Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday spent with family and friends.  We're feeling extra blessed this year with our little one and our new home.  Here are some pics of our celebrations:

TL: All tired out from presents. TR: Opening presents with Pap Pap! BL: All the cool kids take their pants off (PS - I think he kind of looks like Gru in this photo with his big sweater and tiny legs.) BR: All ready for Church!

L: Not a huge fan of Santa! TR: Emma got Gunkle a puzzle with Tinkerbell on it. BR: Cousins in their Christmas shirts!

Some family photos and opening gifts Christmas morning.  Best Gift?  Why a box, of course! :)

No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

Even if that home is scattered with boxes and a huge mess, right? Our house is finally done and we are mostly moved in!  Still have a few things at the In-Laws house, hopefully they don't need their shed for anything too soon! :)  It's been an interesting process watching the house being built and I think we're pretty happy with everything.  There are a few issues here and there, but nothing major.  The last big piece of the puzzle is the fridge, which was supposed to be delivered tomorrow and we got a call today that it's not coming until early January, so we're very much disliking Whirlpool right now.  At this point, we can't really get anything else delivered much sooner, but I think we should consider cancelling and buying another fridge to prove a point to Whirlpool.

I got all of my Christmas shopping done before we moved, so I'm glad I don't have that to worry about, but I'm getting the urge to start making cookies.  I told the hubs that I would make his two favorite kind (Layered Cookies and Reese Cups) and that was it, but I'm really in the mood to make cut-outs.  I have no idea why because they make a huge mess and are very time consuming.  I think they're one of the cookies I always remember making with my mom and really put me in the holiday spirit.  There aren't many decorations out this year, but we do have a small (live!) table-top tree and the stockings.  I guess I'm just having a hard time getting in the holiday spirit.  Not that it's totally different from other years, unfortunately.  I'm just not one of those people that really get into the season. Hopefully as our little one gets older, I'll be better about the whole thing and not be such a bah humbug mom!

The Beginning of Temper Tantrums

I always thought that I had until our little one was at least 2 before I would have to deal with temper tantrums.  Boy was I wrong!  I suppose it comes with the independence that he is constantly seeking. Today has been one of those days and it's not even 11:00am, yet.  I'll cut him a little slack because he's had a cold and is teething, but my patience only goes so far.  He's starting to get more independent in eating, and I'm trying to embrace it and let him hold the spoon to feed himself.  I help him put some oatmeal on the spoon and then watch as he gets half of it into his mouth. After a few attempts, he decides he wants to hold the bowl of oatmeal himself, which I will not allow.  This results in screaming and flinging of the spoon with leftover oatmeal on it, and the signal of breakfast being done.  A little later, I put him in his outfit for the day and when I get his fleece coat zipped up, there is more screaming and trying to pull the fleece off right before flinging himself onto the hallway floor and screaming some more.  My two tactics at this point are trying to distract him or ignoring him.  Ignoring only works for so long, though, because he inevitably hits his head on something in his rolling/screaming fit of rage. Any tips on how to control these outbreaks before they get worse??

The Big One

I can't even believe that it's been a whole year with our little one in our lives.  Everything has changed so drastically since I was pregnant.  The hubs has a new job with much better hours that allow him to be home with us, I quit my job to focus on raising a family, we sold our townhouse and are living with family until our new house is complete (27 days!!!).  Everything is all very exciting, I just can't believe how much has changed.

And to my little one...  I know everyone feels the same way but I really am just astounded by how much you've developed in one short year.  You've grown from my whiny little baby boy to my hilarious little toddler.  You have the best facial expressions and I just can't get over how smart you seem and how easily you pick things up and remember them!  You sort of missed the rolling stage of life, but you started crawling at 7 months and walking at 10.5 months.  I enjoy chasing you around the house, but also miss the days where I could sit you on the floor with a basket of toys and know you wouldn't go anywhere. I love stripping you down to your diaper at the end of the day and watch you run around with a look of pure joy on your face.  If only you could spend your whole day in just a diaper!  You're obsessed with animals right now, particularly cats and dogs, even though we just found out you're allergic to cats.  I miss cuddling with you, but very much enjoy our pre-sleep ritual of reading and singing together.  You started cuddling again with me a little bit during this time, but now you'd rather point out my nose or touch my hair.  I can't wait to see what the next year of your life brings and how much you develop. I love you more than words can express!

