Growing Pains

Lately both Pen & Griff have been complaining that their legs hurt. Penelope insists that she has a broken bone (or two or three) and almost every morning she comes half-limping out of her room.

It's no wonder. She's grown almost a half an inch in the last 2 months.

And Griffin has grown 3/4 of an inch since his last doctor's appointment.

I swear I am not feeding them growth hormones.

It does make me wonder just when they'll peak. Will they grow quickly and then stay the same height forever? My mom claims this happened to her, that she was the tallest in her class and then stopped growing. Or will they keep growing until they tower about the rest of us like leggy trees?

I'll probably end up the shortest member of my immediate family. Which is just shenanigans. I'm 5'8" for goodness sake.

I am doomed to be dwarfed by my own offspring. Like my mother before me. And her mother before her (wait, no. Grandma is taller than my Aunt, so this doesn't have that much generational prescidence).

If this continues, however, then I shall forever be in the very literal shadow of my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I will have to be careful at family gatherings so as not to get stepped on.

(At this point if Penelope were awake she'd say "mama, that's just silly. You're being so hyperbolic." And she'd be right. Because that's what I do, and that's where she gets it from).

Ok, I should sleep. I have to take a group of my yearbook editorial staff to yearbook camp tomorrow. Yup. Me. Yearbook camp. Oh the irony, it BURNS.

At a Fork

Not a literal fork, mind you. But in a lot of ways we (as a family) are at a big turning point. Some of it hinges around job stuff, some of it hinges around milestones, and all of it is happening both too quickly and too slowly.

The kids are first.

With Griffin day potty trained and 70% night trained, we're completely done with diapers and pull ups. It's all undies all the time. This makes our changing table pretty useless; right now it's housing a rather large pile of stuff I should deal with but don't want to.

Our baby isn't a baby. He's not even a toddler. He's a pre-schooler. He's writing his name, speaking in large and complex sentences, and becoming increasingly independent. This is a huge transition that really snuck up on me. I feel like one minute I had a baby and now I have two kids.

Griffin wearing my wedding ring. It fits his finger. I must have skeletal fingers...

Griffin is even spending less and less time in our bed. Which is mostly good because he's enormous and is a bed hog.

At his last pediatrician appointment he was 3 feet 5.25 inches. All his 3T stuff is pitifully short and his 4T pants are starting to look more like highwaters every day. I'm going to have to start buying him 5T clothes. He just turned 3.

Sissy isn't any better. Child is outgrowing her 6s and we'll have to buy 7s for the fall. SEVENS. She's FOUR.

Does she look 4 to you???

This week she started acting camp after her 3rd dance recital (good gracious, really - 3?!). And she has a performance on Friday. After this camp, she can start participating in some of the children's theater's normal productions. Based on how much she loves camp thusfar, that's going to be a reality for us. Soon I'll have to schlep her to regular rehearsals in addition to ballet and possibly basketball (she asked to join a basketball team, I think she's got another year before she's eligible).

Besties.

If all goes as planned she'll start Transitional Kinder in the fall. She's getting taller by the second (and has regular growing pains, usually it's "mama, my leg bones hurt") and isn't gaining much weight - so she's pretty gangly.  I had to take in her recital costume because it was way too wide and I have a feeling my sewing machine is going to get lots of use as she gets older.

I am glad she's busy - making friends, having fun, exploring... I wish there were as many opportunities for the Bubs, but 3 is a hard age for extra curriculars. This summer I'll try and sign them up for swim lessons, but he won't get to do too much until soccer starts up.

I love this picture. They're sharing wearing Bryan's backpack. They really do share everything.

My babies becoming kids makes my ovaries ache. And while I really, really, really want to try for #3 ASAP (as in yesterday), we're really not in a place to make that happen. Another baby would also mean another 4+ years of childcare (we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now) in addition to all the other challenges that come with newborns and babies.

There are also a lot of really wonderful things that come with babies. Both Penelope and Griffin have asked for more siblings and babies are loves - I miss the loves. We just have to decide if all the benefits of expanding our family outwiegh the challenges and then: when could we reasonably add to the family without sacrificing more than we can afford?

Thank goodness for reliable birth control (thanks Planned Parenthood!!!!!)

