Day Tripping

Ken took a foray to South Carolina to see Ben graduate from the Marine Corps. Ben will now head home and then to (fill in location with desert here). We just don't know yet. We'll find out more in a few weeks. We're all worried but also excited for him - this is a brand-new chapter in his life and I know he'll make the most of this opportunity. Ken said he didn't realize just how tall Ben was because he had always slouched so much. See how tall Ben is now by checking out the photos.

I'm here in Indianapolis for the CAD Camp that's happening tomorrow. Work work work for me. My very first trip away since Kieran was born (without Kieran, I mean) and I'm missing Ken and Kieran something fierce. It's going to be fine, but it will also be weird not seeing them at the end of the day today.

Also, we just found out that Ken broke both his legs. Well, ok, stress fractures - but still fractures! He's probably going to end up on crutches for a few weeks (maybe months) and no real exercise that involves his legs. Just upper body.

OK, gotta finish up here and go back to the hotel for the night. Big day tomorrow and probably won't blog again for a bit. Love to all.

Yeah, He's Advanced

I asked Kieran's daycare a few weeks ago about the process for moving to the next room. They divide infants into two segments, walkers and non-walkers. The kids usually transition from Infant I to Infant II around 9 months. I wasn't sure what this entailed, how it worked, etc. I was told that we'd get a letter mailed to us about a month or a few weeks in advance and then we'd sit down with the director and talk about what moving him to the next room means.

Last night when I went to go pick him up, the owner was in the room and asked if we'd be willing to consider moving him up a bit early (there's a woman who has an older child at his daycare who wants her infant to be there too). Kieran spent some time yesterday in Infant II and had a good time. I'm OK with it - though I was hoping it would mean less $$ to them, but no such luck - and kind of excited. The people who run the room said they've never had a baby as young as he is move up, but that he definitely had fun over there. One of the other babies in his room, who is older, didn't do as well over there, so he'll move up ahead of the other child.

I said I was willing to consider the move but for the next few weeks I want him to spend a little time over there just to adjust. There's more of a strict schedule in the next room (where he'd be until he's about 18 months old, I believe) though they do still accommodate the younger babies who transition in. All the kids nap at the same time - once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and they all eat lunch at the same time (around noon, which is when he eats now). There's a bit more structure to the day, though it's still mostly just playtime, trying to get the kids to walk on their own, play, explore, etc.

Last night Kieran woke up at 3:30 am (and a HUGE thank you to Ken for taking that one for the team) so I'm a little concerned that the room was overstimulating, though this morning one of his eyes was very red, and I think he may have scratched it (his nails have been pretty long, I got one of his hands this morning but didn't get the other one). So it could have been that too. Anyway - we'll see, but he'll probably be in the Infant II room in about 2 weeks' time.

OK, that was it, back to work for me.

If You're Happy and You Know It....

That's right, Kieran is clapping. He has figured out that he can bang his hands together to make noise, and he's loving it. We had a good weekend, Ken talked me into the Renaissance Festival on Saturday because the weather was beautiful and we hadn't gone in a few years. It was really nice. Here's a shot of Ken and Kieran at the festival.
This was towards the end of the day so the fact that he's smiling is a good thing. He went to bed early (lots to process) after this. By 6:30 that night, he was done. I don't know what we're going to do when he gets older and wants to move his bedtime to 7:30 or something crazy like that. We sat and watched a few shows and he was fascinated by the storyteller we stopped to watch. He sat still for an entire story, which he never does at home (but then again, we're not in costume).

The other thing Kieran is working on (I mean besides walking, which he's trying so hard to figure out) is waving. This morning after his bottle he would wave to me and I would wave back, then he would wave again. He's still not good if you initiate the wave, but he's figuring it out.

Other than that, not much else is new. Ken goes to SC on Thursday to see Ben graduate from the Marines (sorry I wont' be there too, Ben). I'll be heading down to my grandmothers (Bubbie's) place on Friday for a feast before I starve myself on Saturday (that's Yom Kippur - aka Day of Atonement). While I don't go to temple or anything, I do usually observe the ritual fast. I'm not sure why I do this. I haven't for the past two years so doing it this year might be hard, but I will do my utmost.



OK, back to work for me. I'll leave you with this photo of me and Kieran and give you the link to Ken's website for photos from our latest Camera Day.

Sadness and Sickness

We've had a bit of a crazy time since last weekend. This past weekend, Tucker got very sick and we had to put him down today. Apparently he was having an issue with his salt content/intake and we never knew it. We've been crating him since Labor Day and it was working - he was peeing in a litter box -but he scratched his face up pretty bad. We took him into the vet on Saturday and ended up taking him to the hospital after that. He'd been so dehydrated and his salt content was so high that they didn't want to lower his salt fast or that could hurt him. Unfortunately, everything they tried didn't work and he was non-responsive for 2 days. He was a good cat and I'm sorry to see him go but it will make some things easier.

Kieran had his biggest temperature to date. When I picked him up from daycare yesterday they mentioned how hot he felt. I didn't think much of it because he always feels kinda warm to me. But when I got him home he was BURNING hot. I took his temperature and it came back 102.8. OK, time to call the doctor (7pm) who was not in. They now have a nighttime pediatrics place they sent me to, who said "Well, his ears and throat are redder than I'd like but with no other symptoms than a fever, he should be fine." They sent me back home (even though, after giving him Tylenol his temp went UP to 103.2) with instructions to dose him with alternating courses of Tylenol and Motrin. He was fast asleep by the time we got home (9pm). So, I left him alone since the doctor indicated I need not wake him to dose him - just let him sleep.

