15 Months

I know last time I said that I would do pictures next but....I guess I lied!! It's hard to keep up with updating this when you don't have a computer at home!!! The only time I ever really get a chance to update is at work and well...I obviously need to work!! Anyways...

Delani had her 15 month check up last Friday. She weighed 20 lbs 15 oz and was 30 1/2 in. That puts her in the the 10% for weight and 46% for length. I didn't (and still don't) think Delani has a big head. But her head circumference is in the 95%!!! I like to tell myself that she is just going to be smart!! I looked back in Ellery's book and she was 20 lbs 12 oz and 32 1/2 in!! I guess Delani is just going to be a short little (still in 12 month pants) thing with big feet. She is already wearing a size 5 shoe!!! Ellery is only in a size 8. Delani had to get 3 shots and when the nurse put the band-aid on Delani ripped it right off and threw it. This is what she does when she gets mad, throws stuff and throws herself around which is sometimes quite humerous to watch! Delani still isn't talking much which was kind of a concern for me but the Dr said that it is normal for 2nd children to not talk as soon. The most you hear out of her is "ugh ugh ugh" and pointing! I have been trying to ignore that but sometimes it's just easier to give in. She hates hates hates getting changed and being fussed with.

Ellery is very insistant that she wants a cat. She asks me everyday if she can have one. I might get her one for her birthday and just keep it as an indoor cat. Ellery is so my girly girl while Delani is my little tom boy. Ellery is into princess this and princess that! This is sort of hard for me as I was never into that kind of stuff as a kid. I never played with barbies, dolls, princess'! I don't know where she is getting this girly attitude from but I think I am seriously going to be in trouble when she gets older! She insisted that she has to be a princess for Halloween. She will be Snow White...I'm sure she will freeze her buns off but oh well...that is less trick-or-treating we have to do! Haha!! Delani is going to be a cow. I will try to get pictures up pretty soon. I feel like such a bad Mom!!

Happy Halloween!

Where have we been?

I have not updated in a long time so this is probably going to be a long, boring post. On Delani's actual birthday, we hung out at the beach. Aunt Bill brought the kids out. It was our last really nice day that we have had this summer. We have not had good weather at all!

Andy and I both at the Thursday before the 4th off. We took the girls to Binder Park Zoo. The giraffes were really cool and the girls had fun feeding them. Sorry, I don't have any pictures downloaded yet. Friday & Saturday we just hung out at the beach. It was cloudy & rainy in the morning but ended up being somewhat nice in the afternoon. We had the boat parade on the 4th. We did the 'Pink Arrow' theme & also a 'Hawaiian' theme. We were a little behind so we weren't really in the parade so we kind of had our own parade. Haha!

A couple weekends ago was the lake association 'pig roast'. They normally have a pig roast but this year it was just hot dogs and brats and everyone had to bring a dish to pass. There was lots of yummy food and the kids all got sand buckets with toys & bubbles.

Last weekend, the weather wasn't very nice again. We hung out at the beach Friday night. Andy went to Grand Haven on a friends boat. I went to a Tastefully Simple party for a couple hours and then just hung out with the girls. On Sunday, we went over to G-ma & G-pa Coopers. G-ma Gert & Great-Great G-ma K (not sure of the spelling) were over. Then we went on a long bike ride on The White Pine Trail. We stopped and got ice cream and went to the park. The girls had fun and were wore out after that. Delani fell asleep right when she got out of the bath at around 8 and slept thru the night. I had to wake both the girls up in the morning.

It sounds like it is finally going to get out & humid this week so I'm hoping we will have a good beach weekend! I will do a picture post once I get the last months worth of pictures up!

Delani's 1st Birthday

On Saturday we had Delani's 1st birthday party/G-ma GG's 80th birthday party/Father's Day with my Mom's family. I made the mistake of making Delani eat BEFORE cake, geez, what was I thinking? So by the time it was 'cake time' she didn't really want to eat anymore. It took her a little while to get started but once she got a little taste she really got into it!

