Hearing, Playing and Walking

This week has been flying by already. Most weeks do these days. Last week Friday Layla had to go to have a hearing test. It's only because she was a preemie--we have no reason to think that her hearing isn't normal. I'm pretty sure that when she doesn't listen it's because she's ignoring me, not because she can't hear me:). Anyway, the appointment was going good, they had Layla and me sit in this little room inside of a bigger room and the guy would talk to Layla and he made sure that she would turn her head the correct way for where the sound was coming from. She did good with that. There were a few times when he would just put a weird sound through the speakers and she'd ignore it because she was too busy pointing out things in the room (there was a Mickey and a Minnie which she loves), but for the most part she would look to where the sound was coming from. Well, then he wanted her to put headphones on which she wanted nothing to do with. So then he said he'd try it a different way and gave her a tray full of stackable block type of things. He told her to put a block by her ear and then when she heard a noise she needed to move the block away from her ear and stack it on another block on the tray. Uh, yeah, she totally didn't get that. She did it once, but it was purely a coincidence:). He then checked her ear pressure by sticking things in her ears and surprisingly she didn't mind that. She likes to get the "yuckies" out of her ears at home so I think she thought it was like that:). So then he said there was one more test and he dinked around the computer for what seemed like awhile and then he said we were done. So now we need to go back in six months since she couldn't do any of the tests that test each ear individually. I'm pretty sure he made it sound like that block test was to test each ear individually, but that really has nothing to do with testing them seperately. Who knows. Hopefully she cooperates in six months:).

Gavin is over today and the kids have been playing nicely together, thankfully:).

Layla and Gavin were pretending to go nigh-night earlier today...pretty sure they would never really take a nap like this:).

I put together Layla's princess tent that she got from Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas. Apparently the people that made it are not very smart as the holes where the poles go in were on the bottom of the tent instead of on the top of if where they were supposed to be and all the poles were too long so Joe had to cut them down! But it is now in working order and the kids love it!



Gibson has lots of entertainment watching Gavin and Layla...

Gibson checking out Gavin...

Gibson's baptism is coming up so I need to get some more pictures of him with our families to put in the slideshow (and it's of course just nice to have those pictures too:D)...

I like to sometimes get recipes off of other people's blogs so I thought I'd post one from a salad I made earlier this week. I've been pretty impressed with myself how much we've been eating at home since having Gibson. We didn't get any meals brought over from people from church like we had after we had Layla so it's forced me to cook more since we've been home a lot and don't have any good restuarants near our house! :)

I made the salad into a lettuce salad and it was a refreshing summer salad!

Here is the recipe as taken from the Food Network's website:

Ingredients
3/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup orange marmalade
3 large garlic cloves, minced (1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
4 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1 pound large shrimp, about 16, shelled and deveined
4 wooden skewers
1 ripe avocado, peeled and quartered lengthwise, fanned out onto 4 plates
1 orange, peeled and sectioned (all pith and membranes removed)
Fresh cilantro sprigs
Directions
In a medium non-reactive bowl, whisk together the lime juice, marmalade, garlic, cilantro, 7 tablespoons of the olive oil, soy sauce and dried hot red pepper flakes. Using a measuring cup, remove 1/2 cup and set aside, refrigerated. Add the shrimp to the bowl and toss to combine thoroughly with the marinade. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Place the skewers in a shallow tray and cover with hot water. Set aside until you are ready to grill the shrimp.
Preheat a grill or broiler to medium heat.
Place the shrimp on the soaked wooden skewers. Lightly pat dry with paper towels and, using a brush, lightly coat the shrimp on both sides with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Grill for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until shrimp are golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Place the shrimp on top of the fanned avocado slices and season with salt to taste. Top with the orange segments then divide the reserved dressing evenly among the 4 plates and garnish with the cilantro sprigs. Serve immediately.

I left out the garlic, added all the oil to the dressing accidentally (used Soybean oil), used mandarin oranges, and added romaine lettuce (but we both agreed spinach would have been even better) slivered almonds and feta cheese. Oh, and I didn't have enough lime juice, but it was still plenty limey. Layla enjoyed it too. I hope Gibson is as good of an eater as she is--there isn't anything she won't try!