There's a lot I want to do with my career. I'm taking some of the steps toward that now. Having another baby wouldn't prevent those career moves, but they would significantly delay them. I'm young, so I have time to become Empress of the World. But I still haven't decided if my career timeline or my family planning timeline triumphs.

There is always adoption - and we haven't ruled that out. If that's the route we decide to go, then we'll have to wait a few more years. We need a slightly larger place and it would be nice to have the big kids in school full time before we add a toddler into our lives (because if we adopt we'd like to adopt a toddler or a pre-schooler).

So there are options. And there's time. But if you know me or if you've been reading my blog regularly then you know that I'm not the "wait and see" type. I have to be for this, but it is sometimes frustrating to not know what I want and then not know the best way to get there.

The other fork in our road is job related, but not mine. Nothing is set in stone so I don't want to jinx anything (yes Neil deGrasse Tyson, I know I know), but Bryan does have some possible opportunities on the horizon that are both exciting (because yea change!) and scary (because boo change!). They are 90% exciting. The 10% scary has more to do with not knowing exactly how things are going to pan out rather than scary about the specific change.

I COULD be more vague, but I'll spare you.

Suffice it to say, this will be an eventful summer.

Speaking of which, I have 80% of tomorrow's summer lesson plan completed. Time to finish the rest.

Shoulda Named her Penthesilea

Look it up ;)

Today was Penelope's annual well-child visit and she is practically perfect in every way. She may have some seasonal allergies, so we're going to try children's Claratin and see if it helps. Other than that, she's healthy and on or above where she should be.

She impressed her Ped by writing her name without prompting and drawing a heart (it can be argued that she draws a better heart than most of my 9th grade students. Seriously). I credit both Mr. Pencil Saves Doodleberg & her daycare for giving her plenty of opportunity to practice drawing. She does have some natural talent (Bryan is, after all, an artist) and we do encourage her to draw and write at home. Luckily for us, she loves to practice drawing objects and practice spelling words.

She took her flu shot like a champ. Some crying, but it was over quickly and she was able to comfort her brother who also received the flu shot (amusing side note, the nurse initially brought in the 3+ year old vaccine for him, thinking he was over 3). Next year she gets 4!!!! shots. Not looking forward to that one.

She's 41.0 pound and 43.5 inches. Here's a link to a growth chart for Caucasian females.

Notice that the "average" height is around 40 inches. Penelope's height places her above the chart for her age, although that just means that she's taller than 95% of girls her age, not that she's a giantess.

She's always been tall (well, except at birth I guess, Griffin was our Stretch-Armstrong) and if this trend continues - and we have no reason to believe it won't, she's been in this percentile for a very long time - then she may end up being close to 6 feet tall. Hello volleyball!

In other Squish-erella related news, her Winter Dance Recital is in 2 weeks. It's pretty informal, but she's still really excited about it. I'm also looking into preschools for next year, although (and I know I've debated this before) if her day-care is doing a lot of preschool curriculum, then it doesn't make a ton of financial sense to put her into preschool. I'll keep looking into it, but we haven't decided exactly what we want to do.

I do know that I want to try and get her into a really wonderful Charter school in Monterey... the bilingual school in our area doesn't have full-day Kinder, and we really need her to be in full-day Kinder once she's old enough. This place does have full day, PLUS they have an amazing curriculum that is WAY ahead of the curve. I think she'd thrive there.

In holiday related news, the kids do have gift "wish lists". Please do not feel obligated to get the kids a gift this holiday season. However, if you choose to - I can guarantee that they would love and play with very single item on their list. If you prefer to get clothing, Griffin is in a 3T, Penelope is in a 6.

Griffin's List
Penelope's List

Diva Penelope - Photobucket won't let me reduce the size. Annoying.

Graduation and stats

Today I measured the babies (and I use that term very, very loosely).

Griffin is 32inches & 26.5lbs (with diaper) and Penelope is 39inches and 33.1lbs (with diaper).

So not too much growth since the last time I measured them a few months ago. G's gained some weight and is really close to P's 1 year stats. They're the same height but she outweighed him by just a smidge.

Also? I graduated Sunday. It was nice to walk, although the ceremony was... ok I guess. The guest speaker was 2007's CA Teacher of the Year and his speech was... ok I guess. Meh, whatever.

