Kiddo Update

Riley - His newest thing is that he started giving out names for things. For example, last week he had a balloon that he had been playing with for a few days and one day he told us he named his balloon "snowflake" because it floats to the ground like a snowflake. This week we discovered that he actually named our thermometer (you can tell we've all been sick way too long)...he named it Motrin! LOL Then, yesterday he came out of his room wearing a bright yellow shirt we had picked up on the clearance rack at Target recently. He struck a pose and said, "Mommy I named my shirt Thunderbolt!" I can't wait to hear what other creative names he comes up with. We also started reliving our childhood by pulling out all our Legos over at mom's house! It is so fun that both Riley and Naomi are old enough to start using them, plus the kits he got from Christmas. Brad and I spent hours helping them build all our old sets from my childhood. So fun!

Naomi - She is looking and acting so grown up lately, even more so than usual. We'll be celebrating her 3rd birthday in a few weeks, which in some ways is unbelievable, and yet in other ways we can't believe she is really still 2 because she is right up there with her 4 year old brother in just about everything. She is quite the little actress/comedian these days. She continues to make the funniest faces and can hold an expression for quite a while without laughing so it's hard to know if she's serious or not! She has fooled me many times! It's been so special to see her "motherly instincts" come out with her baby brother. She is the first one to run to comfort him if he begins to fuss and will say, "It's ok baby, Naomi's here." So precious. She is always there for him, and was even able to help feed him a bottle the other night which she was over the moon about.

She still wants that baby sister though and reminds me quite often. She'll randomly say things like, "mommy, next Christmas I want a girl baby, ok?" We had a little talk and now she says, "When I grow up like a big mommy and have a baby in my tummy, I will have a girl baby and then I will have a sister who will play with me." Well, she almost gets it :).

Elijah - We had Elijah's second weight check on Friday and at one month old he was up to 10 lbs and 21 inches long, which is exactly the 50th percentile - perfect! I'm glad he was able to gain enough to get over his birth weight and then some so we can relax on the structure of feedings a bit now. With being so sick, by the evening I have a hard time nursing, so I started supplementing with a 2 oz bottle of formula right before we go to sleep and that has been helpful for us both I think. I'm thankful Brad is now done with night shifts for a little while and I have an extra hand at night. It has allowed me to take NyQuill the last two nights, which I was unable to do being home alone with all the kids, so I have had two pretty solid nights of sleep where I'm not waking up with a cough or stuffed nose every hour. Our sweet l'il bear continues to be a great sleeper :).
Since birth, one thing we noticed about him right away that he continues to do is hold his head up so well. Even when you cradle him in your arms he is always looking up and arching his back to see what is above or behind him. Several people have joked that he must be looking at all the angels above him because we never can figure out what exactly he is looking at, but it must be fascinating to him. You can see that even here at a month old he is holding his head up amazingly well. He is very strong!



Also, we started cloth diapers and after 2 full days of use, Brad and I have both said we can't believe we didn't use these before now! It is really so much easier than I originally thought and not any more work than using regular diapers. I am so excited about how much money we will save. We are going to become advocates for converting from disposable to cloth so we can try and help other people know what we didn't sooner!!! If you are on the fence about using them, go for it! I am SO glad we did and I will keep you updated on how it goes. So far, so good!

Brad and I are still fighting off these viruses and trying to get rested after a month of awful long and difficult hours on top of it. We are looking forward to a week off coming up mid-February when we can recalibrate! Brad has also been negotiating his contracts for next year, which is exciting. We are anticipating a much more family-friendly schedule (at least on a "regular" week) and will update when the details come together!