What's happening

Well, it's only 7:30 and both kids are in bed so I thought I'd get caught up on posting pictures to the blog. I am going to try and post some videos too but that will depend on how long til Ivy wakes up to eat again.

The biggest news around here is that Chad finished everything for his master's degree! We are so excited and relieved that he is finished. Chad went through the same school that he got his RN from, Excelsior College, and it's a distance program based in Albany, NY. So he had to go there for 4 days to present his final project, and my mom came and stayed with us. We had a great time and she was a huge help, as usual. Ezra LOVES his granny.  

 We had a little problem with Ivy while mom was here. One night she woke up around 11, and usually during the night I just feed her and she goes right back to sleep. Well, this didn't happen that night. She cried like she was in a lot of pain all night and would only sleep if I was holding her. It was so out of character for her that I took her in to the doctor the next morning and he agreed that that amount of fussiness was unusual for a baby her age (she was still crying as we were in the doctor the next day). So he ordered urine and bloodwork (traumatic for me) and an x-ray of her abdomen. I saw the x-ray before we got the results of the labs back, and it showed that her entire abdomen was filled with gas. I was so relieved. She wasn't completely herself for another day or so, and she slept the entire next day except when she was eating. Poor thing was so exhausted. Thankfully, she is back to her normal self now. She is seriously the sweetest, smiliest baby and she really doesn't cry much at all. Once she sleeps 12 hours in a row at night she will be the perfect baby! :)

 And finally, daddy came home, and we were so happy to have him back.

 I have also started keeping Ezra's little buddy Trevyn again. Ezra saw that Trevyn was wearing a baseball hat one day and just had to find his too.

 Here is Ivy having some tummy time and big brother keeping her company.

 Giving me his best "cheese face."

So that's the last few weeks in pictures! I am in the process of uploading videos so look for another post soon.

Friends

I just had to share this picture of Ezra and his friend Aiden. Ezra has two BFFs, Aiden and Trevyn, and he talks about them constantly. When he has to leave them, he gets very upset. He always asks to go see them. I just love the little moment these two are sharing. I hope Ezra stays friends with these boys for the rest of his life.

Two months!

Lots of family came into town last weekend...dad, Ginny, Mackenzie, Erin & family, Shawn & family. Ivy is in that swing and everyone is gathered around her. Lots of attention for such a small person who doesn't do much! 

 Bathtime tonight...she smiles when I pour the warm water on her. So sweet.

 Took these yesterday when she was "officially" two months old.

 Who doesn't love baby toes and squishy baby thigh rolls?

Well, here we are, another month of Ivy's babyhood in the books. I say that in the figurative sense, since I haven't actually written anything in Ivy's baby book. At least I have the blog to refer to when I do get around to doing that. I am so enjoying this sweet little girl. So far, she is a pretty easy baby. She has her times of fussiness, especially in the evenings, but I find that she is fussy mostly if I have not paid attention to getting her down for naps in a timely manner when she starts showing signs of tiredness. Overly tired=short naps=fussy evenings. She will have her two month check-up next week and then we'll know how much she weighs and all that.

At two months, Ivy is...
-eating 7-8 times in a 24 hour period. Usually around 8, 11, 2, 5, 8, 10, and 4.
-still not a huge fan of her pacifier, but getting better.
-will nurse or take a bottle.
-taking about 4 naps a day, ranging from 1 to 2 hours. She usually does great if I just put her in her sleep sack, sing to her a bit, and put her down awake. That is, unless she is overly tired...then I rock her to sleep.
-sleeping a 6-7 hour stretch at night, waking up around 3 or 4 to eat, and then I usually wake her up in the morning to start our day. I love this...it's waaay different than our experience with Ezra.
-smiling whenever you talk or sing to her. She is so sweet.
-starting to use her hands to touch objects.

To summarize, she is the sweetest, most precious baby girl ever! We love you Ivy Noelle!

Sweet baby

I just love this little girl...she is the perfect addition to our family. Ivy is becoming more and more expressive every day. As an added bonus, she is starting to eat less often and take good naps. Last night I actually got a 6 hour stretch of sleep...she only woke up once. Bless you my child. (Yes, I realize it's probably a fluke). 