The VERY BEST part of the day was when I was shaking the hand of the University President after they announced my name. It went like this:

University President: "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Tina Fey?"
Me: "I get that sometimes."
UP: "Well, you really do. Congratulations on your Masters."

Kick ass.

Griffin's first well-baby check

Today was Griffin's 1st well baby check. It was later than normal for a few reasons, all of which revolve around insurance. Long story, won't go into it. Suffice it to say he now has insurance and we took advantage and took him in to the Ped today.

He's 29.25 inches and 21.4 pounds. Here are his charts:

Length


Weight


He got 2 shots as well. Didn't bat an eye for the first and then screamed after the second (the pneumonia ones are apparently the worst). He did great overall though, such a trooper!

5 month birthday

So Griffin turned 5 months old last week and I neglected to post about it on the day. Oops!

But better late than never, right?

At 5 months G is 28.5 inches and ?? lbs. We haven't gotten him weighed yet this month. Hopefully I'll be able to schedule his first pediatric appointment in the next week or two. He needs to get started on his shots.

Here's his length chart:


And his weight chart from last month:


In other news, tooth #2 made its appearance today! Hopefully we get a bit of a break before the next set, I'd like to get some sleep!!

He's stating to sit up now, not on his own just yet, but close. I think by 6 months he'll be sitting up all by himself!

We also started some solids, avocado mixed with breastmilk. In a few days we'll intro green beans, and go through the veggies before starting with fruits. No cereal this time around. Maybe later.

Here's a recent picture:

Penny @ 21 months

So Kaiser wanted Poe to come in at 21 months for her 2 year check-up. Weird, but whatever.

She's 37 inches and 31.8 pounds - so about the size of an average 3 year old. Here are her growth charts:

Weight:


Height:


She meets and exceeds all of her milestones. She's got about 150 words and puts them together in two word sentences. She goes up and down stairs and is right on track motor-skills wise. I credit gymnastics with bringing her back to where she needs to be.

She didn't enjoy her appointment at all and clung on B the whole time (I wasn't there and I really missed being able to make all her appointments). We don't have to go back for another year!

The end of August

I have a few seconds so I figured I'd update.

Penelope:
She probably has a vocabulary of 100 words right now. She adds to it every day. Now, she doesn't use all those words everyday, but she's got a lot of them. About a dozen or so she uses *with* her signs which makes me quite happy. I want to get her into a signing program so she can use sign more often. One of my biggest hopes for both kids is that they're fluent in sign. I'd also like for them to be fluent in Spanish but I don't know enough to speak to them exclusively in Spanish... I use as many words as I know. I really should finish up my Rosetta Stone program.

Anyway, she's started climbing - but not Gus or Orson style (Gus & Orson are friends of hers). Just little climbs, and I'm ok with that. She's a little cautious, which I'm also ok with.

She loves loves LOVES to dance. She's got quite a few "moves" in her dance repertoire, and it's pretty hilarious.

She also loves to help. She enjoys wiping G's face with the burp cloth, covering him with a blanket, washing her hands, putting stuff in the grocery cart, etc. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and she spent the entire time helping me put things into the cart. It took a little longer than normal, but she had a lot of fun. She was also running between Bryan and I so she got in a fair amount of exercise, our grocery store is warehouse sized.

Griffin:
Still waking up 3 times a night, but since we're still cosleeping I can just nurse him back to sleep. He's going to be tougher to get to sleep on his own since he's not at all interested in trying to self soothe, but we'll deal. He's a cuddler which is both sweet and annoying. Sweet when we're falling asleep and annoying in the middle of the night when I want to change sleeping positions.

He's also a chatter. Man that kid can talk. "Squeak, squeak, squeak" all day long.

He loves to sit up, and attempts to launch himself out of his baby chairs (other than the Bumbo, he can't escape from that). He also loves his sister, most of the time when he laughs he's laughing at her.

No teeth yet, but he's teething like crazy. He's super drooly and still a spit up machine.

We're still nursing and we'll see what my supply does. We've made it to 4 month + some and that's a great accomplishment for us both.

