Sick & Maple Leaves

This weekend I came down with one of those sicknesses that's just debilitating. Swallowing anything is pure torture; my throat is so painful. Nights have been riddled with feverish chills and overheating and then shivers again. And, Owen had the very same thing. He's woken up every hour for the last few nights.

Throughout my time as a mother, I have only been sick a handful of times. After this weekend, I am again reminded how hard it is to be a mama and to be sick. It's much easier to run around like a busy bee, snuggling on the couch, wiping snotty noses, and get the boys what's needed for them to feel better. It's a totally different thing when they still need you and you have very little to give.

It just so happened to be the most gorgeous October weekend, with the peak changing of the leaves, here in Southwest Virginia, and I missed a dear friend's baby shower (that I planned), and a few fall festivals. What can you do?

Fortunately, the beautiful maple tree in our backyard showed it's beautiful colors and reminded me of the blessings right here, right now. Lying on the swing each of the sick days, staring up at those gorgeously yellow and orange leaves, made even the worst hurt subside for a few minutes.

Here Comes the Sun...

Here are a few cute photos from before sickness struck...

And then...

I noticed this little fellow was a bit droopy and dreary-eyed in the swing that evening.

 The next morning he threw up several times. I changed clothes and washed hands between caring for each boy. And Jim got us into the pediatricians office, because he wanted a strep test done on Ian. Sure enough, he was right. Strep it was.

As soon as Ian started feeling better, we thought we were in the clear. The next morning Jim and I were nauseous and by the afternoon we were both passed out and trying to recover, while caring for a newborn and a toddler.

Fortunately, Jim started feeling better as I got worse and worse. Two separate runs to the pharmacy for me. I ended up with Strep, too. Fun times. I thin we are finally on the upswing. The most any of us have been sick since becoming parents. Whew. What a week.

The biggest blessing? Owen has remained healthy the entire time! Hooray for breast milk and antibodies!!!

Now it's time to enjoy some sunshine and spring, eh?

Fever & Stairs

 It won't be long before this little man is learning everything he can from his papa. It's probably safe to say that tools will be a common "toy" and present for him in years to come. Why not start now? With the move there were often tools around, mostly safe and appropriate of course ;)

Boy, does this guy ever love a good mess!!! 

But who doesn't really... especially one who has no concept of cleaning it up!!!

This goes for any meal, too. I've finally learned to strip him down at mealtimes to just a diaper.  Every once in a while I forget, but I'm getting better. 

His eating comes in ebbs and flows. Sometimes he's desperate to eat everything and sometimes he's just not interested. I'm sure we can all relate to that.

Lately he is LOVING broccoli and "mush" (our name for the oatmeal Jim's been making). He's tried blackberries, blueberries we picked (see pics) and grapes. He's still wild about water, which is good because it's been so hot here.

He's getting better about fisting food into his mouth, but food times are getting more and more difficult. He bats the spoon out of my hands and throws things on the floor a lot. It's normal, but sometimes hard to navigate how to respond or react.

One of Ian's top teeth is now very visible and the second one is on its way in!! This means that he's really, really teething. The top teeth are definitely bothering him much more than the bottom teeth did. He's gone through phases of liking to teeth on carrots, ice in the sack thing in the picture, celery, apple slices, and my collar bone... no lie.

No broccoli stands a chance with this fiend.

We watched as much of the World Cup was we could over the last few weeks! We still don't own a TV, so everything was on my laptop. Ian hasn't seen much TV in his lifetime, so he was quite fascinated by this little screen. Of all things to allow him to watch, this one was important and educational, right? He barely watched, even when it was on. Five seconds and he was on to something new! Babies have too much to do!

Fourth of July weekend was wonderful! We went to a cookout with some great friends, watched the fireworks, went blueberry picking, went shopping for some items for our new place, enjoyed some soccer, and tried to just relax together. It's been a while month!

Here are a few pictures of our blueberry-picking experience:

Worn-out!!!

The loot!

The hardest thing in the past couple of weeks was that Ian got very sick. All he wanted to do was sleep, breastfeed, be worn in the carrier, and cuddle his mama for a few days. He didn't seem like a kid who had an extremely high fever, but he was hot like a furnace. His fever ran high (103.6) and we took him into the doctor. She thought it was a virus and probably Hand, Foot, & Mouth disease and that it needed to run its course. Poor guy had sores on this back of his throat, making him only want to nurse and eat very few, soft solids. Fortunately, the fever finally broke on the evening of the third day and since then a rash spread over his tummy, but is starting to go away now. We couldn't believe what a good sport he was the whole time!

