Woah boy...

Wow! It has been a while, yes? YIKES! The whole purposed of this blog was to keep family updated on how our family is doing and I have failed!

Well, I return!

My last post was early July, when we were headed to my Dad's house in Washington. It was really a relaxing and wonderful trip, while we were there. Car rides... well, extended car rides weren't so fun! Poor Maddie hates her carseat! Anyways, we had a lot of family time, sunshine, good food, LOTS of food and got to visit with everyone. Notably, we got to get a 4 generations photo with Grandma Birch. We also got some great pictures of the girls in all of their ever-changing, endless energy! I promise... I will post them... I promise! :)

The ride home from that mini-vacation was anything but good. I think Madelyn screamed the last 3 hours or so? A normally 9 hour drive was turned into a 12 hour drive. I think in the future, when we all travel up that way it will be split into a two day trip! But we made it home safely, obviously.

Beyond the min-vacation to my Dad's, July was a bunch of work, girls and attempts at sleep. Mid July, Madelyn's reflex really reared it's ugly head. Up until then Maddie had been doing what we call froggie crawling (getting on all fours and catapolting herself forward, yet... not using her front arms but to pick herself back up and do it all over again). Around mid-month, Maddie started getting the hang of actually crawling. And once she got the hang of it, she was off... at lightning speed, no joke! But with that new positioning, the reflux really started acting up again.

We were refered to a specialist at Doernbecher's Children Hospital in Portland and thus began testing! Her first test was several blood test to check for allergies, a poop test to see if her body is processing foods properly/allergies, a swallow test X2, and more medication. We found that she has all the pieces and at this point no surgery is required, but the small valve at the top of her stomache doesn't close all the way like it should. So, stomache bile and food are easily able to come right back up and cause issues. :( My poor babe! So, as of right now we have to thicken her breastmilk with baby puree or this weird gel called Thick It/Simply Thick. This is partically due to her not being able to swallow fluids without coughing/choking/aspirating it. We really aren't satisfied with the results we got and the wait and see attitude, things have been tough the last 8 months with Maddie. And to see her in pain (the arching, spitting up, hoarse voice, etc) and not being able to comfort her, kills. :( As of right now, we have another appointment come January to re-check everything (more tests... yea.).

So far, not much has changed. She is still waking every 1.5-2 hours at night... and I don't want to jinx things BUT the past two nights in a row, she has only woken up ONCE between 8pm-730am! OMG! We have gotten a couple nights of decent sleep! Although, Robert has allowed me several nights of decent sleep... gotta love him! Bless his heart!

Madelyn is now standing. She has been standing for a good month now. Pulling up on things and crusing around. Something new is she pulls herself up and is getting brave and letting go! YIKES! But even more YIKES!!! is that she has attempted to take steps within the last couple of days. No joke. She will pull herself to a standing position, let go and attempt to take a step. She is generally successful in at least one step but then promptly falls on her butt. :) Very proud of herself though. And I think she will be another stubborn one... she REFUSES to let us hold her hand and help her walk. She wants to do it on her own! hehehe And last night, after work when I went to pick the girls up, I walked into Rick and Pattie's house and there she was, holding onto a toy shopping cart... pushing it... walking around the room holding onto it!!!! OH MAN! Look out, another early walker on our hands!!

Alyssa continues to amaze us on a daily bases. She is learning and growing and changing and becoming such a wonderful little person to be around. She can get over excited and manic at times, but hey... she provides such astounding entertainment! :) In a couple of months she has grown a good inch or so in height, still a skinny lil minnie, but independant and intelligent. You can have a full conversation with her adn she sometimes pulls out some realyl big words that I am not even sure where she learned them!

Her most recent cuteness is when she tells me she loves me. She always says "I love you more than chocolate, Mommy!" or "I love you more than Elmo, Big Bird AND Cookie Monster, Mommy!" Melts my heart. She gives the most amazing hugs! And demands group hugs from everyone, all the time! Very social and can make anyone melt with her manners.

She is recently showing a clear interest in My Little Pony and Hello Kitty. In fact, her birthday party will be Hello Kitty themed, but shhhhh don't tell her that! OH and she officially has a BIG GIRL bed... not just a Toddler bed. Now, we didn't tell her it was a ploy to get her out of our bed, no! (lol) We told her we had a big suprise for her... we had purchased Hello Kitty bedding for her and she helped set her bed up, make the bed and put A.L.L of her stuft animals on her bed. Yes, she loves it. And even better... our ploy worked like a charm! :) She is sleeping in her BIG GIRL bed without problem!!!

