Despite lots of travel (traffic, impatience, kids screaming, headaches, etc.), we had another wonderful Thanksgiving with the kids.  Last weekend my mom came up to Palatine in order to help me on the drive down to T-Town Sunday since Brian still had to work the beginning of the week.  We were incredibly lucky because the kids slept/were quiet the whole three hours (ok, so I sped a little)!  We had a good time in T-Town; I got to visit with my friends and immediate family.  Unfortunately, my grandma was sick and lots of people were busy working, so we didn’t get to spend time with many of our loved ones.  Olivia and Connor were spoiled, but they still exhausted me.  Being in a new place must really be hard on kids because even though Olivia reaped attention from my parents, sister, and brother-in-law, she was incredibly clingy and bossy towards me.  However, I was incredibly impressed at how well Olivia did sleeping on a real bed since Connor has inherited the pack-n-play.

On Thanksgiving we went to Brian’s Uncle Ken and Aunt Madelyn’s house for the annual festivities–always a good time with good food and awesome relatives.  Olivia took a little while to warm up to everyone, but by the end of the night, she didn’t want to leave.  She was saying goodbye to me and Brian; silly girl!  Connor hurt Brian’s feelings a little by taking a bottle easily from Aunt Kelly.  (Currently, it seems like Connor doesn’t like Brian very much–always crying in his arms, not taking a bottle without a fuss, etc.  I’m sure it’s just a phase, but it’s a tiring stage for the both of us.  Brian’s mentally hurt, and my arms and back ache because Connor is a heavy kid, and I’m holding/carrying him all of the time.)

One of Brian’s highlights from yesterday was receiving a GeoTrax–oops, I mean enjoying Connor’s GeoTrax gift.  Seriously, I have never seen a 30-year old get so excited about a kids toy before.  It’s really cute.  All through breakfast this morning Brian kept asking Olivia if she wanted to put the train together, and once it was assembled, they watched the train circle around the track for an hour. 

Most of the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll mention a few things.  Of course, they’re in some random order, but in the first row I’d like you to notice my daughter’s amazing splits, my dad and Olivia admiring his windmill that he restored and put up himself, Olivia looking out the glass sliding door at my parents (there’s an identical picture of me in the same pose), and a sweet shot of Grandma Carro and Connor.  No explanation needed for second or third rows, but I do love the shot of Olivia and Connor lounging in their respective chairs.  In the fourth row, you’ll see how strong Connor is getting–lifting up his head and chest; next is picture of Connor and my T-Town neighbor’s (who I used to baby-sit) 4-month old boy Brody (so cute!); the next shot is one I took this morning of the “kids” setting up the GeoTrax, and the final shot in the row is of Grandpa Carro and Olivia playing the drums to Beatles Rock Band.

Before every doctor’s appointment, Brian and I like to make a friendly wager about our kids’ growth.  Yesterday morning Connor went in for his 2 month check-up, and he blew our weight guesses right off the charts.  Brian and I thought that he was in 12 lb. range, but oh no, Connor weighs in at 14 lbs, 13 oz!!!!  The nurse and I were so taken aback that we weighed him 2 more times.  That’s a 4 lb. gain in one month, which, to me, is absolutely crazy, but the doctor said I shouldn’t withhold any feedings because he’s still normal, especially given his height–now an inch longer.  In any case, Connor is truly a “big boy.”  But he is also extremely cute!  He’s started smiling and cooing a couple of weeks ago, and now he doesn’t stop.  I’ve had so many wonderful, endearing moments with him this week–just playing on the floor and “talking.”  He still isn’t sleeping very well, but last night was heavenly!  He slept for five hours, nursed, and then slept for another two, nursed, and slept for another two!  I felt so refreshed this morning!  Brian and I are hoping for a repeat performance, but we aren’t going to hold our breaths.

So, I’ve been venturing out to the library’s storytime once a week with the kids.  It’s been quite an experience.  Last week Olivia was the “bad kid” at storytime.  Before storytime even started, she was grabbing toys, dragging them to one side of the kids’ area, leaving them, then grabbing different ones, and dragging them to another side of the area.  Luckily, Connor was sleeping, so I could follow her path, pick up after her, and even redirect/focus her attention from time to time.  Then when it was time for all the kids to go into the story room, Olivia started to follow the other kids and moms with me, but she veered off at the last minute.  I tried to catch her, but she doubled back and I lost her for a couple of minutes.  Of course, I started to sweat, but I could still hear her.  After what seemed like five minutes but was really only one or two, I found her inside Thomas the Train, waving at the little kids and their moms, shouting “Hi.”  Jeez!  We were the last ones to enter the story room; then Olivia wouldn’t sit down.  She tried running up to the librarian’s chair; she tried talking out of turn; she tried to scream.  After receiving a couple “looks,” I took Olivia out of the room.  We went back in after five minutes, and she did much better, but I had to hold her the whole time.  Fortunately, Olivia was much better this week at storytime.  She played nicely with the toys, didn’t run away, sat during most of the storytime, and read several books with me after storytime.  Ahh!  She’s a fast learner.

