Keaton's Natural State

Last night I laid Keaton down for bed, as usual. Everything seemed to be normal until Casey and I heard a strange noise over the monitor... Keaton was awake again, and standing up doing something, so I decided to go investigate. When I walked in, there he was in all his glory: Stark naked and holding his diaper, pjs on the floor. I turned the light on and he got this huge, proud grin on his face and said, "Keaton naked!! Diaper off!!!" Oh. My. Goodness. And being the totally inappropriate parent I am, I started laughing and called Casey in to witness it. He laughed, too. I'm sure that didn't help us as far as trying to teach Keaton not to do things like that anymore, but it was too funny not to. Casey took a picture (which I may add if I can edit it a little... don't want it coming back to haunt Keaton too much when he's older... Haha!! Friends have suggested to put his diaper on backwards at night (if it becomes a problem) and safety pin his pjs. More fun to come, I'm certain! LOL... parenthood.

That's all for today- I got out of class early so I've been running around like a maniac trying to get things accomplished while little man is at school. I picked up the house a bit, vacuumed, cleaned the guest bathtub/shower, threw in a load of laundry, and got photos picked out for class on Thursday. All in all, a pretty productive (and slightly tiring) few hours to say the least. Just thought I would fill you in on our little nudist while I had a chance. :)

-Ash

Letting it out...

Another Monday blog... At least I'm consistent at something right now! Another week has gone by, and we are still fighting this cold. The three of us sound like we smoke a pack a day with all our hacking and coughing. Keaton is getting better (we're going in today for a recheck on his ears... hopefully the newest meds are working!). I am either completely in denial that he's almost two, or he's just going through a really strange phase right now. The other night he had what we think was a night terror- woke up screaming and thrashing around, would not calm down for over 30 minutes, and would barely respond to anything I tried to do. He kept saying, "Keaton go go!! Keaton go go!!" and whenever I would ask him where he wanted to go, he'd stop crying. Other than that, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, hitting himself in the head, and throwing himself backwards. It was scary, to say the least. He's also not been going to bed very easily, and will throw everything out of his crib (which should teach me not to put anything in it!)... last night he decided he didn't want to wear pants, so he took them off twice and started to take his diaper off when I intervened and changed him into footie pajamas. We laid him down around 6:30 because he was obviously exhausted, but he didn't settle down and actually go to sleep until after 8:30. Today is the first nap he's taken where he laid right down and didn't fight it. I'm at a loss. People say not to go back in the room, and that's what I'm going to try to do, my concern is that he's trying to climb out of the crib now. I'm not quite ready to get him into a toddler bed, but I also don't want him to climb out of the crib and hurt himself, so we'll see if he settles down and stops his attempts.

I'm not going to lie, parenting has been really tough lately. I can't help but feel like I have no clue what I'm doing right now. My patience level is at an all-time low, and I'm not sure what I can do to make that improve. I do know that it's not fair to Keaton when I lose my temper or can't control my emotions when I'm overwhelmed, it's something I have to get a grip on. I just feel so incompetent lately!! Casey has been very supportive and encouraging, I just need to find a way to calm down, breathe, and reassess the situation. Easier said than done, but I think it will help everyone in my family if I can make it happen.

In other news, I'm trying my best not to be intimidated by my photography classes. I'm not exactly pleased with my pics on the first assignments (being stuck inside the house is not helping me come up with good topics to shoot!) and I'm a little lot nervous to show the rest of my classmates what I've done so far.

Enough of this negativity... sounds like Keaton is waking up now. Thanks for letting me vent!

-Ash

In Repair

So far, 2012 has seen a lot of sickness for the Hetricks. Keaton got his first ear infection in both ears (which we are still fighting), and Case and I can't seem to shake this cold we've had for about two weeks. Things are looking better, now it's just time to get the littlest Hetrick back in good shape. Today his nose is running and he seems pretty tired, but he's in much better spirits and slept better last night. So did I, finally. I keep waking up around 3 a.m., though, wide awake.. then poor Casey's been so congested that he's snoring and I can't get back to sleep, so I go sleep out on the couch until he wakes up. Swiss Cheese sleep for me once again... it's starting to wear on me a bit. Hopefully tonight will go well, though, because tomorrow is my second week of class, and Keaton's second week of school.

Last week, with the exception of our first big snowfall, went well. Keaton actually took an hour nap on his cot at school on his first full day, which shocked me. He played well with everyone and apparently followed his teacher around all day. I enjoyed both of my Photography professors and look forward to a very fulfilling semester! They are both very passionate about what they do and I'm excited to learn from them. I haven't really figured out when I will get to actually take pictures for class, but we'll have to see if Keaton can accompany me on our 'off' days and make it work. Should be a fun semester- when we finally feel up to par!

I think that's about all for now. A few Keatonisms, though: The other day he said, "Daddy loves me" which made me smile, because that means he hears that phrase often. Not sure if I mentioned that he overheard Howie Mandel say "Jock itch" on Ellen a week ago, so he started running around the house saying, "Jock itch, hahaha!!" over and over... LOL... he also thinks everything is his now, and often tries to steal my bowl of cereal in the morning. Yesterday when Casey was getting his haircut, Keaton kept saying, "Keaton haircut! Keaton haircut!!" which made me laugh because I know if we would have sat him in the barber's chair he'd probably freak... and I am still looking for a place that doesn't charge ridiculous amounts of money for a child's cut. There's not much to cut! If only you could pay for the amount that is taken off... we could save a lot. Oh well.

