Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day yesterday! We got a brand new camera for Valentine's Day so we took lots of pictures for fun :)

Our  day started off with a play date at our house. Madi and Lucy and their mamas came over for some Valentine's fun. We tried as usual to get pictures of the kiddos but it is really hard to get all three of them to look at the camera and smile at the same time. Cason was trying to hold Madi and Lucy's hands in the picture and they weren't particularly thrilled about it---LOL.

That afternoon we hung out around the house, read some books, and played with toys for a bit.  The weather was so nice we decided to go to the park to play. We took Cason's 4-wheeler but he was not interested in riding it whatsoever---he wanted to run around and play. He took a quick break to sit down and watch the ducks and then back to playing he went.

Friday Fun and Bye-Bye Tubes

Friday, we took the kiddos for a lunch date and a carousel ride. We were standing VERY close by but we let them ride on the horses by themselves for the first time today. The horses have seat belts on them to keep the kiddos in place and they all LOVED riding the horses like big kids :)

Friday afternoon, we had an appointment with our ENT doctor because it had been a week and Cason's ear infection had still not cleared up. The appointment did not go so well. Cason's left ear and left tube look great---no problems. However, the right tube had to be pulled out. It was dislodged and not working properly. It has been 9 months since we put the tubes in and we knew that they would fall out on their own anywhere between 9-12 months. The doctor doesn't know if the tube fell out on it's own and got stuck and caused the infection----or if the infection was just so bad that it pushed the tube out. Either way, the tube is now gone. It took 3 people holding Cason down for the doctor to be able to work on Cason's ear. He was EXTREMELY upset and I just felt so bad for him. We go back in 2 weeks for a follow up with the ENT. He said we are just going to watch it and see if Cason starts having problems with his right ear----if so, the most likely option in our near future is a second set of tubes for his ears---poor baby :(

21 Months Old

Cason, you are 21 months old already! What have you been up to this month?

*You weigh around 32-33 pounds.
*You wear size 2T clothing, a size 5 diaper, and size 6.5 or 7 wide shoes.
*You take one nap a day and sleep 11-12 hours at night. You are still our little early bird.
*You are a VERY picky eater and sometimes you even want to skip a meal altogether. One thing we can always get you to eat is any kind of fruit. You will also always eat your baby food squeezeable vegetables. You love these and it's the only way we can get you to eat your veggies.

*Even though you're our little picky eater, you have started to like dipping your food in some sort of dip. You like Ranch, ketchup, queso, and hummus the most. We can get you to eat some foods that you normally wouldn't if we present it to you with a dip---go figure :)
*Your speech has really taken off this month! You are talking up a storm and repeating tons of words. You can have whole conversations with yourself in gibberish---every time I try to record you doing it, you immediately stop. You can say 100 + words now and you know the meaning of so much more than that. You just started calling us Mommy and Daddy instead of Mama and Dada and we think it is so cute!
*You are still working on jumping up and down without holding on to anything and you are getting much better. Occasionally, you can jump up and down several times in a row and you get so excited while you are doing it!
*You are still loving your puzzles and you are getting very good at them.
*You have really started to like being read to. In the past, your attention span usually didn't last for a whole book, but now you enjoy listening to an entire story. In fact, lots of times you want to read the book more than once at a time. You LOVE the Brown Bear books.
*You love to "hide" from us. You will run away somewhere and then close your eyes tight to "hide". I guess you think if you can't see us then we must not be able to see you either.
*Bath time is one of your favorite times of the day. We usually have to pull you out kicking and screaming.
*You are starting to recognize some of the letters of the alphabet (when you are in the mood). Specifically A - G.
*You are still in LOVE with Elmo (Momo).
*You have learned a new word at school and you like to use if often---MINE. The first time you said this to us and jerked something away from us, we where shocked. We are trying to cut back on the use of this word but we have not been very successful yet.
*Your ENT doctor had to take the tube out of your right ear on 2-11.
*You are still very "spirited"---your volume level can get very high (especially in public) and you can definitely throw a good temper tantrum.
*You love to give hugs and kisses and say I love you. It just melts our hearts every single time.


Say "Cheese" for the camera......

Ear Tubes Do NOT = No Ear Infections

Cason got tubes in his ears in June and from June until late November we had ZERO problems with his ears. I thought the tubes were miracle workers. I was wrong. He got 2 back to back ear infections at Thanksgiving and he just got another one this past weekend.

The good thing is that when you have tubes, the fluid drains out of the ears and causes much less pain to the child than if they didn't have the tubes. The other good thing is that I don't have to guess if he may or may not have an ear infection. If he has an ear infection, his ear will start draining and I know immediately how to take care of it. When you have tubes, you don't have to take an oral antibiotic, you just have to put drops in their ears for 7 days and that is it.

Ear infections are much easier to treat now with tubes but I was under the misconception that once he got tubes, we would no longer be getting ear infections. Each time he gets an ear infection, the doctors have to remind me that tubes do NOT prevent ear infections, they only help with the drainage. I just don't think they told us this little piece of information before hand (not that it would have made any difference).

So while I am very glad that he has tubes and his ear infections are much less painful, I sure do wish there was a way to prevent them altogether. It is always hard to see your little one in any discomfort. I just hope and pray that over the next few months before his tubes fall out on their own, his body can correct the problem itself. If not, we will have to put another set of tubes in his ears.

On another note, we were trapped inside our house for 4 days straight this week due to ice/snow and I am SO THANKFUL it has melted. We were definitely going stir crazy. The forecast predicts more snow possibly tonight and then again on Wednesday and I really hope we don't get stuck indoors again. I am not a fan of cold weather and will be very happy when SPRING arrives!


Mom, I am not in the mood for pictures....

 Look at my tongue :)

 Let's go!

 My belly button :)

 Peek-a-boo

Daddy, we are proud of you!!!

Scott just got back from his National Sales Meeting for Stryker as the #1 Sales Champion in all of the country!!! He has worked so hard this year and we are just so proud of him!!! Way to go Scott---you definitely deserve it!

Hide-n-Seek

Cason loves to "hide" from us. If I tell him we are going to his room to change is diaper he runs in the corner and closes his eyes. I guess he thinks that since he can't see me, I must not be able to see him either. His teacher said he does this at school too---It cracks me up!!! Here are a couple of pictures of him "hiding" from me and then a couple of extra photos just for fun :)

The red bird came back and we are all unhappy about it---especially Autumn :)

Guitar Time

Cason loves guitar time with daddy....