Link to Mike’s Pictures…

Oops! The link I had to Mike’s pictures in the previous post didn’t work! I have fixed the link now – and you can click here to see to pictures…

The pictures are in!

It’s official!  I hold in my hand – a CD containing all of the pictures from Mikes 9 month “photo shoot”!

Megan Parker was (once again) the photographer responsible for the wonderful pictures.  We can’t thank her enough for sharing her wonderful talents with us!

It’s hard to believe that Mike is already 10 months old.  Eight short weeks from today and we will be singing “happy birthday” to him!  I’m not sure where the time has gone – lost somewhere between the diapers and bottles and diapers and baths and diapers and naps and diapers and bottles and whirled peas and diapers.  Not to mention the clubbed feet and casts and doctor visits and runny noses and casts and crying and corrective braces and crying and surgery (and no more crying!) and more runny noses and ear aches.  Oh – and there was the smiling and the giggles and the da da da and the ma ma ma and more laughs and more jibber jabber and more laughs.

We look at him now and think “he hasn’t changed that much – he’s still that same little boy”.  But tonight, while I was trying to remember where the last 10 months have gone (I’m pretty sure that a large chunk has gone to empting the diaper genie), I thumbed through his 9 month pictures.  Then his 6 month pictures.  Then his 3 month pictures.  Then some newborn snapshots.  And I realize that our little boy has been doing plenty of growing – no matter how much we want to “Peter Pan” him and keep him young forever!

How much has he changed?  Take a look at the pictures below and decide for yourself!  And if you would like to see his 9 month pictures – you can see them here.

 

Here is “Newborn Mike” getting ready for the trip home from the hospital… 

 

Here’s “Three Month Mike” after his first “photo shoot”.  Modeling is exhausting work!

Here’s “Six Month Old Mike” coming to getcha!

    

Here’s “Nine Month Mike” plotting some mischief…

 

 

…and “Nine Month Mike” cheering for the Vols!

The Weekend Update…

First off – several people have asked about Mike’s ear infection.  He seems to be doing a lot better!  His appetite is better than ever.  He is as happy as he has ever been.  And he is not having any trouble laying down or sleeping.  That is all good news!  Of course, his appetite has always been good.  He’s always been happy.  And it has been a rare occasion indeed when he has had trouble sleeping.  But nonetheless – we feel that he is finally on the mend!  But we are still keeping our fingers crossed until after the follow-up visit with the pediatrician…

A while back, we mentioned that we have been trying to introduce Mike to solid foods.  We figured he was about ready.  He’s at the right age, the pediatrician said to “go for it”, and he intently studies us when we put food in our mouths.  So we gave it a shot.

We’ve tried a wild conglomeration of things.  Puffs.  Mum-mum’s.  Biter biscuits.  Mashed potatoes.  We even tried mashed sweet potatoes since sweet potatoes are his favorite.  Applesauce with chunks of apples.  And the list goes on (and on and on and on…).

Every food met the same fate.  If it was finger food, we wouldn’t put it in his mouth – even after watching us do it.  I find this ironic since he crawls around to every corner of the room looking for specs of dirt to put in his mouth.  And if we put it in there for him (or put it on a spoon for him) he quickly spit it back out and looked at us like we were trying to poison him.  And the score on who has eaten the most puffs?  Mom – 675.  Dad – 523.  Mike – 0.

Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes met the same fate.  A little dab on the spoon was met with a “what are you doing to me” quickly followed by a long, juicy, blowing raspberry (which I have recently discovered is more properly called an “unvoiced linguolabial trill”!). 

We knew that we only had to find the right food and Mike would be happy.  And it has turned in to quite an adventure – Mike now gets a small bite of nearly everything on our plate (all met with the same results).

Until this past weekend…

We were sitting at our Puleo’s Grill (for all of you folks in Knoxville – if you haven’t been then shame on you!) enjoying our Sunday afternoon lunch.  We decided to splurge a little and ordered an appetizer of fried green tomatoes.  Did he like the tomatoes?  Of course not…

But the tomatoes also come with something extra.  Stone ground cheese grits with Tasso gravy.  Yep – that’s gravy made with Cajun Tasso ham.  And yep – it’s a little on the spicy side.

So we loaded up a chunk of grits and gravy on a spoon and held it up to Mike.  He looked at it.  Then looked at us.  Then opened his mouth.  And we stuck it in!

He chewed a little (already a positive sign since it wasn’t an immediate spit-out).  Then he chewed a little more.  Then we swallowed!  Then he opened his mouth for more!!!

Incredible.  Of all of the food we’ve tried – it turns out that the first “solid” food that Mike eats willing is from our neighbor’s restaurant.  And it’s grits.  With a Cajun gravy.

Our son really is from the south!

