Seven

Seven. Months. okay really Seven (and a half) Months. That is how old little Zachary, my baby, my very last baby to ever be Seven. Months. Old.  Unbelievable!!! Time is just jetting by, not even flying, jetting. He had his six month appointment yesterday (yah, yah, yah, I'm a little late) and had the lovely pleasure of being stuck by a needle 5 times. He screamed very loudly during every shot. So hard to watch and so glad that they forget about it within seconds. He weighed in at 17.7 lbs!!

We took the other two to get their flu shots as well. I had been trying to prep them for about a month, telling them that they need to get shots to protect Zachary as well as Janelle's baby. They cried every time I told them about the shots. So yesterday on the way down, Makayla started crying. She cried all the way into the office. I tried coaching her on the way in, telling her she had to be brave because her younger brothers would be watching her. She told me that she would try not to cry during the shot and that she would "go first" to get it over with. Well, as soon as Zach's check-up was over and the nurse came in with the shots, she started freaking out and crying. I told her she wanted to go first and it was her turn, she back out. So we forced Brandon to go first (he had no choice and Mike had to hold him). He screamed super loud and I'm sure he said "Not nice" (which sounds like "not niesh) during the middle of it. Mike and I being the ever supportive parents during all of this...laughed. (We will never get parents of the year)

Next was Makayla's shot, she decided she wanted to sit in Daddy's lap also. But she did not want him holding her arms. She cried all the way up to his lap, sat down and stopped crying. The nurse put the needle in her arm...silence...through the whole shot! We all cheered and gave her "Woot - Woot's!" I'm sure other patients thought we were crazy! :)  She got two stickers for not crying and Brandon got one since he did cry.

Zachary has had a low grade fever today and was pretty irritable this evening. The only pleasant thing was during his fussiness, I had him on my belly sitting up and Makayla came over with her doll. He started reaching for it and touching it's face and arms. She started singing silly songs and bouncing the baby doll on her head and Zachary cracked up at her. So I'm so happy that she was able to make him happy before he went to bed. Hopefully the crankiness wears off quickly! I'm not used to this, he's such a happy-go-lucky baby!!



Again, seven months....WHEW! Blink of an eye!!!!

 Some things Zach is up to...he likes to scream (very loudly-almost piercing) when he is happy. He mimics the kids and they coo to each other. He "talks" back a lot to the kids and I. Likes to grab at everything and is easily distracted with a new toy or object. Rolls around and likes to roll off the very large blanket that I place on the floor for him. Can sit up supported in Mommy's legs. Gets up on his knees and rocks (I'm sure he'll be attempting to crawl very soon.) We just spotted this weekend a top tooth trying to break it's way in. Yikes! Loves to laugh at the kids. Is finally quiet during car rides. Goes to sleep every night around 7pm (thank goodness) and sleeps until 5am. Has me wrapped around his finger...and will whine until I pick him up!!! Love him!

Sleep position...changed.

So I have to post this quick cute post. I had just posted that Zachary would fall asleep grabbing his foot and sucking his thumb. Well it's changed and his new falling asleep position is still sucking his thumb, but now grabbing his bumper or the top of his crib with his right hand. I just love having a video monitor in the room! It's so fun stalking him at night! :)

Six...or....sixteen!?!?

We went to Sea World last weekend, to get the kids out of the house for a special treat, and planned to stay there until evening (something we wanted to do over summer but never made it). The plan was for me to go through some of the kids clothes in the morning and then in the afternoon we'd leave. We left a little later than we wanted to and found out that Sea World was only open until 7:30 now. That's okay with me, not sure if I could have made it much further than that anyways. We met our friends Jesse & Stephanie down there and later Mike's sister, Tiffany and her daughter Brittany.

We got there earlier than everyone and so we headed to Elmo's World first to ride some rides. This was Brandon's first time getting to ride this ride. He LOVED it!

Funny side note story: Makayla had been telling me all along that she had her phone with her. The kids like using our old cell phones that don't work anymore as "their" phones and they carry them around a lot. It didn't phase me that she brought it. But when her, Mike and Brandon were waiting in line, she pulled "her" phone out of her back pocket, sat down, and began texting. Mike couldn't believe it! What he didn't want is for other people to think that he had actually bought a six year old a cell phone. I thought it was funny, it's really her just watching all us text away and wanting to be able to do it also.