Aunt Karen made a cake just for Delani

What do you want me to do with this thing?

Mmmmmm...

Happy now that she got a taste of the cake

Sugar buzz

After cake we moved on to the presents. I think the big kids had more fun with the present opening than Delani did! We kept the boys (Brady & Marek) busy by throwing the wrapping paper/tissue paper in the fire. Ellery helped her baby sissy with the opening part and Delani just got to enjoy her presents!

Delani loves to carry around little people. She doesn't even really play with them- just carries them around. G-ma Ball got her these!


The party was at 12 so we were done by 3ish. Delani fell asleep on the way home so we ran a few errands and just let her sleep. When we got home, we packed our bags and headed over to the lake. We cooked out over there and I was surprised the kids actually held on until 10:30!

Delani hanging out with Dad and her birthday buddy, Uncle Ross. Ross said in the beginning of June that I was going to have this baby on 06/26/08 (due date was 06/20). I told him he was crazy and I better not go that late!! Sure enough, Delani decided to come on Ross' 30th birthday. Ross called the next day to see how everyone was doing and said that he "was still trying to recover from celebrating Delani's birthday." Haha!

Ellery: Mom, I gotta go potty!

Me: Just go in the lake Ellery

Ellery goes into the lake and pulls her bottoms down so she could go potty. There was only one problem- the strap from her life jacket! Silly girl!

Andy went golfing on Sunday, for Father's day. Ellery slept until noon!! Delani woke up around 8 and was up for an 1 1/2 and went back to sleep until noon. We really wore them out Saturday I guess. When Andy got home we set up our new trampoline. That is the new thing we have to do every night. I might just end up regretting buying this thing! Haha!

This Friday, I have the day off. We are planning on beachin' it! Audree & her girls, Annitra & her girls and possibly Aunt Bill and the kids will be there. It is supposed to be a nice day so we should have a good time. Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate Delani's 1st year. I can't wait to see what is in store for us in the coming year!

Showboat Concert

We went to the concert at the Showboat last night. I forgot my camera (duh Mom) so I got a few pictures and videos from my phone. They are not very good quality pictures but they are still cute! Ellery & Mayson were dancing fools and Delani just wondered around picking up rocks and bringing them back to me shaking her head 'no'! I love this 'copycat' stage she is in right now. It is so much fun!

She is a climber!!

This is her new thing..."Ooooooo"

Delani has a shoe fetish, can you tell? You can't really tell what she is grabbing in this high quality video but she went and picked up some other little girls sandals!

Picking up rocks & bringing them to Mama is so much fun!

Next week, hopefully I will remember my camera so that I have better pictures!

Long Weekend

Or should I saw week? Last Thursday morning I noticed that Delani was feeling a bit on the warm side. I just brushed it off to teething. As we all are aware...she has had one heck of a time with her teeth and I am delighted to say her top left tooth has FINALLY made it through!!! It only took about 3 weeks! Back to what I was orginally saying...Delani felt warm and slept the entire day Thursday. Erin tried waking her up to eat and she wanted nothing to do with it so she went back to sleep. By the time we got home Thursday night her temp was 103.9. She was up screaming most of the night so I took her to the Dr in the morning. Of course, it was just viral so there was nothing they could do. She was down all day Friday too. By Saturday she started feeling a little better but still wasn't herself.

