Toddler Bed

Southern slept in his new bed last night, and it was easy!! :) I took apart his crib after his nap yesterday (so sad) and moved it into Remy's room. I got it all set up and put Remington's new sheet and bumpers on it. Then I went back into Southern's room to put together his bed. So not fun... there so many little parts, and the screws just didn't want to cooperate. It took a long time. My dad was visiting us that day and had been watching Southern while I was doing all this, but when I had the bed about 1/3 of the way done, I could hear Southern calling for 'mama' from downstairs. I told him where I was, and they came up to "help". Southern was mainly just trying to stick screws into holes and rearrange my piles of parts - haha - but my dad helped to screw some and would hold the parts for me as I put them together so that was nice. And the whole time we were telling Southern it was his new bed so he was excited, and he tried it out as soon as it was finished.

Dustin had been outside mowing during all the bed moving and assembling. So later that night, after my dad had left and we did our showers, Dustin asked Southern to show him his new bed and was acting really excited about it. He took some pictures, and we all made a big fuss about it. Southern was happy and was laying across it and didn't want to sit on my lap to read our nightly books like usual - he wanted to look at the books from his bed. So I sat on the floor by him and read three books to him. I then told him to climb under the covers. He did just that. I put his books next to him (he's been wanting to sleep with whichever books we read that night for the past couple of weeks) plus a stuffed animal, and he just said 'night' and curled up. I told him goodnight and put on his glow-worm-seahorse-thingy (it lights up and plays music) like usual and walked out. He stayed there and fell asleep on his own!! :)

I normally close his bedroom door so it's super quiet for him, but this time I left it open a crack in case he got up during the night. But no, he slept through it all peacefully. Then around 8am, I heard 'mama' and he was beside my bed. It was earlier than usual for him, and we had gone to bed later than usual so I told him to climb up with me and we slept for a little longer. All in all though, it was a great first night in his new bed!

Here are the before shots of Remington's and Southern's rooms:

And here are the after shots:

Another Visit to the Zoo

Yes, we braved the San Antonio Zoo during Spring Break and lived to tell about it! We all had a fun time. It was super crowded, but we parked about a mile away and walked so we didn't have to sit in lines for parking spots. We also have a membership, so we got to go right in instead of standing in line for tickets. So we all had a good time, and Southern especially loved seeing all the animals.

My parents took me to the SA Zoo back in 1987 when I was almost two years old.

 And now we're taking our son, who is almost two years old, to the zoo in 2011. :)

28 Weeks Along

I had my 28-week appointment with my doctor yesterday. It was the dreaded glucose test day, but I made it through... haha! Now hopefully we'll get back good results. With Southern, I got back negative results and had to go in for the extensive 3-hour test. (Here's the link to that post if you want to look back on it http://lchahnwyatt.blogspot.com/2009/01/7-months.html)

But it wasn't so bad. I was in out and in about an hour and a half. My flavor this time was fruit punch which wasn't as bad as I remembered it. I think with Southern it was lemon-lime. They drew three large vials of blood after the hour was up, and I got to visit with my doctor. The baby's heartbeat was 147, and my tummy measured 31.5 cm. He's growing quickly!

Southern's 1st Visit to the Dentist

Well as the title points out, Southern made his first visit to the dentist today! And he was so good during it all. He let her look in his mouth and brush his teeth (and tounge) all without a single protest. I'm so proud of him :)

I explained to him as we were driving that we were going to see the dentist and that she was going to look at his teeth. He seemed fine with it all. We walked in, and Southern said "wow" as soon as I opened the door. They had a kid's table with some toys and books in the waiting room so he went straight to that. I signed him in, and it wasn't very long until they called his name.

In the exam room, she started Finding Nemo on the screen as she and I talked over his heath and habits - is he drinking juice, does he brush often, etc. I'm proud to report that she was pleased with all the answers and said we were doing great. Then it was time to get down to business. She put on her mask, glasses, and head light all while talking to Southern and telling him what she was doing. She told him to put out his hand to shine the light on it and said "that's pretty cool, huh?", and Southern nodded. We had him in my lap with his head leaned back into her lap, and he was just perfect. She looked all around and brushed, and he just took it all in stride. He even stuck out his tounge when she asked him to. It was over quickly, and he was back to watching the movie.

What a great first visit! Everything was great, and Southern gets his name put up on the No Cavity Board for this month :)

New Items Added to Wishlist

We've got a few items to add to Southern's birthday wishlist...

-sunglasses
-house shoes (size 7 or larger)
-floor lamp for his room
-toddler sized fishing hat (rim all around)
-toddler sized cap to wear out to the tennis courts

Stitches Update

 Southern has been very good with his "owie". He doesn't try to touch or mess with it, and he can point to it when asked where it is. We went in to his doctor on Friday for a check-up on it, and everything was pronounced healthy and healing properly. We followed up that visit with another on Monday to get his stitches removed. He was so good at both appointments. In this photo, you can see him pointing out the deer on the wall. Each room in the doctor's office has a different theme, and it's fun for the kids to check out the paintings as we wait. Southern especially loves animals, so the forest animal room was right up his alley.

On Friday, he allowed the doctor to look at his "owie" while sitting on my lap. He also gave him each ear to check out and opened his mouth upon request and even let him check out his nose. The doctor was quite impressed and asked if he could give Southern a balloon after the visit. I said sure, pictuing a real balloon. But the doctor blew up one of him rubber gloves and drew a little face on it. Southern loved it! As you can see in this photo, he wouldn't let it go.

Southern's also been very good about letting Dustin doctor him up at home too. Dustin will tell him to climb on our bed and lay down when it's time to change his bandage and apply the medicine, and Southern will. He lays back and lets Dustin work.

Here is one last photo before getting the stitches out.

Dustin was off of school on Monday for President's Day so he got to accompany us to the doctor's this time. Our doctor had a lady (a young doctor? a medical student?) shadowing him that day, and after the appointment, he told her not to expect removing stitches from a toddler to ever go like it just did. Haha! Southern was a perfect angel. He stood up between Dustin's legs and tilted his head back a little for the doctor. He just snipped a few times, removed most of the stitches with his fingers, and then used tweezers on the last little bit, and Southern was perfectly calm and allowed him to do what he needed during the whole process. I'm so proud of our little guy! :)

Boys will be boys

I've been told by many that having a son is a lot different than having a daughter. I've heard they're easier as babies, hard to control as toddlers, reckless during the teenage years, and that as adults they looove their mommies. I've also been told to expect a couple trips to the ER during his childhood. Well, today, at less than 2 years old, we had that first one.

I'll start off by saying that Southern is fine. He's a strong little guy, and he's feeling great right now.

Now on to the story... We drove to Newcombe's Tennis Ranch here in New Braunfels today to visit Dustin while he was at a tennis tournament with SHS. It is located on the north side of town, on the way to Boerne. So it was in the Texas Hill Country, and for those familiar with the THC, there is little grass, a lot of cedar, uneven topography, and a lot of rocks.. big, sharp limestone and/or granite rocks.

There was another little boy about 2 1/2 years old at Newk's, and right away he and Southern got to be friends. They were hanging out and playing together when Southern fell. And he fell right on a big, sharp rock. It punctured his forehead and started bleeding A LOT right away. I immediately ran to him, scooped him up, and ran toward the court where Dustin was standing. I screamed Dustin's name, and he came running. I just handed him over and told Dustin we needed to go to the emergency room. He started walking with him and I ran (literally, and it was no easy feet at this stage in the pregnancy) to get the car. I pulled up to them. Dustin put Southern in his car seat and hopped into the driver's seat as I climbed in the back to buckle Southern in as we started driving. By that time Southern had stopped crying for the most part, but the blood was still flowing. I mopped it up with a blanket and tried to distract Southern with Dustin's phone during the ride... and a ride it was! Dustin drove very quickly with his hazards on the whole way to the hospital, and we unbuckled and ran inside.

There was a short wait in the waiting room. Dustin used that time to show Southern a mirror and explain about blood (guess he was a born science teacher) while I tried to wipe up his hands a bit. They soon took us back, weighed Southern and took his temperature, and then lead us to a room. It seemed to take forever until someone came to see us. By that time Southern was bleeding pretty badly again so we used my mini-first aid kit from my purse to spray Neosporin and apply a Scooby Doo bandaid. Finally a nurse came to check on us. She looked in Southern's ears and nose, asked questions, checked out the wound, and then told us what they were going to do. Luckily, Southern had none of the warning signs - blacking out, vomiting, coughing, etc so she said all we would need were a few stitches and we'd be good to go.

So someone else came in to apply some numbing gel to his forehead. We would wait another 15 mins or so for that to set in, and then the nurse was going to come back to do the stitches. Well Southern hadn't finished his hamburger at lunch so I went out to the car to get his water and food. He was still happily munching down when the nurse came back with the stitches. We had to wait on him to finish his last bite, and then she wrapped him up like a burrito in a blanket. I laid down beside him while Dustin held his body, and she proceeded to put in three stitches. He was a trooper the whole time and didn't make a peep.

To reward him for his bravery, we stopped by Baskin Robbins on the way home. He loved it. We got him a little cup of strawberry ice cream, and he ate it up gladly. Once the bowl and spoon were licked clean, he put one hand up in the air with his first finger pointing up, and proclaimed "more!". :)

We're going to his doctor's on Friday for a check-up on it and will have the stitches removed Monday. They said we could give him Tylenol for the pain, but he has been acting so happy and normal, that I don't think it's even bothering him at all. I'm so thankful we made it through so well. It was pretty scary at first, but he's been so good through it all.

Below is a photo of the ride home... it was a long day, and with tummies full of ice cream, my boys were zonked out :)