Merry Christmas!

It's been a very busy week! It was fun, tiring, busy and a bit stressful but we made it through. Now we just need to get back on schedule, which was totally messed up this week! It's very hard being on a 2nd shift schedule, with the rest of the world being on 1st shift it seems!

Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house. Got there at 5:30pm. We were very happy that they invited us in the evening to help with our schedule. We had a fairly normal start to our day which helps a lot. Dawson loves it at Grandma's house and is very comfortable being there. He even smiles sometimes when I say Grandma, which is so cute! It takes him a few minutes to get used to all the people, but then he makes himself at home. We had a yummy homemade Manicotti supper and then watched some tv while we waited for my sister to get home from work. Then we opened presents.

Dan and I got a wood tv stand made by my dad. It's really nice! Sure looks better than the temporary one we had set up! Dan got a DVD and I got a music CD. Dawson got a cute bath toy, it's a boat with cartoon characters in it, you turn the rudders and it goes in the water. Haven't gotten a chance to try that out yet. He also got a Little People set with animals. It came with a DVD with some stories on it, he really likes that. He's already playing with the little animals too. He got a drum with 2 attachable sticks. He's discovered that banging other objects on the drum makes cool noises too! We left around 11pm and watched a movie at home. Dawson stayed up a little later than usual, I think because of all the excitement. He just wouldn't sleep! He went to sleep around 6am.

Christmas Day we went to my Grandma's house. We got up around 9am, so we only got about 3 hours of sleep. Dawson was NOT happy about being woke up! But we had to leave by 10am to get there by 11. We took Dan's car because mine wasn't warming up like it should. I had Dawson's carseat forward facing because that car is smaller and has little room to face him backwards. So Dawson didn't sleep most of the way there. He did finally for maybe 10 minutes, but he just prefers to be facing backwards. Fine by me, the new recommendation is rear facing until 35lbs. It's actually a law some places now! Anyway, we got there at 11, Dawson isn't as familiar with that place, so he clung to me for quite a while. Though after seeing grandma and his aunt Sarah, he felt more comfortable with the other people there.

Dinner was good, lots of good stuff to eat as usual! Snack was yummy too, I totally pigged out! I was scared to step on the scale, but braved it tonight to find I've only gained a pound! Wow! That's less than I have been on a regular week! I'm a bit confused, but I can't complain! Dawson, after his 3 hours of sleep, was really needing a nap that afternoon! He doesn't like sleeping in other places though. So I layed down with him on the bed in the extra room and nursed him a bit. He fell asleep and I was just carefully getting up when someone came in and woke him up. By the 5th time someone came in, he was fully awake and very unhappy! I tried getting him back to sleep, I even left the room to see if he'd fall asleep by himself, but no luck. So he was rather crabby and so was I!

Gift opening is always very hectic there, lots of cousins and relatives all getting and opening their stuff at once. My cousins Laura and Amanda passed them out this year. Dawson got a pair of shoes. I'm very happy he did, he's outgrowing his shoes and being tight on money, I wasn't looking forward to spending another $20 on shoes! I can't believe how fast that boy's feet grow! I got a set of 4 really nice steak knives. The ones I have are falling apart, even though we've used them for less than a year! These should last a lot longer! I also got 2 baking sheets. Dan got a Menards gift card and some cashews. He's looking forward to shopping! Still not sure what he wants to get but I have no doubt he'll find something he needs!

We got home around 6pm, Dawson and I were SO tired! Dan for some reason wasn't. When we don't get enough sleep, he seems to be more sleepy and crabby when first getting up but is ok once he gets going. I'm often fine at first but eventually get really sleepy and crabby as the day goes on! So Dan was fine, but Dawson and I layed on the couch for a nap. I woke up 3 hours later! I couldn't believe we slept that long! Dawson was still asleep! I got up and did a couple things, then tried to wake up Dawson. He did the grunt, flip and fall back asleep thing. It took a full hour to get him to really wake up! I would've let him sleep more but I was worried about his bedtime. I put in a short movie and he layed there and watched it, then got up once it was over. He really likes watching a movie after a long busy day, it helps him unwind.

