Taking a Look Back: Jeremy's First Year*

I have been moving right along getting these journal entries digital! Here are the links for the posts of Jeremy's life.

Taking a Look Back: Jeremy's Pregnancy

Taking a Look Back: Jeremy's Bed Rest and Labor

Taking a Look Back: Jeremy's NICU Stay (Part 1)

Taking a Look Back: Jeremy's NICU Stay (Part 2)

I was hoping I had made more entries then I did! I guess adjusting to life as a mommy took priority over journaling!

8/27/10, 4 months old: Wow! Mommy wanted to write in here much soon but . . . I got busy! I LOVE being a Mommy! You are our little gift from God! We know He had given you to us to raise you to know Him and love Him and other people! Oh, where do I start to catch up? Let's see. . . . I'm watching you sleep right now. We'll start with sleep! While we were camping for 4th of July (you were 10 weeks old!) you started sleeping for 6 hours! Meaning you slept though one feeding! I still pumped to keep my supply up and start a stash in the freezer. Gradually from there you started sleeping more and more. Last night you slept from 11pm - 9am! 10 hours! Woo-Hoo! You take about 3 naps a day. We are not on a schedule yet. You nurse every 3 hours during the day. We think you are teething. You drool like crazy. You are a talkative baby. You love when we talk back. Your whole body wiggles, your legs kick, you droll! It's so cute! You love to chew on Daddy's finger. It always soothes you and you always poop while you are chewing! 

You love your bath time. We have a turtle hat drains water. You want to drink the water. You wiggle all over and splash us! You HATE your car seat! In the car you are screaming or sleeping! It makes going places kinds difficult! 

I think that's about it. I will not let it go this long again!

First smile: June 30 (9 weeks)

You rolled from front to back 2 times: July 3 (10 weeks)

Top Left: Cute onesie made by Christina!
Top Right: Bath Time!
Bottom Left: First smile
Bottom Right: Cute baby yawns while camping!

9/23/10, 5 months old: You are THEE cutest baby ever! We just love to watch you learn! I feel so blessed that Daddy works so hard that it's possible for me to be home with you every day! God blessed us with his job for sure!! 

10/8/10, 5.5 months: I think we are making some progress with your carseat. It's day 4 of no screaming! Awesome! A little fussing but nothing your binky won't fix! You are favoring regular binkys these day not the Soothies. You love apple juice. You have tasted apples and bananas. And a few drops of chicken broth. We switched you from your bassinet to the playpen in our room, so you have a little more room to wiggle around. We are having trouble with the monitor we got. When we get it fixed we will move you into your room in the crib. It's just too far away for Mommy to have you allll the way down the hall from us! You have the sweetest little belly laugh! I think you are a lefty! :). I didn't try to make you a lefty, I promise!

Your serious expression just cracks me up!

10/13/10, 5.5 months old: You are doing so good in your car seat! It's like one weeks you woke up one day and decided to be over it! We are so thankful. We drove to Oceanside yesterday and you were great! We got you 2 cute outfits for Uncle Dillin's bootcamp graduation. We started feeding you cereal too! Today you ate 1/2 teaspoon and nursed on both sides! Now you are sacked out! Sleep well my precious boy! 

Mini Cheese Head!

11/7-10/10, 6.5 months: You spent 4 days with GiGi while Mommy and Daddy took a little trip! Daddy surprised me by not telling me where we were going! He set up for you to be with Gigi and made all the arrangements! He even packed the 4runner so I didn't know what was in it. It was amazing! You were still nursing so I pimped faithfully every 3 hours, on the dot! Gigi said you didn't drink much milk while I was away. You really weren't interested in the bottle. We talked to you each night before bed. It was nice for us to get a way, but we missed you so much! When we got home I expected you to be all giddy and happy to see us.  you were a little unsure of us! You wanted to stay in Gigi's arms! After about an hour you warmed up and wanted to snuggle.

All kinds of paint. . . *

We are replacing the windows in the front bedrooms. Advice to anyone in the market: If the house needs new windows. . . Save up the money and Replace your windows before you move in! Our house was built in 1973. . . single pane windows = breezy, cold in winter - hot in summer, as soon as the air/heat turns off the house instantly gets hot/cold. It's messy to replace them while living in the house and keeping a toddler and infant away. Plus, it's really difficult to go down to 2 bedrooms from 4! There are toys, beds, linen everywhere! BUT I do need to praise my husband for getting the work done as fast and efficient as possible! And he is so sweet to let J "help" him!

