The New Quests of The Turetzky Family

This month has gone by so fast! I can't believe Tuesday will mark the first day of May, and Wednesday will be my birthday. Time is flying!! Thankful list for the past week: Darren rigged up the baby swing so it doesn't operate on batteries any more. A week ago the batteries died in the swing in the evening and I thought it was no big deal, because I knew we had three D batteries hanging around in the battery stash. Little did I know that those D batteries from the stash were no good...I panicked because Walt has ONLY been sleeping in the swing; how would I get any sleep?? Mr. Jack-of-all-trades found an old cell phone charger that had the correct voltage and converted the battery operated swing to a plug-in swing. Hallelujah!! I couldn't be happier that I don't have to worry about dead batteries any more :o) Darren the exterminator. Once again my man was to the rescue! The same day the swing quit, I found ants in the kitchen. Darren had those ants gone in minutes. ...

I was thankful for the little things this week... ...dancing at the park w/ Lila ...reading "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", "If You Give a Pig a Pancake", and the other "If You..." books. Lila thinks they're so funny and I haven't read them in years! ...tile floor for accidents. Walt has been spitting up quite a bit and several times this week it's ended up on the floor (yuck, I know!). ...watching butterflies with Lila. We went outside on short walks several times and to the park and it was fun to notice all the butterflies that spring has brought to the neighborhood. ...waking up to a smiling baby boy. This has to be the sweetest part of motherhood! ...a husband who is the baby whisperer. Darren is awesome at using Dr. Harvey Karp's methods of swaddling and jiggling to get Walt to sleep in record time. Some day's I think we should trade jobs :o) ...a small miracle that Walt slept thru us going out for Indian food...mmmm, tikka masala ...

Me and Walt had our final visit with the midwives for our 6 week check up. It was kind of sad for me that our visits to the midwives are over; they were so awesome that it's hard to see it end. Well, I was guessing that Walt would be 11 lbs. and some number of ounces, but he ended up weighing in at 12 lbs. 8 oz. That's nearly a 5 lbs. weight gain in 6 weeks!! Darren and I had been commenting to each other that he seemed to be getting pretty chubby, but neither of us guessed he'd weigh so much already! As for me, I finally weighed myself (since I don't own a scale--which I think is a good thing) and I'm just 7 lbs. away from my pre-pregnancy weight. Not bad for no exercise for these last 6 weeks (well, now that Walt is over 10lbs. perhaps I should count carrying him around as exercise!). Things to be thankful for this past week: Exercise! This week was the week I could resume exercise, and it felt great...on the one day I managed to fit it in. Yeah, not so great o...

Good things in the past week: Lovely spring walks with the babes. There's a meadow at the park that's just up the street from us and it was full of hundreds of moths and butterflies. It was such a pretty sight to see! Darren successfully swaddled Walt and life has subsequently been a bit easier! We had unsuccessfully tried swaddling him in the Aden + Anais swaddling blankets I bought, and I just thought our sweet little boy didn't like being swaddled. Darren got out one of the flannel blankets my mom sent and swaddled him in it and it worked like a charm! He's just like Lila was--a high needs baby who needs swaddled, swung, and shushed with white noise. Walt is getting so chubby! 5 weeks old The ward Easter picnic was a fun Saturday activity and Lila wouldn't have had an egg hunt if we hadn't gone! We're pretty bad about celebrating the holidays, so it was fun to get together with our ward and watch all the little children have fun together. Here...

Here's a few more pics from our weekend photos with the bluebonnets.  I still can't get over the fact that Walt is one month old now! He sure is getting  bigger!

This week was good because it ended with General Conference! I'm getting used to being home with a baby and a three year old, and we've been having some sweet moments, but G.C. was the highlight of the week for me. I had several things I'd been pondering prior to conference and I was so grateful to hear so many talks that answered my questions.  Other good things this week: We had a few lovely spring walks at the park beside our house. At the park across the street from our house. Walt is asleep in the sling. I was trying to get Lila to settle down for nap time, but she was having too much fun in the "tunnel" (under my legs).   Did I mention that this little guy turned one month old last week?? He's growing so fast! The next pictures are from the photo shoot I begged Darren to take of Lila in the blue bonnets at the park down the road from us. Spring is definitely the most beautiful season in Austin. The wildflowers everywhere...

I am thankful for... ...the sights and sounds of spring. Beautiful bluebonnets, birds chirping, and gorgeous weather for walks on the greenbelts. ...the best visiting teachers ever. They probably aren’t as excited to see me as I am to see them, but it sure is nice to have a scheduled chat with these sisters every month (I always need it!). ...roses and chocolate from one of the aforementioned visiting teachers. Just what a girl needs :o) ...t hree Mondays in a row with Darren at home! His new job didn’t start until Tuesday, so it was nice to have an extra long weekend with him home. ...nap time with my two little loves. It’s been so nice that we’ve all been napping at the same time. ...my first venture out with the children by myself. We went to the library and the bank and it was a successful trip (only a few tears in the car on the way there). And when Lila misplaced the DVD’s she chose to check out, miraculously there was a second copy of both the movies she had picked (tha...