Happy 10 Months!

Christopher turned 10 months this past Sunday. We took his baseball with us to Virginia and took his picture there!

I sent this picture to a couple people who were confused by the 3 on his shirt because it looks like such a "real ball." Well it's not- 10 months! Only 2 more to go! And I have to decide on a theme for his first birthday. My obvious choice is baseball. It goes with all of his monthly pictures. But when I asked Matt if we should do Dr. Seuss or baseball he said Dr. Seuss because this might be the only year we can. True. His bathroom and bedroom are Dr. Seuss so it may be that... still not sure! I do know that I am going to take a look back at my Dr. Seuss baby shower pictures for some ideas!

Just mokeying around. Bleh. I hate when Matt puts him upside down.

Morning bottle with daddy. I am not really "allowed" to come into the room during bottle time. Apparently I am a complete distraction... but I had to sneak a peek this morning!

Both Matt and I were so worried about the "3-day sleep" rumor we have heard about- and I think I actually read something about it somewhere. Babies take 3 days after travel to adjust back their normal routine. WE definitely experienced it after our trip to Nashville in September! Well thank the Lord Christopher didn't do it this time because we were both exhausted this week... well at home anyway. He sure is having a dickens of a time sleeping at daycare though- just the afternoon nap. He is refusing! Little booger. We had homework this weekend to have him play in his Pack and Play so we just got done with that. It was kinda nice to have him playing in the living room in it because we could actually just SIT on the couch and watch him and not constantly be on guard!

Ms. Jeanne sent me this picture at work! Christopher just crawled right over and stepped right on up. She said it was effortless. You can tell that he is learning the whole kicking up of the leg thing because while in his Pack and Play just a bit ago he was standing and kept pulling up his leg trying to "climb" out.

Do you see his donkey? It's Eeyore but we pretend it's Dominick. And you have to see Christopher's newest song that the loves... Well, I may just love it more than him.

 The Duck Song

I was reading about getting rid of blinking toys and letting kids create their own fun through exploration... so this day I didn't take out any toys and just let Christopher play with plastic containers, lids, cups, strainers, etc. He seemed to enjoy it! I love that when I gave him this cup he immediately tipped it up with his mouth on it to drink out of it.

Your homework is to cross your fingers that Christopher starts taking his second nap at daycare again!

Have a great week! 

It's Like Riding a Bike

 

This has been our saying for the past few days.

We were trying to decide which car to put Christopher's car seat in- mom's or dad's. Mom has an automatic, dad a stick. Mom has a car, dad has an SUV. My choice was dad's, Matt was hesitant because it was stick and he doesn't know how to drive stick. I said... "Well, I do. I just haven't done it in awhile, but it'll come back to me. It's like riding a bike." To which Matt replied... "I have never seen you ride a bike." True. The car seat went in mom's car. (But I would like to point out that I did drive dad's car to the gym and it was like riding a bike.)

We went to see my friend Katie's baby. I said... "Yea... I don't think I can hold the baby. I'm not good at holding babies." But I did hold him- DEFINITELY NOT like riding a bike. I didn't even know what to do. His head was bobbing all around. I'm not quite sure how I managed with Christopher. We should all be thankful his head is still on.

 

And on to the pictures!

Chowing down on some toast and banana! Christopher is a champ with his finger food. About a month ago I blogged that I was trying some different things out with him and he liked some, but not too many. Now, he eats basically anything you put in front of him. His favorite is grilled cheese. He tried meatballs while we were here and mom made him linguine and he loved both! I think it may have been the Ragu that I used that he didn't like when I tried to give him pasta. And he now takes lunch meat to have at daycare too!

Here are Amy and her little girl Lylah with Christopher! Amy reads the blog on the regular so she always knows the latest with him.

We went to see mom at work on Friday. This was in the car there. I am not sure if Christopher smiled at anyone while we were there. He stared at everyone and took it all in.

Saturday we went to see my friend Katie in Richmond. We left early in the morning so that we would be back around lunchtime to be sure that we would avoid the snow! Christopher fell asleep on the way there and on the way home.

