Random Thoughts

• Our son is so handsome... ;) He's just a little 'man' and growing up so fast!! He's starting to lose that really chubbiness to his face, and becoming more of a toddler... makes me sad!
• I'm tired. Plain and simple. We've had a rough week with Kayson not sleeping through the night... we are assuming it's teeth, but I guess we just never know! He now has 6 teeth - 4 on the bottom and his top 2. His right top one is just now starting to really show! (I secretly hope he has his Daddy's teeth - straight!)
• Looking forward to this Spring and Summer (that's not anything new tho) - but more because we'll be able to get outside and play and meet our neighbors. I'm really anxious to hopefully make a little 'family' of neighbors.
• Back to Kayson not sleeping well --- I suppose he could be going through a growth-spurt that's making him restless at night? Or his ears might hurt? I'll be glad when he can tell us what's wrong...
• I ordered some backdrops for my photography... Saturday I will be figuring out my lighting. I'm setting aside that morning to really get that done.
• I've gotten back to working out - finally. I said I was going to start about 3 weeks ago, well that didn't happen... but this week - I've worked out 3 times already. That's a big step! I just need to get toned again.
• We love our house!! We love the space!
• My fingernails are shot. They need some real TLC! Maybe this weekend I can attempt that!

32

Today is my birthday... I'm 32. Boring. ha. Birthday's don't really phase me anymore - it's just another day... as I'm realizing I have much more important things in my life that I don't need to fret or worry about birthdays and getting older. Sure - I don't want to get older... but each day I do. It's just par for the course!

I had a good day - the sun was shining this morning, which was AWESOME! Lately we haven't seen much sun - mostly fog, snow or rain. So the sun was a nice start to my day. We attended church (for the first time in nearly 10 months!) Kayson was 'dedicated' at church - a small service for dedicating him to God and our church. He was already baptized, but this is something that our church here does. Pastor Larry 'paraded' him around the congregation, and Kayson wasn't quite sure about him... once back into Daddy's arms, he snuggled right up and rested his head on Ryan's shoulder. He's so at that age where he's not quite sure about some people! We then went for lunch - my favorite - El Rodeo. Then home to do random stuff and actually relaxed a little too. It was a nice day... even if I have to say I'm 32 now!

Dark & Decorating

First - here are a few pictures of Kayson:
Standing up to everything... looks like he just wants to take off!

"Buster's Delivery Service" is on his shirt - PERFECT for him! Thanks to Grandma JeanAnn!

I posted on Facebook that I am no longer blonde, I went dark. The last time I got my hair done, we went a little darker, not as many blonde highlights... well, I really liked it. So this time, I said, let's go even darker and we did! I like it. Ryan says it's good now, however, the first day, he wasn't so sure, I think! It's different... and can easily be changed back. This summer I'll go blonde again I'm sure! (I don't have any pictures yet... hard to do that when I'm behind the camera 95% of the time. MAYBE I'll get a picture with my son on my birthday!)

Today was a great day - busy, but that's just plain normal around here. My parents came down for the day... We made lunch here and then went to Homemakers to browse dining room tables. By the way, that place is GINORMOUS! Someone could get lost in there! We haven't had a dining room table for 5 years now... and now that we have a bigger home, and a real family, we figured we really should purchase one. We browsed for awhile and decided on one. I'm excited to get it (in 2 weeks) and start using it! It'll be good to have dinners and lunches at the table... good for the family to do that! Afterwards, while Kayson was napping, we hung a bunch of stuff on the walls and put together a bench and coat rack thingie. Everything looks great and really helps the house look even more homier. I'm so pleased! Trish, Greg and the girls, and Riley Jo (Hope's best friend) were here tonight too - we played and ordered pizza. Kayson really took to Riley Jo, so that was nice... they played with their cell phones the entire time (pretty much) - texting and calling each other... Kayson LOVED it. Oh to be 12 again! ha.

Here's Kayson texting.


Now it's 10:00 and I'm beat.

Iced In!

Well, I'm officially sick and tired of Iowa winters. I'm guessing everyone else around here is as well. I was going to attempt the drive into work this morning, I had every intention... then I decided to look out the window and saw that our garbage bin had slid down the street a little bit... so I put Kayson in his highchair and I quickly went outside to pull it back up to the driveway... while slipping and falling. Perfect. (Enter sarcasm here). The driveway was a skating rink, as well as the street. I decided there was no way I was going to drive Kayson to daycare and then downtown. I'm just not putting myself through that. It makes me crazy nervous. It could have easily been fine (some people said some roads were fine), but I didn't do it. We stayed in all day... and had a good day. Kayson took a GREAT nap this morning - 2 hours. I layed down as well and slept nearly an hour and a half. We played hard and read every book at least 10 times! This afternoon was a completely different story for naps - he screamed and cried for an hour. I tried the laying him back down and walking away, I tried the rocking him and giving him more milk, I tried reading to him, I tried just walking around... it didn't work. I knew then I had an "over-tired" baby. For you other Mom's out there - over-tired babies are not fun! We tried to play the rest of the afternoon and evening, but nothing made him happy... he did eat well, so that was a plus. Tonight I knew we should start bed a little early... I started at 6:50 and by 8:00, he was asleep. LONG HOUR for me!!! BUT - he sleeps and looks so sweet. ;)

