The Baylor Family Blog

So we discovered this past week that Eli can say all of the letters in the alphabet, except Q, U, and W. He can identify a good handful of them, but I haven’t figured out exactly which ones yet! He also can say most of the numbers from 1-10. Though he hears our everyday speech and we read lots of books, I didn’t realize how much he was catching on to letters and numbers. I haven’t sat down and tried to necessarily teach him! His speech is progressing so well. He very often says 3-word phrases. His speech is becoming more understandable, though we still have to translate some words for others. Without a doubt, he knows enough words to communicate his wants and needs very effectively.

Eli has also started to really enjoy coloring and playing with Play-Dough. He is starting to enjoy looking through books on his own, but he really loves being read to. He is really into stickers, peeling them off the page and putting them all over himself. Besides stickers, the activity that holds his attention the longest is playing with cars. He sorts them, drives them, puts them in tunnels, and so much more. Its been fun watching him figure out how to play independently in different ways without direction from us!

With summer, we’ve had an abundance of fresh fruit in the house, and Eli has loved eating fruit. His current favorite fruit is blueberries, which he calls blue fruit. But he’ll eat raspberries, strawberries, cantelope, honeydew, pears, nectarines, peaches, bananas, mango, pineapple…and probably any other fruit. Whenever I ask him what he wants for a meal, he always says fruit! His favorite cereals at the moment are Multi-Grain Cheerios, Golden Grahams, and Honey-Kix. He also loves peanut butter sandwiches, meat, cheese, and bread. He’s pretty easy to please in the food department!

Eli has been on Claritin for several months for his allergies. We really think its helped him stay healthier, in general. He is used to get a syringe full of medicine every morning, which he calls his “stick med.” Whenever I eat chocolate, he calls it “Mama’s med.” Smart kid.

Overall, we feel like we are finally reaping the benefit of all the time and effort we’ve put into disciplining and training Eli. He usually is obedient. He is pushing on us, though, in not looking at us when we are talking to him in time out and gleefully saying”three” when we are counting for him, expecting him to obey, yet continuing to do his own thing. He has also started the full fledged arms and legs flailing temper tantrums. I do get frustrated, but he is learning he does not have control over his parents and that his bad behavior doesn’t get results. Its a season. We are learning lots.

We’ve had some very warm weather this week. Matt was running the sprinklers mid-morning, and I thought Eli would get a kick of running around in the backyard through the sprinklers and playing with his water table. He’s never run through the sprinklers before, so he had quite a bit of fun!

Yesterday, we were able to put all the puzzle pieces together to determine that Abi is allergic to rice cereal. Though we’ve walked the allergy road already with Eli, we are finding our kids are indeed different in their allergy journeys.

We had introduced rice cereal to Abi about a month ago. We weren’t necessarily consistent in giving it to her every day, but she ate it for several days. During our vacation to Vail, in the busyness and lack of routine, we never gave her rice cereal. She was in a great mood and sleeping very well. She woke up during the night to feed, but always went right back to sleep.

On Monday, after Abi’s appointment with the GI Specialist, we started adding rice cereal to her formula as well as giving her one meal a day of rice cereal. She seemed to really like the taste of it and by the end of the week she was taking 2-3 tablespoons of rice cereal during her evening meal. She never fussed when eating it.

Throughout this past week, Abi had more trouble sleeping. I simply assumed she was having a hard time adjusting to being home after vacation or she was teething or in a growth spurt. I decided she had reached the age to teach her better sleep habits, by taking away her swaddle blanket, letting her sleep on her tummy or side, and offering her pacifier less. We even started ferberizing her. But nothing seemed to be working. Towards the end of last week, we were literally up multiple times per hour. Abi was also spitting up a lot more. But, I attributed that to the fact that acid reflux usually peaks around this age, then starts to improve (per the doctors, not our experience with Eli). Honestly, the thought of an allergy didn’t creep into my mind until the weekend. Matt and I were getting exhausted through the sleep deprivation.

Well, in the wee hours of Monday morning, Matt and I were becoming convinced Abi was having a reaction to the rice cereal. And the evidence became stronger that morning when Abi had blood her her stools three different times. On Monday morning, I called the GI Specialist who agreed that Abi was having an allergic reaction to the rice cereal. I was instructed to only give Abi Elecare until she was at least 6 months to give her GI tract time to heal.

On Monday, Abi was simply exhausted and slept a lot throughout the day. I was feeling quite badly about not comforting her while she was in pain, instead being fixated on teaching her how to sleep better. Oops. Abi now has her swaddle blanket back. And she can have her pacifier whenever she wants it. And she is sleeping much better with those items and the fact that we didn’t feed her any rice cereal. Today, I am seeing more discomfort through her continued tiredness. She is still spitting up quite a bit, which isn’t normal for her. She has a lot of gas, a low fever, and her stools aren’t back to normal, yet. The only thing we can do is comfort her and wait for her GI tract to heal. Poor thing.

