11 Months...

Well actually, the more appropriate title would be 11 months and 13 days, but I digress...

David Scott,
Daddy and I are in the middle of planning (really it's just preparing now) for your 1st birthday party. Exactly a year ago, we were preparing for your birth which would happen 19 days later. And now here you are nearly walking, babbling and talking, and growing each and every day. I swear, your Daddy and I love you more with each day that passes, although every day, I think it's not possible to love you more. But we do. I love seeing you first thing in the morning, when you're still sleepy and you want to be held. I love when you wave bye bye to me and even sometimes blow me a kiss when i drop you off at daycare in the morning. I love seeing your face light up when I arrive to pick you up from daycare. I love playing with you...even when you're in a crabby mood in the evenings. I love watching you sleep in your bed at night. I even love getting up with you at 2:48 a.m. Which I did night before last b/c you were crying and I wanted to console you --haven't had to do that in several weeks. But even when you were regularly waking up in the middle of the night, and I had to go to work the next day, I didn't mind that either. And do you know why I love all these things? Because I'm your mother. And that's what I do. The same goes for Daddy, although he doesn't write it down, but he tells you just like I do how much you mean to us both.

For record-keeping purposes, David Scott, you are currently:
• 29.5 inches in length
• 23.5 Pounds
• Wearing a size 3 diaper...still
• Wearing a size 3 or 4 shoe
• Wearing mostly size 12 month clothes, although you can wear a few of your 6, 9, and 18-month things...kinda strange the variation of sizes
• Eating more and more regular food. Spaghetti and beef tips with rice and gravy seem to be some of your favorite foods. What a pleasant coincidence!
• Still taking 4 bottles a day although certain containers of your formula were recalled so we've been having to buy your formula in liquid form. I'm wishing you were already on cow's milk b/c the liquid formula is not cheap.
• Going to bed by 8 and sleeping through the night except every once in a while you'll wake up and can't get yourself back to sleep. Enter Mama to assist.
• Saying Mama (which I think is your favorite word), Dada, Lola, that, thank you (still working on it), hey, bye, and dog (I think).
• Loving life in your new carseat. No longer in a backward-facing baby seat.
• Destined for a career in politics-- you smile and wave at people everywhere we go. It so charming.
• Attempting to walk. As of today, you've taken 5 steps and I STILL haven't witnessed a single one. I'm beginning to think your Daddy is lying about it. And I would totally believe that if you hadn't taken one at daycare a few weeks back.
• Are always on the move. You cannot sit down and watch a movie. Oh no, you want to play with everything all the time. Apparently your Daddy was the same way. Which is not a bad thing...except when Mama really just wants to sit down and relax. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

Little Monkey, I can't believe it's been nearly a year since you officially became a very large part of our family. I love watching you learn new things and progressing each and every day. Just this mornig you were on the floor "reading" a book -- literally turning the pages and just babbling non-stop. Amazing.

Love,
Mama

This is your new thing -- giving a hug, but we call it an ohwee...

Cute bathtime pic...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Last Weekend and This One...

Last weekend (not this most recent one -- but the one before), David Scott and I headed north after work on Friday. I had a meeting up there on Monday morning, so we were able to make it a long weekend. Scotty stayed in BR as he had a huge trial to finish prepping for; he and Lola got some quality one-on-one time with one another.

On Saturday, DS and I ran all over the state. Not really, but we were gone from about 8:30 that morning until about 5:30 that evening. First stop was Betsey's house. She'd picked up something for me for DS' birthday cake, and I had a coupon for her, and of course, the babies played together. Although we only got to stay for about an hour or so, the kiddos had a good time and B and I got to visit a little...when we weren't trying to corral Stella Grace and David Scott.

 DS, SG, and Minnie's tail

Next stop was the pumpkin patch at The Townshend House in Ruston.  Boo met us there so we could take pics of DS surrounded by a bunch of pumpkins.  Last year, when DS was about a month or so old, I'd bought a cute john-john off Etsy (size 12 mo.) and I wanted to ensure that we got pics of him in his outfit before it got too small.  It fit him to perfection and is probably too small for him this week.  Literally.  Here are a few pics from our photo session:

 

After that, we stopped by Brad's office to see him for a few minutes before we headed to Tech to tailgate for a while.  DS sneaked in a few little naps on our way to Rayville, and then Rayville to Ruston, so he would be good to go for a little while longer so I felt pretty good about staying there an hour or so.  Tech is actually a pretty good place to tailgate with small children.  We were able to park super-close to Boo and Dusty's tailgate spot; it wasn't swelteringly hot (although we certainly could've used a few degrees of relief); AND there weren't tens of thousands of people milling around.  With LSU games, you're lucky if you can park 3.5 miles away from your destination; and there are always throngs of people everywhere.  DS got an up close and personal view of the band, the football players, and a bulldog named Ruston.  I think the dog was his favorite.  Brad and his girlfriend stopped by just before DS and I headed to Monroe for a visit with Mimi, Mamaw, and Papaw.

Auntie Boo and DS

Ruston the Bulldog, Ruston's tongue, and DS

We got to M&P's about 2:30. David Scott played peek-a-boo with Papaw; and Mamaw found some "vintage" toys for him to play with as well. We kept waiting for him to take a step on his own...we're still waiting. Sidenote: DS has now taken 3 (THREE) single steps -- two in front of Scotty while I was cleaning up (Scotty, if you're reading this, don't laugh; I count unloading the dishwasher as cleaning up.) and taking a shower, and he took the third one at daycare one day about two weeks ago. I am still in denial about the steps' alleged existence until I see him do it. Anyhoo, we had a nice visit at Mamap & Papaw's, and headed back to the 'Boro after a couple of hours. Gran and Papa D were happy to see us -- or at least they were happy to see David Scott. Since having DS, Scotty and I have pretty much accepted the fact that our families only see us as breeders of their grandhildren/great-grandchildren and we're pretty much second-class citizens. I'm just kidding. Maybe.

 Playing peek-a-boo with his great-grandparents

 Playing with toys that Daddy used to play with

 Sunday we didn't do much. Just hung around Mama and David's house, watched football, played outside, etc. Boo came home b/c she loves spending her every waking moment when we're in town with him, and I don't mind one bit. She's his only aunt and I get a little repreive from being on Mama-duty 24/7/365. When she's around, it's more like 24/7/364.75. Ha! On Monday, Sue-Sue and Angel came to Mom's so I could go do my meeting that morning; we'd met Sue-Sue, Alicia, Dale, Leslie, and Riley for supper on Sunday night which was fun too. DS had a good time Monday morning, but I think we were both ready to come back home on Monday.

Besides DS catching some kind of diarrhea virus, this past week was uneventful. We didn't see too much of Scotty all week as he had the big trial Tuesday through Friday. His efforts paid off tremendously and they won their case. It was a HUGE victory for his law firm and I'm proud of my lead-attorney husband. Going back to DS' little problem, I had to go pick him up from daycare early on Thursday due to the issue -- mainly b/c if he had another diaper like that, he'd HAVE to miss Friday. Naturally, I'm going to send him to daycare if I'm able and he's well enough. On Friday, he still wasn't totally better, but it wasn't bad enough that he had to stay home from daycare. Looking back, perhaps he should have though since today, Monday, he still has it and I was called around lunchtime to come get him as he'd had 2 blowouts of the liquid variety. So sorry if this is TMI. After consulting with his pediatrician, he's been on the BRATs diet since Friday. The BRATs Diet consists of Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast, trying to stick with whole grains, so I added Cheerios and noodles to that list. He's also been eating crackers. We didn't do too much this past weekend -- ran a few errands and watched football, mainly.

So thinking DS was all better this morning, I sent him on to daycare without a care in the world. About 9:15 this morning, I rec'd call #1 notifying me of blowout #1. At 12:30, I rec'd call #2 regarding blowout #2. Due to the nature of the blowouts, he had to go home. At work, I'm in the middle of a big project which has a deadline of noon tomorrow which is when I have to leave for the airport; I'm going to Atlanta for a 1-day seminar on healthcare reform and will be back Wednesday evening. So, given the fact that I have this deadline, I had to work from home this afternoon, while Sir Poos a Lot crawled all around and generally whined to be held; Lola barked...it was just a zoo All. Afternoon. Long. Thank goodness for The Lion King. He'd never seen that movie before -- truth be told, DS doesn't watch too much tv period. However, my favorite Disney movie was able to capture his attention for a little while so I could get some work done. And since we had to go home with the Big D today, he has to be Big D free for 24 hours before he can go back to daycare. So guess who's going to be a stay-at-home-dad tomorrow? Yep, my lead-attorney husband and DS are having a father-son day. Scotty's quote from earlier this evening, "I hope we survive. Seriously."

