Pics

Some pics Aunt Liesbet took:
1) As if his cheeks are not big enough, he now blows them up even more. You can also see his eyes are starting to turn light brown/green/greyish
2) In the Baby Bjorn looking and smiling at me!
3) Vinny goes on Kaio's chair and sits on his laps, mostly with his behind towards Kaio's face. He does not seem to mind at all!

Kaio's first cold - cured with Guinness??!

Kaio had is first cold. He started coughing a bit more then normal on friday and on saturday morning he was sneezing and coughing heavy. For two seconds we considered not going to Dublin but we decided to take our chances and went. He was great!!!!! He was such a joy throughout the whole trip. On the plane he slept te whole time, he would take naps or look around with us at the museums and cathedrals and at the Guinness tour he slept the whole time until we had a pint in the bar. Actually it might be the Guiness pints I had that helped him over his cold - "Guinness is for strenght". (here with Daddy at a pub checking out the Guinness pint!

Here with mommy at the Guinness restaurant... he is breastfeeding under the cover... (after mommy had half a pint of Guinness!) Kaio adapted nicely to our schedule. He would take long naps during the day (his cold probably made him sleep more then normal), be awake and happy (mostly to feed or when we were walking around). He was in his baby bjorn and pram and it allowed him to look around and sleep when he wanted. In the evening we would go out to dinner and he would sleep in his pram. He slept in a crib in our room and did great! (even allowing us o watch tv without being woken up)

The weather was also very nice (apart from tuesday, the day we travelled back) and saw all of Dublin.

It was a great anniversary trip and it showed us that we can do city breaks with Kaio!
With mommy at the pub

5 year anniversary

Yesterday was our 5 year anniversary! Time has really flown by! 5 years have gone by - we now live in London, have a beautiful son and continue so happy together! Jason is such a wonderful husband and now that I see what a wonderful dad he is, I love him even more!
We went out for a drink (while Liesbet took care of Kaio - who was sleeping). Jason surprised me with some champagne and a jewelery box. He got me a Sapphire stone, which is Kaio's birth stone. We have another little stone - a Tanzanite - whice we got when we were in Africa while celebrating my 30th birthday. The plan is to acquire some memorable stones and later on make a ring from it!
Kaio is coughing and sneezing a lot today... it might be his first cold! Which is not ideal since we are going to Dublin tomorrow! (part 2 of our wedding anniversary celebration) But it was bound to happen - he is 4 months and has not had any colds in the british winter!

Kaio - Daddy time

The last couple of nights, Kaio and Daddy time have been so much fun (I can hear it from our bedroom but I don't interfere). When Jason gives him the bottle at 10 -10:30 he has a whole sequence, which includes getting a glass of water in Kaio's room (for me to drink if I have to give a night feed), turning on Kaio's mobile and un-swaddeling him (so he wakes up), changing his nappy (so he is well awake) and then feeding him. Kaio is such a joy. He 'talks' and smiles to Jason and is a true sweetheart. He even goes back to bed without making any fuss! Jason really looks forward to the night feeds. But sometimes Kaio is upset to be woken up and cries. (mostly he is a happy camper!)
Kaio has also been having 'giggle attacks'! He really laughs out loud when we play with him. It is so adorable and more frequent every day. He also is smiling a lot more then before.
Kaio has been having a couple of strange nights - he wakes up a couple of times during the night, even though he eats 7.5oz at his last feed (10:30pm)and should not be hungry. He may still be a bit confused with the time difference and all the extra attention he got in the US.

Aunt Liesbet in town

Liesbet arrived on saturday. She will be staying with us for a month! Kaio went straight to her arms when she arrived and he smiled.... however, within seconds his pouty faces appeared and he realized she was not his mommy and started crying! But after a couple of hours he was smiling at her again (and not crying right afterwards). This is similar to what happened when we were in CO with grandma and grandpa... he seems to need some minutes to get used to other people. Which shows that he knows who Jason and I are, since he, most of the time, doesn't start crying when he sees us!On friday I bought him Oma's Christmas gift. It's a bebe pod. It's a specially designed seat to support babies that can't sit by themselves yet. It helps them to get stronger to evolve to that point and it allows them to sit and look around, which is what Kaio loves to do (he is now getting bored in laying in his playpen for long period of times... he wants to see things!

Babies

Yesterday 6 of the antenatal class moms came together for tea! (and carrot cake ;-) We were all so amazed how our babies are all little individuals now. We have been meeting since we were pregnant and the first couple of months of our babies they were all very similar: they slept, filled nappies, wobbled there heads and when we, the moms, met, they did not participate at all. Now, they are looking around, holding toys, smiling, etc. And you can see the different personalities. It is so nice to see Kaio growing up with all these babies! And it is great to exchange information with all the moms.
Kaio was looking around and very interested in all the noises and movements (he has always been a very attentive boy). He was not that smiley (he was too busy checking everything out!) I had to feed him and the other moms were jealous in how fast he eats (most of them are still taking 30 - 45 mins to feed while Kaio is done in max. 15min)
Kaio is one of the bigger babies (he is one of 3 boys out of 12 babies), however another baby boy, Oliver, who is 3 weeks younger then Kaio is huge!! He is almost 15lbs!
Since Kaio behaved so well on the plane, we did book our next trip. We are going to Dublin for our 5 year anniversary. We will be going from Saturday the 26th of January through Tuesday the 29th.

Xmas pictures

Below are some pictures of our holidays in Colorado.
1) Our family (I know, Vinny is missing!)
2) Xmas dinner with grandma, grandpa, Aunt Carrie and Aunt Donna
3) Kaio with his stocking
4) Kaio smiling
5) Smiling at Grandma
6) Kaio and Daddy having fun!
7) Kaio and mommy in the snow on new years day (at Grandlake)
8) One of his Xmas presents - a bouncy seat

2nd round of immunisations :-(

Today Kaio is 15 weeks old! 3 1/2 months! It seems so long ago that I gave birth but yet he is still such a tiny little guy. He got his second round of shots today. Again, it broke my heart to see the huge needle go into his little leg - TWICE! After the first shot he cried and I had to hold him tight to me so he would have some kind of comfort.... just to have the second needle go in his other leg. I really hope he does not think I am causing him the pain! However, when we got home and I placed him in his bouncy chair he smiled at me and now he is taking a nap! Next month (a couple of days before we go to Brazil) he will get his 3rd round of immunisations, which will be 3 shots.
He was weighed and measured and her are the figures:
- weight - 6.2kg (=13.7lbs) - slightly below the average for his age
- height - 61cm (=2ft) - also a bit below the average for his age
Kaio and I are still a bit jet lagged and has been waking up at 4am, instead of sleeping through to 5 - 6am (how he used to do before we went to CO). It's still great that he is sleeping from 10:30pm until 4am, however I have been unable to fall asleep after the 4am feed and I feel tired throughout the day. Tonight I may go to bed after dinner.
Kaio has been eating really well. We switched to a bigger bottle for his night feed. He now is eating around 230ml (8oz), which caused a major "explosion" the other night. He pooped while eating and it went through his cloths, on Jason's pajamas and on the sofa Jason was sitting on!
I will post some pictures of our holidays later on today.

back home!!!!

We are back home! The trip went great. Kaio behaved really well and only had one cry spell, on the trip from Denver to Chicago, which did not last long. He also was a true joy during the layover and slept without making much fuss! On the plane to London he slept really well and was woken by 'breakfast' being served, 1hr before landing! Kaio has been so happy and smiling and giggling a lot. He also is using his hands to grab things and it is cute to see how hard he focuses to grab a can of soda or our wallets, or anything that catches his eye. (he loves red, so anything with red on it he stares at and wants to grab)
A couple of weeks ago he would try to put his entire hand in his mouth, now he is able to put his thumb and index finger only.
He is still drooling a lot and making 'bubbles'. Hence, the reason why grandpa gave him the nickname of Kbubbles (the first two letters are his initials). We are using on average 2 bibs a day!

Going back home

We had planned to go to the mountains in Colorado for New years, but on the 31st they closed several roads in the state and we ended staying in Colorado Springs to greet 2008. It was very low key, specially compared with last year in Punta del Este, but it was nice and relaxing. On the 1st we drove up to Winter park where grandpa Steve rented a cabin. There was a lot of snow (around 1 feet) and it was beautiful!!!! We went to see Aunt Boo and Bill (whom have a cabin up there). We had a great time while doing some shopping and walking in the snow. Kaio loves the snow (he loves white) and handeld the cold really well (he started using a new bear outfit since the other one is getting too small!) Kaio slept the whole trip to the mountains (3hrs) and was a bit difficult throughout both nights we were up there (waking up every 2 -3 hrs). However we just stopped swaddeling him and started using a sleeping bag (since he was kicking the blankets over his head). Yesterday, back in Colorado Springs, we swaddled him again and he slept really well.
Today we are flying back to London. It will be a night flight, so hopefully Kaio will sleep well. We are sad to be leaving and had such a great visit with Grandma, Grandpa ant Aunt Carrie! (but we are also looking fwd in getting Kaio back in his routine..... and sleeping through the night again!)