Oh my Dump Truck, Oh my Dump Truck

June was hard but fun!  At the beginning of the month Dane and I celebrated 6 years of marriage by going shooting and Greek/Armenian food.  We had a blast.  Dane is becoming a really great firearms instructor.

 The hard part about the last two months has been Hinckley's gas pains.  A friend let me try out some acid reflux medication and, while it did help with his daytime discomfort, he and I were up for 2-3 hours a night in May and June with his gas pain.  It really started to take a toll on my patience with poor Atticus (and everyone else).

Finally, after our trip to Bryce Canyon (details to follow) I took the little man to a gastroenterologist.  Oh, how I wish we had made this trip months ago.  Based on Hinckley's symptoms he was pretty sure the little guy has a milk protein allergy.  I gathered some lovely stool samples (way harder than I expected!) and we are still awaiting the lab results.  In the meantime, I am happy to report that his gas pain has almost completely been eliminated now that I've cut out all dairy products.  I'm definitely missing it, but it's more than worth it so that we can all sleep.

The main event of the month was the Maes family reunion at Bryce Canyon.  Dane's grandpa Ernie turned 85 and we celebrated in style.  Here is Hinckley on our way there.  He and Atticus are becoming better travel companions.

 Bryce Canyon is beautiful!  And it's official: Atticus LOVES hanging out with extended family.  He spent almost the entire time with grandparents, cousins, and his great-aunts and uncles.  (Here he is getting him with silly string- it was revenge 20+ years in the making for Dane).  A week after we came home he was still telling us he "just [wanted] to go back to the hotel!"

 
As difficult as the nights were (trying to help a gassy baby without waking Atticus or Bob and Marti next door) the days were a relief- I had so many people who wanted to hold Hinckley.  Lucky boy.

Above- a "shark" tree that Atticus found and "Bowman" the very friendly chipmunk.

Dane was pretty sick during the reunion (he ended up needing antibiotics) so Atticus and I went on our own adventure from Inspiration Point.  He was such a great hiking companion.  He even sang when I started to get tired on the way back (he's getting big!)   

 The rest of the month has been pretty much spent in the pool.

Atticus has been taking swim lessons from our awesome neighbor and it's amazing how quickly he has progressed in one month.  Here he is after just 5 lessons:

It has been so fun to see him grow in confidence.

   Hinckley starting sitting up for real at the family reunion.  Hooray!  He is so much more content now that he can sit and play with a toy.  He has started sharing his binky (so cute!) and has revealed that he has a surprisingly long tongue.

 Oh, this little lamb.  He is so stinking cute that, when we visited the gastroenterologist, all of the nurses in the office took a break to fawn over him.  I heard one of them telling her coworkers she needed to tell her husband that she had "another man in her life."

These boys are growing closer and closer.  Atticus keeps asking to "hold the baby."  He even successfully sang the baby to sleep for the first time a couple days ago.  

 

Things got hard again the last week of the month.  Hinckley woke up from a nap with a fever that lasted 3 days.  We were getting even less sleep than before from the gas and Dane was out of the state (again!)  On day 4, after having had nurses recommend waiting it out, he woke up from another nap very fussy and sounding hoarse.  I could wait no longer and took him to urgent care.  Sure enough, he had an ear infection.  Thank heavens for antibiotics and modern medicine.

As always, there were sweet moments during the worst of it.  At one point, after trying to get Hinckley sleep for what seemed the 10th time, I started to cry.  Atticus came over to me with his arms spread out wide and gave me a hug and a kiss.  He then started grabbing toys for me and bringing them to me. It definitely helped.

Another pick-me-up came in the form of the sister missionaries.  While their visit had initially had a very different purpose, at the end they asked if they could help me clean a little.  With a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, all I could say was, "Sure!"  While I took care of the baby upstairs they tidied up downstairs.  

When I came downstairs they had not only left things looking terrific but had left sweet notes of encouragement all around.  Here are just a couple of them: 

I truly felt like they had acted as the Lord's hands in my life that day.  It was a good reminder that He can send angels into our path to remind us that he is was aware of us and what we are going through.  And he could forgive me for all the countless times I had lost my temper with poor Atticus.

Atticusisms:

• "Mustard on your head!"
• "If you let me cut your toenails you'll get a treat."
• "When I'm a daddy and Brinlee is a mommy we can marry each other in the temple."
• "Let's pretend we're marrying each other." (he is starting to talk about marrying Mommy, ha ha!)
• "I'm going to freak out for peaches!"
• "See you at the hotel, buddy!" (to Uncle Rick)
• "I want to cut [that chipmunk] up and eat it!"
• "Oh my dump truck, oh my dump truck" (sung to My Darling Clementine)
• "No way, Jose!" (said for no, pretty much all the time of late)
• "How does a snake smile?" 
• "Do Power Rangers listen to God?"
• "You can't hear the Holy Ghost if you yell."
• "I'm not so sure about that."