Lily's Lady BUG Graduation

Last night we celebrated Lily's graduation from the Lady BUG (Believe Upon God) class at her daycare.  Actually, the pre-K kids were graduating and getting their pre-school diplomas but many of the other kids will "graduate" to the next class when school starts in the fall, including Lily.  She gets to spend the summer with Ms Stina and then she move up to the threes with Miss Beth Ann!

We had a mad scramble when I got home from work to get the kids their baths since we knew we would be getting home right at bed time.  Then we headed off to get some supper before the program.

All through dinner, I just kept hoping that Lily would at least stay up front with her class.  I mean I hoped she would sing, but I was going to be super happy if she just didn't cry!

She looked so pretty in her dress!

I am very happy to say that there were no tears from Lily during the entire performance!  And she stayed up there with her class the whole time!

I think I spent the whole first song trying to get over how much taller Lily is than the rest of her class!!  She's a half a head taller!! 

Joel said, "She better get used to it."  I've seen some of his school pictures...If Lily is to follow in his footsteps, this is going to get way worse before it gets better!

The kiddos sang "Skidamarink,"

"Baby Bumble Bee"

and "Jesus Loves Me." 

Lily sang approximately 7 words toward the end of Skidamarink and she sang the first little bit of Baby Bumble Bee and that's about it. 

But she didn't cry!

After the singing, we had cookies and punch which Lily thoroughly enjoyed.

And then.....

In true Lily fashion, we couldn't end the day without a meltdown!  She refused to leave the daycare.  Joel had to drag her out literally kicking and screaming.  She screamed the whole way home.  She screamed after we got home.  She screamed while I was getting Tyler to bed.  She screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed.  Sigh......

Tyler's Infant Seat Graduation

I finally broke down an bought new car seats for Tyler so we will be rid of the infant carrier!  I've been delaying this as long as possible for several reasons:

1)  The infant seat is just soooo convenient when I'm getting the kids ready in the mornings by myself, especially now that Tyler is mobile.  I can strap him in the car seat, then load up the car and Lily and then come back for him (and he's safely in the same place I left him).  I know what you're thinking...."Why don't you just do that in reverse and put Tyler in the car first instead of last?"  Because Lily has a COMPLETE AND TOTAL MELTDOWN if I don't "carry her first" to the car.  Every morning, it's "Carry me first!  Carry me first!!"

2)  I can carry the infant seat by the handle in the crook of my arm, freeing up both of my hands.  This is pretty "handy" when I'm walking through a parking lot and need to carry Tyler, plus something else, plus hold Lily's hand.

3)  Tyler still falls asleep in his car seat from time to time and it's convenient to be able to bring him in the house (or a restaurant or where ever) and let him finish out his little nap in the car seat.

4)  I'm in total denial that my baby is approaching the 30 inch length limit for the infant seat (if he hasn't hit it already).  Why is he growing up so fast???

5)  Car seats are expensive!!  $300 in additional car seats.  Crazy! 

6)  Having a forward facing and a rear facing car seat in Joel's truck is going to cause someone to become contortionist.  Either Joel's going to have to figure out how to bend over backwards to strap Tyler in or Lily's going to have to figure out how to crawl in and around car seats or center consoles to get her to car seat.  And you can forget about any passengers riding in the front seat because it has to be scooted all the way forward.  Maybe we will have to buy Joel a new vehicle (or he can take mine and I'll get a new one)!  At least we only have to keep Tyler rear facing for 3 months or so. 

So, is it any wonder I've been delaying it?!  But it's not all bad news!  Tyler + infant seat = 29 pounds of solid heaviness.  And I'm pretty wimpy so I'm really not that sad to stop lugging that thing around.

What else has been going on with Tyler?  He's my little doll baby and I love him more and more every day, if that's even possible.  A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I had finally cut out the late evening feeding but I've had to add it back in.  He wasn't sleeping all night and I'm not a fan of that.  Honestly, that sleep feed is probably the best nursing session of the day right now!  At the other nursing sessions, he often only nurses well on one side and by the time I get to the second side, he's pretty much lost all interest in eating and is ready to play.  He gets distracted very easily - which frankly, wouldn't you be distracted if your sister was batting at your head, using your body as leverage to climb and is screaming "Tyler's not sleeping!  He's AWAKE!  He's FEEDING!" right in your ear??

