While Phil Was Away

Back at the end of March Phil had to go to Oregon to fly for two weeks.  I was NOT looking forward to this but knew it had to be done.  My mom came to stay with us for the first week (her Spring Break), which was a huge help.  I am so blessed with such a supportive, helpful, patient, loving mother.  She is seriously the best!  The first night she was there was the night before Phil left, so we were able to go out on our first post-baby date!  It was so wonderful!  

Mom was chief baby-holder, Reid-occupier, book-reader (to the boys), and activity-director for the most part.  Although she always steps in and does things that need doing without being asked and does anything I ask her to!  Thank you so much, Mom!  I love you and appreciate you so very much!

Davis was going through a growth spurt that week (of course) and was SUPER fussy and gassy and eating constantly and not sleeping well at night at all.  Combine that with Emmett acting out from having Daddy gone and Grandy there (fighting for attention maybe?), and the fact that it was Spring Break for us, too, so we were totally off our routine, and the weather being really cold... and the week was veeeerrrrryyyy difficult.  Seriously.  I even thought I was going to completely skip over the Easter holiday this year (mainly because the boys had done so much for it with school the week before) because I thought I just couldn't handle one more thing.  BUT, somehow I got it together and before my mom left (the day before Easter) we helped J and E dye eggs...

(Just a random picture of Reid here... my mom walked into J and E's room one night and came right back out and said, "You have to go look at Reid."  Well, right then he walked out of the room wearing this get-up.  We cracked up!  She said he was bending over playing with some toys with this hat sticking up in the air and those huge slippers on and he looked so funny!)

And then the day after my mom left was Easter and the night before I hid some eggs for the boys to find (took 4.2 seconds for them to find them all... and I thought I had been tricky!) and put out their baskets.  They were very excited that the Easter Bunny had come, so I was glad that I ended up doing it.  It really didn't take much effort at all (LOL... get over your pity party, Heather!) but after that horrendous week even little things seemed like they would be a huge ordeal to manage.

We still had a week before Phil came home and I was pretty sad that day with my Mom gone and wondering what we would do to pass the time, when wonder of wonders my good friend, Tara, texted and asked if we wanted to get together for Easter with her and her family.  I was so, so thankful to have something to do with good friends, so I loaded everyone up and we went to Schooners restaurant on the beach for Easter lunch and sand/water play time.  It was a perfect, beautiful day and Davis slept almost the whole time and the boys were good. as. GOLD at the restaurant.  I almost couldn't believe it.  Maybe God was rewarding me for making it through that awful week prior.

It was a wonderful day!!  And then right before bedtime (on Easter Sunday) this happened...

AAGGGHH!  J and E were playing in their room (wrestling, rough-housing, etc.) while I was bathing Davis for bed and they had shut the door to keep Reid out, which made Reid upset.  So I yelled at them to open the door and let Reid in and a few seconds later I heard Reid crying... and I could tell it was a hurt cry.  So I ran in there holding a wet baby and saw the cut on his face.  I guess Emmett had pushed Jackson who had bumped into Reid, causing him to fall and hit his head on a metal fan on the foor.  UGH!

I dabbed at the cut to stop the bleeding and noticed that it looked kind of deep and then I totally didn't know what to do (aka internally freaked out).  Reid had stopped crying a few seconds after it happened and seemed fine, so I just let him be while I nursed Davis and put him to bed and texted pictures to my parents and Phil and our old flight doctor to get their advice.  I REALLY didn't want to go to the ER on Easter (bc you know they're always crazy busy on weekends and holidays)... and I would have had to take Davis too because he wasn't really taking a bottle well at that point and I had no idea how long I would be gone.

Anyway, after lots of phone call and texting (and tears from me.... not gonna lie) I/we decided to just try to close it myself and stick a butterfly bandage on it.  Sweet Tara ran to the store for me to get the stuff we needed.... then she stayed here and helped me hold a screaming, squirming Reid while I ran water over the cut to "flush it out" and tried to hold the cut closed while I applied this liquid bandage stuff (which obviously stung bc he was screaming bloody murder).  Then we let him rest for a second, which was probably a bad idea because he wouldn't let us near his face after that and we had to hold him down again to get the butterfly bandaid on.

Tara and I are both very squeamish and hated to have to do all of this, but we got it done.  Thank you, Tara!!! I took Reid to the doctor the next day to have it checked out and she said it looked okay.  He has a little line there now but we are putting some scar lotion on it so hopefully it will fade a little bit.  Whew!  Needless to say I needed a big glass of wine after I finally got everyone to bed that night.

Then in the morning I got big smiles from my baby, which made things better...

And Reid and I (and Davis) went back to my little workout class and had an Easter egg hunt afterwards...

Same sweet, happy Reid... like nothing ever happened...

Then later in the week I had my 6-week post-baby checkup and had to take Reid and Davis with me.  I was super nervous about this, but I loaded them both up in the double stroller (in the pouring rain... of course) and Davis fell asleep IN THE CAR SEAT inside the quiet doctor's office... totally a first for a Gilcreast boy.  And I gave Reid a bag of Cheetos and he was good as can be strapped into the front seat. WHEW again!

I am just a tad obsessed with Justin Timberlake (I love his songs and his dancing aaaannnd he is a total cutie pie), so when things would get rough I would listen to his new CD or watch his performance of "Suit and Tie" on Saturday Night Live, which was saved on our TV.  The boys loved watching it, too...

Whatever works, right? Surprisingly the week that I was by myself was way easier than the week when my mom was here.  I guess I pull it together more when I have to do everything myself.  And it's easier to stay in our routine, which we all seem to appreciate.  Phil got home safely right when he was supposed to and we were all very thankful!  :)

Who's Two Months Old Already??

THIS GUY!!

And I cannot tell you how happy I am to never have to live through the first two months of a newborn again!!  Woot woot!!  Yes, I loved how tiny he was, and how sweet he smelled and how snuggly he was, but the first two months with our newborn boys has never been easy.  So as much as I know there is nothing like a newborn, I am so thankful to be done with that stage!  Forever!  Yes, forever!  Phil has a little procedure scheduled in May to ensure that.  LOL!  

Right now Davis is:

Smiling all the time (especially in the morning when he is supposed to be nursing... he just looks up at me and SMILES!  I love it.)

Rolling from front to back (our babies have all been stomach sleepers and this one figured out how to roll over at six weeks)

Still eating every two hours during the day but gradually stretching that out a little bit.  And GUESS WHO for the second night in a row (last night) only woke up ONCE to eat (at 2:45... then he slept until 7:00)?!?!  I was very, very happy and am hoping this continues! 

Super strong... even at two days old people were commenting on his head control.  And he can pretty much sit up in the Bumbo by himself.  We might even get out the Exersaucer this weekend so he can try to stand up a little because he LOVES to stand up on our laps when we hold him.  

Loving the pacifier, except when he wants to eat.  I'm thinking he may end up being a thumb or finger sucker, tho... once he figures it out and unclenches his fists a little.

14 lbs 9 oz (95th percentile... Yo, Davis...I think we can give up one of those night feedings!)
24.5 inches long

Such a precious boy! :)  

Highlights of the Past Month

Turns out it's not quite as easy to get things done when you don't stay home all day.  Last week I started back at my little workout group thingy in the mornings, and that (combined with Phil being gone for two weeks) has made life seem much busier!  Here are the highlights of what we've been up to this month...

One of the biggest developments... THIS IS NO MORE!

Emmett's pacifier, that is.  I know, I know, we were awful parents to let it go for this long but hey... we're doing the best we can!  It was actually really painless to get rid of... much easier than we thought it would be.  He was down to only one pacifier for a while because he kept losing his other one.  Then one night he woke up and told us he couldn't find his (only) pacifier in his bed and we had no choice just to have him sleep without it because we honestly didn't know where it was.  Phil had to snuggle with him in his bed for a little bit that night to get him to fall back asleep, but he eventually did and slept the rest of the night!  Then the next day for naps and bedtime he asked about his pacifier once and we just explained that it was lost and we didn't know where it was and he was okay with it!  No sleeping issues at all.  We were amazed, since we were totally prepared to have to be up all night with him at least that first night.  I guess he was just ready.  

Oh, but then the next day Jackson was looking for a toy under the bed and he came out with two pacifiers in his hand and started yelling, "Emmett!  Emmett!! Look what I found!"  LUCKILY, I happened to be in the room at the time (and E was not) and was able to scoop them up and throw them away before Emmett saw.  Phew!

And then another development... we have finalized plans for our house!!  This whole process is moving soooooooooo slloooooooowwwwwllllyyy and is very frustrating at times, but we will hopefully close on our loan next week and maybe break ground by the end of the month.  Hopefully?!?  Pretty please?!?

Phil, J, and E went to J's t-ball game the other night and E brought home some flowers for me from the field.  This is an important thing because none of my boys have done something really sweet like that for me before.  I know they were technically weeds, but still!

Did I ever mention that J is playing t-ball this year?  The first practice started out rough (some tears, super shyness, some "I-don't-like-t-ball-I-don't-want-to-play"), but we had a good talk with him and after he got over the initial nerves of a new experience things have been good ever since.

Davis is sort-of taking a bottle... not a bottle of formula like we would like (he hates it), but we're working on it.  He'll take a bottle of breast milk pretty well.  Things are just so hectic in the evenings when Phil is home that it's hard to make time for him to give D a bottle.

The boys are growing up SO FAST.  J was taking a nap the other day and I had to snap this pic because he looked so sweet and SO grown up.

He still loves his blankies and his "Leo"...

Poor Phil is DYING for a boat, but we have to get this house built first.  We went to a boat show the other weekend on a gorgeous day.

Before we left Phil decided to run back and get a brochure from a dealer so I stayed in the car with the boys and we watched Curious George.  Reid was talking up a storm and being so cute.  And he was majorly sweaty in these pics, which was what I was trying to capture, but you can't really tell.  He's growing up so fast, too.

Reid has been obsessed with smoothies lately.  I hear, "Make smoo-ty Mama!" at least once a day.  He drinks out of a big boy cup, but then ends up wearing half of it.  But he just loves it.  That bandage next to his eye is a story for the next blog post...

Emmett made a tower of playdough one morning and was very proud. And he filled four of his freight cars with bits of playdough and was very happy about that, too...

We've been going to the beach whenever we can on the weekends.  The sand is like a babysitter for the boys.  They play for hours without fighting or whining at us.  And sitting there in the warm sun with the waves crashing really is like therapy for me.  It's awesome.  Kind of a circus act getting everyone cleaned up afterward, but totally worth it.

Reid got the oven mits (which are really gross and need to be replaced... waiting til we get in the new house) out of the drawer the other day and was using them as driving gloves...

And, again, the big boys have seemed to grow and mature so much already this year.  I can't believe how big they're getting.

This one, too, who is two months today!  He's growing so much... which he should be, since he's still eating every two hours during the day and every three at night.  But he's also starting to give us some good smiles.  :)

Check out that GUT!  :)