Scenes from a Summer's Day, 3

Snuggles has been having a blast playing with his favorite birthday present, given to him by some dear friends.

I just called my Pediatrician's office to see if they had any results back yet on Snuggle's blood work. I was able to talk to his nurse, and although they don't have all the results back yet (they are still waiting for the results on a celiac panel),the preliminary results, and the results on the other tests, indicate that it very well may be a Gluten Allergy or Intolerance. I had a feeling that might be the case. She said that the Doctor will call me as soon as they have the rest of the results.

Thank you all for your prayers.

I'll keep you posted!

An Update on our Snuggle Bug

On Friday I took Snuggles in for his One-Year check up. This was actually his third visit with the doctor since we arrived home from our trip. The first was due to his not recovering completely from the flu, and at that appointment we realized how little he weighed, 16lb 11 oz pounds. To put this in perspective, he weighed 8lb 5 oz at birth, and 16 lbs at 6 months. It was a HUGE drop on (or rather OFF) the growth chart. The doctor ran a few labs which came back negative, and with the help of some probiotics, we were able to stabilize his digestive tract. The doctor gave me lots of food suggestions to help him gain weight, and I took him in for a recheck the next week. He was back up to 17 lb 9 oz. This was very good, but still nowhere near where he should be, and still below 0% on the weight chart for his weight at this age--although his head is still measuring in the 85%. The rest of my children are on the small end of the charts, so generally we wouldn't be too concerned, but Snuggles has gone from being our biggest baby to being our smallest. At Friday's appointment, he weighed only 17 lb 10oz. Anyhow, we decided to go ahead and run a panel of tests to see if there was an underlying reason that is hindering his weight gain. Especially with everything he has been eating! The doctor wanted to look at a number of different things including his thyroid and various allergens. It was awful taking him to have his blood drawn, but I did take him to a good friend of ours though, who is excellent with babies. It was still sad to see him have to go through that, but it didn't take long for Snuggles to be back to his sweet, smiley self, as you can see. I will be meeting with the doctor again in a couple weeks to find out his results. After finding out about all my food sensitivities, I am wondering if this could be the case for Snuggles. I guess we will see. I will keep you all updated. Thank you all for your prayers!

Our Baby Boy Is ONE Today!

Today our little guy is turning one! I cannot believe how quickly time goes by... Here are a few photos from his first year of life:

Happy Birthday Snuggles!! You have been such a blessing to us, and have added so much joy to our lives. We love you so much!

If you could all please say a prayer for him today, I would really appreciate it. He has had a rough month. He hasn't quite gotten over the flu that he had on our trip, or else he has caught another, and so I took him in to see his doctor yesterday. His weight has dropped drastically, and he is only weighing 16 pounds, 9 ounces, which is way below the zero percentile for his age. (At birth he was my biggest baby, weighing 8 lb 5 oz.) The doctor will be running a few tests, and I will be taking him in for a re-check this coming Tuesday. Thank you so much!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! God Bless!

The Tooth Fairy

This Morning Rascal lost his very first tooth!!! He is so excited!

Although, he was a bit concerned when he realized that tomorrow is Sunday.

You see, the tooth fairy forgot once when Capitan lost a tooth doesn't work on Sunday. I reassured him that since it was his very first tooth, the tooth fairy might just make an exception!

Thank goodness that daddy the tooth fairy is back in town!

Captain lost another tooth this past week when hubby was out of town. On top of that, our sweet little 2 year old (who will be three tomorrow!!!) lost it! Before bed, I helped Captain write a note to the tooth fairy explaining the "missing" tooth. However, I woke in the morning to Captain standing there next to my bed waiting for me to wake up. As soon as I did, he said, "Mom, the tooth fairy forgot!" (Me to myself: OH NO!!! ARGH!!) Me, to Captain, "Are you sure? Why don't you go to the bathroom and then we will check!" He said ok, and I quickly transformed into Houdini--I jumped out of bed, ran out to my desk for my purse, I only had 2 pennies and a $5... I grabbed the $5 (lucky kid!), ran to his bedroom, grabbed the note (which slipped out of my hand and is still under his bed--which reminds me, I better get it before he finds it!), I slipped the $5 under his pillow, ran back to my room and jumped back into bed, just as he walks out of the bathroom. It had to be less than 2 minutes all together. Whew! Anyhow, I then "woke up" and got up, and together we went to his room. He looked under his pillow... "OH! It must have been too dark earlier for me to see... Or maybe the tooth fairy was running late!" I replied, "Oh! Wonderful!"

