to unscrew things? How resourceful that she figured out that she needed her step-stool to get things off the counter. And so began my experience with poison control. Luckily, based on her weight and the amount she ate, we were able to easily solve the problem by giving her a glass of milk and some tums. (To bind with the fluoride and neutralize it.)

2. Several weeks after our trip to the beach, Reese became interested in floss. Knowing that she'd have to start flossing some day, we indulged her interest, and helped her floss her teeth each night. After Mommy and Daddy did the majority of the flossing, she got a turn to try herself. One night, Daddy was flossing his teeth after dinner and when Reese asked for a piece of floss he gave it to her. Wrapped up in doing the dishes, neither of us noticed that she swallowed it. When we asked her what happened she very quickly and honestly told us she ate the floss. I called the pediatrician the next morning to ask their advice. "It should be no problem," they began, "she'll likely pass it in her stool in the next day or so. But, if you don't see it come out in the next two days, or she starts having trouble having bowel movements bring her in." What was their concern? That the piece of floss could get bunched up or wrapped around her intestines requiring surgery. Great. She got a dose of Miralax that morning to ensure there would be no holding back. Mommy had a day of poop foraging, and by the evening had discovered a six inch piece of floss embedded in a dirty diaper.

Which brings us to last week, and my second call to poison control
3. Bath and Body Works now makes their "anti-bac" line in every format imaginable. Soap, lotion, hand gel, and now a hand spray. Shortly after Paige was born, I bought a small container of hand-spray-sanitizer to keep on the changing table.
While changing Paige's diaper, Reese got a hold of it and took it to the living room. By the time I got to the living room with a freshly diapered baby in tow, Reese had unscrewed the cap and was working on disassembling the sprayer. I immediately asked, "Did you drink any of the spray?" "No, it tastes yucky." Hmmm...the logic here had me concerned. "How do you know it tastes yucky?" "Because it's yucky in my mouth." we continued. "Then you did drink some spray?" "No." This exchange continued until I finally understood it was an issue of semantics. Yes, Reese did drink the sanitizer solution, just not from the sprayer. And why not try something that smells like coconuts? With 70%+ alcohol content, and God only knows how much in her system, it was time to call my friends at poison control. The woman who answered my call scrolled through her data base, "Let's see, was it gel, lotion, or soap?" "None of those, actually, it was spray." I had the "honor" of explaining the new product line, reading the alcohol content off the back and helping her update the poison control data base--apparently we were their first call about ingesting the "spray" variety. Again, the concerns were minimal--their main advice was to watch for signs of intoxication and to give her a sugary snack (lest her blood sugar dip while she metabolizes the alcohol). There was no running into walls, or even staggering around that afternoon, so i can only assume she's inherited some good tolerance. ;o)

Do you smell that?

2011-01-11T14:29:00.004-06:00

Kevin and I have joked on many occasions that since having children our house is full of strange smells on a nearly constant basis. Between pets, formula, baby food, diaper pails, spit up...you get the picture. Let's just say our stomachs are stronger and our noses are more sensitive than a few years ago.

This weekend, we smelled something new. Both in Paige's closet and our garage we could occasionally smell the faint trace of natural gas. By Sunday afternoon we were getting concerned since the furnace was running more frequently in the colder weather.

So...Kevin called the gas company. I had just pulled dinner out of the oven when he hung up and told us that we were supposed to evacuate the house and wait outside until the repairman arrived. 5pm, a misty 40 degrees, and two small children who hadn't eaten dinner? Who were they kidding?!? I immediately got on the phone with our neighbors and ended up dragging Reese, Paige, my diaper bag, and our dinner two houses over.

Luckily we have amazing neighbors. These are the same people who I've called on constantly for last minute emergencies--going into labor, taking Paige to see specialists, when Kevin had a car accident etc. etc. They welcomed me into their house and we all tried to laugh about our terrible string of luck lately.

Meanwhile, Kevin wrangled Annie into the back of my car and waited for the gas-man to arrive. Apparently Annie was a basket case since the car never started moving (usually car rides = going somewhere fun) and people who were out walking their dogs kept constantly passing by. I was sure that when the repairman arrived and Kevin had to leave her in the car she was going to either tear my upholstery to shreds, get nervously-induced-explosive diarrhea, or try to climb into the front cabin of the car.

The girls and I made due at our neighbors, although the visit wasn't without it's mini dramas:

1. When our neighbor held Paige so I could serve Reese dinner, she managed to pee all over herself and down his dress shirt. (He was dressed for a meeting later that evening.) Luckily, they both had changes of clothing available.
2. Our neighbors kindly let me give Reese a bath in their bathroom (a good distraction for Reese and a leg up on the bedtime routine once we got home). After her bath, though, I realized that I didn't have any Reese-size diapers in my diaper bag. I would have let her go without, but she insisted she needed to have a bowel movement, and she was terrified of trying to go on their "big" potties. So...I squeezed her into one of Paige's size one diapers...quite a sight to see.

A little more than two hours after our evacuation, we were allowed back in the house. Kevin relayed the story of the repair to me: There had been a leak in the flex-hose that goes into our furnace. The repairman located the leak and then Kevin did most of the repair. Luckily Kevin had all the tools he needed to fix the hose--tin snips, teflon tape, multiple wrenches. Why the repairman had none of these items, I'm not sure. I am glad, though, that I hadn't waited until Monday when Kevin wasn't around--God only knows how long they would have had us evacuated if we had to wait for someone to bring tools etc.

What a long end to our weekend...did I mention that Reese is running a fever today? If it's not one thing, it's another. But I can at least say that our home is no longer "an explosive environment."

Paige's Predicament

2011-01-04T20:36:00.007-06:00

I've been absent from blogging due to an excess of medical drama at our house lately.

I blogged recently about how Paige wasn't a good sleeper or eater; truth be told, my blog barely scratched the surface on those issues and in the two weeks leading up to Christmas, things started spiraling out of control.

