I never knew I could love someone sooo much!

Barrett has been such a doll-baby lately, even though he's been sick AND teething. He is just the sweetest little thing. I've never been so excited to get off work before! I always have something to look forward to (going to pick him up from daycare). It's so sad that he's grown up so fast but at the same time, I'm very thankful to be in the "fun" stage for now. We definitely still have our rough times but it all pays off when I see him learn new things and grow.

Right now, he's standing while he holds onto things. He can't pull himself up just yet though. We have already lowered his crib just in case he decides to do so randomly. He's been scooting around for a month or so now. He actually crawled forward a couple of times today, which is a first! He LOVES his jumperoo still. He enjoys sitting in the floor, pulling every toy out of his toy box. He likes his walker too, but still only able to go backwards in it. He says da-da (daddy), ba-ba (bottle), bye-bye, hey, and a few more things. He can say ma-ma but he only says it when he's crying ;). I feel like he's tried to say "Lilly" (our dog's name) a few times. I'll tell him, "say 'Lilly'" and he'll say "Izzy". It's pretty cute, regardless. He's still only eating level 2 baby foods, infant cereal, and formula. He generally eats 4 servings of baby food, 1 serving of infant cereal, and 25 ounces of formula a day. Sometimes, he'll eat some Puffs, Mum-Mums, and juice as a snack. Every once in a while, we feed him whatever we're eating if it's able to be mashed up really well. He has 1 tooth that we know of. It's his bottom front left tooth. He was sooo sick the week before it came through (2 weeks ago), bless his heart.

His room looks a little more like a big-boy's room now. We took down the changing table parts a few months back, just because when we change his diaper, we do it in the living room. We just keep a diaper caddy in there with diapers, wipes, butt paste, and diaper bags in it. It's so much more convenient for us! Since taking the changing table parts off, he has an actual dresser with his TV, piggy bank, toys, and DVDs on top of it. We still don't use his bumper pads in his crib because I'm just too scared of SIDS. They're adorable and yes, his crib would look so much cuter with them but it's not worth the risk for me. I figure shortly after his 1st birthday, we'll start using them since that's when the risk of SIDS goes down significantly. Really, the only reason why you need them anyways is to prevent the baby from getting a limb stuck in between the rails or to prevent them from bumping their head. I would much rather the latter happen than him smother to death. Even though some parents may not agree, it's ultimately up to Ty and myself.

We've woken up to him whining at night lately and found him sitting up in his crib. He's learned how to roll over to his tummy and sit right on up...it's so cute, yet bothersome at the same time because I have to go in there and lie him back down each time. This is the first time I've used a video monitor in his room. I used one when he was born but I found myself staring at it too much so I sold it. I've done fine with the basic sound-only monitor until we discovered him sitting up in the middle of the night. This way, I can look and if he's sitting up, go in and lay him back down. If he's still lying down when I look at the monitor, I leave him alone and let him cry until he goes to sleep or until I break down and go get him, LOL. I'll just check it every few minutes to make sure he's stayed lying down. He usually doesn't go to bed until 11 pm every night and wakes up between 6 and 8 am. He naps around 4 hours total every day, with no exact schedule. It's pretty much impossible for him to be on a to-the-minute schedule. It doesn't work for him or us. It just seems like we have too much going on to commit to it. For example, I don't want to have to stay home from going to dinner, just because he needs to nap. He can nap wherever we go and half of the time, he ends up staying awake, playing. He usually does things within the hour every day but we're never dead-on as far as the time goes. He's determined to stay up late...we've tried EVERYTHING, literally. I guess it's because we stay up late too, which is fine.

He's wearing 18-24 month clothes right now and size 4 in diapers. He likes to give kisses and hugs. He thinks it's funny to feed us and give us his pacifier, which we think is funny too. He really laughs when Ty takes his hands and makes him fake-punch things. It's great thing to teach him, I know, haha. We took him to North Park last week and he LOVED the swings. We'll be going more often now that it's cooled off a bit. I hate they don't have more than 1 baby swing though. We have a tiny park in our neighborhood and we're planning on going down there one day this week to see what they have. I'm sure it's not much.