I'm such a bad--totally forgetful--mom!!!!

Maybe we better start letting the tooth fairy know that we have a tooth instead of just hoping he'll show up! What do you think??

April Shower of Photos :: Day 9

This afternoon, while I was taking care of Snuggles & Twinkle Toes (she is getting really sick--we will probably head to the doctors in the morning), I let the boys and Chiquita go play outside.

I noticed the boys were riding bikes. Rascal has been, any chance he gets, since he realized last Friday that he no longer needs those training wheels!

You'd never know that it has only been a few days... He has just taken off!

But I couldn't find Chiquita... She was up on the back hill picking wild flowers.


Here I zoomed in on her... I really need to get a better zoom lens.

"Look, momma, I picking fwowers!"

With no shoes on no less!!! "OH! Those are pretty! Come on down and get your shoes on!"

"But momma, I need to give them to Mare-we!"

Yes, she has her moments of being a stinker, but my soon to be 3 year old is turning into quite the sweet (and very determined) little girl. Now to get back to the sick ones...

Mary, Health of the Sick ~ Pray for Us!

Baby News!

Tonight Snuggles was bound and determined to "get the ball," even if it meant crawling!!!



I missed seeing the first time, since he was back in his big brothers room with daddy... Hubby then brought him out to the living room to show me:



Aahh! I'm not ready for this, even if he is!

April Shower of Photos :: Day 3

Snuggles first time swingin' outside!

April Shower of Photos :: Day 2

{We stopped by hubby's work while we were in town today and had a picnic on the grass! So glad I had my new handy dandy little camera with me!! OH! And tooth #4 broke through today in Snuggles mouth--top left.}

OH, o-KAY!! I can't stop there... I HAVE to share JUST one more with you all...

Happy SPRING!

Our Irish Baby's...

... 1st St. Patrick's Day!!!

Isn't he sweet!?!?

Snuggles also had his second tooth come in today... Top right. Now if I could just teach him to stop biting!

We had a very fun, full day! I was so disappointed that I forgot my flashcard at home today, but Regina had her camera, so hop on over to her blog to see a cute slide show from this afternoon. The kids had such fun playing Bingo, Petting animals, and breaking Blarney Stones.

After our party, since it was late, and we were still in town, I swapped cars with hubby (so he could take the kids home), then Snuggles and I got busy running errands. It took longer than I hoped, but I'm so happy that my shopping is done, and all the kids Easter treats have been purchased!

Today is also my dear father-in-law's AND my brother-in-law's birthdays!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU TWO!

Now, to get those groceries put away...

One in, One out

Unlike this other brave child, Captain likes to wait till his teeth fall out on their own. Today was no different. This morning it was just flopping around when he would talk, and Captain was not too interested in eating.

Snuggles was also very cranky. Just look at his poor mouth and those teeth that are taking forever to come in.

Well.. It turned out that today was their day. Captain came running in to tell me, "Look Mom!! It's OUT!!"

And within an hour, we also got to see (or rather feel) Snuggles first tooth! He wouldn't smile for anything.

Surprisingly enough, it was actually his bottom right tooth that made the first appearance. I wasn't even expecting it, thinking for sure it would be one of those top two teeth that are just right there!

Chiquita's First* Haircut

* That is, if you don't count the ringlet of hair she cut off last year!

Tonight, I decided to cut Chiquita's hair. I am so impatient. I should have waited, and taken her in to my hairdresser, but I didn't, and her hair is now shorter than I had planned... But, she is happy.

Ever since Twinkle Toes and I got our hair cut off, Chiquita has been saying that she wants "Doy-a" (Dora) hair. So, since her hair has been rather scraggly (it was super thin on one side from her own attempt at cutting it), and since she has been having a hard time keeping it out of her mouth at mealtime, I decided to cut it.

Here are a few pictures...

Chiquita anticipating her new hair cut:

(Can you see how much shorter it is on the left?)

