Farm Day in Orion

Maddox, Kennon, Grammy and I got to spend the day out in Orion yesterday at my friend Jen Martin (Nightingale)'s house!! She was home from California visiting her Mom and Dad so we all gathered at her house for a FARM DAY! We had a great time. I had been talking to Maddox for several days about going to the FARM, ridding the TRACTOR and seeing the PIGGIES but it didn't quite sink in until we were actually there. It was SO HOT but the kids did really well....as you can see from all the pictures ( Maddox is in the token purple hat with the red cheeks of course). The little pigs were only 2 days old and the bigger black and white one was 2 weeks old. Maddox ( unlike all the other kids) was pretty afraid of the HUGE tractor and didn't want to ride at first. It was loud and I think she was more afraid of the noise than anything. But, as soon as we started walking away from it she of course started pointing back at it to indicate she wanted to ride. Luckily I was able to ride with her which soothed her fears and once we were on she did GREAT. Steve, Jen's brother, drove us around...! Maddox even got to honk the horn and turn the turn signal on and off....and THANK GOODNESS the cabin was air conditioned. It was seriously so hot out...!! We drove around in one of the wheat fields they had just picked. It was really fun. Then we went and saw one of their combines and climbed around a bit in the hog wagon. After all the festivities outside we were hot, hungry, and tired. Betty, Jen's mom, had made a great lunch of italian beef and fresh fruit. After lunch we played with the tons of TOYS that Betty and Rich have at their house. You could definitely tell it was a GRANDKIDS SAFE house! We managed to get a picture of all the kids lined up on the couch. I think it is hilarious. Brothers and sisters are pretty much sitting next to each other if you can match them up. ( Kennon was sleeping in the swing...we decided not to disturb him to get him in the picture...next time buddy). We owe a BIG THANKS to Betty, Rich, Jen and Steve for catering to us and taking time out of their busy farm day work schedules to play with us. Grammy and I managed to keep Maddox awake on the way home and hurried her inside to her bed for her afternoon nap. She slept until almost 5:30. It was a great day and something that Maddox wouldn't normally get to experience. Thanks Nightingales. And thanks to Grammy for the extra set of hands. Grammy stayed inside with Kennon while I was out doing all the fun activities with Maddox. It was WAY TOO hot for Kennon to be outside. I never could have done it without you Grammy.

Block Party!

Yesterday, despite the extreme heat, we went to our neighborhood block party...and boy did Maddox have fun. It was really too hot for Kennon to go so Eric and I sort of took shifts with Eric taking Maddox down first and then I took her for the last half. It was super hot so the organizers set up a few baby pools for the kids to use to stay cool. Maddox ran around, shoes off, from pool to pool, up and down the little slide, in and out of the sprinkler. She even jumped in the big bounce house they had rented. I had to laugh, when Eric and I both had a chance to finally talk about the party later that evening, it was definitely evident that each of us had utilized different 'Maddox chaperoning' skills while we were down there. I was apparently a little more LIBERAL with Maddox during my shift. She didn't necessarily play directly with any of the many many kids, which is typical for her age, but she sure did love all the activities. There was sidewalk chalk, all kinds of little ridding toys...oh and.....lots of unclaimed food hanging around on little tike picnic tables for Maddox to scarf down before I could get a chance to grab her. She definitely capitalized on some uneaten Doritos!! Oops. At one point she had cheese all over her face. It was really funny, although Eric didn't think it was quite so hilarious that his daughter was kind of a scavenger during my shift!! Sorry Dad. She was having a good time. The pictures below are from BEFORE the party actually started. It is so fun to put her in little summer dresses. Eric came back shortly after they got there to get Maddox's swimsuit and that was her attire for the rest of the event. She was covered in grass by the time we left ( oh and a little Doritos cheese!)....so she went straight to the bath for a cleaning. She is starting to say phrases now which is fun, stringing together 2 or 3 words. Today she pointed straight to the TV and said 'hippo' to the hippo that was on the screen. I didn't even know she knew the word hippo. The Niabi Zoo doesn't even have hippos and the St. Louis zoo's hippo expo was closed when we got there. I don't know how she learned this word....!! It is really amazing and fun. So much easier for her to communicate with us now. Kennon is doing pretty well. He continues to sleep at night, on average, 4 to 5 hours at time. Although we did get lucky and Friday night he slept from 9pm till 4am. GREAT. He still has his fussy times but definitely improved over the last couple of weeks. I swear he grows by the minute and he gives us more and more smiles each day too! He is still fitting in the 0 to 3 month clothes but they are definitely getting a little snug. We'll be moving to the 3 month clothes soon I think. He is a good eater and still doing well with the bottle. We are SO EXCITED. This weekend Uncle Jay gets married which is cause for celebration AND for family to be in town. Uncle Tyler, Aunt Brooke and cousin Carter will be in town as well as all of Maddox's second cousins, pretty close in age to her, on Uncle Jay's side. It should be a fun weekend.

