The Channell Family

It's been forever!

2010-08-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on that I have been neglecting my blog! I am really hoping to use this as a way to keep track of what is going on with the kids but this internet connection here in the boonies makes uploading pictures a nightmare!

Well, my baby girl, most likely my last baby, is now one year old. ONE! Actually 13 months! So here is the run down of Miss Madelinn at 13 months old:

She started walking 2 days after her birthday and took off like she had been doing it forever. She has been so proud of herself! Now, recently, she learned to turn in circles untils she can barely stand up and she giggles the whole time. She also has this extremely high pitched giggle that she does when she gets excited and I am really hoping to catch it on video sometime soon before she stops doing it. She loves it when Wyatt chases her around and around the kitchen island or when she is getting into something she knows she shouldn't be and hears us coming to get her. Situations like those are where we get this ADORABLE laugh and I LOVE it!

She is sleeping around 12 hours at night still, takes 2 one to two hour naps a day (sometimes more depending on the day), is wearing 12 or 18 month clothing and size 5 shoes. Her favorite toys are Wyatt's matchbox cars, his green John Deere tractor, his powerwheels 4wheeler, and books. Notice that she is attached to all of his toys instead of her own which I suppose is a good thing because he always wants to play with all of her things.

She loves her big brother so much and constantly wants to play with him. He is going through a very rough "mine" stage right now and I wonder if it would have been easier had she been born with a larger age-spacing or if it would be worse? Either way she lights up when she sees him and one of her favorite things to do is to go into his room with me to get him up in the mornings or from naps whenever she is not sleeping herself.

She is such a good baby and is content to go off and play on her own if he is napping or Mommy and Daddy are busy. She is excellent when it comes to something laying out that may not be meant for her to play with (like Mommy's laptop) and rarely bothers things that she shouldn't. She doesn't need many toys to keep her happy. She could spend most of the day on my lap reading and be just as happy as days I take them to the park or outside to play or swim.

I think that is about it for now. I need to add some recent pictures. Next post: Wyatt. The last 2 times I have been on have been significant for baby girl so it is his turn!

Almost ONE year old!!

2010-07-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

I find it abosolutely UNBELIEVABLE that my baby girl will be ONE this Saturday. It just seems soooo unreal that it has been a year already! She is getting to be such a big girl.

She has quite the little personality and is still a Mommy's girl! We are still cloth diapering and loving it.. she hasn't been to the doctor yet for her one year appointment but I want to say that she is probably around 22 or 23 pounds and as far as length I don't even have an educated guess! I will update when we actually make it in next week. She still sleeps around 12 hours at night and takes 2 one or 1.5 hour naps a day. She is in size 12 month clothes and size 3 (almost 4) shoes. She isn't yet walking yet but has taken 3-4 steps at a time for the last couple of weeks. We are just waiting on her to take off!

She is saying a few words: Mom, Dad, Dog, That, Bite, Nan, Pap, Bub, Wyatt. I think there are a couple more but I can't remember right now. She is becoming very good at repeating, or at least trying to repeat, any word we say to her.

She loves to play with her brother and follows him around the house. Some of her favorite toys right now are some of his ride-on toys like his little tractor and power wheels 4-wheeler. She has recently learned to push the button to make it go until she runs into something that stops her. Turning isn't quite a priority right now apparently!

She is going through a bit of separation anxiety right now but it is at odd times. She doesn't really mind to go spend the night with Nana (where she spent her first 2 night weekend last weekend!) or usually doesn't care if I leave her with GG or Papa or really anyone. But, Lord, just let me leave the room and close a door for a second or two! I try to take Wyatt to the potty without her trying to climb in the bathtub or if I have to run into our bedroom to grab something and don't want her to try to eat the dog food and I have a full-on, crying, screaming, red-faced, balled-up-fist, baby waiting on the other side of the door when I come back! It is insanity!

Update on the Kiddos

2010-06-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

So first, Maddi is 10 months old! How crazy is that?! She is about 19 pounds, around 28 inches long and still in cloth diapers. She is wearing around 6-9 month or 12 month shirts and 12 month pants. She sleeps about 10-12 hours a night and 2-3 naps a day that are around 1 hr each. She is standing independently but has yet to take a step. You can tell she wants to because she wants to follow her brother around but has yet to try it out. She says "Hi, yay, mama, dada, wyatt, bub, dog, and nana" so far. She loves to follow mommy around the house and when she isn't following me, she is following her brother! He is picking on her a bit right now but he is vying for mommy and daddy's attention and loves her to pieces.

Wyatt is potty training right now (can I get an "Amen!!"). He is doing so well, too! We have gone 2 full days either nekkid or in big boy underwear with no accidents. The only problem is that he wants to go "pee pee in the grass!" I don't know where this came from but as of right now, since we live in the middle of nowhere, I am allowing it. I figure that he is telling me when he has to go, he is getting that awareness, and when he is a little older (near the end of summer since he will be 2.5 in Sept) we will begin to translate all of that to his potty. He has used his potty multiple times and has even told us that he needed to use the potty but this facination has taken hold and we are just going to roll with it right now. I figure no diapers is good news!

As for me, I graduate in 2 days! yay!! I am sending out stacks and stacks of resumes but I really have my fingers crossed for a job where I did my internship. Keep those fingers and toes crossed for me!

The kiddos are growing!

2010-05-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in soo long! The kids are keeping me so busy on top of student teaching. I finish that up on May 28th though and then starts the job hunt. Or at least that is when I start working on it harder!

Maddi is going to be 10 months old on the 24th. It doesn't seem like I will be planning her 1st birthday here in just a month or so! She is crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, and cruising. She is pulling up on a couple of the little walker toys we have so I think she may start to use those soon. She will kinda push it forward a little, take a step or two, and then stand there for a minute or two before she does it again. I am not really sure if she will walk before her birthday but if I had to guess I would say maybe 11 months? She just doesn't seem very interested. She has added the words "that" and "stop" to her vocabulary. She loves to scream at Wyatt and he will scream back. That is their new (and not necessarily Mommy's favorite) form of communication. They are just so much fun and they are interacting more and more every day.

I am not sure if I posted or not, but we discovered that W is allergic to penicillian products a week or so after his birthday. He got this terrible, terrible rash and it was sooooo scary! I thought he had another ear infection today but it turns out that he has terrible ear wax build up so we have to put drops in every night and let them soak. That is going to be soooo difficult because I have no idea how we are going to get him to lay still. He also apparently has a viral infection and has been vomiting for the last few days. Ugh.. poor sick baby! He is such a smarty pants and is doing so many neat things. He knows all of his colors, numbers, letters, and shapes and can count to 10 and say his ABCs up to N on his own. He also recognizes his name when it is written. I may have mentioned this before but this is like my new baby book since his doesn't allow much information after 1 year except for birthday information. I think that is about all. I hear baby girl in her room muttering around like she has woken up. I had better go get her!

My babies are so big!

2010-04-17T16:44:00.001-07:00

I get to looking at my two little boogers some days and I just can't believe how big they are getting! They are starting to play together very well; especially now that Miss M is crawling. W sometimes doesen't enjoy when she tries to take his toys, though. She seems much more interested in trucks, cars, and anything with wheels than she does her dolls and girly toys. This isn't what W expected, I think, because he is constantly bringing her some of her toys and she just doesn't have any interest. Poor guy just doesn't know what to do with her.

She is up to a few words: MumMum, Dada, and BubBub and she has been saying Hey! to get our attention. I can't wait to see W's face when she starts walking! I am sure that is going to be priceless! I really need to go somewhere with high speed so I can go back and add pictures to some of these posts!

SOOO busy lately!!

2010-04-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

I feel so bad that I haven't been blogging lately! This is my record as I tend to forget to fill in the baby book and I have to reference my blog to try to keep up.

I didn't do a post for Maddi's 8 month. She is in a size 3 shoe, size 6-9 months clothing (and 12 months pants because those cloth diapers make her bottom half so fluffy!). Another great piece of information is that Maddi started crawling last Thursday (4-1-10)! It was so exciting because I could tell she was SO close and all of a sudden she just took off! She is still moving slowly and is a very cautious crawler. She is going further and further every day though.

Student teaching is going amazing, though. I have to say that I picked the right profession for me and I loooove this age group! 5th graders are so much fun!

So, just a short note on a few important pieces of information. I have to get going; lesson plans to write!

Lots Going on Around Here

2010-03-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

We have been so absolutely busy around here lately!
First, W. The day before his birthday I had to take him to the doctor and he was diagnosed for a sinus infection. Enter Amoxicillian, which he as taken 2-3 other times with no problem. Well at about day 8, so the following saturday, I go to put him to bed and he has red bumps all over the place. Up his sides, around the top rim of his diaper, his armpits, his legs and arms. It was kind of scary but I thought, " looks like we are getting Chicken Pox out of the way early." So I call my mom and she agrees that she thinks it may be chicken pox. I then call the nurses line and they decided that they think it may be an amoxicillian rash and since he had been taking it but they generally aren't raised and these bumps were. She suggested we take him in to the urgent care the next day. It didn't open until noon so it wasn't a huge rush.
Fast forward to the next morning when Jeremy comes running into the bedroom and tells me to get dressed because we had to take him to the emergency room. His eyes were swollen shut, he was covered in what looked like welts and had started to throw up some bile. No fever or anything but we freaked to say the least. I throw some things together to keep him occupied and we head to the hospital. Jeremy stayed home to get someone to watch Miss M but it ended up that we were in and out pretty quickly. The doctors were pretty sure it was either an allergic reaction (to amoxicillian or something else) or some kind of virual thing that caused the rash but apparently treatment is the same for either one. We were given prescriptions for Azthromyicin (antibiotic), Prednizone (steroid), and children's Zyrtec. That was last Sunday and it took until yesterday before we had stopped debating taking him to Children's because the rash still hadn't gone away. I will post pictures, it was terrible.

Miss M: She hasn't had quite as much going on. She turned 8 months this past wednesday which deserves its own post but I am just so busy that I don't know if it will get one. I will try to put everything here. She is still in 6-9 month clothing, size 3 shoes, and sleeps all night with the occasion where we have to go in and give her her binkie in the middle of the night. She likes to stand at furniture if we put her there but she is not very interested in crawling. She is now getting up on hands and knees well and likes to rock but she has yet to go anywhere. She crosses her feet when she is on hands and knees so I have no idea what is going on with that. She is more of an observer than W was. She likes to watch things and figure them out. She is not quick to smile but when she does she will dazzle you. She has 4 teeth, all on bottom, and it doesn't look like we will have any on top any time soon. She also went to the doctor the Monday following W's birthday party and was diagnosed with an ear infection with one starting on the other side. She was also put on Amoxicillian with no problems.

Me: Well, soooo much.... I started student teaching this past Monday (good timing, huh? The morning after W's ER visit). It is going GREAT! I am in a 5th grade science classroom which is my ideal assignment. Anytime I had to write a lesson plan with no parameters it is always for 5th grade science. I also found out that she is retiring this year and no one has bid on the job from within. Sooooo, if I do a good job it is fairly likely I will be a shoo in for the job!!! They are keeping me hopping, and as always you have the students that require more of your energy than others, but I am having a blast!

The Hubby: Poor Hubbs doesn't have much going on. He is just working and keeping busy. He did just buy hardwood floors to put down in our living rooms so I am super pumped about that!!

Wyatt is now 2!!

2010-03-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Wyatt's birthday! holy cow! It is official - I have a 2 year old! It just does not seem like it has been 2 years since I had the little guy!

He is growing into such a little man. He is going through his "mine" phase right now- an offshoot of the "terrible twos" I am sure- but we are working through it and I think we will all come out ok on the other side. ;)

We had his party today. The theme was "Two Two train." I am going to try to add pictures in tethe next couple of days since this darn dial up takes forever to do it here! Some of the highlights were his Step 2 Kangaroo climber from Nana and Pappy and we got him a bicycle. He also got tons of matchbox cars that were a big hit!

Miss M- 7 Months

2010-03-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

7 months! I know every one of these I say this but I just can't believe how quickly the time is moving! Right now M is around maybe 18 pounds and 28"? I am not really sure on those stats and won't be until the end of April when she goes for her 9 month appointment. I do know that she is about ready to transition to a size 3 shoe and is in 6-9 month clothes but can still wear some of her 3-6 month shirts and comfy, non-jean pants. She is in a size 3 disposable diaper but since she is no longer in disposables I would say that will be the last sizing we see there... She sleeps from around 9pm to around 8am and take 2-3 naps a day at about 1.5-2 hours each.

She still doesn't seem to have any interest in crawling but for the last week or so she will tuck her knees under her but her face is on the floor. If I put her on her hands and knees she can stay there sometimes but she just kind of lets her knees slide out from under her most of the time. She is jabbering like crazy and says "dada" "bub" and "mama." She has 4 teeth... all on the bottom. She still loves to watch her brother do EVERYTHING! She rarely takes her eyes off from him. She holds her own bottle now but I still enjoy holding her while she eats! It won't be much longer before she wants to go everywhere so I am taking advantage while I can!

She also likes to stand. She can stand at the couch or exersaucer until she gets excited and squirms too much and falls over. But, her little legs are so strong that she can stand holding on to your fingers forever.

Well, Wyatt's birthday party is this weekend. 2 years old! Oh my!

Made the switch...

2010-03-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

So I finally gave in to many of my online mommy friends and switched from 'sposies to cloth! I am sooooo excited to get started if you can believe that. I got a great deal since one of before mentioned mommy friends runs an at home business with which she sells diapers and I got a percentage off for being a member of this mommy group. Awesomeness. My beginning stash of 12 Knickernappies with loopydo inserts came yesterday and as I speak, ahem, type, they are drying! I am going to start tomorrow! I will post a picture at some point tomorrow of Miss M in her too stinking cute diapers. Next purchase is some Baby legs and a couple of Applecheeks and Rump-a-rooz....

Love between siblings... And Trilingual baby?

2010-02-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

To begin with I saw the Ab-SO-LUTELY cutest thing today. Miss M was in her exersaucer playing innocently and W came out of nowhere and starts saying "hug." He leans over and gives her a big hug with the "uhhhh" sound effect like he is squeezing her really tight (but really isn't). He then straightens up, smiles, and says "Lub you." Melt my heart! It just about brought tears to my eyes!!

As far as the whole trilingual thing goes I have caught W, in the last couple of days, saying words in both Spanish and Chinese. He watches Ni Hao, Kai Lan, Dora and Diego on a regular basis when his Grandma is here watching them during the day. I have to say we are guilty of leaving the tv on as background noise in a lot of cases.. :blush:. Anyway, he has one of those starlight turtles that puts constellations on his ceiling at night. He loves that little guy. Well he kept saying "Tortuga" and pointing at it. I couldn't help but laugh since La Tortuga is the spanish word for turtle. Lately his newest thing when he hears something is to point at his ear and saying "listen" or "hear" and whatever he hears. Like "Hear train." Well, last night we were grocery shopping and were in the process of checking out and I kept hearing him say "Ting" over and over. I turn around and he is pointing at his ear. After many, many reruns of one particular Kai Lan episode I have, as well, learned that Ting is the word in Chinese for listen. I would love for him to have a better grasp on languagues that I do. Maybe this is a good start?

Quick note on me!

2010-02-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post but the 9th was J's birthday! His 33rd! Happy birthday, babe! But, on a quick note about me on that day I got my Praxis scores back. I passed them both with flying colors! YAY! One more to go!

W 23 Months *updated

2010-02-16T08:52:00.001-08:00

Oh my! His birthday is next month! I can hardly believe it. He is growing sooooo much and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He is working on potty training and we have had some successes on that front. Usually out of the 3 hours he goes without a diaper we can get him to go on the potty about 2 out of 3 times. I am SO proud of him. We don't really have a set goal to try to be daytime potty trained by but by the time we go on vacation in mid-June would be nice. We are still having some food issues. The kid doesn't really care for meat so I have been trying to get him protein through eggs and peanut butter. sigh.... Other than that things are great. I am about half way through planning his birthday party. He is going to love it this year because he actually gets the present thing now and is going to have some really good ones to open =).. I can't wait!

I forgot to mention some of the really neat things he is doing right now. He almost always speaks in 2-3 word sentences now days. "ex. Mommy, baby sister's cryin'". Or cry-nin if you want to pronounce it like he does. He also knows many of his shapes: triangle, square, rectangle, circle, star, crescent (or moon). He knows some of his colors but still confuses them sometimes. Most of the time he gets green, orange, blue and purple correct but yellow, black and white are always a toss-up. He also recognizes all of his capital letters and some high frequency little letters like a and b. He, of course, knows the little letters that look just like the big letters.. LOL.. He also loooves to show all these things off for anyone who will sit still long enough to listen. He likes to count to 10.. over.. and over.. AND OVER.. my little goofy boy!

Love Your Heart by Tim McGraw & Tom Douglas. Illustrations by Abigail Marble

2010-02-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

Tim McGraw and Tom Douglas have done an amazing job in this lovely book about a little girl and her selfless act and her father who is there to support her every step of the way. The vibrant illustrations by Abigail Marble almost leap off the page and tell the story right along with the beautiful wording.

The book follows little Katie in making her decision of which of her many talents to showcase in the talent show. She tries many but ends up showing something she didn't consider in the beginning; her selflessness. I think the book is great for little girls of all ages. I read it to my six month old daughter and she couldn't take her eyes away from the illustrations and sat quite still for the entire book.

I am really happy to see a book that details the relationship between a father and his daughter. There just are not very many that venture away from the mother/child or father/son relationship. It is a very nice change. I can't wait to see what comes next from this series.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book to review by Thomas Nelson and was asked to give my honest opinion about the book.

Great Weekend!

2010-02-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

So this weekend has been very eventful in our household. Well, not really that eventful, per say, but the events were really exciting.

We have not been actively potty training Wy but have introduced him to his little potty and have him sit on it any time he is in the bathroom. Sometimes with clothes on, sometimes sans diaper. It just depends on his mood and the situation. On Saturday he got up from about a three hour nap and his diaper was dry. So we thought, "hey, let's sit him on the potty." Off the diaper comes and he sits down on the potty and is looking at a four-wheeler magazine while J sat on the edge of the tub.

I was taking care of Miss M while this was going on and about 15 minutes later J asked for me to get him some juice. Wy was really enjoying the whole process so we figured we should take advantage of it. After a few minutes he still hadn't peed so we decided to bring the potty into the kitchen and let him run without a diaper. He drug the potty in the living room and sat down on it watching cartoons. J went outside to clean off the 4 wheeler because he was going to take Wy outside to play in the snow and while he was gone Wy just sat and watched his show. A couple of minutes later he got up and tried to take the little soft ring off and I stood up to put it back and tell him it needed to stay on there and there was pee in the potty!! I was so excited! I made a huge deal over it and got him a little dum dum sucker for it. That, of course, made him excited.

I let him run without a diaper for a bit longer and after a couple of accidents that didn't make it into the potty we put it back on. Sunday was about the same. One pee in the potty, on his own while he was watching his cartoon and a couple of accidents that prompted his diaper being put on. We are still not going to try to go full time potty training for about another month but we are going to try a few hours of non-diaper time a day until then. At least we know he knows what the potty is for! YAY, Wy.

Miss M's 6 month well visit is tomorrow so I will try to post again tomorrow about her stats.
I am trying to transition to using initials or nicknames for us. Since I am getting ready to teach it is usually advised you don't have anything out there kids can access too easily about you. Even though this is a nice, family blog I have decided to go ahead and change things. I need to decided something else to call Wy though.. We call him Booger or Baby boy here at home so I may go with that =).

6 months

2010-01-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

I am late on this yet again.. SIGH.. I can say I started the post on the day that she turned 6 months but the clickety-clack of the keyboard was keeping my dear husband awak so I put the laptop away.

I am not sure on her stats but she is around 27.5 inches and maybe 17 pounds? We are just now getting ready to switch to size 3 diapers, 6-9 months clothes, and she just got her first pair of size 2 shoes. She is sleeping around 11 hours at night though sometimes she needs one of us to give her her binkie back in the middle of the night. She has 2 teeth and LOVE LOVE LOVES her exersaucer. She rolls both ways and has sat up for the first time like a pro the day after she turned 6 months. I think she could have done it sooner since I sat her down and she didn't wobble for 10 minutes but I kinda hadn't tried in awhile.. (insert blush here)...

She loves her brother and will watch him for an hour straight as he plays on the floor with his cars. She loves her baby dolls and will grind her little face into them when we hand them to her. She has also, for the last couple of weeks, been saying DADADADADA. I love it!

We are also only using the binkie at sleep times. This has been going on for at least over a month though so it isn't really news but I wanted to put it down for future reference. In the next month or so we will start trying out getting rid of it at naps and only using it at bedtime. Hopefully the same tactics that worked for Wyatt will work for Madelinn.. here's hoping!

22 Months

2010-01-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

So, Wyatt turned 22 months on the day I had my surgery. I am just now really getting a chance to write after missing a couple of days of class.

He is so big nowdays. He sits in a booster seat at the table but only because they are barstool height and he won't sit still without it and I am afraid he will fall. He can also drink out of a regular cup really well, never eats with his fingers anymore unless it is a food that calls for fingers, and is so independent it makes me crazy sometimes. He is so fun though and is growing into such a polite little boy. He always says please and thank you which I am so glad for. I think sometimes manners are considered optional and it was very important for him to learn to use his manners from as early as possible.

He has been a crazy wildman lately and seems to be getting a new bruise or bump every day. I think the fact that it is winter and we are trapped inside is having something to do with the pent up energy. I really wish this town had places for me to take him. The YMCA in town has a few things but they are never in time frames that I am available to take him to them. I am worried about him going into day care in the fall because he doesn't get to play much with other kids his age so this summer that is my major goal. Take him to places that have other little ones!

2 more months until his birthday. I am starting to order party supplies so we don't have to worry about it when the time comes. We can just sort out food and last minute things. We are having a train birthday since anything transportation seems to be the big thing at the moment!

Geesh

2010-01-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

This has been one CRAZY week. I will bullet point it so I don't forget anything.

Last Sunday (1-3-10) Maddi poked her first tooth through. Bottom middle on the right. Jeremy had been telling me that he thought he saw some coming through but I had just felt her gums on Saturday night and felt a big, fat nuthin'! Then on Monday the bottom middle on the left came through! I had no idea she was teething! She had been chewing a lot and drooling but I knew she would be doing that WAY before she actually got teeth. Surprise!
I started back to school this week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to drive to Athens (roughly 45 minutes away) the across to Chillicothe (about an hour or a little over from Athens) and then home ( another 35-40 minutes) and the roads were TERRIBLE this first day of class. UGH.. I really, really hate having to go to 2 different campuses, especially on the same day, but this is my last quarter and these classes aren't offered on the same campus. BOO!
My Friday class was canceled, well we had assigments due online, so I snuggled up inside and studied my butt off for my Praxis PLT and Praxis Social Studies that I had to take on Saturday morning. I was SO nervous since these are the tests I have to take to not only graduate but to get my teaching licence in June.
Just when I had decided I was going to take a break from studing for the Praxis exams and work on my homework for class we had a terrible thing happen. It was eight o'clock and Jeremy was getting Wyatt ready to go to bed. Wyatt always says "hand" and likes to walk to his bedroom with Jeremy. Well Jeremy has his hand and either Wyatt loses his footing or drops to his knees for a toy, I am not sure which, jumps up like he is ok and then starts screaming bloody murder. This is the child that I was beginning to wonder if he had pain receptors (LOL) because he will crack his head HARD and get up laughing. Anyway he is freaking out so we are looking him over and trying to figure out what is wrong and realize that he isn't moving his right arm. Every time we move him to look at him he screams and refuses to grab anything I try to hand him. We finally decide we are taking him to the Emergency Room. I seriously thought we would take him the first time for one of his "daredevil" stunts he is always doing. Anyway, we lay him down to change his diaper and the poor kid is still screaming. It was terrible. Jeremy was so devastated even though I told him it could have happened one of the million times he has done that to me when I was holding his hand.

We call my grandma and my aunt and ask if we can bring Maddi there so we don't have to take her there with us and they say no problem so off we go to the ER. We ended up taking him to the hospital that is just 5 minutes from us even though I hate it and say I would never take my dog there.. eek.. because we can't get Wyatt strapped into his carseat. We had wrapped his arm to his side because we had no idea if it was broken or what. I rode in the back between the kids and held onto Wyatt and kept his arm tight to his side. We get to the ER and thank goodness there weren't many people out so we got back relitively quickly. Maybe a half hour from the time we sat down until we were in a room. They took him for x-rays first on his shoulder, then on his elbow and we find out he has what is called Nurse Maid's elbow. It literally took the doctor less than five minutes to put it back in. He just kind of rolled it around, rubbed it, and bent it a couple times. He wanted us to ice it and make sure he was using it before we could leave and I swear within 2 minutes he was flailing around like crazy and using his arm like nothing had been wrong. They gave him a little blue stuffed puppy for his pain and we were out the door. Bad thing was it was around 11 at this point and I had my tests the next morning. Can I blame it on this and no sleep if I don't pass the first time?

Saturday morning I was up at 5:45 to meet J so we could ride together to take our exams. We took the PLT (Principals of Learning and Teaching). Basically making sure we know how to teach and the Middle school social studies (5-9) exam. I felt really good about the PLT but I am really iffy on the social studies. I studied really hard but I felt like I knew NOTHING. I think if I passed it was by pure luck but I suppose you never know. Scores in 4 weeks. Cross your fingers for me!
Then to top it all off I ended up sick all day today. No doubt passed on from Wyatt to Jeremy to me. This is the first day Jeremy felt good and I end up feeling queasy all day. Thank goodness no vomiting though.
I think that is about it. I go in on Tuesday to have my gall bladder out since that is why I have been getting AWFULLY sick for the last year. *Knock on Wood* I haven't had an attack in a while. Then back to class on Thursday!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas this year was really great. We go to Jeremy's parent's house on Christmas eve and then to my Mom's on Christmas morning followed by my Grandma's in the evening. It is quite a tiring event for the kiddos but they throughly enjoyed it.

Christmas eve we had dinner at the In-laws and opened presents there. Then we came home and opened the kids' Christmas pajamas and read the night before Christmas. Wyatt was allowed to open one other present courtesy of 'ol softy aka Daddy. The next morning we got up and had our pancake breakfast before getting ready for the day.

The kids were really good except for a couple of incedents in the evening at G.Gs house because Wyatt hadn't had a sufficient nap and it was getting close to bed time. It was an amazing Christmas filled with great food and plenty of time to visit with family.

Some of the kiddos favorite presents:
Wyatt: his firetrucks, his remote control bouce back racer, and his trains. Oh, and his power wheels 4wheeler! Can barely get him off of it to charge it!
Maddi: her play mat, her Violet puppy that says and spells her name, and her exersaucer.

I am glad the madness is over but we just have a birthday coming up now! I really need to go through the toy room and weed out some of the toys that Maddi won't be growing into!

Late 21 month post

2009-12-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

Sheesh. December has been such a crazy month with doctors appointments for myself and the kiddos as well as getting ready to take my Praxis exam for my teaching license. I have been terrible about keeping up but I am determined to not forget any more updates because I really want this for later reference!

Wyatt is still in size 5 diapers, is in size 9 shoes, and 24month/2T clothing. I am not sure on his stats but I know that he is still off the charts in height. I had read somewhere that boys reach half of their adult height around 24 months and girls do at around 18 months. Wyatt was already 3 feet at 19 months so if it holds true I believe we are going to have a tall boy on our hands.

He is such an amazing little boy. I know I say it all the time but he really is. It is kind of scary because some days I will just look at him and can see him at 5, or 6, or even 7 because he is down on the floor driving his cars around or something and I just get this flash of what he will become.

He has a very independent streak going right now. Even more than usual; especially while eating. If he is trying to get something onto his spoon or fork that is particularly difficult (like applesauce or oatmeal) and I help put it on the utensil I had better not try to actually put it in his mouth! He doesn't want any part of that and will put his hands over his eyes like "I'm not here..." It is pretty cute.

He has been stringing 3-4 words together in coherent sentences which is pretty cool in itself. Just today a few of the things I have heard him say are "mommy, the Choo Choo train" when he heard the train going through town, "Daddy, come back," when Jeremy left the room, and "More milk, please" when he drank it all at breakfast.

Right now he really loves when I put my ipod in the ihome and blast the music while cleaning. He loves to "sing" and dance with me while I am picking up around the house.

He also has an intense love for "baby sister" as he calls Maddi. He always wants to know where she is. If he wakes up from a nap and she isn't anywhere to be seen he starts asking for her and if I tell him she is taking a nap he seems satisfied. This past saturday night she spent the night with my mom (my mom alternates with them so she can spend some quality time with them) and he was asking for Maddi before my mom ever pulled out of the driveway. I am so proud of him. He likes to bring her toys and play with her while she is in her exersauser. He has tried dragging her off to play a few times by grabbing her hand and saying "hand." He really can't wait until she is big enough to play with him but I am sure when the time comes he won't want her playing with his toys. LOL

I can't believe he will be turning 2 soon. I think we are going to be doing a train themed birthday since that is his current obsession. I am already looking into things since I like to buy early so the only thing I have to worry about at Party Time is food.

5 months!

2009-12-24T18:15:00.000-08:00

Maddi Grace is 5 months old today. Where has the time gone? She is around 15 pounds and 6 ounces and 26.5 inches long. I don't think I did a post after her dr. appt but those are the 75% and 90% respectively. I can't believe how big she is getting. She is rolling from front to back and has rolled the opposite direction a couple of times but never in mommy's sight. She loves to chew, chew, chew and watch her brother run through the house like a tornado. She is trying SO hard to sit up and is really close to being able to do it. We are so proud of our baby girl and can't wait to see what the future brings!

'Cuz that's how I roll..

2009-12-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

I don't know what happened to my post but this past Friday (12-18-09) Little Girl rolled over for the first time, of her own power, from back to front. I am so proud of little miss priss. Poor girl hasn't been on the floor much because of her crazy/energetic big brother that has a tendency to ride his toys through the house at top speed without paying a lot of attention. I started working with her in the last week or so by laying on the floor with her and rolling her over, then back, then over again because I knew she could, she just hadn't thought about it yet. I am so proud of my little Maddi! Give her a big round of applause, Ladies and Gentlemen.. =)

Long trip

2009-12-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

So, this past Wednesday a whirl-wind of activity started here in my neck of the woods. On Monday my Grandma found out that her brother who lived in Florida had passed away. Her other sibling, who had lived in Oregon, had passed away around 3 years ago and she didn't go to the memorial service so she really wanted to go to this funeral. My dad was supposed to take her but because of circumstances with my half-sisters and their mother he wasn't able to so about 5 hours before they were supposed to hit the road I found out that I was taking her.

I began to frantically pack for myself and Maddi. We had decided that she would go with me and Wyatt would stay home with Jeremy since he doesn't like to ride in the car much and she still stays where I put her. I tried to talk her into flying but she refused to get on a plane so we had around a 14-16 hour drive depending on traffic. So I loaded up myself and Maddi, hoping I hadn't forgotten anything after packing so quickly (which of course I DID forget things), picked up my grandma and headed to the store to get some apples to take with us. Her brother and his wife had always came here to where we live to attend the Apple Festival and to take home some of the apples from the orchard here.

Then, we got on the road at around 4:30pm. We drove a few hours and stopped around Charleston, Wv and ate at a Cracker Barrel and got back on the road until a little after midnight. We stopped in Rock Hill, South Carolina at a really nice Hampton Inn and settled in for the night. Back up at 6 in the morning and back on the road by 8 after enjoying their very yummy continental breakfast.

We drove the rest of the way and arrived in Homosassa Springs at 4:20pm Thursday. The viewing was at 5pm and afterwards we went back to the house and ate dinner with the family. The funeral was the next morning at 10:30 am. I didn't attend the funeral since I wanted to get some rest so that we could drive further that night to head home but my grandma said it was a beautiful service and he was buried at the Florida National Cemetary (Think Arlington and white crosses). He had been in the Army and fought in the Korean War.

We were back on the road after the dinner at the church at around 3:30pm and drove all the way to 1:00am and about an hour past Rock Hill, SC. We stopped for the night in North Carolina and drove the rest of the way and I pulled into my driveway at 2:00pm on saturday.

It was a LONG trip and we were driving so much and I was sooo glad to get home. We ran into a TON of snow in Virginia and West Virginia and when I stopped for gas in West Virginia I had an inch of ice on my front grill. I went in to get gas and when I came back out an older gentleman was cleaning off my grill with one of the windshield cleaners. He said it could have over heated my car and I am really glad he was looking out for me because I was so tired I don't know if I would have thought to do it.

Madelinn was such an excellent little traveler! She spent most of her time in the back cooing, talking, kicking her feet, sleeping and playing with her giraffe and baby doll. She had a few 15 or so minute crying jags when she would get tired but other than that she was amazing. And even though she spent most of her day sleeping in the car she would still settle in and sleep after her bottle in the hotel and sleep until we got up in the morning. I was so glad that she was such a good little girl.

On a side note, I don't ever want to make that drive again in such a short period of time. I was so sick of being in the car I haven't left the house since getting home!

Yuck

2009-11-27T18:28:00.000-08:00

I saw my first snow flakes this morning. I. do. not. like. snow! We have all of these big plans of moving south to never (or rarely ever) see snow again but these plans don't help me avoid snow until I have finished school, we sell the house, and decide for sure where we are moving! Sigh. Luckily there was no accumulation and it quit after about an hour but still.

I boycott winter.

Thankful

2009-11-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post. I just realized I missed our Wyatt's 20 month and Maddi's 4 month post AGAIN (I should just give up! LOL) so I will do that tomorrow.

But! I am so SO thankful for my amazing, loving husband, my beautiful, loving, smiling children, my great family, having a roof over our head, and everything we need. Maybe not everything we WANT all the time but always everything we need. I am so thankful for what I have been blessed with and it is something that I am aware of every day!

H is for Honor

2009-11-11T09:13:00.001-08:00

I taught a lesson to fifth graders this week about Veteran's Day and the origins, that it used to be Armistice Day when a cease fire was declared on the western front during WWI , and over the 2 days I taught I read two really good books I wanted to share.

The first is H is for Honor: A Military Family Alphabet. It is such an excellent book to read as it really helps put more detail to the topic for kids who may not be familiar with the topic. I also plan on sending this to the children of a couple of Jeremy's friends for Christmas.

The second is America's White Table. I had never heard of the setting of one of these little tables until I read this book so I fully intend on having one set in my classroom next year at this time. At the end of the book the little girl draws a picture to put on the table so I had each student draw one and then we put them in envelopes and mailed it to the local VFW and AMVETS.

And looking for these books on Amazon to put links up I found another that I plan on buying to have in my "little bag of tricks." It is The Wall and it is about the Vietnam War Memorial.

Again, I want to thank every veteran and service member out there. It is an amazing sacrafice and I am so very grateful for it!

Jump around! Jump up Jump up and get down!

2009-11-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

Goofy title, I know, but Wyatt has been working on a new skill lately. He has been wanting to jump so badly and will take off running and throw one of his feet up in the air in front of him. As of yesterday, while watching Dora where she was apparently teaching the Spanish word for jump, he got a little closer to mastery. He squats WAYYY down to the point that his bottom is almost touching the floor and then catapults himself upwards. It is SOOO funny to watch and he is actually getting both feet off the ground about an inch. He still does the funny throw-one-foot-up thing if he tries to jump from a standing position.

On a side note, I don't know if I will get a chance to post tomorrow but I just wanted to say Thank You to all of those veterans, including my hubby, for serving our country! (Along with all of those now serving!) I am so proud of my husband. He has some incredible scars, physical and otherwise, from the time he spent overseas and in service and I am so grateful for him.

Halloween!

2009-11-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

First off, I LOVE HALLOWEEN! Actually, I love pretty much every holiday but Halloween is in a close running with Christmas for my favorite holiday. I have been SO excited to get the kids in their costumes and take them trick-or-treating with my half sisters who are 11 this year. Wyatt was a cowboy and Maddi was a cow and they were just TOO cute! Maddi had a bit of a stuffy nose so we went ahead and dropped her off at G.G's (my grandma) house while we took Wyatt up town. She didn't get her costume on until I went to pick her up but I just couldn't resist.

First thing in the morning we got them dressed in their cute Halloween shirts G.G got them.

Wyatt just had to check out Stan the Steer that Jeremy and I brought back from Texas long before I was pregnant with the dear boy! He likes to grab our hand, drag us over to the couch and then he climbs up, reaches up his little hand, and says "Stan!" He loves to "pet" him.

Wyatt in his costume riding his horse.

My Little Cowboy!

Trick-or-treating with Mommy and the Twins.

Aren't they the cutest!
My little Calf!

The tail was just too much!

We had the best time. Wyatt was LOVING the experience. None of the costumes scared him, thankfully! He actually saw a guy dressed like a werewolf with a big furry mask and said "Wolf, Ow Ow OOOOWWW!" We took his wagon and then switched him up between walking, riding, and being carried to keep him from being bored. I actually got him to say "trick-or-treat" a couple of times though it sounded more like "Tick-or-teet" and by the end he was reaching for his bucket and a hand to walk up to houses. He is such a sweetie!

Madelinn was a very good girl at G.G's house and was all smiles when she got into her cow costume. I already can't wait until next year! I have to dress them like I want until they start getting their own ideas! =)

Late 19 month and 3 month post

2009-10-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

I am late on both posts so I decided to just combine them.

Wyatt: 24 mo and 2T clothes, size 8.5 Wide shoes, size 5 diapers, mostly 1 nap a day.
Mr. Wyatt is now 19 months old. He is growing up so fast. He loves trains, airplanes, trucks, motorcycles, fire trucks, and ambulances right now. He is definitely ALL boy. He also LOVES rough housing with Daddy. He has, in the last month, started getting upset when I leave. He has always been really good about staying with people and we never hit "separation anxiety" when everything I read said we could. Everyone tells me that he gets over it as soon as I am out of sight but I am not one to "sneak out." I always make sure to give a hug and kiss before walking out the door which could exacerbate things at the time being but I think that it will help in the long run.

He is saying and doing so much and continues to parrot everything that we say. He attempts to say anything he hears us say but sometimes reminds me of Joey in that episode of Friends where Pheobe is trying to teach him French!

He is starting to look like such a little man! It is so hard to see my baby in his face anymore. He just looks so wise sometimes and I can almost picture him as a teen. TOO SCARY!

Madelinn: Just moved up last week to size 2 diapers and size 3-6 months clothes (though she still can wear some of her 0-3 months things)and size 1 shoes. Sleeps from around 11pm-7am and takes 6oz bottles around every 3 hours but sometimes doesn't finish the entire thing.

Loves: Smiling at Mommy, Daddy, and Wyatt. Watching Wyatt play. Sleep Allll night! (Mommy loves this,too!) Eating. Baths. Sucking on hands. Watching mobiles. Watching cartoons with big brother. Sitting up with help. Laughing! Taking her time while eating.

Hates: Lying down(unless asleep). Being away from mommy and daddy. Being sleepy.

She is getting SOOO big. I can't believe, though, that she made it all the way to 3 months before having to switch to 3-6 month clothing since Wyatt was in 3-6 months and size 2 shoes by around 2.5 months old. She likes for someone to hold her in a sitting position so she can look around. I am thinking she may sit up before 5 months (which is when Wyatt did). She seems more sturdy than he did at this age but she may suprise me. She is constantly "talking" and is a very happy baby though she has "fits" sometimes when she gets sleepy.

I think that is all for now!

Welcoming Fall

2009-10-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

I think that I have been in denial about the fact that fall is here. I am COMPLETELY opposed to that dreaded season that follows autumn and I try to pretend that it isn't just around the corner, however, sights like this one make me realize I don't have much choice in the matter.

I do LOVE fall, though, and know it is one of the things I will miss the most when we move south. We celebrated fall in fashion this evening by carving Wyatt's pumpkin, playing in the leaves and then I made pumpkin muffins. So yummy.

**Disclaimer: ignore Wyatt's horribly mismatched clothing! =) I had changed him out of his jeans and into comfy pants for his nap and hadn't changed him back for pumpkin carving**

Helping Daddy clean the "gunk" out of the pumpkin.

Poking out the holes for the eyes

He wants to kiss everything lately =)

Diving into the little pile of leaves on the porch

Finished product: Classic Pumpkin

The yumminess of the pumpkin muffins

On a side note, I have decided it is time to start seriously dieting again. I was on a diet when I got pregnant with Wyatt and gained so much with him that I got depressed. I was starting to try to take hold of it when I got pregnant with Maddi so I took it easy and only gained 1/3 of the weight with her as I did with him. Now I am seriously trying to get back to at least close to where I was when Jeremy and I started dating. I am following Weight Watchers without going to meetings and am down 11.4 pounds! Whoo hoo!

Now some more cuteness!

Miss Priss... Notice the scar I got from when I fell in the pasture when I

was pregnant with her...Niiiiice...

Wyatt holding Maddi... He couldn't decide if he wanted to hold

her close or push her off his lap...

Some randomness

2009-10-20T21:08:00.001-07:00

I have a few random things to say but didn't know where to put them so they get their own post

I have been adding even more words as I remember them to Wyatt's vocabulary list and I just can't believe how large it is getting! Also, I forgot to do his 19 month post on the 12th so that is coming soon!

I also added some pictures to the Zoo post now that I have uploaded my photo software to my new laptop so check those out! There is some cuteness involved! =)

I ordered some ADORABLE bows from a "bloggy friend" for Maddi and I am IN LOVE! Ignore the slobber in the pictures! I have hopes that she isn't trying to teeth already but there is just so much drool going on!

4. Not this past saturday but the one before I went to my best friend B's house to learn to crochet. A few days after I started my first project, a blanket for Maddi since it can be smaller than what one for Wyatt will need to be. Here it is:

I wasn't sure about the yellow, thinking I should have gone with a softer yellow, but as the blanket progresses I am really starting to like it.

5. A week before I had Maddi my mom took my horse to her house so she could send him to a trainer for me. I was SO behind on getting him broke because shortly after I started him, I found out I was pregnant with Wyatt. Then not long after I healed from having him and started to get into a routine, I got pregnant with Madelinn. So, my mom, being the wonderful person she is, decided to take Check to her house and pay to have him sent to a trainer. He spent a month with the trainer and got his first set of shoes on while there (the guy was a farrier). Apparently the trainer loved him SO much he wanted to trade his stud, a horse he had had for MANY years and loved dearly, for him. This past wednesday I got to experience it myself. Mom was camping and had him there with her so I drove down to try him out. He did AMAZING! He is so great and I can't wait to get him home to ride here! Now I just have to find a riding buddy.

6. I got the kids' halloween costumes together in the last few days and I am so stinkin' excited! I LOVE halloween and wish I had a reason to dress up! Wyatt is going to be a cowboy which is so fitting for him since he loves horses right now. Here he is at Nana's:

Maddi is going to be a cow... hehehehe.. I thought it was a cute combo!

I think that is all for now! =)

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday Jeremy and I took the kiddos to Renick's Family Market to their Pumpkin Patch. I don't ever remember going to an actual pumpkin patch to get my pumpkins as a kid and it seems like such a fun tradition to start with ours!

So anyway, we bundled them up since it was a bit chilly and it is a bit north of us and there aren't as many hills to block the wind. Jeremy had an ambition to get a ginormous pumkin for Wyatt (which I don't have a picture of yet but we are carving tomorrow so look for that post!) and we got it. We also got a couple of gords and teeny tiny pumpkins to decorate the table as well as 2 small-ish pumpkins, one for random carving, and one for Miss Madelinn. I am so excited to carving them tomorrow and seeing Wyatt digging the "gunk" out! I also plan to make some pumpkin muffins tomorrow! Yummy...

They had a really neat set up that has a giant pumpkin that says "How tall I am this Year" so i took Wyatt's picture standing in front of it though I think it is a bit inaccurate because he was only 1/4 of an inch away from 3 feet at the doctor last week.Wyatt and Daddy also crawled through a tunnel made from straw bales and then we went out into the pumpkin patch for some pictures. The way they price their pumpkins is that you can buy pre-priced ones that are in the market or you can go out to the field and do an "all one person can carry in their arms" for $20. The distance is about 25 yards? We just decided to pick a few out in the market and explore the patch a bit.

Trying to decide if he wants to go in

Seems like fun....

Happy on the other side with a handful of straw!

Wyatt's 18 month Well Check

2009-10-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

Today I took Wyatt to his 18 month Well Child Checkup. It was an AWFUL trip to say the least but Wyatt definitely showed me just how good he can be in tough situations... except when it came to the actual checkup!

Quick Stats:
Height: 35 and 3/4" (greater than 99%)
Weight: 31 lbs 9oz (95%)
Head: 19" (58%)

I had made this appointment almost a month and a half ago and today was the soonest they could get us in so he had his 18 month check a few days over 19 months. We get there 10 minutes early for his appointment which was supposed to be at 3:10. We didn't even get called back to a room until after 4:10 and didn't see the Pediatrician until 5:00. It was absolutely ridiculous! It is an office with 11 pediatricians so the waiting room was of course busy, which I hate. If I didn't absolutely LOVE our pediatrician we would switch in a heartbeat. We just don't have that many options in our area, unfortunately.

Wyatt was so good in the waiting room. Watching the fish in the giant fish tank they have there. He especially loved this big bright yellow one. He was trapped in his stroller for an hour though. I was supposed to be in class at 5:30 and had arranged for my dad to meet me in town to pick up Wyatt at 4 and drive him the half hour home to Jeremy so I could go straight to class but he had to be home by 5:45 so I ended up having to send him home and missed class because I had to bring Wyatt home.

Next, the nurse comes in to measure him and he FUH-LIPS out when she tries to measure around his head. This is so odd because usually he is all smiles and cooperation at the doctor but it has been 6 months since he as been there. I end up having to hold him down for that and pretty much everything else. I felt SO bad! He ended up getting 2 shots but since there is a nationwide shortage of flu shots they didn't have one for us. Dr.S put me on her list to call me personally if any come in, though, since Maddi is so young.

All- in - all it was a good appointment. I was surprised to see that he is a higher percentage for height than weight. He has always been over 90% for both since he was born but I am pretty sure this is the first time the height was that much higher than weight.

A side note, I think we have it figured out that the kids don't have to go into day care in March! Whoo hoo. Now I just have to worry about what will happen when I start teaching in the fall (fingers crossed I find a job) but we will cross that bridge when we get to it!!

Laughing...

2009-10-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Baby Girl laughed for me yesterday! A full on laugh. It was sooo cute. I was laying on the couch with my knees up with her propped up facing me with Wyatt at my head. I was reading to Wyatt when I heard Jeremy's truck coming up the driveway. I yelled "Daddy's home," in the high pitched voice that I always use to get Wyatt excited. Apparently it was enough to get her excited as well since she started laughing like crazy. I kept repeating it over and over like a lunatic until Daddy came in the door so he could hear her too. I love these little moments!

H1N1 Vaccination

2009-10-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

I am getting REALLY stressed out over this whole H1N1 thing. I am not normally worried about them getting sick since we wash hands constantly and they don't really go anywhere but I am so worried over this. I don't know what to do about the vaccination. On one hand I don't want to refuse the vaccination and then they get it and something happen to one of them and on the other hand I don't want to get it and then the vaccination cause problems. ACK!

I know that Madelinn is too young to get either flu shot so that worries me as well. Wyatt is going to his 18 month appointment ( a month late, they couldn't get him in) on Wednesday and is getting his seasonal flu shot. I intend to ask the pediatrician what she thinks about the vaccination and see if she recommends it for him/us.

I am in the public schools right now teaching and observing for my degree and that is where most of my unease comes from. I have decided to shower and sanitize from now on when I come home before I touch them and hope that minimizes their exposure. We have my mother-in-law and my Gran come to the house to watch them while I am at school or at the public schools so I think that helps as well. One problem being that they may have to go into daycare in March as bad as I hate the thought. I have to do 10 weeks of student teaching which is 5 days a week full days. I am still trying to find a baby sitter or 2 (that are family/close friends) so I don't have to shuttle them around too much. Cross your fingers for me that I find someone!

Another Trip to the Zoo

2009-10-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Jeremy and I's wedding anniversary and we were trying to decide what in the world we were going to do. In the end we decided to get Maddi a babysitter and take Wyatt back to the zoo now that he knows the names and sounds of many zoo animals.

So bright and early we loaded into the car and went to Columbus. Maddi was dropped off at my best friend's house for the day and the three of us headed to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Wyatt had a BLAST this time. I think when we took him last time, at around 13 months, it was too young. He liked it but wasn't to the point that he got all excited when we pulled up to an exhibit.

His favorites were the Elephants, the Rhinos, the Apes, the Okapi and the Stingrays. We had watched a Go, Diego, Go! episode the other day that showcased the Okapi and when we pulled up I said "Look, Wyatt, and Okapi!" He was so excited he almost broke his neck trying to look over the fence. One came over really close and Wyatt just stared at it forever. When we started to walk away he started yelling "KAAAAPI!! KAPI!" It was too cute. Before we left we bought him a stuffed Okapi at the gift shop and he has slept with it the last 2 nights.

B and M, who were keeping Maddi, met us with Maddi at BD's Mongolian Barbeque for dinner. I had never been and was nervous since I tend not to experiment too much with food. It was AMAZING! I was so glad we tried it!

All in all it was an excellent way to spend our wedding anniversary! I can't wait to take them back when Maddi is bigger so she gets to experience it. If we lived closer we would have a membership.

Trying to pet the stingray

Kissing the bronze elephant. He was just looking but as I took the picture he decided to kiss it. I love that he picked the tip of its trunk!

Are you as tall as a tiger?
Donating money to save the tigers. Every time you drop in a coin it played a recorded tiger growl and he LOVED it! It was too cute. He would have broke us putting coins in if we had let him!
Getting off the train. He has developed an obsession with all things

train lately so this was SO exciting for him!

Feeding the goats...

Maddi's 2 month appointment

2009-09-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

The appointment yesterday didn't go nearly as bad as I anticipated. First, she weighed in at 12 pounds even ( 75%) and 23 inches (70%). I am not sure exactly what her head circumference was but she was in the 40th percentile on it. She was all smiles and coos in the waiting room and then in the examination room. She, of course, wanted to eat as soon as we got there so she ate on and off until the dr came in. Dr S said she is hitting all of her milestones exactly as they like to see it; so that is great!

Then came the shots. I had been dreading it! She did so well though. There were some tears when they were actually doing the shots but within 30 seconds of me picking her up when they were done she was done crying. No side effects that have shown up except for sleeping a little bit extra yesterday so that is excellent!

She doesn't have another visit until November so next up is Wyatt's 18 month on October 15.

Tomorrow

2009-09-28T18:03:00.001-07:00

Ack! Tomorrow is Madelinn's 2 month appointment which means 2 month shots. I am so stressed out about this! For Wyatt's, Jeremy held him and I stood by the door with my hands clutched together in front of my face and tears in my eyes. I have to go alone tomorrow, though, so there is not any way I can stay in the waiting room. It isn't so hard for me with Wyatt anymore because I know he needs the shots and he seems much more sturdy now but she still seems so fragile! Wish me luck!

Little Miss Mad Maddi is 2 months old!

2009-09-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well, today is Maddi's official 2 month birthday... (She will actually be 9 weeks tomorrow). I can't believe time is flying like it is! We haven't been to her 2 month appointment yet so I am not sure about her measurements. At 6 weeks she was 22.75 inches which was 90th percentile and 10 pounds and 14 ounces which was 80th percentile. I am guessing, using the very scientific "step on a scale while holding baby and then weigh yourself" method, that she is around 12 pounds and 6 ounces and I am not too certain about length. She still fits into her 0-3 months clothing really well.

She has been doing excellent! "Talking" all the time and smiling constantly! She is eating around 6 ounces every 3 hours during the day though sometimes she doesn't even finish that! She is nothing like her brother was in that regard! She is also sleeping from around 11pm until about 6am in the morning, sometimes longer! That is so great! I am so glad that I was blessed with great sleepers because Mommy really likes her sleep.

She has been having some "fits" in the evening around every 3 days right before bed but I think that has something to do with being overstimulated and just needing an outlet to wind down her day!

I will do another post when we get better measurements and percentiles on her on Tuesday. I am anxious to see how she is growing but NOT looking foward to her shots!

25 Firsts!

2009-09-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

25 Firsts! Stolen from Sarah!

1. Who was your first prom date? A family friend named Kyle. I REALLY didn't want to go since I was never a "joiner" in school but he told me that he would like to go with me and my friends were begging me to go so off I went. I wouldn't have regretted missing it had I not gone, though. Oddly enough he started dating a girl he met there (he was from a different school).

2. Do you still talk to your first love? Nope. He was my first love but that doesn't mean he was a very good person. I finally realized that right before Jeremy and I started dating.

3. What was your first alcoholic drink? Heh. Boone's Farm wine.. LOL.. My mom gave me some when we were camping one weekend...

4. What was your first job? If you don't count babysitting it was working at a pizza place for like 3 months in high school.

5. What was your first car?1995 Hyundai Accent. My mom didn't want me learning to drive in her brand new F-150 so she bought it from a friend so I could learn to drive in my own car. It was also a standard. Mom said if I could drive a standard I could drive anything.

6. Who was the first person to text you today? I honestly don't know if I have gotten any texts today.. My phone has been in the other room for awhile though..

7. Who was the first person you thought of this morning? Madelinn, she woke me up wanting to eat at 5

8. Who was your first grade teacher? Mrs. Rupert.

9. Where did you go on your first flight in a plane? Mexico when I was in 6th grade.

10. Who was your first best friend and do you still talk? Meagan and I haven't talked to her in a couple of years.

11. Where was your first sleepover? Meagan's I am sure

12. Who was the first person you talked to today? Wyatt =)

13. Whose wedding were you in for the first time? My mom's when she married my step-dad

14. What was the first thing you did this morning? Changed Maddi's diaper

15. What was the first concert you went to? Aerosmith!

16. First tattoo? I don't have any though I have considered it a couple of times. You would think that after a surgery, 2 kids, and my belly button pierced I wouldn't worry about the needle anymore.

17. First piercing? My ears when I was 6 months old.

18. First foreign country you went to? Mexico!

19. First movie you remember seeing? Hmm. The Land Before Time but I don't think it was in the theater... In theater it was probably Jurassic Park?

20. What state did you first live in? Ohio

21. Who was your first room mate? Meghan

22. When was your first detention? I never had one. I was the "good kid."

24. What is one thing you would learn, given the chance? I would really like to learn to play the guitar.

25. Who will be the next person to post this? No idea =)

Vocabulary at 18 months

2009-09-13T21:47:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of words I have been compiling of Wyatt's Vocabulary at 18 months. These are all words that are known to him by sight of the object or person without any prompting.

People:

"Mom-E"- Mommy with a HUGE empahsis on the "E"

"Daddy"

"Nana"

"Pappy"

"Papa"

"GG"

"Day-sha"- My aunt Stacia

"Nanie"- Grannie

"Am-Maw"- Grandma

Food:

"Nana"- Banana

"Papple"- Apple

"Pape"- Grape

"Druit"- bowls of mixed fruit

"Mu-mum-er"- Cucumber

"Pickle"

"Cracker"

"Chicken"

"Mato"- Tomato

"Carrot"

"Honey"

"Norn"-Corn

"An Akes"- Pancakes

"Druit"- Fruit

"Deggs"- Eggs

Animals: (The ones in red he also knows the sound for them)
"Dog"

"Tat"-Cat

"Horsie"

"Cow"

"Piggy"

"Beep"-Sheep

"Doat"-Goat

"Duck"

"Chicken"

"Drog"- Frog

"Ninon"-Lion

"Tiger"

"Bear"

"Peppo"- Hippo

"Nino"-Rhino

"Mama"- Llama

"Nake"-Snake

"Dird"-Bird

"Bebra"-Zebra

"Dedant"-Elephant

"Ouse"- Mouse

Shapes:

"Star"

"Dirdle"-Circle

Transportation:

"Mehr-mane"- Airplane

"Druk"- Truck

"Nain"- Train

"Dar"-Car

"Tractor"

"Do-Dyke-al"- Motorcycle

"Boat"

"Dar-Druk"- Fire truck

"Mi" - Semi

"Del Dopter"-Helicopter

"Am mance"- Ambulance

Letters:

"A"
"B"
"C"
"F"
"I"
"M"
"O"
"P"
"S"
"T"
"W"
"Y"

At the moment I know I am missing a TON of words and I will add as I think of them. I need to go through his books and write them down as I do.

18 months

2009-09-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Wyatt is 18 months! One and a half. When did this happen?!?! He is such an amazing little boy and I am SO SO blessed to have him in my life. I don't know how I got so lucky to have him.

As of right now he is pretty much completely in 24 month clothing and size 7.5-8 shoes. He is also in size 5 diapers.

Lately he has been transitioning lately from 2 naps to one. He is still pretty tired in the evening but we have been holding him off so that he doesn't nap two hours before bedtime but sometimes he really, really needs it. Most days we are just down to one though and I am not sure how I feel about that. LOL

His favorite books are still Brown bear, brown bear and Polar bear, polar bear. He will hand it to one of us and say "thank you" and will wait for us to read it. If we don't start immediately he will start to "cry" until we open it and begin reading and he becomes all smiles. Little manipulator. I am really glad that he is so interested in books but I am going to have to get the other books that are similar like Baby bear, baby bear so that we have some variety.

Jeremy and I were making a list the other day of words that he knows by sight of the object and we were up around 100+. It is insane. Many of them you may not know what they are unless you know them but he knows what they are when he sees them and is sure to tell you. Like cucumber being "Mu-mum-er." If he sees one or a picture of one that is what he says so I know that is what he means. He amazes me.

His favorite tv shows are Sid the Science Kid, Super Why!, Yo Gabba Gabba, and anything with skateboards or motorcycles.

That is about all for now but up next is a post with all of his words!

Also, for anyone who has flown with a little one are there any tips? I think we are flying in february and it is going to be all 4 of us (8 month old and 23 month old).

Just a quick update

2009-09-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

There isn't a whole lot going on around here lately but I have noticed that if I don't write every few days I will get out of the habit!

So a bit on each of us:

Me:
I started back to school last Tuesday and so far it is going OK. I only took two classes this quarter because of Maddi being so small that I have to get 2 babysitters every time I leave. I have Physics (which is my last class that isn't an education class) and my Social Studies Methods which basically teaches the best ways to teach Social Studies. I think it is going to be a relatively easy class but I am pretty sure I am going to work pretty hard at physics in order to get a B. I haven't had anything below an A- since the quarter before Wyatt was born and I hate to break that streak but I just know physics is going to do it for me. I am determined to get that B though.

