Go shorty, it's your birthday...

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday. I had a pretty exciting birthday this year. No complaints! This month has flown by. It's hard to believe that I have been back to work for a month now and we only have 9 days of school left! Craziness!

There have been several new happenings since my last blog update. Maybe the frequency of the blogs will increase when I am out for summer, but for now they'll just have to come as I can do them!

Nate took his first trip to the swimming pool last weekend. He was okay with it until his belly hit the cool water. We were good up until that point! It was later in the day when Matt and I took him so the sun wasn't out to warm him up. He was a good little trooper and allowed me to take a few pictures of him for the scrapbook!

 On the way to the pool with Daddy!

We stopped to check out the ducks on the way in to the pool.

 He knows something is about to go down!

About to take the plunge!

This isn't so bad!!

 Not a fan of the cold water on the belly!

Speaking of pictures, my new camera is now in hundreds of pieces on the kitchen table. On Thursday of this past week the entire fifth grade took an end of the year field trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was fun, but sadly my camera died after photo number two of the Tree of Life. The zoom went out and would not go back in. I was NOT a happy camper. Almost a year ago my old camera decided not to work unless the zoom was fully extended. So, Matt got me a new camera late last summer as a birthday present. Now it doesn't work anymore :-(  I am very upset about this! The camera is less than a year old -- it should still be working!! I'm also sad because until I get a new one (or Matt successfully repairs the one he currently has in pieces) I cannot take pictures of Nate!!!! Not. cool. 

The Tree of Life.

I tried to zoom in to get the detail on the tree. This is probably the last picture my camera will ever take!

We have had several visitors this month. My mom is in town taking care of Nate this month. His Nanny and Timmy came down a few weekends ago to visit and this weekend we are being visited by Uncle Adam, Aunt Megan, and Cousin Noah. 

 Nate and Nanny. Timmy is in the background.

Nate and NiNi napping. I tried to get the picture where his arm was draped over his face, but he moved it as I was getting the camera. 

I would have a picture of Nate with Adam, Megan, and Noah here, but the camera was in pieces when they arrived. Maybe I can get the pictures Megan took and post them later. It stinks not having a camera!! 

Finally, here are a few parting shots of the little man doing what he does best....

 Apparently, he sometimes sleeps with his arm in the air!

Other times he likes to sleep with his Daddy!

I will try to update again soon. However, if I don't solve the camera issue soon it's going to be a pretty boring blog! Have a great Memorial Day weekend!!

Happy Mother's Day!! (a little late)

 So, it's been awhile. Needless to say, I've been a little preoccupied. There are been several things that have happened since I last posted. Here they are in no particular order:  we sold our house (yay!!),Nate celebrated his first Easter, Nate celebrated his two month birthday, I celebrated my first Mother's Day, my mom came to town, I started back to work, and Matt finally got a day off!


We sold our house. Finally. Yippee!! Our closing date was changed a few times due to communication problems and a tornado, but we have finally been relieved of our home-owning duties. No more house buying for us until we decide to settle somewhere for awhile.


Nate celebrated his two month birthday on Monday. He is growing so fast!! He is learning so much and it is amazing to watch him progress. We'll be celebrating his one year birthday before I know it!!

He and Mr. Potato Head are good friends!

Nate also celebrated his first Easter. Nate had a pretty rough night before Easter/early morning Easter so we ended up sleeping most of the day, but the Easter bunny came and brought him some goodies! Maybe next year he'll have a better night and we'll make it to church.

Nate's basket of goodies!

For my first Mother's Day Nate got me a laptop. Mine died over a year ago and my brother was kind enough to loan me his 'spare' in the interim. Matt had it set up for me as a surprise when I got home from shopping with my mom. Matt had apparently been planning it for awhile. He and Nate did a great job! :-).

My new computer!

Nate and me on Mother's Day.

My mother came to town a few weeks ago to watch Nate when I went back to work. She has been a huge help. She will take Nate at night so that I can sleep. I can't even begin to imagine what I would be like going to work after staying up with Nate at night! He can be a handful at times and her help has been greatly appreciated!!


I went back to work April 28. I decided to go back on a Thursday because I figured going back for two days would be easier than five. I will admit that being gone for five days last week was rough, but thankfully school is almost out and I'll be home for summer! The kids at school seemed excited to have me back and being back in a routine has been helpful to me.


Poor Matt went the last 21 days of April with no days off. None. Nada. He finally got a day off May 2. Needless to say, I was glad when my mom arrived to help with Nate. Matt would help when he got home from work, but I was the only one getting up with him at night and it was rough!! We're making it though!

 He finally went to sleep with his little hands crossed.

(notice how tired I look!)

 Yep, he still sleeps like this!!

 Happy baby!!

Apparently tummy time means put-your-head-down-and-be-lazy to Nate.

Okay, that's enough for today. Maybe I'll be able to post again soon. We'll have to see what Nate decides to let me do!

It's been one month already?!?!

Nate and Mr. Potato Head at one month.

