Catch Up

I've been terrible lately, both with taking pictures and updating the blog.  So bad that I didn't even take a single picture on Thanksgiving (something I know I will regret).  My excuse. . the Baxter's have been under the weather lately.  :(  Shawn and Em both caught a stomach bug and Evan has some kind of virus and an ear infection.  Luckily both Shawn and Em were better pretty quickly.  Poor Evan has been fighting his illness for a couple weeks now which has resulted in very little sleep for us all.   I'm really hoping he gets better soon!

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house this year.  All of my extended family was there too.  We had a great time visiting with everyone.  We hardly saw Em all night because she was too busy playing with her cousins.  Evan just hung out on my lap most of the night since he didn't feel well. 

So although I didn't take any pics of the kids on Thanksgiving, here are some pics I did take over the long holiday weekend.

2012 Christmas Card

Weekend Recap (A Little Late)

I forgot that I had typed up this post last week and just needed to add pictures.  Oops.  So here's our weekend recap from 2 weekends ago.  :)

Friday
Friday night I was able to enjoy a rare girl's night out with my friends Kara and Courtney.  We went to dinner and then grabbed some drinks afterwards.  As much as I miss the kiddos when I'm out, I love having some time to just hang out with my friends and catch up. 

Shawn sent me a few pics of the kiddos while I was out.  We just got the high chair down and this was Evan's first time trying it out.  Shawn said Emily insisted on having him right next to him while she ate. 

Saturday
Saturday morning I took Em to dance class.  She still loves going.  There are only 3 little girls in her class, but she doesn't seem to mind.  They measured her for her recital costume.  I was surprised because it's not until June, but I guess they plan early.  Can't wait to find out what they look like!

After Em's nap on Saturday, we took the kids to the Gaylord.  I don't want to get professional pics until after Evan is sitting up.  Since that won't be until December or January, we'll miss having the pictures for Christmas Cards.  So my plan was to just try to take 1 myself of the kids at the Gaylord.  Let's just say I took around 25-30 pics and I got 1 that might work.  Getting 2 little ones to look at me, let alone smile was a challenge!  Oh well, we'll make it work.  Since we were there, I wanted to have the kids see Santa.  I figured it would be much less crowded before Thanksgiving.  Of course Santa just went on a break once we got there.  But we just walked around a bit more before finally getting in line about 10 minutes before he was due to return.  We were third in line, so once he was back we didn't have to wait long.  Emily loved Santa.  She told him she wanted dolls for Christmas.  Evan was fascinated by him.  He just stared at him, not knowing what to think.  I'm just glad there were no tears!  I was a bit disappointed with the pictures though.  You would think for how much the pictures are, they would at least be of better quality.  But at least we have something to show for their visit to Santa. 

Sunday
We didn't have too much going on today.  Evan was a bit under the weather this weekend, with a bad cold, so it was best for him to just stay home and get better.  I did meet my mom late morning though to see the last Twilight movie.  It was sooo good! 

While we were gone, Shawn and the kids had a picnic in the living room so they could watch the Cowboys game.

My Buddy And Me

I know I've said this several times, but Emily just adores her little brother!  She is so good with him and will do anything to help out with him.  If he's crying, she'll talk to him, bring him a toy, put his paci in his mouth, hold his hand, etc.  If he wants to play, she will bring him more toys than he knows what to do with.  Evan is just as enamored with Emily, as she is with him.  He loves to just watch her and see what she's doing.  He always gives her the biggest smiles and laughs.  I love watching the 2 of them together!  It's definitely my favorite thing about having 2 kids.  I really do hope that they will continue to stay this close.  I know Em can't wait for Evan to be big enough to play with her.  She tells me all the time about the things she's going to teach him. 

Five Months

Dear Evan (my little man),

You are five months old today! Woah!

This month we tried to take you off the zantac and boy, was that a big mistake.  After just a few days off of it, you started spitting up every bottle (the entire bottle).  You (and Daddy and I) were having to make several outfit changes each day.  So back on the zantac you went.  Once you stopped spitting up, you pretty much became un-interested in eating.  After several days of this, Daddy and I got worried something wasn't right, so we took you to Dr. G's and he upped your dose.  That seemed to make all the difference in the world.  Once your tummy started feeling better, you must have realized you were starving because now we can't seem to feed you enough!  I guess you are making up for lost time.  We have tried giving you cereal once, but you weren't really interested so we put it off for a bit.  I don't know how much you weigh now, but now that you are eating, you're finally starting to put some meat on those bones. I love it!!

This month you started a habit that your sister had as a baby too.  Just like with Em, I'm not sure if it's related to the ezcema or if it's just a self-soothing thing, but when you are trying to fall asleep you scratch and scratch your head (so bad it bleeds).  :(  I hate this.  We tried putting socks on your hands at night, but this makes you not sleep well because it prevents you from scratching.  I've started dousing your head in aquaphor each night, but it doesn't prevent you from scratching, it just helps with all the scratches.  I'm really hoping this is a short lived habit.  

