Four Months

My baby boy is four months! He is the sweetest baby so happy and content. He has two little teeth coming in you can see in the second picture! The shirt he is wearing is size 12 months so he is definitely growing fast. He has the cutest little laugh. He has an odd love of the TV and if anyone has something on he is trying to turn his head so far to see it. He is starting to hold toys and get them to his mouth. He hasn't rolled over yet he is pretty content without going anywhere :) 

Here are a couple pictures of Hugh sitting with Rae. Hugh loves Rae and he laughs at her more than he laughs at me! 

Happy four months baby Hugh, we love you so much :)

Funny things Rae says

Whenever Rae says something funny I will usually text it to my mom, Emma, Liv or Caitlin. Sometimes I copy and paste the things I texted into a note in my phone and I thought I would take a few of them and make a blog post. I was at my friends house and her little boy kept saying oh gosh, and we thought it was funny and Jeremy said why does he keep doing that? well because Uzma (his mom) always says it. So I thought about how Rae always says "how bout" now because I am always saying how bout we do this and now she is always saying how bout and telling me her own idea.

I was making snickerdoodles for Young Womens one day and I spilled some sugar on the counter and Rae kept walking by and wiping it off with her finger. She kept saying "have some!" and I would say "I don't want to have any". over and over until finally I realized she wasn't talking to me and she was trying to feed sugar to Hugh................................

There is a picture on Jeremy's night stand of me and him when we were dating and Rae went over to it and said its mama! and I said who is mama with? and she said "daddys friend!". Apparently Jeremy has aged to the point where he is unrecognizable in his younger years..... 

Jeremy got a little toy from the grocery store and brought it home to Rae. It was an egg that you put in the bathtub and it dissolves and makes the water change colors and then there's a little dinosaur. He shows it to Rae and explains its a dinosaur egg with a dinosaur inside and he puts her in the bathtub and as soon as he drops the egg in she starts screaming and I have to pick her up and she keeps crying until Jeremy holds up the little dinosaur and Rae stops, picks it up and says "Its just a baby dinosaur!" Not sure exactly where her imagination went with that but I thought it was funny. 

One day Rae randomly tells me that there's a baby in my tummy and I say no, not any more baby brother was in my tummy but he came out now. She said "baby brother grew wings" no... he didn't grow wings.... then she says, "a little hole, he pushed his way out and he was a beautiful butterfly" Now I realize she thinks this is like the book the very hungry caterpillar... "okay yeah, baby Hugh is a beautiful butterfly". 

We have an ongoing problem with the fire alarms in this house. They have gone off in the middle of the night a few times and sometimes the one in Raes room just beeps a couple times. Rae then yells my beep! my beep! and Jeremy will take it down and the next day Rae will ask all day "Where did my beep go???" She will also notice if mommys beep is gone. 

We have been working on asking for things instead of crying. Rae has gotten pretty good but she mixes up her you and Is sometimes and will say "Can you go to the park?" Can I help me?" 

She notices the stars at night and she will point and get excited and say "Look! the twinkle little star!" We go out and look at the stars sometimes and one time I said "look Rae the moon! I love you all the way to the moon and back". then she says, "Nutbrown hare". 

I have had this conversation daily, 

"Are you ready for nap Rae?" 

"maybe later"

"no we better go read books now"

"The sun came up mum"

"how bout we read two books"

"two books!" and she runs to her room.

Basically the fact that she talks to me is funny and she doesn't have to say much to make me laugh :) I have spent two years staying home talking to a baby and now I have someone who talks back and it somehow still surprises me every time. 

Halloween and the Oil Ranch

Every time I explained what Halloween was to Rae, she said she wanted to be a princess. So I show her a picture of this cute Anna dress.

Me: Do you want to be princess Anna for Halloween?

Rae: No, I am princess Rae! Princess Anna is my friend. 

level of understanding Halloween: maybe a 5 

We've been singing the "skeleton song" (them bones them bones them dancing bones.... if anyone is familiar) so Rae thought is was cool baby brother was a skeleton. She loved trick or treating and also loved passing out candy. Most of the people in our neighborhood sit out on their driveways to pass out candy and I love that. Shes been crying about her candy all day today though... and she has been asking for her Halloween songs too.... its gonna be hard for her to let Halloween go. I even tried to show her some Christmas ones on youtube and she was not having it. 

