Andrew & Mommy

Here is a picture of Andrew & I this past Sunday before church. Andrew is all dressed up in his Sunday best and looks very handsome! We went to the ENT this morning. We saw the doctor and he recommended that Andrew get the tubes in his ears. He is scheduled for his surgery on December 4th. I am praying that he won't get another ear infection before this date.

We are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving at Mom & Dad's next week. Kenton & Tori & Kallie, were going to come, but they are closing on their house this Friday and are going to use the extra time at Thanksgiving to paint, etc....

Yes, another ear infection

Andrew had been acting funny all last week and then when he got a temperature on Saturday evening (while we were at our SS party), I figured his teeth really must be bothering him. I didn't think that it was an ear infection because he had not been waking up at night. That is my #1 sign for ear infection. He did good on Sunday but then woke up at 2 Sunday night/Monday morning with a fever and then another fever in the morning. Ok, off to the doctors office, again. Sure enough, both ears were infected this time. The doctor gave him a 3 day antibiotic (never heard of a 3 day!), by Monday evening, he was back to normal. He is doing alot better now. He still has his awful cough, but at least the ears are better and no more fever. We made an appointment to see the ENT on the 18th. We want to see what he has to say about tubes. Seems like everyone that has got them, it is the trick. We hate to keep him on antibiotics so often. Plus, with the cold season fastly approaching, he is bound to get several more.

Sleeping in till 9:10

I couldn't believe it yesterday morning when I woke up and looked at the clock and it said 8:57, wow, Andrew is still sleeping!!! He had been up at 2:30 playing in his bed and then had a coughing spell at 6:15 for about 45 minutes and then he had fallen back asleep. I really didn't think he was capable of sleeping in that late! What a nice surprise. We had a good time with each other yesterday. After he drank his milk and had his oatmeal we headed off to Curves for me to excercise. We then came home and he played, had his lunch and then played some more and then was off to bed at 1 for his nap. He had another coughing spell, so I went in there 30 minutes later and gave him some cough medicine to sooth his throat. It helped, but he was wide awake. I left him in there, cause he had to take a nap, and finally, after another hour he went to sleep. He slept for about 1 1/2 and started coughing off and on which led to crying off and on, so I went in and got him. At least he was happy! I recently took him off his reflux medicine to see how he would do (I was so sick of giving that to him 4 times a day, 30 minutes before a meal). He hasn't had any problems and he has actually been sleeping better and been happier during the day. I wonder if that medicine was making him cranky at times. Hummm??? We then went to Target for grocery shopping and then came home. I fed him supper - his favorite mashed potatoes and a baby meat - and then gave him his bath and then Ben got home so that I could go to a baby shower. Yesterday was a very pleasant day!

Shopping Fun

For my birthday, I asked Ben if we could go to the outlet mall in Dawsonville, GA. Of course, he said yes. We went over to mom's on Friday and then headed for the shopping center Saturday morning. Mom was kind enough to watch Andrew for the day. Shopping with Andrew is fun, for about an hour or so, not 6 hours! We got to the outlets at about 11:30 and got a quick bite to eat at the food court and then hit the stores. Are main goal was to get the Christmas gifts for the neices & nephews and then for each other if we found anything. We were able to get all the kids gifts and then for each other as well. I think we accomplished alot for 1 day! All we have left is for our parents and then something for Andrew - almost forgot about him :o)

I started sneezing on last Wednesday and then started feeling yucky, again, on Friday, so I went back to the doctor to get my second round of antibiotics. I am feeling better today, but still tired. Since I was there, I got the flu shot too. This is the first time that I have gotten it, hopefully the illness's will stay away.

2 naps to 1

Andrew is fastly becoming a big boy. He has decided that he only needs to take 1 nap instead of 2. For the past several days, I have tried to lay him down for his 2nd nap, and every time, he plays in his bed for about 30-45 minutes and won't go to sleep. Tomorrow, I am going to try to lay him down for his first nap a little later than normal. I am going to shoot for noon instead of his normal 10:45 time and I'm not going to wake him up. Hopefully, he will sleep for 3 hours. He has never slept for more than 3 hours during a nap, so I don't think that is going to happen. This is also an adjustment for me. It was such a long day yesterday not getting that 2nd nap of downtime for me. It becomes challenging to keep a 1 year old occupied for an entire day all by yourself, especially when they want you in their sight the entire time and for you to play with them.

