July and all is well

Both kids went in for a check up today. Natalya had her 4 year well check and Z just had one booster vax. (we separate all vaxes so they're not given in one lump).
Natalya is doing great! She's 44" tall and 40lb, 82nd% for weight and <97% for height! (I knew she was tall...). She had a finger prick to test her iron, and it was fine. They also tested her urine to make sure there was no infection or yeast (since she has a history of it) and all was good. She had two vaccine boosters, IPV and DTaP, and she took them like a trooper, with no tears. :) She earned a sucker AND a cookie for that, lol. Although I told her it was ok to cry.

The doctor asked about other vaccines and I denied them. He nodded. We also talked a little about the MMR and I mentioned that we were waiting until Merck re-released them separately and he agreed. I told him I had heard they were doing it soon, and he hadn't heard that, so he was thrilled. His has a high percentage of autistic children as patients (his specialty), so he has a high demand for those separate. He asked if she was going to school this year, and I said no. He wanted to know if we needed the "yellow form" lol. (to exempt them from "required" vaccinations) I told him not now, but if it comes up, I will let him know.

He is so awesome.

Zachary had a DTaP booster and he didn't cry either! The nurse was loving us today.

We also had pictures made. Here are some of my favorites...

A few pictures

A pic from our "camping" trip. In the bed in the hotel. LOL.

He's not crawling yet, but he gets up on those knees and scoots...backwards. Which makes him really mad when he's trying to reach something in front of him.

How can you resist that smile??

(please excuse his serious case of mismatching. It was laundry day. ;) )

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! I have no idea, but it cracks me up every time I look at this picture.

He LOVES his sister. And she is so proud of being a big sister.


She is endless entertainment to him. Here she is playing peek-a-boo out of her carseat box. He is cracking up hysterically.

My babies are growing up on me.

Zachary had a mini-appointment yesterday to get an IPV booster vaccine. He is 19.35lb. We moved him to the convertible carseat since infant carriers only go to 20lb. I put him in it for the first time tonight and I almost shed a tear for him growing up and getting so big! He is cutting tooth number two (bottom front right), already has the first one, the front bottom left. He enjoys chewing on me with his teeth. fun! :)

He is sitting up pretty well, when he begins to tip over, he'll shoot one arm out to right himself. He still does fall over a lot, but he's getting there.

We went "camping" this week. I call it our non-camping camping trip. LOL. The plan was to tent camp at Rock Island State Park, or, if it looked like bad weather, rent a cabin for the night. When we got there, we discovered that Bonnaroo was this week/end and the tent campsites were all booked up. There were two cabins, but they had a two-night minimum stay and we didn't want to pay two nights for one night of stay. So we went over to the river and played on the beach and N and Doug played in the water. Z did not care for the river. He loves the bath, but he sort of looked at me like, 'woman? what are you thinking putting me in here. Gross.' hehe. Natalya loved it though. I had to bribe her to get her to leave.

We were flying by the seat of our pants and didn't really want to drive home so we drove over to Cookevill for dinner and pulled up to the Days Inn and stayed there for the night. I whipped out my (free- Thanks Kelly!) Entertainment Book and found a 15% off discount at Days Inn, so we got the discount too. :) Natalya was really excited about staying in the hotel and wasn't too upset about not being able to stay in the tent. I sort of played it up- "Natalya! We're going to stay in a hotel! You can sleep on the floor in your sleeping bag! It'll be just like camping!" She bought it. :)

And thank goodness! Because it STORMED that night. I was so happy to not be in a tent.

We had a good trip and then when we got home Doug took N to gymnastics for her new class. She moved up to Mighty Mites from the Preschool class and she is having an absolute ball. She has learned all kinds of new things and is loving every second of it.

I'll try to post some pics in a bit. :)

Well- hmmm. Babies' foreskin used to make cosmetics.

I for one, am glad my son's foreskin is where it belongs and not being used in some human body-part underground sale.

Check it out here: Babies' foreskin used to make cosmetics- Is this ethical?

I have also read that placentas are bought and sold on the black market for similar use. My three placentas are in my possession still, and will one day be buried under trees in my children's honor.

