1/30 - 2nd dr appt and lots of snow today!

An Eli medical update first: I did go back to see the other doctor on Thursday for Eli. Eli and I are both being treated for thrush which is a huge pain. I have to sterilize his pacis and anything else that has been in contact with his mouth every night. I also have to swap the inside of his cheeks four times a day which takes a while to do because he doesn't exactly like it. The doctor also put him on reflux medicine. I don't know if it's working yet because I'm giving him both the reflex medicine and the anti-spasm medicine. He did pretty good last night (woke up 4 times I think) but horrible the night before (woke up 6 times before 1:30am which is when I brought him to bed with me although that didn't really help). Hopefully tonight will be another decent night.

Here are the 18-week pictures. The one above is Aiden, below is Eli. Eli's picture is closer so he looks bigger than he probably should. However, he is bigger than Aiden. Look how big his head is ... he's fitting into Aiden's 6-9 months clothes at 4 months old. He's also starting to go bald (Aiden went bald at 3 months).
Eli and I are getting a long a little better over the past few days. He can be really cute. In the video below, he was just hanging out. There is nothing special about this video but it lets Brad see Eli in motion. He's getting strong!

[Don't forget you can see the videos on the real link at: http://theyhoytfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com]
In the picture above he was smiling (you can see his dimples barely) and in the picture below, he was so happy he was about to talk to us. He's trying to talk a bit more and is tolerating play time so much better than he did a month ago. He's not even close to rolling over really. He's rolled over once or twice from his tummy to his back but it was because his arm was positioned to help do that. I don't think he realizes he can move his big body yet.

In the picture below, Aiden is playing with his new colored pencils (I found some in a box). He really likes them and it's nice for him to have a coloring activity that I don't have to do with him (like markers) so that I can make dinner.
Eli and I took a nap this morning while mom watched Aiden. I had Eli taking 3 naps (2 pretty short ones - his doing) and one long one (my doing because I swaddle him or hold him). I made the one long one when Aiden takes his nap too ... that's usually the only way I can get a nap which I normally need since I'm up so much at night. Today Eli boycotted that idea and took a 2 hr nap this morning and an hour nap in the afternoon. I put him down at 8:00 tonight rather than 8:30pm. We'll see how that works out.
Eli is still acting like he's teething although he's not yet. At least he's getting used to pacifying on his fingers which is great. Eli is starting to get some strong legs. They are strong enough to support him now and he likes standing for very short periods of time.
Everything goes in his mouth. He was watching us eat lunch today. (Love that toy Jess).
I wanted to make sure I was producing enough milk for Eli so I pumped a bottle today. He was actually holding it by himself for a bit today. His milk consumption had decreased dramatically. Since he was a few weeks old, he has always taken 4 oz of milk a feeding. Since we got out of the hospital last month, he only takes about 2.5 oz now. Very weird but he only took half the 4 oz bottle I gave him today.
Since we were stuck inside most of today, we played everything Aiden wanted to. That included drawing .... circles. Well, almost circles. He's getting pretty good but they look like 'U's.
I'm not sure how much snow we got today ... about a foot I think. We put some snow in a bowl and let Aiden play inside. Here is the little snowman we made!!
Here is a close up of him ... he had blue eyes until he started to melt because it was 69 degrees in our house and snow doesn't stay hard!!
The video below is Aiden playing with the bowl of snow. Too cute.
After I bundled Aiden all up, we went outside. A few cars drove by earlier so we walked in their path. The snow was pretty deep. In the video below, he was walking in my footsteps and I was making choo-choo sounds earlier. He is too cute and didn't want to go back inside.

Church has been canceled for tomorrow. Not sure if I can handle another day of this crazy cold windy weather. I keep telling myself: This is your last winter with snow for a while.

I need to get to bed before Eli decides to give me a difficult night. Brad is flying right now. Please keep him your prayers.

1/26 - Oh Eli .....

So, see the picture of that little booger above ... he is wearing me out!!! He has decided for the past 7 days to not really sleep at night. He'll sleep for 2 hours to start off with but then he wakes up almost every hour until 4 or 5 which he then becomes wide awake (and cries) and doesn't want to go back to sleep. He loses his paci and starts screaming and acting like he hasn't been fed in days when I try to put the paci back in. If he had teeth, I'd be scared to put the thing back in. I'd tried swaddling him, not swaddling him, swaddling him with one arm out (so he can suck his fingers), laying flat, laying on his side, laying on his side on an incline, Tylenol, gripe water, and rice cereal in a bottle. Nothing has worked so far really. He's gotten a little better the past two night because he's been waking up at 6am screaming, not 4!!
Aiden has been pretty good. He's usually a lot of fun and plays by himself. He's so cute. I can't wait for Eli to be that age but that's just because I'm not enjoying him right now. In the picture below, Aiden didn't want to leave the babysitters house before playing for a bit outside and going down the slide. He loves slides.
Aiden has recently learned how to twirl. I did NOT teach this to him although I dance around the house with both of while I hold them. He was cracking me up falling all over the place.

