Beautiful Babies!!

All three of our beautiful babies at about 7.5-8 months.  Just because I can't help myself.

                                                                            ~A~

                                                                              ~P~

                                                                              ~E~

A Budding Entrepreneur

So a few weekends ago It was a very hot day and I was out mowing the lawn and doing some other yard work.    There were a lot of people on our street because the Highlands Garage sales were going on and a couple of our neighbors had stuff out.  Amelia decided it would be the perfect time to do a lemonade stand!  (see...  She understands supply and demand!)  But the bad news was that we were all out of lemonade.  She was a bit discouraged but decided that it was a hot day so she would sell an alternate product.  She decided to have a water stand.   Not an ice water stand mind you...   Just a water stand...  

So she took to making a table out of a storage tub and even made a sign for the front.  She decided that a 1/3 of a glass of water would be worth about $1 a cup.  When I asked her if she thought that might be too much to charge for a cup of tap water and she said simply "it's a hot day...  people will pay for water."  So she sat out there for about 15 minutes with not even anyone stopping.  But she wasn't discouraged!   Luckily she had a captive customer base since Grammy decided to go out and buy 2 cups from her!   Amelia was ecstatic that she had made a sale!  In fact, she even overcharged her by 50 cents!!!!  (not that Grammy minded I don't think.) 

Pretty soon I had to move to the backyard so Amelia had to close up shop.  But she was pretty happy with her haul from her water stand!   Here are some pictures:

Back in my day we sold Kool Aid for a dime a cup!  (okay, that made me sound old... )

-L

E is 6 months!

We had Eleanor's 6 month check up on May 6th.  Our little roly poly is 16lb 11oz (62nd percentile), 25" (16th percentile), and her head is 16 3/4" (50-75 percentile).  She is most adorable with her little  chunky legs and cellulite-y tush.  She is definitely the most robust out of the three babies.

She is rolling back to front and front to back now and has been trying to get on her hands and knees as of late.  She almost does little baby push ups because she doesn't quite make it all the way to her hands and knees.  At least she stopped being super frustrated when she would roll from her back to her stomach and be stuck there!   She also does this push with her arms while she's on her tummy, and it ends up scooting her backwards.  She can also go around in a circle, which usually happens because she is trying to see something just out of her line of vision, and she has to move to see it.

She's such a happy little girl!  Tickling her squishy thighs or under her double chin will almost inevitably make her laugh every time.  She's a good nurser and a good eater, and we will start on some baby oatmeal this week.

She's also a pretty good sleeper, but still does wake 1-2 times per night.  I think she just wants to be near us.  E loves to be outside, or in the swing outdoors which is much like her brother and sister.  But unlike them, she still won't take a pacifier, so I think I officially give up on that front.  I'll just have to be the pacifiers for awhile longer!

Don't call me four-eyes

So as most of you know, or have already seen, Miss Amelia had to get glasses.  She had to have an eye exam for her Kindergarten entrance, so we set an appointment.  I never even thought she was needing glasses because she seemed to be able to see just fine.

Luke took her to Eyecare Specialties to have her checked and they did an amazing job with her!

She sat perfectly for all the parts of the exam, and the doctor determined she needed a farsighted correction with an astigmatism in both eyes, with a worse one in the left.  She may have Luke's beautiful blue eyes, but she got my vision..... Poor girl.  The doctor said she was exceptional in performing the tasks he asked of her.  She's a smart cookie! 

She's beautiful as always with her glasses and she looks as smart as she is!!

Having her eyes dilated.

Freaky!!!  As if her eyes aren't big enough...

                                                                        Silly girl!!!

                                                            And the ones she ended up with...

PS The pictures look squishy--so sorry, I hope they don't stay that way....

Kids say and do the darndest things some times!

The other night Pierson was in a very deep sleep and out of the blue i hear him crying on the monitor.  So I get up to go take care of him.  He is yelling, in his sleep mind you, at Amelia telling her that it was his blues clues book!!  He was very adamant.  I could barely get him to settle down at all until I reached up and handed him his blues clues book (which was right next to him).  He immediately stopped crying and said (in a very stern voice) "It's MY Blues Clues Book, MIMI!"  It was very funny!

So last night Beth put Pierson to bed.  Pierson has this turtle that shines stars on the ceiling above his bed which he likes very much.  Beth turned it on and at about the same time both Pierson and Beth noticed a small spider crawling across the ceiling.  Now Pierson has no problem picking up just about any bug EXCEPT spiders.  He doesn't like them at all! (and I think most of us can agree there is nothing wrong with that!)  So he points and excitedly says "pider!"  Beth goes out to the coat closet and grabs on of her snow boots and proceeds to give the spider a hasty squashing.   After taking care of the spider she put the boot down and says good night.  Pierson settles in and goes to sleep.  About 30 minutes later Beth goes in to check on him and he is snuggled up next to her boot in bed! (like you would snuggle a teddy bear)  I guess he didn't want to go to sleep without an effective spider killing weapon!  Just in case...

Oh kids are hilarious!

-L

2013 Nebraska Spring Game

Living in Nebraska you quickly learn a few things...  A "light snow" can be anywhere from 1 to 16 inches, summer is road construction season and Husker football is king!  While not quite as crazy as a regular season football game the Spring game is always a fun time!  Well, we decided that this was the year for Amelia to finally experience what it is like to go to a Husker game so we had planned for Beth and I to take her together.  My Brother Justin and his son Dominik also joined us.   However, with Eleanor's recent hospital visit at the last minute Pierson got to take Beth's seat so that she could stay home with Eleanor.  We had a fantastic time and all the kids seemed to really enjoy it! 

Here are a few pictures:

She's trying to make a "N" with her fingers...



Someone got a bit tuckered out about halftime...




Buds



- L

Firsts....

So there are many firsts that Eleanor has accomplished over the last month....
Having a "conversation" (this is where we blow raspberries back and forth), reaching for and grabbing at toys, rolling from back to front (then getting mad because she hates to be on her stomach and can't go the other way yet), and somewhere in between all that, our family's first hospital stay not related to a baby being born. 

Miss Eleanor Rae had an abscess on her bottom that appeared over the course of a few days.  On Easter weekend Grammy and I noticed that she didn't like to be held a certain way, but I just chalked it up to her being achy or uncomfortable due to her cold... She and I both had a cough and sore throat.  Mom and I never noticed anything during diaper changes that weekend.  By the Wednesday after Easter, she had a fever of 102.6F.  So I called the pediatrician's office.  I told them she wasn't feeling well all week so far, and that she had a fever.  They told me what to watch for--increased fever (to 104), but said it was probably related to whatever bug she had.  But to bring her in if she got worse.

I went to carry her into the kitchen later and she started crying very hard when I rested her bottom on my arm to pick her up.  I opened her diaper and noticed she was red and very swollen.  It was the length of her buttcheek and about 2 inches wide on the right side, and the left had swelling about the size of a quarter.  I called the office and told her we needed to bring her in, that I was pretty sure she had some sort of infection.

I got her to the pediatrician's office within 20 minutes (insert:  I'm super-mom because none of us were dressed and I got all three kids and myself dressed and at the office.  I know people have done it with more kids or less time, but don't bash my super-mom dreams)!

Dr.  Bargen told us it was a staph infection of some sort, and that it was probably MRSA.  It was too big to drain in the office and Miss E would have to be admitted so that she could be put under anesthesia to make incisions and drain it.

We were admitted that night where they took her from us for 25 minutes (from beginning to end), to cut the abscesses and drain the infection.  She was loved by all the nurses who came in to care for her.  Besides when we were first admitted and immediately following the surgery, she was incredibly happy and super smiley.  Everyone remarked that she was so beautiful (I know), and so sweet and mild mannered (I know, I know).  And "Does she EVER cry...?" oh, and..... "There are about 15 people here who would take her home, if you didn't want her anymore...."

The best story from being at the hospital:  We were in the Women's and Children's Tower at Bryan East, on the second floor.  My parents sent get well balloons and a teddy bear for E.  I'm not sure if the flower place messed up, or if the volunteers who bring the gifts to the floor messed up, but we received an "It's a girl!!" balloon bouquet!  The old lady volunteer brings in the balloons and walks across the room to put them on the table, she turns to me nursing a 15lb baby in my lap and says "......Congratulations....?" 
Yeah... I birthed a 15lb baby and lived to tell about it.... what up?

She's healed up and doing just fine now.  We found out that the infection was just a staph that was sensitive to the antibiotics and not MRSA (thank God!).... It came up pretty fast, and we are just supposed to keep our eyes peeled for anymore high fevers or anymore swollen or hard bumps.  There's not much we could've done to prevent it.  Hopefully we never have to go through this again; this is a first I hope to never repeat....