9 month comparison

I've been wanting to do this post for quite some time, but haven't had extra time on my hands and I thought maybe I should wait until Makenna was 9 months as that was my age in the following picture.  Makenna's looks have changed some now and I don't feel its the spitting image that she used to be, but now you can tell that Denver and Makenna are siblings!  If you remember this is around the age that we could finally see some of me in Denver.  We'll see if she keeps looking more like her daddy or if she stays looking a little more like her mommy!

Makenna is wearing a dress of mine that I worke when I was about 12 months.  I believe my Great Aunt Judy made it and I maybe wore it for someone's wedding, but I could be wrong as its been a little while since mom and I talked about it.  It was really hard to get Makenna looking the same angle, etc that I was, but this is the best I could do for now.

9 months old....almost a month ago!

So life has continued to be crazy and with sickness and battle scars I haven't gotten Makenna's 9 month pictures done.  I figured I better quick get them done before it's time to do a 10 month post!  I'm going to try hard to not include Makenna's latest learnings and only what she did, knew, had, etc at 9 months, but that may be hard to do.

9 month well baby visit report: as always Makenna looked great at her appointment with no concerns. She weighed in at 19lbs. 3.9oz. (this is only 1.9oz gain since 6 months, but they were okay with that, as was I!) which drops her to about the 65%. Makenna was 27.5 inches long which puts her in the 70%. She only had to get 2 shots and she would've gotten away with none had we not needed to finish her flu and H1N1 vaccinations. Our pediatrician checks a hemoglobin at the 9 month visit so she had to have her finger poked. She just whimpered after the poke; she's such a tough girl!
Makenna got her 1st tooth at about 8 1/2 months and tooth number 2 popped in a couple days before she was 9 months old.  Prior to her teeth Makenna amazed us at what she could gum up, but now she really amazes me.  This little girl loves to eat big people food.  A new favorite at 9 months was pizza and probably taverns (sloppy joes, barbeques, whatever you call them).  She also likes her sippy cup and any other finger food that we allow her to have, especially sweets!

Still not crawling.  Makenna still refuses to crawl.  We know she's strong enough to as she's one tough cookie, but just does not like being in that position.  She'll be in a crawling like position long enough to get what she wants and then back to her butt she goes.  I'm still wondering if she'll ever crawl.  I thought that with Denver though and he all of a sudden did and said forget about all this walking around with people holding their hands, so maybe she will too.  Makenna loves to stand and she's learning to like walking while hanging onto someone's hands.  Otherwise Makenna's method of getting around is rolling.  She rolls around on the floor way more than Denver ever did.

Makenna loves her baby.  My mom and dad got her a little, soft baby for Christmas and she loves it and always has it in bed with her.  She holds it, plays with it, talks to it, and is learning how to rock her baby.  Its adorable.  Baby dolls are one of my favorite memories of being a little girl and I can't wait to be a part of this with Makenna!

Another talker.  I think we might have another talker, but what a surprise, right?! :)  When given the opportunity Makenna loves to talk.  Lots of da, da, da and ba, ba, ba.....she also does ma, ma, ma and pa, pa, pa now, but that should probably go with her 10 month post as she's only been doing that about 2 weeks now I think.  There is also lots of other talk that I can't write out!

Some where in here Makenna also learned how to patty cake!  She's very proud of herself and we're proud of her too!  Makenna also gives high fives...this sounds familiar...maybe this was in her 8 month post?  It all runs together.  Too much going on and not enough time!

Makenna's 9 month photo shoot was so much fun!  She's just so stinking adorable (or at least her bias mommy thinks so!), which made it so easy to take pictures.  When the camera comes out the smiles are limited, but the pictures are cute even without a smile in my opinion!  I hope you enjoy!  (Makenna took a fall to the floor and we think she took a book along with her which left a mark on her forehead...I edited it out on some of my favorites so that's why you see a mark on some and not on others)

Makenna LOVES her big brother and absolutely loves it when he plays with her.

Makenna showing off her standing skill...

...realized Mommy let go!...

Mommy!!

Starting to reach for a toy...

Patty cake!

Aren't I sweet?

So serious...

...my "I'm not sure of this" look.

1st time eating pizza!

Being child number 2 and having an older brother that doesn't quite know better some times is in Makenna's favor. The other day Denver was having oreos on a blanket in the living room and Makenna was sitting with him and when I came back in the room I found Makenna eating oreos too! At least he likes to share some things with her!

