Happenings

Once again I find myself having to catch everyone up!

Well, first a funny story...

Brent is usually the one to get Josh up and going in the morning for school. I have to leave earlier than he does so I usually have to get Jacob ready to go with me. Brent texted me about a month ago one morning saying he had to go back home. Why? Apparently in their rush to get to school and work, no one noticed that Josh was missing something. They got almost to the school when, from the backseat, Brent hears,
"Daddy I'm only wearing one shoe!"
Brent, while grabbing his foot, "You had better be kidding"
Brent again..."Josh why didn't you tell me you didn't have your other shoe on?"
Josh, "I didn't know I didn't have it on!"

Now, several things run through my mind when I hear this from Brent. How does he put only one shoe on our kid and not the other? How does he not notice Josh walking funny with a shoe missing? Better yet, how does JOSH not notice that he only has one shoe on and is walking funny?

Questions I'm sure will never get answered. Needless to say, neither Josh or Brent made it to work or school on time.

More on the shoes... Josh really dislikes wearing shoes. He would rather go barefoot than have to wear his shoes. Of course, we wouldn't be good parents if we let him slice his feet up and tear up his toes. So, we have to be mean parents and make him wear his shoes. On the other hand, we have a dog who loves our shoes. He never tears them up.. he just has to have them near him and collects them from our closet and wherever else they may be. So, enter the next shoe story.

"I want to go outside and play basketball."
"Put your shoes on"
"I don't want to put my shoes on"
"Then you can't play outside"
"Fine I'll put my shoes on"
"I have my shoes on and I'm going outside"
"Okay be careful"

So, of course I go to check to see if he really has his shoes on and this is what I see.




Apparently he couldn't find the matching shoe to either pair so he improvised. In all fairness, I never said the shoes had to match.....

November was very rough on us physically. For about 3 weeks straight we passed around the stomach virus and whatever else was going around. It seemed like someone was always sick. That was not a fun time. I think we are finally over that!

Thanksgiving was nice. We stayed home for Thanksgiving Day. We had our own little family feast of Cajun Turkey and some fixins. It was nice to not have to travel anywhere that day.


Random pics of the kids, trying to get a picture for the Christmas card.





Christmas was very nice this year. On Christmas Eve we went to Brent's family's house and later that afternoon to his grandmother's house. It was nice to see everyone after such a long time. We didn't go last Christmas since it was too close to my due date and we didn't see anyone for Easter since Josh was having his surgery on his arm. My how everyone had changed!

We thought Jacob would be more into opening presents this year with his first Christmas since he would be almost 1. He was actually more interested in playing with the wrapping. Enjoy the random pics of the kids Christmas.














Jacob giving love to new cousin Logan.



Anyway, that about sums up our holiday season. Hope everyone had a great Christmas just as we did and have a wonderful 2009!

Playing with my Bubba

Hmmm... What's this hole in bubba's tummy?

















Practicing my climbing skills

Success!

Josh made the A Honor Roll again and had Perfect Attendance! YEAH JOSH!!!!!
Mommy and Daddy are so proud!

Halloween

Enjoy the pics from Halloween 2008.
Josh was a goblin with a bleeding chest and Jacob was a monkey. His hat has a banana sitting on top of it but he wouldn't keep it on after these pictures!

October 21, 2008

I had to take Jacob to the dr. again today. He has not been himself the last few days. He's been fussy, pulling his ear, and waking up multiple times at night. His left ear was fine, right ear had some fluid behind it. They said it wasn't infected but they gave us antibiotics anyway to keep it from getting infected. He also got the second dose of his flu shot. Poor baby!

On a side note, my poor kitty Tink is at the vet. After I took Jacob to the dr. I had to take Tink in too. His whole right jaw has been so swollen and his breath horrid. They thought it had to do with his bartonella that he has but is was actually a tumor that grew in the inside of his jaw and then burst. He has to stay overnight and they are running labs to see what's going on. For those that don't know, I have had Tink since I was in high school. He is 15 years old. Will keep you posted on poor Tink.

Catching Up

Gosh the time sure has gone by fast. I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated!

I guess I need to go all the way back to July. Jacob was baptized on July 27th. I know he was a little old compared to the normal timeline of 3 months but our church has been searching for a new pastor and we were hoping to get a new one before the baptism. Anyway, we finally decided to quit waiting and get it done. He was great. He looked so cute in his little baptism outfit too.

Then the weekend of August 3 we decided to take a mini vacation. We went to an Astros game on August 3. Jacob's first one. He did amazing.. never cried once. He got a little startled when people started clapping all together and yelling at once. He even fell asleep. We had fun and the 'Stros even one that one!
The next day we went to the Holocaust Museum. Josh didn't find that very fun but Brent and I found in fascinating. We need to go back when we don't have someone screaming, "Can we please go now!" over and over and over again.
Then we went to the Children's Museum. I think Josh found this a little young for him but he still found somethings that he thought were pretty cool. Make sure you check out the cow photo. He thought that was hilarious.

We were going to go to the Museum of Natural Science and Grossology exhibit but Josh decided he wanted to go to the Downtown Aquarium instead. So we cut our vacation somewhat short and decided to head home since the Aquarium is on our way. Josh is fascinated by ocean life and sea creatures so I think he enjoyed this part the most. They had added a couple of things since the last time we were there as well so we got to discover a little more.

The hotel that we stayed in was nice but within 20 minutes our smoke alarm was going off and we could smell something burning. Apparently our air conditioner was malfunctioning and we had to be moved to a new room. What's a vacation without at least one mishap right?

Josh had started to get somewhat bored towards the end of the summer and he had seen a show, can't remember which one, where someone owned a hamster. He somehow got it in his head that he wanted one and had to have it. We let him go about a week thinking he would let this idea go, but he hung onto it until we couldn't take it anymore and finally gave in. So our new edition to the family is Oscar the Hamster. He is actually kinda cute and Josh plays with alot. Even Jacob loves Oscar. He says "AH AH" when he sees him. We'd like to think that he's trying to say Oscar. He tries very hard to be gentle but we eventually have to put him away. Josh is scared Jacob will murder him... Josh's words.

Summer finally came to an end and the kids and myself started back to school on August 25th. Josh likes his new teachers and is really enjoying second grade. SECOND GRADE!! Can you believe it. I can't. It just has gone by too fast. His friend Alexa is in his class again as well as Sarah. He's known them since they were all about 1 year old.

We switched Jacob's daycare to the same place that Josh and his friends attended Mother's Day Out. Most of the same workers are still there after all these years and it's a church based school. There was nothing wrong with the daycare we had him out... there's just more of a comfort level for me knowing most of the workers there.
He seems to really enjoy it. He has been moved to the Wobbler Room now, even though he's only 9 months, because he is already pulling up on stuff, letting go and standing for short periods of time, and walking while he's holding on to stuff. He never stops moving.

Then came Ike. We did stay here in Conroe. I still can't believe the eye came right through here. We boarded up the biggest main window downstairs, took some mattresses ,blankets, etc all downstairs and that's where we were when Ike came through. At 6:30 a.m. I went upstairs to check around.. just to make sure. Everything was fine except our master bedroom. Water was pouring in from our ceiling fan. By the time Ike was over we had water coming down from various spots in our ceiling and water coming down the walls. Our walls had bubbles in them from all the water. Our carpet was soaked. So, we pulled up the carpet and put our mattress in the game room and that's where Brent and I have been sleeping since Ike. We finally have someone coming to fix our roof this coming week. It's been hard finding someone who isn't trying to rip us off. Hopefully it won't take too long to get the new sheetrock and carpet in our room. We are so ready to have our bed back! We were without electricity for about 6 days but never lost our hot water, so we still had our usual showers everyday and since we had a gas stove we were still able to cook things from cans and boxes. We did lose everything in our fridge and we grilled most of the stuff in our freezer before it went bad. Thankfully that's all that happened. We know how much worse it could have been and have heard stories that were horrible. We know that we are very fortunate. Brent stayed busy during Hurricane Ike. He was working 12 hour shifts to make sure they could get their service up and keep it going. It was an exhausting week.

