Sick Dane and Sick Mommy

Dane had a low grade fever Tuesday evening and then again Wednesday evening. He just seemed out of sorts and I couldn't decide if it was his teeth or the beginning of an ear infection. I called the doctor and Dave took him in on Thursday morning. The Dr diagnosed him with RSV. I was very surprised because he wasn't really very congested or coughing.

I stayed home with him today. It has been a rough day. If he hadn't been sick I would have either been at school feeling awful or would have called a sick day for myself. I started feeling bad on Thursday night. Then Dane didn't sleep well. He woke up this morning about 5:45 and I woke up with a massive headache, probably a combination of not feeling well and lack of sleep. He would play and be so happy one minute that I was wondering why I stayed home with him and then the next he was a fussy little guy. Of course my head was throbbing the whole time.

I am hoping for a better night sleep tonight and a better day tomorrow. Dave is working all weekend, so it is just my little man and me. I am hoping I feel better. It is snowing pretty hard outside right now so I think we will just spend the weekend recuperating in the nice warm house.

My head hurt too bad to take any pictures today, but I do have one to share from Tuesday. Monday night I was in the kitchen and I waved to Dane, who was in the living room playing. The little cutie waved right back at me. It is hit or miss with his waving. Right now it is an entire arm wave. I didn't catch the big wave, but you can see that his arm was in position! Sometimes I wave at him and he looks at his hand and seems to be thinking, "Now how does that work again?"

Playing at Mama and Papa's House

We spent the night at Mama and Papa's house on Saturday night. Mama and Papa bought an exersaucer for Dane to play in while he is at their house. Dane laughed, smiled, and squealed the whole time he played. He seems to love his new toy!
Aunt Amy told Trey that Dane was at Mama and Papa's house and he begged her to bring him over to play. Amy dropped Delaney off at a birthday party and headed over. Trey was so cute. He would sit behind Dane and hold his hand up so he could catch Dane if he happened to tumble over. When it was time to leave so Amy could pick up Delaney Trey did not want to leave. Mama let him stay and play. I can only imagine what it will be like when Dane gets a bit older. Trey was playing with a box from a computer my dad just bought. He wanted me to put Dane in it to play with him. Of course Molly, the dog, kept jumping in the box also so I wasn't sure if it was a good idea.

It was a very relaxing weekend. Mom and I went and picked up dinner and brought it back to the house. Then Mom, Dad, Dave, and I watched a movie Saturday night. It was nice to just hang out.

This morning was the first morning we had to take Dane out of church because of his behavior. About 5 minutes after the service started Dane rubbed his eyes and put his head on Dave and instantly fell asleep. I guess he just needed a little recharging. He woke up about 20 minutes later, right when the morning message started. He was laughing and squealing so loud Dave had to take him out. Everyone around us thought he was really cute, but I am not sure how much of the message they could hear. After church we went out for breakfast, then headed back to Mama and Papa's house to hang out and wait for Aunt Katie to come visit.

Aunt Katie had been out of town over the weekend and she asked us to stay at Mama and Papa's until she got back. Dane had just finished his lunch so Aunt Katie fed him his bottle.

Before we headed home I ran to Target and spent $120 on everything I have always wanted: diapers, formula, and babyfood. I should have had Delaney with me to prove I do spend money on Dane. A couple of weeks ago Delaney asked me something and I said, "Oh, I don't have enough money for that." She said, "Aunt Stephanie, you have lots of money." I told her, "No, Dane costs a lot of money." She said, "He is just a baby. He doesn't cost any money." This was also about the same time that Amy was driving down Hwy 270 and passed Missouri Baptist Hospital. Trey said, "Mommy, there is where Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Dave GOT Dane." Those two crack me up.

A Snow Day Without Snow

Yesterday as I was waiting with my class for the 3:00 bell to ring one of my students said, "We don't have school tomorrow, do we?" I said, "Yes, why wouldn't we." He said, "It is supposed to snow." Well trying to hide my real feelings about possibly getting a snow day and a three day weekend I said, "Oh it isn't supposed to snow very much. I am sure we will be here."

I knew the snow wasn't supposed to start until the early morning hours. Ste. Gen loves to call school the night before, but in this situation that would not be possible. Therefore, I worked really hard to keep telling myself that I WAS going to school today. Last night I found myself lingering on facebook and watching a DVRed Dr. Phil. It was a lot later than usual when I finally went to iron Dane's and my clothes for Friday. I got bottles made up for the sitter and wrote out her check for the week. I climbed into bed thinking wow, I am going to be tired tomorrow. Thank goodness it is Friday.

