Two Months!

Jack is two months old now! Don’t let the smile fool ya, this is one TOUGH baby. He’s super sweet and cuddly but he's a cryer. He cries a lot. We have tried everything to help soothe him and it takes all we’ve got to get him to a peaceful state where he can sleep. For a few weeks the only place he would sleep was on me, so I wasn’t getting much sleep and that made life miserable. I was just about at the end of rope with Eric gone a lot for work, trying to deal with Jack, keeping up with EJ and my job.

One night, I cried out to God for help. I knew I couldn’t keep going the way I was. The next morning I got in the car to pick up EJ from preschool and a song came on the radio with lyrics that said, “Help is on the way.” I started crying because I deeply identified with the idea of needing help.  I knew I needed help and fast!  Two days later at church we sang a similar song with the lyrics, “Help is on the way.” Again, tears fell immediately because I knew that message was for me. I needed help and this was God’s way of telling me to hang in there because help was coming.

The ‘help” came in two forms: my mom and the Nap Nanny. My mom came to town to visit and when she saw the trouble I was having with Jack she affirmed that he was a tough baby and encouraged me to take him to the doctor for his stomach and reflux issues. That was the first step to get back on track. The key was finding the Nap Nanny.  I learned about it doing research on infant reflux (GRED).  It’s a place for infants to sleep that keeps the baby laying at a 30 degree angle. It prevents the reflux from coming up the esophagus and irritating the baby so they aren't woken up in pain. The first time I put Jack in it he slept for four hours straight! I was beyond grateful!  When I tell people about the Nap Nanny most have never heard of it so here’s a picture of ours.   God bless the person who invented it!

That next week my mom took care of EJ, cooked, cleaned, did laundry and held Jack so I could get could finish my work for the semester. I am so grateful for her!  As things got better we were able to enjoy life a little more.  EJ has been wonderful.  He is so patient and understanding when Jack is having a hard time.  He even prays for him without us telling him to.  He's a great kid!

My mom was such a huge help and she never showed frustration or said an unkind word.  She worked tirelessly and never complained.  I am not sure what would have happened had she not come.

Here we are after a dinner at the coast. It was a beautiful sunset. Notice the crying baby. We took the picture anyway!

I love this next picture. When Jack is happy, he's really happy, which usually happens to be right after he eats.  Within 10 minutes and then he starts grunting, fussing and crying. I know he will grow out of it so I just cherish the moments like these.

So, two months down.  Here's hoping things continue to get better for Jack!

Safari Park

We took a visit to the Safari Park last week. It was our first time there and we had a fun time. The Safari Park is part of the San Diego Zoo and it's in Escondido, about 35 minutes north east of where we live.

We rode on the Africa Tram seeing animals from the African continent which was fun until Jack broke down and started screaming. He had had enough of the Safari Park and everyone on the tram heard about it.

Here's Grandma and EJ on the huge rhino! There were real rhinos there too but we weren't about to get close for a picture with them.

Our favorite exhibit was the Cheetah run. Once a day, Shiley the cheetah races 330 feet chasing her favorite toy. She goes 0 to 70 miles per hour in just 4 seconds! It was so cool! She can only do the run one time per day because the energy she exerts can give her heat stroke, which can be life threatening. 
Grandma got this picture of Shiley. She was eyeballing Jack like she wanted him for lunch but we were safe behind the required 2 fences! She was a really beautiful animal. 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2012 will always be special as it's the year we were blessed with Jack.

After an exhausting weekend of baseball we had a fun Sunday going to church, out to lunch and then we all took a nap in our bed! The boys each had a special gift for me. E.J. made me a card at preschool. He did an excellent job! And Jack has finally started smiling at me! I just can't get enought of these two! I love them so much.

Here we are after church.

Here's the card E.J. made. He wrote "LOVE EJ" all by himself!

The smile that melts my heart!  He resembles EJ so much which brings back so many memories.   I'm so grateful I get to do this again!

Champions!

Eric's team won the regular season conference, the conference tournament and he was voted coach of the year by the other coaches in the conference. It was a highlight week in his career! Here's our family after the big win. Jack was asleep in the stroller so he wasn't "available" for the picture!

Eric's Aunt Lynn and Uncle Tim came to many regular season games and all of the conference tournament games. It was so fun to watch the games with them and they were so proud of Eric!

Here are Eric's coaches (minus Coach Morgan). What a great job they did this season!

Here's when the team won the regular conference. The picture at the top was the conference tournament win. Several of the players made all tournament team and Nick LaFace (catcher) was MVP with a tournament batting average of .667!

Smile!

Jack is starting to smile!  He has smiled at Eric quite a bit and he is smiling at EJ in these pictures.  He won't smile at me yet but surely my time is coming.

He loves his big brother!

Baseball Day!

EJ's preschool highly encourages parent involvment.  What better way for us to be involved than to bring baseball to preschool!  Eric brought five players to come and teach the kids how to hit and throw baseballs and occasionally get tackled.

Eric and the players came to the classroom and introduced themselves.

Here's the tackle--EJ was the initiator--of course!

Here are the small group stations.  Each player had five kids at each station.

Here's EJ's group at the batting station.

align: center;"> Here are the kids lining up to go outside for baseball.  You can see how excited they were.  It was hard for them to stand still in line.

Eric and EJ addressed the class so they knew what they would be doing.  EJ was so proud to have his daddy at school.

Here are EJ's best friends.  Getting this picture took some work!

The kids liked the "catcher" I brought.

EJ's teacher, Mr. Matty, plays his guitar and sings just about every day.  Today he taught the kids how to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

High fives at the end of the day!  The kids had a great time!

Stop! Police!

There's a new sheriff in town! EJ is very intrigued with police, police cars, speeding, tickets, and anything else to do with lawlessness! Grandma Bobbie gave him a police outfit and made him a driver's license and a pad of tickets. We've all been getting tickets for various misdeamors around the house. Here's grandma in "jail" with Jack while EJ wrote her a ticket. Poor grandma!