It started when Paige began waking up crying every hour at night and wouldn't sleep more than 15-30 minutes during the day. Even in her swing (which was our go-to for guaranteed sleepy time), she would wake after short periods of time (day or night). Talk about exhausting. (She didn't even sleep the duration of an hour drive to San Antonio for Christmas--aren't babies + cars supposed to = magic sleeping time?)

We figured it was a growth spurt or the result of her cold. I took her to the pediatrician who checked her ears for an ear infection, her chest for congestion, and explained that her stuffy nose may be making sleeping and eating difficult since at this point she's still an obligate nose-breather.

During this same time, Paige's eating also started to take a turn for the worse. At the beginning of December I did a two day "study" on how much she was eating vs. how much milk I was producing. (I was motivated both by curiosity and a selfish desire to see if I could pump less and still keep up with her eating needs.) At the time, she was eating 17-20oz/day of expressed breastmilk. (See previous blogs about the drama and decision to bottle feed her.) By New Year's weekend she was down to ~80z/day.

Not only were her feeds small (or non-existent), but they were filled with screaming. Paige would root frantically for her bottle, take a few sips, then start arching her back screaming. We would get her calmed down only to restart the process minutes later. At a good feeding, we'd somehow manage to get her to eat an ounce. It was exhausting and frustrating to listen to her screams and see that she was still hungry, but unable (or unwilling) to eat. Add on to this the strange phenomenon that she had stopped having regular bowel movements and we were worried. I know breastfed babies poop less often than formula fed babies, but 7-10+ days isn't in the normal range. We weren't sure, though, if it was just related to her lack of intake.

We thought of and tried everything: Maybe the milk is too hot? too cold? Maybe it's the bottle? (We tried a new brand of bottle as well as putting her back to the breast.) Maybe she wants to eat in a more/less reclined position? Maybe she needs a quite dark room? Maybe she needs soothing sounds/music? Maybe she needs to be swaddled? Maybe she only likes it when _____ feeds her? Has she forgotten how to eat? Does she need gas drops? Does her dose of reflux medicine need to be adjusted?

The week after Christmas I had had enough. I was at the end of my rope and I actually video taped a feeding session and brought the footage to our pedi. Since our usual doctor was booked, I saw another doctor--and by coincidence, he was the same one who prescribed Paige the refulx medicine around Thanksgiving time at the after hours clinic. He remembered our case, watched the video and was extremely sympathetic. He explained that sometimes the reflux medicine he prescribed doesn't work--it just reduces acid, it doesn't prevent the creation of acid. If Paige's problems really were related to reflux, she might need to be on a different medicine (that has to be specially compounded at a pharmacy that doesn't accept our insurance), and she may be reacting to the pain of damage in her esophagus due to chronic refluxing. In short, he gave us a new prescription and told us to come back if things hadn't improved in a week.

The weekend following our visit and new medicine, things got even worse. She wasn't sleeping at all, and her feedings were out of control. Like I mentioned above, we were lucky to get 80z into her in a nearly 24 hour period. I went back to the pedi on Monday after I dropped Reese off at school.

Monday's visit came with a call to a pediatric GI, some new ideas, and lots of horrible tests.
Ideas: She has a UTI, metabolism/absorption problem, kidney/liver/pancreas function issues, a REALLY horrible case of reflux, or a milk/soy protein allergy.
Tests: a cath to get a urine sample (it took many horrible attempts to get just a tiny sample), a blood draw (took multiple sticks since she was dehydrated), an abdominal ultra sound (to check her anatomy), and an upper gi.

It all resulted in a lot of tears for Paige and Mommy, a trip to Dell Children's hospital, and a few sample cans of some hypoallergenic formula.

All of Paige's tests came back normal--her blood work was fine, her urine culture was clear, and her parts are all in the right place. So, we're left to assume that it's still related to a food allergy, bad reflux, or both.

After a few days on the new formula we were having mixed results, so we went to see the pediatric GI specialist at Dell Children's Hospital. He listened to the story of our experience, checked Paige thoroughly, and gave us a plan of action as well as a follow up in four weeks.

Right now, we're currently:
1. Feeding Paige the hypoallergenic formula (and hoping things improve, since we don't really want to have to put her on $100/can amino acid formula); this means I've decided to stop pumping/breastfeeding completely. I've got too much going on keep pumping with the idea that she'll eventually go back to needing my milk; and if she's got an allergy to a protein in my diet, I've decided I'm not going to try and survive on celery and water chestnuts just so I can keep producing milk that won't give her issues.

2. Putting her to sleep in a bed at 30 degree angle. Yes, you read that right: 30 degrees. It looks ridiculous, and we had to rig up a head support system with a quilt shoved beneath the legs so she doesn't slide down it all night every time she wiggles. It's supposed to limit the reflux while she's laying down.

3. We're continuing with her medicine, but trying a new form prescribed by the GI. It's the same medicine and the same dosage, it's just compounded at home using water. It's supposedly "more bio-available" and absorbed/processed better.

4. Giving her suppositories "up to daily" for the next month. It took almost a week for her stools to stop looking like breastmilk stools and for us to be sure that she passed all the barium that was used in her upper gi testing. No one feels good when they're irregular.

So...after a full week of these procedures, we're seeing improvements. Her tummy issues have settled dramatically and she no longer cries in pain when passing gas--and she doesn't sound like a machine gun who's passing gas all day either. Almost all of her feeds are screaming free lately--at least 80%+, anyway, even if they are still somewhat small in volume. She's only getting up 2-4 times a night, and every once in a while she'll take a nap that lasts more than an hour. Through all of this, she has remained a happy baby, and for that we're grateful. We just hope that through all these adjustments we can make her comfortable during her eating and sleeping times too.

Until then, I'm a mommy with cabbage in my bra and all my digits crossed.

Bath Time!

