Girl's Weekend

My friend Shannon came from SLC to spend the weekend with us.  It had turned into a yearly tradition and I looked forward to her visit this year with much anticipation.  I couldn't wait to just visit, and do girly things, and get a chance to remember a part of me that wasn't connected with my new role of Mommy.

Here's some of the fun things we did while she was here:

1 - Eat out (YEAH!)

2- She was my date for CROSSMARK's annual Casino Night fundraiser.  I didn't win as much in the silent auction as last year though - I wasn't as aggressive with my bidding.  I did walk away though with Sunday Brunch for 2, Gift certificates for nails and hair, and tickets to a modern dance troupe - Polobilus along with gift cards to a nice restaurant for dinner. 

It was fun to see so many of my co-workers and have them share about how much they miss me and can't wait for me to get back to work.  :)  In fact, the CEO of the company came up to me while we were playing blackjack and gave me a $5,000 chip (remember this is fake money).  I figured he was just handing out his money since he was leaving...so I said thank you.  And he goes, "No, thank YOU.  This is for Walgreen's CCR."  I felt super good about that because even though I have had interaction with our CEO before, I have never felt completely sure that he knew who I was let alone what I did.  It was a nice way for him to acknowledge the awesome job I had done in my role as Director of the CCR Team this year.  And I did do a good job.  I had been told that it is viewed as the second hardest team in our company of 27,000 employees.  And I had run the team with great results and very few hiccups.  Not only that, I had kept a very difficult client happy.  During Casino Night I had one of our VP's stop me to say hi and I asked how Walgreen's was doing since I was on maternity leave.  He said that it was going well and the guy who was my replacement was doing an okay job but regardless, the client was like "he's no Kallie".  :)  Made me feel so good and validated for the hard work I had done.
I had an awesome time with Shannon - we played blackjack all night and also felt awesome about CROSSMARK and a little less worried that people would forget about me while I was gone for 3 months.
3 - We did some shopping and hit up Sam Moon and Babies R Us (the store I shop most frequently now)
4 - We made a visit to the King Spa that we hit last time she was here.  I love that place.  It is so relaxing and refreshing.  We were there for over 4 hours but time just flew by.  This was the longest I had ever been away from Max (and it ended up being longer because we went out to dinner afterwards).  I sure missed him but at the same time enjoyed the break from him.
Side note -check out the link above for King Spa.  It is amazing.  If you ever want to go with me, let me know. 
5 - Lots of visiting.  It's great to have a good girlfriend!

Peter was an awesome husband and daddy because he watched Max a bunch so that I could go and do these fun things with Shannon.  I sure appreciate how supportive and involved he is.

Shannon and Max

Don't mess with him, he's tough

Max's many faces

This silly kid cracks me up.  :)

A diagnosis

  This week was eventful in that we determined Max was unhappy for a reason and got a diagnosis.  But I'll get to that in a bit...

I wasn't completely sure whether Max had my lips or Peter's until one morning I woke up and looked at my two sleeping boys.  Their lips are exactly the same.  Max has his dad's lips, no question.

Movie - Max has started to interact with the toys on his mat.  He's having more fun down there now and sometimes I can get breaks as long as 20 minutes!

Max deciding if the "skater" look works for him in his beanie and his vans.

Ignore the pants.  I have only a couple pants/shorts that can go with multiple tops.  That's the problem about "outfits" for babies.  So often it's obvious that they only go with the matching pieces of the outfit.  So I thought I'd try these Levi's with his top...not quite a winner in my book.  Guess I have to go shopping.  :)

Max LOVES when his dad holds him like this.  He can be happy forever.

 Movie - Kisses from daddy - just staying calm

Getting tummy time

Max has always been a fussy baby.  Not to the point where I would say he has colic but he's so particular about what makes him happy.  He is pretty fussy when other people hold him, he rarely will sit calmly for very long in the bouncy seat.  He doesn't like to be laid down,etc.  Well, Peter's co-worker Andrea came over to visit a couple weeks ago and saw how fussy Max was.  She suggested that he might have acid reflux like her daughter had.  She talked about once they got her medication, she was a much happier baby.  After Andrea left, we looked into the symptoms of acid reflux in babies and it didn't seem like a good match.

All of a sudden this week, Max's fussiness changed.  He wasn't just fussy, he was crying like he was in pain.  He had trouble sleeping.  I'd lay him down for a nap and he'd be asleep when I laid him down but then within a minute he'd wake up and be screaming again. 

Here is some of what we got to enjoy...

He was throwing his head back and arching his back when we would burp him.  He also wanted to nurse a lot.  Often when he'd nurse he'd fall asleep.  And since he hadn't been sleeping well, I would leave him laying on my lap so he'd get some sleep rather than putting him in bed or sitting him up to burp him.

Max sleeping on mom's lap

One day, I had to some things to get done in Max's room.  He wasn't liking the bouncy seat but sometimes would calm down when we had him in the car seat and could rock him (and he didn't like the mini swing we tried).  So I put him in the car seat and rocked it with one hand while getting stuff done with my other hand.  He fell asleep!  No Problem!  I couldn't believe it since I was having so many issues with him sleeping.  A light bulb went on.  He was sleeping vertically rather than horizontally in his bed.  That, combined with the "I am in pain" cry, led me to think that maybe he did have some reflux going on. 

So we re-looked at the symptoms, lots of them fit this time, and made an appt with his pediatrician.
At his doctor's I described how he was acting and she said it sounded like he did have some reflux.  She wrote us a prescription for some medicine (basically liquid zantac) and said she would see how he did over the next week and then if necessary try something else at his 2 month visit.  She said that eventually babies with reflux grow out of the problem but it can take up to when they are 9 months old.  (You mean I have to medicate my son for the next 7 months?!)  I was happy that there was something we could try that could help my baby feel better.   But, it was also a lot of pressure and made me nervous at the same time.  She listened to what I described and diagnosed him off of that.  There was nothing she could look at on him to tell her what was going on.  What if I hadn't noticed something he was doing that she needed to know about?  What if I had exaggerated in my mind what was actually going on?  I don't like this part of being a parent.  There are times you just have to make a judgement call and hope it's the right one.

(He weighed 10 lbs 12.5 oz. )

Max waiting to see the doctor, again sleeping in the car seat

However, my fears and concerns were calmed over the next few days as there was a visible difference in Max.  He still fussed but not as much and the "I'm in pain" cry stopped.  He slept better.   It was good to see that the medicine was helping and I felt bad that he had been in pain before.  :(

Little boy hanging with dad

Funny face

Yeah for peaceful sleeping!

Wacky trip to Austin

We are so excited that the Kenyons moved to Austin!!!  It is fantastic to have them just a few hour drive away.  We decided to go down and visit them over the weekend.  I was nervous about how Max would do on the drive but he ended up doing great!  He was great until about 2 1/2 hrs in and then he started fussing because he was hungry so we stopped and I fed him. 

Cute boy hanging out in his car seat

There was a really pretty sunset we enjoyed during the drive

Max is so cute that once he's out of his car seat it's hard not to get distracted and want to play with him for awhile.  We got in a little bit of cuddling before buckling him back in and getting back on the road.

We didn't get to Austin until later in the evening.   We just hung out and visited with Richard and Michelle.  Michelle gave lots of love to Max.  He was so happy with her.  He even sat calmly on Richard's lap for awhile.  I couldn't believe it.  Maybe it was the new environment or maybe it was hearing our voices while we talked, but Max was awesome!  He wasn't his usual fussy self.  AND THEN - - he slept through the night.  The entire night.  I woke up a few times to make sure he was still breathing because he has never slept through the night before. 

He woke up happy and hungry

I "won" tickets to Enchanted Springs Ranch at last year's Casino Night silent auction at work.  It is about 1 1/2 hours outside of Austin so we all got into the Kenyon's van and made our way to the ranch.  We weren't quite sure what to expect but Oprah did name it one of the best "Wacky Family Attractions" so we figured it couldn't be too bad.

Well, it was okay but it wasn't amazing.  We watched Pistol Packin' Paula put on a show twirling her pistols and cracking a whip.  The gun show was too loud for Makenna and Natalie (and Max) so only the Daddy's ended up staying and watching.  We went on a tractor wagon ride and got to see a bunch of animals from longhorns to reindeer.

Makenna and Natalie playing outside during the gun show.

Natalie kept covering her ears even though we had left the show.

Max and his buddy Michelle

On the wagon ride, looking at the animals

Nice horns, Michelle!

The Kenyons - Makenna, Natalie, Michelle, and Richard

Our family

We also walked around and looked at other animals.  It wasn't too long though before we were ready to go (and it was good timing because it was just starting to rain when we left).

On the way home, the Kenyons indulged me and let us stop at an outlet mall that had an outlet for my new favorite baby clothes store - Janie and Jack.  There isn't an outlet store close to us so I was thrilled to stop and find some cute stuff for Max.  It's so hard to find boy clothes that I like so when I find something I like, I go a little crazy.  ;)  There was a little hiccup on the way to the outlets though - we got a flat tire!  So there was a little detour while the men put on the spare.  Richard was so calm and collected throughout it all.  He's an awesome guy.  He went to a tire place while the rest of us shopped.

On Sunday we got up and visited some more until it was time for the Kenyons to go to church and us to head home.  (Max slept well that night again - not quite through the whole night but still pretty good.)

The girls just loved Max.  They were so cute with him and wanted to hold him. 

Nattie, Kenna, and Max

Natalie and Max - she isn't much bigger than he is

Makenna and Max

Michelle and Max

Peter reading with Makenna

Max sleeping sweetly on the drive home

We loved our visit and can't wait until the Kenyon's come up to Dallas to visit us in 2 weeks.  And then we can't wait to visit them again some time after that.  It's great to be so close (about 3.5 hrs if you don't hit too much traffic), too bad it isn't only 2 hours away!

It's October!

Peter and I went out to brunch.  It was one of the things we "won" in the silent auction at CROSSMARK Casino Night last year.  We ate way too much and enjoyed hanging out with each other (and our sleeping baby) and watching some Dallas Cowboys football.

The shirt says it all!

Want to know what you can do when you are on maternity leave?  You can go to the park with your sister and your kids!  On a weekday!!! Max enjoys the walks and usually ends up falling asleep.  (I LOVE MY STROLLER - have I said that before?)

Brittany and Hayden rolling down the hill. 
Want to do something that will make you realize you AREN'T young anymore?  Roll down a hill.

Since Peter and I knew we were going to be going to West Side Story soon and Max couldn't come, we figured Max should have some experience with taking a bottle before someone else had to give him one.  This is Max getting his first bottle (of breast milk - I want him to only have breast milk and avoid giving him formula as long as we can).  He did a great job and quickly gulped it down with no problems!  I couldn't believe how easy it was and so fast.

I don't usually let Max sleep in our bed so don't let this picture lead you astray.  This must have been one of my weaker moments.  But how can I deny this sweet boy anything?  Sometimes it's just nice to have him close to me and snuggle.

Max is growing some hair back on the top of his head but it's so fine and light that unless you are close up and the light is perfect, he still looks bald.  But look - he has eyelashes now!  He had them before but they weren't very noticeable. 

Max and I along with Brittany and her kids were able to enjoy a special treat.  My Aunt Nancy (Carlson side) had a layover at DFW airport so we got to pick her up and enjoy lunch together.  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures.  :(  It was so enjoyable and I feel very blessed with all the family that we have been able to see since Max was born.  It helps a little with the hole in our lives from mom's death.