Sunday, June 30, 2019

2019 Week 26/52 Photo




We went to a pool party. This group picture was taken right after they got ice cream. Not quite all the kids are pictured.  I didn't end up picking one picture since there wasn't just one picture that had all the kids.  It was pretty cool so by the time the sun went a little down and ti was shady it was quite chilly. I think the high was only 78. The kids loved it anyway.

Miles liked the "cold pool" and didn't want to ever go in the hot tub.
Here's another. I had Sarah take it near the end to show that I was actually there.

Photo Taken June 27, 2019

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Ella's Birthday Interview (5.5 years old)


  1. How old are you? 5 and a half
  2. Who is your best friend? Emi and Sophie
  3. What is your favorite color? pink
  4. What is your favorite animal? zebra
  5. What is your favorite food? Ice cream
  6. What food do you really dislike? nothing
  7. What is your favorite TV show? Odd Squad
  8. What is your favorite song? ABCs
  9. What is your favorite book? PJ Masks
  10. What is your favorite thing to wear? This. American Stuff (She’s wearing her outfit that has a flag on it.)
  11. What makes you happy? PJ Masks
  12. What makes you sad? Daddy yelling at me
  13. What is your favorite toy/game? Nail polish
  14. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas. I mean Halloween. No Christmas: we get presents.
  15. What would you buy if you had $1,000? A bike
  16. Where is your favorite place to go? Twisters
  17. What is your favorite restaurant? McDonald’s
  18. What is your favorite memory? Visiting Liam at the hospital. The 2nd time and the first time.
  19. What is your favorite stuffed animal? My unicorn. I mean my pony head.
  20. What is your favorite thing to sleep with? Pony head (I asked her what is her pony head. She shows me a pony but says you cut off the head.)
  21. What is your favorite fruit? Pineapple. I mean watermelon.
  22. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms
  23. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal
  24. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? breakfast
  25. What is your favorite dessert? Ice cream cake and ice cream
  26. What is your favorite drink? Fruit punch
  27. What is your favorite game? Mario. That’s a game. Daddy plays it… with me.
  28. What is your favorite movie? Frozen, Star Wars, and Harry Potter
  29. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Soccer and swimming
  30. What are you really good at? Doing cartwheels. I’m going to do cartwheels right now. (Then she left and did a ton.)
  31. Where do you want to go on vacation? Legoland
  32. What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner? cheesesteaks
  33. What do you want to be when you grow up? A pizza (laughter) to make movies
  34. What is your birthday wish? I wish I had a unicorn that I can ride. One that grants me wishes.
  35. Who is the president? Donald Trump. Then she went on to talk about Obama and change her mind and say Donald Trump was the President. 
I skimmed her birthday interview at 4.5 and her favorite thing to wear was the thing she was wearing then. She also had a unicorn involved in her birthday wish. Her favorite animal was a zebra too.

Friday, June 28, 2019

Newborn Photos (4.24.19) EML

I realized I never posted more of the newborn photoshoot. Here are some pictures of just the kids. There are many more with Ella and Liam. She wanted to be in every shot and every pose. 
Look how gentle Ella and Miles are with Liam. They posed so well that I feel like there were a million pictures of them within 15 minutes when I would have thought it'd take a lot longer.  Everyone was so good. 



Look at Miles's eyes here! I love how he looked right at the camera.







Liam's 10th Week (6.23.19)

6/17 Trying to clean
Liam seemed better at sleeping at the beginning of the week but then at night it was so hot even before 11 pm he'd wake up 3x. It makes for some misery for me. I'm so exhausted.

He stared grabbing at toys you hold above him.  He will touch at things and sometimes grab it.

He has done tummy time a lot more and almost never lifts up his head at all.  I'm not sure if it's that he can't lift up because he does right away it's that he just doesn't.

At the park, we met some new moms of some older kids and they talked about how alert he is.

