Amazing sale on classic kids clothes

Bella Bliss, a Lexington, KY company, is hosting a huge sale right now on their fall/winter items. Head over there quickly to stock up for next year. I'm thrilled with the items I was able to pick up for the boys today (and I even threw in a skirt for myself!!).

A few of the darling offerings......

(for $12 and made of pima cotton- you better believe I bought both for Peter for next Christmas!!)

 

(in numerous colors with contrasting ric rac on the back)

 

(tons of intarsia sweaters- I already own two and LOVE them. Amazing quality)

 

(Darling bow skirt that also comes in an adult woman's size)

 

(sweet as pie boy bubble)

 

(and matching sister dress!!! I DIE!!!)

 

 

They also have tons of pima cotton basics like peter pan collar shirts, turtlenecks, long sleeved polo shirts and rugbys and adorable cordoroy pants, ruffle overalls and regular overalls. There is cute stuff even for 8-14 year olds. Plus, almost everything is monogrammable!!! I can also attest that the quality is amazing! Also, there is free shipping during the sale on orders over $100. Hope you all find as much as I did!!

 

 

 

 

Rolling, rolling, rolling.......

 

As a mom of an infant, I have found that I love the closely spaced pediatrician visits b/c I love getting Peter's weight and height and I love doing the developmental checklists and knowing that he is on track. At the four month visit, babies are supposed to be rolling over from tummy to back, and though I checked that Peter did that on the checklist we have to fill out, he really had only done it once. It made me feel slightly inferior that other babies (including Spencer) were rolling over regularly by 4 months and Peter wasn't. Yes, this is me totally admitting that my self esteem is changed by what my children do. Ugg, I know this shouldn't be the case, but I bet that most honest moms feel this way too.

 

The pedi told me that often her "chunkier" babies took longer to roll and not to worry that he wasn't rolling regularly. He was meeting all his other milestones and he obviously has great tone, so she was not at all worried. I really wasn't either- I just like to check things off on lists though, you know?

 

Well, look who decided to surprise me this weekend when he rolled, not only front to back but also back to front all on the same day????? We were at friends for dinner and we were just chilling in the family room on the floor when PUT just started rolling all over the place. He would do it and then he would look up and just grin like a madman. SOOOO cute! He's got it down now, and yesterday rolled over and over in his room until he ran into the dresser. He started crying so I moved him away from the dresser, and he started rolling around again with wild abandon. It's awesome.

 

As a nurse practitioner, I love, love, love having parents come in and tell me what their kids are "working on" and what they have recently accomplished. I love to see the pride come onto the parents and kids faces when the parents mention how good their child is at something, especially when it is a kid who may not hear positive things about him/herself very often. I feel the same way right now. I love that I see him learning and changing and growing. It's so fun. I also love seeing Spencer getting excited about Peter learning things. He has decided he wants to teach Peter to walk. How do you explain to a 2 year old that that's going to be about 8-10 months from now?? Sweet boy!

 

Soooo, tell me, what is your child working on right now? Why are you a proud momma? Spencer's "thing" right now is his amazing vocab- it's growing by leaps and bounds in the past few months and his sentence structure is amazing. I also love that he wants to practice "back and through" all the time (ie- golf). Are you in the midst of learning how to count, how to say the ABCs, or how to do long division? Are you potty training? Are your kids loving their sports right now? Please start bragging because I am listening!!!!

Makes a daddy's heart happy!

SYT teaching PUT the basics of golf.  And, just in case you are wondering, yes, Spencer does have favorite golfers already.....

 

"Luuuuuuuuuuke" (as in Donald)- Hysterical to hear him say it. What's funnier is that our neighbor's son is also a Luke and I'm pretty sure that Spence thinks it's that Luke who is golfing on tv.

 

Tiger Woods is the other fave

 

 

I do not doubt that the reason we would have a 3rd child is so that B could round out his foursome!!

He's smiling (and a kidney update)!!

These pictures were taken at 6 weeks old and he's now 7 weeks.  My how the time flies!!

