It was worth the wait, I hope!

I am very sorry that I haven't updated the blog in a while. We have been very busy, and I think you will understand if you can make it through this blog!

For those of you who have not yet heard, we discovered about 3 weeks ago that Oden will have a sibling mid-June 2010. We are very excited! I remember my pregnancy with Oden being mildly difficult. In comparison to how I'm feeling so far in this pregnancy, it's not really comparable at all. I'm miserable. My exhaustion has hit record levels. I try to save all my energy for Oden everyday. Everything else gets put on the back burner. This blog has been saved as a draft 3 times already!

Oden is doing great! Although, We did have a scare with him a little over a week ago. It was Tuesday the 20th. Oden woke up and was just not himself. He pretty much layed around all day (this NEVER happens). From the morning on, I noticed he had a fever. It was around 101-102 on our thermometer. I was in contact with the doctors office several times throughout the day, and they basically said to monitor it, give him aspirin, and if the fever reached 103 to take him to the ER. We decided to try to run some errands after his first dose of Tylenol. After about 15 minutes in the car, he puked everywhere!!! It was so horrible. So when we got home after that, I did not feel like the medicine was helping his fever subside. He took a nap, that was longer than normal and then took his temp again. This time I compared Oden's temperature to Jess's temperature, Jess's temp was 95.6, and Oden's was 101.7. We thought that his breathing had gotten somewhat shallow so at that point, we decided it was time to go to the Emergency Room. When we arrived, we were given a mask to put over his little face and about a minute after that the nurse came over to check his breathing and ask about his symptoms. They took him straight back to admittance where his temp was 102.9 (I had given him Tylenol 1 hour before), he continued by freaking out and puking everywhere. All over his clothes, but thankfully into a garbage can also. They got all of us into a private room where they gave him a suppository, a steroid shot, a breathing treatment, followed by a series of tests. He was swabbed through the nose a couple of times, and then he had chest x-rays. By this time, Grandpa Joe, Grandma Laura, and Auntie Maggie had arrived with new clothes for Odee and some emotional support for all of us. After about 3 hours of being there, Oden started to perk up. He was running around the room, causing chaos as usual so we decided it was time to go. They prescribed us a bunch of medicine as well as a nebulizer. By the next afternoon, he was 100% better! Thank goodness! It wasn't the swine flu! He has had no symptoms since :)

Halloween this year was amazing! Oden went dressed as a monkey. I decided this because I call him my crazy monkey all the time! He was so cute. We were able to visit almost everyone (Sorry Grammy and Grandpa Scott!), and Oden was loving it. He didn't mind his costume at all, which really surprised me. We ended up taking him trick or treating at Grandpa Joe and Grandma Laura's house. It was very cold, but we were able to go to a few houses. He can't say trick or treat yet but he said, "PLEASE?" for almost every house. After the first house he sat on the ground beside his wagon in awe of the candy in his little bucket. Then, at the 5th house he got a Blow Pop sucker. This was his favorite treat!! We just started letting him have dum dum suckers every once in a while, so to him, this was the king of suckers!! He was thrilled!! He was pretty much done after he got that one, he chewed on the stick all the way back to the house. He also got to meet his newest cousin! Little Taylor Rose (only 6 weeks old) came to visit in her little pumpkin costume. Whenever she was out of sight, Oden would run around saying, "BayBee!" It was the most memorable Halloween yet!

Also, Jess and I got engaged on Halloween! He came home after work on Saturday and told Oden to bring me something. Oden was being slightly bratty so Jess had to continue his proposal without Oden's help. After a very touching speech and a few tears, I accepted whole heartedly. We will be setting a date very soon! So you see, we have been busy bees!! I will try my hardest to keep up on the blog from now on.


Here are some pictures from this Halloween season:

Oden did so good holding his little basket!

Trick or treating with Dad

Enjoying a Halloween treat.....Cheetos!!

