04 September 2010

We have a new blog home!!!

I know, I haven't made any posts on this blog for a while, I have been so busy this summer with work and babies. And, I have been secretly working on our new blog home! I have decided to move to a new blog platform, wordpress, and have officially launched Verity and Maddox's new blog website: www.veritymaddox.com !!! Woohoo!! This took me a long time to get going because I had to learn the new platform, design it all myself (cuz I am a nerd), and do it all in very small stolen moments at night, on the train, etc.

So, please come and visit our new blog home and bookmark, save to favorites, set up a new RSS feed, etc.!!!! I will be leaving this one out here for quite a while, or until I can figure out how to move all these very precious posts to the new platform (if that is even possible). Thanks for visiting!!!!!

xoxo
Katrina

09 May 2010

Verity's 6 month checkup

Verity Claire is 6 months old already! I can't believe how time flies! Here are the stats:

Weight: 15 pounds even (~30th percentile)
Height: 26 inches (50th percentile)
Head circumference: 16.5 inches

Verity has fallen off her curve of being in the 50th percentile for weight. I got a stern talking to about making sure she gets enough to eat. She only will drink 12 ounces while at day care from 7:30am - 5pm and that just doesn't seem like enough. It was tough to get her to drink that much and I wasn't that worried - just thought she drank a little less than Maddox did and was catching up when she was with me. I am still breastfeeding and up until recently, she was still getting up in the middle of the night to eat. Since she has been sleeping through the night, maybe she isn't getting as much as she used to. I feel just terrible! She doesn't act like she is starving or anything, and she doesn't look it - she has very chubby thighs! She is clearly not as fat as Maddox was at this age, but every baby is different. I have instructed day care Mama to step it up and get her to drink a little more. And, I have added a bottle of formula to the evening ritual. I have been cutting back on pumping lately and she is now getting at least 3 bottles of formula a day now. The nurse said some babies plateau at this age - I can totally see that - Verity gets distracted very easily when eating - she doesn't want to miss a thing!!

Other than that, Verity is doing great! She is such a sweet happy baby. When you look at her and smile or talk to her, she gets very excited and smiles from ear to ear and kicks her legs. She is such ray of sunshine! She is able to sit up for short bits before slumping forward or falling back. She is grabbing at everything nearby and putting it directly in her mouth. I sat her on the counter last week and she reached over, grabbed my orchid and ripped the whole stalk with the flowers on it off the plant and proceeded to munch on it. I was stunned and thought it was so funny! I took it away from her and she leaned over and started grabbing the leaves and pulling the plant near her. Needless to say, I don't put anything within arms reach of her now! She loves to suck and chew on her toys and especially loves Sophie the rubber giraffe. She gets a little upset when you take something away, which Maddox likes to do. We are working on her sitting up for longer periods so she can move into her tripp trapp chair for eating.

Speaking of high chairs, we started her on solids last weekend. She started out with some rice cereal which she wasn't too keen on for a few days. She finally figured out how to swallow it and not spit it out on the 3rd day. She loves the spoon though and grabs onto it constantly. On Thursday she got some peas and really liked them! She was smiling and swallowing pretty good and ate quite a bit. She now will open her mouth when the spoon is coming and seems pretty happy about eating! Next she will get green beans, then carrots and sweet potatoes. We will move onto fruit after she has conquered all the organic veggies I can find.

On Friday, she started saying a new consonent sound "da da da da". She is just talking up a storm and loves to babble on and on. She isn't moving around too much yet - she can push up her chest on her belly and spin a little. She also rolls very easily from her back to her front. Doesn't roll too often from her belly to her back, she likes being on her belly a lot and sleeps that way every night.

I still need to get her official 6 month pictures, but here are some recent ones I took in the last week.

Here she is sitting up, just for a few seconds!

Holding Mama's hand for balance - see Rudy and Maddox back there?
Snuggling with Mama

Kissing Mama
Eating rice cereal for the first time!
Looking way too cute for words
Holding her own spoon!

Happy Mother's Day!

I was awoken at 6am by two very awake babies - Maddox handed me a singing card, it was so cute. Something about me being "amazing" and loving them even when they are bad. Maddox wanted to carry that card around he loved it so much! Dada did a great job of picking out cute cards, he always writes the nicest things too. I just have to quote part of it: "... Great moms also love their kids uncontrollably and unconditionally, make their kids laugh, teach them important lessons and silly things too. Great moms sing and read to their kids. They give lots of hugs and kisses and smile a lot. They're always there. Yup, you're a great mom alright... we're so lucky to have you." Thank you my darling husband Rudy, and thank you Maddox and Verity for making my mother's day special!

Happy Mother's day to my Mama - You are a wonderful Mama and I miss you today!

25 April 2010

Verity's ballerina debut

Here is Verity when she was 3 and 4 months old. She is going to be 6 months old next weekend and Mama is a little behind with her blogging.

25 March 2010

Verity's 4 month checkup - and 5 month too...

My darling baby Verity -

How you have grown! I can't believe how fast the time is flying by. You are getting so big! Here are your stats from the doctor:

Weight: 13 pounds (50th percentile)

Height: 24 3/4 (75th percentile)

Unfortunately, your 4th month of life was wrought with sickness and lots of doctor visits. Both you and Maddox caught a nasty cold/flu and it took up residence in your nose, sinus, chest and ears. You had a mild double ear infection, fever and a terrible cough that kept you up at night. Your sleep schedule was interrupted by you waking up a lot during the night and crying inconsolably. Mama and Dada were not getting sleep and not getting much work done during this time. Luckily after a round of antibiotics, staying home and time, you are mostly better now.

You are holding your head up really good now and can sit up in your bumbo chair during dinner time or whenever. On your belly, you are pushing up with your arms and looking all around. A couple of weeks ago, you rolled over from your tummy to you back for the first time since that fluke when you were really little. You woke up twice that night cuz you rolled from your back to your belly and you were not happy about it. You love to look around at everything and especially Mama and Dada's faces. You smile all the time. You laugh when we tickle you and give you kisses. You like to kiss back too, or maybe you are just trying to latch onto my face, but it feels like a kiss! You are a very vocal baby too - you will talk, babble and moan and groan all day long. You love to watch your big brother Maddox too - he is good entertainment for you. I think your favorite thing right now is Mama's singing voice. When I sing to you you seem to light up. If you are crying, singing gets you to stop and calm down. Finally, someone appreciates my singing! My favorite songs to sing you are: Little Star by Madonna, Fly me to the moon (Sinatra), Ice Cream by Sarah McLachlan, Bliss by Alice Peacock and Bubbly by Colbie Caillat. I think that you will like to sing too since you are constantly making noises and sometimes it sounds like you are singing yourself!

You are now sleeping in your own crib in your own room! We had to take drastic measures to get some sleep when you were sick and so moved Maddox to his new big boy bed and you into your crib down the hall. After a few weeks of this, you are sleeping through the night! You sleep from about 9pm to 5:30am straight through! Yes! That is good since before you were waking me up twice to eat and then during your illness, every 5 minutes it seemed. You are also going down for your naps in your crib awake and putting yourself to sleep, good job! You like to flip over onto your belly and sleep that way now though, it is making Mama very nervous. Since I have to check on you frequently, Mama isn't sleeping through the night yet. :-D


I am so proud and happy to be your Mama and am enjoying every moment of your babyhood since I've learned how quickly it passes. I love you baby V! Speaking of V, you have many nicknames I call you - V, Vee vee, Miss V, Sweet V, Sweet pea, boo, pooh bear, and many variations, Mama just loves to come up with new ones! One of them will stick more than the others eventually, but your Dada loves to call you V too.


We just got back from Austin, TX for spring break where we hung out with the family, it was a fun week!

Here are some pics from the last couple months.