Peter is happy to report that our first trip to the nephrologist's office went well.  The two tests we had last week showed that his left kidney is still abnormally small (below the 5th percentile) and has very little function.  The right kidney is growing well and functioning well.  The left kidney is growing though, so, at this point, we expect that it will continue to grow throughout his life, just on it's own growth curve.  It will always be small and it will probably always have some functionality to it (though not enough to take over for the other kidney if that kidney were damaged in any way). 

His ultrasound showed that he has mild (grade I) hydronephrosis in the good (right) kidney.  This can be normal up to age one, so we will get serial ultrasounds over the next year to watch it.  If it stays the same or gets smaller, then that is great.  If it worsens, then we will have to do another test (VCUG) to see if he is having backflow of urine up into his kidneys.  That can cause lots of infections and damage the good kidney which is why it is necessary to watch it so closely.  I'm content that it hasn't worsened in the first 6 weeks of life, so I'm not worried about the future.

Since my office is on the same floor as the nephrologist's, I was able to stop in and see all my coworkers after the apt.  It was wonderful to see everyone!

(Close ups of this sweet, sweet face)

We're so happy that he is doing well overall and glad that we really haven't been given anything to worry about.  I'm so thankful!

Almost 3 weeks old!

My 2nd little guy is doing soooo well at home!  Peter is 19 days old in these pictures.  So far we have discovered that he is fussy in the evening hours, he loves his pacifier (Spencer never took one), he's a great nurser, he is growing like a weed (already over 9 lbs and has grown an inch since birth), and he sleeps much better in his car seat than he does flat on his back in the cradle.

He does like to stretch out on his back for periods of awake time and doesn't like tummy time nearly as much as SYT did.  He's got some definite reflux, not a ton of spitting up, but lots and lots of gagging.  That is really hard to watch as a mom.  Ugggg..... 

He is blessing me with one 4-5 hour stretch at night most nights.  During the day, he'll eat anywhere from 2-3 hours (mostly 3 though).

We have some testing for his kidney in June.  He'll have an ultrasound and renalgram on the same day, and he has to be sedated for the renalgram which I am not excited about.  The next week he has an apt with the nephrologist whom I work with occasionally and love.  From what we learned from her in the hospital, we will be getting kidney ultrasounds every 3 months for the first 2 years of life and then every 6 months for a years after that.  Essentially his good kidney needs to be double the size of a normal kidney as it is doing the work of two.  There are a few things that we still don't know and have a little bit of worry about, but, for the most part, Peter should be one healthy kid!

Oh, and for reference, this

was Spencer at 18 days.  I don't think they look alike at all.  There noses are similar, but other than that, they're definitely different boys!! 

Something all moms should read.

I read this blog post Monday, and while I don't have four kids (yet???  Just kidding, B!!), there are days when one (sweet and perfect (ha!)) toddler is enough to make me think I'm crazy for having another.  Most days, this is not the case, but let me tell you, getting him into the carseat when he is mad and doesn't want to is the worst.  I had zero concept of that prior to being a mom.  Or when he decides he is starving in the middle of the day and there are no more snacks in the diaper bag and he is screaming "Nack, Nack" over and over.  Or when whining takes over your toddler to the point where you want to send him to his room for inappropriate behavior (laughable for a 21 month old!). 

Most days, I adore being a mom more than I ever could imagine, but there are days.  For sure.  I think this post is the best I have ever read on the journey of motherhood.  We all judge; it's so easy to do.  But what is so important to remember is that everyone, you, I, children, husbands, bosses, EVERYONE has a bad day now and again, and just a little bit of kindness may be exactly what that person needs.  I compliment parents at work often (since I work in pediatrics and it's part of my job), but I don't ever think about it in public.  This is my reminder to myself that everyone appreciates and deserves compliments regularly and that it is always wonderful to hear that you are a great mom or dad and that your child is being very well behaved/respectful/polite/patient/funny, etc.  We're all trying very, very hard to do right by our children.  It's just not always perfect!!