Aidan, my big helper!!

So Aidan has transitioned fairly well I would say to having a little sister!! He asked me today as I was going through some CD's with his baby pictures on them, who his big brother was. I felt sad for a split second that he won't get that "big brother/sister" to look up to but I also know that someone has to be the big brother/sister.

Today while I was making dinner, Brookie was a bit fussy and just wanted to be held constantly. That was hard because I was in the middle of doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen, and making pancakes for dinner. Aidan kept running back and forth between the kitchen and the family room where she was chilling in her swing to soothe her and put her binky in and to get the swing moving slowly. We still need to put batteries in the swing.

I am so blessed to have Aidan helping me out so much and being my big helper dude!! Whether it be in the back seat as we are driving or if she is fussing and I am busy or even if I am not busy, he will love on his sister and help her out and do his best to soothe. He has been known to pick her up out of the bouncer while it was sitting on the floor even!! She was fine, Just not my idea of something I really wanted my 3 1/2 year old to do with my 6 week old (at the time) baby!! He now understands the ground rules a bit better.

He just loves his little sister so much that he doesn't want her to be sad. He even waited to eat so that I could eat my dinner tonight while she cried. That way I could nurse her while he ate. He is such a generous boy. I wish I could devote more time to my sweet boy but he is doing ok with sharing John and I. We try and do "date day's" with him and I because he gets a lot of time with John already. I really love my helper boy!! I hope that he continues to be as helpful with his little sister!!

Brookie is 2 months old!!

This picture wasn't taken today, but it was the only picture of her in a bath without showing to much of her....if you follow.

Today, my baby girl is officially 2 months old!!! I know, I know, I sound as if she is going off to school or something horrible like that. Ok that isn't horrible, but still. We celebrated her day today, by me sleeping in until almost 1pm!! What a beautiful thing it was. John would bring Brooke in for meals and then I would let him know when she was finished so that he could get her.

I have come down with either allergies or a cold. Not sure which although I am saying cold because my ears are popping and my throat hurts but that is all. Weird. Anyhoo, I digress. Once I was awake, ate some food myself, I was holding Brookesters and she was pretty awake and being the fun little one that she is. Aidan has been asking to take a bath with Brooke for about a week or so now and I keep saying that we will but run out of time, or something else comes up. So, since Brooke was so wide awake and happy, I decided to do an impromptu bath. Aidan was tickled!! He had a blast. He was my big helper boy helping to wash Brookie and to scrub her with the washcloth. He even helped wash her hair!! I am so glad that he loves his sister so, I hope it lasts!!

After that we let Aid take a bit longer of a bath. He had fun playing with the toys that I wouldn't let him keep in the tub while Brooke was in there. Once he was out and dressed, we headed to Target. We needed to buy night time diapers for Aid and get some more cheese and bread. We ended up leaving with a bit more than that as usual. How does that happen?? So, after checking out we got icee's (I got a strawberry smoothie that was WAY to sweet!!) and headed home. Aidan and John "mowed" outside and I nursed Brooke because it was time to eat yet again.

Now John is at work, and Aidan is watching my favorite Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, and I am talking to my mom during her commercials on her Lifetime movie. She calls me every time that there is a commercial. It's pretty funny!! We aren't doing much else today. John and I will celebrate if he brings a pizza home from work tonight. We have a new favorite; pepperoni, olives, mushrooms and FETA cheese!! It is FABULOUS!!!!!!!!! Ok, enough of my rambling. I hope you are all having a great weekend and I will post stats from her doctor's appointment on Wednesday!!

The Bachelor!!!!

Jason Mesnick

Ok, so as some of you know I am sort of a "The Bachelor" junkie!! For those who are unaware what "The Bachelor" is, it's a reality TV show. This season was Jason Mesnick. He is from Kirkland, WA which is about 15 minutes from where I live. My sister, Katie has even met him once after he appeared on "The Bachelorette." She has the pics on her camera phone to prove it too. Anyhoo, tonight was the finale and all I can say is OMG!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!! Let's just say that looks can be deceiving. He acted like so many men out there and I know it is a reality show and the amount of people that actually make this sort of thing work out after their entire relationship has been viewed by millions of people is minuscule, it's still shocking. He is breaking off his engagement to "pursue" the gal he sent home. I can't believe that they didn't do this behind closed doors, instead it was on national television.

