4/30/07 We had a GREAT walk on Saturday! Our walk was led by Denny Hamlin's racecar, so Lucas was in heaven since he got to see (and hear) a real racecar. We got to meet some other preemies and their families, and we had a really great time in the bounce house and at all the booths for the kids. The kids also learned a new word (and animal!) at the walk. At Shelby Farms, which is where our walk took place, they have a big field with American Bison. Since the kids are still missing the "s" sound in the middle of most words, we told them that they were buffalo, to which both kids started screaming, "Buppalo!" The walk was kind of windy and we passed the buffalo several times. Everytime we passed the field, both kids pointed and screamed, "Buppalo!". Everyone walking around us thought it was hysterical.
Today, Lucas went to Mother's Day out and Phia and Bella and I went to the pediatrician. Turns out they have ear infections.... Bella also did her 6 month checkup while we were there. She weighs 17 lbs. and is 27 inches long. She's growing like a weed! She tripod sits now, and she got to ride in the BIG stroller for the first time today (the double stroller - on Lucas's side since he was at school). The good news is, the new carseat came in the mail today, so Bye Bye infant seat!
Will update again soon! Check out our new pictures!
4/26/07 So first I want to thank everyone who donated to our family team for WalkAmerica. We are so excited about the walk this weekend! I have the shirts (almost) made and we've been taking laps around the neighborhood to warm up!
As for the kids, they are ornery as ever! Sophia tells everyone "NoNO!" and has gotten extremely bossy! She definitely runs the show around here, although I'm still vying for the "mama" role. Lucas just likes to do things he knows he isn't supposed to do, and often will be shaking his head no or saying "no no" while doing it. He rides his tricycle ALL over the house nonstop, so fast that I worry about little (and big) feet getting run over before I can get to them. He also can back out of corners and parallel park his bike. SCARY! Sophia is still working on reaching the pedals, so it may be a little while for her. Both kids are absolutely in love with Uncle Jake's music and ask to listen to it all the time. They are also still in love with Bella and spend mass amounts of time bringing her toys, singing and dancing for her amusement, and tickling her (they have realized that tickling and screaming make her laugh... lucky us)
Bella is eating us out of house and home. She is THE happiest baby ever to live. She coos and giggles from the time she wakes up until she falls asleep. She is still working on getting her legs up under her.
Overall, not a WHOLE lot of new stuff to report, but we're doing pretty well and really looking forward to this weekend! Check out the pictures after Saturday, I'm sure we'll get some cute ones at the walk!
4/19/07 I know, I know, you are thinking, "Wow, didn't she just post yesterday?" Yes, I did. So maybe I'm feeling a bit like an overachiever today, OR maybe I have HUGE news! Bella got up on all 4's yesterday for the first time! She flipped right over onto her tummy, locked her elbows (first time I've seen that!) and pulled her knees up under her. She only stayed that way for a few seconds, and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how she did it, but she DID IT! Go team!
As for Lucas and Sophia, Soph's new favorite word is "potato"and she says it with an accent we're still trying to figure out. She says, "Puh-taah-toe". She runs around repeating it over and over. And speaking of potatoes, this morning I caught Lucas trying to put the Mr. Potatohead ears into Bella's ears as if she was the spud. Gotta watch out for that one, Lucas spent all day yesterday riding his trike around the house by himself. I swear this house looked like the Indy 500 all day, and since he's still learning to steer, you can imagine what the table/couch/walls/ toybox/ etc. looked like too! Have a great day!
4/18/07 We're using a million words now! It seems like they learn new words and new phrases every single day. The speech therapist can't believe how much Lucas and Sohpia's speech has developed recently, and we are having trouble remembering those days (not that long ago) when they couldn't say anything! Lucas and Sophia are still absolutely in love with Bella, and she returns the affection whole heartedly! It is so sweet to see them pat her head and give her kisses all the time, and she still responds with smiles, giggles and squeals of joy everytime the kids are around. Their newest favorite is to lay on the floor with Bella and "show her" how to roll over and crawl. We'll see if she catches on, but they keep trying to teach her!
