I honestly don't remember April much. My memory has been terrible lately. I honestly feel like my brain is functioning at 50%. It could be due to lack of sleep or lack of stimulation. My days consist of being at home taking care of my kids. We don't get out much. Maya eats about every 2 hours and sleeps in-between. The weather is so so so hot here that we can't even really go for walks or to the park.
Here's Levi making a goofy face. Adrian was having a rough day at work so Levi wanted to send him a goofy picture to cheer him up.
The biggest thing that happened in April is Levi got really sick. On April 13 we noticed he started to get a lump on his neck. Adrian concluded it was just a swollen lymph node. Levi then proceeded to get really sick from a throat infection. We initially thought it was a virus as that's most common. He had a fever, really sore throat and loss of appetite. After his symptoms started getting worse and his fever not going away we assumed it was strep throat so Adrian ordered him some antibiotics. After being on antibiotics for a few days with symptoms still worsening, Adrian ordered him stronger antibiotics assuming it was a staph infection. Those antibiotics did the trick and Levi started to get better. But, the poor kid had a low fever for 10 days and lost weight and was so miserable. If he did not have pain medication in his system, he was crying.
Here's a picture of his neck. It was the size of a golf ball and turned red and was tender. Adrian followed the proper protocol for treatment and we're glad he is able to prescribe medications and treat our own family illnesses.
When Levi's illness was at it's worst I had a well check up appointment for Maya with her pediatrician. I also had her check out Levi's neck to see what she thought. She was surprised to see his neck and told us to go to the ER immediately to know what it was for sure. So Adrian took Levi to the ER and they did an ultrasound, bloodwork and had an ENT check him out. All that testing just confirmed what Adrian had already concluded. It was a swollen lymph node full of pus due to his throat infection. He was on the correct antibiotic and we were told to watch it for 6 weeks and see if it shrinks. Well today, June 14, it has significantly shrunk but there is still a visible hard bump on his neck. Apparently it can take up to a year for the body to reabsorb it.
I still try to teach the boys. Here they are playing "delivery train". It is a counting lesson.
Maya April 20th. Adjusting to having 3 kids has been the easiest transition of adding a kid so far. It must be because I finally know how to take care of a newborn and I'm already in "mommy mode". It is definitely busier with there always being something to take of.
Maya is a good baby. The fist 6 weeks she basically ate then slept all day. I was able to get a lot done around the house and engage with the boys a lot. We did not get out of the house much, but it's so hot here we really couldn't anyway.
She did get a bit colicky in the evenings. And it really was just the evenings. Adrian thought she was a tough baby because her being fussy was all he knew of her. At the beginning it was a challenge to nurse her. I had a hard time getting her to latch well. And then I got mastitis. Luckily Adrian called me in an antibiotic and it got treated quickly. She also had her days and nights mixed up for about the first month.
Some of her first smiles. It's always a reward to see a smile after all the hard work and sleepless nights of taking care of her.
Maya May 7th. Starting to smile easily.
She still has blue eyes. And she has dimples in those chubby cheeks. She looks very similar to me when I was a babe.
Levi loves on Maya so much. Every day she gets lots of hugs and slobbery kisses. Malachi also gives her lots of loves. Malachi is so tender and sweet with her.
We took a walk to the park and the only way to tolerate the heat is to play in the water.
Levi drew our family with sidewalk chalk. I thought it was so cute. He rarely draws pictures. Usually he scribbles somethings and tells me it's a tornado or fire or something like that.
He also drew a sad picture of himself crying. He said he was sad because he couldn't play with the neighbor boy who's his friend.
Maya's blessing day was May 8th. It was also mother's day. Adrian gave a great, strong blessing. I am very proud of him for being a worthy priesthood holder to bless our children.
May 11th - Levi's Birthday!
We celebrated Levi's 5th birthday. The day before his birthday we went to the toy store and Levi picked out a few gifts. We bought them with Levi with us not really caring that it wouldn't be a surprise. That night he told me he wanted his gifts wrapped so they would be a surprise when he opened them. I thought "why not", so I wrapped them up. The following morning he opened his presents and acted as if he did not know what they were and was surprised when he saw them. Goofy kid.
He got a toy Mario, a shark, a flyer toy, some yogurt covered pretzels and a helicopter that lights up and spins. (These are the gifts he chose)
Once Adrian got home from work we went to Chucky Cheese. None of us had ever been there before. It was arcade games suited just for the boys' age. They had so much fun there. We stayed for a couple hours and let them play whatever they wanted. They seriously enjoyed it so much. I'm glad we went. Malachi did not like Chucky though. It was just a person in a costume, but it scared him.
After Chucky Cheese it was almost dark, but Levi wanted to go to the beach so we went for an hour. All the kids enjoyed it, including Maya.
I love theses kids so much. I realize I am so blessed to have them in my life.
He requested a rainbow sprinkle cake. Simple enough for me. I even had him shake all the sprinkles on the cake. After the beach, it was past bedtime, but we still ate some cake. It was a very fun filled birthday with family. A tiny bit of me felt a little bad that he didn't get a party with friends, but Levi didn't care (or notice).
Maya, June 1st. She loves her baths. We bathe her in the kitchen sink and she splashes and kicks and loves getting wet. Here she is all wrapped up after a bath.
Adrian went to New York the last week in May to secure a place to live. He only had a few days to find one, but he did it. It was really hard to find a place in our budget that was in a good safe area, but we finally found one at the last minute. It is in Levittown on Long Island. The house was built in the 1930's and is 4 bedrooms. It is a single family home and we're excited about that. We thought we would end up in a small apartment. We'll pay $2500 a month. We had to pay 2 months security deposit, plus the first month's rent, plus the broker fee. We ended up paying $10,000 up front. That is an incredible amount for us poor medical students.The house should be good. The kitchen apparently is small with no dishwasher. The house also has no air conditioning. We'll make it work of course, just might be a bit different than what we're used to.
June -
Moving date for us was initially June 17th. Adrian works June 16th here and then he has to start June 20th in New York so we basically had the weekend to move. Well, we can't get into our new house until July 1st so Adrian has to go early and I come with the kids later. My parents came here on June 3rd to help us pack and move. Since their arrival our new moving plans is Adrian leaving to New York on the 17th driving his mini cooper and staying the week there with friends we have. On June 25th the rest of us will move. We'll drive to Jacksonville, FL and me and my mom will fly with the kids to JFK airport. The same morning we fly out, Adrian will fly into the same airport and hop in the truck with my dad and drive on up to New York. We're really hoping we can get into our new house a week early.
My birthday was on June 6th. I went out to dinner with Adrian. I wanted Mexican food which surprisingly happens to be hard to find here. Afterward we had some cheesecake at home with the rest of the family.
Maya-3 months
Our beautiful miss Maya is already 3 months. She weighs 12 lbs 1 oz and is 23.75 inches long. She eats at least every 2 hours while she's awake. She sleeps well at night only getting up once to eat. She smiles easily and is starting to giggle when played with. She is pretty content if she feels good. She only cries if she's hungry or has a belly ache. She sleeps really well on her belly. I let her nap in the day on her belly and she sleeps on her back at night. A couple times she's slept all night on her belly and she slept the whole night though. She has found her thumb in the last week and prefers to suck her thumb over any binki. She likes to be upright. She will try to sit up if you lay her down. She is so alert now. She doesn't sleep as much in the day like she used to. She has good head control and Adrian can now lift her up and play with her. In the last 2 weeks I have had to supplement some formula for her. Just a little bit. A bottle every few days. I've done every thing I can think of to increase my milk and I do believe they have worked. There are just some days she eats so much I have to supplement a little. She has started to use her fingers to grab things. We bought some baby toys last week that she is able to get her hands around. She gets a little better every day.
