Day 48: How Did She Even Get Back There?

Look very closely at this picture. What do you see behind the TV? That's right. This is what I found tonight when I walked into the kitchen. She has been acting really weird all day and hanging out in the kitchen way more than usual. I really hope she isn't trying to tell us we have unwelcome visitors! By the way, anyone want a cat?

Here are some fun playtime snapshots from today.

Mitchell loves to smile at the baby in the mirror.

This probably wasn't the best idea since Maya is running another fever. Yes, this will be her third sickness in six weeks. What is going on? Mitchell is also enjoying his first cold. Poor babies.

As promised, here is a sneak peak at our new yellow walls. Once the house is ready for showing I will post many more before and after pictures.

Day 47: Kids Say The Darndest Things

We had painters at the house today. They were here yesterday and Maya hardly noticed them. She really warmed up to them today. She wouldn't stop telling them about her princess books, princess movies, etc. Well, at one point while Arthur and I were organizing things upstairs, Arthur decided to check on Maya downstairs. He went to the steps to find Maya at the bottom of the steps completely naked - in front of the painters! She had no idea why this would be a big deal, she just wanted to put her bathing suit on so she could "go swimming." We did not really go swimming today.

This is Maya waiting for them to come back inside and see her bathing suit.

Maya said a lot of funny things today, some inappropriate, but still kind of funny.
I was changing Mitchells's diaper and he started peeing all over the place. We are not talking just a little accident, but tons of pee that wouldn't stop. I was laughing and trying to catch and Arthur was helping.
Maya :"did he pee on your hands?"
Me: "Yep, he peed all over the place."
Maya: "Dammit!"
It's really hard to teach a three year old not to say bad words - especially when they use it correctly with inflection and everything!

After the painters left we went to dinner and then to play at the park.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of our new yellow walls, which are looking really good.

Day 46: Six Weeks

Day 45: Storytime

Day 44: What A Night

Bedtime did not run smoothly tonight. We had some pretty bad tantrums today from the three year old. And the newborn who I thought might actually be settling in to an 8:00 bedtime did not fall asleep until 9:30. It will be interesting to see how long he even stays asleep since he appears to be going through a massive growth spurt and he fought the swaddle so hard I had to take his arms out to get him to sleep. Back to the three year old - she is going through a phase where we can't just tuck her in and leave. She requests the other parent come up for another kiss and hug, sometimes multiple times. She also asks that we lay with her "just one time." This means just for a minute and she is satisfied. I have to admit that when I kissed her goodnight tonight I told her not to ask me to come back up. I regret saying this. I mean how difficult is it really to walk back upstairs and give my daughter another hug and kiss and maybe lay with her for a minute. Someday when she is older and I miss her being young I'm not going to think "man, I'm so glad I didn't have to walk back upstairs hundreds of extra times." No, I will be thinking "man, I wish I could give that three year old little girl hundreds and hundreds more hugs and kisses!" I need to remind myself of this when I feel like I am about to lose it.

Day 43: Holy Pepperoncini!

We are enjoying a fun visit from Aunt Lolo and Peyton today. We ordered pizza for dinner. Arthur is allergic to pepperoncinis, so I always get the 2-4 peppers that come with the pizza. Well, Lolo loves them as much as I do so we had to order extra tonight. I thought I ordered 4 peppers total and we ended up with this plateful! Best Papa Johns experience ever!!!
We spent the after noon at the zoo. It was a really pretty day and the girls had a good time. There were stressful moments, like Maya crying because she couldn't push the pink stroller or had to walk up a hill. But in all it was a good time.

Proud Parent Facts: Maya's preschool teacher told me today that she was the first kid in her class to know how to spell her name correctly! Also, Mitchell showed signs of being ready for bed at 8:00 last night so I decided to go with it again tonight. I had him changed, fed, and in bed within 15 minutes. I even put him down slightly awake and he did the rest. Now at 9:00 he is still asleep. Please let this be my new reality!!!

Day 42: She Uses A Bottle Too

We went through a ton of stuff over the weekend. We are throwing out things and donating stuff we don't need. Well, Maya found this baby bottle in a box intended for Goodwill. When she got home from daycare today we had this conversation:

Maya: "My baby is hungry. She needs a bottle."
Me: "Oh, your baby drink from a bottle too?"
Maya: "This is how she eats now. There is no more milk in my boobies. She drank it all."

Day 41: "This Is How I Feed My Baby"

Day 40: Wayne Meets Mitchell Wayne

We went to a wedding reception for Adam and Christy Meyer today. Maya and Peyton had a ball dancing and twirling their dresses. Unfortunately we didn't bring our good camera so all our pictures turned out grainy and couldn't capture any movement. But at least we got some pictures of the family, including "Brian Daycare"...

