Happy First Birthday Carsten!!!

We had a wonderful celebration for Carsten's First Birthday.  I really enjoyed getting to plan and execute a party in my own house!!!! (Something that I never get to do with a child having a birthday on Dec 28.)  We had a circus theme, Come One, Come All, Big Top Birthday.  I thought it was pretty appropriate being that Carsten is my little clown/world's strongest man/acrobat.  My mom was able to come up to help partake in the festivities, which of course I loved! We started the festivities on Monday with a road trip to an indoor water park.  I really thought that Carsten would be into it, being that he LOVES bath time so much and has no problem with water in his face/on his head.  He was a little reserved at the park, but took a huge liking to the swings they had in the baby pool, and also enjoyed watching Moma, Daddy and Big Bro splash around like crazy fools.  Caden had a BLAST and wanted to do everything, even the slides that he wasn't quite tall enough for.  He is a DUCK!  He LOVES the water too.  I'm blessed to have 2 water babies, since I am a fish myself. Even us adults had a blast at the park.  Carsten's Birthday was on a Tuesday, which is school day around here.  We started the day off with homemade donuts.  Huge hit with both boys, and myself.  Then Caden went off to school and Carsten got some special time on his special day.  A trip to Olive Garden for lunch - he loves the minestrone soup there! and lots of play with toys that he sometimes can't otherwise play with.  We had our party after Caden returned from school.  Carsten was a trooper wearing his hat, and blowing at (not out) his candle.  He didn't get overly messy with the cake.  I'd say that he had 4 or 5 huge mouthfuls, but then was ready to have something a little more savory - back to the goldfish crackers.  He enjoyed unwrapping a few gifts.  We gave him a table and chair set that he has really enjoyed!

Blowing at his candle

Big Brother warning him not to touch the candle, it is hot.  So Sweet!  Although blurry, look at those puffed cheeks, he's trying to blow!

Trying to get a pic of some of the circus decor in the background.

The cake - yellow cake with buttercream frosting.

I made this banner from the monthly pictures that I have been taking.  So fun to see how much he has grown in a year!  Caden and I painted the number one to help add to the decor.

Messym Messy

Say Cheese Cake

Big Brother enjoying the cake too!!!

Birthday Breakfast!

Ohhh, I'll take that one!

Big Bro LOVES him some donuts!!!

Sugar smile!

Sitting at his new table and chairs

Unwrapping a present

Caden never opened a gift from us on his birthday, it is serious present overload for this Dec 28th baby, so we had a 1 year anniversary of being a Big Brother gift for him.

A new suitcase, OMG, he LOVES to play packing/airport!!!

Tubes-Day

We HAD to get this guy tubes, it just wasn't even an option.  He had been on antibiotic for 30 out of the first 45 days of the year.  We were seriously close to having to do an antibiotic injection, which the doctor warned me was a painful process, but thankfully, we kicked it with the 2nd round of the 2nd antibiotic.  Phew... It was a crazy ending to 2014 and a rough start to 2015, but I think these tubes were "just what the doctor ordered".  ;)  The roughest part of the whole process was him waking up at 4 am for a bottle on tubes-day, and us not being able to give him anything but love.  He was NOT happy!  He didn't understand what we were telling him about having to wait due to fear of aspiration!  So, we had about 4 hours pre-surgery where he was an ANGRY baby.  They brought him a few fun toys to play with while we waited, and that worked for about 10 minutes before he turned back into ANGRY baby.  I was finally able to get him to sleep, with about 15 minutes til surgery.  We were hoping that he would stay asleep when we made the transition from me to the nurse taking him back to the OR, but he didn't.  So they had this fun little car for him to ride in, but he didn't want ANYTHING to do with that.  There was a parade of nurses and bubbles leading him back to the OR, you would think he might have been distracted, but he wasn't... poor baby.  And then 15 minutes later, when he was out of recovery, we heard that same screaming baby coming back down the hall.  Yes, I can recognize that scream/cry.  I feel bad for the nurse who had to bring him back to us, he was thrashing, screaming, very unhappy.  Even the comfort of his Moma's arms didn't put him at ease (they warned us that he might be inconsolable for a while, and he was).  It took a good 20 minutes for him to settle down, even after feeding him a bottle.  Again, I finally got him back to sleep, and then we were released to go home.  Caden had been staying with some very kind/helpful Aggie neighbors that we have become friends with up here.  He loves playing with their kids, so he didn't hesitate going to stay with them (well, not too much!).  I owe them, because it was an EARLY drop-off on a non-school day!!!  And of course, here are a few pics from the event...

One of his very, very sick days... ended up as a respiratory virus and ear infections

Getting breathing treatment at the doc 

Given toys to play with while waiting on tubes, check out those baby hospital clothes!

NOT so happy about the car

Pre-School

We are a big fan of GRADUAL change in this household.  It's definitely the theme in introducing my children to new things and just makes ME more comfortable with the transition.  It is not for everyone, some people, like my friend J Lar, much prefers to rip off the band-aid, and get the experience over with.  I can see that perspective, but I am sure that some counselor could tell me something about my past that makes me prefer the slow but steady approach.  Last fall when we moved to Zionsville I started researching preschool.  I knew that I needed to enroll Caden in order for him to learn a few things that couldn't be taught at home, sharing, listening to instruction, learning to follow directions, interacting with kids of his own age for a good amount of time...

So, rather than enroll Caden in a all day program, I really wanted to enroll him in a half day only.  The only problem was that there weren't any good half day options around here.  My first choice preschool, the one at our church, had a 9-3 program, which seemed rather lengthy, especially since from 12:30 - 3:00 they were just preparing for and napping.  After talking with the teacher, she agreed to allowing Caden to attend half day only, until we were comfortable enough in the school that he was ready to go full day.  We did lots of preparation for this 9 -12:30 day away from home.  Our teacher even did a in-home visit, which I thought was spectacular!!!  Caden seemed ready.  We went to our orientation, which was a 2 hour play session in his classroom, where Carsten and I could stay and play with him.  Now, his school room is actually the room that is our nursey at our church.  And aside from Sunday mornings, he goes to childcare there during MOPS meetings and bible studies.  He's definitely familiar with the environment!!!  It took him 1 of the 2 hours just to warm up to the idea, before we could even start playing during orientation.  I was fearing the worst for the first day of school.  The next Tuesday came, we packed his lunchbox and talked about how much fun he was going to have at school.  I dropped him off, and he didn't even cry.  Not one tear.  PHEW!  HUGE sigh of relief!!!  Carsten and I went back up at 12:30 to get him from school and he was still eating.  All the other kids were preparing their beds and getting ready for nap, and he was still chowing down.  I gave him some time, but finally ended up persuading him to finish at home.  He said, "Mommy, why can't I stay here to nap???"  OK, point taken!  You're ready for school!  Again, another huge sigh of relief, he really must like school!  He LOVES his teacher Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Leak is OK.  He tells me that he wants to go play with Mrs. Kelly all the time and he also tells me that Mrs. Kelly makes him happy!  What a joy!  I am so glad that something I dreaded so much turned out to be SO FUN!

11 Months!

Oh My!  The time has really flow by with this precious baby boy!  I hate switching out his clothes as he out grows them and I certainly can't come to terms with cutting his messy, messy mop of hair yet.  He's definitely still got a lot of baby left in him, as he doesn't sleep through the night and is not the biggest fan of solid foods.  I say that because it is hard to find solids that he actually wants to eat.  I don't want to say that he is "picky" and I certainly don't want to cater to that, but he is!  I can go through 5 different types of foods in one setting, he will take one bite and then lose interest in it, throwing it on the ground.  He will then sit there and grunt and look at my stash of baby junk food (gerber finger foods) in the kitchen.  Oy Ve.  I was telling the doctor this story, and she commented that it was a little early for him to be so particular... What can I say...

And, the sleep thing is probably attributed to his constant sickness.  Poor Baby!  He has had a rough go of it.  Starting last fall, it's just been one ear infection after the other.  Going into our Christmas travels he had his 4th one.  The doctor said if he gets another one within a month then we are a candidate for tubes, and she would HIGHLY recommend them.  Well, sure enough, he got one before we could even get back to Indiana from Texas.  It was a miserable last 2 days there with him.  We saw the ENT and have tubes scheduled for February 16.  In the mean time, he has come down with at least 2 more infections.  And this time around the antibiotics weren't working, so after a few days we had to go back and get a different variety.  AND, to top it off, this time his lungs weren't clear either.  He was wheezing, so they put us on a nebulizer.  Breathing treatments, 4-6 times a day for 5-10 minutes each.  Oh MY!  There is seriously no greater physical struggle that I have experienced as a Mom, than holding this mask on his little face for 5 minutes straight.  It is a struggle every time.  The TV treat worked the first several times, then the novelty wore off.  However, we have to power through, because we have got to get these lungs clear before he can go for surgery on the 16th!!!  Oh yeah, and one of the worst side effects of his breathing treatment is that it makes him restless, so he has been skipping his morning nap, although he really is tired and grumpy, he just can't sleep with all that medicine in him.  Which is why I give him that treatment first thing in the morning, so he can still get an afternoon nap and sleep at night!

Even with all that has been going on with my sick baby, he has been able to develop and hit milestones.  He took his first steps at 10 months and really began walking this past month.  At this time, he definitely prefers walking to crawling and will walk from one end of the house to the other.  He currently has this large inflatable cylinder that has balls in it and he likes to pick up and carry around with him, even though it is just as big as he is!  We are hearing some babbles, but believe that his hearing is quite muffled and we should hear quite a bit more after his ears are cleared on the 16th.

Bath time is his favorite time of the day, and don't even think about sticking that mean 'ol big brother in the tub with him to cramp his style, oh no, he will throw a FIT!

Brain Dump

My mind is a junk yard of thoughts and memories.  Maybe someday I'll combine enough pieces to write a luxury suv of a blog.  ;)  In the meantime, I realized how helpful it is to me to document these times, when I can.  So, even though I have taken a nice break from it, I have to just pick up from here for now!  Maybe, just maybe, someday I'll be able to fill in the gaps.  For now, I need to accept that catching up on sleep is my hobby!  :)

Here's a quick up to date picture of the 2 boys that make my world go round, well 3 really!

Yep, the baby is walking and the big boy is brewing.  Man!  They grow up fast!!!

This is Crazy! Wk 37

Here is a new installment of Schuelkins Sentry.  Lately I am finding certain things in this household CRAZY!  Being that our crazy changes from week to week, I thought that I would try to capture some of them from time to time so that I can reflect on them later.

* That I am having conversations like, "Who did you play with at school today?  Did you play outside?" Blog of 1st day of preschool in the works...

* My B-A-B-Y scooted over to the pantry and unloaded cans from the bottom shelf on the door.

* We had to run our heater on September 15!

* That we live in a place where the shelters at the parking garage have a heater option.  I remember visiting Minnesota and finding it CRAZY that they had those at their bus stops!!!

* I find Caden listening intently to conversations, even when they aren't directed at him.  He will then ask me if I was "talking about something".  And then try to tie what I was talking about to something that he can remember.

First day of Preschool and someone was EX-CI-TED!!!

See what I am talking about?!?!

Bright Eyed Baby... LOVE his big eyes!

6 Months

Wow!  I am TOTALLY sleep deprived!!!  I wasn't getting up this much at night with a newborn!  I finally figured it out, he wasn't getting enough breastmilk during the day, so he was waking more and more frequently at night to nurse.  AND, as the time went on, my supply started to drop, so he was waking even more!  There was a span of 3-4 weeks, where I was getting up 4-7 times a night, with a hungry, tired, cranky baby!  I'm glad that I went through the troubleshooting list; teething-no, milestones/alertness - no, ear infection - yes, but not the REAL problem, started to pay more attention to how much he was actually eating in a 24 hour period... DING DING DING!  It probably took me 2 weeks to sort through everything, but I FINALLY got it!   YAY!!!  sleep deprivation did not expedite the process either... ;)

So, I started supplementing with formula bottles this month.  He was not huge on the formula or the bottle, and wouldn't eat much at all. So it wasn't an immediate turn-around, but as soon as he got the hang of it, it did help.  Then I noticed that even with the supplemented bottles, he would always cap at 3 oz.  Always!  It was the most bizarre thing.  He should be eating, 5-7 oz a time at this age/size and he was only doing 3.  And yes, he was still getting up at night.  SO, the next challenge is going to be getting this guy to eat more than 3 oz in one sitting.  I think that it is going to take me stretching his stomach some, so it might be a slow process.  Hopefully he'll get the hang of solids soon too, so he can fill up on those as well!

He came down with an ear infection and was impossible to feed the amoxicillan to.  He had his first solid food.  Sweet potatoes, but it didn't go over too well.  Possibly because I hid Pink Shakey Shakey Bubble Gum Medicine in it???  His tongue thrust was still so strong, that it wasn't an easy or productive process.  But I know, practice makes perfect, so I'll keep it coming.

We took a family vacation to Lake Michigan, and it was all I could have dreamed of.  It could have been a little warmer, but we still enjoyed lots of time on the beach and outdoors.  We went blueberry picking and ate about as much as we picked.  Carsten is NOT a fan of his car seat, which made the 5.5 hour trip difficult.  But honestly, the Bald Eagle spotting, right there at our Lake House and the 65 steps to the petosky stone dusted Lake Michigan Beach made it all worth it!!!

Carsten can army crawl and move where he finds interesting objects.  He can certainly sit unsupported and is extremely close to sitting himself up.