My baby is 9 months old!

Can you believe it...Tristan turned 9 months this past Sunday! I sure can't. Where did the time go??? We took him for his 9 month apt yesterday and he weighed 16lbs 3oz and 27 1/2 in. I was for sure he had to weigh 8 lbs by now. He's still a little squirt but the doctor isn't worried at all. He said it's typical for a breastfeeder. His head is in the 75Th percentile though. Hmmm, big head on a little body. Maybe this just meens he will be really smart! He is doing really good though and gave the ok to start table foods and said that he can have dairy and pretty much anything except for eggs, and peanut products. I am super narcotic though so we are going to work slow. I am not too crazy about introducing dairy just yet and I really don't want him having sugar yet. I mean he will get his first birthday cake but I
Not a whole lot to update right now. He is all over the place and getting into everything. I think now the parenthood challenges start! I think I am ready for it though. Another exciting new phase in his and our lives. I am so excited for him to experience the excitement of Christmas. I am also a little nervous though because we have so many place to go and I am still figuring out how to get his naps in. He is already a horrible napper so this should be very interesting to say the least. There will be a lot of excitement and I know that will make for a tired baby. We'll see how this goes! Ok, I think that's it for now. I am super busy trying to get lots of stuff done for tomorrow and Christmas day so I leave you with some pictures. Merry Christmas and God Bless you all!am going to hold off on sugar as long as I can. Same thing with juice.

some random pics

Here is Tristans 9 month/Christmas pictures

We have a crib muncher!

Well I wanted to do some updates this past weekend but things have been busy , busy, busy. Let's see, 2 weekends ago we went to my dads work Christmas party. It would of been more fun if Tristan didn't refuse to take a nap the whole day. We went there at 2p and he had no nap at all. Can you say FUN! He was soooo cranky and if you looked at him the wrong way he would start crying. They had Santa there and I already knew in his moody state it would not be a sucess. Surprisingly enough he didn't cry right away. He just looked at him at first and then the tears started flowing. I really think this was only because of his tiredness. He got a nice toy from Santa though and he really likes it. So do the cats too! There is a couple of pictures of him with Santa below. My dad has some more and I put them on my computer but I haven't uploaded them yet so I will do that soon.

This last week has been a SUPER eventful one and a big milestone week for Tristan. Lets see I think I said before that he is sitting up on his own from a laying down position...well now he is full blown crawling all over the place! And he is pulling up on furniture and standing all by himself and starting to cruise! This kid is really mobile now! Now that he can stand on his own (with the assistance from the furniture) he will stand there forever just babling away. And now he is trying to climb anything and everything. He has climbed one step(the gate is coming out!), us, and a couple of toys. It's nice because I can just put him on the floor and let him play for a while with out having to pick him up and put him back into the sitting position. I think he will start to be a lot more independant now that he can do more on his own. He always wanted to be held becasue he couldn't get around and he didn't like stationary toys that well such as a bouncy seat. He loved the Mega Saucer until he learned he can crawl. If I put him in it now he tries to climb out of it. Now that he is standing on his own though it does bring one down fall. He wakes up in the middle of the night and usually cries for a quick second and goes back to sleep. Well now when he wakes up the first thing he does is stand up and cry or stand up and munch on his crib. The other morning I literally listened to him chew on his crib for 10 minutes before I figured out what was going on in there. So he can't put himself back to sleep since he is just standing there and screaming.I now have to go get a crib rail protector and figure out how to get him to self sooth himself back to sleep again. Back to square one again! I really can't believe how much he is changing. I think he has a handful of teeth that are coming in as well. They are still under the gums but I can feel and see the bumps so I know they are coming. Plus the last 2 nights he really hasn't slept at all...which meens I haven't slept either! I'm starting to think he will have all his teeth by a year old! Kidding of course!

This weekend will be another super busy one. We have our family Christmas pictures/Tristan's 9 month pictures this Friday, I am making Christmas cookies with Theresa on Saturday (this will be our 3rd or 4th year doing this), I HAVE to go see my Grandma because she just flew in today and I miss her soooo much, take Tristan to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa (they have free pictures with santa and a 3500 sq ft childrens play land there parents!), make my chocolate covered pretzels, chex mix, ranch Crackers, do my last minute shopping, and take Tristan to his 9 month apt on monday. So much to do between Friday and Christmas Eve! I'm sure Tristan won't let me do it all either but I know Ken will help either watch Tristan or maybe I can con him into helping me do the pretzels instead of just eating them! It's so much to do but all so fun at the same time. I love the holdidays and will be sad when it's all over. Ok, this was my big update. I still have some pictures in my camera that I will try and upload Friday. I shouldn't have a lot to update then but I will have more pictures. Hope everyone is having a wonderful stress free holiday! Me, I don't know how NOT to stress anytime of the year!

Ok, lots to update here. I will start off by saying that Tristan finally got rid of his pink eyes. I don't know if I said it before but Ken also got it the day after Tristan in both eyes so they both had a pretty miserable week. I think the reason I didn't get it was so I could take care of my boys. They had it for a full week pretty bad. I don't think the eye drops did anything for either one of them. Neither one of them missed a dose. I didn't take any pictures of Tristan on his first Thanksgiving because he was so bad. He didn't feel good and he looked horrible to say the least. I didn't have the heart to take any pictures of him when he was feeling like that. I know pink eye isn't any fun but he was being particularly cranky last weekend. I had him laughing pretty good and what do I see???? A 5Th tooth! I couldn't believe it. My poor baby had a cold, double pink eye, and a tooth coming in all at the same time! I wish I would have looked for that because I couldn't have gave him some Tylenol to ease the pain. But he handled it all on his own. These teeth just keep popping through. Here is a picture that I took last weekend at the end of Tristan's pink eye. It still looks pretty bad but not near as bad as it was. He was so happy and curling his tongue and making cute faces so I took the picture. Ok, on to the good stuff!

He is pretty much crawling now. It's more of an army crawl but he gets around really fast now. He likes to scoot a lot too. He may never do a real crawl because he can get around just as good doing that. He also sat up for the first time from a laying position yesterday. Ken was the first one to see this. It's really neat to watch him do this. He makes it look so easy too. I walked in his room about 1:30 last night when he woke up and he is just sitting there. I am used to waking in on him laying on his tummy trying to grab anything to stand up with. It kind of made me laugh. He just looked at me as if to say "Where the heck have you been". I just can't believe all the new things he is learning. I think he might understand kisses too. Not to sure but every time I kiss him I always say "give me kisses", and the last couple times I have done that he has leaned in. He understands his name and the word "no". Anytime I say no he puts whatever he is messing with down really slow.

Let's see, what else???...We got all our Christmas shopping done now. Well I have to buy Ken one more thing and I still have to get Tristan some jeans and Khakis but other than that we are done. Has anyone seen any good deals on jeans or khakis for babies?? If so, let me know. I got one pair at Children's place for $12.50 but I know I can find a better deal than that. Usually I can find some good coupons for Children's Place, Old Navy, The Gap, or Gymboree but I haven't seen any lately. So if anyone see's any online...let me know! But yea, we are excited to have the shopping done so we can enjoy the season as a family and drink our white chocolate shakes. If you haven't tried a white chocolate shake from Steak N' Shake...you have to! They are our very favorite!

We have my dads work Christmas party to go to on Sunday. We are both excited to go to that. I love holiday events and they will have Santa Clause there so I am going to take the camera and maybe the camcorder. Tristan's first time with Santa, yay! It should be a fun day. Plus Dallas plays Pittsburgh at 4:15p so that just adds to the excitement. They need this win bad if they want the wild card. Well I think thats all for now. Here are a couple of pictures we have taken in the last few fays. I will probably have more on Sunday after my dads Christamas party. Have a great weekend!

