Catching Up

I'm a little behind with the blogging but have lots to share.  

Over the holidays Juice Jam was in town and Roo and I went to visit with her.  We met up at the mall and took Roo to the play area.  Roo put on his new "Uncle Matt's School" jacket before we left and Roo was excited to meet this friend named Juice Jam.  

We practiced her name in the car and he was really shy when he first met her.  He warmed up quickly and showed off his jumping and sliding skills in the play/germ area.  I think of the mall play area as one big germ infestation.  Juice made fun of me at first and then quickly agreed on my assessment.  After playing in the play area, we walked over to the cookie stand and got a cookie for Roo and a cookie for mommy.  Roo thought mommy's cookie looked much better than his, so I let him have it.  Juice encouraged him to get really messy.  He got an A+ for that effort!  It was great to see Juice and Roo had a blast, we can't wait to hang out again! 

Love Bug had a fever last weekend that we figured was more molars coming in.  3 days later, his fever broke and he was covered in a rash.  Hooray for Roseola.  Nothing huge to worry about and it didn't require a trip to the doctor.  Just made him miserable but all things considered could have been a lot worse.  We didn't do his normal skin regime so once the rash was gone his eczema was pretty bad in a few spots.  It's all looking a lot better now and we can cross Roseola off the list for both boys.

Love Bug's walking has really taken of in the last few weeks.  His balance is getting better every day and he's just as happy as can be walking around.  But, with walking comes those first few walking accidents.  You can see Love Bug's result from his first big accident where he fell and hit the leg of the end table with his head.

I've been testing out a lot of new recipes.  My friend Michele from high school has a great blog where she posts all of her recipes.  She had one for Blueberry Applesauce Muffins.  They use whole wheat flour and only have a tiny bit of oil and sugar in them.  They turned out great and it seems that Love Bug absolutely loves them.  He's been eating one or two per sitting.  I made a double batch of them today so he has them for the week.  This is sure to become a staple in our house and they're really healthy!

One of the biggest events from over the holidays was Baxter's vacation to Uncle Matt's house.  Uncle Matt has his own place now and is trying to figure out if he wants a dog.  We thought Baxter would give him a good test run, daddy also thought that if Uncle Matt really wanted, he could keep Baxter.  Crazy, I know!  Well, it didn't last long.  I really missed B and Roo eventually missed him and then Daddy decided he missed him too.  But worse, Uncle Matt said Baxter would pace around by the door at around 430 in the afternoon every day and when no one would come home he would cry.  Poor Baxter missed his boys!  He's done this with me when I've been alone with him in the afternoon.  No doubt, Baxter definitely thinks he's a human.  

When went and got him from Uncle Matt, who took really good care of him and returned him very nicely groomed.  And when we got home, Roo took some time to clean him a little more and made sure that he got a really warm welcome.  Today he let Baxter into his hangout he made and gave him a big hug.  Baxter wanted nothing more than to escape!  Silly boys!

Oh, and Roo spent the afternoon cleaning all of those chairs in the picture.  He had a blast and they looked great when he was done!

I think that's it for now!

Bath and Bedtime Fun

It's Only Once a Year

Once a year I like to take the boys to get professional photos done.  This year I was super excited to get a good picture of the boys together.  Maybe I should have gone back in early November right when Love Bug turned 1, but I didn't and we went today and though I didn't get a good one of the boys together, I got a few good individual ones and decent one of the family.  Roo was not on his best behavior and was acting very 3.  And by the time we got Roo to smile, Love Bug decided he was done.  Hopefully next time we'll get a better photographer, she just wasn't very helpful helping us getting the boys to smile and laugh.  But for the money and the number of photos you get, we sill like Portrait Innovations the best.  Here are a few of the pictures from today.  

Holly Jolly

The boys had a great day and had a ton of fun opening and playing with all the gifts they got from Santa.  I asked Roo who visited his house during the night and he whispered "Santa."  He was so excited he ran downs stairs and wanted to open every present he saw.  We held him off until everyone was around and then we all opened our gifts.  It's so much fun to watch the boys, it's hard not to spoil them!  They loved everything they got from everyone and had a blast spending the day playing with all their new toys.  Thanks to all our family and friends for making this such a special day for the boys!

