Playing Catch-up

I fell off the blog-0-sphere for a few weeks there and now feel the need to play catch up a bit, hence the double-post day. We are currently looking forward to Thanksgiving at my mom's house with my sister and brother-in-law and nephew who are coming all the way from the east coast. I am so excited about having all the grandsons together in the same place. My sister's comment about Luke's behavior concerning an additional grandchild at Oma's house is totally warranted. I have no idea how he will respond to this newbie. I can tell you that the first time Oma spent more attention on Paul than Luke deemed necessary, there was an outburst from the two-year-old corner. Oh dear. It might be a long weekend. Perhaps we will be able to convince Luke that sharing Oma isn't such a bad thing.

Regardless, here are the cute pictures I took of my boys today.

Paul is totally checking out the Baby in the Mirror. This has become one of his favorite activities.

Blissfully unaware

Such a Good Sport

Baby Paul is quite amazing. He continues to need his nebulizer treatments about every other day, but he is such a sweetie about it. Sometimes he even falls asleep during it. He totally looks like some sort of alien experiment, but he's still cute. It's the cheeks. :-)

Down One

Our friends, Bob and Liza, are expecting their second child in about a month. They have a two-year-old who is exactly six days older than Luke. Liza thought it would be a good idea to see what life is like with two kids, so she and Bob borrowed Baby Paul today. We dropped him off with our best wishes for success! Luke hasn't really asked about Paul and I have the feeling it would take him a few weeks to wonder about his whereabouts. Oh dear. Fortunately for all of us, we will be reacquiring the baby later this afternoon. Daddy and I are both missing him! And Luke has had enough of a vacation. Although this picture was taken last weekend, I think it perfectly summarizes how Luke is feeling today. A little too gleeful, but terribly cute.

Four Months Old Today

Baby Paul is four months old today. I know for sure that he weighs over 17 pounds. I don't have any of his other stats, but he certainly is adorable. Here he is posing in the chair with Sprout the Bear. He's getting better at smiling for the camera. In health news, Paul is doing really well on his breathing treatments. We have been able to cut back to only once or twice a day. His coughing tends to accompany his spitting up. We are pretty sure he's not actually aspirating the fluid because of his fairly clear chest x-ray. He will be seeing the pediatric gastroenterologist on December 4th to see if we can do a little more for his reflux. All prayers are appreciated. He's such a sweet little guy. We are praying that all his health issues will be resolved according to God's perfect will.

Solid Food

Last Friday evening while we sat around the dinner table eating, Baby Paul showed extreme interest in each and every bite being taken. He's been joining us from the high chair for dinner and we figured it was a good time to try some solid food. I totally expected the kid to push the majority of the food back out at us. Not so. Paul loves to eat. He took three or four big bites and then decided to finish off the bottle. He's an eater, folks. Here are the pics to prove it.

Paul opens up for the next bite.

Yum!

I'm stuffed. :-)

Just Pictures

Luke reads to Paul and Oma this past Friday.

Paul is figuring out how his hands work.

Brothers in the Bath

Our Little Pumpkins on Halloween

Crazy Daze

What an adventure we had these past few days. Monday morning Luke's cough, which started the week before as a nighttime thing, extended into the day. He coughed all morning, went to sleep and woke up with a fever. I called the pediatrician and got us an appointment for 5:30 pm. For the record, that's a pretty insane hour to be leaving the house with two in diapers. Daddy was in Orlando on business, so we were blessed to have Grandma come with us. Hugely blessed. Luke's oxygen levels weren't what the doctor wanted so he got nebulized. Meanwhile Baby Paul was sitting on Grandma's lap, wheezing away and the fabulous Dr. Frank decided it was time to do two for the price of one. Paul was nebulized as well. Paul's wheeze got better. Luke's oxygen levels didn't. Dr. Frank sent us on our way to the emergency room for a chest x-ray. We arrived a little after 7 pm and stayed until 12:30 am. Luke's chest x-ray showed slight traces of fluid in his lungs. That combined with an ear infection, about which I was completely unaware, earned Luke a prescription for antibiotics. He also got a new inhaler and "puffer."

I seriously don't have time to go into all the details of the next four days, but basically Baby Paul got his own chest x-ray and ended up being prescribed two different inhalants. The saga continued this week as the doctor decided it was time to see a specialist. More details to come. Paul is crying in the swing next to me, letting me know that he is WAY more important than this silly blog!