2nd 3rd of December

The second third of December brought travel.

Grandmel and Grandpa Bill were ready to see the little pumpkin - now just shy of 5 months old.

We hung out with them for a long weekend inbetween the two majors - Thanksgiving and Christmas. In PA, Sage got to experience his first fire in a fireplace. While on a trip to see his Great Grandma, he was able to meet his Great Uncle Bruce and Great Aunt Karen. He behaved beautifully for Great Grandma, and was a trooper through it all. He even did the cute grab your feet, babble and coo thing during diapers changes so she could report back to the relatives.

We also got to spend time with Doug and Nancy. Doug and Nancy are neighbors that I grew up with in PA. They bought this sweater:

Which we use all of the time, and he is sadly going to outgrow sooner than later. During our 2 month trip to PA we were only able to spend 5 minutes with them before jutting off to the airport, so on this venture we wanted to get a little more face time in.

When we got back, we did the family portion of the portraits (session 2 of 2) and had to choose which pictures to print out and give as gifts. Since I did the family portrait in the last post, I'll post one more of the kiddo, since he is cuter and all.

During the week, Kel had to go out of town. I prepped for a holiday brunch open house (more on that in part 3 of 3) and Sage and I went on a overnight to New Bern to see cousin Corty (and Great Aunt Jeannen and Grandma and Grandpa Walling too). During this trip, Sage saw his first set of over-the-top, someone-must-have-a-storage-unit-or-five, you-can-see-the-halo-from-two-miles-away Christmas lights. Kel's Dad did the driving, so I'm guessing it was near Rowe's Corner - but I could be wrong. It was back-roady and dark.

On Friday, the punk and I headed back home, and Daddy met us there, back from Atlanta for the week. Then it was a cleaning and baking frenzy - until the end of the second triad of December.

Bad Momma

Bad Momma hasn't posted since T-giving. Must be because we are a family on the GO! Except for when we have our picture taken - then we are a family that struggles to sit STILL!

I'm going to take December in Triads for these postings.

Dec 01-09, 2008 -

When we got back from New Bern after Thanksgiving, Plan "Make it happen for Christmas" went into effect. Both sets of Grandparents wanted family pictures. After struggling with the concept of having to appear on camera (mom) and being in town to appear on camera (dad), we went to the studio twice. The first time was to check out how it works and get solo pictures of the little man, the second was to get Kelly to go with us while he was in town and have the dreaded family photo taken (see above). The one you look back on and say - look how funny we dressed. Or how could I wear my hair that way. So on, so forth. Believe you me, in a bunch of years it'll probably be "look how long your hair was" or "how not gray your hair was" or "how dorky we all look" - except the kid, he is just too plain stinkin' cute. The worst you could say is that his momma dresses him funny.

As for the solo pictures, the results are in:

Baby in a Box is the winner. Even someone who isn't as biased as me could tell you that our son is adorable. He smiled for every picture - the toughest part was choosing which ones to get.

What else did we do in the single digit days of December?

We expanded horizons - if you count going to the local Ethiopian restaurant as an expanded horizon.

We played - nothing new there:

And last but not least, we went for walkies - since it was mid-60s and gorgeous weather-wise. We decided to stop and plop into the leaves for a little:

The rest of December, coming soon!

T-giving

Just before Thanksgiving, we went out for Italian. The munchkin behaved during dinner, but if it was in range, it was in the mouth.

He even tried to sneak a little bit of booze with Daddy's help (note: he is already a beer snob, Peroni!):

Kel and I loaded up the pumpkin and went to New Bern for Thanksgiving. He slept the ENTIRE way there and the ENTIRE way back (looks like we are getting a hang of the nap routine).

In New Bern, Sage got to meet his youngest second cousin, Hanners, and have dinner with 11 people who fall into the friends and family department.

