Hunter getting tubes in his ears

He was happy at this point, and then he dropped a very heavy puzzle on his toe. Not so happy after that. Hopefully the surgery will go well and he will come out of the anesthesia without too much trouble. Should be going back with the doctor pretty soon - scheduled for 8:30.

UPDATE: We are home already (a little after 10:00). It went very well and Hunter is happily watching Cars and drinking juice. He was awake less than 15 minutes after the surgery was complete and we got out of there fast. Couldn't have gone any better!

Jenna – 17 weeks

My goodness, this outfit is cute.  Thanks Janine – we finally spent the rest of the gift card you gave us for Doodles.  What a great store!  You probably can’t tell but the print is America themed, but had some nice pinks and purples mixed in.  Very tie-dye looking.  I just wish the sleeves were long since its ridiculously cold outside.     

Jenna had her 4 month well baby visit yesterday.  She is almost 12 pounds, so still in 25th percentile for weight as well as height.  And I won’t tell you how big her noggin is…at least it isn’t off the charts like Hunter’s!  The doctor said she could start solids now, which we did last night.  I couldn’t remember if you’re supposed to do the bottle first and then the cereal or vice versa.  I tried cereal first, but I think she was too hungry, so after her bottle, I tried cereal again.  This time, I was holding her in my arms instead of sitting her in the high chair (probably a no-no).  You know, she’s such a mover that sitting still in her chair just didn’t set well with her.  She downed the cereal – she was opening her mouth when she saw the spoon coming, and she didn’t spit that much out either.  I know she doesn’t look pleased in the picture below, but she really did seem to like it.

Ironically, I looked back at Hunter’s 17 week post and he got his first ear infection in his 17th week of life.  This week, Jenna’s 17th week, we learned that Hunter has to get tubes put back in his ears.  His fell out over the past 6 months or so and he has some hearing loss due to the fluid behind his eardrums.  So we opted for surgery again.  He will have it done on December 29th, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers that day please.

Jenna – 14, 15, 16 weeks and Thanksgiving

I know.  I’m so far behind I wasn’t even sure which weeks I still needed to post.  Jenna baby, I’m sorry but I might have to just start doing monthly pictures of you.  Please don’t hold it against me someday when you are older and looking back at this blog!!!  :)

Jenna – 14 weeks

You can see the progression…she was sleeping in her sling, I had set it down on the couch so that she could finish her nap and I could get some chores done.  As I started snapping photos, she woke up slowly and then started laughing at me.  So precious…

Jenna – 15 weeks

She was in one of Hunter’s old sleepers – my goodness, she looks a lot like him sometimes…except a lot more bald…

Jenna – 16 weeks

The next two pics are Jenna on left and Hunter on right.  Hunter was a little older in his picture (5 months), but I definitely see some pretty big differences in their profiles.  Jenna’s features are more petite.  Hunter’s chin is flatter – Jenna’s is more pronounced I guess you would say.  And her nose has more slope to it or something.  Hunter’s eyebrows are a lot higher than Jenna’s, or eyes or lower, whichever way you want to look at it.  Or maybe his eyes are just more closed than hers in this particular picture.

                             

Randomness (before we get to the very few thanksgiving pics I have)

Nothing better than a toddler in footed PJs…

Another cute little smirk from my baby girl.

Uncle Brad came to visit for awhile his first weekend in town for the holiday.  So fond of each other already…

And Hunter trying on my college softball jacket.  Just a little too big for him, but cute nonetheless.

  

Thanksgiving 2009

One more comparison for this post.  Jenna wore Hunter’s 1st Thanksgiving shirt on Thursday.  I only snapped one picture of her.  And the picture of him (right) shows just how big the kid’s head was!  But at least he had hair AND it was already blonde at 6 months.  And again you can see her little ball of a chin…so cute.

      

The only picture I got of my son on Turkey day and his FOOT was in the way.

I don’t get the opportunity to pull out the china very often, so I took advantage of the small crowd we had at our house on Thursday and set the table all nice and perty.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of actual food or people, but I really did serve food and have people.  I’m not faking it!!!

     

And a closeup of the fake flowers…practicing my photography…

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Phenomenal Woman

Before I talk about my daughter as a future “Phenomenal Woman,” I’ll share how phenomenal my son is.  The two pictures below were taken one morning last week, before I took Hunter to school.  We started the “school day” schedule last week and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy my child was before and after school.  The mornings are the best because he is a morning person and I am not, but he makes me a better person in the morning.  And the afternoons were great because the weather was nice and we took a walk every single day.  Wonderful!

We bought these Melissa and Doug beads a couple weeks ago and Hunter was good at sorting them by color and shape pretty much out of the box.  Of course, there is one shape that I don’t really even know the name of, so we call them barrels (no clue).  But he wouldn’t string them himself – he would just hand them to me for me to string them for him when I said “give me all the red ones” or “give me all the squares.”  I told him last week that he needed to do it himself – I think my hands were full with coffee and maybe rocking the carseat with baby Jenna.  He figured out with my instruction how to get that string through the bead holding onto it with one hand and then switching hands to finish the deed.  He proceeded to string the shapes together, all by himself.  I was so proud, as evidenced by getting the camera out.

