Jaden Standing

Over the few weeks, Jaden has mastered the art of crawling! Once he masters something, he's on to the next "task." There's never any spare time to just be good at the current stage ~ he's so quick to try to learn something new.

This week, his new thing has been pulling up and standing on everything! He loves to do anything that puts him the standing position, including standing at the side of the bathtub, walking around in his walker, pulling up to the recliner, etc. He's getting really good at it now, so I'm just waiting for him to start taking steps!

Mommy Alyssa

The kids stayed home with dad today while I went to work. Alyssa decided she wanted to play mommy and try to feed Jaden. Of course, daddy let her, and she did a pretty good job! She does get distracted at times and the milk ends up in the chair or down the front of Jaden, but in the end she was a great helper!

Park and lunch date!

Today we spent the day with our friends Jo Ann, Maddie and Sophia. We went to the park this morning near Jo Ann's house and played for a while. Alyssa wore her bathing suit in anticipation of playing in the water feature. Water feature's are the new additions to most parks here in Las Vegas, probably due the extreme heat in the summer! Today was a pretty chilly, windy day, so we ended up not playing in the water, but had a fun day playing at the park anyways.

We left the park and went to Jo Ann's house for lunch. As I was feeding Jaden his sweet potatoes and applesauce, Jo Ann decided to give him a bite of grilled cheese! It was all downhill from there. Any spoon I put in his mouth that contained pureed food, was then spit back at me!! All he wants now is "real food!" He absolutely loved that grilled cheese. I'm actually excited at the thought of the baby food bill decreasing! I wasn't sure how he would do with the cheese, but no problems! Thanks Jo Ann for a great lunch!

Jaden's Surgery

Jaden had his ear tube surgery today! A bit nerve wrecking this morning, but all is well! We went to the hospital at 6am for a 7:30 surgery. Jaden did absolutely perfect. The nurses just loved him! He was all smiles when they took him back for the procedure. Dr. Tolan told us it would be quick and easy with little or no risk, and amazingly, we were in the comforts of our own home by 8:30am! I had expected a little bit of crying and discomfort, after all the boy had surgery today! But, nothing......a few short naps, good breakfast and he was crawling and playing all over the house as if it were any other day!

I hope this is the beginning of the end of our sleepless nights and frequent doctor visits. Maybe, after all, Jaden will spend at least a week without being on antibiotics. Boy those weekly doctor copays and prescriptions have broken the mom bank!

Thanks to all who said prayers and gave us their well wishes!

Florida Vacation Part 1

Well, we just spent the last 10 days vacationing in Florida! I must say that although we had a blast, it was pretty exhausting!

It all started the week before we left for vacation. Jaden was in the hospital twice and between that and working, all my packing days were occupied. Needless to say, I ended up packing the night before and the morning before we left! Not fun when you are traveling with a toddler and an infant! We made it though and nothing was forgotten!

We trekked to the airport for a 1am red eye flight to Orlando. The kids were amazing! I couldn't ask for anything more than 2 sleeping kids the whole way to Florida. We arrived, uneventfully, to Orlando and got our rental car for our drive to Ft. Lauderdale.

We spent 5 days in Ft. Lauderdale and had a great time! We were able to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa in the Blue House, Aunt Laurie and Uncle Michael, Adriana, Vincent and Suzi and Freddy. We went to the beach, shopped and just hung out with family.

On Sunday, we packed up the car and made a quick stop in Okeechobee, FL to visit family for lunch. Then, it was off to Disney!

Blizzard Beach in Florida

Talking to daddy

Jaden sunbathing!

Mommy and Alyssa on the gondola on our way to the big waterslide

The kiddos were getting tired of walking around the Disney parks in the heat, so today we decided to go to Blizzard Beach, one of the water parks at Disney. This was, by far, Alyssa's favorite day! She loved playing in the kiddie area, fully equipped with water slides just her size. Jaden, too, had fun sitting and playing in the water.

We did spend a lot of the day, however, on the family tube ride! Alyssa loved it! She also loved the double rider tube ride. She's definetly a thrill rider! Good thing she was tall enough to ride these, otherwise she would've been pretty disappointed!

Staying Cool in Florida!

Playhouse Disney show at Hollywood Studios

Staying cool in the shade!

Yeah! Ice pops!

Love the cool washcloth!

Air conditioned bus!

