Julianna walks

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Happy Birthday Jonathan!!!!

Wow, I can't believe our Little Man is turning Two years old today! Seems like only yesterday we were welcoming him into the world. Our lives sure have changed quite a bit these past two years. Happy Birthday to my Favorite Little Guy, and here's to looking forward to a lifetime more.

The New/Used JK Rubicon

We finally joined the JK group. We are so excited and Jason now has a daily driver other than Big Red. We found it in OK in a small little town of 5000. I don't think they had an idea of the gem they were sitting on. They sold it to us for less then trade in value. So we are very happy. We ended up getting the Sunburst Orange because Jason said it was the perfect mix of Red and Yellow. For those who don't get that. Jason and I met off roading, he has a red Jeep and I have the yellow one. Well we joined together in marriage, had a family so he thought the Orange would represent that as the two Jeeps becoming one family Jeep. Isn't that sweet......

Trouble & Curious

I just had to post this pic. It speaks volumes....

Piano Girl

I just had to post this picture of my little girl. She is getting so big. I swear she is going to walk before she is 9 months.

First day at School (DKH Academy)

Jonathan had his first day of school today and he did so well. Jason went into work late so he could come with me and take him to his first day of class. We walked him in and he went straight over to play and never acknowledged us again. His teacher said he played great and seemed to have a good time. I think he had so much fun when we came to pick him up he was crying because he wanted to go back out to the playground again. I think he would have played all day. It was so quite at home it seemed strange. It was nice for him to get out and for me to get things done.

Mommy's Little Helper

More.

Well, Jonathan still hasn't decided to start talking yet. Every now and then there's a pretty distinctive "dada" but other than that it's still mostly lots of noises and pointing and grunting (in hindsight I maybe should have not done my Tim Allen impersonation for Jonathan quite souch when he was younger). Anyhow, We figured since he won't he use words yet maybe he'll use signs. So we started (again) trying to teach him some basic signs. Within the span of only about two days we successfully taught him the sign for "more", as in he wants more food as opposed to be finished and ready to get down from him highchair.

Trouble is, we got our signs mixed up and didn't teach him the sign for "more", we taught him the sign for "eat/food". In the context of it's usage though they're pretty much interchangeable so I think we're ok. The funny thing is he doesn't hold his hand quite right so instead of putting his finger tips to him mouth he has his hand sideways as if to stifle a sneaze. (photo coming soon).

He also kinda uses it as "please" if you've got some food (or drink) that he wants some of -- last night I was fixing him a sippy of water (he won't drink anything else) and he ran up to me with this excitied look on his face and did his sign. I couldn't help but chuckle at him, it was pretty cute.

6 months and, growing?

Well, she's not growing very fast anyway, haha. Julianna recently had her six month check-up and she weighed in at a whopping 15.2 pounds, and measured 25.5" tall. That puts her in only the 50th percentile for height, and 30th percentile for weight. Definitely our little girl.

By contrast, at this age Jonathan was 20.4 pounds and 28" tall. He was our chart-topper.

6 months and rollin'

Julianna is officially six months old! It's killing me how quickly my little ones are growig up. We've already started trying to plan Jonathan's second birthday party!

And as of Friday night, Julianna can roll from her back to her tummy! This is a good thing because she's been able to go from her tummy to her back but then she gets stuck, and unhappy. But now she'll be able to flip herself back over. Hopefully she'll figure this out in the middle of the night.

Hotdogs

Now that we have two hairless children, our furry ones have been relocated to the great outdoors, er, well, the garage. With summer getting into full swing down here in Texas we had to do something to help keep the dogs cool since they no longer had access to the cool air-conditioning of the indoors. So, we got them their own air conditioner!

It's just a portable unit for now, connected to a somewhat hastily installed dryer vent in the garage door, but it seems to work fairly well. We figured the bottom section of the garage door already had a big hole for the doggy door, so what's one more hole? Yeah, it kinda complicates things if you want to open the garage door, but the big Jeeps rarely get driven at the moment, so it's not really a big issue.

Our eventual plans are to replace the portable unit with a wall-mounted AC/heat unit that should be more efficient (plus it can keep the garage warm in the winter, not that the dogs mind the cold much though). So why didn't we just get the wall unit to start out with you ask? Well, installing the wall unit involves cutting a big hole in the side of the house, through the brick, which is going to require a bit more time and work than I've got available right now and punching a 4" diameter hole through a garage door is quick and easy.

Banarama

To add to the growing list of fruits and veggies that Jonathan loves to eat... Bananas! He'll eat a whole banana in the blink of an eye, then come back for more! Needless to say, bananas are now a staple of our grocery list.

"Banana... what banana?"


"Good banana!"


"Mmmm... banana"


"Do YOU want some banana?"

Yoga time!

Ok, so he's not really doing yoga, my mom just happened to snap a shot right as he was doing whatever it is he's doing, haha.

