Birthday & Christmas Pictures & 1 Year Stats

Celebrating birthday at Great-Grandma Taylor's with all the Taylors!

All the Grandbabies (and Great-Grandbaby)

The immediate Mike Taylor family

Celebrating birthday at the Hardy's

Santa came to Grandma Cheryl's!

Such a happy boy!

Sportin' a Hawkeye cap!

After all the great weekend activities and being such a happy boy - we had to take Kayson to his 1 year Well-Check visit this morning. He was not happy during and afterwards. What a horrible, horrible experience! Shots are enough, but to top it off, he had to have his finger pricked (for an Iron test)... brutal!!!! No more crying for just 30 seconds. This one lasted nearly 20 minutes. Poor little guy... oh it breaks our hearts!!!

Here are his stats for 1 year:

Weight - 24 lbs 13 oz (78%)

Height - 31 1/4" (90%)

He's not as chubby as we thought he was!!! ha. But if you see those thighs, you would agree with us! :) He's perfect.

He's doing great - and now we just start experiencing what a 1 year old will do for us! I'm up for the challenge! ha. :) We are going to be busy!

My "BABY" is 1!

A year ago on Christmas Eve - this is how Kayson decided to join our family:

Christmas Eve -- Mike, JeanAnn, Ryan and I hung out at the townhome for a while - 'thinking' we would be celebrating Chrsitmas the next day at the townhome with Blair & Martina. We attended Christmas Eve service at our church in Waukee. Nice service, but I was extremely uncomfortable the entire time. I couldn't sit still - I was antsy!! We got home and Mike & JeanAnn took off for their hotel. I was exhausted, so I headed to bed (I think around 11 pm). Ryan came to bed around 1 am. I woke up at 1:05 am with some back pain. I went to the bathroom and walked a little... and the back pains kept coming on. I thought to myself - "Crap, this baby is coming on Christmas Day!!" I woke Ryan up at 1:14 am. (He was tired!) He didn't know what I meant by having 'back labor' - we looked in the book (just to make sure...) and sure enough, that's what I was experiencing. We started timing the contractions... me walking around, sitting (if I could) and slowly getting my things together. We timed the contractions til about 2:15 am. They were nearly 2 or 3 minutes apart, lasting about a minute each. Ryan did so well with me and writing everything down! We headed out to the hospital around 2:30 am. We got the hospital and all settled in my labor/deliver room. I recieved my epidural around 4:30 am and I was in heaven! Pain free. :) Now - we just wait. I have to say that was the hardest thing to do... but Ryan & I did well - we talked and laughed, and tried to close our eyes (which was impossible)... then around 10:30 am, I was told it was time to push. I pushed - nothing... and pushed - nothing... I was then told that I needed to 'labor down' - which simply meant to let the epidural do more work and let Kayson move more down into the canal some more. I was extremely disappointed and frustrated - thinking I wasn't going to be able to do this... but after about 35 minutes of that, it was time to push again. Kayson arrived at 1:16 pm on Christmas Day - weighing 7 lbs 11 oz.


So this Christmas Day was a blessing for us. We can't believe our 'baby' is 1 now. I have to admit, I was emotional - I cried a little (in private) and laughed and smiled at my baby.


Our Kayson does so much now - each day is something new.

This weekend when we were at my parents - they have two small steps that go from their living room to the dining room - Aunt Tricia showed him how to crawl up them... and right after she did, he did it. It was CRAZY! He lifted his little leg and just pulled himself up like it was no big deal! Of course, all Ryan & I could think was "UH OH!" We have our hands full!


He's now eating big people food - I'm still using up some of the baby food I have, but we are really trying to get him out of that and into the more calorie stuff. He's a growing boy and needs more food! We go for our 1 year appointment in the morning, so I'm assuming we'll start him on whole milk this week. BIG STEPS for Buster!


He's doing more and more signing... we just keep working with him.


He snuggles just a touch more. Not a lot, but there's times when he will rest his head on your shoulder for a little bit. Oh, what a sweet feeling.