Teething Issues

Yesterday, Andrew woke up very fussy. :-( He was pretty much crying all morning. He was acting tired, so I put him to bed for his 1st nap at 9:45. It isn't suppose to start until 10:45 so he will sleep till 1:00. I thought that if he woke up fine, it was just because he was tired and if he woke up fussy again, maybe his ear infection had come back. Well, he woke up fussy. I decided to take him back to the doctor, just to make sure. The doctor said his ears looked good. So what could it be. Well, I thought, he hasn't gotten a tooth in a while, let me check his gums out. Sure enough, 2 molars, one on each upper side had just broken through. I guess that is what it had to be. We doctored his gums up with Baby orajel and gave him some tylenol. He did better the rest of the day, but was still crying and didn't want me to leave out of his sight. He slept through the night, thank goodness and woke up tired this morning, but in a pretty good mood. He cried when I dropped him off at the nursery. Hopefully he is having a pretty good day.

Pensacola Trip

We left last Friday for Pensacola to see Ben's dad for his birthday. The party was to be on Saturday at Ben's sister Ruth's house. We were almost to Montgomery (half way) when I asked Ben to call his sister just to get some more details about the party. It ended up that she told Ben that 4 of her 5 kids had had the flu last week. There was no way that Andrew was going to be around them since he was just recovering from an ear infection/cough/runny nose. I told Ben that Andrew & I would just stay at his dad's house during the party and that they should go on to the party Saturday evening. Ben then said why don't I take you and Andrew home and you guys go over to your parents for the weekend and then I will go back to P'cola. This is what we ended up doing. Needless to say, it took us 9 hours, a tank of gas and 420 miles to go from Hampton to Covington which should only take 1 hour. I don't think Andrew would have made it another 10 minutes in the car seat! He was very mad about being stuck in the seat! I think it is about time to buy the portable DVD player for him! We had a good time at my moms and it sounds like Ben & his Dad had a good time in P'cola.

Ear Infection #5

On Monday afternoon, I had to go get Andrew from Day Care. He had woken up grumpy from his nap and had a low grade temperature. We came home and he went straight down for a nap. he slept good for a couple of hours and then he got up and seemed normal. He went to bed good, but woke up crying at 11:00 or so. He stopped after about 2 minutes and seemed to have gone back to sleep. We then heard him playing in his bed from 1 till about 3. Don't know why he was doing that, but at least he wasn't crying. (It is difficult for me to sleep even when he is in there playing) He went back to sleep and then woke up crying at 5:15. We went and got him, he was warm so we gave him some tylenol and put him back to bed. He slept for another hour and then was crying again. What a long night! I decided to take him to the doctor Tuesday morning, because it is just not like him to do that at night. The doctor confirmed what I thought, he had an ear infection in his left ear. To make things worse, his cough/cold/runny nose had gotten worse on Monday so that was making the ear infection evern worse. The doctore gave us 5 prescriptions for Andrew. I was thinking that this was going to cost a bundle, but it ended up only being $32. I got him on the medicine Tuesday morning and he had a pretty good day. He slept better last night. Only woke up crying once due to a completely glogged right nostril. We got that sucked out and didn't hear from him until 7:15 this morning. What a relief. I have a new appreciation for children sleeping through the night. Monday night was the first night that he was up that much since he started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks old.

More Misc. Pictures

Here is Andrew playing on his Lion. He now likes to push it right in front of the window (behind him in this picture), have the blinds pulled up and then he stands on the seat of the Lion and peers out the window.

Misc. Pictures

Here is Andrew after eating his supper. Mommy likes to keep the bib on, just in case!
Andrew, are you pushing???
Yum Yum!
Playing in my diaper.
Hi Mommy! I like Daddy pushing me in this storage bin. It is alot of fun.

Bathtub Fun

Andrew really enjoys taking baths. Lately, he has decided that it is more fun to get the water out of the bathtub than to keep it in the bathtub. Last night, Andrew really got me good with his splashing. He's been standing up more lately (within reason) and I have noticed that he has been doing his 'business' quite freakwently (spelling?). Silly little boy.

Tennessee Vacation (July 2008)

In July, we went on a family vacation to Tennessee. We met Mom & Dad, Kenton,Tori & Kallie at a cabin in Wears Valley, TN. We stayed at the Big Bear Den, wouldn't recommend this cabin to anyone. We have always stayed with Cove Mountain Realty and always had a great experience, but this was our first not so great experience. We still had fun though. Here is Andrew in Gatlinburg checking this big white bird out. I don't think he quite knows what to think about it!

Here is Grams with Andrew and Kallie (Andrew was ready for his nap at this point!)
Andrew & Kallie playing in the living room. Andrew actually got this scrub brush from under the kitchen sink (right after he got into the vinegar under the kitchen sink!)


Mom & Dad with Andrew & Kallie on Klingman's Dome, the highest point in the Smokey Mountains.


Our little adventours boy. He is afraid of nothing. He loves to climb, balance . . .










We had a swimming pool for each one of them, but Andrew had to keep going back and forth between the two of them!
Andrew wondering why Kallie is playing with his toys!
Andrew getting bored with the swimming pool!
Too cute!

