BillyandAshlee.com

Mason had a great, happy weekend and then was up screaming every few hours on Sunday night, not wanting to lay down…I knew immediately it was his ears, again. And again, no cold. I don’t understand why he gets the infections before we see the nasal congestion, it’s always a few days later. Kind of like how Lauren starts coughing and having trouble with her asthma, and then we see the nasal congestion a few days later. Anyway, Mason had a follow-up appt his our ENT yesterday already, convenient, no?

There is fluid on his ears, but no infection, yet. Of course with the fluid there, it can be an infection at any time or it might never be. However, it is affecting his hearing of course. Two weeks ago there wasn’t any fluid at his ear recheck with the pediatrician. We have a recheck with the ENT in 6 weeks and we’ll be doing a hearing test then too. The hope is that we’ll get him through the winter w/o any more infections and then likely he’ll start having trouble next cold/flu season, so we’ll likely end up in tubes next winter…that is exactly what Lauren did…2 ear infections at 6 months and then spring came and we were good until October/November when the ear infections started and we were at the ENT and in tubes by January. The concern is if we put tubes in him now (if he keeps getting infections in the next month), they may fall out in 6 months and we’ll be putting tubes in again come winter (now, Lauren’s still hadn’t fallen out at 3 years, but that’s abnormal apparently). And our ENT told us that the ear infections and reflux go hand in hand…that when they reflux, that fluid comes up and ends up in their ears since all of those passageways are connected. So, both of my kids have fluid on their ears, both scheduled for rechecks, lovely.

She scoped Mason again (through his nose, down his throat) to check on his stridor and apparently it’s “impressive” is what she said…it’s touching his airway, all but obstructing it. She upped his dose of prevacid (doubled it to 15mg) to try to be able to get him off of the steroid (Flovent) (when I take him off the steroid, he starts choking on feedings…the steroid is helping to open the airway, but they really don’t want him on the steroid). She said if we can’t get him off of the steroid, he would be a candidate for surgery to correct the stridor (otherwise, he’d outgrow it by 3 years old or need surgery at that point). urgh. She said he also has that “allergy kid” look, just like Lauren always has, the red around the eyes, etc. She also said that she can refer us out to an occupational therapist who can work with us to give us thickeners to make his bottles more like nectar consistency so he can feel that the liquid is there instead of choking on it. So, I asked how that works with nursing and for some reason she thought I’d stopped breastfeeding him when I went back to work almost 3 months ago and I said absolutely not, he’s 100% breastfed and I thought she was going to do a dance for joy!! She said if there is anyone in this world that needs to be breastfed as long as possible, it’s Mason. She said to breastfeed him until at least a year (which is the plan anyway), and if I could do it to 18 months to get him through next winter, that would be the best. I already knew that, given Lauren’s history, but it was hard to hear that I will likely be pumping for another year. If I were a stay at home mom, it would be no big deal, but I really hate pumping. Oh well, now that a dr. has told me it’s really, really best for Mason (she stressed it I don’t know how many times including telling me if I have supply issues to go to my dr. and tell them to put me on reglan), I will do everything in my power to get him through next winter instead of until September as originally planned.

Last night he wasn’t up crying, so I’m hopeful the fluid will go away. The ENT said some people are really sensitive to the pressure from the fluid and that is likely why he was up crying, but she rechecked his ears a second time during the appt, just to make certain there was no infection. Poor baby.

I’ll say it again…if ear infections, athma, and stridors are the worst my kids have…than we’ll be just fine:)

The comment we hear almost every time we are out with Mason is “he is just the happiest baby” and that absolutely is the best way to describe him!! The girl that took care of him in the gym last Saturday came out to tell me that he is now her new favorite baby and she absolutely loves him and he’s the happiest baby she’s ever seen. I loved hearing it of course and told her he’d be back on Sunday and she asked when and I told her what time and she was like “oh good!!! I’ll be here!! I’m so excited!!”. How lucky are we?? Here’s an update on Mason at 5 months.

sleep - pretty much the same. He goes to sleep around 8:30/9pm and gets up to eat once sometime around 3am-6am and then is back down (very easily, we’re usually awake less than 10 mins) until 7:30ish. Naps the same…catnaps throughout the day (30mins - 1 hour) with one long nap at some point (2-3 hours). Still swaddled. Starts off with the paci, but usually spits it out once he’s asleep and might cry once during the night to get it back. When he wakes up from nap or in the morning, I usually hear him talking to himself, looking at his mobile, totally content.

teeth - he has his 2 bottom teeth and they are very evident when he smiles, they’re so cute! (he got them at 4.5 months) Miss Lauren (his daycare lady) thought he was teething and working on his top ones last week, but so far we don’t feel any bumps or anything.

sitting - he is now fully sitting up right, all on his own! He still topples over time to time, but it doesn’t seem to bother him, even he bonks his head a bit on the floor or something, not much ever bothers him! He rarely sits though, he’d prefer to be on his tummy.
Sitting and looking at his penguin (Lauren always runs to be in the pics too!lol):

crawling - Mason started army crawling at 4.5 months!!! Yikes!! Lauren started crawling at 9 months and never army crawled, so I totally wasn’t expecting it! He can zoom across the room pretty quick, too! It’s cute watching him do it, he pulls with his arms and pushes with his feet, spins one foot out to the side to spin around to go a different direction. It’s like he is doing everything he can to just move, so crazy! And we’ve learned to do a quick scan of the room before putting him down because he’ll make a beeline for Lauren’s drawings to rip them up or for her stuffed animals to chew on them (which she claims makes them not soft so she won’t let him touch them!), etc. He will happily play on the floor in the great room or in our bedroom or bathroom for a really long time with just a few toys spread out. So very different than Miss Lauren who didn’t move and wanted the 1×1 time with us, in our arms! Mason can get his knees under him and can also fully push up on his arms, but hasn’t figured out how to do it all at once to crawl the normal way, but we know it’s really not going to be long.

eating - Mason is still on 100% breastmilk (yea!) and eats every 2-3 hours. We had kind of backed off on the cereal because he really wasn’t interested. We tried again the day after he turned 5 months and now he LOVES to eat! Weird! So far he’s had rice cereal and oatmeal cereal. He’s also had mashed up banana’s and loved them, go figure! Well, and bites of my ice cream cone a few days ago, which of course, he loved! Three days ago we started carrots and he always makes faces, but keeps opening his mouth wanting more and grunts at us if we don’t keep feeding him! He’s doing so well, that last night, I gave him a bowl of oatmeal, a 1/3 jar of carrots (small jar), and a 1/3 jar of banana’s and he gobbled it all right up! He acted like he wanted more, but we figured it was enough since it was the first time he’d ate that much in one sitting! We gave Miss Lauren the go ahead to start cereal in the mornings today. Likely we’ll get him on a schedule where he has cereal and fruit in the morning and cereal, fruit, and veggie at night. At his 6 month well baby visit, we’ll talk to the dr. about adding lunch and meats. We’re just starting slowly as they recommend, give him one new food for 3 days to make sure there isn’t an allergic reaction and then move on to the next. It seems like he’s going to be a really good eater!
Lauren feeding him bananas:

we finally brought out the highchair…love his little faces when he eats, yet he wants more!

