Belle of the Ball

Gordon's younger brother, James, got married in March. It was a beautiful wedding! The spring weather and colors were gorgeous. We have had amazing weather this year, with rain! I have to say, when you have young kids, going to a sealing, taking pictures, helping to set up, taking part in the program, having a family lunch, and then attending an evening reception makes for a very long day! Weston and Lily had no real naps, or lunchtimes for that matter, and for much of the time, it wasn't pretty. James and Alyssa asked me to sing at their ring ceremony, and right beforehand, Weston threw a tantrum, slammed his head into the back of a table, and Gordon had to rush him out, kicking and screaming. Not to mention, Lily was starving (unfortunately she does not take a bottle, even after her surgery), and so I also had to rush out after singing to feed her, and we ended up missing the whole ceremony. Things definitely change when you have kids--I can definitely feel the jump from one to two--maybe that's just because I've been so busy with preschool, and the fact that Lily is not so independent right now. I look forward to the day when someone besides me can feed her!

This is Lily and her twin cousin, Summer! I think Lily will even have the same red hair. When Lily was born, that was one of the first things that crossed my mind--she looks exactly like her cousin Summer! During the week of the wedding, Summer stayed with us so she could take care of Lily, which was a huge help. She never put Lily down--if someone else wanted to hold her, Summer was sure to be back for her!

All of the younger girls had dresses made, and Lily was seriously the little belle of the ball! People were coming up to us all night, wanting to meet her in her pretty, little dress. If you're wondering why there are no pictures of Weston, well, it was just too exhausting getting him to stay still. He did look handsome in his striped tie!

Lily is for sure a mama's girl. It's strange how Weston looks like me, but is daddy's boy, and Lily looks so much like Gordon, but is such a mommy's girl!

Our Little Pumpkin!

Turning Two!

One of Weston's very favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We've been reading this book to him for over a year now, over and over and over. I can recite the whole book, along with his other favorites (Wynken, Blynken, and Nod & Dr. Seuss's ABC Book). Soooo, here was his birthday cake. I wish I had a better camera--maybe that would make it look a little better

Weston's cousins, Colsen and Carter came to the party (they're both two), along with some older cousins, Grandma and Grandpa Dever and some good family friends of ours, Chal and Janeen and their three kids. The kids absolutely loved these balloons! I've learned this is one of the best, cheapest ways to entertain! Give Weston a balloon and he's content for a good ten minutes, and that's pretty amazing! Weston calls balloons "mangos". He can say balloon if you sit down with him and have him repeat it right after you, but he always reverts to "mangos". Weston's older cousins were dropping balloons down on the kids from upstairs, and they were all going crazy.

Weston patiently waiting for his pizza!

This is the first time Weston actually got somewhat excited about opening presents. I think he'll appreciate it even more when he's three. I guess maybe this is a learned trait. At least the toys were more interesting to him than the paper this time!

Weston got a vacuum from Grandma and Grandpa Dever. His cousin Carter has one of these and they love playing with it. This looks exactly like our real one, so Weston can help out when we're vacuuming now. He grabs his vacuum and we tell him which areas to clean--he loves it!

Cupcake Time...

I wish I'd gotten a picture of Weston blowing out his candles--I just have it on video. He can somewhat sing the Happy Birthday song (they play this everyday when he watches Caillou and Sesame Street), and knows that it somehow connects to candles and cake. He was so excited about this! Ever since his birthday, he now says "Happy Birthday to You" and pretends he's blowing out candles and then says "cake"!

This is us after all the party fun. I wanted a picture with the birthday boy, but Weston still can't sit still for pictures--you have to capture him without knowing it. This was the best we could do! I think it will be another year until we can snap a decent family photo. Most of the time is spent running after Weston--those of you who have seen him in action know exactly what I'm talking about!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WESTON!!!

Tongue Tied

This is my sweet, baby girl after her surgery. She had her tongue snipped today at 7am this morning. Check-in time was 6:00, and I had to stop feeding her at 1:00 in the morning since she couldn't have anything in her stomach six hours beforehand. The surgery went well. It only lasted about 10 minutes, and I wasn't allowed to go in with her. About 15 minutes later, a nurse came out to the waiting room and told me not to worry, but that they were having a hard time waking Lily up. I got a little glimpse inside the surgery recovery room, and there was little Lily, fast asleep on her side, in a hospital bed with two nurses rubbing her head and back, trying to wake her up--poor girl! There was hardly any bleeding afterward, and Lily nursed like a champ after that. I could definitely tell it made a difference!
We first suspected Lily was tongue tied because she has never taken a bottle, except when she was in the hospital. The nurses had me breastfeed and give her Neosure formula, which is packed with calories, because she couldn't leave the hospital if she fell below 4lbs. 14 oz. Since that time, Lily has probably taken a bottle about 3 or 4 times, but otherwise absolutely refuses it. She would start choking when we tried to give her a bottle or pacifier, and every now and then, would even choke when she was breastfeeding. I would just unlatch her for a bit, and then she would eat fine again. You could tell she had a hard time moving her tongue and on closer inspection could see that her frenulum (that's the string-like piece of tissue under your tongue) was attached to the very tip of her tongue.
I asked her doctor about this during her two-month check up. He said Lily was definitely tongue-tied, but since she was nursing fine and gaining sufficient weight that I probably shouldn't worry about it. He said there was a doctor in the office that specialized in snipping tongues, and if I wanted that done, they would need to do it soon since she was already two months old, and they prefer doing this when babies are newborns. When I learned that they did this procedure without any anesthetics though, I couldn't do it. My doctor said it would feel like a quick pinch, but there was no way I was going to let them cut through all that skin without numbing something. So, my doctor refered me to an ENT, who typically uses anesthetics.
I wish I hadn't waited so long to get this done! At the end of January, I realized Lily really needed to start taking a bottle! At first, I kept her with me during preschool, and it seemed to work out fine. She just sat in her swing as content as could be the whole time, and sometimes I would have to feed her while the kids were out playing. As more people signed up though, I realized it could get difficult. I decided to have my sister-in-law watch her along with Weston, but as time went on, she was getting fussy while she was away from me, and would be crying when she came home because she was so hungry.
When I did get in to the ENT, he said that Lily was pretty severely tongue tied and that it was not only keeping her from taking a bottle, but that she would most likely have problems with speech and clearing her mouth as she got older. Lily was laughing and smiling at the doctor the whole time, and he was talking and playing with her. It was so sad because in the back of my mind I was thinking--poor girl, you have no idea what he's about to do to you! Fortunately, he said snipping her tongue with local anesthetics would still be very painful and would traumatize her--they'd have to schedule her for outpatient surgery. I was very relieved to hear that!

Lily drank a full bottle today and took a binky for the first time!!!