Finally a Picture of THE Baby Bird...

So my friend Diane just sent me a few pictures from when Adler and I had stopped to visit a few weeks ago...and now I finally have a picture of my little man making his little baby bird mouth...in the second picture, it looks like he's thinking "Maybe YOU are my mommy...if so, can you go find something to stick in my mouth???"



More of the little bird man...


And here's a cute one of Asher...he cracks me up...he came running up to me this morning wearing nothing but these little sunglasses around his waist...


I'm also going to post some videos below so those of you that get email updates, you'll have to go to the actual web page to view them...and you'll probably want to pause the music player at the bottom of my page so you can hear them...the first video is of me trying to get smiles out of Adler, followed up by him sorta doing his baby bird mouth...the second video is of Adler doing the weird baby sleep thing where their eyes are going crazy even though they aren't really awake...and in the last video, I recorded Asher singing his favorite song (one that Chris started singing to the kids when they were little) while we were in the hospital...while Chris was out of town and Asher was sick, he must've sung that song a million times during the day...sometimes even in his sleep...

Baby Birds' 2 Month Stats...

First, I should show you what a difference two months makes...not only did those scrawny little legs fill themselves in but Adler managed to go from a tan little dude to a pasty white one like his mama!  These are the exact same organic gerber onsies...I had just put the iron-on transfer on the first one...even though the leg holes look considerably bigger in the first pic...


I was convinced for the first month or so that he wasn't even growing but this picture is proof that he has, in fact, put on some chunk. Here's another set with a close of up those lovable little thighs!


Below is Adler's...actually, all of the kids doctor. Thankfully I have been able to have Dr. O'Neil deliver ALL of my kids so far...here's hoping she'll be around for the rest! =) And you can't really see it on the scale but Adler weighed in at 12 pounds, 11 ounces. The FIRST child I've have ever had that hasn't been tipping the scale in the 100th percentile for weight at their checkup =) Ayris and Asher were always in the 100th percentile for everything at every appointment...head, height and weight. Adler is right there with them in length...he's at 100 percent (he is now 2 feet long, which is exactly what Asher was at his 2 month checkup...Adler just weighs about 3 pounds less than Asher did right now)...but his head is a little smaller (at 15.5 inches). SO...maybe we have our little track runner...or basketball player in th family now?? Of course, I'd be fine if he just played piano with those long baby fingers of his! No expectations though...he can do whatever he wants in life...except for play hockey...go skiing, ride motorcycles, go sky diving or bungee jumping...I'm sure there is more I will add to the list as we go.


Aww...this kids hair just kills me...I can't tell you how much I just play with that little sprout of hair (I was going to try to give him the nickname sprout because I thought it was cute and appropro BUT baby bird seems to be sticking a bit more...I just LOVE it when he does his little baby bird mouth...although he's doing it less and less now =(...anyway, I'm surprised he still has that sprout of hair for as much attention as it gets...


Doesn't it just look like he's in a trance with whatever awesome thing I'm whispering to him? The second one kind of looks like he wants me to let him out of my death grip and to stop kissing him but whatever...I'm sure he'll have that look 8 years from now when I'm doing the same thing in front of his friends!



Man, don't you just want to eat him up with these smiles?? They are my favorite...now is the stage where you act like a pure idiot just to get one of these out of him...


The only problem is that I can't make him smile and take a picture at the same time...as soon as I put that big ol' camera in front of my face, the smile disappears...apparently cameras aren't worthy of smiles yet...just people. My mom was holding him in the picture above and I had Ayris take the shot below where I got him to smile...


And the below picture...can you even believe these are all mine? How in the world have we managed to have three kids in 4.5 years? And then I wonder how in the world I'll have time to have another one or two. As it was, when Asher was going through everything a couple weeks ago, I almost forgot Adler in the X-ray room until the lady asked me if I wanted my purse and my baby!?! Oh yeah...that'd be good! Hello!!! There have been a couple of times where I've plum forgotten about Adler until he wakes up crying...and then it's was like...oh yeah, I have another kid...that probably hasn't happened in the past few weeks but Adler slept so much and has always been so quiet that it's easy to forget there's a whole other person in the house. That sounds bad...but really, it's just proof of the perfection that is Adler...there is a blogger who just had her 7th baby and I love reading about her kids...trips to the store with that many kids...I can't even imagine...I'd have to be counting heads at that point...and I can't even imagine trying to keep 7 "A" names straight!


Okay, I had to throw this one in there...I was going through all of the photobucket options for things to do with your pictures and stumbled across this one called sketch...I am not even kidding, I don't think I'd be having any more kids if they came out looking like this...Ayris looks the least messed up...Asher a little moreso than Ayris...like he's got some crazy in the eyes and poor Adler looks like some kind of cannibal alien (that or a PUG dog baby) whose ready to eat someone...which is probably why the other two alien kids aren't sitting by him!  Seriously, who would even use this tool?  I can't say it improves the outcome of any picture!

Asher Comes Home...

