June 2016

Okay, so I am going at the blog posts at a new angle.... Since I keep getting behind on month milestone, I am going to post the actual month and what we did that month. And what age my boys turned that month. See if this helps me figure out the jumble of the posting!

Harrison (turned 20 months) 

- 20 months seems so old!! Like he is almost 2!!
- His vocabulary and comprehension is just mind blowing! He continues to surprise us. In just he most amazing ways!
- On Friday June 17th he counted to 3, 1-to-1 correspondence, put the frogs on the tuba and counted them. On Saturday June 18th he picked up a pink sharpie and said pink. Chris and I looked at each other and were like what!? We have both only talked about red & blue with him. He then continued to show us the pink marker. whoa.
- He will get up and point to people in pictures. He can do just about any animal sound. He can recognize a few letters (W.O.H.D.P.S.A)
- We have full sentences it is so much fun!! Some of the ones you hear a lot are: "Daddy home" "I did it" "my turn" "hit ball" "right there/here" "Its/I/Mommy/Daddy/Dougoo funny" "I cuk (cut)" "Daddy cuk(cut) grass"

Douglas (turned 4 months) 

- On Saturday June 18th Douglas took his first nap in his bassinet. He had previously only napped on people, being worn, in his swing, in his bouncer seat, on his bop lounger, and in his carseat. He had a few naps on a bed, but they never lasted long. During this nap was his first time using the Merlin Magic sleep suit. He has been sleeping in the miracle blanket, but can now get his arms out. He is like a magician, he moved downs and gets his legs up and loosens it, wild! So tonight we are gonna try the Merlin suit as well. Adele loved it, I hope Douglas does too. Oh, and his nap was 35m!
- Douglas began to cut his bottom teeth and they both broke through (although that technically happened in July)

June Fun:

- Lily turned 1 & we went to Houston to celebrate her! The ride down there was so-so and then awful the last hour. The ride back was excellent. Harrison watched his first ever shows, like actually watched. He only liked when Mickey sung prior. He watched episodes of Thomas and Friends and Dora the Explorer.
- Aunt KK came to visit! We had the very best time! We are so proud of the lady she has grown into in her time in NYC!
- Cheech and Chong came to visit on their way to and from Breckinridge, TX for a cousins wedding. We got to spend fathers day with both of our dads for the first time in I can't even tell you how long! We also got to spend mothers day with both of our moms this year bc it was Douglas's baptism weekend!
- Liuzza had surgery. She had two mast cell tumors removed. One on her ear and one on her back. She will now have to have any bump removed as they pop up. Because apparently you are prone to them once you have them. Please say a prayer for my sweet girl that this ugly and fast doggie cancer never fully takes her. I am very torn on continuing to put her under and have her go through surgery. I also want to keep her for a very long time. She is truly the best dog I have ever had and I love her some kind of fierce. She also adores my boys and I want them to grow up together!

Aunt McGreggor came to visit!

We love My Gym 

Lily tuned one!

so much fun at her party 

matchy matchy and no looky looky

loves to have his hair did

slip n slide fun 

handsome 4m old!

19 Months & 3 Months!

Goodness time is flying! I thought that it went fast with Harrison and it is going even faster with Douglas! The combined growth in my boys makes we swell with pride and break my heart at the same time! I love to watch them grow and change with each day, but I also want to pause time and just enjoy every second. It is so easy to let one frustrating moment ruin your day, but they are so few and far between compared to each and every happy and amazing moment. It just takes ALOT more patience and grace to deal with the hard moments than it does the frustrating one. Anger, frustration, temper, those things come out very quickly and are so easy to throw out. But also so much harder to reign in. But so much more important to control. That has been a goal of mine, not to react to quickly when Harrison does something. I am trying to put myself in his little shoes. I try to picture the world from where he is, picture the "bad" thing he did, how does he see it? why does he do it? how can I be the best mentor to him? how can i teach him the right way? When I take the time to think this through and speak to him, not at him and help him not punish him I see so much better results in how he responds. As with anyone, positivity is always the key! I would much rather be spoken to then hollered at... And honestly Harrison seems to be encouraged (read: little toot toot jerk face) if he notes that what he does riles you. I honestly think he is too smart for his own good. I am glad he is smart, don't get me wrong, but boy this mommy is constantly kept on her toes!

