3/31 - Eli's firsts!

The picture above is Aiden at 6 months. Below is Eli at 6 months. They look pretty similar although Eli is chunkier. Things have been going pretty well. It's GREAT to have Brad back home.
The weather has started to turn nice. Aiden had his snack outside the other day and swept the porch afterwards. We've just been hanging out a lot lately because Ms. Michel (his daycare provider) has been closed for the last week.
Aiden and I went to Spoutonline.com the other day. He loves to see that channel (Sprout) in the morning because Thomas the Train comes on. We went online and he was trying to play games. It was too funny. He's only allowed to touch computers with mommy or daddy. We'll see how long he listens to that rule although he generally does really well.

In the video below, you can see Aiden getting into his chair for meals. He's learned to pull his stool over and get up there himself. He's pretty excited about it and acting like such a big boy.

In the picture below, you can see Eli holding a sippy cup for the 1st time. He did pretty well considering he's never even held this cup before.
We've having to give Eli prune juice lately to help clear out his system if you know what I mean. We had a guest over last night for dinner and Aiden decided to get lots of plates out. How sweet of him!

I had to go to the doctor yesterday and gets some new medicines to help me breathe. The sudafed kept me up all night and I got very little sleep. I go to an ENT in 2 weeks and my general doctor thinks I'll need to get my septum fixed. We'll see what the specialist says. Eli and Aiden did a great job at the doctor with me yesterday though.

Eli doesn't get bottles very often because I'm normally around. Aiden was holding bottles of his own starting at 6 months so I figured I'd see if Eli could do it. Aiden got lots of bottles since I went back to work so I figured Eli would be pretty far behind so when I gave him a bottle of prune juice and water, I was shocked to see that he did pretty well with it. He was pretty sloppy with the sippy cup I gave him the other day so I wasn't sure how he'd do with the bottle. He did great.

It was a big day for Eli. He also got his first mum-mum today. Once he figured out it was food, he was good to go. He got aggravated because he didn't know how to let go of the mum-mum and put it in his mouth.
Eli is a jumping manic!! Look at this little guy. He was flying high tonight in his jumping johnny. The video below the picture is great. He was getting some serious air!


Aiden was trying to help him tonight. They are so cute together and Aiden wants Eli to be able to play so bad. We had great success in taking pictures on Monday and I can't wait for 2 weeks to get them back. I'll scan them on put them on the blog. Aiden, although he had a poopy diaper, was adorable and Eli was flashing some big smiles. Too precious.

Tomorrow we have doctor appointments for the boys to check up on the ear infections. Hopefully they are going away and the boys are cleared to fly to Texas on Sunday. Stay tuned.

3/28 - new clock & Grace's 1st bday

So the pictures above and below are Aiden's new alarm clock. The pictures above is so you can see both pictures. The picture below is what Aiden sees. When the bunny gets up to play, he can play. The bunny plays at 7am (no more crazy early getting up) and for 2 hours in the afternoon. It's great. Aiden really has the hang of it now. Eli was screaming his head off during nap time and Aiden only slept for about an hour but he stayed in his room the entire time and didn't bang on his door until the bunny lit up. I was so excited!!
Eli is still being a cute little guy although he went a little crazy on us last Thursday night. Last Friday he had his 6 month well baby even though he turned 6 months a week ago. He was up screaming his head off for most of the night. He ended up having a double ear infection poor little guy. I'm not sure I should use the word little though. Chunky monkey was in the 75% percentile for weight and 25% percentile for height so we have a little Danny DeVito on our hands.
Aiden had a follow-up appointment on Friday morning too and he also has a double ear infection. He's had an infection in the one ear for about 5 weeks now poor boy. His balance is off and he falls over a lot more but his hearing seems to be okay. The put him on another (4th kind) of antibiotic this time and it only lasts for 5 days so we'll be going back to the doctor on Thursday. We need them both to be cleared to fly on Sunday when we go to TX.
We've had some great weather lately and have gotten to the park quite a bit lately. Aiden love it and Eli likes watching Aiden play so it's a great combo for me.
Aiden found a flag which he loves to carry around and wave. Back to TX. We are leaving for TX on Easter Sunday to go there so we can see Steph and the kids (Brad's sister and her 2 kids) and I have a conference for the American College of Sports Medicine to get some continuing education to maintain my certification. We are very excited about it.

