Health and Wellness

On Sunday afternoon James complained that he needed to throw up so he started carrying around the bucket we have for just in case.  He was super whiney and acted miserable until he fell asleep in the rocking chair.  He was grouchy again when he woke up but then was fine!  He’d woken up very early that morning and his sister had spun him around and around in a chair for awhile, so I’m guessing that’s what did him in.

Isn’t he cute in his footie pjs?!

The kids have been enjoying playing outside this week, even though it’s cold and cloudy.  (I find that much better than hot and muggy!)  James looks grouchy, but he was just telling me that he wanted me to take a picture of only him.  :)

Yesterday Mamma came over and watched the big kids while I took the babies to their two month check up.  They were wonderful!

I brought the big pillow along, since it’s really the only way I can nurse them both while I’m by myself.  I also brought the big stroller.  I had quite the long long trailer!  When we got back into the exam room, I changed their diapers and stripped off their clothes so they could get weighed.  (I also discovered that I only had size newborn clothes in the diaper bag – whoops!) 

Michael is 10lbs 5.5oz, 22” long.  Thomas is 10lbs 9oz, 22.5” long.  They’re in the 10th and 12th percentiles, respectively.

While we waited on the doctor, I nursed them in the chair that’s in the room.  The nurse was kind enough to help hand me a baby before she left – yay!  I missed my couch.  :)

Dr. Harper came, asked questions about the boys, and then examined them.  They were mostly happy, even being messed with.

Sadly, they needed to have some immunizations, and that made them very mad.  :(  Thomas even threw a fit at the oral vaccine, before he even got shots.  Michael thought it was delicious.  The each received three shots, and then I found myself in a room with two naked, crying babies.  A few weeks ago and that would have DONE ME IN!

As it was, I got them dressed (one in a slightly too small outfit!), hopped up on the exam table with my big pillow, and nursed those sweet babies into happiness.

I don’t think they’re feeling a hundred percent today, but they aren’t running fevers.  They even “played” happily in the bouncy chairs for quite a while this morning!

Thomas:

Michael:

They’re the cutest boys in the universe, amiright?

At their last feeding, they nursed for about an hour (I’m very warm and cozy you know.) and I think, about an hour later, they’d love nothing more than to nurse again.  Normally I’m pretty mean and don’t them nurse ALL DAY LONG, but shots are rough!  I am still hoping they’ll go back to sleep though.  Poor babes!

Joanna’s Six Year Check-Up

Joanna and I got to go alone to her well-check Thursday after school.  Thanks Lisa and Gran!

She passed her hearing screen – yay!  Her vision wasn’t fantastic.  So it’s on our list to get checked.  Anybody have a doc they recommend?  I’ll probably call around and see who’s affordable.  The kids aren’t covered with vision insurance.

One of the few times the kids get to play on the iPod is while they’re waiting at the doctor’s office.  Joanna was using a drawing app.

Doctor Harper in action!

She was of course practically perfect in every way.  :)

She had an enormous wax build-up in her ears.  Ummmm… whoops?  So he had the nurse come in and clean ‘em out.

It was quite an ordeal to get all that wax flushed out!

Doesn’t she look like the poster child for that ear cleaner bottle?

She didn’t love the way it felt, but was a super-fantastic sport about it.  And apparently some people are just prone to ear wax build-up, and we should clean them out every couple of months.  They actually sell stuff at the drugstore for it.  Whoddu thunk?

Natalie’s FOUR year old check-up

This morning was Natalie’s four year old well check-up.  We’d been prepping her all week with kind of what to expect.  She was feeling very good about it.

She passed her vision screening by reading letters.

Got her blood pressure taken.

And passed her hearing screen (yay!!)  If you’ll remember, Joanna flunked hers at 4 years old, so this is excellent news!

Poor James woke up feeling bad and with a fever this morning.  :(  I considered going ahead and making him an appointment since we were going to be there, but didn’t.  It’s really not the kind of thing I would take him in for normally, so I decided to save my co-pay.  :)  He’s pretty happy on Tylenol, so we’ll see what happens.  He has a fever, is grouchy, and it’s affecting his appetite.  It may very well be the same thing Natalie had almost a week ago.  It just lasted a day.

