Tuesday, June 26, 2007

This summer is flying by...

So it's already been almost a week since I updated. Wow time flies. So let's see, the low down is...

Ian was almost 22lbs last week. We won't be going back for 2 weeks, I've got another appointment tomorrow, next week is July 4th so group is cancelled so I won't weigh him again until the 11th. I can only guess at how huge he'll be then.

To celebrate the beginning of summer, we went shopping for some flowers for our front porch. Twin Lake Greenhouse had geraniums buy 1 get 2 free so I thought that Alison would like some for outside her window. When we got to the greenhouse, we found that they had lots of flowers on sale. She liked the geraniums, but in every area we went in she was drawn to the impatients. I really wanted a fuchsia hanging basket. We found out that the baskets were buy 1 get 1 free so we ended up with a fuchsia and an impatients basket. Alison found a pretty one with 3 different colors of flowers. We also got 3 little cucumber plants. We put those in a huge pot with a tomato cage.

We had a busy weekend and took Monday to stay home and relax.

Today we went to our friend's house again. She invited a bunch of people over. Nobody could make it at the same time or stay very long so it was a big open house of kids. It was super hot and humid so the kids played inside sometimes and outside at others. They've got a little wading pool and hoses. The kids had a blast.

I had a huge realization this weekend. I've got less than 6 weeks until Ian is 1 year old!!! For some reason it just didn't seem like it was this close, but it's sneaking up on me. Time to start party planning. Yikes!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Teeth week!

Well, this is the week for teeth at our house!

Ian has been chewing everything like a madman the past couple weeks. I started to feel a bump on his bottom gums. Saturday night there was a tiny corner of a tooth that scraped me when he was chewing my finger. Sunday that tooth popped out and there was a tiny little line of sharp tooth. Yay we have the 1ST tooth!!!

Monday, Alison and I had our cleaning appointments at the dentist. Alison was a big girl and sat in the chair by herself for the first time (she used to sit on my lap). She was a bit scared, but she did great. Our hygienist said that her bottom, middle two teeth are the tiniest bit loose and she will probably loose them in the next 6 months or so. Alison is excited and scared. She keeps asking lots of questions about the Tooth Fairy.

Then today I was talking to a friend about Ian getting his first tooth. Her little girl is only 5 months and she was wondering what a tooth looks like when it pops through. So I did the tricky act of trying to hold open his lip, while holding his tongue back a bit and I saw not one but two teeth poking out. Crazy!

So my opinion of the amber teething necklace is that it works. I did give him a few teething tablets or teething drops (2 maybe 3 times a day at most, when he was looking like his mouth was bothering him). That was it, no Tylenol or anything else. I can only hope and pray that the rest of his teeth come in this smoothly!

I'd love to post a pic of his teeth, but right now it's too hard to even catch a glimpse of them, let alone take a pic of them. I'm going to miss his toothless grin, it's just yet another reminder that he's growing up way too fast.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Growing into things


Ian got this activity cube for Christmas. Then he was content to watch us play with it. Just a few months later and he's trying it out by himself. Earlier this morning I brought it out from his room and stood him up by it. He had a blast with it. Now he just finished his breakfast and crawled over and he's exploring the sides. His favorite is the big wheel that spins and has a maze with beads in it. Although he is checking out all the different activities. Here's a little video of him earlier this morning.

I'll write more later today. My friend is coming over with her 2mo baby. It's been almost a month since we've seen them so it will be nice to catch up a bit.

Well, we had a nice visit with Tammy and Alayna. Baby Alayna was so soft and cuddly. Until Ian figured out that momma was holding another baby and started to cry. It felt strange to hold a tiny (Well, she isn't really tiny, she's actually bigger than Ian was at that age.) baby after getting used to our big guy.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Getting even more brave

Ian is starting to cruise around more. He still is hanging on for dear life and kind of wobbly, but he wants to walk so bad. I of course hope he takes his own sweet time. This morning he started out on one side of a dining room chair. Like this...







Then he walked around the back of the chair, grabbed the table leg and then went over to the tub of Alison's stuff (that you can see in the background) and started going through what she had stashed on the lid.


I am so not ready for him to be this grown up. Alison didn't walk till she was over a year old. Slow down little man. I don't want you to grow up so fast.


Speaking of growing up, I realized that in exactly two months, I will have a 6 year old. How did that happen? I'm sure parents of older kids are just shaking their heads thinking, "Just wait till your kid turns 30." I know that day will come all to soon. That's why I'm trying to enjoy every moment I can now.

1st Park Day!

Yesterday we went to our first park day of summer. Last year we didn't go to any of them since I was on bedrest for most of the summer, the summer before that we did almost every one. It was good to start up again. We meet up with our friends from the Tuesday morning moms' group/play group. There were lots of friends there yesterday.




It's interesting bringing a baby this time. I brought the pack-n-play and was glad that I did. Ian had a blast with his friend Isaac and for a little while Emma. Although she can walk so she didn't stay for too long, but for the boys it was a great place to be out of their strollers and move around a bit.


Alison had lots of fun too. Some of her friends were there and she made a couple new friends too. It was nice to see her playing so good with girls who are all at least a year older than she is.
We were there from 11am till almost 3pm! We were one of the last ones to leave but our kids were having so much fun we couldn't bear to make them leave.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Ian's Getting Brave






Yesterday Alison and I went shopping for birthday presents for her friends' parties today. When we got home, Dan told us that Ian had taken a couple steps between his tub of toys and the couch. Later, I got a picture of him.