Roo had fun finding everything that was in his stocking.  He had no idea what other fun things he was going to get from Santa and family.
Love Bug thought the nose on the snowman was pretty yummy!  He probably had more fun with the stocking than what was inside!
Love Bug was excited every time we put a present on his tray.

He liked his talking dinosaur from Grammy and Papa.

Roo was really excited about his soccer goal and soccer ball.  He's been asking to play in the garage recently so now he has everything he needs to become the next family soccer star!

Roo remembered the commercial we all saw of Elefun and the butterflies you try to catch.  Can't wait to play it later this weekend, should be entertaining!

What is this present that is so exciting to open?

It's an awesome parking garage with a heliport from Grandma and Grandpa.

The boys both really enjoy playing with the parking garage!  Mommy does too :)

Mommy and daddy got Roo a work bench that has real projects, and a handy man dress up outfit too.   Should be perfect for our little helper.

I'm going to get a lot of work done on the house today.  I just need Dean here to help me.

Both boys loved Chuck the Talking Truck from Grammy and Papa.  Chuck is always a hit with the boys!

What's this nicely wrapped gift?

Very cool, a book I can eat, chew, and play really hard with that won't get destroyed.  Thanks Barb and Robb!

This is all very fun, but tiring, I think I need a snack!

This piano from Grandma and Grandpa is really neat.  We both like to play it with our feet!

Hooray for Cookie Monster.  Thanks Uncle Matt, I love Cookie Monster :)

And this gift was a hit simply because of the gifter.  Thanks Aunt Carol and Uncle Kenny, I can't wait for mommy and daddy to put my kitchen together so I can make some cookies.  And thanks Uncle Matt for the toys to go along with my new kitchen.  Roo had fun feeding us all waffles that he made in his toaster later in the day.

This bag is really pretty, I like playing with it!

And the puppy inside is really cute too.  Just like me!

Grandpa, I'm going to have a lot of fun with these blocks, especially when I dump them around the house every night :)

Got your nose!

They got lots of other great gifts too.  I'll post them playing with them or wearing them over the next week.  Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.  

Twas The Night Before...

Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Matt came down a little earlier than normal this year because the forecast was calling for some freezing rain.  We went to dinner at Vinny's with the boys and had a fun meal.  Before we left, I wanted to get a picture of the boys together.  Such a simple concept.  So much harder to execute.  I will never live down telling Roo that he was not being a team player.  At least I didn't tell him that Santa wasn't going to come, that would have been mean.  We had a really nice evening and Roo was excited that Santa was going to come to his house and that Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Matt were all sleeping at his house for the night, he doesn't get overnight visitors very often!

Hopeful

Since we've taken Love Bug off the Zantac he's been really cranky and has not napped well.  I emailed the doctor from Children's and spoke with her yesterday and she confirmed that his mood could very well be due to GI issues and she suggested we go ahead with the endoscopy.  I'm not excited about the prospect of putting him under, even if it is routine and for just a short time.  So daddy and I started discussing what we thought we should do but before we came to any sort of conclusions out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a molar when I was playing with the little Bug.  So I stuck my finger in his mouth, and sure enough, he has a molar that is most of the way through.  

A molar!?!  

He's got 2 teeth on the bottom and 4 on top, so this molar is totally out of order.  But, I'll take an out of order molar any day over GI issues.  The solution for teething pain is Motrin and it seems to be working.  He slept in this morning until 7 and took a 2.5 hr morning nap and an ok nap this afternoon, and has been is such a good mood all day.  Our guess is that his random fever last week was probably from this pesky tooth and that this is what has been causing him all this discomfort.

We are hopeful that he doesn't actually have any GI issues, reflux or EE, doesn't need any tests, and can just be a normal baby and get regular doses of Motrin for pesky teething pain.  Fingers crossed!