Toilet Trouble

L and I were on the laptop looking at blog layouts, trying to find a cute Christmas one. I heard J playing in the other room, laughing and having fun. I thought I better check on him. This is what I found....

It was funny. Super hilarious actually. But it could have been so much worse, if he had gone in head first. Bathroom doors must be shut!

p.s. I took him out and then put him back and took the picture!!

Snuggly J

I had the pleasure of nursing and snuggling with my sickie tonight. J isn't too much into snuggling and being a cuddly baby these days so this was a supreme treat for this mama!! He fell asleep while nursing and that warmed my heart :-)

Now I am sitting on the couch watching a show with my hubby and hoping all the kids stay asleep awhile for needing me again.

We are going to have to sit out the homeschool group fun tomorrow since I am sick and J is sick now too. I hate missing our group.

Tonight while putting the kids to bed, they didn't want to stay down and needed a million things before finally settling down an hour after being put to bed. L was negotiating for water. I told her no and she cried out that she was super dehydrated. Oh my goodness dear. I did deny her water since she was playing games. I felt bad and went back with water a few minutes later. She was greatly pleased : -) I just hate giving in to every request at bedtime since it seems to drag it out longer and longer. They need to just go to bed. I napped today from 1 till 3. I guess during that time, they were monkeying around during their nap time and had computer time taken away. Computer time is a privilege around here. And taking it away as punishment is usually a productive tool. They were so upset with no computer time but I bet during nap tomorrow, they won't be disruptive!

Oh and all of this was posted from my new laptop - WOOHOO! :-)

Temper Tantrum

J likes to throw himself on the floor in the flailing arms, crying sort of manner. He is loving my phone these days. Today he had to have it taken away since he attempted to call Germany and download some smut (or an app - I don't know!). When his dad tried, unsuccessfully, to remove the phone from J's hand - a full blown temper tantrum came on and HOLY COW was it a loud one. He went on to throw a couple more fits today complete with howling on the floor and flailing arms. Yikes - what are we in for!?

Out Germs Out

I think our household is on the mend!!!! This has been a nasty virus that laid up my baby girl for 3 solid days, S only 2 days and J seems to be the least affected by it. Daddy Piper had work yesterday and today and went like the great provider he is. He isn't feeling that grand but off to work he went anyway. I am blessed to call him mine. I have not gotten anything from it other than a severe case of sleeplessness : -)

Funny story though. Things were so crazy around here Tuesday night/Wednesday morning that I had to start keeping a chart of who's temp was what when and who got what medicine when. It was hurting my brain to remember these things and I just started writing them down. So that's a tip for moms that have more than 1 or 2 - just write it down : -)

But as I said, we are on the mend and very thankful that it wasn't much worse than it was. I was a bit concerned about L going into yesterday though as she was still very sick and it was going on 72 hours without much relief but she took a turn for the better in the afternoon and that alleviated my fears.

Now I as I sit here, I am watching Baby J walk around the house like a mad man on a mission. The older 2 are sleeping and he is the king of his castle for the time being. He is such a walker already. Can stand from sitting without help and can squat down and stand right back up. He can even walk with his sippy full of water!

Baby J is ONE!!

My baby turned one today. Yep ONE! It was a fun filled day ending with a BBQ with about 50 of our friends, who came to celebrate with the birthday boy! He enjoyed his yummy hot dog (turkey dog) and then DESTROYED his birthday cake : -) J enjoyed the attention from everyone. He is content to just be around people. He is definitely an extrovert at this point - loving the noise and chaos that surrounds us.














The party was everything I hoped it would be. I looked out in the backyard at one point and there was laughter, chatting and kids running and playing - just what I love seeing. I love making memories like this. The group of friends that surrounds us is such a blessing to our family. J, L and S are loved beyond belief by so many people. We are one lucky family!

Nursing Baby J

Nursing Baby J might be coming to an end. My goal was to nurse for his first year and that's coming up in less than a week. I won't wean him but he's less and and less interested these days. He is so cute at bedtime though when he nurses. He makes this gurgly, cooey sound when he pops off and plays with his milk (i.e. my ni&*ple) and then he looks up at me, all smiley. Oh how I love that baby of mine!!!!

J is 11 months old!

I can't believe my baby is only 1 month from being a year old - WAHHH!!!!!! I took some pictures of him tonight to try to capture his spirit at this wonderful age....

J is 11 months old!

J is now officially one month from his first birthday. Oh my GOSH! He can now:

• Clap
• Take 5-6 steps
• Stand alone
• Drive me crazy (while I remove the fifth thing from his mouth)
• Say Mama, Baba, Nana, Dada
• Bite
• Hit me while nursing. He LOVES to smack my breast while nursing.
  
• He's allergic to bananas. My first baby to show an allergy to anything.
• He's now sleeping better. He'll sleep for 5-6 hours, wake and nurse and then back down until morning.
• Make me swoon when I see his gorgeous brown eyes : -)

Having J completed our family. Daddy Piper has said once more "NO MORE BABIES". I can now be okay with that (although if one accidentally came about, I wouldn't be the least bit sad!).

J is 10 months old!

Where oh where did these 10 months go??? I say this every month (and then every year as my babies grow and get bigger) but seriously, where does the time go?!

Baby J is 10 months old. He is a blessing sent from above. He is a super happy baby that requires little sleep. He smiles and lunges for me the second he spots me from the across the room. He also does this with his daddy; J practically leaps from my arms when he decides his dad is the only person who'll do at the moment. He still only says "DADADADA", "BABABABA" and "NANANANANA". Mama isn't a word in his vocab for some reason. We are trying to teach him signs, like we did the other 2. He looks nothing like my other 2 babies. He is more reflective of my genes rather than his father's. Never have I seen a more beautiful set of brown eyes. He can pull up and cruise along furniture. He will stand alone for a few seconds. He has tried to take those first few steps but quickly falls to his bum. He has now started squinching his nose and snorting, very similar to a quirk S developed about this same age. The newest game is to squeeze his arms to his side and squeal. We started this at dinner the other night. I squealed then he repeated after me. We added the arm thing in and this causes laughter for hours from everyone.

