A sitting Shmu!

At least for a few seconds, that is! Kyle is on a serious mission to sit up! He's been pulling himself up to a sitting position for a while but is now able to hold himself there for a handful of seconds before toppling over. It's really cute to see his efforts. He's definitely not a quitter and will try over and over again to get it! :) Here's Mr. Proud himself!

And just to show the progression of things... first he gets all happy because he's up.
Then he starts to lose his balance...
And... he's down!!!

Good job, Kyle! Daddy and Mommy are so proud of you!

Our 6 year anniversary!

Since our professional photographer didn't use digital cameras, I don't have any of our favorite pics to post, but here is one of us walking down the aisle together, after just being declared... Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Martin.

It was a magical day for the both of us. Walking down that aisle, I felt we were invincible. The world was at our fingertips. It still takes my breath away to transport myself back to that day in my mind. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for such a beautiful wedding and reception. The Mission Inn was a perfect setting!!

Today, by God's power and grace, Ru and I celebrate 6 years together. Though that may sound trite, we mean every bit of it. This year, we celebrate not only another year together, but the addition to our family unit with our little Shmu. With Kyle's existence comes a huge responsibility to put the health of our marriage as top priority in order to give Kyle the security and stability he needs. We're thankful we have God on our side for each new challenge we face. We know we're not alone.

Christmas Day cont...

Santa Shmu!!

And then my camera battery died. Bad mommy!!!

Merry Christmas!!

We love you, our family and friends, and wish you a wonderful day with lots of love and special memories. This first Christmas for Kyle makes this year's celebrations extra special. I can only imagine how much fun next year will be and the next after that, when he will be able to enjoy more and more and eventually be able to remember the year prior and anticipate the fun of the season.

Last night around our dinner table with my family and a neighbor friend, we talked about our favorite childhood Christmas memories and Ru and I couldn't help but think about what fun memories we hope to be able to give Kyle. One of my favorite memories was getting on a plane to go see family in Nebraska where it snowed! :) I'm glad Kyle will have that same experience with our trips to Illinois.

Kyle started our morning today at 6:15 and made it through most of his presents before becoming obviously worn out. We put him down for a continuation of his "night sleep" and will pack up our things for a trip to my parents' house for today's celebrations when he wakes up. For the family who won't get to see Kyle on his first Christmas, here are some pictures of our day so far (again, for those who really care... not because I think the world revolves around my son!)

Following tradition, we put baby Jesus in his manger before anything else.

Then daddy read the Christmas story out of Shmu's book.

He was a really good listener and didn't eat too much of the book!

Presents, presents and more presents!Thank you, family and friends for making Shmu's 1st Christmas so fun!

We LOVE all the gifts! :)

He's reading, I tell you!! :)

Yeah, time for a nap! Either that or mom's book for me isn't that interesting!!

More to come later...

Happy 5 Months, Kyle!

Five? Where has the time gone? On the other hand, 5 months of sleepless nights make it seem like we've been doing this forever!! :) Month 5 will remembered for lots of fun interacting together, never laying still or staying in one spot, pulling on mom's hair, and night after night without sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been a fun month but that last one is a killer.

We took on "Project Sleep" about a month ago and we've been celebrating small victories with several setbacks. A month ago, getting Kyle to bed only involved holding him and patting his back. After a few minutes (most of the time) he would be sound asleep. The only problem was he'd never stay asleep for long. Oh, and my arms were falling off from carrying him and patting an ever increasingly squirmy boy. I was nursing the little guy every 3 hours. That's every 3 hours for 5 months! Do I even need to insert here how tired I am?! After nursing him, changing a diaper or rocking him back to sleep and then trying to fall asleep myself, I was getting at most 2 hours of sleep at any given time before getting interrupted again. (There had been some success with sleeping through the night during the 3rd month, but something happened and we were back to square one.) By 5 months, this was taking a huge toll on my emotional and physical health and overall sanity. After gaining some ground on a few sleep issues, like getting Kyle to take more restful naps, we decided to tackle the big one! A little while ago, we experimented and found out that Kyle really could go much longer during the nights and was eating only because it was offered to him. We've only done this successfully a few nights now, but hopefully we're on a positive trend. Instead of nursing him 4 times per night, I am now down to ONCE!! :) Yeah!! Now, I hesitate to talk about this and I haven't blogged all month about it because at any given time things change. For a month now, we have thought, prayed, read, and discussed sleep issues with each other and experienced parents. We've worked so hard on this and if you asked how it was going, I'd tell you something different every day. Kyle has done so well some nights only to do terribly the following. It's pretty frustrating.

We've gotten tons of different and contradicting advice from many people. Some of it helps, but for the most part we've already read about it in one of the 5 books I've devoured on the issue. Currently, we are getting the most help from a book called, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It's really good!! I agree with the philosophy of the doctor/author and have enjoyed becoming a student of my son and watching for his sleep cues in order to protect his need for sleep and put him down before he becomes overtired and overstimulated. We've seen success in laying Kyle down just before he shows signs of being tired and watching him fall off to sleep, by himself, without crying. It's been so wonderful (again, most of the time)!! He wakes up now with more energy and is back to cooing and laughing with us (we'd seen a regression of sorts in that department because the guy was just too tired). We've heard of the "4 Month Wakeful period" and we're hoping that by entering Kyle's 5th month, we'll say good-bye to sleepless nights!! I know enough now to know I can't count on it, but I'll sure hope!

Now for the little man's 5 month updates:

• K loves my water bottle and my cell phone. He knows where these things are at all times and will crane his neck to get a glimpse of them and strain to reach for them, too.


• He makes motor boat noises with his tongue between his lips. So fun to watch him learn that he can make that sound.


• Kyle is growing more and more frustrated with himself for not being able to crawl. He scoots to things, but desperately wants to be more mobile.


• He's a fish on his changing table and plays with toys hanging down towards him to divert his attention from twisting and turning. Sometimes that's the only way I can get him changed!


• Kyle's wants to sit up and tries a lot.


• He loves our nightly reading ritual of Goodnight Moon. He seems super interested in the pages of that book, above all other books. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I tell him it was his Daddy and Mommy's favorite, too.


• Kyle enjoys much better hand-eye coordination and grabs anything in front of him!

Here are some pictures of our boy...

Merry Christmas, Kyle! Thanks for the outfit, Vicki!

"Mom! Can I open these?"

"Arrghgh!!"

Sneaky Shmu!!

"What? It was just the corner!"

Happy 5 months, Kyle. We can't wait to celebrate your very first Christmas with you !!!

Another semester down!

No more school! No more books! No more teachers' .... (I never did like that last part)!

Rudy is officially on break!!! After an intense summer school program and a long, grueling fall semester, Rudy is finally going to have time off from school and be home!! We are more than excited! He's got 5 weeks off and will be working some of that time at the PT clinic he used to work at. Aside from picking up a paycheck here and there, Rudy's especially looking forward to spending uninterrupted, undivided time with his boy. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to some time off!

To celebrate a successful semester gone, we are having Trader Joe's pizza, dessert and a movie!!! (This is how extravagant we low budget and low energy people celebrate! :) I'm wondering if Rudy will have it in him to stay up through the entire movie. Last night, Shmu fell asleep without so much as a peep in protest. He slept for 4 hours straight. Will he do that again tonight when we want it/need it the most?? Is it too much to ask for 2 days in a row? Please, Kyle??? We're keeping our fingers crossed!

I'm proud of you, Ru. Proud of how many hours you have devoted to this. Proud of your determined attitude. One more semester down ... the countdown to a 2011 graduation continues!!

You know you're tired when...

... you wake up to a crying baby and instead of going to the baby, you shush and pat the monitor in your bedroom. Thankfully, I realized what I was doing wasn't working and found Kyle shortly after! :)

Rudy's in the midst of his 2nd week of finals (9 total) and hasn't made it to bed once this week because it is just too far to walk at 3, 4, or 5am in the morning. I can find him deep in sleep with his books spread out all over the floor.

Oh, sleep. How under appreciated you were. Forgive us and come back?

Kyle's recent favorites

In about a week, I'll be posting Kyle's 5 month pictures with his latest updates, but wanted to share pictures of some of the fun things Kyle has been enjoying this week ...

This picture shows how Kyle entertains himself quietly while Daddy' sleeping and Mommy needs to get ready. It was supposed to show 2 things. The first being that he loves taking Mr. Binks in and out of his mouth, and second (not making it into the picture) is his love of feet! He can't get enough of them!! Oh, and check out his broad chest and trim waist! Go Kyle!! :)

Bath time is really fun! He kicks and splashes all over the place. Although not pictured here, apparently his hippo is fun to taste, too.

Kyle discovered paper!!!! Yum yum!

Playing with blocks and throwing them on the floor is super fun while watching mommy cook.

And finally, Kyle likes to help daddy study. Ru can't keep Kyle's hands away from anything he has in front of him.

Family pictures!

We still wanted to take some family pictures this year, even if we aren't able to send them out in Christmas cards. It was a super cold day with lots of wind (at least low 40's). For how quickly we took these pictures (about 5 minutes), we're happy we have some decent shots.

Big Boy!!

Kyle's new, favorite toy is his high chair. We pulled it out of the garage so that Kyle could have a tray in front of him to play with things while sitting up. We thought we'd experiment to see if he'd like it. Not only does he like it, but he's fascinated by what we put in front of him. I guess just sitting up in his blue chair was getting old. Now, we're on to new and better things like playing with teethers, blocks, mommy's water bottle and throwing all these things off of the tray! Clean-up just got a little more involved around here!! We saw countless faces, expressions and "looks" from our Mister! Too many to post, but here's quite a few smiles that melt my heart!

We think he looks so ridiculously adorable in his high chair because his frame is still so small. Good thing Kyle's being such a good sport about Mommy kisses. He gets more than his share every time I hold him and especially when I see him looking like such a big boy!!

Visit from GG!

We're glad Grandma Gina was able to pick up a trip that would lead her to us for a few hours. Now, with Shmu going to bed so early, Kyle's time with her was precious. Thanks for making the effort to get this trip, Gina!

Grandma in her cute uniform and Kyle's new, snugly outfit from Vicki Jensen. Thank you!!! It's the warmest thing he owns! We had just been outside and it was actually cold!!! :)

GG brought presents from herself and GG Sally. We love the adorable, "Baby's 1st Christmas" clothes!! Thank you! Now Shmu will be very festive this month!

Here he is with GG and his 1st Christmas presents! Guess he's been a very good boy this year! :) (Well, 4 months anyways...)

He was fascinated with the talking Santa. The moving (wound up) Santa, not so much. This one was much better. I bet he couldn't figure out where that voice was coming from.

Showing off Kyle's (okay, mommy's) favorite CARS!!! pajamas! You'd have to hear how we say it, for the exclamation marks to make sense, I guess. He swam in those little shorts just a few weeks ago, it seems. He goes in a fleece sleeper sack afterwards, for any of you worried K gets cold at night. By the way, the heater's on most nights anyways! :)

Saying, "Good-night GG!"

Thank you, Grandma Sally and Gina, for the wonderful, fun presents! Kyle stared and stared at the snowman and penguin decals on our window this morning and will look so adorable in his new clothes. We really appreciate the little stocking Ru and I got, too! Thank you!!