Morgen's crawling!

The day after my last post, Morgen started crawling, about 5 steps..And by the next day...she was crawling all over the house. She is already pulling up on E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!! She is always standing in her crib now when I go to get her. She loves to go in JaCee's bedroom & pull herself up on her bed -- probably because it's a little lower to the ground. She loves the kitchen table & is either found standing at a chair or playing with JaCee under the table. JaCee LOVES that Morgen is crawling around. They are playing together a lot more now. If JaCee goes into her room to play, Morgen crawls in there too. Something new I had to do...go over JaCee's room with a fine tooth comb, looking for & removing any small objects. I didn't have to worry about that when JaCee started crawling.

Here's a picture of Morgen in the "tupper-ware" drawer!

 I loved this! JaCee NEVER watches TV. NEVER. BUT, from time to time, she will ask for --- yes---Barney! Only because she loves the song, she is usually running around the house while the show is on. But Morgen was up...and it was mysteriously quiet in the living room for a minute --- I peeked my head around the corner to see this....

Morgen had her 1st ride on the lawnmower. This is usually JaCee's job. This evening, JaCee got a lesson on "sharing" with her sister.

JaCee really really wants to hold Morgen lately. I have to let her get her fix in, because I've found if I don't...she takes it upon herself to try to "hold" or "pick-up" Morgen when I'm not in the room. If she gets to hold her for a few minutes, I'm usually --- well Morgen --- is usually safe for a few hours.

Here's a picture of JaCee's thumb. Actually the green wrap is off now & we just have the band-aid on. Her thumb looks good. The stitches should start coming out soon & we have our follow up appt. on Tue. She turned 2 and a HALF this week. Yesterday actually. She had her 30 month appointment with her pediatrician. She weighs in at a hefty 27.5 lbs. and is 36.5 inches tall. Looks great & is doing great. Had one poke in the leg she didn't like. It's amazing how big they get so fast. As I was going in the office, I was remembering the day's of taking her in there because she wouldn't stop crying. ow, as we walked in, she had her sunglasses & flip-flops on, "like mommy" she says & a baby is crying...she looks at me & says --- that baby is sad because he got a shot. She was probably right, but it sounded so grown up.

Morgen's 8 months old!



Morgen was 8 months old on Tuesday, the day JaCee had her thumb surgery. She got to spend the day with Grandma Candee who was so nice & came to town to stay with her so we didn't have to drag her to the hospital before sunrise.

Morgen's had some pretty big accomplishments this month. She learned how the sippy cup works. FINALLY. That took a lot of work. She can now go from laying or crawling position to sitting up. It's the curtest thing to get her from her crib if she's crying & she's sitting up. I love it! Tears & all. She's not crawling yet, but she's up on all 4's & will take 1 or 2 lunges forward before plopping back down on her tummy. If she really wants something, she army crawls to get to it. Her top 2 teeth are just poking through. The right one is through now so I can feel it with my fingers. The left one is just poking through the to where I can see it below the skin. The result? A very fussy baby. She hasn't been this fussy since we've had her...poor thing. She's still not sleeping through the night. Randomly she will do it, but more times than not...she's up 2x's! And she's starving. She downs a bottle & is back asleep. She's not awake playing, etc. just plain hungry. I started feeding her table foods this week. She - LOVES - it! Green beans, bakes beans, cottage cheese, peaches, pears, anything she can feed herself with she is loving it! She loves watching JaCee. Usually JaCee is with me when I get Morgen up in the morning but if JaCee's not, I can barely hold her in my arms she lunging around looking on the ground for JaCee & when she can't find her she looks at me if to say where is she? So cute.

Morgen is still a very big baby. Doesn't look like that trend is going to stop. She's currently wearing 12-18 month clothes. And size 3 shoes. I got out some shoes the other day thinking she's in the little soft sole NB shoes...nope...wrong. I had to go get out the big tennis shoes. I weighed her at home a couple weeks ago & she was 21.6 lbs. We now have a car seat dilemma on our hands....and will probably have to purchase a new one here in the next few weeks. I was hoping she would stay in her infant car seat until she's 1 & we could move her to the one we had JaCee in, but it doesn't appear that is going to work.

Here she is in all her cuteness!

JaCee's 2nd surgery

JaCee had her 2nd thumb surgery on Tuesday! If you remember, she had surgery on both thumbs early in the summer. Only one thumb worked. She has what they call "bands" around the tendon's in her thumbs so as they move through he pulley's in her joints, they are getting "caught up." So the Dr's do a procedure to go in & remove the bands to free the thumbs from getting hung up. In JaCee's case, she can't fully straighten out her thumb. Hopefully after today's surgery she can.

We had to check in at 6:30am. She was the 2nd youngest to get surgery for the day, so they don't give a time, just a generalized idea of the order in which she will go. Around 930am, we went to pre-op. They give her a medicine that makes her --- very loopy. Last surgery she went to a strange nurses' arms with no hesitation. (NOT like JaCee at all). Today, I was hoping for the same thing. (So much easier on me) But she didn't...she cried & was reaching for me...yelling Mommy...I hadn't cried until this point. The nurses are great & comfort you...but it's still hard. We went to the waiting room & less than 15 minutes later she was done. We went back to her admitting room where they brought her to us. This is the next hardest part. When the babies wake up from surgery, they don't understand what happened & they kind of "pick-up" where they left off when they went under...which is crying. She was last time & this time...sooo upset. All you can do is hold/comfort her for the next couple hours waiting for the anesthesia to wear off. Once it did, she ate some lunch, drank a couple boxes of juice & we could go home.

I'm glad it's over. It's a mix of emotions when you are there. Nervous for your own experience, but when you see some of the other children in the hospital & what they are going through, your heart breaks for them...knowing I will be home tonight with my baby & in a few weeks, it will be like this never happened...but some are not that lucky. Tonight I will be praying for the parents & children still at the hospital.

Shriners Hospital has the best toys for kids...At 6:30am JaCee was riding the horse



And they have wagons for the parents to be distracted by what is going to happen as well...here is Daddy pulling JaCee all over the 3rd Floor!




Just after Surgery



We're ALL done. JaCee's back to her normal self!





Feels like fall...

Labor Day weekend we went to Pig out in the Park. It was Morgen's 1st time & she was perfect! JaCee had a great time going on the kid's rides. She went down this HUGE slide and I love the look on her face. She was fearless at the beginning but when I asked her if she wanted to go again she said NO - that scared me. Poor thing. Glad I got this picture.

Adorable & always smiling Morgen --- with her Daddy --- Happy as can be!


Morgen's had some accomplishments the past 2 weeks. She's up on all 4's rocking. Still army crawling for "real" movement. She is trying to pull herself up to things. I caught her trying to get to her sister in the bath tub the other night...

She FINALLY figured out the how the Sippy cup works and loves to use it as a chewing toy. One of her top teeth is coming...and I'm sure the other top tooth is not too far behind. All this teeth business...bath time...she's tired & I can STILL GET THIS SMILE FROM HER! She's amazing!

I'm just starting my adventures in canning! On top of our garden goodies...I buy boxes of fruit in the fall to make things with...here is some of what I've done with my box of Pears so far and some garden goodies too. Pickled Beets. Canned Beans. Italian Stewed Tomatoes (Spaghetti Sauce basically). A Pear Cake to Freeze. A pear cobbler and last but not least ... some purred baby food for Morgen!

And here's JaCee after "helping Mommy" bake goodies! JaCee's doing good. She has her 2nd thumb surgery Tuesday. I'm a mix of emotions. I know this will be the last thumb surgery & I know what to expect since we've been through it, but it doesn't take away the butterflies I have over it!

This is what my yard looks like! Well looked like. Part of it. This is only one corner of our house. The back yard looked like this too. Blah! They took down part of our fence, we had to take out all our concrete edging & plants including tree's, etc. We had to get hooked up to the sewer & off septic (city requirements). It's over now & the grass is put back in place, now the replanting (and praying for the plants to live) and cleanup begins.

Yes, that's my Japanese Maple buried. =(

And Matt --- Well, it's hunting season --- so he's --- well ---- been hunting --- just in the evenings on the weekends, thankfully for me. He did take a few day's off this week & went Steelhead & Salmon fishing on the Columbia with some of his buddies. He brought back some nice fish for us eat!

And again --- the cutest smiling baby you've ever seen! What a doll!

So that's what we've been up to. Everyone is healthy & happy ... fall is just around the corner. Our Pumpkins are already Orange & I'm teaching JaCee about Trick-or-Treating....and that you have to say that to get a piece of candy! The other night after dinner, she came to me & said, "Mommy --- trick or treat?" I said what? It's not that time yet...she said, "ya, can I have a piece of candy?" She's too smart for her own good!