Mommy's Helper

Scott is so fun... all the time. I love him!

Today I was cleaning the house. Okay, I was just vacuuming, which is a huge accomplishment for one day. Scott loves the vacuum cleaner. That's what makes vacuuming a huge accomplishment. He chases the vacuum, stands in the way, has learned how to turn it on and off, and today started trying to take it from me to push it around. This is going to be a wonderful thing, as long as the fascination hangs on until he's big enough to do the job by himself. Maybe we should invest in a lighter vacuum cleaner.

Yes, Scott makes me laugh at least once everyday. Don't be decieved though, he is still a 16 month old, curious about everything and hard to keep up with, and has strong opinions/desires of his own.

Scott's Sick

Yeah, Scott's sick. He was up all night on Wednesday night... not fun, considering I'm up in the night anyway to feed Blaise. Then he's had a low-grade fever and really gross runny nose since. Here's hoping it goes away quickly! And hoping nobody else catches it.
Blaise seems to be growing up. Spending a bit more awake time during the day. We have fun little chats and play for part of Scott's nap every afternoon... then he goes to sleep too and I can read or get stuff done. He's been adapting a somewhat schedule this week, which I appreciate. Especially the part where he does a little cluster feeding in the 7-9pm time frame and then sleeps for 5 hours. That's nice.
Time to watch Lord of the Rings. We're taking a break from Star Wars for a little while... however long it takes to finish watching LOTR.

A Hot One

So, today is Memorial Day. Yeah, for Holidays- Daddy is home! Yeah, for "forced vacation" days- Uncle Mike is also off. That means we're spending the afternoon at Uncle Mike's swimming... except for brief nursing breaks for myself and Blaise. Which brings me to my title line... Blaise is a hot one. It's in the 80's outside, and he's been napping in his shaded car seat, while we take turns swimming with his brother. I just picked him up to feed him and he is so SWEATY. He was pretty sweaty last night too, during the night. It seems that our second son is going to take after his daddy and be much more hot-natured than Scott and I. Scott always seems a bit chilly... kinda like me.

Today, since we're at the pool for the first time this year, we've discovered that Scott is a fish... or "fsssss" as he would say. He absolutely LOVES it. He likes to spash, kick, and dunk his face in the water to blow bubbles (he is actually mostly blowing bubbles and only drinking a small amount of pool water.) He's also enjoying getting to "jump" into the water, and playing in his floating ring thingy.

Big Boy

He's still growing away. Yesterday was Scott's "2-month" check-up. He's now 14lbs 11oz and 24". He rather did NOT enjoy the immunizations, but otherwise didn't mind the doctor's office. I was very pleased with the doctor we met yesterday and certainly hope we'll get to see him again.

Cullen has been busy with work, though we got a special treat yesterday when he came early with tickets to the Wachovia Championship. Neither of us like golf- but it was nice to walk around and spend time together.

That hardly covers half of it... but Scott is finished with being at the library!

Speed Post

We're visiting Cullen's office today, so I'm taking advantage of an internet opportunity. Cullen's parents are in town and wanted to see what he does. Maybe someday I'll finally get the 3 projects in PA straight... I always get confused which is which.

This past week was a good one for us, Cullen only traveled one night. Next week will be very chaotic on the other hand... we're all traveling with Cullen to Charleston for a conference Monday to Wednesday, then Cullen will be flying out to PA on Wednesday shortly after we get home. He'll be home Friday night and hopefully we'll have a very restful weekend. The busyness at work is starting to wear on him and he's been rather exhausted lately. We went to bed at the same time as Scott on Thursday. I'm hoping it will pass as the PA projects all pass their peaks.

Scott is growing fast. It's hard to believe he's over 2 months old now. He's starting to want to do things a lot more and that seems to be frustrating him some. I think his hair is getting a bit thicker, though a couple of people have mentioned they think it's thinner... who knows. This past week we got to have some friends from church over for an afternoon. Maddie is almost 3 months older than Scott, so it was interesting to let them "play" together. They laid on a blanket and stared at each other... well Scott stared at Maddie and smiled like crazy at her. Maddie mostly tried to turn away, but when she did face him she grabbed his arm. Julie and I said they were holding hands. It was cute. Maddie obviously has quite a bit more large motor control than Scott does, since she's a bit older.

I'm donig good. Feeling better after I had an infection a couple of weeks ago and another rather painful nursing problem last week. I also managed to get back to running this week. Jogging strollers are a pain in the arms/shoulders. (Yes, Scott is still too young to run... but I wedged his head with a towel, so he was fine and rather enjoyed the ride.)

Well... time to get going as I think the tour is over.

One-Handed

Long time, no post. And of course today Scott has decided to try to be awake at the library, so I only have one hand... slows things down a bit.

We have had several good visits with various out of town family over the past few weeks. It's been fun "meeting" everyone, but I think Scott and I are both glad to be back to just us. On the other hand we wouldn't mind if the Daddy man didn't have to travel so much. At least this week he'll be home in the am- tomorrow. Yeah.

Scott is still growing fast. It's fun to watch him everyday as he's so observant- always watching. He also likes to talk and is fun to listen to. He gets a little fussy now and then and like every baby he loves being to me and being held. He also doesn't like to fall asleep, but once he does he's a great sleeper.

Tomorrow morning I go in for my 6-week appt. Which means that I will be "allowed" to exercise again. We'll see how long it takes me to get back into running... I do have a really nice jogging stroller!

