On The Road Again

Earlier this month, we took our first road trip! We decided to visit our friends Brant and Jessica and their daughter Haley down in San Luis Obispo (SLO). Wilson went to school in SLO and Anderson and I were able to visit dad's old stomping grounds (ie where he ate "the whale" burrito). We were nervous for the car ride since it is about a 5 hour drive to get down there. Even more nervous since Anderson was not a fan of his car seat. He'd scream the the entire way from point A to point B. I had read somewhere that some babies just don't like the infant car seat and that upgrading them a little earlier might do the trick. Well, it worked like a charm. He loves his new car seat and so do we. We no longer have to listen to him cry in the car the entire time. In fact, now he doesn't even protest getting in!

In SLO, we went to a park to see Wilson's old boss and meet his two kids. Anderson didn't play much. He just relaxed in his stroller.


Here is a picture of Haley in the park


We went to Firestone for lunch and then walked around downtown for a little while. Drove through the Cal Poly Campus and was amazed at how nice some of the dorms are now. It's everything you imagine a California college campus looking like, down to the beach volleyball court and the European exchange student in his speedo.

It was a really nice weekend away. Anderson got to see the Pacific Ocean for the very first time! Perhaps there'll be more road trips in the future!

Grace

There have been numerous times when Wilson and I look over at Anderson and say "Can you believe we have a baby? Can you believe we made him?!" Life. It's truly amazing. It's truly amazing that we can create life. That a year ago, he didn't even exist, and now here he is. A beautiful, happy, healthy bouncing baby boy.

It's unfortunate that it sometimes takes a tragedy to make you realize how lucky you are to have the life that you have. That these gifts that are given to you in life are gifts. We take so many things for granted - our health, health of our family, friends, and children.

Tuesday was a sad day for me. A friend, Heather, lost her baby at 38 weeks due to a cord accident. The cord had wrapped itself around the leg of her daughter, Grace, that cut off circulation to the rest of her body. To say this is an unspeakable tragedy is an understatement to say the least. I am utterly heartbroken for her and her husband. Even more so because the fact that she was even pregnant was a miracle in itself. Due to fertility problems, they were told by countless doctors that it would be next to impossible for them to become pregnant on their own. And yet they did.

I cannot begin to imagine the heartache and pain they feel. I would not know how to get through the next day or even breathe if such a tragic thing like that happened to me. Luckily, she is a strong woman, surrounded by lots of friends and family, and a strong faith in God that is helping her get through this difficult time.

I share this story only because it is stories like these that put life into perspective. Again, it is unfortunate that tragedy forces us to take pause and look at our life in a different light. I think I held my baby for half of the day when I first learned of this news. I am so thankful that he is healthy and that I am able to hold him and see him grow and learn each day. It's times like these that you realize just how fragile and precious life is. I share this story so that you too can take pause and realize how blessed you are to have the people around you.

A Gap Baby (Hopefully)

Last week we entered Anderson into the Gap Baby Casting Call for fun. We had our own little photo shoot and here are the pics we ended up sending in.

Jump Up Jump Up and Get Down!

We recently were lent this jumperoo for Anderson and it is his new favorite toy. He's still a little too small for it since his toes just touch the ground. So we help him jump. But sometimes he is having so much fun he jumps up by himself and I think he's learning how to do it himself! He's a little video of Anderson having fun in the jumperoo.

All By Myself...

Four full days and three long nights by myself and I survived. Wilson went to Minneapolis for work and I was left to hold down the fort myself. Needless to say, I was scared. I was nervous. I was scared for what Wilson would have to come back to. Would he come back to his wife, knocked out on the floor while Sammy held up Anderson's arms in victory, declaring him the winner? Sadly, this is what I imagined might happen.

Sorry to disappoint, but that scene never took place. Monday was fine. Felt like any other day. Then little by little, I started to fade. Tuesday, I was feeling a little tired but kept up my spirit. Wednesday, I started to count the hours that I had left till Wilson came back. By Thursday, I was waving the white flag. But I survived to live another day.

The best part of this story though is what Wilson did when he got home. As my reward for making it through the week, he treated me to a day at the spa. It was amazing and so relaxing. Definitely what I needed after a long week. Wilson definitely deserves extra brownie points for this. It was extremely thoughtful of him and is one of the many reasons why he's a truly great husband. And a truly great father. It wouldn't be so bad if Anderson turned out exactly like his dad.

Three Months!

It's hard to believe but our little guy is already 3 months old. Officially, he turned 3 months on Oct. 9 but I was so tired and exhausted I didn't get a chance to take his 3 month picture till today. In looking back at his 2 month picture, I can't believe how much he's grown!

