What a Wonderful Day!

Today I had the wonderful experience of taking part in the birth of my new niece, Ally! A while ago my sister-in-law, Beverly, asked me if I would accompany her to her birth classes since her husband Robert was working during the times. I was really excited when she asked me! She chose to do hypnobirthing because she wanted to do it all natural this time. I highly recommend this method and I plan on using this method with my next kid. I won't go into all of the details of this method, but you can google it if you're really interested. Basically you are taught (from the classes, the book, and by practicing) how to get your body into total relaxation during labor so that you are not feeling the "pains." Of course there is a lot of discomfort and pressure, but when you are totally relaxed and focused, there is no pain. You also let your body do the work. The classes and the book were so educational to me. So much in fact that it has changed my philosophy on child birth. But anyway, Bev also asked me if I would act as her birthing coach when the time came. I was super excited for this because I have never witnessed a live birth.

On Friday night, Rob and Bev dropped the kids off at our house because we were going to keep them overnight so that they could go to the Temple in San Antonio. Well, Bev text me at 7:15 the next morning to tell me that she was in labor! Her contractions were 10 minutes apart, but she felt that she had a lot of time ahead of her (which she did!). They made it back to Austin in the afternoon and Rob went to work (he has a radio show). I took Bev, Cannon, and the kids to run some errands for Bev and then we went back to their house. And Ryan went to pick up Rob from work and record an interview for the next show. Bev wasn't due until March 9th, and we were planning on getting everything ready this coming week. So we were trying to put things together at the last minute. Linda (Bev's mom) came and picked up the kids and Ryan came back with Rob and took Cannon home. By this point her contractions were three minutes apart and getting stronger. I thought for sure that we would be going to the hospital that night, so I decided to spend the night. Bev really wanted to labor as much as possible at home because she thought she would be more comfortable. Also, Kylene and Jeff came over too, to bring some stuff we had them pick up at the store. So Bev decided to lay down in bed around 11pm. Her contractions actually stopped and she was able to sleep until about 4am. I got up around 7:30 and she was starting to have irregular contractions again. Ryan brought Cannon over so I could feed him. The Ryan left to go put Cannon down for his nap at our house. Well, about 45 minutes later, Bev announced that she thought it was time to go to the hospital. I had been timing her contractions and they were about five minutes apart, but then all of a sudden they sped up really fast. We got to the hospital at about 11:20 am. They had us go to triage first because they didn't believe she was in labor (she was staying relaxed). By this point her water was already broken, but they always have to check to make sure. And, although she was having lots of contractions, they had a hard time finding them on the monitor. After 30 minutes later they decided that she truly was in labor (she was at a 5), so they got her into a room. While in the triage room, she was really uncomfortable and was threatening to get an epidural. I knew that once we got her settled in her real room that she would be able to focus again. And that's just what happened. She got focused again and was able to get really relaxed. About an hour later, the doctor checked her and she was at a 9! The doctor said she would be back in about 10 minutes, because it could be that fast. And it was! I ran to get the nurses because Bev said it was time. The doctor told her to push, but as part of hypnobirthing, Bev really wanted to let the baby come out herself without pushing (yes, you can do it that way). The baby's heart rate was getting really low and the doctor said that she had to push. So with a few pushes later, baby Ally was born at 2:14 pm! It was so neat to be in the room and experience this! I was so proud of Beverly to do it all natural! And she had been in labor for 40 hours! With her other two children, she had pitocin and an epidural, but she said this experience was so completely worth it! She said she felt so good afterward and baby Ally was so alert and healthy. Oh, so Ally weighed 8lbs 9oz and was 20.5 inches. She is a content baby, unless you mess with her and then she shows her set of lungs! We also discovered that she has red hair! It's a darker red, like the color of Kylene's.


Here's Cannon just relaxing in Jade and T's little chair. And he is such a poser for the camera!


Here's T and grandpa. T is so excited to be a big brother! He wanted to hold her right away.


T, Cole, Cannon, and Ally were all born at the same hospital.


Look at those cheeks!










I didn't get any pictures of Jade yet, because she wasn't ready to hold Ally yet.




