Auto Show!

We headed to Houston this weekend to check out the Auto show since we're in the market for a new vehicle. It's a great way to see multiple vehicles at once and go back and forth between them. We took Logan and Isabel and met up with Grammy, Papaw and Aunt Jennifer. They were nice enough to take Isabel to the kids zone. From the pictures it looks like she had a great time. They had a nice setup for kids. Logan started to feel very hot while we were there and I checked out with Grandma, Logan and Isabel right after lunch to get Logan home. He had a temperature of 103.7, but with the help of Ibuprofen we were able to get it down to around the 101 mark and thankfully it broke by Sunday morning. Both Logan and Isabel were sick with colds again last week. They're both doing better and Isabel went to school today.

Today at school Isabel got to check out a real live fire truck! She was very excited about it. She was kind to her friends all day, which is so great! I'm trying to decide if I'm going to put Logan in the same program next year. Early registration opens up this month and I'm a little torn. Having 2 days a week to get stuff done would be great, but I also think it would be fun to have 2 days a week to spend with Logan. Not sure what to do. I also think school has really helped Isabel with her shyness. Before she started going she was so very shy and very reluctant to play at playgroup or try new things. It could be that she's just getting older, but I think school has really helped.

More Crawling and Babbles

Logan is really starting to get the hang of crawling. He's also pulling up on everything. He's in the stage where there is no fear, so someone has to be within arms reach at all times to catch his inevitable flop. He greeted me Sunday morning sitting up in his crib-a first. I guess he realized that since he can sit himself up he might as well do it in his crib and hang out. He was pretty proud of himself. Logan has started to babble a lot. It's pretty funny. Sometimes I can't tell Isabel and Logan apart on the monitors when they're both talking. His favorites so far are 'brob brob brob' and 'ma ma ma.'

Brian and I agreed that we needed to lower Logan's crib after he greeted me sitting up yesterday. Well, we forgot about it. Right after Brian put Logan down for the night I remember and had visions of him standing up and doing a header out of the crib. Sooooo I picked Logan up and Brian lowered the crib. It took almost 20 minutes, so I was not looking forward to the hour long process of getting Logan back to sleep, but the kid never woke up! Nothing like holding a sleeping baby. :)

Isabel is talking a lot more. I was showing her some pictures and pointing to people. She normally just names mama, dada, brober (brother), Ish (Isabel), Pa (Grandpa) and Tank, but over the weekend I pointed to Aunt Jenn and she just goes "Jenn." I was impressed because the picture of Jenn was over 5 years old and because she's never said Jenn before. This morning at breakfast I asked her if she could say Aunt Jenn and she did! I did my 'I'm so impressed at my smart daughter' routine and she was pretty proud of herself so she wanted to keep saying it, but wanted me to ask her to say it. She kept saying 'one more' so that I would ask her if she could say Aunt Jenn. Wow, that was a long, and I'm sure super boring story for anyone other than Aunt Jenn, who isn't able to read this thing anyway.

Crawling and SLEEP!

Logan is thisclose to crawling. He's gotten on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth and has ventured out and taken a few crawls. He's also trying to stand on everything. It's so cute to see him stand up. We thought Isabel was a tiny walker, but Logan is even smaller! He's been teething like crazy and just wants to chomp on everything. I gave him some melba toast yesterday and he absolutely loved it.

I don't even want to post about it, but Logan has been sleeping from 8pm until I get him up to nurse before I hit the gym (4:45am) and then going back to sleep until 7-8am. It's AWESOME!!! It's been going on since we got back from Houston (Sunday), so maybe it'll stick? Brian and I resolved to maybe try and let him cry it out after getting up 2-3x's a night for almost 8 months. One night he was up 4x's and I had just had enough. I told Brian that was it, we were doing it. My body needed more than 3 hours of sleep at once. Of course I chickened out and just couldn't do it. Maybe Logan heard us talking? I don't care what the change was, I'm just SO glad I'm getting more sleep. I'm a much happier and more patient mom with some sleep.

Isabel has been having a bit of a rough time recently. She's at the stage where she's saying something and knows what she's saying, but 1/2 the time we can't understand her. She has very clear ideas of what she wants and doesn't stop until she gets it or after she whines and cries for 30 minutes. She's still been having some biting issues. The behavioral specialist observed her at school on Monday and has some tips for us. She said to consistently use hand signals to reinforce our firm "no." I've been trying it and I'm hopeful that it will help. I dread looking at her daily report from school because it almost always says that she's bit a friend or tried to beat someone up. On a positive note she had school pictures Wednesday and the photographer said she was the best little model he had seen. :) Her teachers both said what a cute picture she took, so I'm anxious to see them when they come in. We're heading to playgroup today for the first time in a long time, so hopefully she'll be on her best behavior!

Yesterday was the 16th anniversary of my first date with Brian. To celebrate I made some freaking awesome beef tenderloin, blue cheese mushrooms, creamed spinach, steamed snap peas, and a the same chocolate amaretto pave that I made last year for dessert. I tipped the bottle on the amaretto since I'm not pregnant this year and it was heavenly. We've been making a special dinner for each other on January 13th every year. We used to take turns, but now Brian will only make it on a weekend due to work. I do remember this trifle he made one year I think when we were seniors in high school. He got the recipe from Jan and it was so good! In 2013 the 13th falls on a Sunday, so maybe I can get him to make it again.

Teeth, the sickies and scooting around.

Logan has both bottom front teeth breaking through! You can barely feel sharp little points. Isabel finally got her canines in. Those were tough. I think part of her biting was/is from teething. Logan is also trying to scoot around and is very interested in trying to pull up on things. He's not content just sitting on the floor. He needs constant interaction and stimulation.

