Look Who's Crawling!

Evan has been mobile for the last month or so, but hasn't exactly been crawling.  Instead he was just scooting his way around the room.  However, in the couple of weeks, he has really taken off and is a crawling machine who is into everything!  He completely skipped the army crawl and went straight to being up on all fours.  He loves his new found freedom!

My Little Helper

Someone has discovered just how fun loading the dishwasher can be.  

Only 3 years ago, I had a different little helper.  If only she thought loading the dishwasher was still so fun!  :)

5 Year Anniversary

I can't believe Shawn and I are celebrating our 5th anniversary today!  In some ways it seems like the last 5 years have flown by and in other ways it seems like it's been way longer. . haha.  It's just crazy thinking about how much our lives have changed just in the last 5 years.  I can't wait to see what the next 5 and all the years after, have to offer.  We don't have any big plans today.  We just got back yesterday from a getaway to Fredericksburg.  Hopefully I'll get that post up soon.  Happy Anniversary Shawn!

9 Month Well Visit

Last Thursday afternoon, Shawn and I took Evan to see Dr. G for his 9 month well-visit.  Unfortunately, it ended up turning into a sick visit.  :(  Evan has a double ear infection.  His 5th ear infection in 5 months.  We were surprised to hear this after he hadn't really shown any signs like he had with his previous ones.  The dr. said they were pretty bad though, so he's back on antibiotics.  We'll go back in 3 weeks for yet another ear re-check.  Other than that, all looked well with him.  He got 1 shot and took it like a champ.  He did say we need to reduce his formula intake from 30 oz to closer to 24 oz.  Luckily Evan seems to be reducing it on his own.  Here are his stats from his appt:

Weight: 18 lbs, 11 oz (11%)

Height: 28 in. (37%)

Head: 18 in. (60%)

Even though he's still low in the weight %'s, Dr. G was happy with his weight gain since his last appt.  It's definitely not for lack of trying.  This boy eats all the time!!

And So The Nightmare Continues. .

This definitely isn't something I wanted to write about in my blog because frankly it's not something I want to remember, but I figured I would only for the reason that maybe it will save someone else from ever having to deal with this.   I previously mentioned that my purse was stolen at daycare a few weeks ago.  In my purse was my ID and debit card.  Since there were no checks in my purse we assumed just cancelling my debit card would be enough.  Wrong!  Theives are smart.  2 weeks after my purse was stolen, we saw several large debits come through both our checking and savings accounts.  They had cashed stolen 3rd party checks through our account.  And because our checking and savings accounts were linked up for overdraft protection, they were able to get money out of our savings too.  :(  We still don't know how they got our account number, but the fact is, they did.  So my advice to anyone who has their ID taken,  as well as anything that indicates what bank they have, close your entire account and reopen a brand new one.  Also, don't link your savings to your checking!  Luckily our bank refunded us all the stolen money, but the time and hassle we've had to deal with through this whole process has been a nightmare!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Grams

I love these little notes that school sends home to us.  We don't get them too often, so it's a treat when we get them for both kids in the same week.

Wordless Wednesday

Nine Months

Evan,

Happy 9 months little man!  I can't believe this is your last month in single digits, haha.  This has been a big month for you.  You are on the move!

You started out the month by moving to a big boy car seat in Mommy's car (you're still in the infant seat in Daddy's car).  You weren't sure what to think at first, but now you seem to enjoy sitting up a little higher.  You pulled all the way up for the first time this month.  Now you pull up on everything. Your teachers at school tell me that you pull up on everything there too.  You haven't pulled up in your crib yet, but I know it's just a matter of time, so we went ahead and lowered your crib.  You are able to go from laying down to sitting up all on your own.   You have surprised me the last couple of mornings when I go in to get you out of your crib and you're sitting up.  You're not crawling yet.  You can easily get up on all fours but once you start moving you fall right to your stomach.  Again, I think crawling is just around the corner.  It seems like you are skipping the army crawl all together.  Right now you just scoot on your bottom or roll over to whatever you want.

You prefer someone to sit and play with you and you often get upset if you see us, but we're not on the floor playing.  When we do sit on the floor with you, you love to climb all over us.  We can tell when you are tired because you won't stay in the same position for more than 3 seconds. 

This has been a huge month when it comes to sleep.  Right after your last ear infection cleared up we started letting you cry it out at night.  You would cry out once usually around 11:00 and it would last anywhere from 10-30 minutes.  After about a week of this, you stopped completely and have been sleeping through the night ever since.  Hallelujah!!!  Mommy and Daddy sure do appreciate the extra sleep, Bud!  Your naps have also come a long way too (at home, not school).  You now take 2 naps in your crib (vs. the swing).  On the weekends you will usually go down around 9:00 or 9:30 and again around 1:00.  Each nap usually lasts around an hour and a half.  You will usually need a catnap early evening and for that one we will put you in the swing (or you'll sleep in my arms).  You are still an early riser and usually are up around 5:30.  However, once we feed you, most times we can put you in your swing and you'll nap for another 30 - 45 minutes.

