aiden's 1st christmas!!

well we got home from SC around 11:30 pm on christmas eve - aiden (luckily) went right back down once he got in his own crib - aiden woke up around 6:30ish on christmas morning - we hung out in our bed for a little bit - watching barney - adam was the one getting antsy!! so we went out to the dining room around 7am...

aiden really enjoyed his leap frog table! it was hard to get him away from it to open up the rest of his gifts!

he got this dog from one of my teachers... he really like this too!

he LOVED the bows!!

the tree with all the christmas loot (most of it is aiden's - but not all)

also - christmas 2010 wasn't only aiden's 1st christmas - but also was a white christmas in GA!

aiden loved watching the snow fall...

because of the weather we didn't want to drive up the mountain to adam's grandparents house for dinner... so we had to go and get dinner - chinese! here is aiden all wrapped up in his daddy's jacket - about to get in the car!

all in all - we had a FANTABULOUS christmas! aiden made out like a bandit... books, various leap frog toys, ball popper, 3 different dogs, race track, truck/cars, shape sorter, and a few pieces of clothing...

adam and i had a good christmas too - santa was good to us!

i hope everyone had a wonderful christmas!

Christmas Eve in Beaufort - Er... Port Royal, SC

we drove to adam's parents the night of the 22nd - they moved to port royal, sc and had just closed on their house like the week before. they have a great house and it looks like they have been there forever! we left our house around 7pm... aiden was out like a light in about 5 minutes and slept the whole way there! we arrived at about 12:30am - and aiden went right from the car to his pack-n-play and slept until the morning!

adam's parents had a little get-together for us and we saw a lot of people we haven't seen in a while - i met some new people - and aiden met A LOT of new people. it was a lot of fun!

the 23rd was also adam's birthday (31!) we went out to dinner - a little place called MoonDoggies
- it was really good - adam had a steak and i had crab cakes - DELISH!! there wasn't much else going on - so we drove around a little - got some ice cream and did some shopping.

christmas eve after we had our dinner of Maryland Fried Chicken (adam's choice - his favorite) we went for a nice long walk down to the sands...

our christmas family picture - at the sands in port royal

aiden and daddy on the walk

he looks like he's getting sleepy - doesn't he? don't let him fool ya - 5 minutes later he was acting all goofy and kicking his blanket off!

adam was enjoying playing with the camera

once we got back from our walk - it was time to open up presents - here is aiden opening up his first gift from grammy and poppy...

remember this guy from that magnet game - LOVE IT!

aiden enjoyed the paper most of all!

here is aiden opening up his big gift from grammy and poppy...

notice he's standing on his own

lil zoomers race track!

here he is playing with his shape sorter - he likes to take the shapes out of the bucket!

once all the gifts were opened - he decided it was time to take the ornaments off the tree...

and then he wanted to help daddy and poppy put together poppy's christmas gift

then go for a ride!

well it's time to get back on the road - but first some pictures in the santa suit!

we got back on the road around 6pm on christmas eve to head back to rome, ga - again aiden fell asleep pretty quickly - but he didn't sleep the whole way home - woke up about 30 minutes from home - but once he got in his own bed - he went back to sleep. aiden was a great traveler! he's getting better in the car! (although it probably helped that we traveled at night!) ;)

nap time

so i took aiden into his bedroom around 8:35 - put on his music/white noise and laid him in his crib and then went into my bedroom to watch him on my video monitor - he laid down and then sat back up... cuddled up with his little blanket... i went into the living room with my monitor and i sat and listened to aiden babble until he fell asleep.

i love the fact that we have finally gotten to the point where we can put him in his crib - awake - and he will go to sleep on his own! thank you dr. weissbluth for your wonderful book - healthy sleep habits, happy baby!

now i just wish aiden would sleep like this at daycare!

follow up

we had aiden's follow up appt from his surgery - everything looks GREAT! aiden's ears are clear and tubes look good and his hearing is good! yay aiden!! we go back in 3 months to have the doctor check the tubes.

aiden is getting so big! is crusing between the couches and table - grammy bought him a pushing walker toy and he LOVES it - i'll have to get video of him "walking" he loves playing with his blocks (the dogs love them too) he is becoming so active! he's also finally wanting to eat solids. yeah - he would eat them before - but he wouldn't eat much. well ever since Thanksgiving he has been an eating machine! he is eating so much more! and not needing so much formula - which also means he is growing up!

i can't believe i'm going to have a 9 month old in 3 days!!

surgery day!

well aiden did GREAT today! i was so proud of him. he was so confused as to why we were waking him up so early this morning...