A couple of weeks later was Josh's 8th birthday! The plan was for him to have a bunch of guys over to play and have all of them spend the night, but since we are sleeping in our gameroom and Josh's room isn't big enough to have 6 boys in there on the floor, we let him have one friend spend the night. We started picking up his friends at 1:00 p.m. We took them to the movies, came back to the house, and they played outside, basketball, football, soccer, etc. We had cake and pizza and then they played more in the house.. mostly video games and Rock Band. We took all of them home except one at 9:00 p.m. It was a crazy day! He had so much fun.. they didn't even stay up too late. The next day we went to church and had a nice family day for his actual birthday.

Last weekend we went to visit my family in Bay City. Jacob was a ham and thought he could basically run the place... which he did. Who else gets to just sit on top of a table when they feel like it?

Jacob is now 9 months and weighs 22 pounds. His weight gain is slowing down some but I think it's because he's so active now. He is everywhere and into everything. As I said before he crawls, pulls up on anything he can, walks holding on to objects, and will even let go and stand for a few seconds. I'm waiting for the day for him to just let go and take off. He seems to enjoy being around people and being outside. He is such a happy baby. He rarely cries.. unless he's hungry or wants something he can't have. We have been truly blessed with our two wonderful boys.

I hope that pretty much has everyone caught up and didn't leave anything out. Hope everyone enjoys!

Summer Fun

For the last few weeks I've been taking pictures but have been a little lapse on posting the pics. These are just a few of the pics of my boys from the last few weeks.


Side note: Jacob is 6 months old now.. He weighs 20 pounds but before people start to freak out, he's exactly where he's suppose to be. It's double the birth weight at six months so that means he's growing as he should!

Josh is enjoying summer although he is just a little bored, however he is a huge homebody so I don't think he minds staying at home most of the time.

Jacob's Bedtime

Jacob normally goes to bed at 7PM. Usually dinner is around 5:30, bath around 6:30, a
6 oz bottle around 7 and then he is out for the night. But occasionally he begs to stay up a little later. Here is his latest response when told it was getting past his bed time and he needed to go night night.

Very Funny

Every now and then, Jacob gets in a mood where everything is hysterical to him. He started kinda chuckling a couple of weeks ago but now he has found his real laugh. A couple of nights ago, I was letting Jacob jump on my stomach. He must have hit my bladder just right because all of sudden I had to go. So, I just happened to mention to him that "Mommy has to go tee tee really bad" and this apparently was very comical for him. We hadn't had a chance to get his laugh on video yet, but Brent got the camera as fast as he could. I apologize for this footage being so raw.

Jacob also started "talking" last week. He didn't do it as much as he normally does in this clip, but at times he can carry on a conversation quite nicely!

Gone Fishing

Sunday morning Josh and Brent went fishing with Brent's dad, Pepaw, on the Brazos River. Josh's cousin Matthew, Aunt Rachel, and Uncle Chris were also there. Five fish were caught in all. They all had fun despite the heat.

Reflux update

Well, Jacob went to have his upper GI done this morning. He couldn't have anything to eat 2 hours before he went and his appointment was at 8:30 a.m. So, his last bottle was at 5:00 a.m. Of course even though we get there at 8:15 we still don't get seen until after 9:00 a.m. By that time he was not a happy boy. My boy is an eater and he wanted his bottle. So, we get him in there and they have him drink a 2 oz. bottle of Barium. Now at this point, I don't Jacob would have cared what he was eating... he was just happy to be getting food- but that little 2 oz. was a teaser for him and he was SO MAD when there wasn't any more coming out. He screamed pretty much the entire rest of the exam. After the exam I went and fed him in the lobby. There was no way I was going to make him wait until we got home to eat.

The exam itself was pretty painless. After watching the barium go down his esophagus and into his stomach they turned him on his different sides a couple of times to see what would happen. Thankfully nothing happened at all. The little gate that is between your esophagus and stomach stayed closed the entire time and didn't let anything back up so that was a good sign. They said everything is fine in his digestive track so that just means that he has really bad acid reflux and hopefully he'll outgrow it once he starts eating more solid foods. I hope so!

Recap and Looking Ahead

Well, we've had some milestones happening in the Kovar household.

First off, Josh went to his first sleep over last weekend.. April 26. His friend Grant had a birthday and all he wanted was a couple of friends to spend the night and play video games. Josh was really excited at first, and Brent and I had our doubts about him actually staying the whole night. Josh has never stayed the night anywhere except at grandma's. He has never stayed at a friend's house before.

