Crazy with Kids

Can you believe he's 7 months old already? Where did my little baby go? (Okay, not so little, but still...) Cal had his latest checkup right before Christmas (because of the schedule being thrown off when we went to San Diego this summer, he's on an off-schedule to see the pediatrican. 3, 5, 7 months instead of 2, 4, 6, etc.)

He's doing great. While he was in something like the 98% for height a few months ago, his growth rate has slowed down a little and he's more like 85% now. Still a skinny guy, hovering around the 40% range.

He's eating solids about twice a day now and let me tell you, you can't feed this kid enough. He easily eats two large containers of baby food at each meal. Plus, he'll sometimes also have some puffs or mushed up banana pieces as well. The kid can EAT!

At the suggestion of the pediatrician, I bought one of those starter sippy cups and gave it to him one day. Well, he liked it so much he refused to take his bottle at all after that. So now he drinks mainly from a sippy cup. Easier to clean, but he looks so old holding it. (Speaking of which, he also decided to wean himself a few weeks ago when our entire family was sick with multiple illnesses. I wasn't ready to end things, but he was. He just wasn't that into me anymore.) I kid. Not really.

He's still the happiest baby around. Oh, and at 7 months we finally moved him to his crib. Until now, he's been sleeping in his pack n' play in the office. However, a few times we had gone in his room and found him pulling up on the sides of the pack n' play, so for safety's sake we thought it best to move him to a bigger bed. On New Year's Day, actually, Bill set up the crib for him and we moved some things around so that he actually has a room now (okay, the desk is still in the corner, but we have a lack of space, people!) He has a space-theme to his bedding and we hung up one of the girls' old space lights from Ikea. Callum loves it and eat time we even enter the room he'll look up toward the light and then back at me. Once I turn it on for him, he gets a big smile and starts waving his arms.



Sweet boy also has a few new tricks. Bill taught him to clap and he does it now whenever he gets really happy, though Bill insists that he's doing it when he wants to be picked up. It's hard to tell because he actually does different things with Bill and I. For example, I've been trying to teach him the Baby Sign for "more" for months now. I show it to him whenever I'm feeding him. However, when he wants more food he instead smiles and bangs on the table. (Give me food NOW, woman!) The other night, though, I walked in as Bill was feeding him and Callum did the sign for "more" for him! Little stinker!

He's also becoming much more mobile. He mastered sitting up right after we returned from our Thanksgiving vacation. Then, right around Christmas he started trying to lean forward into lying on his stomach. In the past week he has progressed from scooting around Army-style to actually getting up on his hands and knees for a few steps. Then he gets tired and just plops back down onto his stomach again. It's funny to watch and we've got some video that I'll hopefully share soon.

Happy New Year, everyone!  We hope the new year finds everyone happy and healthy.  We had a pretty low-key celebration here, as usual.  Our New Year's Eve was spent shopping at Ikea (along with every other parent in Atlanta, so it seemed,) picking up a few things at Target (new bedding for Callum, who is finally moving into his crib at 7 months old,) and a nice dinner out at Yeah! Burger.  We then came home and counted down to 9pm with the girls and toasted some sparkling grape juice. 

Once all the kids were in bed, Bill and I then goofed off on our laptops and PS3 until around 11:58 when he looked up and said, "I should probably turn it to the countdown now, huh?"  But the new year was greeted with a kiss from my honey, so that's really all that matters in the end anyway, right?

2010 was an amazing year for our family and I can't wait to see what 2011 bring us (an offer on our house?!?...)

For your enjoyment, here's a picture of Baby New Year:



And the entire McLochlin family:

We've got big things planned for this blog, so stay tuned.  After having problems with Movable Type, we had to redo everything from scratch, but expect a new design and more frequent posting soon.  In the meantime, check out our Flickr page to see what's been keeping us busy. 

Oh, and if you don't follow us on Facebook, yes, we did have Baby Mac last summer.  We welcomed Callum Oliver McLochlin to our family on May 25th and he is not only loved, but, quite simply, ADORED by all of us. 

I haven't been very good about blogging lately, especially when you consider that it's now April and my last blog post was written in January...

That being said, we wanted to update everyone on how Baby Mac is doing. As we mentioned before, he was measuring almost 2 weeks bigger during his 20 week ultrasound. During the last couple of months, my stomach has been measuring a couple of weeks bigger as well. My doc ordered an ultrasound just to make sure everything was going okay and that I didn't have too much amniotic fluid.

The ultrasound was actually scheduled for a Saturday afternoon, so we were able to make it a family trip again and have the girls go too. They were very excited about the possibility of seeing the baby again. (And so was I!)

Waiting to see their baby brother

Turns out everything is A-OK with Baby Mac. In fact, he's quite the bouncing baby boy so far: He is measuring 4 weeks bigger! At the time of the ultrasound I was 32 weeks along. All of his measurements (head, stomach, legs, etc.) were all measuring for a 36 week old baby. I don't have Gestational Diabetes or anything, so it just looks like he's gonna be a big baby. The technician mentioned that according to his size, he would have a due date of May 5th! That really threw Bill and I for a loop. Our c-section is currently scheduled for May 25th, so that definitely takes a few weeks away for us. Considering that we were never really sure of our due date to begin with, we both left the appointment in a little shock. The technician did say that the doctor would have the final say in whether the due date would be changed, so that we should wait to hear from her.

We went out to lunch afterward and just kept giggling, excited and nervous that we could be meeting our little boy sooner than we expected. After that, we stopped by Babies R Us to pick up a few things and that's when the shock of it all really kind of hit me. In fact, I was so quiet that Bill repeatedly asked if I was okay. I assured him that I was... that I was just letting things sink in. He had his "OMG" moment when we found out we were pregnant. I was having mine now.

We heard back from my OB a few days later and she said that they are going to keep the original c-section date as scheduled. They aren't sure if he's just a big baby or actually further along than they thought, but they want to play it safe. She did issue warnings about early labor and told us not to be surprised if we don't actually make it to our c-section date, though. Okay. Good to know.

So that's where we are now. For so long I thought I wouldn't have to go through any of the wonder about "when?" since I was having a planned c-section. I would just get to wake up and go in and have a baby on the scheduled day and all would be as planned. Now I can't help but have a little doubt in the back of my mind about whether it could be this week or next week? Will I be able to finish out the school year with my class (last day of school is May 21st)? Will we make it to the girls' upcoming ballet recital (May 16)? Only time will tell, but whatever happens, we're hoping that Baby Mac will be fully developed and ready to greet the world when he is born.

Here are a few pics from the ultrasound. This kid is hilarious when it comes to photos. We get to see SO much during the ultrasounds, but whenever they actually take a picture, it always looks so blurry and odd.

His face

He was so adorable to watch. Just like in our earlier ultrasound, he kept opening and closing his mouth, making little sucking motions. The tech showed us that he already has lots of hair (it was even sticking up on top, but Bill pointed out that could be from it floating in the fluid and not because he already has a mohawk.) Oh, and he has the cutest, chubbiest cheeks just like Maddie and Josie had.

Button nose and lips

He also has the cutest little button nose and lips. Maddie's and Bill's same lips, in fact! I recognized them immediately. I've had a feeling for a while that this little guy is going to end up looking a lot like Maddie did when she was born and now all the hair and the lips have me really thinking this is so.

Profile

Surprisingly, he wasn't very active during the ultrasound. (Yes, he is usually VERY active... just ask Bill or the girls, who have felt him and his kicks at all times during the day.) Near the end, I really think he wanted to be left alone as we could see his little lips grimace and he put his hand up near his eyes as if to shield them and say, "Okay, leave me alone now so I can get some sleep."

I'm so in love with this little guy already.

In case you hadn't already heard, the McLochlin family will soon be adding another member. No, it's not another cat or dog or fish (though Maddie has been asking for a hamster.) Nope, it's a human baby this time. I'm currently due on June 1st, but will probably be having a c-section the third or fourth week in May, depending on my doctor's availability.

To say that the girls are excited would be an understatement. Here is a picture of the little note Maddie wrote to the baby today as we were waiting for our 20 week ultrasound:

Dear baby, would you let us see you

We had mentioned to them there might be a chance we could find out whether the baby was a boy or girl. It all actually depended on whether or not Bill wanted to know. That's because I already knew. Yes, I've known for the past month or so what we are having, but I've kept it to myself. See, Bill and I had originally planned to wait until the baby was born to find out. We were excited about the surprise. Well...

I went to my appointment last month and happened to bring the girls with me, as it was during a time after school. The girls were excited to see the baby and my doctor agreed to show them on the ultrasound. I hadn't even planned on finding out anything. We were all just excited to see the baby moving around and waving. (The girls were in awe.) So, I'm lying there and my doctor suddenly asks,

Did you want to know the sex? Because I know the sex if you want to know. I can REALLY tell.

