Life Fortune

Well, I didn't realize when we bought Aidyn's new convertable carseat that we'd be spending our life savings! Buuuut, I guess safety of a perfect little man is worth it! ;)


Since we were lucky enough to be able to borrow a car seat, 3 car docks, and the stroller component of the combo from a friend...I guess we were a little oblivious to the cost of a such a purchase. I've always been grateful for their generosity...but now I'm REALLY gratefull. Atleast this carseat will last until he's 50-60lbs and not just 10 months. I guess that makes it seem a little more reasonble.

We haven't put the new carseat in yet, but we're more than ready to! Ben drives a 2-door Honda and so it's pretty impossible to strap the new carseat in and then be able to get Aidyn maneuvered around it and into the back. So, as soon as Ben is able to buy a "new" (used) car with 4-doors, we'll be quickly and happily making the change!

Tunnel Vision

To try and distract Aidyn from the fireplace, I went out and bought him a tunnel. At first he wasn't sure what to do with it. I'm sad to say, to get him to go in it at first, I had to treat him like a dog. It sounds terrible I know! But...I had to take his container of Sweet Potato puffs and put them inside the tunnel.


He quickly turned around and crawled inside to get them. He's such a little piggie!

After playing with it several days and trying to get him to crawl in it, he finally did on his own. He's so funny!

*Fair warning...if you get car sick, sea sick, motion sick, etc...you may not want to watch (or maybe take a phinegren first, ha). As Aidyn tries moving, the tunnel rocks back and forth. Almost makes me sick to watch myself! :)

Video attempt #1:

Video attempt #2:

Fall Break

One of the perks of being a teacher is that each October we get a "Fall Break". What a great idea! So, this week I planned on getting a lot of work caught up and completed for my Master's classes. I also kept Aidyn at home. Let's just say "work caught up" and "Aidyn at home" do not belong in the same sentence, haha.

Here are just a few pictures of our week at home together.


Monday: Eating a cookie while Mommy eats her lunch. Yum! And yes, incase you were wondering, since we're on "vacation"...we are still in our pjs!


Reading some favorite books...

Mommy and I walked down to "Under the Apple Tree", a store close to our house. We bought finger paint to play with on Wednesday.

Tuesday: I helped Mommy go through a bucket of 12mo clothes to see what I could wear now. All of the hangers she took off, I played with under the dinner table. So much fun!

Wednesday: I got to finger paint! Well, kinda. I didn't much like the paint, so Mommy gave me some vanilla pudding with red food coloring. I didn't know what to do with it either...so I rubbed it all over my legs! :)

Then I got a bath....

...and broke out in hives.

Since that day, I've given Aidyn several baths, let him "play" in the finger paint, and given him a few bites of my pudding. He never broke out in hives and hasn't since that weekend. It's still so strange.

Thursday: Aidyn went to the babysitter's so I could actually spend a little time catching up on grading papers and assignments for my class. I didn't get much done. Oh well. :)

Instead, I picked Aidyn up at noon and we went to lunch with "Aunt Brenda" at Rocky's. Aidyn got to have his first peice of pizza crust. Yum!

Friday: Aidyn played with the boxes (aren't they always the most fun?) that has the rest of his bed furniture in it. We ordered the parts to convert his bed to the toddler bed and full-size bed almost 3-4 months ago and they finally came in. We were afraid if we didn't order it all now, by the time he actually needed it in a few years...they'd be discontinued or out of stock.

And he spent the rest of the day crawling all over the place, pulling up, and standing....at things mostly to high for him. Go figure. Playing with the clasp on his highchair seemed to be the highlight that day.

Whew! What a week! I had a GREAT time being off and staying home with Aidyn, no matter how tiring it was, haha.

Earlier that week my mom called (around lunch) and asked, "How's it going?" I responded with, "I'm exhasuted! I don't think I could do this stay-at-home mom thing anymore. He's wearing me out!" She laughed and said, "Why? You did it for 6 months!" Which is when I reminded her that, "Yes, and he was content to sit and look around the room the first few months and after that, I could sit him on a blanket with toys and know he'd be there when I came back in 5 minutes. Now's he's everywhere AAAAND wants to be entertained. There's only so much you can do with a 9mo old when it's pouring the rain outside and he's no longer interested in his toys." She just laughed at me, and in all reality...I loved it and was not ready to go back to work on Monday!

