Mackenzie's eating food ... it you can call it that!!!

Wow. So much has happened since I last updated this.

First of all, Mackenzie turned six months old and has started sitting by herself. She also eats cereal - which is really just the baby rice and/or oatmeal soupy stuff. She has tried green beans, but we'll get to that later. And, just this week she has started babbling way more than she was and now she can say Dadadadada.

So I took Mackenzie to her 6-month well kid check-up this week. When I made the appointment two months ago her doctor did not have an appointment until next month so I figured I would just see another doctor in the practice since it was just a well visit anyway. In hindsight I now see that was a major mistake. I left the office Tuesday about ready to punch this substitute doctor in the nose. Seriously. I was so mad. She was so freaking stupid. I think I, having no formal training whatsoever, could be a better doctor than her. I still feel a little worked up about it!

First of all when the stupid woman comes in the room she pokes Mackenzie's belly with the end of her pen and says, "Well, look at you." That irritated me. Then she looks over the chart and then looks at me and asks how tall I am and then Jeremiah. I say 5'1" and 5'6". Then she looks at the chart again, looks at Mackenzie and says, "Well, she's short." I wanted to say um, duh...there's not much hope for the WNBA. She then proceeds to tell me that Mackenzie is in the 90th percentile for her weight (at 18 pounds) and the 20-something percentile for her height (24 inches). Keep in mind in a moment this moment when she is calling my daughter short and fat.

So she checks her over a bit and asks if I have any concerns. I say she is still spitting up quite a bit each time she eats and she asks what kind of formula she drinks. I say she is still breastfed and she says, "Well, in a bottle what kind of formula?" I say, um, like I just said, it's breastmilk. She then asks what I am eating. I said it doesn't matter. Every time she eats she spits up. I can eat a whole day of bread or a whole day of spicy Mexican food. It doesn't make a difference. Then she asks me what kind of solid foods she is eating. I tell her none. Over the past two or three weeks we've given her some cereal a few times a week but she's not really been all that interested in it. At this point things start going downhill. The "doctor" says in a really rude, condisending voice, "Well, she should have been on solids starting at four months so I don't know why you weren't doing that." I seriously stood there with my mouth open for a second before responding. I said, "Well, Dr. Monzon said if she was content with her bottle and growing, which she clearly is, and sleeping through the night, which she is, there is no need to rush to feeding solids." I'm thinking the American Academy of Pediatrics says exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 to 12 months of life is completely ok and recommended.

Then, (remember back to her insinuating that Mackenzie is short and fat) she says, "Well, you need to get her on cereal three to four times a day for a week and then she needs to be eating pancakes, waffles, cheerios and goldfish crackers." This time I just stood there with my mouth open. No comments. I, for quite possibly the first time in my 29-year-old life, was speechless. I was thinking, ok, so you are recommending that I forego the veggies and fruits and head straight to sweets and sugars. I don't think so.

Oh my gosh. Besides the fact that she would totally get fat for real if she ate that stuff she would totally choke on it.

I have started cereal daily which she seems to like. We have tried green beans for four days now and she totally hates them. She made the funniest faces the other night. She pursed her lips, squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head back and forth like five times! It was hillarious. I think tomorrow I might try to get her some sweet potatoes or carrots. I think she'll like them a lot better. I am completely ignoring the stupid doctor's advice. We are going to take things slow and offer one veggie at a time for four or five days before moving on to the next. After veggies we'll go to fruits. Those are the Gerber first foods. Then we'll move to the 2nd foods and 3rd foods before going to real food like she says she needs.

Ok. It's 11:15 p.m. and if anyone reading this won the Powerball jackpot a few hours ago please lend me some money so I can move. I am sitting in the living room and I swear I just heard gun shots like 5 minutes ago and then again like a minute ago. I hate living near the ghetto. I think I'm going to go barricade myself in Mackenzie's room with my cell phone and house phone just in case. I'm so over Kansas City. I'm ready to get the heck out of here.

Vet bills stink.

Good grief. I took the dogs, and the kids, to the humane society today because they have a vet clinic and it is way cheaper than the regular vet. They also have way cheaper flea and heartworm medicine. The bad thing is that it is a walk-in only place and it is first come first serve. They open at 10 and when we got there at 11 we were like 8th in line. We waited forever and around 12:45 Mackenzie was starting to get hungry and really fussy so we had to leave. I sped home to get a bottle for her and a snack for Brady. I had not taken any because I didn't think it was going to be an all day affair. Of course I probably looked like a circus freak trying to get in and out of that place balancing my purse on my shoulder, the dog leashes in one hand and attempting to guide the stroller through the single wide door. Luckily people took pity on me and helped me through. So we rushed home and I left everyone in the van while I ran in to get the milk and snacks and then we headed back. We got back at like 1:10 and there was still one person ahead of us. Finally we got called back and the girls got shots and tests and everything looks good with them. Amber got a haircut...the area around her boo boo had to get shaved so they could look at it. When we first got there I noticed Holly's one ear was all scratched up inside so I deduced that they either A.) found some animal and attacked it together and got scratched up in the process, or B.) they were wrestling with each other and things got a little out of control. I'm going with B as the most likely.

Neither of their wounds are infected and both should heal within two weeks according to the 350 pound vetrinarian. (He was gianormous.) They both have to be on antibiotics for a week or so though so that they don't get infected. I also got them some flea medicine since both have been battling with fleas off and on this summer, and the over the counter stuff doesn't work. And then I got them some heartworm medicine too. Yikes. I noticed though that they did not charge me for the antibiotics. Maybe they are covered in the cost of the exam or something.

Brady was such a trooper. He was so well behaved the whole time so I took him to McDonalds for lunch on the way home. I am debating whether or not to take a nap when I put him down for his. Sissy is asleep so it might be the only time I get some time to take one. Hmmm. I think I'll go for it! The dishes can wait!

