Best Buds

Colby's best friend is an adorable (and very verbal) little girl named Evie who lives down the street from us. They play SO well together, and we spend most afternoons at the park with Evie and her mom. (who happens to be a really good friend of mine) Colby's first words before and/or after nap are usually "Where Evie go?" or "Go see Evie". Colby has a blast, I get to socialize, so it's a win-win situation. Plus, the afternoon flies by.

This is Evie...


This is Colby laughing at Evie.


The highlight of any park visit is the snack.


They usually follow each other around and play with the same things.

It's a match made in heaven.

A typical....

Sunday morning.

8 week checkup

Miller had her 2 month/8 week check up today, and my suspicions were confirmed.

SHE IS GIGANTIC.

The first thing the doctor said was "Well I guess I don't need to ask if she's eating well." (I am bracing myself for all the "big girl" comments to come) Her measurents are outside the 100th percentile in everything. Weight was 14 lbs 14 oz (Colby was 14 lbs 4 oz at the same age and he was outside the 95th %ile for boys) Height is 24 inches, and head size is 16 inches.

I guess this explains why none of her 3-6 month clothes are fitting. I even returned something to Gymboree, telling them that is must be mismarked because it's size 3-6 months, and it doesn't fit my 6 week old. Then I realized that nothing from any of the stores was fitting. She is pretty much wearing size 6-12 months!

As she has done at every appointment so far, Miller took advantage of having her diaper off. She peed all over me, my clothes, her clothes, the table, the floor....she really seemed to enjoy herself until the vaccinations.

All in all, a successful appointment and only a few tears!

In his element

Lee and I attempted to take Miller and Colby to the International Children's festival this morning. I say attempted because we only ended up staying an hour. It was miserably hot, and there was very little shade, so we decided we better make the rounds quickly before Miller woke up. Oh well. We took advantage of what we could and enjoyed the hour we had.

We did get to test out the new double stroller...


And Colby was definitely in his element jamming with the African band. (I didn't have my camcorder, so this is a very low resolution video shot with my tiny camera) Colby is in the green shirt...playing drums at first, and then doing what he does best.

First Day

Ok, so the first day of school was not as easy as I had hoped. For either of us. Colby insisted on being held all the way to his classroom, and after trying to get him to walk, I gave up and carried him. He didn't want to go, but he wasn't crying....just not thrilled. He knew mommy was going bye-bye, but he seemed to be holding it together. Until I opened the door.

His five classmates apparently arrived several minutes before him, and they were all SCREAMING bloody murder by the time we walked in. Colby is a very empathetic little guy, so I knew this was not a good scene for him. The problem was, there were only 2 teachers, so no one even looked at Colby or said hello as he entered the room. There were too many other worse off children, and Colby just stood there looking as sad as he could look, clutching his ducky for dear life. I told him I would be leaving for a little bit, and then I just started tearing up. I felt sooo badly that I had to leave him like that, knowing he would be so upset by the other children.

I said goodbye and walked out the door, and then stood in the hallway for a couple of minutes. Before leaving, I peeked in through the window, and he was standing there alone, silently crying with tears rolling down his cheeks and no one to comfort him. I just couldn't hold it together at that point and started crying.

Apparently, I must have looked pretty distraught because two different employees offered to take a polaroid picture of him and bring it to me. (a nice thing they do for moms on the first day of school) Did you know they still even make those cameras??? By the time they took the picture, he and the other children were doing better.


The good news is that when I picked him up, he saw me and ran the other way. A sure sign he had a great time! The teacher told me that she had to separate Colby from the crier (a child who cried the whole 2 hours!) because it was upsetting Colby so much. She said after that, he was doing much better.

All in all, I guess it was a success since he didn't cry when I picked him up. I am not looking forward to Monday, because I'm sure it will be similar scene, but hopefully in a couple weeks everyone will be adjusted. I feel like such a wimp!

Not quite...

I asked Miller to smile for the camera.

She gave me her best kickboxing move....


And then just looked cute...

But still no smile for the camera.

Open house

Colby had his open house for preschool today, and I thought it would be a piece of cake. I was wrong! Colby knew all too well that "school" means mommy leaves him. All the other children in his class were first-timers, so they were blissfully playing in the classroom (because ignorance is bliss). Meanwhile, Colby clung to me like a little monkey. He wanted me to carry him the whole time, but settled with sitting in my lap. SO unlike Colby. Part of the reason he was upset is because all of his friends from last year were put in the older 2's class, and Colby is in the younger 2's class. He saw 2 of them on the way in, so he knew they were there. He kept asking me "Where Grey go?", which was kinda cute, but sad. On our way out, we stopped by the older 2's classroom, Colby had a ball playing with his friend Grey and didn't want to leave.


As for Miller, she seems like a different baby since I started my dairy, soy, nut, egg, wheat free diet. (I need to make sure I record my diet in detail, so that when she's 14 and tells me she hates me, I have some proof of the sacrifices I made) I don't want to get too excited too soon, but it really seems like it's made a huge difference. I didn't know babies could be awake and happy at the same time! And sometimes, I can actually put her down without her crying. Amazing. She is growing like a weed, and is now in all size 6 month clothing (probably around 14 pounds at 7 weeks). Here she is in her bassinet, which I fear she won't be sleeping in as long as I anticipated.


Last but not least, Colby had his last playdate today with our wonderful babysitter Doina. She is the most amazing babysitter EVER, and Colby absolutely loves every minute he spends with her. We will miss her so much, but hopefully she can babysit for us once in a while on the weekends. Thank you Doina, for everything!

Oh, and yes, Colby is starting his first week of preschool looking like he was in a fist fight. He ran into something in the basement with his daddy last night. How bad is it that I didn't even ask what it was??? Sometimes, it's just better not to know.

Growing girl

Poor Miller is really getting the short end of the stick. Colby had every week of his newborn life well documented, and I just realized that I haven't taken a picture of Miller in almost 2 weeks. Not only that, I didn't even know for sure how many weeks old she was.

I snapped a quick photo this morning just to show how fast she's growing. At 6 weeks of age, she weighs 13 pounds, has rolled over twice, and has slept through the night several times. (last night she slept 10-6) She has definitely smiled at least once (when Colby was holding her) and I suspect there have been more.



However, girlfriend has some serious gas issues. She could win a farting contest against just about anyone. Unfortunately, the gas seems to be getting worse day by day, to the point where if she's not sleeping, she's crying. It starts from the minute she wakes up and continuously gets worse as the day goes on. By the evening, it's hard to calm her down. We aren't worried about a dairy allergy like Colby had because her stools are fine (so far...knock on wood). But, seeing her in this much pain is just not something I can deal with for three more months. I'm starting an elimination diet today to try and figure out what's bothering her, and see if we can make it better. I'm going to limit my diet to chicken, rice and fruit for a few days to see if it makes a difference.

Let's hope I can post some good news in a few days!

**update: The diet will have to start tomorrow. It would help if I had both the chicken and rice on hand, and cooked. I don't think cookies were part of the plan.