So... now I hope to get to work tomorrow safely... Ryan called and said he will be home tomorrow night, rather than Friday. WONDERFUL! I can't wait to have him home. I get my hair done tomorrow late afternoon, so JeanAnn and Grandma Janis are coming to take care of Kayson. Tomorrow is a new day - NO MORE ICE and SNOW. I'm tired of it!!! ;)

Day off

Today was a day off for me... in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Today I had a 'me' day. Kayson went to daycare and of course had a good day! I had a great day as well - I was able to get some random things done this morning (grocery shopping, laundry, gave the dogs a bath). My friend Aimee stopped by and we talked/tested photography stuff. (I'm trying to figure out my indoor equipment a little more). I was also able to have lunch with my good friend Colleen. Then to top it off, I spent over an hour in Kohls - browsing... literally every section!! It was great! I picked Buster up early from daycare, and we headed over to visit Lacey, Corbin & Kipton. We had a great visit - with busy Corbin!!! The rest of the night we ate and played... and Kayson was ready for bed at 7:15. I'm ready for bed now - having a day off is great, but sometimes I pack it so full with stuff, then I'm exhausted!!! But it was so worth it!

I've said this before, I wish I had a day off each week - it makes a world of difference! ;)

Busy!!

We had a very busy (nonstop) weekend... except for this evening when we got home. Of course we played hard, but Kayson did stop for about 30 seconds... hangin' out with Daddy.



So our weekend - Saturday started with getting Kayson's 1 year pictures taken... by Target. I know, I know - why didn't I take them?? Hmmm... well... I've been having a hard time finding the time, and to be honest, I wanted to see how they did them. Plus, it was cheap and fast... and it's done. I'll have the pictures next week (wish I had them now, but oh well!) I can't say that we'll go back there, but it was fine, and we'll have 1 year pictures. That's what matters. We attended Ryan's cousin, Duke's, 4 year birthday party late Saturday afternoon... then crashed at home. Ryan's parents stayed with us, so that was nice - our first overnight guests in the house. We hope they were comfortable - in just a full size bed!! But at least it's a bed - more than we had at the townhome!! Anyway, we were tired - we had been nonstop all day... I was in bed by 9:30 and I'm pretty sure Ryan was in bed around 10:00. Big partiers!!! ha.

Today we had some more guests - our friends Clay, Holly & Gillian. They were in town and stopped by to see the house and catch up. We had a great visit - even tho it was short. We then attended a Tastefully Simple party at Blair & Martina's this afternoon. Always good food to munch on and good company. The boys played in the basement, the girls ate and ate! And finally tonight, we had some quiet time.

Kayson was such a good boy all weekend - typically always is. He's so much fun... he even has started to give some snuggles to us - resting his head on our shoulders and giving hugs. My gosh, it's such a wonderful feeling!! Gotta squeeze and keep those close by as much as we can, cuz has he gets older, I'm sure we won't get very many snuggles!

Ryan will be out of town this entire week. It's going to be an adjustment for us... probably more for me. I'll miss him so much.

Car Wash & Volleyball

It's nearly impossible to keep your vehicle clean this time of year... unless you plain don't drive it! Mine has been filthy! I decided last night after I picked Buster up that we would run through the car wash... simple enough. Well, apparently Kayson DOES NOT LIKE THE CAR WASH! He had a complete melt-down the second it started spraying and covering the car... I am assuming it was too loud for him. He was just plain scared - shaking his hands and crying hard. I felt HORRIBLE. Guess we won't be doing car washes again for awhile!!

Winter volleyball started up last night... 9:30 game. 9:30!!! That's so my 'getting ready for bed time', not 'getting ready to play VB!' I told myself at the end of the Fall volleyball session that I was going to be done... I don't feel that I'm very good anymore... things are different now!!! But I decided to stick it out this session... we'll see how I feel about it at the end. Needless to say, I'm exhausted today. I didn't get really 'settled down' until nearly 11:15 last night... 5:30 came way too early this morning!!

Happy Friday!

What the heck!?!?

Tonight Ryan picked Kayson up from daycare and this is what we found - look at his hair?!?! What the heck? Did he get food in it and they couldn't get it to sit down? Did he sleep on it wrong? Again - what the heck!?!? I had to capture it!

Good weekend

I am disgusted by Sunday evenings... ha. We live for the weekends now, and I get mad that they have to go SO FAST! You would think I would be use to it by now! ;)

Anyway, we did have a great weekend. Lots of time at home, lots of fun and bonding with Kayson, and also spent some time with some friends and family. Friday night we were home. We actually have stayed home a lot lately - it's just too damn cold to go out. Saturday morning I took some engagement pictures - great couple, very photogenic, so that was easy! Saturday afternoon, Uncle Blair & Aunt Martina came to visit for a bit - Blair & Ryan went and did some guy stuff; Martina, Kayson & I ran to Target - along with everyone else in the Des Moines area! It was crazy busy! Saturday evening we had our friends Justin & Christina over for pizza, beer and to catch up. We had such a nice time... ate too much and talked and talked. It was fun!

