Everett Newborn Photos

When Rett was about 3 weeks old, a friend from church who is a professional photographer took some newborn photos for us! I just got the CD from her and they are great! (I actually got them a week ago, her husband gave them to Anthony and I discovered in a bag a week later...men.). I used the photos she sent as a preview to make up his newborn announcements, so those are in the mail already. The day she took them, she got to our house literally a few minutes after James fell out of his crib and hurt his collar bone, so it was a big surprise that my favorite picture ended up being one of James and Rett. James really wasn't in the mood for taking pictures, especially one that involved moving his shoulder and taking his shirt off but she got the shot!

 This is the build-a-bear hat James wore in his newborn pictures!

He is 7 weeks now, about a month older than when these pictures were taken and he already looks so different! He is still a really happy baby for the most part, but we have been struggling lately with him not wanting to nurse. He seems hungry and latches on really well, but then while he is eating he will all of a sudden start to cry and scream and not want to eat anymore. He did this a few weeks ago for a three or four days and we thought it was because he was constipated. It seemed to get better, but now all of a sudden he is doing it again...so confusing. He takes a bottle just fine and seems totally content otherwise, he just doesn't like nursing at the moment. 

On the bright side, he has started napping much better during the day and for the past two weeks has consistently been waking up only around 1am and 5:30am to eat at night. I am hoping this keeps up and only gets better as he gets older. I miss my nighttime sleep!

Potty Training, here we go!

We are officially potty training James and so far it has been going well! He has seemed ready for awhile, but I kept putting it off because I didn't have the energy for it and I thought it would be too much change with the arrival of Rett. The turning point came the night before Halloween. I had put James and Rett in the bath right before bedtime. Rett was getting fussy, so I got him out of the bathtub, got him dressed and sat down to nurse him in the other room. I could hear James playing in the bathtub and he usually does well in there as long as he knows that we are close by. After a few minutes, he decided he was done and he climbed out and started wandering the house completely naked :) I was almost done nursing Rett, so I wasn't concerned about what he was doing, thinking I would get him in a minute. After some suspiciously quiet minutes alone in our laundry room, James came running up to me excitedly yelling, "I peed! I pooped!". I asked him where and he proudly showed me to the floor of our laundry room...yeah. gross. He was just so excited! The next morning we were in big boy underwear :)

The first day was great, with only one accident. Then the next morning he was crying and sobbing and telling me he didn't want to sit on the potty and that he wanted a diaper. So we took a break for the weekend and tried again on Monday. Monday morning he went on the potty over 15 times throughout the day and we only had one accident! We even took a trip to the store to pick out his reward for filling up his potty chart with stickers and he kept his underwear dry the entire trip! He was so cute picking out his reward :) I have never seen him so engrossed in the task of choosing the exact right toy that he wanted. Then when he finally made a decision and we got to the cashier, he handed her his potty chart and told her he could get a toy because he went "pee pee on the potty!" She was a good sport and made a big fuss over him being a big boy.

Tuesday morning he told me again that he wanted a diaper and this time I just told him that diapers were for naptime and bedtime and that he could have a diaper, but he would have to get back into his crib. He immediately changed his mind and was happy to put on his "underwears" :) Tuesday we went the entire day with zero accidents!! He even requested to go a few times without us prompting him, which was great.

Today has been okay. The novelty/fun of going on the potty seems to be wearing off and he definitely doesn't like us asking him if he has to go. (He usually yells "NO!" every time we ask him). He likes it when I set the timer and then when it goes off it is time to sit on the potty, but it is hard for me to remember to set the timer with everything else we have going on during the day. We went to story time at the library this morning in his big boy underwear and I could tell that he wasn't acting like himself. He wouldn't sing along with the songs and seemed uncomfortable but he didn't want to go to the bathroom. I asked him if he wanted to go home and he said yes, so I am thinking that he wanted to go home to use the potty. He held it in until we got home, so that was good. We just have to work on going to the bathroom when we go places (I ordered a cars travel seat online that goes on the regular toilets so I am hoping that will make them less scary for him). Today was also day 3 without a number 2, so we didn't know what would happen. Sure enough, he went out onto the back porch by himself in the afternoon and then came in to tell us he needed his "diaper changed". He really doesn't want to go #2 on the potty! Any suggestions on getting him there?

