It

Big Sky Country

Kellen and I took a trip to visit my friend Deana in Hamilton Montana last weekend. Eric had his annual "man trip" to Vegas (turned out to be more of an old mans trip, from what I hear) and I needed to get out of town as well, so off to Montana Kellen and I went. Getting there was more difficult than it needed to be, as our flight from Portland to Seattle was canceled because of bird gunk in the engine (yet another reason to hate birds, nasty creatures they are) so I missed my connection to Missoula and had to wait in Seattle for 5 hours. We killed time by walking the Alaska terminal at least 10 times, playing with a new friend named Katie and eating a frosty. We finally made it there and had a great time. Kellen had a great time with Gwen who is 3.5 and Josie who is 1.5... so stinkin' cute. Seriously. Girls are so different than boys, I especially loved when Gwen would disappear and come back down in a new outfit... a princess dress, her swimsuit... whatever struck her fancy. We had a great time, I wish we didn't live so far from them.

10 Month Update

The 10 month photo shoot proved to be one of the most difficult yet. I put the sign on carboard to make it harder for him to eat and destroy, but he just won't sit still. I still think the photos are pretty cute. I took some of him the night before hanging out his his onesie, he was in a better photo mood that night.

Here are the goings on of our little man: He is a BIG eater. I never realized that he ate so much until I started seeing how much other babies his age eat... and Kellen eats them under the table. A typical dinner for him would be a handful of baked sweet potato fries, a handful of cooked carrot bites, 1/3 an avocado and some oatmeal cereal or cottage cheese thrown in for good measure. Some of his other favorite foods are banana, turkey meatballs, mango, green beans (mashed, not whole for some reason), yogurt, string cheese and of course, cheerios. He is definitly getting a belly.

We have had a total breakthrough in the sleep department. In my last sleep update, the whole family was exhausted from Kellen waking up in the middle of the night and refusing to go back in his crib. We decided that he needed to learn how to fall asleep in his crib since he wasn't making the transfer from our arms. We went through one of the worst nights ever. Over 4 1/2 hours of crying. We would go in and rub his back and tell him that we loved him, he would relax for a few minutes and then start up again. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but we knew something had to give. I am so happy to report that now we feed him, give him a kiss and put him in the crib for nap time and night time, and he falls asleep and stays asleep. Most nights he wakes up between 3 and 5, I feed him and put him right back in the crib and he sleeps until 7ish. Life is so much better and I feel like both Kellen and I now know what to expect when it comes to sleep time, and we are both so much happier for it!

Kellen is still "commando" crawling, pulling himself along on his tummy. I keep thinking that he'll find his way to his knees since his method seems very difficult, but he seems to manage. He has pulled himself to stand a few times, so I know he can do it, but isn't super motivated. He is a VERY happy kid, extremely social and loves to clap and give high-5's. He is a huge flirt and especially loves the retired women that shop at Safeway on Tuesday mornings with us (the Safeway we go to is in a retirement area). He is the joy of our life and we love him more than we ever thought possible.

Mutant Grape

I was tasked with making a fruit salad for Easter dinner. I bought a bunch of grapes at Safeway... take a look at the grape that I found in the bunch. I hope we don't all grow a third eye ball after eating them.

Cousin Matthew's 1st Birthday!

Cousin Matthew turned 1 on Saturday and we helped him celebrate his big day. I cannot believe it has already been a year, and it means that Kellen's big day is just around the corner. Matthew loved opening his presents with the help of big brother and really loved walking around with his new shopping cart. He enjoyed his cake, but didn't make as big of a mess as we thought he would, I guess he was being shy. So fun!

Spaghetti Dinner

Kellen had his first spaghetti dinner tonight. He LOVED it and ate an entire turkey meatball along with a hearty handful of noodles. I let him get all into it, and it was adorable. He is a pretty good eater and now the pressure is on me to keep thinking of new things for him to dive into.

You may notice some distict bags under Kellen's eyes in these photos. We are really struggling with sleep these days and have re-committed ourselves to cry it out. He was sleeping OK for a while, and by OK I mean waking twice at night, me feeding him, and him going back to sleep. For the past few weeks he has been waking and not going back to sleep. There are no photos of me here, but I guarantee you there are equal bags under my eyes. Eric and I have been zombies lately and something has to give. I hope the tryptophan in the turkey meatballs makes him sleep like a baby...

Trouble

Trouble is all around us, it's everywhere we go... or is it love... maybe both? Happy St. Patty's day, I have no idea the origin of the holiday, but I have a Guiness in my fridge to celebrate. I also made Guiness brownies, although I think I might have goofed the recipe because they are taking twice as long as they should to bake. Oh well. Kellen was a mighty big help making them, as you can see, he helped by taking out all of my bowls and scattering them across the kitchen. So helpful.

He also got his first sink bath at Grandma and Grandpa Tyson's house. Those teething cookies are so good, but sooooo messy. Many more sink baths to come.