The Last 3 Months

Hey World!  We're still here....  Though we have gotten quite busy!  I have not forgotten about posting, just all but forgotten about posting.  Once I give a quick drive by of what has been happening since the end of July I'm sure you'll understand!

I think we started August at a sprint.  Samuel had been sleeping through the night or waking only once in July, but a trip to Minnesota for a wedding, some diaper rash and 6 month shots all kind of stopped that I think.  It would not have been soo bad on his sleep, but once we were making progress I started teaching an online class.

To sum up my experience as an online teacher was that overall I really did enjoy it.  Now my first time doing it was rather trying...  During the second week I got Hand/Foot/Mouth Disease and doing anything with my hands and feet caused me pain.  I could not walk well, I could not change diapers and I definitely could not type.  I emailed (by that I mean pecking out the email with the least pained fingers) the class coordinator because of course this happened the weekend before Week 2 of an 8 week course.  Great way to start teaching, with a sub during the second week!

Needing a substitute teacher in my class really threw me off.  I was just starting to figure out what it was I was doing and then I was knocked out miserably sick.  So it took me a while to get my feet fully under me again and I pretty much was working the class at a sprint until the end.  Then throw in a parent that was difficult to work with and I was ecstatic for the class to be over.  Thankfully it was a rather unusual term and I know that.  It is not scaring me away from teaching online again.  I look forward to a (more than likely) better experience next go, but for my sanity I took this term off!

When I was sick we had to call in back up!  My poor husband was getting quite drained from taking care of Samuel (even though we nurse it really hurt my hands to latch him, so Ben even had to latch him for me so I could feed him), taking care of me and trying to keep up at work.  So we called my Mom after a few days of the misery and she really helped loosen up Ben's time and everyone was happier.

Of course the days she got here she comments, "So Samuel got a tooth!"  And I responded with something like, "Uh... Yeah...  He got a tooth!?!?!?"  With how the week was going we didn't even notice it sneak it.  We're guessing it came on August 22nd or 23rd, she noticed it on the 23rd.  About two weeks later he got his second tooth (so now he has two bottom front teeth).  Honestly the teething leading up to the teething actually cutting through wasn't that bad (this time around, we'll see what happens next time!).

We also started Samuel on solids.  First we did rice cereal for about 2 weeks, which he gobbled up.  Then we gave him oatmeal and he refused to have anything more to do with rice, because oatmeal is much tastier.  Then we gave him banana, which he loved.  Moved onto peas next, then sweet potato and then apple.  All of which he thought was the best thing invented since milk (have I ever mentioned Samuel's favorite activity in all the world is eating?).  Next we gave him avocado, which was definitely not a hit.  In fact he got VERY grumpy during the 2 days we tried to feed him some.  So we stopped and he instantly became happy again!  Then we did butternut squash, which he wasn't fond of by itself, but mixed with apples he thinks its just fabulous!  Finally we have introduced him to pears, which was also a hit.  I have zucchini and pumpkin waiting to be made into baby food, so those will be the next ones (I plan on getting the zucchini ready yet today for tomorrow, we'll see if that happens).  He's starting to get so many different foods that he doesn't zoom through what I make in less than a week now.

Of course he likes eating so much that I am going to ask his Doctor as his appointment on Wednesday about 3 meals a day instead of 2 and if we should start adding meats.  From when solids really started getting going (which I would say was when we did sweet potato first) he has really been packing on the weight.  Last week at Mommy and Me (did I say I go to a weekly play group with Samuel?) he weight 13# 9oz, but that was with his cloth diaper on, so he probably was just over 13# (not real sure how heavy the diaper is).  Wednesday we'll know his naked weight, then Thursday is Mommy and Me again, so I can get a rough estimate of the weight of the diaper.

Also at the end of September we made a trip back to Nebraska to visit Ben's Mom.  We were going to go on to Colorado and maybe Wyoming, but with how stressed I was between a son that wasn't sleeping and sprinting to keep up with my online class, we did a much shorter trip.  Hopefully we can do the longer trip soon, because I was definitely bummed to not do it all.

This weekend Samuel and I are heading to my cousin's son's baptism in Milwaukee then the following weekend we'll be doing Thanksgiving with my side of the family at our house, so I am headed into another busy month!  Also I am still working on my German I course that I will be teaching with the Wittenburg Academy starting the end of November.  It's an online classical Lutheran high school.  I'm very excited to be teaching with them!

Anyways I have a few more posts I want to write before I leave town for the weekend, so expect another post from me in the near future.  For now that is a quick run down of the last months' activities! Oh and we have really been working hard on Samuel's routine since my class has ended and since we have gotten him back on it, he has been ridiculously happy and a solid sleeper!

Busy Summer!

Summer is seriously flying past!  I can't believe that it's already AFTER the 4th of July!  Which I should because I did the fifth seasons race again (5K) and it was blistering hot when it started at 8:15 that morning.  It was probably the worst I felt after the race too, between the heat and my asthma deciding to act up a little).  One of my former Regina students came in 1st at the race, I was so proud!  I do miss those students!

At the end of June we made a quick trip to NE to visit Ben's Grandma.  She hasn't been doing as well lately (prayers are asked for) and so we wanted to make sure she met her Great-Grandson sooner than later!  Overall it was really a good trip.  We stayed the first night at my parents, then drove the rest of the way into Nebraska.  Spent the afternoon with her and then went to one of Ben's Aunt's houses for supper.  The plan was to stay there the rest of the evening, but other things came up.  Another one of Ben's Aunt's had the whole family in town and on of the cousins and his wife needed to leave sooner than later because of the fires out west, so they ended up going in to visit Grandma yet that night.  As this was going to be the only opportunity to see some of them we made the trip into town after feeding Sam.

This unfortunately put Sam over the top.  He was doing well up until then, but going back into town and seeing all those people was just a little too much for the poor baby.  We did have fun talking with the relatives and letting them see Sam for the first time however.

That night we paid for our actions by the 3 of us all getting little sleep.  Morning came way too quickly and we reluctantly started the day.  We started by driving into town to visit Grandma again before going home.  After a nice visit with Grandma we headed to have lunch with another Aunt and Uncle and cousin of Ben's then started the trek home.

Thankfully Sam does really well in the car!  The drive with him wasn't such a big deal (of course it takes longer because you have to stop, feed and burp him!), but then we ran into construction on I-80 and it sounded like maybe a few accidents down the road as well.  We bailed and took the scenic route before we could find out.  I think all the stuff on 80 added at least an hour to our drive, which meant we had to stop again to feed Sam on the way home (one more time than we should have needed to because of 80).

We've been home for a week and a half now and Sam is finally getting back on routine.  Now before anyone thinks I am only blaming the trip to NE, let me add this little bit.  It seems pretty clear that shortly after we returned Sam started teething!!  Yup, he's only 2 months adjusted and teething!  Now it could be another month before we see teeth, but he's definitely teething.  That HAD to have contributed to his extra grumpiness over the last week...

Now we are looking forward to Sam being he's happy content self again.  Ben is at guard all week, so we look forward to having him home again (though life will not be slowing down by no means when he does get home).  This week, I plan on enjoying a fairly relaxing week with my son.  :-)