I also started my diet on Tuesday. I have been talking about doing it since I was pregnant with Maddi so I waited until right after my birthday and took the plunge. I am doing a low-carb diet since that is the only thing that has worked for me in the past and it is pretty quick. I get REALLY discouraged if I don't see changes pretty fast and I quit so I have to do something that shows me quick results. So far I have lost around 6 pounds which isn't so bad in less than a week. Hopefully it continues to work for me.

Jeremy:
Jeremy has just been working his tail off. He is in his third year of his electrical apprenticeship and really loves it. I am glad that he decided to do this rather than go back into the USAF. I know he loves the military but I just don't think I could do it on my own right now if he were to deploy so luckily he found another well-paying job in electrical work. He has been a tad bit stressed the last week trying to find someone to fix our big truck so that we have another nice vehicle and something to pull the horse trailer with. Something happened to the axle and we are hoping to have it fixed by this weekend. YAY!

Wyatt:
Wyatt turned 18 months old yesterday and that is most definitely deserving of its own post but I am still working on it. I want to do something on his vocabulary and I have been adding words as I go. Maybe I will just go ahead and do a post and then do a separate one when I finally get the list finished....

Maddi:
Maddi has been such a sweet little girl lately. She still has her moments where she gets overwhelmed and cries it out but they are quickly under control. Over the last couple of weeks she has really started to coo and "talk" to us. Smiles are getting much more predictable which is great because we are having new pictures done in the next couple of weeks.

Well, that is about it! Think I am going to type up a quick 18 month post on Wyatt really quick and then hit the sack.

One Month appointment

2009-09-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

A quick update on Madelinn while I have the chance. I took her to her 1 month appointment on Sept 3(when she was actually a day short of 6 weeks) and she measured 22 3/4 inches and 10pounds and 14 ounces. She was 80% for weight and 90% for length. She is cooing like crazy and smiling tons; especially at mommy and big brother. She loves her swing and bouncy seat and is sleeping right around 6 hours at night sometimes more and sometimes less. We just went up to feeding her six ounces at a time every 3-3.5 hours yesterday because up until then she sometimes woudn't even finish five.

I looked in Wyatt's baby book and at his 1 month appointment (at 1 month and 2 days) he was 11pounds 5 ounces and 22 3/4 inches long and was eating 6-7 ounces each feeding.

I haven't been on much lately. I finally joined the rest of the world and started the Twilight series. I started a week ago yesterday and by the time I turn off the light tonight I will have finished the fourth book. I am addicted... It is a sickness. LOL

School starts back tomorrow. 2 quarters and student teaching to go!

Great Family Weekend

2009-09-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we spent a lot of good quality family time. It was long past due because Jeremy worked the weekend before and didn't get to spend much time with us =(. We spent most of the day Saturday just lounging around the house and getting little chores done but it was a great day nonetheless. Wyatt is finally reaching the age that he can go "help" daddy so he spent most of the day outside stacking sticks and running wild in the horse pasture with Jeremy. He gave him a bit of a scare when he took a bite out of a toadstool but luckily Daddy was paying close attention and scooped it out and rinsed out his mouth before he actually got to chew it any! Thank goodness

Sunday we went to my ex-step dad's house where they were having a horseshoes tournament. There were tons of people and Wyatt was showing off his cuteness by laughing and smiling at everyone. There were a couple of older kids and he kept wanting to hug them. He was so facinated that he followed them out into the yard and was watching their every move. It was too cute when the little girl started doing cartwheels so he decided that he needed to do something similar and started putting his head on the ground and trying to do a somersault. He finally manages to flop over and is SO excited that he continues to do them for a good half hour!

Another cute story really quick since I hear him waking up through the monitor. Yesterday when Jeremy got home from work he went into the bathroom to wash his face and hands. When he came out his hair was wet. Wyatt crawled up on his lap and kept looking at Jeremy with an odd look on his face and touches his hair and says "naining" (raining). He just keeps saying it over and over and then starts looking toward the window where a very sunny day was coming to a close. He just couldn't figure out what was going on! It was tooo cute. The wonder of little minds!

Welcoming Madelinn Grace Channell

2009-08-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 5am on Friday July 24, 2009 so Jeremy and I had to get up at around 3:30 to get ready and leave for the hospital which is around a half hour away. We got there a few minutes late because we had to stop for gas. Did everything else the evening before but forgot that minor detail! LOL To top it all off Jeremy had an awful migraine the entire day and spent much of it napping in the labor room to try to get rid of it.

So I get there and they hook me up to the monitors and ask a million questions and at around 6am they start me on the pitocin and tell me that my Dr will be up around 9 to check me. I am not even feeling anything contraction-wise by the time she gets there around 9:10am and checks me. She tells me that I am a 4 and that she is going to break my water. She tells the nurse that I can have my epidural at any time that I want it but I tell her that I am holding off as long as possible since it wore off when I was having Wyatt and I didn’t want to go through the process again just to not have one when the time came. I settle in and relax for the ride at this point.

My back starts killing me and I assume it is from sitting on that bed so I ask the nurse about getting up and moving around. She tells me that I can get up and go to the bathroom when I want and she can either get me a birthing ball or bring in a rocking chair. I ask for the rocking chair so when I come out of the bathroom there is one waiting on me. It was a HUGE help and I sit in it until around noon. The contractions finally began getting stronger at around 11am and that is when she tells me that I have pretty much topped out on the dose of pitocin that the Dr allowed. She says she is going to call the Dr to get her to come up and check me and let her know what to do as far as the pitocin is concerned. She checks me and I am at a 5. Again she asks about the epidural and I tell her I am going to hold off a bit longer. At noon I finally sent someone to tell her I want it and within a few minutes my doctor was there to check me and the anesthesiologist is outside the door.

Dr tells me that I am still at a 5 and Maddi wasn’t moving down into position well. She mentions that if I don’t start progressing I may need a c-section because it is suggesting she is too big. This is when I make the mistake of asking if she has a guess as to how big she is and she tells me AT LEAST as big as DS was (8lb 6oz). I had been hoping for a smaller baby! The anesthesiologist then moves in to do his job and this is where the trouble begins.

Apparently I have a really vascular back so he had a really hard time. Does it once and when he pulls the needle out he gets blood so has to redo it. Not to mention he had to draw out once to renumb because he hit some sore spots. He replaces it and gets blood again. Finally the third time is the charm or so we think. My left side is more numb than the right so they have me lay slightly on my right side to help it and he leaves. I settle in to sleep and wake up 2 hours later feeling super strong contractions again so they call him up and he decides to come back with some lidocaine and another full kit because he thinks there is a problem. He hits me with the lidocaine and my jaw instantly goes numb and my ears start ringing. Then Maddi’s heart rate jumps to 200 and then drops to 49 and my blood pressure drops to 80/43. They roll me on my left side and give me oxygen and things start to straighten out. I am crying hysterically at this point because I want her out and OK and am terrified something is going to go wrong. Jeremy is trying to calm me down but later tells me he was just as scared.

Anesthesiologist tells me he wants to take out Epi 1 and put in a new one and though I don’t want to go through the process again I agree. In goes another Epi and thankfully it goes in the first time and begins to work like a charm. Right around 6:30 pm my nurse comes in to check me and tells me that I am at a 9+. I tell her that is what I delivered my son at because I never went to a 10 so she tells me she is going to call the doctor and let her know we are close. She walks out and just 2 minutes later another nurse walks in a tells me that she is going to check me because nurse 1 has the doctor on the phone and she wants an update. She checks me and I made it to a 10! Whoo hoo! She asks if I want to practice push until the doctor gets there and I tell her that I want to wait until I get the urge. Around 15 minutes later I tell Jeremy to get the nurse because I am feeling MAJOR pressure. Within a couple of minutes the nurses and doctor are in and tell me to push through a contraction. As soon as that one was over they scramble to break down the bed. 2 contractions and 8 minutes later Madelinn Grace makes her appearance and 8lb and 11oz and 21” long with apgars of 5 and 8.

She ended up having shoulder dystocia so I am glad that they induced because I would have guaranteed a c-section had I let her grow any more. As it was I had a nurse putting all her weight on me to help push her shoulders out. They thought they may have broken her collar bone but thankfully the xrays the next day showed that was not the case. She also had a bowel movement right before I started pushing so Jeremy didn’t get to cut the cord which was kind of sad. They hurried up and took her to the warmer to suction her out. All I remember asking is why she wasn’t crying and then remembered that they needed her to not cry and inhale anything.

Sorry this got so long! I don’t know how my professors can stand to read my papers because I think I am TOO thorough sometimes. So if you made it this far thanks for reading!

One Month Old

2009-08-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

My little girl is one month old today! It is going by so quickly. She is melding so well into our new family of four so well it seems like she has always been here. As I write she is sleeping in her swing beside the bed.

She is right now in 0-3 month clothes (nb only lasted 2.5 weeks), size 1 diapers, and is a pretty good sleeper. She has surprised me with a couple of nights of sleeping all night as I mentioned in some posts before now. She is starting to smile but I have yet to be able to catch it on camera. She has also been tracking me with her eyes as I move around when she is in her bouncy seat or swing in the last few days. I am not sure what her weight and length are just now but her one month appointment is on September 3 so I will update then. I will also add pictures hopefully tomorrow because my camera is dead today.

I am getting ready to post my birth story for her. I need to find Wyatt's and post it as well so I have it on record just in case something were to happen to the computer but I am on a different laptop at the moment.

Post of Randomness

2009-08-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a bullet post because there is so much going on and none of it links together!

I am a little depressed right now over some news my hubby told me last night. The Emmitt House, the restaraunt we have gone to for every Valentine's Day and Anniversary since we have been together has closed! I am so sad to hear this! Our wedding and dating anniversary are both coming up and I figured we would go there for at least one. It is almost a tradition for us at this point. Apparently, they had been trying to sell it for awhile but were asking too much because of the location (teeny tiny town). I guess it is for sure now though because The Moose club went over and bought all of their food, wine, and liquor for a very small amount. The ending of an era, I suppose, we have to make a new tradition.

I am pretty sure that I have been getting some "actual" smiles from Maddi in the last couple of days. I was unsure at first but as of today I think I am getting responses to my smiles! Too cute!

Speaking of Maddi, she is still doing pretty well at night. I got one other night of sleeping all night and the past two nights she has woken for a feeding at 4:30 and then she is good until around 8:30-9:00. I can't complain. If I get to sleep most of the night with a one month old I can't complain!
She is also one month old today! It isn't technically one month until the 24th but this is the fourth friday since she was born. That is a whole post in itself though.
Also, my birthday is coming up as well. September 4th. I can't believe I am about to be 24. I actually had to add it up the other day because I couldn't remember how old I was going to be this year. How crazy is that? I guess it tells you how busy I am right now.

Life with 2 kids under 1.5

2009-08-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

I am starting to realize that having two kids of this age isn't as difficult (at least at the moment) as I thought it would be. There are the occasional times when both are crying for one thing or another and I have to assess the needs and decide who to take care of first but I am not as angsty as I thought I was going to be. I HATE to hear my kids cry but I have two children now and sometimes one just needs you more.

Wyatt is doing great as a big brother. Lately he has taken to wanting to read Polar Bear, Polar Bear and Brown Bear, Brown bear over and over, and OVER. He cries when I don't want to read it and has actually tossed it at Maddi and I as she is eating but when I do go start reading it he gets the BIGGEST smile and runs in place and squeals. I am not really sure why all of a sudden these books are his favorite but I am just glad he loves to read. I need to get a few more of those books so that I can get some variety. I already have these two memorized!

Madelinn slept all night last night! I couldn't believe it. I put her in her swing, which is her preferred place to sleep for the first 4 hour stretch of night, right after her bath around 10:30pm and didn't get a peep from her until a few minutes before 6am. Hopefully it isn't a one time occurance. I will worry about breaking the swing habit sometime soon but as for now we all need our sleep!

17 Months

2009-08-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

I CAN NOT believe that my little boy is 17 months old. I am sure that I say that every month but it is so hard to believe that he is growing up so fast. It seems like just yesterday that I had them and here we are just 7 months away from his second birthday. It is absoulte craziness.

He is such a joy but is starting to hit the toddler issues that every toddler has. He is getting to be a finicky eater when he would eat anything I put in front of him before. He sometimes will turn his head away from something that I KNOW that he likes and I have to pop the fork into his mouth when he is going for a drink to trick him to taste it. After that he will usually eat away. About the only thing that he NEVER turns his head away from is fruit in any form, the kid still loves it.

He is still such a sweet little boy who is almost always happy and has a smile for anyone and everyone. He LOVES riding on the 4 wheeler or tractor as he calls it with daddy and will cry when we take him off of it. He also cries when we bring him in from outside as he also LOVES being outside. He is an absolute daddy's boy right now and loves to rough house and do everything that daddy does. He loves anything associated with tractors (or anything with wheels for that matter) and animals. I can't wait to take him back to the zoo and aquarium now that he knows the names of so many animals and the sounds they make.

He picks up on so much and is saying SO many words right now. All of the words may not be completely understood by everyone but Jeremy and I usually know what it means. I am going to work on a post with all of the words he knows. I would like to have it written down for future reference. I am thinking of having all of this made into a book and I also pull information from here to the baby book so it will be nice to have it.

Recently he has become very interested in letters and can point out all of the letters in his first name as well as "O" any place that he comes across them. I am so proud of my little boy!

He just moved up to size 5 diapers, wears size 7-8 shoes and is pretty much completely in 24 month clothing. We have done some rough measuring lately and he is right around 33 inches and 30 or 31 pounds. He is such a big boy and has been mistaken for both a 2 and a 3 year old recently.

Worst Blogger EVER!

2009-08-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

Yea, that's me! I am the worst blogger ever! Granted I had a TON going on since my last post with starting a super packed summer quarter (and making all A's, yay, me!) and having a baby and all! LOL..

So that is the big news, Baby Girl was born. Madelinn Grace came into the world on July 24, 2009 at 6:54 pm. She topped the scales and 8 pounds and 11 ounces and 21 inches long. So far she is proving to be a "good" baby in the terms of everyone who asks. She is just over 3 weeks old but only really wakes up one time in the middle of the night. She cries more than Wyatt ever did but he was odd and I don't think I REALLY heard him cry until he was a few months old. She certainly makes herself heard but she pretty much has to because with a 17 month old brother to take up much of Mommy and Daddy's energy she would probably get lost in the shuffle if not. (Not that we would REALLY forget about her, but you know what I mean!)

Wyatt is adjusting quite well and pretty much ignores her most of the time. He is actually much better than I expected it to be. I had kind of assumed that I was going to spend a lot of time protecting her from his curiosity but it actually amounts to a very small portion of time spent. He likes to point out her ears, eyes, mouth, and toes and we have to remind him to be gentle then but he is pretty good reminding himself most of the time. He also likes to kiss her and rub her while saying "Awww, baby" so that is very cute. Whenever he encounters someone he likes to show them where she is and calls her "baaaaaBy" or "baby sister" which comes out more like "baby didtr" which is also incredibly cute.

