Thursday, December 13, 2007

Baby Sounds


Today on Oprah, there is a woman who claims to know what your baby wants based on the sounds he or she makes. It's pretty cool. She's isolated five sounds that mean hunger, discomfort, sleepy, lower gas and tummy gas. It does seem like she's figured it out. The babies did seem to respond happily when she told the moms what they wanted. The sounds are a little difficult for me to distinguish, but I think if you listened to them several times, they would be easier to tell apart. She says babies change their language after three months though, so I guess Solomon is on the verge... I wish I would have known this before. There was also this kid that lost his eyes as a child due to a rare form of cancer. He now "sees" with his ears. For instance, he can detect that an object is on the left side of a table in front of him and that it is glass. He can basically hear the vibrations that come off of the object based on a clicking sound he makes. Isn't that crazy and amazing?


My personal email account isn't working right now and it's driving me nuts! I can't take it.


I just switched our car and homeowners insurance today. We're going to save a lot of money every month and get better coverage. It's worth shopping around every few years even though it's a pain to do so. We are getting a small discount b/c we're now driving around little Solomon! It is true that I try to drive a little slower and safer now, so I understand why they do it and it works for us.. yea, discount!!


I'm almost finished Christmas shopping. I hope to finish up this weekend. Hopefully, everyone else is finished with theirs!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

He's talking... but it's difficult to say about what.

Solomon has been talking (making sort of organized sounds) for a while now, but in the past few days to a week, they have been much more frequent. He seems to be "talking" all of the time. It seems like if Alex or I make up a response he gets so excited about it. I love watching it and hearing him. It's so cute. I wonder what he's talking about. Also, last week, he discovered his toes. He actually looked at them actively started to touch them. I can't believe I have to leave this cute little man most of the day starting next week. :( He is so sweet. Of course, give me 10 minutes and I'll be praying for him to shut up when he starts crying! :) He only got up once last night... well a couple of times, but all within one 1/2 hr. He refuses to stay asleep in the middle of the night when we don't feed him at least once. Again, I believe this might confirm that he's in the midst of a growth spurt.

Alex and I just got back from the gym. Alex has a few appointments today but decided to spend a little time with us.

Yesterday, we went with Alex to a photo shoot on the West side of town. Then, we had dinner and ran some errands. Solomon was so good the entire time we were out. He snarfed down half of his bottle at Target.

I am going to have dinner with my friend Bethany tonight. Her birthday was on Sunday, so we're going to celebrate! I'm looking forward to it. Solomon will hang out with Alex for the evening.

There's a lot to do around our house, so I'm going to try to accomplish some of that today before I go out for dinner.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Last week


I have reached my final week of maternity leave. As I've said before, I have mixed feelings about going back to work. Solomon is taking his morning nap right now next to me. He was giggly and smiley most of the weekend... such a sweetie.
My parents came over on Friday. We had pizza with them and Zoe. My mom decorated my tiny tree with Zoe. Zoe has started prefacing many of her sentences with the word, 'actually'. It's pretty cute. On Friday, they went to a local senior citizens center and sang some Christmas songs. Zoe kept telling us that "Actually, I went to sing for the seniors." At first, we thought she was talking about high school seniors. She's so funny. She's always very excited about what she has to say.

We went to KC on Saturday for my brother-in-law, Stephen's 50th B-day party. Solomon was passed around quite a bit. It's always weird for me to suddenly realize I have no idea who has my child. It was a nice visit. The food was really good. Alex videotaped the party for Stephen. We had a small ice storm on Saturday morning and on Sunday, but the highways that we spent most our time on were totally fine. The worst problem we had was that the windshield wipers kept freezing on the way up. It really wasn't a big deal though. We stopped on the way up and saw Alex's friend Adam and his wife Alyssa. Sunday morning, we had breakfast with my friend Cherie and her little guy, Eli. Solomon didn't sleep very well, but I'm not sure that it was being in a new place or just the phase he's currently in. Alex and I are contemplating the 'cry it out' method. For everyone (and believe me everyone seems to have input on this topic) who says it's a good idea to let them "cry it out", there's someone else who says to do something else. I'm not sure what the answer is, but hopefully this whole sleep thing works out soon.

Like I said, Solomon was pretty good, except for when we were driving home and he started yelling. We had to stop at a rest stop, feed him and change him. It seemed to work, at least until we got into the car again... Then, he started crying again. Since we knew all of his needs had been met, we just let him cry. He was just sick of the carseat I think. I don't blame him.

We exchanged gifts with the kids in Alex's family on Saturday as well. Solomon raked it in. My mother-in-law bought him some clothes and the singalong stage from Fisher Price. I've heard kids love it. He has to be just a bit older before he can use it. Alex's siblings bought him some clothes, toys, a cute blanket/pillow set, etc... Also, everyone gave him money for his college fund we've set up. It was pretty fun to open his presents. He was already asleep and wouldn't have provided much assistance anyway!
Today, I'm going to lunch with my cousin's Scott's wife, Kristen and need to run a few errands. The first thing I need to accomplish is a shower. There was a story on the Today Show today about how Americans take too many showers and wash away all of the good bacteria that helps prevent things like allergies, etc.. I don't care. The few times in my life that I haven't taken at least one shower in the day, I have felt disgusting and my hair becomes and oil slick. It's even worse for boys... they are gross without a shower.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

A little day trip..

ugh... for some reason I have to retype this because the internet connection skipped out for a second. I am sitting at a coffee house in Winfield, KS. It's really nice and Christmas music is playing softly in the background. I am here because this is the last day of classes at Southwestern College. Alex teaches a class there on Web Design and is the p/t Online Services Librarian. He thought today would be a good day to bring the baby by to meet the library staff and for me to meet them as well of course. Anyway, I'm waiting for Alex to finish up. We will then eat lunch and head back to Wichita. The weather guys were saying that the roads were so bad, but I didn't think they were at all. It's raining mostly with a little bit of sleep mixed in. A lady who owns this coffee house offered to hold Solomon for a bit earlier. It was so nice b/c it gave me a chance to eat my breakfast with both hands at little to no risk of dropping the food all over me or him. It was very nice. Plus, I could tell she enjoyed holding him and he even smiled for her a bit! He's asleep right now and snoring softly. :)

We're headed to Kansas City this weekend for my Brother's-in-law 50th B-day party. We are also going to exchange gifts with the kids for X-mas since we won't be meeting up with Alex's family over the 25th. I'm not looking forward to packing the car up again with all of Solomon's stuff, but at least this time, I think we're going to board Coco here, so that will make it a little easier. The other good thing is that i'm going to meet up with my friend Cherie for breakfast. I haven't seen her in a while and she hasn't met Solomon yet, so that will be fun.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

A set-back

Solomon seems to be back to waking up more than once a night... (sigh)... I had a small breakdown last night when he woke up for the THIRD time. Many people seem to agree with my analysis of the situation. I think he's on a growth spurt and a tummy of milk isn't filling him up for long enough. It's soooo incredibly frustrating. I have to go to his doctor's office again today so I'm going to ask what I can do, add formula to the breast milk or cereal, whatever.. I just want him to sleep longer. He WAS doing so well, sleeping around seven hours straight and then this. One thing I've learned in the last three months is just when you think you can figure out a routine or read your child's mind, they change it up on you. Babies are unlike any other creature or object on earth in that way. I'm sure it will get better, but it's super annoying right now. Everyone has a different solution and honestly I appreciate that everyone cares enough to suggest something, but I just wish there were a magic bullet for this kind of thing.

This morning, Alex and I took Solomon's Christmas photo for our Christmas cards. It's pretty cute. I was contorted in this weird position behind him so it would look like he was sitting up by himself while I was holding him.

Tonight, there is a KU Basketball game and I am excited to watch it... It's something to look forward to. I'm in the process of changing the sheets right now as well b/c Solomon pooped out of his diaper on them! Nice. I say "in the process" because Solomon is asleep on the mattress right now, and I refuse to move him until he's awake.

Monday, December 3, 2007

New Solomon Video Clip posted!

I just got back from lunch with a few friends, one I know from the MBA program and another from KSN and Feist. It was fun. We went to Jimmy John's. I can't believe how loud they had the music on in there. Way too loud.
Anyway, I'm going to the gym in a few minutes and then to a meeting with our daycare provider this evening. I go back to work in two weeks so it's time to finalize all of that daycare stuff. I'm not totally looking forward to going back, but am trying to look positively at the situation b/c I need to. I like the woman who will be taking care of him.
Regarding KU: We won an awesome B-ball game yesterday in California against USC and found out the football team made it into the Orange Bowl as well! That's great news. Mizzou didn't get a BCS bowl game. They probably got screwed there although the BCS calculations are a mystery to pretty much everyone. The way I look at it, if anyone is going to get screwed, why not Mizzou?!! :) I can't think of any school more deserving of a good "screwin'" !! I can't believe i wrote that!

Check out the video I shot of Solomon playing on his jungle gym yesterday. It's super cute.


Saturday, December 1, 2007

New pictures posted

We've posted the following new albums online:
1) Scott's (my cousin) pig roast - http://www.haverhillstudios.com/gallery/pigroast
2) Thomas family Thanksgiving and Solomon's baptism - http://www.haverhillstudios.com/gallery/babythomas
Hope you're having a great weekend!
Welcome to Kelly's world!!!