Funtimes

This weekend we took Sean up to see his Gigi and Pop-Pop up in Bawlmer hon. It was fun to watch them interact. Sean had a blast and thank god, only woke up once through the night. I always wonder how he'll do when we're away from home, but he's for hte most part pretty good. We went for a fancy dinner with a few of their friends, very fun to "Corks" in Federal Hill, very nice (not kid friendly) but very good food and wine! Mamma indulged a bit even though I'm still nursing, its ok--just one and a little formula later doesn't hurt. 

We're really excited we bought Sean an "exersaucer" from a Mom here in Old Town.

It's all cleaned up and almost ready for action. Tonight we'll see how he does in it, he's dying for some fun he's gets easily bored these days and hates lying around in the boppy and the bouncer and on a blanket--he's such a boy! I'm afraid that little window of "baby" is growing smaller and smaller. So was the case atleast in "Corks" as well. No more sleeping thru dinner it appears, wah wah wahhhh!

Sunday we went back to Annapolis to look at the boats. Daddy is a big sailor so was really excited to look at the boats and race that was there for "M24's" Melges 24 World Championship. Sean was very excited too :).

Cereal - Ugh! Still hates it but we're keeping it coming. I've trying it tonight mixed with Apple Sauce. He's got that baby reflex that auto rejects it. It's sad but hilarious all at the same time. One day he'll like this stuff! We've tried a cereal from Whole Foods - Earths Best, hated it now we're on Gerber Mixed Cereal, hopefully fingers crossed he'll like it better!

Reading, Playing & Cereal

Sean is doing so much more these days. It seems like it happened overnight. All of a sudden he’s reading, writing and holding his own public speaking engagements.

His favorite book to date is a book from his friend Mrs. Cartlidge, lovingly entitled “Noisy Pals”. I believe you can get that here. He reads it all the time, even over coffee on Sunday mornings after he finishes the NY Times. When’s done examining all the images on one page, then the other, he attempts to hit the side of the page with his fist—which we interpret as ‘hey I’m done here folks, page-turn please’.

Last weekend one of Eko's best friends came to visit and brought Sean two very cute, very notorious stuffed animals. Sean would not stop holding Minnie and was mystified by her polka dotted bow. He's playing with toys now and holding things with two hands, a huge achievement!

So we need some advice... He hates rice cereal--bad, real bad. It's painful trying to get him to like it. He's 4 months old and 18 pounds, so he definitely does not need it for the weight, just the act of learning how to chew. The minute a little bit touches his lips he sticks out his tongue and throws his chest out. Maybe we'll try another kind?

At his 4 month check up the doctor said, more tummy time and more cereal! He's got a big body so they are telling me its harder for bigger kids to lift themselves. He does but she wants to see more. :)

He's sleeping "through the night" 8:45pm-7am--this is new thank god! He was getting up once a night for the past 3 months but the entire night is a huge gift for Mom! He's huge--he's really tall for his age, we'll see if that sticks b/c we're not that big. The weight is holding strong and he's at 95% for both weight and height so he's in proportion, we were worried he was a chunky boy, but he's good. :) My favorite part you ask? Yep, those little baby rolls of fatty and the second chinny chin chin.

Baby Necklace

I wanted to share something that I recently received for my birthday that is quite possibly the cutest thing ever. My sister and her husband bought me a beautiful handmade necklace from an artist, Rosalynn Borsky, in Utah. She makes absolutely lovely dainty necklaces that come with so much meaning. The necklace is a round piece of silver with a little pearl dangling in the center, Seans birthstone, and his name engraved aroudn the bottom. It is precious and I will keep it forever.

Thank you Joanne and thank you Rosalynn!

Check out her store here: rhbdesigns.etsy.com
-Nicola

Serious Weight Lifting

It takes a village to lift our heads :). Much more happy now lifting my own head and trying to do push-ups. So fun to watch!

The fun happens at 4 months....

Since he hit four months he's gone from a cute piece of furniture to a movable baby with giggles, laughs, funny noises and sitting up (well sort of). He's so much fun and loves to play. Presenting our bumbo or as I call it at home "Le Bumbo" just to make it fancy. Loves it, but his chunky thighs present a problem for long-term use. :) Our 4 month old is wearing 6-9 and sometimes 12 month shirts. Scary! I can't wait until our appointment tomorrow to see how much he weighs, last weigh in was 16lbs., that was a month ago. :)

..and "the blue steel"...

A few cute things... (I Sew-wanna)

I just can't help it there are so many cute things out there for baby and so many great ideas... Here are just a few I've come across recently, ps I love free stuff, just sayin'.

• Jumbo Go Go Go! Car - K's Kids
• "Young Man" print from Hayley & Lucas
• Foam Tiles from SkipHop
• Sammy the Seagull silkscreen print
  

Chilly Room = Crying Baby +/= No Sleep for Moms

So... Northern VA usually has a long fall, but all of a sudden it's instant winter here. The weather has gotten colder and baby wasn't sleeping -- maybe he was cold?

Someone said to me, 'he's a summer baby, he doesn't know what cold is yet'. Duh! Maybe, just maybe with the changing seasons he's gotten colder and the temp in the house has slightly changed. Maybe that's why he's not sleeping as well? So last night we busted out the long sleeve fleece zip-up sleepy sac from Carters and baby slept through the night. Woohoo! Well, woke at 1:30am but then went back down until 7am. Success!

Pic from our happy baby this a.m.:

Dangerously addictive...

New site I'm already plugging and its only been 5 minutes... Dangerous, thanks Adam. :)

The Freecycle Network

Sicky

So little Sean has a cold, a little one. He has been fussy since this weekend and it hasn't stopped turning into the sniffles and a tiny little random cough. It's so sad he looks up at me like 'Mom what is going on?'. So sad but so cute I just wanna run home and cuddle him. We've been trying Little Noses spray and Baby Tylenol but so far not much has changed. A good warm bath may be in order for tonight.

He's officially out of his little baby socks, his feet are huge! I'm on the hunt for ones that stay on. Any suggestions?

A few more milestones for Sean... he's trying to hold things with BOTH hands (woohoo) he can't quite make a full rollover yet, but we're almost there. Has begun to pull his head up when we lift him--its a big one, he blows bubbles that sound like words. :) He is mezermized by leaves. Whenever we take him outside he just stares up at the trees in complete amazement, its' adorable I need to get a pic of this. His little eyes are so sensitive to light its unreal. The minute you go outside he squints and the second sun hits his face he fusses a little and closes his eyes. If there is light coming into his room he literally covers his face with his arm, if he's trying to sleep. It's too cute. Over the past two weeks he's started to giggle--you tickle his sides and he giggles its precious. Before he was looking up at us like 'what is going on here?', now we're getting giggles its great. Last night Mehmet and Lisa came by with little Olivia, she's so big now. She loves Sean and apparently at home calls herself Nikki while pushing around her teddy called "Sean". I love it!

Pic from this weekend before things got bad:

Moment of Zen

You know that commercial for Ikea where the crazy lady thinks she's getting such an amazing deal and tells her husband to 'step on it' b/c she thinks she must be stealing?

Well, it happened to me.

I mentioned this coupon last week, little did I know it would provide me with a moment of Zen. It's one of those coupons that pops out when you get your receipt. 'Buy one get one free' on Enfamil premium cans. Well, I went in thinking it would only work on the small ones, but guess what -- it works on the large $25 jumbo cans!

So there I was running out of the Giant with 2 large $25 cans of Enfamil Premium, one of them FREE baby! I tried to share my excitement with my husband, who like many of you has become increasingly cautious with funds now that we're with baby, lets just say all I got a "that's great hon, is that why you called?"

Hi

Jake & Sean

The way things were in June...

Four months later! (Thanks Jo!)

Hello Again

So, I've been really really slacking on updating this page! So here goes a round two.

Hey, I've been enjoying my life as a new mommy and recently getting back into work-mode as a working mommy. So that's 2 major transitions sisters. Wait, there's more... Breastfeeding Engineer, Poop Technician, Smile and Giggle Jockey, 'OMG his clothes are already not fitting' Inspector, Sleep Protector (thanks Jo), new Moms Group member, Wanna be fashionista, Nanny Interviewer, Gas Systems Analyst, Diaper Detailer, Snap-n-Go Slave, Car Seat Commissioner, Paci Promoter and Mom.

Our little Sean is now 4 months old--as of yesterday. I laughed, I cried and the hormones don't stop, well they've leveled off, thank god--but worth every second. Mommyhood has changed me. For a while there I was trying to be perfect with everything I did. Only feed every 2.5 hours (well he is screaming), only nap in crib (ok anywhere he can get it), don't give him a paci/no do b/c a fingers just a dirty (ok anything to soothe him) and so on and so on. Now I'm so chill, but it might have something to do with these new 4 mo. old night screams... This past weekend we went back up to my sisters for a fall family get together--so much fun and Sean woke up 2 hours after going down (which btw is the strangest mom expression) screaming bloody murder. He did this again on Sunday night and last night was filled with little distant whines every two hours for food. No fever, nothing hanging off, many tears, no signs of teeth. So we've put it down to the age-old "he's going thru a growth spurt". (another new expression I love which is the best catch-all way to feel relief.)

I was so consumed with getting everything right that little by little I was figuring it "all out" I had to force quit and go with the flow. Something I 'thought' I was doing from the beginning. But, like everything else in this life, he'll survive--as long as he's bathed, changed, fed, put to bed and most of all loved.

We love our little Sean, he definitely has his own little personality now. Everyone that meets him says 'wow what a good baby', 'he's so chill', 'he's so alert!'. He's moved on from the 0-3 months 'just laying there' to almost sitting up, tickles, giggling, pinching, holding his own hands, examining our faces and noises and beginning to take on little boy-isms. We introduced rice cereal to our little chunker mainly to get him to stretch out that every 2.5 hour feeding and fill him up, let alone learn how to eat. He's 16 lbs and lovely.

Some things a new mom should have:

Bebe Au Lait Nursing Cover: (Saves me from being weird about breastfeeding in public!) What is so great about it--is the wire around the neck, you can check on little man while he feeds. Not so great, wish it had a white liner on the inside he becomes easily distracted, but it's a good reminder for me to stay in tune!



Alexabella Pacifier Clip: This little ditty I wish I'd made, but as a new mom you have zero time to fart around. Big life saver when bringing little one outside into the world! Plus, it came with a fancy silver clip that works on any outfit.The Wubbanub Infant Pacifier -- Sean took this really well, b/c he couldn't hold the regular smoothie in his mouth. He lays his hands on top of this little guy and it stays put! Great idea!