personality - As I said, Mason is just so happy all of the time! Huge smiles for anyone he can get to look at him! It’s funny because he will sit and stare at Billy until he looks at him and then gives him the biggest smile you’ve ever seen!! He absolutely adores Lauren and every time he sees her, he gets so excited with huge smiles and kicking his arms and legs! They “play” together all the time…she’s usually rolling him up in a “burrito”, pretending she’s the teacher and it’s nap time…her very favorite game to play. He has also learned how to get our attention and make us laugh with this grunt he does…I pick him up from daycare first and then we go get Lauren and all the way home, he’ll grunt at her and she’ll look at him and giggle while he’s smiling huge and then go back to watching tv, and then he’ll grunt again…and repeat over and over on the 5 min drive home! He also spends a lot of time blowing raspberries I think to entertain himself or to make us laugh. And he is totally ticklish, laughs out loud anytime you tickle his neck, arms, legs, back, belly, etc!
Such a happy baby!

size - he can still wear his 3-6 month clothes ok, and 6-12 are just fine too.

hair - it is almost completely gone except for his mohawk! A ton of new growth has come in too, but the mohawk is what you see! And it’s almost like a “combover mohawk” because the hair in the front half is gone, but the hair from the back half comes to the front, if that makes sense. Lauren prefers when we put a clippy in it and give him a ponytail on the top of his head, like Pebbles…of course we don’t leave the house that way, Billy would never allow it!lol
You can see the mohawk pretty good here:

And here is his pebbles ‘do (and you can see all of Lauren’s dolls put down for nap in the background, there are always dolls/animals all over our house this way…good thing grammy has quilted a million blankets for her!):

eyes - still blue and we do think they have actually gotten even more blue (but still a gray blue kind of color, very cool!). We are hesitant to say it, but it appears he may have dark hair and blue eyes! gorgeous!
Here’s a picture Lauren took of Mason in the new hat grammy knitted for him, love his eyes in this pic!

firsts - Mason is now sitting in a highchair at restaurants (if he’s awake, otherwise he stays in the infant carrier). Billy is now giving Mason his bath upstairs in his baby tub on the floor in the master bath while Lauren takes her bath (in our big jacuzzi tub of course!) and I think the kids like being together for baths…it won’t be too long until they can take baths together! We’ll see how that goes, Lauren likes her space to “swim”! We took Mason swimming for the first time last weekend and he really seemed to like it! Of course, there isn’t much this kid doesn’t like (except when you mess with his nose…don’t try to suction it or wipe it, he freaks!). He stayed in the water with us for about 45 mins and would even hold onto the side and we could let go and he’d just hang there! Lauren took lessons at 6 months and so we did some of that stuff with him and even took him under water a few times and not a single tear! I’m not sure he *liked* it, but he didn’t hate it either! (for the record, Lauren *hated* it!…she just let Billy take her under water for the first time last weekend!) Here’s a few pics!


and not to leave out Lauren (and yes, yellow is still her favorite color, and she is over the moon about her yellow tutu swim suit!):

We are so blessed to have such great kids!!

1. Took Lauren for her post-surgery follow-up appt with her ENT yesterday. Her ear has healed, but she has fluid on her ears. The ENT is hopeful that it’s because she had a cold last week, but we have to wait and see. What are we waiting for you ask? To see if she needs tubes, again (she had them put in at 15 months after a ton of ear infections, and then at the 3 year mark, 1 had fallen out on its own, the other was removed surgically in Nov09). We have a follow-up appt in 4 months to check on them unless she complains of hearing loss or pain. Poor kid.

2. Mason had an awful day at daycare yesterday, he was crying on and off all day which is so unlike him. He wouldn’t eat very well last night and slept horribly last night. Crying on/off, snacking all night, sleeping with me most of the night, running a fever in the middle of the night and gave him Tylenol (all of this we were attributing to teething). Seemed in good spirits this morning and took him to daycare. Left my office 10 mins from his daycare at 11, had just got to my client 40 mins away when I got a call from Ms. Lauren (Mason’s daycare lady) that she thinks he’s actually sick because he now had a runny nose and was sneezing a lot (neither at home this morning) and she was worried its his ears. Duh, his ears. All those ear infections with Lauren and the not wanting to lay down to eat or sleep and it hadn’t even occurred to me with him, probably bc he hadn’t really run a fever, she always had a high fever. So, I left said client, drove 40 mins to pick him up, took him to the dr. and sure enough, an ear infection. Definitely in his left ear, not sure about the right because there was a little ear wax in the way, but she didn’t want to bother him to take it out since we were going to start antibiotics and ear numbing drops anyway. Poor guy. Our ENT told us if babies have an ear infection by 6 months, 90% likelihood they’ll end up getting tubes. Maybe we can get a 2 for 1 this year?

Just a quick update of Mason at 4.5 months, I’ll likely come back and add more today as I think of it!

sleep - the 4 month mark started off rough when we transitioned him to his crib and tried not to swaddle him. We quickly learned he wasn’t ready and instead put him in a SwaddleMe blanket and except for the few times we have to go give him his paci back a night, he sleeps from about 8:45 - 5/6am, eats, and then sleeps again until 7/8am. He still naps between every feeding but takes one long 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon and we are very thankful it is at the same time Lauren naps! Sometimes he’ll lay in his bed and go to sleep on his own, other times he falls asleep on me before I get him there!

teeth - Mason’s bottom right tooth broke through right at 4.5 months and the left one is right behind it. He had a rough day yesterday and last night as it’s really bothering him and it’s also causing a little fever and runny nose. I can’t believe he has a tooth already! Lauren got her bottom teeth at 6.5 months!

sitting - He is doing really well at sitting on his own. He can be sitting with his arms down in a tripod of sorts, but then use his strong little abs to pull himself up to sitting up straight. He still topples now and then though.

moving - And the reason he really doesn’t like sitting, is because he prefers his belly (so unlike his sister!). If you lay him down on his back, he’s immediately over on his belly. It makes diaper changes and changing his clothes a huge challenge! I’ve learned how to dress him while on his belly really well! Either that or I have him sit on my lap. And of course he’s not crawling yet, but he gets to where he wants to go no problem. He either rolls to get there (yesterday he rolled 1/2 the length of his room to go check out the vent that caught his eye!), or he does an army crawl of sorts and just pulls himself with his arms and pushes a bit with his feet. He is crazy strong! And when we lay him down, we look again a minute later and he is nowhere close to where we left him! Miss Lauren (his daycare lady) says he’ll be crawling at 6 months for sure! yikes! I guess we’ll see!

eating - Mason is still on 100% breastmilk and is eating every 2-3 hours when he’s with me. He eats every 3 hours at daycare and takes 5oz. bottles. We started him on rice cereal mixed with breastmilk at 4 months (per pediatrician recommendation) and he really doesn’t like it. After a week we moved onto oatmeal and he’ll tolerate that better and eat it all, but he’s not happy about it while doing it! I’ve tried warming it up, tried it cold, it doesn’t seem to matter. I think part of it is that he doesn’t like to be confined to sitting in the bumbo for the 5 mins it would take him to eat, he wants to move! In a few weeks, we’ll start introducing veggies and see how he does. He was holding his bottle really well at 3.5 months when my mom watched him for a week, but I’m not sure how long he’d been doing it since he doesn’t get bottles at home.

likes - He loves to play in his exersaucer and jumperoo and is always entertained anytime Lauren is in the room. She always gets the biggest smiles from him! He’ll lay on his blanket and play with toys for quite awhile too. We have two bouncy seats, one expensive one with music, movement, etc. and one really cheap one upstairs that just has a bar on it with 3 toys hanging down. Every since he was born, he prefers the cheap one. So weird. He’ll usually sit in that for 30 mins or better while I get ready in the morning. He can spot a tv from a mile away and will watch it. yikes. He’s definitely seen more tv than Lauren had just because he’ll watch what she’s watching, even if we try not to let him! We have a dvd player in the Pilot and even though he’s rear facing, he’ll strain his neck up and back to watch.

