Lady K 5 and 6 months

5 months

6 months

Likes:
Daddy to hold her and just daddy.  I can be with her all day and she will just squirm out of my arms she would rather play on the ground, but when daddy is home she will scream and yell till he picks her up.
Food - Loves baby food (thank goodness!)
Bed - she is super easy to put down, she likes her bed
Zac - loves him.  She loves almost every second of attention Zac gives her
Bath - she loves to lay in the bath and kick and play
Tags - why do babies love tags?

Dislikes:
When you don't give her what she wants the very second that she wants it
When Zac gives her too much lovin'
Peas - can't say I blame her here
Poopy diapers - she gets really grumpy as soon as she gets one (opposite of Zac, he could sit in a poopy diaper all day and not care)

Lady K is such a good baby.  She is pretty easy going but pretty demanding at the same time (reminds me a little of myself).  She looks big but based on her last doctor's visit she is pretty average.  She has the most beautiful smile (in out humble and completely non-biased opinion) that just lights up her entire face and make her perfect little blue eyes twinkle.  Watch out boys!  She sleeps good, but still wakes up once a night to eat even though she eats baby food and a rice cereal bottle before bed. She is rolling all over the place and starting to sit up a little bit.  She is trying to get up onto her knees and I imagine with in the next month she will be ready to crawl.  She loves to stand in your lap when you are holding her and dig her little toes into your thighs (ouch!).  Her hair gets crazier every day.  It has thinned out and is lightened up quite a bit. 

'Round Here

First of all this little lady is 4 months.

I know...adorable right?!  If you don't think so then look at these...

Still not convinced?  Okay then look at this.

She is a really good baby.  She has her moments like any other baby, but those moments seem to be decreasing as we figure her out more.  She still only wakes up once a night to eat.  She is napping SOOOO much better these days, and is FINALLY on a somewhat regular schedule.  She loves to smile and loves to be held but is content playing in her jumper or her walker for 20 minute-ish stints.  She loves to talk.  Her hands are her worst enemy and best friend right now.  She is very interested in whatever Zac is doing.  She just sits and watches him and laughs.  She loves when he pays attention to her.  You can see in the below pictures that she just has nothing but love for him (except for when Zac growls at her.  She doesn't like that so she cries...Zac laughs)

Zac...well Zac has been having a rough go for a little while.  He broke his binky the other night.  I was probably the most devastating thing to ever happen to this kid because a) he broke it and he loved it and b) this is the first time mommy couldn't fix it.  He asked me over and over to "put together binky".  He was beside himself.  It took a while to fall asleep that first night.  The second night not as bad.  Nap time is harder to get going, but he still naps.  He asked for his binky a lot and tells me "mommy put together binky in a minute" in the hopes that it will reappear. Unfortunately for Zac, the binky is done.

A few weeks ago, he sat up while Ozzy was jumping over him and ran into Ozzy's paw.  We were lucky, 1 inch closer and he would've had a claw to the eyeball. 

He got a lawn mower and likes to mow the lawn with you.  I can't remember right now how he says lawn mower.  I need to make a note to write that down.  After a while of trying to mow the lawn, he starts to push it on the cement...the grass is too hard.  He come inside just a sweating though.  It is great exercise.

Here are a few more silly pictures of Zac:

And a good one of Zac (with his beloved boots)

"I Love You"

We Have a 2 Year Old!!! (and a 3 month old too)

Zac is 2!!!  And boy is he every bit a 2 year old.

Zac Pros:

• Awesome sleeper,  sleeps 12 hours a night and takes a good 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  Goes down to sleep with out too many complaints.
• Talks a lot all the time and can communicate very well.  I would say that we (being the parents) are at about 98% Zac-anese comprehension.  
• Can count to 10, knows his colors, and is getting there on the alphabet.  He will start singing the alphabet song and half way through he switches to twinkle twinkle little star.
• Still loves books, but loves trains and cars and balls and building "big tall towers"
• Eats dinosaur chicken nuggets, corndogs, hotdogs, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, juice, fruit snacks, crackers, yogurt, pork, chicken and pizza...that's it
• Loves to sing songs and will sing to himself while playing
• Loves to "play water" (in English, go swimming).  Splash pad, small swimming pool, big swimming pool, lake, doesn't matter, he loves water.
• Sweet boy who loves his little sister and loves to give her kisses. 
• Loves to ride in Daddy's Car
• His best friend in the whole wide world is Whitney.  "Play Whitney!"  Honestly the cutest thing ever.  They yell across the chapel to each other at Church, when they see each other their eyes just light up, Zac steals a kiss or hug every chance he gets, and they walk together holding hands.  These 2 just love each other!
• Loves to tease and play with Ozzy 
• When he really wants to tell you something he gets right up close to your face to make sure you really hear him (an he nods his head while he is talking because that helps with comprehension right?)
• Overall fun kid that just does silly things and makes us laugh a lot

