Holiday Pictures

I don't have time to write a big recap right now... but I have uploaded all of the holiday pictures that were on my camera.
http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/RWSpictures/2007-12-30--Part%201/?albumview=slideshow

http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/RWSpictures/2007-12-30--Part%202/?albumview=slideshow

Holiday Wish

From our family to yours, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year!

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/RWSpictures/Stasiuka.jpg
(Click to enlarge)

Did he just....

I apologize for not writing a whole blog & I'll get around to it sometime, but I just had to report this news.

One of my girlfriends gave Robbie a potty for Christmas. Last night we set it all up & before his bath time we propped him up on there... it was like his throne. He sat there all proud while he played with a toy. He eventually got off and there was a little stream going down the potty.

HOORAY FOR ROBBIE!

We're going to continue doing this every night, we're not putting any pressure on him... we just want to see how far we can take this. I realize that this could be a fluke but it doesn't hurt to try if he's wanting and willing!

More Updates

There's a lot that I need to cover!!

- Robbie's got his 8th tooth already. He had a couple of cranky days and there was a couple of nights where he was woken up here and there... but nothing that the teething tablets couldn't handle!

- He's trying so hard to speak. I was baking some cookies and gave him an arrowroot to keep his little hand occupied while I put the cookies into the oven and I kept sounding out the word "cookie" and he answered back with "ck ck". He ran off to go watch his show and came back a couple minutes later and asked me for a "ck ck", I tried to get him to finish the word but he started throwing a temper tantrum because I wasn't giving him the cookie. Bottle is "bah bah".

- We took Robbie to the Olive Garden for his first dining experience (we've gone for breakfast/brunch but never for dinner) He did very well! He was so excited to have his own cup with a straw. He had a bunch of tomatoes from the salads, an entire bread stick, chicken parm, fettuccine alfredo, and spaghetti! It was a great experience and we'll definitely be making a trip back there in the future.

- His new toy.... the sliding doors that hold our washer & dryer. He gets such a big kick out of going inside the room and pulling the door closed and then slowly opening the door to see if you're watching. He'll scream with excitement and will close the door again. He just keeps getting more adorable!

- We're eliminating the afternoon bottle! Woohoo! After his lunch he was lying down on Pooh Bear and was quite happy watching the news (which he'd never do if he was well rested). So I picked him up & rocked with him and he fell asleep. So I took him to his room and laid him down & he fell asleep! We've been doing this for close to a week with great success... this gives me hope that we'll be successful at eliminating the night bottle!

Sad News

I had a bunch of stories to write about but they just don't hold a candle to the fact that Grandpa Bill is no longer with is. He left us this morning at 3am, I don't know any of the details as of right now... I hope it was fast and painless.

We miss you already Bill.

xoxoxo

A quick story

Robbie was being a little monkey & was showing me how he's able to climb up onto the couch. I had my eyes on him as he quickly climbed up onto the couch and started throwing himself into the cushions. Then he spots the fruit bowl (our couch backs up to our kitchen island) so he reaches over the couch and grabs a pear from the fruit bowl and starts calling it "nanana" (banana). I took him off of the couch & corrected him on the type of fruit, I turned around to get a knife & plate so that he could sit in his chair and eat it. As I had my back turned to him he took it upon himself to bite into it and start chowing down... so much for slicing it up! So he sat there and ate the entire pear! He got everything out of it except the core and stem.

That's the first time Robbie's ever gotten his own food all by himself :)

Seventh!

We have another tooth!

This one seems to have been the easiest to push through. There wasn't any bum rashes & he slept through the nights (for the most part). This tooth must have pushed through yesterday or the day before because the tooth is 3/4 out!!

Other new developments:

-He's figured out how to climb up onto the couch!

-He said "pea" when Daddy was trying to teach him to say "pear"

-He officially has a "no" filter and continues on doing what he's doing. Thankfully he knows what stop means!

-He bobs his head when he's listening to music in the car

To get you into the holiday spirit

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1174425056

This is just a preview of what's to come!

Yep! Here we go again!

He pooped 4 times today, all of which weren't very solid & now has Nelda's Paste all over him bum due to a rash :( Hopefully this one doesn't take over a month to cut! I thought he was just going through a fussy phase of his life... now I realize it's due to a tooth.

Just some pictures

Not much to report. He's not waking up during the nights anymore but he is getting up earlier than usual... I'm thinking he's working on another tooth. I still think we're absolutely blessed to have such a happy and curious little guy.

I gave him a whole pear... he had a ball sitting in his chair & eating it.

Daddy took these picture... looks like Robbie had quite the phone call!

Fluke?

Last night he got up at 3:30am and I went into his room to try & put him back to sleep. When I first went in the room he was sitting up and was moaning. "It's bed time, Robbie" and tucked him in, gave him Pooh and left the room. He was quick to scream even louder than his initial cry, I waited a minute and went back into his room. This time around he was standing so I leaned over the railing and gave him a hug, laid him back down, put his blanket over him and gave him Pooh. He was silent as I left the room, I was just waiting for for the screech once I closed the door... I waited... and waited. He fell back asleep!!! And didn't wake up again!!! This was probably a once in a life time sort of thing, but I felt really good about myself after that :)

Updates

I swear... I have a different toddler now. I look at him and I see such a grown up little boy who's understanding more and more words every day! "Robbie, it's time for bath" He drops what he's doing and runs into the bathroom and waits for you to start running the water! "Robbie, it's bed time" He goes into his bedroom making his "buh" sound. If he's ready for bed he'll open up the pantry doors (where his bottles are) and will continue to "uh" until I get his bottle for him. Sometimes if he wants to show you something he'll take your hand and lead you to whatever it is he wants! This morning I was getting Robbie dressed to go to the gym & I asked him for his shoes... he went into the basket that has all his shoes and pulled out his brown boots "no, not those ones" I said, so he turns around and grabs a different pair! I got some socks and a pair of Robeez and we sat down, I was telling him that we need to put his sock on before the shoe, he started making the shhhh sound "good boy Robbie, shoe" and then..... HE SAYS SHOE! Of course he made me look like a complete liar when Colin asked him to say it & he just gave him a smile.