Friday we stayed home. Dan looked at my car and scraped the ice off the cars. We got freezing rain that morning. Then we did dishes, laundry and relaxed at home. Dawson loves coming with to do laundry, I like it too because it wears him out! It's quite a walk to the laundry room, so I have to wait for Dan to be home to do it since it's too much for me to carry the baskets all the way down there now. It'll be nice when I can get back to being able to do it myself.

Saturday we went to our friend Jenny's house at 6pm. Dawson loves her Siberian Husky and her 2 cats. We're still working on being nice to the animals, as he pulls tails and grabs at their face! Luckily she has very child-tolerant animals! The 4 men and her 2 kids sat and played some car video games while Jenny and I had a nice visit and chased after Dawson. Dan got a combination and pocket knife set, I got a fleece blanket and Dawson got a little wooden wagon filled with ABC blocks. He also discovered some bead necklaces there! Jenny's daughter Abby had won them at a Christmas party but had no interest in them, so after Dawson played with those pretty much the whole time we were there, she sent them home with us! Dawson is loving it! His uncle no longer lets him play with the beads there, so he was very happy to get some of his own.

After opening gifts, the men went back to playing video games and Jenny and I undecorated the house. Apparently the cats had been playing with everything in the tree and she was excited to get rid of it. It was fun undecorating, we got everything done except throwing out the tree. Around 11pm Dawson was tired and crabby so Jenny and I managed to drag the guys away from the video games. Took 2 rounds of what they were playing, but we did get them to stop! We stopped at Walmart on the way home, Dawson is going through so much soy milk, so I'm gonna just start buying 2 at a time now. I think he's up to 3 half gallons a week now!

Now on to the pics! It was fun dressing him up. I went through 3 outfit plans so I'm glad I started a couple days in advance! I had a cute vest and tie, but we ended up with a sweater vest for Christmas Day and a green flannel shirt and jeans for Christmas Eve. Jenny's party was casual and I didn't take any pics. We just put him in a regular outfit that wouldn't collect much dog hair, as her Husky really sheds a lot! Even after vacuuming, there's still stuff in the carpet!

Dawson eating breakfast Christmas Eve morning

After getting home from Grandma's house, he was being silly and wanting to keep his hat on. He kept looking at his reflection in the glass doors, taking his hat off and requesting I put it back on!

Playing with his Little People toys after getting home from Grandma's house

Playing with his drum after getting home
Smiling for the camera! It's often hard to get him to smile when taking pics.
Trying to mess with Great-Grandma's tree! He was being told no by Grandpa!

I really liked his outfit that day, the sweater vest is so cute! I couldn't get a good pic of him facing me standing up, he was on the run all day!

He often tries to climb onto this table and knows he shouldn't be! So he stands next to it until I'm not looking, then climbs up there. Once we're done moving the tv stuff around, we won't need the flap up anymore, so hopefully it won't be as tempting to go up there! He's landed himself in time out a few times because of this. At least that works, he won't do it again for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, it never carries over to the next day!

Falls, Fears and Silly Routines

Dawson took a pretty good fall tonight. He often bumps his head on things and barely thinks anything of it, but this one looks like it hurts! He was running and fell, falling on the edge of our glider rocker on the wooden seat part. He's got a 4 inch colorful blue/purple line on the top of his head now. Poor little guy. :(

He seems more fearful lately, I hear toddlers around this age start questioning more. He used to just be afraid of the vacuum and blender. Now he doesn't like baths, new changes in his room, like curtains. We didn't get sleep for days because of that one! He finally had a good bath this last time, I'm hoping it'll continue.

