Ada: Three

I think I start these birthday posts the same every time but I can't help it....

How can it be?!  How is Ada three already?   Wasn't this yesterday?

 

Ada is our sweet sunshine girl.  I remember vividly the excitement discovering we were having a girl and getting busy right away decorating a sunshine nursery for her.  She was our sunshine before she was even earthside. She lights up the room and makes everyone smile and laugh.  She knows at the store, that everyone is going to ooh and ahh over her and Kallie so she waves and says "Hi!" and puts on the charm whenever she sees anyone looking her way.  She will walk up to kids she doesn't know and say, "Hi!  I'm Ada!"  Such a sweetheart.  With quite a bit of sass on the side.

 

Ada loves playing with dolls and lately she has been carrying her imaginary puppy everywhere telling him how good he is and asking me to pet the air (I mean, her puppy) and hold him.  She also enjoys telling stories and "reading" books to us.  She loves to sing and dance too.  She echoes everything we say.  I love to listen to her.  She is so sweet with Kallie...most of the time, they definitely have their sister moments. She looks up to her biggest brother Maddox and he is one of her biggest comforts.  Her and Grady became close buddies over the last year while Maddox was at Kindergarten and they also enjoy irritating each other more than the others.

She had her 3-year checkup today and got a clean bill of health with no concerns.  She weighs 29.1 lb and is 36 3/4 in tall.  She has always been a bit in the petite side but is growing steadily!  Thankful for our healthy girl.

We celebrated on her birthday with our little family by going to the lake and enjoying her favorite, Shell mac n cheese.  Then Sunday with the rest of our local family poolside.

Our little fish

 

When I lay in bed with her at night, she will grab my neck and said, "I love you Mom, berry much." We are so blessed to have her in our family.

Ada girl, you are so loved.  Happy 3rd birthday!!  Keep shining, always.

 

Kallie 15 Months

Kallie is 15 months now.  Say it isn't so.

We went to her checkup yesterday and she is a healthy little babe measuring 31 1/4 inches (74th percentile) and weighing 21 lb 8 oz (54th percentile) with a 48 cm head circumference (96th percentile).  "A Cleveland head" our doctor says.  It will be interesting to see if the baby of the family is taller than all of her siblings.  

Her ears have been perfect since tubes and the ladies at the office all still know her well and know she is going to scream at them from that ear infection phase earlier this year.  Thank you Rocephin shots.  She at least was a happy patient until the nurse touched her with the stethoscope. Maddox used to start crying already when we pulled into the doctor parking lot.  Maybe that will be Kallie at her next checkup.  Luckily Grady was there to console her..."Aww, it's okay Kallie.  I'll stand right by you for your shot.  I'll never leave you.  I promise."

It's a whole new world for Kallie now that she started walking.  It took her 14.5 months, but that is no surprise because she does things on her own sweet time when she is good and ready.  She essentially stood up one day and practiced walking back and forth for an hour by herself.  A couple hours the next day.  And then was up and walking all over with no turning back after that.  Now she wants to walk everywhere and wants little to do with being held much of the time.

She loves water and will run right in to any pool, river, or ocean by herself if we aren't watching closely.  Other favorites are playing outside, swinging, sliding, dancing, singing, talking, and giggling with her brothers and sister.  She talks a lot, mostly gibberish that we can't understand but she talks to us as if we can.  She also knows quite a lot of words such as Mom, Daddy, Dady (Grady), Ada, Bubba, Ball, Bird, No, Yeah, Mmm hmm, Bobbles (I think this started as bottle but now applies to all food/drink), Cheese, Mine, This, and Thank You to name a few.  I love hearing her sweet voice and especially love that she can ask for some things now instead of just screaming for what she needs.

She is still nursing usually around 4-5 times a day (morning, lunch, supper, bedtime).  I have been ready to wean since January (8 months old) but currently I am just thankful that we are down to those four times a day.  She completely refused formula and whole milk was a bust but she is loving 2% now!  Yay!  I never imagined breastfeeding a toddler but it's working for us right now so we'll see where it takes us.  Again, Kallie does things on her own sweet time when she is good and ready and I'm doing my best to patiently walk along beside her.  I went through a phase where I was a getting frustrated with it but now we are back in a groove and it has become an enjoyable part of our relationship again.  As with all matters of parenting, it isn't always easy and we go through phases and right now we are in the rewarding phase of it.

this face.  oh, my heart.

Happy 15 months Kallie.  You are loved beyond measure.

