Adam's First Christmas!

We had a wonderful peaceful Christmas just the three of us in Chicago.  Adam has been going through a bit of a sleep regression but decided to give us an extra 3 hours this morning as a Christmas present :)  We spent the morning drinking coffee, eating breakfast casserole, and opening presents.  Adam wasn't too interested in opening presents this year, which is good because Bailey helped to open all of his presents anyways.  Also, he was definitely more interested in eating the bows then playing with any of his new toys. 

The rest of the day we enjoyed watching Christmas Vacation and listening to Christmas music.  Tom played the ukelele for everyone and Bailey loved all of the extra attention having Tom home. 

Yesterday I decided to make a salt dough ornament of Adam's handprint, however getting a quality handprint proved more difficult than anticipated as all he wanted to do was squeeze the dough. It looks more like a bear claw, haha. So we settled for a footprint, which turned out perfect, but I wasn't really thinking when I cut it out...and it's kind of huge...and looks ridiculous on our tree.  Lol. 

Christmas night we made some homemade pizzas and watched Christmas Vacation again, trying to enjoy every last ounce of Christmas Day! I don't want the holidays to be over!!!

Christmas-y Adventures

Wow, I've been terrible about actually writing anything on the blog except for a few photo descriptions. I'll try to be better, I want to be better this coming year!

A few weeks ago my parents came out to visit for the weekend. Adam warmed up to them a lot faster than a few months ago.  He enjoyed floor time playing with my dad and snuggles with my mom.  We went downtown on Saturday to check out the Christkindlmarket, now an annual tradition for Tom and I and we knew my parents would enjoy it. It was freezing (16 degrees!!) so I bundled up Adam the best I could and wrapped him. He fell asleep soon after we got there and didn't wake up until we went into the warming tent to warm up! We enjoyed some spiced wine and brats while Mom and Dad walked around checking out the different booths.

This past weekend we hosted the 2nd annual Neighbor Holiday Party (3rd if you count Sweatpants NYE of 2011).  I was super excited to hang out because last year I was so so nauseous and exhausted the whole night.  It ended up being kind of a bust because some of our neighbors had to leave early and the others fizzled out soon after (the new neighbors have two little kiddos).  Tom and I enjoyed some downtime, a clean apartment, and lots of yummy snacks the rest of the evening, so I guess it wasn't a complete bust ;)

We also went to the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights this weekend.  We had been once before when we first moved here, but hadn't been back since.  One of my work friends who just had a baby in October invited us so we thought it would be fun to meet up with them and get out of the house.  Well, it coincided with nap time, so it was a little hectic getting out of the house. Adam fell asleep in the car ride there (third time ever he's fallen asleep in the car!).  We spent forever waiting to park and FINALLY were able to meet up with my friend.  We walked around, got some spiced wine, looked for sleeping monkeys, and that about sums it up.  There was some kind of power outage (which is pretty ironic considering ComEd was a sponsor) and half of the lights were out, so that was kind of lame.  We have a plan in place for next year, when Adam will actually enjoy it, and we enjoyed meeting up with my friend, so all in all not a bad trip!

5 Months Old!!!

Seriously.  Time....SLOW DOWN!!!  ;)

• Snuggles his face into my shoulder when I'm carrying him and he is tired
• Rolls from his back to his tummy (and sometimes tummy to back)
• Loves to "dive bomb" with an open mouth at my shoulder or the floor
• Is ticklish in his armpits <3 li="" nbsp="">
• Loves to watch us drink from a glass, and loves to grab the glass, and loves to put his mouth on the glass ;)
• Gnaws Sophie (the giraffe's) face off when he is on his tummy
• Loves to stand
• Kicks a ton
• Likes to sit on my lap at the desk
• Stops whatever he is doing when he sees me trying to take a picture with my phone
• Tries to put EVERYTHING in his mouth
• Likes to "pet" Bailey
• 17 pounds, 1 ounce and 26 1/4 inches long

Pics of the Week: Super fun play dates!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!

