tooth update

Kaylee now has two teeth that are coming in on the bottom - they have just broken through her gums and are really hard to see, but they're coming.

Ethan has four teeth on top now. they're father along than kaylee's, but alas, it is hard to take pictures of a person's teeth if they don't want you to!
people keep coming over and saying, "hey, your blog only said ethan had 3 teeth on top, but I see 4" so now you are all officially updated.

also, in other fantastic news, I have been off my antibiotics for 24 hours now, so the kiddos are drinking my milk again. hallelujah.

GET

I thought I would throw this out there for any WA readers with kiddos...
Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for a GET account at this year's prices. (GET is a 529 college savings program.) you just have to sign up by tomorrow, and then you have until April 30 to purchase units at this year's price, but your account has to be set up by tomorrow at midnight.
disclaimer: you should do your research before signing up to make sure it's the right plan for you, as there is some controversy around what will happen with the GET program in the future and I am not a financial advisor!
But, I had a friend tell me about it last year at this time (you can sign up kiddos that are not yet born but will be born in the next year) and I appreciated it (thanks E), so I thought I'd spread the word!
And, to anyone who has given us any sort of cash gift for the kiddos in the past year, this is where we put it - we thank you now and the kiddos will thank you in 18 years!

dedication

I started this post awhile ago but then it got deleted and I'm just now getting back to it.

So, the dedication...

was lots of fun! my apologies to all who were invited super last minute and to those who didn't even get an invite. there were... some "communication errors" in the planning process and we didn't know that it was actually going to happen on that day until about a week before. we were aiming for that day because darren was home on spring break and evan was coming to visit too, but the invitations we would normally have extended to other out of town folks didn't happen. so my apologies.

anyways, I'll narrate through pictures...

blake (who is holding ethan), me, rev. scott mann, kaylee, and danielle.
I had just had my arm sliced open the day before (it's much better now btw, almost completely healed and tomorrow is my last day of antibiotics and therefore my last day of pump and dump) anyways, since my arm was not at its best, danielle held kaylee. (she's kaylee's godmother). scott mann (the pastor) is, besides being a pastor at our church, also a friend of ours. he likes nerd games like us, and we go over to his place or he comes to ours to play them. he knows danielle that way, and one summer Evan worked for Scott as his admin when Scott's prior admin went off to seminary.

A LOT of people came! Alyssa and her family came, including her grandparents who happened to be in town, a bunch of the church staff (my coworkers) came, one of the students I tutor and his family came, people from my HR Committee at church, etc etc.

during the ceremony itself.

Scott asked us (Blake and me) a few questions*:

Do you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

Do you wish Kaylee and Ethan to be dedicated in Jesus' name?

Do you promise to live in Christian faith and to teach that faith to Kaylee and Ethan with the help of the Holy Spirit and the community of God's people? 

(we said yes)

Then he asked everyone there, "And do we, the community of faith and loving friends, promise to support Blake and Dana in their parenting, and to nurture Kaylee and Ethan as they grow to be the woman and man God intends?"

(everyone replied, "we do")

the handoff of Kaylee to Scott. then Danielle read Kaylee's life verse that she'd chosen:
The Lord your God is with you,
He is Mighty to Save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His Love,
And rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

And then Ethan's turn. Amusingly, Scott called Evan "Ethan Caulley" and then corrected himself, but we got a good little giggle out of that. Ev read Ethan's life verse that he'd chosen:
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35

after that it was picture time!

right now however, it's tutoring time. sorry all my posts are truncated with abrupt endings like this, but I just figure it's better to post unedited, truncated, something, rather than never post anything because I never finish it.

* I have Scott's script here in front of me as I write this post. Plus I have a DVD of the ceremony which, if I could figure out how, I would post because it's only 5 mins long, but I'm not that smart. the point however, is that that's how I know what was said :)

anyways, off to tutor!

fun developments

the kiddos have been doing lots of new things lately and it's pretty fun!

Kaylee...

• is making lots of new sounds. she's been doing this for a few days now and it's very fun! she's moved on from primarily vowel sounds to trying out different consonants. her favorites are ba-ba-ba and da-da-da. it's fun to talk back to her and when we put them to bed she chatters to herself for awhile and although she's nowhere near actual words, it sounds much more like words.
• is getting one tooth, lower middle (ech em, these are apparently called lower central incisors). she's pretty much on schedule for this I guess (web md says these teeth should come in btwn 6-10 months).
• has a funny new smile. it is ridiculous looking and very scrunchy-face. cracks me up.

Ethan

• just started making a few consonant sounds yesterday. he likes ffffff fffffffff and can make clicking sounds with his tongue. he does ba and da too, but not as much as kaylee. he still loves the raspberries too.
• ethan is going crazy with his teeth. he has both his lower central incisors, and is working on one upper central incisor as well as both of his upper lateral incisors (the teeth next door). three teeth at once! they do bother him, but he's a pretty good sport about it. we've seen some nighttime sleep disrupted which is sad because even if we do feed him he's still sad sometimes, so we think it is the teething thing, but overall he is a happy kiddo. the teeth he has coming in don't usually start coming in until 8 or 9 months, so my child has now done something ahead of schedule. I believe this is where I, as an incredibly proud mother, write 7 blog posts about it... :) (but I don't have that kind of time, so you just go ahead and imagine them)
• rolls over back to stomach. okay, so now we're back to how behind schedule my kiddos seem to be sometime. they are just not into the rolling. for months now both kiddos have been able to roll from back to side. they sleep on their sides almost every night. and ethan likes to take it another 45 degrees - but that dang arm... he always traps it under himself and then rolls himself back to his back. actually ending up on his stomach is apparently not his thing. but in the middle of the night two nights ago, there he was, on his stomach. way to go buddy. sorta - this not rolling thing has been rather convenient and not bothering me that they weren't. now we have to make sure he always has one arm out of his swaddle so that he could roll himself back if he wanted. which we were transitioning to one arm out, but now the transition is over apparently. and the transition to one arm out, then two arms out, then no swaddle at all is supposed to mean more night time wakings... hurrah... :/
• is learning about his tongue. pretty cute when he sticks it out.
• can kneel in his crib. is pulling up to stand. damn. I was really enjoying this lack of mobility thing. these things are new of yesterday but in case I was hoping for a fluke, he did it several times yesterday. pulled up on the swing (with his sister in it), pulled up to a kneel in his crib repeatedly. he was like, oh look, this is neat! so last night we lowered his crib. this morning blake said he pulled up to a kneel again, but at least most of his body is below the crib rail height and he's unlikely to flip himself out. we'll see, perhaps we'll find ourselves lowering it again soon.

okay, you want some pics?

this is what we look like when we try to see mom while sitting in ethan's crib.

a normal kaylee smile.

seriously, that's a smile. no, really. (and doesn't it make you laugh?)

dad & ethan playing with their tongues.

kaylee smile again...

hi mom!

oh look, we can grab the side of the crib...

hold on there, how did ethan get so tall all of the sudden?

ethan: hey, while I'm up here, this is delicious!

let's try this again. okay, I grab the bumper...

and then look! look! I did it!

I can kneel for sure...

my latest illness

last Tuesday: "hey blake - look at this weird bump thing in my armpit. it's like there's a little pea under my skin. what do you think it is? hmmm... I think it just broke."
Wednesday: my arm starts turning red, puffy, itchy, and hot.
Thursday: call the doctor, make an appt for Friday.
Friday: doctor: "yep, it's probably a clogged sweat gland or something like that that got infected. we need you on antibiotics ASAP. we'll start an IV for a big dose now, take these pills (4x/day)." they draw on my arm where it's red and puffy which now goes down to my elbow. "if it spreads outside this line, go to urgent care tomorrow and get more IV antibiotics"
Saturday: the top half of my body is red and itchy. not as puffy, but definitely red - I look like I just got back from hawaii. I go to urgent care. urgent care says the redness is not from the original infection, but is instead an allergic reaction to the antibiotics they gave me for the infection. interestingly, I've had these antibiotics once before, and broke out in a rash then too although it was more delayed last time, perhaps because I didn't get them in IV form last time. they also say the original infection site doesn't look good, so they slice me open and drain everything out.
side note: you know those 7 month pictures? yah, that's what we did saturday morning. but I'd also been having a lot of fever/chill issues, and I let blake take my temp when the babies went down for a nap. it was 101 so he was trying to get me to go to urgent care. I told him to take it again. 102. so fine, I went. blake and danielle stayed at home w/ the babies, and that's when those st patricks day shots were taken. however, at the point that they were going to slice me open, blake came to join me and danielle stayed with the kiddos until 5 pm, when my mom, grandma, and brother came to take over baby-duty.
anyways, back at urgent care, they wanted to give me a new IV antibiotic. this one ("vanco") however, has a known side-effect where, if it's given too fast, turns you red - the symptom is called redman. they usually administer it over an hour, but since I was already red, they decided to give my dose over an hour and a half. well... a little over an hour into it, they decided I was redder and had gotten redman anyways. so then we spent about an hour on just saline, flushing it through my system, and then they slowed it down to the 3-hour pace (although fortunately I'd had most of the dose already, so that part only took about another hour).
all in all, it was only 7 hours at urgent care :) we came home with some more antibiotics, as well as benadryl, and vicodin and orders to dump all my milk. they're like, do you know how to pump? oh yes, said I...

I've been back to the doc on Monday and Thursday of this week to have my wound repacked. it's a nice little hole, so they fill it with gauze and then they have to keep taking out the gauze and putting clean gauze back in, hopefully it fills in and they put less and less gauze in each time. but they've already told me I'll have to come in twice next week at least, and then maybe after that I get to be sewn up.
I'm off the vicodin and benadryl now, so it's just the antibiotics. unfortunately, I still have to pump and dump. 15 days of pumping and dumping. i think that is the worst part of it all. okay, but now two amusing things to cheer up the end of this post.
1) on sunday before the dedication I did something very clever. I couldn't shower with my fresh little wound, but my hair was dirty. also, I couldn't drive, as I was still on the vicodin, and blake couldn't drive me anywhere without also packing up the babies (and they were asleep when I came up with this brilliant plan). So I walked to supercuts, and - for just $5 - they washed my hair! they don't blow-dry there (who knows why) so I came home and did half my head that I could reach with my good arm, and then blake did the rest. I felt very clever.
2) I gained 10 lbs. 10 POUNDS! between Friday, when I went to the doc, and Monday when I was back at the same office. the doc said don't worry, it's all swollen water weight, you'll pee it out. and I would guess that I mostly have by now. but I still think that's pretty impressive. I didn't even gain that much that fast for my pregnancy.

that's my latest bit of fun. here's a pic of after the dedication which shows my arm all wrapped up (it's actually wrapped up mostly so that the ink where they drew on my arm doesn't transfer to the white sweater I borrowed from brianne to cover up my weird-looking-ness. but then i got too hot (gotta love hot flash fevers)

kaylee cracks me up in this picture. she seems to be trying to escape and slip out of blake's arms.

happy st patrick's day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Ethan's shirt says "Mom's Lucky Charm"  :)

In the things-that-are-weird-and-mildly-spooky category, this picture happens to be file # 317. crazy, huh?

catching up - 7 months, my latest illness, and the kiddos' dedication

sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. what's been happening?

well, first off... happy 7 months Kaylee! (march 10)

and then, happy 7 months Ethan (march 11)

can you see his teeth? let's zoom in...

and, both of them together...

very cute, I know.

and... now that dinner's ready the other two topics will have to wait for future posts. but hey, at least I got these posted, right?

more 6 month pics

 I don't actually know what's going on here, but it's a fun pic of blake (and ethan)  :)

 annemarie and both kiddos

@ my mom's house with their special toys that are only at her house. the big ball is a favorite - it's easy to grab and it makes noise

blake says, "oh thank you for putting that one on the internet" but it's one of kaylee's favorite things; grabbing daddy's hair and nose and eyeballs...

 just a cute pic of Eth.

Ethan likes to push up with his arms. not crawling yet, but this seems like a step towards crawling... well, not a step exactly ;)

ta da!!! the color of this pic may be terrible, but just look at it! two babies that hold their bottles unassisted. this is a truly wonderful thing.

Ethan took my glasses off me the other day and was playing with them so I decided to play with him back. NERD!!!

 we like to play together...

 most of the time...

this is an average moment w/the kiddos. that's ethan's favorite face, he's making bubbly noises when he makes it. and kaylee is not so sure...

 ethan had stolen kaylee's sock and they were both rather pleased about it.

tooth! this is the only pic of ethan's first tooth because all future shots will be of ethan's first TEETH (he's got another one next to that one now)


okie doke, that's all the fun 6 month pics that were on my camera! :)

PS as I look at these pics, it should be noted that we have 3 of the frog outfit (in the same size that's perfect for ethan right now) that ethan's wearing. and some of the shots are from the same day - he's not wearing the exact same outfit every single day :)

pictures!

okay, it's been a bit since i've posted, and I can't remember what all we've been up to. ... except sleeping through the night... which is why I've not been posting - I've been sleeping at night instead of up feeding babies (hurray!). but anyways, I'm going to stick my little camera card in here and look at and post some pics which will then remind me what we've been doing and then I'll tell you about it!

we love our stroller! the kiddos have been having more stroller time lately. blake takes them on runs in the morning before work which is great because he gets to work out and babysit at the same time (and I get to sleep in). awesome arrangement.

Besides the day to day little stuff, I've also been taking them on some longer walks with the other EMOMs. The first walk was long but successful, the second walk was a complete disaster including blisters and the other two moms ditching me. Then there was snow and me deciding whether I was walking with mean people again... anyways, yesterday I walked with them again and it went well. so... we'll see. jury's still out.

danielle made these cute little monsters for the kiddos for valentine's day. above is kaylee with hers. she loves sucking on the arms/hands. my favorite part about the monsters (besides the fact that they came with cards that said "my love for you is monsterous) is that they have personalized smiles. Ethan has a giant giant smile, and so does his monster. And Kaylee's smile is smaller, and often off to the side and so is her monster's. cracks me up.

okay, this is also a valentine's day pic. and also one which cracks me up. ethan is tipping over and turning SO red in this pic because he was working on the biggest poop of his life. the pic before and after he's smiling and happy, but this one, well, he's focused.

 we love food! food is so great!

this is from one of the days the kiddos and I spent at my parents' house. mom and I took them on a walk; ethan in the stroller, kaylee in a carrier. and when we walked past the park, well, kaylee wanted to try her first swing ride.

 this was apparently taken on feb 17. the point is, it was one of the first days kaylee was sitting on her own.

 there's my ethan smile!

aunt annemarie also came up to visit for a day and we had lots of fun! kaylee is apparently a little surprised by all the fun that's being had :)

okie doke, well that's about 1/3 of the pics I have in the "6 months old" folder so maybe I'll do the rest later, but for now it's time to get on with my day.

happy saturday everyone!