growing too fast

Hard to believe my little guy is almost 6 months old. He out grew his infant car seat at 5 months!! Tripp out grew it at about 10 months, and I think Frannie made it to her first birthday. It will be very interesting to see if he stays this tall...

Here he is dozing in his new seat.

 

Don't even think about touching Duckie. Look at that grip! (And those cheeks!)

no, she's not crying

When Frannie got here with tear duct problems, we had already been down that path thanks to Tripp. He had stents put in his tear ducts, they came out on their own, and we never had another problem. Frannie has been a different story...

About 9 months following her first stent placement, I pulled one of the stents out that was hanging out of her left eye. Once the stent was removed, her eye started draining normally. Since her right eye wasn't, we [well my MIL since Max ended up being born that week :)] took her back in and he had to remove the right one. He said if it didn't start working to bring her back.

Well, it didn't so we did. She typically has a tear sitting atop her right cheek at all times. Her tear duct doesn't drain the normal fluid in her eyes, so they just spill out. Everywhere we go, people say "aww- why are you crying little girl?"

Me: "No, she's not crying. She has tear duct issues."

Friday, he put dye in her eyes:

 

This stuff is pretty cool. This fluorescein dye shines neon green under a black light and lets the eye doc see how her eye is draining. It's pretty freaky the first time you see your kid with crazy, zombie eyes. This wasn't my first rodeo. Wish I was quicker with the camera. You can tell in the pic how it is pooled up in her right eye even after wiping it multiple times... This girl was such a trooper, and was so cooperative at the eye doc.

 

When he did the first surgery, he said her eye was a little different that other kids. She was born without a complete right tear duct and it was attached to the bone. So he "unstuck" it, but it looks like it still won't cooperate. We're all signed up for surgery attempt number 2! He said we try at least 3 times to "unclog the drain" before we move on to a different and bigger surgery.

 

(See how yellow her right eye is? And her left is white?)

 

Here's hoping this one does the trick. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed so we don't have these issues with Max. So far, so good.

round here

Shoot. I missed March. And now April is already almost over. Here are some pictures of how it's been around here. The "real" pictures on my camera tend to stay there, and I grab the real camera for the life events- like Frannie turning 2, Max's baptism, and Easter. But here are the little things.

We went camping! Not too far; for two nights. I'm pretty sure we spent more time getting everything ready before hand, and cleaning everything after than we actually did camping... but I still had so much fun. I let the kids just cover themselves in dirt, which they absolutely loved. I was sitting there wincing and fighting all my instincts to stop them. I did hose them down afterwards... literally. I asked Tripp what his favorite part was, and he said "playing in the camper". I am determined to go camping more and use this pop-up, but not in the middle of summer!

 

Here's Frannie "helping" me cook Pops' favorite dessert. She thought this was the BEST thing ever, and kept demanding more. The dress she's wearing is one me and my sisters wore, and I recently acquired it from my mom. This was the first time Frannie wore it. She looked at herself and said "I pretty. I like this dress."

 

Here's sweet Max during the cold snap after Easter, with his sweet Daddy. What the heck?? The weather has certainly helped us make sure atleast one person at my house has a runny nose at all times. Gee, thanks Mother Nature!

 

Here's Frannie outside swinging with Daddy once it warmed up again. Girl loves to swing, and refuses to get out once you put here in there. She is definitely embracing being "two" and all the lovely characteristics that go with it.

 

Tripp is always grabbing Max and saying "Mama, take our picture!" So I have lots of these. Tripp loves his brother, and it shows! I can already see them sneaking off getting into trouble.

 

"Mama, take our picture!"

 

And this picture captures life these days most accurately:

Tripp busy building something.

Me trying to get Frannie to stop sitting like this.

Max putting anything and everything in his mouth.

And the mess. Always the mess.

 

I love it though. These quiet moments sprinkled in the day.

Makes this mama know it's all worth it.