Levi's 6 months, and a bit more...

Levi was 6 mo old on April 19th. He is definitely my sweet little boy! He's so funny too. He loves to lay on his back and play and coo. He rolls all around the room, and doesn't sit still. He squirms and rolls and kicks constantly. I have a feeling that when he starts crawling, I'll be a very busy momma! He knows how to sit up, but it's a bit dangerous... he seems to be under the impression that when he's sitting up, if he throws his head back REALLY hard, he'll suddenly be standing up. Instead, of course, he just hits his head REALLY hard against the ground and gets boo-boos. :(  So... while practicing sitting up, I must either sit behind him, or put the bumbo behind him to prevent concussions and major head injuries. ;)

We have been in MN, so we have not had his 6 mo check up yet... I'm looking forward to see how much he weighs... he's feeling quite heavy lately!! I took the below picture on the 17th, 2 days before he turned 6 mo... because we took him to MN, and I didn't want to forget!

Our trip to MN was so fun! I sooo enjoyed getting to see all of my family, and my close friend Michelle. It was really relaxing, and I got to go to all of the places I really missed.

My friend Michelle in front of our past favorite hangout... which we both worked at.. Caribou Coffee!

Me and my kids with her sweet family.

Madi and Emma. Emma is 5... and about 4 feet tall! :)

Levi and my sweet Aunt Karri

Levi and my cousin Ethan

Levi and Gigi

Madi opening her birthday present from her Auntie Dawn and Uncle Paul. She got a Madeline doll and book!

She also got some cute window clings. They stayed on my aunts window while we were there... they are now on her bedroom window and she is always pulling them off and putting them back on her window.

My cousin Shari and Levi

Madi and Tim (my cousin Marie's husband) playing a game of checkers! :)

My old Caribou! This is where I worked @ 16... I didn't know any of the workers, but it was fun to go back.

My old house! Only lived here for 3 years before we moved south, but it was my favorite place.

Mall of America!

She's excited about rides!

Daddy and Madi are gonna ride the balloons!

Riding the Swiper cars

She didn't love them... 

but she did love the cookie!

and the train!

The roller coaster my husband went on.. straight up...

and straight back down! Crazy!

On the carousel!

my cousin Marie and Levi

Shari and I

Madi in the doggie beds :)

Kalli and Madi... she got a sucker, so she wouldn't put it down for a pic

Levi kept pulling Kalli's hair and glasses :)

some love for Auntie Karri

and Uncle Mark :)

Silly pic!

 Yup, that's a grape... :)

Levi and Marie

Levi with my cousins Kiersten and Marie

Levi checking out the fish at the "Sea Life" aquarium that we went to that's under the Mall of America.

Swinging at the park with Emma

They checked out the pond @ the park. One thing I LOVE about MN, NO FIRE ANTS! Madi got to run around and roll around in the grass, and I didn't have to freak out. She was in heaven!

Found a snail daddy! (Mommy was freaking out... sanitizing was done after this!)

Levi enjoying the sights :)

hmm... what, 19 years later... we look a bit different!

so sad to be saying goodbye to my sweet friend

Madi and daddy taking the "tram" down to the lake at my aunt and uncles house

Madi loved throwing rocks into the lake!

Madi and daddy spent a few evenings down there before bed time

Right before we headed out to the airport, Auntie Dawn took her down there too

Here they are riding back up the "tram" from spending time by the lake

Last pic I could fit on my card... in the airplane, heading home!

We had a great time! On the way home, we had a layover in D.C., and didn't get home till about12:45a... it took us a couple days to recover, and a couple more days to unpack! I'm thinking we're finally getting closer to our normal schedule. 

My sweet girl turned 3 on April 17th.... I'll have to put that in another post... that's WAY too many pictures to add onto here. :)

God bless!

We have a house guest!

Well,
The new thing in our home is our new "renter" out in the garage apartment. My brother-in-law has moved up to good ol' SC from Florida! Before he moved, Madilyn asked literally every day when Uncle Stephen was gonna be here. It was so cute! He came in late Saturday night and is gonna be living with us for a few months while he gets himself established in Columbia, SC. It's gonna be sooo nice to have more family near us. There is just something about having family near by. Growing up, I was ALWAYS surrounded by family. I played with my cousins on a daily basis. I was friends with my 3rd cousin. We had large family reunions about every other year. I know my 4th cousin quite well. Family is very important to me. Needless to say, we're very excited to have Stephen here. I felt so sad that he was way down in FL and couldn't be here for all of the big events and Holidays. Now... compared to being on your own down in FL, he's in for a bit of a loud and wild ride being around a baby and an (almost) 3 year old... but I think he'll fit in just fine! :)

5 months!