His reduced nursing time is wreaking havoc on my pumped milk supply.  It's dropped dramatically in the last two weeks.  I was consistently getting about 15-16 ounces a day (he was consuming 18 ounces/day at daycare so I was already at a deficit every day but was supplementing with frozen milk).  Now I'm getting only about 11-13 ounces of pumped milk a day.  I'm still sending 18 ounces to daycare but in the last several weeks he's rarely finished a 6 ounce bottle.  So in light of the reduced milk supply and given that he almost never takes a full 6 ounces anymore anyway, I need to start sending less.  It's been so nice to not have to worry about milk supply all this time, but looks like for the next ~3 months, until the coveted 1 year mark, I will have to watch more closely to try to prevent any formula supplementing at the very end. 

He's really starting to get the hang of crawling especially when he wants to get to me.  Which, is so sweet and pitiful at the same time.  He'll be totally bawling and crawling one little "step" at time and looking at me with these BIG sad eyes.  "Mama, I need you!  Come get me!!"

Watching Lily and Tyler together is getting interesting!  Each one wants whatever the other one has.  I completely understand why there was always three of EVERYTHING in my house growing up!!

I painted Lily's finger nails the other day.  Can you believe she's old enough for this??  She's pretty cute about it but the sitting still while it dries part at the end is a little bit of a challenge for her.  And, within a couple hours, she picks off all the nail polish and wants me to paint them again. 

 

 

Also, my new favorite Lily saying is "....to feel me better."

 

"I need Ellie to feel me better."  

 

"I need a Band-Aid and mecidine to feel me better."

 

And the best one.....

"I need some chocolate to feel me better."

 

Girl!  Don't we all?!

Midnight Snack Tribute to My Daddy

When me and my sisters were kids, my Dad made the best sugar toast in the whole wide world!  Tonight I had a hankerin' that couldn't be stopped.

 

Bread slathered with butter, sugar and cinnamon, cooked under the broiler (or in a toaster oven) for a couple minutes until it's a toasty, crystalized sugar delight.  Combine with a glass of milk that's so cold, if it were 1/2 degree colder it would have ice chucks and you have arrived at heaven.

 

I love you Daddy.  Thank you for showing me some of the finer things in life!  I can't wait for the day when I introduce this culinary delight to my babies.  Maybe they will have as fond of memories about it with me as I do about you. 

 

Now, if you'll excuse me.... nom, nom, nom......

Tyler crawls and claps on the same day!

When I walked in to Tyler's room at daycare today, Tyler was sitting on the floor smiling so big and clapping his hands!  It was adorable!!  I don't know if he has clapped before at daycare but he hasn't at home.  So I'm going to just assume that today is the first day he's figured out how to clap - that way I can claim to have seen this milestone on the day it happened!

 





And if that's not enough for one day, Tyler's officially on the move!  It's slow going with just one, two or three little "crawls" at a time before he moves back to his butt, but he's definitely on his way!  Tonight we were on the floor playing with the kids - I was focused on something Lily was doing and Joel says, "He's crawling!!  He's crawling!!" and I look up and sure enough he took a little crawl move.  I scrambled around trying to find my phone so I could capture it on video.  I didn't get a very good one but at least it's something!

He's so stinkin' cute.  I can't even stand it.  He went from about zero interest in crawling to getting on the move in just over a week.  By the weekend, he'll be moving so fast I won't be able to keep up!

I have to also write down a few things that Lily has been saying that is so cute and I don't want to forget them.

1)  Lasterday.  "Remember lasterday when we ... (fill in the blank)?"

2)  Same same.  "See, Dora on my panties and Dora on my shoes.  Same same!"  "Daddy has an apple and I have an apple.  Same same!"  "Mommy has a flower and I have a flower.  Same same!"

3)  Boops.  I've mentioned this one before but today she said, "I put milk in this bottle so the baby can drink it.  It's pretend.  But Tyler drinks milk from your boops.  This boop and this boop [as she points to each boob].  I don't drink milk from your boops, Mommy."  I totally should have gotten one of those books that helps you describe to older siblings what you're doing when you're breastfeeding.  Maybe then I would have been smart enough not to use words like "boobs."  Ha!

4) Pretend.  See above for example but she's very big on "pretending" these days.  "It's for pretend."  "We can pretend."  "Just pretend, Mommy."  She always uses it in the right context and it's so cute.

Bad Mommy!

