11/1 - Brad's back, Aiden's sick, Happy Halloween

Brad finally came home (which is one of the reasons I haven't posted lately). Brad made it back safely and in time to enjoy the boys for one night before Aiden got sick. Eli has learned how to climb up on Aiden's bed so it's where they spend some time in the morning. They actually play in there while I get breakfast ready sometimes. That is such a huge help because normally Eli is hanging on my legs (literally).Since we started Gymboree, Eli tries to climb on everything. He even tries to climb up on the couch and pet/harass Pouncer.
Eli is becoming more steady on his feet. He's taking a few steps by himself but not completely committed to walking on his own. In the past few days, he's getting more confident and trying to take a few steps before plopping down and crawling. When he does take a few steps, his left foot is normally turned out. I'm not sure if I should be concerned about this yet.
The boys were spoiled with snack on the couch (kinda - Aiden took the cushions off).

Aiden's daycare teacher suggested we do some more arts and crafts with him and let him get messy. Aiden does NOT like getting dirty. We tried shaving cream and paint the other day (which dries to neat consistency) and he was having a fit that his hands were dirty. He finally just wanted to play in it using a spoon.

Aiden got a card from Nana (and one from Aunt Pat today) for Halloween. She drew a picture in it and he was running around the house showing us. This is the same day that he got sent home from daycare early for a fever. We brought him home at 12:30pm, gave him motrin, and he great ....until about 6pm.
The motrin wore off and he went downhill FAST! He didn't want to eat dinner or play. I changed him in to his jammies and his temperature was just sky rocketing. I made an urgent care appointment for that night but then was hoping I could just take him the next morning to the doctor and not go to urgent care. He started getting so bad that I took him to the urgent care appointment at 8pm. We got there at 7:30 and I was going to use the ER but they suggested I just wait for my urgent care appointment. I did that and once they took his temp, it was 104 and they had to put us in the ER because it was so high. They gave him drugs and it finally came down to 101.7 and they let us leave (stupid on their part). We were waking Aiden throughout the night to give him medicine and he still had a 102/103 temp even with meds. He was coughing so much in the night he threw up.
He woke up the next morning with a fever but has some energy. Brad went to work and I was taking care of Aiden (Eli went to daycare). He was playing for a bit and then crashed around 11am. He wouldn't drink or eat anything and hadn't had a wet diaper all morning. We headed back to the ER where his temp was 102 but that was with drugs. After a long few hours and threats of IV's and catheters, his temp came down to 100.7 and we left. Aiden did okay for the rest of the day and on Friday morning, I took him to see his pediatric doctor. She is great and gave him a breathing treatment. Since that didn't open up his lungs (he was having a horrible cough too), he got some more x-rays taken, and then another breathing treatment. The second treatment did the job and she put him on breathing treatments at home.

We left the hospital and went to get Eli from daycare. I realized he had a fever too (101.9)! I asked Aiden if he wanted to go to Chic-fil-a (our original plans for Thur night). He said yes as long as he could have chocolate milk. I've been trying to go for months on the 4th Thursday of the month because it's Train Night. We went although I didn't let the boys play in the kids area for fear they would get someone sick. We ate dinner and then went on the train.

Eli wasn't too impressed. He didn't know what to make of it. While Aiden was having fun, he didn't appear that way in the self pictures I was trying to take. He had been really sick all day but was feeling much better that night.
We went home and Aiden helped with his breathing treatment. He's such a good little boy.
For Halloween we carved a pumpkin. Aiden helped draw on it with his crayon as you can see.
We were all dressed in our Gator apparel to cheer on our team at home in the afternoon. Aiden thought it was neat to see the process of carving the pumpkin but he had no interest in helping take out the seeds. He tried once and when his arm touched the side of the pumpkin, it was completely over!!

On Sunday, we got up to go to church and left the house. After a few miles of Eli crying and coughing (he was exhausted), I turned around and came home. I was feeling yucky and Eli was a mess. We were just gonna let him take a nap and then go to church (versus Sunday school first) but the little boys and mommy just needed a break. I did lots of napping with the boys in the morning. I even called our friend and canceled some plans we had made. I then called her back and we met her (Sue) in downtown Jacksonville. We did some trick-or-treating with Sue and her 3 boys and then headed back home. Since they started early (around 4:45pm), we got home around 6:30.
Aiden was having so much fun that he wanted to do more trick-or-treating. He finally caught on how to do it and was so cute. He would say "trick treat" and then "thanks." I took him up and down our street (carrying him most of the way) and he had so much fun. He was exhausted. He loved some of the decorations in our neighborhood.
Brad built this really cool plane to put around the stroller. It was so neat. Here is a picture of the stroller fitted with the plane (we'll paint it for next time). Brad managed to create this in about 15 min in the garage. Amazing.

