Rollin', rollin', rollin'

 

Happy 4 months Nathan!!  Thanks to Nathan's discovering how to roll on his stomach, he is sleeping awesome now!  I still put him down on his back, but he rolls over almost immediately.  He started off sleeping from around 9pm - 4:30am or so.  Luckily he would go back to sleep after I fed him.  Then the other night he slept from 8:30pm - 7am!!!  Of course I woke up thinking I heard him at some point, but did not.  We are loving this new trend, but know it will only last until the dreaded teething starts.  And just this past week, he started to roll from his stomach onto his back.  I have yet to see it, but believe Mimi and Pop's account of it happening. 

One thing I've noticed recently is that Nathan's eye that had been clogged seems to have cleared up on its own.  I'm super excited about this, because I didn't want him to have to go through any procedures to clear it up no matter how "minor" they are.

Two weeks ago we also decided to try giving Nathan rice cereal.  He did really well eating it, but an unintended consequence we discovered was it made him constipated.  So we have since put off giving him more for the time being.  Hopefully his stomach will continue to mature and we can try it again soon.

Happy belated Easter!  I'm a horrible mother and forgot to get a picture of Nathan on his first Easter.  We were in such a hurry to get out the door for the early morning service that there just wasn't time.  There isn't an excuse for why I didn't get one afterwards... 

Nicholas LOVES dying Easter eggs

 The Easter bunny came...

One of his favorites was some "Engineer Turtle" (AKA Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtle) socks that were in the big egg below.

So handsome - he was hesitant to put on the tie at first, but didn't take it off all day once he put it on

Nicholas recently had a big wedding he was a part of.  "Q" and "U" got married at his school and he was one of the groomsmen.  It was really pretty cute and he was excited about the whole thing.  They even had a reception afterwards.  Several weeks ago, we registered him for Kindergarten.  I think he is excited about it.  We are keeping our fingers crossed he gets Mrs. Bell (AKA Uncle Brad's sister) for his teacher. 

Finally, Nathan is able to stick his foot in his mouth.  We think he is teething, since he loves chewing on anything (his hands, our hands, toys, etc).  Only time will tell...

Of course Nicholas had to get in on the foot chewing action too...

Big Beach Weekend

Besides this being Nathan's first time to the beach, he also had a big first while we were there.  Thanks to Gigi having a tennis tournament at the Beach Club, we were able to visit for a long weekend.  We headed down Thursday afternoon.  Nathan did really well - sleeping for the first 3 hours of the trip.  When he woke up, it was time for him and the rest of us to have dinner so we stopped for about 30 minutes in Atmore.  The next leg of the trip wasn't quite as quiet.  Nathan fussed for about 45 minutes or so, but finally gave up and slept for the remainder of the drive.  Nicholas of course was good watching movies the whole time, but towards the end kept asking the ever popular "are we there yet?"  

The weather was gorgeous and Nicholas had a blast.  Every night he crashed and burned.  Friday evening while we were all eating dinner, Nathan was happy just playing on the floor.  Every now and then we would peek over the couch to make sure he was ok.  One time Gabe looked over and discovered that he was on his stomach (originally he was on his back).  Over the next few days, he rolled over a few more times.  He is pretty quick too, so you have to keep an eye on him.  Every time he rolled over his left side on to his stomach.

What are you guys looking at??

Nicholas loved the indoor pool and was very social with anyone else that came in - including three cheerleaders visiting for a competition.  Daddy thinks he could be trouble later on...

 It was a bit windy for Nathan but he still enjoyed the beach!

Nicholas would have stayed out there all day if we would have let him.  (And we probably would have except our pale boy would get burnt to a crisp)

 

This was also our first attempt to give Nathan a bath in a sink.  God bless baby bath tubs!  This did not look very comfortable for him. 

Thank you PawPaw and Gigi for a wonderful beach weekend!

