Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mother's out there, I wish you a sincere Happy Mother's Day!  I never quite appreciated the love that a mother has for their child until Nicholas was born.  He means the world to me and it's hard to believe that last year at this time, he was kicking around in my belly and we were anxiously awaiting his arrival.  I couldn't have asked for a more thoughtful, supportive and loving father for my son, so Gabe I thank you for everything you do and for Nicholas. 

This weekend Gigi and Pawpaw were in the B'ham area for the state tennis tournament.  Nicholas and I were able to go watch some of their matches at Brook Highland.  We are so proud of our Gigi and Pawpaw for making it this far and for how they played. It makes me want to pick up my racket again (or just watch the US Open).  I have to say I take for granted how wonderful a baby Nicholas is.  Whenever we go anywhere (to the tennis matches, church nursery, etc) everyone always comments on what a good baby he is.  Nicholas loves watching people and is content to just sit and take everything in.  He is only fussy when something is wrong (lack of sleep, hunger) and even then he can be such a trooper on very little sleep.       

I also want to thank everyone for all of my birthday cards and wishes.  My chef of a husband made me sweet and sour chicken and cheese won tons FROM SCRATCH and also baked me a delicious strawberry cake (after seeing pictures of my friend Stacey's strawberry cake I couldn't get it off my mind!  So good!).  He also gave me a wonderful gift of Home Designer software, which I have been able to transfer my rough, pencil to paper drawing of our dream home to an actual program that measures square footage, gives you a 3D camera view of the home, etc. 

Happy Mother's Day and also Happy Birthday to my sweet niece Elizabeth who turns 2 today!

11 Months Old!

Apparently Nicholas was excited to start off his 11th month because as I went to get him this morning, I see light coming through the crack in his bedroom door.  He had flipped the light switch on and was playing in his crib.  Is there a baby proofing gadget that works on light switches??

So many things have changed this past month, that I'm not sure where to start.  Just within this past month Nicholas started to sit up by himself, pull himself up, cruise, crawl, walk with some help and is standing really well.  I have a feeling that in the future whenever anyone asks me when Nicholas did something I will say "Probably 10 months."  It's amazing to see how quickly he has changed and has mastered these things only after a few days.

Nicholas talks a lot!  It seems like he has "mama" or "dada" stages.  One week it's just mama and the next it's just dada.  He also says "nana", "desh", "boo", "gaga", and a bunch of other "words" that I couldn't even begin to describe.  Nicholas loves bath time - mainly because of daddy tickling him beforehand and because of his hammerhead shark and starfish bath toys during.  Nicholas LOVES Bama, our beagle (and if daddy has anything to say about it, the school too).  He smiles whenever he comes in the room and will crawl after him back and forth from the living room to the kitchen since Bama doesn't stay anywhere for more than a few seconds.

Unfortunately, the teeth grinding stage has come back with a vengeance.  I still say that is the most horrible noise ever.  Nicholas has started to do a great impression of Michael Jordan and sticks out his tongue all the way.  We have yet to get a picture of this, but I'm sure we will.  This past month was the first time for Nicholas to attend the nursery at our church.  We had absolutely nothing to worry about as he was the only baby in his age class and therefore had three women doting on him the whole time.  Needless to say he smelled like perfume the rest of the day.  

His sleep has been off the majority of this month (waking up around midnight or 4am).  Thankfully, Nicholas has been back to his 8pm - 6am schedule this past week.  However, as I'm writing this he is fighting going to bed.  Hopefully he won't find that light switch.   

This next month will include a LOT of changes for Nicholas (and me for that matter).  Starting next week, we will begin the weaning process from nursing, bottles and breast milk.  This is really exciting for various reasons.  I will have reached my goal of nursing him for the recommended first year and I'm very anxious to put the pump and all it's parts away for a very long time!!  Also, in the not so distant future we will switch car seats from the rear facing to forward facing, which means that mama gets to sit in the front seat again on long car trips!  Woohoo!

Happy 11 Months BooBoo!  It won't be long before we are celebrating the big day!

Hot Tub Time

Nicholas has his own little mini pool right on our back porch. Sunday afternoon was perfect to test out the waters with our little man. He was a little bit weary at first, but soon relaxed a bit.

I also just had to post a picture of the diaper wreath that I made for my friend Alicia. Her nursery theme is a cute girly jungle, which is too precious! I was so proud of it and if I could I would make these for a living, but I guess I'll stick to my day job for now... However, if anyone is interested in a diaper wreath, just let me know!  We can't wait to meet baby Reagan!

Video evidence

So here is proof that Nicholas is crawling. He mainly just goes after Bama (just as we suspected) and has even caught him a few times. With Nicholas chasing him and the storms we are having today, Bama has been a little scared. But the best is yet to come...

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!

Bama Boys

All the Davenport men headed to Tuscaloosa yesterday for the annual A-day game.  Daddy said Nicholas did really well and loved taking in all the sights and sounds.  Nini and Holly even made the trek across the entire stadium just to see our little man.  Luckily the weather was perfect for the trip and they were able to get some seats in the shade (even though they were MUCH higher than their normal seats). 

Never been this high up before...

So many people to watch!!

National Championship Nascar

  Holly and Nini just can't get enough of him!

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!