Beckys Blog

We finally have the internet hooked up on our computer! Yeah! So here are a couple long over due pictures of the kids! These are a couple of their Christmas pictures from just a couple weeks ago.

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts and pictures. We still don't have a wireless router yet to hook up internet on our comuter. I promise, once we have our internet up and running I will blog more often again, and I'll put up tons of new pictures of the kids. Speaking of the kids, they are cuter then ever! Raquelle is starting to string words together and is becoming quite the talker. She says "Bye, see you" for "see you later" She says "there she is" when she plays peek a boo, and she asks for specific foods now like chocolate, cereal, sippy, banana, and cracker. She is picking up new words all the time. The other day, I put some fake flowers on the table and she pointed at them and said "flower!" Neither Thad or I taught her that, but there was a flower earlier in the day on Blues Clues. Titus is talking now too! His first word was "mama" followed shortly by "dada". Now he also says "baba, cr...

Well, we are now moved. Tomorrow we will go back and clean our apartment so we can be done with it. We don't have internet on my computer yet, so I can't blog any pictures. We have to get a wireless router to get my computer online here. They range from $49 to $99 depending on how much range you want on them. The move did not exactly go very smoothly, but that's a long story for some time when I'm on my own computer instead of a borrowed computer. Anyway, we are enjoying our new home and my parents were very quick to agree that this is the nicest place we have lived since getting married!

Yeah! I'm so excited! We are moving back to Salem! We will either be moving the 17th or the 24th of November, so if you are local, let us know if you can help. Also, if you want to help pack, or watch kids so I can pack, let me know! I can't wait to be back up in Salem and in a house instead of an apartment! Yeah!

Raquelle's new favorite word. Wednesday night, I had some baking to do. I got started and I hear from the other room "NO NO!" followed by laughing and then "NO NO" followed by more laughing over and over. I finished with the ingredients I was on and went to see what Raquelle was doing (Thad wasn't home). I found her sitting on the floor with a box of tissues. She was laughing as she pulled out hand fulls, ripped them to pieces and threw them up in the air. Then she would stop point at them and say "NO NO!" Then start over. She had emptied the entire box by the time I stopped her. It was one of those times when you know the child needs disciplined, but it's really hard to not laugh at them while you are doing it! For the remainder of my baking, I resorted to the TV to entertain my children. I turned off all the lights in the living room (you can't tell it's dark thanks to the flash on the camera), I filled the laundry basket ...

Day 2 of our trip to the pumpkin patch. I suppose it's probably a good thing that we did this in two days. Small children with short attention spans do much better for an hour at a time then they do for several hours! Here are several pictures of all the fun we had when we went back on Sunday afternoon. Raquelle digging in the corn box. Like a sand box, only filled with corn instead. She played in this thing for a long time and cried when we got her out. Titus got to go in it too, but he had to be watched very closely as corn is a choking hazard. Both kids in the corn box. Raquelle really liked the roosters. I kept pulling her back from the fence. She wanted to touch them and I was worried they would peck at her. We fed them some of the corn from the corn box. Me and Titus lost in the corn maze. Ok, so we weren't too far lost, but we did go in a couple circles and hit a couple dead ends. We let Raquelle loose in the hay maze and she had a blast! Here she is exploring....

Friday, as it is pouring down buckets of rain, Thad calls from work and tells me to have the kids bundled up and ready to go when he gets home. Our destination? The pumpkin patch! Thad got off work a little later then he had expected to, so we ended up going back again on Sunday. Here are some pictures from Friday. Yeah! A family picture! This is on the hay ride going out to the pumpkin patch. The mud was so thick it was a pretty adventurous ride! I was sure we were going to slide off the road at any minute! Raquelle was excited to get to explore. Raquelle picking our pumpkin. Titus riding a pumpkin. Three little pigs.

I weighed and measured the kids today...here are their stats. Titus Weight - 21 lbs even Height - 29" Raquelle Weight 24.8 lbs Height - 32.25" (2 inches shorter then her 18 month check up!) I was pretty sure Raquelle was mis-measured at her last check up. They measured her by laying her on the exam table and stretching the tape measure out. Didn't look very accurate to me. If she was as tall as they said she was, she would be taller then the other kids in the nursery, when in reality, she's pretty average compared to other kids her age...maybe even a little on the small side. When I measured Raquelle at home before her dr apt, she was 31" (Standing against the wall and marking the top of her head, then measuring from the floor) then they measured her at 34.5. Now a month later, I have her at 32.25. Hmmm. Titus is now about the same size Raquelle was when she turned 1. My guess is by Christmas he will pass her up.

