Lazy Weekend

I really have nothing to write today because we did nothing this weekend. Nothing. At all. Well, we went to church, but that's a given. Other than that, we did not leave the house. Even for a walk. We were pitiful hermits catching up on rest, relaxation and family time. We need it. We have something every weekend in September and on none of those weekends are all three of us going to be together! So, we were saving up and enjoying it.

I really have nothing else to write. I am trying, to no avail. Which is a pity because I actually have time to do this right now. Oh well. If something comes to me, I'll be back. Otherwise, enjoy the pictures from this weekend.

Today is National Dream Day

Since this holiday is meant to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' Speech, I doubt the Founders of it envisioned it being celebrated by mothers who dress their babies in pajamas and take pictures of them all day. But, really, how much cuter is my idea? I loved the fact that so many of you researched holidays for me! That was awesome and I am thankful. I actually had a hard time picking between three, but Dream Day gave me the opportunity to put this adorable sleeper on Aaron! I didn't get the best pictures, but this sleeper has pictures of Noah's Ark and pairs of animals. There's a matching bib and a blanket that says 'Two by Two'. I LOVE it. Kim bought this long before Aaron was born. I saw it hanging in the guest room closet at her house and I just fell in love with it. Look at my cute Munchkin! He had a big day yesterday. Daddy took him jogging in his super cool jogging stroller! He loved it! It has been so hot that this was the first opportunity to use it, but Jory plans to take Aaron every time he runs now. It makes the runs A LOT harder, though. Can you imagine pushing 17 pounds in a large, sturdy stroller while running? I'll stick to Pilates, thanks. And here's the baby with his daddy. He LOVES his daddy. We had a weird week last week. Aaron was very "off". I kept telling people, "I think he's going to get a tooth." Nope. He just needed his daddy to come home. Jory walked in the door from Colorado and the baby that moments before been needy and fussy was all smiles and back to normal. We've been on track ever since. Luckily Jory doesn't have any more travel plans, because I think we'd have to go with him!
Oh my gosh! I can not tell you how much this boy loves his car! LOVES it. If I try to put him in his jumper, he reaches out for the car. Jory and I are probably going to give the jumper back to the person we borrowed it from. Aaron used to love it, but it's just not nearly as cool as this toy! Aaron has got the car all figured out. He knows how to use all of the buttons and gadgets and he just smiles, smiles, smiles when he is in it. Grandad has taken to calling Aaron 'Scooter' since my last post. It definitely fits. I left him alone again for approximately 60 seconds. By the time I got back he had made it across the room and had a magazine in his hands. He LOVES magazines. He can spot them from a far distance and will go after them. He will then mull them to no end. It's pretty amazing how quickly he can destroy a magazine.

I just love this little man! I can't think of a better way to celebrate Dream Day than to spend it with him and his daddy!

Never Leave Your Child Unattended

This is how I left Aaron in his bouncy seat while I went to put a towel in the other bathroom.

This is how I found him when I returned. Keep in mind that I was never out of earshot. There was no noise made. No fussing and certainly no crying. As you can see, when I returned, Aaron was not at all in distress. He does not appear to have fallen out of his bouncy seat. He appears to have chosen to get out of his bouncy seat and crawl around on the floor. In fact, when I walked in he gave me a sheepish smile that I swear meant he hoped he wasn't in trouble. The little turd.

Jory was actually pretty impressed with how far away from his bouncy he had gotten. This is a picture from the other angle. Right before he turned himself around and reached for the mirror. He's not crawling yet, but he can get to what he wants and he can do it a little quicker every day.

Today he mastered sitting up. He was able to do it for long periods (five minutes or more) and did not fall even when he turned his head or bounced or played with his toys. He was so fascinated with himself in the mirror that I absolutely couldn't get anything other than a side view.

On a less cute note, Aaron is flipping over when we put him on his changing table. It's come close to giving his father a coronary.

Pictures for Grandad

I received an e-mail pointing out the pictures have been limited in the last few days. As a good daughter-in-law, I stopped what I was doing and took pictures of the Little Man, who actually looks like a big man to me, sitting up in his big boy outfit. I do have a story to tell about the happenings of the last week, but Mr. Aaron is having none of that right now, so enjoy the pictures while I go and try for his afternoon nap.

In Search of a Holiday

Aaron's First Year Calendar has a place for two pictures each month. Each month I've been putting a picture that was taken on the 11th (his birthday every month) and a holiday from that month. So far we've had St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Fourth of July. For the rest of his First Year we have Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Valentine's Day. But what about August? I need an August holiday.

And, P.S., isn't my husband the sweetest? Aaron and I have missed him and are anxiously awaiting his arrival tonight.

