Sunday, October 30, 2011

15 Months - Weighty Issues



15 Months - and we are having SO MUCH fun!

It happened really quickly, but somewhere between 12 months and 15 months Grayson got MUCH easier to take of. He is much more independent - we don't have to be standing right next to him when he plays. That doesn't mean he still doesn't hang on our legs when we're home, but he's much more content "wandering around" and playing on his own a bit. 

We go to the park a lot and he's able to roam about  - he loves following other kids around. 

Lately, we've found an AWESOME indoor alternative that we've been doing a lot - Barnes and Noble has a train table in their children's department that keeps G occupied for a bit. Even though we have a train set at home, apparently G likes to be around other kids when playing with trains! 

Updates:

Stats:
Weight: 21lbs 14oz (18%) - this is NOT good. 
Length: 32' (80%)

The doctor was concerned about G's lack of weight gain. A normal toddler should be gaining roughly 2-3lbs between each visit. Grayson actually lost a couple ounces since his 12 month. Both Dan and I noticed a HUGE difference when Grayson started walking - he doesn't slow down at all. He hates sitting, so getting him to eat is very difficult. It's just not a top priority for him. He's actually not a picky eater with the types of food we feed him -veggies, cheese, carbs...there's not much that he actually refuses to eat at all. He just doesn't eat much of it. 

Per the doctor's orders, we are to feed G two Pediasure a day. On top of that, we are changing his diet to make sure he's getting more "healthy fats" into his diet. 
Instead of just feeding him pieces of what we're eating, we're going to automatically feed him an avocado for lunch (he'll eat the whole thing) yogurt for breakfast, and pasta/veggies with olive oil. 

G has a weight check-up in one month to see how he's doing. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this works. 

The doctor also mentioned that he was one of the most active toddlers he's ever seen - so on top of trying to feed him enough for a "normal" toddler, he is most likely expending more calories/energy then most and needs even MORE calories/food energy. 

In good news:

Grayson is talking a lot more!
He says:
"What's that?" - ALL.the.time
"All Done!" - not funny when you put him in his highchair and he eats ONE bite of food...
"Eat" - hahahaha...every time he says "All Done" I say " EAT!!!" 
Momma + Dadda
No, No, No
Nom, Nom, Nom
Ball - on occasion
Woof - on occasion
ONNNEEE- we taught G to start counting when he climbed on things so if we aren't paying attention we can go running. This never happens
Thank you

He kind of runs now. funny.
He gives kisses a lot - and I love them
He still climbs on everything. I thought the luxury would wear off, but it hasn't yet. 
He loves being around other kids - he seems to be very social (at least to me he is)
He sleeps in until -WAIT FOR IT - 8:30!!! Um. DELIGHTFUL. It's the gift we get for getting up with him 2x a night until he was almost 10months old. 

He is SUCH a happy kid. He is constantly smiling and laughing. It melts my heart, that one. Happy 15 Month kiddo:)


Picture Updates:

Grayson and I got to have our first playdate. We met up with Miss Reese and her momma for lunch and playing at Joseph A Beth Bookstore. 





Yesterday, Barnes and Noble had their Halloween storytime -


G loves looking at himself in the mirror....


Thursday, October 27, 2011

Carving and Dad's Bday

Pumpkin Carving time!

We only carved one pumpkin - but it was fun. Grayson was strapped into his highchair with snacks for most of the time, but we let him out at the end for pictures (which he refused to smile for) and a little bit of playing. 



Yesterday we said "Happy Birthday" to dad and showered him with presents, cupcakes and drool. 





Here's what we were doing last year . How time flies..

Grayson will be sleeping over Grandma and Pepere's again this weekend! We are MUCH more relaxed about this visit for a couple reasons

1. Grayson now solidly sleeps through the night (he was sleeping through the night last time, but was still new to the whole idea. G didn't officially sleep through until almost 10 months and our first night away was when he was 11.5months. At that point he still got up once in a while and was finicky at times going down depending on his mood.) Obviously we have our nights if there are teething issues, croup, ect. But for the MOST part, he should be able to give them a decent night's sleep without us worrying about it. 

