The Boone Family

Christmas has been a lot of fun with the little guy. He doesn't quite get it yet but he had a good time trying to open gifts and visiting with family. Christmas Eve we spent with Grandma and Grandpa Grocho and family. He had a great time being hugged and kissed by relatives. Then Christmas eve night we stayed at my mom and dad's and it was a rough night. I am not sure if he was so excited for Santa to come or what the reason but he didn't sleep well. Christmas morning we opened presents with mom, dad, Danielle, and Edd. Then we had a birthday breakfast for my dad (55 years old) and Grandma and Grandpa Grocho came over to celebrate. We then headed out to lunch with the Hornak side and eat until we were full and then some. We headed back home around 4pm. This was nice because we were able to get back into the routine and he slept all through the night. We then left on the 26 th around 3pm to head up to Michigan. We opened gifts with Angie and Katie that evening and then h...

On the week of Dec. 14 Bob was on his MULA . This is mandatory unpaid leave of absence. Eaton chose to do this instead of laying off employees. This sounds scary but has worked out okay for us because then Bob gets to spend lots of time with the little dude. On Thursday night of his week Carter got a fever of 101.5. We were scared because he hasn't even had a fever. We gave him Tylenol but it seemed every time the Tylenol would wear off his fever would spike again. On Friday Bob took him to the doctor and he had a right ear infection along with an upper respiratory infection. Poor little dude. He was miserable. He had a fever all day Friday and it really spiked at 103.5. We called the nurses help line to see if we should head to the er but they said give him a lukewarm bath and Tylenol . He splashed around in the bath for awhile and his fever broke early Saturday morning. Those nights were rough because he had a hard time sleeping. The doctor gave him amoxocillin .

We have decorated the house inside and out for the season! Carter loves to watch the lights on the Christmas tree. We played Christmas music and put the Santa hat on him while we decorated and he loved this. We took some photos for Christmas and here they are.

So our first Thanksgiving is behind us. Wow, did that come quick. We spent our holiday with family. We left for Bucyrus on Wednesday mid afternoon and stayed there until Friday afternoon. Then we headed up to Michigan and stayed there until Sunday evening. We were all exhausted by Monday morning. Carter did not do very well with sleeping at other houses. He has a cold and runny nose so he had a hard time breathing while he was sleeping. This would cause him to wake up often and Bob and I would take turns each night sitting up in bed holding him upright so he could breathe. He slept through the night one night out of all those. Poor little dude. Many people tell me that is this a sign of teething if so I feel like any ailment he has we chalk up to teething and this kid doesn't have one yet. Bob and I say a little prayer each night that he will sleep through the night so we have enough energy for work the next day. On Monday we both felt like puddles of skin. I felt sick because I w...

On Thursday we went to the doctor's for his 4 month vaccinations. I know he is 5 months old but that is when we could get in. He weighs 16 lbs. and 10 0z. 26 inches long. The doctor said he is right on track. He is about in the 65 percentile with height and weight. He is now sitting up on his own and getting to be such a big boy. The doctor said that it is now time to introduce rice cereal and then onto veggies. I am so excited. We had him in the high chair tonight having his first meal. He was unsure at first but then he started to eat. He likes to talk and blow raspberries while he eats so he blows the food everywhere. The feeding took a longer time than I thought...about 30 minutes. Each night we will add more food. Check out the video clip of him eating! Today he rode in a shopping cart without the car seat. He loved it. He was looking around and checking out everyone out.

On October 28 th Carter said da da . This was so cool. He kept saying it over and over and his tongue was just flapping around in his mouth. Since then he has hardly said it again but don't worry we are practicing it everyday. I had mentioned before that he was more vocal. His new thing is to make a strong tarzan yell. It's not screeching just a belly yell. He does it a lot in the carseat on our way to the sitters. With the weather being so unseasonably warm we had him out in the leaves. This was funny to watch him play in the leaves but he really just wanted to put them in his mouth. This past weekend he has been fighting a cold. Poor little guy has had a hard time breathing through his nose. We have an automatic snot sucker. This machine is a little thing that you put up the nostril and it sucks out the snot. He hates this thing. I have tried to sneak up with it but he still knows. The makers of this tool have also added music to the snot sucker so I play the music when I...

Today was a beautiful day so we headed to Berlin Heights for a visit to Burnham Orchards. We walked out into the field and picked some pumpkins for our house and for me to use at school for "pumpkin science". Carter was dressed in his jack o'lantern shirt for the occasion and he fit right in. We also walked through the apple orchard and took some more pictures. Wow, has he become more "vocal" in the last week. He is grunting, howling, and just babbling like a crazy maniac. He loves his activity center where he bounces and sucks on all the toys. He is content in there for a while which helps me to get somethings done around the house. His hair is really starting to grow and thicken up. Bob tries every night to give him a mohawk with the 3 strands of hair after his bath. We are teaching him to reach for us when we pick him up. He is also giving kisses however they are always open mouth and full of drool.

It has been quite a while since I have blogged. I apologize but being back at school has really cut down on my free time. Being back at work has been crazy. I thought that there wasn't enough time in the day when we didn't have Carter and now it's unbelievable . The mornings haven't been as hard as I had thought because Bob has been a huge help. We take turns with getting in the shower and getting him dressed and ready to go. Bob puts him in the car seat and carries him out the car while I follow with the many bags we have to take. He is doing very well at the sitters. My favorite part of the day is watching his face when I walk in the door of the sitter's after school. His smile can make the worst day better. He is really alert and always watching everything around him. He has found his feet and sucks on his big toe. This is a funny process to watch. It's almost Halloween and Carter is going to be a monkey. We have had so much fun dressing him up and trying to...

On Saturday, Carter rolled over all by himself. He had been getting stuck on his one shoulder but all of a sudden he did it. Check out the video. I am officially back at work. I went back on October 1st. It was great to be back and on a routine but I feel that I am so overwhelmed with make up work. Carter has been sleeping through the night in his pack n play and we are loving it. We started using the lavender bath soap and lotion. We are also dressing him in the footed pj's. He is so smiley and laughing. He is a drooling maniac so we think that he might be teething or at least moving around.

So Carter is almost 4 months old-16 weeks on Wednesday! It is very hard to believe that much time has passed. This month he has made the most changes. He is now holding his head up on his own and really talking up a storm. While you are holding him on your lap he uses his rock hard abs to pull himself up. He tries very hard to stand up on his legs. Since he is standing up we got out his baby einstein activity center. He loves to play in this for about 15-20 minutes and then he gets bored and fussy. Carter is more alert now and stays awake during the day. Officially on Friday, Carter slept through the night from 10:45-6:45am. I was so shocked I kept waking up to make sure he was breathing. Knock on wood he has been doing it every night since then. I go back to work on Thursday and I am excited to get back into the swing of things. I am very worried with how the morning will go with getting myself and Carter ready and out the door on time. We have been trying to get Carter...

Last weekend we went to the Cleveland Air Show. We walked down to the pier by the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame and set up camp by a shade tree. It was so cool watching the planes do crazy tricks. There was a stealth style plane that was so loud we had to cover his little ears. We stayed a while and left before it got too loud. Next, we have taken out the newborn hammock out of his bath tub because he can sit up and hold his head up. He is a kickin machine in the tub now. We have been giving him a bath in the kitchen sink but he drenches the kitchen floor so now we must do it in the bathtub. Bob and I get laughing so hard when he gets kicking. Finally, today was the Race for the Cure in Cleveland. This is the 3rd year we have participated but Carter's first time. He was the talk of race. I made a outfit for him with the breast cancer pink ribbon that said "Real Men Wear Pink". Everyone was checking out his onesie . We had him in the stroller but being the nosey man tha...

Last night was the first night we tried out Carter sleeping in his crib. I laid him down at 10:30pm and he slept until 1:30am. He rustled around and I rocked him for about 10 minutes and put him back into the crib. He then woke up at 4am crying because he was hungry. I fed him and he slept until 6:30am right before Bob left. That was great because Bob got to hug on him before he left. He ate and then went back to sleep for 2 hrs. I don't want to talk about it too much because I might jinx it. Wish me luck tonight!

Carter is officially 3 months old today! It is crazy to think how fast the time has gone by. Since last week has is really working hard on holding his head up by himself. You will have to watch the video clip of him pulling himself up. We have put him in his bumbo seat but he is still a little wobbly. We will keep practicing every day. Since his shots last Wednesday he has been very fussy. He is crying a lot more and really making us first time parents work hard to try and make everything better. The doctor thought he might be teething, starting to have a milk protein allergy, or just being more vocal. We have spent many a minute walking the block with a fussy baby trying to calm him down. He is now fighting sleep so when he's tired he just cries which makes it very hard to get him to sleep. He has started to hate the carseat and cries when he is in there. I had to pull over for 40 minutes yesterday just trying to get him calmed down. When he cries it is exhausting to Bob and I b...

The start of this week has been different. On Monday I went to our half day teacher work day. So I had to get up and get myself and Carter ready for the day. I dropped him off at daycare and he was asleep. This made that whole experience a lot easier. When I picked him up at noon she said that he cried when she changed his diaper. This is unusual so of course I was concerned. Then Tuesday we had a full teacher work day and Open House so Bob was going to pick him up from daycare. Tuesday was rough because he cried the whole way to the sitters and when I pulled in her driveway he stopped. I had such a headache going into work because of him crying and just starting to stress out about school. When I got home after school Bob said the sitter said he slept a lot during the day and didn't cry when she changed his diaper. I was so excited to see him when I got home. It was almost as if he had changed since I had dropped him off that morning. On Wednesday we went to the doctor for his 2 ...

