5 Weeks

Just got back from Jacob's one month appointment. He now weighs 10 lb 12 oz and is 22 inches long - growing well! The doctor says that the rash must be a viral infection that will have to run its course. That would normally be 7-10 days, and since he's had it 8 days already, we're hoping it's on its way out.

Meanwhile Troyer and Micah seem to have caught Levi's cold, and Caleb might be coming down with it today. Ugh. MIL had invited my pick of 2 boys to spend the weekend, but we may have to delay it. They were supposed to stay over 3 weeks ago, but that week MIL and FIL were sick, the next week we had too much snow to travel on Friday, and last week Troyer and Noah had to spend Sunday making more peanutbutter eggs. I sure would hate to cancel again, but I will if no one is healthy enough to go.

So, What's New?

First, a picture of Jacob I took this week:


This one looks the most like him out of all the pictures I have taken so far. He has a nasty red bumpy rash on his tummy, neck, and face, almost like heat rash, but it won't clear up. I'm going to ask the doctor about it at his appointment.

We had another warm sunny day yesterday, it was over 80 degrees! I took the kids to the park, thinking they'd enjoy getting out of the house. I was wrong, we should have stayed home. Sigh. Noah complained that it was too hot to do anything, so it was boring and he laid on a bench in the shade the whole time. Poor Levi came down with a cold in the morning, and by the time we got to the park he was in bad shape. His nose was running, and he was so sleepy he looked drugged. He tried so hard to play because he just loves the park, but he could barely drag himself over to the slide, look at it, and drag himself back over to me. Poor guy. By the time we left, which was only a half an hour since we weren't having as much fun as I thought we would, he was feverish and glad to go home and have a nap. He's not much better today, though his fever is gone. He has a croupy cough that kept him up last night. It doesn't seem fair that the warm weather is bringing in the sickness that we avoided all winter.

Here are some more pictures of Jacob from the last few weeks. I don't take that many because, well, at his age they all look the same, LOL

One Month Old!

Ok, a few days late, bad me. I guess I was waiting until I had pictures to post, but guess what? They are still in my camera, so we'll be waiting a bit longer yet to see those, LOL. Jacob is growing nicely, though he won't have a dr appt until next Friday, so I don't know how much he has grown. I know he fits better now in the outfit he wore home from the hosptial. He also has already outgrown his newborn sized onsies. He's got more hair on his head, but it is still so fine and downy that it is hard to say what color it definitely is. I still think it is red, but if so it is a strawberry blonde more than bright red like Troyer's. He smiles often now, though not for the camera yet. If I talk to him and tap him on the nose playfully, he smiles, and he smiles back when I smile at him. His brothers just love it when he smiles at them :-)

We had some warm weather again last week, so on Thursday I took everyone out to the park next to the library. It was kind of breezy, but nice and sunny, and the boys loved getting out. I wasn't the only one with the great idea, though, there were soooo many other moms there with their young kids. I've never seen the park so crowded! Of course I didn't think to bring my camera until I was there and saw another mom with hers. So no pics of Jacob's first ever day at the park. Oops. He spent the whole time in the carseat anyway, so not such a big loss, lol.

Troyer and Noah spent the morning with Chris making chocolate covered peanutbutter eggs with their Pathfinder group. I went with them last year, and yum, they are good! It is their annual fundraiser, and they do really well with it. After they finished off helping out on the egg assembly line, Chris took them and Samuel to see the new Ninja Turtle movie. They had a good time being out with their dad and getting to go out to a movie, but they were a bit dissappointed with the movie. They thought the plot was dumb. Oh well, at least they had a nice afternoon with dad.

Ok, I'll try to get to those pictures soon, and I'll have a weight update by Friday. I still haven't gotten far on researching how to add stuff to my sidebar yet. Our latest movie we rented was Over the Hedge, which we really enjoyed. Lots of little silly lines thrown in, and the extras were really cute. I think we'll probably end up owning this one.

A Small Update, and Something New

Jacob is 3 weeks old today, and doing great! He slept almost 5 hours last night, so when I woke up at 4 am, I had a hard time going back to sleep, LOL His cord stump fell off on Monday, so he now has a pretty belly button, and I forgot to mention that at his 2 week weight check he was back to his birthweight. He officially was 8-14, but he had just pooped right before the nurse weighed him, and after nursing him for a half hour before the doctor came in, I figure he was back up over 9 lbs *grin*. He has also smiled a few times this week, and a lot this morning. The boys were thrilled when he smiled at them!

