Cousins!

Well, this was going to be a post with Mia's four month stats, but we decided to skip that appointment... no big deal, right?

Last Friday I found out that my brother and his family were in Atlanta. Say, what?! It's only a four hour drive, why the heck didn't they tell me they were coming? Supposedly he thought he remembered from the last time they were out here (two years ago) that it was more like six hours away. Turns out they flew into Atlanta, but were going to do a sort of Southern tour and were heading out the next morning for Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama before heading back to Atlanta on Thursday. So we planned on meeting up there yesterday after we had Amelia and Copper's check ups. I guess Montgomery isn't as exciting as one might think, so they got into Atlanta Wednesday night and we decided our "family emergency" could push back Mia's appointment a few days. (And thankfully Peter's dad was willing to take Copper to his!).

We met them for lunch at an Atlanta institution, Mary Mac's Tea room. Unforunately I didn't see anyone all dressed in black, or even any silver buttons! It was just a cute little place with all the famous southern food: black-eyed peas, collard greens, chicken and dumplings, peach cobbler, etc. Then we went to ImagineIt: The Children's Museum of Atlanta. The kids had a lot of fun, but it was fairly unimpressive to me. The last time we went to a Children's museum Nate was a little too young to enjoy it, though it was much bigger, but he loved this place! I'm sure being with his cousin helped a lot.

This is the kind of sand they need at the beach - perfect for sand castles.

Clifford, Emily Elizabeth and Nate

Fishing in their super cute rain coats!

After the museum, we headed right across the street to Centennial Olympic Park, home of the 1996 Olympic Games. It has a couple of playgrounds, a water feature, a burger restaurant, and is just a nice place to hang out in the middle of downtown. From there we went to their hotel for a little breather before a very disappointing dinner and the drive home.

Lulu and Nate, sliding away

These kids were holding hands and giving hugs and kisses to each other all day! Then right when we left the restaurant Nate "called" Lindsay and told her she's his best friend. :) Too cute!

Madison and Amelia - Cruising in style!

Pooped

Mia and Maddie, just hanging around

Luckily Mia traveled like a champ. She got fussy a few times on the way there, but as soon as she got her binky back (thank God for Peter's long arms!) she was fine. We stopped one time for a quick bathroom-diaper-feeding-break, but otherwise she slept the whole way there and back. Nate didn't sleep on the way there, but crashed HARD on the way home and didn't even wake up when Peter carried him uupstairs, put him in pajamas and into bed.

We all can't wait to see them again in July for Mia's baptism and our trip to the beach with my sister, her daughter and my mom!

Check back in about a week for Amelia's four-and-a-half month stats. I imagine we will actually make the next appointment.

Kidney check

We had Nate's annual kidney check-up this week. Unfortunately, because his nephrologist is located in Charlotte, we usually have to make a full day of it. Last year they said we might be able to schedule it in Gastonia, but I guess she stopped making the trek to the other side of the tracks. He had an ultrasound scheduled for 11am, so we dropped Peter's car off for service on our way in. Pretty much as soon as we got checked in to the appointment Mia had a blow out, so I headed to the bathroom to change her.

On a side note, I HATE Luvs diapers! We got a box as a gift, which I really appreciate of course, but we have had about three of four blow-outs since we started using them. And they are always at the most inopportune moments - at church, doctor appointments, the middle of the night, visiting Peter at Barnes and Noble... So, I think I've decided that we are only going to use these at home so at least if it happens it's not as big of an inconvenience. Vent over.

While we were in the bathroom getting Mia changed, Nate got buzzed for the ultrasound and by the time I was done with her, they were done with the ultrasound! This kid is like a pro because he didn't wiggle at all and let the lady (who was the same as did it last year) get all the shots she needed no problem. Since we were done with the ultrasound before his appointment was even scheduled and we had almost two hours to kill before his main appointment, we drove to one of the Charlotte malls to have lunch. I guess we have made this kind of an annual tradition, because what else are we going to do with that time? It's not enough time to drive back home, but way too much time to just hang around the hospital. But it gives them enough time to get the results/report from the ultrasound to the doctor so she knows what we're dealing with, so better than having to drive into Charlotte on two different days.

His appointment went really well. I really love this office. I don't know if they actually remember him (he is pretty cute after all), but they act like they do anyway. And the doctor and nurse that we've seen each time are awesome. I kind of wish they were regular pediatricians, except they'd probably work in Charlotte and I'd never see them anyway. The ultrasound results look great - his right kidney is bigger (about the size of an adult female kidney) and his left kidney is smaller (2.4cm, half the size of a newborn kidney) so everything is working as it should. She made sure he wasn't having any problems and talked to us about what we might encounter over the next year. She said it might actually be good that he's not potty trained yet because since he's older we can explain more to him and make sure he doesn't try to hold it too long. *I totally knew we waited for a good reason! ;)* Not that we expected otherwise but everything looks great and that is always good news.

Nate is three!

It's kind of amazing isn't it? It's kind of hard to believe that three short years ago he was the size of his sister! In fact, I regularly forget that she doesn't weigh quite as much as he does and almost flip her over my shoulder when I pick her up!

3 year stats:
Height: 38" (75th percentile) - I actually think this is a little higher, but they measured him very quickly. His head was down and he wasn't really standing up straight.
Weight: 31lbs, 13oz (60th percentile)
BMI: 15.5 (30th percentile, but still healthy)
Hair: A dark blond right now, because of winter, but I'm sure as soon as he starts getting to be outside more it will lighten up in no time.
Eyes: Still blue most of the time, but some of the time I'll see a little bit of green. Usually when I see it, then try to look again I can't really tell.
Clothes: Well, I just packed up all of his 24 month clothes yesterday, but he is wearing 3T in a lot of stuff as well. He really needs 3T for length, but thank goodness his pants have tabs so you can tighten them otherwise they would be falling off!
Sleep: He went through a couple of weeks of nightmares and night terrors, but hasn't had any issues in the last week or so. I'm hoping this sticks around! In general though he really fights sleep and hates bedtime! He did alright when we first got his big boy bed, but ever since Amelia came bedtime has been a lot more difficult. I think he thinks he's missing out on something... and I'm sorry to say that he thinks his parents are a lot more exciting than they really are.
Awake: Well, he is talking like crazy! Are three year olds supposed to use words like frustrated? I dont know, maybe they are, but he seems to speak very well for a three year old. He got to go to Children's Church for the first time this week and was so excited! We got him registered for preschool three days a week starting in August. He is a puzzle master. He is so super sweet to his sister and loves to give her hugs and kisses and tickles. He loves trains and cars and pretty much anything that can be considered a form of transportion. His favorite show right now is Dinosaur Train and he can tell you all about Ornithomimus (sp? I don't know, he probably does) and which dinosaurs are herbivores and carnivores. When he wants some fruit he says he's a "hungry, hungry herbivore". He gets shy when he's around people he doesn't know, but when he's in a comfortable place or with people he knows he expects all eyes to be on him! He loves to read and has recently started the most fun trait of wanting to read the same book over and over and over in one sitting (before we would still read it a lot, but at least we'd read other books too). He knows the alphabet and is starting to be able to recognize numbers.
Things to work on this year: Potty training! Dressing himself, putting away his toys and, according to the doctor, his fine motor skills like coloring, beading and cutting.