Zander gets a helmet

I did not know anything about babies with helmets.  I've seen a baby with a helmet before, and didn't know if something was wrong with their head, brain, or if they had some kind of major surgery.  Well, now I feel like I'm some sort of expert.
When Zander was 2 months old, his head was already looking pretty flat in the back, especially on the right side.  When I took him into his 2 month check-up, the doctor said to keep an eye on it, and give him lots of tummy time.  How do you give a newborn lots of tummy time?  They hate it, and they just face plant all the time.  Well, we tried anyway.  Then, we went to his 4 month check-up, and his head hadn't improved at all, in fact, it was probably worse than before.  The next time we went to the doctor for an unexpected visit, she told me my little guy had something called torticollis.  I had no idea what that was.  We learned quickly that it's a muscle in your neck that has spasms which can be painful, and you can't turn your head to one side.  (Not to be confused with a dirty kink neck)  So we proceeded to go to physical therapy to help our little guy get more control over his head and neck muscles.  We did stretches with him, and continued to give him lots more tummy time (which he mastered).  But we were also recommended that we get a helmet for our baby's head. 
The helmet is an orthodic for the head.  It basically controls the sides of the head from growing while allowing the back of the head to grow out.  So the helmet is right up against the sides of his head, while there is a gap in between the helmet and the back of the head.  This allows the head to grow to the right shape. 

I have to say that he still looks like the cutest kid ever in his helmet!  He got he helmet in December when he was about 6 and a half months old.

Here is some before pics of his flat head.  Sometimes we like to describe it as a cliff edge.  Haha.

This is the best pictures we have of his flat head.  It's not that great, because I don't feel like you can tell how flat his head really was.  I know it looks flat in the pic, but it looks even more flat in person.

It was quite the crazy adventure getting this helmet.  We heard about multiple people complaining about the company that does helmets here in St. George because they weren't fitting the babies very good.  So Caleb and I have driven up to Salt Lake and Provo for Zander's helmet and adjustments.  We have taken many trips because of the different things we have encountered along the way. 

First we had to drive up to Salt Lake so that we could get Zander's head measured and scanned so they could do the making of the helmet.  Then we headed back up about 10 days later to get the helmet fitted to his head.  When we got there, the people forgot to overnight the helmet to the doctor/orthodic guy so we made a trip up there for nothing.  When we drove back up to Provo, he got the helmet fitted to Zander's head, but then we encountered so many issues afterwards.  His head would sweat so bad in the helmet that he got a terrible rash.  His entire head was flaming bright red where the helmet was.  It was so sad!  You could tell it hurt and itched.  We had to leave the helmet off for about 3 days while his head got better, and then it felt like we were back to starting all over again. 
He had to to get use to wearing the helmet, and was a little grumpier than usual for about 3 days.  After putting the helmet back on for about 5 or 6 days, Zander was getting use to it again.  Then come a rash or sore on the side of his head from the helmet rubbing against his skin.

So once again, we had to leave the helmet off for about 3 or 4 days to get the sore all better.  If you leave the helmet on, it makes the sore get way worse.  Now in the meantime, if you leave the helmet off for very long, the baby's head continues to grow, so the helmet doesn't fit well anymore.  So we have to keep driving up to Provo to get adjustments made to the dang helmet.  (By this point, the helmet is referred to as the DANG HELMET!)  The poor kid had everything stacked against him. 

Now Caleb and I feel like everything has been moving along smoothly.  The helmet has stayed on his head much more consistently without having problems.  He is suppose to keep the helmet on 23 hours a day.  We are only suppose to take it off when we bathe him and clean the helmet.  But we have learned that it is better to take it off about 3 times a day to dry his sweaty head, dry the helmet, and make sure there are no mishaps along the way.  It feels like smooth sailing now!  He could care less if the helmet is on or off.

Now if only we could figure out how to dodge his head-butts!

Zander

Here is an updated pic of Zander. He is the most sweet, happy baby. I see him smile, and it just makes me melt. Then I want to munch on his cheeks!

Aiden turns 9!

I can't believe I have a nine year old! It makes me feel old each time I even think about it. But Aiden is a good boy that loves life. He loves sports like crazy. He continues to tell me how he is the fastest, best kicker, best shooter, best soccer player in the whole third grade. (We need to work on being a little more humble) He loves playing with Cruiz, building anything (especially legos), and can out eat his mom (and that's saying something). He loves to tell jokes, and will talk to anyone. He does well in school and works hard.

