Sorry Mom

Here's my public apology to my mom: sorry for talking so much trash over the years about the lack of info in my baby book. According to my baby book, I had no first Christmas, no first birthday, and I only had one friend (you were the lucky friend Summer). For years I've given my mother a hard time about it and she always said it was hard to keep up with it after the third kid (me). I vowed that each of my children's baby books would be filled cover to cover equally. Well, Caleb now has four teeth and none of them are documented in the baby book. I have the papers from his last two pedi visits in the book but nothing is actually written. The lock of hair from his first haircut is still sitting in the kitchen in an envelope with all the bills. So, sorry mom....you were right. :-)

How Much is That Baby in the Window?

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time...people knocking on the window of the nursery when they are looking at a new baby. After 6 years of putting up with it I thought I'd speak my mind. People seem to think that a baby will look at them or enjoy hearing the constant knocking on the window or think the baby can actually acknowledge that they are being waved at. Seriously people, it's annoying! The baby is sleeping soundly then "bam bam bam" they're scared out of their mind and screaming and people outside are taking pictures and saying "Ahh, look, the baby is crying." Uh, big suprise...you just scared the poo out of them. Now I understand why pet stores have the signs up that say "please do not tap on glass". Those poor puppies are probably exhausted by the end of the day from that constant noise of window knocking. Here's a tip: babies don't like it and neither do their nurses. So for pete's sake...stop banging on the window!

Bucca Di Peppo

We recently tried a new restaurant with the kiddos. It's called Bucca Di Peppo in Southlake. It was a great Italian place. They had great customer service which is a must for Mondo and I. They serve large family portions and we had tons of food to take home. It was a good family oriented place. After that we went to Southlake towncenter to play by the fountain...which unfortunately was empty. We had fun anyway...how could you not when there is ice cream involved?!

This was at the beginning of the meal...when Caleb was happy.

They gave the kids pizza dough to play with while we were waiting on the food. How fun is that?

Caleb played with is...until he took out his paci and tried to eat it. He wasn't too happy about it being taken away.

This would've been really cute if there was water in the fountain.
He had to make a funny face.This was his "pose".
He met these kids at the fountain and said they were his cousins. He got that from the "Bee Movie" where they say all bees are cousins. Now he thinks everyone we meet is his cousin.


This was the face I got when I called his name. "Huh?"

Yummy...Mommy's ice cream!

Ethan had to enjoy some too...even though he had his own.

Caleb's First Haircut

I thought it was time for Caleb's first haircut since his hair was getting a little out of control and making him hot. We took him to the same person that does Ethan and Mondo's hair. He did way better than Ethan did at that age...I think the paci helped. The pics are pretty self explainatory.

Look at that crazy hair!



It actually looks cute in the pic with it brushed to the side. But, most of the time it lays flat on his forhead and looks like the chili bowl hair cut from Dumb and Dumber. Poor thing. I think it needs to grow back out a little more. :-)

Fire Hydrant Fun

Several times this summer, the fire hydrant has been opened for hours for some reason. It's a super fun thing to play in on a hot day! Ethan and Tyler played in it for about an hour. Caleb had a little participation too. :-)

Caleb needed to cool off his thunder thighs.

I don't remember what this look was all about.

Looks like he's at the beach!

Sleepless in Texas

Caleb is 8 months old now. The time is flying by so fast. He is changing everyday and getting bigger by the second. I don't know why it suprises me that he is so polar opposite of Ethan when he was a baby...they couldn't be more different! Anyone who knew Ethan at this age knows that he was so calm and quiet. He could sit in his bouncy chair for hours, he had no desire to do anything else but stay where he was put...then Caleb came along. He is so busy! He has been crawling everywhere since last month. He's excellent at pulling up and will probably be walking soon. I was so worried when Ethan was not crawling at this age but boy did I have it easy! I just went out and bought two baby gates, one for the kitchen entry and one for the hallway so I can keep him confined in the living room and playroom. Toys are no fun anymore...he must go exploring! He loves to see his reflection in the kitchen trashcan and scoot it along the floor and laugh...gross, I know. He loves to play in the dog food. He doesn't eat it, just scatters it on the floor. He pulls up on the piano and tries to play. He opens drawers and shuts his fingers in them. Oh, the boy is busy.

He is eating everything too. He mainly gets baby food but if I happen to cook or we're out, he'll eat just about everything he can mash up in his mouth. He loves mashed potatoes, green beans, cake, pasta, you name it he'll eat it. He got his two bottom teeth at the end of last month and now they're all coming in. The top two are cut, there's one on the top side that's trying to cut through. His poor little mouth. Motrin and ice have been his friends.

My mom made a pallet at her house for the kids to lay on while they watched a movie. Caleb was only interested in uncovering Ethan and Ethan was getting so annoyed! He was yelling "Stop it Caleb!"