Isabel and Logan have both been sick for a couple of weeks. I thought they were both well on the way to being fine, but Isabel came down with a fever. We saw the doctor today and got on an antibiotic for a suspected sinus infection.

A 2 word sentence! Logan starts on solid foods

Yes, we had a 2 word (prompted) sentence from Isabel. She said "Bye Brother." It was pretty cute. She now says "hi" and "bye" with a southern accent. It's ridiculously cute. We really need to get it on video.

Logan has his 6 month checkup a couple of weeks late on Friday. Oh.My.God. What a mess. I was there with Logan and Isabel for almost 2 hours. Jesus. It made me want to switch doctors. We were seen by Logan's doctor within 20 minutes of our appointment, but we had to wait an HOUR to get his vaccinations. I finally opened the door to the back hall hoping to see a nurse and ask to reschedule the vaccine visit because both kids had had enough. Instead I saw Dr. Frank who asked if I had been helped yet. I told him "not yet" and closed our door. I heard him chew out his staff. I must say, I was pretty happy that he found it unacceptable as well. That may have been the only this keeping me with the practice. After getting profuse apologies from the nurse about the delay we were told that they would call me with Logan's thyroid and PKU test results. These were the tests we had done at 2 weeks of life. I got a call from the nurse saying that everything was normal, but at Logan's 2 month appointment Dr. Frank couldn't find the results. I didn't think too much of it because we also paid for the extended newborn screen which included the thyroid testing and that came out normal, but I was pretty pissed that they still didn't have the TX screen results in his records. I was told they would give me a call after they talked to the Tx Dept of Health. No call back on Friday. Let's just say that we better get a call tomorrow. I reiterated to Dr. Frank that Vivian had hypothyroidism and was a bit concerned about Logan's weight gain, but he was very reassuring and said he's proportionate and that I shouldn't worry. If they can't find the results (and they better pray that they can) we'll definitely be retesting this week.

Logan started eating peas this week. He seemed to like them ok. We'll continue to introduce veggies once a week for a while and see how he does. So far, so good!

The Yuans visit, Thanksgiving and sitting up

We welcomed Mark, Chelsea and Elizabeth back to Austin for a visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had a great time eating BBQ, playing with the babies and catching up. Chelsea and Allyson even got to go out to see a movie! Elizabeth is a super sweet girl. She was getting over a cold, but was still super laid back. She had great hairdos and I tried to comment on her pretty bows hoping that Isabel would want to wear some, but that didn't work out. Here is Izzy giving Elizabeth a kiss and the girls climbing the stairs.





Logan has been sitting up without crashing for longer and longer periods of time. I put the bobby behind him and he'll sit for a long time before falling back or to the side. I wouldn't call him a complete unassisted sitter yet, but he's almost there!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving in Houston with Grandma, Grandpa, Grammy, Papaw, Uncle Greg, and Aunt Jennifer. The drive over wasn't TOO bad. We've been testing out different departure, feeding, nap times, etc hoping that we can get a combination that equals the least amount of screaming by the fewest number of people. So far no matter what we do Logan always seems to scream for at least 1/3 of the trip. Luckily Isabel has become a pretty good passenger. We ate a yummy turkey that took only 2 hours to cook in Grandma's convection oven, mashed potatoes, biscuits, green bean casserole, corn casserole, and lots of other goodies. Isabel really enjoyed the turkey and corn and ate almost everything we gave her. She even reached over and took the corn casserole off of my plate. Logan relaxed and had a little nap while we ate.

Turkey:






Friday morning Brian and I headed out at 5am to do some shopping. We got a LOT. Brian was not a good shopper and got cranky. I think when the lady at Baby Gap raises her eyebrows and gives you a look like 'wow, sorry you have to deal with THAT' it's time to go home. So I took Brian home and picked up Grandma and Grandpa for more shopping around 9am. I got almost all of my shopping done!

Saturday was Vivian's birthday and Brian and I released a few balloons and had spaghetti for dinner. The drive back to Austin was miserable. Logan screamed for 1.5 hours straight. I even crammed in the back seat for the last 2 hours of the trip and even that didn't help. That kid REALLY hates the car. As soon as we got home and he got out of the car her was super happy again.

Oh yeah, we also watched the Aggies BTHO t.u.! Thanks to Grammy and Papaw for the cool new A&M shirts.

My little elf:


Logan riding Fargo:

6 months! China! Grandma! Santa!

Logan is now 6 months old! His appointment isn't for another couple of weeks, so I decided to put his credentials into the growth chart calculator and get his percentiles. He weighs 14lbs 12 ounces by the doctor's office scale) and is 27 inches long (by mom's measurement). This puts him at 5-10th percentile for weight and 50-75th percentile for length. He's long and lean. After losing a bit of weight a couple of weeks ago he put on a pound in 10 days. I started supplementing with formula at night and just got my brand new amazing pump in the mail. Yay! Hopefully I'll be able to pump and give him breast milk at night rather than stinky formula. If not, it's not the end of the world. He just won't be as smart. Just kidding. :) The doctor wasn't concerned about his weight loss and didn't suggest supplementing, but I'm not used to these skinny babies and decided I would feel better if he gained some weight. Logan has seen the doctor for a little abscess on his bottom. If it doesn't get cleared up by next week we're off to see the dermatologist.

Daddy has been in China for the past 9 days. We're anxious for him to come home. Grandma has been here the entire time and has been a HUGE help! I would be committed by now if she wasn't here! I even got my hair done last week. Nice!

Isabel is still chugging along. We attempted to see Santa yesterday. It was pretty funny. I'll try and get the pictures scanned in and posted. Here are a couple before we left.