My sweet boy playing with all the toys Hadley brought him!
Zoe photo bomb!
Koda playing a nice game of keep away... from me! He won :-)
The following pictures are a pretty great representation of what a typical weekday evening looks like:
A little playtime
Cheese!
Hadley saying "Daddy look! Daddy look!"
Crash!
no problem I'll just roll around here!
This is the outfit random pieces of clothes Hadley insisted on putting on when we got home
and declaring CC made it! (it's Carters :-))
Look at my trick!
The next couple of pictures are of Hadley bringing toys to Crosby to play with.. too bad he can't reach them! Ha! I am not sure if I read, heard or just made this up but it has worked well for us - instead of taking all your older child's toys and automatically giving them to the younger child just because they no longer play with them, it is best to let the older child give them to their sibling. It really has helped us from jealousy issues. I know he is only a baby and I probably don't even know what real sibling jealousy is like yet, but even now I can tell this has helped. She prefers to give toys to him and show them how to work vs. taking them and running away like she did in the very beginning (before we stating sharing this way). I even bought her a tractor yesterday (she is obsessed with them) and one of the first things she did was sit in front of Crosby and let him play with him and she would tell him "look bubby it lights up!"
I asked her to take a picture with Crosby and so she stood in front of him :-)
Okay one kid is smiling..
.. and now the other one is smiling!
Toddlers say and do everything you do (the good and the bad)!
Trying to change this boys diaper is ridiculous! Wiggle worm!
See what I mean they do EVERYTHING you do!
I am a little paranoid of West Nile
and this night was particularly bad so we made
loops around the house.
He is just a happy 7 month old learning to crawl!
Milk coma!
The next set of pictures were taken before bath time and I promise no one was hurt! You'll see what I mean:
She was really trying to hug him but it is more like a headlock!
kisses!
hugs!
too much hug - knocked him over!
No worries mom! I am use to it! Everyone is fine here!
Daddy and his babies
Getting better at the crawl position
a little encouragement from sister!
For some reason, this day after her nap, she wanted to wear bows.. like all her bows (j/k that is not all her bow she probably has 50!)
Not a fan of the homemade food I made him, but trying to swallow it.
Morning milk and snuggles - what I didn't capture was
Crosby trying to take the milk away - literally grabbing it from her!
Me and my babies!
Our neighborhood has a nice park but no baby swing which is disappointing, but daddy makes a great swing!
Ride little horsey or as Hadley use to call it "Rilosey"
Last weekend was full of getting together with friends and family.. I was able to capture a couple of pictures, but I am missing pictures with Uncle Terry, Jade, PawPaw, GigGi, Stacy, BJ, and Keleigh.
Love this picture so much! I had to post it in color and black and white.. i am not sure which version I want to frame.
T with Crosby! Gotta love baby snuggles!
CC with Crosby! He loves to grab hair and faces and give "kisses"!
She was ready to go to the store with her baby
and grocery cart cover bag! They don't miss a thing.
She asked if she could sit in her chair and read her Bible this
morning.. so I set her up and she sat in there going through it page by
page by herself. It was a very sweet moment to capture and listen to as she
was saying out loud what was going on. Of course not by reading, but by the pictures and remembering when we read it to her.
Check out that morning hairdo.. Mr. Tangler must have been there :-)
Although the above is an out of focused mess of a picture it was the moment that was special to capture. I asked her to "watch" him while I was getting things ready this morning. She told me play by play everything that he did! "Mommy, bubby spit up a little.. Mommy MOMMY, bubby spit up big! I get it, Mommy (she wipes his mouth with his bib) it's okay bubby; then I hear him laughing and she is making funny faces at him and being silly! I hope they will be close friends for life!
So there are a few snippets of what life has been like around here! We have been having a great time with the kids. Weeks are hard and long at times, but before you know it the weekend is here and we really pack in the family time. Matt and I are so SO SO grateful to have had a date night for the past 2 weekends and we get another one tomorrow night! Thank you Judy, Toni and Mom for babysitting! I hate asking and I am so grateful you guys offered! I KNOW Hadley enjoys that time with you all so much because the next morning all she can talk about it "Granzu this, GranT that, CC played this.. etc" and she loves it when we tell her so and so is coming over! She literally gasps out loud and gets really excited. Sometimes if we haven't seen someone in a while she will say "where is so and so?" and then we will call and she gets really happy to talk to them!
Hadley is also a big tractor fan right now. The road by our house is under construction and we will see about 10 at any given time and she loves it.. here is a video (my first video included!!!) of us at a stoplight with tractors all around but they are not working:
Also, she thinks all people who work outside are named Lupe because our lawn service guy is Lupe. We are working on teaching her this is not true and also hoping she doesn't call everyone working outside Lupe while out in a public place.
Great news Crosby does NOT have to wear a helmet! Whoa hoo!