I Told You!

I was interested this morning to see if I could "catch" Aidyn climbing/rolling out of his bumbo chair. And sure enough...I did.

While I was cleaning the kitchen, I sat him in the floor in his chair to see what he'd do. I think within 5 seconds he was out. I couldn't believe it!

Absolutely, no more, bumbo on the counter unless I'm standing directly in front of Aidyn trying to feed him or something like that. He's like Houdini!

Pureed Chicken

Gag!


I decided that I MUST introduce meats to Aidyn since we've been doing different cereals, oatmeals, fruits, and veggies for months now. He will be having his 1st birthday in 3-1/2 short months and he's got to be able to eat meat and other foods.


I've slowly began giving him small pieces of veggies, fruits, breads, and gerber puffs to feed himself. It makes life SO much easier when Ben and I go out to eat because now he can snack while we eat. He's happy and we can eat peacefully...we'll, kinda. ;)


I bought 3 cans of each meat the other day at the store: chicken, beef, ham, and turkey. Buuut, I couldn't make myself open the gross looking jars and feed it to Aidyn. Poor kid, haha. So, I finally broke down and made myself do it today.


When I opened the jar of chicken and tried to "scoop" some out onto a plate, it just plopped out like jello might. Only jello smells and tastes good, not so sure about the chicken. Blah!


So, for what's its worth...here's Aidyn trying his first meat. Be glad that I don't plan on posting about each meat individually, I know that makes you happy.


I tried the chicken first around 11am with some pears and peas. He wasn't a fan. I think he maybe ate 2 bites so I didn't try anymore and put the jar back in the fridge for later.

Luckily, at 3pm he must've been starving. He ate his entire 7oz bottle and then it was time for his food. We have tiny divided plates that I've been using lately. So, I put chicken, pears, and squash on his plate and warmed it all up till it was luke warm.

By putting the meat on first and then a bite of squash or pears, he actually ate the entire serving! I never would've imagined that I'd actually get it in him. (Thanks for the tip, Meg!) I figure we'll continue trying chicken this weekend, and if we so no reactions, I'll start on something else Monday evening. Yum, yum.

Allergies

In my post about our weekend getaway to Gatlinburg, I mentioned Aidyn having an allergic reaction to the medicine, Amox-clav, that the dr prescribed him on Friday. Well...apparently, that wasn't it.

Wednesday, after Aidyn's bath (due to his messy "painting"), he was broke out again! When I undressed him and put him in the bath...no rash. I put no soap in the bath this time, just warm water to rinse him off and let him play.

When I took him out, his lower back down to his feet were covered.

Right thigh...


Underside of left leg...


Right thigh again...

Feet and ankles...

I totally freaked out and called the dr! I explained/described the rash and said I needed to bring him in as soon as possible. This was at like 9:00am. The receptionist said the first available appt was at 3:00pm. What?!?! There was no way he was going to last 6 hours with a rash appearing and spreading this quickly. I said ok and assumed I'd end up taking him to their walk-in clinic downstairs.

I gave him 1/2 teaspoon of Children's Zyrtec (for allergies, just incase)...and would you know that within 30 minutes it was totally gone! Nothing. No sign or indication that anything had happened. I couldn't believe my eyes!

No new foods (in Gatlinburg or at home). No new clothes. No new detergents. It's so weird! I waited until 12noon and called back. I explained the situation and asked if I should come on in at 3pm, let the dr look at him, and show him the pictures, or cancel and keep an eye on him. Ofcourse, the nurse canceled the appt. I mean, what would the dr look at? Nothing was there.

What's weird...is that it's happened twice now, in 2 totally different locations. I could possibly "pin-point" a possible cause in one place or the other, but not one that would be applicable to both. Strange.

Luckily, it hasn't happened again. Poor kid. I'm afraid he is definately just going to have major skin issues...but maybe he'll outgrow them all now while he's young. I sure hope so.

