We've been waiting to hear about this for a long time. Tyler got the promotion he applied for but will be kept on nights for atleast another 6-8 months. Barf.
That's all I have to say about that.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Problem Solving with the AxMan
I feel the need to blog a little about Axl. It's been a while since I documented some things about him and his 23 month old self and found a few minutes to actually sit down and do it! (Though this post will most definitely not be overwhelmingly positive, as most of the posts about my kids are, know that I love my children with all my heart and wouldn't trade them for the world!)
He is talking A LOT. We still can't understand many of the words he says, but it seems like everyday I am able to translate one or two more that he has been using a lot. Most words sound at least a little bit like their actual pronunciation, but there are still a few that just have a mind of their own..e.g. blanket=Gigi??
He has consistently gained weight..around the time Cooper was born, Tyler and I noticed that he was getting pretty thick! Right now he weighs about 29 pounds. I don't think he looks too chunky, but he is definitely VERY dense. We can't really figure out how he keeps getting bigger because we have a very finicky eater on our hands. (this is problem #1) He is always wanting snacks and typically will not eat anything we serve him at meal time unless we give him "snacky" foods. Goldfish, gummies, occasionally fruit (grapes, pineapple..but this is hit or miss). There are a few "meal-type" foods he will eat most of the time (tortellini, chili, pizza (teetza), and hamburger and rice), so I try to fix these often. He is a juice monster. If I give him milk and he wanted juice, he throws the cup, refuses to drink it, and sometimes goes into tantrum mode. (of course we address the throwing...and the tantrum). Because he has been such a poor eater, he would go evenings without eating anything, which started a bad habit (my fault completely). I felt bad that he hadn't eaten anything, and didn't want him to go to bed hungry, so I would send him to bed with a sippy cup of milk because I'd always find it empty when I went in to check on him. I was always so prideful in the fact that I never gave him a bottle in the bed...then I realized..."um, JoAnna...this is the same thing.". So..,.as of two days ago, no sippy cups in the bedroom. He asked me for it last night, but went to sleep fine after I left.
He is crazily attached to his yummy and bunny bear. They have become a package deal. Both are, in theory, confined to the bed, but if he finds one or the other, he starts frantically looking for the counterpart. He only gets them in the bed, unless we are going out, at which time he almost always gets them in order to keep him quiet in certain places, or to ward off an upcoming tantrum in the middle of a public place. (Case in point...I just noticed that the gate was open when I heard Axl scrambling up the stairs...by the time I made it up there he was already ON TOP of the counter getting into the storage drawers where we have decided to keep the yummies and bunny bears; thought they were inaccessible..wow.)
(Now for problem #2) He watches ENTIRELY too much TV. Shrek was our savior around the time we brought Cooper home from the hospital and it kind of morphed into us having the TV on for the better part of the day. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't actively watch the tv all of that time, but it has definitely become our "go-to" in bad situations...How about some Mickey, Axl?
(and problem #3) He is B.A.D. Any of you reading this are probably saying, "oh my, I can't believe she's saying this about her child!"...but really, I have no qualms saying this because I KNOW that's how little boys are SUPPOSED to be. Their mothers, however, are supposed to be able to find a way to cope and not go completely crazy, which I currently am in the middle of. On our way home on Monday from a weekend trip to Tyler's cousin's house, it just completely hit me that we DO NOT have control of things. I started crying as I came to the realization that we were going home and another week was starting of Axl finding everything possible he knows he's not supposed to be into (kitchen cabinets, desk drawers, doors to places he's not supposed to be (even though we have the doorknob thingies), climbing on our desks to find things like screws and scissors, tantrum throwing over the slightest correction, yelling and pointing his finger at us as we're trying to discipline him, just overall craziness.
As Tyler and I talked about it on the way home, we made some realizations.
1. He is snacking too much! I wonder why he doesn't want to eat the lunch I've prepard him when his "stick" (pretzels) bowl has been on tap since 10:30...
