Carole's birthday weekend

Thankfully, we were all healthy to enjoy a fun weekend at Todd's parents house for Carole's birthday!

A delicious meal was served to all members of the Bailey clan except for the Maryland Bailey's.  Also, Aunt Betty wasn't present because she was busy stuck in the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake!  She made it out alive and we are all very grateful.  Many others didn't.

KK also made a delicious angel food cake (I had 2 pieces, yes I did!). Three of her four babies helped her blow out the candles.

This is the face Natalie was making when we weren't getting her ice cream fast enough.  Sassy girl.

After dinner, my babies wanted to tickle the ivories with Grammi.  Grant decided he didn't like that song anymore so he wanted to turn the page.  Together, they all actually sounded pretty good. 

Bean shared some of his ice cream with the other big guy.  Such a nice Grampi!  We had a great time at Grammi's birthday party and we were happy to celebrate it with her for once.  Usually they go to Florida in the beginning of February and we miss it!  But not this year!  Happy Birthday Grammi!

Grant's 15 month statistics (at 16 months)

We were a little slack in getting an appointment for Grant at 15 months.  So it happened at 16 months.  And here are the statistics:  Height: 32 and 3/4" (85th percentile).  He grew 2" in four months.  Weight: 25 pounds (50th percentile).  He put on 2.5 pounds in four months.  Head circumference:  49 cm (90th percentile).  His head grew 1.5 cm in four months. 

He's also no longer going to be taking "infants" Tylenol and Motrin.  He's moving up to the big boy stuff!

Additionally, he got two shots this morning.  His MMR (gulp!) and his second pneumococcal vaccine.  

I was concerned that he wasn't talking as much as Natalie... of course, even before he was born, I KNEW I was going to be worried about this!   At 16 months, he still only says "Da Da", "Wassat?" (What's that?), "Shit" (no, seriously, he says this.  If you try to ask him to say "shoe," he actually says "shit!"), and a couple of other random words that he's said in the past.  I've heard him say "Pop Pop" once or twice, which is about the same number of times he's said "Ma ma."  My dad would be so excited if he heard this!  Once Grant said the word, "Purple."  Very strange.  If you ask him what the cow says, he says, "Booooo!"  He just can't seem to get that M sound yet!  He understands a lot of what we say, for the most part.  If we say, "Where's Grant?" He will cover his eyes and laugh as he peeks out from behind them.  We are trying to work on some sign language with him, and he can do "more" and "all done" but doesn't really use them unless we do it first.  So we think- is he really all done?  Or is he just mimicking what I'm doing???  Also, admittedly, the poor guy is totally second born.  We don't do near the amount of work with him that we should do.  Life gets in the way. (More to the point... a feisty 3 year old gets in the way!)

Dr. Meisheid thinks Grant is developing just fine.  Since he's working on his walking, she said he probably wouldn't be progressing as much verbally.  Once he starts walking, we might notice him picking up some more words. 

Speaking of walking, this past Friday (2/25/11), Grant took his first real steps!  He took 2 big steps toward me before falling on his bum.  Since then, he's taken 2 or 3 here and there.  He understands when I say, "Walk Grant, use your feet!"  He also understands "no hands!" because this is something we've been working on lately.  He's a great cruiser along the furniture, and lately we say, "No hands!" and he lets go and can stand by himself for 10 seconds or so.  (A good long time in a baby's world!) 

You might remember, I did say that he would start walking at 16 months... and as I recall during Natalie's physical therapy days, they consider it "first steps" if they take 3 steps in a row! 

I may have mentioned that Grant also has eczema.  Poor little guy.  There's not much you can do about it, other than give him hydrocortizone.  She said it should get better in the summer, and I recall it was significantly less last summer. 

Also of note... his ears and tubes look great!

Where is spring???

Please for the love of everything that is holy... BRING ON SPRING!  We are tired of being sick.  Grant had a stomach bug this past weekend - of which poor Todd caught the brunt of on Sunday morning, if you know what I mean!  Poor honey... he's such a good Daddy.  Although he did tell me he let out some choice words around Grant after he threw up all over him.  Good thing G is too young to repeat such things! 

Grant was very grumpy Sunday morning, even after his morning nap (which has been hit or miss lately, but he was out cold within minutes).  When he woke up from his morning nap, he only wanted his cup of milk.  I didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier in the morning, so I gave him about 2-3 ounces of water.  After it was gone, he cried and cried.  I felt so bad for the little guy, but I wanted to wait and make sure it STAYED DOWN.  Then Todd took Natalie on a walk just to get her out of the house.  Poor G whined and cried the whole time they were gone.  Finally when they got back, it had been an hour and he had kept the water down, so I decided to try some banana.  He scarfed down almost a whole banana (and only didn't finish it because I was afraid it would come back up!), and then I gave him a little more water, which he also promptly finished.  He was MUCH happier after all of that.  He went back down for his afternoon nap without any problems.

After nap, he woke up hungry again.  We gave him some Pedialyte and he was very happy with that and was just content to chew on the top to his cup for about an hour before dinner.  For dinner, he ate a half a banana, a few bites of "Cream of Rice" which he didn't really like, two big bowls of applesauce, and a few bites of a piece of bread.  Plus we gave him a "half and half" on the doctor's advice - half a sippy cup of Pedialyte and half milk.  He was back to his old chipper self after dinner!

So far today (Monday), he's been great!

Natalie's surgery

Natalie had surgery yesterday at Newton Wellesley Hospital to have tubes put in her ears again and to have her adenoids removed.  Everyone declared her their favorite patient because she was so cute and funny with the doctors and nurses.  And so agreeable!  (Wait, really???)  They gave her some Tylenol and she took it without complaining and even with a smile on her face.  She played quietly and said funny things before the surgery.  And Todd said she went under very easily.  Then, after surgery...  she woke up.  And she was not happy.  She screamed and cried, and woke up even worse than she had the last time she had tubes put in.  Because she had the adenoids removed, they put an IV in her (after she went under with the anesthesia) and so when she woke up, she did not care for that.  She kept saying, "I don't want this bandaid anymore!"  They had to wait for the IV bag to empty before they could take it out.  They called it the hospitals version of Gatorade.  In the meantime, she got some apple juice and got to eat two red popsicles.  Todd said afterwards that she looked like The Joker, ha ha.  When Todd went to get the car, she started complaining that her tummy hurt.  She let out THE biggest burp ever in the hospital.  I mean, so loud and long that it brought other doctors and nurses over to see what had just happened.  I was holding her and I was sure she was going to throw up.  But did that make her belly feel better? Not really. 

Finally we got to go home.  She was just worn out.  She laid on the couch for a bit.  Todd made her some lunch- some Elmo noodles, but she didn't even want any of that.  She just asked to go to bed.  So Todd took her upstairs and she crashed for about 2 and a half hours.  When she woke up, she ate the rest of her Elmo noodles, a popsicle and some ice cream!  Plus the rest of her apple juice and milk. 

This morning she was her usual self, but really hates having the drops put in her ears that prevent infection.  She thinks they feel weird and funny, so she doesn't care for that at all.  Hopefully this is the LAST surgery we have this year.  So far we've had THREE, and it's not even March yet!!!! 

Sickness be gone!

I am so tired of being sick, or having someone in my house who is sick.  Seriously.  Winter, GO AWAY!  I need to open the windows and let all of the sickness out.

