Vacation

We just returned from a week in Florida and had a great time. Christopher loved the beach and waved to anyone who would pay attention to him. We bought him a 24 inch kiddie pool & he sat in it for hours playing with his toys.

My 2 favorite guys!

The first day of vacation, Christopher decided to start walking. He had been taking steps here and there but took off walking everywhere when we got to the condo. His balance was horrible that first day & within 2 hours he had busted his lip and fallen flat on his face on the tile floor. Notice the bruise under his eye in the picture. The bear in the picture is Christopher's favorite, it can comfort him in most situations. He carries it around in his mouth, biting his nose. He talks to it at nap time endlessly. He loves this bear so much that I found 2 more online and bought them for him. We keep 1 in the crib, 1 in the den & 1 in the closet as backup.

Wild hair after a nap!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy, Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Mother in Law, Sisters and Sister in Law! Also, a special Happy Mother's Day to all those soon to be moms who are waiting to bring their little ones home. I know the pain you are feeling on this day. Every year that passed without a child, I wondered if we would ever have a family of our own.

This is my first Mothers Day and as I was rocking Christopher to sleep last night, I was overcome with my love for him. We are truly blessed with him.

These are 2 pics from our latest photo session! LOVE THIS BABY!

13 months!

I know, I know, I am a really bad blogger! But this post is pic HEAVY! I will try to do better!
Christopher is 13 months old! He is doing great! At the last well child visit,

*He weighed 19.5 lbs

*He was 29 3/4 inches long. I think that he has grown a good bit since that visit especially in height.

*His hair has taken off. It is now laying down on his head instead of sticking straight up. I kinda miss it sticking up :(

*He is cruising around the coffee table often.

*He says Mama, Dada, and tonight said, night night.

*Loves music

*Cries when he hears another baby crying.
* Is very, very ticklish.

*Hates anything sweet but can eat his weight in veggies.

*Will NOT take a sippy cup.

Christopher had a Cookie Monster themed birthday party. We decided to give the sesame street underdog a chance and choose Cookie instead of Elmo. He had a great birthday! It is hard to believe that he turned 1. He has changed sooo much since he came home.

We tried to get him to eat some of his cake but all he wanted to do was squish it between his fingers. He is not a sweet eater, which is good for my waist line.

Already sooo tired from all the attention of his birthday!

This baby is very lazy when it comes to holding his bottle. He perfers you do it for him and will take maybe 2 sips out of a sippy cup. These pics were taken after we both got up from a nap. I had to get ready for work and he was still super tired and just a little bit whiney. He would not hold his bottle so I got creative with 1 of his birthday gifts. Thanks Spidey! He stayed like this for at least 2 minutes, NO JOKE!

Christopher has some serious teeth! I remember the last pics that we got of him before we left for Vietnam. I could make out at least 2 teeth in the pictures. I was so sad that I missed his first teeth. We were very surprised to discover that he had 5 teeth when we got him back to the hotel. That was 5 teeth at 5 months! Last month, we had 1 really bad week with sleep. Once again, it was those darn teeth. 4 of them coming in at once. His upper eye teeth are coming in and to our surprise his upper molars are coming in too. This week, I was looking in the his mouth and teeth #13 & 14 (molars) are soon to make their appearance on the bottom. He hates to have you brush his teeth and he will clamp down very quickly if a finger is anywhere near his mouth.

Love my daddy!

I lied! There is no sleeping through the night at my house for anyone. It happened for a short period and, poof it was gone.
Just posting some pics today, but will post more later. Mr. Christopher has a birthday coming up! I cannot believe that he is going to be 1! He is such a little man & crawling all over the place.

11 months!!!!

11 months today and . . . .

* WE FINALLY STARTED CRAWLING TODAY!!!! WOO HOO!
* 18lbs
* 29 inches long
* Eating solid food
* Sleeping through the night (most of the time, but don't tell anyone!)


I have offically lost my camera, planning to tear the home apart this week for the 2nd time. Please send positive finding thoughts our way.

Santa! Santa!

Christmas morning, I asked Christopher if he wanted to go see what Santa left him and this was his beautiful face. I just happened to catch it on camera at the right moment. Every time I would say, "Santa, Santa!" He would burst out laughing.

He always looks so different to me in pictures. He has so many different expressions and 1 minute he looks like a little baby and the next a big boy. We sure do love him!

The Sunday before Christmas, we got together with my college friends. Christopher loved being around all the other children and the best was that he got to see Santa again. He loves to pull on his beard and climb all over him. Santa made a special trip to the party to see all the children and brought a gift for everyone.

Later after Santa got to relax, Christopher was still so excited, that he dropped his drawers for him. It was hilarious! My friends turned the Christmas party into a mini surprise baby shower for Christopher. So he got double the gifts.

It seems as if Christopher is always fighting off some type of bug. When we got home on Christmas night, he woke up from a short nap with a 104.2 fever. Here we go again! We are back on breathing treatments and throwing up due to snot is once again a daily activity in our lives. How does a baby who mostly stays home get all these bugs? We are off to the doctor in the morning. What will the diagnosis be this time?

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Sick, sick, sick!

It started out rather slowly. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Christopher finished eating his dinner and started coughing. He then proceeded to throw up his dinner. I assumed he got choked and didn't think much else of it. He took his night time bottle and then went to bed.

The next morning, he started coughing again & threw up after his morning bottle. By mid morning, he had thrown up 2 more times. We called the pediatricians office and started the pedialyte for 12 hours. He slept most of the day and was listless but kept the pedialyte down.

During the night, he spiked a 103 fever and was up most of the night. We made an appt and went to the ped the next morning. Christopher acted happy and was all smiles for his doctor. She said it was probably viral and would run it's course. I asked about the flu and she said, "Oh, he doesn't have the flu, he is too happy for the flu. But we will swab him if you would like."

Well, guess what? He had the FLU and tested positive for both strains A & B. The office was impressed, they had not seen that yet this season. We were house bound on Thanksgiving and by that point I was not feeling too well. Our Thanksgiving dinner, consisted of chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream.

By Friday, Christopher had spiked another 103.5 temp during the night and was getting Tylenol and Advil every 3 hours to keep the temp down. He was absolutely miserable and the coughing/throwing up episodes were happening at least twice a day and once during the night. He could not be laid down flat or he would start coughing which would result in throwing up in a matter of seconds. It didn't matter if he was awake or asleep. The throwing up was the worst, I cannot tell you how many times I had him practically upside down, trying to help him get it up and watching him gasp for air and turn blue. He scared me so many times.

Saturday, he woke up and his breathing had changed. He was wheezing pretty good and the throwing up continued. Thankfully, our ped is open half days on Saturday. He got a respiratory treatment in the office and then we got admitted to the hospital.

We spent Saturday and most of Sunday on the pediatric unit, where he got IV fluids and fought fluctuating 103.7 temp for 12 hours. Once we would get it down it would then shoot back up. Christopher hates any medicine. So, between taking meds every 3 hours, throwing up every couple of hours, resp treatments every 4 hours, vitals every 4 hours, lab draws, general crying and listlessness, there was no sleep - in a nutshell it was horrible and terrifying. There truely is nothing worse than a sick baby.

In the hospital, he still managed to find some play time after the fever was down.

Sick as a dog but still playing.

We changed our follow-up ped/hospital admission appt from Wed to Tues. due to another night of 103 + temps and a bout of bronchospasms that lasted about 20 mins the night before. Finally we got on an antibiotic and had our first night of 4 hours of sleep that night. They were afraid that after 7 days of fever that something else was starting to brew.

10 days later and finally life is getting somewhat back to normal. Christopher lost about 3 lbs during his illness but is almost back to eating the amt. he was before.

His 8th tooth also broke through during the whole flu fiasco and I never even noticed. I am sure it only made the fever worse.

Our new playtime activity, respiratory treatments.

We finally have our tree up and somewhat have the house decorated. I have done most of my shopping over the internet during the last week, and I hope to be done soon. Christopher is doing so much better and I hope that this is it for awhile. He has fought one infection after another since August and we are all so ready for a healthy baby.

Christmas photos up next!!!