Screaming baby...again...

So since Lee has turned one, he had been plagued with illnesses. Two ear infections that I'm not positive that he's kicked yet and last Tuesday Lee got sick and from what we've gathered, a stomach bug. You'll love the details but I'll spare you. Anyway, around the same time, it has literally been a nightmare to put him down at night and to get him to sleep through the night. I feel like we've tried everything. Our methods include: standing next to the crib rubbing his back, letting him fall asleep in my arms and then trying to sneak him into his crib, singing/humming songs, stood there and made no sound but just put him down everytime he stood up (oh yes, he stand up in his crib now)...all with no luck. Tonight we are back to the good ol' Ferber method of letting him cry it out (T-minus 54 minutes but who's counting?). As any other mother might imagine, this is pure tourture for me. So I'm sitting out on our front porch typing this as a light rain is coming down while my bottom gets more numb by the minute. Oh, on the plus side, the lady who live above us just left, learning and laughing at my pain. Plus to add insult to injury, her dog is now howling. I feel your pain buddy.

Does anyone that's gone through this have any advice for us? My wonderful mother-in- law told me some encouraging advice, "As soon as you think you have them figured out, they will change." THAAAAAANKSSSSSS... (She really IS pretty great, but I didn't want to hear this!) :(

Easter babies!

Here are some picture of Lee and his friends. Thanks to the Malones for taking the church pictures, the Starks for the other pictures and yummy brunch. Todd, you just ate...so [*in a soup nazi voice*] no thanks to you! :)


Momma made sure his clothes looked nice, Noah made sure his face was clean. :)


Happy family


Baby Malone, Yuri, Lee and Noah after church


Lee and Noah swapping tall tales. I love this picture!

Happy Easter!

Lee enjoyed his first Easter egg hunt today. The "hunt" was sponsored by our church and I have to say I was impressed! They had the Easter bunny there, face painting, crafts, coloring, balloons, games and the egg hunt of course! Lee actually liked the bunny better than he did all of the other kids! He still did very well. The egg hunt was sectioned off for kids of different ages, but the bigger kids liked participating in all of the hunts. Lee didn't care though! When it was his turn with the other 1-2 year olds, he found two eggs! After this, he sat down where he was and happily played with them (with one egg in each hand) and his basket.

After this was over, they had a station where you could do a candy exhange. I've never seen this done before, but it was a great idea! We exchanged chocolate kisses and other goodies for animal cookies, teddy grahams and fruit snacks. This made for a happy baby and happy momma as well.

I am excited for tomorrow. We are planning a nice breakfast, dinner and church of course! Hope you and your families enjoy Easter and the grace that Jesus gives us-everyone of us, right now, just as we are.

HAPPY EASTER!

hAppY bIrThDaY LEe!

Can you believe that my little baby boy is one year old? We went to Indiana to celebrate with the Moores. It was nice, but it went by way too fast. Shortly before, our literally once removed puppy, which Jesse's family is so graciously dogsitting, bit Lee's GG (great-grandma). As a result, she was in the hospital taking a swift round of antibiotics. Luckily she got to come back home an hour before the party started. (A side note, I was preparing to move the party to her hospital room...streamers, balloons and all!)

An unexcepted good thing that came out of this incident was that I got to make Lee's first birthday cake. I secretly wanted to do this, but had handed it over to Lee's GG since she's been in the cake baking/decorating business for years. So with her in the hospital, I happily took back the reins. Of course Jesse's healthy eating habits have made an impact on me as I wanted to make this a healthy cake. For the sake of simplicity, I just switched the oil for applesause and used egg whites instead of whole eggs. As for it icing, I used cool whip and added blueberries for a healthy touch. (He loves blueberries anyway.) And would you know, he didn't even eat the actual cake part of the cake! :) I guess that's how it goes. He did love the cool whip and blueberries though!

Lee had a blast at the Moore farm. He got to play with his Aunt Moo and meet her boyfriend, see cows, and play with his grandparents and their toys; which were a new set of toys for him to explore and enjoy. He even started drinking some whole milk mixed in his formula. Yes, we are weaning him with success to my surprise. You should have seen his face when he first tried milk! Now he drinks it like no one's business. Meanwhile, I think the fresh air did Lee some good because he really broke out of his shell and now is not only walking everywhere, but is also babbling a little bit more and really seems like a different boy. It was really nice to be able to walk around without him clinging to my legs or crying everytime I walked out of his sight. He did so well that Jesse and I got to go out on, not one, but two, date nights. We are spolied now, but it was really nice to reconnect with one another.

While back in Indiana, I didn't get to see everyone but I did get to see some people that I haven't seen in years which was a great surprise. It's weird to see my friends from high school's child play with my child. Maybe our kids will be friends too! Well, I feel as if I am rambling so here are some pics from the weekend.