Amarillo by Morning

We had the honor of spending the Thanksgiving holiday with Craig's beautiful family in Amarillo, Texas! It was a long drive, but worth every minute of it! We thought we were going to drive through the night Tuesday and let Hutton sleep the whole way, but our plan didn't go as we had anticipated. We are discovering that Hutton doesn't really like to sleep in the car so by midnight we decided it wasn't worth it to wear him out and we stopped in Oklahoma City. You would think with as much as our sweet baby boy travels that he would be a great traveler by now but that is simply not the case!

We arrived in Amarillo on Wednesday around 2:oopm. This was the first time little Hutton got to meet his two cousins from Houston, Wade (3yrs) and Carson (3mos). Seeing those three sweet boys interact was the cutest thing I have ever seen!! Wade was so sweet to the babies and Hutton just laughed at him and tried to pull his hair! It was so much fun!! That afternoon, we had hired a photographer in Amarillo to take some family pictures for us. (www.heatherladdphotography.com) Can't wait for you to see them!


The week was full of yummy turkey, baby time, and playing the Wii! There were baby boys running, rolling, and laying around everywhere! I'll tell you one thing...The Howards need to produce some baby girls!! I don't know what to do with all this testosterone...Something I'm totally not used to coming from a family of 3 sisters! Hutton did receive his first haircut while we were there as well...by Grandma and myself! He was starting to have this Dwight Schrute thing going on in the front with these two long pieces so we snipped them a little bit! Now he looks like Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber...But way cuter I might add! Hahaha!!

I will tell one funny story real quick. Today we drove from Amarillo to Ft. Smith, AR and are currently bunked up in a hotel. After having lunch in Oklahoma City, I took Hutton out to the car to change his diaper. (He had been sitting in this one for awhile!) I laid him down in the back seat of my tiny Toyota Corolla and started cleaning him up. As I removed the dirty diaper and reached to grab the clean on, I heard a little toot...There was absolutely no time to get the diaper underneath!! Hutton left a nice little present in the backseat of my car the one time I didn't lay a changing pad down!!

Craig was inside paying for lunch, I had poop in my seat and no where to lay my sweet baby boy. So, with zero other options, I sat Hutton in the floor of my car on top of a bag of potato chips!! (I swear there was no room anywhere else! We head the car packed in tight!!) As I cleaned up poop, he laid there half naked trying to open the potato chips! As Craig approached the car, I told him what happened and instead of him taking Hutton or helping clean, he quickly backed away from the car once he saw the mess lil man had left! He said he was going to be sick!! HAHA! Oh, the things we mommies have to handle on our own!

Hope you had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Get ready...it's Christmas time!!

10 Dresses and Counting!

I always thought the movie 27 Dresses was a pretty good descriptor of my life, although I got married before I hit the double digits of bridesmaids dresses! I have been blessed with some incredible women in my life and have been honored to represent several of them on their wedding days!

This past weekend, one of my dear friends, Maranda Webb, walked down the aisle and married the love of her life, Alan Daws, in Marietta, GA and I was honored to be a part of it. I can't tell you how I desperately needed that girl time with my friends and how blessed I was to share in this experience with her! My sweet friend deserves the best and I truly believe she found an incredible Godly man who is going to love her and cherish her in all the days ahead! The wedding was gorgeous and the reception was hoppin'! We had an absolute blast last week and I was sad to leave!

Alan and Maranda, I am so happy for guys and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for your future together! Looking forward to many more memories with you guys! Have a blast on your honeymoon! Love you both!

Sweet tooth? I think NOT!

Oh, the joys of starting solid foods!! We started introducing some weeks ago, beginning with, of course, rice cereal. I was told to introduce veggies first because if you introduce fruits, like bananas or pears, it would give him a sweet tooth and he won't want to eat his veggies. Since I have a ridiculous sweet tooth and don't even eat my own veggies, I took the advice.

It started off great!! He has loved everything I have given to him. Squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, etc. After weeks of veggies, I figured surely it was time for some fruit. I started with bananas. He hated them! I gave a few more days and then tried them again. Nope! Still didn't want them. So then I tried pears. He despised them! I even tried mixing them with rice cereal but he was no fool in the matter! He wouldn't eat that either! Finally, I tried applesauce and you can see from the pictures below that he detested it! Please look at the gradual progression of his distaste!








Any suggestions for how I can get Hutton to eat his fruit??

Baby Brain...Does it ever go away?

Many women suffer from "baby brain" during pregnancy, an extreme case of forgetfulness that makes you feel like you are absolutely losing your mind! While I was pregnant I found this to be true and remember several moms assure me that it only gets worse! Haha! Were they ever right?!?

My adorable husband was thoughtful enough to find a sitter last night so he could take me out to dinner! We were so excited to get out for a date night! I was already rushing around the house trying to get myself dressed as well as Hutton ready for bed. I gave April, a coworker of Craig's that came to watch Hutton, all the instructions for the little man and just as we were about to head out the door, I realized I couldn't find my wallet. We spent 30 minutes tearing the house to pieces. Right before I was about to just give up, Craig found it in the middle console of my car!!

So then today, we went out to run some errands and buy a few Christmas presents for our nephews at Toys R Us. As we approached the checkout, I realized my debit card was missing from my wallet!!!! I realized I left it in the check holder at PF Changs after we used it to pay for dinner the night before!!! I mean seriously! Craig was completely baffled at this point because of my seemingly irresponsibility! Sure enough, I called PF Changs and it was there, thank God!

