Fifteen Weeks

Brody LOVES to smile!

This was a week full of firsts for Brody. On Wednesday he went to his first business dinner with Jim and his boss. I wasn't sure that taking a 3 1/2 month old to a nice restaurant for a business dinner was a good idea but Brody was very well behaved (as usual) and slept for most of the 3 hours that we were out. Brody was a hit with all of the wait staff and the manager even offered to carrying him around if he started crying during dinner. Luckily for us we didn't have to take her up on the offer. On Thursday we started our morning out very early since I had to be to work by 7am for a meeting. We wished Jim a happy birthday on the way out the door because he was leaving for a business trip. While at day care Brody made Jim a birthday surprise!

Brody's Birthday Card for Dad

That night Brody and I spent our first night alone in our house. Jim has been on other trips but I was still on maternity leave so we just went to stay with my parents. He was very well behaved for me only waking up once during the night. Jim returned home on Friday night and we headed out to celebrate his birthday. Brody once again slept the whole time we were out to dinner - we have been very lucky that he makes going out dinner very easy. On Saturday the boys spent the morning together while I went to get my hair cut. They had a good time just relaxing. The rest of the weekend was very relaxing with all of us going to bed early trying to catch up on our sleep. Unfortunately last night was very rough with Brody waking up every 2-3 hours screaming at us. We weren't sure what was wrong with him but after his day at day care it seems like he was working on getting things moving through his body - he was sent home in a different outfit since he exploded out of his diaper shortly after I dropped him off. The teacher at day care commented that she thought he might be starting to teethe also since he just started chewing on his bottom lip today. Hopefully that isn't the reason we were up so often last night - I am really counting on some more sleep tonight!

Hope everyone has a great week. Here are some pictures of Brody smiling (and a few of him not enjoying tummy time!) to brighten up your day!

Brody loves his activity center!

As you can tell from the pictures - Brody still hates tummy time and Chloe (the cat) is not amused by him!

Big smiles for daddy!

Fourteen Weeks Old

His smile makes my day!

This was a very big week for Brody. On Tuesday I started taking 60z bottles to Daycare to see if Brody would eat a little more and to my surprise he ate all of them that day! I guess the little guy was ready to move up! He smiles more and more every day! Every morning Jim and I are greeted with smiles and then he wins over all of the teachers when we get to daycare with his cute smile! He is definitely a hit with everyone there!

Brody has gotten a lot better with controlling his head so we started putting him in his activity center at my mom's and at home. He really enjoys sitting up and just looking around at everything. He is starting to figure out that his hands are attached to his body and he actually controls them. I watched him the other night on the monitor putting his hands in his mouth and then when he would pull them away he would scream...then he would put them back in and repeat the process. He is sleeping pretty well now. He typically goes to bed around 8:30 - 9pm and then we get up around 2am and then again at 6am. He really doesn't sleep much at all at daycare because he is so busy watching all of the little boys play.

Who would guess that this was at 6:30am on Saturday!

On Sunday Brody was baptized at the church that Jim and I were married at. He did very well. He slept through the whole service right up until we went up to the altar and he didn't cry at all when the water touched his head. He was a big hit with the congregation. We had our family and friends over to my parents house for a brunch following the service. The day went really well. Jim and I were exhausted by the end of the weekend!

My brother is Brody's Godfather

They forgot to write "Christening" on the cake and we had a little mishap during transportation of the cake - but it still tasted great!

This will be my first time staying here at the house alone with Brody. Jim has to travel on Thursday and Friday this week. Of course it turns out to be the worst day because I need to be to work at 7am on Thursday...so Brody and I will be having a very early morning with him going to daycare about an hour early. I think we will both be exhausted by the end of the day Thursday.

I hope everyone had a great week. Sorry for the delay in posting this week. The nights go by so fast now that I am back to work!

Jim was very impressed that Brody could hold his own bottle (this only lasted about a minute!)

Thirteen Weeks

Three Months Old! I can't believe how time flies!

We made it through our first week! Brody started Daycare on Monday - what a rough day for me! I have to say I did much better than last Thursday when I went back to work...but still a lot of tears! The week got drastically better as it went on and by Friday I could drop Brody off without crying! The teachers he has at Daycare are so sweet! They all love him and have daily updates for me on what he did during the day - he even made us a present while he was there!(see the picture below) Everyday it seemed like he started to smile more and more and everyone was enjoying his "easy going" personality. He also started eating much better and sleeping a lot less during the day. Most days he only slept around 2 - 3 hours while he was there! When he would stay at home with me it seemed like he was only awake 2-3 hours! It must be that the three other boys in the room keep him alert - they all are at the stages of sitting up and crawling so they make a lot of noise! Jim and I found out that we were definitely not enough stimulation for him this weekend - he didn't sleep very much at all but was very unhappy!

The pillow that Brody made us this week - the snowman is his footprint (isn't it the cutest thing! I love his teachers!)

We had some of our friends from Pennsylvania come in on Friday and stay with us. It was really good to see them. On Saturday night we were able to go to my work Holiday Party and then out with our friends afterwards. My mom and dad were nice enough to come and stay the night with Brody. We really appreciated having time to spend as just the two of us with some adult conversation.

Jim bought Brody this rocking cow for Christmas - Grandma thought it was time for Brody to try it out!

I'm not sure Brody knew what to think!

Brody turned 3 months yesterday so we went to get his pictures taken. Of course he had not slept the whole day so he was not in a good mood when we arrived. Surprisingly we got some very good pictures between his crying. I will have access to them online in about a week so I will make sure to post them. I am hoping that next month we will be able to get some of him smiling. He sure is happy when he is rested! Grandma and Grandpa got a lot of smiles this weekend.





Today we went to visit a new Church close to where I work. We really enjoyed the service and of course Brody's hair was a hit! I took him up to communion and when the Pastor got to us he just started smiling and gave Brody a blessing. After the service we spoke with the Pastor and he said that he was shocked to see these big eyes looking at him and all this hair!





This week will be another busy week for us. Next Sunday Brody will be getting baptized. The service will be at the church that I was baptized at and where Jim and I were married - so we will be heading to my parents on either Friday or Saturday night to prepare for everything. I am sure we will have a lot of pictures to share next week!

This is how Brody spent most his weekend - WIDE awake!

Twelve Weeks - Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone! We tried to celebrate the New Year with some of our neighbors but after we had been there for about 40 minutes Brody just started screaming and wouldn't stop so Jim and I just brought him home. Jim and I just ended up watching the ball drop after putting Brody to bed and then going to bed ourselves.

I had to start back to work on Thursday. Luckily my mom was able to come and watch Brody yesterday and today. It was a very difficult morning on Thursday and I was glad to have my mom here to help me through the day. Brody didn't seem to mind me going back to work - he slept pretty much the whole day. Monday will be the real test for us with him going to daycare for the first time. I know he will be very loved there...but it is still difficult to leave my little boy there. It almost seems this is the first step in him growing up! It is nice to get back to work and be on my own schedule and actually talk to some adults...but I miss my little man a lot!

We will be heading to my parents tomorrow so that we can meet with our pastor to arrange for Brody's baptism. My mom has offered to watch him again tomorrow night so Jim and I can go out for a nice dinner. I guess we can take that night to celebrate the start to our first whole year as a family.



We hope everyone had a safe start to the New Year!

Dad and I were dressed and ready to watch Penn State in their bowl game!

The guys hanging out after finishing the work week!

Brody was actually enjoying tummy time for once!