First Weekend Away

Johnny and I spend our first weekend away from the kiddos. Johnny was one of the groomsmen in Brandon Brown's (best friend from High School) Wedding in Tucson, Arizona. Johnny flew down on Thursday to go watch a few of the NCAA basketball games at U of A and I flew down on Friday. The Wedding was wonderful and we are so excited for Brandon, Mary, Trei, and Paytynn to start their new family. All Johnny and I wanted was to be able to sleep but it was pretty much impossible to get really good sleep since we weren't sleeping in our own bed. Both of us woke up several time during the middle of the night. I guess we were crazy to think that getting away from the kiddos would help us to get more sleep. Overall it was great to have a few days away to recharge.

Thank you to Nonie, Poppy, Grandma, and Grandpa for watching both Pennington and Piper. Each child got to stay one night at each of their grandparents houses. Piper did fairly well being away from me. For some reason Piper sleeps really well when she is not at home. I guess she slept from 8pm to 3am for Grandma which is a record.

Pennington Plays Basketball

Daddy wanted to take Pennington to the Bronco basketball game last week. I was told by both Daddy and Poppy that Pennington LOVED it. He liked watching the game as well as the band. I guess he would clap for the band. Daddy bought Pennington his very own basketball and basketball hoop which he loves playing with at home. Below is a picture of Pennington at the game.

Piper Seven Months Old

Piper turned seven months old yesterday. Over the last week or so she started crawling and sitting up all by herself. She is totally content with just sitting on the ground with a few toys and entertaining herself. She is very interested in what Pennington is doing and is now trying to take his toys away from him. Pennington is obviously not happy about the fact she is playing with his toys. She pretty much NEVER cries anymore. The only time she cries now is if she is hungry or tired. She is still nursing, eating baby food, and drinking some formula. Below is a recent photo of our little Princess Piper.

Piper at The Little Gym

Since I have been back at work Johnny has been taking Pennington to The Little Gym on Tuesday mornings. Sometimes Piper goes to The Little Gym with Pennington and Johnny. We always have someone there to hold her while Johnny participates in the class with Pennington. Piper is getting bigger now and starting to more around on her so The Little Gym is more exciting for her now. Back in November I got 50% the summer session so we are planning on starting Piper in the Birds class this summer. Below are a few pictures of Piper at The Little Gym.

Piper with Grandpa.

Piper with G.G.

Pennington 19 Months Old

I thought after Pennington turned a year and a half that I would stop with the monthly updates. However, I think I am going to continue with the monthly updates for a few more months since he is changing so much right now.

Pennington is starting to talk. He consistently says more, Mom, Dad, ball, and dog. He is still using his signs but he is now starting to verbalize words as well.

He LOVES pretending to play soccer. He is constantly kicking balls around the house and running everywhere. I have to say that he seems to be extremely fast and can kick the ball really far for his age. I got the SoccerTots deal on LivingSocial so we are hoping to start him in the Teddies class soon.

Over the last month we started to take his Pacifier away. Denise his teacher at school mentioned that we needed to work on reducing the amount of time he has his Pacifier at home. We decided to only give it to him when he is taking a nap or at bedtime. I was shocked how easy this was. He only really cried a few times and now he knows he only gets it when he sleeps. Denise mentioned that she has seen drastic improvement at school now that he doesn't need his Pacifier.

Pennington started giving kisses to Piper. It is the sweetest thing you have ever seen. Hopefully I will be able to get a video of it.

Pennington's new favorite food is cereal. I love the fact that he loves cereal but it is super messy for him to eat. He gets milk all over himself when he uses a spoon so he ends up using his hands. He is really good with the spoon when he eats oatmeal or yogurt with Cheerios but not so good with cereal. He specifically likes cereal that has flakes like corn flakes or raisin bran.

Below are some recent photos of Pennington.

Pennington at bathtime.

Pennington getting ready for bed.

Pennington at Barnes and Noble playing with the Thomas the Train set.

Pennington at dinner time.

Piper Six Month Checkup

Piper had her six month checkup on Thursday. Dr. Booth said she looks great. She also got her six month shots and she only cried for a minute or two.

I talked to Dr. Booth about how Piper still wakes up several times a night. He said the only way to break her of that habit is to make her cry it out after I have made sure she is fed and doesn't need a diaper change. At this point I would be more than happy to make her cry it out except for the fact that her cry is so loud she is going to wake up everyone. I was concerned that if I waited until she was closer to a year old to "sleep train" her that it would be harder. Dr. Booth doesn't seem to think it will be any harder when she is a year old. He just kept mentioning that if I want to get sleep that I should do it sooner than later. It is pretty crazy that I am going on six and a half months now of only getting 2 to 3 hours of sleep at a time. Let me repeat that one more time for all of you. I have only been getting 2 to 3 hours of sleep in a round for the last six and a half months. At some point my body got used to it. However, the thought of sleeping for six uninterrupted hours sounds absolutely amazing. I'm going to try my hardest to let her cry it out as long as her crying doesn't get too loud. Wish me luck.

Below are the stats:

Weight: 15 pounds - 30th percentile

Height: 25 1/2 inches - 50th percentile

Head Circumference 42 3/4 cm - 60th percentile

Looks like Piper is starting to slow down on her weight gain.

The BOB

Well here it is. The infamous Double BOB stroller. Thank you to everyone that chipped in to help us purchase this really awesome stroller. The kids love it and so do the parents. It is amazing how easy it is to push this stroller. Hopefully we will be able to start jogging with it soon.