We were in for a treat when we got there because they had set up for their Halloween Spooktacular and were handing out candy at different stations. So the kids and I (not Mike - he claims he didn't want any candy...he ended up eating all mine...what a booger!) hit up a couple of stands. It was Brandon's highlight and he guarded his candy bag all night and even the next morning.

This was the first time Zachary got to "watch" some shows also. The last couple of times, him and I would walk around while Mike took the kids to the Pet's Rule show or he just stayed in his car seat. This time he got to watch the Clide & Seymore show and then he stayed awake to watch Shamu Rocks:

Him and all the kids loved the show and Zachary fell asleep within minutes of putting him in the stroller. It was a nice evening!

Graduated!

March 18, 2010...that was the day Mike changed his life, his passions, his goals, and his profession. He started X-ray school and we didn't know what we were in for. Lots of IF's:

If he would like it?
If he would do good?
If he could handle the blood? the needles? the injuries?
If he could handle the tests? the studying? the nights?

All those IF's became CAN's and WILL's as he walked down the aisle 17 months later to accept his diploma from Kaplan! So proud of his straight A, 4.0 GPA. Proud of his studying habits, his clinical desire, his professionalism at giving shots and working in the medical field.

We are so proud of him and was thrilled to find out that in September he passed his state license exam! All that hard work, long nights, and juggling our family paid off!

The kids kind of understand the field he is in, but it was cute because in the beginning of his schooling Makayla thought that he was a doctor. So we joked with him and his nickname was...Dr. Daddy.

It was cute at home, but when we did happen to go to the doctor's, Makayla would tell them that her Dad was a doctor. I then had to explain that he really wasn't.



Congratulations Dr. Daddy! We love you!!!!

1st Grade

In August Makayla began her 1st Grade year. She is in room 6 (she thinks it's because she is 6) and in Mrs. Dickey's class. I envy most things about Makayla, but what I envy most is that sometimes she is not fearful. I tend to over think things...okay not tend to, I DO. So I was always nervous about my first days of school so I always wonder what is going on inside her little head. It seems to me...not much about school...or at least not worrying about it. Which is a great thing considering her Aunt cried for about the first two months of her 1st grade year and her Mom would get stomach aches for about the first week. So to have her confidence and fearlessness is such a relief for me.

It was madness that first day. I took the day off because we had to something in the afternoon and also because I wanted to be able to walk her to school. Luckily we live about a mile or less away and so we walked her to school...besides if we drove, we would end up walking the same distance anyways because cars were parked practically to our development!

The madness continued on campus as it seemed all the parents came to drop off their kids (us included). We found her number on the black top and then trekked to the back of the line. Her teacher came out and said Hi to me and I introduced her to Makayla (luckily I had met her over the summer at work and had a good chat about students and teachers - this was before I even knew she was going to be her teacher) and told all of us parents that they would be fine and to head onto the back of the black top.

Makayla was excited to see that her friend McKenzie was in her class this year and only a little more than a handful of her Kindergarten friends were in her new class. (She already has a new friend that she talks about all the time...Hannah.)

The first graders line up next to the Kindergartners. We watched all those parents and remembered how we felt just one year before. We saw her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Perez-Anderson wearing the cute outfit she wore on Makayla's first day (Makayla even remembered it) and watched how she greeted each parent. We loved her and I know that we will love her new teacher just as much.

Mike and I left after watching what we thought was her class line (there were so many people!) walk to their classroom. On the way out...I couldn't help to think what had happened in this last year and where it went. It just seemed like Kindergarten started and yet here we are...a big FIRST GRADER! Soon Kaleb will be going to that school and the year after Brandon, and the year after Logan, and the year after Zachary, and the year after...Chantelle! It will be fun and exciting!!

Almost 7 months

Wow, can't even believe it.

(Zach in July - 4 months)

Zachary is almost 7 months. On October 12th he will be. He's doing lots, and not doing a lot...thank goodness! He's been sleeping through the night for about a couple of months. He is sleepy around 7pm and it's the best. I can nurse him around 7 and put him to bed and he goes right to sleep. It was really cute because around 5 months he started going to sleep by sucking his left thumb and holding his right foot.

