Baby Dodge

I realize that little Baby B has hardly any mention in the last few posts. So, here's one devoted to him.

He enjoys mowing the lawn with Dad. Dad is a good sport about it even though he feels like wearing the baby Bjorn takes away his manhood.

He's grown up a lot (don't they all?!) and his little cheeks have filled out.

In fact, it's a little deceiving because people say what a cute little chubby guy he is, when really, it's only his face. But it's cute non the less. He was about a month old here.

Have I mentioned what a joy it is to have the germs from two preschoolers and an emergency room doctor floating around in the house? The combination of the two resulted in Baby Dodge getting two colds and pink eye in the first month of his life. Welcome to the world little guy.

And then of course he got this NASTY rash called sub-areahha (sp?). It felt scaly like a lizard and his skin was producing a ton of oil so there was oil collecting behind his ears, in his ears, under his nostrils, everywhere. It was disgusting. But, now the rash is gone so I have my cute baby back.


He love his changing table. So much that he often falls asleep on it. I used to call it the torture table when he was a newborn because he'd scream when we changed him. But now he likes it.

He also still loves his brothers. Most of the time.

But he loves the milk truck even better. At least for now!

Aren't they cute? And you can definitely tell they are brothers!

He is smiling and talking up a storm. It's the cutest thing in the world.

His daddy gets him to smile the most.

Baby B got to go on his fist hike. He did pretty well until he got sick of being in the little pack. Then I just had to carry him. While he cried.

Our precious little guy.

You can tell by the angle who took this picture. Destroy is very interested in the camera lately.



If you look back through the pictures, you'll notice that his head is ALWAYS turned to his right. I've heard that in the womb the fetus sometimes favors turning it's head to a side, therefore stretching the tendons on that side and not the other. That's definitely the case with this kid. I've tried everything but his head is getting flatter and flatter on that side. It's bad. And I can't get him to lay on the other side.

AND, he has an umbilical hernia. I pointed out to Aaron a few weeks ago that Dodge had a serious outy. No, he said it was an umbilical hernia - very common in babies. It's basically his intestines coming through the muscle because the hole hasn't closed yet. The weird thing is That you can FEEL and HEAR his food passing through it. And you can push it back in. It's strange. Sometimes I think I hear him filling his britches but they I realize that it's just his hernia. It should slowly close up, but if it doesn't, he'll need surgery when he's two.

We love the little guy and we've decided that he's a keeper. Even though he cries way too much for a third child and still has nights every so often (like last night) where he likes to be awake for 3 hours between the hours of 2 and 5 am. Nights where I want to bash my head into the wall. But the other nights where he doesn't wake up until 5 make up for it. And his smiles and cuddles and sneezes. Aren't baby sneezes the cutest? Those make up for it too. We're so glad to have him in our family and feel so blessed to have him.

picture tag!

Well, it was actually supposed to be the 6th folder, 6th picture, but when I saw which one it was, I realized I had already done that one! So I'm changing it to the 5th folder, 5th picture.

This picture was taken when we still lived in our little apartment in Irvine. This was in July of 2006, Search had just turned 1 and Destroy was nearing 3. Daddy is enjoying the post-bath smells and reading his little boys a book!

I tag... whoever wants to!

Double Whammy!

Yesterday was the first mother's day since I've had kids that my birthday hit the same day. So Aaron had a double whammy. I was born on mother's day. And one of my older brother was born on father's day. Kinda, weird, huh? Luckily, Aaron knows the way to my heart and made me food all day!

I was pretty excited when I woke up on sunday morning. Because I actually felt normal. Why is this? Because Baby D only woke up once! It was amazing.

I was also pretty excited because I hopped on the scale yesterday morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that all my crossfit and eating healthy has been paying off. I'm freely shedding the unwanted pregnancy pounds.

So, Aaron made me some super yummy cheesy eggs with bacon for breakfast, and he grilled me some ribs for dinner. My fav. I got to eat delish food with some cute company:


















Aaron wanted to make me a cake for my birthday. But I declined because I'd rather have chocolate chip cookies and milk over cake any day. But, I didn't trust him to do it, because making my chocolate chip cookies is an art. And because I just don't delegate well. The kids thought I was crazy not to want a cake. We also went over to some friend's for dessert last night. I think I may have gained all those unwanted pounds back in just one day!

Look, I even felt cute enough yesterday to finally take a picture of myself. Does any one else have the problem where you go to find a face picture to put on facebook or something and you CAN'T FIND A SINGLE ONE? There's not a single picture of me that doesn't have a kid in it. So here's my facebook picture :)

We had some trampoline fun yesterday too. Baby D got his first experience on the trampoline and he's not even two months yet. Welcome to the family, little man. It's never too early to jump on a trampoline, right? And I had to make sure that I can still do a back flip. I can. But the kids didn't care that their show-off mom could still do a back flip. Big whoop, huh?

Raise your hand...

...if you love Craigslist!

Gone Fishin'

First off... the keyboard has some glitches. Don't mind the typos.

Grandpa Duck got the boys addicted to fishing while he was here. They went and picked out fishing poles and tackle boxes. And of course... worms!

Before they went to the pond the boys practicedcasting ad reeling in the backyard for about two hour.

We got to the pond. Grandpa was the hook baiter, thenthey would thro their line out. About 30 seconds later they would get a bite.They both surprised us that they could cast the line, get a fish and reel it in with no help. They probably caught about 20 fishthe first day they went (they went three or four times whie my dad was here).

I need anoher worm, Grandpa!I got one! I'm reeling!See mom?A little help from daddy. Daddy's dream :) Fishing with his sons. Actually his dream will be when they'reold enough to play catch with a baseball.

I got one too, mom!See, my fish is bigger.
And now I just throw the sucker back in the water like this! Whee!

Check it out!

I'm glad Grandpa was there because I hate taking the hooks out. I guess they'll have to go with daddy now tht Grandpa is gone.

Hre's what baby D did while his brothersfished.

nana was theresomewhere too. She was probbly off looking for the gigantic catfis that inhabits this lake.

Happy Easter!

Better late than never!

our mellow yellow fellow

Our little man has jaundice. We've been taking him into the lab every morning since his birth to get his bilirubin level checked. The poor little guy has 6 little pricks on his heels from blood draws. He has been living on the "bili-blanket", a pad that emits UV rays, to lower his bili level and kick this jaundice in the rear. Just yesterday things turned the corner and his bili level is finally coming down. We are so relieved! He was on the brink of being admitted to the hospital. But he's doing great!Now we are just trying to figure out who he looks like! He definitely doesn't have much hair like Destroy did,

Or Search's.We think he got Search's lips... (this is Search)

But overall he looks more like Destroy. (This is Destroy)

But he definitely has a look of his own. Search and Destroy absolutely adore him and want to hold him all the time. Unfortunately, the have both been sick, so they haven't gotten to hold him much.

He must really like Search because he's smiling here :) Or maybe it's just gas.

He's remarkably calm around them even when they are acting crazy.

Seriously, can't they take normal picture?

Maybe just one or two.

I haven't taken many pictures because, well, now I have three kids. And because he's so, uh, orange. So I'll take some later when he doesn't resemble a carrot so much.

Dodge seems like a very mellow little kid, but who knows how much the jaundice is speaking for that. He's only awake a couple hours a day but isn't one for crying much. Yet. We'll see. I can't imagine having a calm baby. He cries when he's getting changed and that's about it. He's been sleeping great at night, only getting up twice and going right back to sleep after eating and pooping. The last two nights I've even gotten 4 hours of straight sleep in a row!

The labor and delivery were much harder than the last time. This is the first time that I've had my water break and it was a much different experience. My contractions were much slower in coming after my water broke (well, started leaking, really). When things weren't progressing much, they started me on a small pitocin drip. I really didn't want them to because it's much more painful with pitocin, but oh well. They did. The contractions were starting to get very painful and I was sure that I was dialated to a 7 or so, but I was only at a 5. I was stuck at a 6 for an hour or so and I decided to get some Nu-Bane (sp?) to take the edge off because of the pain and because I figured that I still had at least two more hours of these painful contractions. It was not like this with Search! But, it didn't matter because 8 minutes after the nurse put the drug in my IV, he was born. I went from a 6-10 in about 5 minutes. A couple of pushes and he was out. And then of course I was stuck with the narcotic after he was born and couldn't even keep my head up straight.

Recovery has been a breeze. I'm feeling great, just anxious to lose this gut so that I actually have clothes to wear. I'm living in pajamas seeing as how I refuse to wear maternity clothes. Aaron is putting me back on a cross-fit regimine starting tomorrow. That's going to be fun :) Maybe in two months I'll be able to do a pull-up again. Go me.