Small Plastic Toy alert

For those who don't know, I am a huge Web Md junkie. I love the site and belong to the message boards so I learn about all kinds of little tid bits. This was the latest alert on Soft Plastic Toys and I just wanted to pass it along.
http://children.webmd.com/news/20081125/group-soft-plastic-toys-are-health-risk

Anyone know how to tell if a toy has lead paint on it? I am starting to get nervous about this because Tristan is now really starting to get into toys and they keep saying don't buy toys with lead. How do you know??? I mean does the toy have a sign on it that says "attention, I am made with lead paint". Kidding of course! That would really make things so much easier though.

Being Thankful in ANY situation

So let me start off by saying that I am a big blog reader. I have found some blogger through message boards I have been through since trying to get pregnant to parenting now. I since then have found other blogs I like to read through their blog list. Once of the blogs I love to read is Steece's Pieces at http://thelifeofsuz.blogspot.com/ and she had a great post today that I wanted to share and pass along to challenge my readers. She went to church this past Sunday and was encouraged and energized to find the ability to give thanks in any situation. You can read her post by clicking the link above to see how she did this if you want. I thought this was such a wonderful idea. I am a true believer that everything happens for a reason and I believe that I am shown that every day. So I challenge you to find reasons to give thanks in any situation.

One reason I have to be thankful:

Tristan is getting a really bad cold and has developed Pink Eye in both of his eyes. He has been miserable and unable to nurse that well because he can't breathe out of his nose. I was thinking to myself at 2:30a this morning when I was up with a screaming baby, "Why does my poor baby have to be going through this". As I read Suz's post I realized I am so thankful that Tristan is normally a happy healthy baby. When I think about all the things some babies and kids go through with stuff as little as reflux or glasses to as bad as diseases I realize I have a lot to be truly thankful for. God has blessed us with a health baby.

That is the only thing so far that I am going to list. I think I am going to go home after work and challenge Ken to this as well. I think this might be fun to make a small game out of it as Joe and Suz did. I think it's such a great way to turn a negative situation into a positive one. I have vowed that this holiday season I am not going to let anything get to me and I am not going to be bitter or angry at anything (not that I am a lot or anything. But I am human after all). I think this challenge is a great way to enjoy this holiday season the best you can. With that said, Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers. I might post later today or tomorrow with some more reasons I am thankful and I might try and put some pictures of Tristan on his first Thanksgiving depending on how he is feeling.

On another note:
I have decided not to email everyone that I email every time I have a new post. I know that some people read my post but I'm sure that not everyone does and I hate being that annoying person who keeps sending unwanted email. So, if you like my blog and like getting updates on Tristan come back here when ever you want or save the link to your favorites. I am going to try and be a better blogger. If you still do want me to email you though I will. Just send me and email or comment this post and I will still email you. I don't mind that at all. Like I said, I just don't want to be that annoying emailer.

New pictures as promised

I don't have a whole lot but these are the most recent. Enjoy and have a great work and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

PS. If the pictures go to fast for you, roll over the bottom right corner of the pictures and you can pause and rewind them :)

I've been a bad blogger!

Sooooo, Tristan is 8 months old today!!!! Can you believe it!!! I can't. And I know, I know...I have been a horrible blogger these days! I have been really sick for over a week now and I can't really take anything. The things that are approved to take for breastfeeding moms can really affect your milk supply and my milk supply hasn't been the best and I need everything that I produce so I have been living off cough drops. I am getting better though and apologize for not updating.
I want to start off by saying that if there was a Dad of the Year award or Husband of the Year Award, I would definitely have to nominate Ken. He has been beyond wonderful. Ever since Tristan has been born he has cooked, cleaned, done all the laundry to make sure that I keep up with Tristan and breastfeeding. Who knows if I would have been able to keep up breastfeeding if it wasn't for Ken. And for that me and Tristan are truly thankful. He is always there to help with the baby (not that he shouldn't but...you know how guys can be!). He never complains about doing anything around the house, changes just as many diapers as I do, and we have BOTH given Tristan every single bath that he has had. Pretty amazing huh, being that is 8 months old now. I guess you could say giving Tristan a bath has turned into family bonding time. I just feel that I have to give Ken the credit he deserves because he is such and amazing husband and daddy! Ok, on to Tristan...

Wow is he changing. He is blowing raspberry's like crazy, babbling up a storm, says mamama(even though I don't think he knows what it means yet), he has his top two teeth now (In case your counting...that's four teeth now!), rolling to everywhere (and I mean every inch of the room!), Interacting with the cats and dog by petting them, pulling there tails, and laughing at them, and is on his way to crawling. Now by that I mean he is starting to get on all fours and rock a little. He isn't staying on all fours yet because he has learned that if he wants to get somewhere to just roll on over there (he's no dummy!) so he is being a little lazy on the crawling. He is really almost there though. I am not pushing this because I know once he starts going I will never stop chasing him. He is really starting to interact with toys a lot more. Instead of putting every single toy in his mouth he is learning how they work. Now don't get me wrong...everything still goes in the mouth, but he is learning how each toys buttons and levers work. It's so neat to watch his mind at work! The things he really likes to play with these days though is the remote (such a guy!), wipes container, and his empty bottles. Sometimes these are the only things that calm him down. That and the fish. He LOVES to watch our big orange Parrot fish swimming around. It really cracks him up to say the least. I am just so amazed every day how much he is changing. He is always talking up a storm (in baby talk of course!) so I am hoping he will be a social butterfly and not be shy. He loves, loves, loves to smile. And even more than that he loves when you smile at him and sing to him. I really need to get up on my kids songs because I have been singing a lot of mommy made up songs to him. he doesn't seem to mind though.
Size ways, I'm not too sure how much he weighs. He hasn't been to the doctor in 2 months but I am hoping he has hit 16 or 17lbs by now. He is still in 3-6 months but I am thinking he will be in 6-9 months by Christmas if not soon after. A ton of people have been asking what size to buy for Christmas so I thought I would say it here as well. I would buy 6-9 months or bigger. If he is still in 3-6 months then he doesn't need that size. I have already bought too much in 3-6 months.
Some new foods he has eaten is carrots, mangoes, papaya, and Zucchini. he has loved them all. i pray that he won't be as picky as me in the food department. I still eat extremely plain and I want so bad for him to have a bigger taste palate. I think we will try chicken breast for the first time this weekend and maybe some rice. We'll see how that purees. We have also started Gerber puffs with him. He seems to like them but play more than anything. It's so funny to watch because he will hold it the entire time in his hand and start crunching on it with all four teeth.
Well I think that's about it for now. As you see I have been playing around with my blog design. I made the header with photoshop and some digital scrapbook stuff I have bought. I still have a lot of tweaking with the background and sidebar but I have to have time to figure out the HTML code first. I have to thank Jen at http://jenieshell.blogspot.com/ for helping with all the tweaking. I will be working on it more when I have time. Ok, baby is screaming for me so that's all for me!

PS. I will upload pictures a little later so check back later today or tomorrow. I don't have a ton but I do have some.

Here are some more pictures of Halloween. Not much is new these days. Tristan is still teething pretty bad and having a lot of pain with his top teeth. I can't believe he has 4 teeth already. Have a great day!

Sorry I have been M. I. A.

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks. things have been kind of crazy lately. Our neice came in from Florida for 10 days at the end of September and ever since then we have all been sick on and off.

Ok, lets see, where to start...Tristan will be 7 months old tomorrow. We are still exclusivley breastfeeding and that is going great. I just noticed that his top 2 teeth will be popping through any day now. He wasn't to happy all weekend so I didnt have time to post then either. That will make 4 teeth when these come through! It seems that he is going to have a tougher time with these top to teeth though because he didn't sleep at all on Saturday night. Poor guy :( He is changing so much these days. He is liking tummy time now (what a relief!) and is actually putting himself on his tummy from the sitting possition. He tries to crawl but hasn't figured out that he has to get on all fours yet. I'm not going to rush it since he just recently has tolerated being on his tummy. He likes to pull himself up into the standing possition when he is sitting in your lap and loves to walk assisted. I'm telling you, this kid just wants to go, go, go! I can't even get him to sit still anymore because he wants to walk or crawl away and gets mad because he can't do that yet. He is also standing assisted against the couch and bigger toys. Not super steady yet to where he is cruising but any day now. We have noticed once he starts to try to do something he will have it mastered very soon after. He is a very determaned baby!
We took him to the Pumkin path on Saturday in Erie, Mi. He was more interested in looking around than anything but it was fun to take him there. I have pictures of that and tons more that I haven't shared yet. Since there is so many I'm not going to uplaod them onto a slide show, I will just post the link. Here is a preview though! I will try to be much better on posting updates!