 

One of my favorite videos!

 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  I guess it's been a while since I posted anything.  Probably because I'm busy chasing our little one all around the house! He's practically running, now, especially when he gets out of the bathtub.  I just get such a kick of him running around the house naked, and he seems to enjoy it so much!  He's only peed on a few rugs (sorry mom!)  Our house is coming along great and we should be moved in the first week of December!  Our little one dressed up for his music class today.  Since he looks so much like him, I couldn't help dressing him up as Charlie Brown!  Here are a few pics of what's been going on lately.

Family pic at the pumpkin farm

Think I can carry this one, mom?

Running around with my purse.  Daddy wasn't too happy about this pic.  shh!  Don't tell!

Mr. Brown!

Playing outside in his costume

Music Class

Playing instruments with Miss Lauren

Happy Baby!

Reading in his onesie and socks.

Frankenstein!

I guess I'm going to need to start exercising here soon so that I'll be able to keep up with our little one as he is now walking and I know it's only a matter of time before he starts running around.  I just love watching babies when they begin to walk.  With their arms straight out and all wobbly... reminds me of Frankenstein. 

Our little one has been adjusting well to our new living situation as we wait for our house to be built.  I wonder if he realizes what's going on or wonders why we never go back to our old house.  I think he likes living with his grandparents, though, and I'm sure they're all loving all the extra time with him.  We also started a music class for 10-weeks.  We go once a week for an hour and he really seems to be enjoying it, except for when he gets knocked over and starts crying.  Some day he'll be thrilled when there's a girl hugging him and pushing him to the ground, but for now it's a little scary I guess.  Here are some recent photos I've been too lazy to post!

Trip to Living Treasure Animal Park

Why yes, mom, I have to touch my hair when I eat!

Cords are so much fun!

Oh, I'm supposed to be riding in it?

All smiles

Oh, and we saw a praying mantis!

mmmmm!  Lasagna!

Future Role Models

It's funny how having a baby really changes your perspective of life and things that I have brushed off before really get on my nerves now.  Specifically, I look at the celebrities that today's kids admire and look up to and frankly I'm appalled. Maybe I just don't remember it or wasn't exposed (maybe my parents had the right idea of not having cable!), but I don't recall the celebrities of our decade being so raunchy and belligerent. We grew up watching Full House and Boy Meets World.  Shows that always had, as corny as they may be, good moral lessons.

Nowadays, all you see all over the news are inappropriately dressed celebrities setting horrible examples for kids claiming that "You're supposed to be a mess in your 20s" or 40-year old men singing about "getting nasty".

Raising my kids well is probably one of my biggest fears in life. Today's "Role Models" really scare me for what my kids will have to look up to in the future. I guess all I can do is try to raise them to be honest, sensible young adults who don't get sucked into the behaviors that will be displayed in front of them around every corner.

I recently read a great blog that concerns this topic and if you have a few minutes, it's a really good read:

http://givenbreath.com/2013/09/03/fyi-if-youre-a-teenage-girl/

9 Months

The nine month photo session didn't go as well as the others.  I probably should have tried again to get a happy one, but then I thought it might be funnier to have one of him crying. He's still a little bit of a grump and a lot bit of a whiner these days.  I suppose (hope) that things will get easier once he's able to communicate what he wants instead of following me around the house whining.  I've started some baby sign language, but need to be better at being consistent with it so that he picks it up.

He's a great crawler and even a pretty decent walker as long as he's holding onto something.  In the past few weeks, he started pushing his walker around the living room.  I think it moves a little bit faster than he would care to, but he makes it work. He pretty much babbles all day... probably gets that from daddy!  He can kind of say mama, dada, and byebye.  He waves byebye on a good day and will usually clap if you say "yay!"  He's learning to be a somewhat independent in his play, as long as someone is in the room.  He's still very curious and likes to know what every sound he hears is.  He also hates to be told no. Sorry little guy, you can't get into every cabinet in the kitchen or pull apart all of mama's plants and try to eat them.  He likes to help daddy unload the dishwasher, although daddy usually isn't very appreciative of the "help"

We recently got back from a trip to the beach.  He was a little iffy on the sand/ocean the first few times, but was really enjoying it the last time we went.  He was even crawling to the water.  He only ate a little bit of sand and one seashell (luckily, we pulled the seashell out before he choked on it or swallowed it. Parents of the year, right?)  It's amazing the things they can get away with when you turn your head for 1 second.