I had to fight Rae off to get these pictures of just Hugh. SHE IS SO CRAZY. okay it was a long day. I have a better understanding of what the day after Halloween really means now. 

He makes me so happy. 

Here she is getting a feel for the pumpkin 

Rae has a pencil with a boppy pin taped to it and she eventually got her own little pumpkin to work on. 

The pumpkins she got from the oil ranch that we painted one day. 

If you look close you can see she started with a face on each of them before she went over board as usual. 

These pumpkins are far from pinterest worthy and in a way they are the ugliest pumpkins I have seen but in another way they are the best pumpkins I have ever seen. 

We went to the oil ranch the day before Jeremy's test (THE TEST IS OVER!!!!) He took the day off from work so his brain could rest. Rae loved it and chased those animals around for a long time.

The chickens got their workout in for the day.

 This brave girl rode a pony! I don't have a picture of the cows because we took video but she hated them! We rode on a tractor right up to the cows and they gave her food to feed them so they were super close and she freaked out. It was a little sad.... I thought they were a little scary too. I was wearing Hugh in the baby carrier but he didn't like the bumpy ride so we were a sad group on the tractor ride. We were the only ones on it! 

There were a bunch of fun things for Rae. When we first got there, there were a lot of kids on field trips there then right at 12:30 they all ran to the buses and disappeared and it being a Thursday there was almost no one left. 

We rode the little train. The horn on the train made Hugh sad but this was before we started moving. I love this boy. He makes me so happy. whoops did I already say that :) 

It is November now so it is the best time of year to live in Texas..... If only I could turn off my air conditioner..... I keep telling myself soon but this year I don't know if I believe it will happen. I only have so much patience for you Texas and I used it all up on my pregnant summer so if we don't get out of the 80s soon I might pack my bags. 

Jeremy

Jeremy has been working so hard to study every chance he can. He is getting ready to take his big PE test in less than two weeks! He has been taking a class on some weekends and weekday evenings and now that he is done with that all he can do is stay up late with his book and his sippy cup of milk. Just kidding but it is funny that he has that sitting there with his stuff :)

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Jeremy has studied at work, at the park, outside of some fancy restaurants... but his favorite place to study is at home... Just kidding its not easy studying in a house with a two year old and two month old. 

 

I am very excited that he is about to finally take the test. We don't do much these days because any free Saturday he has he studies and then my day looks the same as it does every other day. I am excited for him to feel less stressed and for us to go and do something.... anything.... 

Lauren this is the reason you haven't seen us yet. 

But we (Me, Rae and Hugh of course) are so proud of him for working hard and pushing through a somewhat challenging time with a newborn and work and his big test. We just love him.

We are of course hoping he passes his test but if not we will just try again :)

Two Months

Well actually we missed two months and now it is two and a half months. We were having a sad happy two months. The day Hugh turned two months old was the day he was admitted to the hospital. I took him to the doctor that morning after he had a fever and was screaming all night and there he tested positive for RSV and that (in addition to the large amount of crying in the doctors office I think) landed him in the hospital. The doctor didn't give me much choice so we went to the hospital and stayed there for three days. It was a rough three days of lots of fevers, lots of crying, and no sleep all while being stuck in the hospital. I cried the first day we were there. I don't mean I cried once I mean it was like constant tears. So Hugh didn't have to feel alone in that area. Everyone asked me Are you mom? Is this your first baby? No make up and puffy eyes don't make me look very mature. When we left I felt slightly more bonded to Hugh. That sounds dumb but I did! Hugh has proven to be a very expensive baby. In his short life he has already been to a plastic surgeon, a dermatologist, and a three day hospital stay. I suppose I will have another baby once I am done paying for this one! oy!

Hugh was born with an "extra digit" on his right hand. Jeremy was born with two and it is something that runs in his family. He had this removed when he was two weeks old. So that explains the plastic surgeon comment.

