Makael at 7 weeks

Well, it's happening, the boy is chubbing up. He really doesn't eat all that much. I still have a hard time getting him to drink even two ounces from a bottle, but clearly it's enough to put some rolls on him. I guess that's what happens when you're basically drinking butter.
We went to the doctor today for Thrush. I knew he had it so I was a little annoyed that I had to make a special trip just to confirm it, but it was fun to find out how much he weighs anyway. He is now 9 lbs, 6 oz and in the 10th percentile! That doesn't seem very high, but considering he was born in the 2 percentile, he's clearly sneaking up the charts.
I'm not sure why this is, but he tends to have over night growth spurts. He will seem the same to me for a couple of weeks, but then on random days, I'll go in to get him in the morning and he's chubbier, cuter, and ready to show me he can do something new. It's kind of exciting actually. For example, a couple of days ago, I realized he was almost 6.5 weeks old and I started feeling somewhat hopeless about getting more sleep any time soon. At that age Gemma was already sleeping 7 hr stretches, and he hadn't been going more than 3. Well, I guess he read my mind because at exactly 6 weeks and 3 days, he decided to sleep six and a half hours. It was marvelous! And I didn't even wake up a gazillion times wondering if he was still breathing...which means I got six and a half hours of sleep too! AMAZING!! The next morning he was not only heavier, but also had more hair...David and I both noticed it. The best part is that the 6 hr stretches have continued ever since.
Not only is he sleeping more, but he's getting more interactive. He now waves his hands, kicks his feet, and coos when he smiles. The boy is just flat out cute!! And he now scoots when he's on his belly...I know, no 7 week old should be scooting, but I can't say I'm surprised, he's always been a wiggler.

I FINALLY got his room mostly finished. All I have left to do is order pictures for the frames.

This picture cracks me up. I think it's funny he's so in to Baby Einstein already.

Once Upon a Time

No question Gemma is an extrovert. She plays the "shy kid" on occasion, but can only keep that up for about two minutes before she drops that act and wants to be your loudest friend. I would say that David and I are both outgoing, but not at her level, so I've always wondered where she got it from. Well I found out. At our last mall outing, while we waited for David to come out from one of the stores, she began hiding in the kiosk where they set out all the calendars and games for the holidays. When someone came close, she would jump out and stand in the very middle of the walkway with her arms stretched open, trying to get the people to bump into them as they passed by. I'm honestly surprised she didn't make them give her a password or say "open sesame" (a game she plays with David) before letting them by. This provoked everyone to smile and giggle which of course just made her keep doing it. I just had to laugh as I watched my two year old stand in the middle of the walkway with arms stretched out and realize she is just like her aunt Elly. Elly did the same thing around that age, in the middle of an airport...in Mexico! You know you are outgoing when you are willing to do that for strangers who look nothing like you and speak a completely different language. Hahaha.
There are a couple of other things that I'm not sure where she picked up. She starting telling David he's her hero. Now I'll admit it's the sweetest thing in the whole wide world to hear her call her daddy her hero...but where did she even learn the word "hero"?
And she's now saying "once upon a time" every time she sits to read a book to herself. Yes, we do read her books, but I can't recall reading her one that actually starts with "once upon a time". All I know is I have to be extremely careful what I say around her. She hears something once...and she repeats it!

Here she is reading my bible. HA! Notice she starts with "once upon a time".

Reflux to snot

Well I no longer think Makael has reflux. I'm relieved! I believe all those "symptoms" I described before were due to congestion. I don't know why I didn't think of that...duh! Gemma had a pretty serious cold all last week, but unlike hers, his "congestion" wasn't flowing out of his nose like an open faucet. I know it's pretty typical for newborns to have congestion, so I didn't think anything of it, but now that he's getting better, he's acting more like the sweet low maintenance baby I quickly learned to love a few weeks back. The thought of taking care of a baby with a cold is way less stressful than a baby with reflux.

