It has been a difficult last few days…

My grandfather has been sick for quite a while now and was moved a hospice center last week. I was able to have dinner with him last Monday and see him again a couple of times over the weekend. When I saw him on Monday, I was taken back at how not himself he looked/was. Then when I saw him over the weekend, I realized that Monday was not that bad. Or maybe it was bad, but it had gotten worse. Jon and I were able to bring Aedan by to see him on Saturday and he was fairly alert but not himself. He is on so much medicine to keep him comfortable. He was able to say hi and bye to us but that’s about it. Since then he has gotten worse. He is not able to respond to anyone.

He is such a fighter. He has been on oxygen for 14 years. When they put him on oxygen, they told my grandmother that people live an average of 5-7 years on it. He lived 14. My grandparents have been married for 65 years. They truly represent what a marriage should be. I remember at their 50th anniversary party, my grandfather said he would do it all again and not change a thing. My grandmother has carried for him this whole time. When he told her he was becoming too much for her, she said I would take care of you 8 days a week and 25 hours a day if I could. She is the reason he has been able to hold on for so long. He was able to see 4 new great grandbabies born this year.

We all know his time here is coming to an end. It is hard. It is hard to see my grandmother go through this. It is hard to see my dad and mom, and aunt and uncle go through this. It is hard to see my cousins and my sister go through this. It is hard for me to go through this. We know the day is coming. You can be prepared, but you can never be ready. It is likely that in the next few days he will leave this life. Even though we all know he will be in a better place, a place where he is not in pain, it will still be hard.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers this week. We would appreciate it.

 

-Lauren-

I Think We May Look Alike

What do you think? Me (not sure how old, maybe 5 months?)

Aedan on the same blanket 26 years later.

 

And last but not least

Haha! I can’t believe I am posting that picture of me. But when I saw this one of Aedan, I knew I had to put them both up. He definitely has Jon’s eyes, but I think there is a good bit of me in there too. :)

Oh Halloween

We have a love hate relationship.

I love fall and for me Halloween means fall. It usually means cooler temperatures (even though it was 90 degrees here yesterday!), pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes, soups, chili, corn bread, boots, scarves…I could go on and on. So why the love hate relationship?

Because of this

 

I almost bought a huge bag of Halloween candy that last time we were at Costco. That would have been a huge mistake. I guarantee that I would have had to buy more candy because there is no way I could have lasted all month with candy sitting around. I have a huge sweet tooth. Really it is probably more like sweet teeth. Believe it of not I have only had a few cavities even though I have a huge weakness when it comes to sweets. I attribute it to the the fact that I floss my teeth everyday, have good genes?

Today I went to the grocery store and I knew that I needed to buy candy since I won’t be back until after Halloween. I bought this candy this morning and I have already had one two three pieces. Add the fact that I have 3 reports to write this week and am already a little stressed, I am sure I will be making a good dent in this bowl of candy before the doorbell starts ringing Monday night!.

-Lauren-

Lightroom + Tech Savvy Husband = New Look & Bigger Pictures

I recently got Lightroom and I am slowly learning how to use it to edit my pictures. I have used Picasa for a few years now and I like it but you can do so much more editing in Lightroom. Now that my pictures are looking better, I wanted them to stand out more on the blog. I wanted to make the message portion of the page larger. I thought about paying someone to do a custom layout but I just couldn’t stand paying for that right now. So I decided to ask my tech savvy husband. And what do you know, he was able to do what I wanted with just a few minutes of research and editing some HTML codes. Sweet! I love that I have more room for pictures now. 

 

I use Windows Live writer to write and edit all my post. I switched to this a while back. It is so much easier to put in photos and edit posts using this program. Seriously it changed my life. With Live writer you have lots of options when it comes to resizing pictures, adding watermarks and such. While Jon was playing around with the HTML code on my blog, I was playing around in Live writer and realized I could save a setting for inserting pictures. Now instead of resizing each image and adding the type of corners I want or adding a watermark, I just click insert picture and it does the rest. Yes, it took me this long to realize that I could do that, but better late than never, right?

Now that I am super happy with all my settings, I though I would share some recent pictures of my little guy. He was sitting on the counter helping me make baby food (and munching on an apple slice).

Love those blue eyes!

-Lauren-

It’s Time

Dear Medela Pump in Style,

You have been wonderful. You and I have become very close over the last 7 months. You came into our home just a day after we brought our little guy home from the hospital.

We have had many early morning and late night sessions along with a few sessions during the day. You came with me on weekend trips, including my first weekend away from Aedan. You even accompanied me at an all day wedding celebration. Remember when we had a session in the waxing room at a salon that day? Fun times.

