Nate's first day of preschool

Wow, how did we get here this fast? I can't believe how big my little boy is. Today Nate started preschool. This morning when I asked him if he was excited about school, he said, "I can't wait!" Here he is all ready to go.

Guess what's in the backpack--diapers! :)

First thing he said when we got there was, "I walk by myself!"

We were the first ones there--a little over anxious, maybe. :) Nate is just fascinated by all the col toys in the room.

As the kids arrived, everyone just played for a bit, then they started circle time. Here's Nate in the middle of circle time, when he saw me with the camera and yells "CHEESE!!!!"

He was really into the songs. :)

Blake and I left during circle time. I picked him up at 12:30, and the teachers said he he had a great day. He was so tired--I could tell cause he kept saying, "I'm so tired!" :) I asked him lots of questions but couldn't get much information out of him. But when I asked, "Did you cry at school?" he said yes, and I asked why. He said, "The blocks. They fell over." I asked if someone helped him, and he said they did. He seemed happy with the resolution of the problem. :)

Unfortunately, we couldn't go straight home for Nate to take a much-needed nap. We had an appointment at 2, so to waste a little time and celebrate the big day, we went for an ice cream. Nate got brain freeze several times. Then we went to the orthotics place to get measured for braces AGAIN because the ones we just got in don't fit him. While there, both Nate and Georgia were quickly deteriorating, and we had a few moments of both crying, but Nate really held up well. I wouldn't let him nap in the truck on the way home, and after a little snack, we were heading up to put him down for his nap when a kid knocked on the door to sell me something for a fundraiser. Well, somehow Nate got his fingers caught in the door (on the side with the hinges) as I was closing it, and boy did that hurt. Poor guy--it looked really painful. So after many tears and lots of kisses, I put him down for his nap. He talked for an hour, then just as I was about to go get him, he went to sleep. At 5 pm. This schedule is going to be rough.

Today is also Georgia's 1 month birthday. She's the cutest little thing, but she sure doesn't let me sleep much. Tomorrow is her check up, and I'm interested in how much she weighs. Here are a couple recent pictures of her.

Preschool and a couple videos

Nate got to trot again this morning at hippotherapy, and this time I was ready with the camera! He is hysterical!


And here's Georgia just being a baby.

Nate starts preschool on Monday! This past Tuesday we went to the school's open house and got to see where his class is, the cafeteria, library, gym, etc. His teacher wasn't there (long story), so yesterday I took Nate back over there to see his classroom and meet the teacher aids--there are 3, plus the teacher, for a class of 13! Nate loved playing in the classroom and hit it off with all the teachers. I got to talk to the early childhood education person, who happened to be in the class right then talking to the teacher about Nate's IEP goals.

Yes, I'm an overly anxious parent approaching her baby's first day of preschool. Here are my concerns:

1. His class is at the farthest possible point from the front door. He can walk all the way down by himself, but he slows down about halfway there. He's going to have to walk down to the class, walk all the way back and then some to get to the cafeteria, back to the class, then back to the front door, in addition to walking around the class. I'm just afraid he's going to get tired, but it's going to be good for him too.

2. In the cafeteria, there are round tables with little round stools. When we saw them, Blake and I both said, "Oh, this is going to be a problem." I can just see Nate falling off the stools on a daily basis.

3. In response to my concerns, the teacher has tried to be very accomodating. She offered to push Nate in an umbrella stroller to and from the cafeteria to keep him from tiring out. Absolutely not! We did agree to take an umbrella stroller to leave in the classroom for emergencies and fire drills only. She offered to take a chair with a back from the classroom for Nate to sit in in the cafeteria, which might work, and also said the PT has a booster they can strap him into--I don't like that idea either cause he'll look like the only "baby" in a booster seat. I have just tried to make it known that we expect them to make Nate walk and do as much for himself as possible, but he may need more time or a hand to hold sometimes. Yeah, I'm going to be such a pain in the butt parent, I know! I also know that the PT there has dealt with all these issues and more and will have solutions. I WILL chill out, I am sure of it.