Makenna also does quite well eating with a fork! I help her get her food on it, she then puts it in her mouth, and then hands the fork back to me to start all over. Although now that we're approaching 10 months we have gotten a little attitude and typically throw the fork after taking the yum-yums off it!

Morning play time in our pj's!

A common position for Makenna.  Since she's not willing to crawl she walks herself out from this position to reach whatever it is she wants and then returns to a sitting position to play with what she got...or eat what she found (this can be scary...you never know what might be left on the floor!)

Also to update everyone the sickness has left the house!  I think I can officially say everyone is better.  The kids still ocassionally cough and at times you can feel a little rattle in Makenna, but otherwise everyone is healthy.  Evan and I got colds out of the deal too, but thankfully ours didn't last as long as theirs and weren't as bad either.

Sickness Update

Just thought I'd do an update on our sick kiddos.  Denver has improved tremendously.  He still coughs once in a while, but I don't think I've had to wipe his nose once today and he's been motrin free for over 24 hours now.  Makenna on the other hand has struggled a little more.  She got sick one day later and seems to be running the same course as Denver, but has been a little more miserable.  Last night when I was putting her pj's on I noticed she looked slightly blue above her top lip and then she started crying and she looked dusky around her mouth so we decided it was time to take her to the clinic.  I'm glad we finally went to the clinic just to put me at ease that they don't have something bacterial that needs antibiotics and my stubborness in turn was making them sicker.  The PA that was on was very impressed with her assessment.  She at the time sounded clear (which I agreed for the most part she is, on occassion I could hear some wheezes, but not real often), her ears looked good, her throat looked good, etc, etc.  He decided to do a blood test to confirm that it was viral and said we didn't need to do a RSV test as it wouldn't change how we would treat her.  I was thankful for that for Makenna's sake (they suck their nose out for this test) and for our bank account as those tests are around $200 and our insurance puts it towards deductible.  So the blood test in turn confirmed it was viral, and due to the duskiness around her lips at times and her tight cough he decided to put her on nebs.  Makenna hates her nebs like any baby, but I think they have helped. This morning she still seemed slightly dusy around her lips when she cried, but I haven't noticed it since then. Her cough sounds better and she definitely looks better! She also must feel better because she hasn't been very irritable and has been much happier.  Here are a couple pictures of our mad baby girl during her neb tonight.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope all of you had a great Valentine's Day today!  Evan and I decided it was definitely not our most romantic Valentine's day, but we still had a good day (for the most part).  Evan and I did splurge this year (other than birthdays which we don't usually get too crazy about we haven't bought each other gifts for a long time) and got each other gifts that we exchanged last night.  I got Evan a Keurig!  We've been having fun experimenting with it and Evan actually said it might be the best gift ever. :)  And Evan got me a special charm bracelet that I absolutely love!  This year has been a bit sressful at times with Evan's responsibilites of being part owner at the shop and it was nice to "show" each other how much we love each other by getting the other a fun gift!

Today we started our day off by going to Church, which both of us had in the back of our minds as we were getting ready..."is this really worth it?".  You see, we have 2 sicks kids.  If I had to guess, they both have RSV, therefore they could not go to the nursery.  It didn't take long and the kids got too loud and so we took turns out in the foyer with them.  During my turn Denver started coughing and ended up coughing so hard that he threw up.  In turn...we left Church before it was over!  We then came home for lunch, much needed naps, snowblowing the driveway, cleaning the house, laundry, pizza, watching the Olympics, and now for us adults...Evan playing Play Station and me blogging.  How romantic, huh? :)

Here are a couple pictures of the kiddos from today.

Not such a fun 1st Valentine's Day

The kids are doing okay and since my guess is RSV I don't plan on taking anyone in to the clinic unless one or both of them start showing some signs of respiratory distress or if the fevers continue too long, as they can't do much for RSV (nebs is pretty much the only option unless they end up developing a bacterial infection on top of the RSV which is possible).  Please pray for a quick recovery as I want my happy "babies" back!  Until then we'll continue with the motrin to keep the fevers down which have gotten better, typically only 99 degrees.

I haven't had a chance to do Makenna's 9 month pictures yet, as I want to wait until she feels better, but that post will be coming soon, hopefully! 

Another week of "new" things...

Things are constantly changing in our house and I think that's going to be a constant for awhile here.

