March Madness...

....No, NOT the basketball kind (though the last few minutes of that Purdue game last night were crazy, and disappointing), I'm talking about this weather madness! 80 degrees and sunny all last week?! And the first part of this week?! Well, aside from this morning's overcast/looking like it's going to rain any second (putting a damper on my plans to take a walk this morning) weather. This past week has been amazing. I'm loving this so much. Everyday I'm excited to wake up and get the little man outta bed so we can get our day started. We've played outside a lot, gone on many long walks (I even got brave and can handle Oscar aaaaand the stroller!), played in the pool a few times (he even liked it when the water was bath water temp!), and had lots of family fun.

We're finally over the mild respiratory infection Jack had last week, which was the cause of that pesky fever that stuck around for a week! Though now, with the onset of this nice weather, comes allergy season. I was so excited to get the house opened up and enjoy the fresh air, but my allergies could only take a few days of that. Our a.c. is on now :-(  It seems as though Jack might have been lucky enough to inherit some of his mom's terrible seasonal allergies, he's been sooo snotty! It's clear though, making me think that it's allergies. We turned the fans on and let the house air out for a few days, and right when we did that, his snot factory went into working overtime! He's in good spirits and doesn't seem to be too bothered by it, which is always nice. Me, on the other hand, I'm very high mantenance when it comes to allergies, can't have fans blowing on me at all. I had to sleep with the pillow pretty much over my face the other night since it was hot enough to have the fan on. But, I'm still loving this weather.

My grandma and mom were up one day last week, so we were able to take Jack and Oscar to the park to play for a bit. Jack loves the swings, and Oscar loves anything outside :-)  Our plans for St.Paddy's day fell through, so we ended up inviting Matt's brother Nick over, and the big boys threw around a football while Jack and I played in the water in his new pool. On Sunday everyone woke up feeling pretty crummy, but luckily as the day wore on, we got to feeling better. That was the boys' first flag football game of the season. Jack and I didn't go, but we all got together at Nick's place afterwards for a nice lunch with the whole family. I can't wait for the summer months that are sure to bring more fun weekends like this! We've got 2 weddings, a trip to a lakehouse for a long weekend, and some very important birthdays coming up in the next few months! I'll leave you with some pictures from the week and weekend: 

Our First Fever :-(

Last Thursday, Jack woke up from his nap with a fever for the very first time. He's had the fever off and on since, getting a small break on Sunday for about 12 hours. Friday night was teeeerrible, waking about every hour, wanting a bottle but not really taking it, crying a lot but still mostly asleep and unable to get comfy. I felt so bad for the little guy, so helpless. I was also reminded of the first nights home with him, I felt like I hadn't slept in days, and it was only one night! I'm pretty sure it's teething, as he's munching on EEEVERYTHING non stop, including his hands or mommy's arms haha. He's eating well, just giving us a hard time with bottles, but taking most of them. I talked to a nurse on Friday morning and she suggested giving it at least 3 days before bringing him in, as a temp below 103 is usually teething. He's had 103 a few times, and it's been 4 days now of off and on fevers, so I made an appt for him for this evening, so we'll see. Though, I'm sure they'll say there's nothing wrong with him. This appt is just as much for my peace of mind as it is for him! He's playing well and not running a fever so far today, and we're hitting the 4hr mark since the last meds, so we'll see. There's a St.Paddy's playdate on Wed that I really want to go to, a lot of mommies and babies will be there, so hopefully he can kick this fever so we can go!

We had a nice relaxing weekend, aside from this fever business. Saturday we went out for a nice dinner with some friends and their kids, Sunday Matt and his cousin and brother had a flag football scrimmage so Jack and I went and hung out with Christine and Rylie and when the boys got back we had a nice dinner. Despite what I thought were bad food choices, I've still managed to lose 3.5lbs since last Thursday. We've got a couple things going on this week during the evenings, but I hope to make it to the gym a few nights!

