1st Time at the Dentist

Today marked Marshall's 1st dentist visit.  Since Marshall is kind of hit and miss with new people I knew I wanted to find someone who had a good track record with children.  So I hit Google to see what our options were.  As luck would have it, there was a pediatric dentist about 2 miles away from our house.  I read their reviews and followed their Facebook page for a few weeks and saw nothing but positive feedback for the dentists and their staff so I went ahead and made an appointment.

When we first walked in, the first thing you see is a white board where they welcome their new patients.  I thought that was a nice touch.


Of course, what is a children's doctor's office without a play area?  As soon as Marshall saw that, all hesitation about walking into the room went right out the door.

Once we got inside the exam room, Marshall got nervous again with both the dentist and the assistant in the room.  So Freddy got in the chair and let Marshall sit on his lap.  Somehow, with Marshall almost clenching his teeth, the dentist was able to clean his teeth and do an exam.  All the while Marshall was yelling "I don't want to brush my teeth!"  
The diagnosis:  No cavities and four 2-year molars breaking through.
Once the cleaning and exam were done, Marshall was all smiles as soon as he heard "Do you want to pick a prize?"  He even gave the assistant a high-five.  Overall, the whole experience went 100 times better then I expected.
Afterwards, we treated Marshall to lunch at Old McDonald's (aka McDonald's!).


~AKO

Milestones

On February 14th, 2011, we dropped Marshall off at his new day care as I had to go back to work 2 days later.  I selected his "1st day of day care" outfit carefully.

When we dropped him off, he had his own crib and cubby for his supplies.  They let us take some pictures of the area.

Of course, as any mommy dropping their baby off at day care for the first time I was a wreck.  And to top it off we had to go to a funeral that day for one of Freddy's Army buddies who had recently passed away.  Anyway, Marshall was perfectly fine when we picked him up...

Fastforward 2 1/2 quick years later and Marshall has finished up his last day at day care.  Friday was his last day and Monday he starts pre-school.  His teachers were kind enough to take some photos of his last day and got pictures of Marshall with all of the teachers that he's had over the past couple of years.

 
They even brought in some munchkins for the kids for his last day.  We couldn't have asked for a better day care experience then what we've had over the past 2 1/2 years.  It is a little bittersweet as Marshall moves on to the next milestone tomorrow for his 1st day of pre-school.
~AKO

Mystery Solved

So we've been getting pretty good at translating "Marshall-speak" over the past few weeks...

Some are very clear:
1. Mommy
2. Daddy
3. No (very popular with The Marsh)
4. Yes
5. Ana (Ms. Ana is in charge of the infant room at day care)
6. Puppy
7. Apple
8. What's that

Some not so much:
1. tooky - cookie
2. tiky - kitty
3. ayoo - where are you
4. ta too - thank you
5. bobby - bottle
6. be be - beep beep (car)

Well, over the last few weeks a very popular word has been "ehto". Or what sounds like "ehto". He says it numerous times during the day. Initially we thought he might be saying "y tu", which is Spanish for "and you". The girls at day care will talk to him in Spanish so we thought it probably wasn't too far fetched.

Anyway, so I'm picking him up from day care yesterday when he starts to say "ehto" again. Ms. Becky responds "he's not even here." So I have to ask. What the heck is my kid saying??? Turns out he's saying "Angel". There is another little boy at day care named Angel, who, by the way, is a very sweet little boy.

Apparently, whenever something happens, Marshall will say "ehto" as if he is telling them that Angel did it. Except in most cases, Angel is nowhere near the scene of the crime.

Yep... I have that kid...

 

 ~AKO

Always Learning

So one thing that we've noticed about The Marsh as he gets closer to the 1 1/2 year mark is how curious and intuitive he is. He always wants to be doing things and will always try something at least once. But, you better watch out because once he gets his sights set on something he will not give up until it is his.

These pictures were taken during one of the many doctor's visits over the past few months. He is so used to the waiting room now that he has to run over and play with the Activity Cube and watch out to any kid who might already be playing with it. We have to work on Marshall's "playing with others" skills :)









~AKO

Happy Halloween!!