We got to the outpatient center at 5:45am - we needed to be there at 6am - we got everything paid and signed some papers and then we got to go back - sign some more papers and then get aiden dressed in his little hospital gown.... isn't he cute!


Finally around 6:30am they gave him medicine to make him loopy.... it took a little - but it finally started to take affect...


he LOVED his hospital bracelet on his foot - he kept trying to grab it!

he was out of surgery around 7:30am - we talked to the doctor and he said everything was great - he had a LOT of junk that had to get suctioned out and he had some inflammation - so he said he would have some drainage for the next couple days. aiden was crying by the time we got back to see him - and we fed him and were out of the hospital by 8am and we had him home and asleep by 8:25am.... he slept for 4 hours! (while mommy went to a meeting for work)

he's been in very good spirits today - a little fussy... but nothing that we didn't expect. i'm exhausted - i've been up since about 4:30-5am... time to go to bed!

i am sick of doctors

i feel like we have lived at the doctors for the past 3 months! aiden has had ear infection after ear infection with pneumonia thrown in the middle! friday we had a follow up visit for his last ear infection and pneumonia - and he spiked a fever the night before (103.4) adam took him to his appt. first thing in the morning and then he was off to the ENT. aiden is having tubes put in on wednesday. i'm trying not to be nervous - but he's just so little. although - i know he's going to feel much better when it's all said and done.

and to top it all off - he woke up yesterday morning with pink eye! i have a feeling if the doctor's office would have given us an antibiotic on friday - we wouldn't have the pink eye today... so we are currently on an antibiotic for his ears (doctor said they were worse today than they were friday - well duh... you didn't give us an antibiotic!) and an antibiotic drops for his eyes!

you should see me give an 8 month old eye drops!

Picture Post

aiden was crawling and pulling up between me and the coffee table - and he fell - bumped his mouth and gave himself 2 punctures in the middle of the tongue - there was LOTS of blood - here is aiden sucking/chewing on a cold wet wash cloth to help soothe...

aiden's first trip to the pumpkin patch!

in line for the hay ride - aiden wasn't feeling too good :(

aiden's 1st halloween party - isn't he a cute giraffe?

looking out the window - waiting for mommy!

hmm.... what will i find in here?

going on a walk with mommy and daddy - i LOVE those dimples!

aiden at his first storytime at the library - first girlfriend perhaps?

getting ready to watch his first alabama game with daddy - ROLL TIDE!

aiden's first trip to the zoo - the chattanooga zoo - for grammy's birthday!

hooray fall

i know -i've been neglecting my blog. now that things will (hopefully) settle down at work - i should be able to pick back up on it!

aiden is crawling ALL OVER this house - pulling up on everything and grabbing anything within his grasp. he is trying to cruise... so we got him some of the children's place socks that have the grippies on the bottom to help him with traction.

aiden had a good 6 month checkup - he was 20 lbs (90%) 28.5" long (above 95%) and head circumference was 46.5 cm (above 95%). BIG BOY! nurse caye said he was doing great!!

well - we have been to the doctor multiple times in the past 2 weeks - it started out, aiden just had an ear infection... pretty bad in one ear and just starting in the other. well he had an allergic reaction to the medication - and once off - his fever came back... STRONG - we went back to the doctor and the STOPPED taking his temp once it reached 104... doctor said his ears looked better - but still red - and his lungs were rattling - he said it was probably pneumonia - so aiden got a shot at the doctors office and another antibiotic - and he had an allergic reaction to that one too... so he was given another antibiotic along with a steroid. he is now doing MUCH better!

we dressed aiden up for the first time for halloween last weekend - we went to a family fall harvest party at the guyant's house... aiden was an adorable giraffe! we were supposed to go to the adult party the next day - but with aiden not feeling well - we didn't go.

we also took aiden to a "pumpkin farm" - it wasn't very fun. we didn't like the place we went... but we did get one cute picture of aiden!

