Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Snuggie



Paige has been sleeping much better lately and we think the "Snuggie" has been a big part of it. It's like swaddling with a blanket, but it's a specially designed blanket with velcro and stretchy material that makes it possible to swaddle the baby really well. Daddy thinks it's more like a straight jacket and was a little skeptical until he watched Mommy swaddle Paige with it. Paige absolutely loves the thing. Inevitably every time you start swaddling her with it she starts smiling.

Since using the Snuggie she's been sleeping 6-8 hours the first part of the night. Regardless of how much you feed her after that point she typically is awake again after 3 hours, but getting 6-8 continuous hours of sleep is pretty darn good. If you time things right with her feedings and get her fed and to bed between 9 to 10pm, she will often sleep until 5 or 6am. Pretty good stuff!

Quick video of Mommy swaddling Paige up in the Snuggie.


She's still so tiny in her bed!

Girl talk



Paige just loves talking with Mommy. She lights up whenever Mommy wanders in to sight and babbles and coos whenever Mommy talks to her. Girls just love to gossip!



Paige also definitely loves the yellow bouncy chair. Forget the fancy padded papasan chair that Connor sat in all the time, she loves the cheap cloth covered yellow bouncy chair with the birdy. More often than not with Connor if he was fussy you'd have to pick him up to settle him down. Very often with Paige if you can't get her settled down it's a good strategy to try putting her in the yellow bouncy seat. If you pull the butterflies the birdy spins and Paige is mesmerized.



Oh my gosh, so much fun!

Mrs. Rachel



Connor has been going to Mrs. Rachel's house for a while now and with Andrea going back to work Paige has been too.

Connor has been going to Mrs. Rachel's for a while because he's going to start a different preschool in the Fall. For the first few months that Connor went to Rachel's house he hardly said a word the entire day and it took him a while to open up to her. He also has never pooped at her house, since before he was potty trained and even to this day.

Connor and Paige get along great with Rachel's boys and with the other children that Rachel watches. Miss Rachel has been very caring and loving with our kids and we've been so lucky to find her.

Night Nanny



With Andrea back to work somebody's got to wake up a couple times in the middle of the night to take care of Paige. We're used to doing it, but it's definitely no fun when you have to be up early for work in the morning.

Andrea's cousin Teresa's still off for the summer and has been awesome enough to stay over on the nights that Andrea has to work. It's been a huge help! Thanks Teresa!

Connor on the steps



Connor's been doing a great job with his potty training. He holds it all night long, but we still put on a pull up diaper just in case. In the morning he's more than welcome to come down and go potty, but he's always reluctant to without permission at the time.

Sometimes if he's got to go pretty bad in the morning we'll hear him shouting "Pee pee's coming!" from the bridge. Other times he's very patient and will just hang out on the bridge with Chloe and his stuffed animals.

A couple days ago Mommy came out and saw him sleeping on the top step. She took a picture of him and he woke up and we think he realized how silly he was and he smiled. Mommy got a picture of that too.

Cute boy!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Back to work for Mommy



Mommy's officially back to work!

Last week was Andrea's first week back. She really enjoyed her 11 weeks at home with the kids, but she's ready to get back into her routine and is working part time again.

Running with the family



We decided to all go running tonight for the first time with the double stroller. It finally cooled off a little plus Paige seemed big enough to sit up straight and ride like a big girl. We tested everything out quite a bit before we left. Daddy held the stroller sideways and tested how the kids would stay strapped in if it tipped over. It seemed to be pretty stable and Daddy was very careful with his precious cargo.

Both the kids did really well on the trip and stayed awake the whole time. Connor wanted to get out and run with us and we let him run the last few blocks. He's pretty fast! Paige was pretty content to ride and didn't really fuss much. She had some tummy pains earlier in the day and somewhere along the ride she apparently worked out her problem and made some poop in her diaper.

We ran for 6 miles in 66 minutes. Not the fastest time in the world by any means, but not too shabby given that Mommy had a baby recently and given that Daddy was pushing a double stroller.

Looking forward to more runs with the kids!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Getting ready in the morning with the kids



It's always a fairly involved process to get kids ready in the morning to go to the babysitter before work, however it's gotten a little bit easier lately with Connor. Typically Mommy lays out his clothes for the next day before he goes to bed and that's what Daddy puts on him. Daddy isn't so good at putting together the outfits that are up to Mommy's standards so he knows better than to bother with it.

Recently Connor's been a lot more picky about what he wears. He has about 3 pairs of cheap cotton shorts with stripes on them and he absolutely loves them. If he's got khaki or jean shorts on and you're not looking he'll sneak up to his room and will change into his comfy shorts. This past week when he wasn't feeling good he was particularly cranky so we gave in and let him choose most of his outfits. The one in the pictures is Daddy's favorite so he had to get a few pictures.

Connor had been taking a long time to get ready and when Daddy went to check on him Connor told him to go downstairs and that he didn't want any help. Connor put this outfit together on his own and was pretty proud of it. We like how his mismatched shoes had the tongues popped out above the velcro. Maybe it's a new trend with these kids now, who knows...



