Monday, October 31, 2011

Busy Weekend

We had quite a busy weekend!  On Friday night our old church Shady Grove PCA had their annual costume and game party to take place of Halloween.  Trey dressed up as Buzz Lightyear (of course!) and Ethan wore a little white and orange striped sleeper with a pumpkin hat.  They were really cute!  Trey wasn't feeling great, but had fun playing the games and winning candy, most of which he ate immediately (he LOVES Twizzlers).  Ethan was awake nearly the whole time... we're noticing a trend of this in him when we are around people.  He seems to really enjoy faces and voices too much to sleep!

The next day we had a our first snow storm of the year... yes in October!  Crazy!!  I think we had 1-2 inches... not much but enough to keep us inside and cozy most of Saturday.  We carved our pumpkin, which Trey loves.  He calls it his "punkin face".  Then Pj and Trey went outside to see the snow and Trey enjoyed making and throwing his first snowballs.  But he surprisingly didn't like the hot chocolate afterwards... oh well!

That evening Pj and I took my parents with us to hear some beautiful music at the Strathmore.  We had such a good time getting out without the little ones but also the music was just amazing!  We has seats close to the stage and so when the pianist was playing a piece by Liszt, we could see how fast his fingers move across the keys... pretty unbelievable.

Unfortunately Trey's cold got alot worse late that night and we ended up having to take him to the ER because he was throwing up, wheezing and having some labored breathing (which has happened before when he has had a cold).   He's doing alot better today and they sent us home with another refill for his inhaler.  Apparently he might have a light case of asthma that is brought on when he gets sick.  We're happy it was not pneumonia.  They checked him out and did an x-ray just to be sure!!

Ethan has been pretty chill lately!  He's starting to coo alot more and he laughs and smiles alot every day.  He seems to love people and will stay awake for hours just happy and content if someone is holding him.  But he also enjoys laying on his playmat alot longer now and will smile at his toys and bat his hand at them.  However, he still hates tummy time so I have to make sure he's already in a REALLY good mood before we try that.

I have to run... Trey is asking me to make a block house with him.  Here are some cute pictures:-)











Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Things Are Better Now!

The last post was a little bit on the down side, so I figured I should follow it up to let you all know things are much better this week!  I never ended up needing to give Ethan medicine.  I'm not sure if it was the changes I made in nursing him or if it was side effects from his vaccination... but that afternoon he ended up being just fine.  We've had some moments here or there were he has been really gassy and fussy, but other than that things have been good.  Unfortunately I ended up getting mastitis over the weekend, but I caught it quickly with antibiotics and recovered quickly from that, although that was not how I had hoped to spend our 5 year anniversary!

In other news, Trey is doing really well with potty training.  I am not going overboard yet with it, but he sits on it after each meal and before nap and bedtime.  We've had a few successes, but mostly he just "tries"... which counts too!  He gets four M&M's for trying and six if he successfully goes!  It's pretty exciting to think we might be down to one kid in diapers soon.  I was going to use Pullups for Trey, but ended up taking them back.  Once we get a little further along in what we're doing now, I'm getting him some underwear.  But we're definitely not there yet!!

Also exciting, I bought some preschool curriculum books for Trey.  He already knows many of his colors, numbers and alphabet, among other things... but I want to keep building on that.  My mom was great about teaching us all the basics before we even got to preschool (for those of us who went... which I guess was just me and my sister Sarah;-)).  I'm hoping to do the same for Trey!  We'll see how it goes.  The hardest part is not his ability but his attitude.  So I'm just making it fun and light and teaching him skills using lots of his toys and when we're coloring and painting, etc. 

Ethan is starting to be awake more and will lay sometimes for 20-30 minutes at a time by himself on his playmat looking around and making cooing sounds.  I can't tell you how nice it is to hear a sound from him other than a cry;-)  He still sleeps alot though.  He also sleeps really well at night still.  I'm starting to think about when and how I will introduce him to sleeping in the bedroom with Trey... but we've still got time before I have to worry about that.  I'm hoping to get him sleeping through the night first so he doesn't disturb Trey.

He's still a huge baby!  He's wearing 3 month clothes now for the most part and some 0-3.  He's grown really long as well!  I just can't believe how big he is... the doctor is going to be shocked when she sees him in a few weeks.  I have a feeling he's well over 11 lbs now.