My little man is 5 months old! I can't believe it! He's done so much in the last month, and I haven't done great at keeping up with documenting. Here goes!

- He is rolling over both ways... he can roll tummy to back, and back to tummy.
- He is eating oatmeal baby cereal.
- He has tried sweet potatoes, peaches, apples, pears and bananas. His favorite are DEFINITELY bananas. He opens his mouth wider, and makes cute  noises while he's eating them. :)
- He is reaching for my face, and can reach and grab things. He grabs and pulls things to his mouth. He still drops things if you hand him a second thing if he already has something in his hand.
- He is so ticklish! It's very easy to get him to giggle. Just tickle his ribs, and it gets him!
- He LOVES his big sister! He'll just smile and coo at her. He's a big fan of hers, and she adores him!
- He's a talker! He just coos, and makes noises. That's how I know he's up in the morning. He'll just sit in bed and "talk" until I go get him. :)
- He has started to grab everything! My hair, my earrings, my mouth... etc. Anything and everything!
- I have started trying to get him to sit. I think Madilyn was almost sitting on her own at this age, but I don't think I put Levi down as much as I did Madi. I was so worried about spoiling her... lol! He's kinda got the "tripod" sit down, but he's very wobbly.
- He's the cutest boy I've ever seen in my entire life. Just sayin'...

Levi is 4 months old!

Yup, my baby is now 4 months old! I can't believe it!!!

He's getting so big!

He has done quite a few new things in the last month. He has started on baby cereal. He went from eating every 3 1/2 hours during the day and sleeping 10-12 hours at night to suddenly eating every 1 1/2 hours during the day and every 5 hours at night. Needless to say, that called for cereal... since it lasted over a week and a half. I started him just last week, a few days before he turned 4 months old. The first couple of days he just nibbled, and tried it out, then was done. We've gone from samples to now eating everything I make! He has tried sweet potatoes and pears, and makes sweet cute little noises when he eats. :)

He also can roll from tummy to back. He mainly does it when he's frustrated with tummy time, and seems to do it out of anger. He won't do it on command...

He will play on the play mat that we borrowed from a friend for a good 20 minutes. He does so quite happily just batting at it and smiling and giggling. He has started to reach and grab for things. He will clasp his hands in front of him, and he brings things (slowly) to his mouth. Lots of milestones in one month! He giggles more and more each day, the sweetest sound EVER!

Madilyn, my sweet girl...

This is a picture of her and her big cousin Preston when we were @ Ikea up in Charlotte. She still thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread... it's pretty stinkin cute!

She's got some things she prefers that makes me laugh:

She likes leggings, NOT jeans. She even doesn't really like sweat pants.

She does NOT want to wear a shirt that's too big, but will gladly wear one that's too small and her tummy is hanging out!

She likes toast, but doesn't like her sandwich bread toasted.

She wouldn't mind if I put sprinkles on EVERYTHING.

She LOVES playing with her cars. She literally will play with her cars (we have started collecting the cars from the movie "Cars" and "Cars 2") ALL day. I try to get her to play w/dolls or stuffed animals, but no... just the cars. At least our purchases are being played with!

She LOVES her Grandma. She says that her and grama are best buds "like Lightening McQueen and Mater". :) That pretty much makes my mom melt!

She is just over 26 lbs, and every bit as petite as she always has been. She can wear a size 3 now. Not 3T, but a 3.

She is wearing a 5 1/2 or 6 in shoes.

She is seriously the sweetest little girl. She has absolutely no jealousy issues at all with Levi. She wants to help with everything. She loves on him, and likes to cuddle with him. She helps me rock him to sleep and sings to him.

I am truly blessed!!!

That's all of the update I can do for now, but I wanted to make sure I put a 4 month post up, since it happened 4 days ago already!! (He was 4 months on Sunday)

Well, that's it!

God bless!!

Sweet Levi

Lots has been going on the realm of sickness this last two weeks. I feel like I haven't left home much. Exactly 2 weeks ago Madilyn came home from church, and took a nap. When she woke up, she had a fever of 102. She was perfectly fine that morning, and it was really sudden. She had that fever until the following Thursday. With the fever came a "cold". I tried SO hard to keep her away from Levi, but it's really hard when you are home along all day with 2 kids.  If you keep them separate, one is always neglected. Needless to say, Levi ended up getting the cold. Thankfully he did not get the fever/virus portion. He started coughing maybe the week after Madilyn got sick, so we avoided it for a few days. His cough got progressively worse. Thursday night (2/9) he started to sound like he was wheezing. I didn't know if it was just his little nose whistling from being stuffed up or what, so I put him to bed. That whole day (Thursday) and through that night I was running the humidifier, and it didn't seem to be doing much. Friday morning he woke up and there was definite wheezing. He had a hard time eating, kept having to take breaks to try to breath, etc. It was kinda scary! I called the doctor, and she told me to come in right away. After being there for over an hour, they finally told me he has bronchiolitis. Not sure how a cold developed into that, but in my sweet baby, it's easier for them to get it. Due to this, he has to have "breathing treatments" as they called it every 4 hours, every day, until he's better. That could be another week or more. I am allowed to let him go longer over night, but so far, he's only gone 5 hours at night... ugh! I feel like he's 2 weeks old again! This also means, once he's had bronchiolitis, every time he has a cold, he could develop wheezing, and I will have to do these treatments again. I was able to bring the machine home, we get to keep it. So that's a bit reassuring that we don't have to make a trip to the doctor's office every 4 hours!!! It's a little purple dinosaur with tubes coming out of it! :) It comes in a little case that looks like a castle. HA! They said if this reaction comes every time he has a cold for the next year, they may check for asthma. Hoping that's not the case!
While we were at the doctor, she looked at his skin and notice "full body eczema". She asked me what I have been doing for it. I told her everything from tiny amounts of cortizone to aquaphor to soap free body wash etc. She then proceeds to say she thinks it may be a dairy or soy allergy when it becomes whole body eczema. Never even thought of that! I then thought about how gassy this child has been since he was born, and how much he spits up at times, and that I have to use mylicon just about every time I feed him... SO... she told me to cut all cow's milk products out of my diet (bread, cheese, everything) and all soy products. I quickly agreed, willing to do anything for my sweet pea, and anything to be able to continue to nurse him. (Nursing is so rewarding, as well as inexpensive. I have heard how expensive dairy-free formula is!) I then went home and saw how pretty much everything in our house either has soy or cow's milk in it! AAAH! LOL! It will definitely help my quest to lose this extra weight I've packed on since having Madilyn! I am bound and determined to continue to nurse Levi though, so dairy/soy free it is! Totally worth it. AND, the positive thing is, the very next morning I noticed a difference in his skin. Couldn't believe it! My doctor is awesome! Madilyn had horrible eczema when she was little, and I was just told by her previous doc: cream, cream and more cream. She did eventually outgrow it, but this seems like a more realistic reasoning than just having sensitive skin. Anywho, we're getting better here, just hanging out at the house. Can't wait for this bout of yuckiness to leave our house so we can get out and about again!

~missing the outside world and lots of adult conversation!

Here's some pics:

this picture is at the doctor's office when he's having his 1st breathing treatment. He's so cute! Madilyn is so funny in this picture! :)

a picture documenting his rash all over his tummy, ad eczema on his face (the pink). Didn't get legs/arms/feet/hands, but I got the general idea.

The following morning, no eczema on his cheeks...

Levi is 3 months old!!! :)

I like to put up the past pictures so that you can see how he's changed and grown! :) He's getting such a sweet personality. He LOVES Madilyn, he will be watching her with this huge smile on his face. She is so sweet to him too. She just loves on him constantly.

He is currently going thru a growth spurt, and, if allowed, would probably eat every hour. I have been feeding him every 1 1/2 to 2 hours today, and yesterday. Whew! I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day!!! He is around 13 pounds, but doesn't have another appt till he is 4 months old. He coos and smiles at his mommy, and I sure love it! He hasn't giggled yet, but he's gotten close a couple of times. He is a sweetheart, and lights up our home!! He's a great sleeper too! Once he has finished eating, finally... he sleeps from around 9:30 or 10 at night until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. I do put him down around 7 or 7:30, and then "dream feed" at the 9:30 or 10 feed... but technically he is done eating at the last feeding. He takes 3-4 naps during the day, but he'd rather be up to be quite honest. He's so funny. I want him so badly to take an hour to 1 1/2 hour nap, but he likes 30 to 45 min naps, then he wants to eat, and be up looking around and cooing and smiling. He's such a sweet and happy baby. If his tummy is full, and diaper is clean, he's a happy camper! Always!

He does have the same skin issues as Madilyn, but thankfully I know how to handle it, so it shouldn't get near as bad as hers did. He's got a very dry scaly head, it's pretty cute actually... but I just get him all "greased up" and he's good. HA!

Well, that's it for now, I promised Madilyn I would make her hair pretty and paint her fingernails, so gotta go!!

God bless!