2. He is BORED. For the better part of Axl's life, he has been on a schedule...and it worked beautifully. As he got older and more independent, it kind of just became a free-for-all. The only thing sure to be in the schedule was a BIG NAP! Especially when Cooper came along, schedule mode went to her. I wonder why he is getting into anything and everything in the house when he is expected to stay in the same room with the same huge overwhelming assortment of toys he sees everyday...
The past three or four days have been devoted to fixing these problems...I purchased the Babywise II book (5-15 months) which I had never read, thinking it would be helpful in the coming months with Cooper. It had a LOT of pointers on what I could do with Axl! It reminded me that keeping a schedule is a good thing, and we have implemented a few suggestions regarding room playtime and designated time set aside to play with mom and dad.
The first day of our schedule was magical. He was in time out ONE TIME. Did you hear me??? ONE TIME. I couldn't believe it...and I shouldn't have, ha, because the next days didn't go nearly as smoothly, but still overwhelmingly better than they had been.
So, that's where we are. Trying every day to keep things at bay while Axl moves through this toddler phase. People keep telling me, "I promise it won't last forever" and I just say, "well, I should hope he won't be throwing himself to the floor, baring teeth, screaming wildly when his teacher asks him to wash his hands."
Love you, little guy.
He is talking A LOT. We still can't understand many of the words he says, but it seems like everyday I am able to translate one or two more that he has been using a lot. Most words sound at least a little bit like their actual pronunciation, but there are still a few that just have a mind of their own..e.g. blanket=Gigi??
He has consistently gained weight..around the time Cooper was born, Tyler and I noticed that he was getting pretty thick! Right now he weighs about 29 pounds. I don't think he looks too chunky, but he is definitely VERY dense. We can't really figure out how he keeps getting bigger because we have a very finicky eater on our hands. (this is problem #1) He is always wanting snacks and typically will not eat anything we serve him at meal time unless we give him "snacky" foods. Goldfish, gummies, occasionally fruit (grapes, pineapple..but this is hit or miss). There are a few "meal-type" foods he will eat most of the time (tortellini, chili, pizza (teetza), and hamburger and rice), so I try to fix these often. He is a juice monster. If I give him milk and he wanted juice, he throws the cup, refuses to drink it, and sometimes goes into tantrum mode. (of course we address the throwing...and the tantrum). Because he has been such a poor eater, he would go evenings without eating anything, which started a bad habit (my fault completely). I felt bad that he hadn't eaten anything, and didn't want him to go to bed hungry, so I would send him to bed with a sippy cup of milk because I'd always find it empty when I went in to check on him. I was always so prideful in the fact that I never gave him a bottle in the bed...then I realized..."um, JoAnna...this is the same thing.". So..,.as of two days ago, no sippy cups in the bedroom. He asked me for it last night, but went to sleep fine after I left.
He is crazily attached to his yummy and bunny bear. They have become a package deal. Both are, in theory, confined to the bed, but if he finds one or the other, he starts frantically looking for the counterpart. He only gets them in the bed, unless we are going out, at which time he almost always gets them in order to keep him quiet in certain places, or to ward off an upcoming tantrum in the middle of a public place. (Case in point...I just noticed that the gate was open when I heard Axl scrambling up the stairs...by the time I made it up there he was already ON TOP of the counter getting into the storage drawers where we have decided to keep the yummies and bunny bears; thought they were inaccessible..wow.)
(Now for problem #2) He watches ENTIRELY too much TV. Shrek was our savior around the time we brought Cooper home from the hospital and it kind of morphed into us having the TV on for the better part of the day. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't actively watch the tv all of that time, but it has definitely become our "go-to" in bad situations...How about some Mickey, Axl?
