Goodnight sweetheart

Our newest routine has me more thankful than ever. For the past several weeks, we do bath, lotion, nursing, rolling around, story, and bed. Things were going great. Then, Andrew changed. He got cranky a little early one night, so I decided to sing in an attempt to calm him down. I rocked and sang the first thing that came to mind... Twinkle, Twinkle. Holy smokes, it worked. It worked better than I could have planned. It was amazing. Now, rocking and singing Twinkle, Twinkle (about thirty times in a row) is an essential part of the routine. I have to admit, it's as much for me as for Andrew.

After about 10 minutes of heaven, I stop rocking and singing. Daddy and I read him a story, and he falls asleep with Lovie in his bed.

You can't buy snuggles that sweet.

:)

Anne

PS It wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention that Big Sis Lady helps, too.

Big 6 Month Old Baby

Wow. It's been a whirl wind of a couple of weeks. Andrew has "grown up" so much! It all seems to be happening so fast, so I have to take time today to make note of it all.

Change #1: Sleep. Can't we just leave well enough alone? Of course not. At Andrew's 6 month visit, the doctor instructed us to take down his mobile and bumper pad. Since he's getting stronger and more inquisitive, they might be a danger to him. Let's just take it all down. Hello super shock for the baby. So, why did we spend the first 6 months sleep training, so that in the blink of an eye, we could change his entire sleep surroundings?! It makes no sense to me. Luckily, we had a solution hanging on his monkey coat rack, his Lovie. His Aunt Bre and Uncle Nathan bought him his Lovie when I was about 4 months pregnant. Holy crap does he love his Lovie. As soon as we hand him Lovie, he smooshes his face to it and snuggles really hard. I have sneaked in a few times to snap shots of this. I know what you're thinking, "Is Porcupine being replaced as best friend???" Don't worry Porcupine gets plenty of slobbery love in the daytime.

Another downfall to taking down the bumper pads is that we can't sneak in to check his sleep status... We get caught every time.

Change #2: Sitting. Although he cannot get to the sitting position on his own, he will gladly sit any time you sit him up. He will stay that way until he crashes and burns...Poor Grandma Sharon witnessed this first hand.

Change #3: Solids? Well, introducing solids has been interesting, but we have been far from successful. We took a break for a while. Let's just say Andrew isn't a fan of solids just yet.

Change #4: Daycare. Tears. Lots of tears. The good news is that the tears were all Mommy's. He loves Miss May and seems to be doing really well there. The transition has been tiring, though. He did very well considering we force-fed him yucky solids, took away his mobile, turned his bed into a jail cell, and gave him the responsibility of sitting on his own. His only rebellion to all of this was waking up at 4-ish every morning this week. Awesome. Of course, Chris and I don't have to work on Saturday or Sunday, so he slept till 7:30 both those mornings. Chris and I were up at 5 and 6am , respectively. Awesome. Actually, it has been. We all caught up on some much needed sleep. Cross your fingers for sound sleeping during the weeks to come.

Here's Andrew sitting up and ready for his first day with Miss May. He's such a big boy. (He looks a little zoned out, but he gets that expression from his Daddy.)

Change #5: Holding his bottle. After just one week with Miss may, Chris started to feed Andrew, and Andrew did all the work. More tears. He's such a big boy!

At least some things never change.

:)

Anne

California dreaming...

Here are some shots of my favorite California people with my favorite baby. Someday we'll make a trip out west and then up to the frozen tundra to see GREAT Uncle Al. (I had to put the great in caps to emphasize the age- I mean the greatness of Uncle Montana.)

This is Andrew, Macy, and Great Granddaddy Al. Granddaddy Al stayed at our house when he came to Dallas, so that he could lend a hand with Andrew in our second week home with the baby. Thanks, Granddad!

For some reason, I never snapped a shot of Great Aunt Martha, but we'll make sure we do the next time our paths cross.

:)

Anne

Ahhh, the doctor's office

Nothing says, "I love you, Andrew", like bringing him in for a check up to get poked, measured, and stuck with needles. As grownups, we understand what shots do and why we need them, but they still stink... Poor Andrew he has now idea. Well, here's how the visit went.

All his stats are in and fabulous:

Height: 26.75 inches-70% percentile

Weight: 15 lbs. 11.5 oz.-20% percentile

Head: 43 cm- 30% percentile

So, he's tall, skinny, and has a small head. Those aren't quite the stats we imaged from his super model parents, but he's healthy and happy! And that is all that matters! (By the way, Andrew can now sit on his own! He's a little wobbly, so I keep a hand close just in case.)

After his vitals and measurements, the real "fun" begins. Today he received two shots and an oral vaccine. Here's the run down of the excitement:

The oral Vaccine came first. From the look on his face, you would guess the medicine tasted like something we scraped from his dirty diaper. Although, he makes a stink face when I give him a taste of yummy whipped cream, so we can't really trust his taste buds.

Next came the shots. He got one shot in each leg. If you've never been with an infant getting shots, it's quite the experience. As soon as the needle goes in, Andrew gasps taking in air for about 3 seconds. 3 seconds of silence. 3 seconds of quiet before the storm. After that 3 silent seconds with a grimace that can only mean, "Mom, how could you let this awful woman do this horrible thing to me?"