personality - He is totally the happiest baby. Tons and tons of smiles. He’ll smile at anyone that will look at him, or watches them smiling at them until they notice him! He loves to do that to daddy…he’ll just stare at him smiling until he notices and then when he does, Mason gives him an even bigger smile! He’s definitely a mama’s boy and whenever he actually does get upset (not very often), he really just wants me.

other firsts - In the last few weeks, he’s discovered “screaming” and thinks its hilarious to scream just to do it…it sounds like he’ll lose his voice doing it! He also started blowing raspberries about a week ago. It’s really cute, until it’s bedtime when he wants to do it to play!

size - At his 4 month well baby visit, he was 14lbs and 25″. He’s still wearing his 3-6 month clothes, but some onsies are too short on him (he’s pretty skinny, so the width is always fine). He’s also wearing 6-12 month onsies just fine (some are a bit big) and pants (but those tend to be a bit big on him still). It’s made guessing what size he’ll be this summer pretty hard!

hair - He’s lost most of his hair at this point. He has a mohawk left in the middle and a few whispy’s on the side and then a bit on the top and a bit on the bottom in the back, complete with a rat tail!lol And if you comb over the top just right, it makes him look like Hitler! If he doesn’t lose the rest of it pretty soon, he’s going to have to get his first hair cut to not make it look so scary! He has a ton of new growth in though, so he’ll never be completely bald, and it also coming in dark, yea!

eyes - They’re still blue! They aren’t a really bright blue, but a more dark, sometimes gray-blue. It really depends on what he wears and the light. There is definitely no brown in them. So we have no idea what color they are going to end up! His pediatrician says she thinks they’ll stay blue. That would be great, dark hair and blue eyes! I don’t know though…Billy has really light brown, almost hazel eyes (there is a lot of green in them), so maybe they’ll end up like his. Who knows, maybe by his first birthday we’ll know!

Mason is just growing so fast!! I love this 4-6 month old stage!

Mason’s bottom two teeth have been trying to come in for awhile, but over the weekend, his bottom right one popped through! His left one will likely be right behind it! I can’t believe he already has a tooth at 4.5 months!

After 2.5 weeks of Mason waking up 2 or so times a night and thinking he needed to eat or sleep with me and trying everything from different blankets to swaddle, to cereal (he hates it), to sleepsacks, to packnplay, to in bed with me…we finally bought a SwaddleMe on Saturday and it is a miracle that thing!! Saturday night Mason slept from 9pm - 6:30am and Sunday night he slept from 9pm - 6:15am (then both days a quick nurse and back down until 7:30am or later). I *LOVE* the SwaddleMe, it will be my new “go to” baby gift!! Billy is an expert swaddler for sure, but Mason is so darn strong that he was breaking out no matter how tight and what blanket we used and it was very evident he still wanted to be swaddled. There is really not any breaking out of the SwaddleMe and he relaxes the second I put him in it! Now, he had wiggled his arms out this morning, but that was because last night as I was putting him to bed, I felt bad that his straight jacket, I mean SwaddleMe, seemed so tight, so I loosened it. Won’t be making that mistake tonight! Ahhhh, 2 nights of uninterrupted sleep, total heaven. I am so spoiled that both of my kids only got up 1-2 times a night until they were 7 weeks old and then slept through the night from then on, the last 2 weeks with Mason up at night were so tiring!! I feel bad for parents who aren’t as lucky in the sleep department as we’ve been! Although, maybe they didn’t have a SwaddleMe!

Mason had his 4mo WBV today and here are the stats:

length: 25″, 50%
weight: 14lb3oz, 40%
head: 43.25cm, 75%

Not as big as I was expecting when I think back to how Lauren “felt” at his age!! At her 4 month WBV, Lauren was 13lb2oz (45%) and 23.5″ (25%)…so he’s bigger, but not by as much as I would have thought!

We moved Mason to his crib 2 weeks ago and it’s messed up his sleep. He used to sleep 9pm until somewhere around 5-6am when he’d eat and go back to sleep for 2-3 hours and some days he’d just sleep straight through to 7am or so. Since we put him in the crib, he’s been getting up once sometime between 1am-4am and wanting to eat…nothing else calms him down. And he’s rolling so much (apparently they are supposed to roll from belly to back at this age, but this is early to roll back to belly, his dr/nurse were surprised he was doing it and he’s been doing it for a month! who knew.) that he’s rolling around in there after he breaks out of the swaddle leaving a dangerous loose blanket and can even roll back to belly while swaddled, so not safe anymore.

So last night we moved him to the sleepsack which now means he can’t go to sleep on his own (he relaxes when swaddled) so I ended up rocking him to sleep. Seriously, Lauren was so much easier with her sleep! But today his pediatrician said definitely no more swaddle and to put him to sleep on his back, but if he flips over on his own, that’s ok, not to go in and move him. She said the reason he’s waking up is because he is hungry and it’s a sign it’s time to start cereal and once we do, his sleep should go back to normal. hallelujah. I had been wondering as he was showing signs of readiness, he tries to eat everything we have in our hands and on our plates and I actually bought rice cereal last weekend assuming we’d get the go ahead today. Then when she looked in his mouth, she saw his 2 bottom teeth are about to come through (which I knew, and bothered him for a few days a few weeks ago, but haven’t seemed to since) and she said that’s likely the other cause of the sleep issues the last few weeks. So, hopefully tonight with night #2 of the sleepsack, maybe some orajel before bed, and a belly full of cereal, I’ll get a full night’s sleep again!lol

Other than that, he met all of his milestones…rolls from front to back, reaches for objects, grasps objects, holds head erect and steady when sitting, laughs, smiles, grabs his feet, etc. I didn’t mention to them but he’s been sitting for about 10-20 seconds on his own already too! He actually started doing that last week, before he even hit 4 months! He’s one strong little guy! I do believe Lauren started sitting on her own at 4 months as well and had it mastered by 5 months, which I know is early. Hopefully he won’t master crawling too soon though, because I can already tell he’ll be into everything!! =)

He got 3 shots and a squirt in his mouth and cried his little eyes out until I started nursing him, and that calmed him right down. The kid loves food. Oh - and his torticollis is completely gone! yea!

For fun, we asked the ped what she thought his eye color would be and she said she thinks they’re going to stay blue (or the gray blue color that they tend to be, more blue some days, more gray another), that they’re too light to go brown but we’ll get a pretty good idea at his 6 month check, but nothing is for sure until he’s one. Yea, blue eyes and dark hair, I love it!

Soon I will post a “Mason at 4 month” recap with what he likes/dislikes etc. It’s really funny how different he and Lauren are…definitely a big difference between boys and girls!!

For fun, here are a few of Lauren’s 4 month pic’s for comparison purposes…I think they have a few similarities (like their nose), but don’t look too terribly much alike? Or can I not see it since I’m their mom? Like everyone tells me Lauren looks just like me and I don’t see it? Lauren was so much shorter and chubbier…Mason is longer and leaner. And look at all of Lauren’s hair! She never lost any! Oh - and Lauren wouldn’t smile nearly as well as Mason did for his! And I’m not surprised at all we have none of Lauren on her tummy she hated it so much!lol

But this picture makes Mason look more like Lauren, in his face shape:

We had Mason’s 4 month pictures taken today and he did great! Lauren was a bit disappointed at first that she wasn’t getting hers done, but she got over it and helped us get big smiles out of Mason! You can tell in the pic’s that his eyes are some unidentified color…sometimes they’re blue, sometimes they’re kind of gray, but never really brown…depending on what he wears they look bright blue or more gray. We have no idea what color they are going to end up! And his hair is totally struggling…a lot of it has fallen out with new hair growing in (also dark, yea!), but he has whispy old man hair left that if combed just right, really makes him look like Hitler! Billy keeps joking that he’s going to shave his head, it would probably look better! Here are the ones we bought:

so cute in this one…

I *love* this one, totally his real smile!

In this picture, I can totally see what he’s going to look like as a little boy!

I love this smile…it’s his ornery smile! And it makes his cheeks look chubbier than normal, cute!

this kid absolutely *loves* tummy time…if you put him on his back, he immediately rolls to his tummy:

and I’m not really sure why we got this one, it doesn’t quite look like him!

Next up will be Mason and Lauren’s 6 month and 4.5 year pic’s in March!

Thanks to a snow day at home with Mason, the gallery is now updated with all new pic’s! Here is a recap of the last few months:

Silly Billy and Lauren on Thanksgiving:

Lauren and Kacie:

lovin on papa:

picking out a tree is so hard:

but all is better when there is face painting afterward:

and with hayrides:

and with jumping off of hay bales:

and Mason stayed warm and slept most of the time:

decorating the tree:

Mason watching:

hanging out in the bumbo while we made a gingerbread house:

I guess the bumbo didn’t last long:

the finished product, Santa’s workshop:

would you expect any different from Billy’s kids?

hanging out at Union Station with Damon:

since the train was closed, Damon decided to be the conductor:

it’s awesome when somehow the 2 guys end up carrying the purses and diaper bags in public:

making oreo balls with daddy:

big smiles:

making cookies for Santa:

I apparently did something wrong:

first time in the exersaucer:

Mason’s favorite thing on the exersaucer:

our good looking puppy:

we can’t keep Mason off of his tummy…complete opposite of his sister:

Lauren, Winnie, and I on our way to the KC Ballet’s The Nutcracker:

making more Christmas candy, complete in tutu:

finally, at 3.5 months, Mason loves his bath:

daily mauling, I mean hugging, of her brother (check out the awesome quilt grammy made Mason for Christmas!):

blackmail pic’s for the future:

getting another gymnastics medal (she just moved up to a new class and her coach told me she’s advanced in gymnastics for her age…go Lauren!):

more face painting at her school holiday party (doesn’t look as happy as last time?):

best friend Kayla:

other best friend Shobika (check out that height difference):

sitting on Santa’s lap (Mason could care less and was fine and Lauren did way better than last year, she actually sat on his lap several time this year and rattled off everything she wanted…computer, fur real kitty, bath tub baby, tinkerbell telephone, etc etc):

an armful of tutu’s for dress-up, thanks nanny! They were a bit hit at our NYE party!

Mason hanging out during gift opening:

Lauren and Damon hanging out in papa’s chair…likely watching “Christmas Mickey”:

I don’t think Damon wanted to smile for me:)

silly faces with Uncle Shane (there are a million of these):

my family, all in red, weird:

the new Princess laptop all her own, thanks Santa (now mommy/daddy don’t have to give up their laptops all the time!):

I took Lauren to ToysrUs to buy Mason a Christmas gift, and all she wanted to get him was this bib…she was far too concerned about looking at toys for herself:

hanging out with some of her loot:

hanging with uncle Brian:

sleeping with papa:

cheesin with uncle Luke:

Lauren and Winnie in matching wedding dresses:

playing with her RC car in Tinkerbell panties and new slippers…not sure why or what happened to her dress?

picture with great grandma:

Tiffany and Brian furthering the stack of blackmail pictures…Mason in Winnie’s veil:

Lauren and Mason hanging in her new pink castle tent…we caught her dragging Mason in by his feet…in her defense, at least she remembered she’s not supposed to pick him up…we’d never told her she couldn’t drag him:

Winnie at our friends Christmas party (yes, Winnie goes EVERYWHERE with us):

And a few from our NYE party (14 adults and 11 kids!)…

she has a playroom, but for some reason, the closet of the playroom is everyone’s favorite place to play (and destroy)!

Lauren and “uncle” Nate:

best friends (Kayla)…playing dress-up:

and having a pretend slumber party…I’m sure the real thing is in the near future!

and the tutu’s get used by the adults as well:

Billy and Megan getting ready for the “miracle fruit” party…don’t ask:

and finally, a picture that is totally typical of my kids…Lauren cheesin for the camera while right next to Mason and Mason putting something in his mouth:

whew.

Brody turns 10 today!! Lauren was so excited and gave him big hugs, told him happy birthday a thousand times, and ran to give him some “special treats”. Then we gave him 1/2 can of chicken with his breakfast with the other half he’ll get with his dinner. We normally take him to Land of Paws on his birthday to get a doggy cake and treats, but with the crazy snow today, we’ll wait and do that on Saturday. It’s crazy he’s already 10 years old…which means it’s been almost 10 years since we graduated from college! Not that we’re bias, but he’s just the best dog ever…so loyal, so great and patient with the kids, his mood matches ours…if we’re in the mood to be lazy and lay around, he’s good with that…if we want to go for a walk, he’s always ready, he’s a great guard dog and really only barks if there is actually someone outside the house, so protective of all of us, and so lovey! We’re so lucky he’s our puppy!

What a great decade!! I can’t imagine another decade where our lives will change so dramatically! We feel so blessed for our amazing lives!

2000 - Billy and I got our chocolate lab Brody for each other for Valentine’s Day, he was just 6 weeks old. I graduated with my masters and Billy with his bachelors in May. We moved to KC and got our first apartment with just the 2 of us. We bought our first car together (Jeep Grand Cherokee). We started our first professional jobs in June…me at Grant Thornton, Billy at Sprint. Billy’s mom was diagnosed with cancer in October and she passed away on Christmas day. Billy’s grandmother passed away on Christmas Eve.

2001 - Worked a lot. Partied a lot:) Attended a bunch of weddings. Bought our first house in April. My grandpa passed away in June. Got engaged on 9/21.

2002 - More weddings. Got married on 9/14/02. Went to Ireland for our honeymoon (my 2nd time in Europe, Billy’s first) and Billy finally caught the travel bug that I’ve had since birth!

2003 - Went to Las Vegas for vacation. Billy loves, I’m not a fan. Decided to “get skinny” from the college weight and Billy and I started Weight Watchers…in 4 months I lost 40 pounds and Billy lost 70 by NYE. More weddings.

2004 - Spent 3 weeks backpacking through Europe with Billy and was one of the best experiences of my life (England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Czech Republic). Changed jobs to a company with a better work/life balance and started trying for a baby. More weddings.

2005 - Found out I was pregnant with Lauren in January, loved being pregnant, and gave birth to her on September 27th (induced 5 days late). Ecstatic to be a mom. Went to NYC for vacation while pregnant.

2006 - Returned to work after maternity leave in January, balance not as good as I’d like. In August, accepted a position at a small firm with a former senior manager I’d worked for at GT with a very flexible schedule and still love it to this day. Billy and I took our first “couple” vacation w/o Lauren to Playa del Carmen in October. My first nephew, Damon, was born in April and I got a fabulous new sister in law with Katie. Billy and I both turned 30 this year, I planned a big pub crawl complete with party bus, we let mine pass quietly:)

2007 - Billy took a position with Embarq to create a new team and is incredibly happy he made that decision. Took a vacation in October with Billy, my sister, brother, and Katie to Clearwater, FL and had a wonderful time (Shane and Katie got engaged there!) . A month later, Billy and I went to St. Martin for our “couple” vacation and had an incredible time and can’t wait to return to the Caribbean…our second favorite vacation after Europe.