And what did our neighbors think of this?  Well – lets just say that I’m pretty sure that Mike will get free grits and Tasso gravy whenever he wants it…

Hey mom – how come you never gave me these grits before?  Dontcha know I’m a southern boy?

The ear infection update…

Mike had a follow-up visit at the pediatrician today.  She wanted to check on his ear infection.  In case you need a quick update – here it goes…

Back 3 1/2 weeks ago, we discovered that Mike had an ear infection in both ears (which is a story all by itself – you can read all about it here).  As of today, we have completed two round of different antibiotics and made the trip to the pediatrician to see how his ears were doing.

So we had the usual battery of questions. 

Have you noticed any discharge from the ear? 

Nope. 

Any Fever? 

Nope. 

More fussy than usual? 

Maybe a little, but not really. 

Reduced appetite? 

He did have, but his appetite certainly returned yesterday – he ate and ate and ate! 

Has he been tugging or pulling on his ear?

Yep – he pulls on the right ear a lot.  Particularly when he is sleepy.

Ok.  The doctor will be in shortly!

And sure enough, a few minutes later the doctor whisked in the door and jokingly said, “Didn’t I just see you the other day”?

She flipped through the notes on the laptop and said, “Hmmm – Mike’s lost a little weight (1.5 oz to be exact).  And it says here that he is pulling on his right ear a little.  Let’s take a look at that…”.  And she whips out her otoscope and snapped on a new speculum (oh how I love using the medical lingo!) and takes a peek in Mike’s right ear.  “Well – that looks all clear!”

One down, one to go.  She rolls Mike over, takes a peek in his left ear and says  “Eeeewwww!”.  And anytime you hear a doctor say that, you can be fairly sure that the diagnosis is not going to be what you wanted to hear.

And sure enough, she told us that Mike still has a decent case of acute otitis media (more of that lingo!).  She prescribed a third antibiotic that we started this evening. 

Here’s hoping that in 10 more days it will all be clear.

What comes around…

We’ve all heard it before.  What comes around goes around.  And it has certainly been going around at our household this week!

It started with Mike’s dad this past Monday afternoon.  Low grade fever.  Chills.  Ache all over.  Queasy stomach.  And incredibly weak.  Went to bed Monday night thinking that work was certainly out of the question.

Then came the good news!  He woke up Tuesday morning feeling remarkably better – about 90%!  By lunch time, he had forgotten he had been sick at all.  Less than 24 hours from start to finish!

Then came the bad news.  Mike’s mom started in Tuesday evening.  Same symptoms but with a little “extra” on the queasy stomach.  She woke up Wednesday morning feeling like a truck had hit her.

Then came the good news!  By Wednesday afternoon she was feeling remarkably better!  By Wednesday evening, she had forgotten she had been sick at all.  Less than 24 hours from start to finish!

Then came the bad news.  Late Wednesday night, Mike started feeling bad.  He was up all night, had a low grade fever and that little whimper “I don’t feel good” cry.  Since he hasn’t mastered the English language yet (and his parents haven’t mastered baby babble yet) – they can only assume that the rest of the symptoms are there too.

They took Mike to the doctor today – and she added an extra symptom.  He has a moderate inner ear infection (yipee!).  Since he just stopped his medicine a mere 9 days ago from the last ear infection, we can only assume that the last one didn’t completely clear up.

He’s been cranky most of the day, but is now sleeping peacefully in his bed.  Here’s hoping that it’s going to be less than 24 hours from start to finish for him too.  Except for that ear infection, of course…

Mike’s new discoveries

There have been some new discoveries by Mister Mike at our house!  The first one (it will come as no surprise to most) is that he has become even more mobile.  Not quite a crawl yet – but more of an “army man slither”.  It’s certainly exciting watching your child grow and learn – but this one comes with some “nervous apprehension”. 

Why? 

I call it the “remember when” syndrome.  In just a few short weeks (perhaps even days), we will say to each other, “Remember when we used to put him down in one place and he would stay?  We could go to another room and come back 15 minutes later and he would be happily playing in the same spot.”

We are now on the verge of having to childproof our house “for real” (aka “not for fake”).  Outlet covers.  Cabinet locks.  Child gates (our very own gated community!).

Sure – we could put on our rose tinted “new parent” glasses and say “but OUR Mikey wouldn’t do those things”!

Yea – right!  Today he squirmed over to one of the dog’s water bowls (he LOVES water!) and started splashing around.  It certainly was adorable!  But only a “sneak preview” of things to come!

And speaking of adorable – we had the nine month pictures taken this weekend!  Again, Megan did a fantastic job!  The pictures have been ordered – and we will certainly share them with you all as soon as we get them.  But until then – here’s one of the proofs!

 

Who – me?  Play in the dog’s water?  You must have the wrong guy!

Just look at that adorable baby!  Beautiful, blue eyes, pretty little pig toes, little tuft of hair on his head – and that little pink tongue giving you a raspberry! 