2010-12-31T20:04:00.004-06:00

When Reese came home from the hospital, every bath for the first three months of her life was full of screaming. From beginning to end, Reese would turn red-faced and protest her time in the water. Thinking about her love of bath time now, it seems impossible, but I've got the photos to prove it. (see below)

Paige couldn't be more different. Every bath time she coos and smiles through the entire process. It's not until she's lifted out of the tub (when I'm sure she gets cold) that she utters the slightest cry. What a lovely water baby.

Christmas

2010-12-31T19:58:00.003-06:00

Christmas this year was full of activity--and lots of packing.

After Santa visited our house in Austin, we packed up the girls (and Annie) for a whirlwind tour of the grandparents' homes in San Antonio. Reese was beside herself with all the attention and I'm convinced she now thinking Christmas is a multi-day present giving event more like Hanukkah (on steroids), but oh well. Next year we'll also have to tackle the idea that Paige will get to open her OWN presents. Reese sure didn't mind helping this year.

The girls were showered in gifts and attention and Mommy will be spending the next week unpacking, doing laundry, and finding homes for all their new toys.

Reese At Play

2010-12-31T19:53:00.003-06:00

Here are some of Reese's block creations. We were pretty impressed with her solo construction ideas. When you ask her what she's built she'll usually tell you it's either a tower, a skyscraper, a neighborhood, a zoo, or HEB.

Always shopping...

For Christmas, Rachel gave Reese a second tutu. Hesitant to give up her original tutu from Grandma Bailey, this is how Reese chose to combine them. Kind of reminds me of Madonna or a bride circa 1985.

It Takes A Village

2010-12-31T19:27:00.003-06:00

The saying that begins, "It takes a village..." rings in my head constantly now that I have two children. Well, that along with the stories of my mother raising two small children while stranded in a house in Minot ND when it was 50 below. Or Kevin's mother and her story of the Ohio roads that were too dangerous to drive with kiddies in tow. And with the possibility of Kevin traveling for work in the near future, I find myself thinking: What are people thinking when they have kids and try to raise them on their own?!?

Now that the child:parent ratio in our house is 1:1, things get hairy easily. (Let's not even delve into the problems that I encounter when the kiddos outnumber me while Kevin is at work.) I don't have enough hands (or time) to keep everyone clean, feed, and happy all the time. Usually it's my needs that give first--"Today I have to choose between: taking a shower, eating 3 meals, or going to the bathroom by myself, which will it be?" It makes the idea of living near grandparents, or moving to a country where villages pull together to help care for small children (even if they don't have running water) seem like a swell idea.

So, you may ask, why not hire help? To which I answer: Have you priced baby sitters lately?!?
If I have to pay the teenager down the block $10/hr so my kids are alive when I return, I've barely got cash left over to justify spending on leaving the house in the first place. Let's not even get into the price of nannies--we are living on one income for the time being.

We had a friend babysit for us during the month of December on four separate occasions. I felt like I was in heaven. She didn't charge us anything, and the children were happy, fed,bathed, and usually asleep when we returned. Now that we have two kids, finding babysitting help is much harder--if it takes both of us to wrangle the children, we feel badly asking any ONE person to take over the task for us. And now that we don't have the time/money/energy to see our friends as much socially, we feel badly asking them to babysit for us. "Hey, we haven't seen you guys in a few months, but can you come watch our kids so we can get out of the house?" It just seems like we're taking advantage.

So, here's to hoping that as the girls grow we find some good, cheap, babysitters, or I may forgo running water and find a nice village.

One out of Three

2010-12-17T02:08:00.008-06:00

I didn't start blogging after the birth of Reese until she was almost five months old. Why the delay? Because she was the colicky baby from hell...I love her dearly, but it's true. At just days old she would stay awake for hours on end screaming unless she was being held and soothed. Some colicky babies like to eat for comfort (so I've heard), Reese made breast and bottle feeding a nightmare as well. There were many days when I was so tired I could barely stand, and my nerves were rattled by my introduction to motherhood. In short, there was plenty of material to write about, I just didn't have the stamina or gal to write about it. Five months later, Reese began her transformation into a much more manageable baby, and her blog began.

While pregnant with Paige I dreamed of having a fat, happy, sleepy baby who would make motherhood-of-two an easier transition for me. Well, I'm 1 for 3.

Fat: Born early at just over 5lbs, Paige is gaining weight, but is no chunky monkey. It doesn't really bother me that she'll likely be a little one like Reese, except that I still have worries about how much she's eating. Since deciding to bottle feed her expressed milk (which is still going well), I can see how much she eats, and I just don't know if she's getting enough. It's a total Catch-22: breastfeed and you have NO idea how much they're eating, bottle feed and still wonder if 1oz at a time is really enough.

Happy: Here's the one thing that rings true for Paige--she is a MUCH happier baby than Reese. She began smiling about a week and half ago. She turns on the smile for Mommy (or Mommy's voice) quite often, but has also been known to flash some big grins to her big sister. This week she's started laughing and "talking." If she's awake and well rested, you can put her in her bouncy seat or on her play mat and she'll screech and laugh at all the things she sees. Reese wasn't a grumpy baby, just serious, so seeing Paige act like this at such a young age is really a joy.

