Another Week, Another Tooth

As always, the Shuler home is buzzing with activity. Work is busy, but we're managing to squeeze everything into our work hours so we can have family time when we get home.

I had my Friday off last week, so I ran errands all day, squeezed in a play date and got a lot done around the house. It seems like we spent most of the weekend getting things done, but we were able to breathe a sigh of relief on Monday morning. This week, our only work is getting ready for a friend's wedding and trying to get some rest for the fun in store!

Here is a precious picture of Cullen trying to look out the front window when Amy and Hadley pulled up. He was so happy to be looking outside, so I opened the blinds for him. I'll have to remember this one next time he's bored with me!

Last Wednesday, some good friends of ours had a little girl. I had high hopes of getting a picture of Cullen with little Madison, but he was too busy climbing onto their coffee table to notice another baby. Spending a weekend in a hotel room with him is going to be super fun. I'm sure of it. *sarcasm*

Cullen is getting closer and closer to standing independently, and it will only be a matter of time before he's walking. As soon as he figures out this faster mode of transport, we're going to be busy. I'm really looking forward to him walking, but I'm sure it will be one more of those bittersweet mommy moments.

As he gets closer to walking, we are getting more serious about childproofing. We've been working our way through a pretty extensive list, and we're just about done. The only thing left is to assemble the remaining cabinet latches and to superglue the rubber ends to the doorstoppers. Cullen already found out how easily they pull off, so I'll be making that change while he's asleep.

Saturday night, we purchased and put up a blockade to keep Cullen from getting to the dog bowls quite so easily. He was really curious on Sunday morning, but that wore off pretty quickly. After the initial meltdown or five, he found out that all of his toys were on the same side of the wall as he was, and he moved on to other activities.

Do any of you parents out there have any childproofing recommendations? Things you didn't realize you would need to do? I would love to find the trouble spots before Cullen does!

Yesterday, we took Cullen in to see a new pediatrician. After a bit of pressure from family, we decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a second opinion about Cullen's health. He has been doing breathing treatments since he was six weeks old, and we wanted to make sure that we weren't over-medicating him.

In my usual manner of preparation, I created a list of questions for the doctor before our appointment. Mostly, we wanted to make sure he needed his medication, but I also had a long list of questions just to ease my mind about his development. As a first time parent, you can only be so sure of yourself.

Dr. Dondlinger spent almost an hour with us answering questions and telling us how wonderful Cullen is. As if we didn't already know... She said that his development is great, and his motor skills are awesome. He monkeyed his way around the room the entire time we were visiting, so she really got to see how active he is. We even got a chest x-ray done to make sure that reactive airways were the only issue for Cullen. After an afternoon of sweating, I got a call from the doctor letting us know that there are no other issues. Woohoo! We are even exchanging his nebulizer for an inhaler. Now his "breathing treatment" takes less than 30 seconds!

The best part of Cullen's appointment was when they weighed and measured him. James and I have noticed that Cullen has been eating a significantly larger amount since we started the iron supplements, but we were really shocked when we saw the numbers. In just 12 days, Cullen grew 3/4 of an inch and gained a pound! He is on target to be tall and thin, and I couldn't be happier to see my happy little guy thrive.

During the chaos of Cullen's appointment, we also noticed that he has another tooth coming in! This one is on the top. Although his teeth aren't coming in by the "normal" order, the doctor said it was completely normal and hereditary. Apparently, either James or I had teeth come in differently, too. Neither mom remembers it, but I seriously doubt I'll remember this twenty plus years from now either.

This morning, Cullen bit me with his top and bottom teeth while I was giving him his iron supplement. Not that I blame him, but it was still interesting to see the difference. I hope we can stop these vitamins before he gets too many more teeth!

xoxo Ashley