Overall I am really happy with how things have been going even though potty training with a 6 week old hasn't been the most pleasant of experiences :) I will be happy to have only one kid in diapers though!

All things Halloween

We did a lot of fun Halloween activities this year! I looked up what was going on around town and made a plan to go to as many as we could :) Even though we did a lot of festivals, I still feel a little let down that I didn't have the time/brain energy to get as into it as I usually do. Oh well, next year!

I had a bunch of costumes in James' closet for him that I bought at 90% (!) off at target last year. One morning we pulled them out and tried on different ones to see which one was the winner:

Showing me his muscles in a transformer costume:

 Then we tried on the batman costume. He liked it because of the mask and when we took it off, he insisted he keep the mask on for the rest of the day:

The batman costume was a little big, so I tried to steer him towards the transformer costume when we had a festival to go to. The first one was at the library. Last year I did the balloon animals for them and it was packed, so I made sure to get there early. For some reason there was barely anyone there this year! It turned out to be a good thing for James because they let him do his favorite games (like the fishing game) over and over and over :)

He would also go up to the popcorn machine and get a new bag of popcorn...then bring it to me and hand it to me and go back for more! This was one of the first outings that I had with just me and James since Rett was born. James was loving having me all to himself! He was so happy.

The next festival was a fundraiser at a local saddle club. We spent wayyy too much money on tickets. We overestimated how many we would need and ended up giving over $5 away to other people coming in as we were leaving. We got there really early so avoid the lines and the first thing James wanted to do was the hay ride of course! We thought he would be scared, but he loved every minute of it.

Here he is waving at us:

 He decided to go with a superman costume this time, since he can fly with his cape! :)

 We decided to see if he would go on a pony ride. The last time I tried to put him on one, he cried and screamed and I had to get my money back, so I wasn't sure. He loved the helmet, so that was a good sign!

 When it was his turn, they started to take him over to a small, miniature horse that they had for littler kids. James immediately protested and pointed to the other horses and said, "No, big one!". We were so proud of him! He wasn't scared at all:

 Waving at us:

 Then we went into the petting zoo area:

 His absolute favorite of all the animals were these baby chicks and ducklings. He kept going back there over and over:

 Petting a chicken:

 Of course, we had to do another train ride!

The next day was our ward's Halloween party and trunk and treat. Once again, the hayride was the favorite! They also had a bouncy house that James loved. Anthony and I took turns holding Rett in the sling while I took care of some primary stuff for the sacrament program the next day. Everywhere we went, as long as Rett was being carried in the sling, he was a happy baby, no tears at all! James was a little overwhelmed by all the people once the trick or treating started but he loved getting all the candy. On the way home, he had a lollipop in his hand and got it all over him. Anthony was so grossed out! :)

Before we knew it, it was Halloween day! Anthony dressed up for work. Every year they do a theme and this year they had the doctors and nurse practitioners dress up as prison guards, and the support staff as prisoners. I got Anthony's shirt from goodwill and his police accessories from the dollar tree. The fake glasses came in the policeman package...I guess policemen wear nerdy glasses? I didn't get it :)

While Anthony was at work I took some pictures of Rett in his Halloween onesie that I got at my baby shower. He is starting to look so cute!!

After Anthony got home from work, we got ready to go trick or treating downtown. We did it last year and had a blast! They block off the main road and the kids can trick or treat up and down the street at the different stores. Anthony didn't dress up, but a friend lent us a monkey costume for Rett, so I dressed up as the (wo)Man in the Yellow Hat and Rett was Curious George (James is obsessed with Curious George right now). James was a transformer again :)

The trick or treating was fun, but was over pretty quickly. Since it was about time for Rett to eat again once we were finished, we decided to head home. After we got home, James pretty much forgot about his Halloween candy until right before bedtime. I suggested that as a special treat he get to eat a popsicle (sugar-free) in the bathtub. He was so excited!! Man I love it when you can find ways to trick them into not eating/doing something that isn't as good for them.

