backtracking... night night kisses

A very tired Calvin giving his little brother a night night kiss.

Calvin giving Grandma kisses night night. We were very blessed to be able to have Grandma here when Cody was born. She stayed with me at the hospital when I needed her to and she stayed with Calvin when I needed her to. It worked out really well for us to have Grandma here with us that week. I was very sad to see her go and have missed her ever since.

Backtracking... Peanut

Our little peanut. Only 6 pounds, 11 ounces and 19 inches long. Cody Austin was born at 5:09pm on March 10.

Backtracking

This was right after Cody was born on March 10. The resemblance to his big brother is remarkable.

Grandma got to bring Calvin up to see his little brother soon after he arrived. He's been a great big brother since the day Cody joined our family.

Cody

Cody is now 4 months old. I will be getting some photos posted here to the blog soon. He is almost 15 pounds already, which is more than twice his birth weight of 6 pounds, 10 ounces. He is becoming very interactive these days and is smiling most of the time. He loves to lay on his play mat that has the toys that hang over his head. He grabs the toys and is already trying to shove them in his mouth. He has also recently discovered his feet. Feet are the best thing ever. Wade and I play a game with him where Wade will hold him up and zoom him toward me and I will touch Cody's face with my nose. He thinks that's the funniest thing in the world and will giggle up a storm while we're doing that. We call him the Coder most of the time.

He's usually sleeping pretty well. He's had a lot of colds in his short life and has another one right now (as does Calvin). I'm hoping that doesn't become a consistant theme in our house. He will have his 4 month check up next week. Then we are planning to take the boys up to see Grandmas and Grandpas in Minnesota and North Dakota. We're praying for good weather already.

Calvin is reciting every word that comes our of our mouth; it's like an explosion. It's amazing to watch. He's saying many words that I'm sure he has no idea what they mean but he can say them. He loves to give his "baby Cody" hugs and kisses and lay down with him and make Cody smile. I think they will be great friends.

Allergy Testing

I received the results of Calvin's 2nd year of RAST allergy testing today:

Milk was 1.76, it is now 0.67. This is what we were hoping for!

Eggs were 1.83, they are now 1.44, also going down!
Peanuts were 42.7, they are now 70.0. The opposite direction we were hoping for but not entirely surprising.

Other tree nuts, many of them also increased - some that he didn't react to before are now showing a reaction.

DOGS - up to 12.7 but I don't know what last year's number was. We are supposed to keep dogs out of his room and wash his hands and face if he comes into contact with them. I'm surprised about this one because he doesn't have any visable reaction to them when he hugs the dogs. He's 2 years old and sometimes he licks the dogs and no reaction then either. I wonder if he has to eat their fur for a true reaction...

So we will continue to be diligent about avoiding nuts. We are supposed to continue avoiding eggs and milk for another year when he'll be retested.

It's been too long since I've written on here.

On March 10, 2010, the newest blessing in my life was born: Cody Austin. It's been quite a transition for all of us getting used to another person in our family but we've come along well.

This past week, the four of us went to Dallas, Texas to visit some family. We stayed with cousin Don and his family over the weekend and with cousin Diane on Monday. We saw a whole bunch of cousins: Myron, little Myron, Sarah, Don, Lexy and Kay, David and Vanessa, Diane and Tack, and Carter, Ruthanne, Teddy, Sam and Josh, as well as aunt Libby, Aunt Jimmie and Uncle Doyle. That was the first time they met Calvin and Cody.

Both boys were very well behaved. Both aunt Libby and aunt Jimmie cried when holding Cody. They miss their sister, Wanda, who was Calvin and Cody's grandma.

The trip took us about 20 hours over 2 days each way. The boys did wonderfully in the car. Cody slept a good portion of the time. Upon arriving in Texas, Calvin learned the words BIG and orange and we were able to then point out the Big Trucks, Trains (most of them were orange), cows and horses with Calvin. We sometimes counted the Big Trucks because there were so many of them! All in all, it was a good trip for all four of us.

Play Time!

Today we attended the 2nd Birthday Party for Clay Smith, my boss' son. All of the boys had a blast, the worst part of the day was when we had to leave.


Clavin trying to keep up with the big boys in the bouncy house.

He loves to play in the playhouse!

He said BOO! when he opened the windows. I think he was drawn to it because of all girls playing in there. That's my little ladies man!