Well baby checks

I took both of the kids to the doctor on Thursday for their well-baby checks. Eli had his 18th month check and Kamdyn had her 1 month. I can't believe how fast time flies! I can' believe it's already been 1 month (over a month now) since we brought our baby girl into this world. It seems like just the other day that I was taking Eli to his 1 month check-up. Now he uses the doctor's office as his own personal jungle gym. I'm pretty sure I could have left him in that office and he would have been in heaven. He doesn't have to go back until he's 2 now. That's only 6 months away!!!!

Anyways, both kids are looking great and growing like weeds. Eli was 26 pounds 14 ounces and 32 inches long. Kamdyn was up to 9 pounds 4 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long. I couldn't believe how much she weighed. I know 9 pounds doesn't sound like too much yet, but I don't think she looks like she weighs that much at all. I was thinking she would be somewhere around 8 1/2 pounds. I'm obviously a bad guesser. Her PaPa Huton says that she must be gaining that extra weight in her cheeks. She's got some big chipmunk cheeks. But so does Eli; better to store all those chicken nuggets in:). Now that she's in the 9 pound range, she is finally fitting into her newborn clothes. I think that I might even be able to try to move her up to some 0-3 month stuff in a few weeks. Kamdyn goes back at 2 months for another check and her first round of shots. We will see what she's up to then.

Seriously....could you be a bigger help:)

One of Eli's new favorite pastimes is pulling all of the diapers out of the diaper drawer. He tries to get away with it when I'm in the room, but is never very successful. So.......he now does it when I'm doing other things and am not keeping an eye on him; mainly when I'm feeding his sister. He's a smart kid. He knows I won't follow him out of the room and will have at least 15-20 mintues to get into whatever kind of mischief he can. I guess I should be thankful he's keeping himself entertained, but this is not what I had in mind. This just equals twice as much work for mommy. I've even found diapers down the stairs a few times. He's got a room full of toys to play with and the place he always runs off to is the diaper drawer where he knows he's not supposed to play.

I definitely need some prayer for patience with this kiddo. Eli is a great kid, very loving, and overall a good listener. That is, until you tell him no or pull him away from something he wants. He follows commands great, but when you say no or stop he just turns a deaf ear. I'm just about to my wits end with trying to figure out an effective way of disciplining him. I know he's still so young, but I think he needs to start listening. I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that he's figured out Kamdyn is here to stay. He is still great with her and more loving than I could ever hope for (to her at least:)), but I've noticed changes in his behavior. He's always been a mamma's boy, but has always been a very independent player. Now he is very clingy. He has to be in the same room as Brian or I almost all the time and whenever I'm not holding Kamdyn, he wants to be held. When he gets upset or angry he throws things and hits. Very frustrating!

But through all the frustrations, he still brings a smile to my face for all of his silliness. As much as I can't stand him pulling diapers out of the drawer, it's pretty funny to walk into the room to find him sitting on the floor surrounded by diapers. And even though this child is very strong willed, he is still so loving and will give you a hug or a kiss whenever you ask. It melts my heart. Now, if I can just manage to make it through the toddler years (who am I kidding, the tweens and teen years too), it will be a miracle.

Lord, thank you for this head strong little boy who is a blessing in our lives in more ways than one. Please grant me the patience to deal with my blessings!

Tummy Time

Kamdyn hates her tummy time. I've never been very good about doing tummy time with our kids because I don't really feel like listening to them scream over it. But, I'm trying to do better this time with Kamdyn. It didn't really matter much with Eli because he was so stocky. Tummy time with Kamdyn is definitely more entertaining. Eli usually can't figure out what I'm doing to her because she gets so upset, but he steps right in as the good big brother and tries to comfort her. It's so cute. Every time she's crying he goes over to her and rubs her tummy or pats her back like he sees me doing. He has such a caring little soul.

