5/26/12

Momentous Occasions

Well, this week was huge!  Little Bear got his first taste of rice cereal.  I've been think for about a week that he is ready, but I was rather hesitant.  After his day with CC on Wednesday, she confirmed it for me. So, Wednesday night when I got home from work, we tried it.  It was hilarious!!!  Little Bear had fun with it.  I'm not sure how much he actually got because there was quite a bit on his chin and bib.  But he enjoyed grabbing my hand and the spoon and putting it in his mouth.  He's a work in progress for sure.   He is also sitting up on his own.  After a while he starts to tilt to the side.  He can sometimes catch himself and sit back up.  Other times he falls forward or back.  We're having a blast watching him.  I've also started noticing him scooting on the floor when he's on his tummy.  I can't believe how fast he is growing.  Next week Sunday he'll be 6 months old.









5/21/12

Ponderings

Last week was a first for me:  I was the one being honored/celebrated on Mother's Day.  It felt weird actually.  I know I'm Little Bear's mother, but sometimes the concept of being someone's mom is still so new and strange feeling.  I so love watching him grow and develop.  I'm very proud to be his mom.  Just ask anyone I know - and especially my coworkers.  I can't go long without showing people a picture of "the cutest boy ever!"  It's not that I think he's better than anyone else's child.  It's just that he's mine and I'm so amazed and blessed by him.  There are things in life that just don't matter as much to me anymore.  The main one is work.  Don't get me wrong, I really like my job.  I think I'm good at it.  God has gifted me to work in the area I do.  I can't imagine not working.  However, when I'm at work, I would much rather be at home with my Little Bear.  When I'm at home with him, I sometimes wonder what's going on at work, but not like I used to.  My days at work are really long.  I leave my house at 6:20am and don't get home till around 8pm usually.  That seems like an eternity to being away from my Little Bear.  The plus side is that I work only 2 days a week.  So, I get to be at home for 5 days.  Right now though when there are so many changes happening with Little Bear, I don't want to miss any of them.  2 weeks ago, he got his first teeth.  I felt so excited to discover them.  The other thing I'm so excited to get to discover is the fact that he started saying, "Da Da" yesterday.  I kept saying, "Ma Ma" to him, but he stuck with "Da Da."  He is starting to vocalize more like he's actually talking.  It's so totally cute.  He's also reaching out to both Mark and I with his arms when neither of us are holding him.  He LOVES us!  Well, at least that's what I'm saying.  I know there will be times ahead of us where I'll get frustrated at him or he'll make decisions that I don't agree with.  However, right now I'm relishing the happy boy I have.
I was really wanting to post some pictures again, but Blogger is not recognizing the new ones I uploaded.  Hopefully it'll be working soon.


Me & my Little Bear on Mother's Day

He really wanted my Chai tea latte

My happy boy (notice the red below his eye?  He scratched himself)

First set of shades

































5/11/12

My Least Favorite Activity

One thing that I really don't like to do is clean.  I'm sure there are some other people out there that feel the same way.  Now, I love a clean home, I just don't enjoy doing it.  I continually come up with excuses why I don't do it.  Then I complain about how dirty things are.  Right now my excuses are I'd rather spend time with my son, or he's sleeping so I better not make too much nose with the vacuum, or I don't want him to have to smell the fumes of the cleaning products.  Well, I can't use the last excuse any longer.  I found out about a chemical-free cleaning system.  I'm really wanting to be "green" as much as possible.  That's one of the reasons I chose to use cloth diapers.  I also want to use safe things to do my cleaning - that is when I choose to clean.  Well, a friend of mine started selling chemical-free cleaning products.  I love the idea of not having to have ANY chemicals around that my son could get into and be harmed.  So, I'm phasing out all my chemical cleaners and going chemical free with Norwex products.  Check out my friend's website.  I was totally amazed when I went to an "in-home" show.  She did a demo with several of the products.  WOW!  Impressive!!  She did another demo using raw chicken.  She actually tested the area after she rubbed the raw chicken on it and of course it was highly contaminated.  After she cleaned it using the Norwex cloth, there was absolutely no traces of bacteria.  So, in an effort to improve my cleaning habits, I decided to have a catalog Norwex party.  I bought the enviro cloth, window cloth, and dust mitt at a friend's party.  I love them.  The window cloth leaves no streaks.  I want to buy more products.  The more people that buy, the better of a discount I get.  I want to get the word out about this amazing product so I'm going to have a give-away.  In order to qualify, you need to leave a comment about your least favorite cleaning activity and any hints as to how you keep on top of maintaining a clean house when you have a little one to work around.  3 people will receive one of the travel-size Enviro cloths.  To qualify for the grand prize, which will be the All-Purpose Kitchen Cloth, you need to place an order on top of leaving a comment.  I'm really curious as to what all of you do to keep your house clean.  And I can't wait to find out who wins.  Oh, just to clarify: if you want to place an order, email it to me directly (LyneeRN@gmail.com).  I will contact you about payment.  All comments and orders must be received by May 22, 2012.