(and problem #3) He is B.A.D. Any of you reading this are probably saying, "oh my, I can't believe she's saying this about her child!"...but really, I have no qualms saying this because I KNOW that's how little boys are SUPPOSED to be. Their mothers, however, are supposed to be able to find a way to cope and not go completely crazy, which I currently am in the middle of. On our way home on Monday from a weekend trip to Tyler's cousin's house, it just completely hit me that we DO NOT have control of things. I started crying as I came to the realization that we were going home and another week was starting of Axl finding everything possible he knows he's not supposed to be into (kitchen cabinets, desk drawers, doors to places he's not supposed to be (even though we have the doorknob thingies), climbing on our desks to find things like screws and scissors, tantrum throwing over the slightest correction, yelling and pointing his finger at us as we're trying to discipline him, just overall craziness.
As Tyler and I talked about it on the way home, we made some realizations.
1. He is snacking too much! I wonder why he doesn't want to eat the lunch I've prepard him when his "stick" (pretzels) bowl has been on tap since 10:30...
2. He is BORED. For the better part of Axl's life, he has been on a schedule...and it worked beautifully. As he got older and more independent, it kind of just became a free-for-all. The only thing sure to be in the schedule was a BIG NAP! Especially when Cooper came along, schedule mode went to her. I wonder why he is getting into anything and everything in the house when he is expected to stay in the same room with the same huge overwhelming assortment of toys he sees everyday...
The past three or four days have been devoted to fixing these problems...I purchased the Babywise II book (5-15 months) which I had never read, thinking it would be helpful in the coming months with Cooper. It had a LOT of pointers on what I could do with Axl! It reminded me that keeping a schedule is a good thing, and we have implemented a few suggestions regarding room playtime and designated time set aside to play with mom and dad.
The first day of our schedule was magical. He was in time out ONE TIME. Did you hear me??? ONE TIME. I couldn't believe it...and I shouldn't have, ha, because the next days didn't go nearly as smoothly, but still overwhelmingly better than they had been.
So, that's where we are. Trying every day to keep things at bay while Axl moves through this toddler phase. People keep telling me, "I promise it won't last forever" and I just say, "well, I should hope he won't be throwing himself to the floor, baring teeth, screaming wildly when his teacher asks him to wash his hands."
Love you, little guy.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Cooper is 3 months old!
I really can't believe it. She is growing up so fast and it is such a different experience than a first child. I felt like time flew and I missed things with Axl, but this is that feeling magnified! It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital and it has already been THREE MONTHS!
She is such a blessing. The medications, I'll say it again, have just saved us. She is so very comfortable and just really a cheesy, goofy, happy baby nearly all the time. We do have to keep her schedule pretty set, but I've found that I really like it that way. She wakes up in the morning between 7 and 8...I'm working on making it a more consistent 7:45-8 wake-up time. She gets Donnatol every 3 hours, and eats 30 minutes after each dose. Her waketime is an hour a half, followed by an hour and a half nap. At this point she either has a good nap day (all of them go well) or a bad nap day (waking up early from all of them); on the bad nap days, she typically wakes up in the night and the good nap days makes for a sound night's sleep. Babies and their sleep is such a mystery to me... She goes to bed between 9 and 9:30, I wake her up for a dreamfeed at about 11:30 and then she sleeps through until morning. I'm hoping that within the next month or so we'll cut out the dreamfeed, but I'm afraid to do it yet.
She loves the boys--just like Axl was, we have found that if Tyler is in the room when I'm feeding her, he can't talk, or she's just craning away trying to find him. I've caught the two kids smiling at each other a lot lately and Axl has started asking to give her a hug and a kiss. She is always smiling after; even if his idea of a hug is barreling his noggin, and subsequently the rest of his body weight, into her tummy while she's sitting in the bouncy seat (scaring me to death).
She doesn't much like tummy time, and I haven't helped the situation by NEVER doing it in order to avoid an Axl attack. But we've made use of his nap time the past couple of days, so hopefully those shoulders will start to strengthen up and she'll begin to enjoy it.
Cooper, we love you and can't believe your little life is moving so fast! Slow down, little girl, and let us enjoy it!
A little confused??
I think Axl is a little confused about which toys are his and which toys are the baby's. He set this up for himself this afternoon. :)
Also--as I was typing that I overheard Axl say, "hug". I looked over and he was giving Coop a hug. After he was done, he laughed at her smiling and said "tiss", leaned down and gave her a kiss, complete with the "mmmmmm".
Also--as I was typing that I overheard Axl say, "hug". I looked over and he was giving Coop a hug. After he was done, he laughed at her smiling and said "tiss", leaned down and gave her a kiss, complete with the "mmmmmm".
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Hamilton Family Reunion
The Hamilton Family Reunion was an interesting weekend to say the least. On a whim, I took both kids up the day before we planned to leave with Jay's family, without Tyler. Axl refused to go to sleep in the van--we didn't get there until like 11:30 or 12, but both kids went down fine once we got there. I stayed up and talked until about 2:30 and Axl woke up at 3:30, refusing to go back to sleep. At home, we would have made sure everything was ok and let him cry it out (which really doesn't ever happen), but we could have atleast let him cry. I couldn't do that because there were so many people around. He ended up waking up Cooper and I had to nurse
her to get her to go back to sleep, which I haven't done in a while. Axl didn't go back to sleep until 7. In the meantime I called Tyler at 4:30 in the morning asking what exactly I was supposed to do with two screaming children in the middle of nowhere with 20 other people in the house and no car...to which he had no answer. We all slept from 7-8, after which I called Tyler and informed him that he needed to take the day off and get to Tar Fork ASAP because doing tired cranky Axl on about 45 minutes sleep myself is just not an option. The rest of the weekend was a great time. Lots of catching up and pinochle. Tyler and I pretty much just swapped shifts at the creek, where Axl camped out. We have, perhaps, decided though, that in order to remember that weekend trips ARE NOT a good idea, to just ban them for the next 6 months or so. We always forget how tough it is and get all excited, only to spend the weekend feeling like our heads are going to explode. We're hoping if we give him a little time Axl will be more manageable.
her to get her to go back to sleep, which I haven't done in a while. Axl didn't go back to sleep until 7. In the meantime I called Tyler at 4:30 in the morning asking what exactly I was supposed to do with two screaming children in the middle of nowhere with 20 other people in the house and no car...to which he had no answer. We all slept from 7-8, after which I called Tyler and informed him that he needed to take the day off and get to Tar Fork ASAP because doing tired cranky Axl on about 45 minutes sleep myself is just not an option. The rest of the weekend was a great time. Lots of catching up and pinochle. Tyler and I pretty much just swapped shifts at the creek, where Axl camped out. We have, perhaps, decided though, that in order to remember that weekend trips ARE NOT a good idea, to just ban them for the next 6 months or so. We always forget how tough it is and get all excited, only to spend the weekend feeling like our heads are going to explode. We're hoping if we give him a little time Axl will be more manageable.
Tyler's Birthday/Cooper's Blessing
Cooper and her daddy seem to be sharing a lot of days; her first Sunday to church was on Father's Day and her blessing day fell on Tyler's birthday!
The day before the blessing was the Wade Family Reunion, so we asked my parents if they'd take Axl from there and keep him overnight so we could celebrate Tyler's birthday that night. We met Young at Catherine at Jalapenos and had a yummy dinner, then headed to the movies, with Cooper in tow, to see Inception. Cooper did ok in the movie but I spent the majority of it sitting with her in the isle. She did let out a huge belch right in the middle of a really quiet part that gave us all a good laugh. :)
Coop was lucky enough to share her blessing day with both of her cousins, Maya and Lola. It was such a special day and we FILLED the chapel with Hamiltons, Coopers, and tons of friends! My mom and I picked out a special blessing dress for Cooper that had matching socks, I got little infant bracelets for all three of the girls, and the talented Shawna made Cooper a beautiful bonnet. She could not have looked cuter! The morning started off a little rough for us--my mom called me on her way there telling me she needed extra clothes for Axl because he had puked. I later found out he puked ALL the way to Nicholasville from Paris...I'm so grateful my parents had him that morning to take care of him because I think if he were with us, Cooper would not have been getting blessed that day. Axl didn't feel well all day and we think he may have been suffering from heat exhaustion from the day before at the park. After church we all went to the Hamiltons' house for lunch and cupcakes. It was a great day to spend with family and friends, and even though she won't remember it, a very special day for our little Cooper Jay.
