Peanut Penny

We went to a Rivercats game today.

Penelope LOVES the peanuts...









As you can see, she enjoys the shells as well as the actual peanut.

Speaking of peanuts, here's our littlest one:

An updatey type thing

Both kids are asleep and I just submitted the worst paper I've ever written so I have a little time to update. I've been meaning to write a couple of posts about a variety of things but it's so hard to find the time (I must sound like a broken record at this point).

So let me sum-up.

I'm madly in love with both of my children even though they've started conspiring to drive me crazy. Penelope's tantrums are more frequent, which isn't unusual considering her age. And really, they're not that bad... but MAN she can scream.

She can also be really sweet. She loves to share her toys with Griffin. When she pretends to make tea she'll give him some (which means she shoves the toy cup in his face, but at least she's sharing). She also loves to bury him under her stuffed animals, give him books, and give him lots of kisses. She calls him "bubba" and "dude" and will greet him with "hi dude" on occasion. It's adorable.

And he loves her too. His face lights up when he sees her - he's got a great grin and they'll spend a bit of time staring and laughing at each other. We're still waiting for his first belly laugh, but that should be soon. Penn had hers around 3 months and we're coming up on that mark for G.

Other "new" words... sign: giraffe, elephant, bird, cookie. verbal: dude, cheese, ice, teeth, meow, woof (which sounds like "ffffffff")

We've been thinking about potty training lately. Penny has asked for a diaper change on a couple of occasions and lately she's taken to coming into the bathroom when I pee and sitting on her potty chair. I have a little too much to do during the day to focus on "real" potty training, but we'll work on that this summer. We might do the naked-outdoors-for-the-weekend trick and see what happens.

Pen's moved up to the tub for her baths... she was in a duckie tub-thing that fit inside of the bathtub but she outgrew it awhile ago and it started leaking air (it was an inflatable) so we finally got rid of it. She's doing well. Her cousins come to visit the first week of July and I'm looking forward to cramming all the kids in the tub for one big splashy mess :)

Their visit should be a lot of fun. We're so glad they're coming out! They're driving all the way from Wyoming so it will be a long trip, but a fun one. Plans so far are to catch a Rivercats game, hit the beach, the zoo, Fairytale Town, and spend some time at the pool. P is going to LOVE having the kids around!

I just finished up my first class since Griffin was born. Grades will be posted by Friday so we'll see... through week 3 I have a 98% but I totally half-assed my last week's assignments and am not expecting to get all As on those. So this class might be my first B of Grad school. Or not.

I start student teaching in August (did I already mention this? I forgot). And while I'm looking forward to getting into the classroom I'm also nervous about leaving the kids for so long. Being a stay at home mom is exhausting (well, a SAHM looking for work), but I do love spending my days with the kids. Not everyone gets the chance to spend this much time with their kids at this age and I'm trying to appreciate every moment (even the screaming tantrum ones).

Ok, I should really try and sleep. Maybe Griffin will be nice and let me have 6 hours uninterrupted... he did that 3 nights ago and it was AMAZING.

The infancy stage ends, right?

I think we all know how much I love the infancy stage. But this time around I was really, really trying to enjoy it as much as I could. This is our last go around after all.

But it's hard. It gets easier every day, but it's still not easy. He nurses constantly and during the day he'll only nap while nursing. At night he'll sleep unattached for a couple hours at a time, so that's nice... but I can't get anything done during the day. Sometimes I can get a few things done (the occasional post for school or reading) but most of the time I sit on the couch and watch episodes of Bones (thanks Kim!), Cold Case, or The Daily Show. Not exactly the most productive way to spend the afternoon.

Speaking of being unproductive, Griff has decided to wake up and nurse AGAIN. So no more blogging for me.

Unofficial stats - G at 2 months

25 1/8 inches
13 1/2 pounds

Length:


Weight:

It's quiet

Penelope and Bryan are asleep, Griffin is nursing himself to sleep, and I have a giant cup of coffee.

These are my favorite mornings - I love having some "alone" time (as alone as one can be with a breastfed baby). And I enjoy mornings... I'm like my mom that way.

Anyway, it's a very pleasant way to start Griffin's 2-month birthday. Later today I'll measure him (my prediction, 25.25 inches) and see if I can find a scale somewhere. We're having problems getting him on Healthy Families, so no Pediatrician appt yet - hopefully soon. So Bubba will get to skip shots for now.

My camera is broken, but if I get my act together this morning I'll stop by WalMart on the way to P's gymnastics class and pick up a new memory card so I can take and post pictures of both kids.

Things have been busy in the Rodgers household... and will only get busier. Early next month B's brother & his family will spend almost a week with us. We're all really looking forward to the visit, we haven't seen them since last summer, the twins are 3 now and Gadge is 6! I know they'll all have fun out here, we're planning on trips to the zoo, water park, FairyTale Town, a baseball game, and maybe even Marine World! It'll be a busy but super fun visit.

School is going well for both Bryan and I - he got an A in his first class and an A- in his second class. I'm super proud of him, it's not easy to go back to school, and it's even harder to do it when you have little kids.