We had an open house to go to Saturday night. While we were there, I got Ellery some snacky stuff while we were eating. She wanted nothing to do with it (which isn't unusual), she just wanted to sit on my lap, she would not go play with all the other kids. She finally went and played for a little while but then came back to me and wanted me to hold her. I thought, "You are way to big for me to hold!!". She finally told me that her throat hurt. I looked in her throat and she had little red dots all over. We came home right after that and I took her temp right away and it was 104!! Whoa!! I gave her some medicine and she went to sleep. In the morning, she was still HOT and the red bumps were now white. There were also more red bumps. Andy was golfing in the Honey Creek Inn-vitational (which I was not very happy with) so I packed up the girls and took off. I dropped Delani off at G-ma GG's and headed to G-ma Ball's work (urgent care) which is all the way out in Cutlerville. Thankfully, G-ma Ball got us right in (one of the 'perks' of working at an urgent care). Ellery indeed had strep. They gave me a prescription of Amoxicilan. I then went and picked up Delani because G-ma GG & Papa had a party to go to. With both kids in tow, neither one feeling well, I went to Meijer to get the script and get a 'few things' for Ellery since she was so miserable. By the time we got home at 3:30 she was pooped. I tried giving her some medicine which she decided it would be a great idea to spit it all back out at me! So she would not take her medicine, would not eat or drink anything. Oh yeah...I failed to mention that she had not gone the bathroom since 2AM. I kept trying to push fluids on her but she said that it hurt too bad. She slept the rest of the afternoon while Delani was a whining/clingy mess! Andy got home from golf around 7ish (I think). When he got home I handed Delani to him and went for a 'time out'. Later, he took Ellery to get some ice cream, which she did not eat. She threw up shortly after that. We attempted the medicine again but it got spit back at us and I was told that I was not liked. Thankfully, Ellery finally went pee at 8:30. She got sick again during the night. Monday she was still feeling like crud so she went to stay with G-ma Ball and Delani went to G-ma GG's again while I worked. Every attempt that G-ma made at medicine got spit back at her also. So I took it back to the pharmacy to get 'flavored'-talk about a waste of time. It didn't even taste any different. Ellery got some much needed rest on Monday and by Monday night was starting to feel better. So she must have gotten enough medicine to kick the bug! She got so much rest that she would not go to bed when it was bedtime and then was up at 3AM wanting a movie, snack & water. Tuesday the girls went to G-ma Cooper's. Ellery again, spit out her medicine for G-ma Cooper. Last night I mixed it with Kool-aid and she took almost an hour to finally drink it all. Oh but guess what...This morning she took her medicine with no fuss, no hesitation or anything for Aunt Bill. What a little stinker!!

This weekend we are having Delani's 1st birthday party at G-ma GG's. I can not believe that she is 1 already. It makes me so sad!!

Picture post

I have once again fallen behind in the blog world. So this is just going to be a quick post with lots of pictures! For Memorial Day weekend we went camping at Salmon Run. I was a bit nervous with Delani but she proved me wrong and did an awesome job (besides eating a TON of dirt)! We floated down the river on Sunday. It took a while but Delani eventually settled down. She doesn't like to sit still so she climbed all over for a while but then eventually passed out! Camping is hard work ya know! We took Papa and GG's motorhome so it wasn't all that bad. I kind of felt like a high roller for a couple days. Haha! Anyways, on to the fun part...pictures!

This baby deer was in our neighbors backyard- so cute!

Ellery & Dad watching the big kids in the pool. The water was freezing!

Do you see how dirty she is?? She had fallen earlier playing on this bike and scraped her forehead!

Bath time!

I insisted on Delani take a nap before we went down the river. Andy took her for a loooonnnnggg walk before she finally went to sleep. She slept like this for probably 45 minutes. I knew if I attempted to move her, she would take up and not go back to sleep!

Another pic of her sleeping! She fell asleep on my chest in the canoe. When we stopped I laid her on the bottom of one of the rafts. She slept there for close to a half hour!

Apparently something was funny!

Watching people jump off the rope swing!

Ellery getting rocks out of her shoes!

All clean!

Look at those cute little bunners!

Do you notice the beer in hand? I am going to have to watch out for this one, she is obsessed with beer! Must be from Daddy's side of the family, haha!

Who knows what they were doing here?!?

No Dad, she just had a bath!!

