Evan's BIG day

Well, after several days of a very fussy Evan, he finally let us know what he has been working on. Today he decided to cut his first tooth and start crawling. We knew he was teething and he has been working on the crawling thing for a while. It all came together for him today. What a big boy!

No No NO SANTA!

Anna met Santa and she doesn't like him at all. He was a very nice Santa, but she just screamed and screamed. Fortunately there were only a few people around, so I could save face. What a scene. "Ta Da" is the phrase of the day. Don't you love it? She also wags her finger at the Christmas tree saying "no, no, no." I guess she figured out we don't want her touching the tree.

Evan is driving us crazy with fussing and crying. He either needs to get a tooth or start crawling and give us some peace. I think he wants to be "held" more now than ever, and by held I mean wrestling with him while he tries to get out of your arms so he can try to stand, only to get tired and want to be held. Oh, bother.

The car really is fixed, finally. It has successfully started 5 days in a row. I think that is a new record.

7 more days to wake up hours before dawn. I actually saw sunshine on the way home from work today and momentarily needed sunglasses. It was nice.

ho ho ho, not so merry

The car is finally fixed (3 weeks, 13 days in the shop), total repair bill $700+. Thanks Stan and Rob. Hobby-Dog is feeling better, total repair bill $330. Thanks Dr. Karen. Holiday spirit? Not so much. But after listening to the doom and gloom news, we are thankful for our health, our jobs, our beautiful children, and our meager savings in the bank. (On the news today: 533,000 jobs lost in America in November 2008 alone. The jobless rate in US is now over 10,000,000 and will likely get worse in 2009.)

Tomorrow Anna (& Evan?) will help decorate the tree. Pictures are sure to follow. I am very behind on uploading, my camera is full.

10 school days until holiday break. 16 blissful days off work to sleep past 5:45am.... It is hard for me to believe that I now think sleeping until 7am is sleeping in. Can I say that I miss being pregnant on bedrest? I think I napped until 9am every day. I don't miss being pregnant, but I miss the bedrest part of the deal. Not the confined to the house, stress and anxiety, too many dr appts part, just the "rest" part. Yes, definitely the "rest" part.

Evan goes in for his 9 month well baby check before Christmas. So we will find out if he is gaining weight now. My hunch says yes, his pants are getting tighter.

Welcome to the world Baby Allison and Baby Nia!!!

when it rains, it pours

It is always hard when you hit a patch of bad luck right before the holidays. We are there, and it feels like we are stuck. The car is broken down, again, so another repair bill. Hobbes is sick and needs blood work and possibly x-rays and no doubt, expensive dog medicine. I have been sick for over a week and I am exhausted. The house that was fairly neat and clean two weeks ago looks like a bomb went off. We are in survival mode and hopefully will get a break soon. Unfortunately, we will probably be too exhausted or broke to enjoy it....

On the lighter side of things:



HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

reflux

So, Evan's reflux has gotten worse. We were at the doctor today for a flu shot and to talk about the reflux. When he was weighed, he had only gained 7 ounces in the past month (16lbs 14 ounces today). Normal weight gain would have been 1 pound or more. Dr. S seemed to think it was primarily from excessive spitting up, but I have also been having milk volume issues lately. So we have a plan for increasing Evan's food intake, medication to help curb the spitting up, and increasing my milk production. We will be busier than ever! We go back in 6 weeks to check on his progress. According to Dr. S, I also need to be eliminating the middle of the night feeding. She doesn't know Evan very well. :) Hopefully the increased feedings during the day and boosting my milk production will help.

Evan is a great little guy and took his flu shot without crying - a little wimper and then he was fine!

An Anna tidbit: she is learning to call Evan "Ev" but struggles with the /v/ sound, so it sounds like she is calling him Eff, Baby Eff!

HAPPY ELECTION DAY - I am going to watch the news and then off to bed! I am not sure what I am going to do with myself when I am not glued to political news from 8-10pm anymore.... Maybe I will get to bed earlier!

the daily grind

So we have been trudging through the weeks with our very hectic schedule. Besides caring for the kids, very little gets done Monday thru Friday, which means that our weekends are just as busy as the weekdays. Not to mention that we want to spend as much time as possible with the kids (while secretly praying for them to take a long nap so we can get some down time too). John and I are both sleep deprived, Evan is still struggling to sleep 3-4 hours at a time. But as the daily grind goes on, the kids are growing and growing. At any given moment, I would like to stop time and stay there for a few days, weeks, months. Anna continues to talk up a storm and has "mastered" running (she doesn't cry when she falls most of the time). Evan is rolling, rolling, rolling, and sitting up, and still spitting up. He has also found his voice, which sounds amazingly like Anna's ear piercing scream. He is also starting "buh" and thinks it's funny to roll over on the changing table. And he hates having his clothes changed.

John's cousin Bill and his wife Melissa welcomed their second son into the world recently. Isaac joined the Perkins team weighing in around 8 1/2 lbs. We are also expectantly waiting for the arrivals of a Baby Peterson, a Baby Trovini, and off in the spring - a Baby Trost.