One of the biggest things is me taking a shower. He completely has a fit, crying like he's scared of it. I've showed it to him, let him come in and I talk to him, but nothing helps. He cries and screams like I'm gonna melt and go down the drain! So we try to have Dan feed him while I'm showering or something so he's distracted. Having some music on really helps too.

The funniest thing is when I get out of the shower, he looks relieved to see me alive and follows me to the bedroom. We have a whole routine now. He "helps" with my pants and makes sure my feet pop out at the end. Then he comes up on the bed and takes off my hair towel. Then I brush my hair and he has a turn brushing it. He thinks it's pretty cool.

He has a thing with brushes and combs now. He often brings me mine and wants me to comb his hair. There really isn't anything to comb, but I do it anyway. He'll stand there smiling as long as I'm willing to keep combing!

Tomorrow we're going to our friend Jenny's house for a Christmas party. Should be fun! Dawson really likes her Siberian Husky. She's an indoor dog and fairly tolerant with him. The cat, however, sees Dawson and runs for safety. I guess she likes her tail too much!

December Update!

Sorry, I've been bad at keeping up with this lately! The time has been flying by and nothing major has happened.

The pregnancy is still going good, I have 2 appointments in January, then I go in every week in February. He has a name, but we're not telling! It's a big relief to have a name this time though, doesn't feel like there's much left to do other than setting up the bassinet mid February and having the baby! I'm hoping the next 2 months will go quickly, I'm getting more sore and it's getting harder to keep up with Dawson as I get bigger. I'm very ready for winter to get over with, I always get so cooped up and bored in the winter!

Dawson is testing his limits and trying our patience more and more lately. He'll look at us out of the corner of his eye as he gets into things, fully knowing he shouldn't be! He's been very active and runs all over the place. We go to the mall to play once a week, it's nice to get his energy out and he can see some other kids.

I just signed him up for ECFE class for 12-18 month olds. It's once a week, he starts Jan 8th and it goes until May 14th. Should be lots of fun and it'll be good for him to get out and interact with other people.

He's starting to get some hair too! I really can't imagine him with a full head of hair, but he's got some wispy stuff on the top of his head, it's cute. He insists on me combing it, then he combs it himself, it's really cute. I was thinking before that he'd have my darker hair, but it seems lighter like Dan's so far. It's fun looking to see what he got from who. :)

Dan is doing good, he has off wed-sat this week, that'll be really nice. It's been snowing a lot here, so he's been busy clearing the snow and keeping the cars going. He has to move them out of the lot every time they plow, which is never at a good time with his schedule. They usually want them out by 8 or 10am. He just does it after work and brings them back when he gets up the next day. It's a lot of work to run the block back to the apartment 3 times after already spending 10 hours at work! I did my car once but I was sore for 3 days afterward, so he insists on doing them all now.

This weekend he worked on the living room. He took apart the big entertainment center and just kept 1 tower for now, for the vcr, dvd player and all that stuff. The tv is on a temporary stand until we can get one. It works for now, it looks a lot bigger and brighter in here, which is what we were going for. We still have to put together the cabinet we bought for the movies and cds. It has doors on it, so we don't have to worry about Dawson getting into them anymore. The entertainment center was starting to look pretty funny, the bottom half was empty and the top half was packed full of stuff. I should've taken a picture for a good laugh. Seems like everything moves up as they get taller!

I haven't been able to take any pics lately, my camera isn't working properly. It takes a charge, but dies about 4 hours later. I've brought it to Best Buy 3 times now. The first time they sent it in and replaced something. Still didn't work. The 2nd time they sent it in and they did nothing to it! They said nothing was wrong! I'm getting frustrated! The 3rd time I brought it in, they said to keep it and just keep charging and using it for Christmas, since it works a little and they wouldn't have it back before Christmas. So I'm doing that. I hope someone will figure it out after Christmas!

Here's Dawson on Dec 18th. I was testing out my camera and he had to come over and be a part of it!