Unfortunately, his illness came at a time when I was supposed to be celebrating another little baby boy's soon arrival. But, you can't plan illnesses and this little boy needed me more than ever! Thanks for being so understanding Mere & Heather!!!

 You can tell he's not feeling one hundred percent in this picture. Little country bumpkin. Take a close look at his hair in the next few pictures...

Ian LOVES brushing his teeth these days. Anywhere in the house we can ask him if he wants to brush his teeth and he motions that he's ready to be picked up and taken to get started. For a while he never wanted to stop brushing his teeth, no matter how long we did it, but he's started almost stopping on his own! We always do it at the same time, which is pretty fun for all involved.

 This guy found his buttons! He doesn't often wear shirts with buttons all of the way down his front, but he did that day and was fascinated by them.

 Here he is sampling some of the blueberries we picked. No matter how many he tried, this was always his expression. Perhaps he thought each one he tried would taste different? Haha! We thought they tasted divine.

 I made the Pioneer Woman's blueberry crumb cake and it was oh so good!! Had to capture the yummy breakfast. Ian has started trying to peer around the camera at me. Hehe!

 Our strapping young lad is VERY good at taking off the cloth diapers that have velcro fasteners. If there aren't any clothes overtop of them, then he normally finds a way to get them off. He's getting to be so svelte!! Poor guy has matching mosquito bites on the backs of his legs, too.

 Sorry, Ian! I couldn't resist posting this one of your tush.

 And while we're posting all of the ones of him nude... Here is one of him during his fever. He took multiple baths a day to help him cool down. It must have felt soooo good because he was the happiest in the tub. After his baths, he always slept really well. too.

Okay, so minus the tub picture above, the rest of the pictures you've seen so far were of Ian PRIOR to his first haircut!! We finally did the deed, painful though it was for both of us (me and Jim, not Ian!). On July 7, 2014 (7-7-14... cool date, eh?) I cut his hair for the first time. The goal was just to snip the back, where he had the rat-tail, trim the fly-aways on the sides, and a bit around the eyes. 

To contain him, I put him in his high chair. He is normally pretty content to sit there for a little while. I then handed him his toothbrush, since he enjoys brushing his teeth so much and I was desperate for some distractions. Then, I went to work snipping as little as I could!!

Let me tell you. It was emotional!! Haha. I felt every snip. Ian could have cared less. He would have cared more had I taken the toothbrush from him, but it was ALL his! I trimmed the back and a bit around his eyes, but I chickened out about the sides... not wanting too drastic a change. 

Afterward, I beat myself up for every snip. It's definitely not a great job, but it looks okay. When Jim came home I was grateful for the reassurance that it looked good. He was pleased. Whew! Then Ian got sick with the fever and I didn't want to bother him with the haircut and I still haven't trimmed the sides to this day!

Since I flew solo on the haircut and I was so worried about it, I didn't get any pictures! The rest of the photos show Ian with his new 'do. Not too different... This one shows his flushed cheeks from the fever, but the poor boy still kept a smile on his face. The ottoman is often used as a walker.

He has really started to amaze us with his ability to stand for long stretches of time, without even realizing it!! He'll reach for a toy, put it in his mouth, and stand steady for between five to ten seconds before sitting back down on the floor. WILD!

Ian's cruising everywhere. He can cruise along the walls, the couch, tables, chairs, you name it. It might not be long...

 The following pictures are of Ian post-fever and illness.

This goofy expression is very common. "Don't mind me... I'm just _____"

 If I posted all of the shots I get of this, you'd be here all day. Every time I pick up the camera he crawls toward me and wants a good look of it. I have many pictures of him far away, crawling toward me, and then VERY up close and personal.

 Yesterday we spent time with Trisha and Jade and they let us borrow a maraca! Ian's really enjoying it!

 The back... still fairly long, but nowhere near as long as before!!! Each day he gets more and more blonde.

 Deer in the headlights!!! Those blue eyes...

 The front of our home has a wall of mostly windows. Ian loves standing and stairing out of the bottom ones, which happen to be his height. That's our front yard.