Helping sort the candy for Grandma

He still remembers his baby toys

Working out with Grampa DeeDee!

My baby monkey!

Fun at the pumpkin patch

Of course he would fins the only train sign! LOL! We went on a train ride too!

Hi, Dora!

GO!! Having fun with Gramma DeeDee!

He's always on the move!

He was no help finding pumpkins, he just wanted to run.

KITTY!

A moment to catch my breath......

We have been keeping very busy the last couple of weeks! Here are some brand new pictures of some of the fun things we have been doing. All I have to say is, I am one tired Mom!!

My friend Kelly and I, took our boys to this Bouncin' Bonkers place. It's a place just filled with those bouncy things you usually find rented in backyards. It was fun, but I think Oden is still a little too young to fully enjoy it. It was more like a crazy exercise for me!

Rylan and Oden tearing it up in the tunnels!

Get off that dirty floor you crazy kid! Well.....wait until I take your picture!

A beautiful day at the park with Gramma Dee Dee.....

.......and Maddie! Swingin Buddies

A day at the park with Uncle Mikey.

He helps sooooo much!

Oden in my favorite shirt of his, ever!

Yogurt is Yummy!

I thought I would share with everyone Oden feeding himself yogurt for lunch. This is not a typical lunch, but he didn't drink much milk this morning so I was trying to up his protein for the day. He does not have much experience feeding himself with utensils. I blame myself completely for his inexperience. I would rather take the time to feed him myself than clean up the mess, that would inevitably be EVERYWHERE! That being said, I am putting in much more of an effort to let him have some independence with feeding. With the added hope that if he is feeding himself with new exciting tools, he might try (and like) more things! This video is really cute though :) and I am so thankful that he likes yogurt!

Stuff from my phone

Here are some random cuteness that I remembered I have on my phone. A couple of them are from the beginning of the summer and the others are more recent. The quality is poor, but I know you will appreciate them anyways :)

He has been doing this all summer.....he stands in front of this baby pool at my moms, yells "GO!", and jumps in head first. It's hilarious!

This was a very random day this summer. We went for a walk with Heather and he had to have his stethoscope around his neck, and he actually kept his Sponge Bob sunglasses on!

This picture is part of his morning routine. He comes down first thing, runs over to his toys, grabs his Thomas box, and plays with/lines up all of his trains. Have I mention obsessed?!

I just took this one a couple of days ago. This is the little girl I am now watching two days a week, Maddie. I had a couple of new candles out and they were taking turns smelling them.

It was adorable!

This video is from when Jess got a new cell phone. Oden is always all up in our electronics, so as soon as he saw Dad's new phone he had to see ALL of it. Look for his little squatting dance!

A Day Out With Thomas

Today was our day out with Thomas. This is something Tiff and I had been looking forward to taking Odee to for a long time. As the event neared closer I became increasingly more excited for it to finally be here. I was anxious for the look on his face as he witnessed his hero in the flesh. To provide some sort of a backdrop, if any of you are unaware of our little man, then you will have to know of his obsession with our friend Rev. W Awdry and what he has created out of narration and cleverly designed model trains. His name is Thomas and he is what Odee dreams of. From toys to clothes, cups to lunchboxes, he is everywhere our guy is. If there ever was a smug look upon Odee's face just find some sort of Thomas oriented trinket and his frown will immediately turn upside down. Thomas and Friends is to little boys what the spring training football, baseball in October, and the NHL/NBA playoffs push, is to grown men, what shopping, Jon & Kate Plus 8, and cherries covered in chocolate are to grown women. This is the mecca of little boys everywhere. So, on the day of I wanted to wake up with our baby hawk and start his day off right. This is a Friday, and my excitement for his excitement, prompted me to take a personal day from work. He's in a great mood and looking forward to his toast and fruit to energize his tiny body. After a quick munch session, a dose of Sid the Science Kid and Sesame Street, a good morning from his beautiful mother, and he is ready to get going. We all head up to straighten ourselves out and pack up for the trek ahead, next stop Union, Illinois. The jeep is gased and were buckled in, heading up north. Again mom chooses to use yahoo directions and we are immediately guessing which way to go. You see, yahoo likes to name streets the names they feel they should have, this makes following them very tricky. However, moms keen sense of direction quickly guides us towards our destination. The trip to Union was very pleasant, it was a very scenic route that took us through areas we had never been, this breathe of new places always seems invigorating to the imagination and put us all in the right mood for the day. We arrived forty five minutes before departure and took our time making it to the train. As we neared closer to dreams come true, I could feel the pleasure inside our baby. Then as we came walking down the path, there he was, right before his eyes, it was him... Thomas. The sheer enjoyment that poured from his soul was enough to see what dreams our made from. He was happy, genuine and sincere, just plain and simple happy. I wanted to be detailed to remind everyone and myself when I read this when I'm old, that the small things in life, that we cherish with the ones we love, those memories will be with us forever, so make them. The rest of our day was filled with memories that all three of us will have for the rest of our lives. We rode on Thomas, Odee got his first tattoo (removable, moms), had a wonderful picnic in the grass, and saw lots and lots of trains. It was at an interesting venue, the Illinois Railway Museum, and this was a fascinating place for a family to visit, especially on day out with Thomas. By the time we were ready to leave we had seen it all, Sir Toppam Hatt, the trains, trolleys, the whole kit and caboodle. He was sleeping within five minutes of our trip home, but I knew... he was dreaming of Thomas.

Above story by Jess. All I can say is....I wish Jess would write on here more often. What a great way to sum up our wonderful day :) Now I will add some not so cleverly worded captions on the pictures.

A life-size Thomas! That's something you don't see everyday!

Our first view of Thomas!

Yay for nice people also patiently waiting for their ride.

Odee's 1st train ride!!

Odee getting his first tattoo!

So amazed that Thomas was on his arm!!

It was a little hot, but well worth the slight discomfort.

Dad and Odee in a train graveyard, not really. The back of the Museum.

Exhausted from his adventure with Thomas, Dad, and Mom.

ODEEEEE =)

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I have been so busy with wedding events for my friends from Canada. Here are a few new pictures I have been able to take during all of the wedding craziness. The wedding was this past weekend, so everything should be back to normal now. Meaning = I should be taking tons of Oden focused pictures again! LOL!

Swimming at my MomsHanging out with that shy Laney

POSER!

Yep.....this looks about right!
Jamie, Laney, Oden, and me :) (A wedding party BBQ at our house)

Missouri 2009

Missouri was amazing this year. It's pretty awesome every year, but for many reasons this year was my most memorable. Go figure because the boat was broke, the fireworks were confiscated, it rained more than usual, and Oden was a complete wild child. Perhaps I am beginning to appreciate all the elements of Missouri more and more. Every year just seems to get better. This was Oden's first year swimming in the bay, and he liked it. I was too scared of the water to try it last year. We brought some friends with us this time around, it's nice to be able to bring a piece of home with you! Everyone was so helpful with Oden this year considering he sped around like a bullet. He was up and down and wanted to run EVERYWHERE the whole trip. Thank goodness everyone did their best to help keep us sane and help with the chasing. He was definitely a hand full and a half, but I know every year will get easier. Special thanks to the 3 Grandma's up there who took such great care of everyone. As always, we would fall apart without you. I will be thinking about this year's memories until next year when we can all make some more. (P.S. I am already reserving a s'more for next year since I missed them this year!)

Oh those breathtaking Missouri views......

The number one reason we love Missouri.....GRANDMA MARY!!!

This year we brought our friends Paul, Kerri, and Laney. This is Laney :)

They are best buddies!Oden looks like a true Missouri native!

If you have a freeze pop, you are Oden's best friend!Can I just borrow those glasses for a second cousin Matt??
Baby cousins on the Forth of July! So sweet!

