Quinn

We have teeth! Actually, we have 5 teeth now, but he only shows off the bottom two usually.



My smiley guy - this is his usual expression:



Serious little man:



Can you tell he LOVES the swing?



And this video shows his absolute favorite activity in the world:

It's been a crazy summer!

So, yes, I haven't posted in forever, but I have an excuse. Really. I do.

Here's the short version: I changed shifts at work and now work evenings. Garry changed jobs and is working for a new company. And we moved across town, which has entailed a lot of sweat, frustration, and just general stress. There's my excuse for not writing at all in the last several weeks. Good excuse, no?

Now, for the short update on us.

Quinn is cruising, determined to walk as soon as he can. He has 4 teeth, 4 more on the way, and eats more than Eamon does at most meals.

Eamon is becoming so much more verbal and it's absolutely wonderful to see (and hear). His vocabulary has just exploded over the last few weeks and we're really enjoying being able to start communicating with him. He's starting to get the hang of what timeout means, and now actually stays put in the timeout corner as requested, which is resulting in far less tantrums, which means that Mommy and Daddy's stress levels are down considerably.

Garry is busy with the new job. He's loving every minute of it, although it takes up more of his time than previously. But he's happy with the company and what he's doing, and that's the most important thing for him.

And me? I'm here, looking forward to the end of August when I get to change my shift at work. I managed to get an awesome shift - Monday through Friday, 9-5:45. It was my second choice for hours, so I can't complain about it, and it will be nice to have my weekends back with my family.

I'll get pictures of the house and the kids posted soon, hopefully this weekend. And hopefully one day soon we'll have some family pictures to share, since I don't think we have a single picture of all four of us. Sad, no?

And...

Because I'm having technical difficulty today, here's a collage of several pictures from today (yes, including those already posted) - I will come back and add more later hopefully as I get them uploaded and edited and all that fun stuff...

New pictures

Today was beautiful, so we decided it would be a good idea to take some new pictures of the boys. Eamon was especially hyper, so most of these are of Quinn, although I did get a couple of good ones of Eamon.

Busy busy busy

I've completely slacked off yet again. My excuse? Two mobile kids and some gorgeous weather. Summer is here and the boys love being outside, so between work and being outside as much as possible to wear Eamon out, it's been a little difficult to find the time to get online and blog.

So, an update for now, followed by pics later today for sure.

The family news first - we are considering moving. Not just houses, but states. Garry has begun looking into the possibility of jobs on the East Coast, so that we're closer to my parents and sisters; both of us would like the boys to be able to spend as much time as possible with their grandparents and aunts, and that means moving closer. Garry's also beginning to burn out on his job, and is just ready for a change. 3+ years is the longest he's stayed in one position, and he's ready for a new challenge. We have some options, so we'll see what happens in the next month or so. While we absolutely love Wichita, I'm ready for a new place (the perpetual drifter in me!) and Garry is ready for a new job, which likely will entail moving elsewhere.

In other news, Eamon is TALKING! Yes, he is finally talking. Two months after having his tubes put in, he's started to really communicate well most of the time and we're slowly seeing a lessening of the tantrums from him now that he can actually express himself to us and we understand. It's a wonderful thing, most of the time, although hearing "mom! mom! mom!" a million times a day gets very, very old. I keep reminding myself that he's communicating and we're understanding, and that's the most important thing, no matter how annoying it gets sometimes.

The last two months have been a huge milestone time for us. Eamon is in a "big boy bed" - we had to convert his crib about a month ago as he'd figured out how to climb in and out at will, and open his bedroom door to wander around the house. Rather than risk a broken neck from falling while climbing, we turned his crib into a toddler bed and he's currently loving it. He's so proud of his big boy bed that anytime someone new comes over he insists on taking them to his room to show it off.

Eamon is also suddenly decided it's time to potty train. He tells us when his diaper needs changed (every time he pees or poops, pretty much!) and likes to sit on the big potty. We're taking it slow and letting him tell us when he needs (or wants!) to sit on the potty, and that seems to be working well for us right now. We've had several days where he's woken up dry from his naps, so we're slowly moving in the right direction, and the even better news is that since he's so grown up now, the bottle is coming very close to being eliminated from his life. He takes a cup to bed most nights now, and doesn't throw a fit about a bottle unless he's very, very tired. Thank God for small mercies - I'm ready to be done with bottles and the way it's looking now, it won't be too much longer before we can toss the entire lot.

And now for Quinn and his big milestones... He sits like a pro, is a crawling machine, and just this weekend learned to not only get himself into a sitting position, but also to pull up onto his knees. Yes, he's considering starting to walk, I think. I'm so not ready for this yet - I've just gotten used to the idea that he crawls! Well, army crawls, but that's because he chooses not to crawl on hands and knees. For some reason he likes being on his belly and can motor around amazingly fast. We're getting close to being done with baby food, since he's all about finger foods and I'm slowly starting to just give him our dinner chopped up, with caution because he STILL has no teeth! I still have a hard time looking at him and realizing that he's going to be 8 months old in less than a week. Where has the time gone???? I don't feel like I should have an 8 month old. Of course, I don't feel like I should have a 2 year old right now either. It's amazing how fast time flies. I looked at our daycare provider the other day and commented that in 4 months we'll be throwing Quinn his 1st birthday party, and she immediately responded with "he's not allowed to grow up!" Needless to say, there's nothing we can do to keep him from growing up, and he's doing it much, much faster than his big brother did. Makes me want another baby, but it's not in the cards right now. We've agreed to wait a couple of years before starting on #3. I suppose I'd better get on some kind of really good birth control if I want to avoid another oops baby.

Pictures to come, as soon as I've had a chance to sort through them a bit and pick out some good ones!

Life

I thought I should go ahead and write about what's happening lately with us. I'll start with the boys, go from there.

Eamon has tubes in his ears now. He had a hearing test done just before Easter, and we found that he has hearing loss due to fluid behind his eardrum. Took him to an ENT, who recommended tubes, and we went ahead and had the surgery two weeks ago. Since his surgery, he's become much more understandably verbal - he's starting to use more words and is even putting together little sentences. His speech is still slurred, so we're looking into some short-term speech therapy for him, but he's doing a ton better now in terms of communicating. It's amazing what a difference we've seen in him since he had his surgery and isn't hearing the world as though he's underwater anymore. His other big news is that he seems to be eating meat finally! Yes, my vegetarian toddler has eaten meat 4 nights in one week, and I'm ecstatic! We'll see if the picky eater continues with last week's trend of eating meat - I'm hopeful that he's maybe turning a corner on his problems with food textures. For anyone who doesn't know - Eamon's always had issues with the texture of meat and has generally refused to eat meat since he was an infant.

Quinn is 2 months old and growing like a weed still - we're almost into 9-12 month clothes because he's getting longer and longer and outgrowing clothes as fast as I can buy them. He's also a rolling fool - if you set him down on the floor he takes off most times and goes to explore the world around him (and invariably screams bloody murder when he runs into something that doesn't move for him!). He's working on getting those knees up under him and it's only a matter of time before he takes off crawling. He's also working on his bottom teeth and chews on everything in sight - for some reason, he likes my shoes, so between him and the dog, I have to keep my shoes up or I won't have any left soon! He's still as mellow as ever, and it's a wonderful change of pace from Eamon's high energy. They're as different as they could be - complete polar opposites in terms of personality.

Garry's working like crazy, adjusted to our new schedule pretty much. He likes his Saturdays with the boys - they run around town together and watch movies and clean house and sleep pretty much all day. I'm envious, because on my day off with the boys, we're generally going non-stop running errands. Figures. But he's doing well - supposed to be heading to Germany at some point this summer for work. Lucky dog!