First thing I did when I got the kids to daycare today was check for my flower from Tyler which I had accidentally left in Lily's cubby in my hurry to get home last Friday.

Sadly, I think it dried up too much over the weekend and I don't know if there's any saving it, though I will try.  I was sooooo upset.

But isn't that footprint butterfly just the most precious thing you've ever seen?

Happy Mother's Day!

I am such a lucky Mama!  I have two of the cutest kids on the face of the earth!

Lily told me "Happy Mother's Day" many times throughout the day and even threw in some "Happy Birthdays" while she was at it.  I guess she was a little confused about why the day was special for me - but the bottom line was that she knew it was my day!  That baby makes me smile  at least  once a day.

I had a very wonderful Mother's Day.  First off, Joel cooked ALL THREE MEALS today.  All three.  By himself.  Completely.  I think I put water in glasses for one of the meals.  We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Lunch was amazing.  New York strip steak purchased from the awesome butcher shop downtown, baked potatoes, asparagus, grilled onions and rolls.  Oh my....a Mama could get USED to THAT!  And for supper we had Velveeta cornbread chili pie (it was from a box, but it was still amazing and my amazing husband cooked it).

Speaking of amazing husbands......

.....yep, that's my husband mowing the grass in socks and flip flops and wearing ear muffs.  Some day, our kids will be sooooo embarrassed!

Joel got this really neat card that allowed him to put the kids' handprints inside.  I guess there was some solution he put on their hands that reacted with the paper in the card.  So cool and what a neat keepsake.

I showed the flower I got from Lily the other day and I got one from Tyler too but I forgot it at the daycare on Friday.  I'll have to add a picture of that later.  Lily made me a picture too.  So stinkin' cute!!  I love these crafts that have their hand and foot prints. 

I don't know yet what I'm getting from Joel.  It didn't come in the mail yet.  But he wrote me the funniest note I think he's ever written.  It's almost 3.5 pages long and he's written down what a day in the life of this Mama can look like.  At the end he says "There isn't any wonder you are tired."  It's super cute.  It made me laugh and cry simultaneously.  I love that man. 

Some Tyler Milestones and a Random Act of Kindness

Tyler pulled himself up to standing at the daycare on Monday!  He was playing in front of this cube that is about 18 inches tall and apparently wanted to get to something on the top side of it and pulled himself up!  This coming from the boy that has shown very few signs or interest in crawling! 

We've tried recreating this event at home but, so far, Tyler will just pull himself up to his knees.  But he can stand a long while, though, once he's up!

Another milestone that's happened in the last week or so is when you approach Tyler and put your arms out to him, he raises his arms up to be picked up.  I love this milestone but I think Joel loves it even more than me.  He's been waiting for it for a while now (he did the same thing with Lily).  It's so simple, but for some reason, just pulls at my heart.  Maybe it's the recognition (in a non-screaming way) from the baby that he wants you or needs you.  So sweet.

And lastly, Tyler's other bottom front tooth FINALLY poked through the gums today!  Yay!  That poor baby has been working on those teeth forever.  At least 6 weeks, if not longer.  So on the one hand, I'm happy they are finally through the gums and might not bother him so much now.  On the other hand, I'm nervous for "the girls" - hopefully I don't lose any body parts!! 

Speaking of, some interesting Lily conversation tonight...
Lily:  "Are those your boops, Mommy?  Daddy, do you have boops?" 

I received a Mother's Day gift from Lily today!  I tried to get a picture of her with it, but she couldn't be bothered to tear her eyes away from Dora.  We only let her watch one per day so I guess she didn't want to waste the opportunity.  That light colored thing is a sprig of lilac from the bush in our front yard.  It smells SO good.  You can smell it all the way across the room!

This morning I had a craving for a sausage biscuit from McDonald's, so I hit the drive through on my way to work.  They have dual ordering lanes and myself and the lady next to me approached the "merge" point at the same time.  I waved her on in front of me.  She smiled at me and nodded her head.  When I got up to the window, the cashier told me that the lady in front of me bought my meal! 

I couldn't believe it!  "Wow!!  That was so nice!! People actually do that?!" I said to the cashier.  "It happens all the time." she said.  By the time this all sinks in, the lady in front of me had gotten her food and drove away so I didn't even get to give her a "thank you wave" in her rear view mirror.  Then I pull up to the food window and it occurs to me that maybe I should have paid for the person behind me!

