Big Smiles

It has been awhile so I have lots to update. Aaron is changing so much every day, I can hardly believe it. The biggest milestone we have hit recently is that he has learned to smile.

That has brought mommy great joy to see his cute smiles. We are finally at a point where he is on a more set schedule and we know what to expect from eating and sleeping which is great for everyone. I love picking in up in the mornings and being greeted by the sweet smile. He is definitely a morning baby.

Daddy often gets bummed out because by the time he gets home from work Aaron is worn out and not quite as smiley in the evenings. However, he has flashed the smile several times for daddy to see. Last Friday night we took Aaron to his first Astros game and he did so good. We put him in the baby carrier for the first time and it worked like a charm. I was a little nervous because we tried it out at home and he screamed the whole time he was in it. But, when daddy put it on, Aaron loved it and was content the whole time. He even snuck in a snooze.

We have started taking family walks at night and they are quite lovely. It has been a little bit cooler this summer which makes the evenings not too bad for walking.

 As we are slowly moving him over to be a formula baby, we have hit some speed bumps. We have tried several formulas and don't appear to have hit the jackpot yet. Several of them have made him scream for hours at a time...and that is NOT going to work. The one we keep going back to, doesn't make him scream but it makes him grunt with gas ALL NIGHT LONG. He will sleep through it, and so does daddy, but mommy does not. Needless to say we need to find one that works a little better than that. We are moving on to our 4th formula to try and see if we can figure something out. Luckily we have more good days than bad days and the smile makes it all better.

 Last night in the midst of a screaming formula trial he stopped and smiled at me. I told a friend I wasn't sure if that was a little piece of heaven or just straight cruel after hours of screaming to just flash a smile.

 As for our other child, Luna she is a wound up crazy dog. Well actually she is a very good dog but every bit of a puppy. She has found the pool, and the hot tub and we can not keep her out of them. Her and Aaron are becoming fast friends and she loves all the smells he brings.

 Monday is the first day of school and there has been a lot of work put into my classroom this year, unfortunately it wasn't by me. This year is an exciting year for Wolfe Elementary because we will be starting the year off in our new building with all kinds of fun toys, teacher toys. My mom and Rick both but many hours into getting my classroom ready and I can't wait to see it. Since I am taking the first few weeks off of school to spend with Aaron, I was not able to go up and get things set up. Since the closing day on their house was quickly approaching, there was a push to finish the classroom before then. With many hours of work, it was completed before meet the teacher night.


And then, the next exciting news is.....my parents have closed on their house. The long awaited day has come. Thursday evening they became home owners again and are very excited about that. They have spent the weekend over there working on some things they wanted to do before their furniture came. Jon and a friend of ours helped them do a pretty cool tile back splash in their kitchen. Aaron and I have been able to come over and visit some this weekend and he is the only one who has a bed there currently so he is all set up.

I am so thankful for this time I get to spend with Aaron and even on the tough days I wouldn't trade it for the world.  He is growing so fast and I am sad that I had to bag up all of his newborn clothes and put them away because they just didn't fit anymore :(.  I guess at 8 weeks it is time he move into the 0-3 month clothes.  I am sure this is just the start of the sadness as he grows up.  I am not looking forward to the day we have to go and get his 2 month shots but that all comes with the territory.

1 month, already?!?!

I can't believe how time flies by. I have always heard people who have kids say that time flies and boy is that the truth. Well, I think time has always gone quickly but you really realize it when you have children and/or pets that you are watching grow. We are fortunate enough to have both!

We have had Luna now for about 6 weeks and she is 3 months old. She has come so far since we brought her home, it is amazing. Two days after we brought her home I took our tiny puppy to the vet and they said she weighed 4.6 pounds and she had some skin issues. I took her to the vet on Monday and am happy to report our chunky monkey now weighs 16.6 pounds. This is a great thing because the fist time we took her in the vet said the poor thing looked malnourished, not anymore. She is such a sweet puppy and turning into a wonderful dog. Of course, she has her moments of total chaos but a lot of the day she just lays around the house with us. I am happy to say at this point in her life, we have not lost anything to the puppy chewing. I understand, this may change but we are hoping to keep a healthy supply of chew bones around and minimize that. She is house trained now and LOVES to go outside and explore, this makes things so much easier. Jon introduced her to the pool soon after we brought Aaron home and she loved that too. She is ready for us to be in the pool more so she can swim too.