This picture describes their personalities so well. Oden looks sneaky like he's planning a break for it, and Chaela is happy as an elf! Chaela rubbing Oden's head for good luck!

I miss you Laney, WAKE UP!!! LOL!

Our family out on the dock

This is the yard and the dock at the house that is rented. Amazing.

Oden learned how to pick flowers and loved giving them to everyone!

Baby Hawk is back!!

That's right! We re-hawked Oden's hair yesterday and.....it looks amazing! Just in time for Missouri. Here are some new pictures for ya! He hasn't been doing anything new and exciting lately. We are trying so hard to get him to start talking. When he first started sounding things out about 3 months ago I was so certain he would be talking shortly thereafter. Now here we are, patiently waiting. He will be exactly 18 months on Tuesday and he can say Mama, Dada, Uh-oh, Kittie (kind of), cheese, and he can sound out hot and cold. He has started shaking his head no, which is not fun at all. He's able to differentiate when he wants to say yes by nodding his head or say no but shaking his head. Since he isn't able to communicate with us through words, he is still doing a lot of whining. Like I said, we are patiently waiting with hope he will break through this communication barrier sooner than later!! Other than that, we are leaving for Missouri on Wednesday morning. We are very excited and we will have tons of cute pictures to post when we get back!

First picture after the haircut, you can't really see it that good.

These next three pictures were from when my family was in town a couple of weeks ago. My cousin Daphne took these, she is a dang good photographer!

Typical Oden, running with no destination.

Blowing kisses!!

New family pic!! Thanks Daphne!!

This is just Oden hanging out with his friend Rileigh. Yay for play dates!!

Laughing Baby Dude

I just took this video today. It was so cute that I had to upload it right away!

I love laughing babies.

A little of this.....a little of that.

This is my attempt to catch-up on sharing pictures of all the fun we've been having lately. He is crazy and keeps us going non-stop, but he is the cutest boy ever! ENJOY!

Feeling sleepy.....

This is his 'cheeeese' face. He will pretty much do it whenever

you ask him, when there's a camera around.

Playing with his girlfriend, Laney.

I might have posted this one already, but it's cute so....no harm done :)

Check out the graphics on this t-shirt! So cute!

We get comments on it all the time. Thanks Grammy!

Papa Joe and Grandma Laura came over with a new toy!! He loves it!!

Now we just have to work on getting the weather to cooperate.

YAY for new toys!! THANK YOU!!

Memorial Day.....jumping with Auntie Heather

No photo is complete without his drooled on clothes!!

GOOFY BABY!

Laney pushing Odee on her swing, this lasted for about .02 seconds.

BBQing!

Again with this cheese face, and the drool.

FREE PRESENTS TO THE FIRST FIVE!!

I stole this from Mrs. Hair.......

Here's the deal. The first 5 people to leave a comment here will get a homemade gift from me. It doesn't matter if I don't know you. If you're just randomly blog stalking (c'mon, we all do it) and you come across this post and want to be one of the first 5 to leave a comment, go for it! The only catch is that you have to pay the gift forward by reposting this on your blog/Facebook/Myspace. I will check to make sure you've done so. I don't know what the gift will be, but it will be homemade. I'll get it to you sometime this year (but probably sooner than later so I don't have it looming over my head). I don't promise you'll love it, but I'm not going to make you something I think you'll hate, either, because that would be like an un-gift and defeat the entire purpose.

I'm going to adjust it slightly and say it will be a gift made by ODEN AND I!! It will be cute, I promise.

Besides that, I have a lot of really cute pictures to post. It's just finding the time to do so that it going to be the hard part. I will try to do them later this week.