Finger Painting

Being home all week with Aidyn has been great! It's also been exhausting. :) Not so much because of his crawling, but because he now wants/needs to be entertained. Sitting among a pile of toys no longer is enough. So, in my quest to find something to do, I talked with several friends whose kids attend childcare. Both are boys a month or two YOUNGER than Aidyn and both attend seperate centers. Both have also had the opportunity of finger painting at school, so I thought, "Why not? Should be interesting."

So, on Tuesday (when it quit raining for about 2 hrs), Aidyn and I walked down the street to a kids specialty / toy store that recently openend up. It's called - Under the Apple Tree. In the store, I noticed they had finger paint on sale: 4 colors (red, yellow, blue, and green) for $5.35. I read the package to make sure it was non-toxic and discussed my intentions with the store owner. She assured me that it was a safe product and should be fine for Aidyn to use. And that was it! We bought it and made plans to paint on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, I laid 2 of Aidyn's bath towels under his highchair which I'd pushed up to our dinner table. I also taped a large piece of Christmas wrapping paper (upside down with white side up) on the table. Then, I just got a few pieces of regular white computer paper.

I filled the bath with pretty warm water, so it wouldn't be cold by the time we were done, and stripped Aidyn down to his diaper. Unfornately, the table is a little tall for Aidyn to reach in his high chair. So, luckily (ha), I found a large book of Ben's (shhh! don't tell him) and used it as a "booster chair" in Aidyn's highchair. :)

It worked perfectly, almost.

We started with blue and yellow finger paint. After Aidyn tried eating it, and I kept trying to tell him no, I decided to stop. He wasn't quite understanding what to do, which was fine, and so I decided if he was going to eat it...we might as well try pudding.

We had some vanilla sugar free pudding in the pantry that I got out and mixed with red food coloring to add some color to it. Put down a new piece of paper, and put Aidyn back in the chair.

This time he didn't try to eat it at all. I'm not sure if it was because I kept telling him no the first time with the paint, or if he just wasn't interested. Instead...he rubbed it ALLLL over his legs! I never saw him try to eat it, but after looking at the pictures, he must've gotten some to his mouth at some point.

After no success with the paint or pudding, we went on up for a bath.

Oh well. Maybe we'll try again on Christmas Break. He'll be 11 months old then.

------------------------------------------------------

I tried uploading these two videos in "order" with my text, but can't ever seem to get my pictures, videos, etc to fall in the right order when I do both throughout. So...they aren't anything spectacular, but I knew a few people might enjoy watching Aidyn try it out. So, here goes. One is finger paint and the other is the pudding.

Hopefully we'll have better luck next time.

Look at Me!

Here lately, Aidyn has totally been impressed with himself crawling and trying to stand on his own all over the place.

I know our many "adventures" have only just begun.

Fun with Mommy

Here is just a quick clip of Aidyn's game we played the other day in the kitchen.

I had him sitting in his bumbo and went to walk around to the fridge when he turned to watch me and started laughing. I decided to run in circles around the bar and he got so tickled, it was cute. He has been leaning back in his seat for quite some time now, but never managed to fall out, flip out, or climb out...

...until later the next day. I was putting groceries away and had him sitting in his bumbo just like in the video. I turned around as he managed to turn over and climb out of the bumbo seat. He was laying on the edge of the island on his tummy with his left arm hanging off. Talk about a heart attack!

Needless to say, I WILL NOT be putting him in the bumbo on the counter again (unless I'm standing right there infront of him). Sooooo scary! The more I think about what would've happened had he rolled of the bar and onto the tile floor...I get totally freaked out.

Good thing I saw him, barely though. And everyone is ok. :)

Happy Feet

No, I'm not talking about the penguin movie Happy Feet...

I'm talking about Aidyn's feet. Anytime he is excited or happy, whether it be playing with a toy, eating a favorite cookie or snack, or seeing someone he loves come into the room...he always has "happy feet".

Check out the video of him eating a cookie while I ate my lunch the other day. Can you tell he's lov'n that coookie? haha

We're not sure where he got this "habit" since neither Ben or I have "happy feet", haha, but nonetheless...it's too cute!

And It All Begins...

I am totally loving the fact that Aidyn can crawl now, but no kidding...we are definately having to watch him more and more carefully.

The other morning, as I went to fix his bottle, I came back and he was playing in the fireplace. Ah! Luckily, we don't have a working fireplace, but still! We do have gas logs we'd like to install this winter, and we have real logs just sititng in there to make it kinda "look" like it works.

I went upstairs and got one of our old baby gates that we used with our dog, Macie, and blocked it off. Since it isn't quite big enough to fit snuggly, it's just leaning up against the fireplace opening. And, since Aidyn thinks it's fun to try and pull up on it (which he'd end up falling back with it on top of him), I had to put one of our dining room chairs infront of it.

What'll be next? Probably our stairs!

What in the world?

On Monday afternoon, after the rain finally quit, Aidyn and I went for a walk. When we returned, I pushed his stroller to the side of the house so we could go swing for a minute. As I did, I noticed a strange thing...

...an opossum in our trap!

At first I wasn't sure I was seeing clearly. Really?!?!

When we left on Friday, the trap was empty (no food, snacks, trash, etc) inside it. It was simply sitting next to the house waiting to be carried downstairs and put back into the basement.

Oh well, looks like we caught another one! I sure hope it wasn't too hungry...there's no telling how long it'd been stuck in there!

A Hole?

Aidyn recently noticed a hole that we have in our floor downstairs. When we bought our house, there was originally a set of french doors that separated our living room and what is now our dining room. We initially intended on replacing the doors, but since have decided to leave them out. It makes the downstairs area seem much more open.

Where there once was a small door stop, we now have a small whole in the floor. I always knew it was there, but never paid it much attention until Aidyn became obsessed with it the other day.







Lately, it seems as though it has become one of his favorite things to do, sit and play with the hole in the floor. Go figure.



Now, please don't take this the wrong way...but he's kinda like a dog. Why bother buying toys when he'd rather play with cups, magazines, empty coke bottles, spatulas and pots? Or a big empty box...aren't those always the best "toys" ever? haha

Weekend Get-Away

As I mentioned in my last post, Ben was off from football last Friday. Since we didn't go on a summer vacation this year, we decided to head "up the road" to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN for the weekend.

Our original plan was to arrive around 2-3pm, check-in at the hotel, and spend the afternoon/evening and dinner at the Tanger Outlets. Since we ended up at the dr with Aidyn, we didn't arrive until closer to 7pm.

We decided to go to the hotel, feed and change Aidyn, and go shopping. We began our "adventure" at KT's Bar and Grill. I wasn't sure what kind of mood Aidyn would be in, so we asked to sit out on the patio where there was a guy playing his guitar and singing. The less quiet Aidyn is expected to be, the better. And ofcourse, the more happening around him to keep him entertained, the better.

Here's a quick picture of him in the high chair "dancing" to the music. He loved it and was such a good boy all through dinner!

We left dinner and Ben put Aidyn his the backpack carrier. We only had time to visit 2-3 stores, so we knew the backpack would be easier for tonight than the stroller. Once we got back to the hotel, it was time to feed him and go to bed...or so we hoped.

Here he is playing with a pack of diapers that he just dumped out of the bag. Fun, fun.

Ben and I debated to whether or not to take the pack-n-play and ultimately decided not to. I'm still not sure if it would have made a difference or not.

However, Aidyn's "normal" routine goes as follows:
Bath (on Sunday or Wednesday only)
Lotion, Skin Ointment
Clean Diaper and PJs
Bottle
Rock a few minutes
Laid in his Crib
(Lullaby music and dehumidifier)

Normally, we just lay Aidyn in his crib. Sometimes he's asleep already, and other times he lays and talks to himself a few minutes and goes to sleep on his own.

At the hotel, it took us over an hour (both nights) to get him to sleep. I couldn't just lay him in the bed and walk off. He'd climb/fall off. Ben and I were visible so he thought we wanted to play. There was no rocking chair. Etc, etc, etc.

However, other than our crazy bedtime "routine", our weekend get-away was great. We were able to stroll up and down Gatlinburg on Saturday evening after we ate dinner at No Way Jose's. We found lots of good deals at the outlets for ourselves (and a few for Aidyn).