I don't think this looks very comfortable! I had an appointment to go to, so he slept with Dan while I was gone since he woke up right when I was about to leave. He often sleeps like this, I don't get it! Usually it's on his tummy in his crib, but in our bed he always sprawls out like this. I think he just likes all the space!

A Fun Weekend

Dan and I went out on Friday night, out to supper and rollerskating. It was lots of fun and it was refreshing to get out of the house by ourselves! Dawson stayed at my parent's house and had lots of fun there. It's cool how he recognizes the place now, and even mentioning Grandma's house makes him smile. With his Grandparents, an aunt and 2 uncles, there's no shortage of attention there! He always comes home tired and looking for people to play with!

Saturday was lots of fun too. I got invited to a friend's house in the cities. Kam is a lady from my message board. There were 4 of us there plus another one of her friends who has an 8 month old. It was fun watching the toddlers run around and play together. It went rather well and it was cool seeing all of them sitting around the table for lunch. Dawson and I stayed from 11am until about 5pm. Dan dropped us off there and continued into the cities to his sister's house to work on her van and picked us up when he was done. So Dawson and Kam's son Jacob had lots of fun after the 2 girls left, running around and being little boys. I guess he has all girls at his daycare, he seemed to really enjoy having another boy to play with. Too bad we don't live closer!

Sitting around the table eating lunch. Dawson did great on just a regular chair!

It's so hard getting 4 toddlers and a baby to hold still! This is the best pic we got. Dawson was trying to escape! Left to right is Jacob (17 months), Cassidy (16 months), Reese (17 months), Dawson (16 months), Dylan (Reese's 4 year old brother) and Elisabeth (8 months).

After we left her house we went to Old Chicago with Dan's sister for pizza. Dawson was so tired he slept through it, so it was nice to sit and talk while he slept.

On sunday Dawson was wandering around looking for someone to play with! After 2 days of lots of attention, the poor little guy didn't know what to do!

Dawson has really been picking up his pace lately. He loves to run from one end of the room to the other. Everytime I go to the bathroom he runs down the hallway and into my dark room. Tuesday evening he was doing that and ran into something. He came to me with blood on his hands and face. Once cleaned up I found he had cut his frenulum, the piece of skin between your upper lip and gums. Since the clinic had just closed (go figure), I called the on-call Dr and he said as long as it stops bleeding I don't have to bring him to the ER. It had stopped within 5 minutes or so, so we stayed home. He was pretty fussy today but it didn't bother his eating or anything. He was just more clingy than usual.

His bedtime is going good. We've been able to move his bedtime up to 5:15am so far. Our goal is 10 or 11pm by mid February. I just put him to bed and he barely fussed at all! It's been less and less everynight. :)

His hair is really starting to get longer and thicker! It's still not much, but he's getting there. He's kissing my tummy in the pic.

He really likes laying on my tummy. Every now and then he'll come up to me, lift my shirt a little and poke my belly button! He thinks it's funny that it sticks out now.

The other night it seemed a bit quiet, so I got up to check on Dawson. He had a mild cold and had been playing nicely, but I didn't see him behind me anymore. I got up and didn't make it far before seeing him! He slept so much that day I didn't think he'd be tired for bedtime, but he slept great! He must've slept about 15 hours that day!

Dawson's First Walk in the Snow!

It snowed today! It actually stuck too, I'm surprised! Dawson watched the snow falling a bit but wasn't too interested. Tonight I brought him with me to take garbage out so he could walk around in it. He wasn't sure what to think of it. He didn't have any trouble walking on it, it was only a small layer. He walked back and forth, looking at all the tracks. He picked some up but wasn't too impressed with the cold stuff. After about 5 minutes he wanted to go back inside.

Dawson is 16 months old! Wow, how'd that happen?! He's completely off jar foods now and is eating more new things. I just tried Soy again the other day. It's the only milk he can have, but he refused to drink it several weeks ago. Well he loves it now! I'm glad he can have that, though it sure costs a lot! They want $3 to $6 for a half gallon of Soy! It's nuts! A half gallon lasts about 4-5 days but he's drinking more as he gets used to it. He's still nursing too, but mostly in the morning and at night.

