Happy Birthday, dear Ryder...

We headed up to Elkhart the weekend of the 25-27th to celebrate cousin Ryder's first birthday! It is always so much fun when we get all of the cousins together, and I love hanging out with my family. If only they lived closer... Here are some pics from the party.

Ella playing with Evie. She was so sweet with her!

Girl cousins! Lanie, Ella and Evie.

We keep telling Kylie and Tim that Ella needs a sibling. She LOVED Eva.

Grandma and Evie

Grandma and her two youngest grandchildren (of 6!), Ryder(1) and Evie (6 months).

Ollie dancin'. Of course we couldn't get a picture of the three boys together...

Ryder eating his cake! He was so cute, he would take a bite and then flash his huge smile and clap.

He sure had fun!!

Long lost twins...

So my dear friend Hillary pointed out that the picture of Evie by the firetruck two posts ago really looked like Oliver, and after she mentioned it, I remembered this picture...


Now, little mister was 8 months old in this pic, as opposed to her 6 months, but they have the exact same squishy smile. Don't you just want to squeeze them?!?!?! I mean, sometimes when they are both looking at me, I realize how much they look alike, down to their expressions, movements, etc. I do, however, think that Evie looks a bit more like Jon (after seeing a baby picture of him recently), and Ollie is all me...

We'll miss you!

On Monday we hosted a good-bye playgroup for Mari and Emily who are moving back East to New Jersey. Luke, Paige, Oliver and Emily were the original playgroup members, and we are so sad to see Emily go. These four have know each other since birth, and it has been so fun to watch them all grow together. We are very excited for them, because it is a great opportunity, but wish we could keep them here!

Luke, Emmi, Paige and Ollie on a double date. Playtime! Best buddies: Emily, Oliver, Luke and Paige

Get around, get around, I get around!

After army crawling for about a month, little miss is up on all 4's, and is fast! It has added a whole new dimension to our lives. She is always going for the one thing in the room that she shouldn't have.

Exhibit A: chewing on Oliver's sippy cup. I'm sure it has juice or milk or something in it that she shouldn't have...

Exhibit B: Underneath the exersaucer. She is also pulling up on everything! I am constantly afraid that she is going to fall and slam her head into the hardwoods, but she takes it all in stride, and always with a huge smile on her face!

Ah yes, the one-armed kneel next to the toy baskets... Ha ha, I got Ollie's firetruck! So fun! Here is a pretty good video of her in motion.

The other night, I went out to dinner with some friends. Jon said that Evie was getting a little fussy, and then realized that she probably needed a bottle. This is what I found when I got home. She was just playing with it and gnawing on it. Jon said when he initially brought it in the room, she grabbed it and sucked it down! Yes, she still gets formula pretty infrequently, so we are still using the 2 oz premixed ones. That tiny bottle looks so funny in her hands!

Uh oh...

Tonight I gave Miss Eva a bath, and then grabbed the camera as I was putting her into her PJ's in her crib. This am when I got her out of bed, she put one of her arms on the crib rail, so I thought that maybe I would be able to grab a picture of her looking over the bar. Well, I got a little bit more than I had bargained for...

At first, she was just crawling around her crib looking cute.

She rolled over onto her back, and was peeking out the slot where there was a gap in the bumper. Hi, big eyes!After that, she rolled back over, and her little hand was on the crib rail. Yay, money shot! Then all of the sudden, her other hand was on the crib rail... And then, she was standing up. What??? She is only 6 months old, this should not be happening yet! And she was just smiling away, having the time of her life! Hi Mom, look at me!! Hahahahaha!!
Oh dear, we are in big trouble... Don't worry, after these photos, I immediately had Jon lower the crib. After the dresser incident, I'm not taking any chances!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a fabulous Valentine's day! Ollie, Evie and I went downtown to meet Jenny for lunch. It was nice to get out of the house, and it gave the kiddos a chance to wear their cute Valentine's outfits! Then Jon was able to leave work a bit early, and we grilled some fabulous steaks from our local butcher shop around the corner. Oliver also had a gourmet dinner of Toy Story mac 'n' cheese. We had a great evening together as a family. Love to all!

Ollie, Auntie Jenny and Evie
This is the best pic we could get of the two of them...
Evie looks so grumpy!
Beautiful dinner! Bone in prime New York strip, loaded baked potatoes, spinach, apple, walnut, bacon and blue cheese salad with balsamic viniagrette, and a fabulous South African wine. Our King of Hearts. The boys. Miss Eva scaling my legs.

Medicine, yuck!

