A windy day at the Zoo

So this post is a little old but all well I havnt posted in a while and this would be something fun to share. Feb 8th Me, Josh and Zeke loaded up and drove to meet my mom and my brother and his family in Abeline. My mom had spent the week with my brother while his wife was gone for classes for her job. She was helping out with their soon to be 3 year old daughter. We where meeting them so my mom could then spend a week with us and Abeline is about half way so it just seems like the perfect spot. Never having been to Abeline google maps was a necessity, or at least I thought. We where going to be meeting at the mall so I got directions and wrote them down so we could find it easy enough. Well first the off ramp to enter Abeline that we where suppose to take was closed for construction. Great! But following the detour signs we found our way onto the correct road. But as we where driving along we passed the Mall!! "Did we miss our exit?" "No we havnt passed it yet!" Needless to say Clack St exit is NOT the exit to the Mall no matter what google maps tells you!! Once again we have to make a detour but finally end up at our destination. EL CHICOS. We all make it, eat some ok mexican food, and have a good visit and catch up some while we ate. Zeke by the way Loves his older cousin, he was just fascinated with her. After lunch we decide the zoo would be fun to check out. And we had a lot of fun but is was SUPER WINDY! The zoo itself was small but had several good exhibits. It had a reptile building, and a fish building that you could walk through and look at the animal behind glass. It even had a small open area with birds that you could walk through (and get pooped on like my brother HA). On the outside they sold graham crackers that you could feed some of the animals. There was an area with flamingos, ducks and geese. A area with a big black bear that hung out by the wall so people would throw him a cracker or two. A Jaguar, Buffalo, rhinos, and lions where all different animals you could check out while walking around. I think the best attraction this place had was the giraffes. They had a walk way over the top of the exhibit where you could stick crackers through the bars and the giraffes would use there tongues to eat them out of your hands. Pretty cool if you ask me. Over all the zoo was very cute and if you happen to be in the Abilene area I would go check it out. We will probably go back once Zeke is a little older and can enjoy it more, and hopefully it wont be soo windy.

Baby Food Blues

Ok so about 2 weeks before Zeke officially turned 6 months I started feeding him rice cereal mixed with formula. He loved it. By the time the 2nd week was up he was eating 2Tbls (or more I always seem to overflow the measuring spoon) of cereal twice a day. So on Dec 21st I thought we would celebrate the start of his 6th month with Green Beans! I knew he wouldn't like them right away but I figured I would get the beans out of the way and then move on to something better. Well of course he hated them and for the next five days he hated them. So then I moved on to carrots. I heard most babies like carrots. Well not my baby. Granted the gaging and puke faces where not there but the want to eat the carrots was not there either. And by the end of the 2nd week of eating flavors Zeke decided that he didnt want to eat rice cereal either. So I laid off the flavors for a few days till he decided that he was good with eating just the rice again. Then we tried applesauce. Thinking hey that sure be a winner! WRONG AGAIN! Gagging, crying, etc...So I didnt feed him anything but rice for a week or so. But since starting all of this I still fight him to even eat that. For example three days this week he just didnt feel like eating cereal. Nope not going to do, bottle please...so to save my nerves (which are not good) I just let him have a bottle and save the frustration. Yesturday we tried Sweet Potatoes but those where no good, but I am going to finish out this week even if he only takes one or two bites of them each meal. The kid has to like SOMETHING, doesnt he?!?!?! But I am pretty discuraged. I guess I was really looking forward to feeding him food and he just isnt going along with my plan. Dr. Marsh said not to worry to much, right now he is just wanting milk. If he isnt interested, just give him rice for a couple of weeks and try again. So irritating. I guess it wouldnt be so bad if I hadnt spent most of his life fighting with him to eat anything. Even getting him to eat bottles are a challange. The kid just doesnt like to eat. He is doing better with bottles now but a month or so ago it was a nightmare. So there are my Baby Food Blues. Maybe next week when I try Bananas he will like those. I hope. Keep your fingures crossed for me!

