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. :)