Gido came to visit on Sunday, he got here right around 9:30... good timing because Robbie was still sleeping (crazy, huh?!) Robbie woke up shortly afterwards and they had some snuggles, Robbie was a little groggy from the long sleep. Guido fed him a banana and then Robbie got a little more pep in his step. He was quite surprised with how content and happy Robbie was! Robbie was quite happy playing with him and showing him all his toys. After Robbie had eaten and was dressed he went to the front door and told us that he wanted to go for a walk (I LOVE how he can tell me what he wants) So we got all bundled up and off we went to the park! Robbie got to go on the swings, slide... even the teeter-totter! Unfortunately the wind was horrible so it wasn't long until we headed back inside. We got back & we all had spaghetti... mmmmm. Robbie put on a show and every time he used his fork and ate what was on it he got massive praise from us, once we stopped clapping to continue with our meal he'd put his hands over his head and clap as if he was saying "don't stop telling me how good I am" hahahaha it was great.


His sleeping is still really wishy washy, last night was fantastic... he moaned a couple of times around 10 but I didn't hear him at all for the rest of the night! The previous night (Tues) was HORRIBLE, he was up pretty much the entire night & I tried to let him work it out by himself. Giving him a bottle if he wakes @ night is considered a reward, so no more bottles! I'm just going to go with the flow... if I have to get up 10 times to go in there and tell him to go back asleep, I will.

I did the unthinkable, much to Colin's dismay, I cut our monkey's hair! He looks like the same little man from the front but if you get a side profile or a glimpse of the back of his head you can definitely see a difference, this cut was long overdue!

Woohoo!

I feel great. Robbie & I went to the gym today... hopefully I had more of a work-out than he did. I've been procrastinating the whole gym thing because last time I went I had to stop 1/2 way through my work-out because Mr.Monkey was hungry (him? hungry? that's unheard of!) So I tried to fill his belly up before we left & off we went. He was hesitant to go into the kiddie area because he knew I'd be leaving, so I held his hand and walked in with him. I showed him a couple of toys and when he was playing with the toys I quickly made my exit. When I got back he was grinning ear to ear and all the kiddies gathered around to say "bye Robbie"! Robbie waved bye-bye and off we went! This gives me more incentive to work-out now.

Robbie woke up again last night (booo!), it always seems to be around the midnight mark. I gave him a 6oz bottle and he went back to sleep (thankfully). I wonder what's making him wake up? Growth spurt? Colin suggested maybe it's the mattress that's waking him up? I just don't know... I wish he could tell us.

No..... No....NO!

Our little monkey is definitely testing his boundaries with us. Before when we said "no" he'd immediate stop what he's doing, turn to us and clap (and so would we) because he did what mommy & daddy asked of him. Now it's a completely different story, I feel like every second word coming out of my mouth is "no" and he doesn't listen to me. Yesterday was the last straw for me & decided to change my method. I was folding some laundry and out monkey was in the guest bathroom where I heard him playing with the toilet seats... "Robbie, no" I still heard the lid and the seat hitting each other "Robbie, NO!" of course he doesn't listen to me & lone behold I've got a child with one arm soaking wet. I was livid, I put him in his crib & took away Pooh. I want to nip this in the butt ASAP, if he doesn't listen to my 2nd "no" I'm going to pull him away from the situation and have a mini time out. He's also doing this wonderful whining thing, where if I say no & he listens to me he'll follow me around whining until I ask him to stop.

Last night was a weird night, he must be going through some kind of a phase. He woke up screaming @ midnight so I went in to check on him, I gave him some Tylenol and another bottle and tried to put him back down... he started freaking out as soon as I put him down, so I picked him back up and rocked with him. He was quite content and calm laying his head on my shoulder and snuggling with me! After at least 20mins I tried to put him down again & he started doing the same thing again... this time I decided to let him work it out. He did go quiet after a couple of minutes but I was woken up 2 more times that night, I don't think he was in pain because as soon as he was in my arms he was happy and quiet.

We had our first snow fall (that's sticking around) yesterday so I took the rug rat outside to play. I'm so happy with the boots I got him, they're called "Stonz" and they're made so that baby can wear his indoor Robbez shoes within these boots! He loved running in the snow... even more so than the leaves! I think now he understands why I want him to wear a hat & mitts, he didn't try pulling anything off once we got outside to the colder weather!

OH, I almost forgot to mention! Last night when we were having dinner I had cut up his pasta into smaller portions that he could grab & eat but he kept reacing in my direction like he wanted my fork. So I went to the cupboard & got his own mini fork that Auntie Alison got for him & he grabbed that sucker and stabbed a noodle and brought it right to his mouth!! I was SO impressed, he kept doing it over & over until he got to a mushy noodle that wasn't sticking to his fork so he switched back to his hands 'cause the boy was hungry!

To start your day off

Well Robbie slept in today (again) so I was rushing to get him fed, clothed and out the door to get him to Patty's (day home provider) and then to get myself to work. So he finally wakes up and he's humming & hawing, usually I would leave him because he sometimes puts himself back to sleep for a little bit longer but we were on a schedule today. So I go in there to pick him up & he's laying on Pooh with his bum stuck up in the air, I gently rubbed his leg and he was quick to stand up and give me a big smile..... that's when I noticed something was wrong with his PJ's.

Yep, that's our monkey! I wonder when he pulled his arm out?! In the middle of the night? When he was mumbling before I went into his room to pick him up? Who knows... all I know is monkey was pretty proud that he figured out how to get that arm out!

I came home from work on Saturday and Colin showed me something new that he & Robbie invented. He sat down on the rocking chair & placed Robbie on his lap, he took off his wedding band! Robbie was quick to point his index finger and Colin put his ring on his finger. Robbie sat there staring at the ring and started "oooooooooooooooooooo"ing.... over and over and over. hahahaha it was so cute loud oooo's and then softer ooo's as he looked at the ring sparkling on his finger. He wanted to get off of his lap and run around with it but that's way too dangerous.

