Take your child to work day

Joshua was able to go to work with Dusty on April 24th. National take your son/daughter to work day.

The day started out with getting ready and stopping for coffee (and some hot chocolate) on the way to work.






Working a bit on nickjr.com


Dealing with problem employees...

To Do list

4 Month and 5 year well baby/kid appointment

We had the kids well baby/kid appointments this past weekend. Everyone checked out well!!

Here are Samantha's stats

Weight 13lbs
Height 23inches
Head 16.5inches

Here are the percentiles according to babycenter. they vary a bit from what the dr. said.

Length = between percentile 5 and 10
Weight = between percentile 10 and 25
Head Circumference = between percentile 50 and 75

Here are Addison's stats

Weight 14lbs 3oz
Height 22.75inches
Head 16.5inches

Length = below percentile 5
Weight = between percentile 50 and 75
Head Circumference = between percentile 50 and 75


They got three shots. We talked about the different types of shots and we got 3 shots that they should have gotten at their 2 month appt but I opted to delay. I chose the combination shot for these shots because they have less perservatives. So three shots..one poke.

We go back in 2 months for their 6 mth appt.

Oh and an update on the swing situation. Both girls have slept through the night EVERY SINGLE night since we moved the swings in the nursery.


Now on to Joshua:

He weighed 42lbs and was 43.5 inches tall

At 5 years and 6 months:your child is 42 pounds, and that is
at the 41st percentile for weight.

your child is 43.5 inches, and that is
at the 34th percentile for height.


He got a HepA shot (which apparently is a new protocol)


Here are some updated pictures.

I give up!!

Transitioning to the crib went great the first day/night. Now..it's completely beaten me down. I'm exhausted, moody, crabby, short tempered and I give up. Sore-ee (said like Simon Cowell) -shrugs- I'm done. I'm throwing in the towel.

The girls naps went from 3 hours to 30 mins. That does NOT fly with me. Not even a little bit. I need time during the day to do other house stuff, pay bills, BATHE, breathe, go to the potty, maybe even eat a little something.

They were crabby last night and wouldn't go down for anything. The minute we gave up on the cribs and put them both in their swings, they were out and slept 10 hours straight. Then got up and were ready for another nap around 11am. I put them in their cribs and they slept 30 mins. Forget it! I put them back in their swings and they are still sleeping 2 hours later!

I called Dusty and told him that we are taking one of their cribs down, for now, and putting their swings in their rooms. I don't care if it's not the "proper" thing to do. Believe me, I know- consistency is key, but you know what? So is sanity. It wouldn't be so bad if I only had one infant to deal with but I don't..I have two, so the theme in this house is "whatever works" and this works for us. The girls are only 4 months old. We've been wanting to transition them into the nursery and out of our room. Who says they have to be in their cribs? They are happy in their swings and who the heck am I to argue? Happy babies makes happy mommy and you know the ole saying "if momma ain't happy, no one is" so the effect trickles down to the rest of the family.

btw- I still endorse the ocean wonders aquarium, the girls love them.

4 months old!

The girls are 4 months old today. We decided that they need to move into their own room. The transition actually went pretty smooth. Samantha has taken to it much better than Addison. Although, the problem could be teething. Addison seems to be the most uncomfortable with her teething. Samantha is sleeping in her crib great. She is still sleeping through the night and at least 2 long naps. Addison is sleeping through the night too but has only napped for about an hour or so at a time for the past couple days.

For night time- the girls love the mobiles above their cribs and Addison's plays music BUT it only plays for about 2 minutes. So we went to Target and got the Ocean's Wonder Aquarium with remote control. Here is a picture


The girls are mesmerized by it. They watch the bubbles and lights and drift off to sleep. The remote is AWESOME! We got an aquarium for each crib but only need to use one remote control because it will turn them both on at the same time. It's great!

I would highly recommend this crib toy.

Teething H.E.Double Hockey Sticks

The girls have been drooling fools the past few weeks. They also have been chewing their hands like crazy. The past couple days, fussiness can be added to the list. Yesterday was torture. They were fussy all day long. They pretty much took turns crying the entire day. There were only short little cat naps here and there. They are awesome sleepers usually at least 2, 2-3 hour naps. Last night was terrible, they both just cried and cried but Addison was the worst. She was screaming!

We called the pediatrician to get the okay for Tylenol. She asked the symptoms and then gave us the go ahead. I ran to Meijer real quick and got some. I came home to a total meltdown by Addison. Dusty was frazzled to say the least. I looked up the dosage and quickly gave both girls some much needed relief. They both seemed to calm down shortly after. Their dose was at 8:30ish and Addison was down for the night by 10pm and Samantha by 11pm. They both slept till 6am and are actually back down now. I just loaded the dishwasher, blogged and now I'm off to nap too.