Here is the little baby that we went to meet! His name is Scott. He was so cute. Mom held him pretty much the whole time. Do you see the creepster in the background? hahaha

 

This is my friend Lindsay and her little girl Harper. Christopher really liked Lindsay. He crawled right over to her and up her leg.... Then started pulling on Harper's shirt.

 

The girls (plus the little boys).

 Me and Christopher. Scott and Katie. Lindsay and Harper.

 

 

Mrs. Neely came over to visit when we got back from Richmond! Christopher was showing off for her.

LOOK, NANA- SSSSNNNNOOOWW!!!

Mom made him a little snowball and he immediately stuck it in his mouth. His face was hilarious! Mega cold I am sure!

 

Bad mama forgot the stroller. But thankfully the mall has this really cool stroller you can rent. Gross. I wiped it down three times before Christopher was allowed to get into it.

 

 

And here are a few videos that I took of Christopher and Granddaddy crawling...

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Christopher had the most magnificent Valentine's Day... and he gave his mom and dad the BEST.PRESENT.EVER. He was a dream baby on the airplane. We bought him some new books and a toy for the special day (and as a distracter). He loved his new books and we didn't even have to give him his toy because he was so content. He played Peek-a-Boo with the lady behind us and just laughed and babbled. And trust me- there was definitely reason to worry. He woke up at 7 this morning... snoozed for 20 minutes on the car ride down and that WAS IT. Mr. Observant couldn't take his eyes off everything! We left for Virginia Beach around 1130 and he would normally have already had a 2 hour nap in there. He did finally fall asleep right as we started our initial descent. There were only 20 people on our entire flight so we had an open seat in between me and Matt where Christopher could sit and stand... and I know for sure that won't happen on Monday so I certainly hope he is just as good!  Here are a few pictures from our ride!

Reading Fox in Socks!

Preparing for takeoff! Apple juice in the bottle to prevent ear popping.

 

And some randoms from the week!



 

Ms. Jeanne gave Christopher his Valentine gift before we left! He kept taking them off of his face so I picked the exact moment when Matt walked in from work to distract him with the glasses so that I could get a picture. Smart mama. 

 

Here are the valentines that Christopher gave out to his friends at school.

"Of all the fish in the sea... I'm glad we swim in the same school."

And of course his choclates for Ms. Jeanne.

Mama getting her workout on! We NEVER do this but I missed my session with Eddie on Wednesday and knowing what my mom was making for dinner on Valentine's Day... I knew I had to get on the treadmill. Christopher loved watching!

Christopher discovered his birthday balls!

Little reader. Christopher was all about the entertainment center this week. He pulled everything out every day. We tried talking to Granddaddy on FaceTime during this book session, but like Nana, he couldn't get his nose out of the books long enough to say hi! :)

 

Hope everyone had a day full of love! 

The Videos I Promised!

I think we are going to have to do this a different way than normal- at least for now. Click on the links below to see some fun videos of Christopher. 

First up, we have a little bit of bathtime. We still bathe Christopher in his baby bath, but we put it inside the big bathtub. My thought is why fill up the tub when this is all we need? He loves sticking his hand under the water spicket and when we take our hands and make it hit him in the face. I hope that's a good sign for the pool this summer!

://www.dropbox.com/s/zm51hmjty6xen3s/2013-01-31%2019.42.38.mp4

Here is Christopher dancing one morning. It's a long one. Matt doesn't do the 30 second videos like I do- he just keeps rolling! The good thing is you get to see a few different dance moves. My favorite is the butt in the air one when he crawls behind the cube.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdi6teebx4b24z0/2013-02-03%2009.55.32.mp4

Apparently we ran out of room on DropBox so once Matt upgrades I will put on the Boppy one! It is so cute!

I did find some other cute pictures on there for y'all to see....

I know this is terrible but this is what Christopher and I do after school sometimes. He loves it. :)

At night Christopher now plays Peek-a-Book with Nana! He takes the bottom part of the iPad cover and lifts it up and then brings it back down so she can say Peek-Boo! :) :) He laughs hysterically.

And look!!! A good one of me and Christopher!! I do wish he was looking more at the camera but I think it is adorable!

And now pictures from today!! 

We had to get an umbrella stroller so we don't have to wheel around the big one through the airport. We aren't taking our carseat so there really isn't any point. Matt zoomed Christopher all over the downstairs this morning. He loved it!

Playing with daddy before bedtime!

Todd came over and helped Matt hang a piece wall hanging so the girls got to play with Christopher. Up top.. Little Miss Kennedy.  And down below... Princess Peyton.

Here is what they hung. I need to find some knick knacks for the cubes and I have frames for the other walls on order! I love how the color turned out with the wall hanging. It is pretty easy to match since there is like every color in it! 

A video from my phone... They kept going back and forth, back and forth so he seems a little tired in this one! 

And that's it!!! I will not be blogging again this week until the weekend. Lots to get done for school and packing before we go!

The Countdown is On!

Only three days of work this week!!! We head out to Virginia on Valentine's Day. :)

I didn't get to spend as much time as I normally do with Christopher this week. He was refusing his second nap at daycare (I think he is obsessed with either all the toys or Ms. Jeanne). Since he didn't nap there, he had to nap when we got home so I missed an hour of playtime a couple of days. And then I had a PTA function at school on Tuesday so no family time with Matt and him. I missed bathtime 3 out of 5 nights! My workout ran over on Monday night, Tuesday was my work thing and Thursday I was having such a good workout that we lost track of time! Matt did a great job though - well, Christopher smelled clean so I think it all was okay! :) I did get to enjoy bottle time with every night though. One night Christopher was so tired, he put his head on my shoulder and said mamamama. He used to say the mama sound a lot, but lately it is all dada so I was pleased when I heard it. :) Then, when I opened the back door to get him out the next day he said mamamama again. They say babies don't make the connection until 11 or 12 months but I do think we are getting closer to him realizing it.

We took Christopher to the park today. This was his first time in a swing. When we walk outside with him, and the wind blows in his face he gets all excited, so we knew he was going to love swinging- and he did. I was able to get on FaceTime with mom and dad while we were there so they saw him in all his glory! :)

For the Super Bowl we went over to our neighbor's house and this baby was there. Christopher was all smiles when he saw her and kept trying to pet her. However, in this picture I think he might just be going for Jennifer's green nail polish.

Just waiting to go to daycare! I love when he plays with this Tigger while he is in here. Tigger is just as big as he is.

This is my bathroom. I was changing after work one day and when I walked back in the bathrom I thought..... What happened to my bathroom!??!?!?! Since when is it another playroom? There are literally toys everywhere in there! And Matt yells at me about my shoes! HUMPH. (This is not an acronym. Matt says people will think it is. It's an onomatopoeia.)

Definitely not a protein add- but it certainly could be! This week during dinner Christopher started taking his top teeth and tapping them with his bottom teeth. I think he just realized they are there? Who knows. But it is loud and makes me flinch. Nails on a chalkboard. The good thing is it makes it easy to get a shot of all four teeth!

GUESS WHO???? Matt's sister sent us this picture this week! I can't wait to compare it to Christopher when he is about this old. I would say that Christopher gets his big eyes from his daddy though!

This is from last weekend but I am including it for 2 reasons: 1- I made it into a picture!!! (Granted yes I am taking a picture of Christopher but I think that's pretty telling of why I am never in any!) and 2- Christopher now only wears the 2 piece jammies. We bought the few one piecers we could find.. washed them up and ATTEMPTED to put them on him. His fat feet wouldn't fit in the feet holes! Needless to say, I sent Matt on a mission this week to get some more pajamas.

