getting the hang of it!
Mia Claire is getting bigger every day! She really likes sitting up in her bumbo! Excuse her grumpy look – I swear she smiles!!
Just a quick medical update on Blake. Thanks for everyone’s comments and prayers on Blake’s behalf! We ended up taking him to CHOP for the “fever” situation and THANKFULLY…he is 100% NORMAL!! The diagnostician actually said he is 150% normal!! In case you are just tuning in to this – Blake has been running a fever for over 2 months straight every single night. He had no other symptoms but continued to ALWAYS have this fever. We ran through what felt like a million tests with our pediatrician and when everything came back normal – they sent us along to CHOP. I am glad we ruled out any serious problems and I’m VERY glad to know that a normal range is from 98-101 degrees! Who knew! Turns out kids are only sick if they act sick. Well duh! Thanks again for everyone’s care and concern!! We really do appreciate it!
This isn’t the best footage of Blake’s obsession with “getting flies”. We’ve had a little issue with fruit flies this summer, and ever since he loves to pretend to “get ‘em”! It is too funny! You’ll also hear a little snippit of his E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES! cheer. Again – not our best -but I’ll try to capture it better and upload!
I’m starting to have a little “mom guilt” about never dressing my little girl! She is so comfy and cozy in her sleepers (and that’s a little less laundry I have to do!) But I did dress her in an adorable outfit from Uncle Max and Aunt Bev the other day and I thought she looked darling!
Such a big helper sometimes!
Here are just a few fun pics of Miss Mia Claire. I think it brings actual, physical pain to Stephen’s eyes to see her in her bows and tutu’s but I think it’s so cute…and I’m in charge of the blog! I’ve heard that a bow is the exclamation point to a cute outfit! I tend to agree…
in her tutu from aunt amanda
We were going to have both kids go as monkeys for Halloween this year…but we decided at the last minute…that Blake was too old and mature for a monkey costume, so he should go as something much more grown-up…Handy Manny. So since we didn’t have that costume…we improvised! He looked a little more like “Bob the Builder” than “Handy Manny” so we decided to call him “Handy Bob”. We’re so creative.
Mia Claire went as a darling monkey. We did add a little to her costume too – she had to have a bow in her hair – so people would know she was a girl-monkey. And my dear friend, Amanda, made her these cute tutu skirts, so we added that too! Why not?
We had planned on making the rounds to all our relatives, but only made it to David and Jen’s. We had a ball over there and Blake even got to go REAL trick-or-treating at their neighbor’s house! However – Mia Claire didn’t enjoy Halloween so much…not at all in fact! She was SWEATING BULLETS in her costume and she cried and cried all the way to and from their house in the car. Apparantly she did NOT want to be a tutu-wearing-monkey. Who knew? Miss Picky Pants. We came home and had fun handing out candy to all the characters that came to our door!
Trying out our Halloween Costume
Handy Bob
Why am I the only one smiling?
Oh Bless her sweaty little heart!
Serious trick-or-treating
Can you see Jack? He's batman.
Getting ready to hand out candy
First time we gave him candy! Look at that tongue!
Apparantly we are making a tradition of having our kids’ first vacations at the Deckers AMAZING beach house! We took the kids to the beach a few weekends ago and had the best time! Stephen even caught two stripers (that’s a kind of fish…not a “working lady” if you know what I mean!) HA!
Mia Claire spent much of her outdoor time in the sling-she-calls “home” and Blake had a ball at the beach and going to a super-fun park. In fact – the day we brought him to the beach (wearing his new winter coat and warm gear) – he headed straight for the water as if it were summertime. He literally dove in and was SOAKED from head to toe! What was I thinking taking the crazy one near water? Needless to say – that was his last day at the water!
Not a Great picture but one of the two of them
My girl and me (yes - this is grammatically correct)
Running for the water...
BIIIIGGGG fish!
Checking out what's in the fish's mouth
This seems to be the only way I blog these days!! I’ll get one free moment and I want to blog about EVERYTHING at once….so please excuse the mess!
Blake is just as hysterical as usual. He has been doing the E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES cheer non-stop…only he says “E-A-G…whuddah whaddah whaddah!” It cracks us up! He also insists on wearing his Eagles jersey whenever it’s clean…nice. He even does the Eagles cheer when he wears his Phillies shirt…close, buddy – good try!
