Heirloom Renovations

The reason we've been SO busy these past few weeks is we are opening our own business!! This was completely unplanned, and unexpected. One day, about 2 weeks before Christmas, Matt came home and said that he was losing his job, after I cried over the fact that we were both about to be unemployed, we pulled our heads out of the sand, and said, ok, what now?!?! And what now led to, Heirloom Renovations.

We were unable to get a bank loan, the economy just hasn't recovered enough for banks to want to loan to startup companies, so we borrowed from my parents and a couple close friends and we've borrowed everything we possibly could and have managed to get this business set to start on January 3.

We are very excited, yet very scared. We don't know if we will be successful, but we know we need to try. It is a granite countertop business, for those that don't know what Matt did/does for a living.

We imagine things will be very tight, tighter then they have been, but we are hoping it leads to better things in the long run. So, look for more posts, and pray for us, we are going to need it!!

Christmas 2010

This year was a VERY tight Christmas for us. But, through the generosity of our family, I don't feel like our kids were neglected one bit, lol!! On Christmas morning, Garrett even said, "I think Santa brought too much", I could have cried. What we did, was bought more, smaller, couple dollar items, so it appeared to him that he got a lot, when in reality we didn't spend much at all.

We were able to spend time with my parents the week before Christmas, then we saw Matt's mom's side of the family the weekend before, and Christmas Eve with Matt's Dad's family and then Christmas Day was here with just the O'Banions.

We had a very enjoyable Christmas, seeing the delight on Garrett's face when he opened up his green light saber from Santa was SO very worth it!! Payton, of course, just wanted to eat the paper.

I know this post is a bit late, but we've been extremely busy around here! I'll explain why soon.

10 months old

We were in Dallas for Payton's 10 month birthday, so I'm a bit behind on the blog update, I'll try and get pictures up later tonight.

Payton is an absolute joy, I do think it's the age, but a lot of it is just her personality, she's a very happy baby. She's also extremely active, taking her out to eat is an adventure, she just doesn't sit still much, and she's so curious, just as you go to spoon some food into her mouth, someone walks by and her little head whips around and food ends up in her ear, lol!

She is so close to walking, I'll be surprised if she doesn't walk before her first birthday, but since you can't predict these things, she may surprise us all and wait a bit longer.

This past weekend she spent her first nights in a hotel, I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep in a hotel until I was in my teens, so she's definitely ahead in that department! But, we went to see her godmother and Aunt graduate from college!! We were all so proud, and think so highly of her, we know she'll do great in whatever she does next!

So, Happy 10 month birthday Payton, and Happy Graduation Aunt Heather!!

Babies and Dogs

Have you ever thought about how similar babies and dogs are?? I"m not being mean, but think about it.....

we clap/whistle at them to get their attention;

if food drops on the floor, they will clean it up for you;

they like to chew on shoes;

you worry about them peeing or pooping in the wrong places;

if they eat too much, they just yak it up;

we love when they fall asleep on our laps;

strangers love to look at them and touch them;

we buy them special food;

they drool on us;

they hate having their hair brushed;

but love water;

and, of course, we love them to death and would go to the ends of the earth for them!

9 month checkup

Payton had her 9 month well visit today, she is staying right on track, she is 28 1/4 inchs long, which is 75%, 18 lbs, 14 oz, which is 70%. Her iron levels are good. She didn't even cry when the tech pricked her finger, and then she tried to eat the bandaid, so we took that off pretty fast! All in all, it was a pretty quick appointment, he said to start feeding her meats, and that yogurt and cheese are ok now too. He also said we need to take her out of the infant carrier by 20 pounds. We are ok for now, but we only have about a month to go, then she needs to be in a big girl car seat. And he said she'll probably have to face backwards until she's 2! He said there's a lot of new research, and it's being considered for a law so not to rush and turn her around at a year until I go back in and make sure the law hasn't changed any. I can't imagine that, but we'll do it if that's the law. Poor thing, I guess she won't know any different other then seeing Garrett facing forward. I want her to be safe, but 2 seems like a long time!

9 months old

Payton was 9 months old on Tuesday! I can hardly believe it. She was not interested in having her picture taken, and just wanted to play with the sign I made. She is very much a playful little girl. She has 4 teeth, 2 top & 2 bottom, I've been trying to get the top two in a picture, but she moves a lot and it's hard to catch her with the right smile so you can see the teeth.

