Helmet

When Evan was born, I thought he had the most perfectly shaped head.  He came out so fast that he didn't have the cone head that many babies get after a long birth. Isn't he precious in this picture?  This was taken by Vince during one of Evan's first days at home from the hospital.

This past August, we took Evan to the Biltmore.  He still has a nicely shaped head in this picture.  And his hair grows half an inch every day.

Evan is such a great sleeper, that he sleeps soundly on his back without moving much for about 10 straight hours.  This is great for mom & dad, but hasn't been so great on Evan's head.  Just in the last few months, he has really started getting a flat head in the back (called "brachycephaly").  He doesn't like to stay on his tummy so repositioning hasn't helped much either.  We have tried the Bumbo, Jump-a-roo, Tumzee, and more. Here are the different angles of Evan's head so you can see how the sides are growing out, but the back of his skull is not. 

And just so you know, it was very difficult getting pictures of Evan when he isn't trying to look directly at me or the camera. Evan's physical therapist measured Evan's head a few weeks ago and recommended we go for a consultation at the Orthopedic Services office. After looking at the scans and seeing how his head was shaping up, we decided to go ahead and get Evan a helmet. It's technically called a StarBand orthopedic medical device. This will help Evan's head grow more rounded. Currently, when Evan's brain grows, it is growing out to the sides making his head appear wide. The helmet will allow the space on the back of his head some room so when his brain grows, it allows the head to have a better shape.  

This is Evan in the scaner machine.  He had to wear a scarf type thing on his head since he has a lot of hair.

I'm amazed at the technology they have these days to help children. Evan will wear the helmet 23 hours a day for 12 to 14 weeks. This is Evan getting fitted for his helmet for the first time yesterday.

 He kept poking it with his thumb, but it didn't bother him at all. 

Yesterday he wore it for one hour on, then one hour off, then one hour on, etc.  Today he will wear it for two hours on, then one hour off, repeating.  Tomorrow he will wear it for four hours on, one hour off, repeating.  Then the fourth day he will wear it eight hours on, then one hour off, repeating.  On the fifth day, he will be at 23 hours on, one hour off, including nights & naps.

And yes, he gets sweaty in it!  They say he will adjust and not sweat as much after a few days. We also have some decorating to do in order for the helmet to look super cool. 

Evan 8 Months Old

My little baby is growing up too fast.  He is up to 14 pounds now and wears size 2 diapers, and 6 - 9 month clothing. I made some turkey cake pops to honor his 8 month old birthday. His Uncle Billy & Uncle Eddie got him a Ralph Lauren outfit that he sported for part of the day.

 To celebrate, my parents were in for the weekend so we took Evan to Waffle House. He enjoyed his first visit there.

That afternoon, Vince & I took Evan to the Biltmore House.  He enjoyed the tour of the house and talked to the people & Christmas decorations.

• 
  At 8 months old, Evan can sit up for a couple of minutes before he hurls himself backwards.  He still needs support so he doesn't hurt himself.  He is also working on rolling over from his back.  He can twist his whole body around but is too stubborn to flip all the way over.
• He eats oatmeal and stage 1 fruit mid-morning.  He eats rice and stage 1 veggie for dinner.  He drinks about 5 bottles a day.  He likes all food and is a really good eater.
• He makes lots of different sounds now like da da, ba ba, la la, ma ma. He can also make little noises with his mouth like he's doing a kiss and he sounds like the mandrake plant from the Harry Potter movie. 
• He likes to pat everything now in tempo. I think he learned that from me burping him to the ABCs. He will pat his toys, your hand, your back, etc. 
• He has been pulling string toys for a couple of months now. 
• He grabs his bottle to pull it towards him, but he doesn't like to hold it himself. We also tried drinking out of a sippy cup this weekend & he did okay.  He wanted to chew it more than suck on it.
• He can play peek-a-boo and take a lovee off of his own face to play the game.
• He loves to stand, but likes to buckle his knees quickly, and then wants to stand immediately again.
• He can pull his socks off and put them in his mouth in record time.

He is really getting a great personality and smiles at everyone.  He's a happy, fun baby.We are so thankful for him!

Evan's First Halloween

Evan started Halloween early today by dressing up in his costume before I left for work.  He has P.T. once a week so his therapist came dressed up as well.  She was a cave woman & Evan wore his itsy bitsy spider costume. He also posed with his favorite day care workers (Vince's parents).

 After Vince got home, we dressed Evan back up in his costume, grabbed his pumpkin, and went to the neighbors right around our house that had their light on.  Evan rode in his stroller.

 After about 6 houses, Evan was asleep.  It was cold outside, but his costume kept him warm enough to not care about sleeping in cold weather.

 Here's the loot he got from our neighbors.  Vince had most of it eaten by 9pm.

 All tuckered out.

Happy Halloween!

Cabinets

This past weekend I decided to try and refinish the bathroom cabinets in the guest bathroom. I saw a kit at Lowe's that looked very promising.  It had 4 steps to it and although there was a lot of waiting time in between, the steps themselves were fairly simple.  My house had the builder's grade natural oak cabinets installed with gold accents knobs. I forgot to snap a before picture of them, but here's one of my master bathroom cabinets that look just the same.

The first step was to clean the surface, then the second step was to apply a base coat.  This is where the color doesn't exactly match with what's on the box. Next time I will go much darker.  I wanted closer to a dark cherry color, but this is kind of a medium brown color.

 The third step was applying the glaze to give it the grainy wood look and to darken it up some.  It looked good, but not as dark as I was hoping.

And the result is not too bad.  I added new hardware to give them an updated look. 

I'm not sure I would do this to all my kitchen cabinets, but I may get the base color tinted darker and try it out on my master bathroom cabinets.

Working Weekend

The weekends just tend to fly by these days.  I need about 3 or 4 more days each weekend to accomplish all the tasks on my to do list.  I decided to try out my new jam/jelly maker & let me tell you, it works great!  I am so impressed with this product.  I only wish it would cut the fruit & clean itself afterwards.  It did everything for me.  I made strawberry jam, seedless blackberry jam, raspberry jam, and peach jam.  All I had to do was cut up the fruit and put it in jars. LOVE IT!

I also started a new task of repainting/restaining my bathroom cabinets in the guest bathroom.  I'm going to do a post on this after I take the after pictures. 

I got the grass mowed for the final time this year.  And I did about 4 loads of laundry.  We took Evan over to Vince's parents' house on Sunday morning so he could spend the night with them.  Vince & I then had a nice brunch at the Marriott, followed by housework, then we got dressed for the March of Dimes party.  We enjoyed the Chef's Auction that benefitted the March of Dimes.  There were 8 restaurants that had samples of their food to eat and there was a large silent auction, followed by the live auction. We had a great time (as usual). 

 And here is Evan just being cute this weekend.  He smiles all the time.  What a happy baby!

Birthday Weekend

Mom and Billy were here for my birthday weekend.   Kim, Dad & Elise tried to come but they were caught in bad traffic and went back home.  Vince went to the races with Uncle Alan & Brock.  Mom, Billy, Evan, & I visited mom & dad's new house to see the progress made on it. We also shopped around a little bit and visited the Beacon and Wade's for required meals.  It was a really great weekend. I just wish it lasted longer (as I wish for all weekends).

Uncle Billy & Evan had matching wardrobes

 Evan gave Grandmama hugs all week long

 Vince came home on Sunday and changed the baby.  He couldn't figure out why the baby wasn't going in the jump-a-roo well until we examined Evan's legs more closely.

 I let Evan take his first (supervised) nap on his tummy.  We're having a hard time keeping him off the back of his head so we're trying lots of things so his head doesn't stay flat. This is quite a challenge for a baby who likes to roll as soon as you put him on his tummy.  I use the Tumzee, hold him in place on his tummy, use the jump-a-roo, and more.  He is getting so big!

Dodi is 40

I had a great birthday this year.  I really don't feel 40 years old, so it's kind of surreal.  Mom & Dad got me a new double oven the night before my birthday. I was surprised as they had it delivered while I was at work. I immediately made 6 dozen cookies in the ovens.  It cut my time down in half!

I worked all day on my birthday.  In the morning, Kaye made me a pumpkin streusel cheesecake that was amazing.  She and LaDonna gave me a card with lottery tickets in it. 

For lunch, I ate at Wade's with my co-workers.  It's hard to beat turkey & dressing day, as well as free peanut butter pie.  Yum!

For dinner, Vince arranged with my friends to surprise me with a nice gathering of family & friends at City Range.  I had a great steak for dinner, followed by a pineapple upside down cake that Kaye made me and free creme brulee from City Range.  Yum!

Vince & Evan gave me new tires & wheels for my car, a jam/jelly maker machine, and a tower of chocolates & candy, and 2 dozen roses. Kaye & LaDonna gave me lots of nice baking items that I've been wanting including a chocolate warmer and fondant/pasta roller, and some beautiful flowers with a balloon. Jerry & Barbara gave me a nice Tervis Tumbler that said "I'm not 40. I'm 18 with 22 years experience" and some lovely Pandora earrings. Peggy gave me beautiful a jewelry set. It was a fabulous birthday! I'm so blessed to have such great family & friends.

Roses from Vince & Evan

 Flowers from Kaye & LaDonna

 The group

 LaDonna serving the cake

Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake

 Signs at my work

 My desk

 My new oven

 Kaye, LaDonna & I

 Peggy, Evan, and Vince

 Jerry, Barbara, and Evan

 LaDonna & Evan

 LaDonna, Mike, Evan, & Kaye

 Me with Evan & Vince

 Evan likes Kaye's jewelry

 All dressed up for dinner

 Evan & Grandmama

 Happy baby

 My tower of chocolate & jelly maker

Billy, Eddie, Kim, John, Pat & Rachel all pitched in and got me a Coach purse and money to do either a vacation or some type of "me" activity like a massage or spa treatment.  I can't wait to use it!