Rylan's Class Picture

Front Row: Hayes, Lainey, Caleb, Kennedy, Radnor, Rylan

Back Row: Anna Sparrow, Radima, Ms. Sue, Millie B, Audrey

Crib Nap

Grayson had his first crib nap today.  Like the older boys, he has taken all his naps in the bouncer or carseat.  Today Grayson fell asleep while I was holding him so I put him down in his crib.  (I know, it doesn't really count unless he falls asleep in the crib!)  He took his typical cat nap of 30 minutes.  He's just like his brothers at this age!

But isn't he cute!  Look at all that chunk :)

Grayson does sleep in his crib now at night (at least for the first part of the night until he wakes up - I've been keeping him in our room after feeding him).  He used to sleep so well at night, especially before this long term fever began.  This last week has been really awful though.  He's up a lot and nursing doesn't always put him back to sleep like it used to.  Hopefully his sleeping gets better soon!

Easter Party

Rylan's best buddy from school last year (Luke) had an Easter party on Easter Sunday in the afternoon.  Rylan and Luke are on the same baseball team this season so they are finally getting to see each other again.

No wonder Rylan and Luke get along so well - they are just alike in some ways :)

Lynn and Tim hosted the party at their house.  They rented 2 bounce houses, had tons of food, and put on a massive egg hunt.

The kids were sent off to find eggs in waves based on age.  Here go Rylan and Luke ...

Carter finally gets to go!

I don't think these kids every get tired of hunting for eggs!

Grayson and I did a little hunting too :)

Luke found an egg with some money in it!  Rylan was so jealous!  I heard a rumor that Tim put $20 in a few eggs - I needed to find one of those! :)

The boys had a blast and it was fun getting to spend the afternoon with friends!

First Solid Food

When did Grayson get so big?!?  He totally fits in the booster seat!

Cute boy showing off his neck rolls :)

I finally tried some rice cereal with Grayson today.  I've been wanting to try it with him for about a month but kept putting it off since we have been trying to figure out this fever and didn't want to introduce anything new.  He still has the fever but I decided it was time to start working on solid food.

I used formula to make the rice cereal (I always pumped for the older boys but just haven't been doing that much lately).  Grayson may have swallowed a tiny bit :)  He wasn't trying to push it all out or fight the spoon as much as he was just letting the cereal dribble out of his mouth.

Grayson made an awful face with each bite though.

We'll keep working on it!

Baby Shower

Carter's kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Colasso) is pregnant and due the last day of school.  A few of the other moms and I threw her a baby shower on Friday afternoon.  We rented a neighborhood clubhouse and invited the class as well as some of her past students.

We kept it simple but it turned out really nice.

Ashley had these onesies made for Mrs. Colasso and we used them as decoration since they are so cute!

I made her this burlap banner and also used it as decoration (I've been meaning to make one for Carter's room for about a year now - maybe now I'll finally do it!).

Ashely had a really cute idea for an activity to keep the kids busy.

I'm going to put all these cards in a photo album for Mrs. Colasso as a gift from the kids.  Hopefully it'll turn out cute!

Derby Run

Carter's school had their annual Derby Run today.  The Derby Run is a fundraiser where the kids get pledges from family and friends to run as many laps as they can in a given time.  The run is during school and one grade level at a time runs.

Kindergarten was at 9 am this morning.  I volunteered and helped count laps for the kids in Carter's class.

Carter was a rockstar and ran more laps than anyone in his class!

I didn't end up timing but the kids had somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes to run.  Each lap is almost 0.2 miles and Carter did 17 laps meaning he did about 3 miles!!!  Crazy!

Carter with his buddy Whit (Carter is just a little red!) ...

Rylan stayed home with Brian while he worked and luckily Grayson slept through the whole run :)

Good job, Carter!  I'm so proud of my super hard worker in everything he does!!!

Tooth Fairy

When Carter's tooth started to get pretty loose, I decided I needed to make a Tooth Fairy plan.  Ever since hearing about my friend Sarah's experience with Mary Grace's first lost tooth, I dreaded having to go into Carter's room to search for a tooth and leave money.  (Sarah's story involved not being able to easily find the tooth, Mary Grace waking up, and Sarah hiding under her bed!)

So a couple of months ago (yes, Carter's tooth has been loose for almost 5 months now), I ordered a pillow off Etsy that Carter could hang from his door handle (it ended up being so cute I went ahead and ordered the other boys their own too).  The felt with Carter's name on it is a pocket for putting the tooth in.  Carter was all for using the pillow and leaving it outside his room - yay!

This little poem also came with the pillow ...

Carter also decided to write the Tooth Fairy a note ...

"This is my tooth.  It looks like this."

"Please leave a note."

I debated how much money Carter should get from the Tooth Fairy.  I've heard every where from $2 to $10 is the norm.  I settled in the middle with $5 (future teeth will probably only be worth $1 each).

Carter was very excited to get $5!  Though he was a little disappointed after school and told me everyone in his class got $10 for their first teeth (though I think he actually only polled a few kids).

I'm so excited for Carter to have finally lost a tooth!  Considering our kids get their teeth so young, I was surprised it took so long compared to the other kids his age.

Game Ball #2

Carter got his second game ball of the season tonight!  And he got the dugout award!  To encourage good behavior in the dugout and cheering for their teammates, Coach Jeff is giving out baseball Pez dispensers to the kids this season.  Today was Carter's turn to get one (though he always does great job in the dugout paying attention to the game and cheering for his friends).

Carter got the game ball mainly because he contributed to 4 outs in the first inning.  One out he got on his own when he fielded a ball and stepped on first.  The other three were when the pitcher (Davis) threw the ball to Carter at first for an out.  Carter also played pitcher in the third inning and fielded the ball several times.  He threw the ball to either first or third every time but was never able to get an out.  He did awesome though and we are super proud!  Unfortunately Brian didn't get to see the game because he had to coach Carter's soccer team's practice :(

Lost Tooth

Carter lost his first tooth this morning!  It has been very loose for a few days and finally came out this morning while he was eating a waffle!

More to come once the tooth fairy visits :)

Fever Update

I took Grayson back to the pediatrician again today.  He's been having a few more lower temperatures  so we were thinking he might be improving.  However, last night it was up to 100.9F.  Brian went with us this time so he could also talk to Dr. Huss.  Grayson has now had a fever for over 5 weeks so we really wanted an action plan.

Grayson's ears were still clear so we quickly ruled out another ear infection.  Also, Grayson hasn't had any cold like symptoms in a few weeks (no one in our house has been sick either).  Dr. Huss decided to do a blood count which would help us rule out some of the extremely unlikely causes (like cancer) and maybe give us a clue as to what's going on.

Grayson's white blood cell count is great so we ruled out the scary stuff.  Dr. Huss explained two other numbers to us (which I can't remember now).  One tends to be high if there is a bacterial infection and another tends to be high if there is a viral infection.  The viral infection indicator was very high and the bacterial one was normal.

So ... it appears Grayson is still fighting a viral infection that we are just going to have to let run it's course.  Dr. Huss doesn't expect it to last too much longer but that's just a guess.  If Grayson's fever starts getting in the 101 to 102F range, then we'll need to bring him back in right away.  Otherwise, we'll just give it another few weeks.