6 month stats!

I just realized I never posted about Andy's 6 month check up; it was last Friday (8/26). He was 19 lbs and 27.75". He had an eye test this time (both eyes passed) and he had 3 electrode things stuck to his head, which he did NOT like. He was still pretty good for the test, but got restless near the end and then screamed when she took them off. So that did not put him in a good mood for his shots!! Not that he would have liked them anyway, but when the nurse came in, he was still upset and even cried as she gave him just the oral vaccine. Before she even stuck him, he was screaming. Luckily he calmed down pretty quickly after she left and I picked him up, but he was still red-eyed and crying for a bit. I usually talk to the receptionist afterward to make the following appointment, but didn't this time because he just wanted to get out of there. He did calm down a lot more once he got back in the car, then he fell asleep and slept for nearly an hour on the way to and at Kaylee's preschool Open House.

Funny big sister moment - when the nurse came in with the vaccines, she set them on the counter/bench right next to where Kaylee was sitting and Kaylee asked what they were. The nurse said they were shots for Andy, and asked Kaylee if she wanted any - she said maybe Andy could share with her. Kaylee promptly hopped down off the bench and got as far away from her as she could. Then I held Andy's arms as the nurse gave him his shots. As soon as she was done and was putting band-aids on his legs, she said, "I think we lost someone." Kaylee had gone out into the hallway and was standing in the hall with a look on her face like, "what did you do to my brother? You better not do that to me!" I told her the nurse was all done and she could come back in. She did, but she stood behind me, clinging onto my legs - apparently hiding - until the nurse left the room. I guess she really was afraid she might get a shot, too!

Great first day!

Kaylee had a great first day of her new preschool year today! When she got home, I asked her what she did and she said, "you have to look in my folder to see if you find a project!" That made me chuckle. She had made a fish out of her handprint. She said she got to play on the playground and she saw Cameron - the boy in her class last year she had a preschool crush on (every day we'd hear, "Cameron is so funny, he makes me laugh!"). He's not in her class this year, but I think they have playground time together sometimes, so we'll probably still hear about him from time to time.

First day of 3 year preschool

Today is Kaylee's first day of 3 year preschool and she was SO excited to go this morning! She'll be going 4 days a week, Tues-Friday, from 9-1. She has an awesome teacher and I just know she'll have a wonderful year. I am her room mom...not sure what I'm getting into with all that, so we'll see if I'll be willing to do it again!! I am looking forward to seeing her this afternoon and hearing all about her first day!

Silly kids

Here are some pictures from a few days ago...Kaylee was being super silly hugging Andy and making him laugh, which would then make her laugh; it was very cute.


You can see Andy's tooth in the first one below, and his expression in the last photo just makes me laugh.

More 6 month pics

Here are the pictures from our photo shoot with Denise Crull Photography. Unfortunately, Andy had woken up early from his morning nap, so by the time we took these photos he was winding down and nearly ready for his next nap. He wasn't fussy or crying (until the very end), but wasn't giving out his super big smiles, either. Still, I think these are pretty cute! :)

Destin 2011

We came back to Miramar Beach in Destin, FL again this year; the house we rented is on a street literally one turn away from the beach house we rented last year when we came with two of my cousins and their families. This year it's just us - our first family vacation with just our family! Every trip we've taken with Kaylee so far has been with other family, too. It's been fun, crazy, hectic and tiring trying to get everybody ready to go. Then Andy's ready for a nap so one of us takes Kaylee to the beach or pool while the other stays with him until he wakes up. Andy, however, does not seem to like the beach. Not fond of the sand, cries when the water touches him and is not happy out there for more than about 5 minutes unless we're holding and/or playing with him. He's also not used to being out in the heat so much, so even in the shade of the umbrella and the little pop up tent we brought for him he gets all sweaty. Ah, well, maybe we'll try again in a year or two and it'll be better for him then.

The house we're in is so nice and very big for just us! We got a 3 bedroom so the kids each have their own room. Kaylee wanted the queen size bed and Andy's pack and play is in between 2 twin beds in the other room. The master is very large - at the end of the king bed is a pull-out twin sleeper loveseat; even with that pulled out and the armoire and desk at the end of the room, I would imagine there is plenty of space to walk around (we didn't pull out the sleeper). The master also has a little balcony off it. The downstairs is big, too - we weren't expecting such a large kitchen area, for one. It's nice, since we brought food from home (and made a little grocery run for a few things) and are just eating in. The dining area table seats 6 (or more, squeezed in) and the living room - once we scooted the coffee table over - has enough room to spread Andy's new little quilt out for his toys and leaves room for Kaylee to play.


