An attempt

This is what you get when you try to capture some cute pictures of two busy, tired, and crabby 16 month old little girls who are outside (their fave) wearing a really cute dress made by their momma and Gamma. Yes, I am a little partial!

Obvisouly, they weren't having it today, the day after their flu shots - causing them to run low grade fevers. Or really, they don't have it any day! Life has to much to offer right now, besides looking at momma and the camera and smiling.

First and Second Hair Cuts

Today my friend Anna trimmed the girls hair. This was Brittyn's first haircut, and she did awesome. Anna commented, "this is not how kids act for their first haircut." She said usually they are crying or upset because of the new situation, but both of my girls sat up on the booster and wore a cape and played with clippies while she trimmed their hair. Really it never phased them that she was doing something to their hair. I was a proud mommy! We finally got Lexyn's hair all one length in the back, so it looks full. She gave Brittyn a trim all over. Her ends were tangling up real bad so now we got rid of the dead ends, yet still have pretty curls. I guess her curls are not baby hair, she is really going to have curly hair. I LOVE it, although give her a few years during her teenage life and I am sure she will hate it!


Brittyn





Lexyn, waiting patiently for her turn. Notice the clippies Anna clipped to her pants to keep her entertained.

Thanks Anna for taking care of my babies, and making them look more and more like toddlers!

I have MONKEYS

Today I realized I have monkeys!

I was folding laundry in my bedroom while the girls were playing in their playroom/guest room. I have that room and their room baby proofed so good that they can play by themselves and I don't have to worry about them. Well, that changed today! While I was folding clothes I heard Lexyn fussing. I hurried into the room to check on what was going on. I found them on top of my wooden chest and the spare queen bed. I immediately geeked out, then made sure they weren't going to fall, then ran for my camera. After taking a few pictures, I got them off the bed then hid in the hallway to watch how they got up there. They have figured out how to climb up on the chest without any help, then onto the bed.

I have monkeys!

Don't pay attention to all the stuff on the bed and floor, I am having a yard sale next weekend and a lot of my stuff was on the bed. The girls also threw it everywhere.

Shortly after the bed climbing incident, Lexyn climbed on top of the laundry basket.

I have monkeys!

Yesterday afternoon the Dish satellite guy was at our house installing new DVR systems. The girls quickly found the empty box as a toy or more less, a stepping stool!

I have monkeys!

Catching Up

Finally, after two weeks I am back in the computer world! My computer got a virus and I had to take it to get fixed. Luckily it was fixable and since it was a family friend that fixed it, it cost me nothing. I had a good friend that let me borrow her notebook computer a few times so I didn't get real far behind.

While I was gone, we did lots of reading, cheering on the Razorbacks, learned how to say touch down (ta dow) and throw our hands up in the air, made a new Halloween dress to wear, threw our share of fits, visited the doctor, ran fever, had a runny nose, watery eyes, an ear infection, caught Roseola, and now have Hands-Foot-and-Mouth virus. So we have been one busy family!

Brittyn is finally over the rash from Roseola, but she still has a horrible runny nose. Lexyn started running fever again this past weekend, and then on Monday had sores on her lip, tongue, inside of her cheek, right hand, and both feet. The doctor said they saw several Hands Foot Mouth virus cases last week, so since we wanted to keep up with the crowd, we decided to catch it too. Now that both girls have had some crazy kiddo virus, I am praying we get better by this weekend and don't catch anything else. It is just crazy how I am a stay at home mom so my kids don't have to go to daycare and be sick all the time, yet we are sick all the time! Oh well, I wouldn't trade it for anything, I still love being at home with my kiddos sick or not.

So, since I have been gone so long, I have lots of pictures to catch you up on.



This is our new favorite thing to do, we LOVE to read.



Thanks to Kelly, we have some really cute Razorback dresses to wear on game days.



Lexyn




Brittyn



Here are the girls in their new Halloween dresses that my mom and I made. They are so cute.



Lexyn





The girls playing outside at Nana's house with her pumpkins.



Brittyn, she is doing "touch down" here. Her daddy is so proud that he taught her this.

Growth and Development appointment

Today I took the girls to their speciality growth and development appointment at Children's Hospital. Besides the fact that it took 2 and half hours there wasn't really any bad news. Although we did find out that Brittyn most likely has Roseola. She ran fever off and on over the weekend and then yesterday a rash started to appear on her tummy. Today her tummy is covered and the doctor suggested that is what she has but there is nothing we can do for it. Once the rash appears she is no longer contagious. We also found out that Lexyn has an ear infection. Poor baby, she has had a runny nose, but she hasn't had any fever and she really hasn't been pulling at her ear, so I had no idea. I feel horrible. Last night she was up screaming until 2 AM when I finally had to just let her fuss it out. I had gone in her room and calmed her down. I would sit in the rocking chair with her and she would fall asleep on my chest, so I rubbed her back for a little longer and then I would lay her down. As soon as her body hit the mattress she would start screaming again. After repeating the process numerous times, and then giving her a cup to get a drink, I thought she was just scared of something or not wanting to lay down by herself so I put her in bed and let her fuss for about 10 minutes until she finally fell asleep; her ear hurting when she laid down NEVER crossed my mind. She hasn't been very pleasant today or really the past 4 days. She has been throwing fits and screaming and extremely fussy, I figured it was cause she didn't feel good but never thought about ear pain. The doctor today did give her a prescription so she is on antibiotics now and hopefully she will begin feeling better tomorrow.