~AKO

Day 15: Baby's First Evacuation

This morning started off like any other day. I woke up around 5:30 and rushed through my shower and feeding the cats so I could be done before Marshall woke up. This morning he was good and I actually had to wake him up at 6:30 to get ready to go. We left around 6:45 and I dropped him off at daycare around 7:15. Arriving at work around 8:15, I had a new employee start yesterday so I spent my entire morning in a conference room with her training. We had just finished up for the day around noon when my boss peeked in the room and motioned for me to come into his office.

Well, it was my friend, Michelle on his phone. Apparently there was a small electrical fire at Marshall's daycare and they had to evacuate all of the kids. When they couldn't get in touch with me, they called Freddy. When he couldn't get in touch with me he called Michelle, who went over and picked up Marshall.

I spoke with the director of the daycare this evening and no one was hurt, but the location is going to be closed until they can make repairs. As an alternative they are moving the kids over to their other location, which is primarily for the older kids. The good news is that I still have someplace to take him. The bad thing is that my commute is going to suck more since I'll have to take the bus into Hoboken now :(

And to make matters worse I think I'm getting sick...

~AKO

Day 1: Gymboree Fun!

Freddy left today for a month long mission in California. He is helping another unit mobilize for deployment to Afghanistan. We've been lucky so far in that he hasn't had to be gone for more than the 2 - 3 weeks for his AT so this is going to be the longest that he is away since we've been together. Marshall is now old enough to realize that daddy did not come back this morning but doesn't understand why. It won't be long before I have to explain to him why daddy has to leave.

So, of course, everyone was acting up today since daddy was gone. On top of all that, I went to draw a bath for Marshall and we had no hot water! I improvised and was able to get some hot water from our Poland Spring dispenser but I hope it is back in the morning. There is nothing worse than having to take a cold shower!

Anyway, I wanted to make sure we were able to do at least one family thing before Freddy left. We were supposed to go to the zoo a couple weeks ago but got rained out. So, I signed us up for a preview class at our local Gymboree. I figured it might be a fun way for Marshall to socialize a bit more with kids his own age. Well, after some hesitation, he decided this might be fun.















We decided to enroll and attend the class weekly. I kind of wish I would have found this when Marshall was younger. What I did learn is that my son is a little bruiser! He was pushing and taking toys away from the other babies. I'm hoping this class will help teach him to share :)

AND if you notice in that last picture, The Marsh has 4 teeth coming in on the top.

~AKO

Baby's Day Out

Today we decided we needed to go out and purchase a couple of Marshall containers baby gates after spending most of last evening hauling him away from the television and out of the bathroom that is connected to the living room. We had a couple of firsts today.

First and foremost, Marshall rode in his big boy car seat for the first time. We were pretty much at the point where we were leaving his infant seat in the car and carrying him back and forth since he was just getting too darn heavy to haul around in it. After extensive researching (to the point where my husband was beginning to think we were never going to choose one) I finally decided on the Britax Boulevard 70 Convertible car seat. He seemed to be pretty comfy in the new chair but I can’t wait to be able to turn him around. It will be like a whole new world for him to be able to see out the front instead of the sides of the car.


Daddy getting The Marsh all set up in his new chair…



Ready to go!!




The 2nd first was Marshall’s first ride in a shopping cart! Since he was sitting up in highchairs with no problem we figured we give the shopping cart a go and leave the stroller at home. So we got him all set up with his floppy seat ready to take on Baby’s R Us. For the first 10 minutes or so he kept looking all around since he’d always come to the store in his car seat or stroller. He looked so small in that big shopping cart!





After a while he started to lean to the side so we’ll need to keep working on sitting up in the shopping cart. We also picked up a few extra things – new pacis, sippy cups, disposeable placemat, and some yummy fruit puffs.





The 3rd first was not so fun. After we were done buying a whole bunch of stuff we probably didn’t need from Baby’s R Us (I can never get out of there for less than $150!), we headed back to the car, got all of the stuff packed in the trunk, and The Marsh buckled into his car seat. Freddy started backing up when all of a sudden we came to an abrupt halt. Baby’s first fender bender :( We were going pretty slow so I can only imagine how fast the other guy was going because our car now looks like this…





And the other car looks like this. Do you see the little tiny scratch on his bumper???





He was trying to tell us that he could just pop that dent out of our bumper himself. Nice try buddy! We’re filing a claim!

So, once we got home The Marsh settled in and played with his new firetruck. Since he was pushing my mouse around on the floor the other day I figured it was time for his first real truck.





