Who is this???

So to explain, I know this is my son, Aaron. It is just that this picture illustrates one of the biggest differences that we have seen between him and Luke as infants so far. Luke hated to be put down and left alone, but Aaron seems to need his space sometimes. Today I held him all through church, then we went home and either Mimi or I held him all afternoon, and finally he'd had enough. He was crying and I had already fed him 4 times, changed him, burped him, etc. Nothing made him happy. Finally I laid him down on the floor next to me and it was less than 20 seconds and he was quiet and happy all by himself. He also likes being held on his back and Luke would fuss anytime he wasn't held upright.

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So not only do they look different but their personalities are really different too.

short!

We had another Dr's appointment today to check up on the ear infection Aaron has been fighting. He is doing much better and I can hardly wait to stop trying to remember to give meds four times a day! He also is up to 8 lbs even, which means he gaine 14 oz in the last 10 days! He is going to be a chunk yet! He definitely feels bigger and heavier to me, and he is already too long for some of the newborn outfits I have! He still curls up pretty small like a newborn, but it is always amazing to me how fast both my boys grow and change. .............................................................................................................................. Next up is a visit from Greg's parents! We can hardly wait to see them but have undertaken some deep cleaning that I am not sure we will have done when they get here or not. I guess when they get here they can always pitch in, which is part of what they like to do when they are here and I really appreciate it, but I at least want to have their room ready for them! ............................................................................................................................. My mom had the honor of babysitting for both boys for the first time today, also first time anyone has baby sat for Aaron period. It sounds like it went really well, with Luke taking his nap easily for her (he has been fighting me on it all week) and Aaron taking a bottle quite successfully for the first time. I have been building up my stash of pumped milk since he was born and decided to take it all to my Mom's since she will be the main one taking care of him and I pump more everyday. I was surprised by how much I had accumulated in my freezer, it filled a small cooler to overflowing, couldn't even close it! It is nice to know I have plenty to back us up once I go back to work at the end of May. Enough for now, time for bed!

Big Luke

My cousin Luke and his new bride Kat were here to visit for a few days on the tail end of a seven month honeymoon trip that went from Portland, OR. down through most of South America ending in Paraguay, back up to New York, down to KS and eventually back up to Portland. We got to spend a good chunk of time with them both, especially considering how short of a time they were here and how many people love them here. My Luke was taken with them right away of course and was really sad when they left again. It felt like just enough time to begin to catch up and really wish for a lot more. This was most people's first chance to meet Kat and I think everyone strongly approves of Luke's choice!

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Though our Luke wasn't specifically named for my cousin it definitely helped that we had such a good association with the name already because of him! I hope that our Luke grows up to be the same kind of man that my cousin is, with strong faith that he works to put into action.

new pictures at 3 weeks old

Aaron was wide awake for a long time this evening and I realized that I hadn't taken any new pics in a while so I grabed my camera. Unfortunately the battery was dead so I plugged it into the charger and found Luke's camera. It's batteries were also dead but it takes AA batteries so I plugged it's batteries into a charger as well and found some fresh ones! So here are my beautiful boys!

Luke loves to kiss Aaron and was only too happy to kiss him over and over again while I tried to catch it with the camera. He wouldn't pose though, just lots and lots of fast kisses and I managed to get these two that didn't look strange or blury.

We got new cloth diapers in yesterday and after washing them several times I got to try them out today. I gotta say it feels so good to not use disposables any more, and these dipes fit amazingly well on such a little guy. I also have some green, blue and brown ones in my stash!

Both my boys like thier baths but since Aaron takes his with me we won't be taking any pics of that!

After bath snuggles and reading time before bed. We have been reading the little house books, or as Luke calls them, "the Laura books", and we just finished, "On the Banks of Plum Creek" tonight. I am enjoying rereading them and since we started reading them in March this is the first time that he has really wanted to have me read a book with very few pictures. We read them before naps and bed time each day and he really looks forward to it. Sometimes I wonder how much he understands, like when it discribes Laura feeling scared about Pa possibly being lost in a blizzard but it doesn't ever come out and say that she is feeling scared or what exactly she is scared about. When I asked him though he told me exactly what was happening, that Laura was scared because Pa had not come home and she needed him. It's amazing to me how grown up he is getting, and each time I look at him he seems taller and more like a little boy.

Tonight though he just wanted to be my baby again, and I told him that he would always be my baby no matter how big he got. (-:

What happened???

Just couldn't resist posting this... Thurs there was a gathering of friends and family and Luke got tired early so he and Greg went home while I stayed and visited another two hours. When I got home Greg was asleep on the couch, a movie was playing for Luke, and Luke was very much awake. After sitting in the living room and talking with Greg for a while I went to the kitchen to get Luke a snack and this is what I found. Apparently Luke had tried to help himself! spilled on the floor there is shreded cheese, milk, an opened stick of butter, and two broken eggs! I guess he was hungry for scrambled eggs with cheese on top!

quick update

So when Aaron was 9 days old we took him to Dr Wiens because his eye had been matted up for about 5 days and wasn't getting better. He checked him over and found out that he had an ear infection in his R ear that had spread to his eye, ordered antibiotics for both ear and eye and sent us home. At Aaron's 2 week check up the R ear was getting a little better but not tons and the L ear was now looking infected as well. Dr Wiens changed the antibiotics so now we are trying those out. I was worried about developing thrush with all these antibiotics so soon after birth but so far we have avoided it. I got some probiotic drops for Aaron and have been eating yogurt everyday myself so hopefully that will keep us healthy other wise. At Aaron's 2 week check up he weighed in at a heafty 7lbs 1.8oz! His cheeks have definitely plumped out and I notice a difference in his legs and abdomen too, though they are still pretty skinny, definitely not chuncky looking yet but I am sure we will get there. Luke also had a check up that day (delayed 3 yr visit) and he weighed 34 lbs and was 39 inches tall. That puts him at 40% for wt and 80% for ht, long and skinny which we already knew. (-; He did really well and I was so proud of him. He had to get a shot and have blood drawn, two sticks! He doesn't remember the last time he got a shot, over a yr ago, so there wasn't any anxiety before hand but I wasn't sure how much or what to tell him ahead of time. I also didn't want him to be surprised or feel betrayed by me not giving him information. I ended up telling him just before they stuck him that it would hurt just a little really quick and then they would be done. It was sad, there were a few tears, but everyone was very quick and the tears dried just as quickly. After the blood draw he needed to have a bandaid of some type but almost all of his experiences with bandaids were after shots so he is terified of bandaids (even though he doesn't remember those shots). We ended up just using gause and tape and I held pressure on it foe a while and then rolled his sleves down over it. He did a great job of leaving it alone and later in the day actually told me that he liked his bandaid because it made his ouchy all better! Yesterday we had almost a constant stream of visitors at our house including Luke and Kat Bonham!!! Big Luke and little Luke got to play together and it was fun catching up and getting to know Kat a bit. After they left Luke and Aaron and I had our nap and as soon as Luke woke up he started begging to plag with big Luke! We will get to see them tonight again and hear more about their trip, but I wish there was more time for personal visits and play.

Family

This is a pic from our 1 week post partum visit with the midwives. I realized the other day that we didn't have any good pictures of all of us and I forgot my camera but Lois had brought hers for no reason what so ever, I guess providence! Anyway, we quickly grabed a few pics, Luke was pretty squirley and ready for a nap and Aaron was hungry and crying, but we got one! Aaron was the 200th baby to be born at the birth center so they are going to do a little write up in their newsletter and on their face book page I think.

Aaron and I are both doing really well. His jaundice levels are with in normal limits and he has actually gained at least 3 oz above his birth weight already (on day three he was down to 6lbs 1.6 oz which isn't bad at all). Luke droped 9% of his birth weight before starting to gain and I think he barely made it to his birth weight by the time he was 2 weeks old and he also had jaundice bad enough that we needed photo therapy so I was nervous about both of those things and really kept an eye on Aaron's feedings. He is obviously eating plenty and I have way more than enough so I am able to get a head start on a stash of milk for when I go back to work at the end of May. I feel like I have healed much more quickly from this birth than I did from Luke's, several good reasons for that but I won't go into that here. It is good though, because I feel like I can really be there for Luke and if I felt like I did after his delivery I would be needing a lot more help and would be a lot less available to him.

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These next pics are from Sunday. Luke loves on Aaron all the time and frequently wants to snuggle with him or give him kisses.

This is Luke's new face, not sure why but he does it a lot right now and sometimes it is hard to get the smile for the pic because he keeps making this strange face. (-:

Sunday Tim got home from his spring break trip to New Orleans with the High School Jazz band. It was his first chance to see Aaron in person so Mom and Dad brought him over first thing before he even had a chance to go home. (-: I think the trip was really good, we got to see one of his performances later on at Mom and Dad's after he got back from Bible Study where he was in charge of leading music, yes, right after getting home from his long trip, that boy doesn't rest!

We went to Mom and Dad's for supper and brought a Luke friendly movie to watch together with Ben and Andrea too, and then Tim got back in time to enjoy desert together and a little play time with Luke.

The other day Aaron must have been really gassy because I saw quite a few little gas smiles cross his face. Caught a few on camera but most of them were pretty blurry, this one turned out the best.

This one is from tonight, such a little cutie, he was awake for over an hour and I just enjoyed him. Luke had a blast too talking to him and holding little toys for him to see. He got out one that played music and had flashing lights and Aaron actually turned his head towards him for that one!

Wednesday is Greg's first day back at school/work so Luke and Aaron and I will be on our own! I think it should go ok, but a few prayers would be welcome! (-: