whobody is a sweetie?

This is the last big bunch of pictures in my "catch up" of Dirx's first few months. After this, hopefully I can do a few more detailed posts.

These pictures are from mid March to mid April…

Dirx was very difficult during these months. It was a huge struggle to try to keep him content, and keep my other kids happy. It is hard to have patience with the other 4 when the littlest is fussing constantly. :(  He was just not happy at all…but it seems we have that worked out now. For the most part, anyway! We were still FULL of love for him! I just struggled so much when I couldn't soothe him though. I was wishing he could talk so he could tell me what was wrong! Poor baby. It broke my heart. He is such a sweet little boy!

Now…as an almost 4 month old, he is a completely different baby, full of smiles and content most of the time (except the normal baby fussy time in the evening). I will take this any day! He has even slept through the night the last 6 nights (I hesitate to even type that…because it seems when I acknowledge stuff like that it changes…). 

So…here is month 3 in pictures.

[month three]

one of my favorite pictures… Cruz so jolly…and Dirx so serious!

Okay. Phew. Caught up…to Easter at least! I need more hours in the day!!!

 (Or, maybe I should just quit sleeping….)

whobody made it through 2 months?

[month one to month two]

These pictures are from mid-February to mid-March.  Again, so much happened…we had lots of great ti mes as a new family of 7…beginning with Dirx's first UNI basketball game.  We very bravely took all of the kids to a game in Cedar Falls…and surprisingly it went very well! (This was before the point when Dirx got fussy, thank goodness.)  Dirx hung out in a baby carrier…sleeping on Mommy pretty much the whole game.  Cruz, Nash and Lola did their best to give me an anxiety attack ;) by climbing around on the bleachers and going up and down the stairs to the bathroom and snack bar as much as they could.  And, Keaton, of course, enjoyed watching the game!

So sweet.

Nash in his mustache St. Patrick's day glasses…not even sure where these are now…but I do know they are broken. Hilarious. 

Cruz loves to dress up.

Lola had her very first sleepover birthday party at Alayna's house.  She let me do her hair curly for the occasion! She had a blast at the birthday party!

Keaton has taken on the role of being a super big brother to Cruzie…he takes very good care of him. They are "buddies" (as Cruz reminds me all of the time). 

 As of right now, Keaton and Cruz are sharing a room and Lola and Nash are sharing. 

 Cruz was on his own…

but he kept on sneaking into Keaton's room

…so we just moved him in there. 

Ahhh….the post bath baby picture…as you can see, he is "filling out". :) 

Nothing to do on a cold snowy day…how about a 'train ride'?

These 2 are buddies...

This is Cruz's hiding spot…every time. Love him!

Oh Nash…our halloween costumes are never 'put away'.

Keaton holding Dirx on his 9th birthday! Happy St. Patrick's Day.

We even went to the parade that day...

Another picture of Cruz helping me 'pump'. This is serious stuff. 

His yield isn't getting any better though.

Lola being creative with a box…homemade robot. 

Too funny.

Many nights, if we have nothing else going on, we will watch a little American Idol. 

Cruz likes to play along…

Shortly after Keaton's birthday, we hosted our first birthday sleepover. 

These boys had 

SO.MUCH.FUN.

Can I just tell you how sweet these boys were to Lola, Nash and Cruz? 

We had the 3 middle kids at grandma Reimer's for most of the evening, but brought them home at bedtime.  These sweet boys invited the younger kids to watch their movie with them.  

They were all especially sweet to Cruz…carrying him around and everything. 

They made my heart melt. :) 

They had lots of fun, and Dirx was kind enough to wake me up every 

2 hours that night to check on them….

Seriously…he grew so much in month 2. 

He was 12 lbs. 2 oz. at 6 weeks old…

and that was when he still seemed tiny to me. Oh..so sweet. 

whobody has been keeping me very busy?

[month one]

Well…I am finally posting again. 

After a long break, I am going to try to catch up.

Newborns are great…but boy, they are a lot of work! 

Dirx has been kind of what you might call a 

"needy baby"

…and hasn't been the most cooperative when it comes to letting me get things done.  

Therefore, since the blog is pretty low on the "keep things functioning around here" list…it hasn't gotten done.

BUT…things have improved, Dirx is much more content, and life is settling back to normal around here. (At least until Jason gets in the field again.)

Beginning around one month old, Dirx began to get pretty fussy.  I have had fussy babies before…but I have never also had FOUR other kiddos to care for. It was tough there for a couple of months. The poor baby was so uncomfortable most of the time, never really content unless he was eating or begin held…so much of my day was spent nursing or walking around holding him. I didn't mind the snuggles at all…but I just felt so bad for the little guy.

I cut dairy out of my diet and began using my essential oils on him for reflux and digestion problems. 

It has taken a couple of weeks, but it seems like he is a TOTALLY different baby now. Thank God! 

We have been seeing lots of smiles and having a lot more content time during the day! Phew. We all really love him so, so much! Here are some random pictures from 0 to 1 month old…  So much has happened in the last 3 months…but I do not have time to catch up event by event…so this update will have to do! I can't believe how LITTLE he looks in these pictures!

I love how big his pacifier looks!

Had to take a picture of his fuzzy hair!

Basketball games are exhausting.

 Dirx with his biggest brother Keaton.

Sleeping sleeping sleeping….most of my pictures of are him sleeping…:) because that was truly the only time he was content. Poor kiddo. He has gotten lots of loving!!

Cruz is gonna kill me for this picture someday.

I should share that Nash is totally in love with "dirxie wirxie".  He constantly dotes on him.

so…so…so…serious until a couple of weeks ago

I don't know why, but I LOVE this picture.

Cruz always wants to hold Dirx, but then, is very quickly done holding him…and tries to roll him off. 

I should mention that Cruz is NOT lacking in personality right now.

We had Dirx's baptism when he was about a month old… Looking at him here makes my heart melt. 

How did he already get so big???

Dirx's baptismal sponsors were Nate and Missy Trappe…luckily they were up front with us to help keep Cruz under control.  If this picture were a video…you would hear Cruz yelling "hi grandma!"…he loves an audience.  If you look very closely, you can see Nash peeking over Lola's right shoulder. He was a little nervous up there. He makes my heart smile.

We amazingly took a decent family picture that day!

The traditional "nap with daddy" picture.

Umm…Lola had a helicopter problem…I had to take a picture before letting Jason help her out.

Nash has been such a sweet boy…here he is with his car rainbow!

And here he is, sharing his toys with Dirx.

Big sister Lola…loves to snuggle.