tuckered out

someone must have had a big day at school!

fun in the bath

sniff snifff....what's that smell?! that seems to be the name of the game this week. well, ever since we started cereal actually. we had been really lucky and hadn't had many blowouts since the dude was born. hahaha, not anymore! it seems he is decreasing the frequency of his movements, which in turn means the volume increases!!! which equals blowout city at our house. the poor teachers at school have to deal with most of them. we were going to wait until his normal bath day on wednesday, but we got lucky and hit the jackpot tonight! let's just say...he needed a bath. :) now that he enjoys his baths though, it's not too much of a hassle. tonight in particular he decided he was going to be a ham for the camera. he was chewing on his book and i turned my head to get his towel ready, turned back and this is what i found!

guess he's using the whole 'i'm learning through osmosis' technique!

must have monday

this week's must have monday is going to be a little different than most as it is not a tangible object. we should all have it though. it comes in different forms. it means different things to different people. and at the end of the day, it usually puts most of our minds at ease. this week's must have monday is.....

...hope!!!

and yes, this is all stemming from VCU's win over Kansas yesterday. without hope VCU wouldn't be where they are right now. everyone doubted us. we weren't good enough. we didn't deserve to be part of the big dance. hmmm, i guess they're all rethinking that right now!

i'm a firm believer that with a little hope you can accomplish anything, and the current happenings with VCU proves my point. seeing the rams turn such a negative situation into something positive has really inspired me and challenged me to try and continue to see the positive side of things. because there have definitely been some days recently where it's been VERY hard to see the positive side of things. but once i did, i knew everything would be alright.

it's not always easy, but honestly, when is life ever easy? so starting today, i'm not going to get bogged down with "i can't," "it'll never work" and the "i'm not good enough" mindsets, and i challenge everyone else to do the same! the glass is half full people! :)

ps...thank you to the selection committee for seeing hope in the rams. i think it's safe to say your decision has influenced a nation (well, at least the little nation i like to call myself!!).

graaaaaaampaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

as stingy as the dude was with smiles for everyone else, he definitely was not stingy with them for grampa! all grampa had to do was basically look at the dude for him to smile. it was so cute. it's a shame grampa doesn't love him very much either!! ha!

we definitely wish they didn't have to go home today.

side note...this collage is also a black and gold shout out to VCU. go rams!! final four bound!!! :)

so much love

the dude is so lucky to be so loved! not only did he get a visit from grana and grampa this weekend, but he also got a visit from grammie and aunt sue!

one lucky dude indeed.

silly boy

as grana keeps saying this weekend...the dude has been very stingy on the smiles. but once he does smile, they come pouring out.

fuzzy wuzzy foto friday

maybe the little dude's new nickname should be 'sprout!' there is definite new hair growth and the dude's head is now a cute little fuzzball. it seems to be coming in blonde, so we might have a litlte toehead on our hands!

playtime with grana

we are so glad grana and grampa are here. the little dude is getting LOADS of playtime in!

happy wednesday!

look what i can do mom!

fabulous five months

today the dude is 151 days old! happy 5 months!!

weight, height and head circumference will have to wait until his 6 month appointment next month. buuuuuuuuuut, here is what he's been up to recently:

- wearing size 2 diapers now

- the 0-3 month clothes are in storage bins now!! which means the dude is fitting in 3-6 month outfits

- sleeping between 8.5-9 hours a night

- no more swaddling for the dude. we have transitioned to the halo sleep sacks which work great!

- wakes up sometimes in the night and just needs his binky and blanket. he LOVES to cuddle with his blanket, and we love it too because it puts him back to sleep instantly.

- started eating cereal at breakfast and dinner. we have tried rice, oatmeal and barley so far and we love all three!

- is definitely drooling a lot more these days. i think in the teething mode!

- babbling a lot more these days. especially when he's on his changing table. all the good stories come out then!

- legs have grown long enough to fit in the exersaucer. yahoo!

