5 months

5 Months have already flown by!

How he felt about tummy time this day.

He has been mostly a content, happy baby unless he is tired or hungry. He is super smiley and laughs especially when Isabella plays with him. It has been fun to watch him watch her this past month. He loves splashing in his bath and playing in his play gym. I packed up the packnplay in our room this month. He had been in his room for a month or so, and I was just delaying putting it away, but then I was ready to have the space back. It is crazy how fast the past 5 months have gone by and how long and short the time has felt. Happy 5 months Benjamin! You bring me so much joy!

Celebrating three

My mom's birthday is the day before Isabella's. We had lunch that day for the September family birthdays, Michael, Mom and Isabella.

 Michael stayed home for birthday pancakes the morning of her birthday. He added some sprinkles to # 3 pancake for extra fun.

 She wanted a carriage car for her my little ponies and a "spikes" (a character on MLP). But she said her favorite present we got her was her new pinky pie toothbrush.

 Practicing her #3 fingers the morning of her birthday...still some work to do there. :)

I had asked her if there was something special she wanted for dinner and she said "chips and cheese and peanut butter and crackers".  We went out to Alfredo's for dinner (no peanut butter and crackers- but she didn't mention it.) She loves their sopaipillas!
Three!! It is hard to believe! 

isabella's tea party

We had Isabella's birthday the Saturday before her birthday on Monday. When I asked her who she wanted to invite she just named grandparents. So we kept it to just family this year, and she had one friend come. I have yet to brave a big friend birthday party. Many years for that, I guess. I decided to do a tea party for her. 

I didn't want to spend a lot so I tried to use things we already had.  I used my china and some of my mom's, and decorations from her other parties.

My mom makes number sugar cookies for each birthday. And speaking of my mom- as I was getting things ready early the morning of the party, my dad called to tell me he had taken my mom to the hospital that morning for heart attack symptoms, that they were running tests and going to keep her overnight, and she wasn't going to make it to the party. He said she was adamant that she wanted things ready for the party before they went to the hospital. So she had all of the things she was bringing together and called my sister to come pick them up from her house and bring them to me. So my sister spent an extra hour driving to get the things for me, and my mom worried about having it ready when really she just needed to go to the hospital to be checked out. I cried in the shower because I was sad my parents couldn't come, and worried if things were OK. And for a minute I felt really old to be hosting my kid's birthday party without my parents and it made me think about a day when they won't be around to celebrate important milestones with us and it made me very sad. Dramatic much? This is what sleep deprivation does to me. :) Anyway, my in laws rushed to come over early and were such a big help, and my sister came and helped, and it all came together in the end.

Tea pot and tea cup cupcakes

Isabella told me the night before that the party needed blowers.

For the tea party we had hot ham and cheese sandwiches, a veggie plate, cream cheese stuffed strawberries, mini blueberry muffins, lemon cookies, a cheese ball, pretzels (per isabella's request), and nutella sandwiches. Strawberry lemonade, water, and tea of course!

The girls' "tea" was strawberry lemonade. Isabella loved pouring it herself. 

Opening her gifts...just a little bit excited! 

Nana and Great Grammy                                            The boys sat at their own "tea table"

Cake time! When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted she said she just wanted to have ice cream. So she licked some of her icing and ate her ice cream.

Everything turned out great, and she had a great time. She told me twice it was "the best party ever". I couldn't have done it without everyone's help. Many thanks to everyone who made her day special.  Happy Birthday baby girl! 

Great State Fair

We went to the state fair for $3 Tuesday. The Roberts were already planning to go so we arranged to meet up. We were about to get in line to get our tickets when someone got on a loudspeaker saying everyone needed to take cover for a storm that was coming. We were not to be detoured. We waited it out in the car and then went in. Isabella was happy about all of the rain puddles. We were going to see the Mutton Bustin' but it was rained out. We went to see the pigs racing, but their sound system got damaged in the rain storm, so they canceled. But the food did not disappoint. That's mostly why we were there anyway, right?! Michael got a chicken burrito. We shared some Wisconsin cheese and a cinnamon roll. And lastly some chocolate bread pudding. We scaled back from some past years.

Collecting apples, pumpkins, and eggs from the "farm".

She turned in her basket of goods and got paid. You could buy a piece of candy or a blue ribbon with your dollar. She picked the candy, of course.

Benjamin was happy as could be.

Until the very end, and then he got a bit hangry. No fair food for him this year- next year my son! :) 

I asked Isabella what her favorite parts of the fair were and she said "playing the farmer and splashing in the puddles and seeing the donkey with flower".  My dad took Isabella back to the fair the next day on "Senior Citizens day" and they got to see the pig races, and he said she ate 2/3s of their massive cinnamon roll. And on the way home when they drove past frontier city she said "Papa! I think you've been wanting to take me there for a long time!" Haha!

We got  tickets to Wicked for our anniversary gift to each other. It seemed like a while ago, but the time came fast. We had reservations to a new place for dinner but after reading the terrible reviews on Urbanspoon we decided to cancel the day of and go to 501. It is consistently good!! Although, our service was a different story. 

