Casa de Clements: New Blog!

Hi all! Now that Connor is 4 months old, I thought I should start blogging again to keep everyone updated on what's going on. We'll keep Sydney Talk around, but thought we'd switch over to this domain so we can all contribute.

Let's see...Sydney is halfway through her Kindergarten year and is doing extremely well. We've had our fair share of snow days this winter, though, so we're all ready for spring to come. She loves reading and is reading well above her grade level. I think we have a bookworm on our hands! She also loves to draw, build things with blocks, build marble mazes (ask her about her QBaMaze set...she adores it!), and play with her princess dolls. Brad also got a few games for her that she's been enjoying playing (games that I don't have the attention span for). She does love to play TriOminoes with me, though (it was my mom's favorite game, so that's pretty special to me). This semester they are focusing more on math at school (much to my liking), so we've been having fun giving each other word problems to do. Things like:

Sydney has 10 apples. Sydney gives Brad 3 apples. How many apples does Sydney have left?

I really can't believe she'll be done with her Kindergarten year in a few short months! She's got two adult teeth coming in and has one loose baby tooth. She's very excited to show the dentist her new teeth next week!

I've been back to work for a little over a month. The work part hasn't been too bad, but the logistics of mornings and evenings are significantly more complicated now. There wasn't a spot for Connor at Sydney's school, so he's at a different location, which means 2 drop offs and 2 pick ups (in opposite directions from where we live). Sydney will be moving to his school for the summer session, though (couldn't move her now because she's in Kindergarten). Then she'll start public 1st grade in the fall, so we'll be back to different drop offs. It is what it is, though, and we love both kids "schools."

Connor is doing great too! He's adapted to daycare really well, though has been home with me for the last 2 weeks due to illness and snow days. It started out with his first ear infection (like his sister, his only "symptom" was awful sleep). We had a few days of bad congestion and being awake from 11pm to 4:30am, and we knew something was wrong. His doctor confirmed the ear infection and started him on his first round of antibiotics. A few days later, he started vomiting pretty badly. We weren't sure if he was having a reaction to the antibiotic or if he had a stomach bug. An ER visit and a pediatrician visit later and we're pretty sure it was "just" a stomach bug that was going around his school. I also came down with it, as did Brad, but thankfully Sydney was spared. Needless to say, there has been lots of hand washing and Lysol spraying around here lately. The day we finally took him back to daycare, I got a call to come pick him up - he had broken out in a rash from head to toe. The director sent me pictures and it was enough to concern me, so I rushed to get him and take him to the doctor. Looks like it was "just" hives, probably from whatever virus has been making him feel bad. He's already on Zantac for reflux, so we decided not to give him Benadryl unless the hives started really bothering him (Zantac has some antihistamine properties already).

I took him back to the doctor the following day to get his 4 month vaccines (which were already delayed because he had been sick when he was supposed to get them) and to check his ears again. Wouldn't you know, a SECOND ear infection. Poor guy. They put him on a different antibiotic that doesn't have a cross reaction with the first one he was on. I hate that he's so little and has been on so much medication, but we need to treat it. His ears have made it hard for him to sleep. Prior to all of this illness, he had been mostly sleeping through the night, sometimes waking to nurse once, but going back down pretty easily. Now he sleeps pretty well from 8 or 9pm to 1 or 2am, but won't go back to sleep after 3. Makes it *really* hard to get up for work when the alarm goes off at 4:45. He's also lost a fair amount of weight over the course of this illness, so we're hoping that he starts gaining again before the next ear check. He's a little guy at 11lbs 10oz.

Sydney's doing her second session of dance (tap / ballet) and is looking forward to her recital in June. We've also recently started swimming again. She almost finished Level 3 this time and we'll probably wait until dance is over to sign up again (2 activities is about the max we can jam in the schedule). Connor and I have been taking a mommy and me swim class while Sydney's in her class and he LOVES it! The pool where we go is really warm and pretty shallow. He actually fell asleep in class last week while floating on his back with his head on my shoulder. I really wish I could have gotten a picture! Sydney will start soccer again in a few weeks - it'll be nice to get outside again and I'll bet Connor will enjoy being able to sit in the grass and eventually start crawling around.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks / months. I'll try to stay more up to date going forward...these are all from my phone, so not great quality. I really need to get the camera out more often, though my new laptop with Windows 8 makes it really un-fun to edit pictures.

Family Selfie at bedtime. Quite possibly the only picture in existence of the 4 of us together.

Poor sick, tired boy :(

I think they're related...top is Sydney, bottom Connor. Sydney laughs at her hair in this picture.

This one's for Grammy...he does cry and we do take pictures of him crying...

Sydney loves to entertain Connor in the mornings while I get my coffee. She's such a great big sister.

We're still working on matching. This is one of Sydney's "gems."

Connor's first trip to the library. The hat is from her friend, Julia's birthday tea party. Sydney also got her very own library card and is now responsible for keeping track of when her books are due.