Samuel's First Friend

We had our first "Play Date" with a friend last week. Nicholas is a fellow birth center baby. His parents were in our birthing class and he was born two weeks before Samuel. Notice he too has a head full of dark hair. In fact, Samuel is on the left and Nicholas is on the right just in case you're trying to tell them apart. The visit was more for us moms but the babies had a good time sucking their fists together as you can see in the pictures. It was funny because we had planned to eat lunch, but by the time we managed to feed, diaper, and soothe both boys to sleep it was more like an afternoon snack. It was fun to share time with a new mom juggling tasks with our infants together. We're going to go visit Nicholas at his house next time.

Bed Head

Thank You Nap Nanny

We've been pretty sleepless around here to say the least. Even though Samuel is now 9 weeks old and weighs at least 13 lbs. he's still been wanting to nurse every 2 hrs. at night, so I've not had more than 2 consecutive hours of sleep in 9 weeks. He goes right back to sleep after feeding but still it's been rough! Anyway, I was talking to one of my friends from our birthing class who has a baby boy two weeks older than Samuel. We were sharing our ups and downs of being new moms and she introduced me to the Nap Nanny. We had a good laugh because she told me she found it online and ordered at 3am during one of her sleepless nights. Her baby has been sleeping five hour stretches and even an eight hour once or twice, so I wasted no time getting online to check it out. The price was a little more than I'd hoped, but at this point more than two or three hours sleep would be Priceless!! Needless to say, we are now proud owners of the NN ourselves and the first night we tried it with SJ he slept five hours straight! So far, so good... We've also gotten a bit more of a routine going around here. I've checked out about five different books from the library from all ends of the parenting pendulum trying to find something that resonates with us. One of the books has a schedule in it that is working well for us and for Samuel. Between having more of a routine and finding the NN we're making strides with getting more sleep and having more peace around here.

Mr. Social

We had our friends, Seth and Alicia over for dinner the other night. This is really the first time we've had anyone come over in a while, and I had been telling Samuel all day that our friends were coming, etc. When they walked in he just lit up. It was so precious. I thought he'd be shy or fuss a little, but he was all smiles. It doesn't hurt that Seth and Alicia are kid magnets. Samuel knew he liked them right away. Tyson snapped these pics of Seth talking to Samuel.

Ready for the cold

Nanna Deggs sent this cute hat with matching mittens. We're ready for some really cold weather now. I'm glad the hat isn't too snug or you would see him puckering up in these pics.

There's room to grow... Maybe we can wear it next year too.

Happy Birthday Big Pop

We love you Dad aka Big Poppa and hope you have a great Birthday today!

Warning: Very Cute Video

Samuel has discovered he can make splashes by kicking in the bath water. He loves it! I caught some of it on this video. As you can see he was all smiles. I can only imagine how much fun he's going to have when he graduates to the regular bath tub and I can only imagine how wet our bathroom will be afterwards.

A Boy and His Bear

A Texas Thanksgiving

Samuel was doted on with lots of love and attention from his three Texas cousins:Kyler, Klaire, and Khloe (and of course all the grown ups too). They met for the first time on this trip. You could tell he knew they were kids. He watched everything they did and they loved him so much. They each wanted to hold him over and over.

Little Traveler

I have so much to catch up on, so I guess I'll start with this video and a travel report. Samuel did great flying to and from Texas for Thanksgiving. I took him a few days early by myself and then Tyson joined us Thanksgiving day. Needless to say I had a little trepidation about flying with a then 6 week old on my own. It was a lot of work, but I am SO thankful that the little guy himself was a breeze. The airplane was literally like a tranquilizer. I was worried about his ears popping, so I made sure he was either nursing or sucking on a pacifier at the take offs and landings. It seemed to do the trick. He never flinched. I guess next year will be a different story, huh? I was sitting next to a really sweet first grade teacher, so she's the one who did the filming for us. More to come on our visit in Texas...