Colton's 9 Months Old

I can't believe I have a 9 month old! Lucky for us he gets cuter and cuter each day :) - Well not every day, but when he pushes me to the end of my rope he does something super duper cute and I forget all about it!

Before we get started... sorry this is so long... but it's as much for me (and my lack of a baby book) as it is for my millions of readers ;)

I'll start with an update on his sleeping -- he's a pro! The "Ferber" method TOTALLY worked for us and we did it with MINIMAL crying. I never let him cry for more than 5 minutes without checking on him to reassure him I was still there and he never cried for more than a total of 12 minutes - it was like magic. He now goes to bed between 7:45 and 8:00 and gets up around 6:15. Unfortunately he sometimes gets up a little earlier and hardly ever a little later :( Also he is supposed to get 9.25 hours a sleep at night and then 2-3 hours of naps during the day, so we're a little off (10.25 hours at night and about 1:45-2 hours during the day), but overall I'm thrilled!

Crawling? Depends on how you look at it. He doesn't crawl like any other baby I have seen, so I keep saying he "hasn't started crawling yet". But I think what we have is as good as it gets. He does a push up, lunges forward and crashes on his belly. At first it seemed like it must hurt, but now he cruises throughout the whole house (tile and all). It looks like he's doing the "worm"... takes after his dance challenged dad.

He can also pull himself up - barely. There's a few toys he can crab and yank himself up on and I have seen him do it once on the coffee table. He's wobbly, but he can do it. Still think he's going to be 18 months before he walks!

Teeth? Nope not yet! Definitely a little behind in this area!

Food? Still eats a ton, but is starting to be a little more picky. Any version of spaghetti or a tomato based concoction is his favorite. He's starting to like salmon a lot less and he absolutely hates lunch meet, he spits it right out. Some days he'll scarf certain foods down (like cheese) and then other days he won't touch it. I say we're doing pretty good still, just that my expectations were pretty high for the kiddo, I am bound and determined that he'll be a "good" eater and that he'll eat healthy food.

Milk? A few days ago we started weening him a little. I have lots of frozen milk and he shows a big lack of interest in the middle of the day. We're starting off giving him a bottle twice in the middle of the day and breast feeding before bed and in the morning. He has had formula a couple of times this week and he seems to like it. When I run out of frozen milk we'll start him on that during the day. I would like to keep the morning and night feedings for as long as I can, but we'll see.

Favorite Toys? Balls - loves rolling them with Daddy and putting them in this toy thingy we have. By far (and against ever pediatrician's wish) his favorite spot right now is the walker! It's my favorite too because it means I can clean the kitchen or make lunch etc. He's so cute in it and he can really get it moving.

Well that's it - Colton's 9 months old! - Lisa

Our Summer - The Cliff Note Version

I'm not even going to try and add a lot of detail, nor am I going to try and keep these in the correct order. This is shot gun blogging in an attempt to at least document the summer a little.

These are mostly from our 6 wonderful weeks with Savannah. We are always so appreciative of the time we get to spend with her and we miss her so much when she's not here. We had a very busy 6 weeks... here's the gist!

Elkins Flat Camping #1: These are from our first camping trip to Elkins Flat to dirt bike - not me of course, but the rest of the crew. We went with Kent, Renee, Kody, and Valentina who was still with us (she got to spend 2 weeks in California). It was a blast and Valentina was a quick study on the quad (which subsequently has not run since due to a major engine issue after the filter was eaten by mice - long story). Savannah has also proven herself as a great rider - Daddy is of course thrilled. Fun was had by all (minus the mosquitos!).






Sky High: A quick pic from one of the two trips to Sky High that I was roped into! The place is actually very cool - it's a huge warehouse with dozens of trampolines connected together and lining the walls. Valentina and Savannah LOVED it! Colton loved watching with his Hulk :)




Eugene: Pictures from our quick trip to Eugene. It actually turned out to be one of our summer highlights - I say actually because the purpose of the trip was to help Roseann move. Might not sound like fun, but it totally was. We had excellent helpers including muscles herself Savannah! She was amazing! It was great to see everyone and get Roseann settled... next time she moves though, it will be for good and hopefully closer to us! The other picture is from the Eugene pool were we celebrated Savannah's 12th Birthday!! This is the only picture I snapped, but we had lots of fun ringing in the big day with our munchkin'!





Elkins Flat Camping #2: Same crew, but we replaced Valentina with Renee's niece Natalie. Again we had a blast! There was lots of riding, tennis tether ball, glow sticks and eating... a perfect weekend :)






Random Pictures:

Renee, Kent, and Kody came over for the day during Roseann's visit. It was great to have everyone up and we were excited to show of the yard Roseann helped so much with!


Colton's new favorite toy is the walker - he cruises and loves every second of it. My ankles have the bruises to prove it... but nothing like his little toe. Colton got his first band aid! He runs so wild in the walker that we think he stubbed his toe on something... if we didn't know better we would have thought he simply wore the skin right off! Needless to say he now can only use the walker wearing his footed PJs (two of which already have holes worn in the toes!).




Action shot of the backyard project. After 4 years we are well on our way to having a lawn! Kirk has been slaving on retaining walls and moving dirt! When Savannah was here she was the "Water Foreman" - man we miss her! Hopefully we'll have more pictures soon - of the finished backyard - but we're waiting on more blocks.


Family Picture? Finally, I tried to get a family picture. But since I have the camera on a timer there is no way to make Colton look the right way - oh well, maybe next time!


Well that's that! Might be easier if I do this along the way :) Thanks for reading! - Lisa

Colton's 8 Months Old

Picture is correct, post is a few weeks late!

