2009-2010

Well, well, well. Where do I begin? Let see had a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas. That is about it for me. Now on to the kids. Andrew and Alexis had a wonder Thanksgiving, Christmas and a Birthday. Andrew got what he wanted for Christmas and one toy for his birthday that I will say "Thanks Uncle Sheldon" That toy is staying up at Nana's & Poppy's. I have stupid cats that will eat the nerf darts or a little boy that will shoot the darts over the fence. Oh and the Playdoh is staying up at Nana's as well. Alexis got that for Christmas. Xander got clothes and some toys.
The kids are doing fine except for Xander. In November Xander had his first trip to the hospital. Spent the night and he had bronchiolitis - Bronchiolitis is a common illness of the respiratory tract caused by an infection that affects the tiny airways, called the bronchioles, that lead to the lungs. As these airways become inflamed, they swell and fill with mucus, making breathing difficult. On that trip he didn't need oxygen. Well his 2nd time he had RSV - RSV-or respiratory syncytial virus-is so common that it strikes virtually every child by the time they are three years old. Most of the time, it is indistinguishable from the common cold. It causes a mild respiratory infection marked by a stuffy nose, discharge, a cough and sometimes a mild ear infection. Usually, it is self-limiting and is over in a week to ten days.Well it really doesn't bother other children and only 2% end up in the hospital. Xander was the 2% and was running a fever - highest was 103.5 and had to be put on oxygen.

Doesn't that sound wonderful? Xander has to stay home for the whole week. JUST GREAT!!! Don't know if I'll keep my job after this but I'll just have to wait and see.

Other milestones - Xander is flipping over on to his tummy, is cutting his first tooth and starting to eat cereal.

And that is about it for now Xander is up and I need to see if I can get him to eat.

Hello again!

I know it's been a while (OK a couple of months) since my last post. With a new baby and two other kids you really don't have time to do much. Let's see:
1. Andrew will be turning 8 this December (26). Where did the time go?
2. Alexis is doing fine, still not potty trained yet, but we're working on it.
3. Xander is now 3 months old. He's still a little stinker pot but he's getting better about not wanting me to old him all the time. Xander did have GERD (Acid reflux), I can actually leave him on the floor for a while. He's been sleeping in his bed and sometimes thru the whole night (2 nights out of week, I'll take that.) He smiles, coos and rolls over to his back when we give him tummy time (which he really doesn't like) We trying to get him to laugh when we tickle him, most time he just coos real loud and tries to get away.
4. I've been at my job for 2 years now. WOW and HURRAY for me!

OK I know everyone is just wanting to really see pictures so here you go:

Xander is 25 days old in this picture.

He's almost a month in this picture and doing little smiles.

Almost 3 months old and smiling a lot. Loves to be sung too.

Here is Halloween; Alexis was a purple fairy/butterfly (or buttfly as Alexis puts it) and Andrew was a S.W.A.T. police officer. That is what he wants to be when he grows up. (Just like his Uncle Sheldon!) He wants to drive a police car really fast and arrest bad guys that rob banks. I'm so PROUD!

OH AND HERE IS OUR NEW PET!!!

JUST KIDDING!!! This little critter chewed (yes chewed) a hole in our chimney and made a home in the wall. (At least he didn't chew a hole in the wall coming into the house.) Andrew and Alexis both got to see it. Andrew wanted to keep it and Alexis just got all excited. I had to get up the roof and reset the trap and use some different bait. Peanut Butter in a cup just doesn't work, use dog food, that worked. The first time after I reset the trap that we thought we heard the trap go off, I climb the ladder, Candy the Cat scared the hibby jibbies out of me, she was up on the roof and meowed at me before I saw her. This is at 9 pm at night and I can't really see anything. The second time we thought we heard sometime it was a loud "thunk". I go look again and the trap has been sprung BUT I can't see anything since the trap has a garbage bag wrapped around it (that is for when they catch skunks). So I climb up on the roof and and look and it's in there. HURRAY! If anybody had looked out their windows, they maybe thought there were burglars up on the roof with flashlights. At least no one called the cops. =)

Well that is about it. Since now we are getting back into a routine I hope to be able to start posting regularly but don't be surprised if I don't post anything for a while.

