6 Months

Holy Crap, Taegen is 6 months old. Montly update on him:

-He's finally catching on to sitting up. He still falls over after a minute, but he's getting there.

-He STILL has to sleep wrapped up. Luckily I've weaned him off it at night time so we've only got nap tme left.

-He's eating solids. We've only tried carrot so far (other than the cereals). He didn't care for them much the first time, but he likes them now.

-He's rolling around like crazy. He still doesn't like being on his stomach for too long though. I fear getting him to crawl might be a tough one because of this.

-Still waking up during the night. Some days are better than others but most times it's at least twice.

-I'm only workig 30 hrs a week so he's with daddy from 11-5 and he sure gets excited when I walk in the door after work. It's super cute.

-He will not smile for anyone he doesnt know. And most times it'll take him a few times of seeing you, or being with you for a few hours for him to warm up to you.

-He's been going through a rough patch of being constipated. We've tried just about everything; interal drops, enemas, suppositories etc but nothing seems to work really good. I'm really rather worried about him and am at a loss. If this continues we might just be heading into the docs office.

-Still no sign of any teeth. He's def teething but none have actually came through yet.

-He LOVES his jumperoo. He'd spend all day in it if we'd let him. Now we just need to get one with wheels so he can really get aroud :)

 Sitting up

 Lovin his jumperoo

 I just love this little mischevious grin!

 Yummy carrots

Jon was in a random weird mood the other day and decided to put a diaper on his head (don't worry it was a none used, clean one). I had to get pics to prove it. What a geek I know :) Then he decided it was necessary to put it on my head too. I wasn't too happy about it as you can tell.

Gangsta

( I love that you can see Taegen's handprints in the mirror)

Jon's best friend, Bryce Lindhardt, just got married (No there is no relation, it's just a really big coinsidence that his best friend and wife have the same last name). The bride looked so beautiful and the groom so handsome. We wish you guys the best of luck and are so so happy for you! I'm so mad that we didn't get a pic of Jon and Bryce together or one of them with Taeg, since that was the first time Bryce got to meet Taegen.

Congratulations Bryce and Olivia Lindhardt!

Jobless

Jon had a job lined up a few weeks ago. He was so excited to be a truck driver. He loves driving. It's his happy place :) When he got up there (SLC) to go through the school/training, they told him he needed to pass a physical. Well as you know, he has some pretty bad back problems. When the doc found this out and found out he was on pain killers, he flat out told him  he wouldn't pass and he'd need to see the docs notes from the case to prove the problems were gone before he'd be able to pass and be hired. UGH! We were so frustrated, especially since the lady that signed him up for the school told him that the meds were fine as long as they were prescribed by a doctor and he wasn't misusing them. He drove all the way up there for nothing. So now we're back to square one... Jobless. Jon's playing Mr. Mom while I'm working part time (I had to switch to part time for him to go up north to the school so we could afford a baby sitter. Now I can't switch back to full time).
The plan now is for Jon to go to DXATC's diesel program, if we can get it paid for through FAFSA. Cross your fingers! We've also put our truck up for sale. So if anyone is in the market, you should buy it :) (00 Ford F-350 Diesel engine. Manual 6 speed. New clutch and front end. Great condition. Runs great.)
We're running on faith. Hoping that everything will work out so we'll be able to pay our bills and survive. If anyone knows of any jobs, please let us know. At this point, anything is better than nothing.

I was gonna add a cute pic of Taeg, but the stupid thing isn't working... I guess I'll have to save it for next time.

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 :) :) :)