What Beth's saying

I've mentioned that Beth is talking a lot, pretty much non-stop these days. Some of her favorites right now are:

"Beth no like that!"
"Do all by self!"
"Beth watch Doh-wa!" (Dora, the tv show)
"Are you my muder?" ("Are you my mother?" from the book)
"Mommy hol' Beth." ("hold")
"Beth have fever"
"Beth got boo boo"
"Oh no, oh no, Beth fall dooooooown!" (accompanied with a big dramatic fall)
"Uh oh, car comin'!"
"My mommy my mommy my mommy!" (usually followed by a big hug!)


She has been helping me a lot around the house with chores, it's really nice to see a sneak peek of what might be coming up in the future when she's a "big kid." She's actually started taking showers now, maybe once or twice a week! She really liked it at the hotel we stayed at during our trip to the beach, and she's asked a few times since then to shower again. She's such a big girl!

Luke is our little grabber- he reaches for everything these days, it seems especially at food. I feel like such a tease when I'm holding him and eating, because he seems to think every bite is going for his mouth. The boy is almost 5 1/2 months old, I suppose it's time for us to start thinking about starting him on solids! I definitely won't start him until he can sit up though, we'll have to graduate Beth to a booster seat at the table so Luke can take over the high chair!

We've started a night time routine for Luke now, in an effort to regulate his sleep a little better. He takes a bath, we put on pajamas, some nights (when he's not screaming!) we'll read a little book or two, and then we'll nurse and rock for awhile. I suppose it's sort of working, if nothing else Ryan and I have it in our heads that this is the way we'll be doing it for him to try to help him sleep better. I've made a conscious effort with this kid to not obsess over sleep, schedules and naps. I do make an effort to be proactive about putting him down for naps (before he gets so exhausted and worked up that he refuses to sleep) and now we're putting him down pretty consistently between 6:30-7:00 pm. He also naps four times a day, usually 40 minutes each nap but occasionally (like when I have to go somewhere!) he'll go for as long as two hours.

Both kids have new swimsuits, and we're getting ready for summer weather. The pool opens on May 9, only a month away! Hopefully Luke will be sitting up pretty well by then, I know he's going to love the pool since he loves his baths so much now. Beth is also going to have a blast this summer, she's at such a fun age right now!

Chili Cookoff

Saturday we went to the county chili cookoff and fair and had a great time! We met my aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends and ate some delicious barbeque (I didn't see any chili!), had some drinks, and took Beth to her first carnival. We were there all afternoon, the kids did amazingly well considering everything was outside and it was a windy day.

Beth loved the petting zoo! She chased a duck, fed the goats, and pet some bunnies. Then she saw some mountain goats, baby chicks, and adult hens. Afterward we went to the carnival and she rode her first carousel and went on some other little kid rides with Ryan while I nursed Luke and had some funnel cake, yum.

Speaking of yum, Luke really likes to eat his toes now! Here he is, chowing down after a diaper change:

Two kids

Finally

Some relief seems to be on the horizon. We've been battling this nastiness for over a week! The kiddos seem great, I'd say almost 100% better because Beth still isn't eating as well and occasionally Luke will cough. Wednesday night I had to run to the ER for me because I developed the world's nastiest ear infection within a matter of 3 hours. The pain was so awful, I couldn't imagine getting any sleep that night, let alone drag myself and the two kids to the doctor the next day, so I just went alone that night. Got an antibiotic, filled it at midnight, and took my first dose before I left the store!

So apparently my being sick means not a lot of blog action this week, but I'll go ahead and fill you in now with the good photos:

oh yeah, that's what i like to see.

bath time!

a reversion back to "the old days"

poor guy, he wants to sit up so badly!

he'll have to stick with the bumbo for now!

AAP Changes Car Seat Recommendations

Taken from AAP News. For safety videos, see the link of the side of my blog!

Keep your toddler in a rear-facing car seat until age 2 (not 1)

Lori O’Keefe
Correspondent

New research indicates that toddlers are more than five times safer riding rear-facing in a car safety seat up to their second birthday. Following are some safety tips for car seat use:

All infants should ride rear-facing in either an infant car seat or convertible seat.

If an infant car seat is used, the infant should be switched to a rear-facing convertible car seat once the maximum height (when the infant’s head is within 1 inch of the top of the seat) and weight (usually 22 pounds to 32 pounds) have been reached for that infant seat as suggested by the car seat manufacturer.

Toddlers should remain rear-facing in a convertible car seat until they have reached the maximum height and weight recommended for the model, or at least the age of 2.

To see if your car seat is installed properly and to find a certified passenger safety technician in your area, visit www.seatcheck.org or www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cps/cpsfitting/index.cfm. You also can call 866-SEATCHECK (866-732-8243) or 888-327-4236.

Our trip to Galveston

We went to Galveston a couple of weeks ago for a small spring break, you can read about it here or scroll down a little bit. I am just now getting around to posting it. :-)

Still sick

We're all still sick. Really sick. Luke is being treated for pertussis, though I'm not 100% sure that's what he has (our pediatrician lacked a definitive test, the only reason he is treating pertussis is because Luke's lymphocytes were elevated and he had a minor "staccato" cough- no other symptoms). I'm pretty sure I have the flu, Ryan's pretty sure he's got allergies from hell, and Beth has a fever and threw up once or twice. So... We're just barely getting by right now. Please pray for our healing!

