Roan's Christmas 2.0

Our Christmas was nothing short of wonderful this year! We went to Sean's mom's on Christmas Eve Eve. Sean's mom got him a Shake and Go Thomas. The boy loooves his trains!

We had Sean's dad and everyone over for Christmas Eve breakfast. I made peaches & cream stuffed French toast that I think will be tradition now. We Skyped with Nana and Papa in New Mexico, another tradition. We then went to the 3:30 Christmas Eve service at Riv, which was interesting with no RivKids, haha! We took turns with Roan in the lobby (but I'm glad Riv does no RivKids, don't get me wrong!) Ethan and Coley Heikkinen played with him, encouraging high-fives and fist bumps left and right :) We had he car packed and left for Fort Wayne immediately after church.

Christmas day was again wonderful! It was fun watching Roan be actually more interested in opening presents than last year. As soon as he'd unwrap one, he'd say "Open! Open!" So far, I think his favorite is the little James toy train he got...though a lot of his presents are in a box upstairs, so he hasn't gotten to play with all of them. We'll take them out when we get home. 

He got a train table that I cannot wait to get set up in the basement! When I opened it, he was on the other side of the room with my dad (it was crazy so I was just trying to get through the presents...and it was too heavy and big for me to take over to him)...so when he saw it, he made a bee line right for it, climbing over boxes and presents! Nothing else mattered to him in that moment! I was heartbroken we couldn't open it for him right there, but for the sake of traveling with it, we couldn't. I would make a list of all the things he got, but it would be a long list! This is why Sean and I are thinking we're gonna give him 3 gifts from us each year (3 wise men...) cause my parents will always have Christmas more than covered! 

Jaa, Jody, and the kids came over as well as grandma Berta and Tom. We ate and opened more presents. I just can't get enough of Isaiah and Daniella! Roan pronounces Isaiah's name as "Eye-sah!" They're both learning to share, so we have to remind Roan to let Isaiah play with his toys...I was referencing Daniel Tiger a lot ("You can take a turn, and then I'll get it back!"). Daniella gave me about 5 kisses and I could have had 5 more! 

Tonight, Sean and I are going to see Les Mis! We decided we'd make the most of free babysitters while we're here (not that Sean's family won't watch him, it's just harder sometimes due to schedules). Going to see the movie is part of my Christmas present; I was shocked when Sean said he was ok with going to see it! He doesn't like musicals...and honestly, Les Mis is the only one I can stand, haha. I'm pretty excited!

Our Morning in the ER

Roan woke up a little early this morning. Usually I have to wake him up at 8am (at least on mornings when I have class), but if I don't he sometimes sleeps until 8:30/8:45. This morning, he woke up at 7:30am. Not a huge deal, but right away I suspected something was "off"...but thought maybe it was something along the lines of a poopy diaper.

The morning went on like normal. Waffles and a banana for breakfast, with milk of course. Sean woke up a little before 9am and came downstairs. Roan started getting whiny. I checked him for poop several times (though he can say "poop" and "diaper", he has yet to use the words to communicate); his diaper was clean every time. I thought Maybe he has another tooth coming in... Those are usually the two reasons why he whines other than wanting to sit on my lap when I'm busy or frustration with one of his toys. 

I was on the computer in the dining room, he was standing next to my chair and was whining. I assumed he wanted me to hold him or he wanted to play with the computer since I introduced him to the Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood website a few days ago. 

Then it happened...he puked all over the floor and his clothes. I changed him and wiped him down in the tub while Sean cleaned up the mess (he was the champion of cleaning up vomit this morning...thanks hun). I put him in clean clothes and about 20 minutes later, he puked again all over his clothes. We decided to keep him in his diaper.

He didn't have a fever. Other than right before and during his pukes as well as the 15 seconds or so after he puked, he was acting normal. 