Malachi-
Malachi's personality shows more and more every day. He is very sweet and tender. He needs his cuddles to feel happy. His speech is clear and he says funny things daily that keep us laughing. He frequently talks in a whine and I always tell him to talk like a big boy. He frequently runs on his tippy toes. He is so, so stubborn. You cannot talk him into anything. He will set his mind and there is no changing it. If he gets mad he'll cock his head back and open his mouth as wide as it goes and whine. He is potty trained. Every now and then he'll get distracted and have an accident. He cracks me up in the way he likes to pee. Adrian calls it doggy style. He'll be on all 4's on the toilet and pee through the air into the toilet. I also caught him peeing in the bathroom garbage can as he stands. It is just his height, but I don't let him because that's messy. He is very independent. He'll dress himself, put his shoes on, brush his teeth, get himself food and drinks and buckle himself into his carseat. He loves story time at the library and loves nursery at church. He will play on his own, but also loves Levi and plays with him good. When I have Levi in his room because he was mean to Malachi, Malachi will be anxious for Levi to get to come out and play. He likes to have lessons and he knows his colors and shapes and can count to 10. He is still a picky eater. I try not to have stubborn wars with him, but it's frustrating sometimes when he will not even try eating new things. In fact he often looks at a meal and says YUCK or BLEH, turning up his nose and walking away. It's actually comical to see.
Levi-
Levi loves to be around people. I believe he is extroverted and one of his love languages is quality time. He seeks kids out to play with them when we're out and about. I say this all the time, but he is loud when he's happy and loud when he's sad. He loves to do silly things and tell jokes just to make us laugh. He does get frustrated easy and has little patience. That just may be the age. I've been working with him to teach him the alphabet and read letters. Adrian and I are thinking of starting him in Kindergarten next year so he can be the older child in the class and be more mature and ready to sit still. That or home school, but homeschool seems daunting to me. He has a great imagination and loves to make up stories. He constantly creates games for he and Malachi to play. He often gets frustrated when Malachi does not want to play his games. This is a time when Levi often misbehaves and is mean to Malachi. But we understand Levi is just frustrated that Malachi won't play his games. Levi enjoys primary at church. He has come a long way from not wanting to be away from parents to willingly going on his own and enjoying it.We'll see how things go starting over in New York in a couple weeks. Levi still eats almost anything and loves fruit the most. He likes to play with the neighbor boy who is 6 years old. Often times he and neighbor will not include Malachi and it makes me sad to see Malachi sad because he is not included.
Tammy-
I feel good despite the lack of sleep I get. Some days I wake up exhausted and am grumpy all day. My poor kids have to put up with me. I started exercising a few weeks ago and at the same time my milk supply decreased so I stopped. Not sure if there was a definite correlation, but I'm desperate to do anything to keep my milk. I also have cut out most dairy from my diet because I think they give Maya a bellyache. Dairy seemed to be my major source of protein and I now take a protein shake most days. I tried cutting calories to lose weight and my milk decreased as well so I don't dare do that again. None of my clothes fit me. I'm the biggest I have ever been ,so I basically wear my stretchy exercise clothes most days. Money is too tight to buy a new wardrobe. I know these are trivial things, but it's what's on my mind lately. I'm just packing up the house. My mom has been such a great help and has cleaned the whole house for me. I know taking care of the kids is a divine role, but sometimes I go a bit crazy with the business of the boys. Also, the boys constantly pester each other and it's hard for me day after day. I know if we were able to get out of the house and run some energy out they would be better toward one another. Church has been hard for the couple months Adrian worked Sundays. I can't get Maya to sleep at church, so she is tired and she cries and cries and won't eat. Most Sundays, she cries 2.5 of the 3 hours. I wonder why I bother going and will admit there have been times when I have dreaded going knowing I will spend all of church in the Mother's room with a crying babe. But, we don't go for me, I go for the kids. It's a compactly different story when Adrian is able to go to church. She'll sleep with him. Which means she is happy enough to eat and I usually get to attend my meetings.
Adrian-
He's finishing up his last week at St Lucie Medical Center. He's glad he's moving on. Now that he's matched in Dermatology he knows he'll never use the knowledge he getting trained in right now. That's killed his drive to learn that kind of medicine. He is so excited to be going into Derm. It has a great family life with no nights, weekends, on call, holidays or emergencies. His stress level has significantly decreased now knowing where his life is going and what for certain he will be doing. He is busy at work and still has time to come home and wrestle with the kids. That is their favorite thing in the world to do.