(Not in his bed - but doing his bedtime combo)

Now he curls up on his right side mostly and sleeps. He sleeps until 5 or 6am. I'm still asking him every night to push it further, but it seems when I ask that, he gets confused in what I am asking and wakes up EARLIER! :) Silly boy!

He hasn't started crawling yet, but that doesn't stop him from getting across the living room floor. He's mastered the art of not listening already. I'll set out a huge blanket and he'll be off of that thing in no time.

He loves to be entertained by the older two. He will just sit and watch them, which they enjoy.

(cuddle time with brother)

His new thing at around 5 months was sticking out his tongue. And it almost felt like he knew what he was doing. It is hilariously cute! (does that even make sense?)


(with Uncle Chris)

He talks and screeches A LOT and LOUD! I thought for sure I would have atleast one quiet baby...I'm thinking it might be impossible. But it's cute and we love hearing him screech away!

I'm enjoying every moment of this baby stage and wishing it didn't go so quickly. He's a sweet baby, looks so much like Makayla as a baby. They are the same type of baby and since we had such an awesome baby experience with her, it makes our last baby time special knowing that he is so easy and fun

Sneaky Boy

Brandon is a sneaky boy! At 3 years old, sometimes I think he knows more then he leads on. Tonight we made split pea soup for dinner. Of course we knew that Brandon wouldn't even attempt to touch it...but we try every time. This time we bribed with a Starburst candy. If he ate his soup...he'd get to have the candy.

We gave Makayla and him their milk and he drank it all right away. Mike told him that he couldn't get anymore unless he ate his soup. Makayla was talking to us and Brandon was walking around, avoiding his (really good might I say) soup. We saw Makayla look away and Brandon snuck around to the side she wasn't looking at. Pushed her milk over to his chair...climbed up on his chair...poured her milk into his cup (making sure to leave some in her cup)...pushed her cup back over to her bowl...and then drank his milk.

Meanwhile, Makayla's head never even turned in his direction this entire time. Mike and I were hiding (not very well) our laughter.

Amazing! Oh and we did get him to eat 5 bites of the soup...even if it was an hour later! ;)

Pierced!

For Makayla's 6th birthday we promised her that she could get her ears pierced. It's the one thing that I've been putting off since she was born. I had really hoped to do it when she was a baby...then put it off...then when she was under a year I wanted to..but she was in daycare and my fear of another baby yanking at her ears and ripping out the earring made me worried...so I waited. Then I wanted to do it when she was a toddler, but I figured that she might be the one to yank at her ears...so I waited. Then when she was 5 I thought about it, but if she was going to play soccer I didn't want her to have to take them out...so I waited. Six seemed to be the *perfect* age...so I asked her if she wanted to...instant YES!!

So it was supposed to be for her birthday...and here it is almost the end of July, BUT she is still six...so that counts...right?

We took her this last Friday to the mall and she was so excited. She had to wait until I got home from work. That's all she talked about to Brandon all day. He thought that he was going to get his ears done also and got quite upset when she told him it was only going to be her. Mike had to keep reminding him that boys don't get their ears pierced (although Makayla kept correcting Mike and told him that she has seen boys with pierced ears -- who she is talking about we have no clue). When I got home from work was the first time she asked..."Is it going to hurt?" I couldn't lie, so I said yes, a little...okay so it was tiny white lie.

So we were off...to the mall...to pierce my precious baby girl's ears. So sad. We got to the mall and I had already gone online to see our earring choices and knew what I wanted. I told Mike that she would probably want the Hello Kitty studs, which she did and which we cleverly steered her away from. We (meaning ME) chose a lavender daisy stud (she wanted the rainbow daisy stub)...um...I won no doubt!

(before )

She practically jumped up into the chair and waited for the lady. The lady marked her ears and Makayla squealed with excitement! Then both ladies came at her with the guns, I think that stopped the excitement.



They did it quickly, she jumped a little and her face turned white and she looked in shock. Poor girl, she held back her tears and I quickly tried to stoop in to redirect her thoughts from the pain to the prettiness of the earrings. It shocked her for maybe a couple of minutes, but she was back to herself in the Claire's store...asking for every.single.item in the store.


so pretty!!! - she is still in shock! ;0)


So now she LOVES having her earrings and loves to tell me that she is six now and has pierced ears. Oh boy!

