Crawling thru tunnel

Caricature

Today was Andy's work picnic at Great America theme park. It was great to catch up with everyone but the best was getting a caricature of Eoin done. Our scanner wasn't quite big enough to get the whole thing in but basically Eoin is dressed in the soccer kit of Andy's favorite team Arsenal.

Please Sir can I have some more....

Eoin has discovered that he can get more food out of his bowl if he tries to lick it clean!

Eight Months Old

Eoin has reached the ripe old age of eight months! He hasn't grown much, he is still about 24 lbs and 30.5 inches though considering he lost a pound last week from being ill the fact that he is back to 24 lbs in a week is quite an achievement!

The biggest difference this month is that the little fella is mobile. Today he head dived out of his ball pit in the back yard and also 'crawled' into the kitchen when we forgot to close the gate.

Eoin has also discovered an ability to screech again. He had stopped this before he was ill and had started saying da da da but now he seems to have forgotten his ability to chatter and gone back to screeching but at such deafening levels it's scary.

He is also getting quite frustrated with certain things. He has started to complain if he doesn't get what he wants or if he can't reach what he wants first time round. He has also started to cry when we go out of sight, so maybe the beginnings of separation anxiety.


As of yet we still don't have any teeth and we're still not sleeping through the night but then he goes to sleep around 6-6.30pm and on a good night wakes around 12 midnight for a quick cuddle and then a feed around 2 am and then is up wide awake at 6am. Lately though between him being ill and then this week with it being 100 degrees plus that has all gone to pot and he waking every couple of hours. So the tasks for the next month are going to be working on reducing the use of the pacifier (dummy) to sleep and trying to get him to wake just once at night.

Commando crawling

Making music

Clapping

Clapping and almost crawling!

Tunnel fun

Here is Eoin playing in his tunnel. He loves to get in it and make it roll. The final aim is for him to crawl through the tunnel but I think we are a couple of weeks off that. I think we are going to take the tunnel with us to our play date in the park today so that Jackson, Max and Andrew can have fun crawling through it.

Ballpit

We've been spending some time making our back yard a kid friendly place so that Eoin can have lots of fun out there. We have the swing but we have just added a small ball pit which Eoin thinks is great fun. It is basically a regular sandpit filled with plastic balls. Luckily Eoin hasn't worked out the game of throwing all the balls out yet.

Almost crawling

Now that Eoin has some energy back he has embarked on his quest to become mobile with some gusto!

He is commando crawling around the house and he can also get up on all fours and rock backwards and forwards.

Luckily we have our safety gates in place already!

Butt Paste

For those doubting Thomas' back home - see there is such a thing as Butt Paste! It is the best ever and has saved poor Eoin's butt from much pain!

Sickness update

So Eoin has been so ill this week! As previously posted Eoin got a tummy bug. We thought he was improving during the day on Wednesday but Wednesday night he deteriorated so fast it was scary. Our poor little man was vomiting and pooping for America! In fact he lost just over a pound in weight this last week.

He became quite dehydrated and so we had to take him to Urgent Care. The doctors wanted to start an IV but they were just about to close so they gave us the option of going to the ER or going home and drip feeding Eoin with a syringe and pedilyte. We opted for the later and so we sat up all night with him. Luckily by the morning he had kept nearly 12 oz of fluid down by this method of feeding but his pee out put was tiny so we had to go back to the doctors.

Anyway long story short Eoin began to improve on Friday as shown by the picture of Eoin sitting up eating his Pedilyte popsicle.

As of today Sunday he has stopped vomiting and the diarrhea is lessing (thank the lord! We went through 130 diapers this week and Eoin's poor bottom is so sore). Eoin tried solid food for the first time today and has also started chatting and playing with us again. It is so good to have our little man back; it is every parents weorse nightmare to see their little one ill!

Sick!

So the last few days have not been fun! Eoin caught a tummy bug which meant he has had vomiting, diarrhea and a fever since Sunday. Then I got it but luckily only for a couple of days. Andy so far has avoided it and has been a star and stayed home from work yesterday to look after the both of us. The biggest issue now is that Eoin's little bottom is red raw and bleeding from all the diarrhea. He is so unhappy but stills tries to smile every now and again. Here's hoping we all get some sleep and start to feel better very soon!

Party time

Today was Eoin's party to celebrate the finalization of us all becoming a forever family. We had a great picnic at our local park and all our friends joined us to celebrate Eoin. It was a gorgeous day full of California sun, unfortunately though Eoin started the day off vomiting a couple of times and was definitely under the weather.

At the start of the picnic the wind blew all the balloons away even though we had tied them to Eoin's stroller. Luckily they got caught in a tree and Ryan was able to stand on Jeff's shoulder while his Dad supported him and he saved the day because he got the balloons back for us!

All the kids had great fun with the bubble machine we had bought. It churned our 5000 bubbles a minute. It became a hit at the park at all the kids that were there with their families just hanging out came over a played.

A huge thanks to everyone for coming and sharing a very special day with us! We had a wonderful time and a big thanks to Dominic for the great photos.

Maestro

Our budding piano maestro. Eoin (and mommy) loves his Fisher Price piano. He does try and chew the green metronome but mainly he just loves banging on the piano and mommy loves playing his favorite nursery rhymes to him. Eoin has even started to clap his hands now especially to the tune of 'If you're happy and you know it' (must try and catch on video soon).

Red Wagon

We've gone all American and purchased Eoin a Red Radio Flyer Wagon. He absolutely loved it! In fact he got upset when we came back from the park and it was time to get out so we went round the block again. Of course it's the perfect height to try and grab all the flowers as we go by. No one at the park would believe me that Eoin was only seven and a half months when they saw him in the wagon but then again he is easily the size of a one year old.

Funny noises

Eoin has discovered his tongue. It's a little later than most kids but he was tongue tied and now that it has stretched out a little he has discovered that he can make lots of different noises like clicking. We're so happy that he is doing this as it stretches his tongue even more and further reduces the need for surgery later.

Raspberry blowing

So Eoin has learned (probably from his friend Max) how to blow raspberries. Problem is his poor tongue is still a little tight and he can't quite get it out of his mouth so you just get the sound effects.

Update: So the more Eoin has been doing this the more his tongue seems to stretch so he can almost blow a raspberry properly now. His tonuge now gets to the edge of his lips.

Ummm popsicles

It's getting warm here in Palo Alto and so we are cracking out our favorite organic raspberry popsicles (or ice lollies for you Brits). Of course Eoin just gets covered in red sticky goo but he loves them and doesn't seem to mind the cold at all.

Crocodile Dundee

Crocodile Dundee eat your heart out. Eoin had fun today playing with his croc. He rolled over it so many times it looked like he was wrestling it.

Red chair

We got Eoin a little red chair for the garden so that he can sit with us when we eat outside and have fun in the garden over the summer. He looks so grown up in his chair which is meant to be suitable until five years old but Eoin looks like he is half way there already.

IAC Picnic

Today was the Independent Adoption Center's annual summer picnic at a park in Pleasant Hill. Eoin slept all the way there and was a little groggy at first but he soon warmed up and loved meeting his pals Anthony and Caden.

We had a great time catching up with folks that we hadn't seen for a while and of course showing off Eoin to all and sundry. We had a great time playing with balloons and balls and munching down all the yummy goodies people brought to the picnic.

A big thanks to Bob for these pictures - my camera ran out of batteries just as I went to take the first shot!