Let’s see Olivia’s speech is also improving, learning new words every day.  She’s saying a couple of 2 or 3 word phrases.  Her favorite is “help me.”  She pulled a “I want that” out of nowhere at Navy Pier.  She can count to ten and say the first couple of letters of the alphabet.  And in addition to her vocal skills, she’s very manipulative.  At Navy Pier, she got Grandpa Carro to buy her a panda bear by refusing to put the bear down and making sad little faces.  I can’t blame him since the day before she suckered Brian and me into buying her a stuffed moose.  At least she’s been carrying the two animals around everywhere. 

Last week was Brian’s first week back to school (boo!), and wouldn’t you know it…Olivia came down with a sinus infection and pink eye!  Thus, my mothering skills were put to the test, and thankfully, I triumphed with some help from my awesome husband and mother-in-law.  I’m so glad that I’ve never had pink eye, but I truly hope my kids don’t get it again either…it’s awful to look at; every time I glanced at Olivia, I winced.  See a relatively tame shot of her below.

Unfortunately, Olivia’s illness also brought back her need to be “babied,” which wasn’t so bad at first, but with jealousy of Connor’s attention thrown into the mix, temper tantrums entered the Carro household.  I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or scream when Olivia started rolling on the living room and following me into every room of the house howling, but I did none of those things.  I just called Brian and begged him to break the speed limit when driving home.  The other thing that complicated my life with two little ones all alone is that Olivia has learned how to open and close doors (and not just the refrigerator).  Now that might not seem so bad, but when I’m nursing Connor, she’s out of my reach and will sometimes ignore my “no’s.”  (We had to break down and put safety knobs on some of the rooms.)

Needless to say, we did not really celebrate Halloween this year; we just went to Grandma and Grandpa Carro’s house.  I did try to put Olivia in her puppy costume, but as you can see from the crying picture below, it didn’t go well.  Connor didn’t mind his “cow” costume until Olivia stepped on his arm.    And we did get our first trick-or-treater in all four and half years of living here!

So, the past week and half really haven’t been that bad.  I’ve got to spend lots of quality time with my kids.  Now that Olivia is back at daycare a couple days a week, I really miss her.  Update on Olivia:  She’s using so many words now; we have to be really careful because she repeats almost everything we say, including “crap,” “shoot,” and her personal favorite that she says all of hte time now–”oh jeez” and “oh man.”  Sometimes her voice is soft and sweet–just utterly adorable–and other times, she’s yelling or grunting her words.  It’s a riot listening to her.  Our hearts absolutely melt, though, when she says her brother’s name–”Non-nor.”  Oh–here’s something that’s funny and really odd–Olivia is scared of whipped cream.  We’re not sure why–the can?, the substance?–but she will freak out if it’s on her tray, yelling “no…clean” repeatedly.

Update on Connor:  he’s becoming more and more alert, staring at my face quite often.  Yesterday he grinned at me several times, but I’m still waiting for the big smile!  He’s also starting to sleep a little longer at night (3-4 hour chunks), but I have to hold him from 8:30-10:00 usually to insure any results.

This week Olivia turned 18 months old and Connor reached the 1 month mark, which, of course, meant doctor’s appointments and a photo shoot.  I’ve posted some pictures below; we didn’t get too many good ones because little miss independent wanted to play and run around the studio instead of sitting and smiling for the photographer. Even still, we got some cute shots.

Their doctor’s appointments went well, particularly Connor’s since he didn’t have to have any shots.  Connor has gained almost 2 pounds already.  He now weighs 10 lbs., 4 oz. (75%) and measures 24 inches (97%).  He’s a big boy and extremely healthy.  Olivia is now 32 1/4 inches tall and 26 lbs–in the 75th percentile.  She didn’t like the doctor much, but she recovered from the shots rather well, staying a good mood the rest of the day.

Last Sunday we took the kids to Didier’s Pumpkin Patch and met up with Grandma and Grandpa Carro and Uncle Kevin.  It was crazy busy there…probably because it was one of the first nice days we’ve had this month.  Olivia was a little shy at first but soon warmed up after seeing all of the animals.   One of the funniest moments was when Olivia saw a little kid dressed up as a giraffe; she just stared at him for three minutes, not knowing what to make of the situation.  She also enjoyed running through all of the pumpkins and especially being able to dance inside a little kid house.

