Disneyland April 2011

Drumroll please!  Yes, it's been 6 weeks and I'm finally getting around to sharing our Disney trip!  I had to wait for some pictures, hence the delay but here we are.

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What an amazing trip Mike, Noah and I had to Disneyland!  Ian stayed with Grandma Blick and Aunt Dana while we ventured to California with our friend Ginny and her daughter Maddie.  We stayed with Christy and PJ Quealy, along with their daughter Sloane.  The kids are all just a few weeks a part and we thought it would be fun to share in the adventure together.  Noah loved the plane ride.  He did very well and while excited, did not get out of control. :-)

While Noah started out a little bashful, he quickly warmed up to Maddie, and once we got to Sloane's, while it was briefly tough, the kids all quickly became buddies. 

We began the day at 7am with Breakfast with the Characters Friday morning.  I wasn't sure how Noah would respond to the big furry creatures, but he LOVED it!!  He embraced all of the characters and couldn't get enough of them.  Maddie was the same, but you couldn't get Sloane anywhere near them.

We were at the park, I think for 10 hours...Noah and Sloane did AMAZINGLY well - they kept their composure and were surprisingly cheery, considering the lack of sleep the night before (time difference and all) plus the early rise and no nap.  Maddie on the other hand, had quite a few meltdowns until Ginny was able to rent a stroller and let her take a nap.  I really felt for Ginny...both Christy and I had our husbands to wrangle these 3 year olds and she was on her own.  We did the best we could, but I know she was completely worn out. 

As for the rides, we made it around the entire park, plus went over to California Adventure.  Noah's favorite was visiting Mickey and Minnie - all he's been able to talk about since we left is visiting them and staying at Sloane's house.  We did take lots of pictures - of course, with Ginny's camera because while I laid our camera out, forgot to put it in the bag.  Yep, that was super smart of me!  I was devastated of course.  We made the best of it though. 


Here are some of the highlights...

Leavin' on a jet plane

Welcome to the happiest place on earth!

Character breakfast - we had lots of visitors

The ladies and their kiddos

Noah is in awe of the Great Mickey!

Noah's new girlfriend

Noah, Pluto, Sloane, Maddie (having a rough day!)

Besties:  Ginny, Corri, Christy

Noah's new cap - he didn't want his picture taken

Noah loved the Dumbo ride

Noah had to have a balloon before we left.  Since we couldn't take it on the plane, he traded it for a Minnie mouse.  Sloane is taking great care of it, and Christy says its STILL going strong!

Saturday we took the kids to the beach.  I think it was about 50 degrees outside, but you can see that did not stop them from being adventurous in the water.  Once they got bold, the clothes got wetter and wetter.  We had to buy towels and t-shirts to get them warm again.  Noah LOVED IT!!  We will definitely have to go back again sometime.

Sloane, Noah, Maddie

Sloane, Noah, Maddie

New besties

The weekend came and went all too quickly.  Noah bonded with Sloane and can't stop talking about her and visiting her and Mickey and Minnie again.  He's very into Disney right now - he wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse every day (we tape it) and has a Minnie Mouse that Sloane gave him that he carries everywhere.  I'm glad we had the time with him and I can't wait to take him back, perhaps when Ian is old enough. 

Cheers,
The Reichert family

Ian's 6 month check up

Ian is growing like a weed, as we all expected.  He is now 20 lbs, 7 oz (90th percentile), 27" (75% percentile) and his head remains in the 90th percentile.  Yes, we breed big babies.  While he's on track developmentally and he's generally a happy baby, we discovered that he does have RSV (brochialitis) which is not good or fun.  His oxygen levels are lower than they should be and if they get any worse, we're supposed to get him to a doctor pronto.

We have to give him breathing treatments every four hours which he does NOT enjoy.  They only last about 6-10 minutes, but we have to put this large mask on his face which he does not appreciate.  I'm not completely sure it's helping his breathing but it is bringing the mucus up.  We want that out, not in his chest so that is a good thing.

Since we traumatized him at the doctor's with 2 breathing treatments, we opted to wait on his shots so we get to go back next Friday for those (oh joy!)  Mike was home with him yesterday afternoon, I'm home this am and then Mike is back taking over this afternoon.  It definitely wreaks havoc on the schedule.

Ian is doing really well with his cereal and we've started introducing veggies and fruits.  It's weird that we're already at this stage, but I think back to Noah and I think we introduced to him at 4 months.  We're also supposed to give him a sippy cup with water to get him used to a cup.  Where does the time go?!

I will just be thrilled when both of my boys are healthy!  My hope is that I can keep Noah from getting sick, but what are the odds on that one?!

Cheers,
The Reichert Family

Easter 2011

What another lovely Easter we had.  My parents came to town on Thursday and made it just in time for lunch.  We took Noah out of daycare and had lunch.  He was so excited and felt so special to get to leave school for an hour.  It was very cute!
We took the boys to the Ft. Worth zoo on Friday.  Noah enjoyed it - I wish we could say the same; he was a little pill as he got tired and very cranky.

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Mike and I were also able to get some things done around the house, having family around to keep the boys busy definitely helps! 
Here are some of our Easter pics.  I think they turned out nicely.

 I can't believe how big Ian is getting already!

  We're expecting a crawler very soon!  He's getting up on all fours and we figure it's just a matter of time.  I just can't get over how fast he's growing!  It seems to fly by even faster than with the first.
I caught the tail end of him on all fours.

We've had a bout of ear infections with Ian that just won't seem to go away.  The last medication he was on made him lose his appetite, vomit, diarrhea and fatigue.  Awesome medicine, right?! It was like he was an infant again, barfing up everything he ate.  I was so happy when he was done with it!  He's now back to eating cereal twice a day and his bottles, with limited spit up.  He just had squash for the first time the other night.  He seemed to like it ok, but didn't eat all of it.  We tried sweet peas and while he ate a little, didn't seem to be a fan.  I don't blame him though.  He's developed some sort of wheezing so it's good we have his 6 mo. check up tomorrow.  We just can't seem to get this kid healthy!

That's all for now.  Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers - Have a happy and blessed day!
Love,
The Reichert family