The fun never stops with this child

Yep. The older one again. She is in this stage where she is such a firecracker! Yesterday my mom watched Mady while I took Logan to the gastroenterologist. (I'll update on that in a minute.) As I was coming in the house, I realized that Mady was trying to go on the potty. She finished up (unsuccessfully) and was walking back to her room to get a diaper back on. She walked out of the bathroom, lifted her shirt up, slapped her butt, and told Grandma "See my bum?" and ran to her bedroom. Silly girl!

Later on that day, she was "helping" Logan play in the bouncy seat at my mom's house. There are two butterflies that hang down that the baby pulls and it causes a bird in the center to spin around. Logan had grabbed onto one butterfly and Mady was pulling on the other. She let go and Logan managed to grab it. She immediately got upset, gently pulled his hand off and told Logan, "No Logan! Share! This is Mady's!" while patting herself on the chest. Maybe she's starting to get the concept of sharing? Probably not judging from the way she smacked another child on the head with a toy when he tried to play with her today.

I'm sure there's more from today also, but I'm blanking at the moment. As far as Logan's gastroenterologist appointment yesterday, everything looked good. He's big. He's sweet. He's a flirt. He kept trying to get the doctor's attention by kicking her papers and then grinning at her. The doctor is suggesting that we try to wean Logan from his Prevacid soon. He had a bad day the day before yesterday, so she suggested waiting a few weeks and then trying to go to half a pill once a day instead of twice. We'd do that for 2 weeks and then do half a pill every other day. After that we'd be done. It would be nice to be done with medication for the poor boy, but it scares me to take him off it! The doctor said we wouldn't know if he was ready until we tried though, so all we can do is see if he's comfortable without it. Eek!

We leave tomorrow (or super early Saturday morning) for California so I probably won't be able to update until we get back. But hopefully I'll have tons of pictures from all of our adventures!

Wisten! Hear dat?

This is what Mady yelled at us last night at the first sound of thunder. Luke started a little tradition (so to speak) of going outside during a monsoon and watching the lightning and oohing and ahhing over it. She begs nightly for another round of bamoans (boom booms in Mady-speak). So last night when Mady heard thunder, she was VERY excited!

"I hear bamoans!" she shouted. "Go outside! Watch lightning!" So we had to throw on the child's pj's and head outside for some good old fashioned storm watching.

Logan was already sleeping, so it was just Luke, Mady and mommy. Something was so nice about it being the 3 of us. I love getting some time with my girl! And she's so cuddly when we go outside for something like that. She wanted to sprawl out on my lap and watch. If only it were a little cooler so she wasn't sweating so bad. Poor girl! But what a fun way to end our evening!

Mady-isms

This girl is constantly cracking us up. Yesterday we went to McDonald's (Mady's favorite) and she was eating her chicken nuggets. We had given her a cup of ketchup to dip her food in. Each time she put a piece of chicken into the cup, she told us "chicken take a bath... yum!" and ate the piece of chicken. So funny that her little mind made the connection between dipping something and a bathtub!

Mady is also currently obsessed with playing Ring Around the Rosie. She doesn't quite have the name down yet so she's always asking us to play "ring the posey" with her. That combined with some missing words in the actual rhyme make for an amusing time.

Possessive, aggressive, and a first

Ugh! Mady has been quite the 2 year old lately. Every time I take her to "play with kids," she has been hitting, kicking, pulling hair, and pushing constantly. I've tried talking to her about it before we get to our location, time outs, leaving the scene of the crime and none of it is stopping the behavior. I hate to be "that mom" with "that kid." At this point I'm hoping she grows out of it again. It seems like we through this right around 18 months also and then she stopped. I thought "great, we made it through the hitting stage." Um, yeah. It's back.

Some of the cause of the aggression is an extreme possessiveness that has started over Logan. No child may look at, let alone touch, her baby brother. Yes, she tells the other kids that he is "her Logan." I'm so glad that she loves her brother, but it's getting a little frustrating. She never acts out or says anything to adults about it, so I guess that is good. But she needs to allow other kids to at least LOOK at Logan. I mean, she even pulls this on her cousins!