As for me, I'm 25 weeks now and I feel huge! I know a girl due a week ahead of me and she's so small still! I must be carrying an elephant or something! ;) Besides that, I'm also starting to retain water, so even though I've only gained 11 pounds so far, I look like I've gained way more! I'm trying to stay off my feet more, but it's kinda hard with a toddler to chase. If I'm on my feet for too long, my feet and calves swell up and hurt. Fun, eh? I have just under 4 months left, but I feel the same as I did at about 8 or 9 months last time! Makes me wonder how much worse it'll get in the next 4 months!

We've been working on cleaning and rearranging some things. Dan moved his computer desk to face a different way and Dawson loves it! We have a gate there so he can't get to his stuff since there's little stuff back there, but he loves being able to walk closer to Dan when he's on the computer. He thinks it's so fun to bring things to Daddy, like toys and things, so he can play with them too! Even when Dan isn't home, Dawson still throws toys over the gate and into his chair and all around it. So he has to dig out toys just to go sit down!

Throwing things over gates is fun, he does it to the kitchen gate all the time too. Since it's getting too hard to bend over all the time to throw the toys back over, I just leave them there. Dawson has now started to throw them back over the other way when he's in the kitchen, so it works out great!

He's teething his 2 lower canines right now, so he's been kinda fussy now and then. These are his last teeth to get in until his 2 year molars. Hopefully he'll get a nice break before those show up!

It was still snowing, but it didn't get to be much more than this

Dawson all ready to take his first walk in the snow

New words and new teeth!

Not a lot new here lately. I did have a 2nd ultrasound, everything looks good. I'm 24 weeks along now. I've been having a lot of ligament and sciatica pain, but otherwise everything is good. Dawson is very interested in my belly, he often peeks under my shirt and pokes my belly button that is now completely popped out! He also rests his head on it a lot. He's already gotten kicked once while laying there!

Dawson has been saying some new words lately. He says "hi" and "baby". He's also starting to put together words. He said "Hi Dad!" the other day, that was really cute! He usually says "Dad" instead of "daddy" or "dada", the same goes with "Mom", though he occasionally says "mama" and "daddy".

He's really starting to slim down and look more like a toddler! He's getting pretty fast on his feet and never crawls anywhere anymore. We even had to go down a diaper size! Yay for cheaper diapers! He seems to be on a growth spurt though, so we'll see how long that lasts. He just outgrew the new shoes I got him last month, so we'll be shopping for more this week!

He's been teething like crazy lately! He now has all 4 of his 1 year molars in, got them all in a month! So now he has 14 teeth. Only 6 more to go and 2 are pretty close already.

Here's Dawson being goofy. He was playing peek a boo


Dawson laughing


He was playing peek around the stove corner


Big cheesy smile! He was being really silly that night

Peek-a-Boo!

This is Dawson's newest and most frequent thing. He thinks it's hilarious! He does it when he wants attention, when he knows he's in trouble, when he's upset or bored, when he enters a room. He even does it first thing in the morning when he wakes up and sees me, or when he's nursing. I swear not 10 minutes goes by all day without me saying PEEK!!! But really, how can I ignore this cute face?!

It's a BOY!

Had my 20 week ultrasound and it looks like Dawson is gonna get a little brother! Everything looks good. I have to go in for a 2nd ultrasound on the 22nd so they can get some more pictures of the cord, they were having a hard time getting a good picture I think. He's measuring 4 days ahead but they aren't changing the due date. Dawson was measuring ahead too but still came late, just was a big baby! He is very active and kicks a lot, especially at night.

Dawson is doing good, walking a lot steadier and going faster. He can stand up in the middle of the room now and he often picks things up and carries them around. He just got 2 molars in the last couple weeks, so now he has 10 teeth and he has 3 more that are very close to coming in.