Brian caught the picture of Keira after taking a shower one day–he figured out that this is what she does when we leave the house.  Crazy dog would probably jump down onto the stairs if someone tried to break in!  Oh Keira!

Life with two kids is busy!  I don’t know if Brian and I realized how active Olivia was until another little one needed our attention, too.  It also doesn’t help that Connor wants to be held all of the time if he’s not eating (which is how he spends the majority of the day).  Plus, he really isn’t sleeping much, so we haven’t been able to do much school work.  All of our free time goes to keeping the house decent, running errands, and completing random tasks.  So, Brian and I are playing one-on-one defense and holding our own…so far.  My cousin informed me (rather disconcertingly) that the true chaos/challenge doesn’t happen until kid #3 comes along, though.  Needless to say, Brian and I will be holding off on having another child for quite awhile. 

Fortunately,  Olivia loves her little brother.  She kisses him often, runs to him when he cries and tries to comfort him, and even helps change his diaper.  She’s only tried to step on his head twice, but thankfully, she thought better of the action.  Olivia has shown more of her frustration towards me and Brian, wanting to be held more and literally demanding more of our attention.  She’s also grown up in the past four weeks:  she’s learned how to open refrigerators, climb onto everything, grab stuff on high counters, is talking much more, is trying to walk Keira, etc.  And her hair is getting long enough for pigtails now.  She’s a hoot!

So–in the past month, we’ve had lots of visitors, including Brian’s grandma and my grandma, my aunt and uncle, and my cousins from Effingham.  It was awesome to get to spend time with them and not have to travel four hours south!  One weekend Grandma and Grandpa Carro and Kelly took Olivia to a farm in Glenview, and Olivia had a blast with them and his co-workers, seeing all of the animals, painting pumpkins, and running around Gracie.

Bright and early Thursday morning (September 24th), I woke up feeling a little uncomfortable.  An hour later, around 2:30 AM, I called my doctor who told me to head to the hospital.  By the time I arrived at the hospital–3:30 AM–my contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes and I was fully dialated.   Two hours later at 5:22 AM, Connor William Carro arrived into the world, weighing in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces and measuring 22 1/2 inches long.  (It was such an “easy” delivery that I feel kind of bad talking about it.  Sorry, Sarah!)  He was so quiet that I had to ask if something was wrong (nothing like Olivia who came out screaming).  Fortunately, Connor is perfect–all twenty fingers and toes, no jaundice, and is a pretty reasonable kid unless he’s really hungry or not getting what he wants (hmmm…that’s more like Olivia).  No one can tell who he looks like; me, I think he looked like an old man with Brian’s hobbit feet attached (check out the photo below) the first two days.  Now, he’s starting to look a little more like Olivia did when she was a baby but with blondish hair.

Brian and I are slowly adjusting to the sleepless nights again; I can’t say they are all too pleasant, not that Connor has been too fussy; we’ve just been spoiled with a wonderful sleeper in Olivia for the past year or so.  Olivia and Keira are adjusting to life with a newborn (again–for Keira), and they, too, have handled things rather well so far.  Neither have shown much jealousy or resentment; in fact, they both seem very concerned when Connor cries.  Olivia has tried helping Connor by bringing him pacifers and blankets, but for the most part, she just does her own thing, seeking her own attention and fun.   Now that our weekend of visitors has passed, I wonder how she’ll adapt with just the five of us.

I’ve included lots of photos of Connor at the hospital and him arriving home.  There are also some of Olivia, who LOVES boxes as you can see.  She was very excited to receive presents from her brother (a super huge teddy bear–bigger than she is), both sets of grandparents, and her aunt Kelly. Of course, the pictures aren’t in any order.  Some of our favorites include the one of Connor getting his hearing tested; it looks like he’s rocking out while catching some zzz’s.  Brian loves the one of Olivia clapping wildly for me when I had my first beer after what seems like an eternity.

Well, time got away from me again, and I lost all of my chances to update the blog with pictures and updates of Olivia before Connor arrived.  Sorry! I know I’ve been slacking.

Since I’ve last posted, summer has ended and the school year started, which has kept all of us pretty busy although I have been extremely fortunate this year because I love my classes and my students!  In fact, I was really hoping that Connor would arrive later than the due date so I could continue to teach.  (I really hope I love them just as much when I return to work in January.)   So, since the school year started, we’ve been trying to prepare our house for another new baby, go to any parties/outings we could, and just spend as much time with Olivia and Keira as possible; needless to say, we’ve kept busy.  Oh–and a week before school started, Olivia’s babysitter told us that she was moving to take care of her mother, so we had to find a new babysitter pretty quickly even though Olivia doesn’t start going to her until next week.  Fortunately, we are really excited about the new babysitter, so the disappointment and stress with the initial news was quickly overcome.

So, let’s see…as far as Olivia’s development is concerned…she is ridiculously cute, funny, precocious, manipulative, and adorable.  It seems like she learns a million things a day now…especially in the past two weeks.  Now she is saying up to 2-5 new words a day; of course, not all of the words come out clearly, but boy, does she love trying to sound like she knows what she’s talking about.  Yesterday, she learned “easy,” and I think that’s her all-time new favorite word; she busts out laughing as soon as she says it.  She also still loves naming all of the body parts, pointing them out on herself, the dog, us….really anything.  And from the time she’s up in the morning ’til bedtime, our little girl is “on the go,” running, dancing, twirling, marching, tippy-toeing around everywhere.  (The only time she sits still is to read books, which she still loves, too. or to eat–but even then she’s twisting/turning and trying to feed Keira.) You would think that with as much energy as she burns moving around so much, her belly would be shrinking, but it’s not.  But she may be keeping her tummy rotund because she’s just so proud of it; yep, she shows it off as much as she can.  While Olivia has loved her baby doll for the past five months, we’ve seen her become more of a “mommy” lately, mimicking many of my actions with her baby.  In fact, not only did she “help” Brian put together many of the baby things, but she’s also been playing with them, too.  (Check out the picture of her hiding under the bassinet.)

I’m sure that I’m forgetting lots of things, but here are some pictures of precious daughter–all of which were taken before Connor arrived.  Notice how “artsy” some of the pictures are; Brian’s been playing with the setting on our new camera and doing a great job of capturing some precious moments!

We’ve been packing in the fun for Olivia this summer.  Last week she went to one of Palatine’s pools and had a blast. Then we went with the DeLugas to Brookfield Zoo on one of the hottest days this summer; fortunately, Olivia loved seeing the animals.  While she liked seeing all of the animals she knew (and can make sounds for), she especially loved the dolphins and sea lions.  (Brian’s getting pumped about taking her to Shedd’s Aquarium now–one of his favorite places!)  I guess she was pretty interested in the monkeys and gorillas, too.  Check out her goofy smile/monkey face below.  This weekend she spent some time with baby Easton Abbey and baby Alessandra Mirkovich, which she also very much enjoyed.  She even helped feed Easton his lunch.  Plus, she got to spend some quality time at Grandma and Grandpa Carro’s house while Brian and I attended a wedding.  All in all, she’s had a pretty full summer.

Ok–so on the last blog I forgot to report Olivia’s growth since we went to the doctor.  At 15 months, she now weighs 24 1/2 pounds and is 31 1/2 inches tall–in between 75th and 90th percentiles.  She had a really excellent doctor’s visit, impressing the doctor with a bright, cheery attitude and showing off all of her skills like pointing to all of her body parts (nose, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, belly, toes, hands, feet) and making all of her animal sounds (dog, cat, cow, pig, duck, lion, elephant, snake, bear, monkey, lizard, and crocodile). Brian and I were so impressed with her that we took her out for ice cream afterwards.  Since she’s so developmentally strong physically, we are starting to work on her speech a little more and on setting limits (especially since sometimes she will pout, cry, or throw mini-tantrums when she doesn’t get her way).  Olivia says about 10 words consistently, but she definitely knows more than she’s willing to share.  For example, it’s like pulling teeth to get her to call me “mom.”  She knows how to say “ma” and will say it while reading books, etc., but when she calls for me, it’s “da” (Brian is “da da”).  Who knows what she’s thinking?  Manner-wise: she’s pretty good about signing “please” and “thank you,” but she really doesn’t do it unless she’s reminded.

The pictures below are of our family’s latest adventures.  We had dinner with the Barrett family earlier this week, and Olivia and Jack not only got a kick out of playing with all of Jack’s toys, but they also really enjoyed locking each other in the dog’s cage.   The second to last picture is of Olivia pushing her high chair into place for dinner; this is a new habit of hers:  letting us know she’s hungry with “subtle” hints such as this.  Then there are pictures of her on the Carro tractor, one with Grandma reading, and one with Great-Grandma checking out Olivia’s new tent, which a neighbor gave us.  (It’s fantastic!)  The first two rows of pictures were taken this morning downtown when we went to visit Marcy.  Olivia had such a blast at Grant & Millennium Parks and walking down Michigan Avenue.