Now, tell me what YOU would say at that moment! Curiosity overcame me and I agreed she could tell me, but not to let the girls know (since I knew they would probably tell Bill who didn't want to know.) Her reply was, Well, does XY mean anything to you? Yes, I know what those two little letters mean, but it really took me a couple of minutes to wrap my brain around it. I was just in such shock.

So, I kept this little secret to myself for the past month or so. I'm a HORRIBLE liar, so I tried not to say anything at all about it if possible. Bill soon realized that I knew and would try to trick me into accidentally saying something. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a secret from someone who is trying to get it out of you, but you're keeping the secret because he really doesn't want to know? Trust me, it's very difficult!

Well, today was our 20 week ultrasound. We discussed finding out beforehand, but I told Bill it was completely up to him. He was undecided (for reasons he can explain in a separate post) all the way up until the ultrasound began. The tech asked if he wanted to know. He said that he wasn't sure, so she said she would wait until later to even check that area. First, she would do some measurements while he thought about it. Well, the first thing she measured was the baby's stomach. And, of course, it was quite obvious that there was some extra anatomy near that little stomach and those long little legs. A few minutes later she asked again and Bill said that she could tell him. She then pointed out that we are having a little BOY!

Yes, I already knew, but in that moment I just lost it. Bill and I were both teary-eyed, and the girls were jumping up and down. They had wanted a brother all along! In fact, while we were in the waiting room, Maddie had been mentioning she hoped it was a boy. When Bill asked how she would feel if it turned out to be a little sister, she said she would be only a little disappointed!

According to the tech, everything looked good. The baby is healthy and actually measuring more than a week bigger. They didn't move my due date, but instead said they'll just keep an eye on how big he is as time progresses. It was so amazing to see the ultrasound. It was so different than the ones we had seen when Maddie and Josie were babies. It had so much detail. We saw his little lips and nose and eyelids. He spent most of the time with this hands up by his face, a finger in his mouth. Then he took his finger out of his mouth and started opening and closing his mouth, almost as if he was babbling to us. The tech said he was probably swallowing fluid. She then showed us his little heart (we could see chambers and all), his spine, his long legs (just like Maddie's ultrasound), and his bladder. She showed us his bladder again later in the ultrasound and noticed that it was smaller. Apparently, he had emptied it during that time. One of those things you never think about the baby doing while it's in the womb...

We've already had some people ask, but although we did cave in and find out the sex, we aren't telling the name until he's born. One reason is that we actually haven't decided between the 2 names we have in mind yet, and we want to see which suits him better. The other is that now we have to leave something as a surprise. So, everyone will have to wait until May to see what this little guy is going to be called.

Last week saw our first glimpse of snow in over a year (even though most of our family up north has been seeing it for quite a while now.) We got one night of it last year, but it melted right away. This time around it snowed all night and was still there the next morning. School was canceled on Friday, and the girls woke up almost more excited than they had been on Christmas morning. Fearing it would melt soon, I agreed that we could skip breakfast for the time being and head outside to play in it. Little did I know after 20 minutes of bundling them up, that the "snow" was actually now just sheets of white ice covering everything in sight. The girls had wanted to build a snowman, but instead ended up playing with the icicles they could find.

Josie stayed outside for a total of 15 minutes, and Maddie stayed only 5 more minutes after that. I can't blame them, though. It was COLD! 13 degrees out, at 8:30 in the morning, and I didn't want to stay out much longer either. We came inside and bundled up on the couch and drank hot chocolate and watched movies for the rest of the morning. A perfect winter weekend.

We had an amazing Christmas this year. Even though it seems like it suddenly sprang out of nowhere, we had been filling the weeks prior with lots of holiday-related activities: Stone Mountain Christmas, Lights of Life holiday lights display, school holiday parties, making Christmas cookies and ornaments and gingerbread houses, and many more that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Not to mention celebrating Christmas Day with my family and having another celebration a week later with Todd and Amanda.

I love how worked up the girls get each year as they anticipate the holiday. I dread the year that comes when they aren't bouncing all over the place with excitement. This year they both wrote letters to Santa and he, in turn, gave them a call at home one day to let them know he got their letters and that he would be visiting soon. It was a moment we should have caught on tape. Both their jaws dropped when they realized who was on the phone. They were thrilled to wake up on Christmas and find that they had not coal in their stockings, but exactly what they'd hoped.

We hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday season!