I told Cannon to give Ally a kiss and he tried to eat her. We thought it was so cute and we tried to get a picture, but every time we get the camera out he has to smile and pose!

Let It Snow!

On Tuesday we woke up to a very RARE event in Austin. Not only did it snow ALL day, but it stayed and didn't melt until the end of the next day. We got about two inches, but cities further north got many more inches. And I have never seen snowflakes so big! They were as big as silver dollars! Kids were able to build actual snowmen and I saw lots of kids sledding on the hills by our house (they used their boogie boards). Cannon and I went out in the morning when it just started. I really thought it was going to melt by the end of the day, but it just kept snowing! I wish I got more pictures because it really looked like we were in Utah.


Cannon actually really liked the snowflakes. I wish we had taken more time to play in the snow that day. We rushed outside in the morning to take this picture because I didn't think it would last very long.

Also on Tuesday, we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Beverly. Our friend's six month old daughter was thrilled with Cannon's presence. Cannon, on the other hand, was not quite sure what he thought of her excitement! He later stole her bow and tried to pull her pony tail.


This is an actual candid picture of Blue. She was attacking the blanket and took a moment to pause for the camera.

And in other news, Ryan's sister, Kristina, had her baby late Thursday night! Lyla Noel was 7lbs 3oz and 20 inches long. These are the only pictures I have, but I will get lots of pictures when we go visit them next week. Last month they moved to College Station, which is about two hours from us. So Cannon and I will go and help take care of Cole.


Isn't she cute? I think she looks a lot like Cole.

It Was Bound to Happen

I can't believe that I made it almost nine months before Cannon discovered the tupperware cabinet. Well he first discovered the cabinet with all the poisons, then the dishwasher, then the tupperware. Our house is SO not baby-proofed!

Cannon also turned 10 months old on Sunday, which is insane to me! We are already starting to plan his birthday party!

I guess things haven't changed too much since last month. He is able to scoot forward on his belly, like an army crawl. His PT pointed out to me that he only uses one leg to do this resulting in an asymetrical pattern. This is one thing we will be working on. But he is getting pretty good at his crawling and he can crawl over couch cushions and other things. When he's standing at the coffee table he can cruise one side, but he can't go around corners yet.

He LOVES to read books! Anytime he is fussy or sad, I'll just pull out some books. It's funny because he definitely has likes and dislikes. If he hates a book he will smack it down immediately! His favorite books right now are: anything lift-the-flap, Baby Einstein Mirror Me and Language Nursery, Here Are My Hands, the 10 Little Rubber Ducks, Fish Eyes, Baby World Playtime, I Love Colors, So Big, Cat (but he pulled off the tail so I have to fix it), and Dear Zoo.

Cannon and Blue have become quite the pair. Their mischievous act today included Blue retrieving a huge dryer lint ball from the laundry room and sharing it with Cannon. Yes, they both ate it. Speaking of eating, Cannon will literally eat anything. This includes carpet, hair, fur, leaves, old food, paper, string, rope, and other unknowns. It doesn't matter how many times I vacuum or how clean I thing the floor is. He will always find something!

As for real food, he can eat almost anything (even without teeth). We are holding off on citrus and tomato foods until he turns one. I let him try a clementine and he threw it up. He has also tried peanut butter and he seems to be okay with it. He still can't have anything dairy. Ryan and I let him have some pancake and he threw it up. I haven't given him any yogurt for a long time and I haven't given him cheese at all. I think we will use goat's milk or coconut milk when he turns one. He has had coconut milk yogurt and he is okay with it, but it's just so expensive. I've also given him plain goat's milk and he's okay with that too.

He sleeps well and goes down pretty easily. He prefers for either me or Ryan to put him to bed. He will let someone else, but he'll fuss for a few minutes. Separation anxiety has started, but it's really not as bad as I was expecting it to be. I totally thought I would have a complete mama's boy! Oh, and he has started sleeping with a stuffed animal. Over these last few weeks I have let him sleep with different stuffed animals, but nothing really stuck with him. Until Carmel. Carmel is a stuffed animal puppy that I got for Ryan a long time ago when his real dog, Sugar, died. Now Cannon loves him and he gets so excited when he sees Carmel in his crib! It's really cute. Cannon really likes anything with face on it. He even has a small truck that has a face and he smiles at it and talks to it.

