The light was great today.

Baby Stats!

On my birthday, February 6th, both kids had a check-up. Lily had her 4 month check-up and Morgan had his 18 month check-up. I have been meaning to post their Baby stats from every doctor visit, but always seem to never get around to it. Today is the day though, here you go...

Lily:
Weight: 14 lb 10.5 oz (62.42% of growth percentile based on weight-for-age)

Height: 25" (66.81% of growth percentile based on length-for-age)

Head Circumference: 17.1" (91.59% of growth percentile based on head circumference-for-age)

Morgan:
Weight: 24 lb 9.6 oz (99.6% of growth percentile based on weight-for-age)

Height: 31.5" (28.44% of growth percentile based on length-for-age)

Head Circumference: 20.24" (99.66% of growth percentile based on head circumference-for-age)

I am wondering if Morgan is going to get his height from my short and stout German side of the family. Lily seems really long, she fits in 6 and 9 month clothing so I am hoping she gets Steve's genetics for height.

Both are very healthy! Our pediatrician said Lily is at the 8 month developmental skill set and Morgan is well over the 2 year old developmental skill set. So things are good. The doctor does not want them to have any screen time at all, but it's hard. We try and restrict it to just Sesame Street in the morning, but somedays it's more than that.

Morgan is starting to say sentences. It is strange, but cute. Miss Lily is grabbing stuff and holding things. She smiles all the time and just laughed for the first time this past Saturday, the 13th, when Steve was pretending to NOM(For those of you who don't speak LOLcat that means munch or eat) her face. :)

One other thing worth mentioning is Morgan has started going into the bathroom, lifting the toilet seat up and will pull his pants down. He then pretends to pull down his diaper and then when he sees fit he pull his pants back up and closes the lid! We are going to budget in a potty seat as soon as we can because he is obviously ready to get started in the potty training process.

President's Day Weekend and VD

Saturday, we went to our friend Alex's house for her annual Tet Party which celebrates the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. She has a son two days older than Morgan named Albert and a 4 year old named Samuel. She is also the person who turned us onto Inglemoor Co-op Preschool so Morgan and Albert are well acquainted. When we got there Morgan grabbed my legs in shyness for about 3 seconds until he saw Albert and all the toys. Oh boy were there toys! They have an awesome kitchenette pretend play set that Morgan headed right for. He loves cooking! We reallly want to get one for him once the upstairs is done. Anyway, Morgan literally did not stop running around the entire time we were there. He had the happiest look on his face too. He looked like he was in heaven with all the toys and kids to play with. There was also some great food and people there.

Here are some pictures from the Party...

This is Morgan posing with Albert for pictures.

Morgan cooking. He is a very serious chef.

Morgan running around with the crash cart.

Morgan with a magic wand.

Sunday, Beth and Jim came over and babysat so that Steve and I could go out to dinner and a movie on Valentine's Day. We wound up hitting some President's day sales at the outlet mall and got some amazing deals on baby clothes. An intersting note about the outlet mall is that it was filled with people from all over the world. We are guessing this has to do with the Winter Olympics and a lot of people are staying in the area since Vancouver, BC is booked solid. Anyway, then we went and saw 'The Wolfman' which was very dissapointing. The trailer was far better than the actual movie. It was lacking substance which is sad because there were great actors in it. After that we went to dinner at the Belt Sushi place in Smokey Point by Target and it was super YUMMY. It was the best sushi I have ever had. It was extremely fresh and fun because all the sushi is going around on a little conveyer belt in front of you and you just grab what looks good. The only problem is EVERYTHING looks good so we wound up eating way too much. Plus the chefs were Japanese and knew what they were doing and they put on a little show for everyone with a good sense of humor. I highly recommend going there. I can't wait to go back. When we got home Lily was sleeping and Morgan was playing with Beth and Jim. Both kids seriously love them bunches. It's nice to go out and not worry one bit because you know the people watching your kids have it covered. 

Monday, Steve had to go back to work and my Mom hung out all day with me and the kids.

Alright, now I am going to back up to the Friday before the weekend. Klayton came over to hang out with me and the kids all day. It was very relaxing. We just hung out chatted some and he played with the kids and helped me out. He also brought some X-mas presents he had bought for the kids. He got Lily and Morgan some really cool clothes. Morgan got a Pink Floyd t-shirt(which he is wearing in the above photos) and an awesome Paul Frank monkey hoodie. Lily got two cool shirts, one of which is black (hehehe) with a unicorn on it, and a beautiful brown embroidered cardigan.  I am so lucky to have awesome friends and family with such great taste in clothes. My babies are always well dressed. Well, except Morgan who has decided lately that pants and socks are no good. He runs around with no pants or socks on all the time now. :)

Here is Klayton holding Miss Lily. Is it just me or does she look a little like Minnie mouse?!

Here is Lily super excited stomping her feet.

 

 The end.

(Hair Disclaimer: Yes, Morgan's hair is out of control! We are getting him a haircut ASAP. We are going to keep it long and just bring it up an inch or two to get it out of his eyes.)

Yes, we are still alive!

