6 months already...

9/16/09

Good Morning Baby!

That's what Parker and I like to say to you when you wake up, no matter what time of day it is. You still like to sleep alot, and from birth-5 months you were incredible at it! Some night you would do a 10 hour stretch! Awesome. But mostly you would average 6-8 hours and then continue sleeping waking up every 3 or so to eat. This past month you haven't done so well. We'll blame that on the Thrush. Now that we have that cleared up, you are getting better at the night sleeping again. Mostly doing 5 hour stretches.

You have been such a big, strong healthy boy since we got you out of the hospital. For a premie, you have done awesome. You're only real problem has been the thrush, and you did pretty well. Once we figured it out and turned your mouth purple, it only took a couple days and you bounced right back! Such a good little boy.

I measured you on your 6 month mark and you weighed 21.2 lbs! I typed in your measurements and it showed you in the 95th percentile, which translates that you are bigger than 95% of kids your age! Crazy. You aren't really a fatty, even though we call you that. I hope we don't give you a complex, we just think its fun to have a BIG kid! You are just stalky and cute. I have you dressed in Parker's clothes that he wore when he was a year old. Most of the knees are worn on the pants because he was crawling and learning to walk. Good thing you will be in a bigger size when you crawl because otherwise there would probably be holes. On a side note, Parker has hit a little growth spurt trying to stay ahead. He is now around 26 pounds, and he is getting pretty tall. Hopefully you won't catch up too soon, it might make him mad! You already fit into his diapers (size 4) but I am still trying to squeeze you into 3's cause there are so many left. It will sure make the diaper bag easier though.

You still have all your long "white" hair. I haven't cut it cause it just is so funny on you. You're definitly a blondie. Fair skin and big blue eyes. You look tired and out of it all the time, but I think it is mostly because your eyelashes are white also. You are just dopey and we love you for it!

You are developing just like all the other babies, rolling around after toys (that's when you get a chance to be on the floor without have your brother on top of you) learning to sit up, and now eating baby foods! I felt really bad when I finally realized that alot of your grumpiness at night had something to do with you being extra hungry! Parker never ate alot of solids, but you are a big guy and you need your food! So far you love everything: Green beans were first cause we had them leftover for big bro (I think you only liked them cause it was the first real flavor), Applesauce is a winner, Bananas, Carrots, sweet potatoes, and your favorite is definitely Peaches!

There will be plenty more to try, I promise. It is just funny to watch you get all excited and worked up when someone is eating. You really do think you are big.

I have been better at bathing you more regularly lately. Sorry I am so neglectful when it comes to your baths. But before you were eating solids...you really didn't get that dirty. I was doing it at least once a week before, and now it is more like 2-3, I'm sure your Grammy will be happy when she reads this, cause she says you stink. That's the only complaint I've had. Plus it was a Dr. order because of you sensitive skin to bathe you will special soap and it wasn't necessary everyday. Now that you are sitting up, I might get brave and put you in the big bath, and maybe even let you play in there with Parker. Just maybe though. He can be kinda rough!

Oh my goodness how you love your brother. I haven't ever seen anything like it. You smile every time he comes around. Even if he is being mean, you still think he is hilarious. Daddy says you have the biggest smile he's ever seen on a baby. Your whole body convulses when you smile...and it is even more when it's because of Parker. I can tell you guys are going to be really close. If we can just keep you two from fighting, I bet you'll be great buddies. I'm sure you guys are already plotting how to get into trouble and make me worry! Boys are boys I guess.

You were blessed on the 24th of July by your dad at the Henderson's house. It was so fun because both sets of your grandparents and dad's grandma got to be there. We thought you were going to have to be blessed when no one was here, but it worked out perfect on a very special day! You were too big for Parker's blessing outfit so I had Grammy bring you a new one. You were too big for that one too! You were busting out the back and so we couldn't button it up all the way! It was so funny. I was a special day I will never forget!

Every time I see the little scar on your chest it makes me so sad inside. Those first few days of your life were probably the worst in both of our lives! I can't believe how tough you are! You have been through alot in life, and even though it was a rough start, I know you are a special boy and the Lord sent you here to us for a reason. I have already learned so much from you. Having one baby I thought I knew it all and that you would be just like him. I couldn't have been more wrong. You are your own little person, and you have so much to give. You are such a joy to be around. So content, and seriously so special. I know I sound kinda cheesy, but I am your mother so I am allowed to say it. So from now on, when I see the little scar I will try and be grateful. Grateful that you made it, and that you have brought so much love and happiness to our family.

