Busy Bees

We have been super busy these past few days. Adding to the stress of such a full schedule, my dad gave us a BAD scare on Thursday by passing out at work. He fell hard, and on the way down hit his head on either a metal edge or granite. After being transported by ambulance to the nearest hospital (about 20 miles from my hometown) and running a few tests, we were all so relieved to hear that his CAT scan was clear and all his head would need to heal would be five staples. Add to that the blessing of finding out after an overnight stay in the hospital and more testing that all is well with his heart - well, except that the doctor thinks either a rapid or slow heartrate is the culprit of him losing consiousness. Sound familiar? Must run in the family. I'm just so happy he's home and resting that noggin of his.

Even though Thursday was emotionally stressful due to dad's incident, we ended up having a good Friday and Saturday. We went down for the day to see for ourselves that Papa was in fact o.k. on Friday. After J getting a good look at Papa's staples and us giving him lots of hugs, we headed back home so we could met some friends for dinner that were in town visiting. They were blessed with a precious little boy a couple of month's after our baby L was born and this was the first time we were able to meet him. As you can see, our two babes became fast friends. We had SUCH a good time catching up, and hope to see this sweet family again soon when we visit their hometown.On Saturday, we traveled to San Antonio for the day for a friend's 1st birthday party, followed by a trip to the SA Zoo. It was L's first trip and the hubby and I were so glad we decided to go. J had a great time, and the weather was perfect. I'm fighting off a chest cold now (thanks to all the nasty allergens in the air down here), so I will finish downloading pictures and post them tomorrow from the party and zoo.

Right now, I'm going to finish my green tea with honey, and get in bed.

Soccer Rocks!

Today was big J's first day of soccer classes. I found this great program about 5 miles from our neighborhood that teaches the basic skills & fundamentals of soccer. He will go every Wednesday for the next 7 weeks. He had a great time at his first class, and baby L and I had just as much fun watching. Here are just a few of the pictures I took of our little man in action.

Here's the athlete before his class. He was soooooo excited. He actually woke me up this morning asking if it was "time to go yet?" Quite unusual for the sleepyhead I usually have to drag out of bed. :)

Six little guys lined up, patiently waiting to start kicking those soccer balls.

Go J! He did a GREAT job kicking that ball up and down the field.

One of baby brother. He had so much fun watching his big brother. (He has a bib on b/c he was eating lunch while we were there.)

I thought this was a funny shot b/c all the little boys in the class fit in the soccer goal.

A team pep talk at the end of class. J said he really likes Coach Tara and that she is a great soccer player. Awwwwww.

A happy little boy after class. I know he'll be counting the days until his next class.

L's Turn

Everyone I know has been getting sick and dealing with sick kiddos. Our sweet J was on antibiotics twice for a back to back ear infection a couple of weeks ago, then POW. He gets hit with a terrible respiratory infection that turned to bronchitis and had to be on antibiotics for the third time in about a 4-5 week period. Poor lil' dude.

Just as J was finishing up his antibiotics last week, sweet baby L started getting fussy. At first, I thought it must be the dreaded teething...still...trying...to...break...through. Ugh. Finally, on Wed night, after being up with him screaming in my ear for about 4 hours in the wee hours of the night, it hit me. I looked at the hubby and said, "I bet all my money he has an ear infection." Duh. Too bad I didn't place a real bet on that.

The next morning our pediatrician confirmed that L did have a very badly infected left ear, with his right ear on the way to infection. So for the first time EVER, L is on antibiotics. He's on one of those fun, 10-day twice a day meds (I say with sarcasm b/c up until today he has fought us hard on taking the darn stuff). I cannot wait for Saturday to come and go and us be done with that part.

L's sickness has made me remember to be thankful about one thing though - that I am at home with him. He will be 9 months old next week, and this is the first time he's had to take any medicine (other than tylenol or motrin). What a blessing. By this point, poor J had already had at least 4 if not 5 ear infections and antibiotics. I do know how lucky I am to be in the position to be at home with my boys, and these are the times I say extra prayers of thanksgiving for God allowing this for our family.

Our Lil' Leprechauns

As promised, here are some snapshots of our little Irishmen. Today was such a beautiful day! We ran errands and had lunch with the Bird girls - just being out in the sunshine put us all in a great mood.

Here is our happy little man right after dinner.
Sometimes he gets so excited that he begins to breathe really fast and it sounds like he might hyperventilate. That's what he is doing in this picture. Too funny.
Finally, a couple of pictures from yesterday. J is so excited that warmer weather has arrived. He has informed me that now that it is sunny and warm, he is going to ride in his monster truck every day. And play soccer. And go swimming. And run at the park. Sounds like we're going to keep busy this spring and summer!
Watch out - there's a new driver in town!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Pictures of my two lil' leprechauns to come. I am working on downloading some right now.

