Week 1 Update

As I sit here, it is 7:06am, I had a full night's sleep and Carson is still in his crib!! He fell asleep last night at 8:00, woke up this morning at 6:00, I fed him and he fell right back to sleep in his crib. I honestly can't believe this is still happening!

::Insert Happy Dance Here!::

On Saturday I was sitting in the office and turned around to find this:


Let's just say he LOVED the chocolate pudding and was quite eager for another bite!


Then on Saturday afternoon, I was trying to put Carson down for his nap and he was acting really fussy. Out of nowhere I got a good glimpse in his mouth and he had cut a second tooth for the week! He cut the one on top next to his front teeth this week so I have really been checking his gums, but hadn't seen anything new. The one right below it next to his bottom teeth was poking out without any warning!

Oh, and I missed this picture from the other day and it made me giggle. Enjoy!

Carson's First Haircut!

We took Carson to LolliLocks today for his first haircut. In the future I'll cut it myself, but this one had to be special! He did great and was so good for the woman cutting his hair. She gave him a toy on his lap, but he got frustrated because his hands were under the cape. We had to give him one hand even though it got all hairy. :)
He is so handsome!

Before


During


And After




And here you can see my new glasses. Be honest, what do you think???? Carl loves them, but I'm still not 100% sold since it is such a big change from my old ones.

A great thing is happening

:::Knock On Wood:::

I am posting this with great hesitation and even more excitement.

Carson has slept at least 8 hours straight after falling asleep on his own in his crib for the last 4 nights straight!!!

I can't even begin to describe what this finally means. I (we) had gone for 11 months without a single night of uninterrupted sleep, most of which with MULTIPLE awakenings. The only way either of us were sleeping is with him in bed with me. But that is far from ideal because we wake each other up and it really takes its toll on my body. After days of putting him to bed and having him awake within 2 hours, I was at my wits end on Monday night. In the past I strongly didn't want to just let him "cry it out", but I knew we may have to try it if all else failed. Actually, this was about the 4th time I have tried letting him cry in the last 2 or 3 months, but obviously it hadn't worked. The last time I tried he literally cried for 3 hours straight before sitting awake in the dark looking so pitiful. It really broke my heart and it didn't do either of us any good in the end.

Back to this Monday night...I fed Carson after his bath and put him to bed like usual. He woke up at 9:25, but this time I didn't go back in and waited to see what would happen. He cried off and on until 11:10 (I went in and checked on him periodically) and at 11:35 he fell asleep while I rubbed his face and chest. He stayed asleep until 6:20am! Of course I was awake much of that time because I am so trained to lay there and listen for him.

Tuesday morning I did our usual nap routine and put him down drowsy instead of totally asleep. He cried for about 45 minutes, but then it got silent. I went in to check on him and it looked like he had been sitting up and just fell over and slept that way. Of course I took a picture:


Tuesday night I put him down awake and he slept until 4:00am! I went in and fed him because we still have to phase out all of the night feedings. He fell back asleep on his own in the crib after that.

And again Wednesday night and last night he slept until 4am, I fed him and he then slept until 7:15. He has had great naps all on his own and hasn't even missed one this week.

So, from day 1 my goal has been to teach him how to fall asleep by himself. I can't believe this time it may actually be happening. Please send all your good thoughts and juju our way. I told Carl how liberating it actually feels and how much more I have accomplished this week. I think just the idea of not putting all my mental effort in trying to get him to sleep has cleared my mind to have the capacity to focus on other things. I love Carson with all my heart, but having SUCH a struggle for the last 11 months with neither of us sleeping well has really been affecting me.

:::Knock On Wood:::

And now, here are a few new pics of our new-found sleeper!!!

11 Month Pictures

I seriously can't believe I am posting this already! The last 11 months have FLOWN by. We have started to plan what we want to do for Carson's birthday which is bittersweet. Nothing big, just a cake or two for some good pictures and probably some things for the pool this summer as his gifts. This is really going to signify the end of his "baby" period even though he already feels like a toddler.

I know every time I say it was the hardest one, but this was the biggest fail yet. He wouldn't look at the camera at all and I even had Carl there trying to hold him. Here are the best of the bunch - ha ha ha! :)




Okay, I'm done!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And Happy 1st St. Patty's Day to Carson!





Last night he just started standing up all by himself, out of no where! He has always had to hold onto something to get up and go. Carl was playing with him and it caught him off guard. I grabbed the camera and Carson was so proud of himself! He is so cute. He is missing his shirt because he made a huge mess at dinner. :)

Weekend randomness

We did a ton of random things this weekend. We watched movies, went to a St. Patrick's Day party, had dessert with some friends, went shopping outdoors since it was a gorgeous day yesterday and had some Wii golf tournaments. Oh, and my mom made us corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots for dinner last night. Man was it good!

Carl got a new helmet for the scooter and was messing with this old one. Carson thought it was hilarious on his own head.


We've pretty much been in teething hell for the last week or so. Last week he spent 4 days straight mad, screaming, not taking naps at all and waking up for hours at a time at night just screaming his head off. It looks like the tooth next to his top one is starting to poke through today so it should make an appearance any time soon. Wish us luck! :)

Mmmmm...egg yolks and cheese!



Oh, and I finally got my eyes checked and ordered new contacts and glasses yesterday! I have had the same glasses and pair of contacts for 3 years now. I wear hard contacts and needless to say, it is time for a fresh pair. I got glasses that are going to be much more dramatic than the ones I have now. I really wanted to change it up so hopefully we can get used to the new me! I'm lazy about putting in my contacts when I am just home for the day.

We really went out in public like this...

Guess who did Carson's hair on Saturday...Daddy.

I am holding out until just before his 1st birthday to get his first haircut. The hair on top is SO long that he looks like he has a baby toupee (the sides are still pretty short). Most of the time he has a comb-over because it hangs down his forehead if I just leave it.

Our friend's sister goes to culinary school and they had a big open house on Saturday morning. They had two huge rooms just packed full of free food. It.was.awesome. One room was all meats and "real" food and the other room was nothing but pastries and dessert. We all got totally stuffed. Then we stopped at Target and ran into the mall.

Some people looked at Carson and said how cute it was, but mostly people just stared with a bizarre look on their face. We thought he was adorable! :)

Well, this about sums it up.

Naughty Magnet

We call Carson the Naughty Magnet. Its like where ever he goes he is able to find the exact thing he shouldn't have, like a magnet.

Because of this, we don't let him roam freely through our house. We have baby-proofed the living room and that is where we put him when we can't be right there with him. But sometimes I let him loose because he has so much fun.

Well, today he pulled a wrapper out of the office garbage and found an almost empty pop can on the table. He loves chewing on pop cans...I usually take them right away, but he was having fun.

You can see how well he is walking in this video. And if you skip to the very end you'll see how it ended...all over me!

Playing at the park

Okay, I know this is a lot of pictures, but I take a ridiculous number of shots of this little guy. How can you not???

It has been in the 70s here all week so we went to the park this morning to play. The great thing about our neighborhood is that we literally have at least 5 parks within close walking distance. We went to two different ones today. We played on the swings, went down the slide, read some books in the grass and had some snacks. He sure is fun to hang out with (and such a mama's boy!). :)

It was soooo windy though! We ended up leaving early because I'm dumb and didn't pull my hair up so I couldn't see where I was going and Carson's nose was getting red.

He loved the swing!



Look at those teeth!








At first he hated the wood chips. He kept trying to get his hands down to stand up, but would pull them back up as soon as they touched the wood. But in true Carson style, he got over and put some in his mouth. :)




The second park we went to has more like hard foam pieces on the ground so he like this much better.

Downtown Aquarium

Carson and I went to the Downtown Aquarium this morning with my friend Lauren and her two boys. I was hoping Carson would be able to enjoy himself and have fun since the first time we all went he was only about three months old. But instead he was totally scared.

Their elevator was broken so they took us up in the freight elevator (because of the strollers). This dropped us right in the center of the experience at the huge water flood section. It gets totally dark, there is loud lightning and the water rushes out everywhere. Carson started screaming! I ended up carrying him through almost the entire thing. He checked out a few of the animals, but still spent most of the time gripping my arm and watching the other kids. Go figure.

We stopped in this section where there was a little more light and I thought I would snap a few pictures. I decided not to use the flash, but there wasn't enough light so most of the pictures I took turned out too blurry. Oh well, here are the only usable ones of the bunch!