18m update

Wow! We have been so lax about updating recently! The crud has been making it's way through our house this past week, poor Little B had croup for a couple of days. That cough is SOOOO scary! We almost took him up to the ER because of it, and his fever. Thankfully, after just a few doses of a steroid he was ok. He is still coughing though, and has a runny nose. He doesn't seem to be quite himself yet. Jeremiah was also sick, but hopefully over it. Joelle's throat hurts, but so far nothing else. We are hoping that it stays that way too!

Benjamin is now 18m, and is the light of our lives. He weighs in at 28lbs, and is 31.5in long. The nurse thought he might have recorded him wrong at his 15m appt, because he commented it seemed like Benjamin had grown a whole inch!

He is doing well, but he is behind verbally. He doesn't say but 3 words, and cannot put 2 word sentences together. Some of it is because he is a boy, and boys tend to lag behind in speech anyway. But still, we want to have him evaluated by a speech therapist, and then go from there. We are hoping to be able to get Babies Can't Wait, as we can probably not afford speech therapy through our insurance. Hopefully it will just be a case to where they say he is fine, and give us some exercises to work with him on. Praying he really doesn't need true therapy, but if he does then God will work it out.

Everything else he was doing GREAT in! He is on track with all the other milestones, and passed his autism screening.

He LOVES to climb, we cannot keep him off things. He worries us because he likes to stand up, and we are afraid of him falling backwards and slamming his head. We have to keep a close eye on him constantly, but we wouldn't want it any other way. :) He hasn't tried to climb out his crib yet, THANKFULLY, so we are still good there. He will probably be moved into a toddler bed later on this year.

He also loves to "read" books, though he still doesn't have much patience with being read too, lol. His favorite time of day is when his daddy comes home. He will stand at the door and dance until Jeremiah walks in when I tell him that Daddy is home.

We are currently praying about whether or not to move. Our leasing office worked with us on the rent increase, but we are still maybe thinking about renting a house. We will know more on Monday after we look at it. However, here in our apartment everything is electric, and should we move to a house we would also have gas to contend with. Not to mention being further away from family.

Joelle's migraines are beginning to improve, thanks to the Lyrica. She has seen a naturalistic doctor, and has some ideas of how to maybe help heal her body from all the meds she takes (or has taken). She has two different diets to follow, and some other regiments as well. This past week was not a good week because of her cycle. We also experienced an early loss this month (called a chemical PG). To be honest, Joelle was devastated. But we know that God does have a plan for our lives, and God is good, all the time. Even when we cannot seem to understand why we suffer loss, He is still good.

We worry that even though Joelle's migraines are getting better, she still has bad days. And it is easy for her family to come and get her, since we live so close. If we move to Griffin, it will be much harder for them to help her. Just another reason as to why we need His wisdom in this situation.

Jeremiah is still very  much looking forward to fall! And hoping that this year we actually get a winter, so that the bugs will DIE DIE DIE! Last year was so mild that the bugs just kept breeding, and he has had issues since March, maybe even early February.


Jeremiah's father is coming in from China in October, it will be his first time meeting Benjamin. We are very excited to see him again, and for Benjamin to meet him. He is already buying presents. :)

And now some pics:


Eating nanners like a big boy!

Yes, his eyes are closed in most of these. He loves getting his picture taken, but always blinks!

Well, I guess that is about all we have to say! Hopefully the next update won't be so long in coming. :)

14month update

Benjamin is walking! Not exclusively, he still crawls when he wants to get somewhere fast, but he is walking about 90% of the time. He looks so adorable toddling around, and you can tell that he is still unsure of his balance a lot of the time. But every day he walks a little more and a little longer, so it won't be long and we will be running just trying to keep up with him!

He was pretty sick last week, had some sort of viral infection that entailed a sore throat and him SCREAMING for 4 days. We thought something really serious must be wrong, otherwise why would he be screaming? But his ears stayed clear, and his strep test was always neg. Eventually, around Tuesday of last week, it seemed to pass.

He is pretty much off of baby food now. He eats some fruit in the morning, but that is all. Otherwise it is table food all the way! He is a good eater, and so far has no food allergies. He is kind of picky like his mommy, but once he finds something he likes - he eats a TON of it. He will eat ENORMOUS amounts of spaghetti and lasagna.

When he was sick they did weigh him, and in ONE month he gained 1lb 2oz - bringing him up to 26lbs 2oz. A lot of the moms I talked to said that they didn't see much increase in their kids weight until 18months, so I was pretty surprised to see that he had gained that much weight.

He LOVES to read books, but isn't very patient when you try and read to him, lol. He mainly just turns the pages by himself, and looks at the pictures. He also loves doing puzzles, especially the ones that make noise. Most of his toys make noise or sing, so even with just one kid it is a noisy affair :) We can't wait to see what happens when we add in more! (No, not yet....but hopefully soon!)

We had a flea infestation at our house. It was HORRIBLE. Jeremiah had to treat the house twice, and we had to treat the cat twice too. We did SOOOOO much laundry. And not to mention all the vacuuming we had to do too. It had NOT been a pleasant experience. Benjamin and I had to spend two nights at my parents' house while the house was being treated.

Jeremiah is DEFINITELY coming to the busy season in work. Every time we turn around he has a cleanout, and his hours are getting longer too. He is currently beginning training to do termites, and we hope that this is a good opportunity for growth with his job.

Something new we are all doing as a family is going to the chiropractor. It has given Joelle some mild relief with her migraines, hopefully it will continue to do so. They had a family plan, and since Jeremiah was going to start going, it made sense to add Little B too. Jeremiah has a lot of issues with his back due to all the bending he has to do at work.

Benjamin is a 1 year old!!!

We know, we know! We should have updated a LONG time ago! Benjamin has been ONE for a whole week, and we didn't even tell y'all about it. So here, at last, is the update.

Benjamin went to the doctor on his birthday, poor baby got 5 shots, which did not make for a pleasant birthday for him. :( However, he weighed in at 25.0lbs and 30.5in! He is sooooo big! He was hitting all his milestones, and the doctor has no concerns.

We still aren't walking yet, but we are cruising and standing for several seconds on our own. He  is so fast when he crawls and cruises, and is already giving Joelle a run for her money!

He LOVES to be read too, and will go and get his books for you to read to him. He is beginning to understand the ABC song, and recognizes when we sing it. He has a phone that plays the ABC song, and when you sing it he goes and looks for his phone. Such a smart boy!

Temper tantrums have also started, not fun lol. So far they are still pretty minor, and we can usually distract him and he will calm down. He mainly throws them when he is hungry, tired, or bored. And right now, he is hungry it seems like ALL the time!

He is still is in Stage 2, because he HATES the consistency of Stage 3. However, he is eating more and more table food, and beginning to get better about textures. As soon as he sees us eating, he spits out his paci and opens his mouth for "samples" of our food. Very cute - for the moment. :)

Bedtime is still a little iffy. Some nights he goes right to sleep, and sleeps all night. Other nights he is up all night and just wants to be held. The past two nights he has slept through the night, here's hoping it continues. He is also on whole milk now, which seems to be helping him sleep more than formula. He gets a bottle at night, but a sippy cup during the day. And he quite enjoys his sippy cup! We aren't giving him juice though, he eats enough fruit and veggies that we don't think he needs it. We are worried about it hurting his teeth, and milk and water seem to satisfy him.

Birthday party was very small, just family and one close friend. He did get two though: One with J's grandmother and one with Joelle's family. Lots and lots of toys were opened, and he enjoys them very much. Joelle went shopping today and bought him his summer clothes - 24months! YIKES! Since here in GA summer lasts like 6 months, we had to make sure they would last the whole summer. Right now he is 18months, but they won't last much longer around his ever expanding tummy! :)

He LOVED the cupcake! *Pics below* He dug right into the icing, but ate the cake part very politely. We were smart and took of his clothes so he could just make a big mess, and that's exactly what he did! He did seem to enjoy it a lot!

No other real family updates to share. Jeremiah is going to have a very busy spring and summer, since we had such a mild winter. Not many of the bugs died, and instead just kept on reproducing. UGH!

Joelle is STILL battling her migraines. Right now she is trying some more natural alternatives. We aren't really holding out much hope for them, but who knows. God is still in control, and he can work miracles through even the strangest of things!

In closing, here are some updated pics!

Isn't he GORGEOUS!? Check out those eyes. Heartbreaker for sure!

Chowing down on some icing

What is this????

Love his little smirk here!

Tearing into some presents!

11 months

Hello one and all!

 Not much new here to report, but Benjamin is now 11months old! It's so crazy to think about. We are still debating have a one year birthday party, but have some time to think about it. We have a lot of friends with kids his age that could come (mostly girls lol) but not sure if we have the space for it. I don't need to send out invitations until like the middle of February anyway. If we do do one, then we also need to think about if we are doing a theme or not. Probably not, because that will cost too much money.

His new milestones are:

1. Pulling himself up.

2. Cruising.

3. Waving bye bye.

4. Pushing the buttons on his toys until he finds the exact song he is looking for. Which, however, can be super annoying lol.

Happy 1st Christmas Little B

What a sweet and wonderful time we had with Benjamin for his first Christmas! He didn't really know what was going on, and enjoyed eating the wrapping paper more that opening the presents, but it was still a joy to experience this with him! As you  can see from the pics, he got some little figurines that he had a blast eating! We were gonna buy him 2 big presents, but Target was almost completely out of toys. SO, he ended up with 3 little ones and 1 big one, which pretty much equaled out to 2 ;). We got him 3 sets of small little figurines, and a game called Uno Moo. He cannot play the game, but he can play with the animals and put them in the barn :). He got presents from EVERYONE - so we didn't want to buy him a lot of stuff too. Stuff that he will just get bored with in a couple of months anyway.

Christmas Eve we spent with Jeremiah's family, and ate pizza and watched Christmas movies. Christmas Day we went to my parents early in the morning for my dad's famous Christmas Day omelets - YUMMY! We then went to church. After church it was back up to my parents' to watch Benjamin open his presents, and celebrate Josiah (Joelle's little brother) and his 7th birthday.

Church was very sweet, and there was actually a lot of people there. We just spent a time of sharing why we were grateful for Christmas, and then took communion. It was especially special today to Jeremiah and I because on this day, 6 years ago, on a Sunday, we got engaged! Time sure has flown by and wow have there been a lot of changes since then!

This time this year we are especially grateful to God for getting us past these past two weeks. Joelle had a spinal tap go bad, and was laid up in bed for 9days. She ended up having to get 3 blood patches, and was very very sick. The spinal tap (checking her CSF pressure) did come back normal, so her neuro feels confident with just diagnosing her with plain old migraines. Our next step is too look into possibly seeing an endocrinologist and seeing if it is a hormone issue that can be addressed. Several people have mentioned a holistic/naturalist approach, but we don't feel led to go down that road.

Jeremiah has a 3day weekend for Christmas, so tomorrow we intend to go SHOPPING (or at least Joelle does lol) and spend some Christmas money that was so sweetly given to us.

We pray that you and yours had a very merry and special Christmas as year. We are looking forward to this new year, and all the blessings that God has in store for us!

Be blessed!

Hooray!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! CHRISTMAS IS COMING! CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!!!

Will post pics after the weekend :)

Hello!

Hello friends! Just wanted to update you on our family. Christmas time is coming up, and we are getting ready for the holidays. We are SOOOO excited about them this year! We cannot wait to send out our Christmas cards, and to buy Little B his presents. We are only buying him 2 presents this year tho. We don't want to get caught up in the wrong Christmas spirit. And buying your kid a ton of presents is extremely overrated, in our opinions. Plus, he will be getting presents from lots of family members, so he won't mind our lack. Not that he will even realize what is going on anyway! We have a hard time remembering what we post from blog to blog, so sorry if some of Little B's milestones are a repetition. :)

We also soon have to start thinking about a 1st birthday party! We plan on low key and SMALL. Maybe only family, or family and very very close friends. No big splashes here either. He won't even remember this either, and we certainly don't have a lot of money to spend.

He had his 9month check up on Monday. He weighed in at 22lbs 5oz, and 28 1/4 inches! He is on track with all his milestones, and gets to start eating scrambled eggs now. :) He is starting to take more and more of an interest in table food, but does not like most of the consistencies. Hopefully he will outgrow that as he samples more and more. :)

He is sitting up, and pulling himself up to his knees and then his feet. However, he stays bent over at a 90degree  angle with the floor. SO cute! Today he was trying to pull himself up into a sitting position, so it won't be long until that milestone is reached too! He is also on track verbally. He babbles CONSTANTLY - and says Momma and Dada. After the doctor finished examining him on Monday, he gave her a piece of his mind! He seemed to be quite offended with the process, lol. :)

We had a good Thanksgiving as well. B tried mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, but did not enjoy either. :) We were missing half our family, and felt their loss keenly. :( We went with Joelle's family to get their family tree, and B enjoyed the petting zoo on the tree farm. He was very interested in the GIANT pet turkey, which made a lot of noise and fuss. Perhaps he felt a connection, LOL!

Joelle got some disappointing news from the doctor. They are still unable to find a cause for her migraines. She has had two EEGs and a MRI, and both came back neg. Her next step is to get a lumbar spinal tap, and make sure her spinal fluid is draining correctly. The doctor is not quite sure this will work, since her migraines did get better with PG. It may simply be migraines, that do not respond to any meds. She is very very discouraged. It seemed like this new doctor might have finally found some answers, but those turned out to be dead ends as well. We know we ask for this every time - but if you have a moment to spare, please say a prayer for her. She needs grace and an extra dose of strength.