He plays rough - typical boy! You would think that he plays rougher with Ryan, but he actually plays hard with me. He pounces on me quite a bit and just laughs. It's so funny.

All in all, looking back over these past 12 months has been a breath of relief - we did it. We raised a baby and survived! We lived past the late night and early morning feedings. We figured out that breast feeding just didn't work for me and Kayson. We love watching Kayson learn new things every day - and soak in so much! We can't wait to see what the next 12 months bring.

Christmas & Birthday - Here & GONE!

My little family made it to Clarion on Christmas Eve. The weather sure did throw us for a loop, but we did it - we made it just fine... and I'm so thankful. We spent two days with my family and we had a wonderful time. Saturday morning we headed to Creston. The roads were a little iffy in spots, but we made it just fine. Again - very thankful! And again - had a fantastic time with the Taylor's. We are blessed to have such wonderful families...

Kayson was such a good boy through all of this - being gone for 4 days from his own bed and 'normalcy'. I hear it all the time - "he's such a good boy"... and he is. He adjusts well, which is a nice feeling. We celebrated his birthday several times this long weekend! Of course! Cupcakes and birthday presents (and of course Christmas presents). Spoiled little boy. ;)

I have a ton of pictures to share, and I will... but will post them later.
I want to thank our families for the wonderful gifts, food and love - we love you all. And I personally can't believe that Christmas & Kayson's birthday is here and gone - in a flash, it seems.

Signing & a White Christmas

For the past several months, Ryan and I have been signing with Kayson. We are told that daycare does this as well... so the more, the better. Ryan gave me an early Christmas present last night (simply because he thought it would fit in my stocking, but it didn't) - it was a book "Signing to your Baby". I loved it!!! We started practicing more last night... and I learned a lot. It says that signing could take about 2 weeks up to 4 weeks for the baby to start signing back. And it says to just keep on doing it, consistantly and the baby will catch on. Kayson knows some signs - "More" (or "Again"), "Bath", "Milk". We are really working on "Momma", "Daddy", "Please", "Hungry" and some others... it's so cool to watch Kayson learn this and also a challenge for Ryan and I to learn and teach it as well.

It sounds like we will definitely have a white Christmas this year - along with some ice. We are suppose to travel up to Clarion Thursday sometime, but I'm guessing we will be staying home. I'm sad about that... but also a tiny part of me thinks that it will be nice to be home with just Ryan and Kayson for Christmas and Kayson's birthday. I'm praying that somehow it'll be just warm enough for us to travel, but also know not to get my hopes up too high.

If you do travel in Iowa - please be careful!!

Staying In

It's Saturday evening - Kayson's in bed, Ryan is asleep in his chair. So far, we've had a nice weekend. Last night we stayed in and got a Papa Murphy's pizza, really good... and we watched a movie (for the first time in months). We rented "The Proposal" off of Pay Per View. I'm glad we didn't go spend a ton of money to watch it in a theater. It was good, but not what we thought - since I guess it was so hiped up by everyone else, we assumed it would be just that awesome. It was ok.

Today I napped while Kayson took his morning nap. I've just been plain tired. We met Mike & JeanAnn for lunch and then did a WalMart run. The rest of the day was spent at home - Kayson napping, and just doing random stuff. Good day. Tomorrow will be groceries (should have went tonight!), and that'll be it. We need a relaxing weekend cuz next weekend will be crazy!

Here's a picture of what Kayson did while Daddy got the pizza Friday night. (Getting into the Christmas cards we've gotten!)

We play hard & laugh hard!

There are some evenings around the Taylor household that are just plain funny - mostly because of Buster. ;) I guess Ryan and I can be funny (haha), but honestly, if we get Kayson to laugh pretty hard, we can't stop smiling! Here are a few videos of the last couple evenings.

This is Kayson wanting to get to the presents. He was laughing hard when I would pull him back...

And this one is a ritual - Kayson and Daddy playing hard. His laugh is priceless!