When Aedan refused to take a bottle for 2 straight months, you and I continued our relationship and built up quite a frozen supply of milk. Unfortunately we later found out that my milk did not freeze well and ended up throwing away what seemed like gallons of “liquid gold”. Not to worry, it wasn’t your fault, you did your job well.

When we did Bottle Boot camp about 3 months ago and I decided I was done with actual nursing, you and I got even closer. Together we pumped enough milk to make Aedan bottles each and everyday until he was 6 months old. That is when we slowly began to have less frequent and shorter sessions. I hope you weren’t hurt, it is just how it needed to be.

Now here we are. Aedan is 7 months old and you and I have only been meeting in the mornings for awhile now. I’m pretty sure you saw this coming but I wanted to make it official. Yes Medela Pump, it is time for us to break up. I hope there will be no hard feelings and that you know about much I appreciated your service. However, I have to say that as I pack up all the parts and move you from you old home of the kitchen table to your new home in the closet, I am not sad. Not at all. No more getting up 15 minutes before Aedan. No more begin excited to go to bed only to realize that I had not pumped yet. No more washing and washing and washing all the parts that come along with you. Maybe we will get back together in a few years when/if Aedan’s brother or sister comes along, but until then goodbye it is.

Sincerely,

-Lauren-

Busy Busy Busy

I feel like the weeks are just flying by! I’m adding a second client to my case load and now it looks like I may be adding a 3rd and a 4th. Now I just need to decide if I want a 4th case. Aedan is going to have to go to the sitter’s house twice a week now and that is really the most I want him to go until he is older. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I’m just thankful that we have business coming in and that I have a flexible schedule.

On Friday night we headed out to the park for our family picnic. This time our good friend Aaron and his two boys joined us. It was lots of fun! Plus Aaron is a great photographer, he took my maternity pictures and has taken our family pictures for the last two years. He let me borrow one of his lenses and I love it. I’m pretty sure that I will be adding it to my birthday wish list.

On Saturday and Sunday we ran some errands but mostly just hung around the house. Weekends are so nice now that Jon has them off. :) The weather was great so we spend a lot of time outside.

 

Love these boys!!

-Lauren-

Seven Months

Well, Aedan is officially not a newborn anymore. He is over half a year old! When did that happen?!?!

Aedan, here is what you have been up to this month:

• You had your first sick baby doctor appointment last week (poor baby had a virus) and you weighed in at 20 lbs! I’m not sure how many inches long you are, but you seem much taller lately.
• You wear mostly size 9m clothes, but I just bought you some t-shirts and pants in size 12m so they would last awhile and you have no problem fitting into them now.
• You can sit up all by yourself (and love it!). You can also roll both ways now, although you do most of your rolling in your crib. When you are playing on the floor you usually stay on either your back or belly.
• You can move from sitting to your belly and then you kick your legs really hard. You want to crawl but you just haven’t figured it out quite yet. I have a feeling we are close to having to chase you around though!
• You still take 3 naps a day (you like your sleep just like your Daddy!). You go to sleep around 8pm and wake up around 7:30am. This last week you were sick and woke up during the night a couple of nights in a row. It made Mommy realize that she does not miss those newborn days of waking up at night!
• You have two teeth! I’m pretty sure you are working on a third because you have been drooling like crazy lately.
• You drink 4 bottles a day (usually about 6 oz) and you have solids at breakfast and dinner and sometimes lunch. You pretty much like everything although today you did not want your nectarines.
• You love to be outside and now that you can sit up, going on family picnics is great!
• You also love to jump in your jumper (or any jumper for that matter). You have been known to get so excited when we hang the jumper up in the doorway that you fall backward and sometimes hit your head.
• You “talk” all the time. You make lots of sounds but right now your favorite seems to be “dada”. Still no “mama” but it’s okay, I know you will say it eventually. :)
• You are such a happy baby most of the time, but when you get mad or scared (usually because of a loud noise) you have no problem turning on the water works and screaming until someone comforts you.
• We have been doing some independent play time in your crib for 15 minutes every morning. You get so excited when I sit you down in your crib and start giving you toys. You usually do great for the whole 15 minutes (although on the rare occasion that you get mad during you IP time, Daddy usually comes to your rescue).

Aedan, you are so loved and we can’t get enough of you. Last month I said it was my favorite to date, but I have to say this month has gotten even better. You are just so fun these days! We love you!!

-Lauren-

Things We Love Part 7

I’m back with things we have loved this month! Aedan has been so much fun this last month and we have been using lots of new things.

First I picked up a few sippy cups at Target a few weeks ago and Aedan has been practicing with water.

We have a couple of these double handle cups with straws. They are perfect because they are small enough for Aedan to pick up and since they have a straw he doesn’t have to tilt the cup to get a drink. He is getting better about using them, but still has some trouble with the straw.