Oh, adn my goodness... potty training has gone so smoothly!! She has an accident MAYBE once a week, but other than that... she has her big girl panties on (most are Disney Princesses, Elmo or Hello Kitty ones... lol). She likes picking them out in the morning. And she can get up onto the big toilet all by herself and go! We still have to ask/prompt on occassion but most of the time she tells us she has to go. I am thankful that she is interested in potty training and washing her hands for that matter, now to work on how to wipe properly. hehehe

This "two kid" thing is working out well for us. Alyssa is an amazing big sister and is always commenting on how she wants to be able to teach Madelyn stuff as she grows up. And I think Alyssa is even more of an amazing big sister... because I think she is the only one that calls Madelyn by her name. lol We call her Maddie, while Alyssa calls her Madelyn. They play together, we are working on how to share, but Alyssa is attentive and always wants to love on Madelyn. It really warms my heart to know they get along... because I know once we reach the teen years, watch out hormones! lol

So there is all the good... if I missed something, smack me? Yea?

Onto the tough stuff.

On July 28th, my mother passed away. She and I were not close, especially over the last handful of years, but it still hit me hard. I think I still struggle with it every so often. I think one of the hardest things about it was her youth, she was young. And that she never met Robert or my girls. Grandma Lee said that she knew of my girls... but she had never met them. We had planned to go see her next spring. I wanted to make things right between her and I, but now, I don't have that opportunity. She made some choices in her life that distanced her from her family and made ehr family distance themselves from her, but she was my mother, she was the girls' grandmother... and it does hurt. August 30th we took her ashes to a cliff on the Oregon Coast and spread them. I have a small vile of her ashes that I kept. I am not totally sure why, but I did. I don't know if it will cause more grief as I see them, or offer some type of odd comfort. We'll have to see.

And then on October 1st, Grandma Birch passed away. She was young as well. I am strugling with her passing as well. I was on my way to say good bye, we knew that she probably didn't have long, when I reached the half way point... she passed. I had to pull over. I was so sad. She was an amazing woman, wonderful grandma, smiling great-grandmother and a beautiful spirit. She will be missed.

Alyssa and I leave tomorrow to head up to Oroville to attend her funeral and to be there for my Dad. Robert and Madelyn would go too, but Madelyn can't go more than maybe an hour in the car before all hell breaks loose. Eep! So Alyssa and I will make the trek and spend some time with family.

With that, here is the blog... updated! I will post pictures probably tonight or after I arrive at Dad's. Seeing as I have to still finish packing... lol Yes, my procrastinating hasn't changed. ;)

The 4th

Happy belated 4th of July!!!

The 4th wasn't anything special for us this year. The girls are still far too young for late night fireworks. Robert worked ont eh 4th, I worked on the 4th, it was business as usual that night. Well, until our neighbors decided to set off some large (read: illegal, flying in the air) fireworks. Woke Maddie up a couple of times, but she was quick to fall back to sleep.

On the 3rd we went to a little 4th celebration in in Independence, OR. Had a lot of fun playing with clay and looking at handmade crafts. But the kicker was letting Alyssa play on the playground. She is so in awe of older children. She likes to stand near them... and just watch what they do. Eventually, she even asked to go on the swings!! This, coming from the girl who cries if you even mention going on swings! She has had a fear of them for some unknown reason... until the 3rd! She ASKED to go on the swings! And she even let me take a picture and she even began to use her legs!! I was soooo proud!!

Madelyn is still truckin' along in her attempts to crawl. She is doing something I like to call "belly-flop-crawling." Bottomline is, she is mobile and she is happy about it! But man oh man do we need to keep an eye on her now... she can get all the way across the room in the blink of an eye! :)

Wish us luck... in a few days were are packing up the girls and taking an 8+ hour trip to my Dad's! Sounds like fun with a 2.5 year old and a 5 month old, yes? You know you want to ride with us! :) No? Oh well... you snooze, you lose! ;)

Ok, ok, enough of the chatter... pictures, yes?






And I don't think that the video will embed properly, so here is a link: http://s705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/ferring2/?action=view&current=bellyflopcrawl.flv

It is a video of Maddie's "belly-flop-crawling"

Night!!

My Chunky Monkey...

Robert and I keep saying that we think Madelyn is chunkier than Alyssa was at this age. No doubt! But we were proven wrong yesterday!

