Eye See You!

*sigh* Sean has pink eye... in both eyes. It just showed up yesterday when we had some friends over with their three-year-old daughter, so now I'm worried that she may have got it.
I was suspisios of it yesterday, but my mom and Grammy kept telling me it was nothing, even though my gut kept saying it was.
On the Ravelry group At Home Mom's I posted some photos that I took to get other stay at home mothers opinions. It was a unanimous 'pink eye'.
The doctor called in a script for him over the phone. Now I know that doctors don't usually see kids with pink eye, just call in a script. Hu? Who knew?
Sean is okay otherwise; he looks worse than he feels. He is still climbing up on things to stand, still crawling all over Gods green earth, still smiling and laughing, and he still loves his carrots!
He just looks so pathetic! What with his eyes all red and puffy and watery. At least he isn't acting like he's in any pain, other than teething.
The drops were started tonight. Nate is a wonderful daddy and drops the medication in his eyes while I hold Mr. Wiggle Monkey.
Now all we have to do is watch to make sure he didn't catch my mom's bronchitis....
Pray for us!

Kansas City, Gonna take my baby there sometime!

We just got back Monday from KC (the Kansas one, not MO) to help my cousin celebrate her high school graduation and to celebrate Nate and my two year anniversary, which was yesterday.
It was a lot of fun to just get away from it all and we had a lot of fun! It was so nice to see the "Shawnee Six" as we call my aunt and uncles, plus kids. We went over to see them Saturday evening and Sean had to show off his amazing crawling skills. He's really getting this hands and knees crawl down, but still likes to do the elbow schootch a lot. Brenden, my youngest cousin, loved to stroke his head and Clara, my other youngest cousin (yep, twins) liked to make silly faces at him. Maria was tired from just getting off work and Laura, the oldest, was at a graduation party.
Dean and Patricia (with the help of Brenden) lead me through the photo albums of their France holiday. They were super cool. I love my family

Sunday, Nate, Sean and I went to the KC Crown Center, a huge shopping center/live theater and also the headquarters and visiting center for the Hallmark Card Co. I really wanted to see the Hallmark place, but that area was closed for the long weekend. But we still had a great time, Sean really liked taking in all of the new sights and sounds and smells and laughing at us. He did get lots of photos, more if the batteries hadn't died. My favorite photo is of Sean in front of the Crayola Color Wheel in the Crayola Store.

(The quality is real crappy, I know. I couln't get it sized right with it's resolution)

In the hotel, Sean really loved the pool. He loved being pushed around in his little boat and when Nate or I would just carry him in the water, those little hands were just splashing and splashing! We do have photos of him swimming that I'll post later, once I get the card from my father.

Sean did well in the car, but is happy he doesn't have to be strapped in his chair anymore at the same time. Yesterday, he was a holy terror. He didn't want to nap, he was wanting to nurse all the time and when he didn't want nursed, he just wanted held. I really do understand that he was settling back into things, but at the same time, I was tired too and ready to pull my hair out!
Yesterday was just pure chaos! The repair man can for the washer, Tobey was ballistic and Sean got his little chubber leg stuck in the slots of his crib and I couln't get it out. I finally did after a lot of loation and him screaming in pane and fear. You now see why I almost went crazy?
But, I love my life; however crazy it gets, I know I wouln't swap it for the world.

Sean's new trick!

My mom is starting him young!

My Mom likes Pepsi, when I drink an occasional soda, I like Coka Cola.
My mom is turning him to 'the dark side' at a young age:



Don't worry! He's really not drinking that sugary soda. I myself don't drink much soda (I did get addicted to warm ginger ale when I was pregnant, though....), but my mom can't get through the day without a Pepsi. We were having our monthly 'girls night' with Sean.
He just so happens to love gnawing on plastic bottles. He was fussing and Grandma let him chew on her bottle top. We loved how it looked like he was actually drinking it!
And even though I don't agree with giving children soda with exception of a special occasions, I do think that this was adorable!

Another First

Tonight was Alpha Omega (a Christian get together that my husband started years ago). We tried taking Sean along with us in the early days and lying him down to sleep in a side room, but he would get too excited or we would be too loud and he never slept well and would be up about every hour or so during the night.
My folks had been watching him over night and then I'd bunker down at their house after the event, but Nate and I wanted to give them a night off. Last week, some very good friends of ours, Rob&Lauren and Alex, moved just a few blocks up down the way from us and said that they would be more than happy to watch him tonight. Yea!
Sean was dropped off at 6:30 and We hung our for about 10-15 minutes so he wouldn't be to overwhelmed by the new environment, and help Rob and Laurens three year old understand that she couldn't hold him.
Everything went pretty smooth. Rob called once early on because Sean was hungry and he couldn't figure out what Baby needed. We said, mix up his bottle and that'll solve the issue (a mother knows her sons cries) and we would check back in a bit to see if that worked. It did and he was a good boy the rest of the night.
Lauren was home when we picked him up, Rob was out, and Sean had just woken up not knowing where he was. He had been asleep when Lauren got home at 9:30 and she let us know the Rob had changed a poopie and he had been good. Sean/I needed a nursing so Lauren did get to play with Sean for a little bit. She (and Rob) is going through baby withdrawal and are working of remedying that, but for now, the love Sean; so much so that they are 'Auntie' Lauren and 'Uncle' Rob, just like Nate and I are 'Auntie' and 'Uncle' to their little girl.
I told Rob and Lauren that I would pay them in brownies. Rob said that we didn't need to pay them, but they would still take brownies! I love those guys!

