Just Hanging Out

Piper, Michael, and Mikaela stayed with us over Christmas weekend. It is always fun to spend time with them, especially my favorite four year old. ;) Mikaela was so interested in Ari this trip and did exceptionally well with him. She handed him toys, entertained him with his hand puppets, and even sang songs for him. She also counted up each smile he gave her every day - "Mom, I got five smiles! So I almost have six smiles!" So cute. She also likes to watch him nurse, not sure what about it peaks her interest so much but we don't mind. ;)

One night we gave Ari a bath before our house guests got back from Nana Mary's house. He decided to lounge with his foot hanging over the side... he has been doing this during every bath since then too. If you sit him back up he will just lean right back over. Funny baby. Look at all his rolls, I love it!

Christmas Part 1

Ari's first Christmas was a busy one. We had four days in a row of Christmas happenings. On Christmas Eve we had dinner with my family's friends, who have known me so long they are basically surrogate family. I didn't take the camera that night, but we took a picture of the baby in one of his various Christmas outfits before we left the house (below). Dinner was delicious and Ari did surprisingly well with being out in the evening and all the general commotion.

Christmas day we spent at Sean's parents' house with his immediate family. Ari and Everett were obviously too young to understand what it was about but the other four cousins seemed to enjoy opening presents and eating Nana Mary's goodies. :) A few pics from the day...

Opening my present from Aunt Renee. A gift certificate to UA Basketball game and a UA T-shirt!

Nana Mary got Ari some cute clothes, a piggy bank, a penguin hooded towel, and more!

A pic of Uncle Cory taking pics...

Camden is excited to take this new toy to Silverbell Park.

I think Kaitlin made this face when Aunt Piper was claiming that she didn't get KK and Cam any gifts...

Mikaela was very happy with her new bedroom set.

Everett with his new hooded towel.

Ian checking out his new towel.

I have to say though, next year we should just get all the kids baby toys, since all of them were so fascinated with the toys I picked out for Everett! ;-)

I will have to post Christmas parts 2 & 3 when I have some pictures... On Saturday we went to the Laird family Christmas party but neglected to use our camera (I'm sure someone has pics they can share with me, right??), and on Sunday we celebrated with my mom and some family friends. Overall it was a fun weekend, but also a little exhausting and we are happy to have some quiet evenings to look forward to this week. :)

Five Months...

Ok, so we are a few days behind updating our post for our little mans 5 month post. I can't believe it's been 5 months already, seems like yesterday we were still fighting to get him out of the NICU and home. I'm sure it won't be long and we'll be saying how did he get to be 5 years old???

Ari is growing like a weed with an endless water supply. We took him back to the doctor 2 weeks after his 4 month checkup to get his shots and he had put on another pound and some change. I can only imagine how decimated our fridge will be when he's a teenager. Then I will know how my mom and dad felt with me. Ari gets admired where ever we take him. Which is kind of strange to have people looking at him all the time or wanting to touch him. But we can't blame them, he is awful cute. His newest "skill" as my sister likes to call them is screaming and squealing. It started out where he would just squeal when he was happy and it has become screaming when he's unhappy. Hopefully this phase will pass as quickly as it started. We would also like to see his sleep regression phase end. It is getting better at this point but still not over yet. Currently he tends to get up at 2-3 in the morning and then again at 5-6, but the best trick is then he wouldn't want to take a long nap during the day just 30-45 minute cat naps. Enter the screaming when he's unhappy. The last few days have been better as he has taken a 2-3 hour nap each day. Now if we can skip the one middle of the night getting up session momma will be much happier and better rested. We pretty sure he is teething right now although none have come through yet, but the drool is impressive. It's funny, we have all these teething toys but the thing he likes best, fingers either his or ours.

We have somewhat solved the issues he was having with his car seat. Namely screaming every time we put him in it. We took out the extra head support that came with the seat and went back to using blankets around his head. This provides him with much more visibility and range of motion and he seems to be digging it. He still gets fussy when he's tired in his seat but nothing like it used to be.

I'm not sure we are going to make it to see Santa this year, as those mall people want to charge you for pictures with Santa. Business has been exceptionally bad for me the past few months so we have to really watch our pennies. My work does a day with Santa so we may try and make it to that. Here are some pictures of the boy on or around his 5 month birthday. As you can tell from a few of them I'm pretty sure he thinks we're crazy. Hopefully he realizes that we are just crazy about him.!

Warning

If you don't like to smile then don't play this movie clip. Don't say I didn't warn you!!

Visitors.....

Scorpions...check, snakes...check, toads...check, skunk...check.....,wait for it.....

Just a small list of the critters we have found in our yard. The dogs killed the skunk in the back yard, that was a choice smell by the way. Well we have a new four legged friend to add to the list.

