Tongues and stuff

Wyatt's new favorite thing is sticking his tongue out. He does it all the time, and of course I think it's adorable. My favorite is when he sticks his tongue out and closes his mouth, though it's impossible to catch on film! The kid never stops moving!

He also crawls everywhere. He is fast, and tiny, which means I am afraid he will get lost! I picked up this, like new, pack and play to keep him contained every once in awhile when I need to get something accomplished and he would rather be trolling the house! It's worked out great thus far.

Natalie has been doing great at school and is really progressing in her dance skills. She has been working especially hard now that competition season is right around the corner. This year she is even going to have her own jazz solo! She will be competing in the last competition of the season, and also dancing in her spring recital. It makes me so proud that my baby girl will be dancing all by herself up on stage. She is turning into a beautiful and talented young lady!

Brady has been giving me a run for the money at school! He loves to play, problem is he doesn't always know when to stop playing and start listening. This has led to a few meetups with the VP at school. Luckily he is a cute kid, and he changes his behavior when told....most of the time. As far as academics, he is killing it! He started the year out barely being able to read and now he is in the most advanced reading group. He wants to read everything! He is trying to read every chapter book that Natalie reads, I am encouraging him to read all the "easy" books on our shelves before jumping into Harry Potter or something! I love that I have a reader on my hands. Now if only I could get him to work more on his penmanship!

Keith is in his {very} last semester of school. When he graduates in the spring he will have his Masters in tax law, and a few more letters after his name. Show off. But, seriously, I am so proud of all he does. Keith works 45-50 hours a week, plus school, plus helps out at home with whatever I just can't get to. He's the bees knees, and I try not to take him for granted!

Life is moving on, and moving fast. We are making it work every day, and loving it. It's hard work, but the good far outweighs the bad and as long as I get enough sleep I am able to appreciate it!

Testing, 1, 2, 3!

 I found an app (Blogsy) that may let me blog from the iPad, with pictures!! Let's give it a shot...

 

Found these amazing pillows at Costco. So soft and fluffy, and the most amazing colors. Of course they are $13.99, and there is no way I can spend that on a frivolous pillow, but they are so pretty! 

 

Wyatt is growing at a rapid rate. I seriously need it to slow down. In fact my brain has started to view every milestone he hits as a tragedy, so now I cry all. the. time.  Post-partum anyone? Why can't I just have normal baby blues instead of this weird manifestation? It's like my body is mourning Wyatt's newborn-ness and it's very difficult. I need to stop beating myself up for not being able to remember every minute detail of his infancy. He is amazing nonetheless. His smile makes me so happy, and if I could just play/feed/nap with him very day I would be completely satisfied. 

Sometimes I like to pretend that I am cute. Then I see my double chin and spare tire. Ah well, it's a work in progress to be sure. 

 

Texas forgot to have winter. It's been the strangest thing ever. We rode bikes and took walks all month long, and February looks to be more of the same. Either the world is gonna end this year, or we are gonna get slammed with ice and cold in a few weeks. I'm not sure which would suck worse.  

 

8 months

Tried to capture the sweetness of my little man at 6:00am today. I can't believe he is 8 months old. The time has flown by, but on the other hand I can't imagine my life without him. He is so special! (will post more details of his little self when the sun is actually up!)

ketchup

Wow, I can't believe it's been two months since my last post (confession??). Time flies when you are raising three kids! Let's see, what has happened since I last posted?

My big sister, Sarah, got to come and visit for a few days (not nearly long enough) and it was amazing. I won't lie, it has been a long time since I have seen her (Brady had never met her, if that gives you an idea of how long!!) so I was so nervous. Looking back I have no idea why I was nervous! This is my big sister, of course it was going to be like I had just seen her a week ago. She fit right in to our family, the kids absolutely ADORED her and Natalie cried for days after she left. We hung out, she took the kids to the park, we took her to her very first IKEA visit, and just enjoyed being together! We need to get a webcam so we can begin some skyping! (We love and miss you Sarah!!)

My sister, Erin, moved in with us. She is staying here for awhile before taking off on her next adventure, whatever that may be! She has been a joy to have around, and I am not sure that I would have been able to survive the last few weeks without her help! Why? Because...

