Anna's first illness

I took Anna for her 6 month checkup last Wednesday.  She's 16 lbs 7 oz and 27 1/4 inches long -- she's already grown 8 inches since she was born!  Crazy.  She got all her shots, so I expected her to be fussy the next day.  We went to Moody Gardens Palm Beach Thursday, and Anna didn't last long so we weren't there more than a couple hours.  The fussiness continued through the weekend and by Sunday night she was not happy.  She woke up screaming, which she never does.  I called the doctor first thing Monday morning (she had a nasty green runny nose, watery eyes, fever, sneezing) and we went to the pediatrician, who said she's got a respiratory infection.  A little fluid in her left ear but it's not an ear infection, just very likely from all the runny nose and watery eyes she's got.  She is on Amoxycillin to get rid of the respiratory infection and to make sure it doesn't turn into a full fledged ear infection.  (A side note, by this age, Emily had already had 2 ear infections, so we're hoping that Anna doesn't have that same problem).  The doctor said to watch her watery eyes to make sure they don't start to crust and turn into pink eye.  She seems to be a little better today so hopefully she'll be 100 % soon.  Emily decided at the doctors office that she wanted to talk as loud as she could every time the doctor tried to tell me something, which was extremely frustrating.  The nurse finally had to come into the room and take Emily out so I could finish talking to the doctor about Anna.  Needless to say, it will be nice when we can get out of the house once she's feeling better.  Emily is going stir crazy!

Emily is doing very well with the potty training.  She has a few accidents but for the most part, she's embracing her potty.  All of our bribing doesn't hurt either.  It's nice to only have one in diapers.

Anna is sitting up (propped on her hands) and she's able to pull herself across the floor.  She'll be crawling soon.  She's now eating oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and bananas.  Next is avocado.

The girls really love each other.  Anna is getting into all of Emily's toys now, which is interesting.  Emily likes to play with her (most of the time).  Emily looks for Anna first thing in the morning and always has to make sure she knows where Anna is.  Lots of hugs and kisses.

We just finished a really nice visit with my brother and his family.  They look great and are so fun (and funny) to be around.  His kids are growing up so fast!  It seems like they just got married and that was already 14 years ago.

Next up for us is a family vacation to Florida.  This year we are going to Destin.  I've never been, but we are really looking forward to taking the girls and getting out of Texas for a week. 

promotion

Silly me, I forgot some very exciting news!  Jim's promotion is official.  He's now an Associate Professor with tenure.  So very exciting. :)  I'm very proud of him.  He truly works very hard and loves what he does.  I'm glad that the powers that be at MD Anderson agree.  Congratulations, hon!

Updates on the girls

This has been a very busy week for my 2 little ones.  First, we decided to potty train Emily last weekend.  We had no real plan, except that we had some cotton training pants.  She did not go on the potty Saturday (we started Saturday afernoon) or Sunday.  So Jim and I decided Sunday night to just wait a few months and start again around labor day.  Well, little miss Emily woke up Monday morning and decided she didn't want to wear diapers.  So, fast forward 7 days later, and she's potty trained (mostly).  She has not had a pee pee accident since Monday morning.  Poop is another story.  From what I understand, it's the hardest thing for them to get.  We're working on it.  But, Emily is not in diapers.  We put a pull up on her for naps and nighttime and that's it.  She's still in her crib, so she can't go to the potty while she's there.  We may get a big girl bed sooner that we'd plan if she starts waking up to potty.

Anna started solid foods today.  We waited (as we did with Emily) for her to be 6 months old.  I made her oatmeal this morning.  I have already made and frozen bananas and sweet potatoes, so those will be her next 2 foods.  She really liked the oatmeal!  She ate quite a bit more than I expected her to.  She's probably wondering what took us so long!

Everything is great here.  We enjoyed a visit with my brother and his family yesterday.  They are in town briefly (he's having Lasik done in MS so they came for the weekend).

Jim and I decided to extend our back patio.  It should be done in about 6 weeks.  I'll try to remember to post a picture once it's done.

Emily's Favorite Things

I saw this on a friend's blog, and thought it was a cute idea.

Emily's favorite things (as a two year old):

Color - Blue
Food - Beans, Mashed Potatoes
Snack - Cheerios with Raisins or Goldfish
Fruit - Blueberries and Watermelon
Veggie - Peas and Sweet Corn
Book - (this seems to change weekly) Itsy Bitsy Spider
Song - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (kinkle, kinkle, yittle, sar)
Toy - Anything with wheels -- she loves to load up her shopping card and push it around the house
TV Show - Sesame Street
Outside Activity - Gardening with Daddy, Swinging, Running through the sprinkler
Best Friend - Justin!