After I took his second outfit off, he said kept repeating "Sleep! Nap!" So I wrapped him in a blanket and rocked with him in his room. He wasn't really going to sleep, so I asked Sean to bring the chair downstairs so I could at least rock him down there...also, I could sit on the hardwood and clean up vomit easier than if he'd puked all over his rug in his room.

We rocked and he was asleep within 5 minutes. He slept on me for something like 15-20 minutes, I think. I got up to move to the couch because my hip was cramping up and he woke up. He tried to go back to sleep, but then he started whining again...I knew what was coming. I got up and stood over the hardwood and he threw up again. I told Sean: "We're taking him to the ER or Urgent Care or something." Off we went to the ER. 

I was standing by the car with Roan while Sean went in to grab "impostor Owl" (he'd puked on his actual owl security blanket earlier and it was in the dryer) and Roan puked for a fourth time while standing outside. Thankfully, I had the forethought to grab a container in case he puked in the car, though it did get on his coat and mine. He didn't puke in the car, which was good, I guess. He was still talking about things; not his usual chipper self, but not completely lethargic either.

They have this whole system now in the ER...metal detectors and 2 check in desks. They've really beefed up security. While we were at check-in desk #1, he puked again. By the way, holding a puking toddler while simultaneously trying to hold the bowl for him to puke in isn't easy...not standing up anyway. 

They got us to a room and checked his vitals...all normal according to the doctor. While we waited for the doctor, I tried to keep him distracted...thankfully I brought the Kindle which has apps that he loves. The doctor came in, asked us more questions. No, no one at daycare was sick. He asked what Roan had eaten in the last few hours and we told him. Nothing odd there. He asked if Roan likes popsickles or juice, we told him he really only drinks water or milk and we don't really given him super sweet stuff that often. So he suggested trying sips of water every ten minutes.

We gave him a sip, waited ten minutes, gave him another sip, waited ten minutes...all was fine. Really, by the time the doctor came in, he was acting completely normal (he called the doctor "papa"...I think he thinks that's what every older man's name is haha...but he definitely knows Sean's dad is his Papa). So we were discharged. I gave Roan a saltine and that stayed down. I gave him another one a bit later and another one in the car. No more puking.

I gave him toast when we got back...he ate almost two full pieces! And a few crackers, too. I gave him Pedialyte to drink (the nurse said that was ok to do). I waited 15 minutes before putting him down for a nap (again, he kept saying "sleep!" so I knew he was tired) to make sure his food stayed down.

Now he's napping and I'm hoping he doesn't puke again. He's such a healthy kid, this was hard for me. I know God is in control, but in the car I couldn't help but worry about all the worst-case scenarios. I prayed the whole way to the hospital.

It's seriously so hard when your baby is sick. That feeling of helplessness...there was nothing I could do to stop his puking. I wanted to so badly. I wanted to make it better. But I couldn't. I didn't like that one bit.

So, here's hoping (and praying) it was just a random, odd, fluke thing.

Late Thanksgiving Update

Sean, Roan and I left the day before Thanksgiving to visit my family in Indiana. We left at Roan's bed time because in the past, he's just slept the whole way.

This trip?

Awake until we were about 15-20 minutes away from my parent's house.

It all worked out, though. He wasn't too thrown-off the next day. I think all the excitement helped to wear him out, too.

Sean and I took him to the park Thursday morning where we ran into a woman from Okemos! I was wearing my State hoodie, so she asked if we were from East Lansing. Then, come to find out, her husband's dad taught at the school I went to my freshman year, they were also married by Noel and were former Rivites (now they go to Trinity) and they're friends with our friends from Riv, the Klans! Small, small world.

Thanksgiving was full of fun and family and is best shared through a few photos...unfortunately, for some reason I've "reached my maximum storage space" or something, even though I went through and deleted basically all photos except the ones from this blog. So, um, if anyone knows how I can free up space, let me know cause I read up on the troubleshooting page and it's vague. Thinking about switching blog hosts cause this is kinda ridiculous.

Moving on.

