More, More, More

Kieran's doing better - he's on antibiotic (again) for his ears and eyes and he's got eye gunk we need to put in his eyes twice a day. He's doing OK with all of it (Ken had the brilliant idea to put the medicine IN his formula and let him drink it up - I still need to verify with the doctor that this is OK...).

He's got the signing thing down... at least in order to tell us he wants to eat. I guess the appetite finally kicked in, since he's telling us "more" a LOT. He's eating up a storm, we finally figured out that what he wants is to feed himself. He's OK with getting fed at daycare, but not so much at home. He'll let me do a few spoonfuls, then isn't interested. He wants to use his own hands to pick up and eat. He's not terribly interested in learning how to use the spoon himself, but we'll be working on that. Ken said he put him on the scale at the doctor's office (fully clothed) and he was at 21 lbs. I'm hoping that when they go back in for his checkup in a month we'll be able to turn the carseat around. I think Kieran will like that too.

That's pretty much it. We'll all be city-bound on Sunday during the Superbowl as there are a lot of bars in the area who will be showing it and a lot of people coming out to watch it. Don't know what else we'll do this weekend other than run errands and clean house. It's nice to not have every minute scheduled. OK, speaking of schedules, I have to get back to work.

Where's the Goop?

Kieran got kicked out of daycare yesterday for having goopy eyes (he didn't have it on Sunday and the doctor said there would be little he could do without symptoms). They already had one kid with pinkeye in the group and figured Kieran had it too.

Ken took today off (and apparently I owe him big, I'll explain in a minute) and took Kieran to the doctor. Kieran has dual ear infections (nothing new) and pinkeye, but will not be contagious after 12 hours on his medication so he can go back to daycare tomorrow.

Kieran cried nonstop for Ken for 2 hours today, finally fell asleep in the car on the way back from the doctor's office and then Ken got stuck in traffic and Kieran woke up and started crying again. I haven't heard from Ken after that (I'm hoping he made it home but I don't know).

President Bush was in downtown Baltimore today and that's what caused I-95 to be at a dead stop. One more thing to blame him for. Like I said, I owe Ken big. Ken was also able to talk with the doctor about his own history with his ears and why he's resistant to the idea of putting tubes in Kieran's ears. The doctor said he understood and would do everything possible to avoid that route. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

An Amazing Day

We went to the aquarium today after hitting the bookstore downtown. Even though we've taken Kieran to the aquarium several times since he's been born this is the first time he's been able to walk around and really interact with his surroundings.

He was really into running around and touching the tanks. At one point he reached out and took mine and Ken's hands. It was just amazing. We just looked at each other with the same expression on our faces - we were in awe of Kieran. It was so great to see him so happy and engaged with his surroundings.

After that we went to dinner at Uno's and Kieran ate a decent amount and he drank through a straw for the first time. Ken and I are just so pleased with all the things he can do now. I think back on how he was even just 3 or 4 months ago and what he can do now... it's breathtaking. I know I'm gushing but it was just so much fun and he ate well today.

On a grumpy note he woke up from his nap with goop in his eyes. This kept up throughout the day. Ken and I looked it up online and it is possible Kieran has pinkeye. Unless it miraculously clears up tomorrow we'll need to take him to the doctor's on Monday. Thankfully, if Ken can go to the office for a short while tomorrow he can take off on Monday. Say a little prayer for us that it's not pinkeye!

A Birthday Story

Now that we've finally got the photos done, I thought I'd go back in time to talk about Kieran's birthday party.

My mom was gracious enough to host (I figured I'd already had Dad & Dar host the naming ceremony and Andy and Wendy hosted our baby shower - have I mentioned how lucky I am to have such a generous family). I came over early with Kieran, hoping to get him to nap early but he'd been running a fever of 102 since the night before. He was not happy overall, but managed to have a little but of fun.

Just some friends and family for this one, since it was more for me than Kieran. We got a great cake made of cupcakes and in the shape of a dragon. I did that because I thought it went well with our theme from our wedding - we got married in a castle. Yes, I know I'm a dork.



Anyway, back to the story. Kieran did go down for a nap early (ish) and mom, Ken and I got everything ready for the guests. It was a nice time and the food was great. We had a separate cake for Andy (whose birthday it actually was). Kieran was not interested in eating the cake at all but had a GREAT time finger painting with the icing.

He was not interested in opening presents either (but his cousins helped him out quite a bit). He got some wonderful gifts from everyone and he's been enjoying them immensely. Thanks to everyone. Kieran had a great first birthday party, even if he was sick and even if he won't remember it.

