Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone - with less than 2 hours left in the day! Here is Tommy in his ADORABLE Easter outfit that Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Chris sent to us just last week! He looked so handsome in it! John took this with his blackberry this morning. Unfortunately, our camera is MIA - we think it's in my car, which is in the shop until later this week being repaired from the "hit" it took from behind a few weeks ago. We are going through the other driver's insurance directly and it's actually been a very good process and experience so far. They set us up with a rental car and we have not had to pay anything out of pocket.

I will hopefully have some other Easter pictures to post later this week that my brother took of the three of us in front of a tree in our yard that had bloomed really nice for this Easter. Wish I knew what kind of tree it was...

We went to mass this morning and sat in the main part of the church with Tommy - the past few months we've been in the cry room just because the timing had been working out that we know he'll be fussing for a bottle, but sometimes the cry room is more of a social outing for some people in there - not everyone, but sometimes the adults are worse than the kids in the cry room.. The past few days, however, he was not having his second bottle until after 11, sometimes closer to 12 even, so we were okay in the main part of the church this week, which I prefer anyway. I totally understand the cry room and anticipate using it occasionally (that's my goal - occasionally - as needed!), but I think it's important for us to try to teach Tommy how to behave in places like church. I see plenty of families whose YOUNG kids are extremely well behaved at church, and sometimes I want to go up to them and ask what the secret is so we can try it! Believe me, I'm sure we'll have situations soon enough that will require us to go into the cry room!

So, we went to mass with my Mom, who was down for the weekend, and then John had to go to work at the golf club - they had close to 800 people for brunch! Mom and I got stuff ready at the house, as we had my family there for dinner - 8 adults and 4 kids. It was a beautiful day, and the kids spent most of it in the yard, hunting for plastic eggs that I hid earlier, most of which my mom put money in for them, blowing bubbles, playing badminton or soccer, or, in Tommy's case, hanging out on a blanket watching everything around him! We got to sit out on the deck all afternoon too, enjoying the sunshine!

Unfortunately, Tommy is a little under the weather again. Every time I feel like we just get past one illness, the next one pops up. I know with daycare this is going to happen, and I remind myself that it's better to build his immune system up NOW. He is a trooper though - especially because his TEETH are also bothering him more. No "bubble" or whatever on the gums to tell us something is about to pop through, but he is gnawing on his hands and fingers like crazy. This time, Tommy has a double ear infection AND pink eye. We got him on antibiotics right away on Saturday morning, and by Saturday night we could already see the difference. I brought Tommy to my office on Friday because daycare was closed and my co-workers had been asking me to bring him in for a visit, so this worked out perfectly (plus our boss let us leave at 1pm!). He was a little congested and had a slight cough in the morning, but it wasn't until we got home that afternoon that I noticed what I thought were eye boogers...that just kept appearing after I wiped them away (against Tommy's protests, I might add!). I called the doctor right away because I immediately thought to myself - could this be pink eye? Unfortunately, their office closes early on Fridays so we had to wait until Saturday morning to call, which we did as soon as they were open and they told us to come in right away.

Thankfully Tommy has not had any fever this go around, which the doctor was happy about. We have to go back in 10 days for a recheck. He is on antibiotics AGAIN (now I know what they mean about kids developing immunities to meds when you overmedicate). The eyedrops are a hoot to try to get in, but the trick is to put the drop in to the corner of the eye when it's closed so that when he opens it, it goes in anyway. We will call daycare in the morning to make sure he can go in - even though we assume this is where it came from, we don't want to get any of the other kids sick, but I think since he'll be on the antibiotics for 48 hours by Monday AM he should be okay. Again, never had any fever, and his eyes have been clear since Saturday night. If he has to stay home, John is off so he'll be on sick duty with Tommy. But I'm also working late tomorrow night for the men's basketball banquet/beefsteak fundraiser dinner.

The little guy is now on Stage 2 foods officially! He chows down on everything we try, though he is NOT having 3 or 4 course meals like last week. Occasionally maybe 2 jars, but I think being sick and his teeth bothering him have affected his eating the past few days. Some meals he doesn't even finish an entire "jar." I say "jar" because it's really a plastic tub (we are using Gerber). I LOVE that the cereal comes in these things too - I was getting really tired of cleaning up the flakes from the rice and oatmeal boxes when I made that. I admire the moms who make their own baby food, but unfortunately, I just do not have the time to do that. Never mind I'm not much of a cook to begin with.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with their families/friends!