Paw Paw Ron's Visit

Ok, wow. I haven't blogged in forever! My laptop went "kaput" on me, so that is the main reason for my lack of online presence. Trust me, I've had withdrawals. I have a minute right now while the boys are both sleeping (woohoo!) so let's see how much I can do before one of them wakes up!

My dad came to visit back on June 12. He was here for a week! It was so fun! But now that it's been so long I'm having a hard time remembering what exactly we did. One day we went on a hike. It wasn't terribly difficult, but I had Ian in the baby bjorn carrier and after an hour or so my back was KILLING ME. I don't think those things are meant for long-term carrying. UGH. Jase was doing OK but definitely walking at a toddler's pace. He started getting hot and tired, and it took a bit of coaxing to get him back down the mountain so we could go eat and get drinks. My coke never tasted so good! Ha ha ha.

Speaking of Coke, another time we took dad to one of our favorite pizza places in town. They have the best Coke, I swear. So I was making all these comments about how good it was and he teased me about it ALL WEEK. Whatever. It really WAS the best fountain coke ever! :) Ahhh.

We also went to the zoo. That was fun. The weather was great and it wasn't too hot. Jase enjoyed the zoo a bit more than he did last year (ie, he rode the carousel and was happy about it). We were really excited to show him the gorillas since lately his favorite animated movie is "Tarzan,"(or as he calls it, "Carzan") but there was only one and he was lying down way back in the corner. Poo. We took the scenic drive home and I think dad enjoyed the ride. All in all it was a good day, but really, the zoo here isn't THAT awesome. I think I am spoiled from the HUGE zoo back in New Orleans. Oh well. But NOLA can't touch our good weather here! :)

I figured Dad could use a break from the hustle and bustle of 2 little kids, so I lent him my car and he went to spend an afternoon at the airforce museum. We all went together last time he came up, but this time I think he was able to enjoy it more without the grandkids. And I enjoyed it more staying at home and not having to fuss at a 2 yr old to "stop touching that!" every 5 seconds. Heh.

I hate saying good-bye at the airport when he leaves bc it's just SO SAD to live far away from family. I hate it! Anyways, since I was, of course, super awesome about taking pictures of everything we did (not), here are a few pics we snapped on the way to bring him back to the airport on the day he left! LOL. I am awesome. I know.

Paw Paw with Jase (2 yrs, 8 mos) and Ian (2.5 months) on the front porch.
We took a few more on the steps with me included, but since the sun was pretty bright out, I was squinty jones magoo and recommended we move over to the shade, pictured below:
One last pic of my dad and I at Texas Roadhouse (was sort of our father's day dinner outing), but I think Dad paid, so that sort of rules it out as "my treat," eh? Heh heh.
Random pic I took of the boys while bathing...(cute how Ian is looking at Jasey)

Jase, 2 yrs +7 months

How cute is my big boy getting? Oh man, I can't even stand it! Good thing he's cute, because he sure can be a little devil at times. He is going through that "independent" stage and "finding his voice," and let me tell you, he sure has found it. I get to hear things like "get away from me!," "go away!," "Nooo, I wanna do it!," on a daily basis. Sigh. But besides all the new-found sassiness, he is just darling and cracks us up! I love his funny personality!I love the look on his face here! He was sitting at his "jasey-sized" picnic table ($50 at Sams, best purchase EVER) while I was snapping pics of him! I've been taking so many of Ian lately, so I thought I better catch up on Jasey!
Hammin' it up on the boat just a couple weeks ago...
Here are some things Jase has been up to these days:

