Family pictures Sept. 2008

We had our family pictures taken. These are some of my favorites. Our family picture pretty much says it all. Alekisio has allowed Isabelle to become the center of attention, she adores him, and that's how life is.

Isabelle turned six months

Isabelle was helping Auntie Cheryl pick out some new glasses

Well she turned six months on the 10th. She was 26 1/4 inches and 15 lbs. 13 oz. at her six month visit. She sits up on her own from crawling, gets on all fours, and actually pulled herself up onto the couch the other day! Her favorite place to crawl to is the pantry, she loves to try and eat the onion bag that sticks out a little if the door is open. Drinking from a cup is her favorite thing to do. Water ends up all over her shirt but if you let her hands get close to the cup she grabs it and shoves it into her mouth.

First Day of Preschool

The day Alekisio has been waiting for finally arrived! Last week a preschool up the street called to say they had an opening. Alekisio was ready to go that night. He's been asking when he's going to his school for a few months. We spent last week looking for unlined composition notebooks and a back pack. He chose spiderman and has been carrying it everywhere. Aisea came home from work to take him to school with me. When we got to the parking lot Alekisio was already unbuckling ready to go. There was a little girl in the parking lot that he told us was his friend, everyone at school is his friend. He led Aisea right to his classroom and immediately opened his backpack and started handing out kleenex and earphones to the kids. Once I told him to give those things to the teacher he went right to the kitchen play area. From that moment on I didn't exist. I couldn't get him to look at his cubby, and when I said bye to him he didn't even look at me. He's so grown up and independent. He didn't even want to come home. I didn't think I was emotional until I was almost home and realized a tear was coming down my cheek. I didn't feel sad. Maybe it's that he didn't care I was leaving him. When I asked about his day he said he bonked someone's head, ate a sandwich, and played with Jason. School must make you hungry because he came home and ate 6 dino chicken nuggets, three pieces of cheese, some turkey, and drank a glass of juice, milk, and water.

Check out the fork Alekisio chose chose to eat breakfast with this morning.

I'm such a mean mom!

That's how I feel right now. Like a big meanie. Let me preface this by saying as a nanny I've had to let kids cry it out, and it's hard, but I did it. Alekisio was a sleeping through the night by two months old, and he went down for naps without crying. I thought I had it easy again. Isabelle started sleeping through the night, and started sucking her thumb a few months ago. Well last week she got an ear infection so she didn't want to suck her thumb and she was really fussy. She's a breastfeeder so that's what she wanted when she woke up in the middle of the night, instead of her thumb. It didn't take her long to depend on me instead of her thumb. It probably doesn't help that when she was sick and fussy she slept by me. Now she wakes up 3-4 times a night and won't go back to sleep on her own. My head is screaming,"Suck your thumb!" At the same time there's something satisfying about her wanting me. I tried to let her cry it out at naptime the other day and after 20 minutes of all out hysterics I picked her up and walked around with her. After another fifteen minutes I gave in and nursed her. Today I was feeding her and she fell asleep so I put her in her bed. As I was laying her down she woke up and started crying. We had just talked about this with the pediatrician so I let her cry. It wasn't hysterical but my heart was still hurting a little. It only lasted for 15 min. and she fell asleep. When I went to peek at how she fell asleep this is what I saw...

I put the bumper pad in a few weeks ago. The corners of the crib are too wide for the tabs to tie around so I didn't put it up until she could crawl. She usually pulls it down where it's tied in the middle and peeks over. I guess she was really upset. She just woke up and is crying again.

Wearing Daddy out at the park

Last week we went to the park so Alekisio could enjoy it before his surgery. Aisea didn't get a break from running around. Alekisio loves palying any kind of sport so they went from hitting the volleyball, which Alekisio is pretty good at, to playing basketball. Alekisio also got to ride the big wheel Aisea's friend got him for his birthday. I think his favorite part was running into the stroller, Isabelle enjoyed that too. Isabelle was having fun watching, and I thought the picture of her finger up the nose was funny.

She's on the move!

Here is some video of Isabelle. She's been scooting around with an army crawl for awhile, and has been perfecting getting up on all fours. It seems like in just a few days she's getting around at super speeds and is now taking a few "crawls" forward on all fours. Nothing is off limits to her anymore. Last night when we were playing in the room she would eat one toy and then move on to the next. She sort of looked like someone who hadn't eaten for a couple days and was let into an all you can eat buffet. A whole new world of being able to get into whatever she wants has opened up and there's no stopping her. Alekisio wasn't too happy that she kept chewing on his potato head pieces, but he shares better with her than anyone else. That may be temporary but I'll take it for as long as it lasts. I know there are more days of yelling and fighting over toys to come than I care to imagine. Alekisio still thinks she's cute and her being a baby gets her a free pass to do anything. Now that she can crawl that's coming in handy. Enjoy the video.

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Mystery fever

On thursday Alekisio was fine. We went to costco after his nap and on the way out he asked for pizza. We grabbed some and headed home. When we got home I asked if he wanted to eat it and he said no he wanted to watch a movie. That was at 5:30, after about 45 min. it was just too quiet in there so I called to him and he answered so I left him alone. At 7 I checked on him and he was sleeping. I thought that was weird but inside I was thinking how great it was to only have to worry about Isabelle, she was really fussy. At 7:30 however I heard him vomitting. I ran to the bathroom and he felt super hot. I took his temp and it was 103.1 under the arm. My thermometer says to add a degree when you do it under the arm. Aisea arrived and jumped in the shower while I called and made him an appoinment in the after hours clinic. Alekisio threw up oin a pot the whole time. He was comatose the whole time. When the nurse wanted to weigh him he stood up shaking and had to hold on. When they took his temp it was already down to 102. What? They took blood and he got to pee in a cup, which he thought was too cool. When the results came back at 10:30 they said nothing was wrong. Alekisio's temp was almost normal by that time and he was holding down a couple bites of muffin. Isabelle however wouldn't stop crying and wouldn't nurse so I asked the doctor to look in her ears, and he said she had an infection. The clinic was closed so they had to figure out how to get a prescription through the computer (we have kaiser). In the meantime the cleaning guy threw out the doctor's metal ear cleaner. I felt horrible while they were trying to find it in the garbage. We ended up getting Mcdonalds and arrived home at 11:00. Isabelle would only sleep on me so I had a migraine from being tired for two days. Alekisio was jumping around when we got home so he's fine. He used to want to go to the doctor for everything, now since they poked his finger for blood he doesn't want to go.

Isabelle

Walter called me the other day after seeing the blog about Sio's surgery. He said I don't post enough pictures. So although I wasn't going to put up this picture because the carpet looks dirty I decided to suck it up and post it. Just so I feel better I'll tell you that I do vacuum every morning but our vacuum stinks, besides that it's a dark carpet. Now I'll tell you that last week Isabelle started pushing herself up like that. Most of the time when she does it she crosses her feet. She actually crosses her feet alot. She's done it since birth, Alekisio used to do it too but not as much. Isabelle usually stays like that for awhilt and then falls on her face. She hasn't quite yet figured out how to get back on her stomach. She's eating a fruit snack wrapper, I had just opened it and she was dying to chew on it. Don't worry I only let her have it for a second.

Isabelle found her way under the chair and got stuck. Alekisio thought it was really funny to sit "on top" of her and eat his macaroni