Parker

So it is no secret that Parker has been a bit of a pill for oh I don’t know his whole 2 years and 5 months of life!  Just in every aspect of life, it seems like a struggle with him. This past January he started getting eczema really bad. David and Maggie both had this as babies, but nothing compared to Parker’s.  His arms, legs and face would break out in a horrible rash all the time and would just never go away.  We tried every prescription medicine for him that the doctor could think of, but it seemed like everything made it worse. The poor kid has had to wear socks and/or footed pajamas everyday all day for the past 8 months to help him not scratch.  We finally took him to an allergy specialist and had him tested to see what all he was allergic to.  So we took him to get his blood drawn and the results came back. The poor child is allergic to so much stuff. He is allergic to shell fish, milk, eggs, dogs, cats, and a few other things on a low percentage like wheat, almonds, peanuts. So we have started giving him soy milk and egg whites only. That seems to help a lot. We also got a lot of air purifiers for our house and we give him allergy medicine everyday.  We also have cortisone that we put all over his body every morning and afternoon. We can also only use a specific soap for his bath and for cleaning his clothes.  If we miss one day for his medicine his poor little body breaks out all over again. It is so sad.  The doctor said that he will most likely outgrow most of these things in a couple of years.  Until about a month and a half ago, he was having at least 5 poopies a day and his poor little bottom was just raw and was always infected. After taking milk and eggs out of his diet he is like a normal 2 year old with just one or 2 dirty diapers a day. I remember for a while it was not unusual to have to change him seriously 12 times a day at least. He was going through more diapers then Lizzy was using.  This past month or 2 he has had such a drastic change and has been happier.  He is so good at taking his medicines too.  He takes it willingly every night before bedtime.  I think he even notices the difference, when he doesn’t have the medicine.  He still is going through the terrible 2’s for sure, but at least he isn’t in constant discomfort.

He loves helping whenever he can and runs to do something to beat David or Maggie, if we ask them instead of him.  He knows his colors.  He can count to 3. He is very athletic and has a great arm.  He is still just an entertainer and loves to make us laugh.  He has no fear of heights or jumping or leaping off of things.  He loves dressing up with Maggie in her dress up stuff, so to put an end to him in dresses, we ordered him a knight’s costume that he just loves.  He loves singing “Twinkle, Twinkle little Star” and we sing it every night before he goes to bed. It is so cute. He loves singing other songs and doing the hand motions with us.  He is great at saying prayers.  He loves giving hugs and kisses, but usually only after he roars at you.  He is getting to be a better kid and is definitely fun to have around.

Elizabeth 4 months

Oh how time flies! Lizzy is 4 months already.  She is just a sweet little baby girl.  We had her check up and she is a big girl! She is 16 pounds 2 ounces, which is in the 95th percentile and 25 inches, which is about the 55th percentile.  The doctor was very impressed.  She is getting better at sitting on her own. She can sit unsupported for quite a bit. She is very close to rolling over. She can get to her side, but can’t get over that arm of hers.  She had her first taste of rice cereal and did really well with it.  She likes it quite a bit.  She loves sitting up and watching everyone. As soon as someone talks to her, she just lights up.  She is just such a happy little girl and I love seeing her smile.  She giggles when you tickle her neck or if I sing silly songs to her, but she doesn’t laugh for just anything.  She loves sleeping in her crib. She sleeps in our room still and I am in no rush to move her.  She isn’t sleeping as well as she was last month, but still not horrible. She usually wakes up about 1 or 2 times. She is drooling like crazy and anything that comes close to her mouth is expected to be put in her mouth. She loves to suck on her thumb (what is it with my girls?) and will usually be able to cry herself to sleep after about a minute or 2 and by cry I mean just talk about it.  She will start turning her head from side to side, when she is tired and then she will just be out in no time.  She likes to snuggle and will let you hug her all you want, but she also enjoys her alone time, so she can stretch out. She loves David, Maggie and Parker and just lights up, when any of them talk to her.  She loves being in the car and loves her carrier toy. As soon as I turn on the music for it, she just smiles from ear to ear and won’t take her eyes off of it.  She loves bath time and just splashes around. She took her first bath with Parker a few days ago and she just loved it. She had the cutest look on her face of concentration and she was just so proud of her self for kicking so much. It was adorable.  She is just such a sweet and easy going baby and I love watching her grow! Happy 4 months Lizzy!

Swimming Lessons

I finally got Maggie and David signed up for swimming lessons after months and months of trying and the classes already getting booked before I got there.  They had a great time with their lessons. Luckily I was able to get them in 2 separate classes, but at the same time. It was great. Although, it was also the longest 30 minutes for those 10 days! It was the hottest week of the year with temperatures above 100 degrees and it was muggy and hot in the swimming area. A friend of mine from church had her kids in the same classes, so we were able to sit and sweat off some extra pounds and chat while the kids swam. Parker was amazing at staying by me for the most part and Elizabeth just slept majority of the time. David and Maggie really came a long way! They both definitely need more lessons of course, but I am not completely terrified to have them in the water now.

