nine month checkup

we had sawyer's nine month well-kid checkup this morning. good thing too. cause he's sick. again. another double ear infection. and tubes were kind of mentioned this morning. we'll still wait until he's a little bit older just to see if maybe the infections will slow down some. but if not, tubes for sawyer too. yay?

other than that, little nugget is doing awesome! we'll shoot his nine month photos tonight hopefully. his eyes have been a little gooey due to the ear infections, so we didn't really want to document all that. even though we did share cayden's first gooey eye experience (warning: don't click on it if you get the heebie-jeebies easily. for real.).

oh, and apparently one of sawyer's top teeth (of the four currently trying to break through) has cut through! know how we know? cause while we were at our appointment this morning talking with our doctor, he started grinding his teeth together. world's worst sound? yes, indeed. i'm guessing we'll be hearing that a lot now. i mean, new teeth are exciting for these little people. they have to use them however they can, right? O_o

sawyer's nine month stats
weight: 17.1 pounds
height: 28.50"
head: 18"

wordless wednesday: walking through the tall grass

he's so close

my sweetheart. my buddy.

it's 4:32. 

he hasn't woken up this early in a few weeks.

itty bitty feet slap the hardwood floors as he makes his way to our room.

first a ragged, loved, stuffed puppy is thrown over me.

the thirty pound two year old follows quickly.

he lays in the space between me and jeremy.

i face him; jeremy faces toward the windows.

he backs his little body into the curve of mine.

settles his head on my pillow.

readjusts his head, and BAM! 

my eye socket shoots out light, he hit it so hard.

i roll in the other direction to avoid getting hit again.

"tell mommy you're sorry," jeremy says.

i tell him i know it was an accident.

"i sorry mommy."

a little hand reaches across my back.

gives me a hug.

and he settles in again.

against my back.

sigh. please stay little.

just a bit longer.

___________________________________________________________

the photo above was taken this weekend. when cayden decided he didn't need a nap.
um, little dude passed out on the couch around 4ish that afternoon.
& it was probably one of the cutest things i've seen.

a little walk around our 'hood

we went out for a walk after work/school the other night. pizza was on the menu for dinner, so we preheated the oven and set out. as always, we asked cayden if he wanted to walk or ride his bike. i believe he jumped up and down while responding, "bike! i wanna ride my bike."

so we suited him up for his bike. and to our surprise, he actually started pedaling. & forward! we got him this bike over a year and a half ago. up until monday night, he was happy to just push himself around not using the pedals at all. we were so proud! and right as we reached the big hill, cayden decided he was finished riding. daddy was the hero, carrying the bike back to the house.

sawyer got to ride in the stroller. i love this stroller. and if we could justify the amount of the double version of this stroller, we'd be all over it. cause then we might start running again. maybe. or not. who knows?

the evening was lovely though. we were able to get out and use up some of that energy that usually seems to stay around for bedtime. dinner was enjoyed and the kiddos went to bed around 7:30. jeremy and i headed upstairs to work on some other things and came back down around 9ish. to find cayden on the couch. reading a magazine to buzz and woody. sneaky little bugger.

and please, enjoy this rad video of cayden riding his bike. it makes me smile all big...

happy spring!

the last few days of winter (ha, haha, hahahahaha!) were absolutely beautiful here in the south. i think it was around 84º this weekend. we had a soccer game and outdoor birthday party to attend. this mama kind of forgot about sunscreen. i guess since it's still march, my brain is having trouble comprehending the fact that a sunburn can still happen. and it did. so yay for outdoor activities, but boo for sunburns!

it's nice being able to be outside more. cayden runs wild and actually sleeps past 5 a.m. and yes, i'm for serious when i say that he normally wakes at 5. and that's on a good morning. we usually hear him stir around 4:30 most mornings. so when i get out of the shower at 6ish and he's still asleep? we're happy. (now, if only we could get this to happen on the weekends. he's notorious for waking extra early on the mornings mama and daddy can sleep in.)

sunday afternoon our church had a picnic at a local park. it was my first time at this park. and it. was. awesome. miles of green grass for running around. a great pavilion for eating. and two, yes TWO, ginormous playground areas for the itty bitties. sawyer actually fell asleep in my arms while we were watching cayden play.

we're really going to try to take advantage of these longer days. tonight? we have a walk around the neighborhood planned for after dinner. it'll probably be getting dark by the time we make it back home, so we'll take a couple of flashlights with us just for safety. and cayden? that boy loves himself a flashlight. here's to starting new spring/summer traditions for our little guys!

mobile baby alert. but only kind of.

when cayden was a a baby, we were always pushing for those next milestones. first teeth, first babbles, eating solids, etc. at 7.5 months, he started crawling. it was a fun day and we couldn't have been more proud of him!

sawyer's pushing 8.5 months and not crawling. but with sawyer, we really haven't pushed the issue. we're not pushing for those next milestones as quickly because time seems to be slipping by so fast already. jeremy and i were perfectly content to have a non-mobile baby for as long as possible. but now? i think the time has come! sawyer is officially scooting backwards, and if i remember correctly, cayden started moving forward not too long after his backward movement.

