We've Arrived!

Well, we arrived in Rochester after the trip up from St Louis. All is well, although William decided he didn't want to take the bottle anymore. Keeping us on our toes. We are now in a rip-roaring game of Hearts with Great-Grandpa Budd, Great-Grandma Nona, Grandpa Kevin, Kaye, and Scott.

Good night!
The Heidts

5 Months Old!

Today William is 5 months old! We celebrated this morning with one of Mom's photo studio sessions. Although I feel my skill in capturing him is improving, he is becoming a more difficult subject. He kept wanting to crawl away! I had to chase him back to the backdrop many times. After our studio session, I was pulling laundry out of the dryer and became concerned because I couldn't hear the wipes anymore. (William always goes for the plastic wipes bag when I walk out of the room). I went back to check on him and found he had scooted around the coffee table and was halfway under the couch. An hour later, I left him happily playing in the middle of the living room floor and stepped out to chase a cat. When I came back, he had scooted himself again to the fireplace and was attempting to play with the CD player. Sadly, the time for childproofing is here.

Rice cereal continues well. William is getting much better and eating the cereal and not throwing it around. We had a minor issue with getting the cereal to complete its path through to the other end yesterday. Today, we...ummm....pushed that on through. Quite messily. The nurse suggested using prune juice to help things along if we continue to have trouble. We'll see.

My favorite picture from today...


Or is this my favorite?


Laughing


Trying to crawl away


Playing with his toes...


Eating his 5 months sign

Silly boy!


Reaching for the camera! What a good helper!

After lunch, we went for a play date with another teacher from school and her baby. Her son, Tate was born a week after William. He is super cute with huge brown eyes! William enjoyed playing with Tate and his very nice toys. Luckily, Tate has already learned to share! Oh, and the moms had a good time too! Sundi made great cheesecake bars to snack on and we enjoyed watching the boys play together (or together, but separately as my child development professor would say). We made plans to get together again - it should be fun!

William and Tate

The boys. TA: notice the other kid's shirt?

Stories

Well, the internet is not working any better. So, I have been forced to get up off the couch and move to the office to blog. I am so lazy. I am going to tell you the promised stories with pictures. The camera is in the kitchen. See above lazy statement. I hope you appreciate all the work I do...so lazy.

First: Basement
We have been working little by little on getting the basement ready for drywall. After William was born, the work has slowed down to a crawl (HAH! Lazy, but funny). This weekend, we were able to work for a longer period of time as William was busy in his "office". You would have to ask John exactly what we did, but we ran some cables and worked in the bathroom area. I mostly ran and got tools, picked up trash, moved boxes around to make room for big piles of drywall, and kept an eye on William in his office. While working on the bathtub, William got a little fussy. He was much happier when he got to "help"! According to John, there are only a few more things that have to happen before we order the drywall. I think one of the things we have to do is figure out how we are going to get it from the delivery truck into our house.

William helps with the tub

What a great helper!

Second: Backpack
John and I really like hiking. This love was born when we lived in Seattle. Although we have not ever achieved the frequency of hiking that we used to do in Seattle, it is still something we enjoy. William seemed like he was well on his way to enjoying hiking also. However, the backpack we were using to carry him is now too small. So, it was time to upgrade. We spent a long time on Saturday at REI trying on (and drooling on) several different backpacks. I love that about REI. The same guy sat with us for an hour and adjusted several different packs to fit John and then William. The whole time, he was explaining the differences and features in packs to help us pick. He didn't complain once. Not even when William urped a little into one of the packs (it's okay. it is the one we ended up picking and buying). So, hike on! We are excited to try the pack out on our upcoming trip to Minnesota and North Dakota!

Our new backpack!

William's favorite thing about this backpack? He can hit John's head over and over and over....

Third: Nursery
Our new church has a nursery. Every week, people in church let us know there is a nursery available if we want. So far, I haven't wanted. In the last two weeks William has gotten a louder voice and been harder to distract away from using it. So, I picked this week. This last Sunday would be the day we used the nursery for the first time. I wasn't worried about him - I was worried about me. But, I did it. I walked in and gave him to the woman running the nursery and it was fine. I only checked on him once and he was having a great time watching the other kids run around and play. So, another thing to check off of my list of things to do.


I promise I'll be back with some pictures for you. But, I have packing and laundry to do for our trip and some worrying to do as well!

