Wood Family Update (Spring)

I have been soo slack with my updates! So then they turn into this long rambling of my trying to squeeze it all in. Hopefully this post won't be as depressing as my Soxy post. Kaitlyn and Brayden have both been doing great. Kaitlyn is 2 1/2 years old and Brayden is now 6 months!

Brayden: (6 months)
Brayden is still a big boy. He is only about 3 lbs lighter than Kaitlyn! He is soon going to outgrow his infant carrier...which i guess is fine since I can barely lift it! Kaitlyn used hers until she was about 15 months old! He is still in the 75-90% for weight (almost 20lb) and only 25% for height. Up until two days ago, Brayden did not do anything but just lay around. And then on April 24th he decided that he could roll over and sit up both in one day! He rolled over 2x that day and no more since! haha!  Although he is getting better and better at his sitting up. I mentioned to our Doctor that I thought his weight was probably slowing him down and he agreed saying that torso is heavy to try and hold up! haha! I tried to take a naked picture to show all his rolls but it is hard to tell in a picture:

Brayden is still such a happy baby!  I love it.  It is so easy to make him smile.  Whenever someone makes him smile, he always pulls his hands up to his mouth like he's bashful.  So cute! 

 We also started Brayden on Solid foods a couple weeks ago.  At first he did really well.  He would gobble up anything I gave to him.  Then there were a few days where he didn't really want anything.  But thankfully now he seems to be back to normal letting me feed him again.  Kaitlyn likes to watch.  Also she likes to stick empty spoons in his mouth all the time when I am not looking and gag him!  One downside that seems to be getting better is that he has been fussier since the solids.  He got really constipated and has had a hard time pooping every since.  I try and feed either prunes or pears or something else really good for constipation every day to help out.  His system seems to slowly be adjusting to the solids now.  So far he eats most anything I give him.  He loves sweet potatoes...something that Kaitlyn hated!  The only thing he absolutely refused to eat and got really upset was peaches.  I am still pumping breast milk into bottles for him.  I pump 4x a day and he eats 5 7 oz bottles a day.  I hope to eliminate one or two once he starts getting better with the solids.  Then I can go down to 3 pumps a day.  He used to have breastfeeding snacks in between some bottles if he couldn't wait his 3 hours, but now that he has solid foods he has given up the snacks.  Which is fine I guess, but I did like the fact he would latch on if I needed him to if I forgot a bottle.  Now if I try he only wants the bottle.  Kaitlyn would never latch on.

 Here is my big boy finally sitting up!  Yay!  He only lasts for about a minute or so right now and falls quickly so I can't leave him alone yet.  Kaitlyn was already catching herself at this point, but I don't think he's anywhere close to being able to do that.

 Kaitlyn (2 1/2 years):
Kaitlyn gets better and better with age.  It's no secret that we thought she was a horrible baby, but she is getting to be a much better toddler.  She really is a very sweet girl.  She is never mean to any other kids and is a big "rule follower."  She transitioned out of her crib about a year ago and still NEVER comes out of her room unless one of us goes to get her.  Sometimes I wish she would, but it makes naps so much easier when she think she has to stay in her room.  Also we FINALLY got rid of her pacifier!  Completely!  At 12 months we took it away except for naps and bedtime, but she was quite attached to it.  I actually tried taking it away for about a week around 2 years and her naps became nonexistent.  She would eventually fall asleep at night, but it took a long time.  I gave in and returned it.  then I read about this idea to take them to Build-A-Bear.  We took her paci and placed it inside a Kitty and then it got sewn up.  She knows that the Kitty "Ate" her paci and she can feel it inside the Kitty's leg.  She didn't even cry for it!  I was shocked.  She whined the first couple days but still went to sleep.  Naps and All!  I was so happy!  It was funny too, this picture of her and her Kitty is recent (we did this about a month or so ago) and for a couple weeks she did not like the Kitty.  It wasn't allowed in her bed and had to sit in a corner of her room! haha! 

