2 years, 4 months and a little update

Yesterday we got to take a little trip to the doctor's office for Lex and Sophia. The schedulers tried to convince me to bring in all 3 kids so Evie could get a flu shot, but they must not have 3 kids within 3 years of each other, lol. I did one trip to the doctor's office with all 3 kids when Sophia was 2 weeks old and I vowed never to attempt that again. Evie will have to make a trip for the flu shot some other day.

Lex was seen for his 2 year well child visit. He now weighs 29 lbs and is 35 inches tall. He's in the 66/67th percentiles for both. His head, as it has been since birth, is sitting in the 90th percentile. The entire visit he talked with the doctor and his resident, eliciting comment of surprise with how much and how well he talks. I certainly know he talks very well but it always amazes me how much more he talks when Evie isn't around. His inability to sit still for any amount of time during the visit (and the giant scabs on his head from his fall a week ago) also earned me comments about how he must keep me busy. Uh, yeah. Overall for the appointment, he's hitting all his milestones perfectly!

Sophia was seen for her 4 month well child visit. Her growth is definitely starting to slow down. She was weighed at 14.5 lbs (which is the same I estimated at 3 month old) and she's 24 inches tall. That puts her weight in the 73rd percentile and height in the 44th. Her head, unlike big sister and big brother, also falls into the 44th percentile. Gosh, no wonder she was the easiest to push out. Just like the other kiddos, she's also right on for all her milestones. She's pushing her head up, she's attempting to roll (soooo close), she smiles and coos, she follows people by turning her head, etc. We were given the go-ahead to try rice cereal in the next couple months if we want to, but I think we're going to skip it. There's not really any nutritional value to the cereal and we never had success with the other two actually eating it. So I was given the okay to wait until 6 months and just start with the fruits and veggies then (which the AAP recommends waiting until anyways).

And what's an update without including all 3 kids? Evie's been a handful lately...and I mean that in the most loving way possible. She's back to waking up entirely too early at 4:45 am. *sigh* I'm 99% certain she's only doing it because she wants to climb into bed with me and Shaun. I wouldn't mind that so much if she actually slept. I also don't know how to break her of the habit without messing with Lex's sleep. Since they share a room we'd have to bring her back into the room he's sleeping in and she definitely wouldn't be quiet about it. One kid awake before 5 am is better than 2 or 3 kids awake before 5 am. We've also had to pull her out of swim lessons. I'm not sure what happened but now she HATES going to swim lessons. She's fine with getting in the water and swimming with me or Shaun, but she doesn't like lessons. I'm not sure if it's the teacher (gosh, I hope not, she's my coworker!) or if it's the structured lessons that she doesn't like. She cries hysterically while getting changed into her swim suit, cries throughout her lesson and comes up with every excuse to get out of the pool possible. So we've canceled her lessons and we'll try again in a couple months. If anyone's got any tips for dealing with the early wake up, getting her to stay out of our bed, or getting her re-engaged in swimming, please feel free to share!

Preview for upcoming blog posts: video of Sophia giggling, pictures from Lex's birthday, fitness updates and Shaun turns 30!

Lex, 2 years old

My little man is growing so fast! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER!

Yep, this day 2 years ago we added another little person to our family. The birth of Alexander Thomas put our family into the stereotypical American family category. Two parents, house, dog, two kids; one girl and one boy...all we needed that that white picket fence, lol.

Anyways...as soon as Evie was born we were already planning to get pregnant again as soon as possible for two reasons 1) since it took so long to get pregnant with Evie we weren't sure how long it would take for baby number two and 2) my next younger sister and I are 13 months apart in age and I felt that was a perfect age gap. Five months after Evie was born we found out I was pregnant again. Perfect! That put us at about 13.5-14 months for an age gap.

Ummm...yeah, siblings that close in age is great from the perspective of the kids. I didn't put enough consideration into how hard it is on the parents. Lex came into this world surrounded by what would be the last minute of calm our family would experience. He was a great baby with bad sleeping habits. Evie took to him right away and it took no time at all to see them start to form a bond that will (hopefully) last them the rest of their lives.