The second week of vacation we spent on Silver Lake with my family (mom, dad, Danielle, and Edd). We rented a house on the lake with a pontoon, rowboat, canoe, paddle boat, and swim raft. We had a great time. We went to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and Bob wore Carter in the papoose to the top. Carter was loving it and Bob was a sweating maniac. We went to Sutton's Bay which is a little cute town where we walked around little shops and then on the journey home we stopped at about 6 wineries. We even stopped at Madonna's father's winery. I was bummed because they were all trying fun wines and I was just along for the ride. The scenery was beautiful and it was neat to see how different each place was. On Tuesday we had a girls' day at the spa. Mom, Danielle, and I went and had our nails and feet did! That was so fun. The next day Bob, Edd, Danielle, and I rented a boat on the lake and went tubing. This time we were crazy and were throwing each other off the tube...

Hello! We have been gone for 2 full weeks on vacation in Michigan so I will use this first post to tell you about our first week. The first week we traveled around visiting family that had yet to see Carter in person. We arrived in Milan on Monday and spent the day with Angie and met family at Damon's for dinner. On Tuesday we went over to Bob's sister Julie's and shared Carter with her family. The girls were lovin ' on him so much! Tuesday night we drove up to visit friends in Harrison Township. Ricky and Stacey Soltis were so excited to meet him! We went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant . We were the only ones in the back of the place which was great because Carter was a fuss buster and Elle needed room to walk around. Wednesday afternoon we drove up to Gladwin , MI to see Arlin and Barb. They were also so excited to see him for the first time. He was a perfect fit in Arlin's arms. Carter went swimming for the first time in a pool up north. H...

It is so hard to believe that he is 8 weeks old! The time has flown by. It is so fun to watch him exploring new things with his eyes and hands. Just a couple of days ago it seems that he has found his hands and wants to suck on them. I mean he will shove his whole fist in his mouth and suck hard core. This then leads to puddles of drool everywhere but he seems to really enjoy it. He is more alert for longer periods of time during the day. He usually naps for 20-30 minutes 2 times during the day. The rest of the time he is wide awake making noises. He doesn't like to sit still. He would rather be up looking around than sitting. We have been taking him on walks in the evening when the sun isn't out so that he can see what is going on instead of being shielded by the canopy of his carrier. He loves to stare up at what's going on and who is talking. We are still aving some troubles with sleeping at night. He still hates the pack n play and crib. The last 2 nights he has slept f...

Today Carter is officially 7 weeks old. He is such a good baby! We are so lucky. He only fusses when he is hungry, wet, or hot. The past 2 weeks we have started a bedtime routine suggested by our doctor. After his 9-10pm feeding Bob burps him, rocks him, and reads him a bedtime story. Then he puts him down and roughs it for the first shift until the next feeding and then we tag team and I step in. This has really been working! I love that he has "daddy time" with him. It is so cute to watch him read to him. Last week Carter wore his last newborn size diaper-that is what the above picture is. I can't believe that he is already in Stage 1. We have been working on "tummy time" to build the muscles in his neck. He is really into laying on his activity mat because it has a musical thing that has blinking lights. My mom gave him a silky-a little blankie that has a silky side and a fleece side. He loves to cuddle with it.

Yesterday was Carter's doctor's appointment. I waited until the last minute to get him ready to go. I grabbed a washcloth to give him a quick scrub down before I got him dressed. I took his diaper off and while I was washing him he peed all over my outfit and his body. So I then picked him up to give him a bath and he farted and pooed on my arm. Next, at the end of his full out bath I was getting him out and he threw up all over himself. Finally I gave him another bath and got him dressed and we were out the door. Another crazy start to a day. Anyways...at the doctor Carter now weighs 11lbs 2oz and is 23 1/4in. She said that was a healthy weight gain and that he was very healthy. He was in the 68th percentile for weight, 88th percentile for height, and 48th for head circumference. At his next appointment he will be getting his first set of shots. Bob is definitely coming with me for that because I don't like to see him hurt. The picture above shows the faux hawk that Bob ga...

I know it has been a while since the last post...He is getting so big! He is a growing maniac. We have a doctor's appointment on Monday. I am anxious to see how much he has grown officially. He is still working on holding his head up. He now blows spit bubbles and makes lots of noises. Carter has grown out of his newborn clothes and we are onto 0-3 monthers . However they are long enough but too wide for his body-oh well. He still has blue eyes--yeah. We have ad 2 good nights of sleep with only 2 feedings throughout the night! He is my traveling man--I love to take him everywhere. However as soon as I put him in the car seat he either fills his diaper or spits up all over his clothes. No joke one day I went through this process 3 times before we left. I have decided that I will not be returning to school until October 1st. This will give me a little more time with the little guy. We had his pictures taken on the 8 th and boy did he cry. We did get some good ones though--thank good...