I am SO tired. I just need some more sleep.  Which probably means he needs some better sleep.
6/19


Monday through Friday, Liam did 9 preschool drop offs and pickups.  He only didn't go Thursday morning.
On Monday, he went to PT with me and we were there for 3 full hours! He was so good.
On Wednesday, we hung out at preschool for a bit and we went to gymnastics.
On Thursday, we went to Bubb Park for a play date with some kids from Ella's class.
On Friday, we went to Costco and hung out longer at preschool.
On Saturday, we went to Ella's birthday party at Twisters and also to Grant Park for the Summer Concert Series.
On Sunday we went to Costco, McDonald's, and Cooper Park.

I swear we went to the grocery store one time but I can't remember which day now.
Liam is always busy tagging along doing lots of stuff.

6/17

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Liam 2 Month Update


Stats:
  • Weight: 12 lb 6 oz - 52nd percentile 
  • Height: 24.75" - 98.8th percentile
  • Head Circumference: 40.2 cm - 81st percentile
  • Weight/Length Percentile:0.5%
  • Diapers: Size 1 until June 13 but that was just because we ran out of size 1 
  • Clothing: 3 month clothing. Some brands are too short. A few weird gerber ones he's been wearing 3-6 mo size. 
  • Shoe Size: N/A
  • Teeth: 0
(stats using WHO. I never remember which ones I use each month.)

Sleep
Sleep is pretty much horrible.  Almost all naps, I end up having to wake him up to go pick up or drop off the kids. Waking him up for this usually messes up his next nap too. Overnight he slowly got better but not really. The last 2 nights he had 2 stretches over 3 hours but usually that is not the case.  Most early in the night stretches of sleep were 2 hours then once 5 am hits they are shorter.  He had 6 hours of sleep once but I was holding him in the chair and saw it was 3 hours and tried to get him to eat a little while he was still sleeping then when I put him in the crib he lasted 3 more hours. He was asleep the entire time on me.

Eating
I don't have a clear picture of this. 5 days this month he had a growth spurt and was nursing after 30 minutes of not nursing. It was brutal. During the day it's closer to 2 hours between nursing sessions.
He nurses most of the time but has had a few bottles of pumped milk. It's amazing that he can take a bottle. He had 3 bottles this month and 2 were given by Ella.
I tend to nurse him more when he's having issues sleeping. He will wake up a lot and not nurse at all and other times wake up and nurse and go right back to sleep. Usually depending on how much sleep prior he had. He barely spits up at all this month. It's gotten so much better.

Sample Schedule:
Oh I have no idea. Nothing is consistent. Bedtime isn't even consistent because we have things going on from the other kids.  I'm often waking him up from naps. He will nurse prior to sleeping all the time when we are home. When we are out he can fall asleep being held or in his carrier. His naps range from 15 minutes in his crib to 2 hours but rarely 2 hours.

Special Moments:
On May 16, Liam spit up so bad. It was so messy. He was nursing and just backed off and I saw it happen. It bounced off me and onto his face. Also onto the chair, 2 boppies, his swaddle sack, his onesie, my 2 hoodies, my shirt, and my pants. It took 18 min to change all. At 7 PM he had another major spit up.
On May 17, Liam had his first time in Tesla.
On May 18, at 8 AM, He got spit up everywhere.
On May 21, Liam spit up in the car while driving. It was a lot.
On May 24, I noted that Liam started smiling 3-5 days ago but now he's getting more consistent. I showed Liam a mirror. He loved himself. He smiled. Then he looked at me through the mirror.
On May 26, Liam spit up in the crib the last 2 times he was in it. Liam fell asleep on me but before he fell asleep on me he spit up twice in my bed. We had our special dinner outside. He sat on Ella's chair mostly.
On May 27, Liam's diaper got so full that it leaked leaked and his shirt and sack were dirty.
On May 31, Liam had a growth spurt the last 2 days. (That meant eating every half hour.)
On June 3, Liam stayed on his play mat my entire workout. Only started to whine at cool down.
On June 4, in the middle of the night we fell asleep in the chair. Then I did a dream feed. He never woke up.
On June 11, Ella changed his diaper.
On June 12, there was a fiasco with changing Liam. The bathroom with the changing table was locked at gymnastics. I can’t find wipes. There is poop on clothes. I dig in the car. I only found 2 wipes. This was not enough. I used a water bottle to wet Kleenex. (This was Miles's idea.) Then I can’t find the spare onesie. I dig everywhere. Then we go in for rest of gymnastics. Then I find wipes and more wipes and find a spare onesie but it's too late for all that.
On June 13, Liam's first size 2 diaper because we ran out of size 1.
On June 14, Liam had his 2 month well-check doctor visit. He got 3 shots and the one liquid to eat. During eating somehow it sprayed him right in the eye. Understandably, he was not happy at all. He recovered quickly though. At dinner time, he fell asleep in my arms while I was getting food for the kids.