i'm off to washington dc on monday for the early head start birth to three conference. i'll be back on thursday. i've been away from aiden over night - but 3 nights.... THAT'S going to be tough!

okay - well it's about time to wake aiden up... so he'll go to bed tonight!

catching up

we have a crawler! it's really cute to watch - he crawls on his hands and knees - but also gets his feet in on the action some times - and also does this little jump with both knees at the same time... it's cute to watch - he crawls better when he is going after one of his toys - it seems like he expects us to grab him - so he doesn't try as hard... does that make sense?


the past 2 nights he has been sleeping better at night - not waking up multiple times... he's finally back to his good sleeping habits!

aiden was supposed to have his 6 month appt. on thursday - but i had to be rescheduled because something came up with our nurse practitioner - so now his appt. isn't until the 30th - he'll almost be 7 months by then! oh well - i can't wait to see how big he's gotten - i did weigh him here at home and he weighed 20 lbs!

on sept. 2nd adam and i celebrated our 5 year anniversary! we went out to dinner and his mom watched aiden for us. for my gift to adam - we went to lynchburg, tn to tour the jack daniels distillery - adam is a big JD fan. we went sept. 10-11 and we had a good time... aiden stayed at his grandparents house - his first sleep over without mommy and daddy

and on sept. 4th aiden went on his first zoo trip! it was grammy's birthday and she wanted to go to the chattanooga zoo - so we all went - aiden wanted to watch the people more than the animals - but i think he still had fun.

and it sounds like someone is waking up...

ANOTHER TOOTH!!!

so aiden's 2nd tooth is starting to poke through! just barely - but it's there! i can't believe it... he's getting SO BIG! he's gonna be 6 months on monday! i'm off work monday - what should aiden and i do for his half birthday?

i also realized that i won't be able to go to aiden's 6 month dr. appt on the 16th - because i have a center manager meeting that day - all day - i know adam will be okay - but i just wish that i could be there... i have so many questions

aiden has been eating carrots this week... he's doing okay with them - doesn't seem to like them as much as he liked green beans and peas.... saturday i think we'll try sweet potatoes!

here is aiden eating carrots... i LOVE his messy face!

news news news

it's been forever... i really need to get into a routine to updating this. lets see - what is new for our little man...

• he has now eaten green beans and sweet peas (tomorrow we are either going to try carrots, sweet potatoes, or squash) so far - he likes his veggies!!
  
• he is no longer sleeping in his cute little sleep sack - he is sleeping in his big boy pajamas! he's also rolling over and sleeping on his tummy. we also bought a video monitor so we can keep an eye on him - i LOVE that thing.... wish we would have gotten it sooner.
• he is getting closer to crawling! he did a plank AND got up on his hands and knees. no forward motion yet - but he is moving backwards - haha
• his first tooth is popping through - as of TODAY!

he's getting so big - i can't believe he's going to be 6 months in 10 days!

oatmeal

so - mom and dad have been having me practice eating cereals - i've had rice cereal and oatmeal. here i am - eating my oatmeal!

OPEN WIDE

MMMM!

YUMMY!

i really enjoy the change from my bottles!!

:(

last night was rough - he was up a good chunk of the night with a fever - runny nose - and cough... he went to the doctor today with daddy and he has an ear infection and some sinus problems... so they gave us an antibiotic that should help with both... and we're also giving him tylenol for the fever.

he's been okay since i've been home from work - sometimes gets pretty upset. he is now fast asleep on daddy - and he sounds like crap...so stuffy! i feel horrible for my baby boy (and my hubby) adam is doing GREAT with aiden and taking WONDERFUL care of aiden

tonight will probably be a long night too....

4 MONTHS!

my little man is getting SO BIG!! we had our 4 month appt. yesterday - he's 26.5 inches long (90th percentile) - 17 lbs 14 oz (90th percentile) - head circumference 45.5 cm (a little over 95th percentile) WOW!!

ms. kristen said that aiden is meeting all of his milestones and developing wonderfully - she did say because of his size and how much formula he is taking that we can introduce solids if we wish. i plan on doing cereal - he's already getting it in his bottle - and it's mainly for practice any way - until he loses that tongue reflex. we already have aiden sit at the table with us for dinner - so we'll just have him practice eating off a spoon -in addition to his bottles.

he had his second round of shots also - and he was A LOT crankier/fussier after this set. although he wasn't as upset after the shots themselves this time. he's a trooper! still very hard to watch though.

sleep has started going better - not GREAT - but better. we got aiden a new sleep suit - to transition him out of the swaddle that he was fighting so bad and i can now put him in his crib - awake and he'll be asleep within 5 minutes. AND i still get some rocking/cuddle time at night - because we still need to keep him upright after he eats so we rock/cuddle before bedtime - but it's nice to not have to rock him for his naps too. and he's not waking MANY times a night now either so i'm not so tired during the day - which is nice. here is aiden in his magic sleep suit! adam calls him the stay-puff marshmallow man...

so what is aiden doing now...

• consistently rolling from back to front
• when on belly - pulling with his hand and pushing with his feet to get to the edge of the blanket
• spins himself around when on his back
• attempts to hold his bottle when eating
• giggles sometimes
• starting to enjoy peek-a-boo
• put your toes in your mouth

i'm really gonna try to update more often... lets see how well i do by the time his 5th month update comes! ;)

AHH!

what happened to all my blogs that i follow.... they aren't in my reading list any more... it says i don't follow any blogs.... SO not true!

sleep trials

so yesterday i started working on sleep with aiden - i guess sleep training for lack of a better term - i've been reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. aiden has been fighting the swaddle for a while now - and i have wanted to try to wean him off the swaddle for a while - i have tried the only wrapping one arm and leaving one arm out - but that didn't take very well. and then about a week ago (or so) aiden started waking up a lot more often at night - he used to only wake up once a night - feed and then go right back to sleep... well he was now waking up 3-5 times a night but still only hungry at one of those times - the other times he would fall back to sleep as soon as i picked him up. every time he was struggling trying to get his arms out of his swaddle and up to his mouth.

so after a lot of reading and research i decided that aiden was letting me know that he was ready to be unswaddled... this was going to be tough. he still hadn't shown me that he had full control over his arms and he still didn't know how to soothe himself. i just decided to bite the bullet and go for it cold turkey - so nap #1 - he cried - i went in to soothe him and then he napped for 30 min... nap #2 - he cried - i went in to soothe him and then he napped for 2 hours and nap #3- he fell asleep in the car and once we got home and got him into his crib he napped for about 30 min... and then at night he again fell asleep in the car and once we got home and got him in his crib - he cried and i went in to soothe him again and then he slept for about 2 hours - woke up and fought going back to sleep so we fed him 2 oz. (at midnight) to help soothe him and he went back to sleep for about 30 min. so i gave in and swaddled him... he slept until 5am - fed him 3 oz. and he went back to sleep almost immediately until 7am.

today he napped from about 8:45 - 10:15 in his swing... and he's back down again.... i put him down at 11:55 and he cried - i went in to soothe him - and he fell asleep and he's still sleeping.

i don't know if i'm doing this right... it's hard to hear him cry - but when i rock him, bounce him, walk him and he fights going to sleep -it's time to do something new... and when he fights the swaddle so much that he kicks out of it and struggles to get his hands out... it's time to stop swaddling.

3 months!

well aiden turned 3 months on sunday! he's getting SO BIG! and that was verified at our WIC appt and Dr. appt on tuesday and wednesday - respectively.

Aiden is 16 lbs 5 oz (95%) - 25" long (90%) - head circumference 17 cm (90%)

WHAT'S NEW IN THE PAST MONTH...

• went to see the chiropractor
• been working really hard to roll over... made it to his left side!
• squeals and talks a lot more
• really batting at toys
• grabbing at toys and hold on to them for a little
• found his feet
• sleep - usually only wakes up 1 time a night - but is also up by 6:30am (how did i get a morning bird?)
  

as for me... i've really tried to get back to the gym - and i have a little - but not as much as i wish. i do get some workout in at home a couple days a week... but really need to get back to the gym more.

some favorite photos!

So here are some recent photos of aiden.... enjoy!

i like to chew on my burp cloth!

check it out... i can sit in the corner of the couch!

me and my jumperoo - not quite tall enough...

doesn't it look like i like tummy time? (i'll share a little secret.... i don't!)

play time on my activity mat... i really like my bee toy!

who you lookin' at?