Earlier, the three of us went out to the kid’s consignment shop, right next door to where I work, as needed, so I got to show Sean off to my co-worker, Jenny. She and I have always gotten along well and she was all over the little boy! When I told 'Grandma Dee' (one of the consignment shop ladies) said "She was going to make you into a cookie and eat you up!"
Sean is so loved by so many people. I feel very happy for him.

Half way

Six months old today! Where has the time gone? Everyday I fall in love with something new.
Sean is looking more and more like his daddy with each passing day, but the one thing he got from me that hasn't changed at all are the eyes. Every one says he has my eyes and I couldn't be more thrilled!
Sean is playing with Nate at the moment. It's always so much fun to hear them over the baby monitor. Sean just adores his daddy.
I adore Nate, too... but he does have his moments where I want to strangle him. That is why I made the promise to never blog in the moment when I'm irked at him. It's true that he may deserve my wrath, but the rest of the world doesn't need to know. I get over it, and I see that it's either: 1) so trivial that I don't know why I got upset in the first place; 2) I know what I need to do to work it out; 3) I was just so tired, I was crabby.

Nights are hard at the moment. Sean keeps getting up at 12 midnight like clockwork. I just went to the library today and picked up the book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Richard Ferber, which was recommended by our pediatrician, and Nate and I are going to read it together. I think that Sean's problem is he has associated sleep with getting fed/sucking. When he wakes up he likes to nurse, and 80% hes not eating, he's just sucking. When he doesn't nurse to sleep, he just likes to be held until he calms down and can be put in his crib with minimal whining: he absolutely HATES Nate snuggling him to sleepy town. This makes me sad for two reasons 1) I'm the only one who can calm him down at 3:30 in the morning when I'm dead tired, and 2) there is no better feeling than a baby snuggling up to you and getting sleepy and I feel like I'm robbing Nate of that. We'll figure something out and start it AQAP (As Quickly As Passable).

CHOMP!

Sean has his first tooth! Wow! He must have just finished cutting it today.
I was sitting with him, glancing at some piece of literature and letting Sean gnaw on my knuckle (he loves to do that) - when all of a sudden, I felt something hard.
I'm at my folks today, do I asked Grammy to hang onto him while I checked it out. Sure enough, he has the tippy-top of his left bottom front toother sticking out! And, if that isn't enough to make your head spin, I can see the other tooth coming up under his thinning gum! So I had to call Nate, my mom and my dad (who had just walked out the door) to let them know.
This really explains his icky cough now. My brother-in-law said that when their toddler was teething, he acted like he was sick; coughing, diarrhea, ear infections, and just plan-old fussiness. Except for the ear infection, Sean has been having all of these symptoms, plus some congestion that the teething may be causing (I also think that he is congested because he has his dad's allergies).
Wow... just... WOW! I'm was having a hard time believing that on Monday he's going to be six months, but this was a bit of a wake-up call.
Good thing I just finished knitting up his teething bib a.k.a. slobber catcher!

I just wanted to shair this...

A week ago today was hard for me... or so I thought.
In preparation for my future sister-in-laws bridal shower, I had only gotten three hours of sleep Saturday night and on Sunday night, Sean slept poorly and so did I. Monday I was a wreck when Sean wanted to get up at 7:30.
I was beyond exhausted and crabby, so I sent Nate an email with maybe some forceful tones to let him know how I was feeling and to warn him that I may be snappy when he got home.
At ten, after Sean had some quiet play time and I had woken up a little more, I was feeling a little better, so I decided go give Nate a call to see how he was doing... he said that he was 10 minutes away from home and that he would take Sean for the rest of the day so I could get some of the sleep I desperately needed.
Have I mentioned lately that I love this man!
While I was sleeping, Sean and Nate ran some errands and some time during that time, must have remembered that I commented that there weren’t many recent photos of Mr. Sean and me. At 2pm, Nate brought Sean in, laid him by me to wake me and proceeded to snap a few photos.
This one is my favorite:

(Please ignore the mess on the dresser. I had been sick the week before.)

I just love this photo! It may not be the best quality in the world; but it captured and reflects a tender moment between my son and myself. It reminds me of the love and concern that my husband has for me that he took a rare day off work during a busy week.
Recently my hormones have been doing some weird things, and I sometimes have some distorted thoughts that Nate is working to avoid me... and that action just blue that thought out of the water.
I admit that being a stay at home mom is hard - especially when I have no form of transportation during the day. More often-than-not, I'm shut in the house most of the day, maybe getting out for a walk weather permitting; most of my friends work during the day and my best friend (who has a son that's Sean’s age) moved to the other edge of the state. It get's lonely sometimes. But then something nice, like Nate's surprise holiday, happens and I feel refreshed. And on a daily bases: When I don't want to wake up yet and Sean is making his "I'm awake and I've played in my cribby by myself enough so pick me up now!" whine and then when I come in and he looks up at me and flashes me a million watt smile... that alone makes it worth getting out of bed.

I have been blessed with the most wonderful family. We may not always be perfect - but we're perfect for each other. God has been good to let us begin and end each day as a family.