19 Month Stats:
- Harrison is definitely cutting the bottom 2 year molars... there are starting to break through. He has had quite a bad diaper rash too. Poor thing!
- Seems he is affected by waking around 545. Most days he goes back to sleep though!
- At his 18m apt the dr told us he is .5 an inch shorter than the average 3 year old
- His info at 18m apt was: 30.6lbs & 36 1/4 inches long
- He is in 2T/3T clothes and size 8 shoe
- He has begun to have quite the vocab! Some of our favorite things to say are: "num on" (come one) "no" "Dougoo" (Douglas) "Daddy" "mommy" "puppy" "boca" "well" (samwell) "seesa" (Celia) "asshole" (outside) "ball" "i 'tuck" (Im stuck) "help" "pease" (please) "up" "on" (for on and off) "a lovey" "a binky" "mishpah" (Mickey Mouse) "wawa" (water) "brush" (hair brush/tooth brush) "Cheech" "Chong" "Rainey/Raine" "iyaaaa!!!" (very loud and screaming - Liuzza. Very often followed by No) "Cawkee" (Coffee) "pup" (pump) "book" (fork/milk/book - must decipher in context) "train" "Carrrrr" "truck!" (the truck is always blue when you ask him what color) "A 'nack! (snack) "rat-a-tat-tat" (this is his word for a drum as well as the action of drumming. Chong taught him to rat-a-tat-tat on his belly). "stinky-pee-yew" (holds his nose. Chichi taught him this).
- almost everything is "A insert word" or "Eh insert word" He likes to put A or Eh infant of everything
- He can mostly get you the letter W (W for wawa - Raine taught him this) when asked, and is starting to be able to get the S. He randomly will tell you a letters name when he finds it. I cannot decide what is just smarts and what is luck. He also knows that H says "Huh"
- He will tell you his name is "Hiss" or "AHin" depending on his mood
- He love to read. Loves cars and trains. Loves balls. Loves water.
- He is starting to like wearing hats (A Hat!)
-

3 Month Stats:

This kid is a trip! He has the quickest smile I have ever seen and he gives it his all. Eyes get squinty and his mouth gets as wide and gummy as it can. He also wants to be held all the time. The ssecond you set him down he goes, "ahhh" - translate to: why the heck are you putting me down, your soul purpose in life is to carry my chubby butt around! :) 

 - We started seem class. Bath time babies. And he is a champ! H never fussed once and totally rocked it. No one believed he was only 2m due to size and amount of hair.... story of my life! Or really his life!
- My guess is he is weighing about 17lbs right now, but we won't go back until 4m
- We have decided to keep him in the room with us until he is 6m (really agust bc we are traveling so much) & also wait on night weaning until then as well. (more below on my thoughts on night weaning and sleep training Harrison).

Monday June 6th 2016
- Douglas giggled for the first time
- Douglas fed himself his bottle...well he held it for a few minutes

Random Thoughts:

Just in case it is not documented somewhere (because this mommy can't remember), Christopher and I like to choose a song when we bring our babies home... basically we turn the radio on when we turn on to our street and the songs playing currently are what we have to choose from. And then when we pull into the driveway we stick with one!

Harrison: Gives You Hell by the All American Rejects
Douglas: Stand By You by Rachel Platten

Funny enough they could not be more fitting. Harrison does in fact give us hell daily, however he is an incredibly sweet little guy. Most of his "hell giving" it pretty entertaining. Headache bringing, but entertaining.

Douglas on the other hand is a gentle little soul that basically just rolls with it. He just wants to see you and he is okay. He prefers to be held, but will be satisfies as long as you remind him you did not leave him. :)

A glimpse into the past:hindsight
Looking back at our forcing Harrison to be done night nursing at 3m, I wish we would have waited. It is amazing that he stepped to the plate and did what we asked of him. But that poor baby needed a little bit more time to night nurse and he wasn't quite ready. I am so proud of him for following through, but seeing Douglas not and knowing what I know, I wish we would not have gone about it at that time. However, you live and you learn and H is amazingly who is is today because of every decision we have made for him and those he has made himself.