2008 - Finally decided to lose the rest of the baby weight and started Weight Watchers (again) and spent the year working out at 5:30am roughly 6 days a week. In the best shape of my life and actually enjoyed running for the first time ever. All of us traveled to my sisters wedding in Asheville, NC which Billy officiated (gorgeous and got a great new brother in law with Brian!) in May followed by a trip to Columbia, SC to see Billy’s grandparents. The three of us went with Shane, Katie, and Damon for a long weekend in St. Louis and had a great time. Billy’s grandpa was diagnosed with colon cancer in July. We started trying for baby #2. Billy, Lauren, my parents, Damon, and I spent a week in August in Destin, FL (Lauren’s 1st beach trip and she’s still begging to go back!). Billy and I spent our “couple” vacation in Key West but spent most of the trip with the stomach flu, ick. Decided to build our “forever” house in December and found out we were pregnant with Mason on 12/26.

2009 - Sold our old home, spent 4 months living in a duplex, built and moved to our new home. Took the first vacation with just the 3 (sort of 4!) of us to Chicago. Billy officiated his 2nd wedding for our best friends who (finally) got married! Didn’t enjoy pregnancy as much the second time around, likely due to living in a duplex and being so busy with a 3 year old and building a house, but still loved the amazing feeling of being pregnant and feeling Mason moving constantly and all of his hiccups. We found out he was a boy in April. Gave birth to Mason on September 8th (his due date and papa’s birthday!) and completed our perfect family of 4!

I am hoping 2010 holds the following for our family: getting skinny and in shape (again), a trip to “Cinderella’s castle” and the beach in Florida in September for Lauren’s 5th birthday, hopefully a short “couple” vacation for Billy and I, and lots of “1sts” with Mason.

Lauren had a 6 month ENT appt last Monday to check on her ear tubes. Her right one was out, but the left one was still in. As we are almost at the 3 year mark, it required surgery to be removed or it could cause a permanent hole. Lauren had sugery today and it went really well. She was so good. She didn’t cry at all when we went back, they did her o2 sat and blood pressure. But when the nurse put the hospital bracelet on her ankle and left the room, she started crying that it hurt and she wanted it off. It wasn’t anywhere close to tight, so I pulled her sock between it and her ankle and then while still crying and clinging to me, she told me she was scared. Poor baby girl. After Billy and I calmed her down, she was great the rest of the time we were waiting. The anesthesiologist talked to us (they just had to gas mask her, and no IV, yea!), then Dr. Latz came and talked to us. Then they gave her a motorized jeep to drive back into the surgery room, so she put her new stuffed dog my mom got her in the car and jumped in and never looked back. Dr. Latz came out to talk to us about 15 mins later and while talking to us, a nurse came out carrying Lauren saying she wanted us but needed to stay in the back, so Billy went back while my mom and I finished talking to the dr. Five mins later and we were out the door! She had some pain right after, but we gave her some Tylenol and she was completely fine about 20 mins later! yea! She’s running around like nothing even happened.

However, I fed Mason while Lauren was having her procedure done. When Latz came out to talk to us, she was telling us everything about the surgery and the aftercare, but she was totally watching/listening to Mason and then started asking me questions about him (he was really noisy breathing bc he had just ate). So I told her that the burp advice she’d given us last week at Lauren’s appt had helped reduce his spit up, but she said that he definitely had some things going on that she’d like to see him for….and that she could tell by the sound it was laryngeal malacia (meaning a weak voicebox) and not tracheomalacia (weak trachia) like we’d previously been told. She said with all the spit up, he definitely has reflux and that the 2 things go hand in hand…each makes the other worse and that all it takes is 1mm of something or other and it reduces their oxygen intake by 60%. eek. So, she said she had time between her last procedure and her first appt at 12:30 and to bring him back so she could check him out. She’s so awesome.

We took Lauren to breakfast (IHOP, her fav)and then went back to her office for Mason’s appt. She asked me about everything so I told her how he started this his first night in the hospital (usually it isn’t that early she said), how he spits up constantly, how he arches and won’t eat occasionally, how he chokes while nursing on pretty much both sides every time he eats and how it’s long after let down (she said that is not normal at all…thank you, ped told me to pump off even though I told her it wasn’t during let down), how he chokes just sitting in his car seat, and how I watch him reflux and choke and get sour looks on his face. She listened to him, watched him breathe, looked in his nose and ears (he had green crusty stuff in his nose from all the refluxing). Then she scoped him with the small camera thing…tried to go down his nose but it was too little, so went down his throat…he has a pretty bad case of the laryngeal malacia…and unfortunately all the reflux causes everything to swell. The weak voicebox muscles mean his voicebox is falling into his vocal chords restricting the airway and the reflux has caused everything to be mucousy/swollen so he has a really really tight airway. Poor, poor guy!! She was definitely really serious about it all which was freaking me out a bit since 3 different pediatricians at 2 different pediatric practices have told me it’s a benign condition and nothing to worry about and it’ll go away around 4 months. She said that it’s not normal to have gotten it from birth, that it normally gets better before it gets worse, that it generally requires reflux meds, that it’s usually gone by the age of 2, and that sometimes it may require surgery. That is why I love going to the specialists…I really feel like the ped’s blow you off and give you the “standard” answer when obviously that isn’t always the case. She recommended elevating the bed, which I have already done. I asked if I should be even more concerned about SIDS type stuff bc it’s so hard for him to breathe and she paused for a long time and you could tell she was trying not to freak me out, but was like yea, it would really concern me. yikes. So, I told Billy that seals it, he’s staying in the packnplay in our room for a lot longer (I was planning to move him to his crib at night starting either tonight or when we got back from Wichita). Then it was time for him to eat, so I fed him while Dr. Latz listened/watched and checked him out for whether the sound was on inhale and exhale or just inhale and it was whatever way she suspected it would be so it means that the choking/pulling off is related to the stridor and reflux and not a different issue we’d have to figure out. I guess the laryngeal malacia/strider doesn’t allow him to feel that all the milk is there and he’s not swallowing like he should while also refluxing and he’s choking. I feel so bad for him!!

So, she gave us prescription for zantac. She said it will take a week or two to see the results and we need to get him relief sooner than that, so she also gave us a prescription for an inhaled steroid (with a spacer like Lauren has) to decrease the inflammation being caused by the reflux. Of course she said that we may need to move on to previcid if we don’t see results with the zantac or if we have a problem getting him to take it bc of the strong peppermint flavor/smell…but with insurance you have to “fail” zantac first…same as it was with Lauren’s albuterol vs. xoponex for her asthma.

Poor, poor baby. I hate that we got the wrong information for 2 months from the ped’s. Same as it was for 2 months with Lauren with her asthma/milk intolerance. I should have remembered that from her and took him to Dr. Latz sooner…in my head, I’d planned to make the appt if he wasn’t better by 6 months. But, it does seem like his choking and back arching have gotten worse in the last month, but his noisy breathing sounds about the same to me. I’m just so thankful that he was making that noise when she came out to talk to us!! She said he was totally quiet on Monday last week during Lauren’s appt when we were talking about his potential reflux or she would have noticed and would have said he needed to be seen.

A day that started out as “poor Lauren” ended up as “poor Lauren AND Mason”!!

Many, many hours and thousands of pic’s later, I’m done. All pics are in the gallery. Enjoy!

There are 1,339 pics from the last 7 weeks I am pulling off the camera tonight…this is going to take awhile. I vow to never get so far behind again!

As an fyi - most pics will now be in the “family pics” section. I will put some things in the kids own folders as well, such as their birthdays.