Lizzy 3 months

So Lizzy is actually almost 4 months, but I am a little behind on this darn blog.

Lizzy is still just an amazing baby and we count our lucky stars every day to have such an easy going baby! She loves smiling and if you look at her, she will give you the biggest smile and melt your heart and make you feel like you are the best thing that ever happened. She is a great little eater and will eat from a bottle, when she needs to.  She usually eats every 3-4 hours for about 5-15 minutes, which is nothing! She was on a really good schedule for a while of going to sleep at 9:00 at night and waking up at 4:00 in the morning, which is amazing and I never had a child do that. Especially at 3 months.  She is a pro at lifting that head up and only wants to be facing forward, when you are holding her so that she can see everything that is going on. She loves having her family come and talk  to her and will usually try to talk back and just takes in everything around her.  She is still growing great and sadly most of her little 3-6 month rompers do not fit, because of her big thighs! She loves her baths and just lights up as soon as you put her in the water. She loves her swing finally, but will also sleep in her bassinet. She sleeps better, when there is noise going on around her and loves to have a good snuggle, but also enjoys her alone time still.  She is very spoiled with her older siblings and just has them wrapped around her fingers.  They all just can’t get enough of her and are usually always up for holding her to help me out.  Parker especially loves being a big brother to her and gets very jealous, if he sees Maggie holding Lizzy (but that is another story for another post) 

Elizabeth is just such a dream baby and we love having her in our family.  She is pretty easy going for the most part and if not it is usually because I need to put her to bed! She is my first baby to get annoyed, when I try to feed her and she is done! I love it! We just love our little Lizzy!

Maggie’s Dance Recital

Maggie had her dance recital the day after we got back from Disneyland. She did 2 dances and did such a great job! She danced to the song at the beginning of Lilo and Stitch and “Chimchimery” from Mary Poppins.  She has really come a long way in the past year.  It is always entertaining watching little kids dance! Then she got her trophy at the end too and was so proud of it!  Such a good little dancer!

California

We had such a great time in California! Can I tell you how glad I was that the Torgersons could come with us. They made it so fun and made it so much easier with all of our kids! I do know that 5 days was not nearly enough time for everything. Between the beach, Disneyland, shopping and just being able to relax there just wasn’t enough time in the day and we were all so worn our by the end of the day and just went straight to bed.  I can’t wait to go back to California sometime and do our Disney adventure again.  It went by way too fast and we made so many great memories.  Thanks Sherrie and Dave for coming with us and helping us make great memories.

California Adventures

This is the “purse” the guys made in the morning, when they all went by themselves to carry all their stuff, since none of us girls were going to be there with ours! too Funny!!This is the water show, but it does not do it justice. They had pictures and movies on it the whole time and it was just amazing!

Wow talk about being behind…this trip was like a month and a half ago. I have really got to catch up on my blogging.

So on Thursday we headed to California Adventures. It was AWESOME!  We really enjoyed it so much more than actual Disneyland.  We decided to not rush to go there and just played at the pool at our house we were staying at and did a little shopping.  Then around 3:00 we headed over. We got there and went and watched a Disney Junior puppet show with Doc Mcstuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Sophia the First.  It was a great little show and the kids absolutely loved it! Then after that we went and watched the parade. It was so great! They had all the Pixar movies you could think of and it was just so entertaining.  Then we split up and did some rides and just had a great time all day.  My favorite part of the whole day was definitely the water show at night. It was so neat. The kids enjoyed it mostly, but it was 10:00 and they were exhausted and got a little grumpy. All of us adults loved it though. David had to take Maggie about half way through because she started having a huge melt down and just shaking and screaming that it was too loud. Poor girl. She was over stimulated I think.  Parker slept through most of it, which was fine with us!  So at about 11:00 we headed out. The kids couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had. Maggie’s favorite ride was the Merry Go Round she said.  I can’t remember David’s, but we were just glad that their favorite part wasn’t buying toys!

Oh one of the highlights of the day was when we went on Tower of Terrors.  We had to talk Sherrie into going. She is not into roller coasters at all, but this one was one that you just fall down. So David, Sherrie, Dave and I went on it together and we had a great time watching Sherrie get a little anxious. They make you walk into this room before you go on the actual ride and they ask you to all stand on this carpet in the middle of the room. Sherrie was convinced that the ride was going to have something to do with the floor moving below us while we were just standing there. Then we watched a movie about the “hotel” and what happened in the elevator we were about to go on.  So after that part you walk back to the next waiting area and we are in line about to get on the elevator and Big Dave tells this guy next to him to just start talking about how scary the ride is and really get Sherrie scared. So he does it and does it very well! She is freaked out. Then we finally get on the actual ride and we all get buckled and the worker tells everyone to put there hands in the air to make sure everyone is actually buckled. Sherrie thought they were tricking us and they were going to start the ride while we had our hands in the air. To be fair all the guys had ridden it earlier and just kept saying it was the scariest thing they had ever been on and would not stop talking about it, so I was pretty scared as well. Luckily I was able to hide behind Sherrie though! It turned out to be a really fun ride and definitely not the scariest ride ever. A great memory though!