We made it!!

Well, we survived Daddy's 2 week tour of the middle east(Dubai, Saudia Arabia, and Kuwait) and thank goodness we had moved in with my parents since they were a ton of help while he was gone. And we finally go to celebrate John's first birthday in which we were lucky enough to have a TON of family and friends around. He's still not walking yet but he just "graduated" to the Toddler room at school, so we are hoping anytime now since all the other kids in his classroom are walking. I can't believe we can't call him a baby anymore!

SOOOOOOOO, what''s new?!! Well, we had school pictures in May that came out pretty darn good for both kids. Little  man put on two faces, his serious pose and he's goofy grin so we were very happy with the results!

Absolutely LOVE this one of my handsome man.

Who can resist a guy in boat shoes, khakis and a plaid shirt?!! Come on now!! ;-)

John had his one year check up on May 21st and he weighed 22 pounds and measured 29 inches and we survived all the shots! I for sure thought he was heavier but he's been super active and he's first year molars are coming in so exercise and cutting back on the eating will do that to a toddler. Something very scary for the DR office and especially for me took place while John was getting his shots. As he was getting his shots, his tears turned blood red!!! What the?! Thank God that his pediatrician and her nurse were close by so they could see what I was talking about since I was on the verge of freaking out. The DR also freaked out and we had several follow up phone calls(to make sure no more bloody tears) after this episode since no one could explain it. Lucky for us it was a one time incident and explaining it to Daddy over the phone so many miles away was not too fun either but John all in all did great at his one year appointment. His right eye tends to get irritated more than anything with we think allergies so he got treated for allergies in his eyes since he was irritated and we were given ointment to put on his eyelids since he was itching them so bad. Again, leaving the DR office with  medication..story of our life, however, HIS EARS ARE PERFECTLY CLEAR! So, we were told to take the baby allergy medicine for 10 days and if his eye didn't clear up, we would have to visit a pediatric opthimalogist. I was sure we would be making an appointment but lucky for us, the allergy medicine and the ointment worked like a charm. Phew! It seems he is getting all his sickiness out in the first 2 years! :-)

 

He LOVES to play with his sister and when Alexis comes into the room and gives him love and attention, he really lights up. She's so gentle with him and loves to know where he's is at all times. Already a protective older sister.

Yep..he is pushing Alexis around on his Thomas the Train toy!! So STRONG!

About a week after his one year check-up, his school calls and he had a 104 fever!! Keep in mind Daddy is still gone so my work probably thought I was nuts with all these DR appointments...I take him and they couldn't figure it out and the DR tells us its a virus and it just needs to run its course...again..what the?!. I stay home with John for a day and his fever breaks that night. Phew again!

All these toys and playing with boxes.

Chillin at a birthday party

Trying on sister's boots...

John is now completely on 3 meals a day and is off formula and loving his milk and water out of his sippy cups.

One of his last days on the bottle, I told him to chug and  here's what he did. Making us Sheehan's proud! Hahahaha

Miss Alexis is turning into quite the little lady these days with wanting to wear dresses and skirts to school. She recently pitched a fit when her shirt didn't have something pretty on it..it was a blue/white/pink striped shirt. Still no luck on the hair going up...I made her or asked her very nicely to wear her hair up for these pictures and she was OK with it. She's 3 1/2 going on 5, especially with her vocabulary and not 20 questions but 50 questions!! Everyday, I see more and more of her in me and it always makes me smile. My little mini-me since John is turning into his daddy with his looks. We absolutely LOVE her imagination that always brings giggling and much entertainment to the room.

Here's her new shades.

Getting ready to head out in her Dora car..she's not too good at steering but likes to go fast!!

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of my princess. I told her to smile for the camera and this is what she does. She loves having her nails and toes painted. She gets excited when Miss Sandy comes over(to babysit) because once John goes to bed, they have girl time with manicure and pedicures after bathtime.

Daddy made it home safe and sound which meant it was time to celebrate John's 1st Birthday FINALLY!!!

This is the sign his teachers made for him at school.

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday and he's getting ready to dig into his smash cake.

He wasted absolutey NO time digging in.

Eating some cake and posing with Auntie.

Unfortunately, John did not last much longer after cake, he was not too social at his birthday party and ended up taking a 3 hour nap after he had cake, but the party continued on since we had 22 adults and 14 kids! It was a madhouse for about 2 hours but so much fun to see all ages of kids interacting and to talk with our friends that we do NOT get to see enough of. CRAZY but fun. We were so lucky that so many of our good friends and family were able to help John celebrate his first milestone birthday. STILL NOT WALKING!! But he's growing and changing so fast. I forgot how fast they go from babies to a "little" person after the first year. He's definitely more vocal now, points to things, saying more words clearer and now that his molars aren't bothering him anymore, he's definitely a happy camper. The evenings are quick for us since John likes to be in his PJ's by 6:30ish which means dinner right when we get home. Most times, Joe and I will eat after he goes to bed between 7-7:30 and then it's Alexis's turn for her bedtime routine of bath, reading books and snuggling.

