Where is he?!

So I was home alone with Kiernan one day. I was doing homework, and Kiernan was doing really well just playing by himself. I suddenly realized it had been quiet for way too long. So I started looking for him. I couldn't find him anywhere. There isn't a whole lot of places one can go in this tiny apartment. So i was really worried when I really could not seem to find him anywhere. Then I heard a rustle, and out popped a little head by the couch. This was what I found:

From 13-14 months

He had been under the coffee table. You can see how close together the two couches are, and there's the table leg in between the two couches. How he got there...I haven't got a clue. But while he was there, he brought the aluminum foil with him, and put it on the table. He then discovered a new toy, the wonderful salt shaker:

From 13-14 months

What a silly baby.

Yummy!

We had Wendy's for dinner, Bryan almost always gets a frosty float. After Kiernan play around for bit, this is what we found:

From 13-14 months

He had discovered Bryan's empty frosty float cup. Yum :)

From 13-14 months

My life now.

Soooo, life is good, insane but good.

Regarding my earlier post on life decisions, I have decided to go with graduating without my K-12 license. This is something I'm very very content with, and feel is the right thing to do. After much thought, praying, talking with various people, etc. I feel it's what's best for me right now.

This is semester number 8 for me of my MEd program. Semester number 9 is my last one, and I will be done in August of 2010. I am so so so very excited. Bryan and I will be able to walk together this spring, so that'll be a neat experience.

Bryan is done with his bachelor's program. What he'll do next is really up in the air at the moment, there are several options, we (he) just have some deciding to do.

This semester I am essentially taking about 20 credits. This is because I am combining my pre-school student teaching for both the early childhood special education portion and the 0-5 hearing impairment portion of my program. The advisers for both portions have been kind enough to combine their requirements and formats to make it easier for me (no, I don't have less assignments, I'll just be able to turn the same lesson plans in for both of them). This is both good and very difficult. We shall see how it all plays out.

I'm in a placement where the class is a self-contained classroom of deaf kids. The class is a sign supported speech class. It's interesting trying to sign everything I say, and still make sure I'm clear in my speech. I am doing this student teaching every day from 8-1 (this includes prep time), which is normal for preschool hours (actually it's a little longer than normal preschool hours).

I have three evening classes, one on Tuesday from 4:30-7, and two on Wednesday, which ends up being from 4:30-9:45 when combined. We have reading logs again this semester. I swear, I'm gonna go crazy with these things.

I also started my job as an early interventionist for children with hearing impairments this past Monday. I will be a spoken language specialist, which means I've got to get some training in in terms of auditory training and speech training. I've had a chance to meet almost all of the families I'll be working with, and so far, I'm loving it. I'm very excited to be doing this job, and I think I'll continue to love it, despite any major changes that may be happening right now (and despite the paperwork that has to be done with it as well!).

Since I'll be gone all the time, and Bryan has graduated, we decided it would be best if he stays home this semester and studies for the LSAT, and preps for anything else he may be interested in. This works out well so that we won't have to pay for any babysitting on a regular basis (we still love you Becca!).

I have quit my job at the Utah autism research project. While I loved the flexibility and the people at the job, I'm still very excited for the new job.

I think that's it in term of general updates. I definitely will not be blogging nearly as much this semester as along with student teaching and classes, my job will mostly keep me in Davis county in the evenings on Mon, Thurs and on Friday mornings/afternoons, that is when I'm not in staff meetings or ednet classes.

I have been reading up on your blogs and keeping up with you, which I enjoy doing. This helps me take a mental break from the busy stuff, so keep it up people!

Catch up much?

All right, this is the Kiernan catch up post.

He had his 1 year visit. Got four shots, I believe both flu shots, MMR, and the chicken pox vaccine.
He now has 12 teeth (though I suspect the canine teeth are coming in now...excessive drooling has been happening lately).
He can "say" the following words: bye bye, night night, mais (more in portuguese), leite (really it's see see, milk in portuguese), mama (though he's not very consistent with this one), daddy, doggie, see, hi, bath (really...'ah' but close enough), ah ah ah (this is how we've been saying no, and he says ah ah when he tells us no, up up up (he also uses this for down down down and out out out). That's all I can think of at the moment.
He can "cue" the following: bye bye, mais, night night, daddy, doggie, bath and mais.
He's walking like a pro, and can do squats like I dream of doing one day.
He's probably about 30 lbs now, and 31 or 32 inches.
He had his first haircut (the hair was looking like a mullet, but I was so sad to see the curls go).
mullet hair:

From 13-14 months

cut hair:

From 13-14 months

Thanks to Bryan for doing that so i wouldn't cut our son's ear off.

