Zander gets a helmet

I did not know anything about babies with helmets.  I've seen a baby with a helmet before, and didn't know if something was wrong with their head, brain, or if they had some kind of major surgery.  Well, now I feel like I'm some sort of expert.
When Zander was 2 months old, his head was already looking pretty flat in the back, especially on the right side.  When I took him into his 2 month check-up, the doctor said to keep an eye on it, and give him lots of tummy time.  How do you give a newborn lots of tummy time?  They hate it, and they just face plant all the time.  Well, we tried anyway.  Then, we went to his 4 month check-up, and his head hadn't improved at all, in fact, it was probably worse than before.  The next time we went to the doctor for an unexpected visit, she told me my little guy had something called torticollis.  I had no idea what that was.  We learned quickly that it's a muscle in your neck that has spasms which can be painful, and you can't turn your head to one side.  (Not to be confused with a dirty kink neck)  So we proceeded to go to physical therapy to help our little guy get more control over his head and neck muscles.  We did stretches with him, and continued to give him lots more tummy time (which he mastered).  But we were also recommended that we get a helmet for our baby's head. 
The helmet is an orthodic for the head.  It basically controls the sides of the head from growing while allowing the back of the head to grow out.  So the helmet is right up against the sides of his head, while there is a gap in between the helmet and the back of the head.  This allows the head to grow to the right shape. 

I have to say that he still looks like the cutest kid ever in his helmet!  He got he helmet in December when he was about 6 and a half months old.

Here is some before pics of his flat head.  Sometimes we like to describe it as a cliff edge.  Haha.

This is the best pictures we have of his flat head.  It's not that great, because I don't feel like you can tell how flat his head really was.  I know it looks flat in the pic, but it looks even more flat in person.

It was quite the crazy adventure getting this helmet.  We heard about multiple people complaining about the company that does helmets here in St. George because they weren't fitting the babies very good.  So Caleb and I have driven up to Salt Lake and Provo for Zander's helmet and adjustments.  We have taken many trips because of the different things we have encountered along the way. 

First we had to drive up to Salt Lake so that we could get Zander's head measured and scanned so they could do the making of the helmet.  Then we headed back up about 10 days later to get the helmet fitted to his head.  When we got there, the people forgot to overnight the helmet to the doctor/orthodic guy so we made a trip up there for nothing.  When we drove back up to Provo, he got the helmet fitted to Zander's head, but then we encountered so many issues afterwards.  His head would sweat so bad in the helmet that he got a terrible rash.  His entire head was flaming bright red where the helmet was.  It was so sad!  You could tell it hurt and itched.  We had to leave the helmet off for about 3 days while his head got better, and then it felt like we were back to starting all over again. 
He had to to get use to wearing the helmet, and was a little grumpier than usual for about 3 days.  After putting the helmet back on for about 5 or 6 days, Zander was getting use to it again.  Then come a rash or sore on the side of his head from the helmet rubbing against his skin.

So once again, we had to leave the helmet off for about 3 or 4 days to get the sore all better.  If you leave the helmet on, it makes the sore get way worse.  Now in the meantime, if you leave the helmet off for very long, the baby's head continues to grow, so the helmet doesn't fit well anymore.  So we have to keep driving up to Provo to get adjustments made to the dang helmet.  (By this point, the helmet is referred to as the DANG HELMET!)  The poor kid had everything stacked against him. 

Now Caleb and I feel like everything has been moving along smoothly.  The helmet has stayed on his head much more consistently without having problems.  He is suppose to keep the helmet on 23 hours a day.  We are only suppose to take it off when we bathe him and clean the helmet.  But we have learned that it is better to take it off about 3 times a day to dry his sweaty head, dry the helmet, and make sure there are no mishaps along the way.  It feels like smooth sailing now!  He could care less if the helmet is on or off.

Now if only we could figure out how to dodge his head-butts!

Zander

Here is an updated pic of Zander. He is the most sweet, happy baby. I see him smile, and it just makes me melt. Then I want to munch on his cheeks!

Aiden turns 9!

I can't believe I have a nine year old! It makes me feel old each time I even think about it. But Aiden is a good boy that loves life. He loves sports like crazy. He continues to tell me how he is the fastest, best kicker, best shooter, best soccer player in the whole third grade. (We need to work on being a little more humble) He loves playing with Cruiz, building anything (especially legos), and can out eat his mom (and that's saying something). He loves to tell jokes, and will talk to anyone. He does well in school and works hard.

