Problem Solving

This is what my sweet baby Lena looked like the past two days. Big ol' tears and lots and lots of crying. She had cut 2 teeth since last weekend and appears to be working on a couple more. So, I just assumed that all the crying was from teething. But then it got worse. She basically cried from 9pm Wednesday until 10am Friday. She would stop to drink a bottle, but then start crying again. I finally decided that something else was going on. Since Dylan had strep throat last week, I thought that maybe she'd caught those germs. Rather than wait out the weekend to see if she got better, I took her to the pediatrician.

While getting ready to leave for the Dr, I started to think back on the previous 24 hours a bit. First I thought back to around 12pm when I picked Dylan up from preschool. While getting Lena out of her carseat, she screamed bloody murder. She didn't quit crying the whole time we were packing Dylan up. She continued crying through her lunch and then her nap. Upon waking, she did some more crying. Last night, she would not crawl. When I changed her into her pajamas, she screamed. Overnight, she would not roll over in bed. Instead she would just get stuck on her side and scream. This morning, she screamed while trying to push herself into a sitting position. Then screamed again while getting dressed and into the carseat. So, I decided to mention it to the Dr kind of as a side note. Not really thinking it would be at all related.

Well, after some observation and manipulation of Lena's arm, the Dr confirmed what was in the back of my head. You know...those thoughts that try to form, but you can't really complete them. Lena had a dislocated elbow! The Dr gave her some Advil and then popped that arm back in it's place. Lena cried while she was touching her arm and then stopped as soon as it was back to normal. Me? Yeah, I sobbed for about 10 minutes. It killed me to see my baby in so much pain! I'm just so glad I had the side note thought. Poor little thing.

Sigh

Pardon me while I have a 'woe is me' moment. One year later and I am still missing North Carolina as much as the day we were forced to leave. Does that make me pathetic? I mean, that was the one place where every member of our family was content. Hard as I try to just accept life as it is today and move forward, I cannot get past this feeling of longing for things as they once were.

I hope I don't feel like this forever. Someone please tell me that eventually this feeling will pass.

Lena Bear

I cannot believe that Lena is already 9 months old. A friend pointed out to me yesterday that in a mere 3 months, Lena will be a year old. That thought just makes me want to cry. I keep telling everyone that I am in complete denial that Lena is going to grow up. D.E.N.I.A.L. She has just been such a joy (once she got over the colic).

I took her to the pediatrician for her 9 month check-up this morning. Lena is now 27 inches (25%) and weighs 16 lbs 8 oz (15%). Although she is teeny tiny, she has been consistent with where she falls on the growth charts. That means she is right where she should be. She is meeting all of her milestones right on time.

In fact, she celebrated her 9 month birthday by crawling. She has been toying with the idea for a month now, but officially figured it out a few days ago. She is attempting to pull herself up to standing. If I put her on her feet, she can stand while holding onto something. This always makes me giggle because she just looks to little to be standing.

Lena still loves to laugh. She loves to eat. In fact, she loves it so much that she growls while she eats. I've braved up and started feeding her real food. She loves eggs, cheese, grapes, cheerios, graham crackers, chicken, noodles and of course cookies. She loves to play with toys, especially if she can shove it in her mouth. This girl is way more curious than Dylan ever was. I foresee lots of babyproofing in my near future. She absolutely adores anything that has to do with big brother. And she is still obsessed with her Mommy...I do not mind one bit. Even if she does call me Dada.

I've said it before and I will say it again...Lena is a happy happy girl. I could not be more in love with her.

The view from up here

Can be pretty cool sometimes. Being a Mom is so exhausting. Some days, many more than I'd like to admit, I just want to be able to 'go home' from work for the day. It really really bugs me when people think that stay at home moms have it easy. This is NOT easy! AND, I don't get to leave at 5. Nor do I get holidays, sick days, vacation days or even weekends. On occasion, a very rare occasion, I get a couple hours to myself. On an even more rare occasion, I'll get a few days away...about once every 2-3 years. Not exactly enough for sanity saving or be the 'me' I think I used to be.

I'm slowly figuring out that my definition of 'Me' is evolving into a different definition of 'Me.' When I really sit back and think about it, I am pretty happy with the new Me. Days are tough and sometimes I want to run away, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who feels that way. Yesterday was one of those days I wanted to be done at 5. Nothing bad happened and neither of my kids were being especially ornery, I was just tired and wanted to be alone. So, around 4pm, I decided to try something.

I sat down and just let myself be with Dylan. I feel like we always have to be doing something because, well, there is always something to be done. Perhaps that is why I'm always exhausted. I never just let myself sit. Luckily Dylan was up for the snuggle time. I took this shot to remind myself that sometimes it's okay to just sit. I'm actually accomplishing something when I do nothing!

Lena has been a little crabby lately...totally out of character for her. To her credit, she is working on cutting three more teeth. She was having a really hard time getting to sleep yesterday. So, at one point, I quit fighting with her and just rocked her for a bit. This is how she was staring at me...eyes wide open, not wanting to miss a thing.

I must admit, sometimes my view is really really awesome.

A Merry Little Christmas

It's been a wonderful couple of weeks at our house. With all the activity of 2010, we decided we just wanted to stay put for Christmas this year. I'll admit that it was a little strange not being with either of our extended families, but we had a nice celebration just the four of us.

I have lots of pictures taken over the course of 3 or 4 days, but I'm just going to jumble them all in to one post. Seems like too much effort to break it up (or rather, I've got two kids who don't give me much time to get stuff like this done).

Dylan's new favorite game is Jenga. He loves to play the actual game, build stuff out of the blocks, or wear the game box as a hat. And occasionally force Lena to wear the box for a hat. Poor little Lena...she just has no clue that she will be getting harrassed from her brother and father the rest of her life.

