Big winner

William is a lucky baby already…he won a drawing at Klein Bank in Otsego for a $50 Christmas Gift Card.  Below is William accepting his prize!

In other news…Will’s last two days at day care are tomorrow and Friday.  I am sad to take him out because he seems to like it so much, but he will also enjoy being home with daddy until he can go back to work.

Andrew and I are also thinking our little man isn’t going to be little much longer.  We noticed putting some clothes on him the past few days they are no longer very tight in the legs, but getting shorter in length.  I think the clothes are just shrinking, right? 

William has his 9 month checkup on the 30th, no shots, just a stats checkup to see how his growth and development are coming along.  I really don’t think he is lacking in any areas, other than maybe length of his fingers.  I am still pulling for the Zetah/Swedal hands…I’m not sure if I could deal with the Aiken/Kolles midget digits!  I still have hope for those little pudgy fingers…

In case I don’t get back to my blog have a GREAT Thanksgiving everyone, and Happy Birthday to ME (and William is 9 months on Black Friday)! 

Good reports

Good reports from daddy this morning, in fact William REALLY slept in.  Andrew said he didn’t get up until 8:30 this morning.  What a good boy!  We think his fever broke last night, just when we thought we’d have to give him more ibuprofen we took his temp and he was back to normal.  We were holding our breath hoping it would stay down over night, and it did, YEAH!

I found this cartoon from the BabyCenter.com again…sometimes I really believe my mother (or mother-in-law) are secretly doing this (I love you both!), although William rarely cries, he’s such a laid-back baby:

Eventful days

There have been some more major events in our family the last week or more…so here goes:

• William was put on Tamiflu last Thursday as he was exposed to the flu at day care last week for a few days and as a precaution he was put on the meds for 10 days.
• Andrew was laid off work this week (anyone know of any work for an electrician?)
• The past week or so has been quite an adventure dropping off William at day care and then leaving.  We live within a block or two of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge and nearly everyday going to or coming from his day care I have a deer flash by the front of my car.  I have been lucky enough to miss them all so far, one of them was dangerously close to being in my freezer for the winter!
• More recently, William made another visit to the ER last night.  We are trying hard not to be the paranoid parents, but when we took William’s temp last night it was 102.5 so we had to call the nurse line to see what we should do and she spoke to the on call ER doctor and he told us to come in.  So, off we went to the ER, AGAIN.  To make a long story short, they don’t think William has the flu, they think it may be related to his Bronchiolitis a couple weeks ago and possibly some kind of respiratory infection.  So we were told to monitor him, give him plenty of fluids and give him Tylenol and/or Ibuprofen for the fever.  With Andrew laid off it is a small blessing that he can stay home with him while I go to work, but so far even the one day with him he is exhausted, just tired from worrying about him all day and helping with his maybe little more whiny and needy ways.  We really couldn’t ask for a better temperament baby when he is sick.  He is maybe a little needy and whines more, but no screaming or not overly fussy at all.  Did I ever say I think I have the BEST baby in the WHOLE world.  I love my little man and this gives me a GREAT excuse to spoil him for a week (or more) and hold him as much as I want!

Halloween 2009

Drum roll please….

William was Grandpa Zetah for his first Halloween.  Mainly because Grandpa Zetah dresses funny and we like to make fun of him all the time, I am completely serious!  Although it was more likely because it is my dad’s birthday and William’s first Halloween so we thought we’d make it special for both of them.  Here is Will looking even more like his Grandpa last Saturday…

I had some fun with my little man…carved out a pumpkin, got him down to his diaper and put him in the pumpkin!

 

How time flies…

My little man was officially 8 months old on the 27th, before I know he will be graduating high school and off to college….man, I am getting OLD!

Here are a few other updates for William:

• He now has 2 teeth on bottom.  They still have a ways to come all the way up, but they are very white and sharp.
• He hasn’t been one to put many things in his mouth, but I think he is beginning to discover how wonderful it is and is now placing his hands in his mouth while eating and other toys etc.  He even began to chew on his shoe once, gross!
• Still no ineterst in crawling, which I am thankful for.  He is more than happy to sit on his bum and wiggle to the music.  No need for me to worry when I walk away to do something, all he does is begin to cry for me to come back, but no moving around.  We basically have to keep a couple foot radius around him for “safe objects” otherwise we’re still in the clear for baby proofing the house.  We’re even thinking he may surprise us entirely and skip the whole crawling thing, who needs it anways? 
• He is VERY slowly beginning to accept slight textures in his food.  He has been introduced to chicken, although he didn’t like it at first (he literally gagged on it enough to bring up all his squash he had just eaten) he has come around to it as long as we mix it with some veggies.  Next we’ll give him some beef and see how he likes that…stay tuned. 
• Yesterday, for the first time he put one of those Gerber puffs in his mouth BY HIMSELF.  We’ve been feeding them to him, although due to the texture he never really liked or ate them enturely.  I wasn’t home, but Andrew said he still wasn’t a big fan of it in his mouth, but hey, he did it all by himself…definitely something to celebrate!

And finally, Will’s first time in the Fall leaves at Grandpa and Grandma Aiken’s house…(here’s the link to the Kodak gallery if you’d like to see more pics)

 

Decorating his pumpkin

Here are the pictures from day care a couple days ago…how cute is this?!?!

Getting better

Will is on his way to recovery, we rarely hear more than a couple coughs a day now.  He is still on his meds until they are finished, but the doctor said if he’s not better by today to bring him back in and I don’t think we will need to – GREAT NEWS!  With all that, even his nose cleared up so I am sure it was all related.

