Miscellaneous

Jacob's favorite thing to do while nursing is look up at me, smack his lips together a few noisy times, and give me a big grin...then he quickly gets back to nursing.

Lily likes to count everything. "Two, two, two, TWO!" Repeat for, "Free, free, FREE!" (or eight or shish).

Jacob - all in one or two weeks - has learned to wave, clap, do "so big!", bop his head up and down to the music, flirt with his head to the side, and wiggle his head back and forth.

Lily can sit at the table for up to an hour, coloring or taking stickers on and off things. Double the time if she has her pacifier.

Jacob had his 9-month pediatrician visit last week. He is in the 5th percentile for weight. Oy. The doctor tried not to act concerned, but I could tell he wasn't super happy. And he also encouraged me to push Jacob to stand and not be so floppy. Little mushy baby.

Lily is such a good big sister. She loves to feed Jacob whatever she's eating, and always makes sure we include him in everything. I guess this goes along with her learning to take turns and share. Hoppy-yop provides good practice.

Jacob's forehead sweats while nursing if he's ready to go to sleep. It's like his "tell" in poker.

Lily's suddenly decided that sleeping through the night is for babies. She wakes up multiple times a night, for no apparent reason, and says anything she can think of to get out of her crib. "Mama? Daddy? Awake? Kirsten? Oma? Seeeee Oma? Milk? Water? Light? LIGHT!"

Jacob is still the happiest little thing I've ever seen in my life. Even his pediatrician commented on how social he is, when most babies are beginning to experience social anxiety.

Lily is at the same time sweet and so stubborn. We are through two and a half months of the cliched "terrible twos," but as maddening as this age can be, at the same time, it's very exciting. Every day is full of new adventures. Her speech is progressing so quickly, and her ability to grasp complex concepts just astounds me.

The Bride & Groom Come to Visit

The matching sweater dorks: me, my mom, Aunt Ilse, Oma, and Heidi



The new bride with Jacob, Opa looking on



Family friend Adelle with Jacob

More Face Painting Adventures

Elmo:

Double Wagon

My parents got the kids a Radio Flyer double wagon for Christmas. Here's its inaugural run around the block, with each kid covered in their pink or blue blanket from Grams. I forsee much wagon pulling in my future this summer...

Angela, This Is For You

I immediately thought of my friend Angela when I saw this cute picture of Jacob playing in his sister's crib. I bet she'll know why right away. Everyone else can feel free to guess ;)

Post-Op Update

Sorry it took me almost a week to update you on my surgery. It was just so NICE taking a break. From dirty diapers, from baby wrangling, and yes, even from blogging.

So here's the low-down: I'm home, I'm recovering wonderfully, and my arms ache to carry around my babies again. Jacob has been back to nursing since Saturday afternoon - about 27 hours after I went into surgery, and a good 3 hours past the 24-hour wait-time instructed by the hospital to get the drugs and anesthesia outta my system. He was just in agony without me and absolutely would not take a bottle.

Stubborn German much?

Somehow I knew I would be back to nursing him quickly, and would not need the prescription narcotic painkillers (anybody want a prescription for Percoset?). If I can have two kids naturally without any drugs - including Lily's 31.5 hour labor - I can certainly recover from gall bladder surgery with just a few Tylenol.

Ryan and my mom and Aunt Ilse and Ryan's mom have been on baby lifting duty since last week. At the beginning, I enjoyed getting waited on and hardly noticed when little bottoms stunk to high heaven, but now I strangely find myself eager to get back to my quiet little life with my sweet little stinkers (Ryan included). It seems I don't have a very high, "Can you please do this?" and, "Can you please get that?" threshold, and have been secretly doing more than I'm supposed to when no one's looking. Ssshh don't tell Aunt Ilse.

Stubborn German much?

I have four small sets of stitches on my belly: one just beneath my belly button, one about four inches higher, and two to the right of those. The largest, most bruised incision where they actually removed my gall bladder hurts the most. And when I sneeze, cough, or laugh, the area where my gall bladder used to be hurts like crazy and feels like it's going to come flying out through my Steri-strips.