Sleepy: Maybe if I had been sedentary during my pregnancies, my children would have learned earlier to sleep in stationary positions. But alas, teaching kept me on my feet during my pregnancy with Reese, and Reese kept me active during my pregnancy with Paige. In the long run it was probably good for my health, but it's left me wondering if it turned my children into motion-junkies. Much like Reese, Paige has had difficulty sleeping unless she's being a)held b)vigorously jiggled (via person, automobile, or vibrating contraption) or c)in her swing. Since coming home from the hospital Paige has slept in her bouncy seat, in her swing (in our closet), and in my arms (or any other relative willing to hold her), but NOT alone in her bed. About a week ago we thought we had broken the motion-sleep habit by accomplishing a few days/nights of sleep in her crib. It was short lived, though, and she's been putting us back through our paces lately. When Paige gets sleepy (about an hour after she wakes up--e.g. leaving me just enough time to feed her, change her, and never leave the house), we swaddle her up and begin to soothe her. Rocking and jiggling are the main methods of success, although lately she enjoys a pacifier as well. Just when you think she's asleep, you lay her gently in her crib and tip-toe out the door. Without fail, between 5 and 15 minutes (if you're lucky) later, she's awake and screaming. Last night, she woke up from a nap around 12:45PM and we couldn't get her to go down for more than 15 minutes at a stretch until 9:30PM when we relented and put her back in her swing. (Where she slept until almost 3AM, completely exhausted.) At one point last night we tried letting her cry for a little while (since we KNEW she was fed but exhausted), but she only succeeded in getting more upset, sweaty, and on the verge of vomiting. We had a mild success this afternoon when Kevin spent almost 45 minutes soothing her into DEEP sleep before putting her down. It seemed to work, but the practicality of me doing that on my own multiple times a day is slim. From several experiences this week I know that there aren't a whole lot of things more frustrating that getting a baby to sleep (so you think) and then having said baby awakened by a tantruming toddler who bursts into the room, or a dog that decides to come in and give her coat a good shake, or a dog who barks at the UPS man (who always seems to come when one or BOTH children are sleeping), or a neighbor delivering holiday cookies....you get the point. It doesn't help matters that I think Reese and Paige conspire via ESP so that there's NEVER a point when they are both asleep--day or night. In my fragmented night sleep (which is still not coming in more than 3 hours increments), I'm dreaming of a night when both my children sleep for more than five hours at a time. Let's just say I now understand why sleep-deprivation is used as a form of torture.

I hear stories of babies Paige's age "sleeping through the night," being in the 90th% in weight, and never giving their parents any trouble. To them, I secretly think, "I hope your children pay you back when they're teenagers," and cross my fingers that my girls are just giving me a run for my money now and will be easier to manage as they grow.

In other news, Paige now fits in the Baby Bjorn, although she doesn't like the new born head support; and Reese has succeeded in bringing home yet another cold to share with the family. And yes, Paige has already gotten it. It must be all of those big sister kisses.

Santa and Jesus

2010-12-16T15:54:00.007-06:00

Last Christmas was the Christmas-for-understanding-presents: Reese helped everyone open their gifts, and had a blast with all the paper, bows, and ribbon. This year, Reese is all about the Christmas stories--Santa and Jesus.Let me be clear: she by no means has an understanding of both the secular and religious implications of the holiday, but it is fun to hear her relate her thoughts and feelings about each.

Highlights of Santa: Reese knows he has a beard, and that reindeer help him (although she was adamant that reindeer DO NOT have red noses), but she thinks he lives at the mall. This weekend, the fire department drove through the neighborhood on a fire truck with Santa atop. We heard the truck making the rounds in the neighborhood, and on our third attempt, Reese caught sight of him. She was pretty excited and talked about it the rest of the afternoon. Her synopsis of why he left? "I think he had to go back to the mall." Here's some video of her talking about Santa's drive around the neighborhood.

Speaking of the mall, we made our annual Santa visit on Tuesday morning. We arrived promptly at 10AM, fearing long lines and cranky children (both mine as well as others). We were third in line to see Santa, the girls were dressed in their matching Christmas dresses, everyone was fed and awake, and then Santa appeared. Reese cowered in fear, grabbed my hand and told me she wanted to go home. Suddenly the event she had been talking about for weeks, was too scary. We watched other children (both older and younger than Reese) sit on his lap without incident. But when her fear didn't abate, I put Paige on his lap, snapped a photo and called it quits. After all the effort to get two kids out the door to the mall, though, we stayed and had a soft pretzel for morning snack and then rode the indoor train.

Jesus: On Monday, Reese's school had their Christmas celebration parties and went on a hunt for baby Jesus. (They actually had a infant sibling play the role!) It was another event to remember for Reese. She's been telling us a lot about how baby Jesus was in a manger with his Mommy and Daddy (sometimes referred to as Mary and "I Forgot") and lots of animals.

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

2010-12-10T03:18:00.009-06:00

Shortly after Reese was born my mom quickly tired of calls with questions like "How old was I when I rolled over?", "When did I get my first teeth?", "How much did I weigh when I was ____?" Many of her answers were "I don't know, I'll check your baby book." Soon, however, she decided it was easier to relinquish custody of the baby book instead of fielding my random questions via phone**.

Since inheriting the records my mom kept of my youth, I've consulted the book many times. While Reese and I didn't accomplish all our developmental milestones along the same timeline, it's been comforting to see the growth charts that chronicle my slow weight gain as a baby and see notes about my screaming colicky months.

My baby book contains all the typical trappings: news paper clippings, "baby's firsts," month-by-month photos etc. But, it also contains short journal entries that my mom made during each month of my young life. The entries are handwritten on notebook paper and begin relating short anecdotes of my life around the one year mark.

When Reese started acting very "two-ish" this fall, Kevin and I started to wonder, "Is this normal?" And, let's be honest, there was a little bit of wondering, "Who does she get this from?"
I dug out my baby book to investigate.

The first group of journal entries I grabbed were from the months leading up to Kim's birth (15-21 mos. old). I sighed when I read my mom's bubbly entries about my developing verbal skills and her croons of "What a lovely child." Nice, but no help.

When I searched more for the entries about my life as a two year old, though, I discovered a 6+ month gap in my mom's writing--coinciding with the birth of Kim. Now that I have two kids of my own, I can hardly blame her for putting down the pen. It's hard to find time to go to shower, let a lone write.

When her journal entries resume around the 2 1/2 year mark, their tone is different. Her sentences are shorter, her stories about my behavior not so glowing. I breathed a slight sigh of relief and found solace in quite a few. Below are some direct quotes from the entries...see if you can see the parallels between them and what Kevin and I have been going through lately.