I wanted to kick myself for not putting the pieces together sooner and identifying the allergy. Looking back, it is completely obvious. But things are always more obvious in retrospect. I think I also let my guard down when watching for an allergy to rice cereal because rice cereal was one of the few foods Eli could tolerate during this stage in his life. And I forgot that allergies can take weeks before symptoms manifest. I try not to let me mind run, but it makes me wonder if Abi’s allergies could be worse than Eli’s? So far, she has only had milk, soy, and brown rice cereal, and she is allergic to all three. And honestly, I’m not looking forward to introducing more foods to her that might cause her pain. With my kids, introducing new foods is far from fun. Especially when reactions to the foods sometimes come weeks later.

Thankfully, we’ve walked this journey before and it isn’t so foreign. Thankfully there are health care providers to help us maneuver this road. And thankfully, as evidenced by my firstborn, allergies can be temporary…as he eats anything and everything now. We are praying Abi’s will be temporary, also.

Abi is quickly approaching 5-months old! And we are seeing more and more personality come from our little girl! She definitely has found her voice, which is getting louder and LOUDER! She just recently has become very interested in toys and loves holding them in her hands! And my favorite, she has reached the stage where she loves playing with her feet.

She was a trouper on vacation, sleeping on the go and in a more noisy environment. Her naps often got interrupted and her schedule simply was thrown out the window for the most part.

Yesterday, I decided to start teaching Abi better sleep techniques. As wonderful as swaddling has been, she needs to figure out how to sleep with her arms and legs free. And as helpful as the pacifier has been, we want to decrease her dependence on it. So, yesterday, Abi started sleeping on her tummy or side. It took 50 minutes for her to fall asleep, but then she napped for an hour. For her next two naps, she went down perfectly! We were hoping she might sleep better at night, but we were still up 2-3 times. Regardless, we are making some progress.

On Monday, Abi had a visit with her pediatric gastroenterologist. Her weight is up to around 11 1/2 pounds. Abi’s reflux is well-managed, she is taking 16-20 ounces of Elecare daily, and she has mastered pooping on her own. To my suprise, the doctor was still concerned about Abi’s weight (largely due to the fact that Abi has grown longer and her height-weight ratio has decreased slightly). I’m not bothered by this one bit…babies do not grow proportionately. I agreed to continue concentrating Abi’s formula (though not to increasing the concentration of the formula) and to try adding some rice cereal to her bottles to increase her caloric intake. Fortunately, I only agreed to try it. And we have. And we likely won’t continue to…it is a pain, messsy, and difficult to control the flow. I will continue to feed Abi rice cereal by spoon, and will start introducing more foods to her diet around six months of age, though very slowly and watching for reactions.

One thing that Matt and I learned through our firstborn is that numbers are not everything, and doctors can add a lot of un-needed stress without necessarily meaning to. Abi is growing well, and it isn’t likely she is going to jump growth curves. She is thriving and developing right on schedule. So what if she is a little small? Eli is two and is still small and on the same growth curve that he was on as an infant when all of the doctor’s were panicking about his small size. And now no one is concerned about his size. So simply, I’m learning to take a deep breath, advocate for my children and I, and take things in stride. It sure beats letting these things add un-needed stress to our lives!

On another note, Abi is enjoying her Bumbo chair more and more! We’ve attached a try and she loves to play with the toys setting in front of her. It has been a great way for her to join us during meals and table time! She is growing up sooo fast!

There are two funny things that go along with these pictures. First off, we got Eli some Sesame Street sticker books for his birthday. He has enjoyed looking through them, but only recently mastered the art of getting the stickers off all by himself. After being quiet for a little too long, we discovered our little boy was covered in alphabet stickers. And boy was he quite proud!

Secondly, Eli has fallen into the toddler-shut-your-eyes-and-give-a-cheesy-smile-for-the-camera stage of life. Thus making it tricky to capture the genuine Eli smile we often see that suddenly disappears when we say “Smile for the camera!” Well, we figured out a solution for this. We taught Eli to say “cheese” for the camera and he puts on his best smile and says “cheese.” And we take a great picture. And then he says, “Again.” And the process repeats. Though it may be a temporary solution, we’ve gotten some great smiles with it!

fun SWIMMING

We really enjoy swimming together as a family. It has been so much fun watching Eli grow to love swimming, and it has been equally fun introducing Abi to the water and watching her enjoy it, as well! I’m not sure if Abi really loved swimming or if she is simply a happy baby, but she squealed and babbled like crazy while swimming! She enjoyed floating on her back and holding on to noodles in the pool.

With the help of his BodyGlove swimsuit, Eli’s independence in the water increased dramatically as the week went on. He no longer wanted to be held, but wanted to float by himself. He learned how to hold on to the side of the pool and hold his head above water while floating. He also really enjoyed jumping into the water into his daddy’s arms! Eli became confident going under water for a moment and is learning to keep his mouth shut to avoid choking on the water! What a week!