As for our other little one, he is a month old today and continues to change and keep us on our toes. We went to the doctor today and he is measuring at 7 pounds 2.3 ounces, he has gained a pound since his 2 week check up, grow little man grow. He has grown one inch since he was born and this puts him in the 50 percentile. The doctor was pleased with his color and said he is no longer jaundice which is great news. We are so excited to be out of the clear on the weight and jaundice, Much to mommy's dismay, we are not really on a regular eating or sleeping schedule but he is eating so much better. When we first got home it was quite a production to get him to eat, now he is a champ. As much as I would love to be on a schedule, everywhere I read and everyone I talk to says that around 2-3 months that will all fall into place, so I am going to let it go for now. I am so glad that I have the time to be home with him and just get to know him and most importantly cuddle with him. We have had some great visitors come over and spend some time with us and we love to see everyone. Throughout the last month we have battled a week or two of bad gas, a heartbreaking thing to struggle with because he would scream in pain and there was little I could do. Then we thought for awhile he may have colic, still not sure on that one. As it is with all people he has good days and bad days, we just like to soak in the good days and push the bad ones on. We have managed to capture lots of cute pictures and put together a slide show of the first month of Aaron's life, we hope you enjoy it.

To Chick-Fil-A, or not to Chick-Fil-A...

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Adjusting to a new life

It is hard for me to believe that tomorrow Aaron will be 3 weeks old.  The time has gone so quickly, it seems like there are many days that escape me and before I know it they are over.  I couldn't tell you what I do at home all day with a newborn, other than feed and change diapers but it goes very quickly.  I am sure the time passing so quickly has nothing to do with having a newborn and a puppy to wrangle...but needless to say we are on our toes over here.
 A few things I have learned about Aaron:

• He does not like to be cold
• He screams when you bathe him because it is cold
• He gets upset when you change his clothes/diaper because it is cold and plug your ears if you need to use a wipe because that is wet AND cold
• He grunts when he is hungry
• He can sleep through any noise UNLESS mommy is trying to sleep too then an ant walking by will wake him
• He will one day make a great boxer because he has always got his guard up (hands by his face)
• If he is running short on dirty diapers all you have to do is change his diaper and he is sure to poop in the clean one within 5 min.
• When cleaning a poopy diaper protect yourself because he has been known to pee on his clothes
• He makes great faces just like his dad so it should be interesting when he can put those to use

The first week, Jon was off work and it was great to have his help around the clock.  Unfortunately that had to come to an end and he had to go back.  We are lucky in that we have so much family that is willing to help.  Barbie came for a week to help with cooking and loving on both Aaron and Luna.  My dad and Spencer joined her later on in the week and we had a really nice visit.  They all headed home last Sunday and we headed back to the regular crowd around the house.  This past week has been much quieter, with visitors slowing down and I was able to spend some time really focusing on Aaron and learning more about him.  I will say it is rather surprising how quickly you learn what all of their sounds and movements mean.  Although I haven't been getting many naps, we have been doing pretty good at night.  Thus far we have had minimal trips out of the house but a few here and there.  Aaron has been to Bible Study the last two weeks, church and lunch last weekend, doctors for both him and me, and then an errand trip on Friday.  He loves the car and as most babies do, spends his cruising time snoozing.

This weekend was a low key weekend with no plans and it has been great to just relax and lay around in our jammies all day.  It is so nice to be able to feed the baby and sleep when it works for you and not feel the need to race the alarm clock. I love to snuggle our sweet little boy and I already dread the day he won't want to snuggle anymore.  Jon on the other hand asks Aaron every morning when he wakes up if he can swing a golf club yet.  I keep telling him the time will be here before he even knows it.

I am equally surprised at how good our little Luna is doing.  She has doubled her weights since we brought her home a month ago and it really a good dog.  We are pretty much, dare I say it, at the point where she is house trained.  That has been a tremendous help to have that done.  She also loves to be outside and will go lay in the yard forever.  She thankfully isn't really bothered by Aaron's crying and has adjusted well to him.  My wish list for Luna is that she will learn these few things and then she will be a totally independent dog:

• Get on the couch herself, she is close
• Get off the couch herself, she is a chicken
• Go down the stairs by herself

I plan to spend some time this week working on a slide show of the first month of Aaron's life so stay tuned.  In the mean time here are a few of our more recent pictures.

 This is daddy's current favorite picture

Here is what Jon does on a Saturday, he makes music videos with our son...