- rolled over three times in a row one day from his tummy to his back

- can do a half-way roll from his back to his tummy

- celebrated his first st. patricks day

- can sit up almost on his own, he just needs a little support

- would much rather be standing than laying on his back

must have monday

we made it through the cold & flu season without the dude catching anything, even when both grady and i caught the bug. hopefully that means the dude has a pretty strong immune system.i'd be lying if i said he wasn't a little congested through the season though. this must have monday definitely helped us through the sniffley season!

little noses sterile saline nasal mist

originally we picked up the saline drops....but you try to get the dude's head to stay still and tilted back just right for the drops to go in! :) i think half the time they ended up rolling out of his nose before they ever even went in! this mist however.....uh-mazing!!!

i was a little apprehensive at first about buying it, thinking, just how much better would this work compared to the drops. LIGHT YEARS better!!! with one little press of the nozzle a nice fine saline mist goes completely in his nose. nothing drips out and i know his little nostrils are getting a good dose of moisture.

thanks to little noses, this little nose has been spared crusty boogers and runny noses!!

just bjorning around

part two of this perfect day included taking the other 'babies' out to play. luckily behind our house is just trees and rudy and mojo have the freedom of running around. rudy LOVES scratching his claws on all the fallen trees and mojo LOVES keeping rudy in line. she doesn't let him go too far and if you tell her to go get him, she rounds him up.

we've also found that the dude LOVES watching all of their silliness outside.



hmmm, i also think this little dude needs some sunglasses!

sunny days

we had to take advantage of the beautiful weather we had this weekend, so graham and i decided to have a front yard picnic! (thank you aunt sue for the picnic blanket....it worked great!!)

we looked at the trees, listened to the birds, and most importantly, looked at ourselves in the mirror! we did some practicing sitting up on our own, which i have to say, the dude is quite good at now. i barely have to support him anymore. and we also did some tummy time and worked out our arms by lifting our chests off the ground. just recently the dude has been lifting himself up more, which makes mommy very happy. he doesn't just lay there like a blob anymore. :)



and side note...after we went inside we did a little more tummy time later on and the dude rolled from tummy to back THREE, yes count them, THREE times in a row! of course we didn't capture any of them on camera, but we'll try soon.

pinch me!

well...i WAS wearing green when i went to school, but i leaked and had to be changed. i get my cheeks pinched all the time though, so it's nothing new for me!

squeak squeak

case in point how much we LOVE sophie!!! (turn your speakers up!)

must have monday

you've seen a lot of her in recent photos and videos. she's an awesome friend and she's never too far away. she is my must have monday...and no, i'm not talking about mojo. i'm talking about....sophie!!

this video about sums it up! happy birthday sophie!!!

heart

the little dude is very lucky to have such a beautiful girlfriend!
we love bethany!

sneak attack

so remember how i said whenever graham has his hands out mojo is right there. yeah...well same goes for the face. she loooooooooooooves giving puppy kisses! the little dude doesn't seem to mind (although mommy thinks it's kind of gross)!

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

no words necessay for this one!
<3

follow-up on exer-size

wow!



my feet touch the ground now!!

so big!

our little dude is turning into a little man! when did this happen?!



this collage is in honor of mojo being such a good girl (ever since day 1 actually). graham is VERY interested in her these days and loves to pet (okay, grab actually) her face. she loves him so much, because normally around adults she's head shy, but the moment graham puts his hands out she's right there. she loves all the attention he gives her. i can't wait until he's old enough to really play with her.

side note...socks on clean hardwood floors = very slippery for little dude feet!

recent developments

over the past week the little dude has definitely made some major developments:

crib circles (no, not crop circles!)

we have been leaving the little dude either swaddled from the armpits down, or in a sleep sack and he loves the freedom to move his arms. when it's bedtime, we'll place him in the crib so that his head is under his mobile. normally when i would go into his room when he woke up, he would be in pretty much the same position that i left him in. not anymore!!! more often than not he has made a full 180 degree circle and his feet are where his head was when i left him! it cracks me up. i'll also wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and look over at the monitor and he's done a 90 degree move. little dude is a mover!!

steady neck

(disclaimer...we're still very safe about this) before we had to always be careful to have a hand under the dudes neck when lifting him up or laying him down somewhere, but now he has it all on his own! now, even if he's laying propped on our legs, he'll start to lean his head forward and act like he's trying to sit himself up using his neck muscles.