* "Elaine likes to dress herself. Gets frustrated but doesn't want any help. She yells 'I cant do it by myself!'"

* "Elaine has an elaborate bedtime routine. Gets rocked, drinks juice, brushes teeth, reads bedtime books, says prayers, needs a glass of water, needs a new book, says good night, gets up 5 minutes later, goes to bathroom, needs more kisses, needs to be rocked again, then maybe will go to sleep."

* "Elaine loves the swing and would swing all day long if we would push her." (There have been many times I've taken Reese to the park in hopes she'll run off some energy, but all she wants to do is swing.)

* "Elaine whines a great deal when she wants something. Should tape her and play it back to her as a punishment."

I KNOW I became an easy kid for my parents at some point--good in school, played independently, ate vegetables, was responsible--so, I'm hoping that Reese has such things in her future as well.

In this post I chose to leave out the amusing tales of my interactions with Kim as a toddler. (Think "Elaine bit Kim's finger today for no reason..." kind of tales.) After all, I know that relationship turned out ok despite any bodily harm we inflicted on each other before the age of 5.

And don't let this post fool you--Grandma Bailey has her own slew of stories about a toddler Kevin who could be found smashing Christmas ornaments and dumping Cheerios all over the kitchen floor. If only we knew how our genes would combine and create the perfect storm of toddler-hood...

**Editor's Note: My mom was not trying to hold my baby book captive, in fact she had been trying to give it to me for months (if not years) leading up to Reese's birth. Not one to be a pack-rat, though, I kept refusing it until she eventually brought it up to Austin and dropped it off during a visit soon after Reese's birth.

Christmas Card Photos

2010-12-08T13:07:00.003-06:00

This weekend, while Kevin was at HEB I had the challenge of trying to take our annual Christmas card photo--this year with both girls, no parents, and no animals.

I won't reveal the "winning" photo(s), but here are some of the ones that didn't make the cut.

Two Month Check Up

2010-12-08T12:59:00.003-06:00

Today was Paige's two month check up. Following a 4:45AM wake up call, and a fussy morning, I was not excited about the idea of dragging both her and Reese (along with my GIANT mug of coffee) to the pediatrician.

Our doctor was actually running late (an oddity), but Reese amused herself with the magazines in the office and held on to the promise that I would let her color on the exam table with her crayons once we had been called.

Paige's appointment went well--she's up to 9lbs and 20 1/2" long. Her measurements have her hovering in the 5-10th percentiles in length and weight, but since she started off the charts (negatively), I'm pleased. Four pounds in two months? I'll take it. Besides, we're used to the little numbers in our house thanks to Reese. Just like Reese, though, her head circumference is her biggest measurement. Lots of brains, right?

The doctor said everything looks good. He's happy with her weight gain, and he commented on how strong her legs muscles are (she tried to kick him during the hip exam).

At the end of her appointment, Paige got her first immunizations. We passed on the Hep B vaccine in the hospital since she was getting so many tests run and being poked constantly, so she received three shots and one oral vaccine. When Reese was her age (and until recently), she would cry after getting shots, but would have a very ANGRY cry. Paige, started with the silent scream (which I expected), but then had five minutes of the most pathetic cry I've ever heard. She was frowning and crying real tears. It was one of the saddest things I've seen in a long time.

Reese was never the kind of kid who's run fevers or (God-forbid) slept all day after getting her shots. Usually, she's just a little sore and cranky. So far Paige is fever free, but I have managed to get her down for a nap (in her bed no less!), so we'll see how the day goes. Tylenol is standing by just in case.

Lights, Lullabyes, and Locks

2010-12-08T01:52:00.003-06:00

Kevin and I used to look forward to 7:30PM because it meant bedtime; which translated to a few hours of peace before we had to turn in. We could use the time to talk, watch a TV show, or work on a pet project. Since Paige's birth, our evenings have gotten a lot busier.

Of course we knew we'd be spending time in the evenings feeding and soothing Paige, but Reese has been giving us a run for the money at bed time, and now the 7 o'clock hour is something we dread, not look forward to.

It started with the screams from her bedroom for more lullabies, sips of water, and diaper changes, then recently escalated to trips out of her bed and down the hall. Last weekend, we reached the breaking point on several issues: lights, lullabies, and locks.

Lights: Very suddenly Reese decided she was afraid of the dark. Screams of "It's dark. I don't like it." started coming across the monitor. To be fair, Reese's room is very dark at night. She doesn't have a digital clock or even night light, so once it gets dark outside, her room is pitch black. It's never seemed to bother her before, and we thought it helped her sleep. Besides the onset of two-year-old fears, I think her concern comes from her jaunts out of bed. Once she makes it out of bed, I'm sure it's hard to find her way back in the dark. So...we got her a nightlight. But not just any night light. We didn't feel comfortable getting her one that plugged in the wall after her "exploration" of the light socket on Paige's first night home, so we called Aunt Kate and got the skinny on her cool touch-no-plug night light. We found it at Target and it has been a hit.

Lullabies: For the last six months, Reese has been listening to lullabies on her CD player as she drifts off to sleep. We simply set the CD player on track #11 and it plays the last three songs and shuts off. Recently three songs started to not be enough and Reese could be found getting out of bed to try and restart her CD. Sometimes she succeeded, other times she only succeeded in hitting a combination of buttons that effectively paused the CD or sent it into a skipping frenzy. This weekend we also noticed that her lullaby CD was scratched so badly that it no longer played the last three songs without getting stuck. Luckily, the CD was one of a trio Grandma Bailey had bought for her, so we just stuck in a new one. BAD move. Little did we know how attached she was to those three tracks of music. It's taken some practice and convincing, but we now just start the new CD at track one (at night time) and let it run. Lately it's taking her so long to fall asleep, this is our only guarantee to limit requests for "more lullabies!"

