Halloween 2011

9 Years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful little boy. I was diagnosed with Pre-eclamsia and had to be induced the day after the results came back. He was born at 3:32 on Halloween and weighed in at 6lb 12oz and 21 inches long. 9 years later he's only 6 inches shorter than his mommy... haha. I couldn't be more proud of him. He's sweet, considerate and oh so smart. Straight A's and in the Gifted and Talented program at school! I love him so much and wish I could see him more often. Thankfully I'll see him in a few weeks when we head to Arkansas for Thanksgiving (30 family members in one place??? OH MY!) haha.
This photo was taken last summer while we were in Indiana. I can't seem to find any from Christmas last year :-/ Thankfully, I'm sure we'll have some from Thanksgiving and Christmas soon! :-D

Here's some pics of Aiden too. This wasn't his actual costume, it's just a sleeper we had... his actual costume was being washed since he wore it to a Halloween party on Friday and got it dirty... silly babies... haha
He makes an absolutely adorable skeleton baby... :-)
Happy Halloween everyone!

Aiden - 10 Weeks

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*Sidenote: this image was actually used as part of a wedding gift for Chris' brother and Sister in law... We never heard if they liked it or not though :-(*

Anyway, on to Aiden for the week :-) He turned 10 weeks today! This week was much better for me. I'm still not too fond of the fact that he sleeps most evenings so we don't get to spend time with him but either he'll adjust to sleeping at daycare or we'll just have to wait till the weekends... lol. At least we get to stare at him! He hasn't been eating in the mornings when I get him up to get ready. 20 minutes to eat an ounce and a half? :-/ I don't think he's awake enough to eat yet but I'm not sure how to fix that except wake him up earlier and I don't really want to do that since it's already so early. Guess we'll figure it out soon! Happy November everyone!

As I'm sitting here finishing the edits Chris is telling jokes making Aiden laugh up a storm... lol. It's absolutely hilarious! I love watching him laugh and coo...

Another week for 2 photos! :-D

How cute is he??

**The fabric this week is in honor of Halloween and Logan's 9th Birthday (which is Halloween)!!**

Aiden - 9 Weeks

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Aiden turned 9 weeks this week (yes, I realize that this is late. There's explanations below). It was definitely a rough week as it brought upon my first week back so work... *tear* Monday was definitely tough... it brought MANY teary moments, but no tears. As the week went on it got easier. It's still rough to leave him in the morning but I know he's being taken care of. He has some wonderful teachers in his class that are learning how he is (which is what i was originally worried about). He's eating well while he's at daycare but he's not sleeping as he usually does... :-( 15 minutes here, 10 minutes there but definitely not like he does here (usually a few hours in the afternoon). The good/bad part of this is how he sleeps at night. Most nights I pick him up, head home and he falls asleep in the car. We wake him up after we eat and he barely wakes up to eat and then he's back out for the night. I'm sure this is because he's not sleeping at daycare but it's so sad that we don't get to spend time with him in the evenings.

He also turned 2 months this week! So here's the rundown...

Likes:
These are still pretty similar to last month... Snuggles, being warm, mommy, daddy, eating, laying on your tummy, your rock n play, car rides, laying on mommy, the sound of the vacuum cleaner, sleeping (and mommy misses you!)

Dislikes:
Being cold, diaper changes, your crib, waking up in the morning

Nicknames:
Baby, Monkey, Monkey-face, Monkey-bug (family nickname)

Current size:
You are definitely in 0-3 now. Your pants are still a little big on you but overall your clothes fit great... they still have room for you to grow so I think you'll be in them for a while. You've also moved up to 1's in diapers.

You're an absolutely wonderful baby and we are so blessed!

Purses for Paws

My wonderful cousin is a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts. This month she's hosting a special called Purses for Paws to help a local no-kill animal shelter. Please visit her blog and take a look :-)

Hi ho, Hi ho, it's back to work I go...

The day has arrived... I have to return to work. That's right, my 8 weeks off is up... :-(

Aiden will be going to daycare at the CDC (child development center) on base. It's not too far from my work if anything happens and I can technically go see him on my lunch break. I'll be pumping while I'm at work so we'll see how that goes as well...

I pray that it's a smooth transition for Aiden into daycare and that things go well at work as well. I sure hope it's not too busy of a week... I'm not sure I can handle that.

I really don't want to leave this little guy... but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Aiden - 8 weeks

8 Weeks!

These 8 weeks have gone by WAY too fast :-( Come Monday, I'll be returning to work and Aiden will be making his first trip to daycare. I've heard lots of moms say (or insinuate) that you're not a good mother if you're not at home with your child all the time. That's just not an option for us. I firmly believe if you can stay home, great... but there's no need to make working parents (moms) feel less adequate because they can't. Even though I could technically get out of the military soon I refuse to put all the stress of working on Chris! He's already working full time, attending school full time and doing photography. There's no need to add any more stress, work, etc to his place and I REFUSE to put any more on him (to include ever asking him to get a second job so I can stay home). I love him far too much for that! OK, onto the Monkey this week :-)

He had his 8 week check-up this week and things went wonderfully! Remember how much trouble we had with him getting back up to birth weight? Not the issue any more! At 4 weekshe weighed 8 lb 5.5 oz. 5 weeks brought him up to 9 lb 5 oz (a whole pound in a week!). 3 weeks later? 11 lb 5 oz! He's up 2 pounds in 3 weeks... he still looks so small to me, it's just unreal. The doctor measured him at about 23.5 inches. We're still not sure how accurate this is since it seems to change all the time.

8 weeks brought the horrible experience of his first shots as well... boo! My poor baby screamed so hard he turned purple. :-( He's been running a low grade fever and has been very cranky since his shots but we're hoping that that ends soon (it's so unlike him to cry so often). *Update: this actually seems to have subsided today!*

On the upside; he's started smiling more and cooing in response to mommy and daddy! It's absolutely amazing and such a blessing to watch him develop and grow!

*Not a fan of the white onesie on white material... probably won't happen again*

Out in the Country

Chris had Monday off of work for Columbus Day so we decided to take a trip with some friends of ours. After meeting up at our house we decided to grab a bite to eat on the way. While Chris and I searched the gps for something of interest (we were thinking just something quick) J saw a sign for this place. I absolutely <3 Cracker Barrel! Since J had never eaten here before (practically un-American, right? hehe) it was decided. After a short wait J was able to see the magic that is Cracker Barrel. Cute store, sweet people, absolutely delicious food at amazing prices! She loved it! :-) Onto our first stop!

Our first stop was Hartland Orchard. Sadly, our trip here was cut short. Most of the apples had already fallen from the trees (who am I kidding... ALL of them had fallen) and the ones that were on the ground were rotten. After wandering through the orchard and being eaten up by bugs (seriously the stink bugs and bees were UNREAL!!) we decided we needed to leave and head to our second stop. This is definitely a place we'll visit again but earlier in the season (strawberries in May? Yes, please!).

Our second stop was Cox Farms. In hindsight, we should have made this our first stop. There was so much to do and was great watching our friend's son, N, run around and having a blast :-) Here's some of the photos from the evening:

Just an overview of some of the things to do

Me and my adorable Monkey

D and his beautiful children

Piggies!

Daddy and Monkey

N absolutely LOVED all the slides!

Miss L... how beautiful are her eyes?

As much as I miss San Diego (and that's a TON!) I do love fall out here. Happy fall everyone :-)

Aiden - 7 weeks

7 weeks!

Another week that's gone by way too quickly! Only one week to go until I return to work. *sigh*

Have I mentioned what a wonderful sleeper our little guy is? It's truly amazing to me! 8 hours a night; no matter what time we put him to bed. Last night he actually slept for almost 9 hours! I sure do hope this continues next week when I go back to work. (I've heard that sometimes sleep schedules change when babies are introduced to daycare... boo).

We spent some time apple picking and at the pumpkin patch this weekend with some wonderful friends... Oh so much fun. Pics of that will be up soon!

We couldn't decide on a picture this week so ya'll get see two!




**The fabric this week is in honor of Columbus Day. Yay for a three-day weekend for hubby! :-)**

My hubby...

the comedian!

So I snapped a photo of Aiden this afternoon (he has some of the funniest faces when he's pooping... gross? perhaps... but absolutely hilarious!). Anyway, this is what I get sent back to me

*sigh* Absolutely hilarious... way to go darling!

Note to self...

When Carter's brand says 3 months it really means 0-3. Thanks for completely messing with my early clothes shopping for my little monkey... looks like I don't have as much 3-6 clothes as I thought I did. *sigh*

Aiden - 6 weeks

6 weeks!

A friend of mine does weekly updates on her beautiful baby girl. In her updates she puts likes and dislikes. I thought this was a fabulous idea so I'm going to incorporate it into Aiden's updates as well :-) Since I didn't do it or 4 weeks I figure I'll post it this week and pick up from here! Soooo... here we go!

Likes:
Snuggles, being warm, mommy, daddy, eating, laying on your tummy, your rock n play, car rides, laying on mommy, the sound of the vacuum cleaner

Dislikes:
Being cold, diaper changes, burping (seriously... must you scream every time we try to burp you?), your crib, being sleepy (you fight it to no end!)

Nicknames:
Baby, Monkey, Monkey-face, Monkey-bug (family nickname)

Current size:
Who actually knows... lol. Most of the NB clothes are too small for you (they're just tight... MOST you can still actually wear just fine) but the 0-3 are absolutely HUGE! I fear that you'll have the same problem your brother did as far as clothes goes. His pants NEVER fit :-/ So any outfit that we bought that was a shirt and pants the shirt would fit but the pants wouldn't fit for months... I see this happening again.

He's had a few rough nights the last few nights... I think he's having some tummy issues :-( Poor little guy... Prayers it gets better!

I truly love this little guy more and more every day... I could sit and stare at him for hours, days on end... *sigh*