Kallie: The First Year

The first year is so rewarding to look back on.  We have enjoyed watching Kallie grow from this fragile "blob" who relied on us 100% into a smart, active toddler who can do so much on her own and wrestle with her big siblings without breaking. 

Year over year the kids grow so much but the first year is the most prominent.  And I feel like in many ways it is the most important year of parenting.  Their brains develop so much in the first year and I feel like every single thing we do sets the foundation for the way they will think and feel for the rest of their life.  I know they aren't THAT sensitive but I do feel a lot of pressure like if we mess up the first year we'll have a lot of hard work to make up for it later.  Whereas if we just get it right from the start, future brain development and parenting will more easily build upon that early, steady foundation.  I feel as though all of the important things such as their confidence, trust, independence, interdependence, compassion, and happiness depend heavily on the first years.  We might not know how we did until they are adults, but we do the best we can all while trying to learn about these new little humans and what makes them feel happy and loved.  All this to say, it is always so relieving to me to get through the first year.  I love taking care of our babies, so so much, and in many ways it is actually much simpler than the years to come.  But when I look back on it, I feel like I can relax and breathe a little easier again.  We made it!  Phew!

Kallie had her 1-year checkup today.  She is a healthy, growing girl.  It is such a relief that she hasn't developed any ear infections in the last couple months even with teething and colds.  Thank you tubes!

Weight: 20 lb (50th percentile)
Height: 30 in (80th percentile)

On to year two...

Massive Health Log

Just a massive health update here for my records. :)

Ada had her 2.5 year checkup this month.  She is a growing girl at 27 lb and 35 in.  Both are around the 35th percentile and her head is near the 100th.  "Typical Cleveland" percentiles says our doctor.  We struggle to fit shirts over our kids heads and then they're baggy.  Ada is developing right on track.  I had fun doing the development checklist in the waiting room before our appt.  Standing on one foot, hopping off both feet, drawing straight lines and circles and identifying what she thought a picture of a stick figure was..."Frosty the Snowman."  :)

If you remember, at her 2 year checkup I pointed out that her soft spot was still open on her head and our pedi sent us for an ultrasound and some blood tests which were all normal (ultrasound confirmed that it was open).  Well it is still open (just a fingertip) and so she wanted us to meet with the neurologist.  On Friday, Mitch and Ada traveled to Iowa City to meet with the neurologist.  She had to have an MRI and Mitch said she was a rock star laying in that thing.  He said her brain looks perfect and that he isn't concerned at all about her skull not being completely closed so we can put that behind us.

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Maddox got an ear infection after he was finally cleared from the ENT in December.  Of course.  It was so mild though and cleared right up with meds.  Hope that is it for him.

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Kallie on the other hand has been struggling big time with ear infections just like Maddox did when he was a baby.  Grady had a few when he was a baby and then they pretty much disappeared by the time he was one.  Ada has had maybe one (we can't remember for sure, maybe she hasn't had any).  Kallie had one in November (amoxicillin), one in December (augmenten), a break in January, one in February (augmenten failed followed by 3 rocephin shots), and one in March which luckily started right before our appointment with the ENT.  Our pedi had referred us to the ENT after her last one in February since it was so severe.  She had a fever above 104 and the meds were not working.  Not to mention Kallie despises medicine and is really good at spitting it out.  Especially augmenten.  I refuse to ever give that stuff to my kids again.  I went back on the blog and I said that way back with Grady too...I should have read that before I agreed to it with Kallie.

When we went to the ENT, she had an ear infection so he of course recommended getting tubes and we were completely on board with that.  He put her on Cefdinir and we went in for surgery Friday, March 20th.  Having tubes put in is such a minor surgery, it only takes 10 minutes, but reminds me of how thankful I am for our childrens' general health.  It is not easy having your baby taken away from you, hearing her scream down the hall, and then hearing her go quiet when they put her out.  Not easy at all.  But all went well and after a weekend of crabbiness and a doctor visit Monday for a rash (which turned out to be an unrelated viral rash), she is a new girl!  She has been so very cheerful and sleeping and eating great.  It makes you wonder how long she has been suffering.  I think since November she has been full of fluid and it was probably making her head pound!  I hope the tubes continue to be helpful for her as they were for Maddox.

At her 9 month checkup, she was 18 lb 9 oz and 28.5 inches. She didn't grow much in weight from her last checkup but we weren't surprised since her checkup was a few days after we had cleared her third ear infection...the worst one.  She was still in the 60th/70th percentile for both and somewhere near 100th for her big noggin.  Other than the ear infections, she is a healthy girl!

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Grady...no news is good news. :)  He has his 5-year checkup in a couple weeks and I'm sure it will be a perfect report.

Doctors and Dentists and ENTs (oh my!)

OK, time for our typical medical update.  I suppose I could start a separate medical journal or something to keep track of this stuff (I must document everything or it will be forgotten tomorrow especially with four of them).  But that would be boring so I'm going to keep it here for now.

First, Maddox.  I wish his ear story was over and maybe it finally is. He had his tubes removed last December.  One of them had fallen out on their own, the other had to be surgically removed and the hole patched.  Ideally they fall out on their own within a couple years but his had been in there for 4.5 years.  So he had it removed which raises some concerns about how the hole will heal.  Thankfully the hole finally healed shut but only after multiple trips back to the ENT.  It took about five months to close which is longer than usual but at least it thankfully did or we would potentially be looking at a more extensive surgery to skin graft the hole shut.  But during the last check, our ENT noticed fluid in there.  You know, which is the whole reason he needed tubes in the first place since his ears don't drain.  So hopefully it was nothing and drained on it's own, but we scheduled one final checkup (which is in December) to ensure everything is perfect in there.  He had his six-year physical last week and the doctor didn't notice anything wrong. 

Here he is ready for surgery.  He did awesome, it only took a few minutes, and it was the funniest thing ever watching him wake up from the anesthesia. :)

On to Kallie.  Speaking of ear infections...Kallie has her first one.  She got a bad cold over the weekend, also is cutting her first teeth and I suspected an ear infection along with it.  The trifecta.  We had her six month checkup this morning and sure enough, she does.  Fortunately, other than that, she is a healthy little girl.  Immunizations were complete torture though since she was already upset with the whole teeth, cough, and ear infection thing going on.  Medicine is NOT fun with Kallie.  She hates it and spits it all out.  I didn't realize how blessed we were with Maddox drinking his medicine up like it was candy.

Kallie 6 Month Stats:
Height: 26 3/4 in (75th percentile)
Weight: 16 lb 10 oz (55th percentile)

Ada...at her 2-year checkup, I pointed out that her soft spot at the top of her skull was still open.  We had to have an ultrasound which was cool.  I'm not sure why...just to verify it truly wasn't closed even though you clearly can see it at the top of her head?  Then we did some quick blood work to ensure it wasn't due to a thyroid problem and she passed that.  So we may have to meet with a specialist to determine if we should do any further testing at this point or just give it more time.  I remember Maddox's taking longer than normal to completely close too but I can't remember how long? 

Grady...no medical news is good medical news!

Maddox and Grady went to the dentist a couple weeks ago and both have healthy teeth.  The dentist said Maddox's bottom teeth were wiggling a little so we're looking forward to our first visit from the Tooth Fairy sometime in the near future.

Thankful for "boring" medical updates with all of the kids.

Two Healthy Girls

This morning we had Ada's 2-year and Kallie's 4-month checkup.  Grady came along for moral support.  He has a pretty good cough right now, so I had him wear one of the face masks like they ask you to in the office and he thought he was so cool!  He was pretending he was the girls' doctor in the waiting room.

Both girls got a clean bill of health and are growing right on track.  Ada hardly flinched with her one shot and Kallie screamed bloody murder from her two until I got to the car and nursed her.  She's sound asleep now though.  Thank goodness.  She had such a horrible day after her last set of shots.

Onto the stats.  Don't quote me on these percentiles...it's something close to this.

Ada:
Weight: 25 lb 6 oz (30th percentile...goodbye baby fat)
Height: 33 in (30th percentile)

Kallie:
Weight: 14 lb 13 oz (65th percentile)
Height: 25.5 in (85th percentile)

I was curious so I checked and Kallie is just a tiny bit taller and skinnier than I was at 4 months (I was a chub).  At 4 months, she's our tallest baby.  Maddox was our chubbiest.

Me at 4 months:
Weight: 16 lb 4 oz
Height: 25 in

While it's interesting to compare them all at this age, I hope they all grow embracing themselves and just striving to be healthy....you know, NOT comparing themselves to others.  Every doctor checkup we get through reminds me how blessed we are with these four kiddos.

Kallie - Two Months

Kallie turned two months old last week!

