Christmas in July

I know it isn't anywhere near Christmas (despite what they are selling at Hobby Lobby--sheesh--they have out ALL of their Christmas decorations already) but around here it has to be Christmas in July since this adorable outfit isn't going to come close to fitting Alex in December. These snuggly jammies were gifted to Lucas from PawPaw Schuldt for his first Christmas. As I was digging through the baby clothes I found it and realized it was already getting too small for Alex (if you look closely his arms are too long for it and the hat keeps popping off his big noggin!) I like that he looks like he is a little Elf dancing a jig in the photos above.
So here is the shot from December 2005 of Lucas in the same outfit. What do you think--do they look alike? (Lucas on the left, Alex on the right)

The Buffy Boys

I'm going to call them the "Buffy Boys" since both their names were taken from the TV show (despite the fact that we aren't calling him Xander...) So here is the first official photo of Riley and Alex together. It isn't the best shot--but at least their outfits sorta coordinate. Since we have oodles of pictures of Luc and Steele together, I imagine this is just the beginning of a trend and we will see many more pictures of these two buddies over the years. This was taken Saturday at Cody's b-day party at Pump it Up--one of those party places with giant jump areas for the kids to go completely crazy in. Lucas was slightly hesitant for all of six seconds and then he was off bouncing around like crazy and zooming down the giant slide like it was no biggie. He was so excited about the party that he woke up that morning (early--grrr) and immediately said "We go to Cody's party mommy? The jump place??" and kept asking until we got there (four hours later, mind you). I would post pics of the actual party but frankly they all turned out blurry so I will have to bum decent pictures off the parents of the other attendees.

In other news, we finally got our new dryer this week so we are no longer living in a giant laundry pit (and we smell alot better since our clothes are clean!) But just when you get one issue taken care of, another crops up. Friday night I woke up to a "thump thump" noise in the air conditioner. Needless to say, it was broken and we had to pay top dollar to get someone to come out and fix it on a weekend. Why is it that our air conditioners always seem to break on a weekend/holiday and the hottest freaking day of the year? Wherever Murphy is, I'd like to shoot him bout now...

More Brotherly Love...

Just another shot of the two brothers bonding. Lucas couldn't stop giggling during this "photo shoot." Alex kept sliding off Luc's chest, making us all laugh.

In other news--Alex's liver level functions came back elevated, but not to the point where they feel intervention is needed. So for now, we are continuing with the breast milk and hoping his jaundice will soon pass...according to some sources, the more he poops the less yellow he will be...so I guess we are hoping for copious amounts of poop. Hopefully Josh will be around to help with all the diaper changes! The vomiting doesn't seem to have gotten a whole lot better--my hair got doused twice last night (not a conditioner I would recommend!) and poor Jen got a whole lapfull of puke today while she was holding little man. It doesn't even seem to phase me anymore that I live in a world of vomit.

On a sad note, we had to have another one of our cats put to sleep this morning. I feel guilty that I don't feel worse about her death, but Cori cat lived a nice long life--she was around fifteen years old. She was my first Hendrix cat (also know as the Martin Hall kitty since she lived in Josh's dorm all four years of college). She was fiesty and fun and I believe she lived a nice long kitty life. But lately she had begun to literally waste away and was throwing up constantly. We consulted the vet and he said at this age, there weren't many options and he recommended we end her suffering. So today she was laid to rest in the corner of our yard under the forsythea bush, which will be nice because every spring I will think of her when the bush blooms. Rest in peace sweet Cori!

Best Buddies

Lucas has been really good with Alex lately--he wants to tell him about his day at school and likes to snuggle with him and pat his back. So sweet!

Alex had his one month check up today and it didn't go as smoothly as hoped. He still has jaundice, so the doctor had to draw blood to check his liver level functions (results pending) and that was awful--predictably Alex screamed the entire time. His acid reflux is so bad that we started meds for that this afternoon (crossing fingers that this will help reduce the puke incidents!) and we were told it is possible he has a milk intolerance. The only way to diagnose is to take him off breast milk for three to four days and start him on a special formula and see if this reduces his vomiting. The doctor said most children outgrow this intolerance at two to four months of age, and some parents choose to just keep their child on breastmilk and deal with the vomiting (as long as the child is gaining good weight this is acceptable to the doctor.) Alex may be puking constantly, but he packing on the lbs (he is 10 pounds, 8 ounces now) so we are hoping to be able to continue with the breast milk. But if we do that--I have to cut dairy out of my diet for now. In addition, Alex also was diagnosed with baby eczema so we have to switch our lotions/baby wash to special formulas. Seems crazy that so many things are happening with this child that never occured with our first child! Cross your fingers that all of these issues resolve themselves with time/meds...

Fountain Fun

Saturday was looking to be a LOOOONG day (Josh was on 24 hour call so I was on my own with both kids all day). We decided to head to the River Market to the new park, which has a great play fountain for children--I had read about it on several of my friends blogs and it looked fun. Lucas was excited--until we arrived. He was a little scared for a while and had to warm up (literally and figurativly--it was almost a hundred degrees in the broiling sun) to the concept before he finally dove in. Then I had to drag him away (not an easy feat when you have a screaming baby in the other hand and you are parked twelve blocks away). Overall--a big hit that I highly recommend for a great free outing with the kiddos.

Change is good...

After we left the fountains today Lucas requested some music for the ride home. I don't really ever listen to tunes in the car anymore, so I wasn't sure what was in my CD player. I just clicked it on and we started jamming. Lucas is so cute when he "dances" in the car (mostly head banging). After a few beats, though, he asked "what is this mommy?" and I realized we were grooving to EZ E. Not exactly the type of music my almost three year old should be listening to. (In my defense--I made this mix CD YEARS ago when I was childless). So I quickly skipped to the next song...which turned out to be Limp Bizkit. Everything on the CD was basically off limits--except perhaps the Beastie Boys. I never understood what the heck they were singing about in "Brass Monkey" and Lucas apparently didn't either cuz he was digging it. Anyway--all of this made me realize how very different my life is these days. And that I need to seriously update (and censor) my music selections.

FYI

I've had several people ask if I was planning to change the blog site and include Alex's name in the address. It's a good idea, but for now I have no plans to change blog sites--I will wait until a.) we run out of space on this site OR b.) we are done having kids so I can add them all at once

Speaking of Alex's name--I never really explained our choice in names. Since we played the name game at our baby shower, I feel the need to describe our decision making process. So here she blows...

When pregnant with Lucas, as many of you know, I was crazy about Buffy (the Vampire Slayer TV series) and we actually called the fetus Xander (after the lovably dopey Xander Harris, lead sidekick to the slayer) for quite some time. At some point, Josh put his foot down--he did not want his children named after TV characters. So instead, we went with Lucas (after George Lucas and Luke Skywalker). Apparently Josh isn't so discriminating against movie directors/iconic films.

So this go round, we discussed Xander again. I still really dug it, but Josh was stonewalling me again...until I mentioned that Xander was really short for AleXANDER. And I pointed out that you had multiple nickname options from this name, including Al (never considered it), Lex (LOVE it--really wanted this one for a while), Alex, Alec (like a Baldwin...who wouldn't like that!), Xander, even Zander. And that was that--we never discussed any other names after that.

At the baby shower we gave the clue that our baby name was shared by two lead characters in shows I owned on DVD. These shows were "Smallville" (Lex Luthors real name is Alexander Julius Luthor) and "Buffy" (Alexander Louvell Harris). In actuality--there are Alex characters on several other shows I own on DVD, too (Sex and The City, Dark Angel to name a couple). Only one person guess Alexander--Les. So he officially wins the baby name contest and we owe him a prize! (Free babysitting whenever they are ready to claim it!)

One Month New Today!!

Hard to believe Alex is already a month old--the time has flown by mainly because I have been living in a zombie-like haze (due to a lack of decent sleep!) Today we were at Children's Hospital and we were told that Alex weighed in at 10 pounds, so he is clearly gaining weight at a good rate (despite all the throwing up) He is constantly hungry and we are debating adding some rice cereal to his milk just to give him a little more to chow on since he seems ravenous at all hours of the day. We had to do this with Lucas, too and it really seemed to help. He makes the cutest "I'm hungry face" when he wakes up--he begins sucking the air, too as soon as he realizes the bottle is headed towards his mouth (for those who care--I am giving him breastmilk, but he takes it from the bottle, not the boob! He was stubborn like his older brother and refused to latch on). His eyes are still blue...we'll be keeping an eye on that to see if they change over time since neither Josh nor I have blue eyes.

Probably TMI, But...

Anyone care to guess the number of times I have had vomit (not just spit up, but CHUNKY curdled milky vomit) in my hair in the last twenty four hours?? If you guessed three, you would not be wrong.

I've always heard there was no need for birth control when you are breastfeeding a child...somehow, I can believe it might be because you smell like puke constantly.

Rain Rain Go Away!

Just some fun shots of Lucas playing in the rain--we have had quite a few storms blow through in the last few days which was nice because it cooled everything off. We were actually able to enjoy the yard more when it isn't scorching outside. I've had this slicker for Luc for almost two years now and it FINALLY fits. He had fun stomping in the mud puddles and running around getting wet--perfect activities for a toddler boy.

Alex's First Bath

It is amazing to me how different my two children are--Lucas HATED his first bath, and as seen above, Alex really just relaxed and enjoyed the feel of the warm water--I think he could have fallen asleep in the tub. He only screamed AFTER we took him out of the warmth.

Other differences include Alex not really loving his pacifier--whereas Lucas was addicted to his. Lucas was not picky about his bottles, but Alex is very particular about the nipples on his bottle. Alex loves motion--the swing, the bouncy seat, being rocked--he really digs all of that and Lucas never did. Finally--Lucas was so easy to swaddle--he adored being swaddled up to sleep, whereas Alex grunts and fights until he can get his arms out of the swaddle. Everyone says each child has a very distinct personality from birth and I am learning that is very true!

Baby Lock Down

I find this picture extemely funny--Josh insists on putting Alex in his swing (even though he is still really too small for it). For safety measures, we buckle him in--but in this shot he is swaddled AND buckled in--giving him a Hannibal Lector kind of look.

Baby Lucas

Having a baby "brudder" (as Luc calls him) has been pretty easy for Lucas so far--the regression that most people talk about in association with having siblings hasn't really occurred (YET--fingers crossed). For the most part Lucas is really cute with Alex--he wants to hold him alot and gets upset when the baby cries ("don't K-wy baby brudder!"). But he also wants to do a lot of "baby" things lately--including climbing in the babies car carrier as witnessed above.
Then one evening he discovered "onsies" in his size in his closet (who knows where those came from!) and insisted on dressing like baby brother and bouncing in the bouncy seat...needless to say he is WAY too big for this.
More playing in the car seat above. Also, he enjoys laying on Alex's play mat and "kicking the toys with his feet" like he did when he was a baby. He laughs crazily and says "I baby, mommy!" He also likes to put a blanket between his legs and say it's his diaper (although thankfully he doesn't USE it like a diaper!) He puts his doll in the baby swing and insists on letting him swing for hours on end (not good for the batteries). Finally, Lucas wants to be "burped" occassionally--which is really funny when he fakes a burp after having his back patted for several minutes. Overall--I will take these kinds of behavior over the horrors and jealousy that I am sure is coming down the road...