The Week in Review

Well, Lucas is officially 2 months old...actually almost 10 weeks. Scary!! He's doing lots of neat stuff now - makes eye contact, smiles, chuckles, and is just a delight to have around! He's still sleeping great and even put himself to sleep without crying tonight when I put him down! Thank you Lord!

Jeff is in Chicago for a few days at a course of sorts through the Transforming Center. It's held at a retreat center in Chicago once every quarter for two years. The boys and I are doing just great so far, although I must admit that I love having a big dog when Jeff is gone. :)

Not much to tell about last week - it was good, but went fast.

Caleb Quote

Well, I hate to admit it, but the latest conversations at the Hyatt house are centering around Noah's desire for a guinea pig. We have pretty much decided he can get one after he earns most of the $$ for it and all the equipment. Yesterday Noah picked up dog poo in the yard for a quarter...he came in and said he almost puked but really wanted the quarter. :) Later in the day we were all in the car and Noah said, "Daddy will buy the guinea pig, and I will buy the cage and all his stuff." To which Caleb chimed in, "And I'll buy the cupcakes!" :)

New Hair Cut

This is the "after" pic. :) She cut 11 inches off, then I went back two days later and she cut off 2 more! I'm loving it.

Spirit Valley Days

There was a sand pile with money in it...each age group got two minutes to find and keep as much coin as they could! The boys both tried out the climbing wall and got their faces painted. Lucas just hung out. :)

Spirit Valley Days

Well, our summer outreach is finally here! Instead of doing VBS this year, our church sponsored "Kids' Korner" at Spirit Valley Days here in West Duluth. It's Wednesday through Saturday activities each afternoon and evening. Kids' Korner runs various times each day, and we are staffing all the activities there...ranges from carnival type games to hands-on science area, free popcorn, crafts, etc. There are several stages set up in this end of town for various acts and bands to perform each afternoon and evening, and so far the boys and I caught a very cool magic act. The Minnesota State Yo-Yo champion gave exhibits today, but the weather was really cold and yucky, so we didn't venture out today. The big boys were able to ride on the church float in the parade tonight, though. I dropped them off and Jeff picked them up so that I could keep Lucas inside. The float was small this year, but seemed like a favorite because it was pulled by a horse! The kids thought it was great anyway! We handed out 4000 pieces of candy and tons of flyers for the kids' programs at the church. So far it's been a great opportunity to speak with families who wouldn't even bring their kids to VBS.

Caleb had a doc appointment on Monday...he has these random night-time barfs about once every other month or so. Doc said he probably has a loose esophogial sphincter, and that it usually tightens up more around age 6-7. In the meantime, we put a couple of pillows under his mattress to lift the head of his bed, and he needs to eat dinner a bit earlier and stay away from caffiene and carbonation (we don't drink a lot of that anyway.) Hopefully this will help. The biggest challenge for me will be to get dinner on ealier...we sometimes eat at 7 or 8pm. It's just how our days go, but I will have to develop a different routine now. Glad to know it's nothing serious for him, though.

Lucas also had a doc appointment yesterday - got his first round of shots (man, that's just hard to watch!) and did great. He weighs 11 lbs 14 oz. :) I was close on my guess of 12 lbs. :) He continues to sleep really well - goes 8-9 hours on the first stretch now, so I'm really not up in the middle of the night any more. He also is taking a bottle just great now, so I actually had someone watch him for an hour while I took Caleb to the doc! Whoo-hoo! Freedom!!! :) He still nurses, but it's great to know that I can leave him with a bottle.

Jeff's back is really hurting him again...every so often it just goes ping and then he's in a lot of pain for up to a week. He went to the chiropractor today and it helped a big, but it's still really hurting him. The chiro said to ice it instead of using heat (which he usually uses) because it's a muscle inflammation...his head actually looks crooked on his shoulders because that muscle is pulling/spasming so hard. Ouch.

I am getting my hair cut short tomorrow, if I don't chicken out. :) I printed a couple of different looks from pics I found on the computer and will let my hair-dresser pick the one she thinks would be best - she's great with my type of hair. I can't believe how gray I am getting!!! Sheesh. Am saving up to color it again soon! *grin*

That's it for now - we are glad to be feeling good and hoping for some warmer weather soon.

No more sickies!