I'm waaaaaaay behind!

Seriously, I had NO idea that I hadn't blogged since last summer.  I know I'm busy and all, but wow.

Let's see....where to start?

The biggest change is that we now have another little girl, Anna.  She's the sweetest, cuddliest thing ever.  She was born December 7th and Emily just adores her.  Life with two is hectic, but wonderful.

Emily talks so much that sometimes I have to remind myself that she's 2.  At her 15 month checkup, she was saying a handful of words and it rapidly increased.  By 18 months she was talking up a storm, and ever since Christmas, so can put long sentences together.  Today when I was filling up the gas tank on the minivan, she told me the car was thirsty!  She's also started with pretend play.  At night when Daddy reads to her, she likes to pretend they are having dinner on the ottoman in her room. 

We had family over for her 2 year birthday and it was really nice.  She has so many toys it's unreal. She loves to read.  She's got at least 50 books in her room and she likes to read at night for at least 30 minutes before she goes to bed. She's still a really good sleeper and goes to bed around 8 and sleeps until 6:30 or 7. 

She's such an amazing big sister. She adores Anna, and vice versa. She likes to make sure Anna has her favorite toy and likes to gently pat her head.  It took her awhile to figure out "gently".

She still loves her swim lessons. We go on Saturdays now.  She gets excited when she sees me pulling out her swimsuit.  Jim watches Anna while Emily and I swim.  She also loves to be outside.  She helps Jim with the garden and now loves her sandbox and swing in the backyard.  Now that it's getting warm out, she also loves to play in the sprinkler.  It's so much fun to watch how much she enjoys everything.  She's still a really good eater -- likes chicken and most vegetables and (of course) fruit. Still loves milk and water.  Occassionally I give her fruit snacks and she thinks they are the best thing ever. We've had a lot of birthdays this spring, so she's developed quite the taste for cupcakes!  And Easter Candy!!!  She's definitely got my sweet tooth.

Anna will be 5 months old tomorrow.  She also is a great sleeper. At 10 1/2 weeks she started sleeping all night, and I feel like a new person!  She goes to bed between 6:30 and  7 and sleeps until around 7am.  It's wonderful.  We will start her on solid food when she is 6 months old.  She rolls over all the time and loves to sleep on her belly.  She started grabbing at things last week so now I'm wearing a lot more ponytails!  Ha!  She's just such a sweet baby.  We are really blessed to have 2 amazing little girls.

I've started couponing.   Not extremely, but still.  I try to get things that I have coupons for and watch the sales.  So far it's going well. Although it is disappointing that Kroger changed their double/triple policy. So, I do most of my shopping at HEB and Target.  Love those coupons!  The more I save on groceries, the more money we have to spend on fun stuff! 

Speaking of fun stuff, we are going to take the girls to Florida this summer with some good friends of ours.We can hardly wait.  Emily loves water and the beach there has nice blue water.  Jim is already counting the days! He needs a break!!  It will be really nice to get away for a week.

I'm doing the joggermom marathon.  Nothing crazy, but I have to run a marathon over the course of the month of May.  It's doable because I'm already exercising.  There are some awesome prizes so I'm hoping to score something good!

I'll try to become more regular about blogging.  Perhaps I should set some sort of reminder so I'm not trying to recap a whole year at a time. :)

Walking, Talking, .... screaming!

Let's see...our little munchkin is now 15 months old.  Lots of changes around here!

The biggest change, or soon to be change, is that Emily is going to be a big sister in December.  Jim and I are thrilled and so happy that the kids will be close in age.  Stay tuned to find out the gender  -- this little stubborn peanut doesn't want to show us boy/girl, so we'll have to wait until August and hopefully we'll find out then.  I treasure the relationship I have with my brother and we were very close growing up (we were 18 months apart) so it's always been my hope to have my kids close in age.

Emily is also walking all over the place.  She took her first steps last month when we were visiting Grandma & Grandpa Bankson in Midland.  She waited awhile before really taking off, but the last couple weeks she walks everywhere.  We know that running is right around the corner.  She likes to walk and carry as much as possible with her.  It's adorable.  Her favorite thing is when daddy gets home from work and they head upstairs to the game room, they race up the stairs and down the hall.  It's funny to hear them going. 

She will eat just about anything I give her.  She still loves fruit, so usually she gets that last so I can make sure she eats her meat & veggies.  She likes milk and water.  We do not give her juice.  Or sweets -- funny that the doctors office asks how much sweets they get.  They were happy when I said "none." 