Wearing her owl onesie made by Mamie and her sweet khaki pants!
Singing to Mama!
Hanging out with big brother Maddox on his new big boy bed
Modeling Mamie's new line of flower headbands
Sequins, jewels and magnolias, oh my!
Mama and Verity
Playing with big cousin Eva

06 March 2010

19, 20 months and growing

Happy 20 months to you mister Maddox! You are such a bright, happy, silly, funny, smart, cute, chubby, cuddly little boy and your Mama couldn't be prouder of you. You are still the bright spot in my morning - I so look forward to seeing your smiling face every morning and getting a big hug. Even though lately you wake up with Dada and Mama hears you stomping around the house downstairs and yelling and laughing before she sees you. Your baby sister is taking up a lot of my time and I feel guilty and am very sorry if you feel like I don't see you enough. I just can't get enough of you though and I love you SO MUCH! That's why I go to Music and Me every Saturday to spend some special time together singing and playing instruments and dancing and running around, it is so much fun! You love music class - even though you are still pretty shy about doing all the things in class that you are learning. You do them when you get home though! I hear you in your crib or in the other room singing "Baa baa, ba ba ba ba ba!" like we do at class with our microphones! You love to clap and spin and stomp your feet. You love the drums and you turn pretty much anything into drumsticks and beat the table, the floor, the counters, anything!!

You are a really good climber lately too and a savvy problem solver. You have figured out how to push around the chairs and other objects, like boxes or a stool and can get on top to reach onto the counters and tables, etc. You also have suddenly gotten taller and can reach onto the kitchen counter and desks and beds and pull things down to play with - sometimes things you shouldn't play with though. I think your favorite is to find a pen and then go draw on something with it. Speaking of drawing, you love to color with your crayons and now have a coloring book that you drag around with you. You also still love our cellphones and laptops and will do ANYTHING to get to play with them, although you aren't supposed to and we can't let you do that for quite a while. But, we can't wait for you to get your own computer because your Mama and Dada are computer geeks and we want you to be techno savvy like us. Speaking of technology, we've started letting you watch some tv shows here and there. I mean kids shows, we always seem to have the tv on anyway, but we are purposely steering you towards watching some shows for you. You watch some Sesame Street, Mickey's playhouse and Curious George. "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog!!!". You like it when Mama sings that song, hee hee. We usually watch these shows with you, we don't just park you in front of the tv by the way. You have a short attention span for this though, you will only watch a whole show if you are sitting on our laps or in bed with us. If we are all running around doing stuff, you will just watch little bits and then go off and play with something, which is prob a good thing!

Lately your words are "stucks" and as of last weekend "No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO!!!" Sometimes it sounds like doh and sometimes it sounds like ni or na. You have also said "down" and "sheesh", something Mama has been saying lately. You have said a lot of words in the past, but seem to forget them when you move onto new words. But, you do also say "thanks", "yes" and "dada". Very seldom do you say "mama" - only when you are mad or upset it seems. You still like to scream and yell alot, you have a lot to say, except we can't understand most of it. I can't wait to have conversations with you!

You really get mad when you don't get your way - you hop from foot to foot and shake your fists and stomp your feet and scrunch up your face, it is quite comical. You learned a new thing from your dada recently - the fist bump. You love it and can do it with both hands! Another thing I have been letting you do lately is helping me in the kitchen. You love to pull up a chair and stand at the counter and "help" me cook dinner. It is the best way to keep you occupied while I make dinner. You helped me make Dada's birthday cake and you play with bowls and utensils and sprinkle seasonings into your bowl and "stir" them. You are quite interested and I love it! Although, standing on the chair is not the safest thing, tonight you took a step back and fell off the chair, Mama felt SO HORRIBLE. You were ok, but it scared you and you cried for a while and made me hold you and carry you around. :-(

When you are in the mood, you will repeat things we say and things we do, it is pretty fun to teach you stuff. Although, sometimes we teach you silly stuff that you don't need to know. Like one night at dinner we were having chicken noodle soup and Dada started drinking the broth from the bowl. Next thing we know you are picking up your bowl (even though it didn't have any broth in it) and you were "drinking" your soup too, so fricking cute! Mama was so impressed with your mimicking skills that I wanted to put them to the test. So, I started flapping my chicken wings at the table like I was doing the chicken dance. I pretended like it was a totally normal thing to do and didn't even really look at you when I was doing it. Of course you won't copy ME, so I made Dada do it too. You got this big grin on your face and stuck your hands in your arm pit and did a little flap, it was awesome!!!! The best part though was the next day at lunch with your Dada, out of the blue you gave him a sly little grin and started flapping your wings!!! I am so proud of you!! :-D Hee hee!! I promise I will mostly teach you useful things, but come one, it is fun to learn to do something silly too!

