Yucky Eczema

Well it seems that both my kiddos are susceptible to yucky eczema. Harper started breaking out with a little baby acne last Monday, then almost overnight this past weekend it turned into a full-blown eczema flare up all over her head/face/neck/shoulders. Remember the time that happened to Brax? (click HERE) I have done everything I know to do to prevent Harper from having a reaction to any type of fabrics/dyes/fragrances, but for some reason, she had a flare-up anyway. Thankfully, our dermatologist got us in first thing on Monday. She gave us a script for a gel called Desonate, which I had never heard of, and it literally started working within hours.

Here is what Harper looked like Monday morning...

And here she was 24 hours later...

Here she is, all gussied up today!!

Four Generations

Granny Lou, my mom, Harper and I

The Story of Zac Smith

Amazing.
You can go to his blog HERE

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

2 Yr/8 Mo Stats

NEW TRICKS:

• Pedals on his new big boy bike
• Can briefly balance on one leg
• Willingly and successfully feeds himself
• Let me polish his teeth when we visited my office this month.
• Can eat with chopsticks (the kind they band together at the restaurant)
  

FAVORITE FOODS:
Tried (and liked) edamame and Jell-O for the first time this month. Decided that he DOES NOT like yogurt with fruit on the bottom anymore (the Yo-Baby kind he has eaten since he was like 6 months old!) but instead prefers and LOVES plain vanilla yogurt!

FAVORITE BOOKS:
Loves his Cars and Thomas books still. Has them completely memorized. Also still requests the Jesus Storybook Bible alot, and will have conversation about the stories. This is a great book-it basically sums up the Bible in very short, kid-friendly form.

FAVORITE TOYS/ACTIVITIES:
Anything Cars or Thomas, riding his bike.

DAILY ROUTINE:
Up 7-7:45, school from 8:30-12:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, nap at 1:00, bed at 8.
Next month (when I return to work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Brax will go to school on Wednesdays as well.)

FAVORITE SONGS:
Oh Happy Day, Aiken Drum.

DISLIKES:
Time-out.

MOMENTS I DO WANT TO FORGET (and I'm glad Brax won't remember either):
My first few days home alone with both kids. I tried to do WAY too much, was VERY tired, and VERY impatient. Not my proudest moments. Makes me sad to think about how frustrated I would get with Brax when he was acting like a typical 2 year old. However, within about a week we got into a routine, I relaxed a bit, and Brax's behavior improved as he adjusted to this new normal.

BRAXISMS:

• I was pushing him on the swing, talking to Mike at the same time. Brax says, "Don't just smile at me, push faster!"
• When we went outside after it rained over night, Brax saw all the worms all over the driveway and exclaimed, "Look at all the little snakes, Mommy!!!"
• One morning when I put product in his hair, he felt his hair and said, "Mommy, why did you put oatmeal in my hair??!!!"
• Pronounces "forgot" as "free-got". Pronounces "open" and "oval" as "ooopen" and "oooval" like the sound O makes in "move."
• When I went in to get him one morning, he said, "I was just thinking about Hiro [a train] and cupcakes."
  

Week in Review

This past week we visited our friends Abbey and her kiddos.
Brax and Noah spent most of the time riding around in the yard...

We totally did not mean to have Harper and Blaire dressed alike!!!!
What's funny is that I had bought the two of them matching outfits but they outgrew them before we got a chance to photograph them together, so this worked out perfectly!
It's so fun that Abbey and I's kids are exactly the same age (Brax is 6 months older than Noah, and Harper is 4 weeks younger than Blaire.)

With some prompting from Jace, Brax has quickly mastered pedaling on his new bike!
It's amazing how Brax will do anything Jace tells him to! (So far, this has always worked out for the best! Jace is a great kid so I don't have to worry about Brax picking up bad habits!)

I thought this was cute because we have a book about being a big brother, and in it, the boy tries to make his baby sister laugh by making funny faces at her. This was Brax's funny face for Harper!

Update: As of last night, Harper has seemed to have started getting over her fussy evening time! It's been a loooooong 3 weeks!

So Fresh and So Clean

I just got done giving Harper her bath this afternoon and all prettied up.
I had to share these cute shots!

Look at that smile!
She just started really smiling at me this week. I LOVE IT!

Easter Bunny Revisited

I think it's fun to go back and look at how Brax has changed each year
when we take these "traditions" pictures...
(Not the highest quality... They are scanned)

2010

2009

2008

Spring is Here!

We had some pretty days last week, so we took advantage of it!
We got Brax a new BIG BOY bike! ($30 on Craigslist and it's like brand new!)
Daddy was trying to teach him the concept of brakes...

He kept pedaling backwards and braking instead of going forward!

Trying to get him to go FORWARD.

Brax got tired of it pretty quickly and decided to push.

Then he got tired of pushing!

Harper was supposed to be doing tummy-time exercises for her neck, but fell asleep instead!
That's how I feel about exercise right now, too!

I took these pics while she was asleep in my arms the other day. I could watch her sleep for hours. I know I'm looking thru mommy-goggles (not to be confused with beer-goggles, which have the same effect of causing the subject in view to appear to be more perfect than they may actually be!), but I just think she's the most beautiful baby girl ever!
I never get tired of kissing those little cheeks and lips!

Cousin Joel Visits and Easter Bunny Pics

On Tuesday Brax's Cousin Joel (along with Mike's sister and brother in law) came up to KC with Grammy and Pop-Pop to see Harper! We didn't have much time together, but the boys sure made the most of every second! They had a blast together. On Wednesday, the weather was yucky so we went to the mall and had pictures taken with the Easter Bunny!

Notice how Harper is trying to nurse on Mr. Bunny!

After bunny pics, we headed to the play area, which is right by the ginormous carousel.
Brax really wanted to ride the carousel, but we were going to save that for when it was time to go. We (myself, Grammy, and Aunt Lori) hearded Brax and Joel into the play area, then walked around the outside of it with Harper in the stroller to watch them play. In the 2o seconds it took us to get around and get our eyes on the boys, Brax was GONE. Any parent who has lost sight of their child (or worse--actually LOST their child) knows the feeling that overtook me at that moment. Thankfully, he was sporting giant bunny ears the Easter Bunny had given him so at least he stood out in the crowd of little monkeys running around. My first guess was that he had run off to ride the carousel himself... and I was right. I ran over there, just in time to find him climbing the stairs to the top tier of the carousel! He had somehow weaseled his way to the front of the line, past the ticket lady and up the steps! It's hard to be angry at your kid for running away when you're so happy to have found them!!

Back in the play area...

Finally riding the carousel!

Heading out.

Back at their hotel...

Joel (4 years) and Brax.

That nite we made green Jell-O for St. Patty's Day.
I intended on making shamrocks, but my 100 piece cookie cutter set didn't have one in there!
So we made Easter cutouts instead!

Playing around with Joel!

Last Weekend

We played at the park....

Harper got her beauty sleep...

Brax played trains...

And we went to the mall to see their train exhibit!!
Brax would have stayed here ALL day if I would have let him!

But I made him go to the play area to burn off some energy!!

Harper's Debut Video

I keep forgetting how EASY it is to publish video clips on my Mac!
So here is a short one of Harper...
*Again, click on the video while it's playing to open it up in full screen-
the blog layout cuts half of it off.*

Family Date Nite and Chopstick VIDEO

We had "family date nite" last nite! We had a babysitter lined up, but since Harper has been a little "challenging" in the evenings lately, I decided at the last minute just to take the kids with us. (Yes, that seems a little backwards... but I didn't want to leave a wild two year old and a fussy newborn with a babysitter. Mike and I have a hard enough time handling them when it's the TWO of us, so I felt bad pawning them off on a sitter all by herself! Plus, it seems like I'm the only one who can console Harper during this crabby evening time and I didn't want to let my girl cry all nite--I would have been worried the whole time.) Sooooo, family date nite it was.

I have been craving sushi (since I haven't been able to eat it for like a YEAR!) so we went to Kyoto, our favorite Japanese steak/sushi house here in OP. (There was also a little nostalgia involved... this was where we took Brax on our first date nite out when he was 6 weeks old!)

(Here is a pic from that nite!)

Harper slept the whole time, and Brax impressed us with his new-found chopstick skills!

**For some reason, my blog layout chops off half the video screen. Click on the video while it's playing and it should open it up in a new full window in YouTube.**

This is For You, Little Buddy

No one else will appreciate this (unless you have a little boy who is infatuated with Thomas like mine is), but I am posting it for Brax's viewing pleasure. He is constantly asking me to sing this song or to watch the video on the "compooter" and I'm tired of repeatedly looking it up on YouTube.

Precious

She has started to smile a little, both awake and asleep...
She must have been having a sweet dream!

Enjoying Spring

Now that we've been outside once, Brax constantly asks to go out!
Harper seems to enjoy the outdoors as well...