It's About Time

Connor's been needing a haircut for a while now. I decided since we were at Grandma's, we could break out the clippers and take care of it. However, he did not want ME to do it. Aunt Tin had to do it. And while she was doing it, I had to put the occasional M&M in his mouth. It was worth it to get the end result.

The Zoo Crew

As we tend to do when Brrrian, Jules and the boys are in town, we took a trip to the zoo. Connor is an old pro when it comes to the zoo, knowing exactly which exhibits he wants to check out. However, it was Riley's first trip to the zoo. As expected though, he didn't take much notice of his surroundings. When we first arrived, both Riley and Kameron needed to be fed and changed, so while we tended to their needs, Aunt Tin took Connor and Kenner into the store and let them pick out a surprise. The zoo was hosting a fundraising event in the evening, so it was closing early. We didn't find out about this until we arrived, so we had to zip through the zoo pretty fast to be sure we would see the favorite exhibits in what we thought would be limited time. As it turned out, we were there for the perfect amount of time. The older boys started getting cranky and were in need of a nap, and both babies had to be fed again just as we were getting ready to leave. While we were feeding the babes, Connor and Kenner decided to do some role playing.





















Of course I had to get a picture of our Little Monkey with some other little monkeys.

An Afternoon at the Park

Watching Connor and Kenner grow up together has been fun, even though their time together is limited due to geography. I guess it makes it that much more impressive that they get along so well - the majority of the time, anyway.

Whenever Connor goes to Grandma's house, he always asks to go to the park. Regardless of weather or time of day, he will ask. It's obviously not always feasible, but today was a perfect day to fulfill his request. We loaded the babies up in strollers and set out. Without any prompting from anyone, Connor and Kenner held hands on the way there. I'm sure years down the line it's the last thing either of them would want to do, but for now, it makes for a cute picture.

Anyone who knows Grandma knows she's about as handicapped as they come when it comes to using a camera. On our way to the park, Jules and I asked her to take a picture of us walking with our strollers. We posed and she snapped a shot, following it up by saying, "You may want to look at it to make sure I didn't cut off anyone's head." Thank goodness for digital cameras! I took one look at the picture and could barely stand up because I was laughing so hard. She managed to cut out everyone except Riley. I adjusted my camera and let her have a second try, which turned out much better.

Once at the park, the boys went crazy, running from one thing to the next on the playground. Meanwhile, I was able to catch Riley on camera with his newfound smile. He started smiling last week, right about the time I was complaining that he wasn't smiling yet. It comes at the most unexpected times though, so it's been a challenge to get a picture of it. Mere moments after I took the picture of him, he was fast asleep.

Kameron soon joined Riley in la-la land, so we were able to give Connor and Kenner our undivided attention. They had a fabulous time, chasing each other around and burning off lots of pent up energy. On the way home, they were both fascinated with a spider scooting across the sidewalk. Again, without speaking, they decided at the same time that the spider should meet it's demise.

Father's Day

Surprisingly, Connor managed to keep his Father's Day gift for Daddy a secret, unlike his gift for me a month ago. He didn't even spill the beans about the pictures of him and Riley! Daddy was pleasantly surprised to see his gifts. Connor gave him a poem he had done at school, plus the picture of our sweet boys, and a round of golf for two at a new golf course. His only request for his day was to play golf, so that's exactly what he did. Later in the afternoon though, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a family dinner.

The Bartlett Pears

The Bartlett Pears arrived in town today for a visit. Brrrian only gets to stay through the weekend, but Jules and the boys will be visiting for almost 2 weeks. Yay! We love every opportunity we're able to spend time with them, especially as the kids grow older. Watching Connor and Kenner interact with each other these days can be very entertaining. One minute they're best friends, and the next they're fighting. And boy do they egg each other on! They seem to have an unspoken pact to outdo each other every chance they get. If one is silly . . . If one is loud . . . You get the gist of it.

Sweet Boys

I've been meaning to get Riley's newborn pictures taken for a few weeks now, and with Father's Day looming around the corner, I wanted to get it done in time to surprise Daddy. I decided that if I was going to take Riley in, I wanted to get a few of the two boys together. Since Riley isn't on a set schedule yet, I was a little nervous about whether both boys would be in good moods at the same time, so before the appointment, I bribed Connor and told him I would buy him a surprise if he behaved himself for the pictures. That way, I would only have to worry about Riley's temperment. Mission accomplished.

