19 months

*old  post I never published!

I've wanted to post an update for so long, but never seem to find the time to make it a priority. I read Jennifer's blog every day and am always amazed at how faithfully she blogs. You accomplish so much more in a day than I do!

What have we been up to in the last 5 months??? Well, Sullivan finished Willie Price 4K. As usual, I was an emotional, sentimental mess. I remember when Sullivan was first born we were talking about which school district we live in, and at the time, we said, "we have 5 years to figure out if we don't think this is the right school district for us." Queue...5 years later and we are starting kindergarten NEXT WEEK. We are all a little nervous about the transition, so sends some positive vibes our way next Thursday! Daniel and I both attended private schools (until Jr. high for me, until college for daniel), so the difference in school size alone is a bit intimidating. I hear many positive things about both public schools in this area, so I'm sure it will all be just fine.  Sullivan is doing wonderfully reading and frequently reads books to US at night. His confidence has grown in this area, and I'm so thankful. He's grown and matured in many ways and we are really in a good place.

Evie just picked out her first official school nap mat yesterday. She found the one she liked and immediately put the strap over her head and took off. She's moving up to the next class on Monday! She's been in a clingy phase lately- wants momma in sight at all times. She talks up a storm, although we still don't understand a lot of it. In the car each morning, she'll say "Mommi, Daddi...." and then a long stream of gibberish. She'll copy just about anything you say, so we've got to be careful with that. She's very in to making all the animal sounds (cows, cats, dogs, sheep, ducks, birds, chickens) and pointing out all of her body parts (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, head, hair, belly button, toes, knees, and boo boos). She is still nursing at bedtime and early morning, but that is definitely starting to dwindle. I'm very sentimental about that too, but I think this gradual transition has been nice for us both. I will be very sad to see the end of my "baby days", but I know there are many wonderful "kid days" ahead. She loves to read books, love on her babies, and buckle and unbuckle anything she can get her hands on!

We've been on two big family vacations this summer. We took a reunion trip to Nantahala and our usual beach trip. It was interesting camping with both kids for the first half of the trip. It rained every time we needed to prepare or eat, but the weather was cool, so that was a blessing. The kids had a wonderful time playing in the water and the dirt, picnicking and hiking around with us. Our beach trip was much more relaxing, even with the kids in tow. They both loved the sand and water and were happy most of the time. Lesson learned- don't take tired kids out to dinner.

13 and 14 months

My sweet Evie has made huge strides over the last two months! She is now consistenly sleeping through the night. There have been a few times where she has slept from 7 pm until close to 10 am!!!! Sullivan HAS NEVER done anything close to that. She goes to bed awake most nights and puts herself to sleep with no tears. We'll read books, nurse for a minute or two, then she'll reach for her crib and "lay down with her baby". 

As mentioned above, we are still nursing some. Today she went to school with only one bottle of breastmilk and will get milk in a cup the rest of the day. We'll see how it goes! We've been slowly taking out the bottles and moving to cow's milk in a cup...we'll see how we manage when it's time to get rid of that naptime bottle. At home, she'll usually nurse when she wakes up and then again at bedtime. On the weekends she wants to nurse at naptime as well. She definitely gets distracted and doesn't nurse long at night, so I do think she's close to weaning herself.  

Evie has been eating lots of great big people food. She'll try just about anything if I'm feeding her from my plate and has probably eaten more variety of whole pieces of vegetables then her brother has his whole life. Sullivan will eat raw carrot sticks and not much else. She's loving trying to feed herself with a spoon or fork. She hates her highchair and eats half of most of her meals in my lap or on the ground. Sitting her next to her brother is a positive influence and how she first started actually drinking cow's milk. She saw her brother and so I gave her an identical cup with milk and voila!

Her favorite toys are her baby dolls and her books. She loves All of Baby Nose to Toes and Old MacDonald. She'll say the "Me, I do" line from the first and "E-ya, E-ya" for the second. She's getting good at mimicking things we say. When she's not saying things we recognize, she's babbling away about something or "reading" her books.  She LOVES to give hugs! She'll just run up to you and give you the biggest hug, and I love it!

On March 2nd, Evie finally got tubes in her ears. Everything went well. She's got her first cold since then, so we'll see if those tubes start draining!

