Taste buds

Emily is learning about the five senses at school this week.  Today when she got home she told me all about the sense of taste: "Mommy, I have these things on my tongue that are BUDS!  And they help me to taste if something is sweet, sour, salty, or pepper!" LOL :)

Liam is here!

William Kenneth McDowell V joined our family on December 31, 2010.  He was born at 9:22 pm and weighed 10 lbs 2 oz!! and was 20" long.  He has stolen our hearts and we are all just thrilled that he is ours!

Poor Liam got off to a rough start.  Because of his size, he suffered from a condition called TTN, which basically meant that he had excess mucus in his lungs.  The pediatrician explained that for most babies, that mucus is squeezed out during the birthing process, but because Liam was so large, he had larger lungs and therefore more mucus than other babies.  So shortly after he was born he was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and even an oxygen tube to help dry some of that out. The doctor was concerned because he was breathing too quickly and he wasn't getting sufficient oxygen saturation.  

After nearly 36 hours of treatment, his breathing improved and they started letting him eat.  Liam had to get a feeding tube down his throat :( and they gave him small amounts of formula to see how he would tolerate it.  Finally, he was deemed well enough to leave the nursery and stay in my room with me.  I was thrilled--and so were the girls, who FINALLY got to meet their baby brother!

I started nursing him right away to make up for lost time.  He took to it like a champ but because we'd been apart so long, I didn't have any milk yet.  Overnight he became dehydrated and developed jaundice. He had to return to the nursery and was placed in phototherapy to help eliminate the jaundice.  It was more formula, too, although I was allowed to nurse him first and then they supplemented him with formula. 

On January 3, I was released from the hospital but Liam had to stay.  Leaving without him was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do.  I went back to the hospital that night after the girls were in bed and spent about five hours with him. I held him and nursed him as much as they would allow.  The next morning I went back and I was overjoyed to hear that he had been released, too!  We went to see his pediatrician that day and she gave him a clean bill of health.

We are all adjusting to our new family member but we couldn't be happier.  The girls love him--Emily wants to hold him all of the time and Bailey keeps saying, "That my baby brother!"  If I come out of his room without him, she'll say, "Oh, no! Where's Liam?"  Overall he seems like a very content baby.  He's sleeping and eating well and I couldn't ask for a cuter child! :)  We are so blessed!!

Frosting

This morning I had the following conversation with Emily:

"Mommy!  The grass is all WHITE!"

"Yeah, it got really cold last night so we got some frost.  Cool, huh?  That's the closest we get to snow down here."

"Look! Jake and Julie's [our neighbors] yard has frosting, too!"

Emily's 5th birthday PARTY!

Emily had a great birthday party at My Gym.  They played all sorts of games and also got to spend some time exploring the gym and doing whatever looked like fun!  Miss Alyssa and Miss Shannon made it a fun time for everyone.

Silly Bailey

Over the past week I have had several conversations with Bailey that have really had me laughing.  Two-year-olds are a riot!!

The other day, after I put her shirt on her, I noticed that she had a string dangling down from the sleeve.  So I said, "Bailey, come into the kitchen.  You have a string on your arm and I need to cut it."

Bailey got very upset and replied, "No! I don't want you to cut my arm!" LOL!!  I guess I should have been clearer about what I was going to cut!

AND...

Bailey was playing on Emily's bike and she fell off and scratched her belly.  So that night after her bath Will and I were trying to put some Neosporin on the scratches.  She was super upset because I mentioned a band-aid (this kid HATES band-aids for some reason) so we told her we weren't going to put a band-aid, but that we needed to put some cream on her boo-boo.  Again, she got upset and said, "I don't want you to give me a boo-boo!"  And it took like ten minutes of us explaining that we weren't trying to GIVE her a boo-boo, we were trying to take care of the boo-boo she already had!  Sheesh!!  But it was still funny.

And last but not least...

Yesterday B was watching Max and Ruby, and Max pulled a worm out of a mud puddle.  So Bailey says, "Look!  Max has a noodle!"

I laughed and said, "That's not a noodle; that's a worm."

Bailey goes, "Oh, that's not a noodle.  That's a WORM!"

So I burst out laughing, which made her laugh, which made Emily and me laugh even harder.  What fun!!

Emily turns 5!

Emily had a special birthday, and we still have her party to look forward to this weekend!  At school, Ms. Christina made her a birthday crown to wear!  We brought cupcakes and her class sang to her.

After school we went to McDonald's for lunch with some friends.  It was a little bit of a letdown since the playplace was closed and that was why she wanted to go there, but she still had fun:



Then, since Mommy had a doctor's appointment that afternoon, she went over to Bella and Lydia's house and they gave her the Furry Frenzies city playset that she wanted!  She was thrilled!!

And finally, when we got home, she got to ride her brand-new big-girl bike, which was her present from Mommy and Daddy.

The funniest part was when we put her to bed, though, and she said, "Mommy, when I wake up tomorrow it will be my very real birthday!"  Sorry, kid, you only get one a year!!

It's Beginning to Feel a lot Like Christmas...

On Saturday we spent some time together decorating our Christmas tree! The girls were super excited and they did a great job. We tried a new location for the tree this year and it worked out great because we didn't have to rearrange our entire dining room to set it up!

The Florida Aquarium

While visiting Grandma and Grandpa Buddy in Tampa, we decided to go check out the Florida Aquarium.  The kids had a great time looking at the sea life and even got to touch some of the animals!  Here are some pictures from our day.

My cuties

Last week I brought a bag full of nonperishable food as well as some other items to Emily's school.  They were collecting Thanksgiving meal donations for needy families.  Emily said, "Mom, why do you have that bag?"

"It's a bag full of food for a family who doesn't have any.  It's for Thanksgiving."

She got a very concerned look on her face, and then she said, "Are the Cheetos in there?" LOL!!

and...
Yesterday I took Bailey to the mall.  As we were driving around to find a place to park, she kept pointing to the different stores and saying, "Is THAT the mall?"  It was so cute!  She also does the same thing when putting a puzzle together: "Does THAT piece go there?"

They are such cuties!!

More THAT!

This morning I gave Bailey a Vienna Finger (my favorite cookie).  She opened it and ate all of the creme filling.  Then she brought me the two cookie pieces and said, "More that!"

So I said, "More what?"

And she pointed to the place where the creme used to be and said, "More THAT!"

LOL!  I told her she had to eat the cookie before I'd give her another one.  Silly kid!

Liam's room--update

Mom went shopping and so did I--so Liam's room got a bit of an update this weekend!  Dad finished putting up the trim and got the clothes rack in the closet so I am washing clothes and getting them all ready to go!  We have a little more work to be done--the doors need to be painted and doorknobs installed, and some electrical work since the light switch needs to be moved and a ceiling fan installed.  I am thinking of getting a shelf to go over the changing table as well.  But other than that, things are done and we are ready to meet our SON!

Halloween Fun

 

 Emily and Bailey were super excited to celebrate Halloween this year.  Every day Emmy would ask me if Halloween was "the next day" because she wanted to wear her costume and get candy!  Bailey was also looking forward to it; she kept bringing me her costume and asking to wear it.  However, on the big day, she refused to wear her costume and didn't get to trick-or-treat.  Daddy is a softie, though, and he got a bag full of candy for her.  Meanie Mommy was just going to make her miss out.  She is SUCH a stinker sometimes!  Here we are in our costumes!  It was fun to dress up and see the other neighborhood kids.  We only did one block of our development and got tons of candy--maybe when the girls are bigger we'll let them do the whole 'hood. :)

Liam's room

Over the last two weeks we have completely remodeled our guest room and created a nursery for Liam.  Decorating is still underway but I wanted to share some of the progress we've made so far!


This is what our guest room looked like before



Dad cutting in the new doorway



closing up the old doorway



framing the closet



closet and doorway, and room is painted



crib and dresser are in!



still working on decorating but we've got his name up!









My Adorable Emily

Emily has really been piling on the cuteness lately!! Last night she and Bailey were dancing around the living room, which was pretty cute in and of itself, but then she walked up to Will and said, "Daddy, would you be my prince?"  :)

Then she drew this picture of me:

I love that I am smiling AND my belly is smiling. I guess Liam is happy, too.

Cheeseburger confusion

We got lunch from Wendy's today, and Emily said she wanted a cheeseburger with nothing on it but ketchup.  She's only had a cheeseburger once before, and last time I ordered one for her I forgot to say "ketchup only." So, they put pickles and mustard on it and she was deeply offended.
So I ordered a plain cheeseburger with ketchup, and she wouldn't eat it because it had "three things on it! ketchup, cheese, and sausage!"

I said, "That's not sausage; that's the hamburger!"

She was expecting a slice of cheese with ketchup on a bun, apparently.

Love that kid!!

Green beans

Last night we put Emily to bed at 7:30.  She usually goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:00, depending on how late she slept that morning and whether or not she has school the next day.  So it was a perfectly reasonable bedtime for her. Well, an hour passed and all was quiet, so I assumed she was asleep.  That is, until we heard her bedroom door opening at 8:34pm.  I went over to check it out:

"Emily, why are you still awake?"

"That means I'm still hungry.  I didn't get everything I wanted at dinner.  And I want to have some green beans."

"Green beans?  I am not making green beans at 8:30 at night!  You had plenty of dinner!  You need to go to sleep!"

"But I wanted to have green beans with dinner!"

"Well, I'll make green beans tomorrow night, okay?  It's time for bed now."

Part of me wonders if I just should have given the kid green beans.  I mean, have you ever heard of a kid who asks for GREEN BEANS for dessert?  LOL!!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we visited a pumpkin patch at a nearby church and let the girls pick some pumpkins to decorate.  They had a great time.  Emily was super excited about the "pumpkin faces" as she called them--wooden pumpkins with cutouts for you to stick your face in:

 

They loved looking at all of the pumpkins.  Emily was amazed at the different kinds of pumpkins--smooth and bumpy; orange, white, green!; tiny, medium, and "the hugest one I never seen!" Finally, we chose some pumpkins to bring home.

Bailey's big girl room

I've been meaning to post some pictures of Bailey's room.  She got a new paint job and a princess theme now that she's a BIG GIRL!!  She loves her room and so do I!