Aiden loves his Hot Wheels cars now. He had a helicopter for one day and now we can't find it. We KNOW it's in the living room but can't find it. We did just find the remote that has been missing for about 7 months!!
Grandma and Aiden were playing "hike" yesterday. She taught him how to hike a ball and now he thinks it's funny for him to be hiked. What a nut job. He was having so much fun though.
For those of you who read this through a note on FB, you cannot see the videos. If you are interested in the videos, go to http://thehoytfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com

The video below is of Aiden and Bronco. It might not be exciting for most of you but I thought Brad might like seeing his two boys playing.
I felt bad that I had so many cute pictures of Aiden and only 1 of Eli (I've been trying to avoid him) so I took one right before posting this. There he is!!! I did take him to the doctor today and the doctor said . Here is some dialogue:

...talking about me getting no sleep because Eli isn't sleeping

Dr: "You should get some sleep by letting him play on the floor for an hour or so while you nap."

Me: "He won't stay on the floor that long. He'll last 5-10 min tops."

Dr: "It's ok to let him cry for 20 min while you nap"

Me: "I have a 19 month old as well."

Dr: "Tell him to do a quiet activity for a while when you nap."

WHAT????

...later on talking about Eli not sleeping

Me: "he won't sleep longer than an hour at a time at night."

Dr: "does he sleep during the day"

Me: "yeah some. He takes about 3 45-min naps."

Dr: "don't let him sleep during the day. Keep him awake and don't let him nap"

WHAT????

Crazy!!!

Anyway, I need to get Aiden and pick up a prescription for Eli (an anti-spasmatic drug to keep his tummy not tense up) ...which reminds me:

dr: "you already have the drug we give parents with colicy babies right"

me: "what. There is a medicine for that????????????? NO, I don't have it."

dr: "let me give that to you ... it might help."

me: "that would have been great 3 months ago when he started to get colicy!"

Anyway, last night we feed Eli bananas and milk mixed together. I started Aiden on rice cereal but this guy doesn't need to get any more clogged up. He did horrible at first but I think he's gonna be a good eater like his big brother.

This second video was after a few more spoonfuls when he started to understand the swallowing thing.

1/21 - Eli's 4 month check up

It's been a busy couple of days. Since Eli is generally in a better mood, we've been able to do more tummy time and time in the Bumbo (see above picture). That really tires him out though (see pic below). As you can also see, Eli is starting to lose his hair (same thing happened to Aiden).

After looking back at the pictures we have from Aiden, I decided we needed to try Eli in the exersaucer. He is doing much better. Aiden has lots of fun (see below picture) but I think Eli gets a little mad with Aiden playing with his toys (see 2nd pic below). Just kidding. Eli likes to watch Aiden play and he smiles at him so it works out perfect.
On the 18th Eli turned 4 months. It was a fun day and we even got to talk with Brad on Skype. Below is a video of Aiden and Brad talking.
The toy above is one that Ms. Michel (Aiden's daycare provider) got him for Christmas. He loves it and even has a cool helicopter in his hand that lands on top on the help pad.

Eli is doing better. He has some rough times still but is doing pretty good. He is smiling and talking a lot more and there are some cute videos of him. In the one below, he was talking and having a good ole time.

Aiden has decided to have some interest in the big boy potty so I went and bought him one the other day. He would only sit on hit while holding on to me. As you can see, he eventually would sit on it by himself. We aren't potty training per say but we are talking a lot more about the potty.

He's so proud of himself. He'll be really proud when he actually does something in the potty and the music starts playing!!

We made edible play-doh the other day and this is Aiden playing with it. He's not too sure about the texture of play-doh put is getting better about it. He doesn't like to get dirty so at least he is touching it!

Below are two more videos. One is of Eli in the swing. The other is Aiden on my back getting a ride around the house.

At the doctor today, Eli weighed almost 16 lbs which puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and 50% for height. We have a big boy on our hands!! Big and healthy though!!

1/17 - Eli's almost 4 months old!

