Roan's First Christmas

The Day Before Christmas Eve & Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas with Sean's mom, his sister, and brother's girlfriend on the 23rd. He got some pretty cute clothes :) Jay got a book about a puppy that he thought was just hilarious (I got video of it). I didn't take many pictures that night because it was close to his bed time. We got home about an hour and a half past bed time, hoping he'd go to bed easily. He was up till 10:30pm and got up at his usual time. He wasn't all that cranky, it's just not something we should do regularly haha.

He LOVES holding his cousin!

Just had to share that this is how he fell asleep on the way home.

Then on Christmas Eve, we had Sean's dad, sister, her husand, Jay (our nephew), his brother, and his girlfriend over for breakfast. We Skyped with Sean's Nona and Papa in New Mexico.

Skyping with Nona and Papa

We left shortly after breakfast. It was kinda hectic. I wanted to pack in an organized manner so I knew where everything was. But, inevitably, that didn't happen, so I did do a bit of "Um, well it might be in [this bag], or it might be in [that bag]" when we were at my parents. 

Roan didn't sleep long in the car...not as much as he usually does. But it didn't seem to affect his mood much.

My grandma and aunt Dawn came over to visit :)

Then Came Christmas Morning!

Grandpa Dean was excited to hold Roan when he opened his first Christmas Day gift.

Probably my favorite of them so far.

ALL these toys around him and he chooses the gift tag from daddy's stocking.

He absolutely loves his Laugh and Learn Puppy!

And his Sophie!

What Mommy and Daddy Got

Mommy got a KitchenAid mixer! I am sooo excited about it! I'm already looking at accessories.

Daddy got an Xbox 360 with Kinect! Last year, my parents wrapped one of his gifts in an old Xbox box, so he got all excited only to find it was not an Xbox. This year, they wrapped the real Xbox in a box for a dessert stand, but he kinda figured it out. He felt the Xbox box move around inside the other box, so he knew there was something else in it. He was still excited...and I am, too, because I got a Kinect work out game!

Roan's First Cold

Poor Keane-y Bean-y started with sneezing quite a bit Christmas day. Though I didn't give much thought to it because he does sneeze from time-to-time. But then the snot just started flowing like crazy. He was up 4 times before 6:30am when I fed him. Sean went to Walgreens to get a booger sucker (I thought our medicine bag for him had one, but it didn't). The next time Roan woke up, Sean held him and comforted him while my sis-in-law, Jessie, and I went to Walgreens to get Boogie wipes, saline drops, and chest rub stuff. The cashier was so nice, given that she was working on Christmas.

He obviously hates the booger sucker and the saline drops. I had to have my mom do the drops the first time...it broke my heart!

My mom thinks he's cutting a tooth. My brothers and I would always get colds before a tooth would come in. He could have also gotten sick from someone, though. Neither Sean or I have been sick in weeks, so I dunno. Time will tell. I just want it to be over :( He wants to suck his thumb, but he can't breathe through his nose in order to do so. He gets so frustrated.

The good thing is he's still a happy baby. I mean, he's not happy when we're shoving things up his nose, but his overall disposition hasn't changed.

Sean is putting him to bed now. Gave him a dose of saline drops and propped his crib up at a slight angle. Fingers crossed he gets more sleep tonight than last night!

A Little Pre-Christmas Update

How Roan is Doing...

 He tried solids! I was out to eat with family and someone asked how feedings were going & I explained my frustrations and how I really feel like we need to try solids, but I was waiting till 6 months. My cousin, and dear friend, Devon said "You know, I would lean towards trusting your mommy instincts on this one." And I realized that she was right. I've been ignoring my instincts. Yes, Roan's doctor said "wait till closer to 6 months"; but that was at his 4 month checkup. And I researched it and came to the conclusion that it was time. We're also gonna skip oatmeal/rice cereal.

He did really well with the avocado! Though I don't think he liked the taste, he at least ate it haha.

We're basically set with the day care. Just gotta get some paperwork filled out. We are looking for a nanny, though. If anyone knows of someone who's interested...or is looking themselves, we are definitely looking.

How Mom is Doing...

Yeah, another one from Thanksgiving. I don't have any recent ones of us.

My anxiety about going back to work increases each day. I can only imagine how I'm going to feel January 2nd! I'm expecting a massive tummy ache, haha. Sometimes I get that anyway...it's only going to be made worse given that I haven't worked since June 2011. I'm really hoping that Roan doesn't start crawling at daycare (please, oh please, baby boy). I've been blessed to witness so many milestones and "firsts" since I've been home; I really dread the idea of missing some. Such is life, I guess. I'm debating telling the daycare to just not tell me if he does something for the first time. Just let me think I'm seeing the first crawl :)

One thing that does help about going back to work is knowing I won't have to swim with the kids! It's not my favorite thing, but especially seeing how not bathing-suit ready I look, I was pleased to hear that I will swap with another para as she is lifeguard certified...so I will stay back and do her job. Thank you, Denise, for that one!

How Dad is Doing...

Another Thanksgiving one; no new photos of dad either.

I think it's safe to publicly say this now...Sean quit working at Inspired Green. Let's just say it was the best option for our family for him to return to painting...it had nothing to do with the company or the people. He was able to start painting again the very next day. One of the guys on the crew (our friend)...his wife is pregnant and is actually being induced tomorrow, but at the time Sean quit, they thought she was gonna have him soon, so he wanted to be home anyway in case that did happen. That left a spot open for Sean. So it really worked out well for everyone.

We've discussed that painting might end up being his career for the indefinite future. He has an associates, but no bachelors or anything like that. And as long as they have a decent amount of work, he makes good money. There may be a day when he can go back to school to get a degree, but at least right now, he'd want to go for teaching and now is not the time to find jobs teaching. For now, though, painting provides for our family. 

Mommy and Roan's Adventure

And what an adventure it was! Though I am glad it wasn't more of an adventure.

Roan and I left Saturday morning for the Detmers Christmas. Sean couldn't go because he had to play guitar at church all weekend.

We left after Roan's 10am-ish bottle...at 10:45. The roads around town weren't great, but I was hopeful the highway would be better.

The highway just looked wet...like after a rain. I was still taking it slow. Especially after I saw a cop car with an SUV on it's side at an exit. It looked like he was just waiting for the tow as the back of the SUV was open and there didn't appear to be anyone in it.

5 minutes later, at the most, traffic was backed up. One of those where you move 5 feet, then stop...then another 5, then stop. And it went on for a long, long time. I couldn't see what was going on, but as I got closer, they were making everyone get off at Lansing Road. Lansing Road runs right next to the highway, for those that don't know. So once I got off the highway and drove for a bit, I saw a few fire trucks and two tows taking away a pick-up truck and an RV. The truck's roof was banged up pretty bad and the side of the RV was banged up, too. So it was a big accident. They were letting people back on at the Shell station where Lansing Roand meets Vermontville Highway. I needed gas, so we made a pit stop and were on our way.

The roads still just seemed wet to me, so I think the accidents happened before it was warm enough to melt the ice. The snow came the night before and the roads were already wet, so it just created a ton of black ice.

We made it safely to my parents a few hours before dinner was supposed to start. I didn't really have time to get things situated where I wanted them...or to remember where I put stuff...because it had to be put away fast. Roan was hungry and my mom had worked tirelessly to clean the house, so I was not about to just dump everything and mess it up. The rest of our time there was kinda crazy, trying to remember where things were.

Then came bed time later that evening. I didn't bring Roan's bath sponge (really, the only way he's happy in the bath is if he's free to kick), so he got his first bath in the sink!

Love those rolls!!

Bed time was frantic, too, as I had to move the pack 'n play upstairs. No one else knew how to do that, so I couldn't just ask someone to do it. I was sweating just trying to get his bath done (I had help there), move the pack 'n play (also had help), and make his bottle...all the while knowing he was hungry and tired.

He didn't nap well that day, so I thought "He'll sleep like a champ!" At 3am, I hear him whining over the monitor. I'd put him in an overnight diaper, so he couldn't have been super wet...and he usually doesn't poop till morning. Still, I checked on him...diaper was fine...gave him his paci, and went back to bed. He continued to whine. I later would discover that he just wanted snuggles because he was out of his element. Also, I left his sleep sac downstairs, so I think he was a little chilly. I continued to watch the lights on the monitor and committed to only letting him whine or 15 minutes. Mind you, this was just his "I'm uncomfortable" grunting...he wasn't screaming or crying.

He woke up again at 5:15ish. At home, he'll sleep till 6/6:30 at the earliest. I changed his diaper and put his sleep sac on...held him up to me...put a blanket over him and started swaying with him. He put his thumb in his mouth, laid his head down on my chest, and was out instantly. I rocked him for a little longer, though, because I felt bad...and I so love snuggling him! He woke up the next time at 8am and I fed him then.

Sunday, it was time to go home. Everyone was getting together again at either grandma's or Jaa & Jody's, but it was taking a while to figure out the details. I knew the absolute latest we could leave was 3pm. Thankfully, Roan's feedings worked out to where he ate at 2pm (when everyone met up at Jaa & Jody's), so I was able to feed him and still hang out for half-an-hour or so until it was time to go.

The drive home was far less eventful & scary as the drive down. Although I was exhausted and didn't realize to what magnitude until we started driving. That was a little scary.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend: 

Happy Belated 5 Months!

Wow, Keane-y Beane-y is 5 months old (yesterday). Almost half a year! Where has the time gone?!

I was a day late taking his pictures...oops. I kinda forgot that it was his 5 month birthday until this morning. So I snapped a few pictures of him before he had his bottle & we left for church. A day late is close enough. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Sporting his Inspired by Finn amber necklace :) Just in case he starts teething soon. Plus, I think it's adorable on him!

Gosh I love him so!

I'm happy to report that he's re-learned how to roll onto his back and rolls back and forth all the time. I've just gotta bite the bullet and get some of those foam squares so he can spend more time on the floor and have more room to roll.

We're going to try stage 3 bottle nipples tomorrow. For those that don't know, stage 1 is slow flow...0-3 months, I think. We switched to stage 2 (medium flow, 3-6 months) when he was 2 months, I think? I was pumping & bottle feeding, so I noticed that he was getting frustrated during his feedings, but he was still obviously hungry. Actually, I suspect that also contributed to why breast feeding didn't work for us. He was SO hungry that he sucked really, really hard and it caused me a lot of pain. Combined with the recessed chin thing.... Hopefully I'll have better success the second time around (it's gonna be a while till we have a 2nd baby haha).

Lately he's been like that...grunty/squirmy, but seemingly absolutely famished. He's been burp-y a lot...usually he can take 6 ounces without having to burp until the end! I think he might be burp-y because he's sucking so hard to get the formula out that he's taking in a lot of air. Stage 3 is technically for 6+ months, but since we switched to stage 2 early with success, I'm not too concerned that this will harm him, haha. Worst case scenario: it's too fast for him, so we'll stop using stage 3 and go back to stage 2.