I had a really hard time with this month's photo session. Cannon thinks he is supposed to crawl everywhere instead of stay perfectly still for me. I ended up sitting him on top of a chair or stool, which didn't always work. So these photos didn't turn out super fabulous, but they are still cute. On Sunday it was gloriously beautiful outside! It was sunny and very warm, so we spent some time outside. Cannon pretty much wears the same thing to church every Sunday because I refuse to buy him anymore winter church clothes at this point. I purchased his Easter outfit a while ago and I just had to put it on him. His white Easter outfit. I know the rules about babies and white, but I ignored it. I was just so excited that I got him dressed before his first nap, which is also before lunch. Of course 30 seconds after I got him dressed he spit up on the collar and proceeded to spit up six times more throughout the day. I even ignored the warning take off his white shorts while he ate lunch, which resulted in squash stains and an emergency wash and dry right before church.


Trouble!!!


Notice the tongue roll!















One picture of me.


It was sooo nice outside on Sunday. While Cannon's shorts were drying, we went outside. He would not sit up in the chair! The camera had a weird setting, so the pictures came out very bright.

Nothing in Particular

The weather here has been so cold and rainy and yucky. We haven't been out of the house all week. Today was the first sunny day, but it's still so cold! We just had a lazy day today and I decided to take some pictures.


Blue was so tired last night.


This is her latest project. For several weeks she has been trying to pick a fight with Ernie. Usually I intervene pretty quickly, but today I wasn't fast enough. Sorry Ernie.


My happiest boy, right before his nap.


My saddest boy, right after his nap.


I fed him and then he was happy again.


He does this old man face all the time and he presses his lips into his mouth.


This is his new face.

Oh Blue!

Blue turned one on January 18th and I completely forgot to post something! When we got her last March, she was about eight weeks old and Ryan brought her home in his backpack. I sure miss that little puppy face. I'd like to say that she has matured a lot, but she is still such a stinker!

What can I say about her? She's smart, but that can be a bad thing. She's friendly, but that can be a bad thing too. She makes me so MAD sometimes, yet she can bring so much laughter and delight into our family.

Personality:
Blue is 16 pounds of muscle- part wiener dog, part blue heeler. She has a big personality in a little body. Blue believes that she is everyone's friend and she believes that everyone likes her. She also believes the world revolves around her.

Athletics:
If Blue was on the track team, she would be a sprinter. She plays really hard, really fast, takes a minute break, and she is ready to play again. Blue can successfully catch a frisbee midair one out of three times and she LOVES to play with other dogs.

Quirks:
Blue is easily offended by feet and shoes. She feels it is her duty to clean your face. She has a vendetta against stuffed animals. She can never find just the right spot to hide her bone. She sleeps under the covers. She moves the blankets to make them just right. She growls at her reflection.

Blue is like a toddler. I have to keep my eye on her and make sure she's not getting into trouble. There are things she cannot resist: toilet paper, food, and certain baby toys.





This was not the first time, or the last.

Despite all her misbehaviors, I love having her as part of our family. Cannon adores her, and she is quite fond of him as well. I look forward to watching their bond grow as Cannon gets older.

The second part of this post is unrelated, but I didn't want to make a whole new post. Last Saturday turned out to be a really lovely day! Ryan coaches the young men's (ages 12-18) basketball for our church and he had an early 8am game that morning. Now that Cannon gets up around 7, we decided to go to the game too. By the way, I think I forgot to mention that Cannon now sleeps all the way through the night. He did it on his own for a week, regressed, and then went back. I decided that he did not need to nurse anymore in the middle of the night and I was going to be strong about it. He went another week of sleeping from about 7:30 or 8pm until around 7 or 7:30 am. Then he had one night when he woke up at a random time, so I rocked him instead of nurse him (he thought I was torturing him). But that was the only night! So anyway, back to the original story. Cannon loved the basketball game! We sat right in front and he watched the boys run up and down the court. He was very intrigued by the whole thing. Afterward, Ryan had the idea to stop at this little restaurant to get breakfast. We have had dinner at this place, but we always wanted to try their lemon ricotta pancakes. We had to wait for a while, but they were sooooo good! I know they sound weird, but the flavors work.

Later that day I took Cannon and Blue to the park. The park by our house is also a dog park, so we can let Blue off her leash. We were having such a good time, but Blue had to ruin it! Usually she is good to stay near me, or at least where I can see her. But not today! She saw a man across the street and she HAD to go see him. I saw her start to run and I knew what she was going to do. I kept screaming her name, but she would not listen to me. Let me just say that Blue almost died twice. 1-She almost got hit by a car, 2-I almost killed her because I was so mad at her! Worst of all, the person she ran to see was putting up a dog warning sign on his fence. And that was the end of our good day.



This was taken at the restaurant on Saturday.



This is Cannon's first experience with bubbles. I guess it was also Blue's first too.

Intellectual Growth Spurt

I love how babies all of a sudden start doing lots of new things all at once. This week has been so much fun as I have seen Cannon learns new things.

Object permanence has been completely mastered. I would say that this has been an emerging skill for the past two months, but this week he has really relished in his new discovery. He loves the lift-the-flap books! He knows where they are on each page and he can open all of them.

He now says, "dada," but not discriminately. Before, his favorite sound was ba-ba-ba-ba, with such various as: ba-ba and bob. He also uses other consonants like y, g, k, and h (but he's been using those for awhile). I love to listen to him talk because it sounds like he is either yelling at you or telling you a crazy story! I think he tries to say "beep." He thinks it's funny when I say "beep-beep" and he tries to copy me. Also, I swear he started making "l" sounds. I know that's a sound kids learn late, but I really did hear him. I think he was just playing around with sounds and he discovered he could make this sound with his tongue sticking out. So he's not even using correct positioning with his tongue, and he will probably forget about it anyway, but it was still funny to watch and listen to him.

Now he will transfer a toy from one hand to the other so he can pick up a second toy. He may have been doing this for awhile, but I just paid attention to it the other day. He also drops things off his highchair on purpose and watches them fall. I laughed at him a couple of weeks ago because he was staring at his hands as he would open them to release a toy. He kept doing it over and over again. And he bangs two toys together when he's playing.

The pincer grasp has made its way into things now, which is very useful to pick up things like hair, small pieces of rope, leaves, and bits of paper left on the floor. I guess it also comes in handy for picking up Cheerios, but Cannon prefers to use the raking grab to pick up food because he can get more in his mouth that way.

Cannon has started to realize that music is fun! He moves his head from side-to-side when he plays the music on his exersaucer. He started to do this about a month ago, but now he does it almost every time. And I've seen him do this a couple of times in the car when I had the music on. I need to get a video of it because it's really cute!

And he FINALLY started to move forward on his belly! We have been working with him so much and he finally got it today!

It's so much fun to watch him learn and discover his little world. Oh, I finally found a food that he doesn't like, juice! We let him try apple juice and he immediately spit it out (really he just let it drool out). We usually don't keep juice at home, so I bought some pear juice for Cannon. I thought he might like it better if I diluted it with water. No. Oh well, it's not a bother for me. I would rather just give him water anyway.


And the cutest thing of all, the curls are coming! I am so excited that his hair is starting to go curly!

Having Fun Around the House

Here's some random photos of us just having fun at home.


Cannon is really into sitting in baskets or anything alike. I will put him in the laundry basket and push him around the house. He loves it and it's a workout for me!


A suitcase works just as well! He especially liked it when he found the tag.


For Christmas, I got Ryan a soft serve ice cream maker. We finally got around to using it the other day and we made delicious vanilla ice cream. I am not a fan of vanilla ice cream, but this was really good. But I still ended up putting it on top of a hot brownie and drizzling it with fudge. Ryan put mint Andes in his.


The other day I got out Ryan's guitar to let Cannon listen to me strum (I only wish I could play the guitar, or any instrument). He liked to play with the strings more than he liked listening to the sound. I guess if I was actually playing a song he would have enjoyed it more.