You've come a long way when it comes to food as well.  We started the month out by switching you off the Nutramigen and onto the cheaper Gentlease formula.  You transitioned great and have been doing well with your bottles ever since.  Our plan wasn't to take you off the zantac this month, however, after getting a prescription in a faulty bottle (we couldn't open it), we decided to try and stop it.  Luckily you never noticed and are now completely off it.  Yay!  The last couple of weeks, we have started trying table food and we haven't looked back.  You have always loved baby food, but seem to love the table food even more.  You are a happy boy as long as you are eating!  They tell us at school how much you love to eat.  Haha.  I'm hoping this means you will have moved out of the 9% for weight when we take you to the dr. later this month.  You've tried lots of table food this month and we have yet to find anything you don't like.  You love waffles, grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas, spaghetti, mac and cheese, muffins, etc. 

You are still a snuggler, Bud, and I love it!  When you are sleepy all you want to do is snuggle in close.  Your sister was only a snuggler when she didn't feel good, so I'm loving this.  When I'm rocking you to sleep there are nights where I feel like I could just hold you forever.  I know you won't be this little forever, so I'm taking advantage now.

This month you started waving bye bye.  You are still babbling a ton too.  When you wake up in the morning you will usually call out for Mama or Dada before you start crying.  You've gotten really good at knowing which one to say, depending on who is in the room.  You haven't totally shortened them.  Instead you just say Dadadada or Mamamama. 

Emily is still your favoite person.  She gets the biggest belly laughs out of you.  I can see how much you love her every time you look at her.  She feels the same way about you!  Lately you have started to love watching and looking for Lily.  You get super excited whenever she comes in the room and you just watch her where ever she goes.  When you get excited to you tend to scream really loud.

As you can see by my pictures this month, you weren't the slightest bit interested in sitting in your chair for me.  I bribed you with everything I could think of and all you wanted to do was get on the floor and crawl.  I'm sure this is just the beginning. 

I can't believe it's only 3 more months until we have a 1 year old.  You are getting so big, little man!

9 Month Stats
Weight: 18 lbs, 11 oz (11%)
Length: 28 in. (37%)
Eating: 6 oz of Gentlease every 3 - 4 hours during the day (5 bottles each day). Having 3 meals a day consisting of mainly table food and you drink water out of a sippy cup.  You also like puffs, mum mums and yogurt melts.
Bedtime: Around 7:30 -7:45 pm
Awake: 5:30-6:30 am
Naps: you're starting to get into more of a schedule. You take a morning nap and afternoon nap, however, the times aren't always consistent. You usually need a night time cat nap too.
Diapers: Size 3 Pampers.
Clothes: mainly 6-12 months, some 6 month stuff
Favorites: playing with your sister, eating table food, watching Lily, taking a bath, snuggling with your lovey
Development: pulling up, going from laying down to sitting up, trying so hard to crawl, waving, saying mamamama and dadadadada
Teeth: 2 bottom ones

Life Lately

I haven't been great about blogging this week, but that doesn't mean our lives haven't been eventful.

• Wednesday was a bad day.  It started out just like any other day.  I drove the kids to daycare, got them out of the car and headed into school.  I came back out of school and my driver's side window was smashed in and my purse was gone.  I was in disbelief.  I was angry at myself for leaving my purse in my car, but even angrier that there are losers in this world that do stuff like this.  I was literally inside all of 10 minutes (at very most).  I already have to carry Evan in, hold Em's hand and bring each of their bags in too.  The last thing I want to do is carry my purse in too.  I'm usually so good about hiding it in my car, but this day I wasn't.  They took my phone, wallet, sunglasses and purse.  Luckily they got no cash or checks.  And Shawn and I were able to cancel all of the credit / debit cards before they could use them.  Our school recently got cameras to help prevent against these sort of crimes, but it didn't deter these people.  I sat and watched them do it on the video.  It was almost surreal.  I knew what was going to happen, but the whole time I watched the video I was hoping it wouldn't happen.  Unfortunately because of how far I had to park and how the car came and left the parking lot, they were not able to get a good shot of the license plate.  It sucks knowing these people will probably get away with it and do it to someone else.  I just felt so violated and creeped out knowing they watched me with my kids.  Overall, I'm thankful that it was just a purse they were after because in the end it could have been much worse.  But I will be much more aware of my surroundings because of it and probably never have the same sense of security that I once had. 

• Emily had a dentist appointment Wednesday afternoon and I just have to brag about her for a minute.  This was her third visit to the dentist.  The last 2 trips, they have just looked at her teeth and counted them.  This time they asked her if they could clean her teeth and she said yes.  She sat still the whole time and was such a big girl.  She even let them take x-rays.  The hygienist and another mom there both commented on how well she did.  I'm so proud of what a big girl she's becoming.

• Last week Shawn celebrated his 35th birthday.  His birthday fell during the week, so we didn't do much to celebrate.  We had already celebrated with my family at the beginning of February and we celebrated with his family this past weekend.



• Last weekend we had some beautiful weather.  Emily has been wanting us to get her a "hang bar" for a while now.  Shawn was able to find one at Lowe's and he set it all up for her. 

Resemblance

A few weeks ago, I got my baby book from my parents.  After looking at my baby pictures, I thought it would be fun to do a side by side with baby pics of Shawn and I next to the kids baby pics.  I think Emily takes after Shawn and Evan takes after me.  Who do you think the kids take after?