A break from the silence

We've had a super busy summer. I'll do a quick recap. We spent the first week in Seattle for Baxter's birthday. While there Baxter had TWO birthday parties, we had family photos taken, and we went to the zoo. While in Seattle my beloved laptop somewhat died. It may be fixable, but not by me. We came home for a day then went to Chelan to spend time with friends and their two boys. Baxter learned a ton, ate a lot of grapes, and fun was had by all. So this entire time I was accumulating photos and had no way to upload them! THANKFULLY I had backed up my laptop before we left, just in case. When we got home from Chelan I ordered myself a spiffy new iMac. The goal is to have Dilley Dally pay for it. If it's not going that direction I may finally get a business license so I can claim a loss this year. Fun times.

We had some down time where I caught up on a few things and attempted to get photos up and so forth. I'm happy to say Flickr is fully updated, and there are pages and pages of photos to sort though! Well, I take that back. I have a few more to upload from recently...

Then over labor day weekend we went to Seattle. We had friends visiting from Virginia who we going to PAX, a giant nerdy video game conference. Baxter and I went on Saturday, and Jason went on Saturday and Sunday. Then Geoff came up to visit on Monday night and went home yesterday (Wednesday) morning. Sadly Jason, Geoff and Janet all contracted what is being known as "PAX Pox" - AKA Swine Flu. So far only Janet has had it confirmed with a doctor, but there was quite an outbreak at the conference. Jason is home sick, and Baxter and I are staying clear. We're feeling fine, but now we're on self imposed quarantine :(

So some of the new things Baxter has been doing.

He learned how to eat with a spoon and fork, and now all meals require them even if he doesn't use them.

Everything is a phone, including his hands and occasionally a foot during a diaper change.

We had our first experience with disposable diapers (yuck!) and Jason declared that except for an upcoming exception lets not buy them again because they STINK and leak. We had to buy them because Baxter had a terrible diaper rash caused by too much fruit and pooping during naps and in the middle of the night. His poo became acid and burned his little bum, and the prescription cream would ruin the cloth diapers, so we sucked it up and bought a pack of sposies. We'll use them again when we go to Canada in two weeks, but that's another post.

He started to say words on accident. He said "kitty" twice (but never again) and today started to say "hi" and "hello."

Cats are his most favorite thing ever. He waves, says his "ahhhh" (which is a high pitched sound approximating hi) and then squats down so he can try to kiss them on the nose. He's good with gentle pets though, and has never been scratched or bitten.

He learned how to turn the tv on and how to change the channels. His favorite shows to stop on are Animal Planet (where he waves at the tigers and tries to kiss them through the TV), daytime courtroom shows like Judge Judy, and The Golden Girls. He mostly ignores cartoons.

He's really into giving kisses, and will sometime do it on demand. But kisses only go on mouths. Never cheeks or on tops of heads. We asked him to give his cousin Riley a kiss while he was doing tummy time on the floor, and Bax had to squat down and try to get Riley to look up at him before he would attempt a kiss. It was ridiculously cute.

Baxter likes feeding other people, and has started to have an opinion on food. He really likes some things now, and it's different from what it used to be. Sometimes he will have 3 bites of food and be done, and other times he will eat a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, a whole banana, and a slice of toast (like he did for breakfast today). He tends to eat the most in the mornings.

Baxter loves sprinklers and splash pads, but can't stand bodies of water or bubbles. Lakes, pools, large bathtubs and bubble baths send him into hysterics. But he will play for a really long time in a sprinkler or at the splash pad.

Baxter is still breastfeeding, but never asks for it. Mostly if he's fussy it's how I distract him. He also nurses before naps and bed.

He's sooooo close to sleeping through the night (and by that I mean more then the "technical" definition of 5 hour stretches). He goes down around 7 then wakes up from 3:30-5 to nurse then goes back down. He's up for the day between 6:30 and 7 usually. If he dropped that last night feeding I would be sooooo happy! At least until I had to wake up multiple times a night to feed a new baby, but hey, it's bonding right? Baxter and I are plenty bonded now :)

Ok, I'm running out of things to say, so I'll just end this with some photo highlights. Because I know you want them.


Mmmm, birthday cake!


Feeding me some of his birthday cake *swoon*


Splorin the Chelan house yard


My attempt at artsy flower photos getting a lovely background surprise


Sprinkler!


Loving Spinapplemeal - spinach food processed down and combined with applesauce and oatmeal so it's thick enough to stay on an uncoordinated baby spoon.


A funny and cute capture in low light and high ISO, but I'm digging the graininess, at least with the black and white :)

A year ago today...

I know, I can't believe it's been a year already! My baby boy has grown into a sturdy little toddler.


This past year has been amazing. I was going to write a sappy post, but my boy needs me to put him down for a nap.

And yes, he's SOOOO BIG!!!

fun times

Now that Baxter is down to two naps a day, I had to start nursing him once in the afternoon that doesn't trigger a nap. I don't nurse him to sleep, but I usually nurse him and he gets sleepy, so in the crib he goes. Well afternoon snack is super fun mommy time.

Baxter smiles and giggles and pets my face while he nurses. He plays with me while he eats and it's just sweet bonding time. Yesterday he figured out that if he pinches me he gets sqirted. Giggles ensue. Well today I was making him laugh while he nursed, and milk came out his nose. He didn't think that was nearly as funny as being squirted. He quickly calmed down and was back to his smiling self.

Oh, and Jason's birthday breakfast was amazing. Dinner smells great. I'm off to go serve it up!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Happy Day!

Sit down and buckle your seatbelt, it's a long post today!

Happy Pi Day everyone! March 14th is Pi day in the US. Pi is a mathematical symbol used to represent the non-repeating decimal 3.1415.... And since the number is 3.14 March 14th is the day it's celebrated.

Now how appropriate is it that Jason, my math teacher of a husband, was BORN on Pi day? That's right, Jason turns 27 today! I made him a cake. It was vanilla with lemon curd filling and a lemon cream cheese and buttercream frosting, with fresh strawberry accents. It was amazing.


Today we're going to celebrate by going out to breakfast at Little Cheerful downtown, and then do some errands. I'm also making him corned beef and cabbage, his favorite meal, that's only really available around St. Patrick's day. It all works out!

Baxter has been pulling to standing more and more every day. He can do it on virtually anything now, including my guitar. We were having a photo session and he really wanted to play with it. There's more pics on Flickr, but this one cracks me up:


He's pretty good at getting around with it too. He pulled up on the baby gate, used the wall, the couch, and the buffet and made it all the way to the TV. He figured out how to open the cabinet doors, and likes to push buttons. Guess what's getting childproofed this weekend?

The funnies thing this week though? Our high chair is on casters. Sometimes I put Baxter in the chair, wheel him into the kitchen and let him eat while I clean. Works great. Also means I rarely lock the wheels on the highchair. Well, Baxter figured out how to pull up on it, then use it as a walker... Jason was quite surprised to see the highchair rolling around the dining room seemingly on it's own.

Going back to childproofing, I ordered a babygate for the top of the stairs. I had to have it shipped. Now it just needs to be installed. I also made sure to be a good mommy and put outlet plugs in all the exposed outlets a while ago. Well guess what Baxter figured out?

CHILD SAFETY FAIL

At least he's more interested in taking them out then putting anything IN.

I'll try to write more this week, but it's going to be pretty busy. I have my final day of anything school related on Monday, and then I have to clean and do various housework the rest of the week. We're going to Seattle next weekend, and then my dad will be here for a few days right after that!

So I'll leave you with some adorable and funny pictures of Baxter.

Official Story!