A special bonus for you all: our first tomato! The color looks a little funky because I couldn't get the light just right. I promise it wasn't quite as orange...we ate it tonight and it was GOOD!

Internet problems

We're experiencing some technical difficulties. The laptop is not able to be online currently. This is where I do most of my blogging from as the other computer is SO much further away. My IT department (John) is currently working on the situation. I do have pictures and lovely stories to tell you later. Remind me to tell you about the basement, a backpack, and the nursery another time.

Note to Self #2, Note to the cat..

Note to self #2: When putting on your shoes, it is not a wise idea to put the baby on the floor when there is a trashcan in sight. Baby will move with lighting speed and turn said trash can's contents on its head.

Note #3: When feeding rice cereal to a baby, it is wise to remove all jewelry. Especially rings with prongs. That rice stuff is like concrete when it dries. In fact, it is probably wise to remove all jewelry, clothing and surrounding objects from the area when trying to feed rice cereal.


Note to the cat who sleeps under the highchair: It isn't my fault that things come falling out of the sky. Find a new place to sleep or I'll probably be giving you a bath in the near future (see Note #3).

Note to Self (aka: What I have learned today)

Note to self: It is not a good plan to put the baby in a basket of clean, folded laundry even for a moment. Even if you need to put your shoes on quick. Especially when said baby is a known spitter upper. I spent part of the day REdoing laundry.

PS Working on posting video of our scooter/crawler.

Something new...

Today confirmed we have a scooter. He is gaining speed by the hour. John and I discussed gates and other baby proofing measures we will start working on this weekend. Can it be time already? He is still a baby!

I've been spending time reading up on photography and playing around a little bit. I'm stressing the little bit part because there are a lot of other things going on here. As part of this, William am I played around with a different background:black. I kind of like the look. So, here are the new pictures from today with the black background and some of William and Daddy.

Sitting up is getting easier!

But, sometimes I like to try and lick my feet.

Smile!

I can't put my finger on it - I just like this expression!

Toes! What, you can't do this?

I know...blurry! But he is cute!


William and Daddy

P.S. Naps were amazing today....I'll fill you in more if they continue as well as brag about how I am a brilliant mother. I''m not quite there yet. AMAZING I tell you!

PPS Did I mention William napped today? I am so brilliant!

Grant's Farm

Whew! I'm tired! Today, we met up with a bunch of crazy teachers who are enjoying their summer vacation at Grant's Farm. Grant's Farm is hard to explain, but it involves riding in golf carts, animals, no admission fee, a little bit of presidential history and free alcohol for the adults at the end of the trip (none was consumed today). The crazies (adults), took the kids out to see the animals and hang out together. There were 8 children there and 7 adults. 4 of the children are less than a year old! We had a great time. William loved (LOVED) watching the other kids running around and playing with each other. He would get super excited any time they went running by him. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time. Except when he got hot, tired and crabby. But, that didn't last long luckily. We both came home tired and without sunburn. A success in my book.

In other news, William continues to with the rice cereal. I am making it thicker a little bit each day. Somehow, I thought that would make things less messy. In fact, the opposite is true. I also seem to have stopped listening after the doctor told us when to start with the rice cereal. I remember her talking about moving to cereal twice a day and amounts of cereal as well. The conversation is coming back to me something like this:

"After you have established the cereal, you may want to add another feeding blah, blah, blah (please use the Charlie Brown adult voice here). These feeding should be in the amount of blah blah blah."

I have consulted the Meticulous Notebook that John had recorded all medical notes in from the time William's pregnancy was confirmed and it seems to have not made it into the notes at all. So, how am I to proceed? Do I call the nurse line like a nutter and take the nurse through the long, drawn out story with the end result: admitting that I don't listen? Or do I play it by ear and possibly ruin my child's future by not feeding him enough for his brain to properly develop or condemn him to a lifetime of being addicted to carbs by overfeeding him? Or could you mommys out there reading (I know there are at least 4 of you) drop me an e mail or comment with when you moved to feeding cereal two times a day. I know at some point he is supposed to be eating cereal twice a day. Please help! Also, how much am I supposed to be feeding him at one sitting? Currently, he is eating about 1 -2 tablespoons of cereal in 4 tablespoons of milk. I am clear (at this point anyway) about the fruits/veggies, etc. coming later. But, I'm so confused about this cereal thing. Thank you in advance for your advice.