Development:
He just started reaching up to grab stuff but isn't opening his hands yet.  He will smile when you smile at him.  He started kicking a lot with his legs. 

Other Tidbits:
Likes
He likes to look at me when I talk.

Dislikes
He doesn't like car rides when he wants to eat or sleep.

Fun Facts
Longest time sleeping: 5 hours 55 minutes  
Days with a sleep greater than 4 hours: 6 (8 on the other app because i had 2 right at 4 hours)
Days with a sleep greater than 5 hours: 3 (one was when I did the dream feed in the middle)
Days with a sleep greater than 6 hours: 0
(According to the internet sleeping through the night is considered sleeping 5-6 straight hours.)
Diapers used (from June 1-15): 10 per day 
Time spent nursing (from June 1-June 15):  3:33 per day  
Time spent sleeping (from June 1-June 15): 14:28 hours per day    

Favorite Toys
none yet

Favorite Songs
none yet

Favorite Books
none yet

Other Tidbits
Around his eyebrows his skin is really dry and flaky. Cradle cap may be in the process of showing up. I almost never do legit tummy time with Liam. Oops. Then the doctor said all the time he's awake he should be on his tummy. Oops. 
My recovery
I almost never weigh myself but I think I have 35 lbs left to lose. I've gained weight in the past month.
My back pain is almost totally gone. I can overdo it here or there but on the daily basis it is not bad. I still have a few more PT visits left.

I'm so exhausted. Liam is up a few times in the night then Miles tends to wake up early. Also Ella and Miles are up late at night and as soon as I'm done with their bedtime stuff I have a few things to do kid free so don't go to sleep right away.

Now I must be so much older than I was when I had Ella and Miles because my ankles get swollen so easily. If I fall asleep in the nursing chair in the middle of the night, I end up with swollen ankles.

I started working out and have done 10 days of 21 day fix.

Monday, June 24, 2019

Raspberry Lemonade Bars


We get our Raddish Kids boxes and our kids love to make the food. They pretty much never like to eat it though. I often record cooking but then don't often compile them.  Here is a recent compilation. They made raspberry lemonade bars. They had to chill for 3 hours. I didn't take a picture of the finished product but they were pretty sweet so I didn't like them.

This was in our most recent box and we made the dessert on 6/18/19. We haven't made the main food dishes yet though.

They always get out stuff to use from previous Raddish Kids boxes. Miles loves to get his spatula. The whisks are also from raddish kids in a previous box.

Instastory 6.23.19


I've been using instastories more and I sometimes I save them to my phone in a compiled version. I like to see the day at a glance. I just feel like 15 seconds of a picture is pretty long. I think I'll post a few on here just to see them later. Most of the time my videos don't require sound or don't have sound.

Summary:
Tummy Time
Chilling and kicking (original video was not cropped like that!)
Books
Fire making in the smoker
Kindergarten play date comparison
Biking
Walking
Eating Ribs
Last year on the 23rd

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Comparison ~2 months

While nursing Liam at preschool, I couldn't very well leave in the middle of it so started looking at old pictures. I started to show Gio pictures of Ella at 2 months old. Then we decided to save one of her then find one of Miles.  We did 2 versions of this.  I was done nursing and wasted an extra 20 minutes looking at old pictures and then making the collages. But now I have 2 comparisons of them all at around 2 months old.
Both pictures go Ella, Miles, then Liam. In order of age.

Who do you think Liam looks like?  Ella's cheeks are much puffier but it's harder to tell in these photos.  Miles was so much bigger.  Body size Liam and Ella are more alike.

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Liam's 9th Week (6.16.19)

6/11
This week was by far the hardest week for me. It was so exhausting. Or maybe the exhaustion is setting in. Almost every single night he doesn't sleep longer than 2.5 hours. He might have his initial stretch at 3 hours which is totally when I'm awake. During the day he is taking longer to get down for a nap and napping much shorter.  I have to wake him up almost every single time I have to leave the house. Or we go to school drop off late so he wakes up but at that point he's not swaddled since I knew I'd have to leave. That means he's not sleeping as well.  It kills me to have to wake him to leave or try to hold off a nap that fails because of appointments or pick-up time. 
6/11
Liam has started grabbing at or touching things in front of him. He likes to lie down and chill. He does not like tummy time but when he's on tummy time he just rests his head and doesn't lift it up. He kicks with his legs a lot. He coos a lot in response to talking to him.
6/15
On Monday, he went to PT. On Tuesday we went to a friend's pool. On Wednesday, he went to gymnastics. On Thursday he went to Father's Day dinner at preschool.  On Friday, he went to his 2 month doctor visit.  On Saturday, he went out for ice cream and to Safeway. On Sunday, he went out to dinner.  Everyday he did preschool drop off and pickup except Friday morning when Dave dropped off Ella and Miles.
6/16
Liam turned 2 months old this week and I'll have a separate post if I ever get to finishing it. He had his 2 month doctor visit and got his first round of shots.

Friday, June 14, 2019

2019 Week 23/52 Photo

Ella's preschool had an end of year celebration and graduation.  For some reason I like how you can see the teacher taking a picture with her iPad too. I could crop it but I like it.  Ella's entire class was graduating and half of the next class. They usually just have 1 class worth graduating but birthdays just happened to work out this way.

Photo Taken June 7, 2019

Here's a bonus picture. Miles wanted to wear Ella's Elsa gloves. She said he couldn't unless he wore her other Elsa dress. He said "OK!" and they excitedly ran upstairs to get changed. Funny neither one is wearing Elsa gloves. The dresses lasted about 2 minutes.

Photo Taken June 9, 2019

Thursday, June 13, 2019

LIam's 8th Week (6.9.19)

6/6
Liam will often enjoy his play mat and looking up at the lights for a half hour. (The mat is partially broken and the stuff doesn't spin anymore.)

Liam likes to look around a room now. He has a lot more head control. He will move from his back to entirely up on his side.

He still doesn't sleep for long periods at night. The only time he ever gets over 4 hours is when I fell asleep holding them then I get him to nurse before he's awake.
6/6
This week Liam has spit up a lot less. I can't think of a major spit up and he just had a few minor ones. I am not having an easier time getting him to burp though.

Liam will be fussy a lot more than he was before. He will be tired but won't go to sleep. Or he'll want to nurse but also doesn't want to. He gets fussy when Ella is holding him.

There are periods of being awake and pleasant. Sometimes even lying there for awhile observing. But then there are also periods of cranky unsure what he wants and feels like.

Monday, June 10, 2019

Ballet (5.22.19)


Ella's ballet class at school put on an open class.  The open class is just like a weekly class. All the kids were so excited to see their parents.  I was so impressed with everything Ella and the class did.  I took plenty of videos and pictures.  I compiled a video and here are some pictures too.