Now on to the sleeping...or lack of. He still is not sleeping through the night. He has been getting up around 11p or 12 and is wide awake. He's usually up for an hour or two, then goes back to sleep. Then repeats again around 4am or 5am. He doesn't want to eat, just awake for play time. I've tried rocking him, walking with him, putting him in our bed. Nothing works. He doesn't cry, only if you put him back in his bed or try to make him lay down. He plays with my hair, jabbers, pulls his pacifier in and out. I realize this is probably the time to start crying it out. But, this all happened while Ethan was sick and I sure wasn't going to let Caleb wake him up from all the crying...plus I'm a big softie and I don't know if I could stick with it. The last two nights have been better. He woke up once looking for his paci so I gave it to him, covered him up, then walked out. I had to go back in a couple of times and patted his head when he started to fuss but then it was back to sleep till 6am...then it was back to my bed where I fed him and he slept till 7:30a. I'm hoping it is all just a phase. Maybe he is waking up with his teeth then just staying awake. He doesn't seem to be in pain. I don't know but it sure is keeping me from wanting another baby! I may never sleep again!!!
He loves this bouncy swing. This is how I get my showers now. On this day, he was in it while I took a shower...and dried my hair. I looked over after I turned off the blow dryer and found him like this...and my blow dryer is loud! Maybe if he would sleep at night he wouldn't jump himself to sleep during the day!

Of course they both wouldn't look at the same time. Look at all those fat rolls!

This one cracks me up...you had to be there. See the concern in Ethan's face? He was freaking out saying, "Get him, he's gonna fall!" Don't worry, Mondo was in the pool with them waiting to catch him.


Crazy boy.

He will chew on anything! Look at mean Daddy about to splash him. :-)

That is actually a striped shirt...looks really weird in this picture.

He loves the player piano at my parent's house. He kept putting his hands on it and sqealing. I got a shot video below.

Clarification

I think some people are confused about Ethan's illness. He has not had pneumonia for 2 weeks. Initially, he had a virus that caused the stomach pain and vomiting. He just recently developed the pneumonia. It is an opportunistic disease, meaning it often waits until the immune system is already weakened to set in. So, he was already sick with the virus then the pneumonia decided rear it's ugly head. The doctor said he didn't have it initially because she went back and checked his initial abdominal xrays and she could see the bottom of his lungs and there wasn't any pneumonia there.

He is almost back to normal now. No fever today. Appetite is better. Today he had red spaghetti and garlic toast....for breakfast (takes after his Aunt Ree). He is sleeping less and up playing more. We went to Target and to get a haircut today. Those were his first big outings. His little attitude is coming back but a little worse now. He has become a little spoiled over the last two weeks. He would only eat his lunch today on a TV tray while watching ALF. He dropped a toy literally in front of his feet and whined because he couldn't pick it up. He kept telling me "I can't get it! You do it!" He finally did when I refused to pick it up for him. It's nice to have my Ethan back, whining and all. :-)

Finally, We Have Answers!!!

Here's the Ethan I miss!!! He doesn't even have that little tummy anymore after losing so much weight. (By the way, he was a "super hero" in case you couldn't tell.)

We took Ethan back to the Dr. today. His fever came back last night (102) and he threw up. He had never really made a recovery from being sick last week. She re-checked his bloodwork (all of his bloodwork came back negative from last week) and now it showed bacterial instead of viral. She ordered a chest xray to check for pneumonia and another abdominal xray to check for an abscess. She said if all of that came back clear she would have to consult the infectious disease specialist at Children's to see if he needed to be hospitalized for further testing. I never thought I would pray for my child to have pneumonia but I sure did this morning! And luckily, that is what he has. I was so relieved. I realize that it is still a dangerous illness but at least we know what we are dealing with and it can be treated. He got a Rocephin shot (which was horrible) and he will get oral antibiotics for the next 10 days. She said he should be better within the next 48 hours. I can't wait to have my Ethan back!!! Not that anyone cares about me, but this whole ordeal has made me physically sick with worry. We're all exhausted and ready to be done with it all. Poor little Ethan....

A SLOW Recovery

It has been a rollercoaster with Ethan getting better. He is basically fever free. Sometimes it gets around 100.1 which is still fever for him. He is feeling better and playing more but gets tired easily. He is still so bony. He looks so frail...I told him he needed to eat some cake and ice cream. He perked up when he heard that! Dr. Williams called me on Friday to check on him. She said his labs weren't in yet but hopefully will be in on Monday. I was surprised that it was actually her that called me. I was a little freaked out thinking that she must have been really worried to call me herself. I'm ready for him to be better and to get out of the house and play with his friends!

On another note, I am not feeling well. Friday night at work I went in with a bad headache. By midnight I was really nauseated and throwing up. I laid down for several hours while the other nurses took care of my babies. I think I had a migraine. I went home early at 6:00am and was passed out by 6:30 and slept till 2pm. I am at work right now but still feeling a little nauseous and weak. I really hope I don't have what Ethan has. I don't have fever but just feel run down. And no, I'm not pregnant! That's what everything is telling me. Of course, it is actually a little too early to say that I'm not, but I'm 99% that I'm not. Maybe I'm just tired from Caleb waking up so much in the night...but that's another blog!

Turning the Corner

Ethan is finally turning the corner! He threw up Wednesday night and had fever again. Yesterday he woke up with fever but still acted normal. He requested red spaghetti and garlic toast. He ate all of his spaghetti and one and a half pieces of garlic toast. He was pretty wild and wanting to play most of the day. I checked his temp before bed and he had 99.4. I think I checked it about 10 times to make sure it was reading right. He woke up this morning with no fever again. Hopefully it is safe to say he is on the mend! I'm waiting to see if the Dr. calls today to tell me what the virus is. I'll update later if I find out.