Maddox and the Backyard Pool

WOW!! I know time has really gotten away from me. I keep thinking everyday 'I've got to get the blog updated' but then the day just gets away from me. We have been doing well! It has been so HOT here, I picked up a backyard pool for Maddox at Walmart over the weekend. It turned out to be a pretty fun pool complete with waterfall palm tree and a little slide. She LOVED it. It was like 90 degrees out Sunday so it was a perfect day to pull it out. Luckily Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean came over to help out. Grandma Jean stayed inside with Kennon ( thank you Grandma Jean!!) while I manned the camera, Eric took care of Maddox and Grandpa Jim held up the leaning palm tree to keep the waterfall more evenly dispersed, it was a TRUE joint effort!! We all had a great time. I was SO HOT by the time we were done and I think Maddox was too so luckily she was willing to come inside without much fuss. She has been doing pretty well although I'd think she'd sleep outside if we let her....she loves to be outside despite the heat. We REALLY need to invest in a swing set!! Every now and then she'll have a whining fit but I'm not so sure that it just doesn't have to do with the terrible 2's rather than Kennon being here and most times she can be re directed pretty easily. She did go pee pee on the potty 2 times this last weekend. The first time she really knew it, the second time we were still sitting there and she started going but I'm not really sure if she knew she was going so we still have some work to do...but the concept is definitely blooming. Everyday she lets me know she is learning learning learning....!! She can even count to 10 with just a little help. Speaking of helping, she is really a pretty good helper with Kennon. She is able to 'fetch' all kinds of things and most recently is VERY MUCH into giving him hugs and kisses and she says 'hug and kiss'. It is so darn cute! She is a little rough with her actions but has been better about NOT touching his eyes lately. She loves to give him his 'paci'. We continue to be SO THANKFUL about her fantastic sleeping abilities even when Kennon is screamin' his head off. And lately she has been sleeping till like 8AM!! We are so lucky for that. Kennon has had a rough couple of weeks or so...but in the last, I would say, 72 hours he has really been doing pretty well. The last 2 nights he has slept 4 to 5 hours at a time which is pretty good for an almost 7 week old. He is still somewhat fussy in the evening, starting about 6 to 7pm, but NOT NEARLY as much as last week!! Dr. Anderson had diagnosed him with colic a couple of weeks ago and chiropractic care has been shown to be a successful treatment for colic so we thought we'd try after he cried last Thursday night from about 5PM till 11PM....!! And so far it seems to be working. We've just been 2 times. He has been less fussy, with less hiccups and spit ups and in general is sleeping better. I am hoping to wean him off of the visits in the near future and I figure everyday he is older and able to handle life outside the womb a little bit better. He continues to eat really well and has been doing a little more smiling and cooing lately. He loves his bath time and would prefer to be NAKED. He is a hot blooded baby. He is now taking a bottle from Eric every evening. He takes about 3 ounces like a champ. Initially the bottle seemed to really wake him up which made a rocking session necessary to get him to sleep. But the last 2 nights he has gone into a milk coma during/after the bottle which has made putting him down so easy....!! Hopefully he'll keep that up. So overall we are doing well. I have returned to the Y, which is a blessing!! Just going easy on the elliptical and doing a few weights. I go on the days that Maddox goes to Kim's. Kennon sleeps in the car seat at the base of the elliptical while I ride away. It is nice to get out of the house and kind of back into a routine. I"ll keep doing elliptical for awhile longer and then hope to return to running in the next couple of weeks. Eric and I are planning to purchase a double BOB jogging stroller in the next couple of days. Right now I have no way to take the kids out for a walk by myself because we don't have a double stroller. We figured with our love of jogging that the double BOB, despite it's cost, would be well used. I just found out one of the local bike stores has a double in stock! NAVY in color...perfect for a PV family. We have to clear out a space in the garage for it before we bring it home...it is a beast but will be well worth it. Yesterday I took both kids to HyVee by myself for the first time. With Maddox in the front seat and Kennon in his car seat down in the cart there was hardly any room for groceries!! They were both very good. OH this is getting long. Enjoy the pictures. Maddox LOVES shoes of any sort!! She most often wears her snow BOOTS around the house ( despite the heat). She eyed Grandpa Jim's BOOTS and went to town. So funny....she was very determined to get them on AND try to walk in them!! Every night I put away her snow BOOTS and then about 20 minutes after she wakes up in the AM I hear the closet door open and out she comes with those things on again!! You'd think they'd be so hot??