Here's the 20 week ultrasound pic I got!

Here's my belly at 21 weeks, I'm bigger than I was at this point last time!

Dawson in the leaves

Dawson on the couch being cute

17 Week Appointment!

I had my 17 week appointment on the 17th. Everything was good! Baby was giving the Dr a hard time, kept moving all around in there so Dr was having trouble getting a heartrate because baby kept moving around too much! So the Dr said baby is very active, so obviously there's a good heartrate there! I'm getting pretty big too, moving into the maternity shirts. I can still fit into my regular t-shirts, but they are getting kinda tight! I set up my 20 week ultrasound for October 8th. We're still completely not sure if we're going to find out the gender, but we're pretty sure we are. Only 17 days to go! :)

Dawson is 14 months old and walking all over the place. He rarely ever crawls unless he's in a new place. Around home he makes sure he's on his feet as much as possible. He even walked on the grass today, which he never did before! He's been trying to run, or at least walk faster. He usually falls if he's going fast, but his walking has gotten a lot faster and steadier than it was before. It's crazy how fast they learn!

Here's Dawson standing in the kitchen. It was on the 9th, when he was first starting to walk around more.

He was being silly and playing peek-a-boo by putting his head around the corner of the stove. He loves that game.

We Have A Kicker!

My pregnancy has been going good so far. My morning sickness is gone and my appitite is coming back quickly. Last night I felt a kick! I'd been feeling an occasional flutter over the past week, but this was definitely a kick! I wasn't expecting that, I actually jumped! So far it's only at night, and usually only once or twice. Always around the same time every night. I'm 15 weeks and 1 day today. I go in for my next appointment on September 17th.

Our Anniversary and some new Firsts for Dawson!

Sept 3rd was our 3 year wedding anniversary! Hoping to do something this weekend, but not sure what yet.

Lots of stuff new with Dawson lately! He's been walking more and more all the time now. He takes short trips across the room now and he's getting more balanced and less shaky while he's walking. He's starting to do more walking than crawling now!

Last night he had 2 firsts. He finally drank from a sippy cup! He'd been only doing regular cups or nursing before that. But he wasn't drinking a lot from a regular cup and I wanted him to be somewhat independent. He thought the sippy I had was ok, but wasn't drinking it a lot and it kept leaking a lot. One of my online friends recommended the Nuby sippy cup. I got it today and he's been drinking out of it since we got home!

Also last night, he took one of my small but regular sized tomatoes and decided to eat it! I peeled the skin and he ate the whole thing! Tonight he wanted to try my carrots, but they were too hard for him. He still wanted to be a part of it, so he started feeding them to me instead!

He's about to get some new teeth too. He's been teething like crazy and I can see 1 through the gums already and another one is really close. He has a couple molars that he's been working on for about a month now, so I'm hoping those will come through soon too. He's been really fussy lately and getting low fevers again, so I'm hoping they are close!

Here's some cute pics of him from the other day. His tomato face from last night!

Him playing with the stuffed moose he got from the fair. I found him laying on it all snuggled up, but then he started showing off for the camera!

ER and Hospital Trip!

Last week was not fun at all. Dawson got a 104 fever one evening and though after a bath it came down to 102, it went right back up to 104 again within an hour. After fighting it for a while, I called the on call Dr and he said to alternate motrin and tylenol and see if it goes down, if not, then go to the ER. Well, it didn't so we went in. They took blood, did a catheter since he wasn't peeing, and came back saying he was dehydrated. They had prepped him for an IV earlier, which he wasn't liking. When they came in to do the IV, the line in his arm had kinked, even though he was just sleeping the whole time they were gone. So instead of torturing him again, they decided to make him drink pedialyte and send him home. We were there for 6 hours that night!

