It's been awhile...

Sorry, but life is running away from me!! Hunter will be 14 months old this week...where has the time gone?? He took a couple of steps today (that's really a stretch, btw - it was more like he moved his feet while falling into my arms). It is amazing he isn't running yet. You should see him "drive" his firetruck around this apartment. He flies around corners, running behind it or sometimes holding onto the steering wheel from the front and walking it in reverse. He spent most of the afternoon throwing toys back and forth with Mommy and Daddy, walking all around the coffee table, barely hanging on. He's so close!!

I do have video of the firetruck, but we can't seem to get our home computer to allow us to upload it onto the internet.

Grandmommy came to visit yesterday and she and Hunter had a blast. She must have worn him out the first hour she was here (we went to lunch and a movie - thanks Mom!!!) because he took a 2 hour nap during her visit. I don't remember the last time he slept that long for me on a weekend. He does that pretty much every day at school, but not so much on the weekends.

Hunter is also clapping (finally). I know what you're thinking...he's clapping? Isn't that like a 6 month old thing??? Not with my baby boy. He's just never been interested, or maybe he didn't think he'd done anything so super yet to deserve a clap. But today, he was clapping for everything. They've probably been doing patty-cake at school or something, since that's where he picks everything up.

Speaking of...he's learned "please" in sign language. Normally, that looks like:

That is, a circular motion with one hand around the chest area. For Hunter, however, it looks more like "Get in my belly" from Austin Powers. LOL! He pats his belly with both hands...actually, it's more like a downward rub. Not circular, but that is definitely what he's doing. They had told me at school he was doing it, but I pretty much didn't believe them because they are always so nice and positive...I figured they're just trying to make me feel good because they remember how emotional I am. :) But last weekend, I told him to say please while we were in the middle of one of his 5 course meals, and I did the motion, and he "repeated" with both hands on his belly. Well, more like lower chest....just above his little pot belly. I haven't gotten that on video yet, but am working on it. We're working on "thank you" and "more" and "eat" and "cup." Not much success yet, but like I said, "please" kinda snuck up on me so we'll see!!!

Let's see...what else...oh, I'm working too much. Gotta stop doing that...things are slipping through the cracks outside the office. My poor little nephew turned 4 in June and just now this weekend got his gift from his aunt and uncle because I hadn't found time to go out and buy anything, much less ship it. I'm sorry Colin - Happy Belated Birthday, little man. I hope you like your Batmobile. I must say, it was difficult to pry it away from Uncle Brent.

Also, our house is coming along nicely. They've painted most of the walls and should start on flooring soon (I think?). It's pretty fun watching everything come together. Just another couple of months and we should be moving in (keep your fingers crossed). Apartment living isn't that bad though. Hunter isn't sleeping well still, but we think that might be something besides just an adjustment period. If any of you moms know what I'm talking about, please email me!!! We think (thanks to Grandmommy's suggestion, and Aunt Heather's confirmation today of her boys' similar problem) that apple juice could be our problem. Hunter's had some pretty bad diaper rashes since he turned one. Remember that we moved right after he turned one, at the same time we took formula away and also started introducing every kind of table food known to man. We also had not done much apple juice before we moved, but he's been having apple juice every day, multiple times a day sometimes. Hunter's cousins (or at least one of them...not sure if Heather even tried apple juice with Devlin?) had very bad rashes due to apple juice and she realized this and fixed that problem quickly. I, however, have become complacent and apparently got used to being woken up multiple times during the night when Hunter would wake up. Yes, we no longer get up when he cries now, but we still hear him on the monitor most times. Anyway, we aren't sure that the rash is waking him up and we aren't even sure if the juice is what's causing the rash, but it is at least an experiment we are very willing to try.

In my googling last night, I also came across some information on Fiengold, so if any of my readers (do I even still have readers???) are familiar with this or have tried it, let me know. I think Fiengold is for a bit more severe type problems from the little that I read, but when I did searches for sleeping problems and diet, that was what came up pretty consistently. I'm not spending any money on it until I talk to someone who's even heard of it, so if you have, please email me (or at least post a comment so that I can get back to you).

Wow, I'm rambling. Last but not least, if you haven't ever read any Julie Morgenstern books and are interested in getting organized (either with your stuff or with your time), I highly recommend any and all of her books. I listened to two of them on CD (3 or 4 times actually, both of them) over the past couple of weeks (got them from the library) and really think she may change my life. So I bought the hard copy books today so that I can read the unabridged versions and also see some of her notes and diagrams. Hopefully, I will be a new woman in a few months, especially a more organized person in the new house!!

