Andrew vs. Solids

When we were at our 4 month doctor's appointment for Andrew, the doctor said it was time to start introducing solid foods. He suggested vegetables, but after some extensive reading I decided to start him on a Rice Cereal and an Oatmeal cereal before jumping in with the vegetables and fruits. We decided that today was the day we were going to do this. My mom and dad were in town and we made it quite the celebration....at least for us. All Andrew knew was that he was hungry, wearing an especially large bib and could not find a bottle anywhere.

We captured the event on both camera and video so that we could all watch as our little guy gobbled up his first attempts at solid food. Here are some pictures of the event....chronologically. 

This is how it began...

 First Bite...hands trying to grasp on to the spoon like it was a bottle. 

Little does he know....

Reaction to first spoonful...I laugh every time I look at this picture. 

It does not get better for him. 

Eyes Red From Crying - but we are still trying.

 Let me just say this - he actually gagged. I did not know babies could do that - but he did. Then he spent the rest of the time spitting it out, crying with it stuck on his tongue and just completely ticked that after all of this, he still could not find a bottle. I tried maybe 4 or 5 times and then gave up. My mom jumped in at that point and put a big spoonful in his mouth, which he quickly transferred to the big bib. You would have thought we put cement in the child's mouth.

As frustrating as it was for him, we enjoyed it. And, when he is old enough, he will enjoy watching the videos of this experience. Gotta start somewhere!

We will be trying again tomorrow - fingers crossed!

 When it was all over.

4 Months Old and Ready To Rumble

Andrew is officially 4 months old --- yesterday. Today, we went to the doctor to have his well-visit and get some vaccines that are never fun to watch or fun to deal with in the car on the way home. But, the band-aids are pretty darn cute as they cover his big chubby legs.

One thing to note - I've been planning to take pictures of this appointment for a while. I wanted to get a picture of Andrew on the scale and with his doctor. I was very prepared for this and even remembered to bring the camera. However, one trick to making all this happen is to make sure the camera is charged. So, I have no pictures on the camera from the event, but I have one on my phone. I will need Jeff to help me get it transferred to the computer. I'm not as technologically savvy with the  Crack-Berry as others are.

Anyway, back to his appointment...here are the new stats for our fella:

Weight: 15 pounds, 11 ounces - 75th Percentile
Height: 25 Inches - 75th Percentile
Head Size: 97th Percentile

Let's be real about this - there was no way this kid was going to end up with a small head. Jeff and I both have heads that look like we ate other people's heads. We wear large hats - to say it nicely. SO, it's no wonder that our child has a big...um...brain.

But the doctor also said that Andrew's motor skills are very advanced for his age and that he is "exceptionally strong" - I think Jeff actually beat his chest with pride as that statement was made. He was ready to text his other friends that had baby boys and challenge them to a baby-vs-baby throwdown. In my opinion, Andrew has that in the bag!

We also learned that we will be introducing fruit and vegetables to his diet. We plan to start this on Sunday. I'm very excited to catch this event on video. I have a feeling that the responses we will get from his first bite of broccoli will be priceless. Fingers crossed that he likes it!

Here are some pictures of our guy over the last month.

Notice all the drool? He is not very happy in this picture.

Hanging out in his Pack-N-Play

In his Bumbo Again.

Hanging out with Jennifer after a workout - 

I can't resist putting that visor on him sideways like he is a gangster. 

We were in a room of over 100 people and he 

did not stir for the first hour that we were there.  

Andrew and Mommy

Jeff caught a few cute moments on the camera that I wanted to share. Beside the fact that I obviously need to do my hair a bit more often since we constantly have a camera out, I thought my baby boy looked really cute.

He cracks up at my face. I'm glad I can make him laugh. ;-)

From Swing To Crib - Bye Bye BandAid

When Andrew was about 2 weeks old, he had a slight bit of congestion. We brought him to the doctor and he suggested to put him in a swing at night to keep him a bit more upright so that his sinuses would drain and not keep him stuffy throughout the night. As new parents, we easily agreed and never looked back.

Fast forward to today and we have a child that is literally addicted to this swing. When we try to put him down for a nap in other areas, he throws a fit. We have slowly started to win this battle, but have not even approached the bedtime aspects.

The time has come. 