Grant had his tubes put in on January 5th. I went to Arizona the following weekend and came back with a cold.  The kids came down with it too, and Natalie got an ear infection from it.  From that, we were told, "Natalie is getting tubes AGAIN, and having her adenoids removed on February 16."  OK, great.  She did antibiotics for 10 days.  She completed it on February 1, and by February 5th, had another cold which she promptly gave to her brother.  Grant has been a SNOT MACHINE.  I really can't believe such a little thing can produce so much snot.  And of course, other than a little Motrin or Tylenol, you can't give kids anything for their symptoms.  So they suffer.  On February 11, Natalie comes down with another ear infection.  Which is perfect timing (!!!) since Todd had a little surgical procedure himself on the 11th, and was unable to do anything with the kids (ie, picking them up, cooking dinner, giving baths, etc.).  On about the same day, I start feeling crummy... so make that 4 people in the house who are not well.  But someone has to feed the kids, and Todd can't do it, so in my misery, I have to play single mom all weekend.  (Shout out to my single mom friends, you guys are the best!!!)  Grant is grumpy and snotting all over the place, neither kid is napping very well, and Natalie has an ear infection and can't take Motrin because she is having surgery on the 16th and Motrin thins the blood.  We have really found Motrin to be the most effective with both kids, but had to resort to Tylenol with Natalie, which doesn't last as long (4 hour cycles as opposed to 6 hours with Motrin).  So she's back on antibiotics, and seems to be doing much better with her cold.  In fact, she's hardly coughing or producing snot at all.  Grant might be turning the corner too... he seemed MUCH better this morning after having a fever last night. 

Hopefully Natalie's surgery on Wednesday will go off without a hitch.  Within 6 weeks, 3 out of the 4 members of our family will have had surgery.  I'm praying I stay healthy!

Grant using a spoon!

Todd decided, very bravely, to hand the spoon full of applesauce over to our son... gulp... and he actually did a pretty good job!

And I swear we keep the heat on in our house.  Natalie is still in her hat and coat because we had just gotten home from gymnastics and a lunch date with her friend Addison and Addison's mom Jody.  Isn't Grant such a big boy? 

Grant getting a new haircut... from his daddy...

It wasn't pretty.  I'm not gonna lie.  Todd has since cleaned it up, and it does look better now.  And he no longer looks like Baby Bieber, so that is good.  At one point, Todd took a huge chunk out of the side of his hair above his left ear.  I think next time we'll go to Grammi's and have her do it.  She has 30+ years experience in cutting children's hair for free, ha ha!

Before:

During:

After:



New Camera - finally!

We finally got a new camera!  A little Samsung HZ30W if that means anything to you.  It means nothing to me, except I now have HD videos, whoo hoo!

So what have we been doing?  Not much.  My kids still look the same.  See? Still as sweet and as goofy as ever!

This is how New England celebrates the Super Bowl

'Nuff said.

UPDATED - A Long Winter

Please enjoy this series of pictures (again, taken from my phone) of snow actually swallowing whole our patio table and chairs over the course of about 3 or 4 snowstorms....  Is it spring yet???  I've added a 4th picture on 2/2/11...

Kids update/camera update

No, we do not have a new camera.  Yes, we are looking for one.  I've narrowed it down to a couple, and need to get Todd's seal of approval on it.  However, he has jury duty this week, so he won't be around a computer except for in the evening, and I highly doubt he'll want to look at cameras after an exhausting day of sitting around, doing nothing, and waiting to be called for jury selection.

So, the kids are sick, still, and in different ways.  Grant has a run of the mill cold and is generally grumpy, and Natalie actually has... get this... an ear infection!  Last night Todd and I were enjoying a bottle of wine and the flick "The Town" (great movie by the way, Ben Affleck has totally redeemed himself in my book after The Town and Gone Baby, Gone, which is one of my favorite movies).  Toward the end of the movie we hear a little voice on the monitor, "Daddy?  Daddy?"  A certain little girl's right ear was hurting her.  We haven't had an ear infection in about a year and a half.  So after some Motrin, some songs and backrubs, she announced that her ear no longer hurt!  (I had left the room and she said, "Daddy, tell mommy it doesn't hurt anymore!"  Isn't she cute to think of me?).  This morning, Todd took her to the doctor and sure enough, it's pink in her right ear.  She's already had the first of the antibiotics and is well on her way to recovery.  Or at least I hope, because really, one or the other kid has been sick pretty much since the end of October.  We've had a few good days here and there, but mostly, it's been craptastic, to use my friend Chad's word to describe nasty weather.

