Life's a Beach!

We went to the beach this weekend and had a blast! It was Ross's first vacation. He slept through the whole beach experience. In his defense, the sound of the ocean is what we put him to sleep to at night so we probably confused him...except the sun was out.

While we were there he turned 5 months old, but I forgot the 5 month sticker at home so I took those a few days late.

Here are some pictures:

view from our room
back view from our balcony. That's Patrick and Alex on the dock.
Patrick and Alex are between the 3rd and 4th flags.

5 months

Pictures :)

Lately, Alex has been wanting us to feed him and burp him. He usually wants us to feed him with his sippy cup, but this time he took the bottle. Crazy kid.

The group of kids is some of Lulu's great grandkids. This was at a birthday party. These were the best 2. Of course, there's not one where they're all looking and smiling.




This was taken a couple of days ago and I love it!

Updates....The Haps

Life has been crazy. Patrick and I are both taking college classes. We're only home together Monday and Friday and the weekends.

Alex and Ross are good. Recently, Ross has been sleeping through the night. However, today we were up since 4:45. He went to sleep around 5:15, but when one has to wake up at 6am there's no point in trying to go back to bed for 45 minutes.

The other night, Patrick and Alex made a tent in the house. Alex has been obsessed with it since then. This morning I noticed Alex's door was open. I saw his sheets and pillows on the floor and thought he was on the floor, but Alex was balled up in the corner of his bed and the wall. Oreo was all over his sheets on the floor.

No matter how much Alex tortures Oreo, that dog loves that kid. Oreo will stand outside of Alex's room and scratch on the door. Alex hits, squeezes, pulls, on Oreo and he still loves him.

Ear infection #4

Yep, #4 at 4.5 months old. Poor Ross. Thankfully his only symptom is excessive poop and a really red butt. No fever, no fussiness. But I hate that he's on antibiotics again.

And he has eczema. I suspect the rice cereal started the eczema.

Never a dull moment.

On a side note, I took both the boys with me to Target so I could fill Ross's prescriptions. Alex was outstanding. I couldn't believe it. Maybe this is a turning point.

While I'm talking about Alex, I fully believe we've started the "why?" phase.

2 videos

He's so smart

"Alex, can daddy have some of your snowball?"

"No"

"Why not?"

"Because daddy, your chocolate snowball is coming."

The weigh in

Ross had his 4 month check up the other day. He is 15lbs 14.5oz. So, almost 16lbs. He's in the 75%ile for weight. He's wearing 6-9 month jammies. Depending on the outfit he's in 3-6 month clothes to 9 month outfits.

We might be starting rice cereal soon, that is, if he keeps waking up in the middle of the night. I wanted to hold off until the 5th month because I remember Alex having issues with the rice cereal, but he woke up a lot last night and the doctor said that Ross is a "big boy" and might need that cereal to help fill him up. We'll see....

Happy 4 months!

I'm seeing some major red hair here. Grandma Doris won't be happy.
I believe Ross is fully teething now. His hands are always in his mouth and he's always full of drool.

Here he is watching TV.

Num num num!

He rolled!

Last night I went to get him because he was crying and he had rolled over. 3 months, 1 week, 4 days old.

no caption necessary

Uh Uh song

Otherwise known as "Till the World Ends" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8I5OGJANQM

and a little story :)

Everyone Poops

He's getting a sense of humor

OK, Alex loves Britney Spears' song, "Til the world ends".

Alex started singing it this morning. Patrick was picking up puzzle pieces and Alex was near one.

Patrick said, "Britney, give me that puzzle piece."

"My name is Alex."

Next thing we know, Alex says to Patrick, "Here, Justin Bieber."

a pooptastic morning

Since this is a family blog, I'll say my morning was pooptastic. Sad to say that after 2 successful, non-stressful poop-on-the-potty days, I had a traumatic morning. I awoke to the stench of poop and Alex telling me he had poop. I wake up and let me just say, thank the heavens that I do not have carpet. There were poop streaks in the kitchen, living room, hallway, and my room. There was a huge pile of poop in front of the kitchen sink.

Alex had his pants down and I can only assume he tried to take his pants off. I had to throw his underwear and pants away because I refuse to clean them. I put Alex in the tub, he had poop all down his legs. The whole time, he was gagging. It was miserable.

The only good thing about that was that Ross was still sleeping.

3 months!

The time is flying.

another poop success

Today when I picked Alex and Ross up from daycare Alex's teacher said he just got finished pooping on the potty. He even told her to go look at it.

Let's back-track a few days or so. Patrick started to tell Alex that if he didn't poop on the potty (when he did his poop dance) that he had to go to bed. We had some long nights when that happened. He threw all kinds of fits and was just a pain. Last night he cried himself to sleep because I made him go to bed because he wouldn't poop.

Well tonight he turned the tables on us. Instead of us telling him to go to bed, we were in the process of going to bed and he comes out and says he had to poop. For sure, I thought this was a stall tactic. He is pretty much a procrastination master at the ripe old age of 3.5 years old. Well sure enough, he pooped in the potty.

2 times in one day! I hope this is the start of consistent pooping.

Ross's first day of daycare

Ross went to daycare today. I didn't cry as I thought I would. It helps that Alex has been with them for 2 years and I like everyone who works there.

For me, school starts in 2 weeks but I need to get my room together so I sent Ross so we could all get used to the new schedule.

I thought Ross would have a rough go of daycare since he loves being held. Apparently I was wrong. His teacher/babysitter said he was so good. He hardly cried except to be fed. He napped well to.

I remember Alex having a hard time adjusting to daycare because of all the noise, but Alex makes tons of noise and I suppose Ross is used to it.

Pro Pictures

Our pictures made it to our photographer's website. http://www.doubletakesphotography.com/ Click the website link, then Galleries, then Newborn Kiddos. Alex and Ross are the first picture and we have a family picture in there too.

Yay! More progress.

I fear Alex will be embarrassed if he ever reads this, but oh well.

He pooped "in" the toilet tonight, after 2 hours of deal-making and cajoling. Hopefully in the very near future the poops will take less time. He wasn't on the toilet for the entire 2 hours, but he started the process at 6:30 and ended at 8:30.

Oh...I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Alex has a hole in his right eardrum. We got an earplug made in February so he doesn't get water in it. We went to a check up appointment last week and the doctor said the hole hasn't gotten smaller so it likely will not close on its own. He does not want to do any type of surgeries until he is out of the ear infection stage...so we're looking at another 3-5 years. Today we went to a doctor to get his hearing tested because the ENT wanted to make sure he hasn't gotten hearing loss because of this. Good News...Alex's hearing is fine. The doctor also commented on how advanced he seemed...with his speech and what-not.

The doctor also told us to be careful not to let water in his ear and to always wear the plug. Patrick always gives Alex a bath and I asked him how the ear plug was working and he said it's falling out, so time to get another ear plug.

2 boys, 2 milestones

I'm soooo excited! Last night, Ross slept 10 hours, 7:30pm to 5:30am. I hope this continues.

Alex has not had a nighttime pee accident in several days. He also pooped on the toilet the other day at school!