He still doesn't have a favorite toy.  He'll play with one for a few minutes then it's off to something new.  He has recently been carrying plastic rings around the house (just one at a time), so maybe they will be his favorite toy.

He's still not sleeping through the night, but he usually just gets up one time.  He eats and then can usually go back to sleep by himself. He's a great eater and pretty much eats everything that we give him.  I'm hoping that he'll get some teeth soon so that we can expand his finger food selection.  He eats a lot of fruit, puffs, and cheese right now.

I'm sure walking is right around the corner, so life will be very interesting when that starts!  I guess I'll learn to be a good chaser! :)

Excited To Be Leaving

Our little one has started to pick up on some hand motions.  Nothing too spectacular, but he can wave goodbye sometimes, or sometimes when you say byebye, he claps, as in "Yay!  You're finally leaving!" It's so amazing to me what he has picked up already and I guess it's time to start working on our baby sign language!

In other news, we close on our house next week and have to be out by the end of August, so we're busy finding boxes and packing everything up for storage!  It's going to be a hectic next few months, but I'm excited for this next chapter in our lives!

Heart Dropping Moments

Happy Belated Fourth of July!  It seems like we had a pretty busy weekend, but also seemed like we sat around a lot, too, so I'm not sure how we could've had both, but I guess I'll say we had a busy relaxing weekend.  Our little one also had two scary moments this weekend, and I know they're not the last two he will have in his life, but I'm glad he's okay and I was probably more scared than he was both times.

Scary Episode #1: His first dive
We were visiting my parent's house this weekend and our niece was playing in a plastic baby pool in the afternoon.  It was extremely hot, mid to upper-80's, so at one point I took the little one and put his feet in the pool, to which he, of course, whined about.  How dare I try to cool him down!  So, I set him down on the grass outside of the pool, so he was standing there holding the edge and playing with toys in the pool.  He seemed to enjoy this and my niece was having fun handing him toys.  I was sitting right next to him and was talking to my niece when all of a sudden I hear a splash and turn and grab the little one out of the pool, as he had fallen head-first into the pool (of only about a foot of water).  He coughed and whined a little after I pulled him out, but he seemed to be okay.  I think I was probably more scared than he was.  In the end, we all got a good laugh out of my excellent mothering skills and the hubs was just glad he wasn't the one to let him fall in a pool, because he would've gotten an earful from me.  Sorry, hubs, I'll try to be nicer about all the bumps and bruises you let our child get under your watch.

Scary Episode #2: mmm.. new food!
We took our little one to the nursery in church on Sunday.  It's only his second time going there, but our church isn't very big and there aren't usually many kids in the nursery, so I've been trying to be better about putting him down there so we can actually pay attention in church.  We dropped him off and I told the sitter that there was container of snacks in his bag if he gets fussy.. just some cheerios and puffs. After church, we head down to pick him up and I notice the area around his mouth is all red and he's sitting on the floor with some snacks that I didn't send.  The sitter mentioned that maybe his mouth was read from shoving food into his mouth Which, could be possible if you've ever seen him eat snacks, shoving as much in as he can, but he's never had that before, so I asked if he had anything other than what I sent.  She said she gave him some animal crackers, which I didn't think would cause an allergic reaction, but maybe, or maybe it was the other food he was eating.  In any event, we left church and when we got outside in better lighting, I noticed that the redness was actually hives.  At that point, I sort of panicked and called our doctor's office to speak with the on-call doctor.  He was breathing fine, but I was worried in case it got worse.  The doctor said to wash his face when we got home and just keep an eye on it, and if it didn't go away, to just call back.  We washed his face and hands when we got home and he was already looking better at this point. Everything cleared up soon after and he's totally fine.  I guess I need to just be clear not to give him any extra food while he's there next time. It just makes me worried for what kind of allergies he might have...

