ramblings/updates/follow up

Thank you for all your input on the photo contest! After much debate I decided to submit photo #5 (the BIG winner in comments), #6, #3, and #9. I was going to take brand new pictures this weekend and add two more to my submission, to make the six total that is allowed, but now that I've added the four initial pictures I don't think I can add anymore to an existing album. The whole site over there isn't the most user friendly---I mean, I couldn't even pick which shot was the cover to my album (totally wanted it to be #5, but it randomly selected #9 for me). Oh well. He's still cute.

Here is my 'album' of four photos I put on the site. I think you can 'vote' for me if you'd like, but that is just for a weekly winner contest of $250 prize money (which I wouldn't HATE, but the NYC trip is the big dog). And um, does anyone else notice that there are 9,100 entries for this thing? Gulp. It's sort of mind boggling how many cute kids there are out there, and how many proud parents want to win the contest. Obviously, I'm not actually expecting to win but it was still fun to select some cute pictures of our man!

So I did take those 'new pictures' this weekend, planning to add more to the album but instead I will just showcase them here. :)

with an awesome new 'fair trade' hat from Uncle Jon in Oregon:







the rest of the winning 'plaid shirt' photo series:


which shows his new favorite 'face crinkle' smile that totally cracks me up:






And then his new big boy 'vest' outfit from Grandma Lois, in size 18 months from Carters. I put it on yesterday just for fun, to see how big it is, and was shocked at how well it fit. (tear)


dancin






my new desktop on this computer...fave! I love that you can see the gorgeous coloring of his eyes--still not quite brown, nor blue, nor green, but one big complex mixture.


And then I tried to show off his two new teeth for you. Again, why do I do this to myself? He totally hated it:







You can see that the top two, side teeth are officially through the gums. Isn't it odd how they sort of come through the front of the gum and not from the ridge underneath? His middle two upper teeth are 'right there' and so are his two bottom side teeth, as per Lori. Oh, and even his little canine teeth are moving down into position. Great, just great. As of now we have four teeth out of the gums within 1.5 months of teething hell. Let's just get it over with already!

And for a little update: it seems like there is a pattern with Truman and teething. Step one: get really horrible at sleeping because of painful teeth. Step two: teeth finally pop through, but not before Truman's hands are in his mouth more often and his immune system is down. Step three: Truman gets a cold and cannot breathe through his nose with all the baby snot in there, and thus sleeps really horribly and feels awful. Step four: mommy and daddy get the cold too, and the whole house is miserable. Step five: mommy freaks out that Truman is also getting an ear infection because of the added crying and drainage. Takes him into the doctor for an ear check and this time, we were in the clear. Hooray. Still only one ear infection on the books for this baby and I hope it stays that way.

I admit that I am that crazy mom who bought an otoscope online, so that I can peer into Truman's ears when I'm worried about an infection. I mean, obviously I'm not a doctor but I have potential to learn like the best of them:) I even admitted this psycho-ness to the doc at our appointment and he sort of laughed at me, but he gets it. I hate running him into the doc just to have him look at his ears and tell me they are fine. So a little more practice with the otoscope and maybe I can save myself some trouble. What? I'm a medical person and love that stuff anyway so it's not too crazy, right?

We are all feeling much better these days but for awhile it was pretty rough around here. I HATE baby colds with a passion. I know compared to other serious illnesses, colds are not that bad (and I tell myself to be thankful it's nothing worse very often), but this is our fourth cold now and every time I cringe when Truman can't breathe well. I gained mad nasal aspirator skillz this time, though, and was able to pull out a bunch of nasty boogs for him multiple times per day which makes me feel less helpless. And the doctor said that within the first year, you can expect 10 colds/infections just because their immune systems are so immature. So really, 4 in an 8 month period isn't TOO bad I guess. I know it's one of the perks/curses of daycare, too, to have him exposed to more germs---hopefully once he gets his immunities built up we won't have so many sicknesses as he ages. Not sure what is worse---a sick baby who can't tell you what is wrong, or a sick and whiney toddler. (Actually, I think a sick husband trumps all of the kid scenarios, no offense, Nate---but seriously).

I feel like this is the worst time of year for colds and flu viruses. Everyone I know is sick, even my friends and family in Missouri and tons of folks on Facebook, too. Props to all moms and/or wives dealing with sick kids and/or husbands---hang in there, ladies. It's no joke!

After a particularly horrid week of sleep (or lack thereof, since I think we averaged about 3-4 hours of broken sleep total each night) Truman rocked it last night and only woke ONCE at 4:30 am to nurse and was back to sleep within 30 minutes. Not only that but he slept until 8 am (or actually 7 am with daylight savings) after that. Woah, dude. That was AMAZING and I hope it continues but I probably just jinxed it by blogging about it. We'll see. It's funny to me that most kids sleep so great at night and then with daylight savings, they get all messed up and it's worse---but for our baby it was the exact opposite last night. Ah, Truman. Why are you so 'unique'? :)

And finally, an update about family: my mom is currently in Africa (Senegal to be exact) for a 10 day trip supporting missionaries over there. She was very excited and nervous for this trip and I hope she's staying healthy and enjoying her time over there. I know it has to be hot, they have to wear skirts, and the 'hotel' they are staying in sounds like a total joke (holes in the screens, sporadic electricity, etc)---but I know she's making the best of it. Keep her in your prayers if you would!

Off to enjoy this amazing gift of an extra hour tacked onto this day today. Wouldn't it be nice if every day had an extra hour (or six?). Not happy about the sun setting at 4:30 or whatever inconceivable time it sets now, but oh well.