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!

A Little Shower

Our friends the Carrasco's came over last night for a long over due dinner. We had a great time catching up with them and watching the kids all play together outside (not to mention Easton got some good snuggle time and attention!). It was a little overcast all day yesterday but we never got anything more than a few sprinkles so I figured we were good to eat outside. After dinner the clouds were getting pretty dark, but Mike assured us that he didn't think it was going to pour or anything...ha! Just about the time we got the kids all set up with their desserts it started pouring down rain! They were all under the umbrella on Emma Kate's table so we thought we would just let them stay out there until it passed. Well, as soon as it started thundering really loud Emma Kate decided she had had enough. So they all ran through the rain and continued their picnic inside!

And of course I couldn't do a post without a picture of my sweet chunky boy! This picture is from last week....look at those chubby cheeks and that buddha belly! He continues to be such a sweet cuddly baby. His favorite place to be is in someone's arms, but he is getting better at being content in the bouncer or the swing. And his tummy issues don't seem to be bothering him quite as much. I can't believe he will be 8 weeks old on Thursday! Summers always seem to fly by, but this summer has especially gone by fast!

We're still here! :)

Adjusting to life with 2 kids has been a little harder than I had first thought it was going to be - hence the lack of blogging. We were a little naive in thinking it was going to be smooth sailing like the first 2 weeks, but boy were we wrong! Poor little Easton has some major tummy issues and is just really uncomfortable. We went to see Dr. Gray yesterday and he diagnosed him with acid reflux and put him on Zantac, and also gave us some other suggestions to help with his tummy so hopefully we are on the road to relief. He hasn't gone to the bathroom on his own in over 3 weeks. Also I think he might be a little colicky. He cries just about every night from 5:30 until he goes to bed at about 9:30. It's just so hard to see your baby in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it! But even though it's been hard I wouldn't trade it for anything - we have fallen so in love with our little guy and can't imagine life without him!!

Over the last few weeks I have also realized how blessed we are to have such wonderful families. My mom has been a life-saver for me!! She comes over almost everyday to see us and keep us company. We haven't been able to get out much since Easton has been so fussy, so Emma Kate is always so thrilled to see someone other than mommy all day long (and so am I)!! And speaking of Emma Kate - she is just too funny these days. She has figured out how to open and close the doors at our house and she thinks that is just the neatest thing. The only downside is that her internal alarm clock is now set to about 6 or 6:30 and instead of just staying in her room to play, she gets out of her room, goes to Brice's side of the bed, gets right in his face and just starts laughing! I have to say though, I would much rather wake up to a giggling 19 month old than the alarm clock! :)

I guess that's enough rambling for now - here are a ton of pictures from the last several weeks:

Checking on "brudder"....such a good big sister! (he looks SO small in this picture!! keep scrolling and I'm sure you will agree too. he was 3 weeks here.)

Sweet baby! (4 weeks)

His favorite way to sleep! I know they really aren't supposed to sleep on their tummies, but he loves it and I feel a little more comfortable letting him since we have the Angelcare monitor.

For the 4th we decided we needed a change of scenery, so we headed north to Lazbuddie to spend the weekend with Brice's parents. We were also able to introduce Easton to all of his great-grandparents, but I was a bad mom and didn't take any pictures!!

I made my traditional Flag cake, but this year it's even more impressive since it was done with one hand (and a little help from Brice)! :)

Looking for rabbits with Chebe

Getting ready to go to the parade in Muleshoe

Family Pic

Waiting for the parade to start

She wasn't sure what to think....

It was a little loud

Sunday Jenny stopped by before heading back to San Angelo. She did a little shopping and Emma Kate thought she needed to try on some of her new purchases!!

Our little chunky monkey!! At the dr's office yesterday he weighed in at 11 lbs!! (5 weeks) He's sporting his "I'm the Baby Brother" shirt...thanks Aunt Sharon! 

Playing outside with Dad

Giving Sydney kisses!

I just love those 2!!

Since it was SO hot yesterday we decided to head over to my mom's friend's house to go swimming in a "big" pool! Round 2 in the big pool was much better than round 1 back in May!

Getting ready to get in!

Is she cute or what?!

She loves her LaLa!!

So fun!

I think Easton enjoyed the pool too! 

2 Weeks

It's hard to believe it, but Easton has already hit the 2 week milestone!! We visited Dr. Gray on Thursday and my suspicions that he was growing were confirmed....he weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 7 oz.!! That means he had gained 1 lb. and 2 oz. in just 2 weeks. I guess that's what happens when you're eating every 2 to 3 hours. :) He is continuing to do great and we are absolutely loving watching him grow and watching how he and Emma Kate interact. Most nights he still gets up every 3 hours, but a couple of nights this week he spoiled me and slept 4-5 hours! I'm hoping to see this more and more often as he gets older! 

Here are few more pictures of some of his firsts this week:

His first night to sleep in his own bed

First time going to church

First bath (he wasn't too sure he liked it!)

His first visit out to LaLa and Pop's (he slept the whole time!)

And this isn't really a "first" I just thought this picture was adorable...he is really starting to focus more and more and he love to look in the mirror when I'm changing his diaper. 

We're Home

Ok, bear with me, I normally upload all my pictures to Flickr so that I can move them around and put them in order, but both babies are about to wake up so I'm kind of in a hurry!! These are all out of order, but none the less, here are pictures! :)

Whoa, I can't believe how small our car looks now! 

Our first outing as a family of 4 - to the Dr's office for a weight and color check

Saying bye to Aunt Teppy!

Checking out the pool on Saturday after we came home from the hospital

Hanging out in her very own chair

Heading home

"Yay we're outta here!"

All snug in the swaddle

And now we're WIDE awake!

Family picture

She loves her baby brother!!

He's not sure what to think yet!

Brooke and Tania

Will and EK looking for birds

Aww...too cute!

Chris and Denae

April

Checking out her "Big Sister" present (and check out her adorable "Big Sister" dress!!! Unfortunately I didn't really get any good pictures of her in it - my friend Angie made it and was TOO CUTE!)

Meeting Easton for the first time

Brice's family

My family, minus Aunt Maddie who was at home with Emma Kate during the delivery

First family picture - minus big sister

Contractions are oh so fun! :)

Heading to the hospital - so long big belly! 

Well, actually we have been home for several days, but I'm just now getting around to updating the blog. Hmm...can't imagine why?! HA! We came home from the hospital Saturday morning and have been going non-stop since. Emma Kate is adjusting really well, but she is definitely testing her limits. She absolutely loves Easton and can't seem to get enough of him. She calls him "BayBay" in a really deep voice, we can't figure out why she says it so funny - before he was born she would say "Baby" in a really sweet little voice, but not now! And she asks for him from the time she wakes up until it's time to go to bed. And of course we say "be gentle" about a gazillion times a day! But that's to be expected I guess. :) And Easton is adjusting really well too. He is such a sweet little baby and knock on wood is doing really well on a schedule. I'm trying to take advantage of this time where he's so sleepy because I know he will probably "wake up" soon! 

Easton's labor and delivery ended up being just about as smooth as Emma Kate's - praise the Lord! We got to the hospital around 6:45 in the morning, got started on pitocin and had my water broke around 8:30, experienced 2 hours of true contractions while waiting on the anesthesiologist (which I hope to never experience again - next time I'm not letting them start the pitocin til the anesthesiologist is in the room!! :)), 10:30 got an epidural, 11:15 was ready to push and Easton was born at 11:47! Other than my legs staying numb til 6:00 that night there really weren't any complications. 

Thanks to everyone who came by to see our newest addition while we were in the hospital. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great friends and family. Easton is so lucky to have so many people that love him already!! 

And check out Denae's website - she's done it again! We had Easton's newborn pics taken yesterday and they are GREAT!!