Pages

Thursday, September 27, 2012

2 months

My, my how time flies. I can't believe my little lady is already 2 months old!!

Tessa, at 2 months old, you are:

*in size 1 diapers

*24 inches long! We're gonna have the same problem with you that we did with your brother! All your pants are too short and your legs are skinny, so they swallow your legs too :) After I took this picture, I thought you looked soooooo long!



*12.8 lbs. And you have worked for every single ounce of that 12 pounds! You work so hard when you eat :) Lots of grunting and drooling involved!

*speaking of eating, you eat 4-6 ounces every 2-3 hours. Some days, it feels like you eat CONSTANTLY! But you really don't. Feeding you can be quite the process at times. You seem to have some kind of reflux, so you do a lot of gulping and leaking out of your mouth. We'll take the bottle out to give you a break because you stop sucking, but then you FREAK OUT and want to start eating again immediately!

*in size 0-3 and 3 month outfits. You can wear a few newborn pants, but your onesies are too short. Some of the 3 month stuff is too big, but we make it work! I can't wait until you get a little bigger because you have some KILLER 3-6 month outfits :)

*SUCH a good sleeper!! Mommy loves it! You usually fall asleep between 9-10pm and sleep until 5 or 6am, eat a bottle and fall back asleep until 8am or so. But at least 2-3 nights a week, you sleep all the way through the night! Those nights are awesome!

*talking up a storm! You get this look on your face and then your little mouth starts moving and then about 15 seconds later, you finally push a sound out. It's hilarious to watch. But you'll just look at us and coo and talk and make all kinds of noises!

*such a smiley girl!! Especially right after you wake up (you must take after daddy, because mom and Tommy NEVER wake up smiling!). We'll get close to your face and talk to you and you just get the biggest grin!

*have had your 1st set of shots. You did great! You were asleep before you got them. That made me sad to wake you up from your peaceful sleep to get poked :(


Your bubby kept patting you and saying, "Dess!! Sis!" He had just gotten a shot and I think he knew what was coming for you.

This was miss Tessa AFTER her shots. I had a bottle ready and immediately fed her after her shots. But she cried SO much harder than Tommy did when he got his first shots. Her little face was bright red and she. Was. MAD. But luckily, it only lasted about 30 seconds. The bottle cheered her up :)

*trying tummy time. All you do is lick the blanket you're on, so I'm not sure it's effective yet, but we'll get there!

*much happier when you're sitting up. You don't really like laying down flat. You tolerate it for awhile, but then you get fussy and nothing helps except propping you up on the couch or your boppy!


*SOOOO in love with your brother. You just watch him all the time! You look at him and then start smiling and cooing. It's too cute!

Tessa, I have to be honest and say that I was worried before you were born that I wouldn't be able to love you as much as I loved Tommy or that I wouldn't be able to give you the time you needed because of your brother. But my heart has stretched to love you both more than I ever thought possible. You have made what I thought was an already perfect family even better. You make all of us smile and your sweet personality is the perfect compliment to your brother's attitude :) I love you so much. You are an amazing gift from God and I can't wait to watch you grow!! We love you, sissy!!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

He knows the way........


This little guy...........
knows the way to his momma's heart.

Last night, it was about 10:15pm and this kid was still up and going strong. And I was exhausted and SO ready for bed. My mom had come over for the night and was leaving, so I put Tommy in his bed and told him I'd be back to check on him in a few minutes. He whined a little while I was telling my mom bye and then got up a few times. I was starting to get frustrated. He kept asking for a gookger (cracker), so I gave him two, let him eat them and then took him back to his bed to lay down. I went back to my room and Tessa was wide awake, but being quiet, so I turned on her magical sea horse (because it always does the trick of getting her to sleep) and layed down in bed. Juuuuuust as my eyes were closing, the thunder started. And Tommy started fussing. I could tell he was kind of scared, so out of sheer tiredness, I risked all the hardwork I'd done the past few weeks getting him to fall asleep in his own bed and yelled for him to come to my room.

