Reese had a sleepy lunch Today

I didn't think he was going to make it to his crib, but I did get him in there before he completely passed out!!

Reese and Grandpa Mark!

This is something I should have shared long ago. My mom sent me this baby picture of my dad. I think the resemblance between him and Reese is sweet especially since they share a middle name. Go ahead and click on the picture to make it bigger!

And honestly, I don't know what made me think of this now, but I remembered a video from Mother's Day 2012 of Reese and Grandpa Mark and I know I never shared it, so I guess now is as good a time as any. Reese would have been 3 months old here.

Just as an update, you can tell Clayton is finally feeling a lot better today as he approaches the 48 hour mark of having antibiotics in his system. He had a slightly scary coughing fit last night in the middle of the night even though he never actually woke up, but he did sleep a little later than he has been (more like normal, 7:30ish) and has been happier and more energetic this morning.

Here they are watching Super Why on the iPad this morning after getting back from our family trip to WalMart:

Always with the eyes closed!

Our Sickness Update!

I probably should have updated with this yesterday - whoops! Well, most of us were feeling quite a bit better by Wednesday, but Clayton's illness had been dragging on. So when he woke up an hour too early on Friday morning, coughing, sputtering and crying out in pain and miserableness, we decided to take him back in so we didn't have to watch him suffer all weekend too! The Dr. said that a virus should be over in 3-4 days and since Clayton was on day 6 and still had a lot of gunk in his nose and draining into his throat it was probably a sinus infection at this point and prescribed an antibiotic. They ran a Strep culture on his throat too but that came back negative. Hopefully the antibiotics will make him feel better real soon!

Here are some pictures of the little sickies cuddling with Daddy and Mommy

Reading bed time stories with Daddy Sunday night

Reading bed time stories with Daddy Sunday night

After lunch on our SNOW DAY on Thursday

Oh, and in case in one was curious - Reese has NOT slept by himself or through the night since that one time. It must have been a fluke! He wakes up about every 3 hours to nurse still. I have decided to start by not nursing him when he wakes up at 11:30ish for the 1st time, but it has been rough! Hopefully after being consistent about it for 3 nights in a row tonight will better. I can hope anyway...

Playing Catch Up

I had forgotten I took pictures at my parents house last weekend. Here are some:

Getting ready to leave for the Children's Museum Friday morning.

 I guess Reese was a little tired! I was afraid he would fall asleep right there waiting for us to get ready to head out the door!

Hanging out with Grandpa:

And lastly, here are the boys tonight in the bath. I had a hard time getting Clayton to smile at first

But then he warmed up:

Too bad his eyes are shut, but you can see his 4 little teeth really well!

Lincoln Children's Museum

I apologize for no blog again, but we were out of town and then very very sick (all 4 of us!). The boys and I went to stay with my parents Thursday and Friday night so we wouldn't have to be all alone while Darrel was in Omaha for State Wrestling. Friday morning, my mom and I took the boys to the Lincoln Children's Museum. It was expensive but that place is HUGE. There are 3 floors and we never even made it upstairs. The boys had a blast though. Clayton was excited to see a full size cab of a semi-truck on the lowest level but was immediately disappointed and actually walked away from it when he realized there were no wheels! (What a rip-off, right?!) Luckily there were some free standing tires to check out and trucks to play with!

Next we checked out the Water area. (Note to self: BRING A CHANGE OF DRY CLOTHES!) Clayton ended up finding a truck to play with in the water and he kept lifting it out of the water and his shirt was just soaked! Luckily there were some hand dryers around and so we took his shirt off and blow dried it out a little bit before moving on.

There was also a tractor cab (again,  no wheels) but the boys did enjoy that. Inside was a TV screen showing footage of tractors working in fields so it was really hard to drag them away!

We did make it over to the fire tuck and police motorcycle but by then it was close to lunch time and the boys were sort of done. Clayton actually seemed to be afraid of the motorcycle (it had life-like sound effects and and older child was sitting on it) and didn't want to sit on it. When we were done we grabbed a bite at Wendy's and before we could even get out of downtown both boys were fast asleep. Grandma stayed in the car with the little nappers while I went into Once Upon a Child (a 2nd hand/consignment shop) and found two nice sets of church clothes, include suits for Easter for each boy for just $37 total!

While we were at my parent's house Clayton's favorite activity was to go for a ride on the Four Wheeler/Gator vehicle with my dad. All he wanted to do was "go ride." Unfortunately it was pretty cold and even snowy on Friday so he didn't get to go nearly as much as he would have liked.

Reese ended Friday evening by throwing up all over me and I'm so glad my parents were there to help me out! Clayton followed suit on Saturday morning by throwing up all over my dad. even though Reese acted happier after he threw up, Clayton did not and it was clear he was not feeling well and ended up falling asleep on my Dad's lap. We went home that afternoon and both boys were clearly not feeling well. By this time Mommy was starting to feel it too.

On Sunday Clayton and Mommy were feeling the worst and we just tried to relax and watch TV. Reese seemed better most of the day and he was able to hang out with Daddy at the hardware store and at Grandma's house for a while in the afternoon. By the evening we could tell he wasn't feeling well again though. Monday morning, Daddy woke up with a fever and actually stayed home from work (well he went to work and realized he couldn't make it and came home). We took a family trip to the doctor where we were checked for influenza, and the test came back negative so that is good - we just have a regular old cold-causing virus. I was glad that the boys had their ears, nose and throats checked though and they are clear with no sign of infection. It is good to have that peace of mind. Luckily there has been no more vomiting and our symptoms are just sinus congestion, runny nose and  a yucky cough.

We are still not completely better today, but hopefully things will continue to improve from here on out!

We did It!!

I don't know if this will be the new trend or if it was just a fluke, but Reese slept in his own bed all night (he woke up to nurse at 11:45, 3:30 and 5:15 - we'll have to work on that next). He never slept in Mommy and Daddy's bed - he let me lay him down in his crib in his and Clayton's room. I choose to lay him down in the pack'n'play in our room after the 5:15 wake up since I thought I heard Clayton stirring and I wasn't sure what Reese would do or when he would wake up and I didn't want to risk ruining Clayton's sleep (he has been a pretty good sleeper lately). Reese then slept through Darrel and I getting up to get ready for the day and finally woke up at 7:45 am! Perfect! When he got up he still seemed sleepy and cuddly - usually when he wakes up he is a smiling ball of energy, so that was different. But it was nice to cuddle with him on the couch for a few minutes. Apparently Chloe thought so too:

Clayton's Binkies

Looking back over the last several posts, Clayton seems a little neglected. . . Luckily he did something really cute tonight worthy of a post!

We were getting ready to read some stories before bed time, and all of a sudden - Double Binky!

Here I caught one of him shaking his head back and forth - amazingly it's not blurry and you can see the handles of the pacifiers flying out as he is whipping his head back and forth:

Goodnight, sweet boy! <3

The Party!

We had such an amazing John Deere Tractor Party on Sunday! There are many pictures and long videos for those who weren't there to enjoy!

Here are a few highlights:

 For (many) more pictures please go here to view the web album

Here is the video of Reese eating his very own birthday cake, the "Smash Cake". It is long!

Here he is all done and a big mess! Uh Oh!

And last, here are some fun adventures of Kolby, Clayton and Reese

Our Crazy Day!

We had a crazy busy day today, but it was fun! Most of our days are quite boring, but almost every detail of today is blog-worthy! We started the day by heading to Lincoln for the boys to get some professional photos taken at JC Penny's. I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised at how well they seemed to turn out. (I did have 5x7s ordered for the Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles [of the boys] so they will be here on the 28th). It does make me wish that I had been taking them to some place like that since they were born.

After pictures we went to the Olive Garden with my parents (my mom had met me at Penny's to assist during the picture session). Besides the fact that we were 45 min late to the reservation that we made (poor Grandpa had been waiting the whole time!) lunch went really well! Clayton actually ate his chicken strips and Reese ingested more spaghetti than he threw on the floor.

After lunch we decided to head home and both boys took a nap in the car! I drove only 70 miles down the interstate to save on fuel and extend the naps as long as possible! It was around 2:30 when we got home, which is pretty early to be waking up from naps, so I did put Clayton in his room and he played quietly for about hour in there (he really needs his alone time). Reese almost fell back asleep but didn't and just played nicely.

Around 4:30 we decided to head up to the District Wrestling meet over at the High School so that the boys could see Daddy for at least a little bit today. (He won't be home till late, after they are in bed). That lasted for about an hour so we came home for supper a little before 6pm. I was so proud of Clayton who ate more than half of a fresh pear, his whole Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich and most of his pudding. Reese didn't eat as much as normal, and it was him who had been unusually fussy at the wrestling meet that made me decide to come home when we did. I heard him passing gas in his high chair and he was trying to lift himself out, so I figured he needed to dirty his diaper (even though he had already done so twice today!). So I got him out and that made him happy, especially since Clayton was still eating (that never happens, Clayton is always done first). So Reese was happily bothering Clayton while he finished his pudding. He ended up getting pushed over and had pudding smeared in his hair, so I picked him up and Clayton proceeded to feed him the rest of his pudding! My quick thinking got the camera on the edge of the counter and I caught the whole sweet thing!

I hope you noticed the cup of milk there on the table and noted it's fullness....

During this time, my nose informed me that Reese had indeed done his business and that he needed changed.  It was a major poop-spolsion that had leaked out into his clothes! So while I got him cleaned up, Clayton was busy taking the lid off of his milk and when I came back his bib and lap were full of milk (thankfully the bib did catch a lot of it) and it was all over the table and floor as well. So I cleaned up Clayton and got him out of his milky pants. When I turned around this is what I saw:

I'm so glad he didn't try to lean back to sit down and fall off!! (Notice the now empty cup of milk!)

So I sat him on the chair and let him finish off the pudding. . .

Since I have been writing this post, Reese has already dived off the side of the couch twice and fallen of other things at least 2 other times - Clayton has driven his toy monster truck on the TV and smacked his brother in the face with it (I think it was an accident). I have been saying that things were going to get easier now that Reese is one.... but I think it's just going to be hard in a different way - Reese seems like such a wild child! We still have bath and bedtime to get through but hopefully we have no more exciting adventures today!

Reese sure had a fun birthday yesterday! After a Walmart Trip, we enjoyed the nice weather outside for a little while before lunch. We also got to play outside after nap time with just light jackets on. Quite different from all the snow we had on the ground at this time last year!!

We had a small celebration last night for Reese since his party isn't until Sunday. I had a practice run at decorating the cake (which tasted delicious!)

Clayton and Reese sure enjoyed it anyway!

Just one piece today - he'll get that whole thing on Sunday!!

Clayton got covered in frosting too!

Then Reese got some "shape sorting" done with Papa:

We opened presents, and Clayton liked to help and play, too:

Reese thought that the tag that came on the firetruck was a new and special little book, just for him! He has really been getting into books lately (well one in particular called "Baby Wants the Moon")

Reading his "new book" - AKA the tag....

Showing "the book" to Papa

Then, Reese did a little "birthday dance" The theme song for Thomas the Train had just finished playing (on the TV) when Darrel finally got the camera started. He had done this all through the song, and then continued after it was over - he must have still been hearing it in his head.