She is learning new words every few days, it seems.  She says airplane (ahpay), doggie, tree, shoe, toes, ball, bottle, belly button (boobee), water (wa), thank you (ta-ooh), oh buddy, book, diaper (dido), and I'm sure there are a few I'm forgetting.  It's still amazing to me when she says a word for the first time without me prompting her. 

She's a little leery of strangers but warms up to people pretty quickly.  She loves loves loves her swim class.  We go every Tuesday.  She's getting really good at floating and holding on to the barbells.

I still go to Stroller Strides twice a week and now we go to the gym on the days we don't go to SS.  Emily likes the kids club and it gives me 30 minutes or so to run on the treadmill and stay in shape.  I was really good about walking when I was pregnant with Emily and I don't want this pregnancy to be any different.

Because I had gestational diabetes with E, the doctor wants to test me early this time.  I will go at 21 weeks and then if I pass, I will go again before 28 weeks.  Truthfully, it won't bother me if I get it again.  The diet is so healthy that it wasn't bad at all the first time around. 

Emily has show me the first of many temper tantrums.  I know I should ignore her but sometimes I want to laugh and then she laughs.  They don't last long, and thankfully they've mostly been at home.  I'm dreading the ones that happen when I'm at the grocery store or something.  She can really scream loud.

We are going to Dallas this weekend to visit the Rowlands.  We haven't seen them in over a year so we are really looking forward to this visit.  Sherry's baby shower is Sunday so we'll head home after that.  Then our next trip is Boston in August.  Jim and I are both looking forward to a relaxing vacation, so we're hoping to go somewhere in the spring after the baby is here.  Jim's leaning toward the beach, and I have to say that it sounds good to me, too.  I'm sure we'll end up going somewhere that is kid friendly and has a direct flight.

Not much else going on here these days.  Trying to stay warm in this awful heat!  We are all looking forward to the fall when it cools off.

Mommy's a slacker!

I feel awful that I haven't posted anything since Emily's birthday!  She turned one April 7th.  We had lots of family here, including Jim's parents, my parents, my brother and his family, my sister and her family and Aunt Raye.  Her party was a success, although she was overwhelmed by all the new people.  For some reason, I can't upload any pictures.  Hmmpf. 
We had her party the weekend before her birthday, and although the bakery didn't follow my directions and all for her cake, it was still good.  Emily did not care for the cake.   At all.  On her actual birthday, Jim took the day off and we went to the zoo.  It was a gorgeous morning and we had fun seeing the animals and riding the train.

Emily is not walking yet.  She does stand on her own for a few seconds, so hopefully the walking will come soon.  She is 14 months old already and time is flying!!

Things she loves to do:  climb on the furniture, ride her rocking horse, reading and being read to, stacking things, playing in the tupperware, cruising the furniture, dancing and going up and down the stairs.  She also loves to be outside and will point at the door when we say "outside".  Jim takes her out as soon as he gets home from work and I think she's stay out there all time time, even with the heat and mosquitos.  After all, her swingset it out there.  She is really enjoying her swim lessons and knows how to hold her breath underwater.  She is learning to float and loves to go to the pool.

Words:  daddy, bye-bye, uh-oh, ball, and very rarely: mommy.  :) 

Foods she loves:  vegetables, bananas, grilled cheese, pb&j, beans (refried and black), baked apples, any type of berry, oranges.  She is still getting used to meat but we are working on it.  She pretty much eats whatever we are eating.  I'm not going to let myself be a mom that makes a separate meal for each of my kids!

She is very good about riding in the car and loves to go places.  I still do Stroller Strides twice a week.  We also have swim lessons on Tuesdays and usually that leaves Thursday to have playdates with our friends.  She really likes Justin and Austin, although we do not see Austin as much as we would like to.  Sadly, his daddy passed away and they are very busy taking care of things.  We really do enjoy it when we do see them. 

We have 3 trips coming up.  We are going to Midland next weekend for Jim's 20th high school reunion, but really for a visit with Grandpa & Grandma Bankson.  We will be there 4 days.  In July, we are going to Dallas for a weekend for Sherry's baby shower.  She is due September 2nd.  Lastly, Uncle Mike is getting married to Amy (yay!!) so we are going to Boston for a week in August for their weekend.  We are really looking forward to it.  Jim teaches again this fall, so after Boston I don't think we will be going anywhere until the spring.  Although, we'd like to sneak in a trip to the hill country when it cools off.  We'll see.

I'm sure I'm leaving all kinds of things out.  I'll really try to post again soon!