Although, I have to admit that I am fairly ticked at Jason for hurting Melissa and for being an idiot, I do feel slightly sorry for him at the way she totally bit his head off and handed it to him on a silver platter. I have been known to do that to John once or twice and I know how awful I feel after I bite his head off. Ok, he needs to figure his head out before he goes and hurts someone else. It wouldn't be fair. He has a 4 year old son who can get attached to a woman that he would bring home and then not understand why she is not in the picture anymore if it weren't to work out. Poor Ty (his son). That's all I have to say. Ok, I think I said everything....I think they should bring Melissa on as the next Bachelorette. She deserves happiness after all of this.

Picture OVERLOAD!!! It's been awhile!!

Ok, these pictures were loaded from newest at the top to oldest at the bottom. Also, I wrote a blurb about each from the bottom of the blog to the top. I know, it almost doesn't make sense. Enjoy!!!

There's my smiley girl!!

smiling for Daddy

Worn out from oncoming cold.

This is one of her preferred styles of sleeping on me.

Cuddling with Daddy

He is such a proud Great Grandpa!!

Great Grandpa with Aidan and Brooke

Helping me clean a bowl after making cake

One of 2 of his favorite ways to swing!!!

My adorable girl!!! I can't get enough of her!!!

Aidan's latest obsession.....swings!!!

Look at the size difference!!

Checking each other out

This is what I looked like after we were done....I was in need of a serious shower to get off the sticky finger paint.

Having fun.

We did this with all our names. We didn't name her until we saw her though.

What we fondly referred to baby girl as!

John chose NOT to get messy and opted to be the cameraman!

Messy hands boy!!

Making a creation on my extremely large belly!!

Belly painting!! Aidan loved this so very much!!

The last prego picture taken at home...I felt as huge as a house!!

One of the many snow pictures we took!! It was just incredible how much snow actually fell here in the Northwest!! We never get much more than MAYBE an inch and this time we got over 2 feet!! John and I never measured more than 18 inches but we were measuring packed down snow too, so there was technically more!

The picture I took with my camera. I have the actual photo and it turned out really well!!

My studly husband shoveling Nana's driveway only to have it get covered yet again. Dave was helping him too!!

Helping to shovel Nana's walkway. This was when we celebrated Christmas early with everyone. Katie, Dave and Alexis were in Colorado for Christmas so we celebrated early. Dave was really sweet and went out probably about 5-6 times over the course of the night to shovel snow from around my car in case I went into labor and needed to head to the hospital. What a sweet brother-in-law!!

He absolutely loved it and I wish I could have played with him in the snow a bit more but being SO very prego I didn't have the energy to get dressed in snow clothes that didn't fit, go outside, get soaked, play, come in, get undressed, warm up and do it all over again in a few hours. It was exhausting to think about!!

Our first official snow day of the year!! We got about 18 inches this day. Over 2 feet total during this storm alone. CRAZY!! But so much fun!!

Aidan wrote his name for the first time!! It is under the darker letters!! He's growing up so fast!!

Brooke's first cold...

Hello!! It's been awhile. John is still not working and its not looking like he will be working anytime soon. The economy stinks right now. Anyhoo, we have not been home for literally the last 7 weeks!! We stayed with my mom and then moved home for a week, or rather more like 5 days, then off to housesit again. We moved home this past Saturday night for good!! Nothing else is lined up as of now!!

Aidan has had a cold for the last 3 weeks and it started to get worse at the start of our last housesitting job. We took him into the doctor because he clearly wasn't himself. They put him on antibiotics which helped him get better from the effects of the cold. Well, now it seem's that Brooke has picked that bug up. Poor girl. She has been crying off and on all morning long. She slept until almost 11am when she woke up and ate and nestled back down on my chest (I was at work at the time too) and fell asleep. She started getting fussy there and I have been suctioning her nose like crazy for the past day or so. SHe hates it but she isn't fighting to much.