We have also had some funny moments with doctor visits lately. Blake LOVES the doctor! We have been running a bunch of tests on him because he runs a pretty good fever EVERY SINGLE night. So we’ve had to have blood work, ultrasounds and x-rays galore over the past couple weeks…and Blake has a ball almost every time! I was so worried about the bloodwork and we have only had one bad experience where they couldn’t find a vein and were digging in his arm while he sobbed (that was excruiating to watch)…but other than that – HE NEVER CRIES for bloodwork!! That’s better than I can do!! He is all about the reward stickers he gets at the end! Stickers are a life saver! So we tried to apply this sticker-reward concept to our food-throwing problem…our NEVER ENDING food throwing problem…and…it’s not working out…we still throw food…every meal, every day. It is super-frustrating! I love my hand-held vacuum cleaner!
Another fun thing we have been doing on the weekends is going to a pumpkin patch to ride the REAL tractor!! It is ENDLESSLY fun for Blake and he has become a pro at the routine. He would prefer to pick rocks instead of pumpkins…but that’s okay! It’s all about the tractor, really…and the cute pictures! OH! And picking up a jar of applebutter every time we go – I think it’s Blake’s new fave thing to eat!
Moving on to the latest with Mia Claire. Oh precious Mia Claire…I hate to say this – but she is a bit miserable when she’s awake. We think she is pretty colicky, so I put myself on this super crazy “elimination diet” (because she is a nursed baby) and that didn’t really seem to help at all. The diet had me eating only turkey meat (not deli turkey of course!), sweet potatoes, rice, squash and pears. I did it for about 2 weeks but she was still screaming and irritated. So we are just going to have to wait until she grows out of it I guess. The crazy thing is she is GREAT GREAT GREAT at night! She has even slept through the whole night already! She just doesn’t like to be awake very much. She literally LIVES in my new Kangaroo Korner Adjustable Pouch – we call it her “happy place”! I don’t know what I would do without it! Such a lifesaver. Mia Claire is probably the cutest most precious thing I have ever seen – I’m just excited for her to be a little happier…don’t even get me STARTED on how she is in the car!! It is painful to say the least. But I love her and she’s my baby girl – I’m happy to walk and bounce her blues away – (I do a lot of walking and bouncing!)
Oh yeah – we went back to church this morning and put Blake in the nursey for the first time ALL BY HIMSELF. I would say…it did not go well. We dropped him off and listened outside the room until he stopped crying…rather – hysterically crying. I was not leaving until he was settled – 20 mins later…we were able to leave. My friend Dawn runs the nursery and her son, Andrew, (age 13ish) came to the rescue! He started playing with Blake and talking to him and he was happy again! In fact – when we went to pick him up – he came BOUNDING toward us but then turned right back around to finish what he was playing with! That was precious – but I think I’m a little traumatized…maybe Stephen is traumatized too! We are just not “nursery” people I don’t think. We’ll work on it…I liked going back to church but couldn’t really pay attention – I was just worried about my little guy. Everyone says it gets better and easier…I sure hope so – I may start thinking about home-schooling…just kidding…that’s just a joke!
All in all I’d say things are going great and we’re having a ball with these two little blessings. Here are a few pics…
Riding the Tractor!!!
We took the kids on the boat...Mia Claire is in her happy place.
I just love this pic
Axe 'Em Jacks, Mia Claire!
This is the harness Blake had to be in for an x-ray. He was doing his EAGLES cheer the whole time!
"E-A-G whaddah whaddah whaddah..."
I clearly need to take more pics of Mia Claire – but she’s either sleeping or screaming – not very interesting in a picture – but Blake does all SORTS of things!! Hope you liked the pics!
Hey everyone! Here are some pics from our first few weeks with Mia Claire. I’m trying a new “gallery” feature so I hope everyone can see these pictures. I just can’t figure out how to allow ya’ll to view all the comments I put with each picture…Oh well! What can you do?? Here you go anyway!! We are loving every second of having 2 kids!! Blake just loves his new little sister and she seems to tolerate all his holding of her!! Thanks for checking in with us!!
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- Blake got some new sound cancelling ear phones for 4-wheeling…he likes them…a LOT!
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- Blake was testing out Mia Claire’s car seat before she arrived!
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- Some fun swimming pics before Mia Claire arrived…
