9 Month Well baby Check Up

Today's appointment required no vaccinations!! Woo Hoo! I guess I could have gone for this check up before Thanksgiving, but I was expecting shots followed by a week of Reese feeling yucky. He did have a finger stick to get blood for an iron test. His iron levels are normal and he got a Dora the Explorer bandaid. This is the first time he's ever had a bandaid other than the circle on his thigh where he's gotten shots. He found Dora utterly fascinating and rather tasty though I could not capture a photo of him ogling the bandaid......he would barely look away from it so I don't know how he managed to avoid the camera. But you can see him holding it out . Reese was very happy his appointment didn't really hurt except for that one stick on the finger. He weighed in at 15 pounds exactly and 27 inches long. His head circumference is 44cm. We forgot to find out what percentile his height/weight is..hmm..I wonder if I can call and ask. She said he was fine according to his corrected age, so he is behaving appropriately for a 6 1/2 month old, well actually almost 7 month old. She looked at his gums with her Doctor light and said she can see two slits where the teeth should push through on the bottom....I couldn't see before, but can now so it may be the power of suggestion. His ear infection is looking good. Unfortunately he was pretty cranky today anyway...I think it's achy gums. He has been eating ferociously today. So I think he will catch up on some weight gain since he only gained 1 ounce over the course of his sickness...apparently fever burns a lot of calories combined with loss of appetite = no weight gain. His goal is to gain 1/2 ounce per day on average, so we have some catching up to do now that his cold is almost gone.

Thanskgiving guests

Candy Gram (Kyle's mom) and GREAT-Grandma Joyce making gravy. Mimi (Heather's mom) , Kyle and Reese. Uncle Dylan helping set the table. Poppop and Reese. Kyle, Heather , Grandad John (Kyle's dad), Great Grandpa Bob and Great Grandma Joyce, Candy Gram is holding Reese on the edge of the photo. Grandpa Joe and Uncle Travis...both are so helpfully paying attention to the photo process.

Reese chowing down.

Candy's dad, Great Grandpa Bob and GG Joyce and Candy Gram holding ReeseUncle Travis, Uncle Dylan. Mimi and Poppop.

The Guest List
hosts, Kyle and Heather and Reese
Bob and Joyce Copenhaver, The GREAT Grandparents, Candy's dad
John and Candy Benza, Kyle's parents
Joe Bradley, Heather's dad from Virginia
Thomas and Marion Gutierrez and Travis and Dylan, Heather's peeps

Thanksgiving

Kyle and I spent a great deal of time and cuss words figuring out a feasible set up for our seating arrangement. Our table seats 8, but we had 11 and a high chair. I didn't really consider that my folding table (you know one of those brown tables you use at your craft bazaar or yard sale) was WAY smaller than our dining table. Eventually we arranged this horse shoe shape adding on my short laundry folding table as well.
This is Kyle's first turkey carving. I really hope he washed his hands well beforehand.
Here is Reese in his borrowed high chair having squash and some mashed potatoes. He was pleasant for a few moments and ate some food, before he started whining again. Eventually Candy Gram (I think I'm making this her official name now since Kyle's mom's name is Candy + Gram for Grandma) rocked him to sleep.

THE MENU

Roasted Turkey
Mashed Red and Yukon Gold Potatoes
Sausage Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Brussell Sprouts
Brown Sugar Kissed Carrots
Roasted Butternut Squash
Shirley's Salad
Cranberry Sauce
Fried Cinnamon Apples
Rolls
Pumpkin, Mince and Apple Pies

1st Cold and Ear Infection

Sunday before Thanksgiving Reese started getting snotty. He couldn't breathe to sleep so mommy and Reesie sat up on the couch most of the night. We went to the doctor Monday and found he had an ear infection. We picked up our prescription of amoxicillan, then we picked up Grandpa Joe, Heather's dad who flew in from Virginia. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were pretty miserable. Mommy got Reese's cold too, so Reese was cranky and feverish and snot filled and mommy was exhausted and sick and cranky. Reese managed a bit of happy jumperoo time in between the constant screaming.
Unfortunately Reese was pretty miserable and disagreeable for Grandpa's visit. The last time Grandpa was here was in May when Reese was pretty much a blob of sleep and eat. It was disappointing that he could not be his usual active little self, but he did have short periods of pleasant behavior. He managed to laugh with Grandpa a little bit.