When I found out I was pregnant with you I was so happy, but I was also really worried. I loved Parker so much, more than I could ever explain. I was so worried that I wouldn't know how to love another child. Not with my whole heart, since I was already giving it all your brother. Everyone said that is would just happen. And I do love you Eli. I love you just as much as I love your brother. I'm not really sure how, I just do.

I'm looking forward to the next 6 months. Keep growing big and strong. I love you dopey boy!

Love,

Mommy

Invaded

I was doing so good at keeping up on my blogging and then I got stuck using our older laptop and it isn't as fast, so I got frustrated! Plus I have pictures to post and Brian kept taking the camera! It's all his fault. All of it. It always is. Anyway our home has been invaded by voles again. I hope it is just one, but really.....when is there ever just ONE???
So I have been having these nightmares for a couple of weeks about these little critters, and I keep hearing things and freaking myself out. Brian thought I was crazy until one morning we were asleep and I woke up from a nightmare to a chewing sound. Right at the head of our bed in the old hole where the voles were last year! I knew we should have filled them in! Freaky! Seriously freaky! Anyway at least it was right there where Brian could hear so that he knew I wasn't making things up.
Now I have been hearing chewing behind a cardboard box that I am using as an end table in the corner of my living room. It isn't even scared of my voice. It only stops if I shake the box or move the couch. And of course it never does it when Brian is around! We have baseboard heaters and I can hear it inside there running....it's little claws clinking on the metal. Ew.
Today I went to the hardware store and bought some more traps so that Brian will set them tonight. I keep nagging him, but tonight is the night or I am calling the exterminator. Seriously, this is disgusting. Who knows where they are running or what they are eating when I am not around!
A couple of hours ago I heard on under the kitchen sink! What the crap?? I have no idea how it got under there....and I guess I don't really want to know. But one good thing is that there isn't any food under there, but there is some old rat poison that spilled earlier this summer. I really hope it was nibbling on that.
EW! I am so freaked out. I hope that who ever is reading this doesn't think that I have a filthy house, because I really do keep up on the housework and I am not a dirty person. I might not be spotless because I have two babies.....but I don't blame any of this on being unclean. I truly believe they came from outside because it got cold, and we were the lucky hosts.
Not for long cause Brian is an excellent trapper, and once he gets his trap line set, inside and out....those things are toast!
I have some pictures to post of our store, and when I get some free time I will update. Also I wrote a post for Eli on his 6 month, but I never got it off the paper into the computer. I wanted to post some recent pics with it, so that is coming soon also.
Do you ever find yourself in situations and before dealing with them, you start writing them out in your mind for your blog? Is this normal. I don't usually end up posting, but almost everyday I am like living my life through my blog. Weird. Lucky for everyone I don't post as much as I really think about.
Anyway I just thought of another thing....I am going to take a picture of the voles when we catch them so you can all see what I have been living with! FREAKY!!!!

Parker's Birthday Party

On August 31st Parker turned 2! Well, I guess you guys already knew that. But I haven't been able to post the pictures yet, so here are a few:

Parker eating his "bacon" pizza and Daddy!

Mommy and Eli joining in on he fun!

Parker's first real birthday cake

Mommy's first time making one!

So excited to open gifts!

He's got the Grandpa toungue goin on

New choo choo!

Big boy undies (over the diaper) He isn't ready yet, but we are prepared and now we are talking about it more. I'm sure he'll let us know when it is time!

So it was a fun evening and Parer got a trainset, underwear, a potty seat, and a book! We got the trains and book at yard sales this summer and spent more on the wrapping paper than the presents! We used Grandma Bonnie's money for the potty training stuff. Thanks everyone for the birthday money! The rest is going in the bank!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Hope you had fun!

Purple Cow

"I never saw a purple cow.


I never hope to see one.

But I can tell you, anyhow,

I'd rather see than be one!"
 
 
I haven't heard this nursery rhyme since I was a child, but suddenly it came to mind when I saw this:
 
 

Eli has found the purple cow. Hope this thrush goes away soon. My little Eli is turning violet. Parker keeps trying to wipe all the purple off of Eli with a towel, "Oh no! Baby's Mess!" He doesn't understand that it is stained that way. Atleast for a few days. I have been putting it on twice a day to see if it helps anything. So far I think it is helping a little. Poor Eli. Everyone stares at him when we go out in public.
 
What really stinks is that I am not supposed to eat any dairy or sugar. What the crap? How am I supposed to give up my milk? It's going to be a long two weeks. Maybe I'll loose some weight. That is if I can actually do it. I decided to go to Subway since I need to eat alot of veggies. Too bad I forgot why I was going there and got cheese on my sandwich and ordered a cookie for Brian, Parker and me. Why would I order myself a cookie when I am not supposed to have an sweets? Then I got and orange drink and drank that too. Hello! Full of sugar. This isn't going to work. I can already tell. By the time I got home and ate my sandwich I remember that I shouldn't eat the cookie. But I did it anyway. Then when Parker went to sleep I ate his too. What kind of a mother am I? No self control what so ever. You might think that I was doing my child a favor by eating the cookie for him, saving him from the sweets but then I would tell you that I let him eat the bag of cheetos for lunch. That's it. He didn't want any sandwich and I wasn't going to fight with him. I think I need to take a parenting class. And a self control or addiction class. I think that the moment someone says I can't have it is when I want it most. I hope I can do better tomorrow. 
 
So Parker thinks that all meat is either "ibou" (caribou) or bacon. It was so funny, on his birthday we had a pizza that had some ham on it. Parker went over to the counter and pulled off a piece of the ham and came to show it to me. He said, "I did it! I got it, bacon. MMMM, It's a bacon!" At first I was thinking, where did you get the bacon? Then I just thought that Brian had given him a piece. But Brian said he didn't. I went and looked at the pizza and you couldn't even tell that the piece was missing. He is so funny. Now if we want him to eat some meat we just tell him its bacon and try and convince him to eat it. That's how it was with the sandwich today. I gave him some and told him to eat the bacon and the toast. He took a bite and spit it out, "It's yucky bacon, EW! YUCK!" What a brat! I can't believe he won't eat Subway.
 
 

Sunday #2

So today was the second Sunday without Brian and we made it! We made it both weeks to church on time and we made it home in one piece. Although Brian has been gone since this morning and is still at church, up until about 30 seconds ago both of my children were napping. The phone rang. But it was for a good cause and I'll explain in a minute. Anyways last Sunday sacrament was the worst meeting of my life. Both kids were freaking out and screaming. They are always loud, but this was bad. I don't even want to remember it. This week was so much better. Parker is learning to whisper, and even if we have to remind hi 500 times, it is getting better and I hope one day soon he will get it!
I had to dig out the train tracks again this morning. I think Parker just likes seeing me down on the floor struggling. That and he really likes to get out the "Poons" (spoons)!
So it's labor day weekend and of course one of my kids has to get sick. They always do when it is a long weekend. I thought Eli was just teething cause he hasn't been feeling great and he's about at that point in his life. But on Friday night I had the thought that it might not be teeth and it was probably thrush. I only know about this because I once thought Parker had it and looked it up. I hoped that I was just being parinoid and that it wasn't that this time either. But it is. I found a friend at the grocery store and she is a midwife and confirmed it. Poor guy. It is Sunday afternoon and the only two stores open this weekend don't carry what we need. Our doctor is on a scout camping trip and I have been trying to wait until Tuesday to get something for the poor kid. I am so glad I have such good friends. I am so blessed.
When the phone rang a few minutes ago it was Teri, the nicest woman in the whole world who puts up with us and lets us sit with her in sacrament...amoung so many other things she does for us! Anyways she works at the pharmacy here in town and it isn't open until tuesday but she called someone with keys to go let her in to get the stuff for us...on sunday even! Wow. Awesome! Let's all just pray the stuff works.
I'm going to be making some more raspberry jam today. Cooked this time. I am excited. But now that the kids are awake I think I'll wait until Brian gets home so he can distract them.
I also found out that I get to teach an Art class a couple times a month to a bunch of my friends that are homeschooled! We spend Fridays at the Henderson's with several other families doing school and activities. Parker gets to be in "sunshine school" with his little buddies. I'm not planning to homeschool my children, but it is fun to participate and see the other perspective of things. We are also doing an adult Constituition class at 3 on those Fridays and it should be pretty interesting. I always love to learn. If anyone has any ideas for some fun Art projects for kids from ages 7-15...let me know!
Better go, but I am planning to post pictures soon so check back this week.
Nikiesha

