Somewhere Over the Rainbow: June 2012

I am FINALLY writing this post a MONTH late! Yikes! I am going to try and remember what all was going on in our lives a month ago; but I am sure I will leave something out. MUST get better at getting these posts done on time. My little guy is just growing WAY too fast. I say it every month, but I want him to stop growing. I don't know why God made babyhood only a year long..it is just not enough time. He literally changes every day. He learns something new every day. He is like a little sponge absorbing everything. I have been trying to slow down and really appreciate my time with him, because I know when he wakes up tomorrow he will be a little bit different. I know he will always be my baby, but I will never get this first year with my first born back. That makes this momma sad.

Anyway, back to a month ago...what was Cash doing???

Well, we traveled to Boston!!!! It was an amazing/busy/fun trip. Cash did wonderful on the drive(s). He actually got a little cold and ran a 101.5 fever a few days before we left so he was a tad cranky the first part of the week. We stopped in D.C. halfway and stayed with James and San for a night. That was not the most fun night. Our little babe wasn't feeling too well, and just could not get comfortable. He was sleeping in a pack in play in the room with us, and was just miserable sounding. He was awake at 2:00, 3:00, 4:00....I took him downstairs and nursed him twice and layed on the couch with him until 6:00. We went ahead and left because we were all just miserable. Frank and I were both coming down with the same cold/funk so the second stretch was not fun. Disposable diapers struck again too! I was using them for the ride since it would be a two day stretch (didn't want poop diapers marinating in the car..yuck!) We weren't five minutes on the highway when Cash started grunting. We pulled over at a truck stop and lifted him up...YOWZA!! Poop dropped on the assfault! SICK!!! I HATE DISPOSABLES!!! I am pretty sure that is what I yelled when I saw the mess. In a tag team effort we got Cash changed and cleaned the carseat best we could and tried again. The rest of the drive went well. We got to Boston around 4:00 that afternoon. Seeing Sue for the first time took all our troubles away. I just love that woman. Cash does too. I got some really great pictures of them seeing eachother for the first time since he was so tiny at Christmas. The weather wasn't the best while we were there, but we didn't mind. We got to go to my first Redsox game with Lee, Steve, J, and Ken while the grandparents babysat. We also celebrated Lee's birthday, Ken and my birthday, and had everyone over to meet Cash on Sunday. My birthday and Sunday were beautiful days so that is all we could ask for. It meant so much to Frank and I that everyone wanted to come to meet Cash. We just loved having everyone together. He is so loved. One thing is for sure..Cash likes his bed. He was fighting the cold the first part of the week and got an AWFUL diaper rash so that may have been why he was up every night; but it was not fun. I nursed him the first night, the second night I went in several times to give him his paci, and finally the third we let him cry for a bit. He didn't wake up anymore after that. His Nana was not a fan of us letting him cry. We found her several times lurking in the halls when he was crying. Ha! Leaving was another story. It was pretty much the most painful thing in the world leaving Sue. It felt like we were stealing her baby away. I cannot even think about it without crying. Frank and I both were just pitiful for a while. It is so hard saying goodbye to her. I know it is only going to get harder as Cash gets older too. I don't think he is going to want us taking him away from his Nana either. We try to cherish the times we have together, but sometimes they just aren't enough and we want more. We want Nana and the rest of our family with us all the time. The distance really does hurt more when you have children.

Well, the drive home went a lot smoother (except for a tick incident and the loss of a brand new tennis shoe somewhere around DC). Once we were home it was back to work for me and we started to settle back in to our routine. I had to work the entire weekend of Mother's Day, but Frank brought me breakfast in bed and really cute cards from him and Cash. He also got me pretty roses. Cash had just started sitting up pretty well on his own at that point. We just sat in our room and snuggled before I had to go back to work. A couple nights later, Cash woke up every hour again in the night. He had a pretty good fever also, so I decided to take him in to the pediatrician. Besides the waking up all night, you really would not have known he was sick. I think the doctor thought I was an overly concerned mom too because of how happy my baby seemed. Then he took one look in his ears and said what I didn't want to hear...double ear infections/puss! Shucks! I really didn't want to have to put him on antibiotics, but we had to in order to get rid of the infection. We did a 10 day course of Amoxicillin, and he started feeling better pretty much the first day. We just hope this isn't one of many ear infections. We are keeping our fingers crossed. We were getting ready for my dad and stepmom to come visit so we wanted him to be feeling 100% when they got here.

They came in town and ended up staying a bit later than planned because my dad ended up in the hospital for a week with GI issues. Cash also got illness number 3 while they were here...HAND, FOOT, AND MOUTH DISEASE!!! Yucko!! The sitter told us it was going around so, of course, he got it. It is the weirdest little virus. We lucked out BIG TIME and he didn't get any blisters in his mouth, but he got some pretty nasty ones on his skin. My stepmom and I took him to the beach one day, and it was hot out so we took his clothes off. Thinking back, he was probably running a fever and that is why he got so hot. He started getting what we thought was his usual skin heat rash/eczema on the back of his neck/head and right where his diaper starts. The next day he started getting them in his diaper area and they started looking more like blisters. We knew then it wasn't just eczema. We thought it might be chicken pox instead because they weren't really on his hands and feet. I went ahead and took him back to the doctor anyway just to be sure (and I could get his ears checked again). He was due for his 6 month shots,but we held off until the next week so he would be all better before. They confirmed it was HFM and said his ears looked good. That made us feel better, and the blisters healed pretty quickly after that.

We had a great time with my stepmom (Yaya). We hated that my dad (Papaw) was sick, but luckily once he got out of the hospital he was actually able to stay a couple more days. We took them around Charleston and to Folly. Cash LOVED having someone to ride with him in the backseat all the time. He loved it so much that he no longer likes to ride in the car without his Yaya or Papaw in the back with him. This has made mommas life a little miserable at times. The sitter even said she sure can tell we have had family around a lot because someone doesn't like to be put down anymore. She is right. He is going through a little seperation anxiety phase. Hopfully once he gets the crawling thing down, that will wear off a bit.

When we finally made it to our appointment a few weeks late he weighed 19.13 and was 27.75 inches long. He was 75th percentile for both. Big boy! He did great with the THREE shots he had to get. He passed out right after them. That is it for the shots until one year so that is good. His ears still looked good at his check up (even though we are now battling another cold/cough). He broke out into his typical sensitive skin rash at the appointment because I used a baby wipe on his tummy when he woke up instead of the cloth. Within the hour that we were there his belly was covered in red bumpies. The doctor seemed a tad concerned, but I told him it was probably the wipes. The rash was gone by midday (so strange). We now call him Rashy Cashy. I think I own every skin cream known to man. I just hate when his poor skin gets like that. It is kind of hard to keep his diaper area from getting red considering he poops 6-10 times a day (no lie). Frank and I get so sick of cleaning poopy diapers some days.

What Cash can do at 6 months!

He finally loves his tummy most of the time. He will sleep on his tummy and play with his toys on his tummy.
He will roll and roll to wherever he wants to go. He doesn't really even try to use his legs to crawl. He just rolls. Ha!
He is still eating EVERYTHING! He is practicing with his sippy cup too. We think the nuby soft tip cup is going to be the winner. He is so funny drinking out of it because it scares him sometimes when it comes fast. He doesn't like jar chicken or peas, but LOVES his momma's homemade. He knows what he likes.
The one thing he does HATE is tofu. I tried it with several different things and he just doesn't like it.
We started giving him little mum mum crackers (he loves them). I got them for in the car and he does really well with them.
Still no teeth, but drools like a champ.
He LOVES his jumpy! We even brought it with us to Boston because he loves it so much. He will just bounce and bounce.
He lost most all his hair on the very top. He has a serious mullet now. The back is his original darker hair too, so the blonde coming in gives him a nice two toned look...LOVE IT!
He is still the most smiley little thing. He will look at you very serious and then just break out into his priceless grin.
He is usually happy as long as he isn't hungry or too tired.
He is still sleeping through the night (unless we are out of town) and napping twice a day (9 or 930 and 1 or 130). He could probably use a later afternoon nap, but usually stays up.
He has a silent giggle..it is like you can tell he is laughing, but no sound will come out.
He does this high pitched scream when he is playing and will grunt when he wants more food. Pig!