Breathing Treatments

A couple weeks ago little Daxton got his first cold.  I'm pretty sure it's from all the company in town visiting and being out all day on fun adventures.  A deep cough started to develop after a few days and started to settle in his lungs.  We were happy to hear from the doctor that it wasn't anything serious like RSV, but the doctor wanted us to start on breathing treatments.  The medicine came in a liquid form that we would put in a nebulizer (a pump that would convert the liquid into gas.)  Then we would place the pump close to his mouth until the gas ran out.  This allowed Daxton to get his medicine through the vapor, breathing it in and causing his throat to stop contracting.  He was then able to cough out the congestion from his illness.  We have been having to do this for over a week now, every 3-4 hours.  Obviously, he is not a big fan of the treatments and we have to basically wrestle with him in order to sit still long enough to breathe in the full treatment.  A lot of bribery may have been involved...
Hopefully our poor little guy will get feeling better soon.
We love you, sicky. 

Lunch with Oscar

At the beginning of November Dallas, Daxton, and I were able to meet up with Oscar in San Francisco for a fun afternoon at Pier 39.  Oscar is from my home town and is in his second year of school at Stanford University.  We've known his family for years and truly consider his parents, him, and his two brothers our family as well.

With the craziness of our schedules and Oscar's insane schedule at school, we haven't been able to see him as much as we'd like, so when he called saying he was free for lunch, we jumped at the opportunity to catch up.  Oscar took the train from Palo Alto up to the center of San Francisco where we picked him up and drove to Pier 39.  It was pretty packed with it being a Saturday, but the weather was absolutely perfect.  You can't beat 75 degree weather in the city during November!  We decided to eat a later lunch at Bubba Gumps and were able to get a table looking right out on the water.  While waiting Daxton had some fun with his best buddie, Brobee...I don't think he remembered the song "Don't bite your friends!" 

Daxton loves watching people.

He is totally content sucking on a toy and watching all the different people around him and you don't get a higher population of "different" people than in San Francisco.

We love our city!

Oscar was so sweet and wanted to know everything about our little guy.  He hasn't been around many babies, but wanted to try holding him anyway.  Daxton was pretty chill and Oscar was sweet enough to let me snap a few pictures of them together.  It was so nice to chat with him and hear all about his experiences at Stanford.  He's such a smart guy and I'm so excited for him and all he's doing.

After eating at Bubba Gumps we decided to walk around Pier 39, watch the magician show, shop, and hang out with the sea lions.  The weather was perfect and the sun was setting.

It was a great way to end a fun afternoon.

Daxton loved listening to the sea lions bark and push each other off the docks.  It's amazing to see him discover things for the first time and watch his eyes light up.

It was such a fun day.

Thanks again, Oscar, for meeting up with us.  We had a blast as always and can't wait to catch up again soon!

Flashback Friday: Whale Watching in Auckland, New Zealand

Obviously I'm a few days late for this weeks' Flashback Friday, maybe one of these days I will actually post one on a Friday again...

In the summer of 2005 I took a trip back to New Zealand with a few of my good friends who I had taught with in New Zealand in 2003.  We spent a month traveling all over the country visiting friends and our host family.  I previously posted about our adventures north at the Bay of Islands.  While in Auckland, Ashley and I decided to take a whale and dolphin cruise for the day.  I wish I could put into words how incredible our experience was.  The pictures do not do justice for all the amazing animals we were able to see...

Gorgeous view from our boat looking back at the city of Auckland.

It was a gorgeous "winter" day in July (love that southern hemisphere switch of seasons) and we immediately fell in love with our cruise boat.  It had two points at the front of the boat that you could get an amazing almost 360 degree view of any animals in the water.

Enjoying all the different views from the boat.

Once we left the Auckland harbor we were welcomed by the most amazing site...a pod of over 300 dolphin feeding within the ocean waters.  I don't think I will ever be able to top that moment with dolphin again.  It was incredible to look out on a sea of bouncing gray fins peeking above the waves.  Several loved playing in and around our boat, using the boat's waves for their enjoyment.

Trying to show how many dolphin and how close they were...so not a good picture of myself though!

After we followed the pod of dolphin for awhile, we were also able to find several whales.  My favorite was a mom and baby calf making their way through the ocean waves.

I love Ashley so much and had such a blast with her.

I'm so glad we decided to spend the day out at sea!

Cruising through Auckland harbor...

Hands down one of the most amazing experiences being able to view such incredible wildlife in the natural environment, especially so highly populated!

Dapper Dan

I love little boy clothes.

There is something so cute about dressing up your baby in adorable stylish outfits.  I also love that the choice of boy clothes are getting more and more cute.  I adore all the layers, puffy vests/jackets, and I'm a total sucker for collared bottom ups.
So when I dressed up Daxton in his Sunday best, I couldn't help but snap a few quick pictures.  He was such a dapper little man in his white button-up and sweater vest.
He's growing so quickly.

At church he continued to be just as handsome...

If you call squealing in the middle of a talk and having to take him out to the foyer to stare at the trees.  Gone are the days when he would sleep through Sacrament meeting...

