Here we go Again...

Makenna has been complaining on and off about stomach pains for the past 3 or 4 days. I didn't think much of it as she hasn't been sick or acted sick, but last night she was curled up holding her belly right where her hernia is, then it dawned on me, this kid needs to get to the doctor. We went and she pushed Makenna's hernia back in and showed me how to do it also, but she wants the hernia gone. Seems most children who are born with umbilical hernias, like Makenna was, usually are closed up or pretty close to it before they turn 3. Makenna will be 3 in 2 months and hers is still pretty big, so we are going to see the same spacialist who did surgery on Brett's hernia tomorrow. We are hoping that the surgery can be put off until we get back from Florida, but we will have to see what the specialist says. It kills me to think of such a young kid(especially my baby) going through surgery where she will have to be put out, even worse I am dreading her waking up and them not letting me be there right when she wakes up. So this will be on my mind until we get all the details sorted out and even more so until her hernia is just a memory and hopefully a little scar.

Our little Chunk-a-monk

Emma had her first well baby doctor visit yesterday since Feburary. The doctor could not believe how much Emma is cooing and "talking" now or how well she can use her pincer finger and thumb to pick up small objects, but I think the doctor was really shocked when she weighed our little chunk-a-monk and found that she was 28 lbs!! The doctor wants us to cut back Emma's formula intake and replace 4 of her bottles a day with heavily watered down juice. Poor girl is already on her first diet. Really, Brett and I agree with the doctor, that although Emma is incredibly cute as this little round faced, blue-eyed, blond hair chubby baby her weight may not be so cute in 2 years or so, so we are doing what we must to get it under control now. But man, I hope she doesn't lose her chunky thighs, I just LOVE them. The doctor thinks Emma will slim down once she is walking full time. Although she can walk,and even took a few steps on her own for the doctor, her walking has stalled. she no longer is obsessed with walking and holds on to me or Brett for dear life when we try to let go of her. The doctor is unsure whether this stall is due to her nasty fall, or if her weight is too much for her legs. My poor baby. Makenna was super duper chunky before she started walking too, so hopefully it is that once Emma starts to walk she will slim down. Every time I take Emma to the doctor it seems like I leave with something new to worry about and obsess over. Last time I took her they told me her head hadn't grown in 2 months and if it stalled growth they would have to check into some surgery, that in the worst case scenario, would involve drilling a hole into the skull to allow her head to grow properly, thankfully her head has grown over an inch this time. Whew. So, the rest of the appointment went well. She is 29 inches long and is hitting all her milestones and is advanced in her speech, and fine and gross motor skills. The doctor also said Emma is one of the happiest and cutest babies she ever seen, that always brings a smile to my face when people say that and I happen to agree.

Lately We've Been....

Enjoying nicer weather! So, yes it was flurrying out again today, but it didn't stick and basically the weather is finally starting to feel more spring like here in New York. Lately it's been consistently about 60 degrees out, and after a long winter people in NY treat 60 degree weather like it's summertime, and our family is happy to see birds again and hear crickets too. All of Makenna's "outside" toys are back out, her sandbox is full and she has even sweet talked Papa into filling up her water table for her(which she sat in the yesterday while I was bringing groceries in the house). The girls and I try to either get to the park or spend most of the day out in the yard when the weather permits. Emma is loving being outside! It's so funny to watch her feel the grass for the first time or play in the sandbox or even to see her face when she sees worms. Makenna's favorite place to be is at the park. She is always the loudest kid there, but she amazes me at how quickly she makes a bunch of friends each time we go there (ok I have to add that every child Makenna comes in contact with she renames them Koben, she has been doing this ever since we came back from Vegas after Thanksgiving. So when ever we are at the park she will come over and introduce me to her friends who are all named Koben according to her. I just had to add this for Debbi because I swear she does this with EVERY child she has met in the past 5 months and I think it's just too funny.) Emma is still working on walking and has walked unassisted across our whole living room! About a week or so ago she took a spill and hit her face and had a big old black and blue across the bridge or her nose. It looked frightening and I took her to the doctor for it who assured me that thankfully Emma has no cartilidge in her nose yet and that she was just fine. Since then Brett is the only one who lets Emma walk unassisted, i will ABSOLUTELY not let go of her when she is walking, but I will admit that she is getting progressively better and more independent. She has also started to crawl. She doesn't crawl like a normal baby though, she does this army crawl on her belly which works well for her and is pretty cute to watch too. Makenna is getting so skinny that I can't keep clothes up on her and Emma is having the opposite problem. Poor little Emma is already in size 24 months and has even out grown some of them. She's not especially long for her age (she's only in the 70th percentile in height) but she is our little roly poly. Her pants all hang down past her feet and yet are snug across her sweet little belly. She is seriously so cute and chubby I have got to get some pics on here. As for Brett, he is now the Executive chef at a local restaurant called Mojo grill (www.mojogrill.net). He's back to working long hours but his boss is extremely nice and the food is upscale, so he is pretty content there. We are just looking forward to even nicer weather to head our way and for the pool to be open!