My camera battery died so no pictures now, but I'll charge it and take some more. They're getting huge. G is in 9-12 month clothes and Poe is still 3-4T depending on the outfit.

4 months

Well, at 4 months Griffin is 28 inches and 15.5 lbs. Not quite as big as his sissy was at this age, but still pretty big (well, long) for 4 months.

He *loves* to sit up and he's still pretty terrible at it. He tries to sit up in the bath, while playing with toys (not that he's very interested in toys), sometimes while nursing... speaking of nursing, we're still going strong. Still supplementing of course, but we've made it 4 months and I consider that a huge accomplishment.

He doesn't nap very well, but nights are ok. He wakes up 3-4 times a night but goes back to sleep pretty quickly once he has nursed, and since we co-sleep I don't have to get out of bed! I was hoping to have him in the crib by now but Penny isn't at all interested in transitioning into her big-girl bed. I'm hoping that once he's in a crib his night waking will get better - or stop completely. I know, I know, wishful thinking.

3 month growth charts

So obviously last month when I guesstimated Griffin's weight by subtracting my weight from our combined weight on a bathroom scale I was way off. Way. Otherwise G only gained 6oz in one month which I refuse to believe - it's infinitely more likely that last month's measurement was wonky.

Regardless, he hasn't gained as much as I'd like. I was really hoping he'd be close to 15 lbs. Hopefully he'll be there next month. I really hate worrying so much about his weight - just when I think breastfeeding is getting easy I feel like I get set-back with more issues. I wish this whole thing was easier...

At least he's growing UP like he should. Or rather, like a weed. 27" is pretty long for a 3 month old.

So here are the charts:

Weight


Length

Unofficial stats - G at 2 months

25 1/8 inches
13 1/2 pounds

Length:


Weight:

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

Formula

We ran out of donated milk so G has been getting formula bottles when we supplement. G's digestive system is not a fan of this brand, so today we bought a different brand tonight in the hopes it helps. He definitely prefers breastmilk though, but what baby wouldn't? On breastmilk he's less fussy, less gassy, his poops aren't as smelly, and his bum doesn't get so red. I'm really hoping these formula issues are due to the brand and not formula in general otherwise we're in for a LONG year of supplementing.

In completely unrelated news, it looks like I'll get to do my student teaching at El Camino - woot! It will be neat to teach at my Alma Mater... especially since some of my old teachers still work there.

Oh, and at 6 weeks G is 24.5 inches and 11.11 lbs. So he's grown 2 inches in 6 weeks - and is in size 3-6 months!

18 months and 6 weeks

So Monday Penelope had her 18 month appointment. She's 30lbs and 35", her head is 19.5" around - in the 97% on all counts. The Pediatrician evaluated her walking and posture and doesn't think physical therapy is necessary, the exercises we've been doing at home seem to be working quite well. Bryan and I have noticed a difference already so we'll continue to do what we're doing. She starts gymnastics next week and that should help as well.

Language and motor skills wise she's right on track. Her vocab gets larger every day - she has over 15 signs and half a dozen words that she uses regularly. She repeats more words, but doesn't use them all the time so those are harder to count and keep track of.

She's doing really well with Griffin - she really loves him. She enjoys showing him off and giving him kisses.

Speaking of G, his 6 week check up is tomorrow (with the midwives). We'll hopefully get the approval for Healthy Families this week or next so we can make an appointment for a Pediatrician and get him his first round of shots. No hurries though, shots aren't fun. He's getting so huge, I've had to pack away all his 0-3 month clothes and his 3 month jumpers are too small! Luckily his 3 month onesies still fit, but when it comes to footie pajamas he's in 6 month size.

We're still nursing - and still supplementing. He gets about 1/2 from the bottle and 1/2 from me. I stopped pumping and am still on the domperidone... we just ran out of donated breastmilk so we're on formula now. He seems to be gassier on formula, so we may have to experiment with different brands.

My decision to continue nursing is day by day at this point. Last week I passed the mark where I gave up nursing with Penelope - I'm happy to have made it to 6 weeks, but still very disappointed that we're having to supplement. Some days I love breastfeeding and other days I hate it. But I'm not quite ready to give it up... so we'll nurse until one of us is done. I'll probably be ready to stop long before he is, but who knows. Our situation is what it is, and no amount of wishing is going to make me produce enough milk to feed him on my own...