The Look.

I have a feeling I'll be seeing much more of this as she gets older, haha.

20 months

Jonathan turned 20 months old on Sunday. I can't believe my little man is almost 2 years old!!

Motor skills

Just in the last week Julianna has started to be able to reach out and grab things around her that she sees -- her blinky car seat mobile thingie, the toys on the exersaucer... and the phone when Jennifer is using it and holding her, haha.

The latest

For better or worse, there really hasn't been much of noteworthiness going on at the ol' Casa de la West as of late. Jonathan is doing good. He's still not talking but our pediatrician says it's nothing to be concerned about yet. He crawled and walked relatively late but as soon as he started doing it it was as if he'd been doing it for weeks already -- when he walked for the very first time he walked across our kitchen, and his second walk was nearly halfway across of our house. I figure when he decides to finally start talking he'll just bust out in multi-word sentences. I have a feeling we'll be in for a case of "careful what you wish for" when he starts speaking, haha.

And speaking of walking, he's running now. Well, it's really more of a bouncing speed walk than outright running, but the little man can really move! I think I've got some video of him running that I can post up on flickr. He loves for me to run and chase him around the house and backyard.

Julianna is finally sleeping better (again). She seemed to go through phases where she'd sleep good for a week or two, then, not so good, for a week or two. About three weeks ago it was getting really bad though; she wasn't sleeping for more than about two and a half hours at a time at night before waking and wanting to nurse, and this was going on for days. It wasn't that she had her days and nights mixed up, it was that she simply had no night!

After an exhausted Jennifer talked with an OB friend of hers and with our pediatrician, we decided the problem was three-fold: first, Julianna was napping too much during the day, second she was sleeping in the same room with Jennifer, and finally she wasn't going to bed on a full tummy (we think she's more of a "snacker" type eater). Based on that we implemented some changes to Julianna's schedule and her sleeping improved immediately. She went from waking every three hours to only waking up once, quite literally, over night! She only takes two, sometimes three naps during the day now. Her mid morning nap is usually about an hour or so long. Her late afternoon nap usually lasts 2-3 hours, and then she'll usually take a quick 30 minute cat nap in the evening as well. We're keeping her up about an hour later in the evening - not putting her to bed until around 10pm - and instead of Jennifer nursing her last thing, I'm feeding her a bottle of formula and making sure she finishes off at least 3 oz of it. And lastly, Julianna is sleeping in her own room now instead of the pack-n-play in our bedroom. All of this combined has led to both Julianna and Jennifer getting some much needed rest at night.

Oh yeah, she rolls herself over so much in bed now that we have to pile blankets on either side of her when we put her down to nap or to sleep to keep her from flopping herself over and waking up, haha.

Happy Mothers Day

I just wanted to wish all the mothers out there HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

The Little Lady has officially rolled over. Julianna's a tummy-sleeper, but when Jennifer went in to get her after her post-feeding morning nap this morning, Julianna was on her back staring up at the ceiling.

She's also working on being forwardly mobile too -- the past couple of nights she's managed to wiggle herself forward from laying in the middle of her pack-n-play to having the top of her head butted up against the side.

Happy Easter!

You know me, always posting things late... such is the case though with two little ones under the age of two, a full time job, and a business to run, haha. And like most holidays the past couple of years Easter seemed to sneak up on us this year, and just as quickly as it came it disappeared again. We did manage to get an Easter Egg tree done in the front yard, but no eggs were dyed this year unfortunately (mainly due to me being slightly incapacitated due to recent surgery).

Anyway, on to the photos! Grandma T made a beautiful Easter dress for Julianna, complete with slip, booties, and a bonnet!

Sick little boy

Our boy has a sinus infection but has been playing as hard as he can through it and skipping his naps or taking very short ones until last night. He finally decided he needed to sleep. He laid down at 4:30pm for his nap and decided he was down for the night. He woke for short spurts during the night but never cried or wanted out of his crib, he just played for a little while with his music toy in the crib and went back to sleep. It is now 9:00am and he just woke up. Wow what a way to make up for lost sleep. Now if his sister would sleep like that we would have it made.....

Raaawrrr!

Tickle monster vs the Giggle Boy.

Jonathan has this game he likes to play with me, where I chase him around the house going "Raaawrrr!" and he giggles and squeals and runs around. And of course when I catch him I have to tickle him, and he giggles and squeals even more. I love the sound of his laughter, so I had to get it on video.

Happy Girl!

It's not often our little lady is in a good mood, so when she decided to smile for me for a bit Sunday afternoon, I had to grab the camera.

Belly button lint

It's not just for Daddies.

Yep, that's a little ball of pink belly button lint she's got there. I discovered it while I was getting Julianna undressed for her bath today.