Poor girl fell asleep sitting up on my lap from pure exhaustion.

On a roll...

Tummy time around here is pretty much torture. Its a time filled with screaming and crying. We still do it almost everyday even for 5 minutes. So this past Friday (april 4th) I put the girls down on a blanket and they actually didn't cry! Samantha just laid there and cooed at me. Addison was listening hard to her sister too. Then ..woop, samantha was on her back. It scared her because she rolled right into the exersaucer. I calmed her down and put her back on her tummy and then she rolled again! I had moved the saucer so she didn't hit it. She was surprised but was happy about the new view.

WTG Sa-mannie-nannie!

Great day for a walk

We took the girls and Josh for a walk today. The girls didn't seem to enjoy it earlier. I think Addison was tired and Samantha was still a bit hungry. We walked up to the community mailbox, which is 1/4 a mile away. We were able to make it there and back without too many meltdowns but it wasn't a very pleasant walk because the girls were fussy.

Later in the evening, I decided to take Samantha to the mailbox to drop off some mail I forgot earlier. I figured it would be nice to take one girl at a time to get them used to the outside. Its been so cold, we've been stuck inside for the past 3.5 months. It was slightly windy and sunny, so it takes them time to get used to the elements. She LOVED it! Here are a couple pictures from our walk. Doesn't she look so pretty and so happy?

MIL to the rescue!

By the way- MIL stands for Mother in Law. Ok... on to how and why she came to our rescue.

The girls have been sleeping through the night (most nights) I would say anywhere between 6-12 hour stretches. It feels like a whole new world now. Getting up every 3 hours gets old after a few months, so this is a welcome change for sure.

There seems to be those times, I would say once or twice a week, that something seems to be wrong. It ALWAYS involves Samantha. Addison is fine as long as she is sleeping right next to me.

So last night Samantha just cried and cried. It wasn't an "I'm tired" cry, it was more of a "something is hurting me" cry. Around 10pm Dusty called his mom, Diane, over to help out. Dusty hasn't been feeling well so he was exhausted. I didn't get more than 2 hours sleep the night before because of Dusty not feeling well. He has been snoring really bad because of a stuffy nose and sore throat. Needless to say, I was exhausted too and could barely keep my eyes open. Addison wasn't quite ready for bed yet. Diane came over and sat with Addison and tried to calm Samantha. Dusty and I went to bed. She assured us that she would wake us if she needed us.

I had the best sleep I've had in ages last night. I feel like a whole new woman! I just put my earplugs in and closed my eyes and away to sleepy land I went...ahhhh..sleep, my long lost BFF!!

We got up at 7ish and the girls were sleeping. Samantha was in her bouncy seat and Addison was sleeping on Diane. Addison loves sleeping next to a warm body.

We're still not quite sure what was wrong with Samantha. Diane ended up stripping her down to nothing and she stopped crying. So was her diaper pinching her? Don't know? She was crying before that diaper was on. She has a scratch on her head that drew blood. Did she scratch herself and it hurt badly? I don't know? She hasn't pooped in almost 24 hrs. Does her belly hurt? Its not hard. Was she over tired? I don't know, she didn't cry like she was tired. Did she miss her Grandma DD? maybe, it had been almost 24 hrs, maybe she was going through withdrawals? -sigh- All I know is that this morning, everything seems to be back in order.

Thank you Grandma DD for your help!! It's great having close family to rely on in times of frustration and exhaustion.

Size comparison

Seeing the girls everyday, its hard to really see how much they have grown. I can tell by holding them, obviously, but to look at them and say- wow, you have really gotten bigger. Dusty and I have roughly weighed the girls on our scale. I say roughly because its not exactly accurate. We do the whole, weigh ourselves and then hold one of the girls and weigh ourselves again and take the difference...then voila! we have the weight of the girls. The most recent weigh in was surprising. Both girls have at least doubled their weight at only 3 months of age!

Addison's birth weight was 5 lbs. A couple days ago she weighed exactly 13 lbs!
Samantha's birth weight was 6 lbs. Last week at the doctor's, she weighed exactly 12 lbs!

Its crazy to see that Addison has not only caught up with her younger sister, but she has actually passed her in weight! When the girls are wearing onsies and have their cute little chubby legs hanging out, its VERY obvious that Addison weighs more.

Anyway- I thought I would take some comparison pictures today. I didn't use the EXACT same bouncy seat, but they are the same size- just different design fabrics.

Here are the girls when they were 2 weeks old
Here they are today at 3.5 months