SICK of being sick!

That’s Jaxson’s exact thought right now! Here’s a recap of the past month or so…

January 27 (2 days before his birthday) he had the flu…

February 9, he got the stomach virus for a full week…it was AWFUL…

February 17 (2 days before my birthday) he got RSV and then bronchitis…that brought with it something new for us…breathing treatments. His nebulizer is a fire truck though so that helped a little. He despised the treatments at first but towards the end of the week he did okay with them. The emergency room doctor diagnosed him with pneumonia and RSV and sent us home with an antibiotic prescription-thanks but no thanks-we were at his doctor the next morning (February 18) because he was having problems breathing and his doctor said he actually had a touch of bronchitis and RSV. He started him on the breathing treatments and those really helped. His oxygen level that morning was 95-which isn’t bad but isn’t good. Because it was okay, he did not have to be hospitalized which I was VERY THANKFUL for! But the doctor said if he didn’t get any better over the weekend to bring him back to the ER to be admitted. Luckily, he was better in about a week. At our follow-up appointment on the following Monday, his oxygen level was better and the doctor said his chest/back sounded almost 70% better compared to Friday.

That was definitely one of the most stressed months of my life I think…I just want my baby to be happy & healthy!

March 6 he started having cold-like symptoms but it may be allergies. I also think he’s cutting a new tooth because he’s chewing on everything again. He hasn’t chewed like this in a long time!  He isn’t running a fever so we aren’t making a trip to the doctor yet.

PRAISE: no ear infections since January 7!!!!

This picture is a little scary but he was excited!

Long overdue Update:

I can’t believe I haven’t updated the blog since his birthday! I’m really behind on things. Since then he got his first haircut on February 5, 2011 at Danny’s Barbershop in Bolivar. That was quite the experience! Jaxson was not happy and squirmed the entire time making it a little hard to get those hair lines perfectly straight. Every now and then he would stop screaming and turn around and look at himself in the mirror. I think I had just as much hair on me as he did!

Since then we have just been running like crazy as usual…always on the road! My birthday was sort of a bust…I was happy that my parents came up and I got great gifts but Jaxson was really sick so I was stressed and not really in the mood. Last weekend (March 4-5), Emmett and I went to see Jason Aldean and Erick Church in Lexington, Kentucky with Emmett’s parents, his sister and her boyfriend. My parents took off work and came up to stay with Jaxson. It was a quick but nice trip.

Jaxson walks/runs around like a crazy man ALL DAY. He absolutely never stops and I’m not sure where he gets all of his energy. He loves to play, aggravate the dogs, eat and be outside. He loves to eat yogurt-I think he would eat it for every meal every day if he could! He also loves spaghetti/pastas, chicken & dumplings, nutri-grain bars, goldfish, fig newtons and MILK MILK MILK! He will eat most anything these days which is better than the transition phase we were in about a month ago. He will be moving up to the 1 year old room at daycare on April 4, 2011. He loves to push his trucks and make the noises to go along with it. He pulls out every book he owns and throws them on the floor. He will share his food with anyone and then say “tank who”. Still not really saying “mama”-I blame it on him just being hardheaded! Loves to say “dada” though when I slowly say “mama” to him. He is a nosy-rosy and is a people watcher like his mama. He loves to be outside and will cry/throw a fit when you make him go in the house. He will grab one of my brushes and brush his hair. He has started biting some but I hope it just goes away….He will say “yep” and nod his head up and down when you ask him something. I think he repeats me when I say “done” when he is finished eating. I pick up on these ½ words although I’m sure no one else can understand him...haha. He loves to chase the dogs with his toys and loves to have his belly tickled. He wants someone to hold his hand when he’s walking. Still doesn’t enjoy having his diaper changed and I’m not enjoying it much either since he’s on regular food now. He is such a little man now and it makes me sad but he’s still such a mama’s boy! I love picking him up at daycare and him smiling and running to me….BEST FEELING EVER! I recently bought him a pair of Puma tennis shoes (cutest things ever!) and he got a Hurley shirt to match his Daddy’s and it just makes him look grown. Oh, and he’s obsessed with his bowl of snacks…if he even spots the bowl he has to have it in his hands even if he doesn’t eat the snacks! Most kids get attached to a blanket or stuff animal…not mine! He is a messy messy eater and could care less if he gets the food all over him or the floor or anything else that will stand in the way-dogs…

