Squirmy and Regressing

Katie is pretty content just to jump away the day in her jumperoo or practice sitting (she can sit for almost a minute without help these days) and still doesn't have much to do with rolling or attempting to crawl. Tyler on the otherhand has mastered scooting backward and rolls and rolls back and forth. If he could figure out how to propel himself with his arms I think he would be learning to crawl pretty quickly - as is he gets so frustrated that when he is trying to get something in front of him he ends up going backward, but he'll get it! They have both started waking in the middle of the night randomly again - for Katie it may be teething (STILL no teeth), Tyler might be hungry or it might be because we took them out of their sleep blankets and put them in regular PJs and the freedom might be too tempting when they wake in the middle of the night. Either way, waking at 2:30 for Katie, 3:30 for Tyler, and 6:00 for both of them is getting old FAST and I hope they get back to sleeping through soon. They are so fun right now, Tyler has screaming "conversations" with you where he makes a screeching noise and looks at you smiling until you repeat it and he has started laughing out loud when you tickle him. Katie is a babbling fool always "talking" about ba ba, da da, ga ga - of course she has no clue what she is saying but she certainly entertains herself with her new sounds. She still gets sooo tired at night and is pretty fussy for about an hour before bedtime but up until that time these days she is just too cute with her flirty little smile and manic jumping. We are already on guard for their mobility that is right around the corner - it makes things a bit more challenging not to be able to put Tyler down at all (because we have had a number of head and body bumping incidents from rolling off of various couches, chairs, boppies, etc.) and to try to figure out where you can safely set one of them while you are dealing with the other - that is only going to get worse, I'm sure! I wouldn't have it any other way but since Lance has been working in the evenings quite a bit and we have been solo with the babies more often than usual it has become obvious that two hands are just not enough and soon we might be saying that four aren't either!!!

So Happy Together???

Here are some cute pics that Pam took at daycare today.

Katie laughing, probably screeching too!

Tyler: Hey, Sister I love you. Katie: Get off of me you fool!

Tyler: I wasn't doing anything...

See, we are sweet as pie!

Feeling Better

The kids seem to be feeling a bit better. Tyler is super hungry these days and woke up in the middle of the night for the first time in months last night but we gave him a little bottle and he went right back to sleep and finally woke up happy again (he has been waking early and upset). They still LOVE their jumperoos so I snapped some pics of their morning jumperoo time!

I Hate Prednisone!

Tyler is a monster while on it! He throws his little body around everywhere and gets really angry, is so cranky and fussy and not his normal sweet, loving self and is as hyper as his 7 month old body will allow him to be. It is driving me crazy, I just want my little sweet "T" back!!! We are on it for two more weeks and then maybe he'll go back to normal (and as importantly sleep past 5:15 AM)!

Little Katie Bug is still not over her cold/cough but she is getting better. Still not eating like normal for her and still no teeth!

Gotta go, fussy butt is screaming again, and I don't just mean a little whimper I mean throwing his body backwards and forwards, arching his back, banging his feet down - just mad...

First Beach Trip!

Here are some pics of their first trip to the beach! These were taken at Pineapple Willies (we had to get a "Pineapple Willie" while we were down there) - the kids didn't actually go on the beach - they'll experience sand and salt water later when they can better appreciate it. These was pre-Lance getting sick and before Tyler's miserable ear infection. You can tell from the pictures that you would never have known that Tyler had a stomach bug if not for the puking - he was pretty happy considering!

They've started to notice each other even more and will sometimes just look at one another as if they are trying to figure out what is going on!

Katie looks like a little gangster - kind of like she's saying "what are you looking at?"

I hate this picture of me, but I had to post it because smiling Tyler looks so cute. If you look closely you can see his two little teeth!

Katie and her daddy - they look SOOOO much alike to me.

Tyler with his Grandma!

Tough Tyler

I am constantly amazed at my little boy. He has had it pretty rough health wise - gets every illness out there and has had breathing issues constantly. He got two teeth in without us even knowing that he was teething and now has a double ear infection, a cold, and his same breathing problems and is still for the most part smiley and happy. He is one tough cookie! His wheezing and congested breathing has picked up in the last few days so I took him in as was required to get his albuterol refilled. The doctor is pretty certain that he has asthma. He can grow out of it, but right now the goal is to get it under control and see if we can stop the wheezing and junky breathing and then concentrate on controlling flare-ups. He is on a course of steroids and breathing treatments every four hours and we are hoping that it helps. If it does by Monday we will learn how to manage his asthma (since that will pretty much confirm that is what it is), if on Monday he is not much better we will begin to look at some other things that it could be. Of all that he has been through - the ear infection seems to be the worst. When you lay him down for any reason (breathing treatments, bedtime) he gets VERY upset, so maybe the antibiotic will knock it out soon. Of course, we are concerned about giving him the medication because Lance is allergic to penicillin, but we have to find out at some point whether or not he is allergic too! I'm glad to finally be getting some answers and hopefully we are on a path to keep Tyler from sounding like "Darth Vader" (like Jackie said - ha)!

Katie Bug started pulling at her ear this morning so she may have her first ear infection too - from what I have heard they are pretty much inevitable, I am actually surprised we made it this long without one!

Our trip

Well, since I saw most of you who read this this weekend (and probably infected half of you) this is not news - but the trip home this weekend sure was an adventure. It all began when I used Lance's phone to check email on the way down and got a message from Pam (daycare) that said that two of the toddlers had a stomach bug. Not even an hour later Tyler vomited his entire bottle that we gave him on one of many stops on the way down (he was also having diarrhea which was a reason for the stops). He continued to throw up Friday evening and Saturday. Katie started Saturday night. Lance started in the middle of the night Saturday and got it much, much worse than the kids. He also looked as though he was having an allergic reaction with his eyes and face very swollen so just to make sure it wasn't food poisoning or an allergy in addition to the same bug as the kids we went to the ER (since it was Easter Sunday and we were out of town it was the best option with the clinics or doctor's offices open). Lance was just miserable and they gave him some medication and fluids that helped a little. We tried to get on the road to get home on Sunday but since I was up all night with him and the kids and then really concerned that Katie was still throwing up driving was not a good idea and we ended up stopping halfway and getting a hotel room. Lance got to sleep and got a private bathroom, we got the kids to sleep and they weren't throwing up anymore so it was probably a good decision. We made it back to the house on Monday and were doing good until Tyler threw up his bedtime bottle. We'll see how today goes - it seems that he has also gotten a cold, poor guy - but Tyler is on a limited diet of pedialyte for mow which makes him very grumpy and hungry. I am just so concerned that Tyler is still coughing and wheezing - I really wish someone could tell us why he was doing it or even better tell us how to fix it. It doesn't seem to really affect him but it just doesn't seem normal that a baby should be coughing, rattling, wheezing, etc. for 7 months! If anyone has any ideas what it could be I am all ears!

On a positive note - the van rode well, held up on the trip, and was much more comfortable than our other vehicles would have been with all of the stuff we had to take!