Brenna and Liam’s 18 month appt

LIAM

Liam is doing great. The past month he hasn't been as happy as normal, but usually he is a pretty happy guy. He is a climber though, I constantly am after him to get down from everything. I can't even leave the table chairs down anymore, he is such a strong little monkey. I am surprised he hasn't found his way out of his bed yet.

He loves to play with cars and read books. He is such a little smartie. He loves to play with Braeden and Brenna. He also has fun making Brenna giggle and making her mad too.  He calls her  "Nenna", he will point to her face and name her mouth, nose, etc driving Brenna crazy enough to come after him...with her teeth. He will fall and get hurt and get banged up and not even cry, but when I hear a loud pitched cry I know that he has been bitten, poor thing.

Here are his stats:
Weight 28.11 76th percentile (that is almost 10 pounds heavier than Brenna)
Height 32 3/4 59th percentile
Head 19 3/4 95th percentile

Words at 18 months

Mama, Dada,  Nenna (Brenna), daden (Braeden),  Nana, Guca (Grandpa),

up,  down, star, car, fish, on, off, girl, boy, cup, milk, banana, moo, baa-baa, cow, duck, chair, ball, neigh, horse, socks, shoes, boat, downstairs, flower, no, glasses, nose, clock, bye-bye, hi, night night, cracker, barn, mum-mum (treat), eyes, ears, hair, mouth, nose, shirt, house, mouse, giraffe, sun, moon, tractor, bug and I’m sure a few I forgot.

I guess that goes to prove that girls don’t always aquire language earlier.

BRENNA

Liam's will be coming (his appt is Friday), but I decided to take them to the doctor separately for the first time. They were getting to be too crazy and I was having a hard time getting the attention I wanted from the dr because I was wrestling with two kids.

Anyway, the eeg came back clear and she is not having seizures, which is good. She is still doing the funky movements in the high chair, the dr asked me to send a video which I did last week. They wanted to run some thyroid tests too, so we went back for some more b/w.

She continues to be a tiny little thing. She STILL is not 20 pounds. She will be facing backwards in the carseat forever.

She is currently weight 19.5 pounds (3rd percentile)

                          height  30 1/2 inches long. (15th percentile)

                          head   17 3/4 inches (5th percentile)

She does eat well but not putting on much weight. The dr says she looks good and she is just becoming more active.

She is getting so giggley and girly. She will drag her dolly and blanket around. She is starting to interact more with Liam and they will have each other cracking up at times, and then the next minute they are ticked at each other. She is STILL a biter and we are still working on this, ugh!

She is saying the following words:

Mama, dada, nana, deden (Braeden), Buppa (Grandpa), banana, no-no, night-night, cockadoodledoo, woof woof, star, car, girl, sssssnake, cow, duck, quack quack, cup, milk, nose, cracker, bye-bye, all done, up, down, ball, ut-oh.

And a few pics:

   Rainy day dress up!

Gotta start them early!  I really need to get some kids size brooms.  Oh yeah, they are in their teddy bear trot shirts, I will have to post about the big race in another post.

Braeden’s first day of kindergarten!

Well, the day finally came and Braeden was very excited to go to school.  Of course we are I think one of the only districts in Michigan to return back to school before Labor Day, but this is our last year on this schedule. 

Braeden was excited to ride the bus and I wasn’t too nervous.  He is the last one on the bus before they get to school which is about 3 minutes from our house.  I of course being the anxious mommy followed the bus and saw that he made it into his teacher’s hands.

The whole staff was out to greet the kindergartners and had pom-poms and they had music blaring, etc.  The first thing he noticed was his “girlfriend” Sloan wasn’t there.  I looked over the teachers shoulders and saw that her name was not on the list along with a few other friends that we were hoping would be in their room who had requested to be in the morning session.  His cousin Matthew is in his class with him.

The look on Braeden’s face was so sad.  He had been talking about playing with Sloan all morning before he got on the bus.  There is hope though, we did see her mom at the Open House and she is still trying to get it changed.  His other friend will probably be in his Religious Education class at church, so I am hoping to get him more into so other kids other than his cousin Matthew.  Right now the world revolves around Matthew and I can see them getting into trouble together.  I talked to the teacher and asked her to encourage them to play with other people.  We shall see!

Anyway, here are a few pics from the first day

Waiting for the bus

A rare pic of mommy with Braeden.

Getting on the bus….can you see how happy he is?

Day out with Thomas

 

We went for our third Day out with Thomas this year with the kids.  Braeden isn’t as into Thomas, but what kid doesn't like a train ride.  Liam was not a happy kid and wanted off the train....and it was a 40 minute ride.  Brenna was very happy and Braeden had a great time with cousin Lochlan.

Here are a few pics:

On the ferris wheel....very fast and fun!

A long week

Brenna and Liam have slowly been getting better, but still pretty crabby.  The noses officially stopped running yesterday (woo-hoo)  We spent several days at home.  Even did dress up one day.

On Wednesday when I thought my head was ready to explode and couldn’t wait for Ed to get home, I received a call from him that he had been in an accident.  A lady ran a red light and was speeding and smashed into him and another car.  Since we only have the minimum coverage, we are now out a vehicle, along with a $170 towing bill, and a visit to the hospital.  Thank goodness he was okay other than a concussion, things could have been much worse.

On Friday we headed up to a new Children’s Museum, we met Barb, her mother, and Sarah and Jacob there.  It was brand new and was really nice, I would definitely go there again…..ummm with an extra adult.  It was bigger than the one I took them to in Traverse City and therefore I couldn’t see them both at the same time (along with Braeden).  They did have a lot of fun. 

Brenna had a bit too much freedom though.  She was standing right next to me and I looked to see where Braeden went and she was GONE!  I ran the way I thought she would have went and didn’t see her, but soon enough I found her, dang she is FAST!  She tried it again, but I was on to her, and she earned herself a lockdown.  By that point it was time to go anyway, so I packed both of them up and played with Braeden for a bit before heading off.

Braeden had a ball, I would like to take him back by himself, we would have a lot of fun.  He did find some friends to play with thank goodness.

Here are a few pics:

Braeden playing in the water area.

Braeden, Brenna, and Jacob in the ball area.

Hold on Brenna, Liam is at the wheel!

I can’t get him, how do I touch him?

Liam playing in the water area.

Braeden loading up the balls to dump on the kids.

The loved jumping and falling on the mats.

Playing doctorLooking at the fishies!

Traverse City getaway

   

We headed up to  Traverse City, MI for a long weekend.  Ed plays in a ball tournament there every year.  Long ago it was quite a leisurely weekend with no kids and hanging out on the beach with friends.  When Braeden entered the picture, it was still fun, a different kind of fun though.  I remember the year he was almost two calling my mom on the way home asking her to come with us the following year, it was a hard year, he cried every time we were in the hotel room and ran away from me anytime we weren’t in the hotel room.  Things went uphill from that year, every year a bit more fun. 

We started staying at the Great Wolf Lodge the year they opened and Braeden enjoyed it.  Last year we had the babies up there, it was a bit of work, but not too hard. They were only 6 months old.  This year……the weekend from, well you know.  I won’t spare you with all the details but here are a few highlights/lowlights.

LOWLIGHTS:

• The day before we left Liam and Brenna both have snot pouring from their noses.
• The morning we left Braeden woke up and vomited all over the floor.
• I re-injured my pulled ligament somehow and the dr refused to give me any more steroids to make them better. (I am supposed to run a 10 mile race in 11 days)
• Babies decided to boycott sleep…naps and bedtime.  I was stolling them in the halls until after midnight the first night.
• Babies didn’t like being in the room, just like Braeden at a similar age.
• I developed a blister on my heel from so much walking….the dr ordered me to keep it elevated and rested….yeah right!
• Liam cut his toe pretty bad.
• Brenna knocked over a full pitcher of beer on herself at dinner….and the emergency clothes that have been in my diaper bag all summer long were used the night before.  She did sleep better that night.
• Liam knocked a picture off the wall at the same restaurant….you would think we don’t get out much.
• It was rainy and chilly most of the weekend.