Along with the illness he had another tooth come through this week.  So, he officially has 2 teeth on the bottom and it seems like the 2 on top are not far behind.  He was such a good boy this morning, so he is back to his normal very content demeanor, YEAH!  Here he is waiting for mommy to get him all bundled up this morning.

Yesterday he decorated a pumpkin at day care.  She took some cute pictures I will have to post as soon as I get them.  She said he wasn’t into it at first and then discovered what he was doing with the paints and had fun with it.

Last, but certainly not least…I began my business as a Pampered Chef consultant.  If you’re interested in hosting a show and getting some great discounts let me know!

Trip to the ER

Panic?  Yes!  Here’s how it began…

This past weekend we noticed Will’s cough becoming increasingly worse.  He has had a cough for well over a month (we went to the doctor about it on September 14^th), but over the weekend he couldn’t get much rest (and neither did we) due to all the coughing.  I called the doctor Monday morning to try to make an appointment…needless to say this wasn’t my only call.  Due to his symptoms, the cough and stuffy nose, I couldn’t make an appointment; they immediately transferred me to the triage nurse.  This was not the frustrating part.  I know they are busy with all the flu/pandemic stuff, but I had to call back 4 times to just get through to a nurse, the first 2 times they transferred me to a busy signal!  The third time I asked for the direct number and then they transferred me, UGH!  Each time I called I was on hold for a minimum of 20 minutes!  The third time I had to hang up, I can’t stay on hold for more than 20 minutes at work!  Finally, I called the direct number the 4^th time and only ended up being on hold for about 5 minutes.  Wow!

After speaking to the nurse she ran down her list of 20+ questions about his symptoms and at the end she said something like, “Well, there are no available appointments so I advise you to take him to the Emergency room in the next 4 hours.  I will let them know you are coming.”  Are you kidding me?  You can’t tell a new mother to take her infant to the emergency room and expect her to NOT freak out!  I told her I was in Minnetonka at work and getting to an emergency room in 4 hours would be tight, I think we ended up making it there in about 3 hours!  I immediately left work to pick him up.  We met daddy at home and then went to Fairview Northland in Princeton.

When we arrived, the waiting room was at capacity with everyone wearing masks, even Will.  All 8 emergency rooms were full and the mom next to us told us she had been waiting there for 2 hours already.  OMG!  I knew it would be a wait so we came prepared with his bottles and dinner.  Luckily within about 30 minutes or so, they called us up to get us entered into the system and a nurse came from the clinic side to offer to take a few people.  YEAH!  We ended up seeing a doctor at the clinic instead of the ER and the doctor was SO NICE!  He diagnosed Will with Bronchiolitis, inflammation of his bronchial tubes.  He’s on a couple different meds and already the first night he slept better.  Of course still has the cough, but the doctor says if we don’t see a BIG difference by the end of the week to bring him back in.

I can’t complain about any of my encounters with the staff or nurses.  They were all very friendly considering the situation.  Just the system and method of actually getting through to talk to someone was probably the most frustrating, along with being panicked as soon as I hear the word “emergency”.  I hope this is his first and last trip to the ER (we gave him a bath as soon as we got home, VERY germy place!)

My man yesterday

It’s official, William has a tooth and I am sure the other one isn’t far behind.  It is very sharp on his bottom although you can’t see it well, its there…he basically just doesn’t let you look at it long enough to see it unless he yawns.  So, with the teeth comes a crabby baby, at least until they are all the way through.

Last night I found out how much William loves his mommy…I was on the phone with my mom while walking into the house from work, I stopped to say “Hi” to William and smile at him and then continued to walk into the kitchen to put down my purse and jacket…not a second later he BURST into tears.  Okay, so I didn’t pick him up the second I walked in the door, oops!  I hung up with my mom and went over to pick him up (he reaches up for me too now, what a big little man!) and he stopped crying immediately.  My little man sure has me figured out!  I can’t resist though, I love that guy SO much, I just want to give him hugs and kisses ALL day!

So TIRED (yawn)

With Will being sick with a bad cold lately, he has been coughing and waking himself up at night.  In the past it has been okay to just put the nuk in and go back to bed.  But now, he’s so congested I need to suck out all his boogies before he can go back to sleep.  Luckily, I think he is getting better.  Poor little man has been dealing with this cold for at least a good couple weeks.  His cough is definitely still lingering, but I think his nose is beginning to clear up.

None of this has slowed him down, he still is a very happy little man!  However, I think we have another BIG milestone thats here or VERY close…his bottom 2 front teeth.  Unless they decide to retreat under the gums again I think they are here for good.  I can feel something sharp in his mouth, although not very visible yet I think they’re HERE!  He has been really gnawing on his toys and fingers so I am hoping the first stage of teething is nearing an end!  YAHOO!  Only 2 more years of this to go!

Other things he is beginning to really enjoy:

• Rolling over like a madman when trying to change him, not even toys seem to help pacify him anymore.
• Doing motorboat while eating – I am trying to discourage this, but it’s rather funny and adorable, but VERY messy!
• If his feet are remotely near a hard surface he will start jumping or bouncing…I have a feeling I will be running around the house trying to catch him in the very near future.
• I could’ve swore I nearly heard him say “kitty” this weekend…he’s trying so hard, but just can’t get it yet.  Figures he would say that before mama or dada!