Last Friday we had Shelby's 4 year well visit with the doctor. This will definitely go down in the books as one of the most difficult trips we have ever made to see the doctor. It all started when I told Shelby earlier in the day that we were going to get to go tee-tee in a cup at the doctor's office. My sweet girl who isn't too thrilled about new experiences determined that was too much to handle and well, that was the beginning. Thanks to advice from Leslie, I took Shelby alone and left JP with her.
On the way there I loaded Shelby up with fluid. She got to drink a juice box in the car and once we got there I made her drink water every chance I could. It was successful because when it came time to go tee-tee in the cup she really had to go and despite all her protests she nearly filled the whole cup up. Amongst other new experiences for her at this appointment was getting her blood pressure taken. She really did a great job with having that cuff around her arm. They also had to do a finger prick. This isn't the first time she has had that done, but she was just a baby for the first one so as far as she was concerned this was her first. She freaked out more when the nurse tried to put a band-aid on her finger than she did when they pricked it. I don't know what it is about her, but she really, really, really doesn't like to wear band-aids!! After all that we saw the doctor. He checked her all out and she did great. She is growing and doing everything she should be and all her lab work came back good. As the doctor was leaving he gave me that look as he said, "We only have one more thing to do." I gave him that look that says "I know, I know." Anyway, Shelby thought since the doctor was gone that we should leave too at which point I knew I couldn't put off the secret any longer. The time had come that I had to tell her about the shots. The word hardly came out of my mouth and she started screaming and crying and carrying on like you wouldn't believe. As we waited for the nurses to come back it seemed like hours had passed when it was probably not even 5 minutes. They both came in and gave me instruction that I would hold her arms and one nurse would sit on her legs while the other nurse would give her the shots. Really, I think that the anticipation of the shots was the worst for Shelby because she put up a fight, but as soon as they were done that was the end and she really didn't continue to carry on. She survived and I survived and I am glad that is behind us now.
Here are her stats:
weight: 36lbs (50%)
height: 40 1/2 in (75%)
blood pressure: 107/63
The Reed Anytime Review
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
My Children Make Me Smile
I think that every parent loves their child, but sometimes I think that there is absolutely no parent out there who loves their child more or gets more joy and laughter from their child as I get from my two sweet blessings. They are just always doing something so undeniably cute or funny that I find myself laughing nearly all day. For instance, JP has really taken to giving the blessing at meal time. It is the cutest thing in the world to hear him try to sing the song that we do and he always throws Shelby's name in there. One day I am going to have to get a little video of it and post it for you to see what I mean. Also, check out this picture of him from this morning. JP loves sunglasses. He wears them all around the house, out of the house, during the day and at night and he just looks so cute and it makes me laugh.
My friend Erin and I have weekly lunch dates at Moe's with the kids because both of our older children love it so much. Everyday I pick Shelby up from school the very first thing she asks me is if we can go to Moe's for lunch. She would eat there everyday if we let her. Anyway, today Erin brought some cupcakes for Shelby's birthday and here is the end result. I have never seen 4 kids get such enjoyment out of eating cupcakes as these 4 got today. It was hilarious, especially sweet Finn. He had his whole face in that cupcake and loved every minute of it!!!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Happy Birthday Shelby!
I can't belive that when Shelby woke up this morning she was 4!!!! I mean, when in the world did that happen? My sweet baby girl is 4. It is almost to hard to bear when I think about it too much. So in effort to prevent a total melt down into depression over the rapid growth of my baby girl I am just going to post some pictures and tell you this quick story....
February 2009
Monday night as Pratt was leaving the house to go visit Suzy, Patricio and their new baby at the hospital he went to tell Shelby and JP good night. They ran up to him and he hugged them and said good night and told them that he was going to see their new cousin Sebastian and when he got home he would peek in on them. Of course as busy as they are as soon as they got their hugs they were off to play and as Shelby was running, she stopped dead in her tracks, turned around to Pratt and said, "Tell Sebastian that I love him." Oh my gosh!!! My heart just melted!!! It was so sweet and so natural.