Robbie's been battling a little bit of a cold for the past week. He hasn't had a fever but he's had a runny nose (especially at night when he's tired) I remember dropping Robbie off @ Patty's two weeks ago and one of the little boys had a runny nose, so I'm assuming he got it from him.

Another new development, Robbie has shown interest in feeding himself!

We have discovered with him that we can only give him one food group at a time, if we give him all the options at the same time he'll pick his favorite and will only eat that one food group. So in this picture we started off with mashed potatoes and Robbie immediately didn't want to use his fingers, so we grabbed a spoon. We filled the spoon up with potatoes but he didn't want to take it from us, so Colin gave the spoon to him and lone behold.... he fed himself. He's still trying to figure out the proper grip and he needs some help with the scooping but he's figuring it out.

These are the times where we have a hard time believe that this use to be our little baby.

Sleeping & HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMMIE!

I'm trying to understand (although I doubt I ever will) why Robbie sleeps the way he does. When he was younger I use to pick him up at the first whine he ever made.... these days it's a lot different. If he whines or fusses I leave him in his room and he falls back asleep, if he's screaming in joy or talking to himself than he's obviously ready to start his day. Today was a perfect example, he woke up at 6am and was sporadically crying and fussing, I turned down the monitor and just listened to him; 2 minutes later he was back asleep! The kicker is that he didn't get up until 9am!!! We were late getting him to the dayhome and I was just on time to get to work. I don't know what it is that wakes him up but he's able to put himself back to sleep (thankfully), hopefully with time he'll be able to put himself to sleep without fussing.

On another note

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMMIE!!

We went out for brunch on Sunday to celebrate Grammie's birthday. We had a great time! Robbie got Grammie some flowers along with a card that he personally autographed, needless to say she was touched and cried. Robbie did really well, Grampie sat on the other side of him and kept him entertained. I don't know why, but I think my parents think I don't feed him?! Every time they meet up with us they have food for Robbie. A couple of days ago I met them at Jump N Java (a coffee house/indoor play room) and Grammie had a banana and a tomato for him. When we went for brunch she had broughten grapes and cheese!! My parents are crazy... for him.

On to more developments... our child has really started mimicking us. He's got one of Colin's old cell phones and he's constantly reaching into his toy basket to pick it up and bring it over to us. He says "uh" (which translates to help me) so we flip it open and he's quick to snag it (and says the odd "danks"... I'm trying to get him to say thank you instead, ideally I'd like him to use proper words) So he has his open phone and he turns his back to us (like it's some kind of private call) and starts to laugh into the phone. It's not his normal I'mgettingmybellytickled laugh... it's a fake laugh and it's SO funny, "AH HA HA HA" then he'll babble into the phone a little bit and will close it. We'll do it over and over until he's done talking to his imaginary friend.

I'm so excited for tomorrow! I get my very first spa day! My Uncle had given me an enormous gift certificate and I just haven't found the time to use it but my mom sat me down & we figured out a time when they could watch Robbie & I could get pampered. I'm so excited!!

UH-OH

Is his new word/sound of the week. "Danks" is old news now :( He says "uh oh" when he's in his car seat and his toy drops to the ground or when he throws his bath toy overboard. Colin's taught Robbie how to growl... he does it in the tub, in the car, while he eats.... all the time! He's quite proud of himself too, he seems to like it when you act a little scared/startled it makes him want to do it louder.

After talking with the bosses today @ work ,it looks like I'll be picking up another full day shift on Wednesdays. We're quite happy with Patty (our dayhome lady) & she said she could take him on for another day and for a 1/3 of what we were paying before... why not?! This past Friday we called up Patty to see if she could watch him for the day so that Colin & I could have some time to ourselves, so we got a day sans Robbie! It was very refreshing to not be on any kind of schedule & to do things that WE wanted to do!

I took Robbie in to see our family doctor for his 1 month post-op check up. She said she could feel his nut and that everything looks good! I asked her about his dry skin (he gets that from me) and she said to chuck the baby creams I was using and she gave me a list of creams that should work, George's cream has worked wonders. We're putting it on twice daily and it seems to be doing the trick! I also inquired about his teeth, he seems to be constantly biting his lower lip (for comfort) and one of our friends said that he'll get an overbite if he keeps on doing that... she quickly disagreed with the comment (phew!) saying that it's the size of the tongue that will determine if he has an overbite.

Updated posts

I've finished our trip to Edmonton post http://babystasiuk.blogspot.com/2007/10/happy-birthday-kailey.html

and I'm working on our Halloween experience right now http://babystasiuk.blogspot.com/2007/10/happy-halloween.html

Thanks for your patience (Uncle Paul)!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I know I've got a lot of "blogging" to do & I'll hopefully do it once Robbie goes to bed tonight, in the meantime I thought I'd share a little picture.













We had a WONDERFUL day with Robbie, the jury's still out on who was more excited: him or I. We drove Daddy to work and he wanted to show off his little monkey to all of his co-workers; of course Robbie LOVED the attention. He wasn't too keen on the monkey suit when I first put him in it but as soon as he realized that he'd get attention if he wears it he was all for wearing it! After meeting everyone that works at CGI Calgary we went back home because the monkey was getting hungry & that fake banana just wasn't cutting it. After we finished having some breakfast I took him over to the radio station, the morning show crew wanted to see Robbie all dressed up. They "ooo"d and "aww"d over him & Robbie wouldn't stop staring at Chad (again) I had made them all a goodie bag and put a pocket sized picture of Robbie for each of them & they were very thankful. After that we went over to see Grampie, Grammie was out with her "ladies" having coffee so Grampie got Robbie all to himself! They played for a little bit & Grampie fed Robbie grapes & a piece of an orange it wasn't long after that that Robbie started getting fussy, so off we went back home for his nap. He slept until 1:30 and then it was time to get up and continue on with the celebrations! I tried to feed him some lunch but he had no interest... so off we went to go pick Daddy up from work and then we were off to the mall to go do some trick-or treating!

We chose to go to Market Mall because they had activities, magicians, and store to store trick-or-treating that was going on between 2-7. We got there close to 3 o'clock and started our rounds, the stores that were handing out candy had an orange sign in their window which avoided the awkwardness when they would have to say "sorry, no candy". We didn't go into each store, there were so many kids and some stores had line-ups to get candy... our little guy doesn't grasp the concept of standing in line so we just walked to the next store that didn't have anyone waiting. We spent about an hour in the mall walking around and seeing some really cute ghoul's and goblins.

After the mall we headed home and met up with Shaun (one of our groomsmen), he was visiting from out of town & wanted to visit! Soon after we got home Auntie Alison came over for dinner too! We made homemade pizzas before we decided to go around the block and try the door to door trick-or-treating. We had so much fun that night, the weather was perfect (about 5 degrees). We decided to go across the road (in our complex) to see our neighbours. She saw Robbie coming through her window and opened her door and welcomed Robbie with open arms. She squatted down to his level and started talking to him while giving him a box of Smarties... he started squealing with excitement and was shaking the box back and forth. The lady loved his reaction so much that she gave him another piece of candy and another and another... in the end she had given him 4 or 5 pieces of candy! She was so nice. We walked around the block and came across some more kiddies Robbie's age that were dressed up as big bird and an oriental girl. The highlight of the night was when we went to visit our friends house, they have a 3 (?) year old puppy that has TONS of energy... Robbie was in awe over this dog and had no interest about the candy. He watched Angus (the dog) run back and forth and forth and back. We're so thankful that Shaun got to capture a little bit of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OFsep4sNfc .

All in all, we had an amazing day. I can't wait until next year, where he can yell trick-or-treat by himself and say thank-you after they give you some candy. It's so exciting!

~~there are many more Halloween picture on his photo website!!~~

Happy Birthday Kailey!!

This past weekend we drove up to Edmonton to celebrate our niece, Kailey's first birthday, what a party! We had burgers, veggies, salad, cake.... the whole nine yards! She had a Hawaiian/luau theme which worked out really well.

Robbie & I went to pick up Colin after work on Friday and we headed out of town immediately following. We were a little nervous going into it because we knew that he wasn't going to nap (he only has 1 nap now which is at noon) so I brought along a milk crate full of toys to try and keep him entertained. We weren't impressed with the amount of traffic and construction that delayed us (we probably spent about 30mins at a crawl). We arrived at Red Deer at the perfect time, just when I was running out of toys to keep him entertained. We originally had found a McDonald's right by the Highway that had a "Play Place" but as soon as we got inside we realized it was geared towards bigger kids as there was only video games (boooo) We ended up on the north side of town and found a McDonald's that had another Play Place aimed more for the younger kiddies. We got in there & ordered up some dinner, Robbie was so hungry! He ate most of his chicken breast and cheddar cheese, afterwards we let him run around in the play area. They had a mini trampoline that had a net around it so that the kids wouldn't fall off/out, Robbie was so adorable! He was holding onto the net and kept on bouncing/squatting because he was so excited. We spent about 20 mins playing when we realized that it was starting to get late so we got back in the car and hit the road! As it got darker he found it harder to play with his toys which frustrated him. We got some whines and whimpers out of him, but it wasn't too long until he fell asleep. He probably slept for 30mins before we got to Nana's house (around 8:10), there we were greeted with Uncle Brad, Aunt Sharron, Cousin Sydney and Cousin Carson... and Nana, of course! Robbie quickly got a second wind and had fun playing with his cousins. He didn't get to bed until 9:30. We went to bed at 10. At 4:30 our little man woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep, his tooth was really bothering him. So we were all up bright and early! He did go back to sleep at 7:30-9am, it was obvious that it was going to be a 2 nap day. We went to Londondary Mall (which is only a couple of blocks away from Nana's) try and tucker Robbie out so that he'd nap.... NOPE! Everyone was leaving to go to Nan's for Kailey's birthday @ 2 & Robbie had no desire to nap (grrr) So off we went, Nan's house was a good 20-30min drive from where we were & Robbie ended up falling asleep after 10mins of being in the car. Once we got there he was still sawing logs so we opted to leave him in the car so that he could catch up on his much needed sleep. Colin was so cute, he'd go check on Robbie every 2mins... max! He knew that Robbie needed that nap but he just wanted to be there when Robbie woke up. When he finally did wake up, he was not a happy baby. His teeth were obviously bothering him, he was a very fussy and needy baby. I was trying to encourage people not to hold him because he was fussing/whining for it.... not a habit that I want him to pick up. Instead we held him while we were sitting on the floor. I gave him some teething tablets, which seemed to help a little bit. He was able to have some dinner and gave some smiles to his relatives but he just wasn't his normal self. Our presents were a hit, with the help of my mom, I made Kailey a poncho... it looks so cute on her! After presents was cake time & then it was time for us to hit the road. We wanted to stick to Robbie's schedule as much as possible seeing as though he was already thrown off from the late bed time the night before. We got back to Nana's house in plenty of time for Robbie to wind down and be able to do our night time routine. Robbie ended up going to bed a little after 8:15. I was practically on my knees begging Colin to go and meet up with his friends, we (especially him) find that when he spend the whole weekend traveling that we don't get to relax (mostly due to the fact of Robbie's inability to settle) and when he goes back to work on Monday he doesn't feel like he had a day or two to relax. So off Colin went to spend some time with his friends while I stayed home with Robbie just in case he woke up. I went to bed at around 9:30 and Colin got in around midnight... at 1:30 Robbie was up like a light! We tried bottle, teething tablets, Tylenol, we even turned on the TV in hopes he'd fall back asleep... nothing worked :( Colin said "Let's just leave" out of frustration, at first I thought don't be silly; then I started thinking about it, we're leaving today & I know he'll fall asleep in the car seat! Colin can sleep in the back seat while I drive. So we talked about it and both agreed that if we stayed we'd be up for a long time and would be even more sleep deprived than we already were. So we packed all of our stuff and off we went, as soon as we hit the highway Robbie was out. He woke up a couple of times and we gave him some teething tablets and that did the trick, he fell right back asleep. I drove fairly slow on the way home, I wanted to make sure that both my boys got a decent sleep, we got into town @ 6am. Robbie was still sleeping but woke up once we took him out of the car seat, we gave him a bottle with some teething tablets in it and put him to bed.... he slept 'til 9! YAY! What seemed like a crazy comment in the beginning was the best idea!! I took Robbie to the grocery store to let Colin have some time to himself... that afternoon we welcomed (with great excitement & relief) Robbie's 6th tooth!