She's still pulling up on everything and now she's trying to stand on her own. She cruises along the furniture a bit, but seems pretty content to crawl and pull up, and that's ok with me! She waves bye-bye now and gets super excited if you wave at her. She started dancing this week and that is just SO cute! She also loves to hit things and hear the noises it makes. Her favorite thing is to smack the couch and giggle. She "talks" a lot, I have no idea where she gets that from, lol! As always her favorite is G, she just follows him around and gets the biggest grin when he pays attention to her, which is quite often, he seems to like her just as much, and that makes me SO happy.

She loves playing in his room. When given the chance, she heads straight for his room or the bathroom, she LOVES the tub. She will go stand by it and yell, like she wants to get in, and if the water is running, she comes flying in the bathroom and tries to climb in. She gets so excited to be in it and cries when you take her out. She also hates having her diaper changed, all the sudden she will wiggle and cry when you lay her down, it's a real pain!

But, she is just such a joy and a great addition to our family! I can't see what else is coming up.

Preschool

Garrett is loving school! He was moved up from a 3 year old to a 4 year old class. His teacher Ms MiMi, said he loves to learn and wants to please her, he has some issues with keeping his hands to himself, but she said that's more about being a 3 year old boy then anything and they are working on it. Recently she told me she thinks he may be a lefty and I'm supposed to encourage this. As if I wouldn't! But, she said whichever hand he grabs the pencil or scissors with, to let him use that hand. Of course, I'm right handed so helping him cut left handed is definitely tricky, but she gave me some tips and we'll see how he does. He loves to write, they've done the A and the B, for some reason he wants to write the A all the time, the B never, but we're working on it! Logan did not get moved up with him, so his new best friends are Turner and Libby (or new girl, as he calls her). He really does seem to be learning a lot and I"m glad we decided to send him to preschool this year. In the evenings we'll try to get him to repeat some of the stuff they did in school and he'll tell us, "I already did that once today", lol!

He loves to read, we recently went to the library to check out some books and he just stared at all the books. He wanted 2 Star Wars books and I got him a Dr. Suess one, he read mine once and hasn't wanted to read it since, but the Star Wars ones are read multiple times a day. I will stop reading and he will fill in the blanks, I am very impressed by this! If someone didn't know better, they'd think he was reading the book. I'm amazed that he's memorized it that well and that fast. The books go back on Thursday, so I've been spending the week prepping him. He keeps asking if he can get a Luke Skywalker book, I told him we'd look.

I can see his "skills" improving so much, he stays in the lines SO much better, and actually chooses different colors now, he cuts remarkably well, loves to glue things and of course, loves to write. I really hope this love of school continues!

8 months

I can not believe that Payton is 8 months old already!! She was 8 months on Saturday. I am just floored at how fast time flies by. She is doing great. She is crawling, quite fast I might add, she is pulling up on everything, and twice on Sunday, she let go! She loves big kid food, cries if I don't give her something she can feed herself at meal times. She still loves baby food and since I figure she's getting so much variety that way, I give her the cereal and baby food and then some food she can feed to herself. She has figured out how to drink from a cup, she does not like the ones with handles, she likes G's cups, but refuses to hold a bottle. She will actually put her hands up in a "stick-em-up" kind of pose, and cry until you pick her up and give her the bottle. Most times, this is fine with me, but every once in a while, it would be really nice if she would hold it herself! She still has the acid reflux, as a matter of fact, we just increased her does on Friday. Sadly, as of today, she is still spitting up a TON! This I hate more then anything, I know it makes her uncomfortable, and as much as Matt & I hate giving her so much medicine every day, we can truly see she is not ready to go off the meds yet. Her top teeth are just below the surface, I can see the one and it's SO close to breaking through. It looks like her incisors are coming in too, no wonder we've had so much trouble with her sleeping through the night!

She still has the strawberry blonde hair and the blue eyes, she's 18 pounds, and oh so happy! She makes the cutest face where she scrunches her whole face up and smiles and snorts at you. I've been trying to get a picture of it, but when she sees me raise the camera, it distracts her.

We are finally getting her baptized this weekend. I know she's a tad old, but we never seemed to have all the family together that we wanted. Since my parents will be here, we figured it was time!

So, Happy 8 month birthday Peanut!

Kidney Stone

On Thursday night, I had put the kids to bed and Matt & I were watching tv, and I got this horrible lower back pain. It was a little after 8, and by 8:30, I was laying on our bedroom floor. Matt told me I needed to go to the ER or he was calling 911. I decided to drive to the Physician's Center, since it's SO close to our house. Turns out I was in the process of passing a kidney stone! This was my second one, so we kind of suspected as much, the Dr just confirmed it. The funny thing is, The ER was SO small! I think there was only one actual exam room, my bed was in the hall. I kidded about it, but I actually preferred it, at least I was right next to the nurses station and had someone to chat with. They gave me fluids, and did a CT scan. The Dr said it appeared to be stuck and that I was having trouble peeing (I had noticed this), so he sent me home and had me follow up with a Urologist on Friday. In all, I was in the ER for less then 3 hours, I'd highly recommend that ER for anyone needing anything not too serious, they do not handle any trauma, no strokes, heart attacks, kids or pregnant women (I found that out last year), but for kidney stones, pulled muscles, sports injuries, pneumonia, etc, they are great!

The urologist looked at the scan and said it was a decent size stone, and if I didn't pass it within a week, they would look at other options, blasting it, or surgery if it really wasn't moving. The funny thing was, on Friday I had almost no pain, the Dr said this is perfectly normal, the pain normally comes and goes. Well, Saturday morning, I passed the stone. So, no surgery, no x-ray, no more Dr's visit. I believe that was pretty fast for passing a stone, but I honestly have no idea!

The Dr feels it's from my lack of Calcium, so I will be taking a calcium supplement to try and prevent this in the future.

Back to the Dr

So, Payton is looking worse then ever, so I took her back to the Dr today. Big surprise, no ear infections! She has a tear duct infection, I have never heard of such a thing. But there is a duct that runs from your eyes to your nose (that's why your nose runs when you cry), well, she has so much congestion that hers are all clogged up. So, I am to finish the antibiotics (had planned on it anyway), but now I have the joy of putting eye drops in her eyes now! I asked about the congestion, he said she managed to get a virus and that's probably what caused the start of all of this. But, he feels she should be a lot better in a couple days, I'm hoping so!

7 months old

Last Thursday, Payton turned 7 months old, with all the "fun" we were having with medicine and eye boogers and snotty noses, I haven't had a chance to post the couple pictures I got of her.

She is crawling all over the place, I have to make sure we keep doors closed to keep her out of the pantry, laundry room and anywhere else she doesn't need to be. Her favorite thing is when I put her down in her room, she takes off across the house to my bedroom. Head down just on a mission. I have no idea what is so fun about my room, but if we can't find Payton, that's where she is, every time! And when I say, "can't find Payton", no I don't leave her unsupervised, but I do need to go to the bathroom and sometimes help G, often when I come back, she is not where I left her!

She is pulling up on everything, this is crazy to me because she's 7 MONTHS old!! She tries to crawl with her legs straight, she pulls up on anything that doesn't move, it's just amazing. The Dr said she'd crawl and walk early, and I have to say, he was right! Now, she very well could just pull up on things and cruise around for months, but I'm guessing She'll be walking by 9 months, maybe sooner.

She loves to eat. She loves her baby food, and she loves every bit of adult food I've given her. The Dr originally said 9 months, but I didn't listen :) She loves real bananas, strawberries, bread, her yogurt bites, the baby puffs. Anything I can mash fairly easily, she's eating.

Her eyes are still blue, and she still doesn't have enough hair for a barrette or ponytail of any kind!

She is happy almost all the time! She is such a joy, she will just sit on the floor and laugh at us, Garrett is by far still her favorite, if she's fussing while I get her food ready, he'll run over and make faces at her and she'll shriek with laughter, it's great!

Earache and Pink eye

Last Monday, Garrett woke up with his eyes sealed shut with "boogers", as he called them. Payton has the slightest bit of a runny nose, but since I can't leave her home, we all went to the Dr. Garrett was diagnosed with pink eye and just for fun, the Dr checked out Payton, she had her first ear infection! I never would have known, she was all smiles and her nose was barely running, if Garrett hadn't woken up looking so horrible, I never would have even taken her in.

The only fun part of the visit was finding out Garrett has grown 3 inches since his 3 year exam! and Payton now weighs exactly 17 pounds.

To the beach!

This past weekend, we went to Surfside Beach with our friends, Chris & Melissa Carter and their little girl Grace. We had a blast!

For some odd reason it took us almost 5 hours to get there! We made a stop along the way and that caused us to get stuck in some horrific, Houston traffic, so the weekend started off to a late start, and because we were in the car so long, Payton took 3 naps, lol!! She didn't go to bed until 10.

The weather was great though! Saturday we were at the beach by 9, the only "issue" we had all weekend, was keeping Payton from eating the sand. Apparently, salty sand tastes fantastic to a 6 month old. If she was barely crawling when we got there, once she realized she could just crawl to the edge of the blanket to get sand, there was no stopping her!

Garrett & Grace got along great. Both of them loved the water, and Matt and Chris even got to do some fishing. Chris swears he caught a small shark, but I never saw any evidence of that :)

Saturday we were at the beach from 9-11 and all 3 kids passed out for naps, then we went back out again. Dinner was at the Red Snapper, then to bed, this time G was up until 10 from some reason. Sunday, both my kids were up at 6:30!! Grace slept in, I'm so jealous of that!

We had a lot of fun and hope they did too.

Preschool

Garrett started preschool today. He was very excited. I'm not sure he really got that it was any different, it's at the same place he was going to MDO in the Spring. He does have a different teacher this year, but his best school friend, Logan was there, so it was pretty similar.

We got there about 30 minutes late because of Payton's Dr's appt, so they were already in their small groups by the time we got there. He was a bit nervous, then he saw Logan and ran right over to him, pretty much scooted the girl next to Logan over sat down and said, I'm bigger now, are you?

I like this school, it's part of a gymnastics/dance studio, but they have all these wonderful educational programs. They are doing a new preschool format this year. There are only 7 kids total in G's class, I saw a dad signing his son up, so there will be 8 on Wednesday, they have 3 classes, a 2, 3, and 4 year old. When they "play", they are all in the same room, then they break up into their age groups and do the learning activities. They have 3 teachers and an aide, the aide rotates through, so when they are practicing writing letters or more specialized stuff, the aide comes in and they break into even smaller groups! I love this vs a really large preschool class. He kind of gets the best of both worlds.

When I picked him up he was playing great, then we left, and he announced he didn't eat lunch and the falling apart began! I packed exactly what he wanted and he didn't eat it, not much more I can do! I gave him his sandwich to eat while we read stories before nap. I can only hope he starts eating better, I'm assuming he was just so excited and there was a lot going on.

Wednesday, we can go eat lunch with him :)

6 month checkup

Payton had her 6 month check up today. She is growing VERY well, she is 16 pounds, 10 oz and 26 inches long, both are in the 80th percentile. She was in the 50th at 4 months, so she's growing really well. Her head is still small, but it's growing just fine for her, the Dr just said she's going to have a small head, but again, I do too, so there's no concern there.

She only cried a little bit for her shots, I was very proud of her!

Matt surprised us and met us there, so it was nice having an extra set of hands!

We didn't have many questions for the Dr. He said she's ahead a tiny bit developmentally, but that's normal being a second child and he wasn't surprised that she's crawling already since she's been super active since birth.

She is sitting up unsupported and she has started crawling, she doesn't go far, and she isn't fast, but it's a start! She goes one or 2 "Crawls" then flops down on her belly, wiggles around a bit, then gets up and does it all again.

Her first tooth also came through!! He said we can move her up to stage 2 foods whenever we want, but no finger foods until she has more teeth, I was hoping to start her on some Cheerios or some teething biscuits or something, but he said nope, wait closer to 9 months.

We talked about her reflux, he said there just isn't much we can do about it. She'll grow out of by 12 months, and until then, we just need to keep the burp rags handy. He said trying a lactose free formula may work, but the formula he has her on is for acid reflux, so he's not sure if a soy based will help or not, but we can try if we want.

Speaking of formula, I've been having trouble finding it in the stores, I mentioned this to our nurse, she came back with 6 sample cans and said they don't use that formula often, so when I'm getting low, just call and she'll keep us stocked with samples!! She said she would check with the rep to see what stores carry it, but she said the 6 cans she gave me expire next month and they figured they were going to have to toss them. I'll be emailing them regularly!!

I asked about the Hemotoma's on her eyes and he said they should go away on their own by 2, but if not, we'll visit other options then, so he said I shouldn't worry.

