Make it Slow Down!!

My sweet baby Ethan is growing up all too quickly. I absolutely LOVE babies. I have always loved babies for as long as I can remember. I could have a baby in my home forever. However, unfortunately my last baby is so quickly growing and changing. I can’t believe he is already 4 ½ months old. It really makes me sad. I see him getting bigger everyday and it is killing me!! I want to just stop time and keep him little forever. He is changing constantly. Last week he discovered his tongue. He would stick it out and play with it. He thinks it is funny when you tap on it when he has it sticking out. This week he found his feet! He loves his feet and he is trying very very hard to get them in his mouth. At this age, Wesleigh chewed on his feet constantly, but Ethan isn’t as flexible as Wesleigh was, so I am not so sure if the little fella will actually get them in his mouth. But, he sure is gonna spend a lot of time trying! He loves his food. He can put the baby food away. He will eat almost anything. I say almost because he dislikes, hates, no actually DESPISES peaches. He will eat anything else happily, but if you put a bite of peaches in his mouth he shutters and shakes, gags and screams bloody murder. You can’t outsmart the boy either! I will try and sneak a bite of peaches in between other foods he likes and he gets totally ticked off! I have a few jars of a mix that is Oatmeal, Peaches, and Bananas. I thought…surely there is enough other flavors in there that he will eat it. NOPE!! He sure won’t! He screams bloody murder and refuses to take another bite! Seriously! How do you learn to hate something SO much so early! Jim thinks I am being stubborn because I keep trying to get him to eat them. Maybe I should quit, but I guess I am stubborn, and I want to see if he will eventually eat them. Who doesn’t like peaches? Little stinker. We were able to transition him back to milk based formula during the past 2 weeks. He ended up on Soy around 6 weeks or so because he was having a horrible time burping and was in a ton of pain with every bottle. Well, at the 4 month appointment we talked to the doctor about switching him back, and she said it would be ideal if he could make the switch. So we mixed half and half for a while and since Sunday we have been on straight milk-based formula with no problems. I never really liked the whole soy thing, I felt like he was missing out on important stuff. The doctor agreed that milk-based is best and if we could get him switched over it would be great! I am happy, he is happy, and the milk based is cheaper!! J
Last week he learned how to roll from his back to his tummy. He has been rolling tummy to back since he was 2 weeks old, but just figured out back to tummy! Once he did it, he hasn’t stopped. He rolls all over the place!! And, much to my dismay, the child is getting up on all 4’s!! Yep, hands and knees!! 4 ½ months old!! I really don’t think I am ready for him to be mobile. I want the baby phase to hang on a lot longer!! Wesleigh crawled at 5 ½ months, which in my opinion was really early!! I am not eager for Ethan to follow in those foot steps, but he sure does watch that big brother a LOT, and I am sure he is just dying to follow him around!

Loving bath time
such a sweet smile

just chillin' in the bath water

theres that tongue!!

so happy

I get told CONSTANTLY that he looks just like me. I don't necessarily see it just yet. His eyes are turning green like mine though!

such a cutie pie

so serious

I love that kid!

Smiling Ethan!!

Wesleigh is growing smarter everyday. I swear that kid is so dang smart. He always knows where his sippy cup is (almost always). I can tell him to go find his cup and he does it everytime. Today, I was cooking his lunch and he was about to get in his high chair and I told him, go find your cup…well, he walked toward his room, then came back crying. I told him again, go get your cup and he did the same thing. So finally I went with him. He had closed his bedroom door and couldn’t get it open and I opened the door for him and he walked straight to his cup and handed it to me. Which leads me to his next new trick. He can open doors. Oh boy, isn’t this fun!? He has thoroughly enjoyed closing doors for a while now, but now he can open them back up. He can open the back door that leads to the porch, and all the doors in the house! I have also caught him halfway up the baby gates by wrapping his toes around the bars and climbing like a monkey! I am afraid it is only a matter of time before he figures out how to get out of the baby bed! I don’t think I am ready for a big boy bed!! I would like to keep him in the confines of the crib for as long as possible. I have the money set aside for bunk beds for him and Ethan when the time comes, but I don’t want to have to do that just yet. At bed time, we read 2 stories and sing a few songs. We will tell him, go pick out 2 books and he will. He knows which books Daddy prefers to read and he will pick those on Daddy’s nights and he will pick others on my nights. He will do pretty much anything you tell him to. We have been going for walks every morning. I can tell him it is time to go for our walk, go get your sandals and put them on. He will go to his room and get his shoes and bring them back and try to put them on. Then, when we return he sits down, takes them off and sometimes puts them away. He still loves to stack blocks. Today he was stacking baby food jars 4 high in the kitchen on the floor. There are so many things that he does that just blows our minds. He really is a smart little fella, sometimes a little too smart.
Wesleigh has been peeing on the potty every night for the past 2 weeks. He gets up there, stares down and tries very hard then eventually pees!! We get excited, he gets excited, and he gets 3 M&M’s!! We are so proud of him!! I really don’t think he is ready to be potty trained at this time, so we will keep encouraging the night time peeing on the potty and then we will go from there at a later date!
So, both of my little fellas are growing bigger and stronger every day. I often find myself wishing I could freeze time. They are amazing little blessings from the Lord and I really don’t know what my life would be without them. They are the reason I get up each morning and do it all over again! I love and adore those boys more than I ever thought possible.

He runs from the camera right now, so I don't have as many pictures of the little stinker!

a Wesleigh taco after bath

sitting in the double stroller, driving it

Daddy and Wesleigh in a HUGE box!

In other news, besides children, I must share that we closed today on a refinance on our house. We stumbled into the refinance at just the perfect time! We had an interest rate of 6.5% when we built our house, which at the time was a wonderful rate, but now we have a 4.85%! In addition to that the value of our house went up by $20,000 dollars in the past 2.5 years. Yep, in a recession, our home value went UP!! So, this meant we didn't have to pay mortgage insurance, and with our lovely new interest rate we are saving $262 a month!! To some that may be pocket change, but to us, that is a life saver!! I just had to share! We feel very blessed!!

Most of you who read the blog probably already know that Jim’s mom, better known around here as “Gran” was diagnosed with breast cancer about 4 or 5 weeks ago. She is incredibly lucky and the cancer was caught very very early. It is isolated to one small location, however they are afraid the potential for more in the future is great. Therefore, on Monday, June 29th, she will undergo a double mastectomy and double reconstruction surgery at the same time at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. They will remove all the breast tissue and some surrounding lymph nodes just to be sure that all cancer cells are eradicated. I believe she will undergo a little bit of oral chemo therapy after the surgery, but her prognosis is wonderful. We are incredibly blessed that her cancer was caught so early and that after this surgery she won’t ever have to worry about breast cancer again. She is going to have a long couple of weeks after the surgery, but she has a very positive attitude and is hopeful that she will be up and running again in no time. I share all this to ask for your prayers. Please pray for her on Monday and the weeks to come. She also goes by Patti, when she isn’t being called Gran or Mom!! She and the rest of our family greatly appreciate any and all prayers that you offer up on her behalf!! We are all true believers in the power of prayer and know that it is by God’s grace that her cancer was caught so very early!! We love you Gran, and we are praying for you constantly!!