Our once relatively small child is now over 15 pounds and 2 feet long. Squeezing him in to this swing for much longer will not work. Not to mention, his increase in weight now means we must replace the batteries every 4-6 days. This swing takes 4 D batteries and our battery bill is going up so much that we should really consider purchasing stock in Energizer or CopperTop.

Tonight is the first night of "ripping off the bandaid" - I'm so nervous! So far so good. I did remove the bumpers so he could see out in to his room if he wakes up. I guess I'm hoping that will make him feel a little better when he wakes up completely still on his back vs. reclined and swinging.

Who would have thought that this would be a big part of my stress for the week? My how times change.

UPDATE:  Well it's been 2 nights and things are looking pretty good. The first night was ROUGH! He did great from 8:30pm - 11:15pm but woke up every hour on the hour after that. Our only duty to fix the wake-up was to re-insert the pacifier. But, it drove us nuts. We almost gave up for night 2, but decided to go ahead and give it a try. Last night was great! He slept from 8:30pm - 1am for a pacifier insertion and then till 5am for a feeding and then till 8am for the rest of the day. Not too bad!! Hopefully tonight will be an all nighter.

Murder in P-Town

On Wednesday night, we left Andrew with Sybil and headed out to our first Volleyball Match of the season. We played for a few hours and headed back to Plano only to find that there were several police cars blocking our normal entrance to our neighborhood. We went around to the other side and along the way saw several more police cars and policemen walking all through the park right by our house. We were so intrigued and wondered what could have happened.

We saw a police officer and tried to get some information from him but he was very tight lipped about the entire situation. Next thing we know, there was a police helicopter with it's spotlight searching the ground. That made us even more interested and curious to know what happened in our quiet little neighborhood. We start watching the news and searching the news stations online but were not able to find out anything.

The next morning we found out that all the cops were there because of a murder. A husband shot his wife in front of their 2 kids and the grandmother. AND, he was still on the run. Wish I would have known there was a murderer on the loose so that I would have been a bit more aware of my surroundings as I sat outside being the nosy neighbor. They did find him - he had run to Houston and the police there pulled him over and brought him in. So glad that he has been caught. They should bury him under the jail for doing that to his wife - especially in front of his two kids.

Big crime in Plano - not exactly the norm in our little town. Made for a very eventful Wednesday night.

This is the murderer/neighbor.

Grunting and Drooling - Full Speed Ahead

Andrew has recently started a new form of talking. His previous talking was the normal sweet goo-goo, ga-ga type of rambling that would go on and on. Now, he has resorted to grunting. This is a deep, intense grunting as if he is trying to pass gas. But, usually it is not associated with a bowel movement. I like to think that it is his way to talk serious about what is going on with him. It can't be all fun and games and he is here to let us know it. The grunting is very funny and I need to make sure to get it on video so we can laugh at it for years to come.

When he is not grunting or babbling on about one thing or another, he is sucking on his hands and drooling everywhere. We were certain that he was teething because he seemed to exhibit all the signs that we read about. However, we are not seeing any signs of teeth coming in and his associated grumpiness has gone away.  Therefore, this drooling and hand sucking may just be a new phase.

We've started putting a bib on him to try to catch some of the water-works that drip from his mouth all day long. Without the bib, we would need to change his outfit at least 3 times. He would not be a fan of that process at all. The only problem is that the bib will often get turned around and look more like a cape for our little superhero. We will call him "SuperGrunter".

My Uncle Bill

My dad's brother, Bill, was diagnosed with Cancer a little over 4 years ago. Over that time, he would drive from Arkansas to MD Anderson in Houston for his treatments. On the way back, they would often stop in Dallas and visit Jeff and I for the night. We would sit around the kitchen island and chat for hours with Uncle Bill and my Aunt Libby. Jeff and I really enjoyed their visits.

My parents came in town a few weeks ago and we decided to go visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Libby. We wanted to catch up with them and also introduce them to Andrew. Seeing my dad and Uncle Bill together is always nice. They have great stories and seem to know all the same jokes. Even when my Uncle Bill was feeling really bad, he still told great stories and had funny jokes.

We left Arkansas on Tuesday to come back to Dallas and, unfortunately, my Uncle Bill died on that Friday (February 19th, 2010). We were so upset, but also so thankful that we got to see him and give him lots of love earlier that week. I will miss him very much. The service was wonderful.  He obviously touched the lives of many people because there were so many there to celebrate his life. He was a great man and we were lucky to have him in our lives.

 

We will miss you Uncle Bill!