elbow resting

the dude has finally figured out that when he's on his tummy that resting propped up on his elbows is pretty nice! you can see a lot more that way, compared to when he would be lazy and just rest his head on the mat. hmmm, he does have a pretty big head though...so maybe it was just too heavy up until now! :) those neck muscles are stronger and able to hold his head up i guess.

half roll

grady said he witnessed a full roll, but i haven't yet. we have a little overachiever on our hands though, because he's been almost rolling over from his back to his stomach more than from his stomach to his back. usually that one pesky arm gets in the way and he can't quite figure out how to move it to roll over all the way. i wouldn't doubt in the next week or so he figures it out! to go along with the 'being unswaddled' development, the dude also likes to sleep on his left side. he contorts the rest of his body to make a backwards 'c' too. it's very funny to see. doesn't look too comfortable to me, but hey, if he sleeps 9 hours that way i'm completely fine with it!

SLEEP!

i'm probably jinxing myself right now, but for the past week the little dude has been sleeping between 8 and 9.5 hours a night!! he's usually in bed by 830pm and gets up between 5 and 6am. not too shabby! and i'm hoping when he starts back up at daycare again, he'll be tuckered out even more from playing with all of his teachers and friends. we'll see though!

cereal!

maybe the dude likes oatmeal cereal better than rice cereal (we had done rice for 2 weeks and have been doing oatmeal for a week now), or maybe he's just got the hang of eating by a spoon down...but man 'o man...3 tablespoons of cereal goes down with a quickness now! i get the whiney cry if i don't give it to him fast enough. well and maybe because the cereal is thicker now (unlike when we first started with the rice cereal which was basically milk with a little but of cereal!) it's easier to take off the spoon and actually swallow. he likes to put his fingers in his mouth after he has a bite in his mouth, which i'm trying to discourage since it makes things VERY messy. i'll get the spoon ready and almost to his mouth and his hands come up. i pause and repeat "hands down please" and 9 times out of 10, he actually puts his hands down. he probably doesn't know he's 'listening' to me...but i like to think so! grady and i also think he's hit the 15 pound mark! growing boy!!

it's amazing what can happen in just one week. i'm sure next week i'll have a whole new list of things the dude can do!

must have monday

i have to thank my sister-in-law, andrea, for this week's must have monday.

unfortunately, we do not have ceiling fans in the bedrooms of our townhouse, which would have been great to use for white noise. so before graham was born i was looking at getting a little boombox that would play cd's, ipod docking stations that we could use and even just a regular old alarm clock that we could leave on a classical station. all of these options seemed to get up there in price pretty quickly though.

of course graham arrived before i had a solution to our white noise problem. luckily though, grana was on the case for me! she remembered the one that andrea had bought for olivia that worked perfectly for them. may i present to you my must have monday...

the homedics soundspa sound machine

we have LOVED this little thing! sitting on the dude's bookshelf, it doesn't take up that much space. it plugs into the wall, so you don't have to worry about buying MORE batteries than we all already do for other baby items! it has multiple sound settings (we normally rotate through the rain, beach and rainforest ones). volume control. and even a timer to have the sound shut off after 15, 30 or 60 minutes. there are definitely no real frills to it, but that's what i like about it. it's reliable, and i know i can get it to work the same way night after night.

and i think the best part is...it's only $20 at bed bath and beyond. throw a handy 20% or $5 off coupon on top and it ends up only being about $15, depending on what coupon you have. affordable, reliable and the perfect solution to white noise! hmmm, these could make a pretty good shower gift too!

the man in the mirror...

...wears plaid!



there hasn't been any rain yet, but it's been one of those gray and overcast days. so we decided to brighten it up a little with some spring plaid! oh, and with some mirror time as well!

exer-size

just a couple weeks ago graham wasn't tall enough to reach the floor in his exer-saucer. to our surprise, when we put him in it last weekend he fit!!! little dude must have had a growth spurt without us knowing! it really is like he grows overnight...not just in size, but in personality too. he's turning into a little man!! and it's also cute to see miss mojo turn into a little mom. she's always by graham's side. she even lets him grab at her ears, nose and skin. they're buds already!!

(note...this video is kind of long, but we think its cute.)

disclaimer...no baby was harmed in the making of this video (thanks for padded toy arms!!)