BABY BUDDY

This baby dude is growing up so fast! He is not talking yet. His expressions and actions speak so loud right now, he is practically yelling at me all the time! Sometimes I forget that he is a baby, most of the time I treat him like my little friend. He is just so much fun to be around. Oden continues to monkey around daily. I think he might be a professional climber of some sort when he grows up. He is constantly climbing on tables and couches, my heart has skipped quite a few beats because of these antics. He has completely mastered the stairs, which surprises a lot of people. I would say he could go both directions when he was about a year old. We just continued to use gates a barriers to limit his freedom and the chance of an accident. We leave the gate down now and he is awesome by himself. He still loves them, and will go up them all day long if I let him. He also likes to climb around and play IN our cars. We are outside a lot and when he gets bored with his toys he will go to one of the car doors (usually Jess's because he can reach the handle) and make us open the door so he can play inside. Jess will sometimes recline the seats for him, which makes for a baby jungle gym! We have been exploring a lot of the local parks lately, and have found some really neat ones. Being outside is awesome. Here are some new pics from a BBQ we had with Grammy Mary and Grandpa Scott. Oden loved playing with Scott's old, metal Tonka trucks. It was so cute (see the captions below).

He had no interest in playing in the beautiful yard....

Oden was obsessed with these trucks!
He would place them on the deck, knock them into the rocks.....
step down into the rocks to retrieve them, place them in a line on the deck.....then knock them down again. He repeated this game for a long time!

Bright, sunshiny days :)

It has been an absolutely beautiful weekend here!! Here are just a few pics I was able to take while we were out playing.

This is a new favorite of mine :)This is not the most sanitary thing he could be doing. But....Boys will be boys!

Action shot!! He loves running in the grass bare-footed.

We're hiding out in the Missouri tent from last year.

So innocent in the morning.......

Laney's 2nd birthday and Oden's 16 month check up!

This past weekend we had another birthday party. This one was for Oden's girlfriend Alayna, who turned 2 (He likes older women). It was a lot of fun and it is getting so awesome to watch the little one interact. Oden was pretty much obsessed with Laney's kitchen playsets. It was cute.

Yesterday Oden had his 15/16 month check up! He is 34 inches long and 25 pounds. He is in the 85 percentile for height and 50 percentile for weight. He's nearly half as long as I am already!! It must be funny watching me carry him. My doctor told me yesterday that I look more like a teenager than a mom! He has passed all of his developmental tests. He is pretty much perfect. Except for the fact that he has been the pickiest eater lately. It's driving me nuts. This kid could live off of fruit if I let him! Fruit and pickles of course! LOL! I have to find a creative way of getting him his protein. Any ideas anybody?

He does like to eat his socks!!

This is Oden's new couch. He LOVES it. It was a great buy!
Playing with Dad's hat!

Here's the b-day girl, LANEY!!
The now traditional screaming baby picture. Sorry this was taken with my old camera while the other one was in the shop.

HAPPY EASTER!!! and Happy Birthday Reign!

We hope that everyone had a very Happy Easter!! Our was excellent =) I felt like we were able to visit everyone, and spend quality time, without feeling rushed. It was perfect. Unfortunately, I do not have very many pictures because my camera is on the fritz. It keeps vibrating when it is turned on, which creates blurry pictures. Enjoy the few pictures I was able to take before it got completely ridiculous.

Here's Odee on Easter morning with his present from Jess and I, a Little Tikes barn.Matching Daddy and Oden! So handsome!

Oden and Grandpa Scott.....this was one of my last pictures.
The day before Easter was our friend Reign's 1st birthday party. Here's Reign trying to touch Oden, he wanted no part of that. He just wanted to play with all of her pink toys!!
The babies and me!

Oden lounging in Reign's pink chair. Jess would've died......

I am going to work on sending my camera in for repair this week, so there will be more pictures soon!!

NAKEY BOY

Here is a video of one of the cutest things that Oden does now. When it is bathtime, he runs into the bathroom. He definately knows the routine. Then, I take his clothes off and as soon as I take off his onesie this is what he does......

......with such joy, he runs his hands up and down his tummy while I say, "NAKEY, NAKEY, NAKEY!!" It's so precious!! This definately makes me smile everytime :)

Nothing too exciting, but some cuteness

Here's some new pictures for all of you Oden fans out there. There really hasn't been too much going on around here lately. We've just been enjoying the warm weather, when we can, and snuggling on those crazy Illinois cold days! I wish the weather would just decide already on which season it is!! One day it feels like summer, and the next day we're in the Arctic Tundra!! Jess and I are getting ready to go on vacation, which is exciting to us! We leave for Las Vegas this Friday and return on Monday. Oden will be staying with Grandpa and Grandma Dee Dee. I already know we will miss him horribly, but he will be in good hands. It's only a couple of days anyways! Other than that, I swear he is on the verge of talking. If we could stop giving him his binky, I bet he would be doing better. It's just such a comfort, for Jess and I!! Soon enough he will be talking. I suppose there's really no need to rush it.


Oden and Grandpa Dee Dee holding hands at the park.

All up in Grandma Dee Dee's grill! haha!

Helping Oden fly his first kite. So cute!

White Sox baby!

White Sox baby eating Thomas White Sox baby retrieving the Thomas he hid under the couch. This is one of his new antics. He puts toys under the couch and then does a search and rescue!
Oh, so sleepy!
He so cuddly, cozy in the mornings!

Yay for wedding proposals!

Oden had a small part in a wedding proposal over the weekend. On Friday our friend Ian came over and we attempted to take some pictures of Oden holding a sign proposing to our cousin, Jen Hogan. It took quite a while to get a decent picture, but in the end Ian took one that he liked and wanted to use for their special moment. We were flattered to be part of such a special event. So the story goes..... Ian posted the picture on Jen's computer background so when she looked at her computer she took a double take and by the time she looked at Ian he was one one knee with an absolutely gorgeous ring!! She said, "YES!", of course. Ian and Jen are a couple of our favorite people and we wish them all the best. Congrats Jen and Ian!!!

We were trying so hard to get a good pose.

This is the one Ian chose. I'm sooo glad he got one he liked!!

On a less exciting note, we are just loving the warmer weather lately! Finally, a chance to get out of the house and let Oden stretch his legs!! He LOVES being outside. Here are some pictures of a few of our recent days outside.

This day it was still a little cold out, but it didn't phase him at all!

Playing bubbles with Kerri and LaneyDad chasing Oden to the end of the drive, he runs here often."Let me in your car Dad!"Loving the swings at Renwick Park You can't go down that way, silly!

"I am the King of this playground!!"

Just hanging out in the firetruck with Auntie Olivia.

Baby Baldy

So yesterday, Oden went to my mom's house (Grandma KiKi). When I returned to her house she had given him a haircut. Not just a trim, she cut off the baby hawk!! She chopped off the back half of it and cut about an inch off the top. Apparently, she didn't like the way it looked. AHHHH!! Jess and I had talked about Oden having a mohawk before he was even born! Needless to say, we were upset. All has been discussed with my mother, and I feel confident that nothing like this will happen in the future. Luckily, it is hair and it will grow back. Plus, his hair grows like wild fire! He's already had about half a dozen haircuts.

Ironically, I had a little photo shoot with him just before we left the house. His hair looked sooo cool that day. So here are some pics pre and post hawk removal :( so sad.

BEFORE:

Healthy, punk rock baby boy

AFTER:
Our poor cancer-looking baby

Newbies

I know this is what everyone craves ...... new pics!!! I'm going to try to post as many as possible the next week or two because I accepted a position at an insurance company, and am going to assume I will not have much time to post. So enjoy them while you can :)

Still loving this little 4-wheeler!

Trying to eat his baby blankie


More pooping! I just think it's funny how he hides now!

Wrestling with his monkey balloon! Silly monkeys!

Chuck E. Cheesetrip with dad!! So much fun!!