Keith broke his foot 5 (or 6?) weeks back and has been in a walking cast and crutches since then. There is something terribly sucky about being on crutches. Keith has one good foot, and both his good arms are occupied with the crutches. This means he is pretty much good for nothin'. Ha! He can't carry anything (even though he tries, freaks me out that he is going to drop or break something else, and subsequently gets yelled at. All in good fun though.), and he really needs to be elevating the foot at home during the evenings because he is unable to elevate it at work and school. So it's been tough. Hard on Keith because he is so active and loves to be moving and helping and feeling healthy. Hard on me because I have been man down for a month and a half. (I will never again take for granted how nice it is to have someone else take out the garbage and recycling, move the sprinklers, change my flat tire [thankfully a good friend stepped up to take care of me there] )

Kids have been doing GREAT at school. Brady is learning so much and is really growing in leaps and bounds with his math and reading skills. Now we just need to work on the whole "keep your hands to yourself" thing and the "stop when your teacher says stop" thing! He is such a good boy at home though, it's hard to get super mad at him when he changes his card at school! Natalie has been cruising through school like it's no big deal. She catches on very quickly, and for this I am ever grateful. She loves participating in her Girl Scout troop and takes dance lessons 2 days a week and is a member of the competition team. She is amazing and watching her dance makes me cry every time!

Wyatt is now 7.5 months and is the most joyous baby of all time. Every single person in this house is madly in love with him, and it's easy to see why. He will get ya with his adorable smile, his sweet baby coos, and his chubby cheeks/thighs/belly and his giant blue eyes! Love love my baby boy! Around month 7 he really started getting "mobile" in that he scoots backwards. He loves to back up! He will push up to his knees, but he hasn't quite figured out where to go from there, and I am not encouraging it! Just in the last few days he has really started sitting up on his own, he still weebles a lot, so I don't leave him unattended, but he's getting it and I am not too worried! No need to have him grow up too fast! Oh, and he hates baby food! We have tried so many types and he just isn't into it yet. He does love these little rice cracker things, but other than that? meh. I do keep trying though, because our goal is to have him eating at least one "meal" a day by Christmas! I will try and get a video of him attacking his cracker, it's hilarious!

And here are some random pictures to go with this random post!

My cutie pies at the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound.

 Brady has always been one to sleep if he needs it. I think this day he was sent to a time out and when I went to check on him he was crashed on the bed. He is such a big boy now that I just love to see him all sleepy and vulnerable (and quiet).

 Wyatt LOVES books. He will listen to stories as long as you have the patience to read to him.

I realized most of my good pictures are on my phone! Oh how times have changed! I will try and do another picture post soon with some more sweet ones of the kids!

4 months (ish)

4 months

um, it's sideways, but I love this one bc he is smiling at Natalie. (4 months)

3 months

2 months (still so tiny and SLEEPY at this age)

1 month (how was he ever this tiny?)

Cards for Daddy

Today Wyatt was being super needy due to his baby cold (and probably a bit from the shots he got yesterday) so the big kids had to fend for themselves a little more than normal today. Every so often I ask out what they are all up to. This afternoon Nat was in the craft area making a card for Keith. She put all of our ages on there, our favorite colors, a few games (cross word and mazes) and some math problems. She made him a little book. And on it she wrote "Dear Dad, I made you a book over sckool and work so you can remeber us! P.S. bring it to your office!" For some reason that made me so sad! The kids don't get to see Keith very often and she wants to make sure he doesn't forget us!

Of course, then Brady wanted to make a card too. He came up to me and asked if I could spell "once upon a time..." uh. No. I could see that route would take an eternity so I wrote down his story for him. "Once upon a time there was a little kingdom. And the King was named, Dad. And his family names was Brady, Natalie, and Mom, and Wyatt. They were having so much fun. They were doing a dance. First Natalie and Brady then Mom and Dad. They were having so much fun doing dances. The End" He even illustrated it. So cute.

I am grateful that my kids have a Dad that loves them and plays with them and provides for them. And I am grateful that my children love their Daddy so dang much!

In other news, Wyatt sounds like a baby Wookie when he cries now because of all the  gurgly wetness in his throat. Makes his crying extra pathetic.

A checkup

Today was Wyatt's four month check up (can you believe it??!). It went as well as can be expected. He has a bit of a sniffle and is congested, but Dr. Bishop said all will be well, as long as I watch for warning signs of something more serious. He had to get shots and since he was already down in the dumps the shots didn't go over well. He cried so durn pathetically I thought my heart was gonna break. I had the big kids with me too and they hated that he was sad!

As we were leaving the nurse let the big kids pick out a sticker (they were SO good for me) and after digging through the bucket full of transformer stickers and Spiderman stickers Brady picked out a big needle that says "I was Brave" for Wyatt. Kill me with sweetness why dontcha! That boy is constantly thinking of others, well, when he isn't crying or rolling his eyes at me!

I love my kids! Oh, and Wyatt's stats today were 25" long (25-50th percentile) and 14.1 lbs (25th percentile). She said he is growing great and to keep doing what I am doing! By the next appointment he will be trying solids! Eeek!

Stacie Eldredge Photography

I have this friend. She is amazing! She takes amazing pictures, she has a great eye for soft, natural pictures. She took our family pictures at the beginning of December and I somehow never linked up to them! See them here: Family pictures pre Wyatt.

She also came over (after a serious last minute call from me) to take some newborn pictures of Wyatt. She even came the day before she jetted off to Utah. I am ever so grateful for her coming then. We captured such a sweet age! See Wyatt's newborn pictures here.

And just in case I didn't link to them, you can also see the amazing shots she got of Wyatt in the NICU. I tell ya, she is a great friend (for more reasons that just the pictures, obviously), but these are memories I will cherish forever! NICU pics here.

If you are in the DFW area, I suggest you stop by her blog and check it out. Then schedule your photo session post haste!

One month: 4/22/11

Hopefully I can get a better picture next month! Little monkey wouldn't look at me!

Surprise!!!

*I started this post in the hospital, and yes, it has taken me a month to sit down and finish. Such is life with a new baby, no?*

The best laid plans, right? All throughout my pregnancy I have been telling everyone that I wanted to wait to go into labor instead of scheduling a C section. I knew I was gonna have a C, but I wanted to wait to do it until Wyatt was ready to come out. Little did I know...

So Monday night (the 21st) after a long day Keith and I settled into bed pretty early due to a pretty big lineup of repair men and doctors appointments and carting kids to this school and that for the following day. Basically I was dreading Tuesday like no other. I think lights were off before 10 for sure. I  woke up around 12:30 and had to use the bathroom, but didn't want to because that meant traipsing through the house to go potty, seeing as how our toilet was ripped out of the floor the day before for repairs! As I laid in bed trying to talk myself into getting up I felt myself go a little bit. My first thought? Sweet. Pregnant lady wets the bed. *sigh* But, I couldn't stop it. And it happened a little bit more. FINE body. I am getting up. Sheesh.

So I waddled myself into my bathroom to check out the damage and clean up and as soon as the clothes started to come down, the liquid did too. Whoa nellie. Wasn't expecting that. Took me all of a half a millisecond to realize something big was happening. My. Water. Just. Broke. and broke and broke and broke. Seriously so much waters! (Which makes sense seeing as how at every doctors appointment they told me baby had plenty of cushion!) And it took me about five minutes to calm down long enough to realize..."hey, instead of letting my water break all over the floor, maybe I should get IN the shower." Ha! Had a good chuckle at that one.

So, since I was completely unprepared for what had happened, and Keith and I were pretty much out of it (seeing as how I woke him by yelling, "Um Keith?? I am pretty sure my water just broke!!") , the first thing I thought to do was call my friend Danielle. She is seriously my maternity whisperer. So she told me what to do (call the doctor, duh) calmed me down, and assured me she would take the kids. Ok, we can do this. Basically the next 30 minutes were spent cleaning up, packing the rest of my hospital bag (or at least what we could find and think of!) and waking the kids. It was crazy. And all during this I was still gushing. Eventually, through all the madness, we got everything packed, and together and in the car and on the way. Only thing we forgot was my pillow and clothes to wear after the birth, I even remembered my blankie!

Oh, and I should pause to mention that the kids were such troopers! We had to wake them up, and pack them in the car in the middle of the night. Brady was so sweet, once he realized what was happening he said, "Wyatt is coming tonight!!" They were very cooperative, especially since we seriously hadn't talked about what we were going to do when the baby came AT. ALL. They had no prep! In all of our minds Wy wasn't coming for another month!

After we dropped the kids off at Danielle's (serious. life. saver.), we headed over to the hospital, they took us straight up to triage and there I got all settled while they got in touch with the on call doc (who told me, "oh, I remember your call! I was hoping you would just come in, because your message cut off" Not surprising since I was probably freaking out while leaving the message!) . Oh, and all through this I was still draining! (SUCH a weird feeling. Like someone turned a faucet on inside of me)

So much happened the next three hours. I finally finished draining, which brought on contractions (not so much fun, those) which prompted the doc to go ahead and do my C then (instead of waiting for a more reasonable hour of the day). I was surprisingly calm the whole time, probably somewhat of a chatterbox because I was in such shock! The worst pain was the IV (3 tries this time), and then they wheeled me into the operating room, sat me up for my spinal (way less freaky this time) and soon it was time to take him out! I honestly love the pressure that you feel when they are moving the baby out, because you are so numb you can't feel anything else! I asked Keith if he was watching and he said he started too, but since it was 3 in the morning and he had no food in his belly, he thought it best to look away as they cut his wife's stomach open (sounds like a good plan).

At 3:37 am on Tuesday, March 22nd our little baby, Wyatt Ernest Bowers was born! He was 5 lbs. 4.6 oz, 18 inches long. And seriously amazing! What an unexpected, amazing adventure that night turned out to be!