Good-bye Gramps

On Thursday June 22, 2010, we said good-bye to my grandpa. He was one of the funniest people I have ever known. I am so happy that Nathan and Kira got to see him just over a week before it was time to say good-bye.

5-months old

Kira is now 5-months old. We went to the Dr. on Friday and she had only gained 4oz so it is now time to start supplementing. 11lbs 10oz is not an ideal weight for a 5-month old, especially since she weight 11lbs 6oz just one month ago. I am really ok with the whole supplementing thing since we did it with Nathan at a much earlier time in his life. He turned out just fine! Anyway, this month Kira started on rice cereal. She has had it a few times in the past week and really seems to like it. She is consistently rolling from both tummy/back and back/tummy. Kira is sitting in the tripod stance (holding herself up with her hands) for short periods and she reaches for everything. Everything now goes straight to the mouth, as well. She also tries to scoot when on her tummy. Currently sleep is still a struggle. We have had some really bad nights lately. I think part of it was she didn't take to well to the milk based formula so we are trying out soy now. We will see how it goes. All in all, she continues to progress with all of her milestones, now we just need her to start packing on the pounds.

Edited to add that Kira just cut her first tooth!

Outdoorsman

Nathan recently went on his first father/son camping trip. Our nephew Jared came along, as well. He really enjoyed himself. I am excited that he and Brian will be able to share a love of the outdoors. Nathan caught the first fish of the trip. They also explored Green Valley Falls and Julian. This past weekend we visited my parents in Fresno. Grandpa Larry took Nathan and Brian fishing along the San Joaquin River, where Nathan caught a bluegill!

4 Months Old

Kira is now 4 months old. She had her 4-month well visit. She gained almost a pound this last month. Not quite what they wanted to see, but definitely better than the 7oz she gained the previous month. So she now weighs 11lbs 6oz, which was 9th percentile. Her brother was 5lbs more than her at 4 months...yikes! She is 24 inches, which was 42% and her head circumference was 15 inches which is 26%. Overall, she is a petite little thing. The good news is that we don't have to do further testing. Her liver enzymes had improved and because she gained a bit of weight the pediatrician was happy.

This month Kira learned to roll from tummy to back. She grabs things and tries to put things in her mouth. Kira is better at the bottle now and even tries to feed herself at times. She is now looking around and following moving her head to follow things like the dog. Kira now likes to hang out in the exersaucer for short periods of time. The bad thing about this month is sleep. Somehow she forgot how its done. I never believed in the four month sleep regression that I had heard other mothers talk about, but now I fully believe. Prior to this she was waking up 1-2 times a night and would take at least one 5 hour stretch a night....this is not the case any longer. I am hoping that it is a small bump in the road because now that I am at work again, I feel like I am burning the candle at both ends and it is not so fun!

Nathan Updates

It has been awhile since we have done any updates on Nathan. He is your typical three-year old. Three comes with some great highs and great lows. Nathan is super smart. He know all of his letters and sounds and is starting to sound out words. He loves to draw, color and write. He is constantly asking us how to spell words. As you can see from the videos he is getting better at skateboarding and the swimming seems to be finally clicking for him and he now enjoys it. He continues to have a love of dinosaurs and hotwheels and occasionally still likes to pull out the trains. Nathan's counting is getting better and he can now count to 30 in Spanish. He just seems to be a sponge right now.

Three is also a very challenging age. He wants to be in control of everything and often forgets that he is not the center of the universe. We have had some really rough times lately with screaming fits, and challenging behavior. People keep saying that two is easy and three is hard and you know what...they are right! Overall, though, he is a great kid and is becoming a great big brother. While I do think the jealousy is starting to kick in the more interactive Kira gets, he does have quite a few moments now where is just so sweet to her.

3-months old

Kira is now three months old. Things are starting to get easier in terms of having two kids. This month Kira really seems to recognize us. She even smiles in recognition of Nathan, which is cool to him because he is starting to really talk more about having a baby sister. Kira spends her days kicking away and batting and grabbing objects. She has found her thumb for sucking and and you will often find her with that thumb in her mouth. Her neck is getting stronger everyday and she is quite close to rolling from back to tummy. Kira starts daycare next week when I return to work. We are a bit worried because she does not appear to like to drink from a bottle. I am hoping that it works itself out.

Kira has really struggled with putting on weight. She is barely two pounds over her birth weight at 3 months. Given her hefty start, we would have expected her to take off. This past week her pediatrician ordered a round of labs to try to determine what might be contributing to her slow weight gain. We were suspecting it might be a milk protein allergy but the labs for that came back negative. All of the labs came back negative except she appears to have elevated liver enzymes. I am not exactly sure what that means and Dr. Berent wants to re-run the labs before her 4-month well check. I am really concerned due to her slow weight gain, but we just keep trying to offer her feedings and hope for the best. They also started her on Zantac for reflux. It did help her to put on five ounces in two weeks since prior to that she had not put on anything in two weeks. Still not great, but better than nothing.

Despite the weight issues, she is a smiley, happy girl! I hope we can resolve these issues and help her to chunk herself up.

Easter 2010

We had a great weekend down at our river home. Nathan had a blast playing with Jared, Kaitlin and Kory. He went tubing behind Dave's boat a couple of times, colored eggs at the William's camp and had an egg hunt at Bill and Becky's camp. Kira just enjoyed the attention of many. We all had a great time. Brian, Nathan, Kira and I all left about 3 on Easter Sunday to head back home. At about 3:30 we were at a stoplight in Mexicali when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit. Let me tell you, when you are less than 40 miles from the epicenter of a huge earthquake, you really feel it. Meanwhile, the rest of our family and friends were still down at camp, which was about 3-5 miles from the epicenter. The damage we are seeing in pictures is crazy and it is amazing that noone was seriously hurt. Houses and docks on the river can be replaced, but people cannot. Needless to say a wonderful weekend turned scary in a minute and a half.