Getting Back to Normal

We've had an exhausting week or so in the Fiene house.  Both of the boys got sick and Hans and I struggled to stay well ourselves.  Poor little Gus was hit the worst with a fever that lasted four or five days, runny/stuffy nose, upset tummy and swollen eyes.  I think the worst part for him was his inability to suck on his pacifier.  He loves playing with his pacifier during the day, but it is a necessity to get him to sleep at night.  I have to admit we had a rough couple of nights since Gus would only sleep 49 minutes at a time...yep, I got a whole 49 minutes of sleep before he would start to scream again.  However, I'm so glad that this whole thing only lasted a week and nobody was sick enough to warrant anything other than home remedies.  We have a couple sets of friends here who each have several children and in both families the whole family got pretty sick. To make matters worse, after it circulated the family the first time, it went for round two.  I had a hard enough time with two sick kids I can't even imagine having 6 or 7 kids and being sick myself.  I also just found out today that Hans' cousin Anneliese is very sick and in a children's hospital diagnosed with H1N1 and pneumonia.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Anneliese.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures of the boys.

Doesn't he look HUGE in this picture?

It is ridiculiously hard to get a picture of John these days.

I think Hans was trying to give Gus something to play with, but he still wasn't feeling well and started crying.

John decided he needed to pick out his own outfit.  Hans told him he needed long sleeves so he came back with a sleeveless shirt and a long sleeve shirt and wanted to wear both.  I'm actually surprised he picked two shirts that matched pretty well.

Gus loves chewing on his pacifier.

Only my son would wear a long sleeve fleece with no pants.

Snow Day

We woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground this morning and John couldn't wait to go outside and play.  It really isn't that cold outside, only 27, but John still had to dress in the full garb.

As you can see there really isn't much of anything, but it made John so happy just to have something there.  It didn't take long before he was licking the snow off of things.

We decided to get Gus dressed and have him outside for a little bit.

I think the mittens are so cute.  My grandma makes mittens for the grandchildren and now great grandchildren every year.  Gus thought they were great at first, until he tried to pick up his pacifier.

As usual, Gus wasn't that impressed.  When he gets older I'm sure he will like the snow as much as his big brother.

Believe it or not this is the best picture I have of the three of them.  It is really hard to get three boys to look and smile at the same time!!

We enjoyed our dusting today and best part is the snow will melt today and we are back to 60 degree weather by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

6 months old

It is amazing how much changes in a month, or even a day.  We took Gus in for his 6 month appointment Monday and he is 19 1/2 pounds and 27 inches long. He is just such a big boy, but Hans and I remember John being much more of a rolly polly.  I guess even as a baby everyone carries their weight differently.

This is John at 6 months

This is Gus at 6 months

 Gus is majorly teething which means some days he is majorly grumpy.  These are always the days that John decides he wants to bug Gus the most.  So far he has one tooth poking through and I don't think it will be long before he has one or two more.

Gus has been sitting up on his own for a few weeks now but every so often when he reaches for a toy he falls over since he hasn't learned to compensate for the weight of his big head!  I can see him flexing his stomach muscles to try to sit back up so I think it won't be much longer before he able to get to a sitting position on his own which means crawling isn't far off.

I have realized that when you have more than one child the youngest child's order of learning is very different.  Since John was the first we gave him 100% of our attention and didn't have to share or be constantly bugged by an older sibling.  I spend lots of time with Gus, but he does not have 100% of my attention 100% of the time.  Along with having another kid to spend time with there is also cooking, cleaning and laundry to keep up so Gus is not constantly being entertain, by me anyways. He has, however, learned to entertain himself...my little sweet Gus has learned that if he screams loudly I'll come running in the room and John usually got in trouble, that is until I saw that Gus was shrieking when John wasn't anywhere near him! I think this is Gus' payback for getting picked on all the time.  The latest bout of sibling rivalry is quite funny.  Gus will be playing on the floor with toys all around and John will come and sit near him and play with one of the toys.  Now, the toy John has chosen is not a toy Gus was playing with, but Gus will start screaming.  One day I asked John to give Gus the toy to see if that was what he was screaming about and John willingly gave Gus the toy and then picked up another toy and started to play.  Gus happily took the toy from John and started to play, but then he looked at John and saw he had another toy and started screaming and reaching for the new toy...what a stinker!!!  Needless to say, Gus is already learning you don't always get what you want.

This is my favorite picture of him eating his feet