We set up a toddler bed for Raquelle last night (again). We tried sleeping her on a single bed mattress on the floor and could not get her to stay in bed. So, we put her in the play pen. That worked for about the last month or so. Now she is climbing in and out of the play pen too. So, we tried setting up the toddler bed. Unfortunately, we were missing a piece and couldn't put both rails on. So, this was our solution. If she does fall out of bed, at least she won't get hurt! We had to put her back in bed 3 times last night and then she stayed down for the night. When I went to get her up this morning, she was over in the play pen. She had tossed her sippy cup in there and climbed in after it. The play pen was left up in case we wanted to do a trial run with Titus sleeping in there too. I don't know if I can put him in it though knowing that Raquelle can climb in and out of it with him. That just doesn't seem safe for him. Anyway, so last night went well. ...

Just had to share a picture of my favorite diaper that I have made so far. It's mickey mouse!

I found a way to cloth diaper for free! Raquelle is modeling a wonderful fitted diaper made of an old WBC T-shirt. Titus is modeling another of the same fitted diapers that I made, only this one was made from fabric. I can now make a diaper start to finish in about 30 min. I'm using some old receiving blankets tonight to make a few more. After tonight, I'll be up to 10 diapers without spending a single penny! Fitted diapers new start cost about $10 each! I love that I can make them for almost nothing!

Check out my kids butts! Aren't they cute! Yes, those are cloth diapers you are seeing. We decided a while ago to make the change. We are making a gradual change though due to the start up cost. One of the ladies at our church has a baby the same age as Titus (1 day younger) and she uses cloth, so she was kind enough to let us borrow "samples" of several different types of diapers. We had been planning on going with the old prefolds (the type our parents probably used), but now after using these, we've changed our minds. It looks like we will most likely be going with pocket diapers. Why change to cloth? Well, I kept running into this article all over the web. If you click the link, check out the part about male infertility and disposable diapers! Also, Raquelle has had chronic yeast diaper rashes since she was about 6 months old. She gets one at least once a month, they are incredibly painful for her, and usually take 3 to 5 days to clear up. It was sugge...

I officially packed up Titus's 6-9 month clothes today, and unpacked the 18 month. That's right...he has basically skipped size 12 month. I put him in his first winter 12 month outfit for church yesterday, and it was too small for him. The 2nd half of yesterday, he wore an 18 month outfit, and it fit him. Today, he is wearing an 18 month onsie and overalls, and they fit him too. So much for size 12 month! Technically, he can wear his 12 month pants and T-shirts, just not the one piece outfits or onsies. Here is Titus wearing his 18 month clothes. Thanks Grandma for these overalls! I didn't expect them to fit so soon! And Here are both kids playing together. By the way, Raquelle is wearing Titus's pants in this picture. She had a few too many blow outs this weekend, So Titus is being so kind as to share his clothes until I do laundry.

I was trying to get a picture of Titus and Raquelle playing together, but as soon as I got the camera out, Raquelle had to come play with it. She likes to stand right in front of the camera and say "Hi!" to it. Like her bed head? Check out all the new teeth coming in! Then...attack of the Titus! Raquelle left her color picture un-guarded. Of course, all un-guarded items on the floor are fair game for Titus to eat. What a nice sister. She decided to let him finish his snack rather then freaking out and taking it away from him. Losing interest in coloring and in the camera, Raquelle has moved on to her new hobby....turning the light on and off! Hope you enjoyed the random pictures of my kids playing today.

The kids had their check ups today. Titus had his 4 month (actually 5 month) check up and shots, and Raquelle had her 18 month. Stats are as follows: Titus: Weight - 18 lbs 10 oz - 95th percentile Height - 27.5" - Off the chart Raquelle: Weight - 24 lbs 1 oz - 50th percentile Height - 34.5" - Off the chart I think they may have miss-measured Raquelle. When I measured her at home just a couple weeks ago I measured her at 32.5". So, if she doesn't grow any (according to her chart) between now and her next check up, we'll know I was right. So it wasn't in my head...Raquelle has gotten skinny. She has always been 5oish percentile in both height and weight. She shot up, but her weight hasn't caught up with her height yet. This would be why she suddenly went down a pants size recently. Her diapers look like she could go down a size there if we wanted to also. Both kids are right on track and both kids were given a clean bill of health. Even Titus'...

One great memory I have of growing up is licking the beaters when mom made cookies. Of course, there were 5 of us and only 2 beaters, so I had to be fast if I wanted one. Usually, the other 3 would end up with a spoonful of cookie batter to make things fair. Since this was such a great memory of mine, and I happened to be making cookies today....I decided to pass on this wonderful tradition to my oldest child. So, here is Raquelle licking the cookie dough off the beater while she watches Baby Einstein. See how focussed she is on the video? Baby Einstein has taught her 4 new words just in the last week (since I started letting her watch TV). Her new words are Lion, Fish, Duck, and Movie. Thad says if she can say "movie" then she must be watching too much and maybe we should cut back to a couple times a week. Then I point out that she can now recognize and name 3 more animals then she could a week ago. Of course...once it ended, the sugar kicked in and she started jump...

