Busy Busy Busy

What a busy couple of weeks. Aubrie turned four last Thursday; where have the last four years gone? We went to Buffalo to celebrate with our friends and family. Aubrie had a Build-a-Bear party at the mall with most of her friends. Unfortunately Anna was sick and could not be there, but John did a great job filling in as one of the girls.

We then went to Grandma Lynda's for cake and ice cream. I made Aubrie a Princess Build-a-Bear cake, which took much longer than anticipated, but turned out beautiful, if I do say so myself.

Aubrie also got to celebrate at preschool on Tuesday since last week was vacation.

While Aubrie was enjoying the week, Tyler was having a much harder time of it. He turned six months on Valentines Day and went in for is 6 month check up. His hight is progressing well, but unfortunately he only gained 6 onces in the last two months, putting him in the first percentile for weight. He also has really bad eczema which we have not been able to get under control. Due to this combination of problems, the pediatrician decided to send us to some specialists. On Monday we went to the dermatologist, who has Ty on three different ointments. Today we went to the allergist. 17 pin pricks later, we now know Ty has a severe milk allergy. So we either need to switch him to soy formula or I need to cut all milk and milk related products out of my diet to continue to nurse him. We will also have to start carrying an epi-pen in case of an emergency. This could also explain why he throws up after every meal. The doctor is hopeful that he will out grow this allergy in a few years but until that time, he will be on a very strict diet. You would be really surprised at how many products contain some form of milk. Even many of the Stage 2 baby foods have some milk or milk products in them. On a good note, we know that Ty is not allergic to Barron or Bruce, so we can keep our pets :) I am optimistic that this information will help us solve his medical problems so he gains weight and start sleeping more than 3 hours at a time!

Weekend Update

Not a very exciting Super Bowl weekend at the Zbrzezny household. Both kids have the sniffles so we skipped out on the party we were supposed to go. Instead we hung crown molding in our master. It still needs to touched up, but we now have one room almost done in our house.
Before:
After:
As I mentioned, Tyler has a bit of a cold, so he is not very happy right now, but otherwise he is doing well. At almost 6 months, he is very different from Aubrie. She was very independent; she did not want to be held or cuddled for long periods of time and she was very happy playing with a toy in her crib or on the floor by herself. Tyler wants nothing to do with being put down. If we are awake, he wants to be in our arms (I am currently typing one handed while holding him the other arm.) This is nice in terms of cuddling and bonding, but does not allow me to get much done around the house and is not helping him learn how to roll over or sit up etc. The only place we have found that we can put him down with out him crying is on an old reclining chair that we got from Grandpa years ago.
If we surround him with pillows, he will take his afternoon nap in the chair rather than in my arms. Not the best solution, but for now, it works.

We are still doing well with food. Right now he is partial to cereal and fruit. We have tried squash and sweet potatoes, but neither of those seem to agree with him, even though he liked them. It is much easier having a baby who likes to eat as opposed to Aubrie who is still a terrible eater.

Tyler after his bath. He is not a fan of the actual bath, but a very happy baby afterward.

Food etc.

Tyler started eating solid food a few weeks ago and he LOVES it!!! In the past few weeks he has eaten more rice cereal than Aubrie has eaten in her entire life. We have already gone through two boxes. We have also tried applesauce and today we added squash. Again he loves both of these. With Aubrie, we were lucky if she ate a whole jar of food in one day. Tyler would eat more than one jar in a sitting, along with a bowl of cereal.

Uncle Justin and Aunt Jessica came to visit last weekend. Aubrie was thrilled to see her 'friends' and had a great time building her Christmas Ginger Bread House. (just a bit behind).We were also able to hang our new TV over the fireplace with their help. Now we just need to finish building the wall to separate the two rooms and build some kind of cabinet/shelving for the rest of the audio components. (can't wait for that tax refund.)
Tyler's Baptism pictures:

Lots and Lots of Photos...

It has been a while since I posted. We have since gotten heat back, which is a good thing since we have had record lows in the single digits (definitely looking into the new furnace with the tax return)!

Anyways:
Aubrie and Minnie at the World of Disney store in NYC.Tyler and Mom at the Rock to see the tree.
Aubrie's penguin that Santa brought...pre-filling at the Build-a-Bear Store, in her Belle dress that Santa also brought, which she has pretty much not taken off since.
Tyler on his noisy fire truck from Aunt Katie.
Aubrie bringing Happy Feet alive at the mall.
Tyler's baptism, December 28, 2008.
With his God Parents, Jaclyn and Kevin.
Tyler with his future wife, Clara, who was born a few days after him.
Aubrie and her buddies just before midnight on New Years eve.
Aubrie a few minutes after New Years...enough party, time for bed.
Aubrie getting her achievement ribbon at gymnastics class.
My cheerleaders with their first place trophy after competition Saturday.

BRRRRRRRRR

So we just got back to Albany after spending almost two weeks in Western New York for the holidays...it is 39 degrees in our house! At some point over the last two weeks our furnace stopped working. This sucks!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Pictures take 2...

Early Christmas Presents

We took Aubrie and Tyler to see Disney on Ice tonight as an early Christmas present. Aubrie was sure that cousin Kate would be there since it was Disney. After she got over the disappointment of not seeing her best buddy Kate, Aubrie had a great time. After all, it was an excuse to wear her Snow White dress out in public again!
She loved seeing all of the Princesses with their men.
Even Tyler enjoyed the show, or rather the flashing lights and fireworks.
Yummy snow cone in a princess mug!On another note, Daryl and I received an early Christmas present from my parents today...
It is now hooked up to the Dish, but we have plans to mount it on the wall over our fireplace and we have to upgrade to HD programing. I am not sure what we are going to do with the outdated entertainment center that we currently have.