The Baby is 6 Months Old!

Where in the world does the time go?! He is 6 months today... half of a year of his life has already passed by. Since he's my last, the milestones are really hard to swallow, so to speak. I want time to slow down with these kids!

He went to the doctor on Monday, along with Little Monster. Little Monster had been having some food/digestion issues for about a week, and I was just nervous that something more serious was going on (it wasn't, she is teething and all symptoms point back to that as the culprit). The Baby went because he developed a runny nose and yucky cough over the weekend. After Tiny Dancer's hospitalization at 7 months over the croup, I tend to get nervous about any cough the kids get.

The Baby is also teething and probably just has a minor cold. Although he is acting better (not so whiny and not sleeping), he has a very runny nose and his cough is still enough to make me jump up several times throughout the night to check on him. Hopefully, this passes soon!





This adorable little guy (picture from my littlest sister's wedding April 13th) is weighing in at 15 pounds 10 ounces. He's starting to get chunky cheeks and even chunkier thighs. I love squishy, fat, baby thighs! He is sleeping through the night MOST nights, however, if he does wake, it's usually just once, he eats and then goes right back to sleep. He's still the easy going baby. He is seriously such a sweetie. He's rolling all over the living room. He doesn't seem like he's in too much of a hurry to get up on all fours or crawl, which mommy is just fine with! He's been eating real foods every day, bananas, then peas so far. Hoping to try avocados next week. The girls never liked them, so I'm hoping he will (I love them!).

He goes for his 6 month check-up with the pediatrician next Friday morning. His eczema is really flaring up on his face today (which I hope is not from the peas!) and he will sometimes whine and scratch at his face, so we have to keep it moisturized and use hydrocortisone. Those things can usually keep it at bay, so it isn't so bad. He is chewing on everything, so I hope he isn't a slow teether and those teeth come through fast. Have I mentioned I HATE teething?! I hope he teethes like Little Monster and not Tiny Dancer, as Little Monster was a much smooth teether. This teething business makes me happy this is our last. :)

Easter

I'm behind on updating, but I'm trying to catch up!

Easter was a busy, but fun weekend. The weekend before Easter, our nieces and my brother-in-law were in town, so we got to enjoy time with them that week. Tiny Dancer is obsessed with her cousin, A, so it was just about Tiny Dancer's best week ever. We also celebrated with my parents that weekend.

Easter weekend, on Saturday, the Easter Bunny visited our house! Since Dad was leading worship and I had to be at church early also for the nursery, my sister volunteered to keep the girls Saturday night and get them ready for Sunday morning church, so we requested the Bunny come to our house a day early so we could enjoy our time together.

We always leave our empty baskets by the front door. So, when we woke up Saturday morning, the baskets were gone, but the Bunny left a note telling the girls to look for some Easter eggs with treats hidden around the living room. Once they get those collected, Tiny Dancer found the "golden egg" which had another note in it: to look for some bigger eggs in Mom & Dad's room. These eggs had little plastic animal figurines in them - the girls love these things. The Bunny left another note telling the kids to look in The Baby's room for their hidden baskets. They found them - full of some treats, snacks, little toys, and a shirt. The last note said there was a giant egg hidden in the bathroom. Tiny Dancer found it in the bathtub. It had "Rise of the Guardians" DVD in it. She was so excited because 1) she really wanted that movie and 2) she said she was hoping the Easter Bunny would leave a giant egg with a treat in it for her. She comes up with some crazy stuff - I bet it took that Easter Bunny a long time to find a giant egg!

After that, we met the Naylors at Steak N Shake for lunch and went to the mall on a whim to see the Easter Bunny.



The husband and I were at church that night, so the girls stayed with my parents and then went to their aunt's to spend the night. The next morning, Dad, The Baby and I got up and ready for Easter morning. Once church was over (the girls showed up with fabulous hair, courtesy of their hair stylist aunt), we went to my grandma's house and had an Easter egg hunt and enjoyed time with family. We ended the day watching Rise of the Guardians (for like the 3rd time by then). I love holidays with my family - they mean so much to me! How good is this picture?! The girls looked gorgeous with their hair and their beautiful dresses. Tiny Dancer's dress was so perfectly "her" - frilly and prissy! And The Baby with his (huge) tie - ha! A little big, but I wanted him to wear a tie and you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find baby boy dress clothes!

