The most wonderful time of the year!

I am in love with this picture of the kids with Santa.  I love spending the holidays with children, and I am so excited that Frankie is so excited for Christmas this year.  Let the holiday season begin!

We can't quite figure her out

I always thought that my second baby would be so much easier.  We have already been there, done that, so we should be armed with knowledge and experience to help us figure out what is making Miss Lily not feel good.  However, she continues to stump me.  I am having the hardest time figuring out what makes her fussy while eating.  There have been several times during the last few months when she would have a few days in a row of fussiness and eating issues, where she wouldn't really be interested in her bottle.  These little episodes always last a few days, and just when I am about to take her to the doctor to see if she has an ear infection or stomach bug, she snaps out of it and returns to "normal."  Last week, she started refusing the bottle, having trouble during feedings, and occasionally throwing up complete feedings.  She never had a fever, did not act fussy other than during feeding, and had no other symptoms of illness.  Over the weekend she continued to resist eating (she did eat, just not as much as her normal), and then on Monday she threw up two more times.  Apparently, she threw up at day care and it was PURPLE.  Of course, I was very concerned when they told me this, and I took her to the doctor on Tuesday.  The doctor is stumped--her ears and throat looked great, so no ear infection or sore throat.  It cannot be a stomach virus because it has already lasted more than 48 hours and it is not continuing.  The doctor said, "and it does not sound like this is related to her reflux," and I interjected and said, well, I think it may be, because when she is resisting bottles, she will often arch her neck and back like she used to when she was first diagnosed.  The doctor agreed and decided to try increasing Lily's dose of reflux medicine to see if that solves the problem.  So far so good--she has not thrown up again, and she is eating better.  But she is not 100 percent back to normal yet.  I hope this works and she is eating normally and acting like her usual sweet self soon!  

Big boy's three-year-old stats

Frank had his three-year-old doctor's appointment yesterday, and he is still a tall, skinny boy.  We already knew that because none of his pants fit.  He is 38.25" tall (71st percentile) and 32 pounds (54th percentile).  During the development part of the appointment, his doctor asked me if Frank knows his full name, and I said yes, and (trying to impress her with my super smart boy), I asked Frank, "what is your last name?"  He said "banana" and cracked up.  I asked him about five more times, and he kept repeating "banana."  This little boy knows how to say and spell his full name, but he was not going to do it for the doctor.  She told me she would take my word for it.  Ha!  What a little stinker. 

Frankie is 3!

My sweet BIG boy turned three years old today!!!! I can hardly believe it.  I can still vividly remember when he was a baby.  I can remember when he would toddle from my car through the lobby to his day care, insisting that he hold my keys and trying to run away and hide any chance he could.  I remember the first time he said I love you.  I remember his first birthday party, when he LOVED smashing his cake and having all eyes on him.  I cherish all of these memories.  These memories are the sole reason I write this blog--I don't want to forget a single moment of this wonderful boy's life.  I don't want to forget when we gave him his big birthday gift (an easel) and he clapped with excitement.  I don't want to forget the huge smile on his face when his friends arrived at his party.  I don't want to forget what it is like to look through the world through a three-year-old's eyes--with curiosity, innocence, determination, and pure joy.

At three, here are some of Frankie's favorite things:

Favorite friend:  Bennett
Best friend at school:  Mackenzie
Favorite foods:  apples, steak, guacamole, yogurt, macaroni and cheese
Favorite color:  orange
Favorite TV shows:  Mickey Mouse clubhouse and Little Einsteins
Favorite toy:  vacuum
Favorite movie:  Finding Nemo
Favorite books:  Good Night Washington DC, Peppa Pig, The Night Before Christmas, and his "bible book"
Favorite song:  "Crazy" Hunter Hayes
Favorite video:  Minnie's bow-tique
What he wants to be when he grows up:  "Eat grown-ups, drink coffee, and go to work."

Frankie constantly asks questions, and he always wants to know "why."  He is inquisitive, insightful, and he has a razor sharp memory.  He is funny, silly, and loves to be the center of attention.  He is sweet and protective of his little sister.   I think he has my smarts combined with Frank's determination, and I truly believe he is going to be unstoppable.  I have big dreams for this little boy, and I can't wait to see what he becomes when he grows up.

We celebrated Frankie's big birthday all weekend, starting when Mommy and Daddy surprised him with donuts at school on Friday.  He was super excited to see us, and everyone was very excited about the donuts, but we didn't think about the fact that it was picture day at school (why his teachers did not tell us, I have no idea), and some of those kids were covered in chocolate from head to toe.  Oops!