Life is very busy with work, school, soccer, all our extras, but things are going well. We repainted our kitchen/laundry/hallway and it looks SOOOO much better. Flat paint with kids does not work, so I'm happy to have a new color and paint that can be washed! We really want to do the living/dining room, but the ceilings are so tall I'm not sure when we'll be able to tackle that. We have plans for a new veggie garden this year in a different spot that should be easier to get to and to water. Just have to have a weekend of good weather to get it going. I also need to locate some good dirt and go beg for some chicken poop. :)

Sullivan has been doing very well with soccer, although we need to work on sportsmanship a little. He goes in to warrior mode and wants to boo the other team and stuff. Not cool. His new thing is to run to protect the goal whenever the teams start heading that way. He loves to control the game. Sullivan is doing well with his reading. It's hard to convince him to read to us, but  he does so great when he finally does. This year has been so much better for him, and I certainly hope next year is good too. He has been registered for KINDERGARTEN! How is that even possible? He's very in to typical boy potty humor. It's next to impossible to get him to stay in his chair at dinner. he wants to constantly get up, check on Evie, run around, talk, talk, talk. He's usually the first to start dinner and the last to finish! He is so full of energy! I'm ready for Spring weather so we can all get outside and run around!

Evie's 1st Birthday!

Way behind, I know.

Oh, my sweet Evie. How has a year passed so quickly? I still like to mentally walk through everything we did the day you were born. Breakfast at BBB (well, technically in the car because they lost our order), haircut for Sullivan at La Rousse, doctor's appointment in Tupelo, our decision to go ahead and break my water at the hospital to get things going, lunch at Steele's in Tupelo (fried catfish), arriving at a packed hospital and waiting for hours in triage for a delivery room, watching the clock after breaking my water to make sure labor was well under way before my doctor came to check on me, watching tree house masters during most of labor, crazy labor pains and tons of pressure in my rectum area, Enchanted on the tv during delivery, nurses on the phone telling the doctor one more push and I'd be done, everyone scrambling to set up/catch the baby while I was pushing those last few times, you, beautiful you, in my arms and on my chest. I can still feel the flood of relief, and love, and emotion at finally having you in my arms. My sweet Evie. You are such a blessing to me and our family and this world. May you never doubt that.

We spent Evie's first Christmas at home, but drove the day after Christmas down to the Coast. Her Nanna hosted a lunch birthday party at her home, and it was wonderful! Evie DID NOT smash her cake and wanted pretty much nothing to do with it. I guess I should have gotten chocolate, because she inhaled an andes mint chocolate cookie half that Santa left on Christmas.

At 12 months, Evie is blowing kisses with the back of her hand and lots of sound affects! MmmmWahhh!!! She received 2 baby dolls and a doll stroller for Christmas, and she loves to carry her babies around and hug them and push them in the stroller. She also likes to try out their pacifiers! She is all about a ball these days and wants someone to roll a ball back and forth with her. She has started doing what Sullivan calls "the adorable thing" which is basically a hug. She comes and lays her head on your leg, the dog, the cat, the baby doll, the whatever! It really is adorable, and even more so when Sullivan calls out, "Mom, she's doing the adorable thing again!". She also loves to read books at night, and will often just sit on the floor and read/jibber jabber to herself as she flips the pages. Her current favorites are Pout Pout Fish, Bedtime Kiss for Little Fish, Barnyard Buddies, or any of the books that have different textures to feel.

Food is touch and go. Some days she likes baby food, some days she shakes her head no. She absolutely, DOES NOT like milk. I have tried different percentage cow's milks, unsweetened almond milk, sweetened almond milk, formula, even chocolate milk. Nada. I never in a million years imagined the joy and accomplishment of breastfeeding would be so hard for HER to quit. I took for granted that she would just like milk and switch with no problems. HA! So, I'm still pumping during the day for her and nursing at night. This is my last go round, so trying to savor it anyway.

Evie can definitely understand so much of what we say to her now. She will retrieve items you ask her for and respond to questions with a shake of the head when appropriate. She's so happy most of the time (except when fighting new teeth or ears), and will typically play happily where ever we are. She loves to hang in our bathroom while we get ready and turn on (and off, and on, and off, and on) the water in our bathtub.

She loves her brother so much. She calls for him first thing in the morning, and gets to incredibly excited whenever he walks in the room. He is so protective of her, and typically, very inclusive. I think he enjoys having someone to boss around, and she sits patiently and enjoys it.

Evie - 11 months old!

I'm soooo behind on this post! It's been on my to-do list, but always gets pushed back. Since her 1st birthday is only 9 days away, I figured I'd better get something out!

