Happy 4th!!

Here's a little video of Jayden at the Freedom Festivities here in Laramie. There were bands playing, booths, and lots of kids activities (which Jayden was too young for of course) going on. With the exception of a looming storm, we had a fantastic time and it was great to get out of the house to do something different!

Watch "4th of July Festivities" on YouTube

Learning to walk!

Watch "Learning to walk" on YouTube

If you click the link above, I think I've learned another new way of sharing my videos! Yay! I'm beginning to think there might be something to this technology thing after all!

Cheerios

So another attempt at a video... I hope you were able to enjoy yesterday's video even though it was dark, sideways and generally not very good video, other than the main subject of course!

This one is also sideways but at least the lighting is better! This is a typical cheerio-eating scenario. I love the faces that Jayden makes and the way that he bobs his head once a cheerio makes it way into his mouth. And of course the noises he makes are very entertaining!

Trying something new...bear with me!

I found that I can upload videos to Youtube from my phone so I'm trying that out and we'll see if I can get it to work on my blog!

So first a disclaimer... I'm new at this so sorry the video is sideways and the lighting is horrible and the fact that it sounds like I'm practically yelling into the phone (I didn't think I was at the time...I will speak softly or not at all from now on...) and please excuse the horrible commentary...

Now that THAT is out of the way, this is Jayden the other evening while we were sitting on my bedroom floor just chillin'. He was all ready for bed but he wanted to get a little more practice standing before getting some zzz's. One of his favorite new things to do is attempt to climb on me. He's getting better and better at pulling himself all the way up!

Enjoy!

Duck, duck, duck....goose!

I feel like I've been tagged "goose" and it's my turn to write a post. Did you ever play that game when you were little? I can't wait to play that with my sweet boy and any brothers and sisters he may have in the future.

Wow, I can't believe another month went by between postings. So sorry!! I have so many pictures and I can honestly say that the fact that it is not an easy feat to download the pictures off my camera is one of the reasons that I don't blog as often. If I could just figure out a way to easily upload some photos to this blog, I would so do it more often. I know I would. I want to!

Summertime is in full swing here in Laramie. Finally, might I add! It's still cool but that's a typical summer in Laramie and it's rather enjoyable really. We've had some great thunderstorms this week and that's just the cherry on top for me. We've been BBQing, taking morning walks in the sun, sitting outside on the grass, leaving the windows open at night and enjoying some much needed family time.

Jayden is 9.5 months old and a thriving, happy little man. And a little man he is. He's starting to look more and more like a boy rather than a baby. This momma's heart is not quite ready for that transition but it's coming like a train full steam ahead! Jayden is getting closer and closer to crawling but he's not mobile yet. And he's getting a lot stronger where I think he will be pulling himself up soon. As soon as he figures out how to pull himself up, I know he'll be cruising around the living room. He already knows how to put one foot in front of the other when we hold him up and walk him around. I'm not putting any pressure on him though. He can stay immobile as long as he wants...much easier for the caregivers!

Jayden is enjoying food so much more then he used to. We give him pretty much anything we eat as long as it's healthy. I'm trying to not give him anything with preservatives or lots of seasonings. I figure for the rest of us it's probably too late to undo the years of unhealthy eating but since he is just starting out, I want to give him every opportunity for a healthy lifestyle that I can. So that includes teaching him about healthy foods. My goal this coming week is to start getting him in somewhat of a routine where we are feeding him some solids every day. Wholesome Baby Food is a great website that has a list of foods that is acceptable to start feeding at each age so we have quite a list now that he's already almost 10 months old. We are a little restricted since Jayden still will not let us feed him with a spoon so that eliminates anything that needs to be pureed but we are going to keep working on that too. Maybe he'll even get to the point here soon where he can kind of get some food in his own mouth with a spoon. He just likes to do things himself.

Jayden is a good little sleeper although lately the second nap has been a little bit of a struggle. It seems that he is so into the world around him that he's afraid to miss anything by sleeping for awhile. Thankfully his morning nap usually lasts a couple of hours so if he misses his afternoon nap he doesn't dissolve into a complete mess later in the evening. He still nurses throughout the night but it's not a big deal to me since we've been cosleeping since he was teeny tiny. Most of the time he will wake up, nurse a little and then just go back to sleep. I think we are all getting more sleep this way.

