Lots to catch up on: Doctor’s Appointments, Hair Cut, and Brandon turned 30!!!!

As the title states, I have lots to catch up on since my last post.

Doctors Appontment’s:

I will first start off with our trip to the doctors Thursday morning. Autumn had her 18 month well baby check-up and Owen had an appointment because he was sick. Luckily my kids awesome pediatrician agreed to look at them both together so we didn’t have to make two separate appointments. Anyway, we kept Owen home from school because he had a low fever, terrible cough and lots of boogies. Poor kid was not happy about missing school. He sobbed over it for a long time and stated, “can I please go to school mommy? I will try really hard to not cough.” Poor kid just didn’t understand.

I’ll start with Autumn’s check up first:

She looked good. Development on track and healthy but, yes there is a but, the doctor has reported that she is in fact classified as “underweight”. He said it is not worrisome at this point but it does need to be addressed and looked after. Anyway, she did not even gain 2 lbs since her last visit 6 months ago. She weighted in at a whopping 17.5 lbs. Yes, tiny I know. That puts her in the –10 (yes I said negative) percentile for weight. On a good note her head circumference is in the 11th Percentile (17.7 in.) and her height is in the 5th Percentile (29.5 in.). Here is a look at what I am talking about…

Not the best picture but bare with me. Okay, so the big giant capital I looking thing is the normal range for an 18 month old girl. the top of the I is the 95 percentile and the bottom of the I is the 5 percentile. Under the I is an curved line with numbers in bubbles above each dot, that is Autumn’s growth curve since she was born. The last dot that has 17.5 lb in the bubble is where autumn is now which you can see is well below the bottom of the big I. So I know you are asking what do you do? Well it is kind of a process. Autumn now has to go to the doctors every 3 months to have “weigh in’s”. If she does not start growing they want to set us up with a nutritionist to discuss ways to increase her calorie intake and ways to improve her eating since she is so so picky and never is interested in eating. Again, it is not a major health concern or anything but it is something they need to keep an eye on since she is not growing at a faster rate. They really want to make sure she doesn’t have a growth hormone deficiency. My pediatrician really seems to think she is just going to be “petite” like mommy so he really isn’t overly concerned. Just kind of ironic since Owen was always at the top of the growth curve and seems to be pretty tall for his age.

Okay, on to Owen:

Although he looks fairly happy in this picture the poor kid was sick. He got diagnosed with Croup. Croup is basically a viral infection with cold like symptoms that can cause inflammation and infection in the lower throat including the windpipe and voice box. They also have a “barking seal” cough due to swelling and mucus build up in their throat. Anyway, there is not much you can do for it but wait it out or if they get really bad where they are struggling to breath they can give them a steroid shot. Luckily Owen’s did not get that bad and he is actually starting to feel much better being on day 5 or 6 of this nasty virus. We have basically been doing all the doctor recommendations such as steamy showers, humidifiers and nebulizers. After a few days of all that he is almost as good as new just a lingering cough and persistent runny nose, but much much better.

He really likes his nebulizer treatments because it usually means extra iPad time or extra TV time. Little stinker.

And as you can all guess, This little stinker now has Croup. We were warned by the doctor that this was most likely going to happen. Unfortunately this little girl has not been sleeping so that means mommy and daddy are quite exhausted too. I think she woke up every hour last night. Felt like we had a newborn all over again. No fun!

Hair Cut:

So as I mentioned in my last post, I got a very drastic hair cut this week. I was pretty sick of my long hair and the amount of time it took every morning to do it and I was ready for a change. After lots of encouragement from my hubby, I decided to go through with it and chop it all off. Okay enough talking I know….

So here is my hair stylist’s floor when she was finished with me. YIKES, that is a lot of hair!!!!

 

I couldn’t find a picture of me by myself so this is the best before and after shot I can find. Wow, I can’t believe I did it. I’m not much of a daring kind of girl. I love it. It only takes 10 minutes to do my hair now, even better!!

Most importantly, my whole family likes my “new do” too!

 

BRANDON TURNED 30!!!!!!

Yep, that is correct, I am now married to a 30 year old man. Haha. Yesterday marked Brandon’s 3rd decade of life. He insisted that he didn’t want to do anything but hang out with the family so there was no big party or anything. Brandon is not much of a big celebration kind of guy so I really tried to respect his wishes. Plus we are heading to Colorado on Wednesday so I think we will have a night out to go celebrate with some of Brandon’s best friends back home. Thankfully we didn’t have anything big planned because with the kids not feeling well we would have had to cancel things anyway because we are home bound with them the next few days. Sorry back to his bday. I woke up early and cooked him the breakfast he requested the night before: Scrambled Eggs, French Toast and Has browns. After a big family breakfast I packed him up a special lunch and then he had to go to work ;(.

