Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Friday, January 15, 2010

Rough Night...

     Warning: I'm not trying to be overly desrciptive or disgust anyone....if it happens, I'm sorry! Sunday night Allan and I were both horribly sick! I guess we both had the flu. We were eating dinner and Allan suddenly said he was done. He said he felt sick and had a headache and didn't want to look at food anymore. He took some Advil and spent the rest of the evening watching TV while I played with Cayden in another room. At 9pm it started. Allan's "sickness", as I'll call it, was violent and constant. I was feeding Cayden one last time before getting him ready for bed and noticed that I felt really really nauseous. I assumed that maybe I was kinda grossed out and ignored it. Cayden went to sleep with some difficulty, but finally fell asleep and I started getting myself ready for bed. I started feeling worse and was having flashbacks of morning sickness. Allan's sickness was still going strong, so I blamed that for my own ill feelings. At midnight it was on for me. Allan was STILL getting sick at that time and we were basically taking turns in the bathroom. We were sharing a bathroom to not wake Cayden up, so we were at times warning each other "I'm coming in!" as needed.
     Neither of us were really speaking other than giving those warnings, but I know we were both thinking, "If Cayden wakes up, we're screwed". We really would have been. I had a plan to call a friend to take care of Cayden if it were to happen, because I knew I wouldn't have been able to take care of him. It occurred to me that our closest friends live 30 minutes away and that it was the middle of the night, so my back up plan in case the call-a-friend plan didn't work out was to knock on a neighbor's door (which, I now realize wouldn't have worked out since they moved! We're obviously extremely unneighborly people!). Luckily, Cayden never woke up. He slept peacefully until 5:30am. By that time Allan was still not too good but was in better shape than I was, so he tended to Cayden and at 7:30 when Cayden woke up again I was somewhat able to take care of him.
     Allan and I stayed home Monday since we were both exhausted and having all sorts of body aches and chills and all that fun flu stuff, but we decided to take Cayden to school. He didn't need to be around us sick people and we wouldn't be able to play with him the way he wanted. So he went in to school and came home with a note saying he'd had a very happy day. He is SUCH a good baby!!! Not that he necessarily chose to sleep until 5:30am, but his doing so really saved all of us! AND the best part is that he never got sick himself! Someone said that we probably picked up daycare germs from him, but I am so very thankful that he never showed signs of illness. I love my little Cayden.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

First Food!



Lots of people have been asking when Allan and I plan to start giving Cayden solid foods.I am always amazed by how much controversy there is about everything with babies (and I'm sure with kids too!). Every book we read or person we talk to tells us something different about the "best" way to do things. For every little thing! About food, some places say to wait it out until his stomach is stronger, other places say to give him food earlier so he can get used to it. I'm learning more and more to just  figure it out on our own. It's much less confusing! We'd planned on waiting until 6 months. With his stomach being so sensitive, it made more sense to me to wait longer. But for the past few weeks, we noticed that if Cayden was sitting with one of us and we ate something he would stare and stare at the food. Then he started opening his mouth whenever we took a bite, then a few times he almost fell over while leaning in to look or grab at the food. So Allan decided it was time to try it out for real. So, of course, more conflicting advice...most people and books say to start with rice cereal because it is so bland. Some say to put it in a bottle to help him ease into it, some say that is really bad...the list of arguments over baby food goes on and on and on! So we did it our way. We gave him "Baby's 1st Apples".  I've read that starting with fruit means he won't ever like vegetables, but then again, I've also read that that is a myth. His first food was something interesting. I'm happy with our decision!
     He did such a great job! He opened his mouth and sucked in the apples and swallowed them, hardly making any mess at all! I only let Allan feed him a little bit since I was still nervous about his stomach. But he hasn't shown any sign of discomfort. Last night we fed him the rest of the jar and he loved it again! He happily kicked his little feet and looked like he was in awe of the yummy applesauce. He probably could have easily finished the entire jar at once if we'd let him. Next up to try is peas, sweet potatoes, and pears. Yum!