Here is the tank cake I made Aiden this year. For Birthdays at our house, my boys get to pick what we have for breakfast, and for dinner. Then they get to pick what kind of cake I make them. Lately though, my boys seem to want whatever they had the year before, and don't come up with anything new on their own. So when Aiden told me he wanted another race car cake, I decided he would like a tank cake even more. And he did!

Aiden cracks me up. The other day I was at a Relief Society enrichment night, and the bishop's wife Mary started telling me how she loves my boys. (I visit teach her) Anyway, she told me that on Sunday after Sacrament meeting where she gave the closing prayer Cruiz ran and gave her a huge hug around her legs, and told her hi. Then Aiden goes walking by her and says, "Nice prayer." And then he walked off. I laughed my head off when she told me that. I love that kid.

Halloween

So our costumes this year are a little lame, unless you haven't seen us dress up before. Then they might seem cool. But since I actually made these costumes for me and Caleb 2 years ago they are old news. But at least my boys look cute as Mario and Luigi. Aiden complained the whole time about not being able to pick out his own costume too. But Caleb rigged up a portable speaker for Aiden to wear in his pocket that played music from Mario on the nintendo. It was sweet! We would be walking around and somebody would walk by, stop and look around, then try to figure out where the music was coming from.

Cute little Zander was a clown, but kind of ended up looking like a little baby girl.

Caleb and I were Barbie and Ken again this year because I didn't want to take the time to make new costumes. But I felt it was okay since we live in St. George now where no one has actually seen these costumes. We also had our annual Halloween party, and that was super fun too!

Baby, Baby, Baby

I'm updating my blog everyone, wahoo! I couldn't leave out that I had a sweet baby boy born into our family. We named him Zander Caleb Cottam, and he weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. My smallest baby so far, which made labor and delivery much easier. Plus, he was almost 2 weeks early so I'm glad I had him when I did, or I could have a 10 pounder on my hands.

New Entry Table (Finally)

This post is for the peeps that I told about my entry table and now I'm finally documenting it. I'm a little sad that I didn't take any pics while I was building this bad boy. (Well, I took one on my phone before I painted it.)

So, here is the story. After moving to St. George, I really, really wanted a new entry table and some new couches. (more to come on the new couches some other time) I checked Craigslist every day, and none of them really stood out to me, or they were WAY overpriced. I didn't know what to do about buying one because they are way to expensive in a furniture store.

One day I was venting to my friend about my entry table dilema to one of my friends who lives here. She said, "I have a friend who builds stuff like this all the time in her garage, and she has all the tools." I talked to girl and she was very willing to help me build my own entry table.

The next step for me was to find a table that I liked. Ana White's blog was the perfect place because she has all the details and plans to tons of different wood projects. I found one that I liked, printed the plans, then headed over to get some help.







After buying the wood at Home Depot, it only took 2 days to build this awesome entry table. I customized it a little bit to make it taller, but other than that, the plans were perfect. Then I spent day after day sanding painting, sanding, painting, glazing, sanding, and painting until it was finally finished. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Drab to Fab

It all started when I found this ugly door in our serial killer room in Kansas. (If you haven't heard about our serial killer room, it was sweet!) So I asked Caleb if he could take the door part off the window pane part. I wanted to make something cute out of it, and Caleb thought I was crazy, but obliged me.


There was more to it than you might think. It took some time to pry these babies apart, especially since there were about 5 coats of paint sticking them together like glue.


We hauled this ugly window pane with us to St. George. Then I got working on it. I had to knock out the glass, and chip away and the wood pieces holding it in place.


After all that, I sanded, primed (a lot) and painted it. It took many coats of paint since I couldn't sand down all that ugly green. Plus, when I thought I was getting rid of the green, there was all this red paint underneath it.


Here is a pic of my final product. Caleb told me later that he was impressed since he didn't think that ugly thing could turn out looking that great! (that is quite a compliment coming from a guy that doesn't care about decoration stuff at all.)


This is another view of the cute rose wreath I made. I love it! It took about 1 million hours to make, but at least I now have one cute thing hanging in my house.


A close-up of the wreath. Turned out pretty good, eh?

Aiden finally loses a tooth

Aiden kept showing me how loose his tooth was, and here he is wiggling it so that it is pointed horizontal instead of vertical. And if you are really lucky, you might get to see something in his nose.



