Exhausted

Today when I came in from work I was notified that Mally did not take a nap.  What?  My Mally didn’t take a nap?  Mallory loves nap time and practically puts herself to bed.  This is her first nap refusal ever!

They tell me that she came out looking for her mirror.  She needed to take her mirror to bed.  Then she came back out because she needed Sweetie Pie (her doll).  Then she came back out because she needed a book to read to Sweetie Pie.  Then she needed another book.  And before they knew it, it was already 1 and there was no sign of her taking a nap. 

I was a little nervous for the rest of our day and night with her running on no nap and getting up at 6:30 this morning freaking out because she couldn’t find her blanket.  Completely opposite from the morning before where she woke up and the first thing out of her mouth was “MOM!  Where is my phone?”

However, she was pretty well behaved.  She got a bit sassy towards the end of the night… but at least it wasn’t melty (crying over everything). 

Then after supper we took a walk… or a run in Mallory’s case.  I made her wear a hat because it was kind of chilly out.  When we got home I thought this kid has to be done!  Up early, no nap, and a run!  : )  So I got her ready for bed and she refused to take her hat off.

Jesse read her bible story – we kissed her good night and shut the light off.  To which she started yelling about wanting the light on because she needed to read to Sweetie Pie.  Nope, no light – it is bedtime.  I think I heard her reading for… oh… about 30 seconds and then it was silent. 

When I went to put Max to bed – I saw this:

I wanted a picture so bad, but I thought the flash would wake her up – nope!  She didn’t even flinch or grunt or nothing!  So I took another one.  : )

So tonight she had to sleep with her hat on!

Maxwell–5 Months

I can’t believe I just wrote that… 5 months!  Buddy Max is already 5 months old!

We learned (the hard way of course) that Max is still lactose intolerant.  When I consume dairy he turns into extremely Mad Max.  Cries and cries and screams and cries.  It breaks your heart.  I actually didn’t mean to consume diary – it was a complete accident.  Who knew a gas station cappuccino was on the do not eat list!?  I do now!  : ) 

Max is now sleeping in his crib in his room… well the shared room between him and Mallory.  I also have him going to bed around 8pm and most nights he is able to put himself to sleep.  Every once in awhile he needs extra snuggles and rocks to help him get to sleep.  He gets up anywhere between 7 and 8.  Unless it is the weekend and then he thinks it is fun to get up at 6:30.

He is still waking up in the middle of the night anywhere from 1 to 2 times.  This drives me a little bit crazy – probably because my Mally was sleeping thru the night at like 8 weeks.  Spoiled!  Anyway -  I just feed him real quick and he instantly goes back to bed without a hitch.  I shouldn’t complain, I know.  However he acts like he hasn’t ate in weeks during these feedings.  He cries until I get situated to feed him.  Then while I am switching him over to the other side he cries and arches his back and throws a full on fit.  And if you think you are going to change his diaper – ha!

I started him on cereal at night… hoping to get him to sleep better.  hahaha.  Yeah, it didn’t work.  He still wakes up.  But he is doing a great job at learning a spoon and eating. 

He can be so giggle sometimes and I just love it and want to eat him up.

He loves to be a tree toad.  He just likes to be held and clinging to me and to be carried around.

He loves to jump in his jumper.  He goes nuts in that thing.  I have taken video of him in there and I will have to upload it for you all sometime.  He yells and squeals and jumps.  We actually think he doesn’t know how to stop jumping.  Because he never stops until you take him out.  Even when he is done with it he cries and continues to jump.

Speaking of yells… he is a yeller.  If he is feeling kind of spunky and no one is paying enough attention to him he will start yelling.  It isn’t really talking – it feels like yelling – and it isn’t crying – it sounds like he is yelling at us.  : )

He grabs at everything and wants it in his mouth.  He will be sitting in my lap while I’m reading books to Mally and he is all hands trying to get our book and then if he gets it – he is trying so hard to get it in his mouth.

I believe he is weighing in at 18 pounds and he is in 6-9 month clothing and some of that – especially the pants are kind of tight around the ‘ol waist.  : ) 

He is also very interactive with Mallory.  Those two can be fun to watch.  She will give him his nuk when he is crying or bring him his blanket.  She brings him toys.  She plays with him when he is in his jumper.  And she talks to him and tries to make him giggle.  He just watches her and follows (with his eyes, of course) where ever she is.  And if he can hear her, but can’t see her – he is looking for her.