Where to begin? She started walking and there was no stopping her after that. She went from a hesitant few to following her brother everywhere.

She loves to say Uh-Oh when she drops something. She also loves to purposely drop stuff and say Uh-Oh. She also says "dank do" when she hands you something. It's adorable. She understands lots of words, but I can't think of other things she's saying right now.

Evie gets the biggest kick out of rolling a ball back and forth with her brother. It makes me so happy that he enjoys playing with her as much as she does with him! They play with her toys and then switch and play trucks.

Evie hasn't been crazy about her fruit and veggie combo baby food recently. She likes the meat combinations and finger foods. SOOO opposite her brother! Don't remember if I mentioned last month, but she's still drinking water from a sippy cup like nobody's business. Doesn't balk if we switch types of cups... once again, couldn't be more different from her brother. She drinks 3, 4 oz bottles at school each day. She is still nursing and our bedtime routine involves turning on her ocean noise machine, her crib aquarium, and nursing and rocking. She's been sleeping much better lately. We put the bumpers back in her bed and she's slept pretty good since. Don't know if it's a more secure feel or just a coincidence, but I'll take it.

Evie also went on her first cruise to Mexico since her 10 month post. it was definitely not a relaxing/adult trip, but we had a great time. She was well behaved and Sullivan absolutely LOVED it. He never wanted to leave the camp carnival area.

We spent Thanksgiving with Daniel's Mom, my Mom, Freddie, and all of his family at their cabin. We had a great time!

Sullivan- 5 years old!

On Paradise Beach with his new, birthday snake. 

My sweet boy is 5 years old! We celebrated his actual birthday in Cozumel, Mexico and on a Carnival cruise! We had a construction themed party with his friends the next weekend.

It's not a party without TMNT masks and glow sticks!

Spending some of his birthday money in the arcade.

It is so hard to believe it's been 5 years since he was born. I still remember his birth like it was yesterday. He is growing so fast, and I love watching him change. He is so curious, and talkative, and silly, and moody, and helpful, and sensitive. 

His favorite things to eat these days are: Sonic or Wendy's cheeseburgers, Chick fil a nuggets with Polynesian sauce, scrambled eggs, craisin and apple oatmeal, cereal bars (still, but i found some with better ingredients), pears, mini corn dogs, spoonfuls of peanut butter, carrot or celery sticks with ranch, butter toast, dried fruit, yogurt, Kefir smoothie, and pancakes. He is a bottomless pit and seems to always be hungry! He wants a snack as soon as we get home from school and eats constantly until bedtime! 

His best friends that he talks about constantly are Jackson, Andrew, Carson, Colton, Alex, Max, and Robert. They love to pretend they are different players from the Ole Miss Football team and throw the football around. Sullivan is always Laquon Treadwell. One a side note, when he was telling me whom he would like to invite to his party, he included Mr. I'tavius and Laquon Treadwell. I managed to get an invitation to both of them, but needless to say, they were both home visiting family during their off weekend. :)

Sullivan goes to bed around 8 pm each night and gets up about 7 am most days. He's recently started wanting his closet light on while he sleeps. I think he picked this habit up from a friend, but we haven't broken him of it yet. He will inevitably want a drink of water at bedtime, so we usually go ahead and bring a full cup of water to him before reading.  He LOVES to read books before bed. Taking bedtime reading away is a very effective punishment, but not one I like to use. We usually read 3 books at bedtime, and he likes to save the longest book for last. If he's not in his bath when I read to Evie at bedtime, he always wants to join in and pick or read books with us. If he IS in the bath during this time, he will frequently call out that he wants to read those books when he gets out. I LOVE that he loves to read books. I feel like my job is done on that one!!!

Sullivan has a great memory and most days immediately starts sharing what he's learned at school as soon as he gets in the car. The exception to this is days when he doesn't take a nap at school. Oh Lordy, will he be in a mood on the days he's worn out! It's best to leave him alone on those car rides home! I love when he gets so excited about something that he's learned. He really is a little sponge!

I'm so blessed to be his mother. We are very much alike in temperament, which means we often butt heads, but I sure do love that boy! He's the best big brother and son.

Evie - 10 Months

Happy face.

Serious face.

At Evie's 9 1/2 month check up, she was 22 lbs and 29 1/2 inches. She's in like the 93rd percentile for height and 84th for weight. I do believe she may get some of her Daddy's height! She's currently wearing 12 and 18 month clothes. The pjs in the picture above are 18 months and she fills them out completely! I actually had to send my Mom to the outlet malls to get her some fall/winter 18 month clothes.

