An Extra Looooooong Weekend

We had a great 3 day weekend planned for Memorial Day this weekend until life conspired against us (or for us?) and gave us an unexpected, extra long, FIVE day weekend.  I should have known something was up last week then this little little boy was less than his normal happy self when we took his 23 week old pictures.

He'd had a small cough for the previous 48 hours. I thought he wasn't too cooperative because he hadn't slept well the night before. By the end of the day, though, that little cough turned into all out hacking, wheezing, and fever. Someone was not a happy camper. To make matters worse, our power went out around 8:45 on Wednesday night. Now we had a sick baby in a hot house without air conditioning in the Mississippi Delta in early summer. That means we had 3 unhappy campers.

Thursday morning, still without power and still sickly, we headed out to the doctor's office. After discovering our pedi's office was closed because they too were out of power, we saw the doc in a box who diagnosed Jack with RSV.  We got an antibiotic and a steroid and were sent home with instructions to do nothing until Tuesday at the earliest.  Alas, our plans for a nice, fun 3 day weekend celebrating Memorial Day were scrubbed in favor of a 5 day weekend with a sick baby and no power.

So what did we end up doing on our extra looooooong weekend?

First, Daddy hooked us up and got the juice flowing since we had no power!  Thanks to him we had enough power to run the refrigerator and freezer, lights, fans, and even the TV until our power finally came back on after about 24 hours.

It's a little picture but they were BIG generators!

Second, to help clear up the little sick one's nose and chest gave this Graco NasalClear battery operated aspirator a shot.

It should be said that Jack hates having his nose aspirated more than anything on earth. He screams and wiggles and screams and squirms and screams and kicks (have I mentioned he screams?) whenever we have to use the bulb syringe.  This claims to use "gentle suction" to clean a baby's nose in a manner they don't mind.  It seemed worth a shot for just under $20. Let's be clear, Jack did not like the "gentle suction" any more than the bulb, but this thing sucked an AMAZING amount of snot out of the poor boy's head. And let's face it, less snot in his head now means less gunk in his chest later. It was worth every penny, especially considering how much use we gave it this weekend alone.

Third, once the meds kicked in and the Boy-O started to feel a little better we got out our BIG BOY CARSEAT!

He may only be 5 and a half months old, but he's long. Long enough that he's about to outgrow his infant carrier/carseat. So, even though I wanted to wait we decided it was time to upgrade to a real carseat. It was delivered Wednesday night during the monsoon so we didn't get it out of the box for a while. I think he likes it.

Fourth, we took LOTS of naps. Not that I was glad my Boy-O was sick but it sure was nice to catch up on my naps when he napped. Jack napped so much that even after I napped I still had time to do a few fun things I'd wanted to do but hadn't had time to do. So I decided to make these yummy peanut butter crunchy clusters. They're a great family recipe I adapted to be gluten free. I haven't had them in years. They are SO good. The Delta humidity left them a little gooey, but they're good that way, too.

Fifth, we hung our flag to celebrate Memorial Day! By Monday we were all feeling better so we busted out our red, white, and blue to celebrate!

Even though it wasn't what we had planned at all, we still had a great Memorial Day weekend!

Things That Make You Say Hmmmmmmm

What should we do for a fun weekend at home with Mommy & Daddy? It's a big dilemma for a little boy who is 22 weeks old.

Hmmmmmm, The Thinker

We thought long and hard and we decided to . . . . JUMP!

Then we decided to . . . SWIM!

And . . . TUG OF WAR!

Who's gonna win this one?

Can we have another weekend, please?  This one was lots of fun!

Busy Baby!

This weekend's fun festivities from the Howard house are brought to you courtesy of the letter B!

Baking Brownies (later served with Blue Bell but they were so good they didn't last long enough to get a picture)!

Banging things is always fun!

Who's ready to lick the bowl?

 Blowing Bubbles on a Blustery day!

Blow!

Pop!

Big Bubbles!

My turn!

An exchange Basket of Bugs, Binoculars, Books, and more from GeeGee!

Reading Books about Bugs!

Bunches of bugs and a Boy-O reading The Very Quiet Cricket.

Like all things these days, they eventually ended up in the mouth. Better those than the real thing, I guess.

And a Big Boy who is 5 months old today!

21 weeks old

 After all that fun, who wouldn't be Bushed?