Mally at 5 Months.

Little Bit of Everything

Mallory likes to climb under the play mat with Max.  However she seems to get mad at him when his out of control arms come by her.  Here in this picture she is moving his arm and probably saying “Max don’t!”

Max had a Dr. appointment this past week (just a routine check up) and his Dr. made a comment on his hair.  I never notice his hair, but everyone, not just his Dr., are starting to make comments on his spikey hair.

It does not lay down!  It is always like this.  The only time it is down is when it is wet. 

Mally playing toys with Max too.

I had to learn a new moby wrap for Max, because he still likes to be held a lot and holding him in the front was getting hard because he is so big he gets in my way.  Thanks to youtube I found a video of how to do a side hold.  But then Mally needed a moby wrap for her baby.

I grabbed a scarf and wrapped it around her and shoved her baby in.  It worked!  : )  Oh and baby has a name now…  Sweetie Pie.  And she says “my baby” and when she talks about Max to me she says “your baby”.  The other day we were in the basement and Max was upstairs taking a nap and Mally came up for something and starts yelling down to me “Momma, your baby is crying!”

  Max was given the nickname Tree Toad soon after he was born because he loves to be held and he will just cling to me. 

This new wrap/hold helps me to still have my arms/hands – helps with the weight – and lets Max be a tree toad!

Shoes!

My sister and I took a much needed shopping trip… for ourselves… without kids.  Wait, we had Max… but he was so awesome we hardly knew he was with us! 

We found ourselves in the shoes with the announcement “the store will be closing in 5 minutes…”  The shoes were priced at $3.95!!!  They were so sassy!  We were ooohing and aaahing like crazy and trying them on as fast as we could.  Shannon snagged two pairs and I got away with 3.

Here are my 3 shoes for $12!  I believe my receipt said I saved about $95!

How do you pass these up for 3.95?  I have no idea what I would wear them with – but they were a must!

I didn’t own a pair of heels (until now) but I was starting to get the itch to work the heels.  And these looked safe.  I wore them this weekend and um… my big toe still feels numb!  My peep-toe heel wearing friends… my toe will come back right?  I will feel it again?

These were just super cute fun summer sandals.

Mallory is into wearing my shoes and of course there was no stopping her from trying these out!

She even walked in them!

Sweet little baby feet in momma’s shoes!

First Day of…

Pre-preschool!!  : ) 

I am not sure if I talked about it on my blog yet or not, but Mrs. C (our nanny) is homeschooling her girls (3 of them ranging from ages 17 to 9) this year.  Mrs. C has a teacher background – mostly taught the preschool/kindergarten ages.  So I told Mrs. C that if she wanted to she could totally turn our basement into a class room and teach Mallory along with her girls.  I know Mally just turned two, but she is an advanced/smart two… or so we think.  ; )

We found free preschool lesson plans specifically for two year olds on-line.  It was fantastic!  Her schooling is very fun and theme orientated.  For example this first week is all about Cows.  So they read tons of books about cows and color cow pictures and play games that involve cows.  They also learn a nursery rhyme, a shape, a color, and a letter.  We also decided to throw in a bible study too which we found free on-line as well.  Isn’t the internet so fantastic?!

Today was their first day of school.  I think they are calling it Mally’s Rhyme Time.  I just had to take her pictures on her first day.  : ) 

When I asked her if she could give me a smile – this is what I got.

Checking out her wall.

Something was funny, I guess.

Here is the learning center that Mrs. C created for her.

Mallory is totally into puzzles right now.

Every time I go to Target I am searching the $1 section for a new puzzle for her.  I even get her some more advanced ones and she does those just as well.

Once she completes it she does it again! 

I asked her today what she learned and she told me about squares and she acted out the nursery rhyme, The Cow Jumped Over the Moon and she was singing the song, This Little Light of Mine. 

I think Mally is going to enjoy this and I think Mrs. C is too!

Waterfalls

On our last full day of vacation we went out and did the tourist thing and found a couple waterfalls and did some very minor hiking. 

I wanted my picture taken with Miss Mallory, but she wanted to play the game… I’m not going to look at the camera.

Got her!

A nice gentleman took our picture for us. 

