Moving Forward: Spring Flowers

My previously planted tulips are recovering from being twice chomped on by the deer. Almost 1/2 of the flowers survived and another quarter where 1/2 eaten. I'm curious if the half eaten ones will bloom at all and if so what they'll look like. I planted some daffodils and crocuses that spent the winter in the garage (I'd meant to plant them with Shayna last November but the weather got cold and Elijah got big). Today one of the crocuses actually bloomed so there should be several more to come. The daffodils are coming up so they're another garden curiosity. It was a wonderful warm March day when all were planted. It was great to play in the dirt again and is now worth it with the one flower. I've still got a lot of front garden spring cleaning to do but I'm enjoying it all at a leisurely pace.

I got Shayna to play in the dirt with me 2 weeks ago when we cleared a 5'x5' spot in the raised beds and put beet and sugar pea seeds in. Shayna didn't really get the seed part but she enjoyed climbing in and out and using her "little scooper" (a trowel) to move dirt around (she still loves dirt). The seeds have finally started popping up. Since she likes to "walk on the mud" I'm going to wait until they're a little taller and more obvious before I show them to her so she'll be less likely to trod on them (she stays off my flowers quite well when shown where they are). I love watching things grow so I check on it all daily.

Right now Shayna's in bed with a fever, but other than today she's been wonderful. She likes to nurse her stuffed animals when I nurse Elijah. We have 2 boppies so we each have one wrapped around us. She also will carry them over her shoulder while patting their butt/back like I do to Elijah. We set up Elijah's crib and she views it as another place for her to jump. She'll climb up there when I'm changing Elijah's diaper (changing table and crib are back to back) and he watches her in fascination as she jumps around and talks to me. We went swimming for the first since January. It was wonderful to play with her in the water again. She's more hesitant than she was last summer/fall but also more skilled once she relaxes. She blows bubbles and kicks well. Her favorite allowable thing is jumping to me (which is more of a jump than a fall these days) and non-allowable is going down the last 3' feet of the huge slide there (I splash water up it when it's off and she slides down to me until we're told it's not allowed, silly rules). Her monthly lab numbers continue to be good. Her EBV level is at it's lowest since it shot up 2 months post-transplant so we're hoping to drop another med in the near future. We don't know what's wrong today but suspect a virus that's been going around. She got a lot of lap time with both Ima and Aba today to make up for feeling crumby.

Elijah's a growing champ. At his 2-month appointment on the 8th he was above the 98%-ile in head circumference at 14.5", height/length at 25" (2" growth in 1 month), and weight at 15#12oz (6#3oz gain since birth). We weighed him at home this week and he's now over 16.5lb. I was kind of hoping he wouldn't double his weight by 3 months but it looks like I'm gonna have a 19lb 3-monther anyway. He's now in 6-9m clothing. His sleep continues to improve as long as he's not stuffy. The last week was pretty rough as he kept getting stuffy from reflux (he also started spitting up a lot last Saturday so something changed). He wanted to sleep but couldn't breath so started waking at night every 1.5-2hrs by the end of the week and was only napping for 30-45minutes at a time. He didn't want to wake up but if you can't breath you have to wake and do something. He was still relatively smiley and happy even when his voice started to get horse Thursday from lack of sleep (he cries very little). I started nose drops every 2-3hrs yesterday and he slept from 7:30pm-3am, 3:15-6:15, and 6:30-8:30am. He and I were both so much happier today. He even took a 3hr nap in the afternoon. Hopefully the trend will continue with another good night tonight. He loves to talk, coo and smile at anyone near by.

We changed our summer plans from 3 months of work in Israel to 3 weeks of just vacation. We've rented an apartment near Nahum's parents and plan to spend lots of time visiting friends and family and the beach. It got to be too much work for Nahum to coordinate everything such that he would have no time left for his research until June after we were settled and that's too much to sacrifice right now. (They're currently debating whether or not to postpone the fellowship or just take it back and make him apply again for 2 years from now.) As he works all the time (6 days a week anyway), I'm really looking forward to having him around for 3 full weeks.

Here are a few pictures from this month. For some more (including one with me in it), check out this.

April 5: He could almost hold his head up. We're also still in agreement that he looks a lot like my brother Aaron as a baby crossed with some traits from Nahum's father.