Sick

The kids are sick, that's why I've been sort of absent lately. Beth wasn't feeling great on Sunday, just a lingering cough, and then she got a little fever. Now Luke is congested and coughing. Fun times at our house.

Bluebonnet Pictures

We took a few pictures in the bluebonnets on Sunday after mass. It was overcast but very sunny so we all had a hard time not squinting, and Beth wasn't feeling 100% well so she was rather cranky during the whole experience. We didn't get any that were great, but a couple that were satisfactory!

Happy spring!

Happy spring, and happy anniversary Mom and Dad!

Today I messed with my citrus trees, trimming them back a little and pulling weeds around the bases. I already have blossoms on all three- actually we already have a pretty big lime! Hopefully this year I'll do a little better with the citrus, last year was rather disappointing since my limes were attacked by mealybugs and my orange tree didn't even blossom!

Tomorrow I will be planting some herbs we bought tonight- oregano and sage by seed, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, jalapenos and "New Mexico Big Jim" peppers. We bought that last one just because of it's name (for anyone who doesn't know, "Big Jim" is one of Ryan's nicknames for some reason). I need to find some mint and then I'll be all done!

We'll work on the big bed next weekend or sometime soon. Not this weekend though- too much going on!

lemon

lime

orange

What a big boy!

Luke is playing in the exersaucer now! We brought it down the other day when we were watching our friend's kids for a little bit, and we stuck Luke in just to see what he'd do. He loved it! He played for a solid 10 minutes, it was fantastic!

Sleepy dog

He can curl himself up into such a little ball! He had a rough day of sleeping. ;-)

Solution

For the longest time, we've been debating how to archive my blog. I suppose blogger.com will be around forever, and every post and photo I've put up since before Beth was born will be saved, right? Hmm. Well, since my blog is pretty much the best account of our lives, with the best pictures picked out of the hundreds and hundreds I've taken, we had the genius idea to turn my blog into a photo book. Lots and lots of photo books, I'm sure, but we want to be able to keep the text in addition to all the photos! I haven't printed off photos since before Luke was born, so needless to say we don't have photo albums laying around the house (none since college, at least!). So the money we spend on photo books, we think, will be money well-spent, since it will be a permanent tangible record of our lives since Beth's birth. I haven't worked out the details yet, like what sizes to get or from which website, but I think it'll work out well. Yay! I am so excited to get started, but I now I must find the time...

Trip to the beach

March 15th and 16th we headed down to the beach to visit my brother and spend some time with my parents and siblings. I love it when my entire family can get together- as my siblings get older it seems rare that we're all 6 in the same place at the same time. I love the chaos! And now, two babies in the mix!

We stopped by our c0-cathedral on Sunday morning for mass...




... then headed down to the beach. It was pouring rain, great weather for spring break!


Luckily the rain slowed down as we hung out at my brother's huge and very cool apartment,

After that, all of us (2 parents, 6 siblings, Ryan and 2 kids) went out to dinner. I'm pretty sure that when people at restaurants see us coming, they get a little scared! So we had dinner and then went our separate ways- we tried to go bowling but apparently the bowling alley was still (permanently?) shut down after the hurricane! Our little family had a hotel room, and Ryan and I thought that if we rented a movie that Beth would eventually get bored and fall asleep... Well, she didn't, and around 11pm we decided it was too late so we stopped the movie and put her in her pull-out sofa bed. She was exhausted, so she stayed there and fell asleep. It actually worked out rather nicely, except that we didn't get to finish our movie!


The next day was Monday, and we woke up and met my dad and brothers on the jetty for some fishing.


Two of my brothers caught some pretty big fish (pillowfish?) and despite the chilly breeze we all got a little bit of sun. It was too cold to let the kids play in the water so we let them play and dig in the sand. Beth had so much fun! I can't wait to bring her to the beach again!

I've never seen this before... It looked as if this man was walking on water. He was standing on something (didn't look like a surfboard!) and rowing with a paddle while standing. It was so odd! I wonder where he came from, when I noticed him he was pretty far out, rowing toward shore.

Like her daddy

For anyone who doesn't know, Ryan has a fondness for food. Anything is up for grabs- cooked or uncooked (okay, he draws the line at raw chicken, thank goodness). Well, it seems Miss Beth has taken after her daddy in this way, as her stomach is an empty pit and she'll eat just about anything! Okay, I take that back. She's a little picky, but she rejects the good stuff but eats the nasty stuff. For example, Thursday I made smoothies- yummy banana, strawberry, and pineapple juice smoothies. Beth chose, instead, to eat raw onion and green bell pepper that I had cut up for gumbo. Ryan sampled all three!

Here she is, picking at the bowl like it's a buffet. She actually passed up the layer of celery to get to the onion- ew!

Waking up

Wednesday was a rare treat- both children slept in their own rooms for a decent nap, and each woke up happy! I love happy, well-rested babies!

There are days when I put Beth down for a nap that...uh, don't go so well. Some days she refuses to sleep, so I'm trying to work with her on playing quietly in her bedroom. Eventually, either when she wakes up or when she's had enough quiet playing, she'll come find me in my bedroom. I can always tell if she's slept or not by her head; if her head is sweaty, I know she's had a nap! I don't know why (I'm not about to go into her room while she's napping to find out!) but I'm pretty sure she sleeps under her heavy comforter so she gets sweaty. I leave the fan on and strip her down to the bare minimum, but she still wakes up with a wet head! Usually there's a big drool spot on her bed, too. :-)