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??

A quick apology...

A quick apology, I just noticed that a couple of songs were on my music play list this last weekend that I didn't put on. I think there was a problem with the play list over the weekend but I fixed the problem. I just wanted to assure everyone that I don't listen to T.I. or Lil' Wayne. I am posting this out of embarrassment...I didn't want people to think I put that on here! That's all for now! I will have more updates very soon :)

Almost sitting...

Not a whole lot has happened this week. We went to Oak Openings last Sunday for my work picnic, although Tristan wasn't to happy about that. The only time he was really happy is when we went for a walk and daddy was holding him.

We have been trying to get him to sit on his own. He will for about a second, maybe two and then falls over. If he wasn't so concerned with sucking on his hands I think he could do it. I think he will be doing on his own in no time. He is almost rolling from back to tummy too. He almost gets completely over and then turns back to his back. So for right now he his just rolling tummy to back consistently. We have been putting him on his back on a blanket on the floor so I think soon he will master rolling all over the place in no time. Right now his first priority is to get his feet in his hands and mouth though. It really cracks me up because not that long ago he wasn't doing anything. Now he is grabbing toys, rolling, standing with assistance, and baby talking. It's so amazing how each day changes. I wake up everyday thinking to myself "what will today bring and what will Tristan discover today". Here are some more pictures. These are from the last week. As you can see, we cant stop taking pictures of him. I also have to share this one of Milo, Zoe, and Emmitt. Somehow Ken got them in a picture all looking at the camera.

New Pictures

Here is a handful of new pictures from recently. Now that I am caught up I will post pictures more frequently.

We tried squash last night and it was a no go. He didn't really care for it much. I think it was to strong of a food compared to milk and cereal. We will try slowly though and see how it goes. That's all for now!

Well I finally got some pictures uploaded that I wanted to get up earlier this week. Tristan is eating cereal pretty good now and is actually eating a whole tablespoon and wanting more. I made up some squash today(I'm making my own baby food) and we will try that for the first time for dinner today. We'll see if he likes that as much. He just needs to learn how to use his tongue to push the food back. We're almost there though! Here are some cute messy pictures of him eating!

Hey Mikey, he likes it!

Fun with Daddy

We also bought a little frog pool this last weekend since he likes the bath so much. He didn't really know what to think about it and soon after started to cry. I think he cried because the diaper soaked up all the water! Notice his cute little baby chain that we just bought him. He also is wearing the same swim trunks as daddy. We also had a fire last weekend and Tristan was sitting like a big boy in his own chair. He really liked it and was staring at everyone like he was listening to the conversation.

Fun with Daddy

Someone has a lot to say now...

Well, Tristan's rolling to his back is getting out of control! Why you ask.....well he is doing it all night long now and can't get back to his tummy which results in me getting up with him three times a night and the only thing that gets him back to sleep is nursing him (which takes roughly 30 minutes every time I get up. Ack!) I thought I was done with sleepless nights!! I think he is also going through a growth spurt which could also be causing him to wake up more in the night. I finally got him to where he would only wake up once in the night to eat right before my maternity leave was over and now I am up every 2-2 1/2 hours feeding him again. This is getting tiring being that I get up at 5a for work. He is such a wild sleeper too. I put him in his crib and when I go to feed him he is all the way at the other end completely turned around or sideways and on his back. I should really take a start to finish photo of this because it is quite comical! I did see him roll over finally for the first time this morning. I was more interested in getting him back to sleep so I could pump but I was very happy to finally witness this.

This past weekend was quite eventful as well. Tristan has yelled maybe 3 times ever where we thought he might start to baby talk a little but it was only one syllable and that was it. Well all the sudden during dinner on Sunday he just started babbling like crazy out of nowhere. He was just talking away as if he's been doing it forever. It was really funny and he wouldn't stop. Now he is doing it non-stop. He apparently has a lot to say these days! We were next door so I ran home real quick and got the video camera. As soon as Ken gets the video uploaded I will share it.

On Sunday he also took cereal for the first time to where he actually opened his mouth for me. He didn't seem interested at first so I thought maybe I should stop but I gave him one more bite and he started to open up for me. I got a couple of pictures that are really cute of him eating that I will upload today or tomorrow. Here is a couple that I got off my camera phone for now. They aren't good quality but it will do until I can get the good ones up.

Come on Rover....roll over!

Well, Tristan definitely knows how to roll over now...we just still have yet to see it. For the past 2 nights everytime I go to get him out of his crib to feed him he is laying on his back looking at me as if he were to say "whoops, I dont know how I got like this". I wish he would do it to where we could see it but I know the momentum from his anger and hunger pangs is the only thing giving him the strength to roll over at this point. I guess he'll do it for us when he is good and ready though. I just wonder when that will be because he isn't to fond of tummy time since he sleeps on his tummy at night. I think he thinks were trying to make him go to sleep during tummy time. Oh well, he get the hang of it. We did try cereal for the second time last night. He ate a little more than the first time but still doesn't know what to think of it. I think he was a little more interested in grabbing his feet. We will work on it more this weekend.I just need a little more in his tummy because he still wants to nurse all the time. Plus he is always eyeing up our food when we eat.

Randy Pausch..."The Last Lecture"

Some of you may have seen the ABC special on Randy Pausch a couple of days ago or read his book and watched his lecture called "The Last Lecture". Unfortunately I did not learn about who he was until he passed away. He died this last Friday of pancreatic cancer. I watched the ABC special as well as watched his lecture and I plan to buy his book. His lecture truly gave me a new perspective on life and really inspired me. Having a son now I really find it important to look at life in a whole other light and how I want to live each day. I tend to be a pessimist at times (Ken will agree with this) and I realized that it really does get me nowhere. Just wanted to pass this on for those who are interested in checking it out. He has a few videos on his website. His actual lecture, his special on ABC, and some others. You can go to his website if you want to watch the lecture or watch it here:
http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

THE LAST LECTURE

You can watch the Abc special on his website

If you were interested in this you might like this little article that someone wrote and the replies it got:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080728.WBmingram20080728132435/WBStory/WBmingram