9 months

Mr Matthew had his 9 month appt yesterday. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the nurses and Dr. Carlson since he's got some stranger anxiety going on. He didn't cry when they talked to him, so that's a plus! He's such a little peanut. He only weighed 16lbs 2 oz and was 27.5 inches long. Weird since I just measured him at 28". Anyways, his head was 44.7 cm long which converts to 17.6 inches. He was in the less than 3rd percent for weight, his height at 28" was in the 32nd percent, and his head was in the 27th percent. He's growing at a good curve, so we don't need to worry about his weight. Dr. Carlson wants me to keep concentrating his formula, and if he gets too chubby, to just stop that. I don't think we have any worries in the chubby department though. Poor little guy got three shots yesterday. He usually only gets the DtAP (is that how you do it?), and this time, we went ahead and did the DtAP, the Polio, Pneumococcal, Hep B, and Hib. I think that they DtAP, Hep B, and Polio were all in one, and the other two were separate. I wasn't going to worry about the Pneumococcal since he's not in day care and isn't really exposed to other kids a whole lot, but his cousin Trent is in daycare, and they spend a lot of time together, so better safe than sorry I guess. Matt is a sore and whiny little boy today. I only just got a chance to brush my teeth and it's almost 1 pm. He cries if I even think of putting him down. He won't eat any food, and barely a bottle. Little turd. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow.

Dr. Carlson was slightly worried...I guess that's what you would say, that he wasn't babbling yet. I think it might have a lot to do with his cleft palate. Even though it's corrected now, they say that lots of kids with clefts might have to do speech therapy. I think it might just be that when they are infants, they aren't able to make the same noises and sounds as other kids, so they get behind.

On another note, here is the most recent adorable picture of my little ham.

Camping

We had a great weekend! Full of family,friends, water, sun and roughing it out in the woods. It was Matt's first camping trip, and I say that we were pretty brave taking him out a mere few days after his surgery. We had a rough night, and according to our friends who were in our camper with us, they are never going to have kids, he he. Poor Matt was up 3 times the first night we were there. I think coupled with a sore mouth and waking up to new surroundings kind of freaked him out. He did much better the second night and only woke up once.

I was also my first time wakeboarding in a year. I couldn't do it last year, as I was baby baking. It took me a few tries to get up, but I did. I crashed a few times also. Great fun. The water was freezing, but after you were in it for a few minutes, you got used to it of course. I wish that Leonard was on the boat and taking some pictures of me, but he was on land watching Matt while I played. Our dog Jack also thinks that he's a baby-sitter! As I was on the water, Matt played in his carseat, and Leonard said that as soon as I had left, Jack plopped himself right next to Matt and didn't move an inch the whole entire time I was gone. I always knew that he'd be a protector to Matt.

Big Weekend

Although the weather was crappy, we had a lot of fun! Leonard and I dropped Matt off at my parents so they could baby-sit, and we went to pick Morel Mushrooms at one of the sites of the recent forest fires that we had last summer. I hate mushrooms, but we had a blast tromping through the charred trees and wet grass looking for these mushrooms. We weren't aware that you had to have a permit to pick them for personal use, so thankfully some nice guy let us know that the Forest Service was behind us checking for permits. So we left before we could get caught. I was surprised at how much fun that I had. We are going to get a permit and go out next weekend I think.

Matt outgrew his Jumperoo. He was totally over it. He'd cry everytime I even tried to put him into it. So we took it apart and stored it at my parents house. Then we traded the Jumperoo for a walker! Matt LOVES his walker. It finally just clicked that he could walk in it and get into anything and everything. Before he'd walk just a little bit in it. But now he really goes! He's so adorable in it.

And, other exciting news, we got our first tooth! Leonard noticed it before I did. There is a slit in his bottom gum and you can just see the tooth. You can also feel it if you run your finger over his gum. It must still be tender, he really puts up a fight if you try to do it. The tooth explains why the little bugger wouldn't go to sleep the other day at all. And why he was so fussy. Poor sweetie. At least he feels better! He's actually sleeping right now, and has been sleeping for almost 2 hours. What a nice break for me.