Jumping Bean

Now that Daxton is awake for longer stretches of the day it has become a bit more difficult to get ready in the mornings.  I'm sure this will only become more challenging when he gets older and when we add more children to the mix.  As a problem solver Dallas came up with the idea of bringing Daxton's jumper upstairs to our bedroom and placing it in front of our floor length mirror in the mornings.  Yes, I married a genius!
Daxton plays eagerly in his jumper now and has even met a new best friend.  He stares at his reflection in the mirror and giggles loudly while jumping up and down.  Oh the joys of loving yourself!
And for me...I can continue to take my time getting ready in the mornings.  Thank you sweet baby!

7 Months Old

The month of November has totally seemed to slip away from me.  We are now in Casper, Wyoming celebrating the holiday season with the Perkins side of the family and I am trying desperately to catch up on all of the blogging from the passed few weeks, starting with Daxton turning 7 months old.
On October 27th our little man turned one step closer to 1 year old.
It's crazy to see how quickly our little guy is growing and changing.  I swear the weeks fly by quicker and quicker.  It was kind of a chaotic month visiting the doctor multiple times trying to figure out why he was losing weight.  When we weighed him at the end of October, he was 17lbs 2oz.  He had finally started to gain back some of the weight lost.  It was a sad few days though, since I had to stop breastfeeding in order for him to take a formula bottle.  He's quite the stubborn little man, but has grown to love how quickly he gets fed now and in the process has added more chubbiness to those gorgeous chunky cheeks.
Daxton continues to sleep wonderfully through the night and is very patient with all of mommy's hugs and kisses.

Photo of the Week 59

Loving the snuggle time with his great grandma.

We are very spoiled with such loving family.

Flashback Friday: Flour Game

Tomorrow's going to be crazy, so I thought I would post this today instead...

I'll admit...

After my last Flashback friday with Eric and Dave, I started to feel nostalgic for those "Dev Days."  So I figured I would post another quick memory from our crazy adventures together.  This took place during July of 2005.  Eric had come to Provo for another visit so we got some of our old gang together: Mikey, JT, Stirling, Brittney, Ryan, Eric, and myself.  We had spent most of the evening out, but didn't want to call it a night so we ended up back at one of our apartments (from the pictures, I can't even remember where we were at at this point...)  Eric and Mikey decided that they wanted to teach us all the "Flour Game."  Little did I know how ridiculously messy it would be...

You start with a bag of flour, a tall kitchen glass, one penny, and a butter knife.  Fill the glass with flour, making sure to compact it tightly to the rim.  Using the "sand castle" technique, tip the glass upside down so the formed flour stands freely on the table.  Place the penny on top of the flour tower.

Then, going in a circle, everyone takes a turn by slicing a long strip in the flour with the butter knife.  (It reminded me of the game Jenga, how each player takes a piece of the puzzle away to make the structure more and more unstable.)

 You can cut away large or small amounts of flour as long as you don't let the penny fall.  If on your turn the penny or tower falls, you have to dig the penny out using only your face...it gets pretty messy!

 After picking up the penny with your teeth, you play the game all over again.  I guess the winner is whoever is the cleanest by the end of the evening...but we ended up getting into a flour fight so I'm not sure if there even was a winner that night.  All I know is I came home looking like a dusty cloud, but having had a fabulous time as always.

Highlights of the week...

I can't believe how fast this little man is growing.

I still need to do his 7 month post with his growth stats from a couple weeks ago, but I haven't quite gotten around to it.  We did realize thought, after he was weighed again and was continuing to loose weight, that we needed to supplement with formula as well.  In true stubborn form, he refused to take formula and a bottle while breast feeding as well, so unfortunately I had to stop breast feeding.  At least we made it to 7 months, but I was sad to stop nonetheless.  It was a VERY rough three days while training him to take a bottle, but now he is doing great and already gaining the weight back.  He is still the happy little man I fell in love with and he is still sleeping great through the night.  I'm pretty sure it was harder on mommy than it was for him.  I still miss that closeness, which is why I will only give him a bottle if he's snuggling up tight to me...I know, I'm quite the pathetic mommy!

After one of the feedings he actually fell asleep on me.

It had been weeks since he had done that of his own free will (when we have flown or on Sundays at church, it's a bit of a wrestling match to get him to fall asleep in my arms.)  It was the absolute best cuddle time and I found myself simply staring at those gorgeous eyelashes and wanting to kiss those sweet lips.  I'm a bit obsessed!

There have been so many things going on lately, with people in town visiting and us going out on adventures every other day, so it is nice when things are a bit slower once in awhile.  We've been having fun during his feedings both with the bottle and with solids.  He gets a bit distracted at times and has loved blowing spit bubbles and chewing on his toys.  He is also in love with his toes, which is pretty stinking cute!

One of my favorite times of the day is when daddy walks in the door.  I've started to sing "I'm so Glad When Daddy Gets Home" from the Children's Primary Song Book and this moment totally sums it all up.  His first glance of daddy as he walks through the door, followed by the biggest grin and excited squeal.  I love how deeply he knows and loves his daddy.

We've been working on sitting up independently.  His balance is still not there and needs a lot of assistance but he is getting more and more mobile everyday.  He likes to roll and twist in his cribs and on the bed.  He still doesn't enjoy tummy time very much and will roll right onto his back, so I'm thinking it may take awhile for him to crawl.  I'm perfectly ok with that for now and enjoying not having to worry about him getting into everything quite yet.

But mostly I'm just enjoying this face.

This smiling giggling face I see every time I pick him up from his nap or play with him on the ground.  I really do just feel blessed to have such a sweet-tempered child.