12.25.11 Christmas Morning at GiGi's.
If the title of this blog posting suprised you, you are way behind on the times! I am 31 pregnant with Kader's little brother, Griffin! We found out we were pregnant 7/30/11 and his due date is April 7th. All in all, this has been another easy pregnancy and I love being pregnant. I stayed nauseated for the first 15 weeks or so, but never threw up thank goodness! I have been having much more indigestion, much earlier in this pregnancy than with Kader. Maybe our sweet Griffin will have more hair than his brother when he was born! A few of the hightlights of the past few months include: We had our first doctors visit on September 1st and shared our exciting news with our families during my birthday celebration that weekend. October 6th we had our nuchal screen done which tests for chromosomal problems and everything checked out okay. The following week on the 13th our friend Kim did a complimentary gender ultrasound and we found out that Kader was going to have a little brother! I initially thought I was pregnant with a girl, but prior to the ultrasound changed my mind that it was a boy (my pregnancy symptoms were essentially the same except for slightly increased nausea; I also had acne/oily skin during the first trimester). I felt the first flutters of movement October 27th, but wonder if I was feeling his movement sooner than that. Kirk felt him move for the first time on November 5th while we were sitting on the couch watching TV after Kader went to sleep. We had our "big" ultrasound on the 7th of November which confirmed that Griffin was still a boy and he was healthy. During the ultrasound they noticed a slight increase of fluid around his kidneys which they said was likely transient, but scheduled a follow-up ultrasound for 8 weeks which we just had completed on January 18th. The fluid accumulation is still there but at very low levels, so we will recheck again in 6 weeks. Most of the time fluid around the kidneys is just monitored unless something structurally is causing it (which we don't think is the case right now). Baby boys most commonly have this problem related to their anatomy. If the fluid is still there or worse at the next ultrasound, we will let the pediatrician know about it and they might want to do an ultrasound once he's born. The ultrasound tech said that if you had to pick 1 thing to be wrong with your child, this would be it because it usually doesn't cause any problems. I'll have to say I agree. We have our "fun" 4D ultrasound next Friday 2.17. I can't wait to see who this little guy looks like. We had a brief 3D peek at our last ultrasound and I must say that Griffin definitely looks like his Daddy and brother!
A few of my favorite pictures since our last post. There are lots more toward the end!
12.15.11 Kader LAST NIGHT with his beloved paci! He's such a big boy now without it. I think I might have been more attached to it than him. It broke my heart to take it away from him :-) It signifies him growing up and being the big boy that I know he is!
12.2.11 Kader loves reading with MeMa...he REALLY loves singing with her!
11.13.11 LOVE this snuggly picture of Kirk and Kader wrestling in bed!
10.31.11 I took Kader to Cary Towne Center for trick or treating with a girlfriend and her two little ones only to find out that ALL of Cary decided to take their children there as well.....it was WAY more trouble than what it was worth. I think part of the problem was that it was raining cats and dogs and the mall served as a good alternate for the kiddies. Note to self: NEVER do the mall thing when the weather is bad!
Since the last post, Kader has morphed into a toddler! He amazes us daily with his newly aquired skills. I must say, our little man is a smart little cookie(I'm definitely biased)! In September (18 months) he started using his spoon to feed himself proficiently. He also has a magnetic toy that sticks on the fridge that he consistently matches the front and backs of animals/vehicles without prompting. He also loves to help and loves to put away dirty clothes into the hamper if they are left on the floor (uh hum, Kirk!).
In October (19 months) he had his second ear infection that took 3 rounds of antibiotics to clear! He continues to be a GREAT medicine taker, which is awesome considering the trouble that some parents have to go through to get their kids take it! Kader also had a followup appointment with the Immunologist the last week in October which resulted in stable bloodwork with some values actually improving. At this point Kader continues to have his fevers although we do not check them daily/weekly like we had in the past. He felt warm the other day, so I checked and it was 100.5. Kader continues to act just fine, grow and develop at at normal rate, so we will just continue to keep an eye on things but not actively persue further testing. He has a followup in April.
He also added tons of words to his vocabulary between October and November (20 months): knock-knock (we hit the walls of the shower after we are done bathing Kader to let the other one know it's time to come in at get him and we call it knocking!), Lily, Adley, home, milk, Buck-Buck (Thomas and Dede's dog), stars, moon (which he points at in the sky -initally he was rather preoccupied by it and would want to look at it ALL time, but that has worn off a little), okay, Izzy (Tori's dog), Sarah (Tori's daughter), drink, applesauce (his 100% most favorite food), Bruiser (the bear mount in his room), Amen (love to say the blessing at dinner and prayers at night), get up, goodnight, nite-nite, PopPop (Tiffany's Dad), JoJo (Tiffany's stepmom), bye bye Daddy--these are just a few of the plethora of words he's starting to pick up! In November he started putting 2 words together and even can spell his name with some prompting (he will now just randomly spell his name when he sees letters or when he's playing in the shower with his foam letters, and rather than telling you his name is Kader when you ask, he'll spell it for you)! He also started opening doors without help.