I think that about sums up our life lately. We just take it all day by day and praise God for all that he has blessed our family with. I have really enjoyed church the past couple of Sundays and the sermons have really spoken to me. It’s just a good feeling knowing that He’s on our side during this crazy world we live in. When I get really stressed I have to remember to just pray about it and let God handle it for me.

Updated pictures of my handsome little man...

Playing at the Park

 Jaxson at Averly's 1st birthday party on March 12, 2011

LOVES riding the 4-wheeler, lawn mower and anything else that moves!

1 year checkup

Today was Jaxson’s 1 year checkup…I still remember the 1 month checkup appointment! He now weighs 22 ½ pounds and is 30” tall. His head circumference is about 45 ½. He’s just a little guy but he’s sooo active. We will take away the bottle tomorrow (fingers crossed) and he started whole milk today. NO MORE SIMILAC FOR THIS FAMILY- WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!! The past two weeks we have started more table food and have tried to start transitioning him. I still have a couple of jars of baby food in the pantry but I don’t plan to buy anymore. He loves green beans, chicken nuggets, peas, mashed potatoes, carrots, puffs, macaroni & cheese, cereal/oat bars and oatmeal is okay. I’m still scared to give him a lot of stuff because I’m scared of him choking. He likes juice and water and loves drinking out of a sippy cup. He is a pro-walker now a month after getting tubes. He very rarely crawls anymore. He loves to play with his toys-all of them for a minute or two a piece-ADHD? Slightly . He still wears a size 3 diaper and I may move him up to a size 4. He wears 12 month or 12-18 month clothes. 12 month pants fit well but are a little snug in the waist when he sits down but 12-18 month pants are too baggy. He had to get two shots today that he was not happy about. I’m not sure when we will lose the paci…it may be a while. He still sleeps in his bed. Last week he didn’t want to be rocked so we would lay him down and he would cry for a minute or two and then go to sleep. This week-he likes to be rocked. He will sleep in his bed sometimes all night and other times he’s up at 2 or 3 a.m. I’m pretty sure I haven’t slept in a year. He still says “dada” and babbles a few other things. No “mama” yet.


Now that I am finished with the party planning I feel like I can work on other things. My goals for the next few months are to get caught up on his scrapbook and get my blog published into a book to collect dust at our house. I feel like I have to document EVERYTHING in several different ways because I’m afraid I’m going to forget something. I love looking through my baby keepsakes & calendar and I just hope he has that same appreciation one day-scrapbook, blog and event calendar. There’s also a few other things going on with our family right now. Emmett recently received a job promotion that will allow our family a little more financial flexibility. We have always been stable but after having Jaxson things just became month to month. It wasn’t as much saving as before. His new job will allow us to save more and will give me a little more room to breathe. I also got a promotion at work but my pay raise is miniscule compared to Emmett’s, which is okay. I will take what I can get!  We have talked about buying land and building a house but I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t want to deal with all of that right now. I just want us to be able to take vacations and save money for a while. I want to build the house I want with all the things I want so it’s better if we save and just wait a little bit longer-can you tell I keep having to tell myself that?! Haha…to satisfy my urge for a new project I think we may have a fence put up around our backyard and attempt yet again to get grass to grow in the back! Some people are fine with living in a neighborhood but I was raised in the woods & I need to go back there! It’s just so calm, peaceful and relaxing out in the country.

Happy 1st Birthday Jaxson!

