thinking......

So I started a post yesterday that I still need to add pictures to, but I have misplaced the "thingy" (that's right, I call it a thingy) one uses to upload pictures to the computer.  I will find it tonight.

But I have been thinking......to facebook or not to facebook??  This is probably such a silly post for most of you, but I can't decide whether or not to start a facebook page, so I am opening it up to you all.  I have held out this long from not having a facebook account, but some of you probably already know I get my "facebook fix" by using Brian's.

Here's the thing.  I have reconnected to a lot of people I miss through Brian's facebook and every time I want to post something on their wall I need to end it with "love, al" so people know it is me and not Brian. And it is just getting annoying.  And let's face it, a ton of information is communicated through fb.   So why am I still holding out??  Because.....I don't want to be the "mean one" who doesn't particularly want to "add a friend," but we all know there are those friend requests that come along.  And let me clarify.  Those I am not so keen on adding (who could potentially ask) are ones that in some way or another upset me in my lifetime.  And I am not talking close friends.  How can I explain it....hmmm...for example, it could be people that hurt your feelings in high school that you never forgot about. (and you are probably thinking my delimma here is quite "high school-ish.)  ha ha.  Anyhow I think to myself - they don't need to know anything about my personal life. Which is why I have a blog, so do I need facebook?

Some of you will get this post and think it is quite ridiculous, but I am hoping others will totally get what I am talking about.  Time to chime in.

just a quick post

Just thought I would post a few quick pictures since I know that is what everyone really wants to see. ;)  Last post I talked about Katelyn's 2nd birthday cake.  Well, here it is.  She was quite excited about it and you can see her digging into it (I am not sure which birthday cake she made a bigger mess with - her 1st or her 2nd.)  She loves playing with the castle and princesses these days.

Just mom and Katelyn taking a quick picture celebrating her birthday.  I am sad to report I don't have a family picture to post, sad, isn't it?  Any parents out there know what birthdays are like, nonstop craziness, getting everything in order, etc.  Luckily the grandparents took a family photo for us.

Katelyn likes Mickey Mouse and was excited to open "dancing Mickey."  Her little laughs of joy are priceless.

I also mentioned awhile back that we got the double stroller (aka, my new car) back out for Spring.  Below was the kids' first stroller ride of 2011.  Looks pretty cold out with all the snow in the background, but I promise you it was warm enough.  The picture was taken quite awhile ago, but we are walking almost everyday the weather is nice and we are loving every minute of it!

Year book picture?!?!  Although you can't see her pretty long hair this picture totally captures her personality.  She has dad's hat on and mom's shoes.  What a hoot.

And do you think Jonathan drools enough?!?!  And sorry to say, no teeth, even after all the drool.  Katelyn didn't get her teeth until later so I am thinking Jonathan is on the same track.  He is pretty unusual in the sense he will not eat baby food.  It is very frustrating, but obviously he isn't malnourished.  He did get his first ear infection about a week and a half ago and weighed 19 lbs. at almost 7 months!  But still, every time the spoon goes near his mouth he just keeps those lips sealed tight.  The little stinker even has even figured out how to chuckle and keep his mouth closed at the same time.  Mommy tries to trick him sometimes, and he has caught on. 

Katelyn has really been enjoying legos lately.  It has become her bedtime routine (legos have now replaced reading books.)  Katelyn and dad built a giant tower and she sure was proud of it!

And our third baby, Sophie, is always in the background.  Sophie and Katelyn are actually starting to play with one another, although Katelyn isn't always the sweetest.  Sometimes is it more pestering Sophie than anything.  It is so hard to take a picture of Soph because she is black, but her brown eyes are under that black hair somewhere!  ha ha.  Hope everyone is enjoying the weather.  Hopefully we make it to the zoo this weekend (which might entail taking some fun pictures!)

where does the time go?

I did it again.  I began writing this post over two weeks ago.  Sorry for the delay in posting.

Jonathan had his six month appointment this morning.  He is just under 18lbs. (17 lbs, 15 oz) to be exact. He is in the 50th percentile for both weight and height - can't get more average than that.  Of course I think my little guy is more than average and quite special. :)  He is rolling everywhere, so much that it has disturbed his sleep a bit.  Some of you may not know, but because he was colic early on, we had him swaddled all the time.  This was the only way to calm him and as a result he would only sleep this way too.  Well since he has been rolling over so much from his back to his tummy we have quit the swaddle cold turkey.  So naturally this is a big adjustment for the little guy.  But he is doing better than I expected.  We still encourage him to put himself to sleep and bless his heart, he still does, but just with a little extra help.  He is so happy and I am loving every second of him (makes me wish I could steal back that time with Katelyn)  I am so fortunate to be at home with him.  Speaking of........

