Harper's Baptism

Harper, Patrick's cousin, was baptized the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Patrick was still under the weather so he slept through church which was really nice.  After church we had the baptism and Patrick woke up just in time.  Harper wore the same gown that Patrick wore, as well as Patrick and Harper's great grandmother, grandmother and parents all wore.  

The Mulloy's- the family seems to get bigger and bigger each year!

Patrick and Harper wouldn't quite cooperate for their pictures together

My boys watching the baptism

After the baptism we dropped Patrick off at my parents and headed to Hillwood for brunch.  I have to say it was really nice to be able to eat a meal in peace!  Sweet little Patrick cried non-stop this past weekend since he felt so bad, so Michael and I really enjoyed an adult lunch! I think Patrick enjoyed playing with Big and Allie and his choo choo's much more than attempting to sit still at brunch too!

Thanksgiving

It was a rough Thanksgiving for my little buddy this year. We started out the weekend with a chili night with a couple friends and Michael's brothers.  Patrick's friend, Michael Sechrist, came over to play and he and Patrick had the best time. They chased each other around the upstairs and played with trucks.  They were too cute!

About an hour after Michael Sechrist left, Patrick crawled up on daddy's lap and started whining.  He felt a little hot so I took his temperature and it was 100.1.  Not too high, but high enough to make him feel bad.  Patrick had a small cough, but no runny nose. An hour or so later Patrick started coughing so hard he threw up.  He didn't sleep at all that night or for the next few days. Unfortunately, motrin and tylenol do not make my little guy sleepy.  Not much does :) Michael was so great and stayed up with Patrick almost every night.  I get really sick when I don't get enough sleep while I am pregnant, so I was really thankful that Michael stayed up with him!

When I went to relieve Michael at 6am on Thanksgiving, I took Patrick's temperature and it was 102.5.  Michael and I were both surprised because the past couple of days Patrick had been feeling so much better!  This came out of nowhere!!  The poor little guy was miserable! Thanksgiving morning, Patrick and I laid on the couch and watched t.v. for about 3 hours, since it's all he wanted to do.  I had planned to take Patrick to watch Michael play in the turkey bowl (his annual high school football pick-up game), but he just wasn't feeling up to it.

We had plans to eat at Nana and Grumps house at 1 pm, so I thought I would try and get Patrick down for a nap before lunch. No such luck!  He was in no mood to go to Nana and Grumps house, but Michael and I were both in the mood for some good Thanksgiving food so we tried to bring him along.  He was miserable and didn't eat a thing!  We had to leave after lunch because he was feeling so bad.  Unfortunately, we also had to bail on going to my Aunt's lake house because Patrick was feeling so crummy!

It was sort of a depressing Thanksgiving with a crying, miserable baby this year!  We haven't had many days where Patrick has been himself this month since he has been sick with anemia, ear infections and viruses.  However, it does make me very thankful for the days that I do have a healthy, happy baby!  I really do have a lot to be thankful for this year!  Most of all a wonderful family!  Wish we could have celebrated with them more this year, but that's how life goes with a sick kid and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I couldn't let Thanksgiving go by without trying to get one family picture, even if it is a picture with a sick little boy and a very tired husband!

I was laughing at Michael in this picture, not laughing that my little boy doesn't feel good

Can you tell how bad Patrick feels?  Poor guy!

Baby #2 is a....

BOY!!!   We are having another precious little boy.  I'm really excited that Patrick is going to have a little buddy so close in age to play with!  Our house is already filled with lots of wrestling, trucks, and footballs.  I can't imagine adding another boy to the mix, but I am sure it will be tons of fun!

Let me back up a little since I haven't posted much about this sweet little baby.  I had a feeling that this one was another boy, but I wasn't as sure as I was with Patrick.  I just knew I was having a boy the first time!  This time I really thought I was having a boy but had a few moments of doubt.  I have been sick with this baby, but not anything like Patrick.  My cravings have been pretty much the same.  I have been craving fruit juices, milkshakes, grilled cheeses and salty food.   I have a bigger appetite with this little one than I did with Patrick and my belly is definitely showing it :)

We found out early (before our 20 week appointment) with Patrick and it was a surprise to both of our families.  I wanted to do the same with this one, but have been so busy I had not made an appointment.  On Halloween one of Michael's good friends from high school offered to do an ultrasound for us.  It was so nice of her to offer and we decided to take her up on it!

Within 5 seconds of the picture of the baby showing up on the monitor, Lauren said she knew what it was but wanted to make sure before she told us.  I knew what it was after her comment since you could only tell that it is a boy that fast!

Since we baked a cake to tell our families about Patrick, I decided to do something a little different this time.  I found an idea on pinterest for scratch-off cards and decided to try it.  It looks more difficult than it really was.  I did the whole thing during one of Patrick's naps.  I created the format in word, then mixed silver paint with a little dishwashing liquid and painted it on some contact paper, cut it out and put the circles on the card.

I didn't get any pictures of our families scratching the cards, but they all guessed girl because I haven't been quite as sick this time.  You can't really read the messages in the picture, but the girl circle says "better luck next time" and the boy circle "double or nothing...we have ourselves a winner."

I have my 20 week doctors appointment in a week and we are praying for a healthy baby!  

Patrick- 18 Month Photos

We took Patrick's 18 month photos at Percy Warner park last weekend. He was still under the weather, so when we tried to take the photos on Saturday, he was in no mood!  Zach was nice enough to offer to take the pictures on Sunday instead, which turned out to be much better!

Here are my favorites...

Giggling with daddy

Running in the park is always so much fun!

One of Patrick's favorite activities....throwing football with daddy

Can you tell he has a mouth full of fruit snacks? Oh well...whatever makes him smile!

