So Glad When Daddy Comes Home!

These kids sure do LOOOOOVE their daddy!

This is how he gets greeted home after work each day!

Bombarded with lots of welcoming hugs!!!

And his face depicts how I feel at the end of the day! WORN out! hahaha :)

But he's fun and they love the special attention he gives them!

Such a great husband I have.

And a wonderful father to my children.

Couldn't ask or be blessed with better!

Andrew's 15 Month Well-Baby

{15 Months! He's such a fun baby! And he's cute too! :)}

{My sleeping angel after his well baby visit}

My baby is growing so fast! Andrew had his 15 month well baby visit this morning. Can't say it was an exceptionally great appointment - they switched doctors on us without consulting. Not very professional or courteous in my opinion. This particular doctor had some crazy sense of parenting "tips" and left me irritated at the end of his visit (and thankfully I voiced that we would NOT be seeing that provider again)!

Aside from that, all went well! (Besides finding out that he has a DOUBLE ear infection from his current cold. Poor baby! I had no idea!) He was ALL over the baby scale - wiggling and crying for me to pick him up and reaching for me, so they had to guess about how much he weighed and they came up with 20.8 pounds. But seriously, I'm a small person so the odds are that my children aren't going to be huge! So his weight puts him in the 5th percentile - down 5% since his 12 month well baby.

BUT he's grown a TON in the past few months, now measuring 30.75 inches putting him in the 50th percentile in height - up from his last appointment which was 29 inches (24%). Last month he learned to walk and has him very busy around here and burning calories more than crawling. Which is probably why he's focused a lot of his recent growth in height and not in weight. Regardless of their percentages, he's a healthy boy. And sometimes I wonder what they base their information on when calculating the percentages. Some babies have got to be huge - no offense. Both John and I can't imagine a lot of babies being a lot bigger than Andrew's weight and height). His head still measures the same: 18 1/2 cm.

Before we left the doctors, he received 3 lovely shots and orders for routine blood work to check CBC and iron. I think I'll let him rest and start to feel better before I do that. Probably something that can wait until next week! But the good news is: HE'S HEALTHY AND GROWING! :)

Now....onto the fun part: losing the pacifier and bottle! I'm excited to get this done with. He's thankfully not hugely attatched to either one, but I have a strange feeling that the pacifier, which I only give to him at naps/night, is going to be the hardest one to lose. I've been offering him a cup of milk at meals for some time now but he'll only drink like one ounce from it the entire day. One thing at a time, right?

My strategy in order is to: 1) cut out the before bedtime bottle, 2) cut out the 2 bottles during the day and only offering a cup of milk instead, 3) chuck the pacifiers. Forget the bottle and pacifier fairies that some people use. This boy could honestly care less - let alone he won't understand what a bottle and pacifier fairy is anyways! :) I'm guessing in the next month or so, he'll be free from these things and life will be so much easier without them!

March Menu #3

Monday (22) ~ baked fish, mashed red potatoes, veggie
Tuesday (23) ~ grilled cheese & soup
Wednesday (24) ~ homemade veggie pizza (yummy crust found HERE) & salad
Thursday (25) ~ chicken fajitas & spanish rice
Friday (26) ~ breaded pork chops, stuffing, texas toast, salad
Saturday (27) ~ sloppy joes, homemade fries, veggie
Sunday (28) ~ cheese ravioli, rolls, veggie

Walking Lee Drive

Our family has been going on a lot of walks here as of late - largely due to my 12 week goal I'm giving myself to get back into post-baby weight. My baby that will turn 15 months tomorrow! It's been really nice these past few weeks too with spring on it's way so getting out and enjoying the outdoors is one of our favorites! I went walking with a friend today. Here are some pictures I took (and a side note, I may have to start leaving my camera at home if I want to be serious about this goal of mine to get into shape...too tempting to stop 20 some times to take pictures! It is fun though! Especially if there's history involved!):

{Confederate Trenches: Jackson's Line}

{Pretty little waterfall in the stream we walked past}

{Rocks at the bottom of the stream}

{My friend's little boy and my kids - taking a quick break}

{If you look closely, you'll see 2 voltures: 1 in the top left corner and 1 in the bottom right corner!}

{Our walk has ended - best buddies hugging good-bye}

31 Flavors

For St. Patrick's Day, we took the kids out for a special ice cream treat at Baskin Robbins. (I love hurrying them into the car for a surprise and having them clueless as to what we're about to go and do!) They yelled "ICE CREAM" excitedly as we pulled into the parking lot so I knew we made the right choice on where to go. But then again, I don't know a whole lot of people that doesn't like ice cream.

Of course the girls wanted the cake waffle cones topped with a caramel concoction of some sorts (Aubrey) and after much debate over Vanilla or another kind (Jocelyn), she finally settled her eyes on the Mint chocolate chip!

I had Snickers (it's better in the candy bar form in my opinion) and I sat there trying to figure out a way to just get to the waffle cone. Even gave John a big bite of it and rubbed some of it off with my napkin to get to that yummy crunchy part! (I don't do that to ice cream that I really like!) John enjoyed Oreo cookie and gave his buddy (Andrew) some bites here and there. Such a fun family night and look forward to going again. (Maybe to Carl's this next time around!!)  :)

Sunshine!

I think it's safe to say that spring is HERE! Not only is it evident with the kids at the playground more and more these days, but the birds are out, the sun is out, the grass is growing and have spotted buds on the front yard tree. With the extreme winter we just had and the many MANY feet of snow keeping us for the most part confined to the inside of our home, we are now taking any chance we can to get out and about and enjoy the rays and fresh air! Andrew is now getting to the point where he's practically begging to go outside on a daily basis. He stands at the front and back door and motions to us that he wants out. He's for sure an active boy already!

After dropping Aubrey off at piano practice and taking Jocelyn and Andrew to the nearby library to return and pick up books (and look at the firetruck that was open and on display - she gracefully declined getting in and taking a peek!) and then going back to pick up Aubrey from her lesson, we drove home and had some fun on the nearby playground for a good hour. They had SO much fun and moaned and whined when it was time to come in for dinner! Here are some cute pictures I got of them playing:

{My three cuties!!!}

March Menu #2

Monday (15) ~ pork chops, homemade fries, salad
Tuesday (16) ~ toasted tuna sandwiches & soup
Wednesday (17) ~ spaghetti, garlic french bread, veggie
Thursday (18) ~ red beans & rice, biscuits
Friday (19) ~ homemade pizza
Saturday (20) ~ breaded fish, tater tots, salad
Sunday (21) ~ chicken & dumplings (wasn't previously made last week)