New Diggs!

You can find me blogging here now:

http://ournormallife.com/

Yep, I have my own dot com. I am totally not tech savvy enough for this, but luckily my brother and sister-in-law are good guides.

If you are kind enough to link to me in your Blog Links or keep me in your Google Reader, please update to the new address. Don't worry, it's mine for 5 years, so I won't make you change it again anytime soon.

See you there!

5 and 22

Lucas at 5 months:
~Rolling around the room. We never know where he will end up or what his face will be smooshed against.
~Sitting unassisted. Last month he was able to sit using his arms for support. This month he has forayed into sitting upright. He is still a tad willy nilly and will sometimes launch himself at random moments after a much loved toy, losing the battle with gravity.
~Babbling. I think Kailey may know what is being said, but she's not giving anything away. They are probably plotting some sort of naptime coup.
~Solids. Dabbling here and there.
~Every.single.thing goes into his mouth. Few of these things live to tell the tale.
~Loves his sister. No one else elicits the deep belly laughs with nary a glance.

Kailey at 22 months:
~Climbs the stairs like a little spider monkey.
~Loves her slide.
~Sometimes combining two signs together ("more crackers").
~Still working on walking independently. She "could" do it, but apparently is waiting for a red carpet or something and still prefers to hold a hand or at least have someone "catching" as she saunters across a large divide.
~Loves her daddy. At every little noise she hears around the time he comes home from work, she will sign asking "Daddy?" with unabashed hopeful delight in every feature of her adorable face.

(The kids were not in the mood for pictures. I am not quite sure how I got that good one of Lucas, but the ones with the two of them were all of both kids heading off in separate directions).

Slidin'

It's freezing cold here, so this is what we have been up to lately:
(Please ignore the annoying squeals from the crowd).



(Grandma is the one catching her at the bottom and the slide is mine from when I was a kid).

Solid as a Rock

My kid is a tank. He's about 18 pounds on our scale here at home and all muscle. He is killing my back. Kailey weighs only slightly more than him now. (I think she is just around 20 pounds). And I think I need to feed him. Ugh. I mean of course I feed him, but I think he is past ready to start solids. (I had hoped to be able to hold off until 6 months). It makes me again wistful and sad that we couldn't make nursing work. Formula is fine, but clearly second best. Anyway, I think the kid is hungry. He is drinking 35 to 40 ounces a day...some of which is in the middle of the night. He wakes up ravenously hungry and drifts right back to sleep. He can sit for a short while without any support (or using his arms to prop himself up). He grabs the spoon and puts it right in his mouth and yesterday opened his mouth to try some of Kailey's mashed sweet potatoes. I expected him to make a face or thrust the food out of his mouth. Instead, he seemed a bit befuddled, but happily interested. {sigh} I guess I better start making some baby food. I actually do enjoy whipping up little pureed concoctions, but the actual feeding is a bit of a pain and makes me feel like we are leaving behind yet one more milestone.

So, in short, I am wistful and my kid is hungry. Solid food, here we come.

Specialist

I have decided I want to be a specialist when I grow up. What do I want to specialize in, you ask? Doesn't matter. I want to be the person who comes into the room, hems and haws for a few minutes, and then bills you for a gagillion dollars. Yes, a specialist.

We had another in the never ending stream of endocrinology appointments yesterday. It's so annoying because they really only need to read the results of the blood work, look at their handy dandy Thyroid dosage guide and send you off with a prescription. Instead, we have to drive into the children's hospital, struggle to find parking, drag Kailey 5 miles through the hospital to the endocrinology department, wait for an eon in the germy waiting room, have a resident do a physical and pronounce that she is "growing great." No freaking kidding. Then they decide that we really don't need blood work drawn for another two months. Um, then why did you drag us down here? Oh yeah, so that the specialist could walk in the room, never even touch our daughter and say she "looks good." Well worth the approximately $500 that will be billed to our insurance. Ugh.

(Disclaimer: I understand the need for specialists and think they should be compensated, but let's save them for the more complex situations that actually require specialists. Hypothyroidism is not brain surgery).

Resolutions

I don't make 'em. But some of my ongoing goals are to get more organized and simplify. I love to donate and purge things we don't use. I am actually really good at keeping on top of this usually, but the amount of things you accumulate with to small children is amazing. There are piles in our basement that are giving me nightmares. And since the economy is not showing much signs of turning around (at least locally), I am guessing there is no house sale in our near future. Since we are going to be here for awhile longer, I will need to organize to make us all fit. We have a nice sized home, but between 4 people, 2 dogs and the aforementioned "things," we need to keep on top of being more minimalist.

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