3rd week of May 2015

Maxwell's Kindermusik class has lots of homework this semester.  I'm awful at getting him going on in early.  Good thing I'm getting practice now before he's in school!  Here he is making a building with stairs and windows.

Not so sweetly sleeping.

Writing a letter to Pete the Cat at the library

Reading at the library

Multiple elevator rides are part of the magic of the library :)

My cute family.  

(Maxwell loves wearing his Diego bag.  This boy is going to rock a messenger bag someday.)

We stopped at The Snow Cone Lady for our first snowcone of the summer.  WOOO!  Max waited on the bench for us.

Video - Maxwell yelling at me and telling me he can't drive because he's not a grown up.  LAUGH

I think this may be Emmalyn's first snowcone

#truth

Enjoying some brunch 

She's unhappy because we aren't giving her food fast enough.  She just shovels it in.  I can't keep up.  I cut stuff for her and she's devoured it before I cut the next bite.

playing at the library with Landen

Enjoying Brittany's smoothie

I took Emmalyn for a secret photo shoot for a surprise for Peter (more to come on that...).  It's pretty dang awesome.

We made "ice cream" with frozen bananas, milk, and peanut butter.  EASY and YUMMY

Update on the kids recently:

Maxwell - 

Needs to have socks on his feet at night or he won't go to sleep

He's been scared of the dark lately at night in his room and wants the light left on in the bathroom so he can see a little bit.

Maxwell wants to cuddle and wants me to keep cuddling with him after he falls asleep.  He tells me he's keeping me and I can never leave.

Emmalyn -

She loves to eat fruit, cheerios, and water.  I mentioned above how much she likes to eat.  She will eat a bunch and then scream if she wants more or you try to get her out of her highchair and she isn't done yet.  She also loves to drink water, lots of it!

It's pretty painful lately to try and hold her and keep her entertained while on your lap.  She wants to be down and moving around.

She's doing great at listening and understanding.

She is pointing at what she wants and will scream if she's not getting it.

She is mimicking sounds and will mimic back to us her version of what we said.  She's very chatty!

She loves being outside and being in her bike.

She has super stranger danger.

I am still pumping at work and in the evenings. The stinky thing is that I only get 3-4 oz from those 4 pumpings a day.  It's pretty brutal but I'm sticking with it because I read that even only 3 oz of breastmilk still provides value to your baby.  So now, that is the only breastmilk she gets during the day and then Brittany gives her formula the rest of the time.  

She's starting to identify body parts like legs, chest, and hands.

Her favorite book lately is "bubbles bubbles".  She loves books.

She is walking about 3-5 steps now and she stood up outside all on her own without holding onto anything!
She loves to say "bye" and wave.
She's a Momma's girl and wants to be by me all the time.
She loves to sing!
She won't fall asleep and take a nap in the car lately.
She can go down the one step in the media room on her belly.
She loves to dump things out and can sometimes put things back.
Emmalyn's eyes are the color of Max's and she definitely has my hair, not Peter's.

(Happy?!) Mother's Day 2014 - - AKA Kallie is an idiot who makes her own life painful

I think we should abolish silly holidays like "mother's day".  Or at least, cancel them from my calendar.  They just lead to stupid expectations for a day that aren't going to be met and thus lead to disappointment.

I had these lovely visions of a Mother's Day where I could sleep in, enjoy breakfast in bed, and be pampered all day by my family and the day would end with a delicious dinner at a restaurant.   HAAAAAA.   I think things have been so rough lately that I clung to this vision because it would be a break from the daily grind.

Here was reality (which wasn't bad, but because of my lovely vision and expectations the day was doomed to not make me happy)...

Peter had to take Aja to the airport REALLY early.  No big deal.  I could handle Emmalyn's feeding during that time and he'd be back in enough time to take over and I could go back to sleep!  Unfortunately Aja got to the airport after the check-in cutoff so she wasn't allowed to board and had to be put on the next flight that left 4 hours later.  Peter didn't want her sitting at the airport that long so he turned around on his way home to go get her and take her to breakfast (it was her Mother's day too!).  When he called me to let me know that the plan had changed and he wouldn't be home when we had planned, I understood and was okay with it.  Doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed.  There went my plans for sleeping in.

Now, Mother's Day was just like every other day where Max would be on the iPad while I tried to sleep for a few minutes while Emmalyn slept and then I'd struggle to keep both of them happy while we got ready for the day.  Except it was worse because usually Peter would go get Max when he woke up and get him some milk and dry cereal and bring him to our bed.  Now that task was mine too.

Good morning

Max continued to get more sores thanks to the Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

Peter eventually made it home later that morning and brought me these beautiful roses, two sweet cards - one from Max and one from himself

He also brought donuts and McDonalds breakfast

My sweet husband tried to make it good but I just couldn't get past the crappy start to the day.

I appreciated the breakfast he picked up but it wasn't a yummy, home cooked breakfast in bed.  I appreciated the cards and flowers but was disappointed that he didn't have a present for me.  I didn't get a physical present for our anniversary and then nothing for Mother's Day?  It's not like Mother's Day was a surprise.  I know he just picked those cards up this morning.  Where was the forethought?

He offered to go to the grocery store and I let him but it just made me more ticked.  Here's again where I get in my own way...  I know he thought he was being nice by offering to go to the store since normally I would beg for him to do this.  However, now that I am home with the kids during the day, his offer felt like a punishment for me.  Going to the grocery store alone seems like a heavenly dream.  A chance to get out of the house?  By myself?  Feel like a normal human?  Yes please!  So when he went, it meant that I was stuck at home...again...by myself with the kids...while he got a break and got to get away from it all.  Yet, did I communicate to him that I would prefer to go to the store while he stayed with the kids?  No.  Instead I just sat there simmering in my victimness because my selfish husband was once again taking care of himself instead of pampering me on my special day and giving me a break.  (DUH KALLIE. PULL YOUR HEAD OUT AND COMMUNICATE!!!!!)

Here's my "break"...oh wait, I didn't get one.  It was just like every other day.

That's pretty much how the rest of the day went.  I wanted Peter to surprise me by picking out a great restaurant for dinner or being up for doing something fun as a family outside the house.  (Especially since we didn't get to go out last night for our anniversary.)  But instead we sat around and did nothing special.  We didn't leave the house.  And by the time it was PAST time for dinner, I was so hurt and mad that I refused to contribute to the conversation about what we should do for dinner.  So I let him pick.  He picked Firehouse Subs.  Seriously?!  It's freaking MOTHERS DAY and you are going to celebrate my role by picking up subs?  It was more evidence that supported my inner conversation about what a crappy day this was, how Peter didn't care about making it special for me, and how awful my life was.

I know, I know, I know.  I'm an idiot.  I'm only publicly writing about my ridiculous and embarrassing behavior as a painful reminder to myself to knock it off and take a different approach next time.  It wasn't a bad day.  The only thing that made it bad was myself and my crappy attitude and inability to communicate effectively.  

Emmalyn turned 4 weeks old today.

• I used some Doterra Digestzen (diluted) on her today because it seemed like her tummy was really upset.  Her first time using oils!
• We have been having some really rough nights lately
• We are getting more awake time from her and even a little eye contact!
• She SCREAMS during diaper changes.  During the day, it's manageable but at night when Peter is changing her before giving her to me to nurse, it's TORTURE.
• We've heard some coos but they seem to be more of an accident and not on purpose.  We ARE getting softer noises - for example she has a softer cry now and not just her full on scream.  It seems like we are getting closer to real coos. She still makes the grunting and snorting noises.
• She is really good at holding her head up.
• The only smiles we get are when she's sleeping but we are getting different facial reactions from her that show that she's reacting to you.
• She sometimes likes the bouncy seat.
• She loves having her hand by her face.
• She hates getting dressed..
• She has such a little waist.  The 0-3 month bloomers can be on her with a gap between her body and the elastic, they aren't even stretched.
• Today it seems like her baby acne is getting better.
• I think we have dodged the HFMD, she doesn't have any of the symptoms.
• Peter has the touch and is able to get her to burp...to sleep...to calm down...etc. while I feel like I don't know any of the answers.  For example, someone will ask does she like this or does she like this and I feel dumb because I don't know the answer.  I don't have a feel for anything yet.  You would think I just brought her home and not that I was 4 weeks into this.
• I wonder what she will look like in a few months...what color eyes will she have?  Will she keep her dark hair and darker complexion?  Will everything change?
• She doesn't have a birthmark (yet?)
• If we put her on tummy time, she will immediately roll over to her back and can roll both to her left and her right to avoid being on her tummy.  This didn't just happen once, but MANY times.
• There are times, in the middle of the night, when I will just leave the lamp on after she nurses because if I turn the light off after I lay her back down it seems to be a guarantee that she will wake up and scream.  Peter and I are both so tired that having the light on does nothing to keep us awake.  :)
• Nursing is going great.  I don't have to worry about her latch anymore because she's gotten the hang of it.  No need to use lanolin oil.  It's going smoothly!  Interestingly, I have noticed that I rarely feel "full" and have learned that is normal for moms who have nursed before because your breasts have held more milk before (for your previous child) and so holding the lesser amount of milk needed for a newborn doesn't max out the space in there.  I was worried that I might not be producing enough so was happy to learn this.  Also, I noticed that I don't have to help her latch anymore.  She's able to do get a good latch herself and finally understands she needs to keep her hand out of the way.  These two things make nursing so much easier!

Starting to walk and Rainbows at Sunset

Here's some pics and videos from Sept 10 - 16, 2013.

Some things about Maxwell on Sept 10 (Happy birthday BRITTANY!)

1. He nearly always crosses his feet - when he sitting on the floor, sitting on my lap, in his carseat or highchair, etc.
2. He will now point at what he wants
3. He is starting to climb over things
4. He can follow some directions like "sit on your bottom" when he's getting a bath
5. He is showing that he understands more of what we say like if I ask him, "do you want some water?"
6. He says "yes", "done", and "hi"

Mouth full of teeth - and happy because he's got Landen's cup (Max is always hoping he'll pick up Landen's cup and it will have something other than water in it since he only gets water in his own sippy cup).

Showing me Landen's cup

Video - Max has a new game, he likes to balance things on his head like dryer sheets, tissues, clothes, etc. 

Hayden loves Max so much and is great at making him smile and laugh.

Video - We have been trying to get Max to take more than 1 step.  One the 12th he took 4!!!  Here's a video from the 13th.  Brittany and I were practicing taking steps with Max.  Good job Maxwell!!!!

Video - Max has just barely started "dancing"

He's figured out how to pffft

Unhappy face

I found Max in the pantry, he'd grabbed his box of Fiddlesticks off the shelf, opened it up, and helped himself up to one.  !!!  Uh-oh.  I think things are about to get more complicated.  This babe is smart.

"quick" trip to Costco

Being silly

We went on a walk with Brittany and her family around the neighborhood, we had cooler day and it was a nice little break from the heat.  Britt and Joe are showing off their P90x goofiness.

It turned into a beautiful walk!

We could see both ends of the rainbow.

One end was almost over our house.  Our house is just to the left of the tallest roof that you see just to the left of the rainbow.

Gorgeous sunset.

video - standing up and balancing