She is growing like a weed.  Typical.  We had her regular 2 month checkup and she was up to 11 lb 10 oz (65th percentile) and 23 inches (75th percentile) or something close to that on the percentiles. Mom brain.  She despised her three shots and had a rough day after that with her tiny leg red and puffy.  Not fun.  But I am happy to report that she is a healthy little gal.  Of course her head is in the upper 90th percentile like the other three kid's big brains too.  She's always eating.



milk drunk in the morning

A lot has changed in the last month as she has become more alert and interactive.  She is smiling and talking all the time.  She is a curious and energetic little girl and is always looking around to see what's going on around her.  Just in the last week she's been doing good in her carseat thank heavens and is becoming more calm around a lot of people and with being held by people other than mom.  She still loves being worn by me and now Mitch too!

There never is a shortage of attention for Kallie around here. 

 

It's just amazing how much they grow in the first year.  It seems like every day she is a new girl...bigger than the day before and always doing new things.  We just love her.

Just some Checkup Stats

We had a couple checkups today.  Grady's 4 year and Ada's 18 Month.  They both are healthy little kiddos.

Grady:
Weight: 34 lb (30th percentile)
Height: 40 in (35th percentile)

Ada:
Height: 31.5 in (27th percentile)
Weight: 24 lb 8 oz (73rd percentile)
Head circumference: 49.5 cm (99th percentile)

If you compare Ada's weight percentile to her height percentile, you will see why Mitch calls her "Big belly Ada."  The girl likes to eat.  And holy cow all of our kids have had huge noggins.

I couldn't stop laughing when Grady took his vision test (which he passed with 20/20 vision).  She held up flashcards of an umbrella, house, and apple progressively getting smaller.  He stood there with one eye covered and said....

house...umbrella...apple...smaller umbrella...smaller apple...really small umbrella...really small apple...very very tiny apple...very very tiny umbrella...(switched eyes)...huge house...huge apple...smaller house...smaller umbrella...very small house...very small umbrella...the tiniest apple...the tiniest umbrella

I was dying laughing. Wish I had a video so you could see his silly smile and hear his voice getting progressively quieter and higher as he described the "very very tiny" objects. Goofball!

Feeling really thankful for healthy kids today.  We'll be back in the office next with a newborn!

Ada Girl's Checkup

All was well in the health department for Ada at her 1-year checkup (a couple weeks ago).  She’s growing and developing right on track.  She’s actually bigger than I thought she would be.  She looks like such a little peanut despite the large amounts of food she eats, so I was expecting more around 25^th percentile for weight and height.

 

Weight: 19 lb 13 oz (55^th percentile)

Height: 29 in (35^th percentile)

 

She has four teeth now and is cutting more.  And holy cow, teething has been torture with this girl.  I wish all 20 of them would just come in at once to be done with it.

 

Ada 9 Months

Ada Girl, you are 9 months old and so energetic!

 

 

 

You love to crawl, stand, laugh, play with your brothers, EAT, and make silly faces. 

 

I would say the biggest changes in the last month are that we are now done breastfeeding (your 9 month birthday was your last day nursing) and you are sleeping through the night (every single night for almost 2 weeks now)!  I wonder if those go hand in hand?  Even Friday you had your first sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Carlins and you slept 8:30 - 8:30 for them!

 

You’re learning new, cute things all the time now like drinking from a sippy or straw (you love water), clapping, and waving bye bye.  You’re also practicing lots of sounds and like to join in on our conversations.  I just love this age watching you learn new things every day.

 

 

You continue to eat up your brothers’ attention.  They adore you.  You adore them.  It’s the greatest thing to see.

 

This picture....there's no words

 

Everyone has been commenting on your “curly” hair lately.  I’m so curious to see if it stays curly as it continues to grow out.  I have to brush it down with water then after a nap or wind or humidity it’ll be all over the place.  And you finally cut your first two teeth this week!

9 Month Stats (your checkup went great):
Height: 27 in (21st percentile)
Weight: 18 lb 5 oz (51st percentile)

 

I just love watching what each new month brings.  The first year of life is simply amazing.  Love you.

Unorganized and Full of Random Emotion

Disclaimer: I'm a little out of sorts between all of the paperwork, signatures, numbers and dates running through my mind, excitement, nervousness, major decisions, goodbyes, phone calls, appointments, and everything else going on right now.  So get ready for some 1) unorganized and 2) full of random emotion posts.  You've been warned.

Grady and Ada had their 3 year and 6 month checkups yesterday.  I brought all three kids to say goodbye to the best pediatrician in the whole wide world.  I wish we could move him with us but he said we could call any time and we probably will.  :)  Both kids got a clean bill of health.