I'm posting a bunch of pictures and some are out of order. The picture above and below are from Friday. It was beautiful outside .... almost 60 degrees which is quite a difference from the 30 degree weather we've had all week. We went outside and walked around in the yard for a while. Aiden also thought it would be a good idea to mow the gravel of the driveway.
I decided it was time to get the exersaucer out. Eli still doesn't have the best head control right now but he canw work on it. He's behind in a lot of his "markers" he's supposed to be reaching because he spent so much time getting held from birth to 3 months. He's starting to grow out of this colic thing which is huge. You can see below what happened after I got the exersaucer out.

Eli could barely hold his head up and his torso was whipping all around so I took him out and look who was trying to crawl in.
I hosted a MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting last week and we made edible play-doh. I dressed the boys in matching outfits for that day. They looked so cute.

Eli is starting to grab things and he loves this caterpillar that makes noise.

As you can see below, we are trying to make Eli do tummy time. He's getting better at it and he's rolled from his tummy to his back a few times.

Aiden trying to play with Eli. Eli likes the black/white sides on this toy.

Eli has his cute moments but they come and go. He cried any time he was awake the other day (I'm not kidding) so he slept for more than half the day. He really didn't want to be awake tonight so he went to bed early. He did great last night and didn't wake up at all throughout the night. He went to bed at 8:15 and woke up at 7am. His sleep is still very hit and miss so we are praying for another good night!

Grandma and Aiden have been having lots of fun. They were coloring the other day. Aiden really enjoys his grandma!

We opened the sleeper sofa tonight since Aiden kept dropping his cars in the couch and he thought the sleeper couch was the coolest toy ever. I got the camera out and pointed it at him and he said, "cheese" without any prompting. Too precious. Aiden boycotted dinner tonight so I'm sure he's gonna eat a Brad size breakfast tomorrow.

Bradley: I miss you lots and can't wait for you to get home again. We miss you and wish you were here.

1/12 - Brad has been gone a week!

Things have been going pretty good. Brad has been gone a week but some of these pictures were taken before he left. In the picture above, Aiden got his hard hat and name tag and then went and sat on his truck. Too cute. In the picture below (which was taken on Jan. 4), we were celebrating my mom's birthday. The rest of the family had some cake and Brad bought me some cherries to have (I LOVE cherries). Mom had a quite birthday but we wanted to celebrate it somehow.

Eli has been learning how to play on his own lately. In the picture above, I am reading to him which he is starting to like. In the picture below, Eli has a bunny that Aunt Pat gave Aiden. It's ears moves and cheeks light up. Eli loves holding on to the soft fur while it moves and sings.

As you can see in the picture above, Eli loves to hold onto something ... he's not real picky about what but must have something to be content. He's also started sucking his thumb a little.
Aiden has gotten a few new presents since we've been home. His daycare provider, Michele, gave him a Thomas the Train set that goes into a box that is also a bench. He LOVES it. It is an aquarium theme and has some cool stuff with it. We also opened up a tent that my mom gave him for Christmas. It's supposed to go over a bed but he doesn't have a toddler bed yet so we set up on the floor. He loved playing in it. We had it set up for a few days and put his trains inside there. He didn't like the cats going into his tent though.
We skyped with Brad the other day. The last time we did that with Aiden was about a year ago. He is much more aware now. The picture below is Aiden looking behind the computer screen for the rest of daddy! It was too cute. After Brad signed off, Aiden asked for "more." The day afterwards I turned my computer on and he said, "da." That means dada in his world. Too cute.
I took the picture a few days ago to have some documentation of how much Twix loves Eli. She has her own spot in his crib but she sleeps with him almost every night. She slept in the tent the other night though but usually sleeps at the end of the crib.

One of my clients gave Eli a hat/mitten set and a sweater. The hat/mitten set are too big for Eli so we let Aiden try them on. The two pictures below are from that. He wasn't so sure about the hat in the first picture.

Okay, here is the lowdown on the 3 videos below. If you want to see the videos, they don't show up on FB so you'll have to go to the blog at: http://thehoytfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com

The video was taken tonight. Aiden has reached a new level. He now feeds himself his own veggies. He's started eating some regular veggies but when I do give him pureed, he'll eat them on his own now! Yeah.

The video below is from the other day when Grandma was playing with Aiden on his rocket that Aunt Pat gave him. He thought it was so much fun to run into his other toys. He was doing some serious belly laughs this day!

This last video was taken before we left for Christmas vacation (it was actually the same day). I found out Aiden loves this game and Brad started doing it with him. It's the simple things that make kids laugh. So refreshing sometimes.

Tomorrow I have 11 adults and 14 kids coming over to make edible play-doh. I'll post pictures of that craziness later.