Take Me Outside!

Andrew's latest thing is that he wants to be outside as much as possible. Now that he can walk, he wants to go investigate every little thing. His favorite place is the street, of all places!!! Good thing that we live on a street with about 15 houses and we are close to the culdisack (spelling??). He also likes the deck, but that is so dirty. Ben was playing with him there on Saturday everning and he was covered in dirt on his hands and knees. He walks most of the time, but sometimes it is quicker to move my his knees. The more he goes outside the less he likes coming inside. The past few nights he has thrown temper tantrups (I knew this day was coming :() and had to be disciplined. (I hate that part) Yesterday it started raining just as I was about to go outside with him. Andrew got upset (spent 5 minutes in time out in his crib, I have learned that for now, that that works better than spanking).

We bought the little potty to introduce to Andrew. I showed it to him yesterday, but he just thought it was a toy. You'll never believe this, guess where Ben wanted to put the potty? In the kitchen, I about had a heart attack. He thought there wasn't enough room in the bathroom. Please let me know what you think about the potty in the kitchen.

Andrew's 3rd Haircut

I took Andrew for his third haircut and the boy is only 14 months old. His hair grows so fast. This was the first time that she used the clippers on the sides and in the back. By using the clippers, she was able to get it his hair shorter and then used the scissors on top and cut that shorter. I think last time she didn't get it short enough. Andrew did good. He cried right when I said "your doing so good Andrew" and then he cried when the lady cutting his hair said the same thing. We decided not to say anything until the haircut was completely over. He did really good!

We had a really good day yesterday. After his late afternoon nap we went to the park and walked around for almost an hour. Ben joined us on the last lap around. The weather had cooled down to the low 80's so it wasn't too hot. Andrew still loves to be pushed in the stroller. I gave him an unfrosted cupcake to eat, but he wasn't to interested in it because he was too busy gocking at everyone at the park. I made mini cupcakes to take to his class today. I put chocolate frosting on them last night, they were yummy! Hopefully Andrew doesn't have chocolate frosting all over his white t-shirt today. I guess I should have put a dark color t-shirt on him today, oh well!

Random Pictures

Andrew enjoys helping mommy with the laundry. He likes to take the clothes out and also sit in the basket.
























Andrew loves to ride on daddy's shoulders!


















For the 4th of July, we drove over to Stone Mountain Park. We didn't realize that everyone else in Atlanta was going as well. It took about 30 minutes just to get to the booth to pay to get in. Mom had just fed Andrew some fruit, and just as we were about to pay, he threw it all up. (He had just had his shots the day before, he tends to do this after shots :( ) We decided that we would just change him when we got parked, well, there was a huge line just to park, so we decided to go home, way too many people at the park. We stopped at the Target close by, got him and the car seat cleaned up and came home. Here is Andrew playing with 1 of the balloons that Ben got him. He loves to play with balloons! He got to go swimming in his pool that evening. He probably enjoyed that better than the park.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Navarre Beach - June 18-21, 2008

Ok, I know, this is way long overdue. I have been procrastinating getting these pictures on here. Well, we had a really good time at Navarre beach. The weather was nice and Andrew enjoyed the beach. We took his blowup swimming pool that he could play in it at the beach. That worked out really well. He enjoyed splashing in the ocean with daddy too.



Andrew didn't know what to think about the sand. He tried to put his fingers in his mouth with sand on them and daddy didn't like that, so into the swimming pool he went!













Andrew patiently waited in his stroller while daddy packed up the car each day. He was so tuckered out by the time we got back to the hotel. He was a good boy and took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon both Thursday and Friday. We went over to P'cola Thursday evening and walked at the waterfront. Andrew enjoyed sharing daddie's strawberry icecream cone!

Vacation Anticipation

Well, here we are, just 2 days before our first beach vacation with Andrew. We leave Wednesday morning to head down to Navarre beach for 4 days. We are praying that the weather will be nice and that we will find some time to relax.

We had a really nice weekend. Father's Day was fun. Papa Kramer came over for lunch after his church (Grams is still in Tucson). I made a pot roast and potatoes on the roast for lunch. It never comes out as good as moms, but it was ok. I was very happy that Andrew took a good nap during chuch in the morning. I insisted that they lay him down. He was then able to take a good afternoon nap as well. Good thing, because the evening service was very long. . . .

Will have some pictures of the vacation when we get back!

Pouched Bibs :-)

I am so thankful that I invested in a vinal pouched bib for Andrew. Yesterday morning I had given him his milk & cereal and then I gave him some cut up toast to eat while I ate my cereal. Well, this worked perfectly Tuesday morning when I did this, but I guess I didn't get the toast cut into small enough pieces yesterday morning. Next thing I know, is he got a piece stuck in the back of his mouth or throat and he is gagging on the toast. I knew right away that he was going to loose it all. I ran over there and grabbed the bib pouch and caught most of it in there - YUCK! A little got on the high chair padding, but I needed to wash that anyways. Poor little boy, I guess not having any teeth makes it hard. :-) Here is a picture of the bib that I am talking about!

1 Year Old Pictures

Yesterday I took Andrew to Target to get his 1 year old picture made. They turned out great! I was very pleased. The same photographer that did his last pictures did yesterdays pictures. He does a great job! I decided that I wanted to get in some of the pictures so that Andrew & I could give Ben a framed picture of the 2 of us for Father's Day. (We don't get to pick up the pictures till the 24th, it will be late, but . . .) We ended picking a picture that they put together with several pictures and then at the bottome it says We Love You Daddy! It really turned out cute, hopefully Ben will like it. I showed him the small black & white printout they gave us, but it is hard to see. He said it was nice, but that he likes a picture with only 1 picture and not several. Oh well, we will know for next time :) It was pretty tough to get Andrew to sit 'still' for his pictures by himself. Is it really possible for a 1 year old to sit still when they are not sleeping? I don't think so. I was completely sweatting when we were done. I will put a link to Target's website that you can go look at the pictures, but it won't be uploaded to their website for another 10 days. Don't ask me why it takes 10 days when it is digital???

Church Nursery Workers :-(

Sunday has become the worst day of the week in keeping Andrew on his schedule. Yesterday was the first time that he went to the 1 year old nursery at church. (WOW, its weird to say that he is in the 1 year old nursery!) I told them that he still takes a morning nap and that he needs to lay down at 11:15 so that he can sleep for an hour, even 45 minutes would be good! Ben & I go in there to pick him up at 12:15, and guess who is not sleeping, Andrew. I asked her if he took a nap and she said 'no, he showed no signs of being sleepy'. This drives me crazy, just lay the baby down for a nap, he will go to sleep. When Andrew doesn't get at least some sleep in the late morning, it makes for an unpleasant day. He will take an afternoon nap, but it isn't long enough and he wakes up crying and upset - because he is still tired. He then is grumpy the rest of the evening. I don't know why the church nursery workers don't understand this, they all have or have had kids at one time or another. I think I might have to insist that they lay him down next week.

Ben & I were the church nursery workers last night for the 1 years olds. This was the first time that we had Andrew in there. I really didn't know what to expect. He was actually better than I thought. There were 3 other boys in there. They were all about to turn two this month, so there was quite an age difference between Andrew and them. Andrew did well, considering the nap situation, and that they were so much bigger than him.

Fun in the Sun

Yesterday was a pretty typical day for Andrew & I. Why is it that Andrew knows a day care day from a non-day care day? Seems like every Mon/Wed/Frid, he could sleep in till 7:30 or 8:00, but on Tues/Thur/Sat/Sun, he is up at the crack of dawn? Yesterday morning he was up at 6:15, earlier than he would have to get up on a Mon/Wed/Fri. Fortunelty, he is content to play in his bed till I get him (usually aroun 7:15-7:30) However, I have a hard time sleeping when I hear him (on the monitor) playing in his room. I took Andrew for an afternoon swim in his little pool. He loves it. He hates getting into the swim diaper & his trunks/shirt & the sunscreen application. I let him play for about 20 minutes - I'm scared that he is going to get burned even though he has shirt/shorts & lots of sunscreen on. When daddy got home at 6:45, he got to go swimming again for about 20 minutes. This is the first time Ben has been there to observe. He thought the water was too cold, even though it was at least 85 outside, so I had to go get hot water and then after 10 minutes, he thought Andrew was too cold and needed to get out. I convinced him that it wasn't too cold and Andrew got another 10 minutes in the pool.

No big plans for the weekend. It is suppose to be super hot again here in Atlanta. Ben is going to install the child safetly latches on the kitchen cabinets.

Our Little Boy

Mommy and Andrew before Sunday morning church and after Sunday evening church.

Andrew went to the 1 year old day care class on Monday morning. This is what he going to have to start taking his naps on. Here he is Sunday night checking it out. I don't see how he would stay on the mat? They have cribs for them to sleep in while they transition. The day care workers said that he had a great day on Monday. He got 'happy' circle both in the morning and the afternoon!

Andrew playing with his famer magnet toy with Grams. Daddy and Andrew before church on Sunday morning.


Sunday was the first time that Andrew got to sit in his new car seat that faces front. He didn't take a nap in the church nursery, not even 5 minutes from the time we left church and he was asleep. He got his 7 minute power nap till we got to Quiznos for lunch.

This is the first time that I have taken pictures of Andrew in his diaper. (Daddy was outside mowing the grass!!:-) He has some rolls on him and that tummy is getting pretty big.