new kicks

Our friends Jessica & Jarrod got Davis these baby Puma tennis shoes. They are so adorable, I just had to post a picture. Thank you, Reimers!

brotherly love

The boys were on their best behavior for this shot...keep it up boys, Santa is watching!

Bonner Family Christmas

Dear Grandad & Grandma Nancy,
Thank you for my new Handy Manny tool bench! What a cool gift--I love it! I will try to take good care of it until baby brother is ready to play with it, too. Merry Christmas!

Love, Carter

Grandad & Grandma Nancy came to our house to meet Davis and celebrate an early Christmas with us over the weekend. We had a great visit! They are such over-qualified babysitters and treated Sean & me to a night out (their treat!) while they stayed home with the boys on Saturday night. It was wonderful! The boys enjoyed the special attention and Sean & I loved getting out of the house, sans children!

Dad, Carter, Nancy & me before Sean and I left for our night out.

Three generations: Dad, Carter & me

Grandad with Davis

Grandad with his two favorite Beilmans

Just the boys (I think this was taken while Sean was busy working on the addition to the dog kennel out back, but that's a whole other story...)

Can you tell these two are related?

Daddy & Davis

Davis loves to snuggle, he is such a sweet baby. Here are some shots of him with Sean.

I love how his little hand is reaching for Sean's arm.

Looking up to Daddy already!

Santa Sighting #2

Every year, Sean's office has a special visit from Santa. He is fortunate to work for a very family-friendly company. Carter has gone the past two years, but last year was kind of a disaster as Carter screamed bloody murder when Sean put him on Santa's lap. This year was a big improvement...we didn't get a smile, but there were also no tears.

Santa brings a stuffed animal & book to each child, with a little help from his elves.

Davis's first time meeting Santa! Less than a month old and already schmoozing it up with the big guy!

pizza party

Sunday evening, we had some of our friends over for a last-minute pizza party to celebrate the holidays and introduce Davis! We are so fortunate to have very dear, thoughtful friends...everyone brought over a "big brother gift" for Carter. We were blown away and Carter felt very special. Thanks so much to everyone!

Carter playing with car #1 from Jarrod & Jessica. Yes, they BOTH make a ton of noise!
Jarrod helping Carter figure out how to make the car jam out. Thanks, Jarrod!

Me with Kelly & Jessica. Too bad I forgot to get the camera out before Adam & Leah left. Leah is the cutest pregnant woman & I wanted to get a picture of her! We are excited to meet baby Owen in a few weeks!

Monkey Bizness

Over the weekend, we discovered a little piece of heaven on earth...Monkey Bizness. It is an indoor play area where toddlers & preschoolers can run wild while their parents sit by and sip lattes. Genius!!! I have a feeling this is the beginning of a long-term relationship.

Sean comforting Carter after a run-in with another toddler.
That orange balloon was quite a hit.

View of the jumping and climbing structure. Pretty cool!

Speed slide.

Sean was the only dad in the climbing jungle, but nobody seemed to mind. Davis was content to snuggle in the baby K'tan the whole time big brother was playing. This time next year, we will be chasing two rowdy boys around this place!

Santa Train

Santa Sighting #1...

While Davis & I were in the ER, Sean and Carter went to see Santa at the Railroad Museum. We were planning to go as a family, but Davis had other ideas. Sean said Carter did really well and loved seeing the trains. No surprise!

Playing with the coal door.

Check out this HUGE train!

I forget what Sean told me about this train, but it sure looks impressive! I'll have to ask him to fill in the gaps for our train-enthusiast readers. :-)

ER visit #2

After over two years with no ER visits for Carter, we have had our second visit in one week! Not the kind of stats I am proud to report. On Saturday morning, I noticed blood in Davis's diaper & called the pediatrician. Since they don't have office hours on the weekend, I spoke to the triage nurse who wanted me to take him to the ER right away. I was happy to wait & see if it would happen again because he was eating fine, peeing fine and acting fine. There was nothing of concern to me other than the blood. When it happened again, I knew we had to take him in just to make sure it wasn't something serious.

After three hours in the ER and some lab tests, it was determined that Davis has a milk protein allergy. We put him on soy formula to see if that would take care of it. However, a large percentage of kiddos who have a milk protein allergy are also allergic to soy. If that happens with Davis, he will need to be started on a milk & soy-free formula that is EXPENSIVE!!! Hopefully, that is not the case. So far, he seems to be tolerating the soy ok. We are going in for follow-up on Friday so I am keeping my fingers crossed!

