Munce Maddness

All is well in the Munce household. We spent the week trying to get out of vacation mode and were busy with lots of fun activities and lots of call shifts for Dave (in fact he is doing his third one this week today). This simply means lots of 'on my own' time with the kiddos. We've got it down.

Greta is officially rolling over! Big girl, she is going both ways, and is a total natural. Hardly any grunting involved. Dave and I were laying next to her and she was doing her thing and I said to Dave, 'did you see that?'. He responded, with 'see what?'. I said, 'Greta girl just rolled!' it was so natural and effortless that he didn't even realize it. Another really exciting piece of news to report is that she has dropped a night time feeding. I'm almost hesitant to put it in writing, but for the last three nights she has slept from 8pm until 1 or 2am. I forgot about the feeling of freedom when a feeding is dropped. The feeling is even more awesome when they do it naturally rather than having to spend 45 minutes with them crying it out. Just two more night time feedings to eliminate... come on Greta, you can do it!

Sully also had a good week. He has started to say a few more words independently bringing his total number to about 15, but we are pursuing assessment with the Birth to Three program to see if he meets criteria for in home speech therapy. We met with a woman this week and feel confident that we are only benefiting him by being proactive. He is the greatest little guy, and is obsessed with chicken nuggets, requesting them (by pointing and grunting at freezer) for every meal. I am able to sneak in fruit and cheese as well, so it works for everyone.

In other news, my Creighton Bluejays are in the NCAA tournament this year and we have had lots of fun watching them. They play again this evening and we are hoping to go up to the hospital to watch part of the game with Dave. Im bummed to not have Creighton shirts for the whole family. Maybe next year. We have also been following University of Dayton. My friend, Stacy's, late husband, Dave was an alumni from UD and they are upsetting one team after the next. Im sure Dave is smiling down. Stacy is 39 weeks pregnant today, due to have her baby anytime. I am lucky enough to be going in a couple of weeks, shortly after her due date. Im definitely looking forward to newborn snuggles and best friend time with Stacy.

Addendum: The Bluejays are in trouble, hopefully they can pull something off!

Happy St Patrick's Day!
Sully 21 1/2 mos, Greta 4 1/2 mos.

Our fine motor boy and his masterpiece. 

Reading stories to Greta. 

Playing at the Oliver's. Greta is the toy of choice :).

Sweet cheeks. 

I introduced Sully to jelly beans today, he is
protecting them in this photo.

Similar smiles, similar toes <3.

Coronado, CA

We did it!

We traveled half way across the country and back with our two young and busy kids, and survived. We are exhausted, but had a really great time. Coronado is so magical, it is the one place we travel to and never quite feel ready to come home.

We had a great week. We kicked it off by having friends from LA down for a pool/beach day, followed by more beach days, a visit to the Birch Aquarium, the mall, lunch on the Pier in Imperial Beach, the Coronado Library for story time, Balboa Park, family photos, a morning golf game (for Dave and my dad), lots of good food, including a spot from Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, a favorite show of ours, and a date night for Dave and I. My parents had returned to Coronado after a two week adventure to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands part way through our visit. It was great to spend part of the week with them. I love to watch them with my kids.

We played hard; chased birds, ran into crashing waves, strolled by the beach, chased dogs on the dog beach, and giggled and screamed with excitement over just about every new adventure.  We all took almost daily long naps. Sully even slept in sandals most days, definitely showing us that he is an independent little boy. Greta was a trooper, barely crying at all, just along for the ride, always smiling and blowing bubbles.

We are spoiled to have such a great place to visit, and the kids make it that much more enjoyable. We were gone for nine days, and I can honestly say that it wasn't long enough. We hope to go longer next year.

Greta had her four month check up the day before we left and she is right on for all of her measurements. She weighs 12 pounds and is 24 inches long, putting her at the 50th percentile for both. We are holding steady at two teeth, but drooling up a storm. Her skin issues have also been under control. We need to be diligent with creams, but we are managing. I have never been so excited for humidity in my life.

Oh, and how could I forget...I celebrated my 34th birthday on the day we arrived on Coronado. I was spoiled with a new pair of sunglasses and lovely bouquet of flowers upon our arrival. I am a lucky girl.

Enjoy the abundance of photos below.

Early morning flight. 

Birthday flowers. 

Daddy and kids playing in the sand. 

Daddy and Sully at the Dog Beach. 

Snuggles. 

Birch Aquarium and the shark tank. 

Family photo overlooking the La Jolla cove. 

Grandpa helping with jammies. 

Sully's masterpiece ;).

Waiting for a table at Hodads in Ocean Beach. 

Daddy's girl. 

Sullivan. 

Greta girl. 

Dr. Daddy

The cold nasty winter continues, and we are trying to be good sports. We have had a string of colds between the four of us and we cannot wait for some Vitamin D. It seems like Dave has been working more call than usual (although I know he isn't, really, it just feels like it), so we have referred back to the old motto: 'If you can't beat them, join them.' We did just that last weekend when he was on call. It was cold as heck, so we parked as close as we could and spent the afternoon at the hospital with Dave. It was great, we played dress up, watched TV, and had dinner. He rarely has a quiet afternoon, but lucky for us, we picked just the right one. 

Otherwise, life carries on. We are desperately working on sleep. Greta has two more teeth on their way through (the top two), which is bittersweet as I can't wait for them to cut through for her pain relief, but nursing pain is sure to increase. Its all part of the deal, I know I survived with Sully, so will survive this time around, too. She has definitely found her voice and spends most of her awake time cooing and screaming. She is a little chatterbox, Sully, however, is still hardly talking. I'm trying to stay optimistic about it, but I am a smidgen worried. He is so adorable and the best big brother. This morning at music class a little boy was lingering near Greta's car seat so Sully strong armed him away and then laid on her. Uh oh! 

Dress up with daddy. 

Happiest boy.  

Greta love. 

Tummy time.  

Matching vests from one of Dave's partners.
Greta, 4 months and Sully, 21 months. 

Happiest girl. 

What a week.

We have survived a stressful and sleepless week. It started out with Greta's scalp worsening, which required another doctor's visit followed by a dermatology appointment. The poor girl was in a really bad state, her scalp was so irritated, covered with yellow crust and oozing in several spots. It turned out that she had a significant case of eczema and a bacterial infection which were feeding off of each other. She is still on an oral antibiotic as well as a topical steroid, and we are now going to add a topical antibiotic. It has been 2 days since that appointment and her scalp looks 100% better. To add insult to injury, she also got two teeth this week. Yes, I said teeth! I can't believe it either, she is way too young. Oh well, bring it on.

Sullivan has been his usual silly wild self. He was able to spend some time with the Oliver's while I took Greta to appointments, which he loved. I got out there to pick him up on Tuesday and he was playing in Isaac's room with Isaac. He stayed in there for quite awhile before I went in to say hello. When I walked in, Isaac was playing his DS and Sully was playing quietly near him. He is happiest next to Isaac, and I love that. He is still not talking much, so I contacted the Birth to Three program as I don't want to overlook anything. They gave me lots of suggestions and tips. Sullivan is great at everything; problem solving, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, comprehension, he just does not form (many) words independently. We have started to sign with him and really encourage communication, requiring patience from all of us. We are looking forward to making some progress and will have another screening next month before going any further with therapy.

We also had a birthday party here for Helen on Monday evening. She turned 84. Most of the Schock family was here as well as my mom and Kirsten. We find that the larger the group, the harder it is on Helen, so we make sure she has some sort of attention at all times. Fortunately everything went great and she really enjoyed herself.

We had two nice days this week, so threw on our boots and found some puddles to jump in. We cannot wait for spring.

Sullivan (20 1/2 months) and Great (3 1/2 months).

Sweet girl. 

Splashing.  

Walking through the park. Cool, but sunny. 

Valentine's Day Love

Maggie and I coordinated a Valentine's Day photo shoot at Harold's photo just for the fun of it. I developed several photos and hung them around the house in the places Dave routinely goes before he heads out the door for work. A clever little surprise which would have worked great, however he was up walking the house with Greta most of the night, so I'm fairly certain the surprise didn't play out like I had planned. At least he was thankful for the effort.

We don't usually make a big deal out of the "Hallmark Holiday," but I was spoiled this year by all of my people. Flowers from Dave, a massage from Sully, and jewelry from Greta.

Its cold and we have colds.

Today marks two weeks of ailments around here. It started with a nasty cold for Greta, which Sully caught over the weekend. He hasn't been hit quite as hard as Greta, but he is still a bit under the weather. Just as Greta was getting over her cold, her manageable case of cradle cap got extremely out of hand. She was lucky enough to see the Pediatrician twice in about ten days. I feel so helpless. Her little scalp looks awful and is even oozing a bit of clear fluid. Dr Sam was concerned that she may be at the early phases of an infection so prescribed her an antibiotic and recommended a couple of creams. I have to admit, we have been pretty lucky considering this is the first time we have ever been on antibiotics in this household. We are really hoping this takes care of it as the next step will be modification of my diet and then a possible dermatology consult. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to be bothered by any of this. She remains a happy little camper, smiling as soon as she makes eye contact with anyone. 

The weather around here isn't helping matters much, either. Everyone has been complaining about the horrendous winter, and I am happy to report that I am one of those complainers. What a miserable winter it has been. It is 18 degrees today and it feels like a heat wave. We are way to familiar with the 'arctic blasts' of -10 degrees. I feel like between the weather and the colds we have been homebound for two weeks. 

Greta has been making a bit of sleeping progress, she is spending most of her naps in her crib and spends her first shift of sleep (8-11pmish) in there as well. I am still being lazy about getting her back down in her room for the rest of the night, it will come. She is getting up every 3-4 hours, so about 2-3 times each night. She is 14 weeks old and is as sweet as can be. 

I will include a few photos over the last week or so. We are anxious for sunshine, warmer days, clean noses and a soft scalp :).

Kenzie and Sully

Pizza Ranch fund raiser for Lauren's dance team.

Anna comes to play, she is reading Sully a story. 

Sully's attempt to carry Greta.  

Sully gets a hair cut.  

Greta girl. 

Nap time. 

Cutie pies. 

Nine days together.

Dave had this past week off and it was the first time we have had extended amount of time together since Greta was born. Dave joined me in my weekly activities, and was able to get to the fitness center a few times as well. We were both able to do a bit of socializing with our friends and with each other, I was even able to work a shift. It was nice to get back to work for a day, but even nicer to come home to my family (although the house was a disaster ;)).

We accomplished very little on my 'to do' list for the week, but that's ok. We have been working on getting Greta in her crib, but she happened to come down with a cough after one night into crib sleeping. Because of that nasty cough, neither Dave or I feel great about putting her so far from us. We may just be procrastinating, but we will get there. Overall it was a great week, and great to spend time together as a family.

Snuggles in jammies. 

Two smiles...finally! Sullivan, 20 months, Greta, 3 months. 

Greta is less than impressed. 

Isaac and Anna helping Greta do some tummy time. 

Sully and Anna at The Outdoor Campus. 

Sweetest girl. 

Daddy on duty, we could get used to this! 

Sweetest boy.