No teeth to report yet.  You are still drooling up a storm.  Your sister didn't get teeth until she was 11 months old, so I'm not sure when to expect them with you.

You've started to become more particular with who you will let hold you.  I've noticed when I'm holding you and you're facing out, you will occasionally look up at me almost as if you're checking to make sure it's still me that's holding you.  Your Aunt Julie tried to hold you a few weeks ago and you just kept giving her your pouty lip face and crying.  I don't remember going through the stranger anxiety phase so early with your sister.  Luckily you love your teachers at school, so you don't have issues with me leaving you there.  I've also noticed that you get fussy if you are in your swing and you see me walk by, but not pick you up.  If you don't see me, then you do much better. 

You are reaching the really fun stage. You are so much more aware of what's around you.  You love playing with rattles, playing on your playmat and playing in your excersaucer.  Your sister is constantly bringing you toys to play with.  If something is in front of you that you want, you now reach out to try and grab it.  Most times you still need a little bit of help grabbing it, but other times you do really well.  You also have started grabbing my hair.  Oh boy, that is not a part of this stage that I like. 

You laugh a lot now.  And everytime I hear it, it makes me laugh.  I love this sound!  Your sister gets the most laughs out of you.  You continue to love watching her and she just cracks you up. 

You are doing so much better at tummy time.  You don't hate it like you used to.  I can usually get 10-15 minutes out of you without fussing.  You are getting so much stronger too.  You are completely up on your elbows now.   You have now rolled from your back to your tummy (YAY!).  You did it for the first time in your crib on 11/4/12 and haven't stopped since.

At night you continue to be all over your crib.  You like sleeping on your side and lately, even on your tummy.   We've taken you out of the sleepsack and now you're just in your jammies at night. 

One tough thing this month has been your sleeping, or rather lack there of.  We had a couple really tough weeks where you were waking up every 3-4 hours.  After deciding that I had finally had enough, Shawn and I agreed that we would try and just give you your paci and turn your crib music on the first time you woke up.  The first night we tried this, it went pretty well.  You woke up around 11:00 and we had to go in there 3 times you give you a paci before you were back to sleep.  You woke up again at 2:30 and I did feed you.  We had to go back in several times to give you a paci and get you to go back to sleep, but eventually you did.  I expected lots of crying that night, but really there wasn't much at all.  The next night, I put you down to sleep around 8:30 and guess what, you slept all night until 6:30!  You know what that tells me. . .Mommy and Daddy are big suckers!  You knew we would feed you if you woke up, so you did.  I have to give you credit little man, you are good!  Since that night, you have done much better at sleeping through the night.  Occasionally you do still wake up and we need to put your paci back in, but overall we've made big strides in the sleep department.

5 Month Stats
Weight: no appt. until 6 months
Length: no appt. until 6 months
Eating: 5 oz of Nutramigen every 3 hours during the day.  No more night time bottles!!
Bedtime: 8:00 pm
Awake: 5:30-6:00
Naps: still no consistent naps.  It's hard to work on this when you are at daycare 5 days a week.  But I'm hoping to start getting you to nap in your crib instead of your swing.
Diapers: Size 2 Pampers Swaddlers
Clothes: Size 3-6 months
Favorites: playing with toys, playing with your sister, loves being sung to.

Development: rolls over from back to tummy, laughs all the time, grabs toys

Wordless Wednesday

Is It Really November?

Last week and this past weekend, we had some really nice weather.  It's hard to believe that it is November already.  We took full advantage of the beautiful weather by playing in the backyard and going to our neighborhood park.

Conversations With Emily

Em was playing in the fort at the top of her swingset and she noticed there was a lot of bird poop it in it. 

Em : "The birdies forgot to tell their Mommy and Daddy that they needed to go potty."

She thought the birds had a potty accident in her her fort.  :)

First Taste Of Cereal

So we hadn't planned on giving Evan cereal for probably another month or so.  However, he has been sleeping terribly lately.  I'm talking waking up 3 hours after he goes down, to drink a bottle, and then 4 hours after that to have another bottle.  The downside with the 2nd waking is that he is then ready to be up for the day.  :( 

A couple weeks ago, I took Evan to the dr. because he was hardly eating at all (like 2 oz. a bottle).  Dr. G upped his zantac dose to see if that would help.  Apparently, it helped a ton because now we can't feed this boy enough!  He's now almost always chugging 5 oz at a time. 

So even though we hadn't planned on giving him cereal this early, Shawn and I are just about willing to try anything to get this boy full and sleeping better.  So last night we tried giving him some oatmeal for the first time.  We watered it down a ton with formula.  He really didn't know what to think of it and most of it ended up back on his bib.  At least we tried.  And no, he didn't sleep any better last night.  :(