18 Months & 2 Months

This is going to be a quick not super informative post bc I am getting behind in posts these days... I have started a new strategy for post by keeping notes of topics I want to discuss on my phone.  So hopefully in the next post I have more to offer!

18 Months:

Harrison is 18 months and just amazes me every day!!! I cannot believe how much of a little person he is becoming. It truly blows my mind! In the last few weeks I have seen an amazing change in him. He is really a little person. HIs vocabulary is incredible, he is a little parrot. Most of the time the words translate pretty much on point. Other times you have no idea how one word turned to the "word" he said. And then there is the occasional gem like "outside" which comes out as "asshole." It gets me every time! He says outside multiple times a day because the things he loves these days are outside, water, balls, and cars/trains. Animals he enjoys, but seems to be moving on from them. I love this little boy more than I can ever put into words. My dad and I actually had a conversation today about how much Harrison has taught me in his short 18 months. He has truly opened my eyes to a new world and changed my perspective about a lot of life things!

Recently his accomplishments have been very gross motor. He can climb things that he was unable to before, he seems to have no fear and will go down even the largest of slides at the park. We went to the coop this week and he climbed the rope tunnel without even a little hesitation, like he'd been doing that his whole life. I was so proud! He also climbed the scary metal ladder thing, that did not excite me that much, but I was there supporting him anyway!

He has been very into jumping these days. He cannot get both feet off the ground even though he is close. He loves a good jump session though! He has also been working really hard to try and make a basketball in the goal as well as learn to kick the soccer ball.

2 Months:

He is such a smiley little guy! He loves everyone and just really wants to be held, fed, loved and talked too! His needs are simple and he doesn't ask much. Sweet Dougoo has been an incredible addition to our family!

Douglas was baptized Mothers day weekend. His godparents are Aunt Ruth and Uncle Perry. We had a fantastic crawfish boil afterwards. So  many friends and family were there to celebrate with it. It is fantastic to know that our children are being raised in a world surrounded by those who love them. I can never say enough thanks!

17.5 Months & 1 Month

Soooo seeing as my boys are 16.5 months apart syncing their blog posts right on the months is going to be a little trickier... So one of them will have a half month, depending on when I sit down to write it. Phew glad we cleared that up, I just know that was bothering y'all as much as me!

Harrison 17 Month update:

His vocabulary is beyond incredible! Everyday it is a new word. He is very much a little parrot. Everything you say he repeats, and 95% of the time it is correct. Every once in a while there is a weird pronunciation... Example: Gobble = Ama.

Our current favorite game is to ask who everyone is. Daddy, Mommy, Duga (used to be Dougoo), Hissss (Harrison), & Umpha (Grandpa). Oh don't forget Puppa, but she has been named for quite some time now and when he says Puppa, it is much more excited than anyone else. :)

We will go next month for his 18m checkup. My guess is he is about 33lbs. He is a solid little dude. Whenever my friends pick him up, they are always shocked at how heavy he is. haha! Who knows! He eats a ton and never stops moving. So who knows.

Harrison has been a great big brother, he mostly kisses and hugs Douglas. There is at least one hit every day or so. But we have been working on saying sorry, showing nice, and not hitting. I am not sure the "look at his face you made him sad" has sunk in yet. He is good at saying sorry though, even though he says, "bless" instead of sorry. hahahaha

We have all teeth but the 2 year molars. HIs last canine (the bottom left one) is slowly breaking through. These little sharp suckers sure have taken a long time.

H has started shortening his naps most days. He is like clockwork and waking up at 1hr 10m. I am like dude what gives?!?! Where are the 2 hour naps again!?!

Douglas One Month Update:

Today (3.25) Douglas is one month! We go to the pedi next week to get all the measurements and stuff. We went to the urologist (more below) this week. He was 11b 15oz and 21.18inches long.

Douglas was born with what is called denial chorde, basically a curved line on his penis. His almost 100% self corrected in this first month of life. But as a result we were not able to have him circumcised at the hospital, we needed to see a urologist in case there was more to it. So next week D and his little D will get circumcised. We are cutting it close as far as when he can be circ'd. They do not like to do it beyond 12lbs. Otherwise they wait until 6m and do anesthesia. I do not want that. Seeing as how we are pushing 12lbs very nearly there, the urologist got us in asap. So keep my little bug in your prayers that all goes well and he recovers great. I feel bad that he will have to do this when he is over, but everyone says the one month is nothing.

Will edited and report back with one month stats. For now I will publish as is.

Side note: I lost my font cheat sheet so these have been boring old fonts. lame.

Begin One Month Photoshoot:

Free to go!

Smiley dude

 Cheech & Chong Photoshoot:

39 weeks 6 days..

Big brother Bear!

first family photo

4 of the 5 grand parents

Hey good looking 

Cooking with Raine

photo shoot! first time solo with the boys

life lessons: nose

picking our nose during our photoshoot

cheese

water table from aunt Ru & Uncle Frank and Louis & adele! Finally put together and we are obsessed

animal sound fun with daddy 

Dougoo Photoshoot

16 Months & Countdown to Baby J #2

Disclaimer: I forgot to post this at the appropriate time, so ignore the fact that it is a month late. It ws in fact written in time.... :)

We are officially in birthday month for #2!!! Wild!!! He is set to come on February 25th assuming that nothing changes between now and then. So being that it is February 5th as I type this (part of the blog) he is due in 20 days!!! Wowza!

Harrison Update:
- Harrison's vocabulary and comprehension has really taken off. All of a sudden he has just started "talking" like crazy. Sometimes words and other times just gibber jabber. It is amazing to watch! As far as comprehension, it is so cool! You can ask him to pick a snack, throw his diaper away, put clothes in the dirty clothes basket, turn the light on, and so much more! He will even respond to things you say. An example is the other morning he picked up my water and attempted to drink it and instead basically dumped it all up and down his front and back. When I asked him if he spilled the water, he (very pitifully) said, "yeah." Then helped me pick the ice cubes up and towel the water up. It is so incredibly fun! We are just trying really hard to give him words at every opportunity. He points to things a lot and wants to know what they are.
- His current favorite things to say are animal sounds. He has: sheep, horse, cow, tiger, monkey, elephant (arm goes up and everything), dog, & our personal favorite duck (to which he says, "duck duck" instead of "quack quack").
- Words that H says consistently, major parts of his vocabulary... wawa (water), mama, mommy, dada, daddy, puppa (Liuzza), mischka (mickey mouse), bubbles, car ride, ball, shoe, sock, baby, hi, bye,  dat dat (belly button), yay, yum, bless (when you sneeze), cheese, no, yes.
- Words that are sometimes said and other times not... friends names, wuv (love or lovey - wuv wuv), ma/puh/buh (up - we are really working on this one, it is constantly changing)
- Signs... please, thank you, more, eat, & all done.
- Extra bonus that I don't know what to call: he will blow kisses, "jump", wave, touch his toes, turn in a circle, sit down on his bottom (when asked. We are in a major climbing phase).
- Along with this amazing comprehension and vocabulary growth, Harrison has decided to really explore his stubborn side. He very much pushes every limit to the limit. Our biggest battle is being gentle with our friends, he does seem to be getting better. But the occasional hug (turns tackle), and random hitting. The hitting is the big one we are working on. He doesn't seem to care when he is corrected. So we have many many MANY of the same conversations all day long. all day long. It is exhausted, but we do it, and we do it because we want him to understand exactly what his ground rules are. We don't hit, we don't climb on tables, etc...


Baby J #2 Update:
I am well into my weekly checkups now. Last week (week 37) they did a sono to check my fluid levels and that all was good with babe. He looks great. He is measuring 7lbs. My placenta is starting to look old (which I remember with Harrison, but I feel like that was after we hit 40 weeks). My fluid levels are normal again. And lets be honest, I did not cut all sugar out, but cut back about 50%. But yay for all good news! I believe next week Dr. J will check me to see if there is any action happening. In the meantime I just continue to go about business,  chase a toddler, plan and attempt to get everything ready for #2, and all that jazz!

Went on Monday (2.15), got checked, and there is no change from last week. Holding strong at a 2. Dr. Jacoby said don't do anything crazy this weekend bc i'll be in Austin, see ya on the 25th! So all is a go for the 25th at 7:30 am. We are officially 7 days out from being a family of 4! Crazy!



Tomorrow (2.19) we are gonna take H to the zoo for the first time!! So excited! Gotta get all the fun things in this weekend before he becomes a big brother!

15 Months & 34 Weeks

Harrison Fun Facts:

- He is obsessed with belly buttons. If he sees one he gets very excited and says, "dat dat!!!" He has learned that he has one as well. However it is very frustrating when he has jammies on and cannot pick his shirt up to find his. Often his belly is in the way when he does locate his "dat dat" and he looks like he is looking at his pecker.... I die laughing every time!

- 1.4.16 Post Nap Funniness! Soon when H wakes up from his nap he typically needs a bit to wake up. So i rarely change his diaper unless he has poop. Then I must change it. Soon today was a lucky poop day and a diaper changing we a go.... He is ding great and isn't being fussy. sweet! win! Well as I go to put the clean diaper on, he begins to pee. I cannot tell you the last time he has peed during a diaper change. Well he pees all over his chest, face, and neck. He looks shocked! And then starts cracking up, like hysterical laughter.... well then he decides this was in fact not funny and starts crying. I am dying laughing still. Well we calm down, clean up, and begin to attempt the diaper again. Well it starts again, he pees/laughs/cries 2 more times. It was seriously one of the best moments of my life. Man I wish I had it all on video.

- He had a weekend of firsts last weekend (1.15-1.17).... first time sleeping with a real pillow, first time pushing a cart at the grocery, & first time in the church nursery.

- We have entered the book choosing phase! He loves books, especially the same 5. We rotate through reading them or we read all of them. It is pretty fun!

15 Month Check Up (January 20th 2016)

Harrison weighed in at 29 lbs (93%) & stood tall at 33.5 inches (97%). He impressed Dr. O with his verbiage and need to move. He was very friendly and sweet and typically HarBear. Climbing on everything, constantly moving, wanting to read 12 thousand books, etc....

It has been pretty amazing to me to watch just how much my baby is becoming a person. Something clicks at 14m with him and his need to learn, talk, explore, and just generally become a little toddler. I do not know why it continues to surprise me! I just love watching him become his own person. Even is that is a stubborn, rough and tumble, sweet sweet boy!

Baby J #2 Update

- As of 1.4.16 I was 32 weeks and 3 days. We went today for my 30 week sono and checkup. Two weeks late, but got it done non the less! Well Baby is great! Still a boy, still measuring ahead. He is in the 73rd% weighing in at 4lb 14oz. We got to see his face a little because he is head down and face back/side. We also got a picture of his foot. haha! All is going well still and we can continue on course... Dr. J is going to let me go to 39/40 weeks as long as everything continues. We want to laboring because we want not uterus

- On Jan 4th I had my 32 week check up (was 30 weeks, but we kept being on opposite schedules). Baby was measuring almost 5lbs and all was good! Fluid was a little high. So Dr. J wanted a repeat sono in two weeks. There were two possibilities of the fluid level being high... large baby &/or eating too much sugar. Soon I decided to go with the large baby idea and keep on with the sugar. Well two week later the fluid levels have only gone up, so Christopher was right, no sugars for me! I absent from sweets until we know what/if that is causing the fluids. I also begin my weekly checkups next week. Went for a sono yesterday (1.21.16) Baby J #2 is measuring 6lbs now and happy and healthy. We got really good pics of his sweet face! Perfect little profile picture!

Some of these maybe 16M pictures technically.... but hey at least I am getting a post in right!?

so helpful

first night with the pillow

continues to be so helpful

see

first big boy shopping cart pushing adventure 

checking out mommy's new ride

nap "success" with the pillow

obsessed with rolling over the hotdogs

paper everywhere

big boy!