Today he's out of daycare (half day with mom, half day with dad) and feeling fine. It's just been a weird few days. Ken and I had a nice time on our date (thanks Andy & Wendy for the free babysitting!) and we hope to do it again. It's good we've got an easy baby (that's per Wendy, you don't have to take my word for it) and hopefully we'll be able to go out as adults sometime soon.

OK that's it, Ken's visiting Ben for his Marine Corps graduation - Yeah Ben! And I'll be travelling soon too. It's going to be very weird to be away from home. Back to work for me now!

Moving On

He may not prefer it, but our little one knows how to crawl. Yesterday Ken picked Kieran up from daycare and was just amazed at how he was sitting there, playing with a book then got up, went over to the toy shelf, pulled himself up and got a different book, sat back down and began playing again. He's becoming a little boy right before our eyes.


Labor Day Weekend
Had a wonderful time getting together with my grandparents (mom's side), my brother and his family and my mom. Every year for the past 10 or so years my grandparents have rented a place for the week of Labor Day down in Ocean City, MD. We all come down and stay with them for the Labor Day weekend and head home on Monday. As the family has grown (have I mentioned my brother's 3 kids?) it's gotten harder and harder to fit everyone in the place they rent, even though it has 3 bedrooms. This year we were fortunate enough to have a friend loan us her place in Salisbury, which is about a half hour away from Ocean City.

The drive down was HORRIBLE. Kieran was asleep before 7pm and we tried to get him to sleep in his car seat. That went over like a lead balloon. He cried for the first 25 minutes of the trip. At which point I gave in, went into the backseat and calmed him down (he cried for an additional 10 minutes) and got him to sleep. He would wake up periodically and would need to be calmed down. (this means that any long trips are out for at least a little while).

Weather was beautiful all weekend - about mid-eighties and not humid at all. We were the first ones there (having left Friday night) and went to Ocean City early on Saturday to walk around. We showed Kieran the ocean and let him put his toes in it, which he liked. He absolutely loved putting his feet in the sand, but then he wanted to lean down and touch it (and eat it, I'm sure) so we had to leave the beach. Sunday we came down and tried the Ocean thing again - this time in his little swimmy diaper (yes, they make diapers for babies to swim in). The water was very cold and he didn't like it at all. But we got to see dolphins in the wild, so that helped make up for it. He did, however, seem to be OK with the pool later on (water was warmer there). He wasn't entirely sure about it, but he didn't cry or look upset.

Kieran's cousins loved getting his attention and keeping him entertained. This was great, except that his nap schedule got completely out of whack. He managed to do a bit better on Monday at home.

OK, that's it. Gotta get back to work. Just wanted to do a quick lunchtime blog. We did do photos on Sunday and Saturday so I will have more posted soon. We've stuck with Camera day for two weeks now Whoo Hoo! Go Us!

Camera Day

At least this weekend we got a few shots in. You can see some of them on the website that Ken put up, but here are a few of my favorites.

This was taken about 2 months ago, but I think it's a great photo of my dad (aka Zadie) and Kieran.



This one is very recent. Kieran can be an extremely messy eater. He gets very fussy when he doesn't get the food fast enough, then he's a moving target to get the food to his mouth. This results in a mess all over him. He also likes to run his hands over wherever you have dropped food and then he proceeds to take those hands and put them on his forehead, in his hair, in his ears, etc. Most of the time he's not quite this bad, but he was so messy on Saturday I just had to take a photo of it. You can tell he likes feeding time since he's smiling.

Nothing else is that new. He's still kinda cranky during the day since he's teething but at least he's been sleeping through the night. We'll see if that persists during our upcoming trip to the shore. He'll have a lot of fun with his cousins though (Zack, Becca & Pete) and they're going to be running high from their recent trip to Disney. It'll be a fun weekend. OK lots to do at work. Blog again soon. Enjoy the photos!

Upsetting the Balance

I think Kieran is finally truly teething.

He's been drooly for quite some time and he loves to chew on things (I mean, really, who doesn't?). Lately though he's been more crank than usual and he's waking up a few times a night to complain, though he usually goes right back to sleep without intervention from Ken or me (as a matter of fact, by the time I get up and get what I think he's asking for, he's back asleep).

Anyway - that's about all that's new. Crawling is coming soon, he's started to figure it all out. I still think that he's not particularly thrilled with that method of movement and that he won't be doing it for long. Once he figures out he can pull up on furniture and begin standing, we're done for.

I had a shock just the other day at how big he's grown. Ken bought him a Thing 1 outfit at Seussland in Orlando. It was a 12 month outfit and I didn't think it would fit him. Yeah, well, I guess I just didn't realize how big he's getting. His 12 month outfits seem to fit just fine. They're a little big, but not terribly. I think it's because he's so long, he definitely doesn't fill them up from side to side. He fits into his 6-9 month stuff still too but I guess that's going to go away shortly. We've got so much newborn, 0-3 and 3-6 stuff to giveaway that I need to get in touch with our friends who are due in September. If they're willing, we can bring it to them, we just need the extra storage space for the 6-9 month stuff and the 18 month stuff that we've got.

Thanks again to Debbie for the CRAZY amount of stuff she bought. I hope you got enough Kieran time while you were here and, like I said, we hope to have new photos starting next week.

OK, that's about it. We've got a nice weekend ahead of us - going shopping with a girlfriend of mine on Saturday and we're hoping to hit the Baltimore Pow-Wow on Sunday. Love to all, blog again soon.