Well, I want to leave you all with a few pictures of my Little Bear and the reason I want to get rid of the chemicals in my house.
My happy little hunk

So photogenic











5/8/12

Selected Camera Moments

Come back my Little Bear

Kissing Already

Father/Son Bonding Time

Father/Son Bonding Time

Precious Moments

My 3 Boys

5/6/12

Happy 5 Month Birthday (a couple days late)

Well, this last Thursday Little Bear turned 5 months old.  It's hard to believe it's been that long already.  He is getting to be so much fun.  He continues to love-love-love the exersaucer.  He's getting so strong and active in it that I think he'll jump out of it soon.  He's found his feet recently and amazes me with his flexibility.  I used to be flexible, but not so much anymore.  He's been gnawing on his hands and feet or whatever he can put in his mouth.  Just this morning I felt something.  His first tooth has broken through.  He really hasn't been that fussy with teething.  He has been slobbering a ton and the last several days he's had a little rash on his bottom and some diarrhea.  I went ahead and picked of some Hyland's Teething Gel (the store was out of the tablets) just in case we might need it.

I wanted to update you all on how it's gone with putting Little Bear in his crib for night.  I'm happy to report that it's going very well.  the last 5 nights he's had 6 - 7 hour stretches.  I've heard him make sounds a few times at night, but then he's gone back to sleep on his own.  Last night I put him down at 8pm.  I picked him up at 10, changed his diaper, fed him and he went right back down.  He woke up at 5:15 and I fed him.  He slept till about 8:15.  Wow.  So, all in all he slept almost 12 hours.  Very nice!  I hope to continue to get into more of a night time routine.  I did put him in a disposable diaper last night.  There was slight leakage when I changed him again at 8:15 this morning.  I think this was most likely due to the fact that I still have size 1 diapers instead of the 2-3 since he's 17-18 pounds.  So, I did get to the store today and bought size 3.  That just sounds so crazy.

keeps getting bigger and longer

Play Date with friend McKenna (she LOVES him)

I wanted to add several more pictures, but for some reason blogspot isn't recognizing them.  I'll post them as soon as I can.



5/1/12

Big Night Coming

Well, I think I'm about to make a big transition.  Tonight is the night I put Micah in his crib instead of our room.  I haven't been wanting to do it because I enjoy having him close by.  However, I'm ready to have our bedroom back and I think everyone in the house will sleep better.  I was going to do it last week, but then Little Bear got sick and definitely wanted him close by.  Then over the weekend he was waking up every 2-3 hours.  Me, being as tired as I am in the middle of the night, of course picked him up and fed him.  My amazing girlfriends who are moms of 2-3 kids each gave me some wise counsel.  They said babies train very easily.  And the fact that I'm picking him up every time he cries and feeding him, he's going to start wanting it that way.  So, Sunday evening I did something that was rather difficult.  Little Bear started fussing about 2 1/2 hours after going to sleep.  I let him fuss.  I gave myself a time limit of 10 minutes.  He calmed after 8, then several minutes later fussed, then calmed after 5 min, etc.  This went on for about 20 minutes after which I put the binky in his mouth and he went back to sleep.  He slept for another 2+ hours and started crying.  I mean really crying.  I let him cry and about 10 minutes into it, I put the binky in his mouth, patted his back and he eventually went to sleep.  Normally I would have actually picked him up to feed him.  However, since I had to work Monday, I was going to be feeding him right before I left which was in another 1 1/2 hours.  So, I let him be.  He of course eagerly fed when I woke him up.  I felt horrible though because when I picked him up, I realized his diaper had leaked.  Poor guy!  If any of you guys that read this do cloth diapers, I'm curious as to what brand you use and why.  Since I put Little Bear to sleep on his tummy, I feel like he leaks after long periods of sleep.  I'm looking for suggestions on cloth diapers that don't leak as easily.  Right now I'm using GroVia, Rumparooz, and Bum Cheeks.
Well, Monday night I Little Bear went to sleep at 10:15 and slept till shortly after 5.  Woohoo for 7 hours straight.  I changed his diaper, fed him and put him back to bed.  He didn't wake up till 8:30.  Fabulous!!  I felt great this morning after getting that much sleep.  So, since he did so well last  night I decided that I'm going to be brave and put him to bed in his own room.  I'll be sure and let you all know how it goes.

We've had a great day today.  I decided to have fun with our camera.  I need to take some lessons on how to use it for how it was created.  I have a ton to learn!!  Anyway, here are a few shots from playtime and our walk.

Super Happy!!
Very Intrigued 
Enjoying the walk

So adorable!!!

Brother Shadow exploring

Wassup?

Tummy time - probably watching a little TV