Project 365: Week Two

Day 6: Obsessed with these New Years cards that brighten up our fridge.

 Day 7: First time to play with his new car from Grammy & Big Papa

 Day 8: January (Recipe here)

 Day 9: Lord have mercy.

 Day 10: Rough week.  Favorite Tea.

Project 365: Week One

I've seen Project 365 several places around the web and decided to join the fun.

Practicing every day with my DSLR is something that sounds like just what I need, especially on these long days of winter where creativity can run short.

One photo a day for a year, here we go!

Looking at my first week, it's pretty obvious where my focus is most days.

Namely on a pair of (what color are those?) eyes that seems to always be on mine.

August Wells, this Project 365 is going to be good for your baby book.

Day 1: Waking from a nap

Day 2: Colors and patterns

 

Day 3: Reaching

Day 4: Morning play time when he wakes

Day 5: August Wells, 5 1/2 mos.

August Wells, 5 Months

I went with a bunch of my girlfriends to visit our dear friend in the hospital last night who just gave birth to a sweet baby girl.

I'm surprised our whole entourage, including two babies of our own, made it there in the great blizzard that is happening right now as I type.
The trip in the snow to the hospital and holding that tiny baby girl reminded me that somehow these tiny newborns change right beneath our noses every single day into little babies, and then big babies, and then.

Before this snowy weekend passes, I have to capture for myself a few notes of August Wells, 5 months.

Chews on anything and everything!  You are like a little puppy, desperate to chew on anything you come in contact with: fingers, hands, our faces!, toys, you name it.  Probably this is called teething, but we first time parents can never be too certain.  Sometimes you make us laugh so hard with how frantic you are to chew.  It's pretty adorable, little puppy.

Sleeping on your tummy.  While you rolled over for the first time at 4 months, you didn't roll from your back to your tummy so easily until 5 months.  It's easy for you now though, and immediately when we put you down on your back to sleep for a nap or for the night, you flip right over and sleep on your tummy.  This is obviously your preference now and you look so cozy!  You started doing this for the first time on our New Year's Eve trip with friends in OH.

Baby Beluga.  This is your song.  You love endless renditions of it, and I've noticed recently that it is also the way to whisper you into calmness if you're crying uncontrollably in the car.  The Baby Beluga song is the secret!

Solid naps.  I look back now on you at 3 and 4 months and see that all our nap struggles were just you growing and developing into napping.  At five months, you take the classic 9:00 and 1:00 naps, which I can almost count on now to be two hours each.  It's a beautiful thing, Augy Bear!   Just in time for Momma to start studying for her licensure exam.  And no, I'm not expecting your napping to be perfectly predictable every day, because we know you'll just stop if I do that. ;)

Such a happy baby!  This is the number one comment we get from family, friends, babysitters, and even strangers.  "He's such a happy baby!" they exclaim.  It's true, you love to smile and you love people.  A funny story I don't want to forget is your first Christmas coming to Grammy & Big Papa's.  Somehow there was a mix-up in our expected arrival time, and so no one really knew we were coming when we did.  We drove up to your cousin Connor's birthday party and when we opened the door there was literally about a 5 minute screaming party with your aunts, uncles, and grandparents who were so surprised to see you.  You thought that was the greatest reception you've ever been given and never once shied away or got scared of all the noise and attention.  You just smiled as big as you can and let yourself be passed around and hugged and kissed to pieces.  But don't get me wrong, you are a normal little baby and you get waves of being grumpy and discontent and fussy on a regular basis with just me and Daddy at home.  No one seems to believe that though. ;)

Night sleep.  It's not great, it's not horrible.  5 months in, you still definitely do not sleep through the night, typically waking up for feedings twice and then needing your paci or whatever else numerous other times a night.  

Reaching.  You're reaching now, for toys, for food, even a little bit for us.  Reaching seems like not that big of a deal in and of itself, but somehow it feels to me like it marks the transition from a little baby to a big baby.  You want solid food so badly, you just stare us down while we eat.  The other night at Chipotle you were sitting on Daddy's lap staring and leaning in towards his burrito bowl until, quick as lightening, you reached out and plunged your chubby little hand right into his bowl for a fistful of rice, cheese, and sour cream!  I cannot wait to give you your first taste of rice cereal at 6 months.  All signs point to the prediction that you're gonna love it.

Last funny thing is this new smacking noise you make with your bottom lip.   You think you're pretty funny doing it, and surprise surprise, so do we.  

August Wells, 5 months.

Fave Christmas Photos

We're home now after spending Christmas in Indianapolis and Tremont, then Neal travelled to a wedding in New Jersey, and then finally the three of us spent New Year's Eve in Ohio with some of our dear friends.

I always love the feeling of coming home to a quiet, spacious January as much as I love the party and festive fullness of December.

So here we are, and here's just a couple of my favorite photos from Christmas.

Welcome, 2014!

 

First Christmas & a Bear Hat

This first Christmas with Augy was probably the last Christmas for quite awhile that I'll be able to have presents wrapped and under the tree throughout Christmas, since he'll likely be tearing around the place  next year.

Also probably the last of having our tree decorated with our glass blown ornaments, or any ornaments at all, at least for a few years.

So.  This was a pretty good year for me, being that I get a yummy baby to squeeze and still get to go all pretty-pretty and not have it be disturbed.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is not only picking out gifts but choosing wrapping paper and spending a few evenings listening to Christmas music and wrapping everything up pretty.

I usually find a combination of papers from The Container Store and Paper Source, and then I try to find one from Target to work in if I'm being mindful of cha-ching-ching.

Augy didn't seem too impressed with our Christmas tree until a few days before we left town when I realized that if I laid him on a blanket right beneath the tree, he was smitten with it.

It was so sweet and pretty magical to watch.

But funny too because even at 5 months, his little toes went a kicking at my carefully wrapped packages until he would get a bow kicked off.

As for the bear hat, Neal found it when we were out Christmas shopping and picked it out for Augy.

It's one of the few things in Augy's wardrobe that was found by his dad, so it's a fun one.

Merry Christmas, again!

Merry Christmas 2013 & Happy New Year!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for the fresh new year!

I don't know about him, but Augy's first Christmas was truly magical for us.

Ahem I should say the Christmas season, not necessarily Christmas Day itself, given that by Christmas Day he was already so far off his schedule that he woke up all night, got up early, and was fussy-tired throughout the day.

But that doesn't matter, it was still so special and the best Christmas season we've ever had!

He was pretty impressive too at pulling the ribbon off his first present and rustling the tissue paper.

Some of you still have Christmas cards from us coming in the mail.

Yes, we are that family this year getting some of our cards out after the New Year.

It was the year of the new baby, cheers!

Thank you Tiny Prints, for our first family Christmas card.

Thanksgiving 2013

In the car on the way to Indy for Thanksgiving this year we were like, "This is our first holiday season with a baaaaaby!"

Traveling "over the river and through the woods" with a baby in the back seat to visit the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins is so picturesque. 

Except when I tried to defy all the mom advice to "not have them travel in the outfit you want them to arrive in."

Which was this, by the way.

Whatever.

We ended up changing a diaper in the back seat during a traffic jam and then having to put Augy in his carseat naked.

Haha.  Oh dear.

We rotate every year for Thanksgiving-- one year with my family, the next year with Neal's, and so forth.

We like doing it that way so we can relax and enjoy one family and not worry about splitting our time and traveling too much.

Christmas we do both though, since we have a longer time off.

Augy's first Thanksgiving was spent with his Anderson family, and his Mae Mae and Grandpa Anderson who he loves!

Thankful this year for not only our family and friends but also our own new little family!