Eight months later and this little girl still makes my heart melt. I fear that my attempts to keep her a baby a tad bit longer are keeping her from doing certain things (crawling, pulling up, eating real food). I just can't help myself. She's so teeny and loves to be snuggled; I'm eating it up.

The temps are keeping us indoors quite a bit, but Lena loves to sit at the back door and stare out at the snow.

I made several attempts to get a 'good' picture of my kids in front of the Christmas tree. I don't think I ever got a shot where both of them are looking at the camera. Ah well, this is life with kids.

Dylan had preschool up til the 23rd. On the last day before break, his class had a pizza party and a little gift exchange. Mrs Baker gave all the kids a Divine Grace t-shirt that has their names on the back. All the kids immediately wanted to wear their shirts. Dylan didn't take his off until the next morning.

Playing a game before the festivities.

I bought the kids super cute, coordinating Christmas outfits before Thanksgiving. I have been dying for them to wear them and get a picture. Unfortunately, Dylan being 4 and all, it didn't happen. It took me a half hour just to get Dylan's outfit on his body. Then he screamed about it for another hour. Luckily, Lena still loves the camera. She looked so stinking cute.

We decided to follow my family's tradition of celebrating on Christmas Eve. I made a nice dinner and then we opened our gifts.

Lena was into if for about, oh, 5 minutes. She started crying while opening her first gift and it went downhill from there. I ended up just putting her to bed and Dylan and I finished opening her gifts.

It's rare that I get a picture of Mike. Looks like he's posing for me, but this was a total coincidence.

Again, rarely a shot of me. Mike was not so kind with the expression he chose to take a picture of.

Dylan just kept telling me he loves me as I was handing him gift after gift after gift. This year was the most fun with him, so far. He was totally into everything and so greatful. He made out like a bandit.

Part of Dylan's loot.

I did save a gift for each child to see on Christmas morning. Since Dylan has shown no interest in Santa, Mike and I have decided not to push the idea on our kids. We'll tell them the idea and story behind the jolly guy, but really do not care that they believe he comes and leaves the presents under the tree. Dylan and Lena's Santa is their Grandparents. Gram and Pa gave each child their own chair this year. So, I put them together after the kids went to bed Christmas Eve and left them by the tree. When they came down in the morning, their eyes just lit up. Dylan was so excited and immediately sat down to play his Leapster in HIS chair.

Lena also loves her chair. She loves to sit in it and just look around while kicking her little feet. It is so cute to watch.

We spent Christmas dinner with my dear friends, the Pollard family. They are my adopted family and have been for years and years. It's nice having them around.

We're definitely looking forward to the New Year. As a whole, 2010 was not such a great year for us. So, we'll be saying good riddance come Friday evening.

Gifts A Plenty

I'm pretty sure that Dylan thinks he gets to open gifts every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So far, he has had three days of opening Birthday gifts and there will be one more when he gets a box from his other Grandparents.

We celebrated his Birthday while we were in Ohio for Thanksgiving so that everyone there could join in the fun.
Dylan was all about his chocolate cake. He was asking about it for a week before the party. Every day he would ask me if it was cake day.

I was a little surprised that he was actually able to blow out his candles on his own. He was so proud of himself.

When he walked in to the room where his presents were stashed, he exclaimed "Are all these for me?" After he opened each present he would turn to the next one and say, "What about this one?" Once he was finished he said, "Oh, thank you for my presents everyone!" So cute!

On Dylan's actual Birthday, he had preschool in the morning. We took cupcakes and yogurt drinks, per Dylan's request. His teacher, Mrs Baker, had a little party with the kids during snack time and Dylan got to be the line leader all morning. Before preschool was over, I picked up Dylan's friend Abby. When Dylan saw us at school, he was so excited. I took them out for pizza and then to Jeepers. Which is kind of like Chuck E Cheese...but cleaner. They had a great time playing games, climbing on the playground and riding the banana ride. Between the two of them, they won over 300 tickets. Of course they both wanted to trade them in for candy. So, they were all nice and sugared up.

Getting on the banana ride.

Little best buds.

When Mike got home from work, Dylan opened his presents from Mom, Dad and sissy. I'm pretty sure that his favorite gift is the Matchbox Car Wash. He's excited that he doesn't have to build his own out of blocks anymore.

May your days be Merry

I always loved the Christmas season growing up...still do. I think a big part of the reason I love it is because of my Mom. As far back as I can remember, she has had the most beautifully decorated home at Christmas time. I love it. It just makes everything seem so warm, so cozy, so fun. So, everywhere I go, Christmas decorations just remind me of home.

I am attempting to re-create that feeling in my own home. I do not, however, have the eye for decorating that my Mom does. Thankfully, she has helped me out through the years and has created a collection of decor for me, as well as some ideas on how to put displays together. Mostly I just try to copy what she does.

Last year, my Mom made a display on our mantle with these vases. We don't have a mantle in this house, so I had to modify. Above the kitchen cabinets seemed like a good place, out of reach of little curious hands.

Dylan was all about helping me weave the garland and twinkly lights on the stairwell this year. He also attempted to tie up a few of the bows. Granted, I had to 'fix' a couple things after he went to bed, but it was fun having an excited little helper.

My favorite holiday decorations are snowmen. I just love their smiley faces.

It was fun adding another stocking this year. Matchy matchy is not my style, I prefer to coordinate.

I think I need to hit up the after Christmas sales this year to find a new tree. After 5 years, this one is starting to look a little rough (could be from all the moves). We couldn't get the star to stay on top this year because it's all bent.

Love seeing this display as I'm doing dishes. The wooded area out our back window makes for a great backdrop...especially now that there is snow out there!

Dylan loves this nativity. I think mostly because I let him play with the pieces.