All in all, we had a great Halloween. Hopefully next year we will have the energy to go all out and have matching costumes and everything!

Everett's Baby Blessing

This past Sunday we had Everett's baby blessing! We did it at home, like we did with James, and it was really special. My mom, my brother Daniel, and Anthony's parents were able to come over for it. We wanted to Skype with other family members, but unfortunately the timing didn't work out :( James was really reverent and quiet during the blessing which was a big surprise, but definitely appreciated. For the most of it he sat next to me on the couch. Right before Anthony started, James folded his arms and looked up at me and whispered, "we say a prayer now?". During the prayer I had to struggle not to start crying because I knew if I did I would have a hard time stopping! I am always amazed by the power of the priesthood. I am so grateful that we are able to have it in our home.

Anthony, his dad, our bishop, and one of his counselors:

 Our new little family!

A sweet sister in our ward gave us this baby blessing outfit and blanket that she had made for us. It is so beautiful! It is definitely something we will keep as an heirloom.

Later that day, Anthony's mom realized that it was his grandfather's birthday, which was so neat since Everett's middle name (Robert) is after him! 

Anthony's New Boat 2.0

Ever since Anthony got his new boat, he knew that he wanted to make some modifications to it. He wanted to add a poling platform to the back and change the steering to a steering wheel. The place that made his boat is only a few hours away, so almost immediately after purchasing it, he called them to see when they could work on it. They had a long waiting list and he wasn't able to get it in the shop until a few months ago. It took awhile for them to order all the parts Anthony wanted and to finish the work but it was finally ready to pick up last Saturday. Luckily, Anthony happened to have off of work that day! He was so excited to drive down there and pick up the new and improved boat.

The new steering wheel and platform next to the motor:

Anthony trying out the poling platform after bringing it home:

He took it out for a spin that afternoon and everything ran great. Now he just needs to find time to actually go fishing!

Everett is 1 Month old!

Our little guy is 1 month old today!! I can't believe it has been an entire month! Where did the time go? He is still such an easy going, laid back baby. I think it is interesting that when I was pregnant with James, while he was still inside he was always kicking and moving and being active and his personality as a baby and toddler has been just the same: never still! Then when I was pregnant with Rett, I didn't feel him kick for the first time until much later in my pregnancy compared to James (they say you normally feel it earlier with a second baby) and even though I would feel him move, it was a much quieter, slower feeling. Sometimes I would forget he was in there! Now as a baby his personality is exactly the same. Quiet, easy going, not in a rush. Nursing is the same story. James was never full, always ready for more and would cry loudly if he didn't get food fast enough. He is still on the impatient side :) Many times I have to encourage Rett to finish nursing instead of falling asleep, and when he does nurse, often times it is a lazy affair. It is so fun to see their different personalities develop!

I've made these monthly onesies a few times now for friends for their baby shower gifts, so I had to make some for myself! Now I can get monthly pictures without having to worry about forgetting how old he is in each one :)

So far he has blue eyes and reddish brown curly hair. I am so hoping his hair stays curly!! A lot of people have said that Rett reminds them more of Anthony than James did, and I have to agree.

 I love this serious expression that he gets where he narrows his eyebrows. It makes him look so quizzical!

 Of course, I had to get a picture of the toes. He has the longest toes!! They are long and narrow and take up almost a third of his feet! It is hard to tell in the picture, but in person it is really noticable :)

We are really loving life as a family of four. It already feels like Rett has always been a part of our family. We are so excited to watch him grow and develop!

Our first (kind of) broken bone

Last Friday during nap time James climbed out of his crib for the first time...and really hurt his shoulder! I heard screaming in his room and when I opened the door he was lying on the floor, sobbing. When I went to pick him up, he told me that his head hurt. After a few minutes he told me that his shoulder hurt too. He wouldn't lift it up or let anyone touch it but he was still using it a little bit. I was worried, but not too worried. Anthony came home and looked at it and said that we should really get some xrays of it, but that it didn't look like an emergency. Since it was Friday afternoon, we decided to wait until Monday and if it wasn't better we would get some xrays.

