My very own Bed

Pax was in love as he got to sleep in his very own queen size bed all by himself at the hotel tonight. He is such a peaceful little boy. I hope he doesn't get used to it though because we're not buying him a queen bed just yet!

Here Comes Trouble

This is a picture of Pax's latest stunt when having his diaper changed. As soon as his diaper is off he rolls over and smiles. This is why he is on the floor in this picture. Changing tables have become too dangerous.



Pax's hands are cracked because he is always sucking on them with vigor and TONS of drool. So we have resorted to bandaging his hands to protect them and keep Neosporin on them. When we eats we have been putting sandwich baggies over the bandages so they don't get rice cereal smeared into them. Evidently Pax finds the bags to be delicious and more appealing than his cereal. Ridiculous!



I took some time at my conference last week to shop for Pax at Children's Place. I couldn't resist these cute shades and sun hat. :)

New Milestone

This morning Pax was playing in his excersaucer while I was making coffee. I had put a few extra non attached toys on it. He likes to throw them off and then look at me as if I took them. But today...he threw one of them off, then stood up on his tiptoes and strained his neck over the tray to see where his toy went. Object permanence and the discovery of the force of gravity over his toys! :) I've been waiting for a couple weeks for him to discover this.
He also wore his first pair of real shoes today, little sneakers. I will try and get a pic up them soon.

Laughing

I'm not sure when a baby is supposed to have the capability to laugh but today was the first i heard it from Pax. He has been smiling for quite some time and responds well when others smile at him, but today I was tickling his belly and he sort of laughed/snorted. the first is the best but he does it again pretty good towards the end. He is just so cute!

Voice lessons

A recent development has been Pax's discovery that he can control his voice and low and behold he likes the sound of himself talk (takes after his mommy and daddy). He has frequently woken up in the morning just by talking instead of crying (so nice) and he marvels at how high pitched he can get his voice to go. We are working on saying "da da," but for now we are settling for vocal interaction of any type.

The Heart Attack without the bun

~by Preston


So I caved to the mass marketing campaign of KFC today. After seeing/listening to too many ads about KFC's new "Double Down" sandwich, I decided that Pax and I would stop by our local KFC and grab one for lunch. Here is the low down for those who haven't heard of or tried it yet:
540 calories
32 g fat
1380g sodium
only 11g carbohydrates because there is no bun, so a good choice for Atkins dieters.

This, for me, was all taste curiosity. When i purchased the sandwich for $5.26, the lady who sold it to me said they have been selling a lot of them. When I asked if she had tasted one and she replied "they look kind of unhealthy," that's awesome coming from an employee :)

I have to say I expected a bit more actually. The chicken wasn't as large as I'd thought and it didn't hold the sauce real well. The cheese and bacon were awesome with it, but then again what do cheese and bacon not go well with!

After eating one for lunch (and thus consuming way more than my daily recommended allowance of almost every nutrient not good for me) my rating is a 4 out of 10. i didn't get a picture of it but the grease spot leftover was incredible.
Suggestions for KFC: loose a piece of chicken, add a little more sauce, wrap it in a bun, and charge$1.78 for it, then I will visit your establishment again for lunch! Until then I will feel full and greasy.

This was our first attempt at cereal.


This was today's successful feeding!

Test Results

The test results came back from the colonoscopy. All is normal! We are just going to proceed with a limited dairy diet for now just in case that was causing any irritation.

Quick Update

I realize I have not updated on Pax's "BM"condition lately. So here is the latest. We met with a pediatric GI specialist on Monday because after eliminating dairy from my diet we were still seeing some blood in his stools. It was really amazing that we were able to meet with him, as he is booked several months out. (Our wonderful pediatrician pulled some strings for us.)
After examining him thoroughly and asking us tons of questions he decided the next step would be getting some pictures of Pax's colons, via a mini infant colonoscopy. (This may sound invasive but our doctor told us that because infants are generally so relaxed it doesn't even bother them. Pax just talked and cooed through the whole thing. Our doctor said that if adults could be as relaxed as babies, they could perform colonoscopies just as simply. Remember that for your next colonoscopy!)
Again, we were very fortunate to have this done because these are scheduled even further out. But the doctor seemed to click with us (Or at least Pax. The doctor just recently had his first grandchild, a boy, who wears the same cloth diapers as Pax and lives on the East Coast.) and so he walked us over to the GI "surgery" room and performed the procedure immediately.
Thankfully he saw no reason for concern. The pictures confirmed his hypothesis that Pax's issue is a "variation of normal." Evidently breastfed babies have an abundance of lymph nodes in their GI track. Sometimes these lymph nodes dislodge themselves and as a result produce blood in the stools. While the doctor was taking pictures of these he took a small biopsy and is running some tests on it just to make sure there is nothing more seriously wrong. We should know the results of that later today or tomorrow. All in all the doctor is not overly concerned. He does want me to keep up with a very limited dairy intake because he says that can only help.

Pax's Lastest Adventures

Today was opening day for the Cleveland Indians. Preston and Pax wore their support but unfortunately in vain: They lost 0-5. :(

For Easter we had some friends over. The cutie in the dress is Piper, one of Pax's many girlfriends. They were having fun saying hi to each other.
The week before Easter we went home to visit Preston's family. Pax learned some of Preston's Rock Band skills.
Pax got to spend some quality time with his cousin, Otis. (Otis is Pax's greatest rival for world's biggest drooler.)
It was so hot last week, Pax wasn't sure what to make of it. We took a walk and afterward Pax thoroughly enjoyed sucking on one of Aimee's ice cubes.
Here is Pax opening his very first Easter basket.

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit Pax's only great grandparent while home in PA. In this picture is 4 generations of Tippens!

This was Paxton's disposition for most of our travels from Marshfield to Madison. We were NOT complaining.
While home we visited good friends, the Schreibers. Their beautiful girl Cecily loved Pax (and vice versa). This picture was not posed. We put Pax down for a nap and Cecily snuck in and cuddled up with him. They "talked" and "flirted" and did NOT sleep. :)

Look at that CUTE face!
"Mom, I just want to go out and play!"

Pax's latest pass time is touching our faces. It is soooo precious. He will play with our faces, taking it all in, for several minutes.
Pax is finally old enough for his jumper seat. He is slowly learning how to manipulate it. Thanks Mom, we love this gift!

WI capital