One Year Ago

One year ago today, Gabe and I headed to Brookwood for a routine visit and came home Sunday with a brand new baby boy.  Nicholas has opened our eyes to a whole new world, one that is better because he is in it.  We love you booboo and look forward to many more birthdays! 

Friday morning was spent at Portrait Innovations getting his pictures made.  The last time we went was for his 3 month pictures.   I had called to get the earliest appointment, but for some reason when we got there I wasn't in the system.  An hour and a half and over a hundred dollars later, we left with a tired baby (or I should say toddler now) and some super cute pictures (they had to crop my arms out of a few of them).   

Friday evening we had another first.  Nicholas took his first steps!  Gigi, Pawpaw, Daddy and I were all in the living room last night after eating some dinner.  Nicholas was between the the love seat and lazy-boy standing up.  He took one step towards the coffee table and then realized he would be much better off to go to the lazy-boy, which was much closer.  Gigi was so excited she screamed out.  I saw the last bit of it and Pawpaw and Gabe unfortunately didn't see it at all.  He has since taken steps that everyone saw.  So exciting! 

Unfortunately Nicholas had a rough night after that.  He went to bed around 9 but woke up an hour later screaming like he hadn't screamed in many, many months.  Nothing worked to console him (rocking, teething ring, a car ride, etc) until of course we put on Baby Einstein.  It was very reminiscent of when he was just born and we had no clue what the problem was or how to fix it.  This time we suspect that it is teething pain that is bothering him because he has been drooling a lot, but haven't seen any new teeth pop through.  Hopefully it is his teeth and they will soon pop through. 

We had his birthday party today at Leeds First Baptist.  It was perfect with all our family, lots of pizza and beautiful cakes that Mimi made.

Nicholas received plenty of wonderful gifts including:  a baby pool, some cute clothes, a Radio Flyer riding toy, helicopter toy, some building blocks and much more!  Thank you all so much for coming and sharing in this special day.  It was perfect! Here are some pics from today (Nicholas was just a bit tired by the time we got to opening his presents):

Just hanging out at the party

All our family

"Where's my cake?"

"Not sure about this sugar stuff..."

"What's this?"

The girls helping us out

And to finish the day, a special birthday bubble bath

  

Happy First Birthday Nicholas! 

Proved me wrong

Well, Nicholas decided to prove me wrong and started crawling yesterday.  I had it set in my mind that he just wasn't going to crawl at all, but go straight to walking.  Mimi and Pop discovered this yesterday while up at their house and then he also crawled after we brought him home.  He had been able to get on his hands and knees for awhile, but now he has put it in motion.  He crawled the "normal" way on hands and knees.  I think it would have been funny to see the "crab" crawl - hands and feet or the "army" crawl - using his elbows to get around.

Watch out Bama!  He's coming to get you!

Crazy Eyes

This is a long one, so just bear with me...

So Tuesday, Nicholas woke up from his morning nap at Mimi and Pop's and sounded like he was "barking" after fussing.  His voice was a bit off and had the sounds of the "croup".  We decided to take him to the doctor.  Granted this was the first time he had any signs or symptoms of being sick, so I wanted to nip it in the bud before it progressed into something bad.  Luckily Dr. Whitaker saw him without calling ahead and during their lunch break (Note to self:  Greenvale closed between 1 and 2pm).

He didn't have any fever, his chest sounded fine and ears looked good, but Dr. Whitaker did see a little something down his throat.  They decided to give Nicholas a steroid shot to open up his airways and gave me a two-day prescription to help as well.  He also recommended running a humidifier or if needed steam up the bathroom and take him in there.    

All I can say is that I'm glad Mimi caught it when she did and called me because Nicholas didn't really get sick.  We did everything the doctor told us to do and Nicholas has slept great the past few nights.  Granted his naps have been off for various reasons, but at least he is sleeping.  He still coughs and sneezes on occasion, but nothing to be concerned about. 

