Bath Fun

Gavin loves helping give Sydney baths. In the last couple weeks, he's really turned a corner with the excitement he has towards her. I often find him next to her saying "baby, baby" or talking to her or making funny faces to get her to smile at him. What I also notice is he watches what I do with her and immitates exactly. I'll often hear Chad say "oh is that what Momma does with the baby?" Regardless, he loves baths and he wants his sister to love them too.

My Little Picasso

The other day I was busy doing something and I suddenly stopped and realized it was silent in the house. As any mother knows, unless your kid(s) are confined to a crib or in bed sound asleep, quiet is usually not a good thing. I quickly called out to Gavin....who came running excitedly with a crayon in hand. I said, "oh you are coloring, where did you color?" (Keep in mind, I did not provide him with this crayon). He just pointed down and I asked him to show me. He went running to the back door and with the proudest grin, showed me he had colored all over our tile. I think he was especially excited about how he had fill in all the grout blue. Lucky me. What was I to do? We've never had this lesson before so...I simply told him that was a no-no and it was very naughty and we only color on paper. I couldn't give him a time-out b/c he really didn't know any better. I mean, the huge grin on his face alone told me that! At least it wasn't the walls....this time!

A Full House

We had a full house last weekend when the Leonards came down to stay with us for two nights. Finally we were able to get all 9 (wow!) of us together! They came on Friday night and stayed until Sunday. We packed in Disney on Ice, Ikea, lots of running and playing in the basement and of course plenty of time for us adults to catch up and relax. We were so excited to have them for the weekend however....par for the course, someone had to get sick...although this time it actually wasn't one of the kids. Ben spent much of the day not feeling well on Saturday and much of the night upstairs in bed. Such a bummer that we didn't get more time with him but we're thankful none of us seemed to get what he had. The weekend was full of craziness from the kids--we'd often find ourselves surrounded by 4 kids laughing...then 4 kids crying...2 kids nursing...3 kids napping...and finally, 5 kids in bed!! It was tons of fun to have them here and we can't wait for the next time. Thanks for making the trip....and glad Ben is feeling better!

Disney on Ice....the kids LOVED it...the adults thought it was "different."

The Leonard ladies.

I asked him to look at me and say cheese, he was so entranced, he wouldn't even take his eyes of the stage and just responded, "no, mama."

Harris ladies.

Taylor's favorite part - the REAL princesses.

Each kid got to pick their own treat....there was no talking them into something else when they made their selection. Lucky us.

Wanted to be just like his big sister.

Yeah, his treat was attached to a bag of cotton candy.

Zach & Ben loving the show.

The whole Leonard clan.

Our family (as you can see both Lauren and Sydney were snoozing away).

Tay's construction worker ensemble.

The boys played golf together...and other games commonly known as throw things and hit things.

Taylor loved Gavin's bike game although I don't know how she could see it over Gavin's head being 1 foot from the tv.

Our two little babies...10 weeks apart and ironically, only 10 ounces apart as well.

4 very meaty thighs.

The 5 kids...you can see how happy Syd and Lauren are about having this picture taken.

Breakfast Buddies.

2 Months Down!

Sydney just turned two months old and I can't believe how fast it has gone. I mean seriously, I often think of that last night before going into the hospital to have her and what life was like before that...and it still seems fresh in my mind...however, I also feel like having her here is as it should be...life is crazy and chaotic and messy and hard but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Life at two months:

Sydney weighed in at a WHOPPING 15 lbs 5 oz. She is two pounds off the charts. In fact, my pediatrician began to accuse me of overfeeding her (which is so far from the truth) so I quickly corrected her in that area. Just to compare, at 2 months, Gavin was 11 lb 10 oz and we thought he was a big baby (he weighed 15 lb 10.5 oz at 4 months).

She is 24 inches long which is 95th percentile.

She eats every 3 hours give or take which means she naps about 4 times a day...or she SHOULD but our schedule isn't very concrete right now. I dream feed her between 10 and 11 pm. She then wakes up between 3-4 am to eat. Then we are up again sometime between 7 and 8. Clearly she doesn't NEED that middle of the night feeding so its time that I start trying to wean her of it...we'll see how that goes.

Her shoulders and neck are pretty strong but we need to give her more tummy time...she's got a lot weight she has to work on pulling up. She prefers to lay/sleep with her head turned to the right which is leading to a slight flat spot....so I am making a conscious effort to make her head go the other way to correct that.

She isn't real great with the paci. I can get her to take it sometimes when she is really tired and falling asleep but so far it really doesn't do much to "pacify."

She gave me her first real smile on Christmas Eve and has only gotten more and more forthcoming with them. When she smiles, her whole faces scrunches up and you can't help but smile back at her.

She LOVES to be cuddled and to cuddle into you. She often buries her face into your arms or your shoulder or wherever she can. She's a cuddly baby and I love that. We are just starting to work on napping in the crib which I know needs to be done...but I have a hard time parting with the cuddly naps on my chest or in my arms.

She has started to "talk"...giving little coos here and there and the desire to laugh is there....when she gets real excited this throaty noise comes out...so it won't be long before we hear a giggle.

She isn't a huge drooler, we have major spit up issues only on some days but she blows spit bubbles ALL the time...she often looks like she's foaming at the mouth.

She's a pooping machine. Her poop comes in large quantities and with large force. EVERY day she poops through at least one outfit, if not two. I didn't have this problem with Gavin. It is unexplainable...and super lady-like.