You've made it this far to find out a little more about the house!!

We recently had a "checkpoint/walkthrough" before an inspection takes place according to our builder's standards and so far so good. There were a few things we noticed that will be taken care of before the inspection but it's nice to finally see the layout of the floorplan. We have not been giving a "set" date but we could be looking at the end of August or first part of September...funny how things always get pushed back every so often. Things are going well with living my parents...we just needed to figure out each other's space and get into a routine the first month but all is good with the 6 of us living in a 3500 square foot house. And of course NO BILLS!! Next up for the house is sheetrocking the walls and to start on the interior. The windows were on when we did our walkthrough.

So far so good!!

UP NEXT: The Sheehan Family of 4 takes a trip to Michigan June 20-25 so Daddy's family can meet

John James and be entertained by Alexis Victoria.

I'm BACK!!

(Lexi had to "drive" and sit in the front of the box)

Ok, so where did I leave off? Oh yes!! John just had his tubes put in....so here we go!!

We have had such a whirlwind over the last 6-8 weeks, I can't believe it's all done. And the ALL part I will get to in a minute...piece by piece.

So, how did John do after his tubes? Well, he was good for about 4 weeks after his surgery and then things started to go downhill once again. He started to get stuffed up again and his eyes started to bother him so after a visit to his Pediatrician and lucky for us his follow up with his ENT surgeon was a day after all his symptoms started, we find out that Little Man has a partial blockage in one of his ears and yet another double ear infection!  However, he passed the hearing test with flying colors and even got the award for "most improved" from his audiologist! All this with a partial blockage! He still never skipped a beat with his eating, his activity level, his sleeping patterns and never ran a fever which was odd but his eyes started to get "goopy" and we automatically knew it was another double ear infection. So, we were loaded up on ear drops, eye drops and some antibiotics this time and after 10 days, we had to go back to the ENT DR in which he was prepared to drain his partial blockage but it seemed that the medicine did the trick. Thank goodness!!! So, keeping my fingers crossed as I type this, John has been "infection" free for almost 2 months now!! Let's keep it that way. But his teachers at school say he's much more vocal in which we have also noticed and he can eat faster I guess because his ears are not plugged and he can probably taste now!

We got out of the house one weekend when we had a few showings scheduled and went to the outlet mall that also has toys and a playground. He loved tooling around in the stroller and people watching. Who doesn't like being pushed around and watching right?

He had a really good Easter and was in a great mood and cooperated for us at the brunch which was nice. He cooperated with his naptimes and all that good stuff since we have finally seemed to realize the best times for him to nap...he took awhile since he liked to play the random game for a few months.

John is not walking yet but he's doing everything else...so he can walk. Here he is pushing the highchair at Easter brunch around the table to help him walk. And at home, he finds any toy that will allow him to be on the move. He uses every piece of furniture to get to where he needs to go and if he has to crawl, he's there in a heartbeat, especially when playing chase with his sister! Now, that is hilarious!!

He's slowly but surely weaning off the bottles, has mastered a sippy cup and loves "real" food!! His eating schedule is very close to mealtimes...breakfast and lunch are good, dinner we are still working on since our evenings are so chaotic but he's a trooper about the whole thing. He's such an awesome sleeper too! He's ready to pass out around 7:30 and will be ready to play around 7, up around 6:30 jabbering but content for about 30 minutes and then he starts hollering for one of us to come and get him

Can't wait to start him on real milk. :-)

Playing in the fort that daddy made!!

Who can resist this cutie in a box?!! :-)

I was packing up some of the closets and left my wrapping paper out too long..look who got to it before I could!!

This definitely entertained them both since they loved the noise the paper made when playing on it. So, they played "chase" on the wrapping paper for about 30 minutes! I couldn't help but take some pictures!!

Alexis is doing wonderful and even with the move since her comprehension level is so high, we kept her "in the loop" about everything that was going on and it was hard NOT to keep her in the loop since she loves to ask a TON of questions. But we did our very best in trying to explain to her every little thing that was going on since it was happening so fast and so she could expect as much as we could prepare her for. I think the only part of the explanation she remembered is that we will be staying with Papa and Gigi in betweeen houses! But she is starting to give up her naps at school and at home on the weekends, very independent when it comes to the potty, loves playing outside, asking questions and is definitely curious as a 3 1/2 year old can be and she LOVES to repeat mommy and not daddy(in which he thinks is hilarious). So, I just make a little game out of it but when I start to repeat her, she doesn't like it too much...hmmmmmmm....