I say all that affirm that I am a strong believer in "baby brain!" I am so focused on making sure I have the diaper bag, bottle, diapers, baby, etc that I forget the extremely things that I'm supposed to have for myself. So seriously, does it ever go away??

Trusting Your Motherly Instincts

Last Wednesday night, Hutton came down with a cold. Congestion, runny nose, some irritability...no big deal right? You feel so sorry for them and, well, helpless actually because there's not much you can do but wait it out. On Friday, I noticed Hutton was acting a little uncharacteristic. Couldn't really pinpoint it at the time, but something wasn't right. When I spoke to the nurse at the doctor's office, I gave her his symptoms and she basically wrote me off, told me it was a cold, and that he didn't need to see the doctor. Later that evening, after the doctor's office had closed, he started running a low grade fever and was extremely fussy. Saturday morning, he woke up acting totally normal, but something was telling me he needed to see the doctor. I felt so stupid for even calling because in my mind I was feeling like that crazy new mother who calls the doctor at the sight of a booger! However, in spite of the nurse recommendations and my mental paranoia, I made an appointment. We went in later that morning and sure enough...DOUBLE EAR INFECTION!! He hadn't shown any "signs" of an ear infection, but that's what he had! I was relieved that we caught it, but frustrated thinking I almost didn't take him in because the nurse told me not to! Regardless, I will always go with my first instinct. God gave them to us for a reason!

Hutton is doing much better. Still very irritable but laughing and smiling again! We had some issues in the beginning with getting him to take his antibiotics. We tried to give it to him through a syringe and he would gag and throw up. So, if you ever have that problem, the best thing to do is mix it with about an ounce of breast milk and put it in a bottle! Works like a charm! Other than that, we're just trying to keep him hydrated, cleaning his nose often, and making sure he gets plenty of rest! Warm mist humidifier has been great as well!

Three Must Haves for an Infant with a Cold:

Last night as Craig and I were about to head to bed, I peeked in on Hutton as I always do, but this time I heard an unfamiliar sound...Or should I say snort? His sweet little button nose was completely congested causing him to snort in his sleep. He started to wake up and I noticed his bed sheet was drenched with snot! I didn't know his little body could produce so much mucous! He started crying and after about an hour of trying to console him, I gave in and brought him to sleep with Craig and I. Thought it was a good idea at the time, but ended up being bad for everyone. No one slept at all last night! He was squirmy and snotty all night long and Craig and I, being the over concerned new parents that we are, worried ourselves to the point of sleeplessness! Craig had to head out the door super early for work and Hutton woke up at his departure. So we shut ourselves in the bathroom and tried to breathe in some steam from the shower. Helped a little bit and we went back to sleep for a couple of more hours.

Once we were up for the day, I did a bit of research on remedies for babies with colds since they are too little to take any kind of cold medicine. Here's what I recommend after surfing the net:

1. Warm Mist Humidifier
2. Nasal Aspirator (the bulb lookin' thing)
3. Saline nasal spray

I wasn't sure about what kind of humidifier to get because there are many types. After doing some reading, I chose a warm mist humidifier for a couple of reasons. One, because of it warms the air now that it's getting colder. Two, the water is boiled which cleans it of impurities before it's released into the air. Three, the one that I bought has a medicine cup to put some of Vick's vapor stuff in it to be emitted into the air. For more information on picking the right humidifier for you, I found this site helpful:

http://www.iallergy.com/category11_86/default.html

We are using ours tonight for the first time so I'll let you know how it goes!!

The saline nasal spray has been huge!! There were points when the mucous got pretty dried up in his nose and that spray really loosened it up. I thought he would hate me spraying that up his nose, but he actually found it quite amusing and laughed when I squirted it!

After the spray, I used the aspirator to remove the loosened mucous. Not fun for him, but really helped open him up.

It's also really important to keep your baby hydrated when he/she has a cold. They tend to not want to eat much because it's hard for them to suck when they can't breathe through their nose, but keep trying! They need that breast milk!

Hope someone finds this information useful! Please pray this clears up soon! It was an extremely long day for all of us Howards today!! I must say though that he kept his joyful spirit even when he wasn't feeling good! I love that he is such a happy baby!

A note to daddy...

Dear Daddy,

I love you soooo much! Although I LOVE playing with mommy all day long, I get so excited around dinner time because I know you're gonna walk through that door and give me a big hug and lots of kisses! Thank you for coming home, after working SO hard for me and mommy, to play with me and get me ready for "night night" time. I know you must be really tired after a long day of work, but no matter how tired you really are, you always make time for me!! I especially love my bath time with you and mommy too! It's so much fun! I know I'm really little now, well big for a baby but still little, but I can't wait til I get bigger so we can wrestle, play football, build forts, and play with Nerf guns. Oh the fun that is yet to be had! Thank you for the way you love mommy too. I hope you can show and teach me how to love a lady like that someday! She must really love you because that's all she talks about all day long! Oh and please chill out on all the kisses in front of me. Yuck! You're the best daddy I could possibly ask for and I want to grow up to be just like you!

Love,

Hutton

Hutton's on the Move!!

It's official!! Hutton finally rolled over! He's been on the brink of it for weeks now but couldn't figure out to do with his bottom arm! He figured it out though! Yay!! He'll be crawling and walking before I know it! Look out! Need to baby proof the house! Here's a video of him rolling over as well as two more fun ones!