Makenna got her first tooth! I found it January 22nd, but it could've been there sooner. She was great when it was first cutting through her swollen little gums. I had been watching for teeth since she's almost 9 months old and had no teeth...plus Denver got his a little after 8 months, but she had been so good I didn't realize she had a tooth cutting through. In the afternoon she was more clingy than normal and I ran my finger over the bottom of her gums and ouch!, there was a tooth! Since then she has been a little more fussy and irritable...not sure if the next one is trying to get through too or if she's just sick of this one or what.

Since we're on Makenna, we'll continue with her. She's been "practicing" crawling. She sits on her butt and walks her hands all the way out until the point of if she went farther she'd fall to get whatever it is she wants and then goes back to sitting on her little butt. There are times she gets on all fours, but if she tries to go forward she goes splat and gets mad and its all over. Makenna is to the point where she's wanting to be more mobile, where as before she was our laid back one not caring what was going on and being content with where she was left. You can see it in her face she wants to try and keep up with Denver.

Food...is also getting a little more interesting. There are times that even eating what we're eating isn't good enough...she wants to do it herself! I didn't know this little girl had so much independence in her. I thought that was my Denver and my Makenna would be a more dependent one, but pretty sure I was wrong with that! We are exploring new foods quite often. Tonight Makenna had cantalope and LOVED it! I think the coldness felt good on her swollen gums.

Makenna got to try some pizza the other night!

We had fajitas for supper the other night, but Denver may tell you we had sour cream!

He ate sour cream by the spoonfuls...which I guess I should tell you is normal for him.

Patty Cake!! I've been working on playing patty cake with Makenna a lot lately and she would try to copy, but usually it ended up in "clapping" against the table or floor and the end of last week or beginning of this week she started putting her hands together, but it was one on top of the other and the middle of this week she figure it out and gets so proud! Some times when we try to get her to clap we say "Yeaaa!" and she even tries to imitate that now..its so cute! I didn't get the best video of her and I playing patty cake, but Evan wasn't home to help and my little helper was being a little too helpful...but enjoy! Also along with patty cake we've been working on high fives and knuckles. She figure out high fives...but doesn't always give them so that brain is still finishing the process of that.



Both the kids love to dance! This video is from the beginning of the month. I need to get an updated one because Makenna gets her arms into it now.

Our little Denver has become quite that talker. He has started telling stories. I love it! All of a sudden he just goes...and goes, and goes, and goes! This afternoon I told him to wait a minute while I went to get the camcorder and then asked him to tell me the story again. I couldn't decide what to edit out so its long...don't feel obligated to watch it all...but it was just to cute, I had to share it! Other things that Denver has mastered in the last month or so are...running the DVD player (that's probably been more than a month), pouring things (he always wants to be my helper and has gotten quite good!), understanding the concept of going on the potty chair (I don't know that he's mastered it yet...but we're working on it and he gets it more now than he did, but still not real interested...would rather be playing toys!), lots of conversations on his phone with his Cousin Jacob and friend Abby (pretend conversations...although Denver and Abby did get to chat on the phone the other day, it was pretty cute!), and there may be more, but that's what is coming to mind right now. He is also working harder on counting, before he had little interest, but now you can hear him counting quite often...lots of times its to play hide and seek, one of his favorite games to play!



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We've been trying to use our gym membership a little more often. Denver loves to go to the gym to shoot hoops and to go swimming. Here are some pictures from swimming the other day. Today Denver was enjoying going down the slide and I'm not sure if he meant to, but he ended up going down face first. I was standing right there and caught him at the end so he didn't get too much water and when he stood up he looked at me and said "I did it!" and was all excited! It was pretty funny.

I had planned on doing another "snowstorm" post, but kind of forgot and remembered I had pictures of the kids that I wanted to make sure I got on here so rewind a little...to the day after Christmas!

Denver all ready to go help Daddy clear the snow from the driveway.

A view of our mailbox and across the street.

Evan snow blowing with his new snow blower.

We made it 5 years owning a house without one, but this did it in and we bought one...18-20 inches of snow is too much shoveling for us!

Watching Daddy snow blow.

Our back deck...lots of snow.

Playing in all the fun snow!

A quick picture of Makenna in the snow...don't worry (that she doesn't have mittens on) it wasn't freezing out and we took her right back in afterwards.

Kaboom!

Back in the warm house.

And lastly I'll leave you with Denver giving Makenna a ride on his bicycleable.