Will is 7 months old!

So obsessed with this sweet little guy. What's happening with Will lately:

- He is crawling super fast now, and tries to grab a handful of soil from our potted plants every chance he gets. I have caught him with a mouthful of soil so many times! I am actually debating just bringing all the plants to work for a while.

- He can pull himself up on the furniture and is just starting to be able to walk around the coffee table while holding on. He gets really frustrated when he can't get into whatever Cohen is doing.

- He eats what we eat. I started out with purees, but he would just grab what we were eating and shove it in his mouth. Jon and I have to watch him closely though, because he will fill his entire mouth with food before swallowing. He is a very aggressive, happy eater. Tonight we had pizza, and we just gave him his own super thin slice. He ate it all, no problem.

- No teeth yet. He is wearing mostly 9-12 month clothing.

- He has recently started what I can only describe as shrieking. I feel like he wants to talk, but he can't, so instead he just screams excitedly. He is such a happy baby, and so quick to smile and laugh.

- He is so into his brother. He loves to climb all over Cohen, and also pull his hair. It's the cutest.

Pics from Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend with lots of family this year. My brother usually only makes it home once a year if we are lucky, but he was here for Christmas and then Easter. I had absolutely no voice for most of the weekend. It was so hard!!! I was actually just whispering the whole time. 

(Will tried Pavlova for the first time. I think he liked it) 

(We did a brunch for 20 people on the Saturday so we could all meet my friend Jenny's new baby. She was the sweetest.  And I made a piñata*)

(These cousins are the best) 

(My friend Jess did a scavenger hunt for the preschoolers, and the bunny ring pops were the clear winner. These kids are pretty lucky) 

(Bathing Will. Graycie LOVES helping out with Will, which makes me so happy) 

(My dad is loving that the kids are getting old enough for his scavenger hunts. When I turned 16, our Easter scavenger hunts started to involve driving around this town collecting stuff. So awesome)

(My sister whipped up these bunny pancakes. I mean, come on. So cool) 

(My mother has a tea set that is exclusively for Easter. Seriously, these kids are the luckiest!) 

(My mom did some baking with the kiddos. She was cool with the batter going all over her couch. Haha) 

(We did this impromptu photo session with little Will. Pretty cute!) 

(Sweet Graycie feeding Will)

*Making the piñata was actually pretty easy. It just needed lots of drying time, so you need a place you can hang it and leave it for a few days. I did two layers of newspaper and flour+water mixture. And then I used tissue paper to decorate. The kids had a difficult time busting it. It was filled with lindt bunnies and kinder eggs. This kids seemed for sure more interested in the rice crispy squares I threw in to fill things up. I am learning that kids seem to always prefer the cheaper candy/snacks/toys. 

Easter a few years ago with less family here.

Swimmer's ear + our week

I have always kind of prided myself in being not busy. Like, I always try to say no to doing extra stuff because I value down time and I am so not ambitious in a lot of ways. Anyway, being parents of two and business owners and the million other hats we wear these days is intense. This week has been crazy. 

On Sunday, after a super busy but awesome Easter weekend with family, I started to have a little ear ache. Nothing crazy, but I've had a few ear infections before (like everyone), so I felt like that's where it was heading. By midnight I was in tears calling 811, talking to a registered nurse. On Monday, a holiday, I went to the ER (we have slim picking for clinics in our area on holidays), where the doctor diagnosed me with swimmer's ear, gave me ear drops, and told me I could take tylenol, and sent me home. I had never heard of swimmer's ear, but it sounded like no big deal, and I was kind of embarrassed to have wasted the time of the ER for something called swimmer's ear.

I was useless all day Monday, just laying on the floor of our living room in so much pain. By the evening, I was a mess. I was like, Jon, I can't go on like this for one more day! So dramatic. The pain was 10/10 for sure. I called 811 again, and the nurse was so good and calming, and told me to start taking ibuprofen too and use a hot compress on my ear. I was like, ok, I can do that. The ibuprofen took my pain down to a 4/10 with the tylenol, and I was relatively ok. I booked in with my family physician for the Friday. I was like, ok, I can make it three more days. NOPE. By Wednesday I was a mess again. The tylenol + advil at the maximum dose was not doing much for my pain, and I just could not imagine living like this for another day. I hadn't slept in two days and I couldn't chew anymore. I also couldn't hear from that ear. So crazy. Jon called our doctor and was like, I think you need to see Jess now. My amazing doctor got me in right away, and he said he couldn't really see in my ear because it was so swollen. He got me booked in to the ENT the Thursday morning (two days ago). He gave me naproxen to get through the night, which was AMAZING. I have never had that stuff before, but it helped so much with my pain.

At the ENT he looked in, told me there was lots of gunk and pus, and vacuumed it out. I felt nothing because the naproxen is just so good. I felt really numb. Today, I have only a little pain (maybe 1 or 2/10). Miracle. I feel so bad for people who live with chronic pain. This week is such a blur. So the ENT has to see me again next week to make sure things are ok, but I am cured. Swimmer's ear, I am done with you. PS: The ENT said we will never know why I got it. It's not always due to being in the water.

Then on Friday our little Will had his first oral immunotherapy appointment at our allergy clinic. The allergy doctor first went over the blood work, which showed that Will was allergic to peanuts but not so crazy that we can't try to desensitize him. I think his number was 0.15 and the number above which they can't help is 0.34. So They mixed the applesauce I had brought with peanut dust, fed him some, and sent us back to the waiting room for a while. We did that three times, and the only thing that happened is he got a rash on his back which is no big deal. He also coughed twice, which had the nurse running over to us, but I think it was just a coincidence.

We were hanging out at the clinic for a few hours, which is pretty long for a 6 month old. He did great, and impressed all the other people in the waiting room with his crawling skills. Now we have to feed him the peanut dust/applesauce combo each day and watch him carefully for 30 minutes with the epipen right there. My nerves!!! The doctor thinks it will probably take 6-12 months, during which we have to feed him the peanut dust every day, and we have to increase the dose at the clinic every two weeks. Basically our schedule looks crazy every week now with all these appointments.

So grateful to live in this place that has specialists 15 minutes away. And I'm so grateful for pain medication. And that this week is over.