Little Man of the House

Look at how big the Little Man of the House got all of a sudden today!

He really listened to Mama when she told him that he was not allowed to do anything for the first time at daycare and had to wait till he was at home with Mama & Baba. He was just as excited as we were!
First he was rolling over, now sitting up...next he'll be crawling! Time to baby-proof!

And just because I think this looks like the most comfy place to end the night...
Good night, my boys.

Ketchup Dowowowown!

5 Years ago today we lost my Grandpa. I don't think the family has ever quite recovered from it, and I'm not sure if we ever will be like we were. But I think Grandpa would want to see us remembering the good things and having fun in his honor...laughter instead of tears...smiles instead of heavy hearts.

Tonight I am going to go home, sing the silly bear song that Grandpa used to sing to me to Kaden, and maybe dance around the living room with him. Then I'm going to eat anything, as long as I put ketchup on it and at least once yell out "Ketchup dowowowowown!" I'll sit in the rocking chair and read Kaden a book from the bookshelp that Grandpa made. Then I'm going to eat a vanilla ice cream cone from Dairy Queen, just like Grandpa used to get for me. And in the morning, I'll wake my husband up with the good morning song that Grandpa liked to sing that always drives my husband crazy!

These are some of my favorite pics of Grandpa...there are lots more, but these are just a few of the many that show the kind of Grandpa he was and how much he means to so many people.

Grandpa and Mimi

Grandpa and Uncle Mike
Grandpa dancing with Lori

Grandpa playing by the beach with Hannah. We all go to experience that with him at some point, and I'm so glad Hannah got that too!

Grandpa riding horses with Little Michael, who isn't so little anymore!

We miss you Grandpa!

6 Months Already!

We celebrated Kaden's 6 month birthday this weekend- I absolutely cannot believe he is 6 months old! It seems like just yesterday that he was so tiny in my arms, and now he is a little linebacker and SO active. I love seeing him learn new things everyday, even on the day that he learned that Mama's hair makes a handy toy to pull around (I am back to wearing my hair in a pony tail, thank you very much!)

RSV Update: Little big man gave RSV a beat down! On Thursday we went back to the doctor to make sure we really were fortunate enough to avoid the hospital and that he was indeed getting better. He still had junk in his ears and lungs, but was much better than when this whole thing started. We are lucky that he responded so well to the nebulizer- if he hadn't had an immediate response we would have been sent directly over to the hospital so he could get oxygen and treatments there. He still has a cough and a wheeze, but he is getting so much better. He has actually been wearing us out- that medicine that you put in the nebulizer, Albuterol, makes him act like he is hyper-caffeinated. I swear I don't put Mountain Dew in his bottles! Wow! He gets so tired and you can tell he needs to go to sleep, but he just can't. He's up and wild for hours and then just crashes, but still can't sleep so he just gets angry. We cut down to 2 nebulizer treatments a day now, and add another one in if needed. No we just need to get through the rest of RSV season without getting it again...

So what do you do to celebrate your very first half-birthday ever?

You give drinking from a big boy cup a try for the first time.

You play with the beach ball while babbling to Mama.
You try to figure out what the heck is making all that noise in there.

You eat some yummy Earth's Best Pear & Mango...sour, but one of Kaden's favorites. You can see he kept some on his face and clothes in case he wanted a snack later on.

You have a lot of laughs and giggles with Baba.

Baba is so HILARIOUS!!

You take self portraits with Mama (this is the best of a bunch of attempts...Mama's not the best at taking self portraits).

You eat some beef noodle soup...well, Mama & Baba got to eat some yummy beef noodle soup. Kaden will be eating that soon enough.

And of course, a birthday full of that much excitement will inevitably result in a nap on the couch. The light must have been too much for him (don't freak out, he passed out as soon as he pulled this over his face and we took it off...after we took a picture, of course!)

Happy Half-Birthday Kaden!

Changs vs. RSV: Day 3

Day 3 is wrapping up in this battle against yucky RSV. Nothing much to report except that he seems to be on the road to recovery. He has been in a better mood and ate a lot better today. He still has the awful coughing and wheezing, but at least we don't have to battle dehydration as well. Mama went to work today and Baba stayed home with the little man...Mama missed him so much, but Baba sent this picture to show me how much fun he was having!

And to top it all off, the little booger took a 3 hour nap today! He barely naps for 45 minutes to 1 hour on a good day- most days he has just a couple of 30 minute naps! Oh well, as long as he's feeling better.

Kaden and I watched 24 on tivo - we are big Jack Bauer fans!-while he ate a little bottle this evening. When he got finished eating, I stood up to take him to the living room so we could do a breathing treatment on the nebulizer. When I got to the living room, all our power shut off! Can't do much of a nebulizer treatment without power to run the thing! The buildings around us lost power as well, and the emergency lights in the hallway came on...but that didn't really help us inside our apartment. I grabbed the flashlight that I keep under my bed (that's what happens when you grow up where there are tornadoes and summer storms that cause you to lose power a lot, even though I've never needed it here before) and went right into the kitchen to get the emergency candle that my Mom got us. I have never ever needed it before, but I was glad I had it tonight! I lit it and carried it into the living room so my family could have light during this trying time. As soon as I sat down on the couch to sing songs with Kaden and Rob, the lights came back on. That candle sure helped, though, for the whole 10 minutes we were without power! Thanks Mom!

Changs vs. RSV: Day 2

Day 2 is just about done and Kaden is sleeping, hopefully for the night. He has had several doses of medicine for that ear infection, so hopefully that will start to feel better. He wasn't too sure about it at first, but by tonight's dose I think he kind of liked it. I'm not so sure what the flavor is, but it is a very unnatural, bright shade of pink. As long as he eats it, I don't care what flavor it is! He also had 4 treatments with the nebulizer today and did pretty good with it. He always acts like he feels a bit better after we do them, so we are thankful for that. If that didn't help him, the alternative is to put him in the hospital. We hope to avoid that and get him better with the nebulizer at home. We have added one new enemy to our battle against RSV: dehydration! His input and output have decreased significantly, so that is something that we are watching very closely. If it doesn't correct itself by tomorrow, I will call our doctors again.

Speaking of doctors, our pediatricians are AWESOME! They are so nice and so good at keeping crazy new moms who don't know what they're doing from freaking out. This morning the doctor that we saw on Monday (there are 2 of them that have the practice together, and I love both of them) called to see how little man did last night, how he was eating, how we were all doing. I thought it was so nice and made me feel better that they were checking in on him...either that or he is REALLY sick and they are scared to tell me...do you see what I mean about how they keep crazy new moms from going over the edge? I'm sticking with them being nice and thorough doctors.

This is Kaden getting his breathing treatment. He is just so pitiful I have to frown every time I look at this. He just sits there like this most of the time when we are doing this. My poor little boy!

Here Mama, let me help you with that...

There's a little bit of a smile. After his 3rd treatment of the day he seemed to feel better and was a bit more smiley and a bit less pitiful for a while. Then it was bed time...bed times are rough when he doesn't feel good...
When he was acting like he felt a bit better, I put him on this little blue mat with the round things over him. He likes to play with the fish that hang down and knows how to make the musical fish play music. Well, I guess he got tired of playing with the fish and wanted to watch General Hospital with Mama. He wiggled himself out from underneath the round things and off the mat so he could see the tv. He can't crawl yet, but between rolling and wiggling he is DEFINITELY moving around!

Hopefully, Day 3 will bring some progress in this battle against RSV...

Good night, and good luck.

Changs vs. RSV: Day 1

Technically, I guess that Sunday was day 1, but Monday, February 16th is the first day of diagnosis and treatment, so that is day 1 of the battle. RSV was my BIGGEST fear with Kaden going to daycare, and now he has that plus an ear infection. For history's sake, I will document this most epic battle here.

