Sleep, who needs sleep?

It really was a fun weekend - the weather was phenomenal, but Henderson was a little sick, STILL. I kept him home from church Sunday b/c he threw up once in his high chair, WHILE EATING APPLESAUCE (you would think he would have not eaten if he felt bad) and then had several BAD diapers - not sure if it was a stomach bug, or a combination of a strong antibiotic, ear infection, and blistered gums from 4 upper teeth all coming in AT ONCE!!!!! Poor guy - he's been very whiney and clingy and sleeping more in the day, but last night he woke up at 3:00 out of the blue - I gave him a bottle and he went back to sleep, so hopefully he was just hungry. I pray he will be 100% soon and the infections will all be gone and the blood work will be completely normal - his appt. is scheduled for Feb 24 (my birthday - what a fun one THAT will be - Drs appt then a trip to the hospital lab where they will tourniquet my poor baby's arm and hold him down and fill up no less than 3 large tubes with his blood).

THEN, this little live wire woke up at 4:15 AM ready to get his day on - wanting to eat a doughnut and watch his show, and that would have been great had he stayed in the room and actually watched his movie, but no, Diego wasn't good enough - he wanted Barney, then Baby Einstein, then Rescue Heroes - I finally gave up at 5:15 and just got in the shower, only to come out to Wilson opening up a cup of chocolate pudding IM MY BEDROOM - he got disciplined for that, simply b/c I had SPECIFICALLY told him (2 minutes earlier) he couldn't have chocolate pudding for breakfast. I will let Wilson have just about anything foodwise that he wants, but I draw the line at chocolate pudding in the morning when we are dressed and ready for school.

Will and I enjoyed a night out Saturday night at a Japanese Restaurant - it was a lot of fun and great food too! Last night I hosted a Castles and Crowns clothing show at my house and had a great time looking at the fabulous spring clothes and wishing I had $5000 to put towards all my children having oodles and goodles of matching smocked clothes!

Wilson is doing pretty good with the potty training except he had his first poo poo accident at school yesterday - it was bad - I think he had been holding it and waiting until nap time when I put a diaper on him. Yesterday morning while we were getting ready for school he said something about needing to stinky and then told me he needed his diaper - I did everything I could to convince him to poop in the potty, but he just wouldn't do it. Apparently he waited until school and did it on the playground. So, against my better judgement, today I sent him in a Pull-up to school - I just can't do that to his teacher. Any tips on getting them to "do #2" in the potty when they don't want to? Emma Claire didn't mind at all - she hated having "mess" in her diaper. Can you tell I'm struggling with what to call this "business"??? Any tips are WELCOME!!!!! He does great with tee-tee during wake time. And sleep time will come once he gets off the bottle of milk that he has to have to go to sleep (don't judge me - we weighs NOTHING and eats even less).

Well, I'm going to enjoy this last day of gloriously nice weather in my capri pants and flip flops b/c tomorrow is supposed to be NASTY in my neck of the woods!

Henderson's Baby Dedication

Henderson's Baby Dedication was nearly 2 weeks ago and I am just now getting some pictures back to post. It was a wonderful time of family gathering to dedicate the babies to Jesus. It was not a baptism or a christening, simply a dedication by the immediate family and church family to raise and support and encourage him in the ways of Jesus. It was very special for us, as has been for all 3 of my children, to be dedicated alongside his cousin, Stanton, who is only 2 weeks younger than him. Emma Claire and Patton were dedicated on the same day, in the same gowns (the same gowns as their siblings, not each other!!!), Wilson and Mills the same and now Henderson and Stanton. The other 2 dedications were done when the babies were about 3 or 4 months old. But the last dedication at our church was held the Sunday after the Alabama/Georgia game, and all the men were out of town at the game, so we held off until the next one, which in my opinion was easier, b/c the babies were a little more scheduled and predictable at 8 months than they were at 3 months!

Henderson didn't sit still for long, he was doing his best to crawl away in this long, silk gown!

Our family with our Pastor, Dr. Gil McKee

My parents and sister, Katie and her fiance, Matt.

Henderson and Stanton - another benefit to waiting until 8 months - they can both sit by them selves!

