Tuesday Mornings

Tuesday mornings are becoming busy days for Jake, Maddie and myself. Jacob has his swim lesson at 9 am so we all have to be out of the house by 8:30. Then, we usually head over to the Southlake library for toddler story time at 10:45, but not until we make a Starbucks run (a "pick me up" for the sole purpose of getting Mommy through the rest of the day). After that, we are all starving, so we like to stop at Subway for lunch. Jacob is a huge fan of Subway. Then it's time for much needed naps at home after all the excitement.

Jacob had his 2nd swim lesson today and did great. He's a bit hesitant to put his whole head in the water but I'll know he'll get more adventurous with each class. We also just found out that our friend Kyle is in our class and we are super excited about that. Today, they got to slide down a little toddler slide into the water. He loved it! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera out when he went down the slide, but I did get him jumping into the water to his teacher.




One of the most frustrating things in the whole world is when Jacob is trying so hard to tell me something and I can't understand what it is. This rarely happens these days because his vocabulary and pronunciation have vastly improved, but every once in a while, he says something that I cannot comprehend! Here we are at Subway and he's saying a word that I just cannot get for the life of me. I STILL haven't figured it out!




Finally, we started giving Maddie "real" food yesterday. We tried rice cereal when she turned 4 months old and she had zero interest. Closer to her 5 month birthday, I tried the cereal that is blended with oats and barley and mixed it with pear juice. Man, she was a fan of that! Lately, she's been tracking everything we eat with a very curious eye and even grabs at our food! I thought it was time to try some peas. She loved them!! I sure hope she's as good of an eater as Jacob. I really don't want to have to learn how to feed a picky eater. That's one thing I'd rather not have to deal with!






It has been such a gorgeous day today, we had to end the morning with a visit to our favorite fountain in Southlake Town Square. My penny wish was for the kids to take good naps today. And voila, they've both been sleeping for 2 hours. At the same time! That NEVER happens! Hallelujah.

Cuter than cute

As exhausting as parenting a 3 year old and 5 month old can be, I find myself amazed at these 2 amazing creatures we made. Daddy was out of town this weekend and the kids and I were upstairs tonight getting ready for baths. Jacob was running around naked finding all of the toys he could possibly drag into his bath. Maddie was lying in her baby bathtub watching him run back and forth like a crazy person, smiling every time he came by. This is becoming one of my favorite things in the world to watch lately. If Jacob is in the room, Maddie is usually bent over backwards trying to locate him and as soon as she does, she breaks out into this enormous smile. She never minds it when he tackles her with a hug and kiss and she certainly doesn't mind it when he's running around screaming like a lunatic. In fact, I think she prefers it. So anyway, there they were, in all their nakedness, and I was just in shock at how big my little boy had become how little Maddie looked compared to him and insanely, how similar they looked at the same time. My heart kind of skipped a beat thinking about the fact that they will grow up as brother and sister and people will certainly always say "they are definitely both Broxtermans because they look so much alike!" Jacob loves her so much and I can see already how much she adores him. I know they will fight. I am surely not naive to this point. But, I hope they love each other without limits at the same time.

Phew. Had to get those emotions off my chest! Now that I've made it clear that I am the stereotypical dopey, emotional mom, I've got some updating to do! Jacob started swim lessons last week and ironically, the only other boy in his class is also Jacob and is turning 3 next week. It was pretty amusing watching the teachers saying "Jacob, come this way" and "Jacob do that". Both boys were quite confused. They were also both quite comfortable in the water and had a blast at their first lesson. When the teacher said to us (the other parents and myself) "these boys are fearless", I had to turn around and make sure they were talking to me too! If you know Jacob at all, you would not describe him as fearless. He won't go up a climbing structure or down the slide at the playground by himself and he is the last one to try any daredevil stunts (which I appreciate), so hearing that he was fearless kind of caught me off guard. He does love the water though and my hope is that he gets more and more comfortable with each passing lesson so that we can have some fun water adventures in Hawaii in June!

Jacob also moved up to the "big boy class" in school a couple of weeks ago. The week before he started his new class, I asked them to take him to visit his new class a few times before he had to start for real. On the Friday before he was going to start (the following Monday), Miss Kelly pulled Jacob from his current class to take him to the new class to check it out and he refused to go with her. He told her, "My Mommy said I don't have to go to the new class until Monday." Miss Kelly had no idea what to do. "What do I say to that?" she said. I died laughing when I picked him up. I did tell him that he didn't have to start his new class until Monday, but I guess I didn't make it clear that they were going to take him to visit before then! You need to watch what you say around this kid because he doesn't forget a word!

