Over the past month...

We have been BUSY to say the least! The hospital has also been busy and so I worked a few extra shifts and hours here and there to help them and of course the extra money was nice for us! My parents happen to have a random day off during the week and so I worked one of my nights the night before and made if over to their house the next day so they could watch the kiddos while I slept. This is Junior enjoying one of his treats in "his mailbox" that Nana and Great One have for him to check whenever he comes to visit! Bubbles are so intriguing!

Nana giving instructions

Giving it a whirl

Reloading

Getting Mommy

After another one of the nights I worked, we had a small incident with Gaga rolling off the couch and needing to have a CT scan done at the ER to make sure everything was alright. The scan came back normal but she still showed signs of tenderness behind her neck so they diagnosed her with a cervical strain and sent us home with instructions to watch her and give her motrin as needed for irritability. It took her a day or so before she was feeling 100% and I could tell she was back to her old self.

A few days later we were invited to my sister-in-laws house for Junior and Gaga to play with their cousins and us girls to visit! Junior has so much fun with his older cousin M. Gaga was enthralled with her newest cousin A. He may be a little smaller than her now, but give him another month and he will pass her right up. He's 3 1/2 month younger than her, but he's growing like a weed.

Gaga and cousin A

Cousin's A and M with Gaga

Junior and Gaga with cousins P, A, M and C

I came home to this one morning after I worked. Looks like someone had a long night! :) Daddy and Gaga

Gaga hit many milestones over the past month including but not limited to: first two bottom teeth, sitting up well, saying "Momma", eating her first foods and she is mobile! She is always interested in what Junior is playing with and does everything she can to get to it. It may take her a bit, but she does succeed by inching, pushing with her feet or pulling with her arms. She is also good at getting up on all fours and then lunging forward to cover more distance. We finally started her on foods when she wasn't going down for bed as easily as she had been. We realized that she may have been needing more to eat during the day than I could give her. So oatmeal, sweet potatoes, apples and Cherrios now accompany her breastmilk feedings throughout the day.

Junior is still fascinated with trash trucks, any vehicle with flashing lights or sirens and more importantly BASEBALL! Any chance he gets to "play catch" or "hit baseballs" he will be doing it. He is excelling in his baseball class, hits well from a tee, but really prefers to hit from a pitch and does well. He still loves to help me with any household chore. Laundry is one of his favs! He has me get the stool out, place it next to the washer and load all the clothes in. He is prompt to transfer them to the dryer as soon as the buzzer goes off, yelling "Nay-Nay do it" as he heads into the laundry room. He also enjoys cooking and setting the table before dinner for us. He is so precise with the placement of everything. Mommy gets a small fork, Daddy the bigger one, Junior gets his plastic fork, we all get a coaster for our drink (I will not let him take glasses to the table) and a package of fruit snacks (for dessert!). All are placed in each of our own spots on the dinner table. He takes great pride in anything he accomplishes by himself. His prayers at night are getting much better. We have recently attempted to let him do the spontaneous prayer instead of us. It usually goes something like this..."God bless (insert name of someone he knows), God bless (same as before) and so on. He is able to recite some of the Hail Mary by himself and The Our Father of course is much longer so he is not quite there. We will have to work on that!