Oh, and he has gotten his hair cut since those pictures, by the way.  My goodness, he was shaggy.  And that awful bruise is fading too – he fell hard into a baseboard a week ago and the bruise got much worse before it started fading. 

Now for that “Phenomenal Woman” I mentioned.  The Today Show on NBC had a piece this morning on Glamour’s “Women of the Year” one of which was Maya Angelou.  During the piece, Matt asked Dr. Angelou to quote a part of her poem “Phenomenal Woman.”  Her reading was amazing.  I had never heard this poem before, so I had to look up the words to the entire thing, and the pictures I’ve inserted are more of Jenna at three months, which I did not get a chance to post last week.  I pray Jenna will be as phenomenal a woman as she is a baby.  I pray that I will grow to be even more phenomenal because of her, and that I will set a good example for her always.

Phenomenal Woman 

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

 

Maya Angelou

First “Smith Family” Football Game

So, Hunter is two-and-a-half and had never been to a sporting event.  We weren’t sure how it would go, but figured the best place to find out would be a high school football game.  Thankfully, I looked at the schedule the day before the regular season ends in Houston, and we were able to make it to the Cy Woods vs Cy Falls football game this afternoon.

If anyone has been to Berry Center, Cy Fair ISD’s athletic center and theater or whatever, you know what we experienced.  This place is huge and the football stadium is better/bigger than my college alma mater (not comparable to Kyle Field, of course).  It opened in 2006 and is very impressive.

The weather was perfect for football, a little breeze but perfect temperature and we got there just before sunset.  Jenna was an angel.  Hunter – not so much.  I think he may be getting sick (again) so he was absolutely heartbroken when we finally said “If you don’t stay in your seat, we’re going home” and we really did.  We got to see Cy Woods (that is the high school Hunter and Jenna would go to, but of course, they will surely have one or two new high schools by that time) beat up on Cy Falls a bit in the 2nd quarter and saw the very beginning of Cy Falls band’s performance at halftime. 

Don’t get me wrong – Hunter enjoyed it!!  He just wouldn’t sit still – he’s 2!!  We expected this!!  Next time he goes to a sporting event, we will ensure that a snack is handy and will use it to bribe him as often as needed.  :)  I told him when we first got there that he gets to see football in real life instead of on TV because Saturday is “Football Saturday” at the Smith house, so he knows, for example, to not ask to watch Mickey Mouse on Saturday afternoon because its “Football Saturday.”  He repeated “football not on TV” a few times while we were there.  So cute.

Anyway, Hunter gave us some play-by-play a couple of times when someone would get a long run. And he clapped when the people around us clapped (even though we were sitting on the wrong side – the Cy Falls people were nice though and we pretended to cheer for them).  He seemed to really enjoy himself and probably would have gone up and down the bleachers harmlessly if we had let him further than 2 rows down and 2 rows up – this was actually a larger radius than I had originally anticipated, but we sat where the sun was shining in people’s faces, so there weren’t that many people around us.  :)

We only got one snapshot unfortunately.  When it was time to go, we drug him out and even tried to pretend we were going to let him go back into the stadium with a complete stranger that was coming in as we were going out, thinking that would scare him into submission.  But he started heading back in, so Brent had to grab him.  LOL!  He repeated over and over on the way to dinner “I want to watch football!!”  And then decided to change his stance to “I want to watch Mickey Mouse on TV in the family room.”  The kid is too smart for his own good.  Thankfully, he was back to his cheerful self by the time we got to the restaurant and we didn’t hear another negative word from him the rest of the night.

According to www.chron.com, Cy Falls pulled the win from Cy Woods, 46-43.  I think Cy Woods had only lost one game this season before today, so this may have been quite the upset.  Oh well – next year. 

Jenna – 3 months (and Halloween)

I never posted any “official” Halloween pictures, so here are the kiddos in their costumes – pictures taken at various times, including a couple of snapshots from that day.

Hunter – the dinosaur

The hat underneath that helped keep the dinosaur head shaped well (somewhat anyway) was one of many from his Pa-daddy.

Miss Jenna – the princess

We carved a pumpkin, but this was the one that didn’t get hacked on.  It was Hunter’s pal on Halloween.

We had gone shopping earlier in the day.  Jenna wore Hunter’s “First Halloween” onesie from when he was a baby.  I was surprised at how well it fit her considering he was a couple months ahead of her on his first Halloween.  Here is a picture that Daddy took with his iPhone.

We did go trick-or-treating that night.  The whole family did our street and then we took Jenna home to go to bed, while Daddy stayed in to hand out candy.  I took Hunter to the next street over and we enjoyed some time walking around with neighbors.  I absolutely love my neighbors – every single one of them.  Even the ones I just met and barely know – good people around here.  We’re very blessed.

And miss Jenna’s 3 month pictures.  I’m hoping to take some more later today.  She was getting fussy for her nap.  She started laughing yesterday, like audibly giggling.  It was too cute, but I haven’t caught it on video yet.  I made her laugh early in the day, but thought maybe it was a fluke.  Then we were on our afternoon walk and stopped to talk to a neighbor so Hunter turned around in his seat to “flirt” with baby Jenna and she cackled at him.  I couldn’t recreate it once Daddy got home unfortunately.  I’m sure it will be a much more regular occurrence from now on.  Love a kid’s laughter…so wonderful.

