Height 26 3/4 inches
Weight 18 lbs 6 oz
Head Circumference 43 1/2 cm

Well I guess we are going to have to go to monthly updates because weekly updates just aren’t going to happen Fathers’ day went well. Daddy got a smoker and the first recipe was smoked chicken. So yummy. I finally got to take Chris out to celebrate his promotion. We got a sitter and I think Chris had fun. We also got to go to a wedding the same weekend for two of Chris’s firefighter coworkers. It was an outside summer wedding in Florida at noon….enough said? No seriously it was great and the bride and groom couldn’t be happier. We had a visit from my cousin Mike with his wife Donna and their triplets. They live in Maryland and spent two weeks in Orlando doing the tourist stuff. We were very happy to have them over for the day and everyone had fun. Mike, Allison, and Natalie had all grown so much since we had last seen them and Paige loved playing with the big kids. My parents (MeeMaw and Papa) visited last weekend. The stop was brief because Peyton and I had a mild version of the plaque that made all of our plans get canceled for risk of contamination. Everyone seems better now. Chris’s parents (Nana and Papa) came for a visit this weekend. Sadly they are headed back to NC this week much earlier than expected. We hardly got to spend any time with them. As of today, Daddy is done with the summer semester and his AS degree. He is only going to take one or two online course in the fall which means the family will have a lot more time together this fall. His long hours have been difficult on all of us and it will be nice to have more family dinners.

Over the last month Peyton has changed so much. He is now sleeping in his own room for all naps and nighttime for about a month. He seems to sleep better without mommy and vice versa. He is now on a schedule for bedtime and waking but he takes naps as wants. He pretty much moves where he wants and how he wants. He started the month scooting and doing this cute belly turn thing where he looked like a whale at SeaWorld. At the same time he would get on all fours to crawl and then kinda look around like “now what”? Of course now he is an all out crawler. He doesn’t make it across the room yet but that is coming soon. He did crawl to the French doors today and just stared outside…it was cute. He has had two significant growth periods over the last month. One of the times I swear he got bigger while I was at work! His hair has changed so much since he was born. He has lost that plush dark brown hair and it has been replaced by a fine light brown/dark blonde hair. The biggest change is probably his food…he actually eats now. We started early in the month with that runny cereal; he wanted nothing to do with it! Gave it a break and tried again. He seems to like thick consistency so that’s what we give him. So now he has tried cereal, blueberries, mango, banana and avocado. Loved the mango, not so much for the avocado. I haven’t seen it yet, but apparently he feeds himself from a bottle. He will lay on the floor at daycare and can hold his own bottle. What a big boy. The daycare now has a cart called a bye-bye buggy that can wheel 4 babies/kids around at once. Peyton loves the trips outside in the fresh air. We only have three weeks left at this daycare and then we will go to one a lot closer to mommy’s work. We will miss everybody quite a bit. They take such great care of my babies.  Peyton went for his six month well babies and everything was fine.  70% for height and weight.  Dr Hayne called his ‘solid’ when he saw how strong he was.

Paige is doing very well. Her language and sentence structure skills continue to grow by leaps and bounds. She understands some basic timing and uses words like soon and later to chronologically order her preferences. She started ballet classes with her friend Jeniah. They seem to have fun and they look so cute in the dance clothes! Daycare is having water day on Monday and the kids get to play in sprinklers and wading pools. They seem to have a great time because Paige talks about it all evening afterwards. Paige even got to go to Aquatica with her friend Jeniah and her mommy Allison. Allison was kind enough to give me a break on a Saturday when Peyton and I were sick and she took the girls for a couple of hours to the water park. They seemed to have a great time. Paige is doing excellent with potty training. We are going to undies in the next week to be her to the final step. Paige also finally calls herself by her name. She pronounces her name ‘Sage’…took me forever to get this. She was calling herself sheshe for the last six months. Paige can identify all colors and basic shapes. She is doing really well with letter recognition but we haven’t really started number recognition. She is a typical two year old and has dramatic mood swings. We try to control these and she has her time out moments. Overall she is growing quickly into a little girl in front of our eyes.

The next month holds many changes. Mommy has to go in for a minor yet painful hernia surgery in a week. It needs to get fixed as it is causing quite a bit of pain. I don’t know how the kids or mommy will handle the postop period. Also on a really great note, mommy got promoted. I was promoted to senior physician assistant at my hospital. Essentially this just recognizes that I have attained enough knowledge to be more autonomous and a leader. The best part is it came with a 10% raise….woooohoooo!! So since everything else we buy has risen more than 20%, we are less broke these days Well until next month…..

This week was very boring. Peyton continues to grow and get stronger overall. He slept in his own room and bed for the first time. He seems to prefer the bed to the pack and play in mommy’s bedroom. He is still not sleeping through the night Paigie continues to add to her repertoire of songs. She has developed a love for Barney the purple dinosaur that I can do without. Paigie and Peyton now interact in the back seat. She loves to make him laugh. He tries to talk with her in their secret language. We are preparing for Father’s Day. We hid daddy’s present at the house and hope he doesn’t find it. Mommy continues to experiment in the kitchen…mostly good. Daddy is very busy with school, clinicals, and his new job. Mommy has been having some health problems recently and I am finally going to see a doctor to get checked out. I will keep you informed…see you next week.

