Baby chic...

Kyle will be sporting one of these at Ever Since Something's next gig.

Hush a bye...

I recognized Kyle's cry today. Not in the "I can pick my child's cry out of a crowd" way, but in the "Oh, I cry like that too" cry. We've been working hard on having him put himself to sleep by laying him down in his crib awake for bedtime and his naps. Well, this afternoon it was all just too much for him. I walked in to his room and immediately knew the cry; it was one I had cried often early on in my pregnancy when I was upset and frustrated. Now, I'm not saying he got it from me or remembered hearing me cry that way when I was pregnant, or even that him crying the same way I do means he's feeling the same things I feel when I cry that way.

But anyways, it's not a very wet cry, not many tears or snot, but it's a cry of frustration. I rocked him to sleep and he went down in minutes. Poor guy. He just couldn't calm himself down this afternoon to get himself to sleep. Ah well.

Last night was long and his teeth seem to be working themselves out again. Kevin and I are always fairly cautious about immediately giving him pain medicine when we suspect it's his teeth. We try to rule out all other possibilities; regretfully, that left us giving him infant motrin at 5 a.m. and getting a good 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Here's to some new teeth in the very near future (cross your fingers).

I wish I could remember it all...

Would you believe Kyle has been his angelic little self since daddy came home from his trip? Yep, no whining or crankiness in site. I talked with one of Kevin's colleagues, who has a 2 year old daughter, and she said that her husband had some of the same problems with her that I was experiencing with Kyle while she was at the conference. Who knew kids would react so strongly when one of the parents was away?

Mother's day was nice; I woke up to a gift bag with a card "signed" by Kyle and Kevin. Kyle gave me the book he had picked out and I received some much appreciated "mom's night off" coupons from Kevin. Additionally, Kyle gave me the gift of sleep mother's day eve, by sleeping 10 hours without waking up. I did still feed him twice, however, it was more out of necessity for my comfort than his.

Kyle seems to be doing something new everyday. He now does this petting motion with his hand when he wants to pet the cat, eagerly knocks down toy castles that Kevin builds him, and plays hide and seek with us every night.

Lately, I've been using the sling to take him to and from the car, while leaving the car seat in the car. It's so much easier with him getting heavier and the car seat being so bulky.

And in other news, Kevin fixed our washer and we found the digital camera, so here's to new pictures of Kyle!

Traveling

So, Kyle seemed to be doing better yesterday and I decided to forego the nightly dose of ibuprofen. Let's just say we were both up every 90 minutes or so until 3:30 when I gave him some medicine. He then woke up at 5:30 to start his day!

We traveled back to Phoenix yesterday; I was going to wait until today (Thursday), but I was so exhausted! My mom had offered to not only help out with Kyle, but celebrate Mexico's Mother's Day (Wednesday) with me too. We had a whirlwind dinner at Macayo's by the Desert Sky Mall, where you could here the little Hispanic children saying something to the effect of: "No wonder he's watching us, we don't look anything like him!" in response to Kyle , the only blond haired, blue eyed person in the whole place, being entertained by the table of 10 next to us!

And currently, we just got back from walking the dog. Kyle would grab her leash from his stroller and "walk" her too; until he fell asleep of course. He's now napping until we head off to the library for storytime!

That's about it...Kevin comes home tonight and I can't wait!

Mystery solved

Kyle: "Mom, I'm not a baby anymore. I'm almost 9 months old y'know."

Mom: "Yes son, I know."

Kyle: "I'd like to sit up to the table to eat now, in my booster seat. I'm too old to use the high chair tray anymore."

And so, Kyle now uses his high chair in booster seat mode and sits up to the table with the rest of us to eat. He polished off almost a whole jar of chicken and apples tonight; back to his usual solid food appetite. Whew!

MIA and out of order

Have you seen our black Bible with our names inscribed on it or our digital camera...they both seem to have disappeared...

Also, our washer started hula-ing across the porch last week and we have come to the conclusion it's time to send it on to laundry heaven. Anybody getting rid of a washer with a few good washes still left in it, let me know!

Kyle and I are off to the mall for some diversion. I think he's better today, but still not himself.

Boohoo...

Kyle kind of slept last night, but I didn't. This morning I felt like the worst mom on earth because I could hardly function and Kyle was super cranky, as he has been for the past couple days. I'm not quite sure how moms who have colicky babies do it; I just want to sit down and cry with him by the time evening comes along.

Right now I'm feeling like the most mediocre mom in the world. Kyle is watching his baby video as part of his bedtime routine, and normally, I would be watching it with him. However, tonight I am guiltily over here typing, updating my blog, checking email, etc... It's not that I won't be able to do this stuff after he goes to bed, I just needed a baby break. He's also too close to the TV, which I know would drive Kevin crazy, but I just don't have it in me to fight that battle tonight.