I woke up at 4:45 AM and came out to the dining room to check out the snow fall. There was NOTHING. Not one flake in the sky. I WAS TIRED. I got back in bed to get as much sleep as possible in the next 45 minutes. I couldn't fall asleep. I looked at the clock for the last time at 5:13, thinking I have about 15 minutes until I have to get up. Well I dozed off......and then the phone rang. It was 5:20 and I answered it to hear a recorded message from the Assistant Superintendent. Ste Gen Schools will not be in session today. I couldn't believe it. I hung up the phone, but couldn't go back to sleep. I checked outside and I THINK I may have seen a flake or two. I came back to bed and turned on Channel 5 News. Sure enough, I wasn't dreaming. There it was, Ste Gen Schools-Closed.

Dane woke up as happy as can be. I told him I had a snow day and got to stay home with him all day. I seriously think he got a little happier after I said that! We had a great day! We played, ate breakfast, then snuggled in the oversized chair for a morning nap.

Dane, Max, and I all snuggled together for a morning nap!

Dane played in his exersaucer while I got ALL of the laundry done.

I watched Channel 5 and they kept saying, "Snow is coming." The 3-5 inch strip went right through Ste. Gen. I kept looking out the window. There was nothing. Finally about 4:00 I looked out and if I looked the right way I could see some flakes starting to fall.

12 hours later and the snow is here!

Oh well, I totally enjoyed my day!

So Many Pictures!

Despite the fact that I really don't enjoy the month of January it has gone pretty fast. We spent our first Saturday night at home last weekend since November 21st. Since one month of the new year is practically gone I am really trying hard to work on some of my goals for 2010.

First, I really like a clean house. If you ask Dave I am kind of obsessive about it. My goal is to spend just a little bit of time each night on just a couple of chores. This way, slowly, throughout the week my entire house gets cleaned. I tried to get Dave on the bandwagon, but he really wants no part of it.

My next goal is working out. I did really well before Christmas, but then things got busy and of course I ate a lot during the holidays, so I am starting again. I was successful in getting Dave to join in, at least a little. He doesn't participate everynight, but usually a couple of nights a week I can get him to head downstairs to the 30 Day Shred.

One of my last goals is scrapbooking. I am kind of, just a little bit, still doing scrapbooking with the paper, stickers, and actual photos. I thought I would try to get through Dane's first year, but I am not sure if I will. My goal is to move to digital scrapbooking. I got Adobe Photoshop for Christmas. I haven't gotten much time to play with it yet. My plan is to keep up with this blog and digital scrapbooking. I have slowly began to organize my photos.

This is what I discovered:

January 2009- 13 photos taken the entire month

January 2010- 246 photos taken this month so far

January-July 20th 2009- 150 pictures taken

July 21st (Dane's birthday)-January 21, 2010- 2,345 pictures taken

One of the many pictures I took as we played tonight. Daddy and Dane reading the new book I just bought for Dane.

Hoping for the best with my goals for the year!

6 Month Dr Appointment and 6 Month Pictures

I was off work on Friday so Dave and I could take Dane to his 6 month checkup. Dane was in the best mood. Dr. Andersen played with him and he laughed and flirted with her. He showed off his skill of sitting up on his own. She said he was perfect! Dane weighed in at 19lbs, 6 oz! We laughed because he was 80% for weight and 30% for height. Wow, what a big boy! He is just solid!

It was funny because the nurse took us down the hall to weigh him and when she said, "19lbs, 6 oz", Dr. Andersen stuck her head out of her office and said, "Oh my, did you say Dane weighs 18lbs!". She about fell over when we said, "No 19!" Quite a change from that scrawny little boy that had to go to the Dr. every week for the first month of his life because he wasn't gaining weight.

I just hate it when he gets his shots because every single time he lays on the table at the Dr. he looks at himself in the mirror and laughs and smiles. He has no idea what is going to happen. Luckily Dave was with us this time and he rubbed Dane's head during the shots. Dane really only cries for a minute, once I pick him up he calms down pretty quick.

Dr. Andersen said we should add meat to Dane's diet now and get ready to move him to the next carseat. I can't believe that next time we go to the Dr. Dane will be 9 months old.

We then celebrated Dane's 6 months by spending the afternoon with Mama, Aunt Amy, Aunt Katie, and Trey. We had lunch at St. Louis Bread Company, then went shopping. We picked up the meats for Dane-Chicken and Apples, Sweet Potatoes and Turkey, and Vegetables and Beef.

Aunt Amy then introduced me to clearance shopping. I absolutely HATE clearance shopping. I just want to go in and get what I want when I want it. You would think I have money or something. Amy is a bargain shopper. She is always buying for her kids for the next season. We went to Target, Old Navy, and Childrens Place and because of Amy I got a TON of stuff for Dane and probably didn't spend $30. At Old Navy all of the clearance stuff was an additional 50% off. I got shirts for $0.97! My total was $8 for 7 shirts! I also got a pair of shoes at Target for $1.78! Amy helped me decide what size to get for Dane of certain things and told me certain things not to buy because it is too hard to figure out when they will be in a certain size. The only problem is
I came home with this stuff and it is so cute I want him to be able to wear it now, not next fall!

Friday night Dave had to head back to Ste. Gen and I was having a "Girls Night Out" with the teachers from Ste Gen at Westport. Dane stayed with Mama and Papa. He had fun and they sent me pictures of my little guy throughout the night. I sent them a text at one point asking if he missed me and they said, "No. He is getting lots of love, even from Molly". Molly is their dog. When I got home and asked how things went Mama said she had just put Dane to bed. I about died, but then she said he was just so cute he had to hold him for a while.

Saturday morning Aunt Katie came over to take some 6 month pictures of Dane. I wanted to take some pictures of Dane in his camo for Dave. I think they turned out pretty cute! He really is quite adorable!

6 MONTH PICTURES!

Dane is 6 months old today!

I can't believe that Dane is 6 months old! The time has gone by so fast! He is changing so much these days and we are having so much fun. Gone are the days of sitting in the chair holding him while he sleeps on and off. He is so active and noisy now! We love it!

• Dane is growing fast! He is wearing size 3 diapers and size 6-9 month clothes.
• Eats oatmeal or cereal and a bottle for breakfast, fruit and a bottle for lunch, 2 veggies and a bottle for dinner, and then takes a bottle right before bed....and he screams if you don't feed him fast enough. He doesn't take a bottle right when he gets up anymore, he waits until 8:00. It means I get to sleep 30 minutes later, but I do miss our snuggle time in the morning.
• Sleeps great at night! He goes to bed about 7:30 p.m. and sleeps until about 6:30 everyday. Many times I have to wake him up for daycare.
• Everyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE to nap. So how is it I get a baby that can't decide if he wants to nap or not?? One day he will take a 2 hr morning nap and a 2 hr afternoon nap and the next day he will only sleep for 25 minutes the entire day. Poor Miss Sue, she never knows what she will get.
• Enjoys his time in the jumperoo or exersaucer
• Loves TV
• Chews on everything. We have had a couple of rough days of teething, but no teeth yet!
• Had a playdate with his friends, Tyler and Aiden Deters.
• Started using a sippy cup. We started with a little bit of water, but now he will drink a couple ounces of formula from the cup, then takes the rest from a bottle.
• Since Christmas we now have 2 baskets filled with toys, plus several more toys in the basement that we haven't opened yet! We are busy playing everynight and he LOVES it. Unfortunately he will only hang out in my arms for a little bit without being entertained.
• Had a bad cold with an awful cough. We went to see Dr. Andersen, but she assured us it was just a cold.
• Celebrated his First Christmas and New Years
• First snowfall, which was also the first time he got to stay home with mommy on a snow day. He will one day realize how great those days are!
• Sitting up quite well these days!
• Taking a bath in the big tub now!
• Laughs and squeals so much!
• Dane just started reaching for me, which is just about the best thing ever!

Mommy and Dane on his 6 month birthday!

What a happy little guy!

Happy Birthday to my Uncle Darnel!

Today is Dane's Uncle Darnel's birthday!

Happy Birthday!

The Top Ten Reasons I Love My Uncle Darnel

1. He is a WONDERFUL Godfather to me.
2. He lets me spend the night at his house, even though sometimes I wake up at 6:00 AM.
3. He babysits me so I don't always have to go shopping with all those girls.
4. He carries me when my daddy isn't with us.
5. He holds me during church services.
6. He likes to feed me my bottle.
7. He is Trey's daddy and I LOVE Trey.
8. He got me My First Baseball, which makes me laugh everynight when I play with it.
9. He loves to hold me.
10. He is a GREAT Uncle

Uncle Darnel and I at church

Hanging out watching sports

I hope you have a great birthday!

Love Dane