More pictures...

Here is a picture from Group 1's swap

A common sight in our home, usually heard with, "Keaton, you're going to get hurt..." And then Keaton screaming bloody murder...

Hmmm....(Thanks, Bebe!)

It takes a lot of milk to be a strong heart breaker like Keaton!

Yes, it's super blurry, but, they love each other so much!!!

The face of innocence...(riiiight)

Zach's parents were in town and the weather was amazing, combine that with Uncle Mark's tennis match next to a playground - time to "Sliiiiiii" (slide)

Zach's dad with Keaton and Karis (Keaton's younger cousin)

We introduced carrots on Saturday - do I need to say it? He loves them! I really posted this to show off his chunky thighs ;-)

Keaton, where are your teeth??

Carrots!

Zach's parents brought Keaton some plastic Easter eggs. I finished off the eggs this morning making some banana bread...I handed K the carton - this is what I caught him doing....

Some photos...

You're a...

Maybe Jaws would be a better name?
I hate the grainy quality of this picture, but it definitely shows how much K loves his little brother (& how thrilled B is with that!)

Yummy teething ring...

My sweet, sweet boys :) The bruise on B's forehead - thank you K...it was a swift kick to B's head - pure accident! (Yes, B is that huge...)

We started sweet potatoes at lunch today - he loved - of course :)

I go in tomorrow to get my toe rechecked and make sure it's healing properly from the surgery.

Bebe comes in this weekend (yay!!)

We have B's 6 month checkup Monday morning.

And that's about it for now! :)

Valentine's weekend

It started Thursday night with Zach bringing home some beautiful roses - because he thought V-day was Friday....teehee :)


Saturday included two trips to buy fabric & then a fun family dinner at Zaxby's - yummmmmy! I couldn't have asked for a better Valentine's Day spent with my 3 guys! I'm one lucky woman!!!

Today included church, lunch at Applebee's, watching the first 3 minutes of the Daytona500, another fabric run and small group - only to find out that our leaders were at the hospital having their sweet baby boy!!!!!

Speaking of sweet "baby" boys :) Here's a late picture of B enjoying his avocados :)

Movin' on up!

Well, Benjamin had a new food this morning. It is so wonderful to be back to making baby food - even though, I'm working on the easy foods right now ;-) I baked some sweet potatoes and them froze those...and then mashed up some avocados and froze those...

This morning, I gave him some avocado. Apparently, our family doesn't like them. K didn't like them either. However, I was one step ahead of B this morning, I got a banana out and mixed it with the avocado - Avo-nana? :) He LOVED it!! He was screaming at me if I wasn't quick on the draw :)

He's loving having variety in his 'diet', I can tell (who wouldn't?!)

I weighed the boys yesterday. Our scale isn't always accurate, so I knew I may not get an actual 'read' of their weights, but I could at least tell how far apart in weight they are...

Keaton - 29lbs....
Benjamin - 21.5lbs...

That's right - they are 16months apart in age and 7lbs different in weight! K didn't weigh 22lbs until 15months! haha! My lil piggy! love it!

We found the answer!

Probiotics!

Not sure if I should be excited, but I am really glad that we know WHAT has been bothering him!

With that being said - B is now only allowed oatmeal first thing in the morning.

He fell asleep about 815pm!

He apparently did wake up at 1130, but only took a couple sips from a bottle and went back to sleep (I never heard anything, haha!)

He did wake up at 330 and I nursed him in bed and Zach took him back when I was done. Then he woke up again at 530 - that's what he gets for not getting one last feeding in before he fell asleep - but he NEEDED that sleep!

So, he got oatmeal at breakfast and that's it for today!

SO glad to know what is going on!

Bananas & the Sleep Saga

Benjamin had something other than oatmeal today.

Backing up (and buckle up - this doesn't 'flow' as smoothly as I'd like). We started solids (oatmeal) about a week ago because B continued to wake throughout the night after having been sleeping through the night for MONTHS. We were hoping this was our answer to more sleep. Alas, it's been the opposite. If anything, we've been getting LESS sleep. Way. Less. Sleep.

I was a tad hesitant to use the HappyBellies oatmeal because of the probiotics but, it sounded so great (and IS!!!!) (in case you don't click back to see my post, or can't find it - I think it's just a one sentence blurb...I'm NOT AT ALL against probiotics! We were giving them to B when we were dealing with thrush and it seemed to really upset his tummy (or just him in general). He'd be PERFECTLY fine if I didn't give him any. If I DID give him some, he'd be a mess that night and not sleep, but stay up and scream most of the night).