Day 39: Happy Anniversary

Today is our five year anniversary. At the time we would have been walking in to our wedding reception five years ago, tonight we were listening to our three old scream in her room and watching our newborn sleep. We have made a lot of great memories in the past five years, including two beautiful children, but I think the best may be yet to come. We have a move to Cincinnati to look forward to, which means being closer to family and friends. I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Because we live in Louisville now and don't have babysitters we had a sushi dinner at home tonight. Tonight's picture is really crappy and blurry, but it's all I have. Here is a picture of our take-out:

Day 38: 3 Years, 5 Months

Today will be Maya's first monthly update. I have a lot of catching up to do since she is almost three and a half and I have never done this before. I'll start with the catch up things, stuff she has been up to since before the past month...

Maya started taking swim lessons and gymnastics at All About Kids in early June. The first term of swim lessons was with the parent. Arthur got in the pool with her every time and took directions from the instructor. Starting August 24, she had to be a big girl and swim with just the teacher. She has been doing awesome and maybe even better than when she was with Arthur. I think she tries to get away with more with us. Gymnastics didn't start out too well. She refused to sit on the color line and refused to stretch at her first class. She warmed up after about three classes and now she loves it. She is learning to do so much and it is so awesome to watch her improve.
Maya went to her first movie in the theater on June 24, 2010 and saw Toy Story 3. She was an angel at the movie and loved getting popcorn and lemonade. She also had a Dr.'s appointment that day and she weighed 34 lbs and was 39.5 in tall.

Maya has known almost all her letters and letter sounds for about five or six months now. She knows how to spell her name and she can almost write it. She can't write a "y" but has the "m" and the "a" down.

So what has been going on in the past month? Maya became a big sister and has had to deal with all the adjustments that come along with it. She is very attentive and loves her baby brother. She loves to help out with diaper changings and feedings. I'm hesitant to say this because I don't want to jinx anything, but I think we are starting to come out of the rough patch we had when we first brought Mitchell home. Don't get me wrong, we still have tantrums and whining, but I think it is more normal three year old stuff than it is a result of the new baby.

Bedtime is sometimes easy and sometimes a nightmare. Some nights she will go right to bed without fighting or crying and then the next night could be just awful. Sleeping all night in her bed is a toss up as well. If she wakes up in the middle of the night she will come to the gate at her door and cry out for us to come get her. We let her come to our bed for the sake of everyone getting more sleep. She still wears a pull up to bed and most mornings she is wet. I don't think we will be trying panties at night for a while.

Meal time is just horrible. Her diet basically consists of cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, granola bars, yogurt, milk, fruit, noodles, cheese, and fruit snacks. Getting her to eat "real" food is very difficult and often requires a bribe.

Here are some of the funny things she said lately:

When she meets someone new she usually introduces herself as "Princess." She will even correct us if we introduce her as Maya.

Her baby dolls are named by the color outfit they are wearing, so we have "pink baby" and "purple baby." Sometimes she gives them names, but we usually call them their color.

I guess this isn't really funny, but she has learned the word "dammit." We are trying to teach her that it is a bad word and I think she is catching on. Ooops, this one is mommy and daddy's fault.

When I first started breastfeeding Mitchell at home, Maya liked to pretend she was breastfeeding her dolls too. She hasn't done that in a few weeks, but she did say "when I get older and I have milk in my boobs, I can feed Mitchell too!"

Just a few other things she said this month that I don't want to forget:

"Let's figure out dinner."

"Oh shoot...drops!"

"Mommy, you don't want me to get big. Ok, I will drink something to make me stay pall (small)"

"You can't find me."

Day 37: Bathing Beauty

Day 36: Chunky Monkey

Mitchell had his one month appointment today. We knew he was a big boy, but it was confirmed by the scale. He weighs 10 lbs 4 oz and he is 21 3/4 in long. Poor baby also had to get his second hepatitis B vaccine, OUCH! I described some of Mitchell's symptoms to the Dr. and he agreed that it sounds like he has reflux. We got a prescription for Zantac and we are hoping it helps with the fussiness and helps him sleep better. We should know in about 72 hours.

Day 35: One Month

Yay! Mitchell turned one month old today. He can now join Maya in the monthly picture club. These are just some of the many shots taken during his photo shoot. I don't remember Maya ever being so fussy during one of her updates! We do seem to be going through a fussy stage with the baby boy.
I wish I started this a long time ago with Maya, but when each of the kids reach their monthly milestone I will be posting what they have been doing the month before. It's mostly so I can look at it later and remember when this time turns into one big blur like it did with Maya.

