Swimming

This was the first time I took Taegen swimming. It was really bright, so he doesn't look very happy but he really loves the water. He always has a hayday in the tub. I can't a swimming suit for him ANYWHERE! There is little girl ones all over the place, but little boy trucks or even a body suit is no where to be found. It super frustrating. So he just has to wear a sleeveless outfit. But he hat is super cute! :)

Exersaucer

We've officially moved out of my in-laws and into the basement apartment of my grandpas. It's so nice to have our own space again! Taegen finally has his own room! I think that's one of my favorite things. We've slowly adjusted him to sleeping in his crib instead of the portacrib in our room and last night was the first time he slept in it all night without freaking out! We no longer have to sneak into our room at night to go to bed. I'm so excited!! (If you can't tell) I'm finally able to actually put the nursery together. We'll see how it turns out.

Taegen loves being in the exersaucer. He can turn himself all the way around to play with all the toys. Plus it's helping him learn to hold his own weight. Win - win for everyone :)

I'm working full time now :( I hate it! Being away all day is so hard. I still haven't seen Taegen roll over from his back to his tummy. He's done it for Jon, Kristel and even Steph's kids. I was there for that one, but just barely missed it. I feel like I'm missing out on so much of his growing and learning. Jon's looking for a job, but it's pretty hard. So if anyone knows of anywhere, please please please let us know. Jon's having a hard time adjusting to playing Mr. Mom. He is too much of a busy body to enjoy being home all day. Hopefully he'll be able to find a job soon so I can atleast go back to part time, if not quit all together.

Love this one!

Taegen absolutely loves his daddy. No one can make his laugh like daddy can! It's so cute. I just love his little laugh. This is them at our Evertsen family reunion - camping on Pine Valley.

(5 month update coming soon. And I promise to blog more often than just once a month for the monthly update on Taegs).

Dilemma

Ok so here's my dilemma:

Before I left Illinois, Taegen was sleeping through the night. Going to bed around 9-10 and waking up around 7-8. (We didn't have a strict schedule when it came to bedtime and time to wake up. But we've got a better schedule down now). When I moved back to so ut he started waking up once a night and now, after 2 months he's now waking up twice a night. This in and of it's self is not a huge problem. Yes, it does suck for me, but it isn't a dilemma. The problem comes into play when you take into consideration that I'm working. Right now I'm only working part time, but I have to go full time at the end of the month, which means I'm having to pump. Because yes, I'm adament about continuing breastfeeding. It's what's best for Taegen, end of story.
When he was sleeping through the night, or even just waking up once a night I was still able to pump enough in the morning to get enough milk for his feedings while I was at work. But now that he's waking up twice a night, when I go to pump in the morning I only get 1/2 an ounce (if I'm lucky). Then including my night time pump he only has about 1-2 ounces, which is not enough for a 4 month old.
I've been told that now a days, it's best to wait until the baby is 6 months old to start him on any solids. But some babies are ready to start them as early as 4-6 months. (How do you know if your baby is one of the ones that are ready to start earlier than 6 months?) I don't want to feel like a bad mom for starting him on rice cereal early (even though it would only be for part of his bedtime feeding), but I don't know what else to do to help him sleep long enough for me to get enough milk in the morning. I fear when I go full time I won't be able to pump enough for 4 feedings instead of just 1 or 2.
I'm adding unpasteurized goats milk to some of his feedings to help out, but I don't know if adding more liquid is going to help him sleep longer. I am going to try that though. Today was the first day of adding goats milk to his feedings, so we'll see if it helps at all tonight. The goats milk will help lessen the stress on me about pumping enough, but I don't want him to only be drinking goats milk. I still want it to be mixed with as much breast milk as possible.
If I could get some advice on the subject on what other people have done, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks :)

4 months

*Pictures coming soon

I can't believe Taegen is 4 months old. So crazy. He's just growing like a weed.

