Sunday, February 27, 2011
The amazing Becky comes through again!
We had Lyla's 6 month session with Becky (who has now been photographing us for 2 years!) yesterday, and she posted a little teaser shot for us after she got home. That she is a great photographer goes without saying, as her work speaks for itself. What is truly amazing to me, though, is how she's able to work with cantankerous toddlers (Timothy) and stranger-anxious infants (Lyla) to phenomenal results.
All that, and she's a great friend, too!
All that, and she's a great friend, too!
"WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
"BOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" These are frequent refrains heard at our house - or wherever Timothy happens to be - these days. And the more mamas I talk to, the more I'm gathering that 3 is infinitely more challenging than 2. "Terrible twos," my heiny. "Tyrannical threes" is more like it! Crying, whining, yelling, demanding... but we do get rewarded with spontaneous hugs, kisses and cuddles (more often than not just in the nick of time to save our sanity), so I believe there's hope yet!
Here's hoping that he stays true to form and moves onto the next phase as early as he started this one. Cheers!
My handsome little man
I can't believe he's going to be 3 in just a couple of days!! It seems like just yesterday - but also like eons ago! - that he was an itty bitty little baby. Le sigh.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Little thief
Timothy really likes feeding his dinosaur bank. We used to wonder where he got the seemingly-endless supply of coins to feed him, though. Not anymore. Behold!
Yup, we caught him standing in a basket of clean laundry, taking coins from Billy's valet. Gotta admire his resourcefulness. Heehee!
Yup, we caught him standing in a basket of clean laundry, taking coins from Billy's valet. Gotta admire his resourcefulness. Heehee!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Lyla Mae, 7 months old!
Yup. 7 months old. I can barely believe it! She's such a sweet little babydoll. She's turned into quite the little flirt, flashing gummy smiles at people and batting those lovely lashes. If you're the recipient of one of those grins, though, you should consider yourself quite lucky, since she's in the midst of a stranger/separation anxiety phase, and only those in her "circle of trust" routinely get to see the uber-cuteness.
In the last week, she's started reaching her arms out to us when she wants to be picked up (which just melts a mama's heart!). She's apparently also rolling from back to front (finally), though I've yet to see it. She can also sit up like a big girl!! It's so cute to see her sitting, playing with a toy or her toes if her socks happen to be off (like right now).
She's working on her pincer grasp, and she's very much into exploring textures. Some of her favorite things to explore are Billy's unshaven face and Timothy's hair (much to the joy of the former and chagrin of the latter). Of course, anything and everything that she can get to her mouth invariably ends up there - except for peas. She's not a big fan of those...
In the last week, she's started reaching her arms out to us when she wants to be picked up (which just melts a mama's heart!). She's apparently also rolling from back to front (finally), though I've yet to see it. She can also sit up like a big girl!! It's so cute to see her sitting, playing with a toy or her toes if her socks happen to be off (like right now).
She's working on her pincer grasp, and she's very much into exploring textures. Some of her favorite things to explore are Billy's unshaven face and Timothy's hair (much to the joy of the former and chagrin of the latter). Of course, anything and everything that she can get to her mouth invariably ends up there - except for peas. She's not a big fan of those...
Ahhhhh, the cuteness!
"Take a pick-chuh of us, mommy!"
At least a couple of times a week, I hear the following from Timothy, "I want to hold sistuh, mommy!" and invariably, the moment she's securely in his arms, "Take a pick-chuh of us, mommy!!" And I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm an absolute sucker when it comes to capturing their filial love on film, and yes, this tactic has been known to delay quiet- or bedtime on occasion. Here are a few fun ones from the last month:
This one, though, is my absolute favorite photo of them, to date!
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| ouch! |
This one, though, is my absolute favorite photo of them, to date!
Patience pays off!
Lyla has always taken a little while to warm up and get comfortable in social situations, especially when it comes to people she's never met or hasn't seen in a while. (Now more than ever, since she's hit a stranger/separation anxiety stage and is transitioning to full time daycare.)
She prefers to observe for a while from the safety of mom or dad's arms, and then she decides on her own terms when she's ready to visit with someone. We don't push her by playing "pass the baby" when she's not ready. And we don't apologize for our parenting choices. But we do understand that it can be difficult for people who love her and want to revel in her squishy-ness, and we really appreciate everyone's patience and understanding.
I like to think that it's especially rewarding when someone is blessed by a little Lyla-love - like Grandpa Jay was at the end of a lovely Sunday visit a couple of weeks ago. She even gave him quite a few giggles!
She prefers to observe for a while from the safety of mom or dad's arms, and then she decides on her own terms when she's ready to visit with someone. We don't push her by playing "pass the baby" when she's not ready. And we don't apologize for our parenting choices. But we do understand that it can be difficult for people who love her and want to revel in her squishy-ness, and we really appreciate everyone's patience and understanding.
I like to think that it's especially rewarding when someone is blessed by a little Lyla-love - like Grandpa Jay was at the end of a lovely Sunday visit a couple of weeks ago. She even gave him quite a few giggles!
Bye-bye, snort!