Grady Bug @ 3 Years:
Weight - 29 lb 4 oz (25th percentile)
Height - 36 1/2" (25th percentile)

Ada @ 6 Months:
Weight: 15 lb 9 oz (38th percentile)
Height: 25 3/4" (38th percentile)

Today was the kids last day at their daycare.  We've been there since Maddox was 12 weeks old and the kids have really developed some "best friends" that will be greatly missed.  I about lost it when Grady's teacher said she felt so sad for him and his girlfriend that he is inseparable with and walks around lost when he isn't there to play with.  After dropping Maddox and Ada off I peaked back into Grady's room and saw them sitting there together eating breakfast and giggling about something and my eyes filled with tears watching them as she spotted me and said, "There's your mommy Grady!" and they both waved and blew me kisses.  Honestly Maddox has been having some issues with his two best friends and when I asked him if he was going to miss them he told me, "No, but they're going to miss me!"  Haha, I guess that makes things easier on us all.  I really think this is the best daycare on earth.  We've gotten to know and love all of the teachers over the last 4.5 years.  I'm going to miss it big time and am pretty nervous about Monday at the new daycare.  Last night we wrote Thank Yous to all of their friends and teachers.  Grady picked out little frogs to give to all of his friends and Maddox lizards.  Then we brought some Angry Birds graham crackers for treats today because Maddox's classroom is obsessed and knows all of the names, levels, worlds, whatever of all of the Angry Birds.  In fact, Maddox came home with a bunch of pictures of "ice bird??" and other angry birds from his friends.

Signing his thank yous

Every morning, I would bring my bags out to the car and back it out of the garage before bringing the kids out.  The boys would always wait by the window and wave when I backed up.  I can't wait to have an attached garage but I'm going to miss this...

They are really excited about starting at their new daycare Monday.

Ada's 4 Month Checkup and Stuff

Nothing much to report other than she's healthy and growing EXACTLY as her brothers did!  Starting out small, jumping above the 50th percentile in the first two months and then creeping down to settle into the 20th/30th percentile all the while maintaining that 90th percentile head!  What can I say...our kids have big brains. 

Height: 24 1/4 in
Weight: 13 lb 1.5 oz
Head: 42.5 cm

Why do we record height in inches and head circumference in centimeters?! 

Ada is really rolling now.  She never stays on her back unless you're there talking to her.  She's really starting to hit that fun, social baby age.



We'll be trying cereal once she has somewhere to sit!

Ada's 2 month Checkup

Stats:
Weight - 11 lb 2 oz (50th percentile)
Length - 22.5 in (50th percentile)

Oh how I despise that bright-red-in-the-face-please-just-take-a-breath cry when they stick that needle into their tiny legs.  She was being all sweet laying there smiling at me when Poke Poke Poke.  Not happy.  She's out for the count now.  Time to pack for Florida!

Time for your checkup. Time for your checkup.

Thank you Doc McStuffins. Maddox was excited for his 4 year checkup today. EXCITED I tell you. He was rubbing it in to Grady, "I get a checkup and you don't!" Weirdo! I was a little nervous to bring all 3 kids myself but Ada slept the whole time and Grady read books. Maddox did great. He was all giddy and laughing when they checked his blood pressure and thought he was so cool when he had to walk and jump. No shots this year! Both boys got the flu mist.

His sucker is smiling...



 

Ada's 3-day checkup

Ada is such a superstar.  We went in for her 3-day checkup today which is supposed to be 4-day but there's a holiday weekend ahead so we had to go in a day early.  They like to check the baby's weight and jaundice level and make sure everything's going alright.

She has already surpassed her birthweight!  She weighs 6 lb 11 oz.  My champ eater, that was so great to hear.  Also her biliruben level was really low so no jaundice!

Sleeping in this morning.  Check out that dark hair.

 

Sick little Birthday Boy

Poor little Grady is sick.  He's had a fever up to 103.6 the last couple of nights...what a great way to spend his birthday week.  At least it's now and not on his actual birthday this weekend.

This morning Maddox went to daycare while Grady and I slept in and lounged all day.  Just like usual, he was feeling much better in the morning and looking all over for Maddox.  When he woke up, he assumed that Maddox was still in bed, so he barged into his room saying "HIII!"  Then he walked over to his bed and tried to peek up there saying HI the whole way.

HIIIII

HAHAHA Maddox, I'm drooling all over your bed!!

For the rest of the morning, he spent most of his time looking for Maddox.  Then in the afternoon, things started going down hill again.  We spent a lot of time doing this the rest of the day....

Hopefully this won't turn into another ear infection.  I hope he kicks this sickness out the door and fast.