We entertained ourselves with some crayons

and acrobatics while we waited.

Natalie did SO STINKIN’ WELL!!  She answered the doctor’s questions, didn’t cry and whine and cling to me, and just handled everything like a big four year old!  She also didn’t shed a SINGLE tear after her three shots.  I couldn’t believe it!  She’s pretty proud of her three pink camo band aids.  :)

Her stats:
Height: 39 1/8 inches
Weight: 35 lbs 6 oz

James’ Two Year Checkup

After we dropped Joanna off at school yesterday, Natalie and I took James for his two-year well check-up.  He was just fine going in but fell apart after the nurse measured his head-circumference.  It was all downhill from there.  :)

His stats:
Height: 32.63”
Weight: 25 lbs 2 oz
Head Circumference: 19.02”

In other words, practically perfect in every way!  He’s pretty low down on the growth charts, but he’s very proportional. 

I couldn’t really peel him off of me to get a picture, and without a wider angle lens, this was about the best I could do.  :)  I didn’t try very hard though.

And here are his cutie-patootie feet:

He continued to cry and/or scream until we were well out of the parking lot, but I’m still very proud of him for surviving the ordeal.  :)  Hopefully the next visit will be better all around.  And apparently that visit is in 6 months, at 2 1/2 years old.  I swear I never took the girls for a 30 month check up.  I was like, “Is that new?”  Dr. Harper said not so much.  Oh, well!  I’m not totally sure I’ll remember it though.  We’ll see!  I think there are shots then, but there weren’t any yesterday, thank goodness.  I think that might have put James over the edge.

The good part of the morning was that we were on the way to the doctor’s office at the time all the middle school buses were out so James got to see millions of buses.  He loves school buses!!  He kept saying “school bus lot.”  And then we stopped at Kroger where there was a fire truck!  (They were just shopping; no emergency.)  It was a great day for transportation!

James’ 18 Month Check-Up

James was 18 months old on the 18th, but we didn’t get in to see the doctor until yesterday.  I was able to leave the girls with my mother (yay!), so James and I had a date.  It was nice.

His stats:
Height: 31.5 inches
Weight: 22 lb 4 oz
Head Circumference: 19.37 inches

I’m finding it hard to be parted from my camera lately, so I was able to entertain myself by taking pictures of James.  :)

He was trying to escape a lot.

Oh that smile!!!!!

He’s practically perfect in every way!

He got two shots and he did so well – just a bit of fussing.  He was a bit grouchy the rest of the day, but when you combine two shots with teething molars, it’s a recipe for grumpiness for sure!

It was an awfully full day for one that’s not even usually there

Yesterday was just one of those mornings that I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep.  Matt’s light woke me up at 4:44, and then I could hear the water running because it turns out the hose in the back broke and somebody left the spigot on over the weekend.  Then Matt’s alarm went off (he was in the kitchen), and there were noises I couldn’t sleep through.  Then of course the children woke up and the day began.

The girls were very excited to have some friends over for a bit.  Kendra dropped Kaitlyn and Emma off for the morning – yay for girlfriends!

They all played together a lot, but the pictures I got were of the sisters playing together.  Joanna and Natalie have been enjoying the Potato Head family lately.

Emma and Kaitlyn!

This was snack time – such sweet girls!

After they left I attempted to put my kiddos down for an early rest time at about 12:40ish.  James went down great (I figured he would since I didn’t let him have a morning nap), but Natalie and Joanna couldn’t settle.  Joanna never sleeps, but she just had trouble “resting.”  I soooooooo wanted a little nap; I’ve just been so tired lately!  But, alas, it was not to be.  I was way too grumpy for anyone’s good though, so I made the decision to have a Dr. Pepper on the way to Joanna’s ENT appointment for the sanity of us all.  It was a good choice.  Making it a whole week without a slip is something, right?  :)

I had to wake James up at 2:20, but he’d had a great nap!

Here we are keeping ourselves entertained while Joanna had her hearing test with the audiologist.

The kids really did well.  Sadly, there were signs that said “No food or drink” so I couldn’t use my regular method of keeping tiny people happy.  Oh, well.  We survived.