It seems like I haven't blogged in forever, which for me December does seem like forever ago. Between the ordeal with my back pain and a remodeling nightmare things have been more than hectic and stressful for us. Luckily I have had some great help from my family and friends to get me through the day with the kids until Steve gets home and our remodel is 3/4 of the way done now. My back is getting slowly better which has helped improve my outlook on life so maybe I can get back to blogging regularly again. I will spare you the yucky details of our stressful past couple months and leave it at that so we can just move forward.

Morgan and Lily are getting so big. Morgan is playing pretend games now like cooking, talking on the phone and using a computer, and he takes care of a doll like it's a baby. His words are starting to just pour out. He will also copy what we say which is a little scary since Steve and I have not cleaned up our language quite yet. His big words right now are Thank you, Bye, Hi, Hey ya, yeah, Baby, Lily, Doggie, and ok. He was even saying Alligator for a while, but I haven't heard it in a bit. He managed to rack up an epic cell phone bill for us too last month so he doesn't get to play with the cell phones ever again. It was pretty scary.

Lily is sooo big. She is only four months, but fits into the 6-9 month clothing. She is so alert and very very talky. She doesn't like to be left alone and wants to be where everyone else is at all times. Christmas turned into a 4 day party for her and she loved every minute of it. She is quite the social butterfly. She rolls over now and can sit up on her own. Part of me is so thankful to be past the newborn stage and the other part is mourning it. I feel like I didn't get to enjoy it enough due to her reflux and my back pain it's all a blur. However, she is absolutely adorable and it just gets more fun each day.

Morgan tries to pick Lily up occasionally and gives her hugs and kisses. He is so sweet with her it is priceless to watch. There is a bit of jealousy with who is getting attention at times, but nothing negative towards Lily, he just wants to be a part of it.  With that we are very lucky.

I am currently working on a picture post to catch you up on our lives, so check back soon! :D

Oh Christmas tree...(The Marysville Way)

Meet "Pablo" or "The guy who sells us our X-mas tree almost every year". He speaks little to no english and is the nicest guy. I wish I knew his real name, but Pablo will do.

I suppose when Morgan is older we will go to an actual Tree farm and wander around in rubber boots looking for the perfect tree for Steve to hack down lovingly with a saw, but for now tradition is tradition and ours happens to be to drive down State Ave. about 10 blocks to the local Mexican market. My Mom and I then agonize indecisively over picking out our tree from maybe a dozen they have in their pot hole filled parking lot while Pablo smiles and seems to try to tell us each tree we look at is the best one on the lot.

Pablo and my Mom. Aren't they cute?

Our Precious Tree we finally decided on getting ready for transport.

Morgan could have cared less about picking out a tree and really just wanted to run out into the busy road, hence the monkey leash. Once we had decided on a tree it was straight back into the car with him while Pablo and his friend tied the tree to my car. :)

Funny story about this picture, when the flash went off Pablo's friend freaked out and thought it was the cops coming and he acted really reallly reallllllly too worried which worried me of why he would be worrying if the cops were coming. I guess that is somethin to ponder about next year.

TA-DA!!!

The pictures are all scrambled, but you get the point of the story I am sure. I love the last picture of my Mom gleefully standing by while our lovely Mexican X-mas tree man ties our tree on top of our car for us, oh and of course the one of her with Pablo's arm around her. HAHAHAH. That made me laugh so hard when he did that I could barely take the picture. :)

And here is the tree up with lights in all its glory. Please don't mind the little white dog humping the big black dog. Thanks.

And this ends the story of how we got our tree. The tree which immediately started dying as soon as we got it into the house because it wouldn't drink any water. Oh well! It still looks great. :)

Happy Day after Thanksgiving!

Alright, yesterday was a lot of fun and I don't know where to start. I guess I should start by thanking my amazing husband for making Thanksgiving happen at all as well as my Mom, Fred, and Kathy. Due to my back injury I have had my pelvis/SI joint popped back into place twice this week(which is unbearably painful)by a therapist making it so I am unable to do barely any of the things I previously could like walking, Steve stepped up and took the lead in the kitchen though and did a great job. He also cleaned the whole house the night before and baked a Pumpkin Cheesecake as well as made some of the side dishes and appetizers ahead.

This year was a bit different for us; my Aunt and Uncles decided not to come. Steve and I love having Thanksgiving at our house and look forward to it every year so we invited Steve's Sister, her fiance Matt, Steve's Mom, and of course my Mom too. My brother, his wife, and my nephew came by in the evening and had dessert with us as well. It was a nice day filled with music, an adorable sleepy newborn, and a crazy energy filled toddling toddler toddling all over the house screaming, laughing, and talking everyones ear off, oh and occasionally throwing himself down on the ground banging his head in a fit. ;)

Our Thanksgiving dinner was ruled by vegetarians and the lactose intolerant this year which was awesome! My Mom still baked the traditional turkey and giblet stuffing for her and Steve's mom, but Steve's sister and fiance are vegetarian too which meant everything on the table was vegetarian and dairy-free except for my Mom's turkey and stuffing of course. And at the last minute Jamie and Tracie showed up with the infamous yummy Pistachio salad, so I guess there was one thing with dairy in it. It was a great meal and I am realizing perhaps next year we will make a more reasonalbe amount of food for the amount of guests. We could have easily fed twice the amount of people that were here and still had leftovers.

I started blogging for my friend's food blog called The Yum Diaries.com, so I took some pictures of our table setting and food, not as many as I had planned due to my back though, but enough to get the point across.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and now for the pictures...

Appetizers: Pickle Tray,Fig tapenade,Tofu dill Caper dip,Veggie Tray


My Table Setting


Our Dinner minus the sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and the soup.


Aunt Fred, Morgan, Morwyn's Butt, and of course two Maltese and a Partridge in a Pear treeeeeee. :P


Aunt Fred and Lily








Tracie and Jaiden made these yummy Turkeys







Fred vs. The Pecan Pie




Family Cuddle :)





TV ZOMBIIEEESS!






Matt and Fred




Steve's Dairy-free Pumpkin Cheesecake
Keep checking back for more photos, I am still adding them...

Life

Steve went back to work last week and I have been getting help from my step-mom Diane during the day while Steve is gone. She has been doing all the chores and helping with Lily and Morgan as well. Morgan and Lily both love her and we decided they will call her Nana. Diane wasn't ready for the title of Grandma quite yet. ;)

It is unbelievably awesome that she is here to help. I really need it right now, unfortunately my back is still very bad. I am currently taking some serious meds for it as well as going to Physical Therapy twice a week. I am also seeing a spine specialist. Apparently I have several bulging and herniated discs and a small fracture in my lower back, but the Dr. doesn't think that is the entire problem. After reexamining me she has concluded the problem is my SI joint. This is pretty common during pregnancy for it to go awry and mine just happens to be pretty bad. I am going to start seeing a physical therapist that specializes in it. I am also getting lab work done to make sure there isn't arthritis in that joint. I am not supposed to pick up Morgan or Lily which is impossible, so I am learning how to do it correctly through PT and it's sort of like relearning how to live. I have to be super careful how I move and bend from now on. I actually started to notice a difference after a week, but then Saturday I decided that there was nothing wrong with me and did a bunch of bad stuff to my back and now I am regretting it. It did teach me a tough lesson that I am indeed living with a bad back and as such I must take care of it and ask for help which is really hard for me to do sometimes.

Aside from that annoyance life is good. Morgan is a busy busy little man and so incredibly adorable it kills me. It's virtually impossible to be in a bad mood around him he just fills me with happiness. He is into everything he can get his hands on and I mean everything. We finally took down the gate to the living room and he has full roam of the house now. Yesterday he ate dog food for the first time and played in the dog water bowl until almost all of the water was on the floor. It's amazing how fast this can all happen even if you are present and watching him. Necrobutcher is apparently having some dominance issues with him and actually mounted Morgan from the back and humped him yesterday too! Not sure what to do about that.

Morgan is starting to use words more and more. He says baby very clearly in regards to Lily. He also says Puppy, Doggy, Daddy and Dada, and Mama. He also will randomly repeat a word that you say which is sort of scary. Steve and I need to get our swearing under control immediately or we are going to regret it. He is also using a fork and spoon correctly. It's a huge mess but just within the past couple days he has picked it up.

Lily is doing well. We think she may have colic so the Pediatrician recommended adding rice cereal to her formula which seems to be helping a lot. She still has fits of crying, but nothing like before. Morgan is a doting brother. He loves to come up and bounce her seat. He gave her a binky the other morning when she was crying and then immediately took it back for himself, but it was the thought that counted, right? It really was the cutest thing ever. He also gently pets her head and he likes to make her hands clap. There is no jealousy or animosity at all. I wonder how long that will last? :)

Sunday Steve's mom came over so we could take pictures and it was quite the fiasco. Once Steve got everything set up, both kids bathed and dressed, and various other tasks done the crying set in. Lily let us all know very clearly that she was not going to put up with any picture taking. Meanwhile Morgan managed to corner Musashi in the hallway and Mu flipped out and bit Morgan's face. He actually drew a little blood and there were welts and a little puncture wound. Of course this happens right before he is about to get pictures done. UGh! For the rest of the evening he was pretty grumpy. He wouldn't cooperate for picture taking either so all the pictures are crazy. He has started throwing his binky at us when he gets mad and tries to hit us. He also throws himself on the ground and bangs his head on the floor while screaming. Honestly, it's kinda cute. We totally ignore the tantrums and wait for him to be done before giving him any kind of attention. The hitting gets a big scary "no" from us which he understands very well. I am hoping this is a short lived phase, but who knows. The funny thing is I am enjoying even the bad stuff. It is so fun to be around him and watch his personality grow and see him learn new things.

I will try and post more often, it's just been hard lately, but hopefully it will get easier as I feel better and find a routine.

Now for pictures...

This is an example of how Lily normally looks...





Here is where she decided to catch her breath...


This is the best out of the bunch I took...


The look on Kathy's face in this photo is priceless...