As for DJ and I, I've already mentioned we sleep really well and we are also eating and walking really well too. Ha ha

We planned a more extensive family vacation kind of at the last minute a couple of weeks ago. DJ has a full week off in the middle of July so we have decided to spend a couple of nights in Denver and enjoy one of our favorite cities a little bit. We are also going to get our family photos done which I am really excited about. The photographer that we've made an appointment with seems to have some really creative ideas so I'm just hoping we have good weather and a happy son.

After Denver, we are going to fly out to California and visits our best friends Chad and Joy and their 3 kids. We'll spend some time in Tahoe and then who knows what else. We've got so many plans that we want to fit in but we may just end up hanging out and enjoying each other's company which would be just fine too. It'll be a bit of a whirlwind so I will need to continuously remind myself to fully enjoy each moment and not keep looking forward to the next thing.

AND NOW A SNEEK PEEK AT DJ'S FATHER'S DAY PRESENT......DJ..... IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED YOUR FATHER'S DAY GIFT YET, STOP HERE!!!
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I took these pictures of Jayden when we were visiting in Rapid City for Memorial Day weekend. I really think they turned out well even though it was mildly cool that day and they were really not ideal conditions for picture-taking. I put these pictures in a frame in the order that they appear; I'm so pleased with out it turned out! Enjoy! And Happy Father's Day to you dads!! (If any dads even read this, ha!)

Yes I'm still here although a bit more aged

Holy moly, where has the time gone?? I have been delaying a post for sooo long because I have wanted to put up some pictures. Well, I decided the post can no longer wait for pictures.

Jayden will be 9 months old in a few days (ok, more like almost 2 weeks but it just blows my mind that he's almost to the toddler stage...) and he is changing so much every day. He laughs all the time. If he isn't laughing, he's giving me big grins. He makes all sorts of sounds that are constantly making us laugh. He growls, blows bubbles, says "mama," "dada," "bababababa," and "nana."  He has FOUR teeth. Two on the top that just came in over the past week and two on the bottom which have been in for a few weeks already. I'm pretty sure he is cutting more teeth because he's been extra fussy during the night.

He is sitting up and loves to stand up with our assistance. He loves to reeeeeach as far forward as possible to grab something and it almost makes us think he will make it to his hands and knees but then he either falls on his face (which usually doesn't phase him) or he just pulls himself back to a sitting position.

I've heard lately that the longer it takes for a baby to crawl, the smarter they will be. And I'm inclined to believe that. Jayden will look and look and look at something and take it all in before he reaches for something so it seems that his brain is working overtime to process everything around him and he just hasn't felt the need to actually go anywhere. So no crawling yet for our little baby.

Jayden is also taking his time getting into the world of solids. We have tried everything but the kid just isn't interested. And that's ok. There's no rush and I know he'll eat solid foods when he's ready. I'm just glad that he's still breastfeeding so we don't have to worry about his nourishment. He's getting all the nutrition he needs from breast milk so that puts my mind at ease.

And on that note, it's amazing how seamless breastfeeding is these days. Like it's no big deal. I think back to the early days and remember how badly I wanted to give up because it was so hard. And I remember reading how it would get better and I chose to believe what I read and now I'm reaping the benefits! I'm also glad that Jayden has never taken a bottle. For the first go around, it has been nice to do it this way. I'm not saying that I'll do it the exact same way the next time around but I really like the way it's going now. It's somewhat empowering to make your own parenting choices and know that you are doing the best you can for your child even if it's hard. And I'm glad I didn't give up.

Jayden loves to drink water from a cup though. And he really likes to be fed water from a straw. It's so cute. We even bought him his own cup with a straw. He chews more on the straw than actually drinking from it but every once in awhile he'll suck in a little water. It always surprises him and he will make a funny face.

In other news....

It snowed this week. So spring still has not sprung. Boo. I am soooo over cold and snow and ice and gray clouds that don't hold thunder and lightning.