One of Kader's most impressive acheivements at the end of November was going PEE PEE in the POTTY! A little background on that: On 11/27, Kirk, Kader and I worked in the yard all day, after finishing Kader and I came inside to shower. I got Kader naked and then started undressing myself when I hear peepee hitting the carpet in our bedroom! I scooped him up and sat him down on our toliet and told him that we go peepee in the potty, not on the carpet. I asked him if he could try to go peepee on the potty and voila-he made peepee in the potty and a small poop! He peed atleast 4 times on the potty that night and has been peeing ever since! He loves the fact that he gets treats for going in the potty (M&M's) and that was his inital motivator and still is really! He doesn't care if he is wet or not, even now. He will sometimes tell you he has to go peepee and other times you have to ask. He usually needs 1 change during the day, but has had a few all dry days since December! He is completely against going poop in the potty and still goes in his pullups, although he did poop on the potty after saying he had to this past weekend. I am really suprised and excited at the progress that he's made. I was completely prepared to have 2 little ones in diapers for quite some time, but at this rate Kader may be 100% trained by the time Griffin gets here!
Over the past 6 weeks it seems like Kader has hit the fastward button! He is 22 months old and seems so much older than that! In December (21 months) we took his paci away (12/16) completely. He was only using it at naptime and bedtime, but I wanted to get rid of it before Griffin got here, plus wanted to avoid further attachement to it as he got older. He did awesome! The first nap without it he cried for 20 minutes and slept for 45, that night he cried for 10-15 minutes and slept through the night ( I was shocked and completely prepared to be up a few times). The third night was probably the worst, but I think it was related to being over tired and other factors as well...it took him 2 hours to fall asleep. Otherwise the process was seamless. Even now he'll make reference to his paci and I just tell him it's gone and he seems okay with that! In December, he also started putting 2-4 words together and singing songs mainly "this old man (he shakes his little pointer finger for this old man plays 1) and twinkle twinkle little star." With each, he starts off strong and you really know what he's saying and then he just starts to mumble, but he keeps his tune. It's so cute! Yesterday he came home from playgroup singing "happy birthday to you and deep and wide." I texted his playgroup teacher to ask if they had sang those songs and sure enough they had a birthday party for one of Kader's playgroup friends and sang to her multiple times throughout the day and then they went upstairs to hang out with the big kids and that's where he heard "deep and wide." Pretty neat that he was able to pick up those songs so quickly! This past weekend he also said a 6 word sentence "Daddy, I want some ketchup, please"-Kirk and I both did a double take! Of note, the kid LOVES ketchup and LOVES to dip his food! He will also appropriately tell you "bless you" when you sneeze or cough. This is completely unprompted-the first time he did it, Kirk and I were impressed! He also loves to imitate. He will have his stuffed animal pee on the potty or drink his drink. Kader still will not sit still to watch any type of TV/cartoons for any length of time but he will sit still for the intro song for bullriding. He does at times ask to watch Mickey Mouse and Gaba Gaba, although once you turn it on, he resumes whatever activity he was doing. He doesn't seem to stay interested in 1 activity for too long and is super busy and inquisitive. He loves to find out how things work. He loves working with his tools (that was the "theme" this Christmas) and playing with his construction equipment, cars and trucks. He really enjoys "pencils" (he refers to pencils, pens and crayons as pencils) which mean coloring to him! He favors his right hand for a lot of things, but will switch things up and use his left hand as well. Not such which one will ultimately end up being his dominate hand. Another "new" thing for Kader is him insisting that one of us sit on the floor and play with him. "Daddy sit, daddy sit." He is also Momma's good helper! A lot of times I'll be in the kitchen and he will ask to help me. I really try to involve him in everything that I do, but my goodness does that slow down progress! I hope that one day rather than his help slowing me down, it'll speed things up! Over the Christmas holiday Kader and I had a marathon day leaving the house at 930am to see Santa (whom he was less than impressed with) which led into an all day shopping adventure which he tolerated rather well. We didn't get home until 630 that night! The whole time I told him what a good shopping buddy he was and he still says "momma's buddy shoppin" to this day when I asking him about him being momma's buddy!
