Catching Up...Part Two

April

On Saturday, April 2nd, I began the “3 Day Potty Training” method by Lora Jenson with Mary Kate (26 months). She had been telling us for a while that she needed to “tee tee,” so I was determined that we were going to get her trained. Thanks to Kelda and Lara who introduced me to this method and supported me through it because it worked!!!!!! David was busy wheeling and dealing trading in both of our vehicles and buying two new to us vehicles, and my mom kept Mills, so Mary Kate and I got to spend some quality time together during this process. She had a few accidents the first day, but did pretty well. The second day she did even better and by the third day she had no accidents. Pooping was more difficult for her to time than the other. She was not afraid to go, but would tell us as she was going instead of before. Thankfully, her teachers at “school” were very patient with her and by the beginning the third week in April pooping was no longer a problem. She also told me “no more diapers” when I went to put a pull up on her one night early on and has been sleeping in panties since about 1 ½ weeks into potty training. David and I are SO proud of her and she is proud of herself as well!!! She got a tricycle for her big "closing ceremony" present as well as a "big girl" toddler bed. We converted her crib. We will definitely try this with Mills in a few years.

We spent Easter in Toccoa with Ron and Sarah and the Barker Family. It was great! We had an egg hunt and lots of time together with the kids. The kids looked so cute on Easter morning.

This is what happens when I leave him for literally 3 seconds!

May and June

One thing that made me a bit sad was to wean Mills from nursing. Mother’s day morning was the last good feeding that we had. I did feed him later on in the week when we would not stop trying to nurse, instead of taking a bottle, but no more after that. Milk supply has never been an issue, but Mills’ ability to lay still long enough to take in a complete feeding is. He is just so curious and active that it was becoming extremely difficult to feed him.

Mother's Day before church

We took a weekend trip on third weekend of May to visit the Carpenter and Owens families Chattanooga. It was great to see both families! Mills had his first experience in the pool (really neat because Mary Kate also had her first time in the pool there) and he loved it. They were both too cute in their swimming suits.

A bittersweet moment happened on May 27th (at 3 days shy of 10 months) when Mills took his first steps. I was so excited and sad about it at the same time. I just cannot believe that he is trying to walk already, again around 3 months earlier than Mary Kate. We came home from “school” and were playing in the living room when it happened. The next day he took two steps in the morning and another three that afternoon. Since then we have been encouraging him to walk, but like his sister he is stubborn and will not take steps unless he wants to. He is not walking yet, but will be before we know it.

We spent Memorial Day with the Cawthons and Pulliams in Bishop. It was great! The guys ran their 5K, in the neighborhood, and all finished still hydrated amidst the crazy heat! The kids had a blast playing in the water and the adults enjoyed catching up in between the time of chasing, feeding, rocking, and nursing babies.

I have become increasing worried about Mills’ weight, due to the digestion issues he has endured, and my fears were confirmed at his 9 months appointment (at 10 moths). He is now in the 25% for weight and there is some concern about his ability to thrive. Dr. Miller wants us to increase his solids intake and begin reducing his formula to 6 ounces at a time by 12 months, which is fine because he rarely finishes an 8 ounce bottle. So far, he is finishing most of his stage 3 foods (Praise God!!!) , which is great because he was barely finishing stage 2 before. We go back for a recheck in two weeks on his ears and we will see where he is on the growth chart then. The not surprising news, however, is that he 90+% for his height. We think he has a super high metabolism and is going to be tall and very thin like his daddy was.

Mills keeps cutting teeth! He looks so cute with his smile now, which consists of the bottom two center teeth and one tooth on either side of the middle on the top (he looks like a snaggle tooth kid). He just today, June 4th, cut a new tooth on the top (center right).

I’m so blessed that I have a job that allows me to spend months out the year with my children. I have just spent the first week of my summer vacation at home with both kids having ear infections, but have enjoyed this time so much! I really miss them while I’m at work. I am looking forward to soaking up some quality time with both of them this summer.

Catching Up...Part One

So it has been since the middle of February since I posted and I have A LOT of things to catch you up on...:)

February
This month was the beginning of sickness invading the Cleveland home. Mills ended up having what we think was the flu and I subsequently got it, but didn’t go to the doctor like my dear husband begged me to do. I have TOTALLY learned my lesson because I ended up the ER after a very long weekend of traveling, missing David’s grandmother’s funeral (thanks mom and dad for coming and getting me and supporting David when I could not), feeling like I was going to vomit whenever I was anything other than horizontal, and my hands going numb. I was told in the ER that I was having a tension headache. I was supposed to take a couple of days off and follow up with my doctor in a couple of days. Thank you Dr. Patton for saving the day, two days later, at my appointment when he informed me that I had a severe double ear infection, one ear drum was bulging extremely, and was causing vertigo, hence the nausea. David and my mom had to drive me to and from work for a while, including my birthday when I drove to work and had to be picked up by my mom after work…seemed like I was in high school again. Fortunately I got rid of the vertigo within a couple of weeks.

March
Enough about me, you’re reading to find out about the kids anyway…So, Mills has had lot of issue with spitting up and what we thought was reflux. He had been on Zantac and Prevacid with no real improvement and had dropped in his weight percentages from 95% at 2 moths to around 50% at 6, too much of a drop, so Dr. Miller encouraged us to get an upper GI for Mills. On March 16th, we took him to Egleston. I was a bit nervous, but the whole thing was so quick that I didn’t have much time to let my nerves get the best of me. The radiologist told me that it appeared that he was normal structurally, meaning reflux was not much of an issue, but that he had a lot of food in his stomach from breakfast, he hadn’t eaten in the last 3 ½ hours, and that he was having trouble digesting his food quickly enough. Dr. Miller put him on Reglan three times a day and this has made a tremendous difference. We are now, in June, beginning the process of weaning him off of the medicine one week, or so, at a time. We dropped the dinner dose first and he is doing well so far. Please pray that he will continue to do well as the others are dropped!

On March 12th we had a surprise party for Mrs. Sarah (David's mom). It was really fun and very special that so many people came to share in this special time with her. She especially loved the fact that all of her 7 grandchildren posed for pictures for her.

Mary Kate had her own set of struggles in March. She has always had eczema and is prone to scratch, but it got bad when she clawed her face so bad that it looked as if a cat scratched her from above her eye all the way down one cheek. So, we took her to the doctor to figure out what to do about this and in their checking they found white spots on her throat and she ended up testing positive for step. We were in and out of the doctors’ office in early March after she vomited all over one her teachers Mrs. Deanna, which was when we realized that the strep had not responded to the first round of antibiotics and that she needed to be another one. It seems that she is one of those people to who is a carrier of strep, or at least creates false positives on the quick tests, so from now on she has to have a culture taken any time she is tested for strep.

On a happy note, Mills began crawling on March 1st and has not stopped since. He crawls faster than any baby I have ever seen! He loves getting to Mary Kate and any of her toys, cups, etc. that he can grab. We now call him Bam Bam because he loves to grab things and bang them together, or on something, very loudly. I can tell that many things we own will be destroyed before he gets out of toddlerhood. On March 24, Mills began clapping. It is so sweet to see him clap! He claps at many things, particularly when he sees something he likes. Two days later, on the 26th, Mills pulled up for the first time, on the dishwasher nonetheless. He crawled two months sooner that Mary Kate and pulled up three months sooner than she did. He is growing up way too fast!!!