I was blessed to be able to stay home the entire first year of Lex's life. He grew so fast, faster than Evie, and it was nice to be able to enjoy each of those many milestones babies go through in that first year. This past year he has bloomed into his own personality. He still adores and follows Evie everywhere. Copying things she says and does, but he is also an individual.

He's our rough and tumble little boy. He enters into his second birthday with 'road rash' across his face (wait til you see the pics). He jumps, climbs and runs head first down hills. I fully expect he'll be our first ER visit for an injury of any of the kids, though hopefully not for quite some time to come.

He loves super heros, cars, dinosaurs and Diego. He talks, he sings, he loves church and his sisters. He's helpful and compassionate. I don't think it's possible to ask for a better kid. I love my little man to pieces and I'm looking to celebrating decades upon decades of future birthdays with him.

*MUAH* Happy birthday Lex!

Ren Fest and other

So you're probably wondering what happened with those pictures from the Renaissance Festival. First, I didn't go :-( The weather the day we planned to go was rainy and cold. We weren't keen on taking Sophia out for an entire day in that weather when she already had a cold. However, Shaun did take the other kids. Which leads up to problem #2...no one who went knew how to work my camera, lol. Luckily, they did figure out how to work the video camera so you will get a couple videos, albeit short videos. Then #3, if you haven't heard already my computer completely went dead. Mega sad face! I did manage to get most of the information off of it before I said my final goodbye but it left me computer-less for a few days. Problem solved! I write to you now from my new computer!

Without further ado, here are a few videos for your viewing pleasure:

This is Evie meeting the Fairy "Twig" for the first time. Evie has been talking about fairies and pixie dust for months now. Twig did give Evie and Lex fairy stones and Evie has talked about it just about every day since.



This second one is of Lex riding an elephant. He had been talking about it for a week prior to heading to Ren Fest. You may recall that last year this elephant ate Lex's bottle; taking it straight out of our stroller! Anyways, thanks John for the commentary, lol.



These next couple videos aren't from Ren Fest. Instead they just highlight the enthusiasm the older kids show towards their littlest sister.

Are they related?

Just click on the picture to see them bigger.

Just a pic or two

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd throw out a couple pictures. I tried getting one of her sitting today but it didn't work so well, lol. She had no actual interest in sitting today and just kept falling over. It was amusing for me but not conducive for a good picture.

Happy about tummy time

(FYI: Ren Fest is this weekend so expect some good pictures early next week. There may even be elephants involved since Evie says she wants to see one.)

Let's Dance!

Evie had her first dance class this weekend. Unfortunately I spent Friday through Sunday at Camp Ripley so I was unable to be there for her first class. Thankfully Shaun and Gwyneth took pictures and video for our viewing pleasure.

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday: Fair hair

Teasing her hair for the Fair Hair look.

Adding the color.

Color done!

Finished product with crown.

All the bobby-pins and ponytail holders have been removed.
The color/hairspray is holding everything in place.

The results after wash #1. Hrmmm...

The color and ratti-ness did eventually come out. I broke out the big guns with my personal shampoo/conditioner that no one in the house is allowed to touch but me. Then there was lots of brushing and one pissed off toddler with a head that hurt. I wonder if next time she'll still want to partake in Fair Hair?

The great Minnesota get-together

Today we headed to the state fair! The kids were interested in two things: the giant slide and the animals. Unfortunately, the line for the slide was horrendously long so we bypassed that and my camera wasn't available when we saw most of the animals. I did get some pictures of the kids looking at horses, but no actual horses in the pictures, lol. Anyways, have a look!

First arriving at the fair.

Awe, heck, today will be easy if they're going to cart each other.

Fair hair! (ps. check back Wed. for more of the FH series)

Not happy about sharing wagon space.

Looking at horses with Gwyneth.

Horses with Dad.

More looking at horses.

Trying to pet a horse.

Silliness

Cotton Candy

Sugar!

Crashing on the way out of the fair.