I joined a softball team. No, I don't play softball, or rather, I never played before I joined this team. But I'm learning and thankfully, the team is not competitive. It's an all girls team and although most of the other women are, or once were, athletes (other than me), none of them have played softball in a long time so it's all in good fun. And it's nice to be a part of a team and doing something I've never done before. Even if it is a little embarrassing after dropping the 4th or 5th ball that comes my way...

DJ is in his slow season at work and it's been GREAT. He goes to work usually around 8, but sometimes not till 10. And he gets off usually around 4 but sometimes 2! And this week, we actually got to play hooky for half of a day. Since there are no dentists in Laramie that take our insurance, we had to find a dentist in Cheyenne (about 45 miles from Laramie). We each had a consultation on Wednesday and by the time we drove there, had the appointments and drove back, it would have been time to leave work pretty much, so we just made a day of it. We even went to dinner at Outback after running a few errands after our appointments. Yum, they have such good steak. So needless to say, I'm loving having my husband back after a long football season.

We've taken a couple trips since our jaunt over to DC. We went to Rapid City for a couple of weeks at the end of April and beginning of May. And we're headed back there next week for Memorial Day weekend. We went down to Fort Collins last weekend with the intention of hanging out in the green, spring-filled park but as luck would have it, the sun never showed its sunny face, so we ended up just shopping around all day. It was still fun.

And that's the news for now. I'm not going to promise pictures anymore. Because obviously those are empty promises... But I do have a ton of pictures that I just need to take the time to download and then upload. So one day...

A Successful Trip

We're back from DC and I'm very happy to report that we're all in one piece! Although that probably doesn't come as much of a surprise to you, based on how anxious I was feeling before the trip, I have to say it's a huge relief. I don't have any pictures yet (I'm at the mercy of my mom for those since I really didn't have much room for a camera on top of everything else I brought), but I can give you a brief look at what our week was like last week.

First of all, Jayden is a born traveler, I'm convinced now. You would have never known that he was sick with a cold and out of his element being two time zones away from his normal life. He was such a trooper and made the trip very easy on my mom and I. It wasn't until the last day of the trip that he seemed to be adjusting to the new time zone but even now that we're back, it doesn't seem like he really deviated too far from Mountain Standard Time (phew!).

The trip was well worth it for me. Besides the fact that I got a lot of my required training out of the way for the year, I also met one of my bosses face to face (and visited with my other boss that I have already met face to face), I met a ton of my fellow coworkers that I've only spoken with on the phone or emailed and I can finally say I've seen the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom (although we did miss the peak of the blossoms by a few days)! By the end of the week, I was done though. I can only take so much social interaction. Not to say that I'm a hermit but I'm also not a social butterfly either and I did enough mingling and chatting for TWO social butterflies this week!

I'd have to say that the trip was the MOST successful for my mom. I'm very proud of her because this trip was completely outside of her element but she did a great job of going with the flow and trying out a lot of new adventures. And she also got to spend an entire week almost exclusively with her grandson. Just a few notable accomplishments that we will remember are learning how to ride the metro, eating sushi, finding her way to my office from the hotel (several times!) and walking all over the DC Metro area with Jayden in tow. I think it's safe to say that she doesn't regret agreeing to this adventure with us!

Unfortunately there was one incident that left me feeling horribly incompetent as a mother although I've gotten over that feeling and am chalking it up to a learning experience now. We spent one particularly warm afternoon outside and poor Jayden's little face got sunburned. I forgot to put his sun hat in the diaper bag so he ended up getting too much sun on his face. Having been sunburned too many times to count myself, I felt particularly bad about this because I felt like I should have known to keep him covered up. Although the burn didn't seem to bother Jayden (does anything?!), every time I looked at him, I wanted to cry. I will definitely take extra precautions in the future to ensure something like that doesn't happen again. And now he's peeling and has a bit of a tanned face. I think the worst part for me is that his skin is brand new and it's my job to protect him but I guess the guilt comes along with being a mom. I'll never be perfect so this was a learning experience indeed.

Hopefully I will have some pictures to share soon and I'll add a few more stories later on. Thanks for everyone who was praying for a safe and successful trip for us!