We got to be with Mike, Arin, and baby Grace yesterday to celebrate her 1st birthday!
The picture above is adorable because we asked Aiden to give Grace a hug and he wasn't sure what to do because she kept walking everywhere! Aiden is getting good about giving hugs to people he knows ... below he is giving a hug to Ms. Arin. Too cute.
Below is one of Grace's new toys. Aiden thought it would be a great idea to push Grace around. It was too cute. Grace was such a cutie at her party and Arin did a great job with a cool cake.
Aiden and Grace were inspecting her new ride.
Eli being cute and entertaining himself for a bit.

Aiden is wanting to play with Eli so bad lately. Eli just doesn't get it and isn't coordinated enough yet. They are gonna be great play buddies some day though.
In the picture below I wanted to do a size comparison for height but Eli wasn't in the mood for that. Maybe next time.

I need to get to bed. I'm pooped because I've been sick for about 4 weeks now. I'm thinking about going to the dr tomorrow. Good night world. Time to go cuddle with my fantastic husband who I missed so dearly and get a good nights sleep so I can keep up with adorable Aiden and Eli. :)

3/22 - Brad's home & Eli is 6 months old

It's been a while but Brad's home now and we've been a little busy. Brad safely made it home last Thur morning. He traveled all night and didn't get any sleep but they made it in to Andrews Air Force Base safely. On the hour drive to Pax River, one of the two vans broke down at 4am. Thankfully the vans for full of 1 pilot and about 14 mechanics.

In the video above, Eli is enjoying his jumping johnny. He is actually learning to bounce in it; something Aiden never figured out. In the picture below, you can see how I found Aiden one night when I checked on him before I went to bed.
His big boy bed is working out pretty good. He's been waking up really early from nighttime and naptime and trying to come out and play. To help with this problem, I found this really cool clock thing that my mother-in-law bought for Aiden. I meant to take a picture of it so I'll have to do that for next time. Until then, I'll just describe it. It has 2 pictures on it: one of a bunny sleeping, and one of a bunny hoping along outside. We just got it about 3 days ago and we tell Aiden when the bunny is sleeping, you should be sleeping to and need to stay in your room. When the bunny is playing, that means you can play too and come out to the living room. He needs a reminder in the morning to look at the bunny but it's working!! This clock is awesome because they don't have to be able to tell time.

We've had some beautiful weather and we took advantage of it and went to the park on Thursday afternoon. Some friends of our ended up showing up at the park too which was great. The little boy in the pictures below is Kaden. He is Aiden's best friend. They are so sweet together and Kaden is just adorable (he always gives Aiden a hug bye). They are in the same class at church on Sunday and for MOPs.
Aiden is still fighting an ear infection and is on his third dose of antibiotics. I take both boys back on Friday morning so we'll see if it's gone.
The boys going down the little slide!
Kaden brought this cool bubble thing with him and let Aiden play with it. You can see daddy and Aiden below playing with bubbles.

Little, not so little, Eli. He's doing okay. We had to take him to the doctor on Friday because he was having a hard time breathing. He's really congested. The doctor says it's probably just a cold and either asthma or allergies. I don't think it's a cold because it's not getting worse or better. He's on oral albuterol to help him breathe but it's normally in his nose (although we can't really suction anything out). He has a hard time nursing too. I feel this is just the beginning of a long process to find out what is wrong with him because you can't really do anything for either of those things at his age.
All these pictures were taken on Sunday. Eli LOVES watching Aiden play. Aiden is not so fond of sharing his things but hopefully he'll start to loosen up some and learn to share.

We went for a family walk yesterday and hung out in the yard for a while. The boys are growing up so fast and I am trying to enjoy every second of it. Aiden mimics half the words we say ... we'll the first syllable at least :) He still doesn't really say any 2 syllable words or put 2 words together. Car rides are full of "I Spy" with Aiden pointing all the cars, trucks, boats, birds, and flags. He's so cute.
Aiden LOVES playing in the leaves which is fine because we have a TON of them in our yard. We never got the leaves burned from fall when Eli was born and I was on bedrest so there are lots of them. Aiden loves walking around and kicking them.

Eli's favorite game is peek-a-boo. Aiden somewhat liked it but Eli REALLY likes that game. Aiden decided to play peek-a-boo around the tree.
The video below is Aiden fetching the tennis ball he threw and then some of his ADHD showing by getting so distracted.
Eli has his 6 month well-baby appointment this Friday even though last Friday is when he turned 6 months old.
He is starting to move around a lot more and realizing his feet/legs can move things. He even turns his crib mobile which is mounted to the side of his crib, on with his feet by kicking it.
The video below is a little long (about 1.5 minutes) but it's cute. Whenever I say something that makes Aiden want to go downstairs. He stops, drops, and starts crawling backwards. He is such a safe little boy. I know Eli is going to be paybacks and I'm kinda glad we won't have steps at our house in Florida! You can also see in the video that Aiden really doesn't like the sound of jets.

3/14 - Eli rolled over; Grandma Jo leaves tomorrow; Aiden big-boy bed

So alot has happened over the past few days. Eli decided he would start rolling over from his tummy to his back because he hates being on his tummy so much. He almost can roll from his back to his tummy! He started doing this two days ago but I wasn't sure if he could keep doing it so I didn't say anything. These ADORABLE pictures of Eli I took the other morning. He is smizing in the picture above (smiling with his eyes).

All I have to say about Eli is TOO STINKIN' CUTE. Grandma Jo leaves tomorrow but Eli and Aiden (and I) have enjoyed her being here.

We got to Skype with Brad yesterday which was fun. I put Eli near the computer and he was playing peek-a-boo with Brad. When he was done watching daddy make funny faces at him, he would roll over.

I decided yesterday afternoon that Aiden was ready for a big-boy bed. He's been whining to get out of his crib in the morning and after nap and figured if he could get out on his own, maybe he wouldn't whine. I was kinda right.

He loved the idea of no crib rail (see above picture). However, when I put him to bed, he got out and came to the door crying after I left. He promptly went back to his bed and layed down though. I check on him around 9pm and found like the picture below.

I went in around 11pm to check on him and found like the picture below. That made me a little too nervous so I moved him. I thought he might fall out at some point but he did well (you can see my emergency pillow on the ground).

He wasn't sure about nap time today. I just told him he had to stay in his room for nap and quiet time and I would come get him when he could come out. He didn't whine but he didn't go to sleep right away either. I have no idea how long he played for because I did go to sleep. This is when I wish I had a video monitor. Maybe I'll get a nanny cam! :)

Aiden has had an ear infection for over 2 weeks now. After a dose of Amoxicillin that didn't work, they put him on Augmentin. That has given him severe diarrhea which his body can't handle. He now has open welts on his bottom after only 4 doses (there are 20 doses total). His body can't handle that kinda of output if you know what I mean. They switched him to a new drug tonight called Cefdinir. Hopefully that will take care of the ear infection and something his body can handle.

Eli looked like a little man today in an Ralph Lauren outfit I got from my sister. Unfortunately I had to dry the t-shirt before we even went to church since he drooled all over during breakfast. I went in after Sunday school to see how he was doing and they already took it off him because he drooled all over it again. Below is a video of Eli rolling over!

3/12 - 22 week comparison

So I just realized I hadn't done this in a while. Eli was a 22 weeks a few weeks ago but the pictures are still neat. At 22 weeks, Aiden weighed around 15 lbs and Eli about 17lbs.