Our nursing struggle, plus all the aches and pains of pregnancy, the post-pregnancy body issues, and the lovely no-sleep newborn phase have made me very glad that this will be our last baby. Don't get me wrong, I love Griffin and am glad we have him - but I'm also glad that his baby stage is our last. We have two beautiful, healthy, and happy children - we're very lucky and very happy with the size of our family.

There's a lot more I wanted to talk about, but typing around a sleeping baby is difficult so I'll end here. I hope to be able to update semi-regularly now that Griffin is slightly less needy. Of course I'll be student teaching in the Fall so that will make opportunities to post even more scarce.

Too big

Penelope is now solidly in size 3T - at 17 months.

Griffin in now solidly in size 3months and fits 3-6 month clothes... they're all too wide for our skinny dude, but length-wise they're perfect. We also had to move up the straps in his car seat and his newborn hat doesn't fit anymore. He's 24 days old.

We have seriously big kids.

Pictures and Growth Chart

So as promised, here are some pictures of Griffin and his growth charts. Most of these pictures have already been posted on Facebook.

Length:


Weight:

Owls and 39 weeks

The owls are done!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Sarah for letting me borrow her sewing machine today, I was able to get them finished during Penny's nap and after dinner. Here's a picture (and they look 100x better in real life, the camera doesn't do them justice - especially the yellow/orange one).



So one more thing to check off the list.

I also found out today that I passed TPA 1, which is super awesome. Now I just have to work on TPA 2. It's a lesson plan and I've always gotten high marks on those, so I'm not too worried. I do have to make some calls and e-mail people in order to figure out how they want me to submit the TPA... I should have e-mailed the lead professor on Monday, but it was one of those days. And then Tuesday just *sucked*. Bryan got some really bad news at work and I don't think I thought of school at all. I should have done it today, but I finished the owls. Excuses, excuses.

Tomorrow my Dad has Penny for the morning/afternoon so I'll be able to focus on school stuff. It's so much easier to work on school work when I'm not at home (I hit up Starbucks and spend the morning in their very uncomfortable chairs).

Anyway, TPA 2 is tomorrow's priority.

Tomorrow also starts the 39th week of pregnancy. So it's time for comparison pictures.

39 weeks with "&"


And 39 weeks with Penelope


Not quite the same angle, so it's hard to get a real comparison... but at 39 weeks with Penelope I wasn't interested in standing unless absolutely necessary. I'm much more active this time around, but probably only because I have to be - Penny doesn't let me lounge around in my sweats. She's so demanding :D

Speaking of which, here's a picture of her from Tuesday. Bryan's grandma sent her this really cute dress and I figured since we didn't have anyplace fancy to wear it, we might as well make Tuesday Dress-Up Day.





Sometime this weekend I need to go through P's closet and pack away all of her 24 month sized clothing. They don't fit at all - they're all much too short (although not too tight). Some of her 2T stuff is also a little small... today she wore a 3T outfit and it fit quite well. She's still mostly in 2T, but any new clothes we buy will have to be 3T. She's getting so big so fast!

Her next Pediatrician appointment is at the end of May and I wouldn't be surprised if she was close to or slightly over 36" by the time we go. I need to get her one of those wall hanging measurement thing so we can keep track at home.

Should be very interesting to see how the two kids compare growth-wise...

She's how tall?!?!?!

Our prediction? 33 inches, 29lbs.

Ha. Hahahahahahaha. Boy did we ever underestimate our Amazon princess.

34.25 inches.
(28.8lbs)

Yeah, you read that right. 34.25 inches tall. A week shy of her 15 month birthday.

Holy Lasso Of Truth Batman!

Here's her charts, the first is height and the second is weight:



Everyone said, "oh, she'll slow down" and "this growth pattern can't last"

Yeah. Uh huh.

I'm sure she WILL slow down. But I'm also willing to bet she'll hit 36" before her 2nd birthday. She'll probably hit it by 18 months... even with a slow down.

Of course, I could be wrong. She could hang at 34.25 inches for a few months. But I just really don't see that happening. Only time will tell! Bryan is convinced she'll be at least 6 feet by the time she's done growing.