I think we have enough school clothes for now, so I just need to do some shopping this weekend for his supplies and lunch fixins. I'll update on Monday with pictures. :)

The cute things he says ...

I haven't done this in awhile, so over the past couple of days, I've compiled some of the cute things Nate is saying now:

Let's start with trains. He gets new trains all the time (Thomas has a thousand friends, and lucky for us, you can collect them all), usually from Blake or his Granna and Pop. And before he gets home with his new train, he's already decided which one he wants next. Right now it's Rusty, and no one has been able to find Rusty, until today--my mom found him in Virginia. Nate will randomly say, "Where's Rusty?" and we say we don't know and ask him where, and he says, "He's at the store! Let's go find him!" When Blake got back from Vegas, he took Nate to buy a new train, and they picked out Stanley. Nate calls him "Stant-wee." It's very cute.

Speaking of trains, Nate pretends they talk to each other. Here's an example of a conversation he creates between Gordon and James:

Gordon: Hey, James, what you do today?
James: I go to da coal yards.
Gordon: You go over there, pwease.
James: No, no!
Gordon: I say PWEASE!
James: Okay
Gordon: Thank you
James: You're welcome

Today when we left for aquatherapy, he said, "Bye, trains. Have fun!"

Yesterday, Nate got a package in the mail from my mom--some school clothes. I pulled out a shirt, and he said, "Ooh, it has a square on it." Then I pulled out two pairs of shorts, and he said, "Ooh, they're nice! I wuv them!"

A little later, I heard Nate calling Maggie "Binga." He just made up a new name for her. So I asked what my new name was, and he said, "Mamote." Then we made up names for everyone else, and I am so sleep deprived that I thought it was just as funny as he did, and we laughed and laughed.

He continues asking what everything is. What dat dinner? What dat book about? What dat noise? What dat name?

Yesterday, I asked Nate a question, and he said something that sounded just like "Yes, sir." Then when Blake got home, he said it again, and we both heard it. We've never been sticklers for him saying sir and ma'am, but he's picked it up somewhere. Except everyone is sir. I heard "Yes, sir" all day long. So we had a talk about how he should say Yes, Ma'am" to girls like mama and his new teacher. I said, "You understand?" He said, "Yes, sir."

Littlest Heroes Project and Updates

1. Blake got to Vegas very late Wednesday night, and as his coworkers went to gamble and party, he decided he was too old for that and went to bed. :) Ooooh, I was jealous of uninterrupted sleep in a hotel. Since then, he has decided that he hates black jack (he lost), he hates Vegas, and he wants to be home. Did I say "I told you so?" ... Yes. Yes, I did.

2. Thursday morning I was just about to eat my breakfast and was looking at my calendar to figure out a time for our babysitter to come over next week when I saw a note about Nate's optometrist appointment. Then I realized ... it was for that morning! Okay, at the time it was 8:22 am. The appointment was at 9:45 ... in New Albany, IN, at least a half hour drive from here in good conditions. I still had to shower and get everyone dressed, then we hit a monsoon as we drove through Louisville, then we hit traffic from a wreck. And I still got there at 9:48! Whoo! I don't know how I did it. Anyway, the optometrist said Nate's eyes aren't quite where they should be for his age, but they are adequate for preschool. However, he says Nate will probably need glasses before Kindergarten. Since he knows how difficult it is to get a 3 year old to wear glasses, he says we can wait until Nate is 4 or 4.5 unless things get worse. Honestly, with my and Blake's bad eye genes, he didn't have a chance, but I was hoping he wouldn't need them at quite such a young age.

3. Today Nate had hippotherapy, and the best part was that he got to trot! The therapist had Mickey (the pony) trot with him from one end of the barn to the other, and Nate CACKLED the whole time! He LOVED it. And everyone in the barn laughed so hard at him laughing.