Today we've done random things around the house. Ryan chipped away at the bottom of our driveway - getting all the ice out of the way. It was piled up and nearly 6 inches thick, he said. When it's this cold and when we've had so much snow, it was bound to happen... so thanks to Ryan for getting that taken care of. No more huge bump when driving into the driveway or backing up. I did the normal stuff - laundry, a little cleaning and grocery shopping. I baked a great dinner (if I don't say so myself!) and now it's 9:00. YUK!

Back to work tomorrow... and Ryan has to travel a couple days this week, so I sure hope those few days FLY BY!

Kayson...

• loves the Itsy-Bitsy Spider - we have a book that has nearly 7 variations of the original Itsy-Bitsy Spider. (Who would have thought!?!?) Kayson loves it and will bring us the book to read over and over again.
• will sit and read all of his books in his basket - he will pull each one out and flip through it and move on to the next one. It's a wonderful time for him and us!
• is wild!! He's obviously a pro at crawling now... and screams when he goes really fast!! It's histerical!
• plays ball. We will roll the ball to him, he'll roll it back.
• loves to play/sing Pat-Y-Cake, ABCs and count 1-5 and then give us High-5.
• has multiple nicknames: Buster, Buster Brown, Wild Man, Monster, Buddy, Kayson Mason (per Aunt Tricia)
• is starting to pull himself up onto things - mostly just Ryan and I.
• knows more signs - All Done, Ball, Please, Hello
• loves food. This was the hardest part of him turning 1 (for me) - making sure he still eats enough - well I now feel like he does. We have tried a lot over the past 2 weeks and most of it has gone really well.
• is hungry RIGHT AWAY in the morning - just like his Momma!

These were just some random thoughts I had about Kayson. He's at such a fun age. Ryan and I will just laugh at him - it's such a great feeling!

Irritated & Other Stuff!

Have you ever had just one of those days where things don't go really right? Where you are just irritated with just about everything?! That day was today for me. It's funny when I think about it now - nothing really in particular pissed me off or nothing really went completely wrong... just in general! Good thing I have Kayson to keep me smilin! Anywho - I got stuck at the end of our driveway tonight... figures (part of the things not going right!) Here's a lovely picture of the wind, the drifts and my car.



Here are a few pictures of Kayson - after his bath and the other picture is him saying "Hello" - you can't see it, but he has a little phone, and he has that up to his ear. So freakin cute.


I have to say we are doing much better with the sippy cup of milk. My last post I expressed our struggles, but it's going much better. He doesn't 'chug' it, but he at least doesn't have a fit and will drink from the sippy. We are pleased! My friends were right - give it time! We did, and it has seemed to work.

I hope everyone is staying warm. I'm so ready for spring - jeans and a light sweater. Perfect weather! ha. :)

Challenges

Our little family is going through a big challenge lately. The challenge of getting our wonderful son to drink his milk out of a sippy cup!!! Seems silly doesn't it? I'm sure you thought we were having some 'real' problems. ha. Well - to me, this is a problem - a challenge. I'm struggling. Kayson is struggling. We've started to take the bottle away for his snacks and middle of the day feedings... that actually didn't go too bad. He takes water from the sippy cup like a champ, and milk just okay. So over the past week we've started to take the morning bottle away - giving him a sippy cup of milk and actual breakfast. He struggles with the sippy cup in the morning - cries. He KNOWS it's not his bottle. And to add to the madness - we've decided to take the nighttime bottle away as well.

I feel like a horrible mom - it would be so easy to just give him that bottle again and we would be set. But for the past 3 evenings, we've cried (even me a little!) and pushed the sippy cup away. He'll take a little, then cry hard... push it away, then cry some more... then take a sip. It's a LONG process! All my friends have said "it's sometimes a challenge, just be patient and keep trying... Kayson will figure it out." Oh my - it sure has tested my patience. We'll keep at it, and I sure do hope every day gets easier and easier for him.

For you mothers out there - I'd love some more advice, some more suggestions... We will try anything right now!! We want our baby happy!!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2010. Will I remember to write that correctly on my checks and random things?? Seems weird! We had a nice night at home for New Years Eve. We babysat Miss Cali (Colleen & Travis' little girl) - she did great - played great and went to bed like a champ (little girl champ!) It was fun to have another little one around to snuggle on! Ryan and I did stay up til midnight - at 12:02 am, we said good night.

Now... resolutions? Will there be any resolutions for you all out there? Mine -- mine is to workout. I can't even say workout more, I just simply have to say WORKOUT! My friend Brenda and I are going to workout at the facilities at work. It's right there, it's free - so why is it so damn hard to get there!!??? If I can get at least 3 or 4 days worth of elliptical or a toning class, I would feel so much better. This small tire around my belly sure seems to be growing... :)

Hope everyone had a safe New Year - and hope you all can make a resolution that you can KEEP!