Billy worked from home this afternoon and was able to get Picasa on my laptop and connected to one of the shared drive…which to you means we now have some pics in the gallery! I’ll do more tonight when the kids are in bed. Here are a few from Monday:

Mason had his 2 month well baby visit a few days ago and here are the stats:

weight: 12lb 3oz, 60%
length: 23.75in, 75%
head: 40.5cm, 50%

He’s such a good eater and growing so well!! He got 3 shots and a squirt of stuff in his mouth…poor guy screamed and screamed and took probably 5 mins to calm down. He’s doing really well holding his head up while on his belly, of course, he LOVES tummy time! I noticed that he always lays with his head tilted to the left and asked his pediatrician if he’s getting any flat spots and she said not at all, his head shape is great, but that he has developed “torticollis”. Simply it means that he has favored one side and the muscles on that side of his neck have tightened and just need stretched out (his head kind of tilts to the left when sitting upright, so we need to stretch out the left side muscles). They gave us some easy stretches to do with him, and if that doesn’t fix it in 4 weeks, we call back and will do some physical therapy with Children’s Mercy. She said it’s no big deal and very easy to fix, just a result of baby’s sleeping on their backs instead of their tummy’s. Interestingly, they generally see it with baby’s who are breach, but Mason wasn’t, he’s just always loved to lay on his left side!

Here’s a quick update.

sleep
He goes to sleep around 9pm and before the time change, was sleeping until 6am or so, would wake for a feeding, and then go back to sleep until 8-9am. For the next week or so, he was waking for a feeding anywhere between 4am - 6am. Then last week, it seems like he’s getting back to his 6am feeding. Regardless of what time he wakes to eat, he ends up sleeping until between 8am-9am after eating. During the day, he naps on and off, no real pattern I’ve noticed other than he will usually have a good 1-2 hour nap in the morning and then more cat naps here and there. Then in the afternoon or early evening, he’ll have a good 1-3hr nap and then more catnaps.

feedings
I am still feeding him every 2-2.5 hours during the day. He rarely gets fussy about wanting to eat, I am generally the one offering. He can make it to about 3 hours usually, but I have kept the schedule shorter. I might start lengthening that to 3 hours in the next few weeks once I’m sure we’re back to the 6am wake-up for good!

talking
Mason LOVES to talk. He’ll coo and talk to about anyone that will give him eye contact…and will engage them first. Billy is a little worried that we may have 3 talkers in this house!

clothes, etc
Mason can still wear some of his 0-3 month clothes, but he’s much more solidly in 3-6 month. I have a feeling he’ll only be in those another few months before we’re in 6-12! It’s not the width, he’s just really long and the onsies end up pulling on him. Long and skinny. Very different than Lauren, she always short and had a tummy when she was little! I think he’s outgrowing his size 1 diapers as he keeps pooping out…so I bought size 2’s today.

hair, eyes
He still has his dark hair. I don’t think he’s really lost any, it’s just that his head has grown so it looks a little more sparse! I can also see new hair coming in. His eyes are still blue. Who knows on that…the ped says they can change up until a year. Some days they look a little more gray and some days they are bright blue. Only time will tell!

personality
The kid LOVES his swing, loves to watch the fish and lights and will almost always nap in there (unless you put him in when he’s cranky, then he just cries). And he loves the plain, cheap bouncy seat (no music, movement)…he’ll sit and watch the animals shake from his bouncing it when he kicks. I can always get a shower and get ready while he sits in it, will fall asleep in it a lot too, while he listens to the shower. I also set it on the dryer while I do laundry and he likes the vibration and the sound of the water in the washer. He’s very much about movement and sound. And definitely loves to be held. As long as you’re holding him, everything is right with his world.

With Lauren
It’s adorable to watch Mason when he hears Lauren’s voice, he starts searching for her around the room. She’s really, really good with him. They get baths every other night. I used to do his while Billy gave Lauren hers, but she would cry and cry that she missed it. So, now her and I do Mason’s bath together, and then she takes her shower. She runs upstairs, grabs his towel, washcloth, pj’s, and diaper…then comes downstairs and gets out his bathtub and soap and lotion and moves her stool over to the sink. She actually knows more about Mason’s bath than Billy does! She had to show Billy where Mason’s things were the other night! She holds him a lot and mimics a lot of what I do with her baby, Winnie.

firsts
I took the kids to the zoo last Friday…Mason’s first trip to the zoo, first carousel ride(s), and first train ride(s). He just loved being outdoors of course! He would live outside if we’d let him, I’m quite sure! We tried sitting him in the Bumbo last weekend, but I don’t think he neck muscles are quite strong enough yet…that will probably improve once we resolve his Torticollis.

I go back to work on 11/30, two weeks from Monday. Totally not ready, I’ll just live in denial that I’m going back for a few more weeks.

And I feel horribly that we don’t have any pic’s uploaded. Moving right before he was born has made it tough. The computer I upload to isn’t up and running yet and Billy hasn’t installed the software on my laptop I need to do it on that instead. My goal is to have it all done by Sunday night. We had our family Christmas/Mason 2month pics taken on Monday, hopefully I can at least get those up soon. I know some of you are doubting as to whether Mason really exists:). Trust me, you’ll be overwhelmed with pics once I finally get them up! Of course, a lot of them are probably “Lauren and Mason” and not just “Mason”…but such is a second child, right?

I think it’s about safe to officially call it…at 7 weeks, just like his sister, Mason is sleeping through the night!! =) In the last week, he seems to have outgrown the evening fussiness that he had every other night and he’s totally chill now, just like during the day. He eats for the last time around 9-9:30pm and then just drifts to sleep in my arms. Love it. Then when I go up to bed, I take him to bed (still in the pack-n-play beside my bed) and swaddle him and he is sleeping until 6-6:30am. He eats, and then goes back to sleep for 2-4 hours until 8-10am. I’m so lucky!!!

And in total “cuteness”, Lauren took her baby doll pack-n-play upstairs and has placed it beside her bed for Winnie to sleep in, just like mommy/Mason. She has been all about Winnie in the last few weeks again…she lays out her next day clothes the night before, just as I do for Lauren and Mason and then lays out Winnie’s pj’s each morning before she leaves for school. And Winnie goes everywhere with us. Lauren has a responsibility chart and each week she gets a new book if she has all her magnets…last week, she decided to forgo the new book for herself, to get new pj’s for Winnie. She has a diaper bag full of clothes for Winnie, ones we’ve bought, she’s received as gifts, and those that Nanny made for Winnie for Lauren’s birthday. I’m so glad I convinced Billy to buy Winnie when we were in Chicago (she’s an American Girl bitty baby…I believe we spent about $125 on Winnie and her accessories)…Billy has now deemed the price tag well worth it for how much she’s played with her since she was “adopted” in June!

Lauren’s school Halloween party is tomorrow…she is Tinkerbell and Mason is Peter Pan (thanks to grammy who made Mason’s costume!!). Lauren and I made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, frosted them orange, and Lauren sprinkled them all with Halloween sprinkles. Billy and Lauren are carving the pumpkins tomorrow after the party in time for the neighborhood pumpkin lighting…at dusk, we’re all supposed to light our pumpkins and display them at the end of the driveway for all the neighbors to see. I’m sure Billy has something creative up his sleeve! We were “boo’d” on Monday…neighbor leaves treats, rings the doorbell, and runs…then you put the paper ghost in your window/front door to let the neighbors now you’ve been “boo’d” and then you “boo” two neighbors. So I put the packages together on Tuesday (thank goodness for maternity leave giving me the time to do such projects!) and Billy took Lauren out “boo’ing” after dark. She was not a fan. She cried before they left saying she was scared and again as they ran away from the first neighbors house…Billy said he thinks she thought she was doing something wrong by running away…she wanted to ring the bell and give them their present (she loves giving presents). Then we were boo’d again yesterday! lol We decided to spare Lauren a repeat experience. Oh well. Maybe it’ll go better next year!

