New Milestones

Kiernan and I are both still sick and fighting off this cold. It just completely drains me some days, but the Airborne I've been taking seems to be helping me a little. Kiernan seems to be handling things well, but we now have to suction his little nose out on a daily basis since he can't blow his nose yet. He hates that, but it does seem to make him feel better.

This week brought a couple of new milestones for Kiernan. He has just started to take notice of his hands and fingers and reach for toys. Mind you he isn't well coordinated yet - missing when he grabs at things sometimes, and when he does grasp them missing his mouth when he tries to bring it up to his face, but that will come with time. Kiernan has started to "sing" to us too sometimes, particularly when he is on his belly and in a good mood. He frequently coos to us, moving his tongue around in his mouth and making funny faces while doing so to see what kind of different noises he can make. It's really quite cute.

Happy Birthday To Me

This week was my birthday. Time for the big 34. Only one year away from the next big milestone, *sigh*, and I am so not ready for it yet. Things did not seem to be off to a good start. My lunch plans with an old coworker were cancelled unexpectedly, and I felt a cold coming on during the first part of the week. It came to a head by Friday, as both Kiernan and I suffered the same symptoms. We did catch a cute pic of him sawing logs while propped up on the couch due to his stuffy nose.


I was surprised to find a box waiting for me in my office at work. Inside were 25 beautiful roses from the CIO and COO of my company and a small notecard simply wishing me a happy birthday. I was honored to receive such things - I've never felt so appreciated at work before and to have management send a gift like that well...wow.

Wednesday evening came and Beosig gave me the gifts he got me. I had mentioned in passing that I wanted something with Kiernan's birthstone in it. He apparently took that to heart. I received a beautiful ring, matching earrings and necklace with Topaz. We then went out to Olive Garden to eat as that is my favorite place to go for chicken alfredo and the best Italian restaurant on the north side of the Springs these days. My first choice would have been Macaroni Grill, but the one closest to us shut down months ago and the only one left is twice as far away as the Olive Garden.

We were seated for our meal and our waitress quickly came by to take our drink orders and hand us menus. We were quick to learn she was an absolute ditz! I was reminded of Ursula from Friends. I started out with a taste of the wine they offered and then decided I would rather have Coke. About 45 minutes and 5 trips to and from our area later our waitress finally remembered to bring me my Coke. Come on, how hard can it be right? I also specifically ordered pasta y fagoli soup but she must have chosen not to hear me as I never got it. I ended up splitting the salad bowl with Beosig instead. Funny thing though, I did see it on the ticket when we were done. I wasn't about to complain about that, but then she comes back and tells Beosig that the dish he ordered did have spinach in the filling. He had specifically asked her that before ordering it and was told no spinach (he's allergic to it). So, he ordered something else and we got his meal for free. The chicken alfredo did not live up to the usual expectations. It was still good, but too creamy and not cheezy enough. The only part of that meal that went right was the tiramisu which was excellent as always. I highly recommend it if you enjoy that sort of thing.

Superbowl and First Time Out

Well the superbowl gathering was fun, but I think I only watched about 2 minutes of the game and maybe 5 minutes of commercials. Football doesn't interest me anymore anyway, so no big deal. All 4 babies were there. They were born in the following order: Brandon, Seth, Ian and Kiernan. Lining them up side by side you certainly can't tell that though. Kiernan is the second biggest baby of the group and by far the most active, kicking and squirming non-stop. He is only exceeded by Brandon, but at the rate Kiernan is growing he'll be neck and neck with Brandon's size as they grow. Enjoy the pics from the event.


On Monday Beosig and I had our first outing without Kiernan. One of the ladies at work offered to watch him so we could have a night out, so we arranged to purchase some Avalanche hockey tickets for that night. The game was good, but not as good as I remember them being. It's been so long since watching hockey and not many of the familiar faces we once knew on the team are still playing for us. I think it took me until about 2nd period to get sucked into the game fully.


Weather on Monday night was simply awful. It started to snow before we left work and it was accumulating a little bit in Denver. We paid top dollar for those tickets though, so there was no way I was going to turn around and just go home. The back roads were already getting a little slick when I went to drop Kiernan off. By the time we left the game (which went into overtime too) it was snowing pretty heavily so the going was very slow. It took about the same amount of time to get back to pick up Kiernan as it did to get to the Pepsi Center in the first place, but the trip home from there was atrocious!

I took it pretty slow because I could tell the mainstream roads were fairly slick by this time. We took a different turnoff of the interstate to go home due to the blowing snow that would inevitably make the climb up the hills impossible. This route had less of an incline. Still it was a challenge. Fortunately it was late enough at night that we were the only people on the road so trying to stay on our side wasn't as important as it normally would have been. I stayed pretty much in the middle of the road in order to avoid the drifts that were on our side and kept an eye out for oncoming traffic.

The last half of the highway before our turnoff was drifted pretty heavily. We encountered a snowplow coming the other direction and I thought for sure that meant it would be clear driving, but apparently he felt it more important to take in the view than to actually plow the road that evening. I gripped the steering wheel with a vice-like grasp and kept a steady pace. Finally we got to the dirt road we live on. That's the home stretch - just one more mile, phew! Not really. This road was worse than anything we had hit yet. Beosig asked me if I wanted to stop at our friend's house for the night so we wouldn't get stuck. I was determined to at least try to get home, so I declined the offer. It required his help just to stay ON the road it was so drifted. We were using mailboxes to determine where the edge of the road was and general knowledge of the lay of the land. We got to the worst spot on the road and the drift was so high it actually came up over the hood of my car as I drove through it, but I managed to maintain enough momentum to keep going and get to the other side. By the time we pulled into the garage I was feeling the adrenaline pumping through my blood and was shaking a bit from it. Nothing like a good adrenaline rush to end the night!

Finding the Groove

This was my second week at work, and things seem to be going more smoothly now. I'm slowly finding my way back into the groove of things. This week was exceptionally busy though as it is end of month and the demands are many from clients at the end of each month and first part of the next. I think I did well to keep up though.

As for the short evenings, they seem to be going better as well. Of course I have found it helpful to put together a few casseroles and toss them in the fridge, ready to be baked/cooked and then ready to eat. Less time spent in the kitchen this way.

I have discovered the magic number of ounces now to put in each bottle for Kiernan. Most of the time he will consume the entire contents but if not it is usually only a half ounce that goes to waste and I can't argue with that little amount.

Tomorrow is the superbowl which I honestly don't care much about, but it will be the first chance to see all the other babies that came around the same time as Kiernan. Should be exciting to see how all of them stack up against each other.