We go back at 9 months!

6 months old

Trying to crawl

She was much more interested in the paper then me

Payton is 6 months old today! My sweet, baby girl is growing so fast. We are loving every minute of it.

If she's asleep and Garrett is awake, he's constantly asking if we can go get her up, he loves playing with her.

She is trying SO hard to crawl, I don't think it will be much longer, she prefers to be on the ground now where she can practice her new skills.

She is a wonderful eater, we haven't found anything she doesn't like yet :)

She still has her blue eyes, I'm very excited about this. Garrett has my brown eyes, so I thought it would be neat if she had her Daddy's blue eyes and it looks like she just might!

Thankfully, she is over her issues with riding in the car, that was a rough couple of weeks.

She sleeps about 10 hours a night, some nights she wakes up every couple hours, some nights she sleeps straight through. I cannot figure out how to get her to sleep straight through every night though. She is a great afternoon napper, and a decent morning napper, but that's more my fault, we are always on the go in the morning, so she doesn't usually get to lay in her crib and nap.

I'm almost done weaning her. 6 months was my goal and we are down to one feeding a day, she doesn't seem to care one way or the other!

She will reach for her bottle and guide it into her mouth, but she does not hold it yet.

Happy 6 month birthday, Peanut!

Grandma and Grandpa's

After much back and forth, it was decided that I would take the kids to visit my parents in Michigan, Matt would stay here, and my sister would fly with me. What a trip! I think we really wore Heather out :)

On Wednesday, Aug 4, I packed all of us in the car and drove to Dallas, we stopped once for a potty break and I fed Payton. She slept almost the entire way there, and Garrett watched a movie. When we got to Dallas, we ran into some traffic, Garrett says, "what's this momma?", "traffic, honey", "I don't like it, it's slow". Heather was not home when we got there, so I let Payton lay on the floor while G and I ran back down (3flights) to the car. When I came back, P was not where I left her, yep, baby girl had scooted backwards and was half way across the room! I thought I had a few more months before she started moving around! That night was a bit rough, Heather's cat doesn't like company much, so she cried all night long :( The flight Saturday was fairly easy, P fell asleep as we took off and only cried once. I gave her a bottle and she was fine. G played a bit and watched a movie. Thursday night at Grandma and Grandpa's was pretty relaxed, we actually ate dinner outside!!

Friday we met Heather Babjack and Evan at Chuck E Cheese, the kids had a blast! Friday afternoon, Dad went and got Jack from daycare and we got to have dinner with Scott and Jack, Garrett and Jack had a blast with each other too!

Saturday, us and most of Detroit, went to the Detroit zoo. There was some sort of corporate event going on and it was SO busy!! We did have some fun, but the kids were hot and whiny and it was crowded and we couldn't see the animals that well. I'm glad we went, but I may not go back for a while! Saturday night, Aunt Kay, Uncle Glenn, Grandma S, Beth and Bre came over. Garrett got Bre to play with him, he was thrilled to have someone pay attention just to him!

Sunday, we had a family picnic at Metro Beach, again, another fun filled day! We saw almost all my Dad's family. The kids all got along great, P slept most of the time, poor thing was just worn out! We splashed in the water, took a "train" ride, G flew a kite with Scott and Jack. It was a very enjoyable day.

Monday, we took P to my old Dr. She had a runny nose for 11 days and with another flight coming up, I was a bit worried. He checked her over, said she's growing great :), but no infections. He did give her a decongestant, and told me he's pretty sure her blue eyes will stay!! Love Dr. Sullivan! Monday night we went to see Grandma K and more of Dad's family. The kids did ok, but it was bedtime and they were falling apart a bit.

Tuesday, we just hung out until it was time to go. This flight didn't go quite as good. P cried off and on for most of the flight, not loud crying, more fussing, but then when we landed, she screamed, full out screamed, for about 10 minutes until I could get up and walk down the aisle, then she was fine! By the time we got to Heather's, I figure we'd been traveling for 10 hours! Sadly, none of us slept well at all, again, Kahlua doesn't much like guests sleeping over!

Wednesday, Heather had to head back to work. I felt really bad for Heather, so I cleaned her kitchen for her :) The drive home didn't go so great either, Both kids did great until Madisonville, P woke up, so I fed her, but she did not want to get back in the car seat, so she cried all the way from Madisonville, about a good 40 minutes. G, on the other hand, finally fell asleep! How he could sleep with her screaming is beyond me!! When I got home and put her in the exersaucer, all smiles. Little stinker!