Well the story of the last month has been all about sleeping - or the lack there of! After establishing some bad habits while on vacation Colton has been a real challenge at night. He basically wakes up a couple of times each night and needs fed back to sleep. I used to be able to simply give him his pacifier, but not any more, he just spits it out. We are pretty sure that we picked up this nasty little habit because for most of the month of July I was being lazy and simply feeding him to sleep, both at nap time and bed time. Meaning he has an "association" with feeding and falling asleep. The whole thing is extremely tiresome. It was one thing to wake up every 3 hours to feed him when he was a newborn, another thing now that I know he's not hungry. (Given it's 3 weeks after the fact as I write this - I know the current state of his sleep, but you'll have to wait until his 9 month post!).

Other than not sleeping he's been a ball! He sits up like a champ now making it so much more fun to play with him. He doesn't really say any words yet and is not crawling. I think this means he's a little behind, but oh well, he'll figure it out! He also still doesn't have any teeth... don't worry he's still getting PLENTY to eat! He will eat anything you put in front of him. The only food he has snubbed thus far is brussell sprouts, but after trying them again he even likes them! He's eating fish now too, which he surprisingly loves. This kid will eat anything you give him and he'll eat a lot of it. I'm still breast feeding, but Colton seems just about done with it. There are so many cooler things going on around him he just can't focus :) Considering his current weight I'm not too worried, I think he's getting enough. We have our 9 month appointment coming up so we'll find out for sure how fat he is then ;)

That's it for now, just trying to do a little catch up... more to come!!!

From Barren to Oasis

Just a quickie...

Kirk's mom is here visiting this weekend and we wasted no time putting her to work! With Savannah's help we knocked out a big backyard project. Check the patio off the list... next week the back yard!

Thank you Savannah and Grammy and especially thank you to my amazing husband!!!

I'm 7 Months Old

July has been wonderfully crazy and there is simply too much to blog about! These are my favorite months, Savannah's here, lots of friends, family, camping, trips to Oregon, etc., etc. Hopefully I'll update the blog with additional details but I doubt it... just too busy and I love it!

However I did have to make sure I got Colton's 7 month picture posted and a couple of others from the the month. I realize Colton is closer to 8 months than 7 at this point, but the picture is accurate and so are my 7 month comments :)

I realize I say that every month is "the most fun" but it's true. The biggest 7 month accomplishment is that Colton can sit up on his own, although he's not quite a pro. He occasionally rears back and conks is head a good one, so I still try and sit behind him. He's becoming so much more interactive - he notices everything and you can totally see his little brain spinning. At this point he'll eat anything! If I can moosh it, he will eat it! Even mastered the pincer grip and can grab cheerios, puffs, dried fruit, etc. I absolutely love this as it gives me about 20 minutes each morning of entertainment while I get things done. I can drag breakfast out for about an hour!

The pics are two of may favorites. Just love the picture of Savannah and Colton together and love the one with Colton on his first bike ride with daddy. I have the best family! We have Savannah for just over 2 more weeks and we're squeezing in all the fun we can - we're going to miss her!

4th of July

After Shasta we headed North to spend the 4th in Ashland - I LOVE THE 4TH IN ASHLAND!

We got in Friday afternoon and just hung out with "Grandma and Grandpa". Savannah requested the Oak Tree for dinner so Grandpa and the girls brought home Oak Tree take out, mmm mmm good! I think Grandpa might have let them sneak behind the counter and get sodas, but no one is fessing up :)

Saturday morning we got up bright and early so the girls (and aunt Kelly) could run the 2 mile race and me the 10k. The girls did awesome (9min30sec miles) and I finished - about the best I can say about my performance ;) Then it was time for the 2 + hour parade. It was nice, but long and hot. Colton survived barely. We spent the afternoon at the DeBoer's BBQ enjoying friends and swimming. We capped the night off with the big Ashland fireworks. I stayed home with Colton (which was secretly amazing!).

Overall ANOTHER great trip to Ashland. Having a blast with Savannah and her friend Valentina and all the time we are getting to spend with family! Kirk's family is next :)

Oh and Colton is 7 months - lots of updating to do, but I'll have to squeeze that in later - so busy!!! - Lisa

Shasta June/July 2009

Girls Shasta - I spent 8 glorious days at Shasta last week. It started with a girls trip (Mom, Me, Colton, Kelly, Cameron, Ayla, Becky, Holly, Dutch, and Haylee). It was so wonderful to get to spend extra time with all the babies and good friends. It was a hectic week with so many kiddos, but totally worth the extra effort. The Grandma's took the brunt of the work, so hopefully they will be willing to let us come back again next year :)




Treesh Shasta - We had another great year at Shasta with the Treesh's (and Kelly)! The weather was perfect and the kids were great - perfect ages... not sure about next year!

There was lots of tubing, a light show, and of course food. Overall just a wonderful time. The light show was very sophisticated this year. We had glowing bracelets as our tickets, lighted welcome signs, ushers waving us to our seats, drinks served, and choreographed routines - very fancy! Savannah had a friend come from Vegas this year too (Valentina) and we really enjoyed having her. Anne, Catherine, and Harrison (Clason's) even joined us for the day - not sure they felt like it was worth wrangling Harrison into a life jacket for a quick day trip, but we loved having them!

Ainsely actually put the wakeboard on and got in the water this year... I'm sure she'll try for real next year! Colton spent a few minutes in the water each day - he seemed to like it until he would inevitably slam his face into the water. He ended up spending most of his time in the bumbo in the pool.

Absolutely cannot wait for next year, too fun!