Fitness Milestones: Month 1

Ah, yes, one month done. So where did I end up along my goals list? Here it goes -

Running: I am now done with week 6 of Running Mate 5K 101. In the past 6 weeks I have dropped 4 minutes off my one mile run time (I walk 5 minutes of that time), I've dropped 8:15 off my two mile run time (I walk 8 minutes of that time), and I'm running a 5K in 38 minutes (with 14 minutes of walking). I'm not walking those lengths of time because I have to but because it's part of the training program. I'm excited to to see what the last 2 weeks of the training do to my run time and I'm excited for my first post baby 5K race on September 25th! My fastest time pre-Sophia was 32:30 for the 5K at Lumberjack days in Stillwater. It'd be nice if I could be close to that with my first 5K race post baby, but I'd be happy with anything less than 38 minutes. I have run at minimum of every other day this past month. Some days with the stroller and some days without. I prefer the days without, since I run faster ;-)

Sit-ups: I moved up 3 brackets in the 300 sit-ups program. I am now confident that I could pass the sit-ups portion of my PT test. Probably not very well, but I would be able to pass. My goal is to reach the 70-80 group for sit-ups this next month!

Push-ups: Ick. I hate push-ups. I have been doing a lot of light lifting with Jillian Michaels and the Shred, as well as adding in push-ups, but I haven't stuck with the 100 push-ups program. I think I'd be able to pass push-ups on the PT test, but I'm not sure. *sigh* Goal for this month is to stick with the 100 push-ups program!

Other benefits: My entire life my heart rate has been high. Even when I was in high school and swimming 6-8 miles per day my heart rate was always in the 70s or 80s. Lately, though? My heart rate throughout the day is in the 50s and 60s! My resting heart rate when I wake up in the morning is 42! Holy crap! That's the lowest I've ever seen my heart rate and it makes me happy. With all the bad heart history in my family it's great to know that all this working out has impacted my heart health in a great way.

Ha! Can't believe I didn't even think to write about this until this far into my blog post, but I'm also down 10 lbs in the past month! Woot! Only 5 more to go to make Army weight, 10 until I make pre-Evie pregnancy weight, and 20 until I reach my ultimate goal. It really goes to show that I'm not concentrating on weight loss for my fitness goals considering I didn't even think to include it until I was ready to hit 'publish', lol. Mostly I want to feel healthy. During pregnancy I feel like crap and I'm fully intending to take advantage of being done having kids to get to a point where I feel physically great.

Sophia: the 3rd month

My "little" girl is 3 months old! It's so bitter sweet to see these milestones pass for the last time. As of a week ago, we are officially DONE having kids (thanks, hun, for taking one for the team!).

So what's up with miss 'phia? Well, first of all, she's as cute as ever. Wait? You don't know if you can agree with me?! Ooooohhhh...you just haven't seen any recent pictures. Here, let me indulge you:

"Helping" Sophia with her tummy time.

"No pics mom! I'm naked."

Napping, on the floor, unswaddled (a-maz-ing)

Cooooo!

Biggest smiles reserved for the ceiling fan.

More tummy time.

As for the other developmental stuff, here goes -

I weighed her today at 14 lbs, 6 oz! No idea on her height (she's already in bed or I'd check) but my guess is at least 24 inches.

She's still exclusively getting breast milk. Hurray! She has been getting quite a few bottles lately since I have really stepped up my work hours. Last week I worked 30 hours, this week 27. But I also now have a freezer stash of 600 ounces!! So even with me working a lot, she's going to be on breast milk for a while ;-)

Sweet, sweet Sophia also sleeps 6-8 hours in a row at night. Seriously, we could not have been blessed with a better 3rd baby. It's like she knows we're running on empty as is and she just wants to slide into our already hectic lives. I love her all the more for her easiness.

The babbling and cooing has increased tenfold lately. I love listening to her sweet voice. Any time the older two gives us a lull in conversation Sophia makes sure to get her two cents in as well. She has also started laughing this past month. Her first giggle went to me, but daddy sure gets a LOT more out of her than I do. It's ok kiddo, I think daddy's funny too.

She's doing better at tummy time too. She'll lift her head up quite far, but not often, nor does she do it for camera. Little stinker! She also loves to sit. I wouldn't be surprised if she's our earliest independent sitter. She's been able to sit in the bumbo for a while now.

That's all I've got for now but I'll be back tomorrow with another blog (I'm starting to type it tonight).