While we were at Grandma and Grandpa's, P also realized she is strong enough to get up on all 4's! She is know rocking back and forth and today even threw herself forward a few times, I fear crawling is right around the corner! She is sitting up really well and has been for about a week, but I"m not sure I'm ready for crawling!!

Schedule

I think I finally did it, I got Payton on a schedule! One we can all live with. The cereal is helping things, not sure why, but it really seems to be.

She wakes up and gets a bottle at 7, (I pump and get enough for 2 bottles), then she usually takes a little 15 minute catnap on our way to the gym. At 10, she gets cereal and another bottle, and takes a nap, but not too long. I've discovered this throws her afternoon nap off. So it is usually about 30-45 minutes, but no longer then an hour. Then when we read stories to Garrett at 1, her and I go off to her room, she nurses and sleeps about 3 hours!! When she gets up she gets more cereal and her veggies dinner, with a small bottle, then plays and and gets a bath if it's bath night, then by 8, she's usually sound asleep.

Night time is a guess, some nights she's up a lot between 4 and 6:30, some nights (last night), she's up every couple hours, and some nights she sleeps straight though. She no longer nurses at night, I just pop the paci in and rub her back and she's out before I'm out the door. Why she wakes up, I have no idea, but I can NOT wait for her to figure out how to get that paci back in herself!

5 months

Oh, i can't believe I forgot to post Payton's 5 month birthday! I took pictures, but by the time you upload them onto the computer, then to Kodak, then share them, then onto facebook, I guess I forgot the blog!

Yes, my little Peanut is 5 months old! She is rolling and squirming everywhere. She can now get to a toy if she wants it. It might take her a little while, but she gets there. She turned 5 months on Friday, Saturday morning she discovered she has a voice, and boy does she like hearing herself! By the time she fell asleep Saturday night, I had a headache, that girl can talk. She is trying to sit up, she does this tripod type sit up, then usually falls on her face or rolls on her side.

We started baby food on Monday night. We finally got her high chair down from the attic and she looks so tiny sitting in it, but she loves it! She had sweet potatoes the last 2 nights and those are a big hit. Now that I'm feeding her in the high chair and not the Bumbo seat, she isn't making as much of a mess.

Monday, I decided it was time to firm up her nap schedule a bit more, but she had her own ideas! The research I did said to keep her up for 3 hours (I was going for closer to 2), well, at 2 hours she fell asleep on me at Target! She took a 30 minute nap and then about 2 hours later another 30 minutes, but her next nap was 3 hours long! I was feeling quite proud of myself. Today, she napped for 1.5 hours at church....and that was almost it for the day! She slept maybe 10 minutes on the way home from church and that just messed everything up. At 4, she finally passed out, but only slept for 30 minutes, so she was in bed a little after 7! Baby girl was beat.

Her hair is coming in blonder, so we are about to say good bye to the red, I think. Her eyes are still blue. I wish I had noted when Garrett's changed, so I could compare, but I"m still holding out some hope she'll get her Daddy's blue eyes. I need to weigh her, but her and the car seat are 26 pounds! No wonder it's so heavy to carry around. If I can, I just carry her and leave the car seat in the car.

I am officially back to my pre pregnancy weight :) I am now working on losing the last 10 I never lost after I had Garrett. I figure I'm going to keep working out as hard as I can until I finally do go back to work, i figure it will become much harder at that point.

I did decide to start weaning her. I have cut out one feeding, the mid morning one, and it's made life a LOT easier. I don't have to worry so much about when we can go to the gym, or about taking her to the nursery for bible study, or running errands. Maybe it's a selfish decision, but I still pump first thing in the morning and get enough for 2 feedings, so she's still 100% getting breastmilk.

To wean or not to wean?!?!

Payton is 5 months today (pictures coming soon), and I am seriously considering starting to wean her. I originally wanted to nurse her until she was 6 months, but we have a trip coming up and the idea of traveling in the car, on the airplane and just all the fun stuff we have planned and breastfeeding sounds a bit overwhelming to me. So, I think it might be time. The cost of forumla always scares me, but at our last Dr's appt, I asked for some samples and they gave me 6 cans!! I figure if I ask again at her 6 month appt, hopefully, I can get a few more, and maybe we won't have to buy any for a little while.