On a happier note, we finally managed to take Logan swimming for the first time today. Every time we've wanted to head out to the pool with him lately, he's ended up napping right at the time that we've been able to go out. So he misses the whole thing. Finally today he woke up right as we were about to get in. He was FINALLY able to wear his cute little board shorts and rash guard. Good thing because they aren't going to fit the Tankeroo much longer! He looked like such a cute little Buddha baby with his rash guard constantly slipping up and allowing his belly to hang out. So adorable! Logan didn't seem to mind the water, though it wasn't his favorite thing when he got splashed by his sister. Mady loves to jump in the water or slide down the slide into the water so splashing is very much part of our pool experience at this point. We didn't stay out long, but we were able to get some cute pics. I haven't had a chance to upload them from my camera, but I'll get on that ASAP!

4 months old!

So Logan turned 4 months old on Saturday. He's seriously such a happy baby (now) and is always smiling. In the last few days he has also started talking CONSTANTLY! I love it. He's always trying to catch my eye and "tell" me something. He's such a mama's boy and is always so happy to see me.

This morning was Logan's 4 month appointment and he is definitely living up to his nickname of "Tank." He weighed in at 18 pounds and was 27 inches tall. Surprisingly that only put him in the 90th percentile. I was afraid he would be off the charts when I first heard the numbers! The nurse had a terrible time getting Logan to stretch out though. Apparently he's quite strong for a 4 month old. That's my boy!

I mentioned to the doctor that I was a little worried that Logan wasn't even interested in trying to roll over yet. His response was that he had a lot of girth to try to get over so it was hard for the little guy! ::giggle:: Poor Logan just has too much chub to get from his back to his belly or vice versa. He said to work on it but not worry about it. He was more concerned about sitting up being his next milestone.

I also commented that I could see Logan skipping the crawling stage and going straight to walking. What the doctor said next almost gave me a heart attack.

"I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was walking by his next appointment."

That's in 2 months! At 6 months! No way can my little baby be walking by 6 months! His reasoning was that Logan has SUPER strong legs for his age and he's very motivated because of having an older sister and older cousins. Oy! Mommy's going to need a glass of wine if that happens! Make that a glass of wine daily...

I had so many ideas about what to post next...

And then I didn't get any sleep last night. It's our own fault. We stayed out with J and V until 1:30. Ouch. It's been a LONG time since we've stayed out that late but we had a GREAT time! By the time we sent the babysitter (aka Grandma and Grandpa) on their way and went to bed it was 2am.

Logan woke up at 3. And 4. And 4:30. And 4:45. Oh and then 5:45. I finally gave up and gave him a bottle even though I knew he doesn't usually need a bottle at that time of the morning. But I needed some sleep! When Logan finished eating, I was done. It was Luke's turn to take a shift. He was pretty ticked but forgave me later when he found out how much Logan had been up. (How he sleeps though him every time is AMAZING to me!)

Big things from the past few days: Logan has suddenly become a ginormous chatterbox. It's constant. It's adorable. :) He also turned 4 months old! Yeah! We're now 1/3 of the way through Logan's first year. We celebrated nephew #1's 3rd birthday. The actual birthday is coming up later this week. Mady is really trying to tell us that she doesn't need her afternoon nap. But she's failing in convincing us when she falls asleep in her dinner at night. How she sleeps with her nose smooshed into her arm is beyond me! Grandma spoiled her again with some new sandals that have "beautiful butterflies" according to Mady. I love that she's learning to describe things like that!

That's about it for this weekend. Logan's 4 month stats to come tomorrow!

A whole lot of pictures... from newest to oldest... so sue me

^Mady feeding Logan her play cookies.

^Mady insisting on saying "cheese" with her brother.

^My handsome little man. He's about 3 months here.

^Mady blowing out the candles on her *eep* 2nd birthday cake.

^Mady showing off her new Mickey ears and a big, cheesy smile.

^Mady's Brobee cake. I'm pretty proud of myself for this one. :)

^Logan at 3 months. Hence the shirt/sticker.

^Mady bright and early on the morning of her birthday.

^It's a little blurry, but who can resist that gorgeous smile!?

^We cage our child when she's naughty... kidding, kidding! She put herself in there!

^Mady and Logan on Logan's first Fourth of July.

^Logan's response to Mady "sharing" her toys.

^Logan's first baseball game and Luke's Father's Day present.

^Logan at 2 months.

^Luke and Mady checking out the water. One of Mady's favorite things to do.

^Mady pretending to nurse one of her dolls. She is mommy's little imitator!

Bye bye Sweetie!

Yep, that's what Mady told the cashier at JC Penney's today. The cashier had been talking to Mady and then told her bye bye as we walked away. Mady's response? "Bye bye Sweetie! See you later! Have fun!"

She also insisted that her brother wear a pink hat with a white flower on it and tried to eat the cookie on her pj top before bed. And those are just the things that I can remember from today off the top of my head. :)

The Mady update

This basically describes life with Mady right now. Funny how appropriate it is.