This trip we have discovered that our little man isn't ready to travel, when he wakes up in his own room he's able to put himself to back to sleep but when he's in someone elses home he's unable to; which in turn puts stress on us to try and get him to go back to sleep, to keep him quiet, to entertain him at all hours of the night/morning, etc. I've tried to explain what kind of stress we get put through and what kind of an ordeal we had.... no one seems to grasp it, I guess you can understand it unless you're in out shoes. It sucks, but this experience is going to play a factor on our next trips. We're just really hoping that Red Deer works out... it would be so much easier on us.

*sorry, I haven't had a chance to read it over. I hope it makes sense*

Great Nanny visit

My Nanny's in town visiting for a week, this afternoon we went over to visit and had a big family dinner (Auntie Alison & "Uncle" Steve Parr showed up also) We had an awesome day, my Nanny is in awe over him and he always seems to be smiling at her. Robbie got to have spaghetti for the first time today... he loved it! It was so funny to watch him slurp up the strings of spaghetti. He got so messy!! He was putting his hands (that were full of spaghetti sauce) all over his face an hair, needless to say I scrubbed him down really well at bath time tonight.

Enjoy the pictures... I got some great shots of the shenanigans http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/RWSpictures/2007-10-19/?bulkComplete=1192850592361

Getting Nervous

Robbie's figuring out how to lower the crib railing. I've gone in to pick him up from his nap twice now (not back to back) and the railing is down and he's grinning ear to ear at his new trick he's learned. We may be getting a toddler bed for him sooner than we expected.

Rhythm Man

I just wanted to write a quick blurb up to update everyone. He's doing amazingly well, you'd never know he had surgery, his wounds are healing really well. I was expecting everything to swell up and for him to have all the colours of the rainbow from the bruising, not the case! The wound on his sac was a little red this morning so I put some Polysporin on it (Dr told us to stop using it on the 3rd day) but it doesn't seem to be painful at all.

On to more exciting stuff... my child loves to dance (just like his mom)! We were watching a movie 2 days ago (Save the Last Dance), it's got so much music in the video and ever time the music would play Robbie would do squats over and over to the music. Colin started clapping his hands to the music and Robbie would start clapping with his Daddy, he grins ear to ear as he dances and claps along to the beat.

He just recently started to walk around in circles too. I think he likes making himself dizzy. He hasn't made himself dizzy to the point that he falls down, he usually takes 2 or 3 laps and then laughs to you.

Recovery Pictures

Some of you may have noticed that I've switched back to Photobucket. I just wasn't happy with the size of the pictures that Shutterfly was giving me.

I won't post his recovery pictures directly onto this site, just in case there's people that are a little woozy. I'll try and take daily pictures to see how the wounds heal. Here's the link for the album http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/RWSpictures/Recovery%20Pics/

Surgery Recap

Well our little boy is our new hero. We are so proud of how well he's handled everything, I will try and give you an overview of what our day has entailed so far... I apologize if this blog isn't written properly (ie. grammar). I'm pretty exhausted from today's events (and it's only 2:00pm!)

Last night I was up until 11pm, I had a hard time sleeping. I kept re-reading all of the paperwork the Dr's office had given us (what to expect from anesthesia, routine for day surgery and recovery) In a way I'm thankful that I went to bed late, I had a good deep sleep. Our alarm got us up at 5:30am, we both weren't very talkative. We showered, got dressed and Colin had a bagel for breakfast. My tummy was doing somersaults so I opted for no breaky. We made sure our diaper bag was packed and then it was time to wake the little man (at 6:20), he was in a great mood! He didn't fuss at all while I changed his diaper (he's been going through some major teething and has been experiencing some bad rashes... nice timing, hey?!). We kept him in his sleeper while we put a jacket on him and grabbed Pooh before we whisked him out to the car and off we were. The entire car ride he was so happy! He was giving me kisses and cuddling with his Pooh.

We got up to the third floor exactly at 7am and found the Day Surgery room, we turned the corner and walked in there with him and I think we both said "Oh boy". There were a row of hospital cribs (at least 6), all the cribs were so over sized (compared to ours) and white as Robbie's teeth; and at the foot of each crib was a blood pressure/heart rate monitor along with a pair of hospital PJ's. We slowly walked up to the desk while we were taking in the thought that "the day" is actually here. We made our way up to the clerk and we gave her Robbie's name "oh, you're the first surgery of the day.... you're in bed number one" as she points behind us there's a crib with the number 1 above it. So we went over to our crib and Robbie wanted to hop right in there and play. I stood up in his crib as more babies/kids and their parents kept filing in and they were being directed to their bed. There was a little baby that was 2 cribs down from us that seemed to be exactly Robbie's age, they kept on talking and staring at each other (he's so fascinated with babies/kids right now).

