I just wanted to post a couple vidoes. Joshua is becoming such a ham in front of the camera. Its so funny. I got him singing a song, saying his prayer and making his brother laugh. We had such a great day today. It was just fun being together and we actually were home all day. Go figure. It was a day where I can say that I love staying at home with my boys, thankful that I am able to do it. And so glad that I don't have to work. There are many days where I long for a job. Adult contact, something productive to do. But I know that this is my job and I am happy for it. I did want to say that Lucas took a bottle today. He's refused anything oral since saturday morning. I've been worrying that he wouldn't want anything again. But today after some nudging, he took it and drank almost the whole thing. What a good boy. He is still wheezing pretty bad, but he is feeling so much better. Happy and comfortable. Yea!

I've been praying a lot more these days. I tend to only do it when I need something. But I have so many friends in need of prayer right now that I've been busy today praying for them. I have a friend who just had a D&C yesterday, one who is having her ovary taken out Friday and she's only in her early 20's. Another who is working so hard, depressed and can't seem to find much time for her family that she longs for. Friends that are starting new jobs, trying to lose weight, dealing with relationship issues, the list goes on. And I really, really want a new job for my husband. One where he will be happy, busy and stable. There seems to be a lot of things to pray for. So if you are a pray-er, I'd love the help with my list. I've just had these peoeple on my heart this week!

Kitchen Central

I just wanted to post a link to my new blog, Kitchen central. I felt weird posting about budgeting and recipes here when this is mostly about my kiddos. So I decided to make one dedicated to just that. So here it is. www.doubldoubleu.blogspot.com

A Collection

A normal feeding, through the g-tube. Here are the supplies:


Hook it up.


Fill with formula.


Flush.

Its pretty easy in all reality. Especially when he's been sick.





Ok, how could this not make you smile?








My shopping for this weeks meals. $26.00 Not too bad, right? (Humor me would ya?)
2 gallons of milk($1.99 for 2), 4.5lbs of hamburger ($1.49lb), 7 cans of beans ($1/can), sour cream(2/$5), cumin($3.69), skittles for Joshua.



My new cookbooks!

My first menu plan

I know that I already posted today, but deal with it. :o)


I made a meal plan for the week, so here goes. This is my attempt to be smart and feed my family. Maybe a little budget wise too.

Meals for the week

Tuesday-
Chicken tortilla soup-here

Wednesday-
Baked soft pretzels- here
Homemade taco seasoning
Black bean veggie patties- here
Baked French fries- here
Rice pudding

Thursday-
Left over soup
Polenta- I've never had this, so we'll see how it is.
Homemade caramel corn- soo good!- here

Friday-
Microwavable meals/leftovers

So if you were going to buy your kid a sucker, what would you choose? Red, purple? Never the blue one, right? Gotta love how the men think here. The blue one will of course stain the tongue, hands, carpet. Ahh, men. Anywho, here my kid after the blue one.

So late Friday night, Lucas decided that he wasn't going to sleep and be super fussy. He was eating ok, but couldn't breathe, was coughing and he was just plain miserable. As the day progressed he stopped eating and just became more cranky. Come Saturday night, and keeping mom awake he was just unsettle-able. (Nice word, huh?) We skipped church and took nice long naps, everyone. I started thinking in the beginning that it was tummy issues again, but as the days went by it because more apparent that it was RSV. We took him in this morning and the doctor said that it was RSV, but not much could be done about it. His oxygen levels were good, so that is whats important. He felt the Lucas was old enough to fight it. Unless he gets worse and wasn't breathing well, we should just watch him. The wheezing was really bad and so we tried a breathing treatment at the office, but it didn't seem to help. But I cant hear him breathing right now, so maybe it did work. Here are a few pictures from the office today. He's such a little trooper.

I uploaded this video basically for my mom. Hopefully she checks my blog at some point.

So Josh and I are deciding to get debt free. We know that its going to be a process, but we're going to make it work. We are going to get rid of cable (Lord help me!!!), I want to start budget grocery shopping (Lord help me!!!) and we are going to stop eating out (I can handle that one, I think.) So any advice on the budgeting home front, I would gladly take. I am looking for stores with double coupons, good coupon sites and whatever else you can pass along. Thanks! :o) Pray for me! LOL.

Joshua and I went to the Point Defiance Zoo today. We had so much fun. It was just the 2 of us too! I picked him up from school today and we had lunch in the car and off we went to Tacoma. We stayed at the first exhibits for about 1 minute. He was not impressed with the elephants much, or the feeding of the tigers, no matter how much mom pleaded. We finally made it to the aquarium where we saw the sea otters, beluga whales and the walrus. He was my favorite. I could have stayed and watched them all day. He actually reminded me of my brother Jesse. He he. Whoops. Anyway, Joshua behaved really well, and made me think that all he really needs in one on one attention from me more often. So that is what I am going to try and do.

2 of my favorite things. Joshua and Mt. Rainier.

This is the size of a full grown polar bear. Yikes, that's big!

So after hearing from our OT and pediatrician, I've decided to stay away from the bumbo seat. I really thought it would help Lucas get more strength in his neck and torso, but I am taking their advice and going with it. So I thought that maybe we could sit in the high chair. Well, he does it! I was so excited that he was comfortable and was able to stay up mostly on his own. I think that he liked it too. He got a new perspective of his little world. So here are a few pictures of him just sitting and watching.

God I love that startled face!
There should be a sign like at the zoo,

'NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY, PLEASE!'

He really liked that silly duck toy.

This is just a cute little video of Lucas in his high chair.

I thought that I should post since its been a week or so. Our life is getting busier these days. Can you imagine? Joshua started preschool last week. Its 2 days a week and for 2 hours. I think that it a great amount of time, but I find that I want it to last a bit longer. Just a bit. I love my son more that life itself, but he has been a handful lately. I'm not sure what else to do with him. I decided that today I would start taking TV away. (Did I just say that?) He's been talking back, hitting me, yelling, screaming, throwing fits. Mostly just at me. I understand that kids get jealous when a new baby comes along, but I think this might be the extreme. I want to try new things to keep his attitude in check and I am happy to take advice from anyone. ;o)

Lucas is doing well. He's not gaining weight the way we want, but he's happy and comfortable and that is what is important to me. He's such a sweet baby and he's a lot of fun. It is a bit strange having a new baby stay a new baby. As we all know, babies are a lot of work, in a way. And well, its been 6 months of a having a baby....stay a baby. Good thing its not getting old. :o)

As you can see from the picture, we're working on his neck strength. I was so excited to see his head up I ran to get the camera. What a cutie!

As for me, not too much is happening. I think that I might be going gray. Thanks to my children...and well, hubby. Ok, not really. About the actual gray hair that is. I'm still working on losing weight. I lost all of the baby weight after a few weeks of having Lucas. I lost all of the baby weight that I've had since Joshua about a week ago. And well, now I'm working on all of the rest of the weight I've had since I got married. I'm down over 26 pounds. I'm thrilled with my loss so far, but I keep wanting to catch my friend who's down over 35! We started losing weight together and she's so far past it makes me a little sad. LOL. She's done awesome and I want to be like her.

Here was our Valentine's Day dinner. I made big ol burgers and bakes fries. They were really good and really unhealthy.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be sure to post again soon.

6 Months

So my little man is 6 months old today. Just for fun last night we gave him some very runny rice cereal. As you can see from the pictures, he was just not into it. I don't think he even noticed he had food in his mouth. I know he's not ready, but it was fun either way. Maybe next month. Lucas is doing good. The infection is just about gone and he is slowly gaining weight. He was up to 13lbs 3oz today at the doctors. His length is great, around the 75 percentile. Our main goal right now is getting his neck strength up. He's not lifting his head up too much, but I guess its better than a few months ago!

My blue eyed boy!

Leave Joshua alone for a little while

with paints and this is what you get!

I wanted to upload this video, just for laughs. This is going to be hilarious in about 15 years! One day we were watching Enchanted and he started dropping to one knee right at the end. It was so funny. Well as I recorded he started kicking his legs up. To add to the situation, he is, of course, wearing his undies. And well, they're on backwards. So enjoy.

This one just shows you how crazy Joshua really is.

our 2 steps back....

well, here we are. We've gone backwards a bit. Things were going well until Saturday evening. Lucas' incision started looking red and irritated. We didn't bother doing anything that night and we thought we'd just keep an eye on it. Sunday it was looking better and decided to wait until out doctors appointment Monday to check it out. So at the pediatrician appointment he said it looked like an abscess and if anything changed with it I would need to go and see the surgeon. Well, that night right by his belly button, it was red and hard. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to go to the ER is it wasn't necessary. So we paged the surgeon on call. I made an appointment on Tuesday got antibiotics. It looked like an infection under the skin. So far, nothing has changed. Its only been 24 hours, but i was hoping for a little change. We have a follow-up Friday morning. We are scheduled to go out of town around 12, so we are hoping that we aren't going to be admitted to the hospital and we can go on our much needed getaway!!

In other news, we saw the eye doctor and audiologist today. The eye doctor was good. There has been definite progress since our last visit. We are around a 3-4 month range with his visual development. That is where I would rate him on everything, so at least he's even.
For the hearing test today, I thought that it was going to be a waste of time. Lucas failed his newborn screening and then only completed half of the follow up test and passed. I know that my little guy ca hear and there is no doubt in my mind. They ask that you bring your child hungry and tired so that you can feed them and they will sleep for the test. They put a little device in his ear and send sounds and test for the nerve reactions to those sounds. He was doing pretty good during the test. Not moving too much and sleeping decently. After she test for congestion in the ear, which he has because he is sick with a cold. But as she went to tell me that he has significant loss in both ears, my mouth dropped. I just told her that I was shocked. Shocked. We'll be repeating the test in 2 months and they will be sedating him for it. I know that my kid can hear, I just don't understand why the results would come back that way.
The eye doctor did say earlier today that babies use their other senses to help out if one isn't working fully. Like if he didn't hear well, he would use his sight and smell to help find things or hear things. It makes sense, I guess.

Anyway, that is the latest. I know that God has done miracles and will continue. Just think, 5 months ago they told us that he was blind and deaf. Look at us now. And well if we're on that subject, they told us almost a year ago that he wouldn't even make it and well, look at us now!!!!

A few days ago a friend commented on how strong I was. She said, I don't know how you do it. I couldn't. Well, I responded saying, yeah, you would. There just isn't a choice. I know that when I get to a point of self pity I think about the others that have it way worse and they manage just fine. I don't deal with as much as Lucas actually deals with either. And when I get overwhelmed I think about my friend Heather (blog to your right-McCann Happenings) she has 4 kids (triplets and a big sis) who deal with so much as well. Somehow she manages to do so much! Its amazing.
I will say that I've been struggling a bit though. I feel like I go in and out of feeling it all. A little bit numb sometimes. Its hard dealing with 3-4 Dr's appts a week. Having a sick baby almost all of the time. Worrying about his weight, how many ounces he's taking each bottle, his bowels, his poops, his sleep, his belly, his eyes, ears, brain, mouth, neck. Its a constant stress, really, literally, constant. Its been taking a toll. I'm not sure exactly what I'm to do about this whole thing. I worry that this is they way that it will always be. Will he ever be healthy? Will I ever stop feeling numb to it all? Trust me though, I don't feel numb to him. I am so in love with this baby of mine. I cry at night for the pain he must feel all the time. I can't imagine going through what his little tiny body goes through. He has done nothing to deserve all of this pain. If I could take it from him I would in a heartbeat.

Ok, enough whining. I will say that Lucas is up to 13 pounds! YEA!! 13lbs 1oz and 27 inches long. He's long and lean and oh so sweet. Thanks for reading.