Thursday, April 30, 2009

Going Private...

Okay, so I've put off doing this, but I think I need to. I'm going to make the blog private which means you have to let me know if you want to still be able to read it. I just don't want any crazy person being able to see it and find my cute kids! :) I saw an Oprah the other day that freaked me out about crazies on the Internet looking at pics of kids. So, that solved it.

Please feel free to let me know if you want to keep reading. I really don't mind anyone I know reading about us...just not the crazies! :) Wait, some of you might fit into both categories, but I'll let that slide - you're the right kind of crazy for me! Send me an email - jillbean76@yahoo.com and I'll add your email to the list. You'll just have to log in the next time you want to read. I'll probably do this in a week or so.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Craig and Jill

I just realized last night that I never write anything about Craig or me. So here goes...

Craig passed his Funeral Director test a couple weeks ago. He did really well on it and studied really hard. We are all really proud of him. The test is extremely long and many people don't pass it the first time. You need a 75 to pass and he scored a fabulous 86! So it's official he's a Funeral Director. Side note: funny story...I've been filling out all these medical forms and new school forms for Zach and Dylan and when I get to the part about Craig's position or title, I try and abbreviate to save time. I stopped doing that when I realized I was writing Asst. Fun. Director. Not good when you know he works at a Mortuary. Not much Fun really! Craig is also playing softball again this spring and is working on getting our yard cleaned up (rid of weeds and kill that mole in our yard...picture Bill Murray in Caddyshack). :)

Let's see what's interesting about me...I've joined a Book Club and have actually been finding time to read some really good books. I'm going to brag and say I've already read next months book. YEAH! We'll see how well I do this summer. :) The women that are in the book club are fabulous and all transplants from a variety of areas. Just this week I started taking a Pilates class 3 days a week. I'm only 2 classes in, but so far it's fun and challenging. Zach goes to the babysitter there at the Y and Dylan sits in the class with me (for now). He's actually quite entertaining for everyone. He just smiles and coos and rattles his toys around. Until he figures out how to just crawl away, he can keep coming. Once he's really crawling, we may have issues. Other than that, business as usual. Laundry, cooking meals and trying to keep my house picked up. I've also applied as a substitute. Although it's the end of the school year, so it will probably be fall before I get called. Wish me luck!
I don't have any pictures of us though...maybe soon I'll get a picture of someone other than the kids.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Dylan is scooting and my house needs to be cleaned...


Dylan is officially scooting now. He had been practicing in his crib by getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Now, he's got it down and has figured out how to launch himself forward and/or pull himself forward with his arms. Zach totally did the army crawl thing for about 2 months, but I fear Dylan is just going to go crawling away here very soon. He turned 7 months on Monday and is still hitting all his milestones like a champ. Here's the video of Dylan scooting with "help" from his brother and Dad. I really think Zach is the most entertaining of this thing. Dylan is just tuning everyone else out while he masters the crawl. You can tell he spends a lot of time "tuning" us out. :) Also, please excuse the messy laundry laying about the room, we were busy watching Dylan scoot and didn't have time to pick up! Guess I'll have to make time now.

I'm not sure that I wrote about Dylan's doctors appointments, but they all went really well. Again, I forget how bad he was until we see the doctors and they all are still amazed at how well he is doing. Still a relief to me. We couldn't be happier with everything in that category. The only interesting thing about the doc appointments is how much smaller Dylan seems to be than Zach was at his age. He weighs around 17 3/4 lbs...and Zach was a solid 20 lbs. He's also pretty short, but I think he is right around where Zach was on that one. It's just funny when he was so big at birth that now he's significantly smaller. We'll see how that turns out. Zach was always kind of short for his percentile thing, but now seems to be average or above average. They still look so much alike that I'll have a hard time keeping pics straight as they get older (or maybe I get older is more accurate).