Joanna failed her hearing test (That was one hundred thirty eight dollars worth of DUH!!!) and Dr. Clegg is putting her on antibiotics for the next ten days (or ten days from the point I actually make it pharmacy to pick them up) to see if that will do anything.  If not, it’s tubes for her!  I can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned it here, but about a week and a half or so ago, Joanna just stopped being able to hear much at all.  It’s making our lives miserable!  She misses so much of what’s going on around her and we’re constantly repeating ourselves.  Thankfully it is just fluid in her ears that’s blocking the sound, not something worse.

After the appointment we walked around Kingwood Hospital for a bit.  The girls loved the little stream kind of place.

When we got home, we had enough time to gather up our things for church and play outside for a few minutes.

James is a walking boy these days!!

Matt had to meet us at church since he was running a bit behind.  I sure was thankful for the spaghetti supper I didn’t have to cook or clean up after!  And my choir kiddos were wonderful.  We really started working on learning the musical, and they were very into it.  What fun!

I came home and went to bed probably before the kids fell asleep.  Sadly it took me a long time to actually fall asleep myself, but at least I was laying down.  I probably fell asleep about 10:00.  I didn’t stir once until 6:08.  Then it was time to take care of my early-risers; I think those kids are linked somehow to wake up at the same time.  Joanna slept until 8:35!  I could tell she needed to catch up on some sleep – I’m so glad she did!

I’ve been skipping James’ morning nap recently because I think he’s sleeping better all around without it.  But he was grouchy this morning, and I knew I couldn’t handle a morning of holding him off with food and entertainment.  So he’s napping now!  I’m soooooo thankful Joanna had a ride to school, and I get to just sit here and snuggle with my Natalie.  Wahoo for Thursday mornings!

Well-checks, playing outside, and visits with friends (Oh, my!)

Today while Joanna was at school, I took James and Natalie for their 15 month and 3 year check-ups, respectively.

I’ve been talking the doctor’s visit up to Natalie over the past few days.  I’m not sure it was the best choice since she was pretty worried about it, but I do think it was better than just springing it on her.  :)

She got her blood pressure taken, and she did so well.

James was just as happy as could be during (almost) the whole visit.  So cute!

I love this Jamesie face:

And this one – he is so cute!

I loooooovvvvveeee his little “thumbs up” toe.  Baby feet are just so stinkin’ cute!

James loves to color like his sisters.  :)

The children are, of course, absolutely perfect!

Natalie’s stats:
Height: 36.25” (25%)
Weight: 30lbs 6.4oz (48%)

James’ stats:
Height:39.75” (13%)
Weight: 20lbs 10.5oz (5%)
Head circumference: 19.13” (86%)

I don’t think Natalie ever talked to Dr. Harper, but she did warm up during the visit, enough to give him a hug good-bye.

And like I said, James was pretty happy the whole time.  He didn’t love having his throat looked at or, of course, his two vaccinations.  He’s such a good boy!

Back at home, James found some laundry to help me with – so thoughtful!

I love the get-ups Joanna comes up with.

After naps we headed to the driveway for a little play.  I put these super-cute hand-me-down shoes on James – love ‘em!

He wanted to sit with me for a while before getting down to play with his sisters.

Then he hopped in the car with Natalie to show her how it was done – such a gentleman.

Cutie pie!

Just before I could snap the picture, Natalie had her arm around her brother; it was so cute!  Here he is trying to get around her to put the key in the ignition.

Oh those feet!

Later on, my friend Kathy (from Washington!) stopped over with her boys and her sister.  It was such a nice visit, and the kids played really well together.

Josh didn’t want to open his eyes, but it’s still such a cute picture!

Awwwwwww… These two are about five months apart.

Natalie and Sam, so sweet!  Natalie is not quite three months older than Sam.

A Natalie sandwich!

Joanna asked Josh if they could hug together for the picture – ha!

(Yes, if you’re counting, we’ve got a couple of chances here to marry our families together in twenty years or so.)  :)

We stuck James and Tim in the crib to get their picture.  I LOVE the faces!

James was like “what is going on?”  and Sam was like “let’s party!”

“C’mon – jump!”

It was pretty funny.  Tim is five days older than James.

I love that Kathy and I have been pregnant at the same time with all of our kiddos.  :)

It was a great day, full of lots of fun and plenty of pictures.

ahhhhh…