Would you freak out?

I almost did. Almost called the cops and thought I was going to be on the news about one of those parents. OK maybe not one of those parents (don't really know what kind of parents those are), but I do tend to freak out really easily; first thing that popped in my head was that I was going to charged with kidnapping and his mother would be on the news freaking out. (See how my mind works?)

Andrew finally convince a little boy to come home with him today. His name was Alex (how ironic, I think). He didn't know how to pronounce his last name correctly. Couldn't tell me his phone number. Could only tell the street name, no number and his mother first name. I call the school, but NO answer. (Not helping my panic mode.) So, I called bus transportation. They help a lot. The finally got a hold of the bus driver, who actually saw Andrew and Alex take off toward our house. She couldn't get to them in time to stop Alex. She did drive down my street, but by then the boys where already in the house and she didn't know our house #. After 10 minutes of being on the phone, the bus came down the street again and I talked to the driver. She told me since day one that Andrew was trying to convince Alex to come to our house and Alex was agreeing with it. She said they were both in on it. When Alex got on the bus, I did hear her say "wait until I tell your mom". I really wish parents did what I did. Put some contact info in the back pack. Just in cases like this.

Andrew and Alexis were pretty excited about this week. Andrew was happy to start school and Alexis was happy to go back to Marixa's. Alexis was a little sad when we left Andrew at the bus stop but got all giddy when I told her we were going to Marixa's.

Xander is little stinker pot. (that's his nickname for now). Wants to be held all the time and for some reason only by me, unless he's at the sitters and doesn't want to sleep in his bed. Wants to always sleep on me, but he starting to sleep for six hours at night now, but that depends on when I feed him last and how much.

That is about it for now. I do have pictures but I post them next time.

End of Summer

Yeah right... end of summer for the kids but not the summer heat. =( Well everything is going great here except getting enough sleep. Xander has his bouts of where he doesn't know what he wants. Doesn't want to eat, but is fishing (turns his head side to side and has an open mouth). Doesn't want to be put down, but when he's held, he doesn't know what position he wants to be held in. He sleeps pretty well until about time between 3:30am and 8 am. We are going to try and keep him up later in the evening to see if we can get him to switch hours. He feeds about every 2 to 4 hours but sometimes he sleeps for six. I do try to breastfeed him (sorry guys) but he just doesn't want my breast. Xander knows what to do but every time I try to make him latch, he just spits it out. We have tried several times to no avail. I will keep trying but so far I'm just pumping and then giving him the milk in a bottle. Andrew and Alexis are doing great. Andrew loves his little brother. Keeps saying he's "cute". Alexis on the other hand is still on the fence (as Roland puts it) about her little brother. Sometimes she wants to carry him (I won't let her as of right now) and sometimes she wants to hold him. Sometimes she happy she's holding him, but them are times she starts whining while holding him. All she really wants to do is help, which is fine by me.
Here are some pictures of Andrew and Xander:

Feeding Time!!!

Andrew wanted to help feed Xander. I did have to stop Andrew from pouring 2% milk into the baby bottle. I had to explain that Xander wouldn't be able to drink 2% milk for while and had to explain what kind of milk to make for Xander. I have decided not let Andrew make the baby bottles for a while.

We went swimming the other day. The kids had a blast:

Miss Alexis trying to splash me. I love the goggles on her.


Andrew just had a blast going all over the pool.



Everyone just had a blast. Of course Xander slept through all of it.

I will get my family portrait of all three kids, I just don't know when. Hopefully I'll get it before Christmas. =)

Finally Arrived

Roland Alexander Blackwell arrived on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at 5:17pm weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. (Yes, that is bigger than Andrew and Alexis when they were born. Glad I was two weeks early!)
Went to the hospital that morning around 10 am. If really want all the little details call me, I'm not posting everything on my page, I know people want pictures, not words. Here they are:
Oh, by the way we have decided not to call him Alex but Xander. I might just do both. =)

Day after picture.

Andrew and Alexis checking out Xander.