Saturday was Frankie's big birthday party at the Frontiers of Flight airplane museum.  We have been there a few times before, and Frankie always loved it, so I was excited to have his party there.  He had a blast.  His best friends were there, and Nana and Papa and Auntie Allison, Uncle Steve, and Kasey also came.  He ran around the play area, climbed, chased, and screamed with his friends, and just had a blast.  He loves to be the center of attention, and he really enjoyed everyone singing to him.  He requested an orange cake with "all the colors," so I got a cake with rainbow sprinkles covering the outside.  It was delicious.  While the kids were all eating cake, Frankie started singing, "Happy Birthday to cake!"  and cracking himself up.  He is so silly.  After the party, most of our family came back to our house to open presents, and Frankie got a bunch of cool new stuff.

Today, on his actual birthday, Nana and Papa came over and we went up to Klyde Warren Park to have lunch and enjoy the beautiful weather.  I think Frankie had a wonderful birthday weekend that was all about celebrating HIM.  He is my sweet, smart, independent, funny, silly little buddy.  

Mommy fail

Today is picture day at Frankie and Lily's school.  Last night, I was giving Lily a bath, and she was being pretty calm and good (as she usually enjoys baths), and then out of nowhere she started screaming.  I was pretty much finished washing her, so I took her out of the bath and dried her off.  I saw that she had a long scratch on her chest and two smaller scratches on her left cheek, and I realized that I must have scratched her with my ring while I was washing her!  Poor baby girl.  I felt awful.  This morning, the scratch on her chest was almost invisible, but you can still see the two scratches on her face (of course, because it is picture day).  I actually thought about putting some makeup on her face to cover the scratch, but I decided against it.  Who knows, maybe it will be less noticeable by the time she gets her pictures taken.  Or maybe they can photoshop the scratch off her face?  Lesson learned:  make sure to remove ALL jewelry before giving Lily a bath!  I took off my engagement ring and my watch, but for some odd reason I did not remove my other ring this one time.

Liliana--5 months!

Happy five months baby girl!  I cannot believe Lily is already five months old.  She is growing and changing so much every day.  She is a very smiley and social baby.  She does not mind if anyone holds her, even people who she has never met.  She loves being around people, and she especially loves to be near her brother.  She is still a beautiful baby girl, and her day care teachers told Frank she is the best dressed baby in her class (of course :)).  At five months, Lily is...

-Having a growth spurt!  She is now eating 4 eight ounce bottles a day, and sometimes an additional 4-6 ounce bottle around 2:00 a.m.  She was very fussy last week for a few days, but once we started feeding her more, she has seemed much better.  We tried rice cereal a few weeks ago, but she did not like it so we have not tried it again since.

-Sleeping good, but still not through the night consistently.  She generally sleeps from 7:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., wakes up and chugs a bottle, and then sleeps again until we wake her around 7:00 a.m.  Sometimes she sleeps through the night, but most nights she is still waking up hungry.

-Napping so much better than expected at day care.  She is generally taking three naps a day there.  Sometimes naps are really short, but she is doing great.

-Loves to kick her feet, play in her exersaucer, roll around, and sit in her bumbo.  Lily loves to grab on to things, touch everything, feel different textures, and put everything in her mouth.  We are working on learning how to sit up before her six-month pictures next month.  She loves when we sing to her, read to her, or just "chat" with her.

-She is tough, but also extremely sensitive.  We love her so much!

Missing my babies

I am in Missouri for work, and I am missing my babies.  I finished with my deposition early today, but there are no earlier flights to Dallas, so I am stuck in the airport for about four hours waiting to board my plane and come home.  I am so excited to see them!  Frank texted me this cute picture of him and Frankie this morning.  Frankie has been waking up early and coming downstairs in the morning while Frank and I are still getting ready for work (or sometimes before we have even gotten out of bed), so we have been letting him hang out with us in our bedroom while we get ready.  Looks like he was watching Daddy shave this morning and decided he wanted to participate too.

Visit with Grambo and Grandy

Grandy and Grambo just left today after a week-long visit.  Even though they were here for a week, the time seemed to fly by.  We are so busy since I went back to work, it seems like all the days just run together.  They kept both of the kids home from school a couple of days and got to spend some good quality time with them.  They also babysat one night so that Frank and I could go out on a date!  I feel like we have been better this time around about taking time for ourselves, and it is so refreshing.  We really appreciate all the times the grandparents have watched the babies so that we can go out!  Last night we took them to Hard Eight barbecue and had a great farewell dinner.  Lily had been fussy all weekend, so we were worried that she would have a big meltdown at dinner, but she was a perfect little angel.  She fell asleep on the car ride home, and then went down easily and slept through the night!  She also woke up happy this morning, so hopefully her mysterious fussiness is behind us.

This morning we were all rudely awakened by someone violently banging on our door and ringing our doorbell over and over.  Frankie woke up crying and screaming, and Frank ran to the door to find a policeman who informed us that the house behind us was on fire.  It was one of the scariest things I have ever seen in my life.  The house ended up completely burning to the ground.  Luckily, no one was home, and no other houses were damaged.  I am so thankful that our family and our home is safe.

Here are some pictures from Granbo and Grandy's visit: