It's been too long

Well once again it has been too long since I have written last. We have had a couple of exciting events take place since the last time I have written.

The picture above is of a dinner we had the other night with some friends. It has a bit of a special place in my heart because these newfound friends are natives to Uganda and hope to return there soon after finishing Residency at the Clinic. Our good friend Carrie introduced us. It was such a special treat for me to talk with Ugandan's (I spent a month there in college.) as I have had very little connection to my experiences in Uganda since returning. On a side note, Pax broke his first dish at this dinner. Go figure it was at someone elses home and not our dish. I had him on my lap and was just about to dig into a creamy homemade custard and raspberry sauce dish when he reached out and flung the dish across the table and onto the floor. Awesome :)
For Mother's Day and Preston's Birthday we took a few hours away from home and Pax, and checked out a local park we had never been to before. The picture above just cracks me up because you know you live in WI when you snap a picture and there are cows in the background. Ironically we went to a park, even without our child. But that's what Pres and I enjoy doing. It was fun to act like kids again and take a momentary break from the parent role. We biked, walked, see- sawed, swung, and found our next camping spot.
Pax is slowly graduating to solids. He eats cereal regularly now and has tried avacados and bananas. He really likes to be a helper when eating. I try to get a few solid bites in without his help and then just let him "help" as much as he can. That is why he ends up looking like this.

Here is us at the park.
For Preston's Birthday Pax got Preston an iPad. Pax seems to be as enamored with it as his Daddy. His favorite things to do with it is watch it with his mouth hanging open, drool on it, and bang on it.

Pax has also cut his first tooth and is sitting up on his own. I will try and get a picture of both of these milestones soon.

I'm Such a Sap

If you have followed our blog from the beginning you will recall the antique dresser that Preston and I refinished for Paxton while I was pregnant. We use it as our staging area for changing him. Well today he "discovered" the dresser. While getting dressed, changing, and playing in his room, he has never before really noticed the dresser. I was dressing him on the floor today and as I stood him up his eyes locked on the dresser and he squealed. He continued to just stare at it with a big smile, taking it all in. I put him up to it and let him hold onto the handles with one hand as he took his other hand and ran it back and forth over the cracks, cooing in delight. You would have thought he was once blind and this was the first thing he saw after regaining his sight. I am not really sure what was going through his little head but it was precious. I got all teary eyed. He was actually enjoying the one thing we both worked hard on to make for him in preparation for his birth. I got to tell him that we made it for him. (I am not so delusional as to think he understood that, but I still liked telling him.)
Anyhoo, it was a precious little moment that was unexpected.
On a side note, I noticed today that allowing him to grasp the knobby handles is great fine motor practice for rock climbing. Even reached for the higher knobs as he got a good hold on the ones eye level to him. We may have a rock climbing prodigy...

Racing Family

Pax competed in his first race this past Saturday. Well, to be fair he was around for a Duathalon that Aim and I did together as a team. (However, he wants me to tell you that he did cross the finish line first, beating both mom and dad, more on that later).
We decided to register as a mixed team for the Woodson YMCA Duathalon (click to see results) as a way to get ourselves into shape. Nothing like a goal of being able to be competitive on a 5K run- 32K bike - 3K run race course to motivate both of us to work out and get into shape after having a baby and going through winter!
Needless to say, we didn't do that best at training. I only biked once before the race (and only 16 miles) so I was a bit nervous at how my legs would hold up. Aim ran a bit more than I but not as much as she had hoped and never 8K in a day. So with Pax in his jogging stroller and our running shoes and bike all tuned up we set out on this adventurous course.
Aim was up first and ran a 24:27 (7:53/mile pace, very good for her). Then Preston took off on the 20 mile bike finishing the windy course in 1:05 (averaging about 18mph). After the bike Preston tagged Aimee who took off on the 3K run. Pax and Preston joined her halfway through and finished the run as a family (this is where Pax got the most cheers and crossed the finish line ahead of us because the stroller was in front of us both!).
The biggest surprise came after the race when we looked at the results as saw that we had won the mixed team division (to be fair there was only 1 other team, but the win was kind of cool.)
We hope this is a first of many family races, only we hope to be in better shape next time!

more spring pics here

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!