Click here to see more pictures!http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t308/tborek/October%20upload/?albumview=grid

Tristans 6 month photo shoot

We got Tristan's 6 month pictures done yesterday and they turned out really good. He was such a good boy and had such a good time. I think he thought it was play time. It turned out to be a great expirience. My little baby is starting to look like a little boy now. I can't believe it!

6 Months Old Already!!

Well, Tristan turned 6 months old last Sunday. Can you believe it! I can't. We go to the doctor tomorrow for his shots and to see how big he is now so I will post that as soon as I know. He is changing so much. He slept entirely throught the night Sunday and Monday night but did'nt last night. I was hoping he was going to keep it up but no such luck.





We went to the Zoo last Friday but he was quite tired and only liked it for a little bit. He slept a lot of the time. He did like to look at the animals though. He just stared and followed them around everywhere. We only took a couple pictures this time around.

A few new pictures...

We got Tristan some new Ohio State outfits this past week. Hopefully he will bring some luck to the Buckeyes tonight for the big USC game!

We were going to take Tristan to the zoo today but hurricane Ike is bringing the rains all day so we are going to try and go next Friday. We have been trying to go for the past couple of weeks but something always comes up so hopefully next week will work out.
He is still teething pretty bad and not sleeping to well. I give him Tylenol at night but that only takes the edge off for a couple of hours. I hope his little gums will feel better soon. Other than that nothing else new has been going on. Hopefully I will have some zoo pics to update with next week :)

We got some toofers!

Well Tristan is finally getting some teeth! I had fed him dinner and he usually sucks on the spoon but this time I had a harder time pulling it out. I couldn't figure out what he was doing different. Well I went to make some avocado for the next days dinner and since he had already eaten dinner I just put some on my finger to see if he liked it. Well I was surprised to feel a sharp little tooth. It is just at the surface but its coming through. I guess that's why I had a hard time pulling the spoon out. I am so excited! I never realized how exciting it would be for Tristan to get his first teeth. I keep trying to get him to show me but he is always sticking his tongue out so its really hard to see. We are getting his 6 month pictures done in a couple of weeks and I hope they are up by then so we can see them in his pictures. It's crazy, all with in a couple of weeks he is sitting completely on his own and getting teeth. My how the time flies.

I fed him Avocado for the first time last night and he absolutely loved it. He whined every time I took the spoon away to get more. I couldn't shovel it in his mouth fast enough! So far Avocados and Green Beans are his favorite. He has been such a great eater so far and I really hope it stays like that. I would really hate for him to be a picky eater like his mom! I will probably make pears or bananas next and see how that goes.

Oh, I will try and post some more pictures in the next day or two. We got some cute ones of him in his Ohio State apparel. As soon as it gets chilly he will be wearing his Cowboys Tony Romo shirt. Cant wait!

Race for the Cure

The 15th Annual Komen Race for the Cure is on Sunday, September 28, 2008. Those who want to register go to:
http://www.komennwohio.org/race/race_information.html

Registration is $25 for adults and $20 for kids. You get a t-shirt and refreshments to follow the race. There is a Family Fun walk that is about a mile, 5k walk, and 5k timed run. I think I am going to do the 5k walk. If you have never done race for the cure before you should come out and support these Breast Cancer survivors and the support to find the cure. It really is an amazing thing to attend. Our company will have a table there so if you come make sure you stop by the Toledo Surgical Specialist table. We have one of the leading surgeons in our practice for NW Ohio for breast cancer. Her name is Doctor Candilee Butler. Just wanted to give those interested an FYI. I missed registration last year so I couldn't do the walk so instead I just ran the table. Up to 75% of the net proceeds raised each year at the Komen Northwest Ohio Race for the Cure remain in Northwest Ohio. No other race or breast cancer fundraiser allocates as much to local programs. Since its inception, the Komen Northwest Ohio Affiliate has given more than $3.8 million to fund breast cancer programs that directly benefit the 18 county service area. At least 25% of the net funds raised support the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Award and Research Grant Program that is regarded as the most innovative and responsive grant program in breast cancer research today.

Event Information:

New Video...

Ken has posted a new video of Tristan:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kensvideo

You can always access all videos of his by clicking on the link "Video's that Ken has done" on the left side of my page under websites to check out.

He's sitting, He's sitting!

Well, this is a week over due, but Tristan is sitting all by himself now! I updated before and said that he was sitting for up to 5 seconds; well we went over Uncle Charlie and Aunt Margies last weeked and I wanted to show them that he was sort of sitting, and he just stayed there. He was sitting for a minute or so and now he is barely falling over at all. I can't believe it! I kept telling Ken I didn't even know if he would be doing this by 6 months and he did it right when he turned 5 months. I swear, he never ceases to amaze me. I was talking to my mom yesterday and she was reading me things from my baby book and I couldn't believe how on track he is with where I was. Tristan only weighed 1 oz more than me when I was born, at 4 months I only weighed 1 oz more than him and a half of an inch longer, and he did baby talk and rolled around the same time as me. If he stays on track with me, he will be walking around the couch by Christmas. I want to look at Kens baby book and compare with him as well. I just love this first year so much!

ABC's Extreme Makeover is Coming to Toledo!

Not sure if everyone has heard or not but ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition is coming to Toledo September 7th-14th. The family has not been revealed yet but it is between 5 families and they will be notified that they were chosen on the 7th. They are accepting applications to volunteer for skilled and unskilled workers. Me, Ken, and Chelsea have applied and hope to hear soon when we can help. This is a once in a lifetime thing and a great opportunity to help a local family in need. Just wanted to give an FYI to all those who might be interested in volunteering. Here is the link to apply. The builders are Buckeye Real Estate Group and they were just chosen so everything is moving pretty quick between now and September 7th. This year ABC is focusing on helping hero's. Have a great day!

Here is the application link for unskilled volunteers:

http://www.illuminateds.com/builder/unskilled_form.php

Here is the application link for skilled volunteers:

http://www.illuminateds.com/builder/index.php

Some more pictures...

OK, I added some more pictures from this last week. As you can probably tell by now Tristan will always have his tongue out, even when sleeping! He is now absolutely loving the mega saucer and able to play with all the toys on it. (Thanks Uncle Geoff, Aunt Trishy, and Michael!) He is starting to grab everything in site so we are now entering the put everything up phase. As soon as he is walking and crawling we are really in trouble! It's so much fun though because every day we are able to interact with him even more. Before you know it he will be playing catch with daddy and Jaja and building stuff with grandpa Jack. Its seams so far away and yet so close with how fast time is flying.

Tristan is 5 months today!

Can you believe it!? Tristan is already 5 months! I really can't believe he is that old already. As of yesterday he is rolling from back to tummy so he is now rolling all over the place. This means we have to start being way more alert of what he is doing because he is not so stationary anymore. It's so neat though because it just happened out of nowhere. He has been eating sweat potatoes this week and he likes that way more than squash. I can't blame him from the smell alone. So after this week I am thinking about making some green beans for him. I don't know how much he will like that but we'll see I guess. After that I will probably try some fruits and then start mixing some things. Oh, I think he might have a tooth coming through too. Not to sure if what I am feeling is a tooth or not but i feel a little bump that I don't think was there before on the top left side of his gums. I guess we will see soon if I am right. We of course have taken more pictures of him. I will try and upload them later on tonight. If not, definitely tomorrow!

A couple of funny signs I wanted to share:

How does that work?
Don't drink and make signs...

Make up your mind

I'm confused.. but the gas prices look good!

McLogic gone wrong.....

Mass suicides... Cows going over the edge...tonight on Channel 3 News

How do you get there from here??