Where’s Max?  It was Max’s nap time so he was sleeping away in the stroller.

Love this face! 

I can’t remember the name of any of these waterfalls… I want to say this one was called Munising Falls.

While we were standing here a family was trying to get their picture taken.  I want to say there were about 6 kids – the oldest being about 17 and the youngest I want to say was 4.  The youngest was being such a stinker and putting her hands over her face when they would take the picture… however no one knew she was doing this because they were smiling for the camera.  Then when the Mom gets her camera back she looks and says… so-and-so has her hands over her face we have to do this again.  She gets all her children back in spot and they get a decent picture.  When they left I told Jesse… um… that makes me want lots more kids!  : )  Something about big families – they look so fun! 

Then we stopped at Pictured Rocks (Lake Superior) but by now Max was awake so I completely forgot about pictures.  Except I wanted a picture of us – but Max was content in his seat so I didn’t want to move him. 

Some nice biker guy offered to take a picture of all of us.

And that wraps up our vacation!  It was so refreshing and relaxing we were both ready to get back to work and our routines.

Maxwell~ 4 Months

While on vacation Max turned 4 months old. 

At four months we have an improved Maxwell!  Max is lactose intolerant!  I removed diary from my diet and holy man what a different little boy we have!  He is so happy now!  He is so content now!  He is so scheduled now!  He is sleeping so much better now!  He is no longer spitting up!  Night and day difference!

Before we figured this out Max was… how shall I put it… exhausting!  He cried, what felt like, all night long (from about 3pm – 9pm).  He wanted to eat all the time, or so it seemed.  He wasn’t sleeping very well at night and I was just exhausted!  I finally broke down and took him to the ER one Sunday night because he was just getting worse with his crying spells and I thought he might have an ear infection – turns out he was perfectly healthy.  We paged his real doctor that Sunday and she said it sounded like he was having stomach cramps and try removing dairy – Ahhhmazing!  : )  I can’t wait to take Max to his next appointment to tell her she is so smart and that I now have a happy baby!  ; ) 

Max is now happy and content.  He lays on the floor and plays and tries to get his toes in his mouth.   

The first night of lactose free – I was able to eat supper without Max crying.  I was able to give Mally a bath without Max crying.  I was able to get Mally ready for bed without Max crying.  We were able to read Mally’s bedtime bible story without Max crying.  We kept saying all night – Max is so good!  Max isn’t crying!  It was so fun!  : )

He has been exploring his thumb.  He doesn’t have it fully figured out, but he sucks on his fingers or thumb often.

Max is a snuggler.  He likes to be held and walked around.

He is now sleeping in his crib – which means that Mallory and Maxwell are sharing a room.  So far… they both are sleeping great and they are not waking each other up!  I’m also starting to teach him how to fall asleep on his own (with the help of a sound machine in his crib).  He is doing awesome with it!! 

I’m loving this stage he is in right now.  The rolly-polly-chubby-snuggly-cooing-giggling-toe chewing stage.

Mally has been starting to pay tons of attention to him and talks to him all the time!  The other day we were getting ready to go outside and I asked Mally to go put her shoes on so she gets them comes back by Max and says… “Max, I’m going outside.  Yeah.  Buddy Max.  I put my shoes on.  Yeah.  Max, help me put my shoes on.”  She also reads him books and plays toys with him. 

He gets the giggles and it cracks me up.  I love his giggles.  He usually gets the giggles when you have to change his clothes – taking his shirts off throws him into fits of giggles.  He is so ticklish under his arms and near his neck.

He gets bored and likes to be entertained and views to change often.  He likes to now fake cry to get to me. 

How is this Momma doing on a dairy free diet?  Um… some days are good and some are hard.  : )  What I wouldn’t give for a huge piece of colby-jack cheese and a bowl of Schwans Dolche De Leche Ice Cream with Chocolate Syrup and a Twix candy bar!  : )  I didn’t realize how much I cook with cheese too!  Meal planning has become my third job trying to figure out what to make that doesn’t have dairy in it.  As of right now, I am going to keep nursing him and keep being disciplined in my eating habits… because if he happens to always be lactose intolerant then I will need to permanently change things… so starting now is a good idea to me. 

The crazy part is I prayed for discipline a few days before I found out about this!  No joke!  I really did pray for discipline!  I’m thinking I can mark that prayer request off as… answered!  : )