-He's 15lbs and 24 1/2'' long. He's almost doubled his birth weight
-His first laugh was on July 31st. So adorable!
-He loves eskimo kisses. They make him laugh and smile a ton!
-He's starting to really like his bumbo. He's not perfect at sitting in it yet, but he's getting there.
-He's stopped rolling over. It's totally weird, he use to do it quite a bit (every time I set him on his stomach) but now...not so much
-When on his stomach, he raises his upper body off the floor with his arms.
-He still has to sleep in his wrap.
-He's finally starting to fall asleep on his own. He's been very stubborn in the past and anytime I put him down to go to sleep he would start crying and cry until it was time for him to eat again. He WOULD NOT cry himself to sleep. Thank heavens he's growing out of that.
-He loves to be raised in the air and look down down at who ever is holding him. He immediately starts to smile, but beware either his binky (which is covered is drool) will fall on your face, or just straight drool will drop. :)
-He's a total mommas boy :)
-When on his back he rolls on to his side, but then his arms and legs get in the way. So he hasn't quite figured out how to move them to make it onto his stomach.
-He's finally starting to not hate his car seat as much. There's still times that he'll freak out, but for the most part he's totally fine and actually enjoys playing with his toys.

Sorry my blog has totally turned into an all about Taegen thing. Its mainly for my sake, so I can look back and remember all the little details. I'll try to be better at posting about the other things going on in our lives.

Jon's coming home in about a week and a half...FINALLY! We miss him so much. When we skype, Taegen will see Jon and just get a huge grin on his face. It so cute and totally makes Jon's day. He definately knows who his dad is. He's grown so much since we've left. Jon's gonna get back and hardly recognized him. Hopefully he'll be home by the end of next week, but we won't really know for sure what day he'll be home until wed the 18th or so. (the salesmen's last day of selling is the 17th, so it depends on how many he has left to install)

I'm still living with my in-laws but when Jon gets home we'll be moving into bedstefars basement. It'll be nice to finally have my own space again. Living with someone else is hard.

I'm still working part time, which SUCKS! I hate being away from Taegen. Kristel has been watching him for me, which I appreciate so much! When Jon gets home, he'll watch him but then I'll have to go full time :( Atleast until we can hopefully figure out another arrangement, or Jon can get a good job.

I'll make sure to update soon with some pictures. Jon has our laptop so it's hard for me to get the pics from the camera to a computer to update. But he'll be home soon so I'll be able too :) :) :)

He did it...twice!

Sorry I don't have a pic this time, I just had to document this.

TAEGEN ROLLED OVER!!! (July 15, 2010)

Yesterday I put him down for a little tummy time and he immediately rolled over to his back. I first thought it was a fluke or an accident so I put him back on his tummy and sure enough, he did it again. The only down side is that I can't get him to do it again so I can record it to show daddy :( I'm bound and determined to get it recorded.

St Louis and more

We went down to St Louis for the 4th of July. I wanted to see the fireworks under the arch. It was pretty fun, minus the terrible traffic afterwards. Once we got to the truck (which was 10 blocks away) it took us a half an hour to get to the freeway which was only like 7 blocks away. It was totally ridiculous. The people here are not near as nice here as they are back home. We were trying to merge into the next lane for like 15 of the 30 minutes and NOBODY would let us in...who rude is that?!?!
We had to stop to get some cash so we stopped at a gas station which was next to a white castle. While we were sitting in the parking lot, some guy came up to us asking for some food. Then he asked us if he could have some of our food and tried to give us some hash in trade, he was kinda scary so we gave him a littlle bit of what we had. So of course he then asked us for some money. Luckily we didn't have any cash, but he saw our cup holder which was full of change and asked for that. We didn't want to get shot or something crazy (he definitely had some sort of weapon on him. He was pretty scary) So we gave him that and told him to keep his hash, being as that we don't smoke. He seemed shocked and reluctantly took it back. Needless to say we rolled up our window and got out of that area asap. Theres some crazy people out there.
The week before Steph went home we went out and did some sight seeing. We went to Lincoln's house and tomb, the downtown farmers market and the old capitol.

Below: Lincoln's house. Above: an old fashion carriage in the Lincoln national park

Me at the farmers market carring Taegen in my new wrap. It's so nice to not have to carry him in my arms.

Lincoln's tomb

The old capitol

The famous white castle. This is also where we were almost shot (haha ok not quite) and offered some hash.

the fireworks at the arch

Left: An airplane in the airshow and the arch.

Right: I told Jon I needed a good pic of my boys so here they are waiting for the shows to start at the arch.

And here's some new pics of my favorite little man.

Look at his cute little mohawk. He doesn't have much hair, but I had to try it :)

Personality

Taegen's personality is starting to come out alot more. He is so smiley now and I love it. the other day I showed him himself in the mirror and he just got the biggest grin on his face. He kept smiling and looking at himself, it was so cute! How could you not love this little man, He's so adorable

2 Months

I can't believe that Taegen is two months old. It's so crazy. Things are going great. He's such a good baby. He definately has his bad days, but for the most part he's fairly easy (or so I'm told since I don't have much to compare him to) but of course I'm still new at this so that makes things hard too.

I'm told (from just about everyone) that Taegen looks more like Jon than me. Actually that he looks exactly like Jon and not me at all...what do you think?

Me?

or Jon?

Loving Jon's face here. Apparently he can't take a pic and smile for it at the same time.

Jon is gone a lot! Actually he's gone from like 7 am till about 10 pm most nights. So the time that he gets to spend with Taegen is very limited. Here's a pic of them finally getting some time together. I also have a super cute video of Taeg to upload but I gotta figure out how to do it first. haha

Emma, Hanna and Hudsen absolutely love Taegen. Anytime i go down to their apartment they come running just to see or hold him and he loves it! Here's Hanna playing with him.

Taegen two months old. Love the little smirk

Me and Jon went to a park the other day and had a little picnic. While we were there I said i wanted to find a 4 leaf clover since I'd never seen one, none the less found one myself. Jon then went on to say that they didn't exist and I could look all i wanted but would never find one. the minute he stopped talking I found this! ahahaha it was so funny. I forgot to take the picture before it dried up, but you can still see the four leaves.

It's official, I'm going back to Utah July 6th. I need to go back to work :( Jon's staying here until mid August to continue to work and I'm not looking forward to being away from him for that long, but we gotta do what we gotta do right. Taegen is gonna grow so much while he's gone and I know Jon's gonna miss it. I just talked to my boss today and finalized it, so I've been super depressed all day, just trying not to think about it. 

Other than that things are still going great. Here's another update on the little man.

-He's still sleeping really well. He's even slept through the night a few times.

-He's figured out he can move his legs and he does it all the time. he pumps them like he's riding a bike.

-He's starting to suck on his hand. It's so cute.

-He still wont cry himself to sleep. I can set him down when he's fussy and tired and instead of crying himself to sleep, he'll cry until it's time for him to eat again! So frustrating.

-He's growing so fast now. Most of his pajamas don't fit him cuz he's so long. the ones that do are 6 month ones. but then they're too big everywhere else since he's so skinny.

-He's still got his chubby cheeks. I just love them! it's the only chubby thing about him.

Us so far

                                                                  Taeg and Hudsen

Hudsen loves Taegen. It's so cute. Everytime I go over to Steph's he runs up to me and says "bey-bey" and trys to hug and tickle him.

Taegen is getting so big, even though he doesn't look it in this pic compared to Hudsen. I'm adjusting to my new life of not working and after 7 weeks its still weird not having to get up in the morning and go to work. I've had a job since I was 15. I guess it might take longer than 7 weeks to make up for 8 years. haha
Here's some things about Taegen at 7 weeks old

- He finally fits in size 1 diapers
- He shakes. It's like the shivers you get when you're cold, except he's not cold.
- He is a lip quiverer. He does it all the time. It is also compareable to the shivers when you're cold, but he does it randomly and not when he's cold.
- His poor belly button is infected :( It was a little infected when the cord fell off, but that went away. It's just recently decided to come back.
- He likes to watch T.V. Ok ok, i'm sure it's more of the movement and colors that he likes, but he'll stare at the tv for quite some time.
- He loves his floor mat of toys. I don't remember what it's called, but its the one with the mat and the toys hanging above his head. One of the toys is a mirror and that one is his favorite.
- Most nights he sleeps pretty good. At least 4 hours at a time. Don't get me wrong. He still has those nights that he wakes up every 2 1/2 hours or so. But luckily those aren't that often.
- He hates his car seat. Almost everytime I get in the car to go any where he starts freaking out. I think the long ride here ruined it for him. He used to fall asleep everytime we put him in it...not so much any more. I'm really looking forward to the drive home let me tell ya.
- He loves being swaddled. I can put him in his swaddler and most times he'll calm down in a few minutes and fall right to sleep.

As for us, we're still liking it out here. Jon's really busy. Most days he leaves before 7 and doesn't get back till 9 or so. So other than Sundays we don't really see to much of him, which sucks. But hopefully it'll be worth it. Oh random thing, since theres no mountains, the sun rises at like 4:30-5:00 here. Its really weird since I'm used to it rising at like 7:00. That's about it for now.