Sunday was such a nice day so we decided to hang out on the lake. It wasn't too hot but wasn't too cold!

Delani trying to get to the water before me!

Keep snacking girl, swim suit weather is just around the corner! :)

Ava & Ellery on Mallindine's new toy!

Building sand castles!

We can not wait for beach days! I hope it gets warm & stays warm pretty soon!

Ellery's 1st Dentist Appt

Ellery had her first dentist appointment yesterday evening. She did so good! They said that she actually did better than some of their 12 year old patients. She has no cavaties! WooHoo! That was my biggest fear-that they were going to get in there and tell me her teeth are a mess! Their only concern was that she grinds her teeth. I have heard her do this while she is sleeping. They said that they will keep an eye on it and if it gets too bad they will build her tooth up as to not cause any damage to the actual tooth. She got to wear some cool sunglasses to block the bright lights. They also let her play with the suction thing. She wasn't so sure about it at first but she ended up laughing every time the put it in her mouth. When we first got there they said "are you ready to get your teeth tickled?" When she got done I told her that she did such a great job getting her teeth tickled and she said "But Mom they didn't really tickle my teeth!" I really meant to bring my camera but completely forgot. Oh well-I guess I saved myself from looking like a crazy Mother, haha!

While we are on the teeth subject...I am expecting little miss Delani to pop a tooth at any time! She got her 2 bottom teeth right at 6 months. She has been SUPER crabby and giving us such a hard time at night. In fact, last night she was up crying from 3ish to after 5 when I finally broke down and gave her a bottle. She would take a few sucks, then cry, suck, cry...so I'm thinking those teeth are really giving her a hard time. At least Mama & Dada are hoping it's just the teeth and once they pop through she will start sleeping better. We have had some very tiresome days!

This weekend we are going to try camping for Memorial Day. Luckily Papa & GG are going to let us use their motor home so hopefully it won't be too bad. Delani is such an outdoors girls so I'm sure she will do just fine. Happy Memorial Day!

What happens when big sister feeds lil' sister ice cream?

What happens when big sister feeds self ice cream?



What happens when lil' sister feeds self ice cream?



Plus...



=



Clean lil' sister!

We hope you are all enjoying the warm weather! As you can tell, we certainly are!

Prayers for Stellan

Please pray for Stellan today as he goes into surgery for his heart today.

Delani's new moves....& Easter

She is officially on the move!



Delani has Ellery beat by about a month. Ellery started walking at 10 months. Of course, Delani would rather crawl if she needs to get somewhere real fast but she is taking more and more steps. She just looks too small to be walking, doesn't she? As you can see, Ellery doesn't like the attention that Delani is getting with her new moves! This video was taken on 04/14/09.

The night before the first video was taken, I was attempting to get a video of her walking but she decided that she just wanted to climb instead. She is a little dare devil, isn't she? I don't know how to rotate the video. Does anyone else?

This post is going to be all over the place! I was so excited to share Delani's first moves so I am going to go back to last week! Delani started getting a cold last week. I was all paranoid because I was supposed to go to the casino with the girls Friday night. Instead of sending her to daycare on Thursday, I sent her to G-ma's so that she could rest up and hopefully feel a better. Friday they went to GG's. I did end up going with the girls and we had a great time even though we were all big LOSERS! Andy took Ellery to an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday morning. Between Ellery and Mayson they collected 1 egg...yes 1! Mayson got scared from the clown (who blames her) and so Ellery wouldn't go without Mayson. Saturday afternoon Mayson came over while the guys went and golfed and Audree went to work (haha)! On Sunday, Ellery woke up to find that the Easter Bunny brought her a brand new big girl bike, a Dora one at that!! She was so excited, it was cute. The Easter Bunny must know that Delani loves to eat because he brought her a bucket FULL of treats. In the afternoon, we went over to G-ma Cooper's to celebrate with the rest of the family. G-ma Gert had gotten the girls a wagon for Easter!

