Aedan: Week 40
Once back from Disney World, we had to get right back into normal life. Ben's semester started on Monday, and he has class every day of the week this semester. I was feeling worse and worse, had a bad cough, painful sinuses, and lacked energy, which is rough any time, but especially when you have two kids to chase around. Samantha and Aedan were both on the mend, which I was grateful for.
We are giving Aedan a lot more finger food, in addition to his fruit and vegetable baby food jars. This past week we were having potato soup and Upland Grandma's canned green beans for dinner. We decided to let Aedan try some green beans, and he really liked them. We sent a picture to Upland Grandpa, saying both our children love Grandma's green beans, so she's going to have to increase her green bean production this year!
We had an appointment on Monday morning that I had to take both Samantha and Aedan to as well. After the appointment, we went over to a friend's house from OBF who we just recently got to know and realized that both the mom and dad went to Taylor, graduated a couple years before us, and have a little girl that's a bit younger than Samantha, as well as a young baby boy. We only were able to stay at their house for about an hour or so, but it was fun to get to know another mom from OBF, let our girls play together, and reminisce about our time at Taylor.
Tuesday morning Samantha got to go back to preschool and was so excited to see her teachers and friends again. Back in January, they missed a day because the heater in the building wasn't working properly, so this week they had an extra half hour of time added on to the end of each preschool day. Samantha was very excited to have extra time to play, but not picking her up until 12:30 made for a late afternoon of still getting lunch taken care of and both kids down for a nap. Even though she was still recovering from being under the weather, she was still fighting her nap throughout the beginning of the week. After no napping for the whole week in Florida, Ben and I thought for sure that napping was going to be over in Samantha's world.
On Wednesday morning we had Aedan's 9 month appointment with Dr. Buerk. We saw a different doctor last time, but she actually moved to a different practice, so we had to see someone new. She is an older lady and was nice and friendly, but she didn't exactly have the best bedside manner. I feel like we brought some questions before her concerning how many times a day I should be nursing and how much baby food we should be giving him each day, and we never really felt like she answered our questions. Aedan's checkup went well. He was strong and healthy. His weight was 23 pounds, 10 ounces. His height was 30.25 inches, and his head circumference was 18.75. With his height and weight combination, he was in the 85th percentile. In fact, the doctor made a funny remark that if he continues to grow as he has in the last few months, they would project him to 6 foot 3 when he grows up. We also filled out an Ages & Stages Questionnaire regarding Aedan's development that spanned 9 months 0 days through 9 months 30 days, and he came out strongest in fine motor skills and problem solving skills, being weakest in gross motor and personal social skills. The doctor made a comment that he is probably going to be really smart, and she gave us some ideas of things we can do at home to help develop his gross motor and personal social skills. Although it's funny because he's probably weaker in those two categories because he has a big sister to watch. She does all the talking for him and will go and get things for him when he wants them, so he doesn't have as much of a need to do those things on his own. I know that is very common in second children. In listening to Aedan's chest, the doctor heard some wheezing and said he has bronchiolitis due to the cold he had. The congestion moved down to his lungs, causing mucus to from on his bronchioles, which would then result in 4 days of wheezing and 10 or so days of coughing. She said he was probably on the mend from that and that there was really nothing we had to do nor any medicine we needed to give him. He got two shots in his thigh, which of course made him cry, but overall, we had a good appointment.
We were all pretty tired on Wednesday after our morning at the doctor. And luckily, both kids took good naps that afternoon. There are certain days when you just know that Samantha will nap because of how tired she is. They both were so cute sleeping that I just had to take a picture of them and send them to Ben at work. His response was, "Very cute." :)
That night, since we got permission from Aedan's doctor to start giving him meat, we tried some baby food meat out for dinner. His reaction was so great, I just had to get it on video. Needless to say from watching the video, he was not a fan at all. He made horrible faces, refused to open his mouth, tried to spit it out, and then gagged on it as he was swallowing it. We will continue to try it each day to see if it grows on him. When Samantha was a baby, she eventually warmed up to the baby food meat and actually really liked it and would devour a whole jar of it each day. However, it doesn't seem like Aedan will have the same sentiment.
