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!

I have

fallen

in love

with

my boy.

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!

I told her it was true, but Abi just cannot believe she is already 18 months old!

Here are her stats:
Weight: 19.1 pounds (1st percentile)
Height: 31.7 inches (62nd percentile)
Head Circumference: 18 inches (31st percentile)

Simply put, she is tall and skinny!

Let me just say that I love my little girl. I’m so thankful that God gave me a daughter. She makes me smile so many times every day. She is very independent and never wants to be left out. I was worried that she would be forced to grow up too fast with a little brother so close in age. But Abi always makes sure there is room in my lap or my arms for her. She is very content just being near me, even if I need to tend to one of her siblings. She loves to sing. She communicates so well already that it blows my mind. She can stand up to her older brother, though we are working on her screaming at him! She loves her little brother and daily admires his toes! To my surprise, I haven’t seen an ounce of jealousy spill out of her. She only knows of life with her brothers!

If anything, she wants to do things to keep up with her older brother. She now picks out her own book before bed. And puts her clothes in the hamper before bath time. And eats off a plate at the table. And puts her shoes on the shoe rack after we get home. And walks to the mailbox by herself. And drinks milk out of a sippy cup. And helps mommy move clothes from the washer to the dryer. And colors at the table. And plays with play dough. And climbs into the van by herself. And so much more. Just like her big brother. Simply put, her little brother isn’t forcing her to grow up faster. Her big brother is motivating her to grow up faster!

Despite being surrounded by brothers and cars and trains and boy toys, she easily picks out the girly toys. She pushes her baby in the shopping cart while carrying her pink “Prada” purse. I love having a girly girl. Thank heavens for my little girl! I can’t believe she is 18 months already!

Micah is TWO months old! Its amazing how fast those two months have flown by! My favorite part at the moment are his big eyes studying my face and his mouth forming a smile! He did great with his first round of immunizations. He cried, but was easily comforted in my arms. He had a little trouble going down for his afternoon nap, but since the older two were sleeping, I took the opportunity to cuddle with him.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 8 pounds, 3 ounces (5th percentile)
Height: 21.3 inches (15th percentile)
Head Circumference: 14.5 inches (9th percentile)

So all in all, we have a little guy. But needless to say, we are quite used to having little ones and kinda like it! Besides, I don’t want him growing up to fast!

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!

On Father’s Day, the super-daddy in this house was given some pictures of the kids with him that now sit on his desk at his new office at work! After church, we had a delicious dinner of grilled fish. After nap time, we brought the kids to the fountain at America the Beautiful park and let them run around. They had a blast! Our hands were quite full, so we didn’t take any pictures. We topped our day off with ice cream at our favorite shop, Rizuttos! Yum! I am so blessed to be married to both a wonderful and amazing husband and father to our children!

******

A couple weekends ago, we packed the kids up and went to Palmer Park for a hike. Eli has done several walks, but has not walked on many hikes. I’m guessing we did a 4-5 mile hike. Though whiny, Eli did really well. He especially loved jumping off rocks!

On Sunday, Eli woke up coughing. We decided to stay home from church, as we weren’t sure how sick Eli was. We aren’t very good at sitting around, so Matt and I were trying to come up with some ideas to get out of the house that wouldn’t exert Eli too much.

We finally settled on driving up through the zoo to the Will Rogers Shrine, which we had never done before. The drive up the mountain was beautiful, but not as beautiful as the views from the top! It was interesting learning some history about the shrine and some influential people in our city. Of course, I couldn’t resist getting a family picture with our gorgeous city in the background!

The following week, Eli got to go to a creative day camp organized by our church. He had an absolute blast and wouldn’t stop talking about all the fun things he got to do! It definitely confirmed that preschool will be a good thing for him! He came home every day with crafts, including a birdhouse, bird feeder, picture frame, paintings, a bug house and so much more!

On a side note, Eli had a minor virus that exacerbated his reactive airway disease. We started him on nebulizers pretty quickly, but brought him to the doctor to get some more meds. We are in the process of starting him on a maintenance medication, in hopes to control his breathing better. He fortunately is doing much better. But unfortunately passed the virus onto Abi, who has a lot of snot right now! Thanks to her ear tubes, she doesn’t have an ear infection, though!

******

Bad Hair Day!

******

Our newest favorite water toy is…

…water hopscotch!

******

This is Micah’s peek hole to life most days!
He is happiest in the Baby Bjorn, being held, and of course, sleeping!

******

While Abi and Micah are napping in the morning, I have tried to continue to have some special Eli and Mommy time. Since the weather is nice, we’ve done some fun, but messy crafts outside. Eli is really into painting. We’ve painted a bug house he made at Home Depot and finger painted. Eli used to freak out about getting dirty, but thankfully, he seems to be getting past that! We’ve had a lot of fun together!

Did I mention we did a lot and had a lot of fun in Wisconsin?
Here are some more pictures.
We had fun…

Cuddling with Grandma!

Cuddling with Grandma some more!

Meeting some of Mommy’s old friends!

Giving and taking stroller rides!

Swinging and playing at not one, not two, but three different parks!

Swinging with the one and only cousin that shares the same birthday!

Getting pushes in the swing by Grandpa and Grandma!
(Not pictured: Abi spending lots of time swinging in the big swing under Grandpa and Grandma’s deck)

Cuddles with Grandpa!

Also not pictured: Seeing a few minutes of fireworks at the park before racing to the car with our hands full of kids and stuff before the floodgates opened! We watched the rest of the fireworks from the safety of Grandpa and Grandma’s deck. It was a lot quieter, which made Abi a lot happier!

]]> http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/2010/07/wisconsin-part-ii/feed/ 0 http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/2010/07/wisconsin-part-i/ http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/2010/07/wisconsin-part-i/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:55:57 +0000 Kimi http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/?p=1784

We packed up our van with lots of stuff and kids and drove 15+ hours through the night to my parents’ home in Wisconsin over the 4th of July weekend. It was a long drive, considering Matt and I hadn’t had a good night of rest in over a month and completely skipped one night of sleep on the way out and the way back. But we made it. And we are super glad we made the trip! Its also worth noting that the kids did wonderful on the drive…I was super impressed!

Both of my brothers and their families were there, too. There were six grandchildren ages four years and under. There was always something to do and someone to talk to and a kid to play with. I’m very thankful for the many extra set of hands that helped Matt and I with our kids, too! Our kids actually adjusted much quicker to being in a new place, too, which was a pleasant surprise!

From here on out, I’ll let the pictures explain all the fun things we enjoyed doing on our trip…

We had fun…

Playing in the raised sandbox full of green and blue sand that Grandpa built!

Taking many trips down to the garden with Grandpa to pick strawberries and lots of other tasty vegetables!

Dressing the girl cousins in matching outfits and attempting to get them together for a picture!

Visiting a really cool train museum in a nearby town!

Spending lots of quality time with aunts, uncles and cousins!

Hanging out with cousins playing water hopscotch (which also was a drinking fountain)!

Driving the Dora ATV down the big hill at Grandpa and Grandma’s house and getting and convincing a really nice Aunt or Uncle to push you back up the hill!

Swimming in both a small pool and the much bigger city pool!

TO BE CONTINUED

Micah is almost two months old! His 2-month check up is on Monday, along with Abi’s 18-month check up. So I figure I better try to catch up a little on his first two months of life.

I don’t exactly want to place a label on him, but Micah has turned out to be a bit more on the fussy side. He really likes to be held and likes movement. He actually prefers to be held with movement if at all possible. He doesn’t sleep well in a crib or bassinet, simply because its not moving. Thankfully, we have a swing, which buys us a few moments of not holding him and some sleep at night!

He isn’t exactly on a schedule at the moment, but tends to feed every 2-4 hours in general. He is still nursing well and appears to be satisfied and gaining weight well. He has done well taking a bottle several times and doesn’t seem to have any trouble switching between the bottle and nursing.

Micah has great head control and loves being on his tummy. I’m pretty sure the kid will end up as a tummy sleeper, though we still have him on his back until he gets stronger.

Micah isn’t a fan of his car seat and makes a loud announcement every time the car stops at a stop sign or stop light. Its wonderful. Thankfully, the moving car usually calms him right down. My best bet getting out with the kids is putting Micah in the baby bjorn. He is cozy and happy and goes right to sleep. If I leave him in his car seat and the shopping cart or stroller stops moving, he tends to cry.

He is having some short moments of happy awake time and is just starting to have an occasional smile. Its super cute. I feel like I hardly have any pictures of the kid. Every time he is content, I want to snap a picture. Unfortunately, he dislikes the flash and it makes him cry. So I’m learning to keep those moments to myself and not take a picture!

Micah started in newborn diapers. Around a month, he moved up to size 1 diapers and is still wearing size 1. He was in preemie clothes for about 2 weeks, then moved up to newborn, which is still mainly wearing. He has some summer rompers that are 0-3 months that he wears, too. They are more like pants than shorts, but it works! I bought the smallest summer hat I could find before he was born, but its still HUGE on him. Oh well. I just spray his head with sunscreen when we are out!

Micah hasn’t shown any signs at this point of a cow’s milk allergy, like his older two siblings. That being said, he still seems to have some digestive woes that make him appear uncomfortable. We’ve started giving him a dairy-free probiotic, and it seems to really help him. Its a pain to give (and I’m sure Micah would add it tastes terrible), so we are trying to find out the least number of times necessary to give it, but still keep Micah as comfortable as possible.

Though Micah rarely spits up and when he does its only the size of a quarter at best, he does seem to have some choking/coughing episodes after feeds occasionally. We haven’t been overly concerned, but we are considering starting him on some medication for reflux to see if that might decrease some of his fussiness and make him more comfortable.

Micah has been spoiled with lots and lots of DIAPERS! He may not appreciate the gift as much his parents, but we’ve been very blessed to not have to spend much on diapers and still have plenty left to use! Matt’s parents threw a diaper party for Micah. Each of our kids got a matching teddy bear, as well, that was a huge hit. Eli, especially, has enjoyed dressing his bear with Micah’s outgrown clothing! Though we had the camera, I managed not to take any pictures of Micah meeting his great grandparents and great aunt and great uncles. Opps.

Hmmm. After reading this it sounds like we have a super fussy baby. But I also want to add, he has some very cute and sweet moments, too. The fussiness seems to go in cycles, and there are days that he is as sweet as can be. We are still figuring our new little guy out. You’d think by the time we had a third the process would go faster! We love Micah and are so happy to have this little guy in our family!

Abi Joy is now 17 months, just shy of a year and a half old. Somewhere along these months, she seems so much less like a baby and so much more like a little girl.

She is loving exploring the outdoors and is walking so much better than a month ago! There are moments she wants a finger for security to hold while walking, and there are other moments where she announces her independence and refuses to hold anyone’s hand. Abi is enjoying touching trees, rocks, grass, water, flowers and so much more.

Abi loves to eat paper. I have no idea why. Any piece of paper, envelope, kleenex, or toilet paper is now something we have to keep out of Abi’s reach. For a while, she was even opening trash cans looking for paper to eat. Gross! A couple weeks ago, she even ate Matt’s paycheck. While Matt and I were cleaning up after dinner, Eli loudly announced, “Abi is eating something that she really shouldn’t be eating! Help!” And sure enough, most of Matt’s paycheck was being digested by our little girl.

Abi enjoys carrying around a pink purse and filling it with treasures in the house. She plays with the shape sorter, but only the circle shape. She likes to hold a ball when she is in her car seat travelling around town. She is starting to enjoy being read to, but only books that have a couple words per page. She recently has started chomping on books, too, as several books now are missing corners. She has been going around opening her own and her brothers’ drawers taking out clothes and trying to put them on. She also loves shoes and can entertain herself playing with shoes for a long time! She is also quite fond of trying on hats, too.

Speaking of shoes, we recently bought her a pair of summer sandals in size 2. I thought she would surely need size 3, but they were quite big on her. She definitely has some small feet. She is wearing a combination of 12 month and 18 month clothes and seems to be growing like a weed at the moment. She has her 4 front teeth and two molars on the top. She seems to go in teething spurts frequently, but at the moment appears to be comfortable. And she LOVES to brush her teeth. Its another of her favorite past-times.

Our sweet little girl enjoys giving kisses, one on each cheek, followed by a “mah” sound. She’ll put her head on our shoulder, clinging to her blankey, and say “nigh nigh.” Very sweet. She is still taking two naps a day, a one hour nap at 9 in the morning and a 1.5-2 hour nap at 1 in the afternoon. She is still doing great in her twin bed, surrounded by lots of pillows and stuffed animals. Before sleep, she lays down in bed and drinks a bottle, then turns over and goes to sleep when she is done.

Her most favorite song at the moment is Itsy Bitsy Spider. While I’m nursing Micah, she is often standing right in front of me, so I often sing songs to her. She tries and does the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider and its so cute! She is learning new words everyday and is very willing to imitate sounds. She has the sweetest voice right now…I don’t want it to ever change!

As for her new baby brother, Abi likes to pat his head and tickle his toes. She always makes sure there is a place on mommy’s lap whenever I am holding Micah. She absolutely refuses to try and hold him, immediately pushing him away and saying, “No!” We’ll give her some space for now! She is very curious of his equipment, like his swing, bouncy seat, car seat, etc. and loves to try them out. She loves to “rock” Micah in his swing, too.

Eating-wise, Abi continues to only eat a handful of foods. She isn’t very interested in trying new things, either. We are offering her new foods, but not fretting when she refuses them. Some of her favorite foods right now are fruit (she’ll eat most fruit), raisins, cheesy puffs, cheese, and pretzels. I’ve never been successful with getting her to eat any vegetable. Oh well. She still primarily drinks water and milk out of a bottle, though we continue to keep sippy cups near her. We’ve tried to take the bottle away since Micah was born, and that was a complete failure once again. Oh well. Hopefully it will work out in time.

Abi continues to bring so much joy to our family. I don’t think we could have picked out a more appropriate middle name!!

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.

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!

]]> http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/2010/06/garden-of-the-gods-4/feed/ 1 http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/2010/06/the-many-faces-of-eli-2/ http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/2010/06/the-many-faces-of-eli-2/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:53:24 +0000 Kimi http://www.thebaylors.org/thesprings/?p=1721

and she’s not very happy

about it.

Poor girl

Micah had two very curious siblings, both of which behaved very well during bath time! Eli and Abi earned lots of bubbles in the tub after Micah was done!

We noticed Micah was getting fussy and starting to turn yellow again, warranting a call to the pediatrician on Tuesday. She ordered another bilirubin lab, which came back just below 12. Instead of bili lights, the doctor ordered for us to undress Micah and bring him outside a couple times a day for 20 minutes. He does seem less jaundiced, so it appears to be helping! You can see the yellow in his eyes in the picture below.

Just over three years ago, Eli was born weighing 4 pounds, 15 ounces. We took a picture of him next to a Nalgene bottle to show how little he was.

We decided to do a similar shot of Micah and the Nalgene bottle, too. Micah weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces at birth.

It probably has something to do with the angle of the shot, but I think Micah looks smaller than Eli. But don’t worry, he’s almost a pound and a half bigger than his brother was!