As you can see from the new pictures, Lucas and Sophia got new shoes "with holes in them" (Crocs) from Nana and Papa. They love to run around in them and they keep telling anyone that will listen about their "Sha-ewwwwwwwwws!" The kids also spend a huge amount of time singing and dancing, and they know SO many songs! They know the motions to a ton of songs too, and it is adorable to watch them do the wheels on the bus, or I'm a little teapot (I personally like it when they tip over and pour out!)
Bella is eating lots of different things, however she still gives me the sour face when I try to feed her fruits or veggies "straight" (without cereal mixed in). She is pulling her legs up under her now, but still hasn't figured out how to push up her arms too (which I am constantly thankful for!)
We are looking forward to our walk for the March Of Dimes on the 28th, and are still working toward our fundraising goal. If you haven't checked out our page yet, please do so! It gives a brief history of what the kids (and we) have been through, and also talks about the mission of the March of Dimes. Thanks SO much to all who have donated, and if you are planning to donate, please do so SOON! We only have a week and a half left before the walk!
http://www.walkamerica.org/gockleybabies
4/11/07 Let's start with Bella this time.... SHE SAID MAMA!!!!!
Ok, so she had idea why I got so excited and she then proceeded to say Nama and various other babbles, but she said mama, and she said it like 5 times yesterday. WAHOO! I think Will is jealous, so we'll start working on the D's now :)
Sophia and I are butting heads again. She has decided that SHE is Bella's mama, and she wants to carry her around (yikes!), spoonfeed her all the time, and give her toys (which I'm ok with). She also is convinced that Bella needs to have a blanket on at ALL times, which will be interesting come July and 100 degree temps. She also tries to change her diapers and burp her.... I keep reminding her that I am the mama and she is the mama to Poppypee, but so far, she's not biting. We'll see how long it is before she tries to breastfeed her too :)
I've read that successful parenting involves consistency and reliability. I wonder if this is taking it a bit too far... So I about fell on the floor laughing the other day. I was getting frustrated with the kids, who were "being two years old." I started to get to my "walk away and take a break" point when Lucas looked right at me and sucked in a huge breathe and let it out slowly. I realized that I was JUST about to do that, and that he had beat me to my "frustrated expression." What a character. Now, Sophia does it too when I get upset, and it takes everything I have not to fall on the floor laughing. I guess maybe it's just more predictability than anything else. We ask the kids, "What does mommy do when she gets upset" and they both do the deep breathe thing. They've got me pegged! I suppose I could have them repeating a lot worse!
4/9/07 Happy (late) Easter everyone! We had a great time yesterday. The kids really understood the concept of hunting easter eggs this year, so we had a good time cruising the backyard for eggs. Sophia was AMAZING at it! She really took off and found a bunch, while Lucas fell a little behind because he stopped everytime he found one and ate the jellybeans out of it. :)
On Friday, I took Lucas with me to Walmart because he refused to take a nap (he finally fell asleep around 5:30PM). We were getting some things for the easter baskets, and I got Lucas a Little People school bus. Well, he obvoiusly saw it and was talking about it the whole time in the store. As we went down one of the aisles, he looked at me and said, "little people", I said "yes, little people school bus", to which he said, "Where Big people?" I told him, "Well, WE are the big people and the little toy people in the box are the little people." To which he responded by pointing to himself with a puzzled look and saying, "Little boy". Yeah, got me there. A lady in the aisle just chuckled at us. This whole little/big thing is pretty confusing. I did a smooth over job of explaining that he was little compared to mommy, but big compared to the toys.
