Sutton is Six Months Old (+1 Week)

For my happy, beautiful baby.... here is a recap of your 6 month journey to today:

After an easy, low maintenance pregnancy I guess you felt the need to add some drama. You were born with the cord wrapped around your neck, which caused a high respiratory rate and low oxygen saturation level. You had to go to neonatal intensive care immediately after you were born and they wouldn't let me come see you for a couple of hours. With how worried I was, I guess it was probably a good thing I didn't see you like this. But I was very upset about not being able to see you at the time. You did not even have a name yet. After a couple of hours they took this contraption off you, but you still stayed in NICU for about 36 hours.

Then we all stayed together in the hospital for another night. We went home in a daze that I think we are still in. I am constantly amazed at how blessed I am to have our little family.

Each Grandma stayed with us for a different week during your first month. This was necessary for our survival and is so appreciated.

For your first couple of months you slept a lot, but always wanted to be held. Because you slept so much it was kind of hard for us to figure out a schedule for you. You woke up every time we put you down for a nap but would be so tired. So we both quickly got addicted to this:

Which we transitioned into an addiction to this:

We just stopped using this swaddler about 3 days ago. (as well as your wedge pillow that I lovingly refer to as little wedgie.) I thought you would wake yourself up a lot, but you have actually been doing great without them.

Since the first day you learned how to smile, the expression has hardly left your face. I like to think that we have something to do with your wonderful disposition, but I'm pretty sure we probably were just lucky enough to hit the baby jackpot. It really is amazing how happy you are. You've always loved to watch Owen play. And for some reason don't even mind when he talks to you from 2 inches away from your face. He loves to kiss you; always on either the cheek or the hand.

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By 4 months old, you always wanted a toy in your hands that you could shove comfortably into your mouth. You also started eating solid foods and cannot get enough. Pears, oatmeal, and sweet potatoes are your favorites. You started sitting up a couple of weeks ago and now you've gotten pretty good at rolling and kicking yourself around to wherever you want to go. Yesterday I left you inside to play on the floor for a few minutes while I went outside to throw a baseball for Owen. I heard you squirming around, and when I looked over I saw you right by the window watching us, about 5 feet from where I left you!

You have the most amazing Daddy I could ever imagine. Your face lights up every time he comes home from work. He's so gentle during your late night fussing, and he knows that no boy is ever too young to wrestle. You do a really good job of completely freaking him out any time you spit up within 5 feet of him. This is pretty humorous for your mom. If you look at the picture below, you'll see he even loves you enough to hold you when you're wearing your Sun Devil outfit. Trust me... that means a lot.

You've always enjoyed being outside, but now you even get excited to go to the park. You watch Owen and all the big kids and I feel like you even already have the desire to want to join them. You start kicking your legs every time.

I'm really trying to remember everything you do... but I know my tired little mind has already forgotten many precious things that it wanted to hold on to. The little baby at the bottom of my blog page is getting scarily close to the 1 year mark. You definitely already have a unique independence, so I'm sure you'll be walking away from me before I know what's happened.

So happy half-birthday my sweet boy! Thanks for all the wet baby kisses tonight, even if you were just trying to eat my face. I'll never forget your giant, red, always wet cheeks that I got to kiss back.

Excuses, Excuses

I really wanted to do a post last week for Sutton's big 6 month birthday. But things have been crazy! We were gone all day on Thursday doing different things (dr. appointment, shopping, dinner at Carrie's) and we left early Friday to go to Tucson for the holiday weekend. We were so happy that Colin got Good Friday off so that we could go early and hang out with everybody in Tucson. Unfortunately, Owen and Colin both started to get really sick on Friday with really bad fevers, chest congestion and coughs. So, the weekend turned out a bit differently than we planned. Owen still stayed in high spirits and loved doing all the Easter festivities. He was sad that since he was sick the neighbor boys couldnt join in the egg hunt, but really excited because that meant that he got 3 times as many eggs! Kathy was really smart and filled most of them with pieces of dried fruit instead of candy (although, he still got plenty of candy). And he fell asleep right in my arms during the Easter church service. Anyway, I'm getting way ahead of myself. I really just wanted to write a little post to say that I'm not going to beable to write a post quite yet. Pretty silly, I guess. Sutton and I ended up getting sick when we came home (found out this morning both boys have ear infections) and I had to go to Chicago and back yesterday for a job interview. But more on that adventure later! So, I'm sorry Sutton, your half-birthday post will come later. Once you sleep more than 15 minutes without waking yourself up with a coughing fit and once I can get all this junk drained out of my head so that I can think about how truly wonderful you are.

Oops!

One Oops! for me: Lack of sleep has caused me to be super scatter-brained... today when I pulled Owen's sheets out of the washing machine I also found a raisin, half of a plastic Easter egg, and a pull-up (luckily unused). I've learned my lesson... no more laundry!

And one for my hubby: Colin cooked a great dinner last night of tri-tip. As we were eating Owen left the table to play in the living room. It's a good thing, because when I went in to tell him he had to come finish his meal I noticed our grill was on fire! Huge flames a foot from our house. Colin didn't believe me. He said that he must have just left the grill on and I should just turn it off. He finally came out to see the lid on fire and melting. We were lucky we saw it when we did and only needed a pitcher of water to put it out. I think he wins the Oops! award for the week.

