Update

First of all, thank you so much for all the advice and encouraging words regarding Easton. It's so encouraging to hear what others have done in similar situations and to know that I'm not the only one going through sleepless nights!! I ended up taking him to the doctor last Monday because I was convinced that with all the crying there must be something wrong (like an ear infection or something) but everything checked out ok, so Dr. Gray decided to increase his reflux medication in hopes that that is what was causing him so much discomfort. This definitely hasn't been a "cure all" but he does seem to be less fussy the last few days. And a huge praise, he's been taking a bottle much better the last couple of days as well! I have been putting the activity mat up on my bed (away from big sister!) and laying him on it while feeding him and he's actually taken several whole bottles, yay! I'm still holding my breath, because I know we're not completely over the hump yet, but we're definitely making strides. Oh yeah, and I ended up going back to the Born Free bottles (same ones EK took)...so strange how my children are so picky when it comes to the bottle! :)

It's been forever since I've actually updated on what's going on with us, so I decided to do so in pictures. Brice's new job has kept us all really busy (really just Brice, but it seems like we're busier now too!), but we've been able to do some really fun things in the last couple of months and Brice is really enjoying the spontaneity that each day holds!

We have a monkey on our hands!

And a little mommy!

He's stylin'! (and wondering why I'm constantly taking his picture! :))

Remembering on September 11th.

Freezing at the Corn Maize!

Cute little pumpkins!!

Best buddies!

The mini maize! (she loved it!)

At the Pumpkin Patch

"What is this stuff, mommy?"

"You mean I really get to take one home?!"

"Hmm...which one do I like?"

"I spotted it!!"

It was a little "hebby" so she had to get a wagon...

(stay tuned for pictures of what she turned her punkin into!)

Getting ready for bed...

A BIG squeeze before mommy and daddy left!

Help, please...

We have been trying to teach Emma Kate to say "help, please" instead of having a melt down/throwing a fit when she can't do something, but lately it seems as if I am the one that needs to be reminded of this lesson. Recently there have been several times where I just want to sit down and throw a major fit, and to be honest I have been feeling extremely inadequate these days. I want so badly for my blog to be uplifting and a fun way to look back at all the exciting milestones in Emma Kate and Easton's life, but right now I just feel a little bogged down with the struggles of parenting.

So....I have decided to say "help, please" and see if any of you have any advice to help us out. It seems as if Easton has quite the strong will and is now refusing to take a bottle altogether. Emma Kate went through this so when Easton started resisting the bottle I thought no big deal - I'll just do what I did with Emma Kate, be patient and try as many different bottles as possible until he finds one he likes. Well, we have now tried: born free, avent, breast flow, adiri, nuby, and nuk all with no avail! It's not that I am ready to quit nursing, but we're going out of town in November for 4 days and for my mom's sanity I'm pretty sure she would appreciate if he was taking a bottle by then! :) The other major thing we have been struggling with lately is sleep. I know that we were so fortunate with Emma Kate that she was sleeping through the night by about 8 week, but I thought surely by 4 1/2 months Easton would be. But unfortunately it seems to be getting worse every night. He's gone from waking up once maybe twice to eat to waking up every 30-45 minutes with maybe a 2 hour stretch somewhere in there. We stopped using the Nap Nanny and tried just laying him flat in his crib which worked for a little while, but then after a few days he was back to waking up all the time. And we used to be able to use the swing as a last resort, but that hasn't even been working here lately. :( We have been toying with the idea of doing the cry it out method, but we still swaddle and I'm not sure if that would work since he would probably work himself out of the swaddle if we let him cry. And my other concern with this is that EK is an extremely light sleeper so I'm afraid then we would just have two babies awake in the middle of the night!

Ok, enough of my ranting...but honestly any suggestions are welcome! :)

And I guess I will leave you on a happy note. I took this video the other night during bath time. I can't help but think my baby girl is SO smart! :)

3 Months

Easton turned three months last Friday. He is getting such a personality and we just love him to death! Here is a little of what he's up to at 3 months:

-Loves the bumbo chair

-Smiles all the time and has started cooing a lot too!

-Thinks his sister is pretty funny (as long as she's not squishing him!)

-Gets up once or twice a night to eat

-Is still addicted to his Nap Nanny - it's the only way he will sleep at night!

-Takes a GREAT nap in the afternoon (in the swing, of course! :) )

-Is wearing size 2 diapers and 6-9 month clothes

-At his 2 month check-up he weighed 13.8 lbs.

-Starting to try to roll over from his back to his tummy

Here are a few more pictures from the last few weeks:

Hanging out in the PINK bumbo...poor guy!

Two of a kind...

Testing out sister's new nap mat...I think he approves!

First Day of School Pictures

The first two weeks at our new school went off without a hitch, although getting there by 7:30 each morning might take a while to get used to! Emma Kate and Easton have both done great and they love their new teachers, and I love being able to see them anytime throughout the day! Here are a few pictures from our first day:

After school Emma Kate got to go to Dairy Queen for a "treat"....I think she liked it!! :)

And when we got home this is what Easton did for about 4 hours, I think he was pooped!

Pictures, Potty and Preschool

Pictures:

Playing in Will's jumper

She LOVES Will!!

My handsome hubby taking a stroll around the lake in Ruidoso

Playing with Dad at the Science Spectrum

Her favorite toy there...it's SO loud and brother hates it!!

Go TECH!

My big boy - so smiley these days!

Riding her zebra...

And now getting bucked off!

Potty:

I know this might not be too exciting for everyone else, but Emma Kate went tee-tee in the potty for the first time last Thursday!! We really aren't pushing it right now, basically just letting her try to go before she gets in the bath, but we were SO proud of her! She has gone a couple other time since...I'm pretty sure her favorite part is the treat (an M&M) she gets afterward. She spends lots of time in the bathroom yelling "TREAT", but then she doesn't want me to take her diaper off once I get in there! Haha, I know it will come with time and everyone says it's so much easier once they are ready so in the mean time I guess we will have to go to Sam's to get more diapers! :)

Preschool:

School starts next week and we are so excited! We will be going to a new preschool this fall; while I usually don't like change I think this change will be really good for our family. We have had inservice this week so Emma Kate has already been up there a few days and had a chance to meet her teacher and make some new friends as well. I will be working with babies 4-9 months this year. I know I will miss being able to actually teach, but at the same time I'm really looking forward to much less prep-work and I'm really excited about the other teachers that in the baby room with me! And an even bigger bonus - Easton will be moved up to our room in just a couple of months. Hopefully it will be a really fun year!!

Easton was especially happy this morning, so I got out the video camera. I couldn't resist sharing, but PLEASE ignore my extremely annoying voice. I'm sure there's a way to edit out the sound, but I don't have time to mess with it right now! :)

2 Months

I was actually planning on writing this post last week on Easton's 2 month birthday while we were in Ruidoso, but I couldn't figure out how to do it on Brice's iPhone (any suggestions?) so I'm just now getting around to it! I think every mom says "I can't believe my baby is already ___ months old" but it's just so true...and I think it goes by even faster with the 2nd. Here's a little of what's going on in our little man's life at 2 months:

• He is an extremely cuddly baby and LOVES to be held, his favorite place to be is snuggled up in your arms with his paci. (just the opposite of his big sister at this age...she didn't like to be rocked at all, anytime she was fussy all she wanted was the swing!)
• Although he prefers to be held, he is starting to be a lot more content in the bouncer, swing or the activity mat.
• His tummy issues are starting to subside as well, praise the Lord! He started going to the bathroom on his own a couple of weeks ago and now he goes every day or at least every other day. This is such a relief to us...I never thought I would be so consumed with poo! haha :)
• He started really smiling about a week and a half ago. And let me just tell you, one big smile will make up for lots of fussiness!! Every time he smiles it just melts my heart! He has also started cooing and it is so sweet.
• We go to the doctor this afternoon so I don't know exactly how much he weighs, but I'm guessing a lot....he is SO chunky!! He is already outgrowing 3 month clothing, and he could probably wear size 2 diapers, but we have a whole box of 1-2's that we're trying to get rid of first.

Also, thanks for all the advice with Emma Kate. We have started letting her go to sleep with her babies and stuffed animals and this seems to be helping. I think our next step will be to put the little things on the door knobs, hopefully it won't come to that because I know this will really make her upset!

I just love her to death and she brings so much joy to our lives. It truly breaks my heart to see her so resistant to authority and have to be disciplined so much throughout the day. I know that much of it is just her age right now (and I definitely know it could be much worse). God is revealing so many things to me through Emma Kate. As a parent I just want what is best for my children, and even though disciplining them is extremely hard, I know it's what is best. Jeremiah 32:41 says "I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul." It's so comforting to know that God rejoices in doing good for his children, even though at times it means we have to endure discipline. Hebrews 12:11 also says, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." It is my prayer that this discipline yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness in Emma Kate (and myself), and also that next time I am going through discipline that I will rejoice in knowing that God is merely trying to bring about a change in my life!

Random Questions

• How is it possible that my baby is 2 months old tomorrow?? (more to come on that later)
• I had to call the dr's office this morning to get Easton's 2 month well check changed since we are going to be out of town, and they told me that our dr is booked until October. What?! Is this normal?? We will now have to see the nurse practitioner, which I don't mind because we really like her, but I just thought this was really strange.
• How in the world do you get a 20 month old to stay in bed at nap time and bedtime?? Emma Kate has been in her big girl bed for about 4 months now. We had a hard time for about the first 2 weeks getting her to stay in bed, but after that she was perfect! She might talk and play on her bed for a while, but she would never get down. Well, starting about 3 weeks ago she has decided that she IS NOT going to bed without a fight. It started just at night, but now it's both nap time and bedtime. It seems to consistently take her at least an hour or more to go to sleep, and one day last week she missed her nap entirely. We have tried just about everything - putting her to bed later, timeout, spanking, rocking, ignoring....those of you who have been through this, what worked??
• I'm contemplating having a garage sale - is it really worth all the work? I'm usually too lazy and just take all of our unwanted "junk" to Good Will, but I'm thinking we could at least make a little money instead of just giving it away. Anybody want to do it together??

OK, I think that's all random questions on my mind right now. Here are a few pictures from the last week:

Colin and Camron came over to play...Emma Kate was great until we put Camron in her swing and she had a major melt down!! I guess we will have to work on sharing. :)

Yes, that is a pool floatie that Emma Kate likes to wear as a hat! She has to get accessorized before sitting on the potty!

Look at that cute little hiney in big girl panties!

We went to the park on Saturday, we usually just play on the little playground, but since Dad was with us she got to play on the big playground and she even went down the big slide by herself!