 Zac Cons:

• Talks all. the. time.  Can we just get a quiet moment sometimes.
• Whines A LOT.  Everything is SO DRAMATIC.  Along with the whining are tantrums as well. (ugh)
• Will NOT eat vegetables or fruit (With the exception of dried apples)
• Three phrases that by the end of the day I am so sick of hearing: "No want it", "Stop it!", and "Night night da binky" 
• Still loving that dang binky.  But he only gets it when he sleeps and most days he is really good about putting it up when he is done sleeping....However, he KNOWS he only gets it when he is sleeping so now when he gets hurt or upset he asks to go "night night" so he can have his binky, hence "Night Night da Binky" above.  And since he is a whiny, tantrum throwing, 2 year old BOY.  he gets hurt or upset multiple times a day.
• Not really taking to potty training yet.  We are trying, but he is not at the point where he is willing to tell us that he needs to go. 

Little Miss Lady K is 3 months!






































Some things about our little lady:

• Sleep - great.  Pretty much down by 9 pm, wakes up about 3 am to eat and then down again until 9 am-ish.  Love it!
• Just starting to get better at sitting up by herself in the bumbo.  
• No major digestive issues thus far (Zac had acid reflux so we were up to our ears in spit up by this age)
• Generally happy baby as long as you are paying her every ounce of your attention at all times.  
• Loves to be held. All. The. Time.
• You can put her down, but don't you dare walk away from her.
• Will spend about 20 minutes a day by herself in the swing or on the play mat, but that's it.  That's your ration for the day.
• Pretty consistent on naps, in that she takes them in the morning, afternoon, and evening.  But the length and timing of these naps is still completely unpredictable (no good for mommy's work schedule)

Grandma and Grandpa C Came to Visit

 And we went to Sea World!

Zac had a great time.  He was ready for his nap when we got there, so he was quite grumpy in the beginning...but all we needed to do was go play at the splash pad to get him up and excited. 

He played in and around this tunnel for a good 30 minutes.

He is too short to ride really any of the kiddy rides, but he could ride the merry go round and he loved it.  He hated getting off and probably could have spent the whole day just riding that.

It was a terribly hot day, we were nice and sweaty by the end, but Zac enjoyed it and I loved looking at his face during the shows.  It will be fun to take him again and again.  Especially as he gets older and can ride more rides.

2 Months and "Play Water"

So Lady K is 2 months.  Time sure flies!

Lady K at 2 months:
Sleep: 10:30 - 11pm, up at 3:30am ish to eat, up again at 6:45-7:45am, and then back to sleep for a few more hours.

Loves: Mommy, Daddy rocking her to sleep, smiling, Zac, Ozzy, being outside in the heat, and ceiling fans (they are just SO funny, don't you think)

There isn't really anything particular that she hates yet.  

She is also big! She is a whopping 13 lbs and in the 91st percentile for weight.  She is 23.5 inches and in the 86th percentile for height.  So she is well in to the 3 month clothes.  She didn't fit in the newborn size very long at all.

Soooo....Zac.  Zac loves to "Play Water!".  He doesn't care how he is playing in the water, splash pad, small swimming pool, large swimming pool, lake, whatever...he loves it.  Well yesterday, we got out the big blow up pool and went swimming.  After we were done, I didn't drain the pool because Jer wanted to mow the lawn so I didn't want to get it all wet.  Well we left the house for a few hours and when we came home, I went to mow the lawn and Jer was in charge of the kiddos.  After about 10 minutes, Jer comes outside and tells me that I need to come and see something and that words can't do what I need to see justice.  I walk in the house and look out the back window and all I see it Zac's head and the swimming pool, the rest of his body is in the pool...fully clothed down to his rain boots.  Jer said he turned his head for like a minute...that's all it took for Zac get out the dog door and  into the pool.  Lucky for us, there isn't much water in there. I later heard lots of screaming....Zac did not want to get out of the pool and go to bed.








I should also mention that earlier that day when we were getting out the first time, I took off the swim diaper and we came inside.  While I was getting him a new diaper, he went out the dog door (buck naked) and climbed back in the pool.

Our Little Smiler

1 Month

Wow...a month sure goes by fast!  Here is a little bit about Lady K at one month.

Perfect angel during the day.  She still sleeps A LOT but as fast as she is growing I am not surprised.  She used to be a terror from about 11 pm to 1 am...fussy and grumpy, etc.  She has progressed to just being wide awake during this time.  It doesn't matter the circumstances, she is awake during this time...even if she has been up for several hours prior to this time....very frustrating.  This is causing some problems in our sleep life.  The good news is that once she does finally go to sleep, most of the time she blesses us with about a 4-5 hour stretch of sleep.

As you can see, she is already smiling!  It is sooo adorable when she does because she has that cute little crooked smile.

Zac....absolutely adores her.  He asks about her first thing in the morning and gives her kisses any chance he can and wants to give her a kiss before he goes to bed.  He recognizes that I need to spend a lot of time with her and whenever Jer mentions mommy, Zac add in her name as well.

Baby K and the details

First...here is our little Kaia Marie...going forward to be referred to as Baby K (because I don't like to use our full names on here and we haven't figured out a nickname for her yet).

And this is how it all went down....

Let's start with Thursday the 19th.  My last scheduled OB appointment.  During the visit, the doc asked me how I was feeling, miserably uncomfortable, and if I was ready to have a baby, yes of course, and if I wanted to be induced, as soon as possible please.  I was already dilated to a three at this point, which is very favorable for induction.  She gave me 2 options for induction dates, Saturday the 21st or Monday the 23rd.  Believe it or not, I asked for Monday.  I still had a list of things I needed to get done and I wanted to spend one last weekend with Zac before we destroyed his life forever. 

Friday night, I started getting contractions that seemed somewhat "regular" and so I decided I should keep track of what is going on (and yes, they have an app for that...thanks Apple).  After tracking them for a few hours, I found them to be about 20+ minutes apart and only lasting 30ish seconds...no big deal and according to the baby books this could last for a while so I wasn't concerned. 

Saturday, we decided for our last weekend with one child, we would go to the Zoo.  So Saturday morning we tackled some of my "nesting" items and then hit up the Zoo for the morning.  We took him back in December and he liked it, but this time he was sooooo into it!  He was in pure heaven with all the animals.  We skipped over the boring little animals and went to see the highlights like bears, lions, tigers, elephants, etc.  And then on the way out Zac and I rode the train that went around the park adjacent to the Zoo.  All during our Zoo visit I was having regular contractions, they weren't painful nor that close together, so again, not concerned that anything "real" was happening. 

 
After the Zoo, we came home, put little man down for a nap and got to some serious work to try and finish up all of the big things I wanted to get done before Monday, like mop the floors and clean the bathrooms.  That night we had some friends over for dinner and movie and all through this I felt that my contractions were getting closer together and more intense so I busted out my handy dandy contraction timer app and got to tracking the contractions again.  By 11pm my contractions were about 7 minutes apart and lasting close to a minute.  I hesitated to do anything at this point because you always hear that you need to wait until they are 5 minutes apart and lasting a minute and I didn't want to go in that late at night only to get turned away.  I called the doctor and she suggested that I go in and get checked out.  By the time we got someone called and over to stay with Zac and got the the hospital it was about 12:30 am on Sunday.  I got checked in and they brought me into triage and hooked up to the machines.  They checked my dilation and I was at about a 4.5-5 and so they admitted me and got me into a labor room.  From then until about 3 am it was just answering questions, getting an IV and blood drawn and dealing with ever increasingly painful contractions (which Jer so lovingly kept me informed of how strong they were on the graph).  Thankfully, the Anesthesiologist came in just when the contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes and starting to hurt pretty dang bad.  A few minutes after the epidural and I was in heaven. 

At 6 am, the nurse came to check my progress and I was a 10 and ready to go.  She got everything ready for me to start pushing and had me do a few practice pushes during a contraction.  After these few practice pushes she said that I needed to stop and not push anymore so she could go get the doctor.  When the doctor came in she had me push through 2 more contractions and at 6:21am, I had a baby.  I pushed out this baby like I had done it several times before (the doc and nurse said I was a good pusher, which I think is funny because with the epidural I couldn't feel anything so I felt like I was just going through the pushing motions and couldn't really tell if I WAS actually doing something).

And that's how it all went down.  Baby K is great so far and really a calm baby (thank goodness!).  She still has days and nights mixed up which is wreaking havoc on Jer's work life, but we can work on that.  Zac was a fussy baby so it is nice to have one the is pretty calm most of the time.

So far Zac doesn't mind having her around.  He learned her name really quick and knows who she is.  He gets a little jealous sometimes, but nothing too extreme as far as acting out.  He pays attention to her about a total of 5 minutes a day and asks to hold her (which lasts about 30 seconds) he will give her kisses and hugs.  Zac's present to us for having a new baby was to get a cold and pass it to all of us.  I got it the worst, I think Baby K got a little bit of a cold, but nothing to extreme.  I like to think that it is best I got it the worst so I could pass all of my cold fighting antibodies to Baby K to keep her from getting too sick.

We think she is gorgeous of course.  We love her full head of hair.  And when you catch her with her eyes open (which is very rare at this point) the muscles are still weak and so they are a little crossed which is adorable.

A lot of people see Zac when they look at her, but there are some definite differences (eyes, nose and forehead) when you put them side by side.  I think you will always know they are siblings, but they definitely won't be twiners.

Easter

I know...I know...you don't want this, you want baby stuff, but Easter happened first!  And I have some pictures so I need to put them up.

Just like every other holiday lately, Easter was pretty much a non-event.  (We are taking advantage of the time that our kids are clueless about holidays and not dealing with all the additional work it takes).  We didn't do an Easter basket for Zac (not that we didn't purchase Easter candy), but he wouldn't know what it was for, so why go through the effort.  Next year...different story.

Anyway, we did participate in the ward Easter Egg Hunt.  Honestly I thought Zac would be the kid that found one egg and would be good with that.  Clearly I was wrong.  He quickly filled up his small basket and had a blast looking around for eggs.  He liked to shake them before putting them in his basket.  It wasn't until after the hunt that he got to see what was in the eggs.

After the eggs were done we played for a while on the playground.  Zac was diggin' the swing that day!

Changes

I hate spring time...it seems like we always have so many projects going on that we never get any time to rest.  So busy...so busy.

One of our major projects this spring has been getting ready for kiddo numero dos (which is due in 3 weeks).  Meaning we had to get Zac out of the nursery and the crib in to his own room and a new bed.  Of course we couldn't just put him in a new room with nothing in it, we had to purchase beds, paint, etc etc yada yada.  Since Zac's new room was the only room in the house not furnished, I wanted to paint it before we filled it up with furniture (so now we have a total of ONE room in our house that is painted something other than the flat/matte boring ivory that the builder put on the walls, look at us go!).  Then we had to find the bed...what type to get?  Well we just skipped about 13 steps and just bought a full over full bunk bed.  The reasoning being that at some point we will need 2 beds....at some point we will need beds bigger than toddler or twin beds...at some point we may need an extra guest bed...soooo why not right?!  So I had to research for weeks to find the right bed for the right deal.  And then we had to find mattresses, bedding, curtains, decorations....MAN! kids are expensive!

We were so worried the whole time about getting this done quickly so Zac had time to adjust to a new room before the baby came and so he wouldn't feel like she kicked him out of his room.  He is such a bed snob that we were worried he wouldn't take to his new bed or room and we would constantly be battling with him in his new room.   Well, either he is just a lot more easy going than we expected OR we made his room just THAT cool!  No problems adjusting AT ALL.  We got him sheets with balls on it, a lamp with a soccer ball, decals for the walls with all kinds of balls!  BALLS!!! He loves his new room and sleeps in it just fine at bed time and nap time.  Sure he can get out if he wants, but usually just waits for me to come and get him.

Here he is the first night in his room.  He looks like an ant on a mountain in that big bed.  It is crazy to think that 13 years from now he will be so big that he will most likely be sleeping diagonally so his feet can hang off the bed.  I suppose I should take some pictures of the entire room so you can see the decor and whatnot. 

We are not quite finished with his room.  We have an older dresser that I need to paint, but for now we are using one of the dressers from the nursery...little lady won't mind...she won't need it for a while.

Well now that pretty much all of Zac's stuff has changed rooms, we now have another room that has hardly anything in it...the nursery...so lucky for Jer we get to paint that room too!  Yay for kids!

Here are some other pictures of Zac that we have taken recently

Spaghetti - You'd think with the mess he liked it, but he didn't even eat a bite...he hates pasta.

One of his favorite things to do is play in dad's car

Fell flat on his face and REALLY bit his lip

Loves to put on dad's shoes...it used to be my shoes, so we're glad he made the switch

Playing in his tunnel

This is my sweaty kid!  He plays so hard he gets sopping wet!

18 Months

Time needs to slow down a bit.  I am shocked that this kid has been around for more than 18 months already.

Here are some pictures from his 18 month photo shoot.

This kid is a crack up.  He is talking up a storm, most things you can't understand, but he is getting better at communicating what he wants.  He knows all kinds of animal noises and I guess yesterday started saying "Grandma" and just happened to be talking to Grandma H (obviously she was in heaven being called Grandma by her only grandchild).  His new favorite word is currently "No"....awesome..I don't really know if he means no every time he says it, but I decided I would let him figure it out.  If he tells me no, I will respect it, it he didn't really mean it, he will soon figure it out. Now we need to work on "Yes". 

He had a HUGE growth spurt over the last 6 months.  He has been in about the 50th percentile for height since he was born, but as of his 18 month check up he is now in the 92nd percentile for height (makes perfect sense to me...his pants did suddenly all get too small).  He is a hefty 28 lbs. (sturdy) and is 34.5 inches tall.

He is still an incredibly crappy eater.  He won't eat fruits or vegetables.  He will try them by opening his mouth putting the item slightly in his mouth (mind you the object doesn't touch anything in his mouth) will shake his head and hand it back to you.  Also, don't even think about trying to feed him something, if he can't eat it on his own, he doesn't want it.  He loves chicken, crescent rolls, crackers, waffles, and fruit snacks.  He also likes to "dip" things, because that's what mom and dad does.  He will dip most anything in ketchup and then suck off the ketchup for the first few dips and then eat it, including just his fingers (disgusting).  I guess if I need to start giving him veggies with ketchup he will at least be eating them right?

Zac has been working on teething still, which has been absolutely no fun for us.  Seems like every few weeks we get a molar coming in.  Currently we are working on the top 2 canines.  Ugh!   No likey.  Why do teeth need to come in slowly over a 2 year period.  I would prefer a couple weeks of pure hell and have them all come at once rather than drag it out over a 2 year period.

Well over the next few months we will need to start working in some changes.  1) the bottle and binki need to go.  He only gets them at bed and nap time, but it's time.  2) He is going to have to switch to a big boy bed and a new room.  I am not buying another crib and the room he is in is the smallest room in the house, perfect for a baby.  I think they will be hard transitions and it may be another couple of hard weeks until he gets used to it, but the little girl is coming so it's gotta happen.

So I have done several posts in the last few days...I think I am good for about a month now!  Yay!

Zac's Boo-boo and Ozzy's Surprise!

 
So it finally happened...face met pavement and the pavement won.  Frankly I am surprised it hasn't happened sooner considering this kid runs everywhere (including down our slanted driveway).  Last week was a crazy week, the sitter was sick so I was scrambling to take care of kiddo and work.  Thursday was just too busy so I sent Zac with a friend for the morning...and this is what I got back  He was fine, other than the scrapped up face...honestly I feel the worst for my poor friend that had to bring him back looking like this, I am sure she felt terrible (I jokingly let her know she broke my kid), but really how can you get mad when he did it just being Zac and it was bound to happen eventually.  I know I did much worse when I was a kid and my face healed just fine.

So when Zac wakes up he likes to see Ozzy and have him stand up against the crib and give him a kiss.  Well one afternoon Ozzy and I went in to get Zac from his nap.  Zac was pounding on the side of his crib to get Ozzy to stand up and I was encouraging Ozzy also to stand up.  It was very odd...Ozzy kept hesitating and wouldn't just stand up, so we both just kept calling him and tapping on the crib.  Then...next thing I know there is this flash of black and white in mid air next to me...Ozzy completely clears the crib railing and is in bed with Zac.

At first both Zac and I were a little shocked at what had just happened.  But when the shock wore off, we were both laughing and Zac was in heaven having Ozzy in the bed with him.  It was all fun and games until I realized that Ozzy was scared to jump back out.  There was no way I could lift him out (even not pregnant) so he was in there for a good 10-15 minutes while I tried to figure out what to do.  Jer wasn't going to be home from work for a while and I didn't want to leave Ozzy in there.  I ended up just tipping the crib over until Ozzy had to jump out.  Fun day.

Bragging Rights

 I think I have a very handsome family.  Sorry to brag.

Hey look...I am pregnant!  29 weeks...11 more to go!