I still can't pick up anything heavy or reach my right arm high to get things, but I'm walking around fine, albeit slowly, and am recovering quite nicely. I'm not allowed to drive for another week, and have no idea how I'm going to manage next week when all my helpers leave and I have to lift and carry and wipe little tushies and manage the household all by myself.

Think the surgeon will yell at me for driving myself to my post-op appointment next week and carrying both kids into the office? Yeah, maybe I should think that one through a little more...

Pre-Op

Ryan and I are sitting in the surgical waiting area, waiting to be called. I haven't eaten since dinner last night and haven't been allowed to drink since midnight.

They made me drink 10oz of magnesium caltrate before dinner...pretty nasty but nothing could be as bad as the castor oil I downed trying to induce myself with Lily (didn't work). It's pretty potent stuff and that's all I have to say about that.

I'm so glad I never had scheduled deliveries with the kids because this scheduled appt stuff is the pits. I woke up at 4 a.m. unable to go back to sleep - the alarm was set for 4:30 anyway. Hooray for a 6 a.m. arrival time...

Ryan just looked over and asked if I was writing a book. I guess that's my cue to stop rambling. OK more waiting...

Lily and Jacob: 101

To Mom (x2) and Aunt Ilse...who will be here in shifts whilst I recover from having a body part removed Friday.

Foods Jacob Eats:
Rice and Rice Cereal
Oats and Oatmeal Cereal
Barley and Barley Cereal
Sweet Potato
Butternut Squash
Pumpkin
Carrots
Corn

White Potato

Zuchinni

Peas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Spinach
Green Beans
Prunes
Bananas
Apples
Peaches
Kiwi
Pears
Avacados
Papaya
Egg Yolk (no white)
Bread
Pancakees
Split Pea Soup
Squash/Pumpkin Soup
Mashed Potatoes
or, any jarred food in the pantry
or, any food cubes in the freezer
**Definitely no nuts or fish or eggwhites or citrus**

Foods Lily Eats:
Everything but nuts and shellfhish

Vitamins:
On the kitchen tabel, labeled w/name and doseage, once/day

Nursing:
5 or 6 a.m.
Before breakfast
Before lunch
Once in afternoon
Just after dinner
Before bed
Once around midnight or 1 a.m.
*I'm not sure how this will translate to bottles, or how much he will take each time. Good luck!

Food Ideas for Jacob:
Jacob eats three times a day, same as when we do . There are jars of baby food in the pantry and cubes of frozen food in the top of the freezer, but he really likes REAL food the best, i.e. table scraps or fruits/veggies processed just small enough that he can't choke. He loves soup (anything warm is usually a hit). His favorite food is banana, followed closely by avacado. Another easy snack is applesauce. He has not yet had yogurt, cheese, or meat.

Food Ideas for Lily:
Lily would be happy with oatmeal every single morning (and will probably ask for it as soon as she wakes up!). She is also a big fan of eggs ("Look, Lily - chese!") or pancakes. For lunch, we normally have leftovers from the fridge, and if there are none, grilled cheese or mac-n-cheese are always popular. She likes to snack on yogurt, applesauce, hard-boiled eggs, Cheerios, or of course junkfood. If she's acting picky, adding ketchup, bbq sauce, or shredded cheddar usually helps ;)

Jacob's Sleep Habits:
B/t 5 - 6 a.m. - Up to eat, then back to sleep
B/t 7:30 - 8:30 - Up for the day
B/t 10 a.m. - noon - First nap (not long! Usually 20 minutes, at most an hour)
B/t 2 - 5 a.m. - Second nap (maybe longer, but 20 minutes still common)
Night: b/t 7 and 9 p.m., depending on when he last woke up
Night Waking: Up once around midnight or 1 a.m. to eat, then back to sleep

Lily's Sleep Habits:
Nap: anytime b/t 12-5, usually lasting 1-3 hours
Night: b/t 7-8 p.m. and 7:30-8:30 a.m.
Night Waking: Usually sleeps through the night, sometimes wakes up looking for her pacifier, sometimes wakes up a million times for no explainable reason

