Zachary's First Haircut

Well, he has had his hair cut before but today was his first hair cut in a salon.  We recently had a Sport Clips open up in Rincon so I figured I would take him in there since we don't have time to cut his hair and it is only $7 (and his last buzz haircut didn't turn out the best).  

He sat still in the chair and acted just as any adult would sitting getting their hair cute, it was rather amazing and very adorable.

It wasn't very busy so Austin and Jeremiah were able to sit back with us and watch as well.  

His stylist and all the others commented on how he was the best kid they have had in the chair.  A little awkward since there was one other kid in there who was probably 8 and acted worse than Z.  I expect that when Z is 8 he will act worse than he did today as well.  Although he is pretty chill, we might get to keep that temperament, time will tell.  

He enjoyed the fact that there are TV's all over the place in the salon which I think helped to keep him calm.  It really was just adorable how he sat there like a little man watching TV or watching her cut his hair in the mirror.  

The finished product.  

She actually did a good job on his hair cut and cut it just like we wanted but left it much longer than we had planned.  All I said was we want a little boy hair cut because I didn't really know what to ask for.  Next time I will take a picture.  I think she was trying to keep the hair style he currently had (which was ignore his hair for months and see what happens).  They were great in there and very accommodating, she even asked if I wanted it shorter or different, but I didn't want to push our luck with his behavior since he was signing to me for bed (aka nap) so we left.

Merry Christmas!

We had a nice quiet Christmas with the babies this year. We started off with Christmas Eve service at church. This was the first time we all went as a family.

Since Jeremiah has been sick and the flu has been going around like wild fire here we have been avoiding putting Zachary in the child care at church. The Christmas Eve service was a family service done in a nice way with short messages interspersed with carols.

Z was adorable in his Christmas Eve outfit!  Jeremiah was adorable too but we didn't get a picture of him until we were home.  We went almost last for communion so we wouldn't have to stand in line holding the babies for too long.  It was actually a bad idea because by then everyone else was seated and staring at us, the babies received a lot of attention for being so cute, but it was awkward for me to have everyone pointing and staring at us.

These top two family pictures were taken before church just after Zachary had woken up from his nap grumpy. 

And the last two were taken when we arrived home from church.  I enjoyed the progression of all four pictures together just looking at his face.  Especially because it looks like they were all taken right at the same time.  

In the above picture Zachary is enjoying his first Christmas Eve hoagie sandwich.  

And then to presents...the wooden train from Austin.  

These are puzzles from me.  He surprised me at how much he understood opening presents this year.  At his birthday party he had no clue what was going on.  He still had to be told to come open it and needed help, and of course once he had a gift he was perfectly content to just play with that gift.  He had 5 to open though.  

Jeremiah received a crib toy from us, we are hoping it will keep him happy in his crib until late morning like the one from Brent has done for Z.  

Austin, business up top, party on the bottom.  

Zachary reading a new book from Grandma and Grandpa.  Somehow they, Aunt Janna and Yvonne all knew he would be into a major book phase just before Christmas and stocked him up with some much needed new ones.  He is glued to books right now.  

And his final gift was from Aunt Erica and Uncle Dan.  You can see him open it in the above picture (with my help).  I like Cookie Monster and all kids like Elmo so I have been talking up Cookie Monster in our ABC's of Cooking book when we read it.  Don't worry he is happily feeding him cookies now, it just took us doing it with him a few times to get him comfortable.   

Just as we finished opening gifts we received a Facetime call from my family and were able to sit on the shelf and watch to be part of some of the Christmas activities there.  

Christmas morning Z went to his stocking and we told him to open it and he dove in.  He received lots of balls, "smoothies" and a light up wand and a few other little items.  

The Puppies enjoyed their stocking as well.  

Then on to breakfast, I made Austin and Z an apple cinnamon pastry to go along with our normal dishes and Z approved.  

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas Elf.  He was sleepy Christmas morning and went back to bed before all the stocking and breakfast fun started.  

We took this picture for when he is older and we can tell him he used to fit in his stocking.  

What?   It wasn't me, I am just sleeping here on this rug...

We went to our friends house for dinner and then settled everyone back in at home in time for bed.  It was a great Christmas for our family and we hope you all had a great one too.  

I will still be working to update on all the events I missed while I was without a computer in the near future.  

Update on Zachary

Z calls Jeremiah "mi mi", he puts a pacifier into Jeremiah's mouth (this can be both helpful and not helpful). Z says a prayer with us before meals. He puts his hands in loose fists over his eyes, peaks around them to watch us while we pray and then says "Amuen" at the end, . He gives us sweet kisses good night or when we ask him to, says touchdown and throws up one arm in the sign when a football game comes on TV. Z still enjoys lights and recently added books to his list of activities he needs to do over and over. He recognizes Curios George and asks for him, Mouse (Mickey) and Elmo by name.

 

Austin and Z are doing a Lego advent calendar which they both enjoy but Zachary asks for it all day until it is time. Playing with Legos is the only reason he will sit in his dinner chair, unfortunately he shouldn't play with Legos yet so we have to sit with him but it is adorable. He likes to eat on te run and screams to get out of his chair at meals.