We have noticed(and school at naptime) that she doesn't like to listen very well and we find ourselves repeating ourselves quite often since she will ask the same question over and over. But sometimes the "not listening" can get her into trouble and she's noticing that she can't get away with much anymore just because we know she understands what's going on. She's trying so hard to be her own decision maker!! The word "no"(and being bossy) is very much in her vocabulary and will get her into trouble sometimes as well as her habit to whine....oh the whining....but like all things, this is a growing pain and we have the good days and bad days, especially when she's exhausted and wants to do everything in ONE day like play outside, go to the park, swimming, wagon ride, etc.....but she is definitely the entertainer of the house...with all her singing and rhyming with reading her books and all her story telling!!

She very much enjoyed Easter with getting to wear a new dress, she knows the drill now with church and using her inside voice. After church we headed to a brunch with the family and we are still continuing to try and get her to try new foods but unfortunately, we've had very little luck lately. She's a VERY picky eater and if she is unsure about the texture, she will not touch it!! So, we are pretty much still stuck on the same menu for now.

Posing with my princess

Hamming it up at the table

What's Easter without a little chocolate cupcake?! Now, that doesn't take any effort to get her to eat. She was asking us!! Thank goodness we did remember a bibb.

We chased down the Easter bunny too while we were at the brunch place. We almost forgot to get a picture with the Easter bunny since this place had a pond full of hungry fish that she was allowed to feed with food provided. She was all over that!

And we couldn't forget the Easter egg hunt. Papa helping her out since TONS of eggs were hidden and of course needed a little help(and the candy was melting in the eggs :-) )

Um, I think she has outgrown this seat! And many other things we are noticing. She's outgrowing certain toys(that we thought would last longer), cartoons(liking movies more), and growing quickly into tracing books, big wheels, bubbles and sidewalk chalk, etc. She loves to pretend!!!

Well, as you can tell from all the "moving" references, we did sell our house after being on the market for 4 weeks which we were excited about and we got what we wanted for our first home with tons of memories. Locking the door for the last time and driving out the driving for the last time got me a little choked up but everything happened so quickly, it was hard to "dwell". Since we got an offer on a Tuesday and were asked if we could close and move out in 9 days, we thought, why not?!! No need to drag this moving thing out. Little did we know that those 9 days would be SO VERY CRAZY but we did it!! We thought, yes, we did sell our house sooner than we thought but we got what we wanted, I guess we will moving into my parents sooner than we all thought. And so we did. We are very fortunate to have had this option and that they have room for all of us, literally, we all have our own room! It's crazy!

We did meet with our builder during the whole chaotic time period of moving and we were told our house would be completed and ready to move in by early August. I was able to swing by the construction sight of our new home and was very surprised to see the below progress. We are very excited and August cannot get here fast enough!!

I will be back after John's FIRST birthday in which I still cannot believe we celebrate next week. His party had to be set for a later date since Daddy is taking a VERY long 2 week business trip from May 18th - June 1st. So, the party is set for June 2nd! Hopefully John will be into his cake....but you just never know. And I hope to report back next time that we have a walker...but again, you still just never know!

Until next time!

Never a Dull Moment

WHOA!!! Things sure got a whole lot more hectic once Little Man started crawling a little over a month ago! HE IS EVERYWHERE AND INTO EVERYTHING!!!

He did not stay here long!! Just thought it was picture worthy. Our furniture was moved since we were getting some painting done in our house.

He has to be doing something or close to you, hanging out. BUSY BODY!!

Playing a game with Daddy...

Listening to Daddy while he reads to Alexis

Our legs have become handles

And so has the furniture!!

Watching sister eat....and then when she didn't pay attention to him...

He checked out under the table

The window behind her...

And finally took a break!! He's like a SUPERCRAWLER!! He will crawl all over the house and then we have to go on the "John hunt" where we find him sometimes is....

Found him in the pantry....just EVERYWHERE!! If there is a cord, he will find it, the lamps, your shoelaces, electrical..anything! Anything that is on the couch, he can pull off now, he has found the tupperware cabinet, and while we are running the water for the bathtub, he will crawl over to the tub and stand up and start banging on the edge of the tub with both hands and also try to lean over and splash the water. The tub has become quite the adventure in trying to bathe him since he loves to crawl/stand/splash. I have to be quick!