Best Friends

This is my new favorite picture!

Owen gives lots of big brother kisses.

Are you noticing the trend? Owen loves to hold Sutton, and Sutton loves to be held by Owen! It's so nice to see. It melts my heart every time. And yesterday in the car I hear Owen whisper "Sshhh.... be quiet Mommy, Sutton is sleeping. Can I still hold his hand even though he's asleep?" Awe... tear.

This is Owen's pillow and blanket mountain. I thought it was pretty cute that he included Sutton's boppy pillow and asked me to let Sutton play with him.

Hello Again

I feel like I have not posted in a very long time. It's actually only been a couple of weeks; but at the rate I was going the last couple of months, I guess that is a long time between posts. We've just been doing so much lately that I fell behind and then the thought of catching up on everything that has been going on seemed so overwhelming. So, I started avoiding my blog. But I'm back now... only I decided rather than write about everything we've been doing, I'd rather write more about nothing. I'd prefer just to say that everything has been going great!

I think that we are over a huge hump with Owen. The "terrible twos" for Owen were more like the terrible 2.6-3.25. But we have really been working on modifying some of his not so desirable behaviors and it has helped a lot! And I really recommend the book Childwise. Its principles are based on teaching the morality behind behaving so that the child has the tools to think out why they should behave certain ways. Some of the suggestions I thought would be really hard to implement were actually really easy. I would sit down and explain to Owen what was going to change, for instance that I was going to start choosing what he ate for breakfast and if he had a choice about it I would ask him. And it worked! Breakfast is no longer a battle! This one was really easy. Some changes took a little longer, but almost every difficulty has improved. He now actually listens to what I ask of him (most of the time) and is getting better at communicating what he wants and how he feels (i.e. less tantrums). Another tip that has really helped was getting him to say "Yes, Mommy" when I call his name or tell him he needs to do something. At first I thought this sounded pretty Mommy Dearest and maybe a little creepy, but it has really helped to get him to listen and to acknowledge that he heard. We started it out as a game, and he loved it. He asks to "practice saying yes" all the time! When we introduced this "game" we also told him that whenever he said one of our names that we would also answer with a "Yes, Owen" to show the same respect to him. It has helped him to be able to tell us more of what he wants and how he feels. He also is getting used to then not always getting what he wants. This has been a harder lesson, but is definitely getting better. Even Colin's Mom, who of course thought Owen was perfect even in the middle of a world-class tantrum, commented that Owen must have been abducted by aliens because she didn't recognize him the last time she was here. This remark was also brought on by the fact that Owen now eats vegetables!!! It's crazy; it's like every thing fell into place all at once. So it's kind of a case of the chicken and the egg... who really knows which came first. But his improved behavior, better diet, and becoming "regular" (the bathroom kind) all have definitely been reinforcing the rest of these key changes and we are much happier for it!!! One thing we are still working on is being nice to the kids that he is around the most. He is the sweetest boy in the world to kids in his class and strangers at the park. I can't tell you how many times I've seen him spontaneously hand over a train to a child at the bookstore with a smiley "Here you go. You can play with this one." Yet, he is sometimes so mean to cousin Kierstyn and 2nd cousin Brandon. So, these are the next battles we are going to conquer.

Anyway, we've been keeping busy with trips to the park, visits to the Easter Bunny, and visiting friends. I also fit a job interview in there, but haven't heard anything back. :( Last night we got to go meet Ryan and Jill's new baby girl Erin Ashley Clark who was born on the 11th. She is adorable! So happy we got to go see. Jill looks like she is doing great and Brandon is really excited for his baby sister. Although, Jill says that he did already ask if she could go back in mommy's tummy. I guess that probably sums up how every big brother or sister feels at first. But, he will get used to the new wonderful person in their family.

So, I haven't talked at all about Sutton. I figured I would wait until his 6 month half-birthday next week and do an all Sutton post. But, I will leave you with a few pictures of the adorable little guy (who is unofficially sitting up)!!!

Can you see Owen hiding behind him? He's getting ready for a "peek a boo".

"Give me some food crazy woman!!"

The end.

I figured some of you have not seen the back of this crazy head. He has a permanent mini mohawk and this picture does not even do justice to the perfectly defined white, hairless stripe on the back of his head and the red tail right below it!

SHE is a grandma?

I think my mom is way too energetic (not to mention skinny) for the Grandma title. But she takes it on with pride.

The greatest park EVER

We went to Enchanted Island today, which is an amusement park for young kids by downtown Phoenix. It was so much fun! Mom and Dad- after all the money you've shelled out to take these kids to Disneyland, I almost hate to let you know that as we were leaving (after spending $30 for the six of us) Owen said "That was just like Disneyland." But for them, it really was. I think the pictures tell it all...

This was our favorite!

I LOVE this picture of Kierstyn!

Owen and Batman riding the train

This is how Sutton spent most the day.

This huge smile is how Sutton looks most of the time. This one was inspired by the train ride.

I Just Can't Pick a Favorite

I owe these

Some pictures that have fallen into the "I will post later" category from the last few weeks

My Birthday party pics:

Cake Decorating

Sutton with Colin's Grandma

Owen at the park