Home for the Holidays

Thanksgiving is always a very busy time for our family. Normally we make the drive up to Oklahoma the day before Thanksgiving then spend Thanksgiving with either mine or Josh's parents then get up the next day to drive to the other parents to spend a day then load up the car and drive back home. Wow I am just exhausted just thinking about that! So this year since we have little man now Josh decided to take two days of vacation so we could have the whole week to spend with family! Let me tell you that was so nice! We left the Saturday before and drove to Josh's parents. We where able to stay 5 days instead of the 1.5 days we normally get. It was so nice to Zeke get to interact with his grandparents and see how much joy he brings to everyone!
Monday we let the Grandparents baby sit while me and Josh drove to the city to meet up with some friends we hadnt seen in awhile. We ate at Ted's. I had heard for years how awesome Ted's was...Ted's this and Ted's that but I had never gotten a chance to eat there. UNTIL THEN. It was a joyous occasion that I had to document! HA. In all honesty the food was good, but not the best but what was so joyous about it was they give you salsa, chips, queso, and tortilla all before the meal! I know!!! Then after your meal they give you free shopailias for dessert! So all in all I was pleased with my first Ted's experence!

If you didnt know apparently fried chicken is a big deal in the Hicks family. I dont really get it, to me it is just greesy and bad for you but to my husbands family is a exciting time and a big ta-do. And usally when all the grandkids are around grandma Bertha makes everyone fried chicken, mashed potatos and gravy. My arteries are clogging just thinking about it! OI!!!! Well after eating and eating for 5 days we loaded up the car and heading to my parents house to spend the next 5 days eating there. HA.

Going home is always so much for me, I really dont know why, the town I grew up in isnt much and my family lives out in the country but for me it is so relaxing and just peaceful there. I cant wait till Zeke gets older and is able to go explore in the woods and see all the site from where I grew up. Im sure Josh feels the same way about his home.
Friday my parents got to watch Zeke while me and Josh went on a date (which was wonderful). My parents had a great time showing around the yard and yes my dad even had to let him sit on the 4 wheeler.. probably a good thing I wasnt there HA.
Saturday was the long awaited bedlam game OSU vs OU. So me and Zeke supported out team by wearing our Orange and Black. But sadly we where not able to win. With every touch down we made OU would come back with one themselves. We also made some fatel errors that eventually caust us the game. Never the less I will continue to where my colors with pride. We had an excellent season and I cant wait till next year. GO POKES BEAT OU!!!

Good Bill of Health

So yesterday I took Zeke in for a doctor visit to have him checked out due to him shaking. Dr. Marsh checked him over and said he is perfectly healthy, nothing to worry about. He told me the name of what he is doing but for the life of me I cant remember it. Started with a M though. If I remember I will let you all know. Basically when he falls asleep occasionally the nerve endings fire off causeing him to shake. It is the same thing that makes you jerk when you are about to fall asleep. He said it may or may not go away. So that is a HUGE releif. I am glad I took him in and had him checked out. Thank you everyone for all your prayers!

Worries

Ok so being a mom when your child does something not normal it is very startling and very scary. Wed. at Zeke's 1:00 feeding I was holding him in my arms and feeding him his bottle. He started to fall asleep, which he sometimes does. Thinking I could get him to eat more if I let him sleep for about 15 minutes I let him. Well a few seconds later he started shaking. His head and his arms where just shaking. This lasted 10 to 15 seconds. Let me tell you that was the scarriest 10 to 15 seconds of my life. So crying I call the doctor but being Wed. my doctors office closes early so I get a hold of the on call nurse, I tell her what happened. She calls Dr. Marsh and then calls me back saying not to worry about it, it doesnt sound like anything more than just a baby with a immature nervous system but if he does it again let them know. Soo today about 10:30 I was holding him to get him to go to sleep for him morning nap when he did it again. Once again right after he falls asleep and shakes for 10 to 15 seconds. After it happens he is just fine, but as for me I am a wreck. So I am going to be taking him in on Monday to have him checked out. I found a couple of sites on the internet that other mothers had the exact same thing happen to them and thier doctors said it was due to an immature nervous system. So I am praying that that is all that it is. Im really scared and very nervous so just keep me in your prayers! It is the worse thing in the world to be holding your precious little baby and have him shaking and there is nothing you can do about it and you have no clue why it is happening!