We finally got to meet Isaiah and Daniella while we were there! At the time, they'd only been home a few weeks, but I was sad that we couldn't be at the airport to meet them there (though I heard they were asleep for most of it). Isaiah wanted Roan to give him a kiss at one point and Daniella seemed to be trying to explain to Roan not to be scared of the baby gate that fell over and made a loud noise :) She was either speaking Lingala or baby language, but that's what her tone suggested. They are so precious and let's just say I'm really excited to see them again at the Detmers Christmas!

Sean, Micah, Drea, and I took Roan downtown to look at Christmas lights. There weren't that many, given that Thanksgiving technically wasn't even over, but the big Santa was lit as well as the big green wreath. Native Fort Waynians know what I'm talking about. When we got out of the car to look at the wreath, he was quiet for a few seconds, but then said "Wooow!" Worth it.

Sean had to leave Friday night because he had a house to paint and he had to play guitar at church (he has to play the weekend of the Detmers Christmas, too, so he can't come to that).

So the rest of the weekend was spent just hanging out at my parent's house.

My mom and grandma took Roan and I back to Lansing Sunday. We stopped at the outlets along the way and there was a model train store. Again, if I could upload pictures and video, this is where it would go (bitter, much? Why yes, yes I am). He loved it. They had a few train tables lower to the floor for kids to play with. We were sad they didn't sell toy trains, otherwise I'm sure Roan would have gone home with one. There was one train table that kids/people could turn on themselves. Roan's face lit up the first time he pushed the button and saw Thomas and Percy going around the track!

What's funny to me about this is at one point, before Roan started showing an interest in trains, Sean told me that he doesn't understand why boys are so "in" to trains and he kind of hoped that Roan would not join in on this trend. Haha, sorry, hun, but we have a train enthusiast on our hands. As long as he's not still living with us at 35 playing with his toy trains in the basement, I'm ok with it.

So that was our Thanksgiving weekend!

Roan at 15 Months

Roan had his 15 month check-up on Friday. He's still in the 60th percentile for everything :) Here are his stats:

Weight: 25.31lbs
Height: 31.5"

The doctor seemed impressed with his vocabulary (after Roan said "trash" when he saw the trash can). He said "You must read to him a lot, I can tell." And yes, we do. More than ever before because he seriously loves his books. We've always read 3-4 books before bed time (well, at first it was more like 1 or 2). Now he wakes up from nap and bed time, walks over to the side of his crib that's closest to his books, and says "Booots! Pweeease!", which is his way of saying "Books"! So I will take him out of his crib and let him play with his books for a few minutes. He literally will cry when I take him to his changing table to change his diaper. And he'll be laying there, just in his diaper, saying "Up! Gee-dow!" because he wants to get down and play with his books! I love it. I just have to get his room fully toddler proofed so he can play in there while I get ready. He's never spent much time playing in his room before.

His owl blanket is still his best friend, haha. Which is what I intended. But since his molars started to come through (he has 1 so far), he just sucks and chews on the corners all day. And it will smell SO bad. Seriously, I have to wash it at least 2-3 times a week. I should do it more, but most days I'm too busy to do a load of laundry. And I have to do it when he's awake. Any time he falls or hurts himself, he inevitably cries for his owl...and usually wants to snuggle. Short-lived snuggles, but I'll take what I can get!

He's still Mr. Active I-want-to-climb-on-everything. I have a feeling he's going to be climbing out of his crib like I did when I was a toddler.