2. The last two times G's slept in his pack-in-play (CT for Labor Day and more recently Gatlinburg) he's done REALLY well. We have no doubt he'll go right down in the p&p this time and that makes things a LOT easier on us...knowing that he'll go to sleep without any problems. Well, hopefully:)

Our plans are to go to a Halloween Party and sleep in the next morning:) 






Monday, October 24, 2011

Pictures for the Hospital Stay

As I was going through my phone, I realized I had a bunch of pictures from the hospital that I never posted. It seems ridiculous that I post them - but more often then not, I DO come back to this blog to remember how things happened. "What G was doing 1 yr, 15months, ect" 

Here are the pictures that should've went with the Croup 2: Revenge post







Surprisingly, our experience overnight at Children's Hospital was wonderful. There were definitely some rough points (he had his manic episode, needed a breathing treatment, and then an x-ray because they didn't know why he wasn't reacting to the treatments) but being at the hospital during those times is much more relaxing then dealing with it on your own and not knowing what's going to happen if he can't catch his breath again. 

We were so impressed with Children's and I couldn't speak more highly of ALL the doctors and nurses who took care of our boy. Grayson's crib was set up with toys specifically geared towards him before we arrived, and they catered to everything we asked. I almost felt like I was being greedy. I guess that's why they are one of the top 3 Children's Hospitals in the United States!





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Friday, October 21, 2011

G-burg 2011

I was going to post this Tuesday...but then we had our little hospital fiasco. So here's the G-burg post a little late.

Oh boy - do we LOVE spending time in the mountains. It's just awesome...at it's finest

We rented a Cabin in Gatlinburg again - our first trip to G-burg as a family was last February. G was about 6.5 months old and was just learning to crawl around. This trip was MUCH different. 

Grayson tolerates much less time in a stoller. Gone are the days we can take him out for a couple hours to just walk around. There needs to be action, and he needs to be involved. 

We started our trip Friday morning..If anyone has a DVD player that mounts to the backseat of a car- please let me know where you got it. Having G watch a video from a laptop lasts about 5 minutes until he remembers there are "buttons to press very quickly and hard" 


I took this picture to show Dan while he was driving. This kid definitely knows how to relax. He's been known to do this while we feed him dinner. Ridiculous.

The trip into Gatlinburg was SLOW.What should have taken 4.5/5 hours, really took almost 6.5. The traffic is JUST ridiculous driving in. The positive was that we had an amazing cabin to relax at when we arrived. There were 3 fully furnished floors with mountain views from almost every room. The loft floor had the BEST views and was our favorite place to relax since G had a ball just wondering around the room looking out the windows (floor to ceiling windows throughout). The perfect room to watch football and read. 

It was a little interesting to baby proof since there were so many open stairwells, but we survived with only one minor mishap. 

Our view from the Loft:



We did our hike on Saturday - a 5 mile "moderate difficulty" hike. Not too bad. Grayson had plenty of fans going up the mountain. We got tons of comments by the older generation who were very impressed that we were exposing G to hiking at such a young age. One couple reminisced "30 years ago" they strapped their son and hiked up the mountain. It was awesome. Grayson truly did wonderfully. 






At the top!

We stopped for lunch at the top and a much needed break


On the way back down, we stopped to take pictures


And G almost made it the whole hike without falling asleep..about 15 mins from the car he passed out!
Don't worry, we didn't keep his head like this.

Apparently the nap in the backpack meant that he had replenshed his energy levels...


The next day we decided to drive up to the highest point in the smokies. Once you drive up, you have to walk  up about .5mile to the lookout. Um. it.was.hard. The 1/2 mile is STRAIGHT UP. Since it was paved, we took G in the stoller.

Picture from up top

After our trip up we went to the Old Mill and walked around.



Like most trips, G is teething. He's got a molar that is DYING to break through. I'm thinking it's going to happen this week at some point.


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Croup 2: The Revenge

We figured that since I wrote the first croup story way back around Christmas it was my right and duty to pen the sequal.  This is a sequal that lived up to, and unfortunately surpassed expectations....but sorry....it's long.

It begins like any other good horror movie:

Average American middle class family spends a wonderful weekend hiking in the mountains of Tennesee.  Little did they know that they wouldn't come back home alone.  The first hint of trouble comes as the family is passing through Lexington, Kentucky on the drive back home...one single throaty cough from the back of the car.  The parents look at each other, shrug, and carry on like nothing ever happened.  No other hints of trouble for the rest of the trip, so just a passing chance cough right?  WRONG!!!!!!  The only part of this beginning that is not like a horror movie is that the little passing cough happened during the 10th listening of the cast of Sesame Street singing the Rubber Duck song.  Hey...it kept him quiet.

We finish the trip home, unpack, rest, and let the little crazy man run around like a maniac (please note this is normal behavior).  We are about to get back in the car to do some grocery shopping when I make the note "Hey, I think he feels a little warm.  I'll go and you can stay here with him just in case."  When I get back, sure enough he has a small 101.5 fever.  Still, no big deal for a kid who gets more small fevers than full diapers (exageration).  A little tylenol, some dinner, a sippy cup and off to bed.

While sitting around for the evening we hear some throaty coughs coming through the monitor, but nothing that wakes him up.  His breathing begins to sound worse and sure enough we get him up around midnight and his fever is coming back strong...103.5.  Breathing continues to get worse so we try to see if he will sleep in between us on the bed so we can keep a close eye on his breathing.  In typical fashion Grayson decides the most comfortable spot in the bed is in the middle of my pillow.  My miniscule wife has to make do with 3/4 of a king size bed while I try get comfortable sharing the final 6" of the bed with my son who now thinks he might be more comfortable if his butt is placed squarely in front of my face.  It was ok (not really) because this didn't last long.  He continued to get worse and more restless.

To make the rest of the evening story short we spent a lot of time cradling a hot hot hot child that sounded like darth vader with lot's of drool and snot coming out everywhere.  He was stuggling to take breathes all evening, I mean really struggling. We made one call to the pediatrician in the middle of the night, and 3 or 4 false starts to the ER as we were always able to get his breathing under control after a few minutes of him being riled up.  Come 8 AM we have placed ourselves squarely in the parking lot of our pediatrician and demand that they see Grayson NOW or we are going straight to the ER and finding a new pediatrician tomorrow.  Actually our pediatricians are freaking awesome and I would never leave them but they didn't call my bluff and brought him in right away.

Again, nothing much to say here.  They gave him a nebulizer/breathing treatment ( I know Grayson is tiny, but the only comparision I can think of is like trying to knock out a full grown pissed off bull with a small napkin of ether...man can he fight back) and a quick shot of steroids.  He didn't respond to the meds the way they wanted and informed us that even though it was only 9 AM we should plan on spending the night, not just the afternoon, at the Children's Hospital.  By this time Grayson has thrown up down his front and proceeded to immediately latch on to me in a kung fu death grip, thus sandwhiching vomit between the fronts of our shirts.  Since he is not letting go Nicole makes a NOT SO quick trip home to pack some stuff for an overnight stay. 
Seriously, I have no idea what she did but it took forever.  How hard is it to grab some T-shirts, underwear and a toothbrush...pretty hard it turns out.

They book us a stay as guests of honor at the Childrens Hospital.  They took great care to lay out the red carpet for us as we proceeded into a decent size room where the main focal point is the "crib" which actually seems to resembel a raised cage for criminals sent to solitary confinement.  Needless to say Grayson was not a fan of the crib. 

