Mark is 3 months old...

Markie is 3 months old and started to fall asleep unassisted this week. Now I can lay him down for a nap and he will fuss for less than 5 minutes, and then fall asleep. It has been so nice to be able to lay him down instead of walk around to get him and a binkie to fall asleep!  He also rolled over from his tummy to his back today while he was doing tummy time. I don't really know if it's a skill or if it was just a coincidence. He is such a good boy!  I've been able to eat pretty much anything lately including milk products and chocolate and he seems fine. He does seem to spit up more, but acts just the same.  He has also started sleeping pretty well this week too. He slept one night from 9:30 p.m. until 6 a.m. We still can't seem to figure out who he looks like, but I get glimpses of my Dad. He cracks me up with his goofy grin!

On a side note, Juliet has a top tooth that cut a few days ago!  She hasn't had any front teeth for 6 months, since they were pulled by the dentist.  I'm excited for some front teeth on that girl.  At one point, she'd lost 2 bottom teeth and was left with a huge hole where 4 teeth should be.  

New portraits for the kids...

So I had to break out the camera for portraits of the little kiddos.  I got a news 50mm prime lens for my camera for Christmas and I hadn't really played with it much.  I don't love doing portraits, mainly because it's a lot of work, but I got some super cute shots.  Mark is 2 1/2 months.  What a good boy!

Mikayla is almost 2 years old.

She looks sweet and innocent but really she was just trying to escape off the bench and run away.

Merril's motorcycle crash...

Merril was down in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show.  He'd taken his motorcycle, a Triumph Tiger, on a trailer because he was going to California right after and wanted to ride down there.  He'd unloaded his motorcycle to make parking easier at CES.  He had a green light through an intersection and a lady coming the opposite direction turned left in front of him.  His bike went down and so did he.  He had on a helmet but not his riding jacket.  He said he was going probably 30 mph when it happened and he had a really hard time catching his breath afterwards.  His chest hit something in the crash.  So they called the police and it took over an hour for them to arrive.  Meanwhile, an ambulance arrived to check out Merril.  They checked his ribs and said he was in no immediate danger but should probably head to an E.R. to be checked out.  So after the police came and Merril gave his statement, he got his bike loaded on the trailer and came home.  I met him at the E.R. here and he looked tired and worn but o.k.  It was a little after midnight.

We waited for a bit and he was admitted.  He got a chest and knee x-ray, both of which came back fine.  His arm was cleaned up and he was given a prescription for pain.  We were home by 2:30 a.m.  The next day he had some pretty bad whiplash and a bunch of bruises up his right side, ankle, calf, side and shoulder.  He's slow but should be just fine!

Update:  Merril went to a spine specialist and a massage therapist.  The spine specialist prescribed steroids and muscle relaxers.  They made Merril wake up at night sweating like crazy so he quit taking them.  After a week his neck was feeling better.  After 2 weeks, he was the same as always.  Merril's Mom asked if he'd "learned his lesson."  It'd take a lot more than some bruises and scratches for Merril to give up riding.  Hopefully it never comes to that.  :)

Mark's heart murmur...

I took Mark to his 2 month appointment and the doctor paused while listening to his heart for a while.  He looked up and said Mark had a heart murmur.  He didn't think it was anything serious but wanted to get it checked out.  The pediatrician didn't think it was anything serious, especially with as much weight as he was gaining.  ;)  So we went to the hospital to get a echo cardiogram (heart ultrasound).  

So he got hooked up to wires and had his echo.  It took around 45 minutes and he did pretty good the whole time.  Towards the end he started wiggling and woke up but it worked out.  

Turns out he has 2 little holes in his atrial wall.  The ultrasound technician said they're very common and didn't think they were anything to worry about.  Primary Children's confirmed the diagnosis.  It's an innocent murmur, which means he'll never need surgery and will live a totally normal life.  90% of this kind of murmur close on their own within the first year of life anyway.  *sigh*  Good to know!  I was scared for a little bit with this one!  The thought of surgeries or special considerations for the rest of his life was frightening.