Monday afternoon it seemed to be a little better, but he still wouldn't put pressure on it and would complain about it hurting if we picked him up a certain way. So off we went to get xrays! James charmed all the people in the office :) He walked right up to everybody and introduced himself. He would pat his chest and say "I'm James!". After they would say hello he would declare, "I fell out of my crib! I hurt my shoulder!" and would pat his left shoulder. He was talkative and happy up until he actually had to take the xray. Then the tears came! He didn't like having to hold still in a certain position and I think everyone wearing the lead aprons kind of scared him. He kept crying and saying, "I wanna go!" :( Afterwards he was all smiles and he loved showing off his stickers they gave him.

A few hours after they took the xray, they called with their initial findings (not the official word, just what they saw at first glance) to tell us that he had a hairline clavicle fracture! I couldn't believe it! What luck that he would fracture a bone the very first time he decided to climb out of his crib. We weren't sure what the treatment would be since there isn't much you can do for that kind of a fracture. A sling or a brace at the most. We decided to wait until we got the official report from the radiologist. A day or so later we got the official report which decided that it was negative for a fracture (yay!) but that they couldn't rule out a slight dislocation...I had no idea there was such a thing as a slight dislocation. I always thought that was an all or nothing kind of deal. We really didn't think he dislocated anything since he was using his arm so much, but since there was doubt about it we decided to go see an orthopedic doctor to have him look at it.

This is the initial xray. The really slight shadow is where they thought it might be fractured.

This morning he had his appointment with the orthopedist. He was a little scared of the doctor at first (he was really tall and had a really loud, booming voice) but he quickly warmed up to him. He had him reach up to grab his finger and then he would pull back to see how he would react. He felt the bone and had him give him high fives with his left hand. It took some coaxing to get him to use his left arm, but I think that is more out of habit now from when it did hurt because it doesn't seem to be hurting him now. They took some more xrays in the office (which was so cool that they did it right there and had the results in about 10 minutes. So nice!) and the doctor said they look completely normal, no fracture or anything. He said that it may not have been his clavicle at all, but he could have pulled a muscle or strained something, or even bruised a rib. Since I didn't actually see how he feel out of the crib, anything could be possible. I still think it had something to do with his clavicle since he had a light bruise on his shoulder right where the questionable spot on the xray was. In the end, all that matters is that he is getting better every day and we haven't had to deal with forcing him to wear a brace or a sling!

Everett at 2 1/2 weeks old

Our little man is almost 3 weeks old already! He seriously is a little angel baby. Anthony and I can't get over how much better we are handling these newborn days than when we expected to :) The last few weeks have been filled with appointments and follow-ups for Everett. First, a few days after we came home from the hospital, we took him to Anthony's work for a check-up. He was 7lbs 5ozs when we left the hospital and at the appointment a few days later he was 7lbs 2ozs! He was really sleepy all the time and a lazy nurser, so we decided to make a better effort to wake him up consistently to feed him. I felt so bad that he hadn't started gaining his weight back again! He also was still pretty jaundiced, so we decided to get his bilirubin levels checked at the end of the week if he still looked yellow.

The next day I started having a lot of pain while nursing and I was scared that things were going to be terrible like they were with James, so I called a local lactation consultant to schedule a home visit for later that day. She came in the evening to evaluate everything. She said it didn't look like thrush, but it seemed like he wasn't latching on just right. Once she showed me what to look for to make sure he was on correctly, it looked like we fixed the problem. After a day or so, the pain cleared up and now nursing is back on track! Hopefully it stays that way. We've given him a few bottles here and there to try to help flush out his jaundice but he doesn't seem to be a big fan of them. He gags really easily and all the bottles we've tried just flow too fast for his liking. Maybe when he is bigger that won't be as much of a problem?