So, we prepare him and at first he's all ready to go, but the more he thinks about it the more he's deciding he doesn't want to stay the night. So, we make a deal: He goes to the party and takes an overnight bag just in case he decides he wants to stay, but if he doesn't he can call and we will come get him. He says, "Okay, we can try that." Well, at about 8:30 that night, we start watching the clock- waiting for that phone call we are certain is coming. Then, 9:00, 10:00, 10:30, 11:00 rolls around and no phone call. We stayed up until midnight waiting for that sure- to-come phone call. Finally, we go to bed just knowing we will be waking up the minute we go to sleep. However, that phone call never came. Not only did he stay there the entire night... he didn't come home until 5:00 the next afternoon! It felt very weird not having him at home. The saddest part was when we were packing his overnight bag. Brent packed his blanket that Great Grandma Margie made for him when he was first born. He loves that blanket and for the longest has carried it everywhere. He won't tell people but he still sleeps with it at night. So, Brent of course, packs his blanket. Josh informs us he DOES NOT want to take his blanket to the party because he doesn't want to look like a baby. I have to admit, it made me sad to hear it, but I think it devastated Brent. It really hit home that he really is growing up.... it went by way too fast. But it is comforting to know that when he got back home and went to sleep that night, he wanted his blanket, so maybe he's not growing as fast as it seems.

He goes back to the doctor for his arm on May 21st to get the green light(hopefully) to resume all normal activities. He's been very careful with it but he is getting very impatient about not getting to do much.

Jacob is finally over his ear infections! Yeah! Now, if we could just get rid of the projectile vomiting. Jacob's acid reflux has been getting worse so on Tuesday we will be going to have an Upper GI done. He has vomited so much in the last couple of weeks and it doesn't matter if we feed him 1 oz., 2oz., 4, he still throws it up. It comes out of his nose and mouth and just keeps coming like a fountain. We've had him on acid reflux medication, acid reducers, and changed to soy formula and nothing seems to help so maybe the UGI will show something tomorrow. If not, hopfully he'll outgrow it in the next few months.

Good news is that he keeps gaining weight. A couple of weeks ago he went to the doctor and weighed 15.7lbs. On Thursday May 1st he went and weighed 16.5 lbs. That's almost 1 lb. in 2 weeks! He will be 4 months old on May 9th. He started eating baby food this weekend as well. Pears. I love watching babies get that first taste of something new. I put the pears in his mouth, he sat there for a second taking it in, and then his face broke into a huge toothless grin. I love that part. It's what Josh did as a baby as well the first time he got to eat fruit.

Brent and I have been doing great. Busy busy busy. Right now I'm counting down the days until school is out. Of course, I have to take my ESL test and Generalist 4-8 test in the summer. So, as soon as school lets out I'll be studying so I can pass that the first time.


So, more updates sure to come as the boys continue to grow and amaze us everyday!

Cast off!

This morning Josh had his cast removed and the pins pulled out. He was scared. First, he was scared the saw would cut his arm off, then he was scared it would hurt when the Dr. pulled the pins out. So first the assistant showed Josh the saw blade was plastic, he even grabbed it while it was running and showed him the blade wouldn't hurt him. This seemed to ease him a little bit. So with a few cuts of the saw, and some trimming with a pair of scissors, the cast came off. Yay!!



Once the cast was off, Josh did NOT want to look at the pins. He shielded his eyes and turned away. The Dr. grabbed a pair of pliers and basically just pulled them out. It was pretty painful for him, but they came out quickly. They wrapped his elbow in a small wrap that he has to wear until this Friday. Once we were done, there was only one place to go. McDonalds!!!

So Josh is back home now and happy to have his cast and pins out. He just has to avoid physical activity for one more month to let his bones continue to heal.

Happenings

It'a been a busy couple of weeks.

"The boys" have not been well at all. Last week Jacob starting throwing up his food pretty much all the time. Every time we fed him it was a sure bet it was coming back up. His nasal congestion that he has had for the last month and a half started to get worse. The vomiting continued throughout the weekend and then he started having diarrhea so on Monday afternoon I took Jacob to the doctor again. He had a double ear infection still, an Upper Respitory Infection, the Rotovirus, and they believe all his congestion and ear infections are due to a milk allergy. So, another round of antibiotics for him, change his formula to soy, which is what we had to do with Josh too as a baby, and start him on oatmeal to thicken up his diarrhea. After two days of the soy formula it seemed that Jacob was doing better. Then Wednesday morning, Josh's school calls and he is running a fever of over 100 and can someone please come and get him. Since I took off Tuesday to stay home with Jacob, Brent took off Wednesday to go get Josh. We figured with so much going around right now he probably just picked up some 24 hour bug from someone. Then Wednesday afternoon Jacob's daycare called. He has thrown up twice and has 3 diarrhea diapers. So, I call Brent and he picks up Jacob too. Later that night Josh starts having tummy issues as well. So, Brent stayed home on Thursday with both sick boys. What a wonderful Mr. Mom he is! I am out of days so Brent has been having to take off alot. When I take off I don't get paid now since all of my days were used up on maternity leave. On Friday, everyone was well and went back to school, work, etc. Hopefully we can keep them well... we are exhausted!

Good news though....
Josh gets his cast off and the pins taken out on Monday! Yeah! He is very excited about this and a little worried about if it will hurt. I'm more anxious about keeping him from re-injuring it once the cast comes off since it'll be pretty weak. He is still going to have to be very careful.

Jacob turned 3 months on April 9th. Jacob is now 15lbs 7 oz. and 24 inches long. He is in the 90th percentile for weight, and the 50th for height and head circumference. They said he's pretty much staying on his curve and not jumping around, so despite his relatively big number in weight for his age... he's gaining exactly what he should right now! He is also very ticklish and laughs and smiles when you tickle him in just the right spots!

The nose congestion is gone too since we have placed him on soy. What a relief to not hear him so congested and having problems breathing! Hopefully since the nose and head congestion is gone the reflux will stop and so will the ear infections.

So, next week starts a new week and hopefully a better trend to all the sickness. I hope the boys will stay healthy and happy. Never in a million years did Brent and I think we would be so lucky to be blessed with the beautiful boys that we have in our lives right now. They bring us joy each and every day and no matter what chaos that having two boys brings and will surely bring in the future, we would never change anything that we have or will experience with them.

Just an update

Just a quick update on our boys...

Josh is doing better with his arm. He is having to use less and less pain medication now and Motrin seems to be doing the trick. He is back at school, which seems to have helped too, although he does get upset to see everyone getting to participate in things he can't right now. His next appointment is on April 9th in downtown Houston.

Jacob went to the doctor yesterday to recheck his ear infection and it's still there. They put him on Augmentin but the first night he took it he threw it back up 4 hours later. We'll try again tonight to see if it is the medication making him sick or if it was just coincidence. Jacob now weighs 15lbs and 3 oz. which the doctor said was perfect considering his size at birth.

Did I Say Things Were Back to Normal?

I believe on the last post I did. Hahahaha.. guess that joke was on me!

Spring Break was this past week and for me there wasn't much of a break. I was glad to have the break from work but with two kids at home there's never much time for rest. So, when Josh's Memaw called and asked if she could have him for the weekend along with his cousin Matthew, we thought.. that would be nice..just one kid at home and a small break before things start getting crazy with baseball and back to work again. Plus, we knew he would have a great time at Memaw and Pepaw's.

Saturday, as I was leaving Walmart, Brent calls to say that Josh has had an "accident." What kind of accident? Hit his head? Bleeding? What?

Apparently he fell off a playground device, grandma and Josh don't know what it's called, but it's about 4 feet off the ground, and landed wrong on his arm. When I met them to pick him up, his arm was swollen, he couldn't move it, and it was starting to bruise, and he was in pain. So, I just took him straight to the ER, expecting to have to wait hours as usual. We surprisingly got in 10 minutes after we got there. They took X-rays and of course it's broken. So I'm thinking, okay, they set it, he gets a cast, we go home-but of course it's not that simple.

He broke his arm above his elbow.. pretty common injury for kids this age. However, he also displaced the growth plates and bones in his elbow and so they have to be moved back into place and, naturally, it can't be done here in our town at this hospital. So, plan B, they ambulance us to Texas Children's so we can go to a Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon. Surgeon? Well, yes, they say, he has to have surgery to put the bones back in place. Oh wow... sooooo, a couple of hours later we get our ambulance ride to Texas Children's. We're admitted and we get a room. The surgery was supposed to happen that night but at about 11:00 p.m. they told us it wouldn't happen until Sunday morning. So, bright and early Sunday morning he was taken into surgery. Thankfully, everything went fine and he has 3 pins placed in his elbow and a cast on to hold everything in place until he heals. They finally released us from the hospital on Monday before noon. He's doing okay except for the pain. I guess the first few days are going to be pretty painful for him but hopefully it will lessen as we get further into this week. He has been such a brave boy and such a little trooper. Hardly any tears at all even though we told him it was okay if he wanted to cry. I know I'd be crying if it were me!

We have to go back next Monday to see the doctor and then in 3-4 weeks to have the cast taken off and the pins taken out. After that, the doctors don't want him doing anything for 2 months so he doesn't re-break or re-injure it.

He is very happy to be back home and the best part.. he doesn't go to school this week. The doctor wants him home this entire week. He thought that was great... until I told him that I was calling his teacher to have his school work sent home for him to work on so he doesn't get behind. Apparently, that's not too big of a deal for him since he gets to stay at home and do it. His grandma's will be down taking care of him while Brent and I are at work so they can also help him with it.

This also means baseball season is officially over for him this year. He was a little disappointed about that but thankfully not crushed. We told him we may still go to a couple of his games just to see his team play this year.

Thankfully, everything has turned out good so far and we are very lucky to have some wonderful friends here that helped us out tremendously with Jacob. Thanks to them, everything went so much better and we knew we didn't have to worry because Jacob was in great hands.

Below are pictures of Josh in the hospital at Texas Children's. He can't wait for everyone to sign his cast!

Josh after surgery with cast.

Josh getting his hair "washed"...no he's not naked.

Josh happy to be going home soon.

Random thoughts and happenings!

Well, things are pretty much normal now.... Brent and I are working, Josh goes to school, Jacob to daycare, and baseball season has started. We stay busy, which is good. I am trying really hard to keep up with the updates but time gets away from me so fast now-a-days!

So what's been going on in the Kovar's world?

Well, we are about to put our house back on the market. We just had new carpet put in all upstairs and it really does make a difference. Hopefully it'll sell this time around. It was this time last year that we put it on the market and we had a lot of lookers last year, just no offers.

We have baseball practice 2 nights a week right now, which lasts for about 2 hours. Josh was hesitant at first because of all new teammates. I think he expected to have the same team from last year. He's getting more into it now that he's getting to know the new kids. Their first game is coming up next week.

Josh recently went to a skating party. It was the first time he had ever been on skates so we were wondering how he would do. He actually did very well. He fell down a few times but got the hang of it pretty quick. (See pic below) I have a feeling this is what he will want to do for his birthday party this year.

Josh's first time on skates!

He is still doing good in school. He, like the rest of us, is starting to realize that summer will soon be here and is starting to count down the days. What does he want to do this summer? Sleep he says.... such a little man already!

Jacob is growing like crazy. He's now eating up to 6 ozs. every feeding, but the best news... He sleeps through the night! YEAH!!!!!! He usually goes down anywhere between 7-8 and isn't waking up until about 4-5. We feed him again and usually goes right back to sleep until we wake him up to get ready for daycare. Some mornings he is up for the day at about 5 and that is tough but thankfully it doesn't happen that often.