I wish time would slow down...

Babies sure do grow up a LOT faster than I ever expected.  We sold our house a few weeks ago, there have been a few bumps in the road, but if all the stars align and 5 contingency offers go through, we will be homeless in August!  We finally got a baby gate put on the stairs going down from the living room and silly me thought "well we'll be moving soon and he JUST started crawling, there's no way he'll be going up the stairs before we move, so let's not put a gate going up the stairs."  The words were barely out of my mouth and the next thing I know he's standing on the first step on his way to the second, and third, and fourth... with ease.  Hardly any stumbling or hesitation.  This little guy is determined!  Here's a video of him going up the stairs for the third time in his life... http://youtu.be/yW9-UZfAUTU

I miss the days when he would just sit contently on the floor with an old spaghetti sauce jar and a couple of rings.  Now, it's literally 3 seconds with a toy and he's off to the next big thing!

In other news, we just got home from a week's vacation at Treasure Lake near Dubois, PA with my family.  The weather was nice at the beginning of the week, but was a little rainy/overcast as the week went on.  We took Seth to his first time at both and beach and the pool, and he hated both of them.  I think he just hates fun...

Seth and Cooper going to the park!

How many cheerios can I shove into my mouth at once?

Boo with his two grandsons!

Having a big boy bath!

Lucky Seven!

I can't believe he's seven months old already... and how active and on the move he is.

He's crawling all over the house and chasing me where ever I go, unless he sees stairs that he would like to climb down if we would let him or the door stop, which is his new favorite instrument. I'll be sitting in the living room and all of sudden i hear the "thwaaaaanngg" of the door stop repeatedly. He also thinks he's a big boy who can pull himself up to standing position and then turn and try to walk away, but since he can't walk he just falls over.  It's fun to see all the new movement, but i'm a little bit afraid of him not having any fear of anything.  He loves to eat almost everything I give him, except bananas. The food that all babies love. I haven't tried to give him bananas in a while, so I'll have to try them again and see how they go.  Still no teeth, but I'm hoping one will pop through soon!

On the move!

Whelp, it's finally happened. Our little one is finally on the move!  I almost teared up the first time I saw him start to crawl.  I can't believe how big he's getting!  I miss my sweet little newborn that would cuddle up for a nice nap with me.  Now, he's all independent and wants to just be on the move.

He still really loves his mama, though, and wants to come to me all the time.  I don't think I'll be able to run away and hide in another room anymore, though, because I think he'll just crawl after me, now. :(

In other news, we're getting our house cleaned up to put up for sale this week.  I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing.  We've been on a bumpy road with looking for a new house and have already had a few ups and downs.  I guess it can't hurt to get it on the market, though.  At least we can be picky with the offers we get because we don't really have to move right now.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

It's interesting to see what kind of parents we have turned out to be compared to the parents I thought we would be. Not that we have that much experience, yet, but I think we've done okay so far.  We usually take turns doing things for our little one, although I probably do a bit more, but the hubs is starting to catch up and do more things with the little one.  One of the things that both of us dislike doing, though, is putting him to bed.  I don't know why we both dislike it so much, because it usually takes less than 5 minutes and all it entails is reading a book or two and rocking/singing to him for a few minutes. Since we both don't like it, though, we've decided to leave it to chance and play rock, paper, scissors to see who loses and has to put him to bed. Definitely not a parenting style I ever saw us using, but it'll work for now! I'll be sure to tell our little one some day how much we enjoy spending every waking moment with him, though. :)

However, if Sheldon Cooper has taught us anything, the hubs and I know each other too well, so I guess we'll have to learn how to play rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock.  This would be fitting, too, since we sing Soft Kitty to our little one a few times a day.  I can't wait to explain to him down the road that his favorite lullaby is from a sitcom.

The Inconvenient Poop

Sorry, but you're the one who chose to read a blog written by a new mother, so you had to expect at least one post about baby poop.  I'm sure it won't be the last one, either. :) I'm also 99% sure our little one will look back on this some day and scold me for talking about his bowel movements.  As long as I have to clean them up, I get to talk about them to the world!  Fortunately, there are no gross images that correspond to this post. I do have SOME boundaries!