April Update

We are nearing the end of the school year. This is exciting because we love summers! My parents have a pool and live 2 streets away. My sister is looking into buying a house, also with a pool, and will live in the same town. We love playing in the pool! And my parents bought the kids a zoo membership for Easter, so we get to have fun at the zoo while paying little to no money (always a plus!). Here's an update on the kids:


Tiny Dancer:
She has kindergarten registration on May 7th. I'm sad and excited for this chapter in her life. She is a super smart girl, but I'm really trying to work with her on sight words and lower case letters. She gets bored easily and doesn't really want to try... I'm hoping once we start challenging her, she won't be as bored as quickly. She's currently trying to earn a new Fresh Beat Band game for her LeapPad with a whining/complaining reward chart. For every sticker she earns from not complaining or whining, she earns 25 cents toward this game. It seems to be taking her quite some time to earn the whole $7.50 for the game, but I have noticed a change in her attitude overall. She's an excellent helper, helping babies, holding them, feeding them, etc. She is very fond of cuddling with The Baby. If he's having a hard time napping and she's home, he lays down with her and is out in no time. It's so sweet and I'm excited to see how their relationship develops over the next year.


Little Monster:
She is nearing the 2 year mark. Although she doesn't speak as many words as big sis did at this age, she is extremely smart, fearless and an excellent problem solver. She plays well on her own and she's an amazing sleeper! She hardly ever cries when it's bedtime and her transition from crib to toddler bed (in a whole new room) was practically seamless. She's told me twice now that she has to go potty and she's went on the potty chair. Other times, she doesn't care at all when we try to push it. She is working on her colors and she's very good at animal sounds and body parts. She learns several new words a day. She loves dancing and singing, especially to The Fresh Beat Band or Elmo or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She's also really good with the babies, although when she tries to "help" it's not really as helpful as she wants. ;)


The Baby:
He will be 6 months old next week - this is just crazy! I can't believe 6 months went by so quickly! He is such a sweet, quiet boy. He is an easy sleeper (like Little Monster). We just weaned him from the swaddle, but I don't even know if I'd call it weaning because one night I just didn't do it and he never fussed. We wrap up his legs to keep him warm, but he sleeps great. He hardly even moves in his crib. And he's sleeping most nights through the night - amazing for me. I have been so tired lately; I really needed this! He rolls over, though not very often. He's so laid back and he doesn't really need to roll over to get anything. He does like playing with toys, so that's usually the only reason he will roll over - to get a closer look at a toy or to grab one. We've given him cereal a few times, but I'm just about to start fruits and vegetables. We do have to really watch him for food allergies since it runs in the family now. :-/ We are hoping and praying he won't have any issues at all. He does have some pretty bad eczema patches, especially on his face, and eczema CAN go along with food allergies, although it can be an issue on its own. He's not in any hurry to sit up or crawl around... like I said, he's as laid back as they come. He's by far my easiest baby. I'm still so amazed that he is here - since we were actively trying to NOT have a baby, it's still kind of weird that he's here! I honestly just love this kid SO MUCH. The fact that he looks identical to the love of my life just means he'll probably be spoiled. My dad is the baby of 3 with 2 older sisters and my grandma would still peel his tomatoes when he was an adult... yep, that'll be me!

The Baby: 2 months Little Monster: 18 months

We celebrated The Baby turning 2 months and Little Monster turning 18 months in January. I can't believe how big they are getting, so quickly.
The Baby weighed in at 11 pounds, 6 ounces and he's 23 3/4 inches long (25th and 75th percentiles respectively). Little Monster finally tipped the 20 lb mark, weighing in at 22 pounds even and 33 inches tall. She's in the 50th percentile for everything (except her big head, which was in the 75th - she has a good size head, ha!).
Little Monster had to get her last Hep B shot and The Baby had to get 3 shots and 1 oral vaccination. Little Monster was an absolute mess, but the wonderful nurse whisked her away to retrieve a sucker, which made her a very happy girl. (She was not so happy when I threw it away before getting in the car.) The Baby's look of betrayal nearly broke my heart, but I nursed him right away and he was good to go.
I'll never go to a doctor's appointment with both little ones again!
We're getting back into the swing of things after our vacation, and I started babysitting my nephew, L, last week. Today marks the end of 2 weeks watching him - and it really hasn't been too bad. I just do what I need to do with both boys and I feel like all I do is change diapers and feed somebody. Par for the course. In a few years, they'll all be out of diapers. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. :) I can't bear the thought of everyone growing up...

We went to Disney World!!! (Part 3)

On Thursday, the 26th, we tried to sleep in and relax. We went shopping at an outlet mall and then Dad and I took the kids to the Universal Studios CityWalk for dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was delicious!

When we got back to the house, my throat was getting pretty scratchy and I was really tired, so we tried to relax and not do much. We watched L while everyone else went out for a few hours. I was in bed by 9:00pm. At 11:00pm, I woke up with a bad stomach ache. I noticed I had some itchy bumps on my face and when my underarms started itching, I got up to check myself out in the bathroom. My entire face was covered in hives, as was my chest and stomach. I took a Benadryl and went down to wake up my mom to see how many I could take. I took another and woke Dad up. By this time, my lips were extremely swollen, my hands were bright red and swollen, as was my nose, eyes and ears. My arms, legs and feet had also developed hives by this point. I was so nervous my throat was going to close up. My husband stayed up with me until the hives started going away and I wasn't so itchy.

The next morning when I got up, my face and ears were still slightly swollen and I still had hives from my chest up. We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios as planned, although we only got there right as it opened (as opposed to how early we had been before). The kids had a blast here and we got to do a lot before heading home around 1:30pm. We did Muppet Vision 3-D, met Minnie Mouse, met Lightning McQueen and Mater, rode Toy Story Mania, watched Disney Junior Playhouse Live, watched the Little Mermaid show, met Handy Manny and Jake (and the Neverland Pirates), and ate lunch at Pizza Planet before we left. We tried to ride Star Tours and the Tower of Terror, but the lines were long and I was starting to get very tired and needed another dose of Benadryl.

Dad and I didn't want to leave because it was our last day there, but we had such a good time (even with the possible shellfish allergy). We went home and started packing. We left the next morning for Chattanooga and ended up home by 2:00pm our time Sunday afternoon. It was the best vacation I've ever been on... we are already planning another trip back to stay on the resort for Spring 2014. :)

We went to Disney World!!! (Part 2)

On Monday, December 24th, we got up around 7:30am Orlando time and made our way to the Grand Floridian Hotel & Spa where we had advanced dining reservations at 1900 Park Fare for the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast with Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, Tigger and Pooh. It was such a great experience getting to check out the hotel, which was gorgeous, and getting to eat breakfast with the characters.

The chef came out to our table to personally discuss Little Monster's egg allergy. He told us he would make her some Mickey waffles and potatoes without egg and he also told us what she could have off the buffet. Then he personally delivered the food to our table.

Getting that out of the way, the rest of us were able to enjoy our food and start having pictures with the characters. Tiny Dancer absolutely loved it. Little Monster liked them from afar, but not when they got too close to her.

After breakfast, we headed to Downtown Disney, where we met my parents to do a little shopping (or for them, a lot of shopping... they liked buying the girls stuff) and we waited around until Tiny Dancer's appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. She was pretty tired at this point, and she was getting really embarrassed with all of the attention, but after it was over, she loved her hair and the way she looked.

We went back to the house that night and opened presents with the rest of my family. Tiny Dancer got the Brave doll and horse and a Cinderella's castle with little figurines that I would say is probably her favorite gift from all of Christmas.

The next morning, Christmas morning, we were back up early and at Magic Kingdom by 7:00am, where we got to go right in because we had early reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle. We got to meet Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, Aurora and Snow White. Little Monster absolutely loved the princesses. She wasn't too shy with them at all. And breakfast was amazing! I had steak and eggs which was filet mignon on a chipotle and onion egg frittata. :)

We only stayed until 1:30 that afternoon since it was super crowded by 10:00am. They hit park capacity that day around noon, but we were still able to ride the Carrousel, Mickey's Philarmagic and Journey of the Little Mermaid, as well as meet Merida from Brave!

Back home, we tried to rest and do laundry.

The next morning, my parents, my aunt, my hair stylist sister and her husband, plus my teacher sister and my nephew, L, also came to Magic Kingdom. We met the Princesses (Aurora, Cinderella and Rapunzel) and rode The Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Mickey's Philarmagic, Journey of the Little Mermaid and were heading for FastPasses to Space Mountain when it started pouring rain. My sister and I had the boys at the Baby Care Center (in the middle of the park) and had to try to make it through the rain and crowded covered areas back to the rest of the family. Most of them were riding Stitch's Great Escape. Once they were out, Tiny Dancer and I headed over to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (which was pretty funny and cute). When we came back out, the sun was back out and the rest of our family went home. It was our last day in Magic Kingdom, so we were determined to ride everything else we hadn't yet. Dad rode Space Mountain since he never had. Then we headed over to get FastPasses for Daddy and Tiny Dancer to ride Splash Mountain. Once the sun went down, it got pretty cold. And it had been really hot that day, so Dad and I didn't bring in any jackets. We rode Mad Tea Party and Enchanted Tales with Belle and met Mickey Mouse on our way out around 8:30pm.

We went to Disney World!!! (Part 1)

We survived our first vacation as a family of 5! I was completely worried about how it would go with The Baby and Little Monster. Little Monster is, well a little monster... she is at her difficult stage and I wasn't sure how she was going to act while we were there. But all 3 kids were absolutely amazing!

For the drive down, Tiny Dancer rode with my parents in their truck. This way we could stow-n-go our back seats and pack everything in there. We left Friday night for Nashville and that 5 hour trip (which took about 6 1/2 or so) went really well. We stopped to eat and The Baby ate twice during that time. The next morning, we woke up early and left for Orlando. That 11 hour trip took us about 14 hours. YIKES. We had to stop to feed The Baby several times, but every time we would stop to eat, we'd have to get Little Monster out of her car seat and finish feeding her before leaving again. She is rear facing and I have a major fear of children eating in the car.

We got to Orlando Saturday evening around 7:30. The place was great! It was in a gated community called Emerald Island Resort and it was a big enough house for the whole clan. According to what I saw, it was 6 miles from Disney World. Going to bed that night was so hard - I was so excited for the next day!

We got up at 5:45am Orlando time to get ready. I dressed the kids in their matching Mickey and Minnie outfits and we were out the door at 6:35am. It took us 15 minutes from leaving our driveway to parking our car in the Magic Kingdom parking lot. We were outside the gates to the ferry boat/monorail by 7:00am. It was really chilly that morning! The kids had jackets and coats and hats on that day. It was really exciting when they opened the gates because everyone cheered. We headed over to the ferry boat, but once we were boarded they told us there was too much fog, so we all had to get on the monorail. Once we got over to Magic Kingdom and inside the park, we were ready to go! We rode several rides right away without any lines. Our first ride of the trip was The Haunted Mansion. This ride we were a little nervous about Tiny Dancer riding. She loves Ghostbusters, but I'm always afraid of something causing her nightmares, which she has a lot. We all decided to ride that one - all 5 of us were able to.

We brought two strollers: a simple umbrella stroller for Tiny Dancer and our bigger, nicer stroller which isn't too heavy and is easy to fold up for Little Monster. That one has storage underneath we were able to use plus a tray and cup holder. I used the Moby wrap for The Baby, which was absolutely amazing. I can't say enough good things about it. I would wrap him and we would get on the rides just like that.

That first morning, we rode The Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, and Journey of the Little Mermaid (a new one!) all without any lines. We rode Dumbo with about a 15 minute wait and then did a little shopping before heading to the Baby Care Center to feed and change The Baby (who slept the whole time wrapped up). We ended up leaving around 2:00pm to head back to the house for a nap for the girls as they were about to crash. We went back to Magic Kingdom around 6:00pm and we rode Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Pirates of the Caribbean without any wait. We got FastPasses for Dad and Tiny Dancer to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - Tiny Dancer's first roller coaster! She didn't like it! We watched the Main Street Electrical Parade and part of the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, along with the fireworks, which were going off as we made our way out of the park with 3 sleeping kids. It was great!