He's becoming more and more smiley by the day. I'll add (or brag) that he (just like Gemma) started smiling at three and a half weeks. It's pretty easy to get him to smile if he has just eaten...imagine that! Nothing like having a full tummy to make a boy happy. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...those smiles are the absolute best! I can't help but instantly laugh. There's no way to avoid it. He has a few different smiles... theres the smirk of contentment, the sweet squinty eyes, and my absolute favorite, the wide mouth, head turned, eyes shut smile. It's like he's wanting to laugh with me but hasn't quite figured out how to make the noise to match how he feels. On that note...he has started to make a few "cooing" noises here and there, which are enough to make anyone drop what they're doing and do whatever possible to get him to do it again. I basically act like a fool trying to get him to talk back...and it rarely works...he just gets wide eyed and stares back as if to say, "mom, please don't embarrass yourself like that".

See what I mean? Cuteness!

Garage Sales Rock!

We really like garage sales. Most of Gemma's clothes are awesome finds by Nana. Literally, I've barely had to buy her any clothes the last two years. It's amazing! Oddly enough, I don't like going to very many myself. I'm somewhat intimidated by them. I'm not sure why...it could be that I don't like going through things while the owner is watching me, or maybe it's that I'm not very good at bargaining, or perhaps I get overwhelmed trying to go through it all...definitely all of the above. However, this past weekend, I passed one on my street on my way home from a run and saw a great picnic table. I mentioned it to David when I got home and mustered up enough courage to go. I decided to take Gemma with me, thinking she might like picking something out. Boy was I right! She immediately zeroed in on a bag of bath toys...yes, regular bath toys like ducks and fish and boats. You would have thought she had just found a huge bag of candy by how excited she got. She was beyond herself! I tried to get her to look around some more, but nothing could quite capture her attention like that bag of bath toys. So we bought them, as well as the picnic table that got us there in the first place. And I'll admit it was really fun...I might just have to try it again.
Aunt Elly also has awesome success at garage sales. She bought Gemma a great kitchen set as an early birthday present. Gemma's in love! Ariya has a set just like it so when they left after bringing it over, Gemma asked if the kitchen got to stay. When I said yes, she ran over to it and gave it a hug. The rest of the day she would periodically give the kitchen hugs while she played...it was so cute!
Here are some pictures of our latest garage sale finds :)

Her picnic table

Her bath toys

Hugging her kitchen

5 weeks!

Makael is 5 weeks today!! How unbelievably crazy. Not too long ago, I wrote about how strange it was to think of us becoming a family of four, and yet here we are five weeks after his birth, and it's strange to think of life without him. He's truly something special! I absolutely love that little guy! Unfortunately he's no longer that "easy" baby I was blessed with for the first couple of weeks. I'm no medical doctor, but I'm pretty sure he's developed reflux and has become somewhat of a more "difficult" baby. If anyone who reads this has ever had a baby with reflux and has some suggestions, PLEASE send them my way. He's not spitting up a ton, but he's constantly chocking, or making a "chewing" motion while swallowing hard. He doesn't nurse or take a bottle without chocking and taking a gazillion breaks to fuss. And he seems to be eating less and less. It's hard to get him to even drink an ounce and a half from a bottle these days. Not to mention he makes the most pitiful little faces and fusses for a good 20-30 minutes after every feeding, and we are barely sleeping at night. So yes, tips and advice are very welcome.
On the bright side, he's getting ridiculously cute :) Yesterday we shared what instantly became my favorite moment to date. He watched me fold two baskets of laundry...I have never had so much fun folding laundry. He smiled almost continuously the whole time. It was so sweet!! He doesn't give out a ton of smiles yet (probably because his stomach hurts HA!), but when he does, it's just about enough to make me melt.
In other news, the boy can move! If you've held him recently, you've probably noticed he likes to wiggle non stop... but he's also incredibly mobile on the floor. He's already rolled from his stomach to his back a few times...I don't recall Gemma doing that this soon. And just a few days ago, I was taking pictures of him and his little buddy Jackson (who was born 4 days before him), and he would not hold still for a single picture. He kept rolling side to side and came ridiculously close to rolling onto his stomach...in both directions! I tried explaining to him that he's only a month old, but he won't listen to me...he's determined to go places. I can't say that I'm surprised he's so desperate to get on his stomach. I've let him sleep that way (only for supervised naps) and he loves it. I'm pretty sure if he had been born back in the day when that was considered the safe way for babies to sleep, he would be giving me much longer stretches at night. Oh well.
I'm keeping this post only about Makael. I've noticed that if I write about both kids (still not used to saying "kids"), I'm always worrying about how long the post is getting so I end up leaving out a lot. So my goal is to write one post a week about each of them. That may be a little ambitious right now, but I'm going to give it a try.