Okay, now some pictures from these last four wonderful years....
February 18th, 2005
February 2006
February 2007
February 2008
February 2009One more thing...Shelby was so impressed with my Nemo cake for JP that she thought that I would be able to make her a princess cake, I told her that we would get a special princess cake from the bakery for her party since I am not that good when it comes to things like that. Then she asked me for a princess castle cake to which I said....how about a pink princess heart cake? She gladly agreed and here it is...
Boca Raton
Last week Pratt got a phone call from a friend in Boca asking him to come down to play golf with him so on Sunday we decided we would go and Tuesday we packed up the kids and the car and made our way down to the Sunshine state. Let me tell you...this was a huge God thing. We really needed to get away, but didn't realize it until the opportunity had come for us to have a little family vacation. He always knows just what we need when we need it!!!
(Shelby and JP at the Miami Seaquarium outside the area where the original Flipper show was filmed)
The trip down was great. We left about 8:30am and it took us about 8 hours to get there. Shelby and JP did wonderfully!!! I really wasn't sure what we would get with those two, but they were so patient and good!!! It was great.
(Shelby and JP at the Miami Seaquarium outside the area where the original Flipper show was filmed)
Boca was beautiful. The weather was 80s and sunny the whole time we were there...sure did make coming home to 50s and cloudy hard:) On Wednesday we drove down to Miami and took Shelby and JP to the Miami Seaquarium. It was awesome. We saw a dolphin show, a killer whale show and all kinds of animals. Shelby and JP had a great time. The only time it was questionable was at the killer whale show. We thought that we sat high enough to avoid the splash, but we were just on the edge. I mean hardly any water got on us, but the little bit that did was enough for Shelby to decided that she was done. For the rest of the show she kept asking me, "In one minute, can we go home? I am ready to go home." Of course, at the end she really had a wonderful time. Thursday Cheri and I took her children and mine to Chuck E. Cheese. And oh wow!!! They had the best time!!! Shelby can't wait to go back...except she does express that she doesn't want to see that mouse again. Friday we got up and came home. On the way home we stopped at Daytona for lunch and ate at Cracker Barrel right out side the race track. It is amazing to me how much Shelby remembers and processes these days because when the race came on on Sunday we flipped it on for a minute to see what was happening and Shelby totally got into it. She said that was where we had lunch and when Pratt tried to change the channel she asked us to put it back and continued asking questions about why they were doing whatever they were doing. It was hilarious. I only hope that this isn't some new fascination with her as I don't particularly care to watch NASCAR too much.
Pratt, Shelby and JP waiting for the killer whale show to start...we should have sat one more row back.
JP, Christian, Shelby and Savannah
Shelby, JP, Gabby and Christian
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Pictures!
I realize I haven't posted many pictures lately and the truth is, I really haven't been taking many pictures lately. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed at how far behind I am at getting pictures developed and in a photo album that I go on a sort of picture strike. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the last few weeks or so.....
Last weekend we went to a birthday party at Island Gymnastics. What a cool place!!! Here is a picture of JP crawling over these block things. He did a really great job. I was completely shocked because they were all different sizes and shapes.
This is Shelby in the foam pit. They had two little runways with trampolines on the end that you could jump off into a huge foam pit. I wanted to try it so bad, but they had strick rules about parents getting on the apparatus. Surprisingly Shelby loved it. I think that it was good that I was late getting there. She went ahead with our neighbors and I came after JP's nap. Being there by herself gave her time to figure things out without mama around. She always seems to be so timid when I am around, but a little bit more bold when I am not.
We recently had our first pizza and movie night. Pratt and I thought that the kids are getting old enough to be able to sit through a movie. This was taken at the very beginning...I think that the beginning credits were still rolling. I have to give Shelby and JP credit, they made it through a good chunk of the movie, but definitely didn't make through the whole movie. All in all it was a great success and I can't wait for our next one.
This is just a silly picture of Shelby and JP playing. They love to play in this bag and pull each other around the house. I am so thankful that they play so well together. It is getting to a point where I kind of can get in the way if I try to play with them. Most times they want to play together without me, but they still like to have me in the room with them.