On July 31st, I started having contractions at about 8pm. They were pretty strong, but not at all regular. They were happening often enough that I couldn't sleep, and about midnight Jason went to bed and I realized I should be timing them. By 1am, I woke up Jason because the contractions were 3.5 minutes apart and 1.5 minutes long. By 2 we were at the hospital. Overall it wasn't too bad. By the time we got there I was just about 5cm.

Mostly I was excited because I didn't have to be induced. My nurse was great, and Jason was fantastic. I had wanted to go as natural as possible, and so I made it by thinking "if I can hold out a little longer it will be too late for drugs" over and over. And it worked! My water broke naturally at about 3:30, and I got to 8cm by about 6am, and then stayed there in Transition for about an hour and a half. That was the worst. At that point in time they were having a hard time finding his heart beat on the monitor and were starting to get concerned.

Now is when they called in the OB thinking I would need to have a c-section. They put in an IV but didn't have a chance to really start it, because I started pushing. I had just barely gotten to 10cm, and they wanted to prep me for surgery, so I surprised them all (and myself) by pushing him out in 27 minutes! At that point they did start the IV with pitocin because I was bleeding pretty badly. I had some pretty severe tearing that had to be fixed, but Baxter came out perfect.

He scored a 7.5 on his first APGAR because he was a little distressed by labor, but scored a 9 on the next one. He's huge! 21.5 inches long, and 9lbs 11 oz. But he's so sweet and perfect. He sleeps great, and eats great too. We're still in the hospital, but I think we'll try to make it home today. I really don't mind being here, but I miss it there too.

I posted a few photos on here, but there are a TON on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/liarsandfrogs/
Enjoy!

The moment you've been waiting for.....

Baby Dilley has a species! Well, it's always been a human, but Great-Grandpa Spears really wanted to know, so yes Grandpa, it's human.

As far as the GENDER goes.....

IT'S A BOY!!!

We're soooo excited. We might even have a name.... Ok, well we have a first name, and now need a middle name that starts with B. Go ahead, give us suggestions :D

It's been a fantastic day. I got a lot of homework done, and Jason had a great day at school. Today is Jason's birthday, but it's also Pi day, a mathematician birthday if I ever saw one. Last night we used sculpey clay to make Pi necklaces for all his students. They loved them. So not only did he have a great day at school, but he also found out that he's going to have a little boy! We then went out to dinner, and ate yummy spicy food at a restaurant we had never tried before. Of course the baby didn't move much (besides yawn which I think was the cutest thing in the world) during the ultrasound, but man did he kick after I ate dinner!

Anyway, we're going to have a nice relaxing evening, since the Sangria Jason had with dinner is making him sleepy.

According to the ultrasound, the baby's heartbeat was 154 beats per minute, and he weights about 1lb 1 oz. I forgot to ask how many weeks he was measuring at, but everything looked good. We saw his heart and kidneys, and his brain (so we can have proof when he's a teenager that he actually has one).

Here's what's happening in the next week:
Your baby is about 7 1/2 inches from crown to rump and weighs between thirteen and sixteen ounces—about the size of a small grapefruit. She is entering her fifth month of existence. Her fingernails are almost fully grown, and her organ systems are becoming more functional and specialized. She has a distinct pair of lips, and her first canines and molars are developing below her gum line. She looks like a miniature newborn. Blood is traveling through the umbilical cord at four miles an hour, fueling her growth with oxygen and nutrients.

3/14/08....

I talked to Grandpa the other day, and he confidently told me he saw the last ultrasound, and he thought we were having a boy. He was quite disappointed when I told him the last ultrasound had no boy bits to distinguish, since it was only at 11 weeks! He then called it wishful thinking.

So what do you think? Vote on the poll on the homepage.

I got to schedule the Ultrasound to find out for March 14th. That's Jason's birthday! We'll go have it done, then go out to dinner, so you will all be in suspense until at least Saturday the 15th... Haha!

Only 24 more days and counting... at least it's less than a month.