A Treat for my Sweet

I have been feeling like my big boy has not been getting a whole lot of attention from me now that I am back at work. After work I run to get the baby from school, then Zach and we rush home to put James down for a nap since he does not sleep at daycare. So Zach and I have some time together, but it always seems harried to me since I am usually trying to also make dinner, get a bottle ready, unload our bags, etc. 

So when James was home with a back-up care nanny instead of school I decided to take Zach for a treat. I told him we could get ice cream or cupcakes. He choose cupcakes so off to Crave we went. I had this whole image in my head (some might say a vision) that we would eat our cupcakes and talk about his day and it would be so sweet.

It was OK. He didn't really like his cupcake, mainly wanted to fire off 50 questions about the cupcake store that I did not have the answers for (why are they not working here? what are those people eating? why is this top pink?) and did not want to tell me about his day. Oh well, I tried and I have the picture to prove it when he tells his therapist that his mother neglected him. I will counter with the fact that he looks slightly demonic in the evidence. So there.

Just breathe

This weekend was not what anyone would call a fun-filled weekend. James was admitted to Texas Children's Hospital with low oxygen levels due to his brochiolitis. We got there around 11:30 on Saturday and left about 2 on Sunday. I will spare you the details (that my poor co-workers got) but the basics are this: He has bronchiolitis (brochitis for babies) and was breathing very rapidly. When the doc checked his oxygen level it was 90. It should be between 98-100. In the ER when he took a nap it dropped to 88 which is what got us admitted. They basically just watched him during the night and on Sunday morning they did a saline nebulizer treatment and suctioned him out. That seemed to make a huge difference as he was taken off the oxygen and took a long nap. We both did. He is doing about the same today, but there is nothing to be done for him, unfortunately but to watch him, suction his nose and try to get him to rest.

The Walls swooped right in and got Zachary. Dave and Tami came over and took him to the birthday party he was excited about. I have not gotten the recap on that, but I can only imagine Dave and Tami were mildly terrorized as it was at a music place so their involvement was required. I don't particularly like it myself. Liv and Vince kept Zach over night and into Sunday which he loved. When he got home all he wanted was to see his brother. Seriously, he kept saying that. "I want to see my brother". Of course he thought he was still wearing the mask from the hospital which was obliviously part of the draw.

Please notice we cut down his pacifer to fit under the oxygen tubes. He was a real trooper with the tubes. The nurses kept commenting that he was so little to not have it taped to his face. Like tape on his face would have made anything better. Negative. If he took it out I just put it back in. But he forgot about it for the most part. Well, until I turned my back to put in my contacts. Then this happened: 

Here was the interesting part for me. I did not want to leave the hospital. Alex was all about getting discharged, he was asking the nurses and pestering the doctors. Me? I was very content. It took me a while to realize why. Then it came to me, all that was waiting for me at home was laundry, a dishwasher that needed unloading and a 3 year old who would for sure be acting up for attention. Plus they were sending me home with a sick baby and nothing that could be done but wait and see. No thank you. I would have stayed for days. I might go back tonight and see if Denise can come make my baby smile and Mary can bring me the dinner I ordered.

3rd Birthday Party - extreme details

If you could not tell already from my post about the invites I created for Zach's party I was kinda obsessed with his theme. And by 'kinda' I mean 'totally' and by 'his' I mean 'mine' so much that I refused to change the the cupcakes to red from blue and yellow. I just caved and let him have a red cupcake (technically the only thing he asked for). I copied basically the entire party from Sarah over at Create Studio, which I found on Pinterest. She is the one that sweetly sent me her favor tags and water bottle covers. I ended up recreating her images after I bought some mustache clip art on Etsy. Did you know they sell mustache clip art? Yeah, neither did I. 

 Cupcakes with chocolate mustaches on top

Just one red one for the birthday boy

Individual veggies & ranch dip (that went basically untouched)

and chocolate pretzel cigars

 

The proper usage of said cigars

Nugget tray, the label says, "Real men eat chicken"

Could you die for these waters? I did. 

I loved them so much I took another picture.

Sophie sporting a mustache

No one told me mine was on crooked.

Littlest mustache wearer Lily

 

Prior to the party I sent an email to all attendees to clarify that 

the party favors (below) were NOT edible. 

They are two toned crayons made using the same mold as the chocolate. 

 

The Chillens Museum

Zach had his third birthday party at the Children's Museum (or Chillens museum as he says it) on his actual birthday. It was really nice to do it that day so we did not have to celebrate twice and get him all confused. He already believes that he gets presents for about a week during Christmas time.


