BIG weekend

So big, I haven't gotten to it until now. Here goes...

On Saturday, we started the day off with some oatmeal cereal for breakfast. He wasn't super excited about it, but he has eaten it at daycare for breakfast two days now, so he doesn't seem to mind it too much.
Then we went to Aamodt's Apple Farm, where Colin met some farm animal friends.
On Sunday, we had 20 people at our house to celebrate Colin's baptism.
We were so fortunate that so many people wanted to be there to commemorate our little man's big day. My mom made his baptismal gown.
Colin's godparents, Justin and Jen:
My family:
Kevin's family:
Colin's great grandmas:
My aunt, uncle, and cousin:
Later in the afternoon, Colin traded in his "dress" for some more comfortable duds and we took some pictures with the pumpkins at Kevin's grandparents'/parents' "farm."

*Bonus goes to anyone who can tell me why my camera is taking hazy pictures all of a sudden.
*WHEW* 1 big weekend down, 3 more to go: Our 10-year HS reunions, 6 month pictures/wedding, and another wedding.

Health update

So, as of tonight, Colin is officially done with his Amoxicillin! I'm done with mine tomorrow. Good riddance. Kevin is getting better, but has a lingering cough.

Bad news is that Colin's antibiotics gave him a yeasty diaper rash and my antibiotics gave him Thrush. Hooray. So now we have to squirt a tiny bit of Nystatin in Colin's little mouth to get rid of THAT infection.

I'm pumping a bottle in the morning before I take my antibiotics and sending that to daycare, along with a bunch of frozen milk. The milk I pump during the day gets flushed. It makes me sad not to keep it, but I don't want to have to deal with Thrush/yeasty diaper rash any longer than I have to. I think after tomorrow is over, I'll go back to keeping the milk, because the antibiotics will lessen and hopefully it should be okay.

All this the week that Colin has decided he'd like to drink over 20 oz. per day at daycare. He used to average 4 4-5 oz bottles. Yesterday and today, he averaged about 5 5-6 oz bottles. Kev had to make a special trip to daycare yesterday afternoon to drop off more frozen milk. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with him! If not...lactation cookies, here I come!

5 months old today!

Our photo shoot started off with the "birthday boy" grabbing and eating the sign right off the bat.
So I distracted him by holding up his Ten Little Ladybugs book.
"Huh? Ten Little Ladybugs? I know that book!"
"Ok, mom, I'll look at the camera, but I'm not going to smile!"
I've been inspired by Kelsey's blog to write a "Dear Colin" letter. I always love reading hers about her little guy Drew. Here goes:

Dear Colin,

Here we are, five months later. You've been going to daycare for about a month now, and you're doing very well there. Mommy has been adjusting well to the change, and I really look forward to picking you up in the afternoons after a long day at work.

You had your second trip to the emergency room this week. The first trip was when you were only 17 weeks old in Mommy's belly when she was in that car accident. Your ear infection and bronchitis are clearing up now, and sometimes you even seem to enjoy that yucky Amoxicillin we have to give you to keep your sick bugs away.

You weigh about 17 pounds. Your blondie hairs on the top of your head are really starting to grow in. They are about a half-inch long now. Mommy is so excited that you're going to be blond, because she had a dream about you when you were in her belly, and you had blond hair. Your eyes are still blue, which makes Daddy happy because his eyes are blue too. Most everyone says you look like Mommy, so Daddy takes your features as they come.

You really like to play with your horse rattle, Lion and Lamb (your car seat toys), swing on the swings at the park, pet Rocket (you've pulled his hair a couple of times, which he doesn't like, but he's still nice to you), and you giggle when someone says "Boo!" to you. When you're in your Exersaucer, you like to take apart the alligator. Maybe you'll like puzzles as much as your Mommy, Grandma J, and Great-Grandma J do. Or maybe you'll just like to destroy things. Sometimes when you take a bath you scootch down the sponge so your ears are in the water. We're glad you don't mind this, because we want you to like to swim!

You have discovered your toes, which you like to grab on to and roll from your back to your side. You can also roll from your tummy to your back AND from your back to your tummy now!

You have been eating rice cereal for about a month now. Not every night, because sometimes you don't want to eat it. We try it a few times a week, though. You are very good at opening your mouth and taking a bite. Tomorrow we're going to try oatmeal for breakfast. You, however, have other ideas and would rather try a sip of a McDonald's milkshake or some green beans. All in good time, kiddo.

You make a lot of noise, from coos to screams (just for fun) to giggles, which are the best.

When the camera comes out, your smile goes away. Mommy will put a dollar in your piggy bank if you smile for your 6 month pictures with Johanna in a few weeks, Babycakes.

You still don't sleep very much. On a good night, you sleep a 4 hour stretch. Maybe 2 of them. But most of the time, you wake up every 2-3 hours, with some fussing in between. Mommy loves to see you during the night, but thinks we can work out a compromise. How about just 1 or 2 Mommy wakings, Little Man? She misses you during the night and loves to touch your soft hands and feel your snuggles, but she sure does miss her sleep too!

Love you forever,
Mommy

Sickness

Yesterday started out great. We went to the park and to Target, but then Colin got very tired and cranky. He wouldn't let us put him down for one second. So at 7:30 I took his temperature. It was 104.3. So I called my mom, who advised me to call the ER to ask them what to do. I waited on the Tylenol in case they wanted me to bring him and take his temperature themselves. The RN on the phone told me to give him the Tylenol, and retake his temperature throughout the night. At 8:00 it was still 102. He didn't sleep much at all, and we re-took his temperature during his diaper changes at night, and kept giving him Tylenol. At 3 am, he was still running a 102.5 fever, so we went across the street to the ER. Turns out Mr. Man has bronchitis and a bit of an ear infection in one of his ears (but it seems we caught it early enough so that he wasn't in too much pain from it yet). We left with some Amoxicillin. We barely slept a wink all night, since he was so (understandably) needy.

Fast forward....at 1:15 pm today, after some Motrin, Amoxicillin, a cool bath (which he hated), a cool washcloth on his head, and a few naps, his temp was 99. Thank goodness. I was getting so worried about his hot little head. Every bad thought started going through my mind, including febrile seizures. I'm telling you, it's no fun having a sick baby. Now we sit and wait for his temperature to spike again. He's in good spirits today. If you didn't know, you wouldn't think he's sick. Although we haven't put him down to play on the floor at all today yet.

What makes things even ickier is that I think I have strep, or some sort of action going on in my throat/ear. So I may not be going in to work tomorrow and going to the doctor instead. I hate planning for a sub, though, especially on only the 9th day of school, and hope I feel well enough to work. Colin for sure can't go to daycare tomorrow, but luckily Kevin can "easily" stay home with him.

Our Labor Day Weekend, Part Deux: Pictures

Here he is, passed out in Daddy's lap at the wedding reception:And on Monday he sat in the Moby and helped me sweep the floor:"Daddy, where's your broom? Hmmm?"After we cleaned, we went to the park, where Colin went down a slide for the first time:
and swung in the swing for the first time too. He's all maxin' and relaxin':
Despite his expressionless face, he enjoyed the swing. He was very tired that day...he hadn't napped much, so he wasn't in the best of moods. Until he saw Rocket and started laughing at him. He thinks Rocket is one of the funniest things in the world, I swear.

Quick update

This week has been extremely busy. The school year has officially started. I have 20 lovely 1st graders to keep my mind off my little man all day long. I think it's going to be a good year, as long as I can keep H from being a pest to his classmates (and me), and M and C from avoiding schoolwork by focusing on more important things like erasers and who knows what else.

Daycare is still going well. The report on Friday was that Colin is adjusting nicely, and so far they are loving our Bumgenius diapers. This gave me free reign to buy another batch in the buy-6-get-1-free deal. I think we have enough of them now so that we're not stressing about not having enough for nighttime (since we use them overnight) and for daycare.

We had a wedding on Saturday. Kevin's BFF Justin's (can men use the term BFF?) sister got married. It was a gorgeous day for a gorgeous outdoor ceremony. The reception was nice, too. Colin slept through the ceremony and was entranced by all the people he could watch at the reception. We sat at the table and he fell asleep in Kevin's lap. He woke up again to socialize, and he and I left at 9:00 while Kevin stayed to party all night long. I don't think he regrets the party, but he did regret all the drinking this morning :).

Today we hung out at home, and then visited Kevin's mom and dad and some other people out at "the farm" (the kind of former farm that doesn't have any animals, but does have a few veggie plants). Colin loves being outside, so he had fun being carried around and looking at something different for a change.

We have no plans for tomorrow's big Labor Day holiday, except to buy some groceries for a diet Kevin is starting tomorrow. Wish him luck, and keep the goodies and alcohol (even beer) away from him. It's going to be hard (the man loves his chocolate), but I think he'll do wonderfully.