Silly Monkeys!

There is a new normal around the Minivan Fam household...which involves me working.  It is going better than I anticipated, and that is definitely a good thing.  I was very upset and teary in the days leading up to my return to work, but now that we are slowly getting into the groove of things it is getting easier.  I am just thankful that we have such trustworthy caregivers to watch after our kids when we can't.  I know that the time I spend away from my kids will make me just that much more thankful when I will be able to cut back from work! 

This is why it is so hard for me to work!

For a little kid that needs speech therapy, Harry sure is talking a lot more!!  We had a meeting last week to decide a plan of action for him and we are going to try once a week.  However, I don't think (hopefully!) that it will last long!  After our evaluation, he has gotten a thousand times better at repeating things we ask him to.  He is also getting a lot better at recognizing things in his environment and pointing them out.  We were driving to mom's house yesterday and there is a Mc Donald's at the exit off the interstate and Harry yelled out "Nonald's!".  It was so funny because that was the exact same question that one of the therapists asked--would he recognize something like a Mc Donald's and know it by name?  My heart did a little victory dance!  It is just so cool watching your kid just soak up everything and say and do things that you haven't specifically taught them.  One night we were playing and Travis told him to stand on one foot...and he did it!  Without showing him what that meant or what it looked like.  It was so cool.  These little boogers are so amazing.  Here are some other cute new words:  dance (we loooove So You Think You Can Dance), clap, no way! (this has replaced no! when he is upset), and this one is for Juliana....caliente (he repeated it after Dora said it). 

Elliot has started to seem so much more content lately during his wakeful periods.  He is so much more smiley and engaging.  He is in that stage were all you want to do is snuggle and kiss him (although I'm not sure either one of my kids have been out of that stage yet!) and talk like a complete and utter idiot to him.  But it makes him smile and coo, so what is a Mommy to do?  He is such a wiggle worm.  He is always kicking his legs and moving his arms.  He is my sweetie boy, that is for certain!

Before

After

It seems as though Elliot is living up to his nickname, Peanut.  He earned it when I had to go for the 38 week ultrasound when the doctor was concerned about his size.  He didn't deserve it, however, until his doctor's appointment today.

• Weight 10 lbs. 11 oz. (25th percentile)
• Length 22 3/4 inches (50th percentile)

So, yikes on the weight part!  Here I was thinking he was getting so big!  I looked back to what Harry weighed at his 2 month appointment and he was 13 lbs 4 oz!  She didn't seem too concerned, just something to keep our eye on.  Just another example of how kids sharing so many of the same genes and growing up in the same environment can be so different!  He did well with the 3 shots he got.  He cried, of course, and I only had to remind him to breathe once.  I don't think I have ever seen him quite so red though! 

Not only was yesterday Mother's Day (my third!), we also were also blessed to be able to dedicate Elliot at church yesterday!  The weather was absolutely yucky...cold, windy, and rainy.  But the dedication made it extra special and we had lots of guests to come see it!  Mom, Dad, Grandma Helen, Chris, Esther, Jamie, Casey, Payton, and Aunt Vicky all made the trek over for the ceremony. 

Dedication Ceremony

Speaking of our baby boy, he turned two months old on Saturday!  He is doing so great!  He is filling out more and more.  He has acquired a baby double chin!  He is getting so long as well!  He has already outgrown some of his 0-3 month outfits.  I was going to dress him in this super cute outfit for his dedication yesterday that Esther bought when Harry was born.  Travis and I joke that they can only wear it to weddings and funerals since it is so nice!  So we dressed him in it and it was so short it looked like capris!  His 2 month appointment is tomorrow, the dreaded one when they get their first round of shots.  We were talking about it a lunch today and I asked Harry if he remembered feeling betrayed by his mom when he got his shots.  He just smiled.  Oh well, he'll cry...I'll cry...life will go on! 

My Smiley Guy

Look how loooong I am!

Sleep has been going remarkably bettere around here!  If Elliot and I get to bed around 11 or so, he has been sleeping until between 5:30 to 7am most nights!  Pretty good!  We will have to start moving bedtime up next week when I head back to work, but if he stays with sleeping the same number of hours in a row, this work thing will be a little more manageable! 

Harry (pre-hair cut) playing with his favorite letter puzzle

Harry continues to be his funny, charming self!  We got him a shorter haircut last week for the summer, and I can't decide if it makes him look younger or older!  I change my mind all of the time.  He has added a few new words lately.  The funniest one is definitely fork (said fooka...dangerously close to the very bad word!).  Some of the other new vocab is spoon ('poon), bowl, and boots.  That was related to the Laurie Berkner video B-O-O-T-S, Boots!  So he stomps around all day singing ooh-ooh-tee, Boot!  Super cute.  Blessed are we.

I have to go back to work in less than two weeks.  Ick.  I, of course, am so not ready.  It's not that I don't trust our sitters with our kids, it's just that I would rather do it myself!  It is so cruel how just when your newborn is becoming such a joy to be around (right not Elliot is looking at me like I am the most wonderful thing in the world, smiling like he can hardly contain himself!) you have to head back to the real world.  I know that this won't always be the case, but for now the reality of it stinks!  I am thankful that for my profession, my job is about as easy as it gets so I should concentrate on that instead of the negative.

We had a great weekend.  Travis decided to take Friday off (a miracle in itself!) and we finally headed to the IKEA that opened up a few hours away from us!  It was great...we didn't make any huge purchases but we did get stuff to finish out Harry's new room and for Travis's new office.  Then we headed to the Great Wolf Lodge to spend the night.  Harry was absolutely in Heaven!  Even though there wasn't a ton of stuff that he could do (mainly because Travis was the only one swimming with him since I was watching Elliot and you couldn't hold kids while going down slides) he still loved it!  Seeing him get such a kick out of the water and especially the wave pool was more than enough entertainment for me!  That and seeing a poor little kid puke in the wave pool which caused it to be closed down for several hours...people watching can be so fun!  Then when we got home Saturday, Scottie and Julia came over for pizza and they brought their new Mariokart game for Wii!  Very fun! 

We had Harry evaluated for a possible speech delay yesterday.  He did so much better than I thought he would.  I didn't think he would interact very well with strangers, but when they came armed with puzzles, books, and blocks, they had the key to his heart!!  I have figured out that he is saying a lot of words that I can't understand and that he is having trouble making consonant sounds but not vowel sounds.  He has been infatuated with learning letters lately and can say all of the vowels properly, but b, p, v, etc. all sound the same.  The therapist couldn't tell me what they were going to recommend, but I think that they will recommend some sort of treatments.  They would like him to have a 50 word vocabulary.  I think he has probably said 50 words, but I wouldn't say he uses 50 words routinely.  She also said they would like certain words to be in there such as up, hot, all done but instead he says words like thirteen and fourteen.  Hmm.  I hope it all works out for the best.  We don't really believe that he has a serious problem, but we are trying to not be naive about it and not get him some help if he really needs it.  In the meantime, she gave me some tips to try to see if they will help.