9 MONTHS!

Well, now that Hanley is almost 10 months old, I suppose I should post his 9 month stats!! Can you tell it's been a busy month?

Every time I bring Hanley in for a well-baby check, Dr. Hall (who we love!) asks about Cody.  Each time I have to tell him he is busy at work and unable to make it to the appointment.  So after his 6-month check up, I told Cody he needed to make arrangements at work to make it in to Hanley's next appointment so Dr. Hall would get off my back about it! Cody got off easy when he made it to the 9 month appointment, one of the few well baby check-ups that doesn't include vaccinations! Regardless, Dr. Hall was happy to see us both make it to his appointment.

 

Stats:
Head Circumference: 18 inches, 50%
Length: 28 inches, 50%
Weight: 18 lbs, 9 oz, 30%

He's dropped in percentile in all area's but Dr. Hall had no concerns and said we have a happy, healthy boy on our hands!

At 9 months old...

-He is a crawling machine!

-He loves to pull himself up onto all the furniture in the house and is very proud of himself for being able to do so.

-He finally enjoys eating solids! His current favorite is sweet potato and corn puree.

-Has 5 teeth.

-Has spent a total of two nights away from Mama and done very well each time!

-Is still very vocal!!

-He got the chance to meet his Aunt Mari and spend a week with her while she was in Oregon for Wayne and Brooke's Wedding!

-Moved his bedtime from 9:15pm to 8:30pm! Score for Mom and Dad!

-Loves story time! We have to read the board books because he likes to be really helpful and turn the pages himself.

-Has a weird obsession with the vacuum cleaner and chases it around the house!

-Has horrible hair (just being honest here!). He has a messy mop on top and barely anything on the sides! Poor kid never had a chance...

 

Time seems to be flying by faster than ever but Cody and I both agree that the older Hanley gets, the more rewarding parenting gets.  It's such a joy to watch him learn and explore something new each day.



198 Miles, 12 People, 1 Team, and 1 Heck of a Mr. Mom

I underestimated how difficult it would be to prepare for Hood to Coast this year. However, I made a commitment to my team and I had been looking forward to HTC for 10 months now so regardless of how prepared I did or didn't feel, I wasn't about the throw in the towel!

The days leading up to HTC, I was pretty emotional.  It would be the first time I would spend an entire night away from Hanley.  Even though it was going to be hard, I knew it was a good thing for everyone. My night away taught me that Hanley can survive without me and it gave him and Cody a chance to spend some special one-on-one time together.

This year, I didn't make any "rookie" mistakes like I did when I ran HTC 2011. I stretched out and re-hydrated properly after each run.  It made a world of a difference and I felt great! I remember being so sore last time, I felt like I couldn't walk for 2 days. After my 17 miles this year, I didn't really feel sore at all. Heck, I was about to go for a run the next day!

I had the extra challenge of pumping in the van every 4 hours. Bless my teammates for being so easy going about it and letting me hog so much space in the cooler!

We got less than 2 hours of "sleep" during the second major exchanges.  By "sleep" I mean laying in a wet, lumpy field as it rained on us at 2am. Despite the lack of sleep, I felt good running my 3rd leg. I guess motherhood has prepared me well to function off little to no sleep!

Since I was in Van 1, we finished early and headed to Astoria for lunch.  After a 36 hour diet of Cliff bars, PB & J sandwiches, water and chocolate milk... a REAL lunch sounded amazing! After lunch we did some sight seeing. Since Whitney flew in from Texas for HTC the team decided to show her around Astoria. We checked out The Goonies house and the school from Kindergarten Cop then made our way to Seaside to run across the finish line as a team!

When I got home, I jumped out of Tyler's truck and RAN across the street and up the driveway to hug my little man.  I missed him so much that tears started rolling down my cheeks.

It turns out Cody is one heck of a Mr. Mom! I came home to a happy little man who slept through the night for Daddy and had another tooth!

I was happy to be home with both my boys but really enjoyed doing something just for myself.

Thanks Team SWIWS for another great year!


Van 1 at Timberline: Me, Courtney, Nicole, Whitney, Tyler, Cord

Meme's Visit

My Mom made arrangements to come spend a week with us.  She arrived on a Friday so she could watch Hanley while I joined the gals from work for our summer office party and Cody went fishing with his buddy Jeff. My poor Mother came up to spend a fun week with Hanley and ended up really taking care of the whole house...

I woke up Monday morning with mastitis AGAIN. I went to work and was miserable all day.  When I got home, I went straight to bed until it was time to get up and put Hanley down for the night. 

I wasn't feeling any better on Tuesday but I went into work anyways.  Since we had a light afternoon schedule, I left at lunchtime. I came home and my Mom made me lunch then she took Hanley and Roxy to the park so I could take a nap.  I was pretty emotional by Tuesday night because I felt like I hadn't spend any time with Hanley at all. When it was time to put him down for bed, I didn't want to let him out of my arms. 

Wednesday morning I was feeling a little better.  I was still sore but at least my fever broke. The day didn't turn out to be any more calmer though.  A routine oil change on the truck turned into a chaotic day of running it around for a second opinion, leaving it with the mechanic for 2 days and a hefty bill. So, it was nice to have my Mom to help with all the running around and to have her extra vehicle!

By Thursday evening I was feeling better which meant our camp out to East Lake was still on.  Cody took Friday off of work and we headed out that morning.  As we pulled out of the drive way Cody said, "It was really a blessing to have your Mom here this week". He couldn't have been more right.

The Non-Update

I have to apologize for the lack of updates.  There has been a lot I have wanted to blog about: my Mom staying with us for a week, my birthday at East Lake, Courtney's visit, and of course Hanley updates.  While life has been crazy and Hanley has been busy learning to be such a big boy, I am just too darn exhausted to blog! So, for now I will leave you with a picture of my two favorite guys and promise updates coming soon...

Daddy, Hanley and Eli on a lazy Sunday morning!

Shopping & Swings!

Hanley was such a little trooper today shopping with my Mom and I! When we were done picking out the perfect dress for her for Wayne and Brooke's Wedding, we took Roxy and Hanley to the park to play...

 

 If you can't tell, Hanley had a blast (and Roxy too!).

8 MONTHS!

What sums up our 8 month old:

-Jabber mouth

-Loves his alligator blanket

-Has 4 teeth

-Still doesn't like solids

-Takes two 1- 1 1/2 hour naps

-Mama's boy

-Loves Roxy and Maxi (They tolerate him even though he is guilty of pulling their hair)

-Loves his high chair

-Can't help himself but to fall asleep in the car

-Has been camping four times

-Goes to the babysitters 3 days a week

-Loves to rough house with Daddy (They broke the guest bed this week jumping on it!)

-Loves to be outdoors

-Is very ticklish

Hanley and I spent his 8 month birthday in Tillamook for the day visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Robideau! Here's a few pictures from the day:

 

 

Okay, Hanley.  I think 8 months is enough...you can stop growing now!

Another Trip to Crescent

We set out for Hanley's 4th camping trip on Wednesday afternoon in celebration of Independence Day. It was going to be a 4 day camp out which would make for Hanley's longest camping trip yet.

We beat Loren to Crescent Lake, picked out a site and set up shop. The mosquitoes were thick, like nothing I had ever seen at Crescent. Within 3 minutes, I had more than a dozen bites. Thankfully the mosquitoes were leaving Cody and Hanley alone- I guess I just have extra sweet blood!

Since the forecast was expected to be nice, we left the elk tent at home and roughed it in our little tent.  The first night was great (other than the mosquitoes-which mostly stayed at bay the rest of the weekend).

Thursday was a busy day.  We took Hanley out on the boat for the 1st time.  He HATED his new life jacket. He screamed bloody murder when we put it on him. I can't really blame him because it was so tight at the neck, it was practically choking him. (When writing this I asked Cody for better words to explain how bad it was choking him - he came back with "Whats the point of keeping your head above water when you can't breath?"). Yes, it was that bad. Either our kid has a huge dome piece or that life vest has a major design flaw. So, we spent the morning breaking the law and let him cruise without it. He loved the boat as along as he wasn't wearing his vest. (Side note:First thing we did when we got back into town was exchange his life vest for a new one. Hopefully he can tolerate the new one so we can take him out on the boat when we go to East Lake for my birthday). Later that day, Amie and Tyler came up for the day.  We hung out down by the water for a couple hours before the guys went out fishing. They stayed for dinner then had to head out before the tunnel closed at 8pm.  It was great to spend the day with them (and the wee one on the way!).

 

 

 

Thursday night was hell. Hanley was up ALL NIGHT.  The temperature dropped Thursday night and I think it just got too cold for him and to top it off, he is teething. At 4:30am, when we were completely out of options, we went on a midnight family drive to Davis Lake.  Despite being absolutely exhausted, it was a beautiful drive. We even saw a couple deer. By the time we got back to camp, Hanley fell asleep. We packed him back into the tent where he slept until sometime after 8am.

We did some exploring on Friday, Hanley took a much needed 2 hour nap, I got in some reading and a nap myself, the guys went fishing, and Kim finally joined us for the weekend.

Hanley and Opa reading the map before heading out to explore Summit Lake

Friday night was round 2 of hell. Again, no sleep for any of us.

We had a great day on Saturday (which included a visit from Uncle Ole and Aunt Cathy) but decided to pack up and go home after dinner...not wanting to chance another sleepless night.  We hated to cut the weekend short but knew it was the best thing for Hanley. He needed the sleep as much as we did.

It turns out, we made the right choice.  We got home and he slept through the night.

I know it sounds crazy but this was actually probably my favorite camping trip so far this year. The weather was beautiful, Hanley was so much fun during the day, and we got to watch him explore the water. I have taken my book camping with me every single time and never read more than a paragraph until this trip.  It was by far the most relaxing time I have had (excluding the whole lack of sleep and leaving early).