Proud Papa.


After all that hard work, guess who passed out first?

Alexis wanted to hold Xander, so Daddy helped. After she did, she wasn't all that sure about it.
Miss Alexis didn't like leaving me in the hospital. She didn't want to leave at all Monday and then Roland called me that night, telling me someone was missing me. Roland thought it might make Alexis feel better if she heard my voice on the phone, but his plan back fired on him.
She is definitely a mamma's girl.

Alexis is still not to sure about Xander. She is excited about him, but I noticed today that when Xander cried, she started to get upset. I don't think she really knows what to do about Xander.
Andrew on the other hand has been a wonderful son and a wonderful big brother to Alexis and Xander. I will get my family portrait of all the three kids soon, but as this week my wonderful in-laws have come back Colorado and taken Andrew and Alexis for a couple of days. Andrew has been looking forward to going up to Nana and Poppy's. Alexis didn't want to go when they picked them up. I have a feeling that Alexis will not want to stay up there next week, if they decide to stay, but we will see.

38 weeks and counting the days

That is because I don't have to wait until August 14 for Alex to arrive. At my last doctor's appointment, she told me she was going to induce me. HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!!!!! If little Alex doesn't come by Tuesday night on his own, I get to go in at 7:30 am Wednesday. YES!!!! The doctor did ask me how big my other children were when they were born. I told her they were both around 7 pounds, then I asked her "how big is he?" She tells me she thinks he's going to be a little bigger. Great, thinking to myself. Please pray I don't have to have C-Section. I want to go back to work the first week of school. Roland thinks the doctor is betting on that I come earlier than Wednesday, but truthfully I don't know what to think except for all the pain I'm still having. I'm still having contractions and now I'm having ligament pains, (man does it really hurt to walk). I'd rather be having contractions than ligament pains. Ligament pains lasted about 3 hours; pain scale: 7. The drugs finally kicked in but still had pain; scale: 2. At least my contractions come and go and then they go away when I take a sleeping pill and go to bed. I'm always afraid that if I take a sleeping pill, I'll miss my water breaking and actually give birth at home, but I was proved wrong last night. Had some major contractions in the middle of night which woke me up. I just realized I really needed to pee, then the contractions stopped.
So I guess now it's just a waiting game. I really hate waiting!!!

Almost There....

Almost there for baby Alex to be born. Went to the hospital (yes again) This time I broke down cried and that didn't even work on the doctor, but some good news; she told I wouldn't make to 39 weeks and she doesn't think I'll make this week. HURRAY!! Roland and I want Alex to come so badly. Maybe he'll come tonight, on Pierce's Birthday (Roland's nephew) Happy Birthday Pierce!!

Today was my last day at work, didn't go in Monday, that was the day I came home (did you know my hospital policy is not to induce on the weekends? How stupid.) When I went into work everyone was surprised to see me and then my boss came in later and freaked out that I was there. I told her I had some little things I wanted to do and that I would leave at noon and wouldn't be back until a couple of weeks after Alex was born. I hoping to go back on Andrew's first day of school (depending on when Alex comes.)

I tried my experiment with Alexis - she saw me holding a friends baby, she didn't cry, she wanted me to give her the baby, I didn't. Nana maybe thinks that Alexis might change her mind after Alex sticks around for a couple of weeks. We'll see.

I bought one of those baby carrier slings for Alex. I let Alexis play with for awhile and after awhile she wanted me to wear it but she wanted to be in it while it was on me. I told I couldn't do that, boy did that upset her.

Andrew is wondering when Alex is coming. Every time I grab my belly, he asks "is the baby heavy?" and keeps asking me (almost everyday) when is the baby coming. I tell him 3 weeks or a couple of days. I tell Andrew to talk to Alex and he does, then he puts his ear up to my tummy to see if he can hear Alex. I have to keep telling him, Alex can hear you but you won't be able to hear him since Alex is inside my tummy. I keep telling Andrew to tell Alex "come out, we want to meet you" so far that hasn't work. =(

Hopefully next time you see a post, I'll be posting about Alex and how crazy I'm going with 3 kids not 2. =)