After I finally convinced Aiden to come in, we changed him and he handed out candy to some trick-or-treaters that came to our house. He finally went to bed around 7:45pm which is 45 min later than normal. He had so much fun though.

Update: Today we took Eli to the doctor and he needs breathing treatments too. He's not as bad as Aiden so he doesn't need the steroids as well right now. Aiden goes back tomorrow for a check-up to see how he is doing. They might both has asthma!! Aiden had a really bad virus as well and Eli just got a little dose of the virus. I went to the eye doctor today to check for melanoma and they found a spot on my eye they think may be a freckle. I go back in 6 months to see if it changes.

10/23 - Pouncer & Halloween party

Eli has really been wanting to get close to Pouncer and Pouncer isn't sure about such a little guy. He stays there for a few minutes and then runs. I was surprised to see Pouncer run to Aiden and let him pet Pouncer for a bit.Aiden has been busy with crafts lately. He's been doing lots of Play-doh time and was also drawing on some Halloween cut outs recently. He likes clean crafts.
I saw little Eli crawling up on his bus the other day so I ran to get the camera because I could see he wanted to get in the top shelf of the toys. He quickly snapped this picture and then got him down before he bit it. He's not too stable to be standing on the bus.

Eli has been doing much better drinking his milk and I think he's about up to the minimum required now.

Today I let Eli color for the first time. He started off great and then after a few marks on the paper, he thought the crayons were much better used for eating than drawing so we had to stop.
Tonight we went over to Sue's for her huge Halloween bash. I've heard about it before but since we've never been in Jax since she started it, we've never been. Aiden was dressed up a helicopter pilot and Eli was his little brother with no costume. The boys loved the big sand mound in the backyard.
They both also enjoyed the swing set a ton.

They had a haunted house set up (didn't show Aiden that) and a bunch of cardboard tunnels/maze. It was so cool.

There were a large number of kids and adults there. After they played for a bit, all the kids gathered and did a parade around the little block/cul-da-sac area in front of Sue's house. We were one of the last ones done because some kids ran. Aiden was so busy looking at other kids that he was walking extra slow. A friend who I haven't seen in years was there and she helped me out with the boys which was super nice.

After the parade, we sat down and ate pizza and fruit and vegetables. It started to sprinkle some but we stayed out there for a while. I had the blanket set up because after eating and when the sun began to go down, It's a Good Life Charlie Brown was supposed to play. Unfortunately the rain kept up and it started POURING. We ran for cover and waited for a bit. It wasn't stopping and Eli was starting to get cranky (it was his bed time) so I called it quits and drove the fan around and picked up the boys and went home. I was disappointed we didn't stay for the whole thing but Eli was fussy and I wasn't sure the rain was gonna stop.

I brought the boys home and our neighbor watched Aiden play with his mower while I put Eli down. Aiden was up outside playing about 30 min after his bed time but he was having so much fun. I think we might be going to the dr on Monday for Aiden because he's had this cough for a few weeks and it's getting really bad. It's a dry cough but he's up half the night (and naptime) coughing and is doing it more during the day too.

On a good note, Brad comes home in a few days!!!!

10/20 - Nana and Carol visit

I went away for 1.5 days over the weekend. Nana and Carol came up on Friday night and I left at 6:30am on Saturday to go to Ft. Lauderdale for my friends' wedding. I flew down and met up with my friend Christine on Saturday afternoon. It was great to see her again (she was a bridesmaid in my wedding a friend from grad school). Saturday night was the wedding. The location of the wedding was AWESOME. You can see the view from our room and also the reception site.

Here is a picture of Nini and Calvin Peterson! Nini and I went to grad school together.

Here is Nini and I at the reception. Too bad we are giving such big hugs because you can't see her beautiful dress.

I flew home on Sunday morning and got around during nap time. Eli just woke up when I walked in and we got Aiden up a few minutes later so he could say bye to Nana and Carol. I hear they had fun. The boys always love to see Nana and I heard Carol spent some one-on-one time with both and practiced walking with Eli and showing Aiden how to play on one of the toys at the playground.

Without these two awesome people, I would have never been able to make it to Nini's wedding. Thank you both so much. I need to post again soon so I can write about Aiden's first time out yesterday!