One Year Checkup... and I'm NOT Happy

Kieran has lost weight. He was, at one point, up to 19.9 lbs. Today he weighed in only 18.12 lbs. The doctor is concerned about his continual weight loss. For now we'll have to keep him on formula and we've got to try to get him to eat more. He needs a one month checkup after this (for his ears, which still have fluid and are a bit red but not bad overall) and if he's gained sufficient weight at that point we can switch him from formula to whole milk.

Other than that, he did just fine. Was NOT happy about the shots (but can you blame him) but did OK with them, cried but calmed down after I gave him a graham cracker. He's missing a few milestones but nothing that he likely won't catch up on... specifically language. They're a bit worried about his ears and his language development (he's not really saying Momma or Dadda yet and meaning it - he associates the "dadadadada" sound with Ken but doesn't attempt to say "daddy" or "mommy" unless prompted). So, if in one month his ears still have some fluid on them we'll get referred to an ENT (that's Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist. Ken's going to check and see if the guy who did his ears takes pediatric patients, since we know and like him already.

Back to daycare and he was OK but WAY behind/off schedule. I let them know about his needing to eat everything and tried to make a point of getting them to give him more solids that he can feed himself (I don't think that they do this too often unless I provide cheese). So, hopefully that will help too.

Overall he's in good health. His head Circumference has stayed in the 5th percentile and his height has dropped a little but, but that's normal (he's 29 1/2 inches tall, one more half-inch and he'll be half my height). Ok, back to work. Love to all, blog again soon.

Best Laid Plans...

For his party Kieran got sick. At least not throwing up sick but he was running a fever when I picked him up from daycare on Friday. He ran the temp all weekend but it broke yesterday morning (of course). He had to stay home yesterday because of daycare rules that children can't come in unless they've been fever-free for 24 hours. So I took off yesterday and took him to the doctors.

Ear infection (still). They finally gave us something for it (non-penicillin based) and hopefully that will help everything. They said the ears alone were OK (still red, still with fluid) but that with the fever they were concerned and wanted to give him a little something for it. Frustrating is that I have his 1 year appointment tomorrow and they wouldn't combine the two. So, more time off from work and I'm way behind on a lot of things.

So, more on the party in a future post (complete with photos) but basically a nice time (even if Kieran was quite sick and needy). I'm sure that everyone thinks that Kieran's got me wrapped around his little finger (he does) because I was at his beck and call while he was sick. I felt so bad and was quite upset that his very first party and he wasn't feeling well. Oh well, at least the cakes were good.

Finally a quick and late Birthday shout-out to Debbie (aka Grandma Debbie). Happy 29th (again).

Quickie

Am so excited about tomorrow's party. I've got a lot of prep work to do - make mac n cheese tonight, pick up cake & ice cream tomorrow (though I'm making Ken do the picking up of stuff). Get my car packed up with his pack n play and our baby gate, etc.

Just a few cute picks from recent photo shoots with Kieran....


And Debbie - I have NOT forgotten our promise to have a professional shot taken. Its been heck all crazy (as you've read) and I hope we'll have a free weekend by February to do that.

Happy Birthday to Kieran!

So his birthday's tomorrow, but I've got some new photos and videos I wanted to post, so I figured I'd do that tonight. I've been pretty swamped at work so I wanted to do this tonight instead of waiting.

I'm so excited about tomorrow. I'm going to buy breakfast for the caregivers at his daycare as a thank you. I know that most people do that during the holidays but I think that they'll appreciate this more. Here are some photos of Kieran with his first two caregivers - Miss Chrissy and Miss Rebecca.










I have some great shots of Ken with Kieran that I'll post in a few days. But I have a little video of Kieran with Ochi - and here it is.




So the big day is here. Kieran, for his birthday, got a fat lip. Yeah, our kid sometimes doesn't understand that you can't lean on everything. He was trying to lean on a toy on top of a shelf at daycare (I was there when it happened) and he fell and bit his upper lip. Poor baby.

One. More. Day.

That's really all there is to say. I'm so excited about his birthday I can hardly contain myself. Ken thinks I'm nuts but oh well.

Oh, wait, I guess there is a bit of something. Kieran's a bad napper at daycare. He goes to sleep crying and wakes up the same way. At home we have no problems, even if we leave the room before he's 100% asleep. I'm not pleased with the 3:30 am wake up but I keep trying to remind myself he's been asleep for 8 hrs by then. This morning, at 4 when he was wide awake, I put him back into bed, the same way I do at bedtime, told him I loved him but it was time to go back to sleep and I walked out of his room. I expected tears or noise and got none. Until 15 minutes later when he realized I wasn't coming back in, then it was only a grunt or two and he was out. He slept until nearly 7 am (woo hoo - sleeping in)!

Weekend in Review

So, again, I am a horrible family member as I have yet to wish my brother Charles a Happy Birthday. (Sorry!) I kept meaning to call him all weekend and then would forget before I stumbled off to bed.

And speaking of stumbling, that Kieran is going a mile a minute. He's still falling every 5-10 steps but he (usually) gets right back up and starts running again. It probably doesn't help that his pants are too long and I have to cuff them (and the cuffs fall out) and that he's still figuring out that Ochi is not a permanent fixture and he can't use the dog's back as a source of support. I felt pretty bad this weekend as I mainly ran errands and I don't think Kieran got enough time to just run around. Sunday night at 6 pm he was done. I swear he really just wanted to go to bed because he knew in the morning we'd be heading to daycare where he could run to his heart's content.

I've had some sad news from friends - at least two discoveries of cancer in August this past year and I just found out about them last week. I won't say much more here other than I'm thinking of you both and if you need anything, just ask.

This week Kieran turns the big 1-2 (that's 12 months for those who were starting to think I'd lost my mind). We're doing a small thing with just family and a few friends since Kieran really won't understand what's going on yet. Mostly I want to give him ice cream and cake and see how he reacts.

Last but definitely not least - Kieran's been working on sign language, both at daycare and at home with us. He's been using the "More" sign and the "All Done" sign when eating, which is just amazing. He uses the More sign other ways, but its hard to get what he's saying when he won't give an additional sign (More Sleep? More Food? More Bottle?) but I'm working on that with him. OK, back to work for me. Blog again soon!

End of an Era

I dropped Kieran off at daycare this morning only to discover that Miss Rebecca, his first caregiver, is leaving. They're opening a Goddard very close to her house and she's taken a job there. Her last day is tomorrow. I hope I remember to bring in the camera to get a photo of the two of them together. She's excited but also sad, I know that she's gotten very close with some of the kids (our little one included).

Kieran seems to have recovered from his sickness. What's really upsetting, is that it's likely my fault. We have been working on real food with him and he has taken a shine to cheese. Because of this, I've been trying to give him more cheese and other real food at daycare. In our cheese drawer were some string cheese sticks. I thought we had just bought them. Sadly, no, they were from months ago and had expired before I began bringing them to daycare. The individual sticks are not labeled with their expiration date, so I had no idea. I feel awful but it was an honest mistake. *sigh*

Ken has gotten ridiculously busy at the office so I may be on my own the next few nights. He prefers to get home and see Kieran before bed, but it may not be possible. We'll see. This weekend is free - first free weekend in a while - so I plan to enjoy it, if the weather cooperates, we may go to the park to play and practice walking outside. If not, we may just go to the aquarium.

Just seven more days until the big day!

Random Thoughts for Today

I already owe a belated birthday shout-out to Darleen (aka Bubbie). Sorry that it's so late and I hope you had a good time on your special day. This month is just crazy with birthdays. I can't believe that next week Kieran will be one full year old.

I'm going to post a few of my favorite pics from Ken's website (even though I'm sure you've already gone there to look at them all). We still need to figure out a time/day to go and do a professional photo (Debbie, I haven't forgotten!) but Kieran's been sick off and on and when he's not sick, we are.

This weekend was weird. Kieran got sick Friday night but didn't wake up, so slept in it and now reeks (yes, I gave him a bath, two even, and he still stinks) and he didn't eat much all weekend long. He was doing much better last night and while wanting a lot of cuddling this morning, he was still doing better so he's at daycare. He never ran a fever so he's probably OK. It sounds like there's a bit of a stomach bug going around - one of my co-workers had it - so it's possible it's just that, but if his appetite doesn't pick up in the next day, it's back to the doctors for us. (Have I mentioned that I'm getting a little sick of that place?)

OK, enough of my blathering... on to some cool photos!

Here's Kieran in one of his 18 month outfits. They're still pretty big but a lot of his 12 month stuff is starting to get too tight. He's in this weird in-between stage right now. Anyway, I love this photo of him with his little half-smile.






This one is neat because you can see Ken, Kieran and Ochi having a good time with all the presents. Do you think that my MIL went a little crazy? Kieran's pretty happy that she did, though!

The Long-Awaited Photos and Videos

We have had a wonderful time and I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. We're getting back to a normal-ish schedule between daycare and work. While I had a wonderful time with Kieran at home, I know that he's enjoying being back among the daycare gang. I had a hard time tearing him away from Carolyn tonight.

We learned from his doctor's appointment on Wednesday that Kieran is sick (again), but no ear infection. He still has some liquid on his ears and if this keeps up for another 3 months or so, we may have to get tubes put in his ears. The doctor is hopeful that we won't need this at all, but I know Ken is a bit concerned.

Today is Ken's birthday but we're really going to celebrate tomorrow when my mom is coming by to babysit so we can go to dinner (thanks, G'ma!). That's about all, so enough with the chatter and into the stuff you came here to see!

Ken has posted some great photos, you can see them on his website.