In addition to the many trips to the hot tub and pool at our condo complex, we also went to the Avon Recreation Center’s indoor pool, which has a very large kids pool with a water slide and lots of bubblers that our kids enjoyed! Though Eli’s first trip down the water slide took a little encouragement, the kid loved it and kept asking for “more.” At one point, instead of climbing up the stairs to the slide, Eli took off and jumped into the lazy river that was about 4-5 feet deep. By the time we got to him, he was floating contentedly around the winding river just fine. All we could do is laugh and be thankful he’s becoming more safe with his strong sense of confidence and independence!

fun PLAYING IN FOUNTAINS

Thankfully, we managed one day that was warm enough for Eli to enjoy the Children’s Fountain in Vail Village. Though the water was a bit cold, Eli didn’t seem to mind as he splashed in the water with his Great Aunt Lynne. Eli also enjoyed climbing on the rocks. Due to the cool water temperature, our fun only lasted about 20 minutes before Eli was ready to move on!

fun BIKING

I’m sad to admit that I never rode my bike the entire week. I don’t enjoy riding in the rain or cold, which made it a bit tricky! Fortunately, Matt doesn’t mind the cold and rain as much as I do, so he was able to get a good handful of bike rides in pulling Eli along behind him. Matt also had a special biking venture with his Aunt Lynne. They rented a tandem bike and rode down Vail Pass together. I wish I had a picture, but I needed to bring the kids back to the condo for lunch and naps. From what I heard, they had a great ride together!

fun with FAMILY

I wanted to include a picture with many from Matt’s family who made it to Vail this year. Unfortunately, we are missing a handful of people (including Abi, who was taking a nap). Instead of going for a perfect shot, we decided to go for a fun picture!

That is it! What a FUN week

We recently returned from our annual family vacation to Vail, Colorado. Though the weather wasn’t the finest, we still made lots of fun memories together as a family! I have lots of pictures to post, so there will likely be a couple posts detailing some of the fun parts of our trip!

fun ICE SKATING!

My sister-in-law was attending a music conference in Beaver Creek, which offered family events several evenings during the week. One evening, we headed over to Beaver Creek for a family evening of FREE outdoor ice skating and delicious all-you-can-eat-soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies. This was Eli’s first time in skates. He wasn’t thrilled to put on the skates at first, but eventually had a pretty good time on the ice with the help of his daddy. He could walk in his skates very well off of the ice, but required quite a bit of help on the ice. I have no doubt this kid will pick up ice skating later in life.

fun with COUSINS

One of the joys of traveling to Vail every year is spending time with Matt’s side of the family. This year, Eli became very interested in his older cousin, Nathan. Eli nick-named Nathan “Nace,” since he cannot say Nathan yet. Frequently throughout the week, Eli talked about Nathan, and this has continued since we’ve arrived home! I think these two guys are going to have a lot of fun growing up together!  Though I didn’t manage any pictures, Katya was quite interested in her baby cousin, Abi. It will be fun watching the two girls interact as they grow up, as well!

fun at the PARK

Vail has several great parks for kids! We especially enjoyed the park by the Betty Ford Gardens as well as the newer Donovan Park. Spread all around Vail, we were usually able to treat Eli to a stop at the park most of the time when we were out. Unfortunately, due to the rain, we weren’t able to promise him a dry slide, though! I’m still amazed at Eli’s independence and abilities at the park. He sure loves running around and going down slides.

fun at the CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

This was a new find for us! Desperate for something fun and inexpensive to do on a rainy day, we discovered a Children’s Museum in Vail. Who knew? What surprised us even more was that it only cost $5 for kids 2-12 and was free for adults! Something inexpensive in Vail can be a bit hard to find! Though small, the museum has a large variety of activities and stations. Eli enjoyed the marbles, gears, train, blocks, music and much more! We will definitely remember this place when we have a rainy day in the future!

Just wanted to share some quick photos from Vail!

My cute kids enjoy playing by themselves…

…and are learning to play with each other!

Don’t laugh too hard at me, as this post is about a recent grocery shopping trip. Not long after we got married, Matt and I both began to value having fresh fruit and vegetables in our home. We also buy our groceries on a budget, so it can be difficult, especially in the winter months, to find fresh produce at reasonable prices. Since becoming a full-time stay at home mom, I scour the local grocery store ads to try and get the most for our money. I often take pride in all that I’m able to purchase with the money allotted for the week!

Well, last week, a new grocery store came to our town, called SunFlower Farmer’s Market. Fortunately, for us, it is just down the street. Matt and I showed up at the grand opening, which happened to be on his birthday, and we were quite amazed not only by the crowds, but the quality food and produce inside! Even better, though, are the sale prices!

So, this post is dedicated to the amazing amount of food I purchased today at SunFlower. I bought 7 nectarines, 1 pint of blueberries, 1 pineapple, 3 cantelope, 1 honeydew, 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 5 pounds of potatoes, 0.6 pounds of sugar snap peas, and 5 boxes of healthy cereal for $22. Last week’s purchase was just as great, and the produce quality has been stupendous so far!