The Williams Family: 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

Time For A Change

After 9 years of marriage and 3 kids, I think it's time to change the blog address to something that incorporates the whole family and not just Lauren's name. I created the blog while on maternity leave with her and blogging was still relatively new and I didn't know what the future held. So, to stay updated with our family, click on the link below.

http://kcwilliamsfamily.blogspot.com/

Happy Friday everyone!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Merle Barenberg

After a long fight of being in and out of hospitals, my uncle Merle passed away Friday morning with his family by his side.

Merle Eugene Barenberg was born on Sept. 27, 1944, in Arvada, Colo., the son of L.B. Barenberg and Agnes Fay (Hackney) Barenberg. He was married to Melcena Mae Horn on Oct. 15, 1988, in Eureka Springs. Mr. Barenberg worked in the mobile-home moving and set-up business and was one of Jehovah’s witnesses. He passed this life on Nov. 23, 2012, in Fort Smith at the age of 68 years.

Survivors are his wife, Melcena of the home; one daughter and son-in-law, Deana and Carl Gibson of Nowata, Okla.; three sons and daughters-in-law, Merle Don and Shelly Barenberg of Alma, Keith and Susan Barenberg of Kansas, Okla., and Terry L. and Donna Skaggs of Blackgum, Okla.; 14 grandchildren, Jacob, Sarah, Tyler, Colton, Michael, Dustin, Justin, Jamie, Bobby, Brittnie, Shelton, Meghan, Garrett and Rachell; five great-grandchildren, Merrick, Piper, Grayson, Masun and Ashlyn; two sisters and brothers-in-law, Zella and Vernon Holsted of Rudy and Shirley and Jim Gaston of Hartford; and two brothers and sisters-in-law, Wayne and Pat Barenberg of Springdale and Bob and Rhonda Barenberg of Tontitown.
He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Ronald and Butch Barenberg, and an infant brother.

Funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Mallory-Martin Chapel in Sallisaw under the direction of Agent Funeral Home, 123 S. Wheeler, P.O. Box 566, Sallisaw, OK 74955.

Viewing will be from 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday at the funeral home.

We love you Uncle Merle!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Bottle Strike Is Over!

All this week Taylor has done much better with bottles and ate 10 oz Monday, 11 oz Tuesday and 12 oz today! She was eating 3 oz some days last week! Her teachers said that she no longer fights them on bottles...she sometimes acts like she is just not hungry and will only eat 2 oz and be done...but no longer crys when they put the bottle to her mouth! Also yesterday her teacher wrote a note saying "she took 2 ounces and fell asleep...I put the bottle to her mouth and she drank the other 2 oz J"

My thoughts on it.

I honestly think part of it is that she was stuffed up the last 2 weeks.
They started feeding her while she lays on a boppy instead of holding her. That way she can look around at things while eating instead of focusing on the fact that it's not mommy feeding her.
She is also very social and wants to be involved in everything! I literally have to feed her sometimes in a room by herself because if she hears the other kids or Kraig she stops eating to look around and see what they are doing. The teacher even said yesterday that they joke and say "the princess is awake" when she wakes up from naps. This came about because I walked in the room and found another teacher sitting right in front of her swing talking to her and I said "oh is she wanting attention again?!?!" (as I laughed of course)
I think she is going to be like her daddy...we call Kraig "Mr Social" because at every event we go to everyone will be at the table eating except for Kraig who is walking around talking to random people.
I don't remember Lauren or Colton wanting this much attention at 4 months old...but who knows...maybe it's a 3rd child thing and she is saying "I know you are busy with the older 2 mommy, but I'm here to let you know you will NOT forget about me".

Either way attention getter or not, we love you more than you will ever know! You have the cutest smile and your brother and sister love you so much too! We look forward to you getting older and the three of you playing together! I'm just glad you are eating better again!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Little Rock Color Run 5K!

Last weekend I ran in the Color Run 5K in Little Rock!

It was a blast and it was nice to get away for 24 hours for some girl time!

Kraig kept the kids and even though Taylor was on a bottle strike, she did eat (some) and they all survived and had fun with daddy while I was gone.

Thanks babe for letting me get away and recharge! It felt great!

Victoria Bruton, Stephanie Link, Carrie Moore and myself

Our group of 8

Stephanie Link, Victoria Bruton, Kim Bell, Mackenzie Trofholz, Carrie Moore, Myself, Heather Tally and Dana Daniel

The before and after

Sock party

They said the color could stain your hair for a few days especially if you have light colored hair...so I wore a shower cap around my ponytail to minimize the color.

10K people participated

silly pics

My time

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Taylor's 4 Month Checkup

Taylor's 4 month check up with shots was yesterday with Dr Furlow.

Stats:

11/9/12

Weight: 15 lbs 4 oz

Height: 24.88 inches

Head Circ: 41.7 cm or 16.42 inches

75th % for all

Shots/immunizations you received:
Rotateq 2.0 mL PO
Prevnar 13 0.5 mL IM
Pentacel 0.5 mL IM

Taylor you are so sweet and snugly! You are still a total momma's girl which I love!

Milestones at 4 months:

You have found your feet and love to pull them up to your chest and pull on your toes, etc.
Chew on your hands constantly and are starting to slobber all over everything
You have been a little stinker when it comes to bottles and you would be bigger at 4 months than you are now if you had decided you liked bottles...but oh well. You are showing your independence early! You weighed a pound bigger than your brother at birth yet at his 4 month check up he outweighed you by 6 oz. See Colton's 4 month check up here. See Lauren's stats at 4 months here

We love you baby girl and you bring so much joy to our whole family!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Taylor Hates Bottles!

Taylor has been at daycare for 5 weeks now. The first 2 weeks she hated bottles but adjusted because she had to. The next 2 weeks she was fine and drank 3 oz at a time. Last week and this week (this is week 6) she has started fighting the teachers at daycare again and will only drink 1-2 oz at a time or will take the full hour to drink 3-4 oz but fights them on it. (She would not eat for Kristen Saturday either so we left the Razorback game early to go feed her.) Monday I got a note from the teachers saying "We cannot get Taylor to eat. We need some suggestions! She gets very angry every time we put the bottle in her mouth." (and yes they had very underlined!) So she has been congested some the last 2 weeks and to make sure that is not why she won't eat I took her to the dr yesterday to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or some other issue going on. The dr said she is perfectly fine! Her ears look great and the fluid that was there 2 weeks ago is completely gone…she is not running a fever…she is congested but it has not caused any type of infection where she needs meds for it. The congestion is what is making her cough and her voice sound funny so the dr told me to buy some Little Noses Decongestion drops that you put up their nose. She said to only use it for 3 or 4 days if it seems to help. The main reason for the decongestion drops is because I told her how she has basically stopped eating from bottles all together and school is starting to get frustrated. She said to try the drops and see if she will eat then and if so she is just not eating because of the congestion. If she continues to not eat from bottles, then she is probably just being picky. She said she sees it at times where certain babies only want to breastfeed and will not take a bottle…or certain babies only want a bottle and won’t breastfeed. She said to try giving her the milk in a sippy cup instead of a bottle also and see if that helps. I told the Dr "I'm supposed to learn with my first child...not my 3rd" and she laughed and said "they are all different!" and then shared a story about her 4 kids (which made me feel better)...another reason I love Dr. Furlow at NW Peds...she is so sweet and just open about her personal experiences too!

She said if Taylor continues to not want to eat from bottles to start her on rice cereal earlier than normal. So after the dr appt yesterday I thought “well I need sippy cups and this nose stuff so I’ll go to Target and get them both instead of going to Collier Drug right beside the dr office”. Well Target didn’t carry the nose drops. I then went to Walmart and Walgreens in Fayetteville and they didn’t carry them either. I drove to Springdale Neighborhood Market and they didn’t carry it but called the Springdale Walmart Pharmacy where Maria said “yes we carry it”…so I drove to Springdale Walmart only to find out they don’t carry it but they do carry the saline spray (not what I needed...thanks Maria!). While on my way to Springdale WM I called Harps and they did carry it…so after looking at 5 stores I finally found it at store #6 and then found out that the Colliers right beside the Dr office carry's it also…but I still needed to get my sippy cups so I would have had to go to Target anyway…but I could have saved myself 4 other stops! LOL Oh well…

Since she was not 'sick' I went ahead to dinner with my girlfriends last night thinking Taylor will drink a bottle for Kraig so I'm good. About an hour into dinner Kraig called with Taylor screaming in the background saying "can you eat fast?". So I did, paid the bill and drove home to feed Taylor. Little stinker was happy as could be when she saw me and still didn't eat a lot but ate some. Then when it was bedtime she ate like she normally does and went to sleep and slept great like she does! So the good news is Taylor is not sick…the bad news is she is not eating much at a time and fights them at school…so hopefully she will start eating from bottles again soon so the teachers don’t feel like they are doing something wrong.

To compare -

Lauren gained 3 lbs in 9 weeks from 2 months to 4 months. (11 weeks to 20 weeks)

Colton gained 2 lbs in 5 weeks from 2 months to 4 months. (11 weeks to 16 weeks)

Taylor gained 2 lbs in 8 weeks from 2 months to 4 months. (10 weeks to 18 weeks)

The scale at the dr office said she weighed 15 lbs 4 oz today

(home baby scale says 15 lbs 11 oz so one is off...)

So yes she is gaining weight...just not at the rate my older 2 kids did when they were her age.

If this is just an inkling of what is to come...I'm in trouble! :-)

I mean does this look like an unhappy child? NO...little stinker! She is happy as can be...just won't eat from a bottle!