Reef's 2nd dentist visit

On Tuesday, Reef and I had his 2nd visit to the dentist. If you recall, our first visit was NOT a success and involved much screaming, so I was a little nervous about this one. I decided to change dentists and spent a couple of days before "playing dentist" and reading a book about the dentist. That really helped prepare him, I think.
Here he is enjoying a video game while we waited.

The actual appointment went well. They put us in a private room with a movie in it. He was mesmerized by the movie while I talked to the hygenist. I was nervous when it came time to get in the big chair, but he handled it like a pro. He let the dentist look at all of his teeth, cooperated with 4 xrays, and even let them start the cleaning. Everthing came to a screeching halt when the hygenist accidentally pinched his chest while she was wiping off the scraping tool. Poor guy started screaming so loud! It turns out that he has 2 cavities (on his newest teeth!), so we're going to have to get those filled next month, so they decided to hold off on the rest of the cleaning until then.
They will do the fillings under sedation, so I don't think that appointment will be too bad. The blow to our wallet, however, will not be pretty! The dentist is going to put sealant on the rest of his molars so hopefully we can avoid anymore cavities in the baby teeth. I've also started being super vigilant about brushing twice a day with both boys, so that maybe we can avoid any cavities for Jonas.
I was so proud of how brave Reef did, so we had lunch and ice cream just the two of us! Don't worry, we brushed very well after!

Ear infection #3

After several sleepless nights last week and 2 teeth breaking through, I thought for sure we'd get some sleep soon. This weekend, however, brought pretty much no sleep from Lachlan. He doesn't cry a lot in the night like the others did; he's more of a yeller, so it's impossible to sleep through it.
When we were at Dr. Gulde's office last week to check out Jonas, he looked at Lach's ears too and saw some fluid but no infection yet. Because of that, I hesitated to make Lachlan "cry it out" this weekend without knowing for sure that his ear was okay. So, early Monday morning, I called the doc for an appointment. Unfortunately, Dr. Gulde was booked, so we had to see his new partner at 8:40. Because we live on the other side of town, it was a race across town with everyone in their pj's. I also had to throw Reef's lunch stuff in the van since he had preschool that day.
We made it to the doctor's office right on time despite some major fit-throwing about a change in routine! I figured since we were her first patients of the day, we'd be in and out in no time. WRONG! We waited our usual time in the waiting room and quite a while in the back room too. I was very frustrated about this since: 1.I knew we were her first patients, 2. She knew were were there and said hello while we were getting weighed, and 3. she continued doing paperwork for another 15 minutes before seeing us! So frustrated!
Finally we were seen and another ear infection was confirmed. Monday was a fussy day for Lachlan, but the night went much better with Motrin and antibiotics on board! Praying for healthiness from now on!

Easter Egg Hunt 2010 (1 of 4)

Sunday was our church's annual Easter lunch and egg hunt. Troy was helping serve the lunch (Brazil fundraiser), but I decided to brave lunch alone. Luckily, we have a church family who's always willing to lend a hand, and Troy was able to break away for a little bit too. After hot dogs, chips, and cupcakes (not our finest meal moment!), we tried pictures with the Easter bunny...

It turned into a family pic since Jonas is still afraid of things like Easter bunny and Santa. As you can see Lachlan loved it. I look funny...
After the bunny pictures, we hit the bounce house and playground until hunting time.
Jonas was in the first group and Reef helped him find his eggs and waited patiently for his turn.

While I loaded Jonas and Lachlan into the van, Reef hunted with just Daddy.

They both had a great time hunting and couldn't wait to sample some candy after their nap! One hunt down, 3 more to go!

Morgan's Wonderland

3 posts in one week! Aren't you proud?
Anyway, today we visited Morgan's Wonderland, the world's first ultra-accessible playground for kids and adults with disabilities. It was AMAZING! 3 playgrounds, carousel, train, water table, and more! Thanks so much to Melynda and Jude for inviting us to go with them. The boys are already talking about "next time.
It was so fun to see my kids having a good time but even cooler to see kids who can't usually enjoy "regular" playgrounds.
A few pics of the day...

They loved these "robot" blocks.

Swinging with Jude. They also had regular swings, tire swings, and swings for wheelchairs!

Aarrgh! Ahoy, there, matey!

Jude!

Remote-controlled boats.

Rock climbing.

So tired...

Spring No-Break

This week has been Spring Break here in San Antonio. For me, that actually means "no break" since there was no preschool or Ladies Bible Class. We did our best to keep busy, but, boy, were these boys a handful! We took advantage of my NEON girls being home by visiting La Cantera with Katelin and the zoo with Rachel and her friend Rebecca Ingram. Never again will I visit the zoo during Spring Break; the crowd was crazy!! We also enjoyed our first 2010 trip to Sea World with KC, which was also crowded but still lots of fun. The boys had a great time at the Azul show (beluga whales, high divers, AND synchronized swimmers), the Shamu show (kind of boring now that the trainers stay out of the water, but new baby Shamu is really cute) and zipping down the long slide. With the exception of rain on Tuesday and a cold weekend, the weather was PERFECT, so we also enjoyed lots of time playing outside. Because my camera was either not with me, without batteries, or just too hard to handle at the same time as 3 busy boys, the only pictures of the week are taken at home, but they still show us having fun!

Art project of the day: All Afloat on Noah's Boat

He LOVES being outside.

Troy added on to the fort and now we have a "bedroom" too!

Troy finally raked up our year's worth of leaves. Reef was a big help bagging them up.

Caramel cream egg-Troy's favorite!

A "cheese" moment after grafitti-ing the fire pole

ISD San Antonio Anniversary

Right after survivor, we had the opportunity to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the ISD branch in San Antonio. The whole company got together at The Lodge restaurant for a fancy 5 course meal. While most of us did not care for the scallop foie gras dish, the rest of the meal was great. I even branched out and tasted the duck confit and salmon!
Before dinner, Lloyd and Francie came over to see the boys. Lloyd marched right outside to see the fire truck/slide/fire pole even though it was super muddy. It took quite awhile to clean the mud off his shoes! It was great the he was so willing to play with them, and Reef has repeatedly asked when he's coming back!
Here's a pic of them sharing ALL of their blocks with him:

Survivor 2010

Last weekend was the annual Survivor Retreat for our youth group. Troy has been helping with this retreat for 5 years and was gone Thursday-Sunday. So, the boys and I were surviving on our own for Thursday and Friday. I was tired after 2 days on my own and really don't know single moms do it! Gigi and Mr. Don arrived late Friday so that I could join the kids and Troy for the actual retreat. I had been preparing Lachlan for this for several weeks, hoping he'd be willing to take the bottle! The secret, we discovered, was heating it up.

While Lachlan did not sleep well while I was gone, everything else went great for the boys. Lachlan took the bottle without complaint, and Reef and Jonas were very helpful and had a great time playing with Gigi and Mr. Don. They were actually sad when I came home early on Sunday because they wanted to have lunch with Gigi!

Troy and all the guys who went down early did a great job getting everything set up for the kids. The weather was perfect this year, and I think everyone had a great day. It really is a great opportunity to test their ability to work as a team, and the guys did a great job tying in biblical knowledge this year. We're already throwing around ideas for next year.

Here are some pics of the day:

Wheel of Grossness

My Green Team

The only picture of me and Troy together.

Another one of the Green Machine.

7 months

Well, yet another month has gone by, and yet again I've been terrible at taking pictures! 7 months old has brought the important milestone of rolling. Lachlan's really rolling a lot these days, and I even found him sleeping on his tummy today! He's also tried a couple of times to move toward something while on his tummy, so crawling may come soon, although I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Our 7 month weigh in was 19lbs 6oz, so not too much more than 6 months.

Things to remember:

-Mornings are your best times. You're just so talkative and smiley in the AM.

-You love your brothers; they can always get a lot of laughs out of you.

-Daddy is also fascinating to you right now and you get so excited when he comes in from work.

-After a slow start with baby foods, you're enjoying a variety of fruits and veggies now and rapidly increasing the amount you take at each meal.

-You're finally okay with taking a bottle and even let mommy leave for a full 24 hours! More on that in a different post though.

-Still not sleeping through the night and we're not really sure what to do about it. For about a week, you were waiting until after 4am to eat and I thought we were headed in the right direction but this week, it's back to 2:30. Hopefully this month will bring some much-needed progress in the sleep department.

-No teeth! That tooth I felt a couple weeks ago is gone! The gums must just be more swollen now because that tooth is nowhere to be found. You're chewing up a storm, though, so something must be brewing under there! I really can't believe there's no teeth yet. Reef and Jonas both had teeth by 4 months!

-You're starting to notice when you have been left alone in a room. You used to be content to play alone for a minute but now you cry if we all leave the room without you. You're even testing out this response when I put you in your bed. You give out one good cry to see if I will come back.

-You've also started reaching for me when you see me. I love to be wanted but hope this isn't the start of separation anxiety!

-We completely moved to a 4 hour eating schedule in the last month. Babywise says not to do it until you're sleeping through the night but I just couldn't force you to eat every 3 anymore!

Here's the photo shoot of this month:

Rolling, rolling, rolling

I am pleased to announce that Lachlan is finally rolling! He's been doing tummy to back (upside up, as Jonas calls it) and has done back to tummy twice in his bed but never on purpose. Today he did it several times for me and for Troy! So exciting!
He also cut his first tooth on Saturday (Feb 27), so all kinds of milestones happening all at once!

Pediatrician times 2

Yes, it's true, we made 2 visits to Dr. Gulde last week. I swear sometimes I think we live there. On Monday, I took Lachlan because he'd been coughing for a while. I listened to him over the weekend and thought I might have heard wheezes but dismissed it, thinking my auscultation skills were getting rusty. Well, the wheezing was confirmed at our appointment, so I guess I need to trust myself more. He also had another ear infection in the right ear. So, we left with instructions to do nebulizers 3-4 times a day and 10 days of antibiotics. Blah...Dr. Gulde was also nice enough to have a quick look at Jonas since he's constantly snotty and complained of ear pain, but he was all clear. Lachlan's off the nebs now and seems to be feeling much better. We'll follow up at the end of the week just to be sure.
On Thursday night, Reef woke us up at midnight with his usual croupy cough and stridor. He stayed very calm this time and we were able to get it under control with 20 minutes in a steamy bathroom. We tried to get him to spend the rest of the night in our room, but Mr. OCD had to be in his own bed, with Daddy by his side. Luckily, there were no relapses in the night. I called first thing Friday morning to get him an appointment. After going over our history, we decided on 3 days of steroids to prevent a relapse right now and a long-term course of Flovent to prevent more recurrences this season. I am sooo glad to have something to keep things under control! Reef is definitely feeling much better, too, but still recovering from that missed sleep. It takes him forever to catch up!