I am also coping very well. I will post her birth story soon but, as I am sure you know, I am staying quite busy. I was worried about adjusting to having 2 children under 1.5 and also attending school but it is actually working out quite well. Since Maddi sleeps quite often still and Wyatt naps very well we are all settling into a routine. That is until Maddi actually settles and throws it all out of wack!

Wyatt also turned 17 months a few days ago on the 12th but that deserves an entire "milestone" post on its own so I will start working on that as well. I also want to do a post on everything that he says and how he says it for future reference but I think that will require a lot of time to compile and remember them all because he says SO much. He is quite the little sponge.

Last but not least, school. I finished the first session of summer and am still working on an online class that will end in a couple of weeks. I actually finished classes 2 days before I had Maddi and was VERY uncomfortable at the end but it was worth it to get done. As I said above I finished with a 4.0 first session and so far have an A in my summer class as well. I am now down to 5 classes and student teaching. Whoo Hoo! Almost done!

2009-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

So, I have definitely been slacking lately in the post department. There has been a TON going on with things being due for school and the like so I haven't been able to find time to write much. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though. I have a final on Tuesday and then I have a short break before summer classes begin, so that should be nice. I am in need of a vacation! It doesn't really look like we are going to get to take one this year with Maddi making her appearance halfway through the summer so we are going to take one of our "mini-vacations." Looks like this year is going to be a stay in a cabin on a ginormous lake and a trip to the aquarium. It may only be 3 nights but I can tell you that we will all feel refreshed when it is over with!

We have also been working on Maddi's room like crazy. I am happy to say that it is done to the point that we are ready to set up furniture. It will be the end of the month before I can finish buying all of the decorative touches but I know what I want so that I can pick it up when the money comes in. That is exciting for me! That is about all on the me front.

Update on Wyatt: I can't believe he is almost 15 months old. It is INSANE how much he learns every day. Last time I counted we were up to around 35 words and maybe 15-20 other things that he can point to if you ask him where it is but he doesn't say the word. Though some of those, like "elephant" and "lion," he has begun to say since then. He amazes me. Usually we tell him a word maybe 2 times and he will start saying it himself. He picks up on things so quickly. He still loves books more than anything. He has also recently gotten a bubble mower that became a quick favorite in the toy department. He loves to ride the "tractor," read 4 wheeler, and if you put him on it you had better be prepared to take him for a ride. He will cry afterward so hard because he wants to get back on that you have to find something else (usually a trip to see the "horsie") to keep him from having a breakdown.

Jeremy has recently finished his second year as an apprentice for the IBEW! YAY, Hubby! He is currently in a very close running with another classmate for top student in the class but we won't find out if he got it until later this month. I am so proud of him! These classes are mainly math and he hadn't taken a math class since HS and since he had put in 12 years in the military so it is incredible how well he is doing. He is now officially a 3rd year (of 5) but that has kind of been shifted around a bit since they have went to year round schooling. He will actually graduate in a little under 5 years now that they go one full day, every other week instead of 2 evenings a week from September to June. This schedule will be really nice for my schooling so that we don't have to worry about evening sitters since Daddy will be home.

And me: I am starting to feel huge! I was 8 months (32 weeks) this past thursday. It is going by so quickly but I know it is bound to slow down now! She is moving like crazy and I have gained around 14 pounds, which isn't great but I suppose not awful either. I can tell you anything I gain this time HAS to be better than the around 60 I gained with W!

I am finally getting closer to graduating! WHOO HOO! I am taking summer classes the first half of summer which ends 5 days before M's due date. After these are finished I will have 5 classes left (2 in Fall, and 3 in winter) and then student teaching. I will be OU Alumni at this time next year! FINALLY!

14 months old!

2009-05-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

My baby boy turned 14 months old yesterday! I just can't believe how quickly he is getting older! He is still my happy go lucky little boy and his personality is growing each day.

He is still in size 4 diapers, 18-24 month clothing, size 6-7 shoes, and seems to be growing like a weed but we (hopefully) won't have to see the doctor again until he is 18 months old. He still takes 2-2hour naps a day and sometimes another short one in the evening. He really likes his beauty sleep.

He is learning so many new things every day that it is incredibly hard to keep up. He can now tell us where his ear, nose, and toes are and in a book he has that has 100 pictures and the words that correspond with them; he can name around 20-25 of them. I am also amazed because he can see a cartoon image of something, say a cow, or a picture of a cow, or an actual cow and he can tell us what it is. Even though they usually can be very different looking. He can do that with various things such as dogs, cats, cows, horses. He is such a smarty pants. He still loves to read and brings us books probably 10-15 times a day to read to him.

He is even more independent than ever and will play on his own most of the time and will just come and "check" on us throughout the day.

One of his new favorite activities is to ride the 4 wheeler, or Tractor as Wyatt likes to call it. He will stare out the window saying "tractor" over and over and making engine noises. Also, we brought my horse, Check, home so now he spends a lot of time at the back window saying "Horsie" over and over as well. He loves to go to the barn with us to see the horsie up close.

I am sure there is much more, but that is all for now because I can hear him waking up from his nap. We have to make a trip to town for some diapers..

May 9th, 2004.. The Story of Us

2009-05-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this yesterday and got so busy with Brandi visiting and spending the evening with my boys that it slipped my mind. This is probably incredibly boring to the rest of you but I really wanted to get it down on "paper" for me to remember.

Yesterday marked the 5 year anniversary of the day I met my hubby. Last week sometime I was just sitting there and it hit me, I have actually known this man for almost 5 years. It seems kind of insane because it still seems like just yesterday that we started dating.

I met Jeremy when I moved back into my ex-step father's house after he and my mom divorced. Tom had practically raised me so it seemed like a perfect solution to my problem of where I would live while waiting on a move that was supposed to be happening after the first of the year in 2005. I was dating someone else at the time and had been for a few months but it turned out that he wasn't as great of a person as I thought him to be and I was going to spend almost the next year miserable while this great guy was there for me the whole time and I wasn't giving him the time of day.

It turned out that Jeremy was the step brother of someone that I had graduated with and the step son of someone my stepfather had known for years. Though, since he is 8.5 years older than I am we never crossed paths until I made this move back into Tom's house. One night, I was sitting there miserable because of not-so-nice boyfriend and Tom and I hear a big vehicle pull into the drive. Turns out it was Jeremy with a Suburban load of people. They all pile into the house and it gets really loud really quick. I noticed Jeremy right away and was kind of sneaking glances at him through the madness that had taken over the house. He was one of the few people in the group that I hadn't seen before. At the time, however, I was so upset and overwhelmed that when a friend called at around 10:30pm and asked me to meet her at the store to keep her company while she shopped I took the opportunity to get out of the house. When I got back, everyone was gone.

After that, I began to see Jeremy a lot around Tom's house. He would come over for horse-shoe tournaments and cookouts and all the while I was caught up in the web that this not-so-nice boyfriend was spinning. Jeremy tried to convince me multiple times that he wasn't that nice but since I had multiple people telling me that Jeremy liked me I didn't listen because it would make since that he would want me to split from NSNBF.

Fast forward to November 2004 when I find out NSNBF has another girl on the side. Who is it I go looking for a couple of days later to talk to? You guessed it; Jeremy. I found him at the itty bitty Coalton Bar and he bought me a Mountain Dew and we sat and talked for a couple hours. I find out that he is dating someone at the time and was kind of disappointed about the whole thing. 5 days later I return to NSNBF and in December get engaged then in February get single. February finds another opportunity to go looking for Jeremy again. He is still with his Not-so-nice girlfriend and is nowhere to be found so I have to move on.

A month later I move an hour south for school, go on a couple of dates, but nothing that looks serious. 4 Months later Imove an hour north of where I met Jeremy to switch back to OU and sign a lease to live there with a roommate I met in Portsmouth. That was in July and in the beginning of October my Sister-in-law calls me and is telling me about a new horse she got and wants me to come down and ride so I make plans to come down in a week to ride.

A week passes and I make the trip "home" and Sister-in-law is telling me about how Jeremy told her to tell me Hi if she talked to me. I tried to innocently ask if he was still with his NSNGF and she tells me that he is single and now living in his house he had been working on way back when I first met him. Trails connect to this house so this is where we plan to ride. We get there with no answer to the door so we ride around the house and Jeremy peeks his head out the back door to jokingly tell us that we are trespassing. I find out later that my brother gave him the heads-up that we were coming and he was showering when we got there because he knew I was on the way.

We sit down and talk for about an hour and he mentions a Halloween party he is having the next weekend. My roommate and I were planning on going to the block party but I end up talking her into cutting that short and going to Jeremy's with me.

We make the trip down and I get to spend some time with him. The following friday November 4th, 2005 we went to the OU vs Toledo game and dinner as our official first date. And the rest, as they say, is history. We have been together ever since and got married exactly one month before our 2 year dating anniversary on October 4, 2007.

Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Today is my second Mother's day and I couldn't feel more blessed. Last year Wyatt was such a little guy, not quite 2 months old, and I couldn't believe that he was finally here. He was, and still is, the sweetest little baby and he just makes me light up and be thankful for being his mommy every single day.
This is Wyatt and I on our very first Mother's Day:

And Wyatt at bedtime on our first Mother's Day. I can't believe he was once this small!
And this year I am not only blessed with such a good little boy but with a little girl on the way.

I couldn't be happier.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you Moms out there!!

Only one night?

2009-05-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

Really? I was expecting at least a week. Apparently, that is how long it took him to get over his binkie. I am so proud! At around 6 months we decided the binkie was only for naps and bedtimes. Then around a week or so later we decided that it was only going to be for bedtime. It has been at that since then and it has worked for us but I then decided that it was time to get rid of it for good. With baby Maddi Grace coming in July I wanted to make sure that he wasn't trying to take her's during the day when he hasn't had one during the day in a very long time. Also, I didn't want him to have another huge change at the same time, or shortly after, she comes home.

We put him down Sunday night with no binkie with lots of tears and whining so we tried the "cutting" technique, where we cut the tip off the binkie so it doesn't feel the same in his mouth. He was pretty upset about it and kept taking it in and out of his mouth, again, with more tears. After about 20 minutes of attempting to rub his back so he would sleep that was unsuccessful because he isn't used to being bothered once he is put into bed, I just shut the door and left. Around 5 minutes later we didn't hear another peep out of him until the next morning.

Monday night we took him into his room, put the cut binkie into his hand, he tried to put it into his mouth and realized it was the "broken" one and took it out again, not another peep until morning. The success of that night made me wonder if maybe he had just adapted to sucking on the binkie with the tip cut off so we made another change for Tuesday night. We cut more off.

Tuesday night he went to bed and after trying it one time went to sleep with not one peep.

I am so proud of my little boy! He is such a good little guy! I knew he could do it because he goes down fine for naps without it but I didn't know if HE knew he could do it. Apparently he did. I can't believe how amazingily lucky we are.

Mom, I want OUT of this crib!!

2009-04-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, 2nd post today =)... W got up from his nap today at around 10am. Well Maddi decided that exact moment to jump on my bladder so I hurried to the bathroom before I went to get him out of his crib. As I walk out of the bathroom I hear a huge thump and him start screaming bloody murder through the monitor. This happened a week or so ago and I went in and he had bumped his head pretty badly on the crib.

I go running to the other end of the house and look in his crib. He wasn't there! He was on his knees on the floor beside the crib with tears rolling down his face. It made me sad to see the little guy like that. I scooped him up and sat down and began to take inventory to make sure he wasn't hurt. I think he mainly just scared himself as nothing seemed to be hurt. We were on the next to the last setting on the crib mattress so Daddy decided to lower it down the rest of the way before the next nap.

If it comes down to being a problem we are going to turn his crib around. His crib has a non drop side and a higher rail in the back. I am not ready for him to be in a toddler bed yet and I don't really think that he is either.

Doctor Appointment for Maddi

2009-04-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

We had a doctor appointment for baby Maddi Friday the 24th. It was a combined appointment for my glucose test and a prenatal checkup. Jeremy got off work early that day and decided to meet me at the doctor's office. He has been to the ultrasounds with me but hadn't been able to make it to an appointment yet so this was his first time meeting my new doctor. Since he was going to meet me, I decided that I was not going to get a babysitter for W. I don't know what I was thinking! I completely forgot that the glucose was a 1 hour wait and that his lunch and a couple of books probably wouldn't keep him entertained for that long. Oh well, it's over with now.

I made a stop at Kohl's on the way to the doctor and got W some really cute little black Nike sandals. They were on sale so I really wanted to get them for him. I ended up having to get the little booger an 8!! The 6 wouldn't fit and they didn't have a 7 and he was walking around well in an 8 so at least I know that he will have some time in them. The kid's foot grows SO fast! By the time we got out to the car I realized that I only had 10 minutes to get across town in traffic to my appointment. Apparently I did not time this trip well. I rushed across town and while J was getting W out of the car I rushed into the hospital, up the stairs, and made it to the office right on time somehow.

They had me leave my urine sample (man, does that get old) and then gave me my choice of drink. I HATE orange pop and that is what the orange glucola tastes like. When I had to do 2 of these with W that was all my old office offered so I decided to mix it up and get the lemon-lime. I am so glad I did. It basically tasted like water with lemon and seeing as it was 1:20pm and I hadn't eaten yet, it was much easier on my stomach than orange would have been.

They then weighed me (only up 6.5 lbs) and took me back to the room. They did my blood pressure and if I remember correctly it was 117/80 which is a bit high for me but I am sure it had something to do with the rush across town and the run up the stairs. Dr.B was really quick to come in and do my check. Forgot to ask her the heart rate. I really, really like her as my doctor but sometimes I hate that I have to pull information out of her. She then measured my uterus and I asked her if I was measuring all right. This is the first time that I have remembered to ask and she tells me that I am still measuring big. Well, that's the first I have heard that. I asked her how big and she said about 4 above... Is that cm I wonder? Anyways, she says that if I continue to measure big they may do another ultrasound to determine size and possibly a new due date? She asked me how big W was. I told her and didn't think much of it until she was gone but even though he was big, my uterus never measured larger than it was supposed to with him. I am just crossing my fingers that I even out. I was so hopeful that she was going to be smaller than him by quite a bit. I thought the small weight gain and such would indicate that. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

After all of this we were starving so we headed over to lunch and then came home and relaxed for a bit. I love days that I get to spend with my boys. It is going to be so odd that I won't be able to say that anymore before too long.

13 months and Easter

2009-04-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Wyatt turned 13 months and it was his second Easter. It is so odd to think we are beginning the "seconds" when it comes to celebrations.