10/15 - Outside time & Gymboree

I took these pictures outside when we were outside the other day before dinner. Eli was trying to push Aiden's mower (Aiden wasn't too sure about sharing that). He wasn't doing such a good job because he can't pull himself up on it because it falls back. This was his first time with it so he'll probably get better. He has started walking with his hippo outside and is getting better. It's much faster on the cement than the carpet inside so he's still adjusting to that.

The boys had grilled cheese the other night and I wanted to see if Eli would take a bite if I gave him his whole sandwich. Instead, he just stuck his finger in it. He's doing much better drinking out of a straw cup but is still throwing it when he's done. We need to work on that a bit more.

Aiden saw me writing a check for Eli's daycare and this is what I found when I came out of the bathroom. Too cute.

Today we went to a family Gymboree class. Both of the boys had a great time and kept busy and moving. We went to Little Gym last week and Aiden had a blast but when I found out Gymboree had a class they could both do, I had to try it. Eli immediately glued himself to this giant rolling mat thing which he rolled back and forth across the room.

Aiden also enjoyed it. He did a great job of just going off an exploring and he calls out for me when he needs me. He's not a follower right now. Everyone else will be doing something (what the instructor demonstrates) and it takes him a while (and some nudging by me) to do it.

He walked over brides, crawled in tunnels, and went down slides. He even did a pretty good job of stepping over pumpkins which they placed in an obstacle course.
Eli had an absolute blast today! He crawled everywhere and kept me on my toes. There was this one very narrow tunnel that Eli was drawn too today. He barely fit in it and definitely can't turn around in it. There was a pretty big drop off at the end of the tunnel but Eli figured out how to handle it ... fall on his face, get up, and do it again!

I signed the boys up for the next month so I'm excited about it. I can't wait for Brad to come (hopefully he can come one time). In the video below you can see Eli rolling the ball mat.

I leave early tomorrow morning for a short trip to Ft. Lauderdale to see my friend, Nini, get married. My mom and her friend Carol are coming up to stay with the boys until Sunday early afternoon. I am so thankful they are coming up to allow me to go to the wedding.

10/12 - A trip to the beach with Alicia

My friend Alicia from Maryland is in town with her baby, Lincoln, and husband, Clint. Alicia and Lincoln decided to meet us out at the beach this morning. I wanted to give the boys a chance to play in the sand again since they appeared they might like it when we did pictures a few weeks ago. I stopped at Target and they had no more sand toys. I then stopped at a Dollar General on the way to the beach and found 2 beach toys (a sand/water toy and a little rake). I got both for less than $3 since they were like 75% off since it's out of season. Score for us!

Eli dropped to his knees right away and ate a handful of sand. Aiden was really excited about the new beach toys and wanted to play with those. This was Lincoln's first time at the beach and he didn't really care for the cold water. Aiden looks so cute grabbing on to Alicia.

Eli was have fully submersed himself if I let him. He loves the water. As Alicia witnessed, he really wanted to drop down to sit in the water and I didn't want that unless I was going swimming too (it's too messy). So, I let him bend over and he took a handful of wet sand straight to the mouth. I'll be curious if I can measure the amount of sand he ate in his diaper once he poops! haha

Little Eli is going to love swimming with his daddy someday! He was just staring out in the water and had a huge smile on his face when the waves would come up over his feet.
After the beach, we headed back to my place. My boys took a nap (although both put up a fight because they were over-tired) for a while. Once they were up, we played around for a bit and changed diapers.
Little Lincoln wasn't sure why Eli was trying to head butt him. Poor Alicia had to protect Lincoln because of crazy Eli. I can't wait to teach Eli to give hugs (like people) rather than head butts (like Bronco and the cats).
We took a walk down to the park. I would never guess by looking a the stroller picture that these two are about 8 months apart.

Eli and Lincoln got to swing for a bit and we also let them go down the slides. Aiden was all over the place and is becoming much more daring on the playground. He actually climbs up a pretty cool thing but I'm too nervous to tape it in case he missteps and crashes. Maybe in the next week or so. He's only slipped once where it would have been bad if I wasn't there but I definitely don't want to get a fall on tape!

We had fun and the boys had a very tiring yet fun day. It was GREAT to see Alicia. I really miss our MD friends and the closeness we had with them and the ability to always rely on them for anything. We had a great group of Christian friends up there and I don't think we'll ever have that again (although I pray for it to happen). No offense to any of our current church friends. We just haven't really got to know any of the couples down here very well and I miss that connection with other couples.

Tomorrow the boys go to daycare so I can get some work done. On Thursday, Eli has his first dentist appointment! Until then ....