Vocabulary

I am just amazed at how much Hadley's vocabulary has increased in the past few weeks. I felt like she was never going to talk. I guess I have felt that way for every milestone. I didn't think she was ever going to crawl and then one day she just up and crawled, same with her vocab. I guess for me it is hard to imagine them being big enough to do those things. I am definitely not pushing Crosby to the next big milestone because I know it will happen!

Now if you tell her something she comprehends what you are saying most of the time and tries really hard to say it correctly.  Today, she asked "More apple juice peas" and now if you sneeze or cough or she is just feeling it she will say "bless you!". She has some difficulty with "k" and some words she is so close to saying but then they come out wrong when she says them fast. Like banana. She knows it is ba-nana, but sometimes she says ma-nana! It's adorable and I know she knows it so although I correct her - I am enjoying those mispronunciations!  I have a few videos of us"chatting" but for some reason I am having difficulty uploading them. Once I do I will add them to this post.

Here is a list of words we hear many times a day:

Bar (she loves breakfast fruit bars!)
Ba or Manana
Apple Juice
Peas (Please)
Dog Dog (we realized today she thinks that is Koda's name)
ZoZo (Zoe)
Elmo
Dora
Back pack
Boots
Shoes
Socks
Nose
Eyes
Mouth
Chin
Hair
Elbow
Knee
Ear
Eyebrow
Misk (Milk)
Pop (Lollipop or Popsicle)
Tank to (Thank you)
More (Like 100 million times a day!)
Was that? (What's that?)
Bath
Ouside (Outside)
Bubba (Crosby)
Roar (We play like we are lions and all crawl around!) + many more animal sounds (moo, woof, meow, etc)
Minnie (She is really asking to watch Mickey but can't say the "ck")
NO NO! (She tells the dogs this all the time!)
Sit
Bow (She asks for bows in her hair know! Make me smile!)
iPa (iPad)
Slide
CC
Momma
Mommy
Dadda
Daddy
Stacy
Baby
Hi
Hello
Bye
Whae (Whale)
Cow
Hippo
Moose (why did Nick Jr take Moose and Zee of the air... They were her all time fav! Now she asks to watch them on her iPa)
Bless you
Hot mess (This is what I called her and Judy aka Zoo taught her this while babysitting! So cute!!)
Hot dog (her favorite dance to do from Mickey Mouse Club House and she like to eat them :))
Mimi or Lami (Her Lame) 
Uh-oh
Help
Moon
Star
Blue
White
Mote (remote)
Stew
Yes
Wawa (water)
Boy
Bear
Zoo
PawPaw
GiGi
Bee
Pooh
PooPoo
Haddie or Had-Lie (Hadley :-) All pics of babies are of her in her mind!)
Paci
Cheese
Eggs
Pez (Pretzel)
Soway (Sorry)
Pump
Awesome
All done 
Where's  __? (Usually blank is filled in with Daddy, Bubba, Zozo)
Pretty (I taught her this one to say to CC since that was my first 'big' word)
and my favorite BUBBLES!

(As you can tell the list is not organized at all.. I started typing them as I was hearing them. It's funny because we will be in the car and she will fire of a stern NO NO ZoZo! (even though zoe is not there) and then a Where's daddy? followed by another random word! It is fun to watch their little minds at work)

I know there are some I am missing, but even if she cannot say it she understands so much. If I tell her to take something to a specific spot she will. If I ask her to do something she will (ha - well not always, like when I tell her not to shove Crosby's paci back in his mouth - poor guy doesn't stand a chance with her!) She is learning so much! It is true what they say- they are like little sponges. If I start counting she will say "no" like I don't want to do that, but then she'll pipe in with a "two"or "five" or "eight" in the right order, but she will not count to 10 by herself.

I am really enjoying her new way of communicating, because the pointing, whining and crying were not my fav! 

Friday Phone Dump

Toddler + sleeping problems = no fun!

Oh where oh where did my sleeping through the night toddler go??? As I was rocking Hadley back to sleep, again, Matt and I discussed that neither one of us could remember the last time she slept through the night. We use to just lay her in the crib and leave.. not anymore. We have tried rubbing her back until she falls asleep, rocking, singing (I lost my voice so last night she just looked at me like what are you doing?!) milk, keeping her up a little later to make her extra tired and nothing works! I rubbed her back for 45 minutes last night and she would not fall asleep. After I left, she cried a minute and then was quiet. I thought maybe tonight is the night she will sleep - WRONG. She was up about an hour and half later. Thankfully it was not a night terror but she had already cried for 30 minutes straight so we both went in there. It took me rocking her, rubbing her face and back and sneaking out of the room for her to sleep. Then she was up for the day today at 4.