Kindergarten...what? where?

Kindergarten? Over???? Already? How did this happen?


I was just crying a year ago about how my little baby was starting Kindergarten and how life would now be spiraling!

{first day of Kindergarten - August 2010}

Boy was I right! It's over...her Kindergarten year is actually....over. *tear* She LOVED Kindergarten, she LOVED her teacher, it was a great experience all around. I was scared that the kids would be mean to her...those kids are all little too, I guess I forgot that! She met some really great kids and I'm excited to see them all grow up together. Her friend Kiersten aka Kiki from preschool got to be in her class this year so that made me very relieved that she would know and have a friend on her first day of school.

She learned and absorbed so many wonderful things and it was so fun to hear some things that would just pop out of her mouth. My favorite was when we had rainy weather she would say "inclimate weather" because that's what her teacher would call their schedule for that day since they had to on the "inclimate weather schedule."

She learned how to read and write, stretch out words to read or spell them. She's done a great job trying to stretch out words and write letters to people or make a pretend shopping list. She adds and subtracts and we practiced rhyming words all the time.

They had a clip system and we would ask her everyday if she had to move her clip. If she moved it up to blue, it meant she got a "blue ticket" to put in for the treasure box. If she stayed on green that was good, if she had to move it to yellow she got a warning, orange was a note home and red was a visit with the principal. She moved to yellow maybe a handful of times and to orange once! For playing in the bathroom! Go figure. Other than that she was good. I just loved how she would spill her beans if we forgot to ask her about the clip. All of a sudden she would say "I think I moved my clip down today" then I would have to prod the information out of her. And if she wasn't up to confessing right away I would just say my magic sentence..."Then I'll just have to ask Mrs. Perez-Anderson what happened." Boy did that ever work! She knew that I "worked" with her teacher and that I would ask her what happened, so I usually got all the info I needed in seconds.

She had homework that had to completed daily and turned in every Friday, was that ever stressful! Sometimes I couldn't even figure out the answers...to much creativeness for my wee brain! :)

Overall, she grew a lot and is very much ready to be a 1st grader! They even got to pretend to be 1st graders and play on the 1st grader playground. That was a BIG deal that last week of school.



{Last day of school with Mrs. Perez-Anderson - June 2011}

Drive Safe-a-lee

Makayla has the sweetest heart and says the most sweetest things sometimes. For about a year she says to me every morning..."Drive safe-a-lee Mommy." Every-single-morning! It's very cute and at first I wasn't quite sure she even knew what she was saying. She must have picked it up from someone. AND, what made it cuter was if she thought she had forgotten to tell me while I was still in the house, she would run out to the garage to tell me again.

She got in the habit of telling me and Mike to drive safely before he left for school during the evenings and for me going to work. Then when Mike's parents were watching the kids for us during Mike's externship, she would tell her Grandma and Grandpa to drive safely every evening when I got home from work and they left.

The other day, the kids were playing in the pool we had set up and I was watching them while Mike went on a run. Makayla comes to me and asks where Mike went and I told her that he went running, she asked me..."did you tell him to run safe-a-lee?" How cute!

Birthday Weekend

This year I turned 31. Can't believe that my 30th year is over! I dreaded it all the way and now it's over...in a blink! I guess having a baby, a Kindergartner and a 2 year old will make the year fly by! Gotta love my birthday because it seems to always fall on a holiday weekend. This year we had a busy weekend. We got invited by my friend Kim to enjoy some beach time at Mission Bay. Even though the weather was crummy, we still enjoyed being by the water and the kids got to enjoy riding Kim's parent's jet skis! I'm bummed that I didn't get pictures of the kids riding them, but they LOVED them! Even Brandon who doesn't really take many risks, loved riding it!

Brandon and Makayla enjoyed playing in the sand:




While Zach and I enjoyed watching from above! Zach slept the entire time we were there (which gave me a lovely excuse to just SIT and RELAX!)

That night Dad and Becky came up to the house and made us hamburgers and hot dogs (my favorite meal) and we played our favorite family card game: Shanghai.