Aiden lost his first tooth at school. He told his teacher that he needed to have his Grandpa pull his tooth because it was bugging him so bad. So she let him go to the office and talk with Grandpa. I think Aiden was a little scared to get it pulled, but wanted it out so bad! So he told grandpa he would have him pull it in just one minute. Then he goes to wiggle it again and show grandpa, when it just fell out. He was so proud to show me and Caleb when he came home from school. The tooth fairy came and gave him a whopping 5 bucks. I use to only get a quarter, so Aiden's rich. But the tooth fairy wrote him a note and told him that he got more for his first tooth. Two days later, Aiden lost another tooth. Now he wants to wiggle all his teeth and get them loose. It's an easy way to make some money.

Our new Home

I've had a lot peeps say stuff to me about taking too long posting pics on my blog. Sorry! We are doing really good in our new home in St. George. We love it! My parents tell me there is 2 feet of snow on the ground in Rexburg. Then we heard there has been a lot of bad weather in Topeka, that they closed down the law school. And I can't help but think, "Ah, I'm living the good life!" The temp during the day here is around 65 or 70 degrees. But then it snowed here too! It didn't last for long, but we made sure to play in it while we had it.


Cruiz making sure the tree gets some snow on it too.


The whole house.


The backyard.


More backyard, on the other side of the wall (and up against the freeway). But we do have an awesome apricot tree back here.


He's so dang cute!

Graduated and Moved!!!

It has been a while since I've done a post, but for good reasons. We have been so busy!!! Christmas is already a crazy time of year, but we had much more going on this year. In the last 5 weeks Caleb and I have taken a 22 hour drive to Idaho for my sister's wedding, celebrated a Birthday, celebrated an anniversary, took some finals in Law school, graduated from Law school, packed up our entire house, moved to Utah, celebrated Christmas, and last but not least, unpacked and moved into a new house. Whew!!!




Hopefully later on down the road, I will be posting pics of all the fun things that I will be doing to decorate my new house (my favorite part about moving). I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!

P.S. That house pic is of my old house in Kansas. We now are living in sunny St. George! Yay!!!

Helping out an Orphanage!

A lot of you might know that I have a sister living in Egypt right now. Her boys go to school there. I want to give everyone the opportunity to help out some orphan kids that live there if you can. My sister's son Grey (second grader) is holding a read-a-thon at his school to raise money. The purpose is to raise money for an orphanage that is too small to let the kids go to school every day. They have to take turns going to school, while the others stay at home.
My nephew will read books, and you can sponser him by pledging a certain amount of money for every book/minute that he reads until November 27th. It can be any amount! Anything will help.

Here is the link to my sister's blog to find out more details.

All you need to do is leave a post on this blog with an amount that you are willing to sponser and a phone number if I don't already have one for you. I will contact you after November 27th, and collect the money to send to my sister in Egypt.

This is a great way to serve and it is going for a good cause. Please help out if you can!!!

HALLOWEEN

My friend was giving Aiden a ride home the other day and she asked him what he was going to be for Halloween. His reply, "I don't know, my mom hasn't told me yet."
I laughed so hard when I heard that. We always make homemade costumes every year for Halloween, which means if I have some time, I can make some cool costumes. This year, I felt like I didn't have near enough time because I have been so busy lately. So we decided to have our boys be mummies. Aiden wanted to have a skeleton painted on his face too, so he would be more scary. (no time - sorry Aidey-guy)


The problem with being mummies, we later found out, is that it took forever to wrap up our boys in their mummy gear. After finally getting them all wrapped up, the strips of fabric came falling off after 5 minutes. Pretty soon, it looked real dumb, and I wish I hadn't decided that would be their costume. Plus, the boys hated it. They wanted it off pretty quickly.


Here we are as Mario and Luigi. The hats didn't take me to long to make and the facial hair is just felt. Caleb borrowed these overalls from the neighbor who we've talked to about twice since we've lived here. The guy wears overalls to work everyday, so Caleb thought it would be okay to borrow them from him. Well, he did (I wouldn't go with him) and they were high waters pretty bad. That is why Caleb has the look with his overalls down to the middle of his stomach, cuz he had to lower them as low as they could go. Then he had to wear regular pants underneath too, so he wasn't a nerdy Mario. The nerdy Mario just wasn't the look we were going for.
Caleb would go around saying "Mamma Mia."




So, I whipped up some masks, and vwa-la! We changed their costumes to super-heroes. Cute and fun and easy too.

P.S. My sister made these awesome capes for my boys for Christmas last year!