But, the more B eats the oatmeal the less he sleeps and the more he's up at night fussing! It's to the point where we deal with the fussing by nursing him (ie: me nursing him) and Zach giving him a bottle...then at 3, Zach just brings him in our room and lets him sleep on him and then I nurse him at 530 and we get another hour or so of sleep. By doing this, so it stays quiet, I'm sure we've 'created a monster' and made B think this is OK...well, it's not.

So tonight, we get mean. B gets to Cry It Out (CIO). If I felt there was something, anything wrong with him, this wouldn't be happening. I have known everytime either has had an ear infection. I can tell when they're sick. It's not a growth spurt (I can go pat his butt for 3.2 seconds and he's back to sleep....until I walk away). He just wants to be near us. And that's fine....but we aren't sleeping that way.

So we're starting that...

And we also gave him less oatmeal today too in hopes that this helps. He got it at breakfast. Lunchtime, we were out with family so he didn't get it then, and then at dinner, we gave him bananas, which he loved - who wouldn't?!

I admit, it was so wonderful to "make" his food (again...not that I've made HIS food before, but I did Keaton's) Granted - I started with the easiest - mash add water (no breastmilk on hand since piggy has drank every drop I've ever pumped....so much for my stash!) stir, watch baby go ...bananas (har har!)

Of course, we forgot a picture....chalk it up to being beyond exhausted...

So...wish us luck tonight!

A new week

Saturday night (the night we started solids) was HORRIBLE to say the least! B never really went to sleep until about 3am or so...and then was up with K at 6am (which is out of character for him, as well).

We went to church, but spent the rest of the day at home (minus a fabric run for me!) waiting for the big game!

I made my chili and we devoured that!

During the game, I got my etsy shop up and running! It's dinky now, but there will be more to come very soon!!!

Last night (Sunday night) went SO much better! B did wake at 1 and then 540ish to nurse...The 1am was no big deal...and 540, I just nursed him in bed and we all went back to sleep until 7...very nice!

K climbed out of his crib again today...I am SO not looking forward to putting him in a 'real' bed...but, it has to happen sometime!

I have some long weeks ahead as Zach is now full swing into this semester. He's gone from roughly 730am - 930pm(ish) 3 nights a week...whew! It makes for long days!

K is doing a bit better with his congestion and all - we haven't had to do a breathing treatment since Thursday morning (I think!) so that's good! He's just snotty (lovely, huh?)

I think that's about it for now...nothing super exciting...

Benjamin now has a....

Yes, yes, we caved. 5 months and 2 weeks...but he's waking 1-2 times a night and eating like he hasn't eaten in days. I was so sad we didn't make it to 6 months...but, I want to sleep again...so, we started the oatmeal today at lunch time.

First bite....

About half way through

...I think he likes it ;-)

Oh, my sweet happy boy! I could eat you!!!!

I'm here!

It's been a couple days, all is Ok...just one very tired mama here.

Benjamin went through a serious growth spurt. He slowly led up to it Sunday afternoon/evening. However, for about 12 hours (midnight Monday morning - lunch time Monday) he pretty much nursed non-stop. I was about to lose it. Monday afternoon, he slowed down and is back to 'normal' now. He's back to waking up once a night to eat, and that's fine and dandy, I'm just getting used to being with out that hour or so of sleep again.

We'll be starting solids in a couple weeks and in that starting, we'll be starting with oatmeal. After some research, I decided I wanted to try this oatmeal...here is the conversation that preceded the purchasing of the oatmeal...

Me to Zach: I was researching and I think I found the oatmeal I want to get for Benjamin...
Zach: OK...
Me: It's a bit more expensive, but it's way better than the Gerber or anything...It's got probiotics in it and DHA which is very important...
Zach: ...yeh...how much?
Me: ((to sum up, I broke down the math and told him why we HAD to order it off amazon IMMEDIATELY because of a sale....))
Zach: OK, sounds good...What's it called?
Me: Happy Bellies....
Zach: .....of course it is...

Love you honey :)

I'm excited to get back to making our own baby food (well, not OUR baby food, but Benjamin's...)

And pray for Keaton. We've had to start breathing treatments again. He coughed all night. I'm giving it a day and I'll take him in tomorrow (probably where we picked up the germies in the first place) I'm hoping with the 65 degree weather today and some open windows, we can air out the house and get rid of it!

I tried to get a good picture of B's teeth - but that didn't work...so here's a blurry version...


Here he is Monday night, passed out after non stop nursing....(notice the bottle...mama needed a break! I wasn't worried about keeping up my supply...I think there's enough milk for every baby in the church! haha)


Here's my sweet boys playing :)


My extremely, super talented friend Carrie (who is famous in our house for her Chicken Dish) made these super, fun blocks for the boys when Benjamin was born. Keaton has loved them from the start, but Benjamin started to play with them today...