A Project and a Birthday

Once again, too much time in between posts. I will freely admit I've been neglecting my blog (and grading papers) because I finally started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and they kind of took over every free second of time I had. I only read the first 4 and had to make myself stop so I could get other stuff done!

We've been wanting to paint Ella's room since we moved in, and we decided it would be great to have it done for her when she came home for her birthday weekend/Thanksgiving Break! So last week, every extra minute we had was thrown into redoing this room:

And making it this room:

I know, I know...it's pink, huh? That's what Ella requested--"bright pink" actually, and we went for it! I think it turned out pretty great, right?? This was our first time ever painting a room, and it went pretty smoothly! We are no longer painting virgins!

We also wanted to redo her little chest of drawers. It belonged to my grandparents, and it was a blonde-ish wood with bronze hardware. We wanted it to match everything else in her room, so we pretty much copied my DIY-idol, Just a Girl, to the letter in doing this thing! It turned out pretty well! The only thing is that we only let the paint dry about 20 hours when we probably should've let it go longer because of the rainy weather. The TV scratched the paint off immediately! But it still looks great!

Ella loved it! She still is a little apprehensive about sleeping in there alone, though. It's way down the hall and around the corner from our and Kamden's bedrooms, so the first night back she wanted to give her bed in Kam's room a go.

He's supposed to be lying down to sleep. Riiiiiiiiight. She was going to read one book and then go to sleep. She kept calling out to tell me he was standing up. He was a little distracting=) So she did sleep in her own room that night, but half of the night I was in there and the other half her daddy was:) And then as soon as he came back to our bedroom, she was in about 30 minutes later! We'll see if this continues to be a pattern=)

The next day was Ella's 5th brithday party!!! Yes, our little lady turned 5 years old on Sunday!!! Unbelievable. Her party was a lot of fun...the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves! Here's the birthday girl on her throne...

And here's her beautiful (and delicious!!!!!!!!) Margie cake! (For those of you who aren't family members, Kaleb's Aunt Margie does all the cakes for the family...and the are all just as gorgeous and unbelievably, sinfully delicious!

Ella's main gift from us this year was a bicycle! And a princess helmet and elbow pads, naturally. She loves it!

And lastly, the other child. He's doing well...I know you saw the picture of him in his crib, and you're probably wondering (if you care at all) how his sleep is going. Well.......he does start his night out in his crib, but he wakes up around 1 and I just put him in bed with us so that I can function at work the next day. However! Kaleb and I are both off this week, so we are dedicating ourselves to some serious sleep training with the boy! Last night went great! He went down after his last meal around 10. He slept until probably 12 or 1, when he woke up fussing. Kaleb got him to go back down until maybe 2 or 3. I went in and got him to go back down without nursing!! He woke back up at 5, and that was basically morning, so I brought him to our room and he ate and played for a while before going back to sleep. He went from 10-5 without needing to eat!!! So now that I know he can do it, it'll be much easier to just let him cry without worrying that maybe he really is hungry. Hopefully, though, his waking will start to diminish. Fingers crossed!

At Kamden's sitter's house, there is a walker. And Kamden loves this walker. He goes everywhere in it. He comes to meet us in it when we pick him up, laughing all the way! We were going to get him one, and then one of our friends at church told us she had one she wasn't using!! We've only had it one day and it's already been a HUGE lifesaver!!! He just smiles and laughs and roams the house in it!
It's so nice to know he is able to be mobile yet contained=) He goes all around the house on his hands and knees, too, but the walker makes it much harder to get to cords and wires=)

Lastly, this sweet picture of my sweet possessive baby boy. Does it look like he's saying, "She's mine!!" Oh, I love my life!

The Tale of the Boy Who Cried...Every 2 Hours.

Once, there was an adorable, sweet, funny, heaven-sent baby boy named Kamden. He was (and is still) adored by many. He was a very healthy baby, weighing in at 19 lb 13 oz at 6 months, and every sign indicated that he should be sleeping through the night by now. But was he?

No.

His parents thought that maybe, just maybe, it was because he was still sleeping in a pack-n-play by their bed...and was able to eat any time he woke up because his mama wanted to sleep and thought it was much easier to just put him in bed with her, latch him on, and fall back to sleep...several times a night. So, maybe they were waking him up! Yes, that must be it! Maybe Daddy's snoring, or being able to smell Mama just a few inches away was what roused him from his sleep and made him think "time for a midnight/2 a.m./4 a.m./10 p.m. snack!"

So, the tired Mama and Daddy bought a baby monitor for the sweet thing and put him in his very own bed in his very own room at 8:30 the night he turned 6 months old. (They waited 6 months because his mama, who reads entirely too much, read that the risk of SIDS goes down if he co-slept in their room for the first 6 months!)

And everything was great! And then it was 10:45. And he awoke, certain that he was just starving to death. So Daddy tended to him for a while, and there was just no consoling him, so they thought maybe, just maybe he was needing his last meal for the night. So the mama let him nurse...and he fell asleep after about 10 minutes of eating.

This happened again at 1:10, 1:50 (at 1:10, Daddy got him to go back to sleep), 3:30, and at 5:30, when Mama fed him and brought him to their room so she could pump and start getting ready for the day. Oh, my. Is this what it's going to be like every night?

The mama and daddy certainly hope not!

That, my friends, is how Kamden's very first night in his very own bed in his very own room turned out. It gets better, right?

Oh, and yes he will take a paci, but if you really want to see a violently angry 6-month-old baby, you should try offering Kamden a paci when he really just wants to nurse. It ain't a pretty sight--and the sound is even worse!

Excuses and Happy Halloween!

So here's my excuse for the length between posts this time!

It is Election season at the Breaux house. As most of you know, my wonderful better half is the Election Coordinator for our county...which means for about 2-3 weeks during the fall and sometimes the spring, too, he has to work LIKE A DOG every single day. Seriously, he has not had a day off since October 19!!! We so appreciate all the hard work he does for our family!! Sadly, this means he has to work longer hours so we don't get to see him as much. And you can probably guess how well Kamden does when I'm trying to do something besides give him my undivided attention...so blogging has been out of the question! But right now he and his daddy are taking a much-needed pre-bedtime nap together, so here I am!

Yesterday was Kamden's first Halloween, and also Kaleb's and my first real Halloween together! Why? Well, like I said, it's Election season...it's always Election season during Halloween! So this is the first time he's had Halloween night off since he started working for Jefferson County 3 years ago!!! We were pretty excited about it, and we had a Halloween Party to go to! We got Kam's outfit last weekend, and kind of procrastinated on our's...okay, we really procrastinated...we were at Goodwill and Spirit Halloween Store yesterday afternoon getting what we needed for our costumes:) Can you guess what we all went as?

Okay, Kam-o is a monkey...and the cutest monkey I've ever seen=) Kaleb went as Harry Caray, the late Cubs announcer...well actually he went as Will Ferrell doing Harry Caray. It was hilarious! I wish I would've filmed him!!! And I went as the Octomom. I was thinking I'd just get Ella's dolls and hit up Goodwill for however many more I needed to make 8 so I went to her closet and started pulling them out...the girl has 8 baby dolls!!! I could only fit 7 of them in, so I just threw Kamden on my hip and called him my 8th! And we could not get a good family pic...closing his eyes wasn't part of Kaleb's get-up...he just has the tendency to do that when he takes pictures! Haha...and I forgot to take my glasses off for the picture. Oh, well!!

The party was a lot of fun...and we got to fall back last night! It's my favorite night of the year. Kamden didn't really understand it this morning, though, as he was crawling all over me at 6 a.m. ready to start the day! We had a talk, but I don't think it's sunk in yet. He's been realllllllllllly sleepy today, and cranky for a lot of it. He didn't rest much yesterday, though, so we are praying that's why! A little boy at his sitter has come down with H1N1...and I am reminding myself that God is in control, not my worrying, oh, about every hour on the hour since we found out=) We started some vitamins as I've read that Vitamin D deficiency is thought to be a cause of all influenzas...and mostly we're just praying and trusting God to keep our baby boy well! He had his 4 month shots this past week (yes, I know he'll be 6 months(!!!) on Wednesday) and he never ran any fever or anything. He's still eating anything we'll give him and he coughs a bit but it's mostly when he's upset and he's done that since he was about 3 weeks old. Don't know who he could get that drama from!! =)

I'd also like to ask for your prayers for Kaleb's family...you may remember that they lost a cousin suddenly a couple months back. We found out yesterday that another cousin passed away Friday night...he had a pulmonary aneurysm that caused a heart attack. He was only 30 years old...I had the privilege of meeting him at the other cousin's funeral, and he was such a wonderful guy, so full of life. We were throwing around plans to go visit him in New Mexico in the future. It's just so very tragic, and something that everyone's just scratching their heads about. Please keep the family in your prayers in these coming days, weeks, and months.

I think that's about it for this update...I should really attempt to do my lesson plans while Kam is asleep!

Pumpkin Patches & Wild Things

What a wonderful weekend we had!!!

This was our first weekend to have Ella at the new house when we weren't having to move! Woo hoo!!! Friday night, she wanted to eat Mexican, so we went out to eat and to get her a few new clothes from Target...our little long legged lady didn't have a single pair of pants that came past her ankles here!! Our big plan was to go see Where the Wild Things Are on Saturday. When she was with us regularly, we read that book just about every night...and she absolutely loves it. So last year when we found out that they were making a movie of it, we told her and the poor thing has been waiting for at least 7 months to finally see it!!

Saturday morning, we got up, got ready, and I was asking her what else she'd like to do with our Saturday. She first wanted to go to a museum, but I told her there really weren't any around here...and her next idea was finding a Pumpkin Patch, getting a pumpkin, and carving it! (She also wanted to make a "calabaza pie" which she informed me was "pumpkin pie" in Spanish, but it turns out neither of us or her Daddy like calabaza or pumpkin pie, so we skipped that part.) We'd never been before, so I got online and sure enough, one of the Methodist churches in Beaumont had one! So...that's what we did! First, saw our movie...

and then headed out to the Pumpkin Patch!

After that, we came back to the house to carve Mr. Huggy Face (guess who named him?)...

And had some homemade pizzas! It was such a perfect day...one that we will definitely treasure!

It is so funny to see Kamden with Ella. He absolutely lights up when she's around...speaking of the little man, he's already got another tooth! Just a couple days after my last post I noticed his other front bottom tooth was poking through! He's also gotten really good at scooting anywhere he wants to go. I have a video that I hope to find time to upload overnight...he's started getting up on his feet and pushing a blanket around on the floor. He is just getting way too big too fast!

So that's what's going on these days with the Breaux Fam...what's going on with you?
(Ella took that pic of Kam...and I had to include this last one in all his Little-Man glory!)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Here's what's happened since I last posted: We did go to that wedding, and we did make the trip over to Dallas and back that weekend. It was a lot of fun!

I did end up taking Kam's 4 month pictures while he was still closer to the 4 month mark than the 5 month one=) Here's one of the few where his hands were out of his mouth:

At his 4 month appointment, he was 26 1/4 inches long and weighed 17 lb 15 oz. We mentioned to Dr. Wallace how he was noticing (and trying his darndest to grab) everything we ate, and he said it'd be okay to start some cereal. He wasn't so sure about it at first...

But then he loved it! We got a little crazy with it and gave him too much oatmeal at first, but now we've got it regulated to rice cereal at lunch time at his sitter's, sometimes with a fruit, mostly with my milk or distilled water, and sometimes with formula when I don't have enough pumped. The boy is an eater. Big surprise there!

On September 24, we closed on our house!

You might be wondering why I know the exact date...we had to write it on about 15,347 papers, so it's kinda etched in my brain. The following weekend we enlisted our family members and a few friends and completely filled up this truck:

along with a couple others. Who knew we could fit so much stuff in a little duplex with 1200 sq ft??

The kiddos were fantastic while we moved...here they are in our new house!

And here is a most flattering picture of us outside of the house. Yes, we put the sign back up for this picture. I believe this was Mrs. Nell's idea? It was a great one!!!

The following week was spent getting everything sort of in its right place...and the following weekend, October 4, Kam turned 5 months and was dedicated! Yes, we waited a long time...but as you might have been able to tell by my completely sporadic blogging, things have been more than a little hectic! Not a great pic, but at least it's some sort of proof!

Like I said, homeboy turned 5 months!

He is more fun than ever...so happy most of the time. He's trying so hard to crawl...he makes it up onto his hands and knees and rocks back and forth...and sometimes flips himself over...and sometimes scoots backward...and always is adorable.

He doesn't have any words down yet...he has gotten really good at bringing everything to his mouth.

He got to attend his first out-of-the-womb concert this weekend! (First in-the-womb show was NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK woo woo!!) Shane and Shane played in Beaumont and they were so wonderful...it was truly a great worship experience.

And on Sunday he got to wear his first manly pink shirt=)

I think he's saying, "I dare you to attempt to make fun of me in this shirt! My mama will knock you out!" I hear that she will, too.

Tonight I was on my way home from school and the weekly grocery trip when my phone rang...it was my fab husband telling me that Kam has officially cut his first tooth! We can feel it and see it! It's really there!! I doubt I will be able to get a picture of it...he sure does like to keep that tongue on top of it...but it is there! Time surely does fly. I'll leave you with a little bit of proof of that...

I Can't Do No Mo

Before you ask, no, I don't have any pictures to post for this one. I am feeling like quite the failure at many things lately!! I've never felt so scatter-brained and disorganized (since high school at least). School is always the place I can be orderly, even if it's the only place. My desk=the worst mess I've ever seen. I am making copies the day OF my assignments instead of having the whole week done ahead of time. I haven't done my lesson plans yet, and we'll be gone all weekend. Every student-free minute I have is spent being milked, and as soon as school is over I have to rush home to nurse again. It just never ends and I feel like I can NEVER get caught up!!! Maybe after the house. Because I'm about to get even MORE behind with moving. Which is exciting, but I don't know how I can possibly function with throwing another iron in the fire. I feel like I'm about to burn something!!

The second week of school is coming to a close. It's going to be a challenging year, just putting that out there. Maybe not so much behavior-wise, but last year I had some really bright stars and this year...well, they're kind of...dim. I just want us to continue to grow. And to do that I have GOT to get on top of things. But it's not happening this weekend.

We always go to Kaleb's cousin's house for Labor Day weekend in Dallas, which is always quite the blast. This year, though, I have the privilege of being a bridesmaid for my Bec-Bec!!! The wedding is in Natchitoches. So, we will start heading north as soon as I drop my kids off outside. Kaleb will drop me and Kamden off in Natchy and then go get Ella, then drive on to Dallas. (I'd like to interject that I absolutely cannot wait to see my Ella Clair. CANNOT. WAIT. But I will...) We will do the wedding tomorrow evening at 6 and then my sweet sister, Katie, and her sweet friend, Brant, will drive Kam and me about 2 hours from Natchy and Kaleb will drive about 2 hours from Irving, and we will meet in the middle (Neath that old Georgia pine?) and head on to Dallas tomorrow night. Late. Then Monday we'll leave in the morning and my parents will meet us in Shreveport around noonish and we will all hang out with Ella before we bring her back to her house up there. Then Kaleb, Kam, and I will drive back to the Beaumont. Man. Can you say road weary travelers?

This has been the longest we've gone without seeing Ell, and we are definitely feeling it!!! We miss her so very much!!!

We are also almost in the house. We had the inspections done last week and the appraisal was yesterday. I don't know what else has to happen, but we are thinking (hoping, praying) that it'll be ready to close in the next couple of weeks or so. We are so ready to just be settled.

Kam is doing GREAT with Mrs. Laurel!!! Kaleb said his face just lights up when he sees her. She says he's a good baby, and I'm like really????? Haha...he is a good baby, but when we're around he always "needs" to be held. She said he seems to just know that he's not the only one there and she can't hold him all the time. There are 2 1 yr olds there, and they just love on him a lot. He's also been taking about 4 bottles a day...and I get 3 bottles at school and 1 during the night/morning pumps, so we are just breaking even with that. I am proud to say that he has yet to have any formula, though, so I feel like that is a major accomplishment for us. I don't think there's anything wrong with it or anything...it's just that nursing for at least 6 months, hopefully a year, is a big goal that I've set for myself, and I really will do anything I can to make it happen for the Kam-man. I don't want to have to wean him just because I'm working full-time, ya know? Anyway, it's just something I really prayed about, and I am so thrilled that God is making it happen! One day last week, something happened and I only had 3 bottles to send. Mrs. Laurel said it was like he knew we just had 3 bottles, so that's all he took! Smart boy.

And speaking of our smart boy, he turned 4 months old today! I am just shocked. I know I say this every month, but where did the time go?? I will do a 4 month post hopefully tonight at my parents'. I need to do the pictures and all that. So I PROMISE that the next post will have pictures. Unless I just go crazy first. Which is entirely possible.

Firsts

Has it really been a week already?? I am so sorry...can you tell I started work last Monday? Last week was great...Kam got to stay with Aunt Jewel Mon-Wed, and Mrs. Nell Thurs and Fri. He was a fussy, hungry little fella every day except Thursday, it seems! He completely depleted my frozen stash. I began getting really worried that we'd have to start supplementing formula during the day...I was pumping a little under 2 bottles at school and one at home, and he was taking 4 during the day. However, I think maybe he was in his 3-4 month growth spurt and just plain comfortable at home and wanted to eat all the time!! Today was his first day at Mrs. Laurel's (his new sitter) and he only ate 3 full bottles and part of another...and that's with him not being with me from 6:45-4:15!! I think that is just fabulous! And I've started to be able to pump more, too. Guess the Lactation Consultant was right...just the stress of going back to work and all that junk! Anyway, Kam napped well for Mrs. Laurel, too...I am so very thankful that he had a good first day at a sitter!!

Today was also Ella's first day of Pre-K!!! Can you believe it??? How in the world is she almost 5 already?? Man. I talked to her this evening after school and she loved it!!! She loves her teacher, loves that she gets to play outside so much, and loves the "new" song she learned! (5 little monkeys swingin' in the trees...) We totally used to sing that all the time. I think they put music to it, though. And she pointed out that they sing "Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me" at the end of theirs! =) So funny. So she had a fabulous day as well...I hear she was quite the big girl. I am so proud of her!! And we miss her so much!!!

And, lastly, today was my first day back. It went about like I'd expected it to. I'm trying very, very hard to start this year with much more patience and understanding. We have a ton of new kids this year, and the old ones know what they can and cannot get away with, so it's always fun getting a new set and having to set this straight all over again! It's going to be a good year, though, I am sure of it!

No pictures, I know. I took one of Kam on his first day, and Rebecca sent us pictures of Ella on our phones...I just have to figure out how to get it from my phone to the computer! I think Kaleb's smartypants phone can do it. So I will post pics of both the lovely kiddos when that happens!

I think that's about it...it's 9:30 and my plan is to be in bed by 10 or 10:30 every night. With Kam waking up so often and my getting up at 5 to start pumping and getting ready, it gets really late really early!! I hope all of you have had a wonderful Monday as well!! What? Wonderful Monday? Did I really say that??

School Schmool

This weekend flew by! We went up to Many for a Lowe Family Reunion and then brought Ella back. Man, that was hard. We know that she is going to love school, though...and I think she'll be doing Dance, too!! She is CRAZY about taking Dance lessons like her Cay-Cay, so I can't wait to see what she learns! Speaking of Ella, I just have to share this picture of her dressing up in Caitlin's clothes the other night...

Haha!!! That is actually one of Caitlin's dresses that she wears now...our girl has graduated from regular old dress-up clothes!

The reunion was a lot of fun...we got a chance to see some people I hadn't seen in...well, I can't remember when...and this was Kaleb's first reunion on my side. I think he didn't think it was too, too bad. Ella really enjoyed herself...she got to play with "The Brown Kids"!!

I kind of just have some random pictures...after the reunion we rode over to Bossier and killed some time at Ellis Pottery. Did you ever wonder if two Breaux kids could fit into the FRONT part of a buggy?

Well, wonder no more. They stayed like this for a good 5 minutes...then Ella was quite over it=) It was a little cramped.

Today was my first day back to school, and it wasn't bad at all!! It helped that a) we had an interesting workshop on ESL this afternoon and b) I know that Kam was in very good hands! He and Aunt Jewel had a good day here...and I basically just spent the day (when I wasn't thinking about school) pumping every chance I got and just being excited to see him this afternoon!! Tomorrow we have a Math Workshop with the fabulous Kay Olds, so I'm not dreading that either. And the rest of the week I get to tackle organizing my classroom. I stocked up on binders and sheet protectors....oh, it's gonna be fun!!

Today went well, but I sure do miss my wonderful husband...he's in Austin for a work conference. I think it's the first time I've stayed here without him. I cannot WAIT for him to come home on Wednesday!!!

So how about a nice, feel good picture before we go...I don't know how you can look at this and not smile!

Ah, if only he can always love getting clean this much!!

Oh, and I almost forgot...Check this out!

School Days...

Okay, so I think I am officially the worst teacher ever. I haven't been up to the school a single day this summer to do anything for my classroom. Actually, I only went up once and that was to conference with parents whose kids failed the TAKS test. My room is a wreck. They painted the walls, so every single piece of furniture is in the middle of the room. Honestly I would love to get in there and get things together, but I've had an infant all summer and a 4 year old for half of it, and getting things anywhere but our house together is quite the feat=) I have been enjoying our kids, and I don't regret that...I just know that there is a ton of stuff for me to do before Open House next Thursday. Teachers go back to school on Monday, but apparently we will be in meetings and all that good stuff. So basically I need to get my room done this week. And basically that is pretty impossible without help. My mom is here through tomorrow, so I think we are going to head over to the school and try to get some things done in the morning. Ugh. It's really here, isn't it?

Let me fill you in on a little scare we had on Monday. I posted a few weeks ago about how excited we were about finding a sitter for Kam. She'd assured us she'd hold a spot for him for August 17th. No problem. So last week I e-mailed her, just to touch base. She never replied. So Sunday I texted her. No reply. Getting nervous. Monday I was about to call her when I checked my e-mail. Her mother-in-law, who lives with them, had been in the hospital and is sick and will need this lady to help take care of her during the day, so she couldn't take anymore kids Kam's age. Um, when we signed up with her, there were no more kids Kam's age. They were all school age except a 1 year old. So basically I am freaking out and praying and asking everyone I know to pray...and Kaleb reminded me that this sweet lady who keeps the nursery at our church lives in Bridge City and keeps kids. Hmm...I call her and wouldn't you know it she just got a call from a mom of an infant (she keeps 2 max) who decided to stay home this year and her one spot opened up! Tell me God didn't work that! It's in Bridge City, which is away from both our works but where we'll be living when the house thing comes through. And hopefully I can eventually get a teaching job in BCISD. Then there was the issue of where he would stay next week...Mrs. Laurel doesn't take kids until August 24th. I didn't even sweat that...I am finally starting to realize just how much God works things for us=) Well, one of my aunts messaged me saying she could come down and keep Kam. I thought she was joking. She wasn't! And Kaleb's mom said she could take off work a few days to keep him also! Wow. God is so good!!!

So that's what's happened these last couple of days. I know, I know, no pictures. Tomorrow, tomorrow...