When we went out walking Saturday evening, it was cool and almost like a "mist" in the air. Aidyn was tired (as were we) of being in the room, and he definately wasn't going to bed anytime soon. So, after much "deliberation" between Ben and myself about whether or not to take Aidyn out into the "mist", you can see we ended up going. In the end, I was glad with our decision. We saw many parents out with their children (some not bundled up at all!!!) and Aidyn enjoyed "people watching".

He had his pajamas on, with his orange fleece sweatshirt over it, a baseball cap on to keep his head dry, and he was wrapped in a blanket. Needless to say, I do not think he got cold. :)

The view from the balcony before we left.

We ended the weekend by "sleeping in" (if you want to call it that) until 7:45am when Aidyn woke me up. We showered, packed up the car, and had a WONDERFUL breakfast at Flapjack's Pancakes. Ben and I each had the "#2 breakfast":
3 buttermilk pancakes
2 scrambled eggs
2 pieces of bacon
1 side of hashbrowns
1 large glass of orange juice

(Even Aidyn had a bite or two of pancakes!)

...all for $15.00 total. Yum-o!!!!

Hopefully we'll be able to take another "weekend get-away" to a different location after football is over and before the basketball season begins. It won't be long.

Oh yeah...

I forgot to mention that I also called the Pediatrician that was on call Sunday afternoon, Dr.Pearson, and he agreed with our decision. Stop the Amox-clav, try a teaspoon of children's Zyrtec (for allergies) and keep an eye on the wrist. With a breakout as bad as Aidyn had, I definately wanted a dr's opinion.

If it isn't one thing...

...there's always something else.

This past Friday was Ben's only "off week" for football. Since we didn't go on a summer vacation this year, we decided this weekend would be a nice opportunity to get out of town. We didn't go far, but we decided to go to Gatlinburg, TN (about 2 hrs from our house) for the weekend.

Ben took Friday off to get some things done and run errands. I was only working a half day. Our plan was to leave after lunch, check-in at the hotel around 2-3pm, and then spend the evening at the Tanger Outlets for shopping and dinner. But as you know...things never go as planned.

Aidyn woke up with a huge welp (sp?) on his wrist and thumb. Both were pretty red and looked swollen too. If you remember my post about the blisters on his feet...well, this was just the same. Ben called the dr and they wanted us to bring him in to be looked at...at 2pm - the time we were supposed to be leaving. Great.

So we did. Aidyn is much more important that getting to a shopping outlet, haha, but we were pretty annoyed. Not with Aidyn, but the poor kid always seems to have something going on, I feel SO bad for him! But anyhow.

The dr said it did not look like spider bite. He felt like this thumb was due to chewing or sucking (Aidyn doesn't suck his thumb or fingers...but he DOES chew on them). He thought the welp on his wrist looked like an allergic reaction to something, but just incase it was an infection (that he didn't want to get worse) he prescribed amox-clav. Aidyn was to take 1/2 a teaspoon twice a day for 10 days. If the spot got bigger, worse, or he ran a fever, we were instructed to call back.

Aidyn had his first dose (1/2 tsp) around 8:30pm Friday evening. His wrist and thumb had already started looking better. By Saturday, his thumb looked much better. The spot on his wrist wasn't any smaller, but it wasn't as red. However... (here comes the fun part - yeah right)

Saturday afternoon/evening, we noticed Aidyn had 2-3 "patches" of white bumps on the back of his legs that resembled misquitoe bites surrounded with red, almost swollen, skin. We weren't sure what had caused that since he'd had pants on all day and been with us. He had slept in footed pjs the night before, in the same bed as me, and I had no bites. So, we put different pjs on and went to bed.

This morning, Sunday, when Aidyn woke up...he was covered in those bug-bite patches. The back of both legs were covered. He had new patches on the back/underside of both arms, small dot on his chest, small spot on his right cheek and ear lobe, and the entire left side of his bottom. I decided NOT to give him his morning dose of the Amox-clav incase that was the reason for this break-out.

Wouldn't you know, that by the time we got home (3 hrs later), the only spots left were his cheek and left leg. Aaaaand, by the time I got to my parents' for a quick visit (about 2-3 hrs later), they were ALL GONE! I have not given Aidyn anymore Amox-clav, and the patches have not reappeared. I definately think that was the problem.

The red welp on his wrist is slowly getting better, but not as quick as I'd like. However, since it looks identical to the "blisters" he had on his feet a month or two ago that healed just fine, I think we'll stay home from the dr office and just keep a close eye on it. We'd probably be in more "danger" sitting in a waiting room full of sick children then just staying at home.

Whew!

Atleast the breakout is gone and no more...that was my biggest concern.

...and he's off!

Aidyn's finally crawling!

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday. Since I have class on Thursdays, we invited them over for dinner lastnight. Aidyn has been crawling for a day or two, but I don't know if you'd call it a "real" crawl. He crawls on one knee and pushes himself with his other leg. It's halarious!

While I fixed dinner lastnight, he managed to crawl across the room, through the kitchen, and over to the dishwasher. Luckily, it was empty.

Once I had it refilled, I kept having to move him away from it....and there he'd come again. :) I, finally, ended up having to shut it and finish loading it later.

Here is a short video of him doing his "peg-leg" crawling as I like to call it. Yay, Aidyn!

When the youth came over tonight for church, he was doing better at crawling with both knees and not the "peg-leg", haha. I'm glad I videotaped a little big lastnight, like my dad said, "Before he figures out the 'right' way to do it." Too cute!

Apple Festival

Our hometown has it's annual Apple Festival the first weekend of October every year. I hate going (as does Ben) because it's a 2-lane road, Main Street, with tent vendors set up on both sides of the road in addition to thousands of people visiting and "shopping". There are lots of food related items with apples and then all the rest of the tents are random things such as shirts, homemade dresses, jewelry, woodwork, and any other items you might see at a "festival".

But even thought I hate it, I went twice this year. Luckily, since we live 2 blocks from the "big event", we can just walk. So, on both Friday and Saturday evening this year, Aidyn and I walked down around 6:30pm when the crowd has died down and most people are gone. I like going then because you can actually push a stroller and "stroll" up and down the street looking at stuff without being stepped on, pushed, shoved, or knocked over.

The first night it was a little cool, and since Aidyn was getting over a cold, I didn't want him to get sick...so I bundled him up...just a little, haha. He isn't wearing a snowsuit (I promise!) but it's like a one-piece GAP outfit. It's like a sweatshirt and pants all connected. It wasn't quite that cold when we left the house, but by the time the sun went down about 30 min later, I was very glad I had put this on him.

We didn't find anything worth dying over, but I did myself a peice of Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake dipped in Chocolate! Ohhhh....yum! Doesn't it look great?!?!?! It was worth all the money I paid for it - which was too much for it, but who cares! :) I even gave Aidyn a small taste and he LOVED it!

Ben also took him down Saturday afternoon to "bum around" for a few minutes.

They bought me a beautiful badge lanyard (sp?) for my school badge. A friend of ours, Sharon, had a booth at the festival of jewelry peices she had made. I love it and have had lots of compliments on it at school this week! Thanks Ben and Sharon!

Close Call

This past weekend was Apple Festival in the town where we live. Since there are thousands of people that come in from out of town, the local schools always close on Friday. This year, they also decided to shut-down on Wednesday and Thursday for a shortened Fall Break. This meant that Ben was out of school the end of last week.

Now, we (teachers) aren't supposed to have our phones out during the day while we're teaching at school. However, I just happened to have mine on my front table last Thursday morning when I recieved a text from Ben that said, "Did you get my message?"

Ben NEVER texts me at work so I knew it must be important. I looked back and he had sent another text message earlier that said, "My son just catapulted himself off the changing table!"

I almost died! We texted back and forth for a while...and I ended up explaining to my students why I had my phone out. They almost died as well, haha, and they're 8 years old! Apparently, Ben was changing Aidyn's diaper when he decided to turn around and get socks out of his sock drawer (about 3 steps away). While "away", Aidyn managed to turn sideways and push off the wall with his feet, causing himself to do a backflip off the changing table and land on the floor.

Ahhhhhhh! What?!?!?!?!

Ben reassured me that he was ok, had a very small knot on his forehead, but was at the babysitter's now. He had eaten and played "normally" all morning. After texting back and forth with both Ben and Kelly all day long, I felt ok about him being alright.

Well...

...until I actually talked to Ben on my way to class and listened to him describe, in detail, what actually happened. By then, I was like 10 min from my class but so sick I thought I was going to throw up. So, I called the dr. They wanted to see Aidyn "right away" to check for bruising, x-ray for internal bleeding, and more. Talking about freak'n somebody out!

I practically did a u-turn in the road, called a friend from class to explain why I wouldn't be there, and headed to my parents' house to pick up Aidyn. When I called my dad to tell him I was on the way, he also said that Aidyn was fine. Once I got there...I was able to tell the same thing. But, since I'd already called the dr, I went ahead and took him.


While at Mom and Dad's (and the dr office), he was climbing all over the place, playing, and laughing. Here are a few pics I took while we were waiting for the dr to arrive. We were given the first "walk in" appointment at 5pm. However, the dr was finishing up her rounds at the hospital so we still had to wait.

He looks real hurt and upset doesn't he?

Dr. Farmer poked, pushed, and pulled on him and said he looks fine. No fever, bumps, or bruises and he was eating and playing all day like his normal self. She assured us that it wouldn't be the last time he fell or got hurt. I'm just glad everything was ok...and Ben especially is. :)

We're getting there...

One day last week, Sunday maybe (I can't remember), my parents came over to drop off some spindels they'd bought to fix our steps going upstairs. Last year, when we bought our new king-size bed furniture, we had to remove the hand-carved spindels that were originally to our house...our 106 year-old house. Yes, we all almost cried when we had to cut them in half.

But anyhow. While my parents were at the house, we were trying our best to get Aidyn to crawl. He's been trying SOOOO hard! He was doing a great job scooting himself with his feet, but by the time I got my camera, he'd worn himself out. Here are two short videos.

We're getting closer!

*Some of my friends (at work and church) keep "reminding" me that I will be sorry when he finally is crawling, haha...I'm sure they're right...but we're still excited about his progress!

Who's that?

Since all of our bedrooms are upstairs, we put a mini-fridge in Aidyn's room when he was born. This kept me from having to take many trips up and down the stairs to the kitchen and back when he was younger and eating regularly throughout the night. We also kept an empty bottle or two plus formula in his bathroom for the same reason.

Wednesday night, after his bath, I sat Aidyn on the sink countertop next to the mirror while I fixed his bottle for bedtime. I looked over as he turned, saw himself in the mirror, and started smiling and giggling. It was the cutest thing ever!

He's seen himself plenty of times but usually Ben or I am holding him and so he normally just focuses on us. This time it was just him. Since I actually had my camera with us, I grabbed it to take his picture...

...but like always, as soon as he saw it, he was more interested in me and the camera. I've always said I want to mount a small mirror on the floor in a "playroom" for my children. I think it's a great thing for them to see themselves and others on their level. Since we don't have a playroom, maybe I can get a smaller one to put in his room on the floor.

New Teether

Aidyn's new favorite "teething device" is the cap to the Tylenol bottle. Go figure. I swear he isn't a druggie...ha. Where he was sick last week, we'd give him tylenol to help with his throat, mild fever, and fussiness. He always loved chewing on the cap when we'd put the lid back on.


Now that the bottle is empty (it's a small bottle we've had since he was born)...I've left it in his room to chew on while I change his diapers in the morning. It seems to keep him pretty occupied and less concerned about trying to climb off the changing table...more about that issue to come later!

Random

Sometimes I find myself taking photos of random things Aidyn is doing. Some turn out cute and others I end up deleting. The other night Aidyn was trying his best to crawl. He is ALL OVER the place...except he doesn't crawl, haha. He somehow mangages to scoot while sitting or push with his hands and feet or roll to where he wants to be. He cracks me up how determined he is to get from one place to another, yet still doesn't quite crawl.

After trying to get back to the couch the other night, he ended up just laying down on the blanket as though he'd given up. Poor kid, haha. He looks as though he's crying...but I promise he isn't. ;)