Sick, sick, sick

We have strep at our house. :c( Grace and I have it. Luckily for Grace, she isn't feeling too poorly. Unluckily for me, I feel like death. My birthday is tomorrow. What a nice present. :cP I'm just hoping Elijah doesn't get it. The thought of a 4 month old with strep just breaks my heart. I'm also hoping we don't get thrush because of the antibiotics. That would be very un-fun as well.

Elijah had his 4 month check-up last Thursday. He is 13 pounds 14 ounces and almost 27 inches long. He's getting so big all of the sudden! If it weren't for his hair cut, he'd look just like any other fat, happy baby. :c) He had conjunctivitis a month or so ago and since then has had a clogged tear duct. It seems to be getting a bit better, though, so hopefully his eyes will soon be goop-free.

Spencer also had his 3-year check-up. He is 34 pounds and about 39 inches. He passed the hearing and vision tests with flying colors. The pediatrician said they don't usually make it through the vision test with 3 year olds.

Sheri lost another tooth! She now looks very cute with one missing top front tooth. I promise to get a picture when I'm feeling a little better. She has a field trip tomorrow to the zoo. She's been excited about this for the last month and rarely forgets to mention it in her prayers. ;c) She also mentions the upcoming trip to the recycling plant.

Grace has missed school yesterday and today. I can tell she is eager to get back.

Katelee is gearing up for the SOL tests. They've been practicing for the last few weeks. From the practice tests I have seen, Katelee is going to do very well.

Kirk is busy, busy, busy with his new role at work. He'll be traveling quite a bit in May, but then should have a month or two off from travel. He also stays busy with church stuff.

Hard work and baby schedules

Uh-oh! No picture this time. ;c)

We've been hard at work with our spring cleaning. We've had a couple hurdles with the lawn equipment, but I think we'll end up with a mowed and edged lawn once Kirk gets back from a Home Depot run. One new mower blade and package of trimmer line later and we should be good to go. The grass seemed to grow a foot overnight. I don't even think I'm exaggerating much. It was very, very long and thick. April showers bring May flowers... and lots of thick, tall grass!

Yesterday we did a lot of work in the garage. It's amazing what you move with you from one place to another. There were some boxes in the garage that I would be willing to bet we hadn't even touched since we moved in almost 6 years ago. Now they are all gone, gone, gone! What a nice feeling! I guess you could say we are finally moved in. Ha!

I think Elijah is working on his birthday present to me. For the past couple weeks, he's been good about taking a regular morning nap. Most mornings he will sleep for about an hour. He's also been getting better about going down in his bed at a more regular time for bedtime. Usually he is ready to go to bed around 7:30 or 8pm. Yesterday he not only took his morning nap(only 45 minutes long, but that's better than nothing), he also took an almost-2-hour afternoon nap. This morning he slept for 2 hours for his morning nap and has currently been sleeping for about 30 minutes for his second nap. Now if only he would work out his length of sleep at night, it would be a prefect birthday present! For now, he's still waking up to eat every 2-3 hours during the night. While I was talking to Elijah this morning, I put in my order for the perfect nighttime schedule. We'll see if he gets on board with the plan.

The weather has been absolutely *gorgeous* this week. It starts a bit chilly in the morning, but it warms up quickly to perfect temperatures. It's 70 degrees outside right now with a beautiful, blue sky. I love sunshine! Hooray for spring!

Getting Better!

It hasn't been a whole month yet. See? I'm getting better! :c)

Yesterday, Elijah and I made a trip down to Duke for a CT and check-up. He gets two-thumbs-up from the neurosurgeon and cord blood doctor. His CT showed progress in brain growth. I plan to scan in our copies so you can see the different between the January scan and the one from yesterday. Elijah's brain's a-growin'! The trip went well, even though it was a very long day. Elijah is doing so very well that instead of going back for an MRI and check-up in July, we get to wait until October or November. Yay!

In more Elijah news, he had PT last Wednesday and rolled from his belly to his back three times during the appointment! He really shocked the socks of his physical therapist. He's done it a few more times since then and has even almost rolled from his back to his belly, but decided he dislikes being on his belly so much that he didn't want to do that. He's also been packing on the weight. I wasn't sure if he was actually gaining weight, because the scale I have here at home was being a bit flaky, but a trip to the pediatrician on Monday confirmed he is, in fact, gaining quite a bit of weight. He was 13 pounds 4 ounces on Monday(completely nakey). At the neurosurgery clinic appointment yesterday he was almost 14 pounds(fully clothed and just fed). Way to grow, Elijah!

We have had some gorgeous weather around here in the last few weeks. We did get some frost yesterday, but hopefully that will all be over soon. I'm ready for wonderful, sunny days to stay. The nice sunshine is giving me the urge to do some household redecorating. I brought some colorful paint chips home today to tape onto the playroom wall. We'll see if Kirk agrees with my choices or perhaps they are a bit too bold. I'm in the mood for *CoLoR*!

Katelee has been participating in the school's Lego League Spring Challenge and is having a great time. We get to go this afternoon and watch her team's robot run the challenge. I'll try to snap a few pictures, of course.

Grace has been having a great time with her new pogo stick. She's getting really good at it! Sheri has been trying to learn to ride a skateboard. Practice! Practice! Spencer loves riding his sisters' pink scooters.

This week is our town's Spring Clean-Up. Kirk is staying home from work tomorrow and Friday. We plan to get the trees and limbs from the winter's havoc taken out to the curb form the backyard. We also have grand plans for the garage. It is amazing how much stuff we moved with us to this house, oh..., almost 6 years ago, that we haven't even seen since then. :c/ Time to clear it out! The kids' bikes are waiting for permanent parking spots. Hopefully we can get that accomplished in the next two days. My brother, Jon, is (hopefully) coming on Saturday to help us re-do the flower beds in the front of the house. It's spring cleaning fever around here!