Okay, so technically it has been over five weeks, but when you are dealing with a fussy newborn updating a blog is last on my list of things to do! Nate spent his month birthday screaming and crying. Matt and I spent the day trying to soothe our disgruntled child. I took him to the doctor on Monday and he has acid reflux. The week leading up to the doctor's appointment was pretty rough. Feedings were awful and now we know why! To help with the reflux, I have to dose him with Maalox before each feeding and add rice cereal to each bottle. Nate also was ordered to be in an upright position at all times. Here is how he has to sleep at night...

Luckily, he likes his carseat so this wasn't a huge issue. After feedings he would be a little fussy so I broke out the Moby wrap. He loves it!

Snug as a bug!

I'm thinking the Moby reminded him of being back in my belly. It certainly made me feel somewhat pregnant again!

Nate had his one month check-up on Thursday. He is growing like a weed!!! He now weighs over ten pounds and he is 22.25 inches. Insane! He is still in the 50th percentile for weight and still in the 90th percentile for height. The doctor is thinking he'll be a tall little booger one day!

The first month has definitely been an adventure and I cannot wait to see what next month brings. He's learning how to smile and is finally liking bath time a little better. (I'm thinking this is because we got a detachable shower head and I leave it running on him during the bath!)

Finally, here is a picture I took today after his bath. His fingers are so long and I just had to snap a shot!

Happy Friday! 

Sleep, movies, and more!

Six and a half hours. Yes, six and a half. Nate let us sleep last night! I am not getting my hopes up that it will happen again tonight, but I woke up this morning and felt somewhat rested! 


As per my last blog, I am going to write about non-baby related happenings. Matt has been on vacation this week and we have used some of our time to watch some movies. We have seen three so far - Life As We Know It, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Get Him to the Greek. Keep in mind that we have been seriously sleep deprived the past few weeks so what we find entertaining might be a little skewed at this point. 


We both enjoyed Life As We Know It. It was a very fitting movie for new parents (apart from the fact that the parents die in the movie). We were able to relate to the characters suddenly inheriting a child. I'm still amazed the hospital sent us home with our child without even so much as making us take an IQ test. We laughed throughout the movie and I would definitely recommend it to others. It's Kind of a Funny Story and Get Him to the Greek were entertaining, but nothing I'd really write home about. They kept us occupied for several hours!


Last night we watched a show on TLC called Extreme Couponing. Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people who use coupons to save money on groceries, etc. In fact, I wish I had the time, dedication, and organizational skills to get into the coupon game. I would love to know the ins and outs of doubling, stacking, and couponing in general. I will clip coupons and use them when there is something I need/want, but I am just too lazy to get the hang of how to actually use them the way some people do. However, some of the people on this show were nuts. I mean nuts. It truly is an art what they are able to do. The vast amount of products they are able to buy with such small amounts of money is amazing. But, I have to ask -- who needs 62 things of mustard? 34 things of Maalox? 124 boxes of pasta? 40 jars of spaghetti sauce? In my opinion, no one. My question is how in the world do they manage to actually use all of this stuff before it expires? (They did mention last night on the show that mustard doesn't go bad. I'm assuming the 62 things of mustard will now be their lifetime supply?) I know that Matt and I have trouble using a jar of salad dressing before it expires. Quite often I find myself throwing away a half-used jar of salad dressing. However, some of these people had a shelf of nothing but salad dressing. How do they use it all? Is it possible? I can understand the 1,100 rolls of toilet paper. That will get used, but the perishables?!?! I may be naive and they may have a great system, but I know we would never use all of that in my house before it expired.


I will mention that there was one guy who mentioned donating items to his church's food bank. I think that is an awesome way to help others and still get your couponing fix. I will admit that I will probably tune in next week just to see more coupon craziness. However, you will not see me at Publix with seven shopping carts filled to the brim with random stuff anytime soon!

The Four by Four Routine

We have a new routine in our house and I kinda like it! Nate has been taking four ounces of milk and then sleeping for about four hours. I would have never thought that I would be so excited over four straight hours of sleep. Just a few weeks ago four hours would have never been enough sleep to get me through the day. Now I wake up after four straight hours and feel somewhat rested. Weird. However, like all good things I'm sure this too will come to an end - probably around his next growth spurt. 


It has also helped that Matt has been on vacation this week. He is a huge help when he's home and not at the mercy of the hospital! I'll be sad to see him go back to work. Nate and I will be flying solo in the middle of the night for the next few weeks.


Moose has adjusted to the baby. Much to my dismay, he is now back to his old ways. I was none too pleased with him the other night when I finally got the baby and myself to sleep only to be awakened by Moose. Three times. Needless to say, Moose was not on my good list for the rest of the day. He also likes to try and get in my lap when I am feeding Nate. Do you know how hard it is to give a baby a bottle on one side of you and have a cat on the other side of your lap? It's tricky, but it can be done. Thankfully, Moose has shown no ill will toward Nate. I'm sure that will come later when Nate starts to gain control over his hands and wants to pull fur. 


We have made several great strides since I last posted about our adventures. First up, is the bath. This happened a few weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to sharing pictures. He is NOT a fan of baths at this point in his life. He's cool with the warm water being poured over him, but everything else is apparently torture to him. 

The calm before the storm. 

You can tell that he's about to start screaming. He's showing us his "Warning, I'm about to lose it!" face.

All is once again well with the world when we get him wrapped up in his towel.

He is growing like a weed. In order to grow, he must eat. Matt found some self-feeding bottles online and decided we needed some. They work, but are a pain. All of the tubes and such are hard to clean and it takes him forever to finish a bottle.

However, he can feed himself and we are free to do other things around the house. 

Like I said, he's growing. He'll be out of the bassinet soon.

He found his thumb the other day. I do not want to encourage this habit, but you know it's cute! So, I took a picture... 

I found a cute Easter outfit for him the other day on my trip to Wal-Mart. I had to grab something from the baby section and it was just too cute not to get. 

He's growing too fast!

I love to take pictures of him sleeping for some reason. He's just so darn cute! I love, love, love his sleeping position. He'll put his hands over his head, bend his knees, and spread his legs. It just looks so comfortable.

Below we have what Matt and I refer to as the 'milk coma.' I was going to take a picture of him sleeping (yes, again) and managed to get a shot of his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he was drifting in and out of the coma. This was also the first and last time he will wear this outfit. I put him in it because it was cooler outside and I wanted him to have something over his legs. This outfit fit the bill. However, once I got it all snapped up I realized it was too short for him! Now, I am not a fan of the 18 gazillion snaps they put on these things and Nate is not a fan of playing dress-up so we went about our day with pants that were too short. 

I know, it looks a little demonic, but he's drifting off and is content!

Nate also likes TV. He's way too young for TV, but it's on in the background and sometimes he'll turn his head to see what is going on. He watched some of the final four the other night. We even turned his bouncer so he didn't have to crane his neck. Today I caught him watching Battlestar Galactica with his dad. I took a picture of him chilling in his swing with his head turned to see the screen. Now, before you go off on his neck being turned at a crazy angle I must tell you that we are constantly turning his head and adjusting it so that it doesn't look like he's going to break his neck. As soon as we adjust him, he will immediately turn his head back the way he had it. He will quite often give us the stink eye as he does it. It's a constant battle.

I am trying not to make this the 'Adventures in Parenting' blog, but lately all of my adventures have dealt with parenting. The baby has consumed my life for the moment, but we're learning to find a balance. Hopefully, my next post won't be so baby oriented and I'll be able to share about other things as well! Happy Wednesday!!

Why am I blogging? I should be napping right now!

Yep, I should be in the bed taking a quick nap while Nate is napping. I will pay for this later. There's not much to report from this neck of the woods. Matt and I have managed to keep Nate alive for 3 weeks now! We are slowly finding our way into a routine. Granted, it's not a routine Matt and I want to keep up for 18 years so here's hoping he finally learns how to sleep through the night....


Matt got creative the other night. Nate has been nicknamed Dobby by my brother. He took one look at Nate and declared that he looked just like the character from Harry Potter. The name has kind of stuck because I will sometimes find myself referring to Nate as Dobby. When our nephew Indiana was born, Matt got creative and put Indy's head on the body of Harrison Ford. It seemed only fitting that Nate's head got put on the body of Dobby. Here are the results...

You have to admit, the pictures are entertaining! 


Okay, I think I will attempt to take my nap now. You have to strike while the iron is hot...or in this case while the baby is sleeping!

You don't tug on Superman's cape...

You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don't wake a sleeping baby!! 


So, yeah, I edited the song a little there, but it's solid advice!


Wow! The past sixteen days have been a complete and utter whirlwind. At the moment, Nate is asleep in his new swing. Matt and I went out today and found a swing to help with our little man. He has been somewhat fussy the past few days and we were looking for something to help calm him. I think he is going through another growth spurt because he eats, fusses, sleeps, fusses, eats, sleeps...you get the picture. This cycle will go on for a few hours until his belly is full and he's ready to sleep for real. If I counted correctly (which is highly unlikely given the lack of sleep I've had lately) he ate around 8-9 ounces of milk last night over a 2 hour period. He can be a little piggy at times! So, let me think. What have we been up to lately? Matt and I have been eating, sleeping, changing diapers, and feeding Nate. Nate has been eating, sleeping, pooping, and growing like a weed. He is the only person in this house who is well rested! :-)  He is getting pretty long and today I noticed that he'll probably outgrow his bassinet soon. I will admit, I'm not ready for him to get so big yet! I know it's going to happen, but still! Here are some pictures of our adventures over the past few weeks. Enjoy!

Nate got to meet Cousin Indy.  As you can tell by the face, Indy wasn't so sure what to think of Nate.

 He is NOT a fan of sponge baths!

I couldn't get the picture to rotate, but here is Nate listening to his dad read to him about hernias.  The doctor told us to put him in the sun to help with the jaundice.

 I love this picture!

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

 Moose is a good big brother. He doesn't like it when Nate cries. Moose will start to whine and will go to check on Nate.

At times he will hold his own bottle!

He has a hard life! This has become his favorite way to sleep when he's not swaddled.