Out of Whack

Poor Paxton has not been himself for the last... well, I guess we're going on 12 days now. It all started with a little sniffling and coughing on Feb 15th or so. That weekend, he got pretty congested, tired, and sneezy. I took him to the doctor and they said he just had a cold and we had to wait it out. That next week, he was still sick. He had his 9 month check up on the 22nd and the doc checked his ears and lungs. Nothing. No ear infections. No fluid or mucus in the lungs. His pediatrician said to bring him back if he didn't get better after several days or if he ran a high fever (he hadn't had a fever at all up until that point). Of course on Saturday (the day after his check up), he started running a mild fever. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, a mild fever again. Today (Wednesday), I decided to take him in to the doctor. What did he find? Severe ear infections in both ears and mild bronchiolitis. Now he's on an antibiotic for the ear infections and he has to do a breathing treatment 3 times a day for a week or two.

Anyways, this sickness has thrown him for a loop. He just hasn't been himself. He's been... well... a rather difficult baby to deal with. First of all, he hasn't been sleeping very well, which means that I'm not sleeping very well either. He's been up coughing, blowing snot, or just crying 3-6 times each night for the last 12 nights. It's terrible. And just about every one of those nights has included a 1-2 hour stretch of wide awakeness. Poor guy. During the day, he wants to be held at all times, to nurse whenever he so desires, and to be walked around the house for entertainment. Oh yeah, and for the most part, he wants me to be that person who is waiting on him hand and foot. It's sweet that he wants to be with me every second of the day, but it's also exhausting. I'm sleeping (correction: attempting to sleep) by his side every night and then carrying him around all day long when I'm home. He's been super whiny (which we are just not used to with him) and very needy (again, it's just out of character). 

I hope the meds he got today can kick in soon! I just hate it when one of our kids is out of whack.

Invitation Photo Booth

The kids are having a joint birthday party this year. And this past weekend, we made the invitations (they are very excited about them). In order to make the invitations special, we set up a photo booth on the back patio. While I'm not ready to reveal the actual invitations quite yet, here's a little sneak peak of a few of the gems we captured to use in the invites. And yes, the twins are covered in silly string.

V-Day Party at School

Paxton's 9 Month Photos

On Thursday, February 21st, Paxton Marshall turned 9 months old. On Friday, he had his 9 month check up at the doctor and on Sunday, we did his 9 month photo shoot. So since I already gave a 9 month update, I'll give the results of the doc visit sprinkled through out the photo shoot pics.

Paxton weighs 22lbs 10oz,

which puts him in the 90th percentile.

 

Paxton is 29 3/4 inches in height, which

puts him in the 95th percentile for height. 

Paxton's head circumference is 18 3/4 in,

which puts him in the 98th

percentile for having a big ass head.

Rockin' Out

At 6:30 in the morning.

He's Poop-Obsessed

Yes, our sweet little angel, Mr. Gavin, is obsessed with saying "poop." It's got to be a boy thing. He must say poop at least 195 times a day. It's ridiculous. And he thinks he's F*CKING HI-LA-RI-OUS. 

He calls people "poopy head/face/butt/girl/boy," he just yells out "poop" at random times for a good laugh, and he describes objects as "poopy." But the best is when he replaces words of popular songs with "poop." For instance, the twins are completely consumed with Alicia Keys' song, "This girl is on fire" (see music video below if you're unfamiliar).

Anyways, he's changed the chorus to say, "This poop is on fi-re," "This girl is poopin on fi-re," or "Poop poopy on fi-re!" Even more ridiculous, he'll change the other words to "She's walkin' on POO-OOP," or "She's got both feet on the poop, and she's poopin' it down!" It's insane. Seriously, I can only handle hearing about poop so many times a day.

Paxton is 9 Months Old

Paxton is 9 months old today! Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get his 9 month photo shoot done yet (I plan to do it this weekend), so I'll just give the 9 month update.

Eating

He's still nursing. He nurses about 5 times every 24 hours and eats baby food once or twice. He really loves sitting in his high chair pulled up to the dining room table with the big kids. It's one of his favorite things to do. He eats dinner with us every night and might have a few snacks during the day whenever the kids are sitting at the table. He's a good eater, but still strongly favors apples and bananas.

Sleeping

Sleep is the same as it's been for a while. He goes down around 7:30pm, wakes up sometime between 11 and 2am, nurses, and then goes back to sleep til the morning. The co-sleeping situation is also the same as it was at his 8 month update.

Talking

He's good at yelling and squealing. He babbles a little bit, but I don't think he's actually said an intentional word.

Moving

He's a very fast crawler. In fact, I don't remember Gavin and Vivian being this fast. He can make it from the playroom to the living room in under a minute. He's quick. He pulls up on everything and easily cruises while holding onto furniture. He has also been known to push some object to help him "walk" across the room. He's also very good at climbing stairs. Too bad we don't really let him practice that skill very often.

Teeth

None. He's showing signs of teething, but he doesn't actually have any yet.

Growth

Paxton is about 22.5 lbs still. He has officially moved out of his infant car seat and is now carried out to the car and put in his big kid car seat. He also got a new stroller (with owls on it, of course) and he absolutely loves being pushed around town in it. He comfortably wears some 12 month clothes (a lot of it is too small) and can easily fit into most 18 month clothes.

Happy 9 month, Pax!

And I promise, I'll post his 9-month photos soon!

More Gymnastics

I can't exactly remember which videos are from which days, but I know that they're in order and that they haven't been posted yet. Without further ado, here are Gavin and Vivian at their gymnastics class!

Here, Vivian is in a black shirt and pink pants and Gavin is in blue pants with stripes down the sides and a blue shirt.

Here, Gavin is in a light green shirt and blue pants with stripes down the sides and Vivian is in pink pants and a pink and grey shirt.

Funny Things

Our house is filled with laughter. Well, it's also usually filled with screaming, crying, whining, and tantrums, too, but also a lot of laughter. Living with small people is hilarious. And the combination of these particular small people is incredible. Several times a day, Wes and I are secretly snickering, laughing out loud, or trying our hardest to hold the pee in from giggling so hard (Sorry, did I take that one too far?). Here are just a few things that we've been rolling on the floor over lately.

Paxton in the tub.

Paxton absolutely LOVES taking a bath with his siblings. He giggles and squeals the entire time, stands up and sits down repeatedly, and splashes uncontrollably. It's hilarious. In fact, if we ever put the twins in the tub without Paxton and he knows about it, he freaks out. He can't handle it. He'll crawl up to the bathroom door, bang on it and cry his little heart out.

The twins and their tricycles.

Gavin and Vivian got these tricycles for their first birthday from their Aunt Sarah. Up until a couple of weeks ago, they've mostly rode them when it's been warm outside. Well, they recently persuaded us to bring them inside and they've been riding them in the house ever since. It's very funny. They race through the living room, into the kitchen, through the dining room and then back into the living room, making a circle on our main floor (see video below). While the racing is quite funny, the funniest moment was when Gavin and Vivian decided to pull up to the living room coffee table and eat their cereal on their bikes before school. Crazy kids.

The twins' imaginations.

Vivi and Gavin's imaginations are amazing these days. They come up with the most insane scenarios, the most ridiculous jokes, and the most interesting ideas. Just the other day, Vivian was playing in the playroom with her My Little Ponies. I came in to see this (see photo above). When I asked her what was going on, she responded with, "The tow truck police came to get her in her home cause she's sick." I inquired, "Why would the police come get her if she was sick?" Vivian said, "Her legs got broke in a car accident so the cops came to help her and put her in jail for the accident. She also needs a wheelchair now cause her legs got broke. The cops will put her in jail and she will wait for the wheel chair." So elaborate.

Gavin's sleeping skills.

Ever since he was a little baby, Gavin has been able to sleep anywhere (see HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE). Unlike our other two children, Gavin can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. One minute he's awake and the next minute, he's asleep in the middle of playing/his food/the floor. The twins didn't take a nap on Valentine's Day, what with all of the candy pumped through them and such. And they played hard all afternoon. Around 7pm, we got the twins in their PJs and put on Caillou. A couple of minutes later, I walked in front of Gavin to get a drink from the kitchen and he looked like this. Poor kid couldn't even make it to story time. When it comes to sleeping anywhere, he's still got it.

Their song-singing.

No explanation needed.


Paxton's giggling.

Again, no explanation needed. Too cute.

In case you missed it...

If you missed me talking about love and relationships on NPR's Virginia Insight radio program last Thursday (you know, Valentine's Day), well, you suck. Just kidding. I still love you.

If you actually did miss it, you can still listen to a recording of the program by clicking on the link below...

http://wmra.org/post/love-connections

At the Park

Earlier this week, Wes and I took the kiddos to the park. The cool part was that their friend from school, Parker, was there! They played for a while and then we all went to McDonald's for dinner. A fun day indeed.

Our Weekend in MD

Last weekend, we drove up to MD for a 48-hour visit. On Friday afternoon, we went to GG and Max's house where Grandma and Pop Pop met us for dinner. We played in the playroom at their complex and ate a delicious meal.

We woke up early Saturday morning for a little breakfast and coloring before Gavin, Wes, Pax, and I went over to Steph and Tony's and Miss Vivian stayed at GG and Max's house all day. You see, the main reason we went up to MD was so Wes, Tony, and Gavin could go to the DC Auto Show. But it was a MAJOR bonus that we got to see so many other people in the process.

Okay so, like I said, G, W, P, and I went over to Steph and Tony's. Wes immediately took Baby Nick and started using his baby-whispering skills to put him right to sleep. After getting his baby fix, G, T, and W went to the Auto Show. For the entire day.

Our kids really love Steph & Tony's dog, Pixie.

Through out the day, my mom sent me pictures of Vivian. This was the first one.
Apparently, she didn't miss us very much.

Back to Steph and Tony's house. Gavin was in love with Nick, too. He just loves babies.

Okay, so since each child did completely separate activities on Saturday, I'll split the rest of this post three ways. Let's start with Paxton.

Pax and I enjoyed the day at Steph's with her and baby Nick. Pax and Nick both took very long naps and Steph and I got to chat and gossip and Pinterest and Facebook and gossip and eat and watch TV and gossip all day. It was a very nice relaxing day (which I don't get very many of). When the kiddos were awake, Paxton enjoyed chasing after their dog, Pixie, crawling around the entire house, standing up to look out the window, and climbing the steps (over and over again).

We also did a mini photo shoot (of course we did) of Nick for his one month birthday. Let me just say that Nicholas is precious and Steph and Tony are doing a phenomenal job with him. He is happy and healthy and adorable.

This one is my favorite of the bunch:

Oh, and I love this one, too.

Gavin's day was very different from Paxton's. Gavin drove down to DC with Wes and Tony for the annual DC Auto show. Wes absolutely loves going to the Auto Show and this was the first year that he brought Gavin along. Let's just say that Gavin had a TON of fun and Tony and Wes got a work out chasing him around.

Here's our little angel going under the ropes and
crawling on stuff he shouldn't be crawling on.
Oh yeah, and that's just a $380,000 car next to him.

Vivian got to spend some quality time with GG and Max at their apartment. And from what I hear, they had a great time. They did some craft projects, ate a ton of pancakes, played in the playroom, read stories, watched a few shows, and played computer games.

We slept over at GG and Max's house on Saturday night. We all woke up Sunday morning and went over to Grandma Ne-Ne's for brunch. Grandma and Pop Pop met us there.

The twins got a kick out of watching Dave make waffles...

And everyone enjoyed eating them!

Paxton even got to gnaw on one.

It was a jam-packed weekend and very fun for all!