**side note: That Children's Hospital is amazing, each room we were in they had an enormous amount of toys and/or cartoons playing. It definitely made this experience a lot easier on us parents

So we had a nurse come by and she let us know, again, that we were the first patient of Dr. Wong's. She asked us to put Robbie into his hospital PJ's while she got all of her equipment ready to get some vitals. Off went Robbie's one piece sleeper and on went the traditional backless hospital gown and these adorable white and yellow stripped pants. The nurse tried to take his blood pressure (not sure if she was successful or not), got his heart rate, listened to his lungs and gave him a shot of Tylenol. We played with the hospital toys while we waited a little bit, then Ernie (another nurse) came in to get us. What a wonderful man... he absolutely loves his job and the kids, it's so evident. He asked us if Robbie would like a crib ride down to the surgery room or if he'd prefer it if we walked him down, we opted to walk him down because we knew there'd be no way he'd sit still for the walk. Ernie was making all these birdy and daffy duck noises and Robbie just kept on smiling at him, he was in awe over that man (and so was I). So off we went on for our walk, we left the day surgery room and hung a right "to your right is the waiting room, once the nurses take him in you guys can wait here until you get buzzed. Dr Wong is very particular and likes the parents to be in the waiting room when he's done the surgery so that he can talk to them about how the procedure went" (which was music to our ears!) He turned at the following right and we went down this unmarked hallway, two doors opened automatically and Ernie parked Robbie's crib not to far from the doorway along the right side of the wall. We were in the "Holding Room", the surgery rooms were just down the hallway from where we were. We were the first ones in the holding room, at 7:30, so Robbie just went crazy; running around and smiling at all the nurses and doctors as they were starting their day. Ernie came in a couple more times with other babies, in total there were 4 of us in the holding area; surprisingly, there was only one other dad there. Nurses, doctors and anesthesiologists were coming to visit all the other families... but no one was coming to talk to us. We were starting to get a little discouraged, babies were getting wheeled out of the holding area and into their surgery room and not a single person that was assigned to us had come to talk to us (seeing as though we were the first in there & were suppose to be the first surgery of the day, we were getting a little antsy) Finally an oriental lady came up to us, dressed in green scrubs and a green hair cap..... oh my goodness, she was so hard to understand. She was talking to us about how she's going to put him to sleep and what she's going to do to him and I had to lean in and pretty much read her lips, she stumbled on English words which got me wondering how long she's been doing this in our country? (I'm not trying to sound rude/racist, but the Dr wants me to trust this lady to put needles in my baby's spine and she had to think about the translation and pronunciation for epidural?!... my mini vent, moving along) She explains to us that she's going to put a mask over his face to get him to go to sleep, once he's asleep they'll put in an IV and then she'll put an epidural (they call it "a block") in lower down on the spine than what I had for Robbie's birth. After the surgery she was going to put some freezing to the area as well. So off went the little oriental woman and then a really sweet nurse came up to us and introduced herself & asked if we had any questions. Colin asked if he could go into the room while Robbie gets put under, the nurse said that normal they don't recommend it. The baby is going to fuss and cry regardless because there's a mask being put over their face & having a parent there is just going to cause the parents more stress/sadness. I agreed with what she was saying and understood where they were coming from (flashback to when Robbie got circumcised... we thought it'd be the best thing to have family members in there, but in hindsight it was really detrimental to Colin) After the nurse left, Colin says "I want to go in with him".... oh boy. I vetoed that option, I don't want to have to nurse Robbie's physical wounds and Colin's mental wounds together @ the same time. I tried to remind him how he was with the circumcision

~~~to be continued (Robbie's awake)
It's now 4:02am and we just gave Robbie his meds w/ a bottle & of course now I can't sleep.... so on with my story!

cont... and agreed (hesitantly) that the nurses should take him into the surgery room. So as all the other babies slowly got wheeled away one by one, we were still waiting there. Our Dr still hadn't come to see us (grrrr!) we were the last crib in the "holding room" and you could see down the hallway there were about 5 nurses/dr's standing outside of a doorway talking about Dr. Wong & his tardiness. Finally at 8am he walks into the holding room and starts talking to us, "so I want you to tell me what we're doing to Robert today" he says "you're bringing down his left nut" I said sarcastically while trying to lighten the mood, he proceeded to lift up his hospital top and mark an X with a permanent marker on the left side of his tummy. He went over the procedure again with us and asked us if we had any questions - nope, everything had been answered for us by the other Drs/nurses. The Dr gave us a Rx for codeine and said that he could have it for up to 2-3 days depending on how much pain he's in. Then one of the nurses took Robbie and held him as we said our last good-bye's to him... I had been dreading this moment for weeks. I gave him a bunch of kisses on his cheek and lips and then let his daddy have a turn at giving him some love, "we'll take good care of him" the nurse says... I wanted to say "you're cutting open my baby, how can that be taking GOOD care of him?" So daddy finished giving him some love and I grabbed his hand and we started walking out of the holding area "I want to go in with him" Colin says, I literally started crying. I appreciate and love the fact that he was trying to be strong for his little boy but it wouldn't be healthy for us to be in there. So I shook my head and said "no", he stopped us in the middle of the hallway and watched the nurse walk Robbie into the surgery room. Robbie was watching us as we watched him go into the room.... he was so content being with that nurse; then all the sudden she turned a corner and we couldn't see him any more. We both started crying. So we quickly tried to gather ourselves together and tried to set a plan in motion for when Robbie's done. We went down to the main level to get the Rx filled, it's liquid codeine (thank goodness!) and there wasn't much in the bottle, probably about 1/4 cup worth. Then we went over to the food court to get him some water & apple juice, I had brought a sippy cup w/ milk (no one told me that he'd be on a clear liquid diet) so I emptied and washed out the milk to fill it w/ 1/2 water and 1/2 apple juice. One of the nurses at the day surgery room had given us a buzzer (one of those vibrating/blinking things that the restaurant gives you when you're waiting for a table) and Colin was holding onto that for dear life. Once the juice was mixed he wanted to go upstairs and wait in the waiting room so that we didn't miss Dr. Wong. Up we went, back to the 3rd floor. The waiting room is connected to the surgery room so you could hear babies in there crying/laughing/talking and it was torture that we couldn't hear Robbie do the same. I tried to keep my mind off the fact that they were cutting my baby open right at that time, so I was watching TV... Colin's eyes were permanently glossy, his leg was vibrating and he was fidgety with the buzzer. I tried to comfort him but nothing was going to make him feel better until he saw his baby. A couple of buzzers went off around us and the moms were racing out of the waiting area and into the day surgery room to go see their babies... that should have been us, if only the Dr wasn't over 30mins late! (grrr) So we waited and waited some more, it must have been close to 9am by the time Dr. Wong came to see us (which was a nice alternative to being buzzed) he took us into another room to discuss how it went. "Robert's doing fine. The testee is about 1/3 of the size of his other one. I was able to bring it all the way down, but it was hard... the vessels around the testee are trying to push it back up." I was trying to focus on all the information he was giving us, Tylenol every 4hrs for the entire day and night & codeine too (if need be) On Wednesday assess his pain and give it to him as needed. He warned us about constipation w/ codeine and that some babies get drowsy off of it & others get the complete opposite. He's to have sponge bath's up until Friday and on Saturday he's allowed to have a 5min soak in the tub. No bouncing on the knee, swings, rough play for 2-3weeks (we're telling everyone 3 weeks... just to be on the safe side). The Dr hopes the testee will grow now that it has the room, but he can't guarantee anything.... I asked if it would affect his hormones/fertility in any way & he shook his head and said no. The fertility rate is the same between having one or two testee's. So after we were bombarded with information and details he let us know that he's in a recovery room right now waking up, he'd be another 30mins (I just wanted to hold my baby, why can't I be there when he wakes up?!) so he told us that we could wait in the day surgery room or we could go back to the waiting room. We opted to go back to the day surgery room and wait for our baby. We gave the buzzer back to the lady at the front desk and we sat and waited in the same spot we started off. The little boy that was two cribs down was gone along with his parents, their diaper bag was the only thing sitting there. They must have been in the holding area. We watched as families were checking in and then others were being wheeled out in their crib by Ernie, he still made me smile even though I was so sad.

Two nurses came by to introduce themselves and let us know that they'd be with us when Robbie gets brought back. They said that they were notified that he was being wheeled back into the day surgery room... we were so excited, finally! Colin saw him first, he was laying on his crib with his head raised all tucked in with a warm blanket. He was completely fine at first, he was smiling at the nurse that was pushing him into our "bay". As soon as he saw us the light switch got turned on and started crying... it literally broke my heart. He was wearing only a diaper and had a big towel wrapped around his left hand, underneath was his IV and something else that was glowing red (heart rate monitor?) The nurse said I could pick him up so I quickly scooped up my baby and gave him the biggest bear hug, he was soaking my shirt with all his tears and I couldn't help but have a mini breakdown of my own. I asked if Colin wanted to hold him and he opted not to, I think he just wanted to look at him and watch him. So after that initial ball of emotion I sat down with Robbie on my lap and wrapped him up in the blanket, he immediately wanted Pooh (that stuffed animal has saved us in sooo many ways) I put Pooh our lap and hand my arm like a seat belt over Robbie with Pooh's head beside his. We swayed back and forth and he slowly calmed down. Colin asked the nurses when we could get the IV taken out and one of the nurses said that they wanted to see Robbie drink more fluids. He had drunken a little bit of apple juice in the recovery room, but now that he was with us all he wanted was love and that was fine by me! He went through waves where he'd cry uncontrollably for a couple of minutes and then would calm himself down and then would repeat it over and over, one of the nurses asked if we thought some TV would help. We both thought it would be a great way to get his mind off of the pain, she wheeled over a TV and DVD and offered us Blues Clues or Barney.... he loves both, but we haven't seen Barney in a while so we opted for that one. As she was putting the DVD in we kept on trying to offer the juice to him, every time we offered it he would start to cry uncontrollably. The nurse suggested a Popsicle, seeing as though he's never had one we thought he'd really like it (especially seeing as though he's teething) He didn't wanted it when we originally offered it but suggested that Colin rub it over his lips... that did the trick! He was quite happy sucking on it, it smelled like it was flavoured pineapple(?) Daddy finally took a turn holding his boy

