Walk this Way!

So Miss Maggie has been a busy little thing! We thought Ellie was an active baby but Maggie has given her big sister a run for the money. She never sits still! She has been crawling forever and has been cruising for awhile now too so we've been waiting for her to walk for at least a month and she has finally found her feet! She's definitely a beginner at this point but over the weekend she started walking more than crawling so she's pretty much got it and prefers it over other modes of getting around. Since she is still so tiny (but definitely not skinny if you have held her you would know!) we are hearing the all too familiar comments from strangers about her size and ability and questions about her age and whether she was a preemie. We answered those a million times about Ellie and seems like they just stopped (although we do get them every now and then still about Ellie) and now it's begun again for little Miss Maggie. She is the sweetest little baby around and has the best personality. She is so laid-back and just goes with the flow and is definitely not high maintenance. We thought similar thoughts about Ellie but now realize how much a diva Ellie was compared to Maggie. We drag her everywhere and she is quite happy. She loves her big sister and laughs and laughs at everything she does. She does have a temper and if you happen to make her mad she will let you know in no uncertain terms that she is not happy but most of the time she is just a joy and we love her to pieces! Enjoy a few cute photos of Mags and some videos too. (I'll have to do the videos later, it's not working at the moment . . . stay tuned!)

Sister Act

First Steps (not the actual first ones but some of the first!)

Maggie's tricks

Potty Time!

Well despite the laziness and non-motivation of her parents, Ellie if for the most part potty trained. We are excited for her but must admit that the newly potty-trained stage is hard. She goes days without accidents but then will out of the blue pee all over everything. School requires we have 6 pairs of panties and at least one complete change of clothing on their hooks at all times, including a pair of shoes. I cannot tell you how much extra laundry this has made while she perfected her art but as far as potty-training goes she was a quick study. Brian and I are trying to feel good about this but do admit that diapers just feel easier for us. I hate public potties and have become even more grossed out trying to fit a tiny little bottom safely and cleanly on the public toilet seats. Ellie has no inhibitions and just grips onto the seat no matter where or what condition and I am trying hard not to bring her into my phobic ways so I just have to take deep breaths and be sure I help her wash her hands really well. She looks so cute in her little panties (pull-ups make up good hats!) and she is so proud of her big-girl self so we are happy for her and proud too!

Welcome Back!

So obviously I've had no time to keep this up. It's on the bottom of a long list of priorities these days although I really want to keep you up to date on Ellie and Maggie. In addition to just being busy with two kids, house, husband and work I have also started working on my masters using the online program from Indiana Wesleyan University. It's nice to do it online and I'll be done by next January but it is a LOT of work and a lot of busy work that must be done everyday so needless to say it is not much fun and takes up the last remaining free minutes I had in my day. I'll try better to keep this updated and hope you will resume checking back every now and then to look for changes. Enough about me, this blog is about Maggie and Ellie!! I'll write some more later but for now here is a family pic from the Kettering tree lighting ceremony last Friday. It was FREEZING and we were only able to be out for a short time but it was pretty and the kids loved it.

Maggie needs more pictures on here!

There are not enough pics of Mags on here yet so here are a few-she's so cute!!!

Quads

Early in the Spring I went to a local church's kids sale and picked up a lot of great clothing and other items for the girls. While there, I found a baggie with four little rag babies in it for $2.00. They were too cute to pass up for that price and I figured Ellie would enjoy them. She LOVES these babies!!!! She quickly named them Ryan, Sarah, Perrin and Maggie. Why those names? We had just been to Chillicothe a few weeks before to visit our friends Chuck and Meva who were in town with their triplets (click here for their blog) and Ellie really enjoyed the visit. Up until this visit, all babies were Maggie only so this was a big honor to the Kennedy triplets and the funny thing is these babies still have those names and Ellie really knows who is who. These babies come along almost everywhere with us and Ellie will play with them and sing songs with them, etc. My favorite thing is that she attaches their little hands (they have Velcro on them) and plays Ring a Round the Rosie with them. Too cute! Lately Ellie has been sharing these babies with Maggie and we will often find Mags with a stack of babies all over her as Ellie has "shared" them with her.

With all this playing and travels, these little ones get dirty so recently when we went to the laundry mat to do a lot of loads at once we stuck them in with the laundry. Elie found it hilarious to see her babies in flipping around in the little "windows." I took these photos because I thought they were so funny. If you look in the first window you will see that the Ryan baby (purple pants) is mooning us! In the second photo I had taken the laundry out of the dryer and was wheeling it to the folding table when I noticed that Perrin was trying to escape, rock-climber style, out of the basket while poor Ryan had lost her purple pants entirely as it modestly covering up her "privates!" You may not find it as amusing as I did but I had to share it anyways!

May

We've been doing lots of fun things since the weather has gotten nicer and Maggie has become a little more portable! Here are few highlights:

We've got season passes to Kings Island this year and took both of the girls for the first time! Ellie is still too short for most of the kiddie rides but she eagerly rode the ones she could ride over and over again. She as no fear this kid! She's so close to being 32 inches, the "magic" height in kiddie land!!

My aunt Tina was married to her longtime boyfriend Ken over Memorial Day weekend and the wedding was held at my Aunt Terry's beautiful historic home in Tipp City. Here's Ellie on the porch.

A dear old friend Anne Royer came to visit for an evening and ended up staying the night due to several nasty storms and two tornado warnings! She had never met our girls and Ellie was smitten by her new friend Anne. Here's Mags enjohying a meal with Anne.

That Day in May is a annual event in Oakwood, the community we are one block away from. They have a parade and festival that we have never been home for until this year. Ellie LOVED the parade once she realized people were throwing her CANDY!!! She got quite the stash and really enjoyed her first parade experience. We then went to the festival and she really enjoyed riding a few little rides and sitting inside the CareFlight helicopter. A fun little festival and especially nice as it was only a few blocks away!

Old Fashioned Fun

Last Sunday was the Clodbuster's tournament at Carillon Park. It was our first tournament at the new place and it turned out great. In honor of hosting the tournament, family members of date players were asked to dress up in our old-fashioned duds for the day. I was excited to dress all of us up for the first time this season but as always it was a million degrees on Sunday with tons of humidity-perfect for donning layers of modest clothing! Luckily the girls' dresses are short sleeved and lightweight so they fared pretty well in the heat. Ellie was running around so she was pink cheeked and a curly headed-sweaty mess but it only made her look even more adorable than usual! She honestly looked great in her outfit which I had intended to make but found the parts and pieces at various used clothing stores. Several cranks (fans) and photographers took her picture, I'll share some great ones I got too. The weather kept us from staying all day but we did enjoy our first official outing of dressed up base ball for the season. Check out the Clodbuster schedule here for more information about our team and this season's schedule!

Quick Update

Hello! Summer is officially here (for teachers, not by calendar!) and Maggie and I are getting to know each other again as we spend our days together now. She is so much fun now as she is very smiley and happy and "talks" to me. She's very interested in the world now and loves strangers and family members and will smile and talk and allow them to hold her but she is definitely a mama's girl and would prefer me to hold her while checking everyone out. She is especially fond of her big sister and follows her every move!! She is rolling over now from tummy to back and back to tummy consistently and can grab things deliberately although she is still not super coordinated with this. We should be having lots of fun this summer together and will get some alone time too since Ellie will still be attending school at least part-time this summer to be with her beloved friends. We are doing well, just very busy and still juggling the change of two kiddos in the household. I'll update more later but wanted to get some fun pictures out while I had a chance. Enjoy!!

First Haircut

Ellie got her first haircut this past Saturday! She has been bald forever but her hair has finally started growing really well and she was starting to look like a "ragamuffin" no matter how often we brushed her hair! She has beautiful curls in the back too but sometimes they straighten up and just hang there which makes her look like she has a mullet!! She has gone with both Brian and I to get our hair cut and both times our respective hairdressers gave her "pretend" haircuts. Mainly just washing or wetting her hair and then putting her in the chair while they blow-dried and combed it. She loved it though so we knew she wouldn't be scared when it happened for real. We took her to our local "Kiddie Kuts" place for the first haircut to make it more fun and special. She picked a race car to sit in and of course choose her favorite "Finding Nemo" to watch on the little t.v. at her station. She could have cared less what they were doing to her hair, she just wanted the lady out of her view of the movie! Notice the "TV stare" look on her face while she is getting her hair done!! It turned out nice-she still has her curls and her hair looks cute even when it isn't brushed. Such a big girl!! I put the pictures in chronological order: a few before, some during and the two on the bottom are after. So pretty!!!

2

Ellie is 2 years old!! I can hardly believe it. They always say time flies and it is so true. All those cliche's about children growing up seem to be. I can remember when . . .

Ellie was so excited about being two. She's really been into birthday's lately and we've had many to celebrate. She especially loves watching her first birthday video from this blog and we watch it over and over again with her smiling so big and clapping at the end each time. We've also been working on getting her to show her age with her fingers. At first we had to do it for her but she had it down pat by the time her actual birthday came about and will proudly show anyone who asks her how old she is.

We had a casual, low-key birthday. She took cupcakes, treat bags and Finding Nemo hats/blowers to school to share with her friends and then after school we met some family members at our favorite neighborhood park for pizza and cake. It was nice to just visit and let the kiddos play to their hearts content. The weather was just perfect and we stayed until dark, Ellie playing in the sandbox with some new friends she had made that evening. A perfect day to celebrate our precious girl!

Enjoy the photos and video!

Growing Peanuts

Well it's been a loooooong three weeks since we figured out that Maggie was losing weight! As I said before, once we went to see the lactation consultant and figured out she wasn't sucking correctly things have been moving along pretty good. She has steadily gained each week since then. With breastfed babies, the general guideline is that they should gain 5-7 oz per week, she has been averaging 4 oz or more. I went back to our pediatrician for her weight check last Tuesday. I was so worried about this weight check in fact that I'm sad to admit that I took Maggie to the post office the night before and weighed her on their self-service scales! According to the post office scales she had gained well so I went into the weight check the next day feeling confident and happy. I had been working so hard to keep her eating good and was feeling so good about her weight gain or our improved breastfeeding. Well, despite her gains and excellent physical examination, they still were not happy wanted to send us to get blood work and urine checked. I held it together in their office but once I got to the car I was a mess. I felt like a failure and was so frustrated, stressed and even angry at the nurse practitioner and doctor. I also was a bit scared for Maggie and wondered if my intuition was failing me and maybe something WAS wrong. After having a good cry and talking to Brian and my mom, I decided to take her to get the blood work done. I hoped it would prove that she was fine and we could move on. We went that day and had it drawn. Maggie did GREAT, only cried when they put the needle in her little vein. The tech was amazing and as the other nurse held her still she got down close to her and reassured her and even KISSED her to calm her down. Kind of weird but I saw it as she just couldn't resist those adorable little cheeks and if I had been in her place I would have done the same thing! Her blood work came back the next day and was okay. Her liver enzymes were the only thing that showed up abnormal, they were a bit high and on the phone they told me they didn't know what that meant (why tell me then???) but that they had referred Maggie to a GI specialist at Children's Hospital to check her out. I was a bit panicked at this point, wondering what high liver enzymes could mean and as many of you know when you google something medical it can get ugly and even scarier so I called my dear friend Meva . Meva is a P.A. and she helped calm me down with her medical knowledge and opinions and also as a friend and mom. So, we went last Friday to see Dr. Mezoff at Children's Hospital. I'll admit, it was rather scary and surreal to be taking MY child to the hospital for the unknown. The appointment went very well though. Dr. Mezoff was VERY GOOD and very calming, reassuring and caring towards Maggie and me. He made sure I understood everything he was telling me and asked me over and over again if I had any questions. His opinion was that Maggie, while not gaining great, was still gaining well and that overall she looked very healthy and alert. He said the elevated liver enzymes were high, but not high enough to cause him to think there was a real problem. His thoughts were that they were up due to her early jaundice and previous weight loss. He was very encouraged that she had gained steadily since fixing her latch and that likely her liver enzymes would continue to decrease as the weeks went by. He ordered an ultrasound of her liver, just to be careful and wanted us to come back for weight checks and more blood work to make sure the numbers continued to decrease. I left his office feeling so good again and with a renewed calm and confidence! We had the ultrasound this past Monday and again, Maggie did great. The hardest part was the four hour fasting prior to the scan. She was so hungry and mad that I wasn't feeding her-poor baby! We got the results in the mail yesterday that all was fine with her ultrasound-more good news! Today we went for her weight check at Dr. Mezoff's office and Miss Maggie was a hefty 8 lbs exactly!! She was 7lbs, 10 oz last week so that is a great gain!!! I'm happy that all seems to be going well and that my intuition has proved good. It is still a struggle though as Maggie just isn't a super eater but I WANT to keep breastfeeding her and know it's best for her so the stubborn part of me will not quit. Please keep us in your thoughts or prayers that Maggie will continue to grow bigger and that breastfeeding will get easier for the two of us. It's important to me and Maggie I think.

Other good news, Maggie is now smiling!!! It's so cute and makes it all so much better!! She is also holding her head up very straight and looking all around. People are stopping me all the time now to ask how old she is since they can't believe such a tiny baby is so alert and strong. I should be used to this I guess since this is exactly what happened with Ellie too. Everyone predicted Brian and I would have huge, fat, hairy babies and instead we seem to create tiny, petite bald peanuts! I love my peanuts!!!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!