1/2 a year old already!!!

Looks how handsome you are!!! And yes... you really like your food :)

We can't say it enough - you are the happiest baby ever! We love you SOOO much. As nervous as we were about having three little ones to care for, you have been so easy that it has not been that bad. We are very busy right now and you just go with the flow - hockey games, soccer games, baseball practices, etc. We took you out to a restaurant last weekend and besides wanting your food quicker you were very good.

You are starting to sleep through the night many nights now. When you wake up you cry and fuss to let me know you are awake and then the minute I walk in and you see me you either smile real big or lately you have started to laugh. I love that! You are so happy when you wake up.

You have your 6 month check-up next week but we know you are slightly over 17 pounds from your ultrasound checkup. You are rolling over both ways and starting to sit up for short stretches of time.

Update on our Baby Ross

Ross had his 6 month follow up ultrasound on Tuesday for his kidney checkup. He was a really good boy. He didn't mind the probe and just laid there and smiled at the lady and played with his feet and the cord some. They also had Spongebob Squarepants on the tv so he stopped to watch it a few time.

getting the ultrasound done...

oops, hard to get a picture right now because I want to play with my feet...

hmmm... let me hold that, I know how to do this...

the tech took a break to run the pics by the dr before we left to make sure he had all the different pictures he wanted...

so while she was gone we just hung out... Ross played with his feet and watched some tv...

Yesterday (Wednesday), I took him back to meet with Dr Blowey and have the ultrasound read. They found that there was no change - the tube to Ross' left kidney is still dilated. This means that he is at a risk of there being backflow, and therefore, an elevated risk of developing kidney infections. Because he has had no issues to date, the plan is just to continue to monitor through periodic ultrasounds. We had hoped that he would have outgrown this by now but it is still not a major concern. We will watch for fevers or blood in the urine and as long as he has none of these symptoms, there is no need for surgery or additional testing beyond the ultrasound.

We will go back when Ross is one year old for another ultrasound and follow up. If there is still no change at one year old, we will most likely wait until he is two years old for his next follow up. The hope is that he outgrows this completely or that with continued monitoring the doctors become comfortable that this is not going to be an issue for him.

Lemonade, Lemonade... Ice Cold Lemonade

Monday night I picked Reid up from school and he was super talkative about his day. He got to have a pizza lunch with Mr O. (his principal) for the Lion Stampede pledges he solicited. He was excited that they could have seconds and thirds and they got lemonade. He went on and on about his day. As soon as we were pulling in the subdivsion he wanted to know if he could have a lemonade stand. I told him that he could and he hurried in the house to make a sign as soon as we got home. I didn't have any "lemonade" so I made a pitcher of Lemon Lime Kool-Aid and a grape one (Ryan's pick).

Reid's sign had a large lemon on it and he wrote "25 cents for half a cup, 50 cents for a whole cup."

As soon as the lemonade was made and we started setting up the table outside the boys had a swarm of customers. The boys had SOO much fun! Ryan even enjoyed himself with the stand and allowed me to take pictures of him.

The boys sold out really quickly, the neighborhood had a ton of fun. I believe that Reid ended up with $4.00 in his pockets when all was said and done (I can't verify because none of it actually made it home -see below). Shortly after we sold out, some kids across the street opened a snow cone stand. The picture below was the flock of neighborhood kids moving to the snow cone stand. (Reid in light blue shirt with back to camera).

Proud mom moment - Reid was running around gathering kids when the snow cone stand opened. He grabbed two of the younger girls on the street and told them that they needed to come get snow cones. He said "Hey, come and get snow cones, they are 25 cents. Here, take some quarters." He gave them money from his stand to go and get snow cones. Later he gave out more and more money to the neighborhood kids for the snow cone stands and refills. He ended up coming home with what he went outside with - empty pockets. AND... he didn't care one bit, they had so much fun!

Reid's first attempt at goalie

Reid is now in Mites hockey. It is a LOT different - at least in my opinion - and I'm not all that familiar with youth hockey. The kids play full ice (as opposed to the cross ice they played 2/3 of the time in Atoms), they have offsides and icing calls, they have refs, they keep score, and they have goalies. Reid really likes to play goalie but Russ and I convinced him that he should skate for one more year and then we'd wait and see on the goalie thing. It's kind of tough to pigeon hole your kid in a position so early (and from a mom's opinion - goalie gear is EXPENSIVE)! Anyway, the goalie on our team decided (cried a lot) that he didn't really want to be goalie anymore, at least for now. They asked last week if Reid would give it a try but it was a difficult week for us with Russ out of town the whole week so we agreed that we would the following week (THIS week).

Reid had his first practice last night as a goalie. He started the day by waking up and telling Russ that he had thought about playing goalie ALL night. Then I picked him up from school and he was on and on about when is hockey practice and he gets to be goalie, etc. Reid is a pretty mellow guy but he was certainly pumped up for this!

Here are some pics of him in his gear:



He did pretty good at practice. Skated a little slower but that's a lot of heavy equipment and Russ and I thought he did REALLY good for the first time wearing pads. He fell down a lot but usually got up pretty good on his own.