Here are some pictures, newest to oldest since our last posting:
1.6.12 Kader playing with the Johne Deere tractor that his Great Grandma Lilley gave him.
1.6.12 MeMa helping Kader open up gifts. Gotta love the muscial ones that make LOTS of noise! Since we didn't make it to Williamston on Christmas day this year, Sylvia brought Christmas to us about 1 1/2wks later. Kader had no problem getting into present opening gear!
1.6.12 Checking out his new tools. Apparently tools were the unspoken theme this year-the majority of his presents were along this theme without any prompting. Kader loves to imitate his daddy and help in the shop.
12.25.11 Celebrating Christmas at our house Christmas night. Kader sporting his "gobbles" and chainsaw.
12.25.11 Opening presents at home after a looooong daily was fairly anti climatic. He was exhausted and really just wanted to play with each present rather than opening the next one! Can't say I blame him...the boy opened up a lot of presents the week or so leading up to Christmas. You wouldn't think anyone loved the poor kid!
12.25.11 Santa came to McGee's.
12.25.11 Kader checking out his new battery powered 4wheeler.
12.25.11 Kader helping GiGi.
12.25.11 Giving his trike a test drive
12.25.11 Aunt Allie and Kader
12.25.11 The Giaccone clan
12.24.11 Christmas Eve at GiGi's--waiting for dinner. Kader occupied himself quite nicely as you can see.
12.24.11 Pepaw helping Kader
12.24.11 Kader opening more gifts from DeDe and Pepaw. As you can see he LOVED his backpack!
12.24.11 More tools!
12.24.11
12.24.11 Kader with his DeDe and Pepaw
12.23.11 Opening gifts at Matt and Robin's house. Kader was done with his presents, so he decided he'd help Pepaw
12.23.11 Kirk helping Kader
12.23.11 MeMa sure loves her Kader
12.23.11 Us!
12.23.11 More Gifts!
12.23.11 Lets see what's in here!
12.23.11
12.23.11
12.23.11
12.23.11 DeDe sharing words of wisdom
12.23.11 Kader getting some love before we went home.
12.20.11 I did a mini photo shoot before I took Kader to the mall to see Santa. That day was a marathon!! Kader was "showing me his teeth" in this picture
12.20.11 My handsome little boy!
12.20.11 Cheeeeeze!
12.20.11 What are you talking about lady? Are we done yet!?!
12.18.11 The BEST picture that we could get.......Kader was NOT a fan that night!
12.18.11 Kader and Grammy Jo
12.17.11 Kader looks like he's going skiing. He insisted on putting on his new clothes (on top of his old ones) and wearing his hat. So sweet.
12.17.11 Kader checking out the quality of Rachael's present......Kader will surely kill me for posting this pic one day!
12.17.11 Gift, gifts and more gifts. Pop Pop and Grammy Jo don't spoil Kader at all.
12.17.11 Kader checking out his new Einstein books.
12.17.11 Pop Pop playing with Kader
12.17.11 Kader trying out his sit and spin....it took him a few days to get the hang of it.
12.17.11 Kader finished opening his presents, so decided that he should help Ray Ray.
12.17.11 Such a good little helper!
12.17.11 Giving Pop Pop some love.
12.17.11
12.17.11
11.20.11 Kader, Daddy and Great Grandma Lilley at our annual Thanksgiving celebration
11.20.11 Kirk and I were amused with something....Kader, not so much!
11.20.11 Kader and Uncle Matt
11.20.11 Kader sure is being cooperative! :-)
11.13.11 Kader loves his MeMa
11.13.11
11.13.11 Kader and Daddy playing in our bed. Kader LOVES to jump and "go night night" in our bed! Kirk loooooves to snuggle Kader in our bed and will ask Kader if he wants to go to sleep with Daddy. Now Kader will periodically ask: "Go to sleep with Daddy"
11.8.11 Mowing the lawn
11.8.11 My cutie!
11.8.11 I see you!
11.5.11
10.22.11 My sweet little Monkey!
10.22.11
10.8.11 Helping Daddy work! Kader loves to be on the big equipment with Kirk. I must say though, that he LOOOOOOOOOOVES the "feewheeler" (4 wheeler) Whenever we are outside in the yard he is going to the shop trying to open the doors to get inside so he can "ride." He's such a mess!
10.8.11
10.8.11 He looks so little in the bucket!
10.7.11 Daddy making Mommy nervous.....Kader loving every second of it!
Kader knows all about Griffin and will pull up my shirt to see my belly when you ask him where he is. I don't think he know's how much his life is going to change once the little guy gets here, but I have no doubt that he will adjust quickly and be a great big brother and a wonderful little helper.
I will try to update the blog atleast 1 more time before Griffin gets here, but will make no promises!
I hope everyone is doing well and had a great holiday season and a wonderful start to 2012.
Love to all,
Kirk, Tiffany, Kader (and Griffin)