As if all that wasn't enough for him, today I took him to get his eyes checked for free at Chelsea Eye Care.  Dr. Whitaker had told us several months back about a program called InfantSee that provides free eye exams for infants age 6 - 12 months old.  I normally wouldn't have been interested, but since Ryan (my brother) had issues with his vision since birth I thought it couldn't hurt, plus it was free.  Dr. Walker was great with him.  Nicholas wasn't a big fan of her putting all kinds of opthamologic (??) stuff in his face, but was as patient as a 10 month old could be.  The funniest part of this visit was when Dr. Walker put eye drops in to dialate his eyes.  After putting drops in, we had to wait 15 minutes for her to examine him again.  Well apparently she missed one of his eyes because he had one pupil completely dialated and huge and the other was normal.  It was the funniest looking thing.  Hilarious stuff! 

The prognosis is that Nicholas is a little farsighted and has one eye stronger than the other, but all in all everything looked good.  I'm sure he's hoping he won't have any more poking or proding to deal with for a long time. 

This week Nicholas has become very proficient at pulling himself up.  In the beginning his feet had to be in the right position and he had to have something really good to hold on to, but now he pops up like it's no thing.  He has also mastered "cruising" (aka - holding on to furniture and walking - or more like shuffling).  He continues to have no desire to crawl, which I am pretty certain he will just not do.  Goodnight everyone! 

I knew it!

So in my last blog, I was worried that Nicholas would wake up, sit up and then not go back to sleep.  Well every night this week he has gotten up around midnight and when I go in his room he is sitting up (one night he was sitting up and facing the door, just waiting on someone).  Granted we still think he is teething and this was the same routine that he went through last time a tooth came in, but still I called it! 

I also guessed that he would develop quickly at this point.  Well, today Nicholas stood up by himself for the first time. Again he was in his crib and I had him standing at the rails.  He likes to test himself and let go for a few seconds at a time.  After awhile of doing this he sat down.  It wasn't 5 seconds later that he was pulling himself back up and he finally made it.  He was so proud of himself!!  Ok what's next... crawling vs. walking?

 

Sitting Up

So this morning I was putting away clothes in Nicholas' room while he was playing in the crib.  He was laying on his stomach and when I turned around he was sitting up.  At first I thought I was crazy because it happened so quick and I didn't witness any of the process.  Then later on we were playing on the floor in the living room and he did it again.  He basically lays on his stomach rolls about halfway over and then pushes himself up until he can sit up.  It was so cool and with all his other major developments, he perfects his moves rather quickly.  I had to prove this really happened to Gabe and he did it several times this evening.  Now I'm just worried that he will wake up in the middle of the night, sit up and then not go back asleep.  Oh well - I guess we'll just have to wait and see. 

I have a feeling that over the next month or so things are going to change quickly.  It seems he is really close to pulling himself up and crawling/walking.  So exciting!!!   

Mama!

We experienced another first this morning! Nicholas started saying Mama! It was so awesome to hear him and a bit unexpected too. It took a few times to really make sure that was what he said. This afternoon, our good friends Nini and Holly stopped by and they heard him too, so it's legit and not just parents thinking our son is the prodigal child. Granted at this point the 'mama' is not directed at me, but we'll get there. Now we have to focus on him saying 'dada'...

Monkey see, Monkey do!

I know I haven't posted in awhile, so I will update everything that's been going on for his 8 month birthday post on Friday. Tonight we had the coolest thing happen! Over the past few weeks Nicholas has become more "chatty" and when he starts "talking" we would take our hand and cover his mouth rapidly so he would end up making the indian sound. Well tonight we had done it again a few times and then while Nicholas was sitting in my lap, he started "talking" and brought his hand to his mouth to make the same noises we had been doing. We tried of course to get it on tape, but by the time we got the video camera he wasn't too interested in it anymore. It was just so neat to see him actually copy us and learn to do it himself.

Things are going to change so quickly over the next few months/year. I'm so excited to see what cool things Nicholas will do next!

Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens

Happy New Year everyone! We ate the traditional black eyed peas and collard greens yesterday for good luck and money (actually I just had a few bites of each and let Gabe try to give us luck with his eating them). My New Year's resolution is to not stress over Nicholas' rate of development or focus on what is the "correct" way of parenting. Ever since Nicholas was born (and probably even while I was still pregnant) I constantly read books/blogs/internet about the best parenting techniques of newborns, etc. After 7 months I'm not even close to being an expert, but I have learned that things will happen when they happen and that all those parenting books aren't necessarily the right thing for you and your child. I feel that Nicholas is doing wonderful despite not following all the "experts" advice.

We have another first - Nicholas is crawling! (Sort of) He's actually going in reverse. He pushes off and slides back and can really go in reverse all the way across our living room. Stay tuned for a video clip. So does this count as crawling or do I wait until he goes forward to record this in his baby book?

Rolly Polly

In my attempt to track all of Nicholas' firsts, I'm puzzled. It just seems that for many firsts there isn't a real specific date to list. First time to hold his head up - well he was technically able to pull his head back the second day after he was born. First smile - well he would smile early on when he had gas or when he was sleeping, so when do you technically record that? Nicholas - I apologize if I'm not doing my motherly duty in recording all the correct dates. :-)

Yesterday is what I consider his first time to roll over from tummy to back. He has technically done it before a few weeks earlier, but he was attempting to look at the monitor above his crib, so I didn't really count that. Yesterday he was having tummy time on the floor and rolled over. He was on his tummy and rolled over his left side. Then today he was playing on the floor on his back while I was wrapping some Christmas presents. When I looked up he had flipped over his left side and onto his tummy. I was surprised because recently we could tell he was working to flip over, but it normally took a lot of effort.



Now we are going to be extra cautious when he is on the changing table. Also, it will make putting him to sleep a bit harder if he is still awake and flips onto his back. I'm just happy to see that he is progressing normally. Before long he will be scooting across the floor! Watch out Bama!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Gabe - Nicholas and I wish you a happy birthday! Gabe had the day off and spent it with Nicholas and also cutting the lawn. We had a delicious dinner at Mimi and Pop's followed by a combo platter of desserts.

Yesterday was another day of firsts. Nicholas and I had our first pumpkin carving (I know Pawpaw claims we did one when we were little, but sorry I don't remember it) :) Daddy carved a great scary pumpkin!





Then later that evening, Nicholas tasted his first baby food (besides cereal) - carrots. He gave us his customary grimace at the first bite, but soon learned to love them.




Finally, Gabe and I just have to laugh at this patch of dark hair at the back of Nicholas' head. It's the only hair left from when he was born. Crazy how dark his hair used to be!



Happy Birthday Gabe! We love you!

Another first!

This past weekend I've tried putting Nicholas down at night before he was actually asleep so he doesn't get used to us rocking him to sleep every night and so he learns how to self soothe. Well it didn't exactly work as he cried for about 20 minutes before I gave up and picked him up. I did however discover that both Saturday and Sunday night he flipped over on to his back not long after I put him down. I believe he had some help in flipping over as he loves staring at the lights on our video monitor camera set up at the corner of his crib. He will crane his neck to see the camera lights and I guess the weight of his head helps him flip over.

Gabe and I also recently discovered what others have been telling us for awhile... Nicholas loves flying over daddy's head. Sunday evening after getting his bath and jammies on, Nicholas was "flying" and proceeded to spit up his cereal dinner all over daddy. We have been told that "Yeah you will do that until the first time he spits all over you." I guess we have to experience all those great parent firsts to get the full effect of parenthood.

Another cereal eater in the family

For those of you who really know me, know that I can't go many days without my cereal (a Cheerios girl through and through). Well Sunday, we decided to introduce Nicholas to rice cereal. While most of it did end up on his bib, he seemed to get the concept of a spoon rather than a bottle and by the end kept more in his mouth than on him.

Finally got to try out my highchair!


This doesn't look like my bottle.


I'm not so sure about this stuff...