Friday, August 22, 2014

Murray Family Update



I have decided it's time to give you an update on each of us.  Nothing too fancy, just a rundown on where we are right now.

Ella

I can hardly believe that my precious girl starts 2nd grade in 2 weeks!!!  I still marvel at all of the things we never thought we’d see.  Phooey to all of those doctors who told us she wouldn’t live through the night…then that she wouldn’t live through the week…then that she wouldn’t live through the month…then that she wouldn’t live to see 2 years old…and so on.

If I had 1 word to sum up who Ella is right now, I’d say she’s curious.  Ella asks questions all day.  She asks questions about everything…what words mean, why something does what it does, why do we need to do an activity, why is AJ crying, why is Sabrina excited, why did the air conditioner click on, why did the air conditioner click off, what is that beeping, who is making that noise, who is the person on TV, what am I watching on TV, why am I watching that show, etc.  Who, what, when, where, why and how ALL DAY LONG!  One day I tried to count how many questions she asked, and I couldn’t keep up.  I find myself torn between loving her curiosity and loving that she has such a desire to know things, and getting annoyed that I am constantly answering questions.  In the morning I am at my most patient.  She can ask me 100 questions a minute and I will answer them all calm and direct.  By 3:00 my patience is waning.  I still answer her questions, but if I’m in a private place I will sigh before giving my answer, or sometimes I will tell her that I am in the middle of something else and will answer her in a minute.  By the end of the day, I’m done.  Just about the time I think I can’t handle one more question, Joe walks in the door and takes over.

Every day I remind myself that someday I am going to miss this.  When she’s an adult and has moved out of our house, or when she’s a teenager and still living here but has decided that it’s not cool to talk to mom and dad, I’m really going to miss this.  I try to answer all of her questions, if I know the answers or can think about how to explain them (I mean really, how do you define the word “because?”), but some of her questions border on being nosey.  She wants to know everything…EVERYTHING.  I don’t want to discourage her curiosity, but there are some things she just doesn’t need to know. 

Ella is at that fragile age where she’s not quite a little girl, but not quite a tween.  She still loves princess movies (let me count the times I have watched Frozen, or listened to the CD), but she no longer dresses in her princess clothes every day, and rarely plays with her princess toys anymore.  She’s still very into girl superheroes.  She isn’t quite sold on American Girl…or dolls of any kind really.  She loves to read, is obsessed with cooking shows and wants to be a chef when she grows up, and thinks that being a big sister is the best thing that has ever happened to her…although she has made it very clear that she does not want any more kids because, “They are too much work!”

AJ

AJ is a whopping 8 months old!  He went from scooting to crawling in a matter of 2 days and has been on the go ever since.  Within a day of crawling he started trying to pull himself up.  We always knew that having AJ would be a completely different experience than it was with Ella, so we were sort of prepared for this.  From 6 months on, Ella was the kid that if you told her not to do something, she wouldn’t do it.  If you told her not to bite, she never bit again.  If you told her not to touch something, she never laid another finger on it.  AJ is definitely not that child.  When he bites and I say not to (especially when nursing…yowza!) he will look at me and give me the biggest smile and start to giggle.  If I tell him not to touch something, he looks right at me then goes right along grabbing for it.  The kid is a mover and a shaker and is into anything he can get his hands on.  I told Joe that we are actually going to have to buy baby gates and baby proof our house!  We never had to do that with Ella.

AJ loves to eat!  He easily eats 2 containers of food per meal, and is making a pretty easy transition to chewable foods.  So far he loves carrots, meatballs and pancakes, but he’s not so excited about baby rice puffs.  He has 2 teeth on the bottom and just last week the top middle 2 started poking through.  Now the 2 sides on top are about to make their debut.  No more sweet gummy smile.

All of these teeth have given AJ that awesome perpetual runny nose.  No matter how many times I wipe his nose, AJ still manages to have snot all over his top lip.  This ultimately leads to the dry snot look.  Yes, it’s just as disgusting as you think it is.

Due to his love of food, AJ is quite the chunker.  He’s filling out 12 month clothes easily, and wears some 18 month clothes.  We have his 9 month check-up in a few weeks, so we’ll see how much he weighs and how tall he is.

Joe and Katie

Joe has been gone this week for work travel.  There is nothing like work travel to remind you how valuable your spouse is.  Joe offered to ask someone to come over and help, but I was adamant that I could handle it on my own.  I have now promised that I won’t make the same mistake a second time.  With 2 kids, one who is into everything, I really need a second set of hands around here.  Joe got home last night around 1 am, and Sabrina and I were so happy to see him walk through the door.

I’m not sure about Ella, but I am ready for school to start back up.  It has been a great summer full of wonderful activities, but it’s time to get back into a family routine.  AJ needs his routine back.  Mommy needs AJ to have his routine back.  The poor kid has been shuffled all over creation this summer and is adjusting as well as can be expected, but it’s time to get back on schedule.  His sleeping has been pretty erratic, which doesn’t bode well for mommy.  I miss my sweet 4 month old that would sleep 10 hours without a hitch.  Between massive growth spurts, 6 new teeth, and horrible naps due to constantly being in motion, his sleep schedule is a mess.  I am confident that once we are back in a steady routine, he will be back to his awesome sleeping self.

Sabrina

I can't leave out the greatest dog in America!  She is just as sweet as ever!  Unfortunately Sabrina hurt one of her hind legs a couple of weeks ago, so Joe had to take her to the vet to get checked out.  She spent a week on pain medicine and taking it easy (no dog park for our sweet dog) and she seems to be doing better.  She's still a little tentative with her leg, and sometimes when she's going too fast up or down the stairs you can tell that it starts to hurt, but she's doing a lot better.

She has finally accepted AJ as one of our own and has even started trying to play with him.  He will crawl toward her, and she will run away, then come back and play, then run away, he will crawl after her and the whole thing starts over.  She kisses his face and loves to lick his feet and hair.  No, I don't mind him getting dog slobber on him.  If dog slobber hurt a kid then I would have been in trouble long ago.  Besides, I read an article several months ago about how kids who grow up with dogs are healthier.
 
There you go.  That’s the update from the Murray house.  We’re all doing well and loving life.

No comments: