Dad's On Holidays!!

Yeah! Cal is on holidays this week! Our goal is to get the garage organized so Cal can put the drywall up! We put a big dent in that task this afternoon. Blake sat in his bouncy chair on the ski-doo trailer while we tackled the junk in the garage!! He is such a good baby, we're so blessed!! My parents are back from their 5 week holiday this weekend. It seems like they've been gone forever! It will be so nice to see them and have them home!! We've had a great weekend so far. Friday afternoon Blake and I had a baby shower at Allen Gray and Blake got totally spoiled!! He got a gift card to Toys R Us, so I think we'll buy a Jumperoo!! He also received a very special gift - a quilt the residents made! I thought that was very cool!! Friday night Brad (Cal works with him) and his wife and 3 boys (ages 5, 4, and 17 months) came over and Saturday Blake and I went to my friend Melissa's little boy's baby shower. In the evening Gerry and Lesley came over for a visit! It was nice to catch up with everyone! These past few days Blake has been squealing out loud a lot! It is too cute! I'll pick him up and he'll squeal in delight or I'll be playing with him and he'll let a squeal go!! He's also laughing at Heidi a lot! She'll be sniffing the ground at my feet while I'm holding him and he'll start giggling! It's so much fun! A friend of mine told me last week that starting at around 5 months old babies become sooo... much fun! I guess because they get more talkative and interactive. Today Blake almost rolled from his back to his stomach. In fact, he was pretty much over and realized it and flopped his butt and legs back over! He fell asleep after nursing today on the nursing pillow and I just let him sleep in my lap! He looks like a little angel just laying there so peaceful, not a worry in the world! Such a beautiful sight! Have a great week everyone! Stay warm! Brrrr...

Luv Tracy

15 lbs!!

Blake had his 1 week follow-up appointment today with the pediatrician and he now weighs 15 lbs! The Pediatrician was happy with his weight gain and we don't have to go back again until Blake is 6 months old. The Pediatrician also mentioned that we may have to go see an ENT doctor about the little "hole" near his right ear. If it gets infected or there is a threat that it might get infected he will have to have surgery. So that was a little bit scary to hear, but apparently it's a minor thing and nothing to worry about yet. So we'll try not to worry about it yet!! The pediatrician also said to continue trying rice cereal and oat cereal with Blake and he will probably get used to it. Today he seemed to eat a little bit more than the last few times. So that's what's new with us!! We'll talk to you later!

Luv Tracy

Home Again!

As our title says, we're home again! On Saturday a.m. we left for Grande Prairie and came home this morning. It was a good trip! We stayed at Cal's parents new house and visited with Cal's family. We had a great time! Blake is so close to sitting up on his own!! And this weekend we also noticed how much he now likes to stand! It's crazy!!!! He is "talking" a ton too! On Friday night I went to the Keith Urban concert with Lindsay and Lesley (and it was awesome!!) and Cal told me he was reading Blake a book (called Baby Bug) and the whole time Blake was talking!!! He read it to him a couple of times because he seemed to love it so much! He hasn't been likin' the rice cereal to much, so we gave him a break from that this weekend and I'm going to try Oat cereal with him this week. He has a pediatrician appointment again tomorrow, so hopefully he will have gained a bit of weight!! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Tracy

Rice Cereal!!

So today we started Blake on rice cereal!! He did good! He had a few strange expressions on his face and didn't eat a full tablespoon (dry - before mixed), but he got a few spoonfuls down! I posted a picture so you can see where most of it ended up! LOL! Blake's pediatrician appointment was good except for he once again did not gain any weight, which is why we've started the rice cereal with him. We have an appointment next Tuesday as well, just to see if there's been any weight change this time. Blake's pediatrician says that they only changed the feeding guidelines to starting solids at 6 months at the beginning of the year and that he feels a lot of babies are ready and need to start solids at 4 months (which were what the old guidelines were). He checked everything else out as well and commented on how strong Blake was! And how much he's grown in length! He's getting long and skinny!! Take care everyone & keep warm!! It was cold out today!!!

Tracy

Swimming starts on Wednesday!!

I am so excited for Aquababies this Wednesday! Today we're going swim suit shopping for Mom! LOL! It is Cal's Monday off today so the 3 of us are heading to the mall. We're taking Aquababies at the Servus Centre in St. Albert. It's a new multi-plex sports facility in St. Albert, similar to the Tri in Spruce Grove and Millenium Place in Sherwood Park. Apparently there are 2 wicked water slides, a big pool, a smaller warmer pool for kids (where our class will be) and a "river" that runs around the pools. The river actually has a current, so you can float along it in a tube! Sounds like fun hey!? Cal's on vacation the first week of October so he might go with Blake that week. Actually, I'll probably go to, but I'll be on the water slides and in the hot tub! Ha, ha, ha! We also started Salsa Babies last Thursday. It was also sooo... much fun! We did the Salsa, the Cha-Cha, the Muranga (spelling??), and a few others that I forget the names of! Blake loved it and started falling asleep at the end! Tomorrow, Blake has his regular Pediatrician's appointment. Hopefully he will have gained weight. We still haven't started him on rice cereal yet, but if he hasn't gained then we will have to :( On Friday Lindsay, Lesley and I are going to the Keith Urban concert! I'm so excited for that! Then on Saturday Cal, Blake and I are heading to Grande Prairie to visit his family. But I better run! Blake just woke up and is ready to eat!! Take care!

Luv Tracy

Those darn immunizations!!

So Blake has had an off few days since his immunizations. For his 2 month shots I gave him Tylenol before his appointment and this time I didn't. But I will definitely be doing it from now on!! He's still okay, just had a bit of a fever and was pretty clingy for awhile. I don't mind the clinginess though - just means more cuddles and rocking, which I love!! He has grown 3 cm in the past month, but has not gained any weight at all. He's now just below the 50 percentile for weight. The health nurse said it was a little odd that he didn't gain any weight, but that he looks healthy and seems healthy and content so she is not too concerned. She wants us to bring him back in 1 month though just to make sure he does gain. I told her that our pediatrician recommended giving him rice cereal at 3 months to help with his reflux and that I hadn't done that so far and she said to try it out, that it wouldn't hurt. So we'll probably start that this weekend. I'm not so excited to start solids, even though it's just rice cereal for now!! It seems too fast and I want him still be a little baby!! Aren't I pathetic!? LOL! Time is just flying by way, way too fast ...

Tracy :)

An Amazing 4 Months ...

Wow! Tomorrow Blake is 4 months old. These past four months have been some of the best of my life!! It has amazed me how much Blake has affected me! Might sound silly, but I knew life would be different, what I didn't understand was all of the emotions and feelings and love that having a child brings into your life! I fall in love all over again every time I look at him and have a new deeper love for Cal. He is such a fantastic Dad and it just brings tears to my eyes seeing them together! We have had a busy four months and Blake has became quite the traveller! This past September long weekend we went camping in Jasper with my parents and their friends Erica and Dion. We did a lot of sight seeing and a black bear visited us in our campsite! I posted a picture of us at the hot springs. We had tons of fun!! The trip there on Friday night was not a good one!! The evening is not a good time to travel with Blake!! His evening's usually consist of eating, bathing and bedtime and he really did not like being in the car seat for 4 hours! Near the end of the trip I finally crawled in the backseat with him. I was confused because just a few weeks before I'd drove to Fort McMurray with him and all was fine! But then we realized most of the travelling we'd done had been in the a.m. So sure enough the next few days when we were driving around during the day all was good!! Lesson learned! We're going to visit Cal's family in Grande Prairie in a few weeks, so we are going to travel during the day! Tomorrow Blake has his 4 month shots, so he will be weighed and measured then too. I'm guessing he is near 16 lbs, but we'll see! Blake is still really close to rolling from his back to his stomach and his neck is getting a lot stronger. He doesn't seem to mind tummy time as much as he used to. He is looking all over the place now and yesterday I took him for a walk around the neighbourhood in our heart-to-heart sling so he could face out and see the world around him!! The position he sits in is called the Buddha position! It's pretty cute! Hope everyone had a wonderful summer, we can't believe it's over already :( Oh well, let's hope the winter is mild! Take care!

Love Tracy
XOXOX