Maddie's class has a period of time each week that they focus on creative writing. Last week she brought home her first story for us to read. She had been talking about it all week, excited for us to get the chance to read it. I'll share it here with you (copied completely as it was written, spelling and all) so you can enjoy it as well. We think she did pretty well! It looks like she takes after her dad... perhaps we have another writer on our hands?

Once upon a time, there was a princess. Her name was Maddie Elise McLochlin. One day, there was a war with the kings. Their names were King Authur and King Tony. King Tony's land was fearless with fright in every corner. King Authur's was fun and cheerful in every corner. Princess Elise was forced to marry Prince Coco, but she did not want to.

She left for the finest castle in the universe. There was a kind prince. He knew that she was in trouble with King Tony! "I have to save her." So the prince went on and on and on and on. When he came upon dancing porky pines doing the cha cha, he had to fight them off. Then he had passed the first quest yay! So the prince went on and on and on and on. When he came upon yelling Coco Puffs he had to round them up! "Yay" he has past the second quest. So the prince went on and on and on and on. When he came upon skiping dinosaurs it was loud but he could do it! He fought the dinosaurs so much they died. "Yay" the third quest is done. So the prince went on and on and on and on until he saw the princess. He climbed up her hair and saved her. "OH! Prince you saved me" she said. They both climbed down with the sowrd and were married. The end.

Well, where do you even start when you're 2 months behind on blogging? It has been an amazingly busy Fall for us. I know I say that every year, what with holidays and no less than 12 birthdays just between August and November, but this year set a new record. I didn't anticipate how much our schedule would change with not only two kids in school, but also a teaching schedule on top of it. But am I complaining? Not one bit. It's been such a fun joyride so far!

In hopes of sparing you the longest catch-up post ever, I'll condense the past few months for you.

September:

- School field trips to Sunny Patch Farms for pumpkin-picking. Josie's, Maddie's, and my classes all participated on a gorgeous day. Thankfully, Bill was able to attend as well, so the two of us split our time between the girls and my class own class. It was a juggle, but lots of fun, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.

- Trip to the North Georgia State Fair with Uncle Todd and Amanda. Jungle animal shows, a petting zoo, rides, clowns, and games. The highlight for the girls seems to have been the music-playing pig. No, I'm not kidding.

- Atlanta Greek Festival. Baklava, Spanikopita, kiddie rides, and Greek music and dancing. Opa! It felt like a walk down memory lane, as my family attended Greek Orthodox Church when I was little. All the flavors and colors and music came flooding back to me. The girls really seemed to enjoy it as well.

October:

- The girls' 1st rodeo, including riding a mechanical bull! We got the chance to go while Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, so they had the wonderful opportunity to experience it as well. I was so impressed with the cowboys and their skills. I definitely would have been nervous around some of those bulls!

- Maddie turns 6! She spent her birthday weekend with breakfast at IHOP (her favorite), a Superhero-themed birthday party at the park with her friends, and lunch at The American Girl Cafe. She also picked out her very first American Girl doll, Kirsten, a present she'd been requesting for months. Like years past, we were so lucky to have many of our family members in town for her birthday: Grandma & Grandpa, Nana & Poppa, Aunt Mic & Uncle Heath, and Uncle Todd.

- Apple-picking at Hillcrest Orchards in the North Georgia mountains. It was our first year going here and we loved it. The girls picked apples, milked a cow, petted various farm animals, participated in a tricycle race, and enjoyed the gorgeous warm Georgia weather. We may have started a new annual tradition.

- And we finished off October with a fantastic Halloween. The girls each celebrated with class parties at their school. We also attended a pumpkin-carving party at the home of the Hites. Halloween night ended up being rainy and cold, and Maddie hadn't been feeling well earlier in the day, so we took the girls trick or treating at the local mall. They got a chance to get some candy while still keeping warm and dry.

and that leads us to November:

- A school field trip to The Center for Puppetry Arts to see the show "Dinosaurs." The girls loved the show. We'd been there before to see "Cinderella" but this was a much different experience. A little darker and more serious, but very educational.

- The girls each had their class Thanksgiving parties this week, as they are out of school all next week. Yes, we did only have their Halloween party 3 weeks ago, and yes, we will have Christmas/holiday parties another 3 weeks from now, but that's what makes this time of year fun, right? It's all about the celebration!

We hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy as we wind down to Thanksgiving next week. We will staying here and hosting, as we do every year. My family will be coming from Alabama for dinner that day, as well as an old high school friend of mine and her family.