We got to have a fun night out with the Anderson's and it was fun to leave the house with clean hair that was dry (AND fixed), shaved legs, a tiny purse, heels, and no diaper bag!! :)

        Michael pretending to be Glinda....nice.

My sister kept Benjamin, and Izzy stayed with her grandparents overnight. I knew he was in the best hands, but I was still a bit worried about him as he doesn't really like bottles and I would be gone for a long time. But I got a great update that all was well he drank all his bottle, right as the show was starting. The show was great, I had forgotten a lot about the storyline, and the singing was awesome. Many thanks to our great babysitters!

 I told Isabella Friday night when I was getting her ready for bed that she was going away on a sleepover the next day. I told her I would miss her but she would have a lot of fun. And she cupped her hands around my face and said very sweetly, "Don't be sad my dear. I will come back and you will lots of fun here with Daddy while I'm gone." It was so sweet and it made me laugh so much! :) I'm ready to have her home.

And in unrelated news, we went to the store after church this morning and the honeycrisp apples were back!! So happy about that! They are the best apples.  :)  I love fall!

September catch up

September is already almost 1/2 way over! So here are the highlights thus far:

OCCC arts festival
We began the month with our annual trip to the OCCC arts festival. Isabella had her first big face painting done. She sat so still while the guy did it!

And that night when I put her to bed, she said, "I loved being a butterfly today. Thank you, Mama."
And that made it worth every dollar it cost. :)

We just stayed for a little bit of the philharmonic, which she really enjoyed, before heading home. I would have loved to stay for the fireworks, but she's still not back to herself since being sick and its better for everyone involved to not push it too much!

Saturday morning waffle making

Meeting baby Catherine.
My sweet friend, since elementary school, had a baby this month. I didn't even try not to cry when I walked in the room. I couldn't help it. After 3-plus long years of heart break and prayers for a baby... my heart was so happy and full to see her holding her baby girl in her arms.

We went to the farmer's market and children's hospital the 1st thursday of the month. We didn't find much, but did check out the butterflies, bubble walls, eat lunch at KAMPS 1910, and played at the awesome outdoor children's park. Who knew there was so much fun to be had in a hospital? They redid the hospital in between when I had Isabella and Benjamin, and my dad asked me when he came to meet Benjamin if I'd seen the beautiful butterflies in the lobby...Um, no. I was, pretty much about to deliver my baby in the lobby and didn't really  notice anything. So it was nice to walk back through there without that preoccupation! Haha!

Playing at the park

Michael turned 32!  
I've now known Michael longer than I haven't. Isabella was excited for Daddy's birthday because she has all the family birthdays memorized and knows that means hers is coming up soon.

 Out to lunch for Michael's birthday. My attempts at a picture of him and the kids...BAHA!

Return of football
This means the seasons will change soon and Michael will run around the house OU Drum major style playing loud band music and getting everyone pumped for the first game of the season.

Its been near impossible to get a picture of both kids together without one of them being blurry.

First pigtails

First game day tailgating 

Lastly, the first week in September Isabella developed this crazy awful rash that started out looking like tons of mosquito bites then changed into connected welt looking things and she itched like crazy. After seeing pictures the Dr said it was either left over from the original virus or due to a different one and there's really no way to know. Then this week, the skin on her fingers started peeling off. This concerned me because it was a "second phase" symptom of one thing the Dr had thought she might have had, but had ruled out. I called the Dr and they wanted me to bring her in. I did, and when they were checking her out, the Dr heard a murmur in her heart. She said this could be due to a few different things, and probably not a big deal but we needed to rule out it being something that would be concerning. Long story short- she called a cardiologist at children's hospital who wanted Isabella to come in for an echocardiogram and blood work. Of course, Michael was gone on a work trip while this all happened. I was completely freaked out about the blood work, because I for one can't handle needles myself, and the last time she had blood work done when she was a baby I had to restrain her while she screamed and flailed and it.was.awful. Thankfully, Michael's dad was with me taking care of Benjamin while we were at the Dr and he drove us to the hospital for the tests. Michael's mom met us there to help take care of Benjamin while we took her back for the tests. Then my sister came, not knowing anyone else was coming. And then my mom decided to leave work to come. So we had quite the entourage for my girl, and I was fully supported even with Michael being gone. It was a stressful, scary day, but she did great with the blood work- my sister was there to sing songs and be a distraction, and Isabella did not even flinch when they put the needle in and just watched them fill the viles of blood while I had my eyes closed! Crazy girl! I was exhausted when we got home and Beth brought dinner to us that night so we wouldn't have to think about cooking even though she is in the height of her busy season with tax deadline and Paula stayed to help me with the kids and getting ready for bed. I was again so thankful for the support and love of our family and friends. It takes a village. And I'm so grateful for mine.

The blood tests all came back great with no concerns and the Dr called the next day to let me know her heart looked great also. So, for now everything is well, it is just taking a really long time for the virus to clear out of her body, and thus these continued strange symptoms. I'm ready for her to be back to normal and 100%. 

I'm also thinking I should just be prepared for something to go down during Michael's next business trip. Our house gets struck by lightening, Isabella gets sick, birds fly in our house, I lock us out, Isabella has to go to the hospital for tests...the track record has not been great so far...

Here's to good health and fun adventures for the 2nd half of September!