So here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

Smiley, Happy Baby_______Rudolph the Red Nosed Anna

Anna in the pumpkin patch_______Evan picks one too.

Red-headed Evan???

Anna's first trick-or-treat!_____ Always more interested in nature.

Evan gets a Baby Ruth.

Two more days until Election Day! Twenty days until John's birthday. Seventeen SCHOOL days until Thanksgiving Break. Fifteen more school days until Christmas break. Seven months until a vacation on the beach.... But who's counting?!

adorableness

So, Anna has her own personal photo album and we taught her everyones' names. She was sitting with her album in her lap today saying "this the mommy," "this the daddy," "this the baby (pointing to herself in the picture)." We could hardly believe it. In the mirror when we say "where's Anna?" she will now point to herself and laugh. She has also begun climbing into chairs with books and sitting and looking at them like a "big girl." We really do need to watch what we say and what we do because she is absorbing everything and bringing it back out when she is ready.

I had the highest of hopes of getting Anna outside to play all afternoon today and instead we have torrential rain and flooding. The forecast for rain goes well into the week. Tomorrow we are going to play in the rain.

Evan nearly rolled over today from his back to his tummy. He got all the way over and got stuck on his arm. I gave him a nudge and he made it over. He still does not like being on his belly, maybe because it is so big! :) We really do need to improve his sleeping arrangements now that he is beginning to roll over. The co-sleeper is not going to be safe much longer, not that he spends much time in it.... Perhaps he will one day sleep in his beautiful crib.

uncle scott!

Uncle Scott and Beth came to visit for the weekend (Grandma B too!) and Uncle Scott became Anna's new favorite person, even trying to say his name. Beth is so very nice, and Anna completely ignored her like the little booger that she is sometimes. What can I say, she likes the men in the family. She drags her toy moose all over the house, takes it to Nancy's house every day, and sleeps with it almost every night.

I think my children are two of the most fascinating people around and I truly could spend all day watching them and playing with them. I love them both so much, but find every day that the way that interact is even more lovable. Evan just loves his big sister and always has a big smile for her. He reaches out for her and tries to grab her. She seems to like him too, and today I walked in to the living room while Evan was in the exersaucer. Anna had gotten out her hat and put it on Evan and was saying "Go outside" in her adorable little voice. I quickly got the camera and captured this (I have some video too, but it will need to be edited down before I post it):


Being back to work, our evenings are quite a rush of getting things done. As a result, Anna has not had much time to play outside after dinner. Last week, John was on his way back to work for Open House and Anna had a complete fit when he left. She desperately wanted to go outside. It was raining, and she was undressed (we had just finished pasta for dinner so she was in a diaper only). I tried to cheer her up playing with Evan's monkey shorts - monkeys are her latest thing. So she wore her baby brother's shorts, and yes, they fit. Well the screaming fit continued until I let her out on the deck, in the rain. She LOVED it. The neighbors probably think I am nuts, or unfit to parent.

Evan is becoming quite the funny man, but not the ham in front of the camera that Anna is. When he sees the camera coming, he turns on his thoughtful face. Here is a smiley face from last week.

WOW!

It has been another busy weekend in the Badham family. Anna had her 18 month checkup on Friday. She weighs 22.25lbs and has gained 3lbs in the last 3 months! She is hanging steady at the 75th %ile for her height and her head circumference finally made it on the growth charts at the 10th %ile!!! Woo Hoo! I guess this is what you would call "catching up" although most kids her age would have trouble keeping up with her. Anna continually teaches us new things and while at the pediatrician we saw a new side of her. Dr. S. examined Anna (ears, nose, etc.) and Anna was SCREAMING. Then she needed to look at Anna's feet and Anna was KICKING Dr. S. We expressed our concerns about the walking/falling issue and Dr. S. wanted to see Anna walk. When we put Anna down on the floor she was in full MELTDOWN - screaming, yelling, sobbing, completely inconsolable. I finally got Anna to walk. Dr. S assured us that she doesn't think the walking on toes is a problem, just inexperience. Anna did tip and had to hold herself up on the wall, but again Dr. S. didn't think it was a problem. She did give us a referral to an orthopedic doctor. But as with most things, we noticed a huge improvement this weekend. She was "running" up and down the sidewalk without falling on Sunday.

Evan also gave us a surprise this weekend. He has TWO TEETH coming in. We can see the little white nubs and I can feel the points when I run my finger on his gums. In retrospect, he has been drooly (not more so than usual....), fussy (a little more than usual), and chewing on his fingers (that's pretty new). He was not nursing well on Saturday and Sunday and was waking a lot during the night to eat. But other than that, there were no dramatic signs of teething (compared to Anna's screaming and crying for hours during the night). More surprising is that the teeth are not the front teeth. They are on the sides on the bottom, like fangs. When you look at his upper gums they are swollen where the "fangs" would develop. He is going to look like a vampire. An adorable vampire.

School starts for John tomorrow. Thankfully I have another day to work in my room. My students start on Wednesday. It is a painfully busy week for us with evening commitments every evening until Friday. Calgon, take me away.

back to work

Well, we are headed back to work. This week was "Professional Development" and John and I both have been working in our rooms as well. My room looks like a disaster area. I don't know how I will get the mess cleaned up and organized before school starts.



John got good news in that his science teaching partner was recalled from his layoff. The kids are adjusting to going to Nancy's all day. Anna is starting to cry and fight being dropped off in the morning, at least when I drop her off. She also is not getting as much sleep as she did while home all summer. Needless to say her temper runs short. Evan seems to be adjusting well, but only takes two bottles most days and then nurses like a crazy boy all evening long. I don't really mind, it is just hard when we have so many things to do in the evenings and I want to spend time with Anna before her bedtime. We took them for portraits today and neither of them cooperated. I am not thrilled with how the pics came out and will regret spending so much on them when we weren't really satisfied. But the alternative was coming back another day and trying again. UGH.

Anna is talking up a storm. She seems to go in spurts of new words. Lately it is monkey, ribbit, and (finally) mommy. We put together her family photo album (still need a picture of G&G Badham) and she carries it around pointing at people. She can do all the animal sounds in her Busy Bee book and can point to all the animals by name. She can say many of the animal names too. She has 10 teeth now. We have her 18 month checkup tomorrow with Dr. S. John and I are both going to express our concerns about her walking/falling.

Evan has found his feet and grabs them and puts them in his mouth.
He also can roll over from his tummy to his back. We put him in the exer-saucer the other day and he LOVED it! He is very active and interactive and reaches out to grab faces, hands, clothing. Watch out! Evan takes after his sister as a good eater. He is eating cereal every day and either a vegetable or fruit. He sleeps with us most of the night now. He wakes up sometime between midnight and 3am and ends up in our bed so I can get more sleep. He seems so much more content and sleeps so much more/better. So for now we are going with the flow, especially as he adjusts to me being gone all day. It is kind of nice to be able to spend some extra time with him, even if it is while we are sleeping. I kind of wish we had done this with Anna when she was a baby. It is so hard to be gone to work all day and just have a few hours with her in the evening before bedtime.

It is hard to believe that September is starting. Where did the summer go and how can our children be growing up so fast?

a very busy weekend

It has been a wonderfully busy weekend. Last Thursday we drove out to Port Sanilac to visit G&G Kish while they were camping. It was a long drive, but well worth it. Anna had so many new experiences - running around the campsite, exploring the trailer, walking on the bridge, meeting Buddha the kitty, eating at a picnic table. So much fun! It typical Badham fashion, we headed home much later than expected. Anna was exhausted and not so much fun in the car on the way home. She tried to sleep, but yelled out at regular intervals letting us know how much she would prefer her own bed. Evan is Evan, he hangs out no matter where we go. As long as there are a pair of arms to hold him while he sleeps, he is happy just about anywhere. We got home around 11pm and both kids were asleep by 11:30. Wouldn't you think Anna would sleep in after all her adventures? No way, she was up before 7:30am on Friday.....

Which made packing up for our next car trip nearly impossible. "Evil Anna" came out of the crib Friday morning. Absolutely nothing made her happy. We had originally planned on hitting the road to Kalamazoo by noon so she could take her nap in the car. Around 11am she was melting down and we thought she would go down for a nap. No such luck. We finally managed to get her and Evan fed, packed, and loaded into the car with the dogs by 2:00. Again, typical Badham fashion, two hours later than planned. Fortunately for us, Anna did take a very good nap in the car while we drove to G&G Badham's house. Evan was also quite the trooper, sleeping and playing most of the way there. Around Galesburg Evan generally decides he wants out of his carseat, and on this trip he pretended to be hungry. So we obliged him by pulling off at a stop and I attempted to feed him only to find his goofy grinning face looking up at me with absolutely no interest in eating. But he got a break from his carseat long enough that he was willing to go the rest of the trip with minimal drama. We finally got to Kalamazoo to unpack and unwind.

Saturday was the family cookout at Emily and Joe's new house. We got to see all the family and Anna got to play with Audrey and Kaleigh. Another day full of wonderful adventures for that kid. She has never been so dirty, and probably never as happy. She ran around, ate at a kiddie picnic table with her cousins, jumped in a bouncy house, went for wagon rides, chased the kitty, played with HUGE puppies. Evan also had a wonderful day being loved, hugged, and held by all his cousins and aunties. The food was great, John's mom always takes such good care of (me) us, and everyone are great cooks. It was so nice to hang out and get caught up with everyone. I hope it becomes an annual event. Emily and Joe's huge backyard is the perfect place. We got home just in time to get the princess bathed and put to bed. She certainly didn't fight going to bed that night. We all got to sleep in on Sunday, which made it easier to load up and make the drive back home. We only left an hour later than planned, so maybe we are getting better at this. We did have to stop and change Evan (blowout) and stop again to feed him. The trip home took about 3 hours. Anna only slept about an hour in the car, so sleeping beauty went to be at 6:30pm. I think her busy weekend has taken its toll. I hope she sleeps well.

Getting Started

Well, I am just getting things set up. Hopefully I will be able to get this going before going back to work. My plan is to be able to put pics of the kids and what's new so everyone can keep up.