Thanksgiving/Birthday Weekend

There are great benefits to being born on a holiday. I had an extra day off from work and it was a great weekend to catch up on to-dos and spend extra time with the kids. 

Shiloh and Chris picked up Grandma Delores and met us, along with my parents, at Drew's family Thanksgiving. Thankfully, Aunt Shiloh is always on top of taking 100 selfies with her nieces and nephews....so I have a few pics from that day. 

Drew had told me all week that he had plans for us on Saturday. He couldn't have picked anything better than saddling up the horses and taking a long afternoon ride around the farm that we live on. It was the perfect birthday gift. 

Other pictures from the weekend:

my audience for washing dishes

poor thing can't escape the kisses

*insert evil laugh*

attitude on display

Monthly Update

I'm barely squeezing this month's update into this month. Waaaay late on getting Griffin's chair photos. If you know him, you know how hard it is to get him to sit still. Honestly, it's also hard to catch him not filthy or naked. 

I'll start with Cooper like before, he's the one changing by the minute.

Height: 23 3/4 in
Weight: 12lbs 5 oz
Clothing size: 3-6 months
Diaper size: moving into Size 2

The rice cereal mixed in his bottles continues to keep him from vomiting. I'm hopeful that he's gaining weight at a faster rate so that his pediatrician will be happy. 

He is a favorite at daycare. Sorry if this is repetitive, but he has been referred to as "their best baby" many times. That is a relief since he was not a very good baby in the beginning and I was nervous about him starting daycare. 

He slept from 9pm to 6am last night. The night before, he got up twice. The night before that, he woke up once. It's really not too bad and he has always just been interested in eating then going back to sleep. 

I know that we are not scheduling Cooper's activities like we did Griffin's. I'm making more of an effort to get him lots of tummy time, reading books, and all the things that I could probably find a notebook of charts from when Griffin was a baby. Cooper is rolling to his side fairly well and enjoys sitting in the bumbo seat.

 

Griffin has even more funny phrases lately. He speaks in terms of things either being a "good idea" or "not a good idea". The things he wants to do are never the latter. He has gone from saying naughty words, to being the bad word police. "Don't say that!" when he hears them, so that has been nice. I have also recently realized that he actually says "gotfor" instead of "forgot". It's cute but we are working to correct that. 

I'm not sure about his height and weight. 
He hasn't had a potty accident in a long time.
He VERY RARELY wakes up in the night. 
He is extremely independent and wild and stubborn and strong-willed.
When Drew or I leave him, put him to bed, any kind of goodbye/goodnight.....he always needs a hug and a kiss, and an exchange of "I love yous". That makes up for all the rowdiness.

Chit chat with Santa

Go ahead and cross this year's Santa photo off the list.

We were in Springfield Sunday to have lunch with my Grandma, parents, and Shiloh/Chris so afterward we decided to run to the mall and get this task done before the holiday season makes the line an hour or more long. 

Griffin wasn't hesitant at all. Cooper could care less. 

Right off the bat Griffin asked:
"Where is Mrs. Clause?"  (see photo of hands open, in wonder)
"Where are  your reindeer?"
Santa explained they were all at the North Pole.

Griffin's requests for Santa included:
a lot of "diggers"
a combine
excavators
a crane truck
a roller
a cement mixer
a bulldozer
and a dump truck
.....he probably would have came up with more if we didn't pull him away.
 
I don't remember if this was the case in previous years, but I was able to download all of our photo choices from the website. I ended up buying the version where Cooper is smiling to go in the annual "picture with Santa" frame.

I'm glad this is done, with no tears shed. Next year might be a different story for Cooper baby.

Cooper's Stomach Saga

We've already had the acid reflux diagnosis. Cooper's spitting up/vomiting has continued ever since, which I think is normal to an extent. 

Lately, it had turned to projectile vomiting pretty much daily. If it's not projectile, it will be multiple heaves leaving him, you, or both soaked. The daycare went through every spare outfit I had left there not once, but twice in the past 2 weeks. 

Needless to say, Cooper saw his pediatrician this week. He had only gained 3 ounces since his last visit and that didn't satisfy Dr. Sponenberg so an ultrasound was ordered to look for a condition called pyloric stenosis. 

I couldn't resist a few photos to document this. He didn't think it was a big deal, and the ladies doing the ultrasound were pretty smitten with him. I sure hope they got good enough pictures of the right thing. It took quite some time to find "it". I don't think they have babies in there often. 

I was pleased that the results were negative. The game plan was to switch to exclusively pumping so that I could add rice cereal to his bottles and thicken up the milk. I'm not completely following his recommendations, but we are seeing a substantial improvement so far. He hasn't soaked any daycare ladies since we began adding cereal to his bottles. We go back for a follow up appointment this week. Cross your fingers that his weight gain is back on the uphill. 

Deer Season 2014-Open & Closed

Rifle season began today. We would normally not see much of Drew for the next 2 weeks. It turned out to be the best opening day ever, because Drew got the old buck that he's been after for 3 years! I never respected hunting as a sport until I saw the determination, hard work, and perseverance it requires to be successful. Sounds corny, but if you had been on this ride with Drew and his pursuit of this buck.......seeing it, not seeing it, passing him up when he was younger, getting trail camera pictures, not getting trail camera pictures, shooting at him and wondering if he had wounded him, only to resurface the next year, and not getting close to him at all so far this bow season......it has been intense. And today, within a minute of getting in his stand at lunch time, there he came walking nearby. 

Granted, it will still be bow season until early next year, and I'm sure Drew will be after does to send to the processing plant and for Share the Harvest. But is thrilled that this old buck will forever be honored on his wall, and I am beyond thrilled that we get a more relaxed Daddy back this winter!