Our family with Will's sister, Ellen and her husband, Stan and Chandler, Patton, Mills and Stanton

Add in Will's parents!!!! And we are together ALL THE TIME - don't you know it gets wild!!!

The Check Up

We went to Henderson's 9 month check up yesterday and it went okay - I won't say GREAT, but it wasn't bad. To start, here are his stats (more for my memory than anything else):



Weight: 15# 4oz (minus 5%)



Height: 27 inches (20%)!!!!!



Head: 45 cm (25%)!!!!!!



Now, the weight is no surprise, but still disturbing - I mean, he is a GREAT eater!!! He still has an ear infection (he had this 2 weeks ago, along with the RSV) RSV is gone, but ear is still infected, so we switched antibiotics. They did a CBC and his white blood cell count is HIGH (20,000). Now if you remember, we dealt with this back in September. My prayer is that it is related to the current ear infection and will go away with the current antibiotics and that he will be in no pain. My pediatrician didn't go into any what-ifs with me about what it could possibly be, which is good b/c I know how my mind works. We go back in 3 weeks for a re-check and if he is well, we will go to the hospital to have more blood drawn.

Otherwise he is a healthy, developing 9 month old with a tenacity for being on the move!!!!

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Wilson did great yesterday with potty training (wearing underwear to school) He did have one accident, around 11:00 while they were playing in the gym - my guess is he was having too much fun to stop playing! He'll soon learn that it takes more time away from playing when you have an accident than it does to actually go to the potty! He went back to school in underwear again today, so hopefully he will be accident free!

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Emma Claire had a fun play date with Mary Alice yesterday at both houses (at her house while I was at Henderson's appt, then at our house for the rest of the afternoon). They turned my living room into their "house", bringing all the baby paraphenelia (baby doll bed, high chair, strollers, chairs, pretend food, etc, etc, etc). And guess what - I LEFT IT THERE!!!! Emma Claire is having Patton, Caroline, and hopefully Mary Gibbons over today after dance, so it will all be dragged out again - pure fun!

Big Happenings!

Happy 9 months Henderson!!!

My third-born (and last, sniff sniff) is 9 months old today! I can't believe it - he is such a fun little guy - active like Wilson always was (is) - into everything and all over the house - crawling fast and pulling up and cruising around on mommy's furniture! He climbs the steps great, but hasn't yet learned how to go down by himself - he just sits at the top (our 2 steps, not the big staircase) and rocks back and forth while "calling" out for help - it's so cute! He is a GREAT eater - eats all kinds of baby food and LOVES table food - drinks his milk great - but still tiny - go figure. His favorite "treat" is Daisy's dog food - goes after it like a man on a mission (Wilson did this exact thing too). Henderson, though, will stop and look up at me when I say "NO", whereas Wilson would just start crawling faster! Hopefully this is a sign of a compliant child (like Emma Claire) and not a testing child (like Wilson). All are wonderfully made in their own ways - I prayed for a mix of Emma Claire and Wilson's personalities and I really believe God answered that prayer (the way I wanted it answered)!

We go for his 9 month check up this afternoon, so we'll see how he's REALLY doing! He's a great sleeper at night, 10-12 hours! Naps are give and take, some days 30 minutes, other days 1 hour 30 minutes. Overall I couldn't ask for a better baby! He's my love bug, always wanting momma to hold him when I'm around, but perfectly content when I'm nowhere to be seen or heard! I love you little Henderson and thank God for the wonderful gift you are!

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This little 2 year and 4 month old guy went to school in underwear today!!!! I can't believe it myself. I just knew he would be the 4 year old still in diapers - he could just care less about being dirty. Food (candy) has never worked as a reward for him, b/c he DOES NOT EAT!!! But alas, Will came home with powdered doughnuts and Wilson went crazy for them!

- and I held them over his head so to speak, so he could only have 1 if he went potty. It worked - he was going to sit on the potty over and over again!!!

Now, we may be back in diapers tomorrow - if today is disastrous at school,

but he did SO good this weekend going potty and I'm of the school "they've got to learn somehow". I'll let ya'll know how it went - my big worry is poo-poo - we haven't gotten that down great yet!