The Toddler's Creed

If it is on, I must turn it off.
If it is off, I must turn it on.
If it is folded, I must unfold it.
If it is a liquid, it must be shaken, then spilled.
If it a solid, it must be crumbled, chewed or smeared.
If it is high, it must be reached.
If it is shelved, it must be unshelved.
If it is pointed, it must be run with at top speed.
If it has leaves, they must be picked.
If it is plugged, it must be unplugged.
If it is not trash, it must be thrown away.
If it is in the trash, it must be removed, inspected, and
Thrown on the floor.
If it is closed, it must be opened.
If it does not open, it must be screamed at.
If it has drawers, they must be rifled.
If it is a pencil, it must write on the refrigerator,
Monitor, or table.
If it is full, it will be more interesting emptied.
If it is empty, it will be more interesting full.
If it is a pile of dirt, it must be laid upon.
If it is stroller, it must under no circumstances be
Ridden in without protest. It must be pushed by me instead.
If it has a flat surface, it must be banged upon.
If Mommy's hands are full, I must be carried.
If Mommy is in a hurry and wants to carry me, I must walk alone.
If it is paper, it must be torn.
If it has buttons, they must be pressed.
If the volume is low, it must go high.
If it is toilet paper, it must be unrolled on the floor.
If it is a drawer, it must be pulled upon.
If it is a toothbrush, it must be inserted into my mouth.
If it has a faucet, it must be turned on at full force.
If it is a phone, I must talk to it.
If it is a bug, it must be swallowed.
If it doesn't stay on my spoon, it must be dropped on the floor.
If it is not food, it must be tasted.
If it IS food, it must not be tasted.
If it is dry, it must be made wet with drool, milk, or toilet water.
If it is a carseat, it must be protested with arched back.
If it is Mommy, it must be hugged.
I am toddler!

Can I stay on top of this?

Who knows! But I'm trying again!

Let's just say life is definitely different than it was in September. First and foremost, we welcomed our baby boy, Logan, on April 22, 2009. This puts him and Mady at exactly 21 months apart. This gets a little confusing when I bring them to the pediatrician and I'm expected to be able to rattle off their birthdays and I'm trying to remember which month goes with which child. :)

Logan had a rough start. He was extremely fussy from almost day one. But it took us a while to figure out what was causing it. When he was 3.5 weeks old, I went to change his diaper and found blood in his stool. Yes, this post is going to involve poop. :) We were at the SanTan Mall when this happened and I called Luke from the bathroom freaking out about what to do. I wasn't sure what I was going to be told when I called the pediatrician so I even took the diaper with me just in case they needed to verify that it was indeed blood. I called the pediatrician (they didn't want to see the diaper, lol) and was told to put Logan on a special formula and cut all dairy out of my diet since I was still nursing a bit. This seemed to take care of the problem. We thought we were just dealing with a milk allergy.

Fast forward another week or so and we were told that we could try soy formula. It would be less expensive and hopefully work just as well. Yeah, not in our case. Within less than 24 hours, Logan was having blood in his stools again. So we got to make a very quick run for more of the special, expensive formula. Logan is allergic to soy also.

Then we get to Logan's 2 month check up. By this time, Logan is having hours, days at a time where he can't stop screaming. Luke and I are pulling out our hair, we're stressed out. I talk to the doctor and he decides that Logan probably has acid reflux too. Great. So now Logan is on Zantac. This really seems to help, but only for a few hours after he gets the dosage. After a week, we increased his dose to see if that would help. And again it would help for a bit right after taking it but would wear off long before we needed it too. So we ended up BACK at the pediatrician's office. I think I've single handedly paid for much of their bills these past few months. Now Logan gets put on Prevacid. This seems to help more, but we still weren't screaming free. So after a weekend on that, we were told to start adding rice cereal to his bottles. I quit nursing since it seemed that if I got even the tiniest bit of dairy or soy in my diet, Logan was miserable. Did you know that there is dairy or soy in EVERYTHING? Finally, adding the rice cereal seemed to be the magic item to make our boy more comfortable.

That's been going on for almost 2 months now and we still have bad moments, but they're few and far between. He's now a smiley, happy, squishy (almost) 4 month old. Did I mention that he started out at 9 pounds 5 ounces and is probably 16 or 17 pounds now? I'm not exaggerating when I call the boy squishy!

That's enough for now. I'll update about Mady and put up some recent pics soon!