Locks: Saturday night was a rough one for Mommy. Paige was up several times to eat and required some serious soothing to get her back down, and without fail, every time Paige was down, Reese was up---and wandering around the house. In the last month, we've tried multiple methods to stop this new habit. Our first attempts involved the no-eye-contact-silent escort back to bed. This works great if your child is seeking your attention. But after two weeks of 20+ trips a night, plus a wakeful baby, we couldn't take it any more. So, we tried time-outs. They worked the first two or three times, but time-out is no match for a curious and sneaky Reese. When trips out of her bed escalated in frequency and destruction (digging through drawers in the kitchen), I called the ball and demanded we get door knob covers/locks for her room. So, on Sunday, we installed three door knob covers: one on the inside of Reese's room to prevent her from getting out, and two on the outside of both Paige's room and the guest bathroom, to prevent Reese from getting in. It's a little bit of a relief to know Reese isn't wandering the house at 2AM, but she still is putting up a fight, and most nights (and naps) can be found (for at least a portion of the time), laying next to the door or trying her hardest to open it. Just this morning, at 5AM, i turned on the monitor to find her sleeping next to her door. At 11PM she was tucked in bed,and I feel badly that I don't know how long she spent on the floor, but I scooped her up and tucked her back in, and she's still asleep now....for the moment.

Incomplete

2010-12-07T02:37:00.005-06:00

I'm a list maker. I always have been. Some days there is no greater satisfaction than crossing something off of a to-do list.

When my sister came to our house the day I was in labor to watch Reese, she jokes that she could tell Monday was "list day," because she found no less than 4 lists on the dining room table--grocery, house chores, baby prep etc.

It is ironic that since making our family "complete" with the addition of Paige, I have had to learn quickly to deal with incompleteness. To do lists are still getting made, but I've realized that checking things off with the regularity of the past is unrealistic.

With two needy children around, everything I do is piecemeal, and things are left incomplete constantly.

Dinner takes all day to prepare, and not because I'm creating gourmet dishes. Ingredients are chopped during Paige's morning nap, combined during Reese's afternoon nap, and with Paige in a sling or the bouncy chair, it all gets combined sometime between 4 and 6 and generally left to simmer until Kevin gets home.

Laundry? I try not to let it sit in the washing machine while wet, but it can now take up to two days to get a load completely washed, dried, and hung up. It's not helping matters that Paige sleeps in our closet right now--after soothing her to sleep, it's hard to justify the possibility of waking her up just to get some shirts on hangers.

Dishes now pile in my sink until I can steal a few minutes here or there to get them washed or into the constantly full dishwasher.

And forget blogging, reading, or even showering most days. Finding ten minutes here or there to do anything is a challenge. My car is desperate for a car wash, and I keep my fingers crossed that we get the library books returned on time.

So, with two small kids, things are changing--Christmas shopping is done on line, my hair is a little greasier, and I usually have a toddler in the shower with me. The to-do lists are still getting made, but I'm trying to give myself a break when things stay on them for days (or weeks) at a time.

Judge Not

2010-12-03T13:50:00.002-06:00

Before having kids, it's easy to judge the parenting you see in action around you. The kid screaming in the shopping cart, the mom at the pediatrician with a toddler wearing only a diaper, the 3 year-old fast food junkies that don't know the name of a single vegetable. "Our kid will never be like that," you think or say to your spouse.

And then you have a kid...
Suddenly your eyes are open to a new world--you're the one with the kiddo screaming in the milk aisle because your trip is too close to nap time. With Reese, I came to understand many parenting situations I didn't before. Yes, I cried the first time she ate a french fry at Chickfila (convinced the American Academy of Pediatrics would hunt me down for such an infraction), and I did with-hold TV viewing until 18mos, but we've had our share of "I-thought-I'd-never" moments.

And then you have a second kid...all bets are off. You realize it's impossible to manage things that were common place just months before. For example:

* Getting both children "appropriately" clothed. My definition of appropriate is on the slide. Reese throws a fit when it's time to wear two matching socks? Who cares if one's pink and one's green. There has been more than one occasion since Paige's birth that she's left the house in her Pajamas, just b/c I don't have the time or energy to fight the battle of changing clothes.

* Dinner is still a family event in our house that we haven't given up on. Unless Daddy's at work late, we sit down for dinner together every night. The change has come in Reese's meals and appetite. She doesn't' eat her veggies? Oh well--I'm not going to cajole and bribe. If she's hungry she'll eat. Daddy's not home tonight and we're eating as a two-some and she wants waffles and bananas for dinner? Sure, coming right up.

* With Paige around, there are definitely more opportunities for Reese to play independently. While it's taken almost 2 months, Reese is finally getting used to this fact. And with this comes more opportunities to get into trouble. I'd heard stories about toddlers attacking furniture with Sharpies, or swallowing something inedible, and thought, "How does that happen?" Well, folks, the answer is "quickly." In the few minutes it takes to swaddle Paige, change a diaper, or God-forbid FEED her, Reese is finding all new ways to entertain herself. Examples so far include: scribbling all over her stomach with pens she dug out of a drawer in the kitchen, covering our freezer in the reward stickers we've been using for her potty chart, pulling all the books off of Mommy and Daddy's book shelf, rearranging the ornaments on the Christmas tree (and moving half a dozen GLASS ones to Annie's bed), unwinding half of a spool of thread etc etc. Let's not forget last night when she got out of bed, wandered into Paige's room, and dumped EVERYTHING from the changing table (including Paige's pacifier and medicine) into the Diaper Genie.

And so, I vow not to judge other parents...it's all about survival.

Paige Eating Update

2010-11-29T18:58:00.003-06:00

It was 5 o'clock, Thanksgiving Eve and Paige's screeches were ringing through our house. She had barely eaten all day and every time a bottle or breast graced her lips, she would eat frantically for a few seconds and begin her protests anew.

After Reese we consider ourselves pretty used to screaming babies. Reese screamed non-stop most of her first 4 months alive. Colic? Milk issues? We can't be sure now, but we were frazzled to say the least when dealing with a baby who seemed so disturbed so much of the time.