Since the family reunion was the day previous, Cooper had some special out-of-town guests for her blessing. Mamaw Fox (My dad's mom) and Bill were in from Michigan, Johnny (my dad's brother) was in from Tennessee, Jeff (another of my dad's brothers) and Chris were in from Utah! And of course we were just as happy to see those that live close and came to celebrate with us!!
I'm including this picture because I think it's funny that my dad and I are sitting the exact same way. 
When we got home on Sunday night, we had a family movie night. Axl has started cuddling with his dad like this when they watch tv and that day he was especially cuddly because he was sick :(
The day before the blessing was the Wade Family Reunion, so we asked my parents if they'd take Axl from there and keep him overnight so we could celebrate Tyler's birthday that night. We met Young at Catherine at Jalapenos and had a yummy dinner, then headed to the movies, with Cooper in tow, to see Inception. Cooper did ok in the movie but I spent the majority of it sitting with her in the isle. She did let out a huge belch right in the middle of a really quiet part that gave us all a good laugh. :)
Coop was lucky enough to share her blessing day with both of her cousins, Maya and Lola. It was such a special day and we FILLED the chapel with Hamiltons, Coopers, and tons of friends! My mom and I picked out a special blessing dress for Cooper that had matching socks, I got little infant bracelets for all three of the girls, and the talented Shawna made Cooper a beautiful bonnet. She could not have looked cuter! The morning started off a little rough for us--my mom called me on her way there telling me she needed extra clothes for Axl because he had puked. I later found out he puked ALL the way to Nicholasville from Paris...I'm so grateful my parents had him that morning to take care of him because I think if he were with us, Cooper would not have been getting blessed that day. Axl didn't feel well all day and we think he may have been suffering from heat exhaustion from the day before at the park. After church we all went to the Hamiltons' house for lunch and cupcakes. It was a great day to spend with family and friends, and even though she won't remember it, a very special day for our little Cooper Jay.
Since the family reunion was the day previous, Cooper had some special out-of-town guests for her blessing. Mamaw Fox (My dad's mom) and Bill were in from Michigan, Johnny (my dad's brother) was in from Tennessee, Jeff (another of my dad's brothers) and Chris were in from Utah! And of course we were just as happy to see those that live close and came to celebrate with us!!I'm including this picture because I think it's funny that my dad and I are sitting the exact same way. When we got home on Sunday night, we had a family movie night. Axl has started cuddling with his dad like this when they watch tv and that day he was especially cuddly because he was sick :(Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Please bless Papaw...
Axl and I pray together every night before he goes to bed, but I gave up a long time ago on getting him to actually participate with words; he refuses to say anything or repeat anything, so we both fold our arms, I close my eyes, and say the prayer, and at the end he shouts, "AMEN".
Two nights ago though, I have my eyes closed, going through our typical prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this day. We're thankful for our family, Daddy, Mama, Axl and Cooper. Please bless us with a good night's...(Axl interjects)PAPAW!...Please bless Papaw." I opened my eyes to look at him and he's just bursting with pride and a big ol' grin.
Now we know that Axl is thankful for his Papaw. :)
Two nights ago though, I have my eyes closed, going through our typical prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this day. We're thankful for our family, Daddy, Mama, Axl and Cooper. Please bless us with a good night's...(Axl interjects)PAPAW!...Please bless Papaw." I opened my eyes to look at him and he's just bursting with pride and a big ol' grin.
Now we know that Axl is thankful for his Papaw. :)
Monday, August 9, 2010
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