Daddy the Road Warrior

You've now seen the pictures and heard the stories from our wonderful family trip to Denver. Aaron really did well, and we are so thankful for that. We were able to book tickets to Ohio for Thanksgiving with a nice sense of confidence. Had Aaron's flying experience not gone well, our other traveling alternative would have been to drive to Ohio. That's a 16-20 hour drive when it's just Sara and I and we are pushing it hard. It might have taken the whole week just to get there! But thankfully, we will be flying and he will do as well as he did on the Denver trip.

I was able to enjoy a day and a half at home, and now am in California on a business trip. I get home tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, am home Saturday and part of Sunday, then leave again for another quick trip to Colorado Springs. On the one hand I am thankful for a really nice work project that requires me to do what I am doing. If I had more time, this project would have allowed me the opportunity to go on several international trips (Montreal, Scotland, Philippines and Australia). But I'll stick with the two domestic trips and call it good.

I have discovered something, though. I don't like to be away from my family. You would think that a few nights in a quiet place would allow me to catch up on some much-needed sleep. If last night was any indication, though, not so much. I woke up a lot. And each time I woke up, I realized Sara and Aaron weren't there. I'll take a night of sleep at home (even if it is interrupted by a hungry little boy) over a quiet hotel room any day of the week!

I leave in the morning and will be home by late afternoon. Can't get here soon enough for me!

Updates

I think I squeezed all of our Colorado trip into the last post, but I have a few updates on what Aaron is doing to add. It's been a big week of firsts for him.

He is now playing peek a boo and finds it very funny. He laughs when you uncover your face. He is actually laughing a lot now. He is very ticklish and his laugh is just wonderful.

He has started reaching for people. It is sweet and I love it.

Aaron is now interested in crawling. This is a painful process for us. He is handling it in the exact same way he has handled every new task he has mastered, but this one is taking quite a bit longer, so it is hard to watch. Aaron is a Man on a Mission. He will learn to crawl. On his own. Thank you. Any time he is placed on the floor (which used to be such a pleasant time for me) he will immediately flip over and attempt to crawl. This attempt involves his face turning a scary red and him screaming very, very painfully. Oh my, though! Do NOT attempt to 'help' him by turning him back over to his back. He is completely capable of rolling to his back and if he wanted to be there he would. Right now he is working on crawling. So he is going to have to roll himself back over to his stomach and start all over. Please pray he learns to crawl soon.

Aaron is eating cereal after each nursing now (not just at night) and he still loves it. We alternate between Rice and Oatmeal and we'll be adding Wheat soon. As soon as I pull out his cereal bowl he gets a huge smile and then opens his mouth! We had gotten to the point that the feedings were very neat and efficient. I was so proud. However, Aaron is now trying to help with the feedings. This is increasing the duration of the meals and the amount of laundry to be done after the meals.

Speaking of laundry, oh my goodness! How can one little person make so much laundry? Some days laundry is all I do!

Finally, while I am thrilled that Aaron is travelling SO much better (we've come a LONG way from our first road trip!), it is undeniable that he loves the comforts of home. I could almost FEEL him relax when we arrived home from Colorado. Since then, he has gone down for his naps and fallen asleep within two minutes without fussing. He's slept 10 hours at a time at night. He's eaten better and generally been more content. While he's a good traveler (like his parents) he loves being home (like his parents).

What a Trooper

You'll have to bear with me as I try to get the last week (and 50+ pictures) into coherent posts. It may take more than one. First of all, these pictures are from Thursday, the day before we left for Denver. The day we found out that Mr. Aaron had a nasty ear infection. The day that I had to watch him get two horrible shots. He looks like he held up alright, doesn't he? Seriously, I think he was the happiest sick boy on the planet. He was fussier than normal, but that wasn't bad because he's usually not fussy at all. And we were given clearance to fly and an arsenal of 'just in case' medication which we did not need. This next picture is also from Thursday. It is all of the stuff (except for the infant seat) that we had packed for our two day trip to Denver. Seriously. I was so embarrassed. I had to call my cousin to make sure he had a big enough car. I'm not kidding.This is poor Aaron in the Tyler airport wondering if his parents are taking him away for months based on all the stuff they've packed. This is also at 5am. He's already holding up like a charm. In my defense I would like to point out that we didn't take anything that we did not use except for two footed sleepers (it wasn't nearly as cold in Denver as I had imagined). He actually went through every single outfit we brought and we could have used another sleep sack since he pooped on both of the ones we took. Pooping will probably come up later in this post. We had to buy more wipes while we were out there. This is Aaron after arriving at the Denver airport. You will notice that he is no longer in the cute Monkey outfit he left Tyler in. See pooping comment above.Our flights were outstanding. You have no idea how much we prayed over them, but it all paid off. Aaron was a fabulous traveler. We had two ascents and two descents. He only cried on the first descent and the last ascent and total crying time was well under a minute. The rest of the time he slept. He didn't even wake up when we landed in Denver. He was such a trooper. We were so proud of him.When we got to Ben and Casey's Aaron took a good nap and actually went down with no problem. That's never happened when he was not at home and it didn't happen every time we put him down, but it happened some and we were so blessed. We had brought out his blanket and sound soother and tried to make his bed as much like home as possible. That helped, I think. Again, there were a couple of naps where he screamed like he was being tortured and he did miss a nap, but overall he did very well, I think (Ben and Casey may say differently). In fact, one morning he slept until 8am which is way later than he's ever slept. Once we got him down, he slept very, very well in Colorado. That's also somewhat unusual for him so we were thrilled.

After the nap, we headed out to Gardens in Littleton. That's where these two pictures were taken. The one above is one of my favorites from the whole trip. Casey was so good about helping Aaron experience new things. He loves to be outside and Casey did an awesome job of getting him outside and letting him touch and taste nature. This is his first night in Littleton. He's got on his Ohio State onesie and Ben is letting him explore. Both Ben and Casey were just SO great with Aaron and he was instantly comfortable with them. He's not always great with new people, but he warmed right up to them. And if they had any issues with the fact that he acted exactly like a five month old (sometimes sweet, sometimes boring, sometimes nerveracking) they didn't show it. We just absolutely adored being there with them. I can't imagine a better first trip for Aaron. On Day Two, we headed out to Aaron's first festival! I think this picture is awesome. Aaron just stared the whole time, taking it all in!

That evening we went to Uncle David and Aunt Cindy's. I don't have any pictures from that, but we had such a nice time. And Aaron was SO good. I was glad he went to sleep easily there and we were all able to enjoy a relaxing dinner. My uncle bought a Pack and Play before we got there and Aaron was able to use it at Ben and Casey's and we took it to my aunt and uncle's, as well. It was a really nice one with a bassinet and a changing table and music. It was very similar to what Aaron has at home and I think that helped.

Day Three started with a relaxing morning outside. The weather in Denver was AWESOME and Ben and Casey have an amazing backyard. This is their huge hammock.Aaron just did so well any time we were outside. We know he loves the outdoors, but it has been hard to have him out as it has been so hot in Texas. Jory decided on this morning that it would be okay to move to Colorado. You'd better not tell Aaron's Texas grandparents, though.

In the afternoon, Aaron played with Nellie, one of Ben and Casey's dogs. Nellie was very good with Aaron. She did lick him a lot, but Aaron didn't mind. Aaron tried to ride her, but Nellie actually did mind that. This next picture is not very good, but it is the only one I have of Aaron's first visit to an aquarium. It was fun for us, but he was pretty worn down by the end. We went to dinner afterwards and Aaron made it through half before he decided he was done. He didn't Melt, but he was fussy. It had been a long trip, though, with SO many new things to see and experience. I was shocked that he wasn't Melting from over-stimulation constantly. Overall, I think he did great and Jory and I had such a wonderful time. I just can't tell you how much we enjoyed this vacation!!!The next day we were up at 3:30am and headed to the airport. Aaron did not cry on any of the ascents or descents this time and slept almost the entire trip. We did have two meltdowns, though. One was as we were getting on the first flight. He was hungry and there just wasn't a way for me to feed him until we got on the plane. And we were seated at the very back of the plane, so we are trying to make our way to our seats and you must know how long that can take and Aaron was losing it. Loudly. At 5:30 in the morning. I know these poor people were thinking very un-Christian thoughts about us.

The second meltdown was also on that flight. As we were landing, Aaron had a massive poop. His third of the day (remember that it is still very early and see pooping comment at the beginning of this post). We'll, when we landed we weren't able to taxi to our gate, so we are just sitting and we are not allowed to take off our seat belts. We were RIGHT by the bathroom, but they had it blocked and wouldn't let me use it. There was no way to change that diaper in our seats. And Aaron really wanted it changed. So he screamed. For fifteen minutes. Until we were at our gate and kindly allowed to use the restroom. I have to tell you that the second his dry diaper was on he was quiet. When we came out he was all smiles and trying so hard to make everyone around us smile back. They really didn't like him, though.

Success!

I'll do a longer post later with pictures, but I wanted to post that we made it back from Denver this morning and we had a fantastic trip! Aaron was fabulous on the plane rides and was just a super traveler. Definitely answered prayers!

Fashion Show

We are leaving for Colorado Friday and I know that the weather will be cooler there than what we are used to. So I pulled out all of Aaron's pants outfits to try on and see what would work to take. I made him try on a lot of outfits. As you can see, he was thrilled.

