Sunny Days

Here I am, going another two weeks without posting. Baby steps to more frequent posting, I guess ;) I'm going to try to make up for it later this week by doing a posting about cloth diapering. We didn't do it with Brendan but we are with Griffin, so I'd like to write a little about it.

Not a whole lot going on around here. Just getting older and bigger by the day! Tim went out of town on Wednesday until late Thursday, so I had one of my first times with both the kids by myself (may have been the first time, actually!). It all went smoothly. We didn't have a very good night on Wednesday night, but all-in-all it wasn't bad.

Griffin is finally back to normal after getting off the steroids. We feed him now if he wakes up from 4:00 AM on. If he wakes up before that (some nights he does, some nights he doesn't), we just let him put himself back to sleep. We were totally off the pacifier and then, after the steroids, I tried giving it to him again to help him not need to eat so often. Well, we went right back to waking up EVERY hour for the pacifier. So, that was a no-go. We are back to no paci at all. Sometimes, it is hard to not have it at all, but I am actually really happy we have gotten rid of it this early with both Brendan and Griffin because they forget about it quickly so there is no period of adjustment like there would be if we waited later. I won't say I'll never let a kid keep it longer than this because I'm not opposed to kids having them. However, I am opposed to waking up every hour just for a paci replacement! And, I'm not willing to keep doing it until the kid figures out how to get it in his mouth on his own. But, if I have a kid that doesn't wake up constantly for it, then I will let them keep it longer.

Griffin finally ate some bananas the other day - his first solid that he seemed "ready" for but I haven't given him anything since. Zulily (a kid's discount website), had Beaba Babycooks on there the other day and I have always wanted one SO bad but they are pretty expensive. It steams and purees in one contraption, so you don't have to do multiple steps - which, I am finding, is a must when I have two kids! Anyway, I got one when they were on Zulily and it is on it's way to me now, so I am planning on starting as soon as I get it.

Brendan is still enjoying school and talks nonstop these days. He can say everything we say and is starting to say things very clearly. He told Tim "I love you" on the phone for the first time the other day :) I'm still waiting to hear it myself! He is definitely a Daddy's boy.

Get ready for a picture overload!

Valentine's Day. My favorite holiday of the year. I was so excited because I ordered the cutest shirts from Bugaboo Bliss (she can custom make anything) for them and I couldn't wait to get a cute picture of the two of them. Brendan, however, was not interested in obliging me and was in the WORST mood that morning. This is the result of my photo session:

Brendan's shirt says "Love Machine."

Here's a picture of Griffin in his shirt. Not a great picture, but the only one where he had his hands down so you could see the whole shirt. His name is on the bandaid :)

After trying my photo session, Griffin had a poop explosion and I had to wash his onesie. I had the shirt Brendan wore for his first Valentine's Day, so I put Griffin in that and attempted a photo session again (after Brendan had been banned to his room for 15 minutes because I told him to stay in there until he could act nice!). Not a great picture, but better than the others. 

He turned 5 months old on February 16! I can't believe he is five months, but it does seem like he has always been a part of our lives.

Obviously, Brendan doesn't ever want to take pictures with Griffin. I was making him laugh and then aske him to get down next to Griffin so I could get a picture of both of them smiling. This is how he reacted. I love how Griffin is looking over at him. Haha

Griffin sits up! He started yesterday (I was gone. Tim didn't tell me because he thought he was already doing it.) and sat up for about 20 seconds. This is from today. He still tips over after less than a minute, but it's progress!

Here are some cute pictures of Brendan. He was acting mean, again, which is kind of a trend these days! But, it always makes him laugh whenever I tell him he's being "ornery." So, I was telling him he was being sooo ornery today and then I would "moo" after telling him that and he thought it was hilarious. Some great pictures resulted :)

Griffin can sit in the shopping cart like a big boy now!

And, he got his very own swing and can swing outside with Brendan now! He loves it and usually falls asleep, like Brendan used to do. This day, I put this hat on him because it was bright outside and I didn't want the sun to be in his eyes. Brendan kept telling me that Griffin looked "funny" with his hat on. He also told me that Griffin was having fun swinging. I'm glad he can already tell me what Griffin thinks since Griffin can't talk yet!

Here's one of Brendan swinging, too. Can you believe how old he looks?! When I looked at him swinging, I thought, he doesn't even look like a toddler anymore. He looks like a little boy. Sad for me that he is growing up :( But he is tons of fun these days!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful two weeks! I'm not sure when I'll do the cloth diaper post this week, but stay tuned!

Sickies

We've had two sick boys around here the past two weeks! Brendan all the sudden came down with a "wet" cough two Mondays ago and, by Wednesday, he was miserable. He never had a fever, just this bad cough and a runny nose. It made it very hard for him to sleep, which, I'm sure, made him feel worse. He really wanted to go to school on Wednesday and I knew he wasn't contagious by that point and he just had the cough, so I went ahead and brought him after giving him some Delsym (recommended by the doctor). The Delsym didn't work AT ALL and by lunchtime they called and asked me to come get him because they didn't think he would be able to nap at school with all his coughing. We came home and he still wasn't able to nap hardly at all. We ended up giving him some Benadryl that night and it helped him sleep.

He was all better by Saturday which, of course, is when Griffin woke up with the same cough. I was worried it might be RSV because that is so rampant right now. I made him a doctor's appointment for Monday. We went to the doctor on Monday and he didn't think it was RSV and said it was very early if it was. He gave me a prescription for a steroid to get filled if Griffin started coughing so much that he couldn't catch his breath. Wednesday morning, I noticed he was wheezing when he would breathe so I called the doctor and they said to get the prescription filled and let them know if he wasn't showing improvement in 24 hours from the first dose. He wasn't, so we went back to the doctor on Thursday afternoon. His oxygen level was "a solid B" according to the pediatrician but he said he did think it could be RSV so he sent us to Cook Children's to get the RSV test. Sure enough, it came back positive. By Friday, he was already seeming better, though, and he has continued to improve. He still coughs a little bit at bedtime and naptime but not much and he seems like he feels fine. The steroid, though, made him very hungry and he was up every 2 hours to eat at night Friday and Saturday :( That made for one tired Mama, but my wonderful husband let me sleep in on Sunday and I slept until 8:30! I never would have guess a few years ago that I would consider that "sleeping in." :)

Other than that, we went to Houston weekend before last for Tim's mom's birthday. We were so happy to be able to celebrate with Nana and for Brendan to get to play with his cousins, Carolyn and Kate. We stopped in Waco on the way there to drop the dogs off and on the way back to pick them up and visited with my dad (Pops), stepmom (Lolli) and brother and sisters.

Here's some pictures:

Playing with his train/construction set after his nap (that's why he looks like of out of it and red-cheeked :))

Isn't he beautiful?!

Happy Boy! After a nap again, so excuse the silly outfit.

Tim and his boys. I was so excited they were all smiling that I moved the camera and cut part of Brendan and Tim off! Oh well, still cute.

Blurry, but too cute to pass up.

Rolling around on a blanket playing.

Hangin' out in his easy chair...

On Wednesday, I'm interviewing to be a Big Sister in the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. It's an hour and a half interview and I've also had to do an hour training video online (as well as fill out an application and give 5 references). Please keep me in your thoughts that I do well in the interview AND that, if matched, I am able to be a positive influence on a little girl's life.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!