I mentioned Todd has jury duty this week.  That really throws a wrench in our schedule because now I have to drive the kids to and from daycare and preschool (depending on the day), as well as get in my 40 hours of work, even though I can't be in the office for 8 hours each day due to the hour long commute and Grant's daycare hours of 7-5.  I can be here for about 7.5 hours, but not 8.  And I write "here" because I'm typing up this quick blog at work- I'm workin' on a Sunday! 

So anyway, that's about all for now.  Todd said we were going to get a camera "sooner, rather than later."  I think we are just waiting for payday...

Pats-Jets game

Todd and I went to the Patriots-Jets divisional playoff game yesterday and had a good time, until the end of the game. We got kicked out of one parking lot and had to go tailgate somewhere else after a power hungry parking lot owner got in Rybo's face over him not being perfectly parked between the lines in a parking spot.  (The funniest part of this story is that he called Rybo A.J. Foyt!)  Then we almost got kicked out of the game when some dumb Jets fans started mouthing off to my boys. Even my normally cool and level headed husband was all riled up.  Thankfully Rybo's brother Shaun actually works security at the stadium and flashed his badge, so all we had to do was move. In the end, the Jets beat the Pats, and my week of attending epic football games came to a screeching halt. Blah. But it was fun to be out with friends in the 20 something degree sunshine, tailgating New England style. (Picture courtesy of my BlackBerry). War Dam Patriots!!

Only 4 more weeks until pitchers and catchers report!

MA MA!

At 14 months, we finally have a baby who said, "ma ma."  Music to his mama's ears!

The night before I went out to Arizona (January 7th), we were all sitting at the table eating dinner and he just blurted it out!  He said it again tonight (the 17th) when he was in his crib but that's really been it.  He is also starting to let go when standing at a table.  He can stand by himself for a few seconds (5 or so) and then falls to his cute little bum.

Both Grant and Natalie have colds, but Natalie's seems to be worse than Grant's (for now).  She has a sore throat, snot, chills, a fever, and is very, very snuggly.  All sure signs she isn't feeling well.  She's in good spirits for the most part though, so that is good. 

That's your latest kid update. Now back to you in the studio.

No camera

I wish that said "new camera" but alas, we do not have a camera right now.  I hope to have one by Valentine's Day but until then, you will have to just enjoy my picture-less blog.

Scroll down and read the Auburn National Championship post to see why...

National Champion Auburn Tigers

So my girlies and I have been long talking about what we were going to do if Auburn were to go to the National Championship game in Glendale, Arizona.  The talk sort of started around the Georgia game.  I also talked to Todd about it.  I think the conversation was very one sided and went something like this:  "If Auburn goes to the National Championship game, it's not even up for discussion.  I'm going." 

And then Auburn beat Georgia.  And they had an amazing come-from-behind win to beat Bama.  And then we just had to get through the whole Cam Newton mess (his father solicited funds from school to get his son Cam to play there... definitely a no-no in the NCAA, but there was no evidence that Cam had any idea his dad was doing it.  But let's face it... he HAD to have known, right?).  And then there was the SEC Championship game, where we had to get through Steve Spurrier and South Carolina for the second time this season.  None of these are small roadblocks.  But then, the night of the SEC Championship game, as we blew South Carolina out of the water 56-17, my friends Melissa, Stacie, and Kara began e-mailing me their flight itineraries.  It was on.  And it was going to be epic.

Here we are, the lovely ZTA sisters from Auburn, Kelly, me, Kara, Melissa, and Stacie at Bungalow Bar and Grill in the Waterfront in Scottsdale.  Sunday started off with drinks at about 11 am.  We were all blowing 0.08's in my new breathalyzer by noon.  Thankfully we all could walk over to the Auburn Pep Rally which was being held nearby.  We couldn't get it because it was so packed, but we found a nearby bar (shocking!) and had a drink.

Here is a cute pic of Melissa and Kara.  Just because they're cute.

Sunday evening, we went out for dinner at Cien Agaves in the Old Town Scottsdale area.  YUM.  While there, we met these two guys, Kyle and Brent. 

Meet Kyle.  Ayala is popping a cap in his ass.

Meet Brent.  He sells boobies for a living (I wish I was kidding about this).

These two guys bought ALL of our dinner and our drinks.  At one point in the evening, our table looked something like this. 

The bill was about $400 between the two of them.  YIKES!  And the funniest thing was that eventually, Christie, Hope, and Lisa showed up and scared them away.  I think they felt a little intimidated. 

So after our very free dinner, we went over to the Rusty Spur for some live music and ran into a couple of our sorority sisters Rebecca and Nicole! We closed the place down, and stopped by In-N-Out Burger on the way home. I don't get what all the hype is, but then again, I didn't eat a Burger. I will say their Diet Coke was really good, but the fries were nothing to write home about.

Thankfully we didn't have to get up too early Monday morning.  Ayala and I were both coming down with colds, so after some grease, some nasal spray, and some Tylenol Cold, I was good to go.  We stopped by Target and the liquor store for some sundries, and headed out to Glendale. It was SUCH a beautiful day!

Here's Ayala, getting her drink on.  This is right before the cops came and made her pour it out.

So we had to move on from this nice people watching spot.  We were trying to find the Orange parking lot where the RV's were so we could go to Flounder's awesome tailgate, but the dumb security guys kept pointing us in the wrong direction, so we landed here.

Not too bad, getting some Vitamin D and not having to wear a coat, while enjoying a tasty beverage... now that's what I call livin'.

Kara and Stacie went to the bathroom, so Ayala and I played with her super cool new camera.  This is my new favorite picture of all time (sorry kids!).  Jump up for joy if you love Auburn!

Seriously, does this picture kick ass or what? I've never had that much energy in my life. Soon it was game time. We almost peed our pants when we got to our seats and saw how awesome they were.  During the pregame ceremonies, a bald eagle flew.  It wasn't Nova, the Auburn University eagle, but we knew it would do just fine.  They tried to say it was for "both teams" but we knew better.  Melissa took the next few pictures since someone spilled a beer all over my camera and ruined it.  I got no pictures after halftime.

Here's my girlies. Damn we look good decked out in orange and blue.

Before the game, Nick Fairley, our best defensive player was hanging around our end zone.  We love Nick Fairley.

Almost as much as we love Cam Newton. Cam had a pretty good game- not great, but it was decent. It turned out to be a defensive battle between two very awesome offensive teams.  Who'da thunk it?  We were getting toward the end of the game and Oregon scored a touchdown and a 2 point conversion, to tie it at 19-19.  Yikes!

And after Michael Dyer had a couple of amazing runs, we were down to the 1 yard line with 2 seconds to go in the game, and Wes Byrum came in to kick a field goal to end the game with an Auburn WIN!!!

We won the National Championship!  We won the National Championship!  The place went crazy!!! 

I have supported Gene Chizik ever since he was hired, unlike some Auburn fans who booed him when he got off the plane in Auburn for the first time (well... as head coach anyway).  His father was my dad's boss, and I remember my dad always liked Gene Chizik Sr. He passed away a few years ago, and I know he would be so proud of his son today.  Here is Chizik with the coveted crystal football.

National Champions.  ALL IN!!! 



New Year's Eve playdate

We were hoping to get together with the Morris family for New Year's Eve, but they already had plans, and our sitter was unavailable, so they came over for a daytime playdate.  I've mentioned this before, but Annabel is about a year older than Natalie, and Evan is only about 3 months older than Grant.  And the kids all had a blast together, totally destroying the playroom!  We love it when our friends come over, and we can wait to go to their NEW house for the next playdate!  (We feel bad they've come to us for the last two!)

Natalie and Annabel watched Frosty the Snowman.  Annabel is the cutest thing.  She teared up during the scene where Frosty melted.  That really got me thinking... is Natalie JUST like me (and let's face it... Todd too!) and just not sensitive to that kind of stuff at all? Or is she still too young to realize what happened to Frosty?  Yikes!  Meanwhile, Evan is running circles around Grant! It's unbelievable how much older Evan looked than Grant, and he's only 3 months older. All because he was walking!  They are still a little young to "play together" but they played near each other!

For a few minutes, Evan got interested in Frosty the Snowman.  I titled this next one, "Yo Grant, for real, you're missing this!"