She LOVES her swing--she'd pretty much camp out in it and sleep in it all day if I let her. She likes the bouncy seat...not the activity mat. She's started to show her smiles pretty frequently when her brother is talking to her (usually only a few inches from her face).

She takes the bottle pretty well--I'm not very diligent on doing it every day but a few times a week at least and so far, no issues.

She's a Mama's girl. She loves her Mommy and is always turning her head and face to look where I am at. When Mommy comes around, her tears are usually less, the cries shorter and the smiles just a tad bigger and brighter....what she doesn't know yet is that she has the same affect on me.

We just love having babygirl in our family.

Our Child of God

On Sunday, January 17, we had Sydney baptized at our church. The day was somewhat hectic trying to get us all out the door and dressed to be at church early...trying to plan when Syd would eat so that she wouldn't be fussy...and trying to diffuse Gavin's temper tantrums that morning. Just before going up, Sydney started to cry and Gavin started to be very resistant to anyone touching him. However, we did make it on stage in somewhat of a presentable manner. Syd did some fussing while up there and it wasn't until we got back to our seats that we realized, she had a major blowout (we think during baptism) and the back of her beautiful gown was covered in poop. Awesome. Afterward we had everyone back to our house for lunch and time together.

Regardless of the small things that went wrong or the small stresses of the day that we'll forget (um, besides the blowout, that I will always remember) what we will remember most is what this day represents for Sydney. She is a covenant child of God and her baptism not only symbolizes her as a part of God's family but it also represents the job we have in raising her to know what that means. We promised to teach her about Jesus. That is a tough job--one that apparently God has more confidence in us to do than we do. That is why our family and friends that were there also promised to help and support us along the way. What a blessing God has given us...in her, in our family and friends that love her and in welcoming her as His child.

Gavin looked so grown up in his shirt and tie that day.

Syd was showing a little attitude up there.

The blowout evidence...I mean, come on, are you kidding me?

Family.

Grandma and Grandpa Harris with Sydney.

All cuddled on the chair.

Grandma & Grandpa Yonker with Sydney.

Her Great Grandma and Grandpa Yonker.

Sydney's dress was made by my Grandma Evenhouse, her Great Grandma. Awesome how Sydney showed her appreciation.

She's always working that little tongue of hers.

My beautiful girl in her beautiful dress.

Mama's girl.

Chad & Sydney.

Great Grandma Norton and Sydney.

Speech/OT/PT Evaluation

This past week we had Gavin's semi-annual evaluation through Early Intervention. He was evaluated separately by each one of his therapists and then we met together to discuss his treatment going forward. Here is what was determined:

Speech - We've had some advancement in his vocabulary but his articulation is not there at all. I can figure out what he is saying about half the time b/c he generally motions while doing it (pats top of his head while saying "ha" for hat). Gavin tested one point away from above average (114)in the receptive language category. Meaning he hears you, he understands, he gets it. Do not let this child fool you, he is smart and understands everything you are telling him. In fact, he understands more than the average child his age. However, he tested one point away from below average (85) in expressive language. This means what he is able to communicate and verbalize is far less than the average child his age. Neither of these things came as a surprise to us but just confirmed what we already know...my kid is a smart non-talker. So, we decided to leave him at speech once a week, hoping that he is on the verge of some sort of breakthrough. However, if there is no big developments in 2 months he will be increased to twice a week--hopefully one of these will be a co-treatment with OT. Also, in two months he has to get a referral for a pediatric neurologist to see if he has Apraxia. This is a motor-planning problem in the brain that even though he is trying to talk and wants to talk, the words won't come out. I haven't allowed myself to spend time on the internet researching this because I know its unhealthy for me to do so. I'll wait for 2 months before I totally freak myself out about that. :)

OT - Again, Gavin is testing really high in his ability to understand and respond to commands, etc. However, she wants to continue working on his fine motor skills of which he is behind in. There are some sensory issues that still exist like the toe-walking. This means he is still not where he should be with how he inputs stimulation. How you process information is all related to motor planning...which leads to fine motor and speech. So, by continuing to work on his sensory and fine motor we are hoping to get more speech. When Gavin does have a co-treatment with his OT and Speech Therapist, he does really well and is often very verbal which shows a great correlation between the two. So, for now, we will still have OT once a week.

PT - OFFICIALLY DISCHARGED!! YAY!!!! Gavin is testing totally within the normal limits for gross motor (not like I was worried about it truthfully). Most of the atypical things he had showed six months ago which made her want to treat him, have been resolved. She doesn't have any concerns for him in this area which means he no longer needs treatment! Huge sigh of relief!! We're very excited about this b/c at least for 2 months, I'll only have therapy twice a week. Awesome!!

Overall, I'm happy we were able to drop one therapy session a week but clearly, was hoping Gavin would be much further with his development at this point. We definitely have more words but there is not a real articulation distinction between many of them. It is easy to get discouraged and often times I do but....as I end almost every post about speech...I try to remember, God made him this way, perfectly in His image. Who am I to question that?

Sledding!

Since we've moved into this house, Chad has been talking about our sweet built in sledding hill. We have a walk-out basement so there is quite a "slope" from the driveway down to our back yard. Finally, it came time to test it out this year. Chad called me on the way home from work on Friday night and told me to pull out the gear, him and Gavin were sledding today. He had bought Gavin some long underwear and snowpants for Christmas. So I did as instructed and got him all ready to go. Chad was excited, Gavin was excited...and I was cold just thinking about it. They did it though. Gavin loved it and kept saying "more, more." He truly is willing to try anything and loves being outside...no matter what the temp!