I started writing this post several days ago, but, as it turns out, 4.5 month olds are pretty demanding of your time ;)

So I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We definitely enjoyed our holiday, but it went by so fast, as usual.  It was great having Tom home for 4 days in a row.  Adam even got used to it - yesterday morning after he finished nursing he turned his head so far to the right looking for Tom (where Tom sat every morning) that I thought his head was going to fall off ;)

Thursday I made a turkey and everything else came out of a box - don't judge.  I did make a breakfast casserole for us Wednesday night and that lasted the whole weekend. So good and one of my favorite things about a holiday weekend.  Football was on tv all day and there were tons of great cloth diaper deals online (way better than the ones on actual Black Friday). This whole cloth diapering has turned into a bit of an obsession (as if it wasn't already) but now I know what I like and what works well for Adam so I was happy to basically complete our stash on the major cheap.  And I couldn't pass up a few cute cheap holiday diapers.  Hopefully they will get here before Christmas!!!

The rest of the weekend we watched football, ate leftovers and began to decorate for Christmas. We are very much looking forward to our first holiday season with Adam!!!

Wearing his new Nittany Lion hat for the last game of the season. I think it was good luck ;)

This one. Laying next to Adam's toys, refusing to look at the camera.

Pics of the Week!

From Left to Right starting on Top:
1) Munching on his hands (his new favorite activity)
2) All prepped out for his doctor's appointment
3) Screaming his head off at his playdate after his 4 month shots and a skipped nap
4) My little monster
5) Making faces in the mirror
6) Listening to daddy play the guitar

4 Months Old!!

4 months old today! 

• Does a spot-on pterodactyl impression
• Rolls over in the middle of the night
• Is starting to sit
• Laughs when we laugh
• Puts EVERYTHING in his mouth
• Gets "punchy" (punches his arm down)
• Sometimes grabs my arm when I'm trying to change his diaper
• Does not like his changing table
• Sucks his bottom lip
• Turns his head far to watch football or look for daddy
• 16 lb, 4 oz and 26.5" long 

Pics of the Week

From Left to Right starting on Top:
1) Waking up happy after a nap. We just re-enacted this picture today except it would be titled "Waking up happy after a failed attempt at a nap"
2) Playtime for everyone! Bailey has her wubba in the background
3) Chillin' with one of mommy's favorite toys
4) First solo bath with only mommy
5) Loves talking to himself in his mirror
6) Talkin' to daddy

Pics of the Week

Hmmmm, I can't decide if this will be a new feature or not that I do on the blog. I take so many pictures of Adam that it's hard to pick just a few to post!  But I'm not entirely sure that I'm organized enough these days to keep up with it ;)

From Left to Right starting on Top:
1) Sucking his bottom lip - this is a new "trick" he started doing this week
2) Dressed up for the Ohio State game. This lasted about 2 more seconds before he got tired and was put to bed
3) Sending a pic to Daddy during the day
4) Loves to hang out on his tummy after nursing and LOVES to look for his daddy
5) The only one who dressed up at our new mom's group last Tuesday!
6) Loves being wrapped - sometimes it's my secret (only) weapon to get him to sleep when he refuses

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!

We had a great day yesterday. Tom took a couple of extra days off to use up some PTO and because he deserved/needed a break after a pretty intense spring, summer, and fall at work.  He took Bailey for a special early morning walk (I'm sure she was glad to go without the baby) and we enjoyed coffee and conversation during little Bud's extra long morning nap. 

We dressed Adam up in his various halloween costumes for his Halloween photo shoots.  Bailey was more interested in the candy on the blanket than in Adam.  Haha.  The giraffe costume is a hand me down from a friend, although funny story I bought the same exact one for him at a consignment sale in August. Except I bought the 0-3 month size, because you know, he would be 3 months old during Halloween. I should have known better - thankfully Keri's giraffe was 3-6 months so that fit much better! 

The Superman costume was from Tom's parents. Apparently Tom had one that he used to wear when he was little :)  Again - it's a size 6 month. When they brought it a few weeks ago I thought for sure it would be too big for him. Nope, barely fits! He loves to fly these days :)

It was rainy but relatively warm here all day.  Tom and Bailey went downstairs to hand out candy and Adam and I joined them for a few minutes, but he quickly got bored so we headed back inside.  Bailey was once again a banana and had a good time sniffing all of the trick or treaters!

He thought my antennae were pretty funny. He's over it in this picture

Wordless Wednesday

Sew Crafty: A Baby Football Blanket

One of my favorite middle-of-the-night-nursing-pasttimes is to browse Pinterest.  Recently I came across this post for a football baby blanket, and knew instantly I had to make one!  I made two (with plans to make a third for Adam), one for our friends Joe and Laura who are huge Eagles fans and just had a baby, and one for our friend Stacy who had a baby ahem several months ago (but it's just now football season!!)