Look-a-like

Our children are nearly identical- it's a little crazy!
Check this out
Natalya at 4 months two weeks and Zachary at 6 months one week

Some pics and How does your garden grow?

We planted a few seeds leftover from several years ago to see if they would grow, and what do you know?? They sure did (well, most of them). We have now transplanted some to pots since an in-ground garden would be difficult due to the neighborhood deer, raccoons and opossums. :)




Here's some recent pics of the kiddos:
Zachary enjoying the excersaucer


Doing a little painting

Being silly

Having some yummy roasted corn at the Ren Fest

Reminiscing

Natalya




Zachary

Beautiful children

Last week, I was telling Zachary how cute he was and so forth. I walked into Natalya's room and said, somewhat rhetorically, "Natalya, how did I get so lucky to have 2 such beautiful babies?" She said (without missing a beat) "by marrying Daddy".

I laughed so hard I was crying.

Yesterday was her first official soccer game. It was hysterical. Two teams of three each on the field, attempting to learn the concept- kick ball-don't touch with hands-toward the goal-on the correct end of the field-and stay in the lines.

Natalya is pretty good at staying focused (especially compared to the other kids! Holy Cow!) but doesn't get the whole, kick the ball and run after it, kick it some more. She will kick it, then watch the other kids run around kicking it until someone tells her to kick it again. And then, when she does kick it, she looks at the nearest coach and jumps up and down saying "I did it! I did it!"





Then after her game we went to visit Papa Kincaid, Kris, Lily and Jasmine. It was a LOOOONG day, but well worth it.

Here she is on the drive down being funny with her library books...

It was great to see them and the girls were so cute together, especially Jasmine and Natalya. They were thick as thieves the two of them, and got along pretty well. I'll post some pics when I get them uploaded. Unfortunately my battery died and I only got a few, instead of a whole bunch! I got a few cute ones though.

They were "going to the store" and somehow they squeezed themselves into this car meant for one:


Zachary is getting big. He can now find and re-insert his pacifier in his mouth when he drops it. Yay! And he is starting to take naps by himself, sort of. :) He really is interested in food, and I know he'd love to start solids, but I'm in denial! I'm not ready for my baby to be ready for real food! :(

My little monkeys!

Same baby??

What do you think?? Are these pictures of the same baby?




The answer? Nope. The fist one is Natalya at three and a half months, and the second is Zachary at three months. Crazy huh?

Life's little updates

Well, it's been a while since I have been on, since we don't have internet I have to hijack other people's whenever I am at their houses. Today it's Papa Kincaid's that's being borrowed. :)

Natalya is getting bigger and bigger. She is occasionally showing some jealousy, but not too bad. She is such a good big sister- very helpful and sweet to her brother. She is doing great at gymnastics- she almost did a cartwheel by herself last week, and showing a lot of interest in writing and reading. She can write her initials (entire name is a little difficult at this point) and can read a few words, plus a lot of recognition (Target, Walgreens, things like that). She is also awesome at puzzles and matching, things like that.

As for Zachary, he is getting big! He had his 2 month appointment last week and he was 14 lb 4 oz and 24.5 inches long. (Totally off the chart altogether). A big boy. He is nursing great, sleeping better and will now watch you leave the room and reach and grab things. He has one crib toy (that was Natalya's, from Uncle Ken and Aunt Susan) that he loves, the first thing he reached for, that he loves to reach out and grab it and try to get the rattle into his mouth. Doug swears he said mama yesterday when he was hungry and I wasn't around, but we'll hold out on that to make sure it wasn't a fluke- as it's a wee bit early to be saying words! He does love to coo and gurgle and will lock eyes with you and make these gurgles in the back of his throat. He is so intense when he does this- it's really sweet! Loves his baths too. If he's upset and crying uncontrollably, with no solution, bath is the answer, it is a great way to distract him, although he doesn't often need distraction.

We are so lucky to have such sweet children. I am a truly lucky person.

A pic together

My sweet babies (about two weeks ago)

Bigger and Bigger they grow

Natalya is officially three and a half today and Zachary is over two months old!! I just can't believe it. Natalya is such a good big sister and Zachary is such a good baby, I couldn't ask for more.