Weekend plans

When Reese woke me up at 6:45am I realized Kyle was not in the bed......So he went to work yesterday planning on an 8 hour day which means getting off at midnight, but he was still not home. I thought I sure hope he didn't stumble home in the rain half asleep and get hit by a car. But I got to the kitchen to get Reese's breakfast going and discovered Kyle was in the shower. SO his 8 hour day turned into a 15 hour day against his will, but on the bright side my hair is now paid for and he was irritated enough to put his foot down and refuse to work the weekend. SO our bigs plans are to clean for the holidays, grocery shop for the holiday meal, Christmas shop and maybe actually see a movie! We have seen a lot of boy movies of late...Transformers, Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free or Die Hard, Spiderman 3 (all at the drive in) We did see the Game Plan but that has the Rock so I think it counts as Kyle's movie and the last theater movie before that was Ghost Rider. Notice these are all guy movies.....now I may have enjoyed them, actually Transformers was surprisingly not sucky. However, I certainly didn't choose them so I believe our next flick will be Heather's choice and I will choose something grotesquely girly, like maybe....Enchanted.

Hairdo

So as you all know I've had crappy hair for basically all of 2007. I went to a mall hairdo place in the summer I think. She cut it with an eggbeater, put me under the dryer and went home. I paid $15 because they were sorry she ditched me, though in retrospect I should have refused to pay anything because it was a horrible cut. I want to not have to go all the way to Port Orchard for a hairdo, so I tried to make an appointment at a place that has been recommended to me by 3 people from 3 different age groups...I thought was a good sign....well they never called me back so I went to Pzazz. For non-locals they are kind of fancy schmancy. So I expected it to cost a bit more than what I think is really acceptable, but I figured what the heck. I've only spent $15 on haircuts in 2007 so far. To fix my freaky do it yourself highlights she recommended an all over color of dark blonde/light brown then do highlights over top and then redo my ends in the dark color because they were so bleached out and yucky. I thought it sounded good...didn't think to ask about the price. Got to the counter and before she added in my products it was...guess...you see the photo...what seems reasonable plus a bit to you?
$240!!!!!! I almost fell out. $130 for the all over color and cut, $80 for highlights/foils and $30 for the extra on the ends. Plus you have to tip and this is a service I've already received so I can't back out. With tip and products it was $317. Thank goodness Kyle called to say they are forcing him to work 5 OT hours. However, since this is ridiculous and even I can't justify it I suggested we just make $217 of it come from my Christmas budget. So if you ask what did I get for Christmas.....a super expensive haircut.
A couple hours later my hubby called from work to say he felt bad that my Christmas gifts would be hairdo and since I'm so fabulous we can make that be out of the house budget, but for future dos I need to pick a new salon. Isn't he sweet? This is my pay back since he was the only guy at work with homemade meals for their lunch break.

Football!

Reese has on his 9 month old Football jersey outfit watching Daddy play Madden football. The Seahawks have bright blue uniforms and the field is bright green grass. Reese is really captivated by watching the game. He stops what he's doing to focus on the tv now so I've started tivo-ing Sesame Street so we can have it as background while Reese is in his jumperoo or exersaucer. PBS has no commercials so he is not overwhelmed with fast food ads.

hmmm....the wireless remote vibrates!