But first, can you believe I left the house with no green on today? I had a shirt with green in it on, then LJ drooled milk all over it when I was giving him his bottle, and I quickly changed. Oops, forgot to change into something with GREEN! What kind of part-Irish woman am I?

And yes, LJ drooled some of his BOTTLE on me. He is taking a soy milk bottle at lunch now and doing GREAT! An answered prayer. I'm so happy he can tolerate it, and now mommy can feed him when we're on the go, or out and about, and it's giving us way more freedom. However, the picky little guy likes it super warm (make that HOT) so I've had to buy a warmer that plugs into the car (we'll see how that works), and I will have to be resourceful as to how to warm it up in other places. Running it under a faucet at a restaurant won't cut it - this kid won't even finish the bottle if it cools down to much while he's drinking it. I have to go reheat it. At least he's not picky about the solids he eats!

Here we go again

I shouldn't have been surprised. This happened to me when I was a baby. It happened to J when he was a baby. And now, poor L is dealing with it as well. The dreaded milk allergy. Sigh.

I have been blessed this time around to be in the position to give my sweet boy "mommy's milk" since he was born. Despite the bumps in the road, we have continued to be a nursing pair and I think I can speak for both of us in saying it has been wonderful. :) Recently though, my little man has become a little more difficult to feed in public. The invention of the hooter hider was the best thing ever (yes, it's called a hooter hider...look it up on ebay!) Hands-free coverage while you breastfed in public. Well, now that L is more coordinated, he tends to grab the hider and yank it back. I'm pretty sure he flashed an elderly man at a mexican restaurant last week. Oops.

This led me to decide it was time to replace his lunchtime session with a bottle. This would make it easier on me to be places during the day, and easier on him as he would not have to be covered up. Did I say easy? Riiiiiiight.

Yesterday, I gave L a bottle of half breast milk, half formula. I noticed he had some red bumps just under his bottom lip afterwards, but it didn't look TOO bad, plus he has eczema and skin issues, so I chalked it up to that. Last night, he had a TERRIBLE night and was up off and on crying and fussing. I chalked that up to teething. Then he had a weird poo diaper this morning. I started to wonder...

In the meantime, b/c I'm kinda slow - heh, I decided since he took the bottle like a champ yesterday, I would give him straight formula today. I knew he was hungry, so I started trying to feed him. I stress trying, because as soon as a drop hit his tongue (he didn't even suck the bottle really) he refused it. I tried about 10 times to get him to take that bottle, to no avail. He only "drank" the few drops that escaped the bottle's nipple. And got really po'd at mommy for trying. After about 10 minutes of this, I realized he was not going to take this bottle, and was trying to decide what to do next (I did try to warm it up more, gave him powder formula mixed with water, then tried premade formula...none of this worked.) Not 15 minutes after those first drops hit his mouth, this is what started happening:

See all that red around his mouth? He started breaking out from the milk. It was all around his mouth, and after I took this picture, it even traveled down his chin, under his neck. Thank goodness though, he did NOT break out in head-to-toe hives like his big brother did. Whew. Probably b/c he only ingested drops of the stuff. In hindsight, I guess I should be happy he refused taking that bottle. It really could have been much worse - I am so thankful it wasn't.

All kinds of birthdays (& L is 8 months old!)

Monday marked several things for the McD family to celebrate. One was L turning 8 months old. He is getting so big! More on him and what he is doing in a minute. We were also wishing Uncle Todd a HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Monday. I hope he got his e-gift. I must admit, it sure does make it easy on scatterbrains like me to be able to email gifts. I don't love doing it (I prefer wrapping presents for people) but hey, I'm doing the best I can here! Finally, children all over the country have been wishing Dr. Seuss a Happy Bday all week. He is a favorite at our house, and J's preschool teacher also loves his books. She has planned all of the activities this week around Dr. Seuss. Yesterday, all of his class wore plain red shirts to school. Ms. Tish numbered them "Things 1 - 12". :) And to top it off, she even made them look like "Things". Here's the proof -

Yeah, that hair had to be shampooed three times, but is sure was cute! Tomorrow, the class is eating green eggs & ham. J likes ham, but hasn't really taken to eggs yet. It should be interesting. I sure hope Tish takes pictures.

Back to L. My sweet baby is growing so fast! He is starting to scoot backwards on the floor, is trying to get to a sitting position from laying down, and has begun to attempt pulling up (really only while he's holding onto me, but it's a start!) Those D#MN top two teeth are having such a difficult time breaking through though. It's really making him uncomfortable. He's being such a trooper despite the pain, and gave me some good smiles on his "birthday".

Hmmm, wonder what's going through his mind?

This bear......is goin' down!