December fun

Wow December went by fast. I guess we were just  having too much fun for me to blog at all. I have been finding it difficult to find time to blog with a new baby. Colin has been such a hands on baby that being able to take picture at all to document our fun has been hard, thankfully people are willing to share their pics, so here we go with a little catch up.

 For one of our advent activities the boys wrote letters to Santa. Luckily they actually asked for what Santa already got for them. Well sort of if motorcycle also means bike.

We attended the annual breakfast with Santa at Nathan's school. Nathan was excited to tell Santa that he wanted a tablet. But later informed me that wasn't the real Santa just one of his helpers. I guess the fake beard wasn't convincing, haha. Brady didn't want to go up to Santa but I convinced to go meet him which he did as long as he didn't have to sit on Santa's lap. He was too shy to tell Santa what he wanted so Nathan went over to describe the motorcycle and hawk eye toy Brady really wanted.

After breakfast we headed to Grandma Dickson's Annual cousin party and donated our toys to the firemen. This year they brought their brand new ladder truck and we all got to go on top for a picture.

Nathan wanted nothing to do with the truck  but we made him go up for the picture anyways and he cried the whole time because we were up too high. He must have gotten a fear of heights from his mom. Don't let the picture fool you he still had a great time.

 On Nathan's last day of school before Christmas break they had a winter performance and afterwards made gingerbread house. Luckily Colin was good enough for me to stay the whole time.

We were lucky this year to have Jeremy, Cameo, Logan, Lydia, and Daphne come for Christmas. The boys just love it when their cousins are around.
                                                      Reading a book with Papa.

                                                          Frosting sugar cookies!

                                              Playing with Papa's trains.

We joined them at the children's discovery museum for some exploring.

Two Months

Wow, I can't believe how fast the past two months have gone. We are still struggling with his weight but overall Colin is doing so much better. A few days after returning from Utah I took him to the doctor just to check his weight and to make sure he was still gaining since I had weaned him down to just one bottle of formula a day. Unfortunately he was actually down 2oz from where he was two weeks prior. After talking with his pediatrician she was concerned that he just wasn't getting enough calories and he was very thin. I talked to her about acid reflux and all of Colin's symptoms. Such as poor sleep, spitting up after every feeding, gas, fussy all of the time, when awake he always seemed uncomfortable, he was never just content. She wanted me to offer him a new sensitive formula after every feeding to try and get more calories and agreed to start him on some zantac for the reflux. And almost over night he was a whole new baby. now he only spits up every once in a while and he no longer spends all his time crying. It is such a relief to see him relax and be content. We recheck his weight 5 days later and he had gained 10oz which was huge compared to his previous growth.
Yesterday I took him in for his official 2 month appointment and he had only gained another 1.5oz since his last visit a week ago. So now I am giving him a more calorie dense formula and a larger quantity after each feeding. She still really wants me to breastfeed but I am starting to wonder how long I can keep doing both. Over all I think he is doing so much better and it has been so nice to finally have a happy growing(even if it is slow) baby. He now usually does one longer 5-6hr stretch of sleep at night and he actually naps during the day. I have been having him nap in the swing since he seems to sleep better during the day in it, probably because it keeps his head elevated and helps with the reflux. Now just to get some weight onto him!

Blessing Day

Last weekend was Colin's blessing day. We had family join us at church while Dave gave him a name and a blessing. Dave was pretty sick at the time he had actually gone to the ER the night before because he was feeling so awful. It ended up being Bronchitis. Luckily he was able to give Colin his blessing before he went home to recuperate.
After church everyone come over for some lunch and we really enjoyed visiting with our families. And even though most of us were sick it was still a great day.

The night before my Parents had Nathan and Brady go spend the night at their house. The Hollister Lights on Parade just happened to be that night and they had a great time in the freezing cold.

Grandma even bought them light up swords, They are not spoiled at all ;)

 

Grandpa's Funeral

Dave, Colin and I flew to Utah a couple Fridays ago for my Grandpa Caldwell's funeral. Luckily my Aunt here in town was able to take the other two for the weekend. Colin did really well and the airplane and basically slept the whole way, yeah!
It was nice to be able to make it to Utah to support Grandma and visit with family. Some of my cousins there I haven't seen in around 8 years. I sure do love being with them though.
Saturday after the funeral we all went to Tucanos for dinner, 45 people in all.


                         Grandma Caldwell with all of my family that made it to the funeral.

                                         All of my dad's siblings and most of their spouses.

                                               Aunt Christine holding Colin.

                                                    My Cousin Bill with Colin

                                                            Bill, Aunt Carol, and Colin