Some Pictures and Updates

Hello All, I hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. We've had a nice and relaxing weekend so far. I just finished cleaning (there wasn't a lot to do because Nathen did most of it this morning while Aiden and I played) and realized I've not posted any pictures for awhile and provide some updates. This past week and half has been somewhat stressful, we were informed a few Friday's ago that "Aiden wasn't ready for daycare". I was pretty shocked since the provider had been telling me that he was doing better each day, but I think the provider really had his best interest at heart she didn't feel he was happy in her care. So we decided to find a nanny to care for him in his home environment. We are fortunate to have family and a neighbor friend take care of Aiden until we can find a good nanny match for us. My neighbor friend Jenny has a son Aiden's age and has agreed to watch Aiden once a week for me, and Nathen's mom watching him twice a week. Aiden seems to enjoy spending time with his buddy James, and his mommy Jenny--he always looks like he's having fun as I leave for work; and he loves spending time with his Grandma. Thank goodness for friends and family to make this situation less stressful. Wish us luck, we are interviewing our first applicant later this afternoon (hence why we did some spring cleaning!!:)Aiden has been walking more without support. Well here are some photos of Mother's Day, and some of Aiden walking about. Enjoy:)

Nathen got us both smiling (something that is near impossible for me to capture) before taking Grandma and Grandpa out for dinner on Mother's Day. Grandma's favorite is Chinese food so Aiden had his first experience eating Asian food, and seemed to really like it, and had no belly aches afterwards!!!

Last Sunday was very warm so we tried out Aiden's Elmo sprinkler toy that he got for his birthday. He absolutely loved it thanks Meltem, Travis and Talia for the great birthday present! I'm sure we'll get a lot of use out of it this summer.

Saturday, Aiden took me for a walk through our yard, while trying to catch Nathen with the camera:)

"Mom when are you going to plan some pretty flowers?" Well probably never, but Aiden loves playing in the rocks, and mud!!:)

"I'm a cool dude!" Aiden looks much better in my sunglasses than I do:)

I hope you all have a nice Memorial Day weekend with friends and family.

Aiden is 13 Months old, and Happy Mother's Day

Aiden is 13 months old today, and I don't have any growth stats for you. But let me tell I think he's grown an inch or so, and gained a few pounds. He's really beginning to get pretty heavy. He's still working up confidence to walk on his own and enjoys all his push toys, and his favorite Mommy and/or Daddy's finger to practice walking. Last night we gave him a sippy cup instead of a bottle, and he didn't seem to mind at all, he took it with no problem, so hopefully this will be an easy change for him. He went to daycare three days this week (1 whole day, and 2 half days). He seems to becoming more familar with the routine of being somewhere else. One perk of him being in daycare is I got the cutest Mother's Day card from him:)Its has picture of a cup (that he glued on, the daycare provider said he really enjoyed hitting it to make sure it stuck..he's such a boy) anyway it says "Here's a card for Mother's Day. I'll try to be my best each day. But if you get upset with me, Relax and have a cup of tea" (there's a tea bag inside the paper cup). The first of many adorable Mother Day gifts I'm sure to get. Nathen also got me a spa package which includes a massage, hair cut w/ color. I cant wait to cash it in---I've gotten out of my monthly massage habit. I've started to feel much better, and think I'm back to normal--as normal as can be being 19 weeks pregnant!! I hope all the Mommy's out there are having a nice, relaxing, and special Mother's Day.

Some updates!!!

I know its only been a few weeks since my last post but a lot has happened in the Eckstein household. Hopefully this will all make sense as I'm still not feeling 100%--flu bug or pregnancy stuff who knows I'll get to that in a bit. Anyways, this week was quite a tough one for us. First I had to take Aiden to daycare, and he did really well when I left, hugged me and waved bye bye--but by 1:00 he had enough, and wanted mommy. The daycare provider is really awesome and tried everything she could think of to calm him and the other two kiddos (siblings age 20 months and 2.5 years)in her care that day tried as well, she said that the 2.5 year old kept trying to offer Aiden his pacifier--how sweet. Needless to say my work day was shortened so I could pick him up. Fortunately the daycare provider is very open and flexible and wants the best for Aiden just as I do, so we've worked it out that he'll go half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then Grandma will pick him up, and Nana will watch him Fridays for a month or so. So hopefully he'll transition well. He really seemed to enjoy the children and provider when we went last week for a few hours, and on Monday for a few hours. I think he'll do fine, it will just take a bit longer than I had originally planned. Why daycare you may be thinking...well a couple of reasons 1)we wanted Aiden to be exposed to other children on a regular basis to learn how to share, interact, ect--he really enjoys play groups that meet once a week 2) Grandma still works full time (3rd shift), and although she's amazing and can go on little sleep..I worried about her caring for Aiden all day and then going to work 3rd shift with about a 30 minute commute to work. And my mom has to drive over an hour and with gas prices it didnt seem fair to have her continue to make multiple trips every week--even though time with their grandson is priceless. Anyways, the daycare provider, Wendi, will never have more than 5 children in her care and they are all under 3. When I've visited all of the children were very well behaved and Wendi is very caring, and nurturing so I know he'll be in good hands. Okay so that was Tuesday of this week, let me back track a bit to Monday when I had my 4 month OB appointment, it went well and I was able to schedule a sonogram for May 28th but I gained 7 lbs in ONE MONTH!!! My Dr wasn't too concerned about it and said it would even out if I get some walking in daily, so I've tried to do that...but then I got sick!!! Which brings me to Wednesday of this week. I wasn't feeling very well, but thought I could manage my planned presentation for a class at K-State, which I did and it went very well, the students asked great questions and I filled the hour as I was suppose to, but as I got into my car I felt very nautious and just wanted to take a nap--which I should had done then, but instead thought I could make it home to get some zzzs. Well on my way home on Hiway 24 I began to feel light headed thought I may pass out (which I have a history of doing but never while driving or sitting). I was trying to pull over to the shoulder of the highway while a big yellow semi truck was honking his horn the next thing I know I'm on the other side of the road in the median with the truck driver knocking on my window asking if I'm okay. I remember the first thing out of mouth..."I'm 4 months pregnant", I was really scared as I had thrown up while I was passed out (something else that had never happened), not to mention the truck could have hit me and who knows what could have happened. Thanks to my guardian angel and my mom's daily prayers to keep her children safe, I came away from the incident with only throw up on my shirt, and a bit shaken emotionally. The EMT guys got to the scene very quickly and checked my vitals everything was okay but as a precautionary measure they took me to the ER in the ambulance...a bit embarrasing, but I survived. While in the ER they checked the baby's heart beat and it was good and strong--what a relief, there was no trauma or anything but I still worried that maybe the stress of the incident impacted the baby. The Dr. recommended rest for the next few days and contributed the incident to the flu. So I've been taking it easy today and yesterday, thanks to my mom and mother in law. My mom stayed with us Wednesday evening and cared for Aiden yesterday and today my mother in law is watching him. I feel bad for Aiden because he is so sensitive and knows something isn't right, usually I'm playing with him all day when I'm home, but this flu thing really has taken my energy. He's lucky to have such great grandparents that he enjoys being with. Well I'm going to try to eat a little something and take a nap. I hope you all have had a better week than we have! Take care.