So, Mitchell's first month of life...
I'll start with his birth and my labor story (how fitting on Labor Day). Thursday, August 5th started out as just another day, even though I had to wake up super early for an ultrasound and Dr. appointment. I was 38 weeks and 2 days. Everything checked out great on the ultrasound. The technician said that he was doing a really good job practicing his breathing, so I joked that he should go ahead and come out already then. After my appointment I had to go to work for professional development. On my drive to work I was racing a thunderstorm so I didn't get caught walking into school in the rain. On our lunch break, my co-worker kept lecturing me on how I needed to have my hospital bag packed because her second child came 10 days early. I just kept saying he wasn't going to come early and would wait until the 16th, which is when my c-section had been scheduled for. After professional development I had about 2 hours at home before I had to go back to work for open house in the evening. I sat at a table writing out car rider tags for about two and a half hours. I got home around 8 and still had to eat dinner and put Maya to bed since it was my night. Once Maya was in bed, Arthur and I started watching TV. Arthur says we were watching NCIS, but I can't seem to remember anything on TV that night. I just remember being really tired from my 12 hour day.

Now for the exciting part. Around 10:15 pm Arthur got up and said he was going to get some ice cream. I got up to go to the bathroom, but as soon as I stood up I felt water trickling out, like I was peeing my pants, but I knew I wasn't. I was shocked and my first reaction was just "Uhhhh...." and Arthur froze and looked at me and said "WHAT?" I said "I think my water just broke!" I went to the bathroom and watched more water continue to come out so I called the Dr. She said to come on in and get checked. We were not prepared for this at all. We were running around the house packing the necessities and making phone calls. Kaycee came over to stay with Maya and we were on our way to the hospital by 11:15.

Once we got to the hospital and checked in, the nurse had to check if my water had actually broken. This was the most painful part of the entire experience! I was not dilated, effaced, or at all ready for labor, so that meant she had to check really far up with her really really fat fingers! Once she verified my water had broken, they started getting everything ready. We were going to continue with the c-section. I was so scared of the spinal and the recovery, so I was pretty worked up at this point. Once everything was ready, they rolled me to the operating room. The spinal was nothing. Slightly uncomfortable, but nothing to freak out about like I did. Once I was numb, the surgery started. It didn't seem to take very long and we heard Mitchell crying. He cried for a good 10 minutes straight until he was wrapped up and placed in Arthur's arms. It was all amazing and turned out perfectly. The worst part of the entire c-section was my reaction to the pain killers. I had horrible itching all over my entire body. It was miserable, but not anywhere near as bad as the pain I feared I would suffer.

As far as the whole past month goes, we are still trying to figure Mitchell out. Breastfeeding Mitchell is not easy. He takes forever and never seems satisfied. We started giving him breast milk in a bottle at one week. He seems to have a huge appetite, which worries me that I may even be overfeeding him.

Sleeping is another challenge. At one month, he still won't go longer than three hours at night without waking. Sometimes he is up every two hours. Even napping is difficult. When we first came home he would sleep anywhere almost all day long. As he gets older he is starting to resemble his daddy's sleep habits, or lack of sleep habits.

He has been rather cranky the past week too. We are suspecting painful gas and maybe even some reflux. He is often inconsolable after feedings. He has his one month appointment tomorrow and hopefully the doctor can help figure some things out.

I suspect there will be a lot of changes in month 2 and lots of updates next time!

Here is big sister testing out the photo shoot area:

Day 34: Can A 3-Year Old Operate A Wet/Dry Vac?

This one is certainly trying. This is how Maya entertained herself today while mommy and daddy attempted to clean the house. We didn't get too far, we have a long road ahead of us!

We also discovered today that Mitchells sleeps really well on his belly. We had a horrible time trying to get him down for a nap. Once I flipped him over he slept for two and a half hours. He let me make dinner and we all got to sit down and enjoy it. It's just too bad that it is too risky to leave him on his tummy all the time. We might actually start getting some sleep around here if we could.

Day 33: The Littlest Buckeyes

We had a wonderful visit today from Aunt Heather, Uncle Shane and Celia. Mitchell got to meet his future wife for the first time (and as a side note, Aunt Heather and Uncle Shane are not blood relatives, so the arranged marriage is completely legal).

Ohio State Photo Shoot: Maya adores Uncle Shane.

A family shot of the Wilson's.
It only took us four weeks, but this is our first official picture of a family of four.

Day 32: Mommy's Little Helper

Day 31: You Can't Find Me

Every time we leave the room, Maya hides behind the couch and says "you can't find me" when she hears us come back. Today I snuck up on her and got her picture. She thought it was pretty funny.

She actually posed for both of these pictures and let me take more than one shot!

Mitchell was exhausted this evening after a long visit to Mommy's work!

Day 30: My Babies' Feet