He just learned how to clap a week ago and has also been waving. :-)

So........what's new with Little Man besides him being into everything and everywhere....his ears are(were) a mess!! Ever since his 4 month shots, he has been battling double ear infection after double ear infection. So, after 7 double ear infections over the course of 5 months, we gave in and agreed to tubes and they also removed his adenoids.

 Now, many parents have been through "tubes" and its never a problem and we were told it's a "breeze" BUT when you add the Adenoid removal, it's a whole other ballgame in regards to recovery time and side effects that are short lived but intense at the time. His surgery went very well and his ENT Dr was just amazed at how much "stuff" he had in his ears and nose. We did do a hearing test before agreeing to tubes and because he had so much fluid in his ears, he had temporary hearing loss. Not my little prince!!! So, after a 30 minute surgery, it took Joe and I about an hour to calm him down since he was in pain, hungry(he couldn't eat before his 8:45am surgery), and tired. We checked in at the hospital at 6:30am and were released at 1:30pm. Because there is so much swelling after adenoid removal, it was hard for him to breathe so we had to monitor his oxygen levels for awhile once he settled down, drank a few bottles and took a few naps. They even had to give him a second dose of pain meds! We are almost a week out after the surgery and we are definitely seeing the improvements with his nose/ears and eyes. He's breathing better, way less mucous(still a little since he's getting more teeth, never a break for our guy), doesn't snore as much, sleeps with his mouth closed and his appetite is finally coming back since he was up to 3 sqaure meals a day and 4 bottles before the surgery. But our happy guy is finally coming back, more smiles and more energy and he's louder!! I guess because he can finally hear now.

Our Big Time 3 year old has been a blessing ever since we met her 3 years ago. She's got so much character and energy, she's funny(her big thing lately is knock knock jokes), loves to play, explore, pretend, sing(a lot) and of course ask questions. Since she started Pre-School, she has gotten a little sassier and opinionated but she's got a tough crowd in her class, meaning other bossy 3 year olds so survival of the fittest right?!! But all in all, she really is an easy kid and is your "typical" 3 year old with lots to say and curious about everything. She's starting to put letters together to figure out words when we read and recognizes punctuation like the question mark.

She loves to play dress up with the "trunk" she got from Aunt Julia for her birthday.

She loves to be a HAM for the camera and off camera. Not sure where she got that from ;-)

She's been VERY good with the arrival of her brother in terms of being patient when we are busy and helping us with something if we need to with all the challenges with his ear "issues". It took her some time, but she finally realizes that she needs to share her toys and it's not the end of the world if John plays with one of her toys. We try to keep his out and hers up where he can't get them but lately that has been a challenge since he has a pretty good reach!! But she REALLY is a good big sister. The other day, John was trying to use a piece of furniture to stand up and he got stuck so Alexis went over and helped him up. It was so cute, I thought I might tear up!

What she is NOT thrilled about is that when she is on the couch watching TV after dinner, John is right there standing up, "talking" to her and wanting to touch her "cuddlies" like her bunny, blanket and bear, who are the 3 items she ALWAYS goes to bed with or has close to her. We keep telling her to always be watching out for John since the other day she left her fruit loops snack and milk on a side table and he got to it. She just sighed with frustration.

Well, if you have made it to the end of this blog, THERE IS STILL MORE EXCITING NEWS(and no I'm not pregnant!)!! Yes, not only have the kids been busy, but mommy and daddy have been busy designing OUR NEW HOME!!! Yep!! That's right..after almost 11 years in the same house, we decided to move! Our new house is a new construction so we are building and designing it from the ground up.

Here we are on our lot that we finally got! We had the area and floorplan picked out right away...the hold up was the lot since we do want to put a pool in 5-6 years down the road. Patience is a virtue and we got our bigger lot.

Joe and I are SUPER EXCITED about this new house that we get to design ourselves but of course that means getting our decade old house in shape for the market in which we have been doing for the last month. It goes on the market next Friday!!! We have met some of our neighbors already and some of our friends and their families already live in the area so really exciting times! Several kids that are the same age as Alexis live on our street so she will have plenty of classmates in our area (and they are building a new elementary in our neighborhood that Alexis will go to!) Our new house will be ready in July!! Just in time to enjoy all the summer activities in our new neighborhood. So..what happens if we sell the house(in which we hope we do quickly since our realtor is a shark), before our house is ready? We move in with my parents!!! They are so excited if we have too...so only time will tell how many moves we will have to do.

That definitely deserves a clap!!

Happy March since I will most likely be back in April since our March is ONE CRAZY MONTH!! Never a dull moment for March 2012 with all the baby showers, wedding showers, birthday parties, house designing, and the list goes on and on!! I will be ready to be UNBUSY by the time we get settled into our house but then it will be football season and then the holidays....NEVER A DULL MOMENT!!