Happy 2 Month Birthday Anden!!

Anden... What are you up to at 2 months?

~You are so laid back. You don't get too excited about much except your bottle.

~You may not cry a lot, but you are the noisiest little thing! You grunt and grunt and grunt. It's hilarious listening to you!

~You've got the cutest double chin. Too bad double chins aren't that cute on adults!

~You still love your big sister Kaylee. She can always get you to smile.

~You're still not so sure about Jake. He's just a little too much yet. He really means well though!!

~You love the outside. It seems calming to you. This week in particular you've been enjoying the 4-H Fair.
~You're a little porker! You're eating 6 ounces every 3-4 hours. Sometimes you'll even go 5 hours.

~You're beginning to grow out of some of your 0-3 month clothes.

~At night you wake up around 2:30 and again around 5:30.

~You're staying awake for longer periods of time. Mainly in the mornings and evenings.

~You really like sleeping in your carseat during the day rather than your bassinet, yet you sleep just fine in your bassinet at night. Shame on me for letting you get away with this!

~You don't mind laying on your belly for a few minutes at a time. You'll push up on your forearms to glance around briefly and then you're head will flop back down.

You're still as lovable as can be. I'm not sure you can get any cuter!

Here's your pouty face. Even when you're pouting you're entirely too cute!

Anden's Two Month Checkup

I took Anden to see his pediatrician this morning for his 2 month checkup. He weighed 10 lbs. 15 oz. and was 22 1/2 inches long. I can't believe how much he has grown! Dr. Bies said he looks great, which was no new news to me! HA HA! Unfortunately, I also had the dreaded vaccination talk with Dr. Bies... it makes me sick to my stomach to think of starting his vaccinations. Jake had such a terrible reaction at 4 months to his vaccinations (he had 5 shots at one time.) I think it was too much for his immune system and ever since then we've battled a very sensitive immune system, food allergies, motor planning issues, and of course a significant speech delay. I can't say for sure that the vaccinations he received that day caused those things, but it was enough for me to demand that his vaccines be split up ever since. It's also enough for me to say we will not take that chance with Anden. Fortunately, Dr. Bies was understanding enough to give me some advice on which vaccines he would recommend starting with and which ones he would put off for awhile. I've worked with some families in First Steps that choose to delay vaccinations and their doctors give them such a hard time. At least I feel like our doctor is somewhat supportive of our decision.

Enough about that though! Here are some recent pictures I took of Anden. Isn't he cute!

Here he is smiling. Priceless!

Here he is showing off for the camera. Look how strong he is!

Whirlwind of a post...

I realized the other day that not much has been mentioned of Kaylee and Jake on our blog since the arrival of Anden. And although Jesse and I have tried not to push them aside, I'm sure at times they feel that way. So, this post will be strictly dedicated to Kaylee and Jake. Don't worry though, Anden has a checkup Monday so I'm sure I'll have an update on him very soon.

So let's begin! We've had a very busy summer thus far. Kaylee has really gotten to be a pretty good swimmer/doggy paddler this summer. She jumps off the end of the dock (no lifejacket) and is able to swim back in without any help. Jake has gained a lot of confidence as well. Although he still wears a life-jacket, he will now jump off the end of the dock which is new this year. Last year he was terrified if his feet were not touching the ground, even with a lifejacket.

We've also made several trips to the library. Kaylee has a list of books she's read. She's keeping track of them for her summer packet for school. Jake has also enjoyed Kaylee's new ability to read as she will often read his books to him as well. They've also attended several of the parks and recreation programs at the park in Ferdinand.

There is also gymnastics on Thursday mornings. Kaylee continues to do well with that. She's working really hard at learning to walk on her hands (she's up to 9 steps on her hands) as well as perfecting her "bad side cartwheel".

This past week, Jake started attending summer speech. It lasts for three weeks (four mornings a week for a half and hour.) Recently, he surprised us by shouting out Kaylee's name correctly. Normally he says "Aylee" and leaves off the "K" sound. He's sure come a long way.

We had a good 4th of July last weekend. The kids got to see some fireworks after Jesse's ballgame Friday night. Then Saturday night, we had some friends over and just sat around the campfire. We had some sparklers left over from a couple years back that they had fun with.





We had Jesse's cousin Abby over this past weekend. She is the same age as Kaylee. They had a good time together and played really well. Here they are with their Easy Bake Oven goodies. They turned out much better this time than they did the first time we used the Easy Bake Oven. Somehow when it was packaged and shipped one of the plastic spoons ended up inside the oven. We didn't realize it until we started smelling burnt plastic.



So that about sums up the summer thus far. We are gearing up the 4H fair next week, so that will make for a busy week. Kaylee is a member of the local Pre-4H Club. She is taking a ceramics project and a felt-coloring project. She worked really hard on both of them.

Hopefully I'll have time Monday to check back in and update you on Anden's checkup. Take care!