While on vacation, we spent a lot of time just trying to stay cool! If you've ever been to Florida you would know that besides the heat, it is very humid! Something that we're not used to, as we live in the desert! We tried to spend time cooling off with shows, ice cream, shade, and more ice cream!

Florida Friends!

Well, here we are in Disney World (Florida) for the week! Alyssa was so excited to see all the characters ~ that is until we arrived! I was a little nervous that she would be scared of them, but thought since she knew who they were, maybe she would like them. She was scared to death, until the second day! We were finally able to get a few pictures with them, but that was out of luck. We really weren't able to get her close to any others after this day. She was okay with Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Pluto. For some reason, she was frightened by Goofy! Of course, he's the guy we saw everywhere! She would cover eyes and start crying anytime we saw Goofy! Maybe in a few years when we go back, she actually like them again!

Beach in Ft. Lauderdale

Jaden all covered in sand

Alyssa sitting in the hole she dug!

Jaden and Papa chillin!

Today while in Ft. Lauderdale, we spent the day at the beach! We had a blast! Alyssa had been to the beach before, so she was pretty excited to go and play in the sand! Jaden loved the sand. He played and crawled around in the sand the whole day! Wasn't to sure about sitting in the waves of the beach or having his feet in the water, but he loved the sand!

Room 4001

Despite how good Jaden looked at the Beach on Friday, he was actually feeling a bit under the weather! He didn't sleep good that night before and was really not eating much that morning. Alyssa was so sad at the thought of not being able to go the beach with her friends because Jaden was sick. So, I decided to just go and see how it would be. We came home from Lake Mead around 3pm and by 6:15 I was in the Emergency room with Jaden. He still had not had anything to eat/drink and still did not have a wet diaper since 3am this morning. And at this point he had a 102 fever. Turns out the doc said he was pretty dehydrated from all the diarrhea. They decided to admit him after hours of IV fluids in the ER. We proceeded to make our way to room 4001, where we spent the next day trying to hydrate Jaden. We ended up going home around 6pm the next day and Jaden is doing much better. Still having fevers and a bit cranky, but at least he's eating now.

For those non medical people...........he ended up having Rota virus. It's pretty much like a bad stomach flu in adults, but babies get dehydrated really quick resulting in the need for IV fluids.

Boy is it different to be on the other side. It was pretty weird to be a patient on the floor I work on. I felt as though I should've been doing the work instead of calling someone else to do it! Aside from Alyssa's surgeries when she was little, it was one of the worst days. It was so hard to see Jaden get poked so much for IV's, labs, caths.....Poor baby! It truly is different to have your own child poked and prodded even when you do it to everyone elses kids on a daily basis. My heart goes out to all the parents that have to have their child in the hospital, no matter how minor the condition!

Thanks to Margaret and Dr. Joey for taking such good care of us!

More Boulder Beach Photos

Jaden napping under the umbrella

Jo Ann, Maddie, Sophia, Alyssa and Jaden

Alyssa playing in the mud

So cute.......

Boulder Beach

Alyssa and Jaden taking a rest

Jaden loved eating sand

Loves to pose now!

Jaden is content with his feet in the mud!

Today I decided to venture out and take the kids to Lake Mead. The weather's been pretty warm lately and thought it would be the perfect day to go to the beach. The beach?, you'd say.....yes, there is a small beach in the middle of the desert! I packed the truck up with all the essentials and headed to meet some friends at Boulder Beach (on Lake Mead). We enjoyed the day with JoAnn, Maddie, Sophia, Michelle and Aidan.

After we pulled up and got out of the truck, Alyssa scoped out the place and said, "Oh my gosh mama, this is a wonderful place!" We unloaded our picnic and made camp in the sand right by the water. There were lots of pigeons, birds, bugs and even more lady bugs. Of all the scary creatures there, the only thing Alyssa was deathly afraid of were the lady bugs! Go figure........it's about the only bug you can actually hold! Anyways, she wanted nothing to do with the ladybugs and screamed frantically if she saw one crawling in the sand! We spent about 4 hours there playing in the water, mud and sand. That was about all we could take of the desert sun in one day.

Enjoy some pictures from our 99 degree day!

New Blogger

Well, this is officially my first blog! I have quite a few friends who "blog" on a daily basis and I always think it's a great way to keep a journal of the kids "doings" throughout the year. I wish I would've known about this when Alyssa was little. Won't this be great to look back at when the kids are teenagers? I just hope I can keep up with it!

More soon..........