Think that's about all for now... time to try and be productive around this house!

-Ash

Firsts

This is a big week in the Hetrick household. Tomorrow, Keaton starts his first day of school at Cosmic Montessori. Thursday, I start my first day of classes for the semester. And to top it all off, today we found out that Keaton has his first ear infection... in both ears. It's only Monday, but it looks as though this week could be an interesting one.

The ear infection thing explains a whole lot about the 40+ minute meltdowns Keaton's been having every day this week. He never had a fever, but he's been extremely grumpy whenever he wakes up. Yesterday he cried for over an hour, and Casey and I were at our wits end as to what to do to help him. When I picked him up, he wanted down. When I put him down, he screamed bloody murder because he wanted up again. If I turned the light on, he wanted it off. Everything was the opposite, and nothing made him happy. It was rough. I think, though, that if I would have realized that he just didn't feel well, I would have been a bit more patient with him. It seemed as though he was just starting to express his opinion and figure out what lines he could cross with us. I hope the Amoxicillin helps him and he's back to himself as soon as possible.

I am pretty anxious about the school thing, on both our parts. I am really excited to start my classes, and less excited to leave Keaton all day long... but it will be good for both of us, and we feel like he is ready. Tomorrow he will go from 9:30-11:30 a.m. for a trial run, and Thursday he'll go from 9-5. It will be interesting to see how he does at nap time, etc. I'll try to give a full report Thursday evening or Friday.

Just wanted to keep you up to speed on what's happening around here... never a dull moment!! Our little boy is growing up too fast.

-Ash

New Year, New Chapter

It was brought to my attention over "Christmas Break" that I need an outlet for stress, and while I've known that blogging is basically that outlet, I have not held up my end of the bargain and followed through with it. So, here's another shot. Another year, and lots of stress currently... but it's something I need to work through. Here's a snapshot on life right now:

We are still visiting schools for Keaton. We actually saw 2 more this morning, and we have to make a decision on them by next week. Stress level rising. We are looking at Montessori schools now, and while they are interesting, I'm not sure they are quite the right fit yet. We shall see. Casey was going to visit another one over lunch while Keaton came home with me to eat and take a nap. Lots of things to discuss with Dr. Hetrick this evening. This is such a tough decision!!

To add to it all, I was granted my chargeback (or co-op) agreement yesterday with the College of DuPage, so the college in my district is agreeing to pay the difference so that I am considered in-district at COD. Which is AWESOME. This means that I could basically take two classes for the price of one. I hope to take 6 hours this semester; Intermediate Photography and Tools and Techniques of Digital Photography. Let's hope this all works out. I've been on the phone with various people at COD to let them know about the agreement and find out if I have to make the hike to the school in person or if I can just send everything via e-mail. Classes start next Thursday, so I hope everything goes through in time! It's going to be down to the wire, but that seems to be the only way I get things done around here. Another thing I hope to learn this semester: Better time management!!!!!!

I guess that's all for now, but there's so much more to write! We just spent 12 days in Kansas for Christmas and New Years. That flew by, and we had fun, but it was so busy it almost feels like it didn't even happen. Keaton is pacifier-free now... I could write a whole entry just about that. I will attempt to write more often from this point forward, and hopefully that will let out at least a bit of the stress I'm feeling currently! For now, it's off to clean the house while Mr. K sleeps!

More later,

Ash

School Daze

The thought of really getting to the core of my degree (or possible certificate... to be decided...) is starting to become a reality now. I am finished with all of my Gen Ed classes, and now I can dust off my Canon and figure out how much I've forgotten in 2 years since my last photo class. I got a bit lost in the idea of finally jumping in and accomplishing this goal- now, it's real. But in order to make school a reality for me next semester, that means little man is going to have to start, too (or we'll have to find a daycare/nanny). We hit the ground running (no thanks to me) and had two interviews today with two different schools. Just to clarify- we were interviewing them.

We started the morning off at The Goddard School. We met several people, and basically got to observe what the place was like. I was impressed from the start- everyone knew everyone else's name. It was clean and very organized. They had procedures, but had fun with them. The people were engaged with the children, and answered all of our questions. In general, I really liked it. But it was the first place we'd gone, so I didn't want to get my hopes up, especially since we hadn't seen a price tag yet.

We had another appointment this afternoon at another school, which I won't name, mostly because I highly doubt they will get our business. The vibe from the principal and staff was nothing to get excited about. It wasn't the cleanest place, nor was it as well organized. The student/teacher ratio was 8:1, which is tough with toddlers! So I think we figured out where we don't want to send Keaton. We have one more visit tomorrow afternoon, and then hopefully we'll make our decision. I'm excited for Keaton to have more structure, and I can tell he's excited to learn.

And that, my friends, was a blog entry I started on the 19th of last month... it's now January!!! Time for a new one!

-Ash