And me? Well, I'm still liking the job, most days. I'm loving the schedule and getting to spend some real quality time with the boys and Garry in the evenings. That part of life, and the part when I get to hang with my guys a lot more, is pretty good. So what's the not so good part, since obviously there is one? The bipolar demon is striking again, and I'm finding myself having more frequent and more severe mood swings. My anxiety is popping up again as well; we went to a party last night, just Garry and I, and I got pretty freaked out by all the people and the noise and ended up having to take a break from it to get myself calmed down again. What's all this mean? Well, it pretty much means I need to sit down and think long and hard about whether it's finally time to go back on mood stabilizers again, which means that I will need to wean Quinn, since they're nasty drugs for babies. And therein lies my dilemma. I love nursing. I'm not emotionally ready to give up that time spent bonding with Quinn. I'm not emotionally ready to let go of that particular part of my relationship with him. And he's not ready either. It doesn't matter if he just drank a bottle; if I've been away from him and he sees me, he's ready to nurse. It's almost like it's his little touchstone, his reassurance that Mommy is back again. And I don't want to take that away from him, not yet. But I also know that mentally I'm starting to fall apart again, and that's not healthy for any of us. It's one of those decisions that's just really, really hard for me right now, and maybe I need someone on the outside to make that decision for me. I know that I can't keep on like this indefinitely. I'm going to talk a little to our new doctor about it tomorrow, and hope that I can get a little more direction, something to help me make my mind up. Because I know that if I wean Quinn now, there's no going back again.

As I say every time, I do have new pictures of the boys, and I will try and get them posted in the morning. Garry is planning to take the boys to daycare for me in the morning, so that I can try and catch up a little on missed sleep and have a little time to myself to try and work out things in my head. With any luck, I'll actually manage to remember to post new pictures.

The monthly update

I swear, it seems I can't manage to post an update to here more than once a month or so lately. Life has been insane around here, and I'm lucky to get a bit of downtime, let alone managing to actually do anything!

Latest news from the Morrows -

I have a new job. And a new schedule. I now work for a call center, and for the next 90 days at least I am working 6-2:45, Tuesday through Saturday. One week in, and I still feel good about my decision to switch jobs. I'm making about the same amount of money, with far more opportunity to make more money than I've had before.

Garry is well. Adjusting to being responsible for taking the boys to daycare 4 mornings a week, but doing well. He's heading to Germany at the beginning of May for a week of work, and if I hadn't just started a new job, I would so be going with him! Unfortunately, I can't this time, but hopefully the next time he travels for work I can tag along!

Eamon is two! Yes, TWO! He had his birthday March 17, and was spoiled rotten with presents! It seems that everyone we know gave him a present, and he now has more toys and books and coloring stuff than he knows what to do with. He's growing like a weed still, and mostly happy. We still have some issues with the new schedule, but he's always had difficulty adjusting to changes in his routine. We finally got his hearing tested, after hounding our family doctor about his lack of speech progress, and he failed the hearing test, so it's off to an ENT to get him checked out thoroughly. There is some fluid build-up in his right ear that is likely severely impacting his ability to hear out of that ear, so we're hoping that once we get that taken care of, he will pass a hearing test and we can really begin to work with him on his speech. His appointment is next Tuesday; I'll be working, so Garry will be taking him to that appointment.

Quinn is 5 months old and growing out of his clothes faster than he can wear them. He's his usual happy self and has recently decided that sharing a bed with us doesn't work for him. We pulled the co-sleeper back out and he's much happier in there, so maybe I can finally get some good sleep without being woken up a million times by little feet and hands poking me because he's fidgety. He babbles non-stop and we're slowly starting him on solids, as he's definitely hungry for some "real" food. I'm starting to think that he has seasonal allergies, since he keeps having these episodes of massive congestion every time the weather changes. If he does, he inherited it from daddy!

All in all, life in the Morrow family is pretty good. I'll try and get some recent pictures uploaded and posted so I can show off my little men!

Oops!

So after doing pretty decently with keeping up, I slacked off big time. Oh well, I have a good reason - Quinn's been sick and Eamon's been the world's biggest monster as he really hits the terrible two's.

