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! 

Finally another tooth

Nicholas' last teething episode was in February, so needless to say we have been wondering when that next tooth was going to pop out.  Every time he was the least bit cranky (which really isn't all that often) I would say "maybe he's teething".  Yesterday, Nicholas only napped about 1.5 hours and was extremely cranky.  This time I thought it was just due to the lack of sleep, until I saw this morning that his bottom left tooth had popped.  Luckily he slept really well last night (around 7:30pm to 7:00am). 

His latest development is pointing at everything.  It is the cutest thing!  Mimi has even taught him to point at your nose when you ask him where it is.  It's still hard to believe that his birthday is next Saturday!  All  the invitations have been sent and we are planning to have an awesome Birthday/Memorial Day weekend, which will include having his pictures taken at Portrait Innovations.  It will be interesting to see how this picture session compares to his last one when he was three months old and just learning to hold his head up.  

The weaning process seems to be going really well.  Nicholas hasn't seemed to notice a difference in the milk and I'm very happy to only pump once a day now.  Luckily we had our bonus frozen stash to help supplement. 

I'm so very thankful that everything has happened as it has...  Nicholas has not really been sick at all, the nursing went really well, he sleeps and eats really well.  I just thank God every day for our little guy and how blessed we are!

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!