I decided to try and cut off a pony tail from the back to add to her baby book... This was NOT a good idea. I ended up cutting too much, and then she saw the pony tail at the same moment that I said OH NO!!!! Sooooo, this resulted in her crying. No picture of this, sorry! I was too busy trying to reassure her -- and myself, for that matter!! We both recovered.

Here is a picture of the back. It is slightly uneven... But, hey, I'm new at this!


And here is the front:

She was very pleased! As for me, I'm just happy hair grows! :)

He likes to move it too...

Snuggles LOVES his bouncy chair... I just had to share a little video clip of him in it. He is going to have the STRONGEST legs, isn't he? He is a very "physically fit" baby! (This actually might explain his drop in weight on the growth chart... you think?)

Anyhow, his bouncing reminds us of that song as well... In the clip, I just played the beginning of the song, and left out all the junk. Sorry for all the silence the second half of the video.

Along the same lines, I was at Barnes & Noble last week, just me and the baby... He was asleep when we got there, so I just carried in his whole infant car seat. I sat it down as I was browsing through the Christmas Clearance items. A few minutes later I noticed a girl staring at the seat, as it seemed to be rocking itself! Snuggles was inside, pumping his legs and making it rock! I've never seen a baby move a chair like he can... It's too funny!

Baby News - First Food!

Snuggles really enjoyed eating his "first food" last night, fed to him by daddy and his big sister (TT)! He will be 6 months old next week, and was really ready for food. It was so cute!

However, after dinner, Chiquita got sick... I think it is the flu, but it could have been from too many sweets... Needless to say it was a long night, and we ended up just moving the toddler bed into the bathroom for her, after cleaning up many messes. I stayed home with the girls and Snuggles this morning and hubby took the boys to serve Mass and Benediction. Please say a prayer that she gets better quickly, and that this flu moves through our family fast!!

"We" did it!

After some encouraging words from Regina last Wednesday, I finally decided to just go for it and potty train Chiquita. I took her out of her diaper and put her in panties which she was VERY excited about, but in no time I was cleaning up accidents all over the house! She seemed to be waiting for the one moment I was tied up with something else. What had I gotten myself into?!?

Thursday was a bit better, she only had two accidents in the morning. (This was after she woke up in a drenched bed and my DH was saying that those pull-ups don't work. And then realizing that she had a swim diaper on. Ooops!)

After that, she was so cute, when I would ask her, "Do you have to go potty?" She would answer, with the sweetest look," Um... Maybe!" On Friday, she had an accident, but it was really my own fault. It was the first time she had been out of the house and I forgot to put a pull-up on her. I did take along the potty chair (there is no bathroom at the church) and she did fine during Mass. But then I forgot to ask her if she needed to go, while we were at the coffee shop, till it was too late and she had had an accident, the poor girl.

Since then, however, she hasn't had any more accidents, including being out and about on Sunday once again with no pull-up! PLUS, she now goes all by herself, with no prompting or reminding from me. Sooooo, I think it is safe to say, Chiquita is now potty trained! It is so nice to have **only one** in diapers! (Much better than 3 kids in diapers, like we had when Chiquita was born! That was so expensive!)

Thank you Regina!

**Each sticker represents a success this past week... It's time to retire the Potty Chart, and hopefully we won't need one of these!**

Update on Peanut

Well, maybe I should just call my little Peanut, Peanut Butter! Or PB as in Peanut Butter or Paul Bunyon! He had his 4 month check up today, and measured in at the 75 percentile for height!! Now, for those of you that do not know us, this is so ABNORMAL for a child of mine... Most of my children have been falling off the bottom of the charts, with Rascal holding the previous record by barely hitting the 50% mark for weight and only 25% for height.

Maybe its in the genes. I was just looking at this picture of my husband with his family. His siblings get taller as they get younger... (There's Hubby right between two of the Black Robes) I wonder how long it will take Peanut to pass up his siblings in height... Probably not very long at this rate!

Baby Milestones

Just about 20 minutes ago, he did it! The baby rolled completely over from back to tummy without getting caught up on his arms. He has been trying to roll over for a few weeks, but always gets stuck on his side from his arm. He, however, does NOT like being on his tummy, and started fussing immediately.

*Picture was taken this evening. Don't you just love his smile? I wish you could hear his laugh!