We are putting together your "big boy room" right now. Mama is quite excited and is having a blast decorating and picking things out. I decided to not have too much of a theme, but did want to incorporate owls into it. I found a cute owl fabric and I will make you a new blankie as a throw for your bed (when I get around to it). I mostly just wanted it to be a fun colorful room and to have all your toys and a big boy bed. We already have some maple bunk beds from Room and Board that your big brother Jackson and sister Cassie used to sleep in when they were little. So, the bunk beds are now your big boy bed!! You seem to LOVE them so far - you aren't sleeping in there yet, we just set them up so you could get used to the idea in the other room. You already can climb up the side and jump into the bed - it is almost like a fort in there it is kind of enclosed and cozy. I will get a side rail and then sometime soon we will try to get you to sleep in there! Verity is going to get your crib and so we want to move you into your new room and then we will work on transitioning her from the cosleeper into the crib. So, back to the decorating since that is Mama's fav thing to talk about. I ended up keeping the aqua and green that you had in your other room in this new room, but introduced the color orange. I meant it to be an accent, but it is pretty dominant in the room right now. I got orange quilts from the Land of Nod and then ordered some polka dot sheets from PBteen. I just couldn't find any sheets I really liked so just went with blue and green polka dots which I though were cute and colorful. I found the most AWESOME orange lamp at HomeGoods and put it on your new maple dresser we got at Room and Board. I have to say, your room is quite sophisticated and upscale for a little boy, but I think you appreciate the design. ;-D We also got you a new table and two chairs - we only have the orange chair so far, the blue chair is on back order and the table should be in next week. You are going to love this table - you sat at it in the store and we had to get it for you! Once we get this all together, Mama will take a picture and post it here for everyone to see. I was kind of lazy though, I didn't paint your room, it is still white. We are getting the house ready to sell and I didn't feel like painting the entire room just to move out some time this year (I hope). I have to say though, with all the colors going on in there and the toys and stuffed animals and Mama's crazy paintings, it looks pretty good with white walls. Crazy! The story of us selling our house and moving is another story I will have to tell soon, let's just say we are getting close to listing our house for sale and we really hope that in this crappy real estate market we can sell it sometime this year and not lose too much money. We are really excited about buying our next home though, there are exciting times ahead!

Well, I really went on and on and I want to finish by telling you Maddox that you are my one and only baby boy and I love you with all of me, you are my little star, never forget who you are!!
Mwah! XOXO
Love, Mama

My little monkey riding his motorcycle
Helping Mama bake Dada's birthday flourless chocolate cake. He is really whisking the eggs!
He's watching tv in this shot, that's not a far away look... yikes!
Being silly and trying to grab the camera
Sound asleep... This is a kooky shot because it was very dark in your room and I left the shutter open for a long while to take this pic.
You and cousin Eva goofing around
Here you are yelling again!
Just a sly little grin as if to say "What?" I am playing, leave me alone!
Trying on Mama's glasses, such a little goofball!

22 February 2010

3 months old and baptized!

I am really behind on my blogging and I am sorry. Verity Claire has turned 3 months and has had quite a time! She's holding up her head really good, laughing and smiling all the time. She has even grabbed her feet a few times and grabs onto things like my hair and her rattle, blankets and stuffed animals. She is a very social baby, LOVES it when I talk or sing to her. She also seems to really like the TV, hee hee. Like Mama, like daughter. She is still a very sweet baby and so very easy. She isn't quite sleeping through the night yet, but that is ok. She wakes me up around 2 or 3am and again at 5 or 6am. But, she sleeps pretty good in her cosleeper in her swaddle blanket. She has been sick pretty much since we went back to day care unfortunately. She is congested and is having a hard time breathing when she eats. We saw the doctor just today and she is ok. Her big brother is another story, he is pretty darn sick with a fever and double ear infections. Poor little guy. I hope Verity doesn't catch it!

We also had Verity baptized last weekend on Valentine's Day. Uncle Aaron and Aunt Shannon flew up with baby Eva for the event and to be her Godparents. Uncle Beau and Tiffany are also her Godparents, but couldn't make the trip right now. It was a nice weekend spending time with cousin Eva and just hanging out. Verity looked like a baby princess in her beautiful dress I had custom made on Etsy. I just love Etsy!








02 February 2010

Back to work!

I have been back to work now for a week and it hasn't been so great. Verity didn't eat much at daycare last week, she started out totally refusing the bottle. This is partly our fault for not giving her the bottle much in the days leading up to my first day back. However, we did try to give her one, she just wouldn't take it! She has drunk from the bottle in the last couple months a few times, so I wasn't that worried. Boy, was I wrong! She spent her entire first day at day care not eating, crying and sleeping. Poor baby... Mama had to leave work early - although I still didn't get there until 4:30pm. She was one hungry girl! She didn't drink much on Tuesday either, just a little bit here and there that dripped in her mouth. She wouldn't latch on and suck on the bottle. I worked at home and picked her up early again. On Wednesday, Verity and Maddox are home so Rudy had to take over working with her and the bottle while I pumped at home all day. By lunchtime he had succeeded in getting her to latch on and suck! Thank GOD! Daddy is a GENIUS! He is such a good Daddy. She drank a little more that day and Thursday, but still not nearly enough, I think like 5 - 7 oz. On Friday she finally started to warm up to Carrie and drank 11 oz.

I was still really worried and called the pediatrician's office and they told me to just stop giving her boob cold turkey until she was taking the bottle consistently. I was NOT happy about this, it was a very harrowing week for Mama and Dada and then I had to pump all weekend? ARGH! I ended up pumping in the morning and feeding her in the afternoon on Sat. She was taking the bottle pretty good by then so wanted to see how she would do on Sunday morning. Again, Sunday she took the bottle, even from me, so thought she had it. Monday she only drank 5 oz though, I was still very worried. She seems to be warming up to Carrie though- I think this has been a combination of missing Mama, not wanting to drink from a bottle and being in a strange place with a stranger. Poor little butterfly - I feel so guilty taking her to daycare and going to work, it is breaking my heart. Tuesday she did better and drank 11 oz again, so I feel better. I want her to drink at least 12 oz, I think that will be good. Maddox drank 16 oz while I was at work though, maybe she will work her way up to that.

All in all, it's been pretty stressful going back to work. I am working at home every Wednesday to be there and breastfeed and take a break from pumping in the middle of the week. Pumping is not that much fun. But, JPMorgan Chase has a mother's room for women to pump in, so that is awesome! It is not as nice as the mom's room at Orbitz, but it is still a nice room with two private places to pump, a sink, fridge and a place to store your things. There are quite a few women using the room too, so that is a positive thing!

Today, Verity is officially 3 months old! I can't believe how time has flown by. I will have a separate post about her and hopefully some new pics soon. I need to take some photos though, don't have any new ones yet.

18 January 2010

Sleeping through the night!!!


Two nights in a row, my perfect little princess has slept through the night. YAY for Verity and YAY for Mama! She slept last night from 10pm to 5am, and the night before from 9pm to 6am. WOW!!! I hope this continues...! She is also holding her head up really good at tummy time, almost 90 degrees! I have to get a pic of that soon. My baby is growing up too fast! On another note, this is my last week of maternity leave and I am kind of in denial. I am very sad and can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Sniff sniff. Verity and Maddox will be going to Daycare 4 days a week and spending Wednesdays at home with Dada!! I am lucky that I will be able to work at home on Wednesdays too so I can see them at lunchtime and breastfeed Verity rather than pumping. Pumping is not so fun! It will be an adjustment, but we will cope.

12 January 2010

Verity Claire - 2 month checkup

Baby Verity is two months old! We went to the doc with big brother Maddox and here are her stats:
Weight: 11 lbs 3 oz (75th percentile)
Height: 23 in (75th percentile)
Head: 15 in
She gained almost 3 pounds in the last month, unbelievable!

Verity is doing wonderfully. She is sleeping about 6 hour stretches at night and has taken a really good afternoon nap for the last few days. She is all smiles and gets really excited when you talk to her and it almost seems like she is trying to laugh. She is a really easy baby. Rudy remarked yesterday that he thinks she is easier than Maddox! I think they are the same. She hardly every cries, only when she is hungry or wants to be picked up. She is really spoiled, but you wouldn't know it. She lays in her bouncy seat and is content to watch Maddox play. She is really a joy and I couldn't be luckier!

Here are some recent pics I took:

Posing like a supermodel
I finally captured her long and curly eyelashes!
A sweet, smirky smile
Tummy time!
Chubby baby - poor thing has the same double chin as Maddox
Pretty princess flower baby - another flower from Mamie

11 January 2010

Maddox Berlin - 18 month checkup

My baby is a not a baby anymore. Sniff. He is such a big boy!! We had his 18 month checkup last week on Wednesday along with Verity. We coordinated their appointments into one, wahoo!

Here are Maddie's stats:
Weight: 27 lbs 1 oz (50th percentile)
Height: 32 in (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 1/4 in
He gained a pound and 1/4, that's it! I thought for sure he would have gained too much because he eats quite a bit!

Maddox had his last round of vaccines until Kindergarten! He also had a booster swine flu shot. Yes, that's the H1N1. I heard there was a marketing blitz to rename it to H1N1 to protect the pork industry. Did you ever wonder why everyone started calling it H1N1? But I digress.

Maddox is a monster. He screams at the top of his lungs when he doesn't get his way, he loves to hit and even sometimes tries to bite, awesome! I know he sounds like a monster, but really he is a normal toddler on his way to the terrible twos. I do feel like I am failing as a parent though when he does these things. We just have to try our best to teach him the proper ways to act. Ignoring the screaming, teaching him that hands are for hugging, not hitting, hitting hurts! That sort of thing. He is really not that bad, he is also the cutest, smartest and most lovable little boy. Although, he is a particularly lovable with his father. Maddox and Rudy are really close, it is really cute, although I am getting a tiny complex. Verity is attached to me like glue though, (as Rudy says), so I don't feel too bad.

I try to pay special attention to Maddox whenever I can by playing with him, eating with him and putting him to bed. We also started a new class this past Saturday called "Music and Me"! I am SO EXCITED about this. I have been dying to take this class for a while now and they are finally offering it on Saturday at our church. It is a great class and Miss Michelle is very popular with the kids. It is so annoying how all the classes offered for Mommies are on Tuesdays at 9am. Aren't there any other working moms out here in the burbs, sheesh!?! Well, this class is pretty full actually, and there were a few Dads in there too. Rudy and I will probably take turns so he can do the class with Maddox every once in a while. Maddox was a little bewildered by it, he stood in the room frozen for a while when we first got there just looking at everyone else. Then, when class started he just stared and sat on my lap, or demanded that I hold him. I got a LOT of hugs and snuggling during class, it was excellent! The second part of class he kind of stood around watching, but across the room from me, I guess he warmed up. He used some of the props - the shakers and drums and wooden circles were favorites. And when it was time to leave, he didn't want to. Refused to put his coat on - yelled and ran away. I had to drag him out of there! When I tried to buckle him in the car seat, he bucked like a little bronco and cried. Very loudly. It was so much fun!! I had to give him some time and then wrestle him in there. I was a little embarrassed, but hopefully anyone around understands how toddlers can be! I can't wait for next week! His daycare mama and her daughter Sadie are in the class too, so that is nice, he gets some extra time hanging with his girl Sadie. Here are some recent pics:

My baby boy in dire need of a haircut.
Wearing Mommy's Ugg boots, hilarious!
"Changing" Verity's diaper. He opened it and looked inside, so funny...