Homecomeing, Disapointments, and Lack of Sleep, what a way to spend a weekend!

Have you ever been looking forward to something so much that it is all you can think about then at the very last minute it blows up in your face! Well that was my last weekend. OSU's Homecoming was Oct 18th and me and some other friends had planed on meeting in Stillwater to hang out for the day. Let me tell you I was ever so excited about this. I loved my years in Stillwater mainly due to my friends there and the memories we made together and the thought of being able to hang out with some of them again just pleased me to no end. Me and Josh had planed on driving up to Oklahoma and spending the weekend with family and friends. Well at the last minute our friend that has the only house in Stillwater where we where all going to hang out at decided to go to the game leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves. Well not having anywhere to go and not wanting to bum around Stillwater with nothing to do I was rather upset with the change of plans. And yes I did shed quit a bit of tears over it. But it wasnt a total bust of a trip. I was able to meet up with one of my old roommates and we where able to hang out for a while, but like me her plans where all screwed up by the change as well. Getting to atleast see her was a bright spot in my weekend. Since it was Homecoming weekend I had packed a lot of OSU clothes for Zeke so over the course of the weekend I was also able to get some really good pictures.

Zeke enjoying his new Bumbo

It also didnt help matters that I hadnt really gotten to sleep in about 3 nights. Zeke has recently learned that he loves rolling from his back to his tummy. Though rolling from his tummy to his back he has decided that he doesnt like doing. So when he rolls onto his tummy he then starts to complain that he is on his tummy and doesnt like it! This mainly occures at night..Roll onto tummy..relize he doesnt like it...complain till mom comes and rolls him over. The other irritating part of this is that while he is on his tummy and unhappy he buries his head into his mattress. He doesnt turn his head to the side to complain or to BREATH no he puts it straight down into the mattress and leaves it there. And let me tell you how much this terrifies me! It is like he is trying to sufficate himself..SO with him complaining, me having to get up to roll him over and also the fear of his sufficating himself...I havnt slept much. So last night I placed a throw pillow on his bed next to him so he couldnt roll over and that seemed to work really well. Yeah I know everyone says dont put pillows in the crib with them but I am at my wits ends on trying to think of a way to help him since he is bound and determined not to roll back over himself. And believe me I have tried leaving him there to see if he would do it himself...Oh no...he just lays there with his head in the mattress complaining..it is really quite pathetic. And I know that I am being over protective and over reacting but I just cant help it! Hopefully soon he will pick up that he should roll himself over and I will once again be able to sleep at night!

Big weekend for Zeke

So this weekend was a huge weekend for Zeke in baby development milestones. For any of you who know me you know that I call Zeke a Lazy Baby. He just doesnt like using his neck muscles for anything, and he especially hated Tummy Time. But even though he hated it we gave it to him everyday. And everyday we got more and more discouraged, he just wouldnt do anything. He wouldnt lift his head or atleast try to...He would just lay there and cry. So FINALLY Sunday after noon he was laying on his back and he rolled over onto his tummy. Which he also had recently started doing. Well this time instead of starting to cry it was like some CLICKED in his head. He raised his head and chest up and put his arms under him and just sat there looking at me and Josh like LOOK WHAT I CAN DO...ARENT YOU PROUD! Needless to say we where extreamly proud and so full of joy!! Now he loves tummy time ( well till he gets tired), and we cant seem to keep him on his back anymore. Funny how things like that work. Now we are moving on to rolling back over from our tummy to our back!!