Hugh has a hemangioma on his forehead. This is a type of birthmark and it is the same kind that Rae has behind her ear and on her arm. Here is my grocery store answer that I say every time someone would ask me about Raes. "It is a hemangioma. It is a type of birth mark. It gets bigger before it ever gets smaller. It does not hurt them". There are treatment options to make them go away sooner but with Rae we didn't do anything and are just letting them go away eventually. A lot of times they don't go away completely and will be left with a smaller mark or scar where they once were. With Hughs being on his forehead and a more likely spot for scaring, I did some research and decided to take him to a dermatologist and ask for this topical prescription for it. It is not an aggressive treatment. It isn't an oral medicine, it is something I put right on it. It is suppose to help it stop growing and could take some redness away. It is good to start it early before it grows bigger. Some people it works really good and for others it doesn't do much. It doesn't have any known side effects so it is just something worth trying. I just started it a few days ago so we will see if it stops growing or if there is any change in the next month or so. But yes I have to explain what a hemangioma is to everyone who sees him (even nurses in the hospital who you would think know things) but when Rae was a baby before she had hair hers was a lot more noticeable so I am use to explaining it. So that explains the dermatologist comment.

This is gonna be a long post! One more health related thing before we get to the cute baby. Hugh has a dairy allergy so I have cut dairy out of my diet. So don't try and give me ice cream I am having a hard enough time not eating it! Just kidding, I am actually surprised how easy it is for me to cut out dairy (I am trying to avoid soy too). The doctor says that almost all babies with a dairy allergy grow out of it by the time they turn one. So I don't think this is going to be a life problem, just a temporary change for me, and by six months some babies can handle it better and I can try putting some dairy back in.

So today I tried to take his picture in the back yard with Rae. I was trying to recreate this picture

But in the backyard only it wasn't going well. Rae said "He's too heavy!" "He's too big!" and she couldn't hold him up like she did here. This age is hard to photograph! I lay him down and even though he is in the shade it is two bright and he can't open his eyes much, and his shirt is riding up his chin and I said oh well forget it and I just propped him up on the couch inside and he was soooooo cute. 

Rae did not let me take pictures of just Hugh for long. She had to get in there :)

Hugh enjoys sucking on his fist, staring at the ceiling fan, and taking baths. He is smiling now but if you try too hard to get him to smile he just looks alarmed or annoyed. He likes it if you just talk to him and laugh at him. At two months he was 15 pounds and 3 ounces. Rae was ten pounds at two months so he is definitely a bigger baby. I am feeling annoyed at how fast he is growing out of his clothes. He has a long torso and his size 6 month onesies I got him are already feeling tight when I pull them down to snap them. 

Now I am going to knock on wood right now and I don't know if this is because I have cut out the dairy or just him getting older or what but for the last three nights he has slept from 9-4. Just in case you are too tired for math that's seven hours. So you can definitely say we are doing better from when he was sick. He is now just congested but it doesn't seem to bother him. He also use to keep me up a lot because he was grunting and making so many noises but now he even sleeps quieter? Maybe the dairy maybe magic we will never know. 

Rae has been the best big sister, She has gotten better and better with Hugh and I could not even have imagined her acting so good with him. She always wants him in the bath tub with her (I am aware it has something to do with the fact that she thinks under his chair is a house for her fish but that's okay). If I have him sleeping in his crib she says wheres my baby brother?? sounding so worried. She use to always try and put stuff in his hands to show him and I told her if she wants to show him something she has to put it right in front of his face, so now she will hold up her toys, a crayon, a picture, anything right in front of his face and tell him what it is. One day I put Hugh on his tummy and he starts to get fussy and Rae says "baby brothers sad!" and I say from the kitchen, "It's okay he just doesn't like being on his tummy" before I can stop her Rae says "help him!" and she grabs his shirt and flips him over to his back. She didn't hurt him it was just not quite gentle enough and he was scared and cried harder. Then the next time I put him on his tummy and he starts getting fussy Rae yells "help my baby brother mom!" and I say okay just a second and I am in the kitchen doing dishes and she comes over and smacks my leg and says angry "Help my baby brother!" So I think she loves him. 

I feel like we were doing really good and then the universe smashed my head with a bat when Hugh got sick but now I think we are doing really good again. I know that this year is going to be rough and he will get sick a lot more but I am more prepared now and will put on a helmet. The first day we were in the hospital the doctor said "He is going to be okay, you are going to be okay and soon you will remember this and it will just be something that happened" and when she said that I thought what a simple thing to say? Of course everything one day will just be something that happened. But for some reason I think I might be telling myself that a few more times in my life haha

Well the days are long folks and so are my blog posts, happy two months baby Hugh!

Rae's backyard photo shoot with Caitlin

Caitlin really wanted to take pictures of Rae. So the last day she was here I helped her get Rae outside and cooperating and they turned out awesome. These are my favorites and you can see all of them here: http://ce-photography.blogspot.com/2016/09/houston-family.html
We were very busy the whole time and these pictures were rushed but we tried hard because Caitlin is crazy about Rae. Hugh isn't a good age for a photo shoot since he is too old for newborn poses and can't sit up on his own yet. Plus there is just no time in all the craziness, and the end of these pictures I was rushing off to take people to the airport while Caitlin and Kathy stayed to watch Rae.

Okay okay so my favorites are almost all of them :)

How do you get a picture like this? You stand behind the photographer and shout about puppies and bunnies and bribe with the promise of chalk. 

Thank you Caitlin for the great pictures and for being Rae's friend! 

Family, Beach, Baby Blessing

Picture over load I know, but trust me this is very very tame compared to the folder on my computer with every picture we took. My parents, my aunt Kathy, my brother Ryan and his family, my sister Amy and one of her kids, and my sister Caitlin all came to visit for Hugh's baby blessing. We ended up getting a beach house for two nights because they were pretty excited about the beach and didn't think a day trip would be enough. Hugh and Rae were very happy kids while the family was here so that was a blessing (Rae's happiness probably had something to do with Tanner). I brought Hugh's chair he sits in for baths to the beach and he hung out under the canopy like a champ. Oh man I am talking like Ryan now ;) 

I love this picture of this kid!

Yes I know I know I am as white as the sand but I have spent a lot of time indoor with babies the past 8 weeks. 

Rae loves to hold hands and although none of these little boys wanted to hold her hand that didn't stop her from trying. 

Ryan and Lacey drove all the way from Arizona and I feel like I barely talked to them! They have their hands full and I have my hands full but it was fun having our hands full together ;)

Amy enjoyed her hands a little less full with just Finn, she left her older two kids at home (they go to school). 

It was fun watching the cousins play on the beach

 Hugh was just such a sweetheart the whole time. Rae is very demanding of my attention and so far Hugh isn't as much so I have to remember to soak in our moments and give him as many moments as I can. 

My brother Kevin didn't come but he did send candy with Kathy that he got in Germany for the nieces and nephews. They loved it.

The second night at the beach house we grilled shrimp and chicken kabobs and ate out on the deck!

                                                

I like this picture of Kathy and Hugh :)

My sister Caitlin is studying photography at BYU and I got these next eight pictures from her. We weren't the best models with our messy hair and clothes but she has done some amazing pictures 

ce-photography.blogspot.com

me, my mom and two sisters 

We were busy busy busy and I wasn't the only one super tired. I laid hugh down on the cooler to change his diaper and he was crying and then when I was done he thought he'd just give up and snooze. 

We visited the water wall in Houston on the way home from the beach. 

                                                 

 

Rae played with Tanner more than I have ever seen her play with any other kid! They ran all over the grass in front of the water wall. That night we went out to eat at Rudy's. We thought that was a good Texas place to stop.

Sunday we blessed baby Hugh. When I zoom in on this picture everybody's face is so funny we were looking right at the sun. Hugh slept right through his blessing (Rae cried right through her blessing so that was refreshing) It was so fun having everyone there celebrating Hugh and we missed a lot of our Ellis extended family. 

More pictures taken by Caitlin -

Now I won't go on and on about Hugh because this post is long and he will have his own post for happy two months soon but he has started giving us some smiles and my heart is melted on the floor. 

Well the week was a success. Today I spent all of Rae's nap gathering pictures for this blog and writing it. My house is a mess but I have my priorities right where they should be :)