branded!

I was playing with some photos I took of Kaemon Ze today
and that led to the creation of a "logo" for him.
Yes, I've effectively branded my infant son!

christmas eve

Kaemon Ze was a lil fussy and a lot tired on Christmas Eve. :)









For Christmas, I got Kaemon's Grandpa Joe and Daddy remote controlled cars!








This is EXACTLY what I had envisioned in my mind's eye when I bought the cars: Jason and Joe playing with the cars, on Christmas Eve night, out on the snowy street. Heh!

















Jason and Joe both got a big big kick out of the gift. :) Jason told me later that this is the first RC car he's ever had! I love that I could give him his first!

When we got home, Jason stayed up later - taking pictures of his new 'rod under the tree! Hehehe












Boys and their toys!

Rough start to another pretty day

Oliver, our nearly-19-year-old miniature dachshund, woke Jason up out of a deep sleep at 6am this morning with a full-body seizure. I had just put the baby down to sleep after feeding him, and was looking out the kitchen window in amazement of all the snow we had gotten overnight, when Jason appeared holding Oliver, saying something was wrong with him. We put him on the kitchen floor and held his body while he seizured. He finally stopped (total time was near five minutes we estimated) and we moved him to his bed, in front of the fire, laid our hands on him and spoke re-assuringly to him.

We had no idea what to do.

I left a message at the vet's office. Oliver didn't want to eat - which for him is HUGE. Oliver lives to eat. Jason has told people "Oliver is still around because there's still food to eat." He was whining a lot and seemed to want to walk. When I set him down in the kitchen, he walked aimlessly and ran into everything in his way. *sigh* I was feeling as distressed as his whining was sounding.

I still had no idea what to do for him.

I put him on a lease so at least I could keep him from running into things. He walked in circles, so many circles. I finally put him back in bed and after lots of whining, he settled in for a nap. When he woke up, I offered him his usual breakfast, which - thankfully - he ate!! He also drank a good amount of water and went back to sleep. The vet called while he was sleeping and said we could bring him in tomorrow for a blood test (the office is closed today due to all the snow), which would show if he has elevated kidney / liver / glucose levels. Based on what the test(s) show, we could make a decision about what to do...

After his nap, he piddled outside and got progressively better. Even now looking at him, you would not know anything unusual had happened. So, we're taking it one moment at a time. Whew.

On with our morning. Jason had lots he wanted to do outside like brush the snow from the tall plants that were bending over like the bamboo. I got took some shots of the snow / ice in our yard. I measured the snow piled up on one of our deck tables - the snow was 16" deep! I like these photos and hope you do too. Enjoy!

it's snowing again and the birds are grateful

Jason's been taking good care of his birds in the wintery weather we've been having this past week. He puts out fresh sugar water for the humming birds every few hours and scatters bird seed for the chickadees. He also puts out peanuts for the squirrels, who must be hungry - they ate the peanuts on-site, rather than squirreling them away.

We were out just a few minutes earlier before I shot this video so I could take photos with my camera (see below). After about 20 minutes, it started to rain ice so we made our way back into the house. A little while longer, it started to snow again... a lot! You can see the snow in this video and the birdies trying to get all the food they can eat before the weather and the sunset sends them home.

We've really been enjoying all the activity in our yard and hope you enjoy this glimpse, too!

wiggle worm

crispy, pretty, winter wonderland

snow bliss on Kaemon Ze's two month birthday

Kaemon Ze must be growing.

I left him sleeping on Daddy's chest, on the couch, at 10pm last night to go to sleep.

Daddy figured he'd nap with the babe until he woke up for his usual midnight/1am feeding.

Just before 4am (!) I woke up, looked at the clock, the empty bassinet, and the not-yet-slept-in space beside me in the bed. Where are my boys?

I went out to the living room and found Jason asleep - his upper body on one couch cushion and the other half of his body on a foot stool. It was quite a sleeping position and one that didn't look entirely comfortable. I didn't see Kaemon Ze right away - but then I saw him, bundled up, sound asleep on the middle couch cushion.

I asked Jason why they hadn't come to bed... he said the baby hadn't woken up yet. Jason didn't know what time it was and was quite surprised to learn it was nearly 4am. He said he woke up at midnight, took the baby off his chest so he could take Oliver (our nearly 19-yr-old mini dachshi) outside to piddle and sweep the snow from the deck again.

Once back inside, he didn't want to move the baby to the bassinet, knowing Kaemon Ze was going to wake up ~any moment~. I stoked and stirred the fire in the wood stove, prepped a bottle, and gave the boys a kiss, and went back to sleep.

Kaemon Ze did wake up - at 4:30am... that's an incredible 6.5 hours of sleep! Too bad the baby wasn't in the bassinet for the duration - Jason would have gotten loads of sleep - without having to contort his body for hours! :)

With sleep like that, I figure Kaemon Ze must be going through a growth spurt. He ate a fair amount when he woke and went back to sleep for an hour. I got up with him at 5:30am, breastfed him, and he slept again until 8am or so. Lots of sleep!

Kaemon Ze is two months of age today, weighs 14 lbs, and has one really long blonde hair that sticks straight up on his head like Alfalfa, the "Our Gang" character. Pretty funny.

Folks have asked if we're on a "schedule" - I answer, "Yes. The schedule is whatever the baby wants, whenever he wants it. That's the schedule." hahaha

It started snowing yesterday morning about 5am (I was up with Kaemon Ze at 5:30am) and didn't stop until sometime after I went to bed. Then there was a freezing rain 'round the time with Jason took Oliver out, creating a nice coat of ice on the 6-7 inches of snow on the ground.

When I took Oliver out this morning, I noticed a small section of the bamboo had fallen against the shade structure, heavy from the ice. Yesterday, we lost a large (~2o') butterfly bush in the garden (now leaning on the tomato cages); and this afternoon Jason pointed out a large branch from the pine tree laying in the side street. Wow. (You can see the bamboo and the butterfly bush in the video above.)

Later in the afternoon, Jason and Kaemon Ze joined me for a romp in the yard while I took photos of some of the snow/ice with my Christmas present: a digital SLR Nikon D40!

The baby fell asleep in Jason's arms, not at all interested in the winter wonderland around him. :) Jason and I had fun discovering pretty scenes.

See our "Wish Tree" above? It used to have dozens of hanging Tibetan Prayer flags with hand-written wishes from family and friends. The squirrels have absconded with every single flag over the past several weeks! And today, the first day of winter, I noticed that even the three that were remaining last week were gone! I hope those prayers and wishes are keeping some squirrel family very warm! :)

I took the John Deere sprinkler photo for my Mom. The sprinkler was a gift from her to Jason for his birthday. Recognize it, Mom? :)

Here's a shot of the birthday boy fast asleep after we brought him in from our adventure outside.

Hope you all are doing well and staying warm!

night time tummy time

oh the things my parents do to amuse themselves

Oh the things my parents do to amuse themselves - like propping me up between two sacks of flour to sit in the grocery cart. And my snow suit... isn't it rather reminiscent of the little brother's snow suit in the film, "Christmas Story" - you know the scene I'm talking about - where the little brother could hardly walk and when he fell over, couldn't get back up? Yea... that scene. Don't I look like him? I highly amused a woman walking by too... she stopped and laughed and laughed at me. She said, "he's so serious." Mom told her I often have that look on my face. Well, what do you expect Mom?!

(Mom's note: he really didn't mind. His only trouble was listing to the left a bit, but the flour bags helped hold him up. hehehe)

It's been snowing all day - we must have a good 6 inches or so! I took this photo when I took Oliver out to piddle. Pretty, isn't it?

Leave it to Daddy to find a new way to read a book...

It's not a book....










It's a tent!
(Jason said Kaemon Ze smiled big when he did this.)










"And this is the colour blue!"













Mommie and KZ in our winter hats.
(I love his lil smile in this photo)
:)

snowing again and a humming bird surprise :)

A question for Kaemon Ze...

Mommie: "do you like this shirt from Auntie Lori?"

Kaemon Ze: "Why, yes I do!"

Look what I can do!

just testing me?

What do you think... is he just "testing" me like his shirt says? :)

The onsie is gift from the Bo's. Thanks for making us laugh and smile!

catching zzzz's

Everyone tells you (as do all the baby books), "sleep when the baby sleeps". Well... usually it just doesn't work out that way as there's always things to do once the babe goes down for a nap and your hands are free. :) Yesterday however, the babe napped when I napped - that was nice! And super sweet. We are so in love with this little guy.









Boppy pillows - not just
for babies!

Kaemon Ze is 7 weeks of age today

Wow... Kaemon Ze's been in our lives for seven weeks. So amazing.

This morning I looked out the window after feeding the birthday boy and was surprised to see it snowing! That was hours ago - and it's still snowing! Kaemon Ze's first snowfall! Very exciting - not for him so much, but Jason and I are pretty excited. :)

We usually walk up to our local grocery store on Sunday mornings for lattes and to pick up the Sunday newspaper. This morning we bundled our little bundle of joy up and walked to the store - we couldn't wait to get Kaemon out in the falling snow... he, swaddled against his daddy in the sling, fell right to sleep. :)

Today I put him on his tummy (on the couch) and he squawked a little bit about that... it was clear he didn't want to be face down (he usually likes it) so he started to roll over! He would have done a complete roll-over, but the couch cushion was preventing him from making it all the way. Wow, wow!

It's been a full two weeks and I have yet to write anything for this sixth week of life - but I kept these notable "Kaemon Ze Facts" in my head:

Kaemon Ze Facts:

he loves to be held - by anyone;
he's pretty good about entertaining himself, though he really does like to be in someone's arms;
he sleeps 3-4 hours at night;
he needs his nails trimmed about two times a week;
he gets dirt under his fingernails?! How does ~that~ happen?? I'm so perplexed!
he's becoming increasingly good with eye contact and smiles very purposefully at us;
he grunts really hard when he poohs in the morning (see video below) Hahaha!
he has outgrown a few newborn outfits - mostly because his feet are so long;
he holds his head up for more than a minute at a time;
he is good at scooting on his belly or his back (crib, couch);
he likes his bouncy chair and swing - except when he doesn't;
he doesn't like it when i try to get his boogers out of his nose (I tell him, "get used to it, kid");
he has only peed on me once, but has gotten his daddy a LOT;
loves to nap on daddy's chest and particularly likes to fall asleep on our shoulder.

here's what I look like at 7 weeks of age:

the GRUNT

Kaemon Ze's been cracking me up the past two weeks... when he needs to poo, he grunts loudly. I managed to catch a bit of a grunt... this isn't his full-on grunt, but it's pretty representative. Oh he's going to be mad at me for posting this when he gets older. Muwhahaha!

too sleepy to tummy crawl

and the gDiapers were hung by the chimney with care

I woke up to find Jason had hung the gDiapers over the woodstove to dry them after pulling them from the wash. I couldn't help but think how much Santa would enjoy this scene. Heh!

"...and the gDiapers were hung by the chimney with care."