The museum did an awesome job of setting up the room in my requested colors of blue and yellow (what? they said I got 20 balloons and table covers, of course I was going to ask to just have blue and yellow) and best of all, my house stayed clean. But truly the best thing (in my opinion) about the museum is that the kids get to play for about 45 min to an hour before eating/cake. So they are worn out that night.

We had better attendance than I thought given it was the Friday before Christmas and though we were missing some crucial friends (Big Ben for one), Zach had a awesome time with the fun friends that were able to come. If you recall the theme was Little Man, and James is dressed accordingly.

All the kiddos seemed to enjoy the huge climbing structure. 

Even though it SPECIFICALLY says 5 and up.

Zach and his fav Auntie Alison

The super, super cute Sam Prewitt.

 

 Zach refused to smile for any photos so this one was caught on the fly.

 

An aeronautical engineering making a rocket. Of course.

Zach and his ladies.

My big three year old singing Happy Birthday to himself.

Halfway to a Year

As Zach was turning 3 (blog post to come on that sneaky weepy day) Alex and I commented to each other that it was not as hard to believe that Zach was three, as it was to believe that James was about to be 6 months old. Where has the time gone? How is my roly poly baby halfway to a year old? This cannot possibly be correct, I must have done the math wrong.

But I digress. As usual. This month, James started to sit up, a very wobbly stay-very-close-and-pretend-to-be-an-attentive-mother sitting position, but he is SUPER excited to be doing it. He also rolls front to back and vice versa and does that all over the carpet. Though he still forgets that he can roll off his tummy and routinely bangs his face into the carpet and starts to cry. 

He is still just a delight to everyone that comes in contact with him. Even, surprisingly enough, his brother. James has realized that Zach is there and fairly entertaining so he now beams at him when he catches sight of him. Granted, that smile usually turns to slight tension as he is being hugged and gripped by an enthusiastic 3 year old.

James started school officially this month and his teacher said he was already a favorite (I promise this was  volunteered to me). She said that everyone who comes in comments on how cute and sweet he is. He is just so happy to have someone talking to him, his face lights up and you are rewarded with the biggest, wettest smile. As Zach says "Mommy, I got a smile from James!"

My baby is huge and I want to cry.

James at 5 months

James at 4 months

James at 3 months

James at 2 months

James at 1 month

Christmas Evenings

Our nighttime routine with Zachary is dinner, bath, short video/movie, brush teeth, then reading books in his room and off to bed. Then he adds about 10 minutes of stalling which includes saying his prayers ("I am thankful for Jesus and Mary and Joseph and Norman."), telling me what he is thinking about (to ward off bad dreams), what he is having for breakfast and then usually he needs another drink of water or to go to the bathroom. Again. Anyway, once we got the tree up in the living room and the stockings up on the fireplace I suggested we read books by the fire.

It. Was. Awesome. Alex told me I needed to tamper down my giddiness. Neither Zach nor I cared it was usually 65 degrees outside, we fired up the gas fireplace, turned off all the lights and lit the candles on the mantle.

Sometimes James was up and sometimes not. This was one night where they were in matching Christmas pajamas both laying on the floor listening to me read. It was so sweet and lovely. 

But of course when I tried to take their pictures without a flash (the tree looked better that way, obviously) they both decided to roll and move all around. Oh well, this is usually my life anyway. Me trying to stand still while two little boys are blurs around me.

Elf on the Couch

 

We did not do the whole Elf on the Shelf thing this year. Mainly because I barely knew what that was, but also becuase the little elves creep me out. We did, however, record the cartoon based (loosly) on the book, Elf of the Shelf and Zach fell in love with Chippy and the song Extravaganzalorious. I am not kidding, that is the song and I could sing it for you at a moment's notice. With accompaning shoulder moves. 

But I digress. He watched the movie almost every night after dinner while drinking his milk. We recorded it off CBS or something so it was about 15 min of movie and 10 min of commercials. Usually when there is a commercial my DVR spoiled child comes running yelling, "The movie is not ON!" but apparently with this one he just wanted the commercials. How do I know? Because my child can sing the majority of the Nook commercial with Jane Lynch. 

Chris was over for his birthday and we were all suckered into watching the movie with Zach and he busts out with "Nook support is always treeeeee! [free]" and we about fell off the couch. So of course instead of being horrified that my child knows a commercial, we made him sing it again. And again. I am going to try to video it because it is hysterical. He really knows the whole thing. If you sing one line - he will reply with the next. Sad but oh so funny.

I wanna hold your hand

In my car Zach and James are right next to each other so someone could still sit in the backseat if they  are forced so want. When we were in St. Louis and rented a car we separated the boys. This lead to a huge meltdown on the part of Zachary. He loves to hold James' hand in the car - no matter if James likes it or not. I do often hear, "Mommy his hand is wet!" to which I reply, then don't hold his hand. That is not an option.