It was a long day at the hospital where Grayson was poked and proded and in general really angry and upset.  Another nebulizer (aka bull fighting situation) and some more Tylenol, but mostly a lot of waiting with a cranky baby who continued to sound more Darth Vader like than even Darth Vader can.  He got a little better, but never enough to please the doctors into letting us go home.  He would continue to get riled up throughout the day which just kept causing him to get worse again. 

The one funny part was that they treated our room like something out of the movie "Outbreak".  No one entered without a full face mask and smock, which got us wondering why we didn't have any special clothes on.  Cleary our son was ground zero for a new disease, should we be worried?  I started to have my own laughs by letting him run around the room when the doctor's came in, so long as he was feeling up to it.  It was like watching magnets of opposite charge...they wouldn't touch him so they kept trying to scatter to the walls of the room when ever he came near.  This is very humorous when there are three or four people avoiding him in a smallish room with the "cage" right in the middle while he runs in circles with his arms out trying to touch everything within reach, including people, as only small children can.  Dont get me wrong...I understand they don't want to spread anything to the other kids, but still it was funny.

We resigned our selves to the staying the evening.  This is when I went to grab the clothes Nicole brought for me that she spent all that time packing.  Oh wait...she seems to have not brought anything for me...seriously...what did she do that whole time.  She has tons of things for herself and Grayson, but not so much as a toothpick for me.  This is when I realize that I still have on my shirt that Grayson had smeared vomit on earlier, I seamed to have forgotten during all of the fun of the day.  Boy did I smell good, I can't believe no one told me earlier.

Grayson did get some sleep during the night.  I practised chivalry and let Nicole sleep on the one small pull out chair-bed while I got cozy on the tile floor with a pillow and a sheet.  Nicole did offer to switch, but like I said....chivalry.  Grayson had some x-rays of his throat taken, another nebulizer (he was calm for this which was almost wose than the bull incidents) and a second steriod dose.  We had one incedent during the evening where Grayson got really out of hand.  I will not even try to describe it.  Even during the month of Halloween it is too frightening to think about, and I was within moments of calling for an exorcism.  Apparently steroids will do this to children, I hope no one else ever has to witness this.

We all got a resonable amount of sleep, Grayson continued to sound better and better, and come 10:30 AM we were allowed to leave and take our little trooper home.  He is currently sleeping quite peacefully upstairs.  We do not hope for this to become a trilogy.

There are parts of the experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, like having him cling to me for everything he is worth just to keep comforted.  Most of the experience I would gladly trade for just about anything else in the world, definately for a clean shirt.  It is exceedingly hard to watch your child go through that.  Breathing is not anything that anyone should take for granted becuase Grayson proved it is not always as easy as it seems.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Pumpkins, Goats and Hayrides - Oh My!

The weekend update. 


Grayson got to meet all my new co-workers Friday afternoon - obviously, he was loved by all:)

Afterwards we made a trip to the park but sadly missed our friend Truit. Btw, WHO would have known that Grayson has a little friend in our backyard 2 MONTHS older then him. In mommy world this means: BEST NEWS EVER. 

It's so nice to have someone so close for G to play with. Especially in the winter when the boys are sure to get stir-crazy, I'm glad that we can just walk over to each others' house to play. 




******

We went to the Sauerkraut Festival this weekend. Dan loves the stuff...me, not so much. They have tons of craft booths lined along the street, so there's definitely stuff for me to look at. G did pretty well - we stayed for about an hour and half which is really 10hrs toddler time. At least our toddler's time. Sitting in a stroller is not exactly his idea of fun. 



He was pretty fed up at this point


*****
Sunday Dan had to work until about 2 (well, he had to work Sat too but was home by 11am) and we headed right on over to Shappacher Farms to go pumpkin picking, take a hay ride, and pet some animals. If you're from the area, definitely head on over - it's a really good time! 


The CA-UTEST baby goats! 




yes, my child would be the only one that attempted to climb the gate




Nom, Nom, Nom.




Grayson picking our pumpkin


Afterwards we headed to John and Lar's for some chicken pot pie and delicious pumpkin cake. 




We were cracking up at the boys playing in Scout's doghouse. So funny! It kept them busy for a good 10 mins. In and out, In and out. 





This was a little game they were playing. Zach would stand in front of Grayson and G would push him forward like a train. They both thought it was hilarious. I mean it obviously IS.


So that was it. Our weekend. We have our trip to Gatlinburg planned for next weekend and I.can't.wait. So so excited to get away for a couple days. Our first trip to G-burg was awesome and sooo relaxing. I excpect nothing less from this next trip. 

Friday, October 7, 2011

Sunday, October 2, 2011

October-ing



Where did this week go??!!
... I'll tell you: I was in training Mon, Tues, and Wed at work and then Thursday and Friday I came down with a really evil nice cold that knocked me out. Grayson had it too, but you know kids...it's barely a blip on their radar. He was still running around the house. 


Of course it happened to be BEAUTIFUL out on thursday. I was SO BUMMED we couldn't go outside. I hate wasting nice days. Not like we were actually "wasting" them. We were inside.."resting". 


*******


G decided to give himself {another} busted lip. I was actually surprised at my calm when the blood started gushing out of his mouth. Like a normal day. Ha. Since this has happened before, and we had Dan's mom come over to "asses the situation", we knew no stitches were needed. G just has to learn to slow down a little. You know, not jump off the couch when he hears the garage door opening because he knows Dad is about to walk through the door.....


*******


So after two solid days in the house, we ventured outdoors Saturday to Irons Fruit Farm to do the Corn maze- soo fun! But of course it was freezing Saturday- A mere, 50 degrees out. Sheesh! 
So worth the delicious Apple Pie afterwards, though! (maybe not so smart an idea considering I have a nice little cough to deal with now) 


Anyways, today was much nicer temp wise and we were able to get G out to the playground for a little bit. He is so brave, that kid. I love watching him go right up the stairs to go down the slide. It's the cutest. 


********
Too cute favorite? 
Whenever Dan kisses me, Grayson gets jealous and immediately runs over to plant a kiss on his Momma. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!






He claims he"s "watching him" 















Climbing

(posted a week late. I started the post and then life got in the way:)

"Momma, deliver us a cookie" 

Umm..what?

 Yes, I was "summoned" to deliver a cookie to my hubs and child because it was too much effort for them to get up from football watching. 

Bad Habits. 

"Yes, that IS a delicious homemade cookie you are tasting..." 


Besides the fact that I have two lazy men in the house :)  I had a really awesome first week of  work. I got a TON done and still have so so many projects that can and hopefully will be done while I'm at home. 

The weather was kind of gloomy the whole week, so G and I were inside for both the days we had home together. Surprising how fun puzzles and just walking around the house can be! 
On top of getting more "home time" with G, I had the good fortune of really re-connecting with a good friend. My extra time home and MUCH closer commute allow me to really open up my days. I was actually able to go to a jewelry party after work one day! This would NEVER have happened before..literally because I just never would have gotten home in time for it to be worth it. I was actually able to go home, change, and play with G for a bit before even heading over to the party - still shocks me!

Want to know another thing that shocks me....my climber child. OMG. A month or so ago, while at Dan's parents house, we watched as G climbed onto a kitchen chair and then right up onto the kitchen table. Well...he does it ALL.THE.TIME. I mean really, how many times can a kid climb onto a kitchen table before it get's boring....let me just tell you it's A LOT. 

Here are the quick pics from LAST week/weekend


Enjoying some food at Applefest last Saturday



Yep, he goes down this slide all by himself!



Climbed the rock all by himself- Dan is there "just in case" 



Kitchen table climing



Piano climbing.

So that was last week. I will hopefully get updated with this weeks post, too!