Here are the only three ways Makael will sleep:

In his swing

In his bouncy seat

On his tummy

So Makael has been really good about waking up every three hours at night to eat (sometimes sooner) which I'll admit is a little draining on me. I'm not complaining though, I love my one on one time with him, but it does means I'm pretty tired most days. Last night I was having a hard time getting him to sleep. He ate at 10:00 p.m. but didn't settle down and really fall asleep until 11:00 p.m. Right after I put him down, I looked at the clock and thought to myself, how great it would be if he slept until 2:00 a.m. Well, at 2:15 I woke up and realized he hadn't made a sound. I obviously freaked out and ran into his room to make sure he was still breathing...he was :) He was beginning to stir so I went back to bed and waited for him to start crying before I fed him. I woke up at 3:20 freaking out again. Yes, he was still breathing. This time he was starting to make noises so I went ahead and fed him. That's right...he held out almost five and a half hours!! Although I didn't really get to sleep the entire time since I kept thinking something was wrong, I'm so grateful for the longer stretch of time! I hope it becomes a new habit.

Well that's really all I have to report this time :) I know, such exciting stuff happening in the Boyd household.
At least I have several new videos to post.

Learning how to garden.

She was very excited about her new socks.

Can't wait to start capturing some smiles.

This is a little long, but I thought her voice sounded so cute.

Normalcy...somewhat

I don't know if we are finding a rhythm or if my body has just accepted that feeling sleep deprived is considered the new "normal". Regardless, I feel good, and my days seem more manageable (with a few exceptions of course). I don't think I do very well with adjustments so I was pretty desperate to find our routine. I started running again this past weekend, and although I feel like I'm in terrible shape, it felt really good to get back out there. And it doesn't hurt that the weather right now is absolutely gorgeous! I've also started cooking again...not something I particularly enjoy, but again, it means things are getting back normal.

While Gemma seems to be acting more like her usual funny self, she has recently decided she no longer wants to use the toilet. I knew it was a possibility that she would regress in the potty training department, but I was REALLY hoping it wouldn't happen. It's pretty frustrating of course, but I know we'll get through it...we've done it once before right?
The last couple of days she's been a total riot. Everyday is something new...she either has a certain toy she just HAS to have with her at all times, or she wants her hair done a certain way, or she wants to wear a certain shirt. Like today for example...I let her pick out her outfit (I don't do this very often) and she got all excited and went in and grabbed her PJ's...that's right, she changed from one set of PJ's into another. I guess she just wanted to be comfortable today :)

Nanna and Papa came over yesterday with a few presents...they brought several things, but her favorite was the stuffed Winnie the Pooh. That wasn't surprising of course since she has always loved stuffed animals, but we all got a kick out of the fact that she was calling him "Pee in the Poo" hahaha. It quickly got shortened to "Pee Poo", and today she has yet to set him down.

These are her "bug boots" which she likes to wear with every outfit.

Funny story about these bug boots...she wanted to sleep with them one night so I put them in bed with her. When David went in to check on her before we went to bed, he found her sleeping with them on. The next morning when I went in to get her, she was wearing them again. Priceless!

Watching "Fox and the Hound" with Todd and Copper of course!

Makael is growing like a weed! Someone please stop him!! He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz at his two week appointment. I realize that's still small, but it means he gained 22 ounces in two weeks!

We had a really long night with him a few days ago...he decided to stay awake from 2:30 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. That was the first time I even thought about wishing he was a little older...that thought quickly vanished the next morning when I noticed his chubbier arms and legs. It was clearly just a growth spurt :) Thankfully we haven't had a night like that since.

He's changing so much from day to day. It's amazing how fleeting the newborn phase is. I have yet to get one out of him, but Lita was lucky enough to get his first intentional smile today.

Isn't he just precious!!