Yesterday, we spent about 4 hours at Texas Children's getting measurements done, pictures, physical assessments and waiting - lots of waiting; it was all worth it to get the great news! They took this awesome 3d picture of Crosby's head (which required him wearing a mesh bonnet that I didn't get a picture of him in) that made diagnosing and measuring the asymmetry exact. The good news is his asymmetry is 8.8 and they don't start banding therapy until 10 (oh and my insurance doesn't cover the treatment until an asymmetry of 12) so all in all it worked out great. He said it will resolve it self by the time he is 18 months.
Crosby has positional plagiocephaly (flattened head). We have an appointment with a Pediatric Neurosurgeon on Monday to discuss treatment options. Positional plagiocephaly is caused by the way they rest their head and repositioning is supposed to help eliminate this issue. There has been an increase in positional plagiocephaly since the back to sleep initiative was launched in the 90's. I have done a ton of research on this especially now that we are going to see the specialist. The pedi recommended repositioning since his 2 month check-up and we have been doing this (I would even get up periodically at night to make sure he was not laying on that part of his head) and Crosby has been rolling over and sleeping on his stomach since he was 5 months but it has not helped. He is almost always on his tummy if he is on the ground unless he is rolling around. He doesn't rest on the back of his head except in the car seat. However, he obviously is resting on that spot at some point during the day/night for it to not improve. I know Elsa puts him in the swing but she promises me he isn't in it for more than 15 mins maybe 2 times a day. I believe her, too, because he hates his car seat and leaning back in that position. He is always trying to sit up and changing his diaper is like wrestling an alligator (he grasps my arm and starts rolling!). I KNOW I am worrying about treatment, insurance, etc before we see the specialist, but I want to be prepared with all the questions I can think of before we see him. It took a month to get the appointment and I am going to make the most of it. Treating plagiocephaly has a limited time-frame and we are already in the time-frame where treatment is not as effective as it would have been starting even a month ago. Insurance may not cover the cranial orthotic device, but no mater what Matt and I have already made our decision to follow that treatment if it is what is recommended. I compare it to dental braces. You do not have to have straight teeth, but like my mom and most parents put braces on their children to give them the best bite, alignment, smile, and straight teeth as possible. It is the same with his head shape. It will be with him for the rest of his life :-) There are some proven issues later in life with untreated plagiocephaly and unlike dental braces there is a limited time-frame for treatment; it is now or never! I sure hope insurance covers it, but if not we will figure it out. We always do. I put a little photoshopped comparison together so you can see on the left/bottom what his head currently looks like and what it could possibly look like if corrected or if he didn't have plagiocephaly.
Love it when they inch worm!
Flat spot or not he is the cutest little boy ever :-)
We will know more on Monday and I will post updates then. The great thing about living in Houston is the awesome medical community we have - the doctor we are seeing is one of the worldwide specialist in this field and is very conservative on treatment. This is very reassuring to us.
I heard today from one of my avid readers (or should I say my one avid reader -cough mom :-)) that she checks the blog everyday and liked seeing the new post.. so I will try to post more. I write so many post in my head but they never actually make it on to the blog. I also have a ton of videos that I need to am uploading now (trying not to procrastinate) so hopefully I can share them soon.
This is one post I have been wanting to share for awhile. This is Hadley and Rhylinn during their play date:
It's hard to believe this little girl was born at 24 weeks gestation. After many many months in the NICU and surgeries and a few touch and go scenario's she is now a very active and happy 20 month old! A true miracle.
Rhylinn's mom and I have been friends since we were 5 years old. When I was in elementary school, I can remember my mom threatening me in the checkout line at Randall's that Raquel could not come over to play if I kept misbehaving. Another time we went to an office building with my mom and Raquel was deathly afraid of the elevator and wanted to take the stairs. We made her ride the elevator and she says broke her of her fear of elevators. Oh and she had these awesome hi-top pink Reebok's that I really wanted in 5th grade.. funny the memories that stand out!
Crosby had his 6 month check up on August 17th and despite the fact that he spits up all the time he is apparently doing just fine in the weight department :-)
He is really my sweet little cuddle bug! This past Sunday, as I was rocking him before bed, he just cuddled up to my neck and laid on my shoulder and I just couldn't lay him down. He actually does this a lot and I love it! I really cherish those moments especially now that I know how fast each stage passes.
He is a little bit fussy at times and I am guessing it has to do with the spiting up/teething. One morning, I got him out of his crib (which was covered in spit up) and gave him a bath, dressed him and put 2 bibs on him (one thin and one thick - our usual for him). I sat him up and he turned his head and spit up on his shirt and gets just a little bit on the bibs. New outfit and bibs and then I put him in the exersaucer and a minute later I walk by and he stinks.. blow out diaper and more spit up. A new diaper, new outfit, new bib along with a wipe down and all of this happened in less than 30 mins. We go through some laundry around here - my nemesis!
I thought Hadley spit up a lot and she did, but this boy has her beat. Hadley was on reflux medicine, but the doctor doesn't feel Crosby needs to be. I am okay with that - I mean every time he spit up in front of them he would cover me and himself in it and then smile really big. They say if he is happy when he spits up = a laundry problem and not reflux. He is happy, but he is fussy, too. There is no way that spitting up that much cannot hurt or irritate him in one way or another. We have given him all the over the counter remedies and changed formula and nothing really helps. It's weird because he didn't spit up a lot when he was a newborn but then again he had majority breast milk the first few months. I sometimes wish I had not started taking a medication for the Meniere's disease that caused me to stop nursing. However, I can't change that now so I must not dwell on it!
He loves to roll around on the ground. He gets places by squirming around and rolling there. I don't think his plan is to go from point a to point b, but he is happy when he realized he moved somewhere on his own! Everything goes into his mouth and despite the fact that he acts like all his teeth are coming in at once I don't see anything yet. I thought I saw a little white spot of a tooth cutting the gums, but there wasn't really anything there. I guess just hopeful thinking on my part. Frozen bananas in the mesh bag or apple juice ice cubes really help him and if it gets really bad a frozen fruit bar does wonders.
He eats 3 meals of oatmeal and fruit or a veggie a day along with 24-30 ounces of formula. I really am trying to decrease the amount of liquids he gets because of the spit up. He spits up food as well though so I guess it will really just be a thing he has to out grow. He is also over his pacifier.. He mostly turns it side ways and chews on it. Hadley gave it up at 4 months and he is almost there. I will be happy to get rid of them for the sake of my dog and wallet :-).
Here are some pictures of my handsome little boy!
Watching us cook dinner!
Really giving us the stare down!
Playing in his exersaucer during coloring time with sister.
Just too cute for words! I want to squeeze those cheeks :-)
Playing with cousin Jacob
Look at the tummy :-)
Playing in his exersaucer during play-doh time with sister
This is Hadley's favorite phrase right now. It sounds more like 'hall-ley or holly' do it when she says it. She has been in the independent stage for a little bit and everyday tells us more and more "hall-ley do it!". I love watching her try to do things we do or have done for her. She is successful most of the time and when she gets frustrated I hold back everything in me to just do it for her and actually help her figure it out. Luckily, most of the time these things happen when we are not rushing out of the house. She loves to also tell us no! I'll ask for a kiss or hug and she will say NO! and then if I give her a sad face she will give me a big kiss or hug. Now, it is just a game to her and we happily play along.
She has also been better about controlling her temper - there are moments for sure - but she will get frustrated and maybe even get ready to whine and then she will stop and look at me and give me a kiss.. I think it is insurance that I will get over being upset if she does do something wrong. Not sure if that is good or bad parenting on my part, but hey I'll take the least amount of toddler tantrums as possible.
Some funny things that she has said or done lately:
Hadley loves candy (aka ten-knee as she calls it) and will ask for it, and when I say no she will then ask for two ten-ney while holding up two fingers and if I say no again, she will say one ten-ney while holding up one finger.
We were watching the neighbors dog, Princess, last week. Hadley and I developed a routine while taking care of her. I would grab the neighbors keys and she would ask for her key (aka our house key) while saying "I go see Princess" and then we would walk to their house. She played with her and would get her food and fill up the bowl, etc. Well, on Friday when they got home I grabbed the keys to take back to them and Hadley ran over asking for her key while saying "I go see Princess!" I told her no not right now and she gave me a sad face and said "one princess?!" like she was asking for a piece of candy or something!
She loves to run around "nakey" after her bath. She runs through the house loudly and chases the dogs and crashes into the couch and if we don't let her do it she will not go to sleep as easily. I guess it is her one last moment of the day to get all her energy out! Usually, if she does this and drinks her shark milk (milk in a shark cup - cause shark milk just sounds gross!) she will blow me BIG kisses (ones that are so big I fall down like a big goof ball!) from her crib and then tell me bye! I like the nice and easy bed time routine we have going on.
She is talking, talking and talking all the time. In the car, in her bed, while taking a bath - all talk all the time! Last night, Matt said she laid in bed saying Paw-Paw? CC? Pay pay-doh? No, no, no! and on and on for a good 45 mins.
I call Matt, Matt, not daddy unless I am talking to Hadley and tell her to go to daddy, etc. So Hadley has started calling daddy - Matt! She will yell through the house - Matt! or at the grocery store like she did yesterday to get his attention. She thinks it is hilarious because we always laugh. Well, in-turn he taught her my name. She cannot say the "ka" sound. Yesterday, I was trying to have her repeat the phrase "My name is Hadley". So I asked her to say "My name is" and she said "My name is Tayleigh"! I busted out laughing and she thought she was a comedian! When you ask her to say her full name it comes out like this- Hall-ley Dace Teneneney.
The other day I went on a jog while pushing her in the stroller. During my few short moments of jogging she would turn around and look at me and say "faster, faster!" Then turn around and sip her cup of juice and relax with her sunglasses on - oh to be two!
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