Our 5th anniversary was a little crazy with my infection and just craziness with the boys, but thanks to my inlaws, we were able to leave the boys with them and go out to Mr. Airy Tavern for dinner.  It was short, but we had a good time!  And Pj brought me home some beautiful roses:-)  We are hoping to do our original plan of an extended dinner and movie afterwards maybe next month... here's hoping nothing goes wrong again;-)

That's it for now!!  I have ironing and dinner prep to do while both boys are sleeping and then hopefully can get a nap too!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

All Better

Just wanted to quickly update you all that Ethan seems almost all better and we didn't even have to use the meds the doctor gave us for him.  It ended up to be a nursing issue that was a quick fix!  And so thankfully my house looks a bit more like the two pics below now;-)




Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Good Days... and The Bad Days

I suppose you blog about the good days... and you blog about the bad days.  This was a bad day.  Actually, the past few days have been really bad days in Mommyland.  I seriously got to the point this morning where I just put my head and my hands and tried to hide for 5 seconds from it all.  Ethan has been crying nonstop pretty much for the past three days.  It's been awful!  If you see me and I have black circles under my eyes, my shirt is on inside out and covered in baby spitup and I'm not sure where I am... that's why.  Thankfully we have an amazing pediatrician who, even though she had a half day today, she stayed late just to see my boys (yes, both of them!).  We found out that Ethan has bad acid reflux and Trey may be developing an allergy (or I should say his existing minor allergy is getting worse) to the dog.  Sigh!  What I had forgotten in between babies is that around 4 weeks babies something happens with the development of the insides of babies (I am too tired to research this to better explain) and acid reflux can become a problem.  I'm glad it was this and not a bad reaction to his vaccination on Monday like I was afraid of.  Anyways, Trey and Ethan are both in bed now (yes, Ethan is actually sleeping without me rocking him constantly in an upright position... asleep in his carseat but whatever works;-)) and I'm about to once I write this all out (writing is my therapy... it helps me get everything out and then I can nap peacefully;-)).  Anyways, I was supposed to finally go get my hair cut and highlighted and have my first big "me" time since Ethan was born... but that is postponed till tomorrow.  Being a parent certainly is not an easy job!  I'm so thankful that not all days are like this.  And I'm thankful for Trey's humor and how he makes me laugh when I want to cry.  As we were coming inside and up our condo steps, I suddenly realized that everything I was saying he was repeating, including when I laughed at him for copying me... then he laughed too.  He is so cute and sweet!  I love my little boys:-)  And another positive note, all this nursing on demand the past few days and constant moving to rock Ethan has allowed me to button up my old jeans again without difficulty... so I suppose you take the good with the bad;-) 

If you think of us, please be praying for Ethan to feel better and for this medicine to work.  The poor little guy has been in pain all the time the past few days and he is probably worn out even more than me for lack of sleep and constant hurting.  And pray for Trey's eye... its still pretty swollen and itchy from where he and the dog were wrestling.  Part of me kind of hopes the allergist we see tells us to get rid of the dog... but I know my boys would not like that;-)

One cute story I'll leave you with... I wish I could get the video on here but it won't work (I'll post it to Facebook though).  The other night I caught Trey laying next to Ethan on the playmat stroking his head and talking to him... it was sooo adorable!  After I stopped the video, Ethan started crying and I told Trey he was okay, that his belly just hurt.  So Trey kissed Ethan's belly and said, "It's okay Baby Etin!"  How sweet is that:-)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Funny Trey Stories






Funny story (although disgusting and horrifying at the time)!  I gave Ethan a bath yesterday morning and Trey likes to help.  We put the tub on the kitchen table and Trey sits next to me on the chair.  He likes to play with the water but I told him no because Ethan had pooped in it everywhere.  I got Ethan out and took him in the bedroom to put his clothes on and hear Trey run to the bathroom, run back to the kitchen and then "splish-splash" sounds.  Oh no!  I rushed into the kitchen only to find him dipping his toothbrush into the gross poopy water and then brushing his teeth with it!

But we laugh about it now:-)

Another funny Trey story (have to keep record of these:-)).  Let me start by telling you that Trey had been reading (had memorized) this book about two friends who were playing with a toy and it broke and they cried "Wahahah" when it did.  Well,  shortly after Ethan was born, we were in the car driving somewhere and I was crying about something (blame it on the hormones and lack of sleep).  Anyways, from the back seat I heard Trey goes "Mama.... wahahaha" and then he laughed.  LOL, we had a good laugh over that... and yes, I did stop crying;-)

1 Month



Ethan is one month old now!  Hard to believe.  He is now 21 inches long (I measured him this morning) and I'm not sure how much he weighs, but I have a feeling he's around 10 lbs.  We'll know for sure on Monday at his checkup.  He still sleeps alot, but has many hours of awake time now.  He loves to be held and cuddled.  He seems to be a very thoughtful kid... just likes to look around at everything rather.  He loves being bundled up in his blanket, loves looking at Mickey Mouse, still has bright blue eyes and lots of dark hair, although we see some golden hair growing in behind it.  His skin is getting lighter, but is still darker than Trey's was.  He's a chubby little baby, especially when compared to Trey at this age, who was all skin and bones.  For the most part, Ethan is very mellow and laidback.  He doesn't like to be alone though and he prefers to be held all the time (which obviously I can't do;-)).  He eats every 3-4 hours and at night he has been starting to sleep longer stretches, which a few bad nights here and there.  Last night he had a 6 hr and 5 hr stretch which was WONDERFUL!  The only problem is that he is a VERY loud baby.  We call him Squeaker!  He might be deep asleep, but he stretches and moans and squeaks and makes all sorts of noises that wake me up still.  I have to run the fan in our room near me so that I don't hear him as easily, lol!

Trey is 23 months old (yes, he turns 2 next month!!!).  He is really developing alot right now!  I think I said this in the last post, but he can say most of the alphabet... he counted from 1-10 for the first time yesterday... he knows the holes in the moon are called craters and that the red stuff coming out of a "broken mountain" is lava.  He loves going with his Nana (Pj's mom) on Tuesday mornings to storytime at the library and getting new books to read.  He loves going to McDonalds to get fries and coke.  His favorite treat are M&M's.  He still adores milk.  He loves white grape juice but refuses to call it that... apparently its "apple juice" no matter how many times we correct him.  He goes up and down steps by himself, runs like the wind, can play kick ball like nobody's business, and has the most amazing memory ever.  I have to be VERY careful what I say because he won't forget.  The other day I told him I'd get him a treat if he was good in the store.  I thought he might forget... but 1 hr later he reminded me, lol.  We love our first little boy... he is getting so big!  It's amazing that nearly 2 years have gone by.  We will be having a small family Toy Story birthday party next month and pictures to come!

Trey is still doing really well with having a little brother.  He says hi to him every time he gets up, loves to come over and pet his hair and talk to him, tells him its okay when he's crying and makes sure I know he (Ethan) is upset and needs me.  This morning he was very concerned when he came out in the living room and baby Ethan wasn't there.  I had to show him that he was in our bedroom and was okay.  Such a protective big brother!:-)

Big news in my family this week... my sister Sarah and her husband Jeff announced they are pregnant with their first!  She is due next April (so is about 12 weeks pregnant now I think).  I'm so excited for them!  I've already started sending her lots of info and leftover baby stuff we have.  It's been fun!  They are going to be awesome parents:-)

Pj has been working ALOT still.  We thought things would calm down, which they did for a big, but he's super busy again.  Just alot of events, grading, planning lessons, and every else.  He's so great about playing with Trey and Ethan when he comes home each night though, even though he's exhausted.  Whenever he is free, we try to do fun things together as a family.  Next weekend however we will have a date night for the first time since Ethan was born... it will be our 5th anniversary on Friday.  I can't believe we've been married for that long.  It feels like forever... and we've gotten so much done in 5 years... 2 kids and a dog, I got my certificate in graphic design, he got his master's from seminary, etc.  We're looking forward to going out for dinner for a bit just the two of us:-)

I've been enjoying this beautiful weather and getting out a little bit each day with the boys.  It's not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I have to make sure we run errands in the morning of course, just like I did when it was just Trey.  The hardest part is just getting home in time for lunch and naps.  But Ethan usually sleeps the whole time we are out.  I know that will eventually change and it will get harder as he gets older, but I'll take it as it comes!  This is my favorite time of the year so as long as I can get out now, I'm good.  We had fun today checking out my friend's yardsale in Frederick and then walked around the mall, got cookies, and looked at the animals at the pet store, and bought Trey a Toy Story t-shirt he found at JcPenny!  It was a good day!  So, yes, I am doing just fine.  I still get sore in my incision area, but actually usually that is only from getting in and out of our very tall bed multiple times at night of all things.  During the day I'm fine!










Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Saturday, October 1, 2011