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!!