Sophia has really taken off with her inflection when she talks. She runs her voice all the way up and down the spectrum, often within one word. It's sort of hard to explain without audio, but our favorite right now is when she says Purple shoes! (Nana is getting her purple crocs). The caps letters are when she goes up and the lower case are when she goes down. It sounds a bit like this purPUuhUL shOEoeOEoes. It's a riot. My mom also commented while she was here the Soph doesn't do anything without at least one doll under her arm. She will be building with blocks, or doing a puzzle with one hand and have poppypee under her other arm, completely forgotten about until you ask her if she wants to put her down. then we get "NOOOOOOOOOOO". My mom said I was the same way when I was little :)
Bella is talking so much and eating new things too. We tried to start her on sweet potatoes, then peaches, then applesauce, all of which she turned her nose up at and made sour faces. What does the kid end up liking? Peas. Yes, you heard correctly, peas. Whatever works. Makes for "lovely" colored diapers, but for now, we're sticking with the peas. She also has gotten REALLY accurate with her hands, and is grabbing EVERYTHING! Her favorites include my brastrap (which she holds when she nurses), Lucas's hair (he actually lies next to her and just lets her pull and play with it for minutes at a time) and Sophia's hands. She loves to hold hands with Phia. So cute!
More to come soon, have a good one and check out our April pictures!
4/5/07 Hi. My name is Jessica and this is a website about my three kids. I guess I felt like I should reintroduce myself since it's been SO long since I posted! Things have been a little wild around our house. Here's a brief synopsis of the most recent events, and then I'll try to throw in a few tidbits about what the kiddos are doing too. I'll try to post a few times inthe near future to catch up on some of the cute and new things we're doing for those of you who don't have time to read a novel right now (come on, who has time for novels anyway anymore?)
Nana flew in on the 24th in March so Will could fly out for a week business trip. We were looking forward to a busy week, which ended up being significantly busier than we expected. Tuesday morning, Lucas started vomiting, and shortly after, Phia did too. Welcome back Rotovirus..... The kids were really sick and then the horrible diarrhea started. Long story short, Nana ended up sleeping on the living room floor with a vomiting Lucas one night, and a vomiting Phia the next. Bella only hit my pillowcase, but Lucas managed to cover my sheets with vomit, and to add a little interest to the story, our dryer broke on about Wednesday. I didn't get sick until Saturday, but then vomited literally for 24 hours straight and lost about 10 lbs (no seriously...). I almost ended up in the hospital dehydrated with a 103.5 fever, but managed to stomach pedialyte and tylenol, so I was able to stay home. Still recovering though. Unfortunately we sent Nana home sick too. :( This one is a nasty one!
As for the rest of what's going on, the kids picked up on my mom calling me Jessica, and now both kids can say (and do say).... "JessEEEcA!" We have officially masted the milestone of "possession". I hear it's 9/10's of the law, but for some reason, the kids now think that EVERYTHING is theirs. All we hear is, "My nana, my chair, my poppypee, my truck, my mama, my cereal.. etc." You get the picture. We've also masted MINE and NO. However, we also hear all the time, I love you! and we get so many hugs a day that we wonder whether the kids are two year olds or snugglebugs. :)
Bella is rolling everywhere and gets her knees completely up under her now. She hasn't figured out how to push up AND get her knees up yet (thank god) but she'll be crawling before we know it. She is also getting much sturdier sitting, so I think that's coming soon too. The kids taught Bella to blow raspberries with her food the other day, so i ended up covered in rice cereal AND oatmeal after breakfast. Bella, Lucas and Soph loved it though. They all just LAUGHED through breakfast! They also taught her to "smack" her mouth like she's blowing kisses, so now they all blow kisses to eachother like it's some kind of secret sibling"handshake". Only a matter of time before they are keeping secrets from me too :(
I'll update again soon (maybe tomorrow since Will has the day off!) with more cutesy stuff, but I wanted to let you all know we are still alive and recovering...
ALSO, we are walking in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica walk to raise money for premature birth research and funding, so if you are interested in sponsoring our family team, reading about our experience, or just seeing a little bit more of the kiddos, please check out our site at
http://www.walkamerica.org/gockleybabies
We walk on April 28th in honor of Lucas and Sophia, and in loving memory of Emma.
