Holiday Weekend

 Besides cooking and eating (too much), we've had a lot of fun family time this weekend.  There was yard work, and of course the leaf raking

 turned into leaf jumping.  These kids look forward to the leaves every fall in a way Daddy-o and I just can't muster.  Daddy-o ended up raking the whole lawn by hand this weekend--pretty impressive feat!  (I was putting a baby down for a nap, which can also be a pretty impressive feat these days, and then pulling out all the dead flowers from the garden.)

 We also took a little hike at the Latta Plantation.  The weather has been absolutely amazing this November and we wanted to enjoy what is probably the end of our warm fall.

 And the monkeys found a tree to climb.  They are always trying to find a tree to climb these days.  It's fun to see what they can do, but scary to see them as high up as they sometimes get.

 The kids and Molly had done this hike before with a friend, so they were happy to show us the way.  I do hope that we can start doing more hiking as a family, but when Bean asked when we could all go back packing together, Daddy-o and I were in complete agreement that there is no way that is happening until these two kids can stop whining and crying about every little thing that goes wrong.  Because when you are back packing, things go wrong.  And you get tired.  And sore.  And we're not listening to the whining out on a moutain where we can't get away from it.  So we might still have awhile before the family backpacking trip.

 Then, we got the Christmas season kicked off.  The kids have been just a little excited about this.  Skipping-through-the-house-yelling, "I LOVE Christmas! I LOVE Christmas!" type of excited.  Decorating the tree felt like a frantic race, and they left a path of destruction in their wake, but it's all set up now and feels very cozy.

And Peanut discovered the joy of the Little People nativity set.  The donkey seems to taste pretty good.  The big kids are going to have to learn to share their toys.

Half a Year

(This picture is significant. . . Peanut has FINALLY started falling asleep sometimes in the car if its past naptime.  It's only taken 6 months to get here.  It's not consistant, but has happened 4 times in the last month!  This was on the way to the airport just before Halloween.)

Peanut has been 6 months for a couple weeks now.  I had originally waited to do this post until we had our well-check at the doctor the next week.  And then I wanted to wait because the dr. ordered a test that had us pretty worried for a couple days.  And then I just didn't feel like blogging about any of it until now.

Peanut is still gaining weight really slowly--he was just barely 13 pounds at 6 months.  Still long (27 in.), but his weight isn't really on the charts.  His pediatrician mentioned cystic fibrosis as one last possible disease to rule out, which pretty much terrified us.  I thought they'd already tested for that when we had the blood work done with the GI dr., but its not a blood test and they hadn't done the other one.  Luckily they were able to get us in a couple days later, so we didn't have too long to wait (although the dr. didn't call with the test results until the day after we expected them, so that wasn't too fun.)  And even better, the test was negative!  Peanut is just fine.

So, basically, there doesn't appear to be any particular reason for Peanut's weight gain to be what it is.  And he's meeting milestones, is incredibly happy and sweet, and all around seems healthy, so we're trying not to worry too much.  I'm still doing a specialized diet that is supposed to help with gut issues, and we're being careful with the solids he is starting out with, but other than offering him healthy, fatty foods, there's not much else to do right now.  Maybe if he'd stop kicking his legs constantly, he might not burn all the food up

We go back just after Christma for another check, and I'm really hoping for at least a full pound gain.  It's been two weeks and I think we're up 1/2 a pound already, so we've got a good start at least.

We're Thankful For. . .

Food!

Little Peanut is loving his pumpkin and chicken broth.  Not much of a fan of avocado (and we had a bad round of sickness after tricking him into eating it this morning, so we'll stop trying for a bit).

He's a messy eater, and we've wondered if much is going in, but judging by what's coming out the other end, he's finally swallowing!  Now we are hoping for some weight gain.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are grateful for these three little monkeys and all the smiles they bring (and I guess we're grateful for the tears and frustration, too.  We have to grow, right?)

Fall is flying by and somedays I feel like we're barely keeping up. Every week, there has been some major undertaking and that's about all I can get to besides the daily requirements.  I have several posts I need to go back and fill in with all the happenings and news from the last couple weeks--I can't believe it's been that long already since the last post.  But my list of things to do is longer than the hours there are to do it.  And when it comes down to it, sleep often wins over the "To Do" list anyway--squeaky wheel gets the grease for sure!

 One day at a time. . .