Happy 4th of July

Hi everybody! Just a quick update. We enjoyed a great 4th of July complete with 2 visits to the YMCA pool, lots of outside playtime, and watching the Bettendorf 4th of July parade. Kennon is getting so big. He seems to be doing slightly better with his fussiness....getting rid of more gas which makes him a much happier baby. He continues to go from 2.5 to 4 hours sleeping depending on then night, is giving us smiles ( which I managed to get a picture of ) and is even starting to find his voice cooing every now and then. Maddox slept right through all the loud BANGS from the fireworks over the weekend. Eric and I decided we'd wait one more year to take her to see fireworks given her recent FEAR of loud noises. We'll be much more mobile next year anyhow with both of the kids being older. Enjoy the pictures.

A STELLAR Sleep Filled Night

So...I am writing this with BRIGHT eyes this AM. I know I just posted yesterday (Thursday) but I was so happy I had to share the great news. As most of you know already, Kennon had a GREAT night last night. Since Sunday I have been on the couch sleeping, with Kennon sleeping in the swing and both Eric and I have been walking and rocking him with little to no sleep....it has literally been miserable. WAY worse than Maddox ever was and we thought SHE was a colicky kid. So I ended up taking him to Dr. Anderson yesterday just to get him checked out thinking maybe there was something wrong with him as he hadn't been so fussy the weeks before. Luckily he just diagnosed him with colic and sent Kennon and my tired self home. I fed Kennon as soon as we got home from the Dr. and then he SCREAMED and I mean SCREAMED for 1.5 hours directly following the feeding. Eric and Maddox came home from running the Bix at 6 and I told Eric I was ready to call the on call Dr. if he was still crying at 8.30PM. It was so awful! But, I fed him again and he calmed down and so we decided to try the one suggestion Dr. Anderson did have to soothe him which was put him in the swaddler to sleep. We had tried the swaddler immediately upon arriving home from the hospital and he didn't seem to like it at all despite my numerous tries and different styles. Maddox LOVED the swaddler and it really helped her sleep so we were hopeful it would work for Kennon too. But, I had given up about week 2 because it didn't seem to help. However after Dr. A's recommendation I pulled it back out again and just left him in his diaper and wrapped him up in the swaddler and it was seriously like magic! He took a big sigh after I pulled it tight and he went to sleep. NOW, I'm sure he was worn out from all the crying he has done in the last 4 days so that probably helped. But he slept from 9pm till 2.30AM and then went right back down again, without the pacifier, and slept until 6.30AM! Could we be so lucky tonight?? He is still sleeping as I write this so we'll have to see how his gas pains are during the day. But, even if he is still fussy during the day just being a little brighter eyed will make walking/rocking him for hours on end slightly easier. THANK YOU JESUS!....and Dr. Anderson. Wish us luck tonight.

PS I am finally getting this posted Saturday AM. He didn't do quite as well last night ( Friday). 3 3 hour stretches in his crib with the swaddler. We'll take it compared to earlier this week. AND YES....that is Maddox dancing around in her PJs with her snow boots on, on the hottest day of the year!!