Updates!

My folks have asked me about former posts.  So here are some updates:

Cloth diapers:  A lot of friends and family have asked about this one.  Yes, I'm still using them.  My mom and a couple of friends told me, I was either crazy or they'd give me a couple of months after Nathaniel was born.  Sorry to prove you wrong.  I do have to admit that I use them in combination with disposable diapers.

The first time my mom babysat Nathaniel she was kind of freaking out about the diapering issue.  She was about to go to the store and buy some diapers before we walked in the door.  Since then, I made sure that whenever Grandparents babysit, he is always wearing disposable diapers.  If we are out and about and that we'll be out for most of the day, we leave the house with him wearing disposable diapers.

Also, if I run out of clean diapers, I  will use a disposable and get to that load of laundry whenever possible.  Obviously, I'm not using a cleaning service for them, and I don't want to be consistently worrying about having enough clean covers and cloths.  I usually do a load twice a week and that usually gets me through the week.  .....and there is very little difference with our electricity bill.

We no longer use gDiapers.  As Nathaniel grew, they would leak more and more.  I switched over to Thirsties  and Bum Diapers and have no complaints.  They work great!

Mark chooses to only use disposable diapers.  He states that it's easier to put on and off Nathaniel.  No comment on my part...

I usually have to buy a diaper box at Costco about every two months.  Love it!

Sleeping arrangements:  When Nathaniel was about 2 months old we put Elie and Nathaniel in the same room at night.  At that time he was waking up once at night.  Then Nathaniel hit 3 months and there was a sleep regression and it was just easier to have him sleep in our room with us.  At 6 months he would wake twice a night and sometimes only need one feeding.  Now he is starting to sleep through the night or needs an earlier morning feeding.  I'm not putting him back in the room with Elie yet, because her 2 year old molars are popping through and she wakes up at night due to the pain.

School:  As many of you know, Elie started school in February.  By the end of the month, she was starting to enjoy it and now it's just part of what she does.  She continues to attend twice per week in the mornings.  Since she has started school I have seen her social skills flourish.  She will now initiate conversations with children and adults in different settings.  Her temperament is still slow to warm and I was not expecting that to change, but it is nice to see her comfortable interacting with other children.  

Movie Time!

Last Saturday was Elie's first time at the movies.  We went to see The Lorax.  We headed to The Whittier Village Cinema's, while Tio Jay and Tia Delia stay with Nathaniel.  I'm not sure who was more excited to go to the movies, Mark or me?

 Da-da and Elie purchasing the tickets.

Elie enjoying the show.

About the last 5 minutes of the show Elie was getting a bit antsy and needed to get on her feet.

We all had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)

Last Friday Nathaniel was diagnosed with RSV.  He had had a cough that was going on for about a week, and it was gradually getting worst.  During the day he was fine; not whinny or irritable.  Nights were a little harder.  So I did not worry too much, but since Elie was never sick as a baby I wanted to make sure I was doing everything right and not over looking anything with him, so I called the nurse help line Friday morning.  

The nurse asked me if had been wheezing, which he was not, but as soon as a said that, I looked at him (he was sitting next to me) and I heard him slightly wheezing.  The nurse said I needed to come in to see the doctor.    

So here's my newest BFF.  Nathaniel has to breathed through this every 4-6 hours.  With the breathing treatments the mucus and cough should go away.  He coughs less, not as stressful and night time sleep is a lot better.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with RSV, here's a little info:

an inflammation of the small airway passages entering the lungs.  In adults or older children, RSV presents itself like a common cold, but with infants, it become a bit more severe.  

Hands!

Nathaniel is growing up right before my eyes.  He is so into grabbing things now-a-days.  Month 3 he discovered his hands.  He would look at them intensely and slowly but surely he realized that arms were attached.  He was so into them he would gaze at them fondly instead of napping.

He began to tap his bouncer animals. 

 By month four, he was very interested with his table activity, but was not to sure what to do about it.

By the end the fourth month he was touching his toes and eventually nibbling on them..pheww!

With a little modeling from big sister, by month five, Nathaniel was well on his way....

First Day of School....can you believe it?!?

On Wednesday, February 1st, Elianna went to school for the first time.  YIKES!  My baby is growing up!  I started talking to Mark about Elianna's social development and thinking about putting her in school this summer.

Out the front door with "Da-da."

Unfortunately, she does not have any cousins her age, the kids on the street are a bit older and she's the only kid in her Sunday School class.  At the park I see that she wants to interact with other children but does not know how to.  For the most part, she will observe the others play. Also, as she will tell you, she is shy, but as I like to call it, slow to warm.  In addition, I've seen her develop her readiness skills a lot faster than I've anticipated, so instead of waiting until this summer, she went this past week.