I get sad, since she's my last baby, but then I think of the freedom, and I get a bit excited, is that wrong?!?!

Rolling, rolling, rolling

I need to get back on track with adding comments about the kids!

Payton is now a rolling machine. You lay her on her back and she immediately flips onto her stomach, and then proceeds to complain because she can't see you.

About a week ago, I decided to go ahead and start her on cereal, she didn't do too well at first, but then i thickened it a bit and now she loves it. She gets it everywhere, she follows the spoon with her fist, then grabs her toes, so it is quite a messy meal, but she opens her mouth and gets very excited about it.

Same with a bottle, i've been pumping a bit more to make sure she is good with the bottle and now she will reach for it and help you hold it, if you try to take it away and burp her, she grabs it and shoves it back in!

She loves the bath now, lots of kicking and splashing going on!

Garrett is still her favorite, she just lights up when he looks at her. She's laughing so much more now, it is the cutest sound ever!

As for Garrett, he's doing great! No more pooping issues, everything makes it into the potty now, except for the occasional naptime poop (in a diaper), but he's even woken up dry from his nap a few times :)

We took him to see Toy Story 3, he loved it. He was scared a couple of times, but as soon as we walked out of the theater, he was asking if we could see it again.

The other night he was trying to watch Scooby Doo, and it was kind of scaring him, he came to me and said he was being "smart" and watching Scooby Doo, it took me a minute to realize he meant brave.

Payton is getting very good at putting herself to sleep. Tonight, she was crying when I was rocking her, so I laid her down, she turned on her side and went right to sleep! Kind of bittersweet for Momma!

4 months old

My little peanut was 4 months old yesterday!! What a difference a couple months makes. I now have a smiley, happy baby girl. The acid reflux medicine has made such a difference in all our lives! She had her checkup yesterday, she is:

14.1 pounds, which is in the 75th %tile

24.5 inches long, which is in the 60th%tile

with a tiny head, 40cm, which is in the 30th%tile.

She did get her shots, I'm proud of her though, she only cried until I picked her up, but boy did she give that nurse her best sad face! I almost wish I could have snapped a picture, that face was priceless.

She loves Garrett and her exersaucer, she hates her car seat and tummy time. She rolled over a bunch at 9 weeks, but hasn't since then, the Dr just said she's not motivated enough, we obviously know that she knows how. He said just more tummy time. The only problem is, Garrett doesn't like it when she's cries, so he tends to roll her over, lol!

Her eyes are still blue and her hair has a reddish tint to it still. I'm hoping to post some new pictures later today.

The Dr said we could start cereal, but he also said the latest, newest research suggests waiting until 6 months. He said it's completely up to us, but I think I'm just going to wait. She still has that gag reflux where she tries to push everything out of her mouth, and life is difficult enoughright now, so since she's growing quite well on just momma's milk, I'm just going to wait. He said we could wait as long as 9 months if we wanted too!! I am thinking more like 5 or 6 months, not 9!

She is a great night time sleeper, not as great a napper. I have just banned her from her swing, so she is not napping nearly as well. Her "normal" routine is a 30-45 minute nap at about 8, then again about 11, then she sleeps from 2-4 or 5, then takes a 30 minute nap about 7, then goes to bed about 8-8:30 and sleeps until 5 or 6. I decided if she could sleep 10 hours in her crib at night, she can nap in it too!

Bedtime

I've decided that bedtime is one of my favorite times of the day. Not just because it means "me" time, but I just love laying in bed with Garrett and talking about the day, and giggling and whispering in the dark, reading stories to him and hearing how he interprets things. Then going and rocking and nursing Payton. She almost always falls asleep nursing now, and she is just so sweet and like a little ragdoll. She tries to pick her head up off my shoulder, but her eyelids are so heavy and she just relaxes down into me, it's just so sweet!

Sometimes I put her to bed while Matt reads Garrett stories and I can hear them and that's just so sweet too. Listening to them talking and hearing Matt read to our son, it's just a very nice time of day for me.

3 months old

Payton turned 3 months on Sunday! I weighed her this morning and according to my scale, she is up to 14 pounds. She is still in 0-3 month clothes, even though they only go up to 12.5 pounds. I think I need to start washing the 3-6 month stuff though.