He had a good Easter weekend though it was a bit uneventful. Saturday afternoon my mom (Nana) came up to pick him up for an overnight visit. I had some major cleaning to get done and it is much easier for me to bleach floors and deep clean when I am not trying to time it around naps! We met at Bob Evans and had lunch and they went on their way while I went to the store for some needed cleaning supplies. Then, on home in order to get started before hubby got home from work. He worked a long day but decided that it would be a nice night for a date night. Dinner and a movie (Haunting in Connecticut) was great and I am so glad that we went. The next morning, even though baby boy wasn't here, I still woke up at the same time and got started on the house.

I had some over expectations on what I was going to be able to get done but, happily, I got almost everything done that I had planned. I left around 2:30 to head down to get Wyatt from my mom's and then spent about an hour and a half there visiting. She had gotten him a Wagon with some Easter goodies in it and he absolutely LOVES riding around in his wagon. On the way home we stopped and Jeremy's parents to get some Easter dinner to-go and get his Easter basket from them. They got him a couple of cute outfits as well as a sand bucket and shovel which he loved filled with goodies (with some extra bagged up for mommy and daddy).

We came home just in time to get his basket here which was a cute little basket with a camo bucket hat over it. Again, more goodies, and then to top it all off Daddy got home from work for some great rough housing and playtime before bed. All-in-all it was a great weekend for us all.

I had better finish this up as I hear him over the monitor with the hiccups that are keeping him from taking his nap. I feel bad that there isn't anything that I can do to fix them for him....

Trip to the zoo and an ultrasound, too!

2009-04-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday Morning (April 4), Jeremy, Wyatt, my grandma, and I took off to Columbus for a zoo visit. I had also scheduled a 4d ultrasound that morning to make sure that Maddi was indeed a girl!

Our day started really early with Jeremy and I getting up between 6 and 6:30 am and then waking Wyatt up an hour early at 6:50 am so he could have breakfast so that we could get ready to pick my grandma up. He refused to go back to sleep on the 2 hour drive so we knew the lack of sleep would catch up to us later.

We picked up my grandma and made our way to First Expressions for my 3d/4d ultrasound. I was very impressed with the office and was incredibly happy with the ultrasound tech and my experience. I told her that my main purpose for being there was to verify gender before I started shopping. I didn't tell her what the hospital had told me that she was and was hoping to get the same answer from this tech. Maddi was very active yet again and I was afraid it was going to be a repeat of the hospital ultrasound but all of a sudden she started giving great "girl" shots. The tech kept talking about how active she was and I said that yes, she is way more active than Wyatt ever was. She says that it is odd because girls are generally less active than boys. I asked her if that meant she was a girl and she starts showing me some good shots she got between the legs. So we are for sure having a baby girl. Here are some of the pictures from the ultrasound.

Face

Good shot that she is a girl...

Doing her "Woe is me" pose...

Arm up over her little head
After the ultrasound we headed over to the zoo. I have to say, I LOVE the zoo. One of my first dates with Jeremy was to the zoo during their Christmas light extravaganza. That was back in 05 and the last time we had been to this zoo. We had made a trip to the Cincinnati zoo about 2 years ago but it just isn't as nice as the Columbus in our opinion.

A week before our trip a new baby elephant, yet to be named, was born (march 27). They had started showing him the day before our visit for 2 hours a day. When we got there we got straight in line since it was already a little past 11 which is when they brought him out. The elephants have to be one of my favorites at the zoo.

My poor, tired baby waiting to see the elephants

Checking out the goose. These geese were everywhere...

My boys.. It was a bit chilly in the morning so they were all bundled up!

Baby Elephant. So cute!

After waiting around an hour and a half to see the baby elephant we made our way across the zoo to the Africa section to a food court. We ate a good lunch and then made our way around the various "countries" of the zoo.

Checking out the Gorillas

Checking out the goats at the petting zoo...
After the zoo we went to Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. It was around 6 when we got there and there was a huge wait. Wyatt was sooooo exhausted by this point and so was mommy! He was not the most pleasant baby at dinner, very cranky and grabbing at everything he shouldn't be. But, eh, you win some, you lose some. It could have been much, much worse.

All in all we had a great day. Considering that Jeremy may be beginning to work 7 days a week here really soon I was glad we were able to get out with the family.

Birthday Party

2009-03-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

I know I am over a week late posting on this but I wanted to go ahead and post. Wyatt celebrated his first birthday on Saturday March 14th surrounded by friends and family at the VFW 9092 bingo hall. He had a fairly large gathering of people, which I should really document so that we know for later. His party theme was Sesame Street, which he loves. It is pretty one of the only shows he will sit down and pay attention to. He also made out like a little bandit in terms of presents; toys and clothes galore!

Decorations

Cakes (1st was party cake, second was smash cake)

Opening Presents (He abandoned me after awhile)
What he abandoned me for =)MMMMmmmm Cake

Wyatt: A Year in Review

2009-03-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to do this but haven't had a chance until now. These are pictures from each month since my baby was born....

Wyatt at a little under a day old

Wyatt at one month old. Mommy was trying to get him to smile for the camera

My Cool Dude at 2 Months old
Wyatt at 3 Months Old

My little one at 4 Months in his crib

The day he turned 5 months old. At the park for the first time!

My big boy at 6 months old. He couldn't pull up yet but if you put him somewhere he would stand forever!

7 Months old. Trick-or-Treating
8 months. One of his favorite books
He has discovered his love of sports. 9 Months
My beautiful Blue eyed boy... 10 months
11 Months old.. Valentines day

Birthday Celebration on his 1st. Party wasn't until 2 days later so he HAD to have cake! ;)

Baby Maddi Check up

2009-03-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

I went to the doctor today to check in on baby Maddi. The doctor said everything looks great and I am progressing just how I should be. Her heartrate was 150 which is about what it has been staying the whole time and she is moving around like crazy. I am 2o weeks 6 days today! Whoo hoo. Next appointment is April 29th, which is the day that Maddi's boyfriend, Brayson, is scheduled to arrive by c-section. I will be going for a glucose test and a normal prenatal checkup.

On a side note, Jeremy and I have decided to go on April 4th and have a 4d ultrasound done so that we can make sure that Baby Maddi really is a baby Maddi! LOL.. Since she was so active and wouldn't sit still we want to be sure since that is the day that we are planning on doing the majority of our shopping.

Also, we had Wyatt's birthday party this past saturday! Hopefully I can post about it tomorrow as well as put some pics up!

1 Year Well Child Check

2009-03-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

I took Wyatt yesterday for his WCC and everything went great. He was 31.5" long and 26 pounds and 8 ounces. He weighs a bit less than at his 9 month appointment but is still in the 90th percentile for both. The pediatrician wasn't worried since he started walking soon and has been walking/running his weight off as well as that he is dropping back down into range. He had 4 shots as well as a hemoglobin (13.9) and lead test done. She said that the hemoglobin was perfect. Poor guy had to sit there while they squeezed blood out of his finger for I think the lead test. He was squirmy and upset about it at first but I pulled out the goldfish crackers and he sat still, happily munching away, after that.

It's a girl!

2009-03-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

I find it SO hard to believe but we are having a girl! I was so surprised because during the ultrasound I kept saying boy, boy, boy and the ultrasound tech said "No, I am pretty sure this one is a girl!" I was not expecting that since this pregnancy was so similar to Wyatt's except that I haven't gained weight like I had with Wyatt. I will be 20 weeks on Thursday and have just now gained 3 pounds when I had already gained 14 pounds with Wyatt by this point. Her heart rate was 149 (again, right around what Wyatt's stayed) and she was 13 ounces (smaller than Wyatt was). She was rolling around like crazy and didn't want to hold still for the measurements. They tried for one of the heart measurements probably 10 times. So Madelinn Grace Channell should be making her appearance around the end of July! I am starting to get more excited and can't wait to do some baby girl shopping!

My baby is One

2009-03-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Starting the tradition of Birthday Pancakes. I promised him they will get much more fun!

I can't believe that my little man is turning one year old! It is so insane to think that at this time last year I had finally met my baby and was getting to eat for the first time in over 24 hours! Anything for my baby boy, though! He is growing so much.

He is still in a size 4 diaper, mostly 18 month clothing, and 5.5 shoes.

He still takes anywhere between 2-3 naps a day at around 1-2 hours each.

Milestones for month 11:

Says multiple words including: Juice, Tractor, baby, bubble, and chicken.

He actually knows what these are.

If I say get me the baby book, or the tractor book, or the snake book, or the bubble book he can bring me the correct one.

When you ask what the snake says or what the pig says he makes the corresponding sound

He is finally coordinated enough to squat and play with toys without falling over.

He is incredibly proficient at walking now and is trying his hand at running! Oh my!

He loves to blow kisses

His favorite things are:

To follow me around the house while I clean

To walk around the house carrying a wrapping paper roll left over from Christmas

To chase the dogs around the house and let them lick his face, much to mommy's horror!

To talk up a storm

To eat at the table with Mommy and Daddy

One week and counting!

2009-03-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

I am getting SO anxious! It is one week from today that we have our ultrasound to find out what the baby is! It is insane to think that I am almost 20 weeks and that in turn Wyatt is almost 1 (those two events fall the same day!). I can't wait until my appointment so we can see the little one and make sure everything looks good. Hopefully, it cooperates and opens up the legs so we can see what it is! I don't want to call it baby #2 or "it" anymore! I am a bit nervous, for basically no reason, because I have only gained around 1-2 pounds this time around and with Wyatt I had already gained around 12 pounds! I think I just went overboard with him!

Speaking of Wyatt, he is still on the move as ever! He is saying tractor and baby to the point that if he says them strangers look at me and say "did he just say tractor?" and "how old is he?" He is getting to be such a big boy! He had his first haircut saturday afternoon (Thanks, Tommie!) and had his first birthday pics taken that evening. I am going to upload them soon but my wireless on this pc is acting wacky so I have to try to do it here on dial up! Yuck! His one year appointment is a week from tomorrrow so we will have some news about how big he actually is now!

Last Monday

2009-03-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

So I feel like every post begins will about a week ago... We are so busy around here so it is really hard to keep up. But this past monday I started feeling baby number 2 moving for sure. I would have been a few days short of 18 weeks. I think I may have started feeling it sooner but I kept talking myself out of it being the baby! LOL... But here in a little over a week (march 10th) We get to find out what this baby is! That way I can stop calling it baby #2!!!!

it's the little things...

2009-02-15T17:22:00.001-08:00

I have realized that it is the little things in life that make it great. I realize that my family and friends are what make life worth living and I am so blessed to have them around me.
Things that I love that make my life better:

Sitting around with Jeremy making fun of the cheesy grade B horror movies on SciFi.
Cuddling with Wyatt right after he has gotten up from a nap and still has sleepy eyes.
Spending a couple of hours after everyone has gone to sleep reading until I pass out.
Taking a day with my boys and just enjoying the little things that bring a smile to their faces.
Just taking a moment to enjoy the little things....

Baby #2 Update

2009-02-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

So this past thursday marked the 3rd appointment for baby number two along with being Wyatt's 11 month birthday. Everything looked great so far. I have been feeling great which is a good thing since I still have Wyatt to look after as well. The baby's heart rate was 144. I am still thinking boy! Though with all the testosterone in the house, I kinda hope it isa girl! LOL... They made my appointment for the "Big" ultrasound to find out what this one is. It is March 10th at 3:00 pm. It seems so far away but I have a feeling the time is going to fly since it is so close to Wyatt's first birthday. We have a lot to do to prepare for that as well as school and things so it will come much sooner that expected (hopefully!).

My baby is 11 months old...

2009-02-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

Our little boy is turned 11 months old this past Thursday! I can’t believe it. I can’t believe there are only a few weeks before the day he turns a year old. It is just insane that time passes so quickly and I am so glad that I have been able to mainly stay home with him this entire time, besides school, because it just has gone so fast.

He is changing so quickly and I see a little person with his own personality and way of expressing feelings. I keep thinking about how incredible the advances that these tiny human beings make during their first year. Just mere months ago this little guy was dependent upon me for everything he needed and now he is becoming such an independent little fart, but it brightens my day to see him discover the new things he can do and to watch his little face light up with his accomplishments.

Now, moving on, I am unsure exactly what his size is as he has not been measured lately but I would say that he is around 26 pounds or a little over, and around 31 inches. He is still in size 4 diapers and is mainly in 18 month clothing. He still takes around 3 naps a day; 2-2 hour and 1-1 hour and sleeps from around 7:30 to 8:00pm to 7:30 to 8:00am.

Milestones for month 10:
He is walking much better and is loving his little white leather walking shoes

He understands many words and learned many more this month including “Jace,” (our lab), “book,” “truck,” “Nana,” “Thank you aka dee doo,” and “dog”

He tries to mimic everything we say in his own way

He will clap his hands when we say “yay” or start the song “If you’re happy and you know it…”

Learned to drink from a straw

He can stand up from the floor

I am sure that I am forgetting some things!!

There are so many things that I love about this stage including his independence, the showing of his personality, and that he loves books! He will bring be books probably 5 or 6 times a day for me to read to him and if I am doing something else he will sit down and flip through the pages himself and sometimes will mumble like he is reading as he does it.

Happy 32nd Jeremy!!

2009-02-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

Today is my amazing husband's 32nd birthday! He is my best friend in the entire world and I don't know what I would do without him. He is an absolutely amazing husband as well as a wonderful father. I am always in awe at how he is at Wyatt and how Wyatt's little face lights up when he comes home from work. I am so blessed to have him in my life and that I was lucky enough to become his wife. He works incredibly hard to make sure we have everything that we need. Now having my own son, I hope with all my heart that he grows up to be just like his Daddy!

I HATE winter!!!!

2009-01-28T17:08:00.000-08:00

I am incredibly anxious for Jeremy and I to move our family someplace warm! This winter weather is really getting to me and this past week was incredibly crazy for us.

It all started at around 2 am this morning when Jeremy woke me up and told me that I had to look outside. I knew that we had some bad weather coming and figured that there was an outrageous amount of snow outside. We had already been hit pretty hard by about 4" of snow and we had some rain falling that was instantly turning to ice when I had went to bed around 12:30. I crawled across the bed to look outside and the entire sky was lit up bright orange and blue so I knew their had to be a fire somewhere. We started trying to look around and finally through some trees saw a fire near the 2 lane highway that is relatively close to our house. About this time we decided it had to be a power line down because of all the ice or a transformer that had blown. At that exact moment the electric went out!

Now, if it were just Jeremy and I it wouldn't have been such an issue. We would have made a bed in front of the fireplace and had take out for a day or two. But it isn't just us anymore. We have baby Wyatt and we were worried about him getting cold. I called my aunt and talked to her to make sure that the electric was still on in town and then began gathering everything we needed in order to last a day or two away from home. Into my grandma's we trekked at 4am and finally got down to sleep only to be awoken by wyatt wanting his breakfast at 7:30. Food does not wait for power outages!

