Rough weekend

Well, Luke has another first to add to the list, but not such a happy one, it's his first cold. )-: Saturday morning I woke up early to Luke crying, very snotty, and very warm. Greg got the thermometer out and he had a temp of 102.6! He couldn't find the Tylenol so he ran to the grocery store to get more while I got up with Luke (way earlier than usual at 7am). Before he got back I had found the Tylenol and given him some. An hour later his temp had come down some but was still 100.8, but he was happy and playing and didn't seem at all bothered by it. We had gotten tickets from one of the Dr's I work with to the K State/OU game that morning and were planning to leave him with my parents and since he seemed to not be bothered and the Tylenol was working we decided to go ahead with plans. Also I talked with another nurse I knew and after talking about his symptoms we agreed that there was no reason to take him to the Dr unless his temp spiked higher, they wouldn't do anything we weren't already doing.

The game was a really fun experience. I have never been to Manhattan, KS and the drive was beautiful with the rolling hills and fall grasses all different colors. A K State game is a totally different experience from a Notre Dame game. At Irish games the student section is all green but the rest of the arena is all different colors, it's high spirited and fun but K State fans have a unique feel to them. The entire arena was packed with people wearing purple, only a few red sections for the OU supporters but almost everyone had their team color on. My cousin Greg said that it used to be that people all wore grey or white with purple letters and were kind of ashamed to be purple but then they started a campaign for purple pride to get everyone to come to the game wearing purple and now everyone does! K State ended up losing in a very high scoring game but we had a lot of fun anyway.

We came home and mom reported that Luke had been very mellow and sweet all day and had slept for three straight hours in the afternoon, at least twice the usual length. We figured the cold was getting to him a little bit but his fever seemed to be mostly gone so that was good. Unfortunately his nose was very, very runny and that meant that his mouth was his only good airway. That meant that eating was hard, sucking on a paci to comfort himself was out of the question, and his mouth was constantly open so he was soaked with spit! We had a really rough night, his fever came back though not as high and he was really frustrated with trying to nurse with a clogged nose. Sunday was pretty long too, he had times when he was pretty happy and playing but I could never be far away and sometimes there just wasn't anything that could distract him from how icky he was feeling. The Mei Tai Baby I bought was a total lifesaver. It was the only way I could do anything requiring two hands and he was pretty happy in it most of the afternoon.

I think the stuffed nose is beginning to ease up a little bit now and his fever is down again so I am hoping tonight will go better. I guess this is relatively good timing for him to be sick though because I don't have to work the next two days so he can have lots of snuggling to cheer him up until he is feeling like his old self again. Until then my time is pretty much consumed by his needs. One interesting thing I noticed was that since his nose got clogged Saturday he has not wanted to eat solid foods at all for me, only nursing will do. Usually when I am home he eats solid foods at least a couple times a day along with nursing as often as he wants to but nursing doesn't seem to satisfy him all the time anymore. Usually he really enjoys trying new foods and I can't get the food to his mouth fast enough, but today he refused to even try anything. I'm not sure if it's even harder to breath while eating solid foods and that's the reason or if it is the fact that nothing seems to taste good when you can't smell or if it's just instinct telling him that breast milk will be the best thing for him right now, plenty of fluids and lots of good nutrients and antibodies to help him get better. Anyway, it's interesting to me..

The mei tai allowed me to make soup for dinner tonight, the first I have made this fall. I made my favorite, lentil and sausage soup from the "More With Less" cookbook. It is supper easy and doesn't take long, if you have the ingredients in the house. I got all the way to adding the lentils, the last thing before you sit back and let it cook, and realised I would have to make a trip to the store! I ended up getting quite a few other things we needed which was ok, but I would have rather eaten a little earlier and gone shopping tomorrow or the next day if necessary. Oh well, the soup was really good. Even though I hate being cold there are definitely some things I love about fall... All the beautiful leaves and grasses and milo fields, scarves and warm snugly blankets and shawls, hot tea with milk in it, soup, crisp apples, squash/pumpkin dishes, candy corn, and knitting! I am over half way finnished with the first sock for my Mom and it is turring out easier than I thought and very pretty. I just hope I can get done with all my Christmas projects before it's Christmas! Time seems to be going by so quickly!

Happy Fall everyone and I hope we are the only sickies!

clapping video

I finally got the clapping on tape!!! Please ignore the messy desk and room overflowing with construction materials. (-; Enjoy!

New tricks

My baby learned how to clap his hands this week! My mom got to see him do it for the first time. It is so sweet, he is so proud of himself! Now that he is copying us clapping I wonder how long it will be before he starts to copy some of the signs I have been showing him. He has also gotten really good at putting small things in his mouth all of the sudden and likes to practice with any little piece of lint he can find on the floor! We have to watch very closely now, but it is so much fun to see him learn and change. He is growing up so fast!

We went to see my good friend Amy and her little boy last weekend, he is about 3 1/2 months and mine is 7 1/2 months and they are only about a 1 pound different in weight! We had a good time with them, Luke was really excited about this "toy" that moved so we had to keep a good grip on him. (-;

Not much is going on right now, the usual work and church and enjoying friends and family. Greg's dad will be here for a visit and to help with work on the house which has been mostly on hold for quite a while now. He gets here in two weeks. At work one of my patients called in my manager to tell her what an amazing nurse I am (-: very sweet of her! Kinda nice to hear something positive about your work from your manager for a change. We also went mostly paperless at work recently which has been stressful but I think everyone is getting the hang of it now and hopefully it won't be long before everyone starts to feel more comfortable with it.

Well, I need to get off. Only a little more time with my baby before it's off to Grandma's for him and to work for me. Time with him is so precious to me.

knitting fun

Here are a few pics of my latest projects...

These socks are made of cotton and superwash wool blend self striping yarn in a basic toe up pattern. I love the pattern because it is very easy to adapt to any size foot but for my next project I wanted to try something more complicated so I could learn more stitches.

These are my next project...

They are beautiful, but so far all I have is one toe. I already learned a new cast on and toe pattern, now for the tough part. Hopefully sometime next week I can go back to the Beadery for another lesson. These I am making for my mom and my sister-in-law for Christmas.

Now for a few Luke pics...

Today Luke and I were playing after a diaper change and he started kissing himself in the mirror! It was soooo cute but every time I brought the camera up to take a pic he only wanted to look at it so I didn't manage to get the kisses on film. )-: Maybe next time.

More pics of Easton and Family

I just got a few more pics from Canada of the happy family, this time including their beautiful daughter, Cassia. In the one below it actually looks like Easton is smiling with everyone else for the picture!



They got some really great facial expressions on camera already!

James and Courtney

So, my brother James is engaged to his sweetheart! I don't think they have an exact date set yet but the plan is for sometime next April. Aren't they cute all happy and in love and excited!

Congratulations!!!

Easton!!!

Easton was born this afternoon to my husband's sister and brother-in-law up in Canada!!! He weighs 7lbs, 1 oz. and everyone is doing great!!! He has a big sister at home too.

Isn't he a cutee! Welcome Easton! We can't wait to meet you in person!

My little brother Tim is on the JV team at our local high school and for once I was able to go see him play a bit. He is #4 for anyone who can't tell otherwise. The pics aren't great because he was all the way across the field and I zoomed in pretty drastically to get these shots.



Unfortunately they didn't win but someone told me that with the JV team they don't try to win as much as to get everyone some good experience on the field.

Now here are the videos of Luke and Sheldon on our trip as promised.

I just got started learning several new stitches using a pretty sock pattern for Christmas presents. Luke came with me to a local yarn and bead shop and he played and slept all afternoon while I slowly learned a new cast on method and toe pattern. I'll have to go back for the next part of the pattern and eventually I'll share pictures I hope. We also spent the morning at a local baby shop with lots of other young mothers at a "Breastfeeding Cafe" which was a lot of fun and afterwards several of us ate lunch together too. Luke always exceeds my expectations and is so happy and good-natured it seems everyone he meets is impressed by how easy he is. Several people in the yarn store commented on how well he played and slept and allowed me to learn and knit. I am grateful.

Quick Trip

We just got back from a long weekend trip to Indiana so I wanted to post a few pics quickly. We wanted to pack a lot into a short time so we flew part of the way there, Luke's first time in an airplane! He did great on the way up, just nursed and slept the whole way, and soon we were there with Mimi and Pawpaw waiting to pick us up!

The trip was really good timing, it just happened to be the weekend of the MCC sale so we caught up with a lot of friends there. We also ate a lot of really good food there. Several of the local churches had food booths there with foods from different countries! And of course there was Greg's favorite, Apple fritters!

Luke really likes playing with real things, no more toys for this boy! Below are Kevin, Jen and Kevin's mom. Greg is hidden behind Kevin I think and Kevin's mom's partner was there too. Kevin and Jen had driven up for a wedding that afternoon so getting to see them was a big bonus!

The main reason for the trip was the wedding of two good friends, Andrea and Zac. They had a beautiful and very intimate ceremony at a Japanese garden. There were about ten chairs for grandparents and others who needed them and everyone else either stood or sat on rocks or grass.

Afterwards there was a meal at a little cabin on the river a short distance away and then the happy couple was off!

Luke had a lot of fun playing with cousins, aunts and uncles and of course Mimi and Pawpaw. Unfortunately he is getting into the stranger danger stage a little bit and about half way through our visit his gums started bothering him pretty bad so that made him even more of a mama's boy. Mimi was ready though with Biter Biscuits! He really enjoyed them and got really messy!

When he was done gnawing on them we decided the best way to clean up would be a bath! Anna and Isaac had a lot of fun helping him with all the toys and showing him how he should be playing with them, not eating them!

Then it was their turn...
On the way home Luke didn't do quite as well on the plane, due to the teething mostly I think, but we did meet the power lifting team from India as we were going through security! They were just going home after the world competition. Unfortunately no pic to prove it, but there were at least ten very large guys in sports coats that had an emblem on the front and the words "POWER LIFTING" and "INDIA" on them. (-: They seemed to enjoy Luke and were trying to tell him to go into power lifting!
Safe and sound back at home Luke is still very clingy. I spent most of the day today at my mom's making apple sauce. Luke was really happy when we got there so I set him down in the middle of the living room with a basket of toys and walked a few feet away to sit on the couch. He started fussing and crawled over to me to be picked up again so I brought the toys over close to the couch and set him down at my feet. He was ok there but he had one hand holding onto my pant leg while his other one picked up toys to look at. After a few minutes he forgot to hold on but still didn't want me to go very far. I think his mouth is still hurting him, no teeth have broken through yet so I'm hoping it happens soon and we can be done with this for a while again.

I took a very sweet video of Luke playing with a toy my sister made on our trip home but I'll post that next time. It's late and I'm exhausted!