On the downside.. he's been having to go to the doctor for one thing after another. Of course, first was jaundice, then the acid reflux. A couple of weeks ago he got a mild case of thrush. Not a big deal at first... until we discovered that the pharmacy had messed up on the prescription label and we had been overdosing him for 3 days. The doctor wrote the prescription for 1 mL, 3x a day. When we picked up the prescription it said 1 tsp 3x a day for 14 days. On the 3rd day we had already run out of the prescription. So we called the pharmacy thinking maybe they didn't have any big bottles to put it in at the time, maybe they forgot to put the refills on there, etc. When they looked it up on the computer, all I heard on the other line was "Oops, that's a mistake. That's supposed to read 1mL 3x a day." Not what you want to hear when you are giving your newborn medication. So, of course, me being me, freaked out and went off on them, called the Dr. etc. Thankfully no longterm side effects, just a bad case of diarrhea, but my mind would not stop going to the what if's. What if it had been a different med.. what if something had happened in the middle of the night and we didn't know because we thought he was sleeping.. etc.. So be cautious! Always double check with the doctor before you leave about what you're giving them and how much and then double check your directions and dosage on the labels. Seems like you would do that anyway but we never gave it a second thought. Dr. would write a prescription and then we would have it filled and just assume that everyone did their part correctly and no worries. We will never make that mistake again.

Anyway, so after that was over.. we noticed congestion. Thought it was probably allergies since it's becoming Spring and everything's in bloom- but it wouldn't go away and he started to have dry boogers in his nose... so I took him in this past Saturday morning to the doctor again... the verdict? A full blown ear infection in one ear and another starting in the other one... Lovely! Why the sarcasm? Josh started having ear infections from 6 weeks old until 14 months when we finally got tubes. It was a year of hell with that for us and for Josh. So now, we have begun now with Jacob too. However, we already told them that we will NOT wait as long as we did with Josh to get tubes. If we are still dealing with ear infections by the time he is 6 months, we will be getting tubes and getting that over with- for him and for us. He goes back in a week to see if the infection is gone or not.

On a brighter side, even though he has been sick, he seems to still be pretty happy. He has found his smile and what a beautiful smile it is... I love those gummy ear to ear grins! We started noticing it on the changing table. We would lay him down and he would turn his head and start grinning from ear to ear. We thought "Man he really likes having his diaper changed." Then we realized what he was smiling about. We have his comforter hanging on the wall above his changing table. He is fascinated by it. (See pics below)

Jacob looking at comforter

Pic of comforter

Jacob smiling at comforter

All in all he's a really happy baby. He has his moments but then again all babies ( and kids for that matter) do. Brent and I realize everyday how lucky and blessed we truly are with our two boys we have is our lives.

Below are more random pics of Jacob. Our next post will have lots of pics of both Josh and Jacob. So stay tuned and check back often!

Jacob bundled up after a bath

Very happy after his bath

~Smiles~

~More smiles~

What a week and more!!

Well, maternity leave ended for me on the 25th of this month so on Monday it was back to work. That felt very strange. As many of you know, I stayed home with Josh for 5 years before working. I had never experienced having to leave my child in the hands of someone else for so long at such a young age. Heartbreaking. I started crying Saturday, continued on Sunday, and of course on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I think Thursday was the first day I didn't cry but it still feels strange walking out of there without my baby. He is the 2nd youngest(7 weeks) in there. Most of the babies in there are crawling and getting ready to start walking. I know they hold him a lot when I am not there and he is in great hands. They document everything, the communication is great, and there are 3 people in there for about 7-8 kids. Not a bad ratio. Anyway, he seems to have adjusted well. He's finally starting to sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time there. The only draw back.... He already has a cold! Not that I didn't think he wouldn't get sick, but it's scary when they are so little. I'm actually not sure if he got the cold from school or from Josh. Josh has had a very stopped up nose this week and a cough so it's very possible he got it from his big brother. I know how quickly it can turn from a cold to worse so we'll be sure this weekend that he gets plenty of sleep and TLC and no contact with anyone other than us. He also has a rash on both of his cheeks that he started getting at about 6 weeks, but the Dr. thinks it's just the hormone rash that some babies get.

Josh is doing great. I think he's ready for Spring Break. He's getting so tall and so witty. You can tell when he speaks that he gets his sarcasm from his mom and dad. For instance, this morning Josh was being very demanding and practically giving orders right and left to us. He had us running around like crazy until I realized that, "Hey, who does this 7 year old think he is?" So we had a little discussion about who's in charge, how we need to ask when we want something and not demand it, yell it, or order it from someone. As I was leaving the room after this discussion, here's how our next discussion went.

