Back to work Mommy goes...

The time has come that I must return back to work. Every time I think about it, tears well up in my eyes. I just keep telling myself that E will be in good hands with his grandmas and auntie Laurie as they will be taking turns watching him while I finish these last 27 days of the school year. I then get to have another 3 months with my special little boy. It's going to be hard that first day, as I truly feel like my job on this earth now is to be a mom, not a teacher. However, I just continue to keep praying about it...as I trust that God will make me feel at peace with whatever His plan for me is. Please keep me in your prayers this week...

As far as our little boy, let's see. He is just perfect! He is definitely beginning to let us know what he likes and doesn't like. He now likes to sit up and stand up (with support of course), rather than lay down. I think he associates laying down with sleeping. He also has begun to clasp his hands together, truly suck his thumb, stare at his toes, use his exersaucer, mouth everything, and try his best to communicate. He enjoys going for rides in his stroller too! He is such a social boy. He loves being talked to and will remind you to keep talking if you've stopped for too long of a period. I can't complain...he's perfect!

Spring?

It is too early to say spring is here, it is only April and we can't plant our flowers yet. But last night was the first night we had our windows open and we heard the sounds of spring, which in our neighborhood is the croaking of the frogs along the lake filling the night air with a constant soothing sound. Loons on the lake also chime in as well as some wild turkey packs that roam our neighborhood. Spring may not be 100% here, but the sounds sure are these nights.

As I type I am entertaining our little guy by manually spinning the fan blades on our ceiling fan. If I don't pay attention, they will stop, and he will let me know by fussing. Even the lowest setting puts too much air on him so I am stuck with spinning them by hand. Here he goes fussing now, so I must go to spin them around again. Until next time.

He's found his thumb!

Whether Chad and I like it or not, our little guy has found his thumb! He's been sucking on his fist for quite awhile now, but hasn't managed to find his thumb consistently. However, the last few days he has successfully managed to find his thumb, pop it in his mouth, and smile away whenever he so chooses. I used to pull it out, stick the Nuk in, and hope he'd use that instead but after realizing that the little guy was going to spit the Nuk out and pop the thumb back in, I give up. We'll let him be...for the time being. :)

He has also discovered that his hand can grab onto his clothes too! So now, instead of just grabbing my hair or clothes, he has begun to grab his own clothes. This is how it goes. Using his left hand he grabs his clothes and his right hand he sucks his thumb. Hmm...I wonder if he'll be left handed, right handed, or both?? The verdict is still out.

I've also noticed that within the last few days he has begun to talk so much more! It seems to know what he's saying, so we imitate his sounds and boy does he get excited. He squeals and kicks his arms and legs about. It's no wonder he can support ALL of his body weight using his legs already! He gives himself a workout!

I just love the little guy...

Ten Toes and Five Fingers

Don't worry, E has all ten fingers, he just won't be adding the left ones to our baby album any time soon. As Amy will mention in her blog it was a monumental day today as our little guy turned 3 months. We got pictures taken at Penny's and we decided to foot and hand print him for his baby journal and two wall hangings we received as gifts.

I got out his hospital prints and compared them to his feet. Holy cow he had big feet when he was born! He's bigger now but his feet are only just a smidgen bigger!

I wanted to be efficient when we printed him, knowing that he would squirm so I laid out the book, the pieces to be framed, and an extra piece of paper so that we could quickly get the prints we needed. The feet proved to be the easy task. When we got to the hands it was quite different! He does not like to stretch out his fingers so getting ink on them and then getting him to stretch them out on the paper proved very, very difficult. In fact he was so pissed off after we did the right hand we decided not to do the left. It took several minutes to calm him down after the hand print. He wouldn't even take a pacifier.

We are now left with perfect pairs of foot prints and only a smugged right hand!

Sooo big!!!!

"E" is three months old today. I can't believe how fast he has grown. He now weighs 14 lbs 5 oz. It's scary to think that he's growing so fast! He's no longer so easy to carry anymore! We took him to get his pictures taken professionally today at JcPenny. He was a ham! He smiled and never cried once. The photographer told us he was such a good picture taker that it would be hard for us to pick out the pictures we wanted. So true! There wasn't a single bad picture to choose from. We are looking forward to picking up his pictures on April 20 to replace all of our wedding photos that are hanging on our walls. Times have changed.

"E" is doing all sorts of things now. He:

*puts himself to sleep in his bassinet now. All we have to do is lay him down and monitor his pacifier for a few minutes and he is out. He gets tired and wants to go to bed now around 7pm.

*wakes up twice in the middle of the night, usually around 2 and 5 am. This is much better than it was in the beginning! We feel like we finally get a good chunk of sleep.

*wakes up all smiley and happy between 7 and 8 am. It's nice not to wake up to crying!

*knows how to pass gas and even burp by himself without too many tears. No more major gas pains. Thank goodness!

*enjoys bathtime by splashing around and looking at himself in the mirror.

*smiles and even sometimes laughs when I whistle and make noises with my mouth. He also still responds to my "witch laugh".

*bats, kicks, and grabs onto objects dangling on his floor gym. He especially likes holding onto the monkey!

*loves car rides. He stays awake for a short time and then boom, falls asleep.

*sits up on the couch and only occassionally tilts to one side

*loves watching tv. We try our best to shield him!

*babbles

*shrieks when he is excited!

I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of anything right now. If I do, I'll come back to add it. Our next goal is to begin the transition from his bassinet in our room to his crib in his bedroom. We tried it one night but it was very stressful for me, as I was hearing every little noise on the baby monitor so I couldn't sleep. He did last 4 hours though in his crib. It was a great start! A slow transition (for all of us) will be nice.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! The Easter bunny came to our house early today! At around 8 am Amy went down to check to see if the holiday rabbit had come yet and sure enough, he did. I was entertaining our little guy on our bed when Amy called up stairs saying that the basket was hid. The boy let out a little shriek (no kidding, Amy heard him downstairs) and I then asked, "Are you ready to go find your basket?" He smiled and giggled so I knew he was ready.

I carried him around the living room a few times to see if he could spot it and soon I... I mean he... did. It was in his pack and play. He received some pacifiers, a teething rattle, a Thomas the Train Easter train, and some jingle toys for his carrier. He'll have to wait a few years to play with Thomas but I'm already having fun figuring out which pieces I'll be getting him over the next few years so that I... I mean he... has a nice collection to play with.

First Trip Out With Daddy (without Mommy)

Well, the little guy and I took our first trip out together without Mommy. We just decided it would be easy for Amy to go to the grocery store as I went to ACE Hardware to get some soil and shop supplies. Amy suggested that he go with me since I was going on a manly errand.

So much for the manly errand, he slept through the whole thing. Made it easy for me while shopping, but getting 4 bags of soil, a large 5 gallon bucket, and some misc. stuff plus the baby out to the car in a dinky little cart wasn't easy, but the people (employees and customers) were helpful pointing me down the right aisles, fetching stuff for me and even opening up the door as I left.

Overall it was fun, I just wish I could have taught him what a tap and die was, what kind of tools daddy would love for Father's Day, and what we would use to someday build a train layout together. That will have to wait for another Father/Son trip.

Dad at Work

Our little guy visited me at work today. Amy brought him for our joint staff meeting so my co-workers could meet him and then we headed over to IRT which is the technology group at the university that I used to work for as a student. (One of my many student jobs)

Needless to say he was a hit, and we received many compliments. He enjoyed hanging out especially when we laid him down and he was able to look up at everyone, wave his arms and kick. He loves to be free with his limbs!