Wordless Wednesday

I'm so glad he finally loves baths!

  does it look like he might have curls?!?!

Spring {Blogging} Break

This little guy is so glad that Spring is here!

He loves playing outside, which I was really thankful for last week as we spent our spring break painting the exterior of our house.   I had the week off work, so I had this crazy ambitious idea that I could paint our house.  

with a six month old. 

no. big. deal.

Well, it wasn't quite as simple as I thought it would be, but we did transform this:

**these pictures were taken May 2010 when we first moved into our house

Into this:

**The antenna in the yard was ripped off the house, and my husband thinks it makes for an interesting lawn ornament.  Don't worry, it won't be sticking around very long....

I sure wish that the yard was green and pretty now like it was in the first set of pictures, but I will take the face lift of the new color over the old and dingy white any day!  ;)

Before I let you think that I accomplished this all by myself, I would like to thank all my various family members for coming and helping scrape, prime, paint, and even help watch the little guy.  ;)  Those were some of the longest, hardest eight days that I have worked in a long time, but I never would have put a dent in the project if I had been working solo.  

We had gorgeous weather for Iowa this time of year......the temperatures ranged in the 35-65 degree range all week, and despite the threats of rain nearly everyday in the forecast, we didn't see any drops until Sunday, the last day, and even then it only rained in the morning and dried up by the afternoon. 

Hendrix spent lots of time outside watching us work.

He really loved going for walks around the block in his wagon.  I would pile it full of toys for him and let him sit in there to play while I would do some work; as soon as he would get fussy, I would just walk him around the block and he would relax.  It was a funny little routine, and we met lots of neighbors that we didn't know throughout the week!  lol

Hendrix loves being like his daddy!

but there were definitely times when he got sick of not getting all the undivided attention that he is used to. 

He was thrilled for Monday to get here and life to go back to normal.  I was thrilled as well to be honest.  ;)

Here he is telling me how happy he is to be the center of my world once again.  

big boy complex

Okay, so my 6-month-old thinks he's a big boy.  I know, it is awfully early to be develping a little 'attitude' but that is exactly what is happening.  He has huge opinions about what he wants and likes and what he does not, and he is very clear about expressing those things.  He has mastered the arched back, and now he also uses this very high pitch squeal/scream to let you know he is not pleased.  oh. my.

Now that he is getting very good at sitting by himself he wants to have no part in laying on the floor to play.  Apparently that is only for babies.  I am not exactly sure how he is going to get better at rolling, or learn to crawl for that matter, but sitting on his blanket with a few toys sure makes him happy. :)

He really loves eating and is a pretty good eater (the only things he has refused so far are peas and green beans), but he has recently decided that he only wants to eat when mom and dad are eating.  Thankfully, he doesn't seem to realize that he is eating different food than us yet....let's try to keep that a secret a little while longer!

He also loves to drink.  He mostly just gnaws on his own sippy cup; but he will throw a fit if you don't offer him a sip of whatever you are drinking.  This can be super messy and super time consuming.  Eating out has become very interesting.  Note the fit as daddy starts to take the cup away.....

He doesn't like to be cuddled and snuggled up to fall asleep anymore.  You might remember that he used to LOVE being swaddled, well now he prefers to fall asleep sitting in your lap, facing out, watching wheel of fortune with mommy and daddy.  We might be able to blame some of this on those breathing treatments that he has been putting up with for the last three weeks - that was when he first started enjoying this position.

Oh and he is starting to lose interest in his paci.  While it used to be very difficult to snap photos of him without it in his mouth, he now finds more enjoyment holding it and playing with it than actually sucking on it.  That is fine though, I like seeing his gummy smile more!

Slow down, big boy, you are growing fast enough as it is!

Mommy loves holidays

This kid is ready for St. Patrick's Day!  

One year after I had emphatically stated that the 4th of July was my favorite holiday ever, my hubby pointed out that I say that about every holiday.  It's true.  I think my real favorite holiday is simply the one that is coming up next.  lol

I love holidays.

I love decorating for holidays and seasons.

I love traditions associated with holidays.

and now, I love dressing Hendrix for holidays.

There will come a day when he will no longer allow this, so I will enjoy it for now!  :)

Valentine's Day

    

various Christmas outfits and jammies

Thanksgiving

 

and don't forget Halloween - his first holiday ever!

This little bumblebee is ready for spring!  ;)

Adventures in Cloth

Hendrix is growing like a weed!

Because of that, we have now made the switch to medium (right) cloth diapers. As you can see in the picture, they are much longer than the smalls (left).  This is important because as the snaps still extend loose enough for his legs, he needs higher coverage up his back.  lol

FuzziBunz says that the smalls should last until 8 months or 18 pounds, and I am actually quite pleased that he made it in those for this long.  While he is only 6 months old, Hendrix is mostly wearing size 12 month clothing right now.

The mediums are supposed to last until 36 months or 30 pounds, so I am hoping that they will indeed be the only other size that we need before potty training.  We shall see!

For anyone that has been following my cloth diapering journey from the very beginning, and through those first months, I would like to affirm that I am still pleased with the decision we made to cloth diaper.  

I love his padded little bottom, and I especially love not spending money on disposables every week!

As I packed up his too-small diapers to save for a future baby #2, I carefully looked them over for stains and just general wear and tear.  Sure, the fleece isn't as soft as it once was, but they are really in amazing shape when I consider that they have been washed every other day for the last 6 months.

You can't really even see much difference between the 'old' ones and the 'new' ones.  

Our cloth diapering adventure has been a great one so far!  

I'm feeling better, mom!

Finally, this kiddo seems to be doing better!  ;)

  We are on day five of antibiotics, and I think the earaches have really subsided as Hendrix is eating again.  In fact, he has been waking up 2-3 times in the middle of the night to eat, and I imagine that is his body trying to catch back up.  Hope that is over soon. :)

Hard to tell he was so sick by looking at him now!

We are celebrating his 6-month birthday today with family pictures. :)  I need to get going so I can find some magical way to cover up these terrible bags under my eyes.  

happy weekend!

....and the sickness continues

We spent all weekend snuggling.  All weekend.  Didn't leave the house, didn't accomplish anything on my to do list, didn't get much sleep, and didn't even make it to church.  I wish I could tell you that it helped.  :(

In truth, he was starting to seem better on Saturday, but then yesterday he refused to breastfeed.  I tried and tried to get him to nurse, and he would sometimes latch and sometimes not, but never would he stay on longer than a minute before he would pull his head back and either wimper pitifully or just outright scream.  

I tried pumping and giving him a bottle.  I tried giving him breastmilk in his sippy cup.  I tried juice, I even tried water.  I began to get really concerned about him getting dehydrated, and after a conversation with "first nurse" (our clinic's medical advice hotline) I was preparing hubby for an ER visit if he didn't have a wet diaper in the next half hour.  

And then he did.  It was really more damp than wet, but right after that I was able to get him to nurse for about five minutes.  It was just enough to give me peace of mind to let the little  guy go to sleep and wait it out until I could make an appointment at the clinic in the morning.

So we had our third doctor's office visit in a week and a half and found out the Hendrix now has a double ear infection.  Poor, poor guy.  The doc said that his right ear was particularly swollen and pussy (yes, he used the word pussy.....yuck!), and that it was probably causing him alot of pain to suck and swallow.  No wonder the little fella didn't want to eat. 

He was down 10 oz in weight from his appointment on Thursday, but I had been getting enough fluids down him to keep him plenty hydrated.  The good news is that the nebulizer really helped because his lungs were completely clear!

The bad news is that the amoxocillin hasn't really seemed to have done him much good yet.  He still hasn't nursed well today, and now he has diarrhea on top of everything else.  

I am hoping tomorrow brings a new day with much brighter prospects!