Counting my blessings

This past week I took the kids to the doctor for their routine checkups. The cold they've been fighting for the past 2 weeks is finally dwindling, and the normal sleep pattern is beginning to return. Thank goodness!! For awhile there, the nose congestion was preventing them from any long block of sleep, and many tears resulted. Poor little kiddies!

What a different attitude you can have about going to the doctor if you have healthy kids. There was a while when Emily would have 3 or 4 doctors appointments a month, and the wait time (2 hours usually) would just kill us. The kids' pediatrician here in San Antonio is great--close by, little wait time, and very sweet and competent doctors. This time we had a great visit. Here's the news:
Leo, 2 months old. Weighs 13lbs 8 oz., and is in the 90th %. He is 22" long, in the 25%.
Emily, 25 months old. Weighs 22 lbs, and for the first time is on the growth chart!! She's a little below 5%. Her height is 33", which puts her at the 25%.

So basically they even each other out. They do that quite often. Leo sleeps all day, while Emily sleeps all night. Emily talks all day, and Leo barely makes a peep. Emily never stops moving, while Leo never starts to move. Perfect kids.

The other great thing that happened this week is that Emily graduated from therapy! She's been receiving occupational therapy once a week for 2 years, starting with helping her learn how to suck (too long with the tube feeding) and sleep (due to a raw nervous system). The therapy changed into helping her crawl (at 13 months) and then walk (at 18 months) and then talk (22 months?). Looking back, it's crazy to think that all I wanted was for her to be able to talk and climb and play. Just give a kid a little time and they'll catch up! She tested at a 29 month old level...what a big girl!

I'm going to miss some of her cute sayings in her munchkin voice...some of which have already phased out.
"nokay"
"wee wee" (go outside)
"bless you emmy"
"crazy corin" (crazy lauren)
"hii my brudda!"

God gave us some cute little kids!

Pro Photos, Doctors and Prep

Last week Emily and I had our pictures taken. We had been looking forward to this day for so long, as my parents gave us the gift card for Christmas. Emily was a sweet little girl and so smiley, but as the shoot continued she decided that the whole "spring forward" and lose one hour of sleep was no fun. But nevertheless she gave a great picture!

When my best friend Anne moved here a month before Emily was born, I just knew that we would finally get to hang out every weekend! But then reality set and we realized that life with a baby was a little more hectic than we'd like to admit. (not to mention that we both live in Dallas but it takes at least half an hour to see each other!) So finally we were able to make her dinner at her awesome downtown apartment and get Emily down by 9:30...good times.

Emily had her last (hopefully) round of Synagis shots this week. That combined with a thrown off sleep schedule has resulted in a sad sad baby, poor little thing. At 7 months old, she weighs 11 and a half pounds now and is pretty much out of all her newborn clothes! She has a good bit of chunkiness on her thighs and a nice round Pooh bear tummy. A little hair is growing but it's so hard to tell what color it is--there are traces of blonde and red. We started putting her in the jumper (we just have to shove a bunch of blankets under and around her) and I think she's getting the hang of it...she's got incredibly strong legs. She mostly spends her day, when she's not nursing, trying to eat her hands and drool all over her clothes. It's hilarious because she hates anything in her mouth, so anytime her hand flies into her mouth she gags and makes the face like she wants to vomit. Eli and I think she might be cutting her first tooth!!

This week we've been getting ready for spring break! We're so excited to be able to see both sides of the family. I can't wait for Emily to get into the pool for the first time...Aly's mom gave us the cutest little surfer baby sun hat that she's going to wear. I've got a big day ahead of me with lots of laundry, cleaning, shopping, and packing...if only Emily could go like maybe an hour of not needing to be fed or held!! Heehee, I remember when we were dying for her to just want to eat and interact with us!