last minute courvilles

The Champ marked the big 1 year birthday! He turned 1 on Sunday and celebrated with family. The will be a further post that chronicles the details of his day and celebration, and this post will set the context.

So the printer at the envelopes...and I didn't get back to fight with it. I have to admit I attempt to keep some old-timey things going, such as send out invitations by mail. Well with Champ and the time crunch of life, this is becoming increasingly more difficult and impossible. Since the printer didn't work, I went more high tech and scanned the invitation, edited it in powerpoint and emailed it out...at the last minute. Well on Friday with the party planned for Saturday morning. A couple of computer glitches later, the invitees were actually able to see the invitation. This was to set the tone for my little man celebrating year 1.



The other last minute Courville, would have to be Champ. He has been drinking water from a sippy cup on a regular basis, but he refused milk. With the doctor's visit last week, I asked him about the timing to take bottles away from Champ. He said now, at a year. He said cold turkey, he'll learn. It might take two weeks, but he will figure out that you are not giving in. As the great parents we are, we decided to wait for this transition until after his birthday and our return home. I guess Champ was listening. Saturday morning, with his blueberry pancakes, he drank milk from a cup. Not only drank, but chugged. From that moment forward, he has not touched a bottle. He quit cold turkey when he was ready. It shouldn't surprise me, but it does. He is more like Jeff and I on a daily basis.

Life has gotten simpler in ways. Jeff and I don't have to wash and sterilize the many pieces to bottles regularly. Champ eats completely from the school menu and no more formula to purchase. He is just getting more independent...I am just bracing myself for when he figures out the walking thing.

I do leave the story incomplete...but pictures from the big day will soon be posted.

anna

a mother's intuition...

and a great pediatrician. Champ has been battling a cold. Two of his previous colds have migrated to his chest causing coughing and slight wheezing. A week ago Monday, following a trip out of town, We brought Champ to the pediatrician to examine his cold. We had to see the doctor's partner as he was on vacation. I explained over the weekend he had seem to be breathing hard. She reassured me it was just a cold. Well it didn't get better just slightly worse. I was calling my mother to get her to explain the situation with my brother and his wheezing. Something didn't seem right. I tried his inhaler which seemed to help, but we ran out of meds.

Yesterday we brought him back to his doctor. Jeff and I kindly refer the the doctor as the "baby whisperer." The whole time the doctor examined Champ, he sat perfectly still. He smiled and flirted and was amazed by the cord on the stethoscope. No fussing even when prodding his ears and throat. The doc explained that no wheezing is heard during his normal breathing, but babies have one problem. They don't quite understand or respond to "take a deep breath." So in order to make them breathe deep the doctor applied a little pressure to his chest to make him fully exhale and yep, there was the wheezing. He looked at Champ's chart and realizing his birthday was around the corner, promised him to be healthy for the big day.

I explained to the doctor, my "mommy radar" was sensing something last week, but the other doctor had told me everything was alright. He said listen to your intuition, it was right.

The more I visit doctors the more I realize that the good ones are so valuable. I will always hug my loved ones and listen to my gut.

the dog ate my homework

Well not exactly, but the printer did. Recently I have begun planning a birthday party. Yes, Champ will be turning 1 in just a few weeks. As a parent I am feeling the responsibility to plan the great celebration of him. I know that this party is more for the adults than Champ himself, but I do not want his birthday party to "impact" him. By "impact" I mean, I don't want to overwhelm him, scare him or disturb his sleep patterns. This is a hard task with such a young child. So taking this all into account the planning has begun and is still some distance from being finalized.

So to start a party, what is needed...invitations. So I started looking for invitations and decided on one last weekend. Working full time and caring for an infant leaves few moments to do extra tasks, like printing invitations. Jeff, graciously, took Champ to the grocery store so that I could have some quiet time. After fighting with Word for an hour I was at the point of trial printing when the boys arrived home. My project went on hold until Champ fell asleep. After a great deal of time printing on paper cutouts to the dimension of the invitations and envelopes, everything was ready. One at a time I fed the envelopes into the printer...one good, two good, three good, four a little crinkled, five jam, six jam. Once the printer started jamming, the trouble shooting began that led to a ripped envelope. Jeff intervened when the Champion(my genes)temper roared in and I think some banging became involved. He took over printed a couple successfully then his jamming session began. Since then the printer and us have been in timeout.

The little things can be so frustrating. With limited time, I have only printed return address on a handful of invitations. So I am faced with the decision to attempt the invitations themselves, hand write everything or return to the store for more invitations. How do such simple things become such large productions?

So the party planning is ongoing, but currently at roadblock. When I have more time, I will again return to my struggle with the printer. So you see...the printer did eat my homework.

He has turned around

Champ got a new car seat last week and yesterday we spun it to face forward. He now gets in the car willingly and greets a smile from the front seat with one of his own. It's a lot of fun. He even joins in the conversation with lively interjections. Our family commutes will never be the same.

The little man is quickly on the move now. He is standing whenever possible. Last night he even figure out how to open a cabinet with it's handle while standing. (The other hand was securely fastened to a shelf, stabilizing himself.) Well, as his good Cajun genes would dictate, the first thing he got a hold of was cayenne pepper. It was a new jar with lid tight, so he didn't yet get a taste. I told him, get into that and you will learn a serious lesson.

Jeff and I are doing well and actually enjoying working on a project together. It never ceases to amaze me how great of a team we make. Seven years on and not enough to go...