Ari and I went to check the mail tonight and to get some paperwork out of my truck and as I opened the front door this is what I saw:
Fortunately, this is across the cul-de-sac in the neighbors driveway but another one made his way around to our yard. Here's a couple of pics of him enjoying some of our delectable prickly pear cactus.I'm only about 3 feet from him in these pictures but there does happen to be a 5 ft tall wall between us. I had a great picture of the neighbors car that I took as I was bailing back inside when I was out front with him. The wind shifted and I was now upwind of him and he could smell me and he was making is way towards me.

Well by now you must assume that everything is going well with Ari or else I wouldn't be posting about Javelinas. He was checking the mail with me when this started and if he had gone to bed at a decent hour I wouldn't have been outside anyway.

Busy Week

My SIL Renee and her boys were in town and Mikaela also spent the week in Tucson. On Wednesday we went to the zoo - this was Ari's first time. Of course I forgot my camera so thank you to Renee for taking some pics. :) He didn't want to sit in his stroller, so I carried him throughout most of the zoo - here is a pic of him peeking over my shoulder.




On Thursday I got to spend the morning with Mikaela. I haven't gotten to spend much quality time with her the past few months so I'm glad I got to spend time with her while she was in town. We did some "projects" as she called them that morning: made necklaces and did some cutting and glueing. We also took a walk to the park where she played for about an hour while Ari napped in his wrap and I watched. I didn't get any pics though, I meant to take the camera to the park - are you noticing a pattern here?? Doh.

On Tuesday Ari spent time with his Nana Mary as well as Mandy, Renee, and his cousins. Renee got some more cute pics (below). I love the look on his face in the first one with his lips all pursed, plus you can see his chubby legs in that one! And you can tell by the last one that he still hates tummy time!

Four Months

Ari is four months old as of yesterday; we went to his check up yesterday afternoon. He weighs 14lbs 14oz and is about 24.5" long - he was in the 50th percentile all around. This is great considering he was at the 3rd percentile at 2 weeks and the 25th percentile at 2 months. :) He is so deliciously chubby now! He didn't get his shots yesterday because he has an ear infection. :( He got a little sick when I did a couple weeks ago and has been congested, and Sunday night and yesterday morning he was fussier than usual... sure enough, the doctor stuck the thing in his ear to check it and he went from happy baby to screaming baby in 2 seconds. (His left ear by the way - I also got an ear infection in my left ear a couple weeks ago when I was sick. :p) So now he is on antibiotics and we will go back in two weeks to get his shots, assuming he is all better by then. He also has a little eczema on his legs which lotion has not been helping. The doctor said to give him a bath every day without soap. I thought bathing every day even without soap would dry his skin out more, but the doc said it would keep it better hydrated. And then we just need to put better lotion on him so we got the Eucerin cream to try. I'm not too surprised with this problem since it so SO dry this time of year, the humidity has been at less than 10%. Hopefully lots of bath and good thick lotion will help.

Ari is pretty much on track developmentally. He smiles all the time, still rolling over from tummy to his back and working on rolling the other way, babbles a lot, reaches for toys, etc. He is not giggling yet though no matter what we try! We can't wait to hear those baby giggles.

On Sunday we did group pics at Penny's with his cousins plus a few individual pics of him. The day was a little difficult for me since Sean was sick and couldn't come to help, we had a fairly long drive to the Tucson Mall (and yes, he still hates the car lots of the time and screamed most of the way there and back), etc., but we ended up getting some good pictures. (I think I told Renee that I would never do that again... but I'm sure I'll be up for the challenge next year anyway. :) The last one below though is one of my favorites and shows you what can happen when you try to get pics with two babies, a toddler, a four year old, an eight year old, and a ten year old!

It has begun....

While Momma ran to the store the other day Ari and I had a little chat. It may never stop....

Ari's First Halloween

I know Ari doesn't care about Halloween yet but we still had fun dressing him up and taking pictures! His "official" costume was a lion (because "Ari" means "lion" - I couldn't resist). He also had cute pumpkin-style jammies so he wore those before and after his lion costume. The lion costume is too cute but who the heck comes up with the designs? It has fur all around the wrists/hands, which means when baby wants to chew on his hands he gets fur in his mouth and poking his eyes, which he wasn't crazy about. :p

Anyway, after being sick all week (me) and teething all week (Ari) plus a case of pink eye for both of us, I'm glad we were both feeling much better and were able to have a good time yesterday. I like Halloween, coming up with creative costume ideas and eating candy is way fun! It will be a blast when he is old enough to understand and it enjoy it too. :) Although when that day comes, I'll do the costume stuff and Sean can do the pumpkin carving, since I am like Ari's cousin Ian - I never liked getting my hands all yucky with sticky gooey stuff! ;-)

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Now I can look forward to pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. :)

Just because....

A few recent pics... Ari and Miks, "the cutest pumpkin in the patch," and a couple others. :)

I have been back at work for three weeks now, only three weeks left! November 13th is my last day. I am so glad to only have nine more days at this job. Ari will be happier, too - he loves his Nana Alexis and his Aunt Mandy, but he hates that mama has to wake him up early and then put him in the dreaded car first thing in the morning! And he lets me know how he feels the only way he can: by screaming and crying all the way to our destination. Poor little guy. I am still trying to figure out what I might be able to do part time (10-15 hrs a week) on our side of town... ideas? I have thought about things like after school tutoring, or working in a daycare, or babysitting... I have lots of clerical experience too. Hmmmm....