3's

Before I became a nurse, I never really considered myself to be a superstitious person. That's all changed now. Now I know that: 1) working when there's a full moon means you're in for a CRAZY night, 2) saying it's a "slow" or "quiet" shift jinxes you and you need to be prepared for an onslaught of patients and 3)bad things come in threes. It's all true.

Within the past week we have had our run of threes in bad luck. Last Friday, our washer broke with a full load of whites during the rinse cycle. Off to Home Depot we went! Also last Friday, I found out that my FMLA from work was approved (which I already knew) but that my job was only "protected" for the first four weeks (stupid broken arm last year). Long story short, I am probably going to have to go back to work after eight weeks of maternity leave instead of the 12 weeks I was planning on. BIG bummer! Really big.

And for our third luck-buster, I took Carter to the ER at Children's on Sunday for a "raging" ear infection, according to the pediatrician. He had been running a fever for three days and was clearly in a lot of pain. I am happy to say that after several days of amoxicillin and TLC, he is feeling MUCH better! Poor boy!

So, the Beilman family is closed to bad luck business. We have reached our quota!

two week check-up

On Monday I took Davis to his two-week doctor's visit. He is doing well & thriving. His weight was 8# 12 oz, so not quite back up to birth weight, but he is getting close. They were not concerned since he is gaining, but we are going back in another two weeks just to make sure he is still on the right track. AND, his jaundice is totally resolved now--yea!! His circumcision is completely healed & his cord just fell off this morning. That makes diaper changes & bathtime SO much easier! Keep your fingers crossed for good weight gain over the next two weeks...

Handsome boy!

Oh, mom!!!

big brother

Can't remember if I blogged this already or not, but Carter refers to Davis as "big brother". I think this is because we had been reading the book "I'm a Big Brother Now" to him during my pregnancy. So far he hasn't understood that he's the big brother, although he does realize Davis is a baby. Anyway, it is pretty cute nonetheless.
After bathtime, Davis was snug & warm in his little seat.

Check out the fuzzy "do"!

Not sure what to think of all this...

I'll hold him, but I'm not happy about it!

first bath

Davis finally got his first bath the other day. Surprising what things get away from you with baby #2. Davis was probably starting to feel a little ripe, so I was happy to see he tolerated the bath well and seemed pretty happy afterwards.




He has a bad case of newborn rash. Hopefully it clears up before family photos next week!

Giving mommy the evil eye for making him wait so long for a bath...

To my dear husband...

I just wanted to take a moment to share my appreciation for my sweet husband. Sean has been so supportive and helpful throughout the pregnancy and since I've come home from the hospital. He is very hands-on with both boys and does the 3 am feedings and diaper-changes without a single complaint. I feel so fortunate to be on this journey with him (I cannot imagine being a single mom--yikes!) and am so glad that our boys will have Sean as a role model to look up to. He is patient and fair and just a wonderful father. Thank you, honey, for all that you do for our family every day. We love you!

Here are the flowers Sean had waiting for me when I came home from the hospital. (They still look good even a week later!) He also had gotten "brother" cards for both boys (very sweet--how many guys would have thought of that?!) and surprised me with a gift certificate to a local spa so I could pamper myself once things settle down around here. I'm super excited to use it!

Our first photo as a family of four. Maybe the next one will have both boys looking at the camera...I'm not holding my breath!

missing Mimi

There are times in life when a girl just needs her mom. We were fortunate enough to have my mom (Mimi) here for 10 days to help us with Carter while I was in the hospital and then with both boys after we brought Davis home. There is nobody else I would feel comfortable with doing my laundry (even if I asked her not to) or dealing with my hormonal post-partum mood swings. Mom took it all in stride and was there doing things for us before we even had a chance to ask. She tolerated the 5:30 am wake-up calls (courtesy of Carter), the constant chaos and the never-ending dirty dishes & laundry with a smile. She even made a yummy Thanksgiving dinner for us (with a little help from Super Target) the day after Davis & I came home!
There are probably a million other things that I can't even remember right now because we are all so sleep-deprived. It doesn't seem like enough, but I just wanted to say "thank you" to my wonderful mother for all of your help, your patience and your never-ending love of my boys (all three of them!). You are a blessing to us and we couldn't have done it without you! We love you, Mimi!

The flowers mom brought to me in the hospital.
Me, Davis, Mimi & Carter in front of the tree

Mimi brought Carter this cool t-shirt!

Mimi & Davis

Mimi & her two favorite boys! When we came home from dropping Mimi off at the airport last night, Carter said "Go inside to see Mimi?" He misses you already, Mom!

Snuggling with Davis