First Day of School

Mackenzie started school today.  9 weeks old.  And, of course, she already was doing great.  Landon was so excited for her to go to his school.  He was talking to her on the way, telling her she could make new friends and learn to crawl. (Hope he's not dissappointed this afternoon when she still can't crawl.)

We left her in her crib, laughing and smiling.  And I didn't even cry!!

Sunday Best, August 22

Granny and Jana

My Granny and my younger sister came in this week.  We still don't know how she convinced my Granny to come with her, but I'm so glad she did.

They stopped at my Dad's house on the way down and stayed the night there.  Then they took their time as they drove across Texas.  They stopped in Fredericksburg for lunch (they were a little disappointed in the food.)  They did great, but got a little nervous on the toll road when the arm didn't go up fast enough.  It eventually went up, and they were able to go on through, guess it was just a little bit slow. 

Then their GPS stopped talking to them.  "Suzi" wasn't giving them directions.  That, coupled with the four exits to our house changing caused a little panic.  Granny said she was clenching the quarter bag, but Jana was able to navigate around and eventually found the house.

On Sunday, we went to brunch at La Brisa - delicious.  Bryan and I had gone on Saturday with mom - we got the same waiter.  Mom must have tipped him good because he was very helpful on Sunday, even brought tortillas to our table!

After brunch, we went to Galveston.  We dropped Bryan and Landon off at 8 mile road and the girls went to the strand to shop.  First stop was the Candy Store.  They were working the taffy machine, so we got warm fresh raspberry taffy.  We also decided to have some ice cream.  Jana got lime sherbet which she decided was pretty sour.   Granny had strawberry cheesecake and I got caramel torte. 

We walked around a couple blocks, stopping in at Gracies and Tina's - or any where else when we needed some air conditioning.  It was HOT!  Then we got back in the car and headed back to get Landon and Bryan. 

The boys had seen an eel!  It was digging itself into the sand.  Still can't believe it.  Landon was so glad to finally get to go back to the beach!

On Monday after work, I took the girls to Charm.ing Cha.rlie.  We spent an hour and a half in there.  I know they both wished they had more money to spend.  After that, we went buy Joann's.  Jana found plenty she wanted, but decided to save her money.  I got some supplies to finish the nursing cover I'm working on.  Then back to the house for German chocolate cake. 

Tuesday, after work, we went to watch Bryan play volleyball (I go back to Dr. Sands on Tuesday - hopefully for him to say "no surgery required"!)

Thursday, after Mackenzie's checkup, we all came onsite to JSC, showed off MK and then toured MCC.

We had a great time.  I'm so glad they both made the trip out here.  I think we wore Granny out, but I'm pretty sure she had fun.  Another great week.

All smiles

BFF

Landon and his best friend Mason.

Mason and Landon go to school together.  All we hear is Mason this and Mason that.  They each love Ben 10 and scooby doo.  They play great together.  Mason only goes to school Tues-Wed-Thurs, so it was very difficult to get Landon to go on Mondays and Fridays.  He definitely knows which days are  "mason day."

Mackenzie - 2 months

Mackenzie went in for her two month check up today.  First, let me say that 1) she went to sleep by herself last night in the crib.  I put her in there (she was wide awake) and let her watch her mobile for a while.  Then I turned her on her stomach (currently her favorite way to sleep.)  A little while later I checked on her and she was asleep.  2) She slept until 5:40!  I didn't realize it was so long when I woke up.  She's been waking up between 3 and 4.  Needless to say, I was soaked.

Two months - she's 11 pounds, 2 ounces (60%) and 22.75 inches (67%.)  Dr. I was impressed with her.  Mk laughed and coo'ed during the whole appointment (and the 30 minutes we waited in the room before the doctor came in.)  She has gone up from the 16th percent in weight to 60th percentile.  I've said it many times, she's a great eater.

She got 3 shots today and one oral immunization.  She cried just a little bit and was over it in less than 30 seconds.

After a little bit of tylenol, she seems to be doing okay.  She was whimpering in her sleep early, broke my heart.  Of course after she woke up, she was all smiles.

Sunday Best - August 14th

Kids Playing

Mackenzie is trying so hard to talk.  She'll coo and then forget how she did it.  She's all smiles now and still loves Landon.  She's eating about 3 bottles a day while I'm at work, only 3 ounces...but then I let her eat as much as she wants to when I get home.  She's still sleeping fairly well.  She eats around 9, goes to sleep around 11 (usually) and then wakes up between 3 and 5.  I wake her up around 6:30 if she doesn't wake up on her own and nurse again.  Then I pump before I leave for work.  Pumping is still going well.  I'm producing more than she needs right now, so I'm able to store up quite a bit.  I'm still amazed every time I open the deep freeze to see all that milk.  It wasn't at all this easy with Landon.  Of course, he never really ate a lot, and still doesn't.  (Not like his mom at all!)

Mackenzie loves to lay on her back and kick her toys.  She gets a kick out of the mirror and loves when Landon plops down beside her and talks.  She is truley in love with him, as much as he is with her.  Its great to see them together.

Landon, of course, is a monkey. He's constantly doing hand stands on the couch or the chair.  He'll run, put his arms and head down and flip up his legs.  He's crazy!
He also does this great act where he jumps up on Bryan's shoulders (while Bryan's watching TV) and then hosts a circus: "Thank you, thank you, everybody.  Look up here, time for circus."  It's hilarious.  (Bryan probably doesn't think so as Landon repeatedly jumps on his shoulders.

Sunday Best

You'll notice Landon's big o' mosquito bite on his forhead...poor guy.

My mom's here this week.  Jill, Kallie and TJ left early Sunday morning.  A lot of the family was in town for the Kleinwood singing.  We went to church in Bellaire and then had lunch at Pappa's Grill (note the ice ship.)

Growing Up

As I was nursing Mackenzie this morning I realized something...

With Landon, I was so excited for him to grow up.  Each time he did something new - I was so happy. First smile, rolling over, coo'ing, laughing, etc.  I wanted him to get bigger and do more things.

With Mackenzie, I don't!  LOL.  I want her to stay a baby.  Looking down at her this morning, she's already so big!  She's growing up too fast (and she's barely 6.5 weeks!)

Back to work...already!

Can you believe it?  It's already time for me to head back to work.  I only took the 6 (paid) weeks off.  We just can't afford to take 6 more weeks unpaid (well, we could afford to, but then my lifestyle would have to change and I don't deal with that very well.  LOL.)

So, I'll be back at work on Monday.  My older sister and two of her kids came in last night.  I'm so excited to have family in for the next couple of weeks.  Last night was already heaven!  Of course, everyone was ready for bed and Miss Mackenzie was wide awake at 11!  Jill and TJ took her to the guest room and rocked her to sleep, letting me go to sleep early.  Once she gets to sleep, she sleeps well, she just likes being up late.  Or I guess I should say, her schedule is skewed by about three hours.  She sleeps really well from 12 to 9.  And then its normal daytime schedule.

I'm so proud of my milk supply this time around.  I just look in the freezer in awe.  I already have so much milk stored up.  And we haven't supplemented at all yet.  Not there's anything wrong with that.  We had to with Landon, it broke my heart the first time, but then you realize that's its more important for him to get the nutrients he needs than for me to stress about producing enough, which in turn causes you not to produce as much. 
But luckily, Mackenzie is a much better eater than Landon.  As you can see from all her pictures.  Speaking of pictures - she looks exactly like my baby pictures.  EXACTLY.

Since we have family coming in for the next 6 weeks to watch Mackenzie, we've also changed Landon to part time at daycare.  He'll only go Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  The same as his best friend Mason.  We figured he'd be begging to stay home with family anyway because he doesn't like going when Mason isn't there. So, why not save money at the same time.  He's pretty excited about it.  Although he's really ready for Mackenzie to go to school.  And to crawl.  And to talk.  LOL.

Today's our anniversary.  We don't have any big plans, although my niece Kallie told us that we could go to dinner and a movie while they watched the kids.  She even told us we could pick whatever movie we wanted.  We're all taking a late breakfast at La Brisa, which I've been wanting to do for a while now.  I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Grandma and Grandpa Rhodes

Bryan's parents made a quick trip out here to see the kiddos.  They're coming back in late August to babysit.  Landon had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa.  And of course, they loved seeing both kids.