We have also seen a resurgence of dancing Jacob. When he was about a year old, he was a dancing fool. Then, suddenly to our dismay, he stopped dancing for no apparent reason. He has started dancing again which just warms my heart. I love watching him when a good song comes on because he just can't resist shaking his "bootie". A couple of weeks ago, I took him to the dentist for a check up. Since he's 3 now, he goes to the back by himself. I was a bit worried about this, but they assured me he'd be fine. When they called me back, I knew why. There were movies playing, every video game you could possibly imagine, and sugar free lollipops galore! The assistant who walked me back said "Jacob is live entertainment!" That made me super proud. There is never a dull moment with this one.

Maddie is quite the alert and curious baby these days. She grabs at anything and everything (including your face) and will seriously twist her body around in all directions to find you in the room. She is also the most smiley baby I've ever seen. I can't tell you how many times random strangers have said to us "What a happy baby she is!" I don't ever tire from hearing that either. You can say that to me a million times and it will never get old. She only naps for 30 minutes at a time, but when she wakes, she's smiling from ear to ear so I'm not sure I should complain. She's constantly chewing on something so if a tooth doesn't appear sometime in the near future, I will be shocked! My new favorite thing to do during our quiet days at home is grab my camera and start snapping away at her cuteness.

Now that I've written a novel, I'll share some of their cuteness with you.









Jacob "shaking his tail":



Jacob singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider":

Another blog facelift!

You've probably noticed the blog has just received yet another facelift. I started feeling super guilty that Maddie wasn't anywhere in the header or slideshow, so that had to change! My Mom's League had a charity auction last night and mama had 10 too many glasses of wine and I'm suffering for it today. So, playing with the blog for hours on end was the perfect hangover activity. Please don't judge. Mama doesn't get out very much anymore and when she does, there is no such thing as limits!

Maddie has really started experimenting with her voice. For some reason, she loves to screech and squeal while she's in her swing for no apparent reason. She doesn't really do it anywhere else but once you strap her in the swing, she's screeching in seconds. She's also found a new love for blowing raspberries. I'm going to start putting a bib on her 24/7. She is WET all. the. time. Between the constant spit up (which is mind boggling by the way) and her blowing bubbles out of her mouth all the time, we can't keep a shirt dry to save our lives.

The screeching in action:



The raspberries in action:



And here are the girls I spend every Friday morning with. This was at the Gala last night. Love them!

Mission Accomplished!

Maddie has started rolling over consistently! I should document my "missions" in the blog more often because apparently it's good luck! New Mission: Get Maddie to sleep through the night!!

Take a look:



Proud happy baby!

My new mission in life

For the last few weeks, I have been obsessing over the fact that Maddie has yet to roll over (either way). She is almost 5 months old!! She easily turns her body from side to side to reach for a toy or to look in your direction, but she still can't quite make it all the way over on to her tummy. She tries so incredibly hard to lift her body up over that little arm that gets stuck underneath her and then she gets tired and falls back on her back. It breaks my heart! My new mission in life is to get this girl to roll over consistently before she turns 5 months old, which, given it is February and a short month, only gives us THREE MORE DAYS!!!

Maddie trying to roll over:



This is how she hangs out most of the time:





Cutie on her tummy!



And of course I just had to take one of her adorable self in her boots

A Valentine's Day full of Love

John and Misty tied the knot on Valentine's Day so we all drove down to Houston for the big event. Jacob was the ring bearer so we had been prepping him for weeks for his big role. We even busted out our own wedding video to show him what Hudson and Hayden did at our wedding. He said "I can do that!" after watching it and we felt we had prepared him well. He did do amazingly well and looked so super handsome in his suit. While I think it's always cute to see him so dressed up, it also makes me sad to see the little man he is turning into. What happened to our baby? The wedding was fantastic and we are so happy for John and Misty!!

Here are some of our favorite pics:

Jacob hugging Brookie at the rehearsal dinner. Man he loves his cousins!



Jacob and Hayden. The command must have been "Show me your teeth!"