Paige is different--she hasn't been the complainer her sister was. Generally, she cries when hungry, or when over-tired and in need of soothing. But unlike her big sis, she can be soothed with some cuddling in a rocking chair (not the hall-pacing hell of two years ago). Sure, she's not a great sleeper (much like her sister), but I'm hoping that comes with time.

So, when her screams escalated at each feeding Thanksgiving week, we couldn't take it anymore. Kevin called the after hours clinic and he took over toddler-bedtime so I could make a 7:20PM doctor's appointment with Paige.

I saw a doctor from our clinic and explained our situation--was all this feeding trouble the lingering effects of her cold or something else? I had switched to mainly bottles of expressed milk, so flow rate, latch, and other factors could be ruled out, so why were we still struggling so much? The poor kid was obviously hungry, she just wouldn't eat.

When I explained the situation, the doctor said it sounded like a classic case of reflux. He prescribed us some meds and I RACED out the door to HEB before their 9PM closing time (knowing they'd be closed Thanksgiving Day). Our pharmacy didn't have the meds, so I raced to another HEB only to fight the last minute turkey shoppers and BEG for the pharmacist to fill my prescription before close--I couldn't bear the idea of enduring another two days of such feeding hell.

Just two doses of meds later, Paige has been eating without protest. Hallelujah!
Sure, the grape flavored meds aren't her favorite part of the day, and they stain everything in sight if/when she spits it back at me, but I'll take it. If a kid is going to eat 8-10 times a day, they might as well enjoy it.

Now, if only she'd sleep a little longer than 2-3 hours at a time...

Reese-in-the-Box

2010-11-28T20:18:00.004-06:00

When we moved Reese into her big girl room this summer and into a twin-sized bed, I got lots of questions from other moms: "Doesn't she get out of bed now?"; "Is she sleeping ok?"; "Aren't you worried she'll fall out?" etc. etc. "No, everything is fine, " was my consummate answer. Well, the joke's on me now.

Unlike other parents, we made her move on our terms. We weren't prompted by repeated attempts to escape her crib, and as I wrote soon after the transition, things went fine with sleeping in a big bed. In fact, Kevin and I joked together when she dropped Ellie out of bed and called us in for help. She obviously hadn't figured out she could get out of bed and retrieve her beloved animal herself.

Well...in the last week, she's definitely figured out how to get out of bed, and we're all suffering for it.

It all started about a month ago: a few missed naps, a few trips out of bed (viewed on the video monitor) to turn her CD player back on or get an extra sip of water. She always (eventually) got back in the bed by herself and went to sleep. Now, there's a new skill to contend with, though: opening her door.

Now every sleep period (nap or night-time) is punctuated by trips out of her bed, and sometimes down the hallway. The first few times it happened I figured I hadn't latched the door properly, but recently I've seen otherwise.

The first time I rolled over and saw our two-year old standing next to our bed staring at me, my reaction was something out of a horror movie. My heart was in my throat, and I had to reconcile what I saw. Now, every time I lay down I realize that my ear is on the monitor listening for her sister, and my brain is prepped for a chance encounter with Reese at our bedside. It doesn't make for great sleeping--as if I'm getting many hours as it is.

We've resorted to trying to move bedtime a little earlier--anticipating at least two silent, no-eye-contact, escorts back down the hall to her room. Today at nap time it was three.

Please let this phase pass quickly.

School Photo

2010-11-28T20:17:00.001-06:00

Here's Reese's first school photo. I've now forgotten if it was taken in September or October, but either way, we received our copies two weeks ago. Gotta love the serious look.

Paige in Pictures

2010-11-24T14:36:00.004-06:00

Napping with Daddy on the couch--they fell asleep during "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving"

Watching Grandpa Bailey

We call this video "Zombie Baby." Check out how Paige decided to sleep in her bouncy chair.

Lactation Ladies

2010-11-24T14:13:00.004-06:00

Breastfeeding Reese was a miserable experience from beginning to end. It started with the formula-filled, drippy, smelly SNS system in the hospital, and continued at home with nipple shields, constant screaming, and the hunt for a "perfect" bottle. By January I was D-O-N-E.

Before Paige's birth I tried to "give myself permission" to stop nursing sooner if things went like they did with Reese. I'm not sure it's Austin, my peer group, or hormones, but breastfeeding seems to be a badge of "successful mothering" in some circles. Not just the act itself, but the duration of your commitment to it.

When Paige took to breastfeeding so easily at the hospital I breathed a huge sigh of relief. No extra materials required, just me and the baby.

Then, two weeks ago, my easy-to-feed, weight-gaining baby stopped being so easy. Feeding sessions (8-10 of them a day) were full of grunting, crying, and VERY short feeds at the breast. I tried everything I could think of: I pulled out my nipple shields, tried every position and hold imaginable (including standing up), and tried to stay calm.

I knew that her stuffy nose might be effecting her eating, but just in case I made an appointment with the lactation consultants at the hospital. (It's a free service for babies delivered there.)

After one failed attempt to meet up with the specialists (and a very nasty phone message left by me since I was left high-and-dry without notice), I met with an LC named Linda on Saturday.

I will admit that LCs intimidate me--I assume (perhaps wrongly) that they all want you to breastfeed your child until they're 4, and shun the idea that formula or a bottle would ever grace the lips of your infant. Or at least, that's the vibe I get.

I brought Paige in and Linda watched us feeding. Luckily, Paige did exactly what she had been doing for the last week: feed well for about five minutes and then pitched a fit for the next forty-five minutes. We determined that in her 5 minute feeding she was getting about 1oz of milk (not enough). Linda was extremely patient, asked lots of questions, listened well, and tried every trick in her book. About forty-five minutes into our session, she looked at me and said, "I see why you're frustrated. I think I'd been loosing my mind if I had to deal with this all day and night." I did a double take. Validating my feelings?!? That was not something I was prepared for. I was ready to hear something more along the lines of "These are growing pains, she'll learn, just power through--breast milk is best!"

