On The Move

Kail has become a very active little boy, he LOVES to go go go.  In fact its to the point where he gets bored very quickly.  He is bored of the TV and he is bored of his toys and will let you know he is bored.  Sitting in front of the TV while he plays with toys no longer works, he HAS to be entertained.  So we try and go on a lot of walks.  And nothing entertains him like people watching (and flirting) at Walmart.  He loves to sit in the cart and dance to the music playing in the store while grinning at anyone he can get to notice him.  And with his helmet, LOTS of people notice him.

 

If we are going to stay home for the night, mom and dad have to be entertaining, which includes dancing to music, playing with his toys, reading books and jumping out from behind corners at mommy.

 

The Tin Foil is to keep the aliens from stealing him.

 

On very rare occasions, usually when we are sleepy, we get to sit for just a minute, but only if something really entertaining is on like King Julianne (from Madagascar). Or if daddy is playing video games.

 

 



Eating and Sleeping

Kail has really begun to enjoy eating.  The other day at Grandpa and Grandma Mitton's house he discovered the ability to play with his food while he eats it.  SOME of it still got in his mouth, I'm just not sure how much, and I was very very grateful that we had taken his helmet off before this episode. 



 

 

Along with playing with his food he now really likes to feed himself.  We are working on fine motor skills but he still can’t quite get the cheerios in his mouth.  He does, however, do really well with veggie straws, and now if mom and dad are eating he has to feed himself as well.  Also sadly the booster chair we have been using to feed him in is having to be retired for the highchair for a while as he has discovered he can use his feet to push backwards and we are afraid he is going to push is way right off the table.

Everyone keeps telling me larger babies sleep through the night faster and better . . .  Kail however douse not agree with these people.  He has slept through the night 3-4 times in the last 7 months but never two nights in a row.  Even when we keep him up from 3-4 in the afternoon until bedtime at 8:30-9:00 he will wake up in the night and demand to be fed.  It’s not uncommon for it to be 2-3 or even 4 times a night still. (Those nights are painful).  We are not sure if this is because of the teething as he is pretty upset when he wakes up a lot and clearly wants to be asleep but is too upset to sleep.  Mom sure would love to get some sleep but on the other hand, quiet time just rocking in the chair with him at night and cuddling is nice and he is very cute when he goes back to sleep.

Baby Sitting/Play Dates

We are VERY lucky to have family nearby who are willing and able to watch Kail for a few hours so Jordan and I can go see a movie once in a while (or go to the hospital, you know whatever).  Its fun because Grandma and Grandpa also tend Kail's cousins so he gets to play with Hadley and Remi.  Remi is about 14 months older then Kail but they are pretty close to the same size.  Kail loves these "play dates"  and mommy does too as they seem to help him sleep through the night. 

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Friends

This is Regan, she gets dropped off about the same time as Kail does every morning and is only about one week older then him.  She is amazingly close to his size (only 3 lbs less then him) which is a big deal considering how big he is (yes he is growing out of his 12 month pjs).  I've been told they are BFFs and will play in any area happily much longer if they are kept together.  They get hungry at the same time, and sleepy at the same time.  Kail really likes Regans hair (and will often grab for it).  Reagan likes his helmet (and will often grab for it).  

Obviously they do side by side play still, but I actually watched Kail hand her a toy yesterday, he just held it out to her until she took it.  I think he is learning this from his older friend Charlie who brings him toys constantly when she is in his room in the morning.  (Charlie has actually graduated to the toddler room but gets to hang out until her teacher shows up).  Of course he took the toy back a few minutes later but it was still funny to watch.

Helmet Update

We have now been in the helmet for 5 weeks.  And out of those 5 weeks we have needed to take him in to get it checked 4 times.  the thing just never seems to fit right.  Its been a "fun" adventure but we are happy to say it seems to be working.  When we get told he can stop wearing it I'll have full before and after shots but for now this should give you an idea of how we are doing. Obviously from the ear placement you can tell my picture angle is off but I still think it demonstrates the point.

We also got an actual measuring scan again yesterday and the tech confirmed its moving in the right direction.  We are still hoping we will only have to have him wear it for the next 8 weeks, so sometime around July 25th.

Day Care Pictures

As I've said in previous posts, Day Care is not something Jordan and I love, but we are grateful for the Day Care we do have.  Not only is it super convenient for both of us to pick up and drop off.  But I really like the people that work there.  A few weeks ago I left a note in his room with my cell number so that the women who takes care of him most of the time would have it handy if she needed me.  He had had a very ruff night.  the next day i started getting almost daily texts and pictures from her.  I LOVE this.  It makes my day to get random happy faces from him, and know that he is doing ok and is happy while he is there.  So here you go, Day Care Photo dump:

I blew out my diaper . . . AGAIN

 I never realized until this post how often I put him in this green elephant outfit.

Thank you Grandma Pace for my blanket!

There goes my diaper again.

And we are back in our spare clothes .. .  AGAIN!  We do this a lot.

Mothers Day

Mothers day this year was great.  Max sent me some beautiful flowers, and  Jordan gave me a really nice new charm for my charm bracelet and with the help of his care givers at daycare Kail made me these great gifts.  I love all the art work we get from daycare, its fun watching his feet grow,and according to daycare Kail giggles when they paint his feet.

6 months old

Kail turned 6 months old on May 6th. 
We can't believe how big he is getting and I'm not talking about his size for once.  He is acting more and more like a little boy then a baby every day.  Even over the last week he as become a lot more aware of his surroundings.  He has discovered how to pull toys from his toy bin, and is getting really good at grabbing his toys in the tub.  Last week he tried to put his binky in his toys mouth with the most serious facial expression I've ever seen.

 He tries to pick up everything on his changing table and knock it to the ground and when you pick him up from the changing table you better make sure he hasn't brought the wipes, booger sucker, extra diapers or burp rag with him.  He absolutely loves R2D2 and C-3PO on daddies video game (yes he is his daddies clone).  He got his two middle bottom teeth on April 23rd (still cant get a picture).  He is starting to really cuddle.  He would cuddle before but only when he was sleeping.  He has started to try and drink his bath water, and his favorite bath toy of course is R2D2 (thank you Grandma Max!)   He is getting 90% of his food in his mouth instead of on his bib.  He reaches for you when he wants you to pick him up.  He thinks he is funny in the mirror.  He can pick up his own bottle and put it in his mouth, something Jordan has been working with him on. He loves to watch the cats and tries to pet them/grab their tails (they are not so sure about this).

 Not that you can tell with the helmet most of the time but his hair is getting long, in sunlight its really red but mostly it looks very blond.  His eyes are still light blue, although Jordan says he is going to end up with my eyes, Yea! maybe he got some of my gens.

He does really well on bike rides and walks.  He sits in his stroller without his car seat and gives us big grins whenever we kneel down to check on him.  We decided longer bike rides will have to wait as he falls asleep and we worry about his head bobbling around too much, and with the helmet we worry about him getting too hot but he really seems to like the ride.  He likes going outside and feeling the bushes, trees and flowers.

For some reason when I look at this picture I imagine him saying "its a box" and "I blew out all my pretty candles" 

Only my side of the family is going to get that, so lets just say he looks like I did when I was 2 here.

He LOVES music and if you want him to smile just start dancing with him.  He gives big grins when we come home or pick him up from Day Care, unless mom just cut her hair off and he doesn't recognize her, then he gives these sideways half smiles clearing stating "you sound like mom, but you look funny, and I'm not really sure where you are taking me".

He is a happy little boy and we are so very lucky to have him.

Teeth

Kail got his first bottom teeth to break through on April 23rd (sorry this post is so late, life got crazy).  I have been trying to take a picture of these teeth ever sense.  Jordan keeps telling me its never going to work.  The other day i actually went so far as to just ask Kail to show me his teeth.  This was followed by a huge grin that actually showed his teeth!  I should have known he was teasing me, he is his fathers son after all. The second I took the picture he stuck his tong out and this is what I got, as my mother would say, "Little Stinker!".  He continues to refuse to smile without his tough sticking out to cover his teeth so you are just going to have to trust me when I say they are there.

Art Project

We had plans to get Kail's helmet wrapped, but when Jordan called the car wrap company that said they would do it, to find out why we had not heard from them, it became clear that "I don't know when I'll get to that"  just meant they should have said no at the beginning.  So we decided to paint it.  Thus began the nightmare art project. 

A couple years ago Jordan figured out a way of painting our nursery wall.  We painted the wall, then put a decal down, then painted over the decal and then pulled the decal off.  This makes the first color we painted show through where the decal was so that now said decal is in paint instead of vinyl.  It worked out awesome on our wall so we decided to try the same thing on Kails helmet.  That being said good luck finding a place local to buy small custom decals.  We ended up at 102000 south at the only place we could find that would do it.  Then we bought the paint.  We decided on spray paint as we thought this would dry quickly and go on easily.  So here is what actually happened.

1. Turns out spray paint doesn't dry quickly AT ALL and what we thought would be 2-3 hrs turned into 24. 
2. Turns out spray paint tends to bubble up if you spray it over other spray paint, so no it doesn't go on easily.
3. Turns out spray paint douse not like to stick to plastic and can melt it . . . and that's what his helmet is made out of.

I had plans to take pictures of each step of the process but as each step was quickly followed by an utter panic moment (or hour) that just didn't happen.  My favorite panic moment was when we were almost done (ie hours and hours into the project) but it needed a little paint brush touch up.  So I took the spray paint and sprayed into some plastic cups which then melted in my kitchen sink not only painting the kitchen sink but making us realize that we may have just melted this very expensive little helmet.  The helmet has not turned into a puddle of plastic goo on this head so I think we are OK, though we still worry that it doesn't fit exactly the way it used to.  Not sure if it really changed or if we are just being paranoid. 

So now for some pictures.  Before the art project (and before the teck cut the helmet just a little so the eye line let him see better):

At the end of the first day we got it back on him so he could sleep in it but we were not able to seal it yet and it was still shinny.

And so of course during the night Kail decided to use his nails and scratch up the only part of the paint job that was perfect but oh well, it now has some texture on the side.  and Now that its all sealed I think it turned out pretty good for all of our panic.  And Yes Kail seems happy in it.