Katelyn was enrolled at Montessori part time starting Feb. 14th.  Part time means, every day (yes, every day) from 8:45-11:45am.  I thought this would be great:  I could spend some more one on one with Jonathan, actually clean this messy place, and even run errands here and there.  BUT, I couldn't take it - I missed her SO much!!!  I pulled her out of the program only after one week!  ha ha.  Hey, at least I gave it a week.  But really, what was a thinking?  We both cried every day after I dropped her off, but I have her all to myself now, and although she is challenging at times, I now know, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Katelyn had her two year appointment about two weeks ago and also celebrated her 2nd birthday on February 20th!  I can hardly believe it.  We celebrated with family at good ol' Happy Joe's.  It was wonderful - she had the best princess cake ever!  Except when we went to cut into it, she freaked out.  I think she thought the whole thing was a toy, but only the the princesses and castle were plastic.  Every other part of it was cake and frosting, even the ramp to the castle!  ha ha. (will post some b-day pictures soon)  She is so blessed to have such a great big, fun, loving family, and so are Brian and me. Thank you family for such a fun celebration!

Since I am running out of time I will try and post again soon.  Things have been great here, but I am ready for the nice weather and to take the kiddos out in the double stroller.  Yes, when I got the new stroller, it was like I got a new car!  ha ha.  I only got to use a few times right after Jonathan was born and the weather got bad.  So needless to say, I am excited.  I get exercise and the kids get fresh air.  It is a win - win.

An end to the holidays....

Well the last two weeks have been a whirlwind without much sleep, chaotic and exciting all at the same time.  We have a new camera so I am hoping to post new pictures from the holiday.  (Side note: I am writing this as Katelyn eats her lunch - she is trying to pick up her water with her two feet and take a drink.  Never a dull moment with a growing and creative mind like hers.)
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with Brian's family in the Quad Cities.  The kids unwrapped so many new toys and of course, Katelyn wanted every single one opened, and Jonathan didn't know the difference.  We are very blessed to be able to spend the holidays with our family.

Okay..........this is hilarious.....the first two paragraphs you just read were written, uh, about a month ago.  So here I go again trying to catch up.  Jonathan had his 4 month appointment and he weighed 16 lbs. (75th percentile) and only in the 25th percentile for height. ha ha Katelyn was in the 95th percentile for both height and weight at 4 months old (17.5 lbs and 25.75 inches)  He is now officially 5 months old and is about to burst out of his 6 month clothing, so 9 month clothing here we come.  He has become such a delight - he is constantly smiling and watching his big sis.  If you would have asked me a couple months ago how he would act at this age I never would have thought he would be so laid back.  I am telling you, when you have a colic baby, it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but Jonathan is so cheerful now.

Here are some pictures of him at one week old!  And then around 4 months!  (I know, I am still behind on pictures)  My little boy has changed so much.

Handsome daddy and son

Katelyn is growing too, becoming miss independent.  She will be 2 years old in less than a month.  It brings tears to my eyes.  Little stinker is becoming smarter every day.  Probably her greatest milestone to date is her pooping in the potty!  Yep, it was quite a moment.  She was excited and then scared.  And unfortunately I cannot get her to sit on the potty since that moment.  Patience, patience, patience.  I guess I am not that much in a hurry, but there is a lot of diaper changing going on here. :)  Anyhow, here are some pictures from the past 4 months or so.  Enjoy!

Katelyn's scrunchy face she makes when looking for airplanes in the sky. (18 months old)

Katelyn had a special day at the apple orchard with mommy, daddy, and jonathan. (19 months old) 

Feeding the animals her apples and then getting upset she can't have it back.

Probably our first family picture out and about.  We had a special friend playing peek-a-boo with us.

Playing dress up in her Halloween costume.

This picture is totally her personality.  One sassy, sweet, too cool for school little girl.

lost camera

So how fun is it to read a blog without pictures?  Not very fun.  I haven't been able to find our camera, which means we don't have pictures to post, nor do we have any recent pictures of the kids.  I will search tonight, hopefully.

But since I am trying my best to keep this blog up to date I will share a few of my favorite things that have happened this week.

Miss Katelyn: How I love her dearly.  As I have mentioned earlier, she is loving Disney movies and all the princesses.  She has a princess nightgown (it has three princesses on it: Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, and I can't remember the other) that I know she just feels soooo pretty in, but I have not put her in it for some time since the weather has been cold.  Well I decided to dress her in it for a change.

I always check on her before I go to bed so that night I walked into her room and noticed a white thing in her crib.  She had taken off her diaper!  Her blanket was covering her, so I moved the blanket and there was her bare butt up in the air (she sleeps on her tummy).  It was so funny and cute.  So Brian and I quietly put another diaper on her while she was sleeping.  The next morning Brian went in the room to get her and there she was without a diaper again.  Needless to say, we wont be putting her in nightgowns for awhile.

Katelyn is also into singing and dancing.  Her favorite artists are Pink and Katie Perry.  It must be the beat because she gets really pumped up when she hears them.  She is also singing "Just the way you are" by Bruno Mars.  I adore hearing her.  Have a listen to the song if you don't know what it is.

Jonathan: Not much to report here, since babies just eat, sleep, smile, and cry.  He is growing so fast.  He has his 4 month appointment coming up which is always exciting to see how much they have grown.  He is loving his play gym more and more everyday and is starting to grab for the hanging toys.  He is also on the verge of breaking out in a laugh.  We are so close and I am always making silly sounds to encourage it.  We are also trying to implement "sleep training," but nothing to harsh since he is still so little.  Just trying to get more of routine down and help him fall asleep on his own.  It is going well, but wakes up easily to Katelyn's and Sophie's sounds.

Brian and I are getting ready for the holiday.  The next two weeks should be fun with family.  We will spend Christmas with his family and then visit my family New Year's weekend.  There is so much to be thankful for.  Hopefully we can get Katelyn to see Santa!

More pictures coming soon, promise.

2nd chances

Okay for all of you that were giving me a "hard" time about not blogging, I am going to give it a 2nd chance.  I will have to keep this simple, at first.  Between being "blog illiterate" and having two kids under 2, I am not sure I can get fancy.  But I figure this is a great way to keep everyone in my life updated at one time and also have a timeline of my kids' lives to look back on.

It is hard to find a place to begin.  I attempted to start a blog in July 2010 on my last day of work.  I knew my friends at work would want updates and I knew finding the time to do so would be difficult.  So this is for you ladies.

The past six months in a nutshell:

July - moved to Bettendorf in our tiny white rental house (yes, two bedrooms, one bath)  Even bigger, Brian starts working as Dr. Fritz!  It only took 20+ years of school, but he has Fridays off.  Ah, the perks of being a dentist.  (wink, wink)

August - Jonathan David Fritz was born (August 26th to be exact) weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. (just 4 oz. more than his big sister Katelyn.)

September - Gosh, all I really remember is nursing Jonathan 24/7 until I got mastitis (for the second time; I got mastitis with Katelyn too.) Katelyn probably watched Mr. Fantastic Fox every day this month, no joke, and had the whole movie memorized.

October - Ohhh the colic sets in - yep, Jonathan was colic, and it was not fun.  The only time he didn't cry or fuss was when he was asleep, and keeping him asleep was hard with Katelyn's energetic personality in our small living space.  Katelyn was a bumble bee for Halloween, which didn't go so well.  Which is why I do not have pictures of her.  She loves playing dress up in her costume, but when it came to trick-or-treating she wanted no part of it.  Maybe next year.

November - Family gets sick and poor Jonathan's colic peaks.  But toward the end of November everyone improves and Jonathan becomes quite a ham with his cute smile.  Mom and Dad are much happier and get much more sleep.

December - Getting ready for the holidays and getting out of the house more.  Katelyn goes to music class every Monday and has a play group on Thursdays.  Jonathan has started joining us for these excursions - before his Winkie (aka, Grandma) watched him.  Katelyn has moved on to Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Frosty! (tis the season)

I hope my post didn't seem all negative, but times were tough there for awhile.  And I am happy to say things are sooooo much better now.  I love staying at home with my kids and cherish the time even more, knowing how much I missed out with Katelyn when she was in daycare and I worked full time until she was about 14 months.  She is too funny and makes me laugh all the time.  Jonathan is a cheese ball now too (crying much less.)

Now, for what you all have been waiting to see.......

Don't newborns always look so beat up righ after delivery?  Poor  little ones; it's tough coming into the world.

Katelyn's first time seeing Jonathan.  Big sister isn't too sure about this....

Katelyn seeing Jonathan on day 2 - warming up a bit.

Dad has bragged since the day he was born about Jonathan's head control and neck strength.  He had to have a picture of it.  I believe Jonathan was 2 days old in this picture since we are still at the hospital.

Leaving the hospital to go home!