Cullen is 27 now. I like to say he's 2 years older than me now. Haha. He had a good birthday. Enjoyed a meal at Outback and Hot Fudge Sundae cake later in the week. He's planning to get a new tent with his birthday money. We can't wait to take Scott camping - though we'll probably buy us a pack of disposable diapers for that adventure... hopefully sometime in May or June. Anyway, Cullen is traveling a lot for work now. We're looking forward to late April, because we'll get to go with him to Charleston! He has his performance review tomorrow, so we're hoping for good things out of that...

Patience is the same... but we're not sure that's good enough. :(

Struggles With An Elderly Dog

Well this past week was a bit tough on Patience... and me I suppose. Patience had another vestibular episode on Thursday morning. It was rather scary for me and of course required a lot of energy and time from me. (She had a vestibular thing last April- it's almost like a seizure, because she doesn't know up from down and flails herself all over the place but can't stand up or anything like that.) Anyway, she was like that when we (or I should say Cullen) got up on Thursday morning. He put her in the kitchen and I got up of course. We decided to wait it out (since they really couldn't do anything for her at the emergency clinic last year other than administer IV fluids.) We left her in the kitchen with the lights out and Scott and I stayed at the other end of the house for a few hours. By 9am the vestibular thing had passed. She messed herself and was still having a hard time with standing up and walking... but it all got progressively better through out the afternoon and by the time Cullen got home from work she was her same old self. Thankfully. For a while I was worried it was the end- even called Mike to find out what the best (and least expensive) options are for when that time comes. Ah the excitement.

Scott is doing great. Still growing amazingly fast, though no doctors visit for the official weight gain for another couple of weeks. He's starting to get himself into something of a routine, so that is nice. On Friday I got to clean the house- well part of it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to clean the other part of it :) I could have done it today, but he's napping at the library instead of in his crib. On Saturday we took him to his first baseball game - Go Jackets! We watched one of the youth from church play in his first JV game for Fort Mill High. It was fun. I enjoyed the game and the time out of the house talking with friends and just hanging out. Scott got a little pink from the sun, but since he was covered well and shaded he didn't get nearly as pink as his daddy. Maybe next time Cullen will remember to wear a baseball cap like I did... I didn't get pink :) On Sunday we returned to our Sunday evening small group. It was very good to be back. Abby was absolutely facinated by Scott, it was really cute. She's 3 and soon to be a big sister herself, so it was fun to watch.

This week it turns out that Cullen will be out of town for 2 nights, Wednesday and Thursday- getting home late on Friday night. I am very thankful that Grandma and Grandpa will be here. Though I guess I have to start calling them Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa... or not... we'll see. I'm wondering if they will be willing to stay in the church nursery with Scott on Wednesday night so I can go to the women's bible study. (We're planning to start leaving Scott in the nursery after he's a month old, but for now we'd rather avoid the germs and just hang onto him ourselves.)

Guess that's all the news from our world. It's getting later in the afternoon than I anticipated, because I actually had to wait for a computer today... so we'd better get going on our other errands before Scott gets hungry again :)

Growing Like A Weed

Cullen says Scott is growing like a weed. It's what Andrew (who was his Best Man) always said about his daughter Rebekah when she was little. Scott is growing fast though. He's up to 9lbs and 7oz already. That's up 2 lbs from his birth weight. (Sorry, but I have no idea what percentile that is... the doctor didn't say and I really didn't care enough to ask.)

Today Scott and I are having our first library adventure. So far, he is sleeping well. He tends to sleep pretty well between 9 and noon everyday though, so it's not really surprising. I just have to make sure we're finished with the errands before he wakes up in another half hour or so.

This past weekend Scott got to meet his Grandma and Granddad. Cullen's parents were in town for a quick visit. I think he likes them :) Although, I also think I discovered that company of any kind after dinner time for Cullen and I seems to mess with Scott's ability to sleep. Meaning, it's harder for him to fall asleep and he wakes up more. Guess we'll try and limit evening visitors next weekend.

Next week we'll be having our first overnight visitors... Great Grandma and Grandpa Gardner. I can't wait to see them! They are going to be here at the perfect time too... besides the evening visitors thing, Cullen is going to be heading back to Lancaster for a business trip next week, about the same time Grandma and Grandpa get here. How convenient. Then on Friday, while they are still here, Patience goes for her yearly shots. It will be very nice to have an extra pair of hands at the vets office!

In other news... we grown ups, who had recently decided to retire from youth ministry are back. The youth director resigned a few weeks ago and another couple at church stepped up to take on that role. However, they left a hole where they had been teaching youth Sunday School. Cullen and I have agreed to help with youth Sunday School and we'll be switching off with another couple. We're all pretty excited about it right now and excited to get to know the youth at our new church better. Pray for us in this endeavor.

He's Here!

Scott Honor Keen was born on Thursday early in the morning at 12:53am. He's perfect- weighs 7lbs 7oz, and 19 1/2 inches long. He is nursing well and sleeping well so we are happy about both of those things. He sleeps between feedings pretty much all night long, which is great.

We made it to church yesterday, so he spent his first Sunday in the Lord's house. Today we are out and about... "visiting" Daddy's office, then we'll do a bit of shopping before his first visit to the pediatrician this afternoon.

Cullen will be home from work today and taking half days Tuesday and Wednesday before returning to a "regular" schedule on Thursday and Friday.

So all in all, things are going well. Off to visit the picture page and upload lots and lots and lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure.