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!

Good weather...

equals outside play time! We have definitely had our share of cold, rainy weather lately, but were blessed with several good, even warm days this week. I insisted we take advantage of it with daily walks, backyard playtime, and a trip to the park. Here's a few shots of each of my guys doing their favorite things...

Coming soon: Pictures of the new 'dos since we got haircuts this week!

Let's Rodeo San Antonio!

Troy had Monday off for President's Day/Mardi Gras, so we decided to make our annual visit to the rodeo. Our Aussie friend, Paul, is also so nice to let us borrow his passes. We were a little bummed that we missed all the big cows and horses but the boys enjoyed seeing the show pigs and sheep. They were a little turned off by the pigs since they were pretty stinky and, for some reason, Reef was worried they might eat him!
Then we moved on to the petting zoo. Reef is always a little timid in these situations but did great this year and Jonas jumped right in. That's Lachlan in the Ergo right behind Jonas, just so we know he was there too. Jonas' first trip to the rodeo was also in the ergo, seems like just yesterday...



Our final stop was the Horse Education barn. This is always a big hit since they have the horse to pose on. Reef really liked this part.

We only stayed about an hour this year since it was so cold. And Mommy was stressed that our van would be towed since our parking pass wasn't fully attached to the windshield. Luckily, it was still waiting for us when it was time to go!

6 months stats and month of January

I've definitely been neglectful of my blog this last month and don't really have a good excuse! Nothing really exciting has been going on, yet I feel like the last month was very busy. I guess the big deal in January was the addition of a fire pole to the fort outside. Reef's been asking for one for AGES and finally has one. It's not quite finished yet, though, and Reef prays that Daddy will finish fixing it each night! We had amazing weather the day after it was completed, so we got to get some good action shots!

On January 26, Troy and I had our 7th annual Australia Day celebration at the Outback Steakhouse. I can't believe it's been 7 years! We had a great time with close friends from church and some new Aussie friends. Bruce and Sharon stayed with the boys, so we got to really focus on our friends and our food for once.

At the end of January, I had the privilege to go to Northside's annual Ladies' Retreat. Lachlan had the privilege of joining me since he continues to refuse a bottle! Despite a late night and being WAY off schedule, Lachlan was the perfect baby! He never cried and enjoyed visiting with all the different ladies. He is quite the flirt these days! I'm so glad I decided to go. The speaker was amazing and it was good to get some time with friends too.

After Ladies Retreat, we decided to start Lachlan on solids. He didn't love it at first and definitely preferred taking it from Troy at first. He's now had oatmeal, green beans, and carrots. He's really getting the hang of it now! I've tried doing breakfast and dinner feedings but he's really only interested at dinner time.

We had Lachlan's 6 month appointment last Friday. Troy had the day off, so I was lucky enough to go to the appointment without big brothers in tow. Basically Dr. Gulde said he looked like a happy, healthy baby. The big concern from his 4 month appointment was the shape of his head but, after looking at it from all angles this month, it's apparently looking more "normal" now. He weighed in at 18lb 4oz (70th %ile) and was 28.5 inches long (97th %ile!). I can't believe he's so long! If he doesn't slow down soon, we'll be investing in a new car seat at the end of the month.

Things to remember about 6 months...
-You're finally rolling over! For about the last 2 weeks, you've mastered rolling from your tummy to you back. So, tummy time is very short these days. Jonas likes to tell me that you've rolled "upside up"

-You've also started pushing up more with your arms when you are on your tummy.

-Just in the last couple of days, you've started reaching for something on your side. I know rolling onto your tummy should come soon.

-You're still nursing every 3 hours during the day. We did 4 hours yesterday and that was okay, so we should be able to transition soon.

-We continue to struggle with nights...A good night means waking up only twice-once for the paci and once for a feeding. A bad night means waking up every 2 hours! Dr. Gulde said sleep is a learned, developmental process, so we'll just keep working on it.

-Naps are finally pretty consistent! The morning nap is 1-1.5 hours and the afternoon nap start at 1 and is 1.5-2 hours. Some days you'll also take a 15 minute nap before dinner.

-Smiles and giggles have really increased this month. You're also talking a lot more.

-You're sitting up all by yourself! Dr. Gulde was very impressed. You can maintain it for about 30 minutes before you get tired or bored.

And, finally, here's our monthly picture with our blue bear.

And a cute one just because...

I did really bad at blogging and taking pictures this month...Hopefully I'll do better in February!