Holiday Card!

I just created and ordered our holiday cards - pretty excited!

Labor Day with Us

Jesse and I are both teachers so we ended our summer with returning to work. Which meant that Adin ended his summer with beginning day care. He spent his first day at an in-home day care with Miss Debbie. Then he went and spent the day with my friend Anna. He went for his second day with Miss Debbie and we got a glowing report! He is a day care rockstar...unfortunately at 9:00 that night all hell broke loose. That's right, I said it - HELL. He woke up sputtering and choking on all kinds of snot and felt a bit warm. That was the first of MANY wake-ups in which Jesse and I took turns. We were both zombies in the morning. After our shower we made an emergency phone call to Jesse's mom and asked her to save the day by coming to be with Adin. As teachers we cannot miss work the day before or after a vacation/long weekend. Not only did she come up but she brought his sister with her, new outfits for Nugget, AND MADE US DINNER!!

Adin had a pretty good day with her. Was very exhausted, and slept well that night with only 1 wake up. We had his sleep in his car seat with the humidifier on all night. Friday he was a cranky fussy guy. He also went to Children's to get the final fitting for his helmet and started the fading in process for that. Friday night he was up nine times. Saturday we brought him to the pediatrician. His temperature was down to 99.8 and he has Croup. He was given a steroid treatment (drink) to help open the airways.

We had a 30th birthday party in New Hampshire that we wanted to attempt to go to. Adin did OK...not great. He napped for an hour and a half there and woke up and was social for about 40 minutes. Then the fussy guy came out! He cried for over an hour at which point I put him down in the pack and play and went and told Jesse that either I needed to drive him around the neighborhood until he fell asleep or we would have to leave. We chose to leave as we were both pretty exhausted and of course Adin was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving. The bugger!

Saturday night was another no good terrible night. I finally gave up at 3:00 and Adin and I had quality time on the couch. At this point Jesse was well on his way to having Adin's cold. Sunday was a tough day. However, he took a 3 hour nap in the morning!!! I was able to get out and grocery shop which was helpful.

Sunday night was a bit better. I was up twice, Jesse up once. Adin ended the night in our bed (at 6:00) and was able to fall back asleep until 8. He had some smiles for us and blew some raspberries. Sunday night was also the first night of wearing the helmet overnight. He did pretty good! Jesse went to play basketball with Brandon and twisted his ankle. So, below are the stats of the Conant family:

Adin: Croup, temperature, new helmet, snot everywhere, goopy eyes, tired, hungry
Jesse: Upper respiratory thing going on, tired, twisted ankle
Erin: Tired, the feeling of the start of a cold, diarrhea, two broken bones in my foot
Jake: almost threw up today, needy as ever

We are a sad, sad family this holiday weekend.

August 17

Today I made Acorn squash. I cut it in half, put it in a casserole dish with about 1/2 inch of water and topped it. I baked it at 375 for about an hour.  

Then I scooped out the seeds from the middle and put them in a dish to save them for a later treat.

I put the squash in my blender and blended it until smooth. Then I put it in my silicone ice cube trays. One acorn squash made 10 ounces of baby food. 

While I was cooking I put some mango in a mesh feeder and fed it to Adin. He did great with me holding the mesh feeder up for him. On his own he dropped it. And there was definitely a few drops of mango juice on the floor below his walker! 

My treat was baked acorn squash seeds. I absolutely love pumpkin seeds and I figured acorn squash and pumpkin were both in the gourd family. I sprinkled them with sea salt and garlic powder and baked for 15 minutes at 350 and it was a perfect mid-afternoon treat! 

August 16

We had our first experience of bringing our child to Children's Hospital. Our appointment was at 8:30 so here was our morning agenda: 

6:30 - I woke up to pump

6:45 Jesse woke up and got us breakfast (Kix!)

7:05 I'm done pumping, get the bottles ready and get myself dressed

7:15 get Adin up, dressed, get a spare outfit and a few diapers for my bag as well as burpee's

7:22 Out the door

We arrived right at 8:30 and went up the Plastic Surgery for our appointment. Nugget did so well with all the doctors and waiting! He saw a lady who did an intake, then he saw someone else who took measurements, then the doctor came in and reviewed all the information. Adin needs a helmet. Yay? The good news is that his head shape will be perfect - the bad news is that the "damage is done" so to speak with his right ear, cheek, and jaw being slightly pushed forward (and I mean SLIGHTLY - like, millimeters). 

Then we went in for the head scan and to pick our helmet pattern. For the head scan they took a gauze sleeve, cut a slit in it, and slid it over his head. They cut a hole in the top and slipped in a device to help with the scan and cut out holes for the ears. See pictures below that are SUPER cute!

He napped for maybe an hour on the way home and then had a wonderful day with daddy. I made it home in time to pump and head out to a half spa date with my mother-in-law for my birthday. I had a massage and a facial for the first time in...well...a LONG time! The service is great and even though the schedule got pushed back (because another client came in late) it was all rectified with a free upgrade to apologize for the inconvenience. I'll take free upgrades!

Then Susan and I went to a pub down the street for a glass of Vino and a LARGE and in charge platter of nachos, YUM! 

On the way home I picked up Chipotle for Jesse and I. I got some snuggle time in with my nugget and then he promptly fell asleep on the couch 2 ounces into his (6 ounce) bottle. I did everything I could to rouse the poor guy, but ultimately he only drank 4 ounces. The good news...he slept from about 7:45 to 6:15! We had a middle-of-the-night wake-up free sleep - hopefully that means the last week of wake-ups is over!

August 14th

Today I made some (more) fresh baby food. I went to Market Basket and bought a half of a butternut squash that came pre-peeled. I can't remember the price off hand, but I believe it was under $2 - produce at Market Basket is the cheapest around here so since that was our main reason for shopping we braved the crowds. 

Per directions from my mother-in-law I put the squash in a pan with about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom. I covered it and cooked it in the oven at 375 degrees for an hour (or so...I may have forgotten it was in there). Once it was soft to the fork it was done!

I put it in my baby bullet large blender in chunks pureed it. 

Once it was smooth (like this) it was good to go as a stage 1 food for my nugget. Then I spooned it into the silicone ice cube trays (bed bath & beyond, set of 2 for under $8...then used a 20% off coupon) and set them out to cool. I found if I put them in the freezer still warm they got a nice layer of frost on them. 

One half a butternut squash made about 25 servings (each serving being 1 ounce). I'd say that's money WELL spent. 

And of course you all need to see pictures of Adin. He's sitting in his walker while I puree his food. We are fairly certain he's teething so he's munching (or trying to) on a frozen washcloth. 

He got his 6 month shots today and took it like a trooper. He had some cries, but he rallied quickly and was his usual smiling self again. He ate his bottle on the way home (cause it was lunch time) and then took a 1 hour nap which was unusual, but not really considering he'd just gotten shot up. 

Tomorrow he has his appointment with the plastic surgeon to see about fixing his noggin. He has plagiocephaly which has caused one ear to shift forward. Most likely he will need a helmet to re-shape his melon. There are stickers we could purchase to decorate his helmet. I'm on the fence, Jesse says no...What do you think?