Appointments and stuff...

This week has been uber busy – boy howdy am I tired! =) But truth be told, I’d rather be busy than have nothing to do.

Tuesday was Will’s 4 month well-baby check up. His stats were:

Weight: 18 ½ lbs (97th percentile)
Height: 27 ½ inches (97th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 ¼ (93rd percentile)

So he didn’t weigh the 20 pounds that came up on our bathroom scales…but those scales are a bit sketchy anyway…of course if I got on the scales at the doctor’s office, I would weigh more than our scales show…why does it work that way? =)

The doctor checked him over thoroughly and deemed him a healthy 4 month old! =) Of course then we had to go get vaccinations. Blah. Poor Will thought he was being tortured and Luke thought they were giving him “tyyyylaaaanal” (Tylenol.) I think Will wished they were giving him Tylenol too! He suffered the after affects a little more than last time – he had a fever and was very cranky and tired for the rest of the day and even into Wednesday. He finally broke his vaccine fever Wednesday afternoon and now seems to be doing much better.

Thursday was Luke’s appointment. The doctor checked him over and said he was probably just getting sick all the time because he was young. Which I pretty much expected to hear. However, she did have some blood work done just for peace of mind. So down to the lab we go. I’m dreading the whole process because he doesn’t even like to be weighed at the doctors…I can’t imagine a needle being involved! So our number finally gets called and the lab tech proceeds to tell me that he can’t draw Luke’s blood because he would need help and didn’t really have the set up for young children. So he referred us back to the nurse’s station. We then go into a treatment room, Luke gets swaddled tight in a sheet – and 3 nurses hold him down and get his blood. Luke and Will screamed through the whole thing! Will must have been reliving his vaccinations. After the blood was taken (3 vials!) Luke got a sucker and was as good as gold! I felt bad, but if there is something going on in his little body, I want to find out now and not allow his immune system to keep getting pummeled. Hopefully everything checks out ok though. They sent the blood to Landstuhl, so I’m not sure when I’ll hear back from them.

After we got home from that, I put in Luke’s favorite movie, CARS, and called the passport office to find out the status of Will’s passport. Much to my dismay, it was IN! I guess it had come in last Friday…nice of someone to call and let me know! So now we just have to submit the ERD paperwork and see if the Army lets us come back to the states or not. I’ll dedicate a blog to cover the whole ERD issue since we haven’t really said much about it in the blog up to this point.

So this morning I picked up Will’s passport, took the kids to playgroup, mailed boxes, cleaned a little, and went to an FRG supper event. Man I’m tired! =)

Here are updates on the boys:

Luke: Luke is now doing well with 3 word sentences and at times will even attempt longer ones. He isn’t fluent in more words than about 3 or 4 though…any more and it all starts to blend together into one big word that you can’t understand.

He’s into green peppers right now…which I’m thrilled about. I’m not sure the nutritional value in green peppers, but it’s GREEN and that’s what matters at this point! The last few days has shown a rise in his appetite so hopefully he can start to rebuild his immune system before the next strain of sickness comes our way!

He’s learning what “name” means. Today he was asking me what the names of his choo-choo train pieces were (The Thomas Tank Engine Set.) Not all of them were labeled, so I made some of them up…but hey – he can’t read yet so he doesn’t know! =)

A few days ago Luke found our eggshell walls to tempting of a canvas and took a red crayon to them. I should have known he was up to no good when he was content to play in the hallway. I was rocking Will to sleep and Luke was singing and running up and down the hallway. When I saw him walk into the living room with a red crayon I already knew what had happened. Sure enough he colored down the length of the hallway…and on his picture wall in his room. Apparently he started coloring on the coloring pages we had hung up…and that led to coloring on the wall in his room…which led to the hallway. I told him it was a BIG no-no. He was immediately sorry and ran to hug me and say, “Sowey!” Now he points to the colored walls and says, “No-no.” Anyone know how to get crayon off the wall?



Speaking of the picture wall we started…it’s empty again. He managed to pull every single picture down and now there are a million pieces of tape left on the wall…but no pictures. Oh well, we tried! He does have all of daddy’s pictures in bed with him though…I guess he doesn’t want to sleep far from them.

This week Luke painted his first picture. I was a little nervous to set him up with paints, but he did really good. I cut a plastic cup down for the water, put him in his booster and let him go to town. He really enjoyed himself!





Will: Will wants to be mobile, mobile, mobile. He is always kicking his legs furiously while on his stomach trying to get somewhere. He can roll around really well and also does this caterpillar scoot thing that gets him to toys out of reach. He also somehow manages to turn complete circles on his stomach. He is ready to move!

He is smiling more and screaming less (most days at least.) There are evenings where I still have to hold him most of the night, but now there are also evenings where I can put him down for awhile and he’ll sleep away. This is definitely progress. Now we just have to work on his naps during the day. He is a terrible napper – can be so exhausted he can’t keep his eyes open, but will only sleep for a few minutes, wake up screaming and grumpy and tired…but won’t go back to sleep. Of course he’s ready for another catnap an hour later. I would much rather him sleep 2 or 3 solid naps during the day instead of the handful of catnaps he takes. He’s not sleeping through the night yet, but he does really well with waking up to nurse and then going right back to sleep. I’m VERY happy about that.

Yet, in the mist of all his sleep troubles, he smiles the most heartwarming smile and I just melt. He LOVES getting his diaper changed and will laugh and giggle and coo the whole time. Of course this behavior only encourages me to tickle him and coo back – which gets him going even more. He’s also blowing raspberries which is just so cute at this age! He jumps excitedly in his jumperoo and he rolls around the floor with glee stuffing his toys in his mouth. I love this age!



Though he looks at food with extreme longing in his eyes, we’ve put a hold on the rice cereal. That is apparently not the food he wants. I guess he just wants to go right to something with some flavor! The doctor said he was doing exceptionally well breastfeeding, so to not even worry about giving him solids until 6 months. I may try baby oatmeal mixed with the rice cereal in a few weeks though. Maybe he'll forget about how much he dislikes the rice cereal by then...=)

So that’s the quick update…can you imagine how long the detailed update would be! LOL! I have to say though, I feel SO blessed when I look at my boys. They give me such joy – I can’t even begin to put it in words! They are so wonderful and I am just so amazed and thankful that God placed these two beautiful souls in our lives. They have taught me so much about life and love. I love them more than I can even express!

Alrighty, if I don’t stop now, I’ll never have time to upload pictures. I hope all is going well for all of you!




Here are a few photos from the monster storm we had the other day…





Smile!



Luke putting Elmo to bed...


Here are pics of the boys taken a few weeks ago…

More later!