It'll be interesting to see how baby #2 grows in comparison to his/her sister. If I end up as the short one in the family I'll be pissed. I'm 5'8" for goodness sake! Oh well, at least I'll always be taller than my mom :D

In unrelated, but super awesome news - I put Penny to sleep drowsy (but awake) in her crib after a 3 lullabies and she went to sleep on her own! She let out a halfhearted cry when I closed her door, but I haven't heard a peep from her since then. Score. It's probably because she napped for all of 30 minutes today (which sucked), but at least bedtime wasn't a hassle. Bryan is playing softball tonight so I was on my own - and I'm very thankful she made it easy for me. The Belly and I aren't really up for a long bedtime fight.

Tomorrow is another packed day (well, for me) I have a giant paper to write and Penny gets to spend the day with Grandpa. I'd rather hang out with her and my Dad, but homework calls. I'll be so happy when I'm done (and then I'll probably complain about how much I miss the world of academia - never satisfied am I).

Alright, time to work on some of this paper so tomorrow's task isn't so daunting.

Oh wait, I lied. Her new pediatrician! I really like her. She's due with her first child a week before "&"'s due date :) Penny seemed to like her, and didn't freak when it was time for the exam (like she did with our old pediatrician, although he was a man so that may have been why). I also brought her doctor's kit (which she loves to play with) so she had her toy stethoscope, thermometer, and other random doctor's toy. Her ped listened to her heart with the toy stethoscope and then used the real one, and that put Penny at ease. She also let Pen play with her light-thingy (yeah, I'm technical).

When the pediatrician switched the light to green, Penny said "verde"! Super score! We've been working on our colors (in Spanish) for a few weeks. P's gotten good at recognizing verde and rojo (green and red). So I was super proud of her.

The Ped is impressed with P's skills, especially her signs. Although she does want us to watch her verbalization since Pen was saying a half a dozen words and has stopped since she started walking (she still speaks, but her vocabulary is halved and it's mostly babbling). The Ped isn't super worried, but just wants to make sure she stays on track.

Pen is on schedule or above on everything else. We go in again at 18 months.

She also said we can flip her to forward facing if we want, but I'm not comfortable with that yet so we're waiting until Penny outgrows her rear facing carseat. In the seat we have now she can rear face until 35lbs OR 36 inches. So we'll have to flip her around in 1.75 inches - sooner than I would have liked. I really wanted to wait until she was 2, but we can't really afford to buy a new carseat and I don't want to exceed the manufacturer's specifications.

Ok, that's really all for now.

And so it begins...

I have reached the point in my pregnancy where a full nights sleep is a beautiful, wonderful, magical impossibility. This baby, like his/her sister is a mover and when you combine that with a squished bladder and a 13 month old who comes in to sleep with us at 2am (and who is also a beg hog) then you get a mommy who gets very little sleep at night.

And a mommy who has to pee every 30 minutes.

Penelope's night wakings continue. It's all teething related, although some of it might be habit at this point. She was doing really well with sleeping in her crib from 8pm-7am every night before these two top molars started making their way in. I could just put her back in her crib when she wakes up and stand there until she falls back asleep, but I get so little sleep anyway that it's just easier for me to bring her into bed with us.

Soon (hint, hint Bryan) we'll have her new room ready and then I can lay down next to her until she goes back to sleep and then come back to bed. We're foregoing a toddler bed in favor of a Queen sized bed which will hopefully help with her night waking as well. She moves around so much in her crib (and she's really outgrown the darn thing) that I'm convinced she wakes herself up.

Hopefully "&" will be a little on the smaller side (i.e. normal sized for his/her age) and less of a wiggler - but that may just be wishful thinking.

Speaking of size. I've had FOUR people in the last TWO days tell me "Oh wow, your daughter is so BIG for her age". Yeah people, I know! 32 inches is far from average at 13 months, she's tall. I get it. She's not the tallest baby ever, but she's pretty far above average.

Ok, break time is over - back to homework! I WILL get all of this week's work done today - and I'm planning on getting at least half of next week's work done as well. Wish me luck!

Growth update

Here's P's growth charts:





So at 12 months she's 27.1 lbs & 32 inches!