Scary Storms Last Night

First of all, Clayton and I are both just fine and no damage to our house! Phew!

Well, if anyone doesn't know, we are moving to York in the fall for Darrel's new job as a math teacher at York Middle School and the High School - really our dream come true. Well, our house has been on the market since April 1st but it still hasn't sold, but starting this week, Darrel is sort of going to York without Clayton and me. He will be working on the farm and helping with York's wrestling program (staying with his parents).

So last night, he left after Clayton was in bed. And then we got some severe storms. We (Buffalo County) were in a Tornado Warning and the sirens were going off, this was about a quarter to 9pm. Our house has no basement, so we had discussed that in this type of situation, we would get into one of the clothes closets and shut the door. Without Darrel here, I am in near panic! I can recall the tornadoes that came through Kearney, about this time in May 2008, the month before we got married, and several buildings within blocks of where I was at that time were destroyed. Would I be that lucky this time? I remember thinking that my worst nightmare was coming true - our house will be leveled by the tornado and we will be homeless with a baby. Except it wasn't we, it was just I. Reluctant to wake up Clayton, I had the flashlight and a stocked diaper bag in the closet and turned off the computer and sat on the edge of the couch on high alert watching the local weather reports and radar, nervously glancing out the window. One of the last things I remember them saying before we lost power at about 9:05pm was that there had been several tornadoes spotted in Kearney and that you did NOT want to be on the west side of your house right now, with winds that strong, it would blow the hail right through your windows. Luckily we don't have any windows on the west side of our house and I hadn't seen that we had gotten any hail. But with the power out and no TV to keep me updated on the storm, I grabbed Clayton out of his crib and sat in the closet. I sat there until about 9:20pm when Darrel confirmed to me via text message that Kearney was out of the tornado warning and the worst of the storm had passed over us. So I gently put Clayton back in his crib - he had never even woke up through this whole ordeal by the way. I even bumped his head on the plastic drawers in our closet a couple of times while I was trying to get situated and he never did more than stir a little, what a little stinker! : ) Our power came back on about 10:00pm (which was good since my phone had been beeping low battery most of this whole time). So crisis averted we are all safe and sound, but of course still missing Darrel (daddy).

Happy Camper

Clayton had so much fun playing outside while we were camping at Fort Kearney. I think I will try to let him do that more at home now. This video is from Friday afternoon; Darrel had to be in Holdrege for rehearsal dinner (he was a groomsman in his childhood friend Kirby's wedding this weekend) so he dropped Clayton and I off at the campsite around three and set up the tent, then went back home to get ready. My parents came in their camper later that evening, so Clayton and I held down the fort in between.

My grandparents also came out for dinner on Sunday afternoon. We had hobo stew meals (onions, ground beef, potatoes and carrots cooked in a foil packet in hot coals and cherry cobbler (baked in our dutch oven in the fire) with ice cream for dessert. It was kind of misting all day and never got very warm, but I was glad that Clayton finally got to wear some cozy fleece lion PJs in a 6-9 month size that I was afraid he would never get to wear just because that size and the seasons didn't match up correctly. I know that my grandparents and my parents really enjoyed all the time with Clayton (and I think they like to visit with me and Darrel too!)

Clayton (in his lion PJs) & Great Grandma Erna

We bugged out early than originally planned on Sunday afternoon because of predicted high winds overnight, and we are glad that we did! It has been very windy last night and this morning it would have been really hard to pack up and for my parents to pull the camper (read: wind sail).

Clayton was a great camper and we can't wait to try it again sometime soon!!

Clayton's 1st Camping Trip

I'm calling it a success even though the weather didn't really want to cooperate!!

Clayton had a lot of  fun. More pictures to come!

Haircut

We had family hair cuts last night! We go to the home of someone I know from my time working at the Buckle and this is the 2nd time Gretchen has cut Clayton's hair. It's amazing that just trimming so little can make such a huge difference!

And the spikey look : )

Rainy Day

It's so wonderful to sleep in on a rainy day! Clayton slept until 8:20am this morning! So much better than the 4am wake time he was trying to pull last week. He woke up such a happy camper too!

My little ham

Building blocks with Dad

Can I knock that down?

BOOM!

Official 7 Month Pic and Hives

Here it is (finally):

Also, on Saturday and Sunday Clayton had hives. I didn't notice any this morning so far. I have never experienced hives before so I didn't know what they were at first, but thanks to the Internet I learned that he had a classic case. They would appear and go away, just to show up somewhere else on his body. They did seem to bother him and I would say that he was a little irritable and had a decreased appetite. Over all though, he was a trooper. Here is a picture of one relatively small one on the back of his leg yesterday:

I am assuming that they are from the antibiotics he was on from his infection earlier this month. He took Amoxicillin, and both my mom and I are allergic to penicillin, so we are assuming that is the culprit. His last dose was on Friday morning, and the hives showed up for the first time on Saturday. However, he also had a new food on Thursday (Lentils) and we switched back to regular Johnson's baby lotion from the unscented version last week as well. So I am going to cut out the lentils and keep using the lotion and see what happens with the hives. Once I am sure they are cleared up, I will reintroduce the lentils. If the hives do not return I will know it was the antibiotics.

Blocks!

