The Most Beautiful Day!!!

Today it was 80 degrees, sunny, and there was NO WIND.  These kinds of days are few and far between in Kansas, so I walked the dogs at lunch, had an outdoor photo session with Ledger after dinner, and then Chris and I walked with the little man in the stroller -- he promptly passed out.  I hope that "spring" has SPRUNG where you are!

Look at those baby blues.

 

Exploring the leaves.

Playing bashful.

It's WORKING!!

Tonight, Ledger fell asleep with less than 5 minutes of crying.  Seriously.  Maybe this thing is finally working.  I'm so EXCITED!!!  I know that my sisters don't fully appreciate posts without pictures, so...

Ledger slept through the night!

 

This is a picture of us laying in bed this morning, as we like to do on Sunday mornings.  But this Sunday morning was totally different.  Instead of being sleep deprived and in a general "morning stupor", I was AWAKE and felt great. Why?  Because Ledger SLEPT FROM MIDNIGHT UNTIL 8am.  Can you believe it?!  Chris woke up in a panic because Ledger had slept so long, but after a quick check on the kid, we were able to just smile and enjoy our first FULL NIGHT of sleep!! :)

I am also just learning how to upload photos from my phone to the blog site.  This could either result in some funny blogs or some useless ones.  We'll see.

Diarrhea Cha-Cha-Cha

Somehow, I have gotten this far into being a parent and DIDN'T know all of the craziness that comes with a little diarrhea.  Somehow, Ledger has developed this crazy diarrhea over the last two days.  And guess what comes with diarrhea?!  TERRIBLE, horrible diaper rash.  And tons of dirty diapers.  And a baby who screams every time you change their diaper because the baby wipes hurt their sensitive little behinds.  And a baby who doesn't want to SIT on their bottoms anymore.

Pittsburg Visit

This past weekend, we visited Aunt Jaime and Uncle Chris Vanderbeck in Pittsburg, KS.  We had a great time shopping and hanging out with them on Friday night in Joplin.  It's been a really long time since we've just "shopped around" in a mall.... it was actually fun.  We even managed to do it without busting our budget! :)  Although we enjoyed the 70 degree weather on Friday, it didn't last long.

In true Kansas-weather fashion, a cold front sped into the area and the temperature dropped below freezing and dumped around 6 inches of snow in the area.  On Saturday, we swam in the hotel pool.  Ledger held on TIGHT to Daddy and Uncle Chris as they swam him around.  Mommy photographed the fun from the comfort of the hot tub. ;) See pictures below.  Then we ate ate WAY too much Mexican food at Del Rio and did some more shopping around town.  Grammie and Grandpa Michel braved the terrible weather to join us in Pittsburg that evening.  We went out to eat at the FAMOUS Chicken Annie's, which recently won the "Food Wars" on Travel Channel.  The evening ended with a family game of cards and an excellent K-State Wildcat NCAA tourney win to put them into the Sweet 16!  Woohoo!!

Sunday morning, we took advantage of having grandparents to babysit.  Ledger stayed with Grammie and Grandpa so that Chris and I could spend some quality time unwinding in the hot tub!  It is SO nice to have some Mommy and Daddy time on occasion.  The 2-lane highway that we took home from Pittsburg had large patches of frozen slush, making the drive home challenging.  But we made it.

Thanks to Jaime, Chris V., Pam, and Steve for a wonderful weekend.  It was a great little escape!

 (Ledger swam so long that his feet became very wrinkled.)

2 Weeks of Catch-Up

Wow.  I can't believe that 2 weeks have flown by since my last post about Ledger's allergies.  Since that post, we have cut out dairy, eggs, corn, and as much soy as possible.  He has been switched over to a hypoallergenic formula at day care and I am still trying to nurse/pump as much as possible at home.  His congestion has improved quite a bit, considering that changing his diet is the only thing we've done so far.  The allergist gave us a whole bunch of drugs to start, including antibiotics, steroid creams, and anti-histamines.  We haven't started the medicine at all.  I know, we're bad parents.  In our defense, it has been completely crazy around here and our schedule is just NOW getting back to normal.  So, I will give you quick bullet-points to catch-up all that I haven't blogged about!

• Ledger enjoyed a week at home with Daddy for spring break last week.  Mommy worked, but it was nice to see my two favorite boys over my lunch break.
• Budgeting is going VERY well.  Our first official month of budgeting and we were able to pay off about $500 in debt... above our regular payments.  We also took advantage of a one-day special to consolidate our credit card debts with a bank loan with a fixed interest rate of less than half of our credit card interest.  It will save us quite a bit of money in the long run!  Most importantly... we are working hard to stick to our budget.
• Ledger continues to take a few steps here-and-there but isn't walking all over the place... yet. 

Allergy Answers

 

After weeks of watching Ledger cough, sneeze, snot, and break-out in random itchy rashes, we finally got Ledger in to see an allergist.  Dr. Radford agreed that Ledger could definitely be having some allergies and decided to do some skin testing for common infant allergens.  At every "dot" that was drawn on his back, the technician used a very small lancet to break the skin and apply a teeny bit of diluted allergen.  After 15 minutes, the spots were evaluated to determine if his body produced an allergic reaction to that specific allergen.  As it turns out... Ledger tested positive for allergies to: COW'S MILK, EGGS, CORN, and SOYBEAN.  He showed no allergic reaction to dogs or cats (thank goodness!).

He has been put on a number of medications and we will re-visit the doctor in a month.  In the meantime, we are trying to figure out a way to change his diet in order to avoid these really common allergens.  Typically, when kids are allergic to milk, they are taken off of regular formula and put on soy-based formula... but in our case, Ledger is allergic to soy too.  We did find a "hypo-allergenic" formula that we are going to try, but we are also going to try to switch him back to a primarily breast-milk diet.  He loves cheese, but that is going to have to stop.  It looks like we've got a "meat-and-potatoes" baby on our hands!

Stay tuned as we start this challenging new journey.  Thanks to family and friends for being so supportive!  Hopefully we can make some minor changes and get Ledger feeling much better soon!

10 Months Old

Ledger is 10 months old today!  (Geez, we're going to have to think of birthday party ideas soon!)  Here is what has happened in Ledger's world this month:

• Ledger has started taking steps!
• Ledger went on his first ski trip... even though he's not quite ready to start skiing yet.
• Ledger says DADA, MAMA, and CAT.  And lots of other stuff we can't understand yet.
• Our favorite play things are dog toys, socks, and electrical cords.
• He has found himself a "lovey" -- a stuffed dog named "Buddy".  He likes to hold on to Buddy's ears and rub his eyes with them.

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  Ledger is eating more and more solid table foods -- adding rice, shrimp, pasta, oyster crackers, and potato soup to his list of favorites.  Occasionally we can slip in some lettuce and carrots too.  He still does not like fruit!

FIRST STEPS!!!

Tonight, Ledger took 2 STEPS by himself -- AND we caught it on video!

Girls and Baby Boys

This weekend I made a special trip to Manhattan to have some quality time with my BFF, Ann.  In veterinary school, we spent every day together at school, at the rec center, studying, doing whatever.  Although we talk on the phone a lot, it's not the same as having some solid "girl time" together.  Now that we're both mommies (and she has another one on the way!), we had Mommy and Baby Boy time.  No Daddies invited.  Ann's son, Brody, is 20 months old and SO BIG!  He was very good with Ledger and shared his toys like a champ!  After dinner, we went to the KSU vs. Mizzou men's basketball game and both of our boys did very well.  Ledger was amazed at all of the people and wasn't phased by the noise at all.  It was fun for me to be back in Wildcat land... even if only for a little while.

Here are some pictures of the boys together: