No fun pictures this time. Just wanted to fill everyone in on some news. The biggest news to me is that Ollie slept through the night last night!!!!!!!! Now I am not naive enough to think that he will repeat this feat again tonight, but a mom can hope.

The other piece of news is that I took Ollie to see the surgeon regarding his circumcision revision. He said that there was definitely a lot of skin there that should not be, but that functionally there was no need to do anything about it. He said that there are some adhesions there that could cause pain later in life (something I don't like to think about). He would just make the cut age-wise to do it under local anesthetic rather than general. And they would do it with the plastic ring, rather than cutting. So with all that in mind, we decided to go ahead and do it. I will take him in this Thursday and it will take about 15 minutes.

This is my last week of maternity leave. We have a busy week, with appointments scheduled every day. Friday we will go to have Ollie's 3 month pictures taken. I can't believe he will be 3 months old already!

We are having a great weekend! Tony has been working mandatory overtime for the past couple months including going in on his off Fridays. But, he decided to take this Friday off and spend the day with us. We went to the inflatable jump place and had a great time. Today we went to the library and Tony and I both got library cards (I can't believe we hadn't done that yet). Sam was like a kid in a candy store - he loved it! He picked out 5 books and has been carrying them around the house and looking at them all afternoon and evening. Nana came over tonight to see Ollie and play with Sam. Sam enjoyed reading and playing with his Potato Heads with Nana.
We are planning to try to go to church tomorrow for the first time since Ollie was born. I don't know why we picked daylight savings weekend to do this, but surely we can get the four of us ready and to church by 11 am! Pray for us :)




Our little Van Gogh



Sam came rolling into the bedroom with his Halloween pumpkin on his head and said "I got my helmet on"

This video is kinda long. But, listen closely at the beginning. Ollie was in a great mood, smiling and cooing alot so I grabbed the camera. As soon as I hit record he did his thing.

These pictures are actually from a few weeks ago. We had a Louisiana-style crawfish boil in celebration of Poppy's birthday. Uncle Tom and Aunt Sharon came over from Louisiana for the big event. Needless to say Sam showed no fear of the crawfish. However, he did not eat any. A good time was had by all.

We are expecting snow for the second time in a week. With a day over 70 degrees in between. Gotta love Texas weather. Who knows what it will be like for Easter in a few weeks. It seems like its always cold. We are due for a warm one! The kids are good. Ollie is a much happier baby these days, so therefore I am a much happier mommy! I go back to work a week from Monday. I have mixed feelings about it, but I guess thats normal. Ollie will be going to the same school as Sam. Sam is looking forward to having him there.

A Sad Farewell

Well, Tony and I came to the difficult decision about a month ago that we needed to find a new home for Lucy. She is a very sweet and mostly well-behaved dog. She just has so much energy and needs more attention and exercise than we can give her right now. Life is hard enough with two kids under the age of 3! So, we contacted the Weimaraner Rescue of North Texas and they helped match us with someone who wanted to adopt her. We met up with him yesterday afternoon and he took Lucy home with him. He seemed really nice and I think he will be able to give her a good home and lots of attention and exercise. Tony and I are sad, yet relieved. We never thought we would or could ever do something like this, but its the right thing for our family.

Well, I finally got some decent video of Ollie smiling. So here it is.

And also of note... Sam wore big boy underwear to school yesterday for the first time! We've had the underwear in his drawer for awhile. We've been looking at it and talking about what he has to do in order to wear it, etc. Yesterday morning he peed in the potty then asked if he could wear his big boy underwear. His teacher told me a long time ago that we could send him to school in it whenever we wanted to give it a try. So...I figured "why not" it'll be their mess to deal with not mine. He did have one accident at school. But, Sam had gone to visit in another class for awhile and his teacher forgot to tell the other teacher that he was training in his underwear, so she blamed herself on that one. Then he peed on the kitchen floor when he got home, not long after he sat on the potty for forever and didn't go! At least it was on the tile! We'll see how today goes.

Sorry its been so long. We got a nasty virus on our computer and had to take it to the Geek Squad where it stayed for over a week. Otherwise the Norris clan is doing really well.

Ollie has started cooing and smiling and is a little more interactive. He is also more content to sit in his bouncer or on his play gym and look at the dangly toys or watch us as we eat or whatever. The evenings are better too. Still fussy, but for a much shorter period. We went to the doctor for his 2 month check-up today. He was 13 lbs 10 oz (85th percentile) and 23 3/4" long (80th percentile). He has been having some nasty green poop over the last few weeks. The doctor thinks it may be a protein allergy and suggested that I eliminate all dairy, eggs and soy from my diet. Not sure what I am going to eat, but maybe it'll help me loose some more weight :) Also there was some concern at his last visit that not enough skin was removed with his circumcision and that it may need a revision. She looked at it again today and did some pulling and tugging on it. It bled, and he screamed. She suggested that we get a surgical consult to to be sure. Then just as he started to calm down from that, they gave him 5 shots! He had a rough day.

Sam is good. He has been sitting on the real toilet and has pooped twice and peed twice in the last 3 days. And thats just a home, he has gone several times at school too (which he has been doing for awhile). Until now, he hasn't been interested in using the potty at home. He continues to enjoy reading. I think he must have over 20 books memorized and some of them are pretty long. Its been hard to get him to take naps on the weekends. He pulls all the books off his shelf and sits on his bed and "reads" them to himself.

The weather has been so nice, we've been able to go to the park several times. Tony and Sam played and even flew a kite while Ollie and I watched. Sam was able to practice his climbing. Climbing and jumping have always been harder for him than his friends. Sam, Ollie and I also went to a inflatable jumping place that has free-play times and Sam loved it. Some of the stuff is hard for him to climb on his own, but most of it he was able to do after I helped him a few times. We are thinking about doing his birthday party there in April.

And thats what we've been up to.

Emily

Hello all! We are all doing fairly well.

Sam is testing the limits as all toddlers should. Not much fun for mom and dad, but we're coping. He had been sick with an upper respiratory infection and ear infection. Once we got those treated, his behavior improved dramatically. We are also trying to step up the potty training as well. He hasn't shown much interest in it really. But all of his friends keep moving up to the preschool class at school and you have to be potty trained to move up. So, we are using that as motivation.

Meanwhile, Ollie is testing his lungs. He is a good baby most of the day and night, but the evenings are another story. He is very fussy from 8 to 10 o'clock most nights and feeds frequently during these times. It has been very frustrating for mom and dad. We just muddle through and know that it should pass one day. Otherwise, Ollie is great. I think he has smiled af few times. It is so hard to tell if its a real smile or not. He is getting big fast! I had to bust out the 3-6 month clothes. They are a little big on him, but he was getting too long for the 0-3 months. I think he probably weighs about 13 lbs based on our scale.

Ollie is a man of many expressions

Bathtime

Brotherly love

Making Valentine cookies with Kiki

Enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Where is your helmet Daddy?