Craziness

I know it's been a while since I provided an update, but things have been a bit crazy around here. Payton had her 6-month shots on Friday, Aug. 22 and then my brothers came up that weekend to visit. We had fun hanging out and Payton was really pretty good most the weekend. She didn't spike a high fever or get too cranky, just a bit of fussing.
We talked to the dr. about her not sleeping all not and he said "we're getting played and to let her start crying it out at night." It's really not the route I would like to take, but I don't like getting up every night between 1-4 either. Makes for some short nights and long tired days. So we let her cry, and cry, and cry some more and wail, and scream, and you get the point. But we held strong and she fell asleep.
It was working for a few nights, until one night I made her cry it out and then the next morning she woke up not well. On Wednesday, Payton was sent home from daycare with a fever over 101, and by mid-afternoon she was at the dr. with a fever over 103. Blood work, a urine bag and two days later, still not better. Viruses SUCK. There's nothing they can do and you just have to give tylenol and/or ibuprofen to bring down the fever. I was off work two days, we were getting little sleep, Payton was very needy and clingy (understandbly so) I was nearly getting sick myself with worry. But she recovered, and despite being really cranky all weekend, she is pretty much back to her good ol' self!
Meanwhile, we were preparing to show our house that Friday to a potential renter but canceled because of Payton's illness. Good thing, because over the weekend we had chance to walk some property owned by the Deloofs and found ourselves very interested in not renting but selling and possibly buying this land to build.
Fast forward, we're now signing papers to sell our house and talking to lenders about financing the land/home construction. It's very exciting and scary at the same time.
Back to Payton, she slept through the night for the first time in a VERY long time. Sleep is my favorite color!! There are so many things to tell you about with Payton, like how she's crawling all over, pulling herself up to standing, eating a bunch of solids, her first talent show, ETC. Keep coming back for more.

Primer

I know many of you actually receive the blog posts via email. I have it set up to send an email to you every time I update the blog. But what then happens is that many of you reply to me through my email when you should be posting comments on the blog.

In other words, those emails are just to remind you to check out www.sdjacob.blogspot.com where you can read the blog and leave comments there for me. Just scroll down to the bottom of the entry and click on the text where it says 0 Comments. Then add your own remarks.

More coming soon on Payton's lessons in physics!

Slop

Payton is now eating solids twice a day. She started off with the traditional first meal of rice cereal and we have progressed to eating a variety of fruits and vegetables along with mixed grain cereal and oatmeal. She wasn't too keen on eating off a spoon at first, but she's really gotten the hang of it and is eating quite well. Only thing now is that she's still waking up at night, which I would've thought would end by now since she's eating bottles, baby food and is over 6 months. But that's what parenthood teaches you - whatever your expectations are - just throw them out the window.

When we first started out, we fed Payton in her Bumbo seat with the attached tray. It worked out really well. Then, my boss and his wife, Molly, were kind enough to give us their highchair and a bath seat now that their girls have outgrown them. We're getting good use out of the highchair, and it's nice that it has two covers because one is always getting messy and thrown in the wash.



I can't really say yet that Payton has any favorites. She seems to like just about everything she tries and has not absolutely refused anything yet. On to the prunes!

Sitting

Sorry we haven't posted much lately. I definitely don't keep up with this blog as much as I'd like, but it's hard when you're raising a kid, working, keeping a home and trying to find a new one. We want to move so badly and have been looking at a lot of houses, some online and some in person. I love going to open houses! But we desperately need to sell our current house first, or possibly rent. So we're just sitting on this place but wishing we could move.

Speaking of sitting, Payton mastered the skill a couple weeks ago. She was able to sit with some help, but she then figured out how to push herself up and stabilize herself. Of course, she has the tendency to knock her noggin on the floor at times so we bought a foam-padded floor thing that looks like giant colorful puzzle pieces. It's like her own personal play mat. Payton has made amazing strides the past couple weeks and is getting too big for her britches at times. More on that later.

Enjoy these various shots of her sitting....