He can't wait until Dad lets him play. In the meantime he's busy looking cute!

buzz toy

On Wednesday November 14 Reese wore 9 month old clothes for the first time. This is his super duper soft fuzzy "howdy partner" suit. He is chomping away on his new favorite. It's a yellow star that vibrates when he bites the tips. It' s supposed to feel good on teething gums and he likes it a bunch.

Shopping with Daddy

The boys are checking out the LL Bean catalog to add to the Christmas wish list. Lots of exciting stuff to tab, in fact.........

Look Dad, I found something good!!

hey this shopping business is fun!

RATS!

Reese woke up to eat. Normally it would be very mellow and quiet, so he could eat and cuddle and go back to sleep. But Daddy got sent home early from work so we were going to watch our Netflix, Layer Cake, that we've had for 3 weeks only to discover the disc was cracked, so we couldn't watch it. Reese was absolutely transfixed to our selection..........

.................Ratatouille! The boy likes his Pixar.

Thanksgiving Prep

According to the Food Network you need to finalize your menu 2 weeks in advance which was officially yesterday. Clearly there is room to fudge with this timeline, however the more planned your are the less rushed and stressed you will be on the actual day. Over the years I have watched tons of shows about cooking your turkey and read magazine articles. I previously loved the Prevention magazine plan which produced a fabulous turkey, but now I love the Good Eats Alton Brown turkey. I've done both ways with cheapo turkeys and had great juicy results, but Prevention mag is a bit labor intensive, while Alton Brown's method is not. The food network also recommends you make your casseroles (green bean, of course) a day or 2 in advance and reheat. Also mash your potatoes at some point in the cooking process and reheat before serving. I have not employed this method previously but I am going to try it this year. If you try to cook everything so it finishes at the same time, first there's not really room on your stove top, but also I always end up forgetting the rolls or something and the kitchen is an absolute pit. So I'm hoping the in advance method will make my itty bitty counter space around the kitchen sink stay a bit cleaner. Here is Alton's recipe: Good Eats Roast Turkey
This year Kyle wants a Butterball, but I don't think he is aware of the price difference, so I'll get back to you with our plan and my finalized menu...I just thought today perhaps I should inquire if any of my guests have food issues. I don't really want a trip to the ER for an allergic reaction to be what makes my Thanksgiving meal memorable!

Yummy Pumpkin

Last Thursday we had a lunch date for our mommy group. Julie baked an awesome "meal in a pumpkin" for our lunch. It was an actual pumpkin with sausage and rice and some other yummy goodness baked inside. I never ate an actual pumpkin before, only canned kind. It actually tasted pretty similar to baked/roasted (is there a difference?) butternut squash. Which coincidentally I had for the first time last week also. Reese really enjoyed eating the pumpkin off of a big boy fork. I believe he felt very grown, which he liked since he normally feels very tiny around all the bigger boys in our group.

Costume, Carrot, and Cat

The sweet pea in his Halloween costume! The snap under his chin is undone so he can breathe and the top pea practically covers his face, but he was very tolerant while Mommy and Mimi took photos. Here is a full body shot of Reese in his costume. His toes were to the very tip and the sleeves were so bulky that he was practically in a straight jacket.

This carrot is cold from the fridge...he could not gnaw on it enough! I imagine it felt pretty good on his gums. We had a little break from the teething routine, but it is now back in full force.

This is Reese's new jumperoo. He test drove his friend, Lincoln's jumperoo and seemed to really like it. So we added it to the Christmas list. I convinced Kyle that was too long to wait. We'd miss 2 months of good usage time. Of course the new model only has 3 height levels, so while Lincoln's worked just fine for Reese this new one is a little high so I had to pad the floor with foam play mats to make his toes touch. He just loves it!!

He took a few minutes to figure out the jumping part but quickly got the hang of it and jumped all his energy out until he pooped out.

Tara was intrigued with the camera and popped over to check it out after I started to take a photo, so here is her partial portrait.

Reese is modeling his Uncles Travis and Dylan's hand me down football sweatshirt.