Thursday, June 28, 2012

3 Months


Wowey Zowey! Aspen is already 3 months old!! 


She is such an incredibly sweet baby. She's calm, quiet, and easy going. She is working so hard this week on turning over from back to tummy. She's so close! I feel like that is really quick! I've gotta get Lincoln's stats out and compare what he was doing and when. 

She is a daddy's girl already. They snuggle together on the couch every night. This is how I find them almost every night! 


We're enjoying being home together. Lincoln often drives me crazy...but he's so much fun. Every day  he says or does things that amaze us. He used the word "necessary" the other day...and used it correctly. It was necessary that he have peanut butter. HILARIOUS!
He's developing an incredible imagination and makes up things to do and ways to play. He has a "new" kitchen set and is loving cooking for us. The problem with this imagination is that it gets him in trouble. I think his imagination is running away with him. He started screaming at bedtime. For several nights he woke up 2 or 3 times just screaming, I'm not sure why. But he acted scared to stay in there alone. He asked to leave the light on, so I found our Vicks plug in that has a green light and turned it on for him. For the following several nights he started screaming about going to bed way before it was even time. He kept telling us he was scared to be in his room. That's so sad! There's not really anything you can say to make him feel better. We were at the ends of our rope...what else was there to try?
The next night Anthony took him to bed and he came out without Lincoln crying. I asked him what he did. "I did the only thing I know to do, when I don't know what else to do. I prayed with him." They had a sweet bedtime prayer for protection and he went right to sleep! Now he asks to pray before bed every night and hasn't had any trouble going to sleep since that first night of prayer! 
Why did it take us so long to figure that out?! We pray about everything else, why wouldn't we pray for bedtime? 

Anthony is doing well. Just waiting for August 7th so he can go back to Baptist for his very intensive testing to see what type of kidney he needs. If you're not an organ donor, please consider it. You could save the love of my life!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Size 2!!!

I know, a funny title, but that's what hit me today. Aspen is moving into size 2 diapers! Wow! Can she already weigh 12 pounds?! Is her belly already so big the size 1 diapers are having trouble closing?! I can't believe how incredibly fast this time has flown by. Lincoln's infancy was speedy, but this is ridiculous!

Aspen is amazing! Incredible! We hit the baby jackpot. She is now almost 12 weeks old and weighs right around 12 pounds. Since she was 6 weeks old she's been sleeping through the night. Here lately we get anywhere from 8-10 hours at a time. She's "talking" all the time now. She will lay around and coo, ahh, ooo, and now she's really starting to laugh! She really tends to laugh alot when you're playing with her mouth. Like if you're trying to get her to take a paci she'll grin with her whole mouth and laugh at you. Or when Anthony's singing her song she'll giggle. (Anthony makes up a song for all of our babies! They just come to him, and Aspen's is totally different than Lincoln's. It's totally precious!)


She rolled over for the first time just over a week ago! :) From tummy to back...that seems way too fast!  She can hold herself up on her elbows and look around for a few minutes at a time now. She seems to like it, I think it gives her a different point of view from all the normal stuff she sees. She is still only breastfed and she's doing great. She's going about 3 hours during the day between feedings. I don't think she's as big as Lincoln was at her age, but I need to look that up to be sure. I just remember him being a chunker pretty quickly! She's more dainty I guess you could say. She still isn't really 'playing' with anything. She can't hold the toys yet. She seems to enjoy looking at lights and fans. She can follow me around the room and seems to notice if I leave. She loves to be held, but she's often just as happy laying in the Boppy or sitting on the counter in her papisan chair.

 Lincoln still absolutely loves her. Not for one single day has he been jealous or hateful. He just fusses if I don't let him hold her enough, or kiss her enough! When we walk into a new place, or even walk into Nana's house he points to Aspen and says, "My sister!" Priceless.

Aspen is still wearing 0-3 month clothes and size 1 shoes...and they fit just about perfect. I think that means she'll be growing out of some of them very soon! We are very well stocked on baby girl clothes up until about 24 months. It's funny how when you have a girl everyone has stuff they want to get rid of. She has been almost totally clothed so far by my precious friend Alyssa Stewart. Her daughter, Ella Kate, just turned 3. She was an April baby too so all our seasons match up. Perfect! I also just started a new stash of cloth diapers and I am really looking forward to them being delivered. There's wayyyy woo much money being spent on disposables in this house! No more!

Sweet girl got her first round of shots 2 weeks ago at her 2 month check-up. She was a trooper. She only cried for about a minute and then pretty much slept the rest of the day away. She got fussy that evening during my super fun Pampered Chef party but thankfully Nana was here to lend a hand. She was 95th percentile for her height, 24 inches, and like 45th percentile for her weight: about 11 lbs 14 ozs.

Lincoln is truly wonderful. And oh so smart! He talks non-stop alllllll day! He's speaking in sentences anywhere from 3-10 words long. Sometimes it's more. We've started spelling things so he doesn't know what we're talking about! He can sing the entire alphabet song correctly, and does regularly. Probably about 100 times just today...... He also loves "twinkle star" and "uffin dan". That's Muffin Man for those not in the know.  Zaccheus is also sung around here daily and he still loves those bus wheels. Some of his favorite toys this week are his guitar, his Lego Duplo train set from Christmas, a Little People construction car set, his phone, and his new ride!

We got him a Power Wheels truck at a consignment sale a few weeks ago and he loves it. He rides around and around the house looking for speed bumps. He's an excellent driver and can steer around all the things in the yard or basement. He also knows that when he gets stuck or can't go any further to put it in reverse and go backwards. It's so funny to watch him drive circles around the house.


Anthony is building him the mother of all play sets in the backyard.


 Lincoln wants to be outside with Anthony at all times. He's learned how the drill works and helped screw in a few bolts. He has his very own tape measure and enjoys pulling it in and out and checking everything. He watches Doc McStuffins on the Disney Channel and he uses the tape measure, and Lile's leash, to give everyone a check up. More often than not I need to go to the hospital. And he says it in such a serious tone of voice! The playset has 3 decks. The first one from the ramp is 3 1/2 feet tall, the middle deck is 5 feet tall, and the upper deck is 7 feet. There is a swirly tube slide from the 7 foot section, and a smaller wave slide from the 5 foot deck. Lincoln went down the tube slide twice on the day Anthony and his dad put it up. But he won't go down it again. Not sure what happened there. Maybe he went to fast the last time he slid and it got him scared. But he will ride the wave slide, and today we even put the pool under it so he could slide down into it. So cute. Eventually there will also be a swing set on the same side as the wave slide, monkey bars opposite the wave slide, and up the back of the 7 foot section Anthony is going to build a super big climbing wall. He wants to make a big one so he will even be able to teach Lincoln how to top rope and belay. Not for several more years, but hey, why not?! Anthony's trying to get hooked up with some tin for the roof. The 7 foot section is the only one with a cover, but Anthony figured that's the one they'd want to hang out on anyway, because it's the tallest and largest of the 3 decks. More room to play. Underneath this grand structure we have planned a small sized picnic table. That way when the kids have friends over they'll have somewhere to rest and sit. If we have a cookout or party the kids will have their own table to eat on.
Lincoln's first slide!

Lincoln is wearing crazy sizes. It's silly that he can still wear all his shorts from last year. So he's wearing 18-24 month shorts. The 2t sizes are all way too big around the waist and they just fall off. He's worn a few pairs, but we both hate them. He spends the whole day walking around yanking his shorts up. No fun for either of us. His 24 month shirts also fit, but he can also wear 2t. The only difference in them really is that the 2t are usually a little longer. Since he's so tall that usually works out just fine. His shoes are a size 8. That's quite large for such a young one. Many of our friends are still in 5s or 6s. I have discovered my children's clothing philosophy: I like clothes that fit. Period. I'm not one of those mommas who buys all their kids' clothes one size too big so they can "grow into it" or get more use out of it. I just don't care. I'd rather both of them have clothes that fit right now. I don't want their clothes hanging off of them. I want them to be comfortable and look nice. And look nice we must, we all wear nice things when we go out. Whether it's just to Wal-mart or to a nice dinner at Kobe, we look put together. I enjoy wearing nice things, and so should they.



Anthony is doing great. He's still doing dialysis at home 4 times a day. It works out great and is very flexible. As you can tell by the craziness of the play set mentioned above that he's feeling fine. Better than fine probably. He's super. We went to Baptist on Wednesday, June 13, for an educational meeting and to get blood drawn. We spent the large part of the morning in a class with an RN talking about how the transplant works, the surgery, recovery period, living donations, and then finally the financial side. All of it sounds good. We are really hoping he can find a living match. This would be best for him because of his age and lifestyle. If he found a living donor he would get more/longer use of the transplanted kidney and he would have less of a recovery downtime. They're saying he'll only be in the hospital for 3-5 days and then released back to normal activities in 4-6 weeks. The reason he'd be out of work longer is for the myriad of doctor's appointments that are required to test for rejection and to monitor that the transplant is working properly. We have given the hospital several names of people who are willing to be tested to see if they are a match. The hospital will then contact them for more information and send them a kit to take to their doctors for a blood draw. If you (or someone you know) would like to be tested please let us know. It's as simple as drawing blood. If it turns out you're a good match there would be other tests, but everything is paid for by Anthony's insurance. Which brings us to the financial worries. That actually turned out to be NO worry at all! Because Anthony has a primary insurance carrier with his work, and he has Medicare as a secondary insurance... basically the cost of the transplant will be $0. This would cover everything for Anthony and any donor. Incredible. Unbelievable. Now if only we'd get on the list! We still have to go back in August for more rigorous testing. This time it'll be x-rays, MRIs, more blood drawn, and all kinds of other things, in addition to meeting with the surgeons. They told us to plan to be there all day, and pack lunch. Fun.

I am well...cleaning out my classroom and packing my stuff away. What an experience that is. After 9 years of teaching the amount of junk I have accumulated is ridiculous! I'm trying hard to let a lot of it go so I don't have to store it all! The building is getting full fast! I'm hoping to be completely finished this week and officially be a stay at home mom. At least for the next school year. Then we'll see what God's plan is for our lives. I will try very hard not to go so long between posts next time, it's very hard to have to catch up! Thanks for reading...and remember, we love comments! <3


Lounging outside on Father's Day. What a beautiful day we had. We spent it in the backyard sliding into the pool! Aspen just lounged around. This bathing suit is so cute it makes me want to cry! :)