 

Above is a video of Zachary saying some words and signs.

Z plays well by himself, but has started to actually play with Daisy rather than torture her. And he still loves to go outside.

Reading his bedtime story with Dada and some milk. He must sit in our laps for book time, very sweet when he crawls up and sits down. He recently started getting tucked in with a blanket because it has been cold at night. He sees the blanket and lays down and won't move once we tuck him in. Funny how much he enjoys that process. He had adjusted well to having another baby in the family, I am nervous about how he will do going back to day care. He will start again just after the holidays.

One item I forgot to mention on Jeremiah's post I'd that he grunts more than cries. He is a very quiet baby but grunts or grrrrs when he needs something.

That is an update on the babies. We did replace our broken computer with a MacBook. One item I plan to do over the holiday week with all of us home is get it set up to blog and get caught up on blogging so stay tuned.

 

Jeremiah 2 Month

Our littlest baby is already two months old!  

He is smiling frequently as you can see in the above picture.  

He is amazingly strong.  He can grab on to your hand and pull it around, and throw his body around.  I honestly am nervous he will roll off the changing table already.  He curls his toes so tight I can't wash in between them until he decides to relax.  We get comments from everyone who interacts with him that he acts more like a 6 month old than a 2 month old.  

And he can hold his head up, although not for ever, he lasts for a long time and sits on my lap with me just balancing for him.  He was even standing up with me just giving him balance the other night.  He is definitely growing up too fast.  

At his 2 month well visit today he measured in at 12 lbs, 3 oz (25th percentile) and 23.5 inches (75th).  I do not remember his head measurement but it was 90th percentile.  His head is always huge because he still has the hard bump on it that throws off the measurement.  We were surprised he hasn't grown more than that because his clothes would say he is a lot more than a half an inch since last month.  And even the doctor said, "so he is tall and skinny...although he doesn't look it, he looks big."  Interestingly he weighed 12 lbs 6 oz at the doctors office yesterday.  He had a specialist appointment and apparently the scales are not calibrated well.  The surgeon verified his age with me yesterday during the appointment and I stated, yes he was 2 months tomorrow and his response was, "Wow, BIG boy." I think it is not just his length but also how much muscle control and strength he has that makes him appear big for his age.  Although he has grown out of many of his 3 month clothes and is wearing a lot of 3-6 month already.  Maybe they just measured his length incorrectly today.    

He is healing from the Bronchitis/RSV (no fever for two days!) and progressing normally for a baby his age on all the other developmental milestones.  We are very thankful for that and are blessed to have our littlest baby Jeremiah.  

Lack of Blogging

Aside from being very busy with two sick babies, our excuse for not blogging, well my excuse I don't think Austin has every blogged, is our computer has been failing more frequently. It has had random failures since we bought it, but is happening every time we try to use it and not turning back on. Basically it s dead.

I can blog from the iPad (case in point, this blog) but it takes me a while to type on this thing and I make more grammar mistakes than even my normal. It is also time consuming to get the videos and pictures into the blog unless taken on the iPad which isn't a good camera.

We will be purchasing a new computer in the near future and until then I will do my best for some updates from the iPad, we have lots to share.

Here is a picture of the babies, both sleeping in their monitors, yeah. We had some set backs with Jeremiah's sleep with him being sick and our schedule being all messed up. He slept through the night again last night (10 to 6) and today has been napping on his own so we are making progress back to where he should be in his sleeping. He still has a very bad cough that wakes him up some and sounds like he is choking, but I definately think he is getting better.

Speaking of Jeremiah, he is huge! This is him today in his bassinet and a size 0 to 3 month outfit that I have left unsnapped because it is too tight. He has almost outgrown his bassinet and probably should be in size 2 diapers but we are trying to use up all the size 1 we have. Zachary was still in newborn at this age.

And speaking of Z, here is a recent photo we have of him opening Christmas presents. He is at a fun age for Christmas, he has no expectations but has great reactions when he finds a prize.

And one of us at the winery down the road, it has been cloudy weather this month and driving us crazy! But we had a good visit with my parents last week which I will do a blog on later.

 

Home Sweet Home Again

We were released this morning and have arrived home just in time to get cleaned up before Nana and Papa arrive.  Jeremiah is still obviously sick, but his lungs are working well and sound good and he made it from midnight on without Oxygen and keeping good levels so we can fight this out the rest of the way from home. 

Hanging with Jeremiah

He had his IV stopped to make sure he would eat good, which makes him much nicer to snuggle. He has gotten worse on the breathing side unfortunately. He dropped too low during his early afternoon nap and had to get some oxygen and breathing treatment. He also now has wheezing in his lungs. We are still on the down side of this virus and will be staying in the hospital again tonight. I was really looking forward to being home with Austin and Z but I am thankful he is receiving good care and we have a good children's hospital in Savannah.

Austin came today for a couple hours and he stayed with Jeremiah while I took Z for a walk around the hospital and visited with my friend who works here. It was needed for Austin and me to be able to see the other baby and it was really nice for me to get out of the room. Jeremiah (and me) are in isolation. That means I cannot leave the room to go to the parents kitchen, the toy room or walk around the floor. I can leave the room, I just have to leave the entire Children's hospital area and I don't want to leave Jeremiah alone so we sit in the room together.

Tomorrow Nana and Papa are coming to visit so we will have a couple more hands to help juggle the babies.

 

 

Down with the Sickness

Well over the weekend Zachary developed a cough, then Monday a runny nose and Tuesday a fever. We took m to the doctor on Wednesday to find he had bacterial pneumonia. They did A bunch of treatments on him and we were able to take him home. In the morning he woke up feeling much better with a fever of not 100.

 

Jeremiah had started the coughing and runny nose stuff two days behind Z so we had the doctor look at him too but he was doing well still on Wednesday. Then yesterday the fever started to kick in so we had to take him t the ER. He tested positive for RSV and was admitted right away.

 

He has done amazing at fighting the RSV and his temperature has come back down to normal. Now we wait in the hospital to make sure he doesn't get a secondary infection like Z. Hopefully we will be ale to take him home soon and monitor him from there or with dr visits. Zachary is not allowed on the floor here which means Austin and I have to split up to each care for one baby.

This is him this morning still resting after a long night.

 

Family Time around Thanksgiving

Warning - Long post to follow.  Quick update – Jeremiah’s ultrasound went well on Monday and they were able to see what they needed.  The mass is still the cephalohematoma with calcification now causing it to be hard (good outcome). 

Over Thanksgiving weekend we had a restful time hanging out as a family. 

On Sunday we went to Hilton Head to pick up a few things from Target and then went out to eat at the Boat House, we seem to always end up here when we go to Hilton Head instead of Southside Savannah.  But why mess with a good thing? 

Walking on the dock, don’t worry the baby seat is on the inside rail not the water side. 

Cute picture of Z and his Curious George sweatshirt, that comes with ears on the hood, he is extra cute when he wears the hood up. 

Just to make sure you can see my new Peyton shirt…Go Broncos!

Family picture taken by one of the boat handlers working the marina.   I had hoped they would drop a boat in or pick one out while we were there to see Zachary’s reaction now that he is older but no so luck. 

Jeremiah hanging at the table. 

The staff are very kid friendly which is great for us right now.  They brought Z some toys from their store for loaner, brought his food out as soon as it was ready so we could feed him then eat our own food hot, and intentionally sat us somewhat out of the way with a huge table.  Many of them stopped to visit with him to help entertain and they changed the TV facing our table to the Broncos game based on all of our gear and me looking around at the TV’s. 

Zachary Telling dada that mama is taking a picture.  On the other side of the restaurant there is a more formal bar with a big wood burning fireplace and TV’s everywhere with all games playing.  This was the first time we have sat inside, but I would love to spend an afternoon watching football with friends by the fireplace, very nice atmosphere. 

On Thanksgiving day we had the Doten’s and Poulios’ over for Football, food and games.

In order to keep the grade school kids entertained I made activity packets for each of them before hand as well as a question game they were in charge of leading.  It was actually fun to have the random questions brought out throughout the day and hear the conversations they started, I would recommend this for others (side note I have become somewhat addicted to Pinterest which is where I found the conversation starter questions and activity sheets).  We did a trivia game about Thanksgiving to see who ate dessert first and the 10 year old legitimately won. 

First time I gave Jeremiah a bottle, as Thanksgiving dinner was just about finished up. 

Here is an attempt at a family picture with the timer on the camera in the morning. 

 

Other than Sunday going to Hilton Head, we stayed home all 5 days of Thanksgiving weekend, trying to keep Jeremiah healthy and getting rest.  Above is a relaxing morning in the bonus room.

A new bloody Mary recipe from a friend I made as a surprise for Austin to encourage the relaxing mornings.

Oh and the new Wii U was delivery the first day of the break, so we might have played a lot of Mario too.  Zachary doesn’t actually play, but he “helps” Austin.  He just likes having a remote in his hand at all times (even though it doesn’t have batteries).

Jere Bear resting with daddy with a bear outfit on. 

A couple weeks ago we went to the neighborhood park at a neighborhood just down the road to allow Zachary some play time.  It was extra cold from the Nor'easter or Sandy, one of those storms that came past, enter Jeremiah’s teddy bear outfit. 

He is adorable in this thing, but holding him in it is millions times more adorable.  He feels like a real teddy bear all snuggly in this thing. 

Pictures just don’t do him justice, but it’s all I have at the moment.  Back to the park…

A close up of Zachary while swinging on Austin’s lap, yes he was giggling the entire time. 

Did I mention he is a cute Teddy Bear?  Oh yeah I did…

Slide time, Zachary did not care for the slide, even when in Austin’s arms.  Austin did not fit well into the kiddy slide. 

We also went for a walk around their neighborhood.  It is a new neighborhood currently under construction and reminds us of Eugene with the style homes and small lots. 

It was difficult to have Austin go back to work after 5 days of family time playing games and cuddling with the kids.  Christmas will be a solid week off and is just around the corner.