I'm working on making a video compilation of all the words he can say. But here's a list to start. Obviously he doesn't say most of these clear as day:

Up
Book(s)
Read
Owl
Choo-choo
Wheel (what he calls fans, too)
Block(s)
Shoe(s)
Guitar ("tar")
Sock
Milk
Water (wa-er)
Cup
Spoon
Feet
Knee
Be-bo (belly button)
Nose
Eye
Ear
Mouth
Teeth
No (working on getting him to say "yes" more)
Hot (plus he will blow on his food if it's hot, super cute)
What
Watch
Why
Bus
Car
Rock (like rock in the chair)
Bird
Brush
Elmo
Grover
Horse/"neigh" (he says both, along with other animal sounds)
Bye
Hi
Rosie
Papa
Bibi (my mom, grandma Bibi)
Bean (my dad, grandpa Dean...who may just be grandpa Bean haha)
Working on his aunt and uncle's names. Morgan is "Wen". He's pretty good at saying "Brent".
Tree
Sun
Moon
Star
Sky
Hair
Ouch
Hurt (though he hasn't used this to communicate pain yet)
Dirty
Poop (trying to get him to tell us when he has a dirty diaper. I should really pick "poop" or "dirty" for this one and stick to it haha)
Nigh-nigh (for bed time)
Yuck
Trash
More
Please
All done (sounds like "atch")
Yum
Meijer. Yes, he knows how to say Meijer. The first time he said this, he was at aunt Chelsey's while I was in class. He saw a Meijer bag, pointed to it, and said "Meijer!" Since then, there have been a few times when he's walked over to the door and said "Meijer!" Haha!

I'm pretty sure there might be more. This is not intended to come across as bragging or anything of the sort. To reiterate, we have family that live far away & don't always see or hear Roan. This blog was created primarily for them.

Most of these he just says them when we ask him to...or if he hears us say it. The words he mainly uses to communicate are "Up", "Gee-dow", "Pweease", "More" (though I have to encourage this one), and "hot". Oh, and he'll say "Nigh-nigh." I think he's been trying to say that when he needs a diaper change...if he's saying it when it's not bed time or nap time...because we change his diapers in his room. He does say the other words at the appropriate time, but words like "hurt", he hasn't figured out how to use that to tell us when something hurts. I do still combine signing some of these words, but he's getting so good at talking, he doesn't really need signs all that much.

So, yes, quite the vocabulary. And he seems to be saying more and more every day.

He seriously amazes me. Last night, I introduced the moon to him. He's seen it before, but we've never just stood there and looked at it and talked about it. He was absolutely obsessed. We went back inside, but he kept going over to the back door saying "Moon! Moon! Sky! Bye!" until I took him outside again. Then this morning, on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, they were showing constellations and the first one was a circle. It was supposed to be the sun, but he said "moon", which I find a more plausible guess because the background was dark, like night, and the shape was made out of stars. So take that, Mickey.

His favorite tv show seems to be Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. We reserve that for when he's especially cranky. We do try to keep tv time to a minimum, but honestly, if it's not Daniel Tiger, he's only mildly interested. Most of the time, Daniel Tiger doesn't even hold his attention for a full episode.


Some may have seen on Facebook that my aunt and uncle are adopting a brother and sister from the Congo. They're leaving later this week to go get them! It's been...gosh, I don't even know how many years since they started the process. It's been a long time. I think it was two Thanksgiving's ago when they thought they'd have them by Christmas. But this Thanksgiving, they will  be there! I am SO excited! I will take lots of pictures of Roan playing with them!!

Weekend with Uncle Dave and Uncle Chris

I was in my best friend's wedding in Indianapolis last weekend. I was obviously excited when she asked me to be a bridesmaid for many reasons, but one of them was that we would get to at least visit, if not stay with, uncle Dave and uncle Chris (who live in Indy)!

We left Lansing at Roan's bed time on Thursday evening with hopes he'd sleep the whole way there (a 4 hr drive). And he did, for the most part, except when we stopped for gas (he fell back asleep quickly). Once we got to uncle Dave's, we let him wander a bit in what was going to be his bedroom for the weekend. They have plenty of guest rooms, so Sean and I had our own room, too. He went to bed pretty easily.

The next morning, I woke up around 8:30 I believe. Usually Roan is up by 8am at the latest...certainly eating by then. I didn't want his schedule to be too off, so I woke him up and he was eating by 9am. Uncle Dave and uncle Chris were at work, so we just hung around their house until I had to report for bridesmaid duty at 2pm. I don't know much about how the rest of his day went because it was busy, busy, busy for me!

The girls had their nails done at 2pm and carpooled to the rehearsal where we changed into our formal-ish attire. Immediately after that was the rehearsal dinner and we didn't get home until around 10/10:30. We were told that Roan behaved really well, despite having a short nap because he had to come with us to drop me off at the nail salon. We were also told that uncle Chris did most of the work...happily, I might add! From the sounds of it, Roan went to bed better than he would have for us!

We stayed up late talking to Dave and Chris, but Sean and Dave stayed up even later! I had to be at the hair salon at 8am the next morning, so I set two alarms...I slept through both and woke up at 7:30...10 minutes before we had to leave! Sean had been up until 5:30, so he was extremely out of it. Again, my day was jam packed so I didn't get back until 11:30ish (with Sean). The wedding was beautiful and I cried many times during the reception! Sean was home until the ceremony at 2pm, so he sent me a picture of Roan exploring in uncle Dave's huge yard (and I believe he watched uncle Chris feed the ducks in the creek behind their house). Again, uncle Chris didn't have a hard time at all putting him to bed! They had many funny stories to tell me/us, too.

Saturday night was my night to stay up late talking to uncle Dave...3:30am, to be exact! I could have slept in until at least 11, but we wanted to leave by 10am because we were stopping in Fort Wayne to see my family.

We arrived in Fort Wayne a little after noon. Roan slept a little in the car...until we had to stop for gas. After that, he watched Finding Nemo (we use the dvd player as a last resort). My dad's birthday was Sunday and we wanted to see grandma Berta because she recently had a hospital scare. Uncle Micah and aunt Drea as well as uncle Morgan and aunt Jessie came over, too, so he got to play with them. I must say, it warms my heart like nothing else to watch my brothers (and dad and mom) play with him. Of course, grandma Bibi had gotten Roan several new toys, haha. And she took us to Kohls and got Roan new clothes and got me some things I definitely didn't need but were much appreciated.

We left again at his bed time. He slept pretty much the whole way home (2 hours) and woke up at his usual 7:30am this morning. Back to his normal routine without a hitch! Here are some photos from the weekend:

Wanting to play with the piano.

Flamingos were ducks (aka "kaka" for "quack quack")

Lovin' the sock monkey chair.

Again, fascinated by the rubber ducks.

Also loved going up the stairs!

Big Boy Car Seat!

Well, we bought Roan a big-boy car steat!

He looks SO big in it! *sniffle*

The only thing is it is a pain to install (neither of our cars have latches, unfortunately). So it looks like we'll be buying a second one for Sean's car. There's one night during the week when Sean's sister watches Roan because he has band practice & I have class...Sean's practice usually is over before my class is, so he picks Roan up. Switching this thing to and from our cars would just be craziness. The plus side is, the price tag isn't as high as most of the convertible car seats out there. And it converts to a booster seat, which fits up to 100lbs, so we basically won't have to buy another car seat after this.

Little Update

It's been an eventful, and also uneventful, few weeks around here.

Sean is done with turnover! Yesssss! This turn went by a little faster because I was babysitting Quin, but turn is turn. It's not fun for him or me.

I started classes on the 23rd. I'm taking Integrated Science for Education I, U.S. History to 1877, and Math 105. My science class is pretty intense. It's going to be a lot of work. Instead of a final, we have a huge project due. We can either basically do a science fair experiment or do some teaching and observing in an elementary classroom. Though the science fair one would be less time consuming, I'm choosing to do the classroom one.

The best part about this semester: my science book was about $25 because I rented the Kindle Fire version (best Christmas gift so far, mom, for this reason!). I also had a course pack I needed to buy that was also $25. My history book was $7 because the instructor said the edition didn't matter. And no book necessary for math! I originally tried to buy the ebook version of my science book, which was going to be about $60, but the software McGraw-Hill uses is ridiculous, so I got a refund and went with renting it on my Kindle. Much cheaper, much easier. I seriously lucked out this semester!

Roan has been going through another separation anxiety phase. He screams when we put him in his crib. He only screams for a second or two, cries for a few minutes (like 2-3) at the most, and then he's out. Prior to this, however, he was going down without a peep.

Sean's brother has been watching him while I'm in science on Monday and Wednesdays. Roan seems to be handling it ok when I leave then, but if Sean is home and I leave, he cries. If Sean leaves and I'm home, he cries a little, too.

It's weird, I almost feel more guilt being a full-time student than when I was working. Even though I'm spending more time with him than when I was working, I feel less "here" when I'm home because I'm studying, doing my homework, etc. His little bouts of separation anxiety aren't helping either...I might actually be ok if it weren't for that.

He's had this heat rash that just won't go away. It looks best first thing in the morning...after we've had the a/c set to 75 instead of 78 all night...and I've been putting corn starch on it before bed. I even noticed a patch of it on the fold of his elbow on his right arm - which is exactly where mine always pops up. Sorry for passing that on to you, buddy.

Now...pictures! He loves playing with the curtains. I've had to tie them up & away so he doesn't pull the curtain rod out of the wall! Oh, and his hair is kinda driving me nuts right now but I want it long for fall & winter. Until he's able to sit still more, I'm not cutting his hair on my own again haha.

Future heart-breaker right here.

Lastly, we are loving cloth diapering! I seem to go through spurts where I slack on it for a few days...the clean diapers will be in the basement, air-drying, and I just don't get around to stuffing them. Usually this happens when we have a lot going on & we're out of the house, but I try to keep him in cloth when we're home. It's so much better financially and it's not as hard as I thought it was gonna be. I highly recommend cloth!

First Blood Draw

I took Roan to get his lead level tested. It's just a routine thing (we get a $10 Meijer gift card for doing it). I thought it was just going to be a finger prick. Had I known it was a full-fledged blood draw, I would have waited until he's over this cold or whatever (not sure if it's a cold or another tooth).

I don't think the lab tech believed me when I said Roan was strong. The nurses have always commented on how strong he is when he gets his shots. He said "Well, I'll just take a look at him first." So he had me sit in the chair and squeezed Roan's arm so he could feel his veins. Like his mamma, he's got good veins. He said "Ya know what, I can tell he's strong, so I'm gonna get someone to help me."

Told ya so.

Obviously, Roan cried. But like his shots, he was over it quickly, talking about "stars" and "dadda".

Plus, he got a cool Band-Aid! He liked it so much, I bought a box at Meijer. I realized that we didn't have any "cool" Band-Aids at home, haha.

He's so close to having to move up to the next car seat!

I made my first post on my "personal" blog (<--link). God's been doing some cool things in Sean & I's marriage and I wanted to share.

I'm off to clean  nap while Roan is napping (napping < cleaning).

12 [13] Month Check Up!

Here's where Roan is at! :

Weight: 23lb 8oz putting him in the 56th percentile

Height: 30.5'' putting him in the 60th percentile

Head circumference: 48cm putting him in the 85th percentile!! He's always been in the 80-something percentile for this except at 8 months he was in the 75th, haha. Big ol' noggin.

He had 4 shots. He cried, obviously, but I held him for a minute or so and he was back to talking...well, whimper-talking, but still. He took it like a champ, like he has every time.

Waiting for the doctor this time was very different than before! He just had to be on the floor, walking around and exploring. It is quite the task to keep him from things he shouldn't play with. He is just so curious!

Here's a picture of Roan and dadda while we were waiting for the doctor...making [inside-voice] noises!

He still has yet to call me "mamma". A lot of things are "dadda" now, but he still consistently calls Sean that...while smiling. I keep telling myself that one day "mamma" is all I will hear and I will reminisce about the days when he just wouldn't say it and I wanted him to so badly.

He keeps adding words to his vocabulary...and he's not just mimicking the sounds. He will point to the object and say the right word. Bush, bus (he now says that even when he hears one drive by while he's eating lunch or dinner), shoes, and car(s) to name a few. Some problematic things: every baby is "Roro" (Roan) and I think "clock" is becoming "kaka" (which, in Spanish, means something bad, if you don't know). *sigh*

I still have moments where I kinda freak out...realizing he's a toddler. Like today: watching him walk around in his toddler shoes, jeans, and coat. The last time he wore a coat he was, oh, 7 or 8 months old. Something about seeing him in a coat...it's weird how stuff hits you like that.

I think I'm going to start a personal blog again and my first post is going to be about something really cool that God has been doing in Sean & I's marriage. So I will be posting the link to that on Facebook.

Stud Muffin

My studly boy at Ty (my cousin) and Angelina's wedding: 

I also uploaded a video of him dancing at the wedding to Facebook.


In other news, this book is a fantastic read for parents. 

I'm on chapter 6. I really like most of the views the French have on parenting - and certainly pregnancy. As I understand it so far: teaching independence, patience, and autonomy, while still being a loving, nurturing parent. I won't say for sure if I recommend it until I finish it, but as of right now, I'd say this book is on it's way to being recommend-able.

One of my favorite quotes:

In France, the way you give birth doesn't situate you within a value system or define the sort of parent you'll be. It is, for the most part, a way of getting your baby safely from your uterus into your arms.

I have highlighted something on almost every single page.

Koi Fish? Maybe Not, Mamma.

Roan is such a funny boy. He gets his hands dirty and looks at them like "What is this?! I want it off!" then wipes his hand in the grass, which rarely ever really helps very much. He also looks at his hands like that at least once during meals when they've got food on them.

He's so hesitant about new things sometimes. Pretty much any animal other than dogs and cats.

Friends of ours have koi fish in their pond. After taking their little girl's 12 month pictures (some of which involved her putting her feet in the pond), I decided to see what would happen if I did that with Roan. He did like the koi fish at first, as you can kind of tell by the pictures, but after one of them broke the surface, making the teeniest splash, he didn't like it.

My friend, Holly, used my camera:

Apprehensive...

Wondering what it feels like...

Hm, this isn't so bad....

Nope, don't like it anymore. And I'm trying to show him that it's ok :)

I Just Love it When He Laughs Like This

Pretty much my favorite sound!

Also, we are fairly certain that Roan is left-handed. He primarily eats (and does everything else) with his left hand now, whereas he used to switch between the two. If he tries to use his right hand, it's not for very long.

It will be interesting to see if it stays that way!

Roan's Wild Rumpus!

Roan's birthday party was a huge success!

I literally could not have done it without my parents. Thank you, mom and dad! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Also, thank you to Miss Karen (Roan's daycare lady) for helping set up! We did not have enough hands and she was a big help.

Finally, again, thank you to everyone who came out! There were lots of kids (as my dad put it: "You have very fertile friends."), yummy food, and fellowship. I wish we could have invited more people!

I wish I would have gotten more pictures...or had someone else do it...but here are a few:

This is seriously the messiest he got!

Now he can play like dadda! Sort of.

Like a true wild thing...

Papa reading to Roan and his cousin, Jayson.

This took entirely too much time for me to make. Worth it? I think so.

He loves this! Thanks, Miss Karen!

In mamma and dadda news: I'm taking an indefinite break from photography. I explained why in my photography blog. I will still take pictures for personal reasons :)

Turnover is starting soon for Sean. I'm dreading it. Although, the sooner it starts, the sooner it will be over. I'm not looking forward to him working 12/13+ hour days. But the income is sorely needed. I will need and welcome play dates when I'm not watching Quin (Wednesdays and weekends)! Or people are more than welcome to come here...once I get the house more organized. It's kinda driving me crazy.

I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief now that Roan's party is over. I just feel like I can relax more: no more monthly photo shoots...more documenting the daily details. No more thinking about the birthday party, making sure we have a, b, and c and that we have enough. Phew! His next big party will be graduation, haha. Birthday parties will be more intimate from now on, haha.

I'm going to go eat a celebratory cupcake while I can (Quin is napping)! They're "healthier", too, so I don't feel as much guilt about eating them.

A Year Old!

Wow, Roan is a year old!

We didn't really do anything special today. Sean still had to work and I had Quin. Most of the celebrating will happen this weekend, though.

I'm going to try to post fewer pictures to Facebook and more on this blog. Sometimes I feel like pictures of Roan are probably just flooding people's news feed...I'm sure people have blocked me out of annoyance. I also don't really have time to spend on Facebook uploading pictures. Blog posts are even more time consuming, so I can't guarantee a lot of posts, either. But for the sake of long-distance family, I will try. I won't do a monthly photoshoot now that he's a year old...I just don't feel the need to take so many pictures.

I feel like I've become one of *those* people who only ever talks about their kid...like Roan's identity has become mine in a sense. At first, I could care less if people were "bothered" by the pictures and posts about Roan (I still mostly feel that way). After all, he's my kid. Is it wrong for me to love my kid that much (so long as God is still #1)? Such a hard balance to find as a parent...to feel torn about slowly losing friendships, yet also not ever wanting to neglect your own flesh and blood for the sake of said friendships (sorry, but it's true). I feel like I have no social life and perhaps the endless pictures and posts about Roan is to blame? Insecurity rears it's ugly head.

Anyway, moving on.

Here's my 1 year old boy...no longer a baby.

I love him so very much. So, so, so very much. God is good...and Roan is proof of that. Words cannot express...they simply can't.

First Parade

I'm writing this post at midnight because...well...the oh-so-lovely 4th of July fireworks keep waking Roan up. And I'm the kind of person who can't sleep if I'm anticipating something...if I'm anticipating people to stop talking, for instance. Tonight, I'm anticipating more people setting off fireworks, causing Roan to wake up. So I won't be able to sleep unless no fireworks have gone off nearby for at least an hour.

Since Roan goes to bed at 8pm, we didn't go see any fireworks. He probably would have liked them, but it's not worth keeping him up that late past his bedtime. It's not like he'll remember seeing fireworks when he was (almost) one.  And we didn't care enough to get a babysitter.

We did go to the Eaton Rapids parade, though! He did watch parts of it, but other than that, he was trying to walk and climb everywhere...and I was pouring water on him to try to keep him cool.

We took him for short walks down the sidewalk to keep him busy.

He failed to notice the nice Shrine-er man waving at him.

For most of the parade, we were in the shade. I don't know why I thought parades weren't that long, haha. I mean, I was in one - as Pocahontas...in moccasins that were at least a size too small. Not my proudest moment. 

Anyway, as the parade went on...and on...the sun gradually started to creep on us. I stripped Roan down to his onesie to help keep him cool. He spit up a little before the parade...he NEVER spits up. So I was worried about him. He seemed ok after it happened...I think it was either because I tried giving him a little bit of cows milk (organic) with his formula (I did 1 part cows milk, 3 parts formula) with snack before we left. Or something else? All the excitement? I watched him like a hawk to make sure he wasn't showing signs of heat stroke. And I kept giving him water. Towards the end of the parade, I just stood under a building with him so we were in the shade. He kind of seemed like he was getting lethargic, but I think he was just actually interested in the parade.

By the time we got to the car, he was fine. I fed him his lunch on the way home and he was talking and back to himself. He napped from 1:15-3:30ish; Sean and I napped on the couch, which felt great. 

We're not trying cows milk again at least until July 10th. I'm not 100% sure if that's what made him spit up, but I don't want to take any chances. I know people who introduced it before their kid turned one, but I think I'm gonna wait...5 more days, haha.

All-in-all, even though it was hot, we had fun. I am excited to do more stuff like that with Roan and re-live parts of my childhood!