Christmas Day 2010

Naturally, we had to wake our kids up Christmas morning. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it on here (I know I talk about it a lot on Facebook), but my kids can sleep super late for a 3.5 year old and a 14 month old. I'm TRULY blessed. Are they healthy? Yeah, but can they SLEEP LATE??? In all seriousness, they have slept until 9 am before. So Todd and I got up at 6 and got ready for the day. We saw that Santa had been there and had left us lots of goodies. I also had to run out and get the biggest, baddest Diet Coke around, and have a slice of sour cream coffee cake that I had made two days before. 

Of course,  Natalie was more excited about the donut she got to eat for breakfast than for the presents!  Here is the "before" scene: 

See the Weebles treehouse?  That was a present from Santa, to Grant.  However, Natalie has since claimed it as her own.  It was her favorite present... and it wasn't even for her!!!!  Grant doesn't know any better, and he preferred his trucks over anything else.  Here are some pictures of the kids on Christmas morning.  Natalie was much better about ripping off wrapping paper this year.  I did the unwrapping for Grant.

Grant got a bunch of toys that had wheels on it.  He's obsessed with wheels. He will just sit there and spin them and spin them around.  Not in a weird way, because they only hold his attention for a few minutes, but he just loves wheels. 

After opening about 4 or 5 presents, Natalie decided she'd had enough and it was time for breakfast.  So we ate.  And after breakfast, we packed up the rest of the presents, which then took us 3 days to open, and went down to Plymouth to Grami and Bean's house.

At Grami and Bean's house, Grant got to wear Bean's "Grandpa" Santa hat (which here, could probably pass for "Grant"!)  He looked so cute!

Here he goes again with the wheels...

And of course, Christmas with small children wouldn't be complete without the ubiquitous "box that we had more fun with than any of the presents we got" picture!  Seth and Natalie made a little fort, and they would hide in here.  Please pardon my daughter's appearance.  We didn't feel like brushing her hair because it was so messy.  Sometimes, we'd rather her look like this than to try to tame the beast.



Christmas Eve 2010

Now that I have kids, I am actually pretty thankful that we get to stay at home.  Santa knows if you travel, so it's not like he would forget us, but it's just hard to bring it all back home if you're flying on a plane.  So it's so nice to stay home!  So, we went to church at 4, and then went to Uno's for dinner.  Don't laugh, nothing is open Christmas Eve.  We managed to stay Paleo, amazingly.  It was actually a pretty good meal.  After dinner, we went home to get ready for Santa's visit.  Natalie had to throw some Reindeer Dust on the snow so that it would sparkle in the moonlight and the reindeer would see our house and know to stop.  Todd caught this awesome picture of her throwing it.  

Grant meanwhile, just wanted to play.  He sat on the couch with me and just laughed and fell over. He thought it was the funniest thing.  Both kids were crazy jacked up and we hadn't even given them any sugar.

So then they had to sit in Daddy's lap while he read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Natalie LOVED it.  It's a fun little book that has little moving parts that move when you turn the page.  So it makes it look like a moving picture book and that things are happening in the picture (this is Todd's description of it!)

Natalie was into it... Grant, not so much. He just kept trying to climb on Daddy and get over to his sister to annoy her.

So he got banished to the Exersaucer while Daddy finished the book.  Merry Christmas!

Cookie Baking

Unlike last year, when I was on maternity leave and had lots of time on my hands to do a ton of baking, I just didn't have time to get 'er done this year.  But I didn't want the holidays to go by without doing some my baking with my best girl.  We made some slice and bake Frosty the Snowman cookies because she has an obsession this year with Frosty.  No kidding, she knows all the words to the TV show.  And most of the words to Frosty Returns (starring John Goodman as the voice of Frosty! Hysterical.)

We also made some plain sugar cookies to take down to Plymouth to decorate.  We also made these amazing chocolate cookies from scratch and then melt and Andes mint candy on top of it once it is fresh out of the oven and put some green sprinkles on them.  YUM.  These went fast in Plymouth.  I think Bean ate his weight in chocolate mint cookies!