Third Week of January 2015

Emmalyn had her 9 month check up.  I can't believe that the next time we will be back at the doctor's she will be 1!

She was a happy camper

Here's the questionnaire I filled out on her development.

She had her finger pricked and picked at that bandaid after until she got it off.

Here's her stats from her 9 month visit:

Weight: 14 lbs 7 oz, 3rd Percentile

Height: 25.5 in, 1st Percentile

Head: 16.8 in, 19th Percentile 

She dropped in every area but her pediatrician didn't even bring that up.  He said she was healthy and her development was excellent.  1st percentile on height!!!  Sheesh, my tiny little princess.

After her Dr's visit, we went to the grocery store and I put her in the shopping cart seat for the very first time.

Video - Excited to be in the shopping cart!

Poor girl had to get one shot

Maxwell reading books with daddy before bedtime

Go BYU!

Enjoying ice cream, even though it's winter

Fun family time at the bowling alley

We brought along Landen with us

Maxwell helping the boys

The best leg warmers for black lights!

Lining up his shot

Video - Maxwell totally gets how important it is to aim the ball at the pins, watch him adjust the ramp for his shot

Playing a little at the arcade after our bowling game was over.  This is something Peter's family always does when they bowl.  I don't remember ever doing the arcade with my family.  

Everyone had a fun time! It's fun to get a chance to hang out with just Landen.

Maxwell wrote the names of everyone in his family on his white board.

Dad is in the top left corner, Mom in the bottom left, Emmalyn on the bottom right, and Max is just above that.  He's doing a great job learning how to write his letters.

I took the kids to the park on a sunny Sunday afternoon to get some time outside of the house.  We first enjoyed some snacks on the blanket before Maxwell and I pitched some balls for Maxwell to hit and then we went to the playground.

 I let Emmalyn "walk" around for the first time really

If you watch closely, she will stand on her own for a second or two every once in awhile when she's not paying attention to what she's doing but I can't get her to do it on command or anything like that.

Maxwell is finally getting big enough that he can sort of use this toy in the way it was intended.  I still think this toy, while fun, shouldn't be at the park because it's so easy for little fingers to be pinched between the rollers.  I get incredibly nervous watching him each time he gets on it.

Video - Maxwell has Chinese class once a week at Montessori.  Here's a couple of the things he has learned to say in Chinese...

Having fun kicking the ball in the media room

Uh oh, she's getting to the point that she can start grabbing things off the kids table.

So glad she doesn't have my nose!

Maxwell wanted to take a picture of me holding this ornament he made at school with his school picture - it's a mitten

Max drew this, it's the first time he's drawn a true person with limbs, hair, etc.

Sweet baby sleeping in her crib! (She's wiggling her arms out of the swaddle blanket now.)  She wants to sleep on her belly even though we put her to sleep on her back.  We've let her have the pillow because that's how she wants to sleep and since she can easily roll over now, I feel like it's not a danger anymore.

This week we finally buckled down (thanks Peter for making us do it) and started sleep training Emmalyn in her crib (after we lowered it).  Brittany started it during the day and we now have to keep it going.  The first night it took about 15 minutes to get her down.  She was soooooo mad at us but then once she fell asleep she slept until 3 am!  At that point Peter got up to help her go back to sleep (it couldn't be me or she would want to nurse) until 5.  When she got up at 5 I got her, nursed her, and then let her stay in our bed.  It was pretty exciting that she slept that long without me having to help her.  

I was so proud of Maxwell today.  I went to read to his class (which I do on the first Tuesday of every month during their library time) and he always cries when I leave.  It's so sad and usually Ms. Cynthia has to distract him or something when I sneak out.  Anyway, so this morning on the way to school he talked about how he was going to cry when I had to leave after reading to his class because he would miss me.  I suggested that instead of crying he could say, "Goodbye Momma, have a good day".  I tried to get him to practice it with me but he wouldn't.  However, when it was time for me to leave after reading to his class he came up to me and said it with a big smile and was okay!!!!  I was so proud of him!  (Oh man, try reading to a bunch of 3-5 year olds during winter - - you'll have a lot of nose pickers looking at you while you read.  Ew.)

Another week full of adventures

September 20 - 26, 2014

Emmalyn came with me to my friend (we work together at CROSSMARK) Sarah's baby shower.  We are excited to have two baby girls that can be friends!

Daddy was getting some giggles out of her

Walking around with Momma in the baby bjorn 

Out to dinner - we tried a new place and got some mediocre food and then went next door to a place where they make you ice cream by freezing it in front of you with, (I can't remember) some cold gas.  It was cool to watch but again just mediocre on flavor.

Going on a walk - trying to get Maxwell to love his balance bike

My fix it man finally showed up to work

I took the kids on a picnic while daddy was playing paintball

Love spending time with these two even though it's a lot of work!

We took Maxwell (and Emmalyn) to see Footloose put on by a children's theater. 

This was the most interested he looked the entire time.

