Day 189: Holding His Own Bottle

Day 188: 6 Months

Half a year already! Here's how you're changing... You still think your big sister Maya is the best thing ever.

You are a very smiley baby -when you are getting enough attention.

You are a needy boy - still wanting to be held a lot.

You can sit up by yourself for a very brief amount of time.

Your favorite pieces of equipment are the swing and the jumperoo.
You like to watch TV, especially Sesame Street.
You are starting to show less interest in your paci.
You make a really high-pitched screeching sound when you aren't getting enough attention.

You are showing more interest in toys.
You seem to like puffs, but can't feed them to yourself yet.
You are getting very close to being able to hold the bottle all by yourself.
Not much has changed with your sleeping habits. You wake up several times a night for your paci.
You are still calmed by soft blankets on your face.
White noise also calms you down at night.
You are still eating a fruit for breakfast and vegetable for dinner. We haven't introduced lunch yet.
The most exciting thing to happen is that I don't think I'm going to have to throw out my 300 oz of frozen breastmilk. You have had it a couple times with no gas or stomach pains. Yay! I think you will be able to drink it!

Day 187: Still A Swinger

But good thing he is strapped in. He still loves the swing movement, but loves sitting up in it and playing with his feet.

Day 186: National Wear Red Day

Day 185: Visit from Kaycee

Day 184: Return Of The Smile

Day 183: Celebration - Back To School!

Day 182: When Will It End?

Maya's fever was at 102 at 8:00 this morning. I gave her medicine and she slept in until 10:30. She woke up a sweaty mess, so I thought her fever broke. It started creeping back up at 4, so I gave her more meds. The Dr. says she may have a virus with the strep. We may be home again tomorrow. Mitchell doesn't really have a fever, but has still cried almost the entire day.

Sleep has been hard to come by.

One of Mitchell's few happy moments today. This is when I thought Maya was in the clear!

Day 181: Skittles

Both kids still have fevers which means they will both be staying home again tomorrow. It's my turn for sick duty. Maya needed a little something to cheer her up. Skittles helped until the Motrin kicked in.

We had an Open House today. Apparently we had two sets of visitors. One was just a neighbor. The other liked the house but said the garage wasn't deep enough. After the Open House a realtor was supposed to bring a client through the house. We should find out early this week if they came through and what they thought of the house.

Day 180: Miserable

Day 179: Double Dose

• of fevers
• of Dr's appointments
• of STREP THROAT
• of antibiotics
• of sick kids That's right, both kids have strep throat!
  At least it's the weekend so we don't have to miss anymore work this time around!
  

Day 178: "Look Sick"

I had the camera out and told Maya to "look sick." This is her interpretation...Maya brought home something "extra special" from Cincinnati this week. I had a feeling when she was super whiny last night and didn't sleep well that there was a problem. She woke up with a fever this morning and had to stay home from daycare. Daddy was able to stay home with her today. Her fever is starting to come back after almost 7 hours of no meds. We are thinking it is a virus, but it's looking like it will keep her home tomorrow too.

Here's to hoping this one doesn't catch it!

Day 177: Last Night

Well, I had an accident last night. The picture depicts the scene of the accident. I was home alone last night, it was 10 pm, and I was about to walk upstairs to feed Mitchell his final bottle. As I turned the corner from the living room, my foot got stuck on the other side of the highchair causing me to lose my balance. My entire right side body slammed into the yellow wall and then I bounced off and landed on my butt. My upper right arm took the brunt of the impact. I couldn't move my arm and I didn't know what to do. I called Arthur who told me to put an icepack on it. There wasn't much he could do from Cincinnati. It hurt so bad at that point I couldn't move it and definitely couldn't pick up Mitchell. I called Amy who brought over an icepack to help. My arm felt better within an hour, but it was a scary moment.

And tonight, my family is back home where they belong!

Day 176: Sleep Update

I know Mitchell sleeping in the crib is a picture that has been seen before, but it is appropriate tonight and his sleep is always evolving. For the past two weeks, Mitchell had a major sleep regression. After going a month without needing a middle of the night feeding, he was back to needing one, maybe two per night. It started because he got sick again. He had an ear infection, didn't feel good, so ate less during the day. This meant he needed to catch up on calories in the middle of the night. Well, even though he was on antibiotic and definitely not sick, he decided he still needed to eat in the middle of the night. Over the weekend, he barely ate during the day and slept horribly. There was nothing wrong with him, unless you consider "lazy" something wrong! What was the problem? He needed a bigger size nipple on his bottle so he didn't have to work for his milk to come out. We started giving him level 3 nipples with every bottle on Sunday and he has slept through the night the past two nights. He still wakes up a handful of times, but the paci satisfies him and it is a quick fix. I put him in bed tonight around 7 and he was wide awake. He was asleep within 10 minutes. If he doesn't wake up on his own by 10, I will wake him up and give him another bottle to make it through the night. This routine has worked like a charm the past two nights. So we will continue to do this until the next change, which I'm sure won't be long.

Day 175: Learning To Sit-Up

Day 174: Me And Sweet Cheeks

Day 173: "I Smell Chicken..."

is what Maya said as we were walking in to Applebees tonight. The girl rarely eats chicken, yet she can smell it! Pretty darn funny. On a side note, our service was not funny. We visited our neighborhood Applebees for the final time tonight.

Day 172: Snow Day Picnic