Sunday, April 19, 2015

February


February brought Valentines Day and Heart Week/Month into our lives. Of course we always wear red in honor of Blaise on Heart Day. We are so thankful to all of those people in our lives who also wore red in honor of him and remembered him and brought awareness to heart disease. We attended the Midwest Heart Connection Heart Banquet again this year, along with both sets of grandparents. It’s a fun night to honor and celebrate our miracle boy Blaise. I’ts nice to catch up with parents of other kids with heart defects, especially those the same as Blaise so we can compare notes and be ready for the next surgery and what to expect.

Blaise is currently learning his ABC, and has finally started enjoying repeating them after me. Once in awhile he goes on a run where he can do quite a few letters on his own in a row. We are working pretty hard on his colors and he knows a few like blue, orange and black. He does pretty decent. We got to go to another couples shower with both kids for Uncle Adam and Aunt Shelly.

I was brave and took both kids with me by myself shopping for clothes to wear to the wedding on my day of in February. It was an adventure! We started at Von Maur and they didn’t do too bad. The funniest part was trying to nurse Sutton in a dressing room when Blaise threw the door open and everyone in the hallway stared in. He also decided he had to go potty, so I had to stop nursing Sutton, get dressed, leave the clothes in room and haul up to the third floor. He managed to have a few potty accidents and finally when we were at Dillards I put one of Sutton’s diapers on him because I didn’t have time to leave the fitting room again and get to a restroom. All in all, the kids did absolutely wonderful!

Blaise and Sutton got to see their cousins from Aberdeen come and visit in February. It was so much fun having all of the grandkids together! Blaise just loves playing with them so much, and Sutton had such a great time watching the kids run around and play. I could tell she was really wanting to join them. Soon after their visit, she really started rolling around more- both directions and across the room. She is also conquering the sitting thing. She can be let go of for long times while sitting, but I haven’t totally left her alone sitting yet.

Sutton is eating some baby puffs. She does decent with them. Her faces are funny and she is still trying to figure it out- but she is by far leaps and bounds ahead of where Blaise was with table food at this point. Wahoo-hopefully one less stress in my life. Dinners have become quite interesting and busy. I’ve learned that Blaise actually will eat pretty good if you feed it to him. Now, most other parents would never spoon feed their 3 year old, but with this teeny-tiny kid I’ll do whatever it takes. Since Mike is always gone, I usually give Sutton a bite, Blaise a bite, then myself a bite. Most often, my food is cold and I shovel in a few bites when everyone else is done.

We also took Blaise to see the circus in February. It was enjoyable, a little long and during nap time, but he loved seeing the puppies, riding on an elephant and the funny clowns.

Sutton is still just a terrible sleeper. Her average is getting up once around 1:30- I’ll go in and give her a pacifier and then at 3:30 she wants to eat. Sometimes at 6 another pacifier. That’s a good night, there are some nights where she is up every hour. I’m really hoping this improves.

February brought Valentines Day and Heart Week/Month into our lives. Of course we always wear red in honor of Blaise on Heart Day. We are so thankful to all of those people in our lives who also wore red in honor of him and remembered him and brought awareness to heart disease. We attended the Midwest Heart Connection Heart Banquet again this year, along with both sets of grandparents. It’s a fun night to honor and celebrate our miracle boy Blaise. I’ts nice to catch up with parents of other kids with heart defects, especially those the same as Blaise so we can compare notes and be ready for the next surgery and what to expect.

Blaise is currently learning his ABC, and has finally started enjoying repeating them after me. Once in awhile he goes on a run where he can do quite a few letters on his own in a row. We are working pretty hard on his colors and he knows a few like blue, orange and black. He does pretty decent. We got to go to another couples shower with both kids for Uncle Adam and Aunt Shelly.

I was brave and took both kids with me by myself shopping for clothes to wear to the wedding on my day of in February. It was an adventure! We started at Von Maur and they didn’t do too bad. The funniest part was trying to nurse Sutton in a dressing room when Blaise threw the door open and everyone in the hallway stared in. He also decided he had to go potty, so I had to stop nursing Sutton, get dressed, leave the clothes in room and haul up to the third floor. He managed to have a few potty accidents and finally when we were at Dillards I put one of Sutton’s diapers on him because I didn’t have time to leave the fitting room again and get to a restroom. All in all, the kids did absolutely wonderful!

Blaise and Sutton got to see their cousins from Aberdeen come and visit in February. It was so much fun having all of the grandkids together! Blaise just loves playing with them so much, and Sutton had such a great time watching the kids run around and play. I could tell she was really wanting to join them. Soon after their visit, she really started rolling around more- both directions and across the room. She is also conquering the sitting thing. She can be let go of for long times while sitting, but I haven’t totally left her alone sitting yet.