• He finally got over his fear of riding the power wheels tractor (thanks grandma). He goes full speed and all over the yard!
• LOVES to do pretty much EVERYTHING by himself. Even if he can't do it, he still wants to do it. This causes some major headbutting from time to time. I try to let him do as much as possible, but sometimes I just do NOT have the patience.
• Shows ZERO interest in potty training. Ok wait, not exactly true. He has tried to go a couple of times but nothing has happened. I haven't really pushed it too much just bc I am really busy with Ian and don't have the time to dedicate to it just yet anyways.
• Had his first major ear infection last week. What a mess! He had a super high fever (103) for 2 days so I called the doctor. Both ears were infected and both ear drums had ruptured! Poor baby! He was MISERABLE. So was I. We are almost done with the round of antibiotics and ear drops and he's doing much better. But he still has the stinkin' lingering cough (3+ weeks now) that caused the ear infections in the first place! Geez!
• He loves to say "one more time" and "last time" about 1,000 times to get you to do whatever it is he wants you to do like a billion times. But he says the word "time" in the cutest way, so it's entertaining when he does it. :)
  
• He asks you the same question about 50 times in a row (so fun, not).
• He'll say funny stuff like "I lost my mom" or "I lost my shoes" if he can't find me or them.
• He knows all of our full names. So adorable.
  
• He is wearing a size 4T in shirts and 3T in pants now. Size 8 to 8.5 for shoes!
• When Ian cries, he will tell me "Mom, go check on the baby!," or "Mom, go give the baby his nunu (binky)." Sometimes he'll even cover his ears.
• If he wants me to do something and I'm holding the baby, he'll say, "Mom, can you put Ian down?," or "Mom, go put Ian in his seat!" Heh heh. Bossy little thing, ain't he?
• He loves having Grandma Jenith come visit. She comes up every couple of weeks to help me out. Lately he's really been soaking up the attention bc I've noticed he's finally starting to get a bit "jealous" of how much of my time Ian takes up. Of course this makes me a bit sad, so I do what I can to make up for it.
• He loves meeting up with Grandma Connie & Grandpa Larry for dinner! He knows right were they live, too. If I drive by he'll say "Hey that's Grandpa's house!"
• He's looking forward to PawPaw Ron's visit (my dad) in a couple weeks! So am I! We don't get to see PawPaw that often, so when he comes up it's a real treat. Jase even remembered that PawPaw had a Blackberry phone from last November. (Reuben got one from work and he said, "Hey that is PawPaw's phone!") I couldn't believe he remembered that!
• He LOVES playing outside!
• His favorite thing to eat is probably pizza.
• He weighs 38.5 lbs. Not sure how tall he is--for sure over 3 ft though. I need to measure him.
  

Eat Your Heart Out, Baby!

Since my laptop went "kaput" on me, I haven't had as easy access to the computer as I did before (kept laptop in kitchen, our desktop computer is upstairs in our bedroom and Roob works on it a lot). So needless to say I'm pretty behind with my posts! Ian is growing up way too fast for my liking--I get all emotional thinking about it. The only good part is that soon I am hoping he'll sleep a 7 or 8 hour stretch at night :)

Here's some fun things Ian has been doing these days:

• He can pretty much hold his head up all by himself. He loves to be "propped" up so he can look around. We took out the Boppy Seat and he does fairly well in it!
  
• He has gone as long as 6 hrs from feeding to feeding (start time to start time) at night (yes!). But mostly he goes about 4 to 5 hours.
• He coos and tries to "talk" to us! It's so cute! He also smiles a lot these days (see pic above)!
• He likes to be held a lot and be part of the action.
  
• Not such a big fan of the car seat lately.
  
• Will cry if there's a loud, startling noise (Jase's job these days). Ah-hem!
• During the day he usually goes 2.5 to 3 hrs from feeding to feeding, but sometimes he'll only make it 2 hours. Those are the tough times for mommy!
• He likes to cry the most when Jase needs my attention (help!) or when I need to do some laundry, cook, or do bills. Or shower. Or eat. Which is why I eat my meals WAY too quickly these days.
• He wears a size 1 diaper. Currently we're liking the pampers swaddlers. They are so soft and smell yummy (when clean, anyways, LOL).
• He has now officially outgrown "newborn" sized clothes. He outgrew them somewhere about 6 weeks old, I think. So now he is wearing 0 to 3 month clothing and it fits perfectly. I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but we'll find out next week at his 2 month checkup.
• He spits up like a crazy person. So did Jase. All my clothes are ruined by the end of the day. Oh well!
  