Our Amazing Two Year Old

So I know I blog alot about Emma's accomplishments and I just wanted to take a minute to write about Makenna and what an amazing person she is growing up to be. Lately Makenna has gone from being very uninterested in Emma to being just the best big sister I have ever seen a two year old be capable of. She loves to hold Emma's hand and help her walk and she loves even more to stand Emma up and put her in a bear hug and "dance" with her. She is the first one to race to Emma when she lets out a cry and is very concerned with how her little sister is feeling. She is the only person who can get Emma to crack up just by looking at her. Now that Brett is back to work full time, Makenna helps me out with everything from bringing me diapers for Emma to scrubbing her little sister down in the tub. Emma has starting eating these biter cookies (which most moms know make an absolute mess) and Makenna who has a bit of OCD when it comes to messes will follow her sister around when she is eating them, wipe in hand, cleaning ANYTHING that Emma even comes close to, I have got to get this on video. I cannot accurately describe how funny this is and the disgusted look on Makenna's face when she does this is too priceless not to capture. More than being a great big sister Makenna is becoming more of a little kid now and less of a toddler. Even though she hates seeing messes Makenna does not mind making them. She LOVES jumping in mud puddles and playing outside ( I seriously think she would live outside if I would let her). I don't know where she gets her outgoing personality from (Brett and I are both very much introverts) but she will go up to ANYONE and start playing with them. This is fine when she's out on the playground but it's too funny when she'll go up to other little kids in the store and start randomly hugging them. This has seriously happened more than once and sometimes it scares the other little kids, but I cannot help but laugh and try to politely pull Makenna away. One of Makenna's biggest accomplishments lately is that she pretty much has down her ABC's and is now working on numbers. The other day we were in the car and Makenna was counting her bingo chips and I listened to her count flawlessly to 20. I was so impressed with her. Not to belittle the fact that Emma's walking at 8 months but it only took Makenna a year to learn to walk but it's taken her over 2 years to learn how to count correctly, by herslef, all the way to 20 and I am just SO proud of her and I am so blessed to be her mommy.

Emma's First Steps!!!

Last night Brett (whos' been working with Emma on trying to walk for less than a week now)was playing with Emma and she took her first steps!! At first she only took 2 steps but she did it like 15 times after that and the most consecutive steps she took was 6 steps in a row! Emma just turned 8 months last Wednesday and we think she is a superhero for being able to take a few steps already! We are unbelievably proud. I broke out the video camera and we got some good footage of her walking all woobly. What's even cuter is that whenever Brett tried to stop getting her to walk she threw a fit, so she really seems to love her new found mobility. My ever sweet Makenna was cheering Emma on (literally, I mean she broke out her pompoms and was shouting "Go Emma, Go Emma, You can do it!") and every time Emma took a spill Makenna would rush over to her with hugs and to make sure she's ok. So, we just wanted to share our amazement and happiness with everyone and I will continue to bug Brett to post some pics of the girls soon and try to see if we can get the video of her on here too.