Our baby boy is 1! I keep repeating that because eventually I will believe it. The past year has flown by and he has grown into this little man that is energetic and full of life-he’s also full of temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way! Unfortunately, 2 days before his birthday we found out he had the flu. I was really sad because I wanted him to have the best birthday and I wanted everything to be perfect. I had worked on planning this birthday party (milk & cookies theme) for months because I wanted him to have the most perfect 1st birthday party. Thankfully he was back to normal on his birthday after a little tamiflu and was able to enjoy his big day! Since he had the flu, I advised several of our party guests not to come because I didn’t want their children sick. So we just had a little family party, which was fine. Jaxson enjoyed his cake and cookies and tried a little chocolate milk. For his birthday he got clothes, books, a quilt, toys and money. All things a little boy needs! He also got a cozy coupe that has been a complete nightmare so far  I’m only half joking…he LOVES it. He climbs inside of it-closes the door-grips the steering wheel-and waits for someone to push him. He just rides around the house with a content look on his face like he’s on top of the world! We also did a “time capsule” at the party and everyone brought or sent something to put inside. Jaxson will open his time capsule when he’s older. I wrote him a letter so I won’t post my sappy story about how big he is and how much I love him on here. His one year checkup is scheduled for February 2, 2011. He desperately needs a haircut so that will be happening on February 5, 2011. I plan on taking him to “Danny’s Barbershop” in Bolivar because that’s where Jason got his first haircut and that’s where Daddy always gets his haircut. It’s a small, old-school barbershop on a street corner in downtown Bolivar. They are used to little boys coming in for their first haircut so I’m sure they won’t mind me taking a few hundred pictures.

Below are some pictures from his big day. I got a lot of inspiration from Anne Powers. She has some of the cutest ideas and I love reading her blog!

Handmade Invitations

Time Capsule

The Birthday Boy!!

Party Favors 

Cozy Coupe-Jaxson is obssessed!

Top of party favors (I took off the ribbon and tied twine on instead)



Birthday Week!

It's Jaxson's Birthday Week!!!

I'm so excited for his first little birthday but soooo sad too. We are having a "Milk & Cookies" party and I got a lot of inspiration from another blog that I follow.

On this day last year, I started having Braxton Hicks contractions. They were 3 minutes apart and they last 4 days. I also had my first of three false alarms on this day last year :) I was ready to have that baby out! I was told to stay home and relax...really? Is that possible?! So, I did...but I was bored...luckily my  mother-in-law was nice enough to babysit me so Emmett could work. All three times that I went to the hospital the nurses took one look at me and said "you aren't ready yet you are still smiling". But I was having contractions couldn't we just go ahead and do this thing! Nope, had to wait until January 29 to meet my precious baby boy.

Birthday post later to come...it will be picture overload!

Walking...

Jaxson started really walking on January 1, 2011. Three days after getting tubes his balance was much better and he was taking more than just a couple of steps. His walking got even better the days after that and now he can pretty much walk where he wants to but still falls and crawls when he gets lazy.

Friday, 1-7-10, we were back at the doctor with an ear infection. I partially blame myself for this because I was not plugging his ears during bath time so he probably got a little water in there which caused this infection. Plugging his ears is a pain in my rear-end….you have to cut the cotton ball in half and then coat it with Vaseline and then shove it in his ears…and then he pulls it out and the process starts all over. I know I shouldn’t complain especially if it keeps my baby from having those nasty ear infections! *Fingers crossed*, this will be our last time on antibiotics for a while!!

