A New "Hat"

The newest addition to Colby's wardrobe is this navy blue helmet that he gets to wear as much as 23 hours a day. At his four month appointment his pediatrician mentioned that he had a small flat spot on the back of his head, most likely from sleeping on his back. She suggested keeping him off of the back of his head as much as we could, with the exception of sleeping. We did exactly that. I held him nearly every waking moment during the day since he could not yet sit up. We practiced tummy time as much as possible but soon after that appointment, Colby learned how to roll from his tummy to his back. After a few days of rolling over, we could not get him to stay on his tummy. At. All. The second you put him down, he rolled right over. So he was pretty much held for those two months until his sixth month appointment. We headed back into the doctor and I knew that his head had only gotten worse.... HOW?! I couldn't understand it. I had held him as much as I could (except during sleeping hours), and yet his flat spot grew to a flat head. The weird part was that she didn't even mention it during the appointment. At the end of the visit, I asked what she thought and if we should be referred to Hanger for a helmet. She agreed and sent us on our way with a referral in hand.

The office closest to our house was booked for at least one month for any initial visit, so I knew that I needed to look elsewhere if I wanted him to have his helmet anytime soon. I was able to find an opening at an office in Sun City West, about 30 minutes away from our home. I was bummed that it was so far away because I knew we would be visiting often, but I really wanted to start the process. It felt like braces again - I wanted the helmet on so that it could be off sooner than later. Doctor Tate was awesome with Colby - he agreed that it was needed and walked me through the process.

1. Clearance from the insurance

2. Initial measurements via scan

3. Helmet fitting

4. 1 - week follow-up

5. Follow-up measurements every 3 weeks after that

It took their office four weeks to get clearance from our insurance - which by the way is unheard of. It really was a miracle. Once it was cleared, we had the helmet fit to his head and started the process of breaking it in without traumatizing Colby.

He really hated it at first but after about a week he was wearing it for up to 23 hours a day. For the first two weeks he sweat like a maniac in that thing, but as time went on his body adjusted. What a champion!

After a week and a half we went back into the doctor's office and we were both surprised that his head shape had already changed a lot. Doctor Tate thought that he would for sure be finished with his helmet before his first birthday.

We're crossing our fingers!

This was the day he discovered the coolest fort ever... the table. He was happy as a clam!

9 months

Colby has turned into quite a mischievous boy these last few weeks. It's been really fun to watch him get into things around the house since he has become mobile lately. It may not be fun for long, but I am going to enjoy it while I can.

Speaking of mischief... here are some examples:

If those flowers are there when he gets in his walker, that is the first place he will run to. He loves taking them out and throwing them on the floor or eating them. Yum! He is really good with his walker, especially on the tile. Once he walks into the kitchen he books it to the other side and lifts his legs up to glide... its super funny!

This boy loves anything electronic. If there are buttons or lights, he wants it... especially our phones. We've had to minimize the use that Colby has of our phones because I'm pretty sure they are starting to become dysfunctional from all the saliva. He also has sent a few text messages on his own.

I burned my hand really bad one night right before Colby's bedtime. After all the craziness that had happened in the kitchen, Spencer and I noticed that it had become a little too quiet in the house. We walked into the family room area to find Colby and this is what we found! Those recipe cards sure taste yummy! As a matter of fact, he loves putting anything paper into his mouth. I'm really not sure why, but I have recently decided that I am going to invest in so indestructible books that feel kind of like paper so he can eat them as much as he wants.

He loves sitting on the fridge... with Dad's assistance of course.

Eating dinner with his shirt on his head. :)

Looks a little like Zoolander to me!

This is the outcome of his hair

He is officially pulling himself up on anything he can!

Now a days he pulls himself up and then looks to Mom or Dad for praise. He is so proud of himself and it is sooo cute!

And last but not least, he is starting to walk. What?!! Yes, our little nine month old can balance himself for about 15 seconds on his own and loves to walk with you or with his walker. Watch out world... here comes a new toddler!

He learned how to clap his hands today... seriously so cute.

He likes to eat finger food the most lately as opposed to pureed food from a spoon. I don't blame him at all. Some of his favorites are any carbs, especially bread pieces and pancakes, baby puffs, ritz crackers, blueberries, and peach chunks. He still puts up a fight for any food that is cold, which makes it a little challenging for me, but we figure it out!

Has been sleeping through the night for the last 2 months. Amazing. Sometimes I wonder how I even functioned on hardly any sleep. I guess you just do what you gotta do.

Lately he has wanted to be held all the time, but that is probably because he has been very sick for the last two weeks. I don't mind the cuddliness at all though. Those moments are coming few and far between these days since we don't rock him to sleep anymore and he is always on the move.

He absolutely loves kids. He spent a few days at Sara and Doug's house while Spencer and I went to disneyland and LOVED being entertained by those kiddos. He and Jake formed a special bond... they really do love each other. It is so cute to see them play together.

He continuously is our happy boy. He is almost always happy and if he is sad, it only lasts for about five seconds. We seriously are so lucky with this little guy. Nearly every time I smile at him, he gives me a huge grin back. We love our boy!

