Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, we have so much to be thankful for today, and everyday. Brian had to work some crazy data center conversion this morning, so I had took the kids over to Grandma and Grandpa's. Max didn't sit still at all. He had the best time running around with his cousins, Paisley and Graham. In fact he was so worn out that this is how he spent his first two hours at my parents house. He had his first taste of Thanksgiving turkey and it did him in.

Will was in pretty good spirits as long as mama was in view - I think separation anxiety is beginning to set in. He loved the gobble gobble sounds Mario the turkey made. He just giggled every time I squeezed Mario's waddle.

After a second fabulous meal Max changed into his PJ's and posed with this 'pine cone turkeys'. Nonna Carlotta found the craft idea on line and she and Max made a whole family of turkeys last week. He even named the turkeys according to the size of their pine cone. Baby Will was the tiniest. He was so proud of his creations!




It is amazing how different my life is than four years ago. I thank God each and every day that he saw fit to put these two amazing little boys in my life. I guess daddy isn't half bad either. I just feel so incredibly, unbelievably lucky. Life is good, very good!

Gardenland Express

We took a little bit of time out from Thanksgiving preparations to visit the Gardenland Express at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I don't think I was able to get a single picture of Max looking at the camera because he refused to take his eyes of the trains. The decorations and flowers were beautiful and the trains were adorable. They also had a little seek and find for the kids to complete. Here Nonna and Max are taking a look at what they needed to find.

One train had a very special engineer - Santa Claus himself! Max was so excited when this train stopped and he was able to see the man in the red suit guiding the engine.

Baby Will also joined us for our visit to the trains. He still doesn't seem to be 100%. I thought he was doing better but then tonight he started vomiting again. Poor little guy. Yesterday morning he got sick as well and I already had an appointment to get his ears checked out. His ears looked good, but the doctor did think it was odd that he is still having some stomach issues. Dr. Goldenberg prescribed Prilosec with the hopes that it would help settle his stomach. I'm really hoping Will seems better tomorrow - we have big plans with our families!

Seven Months Old

My poor Baby Will has celebrated seven months of being with an awful stomach bug. Last Monday the sitter called to let us know that Will wasn't keeping much of anything down. In fact we ended up in the ER on Monday night. They went back and forth on putting an IV in and ended up just giving him an oral anti-nausea med. It seemed to take the edge off, but I still didn't give him his antibiotic for his ear infection for a couple days because he seemed to make his stomach issue worse. On Friday he ended up sick at the sitters again - this time Brian picked him up. He seemed to be better Saturday night, but then was super cranky at the sitter's today. We have a follow up for his ear infection tomorrow afternoon and I have a sinking suspicion that his ear infection has not cleared up since he hasn't gotten in all of his antibiotics.

Will has taken time out from being sick to perfect a few other tricks. He loves to sit up and can do so for quite a bit of time all by himself. He has also become very interested in books - he even looks at them for a bit before starting to chew on them. I remember when Max perfected sitting up, it felt like such a huge milestone - like he was a real little person now, rather than just an adorable blob. I feel the same way about Will. While I do enjoy some aspects of the newborn stage, I love that Will is growing up and becoming so much more engaged with what is going on around him. It is just so much fun!

On top of all his sicknesses, Will has also cut two teeth. In looking back at the blog I realize that Max has eight teeth at this point - crazy! Will's bottom two are just through the gum and they look adorable. If you look close enough you might be able to catch a glimpse of them in the picture - I'll have to post another pictures once they are more visible.

The Things Max Says

I swear that Max's speech therapists are miracle workers. A year ago I first spoke to the director of our early childhood program about beginning the process for SSD services. At the time I remember telling her I was all excited that Max said 'ma oh' for more Cheerio's. Here we are a year later and Max is saying all kinds of things.

The other day we were in the car and this is the conversation that took place:

Max: Mommy, I need sharp knife.
Me: What?
Max: Pretend, Mommy
Me passing back a pretend sharp knife: Here Max
Max: Thank you Mommy. I cut asiago cheese with sharp knife.

He then passed a slice of his pretend asiago cheese forward for me to eat. It cracks me up that my three year old can't get enough asiago cheese. He often asks if we can go to the asiago cheese store - AKA Viviano's. I guess we can thank Nonna for his fine taste in cheese.

Pitiful Will

My poor baby boy. He was a bit cranky on Wednesday and then I got the dreaded 'fever' call from the sitter at work yesterday. I picked him up after school and my poor little guy was just plain pitiful! He just cried and cried for most of the night.

Momma stayed home with Will so that I could take him to the doctor this morning - which is a good thing because he also woke up with a pink, swollen right eye. Sure enough my poor little guy has an ear infection (luckily the eye is just a clogged duct and some icky drainage). After heading to Target to fill his prescription Will and I spent the rest of the day at home. After a dose of medicine he seemed to perk up a bit. We had lots of snuggle time and in between we played on the floor with one of his new favorite toys the rocking rings.

I think after just two doses of medicine and lots of love from momma, Will isn't quite as pitiful.

Daddy's Little Helper

We took Brian's car in for some work and they recommended that we get a new battery. Brian, being his always frugal self, figured he would just change it himself. The job was made all the better by his little helper. Max helped get out tools and watched every move daddy made. I'm sure there will be many more times Max will help out in the years to come.

Gross

Sometimes having little boys is gross. Max's allergies have been acting up - his nose runs like crazy. Yesterday I sent him to the bathroom to get a tissue and this is how he came out. When I asked what was going on he said he needed a big tissue for a "really, really, really big booger". Gross. I guess it could be worse - at least he used something other than his sleeve to take care of the issue.

Six Month Check Up

I had the day off on Friday, so we headed to the pediatrician for Will's six month check up. We were just a tad bit late, but hey it's tough to get to the doctor when you work full time! I was glad to hear that Will is growing just as should be expected. He weighed in at 17 lb 8 oz - 55th percentile - and measured 26 3/4 inches long - 70th percentile. His growth has slowed down a bit, but that is to be expected at this point, especially for a breastfed baby.

Will's spending lots of time focusing on his fine motor skills. He passes toys from one had to another - often stopping at his mouth in between. I'm also loving the amount of babble we are hearing from our littlest bit. He just jibber jabbers like crazy and it makes us so incredibly happy! He rolls like crazy to his tummy, but still won't roll back. I asked the doctor about it and he isn't the least bit concerned since Will obviously has the core strength that he wants to see in a six month old. Every day he gets better and better at sitting up. He can now sit and play with a toy at the same time - although he doesn't last too long.

By far the highlight of the check up was getting the green light to start solids. We are going to start out slowly so we did just a little bit of rice cereal yesterday. He loved it! He opened his cute little mouth of his. He even seemed to swallow some of what was offered - although a big majority of it ended up on his face and clothing - I guess this is to be expected. I'm sure he will improve with practice. In a few days we will add squash to Will's new diet. I'm pretty proud to say that I actually baked the squash and made him a batch of baby food yesterday. I felt so domestic! We'll see if it lasts. . .