I called the doctors because knowing that Aid had been on antibiotics for his cold, I wanted to make sure that they didn't want her to come in not to mention that she was in the NICU for sever congestion and not able to nurse and such. Nursing at night is a challenge for her and first thing in the morning, but otherwise she manages nicely. I feel awful for her but right now there is nothing I can do other than suction when I see something that is blocking her nose, humidifier, warm bath, saline drops, and make sure she is comfortable. To make matters worse she has, as I would describe it, a big kid cough in a babies body. So in other words, a crackly cough. I didn't know it was possible!! I hate hearing her so congested.

So that is the update on Brooke. I need to upload some current pics of the precious angel. I have been trying to get moved back into our apartment and clean up the incredible mess we have managed to make. UGH!!!!!!!! Not fun especially while loving on a sicky girl and trying to keep the promise of taking Aidan on a date for Mommy/Aidan time. Oh and working on baby announcements!! So much to do these days!! H0pe you all are staying healthy and enjoying your Februrary!!

Brooke's 1-month appointment!

So, I know I have been HORRIBLE about posting for the last month but we were at my mom's for the entire month (from January 11th-February 8th). She was great!! She was an awesome help for the first two weeks after my surgery/Brooke's birth. She even spent the night at the hospital the first night. I will tell the entire story after I get a few minutes or more to type it up. It is quite the story. We didn't have Internet access on our laptop at my mom's house so I am playing catch up now. After the first 2 weeks, mom went to Eugene to visit her dad (my grandpa) and her siblings and was there for 2 weeks and we "house sat" or rather we lived in her house where we had tons more room than our dinky small apartment.

Well, Brookesters had her 1 month check yesterday and John and I took her. John has worked one day this entire month and won't work for at least another 2 weeks if not longer (I am anticipating LONGER). Not good. But he is doing lot's with us and we are having a lot of great family time and we haven't killed each other yet. So, at the appointment we had them re-check her jaundice because the corners of her eyes still appear slightly yellowish. Our doctor, Dr. Schmitz, who is FABULOUS, thought it looked fine and then the more she looked at Brooke's eyes, and the more she thought about she wanted to be safer than sorry and did the heal stick and the bilirubin blood test. It came back just fine.

Her baby acne is getting better then worse then better. This should be gone by 3 months of age. It is 10X worse than Aid's ever was. My mom got home and commented on how bad Brooke's acne was and I told my mom that it was actually better. She thought it looked painful for Brooke. It is on her upper back/shoulders and upper chest areas in addition to her face. Otherwise Brooke is a healthy baby girl who is starting to get her days and nights back to normal.

So her stats....Brooke is 10 pounds exactly, 21 3/4 inches long, and her head is 38 1/4 cm around!! She is in the 75% for weight and height and I believe the 75-90% for head circumference. Just to compare....Aidan's BIRTH weight was 9 pounds 6 ounces, 22 inches long and HC was 38 cm. So our baby girl is about the size that Aidan was at birth!! CRAZY!! She is eating great, sleeping great during the day and is a very easy going baby!! I enjoy every day with her and can't wait for the next day we have with her!! So I thought I would update!! Enjoy the pics!!

Look what our cat's left us...

So, we got home from having dinner at my mom's (we were suppose to eat with my Grandpa, but he was feeling under the weather with a cold so it was just Aid, John and myself eating, mom was in Seattle at something). I started walking into our family room and just outside of our washer/dryer area, I stopped abruptly when I saw this on the ground....

I couldn't figure what it was. I thought the cat's were expressing their annoyance at another little, crying, pooping, eating, sleeping, attention taking thing in our house. Either that or a massive hairball. Either way EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So on further inspection, we realized it was our fabulous beef jerky that my mom brought up from Eugene at our most favorite custom meat store. It is seriously the best beef jerky in the entire world and I don't like jerky. So John turned to me and said, "We SO need to write a blog about this!!" He never has spoken those words to me in his life. I got the impression he never really understood the reasoning behind blogging and such. So, yea, hope you get a good laugh out of the cat's finding the jerky and nibbling on a piece. They don't even like tuna!! CRAZY cats!!!