Jackson and Anna Kate

Jackson and Anna have been WAY overdue for a playdate! These pics are from last Saturday. She and Jackson are about a month and half apart and she is totally and completely perfection. I hope someday she falls madly in love with Jackson! :-)

 
 
 
 

happy boys.

jackson and the ladies.

These pics are from a playdate early last week before we got snowed in for 10 days!!

Jackson and Holiday - He wants to do everything she does.  It's pretty cute.

Jackson and Eden!

 I LOVE this pic!!!!!!  You have NO idea how hard it is to get 3 toddlers to look at a camera!!!

Snow Jump!

Update on Ethan

Ethan, oh Ethan - how I love you so!!  :-)

So Ethan has been on his antibiotics since Thursday.... he seems to be doing much better.  The antibiotics give him diarrhea, just as it has done both times Jackson's had ear infections... And he doesn't want to eat at all - averaging about 18oz/day now but other than that, he is a super happy baby!  He's sleeping better than ever - probably because he needs to rest to heal... but for the last few nights, he hasn't made a peep all night!  730p - 700am/730am!  Mommy likey.  :)  His rash was about 80% improved after 1 day w/ the ointment and benadryl.  Now, it's completely gone and we quit the benadryl after only 2 days.  He has to be on his antiobiotic for 10 days - so that should be Saturday.  I am anxious to stop that just so he won't have any more diarrhea. 

I have to share his new "thing."  So Jackson has never been a "snuggler" type baby whatsoever.  Very early on, he didn't want to be rocked at all anymore - just laid right down for naps, etc.  Well, Ethan is not like his brother on this!  The last few days, after my "attempt" at feeding him, he just wants to nuzzle up in my face/neck and give me smooches!  He tries to eat my nose cuz he is trying to kiss!  It's BEEEEEYOOOOND precious!  I hope and pray it doesn't end!!!  He has been giving me HUGE giggles lately too - much easier than before when I had to really work for it!  Now, he wants to laugh and it's probably the greatest, most amazing sound I have ever heard in my life.  I am the happiest mommy in the world!

Love our sitter!

This is Ethan and Sara.  Sara is our amazing amazing A-MAAAAAZING sitter.  She keeps several of our friends' kids too - that's how we were introduced to her.  We try to have her here to keep the boys at least twice per month - and each time, Jackson has such a great time, Ethan sleeps great that night - everything is just as it should be.  I never have to worry or anything when she's here.... 

We are very very thankful to have her taking such great care of the most important two people in our lives. 

Snow Day!

Daddy only worked a half day on Tuesday since we had our big snow storm that night.  The temp was dropping - AND it was still snowing!  Mother Nature definitely dropped a big thick blanket of snow on us and we thought Jackson may want to go out and play in it... After about 5 minutes, he was complaining of being cold and wanted to go in!  He's definitely a mommy's boy when it comes to that!  I don't like being cold either! :-) 

Awh, it was only like 20 degrees! 

jackson & ben, a year later...

Ben and Jackson have grown up together the last year or so... I thought it'd be cute to have some comparison photos!  I took these first couple pics this week... watch how they've grown up!

Aren't they sooooo cute!?

Then and now...

This is Ben/Jackson (Jan 2011 on left, Jan 2010 on right)

Feb 2010

March 2010

I love watching these two grow up!!!

Add to the list.

the ethan saga continues!  my sweetheart is sure giving his momma a run for her money!