Feet!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how Jack had discovered his hands. Well, this week he discovered his feet - and he's a big fan! They are such fun!

I used to joke that the only thing about Jack that looked like me was his feet. They USED to be long and skinny like mine. Now, let's just say they're not. I didn't know you could get rolls on your feet but apparently you can (see above photo for proof).

Fat though they may be, Jack is definitely a fan of his feet. He is constantly reaching for them to play with them or just staring at them to watch his toes wiggle. He was certainly more interested in reaching for his feet when it was time to take his 20 week pictures this week (again, see above photo).

But we did manage to get a few cute shots in anyway. 

For the moment he's still pretty stationary with those fun feet. But a few times this week I've caught him rolling over onto his tummy and getting his knees under him like he wants to crawl. With a little more upper arm strength and little more lower leg coordination, those feet are gonna be on the move!

The Ladies Man

Anytime we go out in stores Jack flirts with the cashiers, the people in front or behind us in line, or really anyone who happens to catch his eye. He starts out staring seriously with his big blue eyes.

Planning his moves

Then he ducks his head and stars to grin. At this point, the object of his affection is hooked and usually starts talking to him.  Once he has their attention, he busts out with the laughing and chatting.

Hey, baby!

This will go on as long as I stand there and hold him. He never tires of the audience. But all his encounters so far end the same way.

Check me out

The lucky lady he has charmed inevitably asks, "How old is he?" I politely respond, "He's 4 months old" (19 weeks today, to be precise). The shock registers across her face as she begins to inspect him head to toe. Usually, we get a polite "Oh!" or some other passing remark. But today, the checker at Walgreen's just couldn't hold it in. "Dang, that baby's big" rang out across the store and every eye in the place ended up on us.  Jack just laughed and enjoyed the extra attention.

Chubby doesn't seem too worried, does he?

For the record, he's 19 weeks old, weighs 16 pounds (74th percentile), and is 27 inches long (95th percentile).  But in case you wondered, it's official - my little man is B-I-G!

Celebrate Easter!

We had a great time celebrating Jack's first Easter this weekend!  To start things off, GeeGee came to keep Jack on Friday since "school" was closed and I had to work. That made it a good Friday, indeed!

On Easter Eve, we dyed Easter eggs. Jack carefully observed the entire process . . .

And inspected the results once we were finished. I guess they passed muster even though it's been a LONG time since I dyed Easter eggs and I might be a little rusty.

He was a little skeptical when it came to the Easter bunny . . .

But he warmed up to the idea of the Easter basket.

See that sleepy face, though? He slept through the end of church as well as my attempts to hunt Easter eggs in the den. But at least he showed off his new Easter outfit while he took a quick catnap.

Then we headed out to the backyard for some Easter pictures.  The weather outside was beautiful and sunny. All that sun made for a squinty baby, though.

Jack and Mommy

GeeGee and Jack

After all that Easter fun it was time for lunch! Mustard glazed pork tenderloin, broccoli rice and cheese casserole, roasted potatoes and carrots, green salad, and lemon bars for dessert. YUM!

Ready for lunch with roses from our garden to decorate the table!

After lunch we had to play with the fun things GeeGee brought with her from Texas!

Don't mess with Texas!

After all that fun, Jack crashed with a LONG nap while GeeGee headed home.  Later, we went to have coffee and a visit with our friend Andrew and his puppy, Elsie.  They were lots of fun, too.

What a great weekend celebrating our risen Lord with family and friends!

Get Your Eat On!

There's a saying around our house that we picked up from the Boy Scouts (because 12 year old boys are all about food): Get your eat on.  You "get your eat on" when you're really hungry and ready to pig out. 

This weekend it was time for Jack to get his eat on with some yummy rice cereal for the first time.  At first, he wasn't too sure about it . . .

But we kept at it . . .

And before you know it, he decided cereal is pretty good!

In another "big boy" moment, we got our first pair of shoes this weekend! Yes, heretofore my child has been a shoeless ragamuffin out in public. Never fear, his feet spent the winter well covered in socks and footed sleepers (mainly because it was easier, but in no small part because of all the lists of things to buy for baby that I read while pregnant, not one mentioned anything about shoes. Oops!). Now that it's too hot for those, though, we had to get some real footwear.  Thanks for being our personal shopper, GeeGee!

I can't believe all the "big boy" moments we're having lately! 18 weeks old is so fun!