The best kept secret in Fonner sister HISTORY!

This past weekend, Lily, Tyler and I headed to Evansville for a visit with Grams and Jason, Aunt Jenny and Jackson and Aunt Katie, Ayden and Mackenzie.  I took Friday off of work and then at the last minute ended up heading down there Thursday after work. 

Of course things were NUTS when I first walked in the door.  Lily was whining that she had to pee (and she didn't have a pull up on and had peed a little in her car seat so I was rushing her to the potty) and Tyler was crying because he was hungry and I had 47 bags to haul in from the car and it was general craziness like it always is any time we go any where.

So after getting Lily cleaned up and the carseat wiped down and Tyler changed and hooked up to the boob, I was chatting with Jenny and Mom and watching the other kids playing and I then I did a double take cause Jackson was wearing a shirt that said:

"World's Best Brother"

I was totally confused for a minute and then I asked Jackson what his shirt said and he said, "Nothing."  So I'm looking at Jenny and I'm looking at Mom and back and forth and back and forth and asking Jackson 47 times what his shirt said and he wouldn't tell me!!  So finally, I say to Jenny, "Are you pregnant?!?!"  And she says, "Yep!!"

And now, let me pause this story for a second just to say that while this was surprise news to me, I wasn't too surprised because I had a feeling she was going to tell us any day now that she was pregnant.  I just knew it.

So then I ask when she's due and she says, "November 1." 

So I think for a second and then I said, "Wait minute, how many weeks are you?!!?"

Jenny:  "Fourteen."

Me:  "FOURTEEN WEEKS!?!?!?!?!  Fourteen!?!?!  FOURTEEN?!?"

So, not only is she pregnant, but she's 1/3 of the way THOUGH THE PREGNANCY and I'm just NOW finding out!  Are you kidding me?!!

Jenny:  "Well I wanted to tell you in person."

S-O-B!!  She's one crazy MOTHER!  Oh, and by the way, Josh's family knew a whole month before us because she SAW them before seeing us!  So, I'm pretty sure this will go down as an unforgivable act - not telling us for so long!  Until that baby gets here and I'm sure that will erase all notions of a grudge on this matter.....Here's her post with the announcement and some pretty cute pictures of Jackson.

As far as the rest of the weekend went, Lily was a bit of a terror.  I don't know why she does this when we travel.  She's turns into a nightmare.  She pushes my buttons on purpose.  At one point she was playing with Tyler and batting at him and progressively getting rougher.  So I asked her to stop hitting her brother.  So she looks me straight in the face, pulls her arm back, and hits Tyler on the back....she BARELY touches him so she's not out to do him any harm.  She's out to p*ss me off!  She looked me dead in the eyes the whole time.  So that was just one of many trips to time out this weekend.  She also picked up a new phrase.  When I ask her not to do something, or ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, she says "Mommy, don't TELL me THAT!"  It's funny except when it's not.  :)

When she's not being a brat, she's totally sweet and cute.  I swear. 

Tyler was a little doll, as usual.  My only issue with him was that he didn't sleep all night on any of the nights we were there and so I'm exhausted.  That's not the place I want to be at the end of a long weekend.  Three days away from work and I should be feeling refreshed - instead I feel like I've pulled an all nighter!

We took the kids swimming at an indoor pool not far from Grams' house.  The kids LOVED it.  Jackson, Ayden and Lily were jumping and splashing all over.  I took Tyler in too and he had a ball.  He's such a water baby.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures at the pool.  We didn't take a camera - as it was, I felt like I was packing the whole house just to go to the pool!

It was general madness trying to get ready.  We were trying to feed the bigger kids their lunch, feed Tyler his baby food, feed ourselves, change our clothes and the kids' clothes and pack up the swim bag, clean up the lunch mess etc etc etc and get out the door just to go swimming for probably 45 minutes. 

On the way there, Mom said, "I'm not sure it was worth all this hassle and stress!"

And I replied with what Joel and I have to remind each other of on a regular basis. 

If we don't ever go anywhere because it's too hard and stressful to pack up all our stuff and get the kids organized, then we'll never go anywhere until the kids are teenagers and they can babysit themselves at home while we go out somewhere by ourselves. We won't have any fun adventure filled memories with our kids as toddlers (and babies).  So, we suck it up, and we go.  Do we go somewhere every weekend?  No.  Cause even going to the park down the street can be a stressful ordeal.  But we do try to do something at least once a month.  Sometimes, when we get there, the hassle was TOTALLY worth it.  Sometimes, not so much.  But we don't give up!

Once we were at the pool and the kids were shrieking with delight (in spite of having shivering blue lips), Mom looked at me said, "It was worth it."

8 months old!

A couple days ago someone asked me how old my baby was and I said, "7 months......no, wait! EIGHT months!"

Length:  28.75 in  (83rd percentile)
Weight:  19.6 lbs  (50th percentile)

He hasn't gained any weight in the last month but I think he actually lost some when he was sick a couple weeks ago and not eating much and then gained it back.

Sleeping Habits:  About half the time, Tyler sleeps all night and the other half the time he wakes up and cries for a while and I usually give in and give him his pacifier.  Sometimes, like this past weekend when we travelled, Tyler wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to eat.  Tyler still isn't napping very well at daycare.  Usually a couple 30 minute naps per day.  At home on the weekends he gets in two really good naps - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Usually they are 90-120 minutes long. 

Eating habits:  I am still nursing Tyler in the morning and in the late afternoon or early evening.  About two weeks ago, I cut out the late evening (10pm) feeding - at least most nights.  Sometimes I feel full so I end up feeding him.  Or he wakes up a little and I go ahead and feed him.  He is eating a stage 2 fruit in the morning, a vegetable at lunch and either a fruit, vegetable or meat for dinner.  He also finally started eating yogurt melts and puffs about 2 weeks ago.  He hasn't quite figured out how to feed them to himself yet but he does enjoy them when someone else feeds them to him!

Activities:  Tyler hasn't really made any moves to crawl yet that I have noticed.  He can scoot on his butt a little bit when he's trying reach something and once or twice I've seen him get his knees underneath him but he immediately goes back to his belly.  He's figured out how to spit and blow spit bubbles which is simultaneously cute and gross.

Talking:  He "talks" a lot.  Tons of babbling and recently he's started with "mum-mum-mum-mum" sounds - mostly when he's upset!  We'll see if we have another early talker on our hands!

It's hard to believe that I have a 27 month old and an 8 month old.  The time goes by so fast!!

Lawnmower Meltdown

Yesterday, Joel was trying to mow the grass and before he could begin he had to do some maintenance on the lawnmower before it would even start.  It's gotten to the point that every time he needs to use it, it requires some tinkering to get it to start.  Then he told me that the self propel stopped working on it too. 

So I had a bit of a meltdown. 

Why, you ask, would a person have a meltdown over a broken lawnmower?  Because, it was a housewarming gift from my Dad.  He bought it for me right before he had his surgery.  I've previously had two other lawn care related minor meltdowns when we had to retire the leaf blower and weed eater.  The lawnmower is the last "living" link to my Daddy. 

So when Joel told me that it was probably a gonner, I was pretty upset.  Joel knew it was going to break my heart which is why he hadn't previously told me how bad it was getting (he has most all lawn care related responsibilities so I hadn't used it in quite a while - not to mention I was pretty pregnant all last summer!). 

But yesterday, when Joel stayed home from work to be with a not-so-sick Lily (more on that in a minute), he took the carburetor off the lawnmower and disassembled it, cleaned it up, reassembled it and repaired the self propel mechanism and.....ta da!  The lawnmower will live to see another summer (we hope!).  I fully recognize how insane it is to be emotionally attached to a lawnmower.  But I can't help it.  Some day, we won't be able to repair it or it will be cost prohibitive to do so and it will have to be retired with the weed eater and leaf blower.  But I'm pretty grateful to my wonderful husband that today isn't that day. 

As of 4pm on Monday, Lily still had a wicked fever so we decided that at that time, there was no way we could send her to daycare on Tuesday.  Well when she woke up Tuesday morning, she was her normal, happy healthy self.  No fever.

But at this point, it was too late for Joel to go in to work as his shift had already started so we stuck with the original plan to keep Lily at home.  Much to Joel's frustration since he was now burning a vacation day to stay home with a healthy kid for the second week in a row. 

But at least she's feeling better, right!?!? 

Joel said he spent the morning picking up the house only to have Lily coming behind him destroying it all again!  But she's pretty cute when she's doing it.  At one point, she said that Joey (Joel's doll from when he was little) was tired and needed a nap and she was going to read him a story.  Poor Joey is laying face down in his pillow.  He must have had a rough morning!