Christmas Parties Begin!!

This past weekend was our first Christmas party of the season and the family had a GREAT time! Four families in our neighborhood celebrated together as we all have kids in the same age range. The kids all ate together and then went upstairs to play while the adults ate. It was a true miracle in that the kids were nice and quiet and played peacefully, Anna slept, and the adults all sat at the same table and ate together!! The kids then came downstairs and decorated gingerbread cookies and then had a gift exchange. They then changed into their jammies and watched The Polar Express. A good time was had by all!

The kids eating dinner. Notice Emma's placemat in the middle of the table. It was a true shocker that she didn't want anything to eat and kept pushing her food away.

"I couldn't have possibly done anything wrong with a face like this!"

"Or maybe I could have...."
All the kiddos

READY, SET

GOOOOOOOOO!

Emma wasn't having any fun at all:)

Watching the movie

Anna trying out the exersaucer for the first time

Dangling feet:)

Our house with the Christmas decorations - wreaths in the windows with candles and icicle lights over the garage with spotlights.

The ladies...after the kids went to bed:)

Our Christmas tree

Picture was hard to capture the fact that she was sleeping with her fist in the air.

Bad hair day?

Rowdy kids

More rowdy kids - they were supposed to be singing Christmas carols.

Pooper Scooper

I can't believe it has almost been yet another month since my last post!! Time flies! A couple weeks ago Anna took her first flight home to Michigan. Her Great Grandpa Bill has a failing heart and he had passed out for the second time in a matter of a couple months. He even had to have CPR (luckily he passed out at a place for cardiac rehabilitation.) I decided that even though we are traveling home for Christmas there was no time like the present to take Anna home to meet him. We were in Michigan for just a few days and we spent a couple days with Great Grandpa Bill. He is doing well and is back home, although he can no longer drive. Anna also got to meet her Uncle Ryan, Aunt Becky, and cousins Darian and Kennedy for the first time. It was a very short trip and we missed Emma and Daddy tremendously! Anna did great on the flights and slept almost the entire time. She LOVES to be snuggled up in the Baby Bjorn infant carrier.

Grandma Charney then came to visit for almost a week for Thanksgiving. We had a great visit and did a lot of shopping. She also helped to put up the outdoor decorations for Christmas, make party mix, and even babysat a day for Jay and I to go to the Texans game. She also helped to take the girls to see Santa at the local mall. As always, it is a ton of work to get them looking cute in their holiday outfits, out the door and to see Santa only to be let down by a not so cute picture. When Emma saw him she was completely ecstatic. She kept standing on her tippy toes to see over the gate around him and hollering "Hi Santa!" She even got him to wave to her and she was grins from ear to ear. When it came time to see him she very sheepishly went up to him and told him that she wanted a "Princess bike" for Christmas. She absolutely refused to sit on his lap though as she suddenly became very scared of him. So the picture is of Santa holding Anna (who was awake and happy, amazingly enough) in one arm and trying to hold Emma who is squirming out of his other arm. I think it will be quite a few years before we can get a good picture of Santa with both girls.

Emma has been doing well. We have an Elf on the Shelf who mysteriously appeared after Thanksgiving and she is completely enthralled with him. For those of you who don't know what this is: the Elf (a rather dorky looking small stuffed animal) is sent by Santa himself to check on the girls and boys and how well they are behaving. Every night he magically flies back to the north pole to report to Santa if they are well behaved. The Elf doesn't talk and you can't touch him or he loses his magic. When he returns in the morning he lands in a new place anywhere in the house. It is fun for the kids to find where the elf lands each day. Each family has to name their Elf - Emma named hers "Mr. Twinkles." She literally asks about him first thing every morning when she wakes up and it is a fun little game to see where he landed. She talks about him all day long and mommy and daddy always remind her that Mr. Twinkles is watching if she is misbehaving. She talks constantly about how Mr. Twinkles is going to fly to see Santa at night. It is so adorable!

Anna continues to have reflux issues (I know you have to hear about this in every post.) Finally, I did some of my own research on the issue and decided that I think she actually has a milk allergy or intolerance. I made an appointment to see the Doctor and she said "Wow, you really did your research. I agree with you - you sure made my job easy." Of course Jay's first words when he heard this was "Well if you did her job for her then will she give you some of her paycheck?" Apparently this is kind of hard to diagnose because many of the symptoms mirror that of reflux. She has TERRIBLE reflux, sometimes spitting up probably 2oz per feeding, she is very collicky (not sure if that is a word but you know what I mean) at times, is constantly congested, and the kicker is that she has mucous in her stool. I always knew this but didn't think anything of it until talking with my friend Aimee who said that that is a sign of a milk allergy (Thanks Aimee..I owe you!). So the doctor sent me home with two vials that have to be filled with poor Anna's poo poo.

If there is blood found in the samples then she would have to be put on a milk free very specific formula due to a milk allergy. The doctor would then want an allergist on board when switching her to whole milk at one year. If there isn't any blood found then it would be more of a milk intolerance and we would start with soy formula. Hence the title of this post, I am now the "Pooper Scooper" in the family. Not to get into gross details but some of you may know that when nursing a baby their poo poo is mostly yellow liquid and it all absorbs into the diaper. I have been scooping poo now for almost two weeks and am getting super sick of it. I called the nurse to see if they could do their testing without the vial being all the way full and she said that they couldn't and the lab would just send it right back if it wasn't full. She suggested lining the diaper with SARAN WRAP for easier collection!!! SERIOUSLY!?! Who in their right mind would put Saran Wrap in a babies diaper? The minute she went potty it would be all over the place. I just can't believe it is taking so dang long to fill these tiny little vials. I have given in and started eating ice cream every night (the one time in my life I have an excuse to do this:). She is very fussy and colicky when I eat ice cream but it also makes her produce more poo poo:) Ok - enough about that subject. I will let you know when I get the results from the tests.

I will end this post with 5 facts you may not know about each of my girls.
EMMA
1. She ALWAYS sleeps with her head at the foot of the bed. She never has her covers on her either.
2. She falls out of bed occasionally:( She did just a few nights ago and bit her lip. I didn't know she was bleeding until the next morning when I woke up and saw blood on my shirt from comforting her.
3. She loves to read to Anna. She will sit right next to her and talk to Anna and read for a long time.
4. She loves school, but is the only kid in her class that won't nap during naptime.
5. She just received her first ever "report card" and the following is a quote from the teachers comments "Emma is a born leader and loves to take charge." Is that a nice way of saying she is bossy?:) I think the teacher hit the nail on the head and although I hate to admit it, I think I was a bit of the same as a child.

ANNA
1. She has extremely long eyelashes that any woman would die for
2. She laughed for the first time a week ago as I was making funny faces at her
3. She loves to look in the mirror
4. She loves when Emma reads to her
5. She has the most beatiful baby smile ever!!

Funny sleeping position!

Grandma with the girls

The yummy Turkey

Jay and his mad carving skills

Grandma reading to Emma and her friends

Ready for cold weather despite the 70's

Her new favorite book

Mr. Twinkles himself (isn't he a bit dorky?!?)

Grandma stirring up the party mix

The best picture we could get...Anna was not happy

I love ruffle bums!

Just another day reading in the laundry basket

One of Anna's few bottles so far.

Emma snuggled up to Anna reading to her

Meeting Aunt Becky

Cousin Darian

Cousin Kennedy

Guess I didn't swaddle her very good this time? She is a wiggler and can get out of those swaddles too easily!

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Gary reading to Anna. Thank you so much for the new book!!

Great Grandpa Bill

Evidence of that cutest baby smile ever!

Our neighborhood Christmas tree - we went to the lighting ceremony and also saw Santa arrive on a fire truck

Say "CHEEEESE"

Jay likes to teach Emma crazy things. He has been trying to get her to do some weird hand gestures to "Crosspoint" which is the name of her mothers day out program that she goes to. It is a church. Out of nowhere at dinner one night she broke out into "Cross Point" with Jay's gestures. It was pretty funny.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Lately "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" pretty much sums up most of our days. Emma is definately in her terrible two's and has become devious and defiant. Some days I feel like all that I do is put her in time out because she won't listen to me. She will look me in the eye, say "NO" and then laugh. UGH! She is in time out so much that she now puts her dolls and toys in time out. The other day she told Jay to go to time out! She loves her baby sister and is always concerned about her well being. She, however, refuses to listen to her parents. She fights us on just about everything - eating, going potty, putting on shoes, picking up toys, going to bed, and on and on. She has also taken a complete turn for the worse when eating out. She used to be the angel child and always well behaved when out in public restaurants. Lately, she won't sit still and gets up and down and up and down and takes her shoes on and off. She doesn't listen when we tell her to sit like a big girl and instead turns around in her chair and watches the people behind us. UGH!

With all of that being said she can still be so darn irresistable! She can be very sweet and innocent. She will come and ask "Can I have my milk please?" and then say "Thank you" in her sweet little voice. She is very good at saying please and thank you. She lives to play outside with her friends. She loves riding her bike (It is a borrowed Elmo bike from the neighbor. She wants a bike from Santa.) She is getting very smart - counts to 20, knows her colors (although she tries to pretend that she doesn't know them) and when I pick her up from her mothers day out she tells me everything she learned that day. She also loves to read and is often found reading books alone.

Here is a little example from yesterday
The Good: I picked Emma from school and asked "What did you learn today?" She replied confidently "The letter I." "I is for worm." I thought - no I isn't for worm - but realized they probably taught her inchworm. AH my smart little girl.

The Bad: Emma didn't want to leave school when I came to pick her up. She threw a minor temper tantrum throwing herself onto the floor and crying.

The Ugly: We had to leave dinner 3/4 of the way through because Emma couldn't follow directions. We told her if she couldn't sit like a big girl she would go out to the car and not get a cupcake. She had to leave and we buckled her in the car and let her cry it out for 5 minutes. It also happened to be my birthday dinner:(

I know this is just a stage in her life and it will probably all too quickly pass, but whew it is hard to deal with. Jay and I both believe in discipline and want to correct her bad behavior as it happens.

Anna is still struggling with reflux....I think it will last awhile longer. May call the pediatrician to see if they can change the dose of her Prevacid. On a brighter note she did sleep 7 hours last night:) This makes mommy really happy!

Enjoy the pictures below. Some are from my NEW DSLR camera. I have wanted one forever and since my point and shoot camera had been dropped multiple times (by an unnamed 2 yr old) with multiple functions no longer working it was time to get a new camera. I decided to take the plunge and get the one I wanted. Don't have a clue how to use all of the functions but am learning (Thank You to my friend Jamie who is really helping me out with this!!)

Emma riding her bike

Movie night at the neigbors. All the kids watched Toy Story 3 on their big screen put up on the garage door. Fun times! These are the adults.
The kiddos

Mom's BFF 4 Ever! (Most days:)

Our diva in high heels

1. "Mommy Save Me"
   
   

   
   
   

   
   
   

   Funny faces with her pals Lexie and Chase
   
   

   MMMM Pizza! Say "CHEESE"
   
   

   10 weeks already!
   

   
   

   
   
   

   
   
   

   SWEET sleeping Anna
   
   

   
   
   

   Sweet sleeping Emma
   
   

   
   
   

   
   Anna all bundled after being outside