As for the rest of the appointment there were 2 doctors that saw the girls, and neither of them are really worried. They both said they are in the 10% for height and weight, but their weight is proportional to their height. The doctor said that preemies usually get their growth spurt later than most toddlers, but he also said that my girls problem could partly be genetics. My family and Ben's family are all pretty short, with the tallest person being 5ft. 9 inches. They did draw several lab test, one is to test the zinc mineral because if it is low it can cause low weight gain, another is to test for vitamin D deficiency. The doctor said they are seeing that deficiency more and more even in full term toddlers, and the last test was to check their thyroid level since I have a thyroid problem. Since we were at children's hospital the nurses that draw blood are AWESOME! They got blood on both girls on the first try; Brittyn didn't even cry. They showed me a new way to hold the girls instead of pinning them down on the table, so that may have made it easier. We talked to a nutritionist about some fattier foods to feed the girls and some hidden things to try. She said to add a tablespoon of real butter to every 1/2 cup of food, but I don't agree with that. We spend our adult lives worrying about clogged arteries so why would I feed my toddlers butter and begin clogging arteries at only 16 months old. The nutritionist is checking with our insurance to get Boost Pudding covered. It has lots of calories so they want them to eat that for a daily snack. Other than that the doctor said to stay on PediaSure. He mentioned that preemies usually catch up completely by 3 years old, or at least that is a goal. So as long as the girls continue to gain weight there is no worry.

By the way, my computer is still in the shop so I am again blogging from a friends computer therefore this is another post without pictures.

15 Month Check-Ups

To begin I am having technical difficulties, therefore this post won't have any pictures. My laptop has a virus and is in the shop, so I am blogging from a friends that I borrowed for the night.


Yesterday I took the girls to the doctor for their 15 month check-ups. They are a few weeks late but that is due to the clinic rescheduling us. Our pediatrician really surprised me when he began looking at their growth charts. Almost 3 months ago he put the girls on PediaSure. He said it has 30 calories per serving and whole milk only has 20 calories and he is all about fattening them up. Since we have been off the bottle for over a week now, the girls have gone on a drinking strike! Not really, but their close to 24 ounces of PediaSure a day has gone to about 10. I have been told they will get over it and drink again but for now they just aren't happy without the bottle. They also don't like to drink anything but PediaSure. They may take a few gulps of water in the afternoon but that is it. Therefore we haven't gained near the weight I thought we have. I was pretty sure Lexyn was close to 20 pounds because her little gut is pouching out, not fat by any means but she does have a belly she didn't use to have, and the girl LOVES to eat. But my guessing was way off.

Lexyn:
weight: 17 pounds 6.2 ounces
height: 30 & 3/4 inches

Brittyn:
weight: 16 pounds 12.6 ounces
height: 30 inches

The doctor did get a good view of how busy and active the girls are. He did end up saying "they may just be petite little girls." He is sending us to a nutrition and developmental growth clinic at Children's Hospital next week. They see lots of failure to thrive patients. My girls aren't really failure to thrive because they are gaining weight, but our pediatrition said he wants to get their opinion on the girls slow weight gain.

Lexyn was sure to put on a great fit show for him as well.

That is another topic/question. At 15 months old the girls have started throwing 2 year old fits! I am looking for a good recommended book on parenting this age, or any advice you may have of the tricks you used or what age to start different types of discipline. Please pass along the parenting techniques you use.

Back to the appointment, the girls got the first past of the flu shot. It is not the swine flu shot, we have to go back in November for that one. They also drew blood to test their IGA deficiency that they have had since birth. Since the girls aren't drinking much their veins were real hard to find. After the first nurse poked and dug around getting nothing she went to get another nurse who then poked both arms on both girls and dug around before she finally got blood. It was horrible. They were amazed at how strong Lexyn was as she was about to hop off the table, but who isn't strong when they are being tortured with a needle. It took 3 people to hold them down and draw their blood. Not cool at all! We did get good news though, we do not have to hibernate this winter. The doctor said they are doing well, so just to take the normal cold and flu precautions, although due to their IGA deficiency they are susceptible to catch the bugs a lot easier.

Goodbye Dr.Brown

It is very bittersweet that we say goodbye Dr. Brown!

We have officially kicked the "ba" out of our daily routine. We haven't had one in 48 hours. I was pretty sure I was going to cry but I never did. I feel like getting rid of the bottle is like the last major straw of having a baby in the house; now I have little toddlers I guess. If they had their choice they would still be babies, but our pediatrician said to be off the bottle by 18 months. The girls are 15 months but they were starting to get really attached, so I got busy and within a week of cutting back we are off of them. I started by only giving them a morning and before bedtime bottle. I did that for 3 days, on the 4th day they only got one morning bottle, and after that it disappeared. They seem to be doing ok, a little fussy at times that they normally would get a bottle, but nothing too bad. We normally would snuggle while they take their bottle, but we are trying to snuggle and drink a sippy cup.