New experiences

Today you are 4 months old. This past month we have felt much more comfortably going out and about with you so you have been taken along on a ton of new experiences.

Right after you turned 3 months, there was Christmas. We stayed in Seattle since you were still so young and flying was germy. Luckily we have some good friends here and were able to spend Christmas Eve with friends. You were remarkably well behaved and seemed to be starting to get interested in what was going on around you. Right around the same time you started to get a little fussier during the day. It took a few days, but we finally figured out that you were asking to be put down a little more. You started to enjoy just laying on your back, kicking out your arms and legs.

In early January, Sam & Maddie had Laurel - another new friend for you. It's amazing to see so clearly how quickly babies grow.  Now you get to see Logan, Quinn and Laurel regularly. You don't seem to notice them yet, but Logan certainly notices you and stares inquisitively. It will be so much fun when you all can play with each other.

Last weekend we took you on your first big trip, down to Portland. You slept the entire way down and most of the way back. You did a great job with all of the new sites and sounds. We took you swimming and seemed a bit wary of at first, but then seemed to relax and enjoy it. You also enjoyed breakfast at the hotel - you just stared and stared at the huge room and all the people. We also took you out to dinner twice and you sat on my lap and looked around at all the people.

Lately you have taken to cooing at Mike while he is getting you ready for bed. You'll take a break from your bottle and look straight into his eyes and coo and gurgle back and forth. I think you're telling him all about your day. It basically makes my heart melt. You don't have a lot of time with him since you sleep so much at night, so I'm so glad you guys can spend that time together.

We love you!

Christmas

Stolen from Farrell, from Swistle.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate preferred, but our local dairy's eggnog is really good.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Hmm, we haven't decided yet.

Colored lights on a tree or white? Colored, but I like white ones too.

Do you hang mistletoe? No.

When do you put your decorations up? Generally mid December, but lights are earlier. Definitely AFTER Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Au gratin potatoes. :P I haven't had them in years though, perhaps this is the year to recreate them at home.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, one.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? It's a hodge-podge.

Snow: love it or hate it? Love it, especially fresh. Don't like to commute in it, but don't mind driving in it generally. I don't like the end of it, when it's yellow/brown mush though.

Can you ice skate? Yep, though I'm not nearly as good as I used to be.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Peanut butter cup bars. Not really a holiday dessert, but something we always (and only) ate at the holidays. I made homemade whoopie pies one year too...those were really good.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Singing Christmas songs.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Mostly yuck! I love candy, hate peppermint.

Favorite Christmas show? How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Elf; Home Alone.

I'm looking forward to starting new traditions this year with our new baby!

Smiles

We still don't get too many smiles around here, but when we do, they are precious.

Merry Christmas

Thankful...I suppose it is more a Thanksgiving thought, but I was still so overwhelmed then from our first month home from the hospital with our little guy that I wasn't thinking very straight. As we rapidly approach our first Christmas with our little Daniel, I can't help but think how lucky we are. He came early and spent way too much time in the hospital, but is doing so well and growing like a champion. He's begun smiling and is just a joy. Even when screaming at 3am :-). I am so thankful that we are home with our wonderful little guy. I can't believe he's already almost 3 months old!

Nice

Naughty:-)


Happy mom and dad

Help

With having a baby so early, and being in an evening MBA program I've had a very busy fall. Throughout the program I've had a great group of team members. Most of us our still together this quarter and they have been incredibly supportive as I try to complete my most challenging quarter yet.

One team member in particular had a baby a year before starting the program and a second daughter one year in so has been helpfuly not only with school, but with wonderful advice on having a baby and balancing school and baby. She lent me tons of baby stuff including the sling - perhaps the most useful item for a newborn ever. She also managed to find time in the middle of the quarter to make a beautiful personalized baby blanket for Daniel and another team member's daughter. I am constantly in awe at how well she balances school, being a mom, work and craftwork. I can only hope to be so successful, though I'm giving myself a year to adjust to being a mom and working again first.

Baking

One thing I would really like to do more of is bake. I would like to cook too so that we would eat better, but find baking more fun. Right now it's almost impossible to find time to make anything from scratch, especially anything the least bit complicated, but I saw a recipe the other day for crisp salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies and cannot wait to make it. I generally don't like the trend of salt on sweets and am not a huge fan of white chocolate, but these look wonderful. Since my husband will be home for the next three weeks, I should be able to steal enough time to make these:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/05/crispy-salted-oatmeal-white-chocolate-cookies/

Growth spurt

I believe we have successfully made it through our first growth spurt. Three solid days of nothing but eating and sleeping, albeit very fussy sleeping during the day. Poor baby seemed starving the entire time and nothing but more food would satisfy him. All of the Happiest Baby on the Block tricks kept failing, which was most unfortunate since he was eating so much he was spitting up constantly. He actually FEELS bigger today, which seems impossible, but who knows. I am so glad this happened over the long weekend so Mike was around to help because two to one still seemed like the balance was in the baby's favor.