The last, and maybe biggest news of the day is that I cam in this morning to find William on his hands and knees on the living room floor. The important part here is that HE got that way by himself. He kind of just looked at me and then put his head back down on the ground. I was so shocked that I just kind of stood there. As I stood there with his mouth open, William turned around and scooted himself around (YES!!! I said he SCOOTED HIMSELF!!) across the floor towards another pile of toys. Mouth...still...open... So, crawling is coming. Faster than I thought, but coming. I tried for the rest of the afternoon to catch him scooting on video. All I got was a bunch of funny faces of William staring at the camera and trying to grab it. we'll keep trying tomorrow.

All the kiddos at Grant's Fa(L-R) William, Connor, Matthew, Darcy, MacKenzie, Nathan, Caroline, Katelyn

Riding on the golf cart tram! Liz and Laura help with baby duty (Connor and Matthew)


Everyone (almost) riding on the tram (please note: the tram was NOT in motion AND my hands, feet and head were all inside of the vehicle...at all times)


Kim, Katelyn and Caroline


Ulysses S Grant's cabin. Or something...


My favorite picture of the day. William was being crabby and "Auntie" Laura was able to turn this around for us. He LOVES those sunglasses (who wouldn't?)

Happy Father's Day!

Father and Son
Father's Day 2007

Today was Father's Day and also new member Sunday at our new church. William is beginning to be quite the blabber mouth during church services and without the pacifier (still refuses it), it is impossible to keep him quiet. I guess it might be time for us to try out the nursery one of these days. William got John a great present today: William slept in until about 9:15am! It was wonderful, although it made things a little difficult to be leaving the house for church at 10am for church.

William enjoyed a nice midday nap so John and I had a nice relaxing lunch together. You know, the kind where you talk to each other about things other than: did you hear him spit up? Have you seen the blue puppy toy? Will you hold him while I eat my [insert food here]? We also had time for a quick haircut before the boy woke up.

John got lots of kisses from William today as well as a HUGE bag of M&M's, an umbrella stroller and a homemade dinner. We grilled hamburgers (John's favorite) and had potatoes and corn on the cob. Yummy! All in all a very nice day. Here are some pictures of "the boys" hanging out together (I admit it, I took these yesterday).

Kissing Daddy (and laughing too!)

Mmmm...Daddy!

If you look carefully, you can see the long string of drool that comes from John's cheek to William's mouth. Gotta love those kisses!

Today was also day two for rice cereal and it went very well and even less messy than yesterday. William ate very well and probably would have eaten more if I would have offered it to him. Medicine also appears to be working well. I am compelled to add "so far" to the end of that last sentence.

Rice, Cup, Daddy

At our last doctor appointment, the doctor advised us to begin feeding William rice cereal around the time he turned 5 months old. As the 5 month mark approached, I found it more and more difficult to wait. On Friday, William was officially 20 weeks old - close enough to the 5 month mark for me. Also at play is our upcoming trip to MN a few days after he turns 5 month old. I wanted to either wait until we got back or start a little sooner to get the feeding established. Well, we all know how I am about waiting...so today began the rice cereal.

I really felt like he was SO ready. He (I think) really liked eating it and sucked happily at the spoon. He opened his mouth up like a champ each time I came with the cereal on the spoon. Getting the spoon past the hands was more problematic... The mixture was very much more on the liquid than solid side, but that is okay. It made a nice mess and I think went well. Here are the pictures of William's first rice cereal feeding from this afternoon.

Before: clean and happy!

The first bites

Mmmmmm....

Open wide...

Halfway through, we switched spoons. This one held a lot more liquid. I thought it had a better chance of getting more in that mouth. I think it just made a bigger mess.

The end mess...

Boy, was that good! I think if I would have made more, he would have gobbled it right up! We didn't want to push it today though. It was more for fun than for filling him up.

After dinner, we went for a walk though our neighborhood and upon returning, those of us that walk we quite warm. So, we went and got us some cold water from the fridge. In the past few weeks, William has become a pain when you are trying to comsume something while holding him. He wants to hold/eat/suck/lick whatever you are holding on to. So, after trying to hold him and drink water, I opted to pull out his sippy cup. I put a tiny bit of water in the bottom of it and pull out the suction thingee in the lid and let him have a go at it. This isn't the first time he has used his cup and he was delighted to see it again. He still has no idea how to operate it (see: pool post from a few days ago), but enjoys using it very much.

William attempts the cup

The cup vs the Boy


Mouth open...check!

We found the liquid more likely to go in his mouth with gravity on his side...


Perfect! Hands AND feet!

In the last week or so, I began noticing a very peculiar trend. William became a entirely delightful baby when his father was around. In the last two days, the daddy's boy syndrome has come to a full head. The evidence: I tried to put William down for a nap both today and yesterday with no luck. John waltzed (or maybe polkad) his way in and within 8 minutes had the Boy snoozing peacefully in his crib. Not a tear in sight. William also bounces and giggles when his daddy enters the room and today demonstrated his desire to be held by his dad by throwing his entire body weight towards John while I was holding him over an unforgiving hard surface. William loves his daddy. It is perfect timing for tomorrow's holiday. More on this subject tomorrow...

So far so good...

I'm afraid to be too optimistic to early, but I wanted to post that things appear to be better. I'll give it a few days to pull together an evaluation of the whole situation. Then, we'll have to decide if we continue with this new medicine. All areas have gone much, MUCH better today: sleeping, eating, overall mood, and crying.

My only compliant is small: flavors. Why on earth do the makers of these drugs produce things for infants that have any flavor at all? (Sorry Cathy...) When William was a few weeks old, we had to introduce him to the WORST smelling vitamins ever. They were supposedly "fruit" flavor. The poor kid hadn't ever had anything except milk and he was supposed to like something FRUIT flavored? Give me a break! It took well over a month for him to willingly open his mouth for those bad boys. Finally John tried them to see how yucky they actually were. Then, came the Mylanta. Which, as far a s I know, doesn't come in a children's version. And if it did, it would cost $30 more just for being the "children's" version. It is peppermint flavored. And yucky. The poor (POOR) kid hasn't had anything but milk and now "fruit "flavored vitamins, and I 'm supposed to make him take something peppermint flavored? That didn't go very well at all. It took close to a month for him to tolerate the Mylanta and then the vitamins (he quit accepting the vitamins when we introduced Mylanta). Somewhere in the mix, he has also had both grape and cherry flavored (come ON!) Tylenol as well. Those weren't as bad with the exception of the staining red color of the cherry (please note: the spit up for the next 3 hours will also be red colored and will stain everything).

Now, this new medicine: BUBBLEGUM. It will be YEARS before this child will ever know the true experience of bubblegum in his mouth (or longer). He has really ONLY TASTED MILK! Who comes up with this stuff? I know it is supposed to help kids take their medicine, but how about something we can work with? Although I am complaining about it, it has actually been okay. William makes some great faces while taking the medicine, but it goes down every time so far. We'll keep you updated as to how things progress - I'm hopeful this will be the fix we were looking for.

A possible Solution...

I was able to call into the nurse I talked with yesterday this morning. The doctor is recommending we try a stronger medication for the acid reflux in hopes of getting it under control a little better. We picked up the prescription today and started it this evening. The nurse told me it would be a few days before we see a marked difference and at least a week before we see the full effects. We hope it is the answer we are looking for. We managed to get together with a play group from our church this morning and William enjoyed himself very much. He enjoyed the women telling him how handsome he is (no wonder his head is so big) and watching the other kids run around and play. He was fascinated by two boys who were roller blading around the tennis courts. I think he could have stayed there all day long and watched.

On the way home, William fell asleep and that was the big nap of the daytime. Twenty minutes on the way back home was it until later in the afternoon when he finally was exhausted enough to shut his eyes for another half hour. Blech. If this keeps up, I'll never get lunch before 3:30...and then John is hungry for dinner when he gets home at 5pm. He can't understand why I'm not interested in dinner these days. Oh well.

The big news is that our neighbor was throwing away a little kiddie pool that had a hole in it. We scooped up our prize and I cleaned it out this afternoon. I filled it up with less than half of an inch of water (and then it leaked!) and left it to warm in the sun. We tried it out when John got home - we had a lot of fun! We took the umbrella to our patio table and positioned it to shade the pool. It is orange, red and yellow striped - which make William look a very funny shade of orange...

William in his new suit...with built in diaper!


Fun Times in the pool!

We found a cup necessary to rinse away the spit up...William enjoyed practicing using it.

"This doesn't seem to be working..."

If you look carefully, you can see the water pouring out onto his lap...


Time to get out!

Wrapping up in a towel...how did I (Kelly) end up so wet?

Mmmmmm...Spit up. I don't know if we'll be invited to many pool parties with the water looking like this after only fifteen minutes in the pool...(see the white floaties?)