Our world changed in unimaginable ways three years ago today. It's hard to believe Veronica is "old" enough to even be three, especially when I go back and read one of our first posts, The birth of Baby V, to Littlebots. She has grown so much since that wonderful day Dan and I became parents. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, intelligent, humorous, and beautiful daughter. She challenges us, and sometimes we even wonder what we have gotten ourselves into as parents, yet at the end of the day we are thankful to be a part of her life.
Veronica took part in a very beautiful birthday tradition in her Montessori class today. We were given a birthday folder about a week ago and charged with the homework assignment of writing her "Celebration of Life" story. In this story, we tell about Veronica and what she can do, or her milestones, at birth, one year old, two years old, three years old, etc. As the mom or dad reads the story to the entire Montessori class, the child takes a picture of that corresponding age around the circle. Afterward, the teacher lights a candle and the child carries a globe around the circle for each year of life, followed by a singing of "Happy Birthday" and then the child blows out the candle. The entire ceremony is followed by a birthday snack. Veronica really enjoyed showing her pictures to everyone, and I enjoyed seeing her interact with her classmates.
After school, we took Veronica to Build-a-Bear as part of her birthday celebration. This was an iffy outing for two reasons. One, after school, Veronica is often exhausted, and two, we tried this same exact thing last year on her 2nd birthday, but she didn't really understand the process. So this year, we were curious how she would do when we got to the mall. She went straight to the store, inspected the animals to choose from, and at first started to build a black bear, but changed to a horse. She was very excited about her choice (she actually had been talking about horses at school today, maybe a new interest of hers, which makes mommy very happy!). She helped stuff it, put a heart in it, and then moved on to the washing and combing of her horse. Next, she went to the clothing items. She wanted a lead and a stable for her horse. Build-a-bear didn't have either, so we settled for a dog leash and a dog house for the horse. Lastly, she named her horse. This horse will now forever be known as Pal.
After our quick trip to the mall, we headed back to school for Fall Festival. Veronica had a blast hanging out with her classmates and participating in the festival activities. She really enjoyed the inflatable bouncing and slides, but didn't care for the cake walk since she didn't win the brownies she was eying. We spent the last few tickets we had a on a blue blowup guitar and a cookie, and then we left to head to Frankfort. Dan's youngest sister was in town for the day, and since she had yet to meet Warren, we wanted to take advantage of her visit. We had a great dinner and birthday cake to celebrate Veronica and Lorin's birthdays. Veronica also got some adorable dress up presents. We now have too many options for Halloween costumes!
We finally made it home and got the little ones, Warren, Veronica and Pal, all tucked into bed by 10 PM. It was a great, but very long day, and Veronica enjoyed her 3rd birthday; however, the celebration is not finished! We have more celebrations planned for Saturday and Sunday...so it will be a party-filled weekend in honor of our little princess!
We took family pictures in honor of Veronica's upcoming 3rd birthday. We haven't scanned the family portrait yet, but here is the one of just the two children. Veronica's smile is precious. It might even fool you into thinking she enjoyed the photo shoot and was on her best behavior. Warren was more interested in trying to pull his sister's hair than smile for the photographer. What a typical little brother thing to do!
To who? To Warren!
Warren is six months now, and we celebrated his half birthday on September 4th. Shortly after turning six months old, he was whisked off to the pediatrician for his wellness and vaccination visit. He enjoyed the yummy rotavirus serum and tolerated a total of three shots today, but because of the Hib shortage, he is not entirely "up-to-date" on his vaccinations. Supposedly the shortage was reported last December, but Warren was able to get his first round at two months; however, he was scheduled to get a second round at four months and third round at six months, but has not received either. We're not sure when he'll get back on track.
But now on to the fun part of the visit...how much has he grown? Well, Warren weighs 19 pounds and 2 ounces (75% percentile); he is 27 inches long (75% percentile); and head circumference is 44 centimeters (50% percentile). For comparison, Veronica at 6 months was 20 pounds and 10 ounces; 26 and 1/2 inches; 44.6 centimeters head circumference. Once again, Warren is slightly longer and lighter than Veronica, but not by much. Veronica will have her 3 year old visit next Wednesday! It's hard to believe that both of our darlings are hitting big milestones this month!
