Memorial Day Weekend

Michael, Weston, and I had a nice, relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. We went to Chippewa Falls to house sit for Andy and Andrea while they were up in Duluth for Andy's bike race, so we got to have some quality family time with just the three of us before Michael starts his new job next week. That's right- I said Michael starts his new job!!! He passed his final test last Thursday and will start with Catholic Knights as a financial services representative on June 1st. This also means that we have begun our official house hunting:) We got a realtor and will start looking at the insides of houses tomorrow (we have looked an many neighborhoods and outsides already). Hopefully, we will have more house news soon! Here are some pictures and videos from the weekend.

Saturday we went to the local park and zoo.

Weston hamming it up while eating- "Oh, you got me in the heart."

Weston is sooo big!

Yes, that is his finger up his nose and food in his hair. (Michael gets lots of anxiety when Weston eats because he gets so messy.)

Weston is getting better at "cruising" furniture.

This weekend it became obvious that Weston is picking up more and more on what we do and repeating what we do. At this moment we happened to be taping Weston playing when we discovered he knew how to get his toys from under the couch! We never showed him this, he just must have watched us do it at one point:)

Andy, Andrea, and Gianna came home Monday evening and we ended our Memorial Day with a picnic and a small walk around the park. *Note: Picnics can be challenging with two babies who would rather eat the grass than stay on the blanket and eat their food:)

Lots To Blog About!

Okay, so I had good intentions of doing a blog last Thursday (I am trying to do at least one a week), but this is how Weston woke up on Thursday morning.

This was the beginning of a three-day long mystery that I had to solve- what was making Weston break out in hives??? I ended up taking Weston to the doctor Thursday morning and he said that I would figure out what it was making him break out because it would happen almost right away the next time he touched whatever made him break out. Well, that is all good in theory, but Weston continued to break out several times Thursday and each time he never seemed to be around the same things. This continued Friday (even though we were then at a hotel), and after keeping a very detailed journal of what he ate, played with, and his general surroundings the only thing I could conclude that was possibly making him break out was sucking on his pacifiers. Therefore, we decided to make Friday night a pacy free night. Well, this paired with the fact that we were lucky enough to have a child who reacts the opposite to Benadryl (it makes him more awake instead of sleepy- which the doctor warned me could happen) made for a very long night. This was one moment at about midnight that we wished we could have given Weston a pacy.

Well, after a night without his pacy he broke out in the morning and then he didn't break out for the rest of the day. So, I thought we were on to something with the pacy theory even though he did break out that morning. Sunday was another hive free day and the appearance of his second tooth. The tooth explained his fussiness all weekend in Madison for Beth's graduation from UW-Madison, but could this explain the hives?

Well, Monday I decided to give him his pacy and test my theory...nothing happened, so I was back at square one. I still have no idea why he broke out and I guess only time will tell if it will happen again. For now, I am just glad he isn't breaking out anymore because it was really starting to worry me.

Okay, enough about the hives. In other news, as I mentioned above, Beth graduated this past weekend and we are very proud of her!! She earned her degree in Rehabilitation Psychology (I think that is right).

Also, while we were in Madison Mike took one of his last two tests to get his job and he passed! Now, he just has to pass his last test (his sixth one) on Thursday and if all goes well he will start June 1st. I am very proud of him and all the hard work he has done up to this point! Once he officially starts his job we will do some official house hunting. We are really focused on the neighborhood/location this time and won't mind getting less of a house for a better neighborhood. We weren't too happy with the neighborhood we ended up in in Texas and are especially glad we don't live there anymore because our neighbors, Rishelle and Jim, told us that our old house was recently broken into when the new owner was at work- scary!!

Weston is also doing some things that we are proud about. He is now balancing on his knees without support.

He also got up enough courage to let go of the dresser the other day and stand on his own for a few seconds! I was excited that I was able to catch it in a picture because I was already taking pictures of his outfit:)

Then, he is doing a new thing that we will probably not think is so cute in the future, but for now we are having fun with it. He has learned to shake his head "no." If we shake our heads "yes," he shakes his "no," and if we start out a question with "Are you...(i.e. silly)," he shakes his head no.

He is becoming very good at crawling and he keeps me on my toes all day long. In fact, I have a hard time getting things done because I have to keep my eye on him constantly. It also doesn't help when he undoes what I actually do get accomplished. The laundry in this picture was folded in neat piles at one point.

Whew! I think that is all the latest news. With all that has been going on lately Michael and I decided that today we needed a little time to de-stress. So, we went to the park for a family picnic because the weather was beautiful, and it is actually beginning to feel like summer!

Busy Week

It seems like a lot has happened in a week...since last Thursday:

-We battled Weston's first fever and ear infection. (NO FUN!)
-Weston cut his first tooth while being sick. (This makes for a very miserable baby and exhausted parents!!)
-Weston became quite proficient at crawling and now picks up every piece of lint, string, spider, dirt, etc. he can find and immediately puts it in his mouth.
-We find Weston sitting up in his crib when he wakes up.
-Weston now throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. (We are hoping it is a phase he passes through quickly!)
-Weston started eating at least two meals a day and is enjoying it!
-Finally, Weston had his 9 mo. well baby check-up which included: meeting his new pediatrician, Dr. Menagh, who we liked very much; confirming what we already knew- Weston is small (in less than the 5th percentile for weight and the 16th for his height); finding out that Weston's regression in sleeping through the night is to be expected with all the changes he is going through; and, even though he didn't have to get shots this time, he still endured lots of pain with blood drawn and a little procedure we won't embarrass him about.


Oh, and Michael and I do have some sort of life outside of Weston... Michael is getting closer to starting his job. YEAH!! His background check cleared and now he just has to pass two tests (to be able to sell investment securities) which he hopes to do next week! For now he has been studying like crazy.


Okay... maybe just Michael has some sort of life outside of Weston because I can't think of a single new thing that has happened to me this week, but I guess that is how it is when you are a stay-at-home mom:)


To end, here is a picture and video of Weston making a his new facial expression that he makes quite often to get us to laugh. He clearly does it on purpose and will copy us if we do it first:)

He's On The Move!

Weston crawled for the first time today!! We were beginning to think that he wouldn't crawl and just go straight to walking because he LOVES to walk holding our hands. On another note, we happen to be at Andy and Andrea's house and it seems that whenever we are here he starts doing a new developmental milestone. Here are two videos of this exciting event. In the first one you can see that at first he moved with one leg straight and the other bent. By then end of the night he was moving with two bent legs.

We are hoping that this will inspire Gianna to move:) For now, she is perfectly content just sitting where she is and stretching as far as she can to reach what she wants!

LaVoy Family Fun

This week we got to spend some time with Michael's side of the family and Weston got to meet some more aunts and cousins. We had a great time in Wisconsin Dells staying at the Chula Vista Resort. Weston absolutely loved the indoor water park, and I think if he could of had his way he would have stayed in the water the whole time! I also think when he is older he will love going on the slides with Michael (I will be happy because then I won't have to go on them with Michael anymore).

Cousin Tyler, Aunt Veronica, and Cousin Mae

We hung out in Necedah for the rest of the week, and I think it is safe to say that Weston can now sleep through anything! He got lots of practice sleeping through noise:)

Weston on his first four wheeler ride.

Weston and his cousin Leo- Can you tell what side of the family Weston gets his eyes from?

We then ended the week by going to a wedding where Weston got to show off his new suit:) I must say he looked mighty handsome!

The new Mr. and Mrs. Parker

Happy Easter

Our first holiday back in Wisconsin was busy but fun. Weston got to experience dying Easter eggs, finding his Easter baskets and eggs, and meeting/seeing lots of family. We spent the first part of Easter at my Grandma Luebke's house and then went to Necedah to spend the evening and night with Mike's family. Overall, it reminded us of what we missed when we were away from family.

Dying Easter Eggs with Grandma and Daddy

Finding His Easter Basket From the Easter Bunny

Weston finding his Easter basket at his Great Grandma Luebke's house.

Great Grandma Luebke made Weston and Gianna sock monkeys:)

Weston with Kendra and Aubrey

Weston was happy finding one egg during the LaVoy egg hunt.

Weston didn't eat any candy this Easter and he doesn't have any teeth yet, but I decided to start introducing his toothbrush to him. When he was born he got a set of brushes for different stages and he loves the one that is made to massage his toothless gums:)

Finally, for those of you that have not already heard, Michael accepted a job offer from Catholic Knights (a financial services company). He will be working in La Crosse, so that means we will be living and looking to buy a house in the La Crosse area. It will be a little while before we officially start looking for a house, but we have started to scope out houses on the market and neighborhoods where we may want to live. One day when we went out looking we found Weston his own street:) There is also a Weston street in San Angelo and we meant to take a picture of Weston by that street sign before we left, but we forgot. Oh well, I guess that means we will just have to go back and visit!

Oh, and one more thing, Weston has entered his fascination with clapping stage and Michael has even taught him how to give a high five:)

Short and Sweet

I am really not in the mood to write much, so I will make this post very short and to the point.

Weston is getting good with his pincher grasp. He even sometimes tries to pick up the printed objects on blankets:) Check out the video to see his skills.

More and more we are hearing that Weston doesn't look like a baby, but he looks like a little boy. I think this picture captures that well.

Weston is also making some progress towards crawling. He likes to go forward from the sitting position and has made it onto his hands and knees a couple times.