Within like the first two minutes there were two swear words, which I was NOT happy about.  I thought this was children's theater?  Anyway, the show quickly didn't hold Maxwell's attention so we were trying to entertain him with stuff in the diaper bag and also keep Emmalyn happy.  We quickly gave up.  We decided to leave, it just wasn't worth it.  I think we lasted 20 minutes, maybe. 

So we played on the stairs outside the theater and took some pictures.

Maxwell loves his "big brother" t-shirt.  He loves all t-shirts and would wear them every day if I let him.  Style, dude!

We are so lucky to have such a cute and happy baby!

She was gumming this toy so hard that she figured if she ripped it out of her mouth, it would squeak against her gums so she did it over and over again.

Hard to change a diaper like this...

Wahoo!  This rear end is now big enough for Size 2 diapers!

I love that it's now cool enough that we can do walks in the evening.  These two were chatting it up (love Max's hands in his pockets as he walks - ha!)

There was a chalk hopscotch on the sidewalk during our walk and Maxwell knew what to do with it.  He also saw a shape and pointed out that it was a trapezoid.  Then he wanted to play "chase me" and "freeze tag".  All of these things were things he didn't know before he went to school - guess he IS learning!

At the fall family picnic at Maxwell's school.  We knew like no one, a few teachers were familiar but that was it.  Maxwell didn't seem to know any of the kids.  Oh well, we just started, right?

Maxwell and his Teacher Miss Cynthia

Peter walked in on Maxwell pooping and found him like this. !!!

Preschool update:
At school, Maxwell has Chinese class once a week for half an hour.  When he comes home, we ask him to teach us what he learned and he says something that sounds like Chinese.  Who knows if those are real Chinese words or what they mean since neither of us knows any Chinese!  Unfortunately he doesn't only learn good things at school, the other day he threw a tantrum with stomping his feet - that was learned from someone at school.  Nice.  I'm not sure if he likes going to school.  He is really sensitive and easily upset.  For example, he cries if he has to go to another teachers classroom because his teacher isn't there yet (she is getting a new helper but the helper hasn't started yet so that means it is only his teacher in the classroom and she's been late a few times so the kids have to go to another class until she gets there.  It's super frustrating to me because I see him breakdown and wonder if we shouldn't have picked another teacher, one who was more punctual perhaps??)  He also cried when I came to read to his class and when I left.  According to his teacher he isn't crying for my during nap time anymore but he still takes forever to fall asleep.

It's hard to get any details from him about what he did all day - I wish I could just stay there for a day and watch.  He eats lunch with one of the older kids in his class, I think she's 5 or turning 5.  Anyway, part of Montessori is to let the older kids help the younger kids and apparently he was upset because he dropped his spoon and she helped him deal with it.  Nice, right?

Here's what his teacher told us.  He's good at language, reading, and his math.  He needs to work on his writing and coloring.  She says he uses both hands instead of favoring one (which we knew) so we asked her to encourage him to use his right hand when he's writing.  He doesn't want to try new things or be silly in front of others.  She said he's not quite socially engaged.  He does NOT want his fingers dirty which has caused problems when they are doing things like finger painting.  He also doesn't want to move on to new work and would rather keep doing what he's doing for long periods of time.

Max is still wearing some 18-24 months pants.  This poor kid is so short!

Emmalyn update:
Emmalyn is pivoting around on her belly.  And we get a few rolls from belly to back.  She certainly is squirmy and can get around by wriggling and rolling.  She is a TALKATIVE baby!  It doesn't seem to bother her when I have milk anymore.  She hates the process of getting swaddled but is fine once it's done.  She also doesn't like being put in the car seat. She is now reaching for toys, and switching them between her hands.  She puts her feet, toys, and everything in her mouth and is drooly but there's no sign of any teeth coming in.  Lately, it seems she always poops when Momma is holding her. If we are lucky, she only wakes up to nurse 2 times a night.

She was great when we went to the new brand of binkies and stopped using the soothie kind from the hospital.  She can now grab the binky and put it in her mouth herself.  I don't give her the binky though when she is falling asleep at night.  We use a sound machine when she sleeps but she doesn't have to have it.  It's so sweet because she coos while she is falling asleep.  During the day we get her to sleep by putting her in the swing (which I don't like but hey, it works...) I can tell she really wants to eat solids.  She is so interested whenever we are eating but I'm holding out and not giving her solids until she's 6 months - only a couple more weeks.  It's hard to get excited about giving her food because she seems to spit up so much lately.  I don't want gross solid food spit up too!  (At least breast milk spit up is all white and doesn't stain like carrots do.)

She really knows her family and just lights up when she sees me.  I love it!  She loves watching Maxwell play on the iPad.

I am already stressing about my milk supply and have seen a drop.  I have a ton of breast milk frozen so that helps a little with the stress, but I wish that I wouldn't be seeing a drop in my production already. :(

My tailbone is doing better and only hurts if I spend time sitting on a hard surface - like the floor for very long.  I can't believe it's really taking this long to heal.