Andy's first "real" food - peas! He loves it! He's also had baby banana yogurt, which he devours. So far so good on the eating. Oh, and he also likes puffs!


Our not-so-beach baby, in his few minutes of happiness at the beach before the crying started...


Jamie said it looks like Andy held out the camera and took his own picture here.


Mesmerized by the crashing waves...


Hot, sweaty and cranky if I put him down...then fell asleep on the walk back!


Kaylee wanted to be buried in the sand one day, then the next she wanted Jamie to be buried, too!


Quick photos before a thunderstorm hit (thunder and lightning as we walked back - luckily just a 5 minute walk and it wasn't right upon us yet).


While it rained we went to a souvenir shop around the corner. Kaylee finally found an orange dress - every time I wear my orange dress she says she wants one. We looked around and I saw this one. She started to get excited, then said, "but it has pictures on it!" (talking about the colors and stitching on it); I turned it around to see what the back looked like and she frowned, sighed and said, "pictures on the back, too? I want it to have this (pointing to the buttons on my dress) like yours!" I told her this was probably as close as we were going to get, and it didn't have to be exactly the same, but it was mostly the same color. She finally conceded that it was good enough, then seemed to get excited about it, even, wanting to put it on when we got back to the house. She also got the little frog bracelet she's wearing in the photo, and a glitter globe with a fish in it. (It's a snow globe but instead of "snow" it has glitter that floats around when you shake it.) Oh, she's also wearing some of my lipstick for the picture. Her usual "lipstick" is chapstick (that's what we call it for her so she thinks she's being more fancy...ssshhhhhh!).

First Tooth!

Andy's first tooth is barely through, but it's there! He was laughing and I noticed his bottom gums looked a little white, so I took a closer look and saw/felt that his bottom middle left tooth has made its grand debut. I didn't even know he was teething (yay!).

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Bud!

Andy is 6 months old today! Wow, that went fast...at this rate, I should start planning his birthday party now. A friend took some photos on Saturday morning; we've seen a few but not all yet. Unfortunately Andy had woken early from his morning nap, so by the time we met her for photos he was not in the mood to smile much. I think she still got some good ones, and at least one good family photo, though Andy was just staring at the camera, not smiling.

Yesterday I set up a "studio" in our garage using a curtain hung from the garage door rail and some comforters piled up on the floor (now freshly washed and back on the beds!). With the garage door open, it let in some really good light and I think I got some good shots, if I do say so myself. Playing around with them a little in Photoshop helped even more. I took most of the photos with just Andy while Kaylee napped, then she came out for a few at the end, but Andy was wearing down by then. Here are some of the best from yesterday; check back again soon for Saturday's!

Andy's Oatmeal Fingers

Andy's been eating oatmeal cereal for a week or two now, and he's getting better at it. He was starting to get better, then last week got an ear infection and it seemingly hurt him to swallow, so he didn't eat very well (and not very much at all) for a few days - not that he was eating that much anyway, but would only take a couple bites before he started screaming in pain. Anyway, since he started his medicine a week ago, he's feeling better and eating better again. He currently has his 4 bottles and now one "meal" (about a tablespoon of oatmeal cereal with a little bit of his formula mixed in) around noon. He's gotten very enthusiastic about eating the past few days!



Check out the video blog for some footage!

Yay, Mama!

I know, I know - you're not supposed to compare your kids because they're all different...okay. Having said that, so far Kaylee and Andy are not that much different, milestone-wise (not that there have been too many to compare yet, with Andy being not quite 6 months old at this point). They both started rolling stomach to back at/just before 3 months (Kaylee started rolling back to front right around 6 months, so we'll see if Andy makes it - he gets very close, but doesn't like being on his stomach...). 10 days shy of being 6 months old, Kaylee started "talking" more by saying dada, and 2 days later followed that up with mama. And last night, 11 days shy of being 6 months old, Andy started "talking" more, but he got it right by saying mama. ;) Maybe in another couple days, he'll add dada to the mix. Even Kaylee kept saying, "he just said, 'mama!'" At one point after some weird babble, she said, "now he said, 'Kaylee!' That's just how he says it, funny like that." I guess she didn't want to be left out, either.

Click here to see the video blog for proof. :)

Firsts & ear update

Andy's firsts for the week: first (and hopefully, but doubtfully?, last!) ear infection, first time spitting and first time making new talking sounds...

Ear update: Andy seems to be doing better already this morning after just 2 doses of antibiotics - one yesterday afternoon and one this morning. He's been pretty happy so far this morning; gave him some Tylenol 1/2 hour before nap and he's still up there after an hour, yay! He was also his usual happy self last night before bed, after a dose of Tylenol. He was talking, spitting and laughing (he seems to be figuring out how to blow raspberries, which he finds hilarious). Also, he said, "mama!" More like mamamamama, but I'll take it for now. I'm (not so) secretly happy that he said mamamama before dadadada, since Kaylee said dada first, by a few days!