So, I guess as babies get bigger, bowel movements become fewer and fuller, which is totally fine, as long as we're at home when it happens.  Lately, though, all bowel movements have occurred in the carseat. Which makes for an annoying "short" trip to the store. I might as well just open up a baby changing station in the trunk of my car. I don't know why he has decided that this is his pooping place, but if this continues, I'm going to just bring the carseat into the house and leave him in it until his "business" is done for the day.

Since I don't have anything else to talk about besides poop, I guess I'll share some recent pics!

Can it spin while I'm holding it, mom?

Cool Dudes!

Yes, my skin tone matches my onesie.  A few more pounds/wrinkles and I'll be the perfect Michelin Man. :)

Baby Scissorhands

The one thing no one tells you about when you're pregnant is how often you're going to have to *try* to trim the baby's fingernails (AKA Talons). Not that this should be a reason to not have a baby, but you should make sure you've penciled in adequate time in your schedule for this activity... at least 5 hours a week should be good.  Yeah, yeah, I know, it's SOOO easy when they're babies and they just fall asleep in your arms and you can trim them while they're sleeping.  That only lasts about 2 months, then you're trying to wrestle them to get them cut, and when you finally get it all done and both you and baby are crying out of frustration, and three hours later you look at their fingers and all the whites have magically grown out again.

Or, you get them all cut and a few hours later, the little one grabs onto your neck skin and squeezes as hard as he can and you get pinched by the sharpened talons. Yes, you swear you got them all cut nicely, so either you missed one or the baby is hiding a nail file in the lining of his jail cell crib mattress.  I guess I need to do contraband searches of his room, although I'm sure our little Andy Dufresne is hiding all his goods behind his Elmo poster.

So, if anyone has any magic tricks for trimming baby nails, please share!  Until then, I'll continue to spend my days fighting with his little fists to keep them short and trying to explain the scratch marks all over my arms and neck.  Yes, the cat did it.  What cat? Yeah...

As for his toenails, I think we'll just start going for his place in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest toenails... But, do yourself a favor, don't go Google "World's Longest Nails" unless you want to be utterly grossed out.

5318008

If you ever owned a calculator, and were a teenager, then you should be very familiar with the number 5318008.  If you don't recall, then type into your calculator and turn it upside down... go ahead, I'll wait a minute.  Ha!  Remember that?  When you thought you were so cool because you could type out the word Boobies on your calculator? (Or, even worse, 7734!)  Those were the days.

What recently got me thinking about this is watching the transition of our little one's eating habits.  I love breastfeeding.  Yes, it was a little bit hard at first and it hurt and he was sometimes annoying, but it's such a special bond that we share that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. It seems like he has grown up so much and even his eating habits have changed.  When he was first born, I pretty much had to try to get him to open his mouth as wide as possible and quickly stick my breast in before he realized what was going on and hope that he took to it.  He quickly got better at keeping his mouth open and slowly started to realize that when the breast came out, it was time to eat!  He's at the point now where as soon as I fold my shirt down he gets super excited and lunges at it with his mouth (or with his hands if he's too far away).  It makes me laugh every time to see how excited he gets.  If I had to eat the same thing all day every day, I think I would get a little bit tired of it, but I guess if you don't know any better, then bring on the milk!  It's no wonder (some) men are so obsessed with boobs.  Our little one has learned at just 5 months that they are his favorite thing in the world, so I guess that's just something he'll carry with him the rest of his life. Watch out ladies!

The Realities of Being a SAHM

My expectations vs. the reality of being a Stay-at-home-mom...

Expectation: Newborns sleep all the time!
Reality: This was true for 1.5 months, after which naps lasted no longer than 30-40 minutes after I spent 20 minutes trying to get him to sleep.  And he woke up very grumpy.  Grumpy baby = miserable mom. *His napping improved drastically around 3 months when he started to suck his fingers.  Yeah, I know it's a hard habit to kick, but we'll deal with it later.  I'm just happy that he is finally sleeping well and so what if he sucks his fingers til he's 30? I'm sure he'll look just as cute doing it then as he does now! :)

Expectation: I'll have SO much time to keep the house clean and get chores done!
Reality: Step 1. Oh, the baby is finally down for a nap, let me check the computer real quick.  Step 2. Oh, it's been 45 minutes and the baby is up again!  Step 3. So much for cleaning up the kitchen. I'll do it during his next nap. Repeat Steps 1-3.  So the dust and clutter builds up until i can't stand it anymore and clean everything in one day.