Linda confirmed that it wasn't an issue of Paige knowing how to latch, or an issue of supply on my end. Her hypotheses were: the stuffy nose is making it hard for her to eat (possible), or she's having reflux issues (would also explain all her grunting, coughing, and other strange behaviors). Either way, she recommended taking a break from breast feeding and just pumping to give her bottles. She even uttered the words, "After taking bottles for awhile she may not want to go back to the breast, and that's ok. Eating should be a pleasant experience for everyone involved, and you should do whatever it takes to make that happen."

I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders--here was a professional telling me that I shouldn't feel guilty about bottle feeding--whether with breast milk or not. It sounds so silly, and so simple, but it was worth it for me to hear.

Of course when I got home and told Kevin the news he said, "I'm glad you're happy, but I could have told you that."

Since then, Paige has been eating primarily from bottles, with a few feeds a day on the breast, and I can tell she's eating more and feeling better. We're waiting to see if her cough subsides (and is related to her cold), and if not we might talk to the pedi about it and how it relates to reflux at her next check up.

OCD Much?

2010-11-24T14:09:00.003-06:00

With Reese's ear infection clearing up, she's become slightly less clingy and has been better about playing independently while Mommy is dealing with Paige. One night she was happily playing in her room and Kevin went to check on her. He came out and asked me, "Did you stack Reese's shoes up?" I had no idea what he was talking about and I immediately envisioned a swaying tower of shoes in Reese's bedroom. Instead of explaining, he ran and got the camera. Here's what she had been up to:
Sure there's one mismatched pair, but still...

Always putting things in order...wonder who she gets that from?

"Appointments please..."

2010-11-24T13:52:00.002-06:00

I must have uttered the words "appointments please" no less than half a dozen times in the last two weeks, and I now know the words to the on-hold music for our pediatrician's office by heart.

It all started last weekend when Reese started to have yellowish-green discharge from her eyes. As a former school teacher, my immediate reaction was, "Oh no--pink eye!" I got a little suspicious of my initial reaction, though, when the discharge wasn't accompanied by itching or redness. A sinus infection, perhaps? (The Righter family is notorious for our chronic sinus issues.) So...off we went to the pedi on Monday morning with both girls in tow. Turns out the issue was NOT with Reese's eyes at all--she had a terrible double ear infection. (Lovely to think about how the drainage from the infection was seeping out of her eyes!) A year ago I would have been wracked with guilt about missing the "signs"of an infection, but now I don't have time. Besides, she never complained of pain and she never ran a fever. The doctor prescribed us amoxicillin and we were off.

Everything was looking good until the next morning when Reese woke up with a rash. While I figured it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotics (I've had my share of allergic reactions--my allergy bands when I'm hospitalized can barely contain the names of all the drugs I have issues with), the pedi wanted to see it in person.....so, off we went again. Moving on to antibiotic #2 seemed to help matters for Reese, but then it was Paige's turn.

Paige's eating had taken a real turn for the worse starting last weekend. She wasn't eating well, was fussing at the breast and had developed a stuffy nose. By Thursday the feedings were going miserably and she was having yellowish green discharge from her nose. Fearing an ear infection for her as well, I spent Friday night at the after-hours clinic getting her seen. For now her ears are clear, and the doctor said it may take up to another week for her nose to clear up. He told us to load up on saline drops, buy a humidifier, and keep her upright when sleeping to promote drainage. We've be doing as advised and her nose seems better, but now she's coughing and the feeding issue is still in limbo.

I knew that as a stay-at-home mom I would deal with two sick kids at some point, and I also knew that Reese would bring home every germ in the world from her 8 hours of school and infect her little sister, I just didn't expect it all to happen so soon.

Precious Paige

2010-11-10T12:15:00.004-06:00

Paige had her one month check up on Monday this week to make sure she was gaining weight on our breastfeeding only plan. I can tell she's growing quickly because she's filling out (and outgrowing!) clothes and she's starting to fill out her car seat better. Her official weight on Monday morning was 7lbs 3oz, meaning she gained 27oz in two weeks. The doctor said it was a phenomenal weight gain and he would have been happy with 12-14oz. Let's hope she keeps it up! She may be able to wear her sister's wardrobe after all.

Highlights of our month together:

* Paige grunts constantly...day, night, in her sleep, while awake. It's a loud and disturbing noise that led me to check with the pedi. His best guess is that it's gas or she's learning to clear her throat. Either way, after a check he said there's no obvious physical reason for it.

* Reese brought home a cold from school and Paige has it. If this is any indication of what's to come, her immune system is really going to get a work out being a little sister.

* While Reese practically lived in the Baby Bjorn her first few months, Paige is too small to fit in it. She may reach the 8lbs min weight limit soon, but even at that, I'm worried her hips won't be wide enough to fit through the leg openings for a while longer. In the meantime, a friend loaned me a Moby Wrap to use. I'll admit that I was a little skeptical since it takes some practice wrapping, but I'm totally sold now. Paige loves it and I can use it to carry her around when I take Reese out in the neighborhood. I think we'll eventually switch back to the Bjorn, but for now it's a great stand in.

* Due to her weight gain the doctor has given us the go ahead to let Paige sleep up to 5 hours at a stretch at night (if she can). So far she hasn't made it much past 3 consecutive hours of sleep, but who knows--at least for now we don't have to wake her up as often. For now, she's sleeping in her swing in our room.

* Paige is in desperate need of a pacifier and I'm on the hunt for one. She loves to suck to soothe herself and for now is using me as her pacifier before each nap. Sometimes it works out, but she often gets upset when she gets a mouth full of milk instead of just something to calm herself. I tried a smaller version of the kind Reese used as an infant (Playtex Binkys), but we haven't had any luck.