Paige is always sweet in the morning after she gets her breakfast. She typically just relaxes until it's time to go.



Happiest and best baby ever!

Connor's ear infection


Connor's been pretty down in the dumps for the last week. Starting last Saturday he ran a fever and has been pretty mopey and tired. The Rudolphs came to stay with him on Saturday while Mommy and Daddy had a night out. Connor seemed to be feeling better as the day went on, but the next morning he was feeling pretty bad again. He threw up last Sunday (7-18-2010) for the first time since he's grown out of the baby phase where it's pretty normal for spit up. It was yucky and Connor didn't care for it and neither did we.

It turns out he had an ear infection and he's been on antibiotics for a few days. Today, Saturday 7-24-2010 he's back to his old self and isn't running a fever any more. We're glad to have our little man back to normal again.

Paige in the exersaucer



We brought the exersaucer up for Paige to play in. She isn't crazy about it, but has pretty good head control and will tolerate it for short periods of time.



Connor still likes to fiddle with the exersaucer. For the last few years when it's been in the basement, whenever he sees it he still asks to be put in it although he's way too big for it. He liked to show Paige all of the toys and how they worked.


This was Connor at a little over three months old in the exersaucer. His eyes were so much darker than Paige's at the same age!


Connor had more fun playing with Chloe bear.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Breakfast with big boy and baby


For no real reason daddy decided to record his breakfast with Connor this past weekend. I was looking at Connor and thought about how big he is now. He sits in a normal chair with no booster and is tall enough to get his entire head and part of his neck above the table. Just high enough to eat like a regular person.

He doesn't have much understanding or appreciation for the differences between breakfast, lunch or dinner foods. He usually will ask for tiger food (Frosted Flakes) for any meal, always is in the mood for donuts, would eat chicken nuggets any time of day or night, and believes that peanut butter crackers go with every meal. He really does a great job feeding himself any more, it's not stressful eating a meal with him and worrying whether he'll choke or make a huge mess.



Mammy Pajamy (Paige) likes to sit with us when we eat. She sits in her Bumbo chair on the table and watches us eat big person food. She's so tiny, it's hard to believe our big boy was sitting in the Bumbo chair not too long ago.



Connor's eating video is below. I thought it was worth posting because you get to hear Connor's new favorite word. "What". He'll say in response to anything. When he hears you or not, it doesn't matter.

Visit with the Brunsmans



On Saturday we went to visit the Brunsmans for dinner. Andrea's cousin Jessica recently had a baby boy named Langston. Jessica's husband Brandon cooked us lasagna and for dessert we had fancy cupcakes. Connor usually is a little picky, but he was super hungry and we decided that we wouldn't take anything different for him to eat. He really liked the lasagna and unsurprisingly he loved the cupcakes too.

Brandon's a soccer player and Connor loved kicking around a beach ball with "Mr. Brandon".



We didn't stay too late since we all like to try and get as much sleep as possible on the weekends, but it was a nice visit and fun to share baby stories.





Monday, July 5, 2010

4th of July

For the 4th of July we went to Odessa to eat some BBQ and shoot some fireworks. Drew, Allison, Connor, Grandpa and Daddy went to the fireworks store in town and picked out some fireworks. Drew and Allison really tried to get Connor involved in picking them out but Connor didn't really understand what the fireworks were. He picked out one aircraft carrier and was excited about his new "toy". We were expecting he'd be pretty heartbroken when it exploded.










Friday, July 2, 2010

Two month checkup



Poor Paige had her painful 2 month checkup today. Her checkup went very well, she was almost perfectly average. Not too big, not too small, just right! It must be due to the superior parenting skills of Andrea and Shawn, we will humbly take full credit.

Paige's stats:
22 1/2" 50th percentile for length
10 lbs 11 oz 55th percentile for weight
15" head circumference 50th percentile

She got a little delicious vaccine orally that was sweet and tasty, and then she got three shots. The first was in her left leg and the moment the needle went in she startled and then screamed. She was pretty unhappy about it but didn't cry for very long. When the second one went in she flinched hard and let out a little squeal that broke our hearts before she started screaming so hard her voice cut out. By the time the third shot went in, she was inconsolable. It took her a long time to settle down. Very traumatizing for our little girl.


Bumbo time!



Paige has a super strong neck for an infant. She's always been able to haul that heavy noggin around pretty easily and we decided to try her in the bumbo chair this last week. She did a great job with it and seemed to really like sitting up straight like a real human does.

Connor couldn't help but get in on the fun... You're a little too big for the bumbo chair big boy!

Odessa Fun



After Allison's recital, Ga and Grandpa Garry took Connor and Drew to Odessa for some fun with the Grandparents for two nights. They went fishing, swimming, and went to McDonalds. They were spoiled rotten and played until they were exhausted. It was nice to do fun guy stuff with the two grandsons.





Allison's dance recital



Allison had her first dance recital last weekend with her new dance group. We were very impressed with how well all the girls did and the improvement over the last studio. Allison was in five dances and did an amazing job.

As always, Connor LOVED to watch the whole show. He sat quietly and watched every single dance.





All the cousins got together for a quick picture afterwards.