Christmas Review Part Deux

On Saturday night we went to Grandma Schulkin's house for Christmas.


Grandma and me.


I met aunt Leslie for the first time.


I also met my cousin Janelle.


And, as always, Aunt Val was so happy to see me.





I also had fun with Grandpa Art. I guess we were having too much fun during picture taking because all my pictures with Grandpa are very blurry.

Christmas Day Review

Colton had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some pictures of the big day.


Mommy loves her little Colton


Daddy and Colton unwrapping gifts together


Colton wondering what to do with his new fishing pole (oops, don't tell him; he didn't open it yet)

Curious George and Colton riding on Colton's new walker.

Oh wow, even more gifts to unwrap

Daddy and Katelyn are wearing the towels that Grandma made for Colton and Katelyn.

Grandpa Termine was so happy to see me.

Look at how happy Grandpa is.

We were bouncing and laughing. It was so much fun.


Thank you Pop Pop.


And thank you Grandma.


Hmm, that fuzzy guy looks like me.


Katelyn checks to see what Elmo had for lunch.

Christmas

Santa came and ate the cookies Colton left for him.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Merry Christmas Tess

Tess is enjoying the Christmas card that Grandma Boonstra mailed to her.

No, that is not your typical Christmas card. It is a crunchkins "Crunch Card" (www.crunchkins.com) rawhide edible card.

Santa

Colton met Santa. I think he asked Santa for some new toys to chew on and a drool bucket.

One Year Ago Today

I found out I was pregnant with Colton. I had been feeling "off" for a few days leading up to the discovery. All of my symptoms pointed to pregnancy, but I brushed them off. Until I was five days late and couldn't ignore them anymore. On one of our last minute runs to Walmart for Christmas, we also picked up a HPT. My heart was pounding as I took the test, and three minutes later we had our result: Pregnant.

I remember the next day at my work's Christmas party feeling a flutter of excitement and suddenly being cautious about everything I ate and drank. A test at the doctor's two days later confirmed it. While we thought of the way we should share the news with our families over Christmas, we came up with all sorts of ideas- gift wrapping a countdown timer to my due date, giving planners with August 21 tabbed. But Gregg finally decided that we should simply make up a phony back order notice for a package that was "still in processing", and see whether our parents would figure it out.

We could not wait until the gift exchange began so that we'd be able to reveal that we had an extraordinarily special present. Both grandmas figured it out pretty quickly. My stepfather thought we were sending them on a cruise that left in August. Men.

At this time last year, my due date seemed so far away. I wanted to make sure I did everything right over the next eight months, so that my baby would develop and grow properly. And now, he's four months old already. And he is the best thing that ever happened to me, besides meeting my husband and receiving Christ as my Lord and Savior. My son is really the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

On 12/18/07 when I discovered I had this life growing inside me, I couldn't wait to meet our child. I was full of joy and excitement that I can't even begin to describe in words. This December 18, I have the gift of sharing my baby boy's first Christmas with him. Being a witness to every new skill he learns and experiencing such pleasure at his smiles and laughter as he interacts with me. I am humbled that God would choose me to care for Colton while he's on this earth. He is the most precious gift I could have ever received.

Colton's First Ornament

Merry Christmas!

4 Months Old!

Happy 4 Month Birthday, Colton!!

Growing older sure is exhausting. :)

Cold Season

Well, Colton has been sick all week. He has been stuffed up, crabby, and not sleeping well. I guess the over traveling, over visiting, lack of proper sleep is now taking a toll on Colton.

Hopefully he gets better soon.

Colton is so cute

Isn't Colton so cute? Of course he is. Today we started Colton on Rice Cereal that you mix with his formula. He is getting so big (and hungry).



Also, look how cute Katelyn is. She just loves little Coltie.

Giggles, giggles, giggles

Colton has been giggling a lot lately. It is so much fun to get him going.

Snow

It has snowed every day this week. A light snow that didn't accumulate. Well, today it is really snowing. Snowing pretty hard. Here is what it looked like early this morning.

Halloween 2008

Grandma made Colton an Eeyore costume for Halloween. We took a surprise visit to New Jersey.



All buckeled in ready to go trick or treating





Grandma made Katelyn a Dorthy costume complete with Toto and Ruby Red Shoes





You should see how cute Katelyn is with Colton. She likes to hug him, pet him, and share her crackers with him.





