Milestone moments...

It has been an eventful week for little miss Tatum...here's a quick recap.

1. Tatum's 6-month check up (this past Tuesday):

Well, my little girl isn't so little...

18 lb 2 oz (90%)
26 1/4" long (75%)

So we have officially outgrown the infant carrier and have ordered two new carseats for my van...the old ones will transfer to Matt's Trailblazer when the new ones come in. For now, my vehicle is the only "kid friendly" vehicle, since we have taken out the carrier and installed Kellen's 2nd seat rear facing for Tatum.

2. She said, "Bye bye"

I was leaving daycare Thursday after feeding Tatum and said, "Bye bye" to her. She looked up, mimicked me perfectly and said, "Bye bye."

I'm NOT kidding or stretching this at all. And I have two witnesses...both of the teachers heard it and I think if their heads had whipped to look at her any quicker they would have popped off.

3. She crawled

She's been getting anywhere she wants to go by various methods, including the infamous army crawl, but today..she did the real deal...And to her Aunt Boo...visiting from DC this weekend. This is the first time that Aunt Boo has seen Tatum, so I guess that Tatum wanted her Aunt Boo to feel really special.

Oh my goodness...Do milestones come in threes? We've talked, crawled, now can we get some teeth to FINALLY pop through??? Please???

Just a day with the kids...

Happy Labor Day to everyone!

Although TAMU was open and running, the kids school was closed today, so that meant that Mommy took a day off...at least from "work" anyway. Between yesterday and today, all of the laundry is clean, dry and put away, the floor is vacuumed, the kitchen is cleaned up (well, mostly anyway), Kellen and I changed the sheets on Mommy's bed, and I've sold a few items that I've been trying to get out of the house for a little while. Whew!

Plus, I fixed, at Kellen's request, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then he and I managed to play play-doh for a while before lunch and nap. Then he took a 3 hour nap...Yes, I typed that correctly...A 3 hour nap.

Wow!

Amazingly enough, Tatum decided to take a nap at the same time...so I was really able to get a few things done while they both slept...although getting a nap for myself in was, unfortunately, not one of those things. Oh well!

Then I wanted to take the kids out of the house, and my idea was to surprise Kellen (and treat myself, of course), to a milkshake from Whataburger. However, after waiting in the drive through line and making it to the ordering station...we found out that they had no chocolate today. So our milkshake was out. No chocolate?!? Seriously?!? So we went across the street to McDonald's and Kellen said that he, "changed my mind" and wanted to get a Happy Meal instead of a milkshake...Sure, no problem!

We come home and play a little more before dinner, and sure enough...Tatum is sitting up by herself. For real. And she's still 2 seconds away from crawling...She's taken a half of a crawl to me...she just can't get both sides coordinated.

All-in-all, we had a GREAT day!

Kellen at Kyle

Yesterday was Kellen's first Aggie game at Kyle Field...other than the Maroon and White games, of course. We hadn't planned to take him to the game, perhaps to the tailgate, but not the game. But he had other ideas.

We got up and got our Aggie gear on, Kellen and I in our jerseys and Tatum in her Aggie outfit (make note Mommy...need more Aggie gear for Tatum in larger sizes for the rest of the season), and were hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, who had come in Friday night and were staying over to watch the kids while Matt and I went to the game. Matt gets home and Kellen asks, "What time are we going to go and watch the Aggies play, Daddy?" Matt's reply, "Well, we don't have a ticket for you, Kellen. We weren't going to take you to watch the Aggies play today."

Well that didn't sit well with Kellen. He didn't throw a fit, but his bottom lip turned under, and in the most pathetic voice (at least according to Matt), he said, "But I want to go and watch the Aggies play, Daddy!"

I think that settled it.

So we made some arrangements, and got Kellen into the game. He had a really good time - I'm not sure that he's ready to go on a regular basis, but overall...he really did enjoy himself...

So here's our photo journal of his first Aggie home game...

Leaving the house for the game...All geared up..

Tailgating...Let's play some football, folks!!!

Walking to Kyle Field...