I neglected to mention why Asher was in the hospital in the last post and a few of you were asking about it...we went into the clinic last Wednesday because Asher had had a fever all night...that morning it was 105.6...he had no other symptoms so they sent us home and told us to just pushing tylenol and motrin...after an additional two days of going back to the clinic, they gave Asher a shot in his leg muscle (because an ultrasound showed one of his kidneys was enlarged) and told us to come back if he hadn't improved by Saturday...we came back and they admitted us to the hospital because they assumed it was a kidney infection but they weren't going to know what to "treat" until Tuesday when his urine test results came back (they could do initial tests but had to send them off to somewhere special for something more detailed)...needless to say, he was able to come home on Tuesday after he had been fever free for 24 hours and was able to get an RX that he can now be on for the next 10 days...at the end of which, we will be scheduling an appt at Children's to have a test done to see if urine is leaking back into his kidneys...if so, he'll be on antibiotics for the next year...if not...well then they have no idea what caused the infection in the first place. As of now he's pretty much back to normal aside from his appetite...that's a little slow going.

Here are a few pictures from before the hospital visit, during and after. Sorry...Adler was a little neglected...there will be more pictures of him on the next post I'm sure =) We'll start with him though to get us going...

I love these pictures for many reasons...first, I love his little mohawk and how well it's displayed here...second, I love how when I turn his bib around it looks like a little baby cape...how long do you think I can get him to wear a "cape" that says "Mommy Loves Me"?, and lastly, I love how in the second picture, it looks like he's totally involved in girl gossip "Oh my goodness girl, your mom is making you cry it out at night??!!?...my mama better NEVER or there's gonna be some fussin' goin on!"




Okay, so maybe there were more of Adler than I thought...

I love, love, love my jumparoos!  I've had one through the kids...the first one I bought lasted through Ayris and Asher so I thought it was time to get a new one for the next two kids...it never fails that every child passes out in this thing...which is a GOOD thing.






















I am SO thankful that Asher is out of the hospital and it was something that is now being fixed...I don't know how moms/families out there deal with anything more...it's so nice having his fun loving, supercute, happy personality back at home.  I just think Asher looks crazy grown up in this picture below.  I'm losing my baby to a little boy =(

It's Been Hard Day's Night...I Should Be Sleeping Like A Log...

But I'm not...it is 2:51 a.m. and I have decided that sleep is not in the cards for me at this point so I figured I'd post a little update about Asher...who is currently watching Astro Boy...he's not going to want to leave this place now that he knows he can watch movies in the wee hours of the morning (cool stuff like that would never happen at home!) 

This was my little angel baby pretty much late Tuesday afternoon through Friday night until today when they finally decided that admitting him to the hospital was the best course of action:



And now he looks like this:


Which to me, screams "Really, that thing (i.e. the camera) follows us to the hospital too??"...well of course it does buddy...this is the best mama can do to chronicle your life since we both know your baby book is going to be a complete disappointment to you in the future (thank you babycenter for allowing me to look up the appropriate milestones for a baby ages 1 month and up because I'm pretty sure I never made it past the first few weeks of any of my childrens lives in their respective books)...and of course the second picture above...well, that's him accepting his mother's neuroticism all while plastering that infamous smile on his face.

Things have been pretty much the same here as at home...he doesn't want to eat and he goes back and forth between feeling pretty decent while watching cartoons and coloring, to wanting nothing more than to sleep when his fever creeps back up.  He is NOT happy with the iv site and the board that he has to wear to keep his arm straight.  Normally they like to have the iv site in their hand but after about 40 minutes of insane screaming, pulled lines, headbutting and an overall traumatic experience for all involved, they decided to put it in the crook of his arm. 

Asher is cracking me up right now...he just sat up all happy and said "I found my sicky cup"...he knows how to say sippy cup and has since he learned what one was...but I find his new term appropriate for the time being.

Asher has pretty much been a trooper though...even when he's feeling his worst, he still is very polite and will say "Thanks" for whatever it is you're doing for him...be it rubbing his head or giving him his milk...I on the other hand am handing in my trooper hat when it comes to this thing they call a bed for guests...I have no doubt in my mind that Chris heaved a small sigh of relief when I pretty much forced him to go home and let me stay the night with Asher...because he's had 4 nights of experience on that chair/bed when both Ayris and Asher were born...I, on the other hand always though the hospital bed wasn't that comfortable so really...the chairbed couldn't be that much worse right?  Well I was wrong...I'm pretty sure prison beds are more comfy...and by golly, it makes the bed Asher has feel like I'm sleeping on a cloud...I must admit, for a split second, I wondered how bad it would be if I just swapped beds with the kid...but lucky for him, a mother's love won out...unfortunately for Chris...tomorrow, a father's love is going to win out...I'm just sayin...=)

