Koopman Kraziness

If you follow Kamden's blogspot and noticed that it no longer exists, never fear. I have combined it with our main blogspot space to save myself some time and headache. :)

I wanted to share just a few things I have realized about me as well as noticed about other mommies since becoming one myself. You know you are a mommy when - *you catch yourself absentmindedly humming Veggie Tales, Elmo, The Wiggles, or Baby Einstein songs during everyday tasks. *you usually don't get quite long enough in the shower to shave your legs when you want or need to. *you start noticing stains on the back of and shoulders of your clothing that you know you didn't make. *it doesn't phase you in the least to sit and stare at the contents of a poopy diaper wondering if that color and/or consistency is normal. *you find it is entirely possible to do just about anything with one hand. *you have ever fallen asleep while using your breastpump, or imagined the sounds it makes are actually its way of "talking" to you. *instead of thinking "Oh, if that were MY child..." when a child is throwing a fit in the middle of a store, you suddenly wonder if that...

Kamden had follow up appointments with both his neurologist and an occupational therapist yesterday. For anyone who may read and not know about the reasons behind this, he had excess fluid in the top ventricles in both sides of his brain from 18 weeks gestation up to the day I was induced to deliver him. Since his delivery, the fluid levels have almost normalized, however he is still being watched closely for any signs of developmental delay or any other problems. Overall, both the OT and Neurologist were pleased with how he is doing. In some areas (i.e. being able to hold two separate toys in two hands simultaneously) he is ahead. On the other hand, he is behind in some areas too. So, we start home physical therapy with him today to work on loosening the hamstrings in both legs and strengthening the back muscles from just above his waist down to his hip. The muscles that should be developing to help him learn to balance and sit on his own aren't quite developing as they should bec...

I enjoyed seeing those things on my list yesterday get marked off SO much that I think I may do the "list" daily. However, I'll post it in a different blog so as not to bore you with my daily chores here. LOL If you want to follow that, then check me out here

That's right. My little prince turned 5 months old today. I can hardly believe it. In some ways, it seems like we just brought him home, and in others it seems like he's been in our lives for so much longer. He is SUCH a joy and bright spot in our lives. Today we "celebrated" his birthday with a big serving of rice cereal - which he has now decided might not be as bad as he thought - and with him rolling back to belly 4 times! He had not rolled that direction since the day I posted on here about it, so it was almost like seeing it for the first time again. He still got the same semi-shocked look when he ended up on his belly, but he was fine until he couldn't figure out how to get his arms up from his sides to where he wanted them to be, which was under his chest so he could push up. I helped him get his arms in place and wouldn't you know it??? The stinker got up ON HIS KNEES. Granted it wasn't even long enough for me to even think about grabbing a camera...

Alright, so Mondays are generally the busiest day for me and I can never keep straight in my head what I have going on...so forgive me if you follow my blog and are going to in fact read my "to do" list for the day. Organize office area - About halfway done! Gather, separate and start on laundry for the week Find yummy, CHEAP recipes Make the grocery list - in progress Clean the bathroom Drop off the 3 boxes of clothes for charity - will be done tomorrow. Box up books in the living room and get the bookshelf downstairs to store Post items for sale on craigslist - In progress. Alright, I'll come back at the end of the day and see what I've gotten done. I know, you can't wait right?

In honor of my good friend Holly opening up and revealing her eccentricities in her most recent blog, I thought I'd do the same. Self abandon, even in the form of a blog, can't do anything but help. *When eating a dish that has a combination of meat and other products (i.e. pasta, stew, etc.) I HAVE to eat the non-meat first. I always save up the meat for the end and eat it all at once. I have no idea why, but I've done it since I was little and feel "off" if I don't do it. *I love to draw and do art projects. Anytime that I get a new box of pastels, watercolor pencils, map color pencils, etc., I get them home, dump them all out into a pile on the floor and proceed to put them in order by color of the rainbow (ROYGBV) THEN the browns, grays, blacks, silver and THEN gold. While it's not as bad as it once was, I tend to not be able to sleep unless this is done. *I am CONSTANTLY griping at Jeff for not turning the air conditioner off in the car BEFORE h...

Kamden has co-slept with Jeff and I since our first night home. (I know this can be a bit controversial, so I will leave it after the next comment and if need be we can agree to disagree.) I have no problem whatsoever with Kamden sharing our bed, and neither does Jeff. We have, however, started getting him into his crib, at least a little at a time. Generally, Kam falls asleep by 8:00 PM. Once making sure he is good and asleep, he goes into his crib. Now, most nights, he stays in his crib only until he wakes for his first feeding, usually between 11 PM and 1 AM, then I tend to fall asleep while he is nursing and he stays in the bed with us the rest of the night. Tonight, I made a conscious decision to stay awake until he finished nursing and then put him back into his crib. He stayed asleep. I feel like a giant need for being awake almost an hour later, blogging via my blackberry just in case I MIGHT hear him wake. LOL I guess mom's have just as much to learn as the little humans t...

This has been a week full of realizations for me. Some of those realizations have been quite pleasant and others have been more "thorn in the dr flesh" types. I thought I'd share them with you, and please feel free to comment with a "Well, DUH!!" if need be. 1. I am fantastic at planning and getting things in order. 2. I am not so great at following through with the things I plan out. 3. I am WAY too hard on myself and don't give myself enough credit. 4. I can do and deal with much more than I ever expected. 5. I have some absolutely incredible friends, no matter the large distances between us. 6. I am my worst adversary when it comes to achieving goals. 7. I am self critical mainly because I don't forgive myself for things long in the past, many of which were beyond my control. 8. My parents have once again become the smartest people I know. 9. So long as I keep saying that I will start on something "tomorrow" I will never start on it. 10. I d...

Today was supposed to have been Kamden's five-month neurology follow up. While I was pregnant with him, he had excess fluid on the brain from about five montha' gestation on and he has been followed since birth by way of occupational therapist appointments, neurology appointments, and ultrasounds of his ventricles in his brain. Anyway, I got Kamden all ready and kept him awake through his afternoon nap to go to his appointment, only to find out when we got there for his check in time that it had been rescheduled to next Wednesday. Long story short, I was not called because a letter regarding the appointment change had gone out. Evidently it was mailed out yesterday but our mail ran late today, so the letter was waiting in the mailbox for me when we got back home. Thankfully, Kamden never did get TOO fussy and went down well for his nap once we got back home.

As promised here is the video of Kamden having cereal for the first time. He's done much better since we started putting it into a bottle for him, but the looks on his face the first time around were priceless.

I was tagged by Holly (like TWO WEEKS ago) to list 7 things in the following categories. See you if you got tagged at the bottom. 7 things I want to do before I die 1) Take a tour of the British Isles 2) Memorize 365 verses of scripture 3) Have a little girl 4) Live in the mountains 5) Be completely and totally debt free and feel in charge of our money instead of it being in charge of us. 6) Learn fluent French and Spanish 7) Learn fluent ASL (American Sign Language) 7 things I can do 1) Sing Opera 2) Remember random dates and events YEARS after they occur in exact detail. 3) Sing like Elmo 4) Organize others 5) Say all 50 states in alphabetical order. 6) Make a mean Australian Cheesecake 7) Multitask like no one's business! 7 things I cannot do 1) Look in a full length mirror 2) Do something purely for myself 3) Cannot see a live or take care of disposing of a dead mouse in the house. 4) See Kamden cry inconsolably 5) Organize myself. 6) Forgive neglect or abuse of a child. 7) Out...

First thing's first. We had Kamden's four month appointment on the 28th of August and he is doing fantastic. He was 16 lbs even and 25.5 inches! That put him into the 75% for both his length and weight. He's started doing all kinds of fun things! For one, he started rolling over this last month. He still doesn't quite have the hang of rolling from his back to his belly, but he can roll from his belly to his back faster than I can grab the camera! We started trying cereal this week with him and he doesn't do too badly with it. He's not QUITE sure what to think of the spoon and in the process winds up pushing out most of the cereal trying to get the spoon away from him. We tried doing the cereal in his bottle last night though and he's done well with that. I have a video of that somewhere but I haven't gotten it onto the computer yet. I'll work on getting that posted soon. What I REALLY wanted to blog about and share is that he's started these HUGE...

I know it may seem like I am just incredibly slow, but I figured out part of what it is I need to get out of this depression funk. I need to be out with people more. Like, a LOT more. I met up with Jeff's national guard unit this evening for the FRG (Family Readiness Group) picnic after drill was finished for the day. I'll tell you, I may not have known many of them, but I had SUCH a good time. I really feel like things are going to start turning around for me depression-wise VERY soon if the biggest thing I need is more social interaction. MOPS starts on the 18th so I'll get to spend time with other young moms and our young married couples bible study starts its weekly meetings on Monday of this coming week. I'm going to remain positive. Things ARE going to keep getting better. I just know it!