Then, the screaming commences. The face he makes can only accurately be compared to the face the Stay Puft marshmallow man makes when the Ghostbusters set him on fire. I imagine the screams are trying to communicate, "I can't believe you! You're just standing there. Call the police. Spank her. Do something! Anything! Make this stop!"

Well, the entire ordeal only lasted about 10 seconds. Once Andrew got his pacifier in his mouth and was all strapped into his car seat, he was good to go.

After all the tortute, he forgives me because I know all the cool places to hang... (By the way, this is Andrew's first time on his swing set.)

Plus, I know all his tickle spots...

It's just another day in the life. (If you didn't press play on the videos, make sure you go back. The sounds Drew will make anyone smile.)

Holy crap- being a mom is great. I finally understand what people mean when they say, " He's so cute. I could just eat him up."

~Anne

Happy 5th Anniversary

Tonight Chris and I celebrated our FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! (Our actual anniversary was 8-8-08.) Can you even believe it? Anyway, we went to a movie at a real theatre and ate a fabulous dinner at Houston's. Amazing food and it was great to be grown ups together.



Thanks, Aunt Kristin for taking care of the newly teething little man. I know he was fussy, but he loves you... And we do, too!

~Anne

PS: Here are Chris and I on our wedding day, 8-8-03... so young and so married. And now here we are on our 5th anniversary, 8-8-08... so old and so married. And we love every minute.

Developmental milestones...

As I search the web to see what to expect from Andrew's growth and development, I find that he is fine tuning his ability to use his hands. He is using a "raking" motion to pick things up, and he also uses the pincer grasp.

According to Babyzone.com, "a pincer grasp is the ability to pick up an object between one's thumb and forefinger". Well, he's practically mastered it when used to grasp the piece of flab on the front of my left arm. Yay, baby. Ok, Andrew, I know that you can do it now, so stop it already.

So, how do you discipline a 6 month old? Are you even allowed to discipline a 6 month old? 'Cause believe me, a stern "no" just really has had no affect on him whatsoever.

The only way I know to get back at him is to dress him up or make him look silly and then take pictures. What affect, if any, do these actions have on a 6 month old? None. However, in 20+ years, I will have these goofy pictures to show his friends, fraternity brothers, and the love of his life...

Here are a few of my favorites.

"We" did laundry.

Funny hat pictures are always good...especially when he's lookin' pretty nutty.

And la pièce de résistance... The tuxedo onesie. In the words of Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, "I like to think of Andrew as wearin' a Tuxedo T-shirt, 'cause it says, like, "I want to be formal, but I'm here to party too." I like to party, so I like my Andrew to party."

Fun times.

~Anne

Back to school

Sigh. I have worked 3 half days in the past week, and I missed Andrew so much. He got to spent lots of quality time with his two Grandmas. (Thanks Mom and Sharon!) It makes me sit back and remember how hard it was to leave him when maternity leave was over.

Here he was all packed up for his first day at Miss Sue's. Doesn't this just scream "I guess I'll go to day care... If I have to."

My fears at that time hinged on him spending so much time with this "other woman"- Miss Sue. She's had lots of practice with babies, and they all love her. Will he love her too? If he does, will he love her more than me? He'll be getting just as much waking time with her as with me and half of his meals.

I spent many nights with tears streaming over my nursing Andrew asking these questions and second guessing my decision to be a working mom. I had this mental image of my poor helpless 8 week old sitting in his car carrier unattended all day. No one to stimulate him or make sure he got his tummy time.

I raced out the door my first day back to work to get to Miss Sue's as fast as possible. I was more excited than I can even describe. The anticipation was killing me as I walked to the back room where Yolanda was changing Andrew and getting him ready. Even at that young age, he heard my voice and turned toward the sound.

His eyes were red and swollen. I hugged and hugged and asked how he'd done. Miss Sue simply said, "He missed his mommy very much." I knew. It was all over his face. I held myself together till I got to the car. The whole time I tucked him into his car seat I sobbed. I kept telling him how sorry I was and tomorrow would be easier. I think I was telling myself that, too.

When we got home after a 20 minute car ride, I picked him up out of the car seat and held him. I had missed him more than I realized. He fell asleep in my arms right then... and slept till morning.

I cried the whole way to work the next day just thinking of him "missing" me as Miss Sue so delicately put it. We made it through the 2 am feedings and working and missing each other.

That was then, and now he's older. Will it be easier or harder? Now we know each other. I know just the right face to make him giggle, and I can kiss him on the soft spot behind his arm to make him squeal. He'll never get that at daycare. I guess that's why being a mommy is so special. No one else gets him like I do. Sure, Daddy can toss him higher in the air than I can and sings different songs that drive him wild, but no one can be Mommy.

I'm so glad I get to spend summers with him... I just have to remind myself that I love my job, and he'll be fine. I love my job, and he'll be fine. I love my job, and he'll be fine. I love my job, and he'll be fine.

Maybe Miss May will teach him the excitement of staying out from under furniture.

Maybe not- it's just so fun under there...

~Anne