We had Madelyn's doctors appointment yesterday(technically, it is her 4 month well-baby appointment, but because we are "off" on her appointment schedule she is closer to 5 months old). She weighs in at 13 pounds and 13 ounces and is approximately 25.5 inches long! Long and lean! :)

By 4 months, Alyssa was 14+ pounds!

Regardless, I can't compare them as each child is different but MAN! I grow some petite babes, huh? :)

Small update for now... I will upload some pictures tonight and hopefully post them as well! ;)

A little bit of new!

It seems that there is always something new with Maddie. Within the last two days or so, she has discovered her feet. My previous tummy time girl is now wanting to lay on her back a lot and just grab at the wonder that is her feet and toes! :) I need to charge the camera batteries and snap a picture of it!

And to top that discovery, the discovery that Maddie can fully lift her torso off of the ground. She has done it a few times now, each time she starts to get over excited by her feat and then gets made when she can't immediately repeat it! :) Coupled with this lifting, she has gotten up onto her knees. YIKES! Welcome to a new adventure!

I've noticed in the past that Maddie is absolutely enamered with Muffet. She tracks her and turns to find her whenever she hears her voice. But today was so funny! Muffet sat down near Maddie and since Maddie has become more mobile (launching herself forward), Maddie was able to reach Muffet's foot... and instantly started licking/gumming it. Muffet broke out into a fit of laughter and instantly wanted Maddie to "chew" on her leg and then arm and then finger and then other leg, ect. She would burst into a fit of giggles every time and Maddie would stop, look up at Muffet and smile real big and flail with happiness. They truly are sisters... <3 class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;" size="10">


Cheeky Girl


My other Cheeky Girl (full mouth and all! :))


This is when you KNOW that she is too big for the Jump-a-roo! ;) But she is our skinny minnie that can sit in most anything Maddie can! lol


And here are the two sisters. Alyssa trully has a huge soft spot for Maddie.

50/50

The other day I was putzing around on the internet and came across heritage.com. On their site you can input a picture of a Mom, of a Dad and of a child and it decides (in percentages) which one baby looks more like.

I input Robert, myself and Maddie... it says she looks exactly in the middle of the both of us.

I input Robert, myself and Muffet... it says she looks exactly in the middle of both of us.

CRAZINESS! But neat, if you think about it! I see a lot of charactaristics of Robert in the girls and a few of mine as well. Ultimately, I can't tell who they look more like. But I can really tell that they are related! :) No doubt about it!

Right now not a lot is going on. Robert and I both are working non-stop it feels like. Muffet and Maddie spend their days (while we are at work) with Grammie and Papo (after he gets off of work).

We are working with Alyssa to potty train her. When she is naked, she is WONDERFUL at going potty on her froggie potty. But as soon as a pull up goes on... BAM! She uses the diaper. Now, she tells us afterwards that she went pee, but not in time to get to the potty. Baby steps, baby steps. Our goal is by 3 years old to be 100% potty trained. Partly because at 3 she is eligable for pre-school. She won't be able to attend this fall, but the following fall she is as long as she is potty trained. BUT, to ensure we get a spot for her in the pre-school class, we want to start putting her in their learning daycare around 3 or 3.5 years old. That all depends on potty training. She has to be potty trained before she can enroll. It is an adventure and boy does she like it... she gets chocolate for using her potty. :)

Maddie is learning new things as well. I think we'll have a crawler/scooter real soon. During tummy time, if you put a toy or her binkie slightly out of reach... she finds a way to get to it. Before she would roll around or turn herself around enough until she reached it. But within the last couple of days, Madelyn has begun using a leg thrust or two to project herself forward to reach the object. It is actually quite the funny sight! She doesn't use her arms adn she face-plants as she does it. So, imaging putting your face down on a blanket or the carpet, resting your arms down at your sides, digging your toes into the carpet and pushing... yes, dragging your face on teh carpet as you go. Silly girl... but it doesn't upset her! I just haev to make sure she is on a blanket as to not get rug-burn on her face! haha

The girls are looking forward to Thursday night... swimming night!! Robert and I try and take the girls each Thursday night to the Dallas Aquatic Center to go swimming. Muffet LOVES the water. Loves to kick around and splash... not so much the getting her head wet, but she is coming around. For the first time ever, she dunked her ehad under water all by herself!! I was so proud! And she didn't cry or anything!! Madelyn is not quite to that point. ;) Madelyn is now starting (now that we have taken her a few times) to flail a bit in the water. Now, when I say flail... I truly mean flail. Her little arms and legs go NUTS! But... nuts in a good way! :) She enojoys the water. I do believe that we have two water babies on our hands!

Enjoy your day!!!