Thursday, November 29, 2007

Irrational fears?

I remember when Trevor was a few years younger (how crazy is THAT that I can say a few years ago when talking about Trevor???), that I wondered if he would ever have any fears. The kid would do anything, and try anything because he never was showing any fear. Now, it is interesting to try to rationalize with him when he has a fear that really, isn't something to be afraid of. I always thought that he really loved attention. In fact he does like the attention, as I witnessed when we were at his Preschool Halloween Party. He LOVED getting up in front of the class and explaining who he was and where Lightning McQueen lived.

When we talked about his birthday coming up, he would always say, "But I don't want a birthday." I had to search through his thoughts before I found out that it wasn't the having a birthday, or turning 4 that was the problem, it was he didn't like when everyone sang to him. Actually, whenever it was any one's birthday - even when we were at a restaurant - he never wanted to sing, or anyone to sing to anyone when it was their birthday. So....to remedy that, when it came time to sing to him for his birthday, we all whispered. Then he was ok...still a little timid but we got through it.

We have a few things on the calendar coming up, but Trevor knows that as soon as we have his birthday, the next day we can bring up all the Christmas stuff. So it's officially going to look a lot more like Christmas in our household. All we've done so far is bring up the books and movies. We've already read Dr. Seuss's "The Grinch" as well as watched the movie and the Frosty the Snowman movie. I'm not sure if he doesn't remember the movies or if he only vaguely remembers them and remembers being a little scared by them for some reason. But when we watched the movies for the first time today, he spent a few moments behind the couch. And it puzzled me as to what could even be scary about the movies. I think he just wanted to be told what was going on in the movie. I mean what is scary about the Whos singing "Fa who for-As, Da who dor-As, welcome Christmas"?

And with that, we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

They could be.....SIBLINGS


We'll see how long this lasts. Yes, Trevor and Gwen looked very similar (with differences in hair color and hairline and amount of hair) when they were born, but to me, all newborns look the same. And right at about 8 weeks is where I noticed Trevor turning into a little boy. So I had to break out the pictures for Gwen's 8 week "birthday". Here they are....they could be...siblings!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I am a mom now

You can't really call yourself a parent until you hit your child's birthday and start the "Guess what I was doing 4 years ago?" and relive the birth of your baby with them. It was pretty cool that I just had little Gwen a few weeks ago because now Trevor can know what I'm talking about because he understood that Gwen was in my tummy and came out when I was at the hospital.


So THIS is what I was doing 4 years ago. Instead of making turkey dinner, by the way. Oh how those years go by so fast and how much your heart grows in those 4 short years. I love you!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

This cracks me up

My cousin Megan did this of her daughter Ellie last year, but I love it! And Erika did this to her family, and it cracks me up....

Elf Yourself

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Our Thanksgiving


Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving meal. We sure did miss some of you (you know who you are) but I remember having to split Thanksgivings between families as well. Everything turned out nicely as far as I know. Good food, and there was enough football to go around. Next year Thanksgiving falls on Trevor's birthday, so it will be interesting to try to pull all that off.
A funny story for you, that doesn't have anything to do with Thanksgiving: Trevor received a big brother/birthday gift from my Aunt Alice. It was a rhyming/matching game. So I was putting some of the pieces out for him to match, but I didn't make sure that everything was out that he could match with. So I went looking for something that was supposed to rhyme with "grape". I found the piece - it was an "ape". Now the pieces have both a picture and the words. But seeing the ape, both my mom and I were wondering if he would know it was supposed to be the rhyme to grape. What my mom said was, "I think Trevor will think it is a M-O-N-K-E-Y". Without even seeing the ape piece, he said (because he was working on the star rhyme) "No, monkey doesn't rhyme with star." Oh boy, did he crack us up. I guess he knows how to spell a few words already.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Our first Parent/Teacher conference

So....yesterday we had our first Parent/Teacher conference. It was voluntary, and there will be another one mandatory in the spring. But I really wanted to get an idea of how the teachers saw Trevor in how he was progressing and behaving. It was pretty cool. He has two teachers, but only one was at the conference.

Behaviorally, Trevor is where he should be. He has some things he is working on when it comes to not taking toys away from people. But that they have noticed that he does respond well when behavior is modeled and practiced.

In terms of other skills, the teachers are amazed at his memory. I know from listening to him tell stories that he loves the Bible story time. They do one bible story for two weeks, and he is always quick to remind the teachers which one they are doing.

One of the other things they do in school is have name cards used for taking attendance, and allowing kids that it is their turn to do something. He has always been able to pick out which name is his, even though there is a Ty and Timothy in his class. But what the teachers are amazed at is that when it is time to let kids take their turn to do something such as to wash up for snack time, Trevor knows by sight all the kids names in his class. (and there are 20 kids in his class). The teacher commented how it is funny that if a name is picked, and shown to say that it is that child's turn to do something, Trevor can quickly say who's turn it should be, even if that child is not paying attention, or doesn't recognize it right away. Such a memory Trevor has.