Hallie and Jacob practicing walking down the aisle



Jacob loved his ring bearer pillow



All the cousins! (Minus Misty's oldest son Clay)



I love how Jacob is eating in this picture and the one above



Handsome boys! Frank and Mark



The beautiful bride



Grandpa with Maddie and Jacob



We managed to get Maddie to sleep right before the ceremony started. What a relief!



I love this picture because I'm kneeling down giving Jacob a pep talk before we're all about to walk down the aisle. We're going over it one more time...look how serious I am!



They all made it down the aisle and plopped down right there on the steps at the altar.



Jacob listening



So handsome!



The beautiful couple!



We were so happy Great Grandma could be there (look how awesome she looks and she's 91!!). She amazes me everyday.



The Ildebrandos



The first dance



Me and my angel



Daddy and his angel

Jacob's first surgery

Exactly a week ago (last Thursday), we had an appointment with the Pediatric ENT, Dr. Ragsdale, to take a look at Jacob's ears. It had been almost a week since his last antibiotic injections so we wanted to make sure he got in before those shots wore off. In our experience, once the medicine was out of his system, the ear infection came back raging. Dr. Ragsdale basically told me that the antibiotic injections were the "big guns" to treat ear infections and if those weren't working, our last resort was to have tubes put in. A myringotomy (putting tubes in the ears) is such a common procedure these days that we weren't too worried about the procedure itself, but I have to admit I was a little freaked out about them putting Jacob under. I asked how quickly Dr. Ragsdale could get us in because I didn't want Jacob's ear infection to come back and for him to suffer any more. He got us on the surgery schedule the next morning.

On Friday morning, we had to be at the Cooks Childrens Hospital at 6 am and the procedure would take place some time after 7 am (they start at 7 and do the procedures back to back based on the age of the patient). Once again, Jacob made sure to let everyone know that he was not supposed to get any shots. The nurses were great and kept telling him "we don't give any owies here." Once we were all checked in, they gave Jacob an oral sedative and we noticed him relax within just a few minutes. He was a little loopy and when he talked, we had no idea what he was saying! A little after 7, they came to take him away which was the most nerve-racking part of the day. I hated watching him get wheeled away knowing they were about to put him under. Luckily, they just use a gas mask and patients come out of the anesthesia soon after the mask is removed. Mark and I went to the waiting room and waited. Not even 10 minutes later Dr. Ragsdale came out and said that they were done and Jacob did just fine. We just had to wait for him to come out of it.

Ugh, coming out of it. That was NOT pretty. I went back there first (Mark had to stay with Maddie) and Jacob was just screaming and moaning. They put him in my lap and I didn't know what to do to console him! I said "is he in pain?" and the nurses said "no, it's just very confusing for him. Right now he's seeing double, he doesn't know where he is, etc." I knew it was just a matter of time before the anesthesia wore off, but he was clearly confused and uncomfortable. I just kept holding him and singing to him and telling him it was going to be okay and that he was going to feel better in just a few minutes. He also kept asking for Daddy but when I would say "Okay, Mommy has to leave to go get Daddy", he'd scream "no!" and didn't want to be left alone again. :( He asked for a drink so they gave him some water and then we managed to give him a popsicle. About 2 minutes later, he vomited it all up. In my lap. This was all going on while the nurse is going over the discharge papers with me asking me to sign all these things. I wanted to be like "Can we get him calm first?!" After getting cleaned up, I told Jacob I would go get Daddy. I pulled the car up and we were finally on our way home.

That anesthesia is potent stuff! We gave him another popsicle when we got home and 2 seconds later, he vomited that up too. I decided to wait to give him anything for a few hours. He was such a champ though...he never whined or cried about his ears and was back to normal in just a few short hours! We haven't heard a peep about his ears since. I've heard so many wonderful stories about how ear tubes have really helped other kids and I hope this is the case for Jake. I just can't stand seeing him suffer from another ear infection. These tubes are temporary and will fall out in a year, so hopefully by then he will have grown out of these types of infections.

Here's some video of him today. We were snowed in again today (can you believe this is the third big snow in Dallas this winter? It's unheard of!) so I decided to take some videos. The things that come out of his mouth constantly crack me up so I keep meaning to try and get him on video just talking about random stuff.

In case you can't hear what he says at the end of the video, he looks at me and says "Mommy, can you get the camera out of my face? I don't like that". I nearly fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.



Jacob is obsessed with the Movie "Cars" and now has a collection of about 18 cars from the movie. It's beginning to get seriously difficult to keep track of them all. Here are just a few...