Expectation: Yay!  I don't have to put makeup on every day!
Reality: My standards as to what outings deem putting on makeup have changed. I'm not one to wear a lot of makeup to begin with, but would usually put a little bit on any time i left the house.  Now, it depends. If I'm just running to the grocery to pick up a few things? Nah.  I won't see anyone I know anyway.  And now, if I put eyeliner on (which i used to wear everyday), you know we're going somewhere special!

I also have new standards for just *how dirty* clothes are.  Babies spit. and drool. and are usually just generally gross, which means my shirts are often covered in spit, drool, and are gross.  Maybe I've become so accustomed to it that I don't even notice it anymore.  I guess when your husband has to ask you "When was the last time you showered?", you know it's time to change the sour-milked stained shirt...

Expectation: I'll become a wonderful cook and have perfect dinners ready every night.
Reality: Ha. I do love to cook, but really find it hard to put the energy into planning meals.  This is something that I can definitely improve on if I put my mind to it, the little one just requires so much more attention than I thought.  And good luck trying to cut up vegetables/prepare a meal with him in a baby carrier strapped to your front. 1. You can't see around him and 2. He wants to grab everything you have in your hand (including the knife).

Expectation: It'll be so much fun to play with the baby!
Reality: This is generally true, but there are times when he just wants to be a grump and there isn't any toy in the world that will distract him from his grumpiness for more than 5 seconds.  Playmat? WAH! Exersaucer?  WAH! Highchair with toys? Throws them all on the floor, then WAH! I'm 98% sure he gets his grumpiness from his father. The other 2% is his grumpiness when he's hungry.  That trait was inherited from my mother :)
 
Expectation: Awe, he'll love to play/sleep in his cute little swing!
Reality: UGH!  Put him in the swing, he's driving me crazy!

Expectation: Being a SAHM is the best job in the world!
Reality: Even though there are days when I want to run away (like, FAR away) when my husband gets home, I wouldn't trade my situation for anything.  Every day, I feel so fortunate that we made the decision years ago that I would stay at home once we had a family.  We've both worked extremely hard to get to this point in our lives and I feel truly blessed to be able watch our little one grow up every day. It is the best (and probably hardest) job I've ever had.

Happy Five Months!

Happy five month birthday little one!  I can hardly believe how much you've changed in such a short period of time.

You are a happy (usually) little boy who loves exploring the world around you.  You're starting to learn to sit up on your own, though you would prefer is someone would hold you so you can stand. You grab anything within reach, but especially if it's mama's hair or daddy's hoodie strings. You still like your activity mat, but you're starting to enjoy standing in your exersaucer.  We've started giving you some food and you seem to like all the fruit, on days when you're not being stubborn and spitting everything back out, that is. You have started to suck on your two fingers on your right hand to deal with stress as well as help you fall asleep.  Just last week, you started sleeping on your left side and now you roll back and forth to both sides at night. We really love it when you roll onto your tummy in the middle of the night and wake up crying.  So far that's only happened once, but I'm sure it will happen plenty more times! I'm so looking forward to seeing all of the changes you make over the next several months.  I know it's only a matter of time before you'll be toddling around the house.

It Could Be Considered Cute From a Distance...

Of course, that might depend on your definition of "distance".  In this circumstance, I'm thinking along the lines of you need binoculars to see it, distance.  So, for whoever is counting, this is twice in one week that I've had a craft "fail".  I think I had just a bit more hope for this one. My Sister-in-Law is having a baby in June. They're doing a nautical theme in the nursery, so I thought I would try to make one of those oh-so-cute "melted crayon" pictures that are all the rave these days.  You know, like this cute one:

So, I bought some crayons, because, really, how hard can this be? They're doing navy/gray/yellow as their colors, so those are the colors that I went with, and this is what I ended up with... 