Party Animals

 Bug decided he wanted to have a Wild Animal birthday party this year.  Actually, the first theme he asked for was a Les Mis dance party--which I think could have been pretty awesome, but I wasn't quite up to the creativity that might have required, and I'm not sure any of his friends would have known what that was.  So we went with the animals instead.

 We made some animal masks,

played "Pin the animal part"--I didn't get a picture of the final product, but it was quite the biological wonder,

 fed the lion for awhile,

and went on a photo safari to hunt for animals.

 

It was a beautiful day and we had a great group of kids.  I really love our kids' friends.  And I love that they are still young enough that we can play silly games and do crafts and everyone has fun.

Finger Licken'

 Peanut finally got his first taste of something besides milk.  And even though he didn't swallow much the first few days, he seems to be a big fan of the process and hasn't had any issues with the taste yet, either.

Because of the dietary restrictions he and I have, we started him on chicken broth (and gave him a tiny piece of chicken, too, which he liked playing with, and even swallowed in the end).  In the last 9 days, he's also had carrots and celery in the broth.  He's not a fan of carrot chunks, but the carrot chicken broth was a big hit.

Next up, avocado!  We're trying to get some good fats into this little Peanut.

Wedding Weekend

 The weekend before Halloween, Daddy-o, Peanut, and I flew out to NM to see this great couple get married.  This is one of Daddy-o's brothers, J (except that doesn't clarify much since he has three brothers with the initial J) and his new wife, K.  And with her in the family, Daddy-o and I both share names with his siblings spouses.  Guess that can happen when you have 9 kids in the family (and really common names).

 The weekend was also a great chance for Peanut to meet a lot of his family--he had a great time with his Aunt E.

 And his Aunt C.

 And these two newest cousins got to spend some time hanging out.  The tongue twins.  They were so cute when we put them down together.

 Peanut spent the entire time trying to eat M's hand which was waving in front of his face.  He just wasn't quite fast enough.  I think these two boys will have a lot of fun at family things as they grow up.

And hopefully not get in as much trouble as these three did growing up.   (They all clean up pretty nice!)

The last of Daddy-o's brothers is married and now we just have one sister left, who just got engaged this week!  Fun family times.

Somebody is 5!

It's hard to believe our little Bug is 5.  That sounds so grown up--when they are still 4, they still sound like little kids, just barely past toddlerhood, but once they hit 5, that's school age!  He's come a long way from here.

Funny things about Bug today:

This morning, he prayed :

"Thank you for my birthday.  Thank you for this day.  Please bless this food {donuts} to be healthy.  Please bless me to like my presents."  He has been REALLY worried that we're going to give him stuff he doesn't like.

I went to have lunch with him at preschool and he moved my seat so I was in the corner because "Now you are only sitting next to me!"  I think maybe he didn't like how the other kids would dominate the conversation last year when I had lunch with him.

After school, he wanted to do my hair.  "Mommy, you know I'm not a professional, right?"  That one wouldn't be too hard to figure out.

My favorite thing to see today--how excited Bean was to give him the gift she'd made, and how excited he was when he opened it.

She made him a Christmas activity book--full of pages to color, things to draw, mazes, which-of-these-things-is-different type activities.  She spent quite awhile making all the pages and he was so excited when he saw it. 

Only gift that topped it judging by the size of his smile was the pillow pet from Rara--a moose, which he quickly names Chocolate.  Chocolate the Moose--only the pun was totally lost on him.

Happy Birthday, Little Man!  We love having you in the family and are excited to see what the next 5 years bring!

Ready for the Candy Run

 Our three little tricksters.  I was a little sad that they didn't want to go for a family theme this year, but they all picked fun costumes, that, most importantly, weren't too hard to put together.  I was up doing the final touches for Bean's at 11 p.m. Thursday night (but if Daddy-o and I hadn't been flying out the next morning for a wedding, that wouldn't have happened.)

My little viking was the easiest--I paid a friend who knits and crochets to make the hat for me and then the rest was made from scraps left from other costumes and it was a no-sew project.  I may be a little biased, but I think he makes a very cute viking.

The kids got plenty of candy, especially since we're taking most of it to a local dentist who will buy it for $1 a pound and then send it overseas to the soldiers.  We've been working too hard at cleaning up our diets to let the kids eat all that candy, and besides, there are too many good desserts and treats around this time of year already.  Gotta save room for the pumpkin pie and birthday cake.