Kayley- 25 3/4 inches (88th percentile), 14 lb 1 oz (48th percentile)- got 5 vaccines, fussed for a few minutes, looks great, got the go-ahead for cereal and fruit. Needs to spend more time on her belly but otherwise is right where she should be (she has rolled over in both directions now and found her feet!). Next appt Jan 4th at 2:30.
Andy- 42 1/4 inches (86th percentile), 38lb 4 oz (67th percentile)- got 4 vaccines, took it hard, ice cream fixed it right up, looks great otherwise, no more vaccines until age 11
Brendan- 52 inches, (90th percentile), 65 lb 4 oz (87th percentile)- no vaccines until age 11, looks great as well
Both boys did well and answered questions well. Dr. asked Brendan who his teacher was and he pointed to me. He then asked him if I was a good or bad teacher and after hemming and hawwing a bit replied “some of both”. Haha. That’s actually a great answer because what he’d consider a fabulous teacher would be one who doesn’t give him any challenging work to do.
I was complimented on their excellent behavior- always nice to hear, extra nice coming from a person who spends all day around kids. We chatted about some of the homeschool things we do- he was really interested in it and some about nutrition in general and how some things are changing (when to start feeding solids is swinging back to 4 months, cereal may not be considered the best food to start with, may not be the best to limit potentially allergenic foods too long- like strawberries, etc). It was an all around great appt.

I’ve finally seen a picture of myself where I look like I’ve lost a fair amount of weight! 63 pounds in about 3 years- had to stop to have that baby ya know!

(She’s watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heehee!)

I’m wasyyy past due posting these…
7/1 Today’s funnies…
Brendan: “Hurricane: the evolved form of thunderstorm!”
Andy: “What is a cobbler? Is it where a goblin lives?”
7/2 Kayley’s first bottle of formula since the hospital.
7/3 After an incredibly poor day of pumping yesterday (I even spilled an entire bottle- doh!) I got up at 6 am today and pumped 8 oz!!! New record.
Bren lost a tooth! The tooth to the right of his 2 front top teeth.
7/5 Bren lost another tooth- the one on the other side of his top fronts.
7/9 Andy funny after having dinner with some friends: “I want that same drink we had when we were eating pizza with those new characters.”
7/10 I got the first smile!!! DH had Kayley for morning duty while I slept in and he carried her to me after I woke up and as soon as she saw me she lit up with a great smile. Shocked me so much I took a few steps back, haha! I can’t wait for the next one!!!!
7/16 An email DH sent me:
Me: Bren, aren’t our pink flowers pretty?Bren: ehhhh ummm (like he’s saying I don’t care)M: Well, what color flowers do you like then?B: Ummm, I’m not really a flower fan, dad. Hehe, flower fan…that’s something I’d say. That’s ma boy!
Brendan holds his breath under water at swimming class now! 🙂
Kayley gave me a killer smile this morning (smile #5!) that melted me… but they are so hard to get!!!
I moved to pumping 4x a day this morning.
7/20 Got the bill for the dr services for Kayley’s NICU stay… $21K! Ouch! Thank you insurance.
7/21 Happy 2 months Kayley! YAAAYYYYY we have a SMILEY BABY!!!
She drnks 6-7 4 oz bottles now. Brendan fed her a bottle today. It was so cute!!!
7/22 Andy funny: He put his hand on Kayley’s forehead, looked into her eyes and said “You’re getting vewwy sweepy…”
7/29 Week 1 of Atkins = 7 lb loss! Yay!!!
7/30 Kayley slept 7 hours straight last night for a new record! Still at 4 oz bottles- about 6 or 7 a day, size 1-2 diapers, newborn and 0-3 month clothes. She is slowly getting happier. The best time to get smiles is first thing when she wakes up. She is starting to “talk” too!
Newest family MMO craze- Wizard 101! It’s fantastic and even Andy can play it!
8/1 Well she did it! Kayley slept over 8 hours last night- actually more like 8 1/2! Yay!!! She sure is smiley this morning too! She is talking to get my attention and smiling and kicking when I look at talk to her. Awww…
8/9 Andy asked and took his first shower today- and loved it!!!
8/10 Kay got her first juice bottle for suspected constipation this evening… hope it helps!
8/11 Wanna laugh? Andy wants to marry me. After explaining over and over again that I am already family and I can’t marry him I gave up and said ok, but it’s our secret. Now he wants to set a date. Good grief.
8/12 When I look Kaykey in the eyes and say “oooooooh!” she’ll grin and “oooh!” right back. It’s so flippin’ cute!!
8/13 Kay loves to kick her feet and suck her hands!
8/16 I tried out the bumbo seat with Kayley today and the first thing she did was smile and coo, haha. She liked it. Her head still bobbles around some but a few minutes here and there in it ought to help with that.
Brendan amazes me with his math skills. He successfully did this word problem today…
A paper has an area of 53 square inches. Someone cut out a piece that was 2 inches by 6 inches and took it away. What’s the area of the leftover piece? WOW!!!
8/21 Andy’s birthday party!!! It’s was Pokemon themed. Mimi made an awesome cake. It was delicious!! Andy seems to have lost his shyness. He did great!
Happy 3 months Miss K!
8/22- a 24 oz can of powdered formula lasts Kayley exactly 6.5 days. She still has 6, occassionally 7, 4 oz bottles per day and sometimes and ounce or 2 of juice to keep her bowels moving. She moved to size 2 diapers today.
8/24 K now busts out of her 0-3 month sleepers… it’s as if she was waiting specifically to be over the 3 month mark, haha. Bren is a size 8 and size 6H for jeans. Andy is a size 4.
We went to the Rainforest Cafe and the Children’s Museum today with Cathy. It was great!!
Kayley slept her first 10 hour night! Wahoo!!
8/26 DH taight Kay how to roll off the couch and into his arms this morning, haha! She did it 7 or 8 times and he even videotaped it! If they play this new game often she might start rolling over on her own sooner than I thought!
8/30 Today was a bad reflux day so I gave Kayley her first baby food. She had pears with rice cereal. She had a good time with it!

9/1- 3m11d. Kayley rolled from her belly to her back for the first time on the floor!! She can go from her back to her side as well.
Kayley also skipped the 11 hour night and went straight for the gold- 12 hours last night!!!
9/9 Darrell made Kayley laugh for the first time today!! Daddy for the win! I can get close but it isn’t quite a belly laugh.
9/10 Kayley held a rattle successfully for the first time today! She had quite the grip on it!
We’ve lost the golden nights… Kayley hasn’t slept through the night since her one 12 hour stretch 9 days ago. Her pattern right now is midnight to 6:30 and then 7:00 to 10:00.
Still eats six 4 oz bottles per day. Huggies size 2 are getting snug- thankfully Pampers size 2 are roomier! She wears 3-6 months clothes fully now. If my scale is right, she is 14 pounds now!

to our little Miss Kitty Kay!

Both of these are KILLER GOOD!!
Almond Thins (think wheat thins) and if you want a lot of variations and easier methods look here.
Cheez-its– the easiest cracker ever! The key is to buy Kraft “Deluxe American” cheese slices. Other brands don’t work.
These aren’t “good for low carb”- they are really good!
Edited to add: A great chip can easily be made by frying pieces of Joseph’s low carb lavash (Walmart deli area) for just a few seconds.

Well… Andy chose to shower instead. 😉

I think this’d work fine with beef as well. It was very good! Serves 2-3.
1.5 lbs chicken breast, cubed
2-3 T butter
optional- chopped celery and onion (I like, DH doesn’t)
1 cup chicken broth
2 cloves of garlic, minced
pepper to taste
1 t cumin
1 T chili powder
1 10 oz can mild Ro-tel (even mild turns this spicy)
1 can Eden Organic Black Soybeans (I promise they taste great! Buy here if you can’t find them)
2 slices Deluxe American cheese slices
Fry chicken (and celery and onion if you want them) in pot with the butter. Half way through add garlic. Add remaining ingredients except cheese and cook until most of the juice is gone. Remove from heat and stir in cheese (it helps thicken the chili).
Serve with these “cheez-its”- absolutely AMAZING low carb crackers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried and my husband has tried to make something crispy with just cheese and our oven and have failed miserably, lol. This is so simple and they come out perfect in 65 seconds. We even made smoked gouda crackers. Watch out- they are so addictive!