3 Months (and an ER visit)

Semmes is three months old!  And boy is he a cutie!  He has FINALLY started smiling.  Although he is still a rather serious baby.  He is 15.5 pounds and 24 inches.  That's the 90-95th percentile for both.  He's one chunky baby!  He's in size three diapers because the size two's look like they're way too small and the threes hold everything in just fine.  He's in 3-6 month clothes.  He loves to have his cheeks stroked and his belly rubbed.  He grins really big every time you do either.  He takes a 20-30 minute cat nap or two in the mornings then a big, long 2 hour nap in the afternoons.  Then he sleeps all night long.  Yep, he goes 11-12 hours at night without eating.  It's amazing!  He eats every three hours during the day, so he still eats 6 times in a 24 hour period.  But I'll take more eating during the day if he sleeps through the night!  He's getting really good at tummy time.  Starting to figure out the pieces of rolling over (tucking one arm under him and leaning) but he hasn't rolled over yet.  He is also batting at objects, especially the ones on his play mat, and everything that he grabs goes in his mouth.

These pictures were a snap to take this month.  We just looked at him, said his name, and he grinned really big!

This was from Father's Day.  Semmes was more interested in that rattle...

I can sit in the Bumpo!

Tummy time!

This is what happens when I don't wear mittens at night.  I scratch myself pretty good.

A quick note on Cooper's ER visit.  He was coughing like crazy and threw up.  Then he threw up two more times in as many hours and was grunting while he was breathing.  Not good.  I thought he had aspirated again and the pneumonia was back.  Luckily, his lungs showed no signs of a new infection.  So he is home and went back to school today.  Thank goodness! 

Vacation: Part 2 (The Cave)

After Quigley's Castle, we headed to War Eagle Cavern.  No, they aren't Auburn fans.  Yes, we asked. This was the activity we were the least comfortable taking Cooper to.  The website said that they were "stroller friendly" about a thousand times, but it's Cooper.  And it's a cave.  Much to our (pleasant) surprise, he loved it.  Of course, I basically got no pictures of him, but take my word for it, he laughed and "talked" the whole time.  Semmes also did really well.  The only part he didn't like was when they turned all the lights out and it was so dark you literally couldn't see the hand in front of your face.  He was NOT a fan of this.  He likes to see.

This didn't work.  We were hoping it would be cute and they would smile.  Nope.

The entrance to the cave.

Looking out from the cave

The ceiling...there were baby bats up there.

Water.  The cave is a "breathing cave" so air circulates throughout.  And the stream also runs throughout.  As long as you follow the water you can get out.

This was the original entrance.  You had to climb down a ladder to get in.

The movie "Frank & Jesse" was filmed in the cave.  No, I've never heard of it either.

Quartz! 

Cooper and Brad:

Semmes and me:

These were as good as we could get.

Vacation: Part 1

Brad and I are brave people.  We took two kids under the age of three, one with special needs, on vacation.  And it was actually really fun!  We went to Eureka Springs and Fayetteville.

We arrived in Eureka Springs on Friday evening.  After feeding Semmes, we put both boys in bathing suits and headed to the pool.  We were hoping this would tire both kids out since they both slept most of the trip up.  After about thirty minutes of Cooper splashing and kicking in the pool, we got both kids out and dressed and went to get some Thai food.  Semmes cashed it in pretty quickly after we got to the restaurant.  Cooper, on the other hand, seemed invigorated by his swim and refused to sleep.  But he was smiling and happy, so we didn't mind him not going to bed until almost 9 that evening.  We had a room with two queen beds.  We had one and Semmes and Cooper shared the other.  Cooper slept under the covers; we put Semmes in his newborn napper well away from Cooper.  It actually worked out really well and I'm kinda upset that this trip will be the only time we're able to do that; Semmes has almost outgrown the napper.

Saturday we did WAY too much.  Because we're up so early, we had already had breakfast, gotten everyone up and dressed, and were on the road by a little after 8.  So we stopped at Quigley's Castle since they open up at 8:30.  Ya'll, this place is weird.  The current owner's grandparents built the house.   The grandmother used stones and pebbles she had been collecting since she was nine to make bricks that cover the house.  Plus there is a GORGEOUS garden with benches and bird feeders that she built.  And the house has plants growing inside it that are 65 years old.  And her husband collected glass bottles that were used to make 14 bottle trees.  A lot of the bottles are old Civil War medicine bottles.  Anyway, see the pictures:

This is inside the house...so are the plants.

The garden.  Everything rock was made by Mrs. Quigley

Bottle trees:

Path along the side of the house:

The house (and Brad and Cooper):

These benches and bird feeder predate the house:

The cat was very interested in us:

This wall of butterflies covers an ENTIRE wall of one of the bedrooms upstairs:

What the bricks look like:

Cool bird feeder:

You can see why they chose to live there.  That's the view:

More of our trip later.  I've got babies to take care of!

Water Play Day

Today was Cooper's first time to participate in outside water play with his new classroom.  His class does it at 8 a.m., so I decided to stick around after I dropped him off to see how he did.  Cooper loves baths and the pool, but he has never really been around sprinklers/showers.  So I was already unsure of how he would do.  Add to that the fact that he is recovering from a bout of pneumonia AND that he had a nightmare at 4 a.m. and screamed for 45 minutes unless he was being sung to last night and I was almost wary of the whole water play thing.  Much to my surprise, he loved it.  His teachers put him right in the middle of all the action, so to speak.  They gave him toys to play with, they filled buckets with water and put his feet in them, and they let him move around.  He was laughing and happy the whole time I watched him.  Yay!  Might need to get a fun sprinkler for the front yard...

Miss Heather showing Cooper a bucket of water

The misty stuff at the top is water.  They have one of those cool mister things like you see at amusement parks.

He was laughing here.  Of course his face is turned away.

Cute grin.

Happy kiddo.

Kids' Room

I never put pictures of the finished boys' room on here, and the room is mostly clean right now, so...

This is looking in from the door.  You can see Cooper's bed and Cooper's closet.

This is from the door to the bathroom.  You can see Semmes' bed, his closet, and the bookshelf.

This is the view from Cooper's closet looking out into the hallway (ignore the vacuum).  Glider, changing table, bookshelf.

This is the view from Semmes' closet.  

Beds

Wall decor