Best Part of our Day

Being a parent is amazing, it's trying, it's rewarding (now!), it's a wonderful feeling. Right now, the best part of being a parent is when Ryan or I get Kayson up in the morning and he gives us a HUGE smile and kicks his legs and waves 'HI'! I could be dragging in the morning (which is typically every morning), and the second I go into his room and turn on the light - he squints his eyes (cuz the light it so bright!) and smiles, and I smile and snuggle on him. Ryan and Kayson are the best part of MY days! What is the best part of your day?

Great Weekend

We had another very busy weekend, but always a good one. We headed to Creston Friday evening. Had a good drive, despite being a little concerned about the roads, but they were actually ok. We saw plenty of cars and semis in the ditches from the Wednesday blizzard. (If you don't know me well - you'll soon know that I hate winter weather when it comes to the roads. I am a nervous wreck nearly every time there's snow/sleet/freezing rain, etc --- a couple years ago I spun out on I80 on black ice, and ever since then I panic. I'm not going to lie - I'm probably not the person you want to see on the road when it's crappy weather!! I just hate it!! ha!) Saturday we celebrated Christmas (and Kayson's birthday) with Aunt Maagie. Before she and the others arrives, we had Kayson's picture taken with Santa in Creston. He did so well - looked at Santa funny and then looked at us and clapped! It was awesome. I'm anxious to see the picture! Anyway, it was a great time with Aunt Maagie and Susan & Ashlei and Jimmy. Nice company and just relaxing. Here are a few pictures - Celebrating all the December birthdays on the Taylor/Cobb side.



We headed back to Des Moines Saturday evening - I personally don't like to be away from home for an entire weekend (I'm such a 'home-body'), plus we had already decided that we would come home and get some things done around the house. I did laundry til late Saturday night and many other things that just get lost in the 'things to do'. Sunday - more laundry, more putting stuff away, another photo shoot, and the Sunday routine of grocery shopping. On the grocery shopping note - I need to start shopping on Saturdays or Mondays. Sundays are CRAZY at HyVee. Plus 9 times out of 10 I can't get something we need b/c they are out! Our neighbors stopped by with some Christmas cookies too, so that was super nice - nice to visit with them and their two little boys. I have a feeling this spring/summer will be great - once we can get outside and play! We'll really get to know them and the others better.


Now it's Monday - time just flies by. I've got to get to Kohls and the mall this week - no if's, and's or butt's about it!!! This coming weekend we have nothing planned (no travelling anyway), so I'll be able to get the gifts wrapped up and start getting organized for the holidays and being gone for 4 days.

Neighbors & Crawling

We have a neighbor that is a life-saver, according to Ryan. He has a kick-a## snowblower, again - according to Ryan - he helped out all of the homes on the block - just 4 families, but that's a lot when it's 16 inches of snow and fairly long driveways. Ryan was very thankful (as I am too), and he also got to meet the guys on the block. So that's nice. I'm anxious to meet the girls on the block - I know their names, but that's it. We didn't get really 'dug' out until this morning around 6:30. The plow made one swipe around 4:00 (I think).

It was nice to be at home yesterday... and Buster has been slowly getting up on those knees to crawl, so that's been fun. I got it on video, but had a hell of a time uploading it last night... so I'll just tell you about it! He does really well going from his tummy to sitting up, and now that he can get up on those knees - he slowly scoots each leg/knee... it's so darn cute! He won't come see us if we tell him to 'Come here' - but if we show him something he shouldn't have - he goes right after it! Why is that??! ha.

He's also feeling better - finally! The only thing now is getting him to sleep soundly through the night again. Those two weeks, we were up a lot in the night... now I'm afraid he's getting 'use' to that. I'm not going to lie - I'm sore from lifting him in and out of his crib. We have the crib as low as it'll go and he's heavy and my back hurts!!!

Snowed In!

We are literally snowed in today!! and I'm actually lovin' it! With no snow blower, we are stuck, unless Ryan wants to scoop nearly 3 foot of snow in our driveway! I'm guessing we'll borrow a snow blower. (I hope!) Iowa has been hit with the Blizzard of '09 (according to the news), it's windy, cold and I believe we've gotten nearly 16 inches of snow already. Holy Crap! Ryan and I both stayed home today and it's been great - we've gotten things done... and have played and relaxed with Buster.

Here's a picture of Kayson listening to some ITunes (courtesy of Daddy). So funny.


And giggles from Kayson...

Sick Boy Update

Dr. Spinelli wanted to see Kayson again --- double ear infection. Well, it's a no wonder he's been a bear!! Ryan took him this morning - instead of changing antibiotics, they just gave him a shot. Hoping this will kick in faster and help him out. Poor guy. Ryan called to give me the news, and Kayson is just sobbing in the background. Breaks my heart.

We obviously couldn't take him to daycare with such a high temp... so Ryan took the morning shift, I'm taking the afternoon shift. I sure hope he's better by tomorrow.

Very busy weekend - and Sick Boy

In this order, this was our busy weekend... and not very many breaks in between.
Saturday:

1. Dogs to the vet Saturday morning
2. Not happy baby Kayson - high temp, fussy
3. Photo shoot in the basement
4. Blair, Martina & Martina's parents visit for a little bit
5. Still unhappy baby - temp is lower
6. Attempted to get some laundry done
7. Mike & JeanAnn come to stay with Kayson Saturday evening
8. Let our friends dog out
9. Attended Ryan's work holiday party - at the Funny Bone
10. Crashed - but didn't sleep well - up through the night...

Sunday:

1. Target run first thing in the morning
2. Kayson seems a little happy - temp is lower
3. Attempted to get shopping done - we were pretty successful
4. Two good friends of mine (and their kids) came over for a visit
5. Kayson wakes up from nap - crabby and high temp again
6. Let our friends dog out (a different friend/different dog)
7. Kayson throws up his dinner - bath time
8. Try to play and keep baby happy - not very successful
9. Kayson bedtime - still didn't sleep well

Monday:

1. Very high temp for Kayson - Ryan and I are taking shifts today (him - a.m., me - p.m.)
2. Dealing with the snow/ice covered roads - yuk

I'm exhausted and extremely worried about Kayson.

Kuhl Visit

The Kuhl's came to visit tonight... we had pizza and watched the little ones play. Cali is getting so big - and SO SMART! Here are a couple videos of the evening.

Pics

Here are some funny pictures of Buster.

Relaxin' in Dada's chair. Friday when we were at Uncle Blair & Aunt Martina's - Kayson was 'veggin' in Blair's chair and Martina rocked and rocked him... he acted as if he could fall asleep, but never did... I guess now he just needs a remote and a drink. ;)


This is the new funny face that he makes... kind of puts his chin out a little and squints his eyes...


Again - but really showin' those teeth! Too funny. (Ignore the snotty nose!)


BLLLAAAAHHH!!!

Infections and Shopping?

My sinus infection is back - or should I say - the doctor thinks it never went away from the last time. Wonderful! I'm on some medication - for 21 days! My goodness, you would think that would do it! Kayson has the start of an ear infection - he has some fluid back behind his ears that are making him so unhappy. Dr. Spinelli put a prescription in, but wanted us to wait to pick it up... (to see if Kayson spikes a temp). I love the fact that Spinelli is laid-back, however, I think I'll pick the meds up tonight, since Kayson didn't sleep well again and is just not himself. We will continue to do breathing treatments to help the cough. And Kayson got the H1N1 shot as well... so that's off the list.

Has everyone got their Christmas shopping done? or at least started? I have 3 things bought - two of my nieces are done, and one lonely little gift for Kayson. We have so much to do! I started a little list of who we need to buy for... and I struggle with what to get. We obviously need to watch our pennies, and not go overboard, so that limits us. We really need to plan ahead better and get some of this stuff done earlier next year. Happy shopping to you all... and wish us luck!