Here is the tank cake I made Aiden this year. For Birthdays at our house, my boys get to pick what we have for breakfast, and for dinner. Then they get to pick what kind of cake I make them. Lately though, my boys seem to want whatever they had the year before, and don't come up with anything new on their own. So when Aiden told me he wanted another race car cake, I decided he would like a tank cake even more. And he did!

Aiden cracks me up. The other day I was at a Relief Society enrichment night, and the bishop's wife Mary started telling me how she loves my boys. (I visit teach her) Anyway, she told me that on Sunday after Sacrament meeting where she gave the closing prayer Cruiz ran and gave her a huge hug around her legs, and told her hi. Then Aiden goes walking by her and says, "Nice prayer." And then he walked off. I laughed my head off when she told me that. I love that kid.

Halloween

So our costumes this year are a little lame, unless you haven't seen us dress up before. Then they might seem cool. But since I actually made these costumes for me and Caleb 2 years ago they are old news. But at least my boys look cute as Mario and Luigi. Aiden complained the whole time about not being able to pick out his own costume too. But Caleb rigged up a portable speaker for Aiden to wear in his pocket that played music from Mario on the nintendo. It was sweet! We would be walking around and somebody would walk by, stop and look around, then try to figure out where the music was coming from.

Cute little Zander was a clown, but kind of ended up looking like a little baby girl.

Caleb and I were Barbie and Ken again this year because I didn't want to take the time to make new costumes. But I felt it was okay since we live in St. George now where no one has actually seen these costumes. We also had our annual Halloween party, and that was super fun too!

Baby, Baby, Baby

I'm updating my blog everyone, wahoo! I couldn't leave out that I had a sweet baby boy born into our family. We named him Zander Caleb Cottam, and he weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. My smallest baby so far, which made labor and delivery much easier. Plus, he was almost 2 weeks early so I'm glad I had him when I did, or I could have a 10 pounder on my hands.

New Entry Table (Finally)

This post is for the peeps that I told about my entry table and now I'm finally documenting it. I'm a little sad that I didn't take any pics while I was building this bad boy. (Well, I took one on my phone before I painted it.)

So, here is the story. After moving to St. George, I really, really wanted a new entry table and some new couches. (more to come on the new couches some other time) I checked Craigslist every day, and none of them really stood out to me, or they were WAY overpriced. I didn't know what to do about buying one because they are way to expensive in a furniture store.

One day I was venting to my friend about my entry table dilema to one of my friends who lives here. She said, "I have a friend who builds stuff like this all the time in her garage, and she has all the tools." I talked to girl and she was very willing to help me build my own entry table.

The next step for me was to find a table that I liked. Ana White's blog was the perfect place because she has all the details and plans to tons of different wood projects. I found one that I liked, printed the plans, then headed over to get some help.







After buying the wood at Home Depot, it only took 2 days to build this awesome entry table. I customized it a little bit to make it taller, but other than that, the plans were perfect. Then I spent day after day sanding painting, sanding, painting, glazing, sanding, and painting until it was finally finished. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Drab to Fab

It all started when I found this ugly door in our serial killer room in Kansas. (If you haven't heard about our serial killer room, it was sweet!) So I asked Caleb if he could take the door part off the window pane part. I wanted to make something cute out of it, and Caleb thought I was crazy, but obliged me.


There was more to it than you might think. It took some time to pry these babies apart, especially since there were about 5 coats of paint sticking them together like glue.


We hauled this ugly window pane with us to St. George. Then I got working on it. I had to knock out the glass, and chip away and the wood pieces holding it in place.


After all that, I sanded, primed (a lot) and painted it. It took many coats of paint since I couldn't sand down all that ugly green. Plus, when I thought I was getting rid of the green, there was all this red paint underneath it.


Here is a pic of my final product. Caleb told me later that he was impressed since he didn't think that ugly thing could turn out looking that great! (that is quite a compliment coming from a guy that doesn't care about decoration stuff at all.)


This is another view of the cute rose wreath I made. I love it! It took about 1 million hours to make, but at least I now have one cute thing hanging in my house.


A close-up of the wreath. Turned out pretty good, eh?