 

HIGHLIGHTS:

• They slept most of the 3.5 hour drive there.
• Braeden, Liam, and Brenna LOVED the Children’s Museum, and it was doable by myself since Ed was playing in his ball game.
• After we discovered if we left Baby Einstein or Signing Time on when we were in the room they were TONS happier.
• We did get them to sleep by 9:00 on Sat and 10:00 on Sunday.
• They would nap in the van….at $3.89 a gallon….money well spent!
• Liam got a free Great Wolf lodge stuffed animal that Brenna loves for cutting his toe open.  She had been eyeing the wolves at the store earlier that day (see pictures)…what a brother will go through to get his sister a wolf.
• An hour before we left the babies decided they did like the lazy river ride after all.
• Liam was happy if I let him climb up and down the steps in the lobby.
• The water was sooo blue and pretty, I love how pretty it is up there.
• Since we needed to drive to get the babies to sleep, we were able to go on some nice drives, one to the Mission Point Lighthouse where we had never been before.
• We had a nice time downtown on Friday night, lots of fun activities for the family and a Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream for dessert…..even Liam and Brenna liked that!
• Braeden was having a great time playing Magicquest at the hotel, they had a Pirate Party on Saturday, and we had waterslide races. 
• And the best news of all was that we made it there and back in one piece…well other than Liam’s toe.

AND THE VERY BEST NEWS OF ALL……….

It will be easier next year!

Here are a few dozen pics….narrowed down from about 600!

 

 

Slacking here!

We’ve been very busy the last week and I’ve been very run down, not sure what i going on. 

Mothers of Multiples Picnic

On Saturday we had our Mothers of Multiples picnic at a beach about 40 minutes away.  I’ve heard in the past they did it at a water park.  Thank goodness for this beach, it wasn’t too crowded and Ed and I were chasing babies most of the time.

We brought Liam and Brenna’s floats we bought them in Traverse City last year, but no luck, they didn’t want much to do with them.  Braeden had fun playing in the sand and water with several of the other kids.  He even pushed around Sarah and Jacob in the water and they all looked like they were having fun. (Barb took these pics…so I stole them from her and they are on her blog too, but I loved the smiles he was getting from them)

Liam played around in his wagon for a bit with Sarah and Jacob and then played in the water and sand for a bit.

They found a duck on the beach.  They love ducks and they were singing their duck song and were very excited.  But then the owner of the duck came over and rescued him and Liam and Brenna were quite upset.  Guess we need to look for a big duck.

Brenna played with a few older girls and had an audience during lunch….or were they admirers.

And then relaxed in a MUD BATH!  With all that chasing, mommy was whipped, I think I needed the mud bath.

 

Family Reunion

We went to Ed’s family reunion on Sunday….another day of chasing and I was really whipped.  We didn’t really get a chance to talk to many people….just chance the babies and exchanged hello’s with a few people.  They had a bounce house this year which Braeden loved.  Ed took Liam and Brenna in when the big kids were out.  Brenna enjoyed it, but Liam couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

On the way home Ed made the comment that two days of chasing in a row had him whipped.  I told him it was just getting us ready for our vacation this next weekend.  He grinned and said that I would be doing most of the chasing, which is correct.  He has ball tournaments on Saturday and perhaps Sunday too.

Monday

I am anxiously awaiting my new camera to be delivered UPS today, this morning it was still in Ohio, so I decided to head off to a new Bounce house place in the outlet malls not too far away.  We arrived there to find out they weren’t open until noon (package supposed to be delivered around 2-5 pm)  So I took them to lunch and came back and they were open.  Got everyone out of the car into the play only to find out that they have to all be wearing socks….why didn’t I think of that.  I left my credit card and driver’s license in the pocket of my pants that I wore yesterday (I hate it when that happens!!!) and had spend most of my cash on lunch, I saved just enough for the bounce house.

So I would be paying $7 for socks for the kids……AND the socks they wanted me to put on Liam and Brenna were the same size as the ones I would be putting on Braeden.  So I decided to buy Braeden socks and skip Liam and Brenna this time.

I was a bit disappointed, but afterwards realized it worked out for the best.  I asked the lady if the babies were allowed out of their stroller and she said they were fine as long as they didn't go in any of the bounce house.  They were happy just running around the place.  If I go back with Ed, we will attempt to take them in the bounce house.....I am thinking that Liam might not like it anyway.

Braeden had a great time and I think we are going to have his birthday party here, all the kids were having fun that were there.