Emerson Marie - 5 Months

Five months little lady!

New Discoveries:

Her feet! The first time I helped her find them she had one grabbed and this look of shock on her face. Then she let go and just lit up with a smile and a pure giggle!

She hates oatmeal! Or at least the first dozen times we tried. First of all she had NO CLUE how to eat it and then would make this face and it would just all come out of her mouth. Going to try veggies very very soon.

Reaching for things you have! Just today I walked into the pantry and without my knowing she grabbed a box of straws almost sending it tumbling to the ground. She reaches for any drink you are holding while you have her and then tries so hard to reach for her own bottle when you hold it by her. 

She recognizes her food and gets really excited/jealous when you are eating thinking she will too. 

She is SO CLOSE to rolling over!

 Sleep:

Hasn't done a full night in the crib yet, but we are getting closer. She looks SOO tiny in her crib! 

Stats:

Still completely in size one diapers but I may have bought my last big box. 

Newborn pants will still fit her. 3M clothes are mostly all perfect.

Her eyes are this deep navy, gray blue. They are so pretty but very different blue then Jackson's.

Five months showed us some great insight to her little personality, overall calm but when she gets mad...watch out. She loves to be with people and is very observant. So happy she is home safe with us (see hospital post) to keep growing.

Love you little peanut! 

Hospitalized

It all happened so fast. 

Three hours to get sick.

Three hours in ER and we are in a room in PEDS.

Then, three days till we are home.

 

Emerson was super sleepy but showing no signs of illness, so after her last bottle at 9:30pm we went to bed. I woke up a few times to a sniffly uncomfortable baby, but by 12:30am I could feel her burning up and really starting to breathe heavy. Her temp was at 102 but it was her continuous wheezing that had me worried.
By 1am we were in the ER. 

Something I will never forget though is that despite how sick she was, she still smiled at you. She wasn't crying, just observing, perhaps too weak, but you could feel this sense of calm through her despite the panic that was building in me. I sang to her the entire way to the hospital and cringed every time I heard her gagging cough. 

The order of the ER procedures is a bit of a blur. At first they thought it was croup. Breathing treatments. Crying. Flu test. Breathing treatment. Crying. Sleeping (her, not me). Flu test is positive. Crying. Medicine. Sleeping. Being admitted.

The IV (or any blood drawing) was the worst part of everything. All I could do was hold her hands down and sing to her (between some sobs of my own). The fact that I couldn't make the pain go away for her as they struggled to find a vein hurt me so much. When they finally finished the IV, she brought her hands together to hold them over her eyes (as she always does) and immediately she was tugging the IV. Uh Oh. The nurses quickly wrapped her hand (well, whole arm) so that she wouldn't pull it out.

Little lady was supposed to wear a hospital gown, the tiniest one ever. Well we had to cut off her pjs to get it on. Adorable, but sad to see her in it.

 

Once in our own room, Emerson already had better complexion and was breathing easier with less wheeze. She was so perplexed by this thing on her arm. It melted my heart to see her starring at it and trying to understand why she couldn't grab her hand.

I began to feel very comfortable that things were under control and that she was being taken care of, all precautions being met after seeing the pediatrician that morning in our room. We stayed for three days, as her fever spiked over 102 two more times and she needed breathing treatments. Em was tired most of the time but awake and curious. She just starred at each and every nurse or doctor to come in, watching them with such innocence, trust and wonderment. She loved to be held but slept ok on her own too for most of the nights. Me, my wonderful father, mother and mother-in-law relieved me for showers, Starbucks runs and an attempted nap but otherwise I stayed by my baby girls side.

 

Through my sadness with this whole scary experience, I was able to put in perspective. While trying to stay awake while she was sound asleep on my shoulder I was scrolling through social media and came across a story of an infant a little older than Em who had been in and out of the hospital through all sorts of tests as he fought a life threatening illness he was born with. My heart goes out to all the children and parents that have to go through something like this on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. It is heart breaking.
 

We are so happy to have Em home healthy. I was too well aware that her condition was not something to be messed with; her age, size and the flu made for a potential very serious combination. When we got home, the evening news (similar report here) reported two dozen pediatric deaths from the flu just that week. We are so thankful that we caught it when we did and that she was able to receive great care.

 

Wash your hands everyone, and watch your littles.

Running late

I try not rush my kid but if you move at a toddler pace all day we would never make an appointment, finish cooking a meal or even change our clothes. As much as I value letting Jackson do things for himself and make decisions, there are times when we are in a hurry and need to rush. 

Well this week we were getting ready for school and of course we were running late. I was up real early with Emerson and had fallen back asleep only to snooze past my alarm and now be pushing the envelope on minutes to get out the door to make it to work on time.

Jackson woke up easy, drank his juice and was now going to the bathroom as I finished giving Em half a bottle to hold her over. He went but then was still just sitting on the potty. I asked him if he was finished because we had to get dressed.

"I have to go poop Mom."

"Ok J, try and go."

Minute or so later.

"J, did you go poop? We need to get going to school, please go if you have to"

Still has to go. "Ok Mom"

Minutes more, similar conversation repeats with more urgency in my voice. 

"Mom, I have to go poop."

Another minute.

"Mommy..."

"Yeah J"

"When you tell me I have to go poop...it makes me mad."

My mouth opens. Sigh. He expressed how he was feeling, exactly what I am always asking him to do.

Alright, I am just going to be late today.

Jackson 2.5

It has been a while since I have wrote a Jackson update. Three months shy from turning three, I don't want to forget all he was up to these past four months or so. 