I have talked to the pediatrician and have done my own research and know that this can be common at this age. Along with the night terrors and crying and waking up early - Hadley and the rest of us are T.I.R.E.D.

If you don't know what a night terror is vs. a nightmare they are completely different. There is some great info about them out there on the web. It really scared me but our pediatrician and I have talked about it and I definitely feel more comfortable about the situation. It is not super common, but kids do have them and they are nothing to worry about. Witnessing a night terror is very traumatic for us. I have left her room bawling my eyes out because it upset me so much. Thankfully she has no idea she has them and no recollection of them. It basically happens when they are going from one stage of sleep to the next and their body has a little bit of a disconnect. It's not caused by any underlying issue or represent any psychological problems (which honestly I was worried about). There was one article I read that said if you feel like you need to call in a priest to perform an exorcism it's probably a night terror. I video taped it to show the doctor and Stacy watched it and was horrified. They are awful.

We don't know what to do to help her sleep better. Is it time for her to move to a toddler bed? Or will that make it worse? We just don't know.

Matt and I usually don't sleep for more than 3 or 4 hours at a time if we are lucky and only more if one of us takes on both kids. I have no idea how single parents do it and I have no idea how you have many kids close in age (my new favorite saying - twins the hard way) when neither one of them are sleeping.

At this rate, Matt and I feel like we may never sleep again. Dramatic sounding? Yes. But is that how we truly feel? Sadly yep

Crosby's first 9 weeks

My sweet boy is already 9 weeks old! He is a calm baby. He does not have colic like Hadley and he definitely does not have reflux like she did. He does spit up but it is actually spit up and not most of the feeding like with Hadley. The funny thing about that is he is in the 7% for weight. I looked up Hadley's weight at 8 weeks and she was 12 oz heavier than him. I know how many ounces he eats a day since he is at Elsa's and it is around 24-28 ounces. That is on the high end for his age. He seems content after he eats so I guess all is good!

Funny thing happened at his 8 week check-up. Our pediatrician is on maternity leave (4th child all about 2 years apart - I have NO IDEA how she does it!!!) so we had a pediatrician we had never met that is not part of the practice for his appointment. She was very nice but when she came in she started asking me questions:

1. Pediatrician: Is he sitting up? Me: Ummm no??? (dumbfounded look on my face) I mean only if I hold him in a sitting position 
2. Pediatrician: Does he roll over? Me: He has accidentally rolled over from his stomach to his back but it was not intentional (starting to think she is joking?!) 
3. Pediatrician: Does he clasp his hands Me: Yes, kinda..
4. Pediatrician: Does he pass toys from one hand to the other Me: Well, he has grabbed his paci before with both hands but again I don't think that was intentional(thinking back to when Hadley was this age and I was 100% positive she was not doing these things at this age either!)

Then she performs the neck test to see if when you pull him to sitting he holds his head at the same angle.. well he failed that one. His head was just hanging back! 

She goes through the whole appointment and seems like she is holding back from saying something, maybe like your kid is WWWAAAAYYY behind! I ask her the couple of questions I had and she answers and then leaves. The nurse comes in to give him his vaccines and while I was getting him into the car seat the pediatrician comes back in and says "You must think I am crazy!! I KNOW a 2 month old shouldn't be doing those things, I had just seen two 6 month olds and wasn't thinking he was 2 months old." Whew! I was starting to think maybe her kids are really advance! Glad to know my kid is on track, but she had his chart in front of her- scares me a little she didn't realize he was only 2 months old!!

Height: 22 1/4" (33%)
Weight: 10lbs (7%)
Head: 15 1/4" (45%) 

Anyways, he is doing well. Has a little bit of a flat spot on his head, but Hadley did too so I know once he starts sitting it will round out like hers did.

Crosby usually only cries when he is hungry. He loves LOVES LOVES his paci! He really smiles when you sing or turn on the fan. He has been sleeping in his crib since 5 weeks. He sleeps swaddled and his sleeping schedule right now is going to bed around 8/8:30, wakes up anywhere from 12:30 - 2:30 for a feeding and then back to sleep right away and then up exactly, and I mean exactly, 3 hours later after his last feeding. Last night his schedule was 7:30 to bed (we were all exhausted) up at 1:00 for a feeding and then again at 4 and then up for the day at 7:30. Hadley started sleeping through the night at this point and although she hasn't in months I sure hope he starts to soon! He did sleep 9-4 one night and I just thought we were on track to sleeping through the night and then he reverted back to waking up more often. Matt suggested last night we give him formula to see if it would hold him over longer but it didn't work!

Last weekend, he ended up in the hospital for high temp and dehydration. It turns out it was just a viral infection that the whole family ended up getting. My last week home, my mom came over on Wed to help me clean and get things in order before I went back to work. That day he was fussy and crying more - seemed odd to me. Each day after that he was more fussy and instead of just spitting up he was projectile throwing up his feedings. That Saturday after his 4 am feeding he was crying non-stop and felt warm. We took his temp and it was 100.4.  We called the pediatrician since that is what is recommended for a baby under 3 months with a temp of 100.4. We went in to the office and he was crying the whole time. Because of his age, temp and inconsolable crying he sent us to Texas Children's to be checked out and have them run some test. His temp had actually gone up to 101.5 once we arrived there. Long story short (I know I know mine are looonnnggg and drawn out - that is probably why some people just ignore me when I talk!!) they admitted him for the night and had him hooked up to IV for fluids.

They took great care of him and me that night. I am so thankful for my healthy children. I cannot imagine what parents with sick children in the hospital go through on a daily basis. We were released the next day and 2 days later he no longer had a high temp and was completely back to his content self.

Crosby is at Elsa's while I work during the day. The first day I brought him over there he smiled soo big for her! He is really easy going and because he is like that and we love Elsa it makes it so much easier to leave him there. Of course I want to be with both of my kids during the day, but at least I know he is good hands!

Now for some pictures!

Bluebonnets

We live in Texas so no doubt we have to do the cliche bluebonnet pictures! We plan on doing them every year. Crosby was too little to participate this year, but next year you better believe he will be surrounded by bluebonnets :-)

What a difference from last year!

**Notice the pink shirt and blue-jean bottoms in both years? I am going try to keep that up throughout the years - I have my first 3 drivers license pictures taken in the same shirt and sadly that was on purpose! Ha! So I won't go that far and try to make them exactly the same, I'll just keep with the color scheme!**

I wonder if she will let me take bluebonnet pictures in her teens?!?! :-)

Fun with Art

Hadley is a very creative, active, and energetic girl! She is really enjoying art projects at this age and we have lots of new paintings to frame and put up in our bedroom.

She draws on everything.. in fact right now if you ask here were the no-no drawing is she will point to the wall where she colored it purple... there also might be a few tiles with her artistic touch on them. :/ I was on a conference call while she was home sick and she was being really quiet - turns out she was creating a few masterpieces around the house!

Along with loving to draw, color and paint she LOVES (and I cannot emphasize that enough) being outside! So we combine the two activities and she is one happy girl:

Drawing on my leg and dada's truck is more fun than on the concrete!

Asking to go "Ou - Side" is her new favorite word! She doesn't always say the "t' in outside. I just love the way she talks! I want to record all of her words. I can honestly just think about her saying "bubbles" and laugh!! SO CUTE!

Lately

While there has been no activity on the blog lately that does not represent what life has been like for us. Just this week I have visited the pediatrician 3 times, spent the night in the hospital with Crosby, dealt with a stomach bug that made its way through our family, Hadley's first pink eye diagnosis, witnessed Hadley's first nap time night terror, took Koda to the vet because he ingested another pair of socks, and started back to work. It has been exhausting if I had to sum it up in one word.

I have so so so much to blog about and so many pictures to post (8 weeks worth). So for now I will leave you with some photos from my phone.

Our life may be a bit chaotic right now but these guys make it all worth it!

I stole the idea of the picture collage from http://www.kellehampton.com/ (love her blog and I can't wait to read her book.. it is on my list of want to dos!)


P.s. this very short blog post took over 3 hours to post. Here is one reason why I had to stop and start so many times :-)