As far as updates go, I was trying to think what I may have missed lately. He is holding on to me when I carry him now. He wraps his arms around me and is an active participant in being held. I really love that. It has been one of my favorite things.

He is still loving his oatmeal. When he sees the spoon, he opens his mouth and leans forward then comes down on the spoon with his mouth. He takes the entire bowl of the spoon in his mouth. Then he opens up pulls back and gets really mad when you can't get the spoon refilled quickly enough. It really is a funny spectacle.


I thought these pictures in the blue and brown outfit turned out cute. Grandad brought this outfit along with a few others he had bought. It just tickled me pink! I think they are awfully cute and I just love it when the Grandpas shop for Aaron. It just warms my heart!

Five Month Birthday Pictures

*Disclosure: I wrote this post before I took the Birthday Pictures. As soon as I started taking them I realized that my son now knows what food is and instinctively knows that food covered in thick green icing must be very, very good. I immediately had a foot in the cupcake. I tried to take the pictures on his Boppy, in his Bumbo and in a chair. None of them worked. I had to place the cupcake out of reach and try to get both the cupcake and the boy in the picture without the boy ending up in the cupcake. In most of the pictures you can't even see the cupcake, you can just see Aaron lunging toward something. That would be the cupcake. This is actually a milestone listed in What to Expect the First Year: Working to get something that's out of reach. Mastered. Excellent. I finally put Aaron in his Walker and precariously put the cupcake on the feeding tray for seconds at a time to snap a quick picture. Sometimes I just held the cupcake in front of him which really made him mad. At one point Aaron bested me and got two fists in the icing. I was trying to keep the fists out of his mouth and clean up a monumental mess (what do they make that icing out of?) when a thought came to me, "what if he puts his hands in his mouth and he's allergic to eggs? Or dairy? Or sugar. Can you be allergic to sugar? PEANUTS! Oh my gosh! The cupcake could have been made near peanuts!" I grabbed Aaron, ran to the kitchen, threw him in the sink and turned on the faucet. Yes, I did. I then settled down. At that point, Aaron and everything he was wearing was soaked. His hands somehow were not wet. Let's not go there. I turned off the water, took him to the changing table and calmly used a baby wipe (three) to get the icing off of his fists. I then re-dressed him and put him in his bouncy. I went and attempted to reconstruct the cupcake. I then snuck up behind Aaron and placed the cupcake where I could get it in the picture with the boy, but the boy could not see the cupcake. Within two pictures he must have smelled the thing. You can see him crawling over the side of the bouncy trying to get the cupcake. I gave up.

Here's the Birthday Boy! I always focus on his outfits and I thought I'd change it up a bit today and focus on his bibs. He's got A LOT of really cute bibs. These came in a package from Grandma Sheri last night and I just laughed out loud. Aren't they great?

He's 27 inches long and 17 pounds. At five months old he is the weight of an average six month old and the height of an average seven month old. So we are moving into his 6-9 month clothes now and I, of course, love having the new wardrobe. I am trying to hold on to some of his 3-6 month outfits as long as possible, but it's getting trickier. Developmentally, he's on a 5-6 month level.

Aaron is sitting up some on his own now, but he prefers standing to either sitting or laying. Give him something to pull on and he'll pop right up. Happy as he can be. If you let him hold your hands for balance he can walk pretty well. A little scary, but that's definitely coming more naturally to him than crawling. He still gets frustrated on his stomach. He also gets frustrated in the Bumbo now. He doesn't like being that confined. He is loving his bouncy still, though, and loving his jumper the most.

Aaron is no longer being swaddled. I actually read in Parents magazine that many babies need to be swaddled until they are 6-8 months old and most of my friends swaddled theirs until about 7 months. But it's pretty universally accepted that once he rolls over in the swaddle it's time to wean, so that's what we did. It actually wasn't bad. We swaddled him with one arm out for several days and that was just fine with him. Then we went to both arms out. That was not fine and it took a day of pretty torturous naps to get it done, but by Day Two things were much better. He now sleeps in a Sleep Sack. We've tried to let him just sleep without anything, but he's not interested in that and the Sleep Sack gives him mobility.

He laughs out loud when he's tickled and it is just the greatest sound in the world!

Oh! But don't ask him to do any of these things when you see him. He does not perform on demand. He's stubborn like that and I know he thinks its funny.

Right now he is incredibly fascinated by the sight of someone drinking something. We are not sure what this is about, but put a water bottle to your mouth and he will stop what he's doing and stare at you completely entranced. In fact, it will cause him to stop crying right in the middle of a fit. The other day he took my water bottle from me and put it to his mouth just like he sees me do. And then this horrible liquid with absolutely no taste came into his mouth and he pushed the water bottle away and glared at it as if it had done something unthinkable. He has not reached for my bottle any more, but he still loves to watch me drink from it.