She is still sleeping from 8:30 to around 4;30/5, some days she goes back to sleep, some days she doesn't :( She is smiling a LOT more, she coos and just lights up whenever Garrett is around. He loves her too, he only gets upset if we're in the car and she's crying. She doesn't seem to like the car much lately, i'm not sure why. But, the last few times we've gone to run errands she's cried.

But, this weekend, Payton and I headed to Aunt Heather's for a girls weekend, other then a small bit of crying at the start of both legs of the trip, she slept the entire time! She did great at Aunt Heather's. She fell asleep in her arms the first night, she loved going shopping with us, and even enjoyed her first trip to the pool (she fell asleep!)

Heather is coming to visit us this weekend and I"m hoping to get some good pictures of both kids and maybe even me :) since i'm always taking the pictures there aren't many of me!

11 weeks

Garrett is such a great big brother to Payton. He loves to kiss on her, first thing every morning he asks where she is and wants to kiss her and tell her he loves her.

Payton is smiling more and more, she is awake a lot more now, she likes to be more upright, she loves her Bumba chair and her exersaucer. If she leans way over, one foot actually touches the bottom and she manages to make herself move, I don't think she has any idea that she's making her self move, but it's pretty cute nonetheless.

We are very busy, Monday's and Wednesday's Garrett goes to MDO and Payton and I run around doing all our errands, and going to the gym, Tuesday's, Thursday's and Friday's all include trips to the gym now :) Payton loves it there, every time I go to get her she's asleep in one of the employee's arms. Garrett loves playing with new toys and new kids. But, he prefers MDO, he just loves going to Powersports.

I am enjoying the gym, but it's also kicking my butt, literally, I am sore almost daily now!! It's hard getting back into shape.

I had a job interview at the gym today, it was for a sales position, I'm fairly confident they will offer me the position, but Matt and I agreed that it's just not going to work, so I'm back to searching. I have a really good lead on a job with Chase bank, hopefully I hear from them soon.

10 weeks

Payton is 10 weeks old today! Every week it just gets a little easier. 3 out of the last 4 nights she's slept for 7 hours straight, from 9-4, I am loving it. Everyone says it's too early, but I can't argue with the facts, the girl sleeps 7 hours!! She does nurse at 4, 6, and 8 to build up to that long sleep, but that's ok.

She spends the entire night in her crib, but naps are always in the car seat or the swing. I need to break her of the swing, but honestly, it's just so much easier. With Garrett wanting stuff, it's easy to just put her in the swing and she dozes off. She sleeps great in it, so is it really that bad?!?!

She's rolled over twice, the first time she was PISSED, I had laid her down because she was just crying and I needed a break. I laid her on her stomach on my bed, went to the bathroom, came back and she was on her back! The second time she was not mad, she was on the couch, I laid her down to get Garrett some milk, we came back and she was staring up at us. Big lesson learned, I can't leave her near the edge of anything, when she's on her stomach! Again, it's about 2 months early for this. I'm pretty sure she's not rolling over on purpose, I think it's just because her arms and legs never stop moving, never!

I started back to the gym last Thursday, she's been to their nursery twice, she apparently likes it just fine, she slept the entire time both days. I, on the other hand, was so sore from my 2 days, I almost couldn't get up off the couch Sunday afternoon!!

We have settled into a routine, Monday's and Wednesday's, Garrett goes to MDO, and Payton and I run our errands, go to Dr's appts, etc. I'm trying to get to the gym, but I usually end up walking outside because I'm trying to do too much. Today was the last bible study class for a while, so now on Tuesday's and Thursday's we'll go to Yoga, Friday's is Body Pump.

9 weeks

Payton is 9 weeks today. I am going to do the weekly update until she's 3 months, then I think I'll go to monthly, but I love seeing how she's changed in only 9 weeks!

She's much more alert now, this evening she was awake from 5-8:30, so we all were able to interact with her so much more. She is smiling a lot more, it makes it a lot of fun. She loves Garrett, and he just loves trying to make her smile. She is starting to play with her toys, she was very entertained by the little animals hanging on her bouncer, this just started yesterday. She has also started drooling a bit, she blows bubbles and the drool just runs down her chin.

She enjoys shopping, and taking long walks with Momma :-) We are up to 3 miles, 3 times a week at least. She is now old enough to go to the nursery at the gym, I am hoping to take her on Thursday for the first time.