OK...this past week has pretty much been a wash....literally. I think I have washed Caleb's bedding three times now, and the rest of it once. I am HOPING we are done being sick now. Thought we were done, and Caleb threw up in the night again. He has an appointment on Monday to see if he has some reflux issues that might be triggering his random nightime barfs. We'll see! I ended up with a migraine last week...woke up with it Tuesday morning. Took the meds that I can take and still nurse Lucas all day long and it didn't make a dent. Wednesday I just took tylenol all day because my prescription meds have high caffeine and Lucas didn't sleep well...again, didn't make a dent. Thursday woke up with bad nausea and still the headache...called the doc and he said to take the imitrex and pump and dump for 8 hours after that. No problem, EXCEPT for the fact that I hadn't given Lucas a bottle yet and didn't have any breastmilk banked. So!! I was able to lay down and put high heat on my head for a while, and that seemed to ease it. At noon I made a formula bottle for Lucas, prayed, and about five minutes into the process he figured it out and drank the whole thing!! YEAH GOD! After that he slep some more, so I laid down with the heat again, and the headache FINALLY broke! I didn't even end up taking an imitrex. Thank you, Lord. I didn't see the light of day for four days and yesterday we went out and ran a few errands. Two whole days with no barfs and that makes us all happy! Somewhere in all of this I was up in the night (and Jeff) with Caleb barfing, and I washed all the bedding. Basically nothing else got done this week (by me, that is...Jeff did a TON...dishes, laundry, taking care of all the boys, etc.) So! I should be working to catch up on everything right now! :)

That's basically our week in a nutshell! Sheesh...I'm so glad it's over, and so glad that Lucas can now take a bottle and that frees me up to be gone or even just put him in the nursery at church! Yeah!

New Pics - 2009 4th of July

We went to a friend's cabin for the 4th and had beautiful weather for hanging out on the deck and playing in the water!

Barf Patrol

Well! What an interesting week! Caleb threw up in the night (all over his bed) on Wednesday night. He was fine in the morning and pretty miffed that he could only have toast for breakfast. We washed bedding and cleaned the room. Then Thursday night Noah threw up in the night - he managed to get most of his in the waste basket, but again toast for breakfast and laundry. Made it through Friday with no barfs. :) Saturday we went for the afternoon/evening to a cabin on a lake with friends from church and their extended family. What fun - the boys played hard swimming and playing on the beach. We of course pigged out, then decided to go ahead and stay late to watch their fireworks off the dock. We ended up getting the boys in bed around 11:30...needless to say, we were all worn out this evening.

Well, Caleb barfed at church right at the end of the service. Thankfully one of his teachers in kids' church saw him bolt for the bathroom and went after him and helped him until I could hand off Lucas to someone and go in to help. We went straight home, and Caleb has barfed and been sick all afternoon. He's still not feeling good, so I'm praying some good sleep for him and that he'll wake up better. Hoping the rest of us don't go down with whatever this is...I'm tired of washing bedding. :)

That was our week!! More to come soon!

Back From Camp!

Well, the verdict is in: Camp was awesome! :) Noah had lots of great stories to tell and was the third place winner in the Bible verse memorization competition - which garnered a prize of $2.50 (he added it to his lego savings stash.) :) His favorite part of the week was shooting BB guns, and when Jeff asked him what he DIDN'T like about camp, he said, "Coming home!" The funny part is that he brought home three clean pairs of underwear. Gotta love it.

Update 6/30/09

Well, Lucas is growing like a weed! I haven't had him weighed in a month, but he was 9 lbs 5 oz way back then, so I think it's safe to say that he's up over 10 lbs now! :) His 8-wk appointment will be in two weeks - can you believe that he's 6 weeks old already? This mama can't! Wow. He is really starting to express himself, which is so fun. He tracks our movement now with his eyes and moves his head to follow us around the room, and also has started smiling and cooing at us (which the big boys just love!) The big boys like to 'interpret' for me and tell me what he's really saying - too cute!

Caleb and I have been hanging out since Noah is at camp this week Mon-Wed. It's amazing how easy Caleb is and how fun he is when Noah is not around!! He actually gets to talk and express himself, and can play with any toy he wants to without a "Hey, that's mine!" fight over it. I'm loving that!

Haven't heard a peep from the camp, so I'm assuming Noah is having a great time with the other three children from our church. He went to camp last year, but that camp has gotten too expensive for us/our church family ($200 for three days?!?!) so they went to a different camp this year. I visisted the camp with our director of Children & Family ministries way back before I had Lucas and it's a GREAT camp, just smaller (and better, in my opinion!) We'll see what Noah says when he gets home later today.

Jeff is working hard at church, although a few less hours now that summer is here and we take a break with our Wednesday night programming. He had last Sunday off because we were hanging out with his sister Christy and her family and his parents. Todd and Christy and the girls were in town from Long Island, NY. We went down to his parents' last week Sunday evening through Wednesday - had a great time! We went to the MN Zoo on Monday - it's a huge zoo and took most of the day; then to Lego Land at the Mall of America so Noah could spend some birthday money that evening. Then Tuesday we went to the Water Park of America - largest water park in America; then Wednesday we came home and crashed until Friday when Jeff's family came up to Duluth for Friday/Saturday. :) We went to Gooseberry falls on Friday, then hung out on Saturday. Needless to say, we all crashed on Sunday/Monday. :) Even Lucas slept a lot both of those days!

That's it for this update! Hope everyone is having a great summer!