When the whether was nice last week we took a family walk except it was cut short since it was a lot windier than we thought!

St. Patty and Mickey

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! It's such a beautiful day today! Both kids are napping now, but we should go for a walk to enjoy the day once they're up. Gibson is now on a four hour eating schedule during the day which is nice. He was starting to not finish his bottles (5 oz), so now that he's eating every four hours instead of three, he is hungrier. I know, obviously that makes sense:-). And last night he did one seven hour stretch and then a six hour stretch--so not too bad! Hopefully that means sleeping all night is coming soon!! His tummy also seemed better yesterday, he did really well with his feedings. Not sure why, but I'm happy he seemed to feel better! That might have helped him sleep a little better--otherwise he often wakes up full of spit up or needing to get some burps out. He's starting to have more awake time during the day and making more noises and smiling more. It's amazing how much I've forgotten about this baby stage:-). It all seems new again! Ok, enough rambling, here are some pics!

Layla loves watching him and talking to him. When he starts "talking" now she'll sometime come over to him and say "hi". One of the noises he makes always sounds like he's saying "hhhiiii":-). This morning he started cooing and she laughed and then gave me this look like, 'Aw, he's cute isn't he, Mom?' :-).


I'm getting braver with my outings with both kids so Monday morning we went to Target, Carters and Meijers (ok, so we just went through the pharmacy drive thru at Meijers). But getting all three of us ready in the morning and running errands all in between his feedings (and since we don't live very close) doesn't allow too much time for perusing the isles at Target! Anyway, at Carters they had 3 month girl St. Patty's Day shirts on sale and 18 month boy shirts--exactly the opposite of what I need! I didn't think Gibs would enjoy wearing pink on his shirt, so he is just wearing green and Layla is wearing the shirt I thought that Gibson might be able to wear next year. It's boyish, but I'm pretty sure you can still tell that she's a girl:-).

I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I thought I'd just post them both:-). Gibson had just eaten, so he wasn't so into the picture.

While cousin Gavin was in Disney World last week, the kids thought they'd wear their Mickey/Minnie pj's since they couldn't be there with him. You can't tell, but Elv's collar is Disney:-).

Never too young for Mickey ears!

Gibson just found out that the Disney Store (where Grandma got his sleeper) is no longer in Rivertown:-(. It really is sad to me that it went out of business. Layla loved going there. Poor Gibson I think only got to go there once before it closed.

Not wanting to keep the ears on...

A partial smile during tubby time...

Basement

Our basement project is pretty much finished (our bathroom isn't finished and there are other small things we need to finish) so I thought I'd post some before and after pics.

We framed it in last winter already! We then took an extended break until late summer/early fall and then once I went on bedrest we quickly got everything done. I forget exactly when it was done, but it was shortly after Gibson came home from the hospital.

Joe and Elv prior to starting...

Joe helped Kevin, from our church, frame it all...

This shows how long ago it was with by how little Layla is!

Joe's dad helping with insulation. Joe's dad and brother have helped with a lot of it!! This is the future family room...

Layla's future bedroom and where Elv is, is the future bathroom...

Layla's room...

Family room...

Layla's room getting drywall...we didn't do any of the drywall ourselves.

Family room getting drywalled...

The family room all painted. Joe's dad and brother helped with some of the first coat of paint and then we finished it up in between Gibson's feedings:-).

Joe busy painting Layla's room...

Layla was SO excited when the carpet arrived. She was running and dancing all over the place and would then just suddenly drop to the ground.

Mike and Joe trying to figure out if the window would come all the way out after we figured out that one section of the couch wouldn't fit going down the stairs. The window did not come out easily. We needed a "window guy" to help get it out.

Gavin and Layla having fun watching the couch get moved in (well, part of it)...

We bought the couch from some friends over a year ago and then got the chair from my grandparents when my grandma passed away in the fall. We got lucky that they match!

We still have some finishing touches to make such as needing hardware on the cabinets, some outlet covers, a mini fridge, more decorations, etc...

Layla and I in her room the day her furniture got moved in...

She's using the furniture that I had in my room at my parents' house after I graduated from college (that I only used until I got married about 9 months later)...

And she's using a crib from my cousin until we want to switch her to a toddler bed...

I love Etsy for all things handmade! I love that you can get anything to match what you need it to match!

We weren't sure how she'd sleep the first night, but she did great! She was very excited about her new room. When we tucked her in the first night she cried for me once we shut the door, but once I went back in and talked to her again about her new room she settled down and then went right to sleep. I also wasn't sure how she'd adjust to seeing Gibson in her old crib/room, but that's been fine too. It didn't take long at all and she knew that was where he slept.

Although it only added 3 more rooms to our basement (one bedroom/office/playroom was already done), it it so nice to finally have it finished and feels like a lot of extra space to us!

Looking Forward to Spring

I'm so excited that it's starting to feel like spring. I know that could change, but even if we get some more snow, spring is still right around the corner! I didn't even mind the rain today--better than snow! Today was my birthday and it was a great day spent with my fam. I haven't been feeling the greatest so Joe was nice enough to work from home today so that he could help a bit with the kids. That was very nice and he even said he was able to get lots of work done. I have had a great birthweek even though we haven't done anything too exciting. Saturday we went out for dinner and went shopping without kids to celebrate!! Joe's parents watched the kids which was really nice. Time alone with Joe was really the best present I could have asked for! :-)

I brought up the Bumbo the other day even though Gibs is probably a little young for it. Layla has been enjoying it. Here she is reading The Spark (the Calvin magazine), she is probably reading the article about Jonathan and his daddy and grandpa:-).

Being a good big sis and dangling toys infront of Gibson to try to get him to enjoy his tummy time.

Showing off their matching wrist rattles. Who says wrist rattles are just for babies? :-)

Remi stayed at our house while his family was away so Layla had fun tormenting, er, playing with the dogs. Surprisingly both dogs allow her (some of the time) to sit on them. Elv only will if he's busy chewing one of his toys.

Gibson isn't too into the Bumbo. Yesterday he fell asleep when I put him in it...

And the other day he wasn't so happy about trying it out:)...

I just started Gibson on Prevacid this week to hopefully help with his tummy and reflux issues. Poor little guy still gets so unhappy while and after he eats. I'm not sure yet if it's working. He was on Zantac, but that didn't seem to make a difference. Our ped said that most the time it's not from something that the mom ate, but I'm also trying to cut back on my dairy. Layla was allergic to dairy and the arching of the back, scrunching up of the legs and not wanting to finish bottles is seeming all too familiar. I'm sure it's not that, but just to make sure, I'm cutting back on dairy to see if it makes a difference.

Tuesday we were able to enjoy the nice weather with my cousin and her kiddos. We have that same double jogger but need to get a new tire for it, plus Gibs seems a little bit small yet to sit in that kind of seat and loves his carseat so we just took this one. It definitely feels like you're pushing a lot more weight with a double!! Better work out I guess:-). It felt great to finally get some excercise! Hopefully we'll go for lots of walks this summer. With being pregnant all last summer I never felt good and therefore never felt like walking in the blazing heat. So thankfully I won't be pregnant this summer and we can go for lots of walks:-). I wasn't sure if Layla would get bored during the walk since during mall trips all I hear is "walk, walk" (meaning she wants to walk, not ride), but she really liked the stroller ride. It probably helps to move at a fast pace rather than going slowly through mall racks, I just need to learn to shop faster I guess:-).

We celebrated my birthday with Joe's family on Sunday. Layla had so much fun she couldn't stay awake on the way home. Unfortunately that meant she then didn't want to nap once we got home.

Gibson woke up a little early from one of his naps the other day so I held him so that he'd keep sleeping until it was time to eat. He was opening his little mouth so cute I thought I'd take a picture:-)...