Is she your girlfriend?

H spends all day every day with his girlfriend, Lily. (She has been mentioned before.) Whit got a cute shot of the two of them holding hands today.Then Lily pulled her hand away.
This hurt H's feelings.
You can tell his feelings are hurt and she's terrified.

Making the bad good

What do you do when your child hates something that is necessary? You combine it with something fun...right? Your child hates cleaning his room, you turn it into a game or race. Your child dislikes vegetables, you add a song to the process.

Well my 4 month old is not feeling the whole rice cereal introduction...what to do? You can't race him, sing about it or make it a game. He's 4 months old. So...I thought, well, what does he like? Bath time. H LOVES his baths! I used this outlet last night in order to eat dinner, after an evening filled with fussy, needy behavior.

Tonight, I took it to a new level. I fed him his rice cereal in the bath tub. I have a video that Ozzy is working on making it a small enough file to load on here. But to leave you with the general idea. Here was the outcome. :)

There was definitely more rice cereal in his tummy than on his face. The biggest success this week!

Now, if we could only get him to fall asleep tonight!

Rockstar!

H is such a rock star! He loves his Guitar Hero guitar that came in the Raisin Bran box. Here he is jamming out with the guitar.

Back to work...

So today I had to head back to work. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated. H wouldn't go to sleep last night, which made waking up a little difficult this morning. I also became quite accustomed to daily naps over the break and was a bit dragging this afternoon. I was even more jealous when I came home to this...H with his nanny, Aunt Whit, just chilling!

New Photos

My cousin is an amazing photographer and is wonderful enough to come shoot H when she is in town. Over Christmas she was here and took several fantastic photos. It is difficult to find my favorites...but here are a few.

These are pictures she took Christmas Day before dinner.

Here H is with his great grandma (my mom's mom).Here are the pictures from the next morning at our house.
H in his stocking. :)

Here are some more Christmas shots. He really is our best gift ever!

He loves sticking out his tongue!

H's signature pose.

I know I'm biased...but WHAT A HEARTBREAKER!

I love him so much!

You can visit Katie's work at www.katiethackerphotography.com.

What A Big Boy

H had his 4 month check-up and shots on Friday. He is a growing, small but growing, boy weighing 12 lbs 10 oz. He has grown 3 inches since his 2 month check up to a whopping 24 inches. That puts him about 25th percentile for height, about 12th percentile for weight and he has a normal sized head at 50th percentile.

While talking with Dr. Wright, H rolled from back to stomach and back again for us on the table. He had to show off for her. He didn't think we were watching. (That is his favorite time to do all his tricks.) He smiled, played peek-a-boo with her, stood up, and even had the hiccups (twice) during his check-up.

After his check-up the nurse came in for his shots. He didn't even cry until after they were done...but he made up for it then. He did his holding his breath drama for the nurse after his shots and she worried. I told her that he was fine and that he inherited it from his dad. He holds his breath, turns reddish purplish and then takes a humongous breath after what seems like forever and lets out a "loud" scream. Thankfully "loud" for him is nothing compared to other children I've heard.

He had stopped crying after about 2 minutes and we left the room. When he saw the nurse again, he stuck out his lip and started fussing again. Poor girl, he didn't forget her face.

I did have to give him Tylenol for the first time that evening when he would fuss if doing anything other than rocking in my arms. He was so brave though.

Here he is before he knew what was coming.

That's What She Said...

I'm often asked how old my husband is because many people think he looks like a teenager still. I am he will appreciate this even more as he grows older. Though he is not actually young, his heart and sense of humor is young. I'm not saying that he is immature; I'm pointing out that he isn't afraid to laugh at things that others may be too "grown up" to laugh at. Or maybe it is a little immature...as my girlfriend Allison says, "Go ahead and laugh, my 10th graders would." However, J is very fond of The Office and can turn almost any comment made in conversation into an office quote. His favorite phrase, along with his buddies, is "that's what she said." Our friend Andrea was recently in NYC and purchased a gift for H that just tops all others...well most others.

J finished his MBA and graduated from grad school on Dec 13th. We couldn't celebrate the end of a long adventure until after Christmas because of holiday parties and basketball games. We through J a surprise grad party last weekend with The Office theme. We played The Office DVD board game and The Office trivia game well into the night with friends and family. Of course J and H had on matching outfits that I would love to share.

Boop Boop Boop

H's laugh is just so contagious, I have to share this. He was having a blast "booping" Uncle Marky. He wouldn't even look at mommy trying to get his attention.

Happy New Years

H rang in the new year with his girlfriend. J and I tagged along to our friends Allison's and Jerrad's for relaxed New Years watching football.

H enjoyed sitting in Lily's activity center and breaking his neck to watch football.

He then became fixated with the sun that Lily adores so much.

H and Lily coordinated with their New Years tops. We had to get a quick shot before Lily took a bath and got in her PJs. She was falling asleep at the table at 7:00. However, night owl H made it till 10:30. We had a great time and look forward to many more in 2009!

He just couldn't stay up any longer.

Tears to Cheers...

I have put off putting away Christmas decorations for three big reasons. One - I'm selfish and want to enjoy the rest of my break with H and J. Two - I LOVE Christmas time and think 2 months is not enough time to enjoy it. Three - H loves Christmas too!! You may ask how I know that my 4 month old loves Christmas...well read on.

The Christmas" singing things" that J despises so much, can rid of any tears. Hallmark is H's favorite store apparently. Here are a few pictures of H enjoying his Hallmark snowmen.

I also got a video of the wonders these singing snowmen can do. Please disregard the funny coloring. The video camera was still in night vision mode and I didn't know how to change it. (Apparently it is the switch on top that reads "night shot plus off/on.")

Baby's 1st Christmas!

J and I thought this would be one of our last Christmases to sleep in somewhat without a child jumping on our bed begging to go see what Santa brought. However, we were wrong. H was so excited Christmas morning...but not to see what Santa brought, eating was what he wanted at 5:30am. Thankfully, a pacifier held him over until 6ish. Here he is sucking the bottle dry. Then he chilled with J for a while, waiting for Pop and Aunt Whit

Once we began opening stockings, he decided he was sleepy.

So I had to empty his for him...while he slept. Overall, he made out with some toys, clothes, and very useful gifts like diapers, wipes, a high chair and bath seat.

At Gigi's he was excited again.

He eventually got dressed in his "Santa Rocks" onesie. He decided to go pants less since it was 70something degrees outside.

Here he is checking out a gift.

Later, chilling with uncle Mark.

And here are some pictures my AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHER cousin, Katie, took at my aunt's house Christmas evening.

It was an amazing first "family" Christmas. I look forward to enjoying each one with H and J.