Look A-Likes? You decide!

I took this picture of Ian the other day (about 7 weeks old) and I remembered having a similar one of Jase when Jase was about the same age. I had to dig in my ol' files and find it. I think there are tons of similarities and some differences, too. Like their overall face shape (oval-ian- vs. circle-jase, and side curls-jase- vs. straight hair-ian). Check it out!

Ian...
Jase...

Here's another couple "look-a-like" shots...they both are wearing the same Nike hat. Funny how time flies soooo fast!

Ian...(4 weeks old)
Jase...(2 weeks old)

Ian at 4 weeks old!!!

So I finally had some time to do a mini photoshoot with my little newbie. Those little cheeks are sure filling out nicely! Enjoy the pics!

Should You Have Kids?

i saw this online and had a good laugh.

Is anybody in there?

So after 4 weeks of very little sleep, it is finally catching up with me. I think I am also getting sick (poo). Doesn't help the immune system to lose out on sleep, either. Sigh. Oh well. At least I made it through my pregnancy w/o getting super sick! Anyways, I feel like I have been drugged with some sort of drowsy, cloudy, sleeping pill. Only problem is, I can't just lay down and SLEEP! Pffff...it's like a robot is controlling me. I have plenty more videos/pics to post, but it'll have to wait until I can think straight. :) Yet somehow I am still functioning...barely. And wow, Jase is sure getting away with a lot these days...

P.S. Ian is 4 weeks old this Thursday! That went by way too quickly!

The House that Built Me

Not sure if I've been feeling a bit nostalgic lately or what, but the first time I heard this song on country radio I started bawling. What a great song! Makes me miss my childhood like crazy. Especially my teen years...

http://www.cmt.com/videos/miranda-lambert/500805/the-house-that-built-me.jhtml

It's Getting Harder

So it's a MIRACLE that I actually have more than 1 minute to sit here and blog. Seriously. When we first brought Ian home, he seemed to sleep a lot. Not really the case any longer. Guess that is what happens as they become more and more alert. Right now I'm in that phase of "problem solving," constantly trying to discern what each cry means. Tricky, to say the least.

I'm also one blink away from getting rid of my dogs. Right now one of them is whining at me like he wants something but he has food and water--so ya got me. And I am done getting up out of this chair after the crazy day I have had. Anyways..

It seems Ian is fairly gassy from time to time. Those cries sound painful to me and his tummy will get all tight and hard. Plus he either eventually toots or poos (haha), so I get it. I just am not sure what's causing it, or if there is anything I can do to fix it. There's no rhyme or reason to it at all. ARgh. And who likes to hear their baby cry? Yeah, me either. So anyways, it's been a bit challenging. And today was tough. Reuben has some kind of crappy chest congestion/cough and felt terrible today. So starting like midnight last night, he basically set up "sick camp" in the basement so he wouldn't cough his germs on any of us. He slept MOST of the day today, too. We barely saw him! I hope the rest did him some good, bc both he and I have been functioning on probably 6 hours or less (per night) of broken sleep for the past 3 weeks. It starts to take its toll on a person. Work for him has also been pretty busy & stressful, so he'll come home at like 5pm, eat dinner, then disappear upstairs to do layouts till like 10 or 11pm. ARGH!!!! We both hate it. At least he has a job. I keep telling myself that.

Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. So back to today--man, it was a long one. It seemed that no matter what time of the day it was either Jase needed me for something or Ian did. As soon as I'd feed the baby and put him down, I'd try to walk into the kitchen and he'd start crying. The kind of crying that basically won't stop until I either pick him up or feed him. So at one point I just gave up trying to clean ANYTHING (I should post a picture of what my house looks like right now--yikes) and just sat with him on the couch. Of course this is while Jase was getting into lots of naughty things. Climbing into the fridge, drawing on the table with a pen, pushing buttons on my laptop, throwing toys all over the house, sticking the toilet plunger into the toilet (eew), etc etc. He did have a few entertained moments throughout the day--I successfully got him to play with his playdoh and also his watercolors for a while...and I think he watched "The Incredibles" about 5 times. I have it memorized by now :)

Anyways, it's 10:35pm and I have never been MORE thankful for silence in my life. I just needed to vent a bit and have some "me" time. I'm glad everyday is not this challenging! Makes ya appreciate the good days!!!!! I was even able to FINALLY shower with Jase at about 9:30pm tonight. Poor Jase is completely on Ian's schedule now...he's up way too late and sleeps late in the morning. But I guess for now it'll have to do bc that is the only way I can catch an extra hour or two of sleep.