Ezra Paul at 31 months

This month has shown lots of change in our little Ezra. He is a mess. He cracks us up, makes us smile, and every once in a while causes us to want to pull our hair out. This month he has really started talking in complete sentences with pronouns and articles more and more. He is a daredevil. Last week I had to chase him down in the front yard as he got out and ran toward the street. Also last week he fell out of a chair in the kitchen and hit his head on the floor which gave him a huge knot on his forehead. He continues to enjoy school but has gotten "mischievous" marks a couple of times and also a note that he had a hard time following directions. We can really tell that he is taking some time to adjust to having a new sibling and the loss of some attention that comes with that. He is still a really sweet boy who gives us so much joy every day. We continue to work on different methods of discipline to see what is effective for him. We have been working on learning bible verses and so far Ezra has memorized Proverbs 17:17 ("A friend loves at all times") and Psalm 119:11 ("I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you," paraphrased for a 2-year-old). It is amazing what a little sponge he is. Just like last month, he loves dinosaurs, Little Einsteins, and we pulled out a Thomas the Train lego set that used to belong to my nephew Kellen and he has really enjoyed playing with that. He continues to enjoy doing puzzles and playing games on the iphone. Here is a picture that they sent home at superkids. Ezra has enjoyed learning about different children's stories. The video is of Ezra being the big bad wolf telling Ivy he is going to blow her house down. She is very impressed. 

Over the river and through the woods

Last week marked the end of grandparents coming to visit us to meet Ivy. So sad. I took the opportunity during one of Chad's long stretches of working to go visit my mom with the kids. I was a little nervous about how the road trip would go, because we had not taken Ivy for a long trip in the car yet. Well, the kids could not have done any better! It took us about 5 hours to get there and 5 hours back, stopping to feed her. But Ivy literally slept the entire way both there and back, and Ezra did great too. It was so fun to get to be at mom's for a few days. I love hanging out with my mom and hope that Ivy and I have the same kind of relationship someday that my mom and I have. I also got to spend time with my sister and her kids which is always fun. 

Ivy loved sitting with granny and fell asleep soon after this. She is such a sweet baby. 

Ezra loved looking at the cows in mom's backyard and also loved getting peeks at her two guinea hens.

Cousin Kellen holding Ivy. He was concentrating very hard on holding her the right way. Her hair looks so dark and thick here!

Off I go to clear out all of Ivy's newborn clothes in the closet. Yes, it is already that time...she weighs over 10 pounds and fits into most 0-3 month clothes just fine. And even some of those are too small.

Ezra lately

This month has been a challenging one for Ezra. Lots of changes going on in his little life. He has started to test his boundaries more, and I'm sure it's a combination of being 2 and a half and adjusting to not being the center of attention all the time. Plus, he is used to having his friend Trevyn over a couple times a week, going to playgroup, etc., and we haven't been able to get out as much so I think he gets bored. Anyway, we are surviving and I know that things will get easier in a couple months. 

One night we took Chad supper and I stopped to get a milkshake at sonic. By the time we got home he had taken over for me with the shake and my kindle.

 We went to see "Flying Monsters" at the omni theatre in the science spectrum. Ezra enjoyed it and wouldn't leave when the credits were running at the end. He kept saying "No! Want to finish it!"

 Paul and Carolyn are visiting right now and brought moon dough. Ezra is having a blast!

 Looks messy, but this is one of my favorite activities for Ezra right now. He is contained, he has fun, and it is really a pretty easy cleanup.

 My dad came to visit last week too. Ezra loved having granddad here!

 We got a lot of good snow at the beginning of this week and Chad and Ezra built a snowman and had a snowball fight.

Ivy is one month old!

Ivy is a month old! She is such a fun baby and pretty easy so far. What's not easy is transitioning from one child to two. I have had lots of help in the last month and that has made it so much easier. In fact, I am able to catch up on my blogging right now because Chad's dad is holding Ivy and Chad and Ezra are playing legos in the playroom. So I thought I'd better take advantage. 

 

She started smiling right around three weeks and will smile at you when you talk to her. I love it!

 No, this is not a pregnancy picture. It's Ivy and me in the evening when I am trying to get ready for church and she is having her fussy time during the day. She does pretty well in the sling, so I imagine I'll be using that quite a bit for the next few weeks until I can put her in a bigger carrier.

 This picture looks really sweet, but when Ezra stopped "kissing" her, she had tooth marks on her head. Nice.

At one month, Ivy is...
-Eating every 2.5-3 hours during the day, but at night, she eats at around 9:30, 2, and 5:30, so I am able to get a couple good stretches of sleep. She is pretty good at the moment at going back to sleep after she eats. A week or so ago, not so much. She is a good nurser.
-Taking about 5 naps during the day. She sleeps a lot in the morning but is more alert (and fussy) in the afternoons.
-Getting more alert and smiling more by the day. She already seems very interested in everything going on around her, including watching her crazy big brother.

That's it for now...I will be posting her two month post before I know it! Actually, this one is already a day late. Oops. Not a good start.

Valentine's day at superkids

On Valentine's Day Ezra's school had a little program for chapel where the parents could come. Each class got up on the stage and sang a song. I was so proud of Ezra...he got up there and had a blast! They sang "If you love Jesus," the perfect song for Ezra. He loves the "Ooh Ah, sock it to the devil." part.

If you love Jesus, clap your hands...

Stomp your feet...

 

Ooh ah! Sock it to the devil!

This was him by the end...he had turned around with such gusto that he was off by himself finishing the song.

Then we went back to his classroom for a little party. When it was clear that Ezra was going to have more fun without us, we went home. :)

 

Announcing...

I wanted to post Ivy's birth announcement. I love how it turned out! The photo was taken by Lynette Reeves of Only Imagine Photography (see the rest of the photos here) and I had a designer on etsy do the announcement design using the same color scheme and theme as the fabric from Ivy's nursery.

Ivy at 2 weeks

Tonight is my first night since Chad went back to work that I am on my own without any help. The kids are being especially good tonight so I am getting all caught up on blogging. I imagine the blog updates will be less frequent but I will probably do 3 or 4 updates at a time like tonight. So this post is all about Ivy. I haven't posted since we were in the hospital. She was born on a Tuesday and was not discharged until Friday evening because of her jaundice. Since then she has had no problems, and gained about a half pound above her birth weight when we went to the doctor for her two week checkup. So she is eating well and gaining weight just like she is supposed to. She is a little more particular than I remember Ezra being. She wants to be held a lot, which we usually oblige. :) She sleeps pretty well, but she is alert and awake a lot...this might have something to do with the fact that her big brother is always playing with loud toys or messing with her. She eats well, about every 2.5-3 hours. We started putting her in her own room last night because she might be the loudest baby ever when she sleeps. She was keeping us awake with all her squeaks and grunts. Last night she did great, waking up at 1:30ish and 5:30ish. Anything is better than what Ezra did which was wake up every 2 hours or less around the clock for the first three months and want to eat. I have enjoyed these early days a lot. I don't even really mind the sleep deprivation, because I now know how quickly this phase passes and how soon she will not be this tiny little baby anymore. I have learned to relax and enjoy the parenting thing a lot more...not that I didn't enjoy it with Ezra, but I definitely had a lot more stress and anxiety about every little thing, especially when it had to do with his eating and sleeping. 

 Chad's mom came to visit for a few days and was a great extra set of hands. I think this is a really good picture of the two of them. We have had lots of help so far...my mom came the day Ivy was born and stayed for the rest of the week. She took care of Ezra that week and kept my house in working order. Sadly Ivy and I did not get to spend much time with her because we were in the hospital most of the week, but I am looking forward to another visit from mom next month. We are still looking forward to visits from my dad and Chad's dad. We are excited for everyone to meet the newest grandbaby.

 I love this sweet expression. She spends much of the day with her eyes open just observing the world around her.

 This is how we feel pretty much all the time these days...and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Ezra--30 months

With all the changes/excitement going on around here lately, I can't forget about this guy...

 

He would never let me. :) By the way, Ezra saw me with the camera in my hand and actually stopped and POSED for the picture above. It's like I don't even know him anymore. Anyway, his big thing lately is building forts. We do this multiple times a day.

He also acts like he's an old pro at holding his little sis. He does pretty well until 5.5 seconds later when he gets tired of holding her and moves on to the next thing. Old news, you know. 

 Ezra is doing great at 30 months old. He is taking the whole having a new baby around in stride. I could not have asked for him to react better. Yes, he acts out some, and he quickly figured out that when I am feeding Ivy there is absolutely nothing I can do to discipline him if he disobeys. If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears. The main concern is that most of the time when he disobeys it's something that could hurt him, like standing on a piece of furniture, jumping off the furniture, etc. We are talking more about potty training though he is not ready yet. Overall though, he is a very good little boy that obeys us most of the time and is not near as ornery as he could be. He is still very much into doing puzzles and reading about dinosaurs, playing with dinosaurs, and watching dinosaur movies. He can tell you what a velociraptor, t-rex, stegosaurus, hadrosaur, pterodactyl, triceratops, gallimimus, spinosaurus, troodon, etc. etc. is. Therefore, so can Chad and I. Oh, how we love our little boy, who is all of a sudden not as little as we thought anymore!

The many faces of Ivy Noelle