My class has been going ok so far - we're in week 3 so I have 1.5 weeks left (and then it's on to another class). I have 7 months left of school and then I'll have my credential and Masters. I'll be SO glad to be done. I'm tired of papers and would really love to read something that wasn't a text book. But I know that I'll eventually miss being in school, I love learning - and I even love writing paper (when the subject is interesting). So I know that at some point I'll be back in the classroom as a student, either working on a PhD or getting a second Masters. We'll see... I'm going to wait until the kids are in school (I think) :D

So I should really document a few things so I can look back when the kids are teenagers and remember how sweet they *used* to be :)

Griffin LOVES to smile at people.He also loves to "talk" and has such a manly little baby voice.

Penelope is wonderful at following directions. If I tell her to go to the nursery, she does. She puts her night-time bottle on the counter when she's finished, can grab her shoes and bring them to you, goes up to her crib and puts in her stuffed animals when it's nap-time, no longer cries for bed or nap-time, stays put when you tell her to (which is wonderful when I;m trying to load or unload both kids from the car), picks up her toys, helps feed the dog, and does 1,000 other things I can't remember right now. She's such a good listener and a sweet baby...she loves to swing, dance, and will hand you the remote control and ask for Sesame Street (yeah, I know, but we never claimed to be perfect parents).

Mama's babies

I'll just go ahead and admit it. Griffin is a mama's boy... and while Penelope LOVES her Daddy, she's kinda a mama's girl.

Considering I'm a stay at home mom (at least until I find a job or until I start student teaching), it's understandable. We spend all day hanging out - and I try and make those days as packed as possible (if only for my own sanity). Between play groups, gymnastics, the zoo, and other activities we seem to be constantly busy. This is good since it means I can tire Poe out for nap-time.

Speaking of my Po-po-potamous - my friend Kathy's blog post has gotten me a little nostalgic for Pen's baby days. Not super nostalgic (since G-man is in the same phase and I'm reminded daily about how much that phase sucks) but nostalgic in a I'd-really-like-to-look-at-comparison-pictures kind of way.

So here's our baby girl then:




And Now:




*love*

But I must say I'm so very glad she's not a newborn anymore. The newborn phase is my least favorite. I'm very glad Griffin is close to exiting said phase and to moving onto one a little less... needy. Don't get me wrong, I love my babies - but the whole constantly-attached-to-my-chest phase gets old. Fast. It doesn't help that in 1 hour Griffin generates enough heat to keep our entire house warm all damn winter. The child is seriously a generator.

And a whiner. Man he's got a great high pitched screech. His nicknames are screechy, stretch, and stinky. They're not those ironic nicknames (like calling Bryan "shorty"), they're accurate colloquial descriptions of our youngest child.

Speaking of squeaky - time to nurse and the go to bed. Night!

Nursing milestones and life after 8 weeks

Today marks Griffin's 8 week birthday - next week he'll officially be 2 months old. Today also marks 8 weeks of nursing (well, duh) but it means that I've nursed Griffin for twice as long as I nursed Penelope.

We're still supplementing and I'm still taking domperidone - and will be doing both for the foreseeable future. At this point I'm taking nursing one week at a time.

Griffin is getting stronger and more expressive every day. He smiles, gives little laughs, and winks :) Here's some video of him and Penelope (already posted to Facebook)



Speaking of Penelope (and video) here is some of her from 7 weeks ago (also already posted to Facebook)



She really loves him, hopefully that lasts :D

School is ok for me so far, I seem to be juggling it all well - we'll see how the rest of this class goes. I have 100% in the class through week one.

I have a lot more I wanted to say but the babies need me...

Growth charts

So the site where we input the kids' charts is back up, so here's both kids' growth charts.

Griffin Length


Griffin Weight


Penelope Length


Penelope Weight

Just a few seconds

Class started yesterday (for me) and it's quickly becoming the straw that broke the camel's back. So I think I'm going to have to give up housework in order to keep my sanity (haha, like I've done housework since G was born - not).

But while I have a few seconds I thought I would give a quick update.

Penelope started gymnastics today. She had fun leading my Dad around (he comes with us so I can nurse G while P plays) and ended up taking a 3 hour nap that afternoon so I've decided that gymnastics is the best thing EVER. She refused to do half of the activities, but it takes her awhile to warm up to new places so in a couple of classes I'm sure she'll be all over the place.

We're going to get her into swim lessons this summer so that will be fun.

We're thinking about switching G to a goats milk based formula (I'd make it myself) but will try chiropractic work to see if that helps resolve his bowl issues before we switch again. Luckily we have some wonderful mamas who are donating more breastmilk which helps reduce the amount of formula he gets. We're so luck to have such generous friends!!!

Darn, it already almost 10. Sleep trumps the desire to update so I'm going to go to bed. I have 3.3 of my 4 assignments done for the week, but that last .7 of that 4th assignment will be writing intensive... and the rest of this class will be writing heavy as well, so it may be awhile before I have the time or energy to update. This makes me a little sad since I use this blog as a baby-book of sorts.

I'll try to squeeze in a post here or there to keep everyone updated on how the munchkins are doing...