Lily's More Common Hard-to-Understand Words:
Rah rah rah - Pacifier
Shah-sheet (or rubs cheek w/back of hand) - Blanket
Shah-sheet - Jacket
Nyoke - Milk
Away - Awake
Heep - Asleep
Hopchop or Hoppy-yop - Jacob
Foo foo Fay - Uncle Jay
Wori - Lori
Taytum - Kirsten (also pumpkin)
Feffrey - Jeffrey
Oh-hee - Oatmeal
Hnah - Snack
All of her words are very deliberate and always repeated exactly the same. She does not normally chatter (except to herself), so if she looks at you and says something, it's something specific you can figure out if you ask her enough questions or make enough guesses.

Jacob's Mobility:
He is rolling all over, so don't leave him on a bed or a couch or a chair. He can take a nosedive off. He is pushing himself backwards on the floor, and just Sunday, really started getting his knees under himself and lifting his belly to crawl backwards. Just make sure when you put him down that Lily (or anyone else) has not left anything small enough for him to choke on lying around, like a hair barette or a piece of a crayon. He can sit "unassisted" on the floor, but put a pillow or something behind him, because he is very fond of throwing himself backwards when he is done sitting.

Diapers:
Diapers and wipes for each kid are in the top drawers of their dressers. Extra diapers are on their closet floors. There is also a small diaper/wipes station in the dining room. It can be restocked from the diapers in their dresser drawers. Lily is a size 4 and Jacob is a size 3, but if it's too difficult to tell which is which, it doesn't really make a difference. As long as she's not in a size 3 overnight, she's good. Dirty diapers go in the guest bath garbage or the kitchen garbage.

Clothes:
PJs are in their dressers. Lily's shoes, jeans, overalls, dresses, onesies, and matched sets are in her closet. Shirts and sweatpants are in her dresser. Socks and tights are in her nighstand. Jacob's onesies, socks, and shirts are in his dresser. Pants, sweaters, overalls, and sleep sacks are in his closet. It's normally too much of a hassle to put shoes on him (not like he's walking), but if you feel like it, his shoes are in the Star Wars backpack in his closet. Good luck fining a pair that fits. We typically put two sleepers on Lily over her onesie when we put her to bed...so it's like she's wearing an undershirt, pjs, and a blanket. We put a long-sleeved sleepsack over whatever Jacob's wearing when we put him to bed (if he's wearing something stiffer like jeans or corduroys, we'll change them for sweats first, so he's more comfortable).

My goodness, I feel like I've written a book! I know this is way more info than necessary, but it's also nice to have it all written down so I can look back someday and see what they were doing at these ages (8 and 25 months).

Sweetness

Pre-Surgery Bloodwork

I had my bloodword done today in preparation for my surgery next Friday. (It's coming so quickly!) The bloodwork will check:

• My liver - it definitely needs to function properly if I'm going to be down a gall bladder


• My blood count - to make sure I'm not anemic, etc.


• My bloodtype - I already know what I am, but I can understand why they'd want to check for themselves

I also had to leave a "sample" so they can check if I'm pregnant. I'm thinking I'm not, but I'm glad they're double checking, because, hey...you never know. Results should be back Friday or Monday, then they need to precertify me with the insurance company, then I'll be 100% covered for the surgery.

Finally - those monthly insurance premiums are going towards something!

We're still not able to get Jacob to take a bottle, and he still throws up every kind of formula we've given him. I only have about 3 or 4 pumped bottles in the freezer (oops...I gotta get on that), and when the time comes, he's just gonna have to take a bottle, whether or not he wants to. He'll eventually get so thirsty he'll have no other choice.

Poor little Mama's boy has no idea what he's in for while Mama's out of comission!

Wordless Wednesday

All I Wanted For Christmas...

Looks like Jacob got his wish.



PS We're all feeling MUCH better now, thank you. That was some nasty stuff going around.