Timothy has always been a fitful sleeper. From the very beginning he cat-napped instead of "sleeping like a baby", and when he did sleep deeply, it usually wasn't for long. Somewhere along the way he started snoring. He snored so much and so loudly that sometimes I couldn't tell if it was him or Billy! While we were home together during my maternity leave last year I started noticing that he was snorting a lot during the day, too, like he was trying to clear something from the back of his throat. He was also mouth-breathing a lot, so the point where he would wake up with a very dry mouth and a swollen upper lip most mornings. So we finally decided to take him to the doctor.
Our pediatrician immediately referred us to the ENT, telling us that his history was "compelling," and that he would likely need to have his tonsils and adenoids out. Now, most of you who know me well know that I am not a particular fan of interventionist and invasive medicine (or doctors in general, for that matter), but everything I'd read about Timothy's symptoms seemed to lead to the same conclusion - tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Sheesh. So to the ENT we went. And it only took him a few seconds looking in Timothy's mouth to determine that his tonsils were GINORMOUS (not terribly surprising, given the fact that mine are, too), and needed to come out. So we scheduled the surgery.
January 27th was a really rough day for Billy and me as parents. I don't really know how to describe the abject terror that gripped me as I watched Timothy walk hand-in-hand with the nurse into the OR. Yes, I know that the "procedure" is a "simple" one and that he was in very capable hands, but he was to be put under general anesthesia, which doesn't come without risks, and everything that was about to happen in that room was completely out of our control. Simply put, it was awful.
The surgery was at the Mercy outpatient surgery center, and Billy's mom used to work with many of the nurses there, so she was confident that everything would go fine. It was a good thing she was there with us, because she kept us grounded for the hour or so that we were in the waiting room.
They finally came to get us, and the walk to the recovery area was surreal. We had been warned repeatedly that children are more often than not inconsolable and disoriented when coming out of anesthesia, but the screaming and crying I could hear as we walked back there didn't sound like him at all. It was only as we got closer that I realized that it really was him. :( They assured us that he wasn't really awake and he wouldn't remember any of what was happening, but it was still heart-wrenching. They put him on Billy's lap (I was wearing a sleeping Lyla), and he started thrashing around trying to get his IV and heart-rate monitor off. Billy held him close and he finally calmed down and fell asleep for another hour or more. And that was really the worst part of his recovery, I would say.
He was super-hungry when we got home, and powered through five or six popsicles in the first hour or so. He also had a bite of a turkey sandwich (weird!). He had a prescription for hydrocodone (vicodin), which apparently tastes horrible, because he had to have it in a bit of juice every time (and he's never been difficult about taking medicine before). It also had an opposite effect on him - instead of making him drowsy, it turned him into an absolute maniac. Bizarre and annoying, since we were cautioned to keep him calm (rising blood pressure could cause a hemorrhage), but it managed his pain reasonably well, so we dealt with it.
It's now been 10 days since the surgery, and I'd say he's been back to his normal, perky self since at least Wednesday. And - he's not snoring or snorting anymore!! Huzzah!!
Our pediatrician immediately referred us to the ENT, telling us that his history was "compelling," and that he would likely need to have his tonsils and adenoids out. Now, most of you who know me well know that I am not a particular fan of interventionist and invasive medicine (or doctors in general, for that matter), but everything I'd read about Timothy's symptoms seemed to lead to the same conclusion - tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Sheesh. So to the ENT we went. And it only took him a few seconds looking in Timothy's mouth to determine that his tonsils were GINORMOUS (not terribly surprising, given the fact that mine are, too), and needed to come out. So we scheduled the surgery.
January 27th was a really rough day for Billy and me as parents. I don't really know how to describe the abject terror that gripped me as I watched Timothy walk hand-in-hand with the nurse into the OR. Yes, I know that the "procedure" is a "simple" one and that he was in very capable hands, but he was to be put under general anesthesia, which doesn't come without risks, and everything that was about to happen in that room was completely out of our control. Simply put, it was awful.
 |
| In the waiting room, blissfully unaware |
 |
| Waiting to go to the OR |
They finally came to get us, and the walk to the recovery area was surreal. We had been warned repeatedly that children are more often than not inconsolable and disoriented when coming out of anesthesia, but the screaming and crying I could hear as we walked back there didn't sound like him at all. It was only as we got closer that I realized that it really was him. :( They assured us that he wasn't really awake and he wouldn't remember any of what was happening, but it was still heart-wrenching. They put him on Billy's lap (I was wearing a sleeping Lyla), and he started thrashing around trying to get his IV and heart-rate monitor off. Billy held him close and he finally calmed down and fell asleep for another hour or more. And that was really the worst part of his recovery, I would say.
He was super-hungry when we got home, and powered through five or six popsicles in the first hour or so. He also had a bite of a turkey sandwich (weird!). He had a prescription for hydrocodone (vicodin), which apparently tastes horrible, because he had to have it in a bit of juice every time (and he's never been difficult about taking medicine before). It also had an opposite effect on him - instead of making him drowsy, it turned him into an absolute maniac. Bizarre and annoying, since we were cautioned to keep him calm (rising blood pressure could cause a hemorrhage), but it managed his pain reasonably well, so we dealt with it.
It's now been 10 days since the surgery, and I'd say he's been back to his normal, perky self since at least Wednesday. And - he's not snoring or snorting anymore!! Huzzah!!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Lyla Mae, 30 weeks old
I have some serious updating to do, but for now, her sweet li'l face will have to do.
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