If you haven't figured it out by now... I'm not a very good blogger.

I was horrified when I randomly checked the blog and noticed that in my last post I was still pregnant.  Well the baby is now 4 1/2 months old and more importantly I now have an IUD. Yay!!

Seriously though, Than was born on January 19th at 5:50 am.  I spent the day before asking my friends who wanted to be updated when since I am the type of girl to FB, text and talk on the phone while I am in labor.  We didn't realize that things were going to move pretty quickly when I got induced.  People went to sleep thinking I'd be having the baby the next day and woke up to the "He's here!!" announcement.  He was very fussy and not a good sleeper at all the first few weeks.  He turned a corner at 8 weeks and turned an even bigger one at 12 weeks when he started sleeping through the night.  At some point between the 8 & 12 week mark we realized (after a midnight trip to the ER while Chris was away in DC on business) that Than has a severe milk allergy.  Once I cut out dairy from my diet he turned into an awesome peaceful baby and I was back to my rockin' Mommy self. It's amazing what a little sleep will do for you!

Than is great.  SO close to rolling over. We're almost on a nap schedule. He's finally taking a binky.

Charlie is almost a year and a half. He's trying so hard to talk up a storm.  He is putting two words together now. "More please." "Hi Daddy." "No Ellie." He has discovered how to climb up on the couch and is starting to listen when we tell him to do things. He's shaping up to be a really good kid!

Ellie is a fabulous flourishing four year old. She didn't care at all that her baby brother was born the day after her birthday and graciously agreed to sharing her birthday with him if that's how it ended up.  She was in the pool for the first time this season last weekend and it was amazing to see her with no fear in the water.  She is a hesitant kid when it comes to most things so I seriously was one proud Mama watching her in the pool.

Hubby and I are great.  We celebrated our seven year anniversary in March and he even gave me his blessing when I ditched him in May to attend my cousin's wedding in Florida all by myself for four whole days!!  It was amazing and rejuvenating and I think I need a little holiday by myself once a year!

Random Thursday Update

I know this blog is a million shades of boring. I'm not a writer, never was, never will be. I just like that I can write down what we've been up to so family back in NE feels at least a little more connected to the kids. I know they are still cursing us for moving them away.

Charlie had a dermatology appointment today because his diaper rash came back. The dermatologist said that everything looks good and he doubts Charlie ever had a staph infection. I'm annoyed by this mostly because I had to throw away a bunch of diapers that run about $18-$22 each just to be on the safe side. I was majorly disappointed when the rash came back after tossing a small fortune. By what I described, because of course it was 99% cleared up by the time we got in to see him, he said it was most likely yeast and nothing to be concerned about. He did give us an Rx diaper cream to use if it does come back again. He was really nice.

Ellie has been a trip. She's been talking a lot about babies and being pregnant lately. We started putting up the Christmas decorations and she has a small nativity scene on her night stand. She keeps telling me that her baby isn't named Jesus.... imagine if we named the kid Jesus? Goodness!! On the flip side of all the cuteness is a little girl I want to send away on vacation for a while. She just loves to say “No” and has trouble listening when there is something else she’d rather be doing. Last night she went to bed without stories. She screamed her head off for five minutes before she fell asleep. She woke up at 5 a.m. asking for stories. I gave her Gramma’s magic sleepy blanket (a random blanket my MIL gave her) and she went right back to bed. It worked like a charm and I only wish Chris had thought of this idea earlier!

Still no decisions in the baby name department. I do know that after the power cleaning last weekend I have absolutely zero energy, which makes me a little sad because I feel like I'm ignoring Ellie just a wee bit! It seriously takes me all damn day just to get the kitchen cleaned. It’s in a constant state of mess, which I why I have a hard time enjoying cleaning in the first place. Why doesn’t anything ever just STAY clean?

My doctor called me. My lab work came back negative so I’m fine. The thyroid ultrasound did show a nodule, but it’s only 3 mm and they don’t worry until it’s over 1cm. I go back in a year to get it checked again. They’ll just continue to keep an eye on it. Chris had his yearly check up too. He has to go for a sleep study and still has to get lab work done. Why does everything go downhill after you turn 30… actually Chris isn’t even 30 yet!! I have no idea what I’m going to do for his b-day. Any ideas? I doubt he ever looks at this so you can leave a comment if you have a good one.

We are going on a DATE Saturday night!! This will be our first date out of the house since Valentine’s day when my in laws where here and stayed with the kids so we could get a drink and catch a movie. We are hitting up the movies again to go see “New Moon.” I am beyond excited.

If you want to feel like you're the best parent on earth... attend a flu clinic.

Bubba, Magoo and I got our H1N1 shots today. The clinic was from 4-8pm. We got there at 3:45 and by 7 we were vaccinated. Nothing like standing in line for three hours with a bunch of strangers to make you feel REALLY good about your parenting skills. Now, I’m not usually one to judge, but it was just plain crazy. There was one Mom who wasn’t watching her son as he took their friend’s stroller and ran-a-muck with it all through the line and the PARKING LOT, where there were many MANY moving vehicles. Then there was the lovely woman behind us who hit her kid a few times and repeatedly told him she was going to “beat his a$$,” “make his a$$ warm,” oh and let’s not forget the ever charming “I am going to beat your f***ing a$$.” She was quite charming. I gather she’s from Camden. At one point her son accused Ellie of kicking him… Ellie… my scaredy cat, gentle, couldn’t hurt a fly unless it’s her brother, Ellie. All in all, they were pretty ridiculous. My last, but certainly not least, favorite parent was the guy who shook his daughter over in the corner and SCREAMED at her “stop crying, you’re scaring all the other kids.” Really? Because I’m pretty sure he was scarier to them than her crying. Chris and I certainly left there feeling like we deserved awards for Mom and Dad of the year.

I was supposed to go out with my preschool Mom’s tonight. By the time we left we were all tired, cold and cranky from standing outside for three hours. The kids were starving so we took them to Friendly’s. I could have met up with the girls when I got home. After all, they did move it back to 7pm and changed the venue to a restaurant in town…but all I could think about at that point was going to bed. After all, I would rather spend a nice night out with my hubby and kids more than anyone else.

On the kid’s front, they are both doing well. Ellie is gaining weight and her cardiologist was really happy with her progress. Her sats hung out at 98% while we were there last week. Her echo showed that her heart function is great and the fenestration closure is holding up nicely. We go back in 6 months. He even said he thought it was about time we got her g-tube out, since we haven’t used it since February and it’s more of a nuisance anyway. We have a GI appointment on the 30th, so hopefully we can talk about it then and get a plan in place.

Charlie is just a perfect almost 11 month old. I can’t believe he’s going to be a year old in a month. It’s crazy. I feel like he was just born yesterday! His latest bag of tricks include: blowing kisses, waving, giving high fives, doing “so big” (which is his favorite), and saying “Yay.” He really understands so much too. I can ask him to come over to me and he does. I ask him where his binky is and he finds it. It’s just unbelievable the amount of “stuff” that gets processed through that brain of his! He won’t be walking by his first b-day. He will walk with his push toy and cruise around on the furniture, but shows no more interest than that.

#3 is doing well. I’m going in every two weeks now. He’s insanely active just like his big brother was. He is still nameless. We currently are considering: Cooper Scott Luis (Coop), Brycen Christopher (Bryce), Brody Scott Luis, Nathaniel Scott Luis (Nate or Than) and Maxwell Scott Luis (Max). Any thoughts or ideas? The middle name will most likely be Scott Luis, but we really liked the way Brycen sounded with Christopher… so it could go either way. I just have a feeling this kid is going to come home from the hospital without a name.

I had a serious case of nesting this weekend. #3’s clothes are washed and put away. I scrubbed the house down top to bottom and went through all the rooms. We put all the toys downstairs and rearranged Ellie’s room. We also rearranged the boy’s room. It looked a little weird the way we had both cribs set up before, but now it looks perfect. Once we buy some crib bedding and get that up I’ll take pictures and post some. This place has never been so clean!

A (mostly) Charlie Update

Charlie had his 9 (1/2) month appointment today. We had it late because he was supposed to get his flu booster. They were out and I was rather annoyed. Oh well. Anyway, he weighed in at 20 pounds 13 ounces and was 28 1/2 inches long. Dr. Sarah was really impressed with how well he is doing and was happy to hear that we got to drop the Urology specialist!