As a refresher, here he is a 2 months:
And here he is at 3 months! (I really tried this time to get the same position and ratio so that you can actually see growth. I'm looking at it now and I still need to do a better job at cropping)
I'm not sure if you can really tell from these pictures, but trust me, he's grown!

We haven't officially weighed him at the doctor's office, but I have weighed him on a baby scale and he's around 12.5 lbs. It's always hard to measure his height/length since he's always squirming around but our best estimate (which is measuring him 5 different times and taking the average) is 23.5inches. He graduated out of his 0-3 month clothes about 2 weeks ago and is filling in his 3-6 month clothes quite nicely.

As far as developments/new habits/likes/dislikes, there's been a lot:

• One of the biggest changes is that he's now moved into our room to sleep at night. Not in our bed, but he sleeps the bassinet of his pack n play at night now. Before, he slept in his nursery, either in the swing/glider chair or crib. When my parents visited, he slept in our room due to sleeping arrangements and found that he slept better. We're guessing that he knows we're there and feels safer. So, he's been there ever since.
  
• He's even developed a nighttime schedule! He goes to bed around 8:30pm, wakes up for a feeding between 12:30-1:30am, then again around 5:30-6:30am. Then it's up to him if he wants to wake up for the day or go back to sleep. If he does go back to sleep, then he'll wake up between 7:00-7:30am. This also means that we're getting sleep! We're still tired each day because the sleep is still broken up, but it's a lot better than what we were getting before.
• A couple of weeks ago, we decided that he was old enough to start learning some things. Some people are lucky that they have babies that were born knowing how to soothe themselves and fall asleep themselves. Not us. Ever since birth, we've been rocking and holding Anderson to sleep for naps and during the night. Putting him to sleep was not a problem. It's just getting him to stay asleep. It would take 5-10 min. to put him to sleep but then we'd have to hold him for another 20-30min. before we could put him down or else he'd wake up and we'd have to start the whole process over again. Even after 20-30min, it wasn't a sure thing that he'd stay asleep. You can imagine how frustrating it is when it's 2am and you've spent the last hour trying to get him to sleep. Most of the time, one of us would just end up sleeping with him on our chest. Anyway, we decided that he should start learning to fall asleep on his own. To our surprise, he took to it right away! We wait to get the "sleep cues", put him down, give him a pacifier (which he only just started taking), put on his Jazz lullaby CD (which I love and would definitely recommend) and pretty soon, he's off to la la land. Naps are a little tougher and he doesn't stay asleep for too long. But at night, he's been sleeping longer because he knows how to put himself to sleep. And if he does wake up and needs help, a little shushing and a belly rub later, he's back asleep. This has seriously changed our lives. Half of my day would be spent either putting him to sleep, or holding him while he slept. Now that I rarely have to do this, I've had much more time to do other things around the house.
• He LOVES looking at himself in the mirror. LOVES it. He can go from an all out bloody murder wail to a smile once he catches a glimpse of himself. It's pretty cute. Then he'll turn away, bury his face in your chest, then turn back to the mirror to see if he's still there. And again, he'll smile and laugh at himself.
  
• I am sure that we, his parents, are the only ones that find this funny, but he's now developed a "poop face." It's kinda this sneer and is sometimes, but not always, accompanied by a little grunt. Ahh...boys will be boys.
  
• He loves looking at lights, which is why I sometimes find him staring at the TV if I'm not careful.
  
• He loves music. Sometimes we'll just sit together in the morning and listen to songs on my ipod.
  
• The one thing I think he hates the most, is his car seat. Sometimes he's fine in it, but most times, he's not. We've tried almost everything. We have a mirror that plays music in front of him for entertainment, we've put a blanket to block out extra stimulation (some kids get overstimulated and can't handle it), loud white noise. We've ordered a convertible car seat and will see if that does the trick. Cross your fingers for us!

I'll end with some pictures we've taken of him recently:

All in the Family

Blogging takes a lot of work. There's taking pictures, uploading them, thinking about what to write about, and thinking of a clever title. At first, I thought it would be fun to have a theme with the titles, like sitcoms. Every episode of "Friends" is titled "The One..." and every episode of "Grey's Anatomy" is a song title. (By the way, the best "Friends" episodes are "The One with all the embyros" and "The One where Ross got high." Trust me. Watch them.) Since I couldn't think of a theme, I just decided to title the posts to whatever struck my fancy.

I know I'm a little behind here on updating and I'm going to try to take advantage of some down time to catch up. Here are some pictures of the both our families when my family was here to visit. We all went out for a big dinner.



Last weekend, Anderson had his first official playdate with his cousin. (It's actually Wilson's cousin's son. I'm not sure if that makes him his first cousin once removed?) Matthew (the baby cousin) is 6 months. Unfortunately, they didn't really play since they are too young. The most interaction they had was to size each other up. Here are pics from the playdate.