We’re having a party on Saturday…everyone over for dinner and then to go trick-or-treating and then after the kids can play and the adults can hang out. It should be fun! Lauren’s really, really looking forward to trick-or-treating and all her friends coming over!

I know, I know…no pics of Mason yet and he is 7 weeks old. I’ll try to do that soon now that Billy finished the floor in in his secret room/office/workshop and has put everything back in there so I can get to the right computer. It’s going to take awhile to get caught up!

My 33rd birthday was last week and I had a great birthday! The day before, Billy picked Lauren up from school early and they did some secret stuff, but Billy told Lauren not to tell me, so when they got home Lauren came in and said “we came straight home!”. It was really cute, not that we should be teaching her to lie! On my birthday, Lauren came into our bedroom before school and woke me up to tell me happy birthday. When I came downstairs, I had presents and a card waiting for me. Mason and I met Billy for lunch and he left work for the day, then we ran a few errands, then we picked up Lauren from school and all of us went to Nebraska Furniture Mart looking for a foyer table (no luck), then they all took me out to dinner at my favorite place, J. Alexanders. After, we went home where they had bought me a Princess cake complete with candles and singing Happy Birthday and then I got to open my card (Dora!) and my gifts (some candle reed things I wanted for our house…we kept it small as we just bought a new dining room table and 6 chairs for our breakfast room and tons of stuff for house like vases, candles, placemats, etc). It was one of the best birthday’s…and so fun to be my first birthday with all of my kids:).

It’s hard to believe that Mason is already 6 weeks old. Only 5 more weeks left of maternity leave. It’s probably good though as I’m running out of projects to keep me busy! But of course I could just sit and hold Mason all day! He’s so happy in the morning and just loves giving me huge smiles and talking to me, so much fun. In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten Lauren’s room unpacked and we’re hanging everything on the walls tomorrow; I decorated the great room - I went with a chocolate brown and olive green theme in the great room, breakfast room, and kitchen; I got everything for the main floor bath - chocolate brown and a deep red; still thinking about the dining room - we will eventually buy a new table and buffet for in there and I’m undecided what color I want to do in there; we put out all the Halloween/fall decorations a few weeks ago; and I decorated the kids bathroom in a beach theme - Lauren absolutely loves the beach and has been asking to go about everyday for the last few weeks, so I found the cutest stuff on Target’s website and got the shower curtain, rings, wastebasket, 2 toothbrush holders, and 2 tumblers and then got pink, yellow, green, and blue towels that match perfectly and also go with the colors in the kids rooms (pink/yellow/green in Lauren’s and blue/brown in Mason’s). I’m working on the playroom and Mason’s room right now. Then eventually I’ll get to the master bedroom and bath, but that might wait awhile. I also need to get things hung on the walls, but haven’t quite decided what I want where. I think I’ll take my time deciding on that.

Considering I’m now 6 weeks post partum, I was so excited to get back into the gym this week! I’m really sore, but it feels so good to have sore muscles again! I took a class called “50/50″ yesterday…30 mins cardio and 30 mins of weights/strength training…it was a really good combo to do on my first day back in. Then today Billy and I took “Group Power” together…60 mins of nonstop weights/strength training…you never get a break it’s literally seconds between transitions, not even enough time to change the weights on our bars and they’re already starting the next set of reps. Pretty hard considering we’ve both been out of the gym awhile, but felt great. Tomorrow we’re just doing cardio on our own as they don’t have our 9:30 Sunday class anymore, but then Monday I’m doing a step class. eek. I figured it was easier to get back in the habit of daily workouts now, than trying to figure out how to fit it in once I was back at work…if I crave the exercise (like I do after a few weeks), I’ll find a way to work it in. Mason is sleeping until about 5 or 6am now, so if he can just be stretched to 6:45 by the time I go back to work, I can do my 5:30am classes again, which will be great. I imagine he will be, he keeps lengthening his sleep day by day. And I guess if nothing else, I can keep him up a little later at night to get him to sleep later in the morning so I can get my workout in. There are 5:30am classes Monday - Friday, so it’ll work out well if Mason will adhere to my plan:).

Today after the gym, we met up with our friends the Bray’s and went to lunch at Planet Sub and then to the pumpkin patch. The kids had such a good time riding trains, tractor rides, hay rides, a huge air pillow (never seen anything like it, it looked like fun!), spooky barn, slides, tricycles, petting zoo, etc. Mason just hung out sleeping in the sling for the entire 3 hours except for a few eating sessions, what a good boy! After that, we went and checked out the Bray’s new house they just bought and it’s awesome!

Finally, we’re all home and exhausted and time for bed. whew.

And now it’s Lauren’s turn, here’s her update at 4 years old:

personality
Lauren is a very social kid. She is all about her friends, family, parties, events, activities, etc. She is also great at sharing and is very thoughtful and wants to make sure everyone is included. She can be very silly the later it gets at night. She is very girly and loves to play with dolls, dress-up, anything glittery, etc…but can also hang with the boys and play cars, “bad guys”, etc. She is definitely a little Type-A personality and wants to do everything herself, perfectly. I definitely see the overachiever tendencies along with the need to please while still fiercely independent. I don’t think we’ll have to put any pressure on her in school, we’ll likely be trying to find ways to get her to ease up on the pressure she puts on herself. Oh and the drama…she is definitely high drama! There are still tears and a show when things don’t go her way.

love interests
She is very in love with Drew in her class and tells us several times a week she’s going to marry him. Apparently she lost interest in Jack, her first school love! And of course she is still in love with Brayden, our friends son that is a few months older than her. She was also telling us she was going to marry daddy, until we explained to her that daddy is already married to mommy! She told me the other day that there is a new kid in her class, Brandon, and he’s a young kid and is potty training and wanted to know if he does a good job and stays dry, if he can come over to her house to play…so of course we asked if she likes him and she giggled and said yes. So, older, younger, same age…doesn’t matter to her…she just likes boys! We are a bit concerned with how boy crazy she is at 4 years old. eek!

friends
Her best friends at school are Izzy, Shobika, and Kayla (who is also our neighbor). Every once in awhile we hear about others, but those are the constant. Then of course there are our friends kids that she’s friends with…Ethan, Braydon, Kate, etc. And who can forget Damon…he is her favorite to play with and they play together really well.

activities
She has been taking gymnastics for a few years now and it’s her favorite activity. She also plays several sports at school (they bring in a coach once a week to teach them…of course that costs more!)…so far she’s done soccer, t-ball, golf, yoga, bootcamp, and more that I’m forgetting. Soccer and tball seem to be her favorite. She took dance last fall, but quit last February…I figure I’ll wait to see if she asks to do that again before I enroll her…maybe a few years. She really loves the sports and being a part of a team and the social aspect of it, go figure!