Well, I better log off. I need to feed the little eating machine and then get us both to bed ASAP. I need all the Z's I can get!

Ian's First Bath

Ian at 3 weeks old

Just took a quick video of him so y'all could get a better feel for what he really looks like (so cute so cute!). However, wasn't very smart of me to do it at night! The lighting could be better! Oh well, I'll try to get some more posted in the future. Uploading videos is a bit of a pain...ok, just realized that once again the video is being clipped on the right side. SO annoying! Oh well, I guess you can see what half of his face looks like! Heh.

Jase's Box & Helmet

Can't post pics of Ian without posting some of Jasey, too! This boy is growing up way too fast for my liking! He's 2.5 yrs old now! GAH! Here's a couple pics I snapped of him playing in a diaper box. He loves playing with boxes!
Nice grin, my man.
Ok so we found this helmet for him in Walmart--isn't it cute?? Ha ha ha, I love it! He finally mastered riding the trike, so we thought it would be good to get him used to wearing a helmet now...
Here's a view from the side. This helmet is sized for a 5 yr old child. Hee hee.
My favorite pic of him wearing it. He wouldn't take it off. He played with his "toy story" water color paints for at least a half an hour while wearing his helmet. Too funny!

Ian's 2 week Stats

Look how different he looks just after a week or two! Geez! I swear he gets CUTER and CUTER every day...I love him!

Ok let's get down to business. I took him in for his 2 week checkup with the pediatrician last Thursday. Apparently when they measured him after he was born, they overestimated (either that or he's shrinking) bc the nurse measured him 4 times and each time she only got 20.87"! When he was born they said he was 21.5"! Ha ha ha. The nurse was all worried about my reaction but it wasn't a big deal to me--I thought it was kind of funny. Only, now, his birth stats are off on his length, but oh well.

He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, so he was able to regain his birth weight and then some (which is what they want babies to do) . I think he only weighed about 7 lbs 13 oz when we left the hospital. He's now in the 47th percentile for his weight. This "average" weight is so foreign to me since Jase always seemed to be in the 80's or 90's for his stats. Crazy!

Here's my favorite part--his head size. I just assumed I'd have another baby with a big head like the first time around (hence part of my reasoning electing a 2nd c-section). But nope, his head measures only 14.2", which lands him in the 28th percentile! Shocker to us all!

So far everything is going pretty well with Ian. He eats well, poops & pees well, sleeps fairly well...a pretty good baby overall. I could not be more grateful for this healthy, sweet little baby boy nugget face. Sometimes I just need to hold him and breathe him in...it's enough to overwhelm anyone's heart. I'll just sit there and cry and cry, just happy to have him and wonder about what the future holds for him. Sigh. He's such a beautiful tiny gift.

Big Bro, Little Bro...

Took these when Ian was about 1 week old. He doesn't look all that small sitting on Jase's lap!
Heh heh, cute. Jase kept looking over at Reuben while I was taking pics.
He started to get more "brave" and started playing with Ian's arms. However, you should have seen his face when Ian actually started crying. He scooted away from the baby really fast!
Trying to get an idea of the height difference between these two. Hee hee. I love Ian's crazy eye (looking at his dad like, "what are you doing to me?") in this pic.

A few more pics...

These are when Ian was about 1 week old. I have lots more to post, they are just still stuck on my SD card. More to come. Here he is chillin' out in his bouncer seat (which I am in love with).
Sunbathing time! He needed some sun bc of the jaundice, so I used the shadow as his "sunglasses." Hee hee.
Ian's first trip to Chick-Fil-A in the carseat. Don't cha love his homemade "headrests?"
Ooh! His eyes were finally open long enough for me to snap a pic. Roob was holding him here.

