Our XMAS

I'll spare the details of our hospital stay and focus on the good. Michael is feeling better, for which we are thankful. I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly thankful we are to have a healthy baby. We were in the hospital for one night. Many families are there for so long with their sick little ones. My heart aches of how difficult that must be for so many.
Prior to the sickness we had a cookie/lunch extravaganza with my friend, her two girls and my previous nanny (now her nanny). The kids ran around like crazy that we had to dress them in Daniel's undershirts so the sweating would be minimized.

They fit some baby time. Daniel was a proud brother.

Christmas was spent in our home with much love and quality time.

His new friend.

 

Our gift from D. A handmade ornament from school that he told me about as he ran out of school when I picked him up Wednesday.

This was considered clean.

A lot of holding of this little guy occurred in between the madness.

Tons of building took place in our kitchen since we were stuck home on XMAS.

 Great memories were made.
Hope your holidays were great and HEALTHY!

2 months!

Michael, you are 2 months old!
What have you been up to?

You are about 11lbs, (stats from hospital but you were a bit constipated). Our appt is next week.
You are wearing size 1 diaper and clothes mostly 3 month or 3-6.
You had your first hospital stay and your first bad cold. (RSV)
You are very unpredictable with your sleep, eating, pooping, etc.
You are smiling like crazy. Your first smile happened on December 8th while starring at daddy.
You are starting to coo. We hope you'll be a faster talker than your brother. :)
You love being held upright so you can look around. You would love it if someone carried you around on their shoulder so you can move that little head of yours and get a look at the world around you. My back is in bad shape already.
When you cry, you scream. You have a good set of lungs.
You have certain positions that you fall asleep in. You already love your raggie (cloth diaper). We'll be buying them in bulk like we did for your brother. He went to preschool with his, had his name on it and everything. It was grey in the end.
You are starting to stare at your brother, we know you two will be great friends in just a few months.
You are kicking your legs and moving your arms like crazy.
You have gorgeous blue eyes with the longest lashes.
You still have reddish brown hair.
You are still sleeping in our room in your little sleeper. I can see transitioning you to your room soon but not yet.
You are very different than your brother. You make me work hard.
We love you like crazy our lil' peanut.

 You and your brother still look a lot alike. This is his 2 month photo.

JINX

The baby now has a full blown cold; congestion and the sorriest little cough you have ever heard.
Since, I will be a little busy I wanted to wish all my readers (all 10 of you. HA!!) a very Merry CHRISTmas!!!

We survived

A picture with Santa with 2 kids...
Yay!!!
The gassy baby opened his eyes, the energetic 4 year old talked with Santa and for my exhausted self, well the heavens opened up, if only for a little while.
The little one went to the Dr. and has been put on acid reflux meds, I don't want to jinx anything but he was happy, I'll leave it at that and see how the night goes.

We are ready for Xmas in 6 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was almost a winter wonderland

This Friday, after hearing the devastating news about the tragedy in Connecticut I was more determined to go and spend an evening as a family with my little ones. I was a wreck that evening, I just kept kissing on Daniel and was glued to the TV. After shedding some tears we ventured out for what I want to be a tradition for our family every year.
Last year we ventured out to look for some amazing lights in our neighborhood and ended up at a local village display. It was bitter cold and were the only ones there. We lasted a total of 15 minutes.
This year I heard about a drive through light show about 40 minutes from us. We packed the kids up in the car. Ry picked up some delicious pop corn downtown, I made some hot cocoa. Before we left I tried to take a picture of the boys. Yeah, the little one is a hot mess of gas right now. 



 About a mile into the drive the baby started screaming, Daniel started saying he was tired and Ryan wanted the closest drive through to eat because we decided to be adventurous and devour our dinner while driving, in the dark, and looking at directions. That's how we keep it interesting around here.
We approached the intersection of the lights place we went to last year and we pretty much looked at each other and said "screw that, this is just as good". There was no way that gassy baby was going to make it another mile. Unfortunately he had to because a Mcrib sandwich, eggnog shake, fries, a chicken sandwich was still calling our names. 2 miles, 2 deaf ears later we got the hell out of the car (can you picture the family mood now?). 
You can enjoy what we could have seen on you tube. You r welcome.  
We told ourselves we will try next week or the week after when it's not as crowded.
Finally we arrived at our destination.
Daniel could have cared less about the lights. Even with enthusiastic prompting of "look at the pirate ship, how awesome is that airplane, look at the tree, isn't it all amazing?" The only response was "where is that playground?" He spotted that playground in the dark as soon as we pulled up. So, as we circled the lights all we heard was "this is not the way to the playground, it's this way, mommy, mommy, no, no, mommy, no, I don't want to see the lights, WAHHHHHH".  I was ready to seriously throw myself on the ground myself and cry. Instead Ryan and I just started to laugh our butts off to survive this ordeal.
It was starting to get cold and I didn't have Daniel dressed for a playground escapade . At this point with all this tantrum throwing I figured the cold wasn't making much of a difference as he was burning calories off throwing small fits with his body.
Then he just started cheesing it up for every picture and saying "now can we go?"

Daniel wasn't the only kid there. It seemed like none of the kids cared about the lights. They were all at the playground.

The scene from the playground. Yeah I pointed that out too and he went away screaming to play. Look at all those poor moms.

Saturday at Polish school all the kids enjoyed a traditional Polish XMas Eve.

With fish nuggets, pierogi, blintzes, salads, sandwiches and a baby Jesus! There was so much food. Ry and I stayed and got to enjoy it even though parents weren't supposed to be there. I didn't get a 7 week old ready to be told no at the last minute. The teacher is sweet and sensed that I was not thrilled, that and for the first time she saw me with makeup so she knew not to mess with me.

I was in charge of the pastries. I bought some Polish pastries and some good old American donuts! The kids went wild over them. Thanks to my sister for the suggestion. She survived 7 years of Polish school and knows the deal.

The kids sang a simple Polish XMas Carol. Daniel was so proud he learned it, with a slight accent.

It's Sunday and I'm in my pajamas planning to stay that way for a few more hours. We should go to church but with next week being XMas I can only handle getting the kids ready 3 times next week so I'll allow myself to chill.

Making a list, checking it twice

Look who is checking out the Toys R Us catalog?! Plotting what to spend $$$ on.

And just because he's cute! 6 weeks and full of trouble.

A little light

I've been a little light on posting on the blog lately. That's because my little one pretty much screams from 7-10pm. I have great intentions of staying on top of everything but here is what ends up happening....
This was taken 10 minutes after I told Ry "I'm going to take a shower now". Notice the time on the clock, pretty much I'm dead to the world by then.

Yes, I woke up after this and put him in his sleeping thingy right next to me. The boy knows what's up because he crashes right next to me as opposed to constant rocking in the sleeper.

This too shall pass! I hope soon!

My feelings exactly

Although I'm hosting one in a couple of weeks

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

insert Star Wars theme song here. That's the sound that has been blaring in my home for the past month.
Daniel is officially a fan! A die hard fan. This is a dream come true for daddy and possibly my worst nightmare.
They run around the house with their lego ships , pieces flying everywhere, singing the theme song or making up their own tragedies. It's super cute. So far this monthly obsession has turned into a Christmas list that has a theme. All Star Wars. Star Wars pajams, legos, tooth brush, toys, shirts, etc. Thank God the supplies are limitless at the stores. We are trying to tone it down with buying too much but it's hard, well hard for the grandparents.
May the force be with us.
Daniel's yearly obsessions of the past:
Year one: Anything that spins
Year two: School buses
Year three: Cars
Year four: Trains
Year five: Star Wars

He lines them up every night.

Numerous books on Star Wars are everywhere. We have cleaned our the local library and school library.

Thousands of little pieces of legos that daddy spent hours on putting together and continues to fix them nightly as the pieces are left behind in every room.

The droids that go everywhere in his pocket, backpacks or his hands. I have to tear them out of his hands when he falls asleep.

Writing a letter to Santa.

First item on the list, R2D2. 2 more items made the list after this picture...Star Wars of course

I'm waiting when Ry will get sick of this phase, he assures me that he never will. I'm glad because there is a month old baby boy in the other room that looks very interested in all this. At least the investment will go through 2 kids.
This years ornament of choice for Daniel when we visited Hallmark?
Why, Star Wars of course. Ryan has been collecting them since we met and I started him on this craze. I worked at Hallmark for 3 years, something rubbed off on me other than the scented candles that I had to deal with while I worked there.
Some of his ornaments in the past.

So, yes a house full of boys was bound to result in a Star Wars love affair. Perhaps one year we'll dress up for Halloween as a family, but don't ask me to wear "the pricess Leia outfit", that ship has sailed.

1 month

Michael you are ONE month old today!!!
This month has gone by so fast and I can't believe we are a family of four.
Your stats:
At your last weight in by the lactation consultant you were a hefty 8lbs and .01 oz. Exactly an entire pound more than your birth weight.
You are outgrowing your clothes like crazy. Almost most of your 0-3 month clothes are back in the bin in the basement. You are most comfortable in 3-6 month clothes because of your length or new 3 month size. Hand me downs are not your friend. Tall boy.
You are a cuddler, you want to cuddle all the time and feed all the time, which means we spend a lot of time together.
You wake up a couple of times a night, we've had a couple of nights when you went 6 hours, you little tease. You make us work hard at night to keep you calm.
Overall you are a happy little boy.
Your neck muscles surpass your brothers because tummy time is a breeze. You are a strong one and want to look around.
You enjoy your Aunt Kathy talking your ear off. We think it's her dark hair that amazes you or you just love to hear her talk. I enjoy it because I get stuff done.
You still don't know what to think of your loud brother but soon you'll know how much he just adores you.
You are so loved by everyone and we are so thrilled we get to call you our own.

The traditional monkey comes out. Michael at one month old.

Snoozing during the day and playin' at night.

WE LOVE YOU!!!