He's such a big boy

Our Tuesday morning was a bit different around these parts. 

And exciting. 

And a little heartbreaking.

Not only was I busy making breakfast for our family, 

but I was also busy packing lunches. 

Two lunches, to be exact. 

You see, Tuesday was Sam's first day at Mother's Day Out. 

And to say he was thrilled is a huge understatement. 

He's been ready. 

Which he made sure I knew every time we dropped Isabella off at her preschool last year.

By throwing a MAJOR fit when it was time for us to leave.

That was fun,...

Anyway, he's been talking about going to school for months. 

He picked out his very own Toy Story backpack. 

And his very own Shrek lunchbox.

Which burps when you press his belly. 

And Sam LOVES! 

And therefore makes it do so ALL THE TIME.

Which is not at all annoying.

Really!

He was the poster child of excitement.

 Which in all honesty put my heart at ease.

I didn't know what my reaction would be when letting go of my little one.

But I've been pleasantly surprised at how well I'm handling it,
if I may say so myself.

Scott was not able to go with us for Sam's first day due to a work conflict, 

but my Mom and I took him.

And although he was SO excited, 

I did see some signs of trepidation creeping through on our way to school.

But he armed himself with a small dose of valor and off he went.

He was ready to take on the world.

He even posed for me inside the school right before arriving at his classroom:

 

And then we found his assigned classroom. 

And everything went downhill from there.

REALLY quick!

It sounded like a torture chamber inside.

One kid was crying so bad even I thought he was being abused.

And immediately Sam held on to my thigh.

For dear life.

Crying uncontrollably.

Repeating "No, Mama!" over and over and over again.

While I stood there like an idiot wondering what to do.

Should I sweep him up off the floor and make a run for the exit?

But it was too late,....

His teacher was busy prying him from me.

And reassuring me everything would be OK.

"Just walk away mom!", she said.

The nerve!

And although it took everything from me not to linger around the building 

like a crazed stalker.

I did walk away.

And I ran some errands.

And accomplished a whole lot of things.

In a short amount of time.

But I was also the first mom to arrive for pick up.

Eager to hear the report on the day's events.

He did great!

And they love him!

And he ate all of his lunch.

But he did not sleep.

Although he was "more or less" still and quiet during rest time.

But more importantly, he's excited about going back again.

 And this he told me himself.

While enjoying a nice frozen celebratory treat from TCBY.

And all was fine in our world.

And I was able to return to my regular breathing.

Has anyone seen my baby?

So we had an amazing weekend packed with all sorts of fun events, which I'll share with you guys later, but I seem to have misplaced my baby boy.

You see, this is what he looked like yesterday morning.


But then for some reason I felt compelled that it was time he had his first hair cut and this is what we ended up with.

Hello!!!

This little boy looks like he's two years old or something.
Where's my sweet baby boy?!

I must admit, I didn't handle it quite as gracefully as I could have. When the lady was done snipping and cutting all I did was stand there and look at him. Don't get me wrong, I think he looks adorable. But I also think he looks like a toddler! And it saddens me how incredibly fast he's growing up and how quickly this is all going. And being that he may very well be our last child, I was kind of looking forward to enjoying his "baby" stage, but it appears he has other things in mind. So I better quit my whining, buckle up and enjoy this crazy ride he's taking me on.

His Cool New Trick

Four easy steps to standing up:

(1) First and foremost, make sure you've got
an acceptable audience.

(2) Then, grab the table with both hands
and pull yourself up on your huge chunky knees.

(3) Muster as much concentration and strength as
possible and pull yourself up to standing position.

(4) Finally, plop yourself back on the floor
and celebrate like it's nobody's business.

Yes, our big boy is now pulling himself up everywhere, ALL the time and chomping at the bit to start cruising. What's my favorite part in all of this? When he plops himself back on the floor and starts clapping and laughing hard belly laughs due to his accomplishing this new trick. So what do we do, you ask? Well, we all celebrate right along with him. Especially his sister, who's positively certain she's taught him absolutely everything he knows. These kids, I tell ya,...

Hard to believe,...

that our sweet boy is 8 months old today; 8 months old,... Seriously! Where has the time gone?


It seems like it was just yesterday the four of us were all in the hospital room filled with a whole lot of excitement and anticipation and uncertainty.


Our baby boy is growing up way too quickly and truth be told, his Mama is having a hard time dealing with it. He currently weighs over 25 pounds, already has 6 teeth and he's crawling and eating solids and lifting himself up onto his knees and I just don't know how to make all of this slow down,... WAY, WAY down.


We love this boy SO much and not a day goes by I don't thank God for entrusting our family with him and giving me the amazing privilege of being his Mommy.

Six things about our boy

at six months.

1. As of this morning's 6 month check-up he weighs 23 pounds and is 28 inches long ~ he is one Big Baby Boy!
2. He is actually quite mobile for his tender age ~ he's either rolling all over the place or he's up on all four lunging forward to get places. I know I'm dreading the inevitable, but before I know it he'll be crawling all over the place.
3. He has his two bottom teeth and looks absolutely adorable when he smiles.
4. He lights up when he sees big sister Isabella and his Daddy, but he is head over heels in LOVE with his Mommy. He's actually started showing some signs of separation anxiety when Mommy is not around.
5. He loves baby food and at the rate he's growing, I'm pretty sure he'll be consuming finger foods quite soon.
6. He is always happy, always smiling, such a snuggler and an absolute joy.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say,...

... that maybe, just maybe, he likes Baby Food.

So, today we ventured into the new and exciting territory of Baby Food. On today's menu: Sweet Potatoes.

And yes my friends, that is yummy sweet potatoes all over his face, hands, in his ear and on his eyelashes. He's taken "enjoy your food" to a whole different level.

I'm not really sure why I'm so surprised he liked it. The child eats his morning cereal like he hasn't been fed in a couple of weeks ~ eagerly, almost desperately, opening his mouth and lunging forward in his chair. And he usually stares at me while I eat, mimicking me while I chew my food (which in all honesty, is a little creepy sometimes). Yeah, I think he's actually ready for a big ol' plate of meat and potatoes, but we'll stick with these "solids" for a little while longer.

Oooh, I almost forgot ~ notice his two little bottom teeth on the first picture. How cute is that? Him gnawing on our fingers these days? Yeah, not so cute anymore. Pretty painful actually.

Bring on the milestones

Today we ventured into uncharted territory: feeding Sam rice cereal with a spoon for the very first time. We introduced it to Isabella when she was 4 months old. But during Sam's 4 month checkup last month the pediatrician discouraged me from introducing anything to Sam for another month or so. Apparently he didn't think we needed to add any solids to his diet quite yet.

The wonderful big sister did the honors so that the obsessive Mama could snap away. And I'm so glad I did; Sam's facial expressions are priceless:

"What in the world is that?"

"Wait, wait, let's talk first!"

"Oh my gosh, how invasive is this?"

"What the,...?"
"Did you seriously just put that thing in my mouth?"

"Mama, aren't you gonna do something?Oh wait, you're in on it, aren't you? That's just great!

"Yeah, I'm not really sure what it is you'd
like for me to do with this stuff."

That's it, let us pray:
"Dear Lord, please help me since no one else around here will."
"Hmm, maybe this isn't so bad after all."
But then again, everything tastes better when you add my fingers.

Say hello to my little friend

Guess who can now cook and clean and do oh so many other things while keeping her little one content, contained and near by? Yep, I can!
Thanks to my little friend the Graco Bumper Jumper.

I love that last night I remembered we had gotten this jumper for Isabella way back when she was an itty bitty little thing.

I love that it is unbelievably portable.

I love that Sam is old/tall/big enough to fit in it.
I love those huge juicy legs of his. In fact, I love them so much that not a day goes by I don't want to bite them. And I'm not talking about taking a little nibble. Oh no, I want to bite into them as if they're a big ol' hamburger. Hmmm,... is that weird or wrong?
And finally, I love that although he hasn't entirely figured out this new contraption, he seems to like it enough to "hang out" for a while, allowing me to get some stuff done around here and that, my friends, is a good thing!

This Boy

... is 3 months old today. Here are a few fun facts about baby Sam:

* As of this past Tuesday he weighs 17.10 lbs and is officially off the charts weight-wise
* He is such a happy baby, always giving us those great big smiles that melt our hearts
* He adores his big sister Isabella and watches her intently whenever she's around
* He loves to eat. A lot. All of the time, actually
* He is such a good sleeper, waking up only once and most nights it's around 5:00am, allowing his mommy and daddy a few good hours of decent sleep
* He must have the sweetest dreams because he's always smiling and often times actually giggling in his sleep
* He loves bath time, especially if his sister is involved
* He still prefers to be swaddled when he goes to sleep (due to his size, we'll be needing to upgrade to a queen size sheet pretty soon)
* He coos and grunts all the time when you talk to him, making for some pretty deep conversations
* It appears he is going to have blue eyes like his sister
* He's a great little traveler (trust me, we've just recently been there)
* He's pretty close to outgrowing his size 9 months clothes since most of them are a bit snug around the belly
* He just started giggling when you play peek-a-boo with him
* He's a bit of a late bloomer in the Colic department - where most babies usually outgrow it by this age, he's just recently had a few episodes, thankfully during the afternoon
* He must be pretty close to starting the teething process because he is constantly drooling, and it's not just a little bit here and there,... oh no, it's by the gallon
* He's just starting to reach for things

It's hard to believe our sweet boy is already three months old. He has brought so much joy to our home and we are crazy head over heals in love with him.

Our Little Giant

OK, so our baby boy had his 2 month check-up today. Yeah,... I'd like to say he and I did great, but the truth is that the whole thing was a bit rough on the two of us. I thought I remembered how hard it was to see them cry due to the 5 shots they get during these visits but honestly, I totally underestimated the effect it has on me. Even though I know I'm doing the right thing for my kids, it is absolutely horrendous to have to hold them down while they scream from the pain of the vaccines. And on top of it, having to be there alone,... Actually, as soon as I left the doctor's office I immediately called Scott and told him: "Cakes, you know I love you, but I really don't like you right now."

Anyhoo, after having survived that whole ordeal and voluntarily scheduling it yet again in another two months, let me share with you some of the facts that came out of the appointment about our little giant Sam:

* He measured in at 23 1/2 inches long (75th percentile).
* His head circumference is 40 cm (also, 75th percentile ~ thank God for C-sections).

* He currently weighs 15 pounds and 3 ounces (97th percentile ~ and wears size 6-9 months clothes).

(And yes, that is our adorable nurse, Ms. Emily, in absolute shock over Sam's weight)

(See the band-aids on both of his gorgeous round thighs? It was horrible, I tell ya.)

* Apparently, his personality right now is a pretty good indication of what he'll be like as a child in the future ~ definitely good news since he is such an easygoing baby, well,... as long as his belly's full and his diaper's clean.(Although this is definitely not a good picture, I just thought I'd show that our sweet boy ended his day on a happy note.)

Finally, as if this wasn't bad enough, guess what? Not only do I get to take Sam back in July for another round of abuse, but Isabella also has her annual check-up scheduled in July. One thing's for sure - I'll be calling the doctor's office beforehand, and if Isabella is slotted to get shots during that visit, you can bet on the fact that Scott WILL be there. She's old enough to blame me for all of it and I just know that I can't walk around and function with that kind of guilt on my shoulders.