This past weekend we went and bought a video monitor. We had been quite fine without one but SOMEONE kept telling me... Angie, you have to get one! You will never believe you lived without it! :) So we did- I was getting tired of peeking in to see if he was standing in his crib, rolling around, or actually sleeping. And now it's kind of obsessive. We always thought that Christopher fell asleep the moment we put him down at night. He NEVER makes noise when going down for the night. Maybe 5 times and he is almost 10 months old. But now we have discovered that he just does everything without making any noise.. he stands up. He waves Dino around. He claps his feet around. All without any noise. How is that possible? He does this for about 10 minutes and then finally falls asleep. I don't even fall asleep that quietly- how does he? I got a video this afternoon of him playing in his crib. I put Mr. Sleepyhead down around 3 and he talked and played (with no crying thank goodness) for about 30 minutes. Here is just a snippet of what I watched.



Just playing one afternoon after school! Stroonz so badly wants a playmate.

And that's it!!! I wish Matt could figure out how to send me some of his videos. The files are too big and we can't even figure out how to email them! :( Maybe I can upload them from DropBox because he has some really great dancing ones and Christopher being angry ones. Do you remember the video of him crawling around with the remote... Well this week he tried to crawl around with the Boppy. It is so funny watching him get angry at it because it is so big. He figures it out though. I will work on that tonight!! :) :)

Oh Little Playmate... Come Out and Play with Me!

Christopher invited a friend over to play Friday! Last time they "played together" there wasn't a whole lot of interaction, but now they are a few weeks older so I thought maybe they will play a little more... and if not then I would just spend the whole time talking to Patricia and they could do their own thing! :) 

 If you know Christopher (have met him in person) then you know he is serious business at first. He takes in every part of your face and your demeanor before even thinking of smiling at you. It's not the 9 month-weary of strangers thing- either. He has always been that way. I always feel terrible for the old men and women at Publix who try to make him smile in the short amount of time that we are in line. I'm always like.... "He's a serious baby. Sorry!" What I should be saying is "You're gonna have to try a little harder than that!" Anyway... When Patricia first set Austin down to play, I am not sure Christopher knew what to think. He stared... a lot. Then he crawled over to him and they were like 2 dogs, sniffing each other out.

Sniff, sniff.

Christopher was a little warm in his fleece... or he just wanted to show off his muscles. Not sure which. :)

The basket of toys was a big hit. Once we broke that out the boys really started playing together- I guess if you count grabbing toys from each other playing. I do- it's a start. They were so cute to watch! Austin lives across the street so hopefully we can let them play once a week!

Did you know that once you hit 12 month clothes they really stop making the cute footed pajamas? I have a found a few but not too many that I love. Patricia convinced me that Christopher will still look just as cute in the 2 piece big boy jammies so we tried out a pair that we had bought. 

He does looks super cute huh?

I tend to always get pictures of him standing, banging on the back door- obviously it happens alot!

The basket of toys! Keeps him busy for a long time. I think we were trying to get laundry folded and needed him distracted because he is quite the laundry unfolder.

We went to Miss L's for lunch on Saturday and they have deemed Christopher their new mascot. :) I am really hoping that means free cookies every once in awhile! 

This is the picture I put on Facebook. His eyes are like marbles in this picture.

Matt put on Dominick the Donkey for Christopher. I don't know what it is about this song that makes him crazy. Look at that smile. He was so happy and sometimes will even sing "la la la" along with it. I am hoping the people on the airplane don't mind that song being played over and over. :)

We went to Cracker Barrel this morning for breakfast! YUMMMMM! We are so busy during the week that we never go out to eat anymore, so we really do it up on the weekend. Christopher is pretty well behaved too. He is soooooo talkative though. I guess that's better than crying or screaming, but he is a really loud talker. I guess he has learned that if you want to be heard, you better say it loud! 

And there ya go! I got a picture of the top teeth. Should I be concerned that there is a small gap in between his top teeth? If the gap stays, I blame Kate... no need to tell why. Hopefully, she knows.

This is the only video I have... not anything too great. Nana is on FaceTime... Matt is talking to Anthony in the background and Christopher is not sure who to pay attention to! :)



Have a great week everyone!!