We've been going to the playground right up the road from us a lot, these days. Ian enjoys the baby swing and climbing up and down the steps of the playground. He has had A LOT of practice going down the steps.

On my birthday, yesterday, we were at a friend's home and Ian went up the steps multiple times, under my supervision. All of a sudden he started going down her narrow steps backwards and with absolutely no trouble. He made it safely down the entire staircase without any intervention from me. Way to go, Pal!!

He is also adept at getting off of sofas, chairs, or laps. He just backs himself right off, nice and easy.

What did I tell you? That goofy expression says he's up to something!!!

 This is the cradle Jim made with the quilt that my cousin, Marianne, made Ian. Ian likes to climb into the cradle and off of the other side. Since the cradle rocks, it's a difficult feat to get off. He's still working this out!

 When did he get to be such a little boy? Looks MUCH older than 9 months here!!! Perhaps from being sick, but also from lots of movement, and the natural changes of getting older, he's losing his baby pudgy-ness and becoming a little boy. Slow down, please. 

Happy 41-43 weeks, Ian Forrester!!

My, oh my, how we love you.

Life's a Blur!

Since my last weekly post, so much has happened in our lives and in Ian's development.

We came back to Lebanon, PA to visit with Jim's parents for a few days after the memorial service in New York. Grammee took off some time to be with us for a day and read Ian lots of books! Ian has started to enjoy interacting with books that have flaps to lift up and peek behind. In this picture there's an animal on each page and when you pull down the flap, you discover the sound that the animal makes.

To stay cool, we went to a few parks and enjoyed the shade. We also got to see Carla, Jim's aunt, and Alex and Logan, his cousins. (Congratulations to Alex, who recently graduated from high school and is now heading to University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown!!).

Ian, Alex, & Jim

Logan, Carla, and Ian

Aunt Carla & Ian

Ian has decided that sticks make great teethers!! Here he is munching on one at Long Park, where John & Kim had their wedding reception.

Thank you for meeting us there, Carla!! It was great to see you and the boys. Hope to see Sam next time! A few uninvited guests also made an appearance at the end of our visit. Ian crawled around after the mallards for a while, never quite catching up to them.

As we were departing Lebanon, we ran across this pair of Canada Geese and their goslings.

Since leaving Lebanon, life has been a blur. Well, it already was... but you know what I mean. Life got super busy with packing, last-minute projects, completing final residency requirements, moving to a new home, baby-proofing our disheveled packing home and analyzing how to baby-proof our new place, and trying to keep up with Ian's many new skills and abilities. 

There are many more pictures of Ian as a blur now that he's moving SO quickly.

Most importantly, we have been trying to do all of those things while still savoring Ian's infanthood and Jim's time off. Boy, does this little boy LOVE his papa. He cannot get enough playing time with him. They wrestle, they roll, they crawl, they flip, they do whatever comes into Papa's head... well, or Ian's, too.

Ian has started cuddling more, showing his affection more readily. He does this by leaning in close or, occasionally, coming in for an open-mouthed kiss. The open-mouthed kiss is new and so sweet. When it's not your child, it's not very pleasant... but it's very sweet coming from Ian! He shows his affection readily to me and Jim, but it does take some time to warm up to new people. After a few hours, he's willing to excitedly "talk" with other friends and family and to crawl around the floor, play with toys, or read books.

Someone's getting tired...

Ian shows he's tired by rubbing his eyes, frowning &whimpering a bit, and then crawling toward his mama. The final step is precious to me. Another honest picture here to show that he's not always so happy. There normally is a reason for his discontentment and once we figure it out, he's quickly back to being our happy boy. Over the past few months we have really been able to predict and identify his wants and needs much better than before.

There's the frown.

And because we need to have some honest pictures... here's a snotty-nosed one of our sweet boy. He was not feeling well again with a bad cough, so I took him into the doctor. As we suspected, they put him on a nebulizer to help with his breathing. After two days he was much better and after five days he was completely off of it. We were grateful to be done!! He'd cooperate so well and sit with me while the machine was going, listening to me sing and talk and read to him. That was not the problem. The problem was that he'd turn into the energizer bunny in the evening, especially, and wouldn't go to sleep! Part of the reason might have been for the crazy, stressful packing frenzy of his parents, but the doctors say that it's a side-effect of the nebulizer.

Selfie!