Charlie is pulling himself up on anything and everything. He doesn't really "cruise" yet though... which I'm okay with because I feel like it is delaying any random trips to the ER. He crawled up the two steps my MIL has at her house last weekend. That was cute to see because we don't have any stairs at our house. (Can I get a hell yeah to having a ranch when you have small kids running around!) He has 7 teeth with #8 well on its way to popping through. His first word was "Dada" and second "Mama" I swear he sometimes says "Hi" and "Ellie" but that would make him a boy genius so I guess it's all in my head. Dr. Sarah did say that she doesn't think he'll be an early walker, but could be an early talker since he can already distinguish between Mama and Dada. I guess his ability to do that so soon makes him super special :) I was happy to hear that because I have been setting myself up for him to not be that great a talker because second kids typically aren't when they have older siblings to speak for them (or so I've been told).

He is completely on table food and is transitioning well to milk. We'll have him transitioned off the bottle and completely on milk by 11 months. The ped suggested we do it this way with #3 coming so close after Charlie's 1st b-day. His iron level was through the roof so there were no worries on her end about going all milk so early. Did I mention meatballs are like his favorite meal of all time :)

#3 is doing great. He's completely healthy and is getting to be a little porker. We can feel him outside my belly now which is fun for Ellie and Chris. I have an appointment in a week or two for a regular OB visit. Nothing exciting going on here (finally!). Here's a 24 week belly picture:

Ellie is beyond adorable and continues to love school. We just got back from our annual trip to Maine and she was quite the dare devil. It was the first time she actually went on rides at the fair and she was the most excited for the Ferris Wheel... which is super sized and gives me heart palpitations just looking at it. Yeah... Ellie was bending over the edge looking DOWN!! Who knew she had that in her?

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Our trip to D.C. and a few random kid pics

We really had a great time in D.C. Chris attended the Inc. 500/5000 conference and awards gala with the President and VP of the company he works for. I was lucky to get an invite to tag along. We stayed across the street at the Marriott and I spent a lot of time in the comfy bed and my PJ's! I spent the mornings attending entrepreneur sessions and the afternoons watching my soaps in bed. It was pure bliss. I missed the kids a lot, but it was nice to only have to worry about myself. It took a couple of days to adjust once we got there and then another couple of days to readjust once we got back!!

The black-tie gala was great. I only wish I could have drank with a million open bar events and a champagne reception before the awards gala. It's funny how much you miss something only because you can't do it! I'm not much of a drinker usually!

I had one epiphany about entrepreneurs... some are just arrogant a-holes while others just consider their good fortune a stroke of luck, even though they possess the same charisma and business sense the a-holes have... the second type are far more likable. Here are some random pictures from our trip:

Outside the Gaylord National (Conference Headquarters)

Inside the Gaylord Atrium where there are shops and restaurants

Charlie at the doctor's before we left.

Charlie enjoying our new stroller.

Ellie at the park after school.

Charlie enjoying a cracker.

Lunch at the park!

#3

The best stroller ever invented. EVER!

Lounging around during our trip through Target.

Oh, we're back to our vacation... this is where we had lunch.

The pier.

Oh and there is the Mercedes that we didn't win!

Special thanks to Gramma and Papa for coming to stay with the kids. They had a great time and Chris and I could only enjoy ourselves knowing that the kids could care less that we were gone!

A few random updates

Magoo is doing fabulous on the potty... no accidents in about a week now. We are through all of her surprises and she's still keeping up with it so I'm happy. She is thoroughly enjoying school.

Bubba is standing up on things now. It's really cute. He falls sometimes, but most of the time it doesn't even phase him. He is cutting another bottom tooth. He had his LAST Urology appointment today. He right kidney is perfect and his left kidney is a little large, but nothing the doctor is concerned about. No more visits with them unless he gets a urinary tract infection or something. Woo hoo!

Hubby and I are leaving for Washington D.C. in a few hours. The kids are staying here with my wonderful in-laws for the next few days. I have never left them for more than a night so I'm nervous... not nervous exactly... I guess I can't explain it. I know they will have a ton of fun with the grandparents and I know the 'rents will take great care of them. It's just going to be weird being without them for so long.