The baby is sleeping.

I'm taking advantage of the precious time that I have right now to do a little blogging and get the dishes done. I think I'll blog first. I loathe doing dishes. Still raining here. We really needed the rain. Maybe it'll end this 7 yr drought we've been in. The snow pack is higher right now than it's been for a long time at this time of year, which is amazing since it is June. I'm waiting for the sun to shine and the weather to get up to the eighties so I can get Matt into his new baby pool that he hasn't been able to try out yet. Hopefully soon.

My poor brother. I feel so badly for him. His new wife is pulling all sorts of shit on him and is really messing with his head. Long story short, only have been married for 3 months, have known each other for a little over 4 months total, and he is in the AF, and she has just been discharged. She keeps saying how she doesn't want to go and see him (they are in different cities in TX), and how when he gets based in Utah, she wants to live with her parents and go back to the dating stage and not live with him. WTH is up with that? I wrote my brother a long message on his Myspace, just venting my frustrations out and letting him know how our whole family feels. He called me last night after he read my message and told me that they are going to work it out and that she's going to straighten up. We'll see. She supposedly was going to straighten up a few weeks ago when she first starting pulling this crap, and she just got worse.

Only twelve more days until Matt's surgery! The time goes by super fast when you have a big event coming up that you aren't really looking forward to. I'm excited to have the surgery done because then Matt will no longer have a cleft palate, and that means no more formula and food coming out of his nose. Poor little guy threw up last weekend and the majority of it came out of his nose. It must have really really burned. He cried for probably 20 minutes and was inconsolable. My poor sweetie. I'm also looking forward to his surgery because of the ear tubes being placed. It'll be interesting to see how it helps his hearing. He can hear, I just don't think his hearing is absolutley perfect. Maybe he'll start talking more. I'm hoping!
What I'm not looking forward to is the pain that he'll be in. After his first surgery, he couldn't eat anything for a day and a half. The hospital totally dehydrated him also. I think we used one or two diapers the whole entire time we were there. I think this time I'll let them know how dehydrated he got last time. It took a good two weeks to rehydrate him after that. Especially since he had such a hard time eating anything. I just wish that Leonard could go with us. He isn't able to get off of work for it. At least my mom will come down with me and stay in the hospital with me. Thank the Lord for moms!

Rain Rain and More Rain

It's raining, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. It's a fantastic day to get everything together for Matt's upcomming surgery. Poor little gut is going to get a double whammy this time. In addition to the final step in his cleft palate repair, he's also getting ear tubes placed. He'll be just fine. He's a trooper. I've already called the insurance company and let them know that Matt was having surgery, and I've received by surgery packets from both the ENT and the Plastic Surgeoun. Now I just need to fill out the paperwork and call the Dr. offices and let them know that the insurance company would like them to call them. I don't even know if that's really necessary for me to do. The lady from the insurance company that I talked to said that the offices respond better to calling the insurance companies back if the patients call them and tell them to call. I thought it was a standard thing for the Drs. to call anyways? I think I'll call just to be safe though. I'd hate to not get all the coverage that we're qualified for just because I didn't call.

I think in addition to finishing up what I'm supposed to, I'll do some laundry while Matt takes a nap, (if he'll ever go to sleep), and if the rain lets up, I think we'll go for a walk down to the river to see how high it is. Our local river flooded, and it's neat to see how high above the water lines it is. Maybe I'll take some pictures while I'm there.

Brand new day.

I just started this new blog. I used to be a semi-avid blogger poster, and I sort of got out of it once I had my son Matthew at the end of Septmeber. Life is crazy, slow, and random.

It's a gorgeous sunny day today, so Matt and I took advantage and had a mini improntu photoshoot in the lovely weather. He is the cutest thing ever! Of course I'm not biased, right? ;)