Happy kid!

Eli has been impressing us lately with happiness. He has been (mostly) sleeping at night (besides getting up to eat) and has just a few fussy spells during the daytime. He is very happy in the carseat as long as the car is moving and he is not hungry. He has been taking 5 oz of milk in the bottle from daddy most nights (somewhere between 8PM and 10PM). That seems like an awful lot for a little guy, but he usually ends up going 5-6 hours before the next feeding, so we can get in some *sleep*!


On the other hand, Ben has been having sleep issues lately - basically refusing to nap on some days. This creates chaos with his night-time sleep pattern: therefore mommy and daddy's night-time sleep pattern... Not fun. He has been a fairly good sleeper up to recent times, so I'm not sure how to handle this new scenario. We have inherited a number of "help your kids sleep" books, so I'll have to start doing some research...

Here's a video of a happy boy and his happy goose calls...

And a clip of the 2 boys.

and another of the boys...

For the 3 of you that are actually reading this blog - feel free to skip over the videos - They're mostly for grandmas that live too far away to see the everyday goings-on in our house... :)

5 weeks-stats, pics and videos (of Ben, too!)

Eli's stats at 5 weeks:
11lbs (76th %)
22 in length (61st %)
15 inch head (45th %)

Eli spends a lot of time in his bouncey chair :)

Pictures don't do Eli's baby quilt justice... Grandma Jan at it again... Since it hangs right next to the rocker in the nursery, Eli has already been checking it out during his post-feeding happy time.

Ben has pulled off the creation of a new language. He's using it to translate the information off of our newest health insurance card (we just dropped my insurance and picked up Andy's), which is quite funny, because that's what I feel like I'm saying when speaking to any of the representatives from either company: deductible, maximum out of pocket expenditures, billing codes, itemized bills, blah, blah blah...

And a cute one of the 2 boys interacting...

I'll take Potpourri for $300, Alex

A few random thoughts/ pictures...

I just realized that I somehow left this picture off of an older post, and it's kind if an monumental one, I think... This may be the first time that Uncle Adam has ever held a baby...

A cute one of Ben.
A few days ago, I made a great meal for us (fajitas) and here is Ben's version of it. For some reason it beckoned me to take a picture of it. I should have taken an after pic, too, because it would have been a pretty much totally clean plate... Chopped tomatoes, roasted peppers, shredded cheese, sour cream for dipping, tortillas, and chicken.

Here is some older video of Eli's 1st bathtub bath (Mon 9/25):

We started a bottle every night for the 8:00ish feeding a week ago. Eli has been taking it just fine. Yeah!

On top of the hair loss, this poor baby has also developed baby acne and a hint of "cradle cap". Boo!

Eli turned 4 weeks old on Tuesday.

My first solo trip to the grocery store with both boys went well. I learned that the loading and unloading is quite cumbersome, but it went as smoothly as I could hope. I had Eli in the Ergo carrier and Ben in the seat in the cart.

We have a Dr. appt on Monday, so I'll have some stats on Eli then.

I typed this entire post one-handed because I have a sweet 4 week old baby sleeping on my chest.

Also, I found a few other older pics that I ran out of time to post right before Eli was born...

First smiles!!

Pulling his hair out???

Here's Eli's first bath in the real bathtub - His umbilical cord stump fell off a while back, but there was a little crusty black chunk that held on, tucked inside the bellybutton, so I waited until it fell off before doing the "in the water" thing...

A few pics from the backyard... Check out my cute little belly.

And my loss of hair!! Seriously. Where has all of his hair gone in the past 2 weeks? It's not like I've been finding it everywhere. Sure, a stray piece here and there, but he's lost a TON of the hair from the *top* of his head. Not the typical back of head, Dr. Phil ring like most babies get (although, I'm sure that is still coming...).

We've been seeing the first signs of smiles - Here's the start of one...

3 weeks!!

Wow, time has flown! Eli has been a great baby so far. He started out with 4 hrs between feedings at night and somewhere between 2.5-3 hrs bewteen feedings in the daytime. He has been throwing up entire feedings on occasion, so I have been trying to feed him more frequently, with more burping, thinking he's been getting too much milk at once. Some days it works, others - not so much.

Here are some pics from the past week or so...

Ben is very sweet to little "E-I". "Ben hold EI, mommy?? One more time."

Grandpa Tom and Barbara stopped by for a visit...

A few more of Eli...

I love these next 3... How sweet is this kid?????

The first attempt at tummy time - which of course ended up with some spit-up...
My friend Lauren and her sweet baby, Camden (3 mos) stopped by for a visit, too. Eli slept thru most of their visit :)

On our own

Grandma and grandpa left yesterday... Very tough to see them go. Here are a few pics:
Helping "Betty Crocker" with some chocolate chip cookies...
She even let Ben lick the beaters!
Today was my first day completely on my own with both boys. The AM went well, until I got brave and attempted a short trip to the park with Eli in my ERGO baby carrier and Ben on foot. We got there fine and Ben played well, BUT, of course, had no desire to leave the park on his own, so he got drug by the hand the entire walk home... Lesson learned.

Eli is doing very well - Eating for the most part about every 3-4 hours. Even at night. I am one lucky mommy. He has had a few spells of throwing up all of a feeding, but the advice nurse seems to think it was a burping (or non-burping) issue. He gained his birth weight back very fast - Born at 8 lbs 9 oz, the next day 8 lbs 2 oz, the next day 8 lbs 1 oz, and 4 days later, back up at 9 lbs even. He is a pretty happy little guy, and we are very lucky!!!

Here are some Ben-ims from the past few weeks that I want to remember:

• When grandma attempted to share Ben's cookie, Ben replied with, "Grandma, get your own tookie".
• When I had finagled both boys onto my lap, Ben says, "Mommy holding two guys".
• "I need a beer".
• "Grandma, play cars" "Grandpa, play cars" "Mommy, play cars" "Daddy, play cars" This little boy is on a serious car kick...
• "Does grandma have nipples? Where are they?"
• "Holy cow" "Ohhh, man" and " Oooo, doggies"
• Also, while kicking the soccer ball around with grandma in the backyard, Ben started up a random conversation, reminiscing about watching fireworks in the backyard in late July - describing the colors, etc. that he saw.
• He also likes to have the door at the bottom of the stairs closed every night when he goes up for ni-night so "Bears don't get you" or "Raccoons don't get you". Poor kid and his irrational fears.
• Also, last week, when I was attempting to put Ben down for a nap and he was really struggling to go to sleep, I told him he could just have quiet time and read some books for an hour until I came and got him. It was quiet in his room for quite a while, then suddenly, he starts screaming, "Mama, come here!!". I go peak in the door and here he is with both hands and one leg *completely* covered in A & D (the clear diaper rash cream - petroleum jelly-stuff) that he had found in his room. I wish I could have grabbed my camera, but I didn't want him to touch anything...

We have one funny big brother on our hands!