That Sweet Baby Face

Yesterday was a day of faces. Always cute, nonetheless. 

Yesterday was also a blueberry day. He will only eat blueberries about once a week. But when he does, he eats a ton. This was him telling me he wanted more, even though he hadn't eaten them all yet. 

Today started with faces, too. Daddy's in FL. I think this was an "I miss Dad" face. Whatever the case, he was a grump for the first hour or so.

Maybe he was just tired. This looks like he's looking for something. Maybe he was but he didn't try very hard to get it, he was really just taking a break! He laid there for a couple of minutes. 

I took the hint and took him up for a nap. Pictures just don't do it justice. His face is the sweetest.

And clearly he's teething. He's constantly got a finger in his mouth, he chews on his bottle, and today, I was washing dishes and when I went to step, my skirt was caught. I looked down and it was in his mouth! He thought it was hilarious, and did it again later with my nursing cover. 

Don't Cut My Hair!

Someone got his first haircut today.  And by hair.. I pretty much mean hair, singular.  He clearly wasn't happy about it and I managed to trim a whole 10 hairs. Maybe we'll have better luck next time. Mama doesn't much like the scraggly look.

Woke up to this beauty today. Bryan's headed to Florida and I have this nonsense still to enjoy.  

Homemade Toum. Took some work but oh so good!! And easily allergen free when you make it yourself. 

(If you're new to Toum, it's a garlic sauce served with Mediterranean food.  We had a lemony chicken and pitas and rice. Was a good and easy - besides the sauce- dinner!)

Bacon! On a Friday in Lent?!

What a day. The Feast of the Annunciation  meant meat in a Friday,  even in Lent. So bacon and sausage were both for breakfast. Bryan...mixah... and Elijah all said the same thing befit they exec said his morning- "do I smell bacon?!" With homemade biscuits, it was a good start to the day!

Ducks in the pond, again! And 2 geese has quite the conversation that Judah wanted to listen to with the window open- despite the below freezing temps.

 Pope Francis did a consecration of Russia to the immaculate heart of Mary. We are praying at hard for peace and for the Ukrainian people. So much hope that this will end soon. And for Putin, in particular. 

Surgery total is in...

We've been waiting on this total. I got notification this week that they combined both hospitalizations into one claim, since the second was related to the first. That saved us the ER copay, so that was nice. The anesthesia appears to have billed separately and that was an additional 7k. Needless to say, virtually all of that total of 98k is Judah.

We've had this insurance since September. I am not sure if the total claims are since then or the beginning of the year. But either way, 3 months or 6 months...so grateful for good insurance. Bryan wants to switch to a different plan that has lower premiums but we pay a straight 20 percent. 

Well...maybe on a year without surgeries. This year the higher premium was worth it.

Last year we had an out-of-pocket max of one thousand. We hit that immediately after he was born and I wish we could have taken advantage and knocked some other things out, but it was all we could do to maintain some semblance of life juggling his medical. Still a great deal on our end with all that he had going on.

A few days rolled into one...

Waves on the pond...  So no ducks. Judah was sad.

Micah brought cars up from the basement. And a little town to drive them through. 

Homemade ice cream? I'm in! 

He loves to just watch it churn. And it was vanilla bean frozen custard. Doesn't get any better. 

Whe. It's 10 am and your 9 yo is still asleep...you start to panic. No worries. He was fine and asked why no one woke him for breakfast! 

Looking for ducks. 

Not feeling the greatest. 

When you find cars at Lowe's...and Dad lets you play with them. 

But that isn't enough, there's room for more! 

Sticks in the back, please.

This foot is making me nervous. It always looks like this in its resting postition. Wonder if he'll be having a tendon transfer surgery. 

A little time with Mikey, post-nap. 

I have difficulty staying awake while posting...and don't even always realize I didn't finish like this post from earlier in the week. Random few days of catch up from last week. 

Napping in Micah's bed because the repair guys were supposed to come fix the shower door. Micah set up the watchful environment. 

It's never good when a baby hides. He took off with his meds (which he is sitting on) and then found a pen along the way.  He hiding those meds and using that pen like a pro.... on the wall.  

He's still not sure how he feels about that house.  But it's growing on him.  Also, note the washcloth in his right hand. He was cleaning his toy and the horse before he thought maybe the horse needed some block. 

Chickpea pasta. Maybe not the biggest win. 

Those chips look like a much better choice!

Bryan had one of the gun safes out and Judah found it. He pushed the buttons a good number of times as they been and flash colors.  Apparently, one can only do that so many times before it thinks you're trying to break in and sets off an alarm.  Which we had to let run is course because we couldn't figure out how to turn it off. 

This is Judah later in the day, keeping an eye on it. Needless to say,  he didn't try pushing those cool buttons again!

Nice weather meant baseball, football, and golf! And a bad school week. 

The other girly outfit I bought online. I really didn't think it was THAT bad. But I took Judah to the commissary... and was agreed what her name was.  

Bryan wins this one.  Play clothes or donation.

Noah helping Judah enjoy the weather and learn some soccer skills. 

They fixed the shower door so now it swings both ways. Judah wasn't expecting that. He was super cautious at first but then got bolder and tried to climb in. He got stuck because the door auto closed. It's so fun to watch him learn. 

72 degrees in March?! With sun!  Glorious. 

EJ and I ran some errands and found ourselves this baby. He asked if we could get a Lamborghini instead of another Corvette. I assured him that they weren't in the same price range,  but if it turned out we could afford one, sure. 

Elijah took this one himself- because you need a side shot, too!

We came home to this sight.  The kids got a basketball hoop as a gift for one of their days of Christmas and it was finally warm enough to get it in. Or at least Start to. Who knew how much work these things were. Bryan had to rent a concrete mixer,  buy 1000 pounds of concrete (before the water was added), and clearly finagle things to keep it upright. 

What do you mean it has to cure a week before the next step?!

Chia seed pudding is a favorite for breakfast around here. I usually put it in Mason jars but it was too late and I wasn't trying to track smaller ones down  somewhere in the basement at 11 pm...so it all went in a jar. I didn't realize how much it made until it was next to a milk jug!