Christmas Carol and Hail

Dana found out that The Christmas Carol train was going to be in town so we took the kids to that. 2 hour wait before we finally got to tour the train! Karalee was so awesome, she waited patiently the whole time and just amused herself with the "snow" aka bubbles that they had blowing. Alastair was snuggled up so he was fairly content for the most part. He did have a massive blow out so I had to change him on the side on the train, yeah that was yucky yucky yucky! This kid blows out like no kid I've ever met lol.

After we got done touring the train which show cases pictures of the actors in various ages as they play several characters and they show you how they get the actors facial expressions recorded for animation-which was pretty neat-we met up with our friend Monica and her son Cole for lunch. Then we began the long trek back to my work-it's not bad unless you're carrying some *ahem* extra weight aka kids which makes it seem like a much longer walk lol. Karalee rode on Dana's shoulders most of the day and had a blast up there, she did walk part of the way back and had fun in the park area of the capital running after birds and squirrels.

Cute Alastair trait, I don't know if I've shared this or not but he does this cute chin quiver that makes his cheeks quiver too when he's not sure of something and it's so stinking adorable!! I smile every time, between that and his concentration frown those are my favorite things he does that I know he'll outgrow. He's smiling a ton more and you can tell he's dying to let loose a laugh, he lets go with this "hunh hunh" now and I love it!

Karalee came up to me a few days ago after she woke up and went "Night night all done." She's combining words more and more and she's learning to express herself better all the time! She's learning to tell us if she's scared, okay etc and I love that! She's started showing more interest in her stuffed animals, at least to haul them to other rooms anyway lol.

We've had several days of tornado warnings and funnel cloud sightings lately, on Sunday we had several very low wall clouds and it looked like one was going to funnel but it didn't. Naturally the sirens are going off so all of us on our block are outside staring at the sky like numbskulls looking for a funnel lol. Karalee slept thru most of it but did wake up a little scared when it started dropping hail. Hail was about marble size and we had a river down our street from the water!

I talked to my midwife today and they are putting me on Zoloft to help with my depression so I'm looking forward to feeling normal. It's so weird to carry this gray cloud with you, not a heavy duty one just a mild one but still. I was so dang irritable to poor Dana and I'd want to break into tears 2 or 3 times a day which is very unlike me. I've had several friends who also needed a little something to knock their depression out so I'm thankful for a solid support system. It's not something I'll have to be on forever likely which makes me feel good.


June 13, 2009
Me & Alastair in line at Union Station


Karalee waiting patiently on the second part of our wait


Karalee looking for the squirrel that was hanging out on the tree by the capital on our way back to my work where the car was.


June 14, 2009
The hail and river from our porch


Up close shot of the hail

2 Month/2 Year Check-Up

The kids had their check ups today and are doing awesome! Karalee got to stand on the "big girl" scale (which they've had her do the last couple times) and she now weighs 27 pounds (50th percentile), then they had her stand against the measuring wall-which was a first!-and she's 32 1/4" tall (25th percentile). Then they had her sit in a chair and put a blood pressure cuff on her-I had no idea they did that for kids, guess I have a lot to learn! I don't know what the numbers were but they said she's exactly where she should be. She did so awesome with everything they asked her to do! Just quietly did what was asked. She's always done well with doctors though, I'm so proud of her! They did have to give her one shot which we weren't expecting so that royally ticked her off and as she cried she kept saying "Let's Go! I wanna Go!" I felt so bad for her while I snuggled her up and rocked her. 'Course we couldn't go as Alastair still needed to be checked and have his shots-which I was not looking forward to-so she settled down once I told her she could have a little ice cream for being such a big girl.

Alastair did great as well, I have the best kids I really do! He surprised the doctor with how strong his legs are-he stands really well-and his neck/head control, doctor said he wouldn't expect it to be this good until 4 months so I got to be proud peacock mamma about my superman boy. ;-) He weighs 11 pounds 7 ounces (50th percentile) and is 23 inches tall (50th percentile), his head is 39 centimeters. He cried of course when they gave him his shots, which then made Karalee teary and I thought "Uh oh, surround sound crying here we come!" But I was able to get Karalee calmed back down before eruption and Alastair calmed down pretty fast once he got to nursing. Poor little munchkin has been sleeping most of the day and is intermittently fussy. I think his little legs are bothering him from the shots. :-( I did give both kids Tylenol afterwards and that seemed to help. Always breaks my heart when they cry.

For comparison here's how the kids compare for the same age range:

Karalee:
At birth 6 pounds 9 ounces 20 1/4 inches
2 week check up 7 pounds 6 ounces 20 1/2 inches
2 month check up 9 pounds 12 ounces 22 inches

Alastair:
At birth 7 pounds 4 1/2 ounces 19 inches
2 week check up 7 pounds 15 ounces 20 1/2 inches
2 month check up 11 pounds 7 ounces 23 inches

Zoo & More

Here's some more pictures of my loves, they're so cute it's hard to pick what to put on the blog! :-) Some of the pictures from 6/5 and 6/6 came out really grainy, somehow the incorrect setting got put on and I apologize for the grainy look. You can still see the cuties which is what's important.

It's so funny to notice the differences in the kids already. Alastair loves pacifiers, Karalee never took to them, she liked chewing on them that was about it lol. He loves to be held 24/7, she liked being held but liked her independent time-still does! Even their coloring is different, Alastair has Dana's coloring where as Karalee has mine. I also think Alastair's eyes will be changing, so far Karalee's are still blue and I'm hoping they stay blue! Karalee can sleep with noise, Alastair has to be sound asleep already or it's no go-only time that's not an issue is if I'm holding him on a walk.

On the other hand they have a lot of similarities as well. They both prefer me if their hungry or tired. At Alastair's age Karalee would melt down if I left and poor
Dana would have a wailing kid for as long as I was gone, Alastair does the same thing most of the time.

They're both so smart it just floors me how fast they learn things. Alastair can find you as you're talking and he just watches and watches, so cute! I know they're going to continue blowing me away the older they get. I may have to go back to school with them so I can keep up lol.

05/21/09
Alastair in carseat


05/22/09
Alastair in Daddy's Helper outfit, I love this one it has a bottle on the "belt" lol You can see the blow out on the outfit he was wearing in the background, hence the need for a change


05/23/09
Karalee sitting on stroller while Daddy pushes-it was really hard to catch smiles on her that day!


Here's a shot of Alastair, Karalee and Daddy


Alastair taking a snooze


Karalee on Daddy's shoulders


Alastair and Daddy getting some snuggles


Alastair, Dana, and Karalee all looking so happy


Karalee walking-she did very little walking that day


The geese have had their baby's which just fascinated Karalee so she insisted we put a picture of one on the blog


Dana and Karalee


Karalee and Dana feeding Lorikeets-Karalee really enjoyed that this time, she had a blast holding the nectar cup for them while they drank


Lorikeet on Dana's hand-they really liked him to land on him that day!


Karalee has discovered if she "sits" in Alastair's carseat on the stroller she can play peek a boo with us while we push her, little imp!


05/30/09
Karalee holding Alastair-aw sisterly loving!


I love this one, looks like Alastair is reading the book


Alastair with Daddy and about to get a kiss from Karalee


Alastair smiling in carseat-isn't he just the most kissable little guy you ever saw?!?


Alastair and Daddy


06/05/09
Karalee blowing bubbles for Daddy and Alastair


Blowing bubbles


Karalee conned Uncle Jim into playing too


Karalee running while Jim blew bubbles


Alastair looking cute as ever


Alastair


Alastair succeeds in finding his fist!


06/06/09
Karalee riding her new bike-she hasn't quite figured out how the pedals work but you don't need those for the driveway on the way down lol


Karalee and Dana


Karalee on her bike


Karalee holding her babies


Karalee napping

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Karalee celebrated her 2nd birthday with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme (he is her favorite after all) and we had a lot of her little buddies come down! She had Cole, Maile, Noah, Hannah, Hayley and of course little Alastair took part as well. She had such a blast opening her gifts and playing with everyone. She did really well opening her gifts with out too much help and was so excited when one would get handed to her. She made less mess this time with her cake-I was a little sad about that I must admit!

We've had a few questions about Alastair's name, we found the name in the baby name book and I fell in love with it so after some prompting on my part the name got to stay. :-) It's also not pronounced the way it looks, it's pronounced "Al uh stir".

05/03/2009
Karalee with Mrs. Potato Head gift from the Tennison's


Karalee showing off Mrs. P


Karalee with Dana, Hannah & Hayley are hanging out. As you can see Hayley really liked Karalee's Mickey chair she got from Alastair.


The cake I made - fancy ain't it? Lol


Karalee with Dana & her blocks from the Wenzel's. She loves those things! Is always coming up going "Buld boks????" (Build blocks)


Alastair in swing-Happy one month buddy!!


Karalee with her ice cream-mmmmmmmmmmmmm!


Alastair and Daddy


Alastair and Daddy-look how long Alastair is already!


05/07/09
Alastair hanging out on his playmat


Close up of Alastair on his playmat


Alastair and Daddy sleeping


Karalee decided to help her dad wash his Mustang after he got from his nap with Alastair. She thought holding the sponge over her face would keep the picture from happening, silly girl ;-)


Karalee getting sponge wet


Karalee supervising her dad, "Make sure you put the water in right Dad!"


05/10/09
Alastair in his Bumbo-caught the tail end of a smile


Alastair after the smile


Alastair is sleepy now


Sleepy little man after all that smiling