+

=

He was one happy camper with his homemade breakfast he requested! Doesn’t he look like a 30 year old now? Totally kidding!

 

While Poor Daddy was off busy at work, the kids and I got to work also (sick and all)…

We decided instead of making him a card that we would make him a huge Birthday Banner. They had a blast and it kept them occupied for quite awhile.

The Left is a picture of Brandon and the right is a Birthday Balloon that Owen drew special just for Daddy. So precious.

And here is the final product!

We also hung up some Balloons, put a Birthday Table cloth out and

made him his very favorite Funfetti Birthday Cake. I always forget candles so this is what I had to work with. 26 and 4 makes 30. Lol

We had originally planned to go out to dinner with my parents and sister’s family but since the kids got sick plans had to change. My sisters family stayed home because we did not want Abi to end up sick so my parents picked up some Dion’s Pizza and Salad and we ate dinner in. After dinner we moved onto presents. Everything must go in order according to Mr. Owen.

And of course Daddy had some awesome helpers.

Owen and Daddy checking out his sweet new Broncos Calendar.

And no Birthday is complete with out a little melt down, right?!?!

And immediately following presents Mr. Owen said it was cake time.

I am pretty sure Funfetti cake is now Owen’s favorite cake too.

And after cake, Owen really wanted to put together a puzzle for Daddy on his Birthday.

And after both kids were in bed us adults stayed up and played Brandon’s favorite game Wackee Six. Please excuse the vinyl Christmas table cloth. It is so much easier to pick up the cards when it is not directly on the glass table. I have a valentines day table cloth but according to my husband this was the first one he saw. Haha.

Happy 30th Birthday Brandon!!!!!!!!! We LOVE you so so so so so so so much. You are the BEST Husband, Father, Son, Uncle, Brother, Friend, Co-worker, Grandson, Cousin, etc. that anyone could ever ask for. I thank God every single day for putting you in my life. You are an amazing man and the best spiritual leader for our family. Thank you for all you do!

Week 2 of Nada…

So this has been the second week in a row in the Burgess Household where we have had no plans. As in nada, zip, zilch. I have to admit, I ‘m kind of getting used to this. I think we were overly busy at the end of 2011, that this laid back schedule has been not only nice but very much needed. We have had lots of time to spend together as a family and we have very much enjoyed just being able to relax, play and embrace the quiet (which is very rare with an almost 4 year old and 18 month old). Anyway, I am really liking my Wednesday and Sunday blogging routine I have been on the past month or so and I didn’t want to miss out on my Wednesday blog just because we haven’t been up to much, so I have decided to just share some pictures from the week. Okay, here we go…

Sunday:

Sunday morning I decided to make this awesome recipe I found on Pinterest for breakfast. Baked Blueberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal. O my goodness it was beyond AMAZING!!!! Even better that there is no sugar or butter. It is all very healthy. The only non healthy ingredients are maple syrup and chocolate chips and both can easily be left out depending on your mood or diet. It’s also gluten free for all you with Gluten-Free folks out there. Anyway, my point is it that it is delish, healthy and a MUST TRY for all!!!! My family of 4 ate almost the whole pan!

Monday:

Monday started off with a trip to Burger King for lunch. I found this burger king, that is not super close to our house but it has an awesome play area. Since we had nada going on (like my emphasis of nada in this blog already) I decided to take the kids out from some lunch and play time. I swore when I got pregnant with Owen (4+ years ago) that I would never let my kids play in fast food or mall play areas because they were full of germs. Well, here I am 4 years later and guess where my kids are playing? Haha. Never say never. I know these places are in fact full of germs, but when it is freezing outside and your kids are dying to run around where else do you go? Come on fellow parents, you know what I am talking about right?! Anyway, this germy play area was awesome! We were there for well over an hour and had the entire place to ourselves. The kids had a great time!!!

It was set up nice and had stuff for little kids, including a small slide, and tons of fun for the older kids including a really big steep slide. We will definitely be going back soon!

Tuesday:

Tuesday morning Autumn and I had a little play date set up with a Mom and Younger Sibling of one of Owen’s pre-school classmates. The poor little boy Autumn was going to play with unfortunately got really sick so we had to re-schedule for next week. So Autumn and I ran a few errands and then went home after dropping Owen off at school. We were a bit bored, especially with out Owen around, so I decided to pull out a craft to do. My Mom gave me this book she found a couple weeks ago while cleaning out a closet. This was a Valentine’s Day Crafts book she got when my sister and I were little. Check out the copyright date: 1981. Haha, too funny. Since it had some sentimental value I decided to keep it to do a craft or two with my kids that my mom did with me and my sister.

Autumn and I decided to make some Kooky Clay. I can vividly remember making this with my mom when I was around 4 or 5. I know Autumn is a little young but we had fun anyway.

Basically you just mix Flour, Salt and Water to make this clay. You cut it out into shapes using cookie cutters or free hand with a knife and let it dry out for a few days. Once it is completely dry you can paint it just like you would with plaster figurines. I got paint too but I’ll let the kids paint them sometime next week.

I made holes in them so they can either tie a string on it to make an ornament or they can use the heart shaped ones to put on a necklace string for Valentines Day. Either way they can paint them and do whatever they want with them, but the holes gives extra options. It was a fun time with just Autumn and she had a great time playing with the mixing bowls, spoons and patting the dough.

Last night my sister and my very good friend Cammy (my sister’s BFF) invited me out for a very very last minute girls night. Yikes, me and last minute plans don’t usually go very well ( I am a major planner) but I decided why not and just went with it. My mom came over to watch the kids for the 15 minute overlap from when I needed to leave and when Brandon would be getting home.  Thanks again mom, you’re the best. For those of you who don’t know Cammy, she is a yoga instructor. She somehow convinced my sister and I to join her for an advanced yoga class?!?! Just a side note I have not done yoga since I was pregnant with Owen 4 years ago. Anyway, we went along. It was actually really fun, relaxing and boy o boy did I get a work out in. I can barely move today. I stretched muscles I didn’t even know I had. I feel like I went on an 8 hour horse back ride. Anyway, it was a great time. After yoga we headed over to this place Jinja for dinner and drinks. I am so happy I went because it was a wonderful and productive evening out spent with 2 of my favorite people. Love you ladies!

Our Delicious Mojitos & Edemame. Yum, Yum, Yum. And that was just our appetizers!

And here we are today, Wednesday:

Again, a day of nothing on the schedule. And thank goodness because both kids are a bit under the weather. Must have been that trip to the germy Burger King Play Area. J/K. They have both had minor colds for a couple days now and it has finally gotten the best of them. Poor Owen is barking like a Seal and Autumn….well, lets just say she is having some “digestion” issues. Haha, the joys of parenting. Anyway, we are stuck in since they both feel like poo.

Daddy surprised us and came home for lunch after an early morning of meetings. The kids were not about to let Daddy rest on his lunch break so they had him dance with them while watching Yo Gabba Gabba. Yo Gabba Gabba is their new favorite show now that we finally have Nick Jr. I have to admit the show is a bit strange, but it really sends out some good messages and always gets the kids dancing around and singing which is better than just sitting on the couch and watching. Right? Here they are doing the “freeze dance”.

Dance, Dance, Dance, and…

FREEZE! Owen kind of looks like a zombie, but he is actually just frozen in the middle of dancing. Lol.

O my goodness I LOVE these two so MUCH!!!!!

Some Miscellaneous Stuff…

I had another Order for an Infant Car Seat Blanket. Yay!!!! For all you wondering and those who have asked, I am STILL in the process of setting up a blog for all the items I make available for sale. I am a super slacker because I would rather sew then set up a website in my free time. I know I need to get my priorities strait.

Here is the final product all packaged up. I even threw in two matching Pacifier clips with the extra fabric I had. So thankful people like my stuff enough to purchase them. I am hoping for lots of dress orders this summer. Keep your fingers crossed.

Not sure when this was from, but Autumn has found a hobby of playing dress up with my clothes in the morning while I am getting ready. Haha.

And for those of you who don’t already know….I am officially chopping off all my hair tomorrow. All, as in, 8-9 inches! This picture was mainly took so I can visually see how different it looks tomorrow and so I can see how long my hair actually was when I am crying tomorrow regretting my decision. Just kidding, but I probably will cry. I had short hair about 5 years ago and it has taken me a good 3.5 years to grow it out to this point. O well, I am ready for a change despite the mixed reactions I am getting, some think I should and some think I am crazy. We shall see the results tomorrow. Ahhhh. Wish me luck.