We've had a rough month of illness and injury in the Martin house. Evie had some kind of virus that gave her sores in her throat and a non-stop fever for five days. She didn't want to eat any baby food during this time, but still nursed, thankfully. We kept her dosed with tylenol or motrin, but her fever never actually went away until the fifth day. Daniel and I took turns taking off or working from home to keep her out of daycare the entire week. The next Monday, we had to take Sullivan to urgent care because he got a tire tread wire in his hand from the recycled tire mulch on his school playground. He was very brave and didn't make a peep when the Dr. pulled it from his hand. Never a good sign when the school calls, but it was pretty shocking when they said "Sullivan has a piece of mulch going through his hand". I immediately pictured something terrible, and was glad to see it was just a piece of wire through fatty part of his hand. Still not fun, but much better than what my "mom brain" can imagine. The next week, we were back at the Pediatrician on Monday with Evie- this time a hand, foot, and mouth diagnosis. I actually didn't realize she had any spots on hands and feet, but she had suddenly gotten terrible excema on her back and back of her legs. Apparently, her weakened immune system had caused that to flair up, but the Dr. immediately spotted the sores in her throat (again), and spots on hands and feet. Evie never had fever with this virus, but didn't want to eat much baby food. Thankfully, my Mom came to town to keep her while she was out of daycare. Maternity leave wiped all my sick days out, so staying home was difficult.

Besides illness, Evie has mastered opening cabinets and drawers (only the "safe" non-babyproofed ones). She loves turning on the bathtub water in our bathroom while we get ready for work in the morning. She actually turned it off one day when I asked her to, but that was probably a fluke! She's begun clapping her hands properly and loves to do it for patty cake. She raises her hands and bounces/dances when Daniel turns the music up at home. She's learned to whine and fuss out of impatience when she's ready to get down from her high chair or be picked up. I DO NOT want to encourage that behavior, but have no idea how to prevent it. Telling her to be patient doesn't have much effect yet!!! Besides the whining, Evie is also babbling A LOT. I love listening to her talking to us in the car each day and first thing in the morning.  She LOVES the pets and wants to pet them and feed them constantly. They put up with her as well since she is a good source of dropped food!

Speaking of mornings (in the bed with us), sleep still sux. It was starting to improve as I enforced her staying in her bed rather than coming in to the bed with us, but I think she's teething again, so that's gone out the window. The sleep sux either way, but going to her room every hour is harder on me than having her in the bed waking to nurse every hour. One day, one day, we shall sleep through the night again. I hope.

Evie is eating more and more finger foods. I still struggle coming up with things to give her, but she gets some fresh fruits, breads, carrots, pasta, etc when we have it. Otherwise, she still eats a good bit of fruit/yogurt in the mornings and baby food for the other meals. She has 3 breastmilk bottles as school most days.

Sullivan has been doing so good with his reading. He's read to his class, to me and Daniel, and to Evie. He still easily gets frustrated if he comes to a word he doesn't know or can't easily sound out, but we are working through it. The funniest thing was Anna trying to spell out something so the kids wouldn't understand at dinner one night, and Sullivan just burst out with the word she spelled. That trick won't work around him any longer!

My moody boy.

Giving Sophie some love.

We had a tornado warning a few weeks ago. I tried to leave work early enough to get the kids and get home before the worst hit, but instead, I ended up in the car as the warning sirens went off. I was going to get Sullivan first, so I spent the warning at Willie Price with the kids, teachers, staff in the rest of the building, and I'Tavious Mathers. I don't worry as much about Sullivan during bad weather since they are on the bottom floor/basement of a sturdy brick building. Evie's daycare is a metal building that always makes me nervous in bad weather. I had decided at the last minute to get Sullivan first so I wouldn't have to double back, but that ended up biting me. Thankfully, Daniel was able to run to the daycare to at least stay with Evie during the warning until I could come get her and take both kids home. It's frustrating to have a storm shelter at home and have my family stuck everywhere but there during bad weather. Alls well that ends well this time, thank goodness.

We spent a lovely fall weekend at the cabin the weekend after Bebe and Fred Daddy's birthdays. We had a cookout with my grandparents and Anna and Julia. It was nice to see more of my family and enjoy some relaxing at the cabin. My uncle made an interesting deer camera discovery while we were there, but I didn't get to see the images myself. My Mom did see the images...I'll let you guess what showed up on them. I'll expound on this more as I investigate further.