Monday, August 29, 2005

Mommy and Daddy's non-weekends and Kian's Eventful Week

Last week has been a pretty stressful one (and to be honest Monday didn’t start on the right foot either). Jamie is working lots of hours to meet an upcoming deadline. He worked through this weekend as well (and did last weekend). It’s really hard on all of us because he doesn’t get a break and neither do I. I pretty much do the same thing I do during the week which is stay home and talk to my 15 month old who really is no conversation at all :( Ah yes, my life seems pretty sad… Annually making friends is no picnic and is getting harder and harder for this introvert to do.

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s Monday. It feels like it should be Saturday. I cannot wait for this project to be over so I can have my husband back along with our weekends together!

This last week has been an eventful one for Kian though.

Kian’s Molars


Kian currently has 2 molars (on the left side) that are almost all the way in and the top right one is coming through right now. Those molars are pretty painful for him and he’s had many wake ups at night because of it. Poor little guy! The bottom right molar is bulging too so I have a feeling it will poke through soon. I can’t wait for him to have all his teeth for now! Wow! What a crank he is during the day! For now we keep the Tylenol flowing and the Hyland’s Teething Tablets going.

Climbing!


Kian has figured out how to climb up our leather recliner. Yesterday Jamie told showed me he had gotten up there. I figured we would just need to keep an eye on him and I was happy to see that he was getting down off of it backwards as I have taught him. Well, later on yesterday I was watching a TV show and noticed he got on the chair. I when back to watching my show and then turned back to him and saw him climbing up the back of it and almost getting over the top part of the recliner! I almost had a heart attack!

Since I can’t be in the living room all the time, Jamie and I decided that we needed to up to something up to block him from getting up in the chair. Jamie found a box that would fit in the recliner and put some heavy books in it. There was still room for Kian to move the box so we too two 12 packs of soda and squished them into the seat lol It’s actually worked so far! He has tried to move the 12 packs and get up on the chair but he has yet to succeed. lol I hope he doesn’t because I have no idea what we will put there!

“Finished”

Since Kian was bout 6 months I started doing the sign in sign language for finished. I would do the sign when he was done eating and a lot of times I would ask him if he was “finished” and he would do the sign to tell me that he was. This is what it looks like: http://www.signwithme.com/video_display.asp?ID=30 He finally started to do it himself at about 9 or 10 months and then used it at the right time (not when I asked him if he was finished) at about 11 or 12 months.

Well, this last week Kian started using finished for things other than mealtime! He was having a rough time napping. I thought I would let him cry and see if he would just fall asleep again – but he didn’t. So, I went in his room and picked him up and said to him…”what’s the deal?” and he did the sign for finished! LOL I almost died laughing although he was very serious! He did it again yesterday morning when I went to get him after he woke up. I have to put the cat outside and I get his sippy with milk warmed up before I get him so he cried a little bit and when I went in there again he showed me the finished sign….it was like he was saying “I’m finished sleeping, Mama” LOL It was so cute!

I have been meaning to show him other signs but keep forgetting to look them up or do them consistently. So now I am teaching him the signs for “drink” which is: http://www.signwithme.com/video_display.asp?ID=20 and the sign for “more” which is: http://www.signwithme.com/video_display.asp?ID=29

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Kian's 15 Month Photos

Here are most of the photos we had taken at JC Penney at the begining of August. We had some problems with our order and the real prints are going to take up to another 3 weeks to come in! I am hoping its not going to be that long.

Anyway, I wanted to share his shots :) He has had a hair cut since so he looks more like a little boy than anything now! I can't believe how much he's growing!

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Kian's bed time stuggles

For about 2-3 weeks Kian would play, talk....whatever at night for 2 hours after he went to bed....YES TWO HOURS! It was driving me mad! I was checking in on him to make sure he didn't poop and then sometimes he would scream becuase he threw all his binkies and blanket over the side. He can't sleep without the both of them.

I tried all different things....more soothing environment when I put him to sleep...whispering to him while I get him dressed.... That didn't work.... Then I tried putting him to bed later because I thought he wasn't tired yet....that didn't work! Finally I brought out a basket of board books and cheap little regular books...he loves to look at books and I usually set these aside so he won't wreck them.

I bring out the basket about a half hour before he goes to bed. My plan was to read to him the entire time but he won't last more than a book...so I read him a story and then he unloads and looks at all the books! It worked like a charm (that along with the calming environment stuff) and he falls asleep right away now! I might just hear him a little bit but nothing more than 10 mins! I am so glad because I know he was really wearing himself out!

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

The Events of the Past Few Weeks

Kidney Stone
Well, first thing is a few weeks ago Jamie passed another small kidney stone. He wasn’t in as much pain as the last time but it was very painful. Thankfully he passed very quickly! He brought it in to the our Dr.;s office for testing and we get results on it in a few weeks.

Allie the Outdoor Cat (well, now she’s doing it part time)
Second thing is that Allie (our cat) has bit Kian. She did this a few weekends ago…she bit him on the hand and then on the head the next day….both times she left marks. She didn’t do this to be viscous…she was protecting herself from Kian who was pulling on her tail…the thing is that when Toby gets annoyed he leaves the gated area…when Allie gets annoyed she stays for more action!

After the last bite, she was locked up in Kian’s bathroom (where her food is) for the day until we could find a new home for her. Unfortunately its kitten season so no shelter would take her (well no no-kill shelters anyway). We were told by one of the shelters that with her history they the pound would put her to sleep. They also offered other suggestion of what to do with her and the best thing for all of us was to put her in our fenced in patio during the day. Our patio has 6 ft high fences that are totally made out of wood…no way for her to get out or in besides through the house.

For the last two weeks she has been out there and she loves it. In the morning before I get Kian out of his crib I open the door to outside and she actually just walks out there on her own. She has a little litter box, food, water and even a little shelter we bought her and put an old blanket in.

Kian’s Allergy Tests

Kian’s testing went fine today. They did not do a skin test because I guess he’s too young. We were prescribed Epi-Pen which is a shot I give him if he is having an allergic reaction. After I administer it I have to call 911…pretty scary. Anyway, I am glad that we will have it now.

They are doing a blood test on him for all different allergens. Let me tell you that the blood draw was no picnic especially because they couldn’t find the vein and searched for what seemed eternity before trying the other arm. I felt so terrible! Although I think I am more traumatized by it all than Kian was. He’s fine and I still thinking about it lol

We have an appointment on September 19th for the results. I am PRAYING he is not allergic to the dog or cat because if he is it could be the reason why he is wheezing when he gets sick :( The Dr. told me that we might want to start considering what we would do with our animals if that is the case. I guess we will find out more answers on the 19th.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. Please continue them as we wait for the testing to come back.

Phew! I guess that’s it for now! I seriously hope that our next few weeks are pretty uneventful…. I know we could all use it!

Thursday, August 11, 2005

New Photos 8/11/2005!

Yes, I know we are once again long over due for posting photos and videos lol

Here a link to the photos: http://www.jamesondurall.com/family/Pages/pictures.html

I have no listed under the photos what they are (takes a lot of extra time) so I am posting here what is on each page of photos.

Kian Walking 1 –

Photos of Kian eating Mac and Cheese for the first time! He eats it all the times now! And there are photos of when Kian’s Great Uncle Joe was in San Francisco before he went on his bike trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles as a fundraiser for a cure for AIDS! We were so glad to meet up with him for a short visit :) The photos of our visit with my Uncle Joe are continued on page 2.

Kian Walking 2 -

Visit with Great Uncle Joe continued
Movie is of our visit with my Uncle Joe
Kian pushing around his tricycle (that he likes to run Toby over with lol)
Movie is of Kian pushing around his bike with a little help from my Mom
Kian playing with the magnets on the fridge
Our visit to the Golden Gate Bridge
Kian being silly hehe

Kian Walking 3 –

Kian with my Mom
Kian pushing around his “car” which is the laundry basket
Movie is of Kian pushing his “car” and steering around objects
Kian in his “car” hehe
Kian wearing the cute frog outfit that Aunt TyTy got him

Kian Walking 4

Kian’s frog outfit continued – and he found the empty catsup bottle lol
Kian eating with Mommy
Movie is Kian in his high chair doing more talking than eating lol
Kian’s first time in his pool
Movie is of Kian in his pool
My friend Martina and her boyfriend Paul on the 4th of July

Kian Walking 5
Kian on the 4th of July
Kian in his “EA Baby” shirt…but he kept blinking when I was trying to take the photo!
Kian eating lunch and being cute

Kian Walking 6
Kian eating lunch continued
Movies are of Kian eating lunch with two hands…he eats like he’s never had food before! The other movie is of Kian being silly at a different meal time
Kian starting to walk!
Kian being a busy guy playing in the kitchen and the living room
Three short videos of Kian playing - one where I tried to get him walking and the other one is another attempt but he was more interested in the camera than in walking hehe

Kian Walking 7

Another movie of Kian playing
Kian in his first U2 t-shirt that Mommy bought him hehe
Kian eating lunch…what a messy guy! Notice his eyebrow is full of food hehe

Kian Walking 8
Messy lunch continued
Movie of Kian having the hiccups from giggling about this messy meal hehe

"Meh-meh," Toby and more teeth!

“Meh-meh” and other words

That word might not sound like much to you…but it’s actually what Kian calls Jamie (meh-meh) LOL Kian is actually calling “Daddy” by his first name! Since I noticed that he was doing that this weekend I have been trying really hard to call Jamie “Daddy” when Jamie is around. He does say Da-da and on Monday was looking for him and calling “da-da” so I will take that as a good sign hehe

Kian is learning more and more words every day. I bought him a play phone and he will put it up to his ear and say hello which sounds more like “eh-o.” He will also put a measuring spoon or any other object to his ear (well, the back of his head lol) and say “eh-o” hehe And the yesterday as he was eating he tooted and I said to him, “say excuse me” and he said something like “mu-meh” and is trying really hard to say it lol He’s so cute :)

Kian’s Favorite Past time but not Toby’s lol

Kian LOVES to push his little tricycle and hippo that eats peek-a-boo blocks around. This week we started to figure out that if he runs toward Toby with it he will get up and jump out of the way in a hurry (believe me, I would too! I have been run over by those things before lol). So, now Kian likes to chase Toby around the house with these toys and giggles and giggles about it. Toby actually likes it (most of the time) too…Toby is so good with Kian and I know that they both enjoy having each other as playmates. I knew that Toby and Kian would be “friends” someday but I didn’t realize it would start this soon! Hehe

We have another tooth!


Kian I think started to cut another tooth last night! It’s one of the four front bottom teeth. He got the other in the pair several weeks ago and just today I saw the fourth one poking through. Kian woke up a few times last night (but quickly put himself back to sleep) and I thought that maybe his arm was bothering him from his shots….but now I am pretty sure that tooth was involved. He also has two of his one year molars in on his left side (one on bottom and one on top)…those are NO fun for anyone when they come in lol

After this tooth pokes through Kian will have 8 teeth and many more to go lol

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Kian’s 15 Month Check-up

Kian has his 15 months appointment today. He got two shots :( But he did great! He even stopped crying before we even left the office! The Dr. also told me that he was shocked that Kian wasn’t crying when he was looking in his ears and his mouth…I figure he’s like that because it happens at least once a month with the amount of Dr.’s visits we have had hehe
The great news is that he was weighted and measured (weight is a naked weight so it’s pretty accurate).

Weight: 20lbs 4 ounces (7th percentile) - up from the 3rd!
Height: 30 1/4 inches (15-20th percentile) - up from the 10th!

Milestones

Kian is walking all the time now :) He’s a pretty busy guy! I have taken advice from friends that say to not let your child out of the cart or they will not want to sit in it when you shop...basically he doesn’t realize that he can walk in the store if I let him lol I also did that at the Dr.’s office today because I didn’t want him to throw a fit when I had to bring him back to the room and I knew he would want to touch everything in there anyway lol
He's also moved on from Baby food completely! LOL Of course about 2 weeks ago I bought a TON because I had coupons and it was on sale :P I am going to try to return it since I still have the receipt. If they won’t take it back I hope to at least get something for it on ebay or something!

Allergy Testing

I requested a referral from our Ped to have Kian seen by an allergist. The ped didn’t say much about the referral…just that he would give us one… I was so afraid he would say no because he told us in a visit about two weeks ago that we can’t do anything about allergies and that it would be a waste of our time. But for me, I am starting to get afraid of giving Kian fish, strawberries, eggs or anything that is considered a high allergy food. Not to mention, he’s been sneezing more than usual lately and I am wondering if he’s allergic to dust, pollen or something like that so I can watch those things and know that he’s not getting sick he’s just having a reaction that I need to watch incase it turns to wheezing.