Over the weekend we took some cute pics, if you haven't already, check them out! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100131599331263.2299488.58200443&type=3

The weather is finally warming up and we're seeing some sunshine, so I hope to get outside more and take some good photos. I really like the way our camera looks on outside pictures, and we're running out of different places with natural lighting to take pictures indoors!

It's just about bottle and nap time for the little man, so I better get going. I did a lot of cleaning yesterday so I think I'll read a bit while he sleeps. The windows are open, I can smell the rain, and hear the birds chirping. Reading a book sounds perfect. I love this weather, even though we somehow lucked out and had a pretty mild (and definitely weird) winter, I'm ready for spring so we can start playing outside and going on long walks to the park! :-) 

Here comes the sun

Finally, it seems as though spring is on the way! The past few days we've been able to have our windows and doors open, allowing us some fresh air (which seems to help Jack sleep a bit longer at nap time, allowing me to get stuff done around here!). It's been too windy to go for walks, I'm sure we'd be fine, but of course when I see these wind advisories, my mind immediately goes to a terrible situation like I'm walking Jack and I lose control of the stroller, or a giant tree branch falls or some random debris hits him in the face haha. I'm terrible about that kind of stuff now, don't get me started on my fear of someone breaking into our house and taking my baby! We did go grocery shopping today, Jack was an angel, smiling and flirting with the ladies as per usual. Luckily we had so much stuff in our cart that it didn't blow away and hit something while I was getting everything unloaded!

I know it's been forEVER since I've blogged, I never seem to remember to do it. Well, I guess that's not entirely true....I never take the time to do it! Jack naps for an hour at a time, usually no more, no less, so that's when I take my "me time", either watching one of my shows, reading, taking a shower, doing laundry, or just relaxing with the windows open, listening to the breeze blowing through the house and the birds chirping (which is what I did today!).

There's not TOO much new to report since my last post. The holidays came and went in a whirlwind, we were super busy and got to see much of our families, which was great, since next year I plan on sticking around home a bit more. You wouldn't think it, but just going to Indiana is a tiring trip, even on non holiday weekends. Christmas Eve eve was spent with my mom's family in Indy, Christmas Eve was with my parents at their house with my brother and his wife and their 2 girls, and then my dad's family that night. We had to drive back to Illinois after that, because I wanted to be home as a family on our first Christmas, even if Jack didn't care or wouldn't remember. We have to start having our own traditions :-) While "home" in West Lafayette, I did get to see one of my best and oldest friends. She and her hubby had a baby boy in December, so I was reminded of how tiny and cuddly newborns are! After Christmas morning in our home, we ventured up north to Lake Zurich to be with Matt's family for the night. Right about this time Jack really started to learn to sit on his own, mastering it by mid January, which was right about the same time we saw his first tooth pop through, followed closely by the second a week or so later. Here's Jack and his cousin Bella on Christmas Eve

Every day he gets closer and closer to crawling, which I'm not sure if I'm ready for! He's growing so fast, but I must say, he is getting cooler and cooler each day. He cracks us up all the time, I think we're going to have a little comedian on our hands here shortly! (hmmm, wonder where he get's that from! *cough cough, daddy, cough cough*). So, I said he always sleeps an hour, and as I sit here, we're hitting the 2 hour mark for his afternoon nap. I could tell he was tired, he fell asleep in my arms as I read him a book before nap (he never does that!). Plus, I think he's teething again. He's been fighting bottles, chewing on everything including his hands, and being fussier than normal. And, he's definitely getting attached to mom and dad, sometimes fussing when he sees us leave the room. I'm so thankful I don't have to leave him with someone while I work, because seeing him cry like that would break my heart, even though I've seen many babies do this, and they all survived! It's definitely different when it's your baby! Jack says "mama", "dada", "nana" and "baba" many times a day now, and is always looking for Oscar, checking on his brother. I think they're going to be quite the team in a few short months! That's about all I've got for today, aside from a few pictures.

Here's Jack at 6months, with Oscar:

Valenties Day, 7mo old:

Hopefully, I'll write again before he's walking! :-)