The Kavanaugh Report

Hey, remember the ill-fated timed Picture of the Week challenge? No, because it was super short lived...oh yeah. That's right. It only lasted two weeks. Somehow, it didn't work out while studying for the bar/having terrible morning sickness. Go figure...Well, I'm bringing it back! And this time its getting its own page! With big pictures! But I need your help for it to work. I need you to vote on the poll found on the right-hand side bar!

For those of you that really don't remember, or who are new to The Kavanaugh Report, Picture of the Week is a competition between Morgan and I. Every week we each submit a cell phone picture (found on the Picture of the Week page) that we have taken during the previous week. Then you, the readers, vote for the picture you want to hear more about, or that you think is the funniest, or the best, or just vote for your favorite blogger (hint hint). Every Friday a winner will be declared! The winner gets bragging rights around the house - …

I've mentioned it before, and I'm sure I'll have to say it again. Reflux is a bitch. Since my last update, Henry has gone back to having a terrible time with his reflux. He has spent most nights waking up screaming. When he does this he is completely inconsolable. Nothing helps him; not rocking, not nursing, not coming into our bed. He just screams and screams. Last week, Henry's pediatrician referred him back to the pediatric GI doctor that we saw when he was having his pooping problems.


The GI doctor has changed his medication again, and added some new things for us to do to try to control the reflux. But basically, Henry is already taking the maximum dose of the medication and we just have to wait for him to outgrow the reflux. She said reflux generally peaks during this age, and that 95% of babies will outgrow the reflux by their first birthday.

But just in case something was wrong with Henry internally, which would be causing the reflux, she wanted him to have an …

One of my favorite things to eat in the fall is baked pumpkin seeds. This weekend we carved our pumpkin (look for a post on this soon) and of course I dug through the whole thing for the seeds. But this year, I decided to switch things up and combine my two favorite fall foods, and I came up with Chili Pumpkin Seeds. They were so good, that I figured I should share.

First, get some pumpkin seeds and clean them.


Next, soak the seeds in a bowl of salt water in the refrigerator over night.

When you're ready to bake the seeds, pre-heat the oven to 350. Then, drain the salt water from the seeds. Do not rinse the seeds. Next, stir in 1 teaspoon of olive oil into the seeds.


Mix the seasoning together. The seasoning is 2 tablespoons of chili powder, 2 teaspoons of cumin, and 1 teaspoon of coarsely ground sea salt.

Then, mix the seeds and the seasoning together, and spread them in a single layer on a cookie sheet.


Finally, bake the seeds for about 20 minutes, or until the the seeds are lig…

My Mom and Dad bravely decided to get a puppy! Meet Sophie! She is adorable, and cuddly, and wild, and tiny, and everything you would expect from an 8 week old puppy. Henry met her for the first time yesterday.


At first Henry completely ignored Sophie, he was more interested in the new toy Grandma had brought for him. As the afternoon went on Henry got interested in Sophie. But Sophie was wild and was nipping at Henry, so his interest quickly turned to being annoyed, and then afraid. I thought he would be a little more interested than he was, but I don't blame him for being scared. Sophie's teeth were really sharp, and who would like to get bit in the ear, hands, and feet?


I think Henry will learn to love her as they both get older. She will be an awesome friend to play with at Grandma and Opa's.

I will say quickly that the dogs were much more interested in Sophie. Although they had opposite reactions. One of the few things Nettie truly loves, outside herself, is puppies. …

Normally, my posts about the dogs involve a picture of them dressed up for some holiday and that's about it, but not today. There is real doggy drama around here. Nettie and Lexi are, excuse the pun, fighting like cats and dogs.

It all started about a week ago while Lexi was playing with Henry. Hen had a dog toy which he would hand to Lexi. Lexi would take the toy, shake it around, then give it back to Hen. It was a cute little game, that was keeping each of them very entertained. Well, Nettie decided to get in on the action. She walked up to Lexi and gave her a playful nip in the back (which she does often to get Lexi's attention which usually leads to play). Lexi was not amused.

Lexi full on attacked Nettie! There was face biting, growling, and finally scared little yips from Nettie. Morgan and I were sitting right there, so we broke things up quickly, but Nettie actually walked away pretty shook up. Things haven't been the same between them since.



Yes, you are reading …

I can't believe it, but Henry is 7 months old today! I feel like I'm writing one of these monthly updates every other day.


This month, the one word that sums up Henry is mobility. He is now fully mobile, much to my dismay. There is no sitting down for me anymore. He can crawl, pull to standing, sit up on his own, walk while we hold his hands, and even stand on his own for a couple seconds. Crazy town. I can't believe it. And let me tell you, now that he can move, he is one busy boy. Hen has some amazing ability to find the most dangerous thing in the room and head straight to it.


Henry continues to grow huge! Since we didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, I don't have updated stats. But he is now wearing size 3 cruiser diapers, and up to size 12 month clothes. Henry still nurses a ton, thanks to his reflux. But he is also eating solids twice a day, for breakfast and dinner. His favorite foods are oatmeal mixed with anything, pears, and green beans. Th…

On Sunday we finally got around to taking Henry to a Pumpkin Patch! We had been saying for weeks that we should go to an apple orchard, but life was busy and apples turned to pumpkins. And I'm glad they did. I had an absolute blast; certainly more fun than picking a pumpkin from a giant bin at Target. 

We went to Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake. The orchard was actually really nice. They had a ton of activities, good food, hayrides, apple orchards, and fields of pumpkins. And everything was very reasonably priced!



We didn't do too many of the activities while we were there, Henry was a total grump for the first half of our visit and it was pretty chilly. But next year, I'm doing that corn maze!


Notice the lack of smiles on Henry's face? Well the first half of the visit he was having a total breakdown for some reason, including a full-on meltdown while we were smack dab in the middle of the huge line to order food. I ended up dragging him screaming all the w…

My worst fear, it happened. Henry choked. On his stupid acid reflux medication. I just about died, and I totally blame the incident for the grey hair I found this morning.

So yesterday I was giving Hen his medication as usual, when suddenly he made a choking sound and stopped breathing. He just sat that staring at me, without making any noise, eyes popping out of his head.

Holy.Fuck.Ballz! I panic. All I can think is "why-didn't-we-take-the-fucking-baby-CPR-class?!?" Then after what felt like forever, but I'm sure was only a second or two, I thought "dumb ass, save the baby! Remember the book, remember the book!"

Just last week, I was reading a baby book and happened to stumble on the emergency section which covered choking. So I sprang into action and flipped Henry upside down. I pounded on his back until he puked.

Whew, he didn't die! We were both covered in barf, but we made it! It didn't occur to me until afterwards that he probably couldn…

*For those of you that haven't heard of Pinterest, you are really missing out! Pinterest is the newest hot social networking site. Its a giant pin board, that allows you to "pin" things that you like, things that give you inspiration, things that you want to try, et cetera which you share with the world. It's amazing, and my new obsession.

Being at home with Hen I'm always looking for new things that we can do together. But since he is at an age where I can get his attention for about 15 seconds, its pretty hard. Well, I stumbled upon a perfect painted wreath project while on Pinterest. Better yet, it was mess free - well at least for the baby.

To do this project, I cut a bunch of paper leaves using real leaves as templates. Then put little dabs of paint on each leaf.


Then stuck each leaf into a ziplock bag and gave the bag to Henr. Hen just lit up. He loves playing with anything "adult" and just thought the bags were amazing. They are also squishy, co…