Busy, busy

We have been keeping busy around here. Robin came in Thursday for a long weekend visit. Jeremiah got to take some time off work so they could hang out with the kiddos. I had to work all weekend. Brady had a great time with Memaw. She left this afternoon and Brady hasn't stopped saying that he misses Memaw and wants to fly in an airplane like she did.

Amber got hurt somehow. Jeremiah was petting her tonight when she and Holly came inside and all of a sudden she yiped when he touched her ribs on the one side. There's like a giant gash like the size of a quarter. It isn't bleeding actively but it looks really bad. I am going to have to check it in the morning and see if it starts to scab overnight or I'm going to have to get her in to see the vet. It looks like there's an area where her hair and skin just got pulled off. It kind of makes me want to puke. Oy.

We've been kind of obsessed with the Olympics. We watched every swimming event and a lot of the gymnastics which really irritates me because the Americans keep getting cheated. I guess it wouldn't be an Olympics without someone getting cheated...remember the ice skating controversy with the Canadians a few years ago?

Mackenzie is getting bigger. She is still spitting up massive amounts of milk every time she eats. And it's not just right after she eats, it's for about an hour after. I called the doctor today because he had given us some samples of a reflux medicine which obviously is not working. The nurse said I could bring her in tomorrow, but I said it's not causing her pain that I can tell so I can just wait until her 6 month checkup next week. Can you believe she will be six months old in about 8 hours from now? Oh my. She loves rolling around on the floor. Tonight she was lying on her tummy on the floor and she nearly got on all fours for a second. She scoots backwards all over the place, but is still a while from crawling. She can sit by herself, but she's still pretty wobbly at times. She doesn't get a lot of sitting practice because Brady's always around and I don't trust him since he thinks tackling is so much fun!

I am off tomorrow which is nice since I worked six days in a row which ended today and after tomorrow I work six more in a row before I get one off. I'm counting down the days till we leave for New Jersey in October. It's going to be a ton of fun. We fly into Baltimore on Thursday, the 2nd, and then we'll spend that day and maybe part of Friday in Washington D.C. going to the DEA museum and the zoo and whatever else. Saturday we're going to Ocean City with Jeremiah's uncle, aunt and cousins. Then Sunday we're heading to Jersey for a week. I'm sure we'll take the train up to NYC once or twice since it is the greatest city in the world! I love it! Plus I want to check out the progress of construction down at Ground Zero. And also I NEED to eat in Little Italy. Who wouldn't want to eat a meatball the size of their head? I still have like 20 pounds of baby weight to lose, but I need to lose an extra five or ten pounds to make up for the weight I'm going to gain eating there!

I have some pictures, but I'm not going to be able to get them uploaded tonight. I'll try to get them put on here tomorrow while the kids are napping or something.

Well, it's late and I better get to bed.

Picture time!

I took the kiddos to get pictures taken Friday. I didn't know if I would have a chance in a couple weeks when Mackenzie is actually six months old so I thought five and a half months was close enough! The pictures turned out great. I think they are the best we have had so far! Brady and Mackenzie were both wide eyed and in good moods so that helped!

We will get to go to the real beach in October when we visit Memaw in New Jersey, although it will be too cool then to play in the water. We'll at least get to dip our toes in the ocean, but we won't be wearing swim suits.

I love this one. I got a big package of this print. Look at Sissy's tummy! Brady was really chubby when he was her age too.

Brady kept trying to escape.

Hugs!



I think Jenn has a picture of Ryan wearing this exact same outfit when he was Brady's age! I didn't realize it until I saw the pictures. I'll have to ask Jenn if there really is one of Ryan and put them side by side. Sometimes I think Brady looks like Ryan when he was little.

It's been a "fair" couple of weeks!

Mackenzie, Brady and I went to the Missouri State Fair with Mom and Dad Thursday. It is in Sedalia, MO, which is about an hour and a half Southeast of Kansas City. Mackenzie had fun, but got tired out once it started getting hot.

Brady loved looking at all of the animals... real and not so real! I loved this giant froggy. It is the "Year of the Frog."

Papa played with the kiddos while Nana and Me made our way through the Highway Patrol building. In each of the buildings at the fair they had giveaways and places where you could sign up for prizes. We got lots of pencils, some stickers and even some plastic cups!

Brady took Mom through the children's barn to see all the animals. He had hoped we would see some blue cows, but he was happy enough to see some plain white ones! We also saw lots of chickens and ducks and other small things like bunnies, puppies, kittens and goats.

Ha ha! Some days I feel like this!
This was the most giant pig I have ever seen. It had like 8 or 10 babies that were so cute! One of them was pink with black spots. It looked like a dalmation piggy. Brady didn't know what to think of them!

Last week Jeremiah, the kids and I went to the Wyandotte County Fair. It was much smaller than the MO State Fair, but still fun. Brady got to play some games. Here he got to go fishing and caught a shark! Eek! He won a little flower on a stick that he gave to Mackenzie. What a nice brother!

Here's the flower. She loved it!

Brady got to poke around in a fire truck. At first he didn't want to go in, but once Daddy got in there he was all about it.

Sissy is a Jr. Sheriff. Brady didn't want to wear the badge so Sissy got to!

Random picture here: Our garden is definately in full swing.

Brady didn't really want to touch the animals, but he did let a goat sniff him.

He played pick the duck game and won a cool beach ball with a bell inside it.

He liked picking out ducks and wouldn't pick any yellow ones. He got to pick three and he picked a red, a brown and a cammo colored one.

I think I was more excited about the ball than he was...although he likes it a lot now. I think the carnies scared him. They were quite scary.