4. I don't think I've mentioned on the blog that I've been having horrendous headaches since a couple days after Georgia was born. At first I thought it had to do with how I hunched over and scrunched my shoulders when feeding Georgia, but after lots of fixes for this situation, the headache didn't go away. Yesterday, nearly 3 weeks after I first started feeling headaches, it got pretty unbearable. I started to wonder whether I was having migraines, or maybe it was a spinal headache from the anesthesia I got during the c-section. So this morning I called my doctor, and she pretty much scared me to death. After I described my headaches (including vision changes), she said she was afraid I had a stroke! :0 Apparently she recently had a patient who did have a stroke after delivering a baby, and she had the same symptoms as me. The doctor wanted me to come in for a CTScan this afternoon. Uhhhh, really? Well, I have 2 kids here, and my husband is across the country, and how much does a CT cost? So she said I should immediately go to the pharmacy to get some Excedrin Migraine, and if it doesn't work within an hour, I should come in for the scan. I went through the Walmart pharmacy drive through and said, "Uh, I don't have a prescription, but I have 2 babies in the back seat and a migraine, and I need some excedrin migraine. Would you get it for me?" She agreed. :) Thankfully the excedrin worked really well. Now I'm realizing that I've probably been having migraines on and off for at least a decade and didn't realize they were migraines! Wish I had realized there was a pill to easily get rid of them!

5. Georgia had her first official bath on Wednesday since her umbilical stump finally fell off. Do I have pictures? Nope. Cause I did it by myself as quickly as possible while she screamed like a banshee. Georgia is so funny. She makes these little noises that remind me of a baby dinosaur-rawwwr!!!! Not that I would know what a baby dinosaur sounds like. She also makes such funny faces, including one that reminds me of those little old men muppets up in the balcony--know who I'm talking about? :) This week we realized that Georgia will sleep 4-5 hour stretches when swaddled, propped in the boppy, and put in our bed. Hey, whatever works. Five hours of uninterrupted sleep is like heaven right now. Unfortunately, last night during her 4 hour sleep stretch, Nate woke up twice. :( Very tired today.

6. Okay, and the best for last! Our Littlest Heroes Project photos are ready! Our photographer, Priscilla Baierlein, did such an amazing job, and she's giving us proofs and a CD for FREE! We are so grateful. The slideshow makes me tear up ... just beautiful.

http://www.priscillabphotography.com/paynefamily/

(For those that don't know about the Littlest Heroes Project, you can find more info here: www.littlestheroesproject.org.)

More adventures

Okay, so on Sunday we decided to try out going to church with both kids for the first time. When we got there, we saw it was "promotion Sunday" when Nate would graduate to the next class. But by the time I got through the crazy long line, the preschool class was full! Ack! This meant taking both Georgia and Nate to the adult service. We knew it wouldn't go well. Georgia wanted to eat, which we're still not smooth at doing in public, and Nate was talking but was being okay. We made it through half the service when both kids started getting testy. So we moved over to the Cry Room, where they have a TV and couches and chairs set up for families with fussy babies! Nate got to walk around, Georgia got to eat more, and Blake and I could sort of pay attention to the service. :) This weekend we'll get there much earlier to make sure Nate can go to his class! Through the whole service he kept asking to go to "widdle church."

That afternoon, we all went out for a romantic dinner for four for my and Blake's 6th anniversary. :) We went to Red Lobster and had a great dinner. I have pictures.


I put Georgia in her coming home dress for church and dinner. She doesn't particularly like her frilly dress, but she sure looked pretty.



Eskimo kisses.

Here's Nate on Monday. This was all his idea, and he was very proud of his creation, until one train would get a little out of order, and then he freaked. A bit of a perfectionist? Yeah, I used to have that problem. I think having Nate cured me.

And here's Georgia all milk drunk and smiling in her sleep. Awwwwww!