Why D.C. you are wondering? Well, the company Chris is working for has made it on the Inc. 500/5000 list. FIG placed #574 on the list and is #8 in the education industry! It's a wonderful honor and they are going to treat us like rock stars while we're there for the conference and awards gala... I am certainly looking forward to a few nights of uninterrupted sleep and not having to wake up at any specific time, but I'm REALLY excited for the crab bake and black tie awards gala. Of course they are having a champagne reception and I'm totally pregnant... but whatever. Maybe they'll make the list again next year and then I can enjoy myself a little bit too much :)

I am aware that I have been seriously lacking in the pictures department. I'll do better when I'm back from vacation!

Bubba's back... and a Magoo update

Bubba is a bottomless pit. So much so that I can officially call him Bubba again. He's sick right now, so he literally only nursed twice yesterday. BUT this has not stopped him from eating anything and everything. I am a lot less nervous with him than I was with Ellie. When I was a first time Mom I waited until she had an appointment with her Early Intervention Service Coordinator before I tried "real" foods with her. I remember the first time I gave her peanut butter a little before a year old (I know that's early, but it has a lot of fat and protein and she needed it) my mother shoved some in her mouth while I held the phone in case I had to call 911. (Do you remember that Mom? LOL) With Charlie I just throw food at him and see what happens.

He's a little over 7 months old. He has been eating Cheerios for a few weeks now. In the last couple of weeks I've gotten daring with him. I knew some day he would eat more than Ellie, which isn't hard to do since she's my sweet little bird, but I had no idea it would be so soon. The other day while grocery shopping Ellie wanted pepperoni. I got a little bit from the deli and she ate it through the store - so did Charlie! He had at least four slices while in Wegmans. It was spicy! He loved it! He has eaten ham and cheese for lunch. The other day at Panera he ate some of Chris' cheese and broccoli soup AND some of both of our rolls. I gave him graham crackers a couple of days ago. He devours them. They are very messy though so I'm not sure how much longer I (the girl who usually doesn't mind a messy kid - so you know they are MESSY) will be giving them to him. I am trying to find some Mum Mums for him. They are an organic baby teething cookie that Ellie use to like. I found the toddler ones at Wegmans, but not the baby ones. I'll keep looking.

Ok back to our future foodie, this morning he ate two stage two's AND a waffle! Ellie didn't even eat her entire waffle. While pieces of his ended up on the floor I'd say he ate a good 75% of it! I think at lunch I am going to give him a slice of wheat bread and see what happens. I just love this age. He is so much fun and I'm starting to enjoy the two of them together again.

Magoo, as most of you know, has had some MAJOR regression issues as of late: potty accidents, acting out against Charlie, not sharing, being a BRAT! Enough that it has tried our patience as parents and Chris and I were beginning to wonder where we went wrong... but I am happy to report that she went all day yesterday with no accidents. She has been waking up in the morning, making her bed and getting dressed for the day, in big girl undies, all before she comes into our room in the morning. While she did kick her brother in the nose this morning, it was an accident. She is like a new kid and I'm really enjoying it. I'm sure now that I wrote about it I have jinxed thing, but I'll take it for as long as I can get it!!

And our week of doctor's appointments begins...

We just got back from Ellie's GI appointment. She gained a pound since we last saw them three months ago. She made a giant leap from the .4% to 1.6% on the growth chart!! WOW! (That's me being sarcastic!) I always thought she was on the 3rd? Oh well! She was 25 pounds 9 ounces, but they weigh her with her clothes on, which will only start to bother me if they go back and forth and don't consistently weigh her with them on. I think now that she is on the "big girl scale" they will. She is doing well gaining without using her feeding tube and she gained in height as well. Over all her BMI is at about 3% when they'd like her at 10%. No doctor we've ever been to has said a thing to me about BMI so this is new to me.

Dr. M was very pleased with her progress. We are going to go back in three months. The current plan is to continue on a high calorie diet. Once we have this Diabetes Insipidus thing under control, if she does indeed have it, we will start her on "Magic Milk" which is basically her whole milk mixed with a 1/4 cup of non fat evaporated milk to increase calories and protein. She doesn't want us to start it until the doctor calls with an all clear regarding her DI. We should know by Wednesday whether she has it or not. If she does, we'll have to see an Endocrinologist and there is one at the satellite office we currently go to, so we won't have to travel into Philly and go directly to CHOP. I wouldn't mind, but it's awfully convenient having the office right down the road.

