Waiting...One year ago!

One year ago today, September 26, 2011 I headed home from work at 5:00 and as soon as I pulled into my garage and got out of the car, my water broke, I was in labor. Rob got the bags in the car and we headed to Montgomery to the hospital to wait on our little boy to arrive. I had so much adrenaline going that evening. I was excited, scared, nervous. I couldn't wait to see what our little boy was going to look like, how much he would weigh, would he come out crying. So many thoughts and emotions running through my head. My family and Rob's dad were able to get there and wait with us. Rob and I knew our lives were going to change any moment, change for the better.

Waiting......

 

Jack wouldn't be born until early early the next morning!


*Another post to come.....

Eleven Months!

How is it that we are only one month away from having a one year old?! This first year has flown by but it's been so much fun.

Jack turned 11 months at the end of August. I am just getting around to writing his post, I just don't have as much time to sit at the computer anymore.

Let's see what Jack is up to at 11 months:

- He is CRAWLING!! He has been so close to crawling for a while now and finally at 11 months decided he'd go for it. Let me just say, he is all over the place! He doesn't just sit and play with toys anymore, he is all over the house trying to get into everything. I guess it's time for some baby gates!!

- He says Mama and Dada and knows who we are

- He is wearing mostly 12m clothes but some 18m depending on the brand. He is still in a size 3 diaper but I think we are getting close to switching to size 4.

- I'm not sure how much he weighs or how tall he is now. We will go for his one year check up in a few weeks.

- He is finally getting his first tooth. I will usually feel in his mouth every now and then and last weekend I felt a tooth on the bottom. I was beginning to wonder if he'd ever get teeth...haha. He hasn't been fussy with it at all. Hopefully all his teeth will be that way.

- We have had to move his crib mattress down. He's not pulling up but so close to it and it scares me that if he were to pull up and the mattress not be lowered that he would try to climb out or fall over the side. We had to move it down for our peace of mind.

- He is trying to pull up on everything. He's done it a few times but is getting better at it every day.

isn't this cute, he loves to sit on his knees and feet :)

- He is still taking a 6oz morning bottle. He takes a sippy cup for his mid-morning feeding and a sippy cup for his afternoon feeding. He is doing very well with the sippy. For breakfast he eats oatmeal and a stage 2 fruit and for lunch he eats a stage 2 veggie and half of a stage 2 fruit. In the afternoons he will have some puffs or veggie melts and the other half of his fruit. He is also still taking a night time bottle right before bed.

- He sleeps great! We have been lucky in this department. He goes to bed around 6:15 or so every night and gets up around 6am but I do not get him out of bed til 6:30. He never cries in his bed, he will just sit there and play until we come in to get him. He has started sleeping on his side and will sometimes sleep on his tummy with his booty in the air, it's so cute!!

- He loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the mornings and loves when they sing the Hotdog song. It's cute how he'll just sit and be so focused on the tv.

watching mickey mouse clubhouse

- He can wave bye bye. Whenever you walk out of the room or into the room he will wave to you. When you say bye bye he will start waving, it's the cutest thing.

waving bye bye

- He doesn't like to sit still for pictures anymore. It takes a lot these days to get a good picture!!

- He loves to laugh! His laugh is the sweetest cutest thing you've ever heard. He also loves to clap. He is mostly a very happy baby!

He is so much fun!! It's a whole different experience now that he is crawling, I can't imagine when he starts to walk. He still babbles all the time and I love it. I am in the process of planning his first birthday party. I can't believe it really is almost here. I can't believe we are about to have a one year old. We love this little boy so much, words can't even begin to describe it.

Jack, your dad and I are so extremely blessed to have you in our lives. You are such a joy! I have no idea what we did before we had you. You have truly enriched our lives! I hope you always know how much you are loved!!

Girls trip to NYC!!

Back at the end of July my mom took me and my sisters to NYC. Originally it was planned for my sister Sara but she wanted to invite the rest of us too. I am so glad she did, we had such a great time. It was so nice to spend time together just us girls!!

Mom and Sara flew to New York on Wednesday and Anna and I flew on Thursday. Since Anna and I have kids it was better for us to leave on Thursday. I didn't want to be away from Jack too long. This trip is the first trip I've taken and been away from Jack for more than 2 days. Anna and I arrived in New York around 4:00 nyc time. We has a little delay at the airport but arrived at our hotel around 5. Mom and Sara were waiting on us! We got settled into the hotel and then got dressed and walked around and took in all the sites for a little while. We had a dinner reservation that night at 8:45 at Union Street Cafe. Let me just tell you, it was DELICIOUS!! I had said on this trip that I was going to try new things, food wise, because after all it's New York City and they have amazing food. Our dinner at Union Street consisted of an appetizer of pork belly & polenta....yummmm and an appetizer of fried okra with a sour cream, corn, bacon dip.....amazing! For my main course I had blue crab stuffed quail and it was good. Anna got lamb chops and they were delicious, I have never had lamb before and it was really good. Sara had braised pork shoulder that was really good and mom had gnocchi, which is a pasta that was good. We finished up the meal with dessert of course!! It was a great meal and great service, we loved our waitress. We had a great time, I think we were the loudest people in the restaurant!!

Friday morning we got up early and got going. It was raining some this day so we all had to get umbrellas. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There were tons of people there. We enjoyed walking around and looking at a few of the exhibits. After that we went into FAO Schwartz and looked around for a little bit. I got a picture taken with this HUGE bottle of Hershey's syrup...yummm. By this time the rain had started to slack up a little, thank goodness! We went back to the hotel to rest a little and get a snack and then we headed up to Times Square to look around. We did LOTS of walking this trip. We then had to go back to the hotel so my mom and Sara could get ready. They had tickets to the Braves-Mets game that night.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art

In FAO Schwartz with a big tub of Hershey's syrup....yumm!

Times Square

 

While they went to the Braves game, Anna and I got ready and went to Soho. We went into a few shops such as Kate Spade and Michael Kors. I wish I had a lot of money bc they had such cute things. If I lived in New York I think I would  have expensive taste....haha. This night Anna and I had reservations at Perilla. Perilla is Harold Dieterle's restaurant. If you watch Top Chef on Bravo you would know who he is, he won the first season of Top Chef. This restaurant was amazing, it was so delicious!! For an appetizer I got fried oysters which were yummy and Anna got, well I don't know how to spell what Anna got but it consisted of fresh heirloom tomatos and fresh mozeralla cheese with ricotta cheese inside, I think. I do not like tomatos at all but this was amazing!! For our main course Anna had duck which was really good and I had a bourbon glazed pork chop. For dessert Anna had a bread pudding and I got this chocolate souffle with a coffee creme anglaise....so delicous. This place was amazing!! Anna and I had a great time. We all met up around midnight back at the hotel. We were all ready for bed after a busy and fun day.

Saturday morning we got up and went to eat brunch. We had tickets for the 9/11 memorial at 11:30 so we figured brunch was a good choice. We were going to eat at Clinton Street Bakery but there was too long of a wait so we ate at this other place that I can't remember the name of...it was delicious! We then proceeded to the 9/11 memorial. I am so glad we went. I remember the day those towers went down, so to be standing in that spot was incredible.

Saturday afternoon we toured NBC studios which was really neat. We also ate lunch at this random burger place named the Burger Joint. It was so good, it only had like 5 tables and you had to fight for one. We then went back to the hotel to rest a little and get ready to head to the play. We went and saw "Wicked". It was such a great play, I love going to see broadway shows when we go to New York. As soon as the play was finished, I mean as soon as it was finished in like we didn't even have time to watch them bow. We had to run to the Rockefeller Center. We had tickets to go to the top of the Rock and they quit letting people in at 11pm. It was 10:45 as we were running out of the theatre. I did NOT have on shoes to be running but we did it and we made it in time. I am so glad we got to go up and see NYC at night, it is neat to see everything all lit up. Once we finished that we headed to the hotel to get some sleep bc Anna and I were leaving early in the morning.

At the Top of the Rock!

We had such a wonderful trip. Thank you to my mom who took us on this trip and thank you to my sister Sara for inviting us to go. It was such a great time getting to hang out and spend so much time with my sisters and mom. Even though I had a blast I was very happy to get back home to my little boy who I missed so much and to my husband. I love having my little family to come home too!

Crawling

At 11 months old Jack finally decided to start crawling!! We have a crawler....Yay Jack!!

Boo boo

My baby got his first boo boo today at daycare:(!!

See that little cut on his lip. Yes I know it's not big but it still made me sad to know my baby got hurt. Yes I am a first time mama and it is his first boo boo of I'm sure many to come. They said that he was playing with the bouncy seat and they think it hit him in the mouth. They said it only bled a drop or two and he only cried for like 2 minutes. So as you can see not a big boo boo but I just wanted to remember his first.

A little getaway!!

A few weeks ago Rob and I went on a little getaway. This is the first time we have left Jack for any amount of time. We left Thursday night and headed to my parents and spent the night and then the next morning we got on the road headed to Biloxi. We left Jack with my parents so I knew he was in good hands and that he would have a great time.

I got a few tears in my eyes when we got in the car to leave but once we were on the road I was fine. We got into Biloxi around noon and went to the Beau Rivage to look around and eat lunch. This was my first time ever going to Biloxi. The Beau was incredible, it was beautiful. We ate lunch at the buffet, which had everything you could think of on it. Once we finished lunch we checked out the casino and then went to check into our hotel. We were staying at The Grand. I had wanted to stay at the Beau but then when we finally set a date to go the price of The Beau had gone up and extra hundred dollars.

We got checked in and then went to look around. The Grand was not near as nice as The Beau Rivage.
We spent most of our time a The Hard Rock and The Beau Rivage. We loved playing at the Hard Rock. I learned to play blackjack and loved it! I thought I would like the slot machines but I hated them, there is no point to them, you just press a button and hope you get lucky. The people and dealers at the Hard Rock were really nice and the atmosphere was fun! If we ever go again we will stay at the Hard Rock or the Beau.

playing a little blackjack at the Beau Rivage!

Saturday night we ate at a great asian restaurant named Jia. We had some really great sushi!

It was such a fun weekend and a nice little getaway with my hubby. On Sunday we were ready to get back and see our little boy! When we walked in I think he was pretty happy to see us too. He had a great time with his MaeMae and Papa, but we were glad to have him home.

picking up Jack on Sunday!!
the reason the pic looks a little grainy is bc it's a scanned picture!

*a post is soon to come on our trip to NYC!*

Ten Months!!

Our baby turned 10 months old on the 27th of July. Can someone please tell me where the time has gone?!! It has absolutely flown by. I can't believe that in two months we will be celebrating his first birthday.

I want to keep track of what he is doing each month so here is what Jack has been up to:

- He is so talkative. He babbles all the time, it's hilarious, I love it!!

- He is still wearing a size 3 diaper. He is wearing a few 9 month onesies and jonjon's but can now wear 12 month. The 12m are still a little big but not too bad.
This morning I was going to put him in this shirt that I got made and it's a 12m and it was too tight :(, so that's one shirt he never got to wear. It's amazing out of all these clothes you buy for your baby he or she usually only wears half of them...haha.



- He is scooting. Not crawling yet but i feel like it's just a matter of time. He can turn and scoot and roll all over the place. He doesn't have a problem getting to something he wants.

- He loves pulling hair. I swear everytime I pick him up he always grabs a hunk of my hair....ouch!!

- As far as eating goes, he takes a 6oz morning bottle, then around 8 he eats oatmeal and a stage 2 fruit, then he has a 6oz mid morning bottle which is about to be switched to a sippy cup next week, then he eats a stage 2 veggie and half a stage 2 fruit. He then will take a 5oz sippy cup in the afternoon and then the other half of fruit along with some puffs or veggie melts. He is a great eater. The doc said to start out just replacing one bottle with a sippy cup and then two weeks later replace two bottles with the sippy. He has done great with the sippy so I'm hoping he will do fine when we replace 2 bottles with the sippy. He will still have his bottle first thing in the morning and then right before bed.
I love that he is doing good with his cup but it makes me a little sad too bc that means my baby is growing up and wanting to do more things on his own. Yes I know this is a good thing but it just makes this mama just a little sad.

- He is getting better at picking up things like puffs or veggie melts and feeding himself. He can pick them up fine but when he picks them up they are in the middle of his hand so when he puts his hand in his mouth the puff sticks to the middle of his hand and doesn't get in his mouth. He is getting better at it though. Practice makes perfect!

- He is now standing....YaY!!! For the longest time he would not and I mean would not put any pressure on his legs. He would jump in his jumperoo but that was it. Then whenever we would try to hold him up he would try to jump and wouldn't just stand there. Well now he will stand, I can tell he wants to pull up on things but he hasn't quite figured out how to do it just yet. It's so crazy for me to think that in a few months we will have a walker...ahhhh!! Then he will be all over the place!

- He gets so excited when Rob or I walk in the room. I love that he knows who we are now!

- He has the absolutely most precious laugh. I love when we get his tickle box turned over!

- He still has no teeth, not even one. He doesn't even have one coming in that I can see or feel. I'm not too worried bc I'm pretty sure no kids that I know of grew up with no teeth...haha. I love his gummy little smile :)!!

- He still sleeps with a paci, that is the only time he has his paci usually. We are thinking that in the next month we are going to take it away and see how it goes. I don't think he is super attached to it but we will see. I want to take it away before he gets to the age and realizes what it is.

- He is still an awesome sleeper and has been since 3 months old. Rob and I have been very lucky! He doesn't really want to be rocked to sleep anymore. We just lay him in the crib, put his blanket on him and his paci in and he will play around for a few minutes and then he is out! He goes to bed around 6:15ish every night and doesn't wake up till about 6:15 the next morning :)!

I absolutely LOVE having a video monitor in his room. It's fun to watch him, he rolls all over that bed. One night I put him down, went and got the monitor and he had turned on his stomach and was playing. I put the monitor down and proceeded to wash bottles. When I finished washing the bottles I looked at the monitor but I couldn't see him. So I went back in the room bc I had figured he got to the very end of the bed and I was just going to move him back up. I went in his room and this is what I found...

he had gotten all the way to the end of the crib, turned sideways and fell asleep....hilarious!! I left him there bc I wasn't going to wake him up.

- He has started to devlop a little attitude. When he doesn't get his way he pitches a fit and by a fit I mean he screams, arches his back, flings himself backwards and turns red. I don't know where this came from, I am hoping it's just a little phase and it will go away.

- He has been saying Dada a lot. He loves his Dada!

- He is a silly boy and always has us laughing!

Jack, you are so much fun these days and you have the cutest little personality. Your dad and I are so blessed to have you in our lives. I always look forward to coming home to you every night! You are our world. We are enjoying watching you grow and learning new things every day. You always amaze us! We love you more than words can say!!!

*More posts to come.....


*I am putting a watermark on my photos for safety purposes!*

Happy Friday!!