4 months!

My Pumpkin Love,

You are 4 months old! Where did my newborn baby go?! You are one opinionated little boy these days. You sure do let mommy and daddy know how you feel - happy, sad, hurt, hungry, bored, silly...the list could go on. You went to the doctor today so we know your stats. You weigh 15 pounds 9 ounces and are 25.25 inches long. Both fall within the 50-75%. Great job big boy! You got a great bill of health from Dr. J and she was impressed that you already have your 2 bottom teeth. We are still working on straightening out your head and hopefully by your 6 month apt. it will be all rounded out. You are doing so much better on your tummy and you actually are enjoying yourself. You love to stand up and you are chewing on everything in sight. I must admit, I'm a bit concerned about germs, but everyone reminds me it will just build you immune system. You are such a fun baby. You light up with a great big smile when you are happy and you love spending time outside in this beautiful weather. I love spending time with you in the hammock in the backyard. You love to be in motion! Every night you and your dad play in the pillows on the bed and you squeal with delight being "thrown" into the pillows. You are getting much better at "jumping" in your jumparoo and it's so fun to watch you grow up each and every day. I love you B-man!

1st Teeth

Earlier this week (2.22.11) Bennett cut his first tooth and the next day, his 2nd! He now has two budding bottom teeth. I'll show you the evidence:





I will admit, teething isn't my favorite phase, but it sure is neat seeing him grow up!

Coming up next week...B's 4 month letter, picture, and stats!

Number 1 Dad

Dave is an amazing father! From the moment our relationship started getting serious I knew his number one goal was to become a father - and he is a wonderful one. Here are just a few reasons why he is the number 1 dad in my book:

-says “don’t worry about the house, take a nap today” more than once a week
- puts B back to sleep at 3:30am when I’m too tired to do it
-always takes B anytime after 5:00am so I can sleep uninterrupted and only wake to feed him
-watches B any night I need him so I can go out with my girlfriends
-supports my choice to stay at home with B right now or would support my choice to go back to work – happy mommy, happy baby
-in the same vein as the one above – he is supportive of breastfeeding B right now, and just wants me to do what I want to do. He is a great cheerleader when it gets hard
-works hard to support our family financially
- goes on walks with us every evening that we want to
-plays with B in such a fun, cute way (B loves "talking" with daddy)
-does the dishes – all the time
-keeps our finances straight
-will watch the Bachelor with me : ) and laugh after a rough day with a teething baby

Being a SAHM is a great job but a tough one and I am so lucky to have a husband who supports our family in such wonderful ways.

Photoshop

I have had Photoshop on my computer for a while now but have never used it. I began getting interested in figuring it out a few weeks ago and have been playing around with it. It is confusing to me! I figure the more I tinker with it the better I will be. Here is a picture I did today.

Before:


After:


The main things I did were remove the scratches from his face (don't worry I cut his nails today), lighten it up, and make the leaves brighter.
It's fun having such a cute subject to play around with!

Movin' On Up

The time finally came to move B out of his bassinet in our room to his crib in his nursery. In retrospect it was a little silly that I was so caught up in how his nursery was going to look when I knew he wouldn't sleep in there for a few months. Oh well!

Dave and I decided to get a new bedroom set. We have been wanting a king sized bed for a while now and now seemed like the right time. We spent 2 weekends shopping and found a set we liked at Havertys. I was also really impressed with the sales team. They were respectful and not overly pushy (hard to find with furniture sales).
Here is the set:


The new bedroom set will be delivered on Saturday so we needed to move the bed from our room up to a guest room. We had the energy last night so we did the move then (we now have 2 queen beds, a daybed with a trundle, and a king on the way...plenty of beds!) Since B's nursery is upstairs it made sense for us to transition him into his crib while we would be next door for a few nights. This was more for my peace of mind of course! We have a great video monitor, but our bedroom is downstairs and with 1-2 (sometimes 3 - yikes!) wake ups a night I thought being next door would be more convenient that going up and down the stairs. Last night went well and I honestly didn't worry about him not being right next to me in his bassinet. It might sound weird, but I can see him better on the monitor than I could in the dark so really it isn't a big deal that he's not in our room. We will see how the rest of the week goes and I can't wait to have our new big bed!

This is the bedding I've ordered from Pottery Barn. We will see what I think of it when it's delivered later today - I liked it online.

Snow Day

Last Friday (2.4.11) we had a snow day! This was actually Bs 2nd snowfall - the 1st was when we got caught in the blizzard in NJ over Christmas vacay - but this was the 1st one in his home state of Texas.
Snow doesn't come this way often, but when it does it is time for celebration. I will always remember a snow day on my birthday when I was in 5th grade (we were in Dallas at the time).

Here is B standing in the snow

Naps

Now that B is 3+ months I want to get him on a routine. I have been doing the E.A.S.Y routine with him since he was about 2 months old, but hadn't really been that strict or paying too much attention to it. E.A.S.Y stands for eat, activity,sleep, you time (in that order). He is great at the order but his naps have only been 30 minutes and then he eats again 2 hours after he started his last feeding. This schedule doesn't give me much "you time." I've read somewhere that at 30 minutes they transition into another phase of sleep and some babies wake at this point instead of continuing to sleep. Today I decided that when he wakes at the 30 minute mark I will try and put him back to sleep. Well...it worked! He has been sleeping for 1 hour and 20 minutes so far in this nap! That is big progress : ) This routine is in the book "B.aby Whisper" which I read early on but haven't picked it up in a while. I liked the thinking of the book, but don't want to feel like a bad mom if he doesn't conform just the way they say. I know this is a personal deal of mine that I need to get over, but for now that's the way it is.

I'll leave you with some cute pics...





Oh and he's still sleeping...1 hour 47 minutes so far and I got to eat lunch!

3 months!

Bugaboo (current nickname),

You are 3 months old and I swear that each month I say I want to freeze time and keep you that way, but each month seems to get better and better! You are full of smiles now, but you are also quite a serious baby at times. You definitely know your mama and have begun to show favor towards me. It would be crazy to say I don’t feel special when you cry for me, but I really want you to feel comfortable with your dad and grandparents as you do with me. I guess that’s what happens when we spend all day together! I love this age because you are becoming such a little boy. It is so much easier to tell what you need when you start to fuss and you are so easy to take out and about. You love looking at the surroundings. We still take walks to the mailbox and you love seeing the trees and the sunshine. You are a great Texas baby! You take 3-4 naps a day that range in length from 30 min – 2 hours. I never know when the long one will be so it is a bit hard to plan around. You are 15 pounds according to our scale at home. It is amazing to me that you have doubled your birth weight! You sure do love to eat and still eat about every 2.5 hours during the day. At night you still have one long stretch of sleep for 6-8 hours or so then you wake up more frequently towards the morning. You really get up for the day around 6:30-7:00. I love being home with you during the day and I can’t wait until we start some playdates. Soon the weather will be warm again and we will be outside much more. You love swinging with me in the hammock and I’m excited to get you your own swing for the tree. You enjoy chewing on just about anything you can find, and the drool is coming in full force! I’m wondering when we will start seeing little teeth pop through. You still don’t like tummy time, but you are able to hold your head up for longer periods of time now and you love sitting in your Bum.bo chair. It is so cute to see you squished in there! You have some favorite toys now (the loop-de-loop and Sophie) and it is fun to watch you interact with the hanging toys on your play gym. We really have to be careful because you love looking at the TV if it is on in the living room. It seems no matter where you are positioned your head always finds its way to the screen. That is a habit we have to break asap! You go to the doctor at the end of the month for your 4 month check up. You will have more shots and she will take a look at your head. We aren’t noticing much progress unfortunately, but your hair is rubbing off in places so you have spots of dark hair that look so cute. You still sleep in the bassinet in our room, but are getting close to growing out of it. We plan to move you to your nursery soon. I will miss you, but know you will do great!
You are such a joy to us and we love you so much! We can’t wait to see what month 4 brings!