Once they started "actual" goalie practice there was a coach trying to help Reid... he wasn't a goalie coach so dad stepped in.

Other coach: "Um, try this. Do This"
Russ: "Hey, thanks.. I've played goalie for 10 years, I got this"

Russ worked with Reid on positioning and how to stand in the net. Reid will play his first game this Saturday at 6:00. Russ and I had plans to get a babysitter and go to a neighbor's 40th birthday party at 6:30 so our babysitter is going to come early and watch the little two so I can go to the game and actually watch it.



Why do I need a babysitter to watch the game??? One word - Ryan. Actually, Ryan was REALLY good at practice while we hung out at the rink... but the guy is just NONSTOP. Here he is just running around by the ice rink. Please note his outfit. I had him in pants for the day that DID match his shirt but he changed into shorts when he got home. Ryan's idea of matching is blue shirt, blue shorts. Or red shirt, red shorts. Sometimes it's just not a battle I care to fight.



As I said... NONSTOP! Ever notice that every picture I try to take of Ryan is blurry? This kid can not stand still for too long.



Yes, we're in the bathroom. I don't think necessarily because he had to go to the bathroom but he's figured out that we get to move to a different spot if he says that he has to go.




UPDATE: The hat now fits!!! Ross has earned the title of the happiest baby ever! We took him to practice with us and he stayed in his stroller the entire hour as happy as could be. He even fell asleep towards the end of practice. He usually eats around 5:30 and he didn't get dinner last night until almost 7:00. Once he ate his sweet potatoes and had a bottle he took his bath and watched some Survivor with us. When the big boys went to bed around 8:20 I laid Ross in his bed to see if he would go to sleep (fully expecting that he would cry for a bottle). He put himself to sleep and STAYED asleep ALL NIGHT. He slept from 8:20 until I woke him up at 6:30 for day care...

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, maybe not completely wordless - but these are just pics from after bath time last night... all the boys were in their white t's for bed so I thought I would try and capture a picture. All of them were willing... for a while. Then Ross decided he was NOT having fun.

Any resemblence?

These are all from around 5.5 months (March 2004, December 2006, April 2009)

Haircut #2... such a handsome boy

It should come as no surpise to anyone that I am not a fan of long... or even longer... hair on boys. I like the nice, clean short cut on my boys... SO... Ross got his second hair cut today. You'll see from the easter blog that his hair was looking like a bad comb over lately... and his new growth is MUCH lighter than his "long" parts of his hair.

BEFORE:

AND AFTER:

Easter Blessings...

Happy Easter! I'll have to figure out why this picture keeps rotating sideways - maybe update later... but I had to share it. 1) Ross got this adorable 'My first Easter' shirt from the Kovacs family. 2) notice the HORRIBLE hair - bad combover... see next blog post.

Glad we snapped these pictures early because the shirt didn't stay clean for long. Ross had peaches with his breakfast and he managed to spit EVERYTHING up the rest of the day. Not doing peaches again for a LONG time.

Our original plan for Easter weekend was to go to Hannibal to visit Grandpa and Grandma McDowell. Then Reid got scheduled for soccer and a late hockey game on Saturday and we knew we just wouldn't be able to make it work. We debated going to Holton on Sunday (shorter trip) but knew that Russ was going to be leaving for the week with the Stover hockey team so we decided to stay home and just do a simple Easter celebration at our house.

When I got home from running club I "laid out" eggs in the backyard. Russ laughed at me because I literally did just lay them all over the yard so he went out and fixed (i.e. "hid") the eggs.

We read 'The Easter Story' book to the boys (mostly to Reid - Ryan wasn't in the mood to pay attention). We got this book several years back from Grandma Linda so decided to remind the boys what Easter was really about.

Then we went outside and did our hunt which included the boys' Easter baskets. Both boys got sunglasses, Reid got the Alvin and the Chipmunks new movie, and ryan got some bakugans and new sandals for summer. Both boys really enjoyed the hunt - we had around 50 eggs out for them so there was plenty for both of them to find.

After the hunt I made our Easter lunch. We had ham, rolls, mashed potatoes, and corn. Ryan insisted that we were having bacon and that it was Valentine's Day. He also wanted to pray, but only under the table, thanking God for chocolate milk. I have NO idea where he gets some of his ideas.

After lunch I took the boys to the park while hockey Ross and dad took some naps from thoroughly enjoying lunch :) The boys had a blast at the park and then we went home and watched Reid's new Chipmunks movie.

After the movie we went back outside and I mowed the yard and we played sports. Reid played baseball with Russ for a really long time and was doing really well! Then we played some soccer and then ended up playing baseball again with everyone involved, including hockey Ross.

The boys also got some guns that blow bubbles from the Kovac's and we played with them until we ran them clear out of bubbles. All together we were outside for probably three to three and a half hours. Russ and I commented to each other a couple of times that Ryan just belongs outside - he played HARD and nonstop for a long time... WHICH... led to a meltdown when we said it was time to go in of course. He was kicking and grabbing me. I gave him a bath and sent him down to Russ as I did the other two baths. When I came down from the next bath, Ryan was passed out on the living room floor. Russ carried him up to his bed and he slept through the entire night.

It really was a nice Easter!