Yesterday we had aquatherapy as usual. It's at 3:15, and I had to start getting everyone awake from naps and dressed and fed at 2, and by the time I got us all loaded in the truck, we were still running late. When we got there, I got everyone unloaded and hauled into the building, and when we got to the pool, I saw there was no water in the pool!!!! And no one was there. I checked my phone and saw that the PT had left me a message while I was getting everyone ready. She said, "I know we talked about this last week, but I wanted to call and remind you we're meeting at Paradise Divers this week because they're cleaning the pool at Mary T. See you at 3:15!" What?! She DID NOT tell me this last week! I called her back and told her I have no recollection of this conversation, and now we're at Mary T., and she says, "Well, that's okay." Excuse me? Like I have inconvenienced her? It's really not okay. By now I'm exhausted from getting us all there. So then I had to load everyone back in the truck and drive a half hour to the other pool. At this pool, there were so many SCREAMING children. I'm used to the quiet little old ladies at the therapy pool, I guess. Then we hit major traffic on the way home, and that took 45 minutes. By the time we got home, everyone was crying and hungry. It was exhausting. It would have been exhausting with one kid, but just the logistics of getting Georgia ready and hauling her around and arranging feeding schedules, etc. in addition makes it significantly harder. However, she did sleep and look pretty the whole time we were there, so it could be much worse. Poor thing is getting dragged around more than any newborn should be. :)

Today Nate started a new therapy--PT in the clinic at the same place he has hippotherapy. This replaces the PT at home that we had with First Steps. But now it means having 3 therapies (aquatherapy, PT in clinic, hippotherapy) in addition to half-day preschool. I'm hoping we can drop something soon, but all of them are so great and seem essential. We'll see how it goes. Miss Nikki is his therapist, and we both like her. She had Nate walking on a treadmill--backwards and sideways! No kidding! He did great too. I told him he would have to tell Daddy all about it. She also had him climbing steps and all sorts of really tough things. It's going to be great for him.

We then went immediately to Blake's work to pick him up and take him to the airport. He is going on a trip to Las Vegas with his team at work. They earned it by doing a certain number of loans or something. He keeps saying it's for work, but that is not true! It's WITH work, but they are NOT going to be working while there! :) It's just a vacation with his coworkers. Anyway, as soon as he got in the truck, Nate said, "Daddy, tell you all about it." He was confused, but I realized he wanted to tell him all about walking on the treadmill, haha. Last night Blake had a talk with Nate about how he was going out of town for a couple days and they'd talk on the phone every day and all that. Well, today, Nate wasn't so easygoing about it. When we got to the airport, we hung out in the truck for a few minutes to kill some time. Blake reminded Nate he was going to be gone a couple days, and Nate said, "Nope, not MY days." and "Nope, not MY airplane." (He's going through a "mine" phase now.) But he was a trouper. We'll see how the week goes. Blake will get back Saturday evening.

Keep me in your thoughts as I do this by myself for the next few days! Oh, and I got a call from Blake a little while ago that his flight was delayed, so keep him in your thoughts too. Not sure if he's getting to Vegas tonight or not.

Ups and downs

Well, we survived the week. :) For the most part, it all went really well. Blake has been working 12 hour days, and I'm chronically sleep deprived, so by the time he gets home I'm pretty exhausted.

On Tuesday I got us all to aquatherapy, I breastfed in public without exposing myself, haha, AND I was feeling really great cause I fit into my old jeans! Whoo! Nate has been on somewhat of a nap strike this week, so here's what he looked like after aquatherapy:


Wednesday and Thursday we just hung out at the house. Nate played in his sand/water table, had a great time with a sticker book (which is new for him), and we took walks up and down the street. Nate has been spotted with this train hat pulled over his eyes a lot this week. :) He looks like a little Thomas thug.

And he looks absolutely huge next to Georgia. Everyone who has seen him lately talks about how big he is. I'm not sure if it's because he's upright so much more now that he's walking, or if he's growing, or if it's an optical illusion next to Georgia. But one night after holding Georgia, I was consoling Nate about something and rocking him, and I swear I felt like I was rocking a grown man! :)

Yesterday we had a big day. I took Georgia to the doctor for a weight check. Okay, at birth she was 6lb8oz. By the time we left the hospital she was 5lb15oz, and 3 days later she was 6lb1oz. Since she was 2 weeks old yesterday, I wanted to make sure she had made it back to her birthweight, thus telling us that she was eating well. Turns out she passed up her birth weight by a half pound! She's 7 pounds now! I could tell she had gained because her little hands aren't so wrinkly anymore and her diaper tabs don't overlap anymore. It is crazy to actually be able to notice a baby getting a little bigger every day.

Then we went to hippotherapy. Again, Nate didn't take a nap, and let's just say he made the trip a little difficult. Things like laying with his face on the nasty floor, and being a loud backseat driver. When we got home, he was asleep in his car seat. Hmm. I couldn't figure out what to do! He did need to nap ... but how do I get an infant and a sleeping kid in the house? So I took Georgia in in her car seat and then went to get Nate. As soon as we got in the house, he sleepily said, "Need a snack." Ooookay, so I got him a cereal bar then told him it was time to go upstairs for his nap. At this point, Georgia was crying cause she was hungry. Nate refused to climb the stairs, and besides the fact that I was carrying his sister, I am really not able to carry him upstairs. I'm still having pain from the c-section, especially after lifting a certain someone. After asking, encouraging, begging, and even disciplining, he still wouldn't climb the stairs. "I no want to don't." (The double negative just to emphasize his point.) Finally I surrendered and just took Georgia upstairs, and of course he then happily followed. Sheesh, the logistics of this are hard! It's a good thing he's cute.

Yesterday, I heard from Nate's preschool teacher! She called to set up a visit to our house (on Monday morning) and just talk a little about Nate. She is very nice!!!! I really liked her! It made me feel a lot better about the school thing. It's going to be great.

A couple cute things Nate has said lately: First of all, he's constantly asking "What dat name?" Whether it's animals at the zoo or trains on his train box, or a kid down the street, "What dat name?" It's really cute. Second, when my parents were here, my dad was talking with Nate about golf. Nate kept calling it Dolf. My dad said, "No, it's G-G-G-Golf." And Nate says, "G-G-G-DOLF!"

We're doing okay!

This week we're on our own! Having my parents here last week was awesome, cause all I had to do was focus on healing from the c-section and learning how to breastfeed. They took care of Nate and all the cooking and cleaning. By the time they left on Friday, I felt well enough to do it all on my own.

So far it's going well. Georgia gave me some false hope by sleeping great the first few nights, then she snatched it away! :) She's now waking every 2-3 hours, which is totally normal and expected and managable. She's also breastfeeding really well, which makes me so happy since I had so many problems feeding Nate since he was a preemie. And maybe best of all, so far Nate is showing no jealousy or acting out. It's like he knows we told him Georgia was coming, and now she's here, and he accepts that. :) He says hi to her as he breezes past her, and sometimes he wants her to watch him or look at his trains. Other than that, same ol Nate.

On Sunday, Memaw and GrandBob came to visit, and Nate had a blast with them. And Mindy also came and spent the night. Yesterday she helped me get practice taking both kids out. We went to McDonalds and the bookstore, and we did okay except that it was Nate's naptime and he wasn't in the mood for cooperating. With having to pick him up and even carry him (screaming) up the stairs to bed when we got home, I think I hurt myself. :) I've been having to take more pain meds since then. Lesson learned--take it slow! This afternoon he has aquatherapy, so I'll have my first experience taking both of them by myself. I'm actually glad to get out of the house--starting to go a little stir crazy inside!

Here are some pics. Blake doing what he does best, haha.

Here, Nate was showing Georgia his trains.

Georgia was not happy with me and my little photo shoot.

She's so strong already!

She likes to chat with me.

I put her in the boppy, and Nate lined up all his trains in front of her. Awww.

First bath, first doctor visit, pics of course

Day 5 was a big day for Georgia! :)

First she gave Pop some grins.


Then she had her first bath.
Here's her cute outfit of the day.

First tummy time--she didn't like it.

