Some random recent pics

I am always taking pics when we are outside on walks and playing with my phone. The quality isn't the best, but hauling around Elliot and Noah, it's just not as easy to carry the nice camera on the go.

This is Noah showing off his knee boo-boos of the day. These were from skidding/rolling down the hill at the church.

I wish this was a good quality photo. He was making Elliot laugh. They really do love eachother.

One of our favorite places to play is the church at the end of the block.

Last week, Paul took a day off to spend with us. We went to the bouncehouse place, to lunch, walked to Brookside for ice cream and the Reading Reptile and the boys both fell asleep on the way home.

Aunt Rara brought some crafts to do with Noah the other night when she babysat, so Paul & I could have a date night. He told me today "My gwasses special to me". Of course he then told me that his sidewalk chalk, squirtgun, marker caps and baby monitor were too. Haha.

Eye update

Well I called and expressed concern about Elliot's vision seeming to become progressively worse and got our appointment moved up by 9 days. Yay! I still wish we didn't have to wait until June, but this is better. I have to drive up to their Northland office, but that is totally fine.

Hoping he'll soon have a lot more to smile about.

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Noah is so funny

Noah is getting to the age where he all of a sudden talks in complete sentences and comes up with things we didn't teach him. I have no idea where he gets some of things he says sometimes. It's hysterical. Today he randomly came up to me and said that Elliot needed a bottle. I started laughing, not sure how he even knew about bottles. He never took one. I think he's seen me try to give one to Elliot one time. When he had RSV and I couldn't get him to nurse, just before taking him to the ER, I pumped and tried to get him to take a bottle. So anyway, this was our convo:

N: "Eduit needs a bottle"
M: "What? A bottle?"
N: "Yeah. Eduit needs a bottle"
M: trying not to laugh "Elliot doesn't need a bottle. He drinks mommy's milk. Mommy's milk is better, because God made it just for babies."

That seemed to satisfy him that he was ok.

Later on, I realized, that he probably saw my friend Bethanee give a bottle to a baby she babysits 2 days a week. He was at her house today when Elliot had his eye appointment.

Elliot's eye appointment

Well today was Elliot's much anticipated eye appointment. I was expecting to get some answers today. Not so simple. Elliot's left eye is the one that crosses. Today on his exam we determined his eyes are not crossed due to the same reason Sarah, Charlie & mine did (farsightedness). The doctor could not get him to move the left eye laterally at all. He dialated his eyes and did a thorough exam. He has some farsightedness, but it's not bad. It's not causing his eyes to cross or even enough to warrant glasses. His crossed eye is caused by something else. He isn't certain what, but he suspected it could be Duane's Syndrome.

The doctor has two concerns. A) his left eye crossing. B) his visual acuity is not what he'd expect for a baby his age. Elliot isn't tracking. He seems to follow voices more than things he sees.

Because this guy is an M.D., comes highly recommended and works a lot with infants, I expected him to be our final guy, but he referred us to Children's Mercy. He wants them to give a second opinion. I asked if we'd follow up with him and he said no. So I guess CMH will be who we stay with. He mentioned they might do an MRI to possibly look at his brain. His optic nerve and all his eye structures look normal and properly formed. The concern is that it's wiring with the brain possibly causing it. He had the receptionist set up an appointment with Children's Mercy's opthamology clinic before we left. The appointment isn't until June 11th.

His eyes are so pretty, they just have to be fixed. I don't want him to have trouble seeing first and foremost. I don't want it to slow down his development or cause any learning problems. I don't want it to deprive him of the joy you get just seeing. And I don't want it to cause problems socially. So that's it. They will get fixed. Period. Please pray that God fixes them, so the doctors don't have to.

Babywearing, part 2

Let's put this more simply. You can't hold a baby and drink a beer. You can, however, wear a baby and drink a beer.

Babywearing

I have always worn both our babies. I never understood why people carry those big heavy infant carseats everywhere. They are heavy. Babies like being carried by their parents. It scares me to see them propped up on shopping carts. It takes up space at a restaurant. You have to keep moving them from place to place at a park. I just never got it. Besides being so convenient to have two free hands, it actually has lots of developmental benefits. With the second baby it's even more important to have two free hands.

Today Elliot would not stay asleep for a nap for some reason, so finally I just put him the sling and went for a walk. He passed right out. Instead of taking him out and putting him to bed (for fear he'd wake up), I played outside with Noah for awhile, then retired to the Lazy Boy and had a nap with him still on my chest. I don't get to take naps anymore since Noah doesn't nap, so it was a nice Mother's Day treat.

Today after our walk

At the park with big bro

This is after a walk with the boys (mobile upload)
Daddy & Elliot

With Noah I mostly used the Baby Bjorn and a Peanut Shell. With Elliot I use the Baby K'tan a lot (way better than the peanut shell) and the Baby Bjorn too. Paul uses the bjorn a lot, since the size is adjustable, and it's decidely manly :)

Bikeride with Dad

We've officially graduated from being able to walk with Noah on his bike and keep up. During the week when I have Elliot, I have to just limit him to our block and yell out for him to stop and wait for me to catch up. But, this weekend he got to ride down to the Farmer's Market with Paul. I followed behind with E in the stroller.

I can't walk

Noah just came in whining "I can't walk mama. I need my itamins". He loves Flintsone gummy vitamins and always wants more than his daily allotted dose. I thought it was so funny. I gave him his "itamins" and now he says he's "all bettoo". He's walking just fine. Whew!

I'm a bad housekeeper

So the house yesterday looked clean. But, deep cleaning is hard these days. We got in from playing and Noah's running around still playing with friends. I got them all cups of water, but didn't break out any snacks. I see Noah eating something.

Me: "Noah what are you eating?
N: "Dis" (this)
Me: "What is this?" "Open your mouth" (I smell his breath and I smell goldfish crackers. 'Is that a cracker?"
N: "Yeah. Crackoh"
Me: "Where did you get it?" (knowing I hadn't had any out yesterday)
N: "Right Dare" (pointing between the cushions of the couch)
Me: "Was it good or yucky?"
N: "yucky" (then ran off to play)

It tided him over for about an hour at least :)

Can you tell they miss their Daddy?

Hurry home, Paul!

Actually, they have been having lots of fun and 99% of the time they're smiling, I promise. Noah had a packed day full of fun, starting with Grandma Joann coming over and going to the plaza for storytime and throwing money in the fountains, followed by a playdate with Jack for a couple of hours. After about an hour of quiet time, we walked to Brookside to get Elliot's medicine and then had Hudson and Addison over to play. Then we went to their house. The dramatic crying displayed by Noah was because he didn't want to come home and end his day. He was fine 5 minutes later in the bath. Both boys went to sleep early after a full day. We have a busy day planned tomorrow too, so I think I'll hit the sack early myself. They do miss you though, Paul. Noah asks me all the time "Where daddy go?".

Oh and the reason Elliot was puckering was because he got woken up by a flash. I was actually trying to take a cute sleeping baby picture. I ended up with three puckering shots in a row. He's so cute.