10 Months Old

10 Months! 10 Months!! 10 Months!!!

So what's new?

He's crawling everywhere! And fast. Wade & Jake run a loop around our first floor constantly and now Park has joined in. It wears him out great for his naps and the burning of some calories won't hurt him either. :) He's also climbing the stairs (and even the bunk bed ladder)... time to break out the baby gates I guess.

How big is Parker? Not literally... it's just that he can finally raise his arms and go SO BIG! I absolutely love when babies do this but for some reason it bugs Colby. Like he hates it. He must have some horrible, suppressed SO BIG memory from his childhood or something.

We've thrown away most of the baby bottles. He still uses one before bed but the rest of the time it's sippy cups! We've pretty much moved to breakfast, lunch and dinner feedings with a 4th liquid feeding before bed. This will be his last month on 100% formula. After he turns 11 months I'll start adding whole milk into his bottles little by little until it's all milk by his birthday.

Here's some pictures.

Crawling over to come get me...

Closer...

Closer...

Closer...

Hi sweet baby :-)

Anyone else want to visit?

Yesterday we had an appointment scheduled to get our gas fireplace repaired.

Wade & Jake were at preschool, Park was upstairs taking a nap, and I was sitting at the kitchen counter working on our Christmas cards.

Amazingly enough the repairman, Bryan, showed up on time. He checked everything out, fixed what he could, but then called his boss and asked him to come over and double check things. He then proceeded to ask me if it would be okay if he came into the kitchen so we could "visit for awhile."

So for the next FORTY minutes I got to visit with little old Grandpa Bryan the fireplace man.

Then he drank one of my Diet Dr. Peppers.

Then he asked if he could use my bathroom.

Now our bathroom is in the hall right off of our kitchen. Remember how I said Wade & Jake were at preschool and Park was napping. Yes, my house was really quiet. The bathroom is really close to my kitchen.

I'm not lying when I say I had my hands over my ears and I was humming loudly.

Conversation with Wade

Wade: Guess what Mom?

Me: What B-Dubs? (B-Dubs = BW = Big Wade)

Wade: Boys rule and girls drool.

Me: Oh really. Why is that?

Wade: Because. Girls get pregnant and can't do anything. Then they have to change diapers while boys go outside and play.

That pretty much sums up the last year of his little life.

He keeps growing up

Another good thing about being stuck in the house all last week...

I finally got around to teaching Wade how to tie his shoes. Loop, swoop, and pull baby.

He only has one pair that actually tie, and you better believe he wore them to church this morning!!

It's winter

Welcome to winter folks.

We've had a rough week but we've decided to embrace whatever gets thrown our way!!

This week it's been stomach bugs, colds, and lots of snow. But instead of complaining, us Atkins are making it into a competition.

Yep, my baby barfed 17 times. It was so, so sad. He just sat on my lap for hours and threw up over and over into a bowl. When he was finished with each round he would cry and then fall asleep. It was heartbreaking to watch.

Wade, Jake and I didn't get it that bad... 12 hours and then we were all better. (Colby is upstairs right now racking up some tally marks!)

Park has since been struggling with diarrhea for the last 6 days. And by struggling I mean nastiness squirting out of everywhere and tons and tons of laundry. Sounds fun, huh? He's showing no signs of dehydration so for now I'll just keep changing diapers and pumping the Pedialyte. And smiling. Just like my sweet boys.

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent this Thanksgiving in Toledo with my parents, brother who lives in Indiana, and sister and her family from Michigan. The boys were so excited to get to play with their cousin Ella.

While Park was the baby around the table this year, Ella's new little sister will here for next Thanksgiving. Our families keep growing and I LOVE IT!!

We did the typical stuff... eat, talk, laugh, shop, and made wonderful memories!

Wonderful gift from Nana & Papa

The boys named their elf "Geno" and he's always watching them!!!

Wade, (confused) Park, Jake, & Ella

Something obviously very funny

Jake

My pilgrims

Playing with their Nana

And Ella too!

Finally - a clean face!

Three words I never want to hear again... BLOCKED TEAR DUCTS.