Connor was great. He was very sweet with Riley and did what he could to keep Riley happy. For his first photo shoot, Riley was a trooper as well. However, by the time we were getting to the end, he started letting us know he was done. It made for cute pictures though. .

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.......Some for me . . . .............................................................and some for you.

Since Connor was so well behaved, I had to make good on the deal I had made with him, so once we had picked out a portrait package, we headed next door to Cold Stone where Riley watched Connor and I gorge on an ice cream treat. No fun for him, but he'll get his chance.

Tongue Tied

I will readily admit that I am addicted to the Discovery Channels. Not necessarily ALL of them. Mostly Discovery Health and TLC. Daddy doesn't understand why I like to watch shows like Trauma: Life in the E.R., Dr. G: Medical Examiner, or Medical Mysteries. He'll actually watch some shows with me, such as Moving Up and American Chopper. But he mocks me for my apparent obsession with shows like Jon & Kate Plus 8 and What Not to Wear. (He'll watch them with me on occasion, but I don't think he'll ever admit that he enjoys watching them.) I was finally able to prove that these shows can be valuable.

When I began my maternity leave, I soon came to realize all the good shows are on later in the evening. There's not much going on for daytime TV. With that said, I discovered Bringing Home Baby on TLC. It was while I was watching this show yesterday that I had an epiphane. The episode was about a couple the day after they brought their little baby home from the hospital. The new mommy was commenting that the baby was having a hard time eating. She didn't feel he was getting enough to eat because he never seemed satisfied. My ears perked up because the same thing has been going on for me. I let Riley nurse from anywhere between 1 to 1 1/2 hours, and still end up supplementing with a bottle. I just figured he had a large appetite. The girl's mom took the baby from her, took a look in the baby's mouth, and told her she guessed it's because the baby was tongue tied. Both the girl on TV and I said, "huh?" The mom pointed out that the baby's tongue was "heart shaped." My mouth fell open. I had noticed the same thing with Riley's tongue. The couple on TV made a quick trip to the hospital to have the problem taken care of while I made a quick trip upstairs to do some online searching. What I found is that if the connecting skin under a baby's tongue (a membrane called the frenulum) is short or extends too far toward the front of the tongue, it is a condition called ankyloglossia, or tongue-tie. About 4 percent of babies are born with tongue-tie. Many cases of tongue-tie correct themselves during a baby's first six weeks, as the structure of the mouth changes, and some babies learn to adjust to a tongue-tie that doesn't go away. But because tongue-tie limits the range of motion of a baby's tongue, the condition can cause problems with feeding, swallowing, and speech — not to mention licking an ice cream cone down the road. And who wants to deal with that? I put a call in to the doctor's office to see what could be done about it. I received a call back from a very unsympathetic male nurse. I expressed my concern about nursing issues and that I was almost dried up. He basically told me there was nothing to do and Riley should adapt on his own. He didn't say it quite so tactfully though. I ended up demanding an appointment with a doctor and found myself at the clinic 2 hours later. One look inside, and the doctor agreed with me that a frenotomy could be done. She referred me to an ENT surgeon downtown. Before heading downtown, I decided to attempt to take a picture of Riley's tongue. Yes, as weird as that sounds, I did. It's so cute with the heart shaped tip, and I wasn't sure if it would look the same afterwards. So . . . I made him a little mad at me so I could get him with his mouth open. As an FYI, I did NOT hurt him in any way. I know, I'm a mean mommy. The picture isn't all that great. He was kicking and screaming a bit, so it was hard to hold the camera still. With that said, just a quick trip downtown, two snips with iddy biddy "manicure" scissors, a little bit of gauze, and Riley is a new babe. I hope it does the trick.

ONE MONTH

It's hard to believe it's already been a month. Time flies! For some reason, I thought having a second child would be like riding a bike. I've done it before, so it should be that much easier, right? Oh no. It's as if the moment Riley was born, all my "how-to" baby memories disappeared. I constantly find myself thinking, "how did I do this with Connor?" Plus, these boys are completely different. It was a struggle getting Connor to eat. It still is. Like clockwork, Riley eats at least every 3 hours - sometimes more. He's gonna be a big boy. I will say the two boys have one thing in common . . . Riley is such a happy easygoing baby, just as Connor was before him. I think they get it from me. Definitely.

