Who's the cutest baby?!!

Back Burner

Sorry I haven't updated the blog lately...I'm spending my final full week with my boy...next Monday I'm back to work - part-time initially and then full-time in late July. I have mixed emotions about it. Excited to get a bit of my "self" back again but very, very sad to not get to hang with my sweet boy all day long and a little worried, wondering if I'm doing the right thing. Ugh...it's not easy!

We're in!!

I'm so relieved and happy...we just received an offer letter for the Child Development Center at my work, so it's official! Kellen will be joining me at work starting in September - which will really make going back to work full time so much better! He'll be right on campus and I'll be able to stop any time for visits or feedings. Plus, they do sign language, music and they even provide cloth diapers for the babies - can you believe it?



In other news...guess who's working on sitting up! He no longer enjoys being on his back - I guess the view isn't as good!

Okay...must finish the taxes!

Update on the Jeans

Not sure anyone cares...but just in case, I just received my jeans in the mail from Costco.com and they are GREAT! I'm having trouble deciding which to keep because I just can't justify three pairs right now! The really cool thing is that you can order them in multiple sizes to ensure you get the right fit and then return the others to your local Costco for a full refund including shipping! Unfortunately for you all, the ones that I purchased are no longer available. You snooze, you lose! I think that they continue to add new styles though, so keep checking back!

our. little. sagittarius.

i am a free spirit
i will be optimistic
love to travel
independent, honest, happy

Swim Lessons and Sleep

Wow...is our boy really 4 months old today? It's crazy how time is flying! It's funny because I've always heard that once you have kids you won't be able to imagine your life without them - well for me, I can hardly remember my life before Kellen. Really! Perhaps it's just the lack of sleep!

I so wish I could find a way to get him to sleep through the night. I guess technically he is because the technical definition of sleeping through the night is sleeping for 5 hours. Well, my friends....that is NOT sleeping through the night in my book! Typically he goes to bed around 8pm and then wakes up somewhere between 1-3am. I feed him, he goes right back to sleep and wakes up again around 5am for another feed, then right back to sleep until he's up for good between 7-8am. He has also been a fairly good napper - we see he's tired because he yawns or rubs his eyes and might get a big cranky, so we put him down and he drifts off to sleep. Lately he has not been the best napper and he has also been waking up more frequently in the night. At nap times he's figured out that he loves to be in my arms while he naps and has been almost refusing to take a nap in his crib. At night we have been playing the pacifier game...where about a half hour after I've fed him in the middle of the night, he cries out and I come into the room to replace the pacifier and give him a comforting pat. Sometimes we do this 4-5 times throughout the night. Occassionally I give up if it's after 5am and just bring him into our bed for some guaranteed sleep. Our pediatrician says that he is probably just wanting a little company because he's old enough and big enough to nutritionally sleep through the night (meaning at least 8 hours). So, wanting to try and figure this out...I checked some books out at the library - The Sleep Easy Solution and the No Cry Sleep Solution. The first is a Cry It Out sleep method and the second obviously isn't. Once again, both of these books have stressed me out a bit. Basically according to the first one we are doing everything wrong by giving the boy bad sleep associations. These include:

1. Sucking to sleep - check, we use a pacifier!


2. Swaddling - check, we just bought the next size up SwaddleMe and also basically put him in a straight jacket before wrapping the SwaddleMe around him!


3. Music - check, we always play a soft lullaby cd when he naps.

Ugh!!

The second book is more of an attachment parenting philosophy and most of the suggestions include things that we are already doing - although she also recommends slowly getting rid of the pacifier. Hmmm....our peditrician actually says we don't need to worry about the pacifier or the swaddling - he'll tell us when he's ready to be done swaddling and that he has a strong sucking reflex and don't need to worry about the pacifier until he's around 1. So once again I have all these different opinions and I'm not quite sure what to do. The comical thing is that as I sit here typing this he's in his crib napping and it's almost been two hours - so maybe we don't really have a problem!!??

Okay...onto more fun things like swimming! We had our first swim lesson today. Aa went into the pool with him and they both did great! I think that Kellen might have been one of the youngest babies in the class. He didn't cry and seemed to really enjoy the water. They had a lot of fun little games/songs to just get the kids used to the water. No dunking yet, although I know that will come later! Aa will go in with him on the Saturdays he's not working and I'll go in with him the others. It's fun because two of my running friends from work are also taking the lessons with their sons! Here are a couple of pictures from the pool and I'm working on getting a video uploading.

Busy Week and Lots of Pics!

I haven't been as good about posting lately - I guess we've been taking advantage of the nice weather this week and Kellen just hasn't been napping as much lately. He's down for a nap right now...we'll see how long this one lasts!

So, I just changed a major blowout and I think he's trying to tell us something because I kid you not...EVERY single time he wears this certain outfit he poops all over it. This morning as I pulled it out of the drawer I even asked him if he was going to have a blowout in it again and almost decided to put it back and try for something else. Go figure...this afternoon I was holding him and he just let it rip and up the back it went all over the outfit. We might just have to put that one in the back of the drawer for awhile.

Let's see, we've had a busy week...

We went to our first Mommy Matinee movie at the Kennedy School! So great...I wish that I would have gotten to these earlier - like in January when we were itching to get out of the house but the weather was so bad. You can bring your baby, have lunch and watch a movie! I highly recommend this to all my soon to be mommy friends! So easy to nurse your baby, too - comfy couches and plenty of privacy in the dark! It's so hard to feed Kellen out in public because he detests the Hooter Hider. He will now swat it away and if I'm not careful I'll be out there for all to see. I think that he gets so hot and I imagine it also feels a bit claustrophobic under there for him. We saw the Bucket List which was pretty good - what you would expect I guess!

Before the movie we did go to the park with Stacy and Jack. The weather was so nice, it kind of felt wrong to be going inside to the movie so it was good to get out beforehand. I already posted a picture of him in the swing from that outing! He really loved the swing and I think it wiped him out because he slept through most of the movie! Kellen also loves to watch bigger kids play, so he had fun watching Jack go down the slide and play on the playground!

Yesterday we were all prepared for him to get his 4 month shots at the doctor, but our appt was scheduled to early so we'll be going back next week for the shots. We had him all dosed up on Tylenol and Aa was with us, so now I'll have to be brave and handle the shots by myself! He did get checked out and all is well. He's staying right on his little growth pattern. He was 14 pounds 15 ounces - 50th percentile and 26 inches - 86th percentile. I don't know where he's getting the height, but we'll take it! Between the blue eyes and the height it's a wonder he's my child! Actually everyone is saying that he's looking more and more like me lately and I think I have to agree! Although...sometimes I definitely get glimpses of Aa coming through. What do you think???





Since it was so nice, we went to the park for another ride on the swing so Dad could join in on the fun and then went for a little walk. Good thing we did, because today is back to the rainy weather - ugh!



We did have some fun today - Kellen got to meet more of his Seattle cousins today - Max, Emily and Aaron. We joined them and Grams for lunch at the Pancake House. Yum - the 49er's I had were the closests things to sweets I've had in almost a month (only 2 more days until our month of no sweets is over!!) and boy were they good. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera - Max is getting so big and is super cute.

Next week we start Gymboree classes and tomorrow we have Kellen's first swim lesson, which should be so much fun! The boy just loves bathtime so we're guessing that he's going to love being in the pool!

I'll be sure to post pics and maybe even a video - Aa is going in the water with him tomorrow, so I'll be on documenting duty!

Okay, just a couple more...

The boy reading his Farm Animal book.

...and basking in the sunshine!

P.S. Did anyone watch Oprah yesterday...a pregnant man? Crazy! And...did you know that you can buy Citizens and other "Premium Denim" on Costco.com?? I just ordered some, so we'll see if they are good or not! Once my friends and I heard they were selling 7's at Costco so we ran down and bought some. Unsure of how they fit we bought multiple sizes thinking one of them would fit...well we soon figured out why they were at Costco - they had to be THE most unflattering jeans ever. Needless to say, they were promptly returned! Hopefully that's not the case here!

First swing! He loves it!