Oh what a day!!

On Thursday I took Harper for her 4 month checkup and shots. She was in such a good mood during the whole appointment until those dreaded needles went right through those chubby legs and then the tears were flowing....Harper cried too :) We came home and she was already getting fussy so I was nursing her and Pax (whose allergies were flaring up that week) started coughing and then threw up all over in front of the couch!! Of course Josh had just left to go back to work so here I am all alone with a crying baby and a puking toddler!! I hurry up and put Harper in the bouncer, thus upsetting her even more, and pick up Pax and RUN to the bathroom. We hit the hallway and here he goes again, all over the carpet, him, me, bathroom, EVERYWHERE!! So I put him down, he's crying, Harper's crying, I'm crying.....it was straight out of a horror movie. So who do I call? No not my hubby, he is such a wuss when it comes to vomit and I was pretty sure he would only make the scene worse and messier, so I called his Mom who came right over. She helped with Harper and watched Pax in the bath while I cleaned up the disgustingness (not a work but using it anyway) that was my house. It was a good thing I was so busy at work that day and didn't get to eat lunch cause I might have lost it if I had. Anyway, I got it cleaned up and then spent the rest of the night doing laundry, following Pax around with a bowl in case he did it again and taking care of a feverish fussy baby. Seriously I know you are all jealous of my oober glamourous life. We concluded that it was not the flu but a combination of allergies, cough and too much dairy. So what did we learn? My child CANNOT have dairy if he is sick with a cough, the end result is not pretty!!! Harper ended up running a fever all night and half the day Friday. She just doesn't tolerate vaccines very well, but ya gotta do it! Pax was still not feelin 100% Friday night so we decided to do a movie night, just him and I. It was nice, but the poor tired little fella only made it an hour then ASKED to go to bed. I am happy to report that both children are much better today and both had busy fun days. Pax went to the farm and golfing with Papa, and Harper went shopping with me and Nana.

Here are her stats from her 4 month checkup:

Weight-12 lbs 9.5 ozs: 15%

Length -24.5: 50%

Head -15 : 15%

So she is still pretty little for her age, but she is pretty darn chunky!! I think it's just cause she was so small when she was born so she is still trying to catch up with other babies her age. The following pic is a little blurry but you can see those legs....nothin skinny bout those bad boys :) I love it!

MOVIE NIGHT!!

Spring fun!

Now that the weather has gotten nicer we are outside ALL THE TIME!!! It wears both the kids out and they sleep so good. We laid a new patio a month ago and are loving the extended space it has given us...HOWEVER I am not lovin our backyard right now. To lay the new patio we had to have a skid-loader bring the cement to the back which tore up the yard. Josh is going to kill all the grass and re-plant but not until FALL!!! Until then I have this nice deck and patio that looks out into a dirt and weed wasteland....gross. We are getting new patio furniture and I potted some flowers, all in hopes of distracting guests from looking at the yard, not sure it's gonna work. Maybe we should only let people come over when it's dark out, ha ha ha!! We have a super busy month coming up and for the next 2 weekends will have company staying with us. Next week Justin and Stephanie Stein are coming to stay with us for Jeremy Sundgren's wedding, so excited to see them and have them meet Harper. Then the next weekend is Josh's big 3-0!!! My family and a couple of his friends are going to a Japanese steakhouse in Wichita and my sisters and their significant others will be staying with us. Here are a few pics of us playin outside and the flowers I potted Seriously ignore the awful yard, you already know how I feel bout this :)

Harper 4 months

Harper was 4 months on April 9th so yes I am a little behind posting this. Time is just flying by, with Paxton I couldn't wait for the next new thing he was going to do, but with her I just want time to slow down and for her to stay my baby forever. Maybe because she is our last, maybe because she is just a fabulous baby and an absolute joy to have. I am just trying to cherish every minute with her. Don't get me wrong, I love it when she does new things and I do get very excited and grab the camera, camcorder and the phone camera to capture it. She is sleeping 8 hours at night, she still gets up at 4 am for a feeding but I am hoping once she is on solids that will stop. We tried rice last week and she was up ALL night with a tummy ache and gas, so we are putting that on hold for now. I am really not in a rush to do solids with her, I know she will eat it and digest it well when she is ready. Honestly the 4 am feeding isn't even that bad, it takes about 15 min tops from start to finish and she goes right back to sleep until about 7 am. Here are some other things that she is doing right now, I don't have weight stats or anything cause her appt. isn't until Thurs this week, 4 month =shots.....boo :(

-Rolling over from back to front, started this about a week ago and now she rolls constantly.

-Giggling, especially at big brother or when we snuggle her neck and blow raspberries

-Grabbing and holding onto toys, they all go right into her mouth

-Eating 4 oz every 3 hours, except at night

-Chews on her hands ALL THE TIME, I try to give her the bink instead

-Recognizing strangers and will get upset if she is overwhelmed by a lot of people

-Holding her head up better when she is on her tummy, this has taken a lot longer than with Pax, she really doesn't like her tummy very much but she is doing lots better

-She squeals and gabs a lot more too, the other day I heard her squealing at her baby Einstein movie and I walked in to see what she was squealing at and there was another baby on the movie. Too cute.

-Loves being outside, and we play outside every night as long as it is nice, wears them both out!

She has done a lot of new things this month, and she absolutely lights up whenever her brother is around, he can do no wrong in her eyes. I am having so much fun with her and I love watching my 2 kids interact together. Here are some recent pics of her:

Can you tell how much she loves her hands, they are in her mouth in almost every picture!! And yes I realize how disgusting and dirty that mirror is that she is looking in, I DIDN'T know it until I took that pic and the flash made all that gross stuff show up. Pretty sure it's still from when Pax was a baby...EEEEWWWW!! I was afraid she wouldn't get to wear the pink polka dot dress since the weather has been so warm, but we had a pretty cool day today so she got to wear it to church, I just love it. I think next fall if it's too small I will have her wear it as a shirt, I just can't let that cute thing go to waste!! Anyway, I will post her weight/height stats later this week after our dreaded trip to the doctor. I always cry just as much as they do when they get shots :(

Mom's 50th Birthday

Last weekend the kids and I went back to Manhattan to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday with a BBQ at Anneberg Park. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and we all had a great time. Joan and Gregg Frakes even came with Amaya and Sienna. I was so excited to see them because I hadn't seen them since I had Harper!! I always have so much fun with my family, I am truly blessed to be so close to all of them. We have been through lots of ups and downs but we all love each other so much and we always get through everything stronger than ever. I hope I can raise my children to be as close as I am with my siblings. Here are "quite a few" pics from our day.

Femoral torsion...how do you even say that?!?!

Today we took Pax to an Orthopedic specialist. Since he was a baby we knew he was going to be pigeon toed but the pediatrician reassured us it was normal and he would outgrow by the time he was walking well...............well not so much!!! Lately it has gotten so bad that he literally trips over his own feet every time he runs, and his poor legs are covered in bruises. I brought it up with our new pediatrician at the last appt. and she thought it was concerning enough to send him to a specialist. We took him to Dr.Librodo here in El Dorado today and he told us the problem is NOT his feet but his hips!! It's called femoral torsion and basically (from what I can translate from the medical literature he gave us and what I have read online) his hip bone/thigh bone twists inward causing his entire leg to turn inward including his feet. Good news is....it does not require surgery or braces, bad news is.......it will get WORSE the next few years before it gets better and it can take up to his teen years to correct itself. This worries me because he will be in school in a year or 2 and I know how cruel kids can be (believe me I know, I was one of the mean ones)!!! The doctor did reassure us that it will not affect his ability to play sports and actually sometimes children with this problem run faster than other kids. This was a huge relief to Josh, me not so much, c'mon we all know my athletic abilities are quite questionable. I DO want my children to play sports though so I guess it was good to hear that. So basically we have to go back every 6 months for observation and I guess just grin and bear it when he falls every 5 SECONDS!! Better go stock up on the neosporin and band-aids :) Here are some pictures of what it looks like, I realized I don't have any of Pax that show how bad it's gotten, but it is definately noticable these days. It sure doesn't slow him down though :)

His is the internal femoral torsion

Oh yeah and Harper is doing GREAT! She will be 4 months old on Friday so you all know there will be a lengthy blog in the near future with all sorts of updates and pics.....duh!!! Until then I leave you with this photo of her sleeping, it's one of her favorite things to do and she is VERY good at it!

Do you see the toy on her arm. She was laying beside me on the chair just playing with the toy and all of a sudden I look down and she has fallen asleep. She does this a lot, she just gets tired and goes to sleep wherever she is.....it's AWESOME!!