Blake's Favorite Things

Our boy will be five months old next week and he already has quite the personality along with some strong preferences. I thought I would just lay out some of his top favorite things.

Water!
Our little boy loves water. The sounds of water, whether it's the rainfall app on our phone, running water from the faucet, sink, shower, you name it. He is even quite cooperative during bath time, he just sits there, looks at us, and smiles as we wash him and dump water on him. I consider us lucky since I have heard of babies who cry during their entire bath time. I am also blessed to be able to take a shower daily since he likes the sound of the running water and the hair dryer.

Here he is being a good boy while waiting for mommy to get ready.

Rolling over
Ever since he turned over on New Years Eve from his back to his tummy, he has not stopped! If I lay him down on his back on the floor, he immediately turns over. He does not spend much time on his back anymore, he is a busy boy and has stuff to do, like figuring out how to crawl...

Elmo!
I take full responsibility on this one, but our little boy loves Elmo already. If he sees and hears Elmo on television, the phone, or the computer he immediately lights up and smiles. People have warned me that Elmo gets old after a while, but I don't care as long as I can keep him away from Sponge Bob for as long as possible...

 













Football
Blake loves to watch football. I partly say it is due to the fact that we got him home from the hospital in time to watch the first OU football game of the season. We also watched most of the college game day's on ESPN this year and professional football as well. So basically it has been football season for this boy's entire life. Hopefully he will like basketball as well...

Women
Our little man is quite the flirt. Why wouldn't he be? He always has women coming up to him and telling him how cute and handsome he is and he just sits there and laughs, smiles, or makes cooing sounds. I even noticed him making cooing sounds when he saw Jessica Shambach on our local news last night...too cute.

For now those are Blake's favorite things. I'm sure his favorite things will expand and evolve over time. It's been so exciting to see him develop and grow thus far.

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!

Then end of 2012 really got away from me. I really meant to squeeze in a post before 2013. Oh well, so on to our Christmas recap.

We got to open presents with our little man for the first time which was a lot of fun (for me especially). I really enjoy buying things for Blake, but at the same time I know he has two grandma's who are very willing to buy him things as well, so I almost don't have to buy him stuff, but it's still fun to do.

Here he is with his presents, stocking, and daddy.

Daddy may have been more excited about the super hero stocking stuffers than Blake.

 

We also had a White Christmas on Christmas day, so I took our baby outside only for the sole purpose of getting his first picture in the snow. I put him in that thick cozy sleeper with a hood and we were not even out there for two minutes and then we hurried back inside!

 

We also went to my Grandma's Christmas Eve party with about 35 people of my extended family.
Then two days after Christmas we went to a cabin and spent time with Bob's family and visited his grand parents.

Then before the end of 2012 our 4 month old started rolling over for us. We are looking forward to 2013. Life will never be the same, especially with a baby that is becoming more mobile!

Thanksgiving weekend

This year we have yet another reason to be thankful. God has blessed more abundantly than we could ever imagine and now one of those blessings is our baby boy!

With our newest blessing I was hesitant to leave or travel on Thanksgiving day. Luckily both of our families were very flexible and let us host Thanksgiving lunch at our house. When I told people my plans of hosting Thanksgiving they thought it was more work than just going somewhere. However, you'd be surprised at all the food that shows up when you tell people you are providing a turkey. We had more than enough food for our group of 8 adults (both sets of our parents and my sister & brother-in-law) and 2 children (my nieces). Hopefully Aunt Rachel and Uncle Eric can join us in the future.

Our first Thanksgiving with Blake!

We did not participate in black Friday shopping.
But we did hit the road to visit some great grandparents that Blake has not had the chance to meet yet.
We made some special visits to Pryor and Moodys, OK.

Here is a four generation picture on Bob's dad's side of the family.

 Then Saturday was the extremely dramatic bedlam football game. Here are my boys rocking their OU threads.

 All in all it was a laid back Thanksgiving holiday, just like we prefer things around here. No big deals, just great times with family.

Learning to smile

Our baby boy is finally to the point where he is smiling! I'm so excited. He just gets so happy sometimes. It's totally cute and adorable (says his mommy)!

Here he is working on it.

There it is! Sweet boy. 

Happy Halloween/Two Months

Our baby boy celebrated being two months old the same week as Halloween.

Even though I did not feel compelled to dress him up, I did anyway. I especially felt guilty when the pediatrician asked what he was going to be and I said, "that" meaning himself. I had a feeling of "bad mommy" guilt. So we managed to find a pumpkin costume at Target on the day of Halloween.

So here we are rocking the two Halloween outfits.

Our boy is growing so quickly. Happy 2 months!

The smartest things nobody told me

While being pregnant and having a baby there are so many resources out there: books, online articles, websites, and advice from family and friends. Today I am going to share just a few things I stumbled upon just out of my own dumb luck, nothing I read about or heard from somebody else. This is my advice I will share with others in the future.

Swollen feet

Yes, I did read about and hear about swollen feet, but here's the problem: what do you do when your shoes don't fit? During my fifth month of pregnancy I ordered two pairs of Crocs on line. I previously had a pair and loved them! So I figured, if my feet are going to be hurting later I'd sure like to have some more Crocs since they are so comfy.

I wore both pairs for a while before I discovered that my other shoes had become too tight. Lucky me, I had my Crocs. Some people don't like Crocs because they don't come in half sizes, but if you just go up the half size, your pregnant feet will thank you later.

Duplicates

Now what do you do about duplicates from your showers? Stuff like books, I went ahead and exchanged them.Although I was puzzled for a bit about having two of some things. Well, not anymore! After leaving the house twice without a diaper bag I quickly put together a make shift diaper bag to keep in the trunk of my car. I just happened to have an extra diaper bag, changing pad, and nursing cover. After adding diapers and wipes I was set on a spare bag. I would not be caught venturing out again without one. Yea for duplicates!

Boppy

If you get a Boppy pillow for nursing make sure you keep the bag it comes in. The packaging was so nice with the handles on it and a zipper, I just thought it was a shame to throw it away. I kept it for no particular reason, but now I've already used it for when we travel. I am able to put the Boppy in the bag and throw it in the car and not worry about it getting dirty.

 So there you have it, the smartest things nobody told me.

From birth to 4 weeks

It's almost been a month (4 weeks ) since  we have welcomed our new addition into our family.

I went into the hospital at 6:30 am to be induced. We got started around 7 am and less than twelve hours later we had a beautiful baby boy!

Three days later we were on our way home.

And life hasn't been the same since. In a good way.

I almost feel like time has stopped for me. The month of September has flown by, but I am still stuck thinking it's the end of August. I've spent the whole month doing almost the same thing every day, and I couldn't be happier. I love being a mommy and staying home with our little guy.


At the beginning Blake mostly did this:

Or he would be eating, which we are not posting a picture of that.

We are getting closer to the point where Blake is not constantly feeding or sleeping. He is slowly learning how to stay awake and play a little bit. Yesterday we had a friend come over for a play date, which honestly he did more feeding than playing, but we managed a few pictures for the occasion.

 I can't believe a month has gone by already. I've always heard people say that "time goes by fast", or "they sure grow up quickly." Isn't that the truth? Time has flown by, but we are looking forward to the weeks/months/years ahead.