We surprised Grandma Shulkin at work. She was so excited. Grandma toured the office showing off her grandson


Colton met Grandpa Termine for the first time.




And, here is the happy family. It was quite a busy trip.

It's been a while

Sorry it's been so long. Here are some pics of what's happened recently.


Grandma, Katelyn, and Colton













Isn't Colton so cute?

The Most Beautiful, Wonderful, Wife and Mother

Dr. Appointment

Colton had a Doctors Appointment today. He is doing well. 12 lbs 10.5 oz and 22 inches long.

Night Time Feedings

So, it was time for Colton's usual overnight feeding. He was crying so I got up at 3:50am to feed him. I prepared a bottle and picked him up from his crib. Checked his diaper and sure enough as expected it seemed as though he had filled it up pretty good with number one. Not a problem, half way through his feeding he usually takes a break and that is always a good time to change his diaper. As always, he took his break. I changed his diaper from the cheap sam's club diaper that he was wearing (which always seem to work great) into one of those expensive name brands like huggies or pampers. After changing his diaper he was ready for feeding part two. All was going well. We are nearing the end of the bottle and he seems to be slowing down. I start to notice that I'm feeling rather warm and wet. Sure enough he had to go agian and the diaper leaked, so much for those expensive diapers being so great. He was wearing it for less than ten minutes and now it leaked, leaked through his pajama's onto me and through my shirt, and now he needed to be changed again. This time, not just a diaper change, but his pajamas will need to be changed as well. He finished his bottle and off I go to find new pajamas. I change his diaper and his pajamas. He is now ready to go down again. Colton seemed fussy so I decided to rock him off to sleep. Now comes the face, the one right before, yup there it goes the explosive poop noise. Well, he takes a few minutes to poop, so I decided to wait until he was done to change him, nope he wants nothing to do with wearing that dirty diaper and starts to scream. I go to change him right away as not to wake Marisa up with all the screaming. Now here is where things get interesting. Diapers have the unique ability to help poop fill in every nook, cranny, and crease that they can find. People who repair cracks in walls may want to cover the plaster with a diaper because of their great ability to help sludge type substances fill in the cracks. Removing the sludge is the problem. The baby store has everything. Car seats, play yards, bottles, special brushes for cleaning bottles, toys, toys to make other toys more fun, special cleaning supplies for toys, and things that you never thought of or thought had any use, yet they only offer wipes for cleaning the sludge from your baby. Cleaning this sludge really requires a shovel and pipe cleaner type device. All those nooks and crannies full of putrid smelling pooh really deserve a special cleaning device to make the job easier and less messy. Yet, they only offer pre-moistened wipes. A large towelette type thing like you receive after ordering the lobster or ribs at a family restaurant. Can you imagine an excavating crew going to work one day. They are loading the truck, Hey Bob did you remember to load the towelettes on the truck. What? Towelettes? Yeah, today's job requires digging through a pretty big mud hole. Do you want to spend all day digging with a shovel and using wheel barrows to move all that sludge? Just load the towelettes, it will be quick and easy work that way. We just drag those towelettes through the sludge and presto, all the sludge is gone and clean as a whistle, we'll be done by noon and off to Red Lobster to enjoy a fabulous lunch. This is crazy! So, there is all this sludge that you are now forced to push around, smear, and hopefully remove from your baby with these inadequate wipes that should really be used for the final wipe down. As I'm in the process of removing said sludge I am fully expecting what is next to come. The water sprinkler goes off. Thankfully my left hand has holding up his legs in just the right position while the right hand is performing the big dig, that the fountain sprays into the palm of my hand and doesn't spray all over the wall, changing table, floor and myself. So as gross as this sounds it is really a good thing that my hand was what got sprayed. This happens not once, not twice, but I think three times. So I finish with the cleaning of sludge, then move on to clean up the excess fluid that is now on Colton's mid section and of course I now remove the pajama's that I just changed him into because they are quite wet. Off to find new pajama's again. I put new pajamas on Colton, rock him to sleep and it's off to his crib he goes and I go back to bed to await the next feeding.

One simple feeding:

1 bottle

6 oz of formula
2 Pajamas
3 Diapers
Half a box of wipes (because no one has invented a good poop remover yet)

1 Clean shirt for Dad
1 hour and 20 minutes total time
Happy Colton; Priceless

1 Month Old!

Today Colton turns one month old. It's hard to believe that only a month ago, he entered the world and completely turned our lives upside down. It seems like he's always been a part of our family.