Lately...

We have had such a fun spring.  Sadie is already 6.5 weeks old and is just sweet as a button.  At her six week appointment she weighed 11 lbs 7.5 oz (90%) and was 23.75 inches long (95+%)!! Another big Allenby baby! She's starting to coo and smile and has brought so much joy to our lives already. Scott and I often look at each other and wonder how we got such a laid back baby after our first two were so challenging right from the start!  We have definitely settled happily into life as a family of five and the boys are so good with their little sister.  Here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately...
On a walk with Sadie and Micah while Camden was at preschool...

Playing at a new playground with my cousin and her kids...

"Simon Says" with friends after dinner at the dining hall...

Bonding with Ami...

Walking to lunch on campus with Daddy.  We are so lucky we get to see him in the middle of the day!

Story time at the New London library...

Our happy little girl!

After church we went to White Park together.  The last (and only) other time we had been there was last Mother's Day with my Dad.  It brought back lots of sad memories...but the boys had a blast.

After the park we went to our favorite Beech Hill Farm for the first of many visits this summer...here they're looking at the peacock...

Love these guys...

Poor Sadie...  :)

A Good Week

We've had a good week so far this week.  On Monday we had a little playdate with my other stay-at-home mommy friend on campus.  It's so fun to see Camden and his friends play together - learning to share, using their imagination, attempting to work out arguments.  It certainly isn't always easy, but they are getting much better.  On Tuesday we explored a new (to us) gymnastics place in Concord.  We went to the open gym at Flipz with my good friend Amy and her daughter.  I'm kicking myself for not discovering this place sooner!   Jumpy house, huge trampolines, gymnastics bars...everything you can imagine.  I paid $5 for Camden to run around in there for an hour and it may have been the best $5 I've ever spent!!!  Amy and I brought the kids to Chili's for lunch afterwards because kids ate FREE on Tuesday!  Such fun!!!
Today I brought Micah to a well-child check-up and left Camden with my parents for the morning.  I got to listen to MY music on the car (instead of Raffi and Sesame Street) and had fun showing Micah off to Dr. T!  She was soooo impressed by him physically, verbally and socially.  It's pretty exciting to see fast he's growing and how much he's learning recently.  Pulling himself up on everything, walking around holding just one of our fingers, repeating lots of sounds over and over.  He is in the 90%ile for both height and head circumference and 70%ile for weight. 

And amidst all this fun Camden has been potty training!!  He's doing an incredible job and it all was way easier than I expected.  He was ready and we are SO proud of him!!!

Here are some pictures from Flipz!

  A blur - this is what most of the photos from our time at Flipz looked like!  At least he got lots of exercise!

 Micah wanted to play too!

 Fun!

 Brothers...

 Camden was fearless!

Family Fun

Other than all getting sick with some sort of 24 hour bug (ugh!), we have been enjoying a wonderful vacation together this week!  We had a fun family day on Thursday in the Upper Valley.  We started off the morning at our wonderful pediatrician's office.  Camden had his 2.5 year check up and Micah had his 5 months.  We all LOVE Dr. T and even though Camden hadn't seen her in about six months he was SO excited to go.  He totally showed off for her and I swear we didn't prep him.  He sang his little song that shows that he knows all the sounds each letter makes in the alphabet ("The A says a, the B says b...").  He sang nursery rhymes.  He did a puzzle.  He did his 180˚ jumps.  He balanced on one foot ("We don't usually check that until 5, but OK!").  He talked her ear off and answered all of her questions.  I was simultaneously so proud of him and somewhat embarrassed because she probably thinks we're crazy parents drilling him in all of this everyday.  We aren't.  I promise.  When she checked him out up on the table he totally complied with everything she asked him to do and as soon as she was done one thing, he'd say, "What's next?" (Over and over again..!).
Camden weighs 33 lbs = 70th percentile, is 37 inches tall = 75th% and his head circumference is 20 inches - 85th%.

Micah has seen a lot of Dr. T in his short little lifetime.  We follow an alternative vaccination schedule and spread out his vaccines more than the typical schedule does.  As a result, Micah sees Dr. T once a month.  She is always so helpful and spends so much time with you.  (She generally spends about an hour with us every time we go.)  She is very respectful of different opinions and ideas and is always willing to have a conversation with you (which was not the case with other pediatricians we met with before Camden was born).  Needless to say, we love Dr. Turkington.  Micah was his usual, happy self for her.  She is always commenting on how "social" he is (smiling, making eye contact, watching who is talking etc...).  He even showed her how he knows how to sit up!  He's growing like a champ weighing in at 17 lbs 14 oz - 75th percentile, 28 inches tall - 95th % and a head circumference of 18 inches - 95th percentile. 

After a successful time at the pediatrician's office, we headed to the Montshire Museum.  We practically had the place to ourselves!  Camden had SO much fun, although I'm still not sure if Camden or Daddy were more interested in all the exhibits.  We spent lots of time looking at the animals and exploring the special Blue Man Group exhibit before heading to my favorite restuarant (Molly's!!!) for lunch!
Looking at the turtles...

Playing with the bubbles...

Micah had fun too!

Sick

So our poor little guy has been sick since Tuesday. At first we thought it was just a cold or that it was teething-related since his eye teeth (and a million others) are all poking through. The amount of snot, drool and tears soaking his face these last few days is unbelievable. He has been clinging to me like a little monkey, and will hardly go to anyone else, even Scott. He only sleeps if he's in bed with me and lies practically on top of me...so needless to say, I haven't slept in three nights. We had Camden's 18 month well-child check up scheduled for today, so we decided to wait until today to bring him to our pediatrician since it's about 45 minutes away. He was a blubbering mess as Dr. Turkington tried to check his ears and eyes and throat and everything. We talked a little about normal 18 month check-up stuff - food, words, sleeping, all the new things he's learning, but most of that discussion was put aside to deal with the little mess we had on our hands.

It turns out that Camden has a Respiratory infection called RSV - Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Apparently, tons of kids in the area are sick with this. It can be very dangerous for newborns and kids with asthma, but Camden should handle it fine. The bad news is that he is in a lot of pain (ears, throat, fever, cough, snot...) and that he's going to get worse before he gets better! He's already coughing to the point of choking, so I'm a little nervous about this getting worse. We have an inhaler of Abuterol to give him connected to a little mask...but he definitely doesn't like it. Hopefully he'll get used to it so he can improve.

He is such a pitiful sight to see. Here are a few pictures from today...

 

  

This is the only way he'll sleep, so I'm spending a lot of time in bed...

 

 Right when we finally night-weaned him and got him sleeping through the night (until 4:00am) he gets sick.  Oh well...his health and my sanity are more important than routines, so it's back to nursing on demand and co-sleeping until the worst is over!  I'm lying in bed next to him right now.  Scott has an away basketball game in Connecticut and won't be home until 11:30, so I'm all stocked up with some movies and a glass of water to get me through the night - no Olympic Opening Ceremonies for me tonight!

Hope everyone else is staying healthy!  We feel so blessed that this is only Camden's second (and worse) sickness (yes, this is worse than his bout of Swine Flu) and are looking forward to having our healthy, happy boy back soon!

Fifteen Months

I can't even believe how quickly Camden is growing up. He really seems like a little boy all of a sudden. He has such a funny little sense of humor, understands everything we say to him, is learning lots new words, signs and sounds, and is even starting to throw little tantrums (he sits down on the floor and gently lies down so as not to bump his head and starts crying if he doesn't get what he wants (only occasionally, and it is pretty hard not to laugh at him!).

He still loves to read and is constantly bringing us books and climbing up on our laps. He loves to wrestle and sit on our heads when we lie on the floor, and he loves to be chased around the house and tickled. All of a sudden he knows how to do puzzles! He used to just dump them out on the floor, but now his picking up the pieces and putting them back in the right places! He is obsessed with stars (to the point where he will wake up from a nap and point out the window and do his sign for "night night" and "stars"). We had to explain to him that the stars sleep during the day and come out at night and I think he finally understands! He recently learned the different parts of his body and can point to his toes, feet, nose, eyes, ears, teeth, tongue, mouth, hair etc... He's still taking two naps a day, would only eat fruit and cheese if we allowed him to, and is still struggling with sleep at night (but we're working on it!) He loves to dance, sing and snuggle and we are just having such a blast with him!

We made it through the first fifteen months of his life without facing ANY sickness (thank you breastfeeding!). He never had a runny nose, cough or fever, but we both were sick last week with the flu. He had his first fever and was pretty miserable for the week, but he actually handled the sickness much better than I did and kicked the fever pretty quickly.

We just went to our 15 month well-child check up with our wonderful pediatrician. She was so impressed with Camden and all of his new developments. She said he's right on track with language development and is flourishing with his gross-motor skills. He weighs 23 pounds and 12.5 ounces and is 32.5 inches tall.

We're really looking forward to some time to ourselves over the next 10 days of vacation. We've had a pretty crazy fall, and Scott especially is ready for some downtime. We're even hoping to squeeze in a date if we can get out of the house on our own!