Time Home with the Boys!

Jude with his "cool dude" sunglasses...he walks around saying cool dude whenever he wears them...

Liam demonstrating his superior head control skills and upper body strength.

Jude putting my breast pump parts over his eyes...he thinks this is hilarious!!

Liam somewhat eating his yummy sweet potatoes

Liam relaxing on the papasan chair...with his curly hair and all.

This week I have been able to stay home with the boys for a few days so I took advantage of it by having another Woltie photo shoot. ;) Liam is now on a good nap schedule so the days go really smoothly. Usually our routine is as follows:

1. Liam wakes up between 6 and 7

2. Jude wakes up around 7 but plays in his crib with all of his stuffed animals for about an hour

3. We all eat breakfast and play and then Liam goes down around 9:30

4. Jude and I play some more and then he goes down at around 12:30

5. Liam wakes up around 12:30, we play and he goes back down around 2:30

6. Jude gets up around 3 and we play some more

7. Liam gets up around 4:30 and we all have dinner, and of course, play some more!

As you can see, our day is pretty structured as far as naps go but that contributes heavily to the maintenance of sanity around here so it's a must. Liam is now eating 2-3 jars of food mixed with cereal a day and he is still breasting 5-7 times per day. I have been so blessed to be able to take my lunch break to go feed him and see Jude. Psychiatry has a good schedule, that's for sure. I have one more week of psych and then I start surgery...my last 3rd year rotation!!! I can't believe how fast it is going. Liam is getting so big, as you can see. Hopefully you can see his crazy hair in these pics. I love it though! Jude is into 2T clothing...where has my baby gone?! He says just about any word we saw which is so fun! He has an amazing amount of understanding about things too. He is really into coloring right now and he wants to color a good 50% of the day. He likes to count but basically only says "8,9" over and over. We are trying to get him to branch out a little bit. ;) He is eating with a fork and spoon now. He basically won't eat without them which is really cute. Liam is getting so big...I cannot believe it. He is in 6 month clothing now. He loves to kick his little chunky legs over and over. He also loves to talk and he is quite boisterous when he wants to be.

Jeremy is doing well...school is busy for him but he is surviving. I am doing fine, third year has been great and continues to be great. I am going to be doing a half marathon in Feb. for breast cancer awareness. I am really excited about it! I have a hard time exercising without a goal so now that I have one, I have a lot more motivation. We are slowly decorating the house still...every time I want to do more I feel guilty for not studying so it has been a slow process. We are in a weird period of our lives where many of our friends have left so we have been feeling that unfortunately. But, we are just enjoying each other and loving the time we have with our family. I know in a year I will be swamped with internship so I need to enjoy the time with Jeremy and the kids while I have it.

Liam: 4 months old

Liam is chunking out nicely. ;) He feels so heavy to me now. About a month ago now he weighed 13 lb 14 oz so he has to be around 15 lbs by now. He actually has rolls which Jude didn't have at this age. He has some long curly hair too which cracks me up. His eyes are still blue and I am kind of wanting them to stay that way. I think he looks a lot like me as a baby but there's been a large majority of people that say he looks like Jude and Jeremy. He is such a happy baby, always smiling and observing. He has found his hands and fist and he will suck on those to soothe himself. He rarely ever cries. He will be starting at Ms. Donna's (the day care) tomorrow morning. I am sad because I haven't been away from him yet. I know that he is in good hands though and he gets to spend time with his big brother so that's good. I will be starting my psychiatry rotation tomorrow. I will be able to go feed Liam during my lunch break every day for atleast the first 3 weeks so that is awesome. He still won't take a bottle and I am not real sure that he ever will. He ate his first solids (rice cereal) on May 24th. He is now eating rice cereal, bananas, apples and carrots now though so I think he will be ok until I can get there at 12 to feed him. He has brought so much joy to our lives...it is amazing how things work out. Such a good, happy baby. He is still getting up 1-2 times a night to eat but it really hasn't seemed to bother me. I know with Jude I had a hard time since I didn't really have the stay-at-home recovery time but this time seems much easier. Enjoy the pics of my little Li-Li Bug!!

Jude will be 20 months old tomorrow!!

My oldest baby is getting so big! Jude has an extensive vocabulary...he is saying new words everyday. He is really good at repeating what we say too which is fun. I could never list everything he says but some of them are "all gone, thank you, help, movie, dog, bird, cow, moo, chicken, tiger, animals, eat, night night, nice and yuck." Right now he is taking either 1 or 2 naps a day depending on what time he wakes up in the morning. He loves to give kisses and is figuring out how to blow kisses now. We have told him to be nice to Eli and Liam so many times that he says nice every time he touches Jeremy or I. It is really funny. He still has a pacifier for naps but no other time usually. There have been a few times now that he has told us he pooped his diaper but it has not been consistent so we are definitely not potty training yet. ;) He is starting to run from us and hide when we tell him it is time to get dressed or take a bath. Before he used to run to his room or to the bathroom to get dressed or take a bath but now it is a game and we have to come find him. He has a definite need for routine sleep...you can tell when he needs a nap for sure. He is still going to bed at 7:30 and waking up around 7 or 7:30 the next morning. He is finally over an 8 day upper respiratory infection that he so generously passed on to Liam, Jeremy, and I. Jude is running around everywhere. He is still afraid of steps though and whenever we go to Titusville to see my parents, he is forever asking for help on the steps. He loves to play in his frog pool so I thought I would share a couple pics of that. He is also feeding himself with a spoon sometimes so I thought I would share some of those pics as well. He is getting so big...I can't believe my baby is going to be 2 soon!

The Trip to Titusville

Jude, Liam, and I decided to go down to Titusville to visit my family. It was so much fun and I am so glad we did it. I was a little nervous about driving down there with the two kids by myself but it went really well. We stopped in Gainesville on the way down and saw Kelli and Ricky and ate some delicious Chipotle. ;) We also got to see Terri and Kevin while we were there. Jude loved feeding Zoey pretzels and swinging with Kevin. Liam fell asleep on Terri for basically the whole time we were there which was great...gave me a nice break. ;) Lauren stopped by for a little while too and was able to see both of the boys. We had a birthday celebration for Aunt Janet and my cousin Eric while we were down there. It was so great to see everyone. Grandma Veronica helped me so much while we were down there...what a blessing. It was like Spring Break for me! Jude was sad when we left, he cried in the car for Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Karen. I know that Jude loves Uncle Chris but right now Uncle Chris has a slight aversion to drool and dirty diapers. ;) I wish I would have taken more pictures while I was down there but we were so busy having fun that I kept forgetting. Every time I visit I wish that we lived closer. Hopefully one day that will be a reality...

Liam at 12 weeks

I decided to have a mini photo shoot in honor of my last day home with Liam. It is a bittersweet day but I am trying to stay positive about it. I love what I do I just love my babies more. ;) But, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and we have been having a blast! God has really answered my prayers regarding going back to school and I am able to start back with Family Medicine with a husband and wife couple that have 8 kids and are the most understanding physicians I have ever met. They both said they would be really flexible with me and even allow me to bring Liam to work since he was premature and they would feel better about him not being in day care. I didn't ask for that of course, they offered it to me. She said she brought her babies to work for awhile and she breast fed all 8 of hers. So, this has really been a blessing. Liam still sleeps a good portion of the day and spends most of the other time eating. He is active in the evenings before bed so as long as his schedule stays the same, things should work out well.

We are working on getting the house organized so that life will run smoothly once we are both in school. The last tenants left the yard a mess and allowed a lot of weeds to take over the grass so I have been slowly uprooting those. The flowers that I planted a few weeks ago are getting huge! Slowly but surely things are coming together. We are trying to get the third bedroom in order since we are going to be transitioning Liam into the crib soon. I can't believe he is getting so big! These first three months have been amazing, so much fun. I am so blessed to have had this time with him. He is smiling and cooing all the time. He is such a happy baby. He only woke up once last night which was awesome!! I remember getting up at 6 and thinking...have I really just slept 4 hours straight?! Today he sat in his bumbo seat for the first time. He likes that a lot better than tummy time. ;) Enjoy the pics!

Video of Jude walking...take part in the glory!

BIG NEWS...Jude is Walking!!...YAY!...and Liam got shots...Boo

On March 12th, Jude started walking! It was really shocking because up until this point he had only taken 1 or 2 steps on his own (I think Jeremy got him to take 3 before he realized he was walking and he immediately sat down.). So, last Thursday he just let go of the couch, turned around, clapped his hands and proceeded to walk across the entire living room. Wow. I guess he wanted to wait until he could really do some serious walking. Yeah, he is 17 months but come on, there is something to be said for walking across the entire living room on your first try. ;) He then continued to walk for basically the rest of the evening. He loves it! He even dances some and claps for himself...no shame. ;) Luckily, we were able to get it on video tape (not the very first walk but the next 20 minutes or so) so we will post a snip it of that hopefully by tomorrow. For now, enjoy the still shots of our little walking man!

The other news is that Liam got his first set of shots yesterday. It was a sad day. So, this was kind of frustrating, I read a medical study, published in JAMA so pretty legitimate, that said babies who breastfeed while getting shots experienced a lot less pain. So, I asked the doc if I could do that and he said yeah but of course he didn't tell the nurse so when she came in, she was like no. And, being the chicken that I am, I didn't push the issue. But, next time I will. I'll let you know how that goes...;) I made the huge mistake of not giving Jude Tylenol before his first shots and the poor little guy was miserable. His legs were red and swollen and he wouldn't let me put him down for the entire night. So, needless to say, I gave Liam Tylenol. These went a lot better than Jude's first shots. He was a tiny bit fussy but really he's just been more sleepy than usual. That has allowed me to get the house clean though so I'm not complaining. ;) Liam's weight was 10 lbs 8 oz and his height was 21.75 in! He is in the 25th percentile for weight and the 10th percentile for length. I think the difference between the weight that Liam gained and the weight that Jude gained (or should I say did not gain) was due to my ability to stay home this time, which has been amazing by the way. It is so much easier when you don't have to go back to school in 2 weeks...imagine that. ;) Well, I put some more pics of Liam up along with Jude. Enjoy!