In three months if Ellie is still doing well we are going to wean her off of her Prevacid! I never thought I'd see the day, never mind the meer mention of it. I am eager to get her off of any meds she doesn't need so we'll see! She is what they call a silent refluxer so we'll only know if it works once we get her off and if she starts complaining of pain or her eating slows down.

As far as her mickey button, we will keep it in until she's weaned off of her Prevacid and get the all clear from Cardiology that she won't need any surgeries in the near future... which we don't plan on, but who the hell knows, Ellie keeps us on her toes as far as her medical situation! We're looking at next year now. I'm totally okay with this. It's a nice little crutch if we need it and once it's out it's out and there's no going back unless things get really bad.

I was going to put up some pictures since we spent the last two weekends in Philly, but I can't seem to find the camera. You'll see more at some point this week.

Charlie is doing well. We are waiting on a call back from CHOP with a Urology appointment to let us know once and for all that he has no kidney/bladder issues so there is one less thing we have to worry about. He's sitting up and eating finger foods now. He still misses his mouth most of the time, but it's a work in progress and so fun to watch!

Chris is great. Still enjoying his job. Nothing new to report there.

I'm good. A little over 12 weeks along now. Tonight we go for my first trimester screening to make sure #3 is healthy and doing everything he/she should be doing. I'm excited to get another ultrasound. My OB here is awesome and I've had one at every visit! We go to the hospital where I'll deliver tonight though so that should be neat. OK enough blabbing. I'll update more tomorrow after Ellie's cardiology appointment. That's the one I'm anxious about!

6 month check up

Bubba had his 6 month check up today.... Bubba isn't so Bubba-ish anymore I guess. The pedi said he should have doubled his birth weight (8 pounds 12 ounces) by now. He's only 16 pounds and 9 ounces. I'll let you do the math. She isn't worried, but said we'll keep an eye on things. She did say that he grew well. He's currently 25 3/4 inches. I was trying to find his 4 month check up sheet to compare, but I can't find it. I'm fairly certain that's a big jump though! He was a complete champ through his vaccines and only whimpered a little. I couldn't believe it.


He's eating about two stage two jars three times a day. He's rolling all over the place and has lifted himself off the ground a few times in the last week. I think he'll be crawling before we know it. He's already into everything just by rolling around! I got the okay to start feeding him "real" food as soon as he has a pincer grasp. He tries hard, but it's not there yet. She said probably closer to 8 months. She did say for now I could feed him little tiny nibbles of things to see how it goes. He had a piece of watermelon today. He didn't choke, but he didn't exactly EAT it. It more just sat in his mouth while he mashed it around for a bit. He did eventually swallow it though. Speaking of his mashing, he now has TWO teeth! His two bottom ones are through!
Ellie is doing fine. She hasn't gained any weight and is just kind of hanging out where she is. We are cycling her off of her appetite stimulant now in hopes that her eating will pick up again. As I type I am fighting with her to put on clothes so we can go pick up dry cleaning. She loves to be naked lately!

On the home front things are good. I killed the hanging plants that I bought a couple of weeks ago. The look pitiful and I need to remember to take them down before our playgroup Thursday so I'm not embarrassed! Poor things. At least I tried.

Baby #3 is good. Making me eat a lot. I suppose I shouldn't complain about that though since I enjoy eating! I'm about 8 1/2 weeks and go back to to doctors on July 6th. You know you're on #3 when you receive an ultrasound pic at your first visit and can't find it once you leave the doctors office. Poor kid!

We are going up to MA for the week. I'm starting to do the whole "packing thing." Which takes days and I always feel like we don't have enough packed. Thank god we're staying at MiMi's and can do laundry!!

I love that Ellie is holding Charlie's hand in this picture! She adores her baby brother and is very excited about being a big sister again. She tells Charlie how he's going to be a big brother and says funny things like "I wonder if it's going to be a boy or a girl." And "Charlie aren't you SO excited you're going to be a big brother." It's kind of funny. She really gets it! If you ask her how the baby got in my belly she says, "Magic!" LOL I just love her to pieces!!

The Quiet Weekend

A quiet weekend is something we're not use to. We keep asking each other - "what are we going to do today?" It's so weird. We're usually overbooked with family parties and plans with friends. Not this weekend!

We did rent a few movies (love red box) and we checked out a new (to us) restaurant "Cheeburger Cheeburger." It's like the "Peach Pit" from 90210. It's a dangerous place that serves cheeseburgers that you choose all the toppings for and the most amazing onion rings, fries, and don't even get me started on the shakes! I'm sure my meal was well over 1500 calories. It was sort of worth it though.

Magoo continues to do well eating. She hasn't really gained this week. I just weighed her after her bath and she was still at 23 pounds 13.5 ounces. BUT the important thing is that she has sustained her weight with absolutely no use of her g-tube. She continues to eat well and try new things. Just last night at the restaurant she had deep fried mac & cheese. They are triangles of mac and cheese deep fried in peanut oil. She ate about half of the serving, which is great. She usually will only take a bite or two of something. She actually just yelled from the living room "I'm hungry Mom. Can we eat dinner?" WOW! Yes, she is eating her Edy's ice cream with a baby spoon in that picture. I think it's part of her regressing baby stuff. She is doing AMAZING with potty training. It's been a little less than a week now. She gets plastic pants or pull ups during the night and sometime at naps. She hasn't really had many accidents and not more than one a day at the most. She stayed dry all night last night. We don't put anything on her when she leaves the house. It's more work for us now than anything. I started giving her "chores." She is now responsible for making her bed in the morning. This morning she made a bed on the coffee table in the living room. LOL. She cracks me up. She's eating Brownies right now watching Madagascar 2 for the third time.
Bubba is doing well too. He is always so happy and his smile seriously melts my heart. Nothing much new going on with him. He is starting to giggle a little. His head control is almost perfect. I put him in his bumbo seat today for the first time and you could tell his little neck got tired. He's almost there. He's passed out sleeping on our bed at the moment. When he wakes up it's his turn for a bath. The cloth diapers are working out great. I have enough that I wash them every other day. When he moves up a size we have enough to last a few days I think. He has not had diaper rash ONCE! He is starting to reach out for things. He bats at them, but doesn't quite get grabbing yet. I'll post how much he weighs after his bath. I'm sure it'll be at least 13 pounds. (Yes, he was 13 pounds on the dot!) Chris just got in from vacuuming the cars. Apparently he pulled a muscle in his butt. Only he could accomplish this. I suppose I should start lunch! After the kids have their afternoon nap we are heading to the local mall to check it out. Oh yeah, exciting news... I found TWO D&D with drive thru's! One is near Target and the other is near one of the grocery stores I frequent. The good news is that they are far enough away that I wouldn't go there just for the heck of it. The bad news is that there is one right inside one of my other favorite grocery stores. I have only gone twice and both times I had coupons for a free something or other, so I haven't actually spent any money there. Go me! Go me! D&D seriously is an addiction.

Starting to notice some differences about Jersey...

Jersey auto insurance is almost three times what it is in MA. THREE TIMES! It's going to cost more than Magoo's preschool, which now I'm not sure we can afford :( There is a kids gym down the road. Maybe she can do that instead and preschool can wait until next year? She did get into the morning session. At least we have some time to decide...

I found the satellite office of CHOP where Magoo will be seeing her cardiologist. It is literally 15 minutes away! On the way I also found a dry cleaner and an Acme (which I am pretty sure is the same as Shaw's). The prices were ridiculous. I'll need to get serious about coupons again. EVERY old lady there stopped to admire the kids. Magoo even managed to squeeze a free cookie out of the bakery manager. On our travels this weekend Jenn & I came across some sort of thrift grocery store. I'll have to try to find it again.

We weighed the kids last night. Bubba lived up to his nickname at 11 lbs 15 oz. A guy at AAA today guessed he was 3 1/2 months! Magoo weighed in at 23 lbs 10 oz. She's slowly getting there!

Ok, one more Jersey rant... there are NO drive thru's anywhere here! I guess no D&D with a drive thru is good for our bank account, but it's still terribly inconvenient. As much as I love my iced coffee I won't drag two kids out of their car seats and into a Dunkin' Donuts just to get one. In Franklin we even had a drive thru at our dry cleaners. Maybe I'm just spoiled... but as a mother of two, I was really loving drive thrus.