Andy also seems to finally be *this close* (holding fingers about 1/8" apart) to rolling back to front. He can with just the slightest extra nudge when he's got his head turned around, I think he just really doesn't want to yet - as soon as you help him flip all the way onto his stomach, he rolls right back over. But I'd guess he'll be doing it within the next couple weeks.

Meal Time & Earaches

Andy is slowly working his way into eating! We tried rice cereal a week or so ago, but he just cried and cried and begrudgingly "ate" about three bites before completely melting down. Of course we also tried this at a normal bottle time, so he was probably just hungry and not in the mood to try something new right then. The little bit that he did have, however, seemed to constipate him, so we waited a while and switched to oatmeal cereal for the next attempt (supposedly easier on the stomach - seems to be thus far). He's been doing pretty well the past week. Here are some photos from one of his first successful meals earlier this week. :) He prefers to take the spoon from you and "feed" himself...



He hasn't had any "real" food yet (veggies or fruit) - we'll probably wait until after his 6 month appointment on 8/26. He'll be 6 months on the 15th - just 11 days from now! He'll also just be 1 day past his last dose of amoxicillin. :( The past few weeks he's been tugging at his ears (first the left, then just this week the right one, too), but he never "complained" about it, so we sort of shrugged it off as just him having figured out he has ears. However, the past few days he's been taking shorter naps and has been fussier than usual (he's normally pretty happy unless he's really hungry or tired), and yesterday and today had a couple super loud, couldn't calm him down, screaming fits. Today about 30 minutes before his morning nap I gave him some Tylenol because he'd been pretty fussy all morning, and chewing on his hand, not taking his bottle easily - I thought maybe he was teething - ?? We never knew Kaylee had teeth coming in until one had popped through, but every kid is different. He woke up after just 30 minutes asleep and fussed for a bit in bed before I got him. Once I did bring him down, he started another screaming fit, after which we called his pediatrician and took him in. He has an ear infection in his right ear (surprisingly not the left, since he'd been pulling on that one longer). So now he's got a 10 day supply of Amoxicillin. Poor little guy. I gave him some Tylenol before bed and will probably do so a couple times tomorrow - the nurse practitioner we saw (who was great - love our pediatric office!) suggested we do that for a couple days until the Amoxicillin has a chance to work, to help ease the pain. Here's the little guy before bath tonight. I love his big baby blues!!

More Things to Remember...

Of course I thought of a few more things since my last post...and I'm sure there are more, but these are the 3 I have for now!

Instead of saying "fine," Kaylee says "find." e.g. on Sunday Jamie asked me to help him with something, but I had to put Andy down for his nap and put some laundry in the dryer first, which only took maybe 10 minutes. By the time I got back downstairs, he was almost done and Kaylee had helped him. She held up her hands (as if to stop me) and said, "don't worry, Mommy, we're find. I'm helping Daddy."

She makes food for us in her play kitchen. One of her favorite things to make is stoup (stewp?) - apparently it's a cross between stew and soup. And usually pretty tasty!

She calls Lightning McQueen (from Disney's "Cars") "Lightning BeeQueen." She's done that for a while (at least 2-3 months).

We were playing CandyLand last night and when Jamie picked a card that took him near the end of the trail he said, "sweet!" Kaylee pulled her card next and it was two blue squares. She said, "sweet!" and we all cracked up. Then she said, "why did Daddy say that?" We explained to her that was just a funny way of saying you really liked something, and reminded her that a character on one of her current favorite TV shows (Fresh Beat Band) says that on the show. So for the rest of the game, every card she pulled earned a "sweet!"

Last Art Class

Kaylee's last art class was yesterday afternoon. As you can see, she made a toucan with a flower. Now we need to get crackin' on hanging them in her room! They've sort of been piling up as I waited for her to be done so we could figure out where to put them (her room v. play room). She already has 5-6 in her room, so we're running out of wall space in there...

BIG screen!

Kaylee went to her first movie in a theater! We saw Winnie the Pooh yesterday morning while Daddy was at work and Baba stayed at home with Andy. Kaylee had a great time and enjoyed it all - the popcorn, the movie, the fruit snacks, the chocolate milk, the "big TV!" - and hugged her Pooh Bear the entire time.

On the way home she told me that we need to get a big TV like that for the play room. Then she can use that TV and Jamie and I can still use our other TV. She can also use our other TV, but we can't use hers unless ours is broken. Sure, seems fair.