cough, blow, cough, hack, hack, spit

I'm pretty sure we've all been sick at one point this week, which is frustrating. I think I get sick about once a month, ugh. I can't imagine if Kyle was in daycare how much more he'd be sick, and probably us too.

Tomorrow we're dropping Zoe the cat off at Pam and Jerry's; she has expressed herself one too many times on Kyle's possessions. Also, we'll be making appearances at Cameron's 2nd birthday party and Owen's 23rd birthday party; at least I think he's turning 23.

Kevin and his band will be playing in Safford tomorrow. They are the first band to play at noon if you'll be in the area; ah hu.

That's all the news I can muster tonight.

Almost over...

Kyle's fever broke last night...only lasted 24 hours give or take. He is still cranky, but doing better. We're kind of having to retrain his sleeping patterns again because I was nursing him if he'd wake up to make sure he didn't get dehydrated while his body fought the fever.

In other news, my mom comes home from Africa tomorrow and I am so excited. I talk to and see her pretty often, so it's been a little hard on me not being able to contact her at all these past couple weeks! She was volunteering at orphanages in Mozambique through IRIS ministries.

Time for bed! Kevin and I are making a concerted effort to go to sleep earlier now that Kyle is sleeping through the night.

Is he sick?

We had such a nice visit with mom and Jerry yesterday. Kevin took time off too, and my favorite part of the whole day was having adults to talk to. It was wonderful!

Regretfully, Kyle came down with a fever sometime around 5:30 yesterday and it has yet to lift. He has no other symptoms (except crankiness), so we're going to see the pediatrician at 3:45 this afternoon. I feel like such a novice at this, as Kyle hasn't really had a fever yet in his short little life. He burned up to over 103 last night and was over 101 this morning. He took a shower with Kevin, then a shower with me, and if he's really uncomfortable after his nap, I might stick him in a cool bath again. It seems to lower his temperature some and make him feel better.

We took the morning off from swim class and I have a feeling we'll miss tomorrow too.

"Not the scissors!"

So, we were trying really hard to wait to give Kyle his first haircut until he was a year old. However, after answering the question, "Is it a boy or a girl?" almost daily, I caved. Tonight Kyle had his first haircut and he did great. I was amazed at how much hair this guy shaved off and secretly pleased that there were baby girls out there who would kill for Kyle's hair color, length and curls! Check out Kevin's blog for a picture, but if you want to see the new do, you'll have to pay Kyle a visit ;)!

I'm so bad at these title things

After reflecting on some of the "mom" wisdom I heard while we were in Mexico, I realized I liked the idea of buying finger foods for Kyle. He loves to feed himself and I'm just not in to scraping oatmeal off of everything within a 5 foot radius of him. So, at the grocery store this week, I bought a few items that I'm hoping will work. He's a definite fan of the whole wheat goldfish and the veggie hot dogs. We still have to try the frozen blueberries.

Also, Kyle's new (well, new to us) car seat arrived this weekend. Despite our misgivings on how big it is, it fits in our car so that there is actually more room for the front passenger! He seems to like it well enough and definitely fits in it better than his infant car seat. We debated on just sticking him in his forward facing car seat, which we already own, but after much research decided that leaving him rear facing was the right thing to do.

And, the best news of all is that Kyle has slept through the night for the past two nights in a row, 10 hours each time! I'm so proud of all 3 of us for sticking it out with the Ferberizing. In reality, we started the process Tuesday night and he was sleeping through the night by Friday night, so we really didn't do that much. However, we are expecting that he'll regress at some point, which is typical of most children as they hit various developmental milestones.

On a final note, what does Kyle do with the letter magnets I bought him this week? Throw them under the fridge, of course!

Everything

The sweetest thing happened this morning, but I'll have to back up so you understand it all. As of last night, Kevin and I agreed it was time for Kyle to learn how to sleep through the night (I know, I know, but Kevin and I are both softies about hearing him cry out at night). So, we decided that we'd do everything the same, but instead of putting him to sleep at the beginning of the night and subsequent times he wakes up, we'd go in every 10 minutes to check on him.

