Summer days

Life is pretty good here for Nathan with his grandparents visiting. The weather is heating up and so are the smiles...

Cool guy, busy guy

Nathan is much cooler than his parents. He can pull off red-with-cows better than us... (thanks Albe and Monica) He continues to be a busy guy these days. My picture-taking skills are lacking in focus because of his squirmy-ness! Check out his chubby cheeks. The pacifier we're still TRYING to introduce makes red marks on his cheeks because he's so plump.

100 days old

In some cultures, the 100 day old mark is very significant for a baby. We get it. So much changes in 100 days. Nathan is now so much more of a little person. He's loving mirrors. Sometimes he'll get shy with the baby in the mirror, it's pretty sweet. We set up a little mirror on the floor with his toys, and he's definitely interested.

Nathan is also enjoying his swing equipped with toys. See the difference?
swing at one month old (left) and 100 days (right).

Breakneck Hill Road

We're in a whole different world from Arlington, that's for sure. Out here in the sticks, they don't seem to believe in sidewalks. So our long walks to coffee shops are over, but we've found some conservation land just a two minute drive from our house, on Breakneck Hill Road, that has some trails. (Nathan's daycare is on this road, the driving is as scary as the name would suggest...)




Yes, those are cows! The trails are grassy through pasture-like land. Interesting.



In other news, Nathan is now three months old! As mentioned in other posts, it's fun now that he's so much more aware of his surroundings and reaching out to touch things.

Fun days

Nathan is really paying attention to toys now, it's a lot of fun. Today he grabbed his stuffed cow rattle! Being a scientist, I believe it wasn't random and he did intend to do it as we repeated this fun three times.

Look at me reach out

grab my cow


and I got it!

Smiley boy!

Nathan has had a great week. He had fun with Grandma and Nana yesterday, charming them both. Look how big he's getting...

Moving on and Nathan's growing up

We're in the middle of the big move to our new house. It's very exciting. Lucky for us, Grandma is back to help out. I should actually say she's here to do just about everything I would normally do!I'm feeling a little nostalgic since this apartment was our newlywed nest, and the place we brought Nathan home (below, March 10).However, we're very excited to be in our first home. Nathan is really growing up, he'll be getting his own room. Again, I feel a little sentimental. Our little newborn sleeping in the crib at the foot of our bed is moving on out. We're hoping it will allow us all to get more sleep, but stay tuned on that front since Nathan is almost always in our bed with us from 5-7am.
We'll post pictures of the new house soon, but for now here are a few pictures of the boy. He's really getting into toys, his mobile, and now books (looking at them all, not much more than that yet).

Six times in one day, wipe that smile off your face young man!!!

Okay you got me, I'd never tell Nathan not to smile these days. There are other possible post titles like "You'd think I'd have learned by now" or "Maybe working won't be so bad after all" or "Caution: Baby Boy Undiapered". Now you know what I'm writing about. I was sprayed three times during Nathan's bath. You'd think I'd have taken appropriate steps to prevent it at least after the first time but no. Then a diaper change this afternoon featured another 3 sprayings for an all-time record for today, both for the sprayings and the number of diapers misused. I laughed a little after the second time that really got me, and belly-laughed after the third time which demanded an all-out change of Nathan, me, the changing table and a floor cleanup. I finished these tasks and took this picture to show off the boy.


Then I had to laugh again because right after that picture was taken, Nathan made it clear he needed another new diaper and quickly at that or we'd have a laundry adventure ahead. Lovely. But isn't he sort of cute?


I meant to post today about my first Mother's Day. It was great. We spent it at our new house (much more on this soon; the picture below is in the empty dining room). I still am bewildered that I am actually a mom. That sounds way too grown up to be me, and it's a ton of work and worry and sometimes frustration. This small boy is such a joy, though. I am very lucky to be his mom.



PS- Make that an UNLUCKY SEVEN tonight!!! Chris took the hit this time...

2 months old and really, Nathan does smile!

Monday Nathan turned 2 months old. On the one hand, I can't believe it's been two months. It seems like last week I was madly running around the grocery store after my last prenatal appointment knowing that he would be born that day or at a maximum five days later and trying to stock up our cupboards. Yet I can't quite remember being able to sleep uninterrupted. Our life has changed so much. But mostly, Nathan has changed so much and we've all come a long way. He's a sweet little guy. Here are some milestones:

3/7/07: 9lbs 15oz, 22 inches
5/7/07: 13 lbs even and 24 inches

In the beginning, Nathan wouldn't breastfeed and now he's been feeding like a champ for 8 weeks. Chris and I were nervous about bathing him, squeamish about diaper changes, and lying awake listening to him make his noises while he slept. Well, we're used to diaper "incidents" and bathing can be done by one of us alone, and we are able to ignore the little noises at night (and finding it harder to jump up once he's really ready for some attention).

We've dealt with some real fussiness, and a boy stingy with his smiles. But lately Nathan has been doing better with sleeping and having more awake and happy times. Therefore I am having more asleep and happy times. Seriously, it makes a whole big difference to my day when Nathan is happy for at least a little while. I am nearly manic today because he's been so amazingly congenial and really, truly happy. It's very warm here, over 80 degrees, and Nathan discovered the sheer joy of a ceiling fan. He spent a long time smiling and cooing up at it, almost laughing even. I tried to capture it by camera but the pictures didn't turn out very well because he was waving his arms and legs like a joyful boy.
Here he is on my lap after a feeding, looking slightly drunk from the milk but happy. This is the time I often get the best smiles.

8 weeks old and lounging in pajamas

Yes it's 11:30 am and Nathan is still in his pajamas. But he's actually napping in the crib, so I have had some success this morning! I just got out of my own pajamas about half an hour ago, but lest you think I was sleeping, let me assure you I was not. Nathan has been going through a bit of a difficult stage, and we're not sure whether it's related to his cold or what. The cold is much better, but some coughs linger. He needs to be held constantly and sucking our fingers (no, we haven't gotten the pacifier to catch on...). But this morning he did have a good stretch of happy alert time with me to celebrate his 8-week birthday. I didn't dare interrupt to change either of our clothes.

First cold

Poor Nathan has come down with his first cold. I feel terrible as I'm sure he got it from me, despite my best efforts to prevent that. Chris and I both wish we could cough for him, and just be sick for him. He'll get through it, this will pass eventually.

Cousins, smiles and rolling in Minnesota

We're back from our trip, reunited with Daddy. Nathan did a great job on the return flight, even despite a 3-hour delay. He slept most of the way again and barely made a peep. He made traveling with an infant seem like a breeze!

Nathan and I had a great week staying with his cousins Jasper and Suzy.



Suzy is only three months older, so we had a wonderful time dressing them alike and playing with the babies.


While we were there, Nathan began to give us a few smiles. They're still infrequent and sometimes accidental... (Nathan on the right)


Also, Nathan impressed us by rolling from his tummy to back!