11 Weeks and Back to Work

This week marked the start of us three going in different directions.  We found a wonderful lady nearby who runs a day care out of her home and who happens to have another little baby slightly older than Alden who will be a playmate before long, I'm sure.  While it's hard to leave him for such a long period of time, we know he is safe and well cared for.  It helps that he comes home with this with this smile on his face too.

This is a picture of Alden and me in a really cute outfit from one of my mom's friends, I love the layered t-shirt look!  You can see how much he's growing, he's 15.5 lbs now!!














A friend of mine got us this awesome tummytime activity pop-up thing, and Alden was very interested in it. It's a little early for him yet, so we propped him up to see it, but he keeps getting stronger so it won't be long before he can push himself up to look at it without support!

   

Alden visited me at work on Friday for my birthday, this is a picture of him with a good friend in the teacher's lounge. Alden was a bit hit everywhere we went and he behaved so well!














Alden loves the walks we take with Boone, he quietly looks around. I thought his hand position was especially cute in this picture.

 A student bought this Peter Rabbit outfit for us and I'm in love, it's so soft, I couldn't wait to put him in it and did so as soon as I finished the wash! :-)

 

Week 10

Alden keeps growing and getting more fun to be around, and somehow even cuter!  (We really didn't think that was possible, but turns out we were wrong!)  Here's a week in review:

Alden and Boone on the carpet. Alden has toys hanging above his head that he half-heartily swings his legs and arms at. Sometimes he hits them but I wouldn't say that he realizes it yet... The carpet is rather large, but Boone plopped down at Alden's head and stayed there while he played. (We're hopeful that this is a sign of a bond growing between them!)

This is the precious face I get to look at while he feeds.  So relaxed, so content.








Alden sitting in the chair, foreshadowing of many conversations to come?


















Happy Valentine's Day!

Brad came for another visit and we took Alden into DC for the first time - he did great! (from under his blankets.)











Alden with Uncle Brad.

Nine Weeks

So I'm switching gears and trying to include more pictures of daily life in an effort to try this "projectlife365."  I don't do it perfectly, but I'm enjoying these snapshots of daily life.

 

Alden is enjoying sleeping in his car seat these days, makes for a great nap location...

The kind of tummy-time we both enjoy. :-)

 

Alden and Daddy in church.

 

Alden enjoying his play mat.

Project 365

I'm afraid I'm late on the bandwagon, but I've been seeing a lot of "#project365" posts after pictures and curious what it meant.  I googled it and discovered it's an initiative to take a picture every day for a year so that by the end of the year you have "a year in review" so to speak.  I thought that was a clever idea, especially since babies change so much in a year.  I can't say that since reading it I've been extremely diligent about taking a picture a day, but I've tried to remember... (habits are hard to form)  Here's our week in review:

 



 On a walk with Boone, Alden peeks out from the baby carrier.  While it usually puts him to sleep right away, this day Alden was determined to watch the scenery go by...












Alden had a little accident and I had forgotten to replace his spare outfit in the diaper bag but thankfully Mom had this outfit from when I was a baby handy.  Kinda looks like a dress, but better than going home shirtless.












Grateful for this sign, and the opportunity to use it.

On a walk again, this time in the stroller.










He fought naps all day, and although I really don't want to give into him, I really want him to sleep too.. so in a moment of weakness, I let him sleep on me.  You can't quite tell in the picture, but he has a pacifier in his mouth and he's gripping it.  This is after a long crying session with intervals of me going in to soothe him only to have him cry again.  I am happy to say that 5 hours later he took a 4 hour nap in his crib.  (He probably slept that long because he fought all his previous nap times!)

EveryDay Magic Photography

So here are a few highlights from when my friend Jennifer came over to hang out and take pictures.  I think she did an awesome job and I'm super proud of all she's taught herself with the camera and photoshop.  I'm thrilled that she was able to take pictures of Alden and even happier to have them.  :-)  She was very kind to make sure there were several pictures with Alden and myself because she understands how frequently we moms are behind the camera and not in front of it.  I'm so grateful to have pictures of me and Alden together.

2 Months and Counting...

Alden turned 2 months old two days ago.  It's crazy how fast newborns develop and grow.  He's packing on the pounds and keeping the learning curve for us parents steep.  :-/  Earlier successes with sleeping have come crashing down, and I daily struggle to get this boy to sleep.  At this age though, I think I'm doing something wrong so I am in constant contact with friends with young children and weekly adjust what I'm doing to see if it'll take hold.  I'll let you know when we figure it out... 

As for what has happened this month:
- first experience with snow
- moved to sleeping in his crib full time
  *we did discover that he goes down a lot easier with music
- first babysitting experience, first with Greg's mom and then mine
- started attending church regularly again, we mostly listen from the hallway though...
- started sleeping up to 5 hour stretches at night

- into size 2 diapers and fully into 3 mo clothes
- smiles and laughs at us
- loves his baby carrier - falls asleep in it nearly every time!
- rolled over in his crib (unintentional?)
- photo shoot with Jennifer (her pictures to come, I snapped this one.)
- 12 lb. 13 oz, 21 inches long puts him in the 75% percentile.





Have you ever seen such a cute upset baby?