favorites
color - yellow is still at the top, but she’s added a few more…red, something else, and white. yes, white. I don’t think I’ve ever heard white as a favorite color before, it cracks me up.
song - At the current moment, Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” is her favorite song. I love it!
movie - I’m not sure what her favorite is…the girl LOVES movies. We’ve probably seen a dozen movies in the theater with her, she watches them in the car, and then at home when we let her. Anything Disney is always a hit, but she also likes pretty much anything we show her. This week we’ve been watching “Hocus Pocus” which is a Halloween movie with Better Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker from the ’90’s. Her and I watched it one day and then later that night she asked to watch it with daddy and we watched a bit and she explained everything to him as it happened…I couldn’t believe she’d comprehended and remembered so much about it!
tv - She watches mostly Curious George, Clifford, Dora, Diego, and Olivia.
food - Anything with cheese…grilled cheese, quesadilla, cheese sandwich, mac n cheese. She still isn’t much for meat, but will occasionally eat chicken fingers and a hamburger once in a blue moon. She can’t get enough fruit…mainly watermelon, cantelope, strawberries, and grapes. For veggies, Lauren loves salad with blue cheese or ranch dressing, baby carrots, broccoli, and corn on the cob. For sweets, she loves cake or cupcakes (vanilla preferably), ice cream, brownies, cookies, etc…she’s not too picky!
games - She likes to play “school” where she’s the teacher and either her stuffed animals, dolls or Billy/I are her students…she plays naptime, reads books, and tells us what art projects to do. She loves to color, cut paper, paint, and make cards for people (we had to take 3 cards she made to dinner with us tonight to which she gave to the hostess, waitress, and food runner). She likes to ride her tricycle (still not a huge fan of her big girl bike) and her yellow car grammy/papa gave her for her 4th bday. She pretty much likes to play anything, as long as she’s making the rules!
books - She likes Curious George and Dr. Suess books. She has “Pinkalicious” memorized and “reads” it to us word for word…I’m sure there are more like that, but Billy does the bed time routine, so I’m not the best to talk about her books. He has told me she’s sounding out words and trying really hard to read. Her friend Shobika that turned 4 in April is reading and Lauren talks about that a lot and how she wants to read too, so I think she’s trying really hard to learn. She won’t start kindergarten for another 2 years (in 2011), so she should be in pre-K at school next year, but for whatever reason, they put her in pre-k this year. She can definitely handle the work and I’m sure thrives on the challenge.

sleep
Lauren goes to bed around 9pm and we wake her up for school around 7:30am. On the weekends, she generally gets up around 7:30 - 8:30. She still takes a nap, but the length varies. It can be as short as an hour, but is generally 2-3 hours. Twice this week, we have woke her up long after the 3 hour mark because we were worried she wouldn’t be tired for bed that night. I don’t think it’s typical for 4 year olds to still take such long naps, but she definitely still needs it and wants to take a nap. There are occasions that we skip nap on the weekends, but she’s better when she’s had it. Pretty much all of the time, she changes into her jammies for nap too. I guess she likes to be more comfortable when she sleeps!

baths - She takes a bath every other night. When we moved into the new house, she actually started taking showers as she LOVES the doorless walk-in shower in our master bath…it has a rain head and a normal shower head, a bench and is pretty big. She has her cups, ducks, etc in there and she showers in there by herself, playing, dancing, singing (Billy turns on the whole house audio as we have speakers in the bathroom and they listen to the radio). Billy helps her with her hair as she can walk to the outside part of the shower (hard to explain, around the corner, still on tile, but no water sprays there). She loves her showers. Now we have 5 places to bathe/shower in our house with 4 people and only 1 of them gets used! Go figure!

vocabulary
There isn’t much to say here…she has been vocal since she was about 8 months old! She is very easy to understand and speaks like a little adult! There are a few words she says that crack me up…my favorite is instead of “keeps” she says “peeps”…it’s so cute…”mommy, can I peep it?”. I don’t correct her bc I love it! She was calling the “waitress” tonight the “naturist” until we corrected her:) She has definitely been saying some more difficult words and phrases. The other night daddy told her to eat her dinner or no snacks and she responds with “oh yes, tougher guy?”. Too stinkin funny…he about spit his dinner all over her! She also says things or asks us things that amaze us sometimes at her ability to conceptualize. For instance, tonight, we told her we were going to go eat at “the peanut place” (aka Texas Roadhouse, one of her fav’s) but first mommy/Lauren were going to go buy her new book at the bookstore while daddy/Mason ran to Home Depot (her most dreaded place in the world, she groans when we tell her we’re going there…we actually use it and say things like “if you don’t hurry up and get your shoes on, we’re going to Home Depot”…hehe). So in the care on the way there, all 4 of us were in the car, she says “how are me and mommy going to the bookstore and daddy and mason going to home depot, are we going to have 2 cars?” Crazy that she sat in the back sweat, 15 mins after we told her where we were going, and she thought to ask that. So we explained daddy was dropping mommy/Lauren off while he/Mason went to Home Depot. So smart. And she’s ALWAYS listening. She’ll be watching a movie in the backseat while Billy and I are talking up front and she’ll pipe in with her thoughts on our conversation when we thought she wasn’t listening. We’ve resorted to spelling, but even that is failing as she’s learned what “w-a-l-k” is, haha.

writing, numbers
I’m not sure how long Lauren has been writing her name, but it’s likely been over a year. She can also write a few other things, like daddy’s name. She’s now working on her lowercase letters as well. She can read all the other 19 names of the kids in her class. If she see’s a letter she’ll say “M, hey, Mason’s name starts with an M!”. Tonight at dinner, Billy had the word search in front of him from her menu and had circled the letters of her name (in no particular order) and Lauren took one look at it and said “hey, you circled the letters in my name!”. Again, she’s been counting forever, but will count up to 100…sometimes she needs help with what 10-set is next (e.g., sixty, seventy, etc). And for whatever reason, she ALWAYS skips 15…I can not get her to say 15. She’s always done that!

discipline
Lauren has always been a very easy kid to discipline. She really doesn’t like to disappoint you and if you just look at her mean, it’ll likely result in her melting in tears. God forbid you raise your voice to her, she’ll be huddled in a corner crying her eyes out…so this rarely happens. We’ve chosen to use the Love & Logic parenting style with her since she was a baby and it’s worked well. For every choice she makes (good or bad), there is a consequence and we let her learn from the consequences. We just don’t say things like “we don’t hit our friends”…we say that and then take something or a privilege away. For example, when I caught her putting stickers all over the mudroom bench in our brand new house we’d lived in a week…I told her “how sad, now your friend Ethan has to leave” and Megan packed up the kids and left…Lauren was distraught and bawling, and I’d never told her she “couldn’t” put stickers on the bench, but she should have known better and I had to make the consequence be enough to encourage her not to make that sad choice again. It worked. After she hid in the closet crying, she came out and apologized to me, gave me a hug, and helped me take the stickers off (thank goodness they came off with the bench unscathed!). And for quite awhile after that incident, when she played with stickers, she’d tell me “and I won’t put them on the bench or the walls mommy”. Lesson learned. I think this method works so much better than anything else I’ve read/seen as it gives the kids more of the control and power and teaches them that every action/decision has a consequence, be it good or bad. I think this will serve her well as she gets older. It makes the parenting easier for us in a lot of ways as we aren’t nagging or yelling…we just deliver the consequences. And she gets plenty of rewards as well. We started her on a “responsibility chart” last week…it has things on it like “get dressed”, “pick up your toys”, “brush your teeth”, “feed the dog”…things that we want her to start taking more ownership of. Each day she completes each task, she gets a magnet on the board for that task…if she gets to the end of the week and has all of her magnets for each day, she gets a new book of her choice. Tonight was her first book…she chose “The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear”. She’s been talking about this book for weeks and was so excited to go get it tonight. Each day she’s so excited to do each task and runs to put her magnet on the board. Hopefully the excitement continues! My favorite is when she goes running to Brody’s bowl…if it’s empty she yells “YES!” and does a little dance bc it means she gets to feed him and get her magnet.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 4 years already and how grown-up she already is. She’s so fun to hang out with and as I mentioned in Mason’s update, it’s awesome to see her interact with and take care of Mason. It’s freaking me out that next year I”ll be writing her FIVE year old update, I know the year is going to fly.