Monday, January 4, 2010

The holidays

Phew! We've had an exciting few weeks! December 18th was my parent's 36th wedding anniversary AND my mom graduated from UF making her officially a Gator! We went up to Gainesville to meet my dad, Eddie, Crystal, and Ella to see mom graduate and then we went out to dinner to celebrate.


The following day Cayden and I went with my parents to cut down their Christmas tree. It has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. Also a tradition is for someone to bring up the time Eddie and I dragged the tree through dog poo....


This year, sadly, Eddie and his family could not join us. But I was happy when Allan showed up and surprised me with Hunter and Trent! This was the first year that I did not participate at all in the actual cutting of the tree. Allan and the boys did it all. Then the boys dragged the tree out all by themselves (actually Trent did most of it alone!). I can't believe how fast they've grown up! The next day we celebrated their birthdays: Hunter turned 5 on December 16th and Trent turned 4 on December 27th.

Allan and I have always celebrated Christmas together on December 23rd. Since it was a Wednesday Allan had to work, so by the time we were able to eat our "Christmas" dinner and open presents and watch Christmas movies Cayden was already sleeping. Here is us in front of our tree, with Kudos making an appearance behind us.
On Christmas Eve, again, Allan had to work. I spent the day trying to fit all of the Christmas gifts into Allan's truck. Then Cayden and I went to mass (his 1st time!), went to pick Allan up from work, and headed to Ocala to his mom's house where we ate dinner and opened Christmas presents. It has always worked out really great for us to be able to spend the evening there. And as a bonus, my parents joined us.

Cayden with Nonni, Grandma Bear, and Oma. Notice his outfit!! A rockin' Xmas!


       Cayden's Christmas jammies and Jen sporting a ribon headband                                    
                                                                                                  
Then we were off to Guy and Jen's house where we waited for Santa to drop off his incredible amount of toys! Hunter and Trent must have been really good this year! Here they are showing off some of their new things. Below are Allan and me with Cayden and then below and to the left (I can't figure out how to put pics where I want them) is Cayden being entertained by crazy Uncle Guy!

 Once the boys opened their gifts we left for my parents' house for more presents and food! Here is my dad playing with Cayden. Notice Cayden's knee. Cute!
December 26th we went to Gainesville to spend the day with Eddie, Crystal, and Ella! Unfortunately we didn't get to spend nearly as much time as we'd have liked. And also we didn't bring a camera! I am awaiting pictures to be emailed from that day and I'll add them then. We saw Ella's awesome new pink bike! What a big girl she is! She is so smart and pretty and funny! I really love that she is starting to recognize everyone. We don't get to see her that often so it is really fun that it takes her less time to warm up to us than it used to. And she loves Cayden! I can't wait until Eli is born! Cayden will finally have a playmate. These get togethers will be super fun then!
                   
Before heading back home we stopped by Jen's house one more time so she could take Cayden's 4 month pictures! As usual, she did a beautiful job! Here are some of my favorites.
                            

Then it was back to work for a few more days before it was time to celebrate the New Year! Chenel, Richard, and Baby Richard came over but left before midnight. Here are the two of us as it turned in to 2010 (and as the stupid camera died!). It was quite a year!                            

So far 2010 has already been exciting! January 1st Eddie, Crystal, and Ella came. We spend the day playing together and watching football. Both our teams won! My parents joined us and brought the traditional black-eyed peas and turnip greens dinner. We really enjoyed getting to see everyone and having them stay so long! My parents stayed until almost the end of the Gator game and Eddie and Crystal decided to spend the night! Cayden gladly gave up his room for them and his crib for Ella, although she didn't appreciate it as much as he wanted her to. Again it was a great time with them. We played this game, Apples to Apples. It didn't sound fun and I was hesitant to play, but it was great fun! I recommend it highly! We also got to witness as Ella is being potty trained. Everything she does, even sitting on the potty, is adorable! I LOVE her! Her little voice is so sweet. She is always saying, "Mommy I miss you! Daddy I miss you!". SO cute.  This weekend we'll be going to Ocala again to celebrate Allan's grandma's birthday. Hopefully I'll be able to go to Gainesville and see her again. We're so lucky to have such loving and supportive family who live so close. I hope to see everyone as often as possible this year!