The Next American Idol

Connor loves to sing, and loves me to sing to him. Especially when tucking him into bed at night. He does not, however, like an audience. And if he sees the camera come out to try to catch it on film, he becomes a mute. Surprisingly, while in Texas we were in for a real treat. Not only was Connor willing to sing to us, but he actually wanted to perform for the camera as well. And so I give you the following:

False Start

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

ABC’s

Days of the Week (a/k/a The Song With No End)

Five Little Monkeys

Roley Poley (which morphs into the more commonly known Hokey Pokey)

Sharing the Love

I am continually amazed at how well Connor is adjusting to being a big brother. He's so gentle with Riley and wants to constantly give him love and attention. And it appears Riley is enamored by his big brother. Of course this is a BIG bonus for us, since it appears just by getting some attention from big brother, Riley will stop mid-fuss to stare and coo at Connor.

On the Road Again

Daddy had to take some annual leave, and since I was still on maternity leave, we decided to utilize our time off and make a trek down to Texas. It was Riley's first road trip, and he did fabulous (depending on who you ask). I think he did great, considering the fact he's not even a month old yet, plus the time it takes to drive down there. Knowing we would be in town for the weekend, Aunt Judy had the brilliant idea to drive in from Fort Worth as well. So not only did we get to spend time with Nanny, Rea, Uncle Butch, and Arba, but also Granddad, Uncle Mark, Aunt Judy, and Kiery. Score! It was great that Granddad got to meet his new namesake, but unfortunately we missed out on a photo op of the two of them together.

Nanny bought a few goodies to keep Connor entertained while we were visiting, including water guns. Honestly, I think Daddy had just as much fun as Connor did. It sometimes took Connor a while to manage to "shoot" the gun and many times had operator error problems, which gave Daddy an unfair advantage. Besides that, Daddy has MUCH more experience with guns, plus he also doubled up against Connor. No fair! Nanny's next door neighbors bought a gift for Connor as well - a Soggy Doggy. He squealed every time he ran through it.

Monkey

When I saw Riley snuggling with Daddy, an image of a marmoset or spider monkey came to mind - just an iddy biddy baby, balled up and clinging to him. And so a nickname is born. Riley is our Monkey. Plus, look at all that hair!

Mother's Day

Connor made a project for me at daycare, and was so excited about it that he gave it to me as soon as he came home on Friday instead of waiting until today. However, I still got a surprise. Daddy surprised me with a box of strawberry cream filled chocolates (anyone who knows me should know how fast I snarfed those puppies up). As usual, my request for my special day was to just keep it low key and to go for a walk.
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For dinner, we gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's with the rest of the family. When getting ready to go, I went to put on the necklace I was given on Mother's Day last year. However, it was not where it was supposed to be. I started freaking out. It had been a few weeks since I've worn any jewelry whatsoever. I tried to remember the last time I had worn it, but my brain is fried. Childbirth will do that. Temporarily, at least. I really didn't want to have to tell Daddy that the necklace was missing, especially since he still gives me flack for a necklace that was stolen while I was Mexico 5 years ago. When I mentioned it to him, however, he didn't freak out like I thought he might. Instead, he asked when I last wore it, then said we needed to get going and he would help me look for it when we got home. After we ate dinner, we sat around in the family room opening presents. Just when I thought we were done with the festivities, Daddy got up and with the help of Connor, brought a huge bouquet of flowers to me, along with a little velvet box. You can imagine my surprise when I opened that box and found my necklace in it. He had Riley's birthstone (a diamond) added to it. So sneaky! While at Grandma's, we thought it would be fun to get a picture of Riley with his older cousin, Lexi (older by almost 4 months). Lexi didn't agree.

Going Home

After being in the hospital for 4 days, I was ready to go home. The nurses started asking us the second day we were in here if we were ready to go home. Although I was sore, I felt relatively good. Also, the food wasn't all that great, so the thought of going home to one of Nanny's meals was very tempting. However, I wanted to utilize every minute our insurance covered to "rest." I use that term loosely only because the door to our room may as well have been a revolving door. Regardless of the time of day - or night - the medical staff were coming and going on a regular basis. I haven't really had much good, sound sleep since Riley was born. Surprisingly, the nurses were shocked when I would ask them to take Riley to the nursery at night so I could sleep. Seriously. They were shocked that I wanted to try to get some sleep before bringing a newborn home? I was shocked that they were shocked. Looking back, I'm thinking I probably would have had more sleep if I had gone home, but hindsight is always 20/20. Daddy got our little boy dressed in his "going home" outfit while I packed up all my stuff. I had barely zipped up my bag when a nurse showed up with a wheelchair to whisk me out to the car that Daddy had pulled up to the valet drive. We loaded everything up, and away we went . . . back to reality.