Our Daughter Julianna's Baptism

Our Little Girl was Baptized on March 22 2009 in Fayetteville, AR. It was a wonderful ceremony and so many people came to see and support her. I am very thankful to Tawana & Leon for hosting such an event with all the people that showed up, and for the tremendous job on her christening gown. I am also very thankful that our dear friends Kyle & Ashley (our children's God parents) were able to make it as well. Another Big Thanks to God is that Julianna did not spit up on the gown which I was sure was going to happen. We were so worried about that one since I can't wear the same shirt for a full day. We also got to see some old friends Greg, Becky, & their children for dinner on Saturday. We truly had a wonderful time.

5 hours!

That's right folks, last night a new World Record has been set for the number of consecutive hours of sleep, at night, by little girls named Julianna living in our house. 5 hours! For us, right now, that's huge. 4 hours and we count our blessings, 2.5-3 hours is par for the course. And when I left for work this morning, she was at 4 hours and counting, so it's possible we may have back to back records set today!!

So how did we achieve this feat of super baby sleeping? I wish I knew! We did however, at the recommendation of a friend of ours who swears by the stuff, give Julianna a dose of GasEx (yes, GasEx) before trying to get her down to sleep. You know (maybe) those little round liquicaps of GasEx? You poke a little hole in one and just squirt it in their mouth. Hopefully we've just found our silver bullet.

Sleep, what's that?

I seem to vaguely remember this concept called sleep. I think it's like a longer version of the night-time naps that Jennifer and I sometimes get in between bouts of Julianna's nursing and fussing. Seriously, in the last 4 weeks we've only gotten 3 nights of what could loosely be called a decent night's sleep, and one of those was because Grammy Voth stayed over, and up, all night with Julianna.

Jonathan had an issue with acid reflux when he was an infant, but Julianna's issue is much worse, causing her to spit up nearly every feeding (which in turn makes her want to nurse more) now. Jonathan almost never spit up. We've got an appointment for Julianna on Thursday with a gastrointasomethingologist, and hopefully they can shed some more light on the issue and what we can do to make it better, both for Julianna's sake and ours!

Jennifer's Heaven

She's here!

OK, she's actually been here two weeks now and I'm a bad dad for not getting on here an announcing her arrival as soon as it happened, but as I'm sure you can imagine life here in the West household has become crazy busy. Those of you on Facebook got a play-by-play of the events on the big day as they were happening though.

For those of you not on Facebook (and why aren't you?!), we were blessed with Julianna Lizabeth at 12:22pm on Friday, January 23rd. She weighed 7lbs, 3oz -- much smaller than we'd expected and nearly a full pound smaller than her big brother. At 19" long though, she was only 3/4" shorter than her brother. As with Jonathan, Julianna was born via c-section, and this time things went much smoother for Jennifer.

It may be hard to tell here, but she's actually smiling under that mask.

Here is Mommy meeting Julianna for the very first time.

My two favorite girls, relaxing back in the hospital room.

The following Monday we came home from the hospital and introduced Julianna to her new home, and her new room! It will be a while before she actually sleeps in her room though. For now, she sleeps with Mommy and Daddy, or rather, she keeps Mommy and Daddy up at night, haha.

Julianna's room, finished.

Julianna's room is finally finished, and none too soon since she'll be here Friday! Jennifer and her mom worked long and hard making just about everything in the room. The only things they didn't make (other than the furniture) are the decorations on the wall. The curtains, pillows, window seat cushions, crib bedding and bumpers, and the canopy and ceiling mount were all hand-made by Jennifer and her mom. Even the ruffles lining everything were hand-gathered! I keep half-joking with them that they should start a business doing this...

There are a few more photos on flickr too.

Ride the pony

One of Jennifer's Mommy friends recently had a birthday party for her son Wyatt at the Frisco Horse Park. I've driven past this place dozens and dozens of times over the years and never had any idea that it was anything more than a private sitting along side highway 121. We all had a great time there and I definitely think we'll be having a party for Jonathan there here in the next few years. In addition to horseback riding and pony rides they've also got one of those inflatable bounce houses and a small petting "zoo" with chickens, a turkey, goats, and sheep (just make sure you clean the soles of your shoes afterwards, haha).

Even though Jonathan is walking now most of the time, he still plops down on all fours every once and a while, and he still puts nearly everything in his mouth, so he was held the whole time we were in the petting zoo. He did get to pet a chicken though (I use the term "pet" loosely here because he mainly kept grabbing at the chicken's head) and he got to pet a goat, which he probably thought was a funny looking Husky.

We also went to pet the big horses out by the stables. I'm not sure Jonathan knew what to think about the big horses though. At his age I'm sure I was a bit leery of those big funny looking critters too!

The highlight for us though was when Jonathan got to take a pony ride around the yard. I held on to him the whole time of course just in case, but he did great sitting in the saddle and really seemed to have fun.