Barrett will be 10 months old on Wednesday and 1 year old on November 21st! It's crazy to think about. I'm busy planning his birthday party right now. I've got his invitations and have most of the envelopes addressed. I've put together his party favor boxes. I have a few small touches to the invitations and the boxes before I'm done with them. I still also have to order some cakes. I've contacted Dumplin's and am just waiting on them to call me back. I figure I'm going to do 2 cupcake cakes and a smash cake. If they don't get back with me by tomorrow, I'm going to call the lady that did our wedding cake and has done some other small cakes for me in the past 4 years and see if she can do them.

Anyways, I think I've written more than you care to read, haha. I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Happy early birthday to my first-born nephew, Walker. He'll be 12 years old on October 1st! We love you, Walk!

Thank goodness THAT'S over!

Last week was one of the worst weeks for Barrett since he was about a month old. Firstly, it's been hard on him, having to get back into the daycare routine and not being with us 24/7 like he was while we were on vacation 2 weeks ago. Secondly, last Monday, we started letting him "cry it out" after we put him in his crib at night. We rock him to sleep every night. He would be knocked out but as soon as he was laid in his crib, he'd cry. The first night, he cried for about an hour before he fell asleep. However, since that first night, he's done MUCH better, only crying for about 15 minutes IF he cries at all. He's also waking up 1 or 2 times at night, which I know isn't really that bad but I'm just not used to it. For the first 6 months of his life, he slept in his crib for at least 8 hours straight, every night, hardly ever waking up in the middle of the night (of course except for the first month or so). At 6 months, we made the mistake of putting him in our bed when he'd wake up at 4 am or so, and it became habit. If I could go back in time, I would have never put him in the bed with us that first time. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing for all children to sleep with their parents. I'm just saying that it wasn't healthy for our family. I know Barrett loved it but he had gotten so attached to us that we couldn't hardly set him down without him crying for us to hold him. Also, we have a queen bed and it was getting to be a tight squeeze for all 3 of us. Now that we have our bed back to ourselves, I'm loving it! It's nice to be able to cuddle with my husband again!

Saying Barrett was fussy 24/7 last week is a huge understatement. We went to the doctor Monday for his 9 month checkup, which went well. He was fine at the time but as soon as we got home (go figure) he started coughing bad. We went back to the doctor Tuesday and Dr. Woods thought B had Croup again, so he took Prednisone for 3 days. I could tell he felt horrible from the Prednisone AND whatever sickness he had. When I picked him up from daycare Friday, the worker told me he'd had a REALLY bad diaper and it had gotten all over his clothes so I started getting concerned. I got home and checked his temperature and sure enough, he had a low-grade fever. Something made me think to check his gums and his bottom right front tooth had come through! I was relieved but felt bad at the same time. If I had known he was teething all week, I would have postponed the "crying it out". Bless his heart, now I know why he cried so much :(. I had no idea that teething would make him so sick. He was coughing, had diarrhea, runny nose, sleepy but not sleepy, ill, starving one second and not the next...you name it. I'm just glad that it came through because since Friday, he's been such a pleasant baby! He stayed with Ty's parents Friday night so Ty and I could go out with a couple of our friends. It was nice to have a baby-free night after the horrendous week we all had.

I'm relieved that every thing's back to normal. We were in Florida for a week. The day after we got back, Ty went to Bristol with some friends for a Nascar race, leaving Barrett and I at home. I loved getting time with Barrett by myself but it was a little exhausting! We got some quality mommy-son time. Ty was in Bristol from Friday to Sunday. Then, Barrett went back to daycare that Monday and Ty and I went back to work. I was expecting to be overwhelmed with paperwork, piled up from vacation but it wasn't bad at all! It was definitely enough to keep me busy all week, but heck, you can only do what you can do...no reason to get stressed.

I found out when I got back from vacation that my grandmother has been diagnosed with colon cancer. However, the doctor believes he removed all of the cancer and none was in her lymph nodes, which is a good sign. We went to visit her last weekend and I couldn't believe how well she was getting around! It had been at least a week since her surgery but the incision she had was really long and looked like it hurt. Her spirits seemed to be great though! The next step is to just see an oncologist and make sure she keeps herself updated with tests and all.

Ty's grandfather got married this past Thursday, so congrats to him and his new wife. Also, my sister, Christie's, birthday is tomorrow so happy birthday, Chris! Happy belated birthday to my father, whose birthday was September 1st. I'm so glad we have tomorrow off work! Everyone have a good Labor Day!