Our recent big adventure is that Shelby started a little ballet class this week. Last week I was talking with a friend and she told me of this class so I asked Shelby if she wanted to take ballet with Emily (one of her little friends). She said yes, but after we got home later that day she came up to me and said that she didn't want to take the class. Apparently she was really thinking about this since I had mentioned it because I never said anything else about it or really gave it a second thought, but she certainly did. Well, I decided to sign her up for it anyway...the girl needs to try some new things and spread her wings a little bit. Yesterday when she woke up from her nap I went into her room and said that we needed to get ready for ballet class...if you could have heard her carry on. It was like I told her I was taking her to a torture chamber where she would be tortured endlessly for no reason at all. She pitched the biggest fit and begged me not to take her. Trying to think quickly I told her that we would just go watch and that wasn't the right thing to say, she cried even louder and protested even more. Eventually I did get her to agree to go and just watch, but of course once we got there and she saw all of her little friends she immediately became excited. When I picked her up after the class she was smiling from ear to ear and telling me all about it (this is a really great sign because this girl never tells me anything about anything). After we got home she told Pratt all about it and told him that she did so much ballet that she got sweaty. Anyway, today we went and bought our first little ballet outfit. This is a huge victory for me that she actually tried something new and is totally excited about it!!!
Last weekend we went to a birthday party at Island Gymnastics. What a cool place!!! Here is a picture of JP crawling over these block things. He did a really great job. I was completely shocked because they were all different sizes and shapes.
This is Shelby in the foam pit. They had two little runways with trampolines on the end that you could jump off into a huge foam pit. I wanted to try it so bad, but they had strick rules about parents getting on the apparatus. Surprisingly Shelby loved it. I think that it was good that I was late getting there. She went ahead with our neighbors and I came after JP's nap. Being there by herself gave her time to figure things out without mama around. She always seems to be so timid when I am around, but a little bit more bold when I am not.
We recently had our first pizza and movie night. Pratt and I thought that the kids are getting old enough to be able to sit through a movie. This was taken at the very beginning...I think that the beginning credits were still rolling. I have to give Shelby and JP credit, they made it through a good chunk of the movie, but definitely didn't make through the whole movie. All in all it was a great success and I can't wait for our next one.
This is just a silly picture of Shelby and JP playing. They love to play in this bag and pull each other around the house. I am so thankful that they play so well together. It is getting to a point where I kind of can get in the way if I try to play with them. Most times they want to play together without me, but they still like to have me in the room with them.
Our recent big adventure is that Shelby started a little ballet class this week. Last week I was talking with a friend and she told me of this class so I asked Shelby if she wanted to take ballet with Emily (one of her little friends). She said yes, but after we got home later that day she came up to me and said that she didn't want to take the class. Apparently she was really thinking about this since I had mentioned it because I never said anything else about it or really gave it a second thought, but she certainly did. Well, I decided to sign her up for it anyway...the girl needs to try some new things and spread her wings a little bit. Yesterday when she woke up from her nap I went into her room and said that we needed to get ready for ballet class...if you could have heard her carry on. It was like I told her I was taking her to a torture chamber where she would be tortured endlessly for no reason at all. She pitched the biggest fit and begged me not to take her. Trying to think quickly I told her that we would just go watch and that wasn't the right thing to say, she cried even louder and protested even more. Eventually I did get her to agree to go and just watch, but of course once we got there and she saw all of her little friends she immediately became excited. When I picked her up after the class she was smiling from ear to ear and telling me all about it (this is a really great sign because this girl never tells me anything about anything). After we got home she told Pratt all about it and told him that she did so much ballet that she got sweaty. Anyway, today we went and bought our first little ballet outfit. This is a huge victory for me that she actually tried something new and is totally excited about it!!!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
JP's 2 year Check Up
Here are the stats from JP's two year check up:
Height: 34 inches (25-50%)
Weight: 28lbs 11 oz (25%)
He checked out great with all the milestones they look for and everything went smoothly. Thankfully at the 2 year check up there generally aren't shots and I was so relieved, but as the dr. was looking at his chart she noticed that he didn't have the flu shot let. I kind of thought that I had missed all that and was thinking that we would be able to avoid that shot all together this year, but the dr. quickly pointed out that we are just starting to get into the thick of flu season and it would be most beneficial for JP to have the shot. After that she asked if I would like him to get it...well, who can say no to that???? So JP got his flu shot. Having your child get a shot is something you have to mentally prepare for and I was not prepared. Boy was I glad that before JP could even get the scream out that the shot was done and he stopped midstream and nothing came out, not a peep, nada!!! The only reaction we had was a big open mouth ready for a yell, but then nothing!!! Whew!!! That was close.
Height: 34 inches (25-50%)
Weight: 28lbs 11 oz (25%)
He checked out great with all the milestones they look for and everything went smoothly. Thankfully at the 2 year check up there generally aren't shots and I was so relieved, but as the dr. was looking at his chart she noticed that he didn't have the flu shot let. I kind of thought that I had missed all that and was thinking that we would be able to avoid that shot all together this year, but the dr. quickly pointed out that we are just starting to get into the thick of flu season and it would be most beneficial for JP to have the shot. After that she asked if I would like him to get it...well, who can say no to that???? So JP got his flu shot. Having your child get a shot is something you have to mentally prepare for and I was not prepared. Boy was I glad that before JP could even get the scream out that the shot was done and he stopped midstream and nothing came out, not a peep, nada!!! The only reaction we had was a big open mouth ready for a yell, but then nothing!!! Whew!!! That was close.
First Casualty of War
It is hard to believe that we have made it nearly four years with atleast one child with no casualties, but today is the day where our streak has come to an end. There aren't too many details as I wasn't around when the tragedy occurred, but I regret to tell you that our beautiful Clemson Snowglobe is no more (sigh). So apparently here is what happened....
This morning Pratt had some time off so he volunteered to keep JP while I went to the gym. He also said that when I got back from picking Shelby up from school he would have lunch ready for us. I am sure that the morning went on as usual with those two (JP and Pratt). They played upstairs, watched some tv, and danced to some Tiger Rag. After a bit Pratt decided that he would start getting lunch fixed so that it would be ready and we could sit down for lunch together before he left for Chicago. Sometime during the food preparation all the sudden he heard some banging and glass shattering. When he went over to see what the commotion was he saw a chair where it wasn't before and the snowglobe, well, looking not so snowy...imagine, water, glitter, and teeny tiny shards of glass everywhere. Being the quick thinking father that he is, he scooped JP up and put him in his jumper and tried to clean up as best he could.
When I got home Pratt was sitting on the fireplace not moving because after he started the clean up process he realized he was standing in a glass mine field with no shoes on and JP could be heard in our bedroom playing in his jumper (thank goodness he still kind of can fit in it). Thankfully no one was hurt, but the table in our entry way looks a little empty now without the presence of the snowglobe.
This morning Pratt had some time off so he volunteered to keep JP while I went to the gym. He also said that when I got back from picking Shelby up from school he would have lunch ready for us. I am sure that the morning went on as usual with those two (JP and Pratt). They played upstairs, watched some tv, and danced to some Tiger Rag. After a bit Pratt decided that he would start getting lunch fixed so that it would be ready and we could sit down for lunch together before he left for Chicago. Sometime during the food preparation all the sudden he heard some banging and glass shattering. When he went over to see what the commotion was he saw a chair where it wasn't before and the snowglobe, well, looking not so snowy...imagine, water, glitter, and teeny tiny shards of glass everywhere. Being the quick thinking father that he is, he scooped JP up and put him in his jumper and tried to clean up as best he could.
When I got home Pratt was sitting on the fireplace not moving because after he started the clean up process he realized he was standing in a glass mine field with no shoes on and JP could be heard in our bedroom playing in his jumper (thank goodness he still kind of can fit in it). Thankfully no one was hurt, but the table in our entry way looks a little empty now without the presence of the snowglobe.
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