Titus is officially mobile! Yesterday, I left Titus on his play mat in the living room and took Raquelle to change her diaper. I heard Titus start crying so I finished up and went to get him. He was stuck under his high chair! I don't know how he got there, but he did! No one else was home so he had to have done it himself. Since then, I've noticed he uses a combination of rolling, twisting and a little bit of scooting to get where he wants to go. No army crawl yet, but he is getting up onto his hands and knees! He is a very strong baby. Also, Titus has caught up with Raquelle in size! Both kids now wear the same size diapers! Raquelle originally moved up in clothes sizes because of her chubby little belly. Since then, she has grown taller without gaining any more weight. The other day, She was out of pants (I hadn't done laundry), So I pulled some out of T's drawer and put them on her! Surprise! They fit! She has trimmed down enough to fit back into 12 m...

Ever since I was pregnant I've told people how great it would be having kids so close together. I've always said it would be hard at first until they started to play together. I expected them to become playmates maybe when Titus could walk. Well, it's happening sooner then I had expected. Titus and Raquelle are quickly becoming best friends. Raquelle's first words out of bed in the morning are "Tissis?" followed by "dada?" asking where they are. Here are some pictures I got of their play time. (No T is not over dressed, it was raining and cold the other day!) Raquelle can buckle and unbuckle Titus from the high chair. This means it's not safe to put him in the chair and then go get his food, I have to make his food first, and then put him in his chair. Raquelle giving Titus a hug Raquelle likes to read to Titus. She thinks the books are about him. The wale in the fishy book is "Tissis", baby Jesus in her bible book is "Ti...

Well, Thad won't let me cut Titus's hair, and I'm tired of hearing what a cute baby I have...and how old is SHE? Or how SHE has such great eyes, she'll never need mascara, or how beautiful HER hair is! So, since Thad won't let me cut his hair, I decided I may as well dress him to match! This only lasted until Thad got home from work. Then he took the flower out of his hair and changed him into overalls. But seriously...doesn't T make a cute girl! By the way....this is one of Raquelle's current dresses that he is almost big enough to fit into. Here is my broken toe. I tripped over an end table when I jumped up to get Titus when he was crying at bed time last night. This picture really doesn't do it justice. The purple is actually much brighter then that, and the blue goes almost half way up my foot

Today, while I was sitting on the couch nursing Titus, Raquelle decided to start running at a full sprint (with some jumping mixed in there) around the living room and screeching at the top of her lungs. Of course, the screeching startled Titus, who would then bite and turn his head to see what was going on. After scolding her several times and being ignored, I finally said "Raquelle, go to your room!" She stopped, looked at me and said "Poopy!" So I asked her, "Are you poopy?" She smiled really big, squatted, grunted, and pooped right there in front of me! Then she stood back up, said "Poopy!" again, and took off to her room to try to climb the changing table. Had I not been in the middle of nursing, this would have been a wonderful opportunity to sit her on the potty. If she was an only child, I would totally start taking her potty, but with 2 under 1 1/2 I just don't have the time. Maybe I'll start when she is 2.

I'll just say that he did NOT get this hair from my side of the family!!! I think Titus is the reason hair brushes were invented! It takes a lot of water and combing to get it to go down, and then it will still curl at the ends and stick out every which way. Like this... Of course...Raquelle had to get in a picture too. T's hair is long enough that he could have a hair cut...but it just seems wrong to cut his hair when he is still so young. what if I cut it and then it falls out before he is 6 months old and he is bald?

Sorry it's been so long since I have posted. The kids have been keeping me busy and we've been having one disaster after another here. The refrigerator died. We had to transfer all the food to coolers while a temporary replacement was brought over. The temporary one didn't fit in the spot in the kitchen, so they left it in the living room! It has been there for 2 weeks now! The old fridge can't be fixed so we will be getting a new one but who knows when. Then...the ceiling in the kitchen started leaking in several places. Our landlord has "temporarily" fixed the leak, but still needs to do some more work to make the fix permanent, and now the dry wall on the cealing is soft and cracked and looks like it is pealing. Then...today I went to put Titus on his play mat, and there was the hugest hobo spider I have ever seen! Seriously, I'm not exaggerating when I say it was as big around as a tennis ball (there was one sitting next to it). If I wasn...

Thad and I were down in Eugene this weekend. I dropped him and the kids off at Jeb's house (with their 6 month old twins) and Melissa and I took off to a beauty break. We had tons of fun leaving the guys with 3 babies and a toddler! They had the type of scale that you weigh babies on at the dr office (I'm assuming to keep track of their twins growth), so we weighed Titus on it. Are you ready for this? He was 17 lbs 4 oz!!! He is also now 27 inches tall! He was taller then both of the twins, their boy out weighed Titus by a lb or so. Along with having a big baby, comes having a very hungry baby! Titus has started taking 8 oz at a time, and then crying an hour later. I can hear his tummy growling 45 min after I feed him. I know it's not my milk supply, because I can pump 12 to 16 oz at a time! So, we decided to see what he thought of baby cereal since he just isn't staying full on his milk. The first time I fed him, he just smiled at me and it all fell out...