Now on to something new. Aimee and I were talking about our latest novels we're reading, and also what movies we've seen recently, and we thought how cool it would be if I could have a spot on my side bar, or maybe a link to another page, where we could list what we're reading and watching, and write little reviews about it. Keep in mind, we are not into deep thinking stuff here, just fun. We prefer historical romances, specifically Regency and early Victorian era, and also some time travel, and most anything set in Scotland. After 20 years of reading this stuff, we've developed a preference for certain writers, while some really bad stuff makes us gag, LOL. We'd love to write about what's good and what's awful, and have anyone who stops by leave comments with suggestions or additional reviews. I will have to do some research into how to edit my side bar, and whether I want to do a separate page or just list the books and movies on the side.

Just to start, I'll let you know, we've been reading Mary Balogh's Bedwyn series, including the new set of 4 that spun off of those. Also, Lisa Kleypas did a "Wallflowers" series that we liked, and which we are looking for additional books about characters with minor appearances in that series.

I should mention that we just don't do Westerns or Indians, and tend to avoid medieval settings. Every once in a while I do like a contemporary story as a change.

Movies: my family is signed up with Netflix, and we love it! Just this week we've gotten Secondhand Lions, which we found surprisingly enjoyable (Michael Caine is not my favorite), and today the boys and I watched Yours, Mine, and Ours - the classic version with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. It was better than I remembered, and the boys were somewhat amused also. Next on the list should be the recent remake of it.

Ok, so my assignment now is to find out how to get that added to my sidebar.

Oh, and of course get more pictures of Jacob uploaded ;-)

2 1/2 Weeks Old

Sorry I haven't been posting more; so far there's nothing much to say, other than that Jacob is awesome :-) He sleeps pretty well, for a newborn, and he's getting more alert and spending more time awake looking around. He's pretty calm around his brothers, who all love to come and kiss him.

Latest pictures:

9 days old - everyone else went to church and left us alone to relax for a few hours

I let him lay on the floor for a little while, and he seemed to enjoy that.

Here he is this morning, 18 days old, on my lap (where he usually is! LOL)

When the sun is shining on his hair, it has a definite red tint to it, so I'm thinking I've got another redhead! Poor Chris is outnumbered! LOL

1 Week Old

Jacob is 1 week old now. Just last week I was feeling surprised at how quickly and easily he was born. He's been home for 5 days and his brothers are quickly learning how he fits in our family. Chris has been home all week, helping keep them in line so I can recuperate more easily. Jacob is a snuggler, and sleeps best when cuddled up to me. He is still having a bit of trouble when it's time to fill his diaper, he cries quite a bit, but once he is done, he is sweet and happy again. My milk came in Saturday morning and he loves it! He had a doctor's appointment this morning just to make sure everything is going well, and the doctor said he looks perfect! He only weighs 8lb 10 oz, yet, so he hasn't regained his birth weight yet, but that is normal for my kids, they usually take 2 weeks to get there. At the rate he is eating, I think he will be over 9 lbs by next Thursday. I will take him back in to the dr just to check his weight then.

I wish I were better with a camera so you could get a better idea of what he really looks like, as it is I don't really have many pictures of him yet. Mostly because I am the one holding him! LOL


napping with Daddy

Today a friend from church came over to give all the boys haircuts. When she was here on Tuesday I mentioned that I had not been feeling up to it this month and that they were all lookinga little shaggy. She used to be a hairdresser at a salon, and offered to come back and do the cuts. Wow, that was such a great baby gift! They look really great now. They have never had professional cuts, I always cut their hair. I just take clippers and do a 1" cut all the way around, then trim the neck and ears. Noah is especially excited about his cut. He got it cut very short! He looks so blonde now.



The only cut that didn't really turn out great was Levi's, and that's because at 2 years old, he just doesn't sit nicely for haircuts, LOL. We fed him cookies, but he was still a bit wiggly.



Caleb's turned out well, too:



Here is a group shot; you can't really see the cuts well, but you can see that they aren't all shaggy anymore!



Troyer wanted to keep his longer than the others', but that means he will need to get a cut again that much sooner! Probably next month, sigh.