Underground railroad

Most of you know that Parker got his first train set for his birthday a couple of days ago (pictures coming soon). I gathered up a couple of sets from yard sales this summer and ended up spending more on the wrapping paper than on the actual gifts. Awesome I know. Anyway Parker has really had a blast with the trains and he has pretty much been entertaining himself while I get things done around the house. Yesterday I gathered up all the tracks and stacked them up nice to see if I could get them to fit into one of the rubbermade buckets that one set came in. Of course I fit almost everything in and the lid wouldn't shut. It seems like this is always happening to me with those organizers. Parker ended up dumping out all the pieces again and so I just let him play and thought I would just clean them up after he went to bed. I had to go to the store anyway yesterday and so I figurered I would use some more of the birthday money that Parker got to buy a bigger bucket for them so that all the pieces could stay together. I thought it was a pretty good plan. Brian and Parker stayed home and played with the trains and Eli and I went to the store and got a few groceries and a new bucket.

After Parker went to bed I of course cleaned the whole house and put the train set into the new bucket. After I closed the lid I peeked through the side and thought it looked a little empty. Was it really that close in the smaller size? This was the next size up and it looked half empty. I thought it must have just been my eyes playing tricks or something.

Today I put Eli down for a nap around noon and I was looking forward to a little snooze myself as soon as I could get Parker down. He kept asking me to fix his trains and so I decided to sit down and play with him for a while. I glued his bridge to another piece so it actually works now and then I made a pretty sweet track for him. After playing for a minute I realized that the track didn't really seem that big and we didn't have any leftover pieces. I asked Parker to go find all the pieces and he kept bringing me other toys and saying "HERE IT IS!" He was a little confused I guess.

So I called Brian and asked if he knew where the bumpy track poeces were and he told me they were missing last night. As soon as he said that I spotted the liitle half circles  under my 1 thousand pound TV stand and remembered that Parker was driving his little car under there yesterday and saying "Oh no! It's stuck!" I managed to wiggle a couple fingers under there to get it out for him, but was annoyed that he kept doing it so I took it away.

After I got off the phone I wiggled my fingers under there again and sure enough I felt something. It took me a couple minutes, but out came a little wooden track. It wasn't the piece I was looking for though so I knew there had to be more under there! I couldn't believe it! That little stinker. Brian already told me when I bought the TV stand that he was never moving it again because it weighed so much. It is impossible to move without 2 men. I know there is no way that Brian is going to lift it up for us to get some toys out. He will just tell us they are lost forever.

I was trying to tell Parker not to put anything else under there and he was trying to tell me that it was a "MiMi Hole" which translates to Bunny Hole. Man that kid has a good imagination. I was laying on the floor for about and hour trying to fish those darn things out. I tried using tongs, but they wouldn't fit under there. Then I tried using a long slotted spoon but Parker freaked out cause it was "Patches' Spoon". So I gave that one to him and duct taped 2 long while spoons end to end to try and reach to the back. It must have seemes so hilarious to him cause he kept laughing and saying "funny!". I don't know which part though, the part where he was watching his mom roll around on the floor trying to see through a bunny hole, or the part where he got to build his own underground railroad system. Probably both.

I had to just keep stopping to laugh too because I was about the scream. It was so frustrating. My hand couldn't even fit under there, my face was too fat to see in the hole, the only flashlight I could find was running low on batteries, and Parker kept climbing all over me trying to "help mammy, help". He kept trying to switch me spoons too. He thought the white thing was pretty sweet. "PATCHES TURN!" He kept crying cause I wouldn't switch.
Finally I got all of them out but one. I think. I hope. It is in the very back corner and I just can't seem to get it. I probably pulled atleast 15 pieces out of there, but it still seems like some are missing. I wonder where else he has hidden them...

So Parker's down for a nap now, but Eli is awake. I guess there is always hope for a better nap time tomorrow. I just want to know when he was able to do all that without me noticing.

Question: Where did the spell check and video upload go? I hate trying to figure out this blogging thing!

I was hoping someone would ask...

Thanks Kim, I reallly did want to post the pictures but I wasn't sure if anyone would want to see them! I laugh everytime!

I'm sure that it got alot worse one Brian tried taking his cloths off. I can't remember if I wrote that he was sitting in his high chair eating breakfast while he did this. He always poos in his high chair.

Pretty Sick, I know.