Jaxson has been really cranky the past week-ear infection and 3 teeth coming in! He also has a new thing-throwing fits! It is absolutely the funniest thing I’ve seen but I know I should “nip it in the bud” before he’s throwing these fits when he’s 16. When we tell him “no” he will look at us-squint his eyebrows together-plop down in the floor-bend his back-scream and cry. When I ignore him and turn around, he will look up at me and stop. I dread the terrible 2’s if this is any sign of the way things will be! I’m not sure where he learned this fit throwing thing, but I sure hope it ends soon. He has also started to refuse the bottle some and only wants to feed himself. He doesn’t like for us to feed him baby food that much anymore and will reach for the spoon. That’s wonderful for development but what in the world am I supposed to feed him? He can pick up food using his fingers instead of his whole hand so he will eat the Gerber Puffs and depending on what we have for dinner I will give him some table food (green beans, mashed potatoes, roll). I guess I will try some of the Gerber Graduate meals. I’m just so worried he’s going to get choked. That brings up another new thing-putting everything in the mouth! In the past week, I have scooped out a knob, kleenex and paper out of his mouth.

Our best friends right now are Orajel, walking shoes and sippy cups of water!

From our infant carseat to our big boy carseat! He doesn't care for it too much right now because it's still backwards and my seat has a little incline so he sits straight up.

We finally got the child locks on the cabinet doors! That has helped a lot!

Christmas Eve/Day snow

The Parking Garage

Bath time!

Waiting to see the doctor...

3 teeth with 3 more on the way!

Resting with Dada

2010=Happiness

I wanted to do a little recap of 2010 since a new year has snuck up on us! 2010 brought a BIG change to our lives…a change that I would do over again in a heartbeat…a change that took my heart and is now walking around with it…my Jaxson Cole was born in January 2010. A year ago today Emmett and I were going to our first parenting class at JSMC. And now we are planning a birthday party- It is so unreal to me that 2010 is gone! I remember the week we brought Jaxson home I thought “how in the world am I going to do this, what was I thinking, can I really pull this off?” I was absolutely scared to death and knew almost nothing about babies. I was so thankful to have my Moma there the first week and she did the night shifts so I could “rest.” We have had a lot of help over the past year and grandparents are always willing to stay the night to “help with the baby” a.k.a spoil him rotten. By February, we I was stir crazy and needed adult conversation and contact. We spent a few days in Bolivar so that he could meet family/friends and Emmett and I had a date on Valentine’s Day-our conversation consisted of “what do you think he’s doing, I wonder if he’s okay, should we go to a movie or just go home?” We did a lot of shopping because there just wasn’t much else to do in the middle of February when it’s freezing outside. I started back to work at the end of March and it was okay. I knew that Jaxson was being taken care of at daycare and I was ready for the daily routine to start. Jaxson went to his first baseball game to watch Uncle Jason play in April and then attended his first family reunion and wedding in May. We also traveled in May to Center Hill for the weekend to spend some time with family and to enjoy some time on the boat. This was the first trip away that wasn’t to a family member’s home so packing was a lot of fun! Jaxson spent June, July and August on the boat or in the pool. In September, Emmett and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary and it seems like Jaxson has been at the doctor’s office since then with allergies, congestion and ear infections since then! Jaxson made his first Ohio trip in October and was able to meet Emmett’s family! In the midst of all of this, Jaxson was trying to walk and ended up with lots of bumps and bruises on the head! In November, Emmett and I headed back to Columbus for an Ohio State game and had to leave Jaxson for the first time-it was HARD. Thank goodness it was only 3 days because I don’t think we could have made it longer than that! November also started our good eating for Thanksgiving! In December Jaxson had to get tubes for his ears. We cannot wait to see what 2011 has in our family’s future. Last night Jaxson asked for a little brother or sister to play with…haha…just kidding! It was a good thought for a minute and then it passed.

We have a birthday party, celebrating another year living in our house, celebrating another anniversary and many other upcoming events to look forward to in 2011! Happy New Year and may God bless your family this year with peace, happiness and health!

Checking in at JSMC on 01-28-10 at 11:30 p.m.

Jaxson Cole has arrived!

01-29-10 at 12:09 p.m.

7 lbs 12 oz 19 1/2 inces

And the snow started falling that night...and continued to fall all weekend!

Our New Family!