little man kept me entertained this morning. he'd roll this way and that. then push up on his hands and knees and move backwards. under the bed. always under the bed. no matter which way i faced him, he'd end up under the bed. highly entertaining!

oh, sweet sawyer, it's not going to be long before you're chasing after big brother. i have a feeling our home is about to get a little more wild...

a little wave

so i'm going to brag on my hair for a bit. well, actually, i'm going to berate my hair first. it's an interesting color for starters. sure, it's considered red, but let's get honest, it's orange. bright orange. even my two year old told me it's orange.

but that's not the point of this... i actually like the color of my hair. it's got great natural highlights. i once got lowlights put in it (dark chocolate) and the color of my hair ate them up in a week. i suppose that's God's way of telling me to not color it. it gets darker in the winter and a much brighter shade of orange in the summer. it's kind of fun that way...

... the texture of my hair though? not so great. maybe texture's the wrong word. let's pretend i let it air dry. the left side of my head actually dries in a natural, almost pretty sort of wave. (note that i said almost pretty. it's not pretty enough to just wear it that way.) the right side dries stick straight and big. it's not a pretty mixture. at. all.

so when i saw a tutorial on how to get pretty waves out of your hair and it looked easy, i was all over it. even my first go at it looked really good. a little word of warning though? i burned the poop out of both pointer fingers the first time i tried it. my left pointer finger had a burn about two inches long on the front side. but hey, lesson learned and i haven't done it since.

anytime i'm feeling a little ugly, i whip out the curling iron and go for it. it immediately gives my hair a lift, and in return, makes me feel all sorts of beautiful. and people, if you know me at all, you know that i don't like to talk about myself... but i felt the need to share this little tidbit so if any of you are having an off day, you could give the curling iron trick a little try too. just watch out for your fingers!

(p.s. i also tried some morrocan oil this week. my hair isn't super-coarse feeling, but oh my goodness! this stuff makes it softer than i've ever felt it in my life. love. and that brand is a good price too!)

some new art pieces

i've added a couple of new prints to the shop!

first up is the motto i'm doing my best to take on this year. "let it be. whatever it may be." just go with the flow y'all. try not to worry. just let it be. available in six color options, one of them is sure to look lovely in anyone's home! and the whitespace on these designs? make me swoon. there's just something so nice about a piece of art that has room to breathe.

and quite the opposite of white space, the second print is an addition to my current custom silhouettes. they're now available with a bold chevron pattern as the background. the color palette for all silhouettes has also been updated. these colors are bright and fun and just feel really fresh to me. chevron backgrounds can be for people silhouettes or pets – just snap a good photo and we can go from there. and as always, custom colors can be requested for a small charge.

rough couple of days

whew. those hives. man, those hives were killer y'all. nothing like cayden's reaction back in the day. this morning they seem to mostly be gone. we are very thankful for that. over the weekend, things got pretty ugly. on friday morning, the hives were covering sawyer's face and both of his eyes were swollen. i took a picture to send my mom, but couldn't bear to share it with much anyone else. sunday night was spent mostly awake. we kept him on benadryl, but he must have just been really uncomfortable. and we're also pretty sure his top two teeth are trying to cut through. poor nugget. either way, we're glad to see the hives finally taking a hike. and we're also glad to see our smiley baby back.

a sinking feeling

there's not much worse than sitting at work and you see your child's daycare number come up on the caller ID. you tentatively pick up the phone, not real sure of what you're about to hear. that? was my morning.

after a quick conversation, it was brought to my attention that sawyer had a rash break out on his legs, arms and neck. he was breathing fine, so it wasn't an emergency, but most definitely an allergic reaction to something. i reflected back on the past 24 hours, trying to think of something he might have eaten that was new. and was coming up short.

i got to school to pick up the nugget, and there were rashy spots starting to come up on his face. little guy couldn't seem to care less about it. he was happy as a lark that mommy had shown up at school! and in the middle of the day! i ran by jeremy's office and together we decided that it most definitely needed to be seen by the doctor. appointment was set for 3:30...

i came home, fed sawyer and then he was down for a nap. i'd stripped him down to just a diaper; clothing seemed like it would bother the rash. when i heard him stirring from his nap, the rash had spread. more spots on his face, legs, arms... but still nothing on his trunk. i started flashing back to when cayden was a wee one... and something seemed familiar...

our pediatrician walked into the room and almost immediately declared it hives. hives? yes, hives. if any of you have been around for any amount of time, you might remember this episode with cayden. weird thing? sawyer just turned 8 months yesterday. cayden was about two weeks shy of his eighth month day. a little strange, right?

turns out that our smallest nugget might be allergic to penicillin. he was on an antibiotic, and apparently an allergic reaction to that can take up to a week to show up. boo. little guy seems to feel fine. but man, does he look awful! the hives are popping up all over now. his upper chest is covered in them. here's to a speedy recovery for him and that they continue to not bother him!