5 Months

Wow, time flies when you're having fun...right!? Taegen is 5 months old today.

Daddy's little monkey

-He is now with dad all day while I'm full time back at work. :( I'm hating being away, and Taegen has had a little bit of a rough time adjusting to only having Jon at home all day (Jon's been having some pretty rough days with him of no sleep and alot of crying!) But I'm hoping that will come to a stop here real soon. But Jon is doing an amazing job with him. He's getting more and more patient with him. He's such a great dad!

-He still doesn't roll over that often. I dunno what it is, but I can hardly get him to do it. Oh and did I mention that I still haven't seen it :(

-He grabs onto EVERYTHING! So beware of your hair, jewelery, clothes you don't want tugged at and/or removed, just about anything he can get his hands on. (he's pulled out quite a bit of my hair just by grabbing it and getting his fingers stuck. It's not a fun experience for me).

-He have to go on our nightly walks or he doesn't sleep well.

-He is still waking up about twice a night. The first time is mainly just cause he wants his binky, then he'll fall right back to sleep. Then he'll wake up around 3:30 to eat. Which I think is pretty good since he goes to bed at 8:30. No I just need to eliminate the first time he wakes up. Wish me luck.

-He's talking so much more now. His little personality is totally starting to show up.

-He loves when Jon rubs his goatee on his face and tickles him. He loves to play with daddy. No one can make him laugh like Jon can!

-He STILL has to sleep all wrapped up. I'm hoping he'll grow out of this one soon. He wakes up in the morning all mad cuz he can't move. But once I go upwrap him he'll sit in his crib and play for a while.

-He's officially moved out of the portacrib in our room and sleeps in his crib in his own room now. YAH!

-I thought he was starting to fall asleep on his own...oh how I was wrong. He's still a little diva in that sense. He just won't do it. We're gonna have a rough week or so when we have to teach him to do it on his own. (I wanna wait until all the change has stopped happening -moving,  changing rooms, etc. I'm hoping Jon'll be able to find a job soon so I can stay at home and work with him on this one, since I think it might be a little bit to stressful of a job for Jon to handle alone).

We're starting a new schedule with him and hoping that this one will work better. He's just not sleeping enough throughout the day. So we'll see how he adjusts to the difference. This new schedule stretches his feeding time out an extra half an hour from what he's use to, so hopefully it won't take him too long to get use to it.
-He's been teething for quite a while now. No sign of any teeth yet though.
-His eyes get so big when he gets excited. You know when you've either made him happy or excited, he kicks and wiggles his arms as fast as he can and goes all wide eyed. It's so cute.

We just fall in love with Taegen more and more each day. We love being parents to this little guy. He's made adjusting to parenthood fairly easy (for the most part). I thank Heavenly Father daily for letting us be the parents of this sweet little spirit. Our lives have changed for the better. We hope to be able to raise him in the way God sees fit.
We love you baby Taegs - You're our favorite little monkey!

Pictures of Taeg

Here's some random pics I've taken the last little bit.
-When he's in his chair (blue one with the toys), he tries to play with all the toys at once. Here's him using his hands and feet to accomplish this.
-Taegen loves to play with grocery bags. Don't worry, I put heavy stuff in them so he can't suffocate. He grabs it and shakes it so it makes a lot of noise. He also does with with the wipes.
- He's getting a lot better at sitting in the bumbo. But he won't sit in it for very long before he gets fussy.
- He's such a happy baby (for the most part, he still has his moments of terror) But he smiles and laughs a ton

Blessing Day

Taegen was blessed last sunday (09/05/2010) We waited until we got back from Illinois, since when we left he was only 3 weeks old. He was blessed by his grandpa Evertsen. The blessing was beautiful and Taegen did so good. He just sat there and looked around at all the men the whole time. We did a double blessing with Kristel and Eric who blessed O'Livia the same day, so we did it in their ward. We didn't get a picture where all 3 of us were smiling or looking at the camera so these will just have to do.

For my rememberance sake here's the men who were in the circle (great grandpa Whitaker, grandpa Evertsen, papa Lindhardt, Daryl Aston and Eric Lamb) Adam and Brandon were out of town and unable to attend.

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 :)