Singing in the Rain!

We might as well take advantage of this crappy weather and try out Cam's new raincoat and boots!




I think he likes them!

Hunting for Easter Eggs!

Today we had an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard for the kids. Our group dwindled down to just two but they had a great time! They needed a little help with direction but I think that was because they were so excited! I thought they'd fight over one or the other having more eggs but they didn't they did great. After they hunted for eggs and played they had a picnic lunch of pizza on the deck.




Cam showing off his basket of goodies!
Next year Arianna will get to play too!

Wow!

Arianna now (a little over 6 1/2mths):

Cameron at exactly 6 months:
She is so tiny! At 6mths she was 13lbs 2oz and 24 3/4" at 6mths he was 17lbs 11oz(!) and 26 3/8". WOW!!! He was able to sit up at that point and she is not. He loved eating solids, she hates them. It's so interesting to see the differences between the two of them!

AND...here Cam is today, because there was no way he was not getting in it:

We Did It, We Did It!

As Dora would say! Yesterday Cam, Arianna and I went to Ikea to get Cam's table for the playroom. I was very nervous thinking about going by myself and luckily Dianna was online when I was considering this. She, being so much braver than I, said she and the boys would meet us there. Perfect!

Cam and Elijah stayed in the strollers until we got up to the kid section. Then it was like animals being let out of the cages. The went nuts! Luckily it wasn't too crowded but there were a few parents/kids there. Cam kept running away from the play area and he would not listen to me. Dianna told me to say to him "tell him if he doesn't stay near you someone will take him." I called him over, got down to his level (SuperNanny style) and told him "If you don't stay close to Mommy someone will steal you away from Mommy." He looked at me then ran. That didn't work as well as we had hoped. The color decision for the table/chairs didn't take too long then we walked around a bit to get some other stuff. I wanted to pick up a cheap potty in the hopes that Cam would some day use it. When I asked Cam what color he wanted he said "pink!" I could just picture Steve's face if I came home with a pink potty for Cam. I asked Cam "are you sure you want a pink potty." "Pink!" Then I think he ran away so I knew he didn't care too much. Dianna was laughing, I figured if I did get the pink one I could use it later for Arianna, but I could picture the look on Steve's face. I think Cam came back over so I asked again. I think at this point Elijah, who had chosen green, said "green" and Cam had said he then wanted green, so green it was! Crisis averted!

We went downstairs to look for some other stuff and at this point Cam was done, he wanted out and a lollipop wouldn't even fix it. We quickly went to pick up the table/chairs from the warehouse (thank God for Dianna's stroller) and paid. When we were outside loading up the car Cam kept running down towards the automatic doors. The "someone will steal you" failed again.

I was exhausted when we left! But it was a very successful trip! I couldn't have done it by myself so thank you Dianna!

Lesson learned today: Cam may actually prefer to go live with someone else!

Rub A Dub Dub!

Even though it is staying lighter out later there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to get everything done. I started dinner while Cam and Ari were napping but they both needed baths tonight and I wanted to shower myself. Why is it that a Mom's personal hygiene seems to come second to her children? That's just not right! We've been taking walks at night to get some fresh air and so I could get some exercise but that wasn't going to happen tonight.

To save some time and to see if I could do it...I decided to put both kids in the tub together. Since Arianna can't sit up on her own I put her tub in the big tub. Cam thought it was great! He was so excited!
I never did get to shower...

Arianna's First Taste of Food!

How do you think it went?





When she realized she wasn't getting any more...

Fun With Cousins!

Today two of my cousins came over to hang out, visit with Arianna and do some painting! My cousin Kim is an awesome painter so I wanted her to do something on Arianna's wall. I put up a decal of Arianna's name and it just looked lost on the wall so I asked Kim to add something around it. Since she and Sabrina are both on Spring Break it was the perfect time. We decided to match the flowers that are on Arianna's sheets. I did not want something babyish that we would have to paint over in a few years.
When she got to this point I knew if she made the 3 top dots into flowers it would be too much so here's the "finished" product.After stepping back and debating a little we decided the 3 dots had to go. I didn't like the way it looked. Luckily we had the left over wall paint from almost 3yrs ago in the basement! Much better! Here's the "real" finished product and a view of how it looks in her room. If you click on the picture you can see the detail she put into each flower.Thank you Kim and Sabrina! We have to get together more often!

Bowling with Friends!

Today I took Cameron bowling. He had a blast and he is the perfect age for it. He was so excited to see his friends: Elijah, "Aba", and Landon. He told me that we had to bring his "pack pack" so he could share his snacks with them. As it turned out he ended up eating Landon's snack!

Cameron did great bowling. All of the kids did actually. They had so much fun rolling (yes, rolling they didn't throw them!) the balls down the alley, all at the same time of course. Poor Landon got so upset when they wouldn't take turns. He learned quickly to just push ahead like the rest of them. Cameron was too funny, after he rolled his ball down the alley he would keep his arms up in the air and say, "Yay Cameron!" He was so proud of himself! My little man has learned at a young age to be his biggest cheerleader!

Arianna went back to the doctor's today to have her ears checked. She has been really fussy the past 2 days so I figured they weren't any better. I was right. Her left ear is now infected (the right one was very bad last time) and the right isn't that great. It just seems to go back and forth. She's on Bactrim now for 10 days then she'll go to a half dose for 20 days to try and fight off any other infection. He mentioned bringing her to the ENT to see what he had to say but since the warmer weather should be coming we are going to wait on that for a little bit. Cameron goes back to the ENT in July so if she isn't better we'll just piggy back their appointments. Hopefully it won't come to that.

I'm So Proud Of Him!

Today Cameron moved up into the next class at daycare. He's now with the "guys" as he likes to say! He had been having some behavior problems in the toddler room and it just kept getting worse. The toddler room goes up to 2.9yrs but we had kept him there because he's in love with his teacher and we didn't feel like he was ready for the change. Cam is such a creature of habit it's scary some times!

After talking with his Pediatrician and amongst ourselves we thought that he may be bored in the toddler room. He's confined to two rooms and has been playing with the same toys for over a year now. So, we decided to move him up. I didn't tell Steve that today was the day because he is very, very protective of Cam and I didn't want him to worry or try and talk me out of it.

Well, I'm very happy to say that Cam did wonderful! He had an absolute perfect day! There were no behavior problems and he had fun. I think his teacher was more upset than he was! His new teacher said he didn't sit during circle time but that is to be expected. In the toddler room they don't sit. She said he would get used to it. He was "Helper of the Day" and he got to pass out cups and help the teacher with other little things. I am so proud of him! I half expected to get a phone call from his old teacher saying it was a bust. I guess I don't give my little man enough credit. I'm hoping that by him being with the older kids he will learn to share more and settle down some what. Maybe he'll even want to use the potty if all the other kids are?!

Pictures

Yesterday I took Arianna to have her 6 month pictures done. I did 3, 6, 9, and 12 month pictures with Cameron so I feel obligated to do the same with her. As it is she is photographed and video taped so much less. That poor second child always gets the shaft...
Anyway, she was miserable. She cried the second I put her down and all through out her little "photo shoot." I should have canceled them because I knew her ear was bothering her but I didn't. Lesson learned.

Here are some of the ones I purchased. I wish I had bought one where her amazing blue eyes were really sparkling but in the store you couldn't really tell. Hopefully her eyes stay the same for the next 3 months!

Arianna's 6 Month Stats

Today was Arianna's 6 month well visit. She weighs 13lbs and 2oz. She gained almost 2lbs since her 4mth visit. She is in the 5th percentile for her weight, which is a drop she was previously in the 25th percentile. The doctor isn't too concerned because she has been sick. He said when you're sick you eat less. Which she definitely did do. She refused most of her bottles for 2 or 3 days when she had the ear infection. Since she's small to begin with her not gaining a few ounces really makes a difference in her growth chart. If she was bigger then her not gaining a couple of ounce wouldn't impact her curve. She is 24 3/4" long. She grew 1 1/4" in 2mths. She's in the 20th percentile for her length. Her head seems to be the only thing that's growing consistently! It measured at 43.5cm 2cm bigger than 2mths ago! She's in the 75 percentile!

Over the past two days she has been extremely fussy. Last night she screamed herself to sleep, so not like her. I wasn't sure if she was teething or not but Motrin didn't seem to help much. Well, one of her ears is still infected. That's probably the cause of fussiness. He changed her antibiotic and we'll go back in 7-10 days for a recheck of her ears. Since she had the ear infection she got out of getting her shots! She'll get all of them when we go back for the recheck.

She hasn't had any solids yet and I honestly don't think she's ready for them. She shows none of the clues. She watches us eat but she doesn't reach for the food or open and close her mouth. He said the recommendation is 6mths and usually by this time they're ready for them. He said to try them when we feel like it and she may surprise us and love them. I'm going to wait until she's healthy and start some fruits and veggies. Maybe it'll help her gain some weight! She's 6 months old and still wearing her 3 month clothes!

We spent a lot of time talking about Cameron and he gave us a few things to work on so we'll see how that goes.

There's this song "It Won't Be Like This For Long" by Darius Rucker. Some of you may know him as Hootie as in Hootie and the Blowfish! He went from main stream music to Country. I've heard the song a few times but I always catch the end of it. Today I finally heard the whole thing and I love it. It's very fitting for us and our little princess!

Arianna is 6 months old!

It's hard to believe that Arianna is 6 months old. What's even harder to believe is the 180 she has done in her temperament. She went from an out of control colicky newborn to a sweet, smiley, and content infant. She would scream for 4 or 5 hours straight at night and now she goes down at night without a sound. It's truly amazing and a good thing because her brother is giving us enough grief!

Just 6 short months ago:
*it was 80+ degrees out. While I was in the hospital there was 2 or 3 days of brutally humid weather. What I wouldn't give for that now.

*Cam was just starting to speak. He was stringing 2 or 3 words together and we were amazed. Now he is talking in full sentences and can tell us what he needs and also how he feels. Just today I said, "I love you, Cam." He turned to me and said, "I love you, Mommy." He has never said that and I broke down in tears.

*Cameron had another surgery but this one was a breeze. Since then he has had zero ear infections! Arianna on the other hand has had 2 rounds of ear infections. I don't get it. Why are they always sick? They are not in daycare 40 hours a week so why are they sick?

*Most importantly, I have survived 6 months as a Mom of 2! There have been plenty of days when I didn't think I would or when one of the kids wouldn't...but we have!

This Is Too Easy!

Earlier in the week I noticed that Arianna was getting tired around 7pm. We had been letting her take a little nap, give her a bottle, then bring her upstairs put her into the swing and let her fall asleep there. Once she was out we'd move her into her crib. I knew if we did that for too long it would be hard to break her of that habit. I decided that I would try and put her down when she was tired at 7 and see how it went. Well it went perfectly! Wednesday night I gave her a bottle around 6:30 then I brought her upstairs to get her ready for bed. I rocked her for a few minutes then I laid her in her crib. I turned her mobile on and left. She fussed when it shut off so I went in and turned it back on and gave her her duck lovey and that was it. We didn't hear from her again until 6am! I couldn't believe how easy it was. Every night since then it has been the same thing. I get her ready, rock her for 2 or 3 minutes, lay her down, put her mobile on, lay her duck on her belly and off she goes to sleep. It was never this easy with Cam!