The next day we were off to celebrate mine and Bestafar's birthday at Mom's house. Always fun to get the whole family together with lots of yummy food! Zach enjoyed all the love and attention he got from Oldamore:



And we even spotted a bear at the party!


But the best picture of the day came at the end....it will be one to treasure!


Here is to my 31st year!!!

A moment to capture in my heart

So if I were just a little more hormonal right now, I probably would have cried. But I did get choked up at what I saw. Here is the moment I want to remember:

Tonight Mike and Makayla went to her dance practice and then they were staying later to practice the Daddy/Daughter dance that they will be performing at Makayla's dance recital. So that left me with the two boys. I needed to go to the store to get some milk and other things so we went to the store. By the time we got home I was a little frazzled from having Zachary scream (not cry) the whole time I was checking out and driving home. So I rushed to put the milk in the fridge and then left all the rest of the non-refrigerated items in their bags in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Brandon grabbed his bagel that I had gotten him and he sat on the floor and watched Garfield while I nursed Mr. Zachary. After Brandon was done, he got up and went to the fridge and opened it up. Since I'm nursing (and lazy....er....tired), I kept yelling at Brandon to close the fridge, but never bothered to look to see what he was doing.

After a while, Brandon came back in the living room and I got up to change my now stinky Zachary. Then I walked into the kitchen, first thing I noticed is that all the reusable grocery bags were hanging up on the chair. I thought, okay, he put them up there with all the items still in the bag, but then I looked inside them.....nothing. I started to look around and that is when I got a little choked up, he had put all my groceries away! I called for him and gave him big hugs and kisses and had him show me where he put everything.

He had put the cantaloupe and watermelon up on the counter. The juice in the fridge (and made room by putting other juices in other spots), put the cereal as high as he could reach, and then some on a lower shelf.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but when your almost 3 year old helps you out without even being asked and puts it all in the right spot...let's just say...I was super proud!

I love my Mr. B!!!!

(Let's hope he's my helper even when he's a teenager!)

Model to be...

It's pretty scary that Makayla who is only 5 (turning 6 this month...yikes!) is a great photographer. She has been taking pictures with my camera and other people's camera for a couple years:


She gets some really great photos:


Lots of ground and ceiling photos:



She sometimes has a cooperative model:



Often times she just taking pictures of objects around the house:



She loves to take self portraits. She's gotten really good at turning the camera around and capturing herself:



Holy cow! When did she become a teenager???? (This picture is an all time keeper!)

Reality Check

Zachary is already 8 weeks old. Where does the time fly? I went back to work this last week (May 9th). It was a hard day but one of the easiest for me out of the three kids. A lot had to do with the fact that Zachary was going to be home (5 minutes from work) and with Mike, so I didn't feel so guilty. Mike did a great job all week with all three kids!

The first day back was hard trying to get back in the swing of things and then getting the dreaded phone call from Mike about 10am telling me that Brandon had a temperature of 102. When the kids get sick, my stomach churns and I worry. So for the next 2 days we watched him ride the fever wave. Not fun and poor guy got the worst chills where his mouth was chattering and his body shaking. But eventually it passed and must have been a really bad viral infection or cold.

We did have to cancel on my Mom to celebrate her 54th birthday because of Brandon's sickness, luckily she understood and we had her up tonight (Sunday, May 15th) for her make-up dinner.

Zachary is now 2 months old! He is growing ever so quickly and I'm sad to see my little newborn chunk up, but since he's starting to smile, I guess I will accept it!

Mini Staycation & Surgery

The last week of of April was Makayla's spring break and my second to last week of maternity leave. Me, being the ever efficient Mom, planned appointments for every single day of it. BUT, was smart enough to plan them all in Escondido, where we could stay the week and not have to waste $4.20 a gallon in gas (yikes!).

Monday - we drove down to our first appointment in the morning, my 6 week follow up from delivery. Went smoothly and kids did great while waiting for me in the car. After that we dropped off Angel (my Dad's dog who we had been watching), dropped off our luggage at Mom's house and then headed down to the zoo! We rode the skyfari which Makayla loved, Brandon was kind of timid but still enjoyed it, Zachary...slept the entire time (love that age!).