So, overall a very good report. Have I said lately how this preschool thing has been such a lifesaver for us??? I'm so glad he has taken to it and it has really improved his skills so much.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Observations about Gwendolyn

So she's almost 7 weeks old. I'm taking weekly pictures, (but haven't uploaded them all yet) and it is easy to see that she is not completely "newborn" anymore. Plus parts of her personality are coming out. Granted, it is still purely speculation at this point, but it is still fun to remember how Trevor was at her age, and how they are similar or different.

Most notably are their sleeping habits. Trevor rarely slept for more than 3 hours at a time. I looked back at his baby book milestones, and he first "slept through the night" at 2 1/2 months. Now by definition, this is slept for 6 hours straight. If I'm counting correctly, Gwen has already done this 5 times, and if she does wake up at night, it is only once. I'm in heaven.

Unfortunately, she does not sleep during the day. It makes for tough days. I can't get much done, and Trevor doesn't get a lot of attention. But that's not my point. In watching her through the day, she really has bits of her personality shining through. It is pretty cute. For example, while Trevor loved to lay by himself and kick up a storm, Gwen would rather look around, and hope to find someones face. If she finds a face, she would much rather talk up a storm. It is so cute. It even is funny to see that she has a certain noise she makes that really sounds like "hi". So you can say hi to her back and forth. Trevor was an early talker, but I wonder if Gwen will be able to beat him. She might not make those physical milestones as early as he did, but she is still a strong little girl. And I just love her smiles. Trevor used to smile at inanimate objects, like clocks and lights and things, but Gwen just wants to find your eyes, and smile right at them.

So anyway, we are battling colds here. Any healthy thoughts would be appreciated. I'll update with pictures as soon as I can.

Friday, November 16, 2007

I'm on a roll!

So....I have to gripe about something. And it's my blog so you have to read about it ;-)


I completely understand that at any "portrait studio", the photographer is completely hit-or-miss. You are lucky if you find a good one, and even luckier if you can find a way to get the same photographer each time you go to said "portrait studio". With Trevor, I got a really good photographer a few times at JCPenney. But I also tried Target a few times because I could use my rewards coupon, and it wasn't much different than anywhere else.


On Wednesday, I braved (with the help of my mom again) JCPenney mostly because they give you a good deal if you enroll in their portrait club that is for 2 years. With as many pictures as Gwen is going to have, it ends up being a good deal. Plus I have a framed photograph of Trevor that I plan on getting with Gwen when she is 6 months old.


Our appt was for 11am. I thought it was the first appt of the day, but I was wrong. They open at 10am. We survive the car ride with Miss Gwendolyn screaming most of the way there. I run to the nursing room to feed her before the appt. I guess at the time because I don't have a watch. I arrive almost exactly at 11am where Trevor and my mom are waiting. There is another appt in the photography studio with a girl 2 years old. There is another mom with her 4 year old boy looking at her photos. THANK GOODNESS they were showing Curious George the Movie on their TV because it kept Trevor's interest the entire time we were there. I was acknowledged when I arrived by filling out some paperwork, but otherwise that was it. Gwen was also asleep at this time. Another blessing. You could hear the mom in the studio begging her daughter to smile so they could get one good picture. She tried bringing her older daughter in to help. Didn't work. This went on for quite some time when I finally asked the cashier how much longer she was going to be. I was told that I would be next. (DUH)

Gwen woke up, had to be changed and I wanted to rush her right in there because I knew we only had a limited time before she would start wanting to eat again. So at 11:30 at the earliest, we were finally in the studio. And this photographer was HORRIBLE. I could not believe they even hired her. She had NO people skills whatsoever. And I could see a bit why the other mom was saying she wanted one smile out of her daughter. The photographer did nothing to make either of my kids smile. Luckily Gwen likes to smile at anything. But we didn't even get a good picture of her smiling. And Trevor's smiling pictures are his cheezy grin because unless you can get him to really laugh, it is very forced. So while he was at least happy, we didn't get a great smile of him either. But I picked out the pictures I liked, ordered enough for family, and plan on doing Christmas cards on my own, like I did last year.

Oh, and I did get to complain through an online survey so even if nothing gets done, at least I "said" my peace somewhere where someone might pay attention to it. I'll keep you updated with any other pictures soon....

Short update

Things are up and down lately. The nights are going pretty well - 6+ hours continuous sleep from Gwen. But the days are harder. I have a sling arriving in the mail today, so that should help things out a lot.

I'm trying to update Trevor's old website so everyone can see the progress both of them are making, and even compare. Gwen has been giving me some looks that I easily remember from Trevor. And I slowly see the newborn face going away. Also, her tears are developing, so it breaks my heart to watch her cry now.

Here's the site and I will be adding it to my website list on the right.

Monday, November 12, 2007

My Son is a GIANT

I remember going through a stage with Trevor when he was very young where I could tell how old an infant was by looking at them. Because you are a mom that spends practically every waking moment with them, you get to know little details like when they focus their eyes, can hold their head up, can look around at things, etc. So I would laugh when what I guessed to be a 3 month old was "born" on a TV show. It's like they would throw some slime on the baby and call it born. Uh no, a baby cannot focus its eyes like that.



Anyway, although I'm not doing that this time around, my view is still skewed to a newborn. I see Gwen and am holding her almost the entire waking moments of the day. She still isn't into a good schedule yet, although we are getting there.



But over the past few days, I have noticed how huge it seems like Trevor is getting. I know some of it is that my view is skewed to a little 10lb baby, but even comparatively, he just seems so huge. He is tall for his age, as can sort of be seen in his Halloween picture. He was quickly moved to the back of the picture for being tall. But last night when Russ was carrying Trevor downstairs after his bath, I noticed that Trevor only has to grow from the ground to Russ's knees before he is the same height. I'll have to measure Trevor again. Last appointment 6 months ago, he was 42-43" tall, so I'm sure he is even taller.



Then today, when my mom was over, she was playing the "This is the way the Lady rides" game with Gwen and Trevor felt left out. He wanted someone to play that game with him. This game involves sitting on the lap and bouncing around to a little song. Again, for a 10lb baby, no problem. But I volunteered my legs to let Trevor have a little fun as well. At that point, when he was sitting on my lap I was face to face with him. Having looked at Gwen for so long in that perspective, it made Trevor look like a giant compared to him. His head, his legs, even his smile looked just so crazy huge compared to what I look at on an hourly basis.

Friday, November 9, 2007

So we can remember and not forget

Sorry I haven't been around much. We've had a rough patch with Gwen in that she's almost always attached to me during the day. She still sleeps decently (at least much better than Trevor) but that doesn't mean we get a "good" night's sleep. So if she ever does sleep during the day, I have a short list of necessity things that need to get done. Namely sleep myself.

And last night Russ and I were talking about how we could not remember it being this hard with Trevor. Actually, I know it was pretty hard until he decided to get into some what of a routine. But even then he wasn't able to sleep well at night. I looked on T's baby calendar a few days ago, and he didn't sleep through the night (definition: 6 hours in a row) until he was 2.5 months. Gwen has already done so, more than once. She averages 4-5 hours in a row, but she also has a pretty good routine at least at night. She also hasn't confused her days and nights like Trevor did.

But anyway, back to trying to remember how it was with Trevor. Our memories are a bit skewed because 4 weeks from T's birth was when Russ and I got the flu. Shortly thereafter, we had our parents staying over at night to help us out. A few days after that, I stopped breastfeeding, so he went to completely formula and bottles. I am pretty sure he also hadn't taken a pacifier yet. I know for sure he took to it before 3 months of age, but don't know when it happened. At 6 weeks old was when I was in the hospital for almost a week and again our families were over helping out with Trevor at night. So from about 4-7 weeks we don't have any real memory of how Trevor was.

For our reference....this part is HARD. Especially with another child that needs at least SOME attention. She doesn't sleep much during the day, and won't just sit there calmly either. She needs to be walked around (and have purchased a sling for future days) or wants to be sucking on something but hasn't figured out about a pacifier yet. We are going to keep offering her a pacifier until probably 3 months or until she finds a finger/thumb. You can see it would calm her down. Also, except for swaddling, she does like the other 5's. Russ found that the "shhhing" part is actually running water. She calms right down. Actually fell asleep in the carrier when I turned it on, and is sleeping right now.

Which means I should sign off for now, and get some other things done. I will be back when we have more time and energy. It will get better, I do know this. I can't wait to see our little girl start to become more independent and develop her personality. She does seem to be a much more relaxed girl than I remember Trevor being.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Trick or Treat!

Very successful night, thanks to Uncle Kevin ;-) Here is the picture of the kids after the big score of loot. Our across the street neighbor came over to our house as they were leaving, and they got to walk together to trick or treat. She turned 5 this summer, and was "a machine" according to Kevin. She had a pillowcase which was full by the end of the night. Kevin had to pocket a bunch of candy just so his bucket wasn't too heavy for him to carry. Thank goodness I can use the extra calories so it won't have to go to waste. So far he's only eaten one and a half pieces of candy. He'd much rather eat cookies.



Also posted is the creation this year made by Russ. We had a little bit of a theme going on this year. I hope everyone had a great Halloween as well!