Here's my ticket, Ma'am...Thank you! Gotta' love them ballpark hotdogs!"Thank you for bringing me to watch the Aggies, Daddy!"

Kellen and Mommy at the game...

A big WHOOP for an Aggie win...38-7!

Playing on Kyle Field after the game...Down, set, hutt...

Squash and Size 9's

My kiddos are growing. They're growing up. Right before my very eyes. And there's nothing I can do about it.

Through a series of wierd circumstances, we found ourselves this morning without shoes for Kellen. His crocs (or alternative crocs, if you will), had been broken on the playground and were without straps; his tennis shoes had been inadvertently left at Uncle Eddie and Aunt Glenda's last weekend when I was too sick to pack things up and Grandma and Grandpa got the kids, me, and all of the stuff packed up and back to College Station - minus Kellen's tennis shoes, 1 pacifier, and a burp rag; and when Daddy had, again inadvertently, left the bag with the boots which Kellen had been wearing for the last week because of the lack of tennis shoes and broken crocs at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's yesterday when we left there. So anyway, we're trying to walk out of the door this morning and realized that we had to revert to the broken crocs.

We had to go shoe shopping today. Today- of all days. The first day of school.

So after work, I pick up the kids and it's off to Target we go to get Kellen some new shoes, because wearing broken crocs for two days in a row at school just won't work. They fall off of his feet when he's walking - I can't imagine what it was like for him to try and play on the playground in those today! We try tennis shoes on his feet. His previous tennis shoes were size 8 1/2 - but these....these are a size 9. And he says that they're comfortable. And his toes are in the correct spot.

Size 9. Yup. Size 9.

While at Target, I decide to put my ambitious goal for making homemade baby food on the shelf, at least for the time being, and buy baby food for my poor starving child who doesn't look like she's had a meal in ages.

****Ok, I'm picking myself back up off of the floor and I'll stop laughing now. ****

She's done very well on the sweet potatoes (both her and Kellen's first "real" food), so I get some squash, green beans, carrots, applesauce, and a butternut squash and corn mixture. Then she decides that she's had enough of this relatively short shopping trip. Seriously enough. And she's letting EVERYONE in screaming range know about it. And there's nothing Mommy can do.

Why did I decide to go shopping again on the first day of school when everyone was out? Oh yeah...Kellen didn't have any shoes to wear to school.

I digress.

We check out and walk outside, and to prove that she was telling me she was done with the shopping trip, she immediately stops screaming when we get outside. Yes, dear. I get your point.

Back home and time for dinner...and she loves the squash - at least until her teeth - or the places that there should be teeth on the bottom of her gums - start bothering her. Then she just wants me. But she ate almost the entire jar of squash and really did like it. When are these teeth going to come through so that they can stop hurting her?

And there is a note on her chart from school letting me know just how close she is to crawling. Yes, thank you. My not even 6 month old child is 2 seconds away from crawling. Somebody get me a baby yard. And quickly.

I'm in trouble over here.

Learning

We just got DVR a week or so ago, and I'm loving it (I knew that I would). Matt surprised me with it, since prior to this we had no way to record anything .

Well, Kellen is capable of using many of the various remotes that we have, he's familiar with the basic, most-used bottons; on/off, volume, & channels on the TV remote; play, stop and pause on the DVD remote, but we hadn't worked with him on the DVR stuff yet. It was just too new and we haven't had a chance.

Well, amidst the many episodes of Scrubs, House, and some random other movies that we've caught, I DVR'ed Hercules for him. Today as he was watching it, I showed him how to fast forward through commercials and then play when the commercials were over. He caught the hang of it really quickly, but then got upset when he didn't push play fast enough and didn't know how to rewind. So I talked him through that and then simply exclaimed,

"Now you know how to fast forward and if you go too far, you know how to go backwards and rewind!"

"Yup. I'm learning." was his reply.

I don't quite know why that struck me as funny, but I almost fell off of the couch laughing at the way he said that!

Milestone moments...

AHHHH!!!

Tatum's coming up on all 4's!! And is managing to "scoot" herself backwards!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!

She's too young to be getting ready to crawl...I'm not ready for this...seriously...I mean...It's good and all...but still...

And she found her feet and toes yesterday...it's too cute!!!

The first of many...little friends

So when Daddy was outside working yesterday, he came across a caterpillar and brought him inside for Kellen. We put a habitat together for him and put him inside Kellen's bug catcher...we've been watching him crawl around inside there and eat on the leaves, etc. We come back from church this morning and no caterpillar...come to find out, Kellen had left the door open for a WHILE, and "Hermie" had escaped.

Oh boy.

Surprisingly enough, Daddy found him while Kellen was taking a nap. Hermie was near the TV, so Daddy put him back in his home...and here we are...observing this really beautiful green caterpillar with some small orange spots on the sides.

Interesting to see how this will turn out! Kellen's excited to see if he'll turn into a butterfly.

How sweet...

Cuddle time with the kids...(Tatum was really enjoying this more that it appears...honest!)

House help with Daddy...Kellen's such a good helper!!!
So Kellen takes his screwdriver outside and tells Matt that he needs something to use it on. Matt tells him that they really aren't going to be screwing anything. Kellen's response,

"Well can I get my hammer and bam something then?"

I'm guessing that's a statement that would have made any Daddy proud.

Swimming scare...MawMaw to the rescue

What is it with us and scares lately?

We were out of town this weekend (Matt was at work on Sat) and went swimming at a pool of one of Matt's relatives...Maw Maw was watching Kellen and I had Tatum in the pool...Kellen was in the hot tub portion of the pool, which had a circle seating area around it and Tatum and I were on the other side of the pool in the shallower portion playing...Well, he was walking around the hot tub playing (like any kid would be in the pool, right?) and walked right off of the edge, into the actual tub part, which was unfortunately right about the height of the top of his head.

Maw Maw grabbed for him (she wasn't in the pool, but was on the edge close to him) but missed, and saw him trying to get back up to the surface - unsuccessfully, I might add - and at the time that I screamed "HELP HIM!" - she jumped in fully clothed to grab him. There were 3 other kids in the pool with him playing (all older and VERY good swimmers), but they were behind him and didn't realize that he was having trouble and couldn't get back up...

*sigh*

Luckily, he had done the things he had learned in swim lessons and didn't come back up with lungs full of water...grabbed onto Maw Maw, and then was ok...Not too scared or anything. (And we're talking he was only under for seconds really...it just felt so much longer to me!). I had Maw Maw take Tatum and then he and I played so that his lasting memory wouldn't be a scary one...by the end of the day he was begging not to leave the pool, so I don't think this experience has left any permanent "scars" on him...But boy it sure did scare me!

That's what I get for bringing the swim clothes and forgetting ALL of the floaties...I would be ok with no more scares for a little while over here...

But, Maw Maw to the rescue!

Baby kisses

Tatum started giving kisses this weekend...and it was GREAT! She actually started off with her Maw Maw, then her dad, and I finally was able to get in on the action on Sunday. It's so sweet! When I leaned in to kiss on her cheek, she grabbed my head with her hands, turned her head to me with her mouth wide open, and did this wierd mouth motion on my cheek.

Gotta love those baby kisses!!

My goodness...does it ever end?

Saturday:

Matt and Kellen went to the used furniture shop today and Kellen tripped over a couch and landed with his upper cheek (immediately below his eye) on the corner of a coffee table. So....Matt calls and tells me that he's taking him to the ER...took him to there to get it looked at - the doctor decided to glue it instead of getting stitches. Matt said the doc told him that either way (stitches or glue) it was going to scar. All-in-all, Kellen was quite the trooper!

Let me just say, when Matt called to tell me about this, my brain went ALL KINDS OF CRAZY because he mentioned that it was right below his eye. WHEW! It was SO MUCH worse in my head than what it really is! Not that it looks wonderful or anything, but my brain went to worst-case scenario there...

Afterwards we went to McD's for a post-ER treat...(Gotta' go and get me some of that Mederma for kids to work on that scar!!)