Tuesday - Brandon's hearing appointment scheduled for 8:15AM!! He didn't do so well, he could hear the man talking however the background noises he seemed to not notice, so now we are scheduling a sleep hearing test. Cross your fingers on that one! Then after his appointment, off to Sea World we went!





Wednesday - Mike had an 8am dentist appointment (he loved me for that one!) and then off to the Wild Animal Park. By this time, the kids were worn out but were troopers. Brandon being the best trooper of them all...Makayla not so much. She whined the whole day about how her legs hurt and she had to be the one in the stroller. So she would make sure that she was the first one back to the stroller so she would have a seat. Brandon did a great job of walking, but needless to say, Wild Animal Park was not visited by us for very long.



We did get to see the beautiful butterfly exhibit they had. Interesting fact is that they have to account for each of the 100,000 butterflies that they have in the exhibit. If they can't account for all of them, then they lose their license to have it the next year.







Zachary was such a great sleeper all week. He was in his car seat for almost 3 whole days during all the parks, and we hardly heard from him! He did get some air time at the Wild Animal Park, it was such a nice warm day!



That night Zachary and I got to go to a girl's night out! Fun times with those girls and Zachary didn't mind being passed around the table at all. I wish I had my camera because he sat with Bonnie for awhile just chillin listening to all the girl talk! Bonnie was sweet enough to get Zachary a cake and we all enjoyed it for him!




Thursday - Makayla's surgery....Mike and I were super worried about it all week. She had a cyst that was growing above her left eyebrow. I was worried that eventually it will get bigger or that it might cause her headaches in the future. I figured we should take care of it now. So she had to go to a pediatric cranial-facial specialist to have her surgery. She had to be completely knocked out which is what scared Mike and I the most. She did great! She wasn't worried or scared at all and I'm sure it had to do with the fact that Mike and I hardly ever showed her our concerns nor we hardly talked about it. That day, I dropped Mike and Makayla off at Rady's Children and then drove down to Oldamor's house. I nursed Zachary and then zoomed back to Rady's just in time to see Makayla off to surgery. She walked into the OR with the nurse, all with smiles.



She was especially happy that she got to take her unicorn (who also got a name bracelet on).





The surgery took about 15 minutes and the doctor said she did great! When she got into recovery the poor girl looked like a zombie but the nurse said it was because of the Demerol that they give the kids before they wake up to help prevent them from slashing around.




She was very excited to get a Popsicle at the end of it all.



She's a trooper and the doctor had prescribed Tylenol for her to take for pain....she never needed it! Amazing and so thankful that all came out fine!

I like fufis

Makayla is in Kindergarten and her little brain is absorbing so much! It's fun to see her start to read and recognize her "site" words. The new thing in class that they are learning is to "stretch" out the sounds. So she writes her site words everywhere and can make some decent sentences out of them. The other morning as we were getting ready for school, her and Brandon were coloring and writing at the kitchen table while I was probably screaming my head off trying to get everything ready to go with a crying newborn wanting to be fed.

Before we left, I glanced at the sheets of paper that they were working on and I had been listening to what she was trying to write but not fully understanding what all she was doing. Well, she was trying to write a sentence and color a picture to show it. Her sentence was "I like french fries" and instead of asking me to spell french fries, she tried to stretch out the sounds to spell it!

When I saw this, it melted my heart because I thought it was pretty close AND eventually she will learn how to spell french fries but for now I like that they are "fufis"! Oh and by the way, the dots are "salt" go figure that my daughter would draw french fries with tons of salt on them! Must take after her grandma's!!!

Journaling

Journaling. Something I'm not good at. But I do love reading blogs and getting caught up in everyone else's life, but then it just makes me mad that I haven't taken the time to document some of the finer details in our life. So here is my start! I'm determined to make it work and I'm determined to keep it up. That's my goal.

Right now, I've got a 5 year and 2 year old sleeping...and a 5 week old crying to be held. Oh the joys, the household never has a dull moment, nor a quiet moment! In years to come I'll reread this blog and I'm sure I'll yearn for these moments, for now, my boobs hurt and my mental capacity is not quite there.

So here is my start. My start to journaling about the daily details, fun tales, quirky moments and sayings that will happen in our life. I'm excited to be able to finally have something to look back on!