Santa Claus is Comin' to Town!

A First Christmas isn't complete without meeting Santa.

Christmas 2010

4 Months - December 15, 2010

Seriously?!  Another photo shoot?

It is hard to believe it has been four months since our little Bug entered the world.  He has us totally smitten and we are head over heels in love.  Here are some things he's been up to over the past month:

-Weighs 13.7 pounds (20%), is 24.75 inches long (45%) and is finally on the growth chart for head size.
-Wears size 3 month clothes, some 0-3 months and 3-6 months, and size 1 diapers (although we are about to move to size 2).

-He sleeps from about 7:30 pm until 2:30-3:30 am.  Wakes up and has a short feeding and is back to sleep in about 30 minutes.  He'll sleep then until about 6:30 am or so.  Not too bad.  I think he is getting closer to dropping that middle of the night feeding since he doesn't take as much then.
-Takes several naps during the day.
-Eats approx. 5 oz every 3 hours--still exclusively breastfed.

-Loves to squeal, scream and talk.  He's so much fun to have a conversation with!
-Is very active.  He's always kicking and squirming.  Hence, the no socks...they never stay on for long.
-Loves to play on his playmat and bat at Octopus and Firefly.
-Smiles like crazy and is a happy boy. He wakes up squealing, cooing and smiling, rather than crying...so sweet!

-Has laughed out loud a couple of times.
-Gets very serious when a camera is around.  I can never capture those smiles!
-Likes watching football with daddy and reality TV with mom occasionally.

I'd rather not look at the camera, mom!

-Is close to rolling over (back to tummy).  He will get all the way over to his side but hasn't flipped over yet.
-Loves to be held "thrown over your shoulder" style so he can look around.  He's got great head control.
-Prefers to face out now rather than at whomever is holding him.

What'd I do??

He's getting so big and his little personality is starting to shine through.  I'm sure I'll say this every month, but this is such a fun time with him!

We love you Nate!!  You're the best thing your daddy and I have ever done!!!

Baptized!

Nate was baptized on Sunday, December 12, 2010 at the 11 am service.  He did great the whole time, did not fuss at all, and was so cute!  We had a brunch at our house for everyone afterwards.  The only down side of things was that Michael's parents had to travel to Minnesota earlier in the week and got caught in the blizzard that blew through!  Flights were cancelled and long story short, they weren't able to get back in time for the ceremony.  We missed them, but we were excited to witness our son becoming a child of God and making our vow to raise him in the church.  It was a very special day!

Proud parents!

Screeeeeech!!

Nate has discovered how exciting screaming can be.  He's so vocal these days--it's so fun!  A short video of a recent conversation I had with him.  Love that kid!

Thanksgiving, Back to Work and Nanny Diaries!

Whew.  Its been a busy couple of weeks! 

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with our families, however, we did experience our first (of many, I'm sure) Nate injury.  Right as we were sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner, we noticed a wasp flying overhead.  My parents had been having issues with these little creatures getting in the duct work and coming through the recessed lighting.  Nate was tucked in his car seat in the corner by the table.  We started eating and I noticed the wasp flying over the car seat.  You can see where this is going.  We should have moved him, but I didn't want to overreact.  Well, the next thing I saw, the wasp was crawling up my sweet babe's face and then onto his hand!  I panicked and immediately went into protective mom mode.  I jerked Nate (probably a little too forcefully) out of his car seat and ran with him into the other room.  He of course started wailing.  I looked and he suffered a sting on his little chubby cheek!!  Luckily, the stinger wasn't in his skin and it was very superficial.  We put some baking soda paste on it and that seemed to help a lot.  He cried for about 30 minutes and was fine.  Me...I cried for 2 hours!  I felt terrible and was so worried he was going to have some allergic reaction or something.  Fortunately, everything was fine, but what a horrible feeling to see your child hurt!  Lesson learned: always listen to your gut mommy instinct...its ok to be the "crazy mom" for a little peace of mind.

Our little turkey pre-sting:

In other news, I started back to work this week.  Fortunately, Michael has a pretty relaxed schedule in December and is able to take care of Nate during the day this month.  That has made the transition back so much easier.  I miss my little man like crazy, but it is not as bad knowing Michael is with him.

We also found a great nanny to take care of Nate beginning in January!  We used care.com to search for caregivers, which I highly recommend.  We conducted 3 first round interviews, and had home visits with two of them.  We were all set to hire one nanny, who we thought would work just fine, when we met with Amy.  She blew us away.  She is such a sweetie and a good Christian girl.  She immediately fit right in with Michael and I and seemed to take to Nate (I mean, how could you not?).  Her references were stellar and everyone just loved her.  Fortunately, she accepted the job and is just as excited as we are to have her join our little family.  Yay!!  I'm so thankful we found her.

New Tricks

Nate is constantly amazing us.  Not only is he so cute...

He's also learned some new tricks.  This is often the view we have when we first put him down at night.

I'm too happy to sleep.

Hello?  Can you see me??

I think he sees the green light on the monitor and the red infrared lights, but who knows.  It is pretty funny though.

Nate is also discovering his voice more.  He loves to talk with Daddy--I took a short video from the other night of their "conversation".  Precious!

 

Sorry for the poor quality...bad lighting!

3 Months!

Nate turned 3 months old this past Monday. 

What are you doing Mom?

It is crazy how time is flying by--I know everyone says this but I didn't fully understand until I experienced it myself!  We are loving our little man more and more each day.  He is starting to get a little personality and is so much fun already.  Its amazing how someone who can't talk, walk or eat solid foods has us completely wrapped around his little pinky!

At 3 months, Nate wears 0-3 months/3 month clothing and size 1 diapers.  He is eating about 4 oz every 3 hours.  We are on a pretty good eating schedule.   He is sleeping from about 7:30pm/8:00pm until 1:30pm/2:30pm, then gets up to eat and goes back down until around 5 am.  He eats then and goes back to sleep until about 6:30 am.  He isn't on a really routine nap schedule yet, but generally takes a morning nap around 9:00 am, another around 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm.  And typically, the naps occur in his swing--he LOVES his swing!

He is smiling and cooing. 

He loves his car rides (generally sleeps through them) and loves to look out the window.  He thoroughly enjoys looking at the brown wall and the painting by his changing table.  He often smiles and talks to the picture.

Love my brown wall!

His favorite place to plat is his activity mat.  He goes nuts batting Freddie the Firefly and the hanging octopus

Here is a short video of Nate playing:

Nate also love George, his giraffe Wubbanub.  It is never far away!

We started going to Gymboree and he seems to really like it so far.  We spend our day running around Dallas trying to enjoy every minute before I have to go back to work!

We love you Nathaniel and can't wait to continue to watch you grow!  The upcoming holidays are going to be so much fun with you here!!