Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!! We had a great Thanksgiving day. We hung out at my mom and dad's house with Jason, Tabatha, and Jaxson. We spent the whole day watching the kids play, it was a lot of fun. Jaxson is really getting around and he is so full of smiles. Madi had fun playing with Daisy and when Evan was awake, he was taking it all in. It will be fun to see all three kids together this summer when they are all mobile!!

Chris spent all day Thursday planning our Black Friday shopping trip. We have really enjoyed doing this every year and last year was fun because just the two of us went out together. But it seems it is becoming a hassle with two little kids. It is too early and too crazy to bring them with us. So, Thursday night I was debating on whether I wanted to go at all and we ended up talking ourselves out of going. At least the 4 and 5 am time. There really wasn't anything that we had to have or that we would be bummed if we got there at 8 and they were sold out. So, I decided to stay home this year and Chris went out at 9:00. He didn't get much so we really haven't started our Christmas shopping yet.

The rest of our weekend has been spent getting everything together and loaded for Deer Camp this week. Chris had my van loaded, the back seat of his truck loaded and the bed of the truck full. We had talked earlier in the week and decided to let Madi stay Sunday night out there. All the guys aren't out yet, no hunting until Wednesday. She could hang out and do fun stuff with Daddy. But Thursday night she came down with a cold. She was running a temp Friday night. We went ahead and packed everything for her. But once she was out there, all she wanted to do was run around in the cold air and it made her cold even worse. She was really coughing bad and her nose was running like crazy. We decided she needed to come home instead of chancing it becoming worse. She wasn't very happy at first but she got over it pretty quickly. She has been pestering me all day though to go out and see daddy. We are going to go back out Thursday night and take supper and then we will go back out on Sunday to help tear down and load everything up. Chris got four tags so next Monday we will be busy butchering meat. Which is good, we are almost out of burger in the freezer. Evan didn't make it out to deer camp Sunday. It was supposed to be so cold. And there is a big difference between Madi's first year out there at 6 months and Evan at 2 1/2 months. We will see about the weather Thursday and Sunday if he will make it out then or not.

Here's some pics of Madi at Deer Camp. With her supposed to be staying out there, I went out to find some warm outer wear clothes. Found some camo for her at Ace and snow boots at Kmart. She looked so cute in her hunting clothes.





And a couple of pictures of Evan.



Big grins!! He is such a happy guy after he wakes up. He is really starting to make a lot of noise and "talking" to us. It is very cute. Especially when he throws in a squeal. He also loves looking in a mirror. He played for the longest time on the floor this morning just looking at himself in the mirror.


My cutie bug!!

Have a great week!

Love, Amy

8 Weeks

Evan is 8 weeks old today and we had his 2 month checkup this morning. He is growing like a weed!! I was so surprised when they weighed him. He is now at 10 lbs 14 oz. (39%) and 22 inches long (23%). He is on track developmentally. We need to do more tummy time and get those neck muscles strengthened. He does really well when he is sitting and on our shoulders holding his head up, but once on his tummy, his legs and rear end get all the lift. It's quite funny to watch. Tuesday when he was on his tummy, he was actually pushing himself around the blanket with his feet.

The doctor wants us to try Zantac for a week and see if that doesn't help his fussiness. She said we should see a difference within the first week if that truly is the problem. A lot of what she was describing in reflux babies, sounds a lot like Evan. I didn't really think of acid reflux before because he doesn't spit up but she said it is not uncommon for acid reflux to occur without the spitting up. And hopefully this will help with him wanting to sleep on his tummy and getting him switched back to his back.

Otherwise, everything is going well with Evan. He has been giving us a bunch of smiles lately and is becoming more aware of his surroundings. He is staying up for longer periods during the day. His favorite thing right now is the fan. Unfortunately, the fan is getting more smiles than anyone else :( He likes to watch it sitting still but also loves to see it spinning and he tracks it very well when it is moving. I just wish my electrician husband could rig the fan up to turn slower when it is on. We are constantly reaching up and just spinning it ourselves, but it doesn't stay spinning long enough to get much done in between. He also loves his mobile on his bed and he likes looking at the bumpers on his bed. He isn't very interested in his floor gym or the toys on the bouncy seat.

I don't know if his wanting to be held and close to someone is any indication of his personality at this point. But it seems like he is going to be my cuddly one. He prefers to be held and close so he can study our faces. And Madi was more of my independent baby. She would be content to play on the floor or in her bouncy seat while I did stuff around the house. She is still very independent, not the cuddly type unless she is sad or not feeling well. We will see!

Madi's favorite toy right now is Evan!! She can't keep her hands off of him, and kisses, kisses. She amazes me more and more everyday. I am so thrilled with what she is doing and learning at school. Last night we were playing in the shed and she says "Mom, you have to put your right hand over your heart like this and say Pledge of Allegiance" and then she said the whole thing by herself!!! Totally blown away, I didn't even know they were doing that in school. And she is constantly singing new songs that she is learning. And she is writing her name so well. I am very, very happy. She is really thriving.

We've had a couple things done around the house the last couple of weeks. We finally got the door on the safe room on and done. Now it is truly a safe room/storm shelter. We also had the roof put on over the back deck. Chris is totally in love with it!! He keeps saying my wife is so excited to have this. But he is the one that can't get enough of it. It is nice and will be great this summer to lessen the amount of sun beating down and coming in the back windows. Plus the big bonus is keeping the rain off the back door, which has been our big leaking spot for some reason. Chris also installed a wood burning stove (the kind made out of two metal barrels) out in the shed. He is been out every night this week to start a fire. I asked him the other night why he keeps going out and starting fires, he can only be out for about an hour before supper is done and bath time, etc., he says he just likes to start a fire. Of course he gets it installed on the nicest week of fall so far. It's almost too warm to even start a fire!

We are headed to Beloit this weekend to get family pictures. I'm so excited!! Have a great weekend, it's supposed to be a nice one!

Love, Amy

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween with the kids this year. Madi was a witch. Decked out in purple and black. I didn't do a costume for Evan. He was too little to wear the pumpkin outfit I made for Madi for her first Halloween and knowing he was going to be in his car seat and fast in and outs at friends and family, I didn't want to mess with a bulky outfit so he just wore a festive onesie. He was still a cutie!!


This is the first year we carved pumpkins. I was planning on skipping it even this year but when we got our pumpkins she started talking about making them into jack-o-lanterns. They must have talked about jack-o-lanterns at school because we have never talked about pumpkins like that before. So, since she knew about carving pumpkins, we kind of had to do it. We ended up doing all the work anyways. She doesn't like to touch things that she isn't sure about. And she wasn't having anything to do with that yucky slimy stuff in the pumpkin. She would touch the seeds but she would not touch the inside of that pumpkin or the stuff pulled out of it. But she had fun drawing faces on the pumpkins and then we cut them out. They turned out cute and fun and she loved lighting them and looking at them glow.




Madi's pumpkin




Love the smiles!!

Mr. Serious. He was working on a good poop at the time!!

My pretty witch!

We trick or treated mostly at our families homes. We hit about 6 different places and then we usually end our evening at my parents where Madi loves to help hand out candy. In past years they didn't have too many kids once we got there, but this year, they were busy. Madi had a blast and the door bell was non stop. She was trying to play with Nana but they didn't get much playing done, she spent most of the time running back and forth to the door. At least it wore her out some! We were going to go door to door on their block (we haven't done that yet) but she was content enough to just hand out. Maybe next year.

Thursday, she got to wear her costume to school. They did a parade and then put on a little program. It was so cute. They sang songs with actions and it was so much fun watching a bunch of 3 year olds all trying to keep up. But everyone was on their own part of the song, very cute!! After their program, all the parents and grandparents left and the kids had their party.

Evan is 7 weeks old. He is doing well. He is very fussy right now. I guess some babies go through this between 6 and 12 weeks. I didn't experience this with Madi (at least I don't remember her going through this). So it feels like I am learning everything again. At times I feel like I have no clue what I am doing (again). And I am so afraid that I am doing everything wrong that I know Chris thinks I am a total nut case right now. I probably am, but I am blaming it on sleep deprivation. He is sleeping better at night. He drinks his bottle and goes right back to sleep. But the little stinker won't sleep on his back, only his tummy. Which these days is an absolute no no. All babies should be on their back, no matter what. Sleeping on their tummies increases the risk of SIDS, etc, etc. So, I am breaking all the rules and letting him sleep on his tummy. Makes me very nervous to leave him like this. I am constantly in checking to make sure he is still breathing. I have even tried going in a half hour later and rolling him to his back. But as soon as he is on his back, even after being asleep for awhile, his little arms get to waving and he wakes himself up. I'm doing the best I can right now. And for both of our sakes and for Madi, at least I am getting some good rest at night. It is only two to three hours at a time but I haven't been as exhausted as I was before when I was sleeping in the chair holding him all night.

Another 4 day blog post!! Will be back tomorrow with updates from Evan's doctor appointment.

Love, Amy