Kaden had a pretty bad coughing fit (that RSV cough where it sounds like they are choking and can't breathe- it's pretty scary). So I took him in to the bathroom and ran the shower hoping the steam would help him breathe a bit better. We were going to the doctor's that afternoon, so I just tried to help him breathe so we could get there. While we were in the bathroom we sang silly songs with Mama (they're silly because I never remember the words and end up making some up- sounds kind of familiar, huh? Turning anything into a song? I haven't picked up the dancing yet, though- Love ya Mom!). We also tried out a bit of finger painting. They tried it at daycare and Kaden had fun with it. I started out by trying to trace his hand, but it's hard to get an almost 6 month old baby to hold still long enough. He let me put his hand in the paint and then he patted the paper when I showed him how. This magnificant piece of artwork is the result. I think he did pretty good! Of course, this only kept him occupied for about 5 minutes.

He has had some high fevers, a scary cough, and has been very lethargic and not wanting to interact. I didn't get a smile out of him until after his first treatment with the nebulizer at the doctor's office. He could breathe a bit better after that and decided that the doctor was pretty funny.

Kaden refused his afternoon bottle, took maybe an ounce, and then took a whole bottle at about 6pm, which he promptly projectile vomited all over me. I think it's funny how before baby I would have been grossed out by that...in this instance, I tried to catch it all! Anyway, after we got cleaned up and ready for bed he finally took 3 ounces without throwing up. I do not want to have to add dehydration to the list of enemies!

Just for funsies, here is a pic of Kaden in his swing when we first brought him home from the hospital...

And here is a pic now! He is 4 pounds away from the weight limit for the swing and we will truly be sad when the time comes to put it away. He loves his swing! In the second pic, he is looking at himself in the mirrored part.

As always, Lady Belle is keeping guard. You can also see his nebulizer in the bottom...so sad :-(

You Give Me Fever

This week Kaden celebrated his very first Valentine's Day. He made such a cute little Valentine with his heartbreaker shirt & bib. He got all decked out for school with his heartbreaker onesie, bib, some blue jeans from Gramma, and some super cool Robeez shoes from Aunt Kara. He picked out some little Snoopy boxes of chocolates for his teachers, too. He is just such a sweet, thoughtful little guy!

Kaden had a little tiny bit of a tooth break through! He's been teething & has been my little drool monster for such a long time...this week something finally broke through. Last time we were at the doctor the doctor commented that his gums were really swollen and his teeth would likely start popping out soon. And something did pop through, finally! The drooling has not diminished at all, however. I got Kaden some teething biscuits called Baby Mum-Mums. I heard a lot about them at the message board that I frequent on iVillage (I'm a proud member of the August 2008 Honeybees!), so I thought I'd try them out. Not that he can eat them with the tip of a tiny little tooth, but they dissolve in the mouth and he can practice chewing and holding his own little cookie. He tried it out...

but he's not too sure about them yet! We'll have to try again and see if they grow on him.

It's still kind of fun to sit up and play with them, though.

Kaden has had a fever and really bad cough since Friday, and on Sunday his fever was up to 103.5. He hung out at home and didn't do much of anything. A fever isn't going to keep him from watching the IU basketball game with Baba, though! This is the face of a sick baby with a high fever...you can tell in his eyes that he isn't himself, but this kid amazes me that he is still smiling through a fever and a cough that makes it hard to breath. He is definitely more resilient than me!

Since the teething biscuits got a mixed review, we'll just chew on Baba's fingers for a little snack during the game.

While the boys were watching the game, I baked some bread! On Friday night while I was up with a sick baby, I watched The Waitress on tivo (it was a cute movie and DEFINITELY preferable to watching infomercials at 3am). It got me in the mood to bake, but I am not ready for pies like she made in that movie. So I tried my hand at some bread. This is the result and it is pretty good if I may say so! But it is MeMaw's recipe for strawberry bread, so as long as I follow her instructions it's not likely that it will turn out bad. I think I might continue exploring this whole bread baking thing...very Little Miss Suzy Homemaker! It was a sweet (haha) way to end the weekend.

Now we are off to the pediatrician...hopefully they can help me get little man's fever under control- he's just so pitiful!

5 Month Milestones

We've had a few milestones this month as the little man grows up.

Kaden has decided he doesn't like bananas anymore...

He made a new friend...we call him Senor Frog...

and drum roll please...

YAY!!!