Sutton is eating some baby puffs. She does decent with them. Her faces are funny and she is still trying to figure it out- but she is by far leaps and bounds ahead of where Blaise was with table food at this point. Wahoo-hopefully one less stress in my life. Dinners have become quite interesting and busy. I’ve learned that Blaise actually will eat pretty good if you feed it to him. Now, most other parents would never spoon feed their 3 year old, but with this teeny-tiny kid I’ll do whatever it takes. Since Mike is always gone, I usually give Sutton a bite, Blaise a bite, then myself a bite. Most often, my food is cold and I shovel in a few bites when everyone else is done.

We also took Blaise to see the circus in February. It was enjoyable, a little long and during nap time, but he loved seeing the puppies, riding on an elephant and the funny clowns.

Sutton is still just a terrible sleeper. Her average is getting up once around 1:30- I’ll go in and give her a pacifier and then at 3:30 she wants to eat. Sometimes at 6 another pacifier. That’s a good night, there are some nights where she is up every hour. I’m really hoping this improves.

January


Time for some updates. I’m having a hard time recalling all that happened the last three months, so I’ll do my best to update the blog. Sutton, please forgive me someday for not being as detailed with your first year of life!  The kids had a sitter for New Yaers Eve and had a good time as Mike and I went out with friends. The first weekend in January we took Blaise to see Seasme Street Live. It was  a fun day of just Blaise and Mom and Dad. We took him to eat at Quaker Steak and Lube and he enjoyed all of the motorcycles. He did really good at Seasame Street and kept asking where Big Bird went- he was only on stage part of the time, it’s hard to dance with a neck that tall! He wanted a snow cone, so he got that, then wanted cotton candy and also got that. He also took home a giant elmo/grover balloon.

Sutton had her six month appointment in January. Dr Groppe thought she looked good and everything was good. She weighed in at XXX. And was XXX tall. She still does 8 ounce bottles every three hours. She gets up quite a bit at night, at least twice. I’ve been trying to give her the paci as much as possible and not nurse her. We decided that she is just going to be a little slow at all she does development wise and might skip the crawling phase. She just rolls from her stomach to her back. She also developed an ear infection in January, I could tell because she would be up all night long crying. After some amoxicilian she was on the mend.

Also in January the kids got a new cousin! Uncle Tyler and Aunt Danielle had a baby girl Willow. We made the six hour round-trip one Saturday in January to meet her. Overall, they were fairly un-interested but Blaise loved seeing their dog Tucker and cat Boots. It will be fun having the girls grow up together! The kids did very good in the car on the trip- little travelers!

Both kids got to celebrate their Uncle Adam and soon to be Aunt Shelly’s wedding at their couple shower in Treynor.

Blaise can successfully count from 1-10. Any trip to Treynor involves riding his pony Ginger.
We went to the Zoo on President’s Day with grandma Peg. The weather was gorgeous, the kids loved it and we had a good time seeing all of the new babies born at the zoo.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

December Catch Up

December means Christmas! Blaise jumped right into the festive mood. We did an Elf of the Shelf named “Elf” and usually the first thing he asked each morning was where Elf had moved to. I’m not sure that he completely got what was going on, but he enjoyed it. Blaise is such a good boy at going to bed. He sleeps with a blanket and a puppy pillow and always falls asleep right away at night. We are still doing a diaper at night, but most of the time he wakes up dry. The whole family went to the Christmas Tree Farm to pick out a tree. We rode out in tractor and combine and picked the perfect one. Blaise met Santa there and his story stayed consistent through the whole month. He always told santa he wanted a grain bin and a blue truck. I’m pretty sure there aern’t too many Santa’s who get that request very often! We also took Blaise and Sutton into Omaha to meet Santa at Regency. This Santa is a very good one, and both kids sat on his lap so good and again Blaise said he wanted a grain bin. The picture turned out so good! Sutton still absolutely hates tummy time. I can’t get her to be on her stomach at all. However, the week of Chrsitmas she gave us an early present by learning to roll from her stomach back over to her back. She was 5 months old, and of course she learned this because she hates her stomach so much and wanted to get off it as fast as she could! We also started feeding her baby food and she can’t get enough of it. It goes all over her face and she chews on her hands a lot while she eats. She is a drool monster and had to wear a bib a lot in Decmeber because she was drooling so bad she got a rash under her neck. She loves to talk a lot and follows her brother around the room watching him and giggle and laughing and talking to him. She eats about 5 oz of breast milk every three hours. Her hair is turning blonde and thinning out and I think her eyes will be brown. Every Tuesday both kids go with their babysitter Jessie to storytime at the library. Blaise loves it, loves seeing his “friends” and they make a craft each week. So much fun! They also met Santa here in December. Sutton is starting to sleep a little better at night and is down to waking up only twice a night. If I’m lucky it’s only once around 4, but that’s not too often. Blaise’s favorite thing to do every morning is crawl over and look in the crib to talk to Sutton. He will say what he hears like “hi baby girl” “hi peanut” “pretty girl”. They just love each other it’s soo cute. Right before Christmas we did my tradition of putting a shoe under the tree for the elves to leave a present in. Blaise loved this as well. For Christmas, GG came up from Garden City. My parents came up from Treynor Christmas eve and went to church with us, then we all came back and GG and Monna and Papa Hartwell all came over for supper. The Sudmann’s spent the night, and Hartwell’s came back over bright and early at 7:30 so everyone was there for Blaise to come down and see what Santa brought him. He was so excited and loved all of his presents. So did Sutton- they both just took it all in. From there, we headed down to my aunts for lunch, then to my parents that night to do presents. We had a wonderful Christmas.

 
 
 On the tractor wagon ride to pick out Christmas tree
 Santa at the tree farm
 We found the "one"
 Jammies
 Christmas snow globe fun
 Sitting on santas lap in Christmas outfits
 Five months old
 So cute
 my three favorites all asleep
 Frosting Christmas cookies on the floor
 Playing in the sink and doing dishes is his favorite
 Grandpa and Grandma Sudmann bought me a pony named Ginger for Christmas!!!! I LOVE HER
 Christmas Jammies


 Waiting to go downstairs and see what Santa brought
 Leading her by myself
 Christmas day with cousin Everett
 Sutton is really starting to like being in this



 LOOK WHAT SANTA BROUGHT
 I'm so excited!


 Sutton got a new chair


Sutton got tap shoes!

November Catch Up

Helping feed the baby orphan lamb

 Giving Grandma Donna hugs
 Blaise loves holding Sutton- always asks if he can
 Daddy's home- getting re-introduced
 Giddy up cowboy!
 Sutton four months

 This is how I do the potty thing!
 Cuddled up in my sleeping bag it was cold out!
 I. Hate. Tummy time!
 Scrub a dub Sutton's in the tub
 who is babysitting who?
 Ready for bed
 First taste of rice cereal
 Still working on it

 Papa must have the magic touch
 Favorite thing to do- look through pictures on the phone
 Our thanksgiving butterball turkey
Happy Thanksgiving!
WOAH! Better play some massive catch-up on updates. Life is so busy, especially with Mike being gone at least 5 nights a week. I’m sure like most mom’s (especially those who serve as single parents for the most part) know exactly what I mean, but I really have no time to get much done at home besides get dinner ready and kids dressed. HA! I keep thinking that Sutton will be so mad at me for not doing a better job updating about her life and keeping track of pictures. So in advance I’ll apologize- Sorry Sutton, I try it’s just much harder to get done that when I just had one child.

November also flew by, but Mike started to be home s little more. Blaise loved every second of it! He gets pretty sad and upset when Mike leaves and says I miss you daddy I love you daddy all the time to him. I wish I really was writing down everything blaise says because it's either hilarious or amazes me. I swear he might be the next president with how smart he is! He goesnt miss a beat!! He definitely doesn't forget anything either, he can recall or remember stuff from six months ago or more: people's dogs names, where he saw fireworks at on the 4th etc.

So, what's Blaise into these days? Farming. That's all there is to it! Starting a week or two before Thanksgiving we started potty training Blaise. He took off right away, as we had been "playing around" with the potty for months. He still wears diapers at night, but other than that really only had a few accidents before he got the swing of it. We still remind him lots to go, but he does really really good. He can count to ten!! I love hearing him do it. He will mess up and count wrong every once and awhile but is coming right along with it.   He loves Sutton to pieces. She loves him to pieces. Every morning he talks to her "hi baby girl" "morning pretty princess" and she just smiles as big as she can at him.

 The kids and I weren’t able to get outside as much as in years past because the mosquitos were so bad. We helped finish up the harvest in Treynor, with Blaise still loving helping as much as ever. . Sutton started using her bumbo chair to start practicing sitting up. Still no rolling over for her at all. She turned 4 months old and got her four month shots and the doctor. Blaise came with and wasn’t too sure about it all. Sutton started eating rice cereal and wasn’t very good at it at first. She did turn the corner pretty fast, and then liked it and did really good.
We headed to Kearney the middle of the month to do a day trip out for Tyler and Danielles baby shower. Both kids did excellent in the car and the entire day. Very proud!
 We spent Thanksgiving in Treynor. I made a quick Turkey Shirt for Sutton to wear the night before. Blaise had a wonderful time playing with his second cousin Mason. God is good, and we are so Thankful for the wonderful Healthy year 2014 provided.