Then awhile later he pulled himself up to standing for the first time. For a twist, he did it on the tricycle!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The Surprise Trip

Yesterday Alison woke up at 6:30am. Even for her that is pretty early. The only reason I know she was up that early was that Ian had woke up at 6am. So I was up too. After I fed Ian, I told Alison that she needed to get dressed. Now I'm normally pretty easy going about her leaving her jammies on in the morning, so she knew something was up. I got Ian dressed and woke Dan up. The night before he had set his alarm for 7:30 and was hoping to leave by 8. I was worried that Ian would still be asleep at 8. When I woke him up at 6:50 and told him both kids were ready to go, he was shocked.

Alison loves these surprise trips. She loves not knowing where we are going, yet it is torture to because she wants to know, but she wants the surprise. So she asked lots of questions, we gave her vague answers and a little more detail as we got closer. About half way there she couldn't take it anymore, so we told her that we were going to Cabela's and Ikea. She was excited about Cabela's because Dan had told her about the all the animals from when he went over a year ago. She didn't know what Ikea was until we told her that's where her little plates and some other stuff in the house came from.

We got there and Alison was excited. She instantly fell in love with the waterfall. But, it took her awhile to get used to the idea that the animals weren't going to get her. She's used to the zoo and big spaces between her and the animals. Once she got comfortable, she loved it. We took one lap around the bottom floor then headed up to the top floor.

After we looked around a bit upstairs, we decided it was time for lunch. Alison being the brave eater that she is, had pizza and chocolate milk! Dan and I were brave too. I had a smoked ostrich sandwich. Dan had buffalo. We both liked our choices. Poor Ian had grapes and cereal.

By that time Alison wanted pictures of all the animals. So we wandered around the store again and took pictures of all her favorites. Then we shopped. We didn't get much. There are so many things we 'could' get, but we don't really need anything. So we got a couple souvenirs and headed out.


If you want to see the rest of the pictures from Cabela's click here. (I just tried to fix the link, hopefully it will work now.)



Then we were on our way to Ikea. You have no idea what an exciting place this was for Alison. She loves to watch decorating shows on Home and Garden TV. She complains about our "...boring white walls..." and draws pictures of how she wants to decorate her room. It was fun to watch her run from each little room to the next, excitedly pointing out the features of every one. She found a small jeweled chandelier in a pink room and fell in love. We almost got it for her, but it wouldn't have given off enough light to light her room with so we had to talk her out of it. She was disappointed but she handled it really well. She ended up getting some neon colored hangers for her closet, some matching straws, and a mini-sized baking set to go with her pretend food and dishes. We also let her get 2 ice cube trays that make shaped ice cubes. One was hearts. The other is puzzle pieces. We thought she would have lots of fun this summer making puzzle ice sculptures out on the deck with those.

We left Ikea at 6:30. I fed Ian right before and luckily he slept almost all the way home. He was such a little trooper. For somebody who's used to crawling around much of the time now, it was hard for him to have to sit in the carseat for so long. In the stores we used carts so he could be up high by us. We carried him a lot too so that he could get a break from sitting. For awhile in Cabellas we layed his cart cover in the cart and let him lay on it so he could kick and squirm and wiggle. He loved seeing everything at both places. I think he had fun. When we got home we put him on the floor and he crawled and rolled and played for an hour before he realized that he hadn't eaten since we left Ikea. Then he fell asleep for the night.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Eek! It's been awhile!

Hello again! Sorry to have dropped off the face of the planet like that. Let's see what has happened since I last updated? We didn't do anything special over the weekend. Dan had Friday and Saturday off and worked Sunday and Monday. So for us, it was just another day.

Yesterday we went to Lewis Farm Market. We met 3 of Alison's friends and their moms and siblings (and the moms are my friends too). We packed a picnic lunch and stayed for about 4hrs. If you look at the petting farm pictures, there are a lot of new things. There are now 2 barns of animals. They also added onto the farm stand and now there is a huge covered picnic area and new bathrooms. It is really nice. They also added new play equipment for the kids.


I was proud of Alison. She is really skittish around the animals. Her friends were feeding them (pellet food that you can buy there) and I could tell that she was feeling left out, but not wanting to get quite that close to any of the critters. She asked for some food so I just got her the $0.25 handful out of the machine. She figured out that she could use the pulley system to feed the goats. She was so excited. It was great for her to be able to participate without actually having food licked off her hands by a goat. She fell in love with the pony too. She still wouldn't pet her but she loved seeing her. I think if we go back a few more times this summer, she might just get brave enough to touch the pony.


Ian seemed to like the farm. He didn't get scared when the donkeys and camels were making loud noises. He loved taking his nap outside in the fresh air.


The worst part, I forgot my camera. So next time we go I promise to share pictures.



Ian is now almost 21lbs. He was 20lb 15.6oz. He's working on his first tooth I think. He was miserable today. My dad was teasing me about the necklace not working. I'm still not sure, maybe he'd be even more miserable without it. Hard to know.
Here's a pic of Ian taking his nap earlier today. I'm such a bad blogger, I haven't taken his picture since last week!
Hopefully my next post won't be next week, hahahaha. Take care everybody!