Aiden is in the picture above with the white index card. Eli is below with the yellow index card. The look similar at 4.5 months and currently at almost 6 months. Since Aiden was a bit thinner, he has a bit more of a chin though!

I was having some serious sleep problems with Eli about 2 months ago but things have completely changed. He goes down for his naps and night-night without much complaining. Sometimes he lets out a few welps at night time but I don't do anything so he's finding out that doesn't help him. I wish Aiden slept this well at this age. I'm going to knock on wood because I know teething will start soon and disrupt things a little.

3/11 - Aiden getting better & BJ's here

The picture above was taken during bath time the other night. Eli was hanging out with me for a bit while Aiden was still playing around. Aiden has learned something new though. I took the video below for Brad. It's Aiden blowing bubbles in the bath tub. Brad was working on Aiden putting his head and mouth in the water for a while. It's worked because now he's blowing bubbles!! He was blowing bubbles for a while until I got the camera so he didn't blow for much longer. He also pretends to "wash" his hands with the shampoo and soap bottles. He obsessively does this for about 10 min every time we bathe.

In the picture below, Aiden was giving Bronco some treats after getting his nails done (not sure if I posted this before or not).

After we picked up Brad's mom from the airport, we stopped in Dunkirk to get some food for Aiden and to let him out of the car after 4 hrs of driving. They had a play area there which he loved. You can see him sitting next to Ronald McDonald looking cute.
Eli got to sit with Grandma while I played/encouraged Aiden to explore the playhouse and tunnels.
Since Bronco is gone now, Pouncer is going crazy. His playmate has left and he's pretty sad about it. Aiden is trying to do headbutts (our sign of affection with animals) to Pouncer. Pouncer isn't so fond of it but he tolerates it a little bit.
We've had some beautiful weather here and he's got to go to a park 2 times this week. In the picture below we went on base at Pax and had some fun. We also went to the Solomons playground with grandma and he had fun running between 2 playgrounds.
For some reason, Aiden won't go down a slide with both hips facing forwards. He has to do this little hip check thing and he ends up turning around while he goes down slides.
Little Eli. What a cute picture. Chunky Monkey is doing well. He weighed in at 18 lbs exactly yesterday and he's almost 6 months old. He's starting to get really long gorgeous eye lashes like his big brother. It's not fair that all the boys in the family have lashes twice as long as the girl!
Eli is enjoying spending time with his other grandma. He was getting ready for a bath in these pictures. Look at all that fat .... man. He still drinks 3-4 oz per feeding and feeds every 3 hours so I'm not sure how he is so big. He eats one meal of "regular" food which includes some rice or oatmeal cereal and some fruit OR veggies. He eats about 1/4 cup of food at dinner. I don't know how he's so fat but I don't care because at least he's healthy. It's shocking that he only weighs 10 lbs less than Aiden.
Eli was making Aiden laugh yesterday. After we got everyone ready for the day, I let Aiden play with his automatic Thomas the Train set. The train goes by itself. I made Eli do some tummy time (still not rolling over but I think he'll roll from back to belly before belly to back) and watch the train. That little booger has pretty good eye to hand coordination and kept reaching out for the train when it came by. It would go off the track and Aiden thought that was pretty funny. They were having a good time.
Aiden has been getting better although he still has a cough left. On Wednesday, we went to a MOPs gathering and he got to play with his bestfriend Kaden. They were playing trains and cars and had a ton of fun.

They also made a firetruck they could eat out of graham crackers, prezels, red hots, peanut butter crackers, and icing.

It's been a good couple days with some great weather. Aiden is getting healthy, Eli still sounds a little junky but he's doing pretty good, and I'm still kinda sick. Brad comes home in about 8 days hopefully! Everyone is excited for that. The orthopedic I saw today says I have tendinitis in my biceps and triceps and bursitis. He changed my physical therapy and I will try that tomorrow. Hopefully my arm gets better so I can easily hold these fabulous boys that I have.