5 Months

-giggles

-likes to "talk"

-holds hands together and loves to suck on them

-when he doesn't have a pacifier in, he uses his thumb

-can roll from stomach to back

-reach and bat at toys

-loves bathtime

-starting to grab his feet

-weighs 12 lbs

-will still wake up around 3 AM and realize he's not next to mom. Mom in her mush brain picks him up and he ends up sleeping the rest of the night in bed. Every day I say I'm not going to do it. Hasn't worked yet! The boy is getting too big for his bassinet and I'm ready to move him into his crib. Just wondering how he and Olivia will do in the same room together.

-really easy going kid, pretty happy all around

Cancun (rewind)

Todd, Alec, and I were lucky to get away for a weekend to Cancun thanks to a work retreat. Some of the nice perks of Todd's job. We had won a room that leads out to the beach too. It was such a gorgeous view!

From our porch

We even swam with the dolphins! I just wish we had one picture to show for it but we didn't know what to expect and didn't take any money to that excursion. There is a part where you are floating on your stomach in the water with your legs spread in a V. Two dolphins come up from behind you and each push a foot. You are practically standing up in the water while they push you 50 yards. It was awesome! Swimming with dolphins is something I've always wanted to do so that's one thing off my bucket list!

A few doors down from our room was a hospitality sweet that had a pool, more like a hot tub, attached to the porch. This was the life! Alec didn't care for the ocean water - too cold for him - but loved swimming in the hot tub.

My friend Julie and I enjoying the view and having no cares.

Is this not the life?!

It was a nice, relaxing getaway (I napped every day!) and recharge before getting back into reality.

Pumpkins

While putting Olivia down for a nap one day:

Mom: "Good night pumpkin."

Olivia: "I'm not a pumpkin!"

M: "It's another way of saying sweetheart."

O: "I'm not sweetheart! I'm Olivia!"

Head Wounds

The Yosts just can't stay away from hospitals! It's about every 3-6 months over the past 3 years where someone (Abby, Mom, and now Olivia) has needed urgent care. Thank you insurance!

Monday night as we were sitting down to pizza, Olivia started rocking back in her chair. I told her not to do it because she might fall back and hurt herself. Everything is fine for the next 10 minutes. As I'm trying to cut Olivia's second piece and nurse Alec, the next thing I know, Olivia has gone over with the chair and hit the tile floor. There was a loud scream and I put Alec down on the living room floor (he didn't fuss or anything as his feeding was interrupted) and go pick up Olivia. Blood is coming out of the back of her head. No worries I think, head wounds bleed. That was until I looked at the wound in the bathroom and knew right away we'd need help.

I hollered from the bathroom that everyone needed to get in the van. Abby quickly grabbed Alec off the floor and put him in his car seat and then asked what else she could do. Kaitlyn stood outside the van door waiting for it to open and Olivia just cried. Once in the van, I had Abby stand behind Olivia and hold a towel up against the wound to stop the bleeding. Backyardagins was on our tv and that helped Olivia keep her mind off of things. Abby told me to hurry but not get a speeding ticket.

I'm sure we were quite the sight going into Acute kids- me holding bleeding Olivia, Abby pushing the stroller, and Kaitlyn had my diaper bag hanging around her neck. Most of the bleeding had stopped and Olivia wasn't crying anymore at this point. The nurse put some numbing medicine on Olivia and we just sat and waited for about 20 minutes for it to take effect. They had to wrap her head to keep the bandage with medicine on her.

Todd showed up 2 minutes before they were going to put the staples in her head. I was glad I didn't have to sit in the room and watch it. Olivia did great and didn't cry. The medicine worked so well she didn't feel it. In the end she got 5 staples that she has to keep in for a week.

Around 3:00 am Olivia threw up and I thought, oh no, maybe it's a concussion! Nope, she also had a bit of the stomach bug because there were things going on down below too. I did take her in to see the Dr. the morning just to do a double check. She's has a cough that has been going on for a few weeks and a little bug that only lasted less than 24 hours. We spent a couple days being bums at home and watching A LOT of tv. She is on the mend and doing well after those first couple of days.

Ducks

Texas weather has gotten nice again. Nice enough to head back outside. Olivia, Alec, and I have been feeding the ducks across the street. Olivia loves how close the ducks will get to her. We have even seen many turtles that will try and get into the feeding frenzy with the ducks. Olivia tries to get them to eat out of her hand but I hold her back since Kaitlyn was bit by a duck once before. We are loving this Texas "fall" weather.

The Great Wolf (rewind)

Back in August, shortly after school started, we took the family to the indoor water park - The Great Wolf Lodge. It's only about a 15 minute drive for us and I thought going the last weekend of August we'd miss the summer crowd. It was still busy but not as much as it would have been had we gone during the summer. The girls loved our room where the bunk beds looked like a tent. We loved that we were so close that our normal babysitter came down and stayed in the room with Alec so the rest of us could play! Abby's favorite ride was the Tornado and Kaitlyn loved the River Canyon Run (4 man tube). Olivia loved the wave pool. She didn't want to sit in a raft, she liked getting knocked around in her life jacket. Todd and I were exhausted when we got home and were really surprised the girls still had tons of energy! We are looking forward to returning again.