As for my tennis, it went AMAZINGLY well, I felt like I picked up where I left off - though I am quite sore today - I can tell I used muscles that I haven't used in 15 years - like my forearm and triceps! I've definitely got the "tennis bug" and will be out on the courts whenever time allows! It's great that one of my best friends plays all the time, so hopefully we can play alot and she (Ashley) will put up with me while I improve and get back in the swing of things!



We had a birthday dinner at our house last night for Will's mom. We grilled out steaks and had baked potatoes and salad and a yummy chocolate chip pound cake - my tummy and heart were both full - time with family is so treasured! Will's sister and husband and her 4 children came over along with his mom's 2 cousins that are in town. I love seeing how our 7 children play and get along (most of the time) and truly enjoy being together!



On another note, can you believe it's FEBRUARY!!!!???? Wow, how fast time goes by! Spring is just around the corner - and I CAN'T WAIT!!!! I love spring and fall - that middle ground weather - and I don't have allergy problems, so that helps, b/c we all know how pollen is down here!

Tennis

Well, I have decided to take up tennis. I used to play alot - 15 years ago, and I was decent - 15 years ago. I loved playing, but in the 9th grade I had to make a choice. Tennis or softball.... it was a REALLY hard choice....but ALL my friends were playing softball, so really not that hard of a choice after all and it was a good choice... I made some of the best friends of my life on the softball field...and you all read this blog - I love you all... But, NOW - boy do I wish I had kept playing. I'm participating in a clinic tomorrow morning and in March I'm beginning a doubles league with one of my friends... she has no idea what she's getting into.
Maybe pretty soon I'll look like this... or NOT

I'm sure within a month I'll have one of these... or NOT!!!!

But it will be fun and I'll enjoy the exercise and the social aspect of it....did I mention it's been 15 years since I picked up a racket???? Let's just pray I can make contact with the ball - I think that's something you say in softball, not tennis, but really, let's just hope I can make contact and hit it OVER the net. I'll let you know how it goes.

Talk to the Hand

The yellow hand, that is.... We had a good time today painting birthday cards for Will's mom - her birthday is not until Friday, but I know how the week can get, so we planned ahead of time. The children had fun and Wilson actually did get some paint on the paper!!!!

Henderson has good moments, but is still running a very low grade fever and sleeping a little more than usual and wanting to be held constantly,s o not 100%, but definitely on the way.

Yesterday we all went to the Alabama/Kentucky basketball game and then headed to Birmingham for an engagement dinner with my sister and my parents and her fiance's parents, grandmother and brother and his wife and baby. It was at an authentic Italian restaurant in Alabaster and it was so much fun. It did emphasize why we do not EVER take Wilson to restaurants - at nearly 2 1/2 he still doesn't do well. When a child is in no way entertained with food and has the energy of a 6 week old puppy, you might as well hang it up for sitting still for 2 hours. At one moment I looked up and Wilson was in the KITCHEN - I think the cooks were about to have a heart attack! He is so little and fast that I kept thinking he was stiing with someone else and I lost him, but only for a moment! In the end he was satisfied with the AWESOME cake Matt's mom bought (a miniature of the wedding cake Katie picked out) and sugar packets - YES this Dietitian mom let her children eat sugar straight out of sugar packets at the table!!!! Whatever works, right?

I did not have my camera at the restaurant, not that I could have taken any pictures anyways, so pre-game pictures will have to do!

Henderson and Emma Claire were perfect - they both like to eat and can sit still for more than 3 seconds. It was a great time of family, food and fellowship. Katie is marrying into a wonderful family and I am so excited for her!

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Pavlick for an awesome dinner and night!

Sickness update

To update any who were wondering.... Wilson is pretty much all better - both boys stayed home from school on Thursday and seemed to be getting better. The fever was gone, activity and appetite was back...So they went to school on Friday.

Still no smiles from this little guy though....

At about 10:30 I got a call from the school notifying me that Henderson was running a fever again and coughing really bad and just seemed sick. So my father-in-law picked him up for me and I called the doctor. They told me to bring him in, and the diagnosis...

Bronchiolitis aka Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), it's only in the beginning form, so maybe he won't get any worse. Apparently it's pretty common and not too severe among babies his age. I've known several babies to get VERY sick with it, but they were all under 10 weeks old at the time, so maybe he'll get better in the next few days - any prayers are appreciated!