Speaking of Eamon and the terrible twos... we're going to request a hearing test and developmental testing. I feel strongly that he has a speech delay, and would rather get him into early intervention to head off potential problems down the road, instead of continuing to wait and hope that he will eventually start to talk. He's almost two, and still has a vocabulary of less than 10 words. We use the point and shriek method of communication more often than not, despite Garry and my insistence that he try to *tell* us what he wants. I'm tired of the constant battles and tantrums because he can't express himself effectively, and I'd feel a lot better having him evaluated and possibly referred for therapy. He's smart, and he has great comprehension skills - you can ask him to do just about anything and he'll understand what you're asking and go do it (if he's in the mood!); it just seems like his brain can't figure out how to get his words out. And invariably, that disconnect leads him into frustration and massive tantrums.

Quinn, on the other hand, is little Mr. Never-shuts-up. He babbles constantly, laughs, coos, grunts - he LOVES the sound of his own voice. I don't remember Eamon being nearly this talkative at Quinn's age. It's hilarious to watch; Quinn has two lovies - a stuffed dinosaur that plays lullabies (thanks, Aunt Sherie - he LOVES it!) and a little soft stuffed green zebra/horse thing - and he will sit in his carseat and jabber away at them endlessly. I love listening to and watching him; it's so adorable.

I'm busy planning Eamon's birthday party - I can't believe that he'll be two in less than three weeks! What happened to my baby?! We're going with a Happy Feet party (I think) as that's his current obsession - he's all about Happy Feet! I can't complain too much - he loves the music in the movie, and he's learned quite a bit about dancing just by watching and listening and trying to mimic the foot movements. I wonder if there are any dance classes for 2 year olds here? Might be worth looking into!

We have Quinn's 4 month check up tomorrow, so I'll post again then on how big the little guy is!

Sickies

Well, I'm taking the boys into the doctor tomorrow afternoon. Eamon has been pulling on his ears and running a low grade temp, and Quinn STILL has his cold from before Christmas. Poor guys have been pretty much sick all winter.

Why does it insist on being cold and miserable when I have to leave the house?

It’s a cold, wet day outside today. We woke up at 4:30 this morning to the sound of hail hitting the windows and pouring rain. It’s supposed to be rainy, cold, freezing rain, sleet, and snow, with of course the requisite Kansas wind, all day today. Good day to stay home, watch movies, drink hot chocolate, and snuggle, but unfortunately, it’s also a work day. Boo for having to drag myself from my nice warm bed and the boys from the house and take them to daycare.

Eamon was up for a while in the middle of the night. He apparently had a nightmare, and once Garry had him calmed down, he decided it was time to get up for the day. Um, yeah, not happening! We heard him playing for a while after Garry put him back to bed, and then this morning when I went to get him ready for daycare, he was sound asleep and did NOT want to wake up at all. Stinker. And after being remarkably cooperative this morning about getting dressed, he suddenly, just as we were getting ready to leave the house, plopped down on the floor and started yelling “shoe! No shoe!” and trying to take his shoes off. Turns out he didn’t want to wear his sneakers; he wanted to wear his sandals. Extra socks were taken to daycare today. At least he wore his sweatshirt and coat.

Quinn is STILL sick. I’m calling his pediatrician today to see what they say. The doctor at the Immediate Care said a week ago that his ears were clear and he just had a cold, but he’s been sick since before Christmas and now the congestion is getting worse and making him spit up and gag, and sleep – well, forget it most of the time! He’s having trouble nursing and drinking from a bottle, and I’m seriously just over him being sick. So I’ll call the pedi and see what they recommend; we’ve already done the vaporizer/steam/Vicks/saline drops/nose aspirator and it’s doing absolutely NOTHING for him! Other than that, he’s just my little smiley boy, almost always happy, just Mr Easygoing. He’s growing fast; he’s 3.5 months old and I can’t wait to get him weighed again to see how big he is now. He seems like a total little chunk to me, but then, any chub makes him seem like a chunk considering that he was only 6 lbs at birth.

A few more recent pictures of the boys!

Big smiles!


"Make it WORK!!!"


"Sing, dammit, sing!" (in Eamon's voice)


And an older picture of Eamon enjoying his first blizzard!