Park's tear ducts never opened after he was born. Tears are produced at the outside of your eyes, go across your eyes, and then drain near the corners of your eyes and go down a tube that runs down and connects to your nose. If your ducts are blocked then there's no where for the gunk to go and you have a baby with constantly goopy eyes.

Go ahead. See below. I've spent 9 months constantly wiping these eyes.

I think the duct in Park's left eye partially opened on it's own but his right eye is definitely still blocked. We had an initial consultation with an opthamologist last month and tomorrow is the big day to fix his poor little eyes. It's a procedure that our doctor will perform in his office. He will wrap Park up basically in a swaddle, somehow keep his head still, and then poke open the ducts with a "blunt, metal wire."

Doesn't that sound horrible?

I'm praying that I can't hear the screams from the waiting room.

9 Months Old

Park is 9 months old! He's 29 inches long and 23 pounds. My arms are getting ripped. :)

He finally got his bottom 2 teeth. I felt like he was teething forever so I was so glad to see those two little things pop through last week.

He can crawl now too. The key word is *can* ... but he would still rather army crawl. He's getting pretty good at pulling himself up on the furniture but has yet to start cruising. And he's starting to wave. What could be better than chubby baby hands waving at you?

We've had to retire the infant car seat/carrier. We did the car seat shuffle and Park is now in a big seat. When I mentioned to Wade that once Park is 1 we can turn him around to face forward he was not too happy. He sits in the back in our van so he gets to see Park and play with him when we're driving. I definitely think that Wade is Park's favorite right now - they are best buds!!

His new favorite place to play ~ the stairs

Bathtime in the kitchen sink

The bros at lunchtime

All the Atkins boys -

G-Daddy came to Erie for the weekend

Sweet Park at a backyard campfire

A Day at the Zoo

Phone Tag

We finally connected with the doctor.

All of Jake's results were normal.

Praise the Lord.

He's gonna be a doctor

So with as much experience as my 3 year old already has in the medical field, I'm thinking that he's bound to wind up pursuing a degree in medicine. The kid loves his trips to the doctor and even enjoys giving blood. I'm not kidding - he calls his blood his "jake juice" and he eagerly watches the whole thing.

A couple weeks ago Jake had a pretty bad headache. Practically in the middle of screaming and thrashing around he instantly fell asleep. I put him in his bed and went to check on the other two boys. When I came back and lifted him up to hold him he was completely limp with his arms and head just hanging there. Throughout the next hour I held him as he went between sleeping and being awake, eyes open, but unresponsive. But about 2 hours after the whole thing began he was fine. Completely fine. Like up playing around fine.

The next day when I told my mom everything she practically made me call the doctor just to explain what happened. So because I'm a good daughter I did as I was told. :) Well they made us come in right away and then ended up sending us straight to the hospital for a ct scan. Thankfully the only thing they found on the ct scan was a sinus infection!

Then on Tuesday Jake was scheduled for an EEG. Both Colby & I were able to be there with Jake because our awesome neighbor, Leslie, came over to watch Wade & Park. (Thank you so much Leslie!! We owe you!) The EEG was tough. After sitting there forever while the technician applied all the wires to his head, he then had to lay there (perfectly still) for like 35 minutes. The first couple minutes were easy because the tech, through an intercom, was telling him to open his eyes... or close his eyes... blinking lights at him, etc. But then for the last 30 minutes he had to lay still with his eyes closed. Can you imagine how hard that is for a 3 yr old boy!?! But he made it and now we are waiting to get the results. The doctors think it's possible that he could have had a seizure so hopefully this test will be able to rule that OUT! We are praying and trusting that this was a one time thing and we can leave it all behind us. Would you pray that with us too?

Congratulations Butlers

My sister & her husband just found out they are expecting another sweet baby girl. Looks like us Ensey girls make one kind of baby and stick to it!!

Happy Halloween

Jake's first question to me this morning when he woke up was, "Mommy, when is it going to be Halloween again?" Colby & I had so much fun last night with lots of friends and our little frog, shark and astronaut!

Jake wasn't a fan of the inside junk

His mean shark face

Jake, Wade and their buddy Caleb

Park, Jake, Caleb, Wade and Katelyn

It was so cold out!!