The Baylor Family Blog

Last week, we had a couple opportunities to visit with Matt’s side of the family.

Our first visitors were Gran-B and Poppy. They came down last Tuesday to attend a Christmas In July event with Eli at church. Each kid was supposed to bring a parent with them to the event, but I was afraid it would be too difficult for me to attend with Abi and Micah. Eli loved having his grandparents with him and had an absolute blast celebrating Jesus’ birthday in July! After the event, we all met up at Jason’s Deli for a delicious lunch and time to catch up!

Last weekend, Matt’s Aunt Lynne and her dog, LeAnne, came to visit. Eli was delighted to have Aunt Lynne and LeAnne sit in the back of the van with him! Aunt Lynne got to listen to Eli talk non-stop in the car…I’m sure her ears needed some piece and quiet after leaving our house! We enjoyed a trip to the zoo and a drive up to the Will Rogers Shrine on Saturday.

On Sunday, we were able to meet up with Matt’s grandparents, Grams and Grandad Klish, at a local park in Monument. It was fun to show them how much each of the kids had grown since we had last seen them! Eli had to cope with not having anyone to sit next to him the back seat on the way home, as Aunt Lynne joined Grams and Grandad on the trip back to their home!

What a fun week of family visits!

Jealous of their little brother, Eli and Abi wanted to experience being wrapped like burritos, too!

Abi was distraught until she figured out to get an arm out to hold her blankie.

Eli was so squirmy he escaped the burrito wrap in no time. Just like when he was a baby!

We had a relatively calm week around here. Abi was working on getting over her cold most of the week, but is doing great now. She had a follow up apointment with her ENT to check her ears and everything still looks great. She hasn’t had a single ear infection since her ear tubes were placed!

Unfortunately, the cold was passed onto Micah. Despite our best efforts to protect him, he still got sick. Since he is still so little, I brought him into the doctor on Friday just to make sure everything is okay. He sounds all rattly when he breaths, but its fortunately all in his sinuses, not his lungs, so we just wait it out! The cold hasn’t phased him one bit. He’s doing great. We did learn, though, that his weight is up to 8 pounds, 3 ounces!

I am thrilled to report that Abi is officially done with bottles! It only took us 18 months to get her to drink out of a sippy cup, but at least she is doing it now! We are learning that Abi has a hard time with change, but in a different way than Eli has a hard time with change. Eli has a hard time sleeping in new places, but Abi has a hard time switching what she drinks out of and changing the foods she eats. Eli has made a ton of progress over the past few years, and I believe we’ll help Abi adjust, too. We bought her a different sippy cup that was a different color and she totally flipped out. After plenty of tears and time, she is now drinking out of the new sippy cup. Poor girl.

Did I mention that she just cut her third molar last night? She’s had a big week, I guess!

Eli and Abi have enjoyed bonding with Micah during tummy time. I thought these pictures turned out so cute!

On Thursday, we met up with some friends for a park date. It was so good for me to catch up with some friends, and Eli had a marvelous time running around with his friends. Abi pretty much stayed right by me on the blanket and played with a bag of raisins and Micah slept the time away.

I feel like I need to redeem Micah from my last blog post. For whatever reason, he is far less fussy than he used to be. He is having lots of very cute and sweet moments. He has loved studying my face and has just started to smile. Perhaps we are figuring out our little guy more or he is learning to adjust to life outside the womb more. But I’m very happy that he seems to be doing better, even with a cold!

This week I’m bringing Abi and Micah to the pediatrician for their 18-month and 2-month well visits. Matt will be bringing Eli in for his first dentist visit, too. So I’ll have plenty of things to report!

Though I haven’t been successful getting a sibling shot with all of their faces, I’ve managed to get quite a few combinations with two of them! Enjoy…

Eli is thoroughly enjoying his fourth summer! More days than not, he is wearing his swimsuit it seems.  He’ll start in play clothes and end up playing in water. Eventually he’ll decide he doesn’t want to be in wet play clothes and strips down in the back yard, asking for his swimsuit.

The other day, he decided he wanted to paint his bug house that he made at a Home Depot Kids Workshop. While his two younger siblings were sleeping, I brought paint and brushes outside and he got to paint with “real” paint for the first time. He was quite proud. He also still loves to paint with water colors.

I recently picked up some finger paint, too, so we’ll be trying our “fingers” at that pretty soon. I love doing messy things outside and then running over to the sprinkler or water table to clean up! Eli has disliked being “dirty,” but is slowly warming up to “messy” crafts. Its good for the kid and lots of fun!

One of Eli’s favorite outside toys this summer is the watering can. He loves to fill it up and water everything (trees, flowers, grass, sprinklers, concrete). He recently started filling it up with rocks, too. He gets lots of entertainment from the cheap plastic toy!

Matt recently pulled out the fountain for the kids to play in. The kids enjoyed filling the fountain with rocks and splashing.

This is a picture of Eli jumping up and down on the water table. It wasn’t exactly safe. So I quickly took a few pictures before instructing him to get down and not climb on the water table again.

Eli still has lots of fun with his imaginary friends, Dude and Ream. Matt and I often have the opportunity to interact with them as well! Eli also enjoys driving around in the Cozy Coupe shopping and visiting the mechanic.

Eli had a blast this morning at a preschool event at church. He came home telling me all the fun activities he got to do. It really encourages me that preschool will be a good thing for him come this fall. He seems to thrive off the structured social interaction!

Eli is participating for the first time in the library’s summer reading program. He gets so excited wanting to read lots of books in a row so he can color in rain drops and earn prizes. He begs to go to the library. Its been fun! His latest obsession is Arthur books. We recently found a book by Arthur’s little sister about preschool that Eli is very fond of, too!

Eli has surprised me with how kind and gentle he has been with his new baby brother. When Micah is crying, Eli will lean over him and hold his hand whispering, “Its okay Baby Micah. I love you.” Its so sweet. And it often calms Micah down. Eli also enjoys doing tummy time with Micah, too. Eli is very curious about what Micah is doing, and doesn’t seem to fight for my time when I’m caring for his little brother.

His kind behavior doesn’t always translate towards his little sister, but I’ll take whatever I can get! Some days he seems to do great. Other days, his three-year-old behavior is so evident, as he intentionally goes around disobeying and breaking as many rules as he can. Its hard to be patient and know how to handle him when he goes on a rampage. Fortunately, not all days are like that!

Regardless of the hard days, Eli sure is growing into an energetic, articulate, and smart little guy!

Wow. I have three kids now.
Three very cute kids, I might add.

When did my baby girl get so big?

And when did my big boy find his nurturing side?
I’m very blessed.

The temperature hit 90 degrees earlier this week, so Matt pulled the pool out for the kids to have some fun in the water. We all enjoyed lots of time outside. Its been so nice to be together as a family!

Have I mentioned lately that Eli LOVES swimming? This kid had a huge smile on his face most of the day!

Abi splashed in the water for a few minutes before going off to explore the backyard. She quickly found a bowl of snacks and plopped down to enjoy!

Micah enjoyed soaking up the rays during one of his many naps. This was also therapy for helping keep his bilirubin under control!

We also enjoyed a picnic lunch outside.

Abi was amused by the fact that Micah was “wearing” a hat, too.

She then showed Micah her trick of taking her hat off. Of course, she helped Micah take his hat off, too. What a helper…ha!

After being stuck in the house with sick kids and a baby on bili lights, we took a desparately needed outing as a family to Garden of the Gods, or as Eli calls it, “The Rock Park.” Eli and Abi loved playing in the rocks and dirt. Micah pretty much slept through our outing. Matt and I enjoyed getting a little fresh air! We also managed to get our first family photo as a family of five! Enjoy the pictures!