Do you notice his red cheeks in the video above? Do you know why he has such red cheeks? Because he got another tooth in! His top, right, front tooth popped through on Wednesday, the day before he turned 9 months old. We also can see the top, left, front tooth getting ready to break through the gums as well. So, knowing that, we might have more of an explanation as to why he's been more fussy, slightly more clingy, and also why he has been waking up more at night for the last several weeks.
Thursday was another extended preschool day. We had a good morning and got ready on time for once, getting to preschool early, before the doors even opened. I always attempt to get there before the doors open, but it's hard to get out the door on time sometimes. Aedan and I had a good morning going shopping. I put the shopping cart seat cover on the cart and let Aedan sit in the cart, play with toys, and look around the store. I had tried this in the past, but he was never too big a fan of it. It seemed like he would always tip over and then get upset when I would have to keep pushing him back upright. However, he was very happy sitting and looking around the store that day. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, but I was still able to get him back to sleep in his crib.
Thursday afternoon was rough for the kids with getting back from preschool later again. Both Samantha and Aedan were cranky and crying after lunch and while getting ready for nap time. To make matters worse, I was feeling worse and worse instead of better. Ben came home early from campus so that I could go to the Miami employee health center that afternoon during nap time to make sure I didn't have something more than a cough and cold, or something that I could possibly take medicine for. The nurse practitioner said my lungs were clear, but since I had been having symptoms for over a week, flew in a plane feeling like that, and was actually feeling worse after flying, she prescribed an antibiotic for me, saying that I should start feeling better in a few days.
The other thing that could have caused his disruption in sleep is learning how to move more. It used to be that he would just roll over and stay on his belly until he would fuss long enough that one of us would pick him up, roll him over, or move him into a different position. However, he is now able to move himself around quite well. He can rotate himself in a complete circle and then roll to get where he want to go. Now, nothing within reach is safe. Throughout the next few weeks we will have to baby proof our house a little more, keeping cords and any small toys out of reach. It's fun to watch him move around more, to watch him explore his world, and to see what he finds interesting to play with. Our little boy is getting so big, moving from baby to toddler, right before our very eyes.
In this video below, I was attempting to show how he was moving around so much now, but I lost my opportunity and instead just got him when he was starting to get fussy and upset. I think it's nice sometimes to have videos of what our babies sound like when they cried because sometimes we forget and think, "Surely, our child never cried like that, right?"
And here's another video of Aedan eating baby food meat on Thursday night. He still was not impressed. In this video below I was attempting to record the funny noise Aedan makes sometimes, and you can kind of hear it at the beginning of this video clip. Poor guy, making him eat meat. You can also tell he wasn't feeling too great, could be a combination of still recovering from his cough/cold, could be some side effects of the shots he had the previous day, but he was just not himself that evening, much fussier than normal.
On Friday some other Oxford moms planned to go swimming at the Miami Rec Center since they were having another free week. Some moms went swimming earlier in the week on Monday and Wednesday, but we weren't able to go because of our appointments. Ben, Samantha, Aedan, and I all went swimming on Wednesday night together as a family, but I figured I'd try taking both kids by myself. We let Aedan take a little bit of a nap that morning before waking him up so that we could go swimming together. It actually went pretty well. Samantha had her little floatie on so she could swim off by herself. Aedan enjoyed being held and splashing in the water. There were quite a few Oxford moms there as well, so it was fun for me to have the chance to talk to others while swimming. A good time was had by all, and we got out of the pool a little after 11:30 so that we could get out of our swimsuits and back home for lunch. They have a family restroom which makes it much easier for us all to get changed together. It's nice that Miami has these free weeks to make it easy for families to visit without a pass.
Here are some cute pictures from lunch time that afternoon. They were all so adorable, I just couldn't choose one or two. We had Annie's mac and cheese (Samantha's favorite), and we even let Aedan try some noodles. He definitely liked them!
Samantha was pretty tired that afternoon from a full morning of swimming and playing. Both kids were ready for nap time that afternoon. They had a good nap, giving me some down time, and then when Aedan woke up we picked Daddy up from campus since we dropped him off at work that morning so we could use his parking pass to park close to the Rec Center.
We had a pretty relaxed weekend with no real plans. It's just nice to have Ben home and to spend time together as a family. Saturday morning I attempted to get some pictures of Aedan's new teeth coming in on the top. This is the best I could get. He wasn't too big of a fan of me sticking my fingers in his mouth. His smile is going to look so different now with teeth on the top and the bottom. :)
Saturday night we decided to make the twenty minute trip to the Colerain area to eat dinner at Chipotle (with a gift card from Christmas) and then we went to Once Upon a Child because we needed to get some new 12 month clothes for Aedan. We were in need of some 12 month footie pajamas, as well as more casual long sleeve shirts and stretchier pants that work well with a padded cloth diaper bottom. We also let Samantha pick out a new dress. She found this beautiful Gap dress that looks just lovely on her. I will have to get a picture of her dressed up in it sometime and put it on the blog. Both kids were getting a little tired towards the end of our shopping trip, but they did pretty well, especially considering Samantha hadn't napped that day. I think Aedan actually ended up taking a little nap in the car on the way home.
Sunday was a fairly typical day for our family. Ben and I take advantage of the weekend to "sleep in," whatever that means. It usually just means waking up with our kids rather than setting an alarm and getting up before them. We went to church and then back home for lunch and nap time. Since it was Super Bowl Sunday, we had plans for a Super Bowl party that evening rather than small group after church. We told Samantha how important it was for her to take a nap so that way we could stay at the party longer and not have to leave early to get her to bed. Luckily, she did nap that afternoon, making our night together much better. This napping process has been so complicated because just when we are about ready to give up naps, she goes back to taking them sporadically. I'm okay with still trying to encourage naps when she does take them every once in a while when she really needs one or isn't feeling well.
On Monday we didn't have any plans to go anywhere, they are usually our play at home, relaxing days. Here is Samantha attempting to play peek-a-boo with Aedan after lunch on Monday. This is her typical daily ritual while I clean up lunch dishes.
And here's my cute little man playing later that afternoon. In the video you can hear his babbling. He is saying "Dada" a lot more lately. He's rolling around everywhere, and he is really enjoying his toys. He can sit up totally independent now (has been for awhile). I very rarely worry about him falling backwards and hitting his head. He can actually manage to fall over more gracefully now, so that way he can lay on his tummy and play. But he hasn't figured out how to go from being on the floor to sitting up yet.
The kids are always SO excited when Daddy gets home from work each day. Samantha runs toward him yelling, "Daddy!" and give him a great big hug. Lately, Aedan has gotten in on the excitement as well, squealing and flapping his arms up and down when he sees Daddy walk in the door.
Even though the following pictures have the sign that says "Today I am 9 Months Old," I actually took these pictures almost a week after he turned 9 months old, but that's okay. Life just got busy and whenever I'd think of taking his pictures, it would be a time when he wasn't in the greatest of moods. So, here's our little man. He's now been out of my tummy longer than he was in, which is always strange to think about. He's getting so big, growing and developing more and more each day, right before our very eyes. He is such a happy guy, if he cries you know that something really must have hurt him or upset him. He brightens our day, and we can't imagine our family without him.
Ahh...he finally got it and was so satisfied. He could scratch his nails on it, put it in his mouth to see what it tasted like, pat it, and crinkle it. Who needs toys when you have paper?
And in this video you can hear what Aedan's cry sounds like when you have taken something away from him that he really, really wants. I attempted to take the sign away from him since he was starting to eat the paper, giving him the ball to play with instead. However, that did not make him happy. He wanted his paper back. :)
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