 

Sadly, it's even beyond the point that it's so ugly that it's cute. Sorry sweet little nephew, I tried. One day, I hope we'll get to share a laugh looking at pictures of the terrible art I tried to make for you.  From now on, I'll leave all creative adventures to your other Aunt, who is 100x better.

Or should I wrap it up and give it to my Sister-in-Law at her shower anyway, and watch her pretend that she thinks it's cute in front of everyone so that I don't feel offended? Then, she'll feel obligated to hang it up in his room every time I come to visit :)  Or I could wait a couple years and give it to him and tell everyone that his big cousin made it for him.  This would sort of be cute coming from a little kid, right?

How Four Month Old Babies Are Like Cats

...or at least how mine is like my parent's cat, Duncan [although, I should say my mom's cat.  My dad would happily drive the cat and drop it off in near a fishing stream in Ohio without hesitation].

• They are both intrigued by anything you dangle in front of them (string, paper, ribbon, forks, knives, etc.).
• They both cry when they're hungry...
• ...then eat as though they haven't had a meal in a week, even though you just fed them three hours ago.
• They will both scratch you if you get too close to their face (no matter how many times a day you try to trim their razor sharp claws - and I'm pretty sure both experiences are like trying to wrestle an alligator. At least the baby doesn't bite... yet).
• They're constantly spitting up something - milk, fur, dead moths.
• They're both constantly judging you, but at least the baby will think you're funny once in a while. (Cats - think Miranda Priestly in the Devil Wears Prada as she silently judges people while peering over her glasses.)
• They're both excited to see you when you come home. Ha. Just kidding.  Cats could care less, unless you're bringing food or catnip, and our little only gets excited to see me, I'm sure my husband gets the same response from both beings.

How Four Month Old Babies Are NOT Like Cats:

• Babies want constant attention, whereas cats sometimes like to be in the same room, but please don't look at, talk to, or touch me, thank you.

I long for the day when our little one crawls under the couch and ignores me for 4+ hours.  When do they reach that developmental milestone?

Playing Catch Up

Here are a few pictures of our little one over the last four months, just to get things up to speed here!

Easter Pics

I love Pinterest. I can spend hours scrolling through all the great recipes and ideas for kids. The problem with Pinterest, though, is that it gives me a false sense of hope about some of my abilities - namely photography.  I see a picture and think, gee, that can't be too hard to recreate.  Easter is coming up, why not try my hand at a few pictures of our little one with some Easter eggs? My hope is for a fun, bright picture like this:

 

Instead, I end up with these:

Maybe I need to lower my expectations when it comes to photography, or maybe I just need to take a class and learn the proper way to take pictures.  At least he'll have some funny pictures to look back on some day, and he can also be thankful that I passed up on buying the cute fuzzy bunny ears at Target to embarrass him even more. Although, one more night of waking up every 3 hours and I may just have to go buy them as my revenge.

Welcome to my blog!  I'm only, what, 5 or 6 years behind the times?  I thought about starting a blog before I had the baby, as a way to keep out of town friends and family updated on our life with our little one, so I guess I'm technically only 4 months behind my schedule.

Wow, how life has changed in just a few months.  After a somewhat difficult pregnancy (think, head in toilet almost every day), we welcomed our little guy into the world on November 1st.

5 months pregnant

Welcome Seth!

To prove how excited we were and how much we loved him before he was even here, we decided to start searching for names while I was in labor in the hospital. I guess that's not totally true.  We had one other name that we liked, but never took the time to come up with other names. We're trying very hard to be loving and caring parents, but we also need to be ourselves, so needless to say, our little one gets mocked on an almost daily basis, and I think sarcasm will be his first language... hopefully we won't scar him for life.  I have a feeling that he's going to be just as goofy as we are. *proof below

* Eating the invisible floating hamburger. nom nom!

So, why is our little one being raised by sarcasm?  Well, my mom is sarcastic, I'm more sarcastic (which she appreciates now, not when I was a smart-mouthed teenager), so if that's the natural progression, our little one will one day be an even bigger smart-ass than I am, and who knows, maybe he'll end up being a famous comedian, or do something great with his skill other than annoy those around him. Here's hoping!