Big Boy Carseat

Since I met my goal at our yard sale, I ordered Jace's new carseat that night. Diapers.com had an awesome deal and I couldn't pass it up! I wanted to get him the Sunshine Kids Radian 80 SL convertible car seat and I had been looking online for the best price for about a month. It retails for $269.99 and the cheapest I had found it, even with a coupon code, was $215.99 shipped. That night, Diapers.com had it on sale for that price, plus since this was my first order from them, I could use a referral code and get an additional 20% off! That brought the price down to $172.79 with free shipping. I was so excited and ordered it as soon as I saw that! I wanted to get the Radian because my backseat is small and we have Avaree's booster seat too. The Radian is the narrowest convertible car seat on the market and you can fit 3 across in a normal sized backseat; you can't do that with other car seats. It is also the only car seat we will have to buy for Jace, it fits up to 80 pounds and 53 inches.
Here's Jace trying out his new seat. I think he likes it :)

If you want to get a discount at diapers.com, use my referral code: HLLU0750

Sick Boy

Our little man was sick last week. Saturday evening, while he was in his highchair eating his dinner, he started gagging and throwing up. He did that a few times. He acted perfectly fine once it was over so we cleaned him all up and got him ready for bed. I gave him his bottle and once he got done with that, it all came back up. He was still smiling, talking, and acting fine. I just assumed it was still the phlegm he's had in his throat, although he wasn't acting like he really wanted to eat. He went on to sleep and woke up at 4am. He never wakes up during the night so I knew he was hungry since his dinner and nighttime bottle came up. I fed him and as soon as I sat him up, it all came spewing out. Again, he acted fine and went on back to sleep. He woke up Sunday morning and I could tell he wasn't his normal self--he didn't act like he wanted a bottle or anything. I called and left a message for the doctor to call me. She called me back and said to give him 1 ounce of Pedialite every 30 minutes or so and see how well he keeps that down. If he keeps it all down by late that evening, to try formula again.

He did fine with the Pedialite, he kept it all down. He was hungry though and got mad when he got done with it because he wanted more.

 Eventually we started upping how much he was drinking each time. We decided to skip the solid food that day and gave him a bottle of formula that night. He did fine with it and slept all night. The next morning I gave him a bottle and he threw it up before he finished it, of course still smiling. He threw up another bottle later in the day so he just had Pedialite that evening.

After that, we just started giving him a little bit of formula at a time. We would do 2 ounces and if it stayed down, go up to 3 next time. He did four ounces for a day or so and for the last 4-5 days he's still taking 5 ounces. He hasn't gone back up to 6 yet. He could probably handle it now though. I don't know what was wrong with my little guy. I don't know if it was some kind of virus or what. His doctor (when we called again) said it could be reflux so she told us to try giving him Zantac again. We didn't do that and decided to just see what happens. He's been fine the past few days. Although a few times he has coughed until he threw up (Avaree did this and still does sometimes, and Mama said I did it as well). I hope it doesn't happen again, I feel so bad for him. Poor little guy didn't know what was going on.

Christmas Cards

It’s Christmas card time again and actually we’re getting kind of a late start! I love sending out cards with our family’s pictures and I love to receive cards from friends and family. I’ve never ordered Christmas cards from Shutterfly, but that is where I ordered Jace’s birth announcements and we loved them!

Shutterfly has tons of cute designs this year and it is going to be really hard to choose. I want to use four to five photos so that narrows the choices down quite a bit. If I were only going to use one photo, I would choose this one. I like clean, simple designs and I also prefer them to say Merry Christmas rather than Happy Holidays.

I can’t decide which card I’m going to go with yet, but these are my top three choices (right now, I‘m sure it will change!):  With Love Chartreuse Christmas, Joy and Magic Christmas, and Initially Chic Green. It's a tough decision and the more I look, the more I see that I like! I’m also thinking about ordering a new mouse pad with a picture of both Avaree and Jace while I'm there.

We had our Chirstmas photos taken a couple of weeks ago by the fabulous Stephanie Knowles of Jaiden Photography and they turned out great (as usual) so I can’t wait to have cards made with them. I am not sharing our photos until I mail out the cards, so I want to get them out as soon as possible because I’m ready to show them off!

Max the Elf

We adopted our Elf on the Shelf last year and now he's back! Max is a cute little elf that watches us all day and then magically flies to the North Pole while we're sleeping to tell Santa if we've been naughty or nice. You can't touch him or it will take away his magic and he won't be able to fly back. Every morning, he is in a different spot and Avaree loves to find him!

 

5 Year Check Up

Avaree had her 5 year check up Thursday. (A couple months late!) She weighed 39.8 lbs (40th percentile) and was 3 ft 7 inches tall (50th percentile). Everything looked great, except she had some protein in her urine so her doctor wants us to take another sample to test it again. We're planning on doing that tomorrow morning. Hopefully the results are ok. Avaree got her flu shot and she pitched a fit! A nurse and I held her down while another nurse gave her the shot. She stuck one leg and Avaree jumped and hit the nurse with her elbow and  knocked the needle out. So she had to get a new needle and stick the other leg. Avaree wasn't happy about that at all.

Poor Little Man

Last weekend, Avaree went to visit Grandma Audrey and the rest of the family. This was our conversation as I was taking her to meet Grandma and Papa so they could take her back with them:

Avaree: (out of nowhere) Poor Little Man
Me: Who? (I had no idea who she was talking about)
Avaree: Jace
Me: Why?
Avaree: Because he can't see me for 2 days!

I just thought that was so funny. It wasn't poor Avaree since she wouldn't be able to see Jace for 2 days, it was poor Jace.

Yard Sale!

We had a yard sale on Saturday. Mom brought stuff over, Stephanie and Matt brought some of their stuff, and we had some of Jennifer and Justin's. My goal was to make $300 so we could get Jace a new carseat and stroller and get rid of the travel system. I surpassed my goal and made $321! I should also be getting another $40 for some other stuff someone wants. All together I think we made close to $600!

Luckily, James was off so he was able to stay inside and entertain Jace and Matt. Grandpa Brad also came for a visit.

I came in that afternoon to find this. My boys were wore out from their long day. Poor Jace looked so uncomfortable, I had to move him!

Baby Love

Jace is such a loving baby. He loves to give kisses and hugs and loves to cuddle! I love it and I hope he doesn't grow out of it anytime soon.

 

Here's a video of Jace loving on his sister. I'm not sure if you can hear it or not but he burps in the beginning, that's why we start laughing.

Just Playing Around

Jace loves for Avaree to get down on the floor with him and play!

 

 

 

  

Jace and his cousin, Matthew

  

 

 

Let's Read

Avaree loves to read to her baby brother, and he loves it too!

 

 

That's MY Paci!

Jace has learned to pick up his paci and put it in his mouth. I've been playing with him by putting it in my mouth, and he will pull it out and pop it in his mouth! It's so cute!

 

Bath Time

Bath time is fun!

And a flashback to nearly 5 years ago, here's Avaree a few days shy of 6 months!

Jace loves taking a bath.

 

Hazelwood for Eczema

Avaree's eczema has been really bad lately. Her skin has looked horrible and is really itchy; her whole body has been red and blotchy. I bought Jace an amber necklace about a month or so ago for teething pain, although he doesn't seem like it bothers him yet. While on the website for the amber, I came across hazelwood. I read the benefits of it and some testimonials and decided it was worth a shot. I ordered a hazelwood necklace for Avaree and put it on her as soon as it came in the mail. The next evening, she was almost entirely cleared up! It was crazy! I couldn't believe how well she looked after only wearing the necklace for 24 hours! I wish I would have taken some pictures of how her skin looked before putting it on her. These were taken after wearing it.

 

 

 Her worst spots are the back of her legs. in the bends of her elbows, and her hands. Her back has also been really bad lately. Apparently the hazelwood absorbs the acid (which causes eczema) in the body and the necklace lasts about 6-12 months. They say the first one may not last as long though. I'm going to go ahead and order at least one more for now so we'll have it whenever this one stops working. I was a little skeptical at first, but after seeing for my own eyes how well this has worked, I'm totally sold! I only wish I would have found out about these five years ago! They also say that these are good for reflux and morning sickness (if only I would have known!) so when I get pregnant again, I will for sure be ordering one for me!

Report Card

Avaree got her first report card! It's for the first 9 weeks. She did very well and we are so proud of her! She got Satisfactory in Writing, Handwriting, and P.E. and Excellent in Science, Language Arts, Math, Music, and Conduct.

5 Months

Happy 5 Months Jace!

Jace is the sweetest baby ever and he is getting so big! He's a happy little guy and he just brings so much joy to our family. He is so easygoing and content; he's no trouble at all.

 

 Jace is still sleeping all night and still taking 6 ounces of formula (with added rice cereal) every 3-4 hours during the day. He just started having oatmeal and a fruit mid-morning and a veggie (with a little rice cereal) and fruit in the evenings. He is drinking from a sippy cup during his meals and he's doing great with it. His spitting up has gotten so much better, it's nothing like it was!
He can roll tummy to back and back to tummy. He's sitting up on his own (although he's still a little wobbly).

 

Jace doesn't have any teeth breaking through yet, but I'm sure it won't be long. Everything goes into his mouth and he loves to bite on our fingers and his Sophie the Giraffe.
Jace spent his first night away from home (and me!) on Friday, October 8th. He and Avaree spent the night with their Gammy. I wasn't too crazy about the idea, buy Mom called everyday that week begging for him to spend the night. She picked them up from daycare when she got off; and then I took their clothes over when I got off and ended up staying for a little while. So really, Gammy only got a couple of waking hours with him because I was over there fairly early Saturday morning too to go shopping. It was really weird not to hear the monitor going during the night.
Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.