And that did me in. I could hear him hurridly climbing out of bed (I'm sure, thinkin, "I've got to go before she changes her mind!") and his little feet pitter-pattering to my room. He ran to the bed and reached his arms up for me to get him and I. Was. DONE. Completely melted into a big, puddly ball of mommy love. I pulled him up into bed and he cuddled right up next to me. I had my arm around him, but moved it to get a little more comfortable and even though his eyes were closed and he was drifting to sleep, his chubby little arm starting flailing around in the dark until he found my hand and pulled my arm back over him.

And that moment took me back to this moment..........

........when my guy was a little tiny boy who slept on my chest for hours instead of a wriggly almost-2-year-old who doesn't let me hold him or love on him anymore. I miss that little boy. I love, LOVE cuddling my kids so it's hard now that he doesn't want to anymore. But I SO needed that moment, falling asleep with him in my arms while it was storming outside. It was perfect and peaceful and lovely. And we slept like that until I woke up at 4am because of the storm. I MADE myself put him back in his bed so he wouldn't wake up when Tessa started crying for her bottle (which never ended up happening because she slept through the night until 7:45am!!).

But I'm so grateful for those moments that I start out dreading, but end up caving in because they usually turn out to be sweet memories. I love you, baby big boy!

Saturday, September 22, 2012

20 months

20 months..........I can't believe it. It honestly seems like from 19 months to 20 months has been the biggest transformation I've seen yet. You seem to have gone from a little boy to a full blown toddler.

Tommy, at 20 months, you are:

*weighing in at 27lbs. Hasn't changed much in the last 5-6 months! You're too active to gain any weight!

*wearing a size 5 diaper still. Fingers crossed for potty training to start soon!

*in a size 7 shoe.

*34 inches tall. My tall, skinny boy!

*still a picky eater! You hardly eat meat still but have started eating a FEW more fruits. Not much, but you ate an entire apple one day and an entire banana the next! Mom thinks that's a HUGE deal!!

*biting things........a lot. It drives us  nuts! Not people so much, but when you're mad, you grab the nearest toy, sheet, ANYTHING you can get your hands on and bite it. It's kind of funny, but super frustrating too because biting is NOT NICE!!! :)

*talking up a storm. I think that's maybe why you seem so grown up now. I was kind of worried because you weren't talking much, but in the last month, your vocabulary has doubled. You consistanly say dog, mom, dad,Tess, sissy, up, more (moooowah), cookie (gookgook!), cracker (gookgaw--not to be confused with gookgook), juice (doooosh---not to be confused with douche;), down, on (on-nuh!), door (dooowah), football (booball) and quite a few more that I can't think of right now. You've also repeated a lot more than you used to. And you actually said your first sentence! You said, "Me do it!" and "What dat?". You only said them once, but you said them!

*SOOO busy. You never stop moving. But you're so much fun!

*becoming more independent. You love to do things by yourself and don't like for us to help! How appropriate that your first sentence was "Me do it."

*able to let us know what you want SO much better. Even though you can't SAY everything you know, you can shake your head yes or no if we ask you a question and you point to things you want. It makes life a little easier!

*going to sleep all by yourself in your own bed! I'm so proud of you!! I never thought we'd get to that point, but we're FINALLY there!! It makes bed time easier for everyone!

*the BEST big brother. I've been afraid you're going to get tired of Tessa, but you still love on her every day! You always want to hold her hand and kiss on her. When she cries, you say, "Uh-oh Tess1 Uh-oh! Bah-bah!" and you run to go get her bottle.
*so sweet for the most part, but are SUPER grumpy after waking up. Almost every morning and pretty much after every nap, you wake up crying and crying. I hate it because it makes everyone a little grumpy until you finally get over whatever you're mad about!

*super emotional lately. You get really upset when you get in trouble. Even if we nicely correct you, you run off crying and hide in a corner until you're over it. I don't know how to work with you on that, but I hope you stop doing that soon! It's sad and frustrating.

*so funny! You do the cutest things. Yesterday, we went to the tennis courst so mom and dad could attempt to play and we told you that you could take some toys so you picked some out. You got a big red ball and a bright pink pool noodle. And you INSISTED on taking the dang noodle. And you carried it around the tennis court the whole time we were there! You also pick up rocks whenever you're outside and carry them in with you. We find them all over the house!

Tommy, you are the most awesome kid ever! I love this age that you're at and you are SO much fun. Daddy and I love to see what you do every day. It's always something different and new. Listening to you figure out words and watching you learn new things is such a fun experience! I love seeing the person you're turning in to. You're ornery, sweet, kind, smart, funny and temperamental. You're a fireball of energy and I wouldn't trade a second of it! We love you so much bud!


Friday, September 21, 2012

KC

Last weekend, my  mom and I decided to load the kids up for a weekend in Kansas City to do some shopping and see cousin Whit! I was hesitant at first because Tommy's at the age where he doesn't like to be in the car for long. He always pulls on his straps and says, "Out!Ouuuuuuut!!" But I'm sooooo glad I decided to go ahead and just GO! It turned out to be a great trip.

We left around 3:30pm on Friday, which was perfect because that's Tommy's nap time. He fell asleep a few miles outside of Towanda and slept the WHOLE way. So did Tessa. It. Was. AWESOME. I was so grateful there weren't any meltdowns!!


We got there and said hi to Whitney. Tessa was talking up a storm and seemed VERY happy to get out of her carseat!
Util she got hungry...........then she was just mad .

So we got her fed and headed to the outlet mall--mommy's favorite place to go! They have Old Navy, Baby Gap, Osh Cosh, Carters.....all at discount prices--a mother's dream :) I found some really cute skirts for Tess at Old Navy for $3 each. I also got her a SUPER cute shirt at Baby Gap for $2. I didn't find any super good deals for Tommy, but I splurged a little and bought a gray pullover from Gap for him. I just loved it and it was only $11. We finished our night off with a delicous dinner at Panera, where Tommy scarfed down an entire apple (which he's NEVER done). It was truly the perfect evening.

The next morning, my mom watched the kids while Whitney and I went garage saling. Kansas City is a garage salers HEAVEN! Truly, there was like a million sales!! The first one we stopped at was full of baby girl clothes so of COURSE I had to stock up! I found a big huge wicker charger that I'll use as a picture prop. And we hit one sale that was "fill a bag for $2" and man, did I FILL a bag!! They had a ton of stuff Tommy's size and I dug until I found cute, clean, name brand clothes and I crammed stuff in that bag like you would not believe! But my favorite deal of the day was the tool set I found for Tommy. I've been wanting some plastic tools for him and I found some for $1. I was a little hesitant to open them because they were from 1970 and in the oringal unopened package, but Tommy saw them and HAD to have them opened right then :) So hopefully they weren't of any value!


We went to the City Market after garage saling. I LOOOVED it. I wish Wichita had something like it (or if they do, I don't know about it). It's just a ton of vendors selling anything and everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to hand sewn stuff to baked goods......it's just so fun to look at everything. And they had some fun photo ops.........

We couldn't pass the opportunity to pass up two of daddy's favorite things--his kids and steak!
Nana packed Tessa around in her pouch and I pushed Tommy, who  was not too happy to be contained the whole time :)


Then we headed for the park. We were going to go to the circus, but there was no parking within a mile radius of the stadium and you had to pay $15 to get a decent spot, so we ditched it and went to the park instead. It turned out to be a good choice! Tommy had a blast swinging. It's his favorite thing to do now!

 He turned into Mr. Independent! He was climbing all over and sliding down slides by himself......such a big boy!




He could hardly be bothered long enough to stop and give mommy a kiss through the bars!

Obviously, Tessa thoroughly enjoyed herself!


Tommy was having so much fun that THIS was the attitude I got when I told him it was time to leave.........