Veronica started preschool this year. I know...preschool...I still can't believe it myself. These past three years have went by so quickly, and I know when we start gaging the time by school years, it will go even more quickly. My precious baby girl is growing up! She had a great first day, but her "rough start" gave our admissions director a story that she said she will be telling for years!
Shh! Don't tell Dan, but I love this picture! Dan got to enjoy a few days at home with the kids while I was at school preparing for opening day. They had a great time, though I did question him on the amount of time he spent teaching our daughter about Star Wars and Transformers! He even had them dressed the parts.
Warren and I were on our way home today and he started crying in the car. This is nothing unusual. He does this on almost all car trips. I tried giving him his paci, but from the front driver's seat, this is about all I can do for him in those moments. So after a couple of unsuccessful attempts of trying to give him his paci and he refusing it, I had just resigned myself to "letting him cry it out" since we were headed home. Well I had the music on shuffle and turned it up a few notches when Billy Joel's "Keeping the Faith" came on the iPod (I promise I was not trying to drown out the crying!). After a few seconds into the song, Warren instantly stopped crying and became very alert. He never whimpered even a peep the rest of the way home as we enjoyed Billy Joel's Greatest Hit album.
Coincidence? I think not as I recall the second night in the hospital after his birth. Warren was a having a tough night because he was still hurting from his little "procedure" earlier in the day and the Tylenol had worn off. Dan had gone home for the evening and it was just me and Warren. Around 11 PM, Warren woke up crying and the nurse gave him some more pain reliever, but it was going to take a while to kick in. I tried everything that evening to soothe him, but nothing was working...that was until Billy Joel came on. Warren started looking around the room with his little weak newborn eyes trying to figure out where that sound was coming from. I quickly turned the shuffle off and put the Billy Joel album on (continuous repeat). He never made another peep that entire evening.
I'm not sure if it is the voice or the beat, but either way our son is soothed by Billy Joel's music. How could I have forgotten this? It was one of the first things I learned about this sweet little boy as we bonded in the hospital maternal ward (the very "first" thing was how much he loves to eat!).
Warren went for his 4 month check up and vaccinations appointment today. All was well and he was ahead of schedule on everything from motor skills to his physical size. Doc was particularly impressed with his social skills.
Here is the lowdown on his size:
Height: 26 and 1/2 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 17 lb and 1 oz (90th percentile)
Head circum: 42.5 cm (50th percentile)
For comparison, Veronica at four months was 25 and 1/2 inches long, 18 lbs 1oz in weight, and 42.5 cm head circumference. While we were in the office measuring super-baby, we also got Veronica's current measurements. She is 38 inches tall and weighs 39 lbs. Next appointment is not until September, which will be Warren's six month appointment and Veronica's three year appointment! I can't believe my baby girl will be three years old in just eight weeks!
And happy fourth month of life to Warren! Warren is four months old today. He is continuing to grow and learn new things everyday! In the past few weeks, he has learned to roll from back to belly (he mastered belly to back at 2 weeks) and he has found his feet, which he desperately wants to get into his mouth to chew on.
Veronica is looking forward to a Fourth of July parade and fireworks, but I wonder if the weather is going to cooperate today. We are heading downtown Lexington this morning for the festivities if/when the rain lets up and then to Frankfort this evening to celebrate Dan's birthday, along with his father's and brother-in-law's birthdays.
Also, my first "baby" Ellie Mae is nine years old today!
Update from June 4th post:
I posted a couple weeks ago about the Gumdrop pacifier trade-in special and wondered if they would send us a blue one or not. Well, a brand new BLUE gumdrop pacifier arrived just a week after I sent off the old soothie. Warren loves it and we love the new color. Too bad we didn't know about the different colors when Veronica loved and used this paci--we definitely would have ordered the pink one for her! A big thanks to Hawaii Medical for our new BLUE gumdrop pacifier!
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