Rolling into October

Back-to-belly rolling? Check and check. Aiden's ready to move onto crawling and gets a little frustrated that he can't do so. I don't think it will be very long. Reid's still getting used to finding himself on his belly after rolling over. He's getting stronger by the day.

Now that they're rolling over, the boys have started sleeping in different positions.
We often find Reid on his side. He seems to prefer to be touching the crib slats. Not surprising considering how often he reaches out to touch Aiden when they are on the floor together.



Aiden prefers to sleep on his belly; just like his Daddy! We spent a week trying to turn him back over. After watching him like a hawk on the video monitor, Eric finally determined that he was ok sleeping in that position. At night, he's still sleeping on his back. I think it's because he can't turn over easily in his sleep sack.

Vroom, Vroom!

The boys and I are excited to go driving in our new ride- a 2011 Toyota Sienna:

Movie Stars

Eric bought me a video camera for Mother's Day. I've been good about filming the boys from time to time. However, my computer doesn't quite have enough memory and/or power to transfer the videos. Eric's computer works, but either he's not here when I think about uploading it or we can't remember how to format it correctly in order to be able to upload it to the ol' blog. Luckily, it's my cell phone to the rescue! I have a Verizon Droid and just recently started playing with the video camera feature. I've used just the camera quite a few times. In fact, many of my blog pictures have come off of my cell phone.

A little intro- Please excuse my saying "Hiiiiii! Hiiiii!" through all of the videos. It seems to get the smiles, but I can also see where it could get annoying. The ones where the boys are on their tummies were both post rolling over. Yep, Reid is now rolling over as well. He started doing it for my dad a few weeks ago. Finally, Eric and I witnessed it.

A Message for Grandma Brusven

"I'm so excited, Reid. Grandma's going to love our message."

"Slow down, Aiden. She won't be able to read it."

"OK, now I'm ready. Wait, Reid. We're not practicing rolling over. Remember, we save that for naptime."

"NOW are we ready?" "Yep!"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA!"

They're #1!

We love Auntie Jennifer and Auntie Kelsey!




(I couldn't decide which one to post- not a bad one in the bunch! They must REALLY love their Aunties!)

Bumbo Seats - Take 2

Success!

You Are My Sunshine

Or in this case, my SONshine.

One of the toys suspended from the lamp by the changing table, plays "You Are My Sunshine". I sing it to the boys when they're on the table. Sometimes the other brother gets a little out of sorts being left behind on the floor, so I be sure to sing to him as well. Bless my wonderful boys for forgetting why they are fussing and flashing me huge grins by the time I'm done singing. (Also, bless them for knowing that Saturdays are meant for sleeping in!)

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy when skies are gray.
You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

The Children's Hospital in Denver

For those of you who read my dad's blog, you may have wondered why we were in the pooper-scooper business lately. Reid has been having some digestive issues. We took him to see his pediatrician last week as it seemed to be getting worse. The doctor recommended that I go off of dairy to see if he has a food allergy. (Good bye, ice cream! Waahhhh!) Even though we had only been giving each boy 2 oz of formula per day, the doctor also recommended that we switch to a more hypoallergenic brand.

Forward to Tuesday. Eric sent me a text at school saying it had gotten worse. The last time I was at school and was trying to coordinate a doctor visit and teach and talk with Eric got to be too hectic. This time my last three periods were taking a test, so I was able to get a last minute sub and come home. Luckily, I've been very frugal with my sick leave over the last 10 years, just so I would be able to take care of sick kids when necessary. We scheduled an appointment with a GI specialist at The Children's Hospital for yesterday. The appointment went well. Reid isn't in pain and he's still growing and getting enough nutrients, so the specialist was not worried. I still need to continue with a non-dairy diet, as well as try to eliminate peanuts and limit soy; two other possible culprits. We're supposed to check back in with the doctor in a couple of weeks. We're also experimenting with eliminating formula to see if that helps. Once he's better, then we can slowly reintroduce food back into my diet to see if we can figure out what's bothering him. I'm nervous about not having dairy in my diet because it's been a good source of calories. Because Reid needs the current (non-dairy) milk, I'm already having to dip into the freezer so I can give Aiden some of the (dairy filled) milk I started storing in June. We'll just have to see what happens. In the mean time, I'll keep reading labels and eat everything that passes inspection.

This is the second time we've been to The Children's Hospital. The first time was in May when the boys were put on the supplemental oxygen. Eric and I kept commenting on how much easier this visit was. Now we (sort of) actually know what we're doing. For example, we didn't bring their stroller inside with us the first time around. We were each hauling a baby in his infant carrier, plus an oxygen tank. Thank goodness Eric's sister, Jennifer, was there to haul around the rest of our bags. This time we strolled right in from the parking garage. I'm pretty sure that's how parenting goes: the ultimate on-the-job-training adventure.

This visit also reminded me of how lucky we are to have two healthy babies. Reid's problem, while worrisome, is also fairly common. I really think he'll grow out of it. If not, we'll just work around it. We saw dozens of families with very sick kids. In the parking garage, I noticed quite a few cars with Wyoming license plates, including Casper, which is a good 4.5 to 5 hours away! The facility is amazing and I've been impressed with all of the doctors, nurses, and lab techs we've worked with. How lucky are we that we can hop in the car and be there within a half an hour?!

The boys were a little out of sorts because the visit caused their eating and napping to get off track.

To calm them down, I took the boys for a post-supper stroll over to get the mail for us and my parents who were in Casper closing on the sale of their house! We stopped by their house to drop off the mail. I think Aiden and Reid were a little disappointed they didn't get to go inside to visit their favorite ceiling fan!


They slept well overnight and were back to big smiles again today.

#1 Daddy

Grandma Starrs' Favorites

Here are some of my mom's favorite pictures. It's nice to have another photographer around, as she has captured some great shots!

Having mastered the back-to-tummy roll, Aiden plots his next move. Crawling?

An armful. I'm so lucky!

My dad demonstrates the monkey chair feed.

Super Reid aka Daddy's Little Monkey.

Video conferencing with Daddy.

Out cold. Mission accomplished. (Reid)

Time to fill the bottles a little fuller? (Aiden)

Rockies Date Night

Thanks to the generosity of both sets of grandparents, Eric and I recently enjoyed a date night out to a Rockies game. Eric's parents treated us and my parents watched the boys. Plus, the Rockies won!



Of course, we HAD to get some ice cream so we could buy these little hats for our little guys.

Post Game

"Reid, why are you crying?"
"The Cyclones lost to the Squawkeyes!"

"Whaaaaaaaaat?!?!"