Although I won't have to drive him around nearly as much after I'm not working this current job, I still need to drive him around sometimes, and he continues to HATE the car and/or his carseat. I think it might be combination of both - he fusses as soon as the straps are completely tightened - but he also seems to fuss less in the truck. Maybe this is just because Sean mostly drives him around in the truck during this afternoon naptime...? I am thinking of buying one of those mobile toy things that attach to the carseat, but the ones I've found have gotten crummy reviews. A much more expensive option would be to try a different seat - I have known babies that hated one seat and were fine in another, but seriously how do you figure that out without spending way too much money?? Other people have suggested that he might like the car better once he can face forward, but that is many months off still. I have tried rolling windows down to create white noise, playing all different sorts of music, singing and talking to him, giving him the pacifier, etc. I also usually sit in the back with him when Sean is with us, although it doesn't seem to help much - just drives me crazier because the screaming is even louder back there. I would be happy to spend $150 on a new seat if I knew it would cut down the screaming by at least 50%. But since there is no way of knowing that we will first experiment with some cheaper options of installing some sort of toys first.

Other than not liking to get up with me for work three days a week and not liking the car, little man is doing GREAT. :-) He smiles all day and all night and he is getting seriously chubby! He is still a wiggler and likes to be sitting up and looking around a lot more now. And although he hated the sling and the front carrier, he loves his Moby-style wrap that his Nana Alexis made! It is like baby Valium, he takes 3-4 hour naps in this thing. He is also sleeping 7-8 hours most nights, which is awesome. His next doc appt is on November 9th, I will be interested to see how much he weighs - he has grown so much, he is close to catching up with his cousin Everett. :)

I have been nervous lately about taking him out and about because of flu season. Sean has already gotten his flu shot and I will be getting mine soon, so hopefully we can avoid too much illness in our house this season. I think I will also try to get the H1N1 shot, if my doctor's office gets it in soon. Sean's company is switching health insurance, so if I can't get the vaccine by the end of this month, the new insurance (BCBS) that we will have as of Nov 1 isn't going to cover it and I'm not sure how much it would cost out of pocket.

I am looking forward to the holiday season! Ari's first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas - I love it!! I am also looking forward to getting his photos taken with his cousins in a few weeks, especially since these will be his first professional photos. :)

Three Months

Ari is three months old today! I can’t even believe it. I guess this is how quickly time will go by from now on, now that we are parents. ;) He is such a cute little man! He is smiley and I’ve heard a couple giggles so far. He is definitely ticklish. He is super strong and has great head control. He usually sleeps 5-7 hours in a row at night now. He is somewhere around 12+lbs now and about 23.5-24 inches long. He still likes his swing, bath time, being outside, and the ceiling fan. He has been discovering his hands and spends a lot of time trying to get his fingers or his thumb into his mouth, sometimes successfully. He is “talking” a lot more now.

 

Unfortunately, he is still not a fan of his carseat / being in the car and spends much of the time during car rides fussing and crying. This is kind of a bummer since we don’t live close to anything so going anywhere usually requires at minimum a 15-20 minute car ride. He also doesn’t want to be put down for naps during the day – I always have to hold him for him to stay asleep and if I put him down he wakes up anywhere from 5 seconds to 15 minutes later. However we think the solution to this may be to put black out shades in his room so we have a nice dark space for nap time, so we are looking into that. Don’t get me wrong, I like to snuggle him, but he takes at least a couple naps during the day and it makes it difficult for me to do things like eat, go to the bathroom etc, let alone get anything done around the house.

 

I went back to work on Monday and am working three days a week. I’m planning to work about six weeks and then hopefully find something closer to home and work fewer hours. Today was my third day back at work. Ari goes to my mom’s one day a week and to his aunt Mandy’s two days a week. Sean picks him up in the afternoon when he gets off work. So far he seems to be doing ok with it; fortunately we never had any trouble getting him to take a bottle or anything. I am pumping while I’m at work and seem to be producing plenty during the day for him to eat during the next work day so that is going fine. I miss him like crazy and it is really hard to leave him, but I am so grateful that I don’t have to leave him with strangers!! I don’t know if I could. I don’t want to be working right now but there are some silver linings: a paycheck (yay!), some time to myself (even if it’s just a couple hours a week in the car), and I appreciate the hours I DO get to spend with him even more! Plus I like my boss and have some really great coworkers. My friend and coworker Katie is dying to babysit for us, and I think mom and dad are pretty ready to have a little quality time without the baby very soon.

The first three pics are from this evening, the rest were taken within the last couple weeks.

tummy time

I don't do tummy time with Ari very often because a, he doesn't like it, and b, he just rolls over after a minute or two and has been doing that since maybe week 2 or 3. I know we need to keep doing it though so I am going to keep trying. He is pretty strong already. This is how tummy time goes...