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter 2009

We had a great Easter this year. Zach was thrilled to be able to go "Easter egging" as he calls it. He even has been game to rehide the eggs and find them again. He did throw a fit though when he realized I hadn't put candy in them again (as if he didn't have more candy than any one child needs). We were able to do an Easter egg hunt with some of the ladies from my book club and their kiddos. Zach had a great time and it was kind of a trial run for his first hunt. Saturday we went to the park here in town and did the big Easter egg hunt with the Parks and Rec. There were a ton of kids and Zach did great. He was assertive and got the gold egg he had his eye on from the beginning. He only hesitated a bit when the crowd of children grew, but he kept at it and had quite a few eggs. I was able to go help setup the eggs that morning and could not believe all the eggs we put out. You couldn't go 6 inches without stepping on an egg. And yet there were still some kids that we heard didn't get any eggs. I was shocked.

City egg hunt @ Lincoln Park
Easter morning the Easter bunny had come and Zach hunted eggs in the house. It was too rainy for the Easter bunny to leave them outside. Again he had a great time and even gave Dylan credit for helping him find the last 3 eggs. We went to church and although I started getting clothes ready at 8:30 we were still somehow late to the 11:00 service. How do we do that every week? Zach and Dylan were all decked out in their matching ties.Dylan - Easter morning
Brothers in their ties

We spent Easter afternoon cracking open our decorated eggs and making deviled eggs (or double eggs according to Zach) and egg salad. I did remember from last year to set aside a couple of eggs and not dye them. Last year all the eggs were dyed and a little funny colored to take to the Wards that night. This year we had plenty to take but the ones that didn't make the cut were used for the egg salad I made. It was a rainbow egg salad. Kind of fun looking with pink and blue egg pieces. :)
We finished the Easter festivities at the CeCe and Grandpa's. More eggs to hunt and Zach did a good job sharing the eggs he found with his cousin, Lilli. She wasn't into looking for the eggs this year - give her another year and they'll be fighting over them. Zach divided all the eggs up by color - Grandpa got orange, Lilli got pink and purple, Daddy got blue and of course, Zach got the green ones. Now we are just trying to manage the dispersing of the candy and a reasonable pace. He'd eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks if we let him.

Our egg decorating on Friday morning...we used some funky Tie Dye kit and Zach painted with Qtips instead of the traditional dying.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Dylan - 6 months

I can't believe it's been so long since I've written on here. But here's an update on Dylan that is way overdue.

He turned six months officially on the 27th of March. I would say this week he's officially started sitting up. He's still a little wobbly but for the most part he can sit on his own for a couple of minutes and then comes crashing down to get a toy or whatever has caught his attention. I've been a little worried that he's a little on the small side. This week I think he's finally put a little more weight on. He's still no where as pudgy as Zach was at his age, but he's still got quite a few rolls so I'm not too worried.

I think he's working on his first tooth as well. Drool central and you can feel a little lump on his lower gum and a little fussier than usual at times. He's still such a sweet baby though. It takes a lot to get him upset. He's just happy hanging out and watching all the activity with Zach and Craig. The only time he really lets you know he's not happy is when he's hungry and you are not getting the food there fast enough. He seems to find his vocal chords then.

Our newest activity is sucking on our toes which always cracks me up. I love watching how excited he gets when they get to his mouth and he can hold on to both of them at the same time. He's also getting infatuated with the baby in the mirror. He likes that baby and that baby seems to have a mommy a lot like his! Such a smile!

He also had a hearing screening to check that everything is okay on that end. I guess babies who are in the NICU have a higher risk for hearing issues. His hearing is okay. Borderline on a couple things, but could be the noise he was making in his carseat and the other test he was too young to be too concerned about it yet. 3 months and another check.

Oh and in the last month we have totally cleared up his eczema. We had/have been weaning him off all milk to soy and it made such a difference. It probably took about 2 months to see the results but his skin is great now and before it was scaly and dry no matter how much Aquaphor I used. We'll have to be careful and see if he's got a true milk allergy or if he grows out of it. It has not helped his spitting up however. My laundry still runneth over! I think he went through 4-5 sleepers today - not exaggerating!

Next week should be fun. We have appointments with his pediatrician, the NICU pediatrician (Dr. Porte) and the pediatric neurologist in Springfield. I'm tired just typing about it. I think we'll hear that everything is just fine and he's doing great.

Happy 6 months Dylan!