First Night in a Big Boy Bed

The last time we visited my family, we realized Roan was outgrowing the pack 'n play. Not only was he too long for it, but he could easily get out of it if he was determined enough. He can get out of big boy beds if he wants, too, but at least he's not all scrunched up. My mom bought him this bed:

How is that adult in the bed without it falling apart?!

It started out a little rough. I did the usual bathroom routine: bath, stories, sing a few songs, bed. But after the stories, when I turned off the light, he started to cry.

I climbed in the bed with him and sang Amazing Grace over...and over...and over. He started yawning and rubbing his eyes and I was hopeful! I tried climbing out of the bed which caused the front part of the bed fell off. I was trying to fix it while still singing Amazing Grace in an attempt to not disturb his journey to dream-land. Sean came in the room (because I had been upstairs so long) and went to get my dad. He had to turn the light on, but we were able to get the bed back together. Then Sean took over.

Sean didn't sing anymore songs, he just said "Are you ready to sleep in the fire engine bed?"
"Yes."
"And are you going to stay in the fire engine bed?"
"Yes."

And he did! The whole night!

Roan woke up at around 7am (Sean and I were still asleep), went downstairs, walked into my parent's bedroom and simply said "Where is everybody?"

Either the door was not closed all the way when I went to check on him (the more likely scenario) or he figured out how to open the door (doubtful).

I cannot believe he slept through the night in his big boy bed! And the fact that he just went downstairs, walked into my parent's room, and asked where everyone was without first stopping to get in to things...wow!

So thankful for my little-big-man!

Big Boy is TWO!

It's both hard and not hard to believe Roan is two. He continues to amaze us on an almost daily basis, haha. For example:

• After our last visit to see my family, or shortly after we came home, every time I would go get him out of his crib or any other situation where I would say "Hi buddy!" he would say "Hi bubby!" and would continue saying it until I said it back. Then he would say "Jus wike gamma Bibi!" I thought maybe he was saying something about how I looked like grandma Bibi. Today it dawned on me...I wonder if my mom says "Hi bubby!" to him... I'd never really paid attention. So I called her. Yep, she says "Hi bubby!"
• A few weeks ago, Icona Pop "I Love It" came on the radio in the car. I was being goofy, singing loud, etc. The chorus says "I don't care...I love it" for those that don't know the song. Anyway, we get home and about 10 minutes later he say "I don't ca-ya. I yuff it!" Also, he really likes "Stompa" by Serena Ryder (yes, I sometimes listen to Top 40 radio in the car, shush). 
• He often mimics accents in songs on TV, as with "I don't ca-ya". One evening he was watching a kid's show (Poppy Cat?) where one of the characters' name is Tiger. With a British accent, it sounds like Tiga. They said something like "Let's look lata, Tiga." and Roan said "Yay-ta Tiga!" 
• This conversation:
  Roan: "Some-ping scary."
  Me: "Is there something scary? What do we do when we feel scared?"
  Roan: "Cwose eyes, fink some-ping happy!"
  (This is from a Daniel Tiger episode.)

I'm sure there are more examples I could give, but that's about all my brain can muster at this point. 

I missed his 2 year checkup (oops), but scheduled an appointment to talk about his vomiting episodes. Every 3-4 months he has a day of throwing up every 15-20 minutes, starting in the morning, usually tapering off around lunch time, little sips of Pedialyte every 20 minutes so long as he doesn't throw up, he sleeps, then we gradually introduce BRAT foods. He's usually back to normal by evening/dinner time and 100% better the next day. No other symptoms, no fever. Just lethargic and throwing up. 

The doctor basically said it sounds like cyclical vomiting syndrome. Basically sounds like IBS..."We don't know what this really is, so here's a name for it." Thankfully, there is something that can somewhat be done for CVS. The doctor prescribed Zofran and recommended we give him that and a dose of Tylenol the next time it happens. He made it sound like it could be related to migraines, but I thoroughly don't believe he has migraines. I have the Zofran on-hand for next time. We'll see what happens in 3-4 months. The doctor would also like to see him after the next "episode". 

I took some 2 year pictures the other morning. Just a quick shoot behind our house. It's too much of a challenge to take him to a park or something and do this by myself, haha. Besides, I took his 1 year pictures behind our house, so I felt it was kind of fitting.