Oh, and you surely can’t tell since I have it covered up with her blanket above, but she is already “sitting” in her bumbo seat!!  I don’t think we used that with Hunter at this age.  She also “stands” up holding my fingers – might just be because she’s so gassy and stiff, but she seems to actually enjoy squatting and then standing back up.  Such a strong little girl, she is!!!

3 months….come and gone….and she is STILL waking up in the middle of the night to eat.  It’s a good thing I’m not back at work yet.  I’d be a zombie…

2009 Lakewood Montessori Fall Festival

I forgot that Brent took a couple of pictures at the Fall Festival last Friday night. I think this is the first one we've gotten of me with both kids, but Hunter isn't looking at the camera (typical). And Jenna wasn't really dressed up for this event - just in her very warm pumpkin hooded and footed sleeper. So cuddly!!!

Hunter was ALL over the place at this festival. I guess it's pretty normal for a 2-year-old to not participate in any events but want to look at every single thing. He did get to pet some very cool animals including a donkey (below) and a deer (beautiful). Hopefully at some point, he will have the courage to participate in some of the events and not shy away. His teacher said that he definitely is not shy in the comfort of the classroom. I personally think it was all a bit overwhelming for him, and it didn't help that the activities started before 4:00 and he had to stay in his classroom until we got there around 4:30. Poor kid kept watching his friends go out the back door with their parents and he had to stay with his remaining friends in "circle time."

I was looking back at Hunter's first Halloween pictures. He was Superman - adorable! I might have to put Jenna in that outfit just to see how much alike they look. I can't tell if they look alike since she's always in pink and he was NEVER in pink. :) What do you think? Is that silly to put her in his first costume? It's not like I'll take her out of the house in it or anything...

Jenna - 12 weeks

I can't believe it's been 12 weeks already. Where has the time gone?? And next week, Hunter will start going to school just from 8:30 to 3:00, so we started practicing that timeline this week. It will be nice to have breakfast with him every morning. And the plan in the afternoon is to take a walk right after picking him up, either around the neighborhood if it's nice (like today - gorgeous) or I'll take the stroller in the car with me and we'll head to the mall to walk inside. I'm thinking that's the only way I'll ever manage to get these last pounds off.

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We went to the park this afternoon after school. Hunter just loves the neighborhood park - it was still a little wet from all the rain, but he managed to find a clean and dry slide and a little water certainly didn't hurt his pants. And I just walked Jenna around in the stroller since the sidewalk does a nice circle around the jungle gym. Of course, I'm still not completely used to having him go potty before we leave the house, so he needed to go as soon as we got there. Thankfully someone was going in to workout and let us into the clubhouse so that he could go. Hunter is a pro at the potty, in case I haven't mentioned that lately. I can't believe he was in diapers just 4 weeks ago. He even woke up with a dry pull-up yesterday morning for the first time, so maybe we'll get to go back to big boy pants at night again before long. He also ended up going number 2 twice yesterday morning on the potty before we headed to school. Such a big boy! (He's sitting on the couch beside me right now watching Mickey Mouse.)

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As for baby Jenna at 12 weeks, she sleeps through the night most of the time, although she has woken up at 3am the last two nights for a "midnight snack." We still aren't on a roll with bottles. I have got to get disciplined and start doing at least one bottle every day and I need to do it when she's really hungry. Think I'll do one when she wakes up next...should be any minute, so here are some pictures before I get pulled away.

Still trying to figure out what color those eyes are going to be...they're looking a little more green to me, but I'm sure it's just wishful thinking...

Jenna - 11 weeks

You have to wonder sometimes - what is she thinking??? That smirk...those eyes...will they be green like Hunter's or doo doo brown like Mommy's...we'll see!

October 2009 Video

Catching up

I know, I know – I missed 9 weeks, but I did take the pictures.  I just did not get around to posting them.  We had Grandmommy visiting last week and then the big Potty Weekend, so it’s been quite hectic.  So here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

Swift Company Picnic

We made the trip to the Houston Zoo for my company’s annual family picnic.  It was so great to see everyone and Miss Jenna got tons of attention, of course.  Everyone was a lot happier to see her, I think, than to see me!  Thanks to Shannon for bringing us the tickets the night before – I snapped a good picture of her holding Jenna while she was here.  Just a little fuzzy, but great nonetheless.

And although we didn’t get to stay long, we did get to see the lion. 

 

I snapped this great picture of Brent and Hunter while we were at the picnic.  This has to be one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken – seriously!!

That is a football on Hunter’s face.  I have video of that but Movie Maker is stalling out, so I’ll have to post it another time.

Visit from Grandmommy

We had a very nice visit with my mom, Grandmommy, last week.  Here are some pics from that visit.

      

Jenna – 9 weeks

Jenna – 10 weeks

         

You may not be able to see it but in that last shot, she was sticking her little tongue out at me.  She’s just so darn cute!!