 

 

 

We also have a couple of these sippy cups and they are also great. Aedan is a pro at drinking from this type of sippy, but he doesn’t tilt the cup back on his own. I’m sure he will figure it out before long.

He also LOVES to drink from cups. Whenever I’m holding him and grab a glass of water, he sits there with his month open.

 

 

This month Aedan moved out of his newborn bath seat to this bath ring. We love it! He is great at sitting by himself, but not in the bathtub yet. This allows him to sit up like a big kid and play with his toys without me worrying that he is going to fall over backwards. We also took this with us to Plano this last weekend and used it as a highchair. We just plopped him down on the table or counter and feed him.

Aedan was getting pretty close to maxing out of his carseat (he is 20lbs and it maxes out at 25lbs). Before we drove to Plano this last weekend we decided to get him a new seat. We went with this one because is doesn’t have that velvety fabric that most car seats have (it just gets so hot here) and he won’t max out of it until he is 65lbs! Its a convertible carseat so he can be rear facing until at least a year and then he can face forward.

Since he out grew his little carseat with the pop off carrier, he now gets to sit in the shopping cart like a big kid. I’ve been looking for a cart cover for awhile but they are just so expensive and I didn’t like any of the patterns. Last week I was at a second hand baby store and found this one. For $10 I couldn’t pass it up. It works great and Aedan loves it. In fact just today Aedan and I went to the grocery store for a long list of things, and he did great even though we had to wait in super long checkout lines (note to self: don’t go to the grocery store on a holiday). It also doubles as a play mat which is a nice bonus.

For the last month I have been putting Aedan in his crib for some independent play time once or twice a day. He loves it! I usually turn on some music and give him some toys and he has a ball. He also loves to look at his crib soother. We have had this in his crib since he was a newborn, but we never really turned it on when he was going to sleep. Now that he is playing in his crib, I turn it on for him and he really likes it. He has almost figured out how to turn it on himself. he gets that you pat it, but he keeps missing the buttons. :)

 

So those are all things we have loved this month. Anyone have favorite things for a 7-9 month old?

-Lauren-

P.S. Our internet was out from Wednesday night until today. Talk about frustrating, I guess I never realized just how much I use/rely on the internet. We are so glad to be back up and running!

Over the Past Week

Aedan has…

• graduated to a big kid carseat (still rear facing of course, but not one with a separate base).
• learned how to drink water from a sippy cup, but really likes to drink from Mommy or Daddy’s cup.
• started sitting in the shopping cart, without a carseat, when we go run errands.
• started rolling around like a roly poly
• can go from sitting to his belly in no time flat and then pushes his legs up underneath him.

Um, can someone help me find my newborn, he seems to have disappeared??

-Lauren-

Lets Try This Again

Our first baby, Hiro, has lots of hair. I mean a lot of hair or I guess maybe I should say fur! I could probably sweep and vacuum every.single.day and there would still be hair/fur on our floor. I know this is part of having a dog. I grew up with dogs and various other pets like cats, ferrets, birds, and fish (not all at once, but we always had lots of animals around). We LOVE Hiro. I will gladly sweep and vacuum every day (which I will probably have to start doing once Aedan starts moving around) because Hiro is our baby and he is so important to our family.

Now it is one thing to have fur on the floor but Hiro also LOVES to be on the couch, which means fur all over the couch too. To be fair we started this bad habit when he was a little bitty puppy. We would put him up on the couch because he couldn’t get down by himself and we knew he wouldn’t get into anything if he was up there. Plus how cute was he?

Well over a year ago we tried to break this couch habit because I was tried of cleaning off the couch. My parents had a great idea to keep their dog off the couch and we decided to try it. It worked great, until we got too lazy to put the plastic covers on the couch before bed or before we left the house. Thus it went back to this…

So this week I decided I was really tired of cleaning off the couch. On Monday Hiro walked into the house COVERED in grass and proceeded to jump on the couch and take a nap. Sigh. Enough was enough. So out came the plastic covers which had been living under the couch and Hiro has had to sleep on the floor for the week. He is a little shocked. But he has a nice bed in our room and I make a bed for him on the living room floor every night so no need to feel sorry for him.

(ignore his sad look in this picture, he is not a fan of having his picture taken)

On Tuesday I was gone for most of the afternoon. I blocked the couch and when I got home I gave Hiro an extra treat because I felt a little bad about him not being able to sleep on the couch. I told him he was such a good boy and gave him lots of attention. Then I walked into our bedroom. There on our bed was a pile of grass/dirt and fur. Fail. Apparently Hiro is a bit passive aggressive and since I blocked the couch, he thought he should just get on the bed (which he NEVER does without “asking”). Sigh. Since then he hasn’t gotten back up on the bed or the couch so maybe it was a one time thing. In any case I am enjoying having a much cleaner couch and loveseat. Hopefully we will keep it up.

-Lauren-