She also had her first doctor appointment. Nate was very happy that he could go to the doctor's office and stay in the waiting room looking at the fish with Granna while Georgia and I saw the doctor. She has gained two ounces since leaving the hospital--she's now 6lb1oz--so the doctor was happy with our breastfeeding. This is the same doctor who has made me mad many times in the past, so I was ready to just get in and out, but he went on and on about how cute Georgia is. :)

Oh, I'll tell a funny story on myself. The nurse told me to strip her down to her diaper to get weighed, and only then did I remember that I did not bring a diaper bag for Georgia! I am so used to sticking a diaper and some trains in my purse for Nate and I haven't dealt with a diaper bag in nearly a year. The funny thing is we packed a bag of toys and other stuff for Nate, but I didn't think one thing about what Georgia might need! So I didn't have even one diaper for her! I decided to keep my mouth shut and hope for the best so I didn't look stupid. Well, then the nurse took her temperature ... rectally ... and we totally needed a new diaper! So I had to spill that I didn't have one, and all they had in the office was size 3's (when newborn size are too big for Georgia). We made it work. :) It's not like this is my first time around the block--I should know better! Oh well, I learned my lesson.

My parents took Nate to the mall this afternoon to play at the play area and just generally wear him out. It worked! He was happy to go to bed. Both kids are sleeping, and I need to head that way very soon.

We're home!

Well, we actually made it home yesterday (Monday) morning. I was getting a little stir crazy in that hospital room and found myself pacing the floor more than resting in bed. And Nate and I missed each other. :( He did come to visit me every day, and boy did he do a lot of walking! My dad estimated he walked at least a mile one day. He walked all the way from the parking garage up to my room. Georgia lost some weight, as all babies do of course, but this put her a little under 6 pounds. We spent the weekend learning how to breastfeed, and we were doing okay by the time we left.

This is from this morning:

While looking at Georgia, Nate started rocking the cradle pretty hard. I told him not to so he wouldn't wake up his sister. He looked at me, smiled, and did it again! I said, "Nate, I said no." He said, "I said yes!" Yeah, he learned that one from his Pop! They thought that was really funny yesterday, but not so funny when he back talks his mama!

A couple other funny things he said lately: Yesterday he sneezed and said, "I'm coughin, and I'm sneezin ... I'm gettin sick!" (He actually has been sneezing quite a bit, and I'm really hoping he isn't getting sick! But I guess my anxiety about him getting sick is rubbing off on him.) Then this morning, there was a really terrible rain storm here. Nate said, "It's stormin! There's thunder and lightning ... It's gonna snow!" Ha ha

My parents are here the rest of the week. My mom is spoiling us with awesome dinners every evening, and my dad is like Nate's best bud. Georgia is doing really well at home. Last night she only woke up twice, with a 5 hour stretch between! I'm not holding my breath, but I certainly hope she continues sleeping so well! She's also slept through most of the days. And she's eating great. Tomorrow I take her to her first doctor appointment, and we'll see if she's gained any weight.

Nate is interested in her, but he's far too busy to spend too much time with her. Every now and then he'll see her and say, "Hey, there she is!" If I ask if he wants to hold her, he says yes, and he'll sit still while I put her on his lap, he'll kiss her, and then he gives her back. But he's getting plenty of attention. In fact, my dad is giving him a bath right now, and I can hear him cackling about something!

A few new pictures

We had fun putting pink clothes on our little doll today. :)

Nate was saying, "Wook, she has a mouf. (pokes her mouth) Wook, she has a nose! (pokes her nose) Wook, she has eyes." And everyone says, "Don't poke her eyes!" haha

It's really hard to get a good picture of a newborn caue they don't open their eyes much, and their arms are flailing, and they're making all kinds of funny faces. But this picture looks exactly like her. I took it without a flash (so she wouldn't close those eyes!), so it's a little grainy.

Georgia and I are both doing well today. We are having some success with nursing--yay! I'm up and walking fairly well. I'm looking forward to getting home on Monday. Nate is having a good time, but I think he's missing me a little. Blake and the grandparents are doing a great job of keeping him busy and happy.