Family picture

Swinging with mommy and daddy!

Daddy is so funny

It was extremely windy, so those sweet little curls were all over the place!

Getting some air...hopefully Michael will never miss :/

At the end of the pictures Patrick heard a train pass by and he said Choo Choo over and over again!  Michael and I grew up so close to the train that we never notice it until Patrick points it out.

Sick!

Sweet little Patrick has had a rough few weeks health-wise. He has had a really bad cold that just won't go away.  Every other child at Margaret's had a bad cold too, so at first I didn't think much of it. He didn't have a fever, so I didn't think it was his ears that were bothering him since he has always traditionally developed a fever with his ear infections. He had a couple bad days at Margaret's where nothing went right for him. He threw tantrum after tantrum about absolutely nothing. He would be playing with his trains by himself and all of the sudden freak out and drop to the floor. He was also looking really pale and sickly and not eating at all. I took him to the doctor and he had a double ear infection. A double ear infection didn't really satisfy me, since he doesn't normally look and feel this bad with an ear infection. I asked the doctor to do a blood test and the results came back that he is severely anemic. So anemic that on a scale of 1-100 (1 being the sickest anemic child) he was between a 1 and 3. The doctor was really shocked.  They normally test children at 9 months and if the child is anemic, it will almost always show up at 9 months.  However, I breastfed Patrick for so long that he was getting all of his iron from me, so it took a little longer for it to affect him (which is good).  His 9 month levels were normal, but on the low end of normal. The doctor said that if we don't try and correct this now that it will stunt his growth and affect his learning ability. Part of it is genetic, but we can try and get him closer to normal by changing his diet.

If you have been reading my blog, you know that Patrick only eats fruit, yogurt and milk, all of which contain no iron in them. I immediately went home and googled foods that have the most iron in them.  All foods that Patrick hates....red meat, egg yolks, spinach (which he used to really love), liver, kale, etc.  It has been a struggle in our house the past couple weeks to say the least! I think Michael spent 2 hours reading every single box in Kroger trying to pick out foods that Patrick might like that have iron in them.  I think we have 7 different boxes of cereal! I have been crushing up a supplement and putting it in his yogurt, which he doesn't seem to mind too much.  He also likes some cereals that have some iron in them and he likes prune juice. Other than that we are really struggling finding things that have iron in them that Patrick will eat. The doctor plans to test again in 6 months, since he thinks it will take that long to get his levels back up.

I haven't been feeling good in the mornings recently, so Patrick and I have been eating breakfast while I lay on the couch and he sits next to me. I have found that if I put him in front of the T.V. that he eats at least a few bites of something that he normally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole!  It's a terrible habit and one that I don't want to continue, but at least it gets him to eat one meal with iron in it! I think it's much better than force feeding him and risking a food complex!  If anyone has suggestions on ways to get a VERY picky child to try new things or good recipes with foods that have iron in them feel free to post them! I am open to suggestions besides eating in front of the T.V!!

He has also really really struggled with his ear infections. We have been to the doctor 3 times in less than week! He has cried non-stop (straight for 4 or 5 hours!), has not been sleeping at all and has been vomiting from the pain of the ear infection. We couldn't get the ear infection to go away!! We are finally halfway through a new medicine and it seems to be working!  Keep your fingers crossed for the poor little guy! He needs a break from sickness! Michael and I need a break too! No sleep and missed work = very stressed out parents that have to take turns being with Patrick and then working every other minute of the day we aren't trying to get a couple hours of sleep!

And just for fun, here are a couple pictures of my sweet little boy painting. Yes, we are using trucks to paint because we can't seem to do anything without his trucks these days!

Halloween

Patrick was a train conductor this year and we made a Thomas to go along with his outfit.  Patrick loves Thomas the Train, so I thought he would like a costume that looked like Thomas.  Plus I needed a non-accounting related challenge and thought it would be fun to try and make Patrick an outfit.  I think it turned out pretty well!  We started with a couple diaper boxes, a cardboard tube, and some spray paint.  I wish I had taken photos along the way.  I was feeling a little doubtful at first, especially after I went through two boxes and messed them up with the first step of making the form of the train.  Box cutting is much harder than it looks!  Michael was giggling in the background as I was trying my hardest to cut the thick boxes.  Luckily, he decided to spare me some pain and helped cut the remaining boxes.  Michael also painted the entire thing and cut the tough cardboard tube.  I helped out with the detail work.  Patrick immediately recognized it was a "choo choo" before it was painted.   We had originally planned to hang the Thomas with suspenders on him, but he was scared of getting in Thomas so we just let him stand in it.  He likes playing with Thomas, but putting Thomas on was definitely scary for him!  I think it was worth it though, since it will provide endless amounts of entertainment in the future for him.  

Taking a stroll on our street.  He looks so nervous standing in the "Choo Choo."

My precious little train conductor with Thomas

We couldn't get a single smile out of Patrick on Halloween.  Unfortunately, he was up until 3am the night before, so he was exhausted and not feeling great on Halloween.  I still think he had a great time though!

Then we headed over to Patrick's friend's Virginia and Zane's house for some Halloween fun.  We had yummy food and then loaded up in the hay ride to go trick or treating.  Patrick loved riding on the hay ride!  He didn't quite understand trick-or-treating, but I think he had fun watching the big kids.  I didn't even think about bringing a bag for him to put candy in since he doesn't like candy (or any kind of sweet in general) but he didn't seem to mind at all!  We went to a few houses and Patrick was so cute trick-or-treating.  He would take a piece of candy and then put it in his friend Zane's bag.  It was a little cold outside, so we headed back after the first few houses and let the big kids continue.  I think his first experience trick-or-treating was definitely a success.  I'm looking forward to next year when he understands the concept a little more!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!