Happy hump day and some news...

Happy Wednesday... 1 more day and then it's my favorite day - FRIDAY.

I think I dodged the family cold again! Woohoo! Ellie and Jack were pretty much sick all weekend. Runny nose, coughing and a little bit of puking. I started getting a sore throat yesterday, but I don't feel it too much today, so I think I got lucky again. Besides, I can't get sick. I honestly don't have time for it anyways. Jack got his shots on Friday and may have been sick from that, but he's still so smiley. So, I finally got my 'braces'. Nick says they aren't really braces because they aren't stuck on and metal like the normal braces.  They are called Simpli5 and are like the invisalign ones.  I will probably wear them for 10-12 weeks and then have a retainer for night time. I get a new set every 2 weeks and they will hurt everytime I get a new set all over again. boo! They are really sore, but will be worth it. My teeth are not that bad, but I didn't want them getting any worse, so I decided to get them. Here is a really 'awesome' picture of my teeth with them in. Basically the top two are pushing the bottom two inward, so I have them on the top and bottom to correct it.

The weekend activities...

It was nice having off on Friday, not having to think about work. I took Jack to his 6 month appointment and everything is on track. He is weighing in at 18.9 lbs! Jack is 4 lbs more than Ellie was at 6 months. Jack's pediatrician was happy with how his scar is turning out too - she hadn't seen it since I missed his 4 month check up. The only thing we have to work on is his rolling over. We don't put him on the floor too much because Ellie likes to sit on him and sometimes body slam him. She's nuts sometimes.

Saturday we had Wendi's graduation. She received her Masters in Engineering Management from MSOE. We are all so proud of her and happy that she can now focus her time on other things besides homework!! Yippie!

 
 
 

Here is what Ellie has been up to lately. She likes to sleep in Jack's pack n play and she insists on having a giant pillow and Jack's planket too. She's looks so innocent and peaceful here. She cracks me up!

Happy 6 months to my baby boy!

Jack is 6 months today. I can't believe it. To celebrate, I decided to give him rice cereal last night for the first time. I know I'm probably behind in that and could have given it to him awhile ago, but I think apart of me doesn't want the time to go so fast. Maybe I'm in denial. Maybe that is why I missed his 4 month check up. Maybe that is why I baby him and carry him everyone. Oh well. I'm the Mom and I can do that if I want to. ha! Actually, I think the truth is my brain is just trying to catch up with the busy-ness of life and lack of sleep.

So, the feeding went awesome. He really, really liked it. I should have taken a video, but didn't even think of it. He was laughing a lot and just kept eating it!

Here's a side by side of Ellie and Jack. They don't look too much alike, except maybe their noses. Their eyes are different shape and Jack's head is bigger! Jack's hair is a lot lighter than Ellie's was. I think Jack might have really blonde hair and blue eyes when he gets older.

Camera update

I thought I would be sneaky and I put Ellie's camera back. We were in her room for about 5 minutes reading books and she spotted it. She began to cry and say "nooooooooooo" and then picked up her things and started to run out of her room. I caught her before she headed downstairs and I showed her that I was taking the camera down. I put it on the little table in her room, but that wasn't good enough. She didn't want it in her room at all! So, I took the camera out and went and got some Hello Kitty stickers. I came back in her room and asked her if she wanted to see the stickers. She did of course. I then asked her to help me put them on the camera. She was a little hesitant, but then gave in. We put all the stickers on the camera and then I asked her if I could put the camera up. She said NO, but let me leave it on the table. She also said "night, night" to the camera and waved. Those are good signs :) Tonight I am going to attempt to move the camera on the other table and hopefully plug it in. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to put it above her bed. This is just going to take baby steps.

Walkie Talkie, no no

Ellie and Jack's baby monitor broke :( I had found a good deal on a video monitor and 2 camera's from BuyBuyBaby right before Jack was born. Saturday night it wouldn't turn on. I'm not sure if it just isn't charging or what the deal is, but luckily I kept the boxes and reciept. So we headed to BuyBuyBaby the next morning and they gave us store credit. We had to buy a new one, because I could not live without it.

We finally decided on the Summer's Infant brand. I had one of these before for just Ellie and it worked awesome (even across the street at the neighbors!) until the adapter cord broke. I've contacted the manufacturer several times, but never got a response, so I gave up.

This is the one we got. I was pretty excited to set it up and really excited when I found out that you can actually talk into the video monitor and the kids can hear  us. It's kind of like a walkie talkie.

We had our usual night time routine and put Ellie in bed. She is usually pretty easy to put to bed and very cooperative. As soon as she was in bed, I ran downstairs in our room to check out the new video monitor. The picture is really good! I decided to test out the walkie talkie thing. I spoke into it and said "Good night Ellie, I love you!" She didn't move, so I said "Ellie, night night!" and then she screamed, "NO!!" and was crying. I ran upstairs and she was saying "no" and pointing to the camera, she then proceeded to collect all of her 'stuff' (Hello Kitty, blanket, her baby, blue and her coin purse) and wanted to get out. I tried to tell her that it was ok, but she didn't want to be in there with the freaky camera and voice.

I was pretty mad at myself, that I might have just screwed up the easy bed time routine. We went back in her room, read some more books and attempted to put her back in bed. She wouldn't do it. I took the camera down and took it out of the room and she seemed better. I will have to figure out how to get the camera back up without her flipping out. I guess I would be scared if there was a voice disrupting my sleep. Poor Ellie :(

Little diddy about Jack and Elliana...

