2 month checkup

So today we had Eli's 2month well baby check. Evi received a flu shot, and Eli had 3 shots, so needless to say, I left there with 2 unhappy campers! Evi didn't cry last time she had a shot. She saved it all up for this time! (and she'll get a few more at her 4 yr checkup next month!)
Poor Eli, his mother totally betrayed him! It's horrible. I fully believe in vaccines, I just hate that they are pushed on us all at once! I mean he has 6 different sets of germs coursing through his body now! (one shot had 3 in one, and he also received another vaccine orally.)
At this appointment they also do measurements and let you know how your child's growth compares to others his age. For instance when Mila had her 2 week checkup last week, Marni said her head measured in the 10th percentile, meaning 90% of babies her age have a bigger head than her. (that's all I kept saying at the hospital after she was born was what a small head she had)
Eli, on the other hand, measured in at the 75%, meaning only 25% of other babies have a bigger head than him!! See Marni & mom, I kept saying Eli's head was bigger!!! I swear the entire pound and 2 1/2 inches Eli had on Mila at birth were all in his very large noggin!!!!! I don't want to hear any more about the pain of childbirth Marni! I'd like to say that my children having bigger heads just means they'll be smarter, but that's pretty unlikely considering the brains Marni has!

He's also in the 90th for weight and length. So he's big n' tall! Which is better than Evi. She was super fat for her age group and super short! And look how long and lean she is now! So now Eli will probably be the short one as an adult! So he's 13 1/2lbs, and 24 inches now! The pix in the bib is his 2 month pix. He smiled big when Evi reached out to touch him. He loves his big sister!


Evi's jams right now: We go together - Grease, Help I'm alive - Metric, and We are Family
and she's all about rhyming!

A New Cousin

First and foremost, I have a new niece!! Mila Delphine has joined the ranks (a little early) and she is a perfect little girl. At 6lbs and 12oz, she is exactly 1lb less than Eli was. And he is at least twice her size at 2 months. (I like to call him porky pig in this pix!) We have a doctors appointment in a couple of weeks, we'll see where he stands then...Back to Mila, she looks just like Darrell, and as a new mother I hate to say it because it really chapped my hide when everyone told me my children looked like Scott after 9+months and all that recent hard work of bringing them into the world and whatnot. But I have decided that it is mother natures way of ensuring, for the daddy, that he is the baby's daddy. After all, there is no doubt who the mother is, right!?!? So I'll just have to leg it go.

While in Austin for the birth of the baby, Scotty purchased a new vehicle. We now have a 2008 Honda Ridgeline to try and fit in our garage. Why do they not make garages bigger? It's a good looking car and I think he is very happy with it. It will be nice to have a truck bed again. We drove it home from Austin with both the kids!! They were both perfect...until the last 30 min of the drive. Eli basically slept the whole time and Evi sang songs and watched movies the whole time. We went through the Arbuckle Wilderness, sort of a drive through zoo. Evi loved it. She fed animals out the window, like deer, donkey, & zebras. The giraffe was technically behind a fence, so Scott got as close as he could and I stood out of the sunroof and fed it. Man, they have big heads! Evi finally took a nap after that and woke up just in time to alternate crying with her brother for the last 30 minutes of the ride home!!

Eli is just shy of 2 months. He holds his head up great, is cooing (when his sister stops talking long enough for him to try), and is obviously having no problem with eating. He loves, absolutely loves his "fire" aka, pacifier. He's only awake about on hour at a time. Wakes up twice a night to nurse. And pretty much only cries when he's not being held. And today, his mother let him fall off the couch. Yes, I know, I am a horrible mother! It was totally an accident! Luckily he hardly cried and sought revenge by only taking his naps in 10 minute increments for the rest of the day! I tried to make myself feel better by saying, he's a boy, he's going to fall off lots of things..but i still feel horrible! He did have his first flight a couple of weeks ago. Luckily he & Evi were perfect angels...this time.

Evi had her first day of school...and she didn't cry. I almost cried, but she did not! I couldn't believe it! Evi, who cried almost the whole year last year, just turned and walked away without a tear! She is great with her brother. Likes to hold him, but can't stand it when he cries.

Evi-isms for the month:
She was told she had to put her toys in the living room back in her playroom. So she placed all of them just inside the door, which is, technically, what I asked her to do.

There is a phone tower near the exit of our neighborhood and she asked, "is that the Eiffel tower?" Now every tower is an Eiffel tower.

I gave her a nickel to put in the donation box at a checkout counter and she said "a nickel, Flower has nickels. She has them here, and here, and here" and began to point to on her body where her cat has nipples.
I said, "no honey, those are nipples, like you have nipples."
She said, " someday I'll have big ones like you" as she patted my boobie and the man next to us just chuckled. And I began to question why I felt the need to correct her in the first place!

Evi-rina

My sweet baby girl had her first ballet demonstration. I was so proud! She was so cute, and enjoyed it very much. It just gave Eli gas! ha! This one went much better than her gymnastic one did since there was only one other parent in the room instead of 50! Her ballet class was small, only 3 of them.