Closest thing I could get to a smile!

See, now, people make the comment all the time: "He's a photographer's son, he must do so well looking at the camera and smiling!" Nope. Exactly the opposite. I get behind the camera and he doesn't listen to me at all. I have discovered asking him what color my phone or camera is...or telling him there's a bumble bee on my camera...or a squirrel...those tricks work at first. At first. 

Nearly Two: Things I Like About You

I have a few friends who blog about their sons as if they're writing to them. I'm going to do that for this post. I want to remember these things. Here are some cute/funny/unique things about you, Roan, that I just adore:

• You call chipmunks "chunk-munk".
• Any time something goes away, it's usually "bye-bye [object], nap time [object]", for instance when a bus drives by.
• You recently (as in 2 days ago) tried mango gelato (made by Talenti) and you liked it! I've been trying to get you to eat ice cream for so long! Only problem: this is mamma's new favorite and I'm not sure if I'm ready to share, haha. My bet is you're still not ready to drink warm drinks, but seeing as how summer is approaching, there isn't a need to make you try them.
• Every night after dinner, you watch Neena (Meema) and Star on Sprout; usually starting with the Pajanamals and ending with the song about brushing teeth and washing faces for bed (perfectly timed at 8:30pm). Then dadda will turn off the tv and say "Give mamma a ni-night kiss". I get down on the floor and open my arms, but you'll run into another room - usually the kitchen - laughing and giggling until you decide to run full-speed back in the living room and run into my arms! Then we have our ni-night kiss and dadda takes you upstairs. It is my favorite to see your smiling face running so fast into my arms!
• Another favorite: you ask me to sing to you :) "Mamma sing song!" A few times, when I was done with the song, you said "Much be-yer (better)" or "Feewl be-yer!" 
• You have been saying phrases without prompting more and more. Things like: "Yuff (love) dis book!" after reading the Animal Alphabet book...or "Hear it car" when you hear a car drive by. And just this morning, you got on all fours when I went to get you out of bed and you said "Being frog!" I l-o-v-e watching your little imagination grow!
• You frequently think you hear airplanes when eating breakfast or lunch (granted, sometimes there really is an airplane flying overhead). You'll say "Fink (think) hear air-pwane!"
• You're beginning to be a little more ok with your hands dirty (emphasis on "beginning to").
• You now have to sleep with your owl, blue blanket (together they are "owl bwanket"), and a small stuffed frog I got at a garage sale (named Hopkins just like the frog on Signing Time). We probably could take Hopkins out of the equation and you'd be ok, but I don't really feel like it :) It's cute watching you hold on to all three!
• When mamma or dadda tell you to do (or not do) something, you listen! Please keep this up! Then you'll say "Good job yissening (listening)!"
• You're doing pretty well with stairs, but it still makes me nervous, so the baby gate is going to stay at the bottom of the stairs for now :)
• You just might end up becoming a drummer! You love seeing the drums at church (Papa usually takes you up to see them after the last set of songs is over) and you frequently hit things and say "Pwaying drums!"
• We call our neighbors Miss [first name], but you turn it into "Missur", so it's usually "Missur Bambi" and "Missur Angi" and so on. If you try hard enough, you can say "Miss Bambi", but I think you're just being lazy ;)
• You've started fake laughing and it's too cute. You'll do it when grownups are laughing about something...like tonight at dinner when you leaned over in your chair and started to reach for me then let out the biggest toot...dadda and I couldn't help but crack up and you started fake-laughing with us. 

Ok, that's enough for now, haha. I will try to do this more often because really, I'd like to remember this kind of stuff later on down the road and I've been slacking on blogging since he turned 1. 

Sean and I have been praying together every night (well, most nights). We started cause of our marriage class, but we are planning on/hoping to continue this after the class is over. Every night we thank God for blessing us with Roan - and really, I feel so grateful, honored, and humbled that God chose us to be his parents, it's mind-blowing sometimes. What a responsibility! And how overwhelming! It's a scary thing to realize that as a parent, you could seriously damage your kid if you're not careful, haha. God, help us and give us the strength to do a good job with the task you have given us - raising this amazing, awesome little person!

The Day I Thought Roan Broke His Finger

One day I'm probably going to have a blog post titled: "The Day Roan Actually Broke His Finger", I just know it. Praise God today is not that day!

Roan got a water table and a little slide today (thanks to my mom!). I finished putting the slide together for a second time (I had to exchange it because the first one had a defective screw - the very last screw I had to put in!) and I decided to take the water table and slide outside so he could play. I took the table out, trying to hurry before he got to the screen door. He must have made it just in time to get his left ring finger caught in the door - where it hinges to the door frame.

Once I reached him and looked at his finger, it looked bent...at least from what I could tell because he was naturally pulling his hand away. Later I realized this was because his little fingers are so chubby, the dent created by the door gave this appearance.

Sheer panic set in. I actually said out loud "Oh, God, please don't let it be broken. I think it's broken. Is it broken?"

Sean was still at work, so I ran through the house and out the front door. My neighbor, Bambi, wasn't home - I didn't see her car. My neighbors Angi and Candie (and Tara) were home and I frantically knocked on their door. First, I felt like I first needed another adult's opinion (preferably a mom) on whether or not it was broken. Second, if it was broken, I knew I was going to need someone else to drive because otherwise I would end up with a speeding ticket for going 90mph to the hospital.

They grabbed an ice pack, which Roan didn't like, and as his finger started to normalize, I realized it wasn't broken. He was also moving it pretty well and was reasonable about letting me touch it in that he didn't scream when I would try. I also realized that the screen door didn't slam shut on him...it wasn't like a car door. I realized it would likely take a lot more than that to break his finger.

I immediately felt silly. He was still obviously in pain, though. I took him back home and turned on tv. I think he needed the distraction and it was his first time at Angi and Candie's so there was the new place factor. Praise Jesus, though - Thomas was on Sprout! But that only served to distract him a little bit. He would be ok for a few seconds, then start crying again.

I thought I could kill two birds with one stone by taking him back outside to play with the water table, which had very, very cold water in it (I thought that could help reduce the swelling). He was successfully distracted and did not want to go inside for dinner.

His finger still looks swollen and slightly red. But after a while, he was back to his cute, funny, silly self. He ate dinner like a champ (scarfed down the artichoke pesto chicken!) and though he's currently still gabbing away in his crib, I'm betting he's gonna sleep like a rock.

I know I'm a total first-time mom - today proved it. Sean wasn't home to keep me level headed, so my brain just ran with the broken-finger scenario. The important thing is I learned from this, haha. I learned to wait a few minutes before panicking and nearly dialing 911. I learned I'm not as level-headed as I think I am when it comes to my son being injured. I know he wouldn't have died if his finger was broken; it was just an instinctual "My baby is hurt and I - or someone with the knowledge and training required - needs to make it better as soon as humanly possible."

I learned to put things in perspective a little more. When I had him outside and he was splashing in the water table, I felt the urge to supervise him closely to minimize how wet he would get (not keep him from getting wet at all, just minimize). Wait, Kenna. It's a water table. And so what if he gets wet? I do not want to be a mom that is so concerned about neatness and tidiness that I prevent my son from being a kid and enjoying his childhood. So, yes, he was soaked 10 minutes before dinner, so he simply ate dinner in his diaper. He was content, I was content.

Also, I have amazing neighbors that I know I can go to any time for any thing and they will not judge me. They reassured me that they do not think I'm crazy...because I thought for sure they would! So for that, I am immensely grateful, too.

I know a day is coming when Roan will have a major injury. I grew up with two younger brothers, I know how that goes. Maybe that's why I panicked today. Regardless, I sure hope and pray that I am not alone when Roan has his first major injury. I felt helpless at the mere prospect of his finger being broken!

Now I'm going to relax and unwind from the adrenaline.

Warm weather fun!

I'm so glad the weather has been warmer around here! Looks like it'll be around till Tuesday-ish, too. I actually had to go buy a few pairs of shorts for Roan since he's basically in size 24 month clothes right now. I'm also glad the warm weather is here because it means I can wear dresses! My stomach has not been liking it when I wear jeans so I've been wearing sweatpants and elastic band clothing at home...not exactly something I want to wear to church. Yay dresses!

Every day that Sean has had off and the weather has been nice, we've gone and done something. The zoo, a park, something. Today we went to the park near a trail that Sean and I used to walk when we were dating.

A boy was practicing baseball. Roan loved watching! He said "So fast!" each time after he hit the ball.

Yes, my Roan, that is the sun!

Even his shadow is adorable. Also the only way to document that I was there ;)

He kept wanting to "see fishies!" Sadly there were none.

 It had been a while since we'd been on this trail...I actually don't even remember if we'd been back since Sean proposed in 2007! So here we are at the same spot he asked me to marry him...with our 5 year anniversary next month and an amazing little boy who blesses us immensely each day:

Aaaaand I'm the only one looking...

I went to Target to get more warm weather clothes for Roan and saw a super cute fedora. Actually, I'd seen them there before and each time I put one on Roan's head, he'd get a big smile on his face. There was only one left. I debated buying it for a good 3 minutes. Well, when I went to check out, the cashier noticed there wasn't a price tag. I couldn't remember how much they were and neither could he. After thinking about it for a little bit, he whispered "How does $2.99 sound?" I enthusiastically said "That sounds awesome!"

God bless that dear cashier!

And when I showed it to Roan at home, he said "My hat!" and instantly put it on.

Easter 2013

I was so happy when Sean agreed to go down to Fort Wayne for Easter! I was missing my family pretty bad and they were missing Roan pretty bad (the last time we saw them was Christmas).

The drive down went well, other than Roan not napping. I think the key is to not turn on any movies for him. He fell asleep after I turned the DVD off - about 15 minutes from my parent's house. Not without a significant amount of whining, of course.

My mom, sister-in-law, and I went to Kohls with Roan. My mom found a toy Toby (from Thomas and Friends) for like $6.00, which is pretty cheap for Thomas toys! She also got him a Thomas bath toy set (a boat that moves in the water and a little Thomas that sits in the boat).

We went out to eat Saturday evening to a place called 800 Degrees. It's really good food and decently priced. I recommend going there if you're ever in Fort Wayne, Indiana! The Hawiian pizza was my personal favorite and the mista (I think it's mista, not misto) salad was perfect. The waiter even brought out a little plate of carrots, halved grape tomatoes, cheese, and cucumbers for Roan (things they use on their salads). It was interesting keeping him occupied. We came prepared with a few small toys, his crayons, and a coloring book, but I still had to take him outside for a walk at one point and so did Sean. He loved playing in the rock bed outside.

Sunday, we went to church where I ran into a few people I hadn't seen in years. It really made me miss the friends I didn't run in to! We checked Roan in to the kids ministry and he did fine - we weren't paged (we never are at home either). He'd been a little cranky since his tummy was still recovering from his puke fest Thursday and Friday, so I was almost expecting to be paged. We came home and Roan got to have his Easter basket! He got a Thomas blanket, Thomas bubbles, bath crayons with a mirror thing to color on, Craisins, a light up Iron Man head (which is great because the button is easy for him to push), and some small stuff. Oh, and these toy cars:

He saw them in the closet and freaked out, so we actually gave them to him Saturday.

and this Thomas couch which was obviously too big for his basket:

Easter has basically turned into Christmas 2.0 in the eyes of Bibi and PePa!

He went down for a nap and family started showing up shortly after. We ate lunch (Roan was still napping which allowed me to eat!) and after his nap, Madi and Eli hid the eggs for the kids. By far the cutest Easter egg hunt I've ever witnessed!

                                      

"Come on, Grandma Bibi!"

She just melts my heart!

He made sure to push the eggs down well so there was room for more!

Dixie wanted to see if it was food. 

Looking at the eggs with Grandma Berta.

While showing Grandma Berta what he found, we discovered he loves Jelly Beans. Maybe he will be a candy lover, unlike his mamma and dadda (I much prefer fruit or baked goods).

The rest of the day was normal. Then came the not-so-fun part for us.

We decided to leave at Roan's bed time (8:30) and cross our fingers that he would fall asleep in the car. As soon as we start driving, the Xterra starts running rough. It was really jumpy/sputtery. Just not smooth. The check engine soon light was blinking as well. Sean stopped at a gas station (my parents live less than 10 minutes from the highway) and bought fuel system cleaner, suspecting it was a problem we've been told about before (I don't speak car so I can't explain). We headed towards the highway, which by that point was less than a minute away, and it still was not driving smoothly. Sean decided it wasn't safe, so we turned around and went back to my parent's house - much to their dismay, I'm sure :).

My cousin Dylan went with Sean to drop the car off at the mechanic's so they could get to it first thing the next morning. Overwhelmed and discouraged, predicting the repairs would cost a ridiculous amount of money that we don't have (only compounded by the fact that Sean was going to miss at least a day of work because of it), we tried to relax and went to bed...eventually.

So, basically, there's a whole mess of things wrong with our car. It essentially needs a 120,000-mile tune-up (it has over 180,000 miles on it). They said the car will be done by 4pm or 5pm and if that turns out to be the case, we will leave tonight at Roan's bed time again.

The silver lining is we get to spend more time with PePa Bean and Grandma Bibi. Also, I'm hoping we won't have any more major issues with our car after this for a good while. The mechanic we took it to is only 1 of 2 my dad trusts - they are kinda pricey, but fast and do the job right. So, fingers crossed we can keep the car out of the shop for a while...cause we seriously cannot take more car repairs.

18 (19) Month Check Up

Roan had his 18 month check up today...though he's technically 19 months. He proved to be slightly more squirmy and tantrum-y this visit than in the past. He's been throwing more tantrums in general, actually. We used to attribute this to teething...now we know it's here to stay (until he grows out of it). His tantrums are short-lived, thank heavens, but they're still there. He threw up this morning and napped on me (which I loved that part)...no idea why he threw up or why he was acting so lethargic, but after 11:30, he was back to normal.

The doctor came in the room and Roan immediately said "Doctor!" which impressed Dr. Breitzer :) Anyway, here are his stats:

Weight: 26.9 lbs, putting him in the 63-64th percentile for weight.

Height: 33.2-33.3 inches, putting him in the 76th percentile for height.

Head circumference: 90th percentile!! That's up from 73rd percentile at 15 months.

I asked the doctor if he had any advice or print-offs about tantrums and how to handle them. Sean and I just aren't really used to Roan acting this way...firstly because he's our first child and also because he's just never really been a tantrum-thrower. He's still a great kid and we are very blessed, but up until now we have rarely had issues with him. He's made it pretty easy on us.

His tantrums center around lack of simple problem-solving skills (i.e. moving objects that are in the way or so another object can fit through a space, etc) and communication frustrations. He knows words like "help" and "please", but he needs to learn how to use them in context. We need to remind him to say help or please, so he's just learning that.

Another behavior we're not used to is his picky eating. This is also something we used to attribute to teething. I did some research online and we have started to give him a variety of food on his tray rather than one thing at a time. This has been a tremendous help! Tonight he had fish sticks, some of an English muffin with cheese on it, cucumbers, and a lot of peas.That boy loves his peas! I feel that since we've started doing this (so he can eat what he wants when he wants of what we've made for him), our food battles have drastically reduced!

We're still working on eating with a spoon and drinking from a non-straw-sippy cup. He can handle the spoon ok and he's got the jist of it, he's just not that great at actually getting the food on the spoon yet. And as far as drinking from a cup...well, I just don't feel like pushing that just yet. He's only ever used straw cups. I have tried to give him sips from an actual cup and he does great with my help (occasionally spilling it on himself), but leaving him alone with a cup...not yet. I bought two different kinds of transition/training cups and have been kinda frustrated with their designs. So we'll see. I'm considering that one to be more of a gradual process than a "he needs to do this right now" thing.

One of the packets the doctor gave us said we could attempt potty training, but Dr. B told us he thinks Roan is still too young for it...so I'm just not sure on that. I've been thinking about potty training since I know that is the next milestone. I know a lot of people who didn't force it and just let their child learn on their own time and I definitely see the validity in the arguments for that method. On the other hand, the thought of Roan being out of diapers also sounds fabulous. This is another "we'll see" thing but I might lean more towards taking it slow and not forcing it. He's shown us time and again that he does not like being forced to do things. He's definitely Mr. Independent, let-me-do-it-when-I-wanna-do-it. I haven't researched it a lot, to be honest, which is why I'm not jumping right in to potty training just yet. He recognizes toilets and says "potty", which is good.

All in all, Roan is still growing strong and healthy and continues to amaze us :) And he melts my heart when he says "Luf eweee!" (Love you!) I've been loving my time home with him and that kinda makes me dread returning to work..but I have until September and I'm soaking up every minute!

"Helping" with laundry...