During these weeks Ian started crawling, as seen in a short previous post. It didn't take him long to figure out how to move more quickly to his next destination.

He also started climbing stairs! Only a few at first, and then it was four and then seven. In the beginning he'd show his excited desire to start climbing the stairs but would end up crying, as if he was forcing himself to do it against his will. (NOW we can't stop the boy... he LOVES stairs!)

Those curls!

The fact that he never stops moving or exploring also means that he gets himself into lots of pickles. If there's a nook or cranny, then he's in it! Every day he gets more daring and every day he's more adept at getting himself out of these close spots. Crannies include under the bed, under the table, behind sofas, over folding chair bars, under coffee tables... and more. This is such a fun age, let me tell you!


He's figured out that he needs to duck his head low below the furniture or obstacles above him in order to make it through unscathed. It's amazing how quickly he figured that out, in order to protect his head!!

Jim and I try very hard not to save him from some of these tight spots. We try to let him work his way out by himself, allowing some frustration. It normally means that when he does get out, he is PROUD! Sometimes we do need to go to his rescue, but he's normally able to figure it out. We have to quench the desire to "save" and "respond" immediately, allowing him to problem-solve. The result is that he's pretty independent, resilient, and beaming from his latest endeavor.

One of his favorite things to do before the move was to push the stroller around. We'd keep it just inside the door and he started using it as his walker. On one occasion Jim was sitting and reading and noticed the stroller going by out of the corner of his eye. At first he thought nothing of it, but then he had to do a double take... Ian was walking the stroller, as if pushing his own baby, across the floor in front of him. When he saw his papa watching, he smiled proudly and kept on his way. I love picturing this.

He also enjoys pushing the ottoman, the wooden play gym, and small, light coffee tables around the room as his walkers. He's quite good at steering them where he'd like to go, turning, and getting out of tight places.

Ian's also started playing peek-a-boo under and over the furniture! What a fun game. He played it a lot with Gramee in Lebanon around their coffee table.

His tactile ability is getting better and better, too. He can pick him almost anything... something that made moving more and more difficult.

Since everything needed to be packed, Ian ended up getting pretty creative with his toys while moving. Boxes were, of course, one of his favorites. They were everywhere. And those flaps proved to be quite interesting! He'd play with ropes, stroller tires, tape rolls, Fage containers, ratchet straps, you name it. He also started flipping things to watch them spin, especially baskets and recycling containers.

The word "Mama" certainly means Mama, now. Nevermind that it normally comes when he's tired, hurt, or uncertain about new people, but it means Mama. And I've never been called anything sweeter. I love it.

FOOOD! He's eating almost anything and everything these days. We don't feed him anything with salt, nuts, honey, or dairy, but other than that it's free game! We still are careful about trying to give him only one new food at a time, but it's getting easier because he's tried so many things by now. It's still somewhat difficult for him to get tiny pieces of food to his mouth, so he resorts to putting his head straight down on the tray of his high chair or it ends up in his lap. We do feed him some things by hand or by spoon, breaking some of the rules of baby-led weaning.

Here are a few of him eating couscous. It's everywhere...

Leif continues to be very popular, but second to Papa.

Since it's summertime and we are outside a lot, Ian has been drinking more water than before. It's important to stay hydrated. He loves to drink out of his water cups or from my Camelbak water bottle.

For a break during the packing, we took Ian to the pool. What a great way to relax and enjoy time with him! He loves, loves, loves it. This contraption gave us some piece of mind, too. He enjoyed watching the fountains in the big pool and swimming and laughing with us in the therapy pool. Then, we treated ourselves to Sweet Frog for a nice, cool frozen yogurt. Ian enjoyed sampling some of our fresh mango pieces.

Here are some pictures from our last day on the farm. What a beautiful place it was to welcome our little guy into the world. This view will always hold a special place in my heart. 

See, anything can be a toy!!

During this time Ian also learned how to stand up without pulling up on something. Instead, now he can also push against things to stand up!

Ripped little guy. He's on a tough regimen. He's his own fitness guru.

Happy 37, 38, & 39 weeks, Ian Forrester!!!

Thank you for keeping us grounded and sane during our busy weeks.

You remind us daily to appreciate the little things and to laugh at ourselves...

So much can happen in three weeks.

Sorry for the delay! Some of these things have happened more recently and some earlier, 

but at least they are documented! :)