I hope they survive, too. Hey -- Happy 11-month birthday to my little David Scott. I will write up the official 11-month post after I return from my trip. I still have clothes to deal with, a bag to pack, work to finish. Ugh. Wish us all luck. And pray that DS gets over this virus real quick -- like he doesn't have any on Tuesday as he may have to stay at home Wednesday as well. I know Scotty has a busy Wednesday planned, so we may have to make alternate arrangements for a baby-sitter since I won't be back til that evening.

This week...

As I mentioned in my last post, Scotty and I celebrated our anniversary -- 4 years -- on September 23rd.  We are so lucky that we have good friends around us who kept David Scott so we could celebrate.  Friday night, our baby-sitter Katelyn came over to watch DS for the evening while we went out to eat.  Ruth's Chris...yummy!  Then on Saturday, after running a bunch of errands, Racheal and Brandon Bellemin came over to watch DS for the afternoon and evening so we could tailgate and go to the LSU game.  It was a very late night due to the timing of the game (8 p.m. -- ugh).  We didn't get to bed until 2 a.m. and were exhausted when David Scott, my early bird, decided it was wake-up time just 4 hours later.  Luckily, I was able to get him back to sleep a little longer after taking a bottle, so Scotty got up with him about 8.  We'd planned to go to the Saints game, but on such little sleep decided that wasn't the best of ideas.  My co-worker Lauri, who'd volunteered to keep DS anytime we needed her, convinced us to go and let them keep DS as we'd originally planned.  Game on.  So we went.  We had fun...most of the game...until we got behind...and then we lost.  Basically, our whole weekend was spent away from DS (sad face).  I know that will probably not happen again, but I hated not spending the whole weekend with him since that's the only time we really get to spend time with him -- unless you count the time in the car on the way to/from daycare every day (about 2 hours), and then there's the 2 hours or so in the evening spent feeding, playing, bathing, getting ready for bed, and then it's bedtime.  It saddens me to think about all the time we're missing out on while he's at daycare -- but, he's getting way more socialization there than I would be able to provide him at home.  But then again, perhaps he wouldn't have caught Thrush like he apparently did this week.

On Wednesday, tough-guy DS fell face first into the grass/ground and bloodied his nose a little bit.  Then on Thursday, I get a call about 9:15.  It went something like this:
     Daycare:  Sarah, this is Ms. Hope (the director).  Look, David Scott has some white spots in his mouth.  Did you happen to notice anything this morning?
     Me:  (Wearing a heat that reads "Bad Parent") No, ma'am.  Does he need to go to the doctor?  (All the while I'm thinking to myself, "Stupid question...they wouldn't be calling you if this wasn't a big deal.")
     Daycare:  Well, given his cold and the fact that his voice is still cracking, I'd say yes.  But he's not running any fever.
     Me:  OK.  What do you think it is?  (Just so I know what to expect)
     Daycare:  Probably Thrush or maybe Hand, Foot, Mouth.
     Me:  (Sighs to myself...yuck...wonderful)  I'll come get him as soon as I can get an appointment scheduled.
     Daycare:  OK, darlin'.  Take your time.  (All the while I know she's thinking, "Hurry up and come get your infectious kid before we all catch whatever he has...")

So we went to the doctor.  Diagnosis:  Thrush.  A common ailment of small children which nonetheless requires prescription meds for about 2 weeks as well as either boiling and possibly replacing all bottle nipples and pacis.  I sterilized it all and we've decided now just may be the time that we try and get rid of the paci.  So Thursday night we put DS to bed without his paci.  No screams.  No tears.  Just glorious sleep...until 5:30.  Scotty got up and brought my crying little man to snuggle in bed with me while he got ready and left for work.  We slept for about 45 minutes longer before we were required to get up and get ready for daycare and work.  I'm looking forward to this weekend.  Nothing planned other than the never-ending running errands (and of course football non-stop) and spending some QT with a certain Ladies Man...