Little sidenote...I've just heard the song they play when a new baby is born for the 3rd time...so in the past 17 hours, 3 new little babies have been born.  It kind of sucks because its a huge reminder of my other baby boy at home but on the flip side, it's new life and what's not to be happy about that.  I didn't realize they played the music all over the hospital, which just makes me happy...don't you wish we could celebrate life like that always?  Having music stream down from the heavens each time a baby was born?  Obviously that's probably not realistic...the music would never stop but for now, it's a nice little reminder while we're here.  Which reminds me...and this just made me sick to my stomach...there was this little 2 month baby girl screaming outside Asher's room around 11 p.m....turns out, she has a high fever and her mom had to leave to go tuck her other kid in at home...after like an hour of the little girls crying, it was killing me not to run out there and try to console her myself...I made a comment to the nurse about how I wouldn't be able to leave my baby if they were in that condition and she said that there are tons of parents who bring their kids to Peds and leave them alone in the hospital for their entire stay...the nurses end up having to call them and say, "Ok, you can come pick up your kid now"...she also said that a friend of hers in another state that works at a hospital told her that there are parents who know that all they have to do is say that their child has a fever and they have to be admitted to the hosiptal for 48 hours before they can be released so these parents will call in on a Friday night or Holiday weekend...drop their kid off for two days and then come back and get them when they call.  Can you even imagine a parent like that?  That makes me sick to think there are children around the world sitting in hospital rooms all by themselves because their parents should have never been parents in the first place.  It's just not right.  The nurse did say that their are parents that just don't have the help who need to go home when they have other kids and no other resources but she also said those are the parents who are calling 10 times to check in on the kid that is in the hospital.  I can't imagine not having the ability to have at least one parent...Chris or myself at the hospital at all times with Asher.  So for that, I am SO thankful to all of the grandparents who are helping out and doling out love to Ayris and Adler.  But I'm still sick about all of the other kids out there...this is another one of those "I could NEVER be God" moments...I don't know how he can handle seeing all the bad crap like this in the world.  I have decided that in these cases, ignorance is bliss...I don't like knowing that baby birds fall out of trees and die when people like Ayris doesn't find them and get them back in the nest...just like I now hate knowing that there are some really suckass parents in the world...I prefer not to have proof of these depressing things...

On another sidenote and to get off that subject, I am gaining weight during my stay...I can just feel the fat accumulating.  I was super excited to find out that I could order off of Asher's menu as long as I paid for my meal with a credit card...seriously, if you're in the mood for the best pizza ever...this hospital has it.  I told Chris that I might just be the first person in history to start ordering out from the local hospital on random nights when trying to figure out what's for dinner (Yeah, honey, can you just swing by Fairview on your way home from work and pick up some pizza?)...you think I'm kidding...I am so not.  The pizza is that good.

Okay, this has taken me a good hour to write already in between switching out movies, getting milk, having Asher pee in a portable urinal (seriously, boys get ALL the perks!), trying to scoop out really big boogers that my naked eye is unable to see but that Asher INSISTS is there and administering more motrin...I honestly thought I'd be getting good sleep tonight!  But Asher is tired so I'll end for now...I'll leave you with some things Ayris has said lately that I had jotted down on the blog earlier in the week before things got so crazy.

(As she was trying to find my heartbeat on my chest)  Mom...I think your heart is taking a nap right now because it's not beating.  (LUCKILY, I am not really a vampire or dead at all...she just wasn't listening in the right place!)

Ayris:  Mom, why did you put that swimsuit on to go outside?
Me:  So I could get a bit more color than this pasty white I'm currently sporting.
Ayris:  More color?
Me:  Yeah, a tan.
Ayris:  What's a tan?
Me:  Where your skin gets a little darker than it normally is.
Ayris.  Oh, I don't want your skin darker...I want it to stay all blonde.

AND, my favorite...as we were on our way to pick up Chris from the airport, Ayris just randomly says "I can't wait to be a mommy so I can take a vacation anytime I want!"

At which point, I was confused about what "mommy" she's been hanging around...because last I checked, this mommy hadn't had a vacation in a while.

I did prod a little more into her very confused mind (mommies taking vacations???  It's unheard of!) and asked why she thought she'd be able to take a vacation anytime she wanted when she had kids...because what would she do with the kids?  "Well bring them with...DUH MOM" (as a side note, this child has starting saying DUH and WHATEVER MOM...I'm NOT digging that...last night she called something "Lame" and I was like, where you'd learn that?  And she goes "I heard it from you mom, DUH"...I will admit to probably using the word lame (after all, it's not a bad word, it just sounded funny coming from HER) but pretty sure I left the words DUH and WHATEVER back in my junior high days...and I would have been fine living out the rest of my life never being on the receiving end of hearing them again...Bleh...do words make a comeback like clothes do or have they just never gone out of style to begin with?  Like being past down from generation to generation...??? 

Back to bringing the kids with...OBVIOUSLY the child and I have very different ideas of what a vacation is...My idea: Bringing the kids with = EVERYDAY LIFE/INSANITY...she isn't old enough to realize that it's not a vacation if the kids come with!  At least not when they are this little...I do find myself wanting them to be just a few years older though so we could go to the Atlantis Resort/other various family vacation spots...I was already telling Chris that this time next year might just be a fine time to do that...at least with Ayris and Asher anyway.

Ok, enough for tonight, after one last picture of Asher...as hard as the poor kid tries to be happy and upbeat, you can just see the "sick" in his eyes: