Keep on keepin' on

I have to keep reminding myself this is my last week. My University Supervisor is coming in to observe me today, I woke up about an hour late, I practiced my lesson on a group this morning and I thought it was going to be too short--I only got through half the material, I have to finish everything I haven't gotten done so far this week because it is my last in the classroom, and it's Tuesday and I'm already exhausted. Say a little prayer for me.

Axl is six months old today!

We returned from our Spring Break trip to Atlanta, GA this afternoon. I have to be honest--I almost declined the invitation to go because I thought we would be gone on the day Axl turned 6 months old and I would miss out on my bear picture in Axl's crib...but I got lucky and the day we were to return was TODAY. :)

Half of a year seems an awfully long time! We have definitely gotten to know Axl very well by now, and every day we learn more and every day he changes more. He is beginning to become mobile (in that he still kicks incessantly and waves his arms everywhere--leading to a little scooting), but I'm thinking he will be a late crawler. He seems to have forgotten how to roll from front to back, but I like just watching him rest his head on the ground and smile at me, because he wouldn't EVER do this before Zantac!

Axl's list of mastered foods is growing by the week. Now he has had...
Rice Cereal

Sweet Potatoes

Plums

Carrots

Green Beans

Apple Juice

Potatoes (the first thing he has absolutely HATED--we tried this in Atlanta. I tried to make it extra smooth after the first sign of distaste with extra blending and breast milk but he still just continued to make the terrible face, gag, and promptly throw up. Gross. I won't try this again for a while.)

We usually come in to find him sleeping on his side, still snuggling with his little bear that is for some reason in a bunny costume. He still doesn't sleep through the night and when he woke up nightly in Atlanta at about 3-4 a.m. in his port-a-crib he seemed to be freezing cold, so I ended up snuggling him up under the covers on my bed...probably a bad idea but I couldn't bear for him to go back to sleep cold. :/ We'll see how this bad habit will affect him when we come home and this can't happen anymore...

Here are some snapshots taken throughout the month...

Axl learned to hold his own bottle this month!

Just a cute picture of Axl and Dad
This month, Axl got a little long for the carseat Lyman and Elizabeth loaned us. We could have adjusted the straps one more time but Luke and Kate had already loaned us another bigger one so we switched :) What would we do if we actually had to buy a carseat?? Good thing we had kids after everyone else...
So long sweet Combi...Axl had some yummy apple juice for the first time on March 11th (My dad's birthday!!)

...and what you've all been waiting for...
just kidding...but really

one month old 10/19/2008
two months old 11/19/2008

three months old 12/19/2008
four months old 1/19/2009
five months old 2/19/2009
six months old 3/19/2009

and some other cute ones from the shoot this month...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, Everyone!

Love, The AxMan

Catching up...finally.

A few things worth remembering have happened during my hiatus from the blog.

This is the third week of my Practicum placement, and it is definitely obvious when observing the infrequency of my posts. I started in a 4th grade classroom at Tates Creek Elementary on February 23rd. It took a while to settle in, but I'm getting to know the students and teacher much better now so the days are more enjoyable. This schedule has definitely thrown both Axl and I for a loop. When going to UK, my first class started at nine. My alarm would go off at 6 a.m. and I would get myself ready and Axl's things ready (diaper bag, 2 thawed bottles, cereal, etc.). I would wake Axl up at 7:30 and nurse him until about 8 when we would leave to get to Leighann's by about 8:20 so I could get him settled and leave there to make it to school on time. I now have to be at the elementary school at 7:15 every morning, Monday through Friday (I had Fridays off at UK). So, needless to say, our mornings are MUCH more difficult. My alarm goes off at 4:45 when I should get up. I usually snooze until 5 and then get up and get ready. I now have to pump his first bottle of the day before he even wakes up :( I wake Axl up at 6:25 and we leave at 6:30. Leighann gives him his first bottle at 7:30 and his schedule stays the same while at her house. I have really missed being able to nurse him when he wakes up in the morning and the extra pump of the day has made me a little more uncomfortable than usual. The days are long. I get up early and get ready for the day...come home and get ready for the next day...go to bed...get up and get ready for the day...etc, etc. I only have one week left after a brief reprieve of Spring Break next week. :) Until then I'm just trying to stay awake.

Axl started eating baby food the 21st of February. I made some sweet potatoes for him and he absolutely loves it! Since then, we've had plums, carrots and green beans. I was afraid he wouldn't like the green, but he doesn't seem to show a dislike for ANYTHING going in his mouth thus far.

THIS JUST IN....seriously....as I was typing Axl just rolled over from back to belly!! I was so afraid he was going to do it first for someone else, but I saw it!!

Anyway...shortly after the first baby food, Axl stopped pooping. The last time I could remember him pooping was on a Sunday and we ended up going to the doctor on Friday. He didn't seem uncomfortable at all except at nighttime. Anyway, the Doctor ended up just "checking" him and Axl promptly pooped for about 10 minutes straight. I never thought I'd be so happy to see someone pooping...but for some reason --I hope this isn't just me me-- but since becoming a mother I'm obsessed with all things Axl...even down to the BMs.

The Thursday night before I started my practicum placement, I woke in the middle of the night with the worst ear pain I have ever felt before. I couldn't go back to sleep and after several hours, I decided that if Tyler was going to get up and go to work the next morning, I wouldn't be able to drive myself and Axl to the doctor if I needed to, so we headed to the ER. There, they told me a bunch of stuff that made no sense and sent me home with discharge papers that said "diagnosis: ear pain". Is that not the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? By then, I was just extremely tired and I felt a little better, so we just went home. No medicine, no advice, no nothing. When we got home the pain got progressively worse. We made an appt with the Ear Nose and Throat doctor and went in...only for him to look in my ear for about 1.5 seconds and say, "your ear hurts because you have an ear infection". So he prescribed an antibiotic, but no pain medicine. It wasn't until I was on my way out to the car that it registered in my mind that he had said, "you should feel much better in about a week or two". The rest of the day continued with that extreme pain. I said afterwards that I would have rather been in labor all day, than feel that kind of pain, and I'm seriously not kidding. It literally did take about 2 weeks for the pain to be completely gone and for most of that time I couldn't hear out of my left ear...but happily, everything is back to normal now.

I think that's about it. Hopefully it won't be as long before my next post, but I'm making no guarantees. :)