~~~to be continued. it's now 5am, I'm going to bed for now.

We had to keep Robbie in the hospital with us for an hour to make sure he wasn't nauseated (didn't vomit at all, just a couple of Popsicle burps!) and to make sure he still had an appetite. When the nurses saw him going to town on the Popsicle they took out his IV... oh my goodness, how much tape can you put on such a little area?! I had Robbie pinned down with a bear hug as the nurses took off the ridiculous amount of tape over his hands, fingers and arm (the IV was on the inside of his wrist, right bellow his thumb) Of course he didn't like the tape that was being ripped off of him... owie! After he was rid of the IV he was 100% better, the hospital had a wooden butterfly that was hanging from the ceiling and if you pulled on a cord it would flap it's wings, Robbie was in awe over it and kept on trying to reach up to it. Ernie came by to see how he was doing and Robbie gave him some big smiles as he made all these cool animal noises. We finally got the OK to come home! They did a last check on his vitals and then we put him in his PJ's and off we went.

We got home and Robbie was in a great mood and his appetite was back in full force. He had a banana, nectarine, toast w/ peanut butter and some chicken off of my pizza that day. He wasn't a big fan of the water/apple juice combo but definitely wanted some cold water to wash everything down. He was still numb in his waist & hips from "the block" aka epidural and his voice was a little scratchy from having a breathing tube but he was quite happy playing on the floor for a little bit.... then he tried to pull himself up with the help of the toy box, I held onto his hips but he obviously didn't like the feeling he had because he started to cry. We quickly distracted him with his toys and he was happy on our laps for a little bit longer. He kept on trying to stand up and was pretty stubborn about doing it, I held onto his hands and helped him stand up and he'd take one step and his legs would buckle underneath him (reminds me of when I had an epidural when I was in labour w/ Robbie, the nurse asked if I thought I could walk to the washroom. My legs felt fine but as soon as I put some weight on them they gave out & I had no control.... thankfully Colin was holding onto me & caught my fall) He was starting to get frustrated, it was around 12:30 when Colin suggested maybe he have a nap. We got a bottle ready for him (the nurses suggested skim milk so that it's easier on his stomach) and off we went to put him to bed, he drank the whole bottle and ended up sleeping for almost 3 hours. What a great baby!

