Mother's Day

It is almost surreal to be celebrating Mother's Day, as a mother, for the first time. Sometimes even after a night of almost no sleep, or a day of fussiness speckled by bouts of baby laughter, I have to stop and think "Am I really a mom??!" It really blows my mind sometimes. It makes me hope that I am really doing all I should to be a decent mom. Am I being too obsessive about this? not worrying enough about that? But I know I just need to realize that he's happy and healthy and thats the most important thing. And when I see his huge smile with his little new teeth, or hear that adorable little laugh, I know its all worth it, and I think of how much I love that little boy.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and every mom out there, or anyone who's been a "stand in" mom for anyone!! You are loved!

Giveaway

There is a fun giveaway from one of the blogs I follow....The Dress-Up Drawer is offering a free item from this Etsy shop. Be sure to stop by and check it out!

Ironman

All of the people who do this ISPIRE ME! They are amazing...and I saw this guy. He must've taken a tumble during it, his shoulder was all bound up and he was STILL GOING! Talk about AMAZING!!

Cliffhanger

So our Leadership Retreat was pretty fun. Everyone pretty much repelled twice. Even though they almost had to throw me down both times. It was a 90 foot cliff! We had a pretty good time, then went and had lunch.



This weekend was pretty good too. Rob, Kai, and I just hung out a bit. Went to the splash pad on Main St. It was CRAZY busy though, but I got a couple good shots of Kai.



And of course I have been playing with my camera and photoshop a bit! :D

The tooth

I could tell Kai had a tooth coming, he was very cranky, always chewing on stuff hard, and his gums were swollen. Finally on Saturday I put my finger in his mouth to put some Oragel on his gums, and I could feel the ridges of the tooth! It had finally broke through!! Since then he’s been much happier. All last week he didn’t sleep through the night and after the tooth, he is back to sleeping through the night again! THANK GOODNESS. We’ve even had many nights that if he doesn’t fall right asleep at the end of his last bottle, I’ll just put him down in his crib. He usually falls asleep after 10-30 minutes of babbling to himself. At first we had to keep going in his room to put his binky back in his mouth, but lately he just goes to sleep after a while. My mom got him a little musical projector that shines on the ceiling, and that has helped a lot, as I figured it would.
Last Saturday was also the First birthday party for my friend, Cami’s, daughter, who I say is Kai’s girlfriend. She’s adorable. Its crazy how quickly Kai is growing. He's be 7 months old today! (technically yesterday here now.) March 19th is also my dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!

I guess I’ll update what Kai is doing:
He can sit up on his own, for quite a while (He even sat back up after falling back on the Boppy).
He can now go every direction in his walker, and RUNS in it! He’ll chase you around the house, he knows exactly how to get where he wants to go.
He has eaten pretty much every 1st stage food and LOVES them ALL (I haven’t tried the meats yet, because everyone has said to wait on those…)
He is a VERY good eater, he gobbles up his food in no time!
I started introducing him to sippy cups, but he hasn’t been very interested in them, except today he drank quite a bit of juice from it, mostly he’s wanted to chew on the spout.
He is doing very well at grabbing items and turning things over to look at (and chew on) all sides of them.
He babbles, sings, and SCREAMS (happily) quite often. In the car, he’ll sing himself to sleep.
He says “Da-da-da-da”, even after we do sometimes, but I don’t think he knows what it means. He hasn’t quite said “Ma-Ma” yet. He’ll copy us and say “Blah-blah-blah” and I swear he tried to say “Bath” when we’ve said it.
He blows (or maybe he’s trying to whistle, lol).
He LOVES to laugh, especially at Rob! He LOVES his Daddy SOO much! (And Rob is such a good dad! And Rob loves to make Kai laugh).

Results are in!

Kai has severe reflux. No bueno. The doctor said that he didn't see any structural abnormalities or damage from the reflux. So twice a day I have to give him a perscription antacid. We need to feed him less, more often (easier said than done, because he's a HUNGRY HIPPO!! He cries like you've beat him, if you take his food away before he's done), we need to burp him more often, and also keep him upright for a while after he's eaten. Its hard to say how much better it is so far, because we've only had the perscription since last night. But I am sure it'll be better now. Kai started walking backwards in his walker last month, well a week or two ago he started going forward a bit, then all the sudden yesterday, he started running all over. He goes so fast across our wood floors and he wants to get into EVERYTHING! He was trying to pull on the trash, open all the cupboards, play on the computer, mess with the printer, chase the cats...its insane! Hes so funny, once he's figured something out, he's all over it! When I got home from work Rob said "Your son is running everywhere!!" so I had to get a little video of it. He's so cute!

I know, I know, I know

I keep saying I'm going to be better with blogging...well, we've all come to terms with the fact that its just not going to happen. So, as I go back and forth from the couch to Kai's room to stick his binky back in his mouth, I might as well keep myself busy in between. Right now he's in there singing, but that could quickly escalate to crying...so I'm on the edge of the couch, ready to jump. :P
We've been working on getting him to go to sleep on his own, cause I just got so frustrated with trying to rock a fussy boy to sleep when he didn't want to go to sleep. I don't understand why he fights sleep so much...ok, I think he finally gave up for tonight!
Ever since Kai was born, he has spit up a lot. More than most babies. Rob thought it was normal, but he pukes so much, I am surprised he's gaining weight as well as he has. At 6 months (woah, 6 months!!! Holy time flying, batman!) he is 19 lbs 12 oz (84th %), 27 1/2" tall (85th %), and his head is 17 1/2" round (65th %).
So at his appointment, the Dr suggested we get an xray of his esophagus and see if we can figure out what is going on. That was done on Thursday, and we haven't heard the results yet. The tech there said she could see him refluxing though. We had to have him skip a feeding to be hungry, then put him in this little hospital gown with tigers on it. It was seriously the cutest sight ever: him in that gown! But it also made me a little sad. Rob stayed with him to feed him the barium stuff, and I stood behind the wall with the window. Kai doesn't like to be held down, so he screamed quite a bit, and the barium just got all over his face and head. Poor guy. Hopefully we hear something tomorrow. Other than that, he's doing pretty good.
Christmas was fun, Kai was even a little interested in opening presents. He got a walker from grandma Kris and grandpa Dave, which he loves. He got a highchair from grandma and grandpa Dammann. My mom has taken some pictures of him, here is a Christmas one:

And a couple from this month:



He's getting so big! I held a baby that was around a month old and she felt soooo little!
My friend, Robyn, who took my old central supply position is moving this week! :( I am sad to not have her at work anymore. Its been an awesome year getting to be around her all the time and getting close again. But I am happy for her, she's getting married this summer. So new adventures for her! Congrats, Robyn!
We've done a lot of playing Left 4 Dead 2 since Rob's birthday (when we hurried and bought it with the gift card he got). The game is SO addicting and fun! Even if I sometimes get nightmares from it!
Ok, well its very much past my bedtime! I won't say that I'll blog again soon, that'll just jinx it. So....maybe you'll see me again before Kai's first b-day! HAHAHA, I'm sure I can't be THAT bad!