Sage thought Hanners was a bit of a turkey (just kidding Hanners, you just have one in front of you here)! No wonder Hanners, Jake and Amy were at the kids table!And here's a little bit of a grab feet display - this is becoming a habit and is interesting on the changing table. We're in for a winter of missing socks:

Gotta run, just heard a new sound on the exersaucer - looks like Sage found the hanging bar that was out of reach.

Yes, Son, You are still adorable at four in the morning. Mom's just a little off her game though.

After a week of good sleeping (3 to 5 hours at a time for up to 12 hours) the munchin decided to wake up at 3:30 and stay up until 5:30 before going back for a couple more hours of sleep.
Why? Wish I knew.

Third of a Year

The little man turned 4 months yesterday and we celebrated by going to the pediatrician today. In a nutshell, the boy isn't teething (all 3.5 month olds up the drool quotient), he can use normal soap (normal for us anyway - sensitive skin stuff), and we can introduce real food (if you consider rice mush food).

Having this appointment also meant that we were in for another round of shots - just two this go round and a squeezy tube of oral vaccination goodness. Which he has been handling well. Must have been the spiderman and spongebob bandaids :) There was no passing out this time - which surprised me, just a series of short naps so far.

Check out the sidebar for the latest measurements (turns out bubba chunk is a real bubba!)

Mad Dash Accomplished

What happens when you witness white stuff falling from the sky in North Carolina in NOVEMBER?

You put a hat on the kiddo, take a mad dash outside and click a pic before you miss a photo op for baby's first snow.

Strechin' and a Bendin'

Diaper changes are starting to be a little bit more challenging.

The little man has added a couple of new tricks to the arsenal.

Enter 1) The Back Arch:

And 2) The Foot Grab:

Of course, these are the fully clothed versions of both maneuvers. Typicially in between diapers is when these are deployed.

We have been having great weather and then not so great weather, and then great weather again. Last Saturday we went to the park so Mom and Dad could play. Okay, so Sage got to play some too - but one whiff of fresh air and the kid fell asleep for the walk portion of the trek. What else is new in development? Hair! The stuff is starting to get noticibly fuzzier.
And one more cute shot:

Pbbbbblllltttt!

This child never ceases to amaze. On Thursday, he started sticking out/flicking his tongue. I think he is starting to mimick what he considers eating. I guess now I get to feel guilty for having a couple of nilla wafers in his line of sight.
This pic is mid-flick -

Fridays seem to be the big days around here. And honestly, I'm happy for the little guy and kind of freaked out all at the same time for the latest milestone. The little man flipped from his back onto his tummy (you know, the hard turtle-stuck-on-his-back way). He was reaching for a toy that was just out of reach, got a little bit flustered - unh, unh, unh, and next thing you know, flip! Check that one off the list.

Halloween '08 (Oh Poop! A History Lesson)

When you first have a child, they make you worry from the get go.

"They" can be anyone or anything. The very first "they" is the staff at the hospital.

They give you a sheet with three columns and right at the start, you get your worry on. The sheet with three columns is your basic input/output simple spreadsheet. And it consumes you almost instantly.

When did he latch?

Was that a poop or pee diaper?

Was it a big poop or a little poop?

What color was it (yeah, fun topic there)?

Did he feed the whole time or just kind of hang out?

When did he delatch?

How long did he feed?

Is that a lot of spit up?

Was he burped?

So on, so forth. The sheet is evil. Way evil. And although the poop is there at the beginning, there isn't always a schedule once the initial wave is over. At least with this child there isn't.

Sage has an uncanny ability to know that something is up - he has known from day 1 that he was a first child and that his parents worry about him like first time parents do. He likes this role and knows how to mess with us in that regard.

Shortly after we got home from the hospital, the child messed with us. Since we aren't on the formula path, there is really only one thing we can measure. At this point, we were worried about output.

Specifically pooh.

We were worried, at least in the background. As a first time parent you don't want to call the peds every time your child spits up, farts or doesn't pooh. Especially with a child that knows his role and will typically pooh once you call, being worried about pooh. The child was sleeping in the car seat carrier. Akin to this: Even at this early age (like 2-3 weeks or so), we knew that if he was content, not to move him. So this time, when he woke up, he was content and we didn't move him. He smiled, it was cute, look how content he was. And then he poohed with a vengeance. With the force of 3 grown men. Covering the car seat in such a fashion that the entire thing had to be dismantled, scrubbed, cleaned, washed and sanitized. Twice.

That is how we learned about the car seat butt cover and it hasn't happen to the car seat since.

Fast forward to this past weekend.

There have been moments of anti-pooh. Mini-poop strikes. Even they (the books in this case) say that a kiddo can have a normal schedule of pooping a couple of times a day to every 4-7 days. Not our son. He poops about every day and a half. Or he did until last Monday. And then he went poopless. For Tuesday. Wow, this is nice, only pee diapers to change. Wednesday. He was a farting machine mind you. But no poop. I'm okay with this, because they say 4-7 days is "normal". Thursday. Fartsy - yes, poopsy - no. I'm calling on Monday if this keeps up.

Friday.

Ahhh, Friday. We hang out, we play, we do errands, we are cute and fun and the perfect three and a half month old. We take pictures, we smile, we laugh, we coo. We get dressed for Halloween. We're a cute pumpkin.

We are also bringing plan Poop! 2.0 into action.

We are bouncing in the bouncy seat. A favorite pastime. And then we crank out a little. Getting cranky is one of the methods Sage has of communicating with us. It is pretty much the only method - and it states a number of things - I'm hungry, I'm dirty/wet, I'm tired, I'm hurting. He's pretty good about cranking out only for the "big stuff". So I pick him up and WHEW! Much to his parents relief and then chagrin, he pooped. The full extent of his poop-i-tude wasn't fully discovered until opened up on the changing table. He got the bouncy seat, the pumpkin outfit, a full diaper, his back, his legs, the changing table cover pad, the changing table cover, the extra cloth diaper we keep on top of those for just in case moments.

It was a 4+ wiper. Actually, I gave up after the fourth wipe and just ran a bath.

Happy Halloween!

First Quarter Report

The munchkin turned three months on Sunday. That's enough to make you flip upside down. Something the child has been doing a lot more of lately (the crazy thing is that he does this to himself and then one of two things happen - he either comes up smiling or pitches a fit until we ease him back down) :
The weekend was a crazy one - involving a lot of people and special events. The first of which, on Friday, was over 2 years in the making. Sage, Kel and I welcomed Bill, Heidi, and Nikko and their latest addition, Callia home from Vietnam! She is an angel, and the family, although exhausted, was glad to be back.
On Saturday we got a call from Jackie. Sage and I met her and Baby K out at the Farmers Market to procure fall veg and eat at the farmers market restaurant. My son fell asleep for the second weekend in a row. Might as well use the same pic from last week. At least one of the kids stayed awake for some of the trek:
After the farmers market, Rebecca and Alex stopped by to pick up pregnancy books - and practice:
Then for the official quartaversary on the planet Sage celebrated with the Paternal Grandparents and GreatAunt Jeannen at the NC State Fair. Here is the brood looking at the squarshes:Kel, the lil' pum'kin, and the big pumpkins:

A couple of hotdogs with a hotdog:

12th Week Weekend

The little man was 12weeks old this past weekend. Grandmel and Grandpa Bill were in town too. Their "Go West, Retirees" tour is going as planned, the AZ house is close to being complete and they toted a carful of stuff to us from PA over the weekend. (Golden Books from when Sarah and I were kids, Rocking Chairs, Train Set). While they were here we went to the farmers market to go Pumpkin Hunting and to Bella Monica to celebrate Grandpa Bill's 60th Birthday. The child probably doesn't realize that we shopped for pumpkins, ate at the farmer's market restaurant or even took this picture because he slept through it all:

Lately we are enjoying the bath. Thought everyone could use some pictures of that!

Prebath with Dad:Splish Splash during the bath:

Post-bath with Mom:

The Latest and Greatest

PA was a whirlwind. We met Aunts, we met Great Aunts and Uncles, we hung with the Grandmel and Grandpa - and didn't take a huge amount of pictures. Above is Sage's first plane ride - where he was great! He fell asleep after take off and didn't make a peep until landing.

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted, so the little man is into all sorts of new stuff - like holding something that is placed in his hand and grabbing, holding and gnawing on anything cloth. He is holding his head up all the time, enough to try a new experience - the jumper! He hasn't gotten the hang of jumping in it's entirety, but the seat is new to him and he seems to be liking it.

Tonight is the onslaught of something not so fun - either a growth spurt or teething. Since the trip to PA at the end of September, the little man has been upping the drool quotient, he has also been gnawing on anything he can get to his little mouth. You can see the teeth under the gums and I think they're trying to make their way to the surface. Of course, taking a picture of this is even more of an exercise in futility than taking a picture of the child smiling. What's different in the whole scenario - a little bit of fussiness. HAHAHAHA. That is what the websites and books call it. In all reality it means cluster feeding, unusual crankitude and just a shift from his normal cheeky self. Yes, my friends, I think the bubba chunk is starting the fun process of getting teeth.

2 months - Ouch!

2 months is a huge milestone in a little guys' life.

There are markers that you are supposed to meet (check out the latest stats at right),
There are tests that you are supposed to pass (this holding head at 90 degrees one is a "probably" at three months, and "should be" at four months):

And Then,

There are the Shots.

Being new to the planet and all, the shots come as a big shock. You turn three shades of red from screaming (hard to be red under those bright lights). At least you get Three Bright Yellow Band-Aids and lots of hugs out of the process. Extreme band aid closeup:

The kiddo handled it well, after about a minute of crying he passed out for 4 hours, was taken from sleep to feed and cry for a half hour, slept for 4 more hours and came back to normal.

September, So Far

So far September has been a whirlwind.

We had labor day dinner with Jackie, Jason and Kieran - where Kieran was introduced to "the baby". Strange to think of the 4 1/2 mo. old as the more experienced child, but it is amazing how much difference three months makes. Here the guys swap kids to see what the future will be like and see how far we've come:

Announcements are out - that is a load off my mind - and although he was 6 weeks old when they were sent, it seems like yesterday when we were in the hospital. The picture we ended up using (4 weeks old):

This past weekend, I left my baby. Ack! To help Jordan celebrate her pending marriage, I left Kel, the boy and a couple of bottles so I could have a dinner out with the girls - sans Sage.

I missed him, but somehow was able to enjoy a black and white daquiri and the elk carpaccio at Solas. And got home to find that Kel instilled his own brand of parenting. This involved adding water to breastmilk and keeping the kid up so he could see me when I got in.

Last night we went on a 9 oclock run to Rita's Water Ice - Gelati, YUM! This was the kiddos first trip to this fine establishment, a Philly area institution. We took a walk of the shopping center where there was also a Pizza place with NY style thin crust pizza sold by the slice which Kel insisted we have. It was just as expected - awesome thin crust and a slice that was bigger than most chain smalls.

Today was laid back - just a trip to the post office to mail off some thank yous (one for an engraved silver sippy cup - Thanks Leigh!) and a stop off at Java Jive so mama could have a cherry ice cream soda. Maybe we'll stop by the Tarheel Sports Car club meeting tonight so mom can have some adult talk time.

Up next, two month shots on the 19th and a trip to PA at the end of the month to see Grandmel and Grandpa, Great Grandma and a couple of Great Aunts. Keep the whirlwind going.

Mom's 6wk Checkup

Amy's six week checkup went just okey dokey!
Kel, Amy and Sage loaded up for a fun family outing to the OB/GYN's office, where we got the go ahead to resume normal activity (as if life with a 6 week old could ever be considered "normal").
Here are a couple of shots from this past week.
Sage just after playing:

Dad and Kiddo in a moment of sleep (Mom was just getting out of the shower):