sweetness

i am better now, but Lexi is still sick. she's feeling better, but is still super snotty.
today, Lincoln was holding Lexi and he looked up at me and said, "when i didn't have a baby, my heart felt like i wanted to have a baby". sweet boy!
tomorrow Lexi will be 2 months old. i can't even get that into my head! she is such a beautiful, sweet girl and she's changed our lives so much in so little time. she smiles all the time (especially when daddy comes home- she LOOOVES her daddy [even though i would still say she's a mommy's girl- so far]) and she's starting to laugh more and more.
her newest discovery is how much she loves baths! she used to haaate them, but now she really enjoys just sitting in the warm water and having us pour it all over her. she actually bathing part, she's not a huge fan of- but the soaking part is great!
she hasn't found her hands yet, but i'm expecting her to any day. she can get them to her mouth pretty well, but she's never seen them (or at least focused on them). she did see her feet while she was taking a bath the other day, but i don't think she realized that they belong to her. she kept staring at them and watching them move like "what the heck are those things!?". it was quite adorable.
Lincoln has a new obsession with decay. haha, i know that sounds sooo weird but let me make sense of it for you. he loves playing games and watching videos on pbskids.org... there's a show called Sid the Science Kid (or something like that) and he talks about all sorts of cool stuff. in one video, he talks about how things decay and shows a decaying apple (and squishes it and it's gross). so, Lincoln suddenly became fascinated with it. while he was visiting Pops and Nana's house, he got to see some bananas that were starting to decay. then he went out into their garden and found a couple of veggies that were decaying. my mom then told him that our teeth decay if we don't brush them really well. that sort of freaked him out, but really got him to want to brush him teeth (thanks mom!). so now he's obsessed with decay and the fact that things don't just "get yucky", but that there's actually a reason they're gross.
i feel like there are a lot of new things going on but when i try to transfer them from my brain onto my blog, i can't think of anything...
i suppose they will come out eventually and result in new blog posts.

pass the kleenex. no, i'm not sad.

i'm officially sick. i've been fighting it off for a couple of days but have been unsuccessful. i'm not deathly ill, just obnoxiously so. stuffy nose that is also runny (why could it be one or the other??), cough, sore throat, painful swollen lymph nodes... fun. and as of yesterday, Lexi's got it. at least the stuffy nose with some nice green snot. so we're in for a pretty fun weekend.
last night wasn't as miserable as we had expected, however. Lexi only woke up once during the night, and that was because she was sleeping on her back in her bed and you all know that's not helpful when there's a stuffy nose involved. so i had to get up with her, suction out her nose (which is always fun!), and make space in our bedroom to bring in her swing. she spent the rest of the night sleeping very well in her swing, even if she did sound pretty snotty.
i can't say i'm exactly looking forward to the weekend. with both of us sick, sleep is something i won't be able to get enough of. even if she sleeps well, my body needs lots of sleep so i can get better. i have to rest a looot when i'm sick. seriously- my immune system sucks. i'm now praying that Lincoln won't get it. i'm hoping grandparents will keep him both nights this weekend (A) so he doesn't catch this crud and (B) so Lexi and i can get plenty of rest and work on getting better.

we got Lincoln's Halloween costume yesterday. he's going to be a bat. he really wanted to be the dragon that we saw, but it was mostly red and looked pretty much like the devil, so we had to go with the bat. he initially didn't like the idea of the bat, because he reeeally wanted to be the dragon- but when i told him that he could be like Batman, that was all he needed to hear. he tried it on in the store and proceeded to run and jump around the dressing rooms, flapping his arms and pretending to fly. pretty dang cute.

i had one of those fun mom moments the other day. Lexi and i were at a little lunch place waiting for our food (well, not Lexi's and mine, but Matt's, Candace's, and mine). i could tell she was going poop because of the lovely expression and red face. i didn't think anything of it- heck- babies poop all the dang time. but when i picked up her carrier off the chair it was sitting on, there was a PUDDLE IN THE SEAT! i was mortified. thankfully, noone saw and i was able to grab some paper napkins that were right by the table and soak it up. and, being the mom that i am, i always have anti-bacterial wipes in my purse- so i got it all cleaned up. now i'm wondering what kind of mess she's got going on inside that carrier. ...so i finally got my food, got out the door, and went to drop off M&C's food, thinking that instead of visiting with them for a while that i needed to rush home to bathe and change my child before the other child got out of school. thankfully, Candace offered to let me come in and bathe Lexi at their house (even though a realtor was coming over to look at their house very shortly). it was nice having Candace's help (thanks Candace!). i was glad to discover that most of the mess in the carseat was pee. her diaper was full of poop, and i think the pee just didn't have any place to soak into the diaper, so it just went all out the sides. (btw, we were then using some diapers that were a gift and are not too awesome) Lexi was soaked from her knees to halfway up her back and she only had a little leaky poop right by her butt. and of course it was the one day that i didn't have a change of clothes in her diaper bag, so i had to borrow a little blue outfit of Layton's (Lexi was very gender confused that day- as i made sure to put a bow on her before we went to pick up Lincoln from school so noone would mistake her for a boy). it was definitely one of those awesome mom moments.

i think Lexi has gone back to sleep finally, so i am going to go do the same thing.

time is going by way too quickly

i can't believe that it's already more than a week into September.
Lincoln is back in school and loves his new class and new teachers. He's in the pre-k class and is learning about math and science and all sorts of stuff. it's crazy that my boy is big enough to come home and tell me about what he learned about science. of course, it's simple stuff- but still. they also have a marble rewards system like we have at home so that's pretty awesome. it's nice that what we're working on at home is carrying over to school.
Lexi will be 8 weeks old in just 2 days. she has gotten so big. i bet she's 10 lbs now. she's quite rolly. she's smiling a lot and has even started laughing some. scott and i really enjoy our quiet time that we get with her after Lincoln goes to sleep. when he's awake, there's so much going on that Lexi can't seem to focus long enough to give us smiles and laughs. she does tolerate her brother well, though, which is nice since he's not always super gentle!
he looooooves her so much. more and more every day. whenever she's awake, he wants her on a blanket on the floor so he can get down to her level and get a few smiles out of her. she loves her brother, too! she always smiles at him.
i get so happy when she reaches new milestones, but then i instantly get sad when i think about the fact that every milestone she reaches means she's getting bigger and simply growing up too fast. WAH! especially since we're not planning on having any more kids- the little things seems sweeter this go 'round. i think i learned with Lincoln that time does indeed fly by entirely too fast so i'm trying to savor every tiny moment. i'm doing that with him, too. it won't be long before he's "too big" to snuggle with me or to kiss me (heaven forbid an older boy kiss his mommy!)
here are the newest pics of my beautiful children... the one of Lexi was taken just last Friday (9/5) and the one of Lincoln is from Tues (9/2)

he is so silly! he would not pose normally.

she is so beautiful in this picture. she looks so much like her brother, but much more feminine. i love that you can see her eyelashes. ...absolutely gorgeous.

another update- already!

i know i just posted an update, but i have new information already so you lucked out.
today was a busy and eventful day.
first, we went to Lincoln's yearly dr. appt. i didn't think he was going to have to get any shots, but when the dr. told me that he would, i figured "hey- he'll have to get one. no big deal." then i asked what he was getting. uh, how about FIVE SHOTS!? yes. five separate needles. five different sticks. awesome. if you didn't know it already, Lincoln is freakishly strong. when he was 2 1/2, three people had to hold him down for shots. so i told the dr. that we would need an extra person to come help hold him down. "no," said the doc, "the nurse is really good and fast." i insisted on having another person in the room- and i'm glad i did! the nurse giving the shots was at Lincoln's feet, holding his legs down. i was in the middle, holding up the legs of his shorts (so we didn't have to take them all the way off) and holding down his middle so he couldn't hunch his back. the male physician's assistant was at Link's head, holding his arms against his chest with one hand and holding his head down with the other hand. it definitely took all of our strength to keep him still enough for all 5 shots. it was absolutely AWFUL. he criiied and criiied. we even had to stay in the exam room for an extra 5 minutes or so. he just leaned his head on my shoulder and cried and i continuously told him how brave he was. wah! not fun!
it was also the day of my post-partum checkup. nothing exciting going on there. i did weigh Lexi while i was there, and she's right at 9 lbs.
it was "meet the teacher" night at Lincoln's school this evening. he's in the pre-K class and he's pretty excited about it. he'll be learning some math, science, etc. awesome. his girlfriend from last schoolyear is in the 4-yr-olds class instead of the pre-k class. he wasn't very excited about that. but at least they will be able to see each other during recess.
i am SO ready for him to go back to school. it will be good for him to have something to do during the day and kids to play with. it will also be good for me to get a little time to clean my house or just rest. my house has been a distaster since Lexi's arrival, simply because one of my children always needs me. so it will be nice to have a cleaner, more peaceful home... at least twice a week.
almost bedtime. more soon.

Lots going on...

Lexi is 6 weeks old today. Lincoln turned 4 this past sunday. time is going by entirely too quickly.
Link's party was really fun. we had it at The Jump Around (an indoor air castle place) and i think all the kids left exhausted. he got away with some pretty great gifts and he was pretty happy about the whole day.
Lexi had her first bottle a couple of days ago- so that means that Scott and i are going on a date this weekend! the last time we went on a real date was about 2 months ago, so i'm pumped! the kids will be going out to Pops and Nana's house for the evening.
Lincoln is still sooo helful with Lexi. he loves her so much. one evening, i was making dinner in the kitchen and the kids were in the living room. i peeked through the door and Lincoln was sitting beside Lexi's bouncer. then he said "oh, Lexi. i love you sooo much! but you don't talk to me." he is so ready for her to be able to socialize more with him. he is, however, loving the smiles and coos that she gives him.
Lexi actually slept through the night for the first time last night. she slept 6 consecutive hours and probably would've slept longer if i hadn't touched her chest to make sure she was still breathing! when i realized she had been asleep 6 hours, first i was excited, and then of course there was the moment of freakout when i thought, "is she breathing!? she's never slept this long before!" anyway, i'm sure it won't be an every night thing, but it's nice to know that she'll be doing it every once in a while!
so this is longer than what i originally planned and i have lots of more important things to be doing. ttfn!

going for the gold

ok, anyone else ridiculously addicted to the olympics and getting less sleep than usual because of this sad addiction? ...thought so. as sad as i will be when they are over next week, i will be glad to be able to go to sleep earlier at night!
so apparently Lexi was trying to break the world record for longest stay of an umbilical stump. she is 4 weeks and 2 days old and just lost her stump TODAY! how ridiculous is that?! ...i thought she would be going to high school with that thing still attached. we are so glad it's gone, but that doesn't mean we can stop cleaning her belly button or give her a normal bath yet. the actual belly button underneath the stump still hasn't completely closed up, so it looks like we'll be waiting another week or so before she can have a real bath. i will be glad to get some soap on her stinky neck! -wipes just don't keep the stink off the neck for very long!
she HAS had 2 real baths, actually. during both, we were super careful not to get her belly button wet, but it did end up getting wet during the second bath (which is the reason she hasn't had another one since then). that's probably a major contributing factor to the fact that her stump took so long to fall off and that it's still not normal, so i'd rather deal with a stinky necked baby than one that's going to have a deformed belly button forever.
so i can't believe that she's going to be a month old tomorrow. she's still too small for her 0-3 month clothes and only fitting into some of her newborn stuff. i can't believe that i've been semi- sleep deprived for a whole month now. although, she does sleep pretty well and actually slept 5 1/2 consecutive hours last night! i'd say that's pretty dang impressive for a 1-month-old!
lincoln's 4th birthday is rapidly approaching. his party is a week from tomorrow and his actual bday is the day after his party. we've ordered a pretty awesome spiderman cake and have everything all ready to go. we're all pretty excited about it. i just can't believe that he's going to be 4. where has the time gone!?
lincoln is so ready for school to start (i am too!). he starts back in just a couple of weeks. i am looking forward to him getting to spend some time playing with other kids. i'm also looking foward to having a little more time for myself to think, among other things. we've been driving each other a bit crazy the past week or two. he's going through some crazy stage and actually told me 2 days ago that i've "ruined his life". ha, that sure didn't take me long!
link is sooooo helpful with lexi. he's my official gopher. it seems like every time i sit down to nurse lexi, i think of something i need. he is more than happy to run and grab things for me.
the other day, i was trying to cook dinner, but was having a bit of trouble getting things done thanks to a sleepy/fussy baby. so i just put lexi down on her baby gym, on her belly, for a bit of tummy time so i could get stuff done. usually she enjoys being on her tummy- but not that day. any time she would start crying, lincoln would run from the kitchen into the living room, pat lexi on the back, and say "SHH SHH SHH SHH" like he always hears me do. ...about half an hour later, i had moved lexi into the kitchen and put her in her bouncer, and lincoln was making sure it kept bouncing and that lexi's pacifier wouldn't fall out of her mouth; all the time saying, "SHH SHH SHH". he is such a great big brother. i knew he would be, but he has by far exceeded my expectations.
ok, this is plenty long and i am going to go use my little bit of peace and quiet to go get something more productive done.

the latest

Lexi is now 3 weeks and 2 days old. we had to go to the dr. today because i thought she might have thrush (turns out it's just milk on her tongue- thank goodness!). she is now 7lbs 13oz. that's what i weighed when i was born! it's LESS than what Lincoln weighed when he was born! tiny tiny girl. ...no wonder she's just now barely fitting into some of her "newborn" sized clothes. the "preemie" clothes still fit her quite well, though.
Lincoln will be 4 in less than 2 weeks. i can't believe it. we're planning a really fun party at one of his favorite play places. and he wants a Spiderman cake. apparently next year he has to have a Batman cake. guess we're going through all the superheroes?
i'm still not used to being home all day! it's weird not having things to do, aside from grocery shopping and other various errand-running...
well, i must go be on milk truck duty now. it seems like that's all i do these days! that, and diaper changes...
ah, motherhood.