The next morning he woke up with a high fever but it went down in the afternoon. Later I found out that's typical with a viral infection, up in the morning and evening but normal in the afternoon. That evening it was back up really high. It was 104, then down to 103, then up to 105! So we went back into the ER and they did an IV for 90 minutes and then admitted us to the hospital. I called Dan's work and told him to head to the hospital when he got off work. Dawson did much better once on the IV. They still gave him tylenol and motrin, but the fever was going down quite a bit just from the IV. They added some antibiotics to the IV that night too incase it was an infection. He didn't want to sleep in his crib that night, so he slept with me and Dan. He's not big on sleeping in new places.

The next morning he was doing better. We got a visit from Grandma, who brought him a little ball to play with. I was out of the room when she came in, but Dan said he perked right up when he saw her. Cool to see him recognizing people more these days. After that, Dan left to get stuff from home and I got the nurse to unhook his IV from the wall so we could go play and wonder the halls. We found a little car he really liked and he thought the playroom was cool too, though he was mad that the IV hose kept getting in the way of his playing. He would try to rip it out many times, we had put a mesh sock over it the night before but he figured out how to get that off rather quickly. At 5pm they said we could go home. It was a long day, but still didn't find out what was wrong! I was rather frustrated. We actually left around 6pm.

Once we got home, Dawson was very happy to be home but still very clingy. He had a fever right away, even though he had none when they took it before we left. They took out the IV right before we left, so they didn't allow time to see what would happen once it was out. I thought that was weird. He was at a 102 that night and then woke up the next morning with a 104 again. I called the clinic once they opened and talked to the nurse. She checked the dose of tylenol I was giving him and said to give him more. Apparently the dose on the box is often a lower dose than they can get if needed. So I gave him more and it went down a bit. We were also hitting the afternoon, so it went away. We went into the Dr at 11am and he said he looks ok, and there's nothing they can do for a viral infection other than keep the fever down and keep them hydrated. I was giving him gatorade by syringe so he said to keep doing that. It was the only way he'd take it! That was the end of the fever. Sunday night he broke out in a bad rash on his back and front. They said to watch for that because it might be Roseola. Apparently it was! The rash didn't bug him much and went away within 24 hours and he's all better now.

He's been very clingy, hates getting in and out of the car, though I can't really blame him, I keep taking him to places who poke him with needles! Even in Walmart he cried the whole time and refused to be in the cart! Thankfully that only lasted a couple days. We went shopping yesterday and he was just fine with that. He's back to eating and drinking just fine and he's happy and energetic.

I took a bunch of pics while we were in the ER and Hospital. He likes it when I take pics and it was cheering him up. I finally got some smiles out of him and got some really cute pics in the afternoon when he was feeling better.

This is when we got there and were waiting for the Dr to come in. He was so miserable!


This is what he had on when they prepped him for the IV. His whole arm was tapped up with a soft board behind it so he couldn't bend his arm. He was NOT happy about that!


We did a lot of waiting in the 6 hours we were there! We mostly sat and he ate cheerios and nursed. His mood got better after I started taking pics. We were getting goofy with the camera and he got his mind off where he was a bit.


This was the hospital room we stayed in. He liked the crib at first, he was watching TV and eating animal crackers for a while. He fell asleep for a while, but after the IV machine went off and beeped a few times, he woke up and didn't want the crib anymore.




He loved having a nice view out the window. He's standing on the bed looking out to the road, watching the cars go by. I was just glad for a distraction from trying to get the stuff off his arm! The IV was in at that point, it's going in by his elbow.


He was being goofy and going his growly "ahhhhhhh" thing that he does. It was nice to see him in a good mood that afternoon!

Dawson's 1 year Appointment

He's actually 13 months, but we had to schedule it later due to insurance renewing. He's 22lbs and 29inches long. He's at 25 percentile for height, weight and head size, so he's very evenly porportioned. He had 3 shots and got blood taken today, he was not happy about that at all!

My mom and siblings came over today and we all went swimming in our pool here. It was a lot of fun, but Dawson didn't take too well to getting up earlier than usual and getting in the pool! He liked it, but after a while he just wanted to sleep again, so we sat on a pool chair and he slept for a while.

This weekend was really busy. We went to the Mall of America to meet with 7 other moms from my message board. It was a lot of fun and he enjoyed playing with all the babies. We spent the night in a hotel, he didn't sleep at all so neither did I! We went to the MN Zoo the next day. It was a lot of fun, he enjoyed looking at everything, especially the fish from the underwater view. We stood and watched fish for about 15 minutes! We stopped at Aunt Vicky's place on the way home to feed Dawson and let him stretch his legs again. We got home around 10pm and Dawson was very excited and relieved to be home finally. He crawled all around the apartment and finally settled down with his favorite toys and his usual evening movie. I did bring one of his movies, but the hotel didn't have a dvd or vcr. He slept very good that night. I was worried since he slept so much at the zoo after not sleeping the night before, but it didn't seem to be an issue. It was a fun, busy weekend but we are all happy to be home.

Dawson is gonna be a Big Brother!

At the end of June we found out that I'm pregnant! I'm 3 months along today and everything is going pretty good! We got an ultrasound done on July 23rd, where I found out I'm a week ahead of what I thought! So my due date is February 25th, but I'm convinced it'll be a March baby since there's only 3 days after my due date until March! Nothing is set in stone yet, but we're leaning towards not finding out the gender with this one. I've had morning sickness worse than last time. My appitite is gone and I've been pretty nauseous. The nausea is starting to get better, so I'm really hoping my appitite will return soon!

My tests came back the other day and they said I have a bladder infection! The night before I had been cramping a bit, so I was worried. I'm relieved that it's "only" an infection. I got antibiotics right away and I'm hoping it'll be gone soon. It's very painful! I have constant cramps and I'm pretty much on the couch all day. Lifting anything, especially Dawson, hurts really bad. I've had 2 days of antibiotics so far and it hasn't really gotten any better yet. I'm hoping maybe tomorrow it will.

Here's the ultrasound pic! Baby is 9 weeks here. I saw little arms and legs moving at the ultrasound, it was really neat.

Dawson is a goofy boy!

Dawson is getting a little braver with his walking, he'll walk a short distance between the couch and other things, but doesn't venture off on his own yet.

Here's some cute pics I took last week. Lately his big thing is staying up until 2:30am to see Daddy get home. Only happened a few times, I've been able to get him to bed earlier since. Once Daddy got home, he was just beaming and gave him a big hug. It was so cute. He really looks forward to spending time with him. He'll go looking for Daddy occasionally throughout the day. Though he seems to know his schedule better now. He just gets a bit confused with Dad being home over the weekend!

Dawson found a new spot to be the other day. He thinks it's pretty cool!

He was standing on the couch laughing the other night. Not sure about what, but he thought something was pretty funny. Then he decided to pose for the camera!



Getting into trouble! He knows he shouldn't touch the lamp, thus the funny look on his face! He thinks he's getting away with it too!

Dawson's First Steps!

Last night I was playing with Dawson, chasing him around and having fun. He was by the couch and I was several steps away. He just decided to let go of the couch and walk right over to me! He did it about 3 times in a row! It's weird to see him walking. I'm used to seeing Laura walking, but not Dawson! It'll be interesting once he's walking more! He hasn't really tried today, but he's definitely thinking about it more lately. He's being less cautious while walking by furnature. Seems like he's barely holding on these days!

Happy 1st Birthday Dawson!

I can't believe my baby is 1 year old now! We had the party in the community room at our apartment. Dawson wasn't big on the cake thing, he didn't like the frosting all over his hands. He loves his new toys though, he's been playing with them every chance he gets! Here's some pics from his birthday.

He kept trying to reach for the candle.

At least he got some frosting in his efforts!

He got a lot of frosting on his hand, and really didn't like it! After that he decided he'd had enough!

This is as messy as he got! At least it was easy to clean up!

Opening presents!


Dawson and Reese playing with his new toys.