This worked great! It took less than a half hour for him to put himself to sleep at 7 p.m., then he woke up around 11 p.m. and was asleep in less than 20 minutes, and lastly, he woke up at 3 a.m. (right when his infant motrin should've been wearing off). The 3 a.m. wake up had me pumping, so Kyle got a sippy cup of milk around 3:30 (this is compared to his usual nursing schedule of every 2 hours all night long). He woke up for the day at 6:27, which was perfect because we had decided we wouldn't go get him until 6:30 every morning.

So, when Kyle woke up at 6:27 a.m. this morning, I went in to get him and he's sitting up in his crib. I picked him up and put him over my shoulder, he laid his head down and I talked to him real quietly while patting his back. He started talking back while still snuggling and all of sudden I feel this thwap! on my back. He continued to "pat" my back while I patted his as we both woke up together. It was so funny, like he was saying "I know last night was as hard on you mom as it was on me". It was so cute and I'm wondering if it'll happen again.

Now to back track: Kyle had a doctor's appt. last week and the little guy is 20 lbs 11 oz (50th percentile), 30 inches long (95th percentile), and at the developmental level of a 13 month old according to the doctor. In other words, he's doing great! However, his measurements mean that he has outgrown his infant car seat, so we just purchased a convertible car seat that should be here by next week to get him through to his 1st birthday. He seems to be doing something new and wonderful everyday. He'll be 10 months old on June 26th.

We think he learned how to throw things (from the 2 year olds we were staying with) while we vacationed in Mexico this past weekend. Despite having 4 kids hanging around, it was so relaxing and so much fun. The resort was great, our ocean view was amazing, and the whole place was family friendly. Kevin and I both agreed we'd go back here again.

In other news, Kyle is swimming 4 days a week through Tucson Parks and Recreation and teething once again.

Growing up

"Hey Kyle, can you tell everyone what you learned today?"

"Sure mom, I learned how to put Cheerios in my mouth all by myself and how to place my ABC blocks back in their slots. And, if you insist, I'll hold my own sippy cup when I'm thirsty."

"Did you learn anything else?"

"Yes. I said my first word. Took my first step. Typed my first e-mail. Filed my first patent. Cured cancer. Oh, and I proved Riemann."

"Ready to start preschool tomorrow?"

"You know it mom!"

I swear he'll be walking out the door to kindergarten the next time I look away for 30 seconds and look back. He does something new everyday now! Kyle has his 9 month check-up on Tuesday and I'm curious to see how big he is.

P.S.-Kyle actually remembers people now, so if you want him to know you I'd suggest stopping by once a month to hang out and play for awhile.

I wish I could write everything down

I had this feeling that Kyle would be cutting teeth while we were in Dallas visiting family...and wouldn't you know it, that bottom tooth showed up the afternoon after we arrived back in Phoenix this week. It was a good visit, but not much sleeping for either of us, even with Kyle under the influence of infant Motrin. He now officially has five teeth and I'm expecting a couple more in the next week or so with the way he's been carrying on, drooling, and chewing on everything.

Thankfully, Kyle is eating more solid foods. Today he conquered 1/4 of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch; I can see this eating solid food thing is going to keep me skinny as he likes to eat what I'm eating during the day! A large portion of the jelly landed in his hair, but what fun is learning how to eat if it's not messy? Additionally, he will now hold his own sippy cup of water if he's truly thirsty.

Kyle's tumbling class starts up again tomorrow and his swim lessons start on Monday. I'm taking a dance class and ice skating this summer, while Kevin is doing a piano class.

We're pretty sure Kyle could walk if he wanted to; we often let go and he stands on his own or takes a few steps before realizing we've let go. This past week or so he's really gotten a lot stronger. Also, he's saying dada, mama, nana, and dog (minus the "g").

In other news, we've come to the decision that Zoe, our cat, needs to find a new permanent home. Despite how much Kyle enjoys her, we've had our problems with her waking him up in the night, and most recently she peed on his plush gorilla chair. It seems we just don't have the time to give her the attention she needs and she's acting out more and more as Kyle gets older.

And congratulations go out to our old college friend Celeste, as her and husband Chris are expecting a little girl in October.

Lastly, GO SUNS!