We left Kansas City right after we left the park. I was sad to go because we had so much fun with Whitney and just being someplace DIFFERENT. It was a little mini-vacation and it was great. The kids behaved so well and ended up sleeping almost the whole way home, too. Thanks for being such a great hostess Whitney!! We'll be back soon!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Randoms

There's been a lot going on around here, so this post is kind of random and full of things that have nothing in common other than it being my life :)

*Yesterday............I found a snake in our bedroom. DisGUSting!! I almost threw up. I was laying in bed and heard something rustling. My first thought was mouse. Gross, but I could handle it. At least those can't kill me. So I went to where the noise was coming from and saw this............
In case you can't tell, it's a SNAKE TAIL sticking out of a sticky bug trap thing.

*Oh man, it was just too much. I called Nick and FUH-REAKed OUT! He said it was no biggie and I should just throw it outside. Uh-hum, okay. No problem. He said it was probably just a gardner snake, so I sent him a close up of the pattern on it's skin to let him know it was NOT a gardner snake!!

 
See!! It's definitely MUCH more dangerous than a gardner snake! 

*On a brighter, less scary note, bedtime around here has been AWESOME. I was so worried because I've been trying to get Tommy to fall asleep in his own bed instead of mine. I thought it was going to be so hard to get him retrained, but it has been SO great! It took a few nights of me dragging him to bed and sitting there until he fell asleep, but the last week or so, he's been grabbing my hand and dragging me to his room when he's tired. He lays down, pulls his covers up and closes his eyes. He's usually asleep within 5 minutes! And the last two nights, I've tucked him in, left the room and he went to sleep by himself. I'm loving it! And miss Tessa has been sleeping from about 9pm to 5am. SO great!

*I had my first day back at work on 9/7/12. Not horrible, but not great. It was really slow. I liked being back and feeling productive, but I sure missed my babies and wish SO bad I could at least stay home with them part time. Life with them is so fun and interesting and different every day and there's NO DRAMA!!! That's what I dread running into the most. You never know what kind of drama a work day is going to bring!

In her carseat, ready to go to Aunt Brooke's for the whole day without mommy :(
I was so happy to be home with my girl!

And she was happy to have me home! I'm loving her little smile :)

I missed this little guy too, but he wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about pictures as Tess!
He's more interested in playing with the camera buttons.

 *I've been trying to do mini-photo shoots of Tessa, but she's getting to where she moves around too much. It's hard to get any really good shots, but here's a few that I kind of liked.....
She's so alert now!
Sweet girl!
This picture just makes me think she is unbelievably long!

There's much more happening in life, but my brain hurts too bad to remember it all. I'm so tired from my snake incident last night! Let's just say I didn't sleep well after that! We're going to Kansas City this weekend to see Whitney and I'm so excited! We'll post pictures afterwards........going to the circus, so it should be interesting!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The many faces of Tess


Now, some might think Tessa is a one-sided boring little girl because all she does is eat, poop, sleep, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, poop, eat, eat, eat and sleep. Did I mention she eats a lot??

But she's REALLY a multi-faceted, very talented young lady :) Ok, she doesn't really have any talents besides eating and farting like a grown man, but she's constantly cracking me up with her different faces. These pictures are all really crappy awesome cell phone quality. I have to use my cell because her faces come and go so quickly that I don't have time to get my good camera!
"Ahhhh.....that lady that calls herself mommy is so cracked out!"
"If she puts this d*** bow on my head ONE more time...........!"

"I'm so glad my bubby's not trying to cram a paci in my mouth so I can sleep in peace."
"I will not let go of the paci, I will Not let go of the paci, I will NOT let go of the paci!"
"Whad'ya MEAN there's no more formula?!?"
"They must've given me the gooood stuff, man...."
And my all time favorite EVER expression that's on her face constantly (but I'm dreading the 15 year old version of it because it'll probably be a lot meaner).....

"Um, excuse me?!? What did you just say?" 
This little girl has got us wrapped around her finger(s)!! She's so funny and cute and is FINALLY starting to get a little cuddly. Love you, Tessie Pooh!