I'm done now. Sorry for the book and absolutely no pictures!!! Maybe I will get back online from the home computer instead of my laptop so that I can share some pics. For now, I'm going to go read myself to sleep. :)

Happy 4th of July (and more)

My goodness, there is a lot to catch up on. I will try not to bog you down with the dirty details, but some things HAVE to be discussed!! (And some pictures are just thrown in here for kicks.)

12-month well baby visit

Our 12 month well baby visit was supposed to be our last appointment with Dr. Barnhart (more on that later). It was very sad because we loved our pediatrician. Hunter weighed in at 22 lbs 3 oz but 32.5 inches long with a monster head (49 cm). His weight is starting to catch up to his height. The monster head is causing many people to think Hunter is much older than he really is. He's been accused of being anywhere from 18 months to 2 years old. He still is not walking (yes, that is the most common question we get, especially now that he's 13 months old). He crawls ridiculously fast though and still gets into everything you can imagine.

At this appointment, we were instructed to get rid of the bottle (not quite there yet) and the baby food. All this was the week before we moved and flipped Hunter's world upside down.

Yes, we moved...
We sold our house in Kingwood and have moved into an apartment temporarily while our new house is being constructed. We anticipate moving into the new house in September (keep your fingers crossed). If you don't keep up with us besides through this blog, you're probably wondering why we're moving (again). Yes, we were very happy in Kingwood, but Brent's company moved to the west side of town and he was driving 46 miles to work ONE WAY. We miss Kingwood a ton, but are getting used to the Northwest side of town, and we are also closer to our families.

It's been quite an adjustment - especially for Hunter, but mainly because we changed so many things at once. We did take the bottle away during the day because his new daycare class is for big boys and they drink out of cups. He is still getting a bottle at night but we'll wean him from that over the next month or so.

The apartment didn't seem to phase Hunter's sleep (at first). He slept soundly the first few nights, and then daycare came along and BAM! No more sleeping through the night (with the exception of maybe 3 nights since we moved nearly a month ago). I have no idea why this is happening, but I'm sure we will figure it out in time. For now, we've got a blanket over the windows because we thought too much light was coming into the room, and we're back to playing white noise during nap times and at night. We figure with all the changes in his diet and decreasing to one nap a day at daycare, this is all par for the course.

School and stuff

Hunter is still in Kids R Kids, but a new location and a new class. It's 12-18 months and the boys in this class seem to dwarf my baby (who is no longer a baby, it seems). They eat table food only, which Hunter was apparently a champ at, at least at daycare. At home, he was spitting everything out at me, apparently trying to get me to give in and give him baby food. He is now eating like a champ, both at school and for Mommy and Daddy. To give you an example of one of his huge meals, the boy ate the following for breakfast Friday morning - 3 fruit and grain bars (140 calories each), a whole banana, and a half piece of toast. And he still doesn't gain much weight! He is burning so many calories!! It's crazy!

His new class does an art project every day, or so it seems. The picture below shows some of his art over the last three weeks.
The kids in this class also have to wear shoes, they sleep on mats on the floor, they go outside every day for playtime, and they do splash day once a week during the summer. Hunter is still allowed to sleep in a crib, until they feel confident he'll sleep on the floor (which of course, I am doubtful will ever happen, but I'm sure it will if they say it will). He comes home with dirty clothes every day because he's not walking, so he crawls around in the dirt during playtime. We love the new teachers though and Hunter seems very happy.

Mommy's adjustment period

All that being said, it doesn't mean Mommy has handled all of this change well. My wonderful friends in Kingwood have been there for me though, and I can't tell you how much I appreciated it. Especially when Hunter had a stomach thing and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to make him feel better. (We had to go back to Dr. Barnhart for this since I hadn't found a new pediatrician yet - that problem has now been solved, thank goodness.) He has a couple of new teeth and a couple more trying to get through, which may have something to do with his poor sleeping habits. I'm sure eventually things will feel like they are back to normal (and then we'll move again!!).

July 4th Celebration

Here are some pictures from our trip to Round Top to celebrate July 4th. Hunter loved the parade and got to say hi to some friends.I had to zoom in on that last picture because Hunter's smile is just classic!!!
I'll try to keep up with this blog better. It's been difficult to make time for with all of the craziness in our lives so far this summer. But I will try - promise!!