Sunday/Monday:
Kellen went with Daddy and daddy dropped him off at MawMaw and PawPaw's...He spent the night with them, and came back today with daddy after he got off of work. Straight to school...and to the start of a new classroom - kind of. He napped (rested is more like it) in his old classroom and then spend the rest of the day in his new classroom. He's officially a jellyfish now...no more seal.

Now Tatum is sick.

I got the call from daycare this afternoon and picked her up...she's alternating between her sweet and smiley self and just miserably coughing. Poor girl! She doesn't have much of an appetite and is running a low grade fever as well. When I listen to her chest, I can hear her rasping when she's breathing.

*sigh*

We're going in tomorrow morning to the dr...not our regular doctor because we couldn't get in to see him until late in the afternoon tomorrow, but another one at UPA...

Does it ever end?

Sunscreen Spray Scare

So last night, I sent Kellen to brush his teeth (he brushes them first, then I brush them) while I was putting some laundry in to wash. In the midst of doing that, I heard a bloodcurdling scream come from the direction of the bathroom - how it didn't wake Tatum in the next room is still a mystery to me. Anyway, I run to the bathroom to discover Kellen holding his eyes and screaming, and see the sunscreen spray laying out. After I ask what's wrong and what happened - yell really, to be heard above his screaming - Kellen tells me that he's sprayed sunscreen in his eyes.

Unfortunately, what I suspected, but OH MY!

I pick him up and carry him to our bathroom, put a towel down on the sink, flip him upside down and hold his head under the faucet in an attempt to rinse his eyes out. As I'm washing his face off, I can feel the sunscreen all over his face. I'm trying to calm him down, but what he's screaming most is that he wants a hug. (Insert breaking heart here...because I CANNOT stop trying to wash his eyes out). I'm talking him through this, "Sweetie, your eyes are burning because of the sunscreen and I have to put the water on your face and in your eyes to get the yucky sunscreen OUT of your eyes. Help Mommy and open your eyes for me under the water so we can get them rinsed out." I finally started making a dam-like contraption with one of my hands so that the water would pool around his eyes and then had him blink (as best he could and would).

After about 5 minutes of this, he begs me to get in the shower. At this point in time, I texted Matt with "Call home asap."

So we strip and hop into the shower...same kind of thing...head under the spray, blink lots and lots. Except that he wasn't really blinking much because the water and his eyes were hurting. Poor baby!

Matt calls a few minutes later, asking what's wrong. I give him the Cliff Note version. So, talking Kellen through it even more, I told him that I was going to open his eyes under the water - did he want me to do both at one time or one at a time? He opted for one at a time...I had him "hug" me with his arms and legs and then used my right hand to open up his left eye - got that under the water, and we did that for a few minutes, but it was getting painfully obvious that Kellen was so very DONE with this whole thing. He just kept begging to go to bed.

Then the door to the shower opened up. Matt had decided that enough was enough and he was so much more needed at home...and had come home from his workshop/class and went into EMT-mode. He took Kellen and had Kellen talk him through what had happened...did an informal eye exam to make sure that Kellen had full use of his vision, including peripheral, talked about whether or not Daddy looked fuzzy, etc. Then he took him into the other bathroom and had Kellen re-enact the spray (pointing down to the ground) so that we could actually see how much sunscreen Kellen had sprayed (not that much).

All told, I had been washing his eyes out for about 20 minutes by the time Matt had gotten home...Kellen told Matt that he only got it into 1 eye, and he told me that he got it into both. By looking at his eyes, I would say that he got some into both eyes - they were both red and bloodshot, but definitely the bulk was in his left eye...which was pretty swollen when we were all through.

Lots of cuddles, hugs, kisses, etc later, he went to bed.

This morning, he runs into my room, excited to tell me that his eye doesn't hurt or burn him. And that he's NOT going to do that again!

The kicker of this whole thing...it's totally OUR FAULT that this happened because the sunscreen was someplace that he was able to get it. Locked cabinets don't work, because he knows how to open them.

*Sigh*

The volcano erupted

So this morning as I was feeding Tatum, I noticed that she was doing her business. I stopped feeding her, sat her up, and started burping her...thinking that I would let her finish, change her diaper, then proceed with her breakfast.

Well, a minute or so passed when I felt something seeping through my jeans onto my leg...let me indicate now that I was already fully dressed for work at this point in time. I looked down, and see a volcano of poop seeping out of her clothes. Yes ladies and gentlemen, her poop was defying gravity -- going up her diaper back, halfway up her back, over the top of her cute little shorts, and then running over the top, and down onto my leg and onto our recliner, looking remarkably similar in consistency and texture to the oatmeal mixture that she has decided she loves and has been eating.

Oh my, oh my. How DOES poop defy gravity?

Weekend madness!!

My goodness!!!!

So.........

Matt went on Thursday and picked up our new (not brand new, but new to us) TV...a 55" one...According to Kellen, it's, "A big FAT TV!" It stayed in the back of my van for a few days until he and I were able to get it out and into the house yesterday (ok, mostly him...but I DID help some). TV is now a completely new experience over here!!

We traded in Matt's truck for an '03 Chevy Trailblazer on Saturday, then get back to Conroe to find out that Tatum had finally mastered rolling over from her back to her belly. She hasn't finished cutting the two teeth that she's working on, but I think she's getting pretty close!

Weighed her on Maw Maw and Paw Paw's scales this weekend and she's a whopping 16 pounds. We'll see what her "official" weight is tomorrow morning when I take her in for her 4 month check-up. Wow! She blew past Kellen's growth curve already...I think she's almost gained a full 2 pounds JUST in the month of JUNE!!! Amazing! Someone asked me what she was eating, and when I replied, "Nothing, she's just nursing," asked me what I was eating! LOL - My reply, "Anything I want!"

Kellen's asking for more swim lessons, and for a turtle (he got that from HigglyTown Heroes...but he's not letting it go). Swim lessons we can do...not to sure about the turtle.

16 weeks old...and quite a few accomplishments

Tatum is officially 16 weeks old today (not 4 months - that milestone occurs on July 3rd, but 16 weeks). And to celebrate this momentous occasion, she actually had quite a few accomplishments today....

*We got a jumperoo from a friend and she discovered that she REALLY likes it

*We discovered that she could sit up, assisted by the boppy - and that includes balancing herself when she was almost falling backwards to catch herself and picking herself back up to a sitting position...And that she does it quite well for quite a long period of time...and LOVES it!!!
















*She tried cereal today...just a little, and actually ate some!















It was a REALLY busy day...

I spy, with my eye...

Well, on his way home today, Matt taught Kellen how to play "I spy" and so Kellen taught me while we were driving home from school today. He was just so much fun!

I spy with my eye...
Mommy, is it my turn?...
Mommy, you can't give up...try to guess again...

He was just precious!!

Can she already be cutting a tooth??

So Tatum has been a little fussy at night, like she's hurting...she'll suck on her paci, then her hand (not fingers - her entire hand), just about anything she can get in her mouth...and HARD (nuff said, right?) - but so far I haven't been able to feel any nubs or see anything on her gums. However, today I thought I saw the beginning of a tooth nub on her lower gums...(you know, the white line underneath the gum area..)

Is that possible? I mean, she's a little wiggle-worm, so I can't really be sure (it's not like she's sitting still so that I can peek in her mouth or anything). Kellen didn't get his first tooth until ~ 6 months or so...
I gave her some Tylenol about 20 minutes ago and she's calmed down quite a bit...

*sigh*

I guess I need to add teething tablets to my grocery list?

Cleaning spree

Well, since Matt is at work and Kellen is at MawMaw and PawPaw's (story time is tomorrow), I decided (what a wild hair - LOL) to take a half day off, leave Tatum in the very capable hands of her daycare teachers, and come home to clean my house (something that I don't seem capable of juggling with work, the kids, and Matt's crazy schedule right now, despite my "routines" and best intentions). I'm tired of cleaning up only to have it get all messed up again as soon as someone (ok, so I can leave Tatum out of it...for now) walks through a room! I have spent half of the day cleaning and I'm still not done! *sigh* I have gotten quite a bit accomplished, though...so that's good...

Ahhh! I feel like signing up for clean sweep or something!

I like the quote that I've seen in a few places...I think I want it to be my new motto:

"Cleaning up while you still have children in the home is like shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing!"

That sounds about right, doesn't it?

ER Trip...and not for the kids

Matt was being a sweetie today. I didn't end up rolling out of bed until ~ 10:30 or so...he just brought Tatum in to me when she got hungry and then would take her when she was through. I CANNOT remember the last time I slept in that late. We're keeping the laundry going and are both in cleaning-spree mode (which works out really well, actually) and he was working on laundry and asked me not to put anything else in the washing machine because he knew what he wanted to wash next. I'm still not sure exactly how he managed to do it, but, he managed to cut his head on the metal thing holding up the shelf above the washing machine as he was loading or changing clothes over from the washing machine to the dryer. He ended up with a pretty good little cut there on his head. Using the mirrors, we positioned it so that he could try and see how bad it was, and we ended up deciding that he should go ahead and go into the ER to have them take a look and either steri-strip it or suture it up. I'm just glad it didn't knock him out and that we aren't dealing with a concussion, too. On the first trip to the ER, they decided to steri-strip it to see if that would be ok. They wanted him to come back in an hour or so for them to check on it to see if it needed stitches. So on the 2nd trip, (The benefits of working at the ER, right? *grin*) they decided that the steri-strip would be fine. The dr said that based on where it is, the stiches might actually make the scarring worse. And, he doesn't need antibiotics, he's just supposed to try and keep it dry. Another plus...his tetanus shot is up-to-date, so he doesn't have to worry about getting another one of those, either.

*sigh* and *whew*

What a day!

What a weekend!

Wow! Matt remarked to me on the way home this afternoon that it felt like we had been gone for 5 days. I have to agree.

We left on Friday to go to his high school reunion. And Friday afternoon was pretty crazy! I took the afternoon off so that he and I could go and find something for me to wear to the reunion...we managed to find something for both Friday night and a semi-formal dress for Saturday night in a relatively painless manner, which was great as far as I was concerned. I also managed to get my hair cut, he picked up both of the kids, then we took Kellen to swim lessons after eating dinner at the mall, and when he was finished with swim lessons, we headed out of town by 8 PM. *whew* I think I was tired by the time we left, actually.

Anyway, we went to the social and hung out there until late (at least in my book) - we left around midnight or a little after. Luckily, Maw Maw and Paw Paw were on kid duty, so we were really able to have a good time this weekend. Unfortunately, Tatum started running a fever on Saturday...not too high - 101.5 was the highest it got, and she did respond to Tylenol, so we continued with our plan to go to the formal portion of the reunion on Saturday night. She was a little fussy when the tylenol wore off, but once it was in her system again, she was acting almost like normal, just sleeping a little more than usual.

We got all ready to go, and made it to The Woodlands around 7:45 or so...then Maw Maw called and told me that Tatum's fever had broken and had really come down (so much so, it turns out, that they didn't even have to give her any more medicine before she went to bed - yay!). So, we're all dressed up - Matt in his suit and me in a new red dress and into the reunion we go. We ended up having a really good time, for a really long time. The reunion was supposed to last until midnight, but shortly before then, they announced that they had the room for another hour. So we stayed around until 1 AM, then decided to continue to hang out with some of Matt's friends even after that. At 3 AM, I think Matt finally decided it would be easier to leave while I was still somewhat awake then to have to carry me out, so we ended up leaving.

Today Tatums fever hasn't been that bad...it's been elevated, but just low-grade, not too bad. Kellen, on the other hand, apparently had a really bad night last night and is seeming to get progressively worse. He was awake off and on all night long, and was complaining of his head hurting him...not sure what that's about. Today he started running a fever..and it's now progressed to 102.9 - WITH Tylenol in his system for an hour. Hmm...we'll be alternating tylenol and ibuprofen, I believe, to get this under control tonight. He isn't acting like he feels bad, but he is complaining that his head hurts some. Not much else other than that.

So I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes with both of them. Keep your fingers crossed for us!