Coloring Easter Eggs- she was a bit tired!

New Bike!

Delani's 1st Easter morning

Delani can really cruise in this walker (and eat snacks)

Future Motocross Racer?

Ellery, Delani & Avery riding in the new wagon

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

9 month check up

Delani went for her 9 month check up on Friday. She must already know what happens when we go there. She screamed the moment I put her down on the table. If I wasnt holding her, she was not a happy camper. That is just not Delani at all, she is the happiest baby ever! Anyways, she weighed in at a whopping 18#9 oz(50%) and was 28 in long(55%). Once again, I thought for sure she would weigh more than Ellery at 9 months. Ellery was 18#8 oz(50%) and 29.5 in(95%). Delani must just carry her weight completely different than Ellery did, although Ellery was a bit longer. Delani has quite the pot belly but I must say it is cute as ever. They said that everything looks good and that we could start giving her more of a variety of foods, which we already had. He also said that we could start trying regular milk at 11 months if we wanted too. I'm happy and sad about that. Happy that I won't have to buy anymore formula at $15 a can but sad that my baby is growing up WAY too fast. Delani had to get only one shot. The last time she was supposed to get the hib there was a shortage of it so she had to get it this time. She did really well with it though, she is such a tough little girl! Delani is beginning to take more and more steps at a time. I have been trying to get a video to post but by the time I push record and it actually starts recording she is down already. It won't be long though!! Delani's favorite word right now is "Dada"- No, I don't thinks he really knows what she is saying. She also says "baba" but I have been completely unsuccesful at "mama". She is truly a 'daddy's girl'. She also loves to make the 'raspberry' sound and thinks it is the funniest thing in the world when you do it back to her. She is growing up way to fast (can you tell I'm going through baby withdrawls already?!?)

I am so thankful for my 2 healthy baby girls! (I know they really aren't babies anymore but they are my babies!)

Haircuts

Monday evening we went over to The Swift household for haircuts. Our friend, Tasha, was daring enough to give Delani her very first haircut. We had to distract her with graham crackers but she did pretty good. I really just wanted to get rid of the 'baby' hair that was so long and straggly in the back.

You talkin' to me?

She doesn't look to impressed, does she?

More please!

Ellery had to have hers cut too! We just trimmed hers a little bit and put a few layers in it.

She looks scared for some reason

After haircuts, we ate dinner and had birthday cake. It was 'Uncle Johnny's' b-day!

Little Miss Delani learned how to conquer the stairs. She was trying to keep up with the big girls! Glad we don't have any at our house!!!

On Friday, we go for Delani's 9 month check up. I am anxious to see how much she weighs because this kid can't put away some food!! She eats more than Ellery does! Last weekend she had a 1/2 can of spaghettio's (I put them thru the grinder) with sweet potatoes. At another sitting she ate a whole bowl of macaroni & cheese (also thru the grinder) with carrots. She is going to surpass her big sister in no time at the rate she is going. She is also starting to cruise along the furniture and is standing alone for longer periods of time. She has this little cart that she walks around with and she thinks she is so cool. She has been giving us problems with sleeping though. This girl just wants to play, play, play-no sleep! I am up for any suggestions at this point on how to get a full night of rest!

Ellery has been saying some funny things lately. The other day I told her that I had to go back to work tomorrow and she said, "You need to quit that crap!" I asked her, "What crap?" She said, "That working crap!" I have no idea where she gets these words from?!? Monday at Erin's she was swinging her baby upside down, over her arms and said "Look Aunt Bill, my baby has a hang over!" She of course did not know what a 'hang over' was which made it even more cute! Ellery is going thru this stage that if we tell her no, she goes to her room, slams the door and says "don't talk to me!" My thoughts are, "ALREADY? What's it going to be like when she is a teenager?!?"

I will update again after Delani's appointment on Friday!