We were doing pretty well at Grandma's until around 10 am when the electric there went off. Luckily it is within city limits so they had it back on within around a half hour. Power has been down all over the county as well as the surrounding counties. Also, when Jeremy went to check on the house Wednesday there were multiple trees down around our property as well!

Thursday proved to be just as trying since the electric decided to tease us by going on and off several times. That night, Grandma's house began to get awfully crowded so around 10pm we packed up and went home since we had heard the electric was back. It was on all night until about 9am on Friday morning. Since my car was parked half way up the drive due to ice, I didn't want to walk down with Wyatt so I lit a fire in the fireplace and kept us in that living room as much as possible. Jeremy was able to get a generator and we decided to go to a friends house to combine that with their generator so that we would have a house with full electric and heat. In the middle of packing up, our electric came back on and luckily has stayed that way.

This all still sums up to the fact that I am READY TO MOVE!!

Last one today! New look!

2009-01-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

I decided that I am in this blogging thing for the long haul so I finally changed the look of my page from the prefabricated looks. I thought this one was SO cute! The pictures on the top are some of my favorites.

1) The picture to the right of Jeremy and I in our Halloween duds is a special one. This was basically our first date. I say basically because we had known each other for over a year and a half at that point but never caught each other at the right time to date. I happened to have rode my horse to his house shortly before he had this party and he mentioned he was having it. Later, he and I were on the phone and I asked him if it was ok if my roommate and I came down after we had been at the block party in Athens. He agreed and so there we were! Thanks, Meghan, for taking this picture!

2) The picture of the family to the left was taken at the beginning of November. Wyatt is around 7.5 months old. Little did we know, but baby #2 is also in this picture as well!

3) Wyatt and Elmo was taken around a week before Christmas when we discovered he loved Elmo. Nana and Pappy Gladman bought him this Tickle me Elmo and it made him an incredibly happy little baby!

4) The picture in the middle of Jeremy and I was taken just a few nights ago. The reason it made the cut was because it is the most recent picture of the two of us. I took it while we were getting ready for date night!

5) And finally, my little rotten baby while he was getting into stuff he wasn't supposed to be at GG's house. This picture will probably be replaced soon with a picture (ultrasound) of baby #2.

Wyatt, my little class clown!

2009-01-26T07:12:00.000-08:00

This past friday I was not feeling well so I was laying on the couch a lot and if I wasn't on the couch I was laying on the floor letting Wyatt crawl all over me. Well, at one point while he was off playing by himself and I kept hearing him say "Ma...Ma...Ma...Ma..." over and over. I knew he wasn't talking about/to me because when he does that he says "mom mom mom mom mom" so I snuck over closer so I could see what he was doing. I couldn't believe what I saw! Each time he said "Ma" he would get a huge spit bubble that came up between his lips. So he kept doing it. If for some reason one didn't form he would get mad a grunt around then start all over to make them again! It was hilarious! I kick myself now for not getting the camera or video cameral out but since he has learned this new trick we have been seeing it pretty often, so hopefully I can get it on film soon!!!

Belated Baby #2 Update

2009-01-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I didn't remember to post this the day of the appointment. I had my second dr. appt on January 16th for Wyatt's little brother or sister. I ended up having to take Wyatt with me to the doctor, which was interesting because he was angry that he couldn't get into things and the office was so small to fit his stroller into. Note to mommy: make sure you get an umbrella stroller ASAP!

Anyway, this was my first appointment with my new doctor in the new office since all of the hooplah that caused me to change offices. I really loved the receptionists. They were so nice and accomodating and it was amazing how quickly I got back to an appointment room. Usually it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours at the old office and at this office, by the time I had my paperwork filled out the medical assistant was waiting at the door for me. Once I got to the room, it took maybe 10 minutes to see the doctor. It was great!

The doctor checked on the baby and for some reason it didn't want to cooperate it took quite awhile to find. Finally a heartbeat was found, 150 beats per minute, which is perfect, though we only got a short listen before baby moved. Around 150 is where Wyatt's heartbeat stayed most of the time so I am still thinking this one is another boy. Stay posted for baby names because we are still debating!

A house (almost) full of sickies!

2009-01-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

Poor Wyatt has been sick most of this week with a little rattle and a bit of a cough. We have been doing breathing treatments and trying to keep from taking him out of the house if we can help it. Then yesterday, out of nowhere, mommy woke up sick too! It was awful! I didn't feel like even moving let alone doing anything else. But, as all mommies out there know, you don't get a sick day once you are a mom. I was trying my hardest to still play with Wyatt and make sure he was feeling ok when the smell of his graham crackers and breathing treatments about had me rushing to the bathroom! Luckily, I feel a bit better today and Wyatt is starting to sound less rattly as well. Good thing being that Jeremy has yet to get it....

On a side note, Wyatt has found a new favorite toy. Books! (which makes Mommy very happy). He will skip over all of his other toys to sit on the floor and flip through a book while "reading" it to me. He will just sit and jabber away. It is just too cute. We just got our books from the Children's book o the month club and sat last night and looked through them. He immediately took off with 2 of them to "read." For those of you who haven't signed up for this great service, I recommend it. I ordered the enrollment package where I got 8 books for $2 and then 2 more for $4.95 each. To top it all off, if you order those last 2 then you only have to buy 2 more in 2 years and they are running a deal right now that you can buy 2 and get 1 free!! Shipping is the expensive part but many of the books I ordered were sets of 3-5 books that counted as one! Anyway, enough plugging but since they don't automoatically ship books anymore it ended up being a great deal!! Well, I hear him waking up from a nap! More later!

10 months old!

2009-01-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

Rotten Ralphie the day after he turned 10 months

It is so hard to believe that Wyatt is 10 months old already! It is crazy to think that this little guy that is all over the house is the same baby that I brought home from the hospital 10 months ago. It is amazing the little person he has turned into. He has his own distinct personality and likes and dislikes. It makes me sad to think he is growing up so quickly but also excited to see what he is going to become.

As of right now he is in mainly all 18 month clothing, size 5 shoes, size 4 diapers and is right around 31" and 26-27 pounds.

He also has 4 teeth through, 2 on top and 2 on bottom, as well as trying to cut 2 more on top.

Milestones for month 9:

Began walking alone

Still doesn't want Mommy to leave the room, even if he is off playing by himself and still gets extremely excited when Daddy is home with us

He learned a couple of new words this month. He now loves to point at things and say "that" or "dat" as it is and also "bath" or "bap" as he says it! =)

He is also completely off the bottle now and takes all formula from a sippy cup

All big people food now, no more baby food!

He loves to

read with Mommy and Daddy. He just got a bunch of new books that he likes to turn the pages as we read.

Still loves to pick on poor Max and pull on his hair and collar.

Stand at the window and watch the wind blow as well as Daddy working outside.

Feed himself

Eat off from Mommy's plate.

He is Officially Walking!

2009-01-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

As of January 3, 2008, Wyatt began walking officially. I had known he could do it for awhile as his distances without getting down to crawl were getting longer and longer but I waited until he made the transition from crawling more to walking more before I declared him "walking." =)... We are SO proud of him! He gets so excited when we ask him to walk to one of us and he can! He just gets a big smile, puts those arms up for balance, and takes off. It is so amazing to think how far he has come and how much he has learned in the last almost 10 months! Just to think that a mere 9 months ago he was this cute little lump of baby that was just learning how to smile! And to think his first birthday is right around the corner. Give mommy a tissue because she IS NOT ready!!!

Poor Wyatt...

2008-12-30T10:10:00.000-08:00

After 2 bouts with ear infections, (And now that mommy has one as well), we have been having a lot of crankiness in the Channell home lately! :) As a result of his ear infection and antibiotics, Wyatt got a bit of a red bum so the pediatrician prescribed clotrimasole which is a medicated cream meant to fight yeast infections caused by antibiotics. Needless to say, a teeny spot of red bum ended up turning into an AWFUL diaper rash! Two nights ago the poor guy was screaming his head off and trying to get away from us every time we changed his diaper. We felt SO bad for him! We ended up calling the nurses hotline at the pediatrician and they gave us some tricks to try, like a baking soda bath and letting him to go naked to let air to it, which seemed to help a bit. They told us to make an appointment due to the fact that the first cream didn't help and they needed to be sure it wasn't the cream. We didn't see his normal doctor so it was a bit harder to talk to them but they just prescribed a similar cream (Nistatin). But, it was really my Webmd mommies and friend Steph who saved the day with suggestions. I am happy to say that his bum is getting better with the help of a mixture of 1/4 cup corn starch, 1/4 cup maalox, and 1/4 cup aquaphor. It is working WONDERS!!!!

Christmas

2008-12-29T21:44:00.000-08:00

Myspace Comments from 123mycodes.com

So Christmas was great for the family, especially Wyatt! He made out like a little bandit!! I guess that is what you get with him being the first grandchild and great grandchild on both sides! I am going to do a rundown of what he got so that I can remember later on!

Wyatt in front of the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve.. before presents were finished being wrapped! Mommy was slacking this year!

From Mommy and Daddy:

Elmo Live!
Playschool air popper... You hit the button on top and it makes these balls go everywhere inside
My First Night Before Christmas book
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly book
Corey the Combine toy/book
Gloworm
Shape Sorter block
2008 Teddy Bear

From Nana and Poppy Gladman:

John Deere step stool
Giddy up and Go pony
John Deere four wheeler
Sit and Spin Zebra
3 pairs of Wrangler Jeans

From Grandma and Grandpa Baisden

John Deere Ride-on Tractor
2 sleepers

From Papa McIntosh and Aunts Brenna and Brianna:

Opening presents at GG's house

Go Baby Jungle Animal Parade
Outfit with Outdoors Jacket
Music Table

From GG

3 Little Golden Books
John Deere Alphabet Book
3 Outfits
Car push Toy

From Great Uncle Ken and Great Aunt Helen

Outfit

From Great Aunt Stacia

Outfit

So he pretty much is good on new toys and clothes for a bit! So far his favorite toys are his musical table and his Elmo, though he is a bit rough on Elmo as of right now! He will stand at his music table and push the buttons so that it will play a song and then will "sing" and "dance" along with it! It is the cutest thing I have ever seen!

On a final note, We are so grateful for our families and consider ourselves blessed to have been given the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing group of people!

Wyatt's Christmas Haul:

News!

2008-12-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

We found out on November 16th that we have another little one on the way in July! Jeremy and I are both extremely excited and can't wait to have an addition to the family. It will be so great for Wyatt to have someone so close to his age to grow up with. They will be around 16 months apart. Jeremy and I were both only children so we wanted him to have that bond that only siblings have.

We had our first doctor appointment for the new baby on December 12 and we found out that I am not as far along as I had originally thought. I was 7 weeks and 2 days and have and Estimated Due Date of July 30th, 2009. We got a picture of the new little one and saw the heartbeat. It is so amazing to witness a new life. My next appointment is on January 9, 2009 and we will probably have another ultrasound on that day, just to check on the baby since I will only be 11 weeks and they generally don't attempt to listen for the heartbeat with a doppler until 12 weeks. More soon!

Late again but 9 month post

2008-12-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Wyatt riding his toy (only backwards) just over 9 months

So, I am late again! I really need to make myself keep this updated! =) I have yet to add any pictures because we can't get anything but dial up at the house and it takes forever but I promise to add some pictures really soon!

I can't believe that my baby boy turned 9 months old on the 12th! It doesn't seem like he should be 9 months already! He is growing so quickly.

In the last couple of days Wyatt has been cutting 3 teeth on the top. He is absolutely miserable because it is hurting him so badly! Poor guy!

He had his 9 month check up and he weighed in at 27 pounds and 14 ounces (>97%) and 30 inches long (90-95%). This really surprised me because between his 6 month appointment on September 29 to an appointment for an ear infection on December 10 he had only gained one pound but between December 10 and the 18th he gained 2 pounds! He must have been feeling better. He had been sick for almost 3 weeks straight with bronchiolitis and a double ear infection.

He is mainly in 18 month clothing and still in the size 4 diapers. He is also in a size 5 shoe (and has been for around 2.5 months.

His milestones for 8 months:

He is still cruising around furniture

He loves walking behind his push toys, though he thinks he should run behind it rather than walk

He loves it when Daddy is home from work and lights up when he walks through the door

He doesn't want Mommy to leave his sight throughout the day and wants one of us to sit with him at bedtimes until he falls asleep

He will walk about 6-8 steps on his own before he realizes that he sees something that he wants

He stands without support for increasingly longer periods

He still loves to wave "hi" and "bye"

He Loves to:

Pull poor Max's hair (our miniature schnauzer). It is a good thing Max is a good sport

Look out the window and watch the wind blow the trees, or snow, which ever is happening that day

Take Mommy's food if she dare eat in front of him =)

Feed himself! He is sick of that baby puree!

We can't wait for him to get to open his gifts on Christmas! He loves to tear paper so I am sure that the wrapping paper will be much more exciting to him but it will be exciting nonetheless!

Tune in for more soon! I promise I won't slack this time!

To catch you up!

2008-11-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

Wyatt at just over 8 months showing off his teeth!

So I have been meaning to do one of these for so long so I am WAY behind on putting up Wyatt's milestones! He is growing so quickly. I suppose I will just start a monthly rundown.

As of right now Wyatt still only has two teeth, the same two he has had since mid-September, the two on the bottom in the middle. He is around 25 pounds and over 30" tall but I am not sure exactly how much because his next appointment isn't until December 16th. He is in some 12 months clothing and some 18 months and in size 4 diapers.

I will do this as if I actually posted on the 12th but the milestones he hit during his 7th month were:
His pincher grasp developed and he loves feeding himself!

He is still cruising around furniture, as he has been since 6 months

At the end of month seven he began to take a few steps at a time on his own

Began attempting to stand alone, though it doesn't last long.

He says Mom, Da, Hi, and Bye

He loves drinking from his sippy cup on his own and has begun to transition from the bottle to the cup

He is eating food from our plates and no longer wants to eat baby food (He spits it back at us!)

He cries when mommy or daddy leave his sight, if we take something away from him, and if he can't reach something that he wants

Object permanence is in full swing and he loves to throw things off his high chair or out of the living room just to see where it went

Some of my favorite things that he does are:
sitting by himself with a toy that plays music and sings along
jumps up and down in his crib with a huge smile when I go into his room to get him from bed
When he waves at me and says "Ha" (this began in month 8)
When he comes as fast as he can because he sees me with something to eat (My little piggy!)
When he uses me as an off road course for crawling over when I am on the floor playing with him
When he splashes in the tub and gets so excited about his rubber duckies!

He loves:
being outside
looking out the living room window to see outside
tugging on Jace and Max
watching Jace and Max play
crawling through his blow up ball pit
and he loves to turn his hand around while he is waving "hi" or "bye" to see what it is doing