She is attending Lad n Lassie here in Whittier.  She goes twice a week in the morning.   We had gone to the school twice before her first day, so she could become familiar with the environment.  Even though, when we reached the classroom door on the first day, she said, "Don't want it."  As I expected, she cried when we left. Mark stayed at the door to see if she was still crying after we left and she was not.  When we arrived, she was being held by Teacher Vanessa and was crying.  Teacher Vanessa said that she had been crying for maybe, 5 minutes, but she sat through circle time (next to Teacher Vanessa) did the craft and went potty in the toilet.  I had to call once, to see how she was doing.  So we both did pretty good for her first day.

Bag pack ready!

Snack bag

The second day of school Mark went to pick her up and she came in the house saying, "I like outside (aka: recess time)."  She sat on her own during circle time, ate part of her snack with the other kids and did the craft.  I'll give it a couple of months, if she is enjoying it and we're able to financially swing it, we'll stick with it.

Marley

As many of you know, Marley was our dog, but in November we had to say good-bye to him.  Marley had a heart murmur that had gradually gotten worse.  About 5 years ago, Marley would at times sneeze, we thought it was strange, but it was nothing major, it was just what he did.  Later, at one of his check ups, the vet explained that he had a heart murmur and the symptoms would be more apparent and worsen over time.  For example, the sneezing was because of the murmur.

As the years passed, the sneezing became more frequent.  He began throwing up, it was not food and it was just stuff.  Ultimately, the sneezing became somewhat of a cough, which then began to occur throughout the night.  There was one night that I don't believe he even slept.  Once that began to occur I started the conversation with Mark about his health.  We knew the only way to make his life better was for heart surgery.  You dog owners out there know that means big bucks.  Not only the surgery, but the medication and follow up visits. Mark asked to give him one week to find a place for him.  We knew it would not be another home because no one would want to take on that type of financial responsibility.  It was either a rescue/shelter for cockers or for him to be put down at the vet's.

Mark called around and the rescues would not accept a dog from a private owner, so we were left with only one choice.  It was a Saturday morning and Mark decided to give Marley something special for breakfast.  He made him eggs and bacon.  Marley was an expert when it came to climbing the dining room table and getting to plates when no one was in the room.  Mark made him his plate, placed it on the table and pulled out the chair.  That's how he'd get on top of the table, by climbing the chair.

Marley finally found the plate and enjoyed it.  Mark did not want to take part in going to the vet's office, so I did it.  I held it together pretty well until I had to say good-bye to him.  I pet him fondly, told him thank-you and slowly began to cry.  I finished up at the front desk, they brought back his collar, I went to my car, drove home and seriously began to cry.  By the time I  arrived home, I was composed.

As the days followed, I missed Marley's presence and routine actions that would occur throughout the day.  He was almost 10 years old and had been with us for most of our marriage.  We got him about 2 months after we were married and he was 6 weeks old.  He was named after Bob Marley and was our first kiddo....RIP Marley!

    

Some days are easy, some are....lets just say, tired.

Being a mama of two young ones definitely has it's highs and it's really tiresome days.  For example, Nathaniel is teething.  Poor little guy, I'm pretty sure he has four teeth coming through the bottom.  His bottom gums are so tender, that at times it's hard for him to breastfeed or drink from a bottle.  His eating and sleeping schedule changes, and more tears throughout the day.  Which means, he's one tired and cranky baby by the end of the day.  Yesterday was a hard day, but I learned from it and today was a much better day.  To where he had three naps some longer than others, but I was able to put him down and everyone got some rest.  Not only did he nap, but so did big sister, Elianna...YAY!

Naps!

I can't believe that I'm typing this, but, I think Elianna has outgrown her naps......NOOOO!  These past two weeks, she has slept twice during nap time.  The other days, she is talking up a storm and jumping around; in other words, having a party of one.  I'm still putting her down and she will fuss a bit, but for the most part she is having a good time in her crib.  So from now on, I refer to naps as Nap time or quiet time.  Quiet time for mom, I'm still in need of it.  The days she is not napping, she is in bed by 7PM and is alseep within minutes.  

Nathaniel has moved into a day time sleep schedule.  He has started to do a 2 hour nap in the morning, instead of having a lot of cat-naps.  Later in the afternoon is when it gets tricky.  He may be tired but having him transition from my arms to the bed wakes him.  Tomorrow, he will be fed in the bouncer and most likely fall alseep, stay there for his nap and hopefully stay asleep.  Lets see if that works....fingers crossed.