That’s my boy!

Labor Day – Goodbye to the “dog days” of summer…

Labor Day.  The unofficial end of summer.  Good bye sweltering heat.  Good bye to triple digit temperatures (and even higher heat indexes).  Hello to cool breezes…

And this year, Mother Nature was right on cue.  She packed away the heat (at least for the weekend) and let the sun shine on us in a more gentle fashion.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for getting together with family and celebrating another summer behind us.  Or perhaps we were celebrating the beginning of another season of college football!

Mike’s new trick for the weekend was the “Go VOLS!” pose.  We got the idea from the quad squad.  When we saw them do it, we thought it was absolutely adorable!  All you have to do is say “Go VOLS!” and Mike raises his hands in the air in the “touchdown” pose.  He has added his own twist by waving with one hand while he does it – almost as if waving goodbye to the other team. 

Of course, the lady’s at daycare (who are big Vol fans) can’t get enough of it.  Mikey – he’s turning into such a lady’s man!

And we got to see a lot of family this Labor Day weekend.  It’s funny how when your closest family is 200 miles away (and many of them are more than 300 miles away) – you really cherish every moment you get to spend with them.  This weekend, we were able to see so many more family members than we are usually able to squeeze in.  Of course there was “nan” and “grandpa Lee” – we would be drawn and quartered if we didn’t visit them while we were in town!  But we also got to visit with Aunt Mary and Uncle Jim, Aunt Joann and Uncle Kenny, Aunt Jenny and Derrick and cousins Lucas & Kiersten, Aunt Tracey and Uncle Chuck, and Aunt Andrea and Uncle Larry!  It was such a special treat. 

So – goodbye summer.  You may try to make us sweat it out with some more warm days, but we all know that your days are numbered.  Week 2 of college football starts this weekend (Tennessee and Oregon – a big challenge, but you know that Mike will be saying “go vols” all weekend!) – and the NFL begins regular season play this weekend.  It won’t be long now and we’ll be planning Mikes first birthday party!

 

Mike says “GO VOLS!”

 

Mike and Nan playing away!

Mike and Lucas playing “Joe Cool”…

Mike and Grandpa Lee

Mike and grandpa wait for the food…

It’s a rare treat to have this clan all in one place!

“It sure was fun visiting with everyone”

“I had such a great time”

     

“But all of that traveling and visiting sure makes me sleepy!”

Mike’s 9 month checkup – with a surprise (or “it can happen to anyone”)!

Today was Mike’s nine month checkup.  It was typical as far as baby check-ups go.  Measure, weigh, poke, prod, etc, etc.

The highlights are that Mike is now pushing 20 pounds (believe me – I feel every ounce!) and his doctor is especially pleased with his eating.  He certainly has his favorites (like pears), but he will eat anything that we give him and has not turned away anything that we’ve tried.  It is to the point now where we are searching the baby food isles for any sort of food that he hasn’t already tried!

The only ting we’ve had trouble with (in recent memory) is solid food.  It is very much a “texture” thing.  He likes the flavor and will put it on his tongue – but he doesn’t like the texture and he spits it back out.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  It’s almost cute (and a little funny) to watch him do it.  His doctor told us (and we already knew) that it’s nothing to worry about – he’ll munch down on it when he’s ready.  And I’m sure that it will be on his terms!

And his doctor checked his ears.  There is still a little infection in them, but they are on their way to healing.  It wasn’t an “outer” ear infection, so it wasn’t caused by us getting bathwater in his ear.  She confirmed our suspicion that it was a “middle” ear infection caused by his congestion.  She gave us some much welcome news – it’s now ok to give Mike some children’s Zyrtec to help with his congestion!  Words can’t describe how excited we are by this!  For the last 6 months, Mike has spent more days with a snotty nose than without.  We are hoping that the Zyrtec will provide more relief (or at least more relief than the “saline and snot sucker” method).

But the big surprise of the visit is that Mike’s doctor is officially “up the duff”, “up the spout”, “has a bun in the oven”, “preggers”, “prego”!  That’s right – Mike’s pediatrician is pregnant!

It’s certainly not a surprise that a pediatrician would want children – and Mike’s doctor is no exception.  What makes it a surprise is that she already has children, and has previously told us that she is happy now that her youngest was starting school.  So we were a little surprised that she and her husband decided to start over with another.

That was when she admitted that it was one of those “wait a minute – how did that happen?” moments.  I had to chuckle a little at that – because I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t have made it through medical school without knowing “how that happens” (did I mention that she is a Cornell graduate?).  Oh – and her husband is an orthopedic surgeon – so I’m pretty sure that he knows “how it happens” too!

So remember – if an “oops” can happen to two doctors, it can happen to you!  As for “how it happens”, I’m no doctor – but I’m pretty sure it’s caused by kissing…