He is now tall enough to reach things on our table.
He has figured out how to turn the switch on the powerstrips.
He loves to sing by doing the "click" sound with his tongue.
He loves to dance, especially to the Law and Order theme song. In fact, he'll stop whatever he's doing when he hears it come on and does at least a hand wave to it.
He can do patty-cake and itsy bitsy spider hand motions.
He can do the vowels to clean up clean up to the rhythm of the clean up song. When he gets to the everybody everywhere, and everybody do their share part, he just kind of babbles it along.
He knows that clean up means to put objects into containers, but that doesn't mean the stay there.
He understands "brush your teeth" and "give it to mommy/daddy"
He can point to my eyes, nose and mouth when I ask him to.
he loves to honk our noses.

there....i think that's all. Geez, they grow up so fast.

Just about ready to give up.

So background information.

I fall asleep easily when I'm tired, this was a big issue in college when i started falling asleep while driving. We have since taken care of the problem that was causing all this extra sleepiness. However, having a baby....yeah lack of sleep ALL the time. This is important to know because when i would nurse him sitting up to try and get him to go back to his own bed, I would start falling asleep with him in my arms. It didn't matter if I was sitting or standing. So we started co-sleeping, something we never thought we would do. It hasn't turned out to be so bad, but if you know my son, you know he's big. He's starting to take up quite a bit of room in the bed now. I wanted to start transitioning him to the crib over the summer. he ended up getting really sick with a rash, or something, so it was near impossible to do it. Then school started, and the getting up and going to nurse him every 2-3 hours was a lot harder than just laying down next to him and letting him nurse while I sleep. I needed the sleep for school. I started to try and get him in his crib over fall break, he started teething his molars. What fun! So that was basically no sleep...at all. Then Thanksgiving break I was going to do it, but he ended up being sick again, teething another molar, and we did end up going to Heber, which threw him off his schedule. So...come winter break. We have 4 weeks off, the first week off, I was about to start to try and get him in the crib, until we realized that the next week, we'd be having friends stay with us. So they would be in his room, and he would be sleeping with us anyway. There was no point in trying to get him in the crib, then back with us again. So, they leave, then we stay the night in Logan, and the next night we all are so off schedule that I just sleep when I can. Finally, tonight, I'm determined to get this done as we have one more week left before my classes start. 3:00 AM, he pukes...EVERYWHERE. I'm just so tired of trying to get him to sleep in his crib and having it never ever work out. (and he just puked again). With him feeling sick, you can bet the crib thing isn't going to work out for a couple of days.

I just want my bed back. It's hard enough having a queen size bed for the two tall people (he's 6'4 and I'm 5'9) and having to share it with a 2 1/2 foot tall kid who's 30 lbs. But hey, that's parenthood...right?

Life decisions?! geez....I guess I am an adult

So, I got a new job, and I start January 11th. I'm very excited about this job. I'll be working part-time, getting benefits, and doing a job I've been wanting to do. I'll be what is called a Parent Infant Advisor, basically I'm an early interventionists for parents who have children with a hearing loss from ages of birth to three. It'll be fun.

Now...this job affects my schooling. Basically, I cannot do my K-12 student teaching in one semester and do this job. K-12 license is not required for this job, I'm doing what's required for this job next semester and summer semester. I've listed the pros and cons, and cause I'm lazy, I'm just copying and pasting from my facebook:

Pros of getting the K-12 license: more job opportunities, wider range of teaching availability, only one more class added on to my case load to get it (student teaching...but it's also a con), More flexibility in job areas if I move out of state since I'll have both the 0-5 portion and the K-12 portion for hearing impairment.

Cons of getting it: having to split the student teaching into two semesters instead of one due to the new job I just got, postponing graduation date (May 2011 instead of Dec 2010 as originally planned before getting job). It's not really my passion (0-5 is), and more time away from home and my family, more homework, more money put into education that I may not actually ever use since I prefer 0-5.

Pros of not getting the K-12 license: earlier graduation date (Aug 2010 instead of Dec 2010), availability to work full time sooner (it's a job where I schedule everything, so I still get to see my family quite often), get to see my family every day instead of part of the week, more time with Kiernan, less money being spent, I still have my preferred licensure area (0-5)

Cons of not getting it: less flexibility should there not be an opening for early childhood areas for me in the future, may run into some issues should we move out of state since some states don't recognize a difference between 0-5 licenses and K-12 licenses for hearing impairment licensure.

So folks, give me your input, even if you already have in some other avenue, I'd love to put everything into one place.

Kiernan's first birthday

First: Kiernan had his first year well child check.
He's off the charts for his head size (thanks to me :) )
He's 75th percentile for height
He's 95th percentile for weight

He had his chicken pox vaccine, MMR vaccines and both flu shots (seasonal and H1N1).

He had a great day on his actual birthday, then the following Sunday we went to my parent's house in Heber to celebrate it with the family. He ended up being incredibly sick that night, and very fussy, but we still had fun. My father put together a video of the night (and you actually see almost everyone in my family, we missed Brent and Tara a lot!). And yes, I made the cake. It's a monkey cake mold, but the decorating was done solely by me.

Here's the video :)