Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Merry Chirstmas

Christmas Eve









Christmas Morning








Little Rosie

So, Hollyn had an interesting Christmas holiday.  The day before, Saturday, she developed a rash that quickly spread over her entire body, from head to toe.  Christmas day it was even worse and Brian and I were wracking our brains trying to figure out what she could be allergic to.  Would the somewhat new detergent get her entire face like that?  Was it the soy formula, which I've already been suspicious of because Hollyn has been sick more than well since early October when the formula usage increased, or maybe the milk formula which I hadn't used since she was a month old because it seemed to correlate with some eczema.  Ugh!  I tried removing the milk one day, the soy and next, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what could be getting her reacting this way.



Well, the Dr. was finally back in today, and along with everyone else in the entire county, we managed to get an appointment.  Turns out it's not an allergic reaction at all.  Little Hollyn is a victim of the apparently very common Roseola virus.  Sheesh.  So many hours of sleep wasted in needless worrying.

Monday, December 12, 2011

8 months next week & more

 Hollyn had a pediatric assessment today.  She was pretty tired because she'd already been up 2 hours before the session started (and an hour and a half is usually about how long she tolerates being awake,) but she managed to show a pretty typical version of herself to the nice specialist.  In the end she's about right on for her age, with some areas to work with.  One was the demonstration of understanding "object permanence", meaning if you cover a toy, for example, they'll go for it because they understand that the object still exists.  In Hollyn's case, it's not a concept I've tested her for myself, but she didn't really do it at the office today.  Of course in her defense, the specialist was hiding toys with a paper towel, and since Hollyn loves paper, she was just taking that part and ignoring the toy.  It's like covering broccoli with ice cream and expecting the veggie to be sought after. ;-)  Anyway, it's something to work on at home.

Another aspect to keep a watch on is her complacency.  She so mellow, which is good, but we don't want it to an extreme.  We're supposed to play and be silly with her and help her flex those emotions.

Finally, the area to be most mindful of right now is regarding eating.  Hollyn does not like baby food (homemade or store bought) and she'll only eat things like cheerios/baby puffs if I place them in her mouth as she doesn't really try to eat them when they're placed in front of her.  At the end of the evaluation I mentioned her gagging reflex being so strong, and also the fact that she's never seemed to swallow correctly.  On a few occasions she has swallowed differently, and when she has the bottles have suddenly worked as advertised (venting), and she didn't leak milk all over herself.  Similarly, she never sucked on a pacifier.  She would chew on it for a few seconds, but that's as good as it got.  So, the plan is to give it some more time, but if I can't get her to eat enough, she may be seen for occupational therapy for eating.




We had a great time visiting the Stevenson relatives in Idaho over Thanksgiving.  As usual, the camera stayed hidden except for one photo-shoot.  Below, the boys built some things with the K'Nex at grana's.


Last Friday Brennan, along with the other 1st graders and kinders, put on a music concert at school.  It was cute.  I caught 2 songs before rushing out to take Asher to his first day of preschool, and when I got back 15 min later it was over.  Mom was standing in the gym holding Hollyn while some workers put chairs away around her.  I wish that they had mentioned that the concert was only half an hour long.  I'd assumed it was an hour.  If I'd known, I could have stayed for the whole thing and just taken Asher to preschool 10 min late.  Ugh.  Mom says the other songs were really cute though.  Also, I ran out of memory on my camera after 1 picture and 6 seconds of video. :-(







Sunday, November 13, 2011

7 months next week

Hollyn has been funny when it's some to the milestone of sitting.  Just last week I was still saying that she was nowhere close to sitting by herself.  She has for a while now though gotten herself into a sudo sitting position by leaning on one hand while she chewed on things with the other.  Well, once yesterday and many times today I found her sitting the official way, all by herself.  What's funny to me is that she completely skipped that part where we practice and, without the dutiful attention of an adult, the constant tipping over.  She doesn't tip, but she also doesn't stay sitting for very long.  She'll sit for a couple seconds, then take off again.  She does it like a pro though.  From "nowhere close" to sitting like she's always done it - literally overnight.  What a silly girl!

She's starting to enjoy "solids" now, although it can take several tries before she'll tolerate a new flavor. 

Over the last month I started getting really worried about Hollyn.  It started with her spending time with her tongue hanging out and a sort of blank/uninterested look on her face.  Because it looked a little odd, I started realizing that her behavior was different.  She was often fussy (very unusual for her, as you know) and also stopped interacting with us as much as she had been.  I brought it up with her Dr. at her 6 month check and even at the appointment, she would look at me, but not smile back despite my efforts.  My Dr., who is great about following mothers' instincts, told me that we have several really good early-intervention facilities in our area and he would refer Hollyn for an assessment.  During that time, I was sick, but Hollyn didn't seem to have my symptoms, so I wasn't sure.  Well, not long after her appointment, she got those symptoms, and now seems totally back to normal.  All I can figure is that she spent like 3 weeks just not feeling terribly well.  I am SO relieved.  She is back to being happy, interactive, and her old self.

Hollyn is SO exploratory.  She makes her way to every corner, and even now into shelves where she's started pulling things out.  This girl won't allow herself to be held the typical way.  She doesn't necessarily fuss if you're carrying her, but she definitely won't let you hold her any usual or comfortable way.  She pushes herself away and twists her body to face the way she wants to face.  If you're sitting, good luck.  She will not snuggle, or even sit still unless she's tired enough to enter the zombie state.  Otherwise, she kicks, squirms, tries to grab your face, or pushes herself away.  She can't be bothered to just chill with a loved one.  She's got places to go, people to see.  It's so funny.  I love this busy girl.

Monster Baby

Siblings can be really excited about a new baby, but soon realize you can't really play with them for a long time.  Well, my boys got around that little predicament yesterday.  It's currently their favorite thing to play, and Hollyn seems to enjoy it too since she keeps charging for the rug as soon as it's brought out.





Saturday, November 12, 2011

Just Some Kid Stuff


Blueberries not a first-time favorite

Days after 6 month birthday, and gettin' around


Leaves + Friends = AWESOME







Love Notes

"My Calendar" with "No" and "Yes"
 My house is full of pieces of paper, taped up all over the place.  Brennan has finally decided he wants to read and write, and does so by using up all our post-its and sheets of paper to ask me questions like, "Can I hav sum mor?" or just tell me things like, "I am hungree."  I kinda like it.  Here are some examples...

The calendar with yes/no options was taped to our front door is to mark whether or not Asher is accompanying me when I head out to run errands.  The yes/no paper on his bedroom door is to announce whether or not he's ready to dance.  The yellow one you see, well that's attached to Hollyn's door, which Brennan did after surprising me by cleaning it.  Just to be nice.  He was very proud of himself.  And now it brings a smile to my face every time I go to Hollyn's room.

The other day while I was on the phone, Asher was coloring and asked me for tape.  Now there's a picture of "banana splits" adorning my front door.  Little brother always has to get in on the action too. :-)
"No" on one side, "yes" on the other

"The Best Room Ever"


Friday, October 28, 2011

Jack O' Lanterns

Brennan drew the outlines on the pumpkins for me. The one on the right was done first. After carving out one huge eye I asked if he wanted me to even up the face and he said yes. For the second one though, I just carved as close to his original outlines as I could. :-)


Monday, October 24, 2011

6 Months

Last Wednesday our Little Hollyn turned 6 months, which means she's now on the downhill slope to 1. Ahhhh! I know it's very cliche to ask "where did the time go?" But seriously! It does NOT feel like half a year. She's been waaaaay too easy for us. I've been waiting for all that hard baby stuff to help drag time down a little. Doesn't look like it's gonna happen.


Hollyn is not anywhere close to sitting as far as I can tell. Not interested. If we try to make her, she straightens her body into a standing position. She LOVES the doorway bouncer though. I think she'd like the walker but it's buried so far into the outside closet it's unlikely to make an appearance before she outgrows it. Most of her awake time is spent wandering around on the floor. Hollyn now makes her way to every spot of ground that has an object, which will inevitably end up in her mouth. Yesterday we had some friends over immediately after Stake Conference and I hadn't finished the cleaning and tidying I'd intended to do. I walked inside and set Hollyn on the floor and got cookin' (literally and figuratively) and my friends could not believe that she was actually content that way. "She doesn't cry if you leave the room!" As far as I can recall, none of them did that, (excepting Brennan's stint at age 4 after getting "lost" from our campsite.) No, Hollyn is quite happy to crawl around chewing on dropped school papers investigating cluttered corners.

Reading the funnies



She's finally getting used to baby food. She used to fuss about it, but now she tolerates the experience.


Yep, we've still got the perfect baby. Oh, gotta go rescue a remote before it's slobbered to death!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I found this paper on the table this morning after Brennan had left for school. Awww. What a sweet kid. He'll make a great, sensitive Husband and Daddy some day, just as he is a brother and son already.

("Mom I hope you like this")

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Jealous, Ladies?

Basically everyone that I associate with who is married has a husband who is super amazing awesome. But, how many of them have done this?...

I'm a relatively frequent hairstyle changer, but I don't usually get Brian involved. Last Friday though I let HIM pick out the dye. He picked out a color he has mentioned in the past that I should try - a very dark brown. Like, a veeeeery dark brown. I dyed it that night and was torn all the next day. Although Brian loved it, to me it was basically raven black. I knew it would lighten over the next week or so, but I was still uncomfortable. The following day I was supposed to speak a bit in front of the Relief Society and I really didn't want to stand before them looking like a "goth". So, despite really liking it, Brian voluntarily went to the store at like 9pm Saturday night and picked out a highlighter kit. Then he spent several hours pulling my hair through a hundred little holes in the cap and doing the highlighting process. We finished around 2am. Yes ladies, my husband did my hair, and it was his idea, and he loved it. :-) (But shhh, don't tell his buddies)

Also, I love, love, love the finished product. My favorite color so far, ever! (And please forgive my unphotogenicness. It can't be helped. Also, the really dark color is more prominent in person. The camera seems to just pick up the highlights.)




This Girl is Going Places!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Life is going pretty good.  We bought Brennan new bikes (yes, plural) from Craigslist.  They are motorcycle-style and very cool.  I'm undecided whether to sell one of them (perhaps put the $ towards a bike for me?) or keep the 2nd one for friends to ride or at Moms house for visiting cousins.  Brennan's old bike is now passed to Asher who was thrilled until he realized how hard it was to pedal.  He'll get the hang of it pretty quick though.  It kind of blows my mind that my 3 year old is riding a size 16in bike though!


Brennan is enjoying school.  He seems to be doing fine being there full day, and I am still LOVING it myself. :)  He started homework this week so it's been actually fun to help him with that.  I wasn't looking particularly forward to that aspect (and I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon enough), but it ended up making me feel more like a "real" Mom.  I've joined the "homework helping club" and it feels pretty good.  Currently I think the plan is to have his homework time start at 4:30 - a little more than an hour after getting home, so he has time for snack and playing first, - and coinciding with when I'm making dinner (or hope to be now) so I'm available to help and it won't interfere with the crazy busy bed time stuff.

Last week Shannon was watching the kids and not 15 minutes after arriving Asher had a horrible allergic reaction.  His face swelled really bad and didn't go back to normal for about 24 hours.  I was suspicious that he should react so strongly to their dog since he doesn't usually react very much, if at all.  I realized that we had had clam chowder for dinner just before he went to Shannon's house.  He saw the allergist today and though we have to wait a month from the reaction to do a reliable skin test, the Dr. agreed that is was suspicious that Asher would react that way in a familiar environment.  We'll have to see.  It would be sad if he became allergic to shellfish, but it also wouldn't surprise me.  I've always thought it strange that he wasn't, actually.
Captain Swollen Face
Hollyn is precrawling.  I know, yikes, right?  Not every day, but several times now she's gotten herself onto her knees and rocked.  The first time she even kept diving forward onto her chest.  It was just after her 5-month birthday.  CRAZY!  I ordered a new baby gate for our stairs because clearly we're going to need one for a longer span than with either boy.  Hollyn can also hold her own bottle now, which is awesome!  Don't you love as they learn to do things for themselves?  Her sleeping is still going well.  She has 3 naps a day, and then sleeps for about 12-14 hours a night with only one wake-up in there.  Very doable.  Brian and I are still so totally smitten with this girl - we just want to eat her up!


"I can hold my own bottle now!"

Happy Baby

Mmmm

Huh?

Monday, September 19, 2011

You Know a Shower has Reached Desparate Need When...

I went upstairs for a minute to throw on some house-cleaning clothes.  Upon descending Asher saw me and exclaimed, "You washed your hair!"  I replied that I had not showered, only gotten dressed and put my hair in a pony-tail.  He looked at my quizzically and asked, "Did you leave the soap in your hair?"  Alright, I get it.  I'll go shower and wash my hair. :-)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

5 Months

Yikes it's going fast!  Brian and I are still deeply smitten with sweet little Hollyn.  We just want to eat her right up.  It's hard to imagine that we could ever be happier then we are right now.  She brings us so much joy!

Hollyn's still shy of 13lbs and hanging around the 11th %ile for weight.  She still seems to be getting bigger to me though.  Filling out very nicely.  Hollyn is our little rolley-polley.  Just recently she's gotten more adept at the tummy-to-back technique so I've caught her rolling along the floor like a log going downhill.  She will also change directions or roll onto her side and twist her body to get a look at things behind her.  It's very cute, although diaper changes can be tricky since she prefers to go onto her tummy at any available opportunity.

Hollyn loves being tickled and will laugh heartily when played with.  I've also noticed her taking delight and even laughing at peek-a-boo.  Brennan is my hero because he often and voluntarily plays with his little sister.  Asher will pay her some attention, but Brennan enjoys talking to her in his best baby voice and will distract her if I'm too otherwise occupied to do it myself.

Hollyn is (of course) still sleeping pretty good these days.  She's not on a clock schedule at all, but I can count on her to be ready to nap after an hour or so awake.  I can't count on her to stick to "nap times" because it all depends on what time she wakes up, which is anywhere from 7:30 to 9:30 or 10am. (The later times are a result of waking up earlier, like 6:30am, and going right back down.)  Actually, today she woke up at 7:30, and I put her back down just to see, and she must have gone right back to sleep because I didn't hear a peep out of her until after 11.





4 months old!