And just an FYI if anyone decides to make this - you don't actually need a whole yard of fabric like the tutorial says. As long as your fabric is 44" x 30" you should be fine!  (I'm glad I thought to look into this, otherwise I would have wasted a lot of brown minky!) 

Joey's Eagles Football Blanket

Laine's Alabama Football Blanket (So weird having Alabama fabric in our house!)

A handsome model on the football blanket :)

Some Updates on Us

So I realized that there hasn't really been much content to the blog lately....mostly just cute pics of Adam and random sewing projects! (I have more cute pics of Adam - see below, and more sewing project pics to post this week).

So anyways things have been going pretty well.  For those who don't know, I am no longer working full time (woooooo!) but this decision did not come without a lot of thought (and budgeting) and is certainly only temporary.  I always knew I wanted to stay home with our baby, but financially I always knew this would not be an option. 
Luckily with my career, I have a great amount of flexibility so I am taking advantage of it to the fullest! I am staying on with Children's as "contingency" status, which basically means they will call me when they need me and if I can work, I will.  Currently I'm working a few hours every Wednesday evening through December to cover some maternity leaves (yes, more people at work had babies - 12 total this year)! 
My other job is seeing kids through the Early Intervention program. This allows me the tremendous flexibility to try to pick up referrals in my area and to see them in the evenings and weekends when Tom can stay home with Adam. 
Also, we are extremely lucky that Tom has some flexibility in his schedule and can go in early and leave early to be home in time to watch Adam while I go to work.  I still need to try to pick up a few more referrals from EI but it's kind of cut throat trying to get kids in my neighborhood! 

It's indescribably amazing being able to stay home with Adam during the day, and I love that we don't have to figure child care costs into our budget.  But of course I worry that he needs to be socialized so I've been going to a few different mom groups to get both me and Adam out of the house once in a while.  It's been great being able to socialize with other new moms (one of whom may have brought some Guinness, the breastfeeding beer, to our last meetup). Yay for new friends with babies who like beer!

I feel like Adam has entered the phase where he does something new or different every.single.day. And it is amazing :D  I desperately want the next 9 months to go by super slow, even though I know they will fly.  And I know he will be fun after he is a year old as well, but he'll only be a baby once ;)  Speaking of Adam and being super cute.....some pics of our week:

3 Months Old!

Um, I really can't believe he is 3 months old already!

• Has started to laugh (and this is quite possibly the best thing ever)
• Sticks out his bottom lip when sad (but then starts to laugh/cry when I laugh at how freaking adorable his bottom lip is)
• Sometimes sings along when I sing him to sleep
• Is wearing size "6 month" clothing
• Tries to put his own paci back in at night
• Gets mad when something interrupts his nursing experience
• Kicks so hard on the changing table
• Talks a lot

My Perfect Day

Today was quite literally, a perfect day :D  I want to write about it before it slips away. 

It started early because I had to get up to pump (TMI - sorry) because Adam went another super long stretch sleeping last night.  I put coffee on and got ready for the day before Adam woke up (even though it was another 2 hours before I could drink my coffee, and it tasted a little burnt, okay so I guess in a "perfect" day I wouldn't have had burnt coffee). 

Anyways Adam woke up and we went through our usual morning routine. He went down for all of his naps today relatively easily (especially compared to yesterday, which was far far far from a perfect day). 
His first nap lasted several hours so I was able to enjoy my coffee while watching The Today Show, get dinner in the crockpot, prep a few sewing projects, tidy up the apartment, wash a load of diapers and a load of regular laundry, and catch up with the outside world via facebook and some text messages with some good friends.

Mid afternoon we had Adam's "Fall Photoshoot" which I prepped during one of his naps. He was surprisingly cooperative for it and I even got a couple of videos of him "talking". Here's a teaser/spoiler of his pics.  And this one is definitely my favorite! 

Tom got home and we all went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful fall weather.  Adam slept for part of it and Bailey had a blast sniffing the grass/sidewalk every 10 feet.  Later we gave Adam his bath and he amazingly went down at a decent time so Tom and I could have dinner together.  (Usually evenings are our hardest time of the day in regards to getting Adam down for his naps or for the night, so Tom and I usually eat dinner in shifts). And I don't know if our dinner was really that good or if I was just starving, but it tasted amazing! (Rosemary Ranch Chicken in the crockpot with brown rice).

And now I'm ending the day with a Sam Adams Octoberfest (keep sleeping Baby Adam!) and watching some football (Go Bears???)