3 + 1 = 4

Checking out of the hospital on Sunday, April 11, 2010. Our first family of 4 picture :)

More Pics of Ian from the Hospital

I have so many pictures to post--sigh. But here's a start! Just a day or two old in the hospital. He finally opened his eyes and we snapped a couple pics!
Ha ha, cute face here.
Hee hee, not so happy here! I took this one right before I fed him, I think. Hence the mad face.
So sweet sleeping on his side in the hospital bassinet. If you look at the top-left of the picture, you can see his little black & white sunglasses they put on him underneath the billiruben lights.
I love how cute his little face looks in this picture, the light catching in his eyes. That's grandma Jenith holding him. She spent Saturday night in the hospital with me to give Reuben a break.
Awww, sound asleep on my chest...look at those squishy cheeks!
Another sleepy middle of the night picture. Don't I just look dashing??? Ok let's focus our attention on Ian here. :)
We started dressing him in his "going home" outfit. Here's the first part of it and it is HUGE on him. Oh well. He still looks cute anyways!
Ok here's the entire thing. It's such a cute outfit but the hat & pants are gigantic! Size 0-3 months was just too big for my little 8 pounder! My sister sent the cute loafers for him, but since they wouldn't let us remove his ankle bracelets until we left the hospital (for security reasons), they wouldn't fit!
Here's a view of the back of his pants--a little bear bottom! Hee hee.
More pics to come soon...when I get a chance to post!

do u have CAADD???

"Child Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:

I decide to do the laundry. As I start toward the basement, I notice that there are cheerios all over the floor and my car keys are in the cereal bowl. I decide to pick up the cheerios before I do the laundry. I lay my car keys down on the counter, put the cheerios in the trash can under the counter, and notice that the trash can is full. So, I decide to take out the trash. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash I may as well pay the bills first. I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left, my extra checks are in my desk in the office/playroom, so I go to my desk where I find a sippy cup full of juice. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I decide I should put the sippy cup in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the sippy cup a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need to be watered. I set the sippy cup on the counter, and I discover baby wipes that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back in the bathroom, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the wipes back down, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote, one of the kids left it on the kitchen table. I realize that after school when they go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote as they fight over who lost it, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the laundry isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm cup of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find the wipes, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys. When I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail." (got this off of a friend's blog who got it off of another blog, but it made me laugh bc this is so totally my problem)

Ian Christian

So we have officially named our child! Thought I'd let you know in case you don't do the Facebook thing. I've always liked the name Ian (thank goodness Reuben did, too, bc I swear we could not agree on hardly any other names), and we saw "Christian" on a list of family names my mom had sent me a while back. It comes from her mother's side of the family. Anyways, we liked that name, too, and it just so happens that the baby's initials spell "ICE." Funny, cuz Jase's initials spell "JOE," so we thought we'd continue with that "tradition" just for fun.

We left the hospital early Sunday afternoon. Ian's jaundice levels had been fairly high a day or tw earlier, so they increased his feedings and kept him under the billiruben (sp?) lights for at least 24 hrs. By Sunday morning his levels had dropped back into the low risk category, so they let me take him home (yes!). We have to take him in for a 2nd checkup tomorrow morning, though, just to make sure he's ok. I think he is. He had plenty of dirty diapers last night (always a good sign for the jaundiced thing). But I think increasing his feedings temporarily at the hospital has already increased my milk supply. He has way more than he needs--so I'm hoping that gets naturally resolved over the next couple of days.

Anyways, I should be using this time to rest, but I wanted to do a quick update for ya.

Want a kiss??

I gotta send this to America's Funniest Videos so we can win the big money! :) This was the first time Jase was meeting little Ian (yes, we have officially decided on "Ian Christian" for the name--finally) and Roob and Grandma Jenith were trying to convince him to give Ian a kiss. SO FUNNY! Hope you think it is as funny as I do!!!