Josh: "Can you push play on the DVD player?"
Mommy: "Sure... Is there anything else I can get for you, Your Majesty?"
Josh: "No, but I would like a massage!" (Then of course he laughs)

Now, I'm not sure exactly where he came up with that line, but it had Brent and I practically rolling on the floor and also in a state of disbelief about how sarcastic he really is. But like I said, it's not like we don't know where he gets it from, but I can already imagine the phone calls from teachers at school as he gets older!

I think our schedules are finally getting back to normal with just a couple of things added here and there. Josh has started baseball now and has practice on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-7 so when I get off, it's run to get Josh, then Jacob, then turn around and run to the ballfield, wait for Brent to get there and then turn around and take Jacob home and try to get dinner started. Then they come home after practice, try to eat, get homework, and to bed in a decent hour. The other days are a little less stressful but nonetheless it is an adventure now with 2 instead of 1 but I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything!

So, for those wondering how my first week back at work went....

There is definitely something in the air making the kids go crazy. I guess you could call it Spring Fever. I will admit that I am pretty strict with my kids at school, I expect alot from them not only academically, but also when it comes to responsibility and manners. I guess you could say they forgot about these things while I was on leave so it's been a week of re-establishing who's in charge and finding their manners again. I made 3 phone calls home, took up 2 Nintendo DS's, caught a kid lying to my face, dealt with some attitude adjustments, had a parent teacher conference, and was called a "**tch that trys to act black." (for that one I wrote a referral!) I also came back to find out that my window for my teaching observation starts next week and ends on the 15th. So all in all, an interesting week back to say the least and of course, it's business as usual!!

Happy Valentine's Day

I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post but not really much has been going on. The Kovar household is still making adjustments and trying to get on schedule.

Josh had his Valentine's Day party at school today. I never get to attend these events because of work, so luckily with maternity leave I was able to go to the party today. He had fun and got lots of Valentine's, candy, and lots of little girls wishing him Happy Valentine's Day. I think our little man is quite the heart-breaker already! He has been a little unsure lately about how much attention Jacob gets but today he couldn't wait to show him off to his friends. He insisted that I bring Jacob with me. I was a little worried about getting him around all those kids - lets face it, the flu season has been horrible this year- but Josh's teacher Mrs. Garlock was great about explaining to the kids how "we have 1st grade germs on us and we have to make sure the baby stays clean." The kids were great. They kept telling Josh how cool his little brother was. He had fun at the party and was excited to get to leave school early.Below are some pics from the party.

Josh the class clown!!

Checking out his Valentine's goodies

Getting a Valentine from his friend

Picture time with best bud Alexa!

Waiting on Valentine grub!

Handing out Valentines

Josh's teacher holding Jacob

Jacob at 1 month and 5 days old!
(and half asleep!)

Jacob is now 1 month and 5 days old. He had to go to the doctor again today thanks to his acid reflux. He has had such a hard time with that so Dr. Mac is increasing his dosage of Prevacid to reduce the acid and starting him on something else that will help (hopefully) control the acid reflux. If he is not doing better by next Wed/Thurs. then they want to do an ultrasound on his belly. I'll make sure to keep you updated on that when/if we get to it. On a good note though, the reflux doesn't appear to be affecting his weight gain! Jacob is now up to 12 pounds and 1 ounce! What a big boy. In one month he has lost weight, gained it back, and added 2 more pounds to himself! He is up to about 3 1/2 - 4 ounces every 2-3 hours and sleeps good at night. Usually only wakes up about 2-3 times a night. We've been very fortunate so far!
Enjoy the pics!

Weight Check

Just letting everyone know - Jacob's weight check went fine. He's now 10 lbs 6 ounces so he is finally back up to birth weight and then some! We did have to put him on Prevacid due to his acid reflux. Hopefully it'll only be for 1-2 months and then it'll stop. Other than that he's still as healthy as can be!

Do they look alike?

Many people have asked us if Josh and Jacob look alike at this newborn age. Brent and I think they do and that the resemblance is obvious, except that Josh was blonde, fair skinned and Jacob has darker hair and darker skin and is just a little bit chunkier. I went back into some pictures and actually found my pics of Josh as a newborn and at 3 weeks, which is the same age that Jacob is today. So, below are those photos for you to compare and decide for yourself whether or not they look alike.




Josh as a newborn



Jacob as a newborn



Josh at 3 weeks old



Jacob at 3 weeks old