There is a little video at the bottom too. ENJOY!

month 1

I can't believe how fast he is growing. I took him when he was 1 week old to Evi's ballet/gym class. And by the time he was 3 weeks, one of the mothers commented on how big he was already, and I turned to look at him, and I swear, in that instant, he grew! He was so much bigger that I thought. I weighed him later and he was already at 10lbs! His thighs are already getting nice and chunky. I can see the rolls forming as we speak. And he now has a double chin, and his wrists are one big roll with the knuckles getting plump. Obviously, eating is not a problem!
He's got curly hair, but it's only noticeable right after a bath. Once all our oily hands have been on him it's straight. He does have one random bald strip, that he had at birth, it's just more noticeable now. And it's not in a place that would be caused from rubbing his head in his sleep. It's funny.

He also has Flinstone feet. Short & wide. And I'm pretty sure he's going to have blue eyes.
For the first month he only slept about 2 1/2 hours at night. Week 5 has seemed to be the magic, with him giving me a 4 hour stretch! Yipee! He rarely cries. Pretty much only when I try to put him down.
I haven't been able to get what I would consider a really good picture of

him. They never make him look as cute as he does in real life. I've been joking that he's not very photogenic!

I forgot how "explosive" babies are when they shew-wee. Evi finds his gasiness quite entertaining. (As she does mine, or anyone elses. There is no getting away with not acknowledging gas passing if Evi is around, she'll call you out!)

And now, some recent Evi-isms:
So Evi asked the other day why my ninnies were so big now!! (teehee) I explained to her that mommy makes all of Eli's milk there and that's what feeds him..."So, when he empties them they'll be flat like mine?" she asked, I giggled and said yes, then she said "then he'll have to go to Gigi" HAHAHAHA!!!!

She also commented on Eli's weewee. She asked why it was getting smaller!! Teehee! I told her not to tell her daddy that!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! (FYI, in case you don't know, boys privates are a little swollen after birth thanks to all the hormones, and eventually go down)
The first time I put him in his crib in his room and took the monitor outside with us, Evi was very worried about where the baby was. I explained to her that we could hear him through the monitor. I had just bought her a set of walkie talkies, so she began talking into the monitor to Eli. It was really funny. Then she kept telling me she wanted to see him in there. I tried to explain that he was in his own room, but she insisted that I had fit him into the monitor. So she must think everyone is actually in our phone when we talk to them!
So far she has been a great big sister. And is only jealous of him when she wants to pull my hair at night, but I'm busy with him.
Evi has become an avid PBS/OETA watcher this summer. And she's learned all her letters and is getting the hang of the sounds too. Who says tv is bad for kids!?! Thank you Super Why and Sesame Street!! Because we all know I hadn't worked with her on it!

I am doing weekly naked pix of Eli and posting them on our picture site if you want to see how much he's growing. I did the same for Evi and it's amazing to see how fast they grow! You can get there through the link labeled "Our Pictures" on the right hand column. If you are on my list to get this blog update through an email, you'll have to go to the actual blog site to get the link, or go directly to the picture website:
www.thefamilybernauer.blogspot.com
or
www.pix2share.shutterfly.com

Wehadababy Itsaboy...

Well, Lonestar is here, and all that LoneStar Beer that Scott drank while I pregnant paid off because it's a BOY!!!! I was very surprised. Not that I thought it was a girl, because I honestly didn't have feelings one way or the other. And needless to say, I am afraid, very afraid! A boy! What do you do with a penis???? This will definitely be a whole new experience for me! I don't think he looks like Evi at all. Her cheeks were much fuller than his, along with her bottom lip. He is his own little man!
Evi, who was convinced it was a girl, has done very well with learning that she will now have a little bother, I mean brother, instead. She is all about being a big sister. Of course, being showered with gifts helped I'm sure. Everyone has officially left today and she is now in the "reality" of just mommy, daddy, and baby brother. So we'll see what she really thinks here in the next couple of days!
Now to Lonestar...
After much debating (we waited till Friday morning to really discuss names) we have decided on Eli Braxon. Eli and Evi. They have the same initials as well. EBB. And while Evi has a longer first name of Evangeline, Eli is just Eli. I figure Evi will probably have another last name one day, but Eli is stuck with a long last name that no one can pronounce correctly (unless ...well, we won't go there just yet, I'll just let Scott enjoy having a traditional boy... for now...)
He has the very cool birthday of 07-08-09!! Born at 1:41 pm at 7lbs 13oz and 20 1/2 inches in length. (which might be generous thanks to his cone head!!) And now for the gory details...
We checked in at 5:30 am to be induced (just like with Evi). I didn't pass out like last time, but came pretty close! I was dilated to a 5 already, which for all you men out there, it means I was half way there. You have to be at a 10 for the magic to happen. So everyone predicted I'd be done by noon. What do they know!?! All the nurses were very excited that we didn't know what we were having. I ended up having to wear an oxygen mask because the baby's O2 levels were low. Ended up the cord was around his neck, so it slowed the whole process down a little. Plus my doctor said his large head probably didn't help. So we only shaved a little more than 2 hours off delivery from Evi to Eli. Let me just take a moment at this time to give thanks to whoever invented the epidural. My theory is that the epidural is God's gift of forgiveness for the whole apple in the garden of Eden thing. While Evi's birth was absolutely painless from beginning to end, I felt a little more with Eli's, but I'm sure it would have been worse without it! I figure I take pills for headaches, meds to ease colds, why wouldn't I then use meds to ease childbirth. It's brilliant! He had low O2 levels after birth too and I had to hold a little mask near his face for a while. I also had to do the skin to skin right after he was born. Which was quite nice for me because no one else was able to hold him and I didn't have to give him up for quite a while. I loved it.
He's perfect and sweet and already quite the eater. Although today he has treated me like a sip'n go. He's sleeping a lot, of course he's only 4 days old at this point. Plenty of time to make a liar of me!
So now it is just Evi, Eli and me. And today it has been quite nice. My living room is covered in toys, but Evi's staying entertained so it's ok. It's actually nice to have an excuse now to stay in our nightgowns all day...not that I needed an excuse before!!

There are more photos if you follow the our pix link to the right.

Lonestar's face

Had an ultrasound today, with only 2 weeks left, don't ask why- i have no idea. Anyway...Here is a picture of Lonestar's face. The top is a hand, then under the shadow of the hand you can see one eye, the nose, puckered lips and a chubby cheek. It actually looks like a baby this time instead of alien! (if you want to look at a bigger picture, just click on the pix and it open up just the pix bigger)

They estimated the weight at 7lbs 7oz!! And I still have possibly 2 weeks left! Of course she also said they have an error of +/- a pound. +/- A POUND!! That's a big margin of error when you weigh less than 10 lbs to begin with. (At least this baby better weigh less than 10lbs!! ) So we'll see when Lonestar gets here. Evi weighed in at 7lbs 1oz. at a week late. So surely this baby will be close! Surely!

A little bit on Evi. She is all about music. She loves the ipod and has almost 75 songs on it just for her. I was tired of listening to childrens music in the car so I started bringing earphones so she can listen on her own and now I find myself turning down my music and listening to her sing along...so i'm listening to it anyway! But it's sooo cute to hear her sing the songs. Mom says I was the same way, loved music, only mine weren't portable...they were 45's!

My child is very very tan. And I apply sunblock like it's going out of style. We went to a party with about 30 other kids at a pool the other weekend and Scott and I were laughing because there was only one other kid there that was more tan than she was and we were pretty sure he had some American Indian in him!

Final Countdown

Well, Scott was surprised to find the kitty Flower at home, and then Evi and I left him alone with her for the weekend...needless to say, he is smitten with the kitten!! And the kitten is with him as well. She always seems to find his lap to curl up on. For the first time Evi did not want to go to Gigi's because she didn't want to leave Flower. Cats have always been known to to come lay down on papers when your trying to work...well flower is with the new generation and likes to try to lay on my computer if i leave it open. Needless to say, she has hit keys and made my computer do things that are completely foreign to me!!

As you can see from the pictures, Evi had her first ballet class. She does ballet for 25 min, and gymnastics for 25 min hence the footless tights. But she likes having her hair in little buns and the ballet skirt on. It was really cute to watch her. And took a little self control not to cry, i was so excited! (and pregnant & hormonal didn't help)

Evi tried a little reverse psychology on me the other day. When we go out shopping, before we go into the store I go through a list with Evi about how we aren't going to buy toys, and when mommy says to put something back no fits...yadda yadda yadda...Well, she decided to pre-empt me. Before I could say anything she said, "Mommy, when I want something in here, you need to buy it for me, ok?!" HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! She also said to me one day, "did you hear me, I said sh*t." When i told her little girls shouldn't say that, it wasn't nice, she said "I just said it to myself." oh, ok, just to yourself, well, that makes it better!

Evi also threw a huge fit going through security at the airport on our last trip from Houston. And I mean HUGE!! HYSTERICAL!! Here I am 9 months pregers, holding a hysterical child who needs to potty, holding our bags, and shoes, with everyone looking at me with some airport worker pushing a wheelchair blocking the whole walkway! Thank goodness I wasn't in uniform! I'm sure everyone assumed I took her into the bathroom to beat her (which might have made me feel better...but don't worry, there was no beating!) And here I've been thinking that traveling after the baby with 2 kids would be no problem because Evi knows the ropes...at least she proved me wrong before I tried it alone!!!

Cousin Gracie is here this month. While they fight like siblings for about the first hour they're together, they seem to have fun with each other. July is going to long and lonely after they leave!!
Speaking of July...I have 1 month left!! It's the final countdown! I have requested to be induced on my due date of July 8th if I haven't had the baby by then because 1) it's also Auntie M's bday, and 2) the birth date would then be 07-08-09!!! How easy is that to remember!!! Of course Scott's sister and her kids leave on the 7th, so she keeps trying to talk Lonestar into coming a little early. Not that I would mind that either. I'm really ready to be done!