He is the world's worst at shoving things in his mouth. My floors have never been cleaner. I am a stickler now for vacuuming the family room and playroom and forever cleaning up food from the kitchen/dining area. This boy finds the smallest morsel and will shove it in and grin with delight. Being a mom to J is like a dream come true, my 3rd dream come true. He has filled my heart with love and completed our family.

Baby J Update

Baby J is now standing on his own for longer and longer. He will walk with you holding onto only one of my fingers now. He is also sleeping much better. He even slept for 8 straight hours the other night - the first since he was a newborn. He still won't say Mama, even though he did say it one time a few days ago. He looked right at me and said "Ma-Ma" and hasn't said it again- STINKER! He does say dadada and bababa and nanana over and over and over. He also likes to yell when everyone is talking, to contribute to the conversation in his own way : -)

Baby gets a Haircut

Baby J no longer looks like a baby... he got his first haircut today. We went to a fun kids place where S got his first haircut. You get to sit in a cool car while the stylist cuts your hair. Baby J did wonderful. He started to fuss for the first few minutes but quickly got over when he realized I wasn't going too far. Even the clippers at the end didn't bother him. He watched the Elmo movie for a second but it didn't really interest him that much. Now his long mohawk hair shouldn't hang in his face anymore.





p.s. 12 years ago I met Daddy Piper on a blind date... who knew this is where we would be when we met at Red Robin all those years ago!

Hodge Pdoge

I was downloading pics from our fun day (more on that a minute) and remembered these pics from a couple days ago. Both boys were just up from naps and were snuggling in Daddy's chair. I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics. From the playroom I heard this "Mom - what are you doing?" I replied with "Taking some pictures of the boys, L". She came back with "Well I am out here, why are you taking pictures without me???". I told her to come join in the fun but she was mad by this point because I was taking pictures of the boys and had not included her. I did explain that I was only taking pictures of them because they were impromptu hanging out in the chair together. It didn't appease her one bit. Here are those cute pics though : -)

Fresh from nap and not at all happy I dragged the camera out.Okay now they are warming up to the idea.

Baby J still a bit sleepy from naptime.

Oh what a smile my baby has and look at those teeth (he has 4 now)!!

Now the smiles are abundant but not at the same time ;-)

Yesterday we went to a local museum (where I talked about the coincidence or what is it?). The museum was so much fun as always. I have some pics from there too (I know surprise, surprise!!)

Baby J in the baby crawlers area.S popping out of one of the bubble type of chairs in the reading area.

L & S in the dark room area with a black light on. They loved how their clothes glowed.

More modeling of the cute hats in the black light room.

Baby J watching the puppet show put on by L & S.

Puppet show from 2 of my favorite monsters!!

Today was a trip to the Zoo! I'll post about it later though because laundry is calling my name (and loudly too!!)

Baby J is CRAWLING!

While I was gone this weekend (I was gone for exactly 24 hours!), Baby J began crawling on all 4s. He is now fully mobile and into everything. He will not come onto the wood floor into the kitchen all the way though - stays right on the edge. I think it hurts his knees. So he will just sit and whine in the living room until I get him : -)

Baby J Accomplishments

Baby J is just developing and getting bigger and more advanced all the time.

He can now push himself to sitting up from laying down (first time today!). He is now sitting up. This kinda all happened all at once. He still isn't fully crawling but is trying and sort of army crawls to get where he wants to go. He is still only saying "DADADA" over and over. No "MAMA" yet. Hopefully soon though : -)

Downside: possibly kidney problems like his brother. Baby J hasn't been having nearly enough wet diapers. I thought it might have to do with my period or his teething but after 10 days of 1-2 wet diapers a day, I called the dr yesterday and they wanted him in right away. We headed up there. He isn't dehydrated, which is what they thought but instead might have a blocked kidney. We need to do a renal u/s and a VCUG. He has lost some weight. I am supposed to push the milk and try to introduce formula to get his liquids up. We did try the formula twice over the weekend since I was worried and he is just not taking it. So I started Fenugreek and pumping like mad. I am so scared of the VCUG again. This was the worst experience with S 2 years ago. And the cost - HOLY COW! And it stinks that the cost even has to be a factor in my worrying mind. Of course he'll have it done, without a doubt, but I am worried about the additional impact on our already strained finances.

2 Teeth!

Baby J has 2 teeth now!!! He cut his first tooth on 4/1 and then next one popped through on 4/6. They are front and center on the bottom. It's crazy to think my baby already has teeth! He tried 2 chew while nursing a couple of times but I quickly popped him and took his milk away and he didn't like that one bit so no more chewing : -)

Baby J is 6 Months Old

Where has the last 6 months gone?!? I took Baby J to the dr today for his 6 month check-up. He weighed 17 pounds, 26 inches long and his head was 44MM long (the dr measures the head this way for some reason). Everything was pretty much 50% except his head was 25% this time, a reverse from last time. He only got one shot and one oral since we split the vaccines now. He did great and had no adverse reaction this time (thank you God!). He is rolling both ways, loving carrots, apples & bananas, sleeping in his own bed (when he's not falling alseep on the floor or couch), laughing out loud constantly and is trying to crawl. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. I suspect crawling will come quickly - YIKES!!!

p.s. Didn't want to spend the extra money on a new computer right now but I sure love it. It is super fast!!!!