9 month stats:

weight - 20 lbs. 1 oz. (44%)

length - 28 inches (42%)

head cir. - 44 1/2 cm. (27%)

PLEASE VOTE!!

This post is totally to spread the word and share my excitement with someone... anyone!! Gah! I still can't believe I'm saying this but my good friend Haley Johnsen officially just made the TOP 24 on AMERICAN IDOL! Which means she is one of 12 girls that made it to the voting rounds. Amazing.

Haley and I did gymnastics together for years back in the day. She caught the bouquet at my wedding reception in Portland and we still keep in touch every now and again. I always knew that she liked to sing since she was always singing away to tunes in the gym, but I never knew she was really serious about it, nor did I ever really know how good she was. She did a really great job keeping that little secret since we were with each other 20+ hours a week. :) We graduated in 2007 and all of us "gym girls" parted ways to attend college. We would get together for lunch with our Mom's every once in a while and catch up but it's been way too long since we've done that.

Haley decided to attend OSU and started singing with the women's acapella choir. Auditions for American Idol came to Portland this season and she couldn't resist the opportunity. Music is in this girls blood. I'm so excited for her and can't wait to watch her this season!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!

And don't worry if it's voting night and you haven't voted yet... chances are you'll see my reminders all over the blog and facebook. :)

And if you're interested, THIS is the link to her facebook fan page, and THIS is the link to her fansite.

Ironman

A few weeks ago Spencer's mission buddy, Wes Johnson, called up to let us know that he will be in town for an Ironman competition here in Phoenix. We hadn't seen Wes since we had been married so we were so excited to be able to meet up with him while he was here and meet his new wife, even if it was just for a few minutes.

We decided to drive out to Phoenix and watch part of the competition since we had never experienced the energy of the Ironman. :) And let me tell you... there is definitely an energy of the Ironman.

It's amazing.

We were both amazed at the dedication these people had. There were people on the side lines cheering EVERYONE on. It was an incredibly uplifting environment with thousands of people attempting to accomplish the unthinkable.

*at least it was to me... the IRONMAN is definitely not on my bucket list*

2.4 mile swim

112 mile bike ride

26 mile run

We met up with Wes' family who all drove down from Utah for a quick two day trip. We cheered him on from the sidelines and were actually able to see him a few times as he was running.

GO WES!!!

After seeing him run the last few miles, we walked over to the finish line as the announcers were declaring to each individual runner that passed through, "Congratulations Wes Johnson -- YOU are an Ironman!"

Wes finished in just under 11 hours, placing second in the swim. Incredible.

On one of our many drives to Mesa when we first moved to AZ, I noticed these bridges that looked so pretty with the lights strung across the entire stretch. I decided that walking those bridges was going to be on our "AZ bucket list" - things to do before we move away from Arizona. A few weeks later I found out that they were not the kind of bridges I thought they were... only cars allowed. :(

When we got to the Ironman I realized that the race was roped off so that the runners would run across those very bridges... which meant that we could walk on them too! Miracle!

Bathing in the... SINK!

Colby was completely fascinated with the water - getting to run his fingers through it and splashing the bottom of the sink with his hands. It took him a few minutes to warm up to the idea, but once he did he was throwing those smiles all over!

I love those baby rolls! SO CUTE!

Hangin' With Dad

It's a pretty happy reunion for the two men of the house when Spencer gets home from school everyday. Most days Spence is gone before Colby wakes up, so that makes for a LOOONG wait for the Colby man to play with his best playmate.

This little boy is in heaven when Daddy's home.

Kitchen Renovation

Over Thanksgiving break Spencer and I took on a huge project that we will never regret! I've always loved the size of our kitchen, but the honey oak kitchen cabinets were never my favorite. We had revisited the thought of painting them often, but every time got discouraged by the amount of time the project would take.

While I was in Oregon, Lindsay (my SIL) introduced me to a product called "Cabinet Transformations" which is basically a do it yourself painting kit made by the ever popular company Rustoleum. I really wanted to paint them a creamy white color with an antique finish, but after looking over the color choices many times, we decided on a darker espresso finish since the rest of our house was pretty light in color (tan walls, white crown molding, tan carpets, etc). We realized that once we move all of our things out of the house in hopes to sell, the white cabinets would pretty much wash out the rest of the house and would make it look much less appealing.

We painted/glazed for 5 full days... basically from sun up to sun down. Talk about a loooong project! The only things that kept me going were:

1. Knowing that I've already started painting and I can't really go back to what it looked like before ha

2. Picturing what our kitchen might look like when it would be complete!

Before

Oh man... looking at this picture makes me even more glad that we decided to paint!

First, we took off all the doors and labeled them accordingly. We also put the hardware for each door in a coordinating numbered plastic cup so it would be easy to match the door to the hardware when the project was complete.

Colby spent some time watching Little Einstein's... a little more than I would have liked to be honest. :/ He was really such a good boy the entire week. He would just play with his toys and talk to us while we painted in the garage. Such a sweetheart.

We let the paint dry on these pieces of wood.

After

Ahhhh. So much better. Everything looks better in our kitchen now and I absolutely love it!

Still to complete

1. add crown molding to the top of the cabinets

2. add hardware to the cabinets and drawers

We were a little tired during the process... so tired that we fell asleep in strange places. :)