We kept on top of the medication last night, the Dr told us that you're either ahead of the pain or you're always playing catch up with it. So we were quite strict about the tylenol, I was hesitant about the codiene... he hadn't pooped all day (condiene causes constipation) so we agreed to give him 1/2 of his 7:30pm dosage and then a full one for the following. Thankfully, he did poop around 8! He was walking again by about 4-5pm. He did fuss when he fell down on his bum and you can tell that his left side is bothering him, he's quick to prop his right side up but needs help with his left side.

He is our hero, in every sense of that word. Maybe it's the drugs, but he's had a smile on his face and has been giving us so much love. Colin was so worried that he'd hate us but it's the complete opposite, this procedure as hard as it's been... has definitely broughten us closer to our son. Just a couple days ago I was up all night with Robbie and I was so mad at myself because I couldn't comfort him, he didn't want to rest his head on my shoulder... he didn't even want to be held by me. I was so upset with myself being a mom that I couldn't even comfort my own child by holding and loving him. Yesterday made me feel really good, I could walk around with him and he'd lay his head on my shoulder and soak in all my love; if he was fussy I could rock him and make him feel better.

Last night our alarm didn't go off when we were to give him a full dose of tylenol and codiene, so I woke up around 2:45 in a panic. I tried to just give him Tylenol and put him back to bed, he fussed on and off for a good hour (while I was writting the second portion of this update) So around 4 we gave him a bottle & codiene and he was out like a light (he had only drank 2oz before bed... he was that tired). It's now 9:49 and he's still sleeping, so I'm just going to follow his lead today. I'm only going to give Tylenol if needed and the codiene will only be used if necessary.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes, thoughts, prayers, etc. They mean a lot.



PS. All pictures are from Thanksgiving w/ Grammie & Grampie

Time confirmed

This will probably be my last post before "D-Day". I just got off the phone with the hospital and we're to be there for 7am, he's surgery is scheduled for 7:40 am. He's not allowed to have solids/milk past midnight & he can't have water or apple juice past 5:30..... shouldn't be a problem seeing as though the surgery's so early. He's a lucky boy, he gets to bring Pooh with him!

Big weekend for us coming up. I work all day tomorrow, Sunday we're going over to my mom & dad's for a big family feast (Auntie Alison & "Uncle" Steve Parr will be there also). Monday will be "soak up as much love from Robbie as we can before his surgery" day and then Tuesday we're up bright & early for surgery. Please don't call us, we'll call you. We don't know how he's going to be once he's done with the surgery and we hope that you can let us have our time with our little guy as he recovers. We'll make sure to post updates during the healing process.

On to a happier story:

We were getting Robbie ready for bed one night & got him naked for his nightly bath. He ran away from me while I as putting his dirty diaper away and proceeded to saddle up onto his bouncing zebra (which he loves) He's bouncing and spinning around on it when all the sudden he does a semi dismount. One leg's on the ground and the other one is laying on top of the zebra and he pauses in this awkward stance. "What are you doing Robbie?" He had peed all down the zebra and onto the base of it! Not a prob, I go to get his baby wipes to do a preliminary wipe down, I come back with the wipes and there's a massive log sitting right beside the zebra! Hmmmmm was it the naked baby? or the plastic zebra? Hahahaha.

His speech is slowly improving. He's doing really well with the Fisher Price plastic phone, I'll make the phone ring and he'll pick up the receiver. I whisper "hello" to him and he's come close to replying with hello, he's even better at saying "bye bye" when he hangs up. You still really have to listen for it and he only says it when it's on his terms... but he's getting there =) Colin & I have started saying "I love you" to him over and over and over, of course it's a little long and complicated for him, but he answers us with three distinctive babble words... in time he'll pick it up.

New Dayhome

Well after hours of contemplating if we should stick with the nanny or try our luck with a day home, we opted to go the secound route. The first day has come and gone and we're quite pleased with how it turned out. He napped once while he was there (which he's been doing for the past week and a bit) but the nap was only for 1 1/2 hrs, when he came home he didn't nap either! My one year old baby went the entire day with having less than 2 hrs of sleep!!! What really surprised me was how good he was for the rest of the night, you'd think he would have been a big fussy bum because he was over tired... but he was quite content playing by himself until 8:10 rolled around! I guess he did really well with his first day, him and another baby (just a couple months older than him) need to learn how to share but aside from that he was a happy and didn't give her any problems. I guess he didn't want to eat much while he was there... he wanted to boogy instead. I'm quite pleased with our decision, he's getting to that age where boundaries need to be set & social interaction needs to be learned.

He is fascinated with necklaces! I have a necklace that I bought for when I was nursing him (to keep his hands occupied) last year that he's taking a liking to, he's figured out how to put it on & off. He's quite proud of himself once he gets it on, he feels the need to strut his stuff around the house while pushing his grocery cart.

When ever I'm getting ready to go out & he's in the washroom with me playing with my jewlery and anything else he can get a hold of to entertain himself, he always stops and is mesmorized when I brush my teeth. He stares at me and studies what I'm doing... I think he'll soon like to brush his own teeth. Maybe we'll brush our teeth together to make it fun for him :)

The mornings are starting to get colder and I have yet to get Robbie all geared up for this winter, so when I go out for my morning walks with him I put him in his snowsuit that Grammie & Grampie bought him last year (it was way too big last year) Surprisingly it still fits! He's fine when it comes to walking in it but if he's on his knees he gets really frustrated as he just slips and slides everywhere.

I have to get myself adjusted to this one nap schedule of his, I'm use to lounging around in my pj's until he goes down for his 1st nap at around 9-10, but now he's up until noonish. So I can go out and do thinks with him and not have to worry about being back home for nap time within the 2hr limit!