Pool Time

Every year around March, I start daydreaming about what fun things our family can do in the upcoming spring and summer months. We had such a good time last year, introducing Helaina to numerous new and exciting activities. Our hearts were changed, all those "things" that we had become bored with, suddenly became enjoyable as we experienced them through the eyes of a child. I knew this year would be a tad more difficult to get out and about because of Zach being so young, but I still had high hopes. We didn't start well, spring was basically a bust. The weather was terrible, it was rainy and cold for 2 months straight, and we had a newborn and a cooped up 2 year old. And now, I sit here writing this post, and I can't believe it's almost July! Today marked only the second trip to the pool for Helaina and the first for Zach. Thank goodness for kiddie pools and neighbors that help keep her occupied every afternoon that we don't make it out of the house!

Our big boy is 10 weeks old! Such a man :)

Aunt Vicki, Alexis, and Lindsey have stayed a few extra days with us to spend time with the kiddos...they are in heaven!

We are still working on getting Helaina to wear some kind of flotation device in the pool. She loves being free, but just can't get the hang of the built in life jacket and most public pools don't allow arm/chest floaties. She did fall in love with the swim goggles though. Now she can open her eyes underwater and see a whole new world.

Livonia Spree 2011

You know the summer is officially upon us when the Livonia Spree comes to town. The Spree is our city's annual festival that includes food, music, rides, and a phenomenal fireworks display that we have the pleasure of viewing from our front lawn. Being the amusement park junkie that I am, I don't know who was more excited, Helaina or me, to learn that she has met the minimum height requirement of 36 inches for most of the rides. Bring on the fun!!!

This has become an annual tradition for our family to host a BBQ on Sunday. Randy and I have really come to enjoy this day, because it's a chance for both of our families to get together and enjoy each other. People come from miles around to see the fireworks show. It's the best 30 minutes of the summer, and yet again, our sweet kiddos slept right through the monstrous noises, quite the miracle. Somehow with the addition of another child, I didn't get the chance to take as many pictures as I'd like, but a great time was had by all!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads and three of my favorite...Randy, Seedy, and Grandpa Don and couple Great-Grandpa's that we wish we could see more often. Our day was spent sharing quality family time together and enjoying a delicious BBQ at Randy's parents' home.

2 months

Today Zachary is 2 months old. It's hard to believe that we've been a family of four for 2 months now. It seems we don't even remember what it was like to not have him in our lives. At his 2 month doctor visit today, he weighed in at 14 pounds and is 24 1/4 inches, both stats put him in the 90th percentile. He received his first round of immunizations, 3 shots and 1 oral. At 7 weeks, Zach started sleeping for a good 6 hour stretch at night and the last few nights, he made us very happy and has slept for 7 to 8 hours at a time. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this continues as everyone feels better with some sleep! We couldn't be happier to have our healthy baby boy.

Omar made the move to Pittsburgh last week. It was sad to say goodbye, just when we were getting used to having him around. Hopefully we'll get out there sometime before summer ends to see his place and visit the city. With Randy's parents out of town, my mom came to visit and help with the childcare while Randy and I were at work.

The kids always have fun with Grandma...lunch at the park.

Zach is all smiles these days, so precious!

Cobb Family Visit

We are blessed to have amazing family and friends. Our good friends, the Cobb family, traveled from Indiana to meet Zachary and spend the weekend with us. Their son, Nolan, is 20 months old now and him and Helaina had a few days of pure fun! Auntie Erin and Uncle Travis helped us with Zach while I snuck away for a nap and together they made us a delicious meal Friday evening. Since it's more difficult to get out these days, we are thankful to have family and friends that come to us to spend quality time together!

The kids entertained us in the evenings singing silly songs and spinning in circles till they couldn't stand any longer. The videos we took were priceless!

Fun in the water

Auntie Erin with the kiddos
Auntie Erin took much better pictures than I, so hopefully we'll have a few more to post in a few days :)

7 weeks and Frankenmuth

Despite having a newborn and a very active 2 year old, our family seems to be getting out and about rather well. We usually try to schedule activities around Helaina's nap, and Zach has been a good traveler, sleeping in his car seat when it's time for him to nap.

On Saturday, we went to our church's annual festival, The Sahara Fest. We met our good friends there, the Khoury family. Hopefully Auntie Christina will send me the pictures so I can post them, because the girls, Isabella, Helaina, and Alina, had a blast!!! The adults could barely keep up with them. The 90 degree temperatures didn't bother them a bit. Their only requests were lemonade and snow cones :). They rode many rides and played several games before mom and dad had to call it a night!

On Sunday, Randy's parents took us out for dinner and an afternoon of fun in the German town of Frakenmuth. This was Helaina's second trip, but a first for Zachary. Randy's brother, Omar, moves to Pittsburgh this week so we are soaking up as much time with him as he can stand!

Helaina and our waiter at the Bavarian Inn. While eating dinner, Helaina leaned over to me and said, "Mommy he has funny socks." She doesn't miss a thing, and she didn't mind having her picture taken with him either.

Our family with the sleeping baby

All of the family and a sleeping baby

The big man is 7 weeks old. Everywhere we go, people always have the same 2 comments.

1. "He is so big. He looks like he is 3 months old."

2. "He has so much hair!"

Zachary has been doing great during the day. He eats about every 3 hours, taking 4 to 6 ounces at a time. We are trying a new formula because he continues to have some feeding and gas issues. I'm hoping this does the trick, because it's almost painful to give it to him. The smell is horrible. Our whole house, and especially his room, smells like a litter box. We should know in a few days if it's helping or if we'll switch back to the Gentlease we were originally using. Despite his gassy issues, he's content almost all day. He eats, stays awake for an hour to an hour and a half, and then goes down for a nap that lasts anywhere between an hour to two hours. He's really starting to interact and is trying to reach out and touch things. He smiles with his whole face and is trying to talk and laugh.

At night, we are still getting a good 5 hour stretch from around 8 pm to 1 am, but then it's rather unpredictable after that feeding. Sometimes he will go another 3 to 4 hours, and occasionally he is up after only 2. It seems he's not hungry then, but uncomfortable due to the gas. Doctor says it should get better in a few weeks as he gets older...we're sure hoping it does!

Everyday Randy and I say to each other, "We are so blessed!" We just love these two kids more than we could have ever imagined!