At the end of that week I took Everett early in the morning to the lab to get his bilirubin checked to see if his jaundice was improving. Anthony got the results later that afternoon and the news was not good, his levels were still really high! So we started giving him time in the sun to simulate the UV lights they use in the hospitals and tried to feed him even more. At the beginning of the next week we got him rechecked and his levels had come down by a lot. It still wasn't officially "normal", but headed in the right direction. Now, almost a week later, the yellow in his eyes is almost completely gone so it doesn't look like we will have to get him poked for a third time. Thank goodness!

I also had to take Everett back to the hospital to get his hearing rechecked. He failed his hearing test right after birth, which they said was most likely due to fluid in his ears from the delivery. Sure enough, when I took him back he passed the test with flying colors! They even gave me a little certificate that says he passed :)

On Saturday I took my first solo trip outside of the house with both boys (!) to visit Anthony at work for lunch. Since we were there, we went ahead and weighed Everett and he was 7lbs 11.2ozs. Yay!!! He is back up to his birth weight! My first adventure out with the two of them went really well and after lunch I was even able to stop to get gas. Everett slept in his car seat almost the entire time and James was so happy to be out of the house. Seriously, it has been really hard on him to have to stay home all the time. I am trying to avoid public places as much as I can with the baby, but life must go on!

Brothers

Ever since I started showing, we have been trying to prepare James for being a big brother. We talked about the baby in my belly all the time and that he would come out someday and live in our house. We bought a baby doll that we called "baby brother" and we practiced being soft with it. James took to it right away! He would carry it around the house and wanted it next to him while we read stories at night. I bought several books about being a big brother and having a baby in the house and we read them over and over. I wasn't sure how much he understood, but I was pretty sure that he was as prepared as a 2 1/2 year old could be. 

I think all that preparation paid off because ever since Everett was born, James has been absolutely wonderful with him! James doesn't really like to give kisses and hugs normally, but he absolutely loves giving Everett kisses! He thinks all the noises that Everett makes are so funny, especially if he burps or passes gas :) If James hears it, he will laugh out loud and shout, "He tooted!!" He is always very concerned if the baby is crying and wants to go over to him and pet him and put his pacifier in.

This particular afternoon, James told us that he wanted to hold baby brother, so we set him up on the couch. He loved it!

James loves helping us do anything with the baby. When I am changing his diaper Everett usually cries and James will climb up on the bed next to him and try to give him his pacifier. It is amazing to see how immediately James has accepted him as his brother and as a part of the family. So far there hasn't seemed to be much jealousy, only a few instances where he demanded that the person holding Everett be the person that gets him milk/reads him stories, etc... Funny enough, he seems to be totally fine that he has to share his mommy and daddy with Everett now, but definitely doesn't like the idea that he has to share his Grandma!

We all went to the grocery store yesterday and while I was putting Everett in the wrap so I could carry him on my chest, my mom waited by the trunk of the car with James. An older couple walked by and James exclaimed to them, "I have a baby brother!". They laughed and told him that they could see that. James responded, "I'm a big boy!!". They smiled and said he was. James came back with, "I get cookies!" (he was excited about getting the free one from the grocery store). It really is adorable to see how excited James is about having Everett around. I can't wait to see how their relationship develops!

Happy Birthday Anthony!!

Last Thursday was Anthony's 35th birthday! The night before Anthony was in the kitchen and said something like,  "We don't have anything planned for tomorrow do we?...." I distractedly said, "No, nothing special". Anthony repeated himself and I was confused for awhile until my mom whispered to me that it was his birthday tomorrow. With the new baby, his birthday completely slipped my mind! The next morning I helped James make a card and some cookies for Anthony and we colored on the front walkway with sidewalk chalk.

Then we all piled in the car, baby and all, and headed to the grocery store to buy Anthony's cookie cake (his absolute favorite aside from Carvel ice cream cake). After Anthony got home from work, his parents met us at the house and we all went out for Mexican food. I was a little nervous about how Everett would do with all of these outings, but he was wonderful! The best part of the meal was the staff singing happy birthday at the end, complete with sombreros for everyone :)

Happy Birthday Anthony, we are so glad you were born!!