On an odd note, Kyle hasn't really been eating today. A very small bit of cereal this morning, no lunch, and no dinner (except for nursing). He has been drinking an inordinate amount of water. If his habits continue through tomorrow, I'm going to give the nurse a call.

I'm pretty sure that's it...

Where's dada?

Kevin's gone. He flew out Friday night and I got to go to the Brad Paisley/Sara Evans/Josh Turner concert. Our friend Jordan plays the fiddle and mandolin for Josh Turner. It was so amazing to see him on stage playing for such a large crowd. I took about a gazillion pictures; it felt like I was watching my own kid up there! So, Jordan is the younger brother of one of Kevin's old college roommates, Jon, just to put that in to perspective. He would go to the movies with Kevin and me, hang out with us a lot before and after we got married, when we were still living in Flagstaff. He's only 19 and I am so proud of him!

The night I went to the concert, Kyle was watched by my mom. It was the longest I had ever been away from him and, despite missing him, I was just a little giddy with the freedom of it all. Instead of pumping, I left some lactose free formula in case he wanted "milk" while I was gone. I guess he took two bottles, about 3 ounces each time. I was very pleased with the whole experience, considering it a successful night out!

However, the next night would prove much more trying. Kyle just couldn't sleep; he wanted to sleep, but he couldn't stay asleep. The teething tablets would work for 30 minutes or so: I'd give him two tablets while he was sitting up in his crib and he'd literally fall over on his stomach fast asleep as soon as they dissolved. It was amazing. At 3:30 a.m., my mom ran to Wal-mart for some infant ibuprofen. It helped his discomfort, but he never went back to sleep, at least not until 8 a.m. or so. Even then, he only slept for an hour. It's been a really rough last 24 hours. Thankfully, he is asleep right now, went to bed at 9:00 p.m. and I'm hoping this night will be more "normal" than the last one.

We are back in Tucson for the rest of the week. Kyle seems more comfortable at home, as am I when taking care of him full time. Kevin flies back in to Phoenix on Thursday night, we'll see his family on Saturday here in Tucson, and then Mother's Day! It's been really weird realizing that I officially get to celebrate Mother's Day this year. Ah well.

Has it really been that long?

So wow...I've really been lazy about this whole baby update thing the last couple weeks. Easter was good. We did Kyle's baby dedication ceremony and got to see all of our immediate family. He did receive an Easter basket with some toys and thought that was pretty neat.

Since then he's been having some trouble sleeping and just recently he's been drooling a lot again and his nose is running. Kevin figured out that he's most likely working on some additional teeth. Also, the big news around here is that junior can now move! Yep, the little guy's crawling. He's gotten a lot faster in the last week or so. Despite everyone's warnings about "wait till he can move", it's been quite the blessing to have him follow me around while I do things around the house. Otherwise, I used to lug him around in the sling to get my chores done, teeth brushed, or breakfast eaten. Also, Zoe is no longer as safe as she used to be. Kyle will crawl right over to her if he wants to see her; sometimes she hangs out to let him pet her and sometimes she takes off, but either way Kyle likes that he can get to her now on his own.

Tonight we celebrate Ellie's birthday (which is actually tomorrow). I can hardly believe she's a year old. I remember the phone call from Kirsten, telling me Ellie had been born, like it was yesterday. This can only mean one thing: Kyle's birthday will be here before we know it.

I can't even tell you how bummed I am that Kirsten, Jason, and Ellie are moving. They'll be packed up and gone as of May 15th. In June they're traveling to Egypt to live for the summer and then they'll be moving to Wisconsin in the fall for Jason to start his Ph.D..

However, as disappointed as I am to see them go, I know Kirsten is probably going to have the rough end of this deal. I still have all of our friends and family here nearby, where she'll be starting all of her relationships from scratch; that can be a hard thing to do when you're a stay at home mom. We're going to do our best to stay in touch, but both admit we're not very good at maintaining friendships across miles. Thankfully, Jason and Kirsten's family live here in AZ, so there is a good chance we'll be able to see them at least once a year.

Enough of that topic! In other news, we have new neighbors; a young couple from Brazil with a 9 month old little girl. Kyle and I stopped over a couple times last week and I'm going to invite them over this afternoon to play. The husband is in school and his wife just applied to start her masters in special education.

Kevin leaves on Friday for a week long conference in Seattle. I've yet to decide whether I'll hang out in Phoenix for the week he's gone or come back to Tucson. It's a little scary thinking of being Kyle's true full time caregiver with no relief for a week. There's also the issue of leaving Zoe for a week if we stay in Phoenix the whole time, so we'll see how it works out. I can't remember the last time Kevin and I were apart for a week...it may very well have been before we were married. I'm really going to miss him.

That's all I can write for now. Here's to a more timely update later this week!