 so here's the latest and greatest. ethan has always had eczema among his other issues. Jackson has it too - still does, so it's not something i'm unfamiliar with. however, after his 6 mos vaccines/flu shot on wed - he's been getting some pretty weird looking scaly rough patches all over his back... well, it's been getting worse and worse. Yesterday, I was feeding Ethan and he took 2 bites of his cereal and threw it ALL UP all over the place - I had to take his clothes all off and saw that it was WAY worse than ever before. Definitely some sort of reaction or something, so I started getting a little panic-y. So I called and got an appt to see a pediatrician - not my ped but the same clinic and i didn't care - i just wanted to know what was going on, pronto! So Ry came home for lunch and watched Jackson and I took off to the doc. Doc looks at him and tells me he has a double ear infection! WHAT!? He's been pretty snotty since his last appt but I had NO idea he had an ear infection! I immediately felt like the worst mom in the world. I knew something was wrong but thought he may have just had an allergic reaction to something... Doc said that more than likely, the eczema flaired up due to the infection - he said it's hard to tell what that is from - but sometimes our bodies have special ways of alerting us to things! Good thing is that we caught the infection very early - since he was just in a week ago and didn't have anything wrong... He prescribed me antibiotics for the ear infection and some special cream for his back/chest/neck where the flair up has occurred. Poor poor baby boy. Makes me sick to think my 6 month old has an ear infection. I feel like I've somehow "allowed" this to happen, despite being very careful - I guess you just can't control everything. He's been a trooper though. He's obviously in some pain and was very restless last night, but overall, did a good job. Doc also suggested i give him benadryl - which i always thought was a huge no-no til they were two years old but both pediatricians said 1/2 tsp is ok for him. I'd rather not just cuz I'm scared but when he was so aggravated last night, I did give him 1/4 tsp. Going to try to avoid it today but he's on a tylenol/motrin rotation, so that should help ease his pain a little. I'm praying for a super speedy recovery. Still can't believe my 6 mos old has a double ear infection... Boo.

 

Ethan Chase Stearle: 6 mos, 1 week old. 

I cannot even begin to explain my love for this baby boy. 

I'm truly the most blessed mommy ever.

Our first successful feeding!

So I gave it another go round yesterday.  This time, I did it when he woke up from his nap early and before his bottle feeding - so he wasn't "full" from a bottle... I opted for cereal!  I decided we need to get this whole "spoon" thing down first before we introduce such flavorful foods, like carrots.  Since he's used to cereal from having it in his bottles... So I added 2oz of formula to it so it would have some good nutrition too...  













I started him in his bumbo again like the last times... but he has so much room to hide from me and bend over and stuff - so I switched him to one of our bouncy seats that we don't use that often... and he can't get away from me!  Here is Ethan after a few bites... or I should say a few "cereal drools."

 So just like all the times, he didn't want it whatsoever.  He is completely disinterested in that spoon and would hold his mouth shut so I couldn't even get the spoon in... And when I did, he'd start to gag!  So I had to "talk him out of gagging." - Sounds so goofy but it's totally true!  He would start to gag and I would say "oh no we don't..." and start to goof around to get his attention off gagging.  We did that at least 5 times!  And each time, I got him to stop gagging!  I think he thought I was nuts though.

So then, when he wouldn't open his mouth anymore and started to get fussy - I put the little bunny mobile on the seat and he almost forgot he was eating!

This was his reaction when I told him we were done!

We didn't finish the whole thing but definitely made a dent!  This is SO much better than he's ever done in the past!  So we're committed now!  We're going to keep trying to feed him.. I must admit, I was worried all day, everytime he coughed, that he was going to throw up... but he didn't!  WOOHOO!

So proud of my baby boy!!  Love you Ethan!

Solid Food, shuhmolid food.

Ok - so Ethan is now over 6 mos old.  Doc said to start giving him solid food.  He told me to start with orange vegetables and give it to him for 1 full week before introducing another orange veggie and then add green veggies, etc.  Since Ethan doesn't take his bottle very well, I was looking forward to feeding him regular food in hopes that he likes that better and it gets easier... I think the pictures below explain it all.

If you can't interpret this, he's saying "STOP mommy!  NO MORE!"

 "oh ok, let's take pictures... cool!"

"I want out of here!  I want nothing to do with those carrots!"

 

"oh good, you're done feeling me that stuff!"  i got 4 bites down him - which he didn't actually throw up, so i call that improvement.  unfortunately, this was last thursday.  i haven't tried again.  going to take a lot of perserverence to get this boy to eat.

Praying for sweet dreams...

It just doesn't get more precious than this, does it? 

And yes, he has lots of paci's in his crib!