Multi-tasking has new meaning

I'm a woman so I've always been a really good multi-tasker. In fact, it's rare for me to just do one thing at a time. However, sice children, multi-tasking has a whole new meaning for me. Nowadays it's rare to see me cooking dinner, picking up the house, playing with toys, starting the laundry, ect., without a child on my hip. Today was a new first for me in the world of multi-tasking. Eli smelled like poop, Kamdyn smelled like puke, and I probably smelled like a mixture of both (don't worry folks, i did shower today, my kids are just very good at getting their bodily fluids onto me). But poop is way worse than spit-up in my opinion. After using 6 wipes or so on Eli I decided to just give him a bath. Even if I managed to get all the mess off of him, he would still smell like poop. So into the tub he went. But, he decided to save his massive poop for his sister's feeding time. This is where multi-tasking comes in handy. I carted Eli and Kamdyn into the bathroom, put Eli in, and proceeded to nurse Kamdyn while Eli played in the tub (first I had to clean up Eli's pee on the floor:). He always pees if he is standing by the tub when you start the water and he doesn't have a diaper on. Pretty funny stuff). No worries, I was plenty close to the tub in case Eli decided to go "snorkling" while he was in the water. I was still in the splash zone so I could catch him if we went under:). In fact, I think Kamdyn and I even got a little wet one time. It worked out pretty well. By the time she was done eating, he was ready to get out; two birds with one stone there. It's time management at it's best:).

While I'm on the subject of baths, I have to ask....what is young kids obsession with drinking bath water? Eli does this all the time and I think it is totally disgusting. I know he's not alone because I've watched several other kids do it before. I don't think I would care too much except that I know what's floating in the water. Our kids aren't usually that dirty when they get baths; they are little and don't do too many crazy dirty things yet. But..... I have watched Eli pee in the bath tub almost everytime he's in there. And today he was getting a bath because he had a huge poop and still smelled like it. GROSS! Who wants to drink that dirty pee-poop water. Well, I guess the answer would be Eli. He knows I hate it too. He takes a drink from one of his toys and then just looks at me with a huge smile on his face. Onery kid. I know there are far more worse things in life, but it doesn't make it any less disgusting.

Pure Entertainment....truly

So a couple of weeks ago Brian had a Friday off because they had had conferences that week. So, I talked him into going with us to Pure Entertainment. This is a fairly new (also totally awesome) place here in Wichita. I might add that it wasn't very hard to convince Brian to go to this place with us; it's a building full of inflatables (think moonbounce). It is in the old BK tennis building where Brian used to take tennis lessons, and it is just filled with 7 or 8 different bouncing inflatables. They guy working there told us that they have over 200 and they switch them out every Wednesday. Very cool. Anyways, Eli is such a little daredevil and loves bouncing/climbing on anything so I thought this place would be a little piece of heaven for him. I also thought it might be a little piece of heaven for Brian as well. He is such a kid at heart and LOVES stuff like this. He is always telling me that we need to rent a moonbounce just so he can go play in it. So we get there and check things out. Eli was very uncertain of this whole thing in the beginning. In fact, he really actually hated it. We put him on one with Brian and he just wanted to climb off. So he came down and hung out with me and Kamdyn while she finished eating. Brian on the other hand, decided to try a few things out :). I say this place is pure entertainment and I mean it. I could go and just watch kids, or even better, my grown husband play on this stuff. It's actually more fun to watch Brian because he was going nuts. Eli was cracking up watching him play on this stuff. Brian was all over the place! After Eli warmed up by watching Brian for a bit he decided that he wanted to give this stuff a shot again. Success! This time he realized that it really was fun. After that, I don't think Brian or I sat down for more than 2 minutes. Eli was all over the place. My brother, sis-in-law, and newphew James met us as well. So did my best friend Sage and her little boy Malachi. Malachi wasn't real sure about any of it, but James was having just as much fun as Eli and Brian (have to make a note here that all of this stuff is very very fun. I was having a blast going down it too with Eli, but I just wasn't nearly as crazy as Brian:)). So anyways, this will definitely be a place that we go to frequently. I haven't been brave enough yet to go by myself without Brian. Eli is all over the place and I'm not real sure I'm ready to brave that yet with both kiddos. Here are some pictures of all the fun!
This is at the very beginning, Eli is definitely not sure that this is the right place for him.

But Brian is.....if I ever wonder where my husband has run off to, I think this may be the first place I check:)

Eli decided this must be a pretty cool place after watching his daddy do a few flips on the equipment.

Kamdyn was just taking it all in. She got so excited once she even pooped all over herself and bad mommy didn't even have an extra change of clothes! I'm thankful for good parents who do remember things like that (thanks Cathryn!). But she did enjoy getting to cuddle with her aunt Amanda and Uncle Ross who were in town for the weekend. This was the first time they met here and Pure Entertainment was the first time Ross got to see her at all.

Very cool slide. Climbing up it is a workout in and of itself, especially with a 30 pound 1 1/2 year old. I've decided I need to go there and go up and down with Eli to get a little of this extra baby weight off.

Brian can't just slide like he's supposed to; he has to bounce. Almost came back to bite him in the butt though. He almost bit it at the end.

4 weeks

I can't really believe it, but Kamdyn is already 4 weeks old. It's one of those situations where it seems like time is going by so fast, but so slow at the same time. She goes to the dr. on Monday so we will see how much she weighs. I know she's getting bigger, but since I'm with her all the time I just don't notice it nearly as much as others do. She finally lost her umbilical cord today. I was so happy. I almost did a little happy dance:). I've been waiting for that thing to fall off for weeks now, but it just kept hanging on there. So now Kamdyn officially has a cute little belly button. Eli continues to be a fantastic big brother. He's lucky she's too little to care much about anything other than clean diapers, sleep, and food right now. Otherwise he might get on her nerves. He does a great job with her, but he just loves her so much that he is always wanting to "love" on her. He is constantly patting her or kissing her. The cutest thing is when she's upset and crying; Eli goes over and rubs her back or tries to pat her like he sees me doing. It's amazing the things they pick up on and notice you doing. He is such a little imitator. I'm so thankful for such amazing kids. Brian and I truly have been blessed!

These Days

These days are spent much more differently than I used to spend my days. Sure, I'm used to chasing after a toddler and taking care of the house and picking up toys after stepping on them all day long, but my days seem so much more full these days. It's one of those situations where everyday seems like it goes so fast, but so slow at the same time. I think a big reason for that is all this gray weather. I'm so sick of the gray skies. I can handle the cold, but give me a little sunshine please. Anyways, while my days are spent much of the same way they used to be, they are also spent so differently.

These days:

I empty our diaper genie every other day
I go through 216 wipes at least every 1 1/2 -2 weeks
I feel like I say no constantly
Have a kid attached to me somehow at least 16-18 hours a day
Push the crib musical toys 5 or 6 times during a diaper change
Change a TON of diapers
I am constantly fetching or putting things away (ex: Eli has discovered the diaper holder and now thinks it's "fun" to pull out all of Kamdyn's diapers if I'm not in the room)
I have 2 extra loads of laundry a week (doesn't sound like much, but it makes a difference when you are putting it all away!)
I am always looking at baby stuff (car seat, bouncy chair, pacis, burp rags) scattered all over the house: my OCD cleanliness has definitely had to take a backseat for the last couple of weeks. It's impossible to keep this house clean or somewhat clean and clutter free until bedtime.
I am the "be gentle" ref
I feel somewhat like a cow (from the nursing, not the baby weight still on:))
I've had to discover new ways of picking up a toddler while nursing a newborn (probably pretty entertaining to watch)

There are so many other ways my days have changed too. And while my days seem totally chaotic and I sometimes count the hours and minutes until bedtime, I wouldn't change it for the world. Brian and I are so incredibly blessed with our lives and our children and I'm so thankful to be experiencing all the chaos that comes with children. I may lose my sanity some days, but Eli and Kamdyn are our pride and joy and every hug or kiss or smile I get makes my job so very worth it.