Week 16 and Other Good Times

This picture is so telling: Andy clowning around and Luke snuggling up to Eli. Luke is totally smitten with Eli, tells me 10 times a day how much he loves him. I try to imagine the kind of adventures these 3 will have together someday...
Week 16: a cooing, smiling, drooling bundle of boy

Andy's latest obsession: Costco strawberries

We went to visit Auntie Heather and Uncle Scott on Saturday. Andy was permitted to put his paws on Aaron's Lego creation for a few minutes.

Steve's idea of a good time: the new 2010 Mustang!

Our friend works for Ford and was able to bring this baby home for the weekend. He was kind enough to take Steve for a ride and pose for a photo op.

Is it Spring or Not?

He's at a great age for the park: can climb and slide without help, eager to try new things, entertains himself by taking his hot wheels cars down the slide with him. There's a lot joy in being Andy.
Fueling his water addiction

This is Eli's first big trip to the park. He was a good sport about hanging out in his stroller for 2 hours. The weather was perfect!

Luke's idea of a great day: no school and a trip to his favorite park

It's Business as Usual Around Here

This is week 14 for Mr. Eli...his major achievements are frequent smiles and cooing to get someone's attention. It would be nice if he would work on his night time sleep-still waking up once or twice. We are definitely ready to put the newborn phase behind us.
Surprise. Another picture of Andy holding a car. He loves these automobloxs Aunt Holly and Uncle Stowe sent for Christmas. He takes them apart, mixes the pieces up and builds a hybrid. He also likes to take the rubber off the wheels and stuff them down the heater vent. I've spent more time than I would care to admit fishing little rubber circles out of the vents in the family room. Yesterday we went outside in the balmy 60 degree sunshine and found our neighbor and his 5 year old shoveling gravel out of his truck to make a dog run in his yard. He let Luke and Andy climb in the back and "help". Luke and the other little boy found other things to do, but Andy was in heaven. He got out the diggers and the dump trucks and moved the gravel all around the truck. I was going to take a picture, but I was a little embarrassed that he was still in his pajamas at 4pm.
Sorry, no picture of the eldest. He is presently shunning the camera and stressing out about St. Patrick's Day. I tried to tell him he's irish and he should just embrace it. He will have none of it. I think a little girl in his class told him she was going to pinch him. We explained numerous times that if you just wear green, no one will pinch you. He is not at all convinced. I'm probably going to have to bribe him to get him on the school bus tomorrow.

Nope, Just a Giant Noggin

Eli and I spent most of Monday at Mary Bridge children's hospital getting an MRI of his head. I always get a little stressed navigating outside my usual territory. I'm not that familiar with Tacoma, finding parking, getting inside the hospital. Who designs the layouts of hospitals, anyway? As I was leaving, I decided I should be thankful I felt lost most of the day. I sat next to a woman whose 8 week old baby was having his 4th MRI. I'm glad the children's hospital is a foreign land for me. That means we have (mostly) healthy children. The results came back quickly and everything is 'unremarkable'. I guess that's doctor-speak for normal. As we suspected, it's just a giant noggin.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...Andy continues to entertain us with his antics. Typical middle child, he's always good for a laugh.

I came downstairs this morning to find Luke fully engrossed in his new Star Wars books at 6:20am. Although I'm not a fan of SW at all, I'm glad we are raising the next generation of book worms.

Eli and the Luscious Melon

It has been just one thing after another around here lately. I'm not sure if it's the added responsibility of having an infant in the house, or just a phase of life, but as soon as one issue is resolved, another comes up. Luke has struggled with sleeping through the night for months and months. I think I've consistently whined about this issue, but we finally exhausted all of our creative resources for getting him back to sleep. We decided to visit a sleep specialist. After blood work and a sleep study, the diagnosis is extremely low iron stores, which causes frequent leg movement and lots of night waking. While we are grateful that he doesn't have apnea, we are now facing many months of daily supplements in an effort to raise his iron levels.

Given our track record of late, it was no surprise to me that Eli's pediatric appointment would result in yet another health issue. The pediatrician came in the room, took one look at the growth chart and did a double take regarding the size of Eli's head. Not only is it gynormous, but he has shot to the top of the growth chart since our last appointment in January. That is tremendous growth in a very short amount of time. He needs an MRI to evaluate the fluid levels in his brain. Perhaps there is a blockage preventing fluid from circulating properly, which would cause some swelling. The treatment for this is a shunt. Ugh.

It's my personal opinion, carefully dressed in denial, I'm sure, that he comes from a long line of giant noggins and everything will be just fine. However, every time he cries a little more than he should, I can't help but wonder if he's in pain. Does it hurt when your head grows that quickly? Are there symptoms we should be aware of that aren't readily apparent? These are the things we're pondering this week, while bribing Luke to take his iron supplements.

Poor Choices, Close Calls, Counting Our Blessings

Andrew and his new favorite car. Yes, I know he still has a binky.
This picture warms my heart. Luke is such a sweetie to Eli. What's especially funny is that Eli looks exactly like Luke did at 2 months old. Genetics are amazing.

9 weeks old and quite pleased with his new floor gym

Last Friday was a doozy. Luke has struggled with sleep issues for several months. Steve and I are at the end of our rope in terms of what to do to help him sleep. We just cannot deal with any more sleep deprivation, especially since Eli is sleeping well at night. It really stinks to be up with 2 kids at 2am. So, we went to see a pediatric sleep specialist. In my foggy, sleep-deprived state, I didn't really consider the ramifications of taking the whole family. Thankfully, Steve went with me. Needless to say, it was a very long morning, complete with poor behavior, a behind-schedule physician and topped off with a blood draw for Luke.
I was never so happy to get home and get everybody out of the car.

We were driving each other nuts by late afternoon and the boys were begging to go outside. We bundled the baby into the stroller and headed out the door. At the last minute, Luke asked if he could walk Jake, our 80 pound black lab.

Have I mentioned I exist in a foggy, sleep-deprived state?
I said, "sure".

Luke and the dog were actually doing very well. We got about halfway around our block and dogs started barking from behind fences and Luke got flustered. I saw a very large dog sitting in his own front yard and his owner was brushing him. As we got a little closer, I decided to take the leash back from Luke. I now have our dog on a leash, a baby in a stroller and two little boys trailing behind.

What was I thinking?!

In an instant, that very large dog was upon us. He went straight for Jake's neck. Jake tried to get away and the owner and another neighbor pulled the gynormous Akita dog off before he could attack again. In the commotion, the dogs knocked the stroller over and Eli's head hit the sidewalk. I became one hysterical mama, which terrified the boys. Suddenly everyone was crying and the dog owner was terribly distraught. We were actually in someone else's driveway and the family came out to help. The woman was a familiar face and really helped calm everybody (me) down. The children that lived there are classmates of Luke's, so they started a game of tag on the lawn. We checked Eli out and he immediately stopped crying and started trying to smile at everybody. He had a small bump on his forehead but that was all. The dog's owner offered to pay for any damages, which I appreciated. After he went back in the house, I found out the dog is a repeat offender and has already bitten two children.

While I am the first to admit that I made a poor choice and we should have left the dog at home, this was a bad situation that could have been extremely traumatic. I know what it is to care about your dog, but there comes a time when a dog can't be trusted and needs to be kept away from children and other dogs. Several other neighbors have come forward and mentioned an unfortunate encounter with this same dog. As much as I dislike conflict, I know we need to take action and more than likely have this dog removed from the neighborhood. Part of me wants to wait until we get reimbursed for Jake's vet bill (almost $700 for emergency surgery).

As the weekend went on and I shared our experience with friends and family, I just felt very grateful that we weren't severely injured. I'm thankful for neighbors who help out, even if we don't know each other as well as we should. There are many blessings to count.

Family of Five

Eli
The whole family

Eli

Andy (aka the little ham)

Mr. Handsome

In a rare moment of spontaneity, I decided to get our pictures taken on Saturday morning. It went surprisingly well. So well, in fact, that we have a large number of pictures now in our possession. Even Eli decided to break out the smile. Luke and Andy decided to show off, so we have a number of shots that probably won't make it into a frame. Afterward, we celebrated with lunch out and new shoes for the boys.

That's all for now. I have to go and wallpaper the house with pictures.