This week's recap:

• Ellie had a Valentine's Day party at school on Tuesday and they all had pizza except Ellie. I sent her lunch w/ her, like we always do and the teachers didn't know she could have pizza. She had her Japanese food I think she felt a little bad, but I felt way worse. :( We'll have pizza this weekend - for sure.
• Ellie went pee on the potty! It was right after she got out of the tub, she told Nick she had to go and he told her to wait (she was in her towel) and he ran down to get her Hello Kitty potty seat and she held it and went on it. She even wiped! We know she can control it, it's just a matter of doing it now.
• Jack had his 6 months pictures taken on Wednesday. I can't believe he is 6 months already. (sigh)
• Jack's tongue was a little bloody last night. It looked bloody, but when I touched it, I didn't get any on the tissue. I think he must have been really chewing on it or something. Kind of weird.

Here's a preview of Jack's 6 month pictures. We got a few shots of Jack and Ellie too.

I'll have the touched up ones in a few weeks, but I couldn't resist posting this one.

Valentine's day treats

Ellie and I made chocolate chip cookies last night for school. I wasn't sure how many to make, because I threw away her Valentine's Day sheet. OOPS.  I know that there are only about 3 - 5 kids in her room and probably at least 12 or more in the older kids room. I decided to make 12 Valentine's. I put 2 cookies per bag and sealed it with Hello Kitty paper and stickers. Ellie was pretty excited to wear my Hello Kitty apron and she loved the cookie dough. She kind of ate a lot of it, but she didn't puke last night, so I think it's ok.

Sorry for the bad pictures, I just grabbed my IPhone.

Ellie the hoarder

By now, you probably know that Ellie is a little hoarder. She can't go in any different room or area of the house without brining her 'things'. She's like a bag lady, only this bag lady brings a live baby too.

Here's a picture of Ellie's 'things'.  I pointed things out to make it a little easier, sorry about all the arrows!

She ALWAYS has to have her Hello Kitty purse (it holds a lot of random things too like at least 5 or 6 big legos, a little naked Cinderella doll, puzzle piece numbers, her baby's dress and diaper (she doesn't put these on her baby, ever), a crayon or two and whatever other random thing of the day it is.  She is also obsessed with her 'blue' teething ring (which should belong to Jack); she carries this everywhere, and I mean everywhere (grocery store, skiing, bath tub, and to bed). She also has both her Hello Kitty dolls (the pink one which sleeps with her and the white one, which gets the shaft on the chair in her room). I had to limit the items in her bed at night, it was getting out of control. And her blanket is another #1 prize - it's kind of buried here. So, now that Ellie likes Jack to come with to room to room, including her bath time if he is awake and available, he needs his things too, which include his chair, nukie and any toy I can grab.

Here is a video of Ellie singing and entertaining Jack while she takes a bath. It's pretty funny. She is singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Faaarog!

Lately, Ellie has been interested in frogs. We mostly have Keroppi in our house, but we do have some other random ones too, like Jack's hat, in Ellie's books, Jack's pjs, stickers, blanket, etc. She's funny when she says frog, so the other day, I thought it would be a good idea to show her my Keroppi tattoo. It's on my lower front hip. I got it when I was 18. It's pretty small (about an inch tall) and luckily hasn't been affected by my pregnancies. It's KeroKeroKeroppi holding an "H". I got the H because Wendi has a similar tattoo and I thought that it would be cool if I had an H on my (kinda lame, I know). I don't really like tattoos and I'm glad I got it where no one can see it. It's actually really cute, but tattoos are kind of gross overall :)  When I showed her she immediately said "FAAAROG"!! She was laughing and so excited. When I got home from work yesterday she asked to see Keroppi again. My mom wasn't happy that I showed her, because she thinks Ellie will want to get one too.

Ellie goes skiing

Here's a video of Ellie skiing. I wish you could hear her, she is saying "wee!" and giggling. She really loves skiing.

We went skiing for real this time.

We couldn't pass up another nice weekend and not go skiing. This time it was for 'real'. Taking Ellie up on the chairlift was so scary, but SO fun! She loved it. She said 'weeeee!' the whole way up. Wendi borrowed a harness from the ski school where she use to teach and we strapped it on. It makes it so easy with it. You can lift her up with it on the chair and guide her as you go down. It's the best invention. It was so fun to take her and watch her face light up. She really, really liked it, even when I fell in the chair lift line and at the bottom of the hill. My legs are still sore and I got the best work out I've had in a long time. I hope to take her next weekend too!



Going up the chair. You can see Ellie's harness on her. We couldn't do it without it.




Ellie's smile is so excited and happy. Wendi and I have our 'scared as shit' smiles on :)





I'm coming down with Ellie. She has her pink snowpants on. Wendi is just to the right of us, with her arms in the air.



"weeeee!"



Wendi and Ellie. I'm on the left with the video camera. They are going so fast!



Ellie and Jack

Ellie is helping Jack with his "Faarog" toy; as Ellie would say.  He likes the music and lights.  She is such a good sister, even if she sits on him or pokes him in the eye. Luckily he is big and durable. I think those are just love pokes anyways.  :)

Thoughtful little Ellie

Whenever Ellie goes into Jack's room to play with her dollhouse or other toys, she demands that he sits in his chair. She will point to it and say "baby". It's kind of nice, because he will just sit and watch her. If we are in the kitchen, she tells me to put Jack in his high chair. She is very thoughtful and always includes him. I just love her.  Have a great weekend everyone!