He is a mini Matt in his desire to drum around the house and loves to listen to the University of Illinois drum line play while in the car with him. They have developed the game sticky hug that they play on the couch with pillows and Jackson loves it.

Legos have consistently been the toy favorite for this kid. He loves them and has quite the imagination to not only develop the "flyers" and trucks and towers that he does but then to fabricate a whole scenario and have various Lego creations interact with each other amazes me. Mostly he builds these "flyers" that usually have wheels, are symmetric with two wings (if he puts them there) and are usually too long or too heavy at one end. He flies them up over his head and adds on to them then does it again. He saves them from day to day and loves to point out unique aspects of them. 

I absolutely love that Legos fuel his creative side. He received so many more Legos for Christmas (mostly Jake and Neverland ones) and now he has more material to engineer the best flyers he can. 

Jackson has gone in and out of reading books out loud to others instead of us to him. The first time he "read" a book to us that we read to him often almost word for word I caught myself watching in amazement with a smile. He absorbs the stories and then can recite them back to you. If he is unsure he will make up something based on what he sees in the picture. 

He is becoming more independent every day. I hardly ever carry him downstairs any more when he wakes up, he opens the fridge on his own, feeds the dog without my help, and leans over his bowl while eating soup. His desire to get himself dressed and undressed is relatively new, now even putting his own shoes on (sometimes even on the right feet). He is almost completely independent in the bathroom department but I think it'll be a while for a few last things :) When in a rush I find myself just wanting to do it all for him but when he accomplishes a task he so demandingly said "I can do it, I do it myself Mommy" about his genuine large proud smile wipes away any aspect of frustration. He is getting so big and I am so proud of the little man he is becoming.

Some obsessions that were strong early to late fall and now calmed down:

Putting stickers on his tummy.

Using his step stool for EVERYTHING. It started out as being used for any activity in the kitchen from wanting to help to eating but then even evolved into his solution to enable him to do something adults were doing that he couldn't. It empowered him and built his independence, but that step stool was also a source of frustration whenever a task was trying to be quickly accomplished. It saddens me to even say that though because his fuel behind pushing the stool all across the kitchen was only to be included.

Putting all the toys, books, "treasures," he could possibly fit into his kitchen, both the microwave and by lifting out the sink to put stuff in the cabinet. I would just start to open it and everything would fall out; couldn't find a toy, check the play kitchen.

Most importantly in the last few months, this little 2.5 year old has been an amazing big brother. He checks on Emmy, tries to put her pacifier in her mouth when shes crying, brings her toys and throws away dirty diapers (for mom :)  ). His newest big brother challenge has been trying to be quiet when they sleep in the same room together. 

Jackson, I can't wait to see how much more you grow before you are THREE.

Embrace.

Ahhh, 2015. You have arrived with much anticipation. Matt and I toasted our traditional Chandon champaign (this time with orange juice ice cubes) to a year hopefully filled with exciting changes for our family. 

Whether or not these changes happen though, my 2015 will be embraced, any way it unfolds for me.

I have done some new years resolutions and then not. This year I wanted to try to improve my outlook more than one individual thing. 

I will EMBRACE whatever comes our way.

We can plan and dream and try our hardest, but sometimes life doesn't work out to the map you made in your mind. This doesn't mean there isn't beauty in it though; great, precious, time sensitive beauty.

I want to see all the beauty because it is now and will never be again.

I hope for a lot of changes this year and in the process I want to be present with my toddler and infant. Em is so interested in the world around her and is starting to reach for things, tracks everything and awkwardly brings objects to her mouth. I know her learning curve over the next few months, will be huge. J is a sponge, he just picks up everything and applies it. He is trying to learn his letters, especially those from his name, and his imagination is at an all time high that I know hasn't peaked. I want to EMBRACE all their development and tender time as kiddos. 

For all of my professional career I have been a coach too. For the first time I will be a coach with two kids of my own. Who know how long coaching is in my future. I have done it this long because I enjoy it. Despite the challenges it will bring this spring I will EMBRACE all that coaching high school athletics brings. 

Since I graduated college I have lived mainly in one place, changing that seems (although at times necessary) uncomfortable. If it works out, it will not be an easy process. Stressful and time consuming, but one that I don't hope to do often so I want to EMBRACE every smile and tear along the way. 

Some ideas to help me EMBRACE life in 2015 involve being more organized and present. My 2015 planner and lists (post-it notes and all) are going to be a big part. Next is eliminating social media before bed and in the early morning. Last is staying healthy....do you know that for the first year in my life (well since at least jr. high) I did NOT work out in last year (like, at all)!?!?! Most of the year was medical, some of it was exhaustion, and the other was just over all being more present to my kid and then kids. Well 2015, we are bringing back the sweat, and drinking more water, and eating more spinach and yogurt. 

Well, as for our actual new years celebration;

We kicked off the new year at a friends house where the number of kids is quickly creeping up to out numbering the adults. Although Jackson was battling some typical symptoms from a kid at day care in the winter, he still made it till midnight for the third (out of three) year in a row. With all the kids we wanted to be sure they had entertainment aside from us parents, so I put together some excitement for them. Each hour from 8-11pm each kid was able to open a bag that contained something that was sure to hold their interest for the night....yeah right, for at least five minutes ;)

There were fun straws, paper airplanes and stickers (the stickers were a way bigger hit than the plane), pull back cars, glow bracelets and ring pops. They were a hit overall and so worth the time. Next year I hope to find some things that they could interact together more with (are 3-4 year olds too young for games??)

Our little guy (& lady) slept a good chunk of the first of 2015. J keeps asking about going back for another new year party so I think he had a great kick off to his third year!

I wish you all a wonderful 2015. Embrace whatever comes your way.