Well I am so late I make no excuses at this point. I have however been spending lots of quality time with my babies. Instead of doing three separate blogs I decided to make one big blog. Peyton has changed a lot over the three weeks since I have written anything. He is truly reacting to his environment. He enjoys his showers now. He has started squealing with delight in the shower to the water. He has gone from holding objects with two hands without using his thumbs to using his whole hands now to grab things. We are working on sitting up unsupported. He still needs a bit of work in that department. He has chosen how to get from point A to point B. He likes scooting. He scoots backwards and forwards pretty well. He has also taken to exploring his bed and I always wonder where I will find him after naptime. Now he mouths as he watches us eat…it is really cute. He seems to really want everything that we are eating. Mean mommy is going to try to hold out until 5 and a half months before solids. He is still acting like he is teething and enjoys sucking on his bottom lip. It’s cute when he does it because he looks like a geriatric when they take their dentures out. Peyton is officially 4 months now and he went for his 4 months pictures with mommy. They are adorable of course. He has also taken his first nap in his bed. He seemed to enjoy his bed. First thing he did of course we prove to mommy he needs bumpers for the rails. Mommy also bought him a jumper. He likes his jumper at school so much that we decided that he should have one at home as well. His babble is adorable. Sometimes it is a lot of squealing other times his just kind of continuously consonant noises.

Paigie got to give her second bottle to Peyton. She really likes interacting with Peyton and they amuse each other well. Paige has lost about a pound with the swim lessons and how active she is at school. Her face is changing into a girls face instead of a baby face. She is growing so fast. She loves to sing nursery rhymes with mommy as we drive to and from school together. She requests songs from her toddler CD rather firmly. It’s cute because she still has her toddler speak and I am her best interpreter. She likes to be a big girl and help mommy around the house. We finally cleaned the backyard nicely and she was a big help picking up rocks and throwing them in the pool. Her swim lessons have finally ended. I say finally because they were painful to our schedule. She does really well. She flips to her back and instead of floating swims on her back to the side then flips again and gets out. I didn’t thing we would make it to the stage we did back at the beginning. I must admit she impressed me. Paigie continues to grow and shows how well she understands her environment. Then she expresses these things very clearly. We had a lizard in the office about a week ago. Paigie was nicknamed Paige the lulu hunter. She calls lizards lulu. She started tearing her toys apart to get to it and I asked her if I could help. She says “Lulu hiding!” We found it, trapped it and took it outside. She thought that was cool. Paigie also has a fascination with airplanes, helicopters, fire trucks and school buses; Basically anything transportation. She yells with joy whenever she sees them and we talk about the parts of the vehicles and the colors.

Mommy has been busy too. I had to take a few classes over the last few weeks that I am required to stay current and I procrastinated as always. Daddy started at his new fire station since he was officially promoted to engineer. It is a lot busier then he was used to at station 70. He doesn’t get as much sleep as he was before. It is just another transition for us. We had a great time at the beach for Memorial Day. Mommy and babies drove to Ormond over to Nana and Papa’s condo. Chris had to work unfortunately. Paigie enjoyed digging in the sand with her cousin Abbie. She seemed to have a great time for many hours while Peyton slept on the beach under an umbrella. Memaw and Papa came to visit while they were in town for a wedding. I was happy they were able to see the kids because they grow so fast. Now we are planning for Fathers’ day and I thing we have some good ideas of how to surprise daddy. Well goodbye for now…talk to you next week.

Height 24 3/4 inches
Weight 15 lbs 8 oz
Head Circumference 41 3/4 cm

Well, mommy’s post is really late.  I’ll blame fatigue and ACLS.  (I’ll discuss that in week 16’s blog)  Busy week as always.  Paige had her 3^rd week of swimming lessons.  They seem to be going well.  Paige, the instructor and I all swam together.  We took turns having her swim back and forth between us.  Her skills have increased every week.  Our swim instructor, Hope, had an auto accident this week.  She was hit a few miles from our house after she left the lesson.  She is doing well and we are grateful she was not injured.  Work has been busy and home life even busier.  Mother’s day was fantastic.  Chris really shocked me.  I thought he did the typical card and chocolate routine.  I was happy to have cards from the kids and excellent chocolate.  Then I got to work on Monday and found he had set up a digital photo frame with 100’s of family pictures in the nursing station for me to find.  I was brought to tears.  It now sits on my desk and I love it!  Paige’s vocabulary and sentence structure amaze me daily.  She is truly doing well being around other children her age in a fixed environment.  While she is making so many other great strides, I am worried she will lose her Spanish skills.  It might have to be a small price to pay for everything else. 