It was so neat to watch Clayton figure out what I wanted him to do with those blocks (knock down the towers I made). He went from just putting them in his mouth and accidentally knocking them down, to doing it on purpose and getting better at doing it! It is so rewarding to watch him learn something new!

Happy in a Diaper

This is from last night. He's such a cutie, I could watch it all day (if he wasn't here pulling on my hair..)

Mmm mmm (good)!

That is what Clayton says about this new recipe I made for him this week; chicken with sweet potato and apple. It is really easy to whip up and then puree. I made a double batch, so I'm glad he enjoys it. It looks so much better than the store bought baby food with meat, they look so grody...

I tried to catch his excitement on video, but of course he watches the camera and some of the effect is lost, ha ha. He was much more enthusiastic about it prior to this. He was also bouncing and kicking he legs along with it - so enthusiastic over every bite. I think it's the best compliment I have ever received for my cooking! : )

Clayton Says:

I had green beans for lunch... can you tell?

Fun Times

Hanging out with Mom:

 

Chillin' with Dad:

Peek-a-boo!

The video is kind of long, but I think you enjoy watching long videos of Clayton and his mommy and daddy's baby voice tactics if you visit my blog! So enjoy watching Clayton learn about playing peek-a-bo. At the end he has a funny surprise for mommy...

Got the cat

All those toys and he is attacking the kitty. Poor cat. Oh well, she went to lay there of her own free will!

Feeling Better!

I was going to post this sooner, but the Blogger has been down! Clayton has been feeling much better, especially since Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning you could tell that he was back to normal. Giving him all of his medication has been a challenge, but I least I know it's temporary! In the morning I give him his normal 1ml dose of Zantac, which isn't so bad and he doesn't mind the taste, but now I am also giving him 1 tsp (almost 4x the amount of the Zantac) of his oral antibiotics. It's sticky and goopy and he doesn't like it! Then he also has to be sat on (to restrict his arms from batting me away) so that I can get one little drop into his eye. I have used over half the bottle already since we have a lot of misses. Then he gets a second drop in his eye around noon. Before his bath at bed time we go through the same medication routine as we did in the morning! Whew!

Here a couple of pictures of him one nice day last week when we went to the park.

7 Months Old Today!

It's Clayton's 7 month B-day and the poor baby is sick! He has had a fever since yesterday, and then today his left eye started to look swollen and goopy. I used a symptom checker online from Baby Center and I was afraid he might have Periorbital cellulitis, which is apparently not as bad as it sounds, but since it could be caused by a bacteria such as Strep that I may have some how given my infection to his eye! :( So I took him in to get checked out and the doc said babies under a year don't typically get Strep infections. So she prescribed him some antibiotics to cover possible eye and sinus infections. So now he gets eye drops three times a day... This should be fun! :/

So we just got back from the clinic and the pharmacy and the little guy fell asleep in his car seat, so he is just chillin in there taking a nap. Here is my attempt at his 7 month photos:

I might try again tomorrow afternoon if he is feeling a little better!

Yesterday was Mother's Day...

...And Clayton wore this super cute shirt:

We spent the weekend at my parent's house and had a very nice time! Here is some of what Clayton was up to while we were there:

Playing with Grandpa Mark

Playing with the fun, new (old) toys at Grandma Di's house

Tickling the Ivories with Cousin Jamie and Auntie Amy

New Video, as promised!

And in case you're wondering, his shirt says "Mommy's Little Alarm Clock" ha ha

MIA Mommy!

Sorry for no posts but Clayton's mommy has been sick with Strep Throat since Sunday night. Even with Ibuprofen every 4 hours I had a pretty high fever, too. Clayton was a trooper through mommy's misery and luckily I have a great husband and Darrel took the afternoon off work on Monday to help with Clayton so I could go to the clinic to get antibiotics and rest. Darrel's mom also came to Kearney on Tuesday (her DAY OFF! Thanks again Ann!) to make me soup and entertain Clayton while I rested up some more. Just pray now that Clayton doesn't get it!!!

I have some video to process and post, hopefully that will happen tonight or tomorrow morning.

Favorite Foods

Clayton's favorite food is probably butternut squash. I don't know if it is because the puree I made of it is so smooth or if he just really loves the flavor, but he will eat more of that than anything else. He is also really enjoying the cinnamon I have been putting in his applesauce (I'm just using regular, unsweetened applesauce at this point - it's so much cheaper than baby food and zero work for me). He also really likes sweet potatoes, and those I just mashed with a potato masher so it has a little more texture. He will even eat peas and spinach if I mix it into the potatoes. He will also eat a lot of green beans, but I have never made those myself, only bought baby food. Soon, I may try giving him so pieces of whole, cooked green beans and see how he does with that.


Another food item that I use is "Baby Mum-Mums." It's basically a rice cake for babies! I did try a bite and they taste the same and dissolve so easily that he can safely gum off a chunk, dissolve and swallow it. He does so good with it and is learning how to eat more and more of the same piece after the easy-to-get-in-my-mouth end is gone. This has been a great tool for me, too. I give it to him while I am getting he cereal or other food ready and then he doesn't get impatient and bored while he waits for me!

We've also tried the sippy cup with some half-strength apple juice a few times. I'm not sure that he is quite ready for it yet since we don't us a bottle much, he doesn't completely understand the concept. I'll just try every now and then and he will learn eventually!