So today was day 7 if construction. We have the windows in, dry wall up, texture on . . . now the painting and decorating! The FUN part! I have realized I can't decorate a bedroom without going ALL out! See this post on the nursery! I will have the finished product of J's room here. 

Jeremy had a blast today with all different kinds of paint to use:

They are so cute together!
You may be gwaking at that color,
Wait until you see the finished product!

The boys were over to play while Danielle did the artist part of J's room!
We found a giant box for the boys to go to town on!
He got a little crazy with the paint! It was on his tongue too! Oy!

We finished the day with colored shaving cream in the bathtub!

This kid just keeps getting cuter!  I can't get over it!

Milestones. . . *

Jeremy loves to watch Wipeout, see here for a clip. He then moves chairs, pillows, tables, stools, whatever he can find and makes his own obstacle course! Here he learns how to effectively do a summersault off 2 pillows onto the beanbag!

Did you catch anything in the back round?? Watch it again and focus on the baby girl!

SHE ROLLED OVER! And Daddy caught it without even knowing!! How many people capture their baby's first roll on video? I am so proud if him!

Capri Update: 5 Months*

My happy girl! 

The time has already gone by too fast! I hope to get to this each month, twice a month would be fabulous! My friend over at natyouraveragegirl has a post once a week with her daughter's progress! I love that but don't think I can get to it that frequently. I love the categories she has, so I am going to break the update up that way. 

Weight

Look at those thighs! 

Our little chunker is about 17 pounds! We were at the doctor's at her 4 month check up, she was 16 pounds 10 ounces. I am so not used to a chunky baby! But I love it!!

Health

You could get lost in those eyes!
See the little tooth buds starting to emerge?

She is a thumb sucker! She doesn't seem to prefer one over the other. It's really cute! In the beginning we tried to take it out and encourage the pacifier, that failed! We almost don't need pacifiers. I take them along just in case, though. I will make a collage of all the times I snap a picture of her sucking that thumb!

Sleep

Sleeping baby pictures melt my heart!

Capri is quite the sleeper! Her schedule (ish) is:
She goes to bed around 8pm, wakes at 5am to nurse, back to sleep until about 8:30am. She naps for about 1/2 hour at 11. Then down for a 2.5 hour nap at 1:30pm when Jeremy naps! Another little 1/2 hour nap around 6pm. She is a tummy sleeper! And loves her thumb!


Clothes

My girl!

She is very rapidly growing out of 3-6 month. We have 6 month clothes in her closet that fir much better! We have been so blessed to have a few different people give us clothes. We are pretty much set until 12 months with more clothes then she can wear before she out grows them!
We have had her in some really adorable clothes but Mommy is terrible at taking pictures! When we get the pictures from Shilo's wedding I;'ll post that adorable dress!

Social

Playing with Daniel

Since I will be homeschooling, I feel this is very important to put up. I need to make sure the kids are getting out of the house and spending time with people other then us! We went to Vegas with some firefighters and their wives and baby girls! We also spend time with Bobby's cousin (Christy, she has 5 kids).

Brotherly/Sisterly Love

These kids melt my heart each day! Today Jeremy brought his fire engine over to Capri (who loves that Jonny Jumper! She stays in it while I cook dinner) out her hand on the ladder and had her push it! While it was on it's way to a major train crash, of course! I just love to watch them interact. Capri loves to watch Jeremy hope, jump, tumble around the living room!

Diet

Breast milk every 3 hours, except at night. When she gets up for the day at 8:30am she usually doesn't eat until about 10:30am. She is taking about 6oz in bottles when I am not with her. Which is what I pump as well. SO I figure she is eating about 34 ounces a day.

Milestones

Capri only rolled that one time! See here for the video! She is grasping toys and bringing them to her mouth to chew on. She giggles and coos all the time. She loves to be talked to! 

3 Week Vacation (Part 2)*

We tried for a better family shot but Jeremy wouldn't cooperate!
We will look back and laugh at this one day!

The first 10 days can be found here: Part 1

We flew to Maine for 12 days and had a 24 hour turn around to pack and get on the road (supposed to be an 8 hour drive, ended up taking 10 because the kids needed breaks) to drive to Lake Powell for a 7 day houseboat trip with the Martens side of the family!

I must say, I am very impressed with the amount of pictures we took this trip. We are not the best at making sure we take the time to photograph the memories! But it took me so long to get this post up because I has SO many pictures to go through to choose the best!

Top Left: Mommy and Capri packing lounging!
Top Right: Jeremy sleeping on the way! This was the first coffee pit stop.
Bottom Left: After a few sleep patches, at least he woke up with a smile!
Bottom Right: The sunrise! Beautiful

The Arrival:

Top Left: Daddy and Jeremy on the first beach we stopped.
Top Center: Capri enjoying the sunshine!
Top Right: Sierra and Jeremy sight seeing as we boated around.
Bottom Left: The boat had a hose that pulled lake water. The kids LOVED it! Genius idea!
Bottom Center: The grandparents driving the boat.
Bottom Right: Bobby catching some zzzs after a 10 hour middle of the night drive. 

The scenery was incredible!

Top Left: Thunder storm we were caught in! We just circled around a cove.
Center Left: First sunset.
Bottom Left: Thunder storm on the way home

Cool panorama setting on our camera!

B caught the first fish!
Jeremy was pretty proud of his too! (psst. . . it's bait!)

Family Time:

Top Left: Mommy and Capri lounging!
Top Middle: Us
Top Right: Auntie and Sierra
Bottom Left: Coffee on the sand after Dad was feeling much better.
Bottom Center: Jeremy driving the boat.
Bottom Right: Jackie and I

Top Left: Is that not precious! Papa and Capri.
Top Right: Daddy and Capri taking a nap together!
Bottom Left: A family that pumps together, stays together! Ha!
Sierra, Bobby and Garrett pumped the septic tank! They were great sports about it!
Bottom Middle: So precious when he sleeps!
Bottom Right: Swimming!

Left: First time Capri was in the water. She was not happy!
Top Right: Second time she loved it!
Bottom Left: Bathing Capri. It was a family event! Jeremy was so sweet, helping.

The kids had a great time:

Top Left: Sierra and Capri hanging out
Top Center: Lifting a rock (not really)
Top Right: Jeremy playing at night with a head lamp
Center Right: Cool with their shades
Center: Sierra navigating
Bottom Left: "I'm King of the World"
Bottom Right: Eating frozen Capri Suns.

Fishin!

3 Week Vacation! (Part 1)*

Gorgeous scenery! 

Whew! We have had quite the summer! We went to Maine to help, be in and coordinate my cousin's wedding! It was beautiful! My family got to see Jeremy and meet Capri! Jeremy was absolutely ecstatic about going on an airplane! Capri did great. She slept at the right times, ate at the right times, she wasn't fussy at all!

Top Left: Snacks are a toddler's best friend
Top Right: Capri giving me smiles!
Bottom Left: Taking off
Bottom Right: Activities to keep him busy

Jeremy was sick a few days before we left. We thought it had subsided by Friday when we were flying. He did well on the flight. But when we got there (Saturday) he was not acting like himself. He was out of energy and rapidly going down hill. After a full 24 hours of vomiting and diarrhea we decided he needed to see a doctor. They immediately gave him an IV and ran tests. He lost 3 pounds in 4 days! Thank God all tests came back positive! He just needed some rehydration and a few days to rest!

Top Left: The hospial was so good to us. Toast, apple juice, 
dvd player with Thomas, chair for Daddy, teddy bear!

Top Right: I love the snuggles when he is sick. but it breaks my heart

Bottom Left: Daddy and his girl.

Bottom Right: My little boy looks so small!

The recovery process:

Top Left: Capri needed a bath!
Top Right: Watching You Tube videos of fire engines. You can tell his weight loss in his face.
Bottom Left: Learning the sign for "bug."
Bottom Center: Daddy and C taking a nap together.
Bottom Right: Sticker project GiGi made for J.

I am realizing these days were so crazy for us, we don't even have pictures of Chris and Elise, the fun walks we took, the midnight trips to Dunkin Donuts or their gorgeous wedding! But I did manage to steal a few off Elise's Facebook:

The "I do's"

It was so sweet to see family and catch up!

Papa Bear giving J a gift!
A train puzzle that makes train sounds!

Grandma Bear getting snuggles!

We did some sight-seeing:

That's the Lighthouse from Forest Gump!

The plane trip back:

That was the first 12 days. . . Stay tuned for the next 8 days (Part 2).

Family Shots!*

We finally got some family shots in!! Thank to our amazing friends at Elegant Photography! I highly recommend them! Family shots, infant, weddings, birthdays. . . everything! They are amazing at what they do!! Check them out!

He really liked the cake!

I love how he's looking out for her.
He is looking so sweet at her!

Cute little Chunky Monkey!

Il ove them!

Sierra was with us too! 

She's quite photogenic!