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.

The beginning of September - Normal times but fun times

Sometimes I feel like life just flies by in a series of routines and we don't do anything special or fun (unless you include going to Costco on Sundays).  However, as I was prepping this post I was reminded that we DO have memorable moments each week and sometimes they are big exciting things and sometimes they are small but they are still memorable and special.

So here's some memorable moments from the beginning of September.

I had taken Emmalyn out of her swaddle and went to go do something quickly and came back and this is what I found.  Baby girl was on her belly (and that wasn't how I left her).  Uh oh.  No more leaving her in one spot and knowing she'll just stay in that one spot.

Max came to talk to her

I love this picture

On Labor Day, I took Maxwell to the pool...just us two...no screaming baby left in the kids care center to interrupt our fun 10 minutes later with a page over the intercom.

We swam a little with the swim vest and a little without it.  He's gotten to be such a good swimming for a 3 year old over the summer.  He really loves going in the lazy river but I make him have the swim vest on in there.  In the big pool he enjoys jumping off the side and swimming to me (about 15 away) and then swimming back.  We get lots of looks from people when he does that because he's so little.  They are impressed.  :)

Snack break

After swimming we hung out next door and enjoyed our neighbors.  Emmalyn was passed around but Mary Ann had her most of the time.  Now that Labor Day is over, summer is over.  :(

Emmalyn out on a walk with Brittany and Landen while Hayden and Maxwell were in school.

My pre-schooler!  

I wanted to get this picture with the chalkboard on the first day of school and didn't.

So I figured I'd get it another day during that first week of school and didn't.

So I finally got it during the second week. Oh well, that's life.  I'm still trying to adjust to getting myself ready for work and Maxwell ready for school and getting us both out of the house on time.

I snapped a pic of Maxwell on circle time after I dropped him off.  I still stay and watch the cameras for a bit.  He's the boy on the top left.

We try to get information out of him about his days at school and he usually says "I don't know".  Landen has been cute and asks him every day if he made any new friends and he finally said "yes"!  Dylan and Joshua.  That make me happy.  

I was feeling like we were doing well and then this week I went and dropped him off and he starting walking towards the circle rug, just fine.  Well, bad move on my part, I called to him and asked about my hug and a kiss.  Well, that was all it took to upset the careful balance and he started crying and didn't want me to leave him.  It was awful.  I felt so bad.  Why did I have to say anything?  Why couldn't I just have walked out of the room!

At orientation I had signed up to read to the kids during their library time once a month (So I'd leave work during my lunch break and come and read).   Unfortunately, today was that time for September.  I had prepped Max that I was going to come and read to his class but he must have forgotten because when I got there they were finishing lunch and he immediately jumped up, shut his lunch box, and said that his mom was here to get him.  I explained no, that I was here to read to his class.  He was upset about that and wanted to go home with me.  We worked through it and I read to the class but then when it was time for me to go, he lost it again.  Full on lost it.  I couldn't calm him down and eventually just had to leave him with his teacher, still crying.  Not quite the fun experience I had envisioned when I signed up to read.

Holding onto both feet with one hand

Love those toes

Brittany sent me this pic.  She's holding her own bottle! (This is something I wouldn't know unless Britt told me because of course she never gets a bottle when I'm around.)

Maxwell put on a cowboy hat and was riding the broom around as a horse

Maxwell letting his sister grab his face.  I love any interaction between them (until they start fighting!)

Emmalyn has only woken up once between midnight and 7 am the last two nights.  Dare I think this might be the new norm?!  She is so funny and falls asleep blowing raspberries.  The last couple weeks she has been congested and it's just not going away.  I can hear her congested breathing while she sleeps.  We've tried using essential oils and a humidified and nothing is working.  

Aren't those cheeks the best?

Reading books at the library on the weekend

This is what my bathroom sink looks like nearly all the time.  I don't even get to use it to brush my teeth in - I use Peter's.  There are always multiple pieces of pooped on clothing/blankets soaking in here.  The trick I've learned with this baby is that if you can quickly soak the clothing for like a day and then poor some Oxyclean right onto the stain while the garment is still in the water and let it sit for another day, nearly all stains will be gone.  It's so much better than scrubbing at all the stains like I did last time.

Video - She is a talker!

Peter making homemade cinnamon rolls with Maxwell.  He helped like the beater from the icing.

Don't they look great?  Peter does an awesome job making them.

Always a fan of play-doh and now he's got a bunch of his own stuff thanks to birthday presents.

Video - It's amazing how quickly she becomes a pro at rolling over.  It's like it takes zero effort now.

We went out for ice cream

This is what you look like after you indulge a little too much :(  Messy and sad with a tummy ache

We celebrated Brittany's birthday a little early.  We surprised her with an ice cream cake.

One night this week, I took a blanket outside and so Max and I had a picnic dinner outside on the blanket to enjoy the lovely weather.  At one point Max came and whispered in my ear that I was his favorite Momma.  It was so sweet and my heart just melted.  This is what I want, these simple, special moments where I create things that my children and I love.  It doesn't take a big activity.  I need to remember that.