As for her development, Kaitlyn has grown tremendously in the past few months even.  Her talking has gotten so much better and she can now count to 10 and sometimes 20...though rare.  She still knows all her alphabet and can call out the letters, but cannot sing the song in order yet.  She has also turned into a big "helper."  She loves to pull chairs all around the kitchen watching me cook or do dishes or feed Brayden.   Kaitlyn also went to Disney World with my mom for a few days in March.  She had a blast and did really well away from me.  They stopped at Justin's parents house for 2 days and then drove on down to Disney for 2 days.  She loved all the rides.  So we bought Carowinds season passes and I was very upset to find out they have a 36" height requirement for most of the kiddie rides!  She can't even go on the little swings!  I was pretty mad.  Here's Nana and Kaitlyn at Animal Kingdom!

Kaitlyn has also gotten so much better about playing with other kids.  She actually enjoys being around them now.  Not to say she doesn't still like me there, but she is getting better at playing with others.  I really wonder how she would do in Nursery without me, but since I am the leader I guess that is not going to happen anytime soon.  I really think she would do OK though.  The only thing I would maybe be concerned about is her going potty.  She may be too shy to tell someone else when she needs to go yet.  Today Monkey Joes was offering free admission if you donating a roll of wrapping paper.  Below are a couple pictures from our visit!  She eventually loved it, but it took some warming up to the slides.  She can be a big scaredy cat on slides.  It takes a long time of coaxing to get her to come down. 

Soxy

I have been an emotional wreck this last week or so.  I don't think I ever mentioned on this blog before, but about 4 months ago or so we gave our cat Layla away to a nice young girl who was looking for a companion.  Layla had been peeing outside the litter box and I don't think was very happy in our home anyway.  She was a timid cat and hated Kaitlyn and never even really came around me.  I figured she would be better off with someone without kids.  So that left us with my sweet Soxy.  I have had Soxy for almost 5 years and in that time she had never had an accident.  Then all of the sudden in the last few weeks she has been consistently going on our furniture.  It started out as only poop.  Which was of course annoying, but easy enough to clean up.  I talked to our friend who is a vet and he told me it definitely sounded behavioral and gave a me a few suggestions to try.  He said she was mad about something and cats often do this to express themselves.  Well, then one day she decided to pee on the couch.  As most of you may know, cat pee is something not easily cleaned.  They say the odor is equivalent to a skunk and almost nothing can remove the smell.  We have doused it with cleaners and chemicals and nothing is working.  Justin who is not a cat person was very annoyed and did not want to put up with this.  So I gave in and put an ad on Craigslist for a good home being honest about why we were giving her up.  A lady contacted me and I met her with Soxy and said goodbye.  I cried the entire rest of the day and all night long.  I became a crazy person and called the lady saying I made a huge mistake and wanted her back :)  So they returned her and I tried working with her a little more.  She was fine for about a week being out during the day and then I would lock her up at night so she didn't get into any trouble.  Unfortunately she still had another accident on the carpet.  I was so upset but still wanted to give her another chance.  Then this past Sunday was the last straw.  I was sitting on the floor playing with Kaitlyn and she squatted right in front of me and peed on the furniture again!  Later I went upstairs and came back down and she had pooped on our different couch!  And then later on she peed again right in front of Justin!  I was devastated.  Not only was I annoyed that she is ruining all my furniture, but I knew I could not keep her like this.  She has been so mad at us and is showing herself.  I don't know if it was losing Layla or if she is mad about Brayden.  B/c one of the accidents was right outside his room.  Anyway, I reposted an ad and finally ended up giving her to two gay guys.  They seemed nice enough and they had two other cats they rescued.  I thought maybe she would actually enjoy life with another cat again.  Then I became crazy person again today.  Emailing them 3 different times saying I am not sure if I made the right decision and I might need to find her another home.  I have stalked them on Facebook trying to find out more about them.  So there you have it.  I am a crazy, stalking, emotional wreck.  I am so sad I had to give away my sweet Soxy.  I really loved that cat, but unfortunately cat pee is something Justin most definitely was not going to deal with.  And I can't say that I blame him.  As I sit here on our couch typing this I can still smell it seeping into my nose.  Guess we are going to be couch shopping come Memorial day.  We are now a catless family.  We are definitely not dog people and I am too afraid to get another cat.  Plus I gave everything away with Soxy.  I just can't bear the thought of getting attached to another one and something horrible happening.  So I guess I just have to hope she will adjust well to her new home and that they will treat her well.  Here is one last picture Justin took of Kaitlyn and Soxy before she left us :(