We are so glad that tonight was the last dose of Oliver's antibiotics! He used to be a fabulous medicine taker(like, 3 weeks ago), saying "yum, medicine" and slurping it down; but then he got sick, and that all went out the window. The two days he had a fever before we got him into the pediatrician, it was an all out war to get him to take Tylenol or Motrin. He turned into the absolute worst patient I have ever taken care of at the hospital. I remember thinking man, these parents need to discipline their kids better, I can't believe that they won't take medicine! Oh yeah, little did I know about 2 year olds and how there is no controlling some of their actions. Dr. Bergstein even gave us Omnicef, which is only once a day, and she upped his dose 1/4 of a teaspoon to account for what he would spit out. So it became a nightly battle for 10 days, with Jon sitting on top of Oliver, massaging his throat so he would swallow, and me squeezing his cheeks together and blowing on his face to also help him swallow his measly little teaspoon of antibiotics. I was upset by this ordeal every night, but Jon got to the point where he thought it was comical how upset Oliver got. I mean, he was spitting, crying, and practically regurgitating the stuff.

So now little Evie is on Amoxicillin. The other morning, I was giving her a dose, and Oliver walked up to her and said "yuck, Evie, yucky medicine. Don't eat it. Yuck!" and then he proceeded to start gagging. Oh the drama! Let's just hope that little man doesn't get another infection any time soon! As for Eva, she is fabulous at taking her medicine. Thank goodness for that!

Mr. Madface with a blueberry pancake mustache.

Our always happy gorgeous girl.

Back to blogging...

Sorry to all that I have been so negligant about blogging lately. I'm going to try my best to get it all updated by the end of the weekend! Once you read what has been going down in our house, you will understand why I haven't been able to spend any time on the computer lately! Besides losing the camera charger for a few weeks, everyone except for me has been sick, on antibiotics, and we have a small baby girl that is ON THE MOVE!! And a big boy who has gotten more daring... Needless to day, it has been crazy busy!!

2 going on 16

Yes, he's only 2, even though he looks deceptively like a teenager in these photos! Who is he talking to on his cell, might you ask? Well the pizza guy, of course. We order pizza about once a week, but if you talked to Ollie, you probably think that it is a nightly occurence. He has conversations on his phone with the pizza guy all the time. On the weekends when we actually do order pizza, he gets so excited and watches out the window until the delivery car pulls up. He then leaps off of the couch saying "pizza guy, pizza guy", helps open the door, and gives the delivery guy the money. This has to be the highlight of his week. Then we usually let him carry the breadsticks to the kitchen. He smiles so big!! So yes, he is only 2, but he acts just like a little man!

6 months old!

Thursday was the only day of the week that we got out of the house. Miss Eva had her 6-month appointment, and is doing fabulous! She has hit all of her milestones. Dr. Bergstein was surprised when I told her that Evie had started army crawling at 5 1/2 months. She is all over the place!! She did great for her immunizations, and we left with a clean bill of health. I was told just to keep an eye on her as she had a little bit of fluid in her ear. The next week this did turn in to a full blown double ear infection, and little miss was put on her first round of antibiotics. Sickie #3!! Here are her 6 month stats:

Length: 27.5 inches (still > 97th percentile)

Weight: 15 pounds, 15.5 ounces (50th percentile)

Safety first, a cautionary tale.

Thursday I had the scare of my life! Oliver was up in his room, and was supposed to be napping. I could hear him running around his room, and then all of the sudden heard his drawers opening and slamming. I thought it was a little weird, because he has never played in his dresser before, but figured he wasn't hurting anything. I was about to go up and put him back to bed when I heard a huge crash and crying. I put Eva down and sprinted up the steps to see what had happened, even though in my mind I already knew and was preparing for the worst. I was shaking so hard when I opened his door and saw his dresser flat on the floor. Luckily, his guardian angels were watching over him, because he was sitting in front of it without so much as a scratch. He was crying because he was scared. I started crying too, and called Jon at work immediately to tell him what had happened. We're not sure if he was climbing his dresser, causing it to tip, or what he did to knock it down; but are so thankful that he is alright. I worked in an ER for 10 years, I know what can happen... Moral of the story is: make sure to tether dressers/bookcases/any furniture that may fall down; better safe than sorry!

Friday night when Grandma was babysitting, she got some of the story out of Ollie. His humidifier that usually sits on top of his dresser is now sitting in the bathroom. He started pressing the buttons on it, and said "it's broken, Oliver fix it". They then went into his room and he said "drawers open, then big boom! It's broken." We think that he was trying to climb up and turn the humidifier on, and he knocked the dresser down. Needless to say, he didn't nap in his room for the rest of the week; and as soon as the weekend came, we bolted both of his dressers into the wall.

Sleeping beauties napping in my bed. This was Friday; no naps in Ollie's room until the dressers are stable!