Peyton is growing and changing too fast.  He continues blowing bubbles and is drooling like there is no tomorrow.  I think the early teething symptoms have started.  He is doing well.  Very little pain.  He is developing some hair loss on the back of his head like Paigie did.  He rubs his head on the car seat and swing causing a balding pattern.  They are crazy babies. He seems to have erratic eating patterns.  He will have a few nights of waking one or twice like he is supposed to and then will have a night or two of ravenous eating every three hours on the dot.  I don’t see a set schedule for him in the near future. He is also very talented.  He has already perfected throwing toys out of his car seat and bouncy/swing.  He has quite and arm for a three month old!

On a final note….drum roll please…..Chris was promoted to Engineer!  Orange County had been screwing around with his paperwork for the better part of a month and he is now officially and Engineer for the fire dept.  We couldn’t be prouder of him and can’t wait until we can announce he is a paramedic then nurse then nurse anesthetist!

Sorry for the delay, Hope had issues this week with the website software.

Well another week has gone by. The second week of swim lessons seems to keep Paige tired. She cried the whole time still. Mommy was sick again. This time I lost my voice for a few days. This only added to my usual level of fatigue. Daddy was on spring break and enjoyed his much needed rest. Mommy and Daddy went on their first kid free date. Mommy’s friend Allison was kind enough to watch the kids for a few hours. It was nice. Peyton is so social. If you laugh he laughs and his first true giggle came out. It was rather cute. On a sad note my friend Melinda lost her battle against cancer this week. She is survived by her husband John, her mother, brother and sister, not to mention more friends than anyone can count. She was a beautiful smart woman who will be missed dearly.

Paigie started swim classes this week. Technically they are anti drowning classes. She screams the whole time. She screams from when we put her in the swimsuit until we lay her on the towels after the ten minute lesson. The instructors name is Hope…kinda weird…and she says that the screaming is very normal. The classes seem to be taking all of her energy. She wakes up exhausted and in a bad mood. She goes to bed now so early. She basically showers after her swim lesson, eats and then goes to bed Monday through Friday. This weekend was miserable for everyone involved. Her bad behavior hit a new high (or low). On Saturday she took a four hour nap after sleeping in that morning. We only got the basics done this weekend instead of trying to take her to an aircraft museum like we planned. She has a real love of everything aeronautical. I can’t wait until these classes are over. I am sure she feels the same way.

Peyton is now three months and has ended his 3 month growth spurt. For almost two weeks he was eating 50% more milk than he had been. He is such a big boy. He went for his three month pictures and they are adorable. I promise we will post professional pictures soon. He rolled over again and daddy missed it by a second. He looked away and there he went. He is trying to stay upright while sitting now…I think he is still several weeks away from that milestone.

Daddy is done with his spring semester and gets this next week off. I think he could use some personal time. We could both use some mommy/daddy time. See you next week.

Well another week has come and gone.  Mommy survived her first call weekend since being back at work.  I went into the hospital at 4ish and made it home before most everyone got up.  Sunday morning Peyton woke up wanting his mommy to find a daddy instead.  He didn’t seem thrilled by this.  With mommy working the weekend, there was no trip to the park due to exhaustion.  We had a good week though.  Peyton continues to deal with some cold symptoms because of daycare.  He is a great baby.  He rolled over this week for the first time.  He likes to rest on his elbows in bellytime and next thing you know he was belly up!  He was quite shocked!  So I put him back on his belly and flop…belly up again.  He was quite impressed and so was mommy.  Paigie is doing a great job with potty training.  She starts her rescue swim lessons this week.  Mommy is excited and scared.  Her sentence structure is impressive!  She makes nice observations and can get them out clearly.  She has grown so much since we started this new school. 

Nana and Papa came to visit this weekend.  Paigie played with papa and nana had lots of time with Peyton.  Mommy made a southern style dinner that was well received.  Basically it was a restful and enjoyable day.  They are going to North Carolina again for a few months.  Peyton and Paigie will be so big when they come back.  They will be missed.

Another week another sick child…yeah!  Paigie has not been feeling well; Snotty and lots of scary sounding coughs and fever.  Otherwise it has been just another week.  A week without drama can be good.  Peyton is huge.  He now weighs 14.2 pounds according to the bathroom scale.  This puts him at over 100% for weigh and about the same for length.  He looks so much older than his age.  He is so alert and strong!  He is definitely not a baby baby any more.  He still offers easy smiles and loves being with the family.  Chris got the pool heater working and we are looking forward to using the pool.  Paige is going to start rescue swim lessons probably next week.  That will be hard to watch but very important for her and mommy.  I can’t wait to set up the play set for her on the new grass.  I hope she likes it.  We went to Lake Eola again this weekend.  This time we met Angela and her pretty baby Ashlyn.  It was too hot to enjoy so we ended up going to lunch kind of early.  Gotta love Florida…too hot on an April morning to play outside.  Angela’s husband Matt joined us for lunch as well.  Then everyone (including mommy) had a nice long nap.  It was a good day.  Chris is finishing up his spring semester and not looking forward to the summer session.  I can’t wait until summer is over because daddy will be around a lot more. Hope everyone has a great week…talk to you soon.