And he wasn’t too happy about this…





I’m sure once we get the gate set up around the television he will be even less happy!

~AKO

And He's On the Move

Marshall has officially started the Army crawl. The cats are not amused :) He can now pretty much get wherever he wants now. I ordered a baby gate for the living room yesterday...







~AKO

Baby Milestones

If you remember, the 2 weeks that we were absent from the online world, I had mentioned there were a number of baby milestones achieved. Baby Marshall was pretty busy during his 5th month of life... for those not keeping track that is the month of April 2011 :)

1. April 2 - We started adding some rice cereal to Marshall's bottles. He, of course, gulped it right down with no problem.

2. April 3 - Baby's first visit to the ER :( I posted about this earlier in the week. Even though his coughing was pretty bad, he was still all smiles for the nurses and the doctor.

3. April 4 - Marshall finally rolled from his back to his stomach! We wer visiting our friend Michelle and, of course, I didn't have my camera with me.

4. April 10 - Now here's some exciting stuff... I made my first batch of baby food. We made some yummy pears.



Now, I know I could have used my own food processor, but I liked the fact that the Babycook included a steamer, heater, defroster, and blender all in one machine. This way I didn't have to worry about paying attention to multiple things. I got a few comments that I wasn't really making my own food because I was using a "babyfood maker" but I still have to peel, chop/slice, and mix up the ingredients. So it is still some effort involved. This weekend we're going to try making some peas.

5. April 11 - We tried to feed Marshall some pears. Most of it ended up on his face :) I couldn't get Freddy to take some photos so we'll have to share some photos of Marshall and his baby food later.

6. April 13 - And now for the exciting baby milestone! Do you see it???



It's right there on the bottom. Marshall has his first tooth popping through! So far we haven't had any irritability yet, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. We have the Baby Orajel ready to go.

Those were all the happy things that happened over the past 2 weeks - except for the ER visit, of course. Yesterday we had another not so happy baby milestone. Since we had to take Marshall back into the doctor last Saturday because he was still wheezing and coughing, we had to bring him in for a recheck yesterday. Well, Marshall has his first ear infection. Of course, because he is such a happy baby, he hasn't been showing any signs of being sick or uncomfortable. But, looking back over the past few days, when I was giving him his bottle, he would rub his ear a little bit but I just took that as he was working out his fingers since he wants to grab everything these days.

So now, in addition to the Buterol and Xopenex he gets in the nebulizer 4 times a day, he is now on Amoxicilian for the ear infection. And we have to bring him back in on Monday for a recheck.

Poor baby is getting so used to the nebulizer that he sometimes even holds it himself.




And I've noticed the past 2 days he has been more clingy than normal and would only nap on his daddy.




Fingers crossed my baby gets better soon so he can enjoy his first plane ride next month!

~AKO

Feet!

As I mentioned last night, Marshall has discovered his feet. Whenever he is laying on his back up go the feet. Sometimes when he's in his stroller he tries to pull up his feet with his hands. It won't be long before he's pulling off his socks and putting those toes in his mouth!





~AKO

4 Months

Marshall is 4 months this week and had his 4 month appointment yesterday. He is now 14 lbs and 24 in long. I can't believe how fast he is growing.

Here are a few updates on what he's been up to the past month...

1. Lift his head and shoulders up when on him stomach.





2. Roll from his stomach to his back.
3. Almost roll from his back to his stomach. He still can't quite get over his arm.





4. Celebrated his first Valentine's Day.





5. Started following the cats with his eyes.
6. Quickly growing out of his 3 months clothes and wears mostly 3 - 6 month.
7. Thinks bathtime is OK now.





8. Can sit in the stroller without the car seat.
9. He's about half and half with sleeping through the night. Some nights he'll sleep straight through 8:30ish - 5:30/6:00am. Other nights he will wake up around 2ish for a diaper change.
10. He is always smiling and usually only cries when he needs something.

When I was trying to get his 4 month photo with his bear he refused to sit upright and decided he wanted to rest against the bear's leg.





At one point he slid himself down so that he was laying on th couch. He thought it was hilarious that mommy and daddy were acting like fools trying to get him to pose for the camera. While I was going through my photos, I realized that was almost the same position he was in for his 2 week photo. The only difference is he was screaming in the 2 week photo.





And this is what he thinks about Valentine's Day... My sentiments exactly :)





~AKO