Quick pic. update

Our sweet baby boy is just days away from being 5 months old. Here he is in all his cute glory!  

Mom, don't take my picture!

Ooohh, the doggies!  I'm distracted now.

Ok, I'll smile for you now.

I'll talk to you too!

Will in his "whale" of a tub!  

I played with my photo editor program for this one.  I thought it looked cute in sepia.  

Jumperoo!

As always, the weekends go by far too quickly.  Four more weeks of work, then it's summertime!  I can't wait.  We've had a relaxing day at home.  No work, no errands, just quality time with my baby.  We played for awhile this morning, then Will supervised as I did laundry and straightened up around the house.  Later, we took a stroll to my neighbors where Will watched the big boys play on a water slide.  The warm weather made Will drowsy, so he napped while I chatted.  Brian had a final (yes, on a Saturday), but he thought it went well.  He was home just in time to play with Will a little before bath time.  One downer is that our poor baby can't seem to get rid of his sinus issues and skin troubles.  His cradle cap has been gone for about a month, but he still breaks out in a rash on his little tummy and chest.  He's been scratching at it lately, and his eyes seem extra red.  I'm wondering if it's some sort of allergy.  We've started solids, but it's highly unlikely that one of the foods is upsetting him.  Still, I'm going to monitor it closely and call our pediatrician Monday to ask if we should come in.  

On another note, here is Will enjoying the Rainforest Jumperoo that Brian's Aunt Karen gave to us.  He isn't jumping in it yet, but he likes being upright and looking at the flashing lights.  Thanks Aunt Karen for thinking ahead and getting us such a cool toy!  

Looking big - almost 5 months old!

Testing it out before his bedtime bottle

Growing Boy

Our baby is growing up.  As Will was eating his nightly meal in his highchair, we couldn’t help but talk about how big he looked.  I’m truly amazed at human life and how fast babies grow in such a short amount of time.   Just looking back at this blog makes me sentimental.  Where is time going?

There really hasn’t been any major milestones this week, just more of the cute stuff.  Will loves smiling and giggling at mommy, but he prefers talking with his daddy.  As soon as he sees Brian, he starts jabbering away.  For whatever reason, he doesn’t do this with me.  Brian says it’s “their thing.”  It’s so cute, and I know it sure makes his daddy proud.  Yes, I’ve already said the word cute three times in one paragraph.  We joke that Will might think his name is “Cute” if we keep this up.  I need to find some more synonyms I suppose!   Will also loves to stand up. He needs our support of course, but he does most of the work on his own.  It's as if he wants to skip the whole crawling thing and just start walking.  When on his tummy, he shows signs that he wants to crawl.  He'll make these crawling motions that almost look like he's swimming, but he can't go anywhere.  When he can push against something, he'll creep up a little.  It seems like yesterday, he was this little thing that couldn't even support his own head.  Like I said, I'm amazed.  

Brian has finals approaching, and we’re wondering how he’ll do without some medical situation stressing him out.  It seems like we’re always at the doctor during finals – my emergency appendectomy, my pregnancy appointments, and then having Will plus the NICU visit days afterward.  During all of this, Brian always had to study.  Hopefully this time we’ll all be healthy! 

It’s late and I’m sleepy, so I’ll cut to the chase and add a picture and a special treat, a short video!  I haven’t utilized my camera’s ability to take short video clips in ages.  I rediscovered the feature and wha-la, a video of Will giggling.  Please forgive my ridiculous high-pitched mommy voice.  I cringe when I hear it played back.  I’d like to think I sound nothing like that in real life, or at least, when speaking to adults!  

Saturday Night Pajama Time with Will

We don't condone Will watching television, but he watched Alabama football on t.v. for a minute.  His daddy highly approved.  Look at how long he's getting!

  

Easter weekend

Well, it just keeps happening. Although I think I can’t love Will anymore than I already do, he always comes up with something new to keep me falling in love all over again. He has been giving little laughs for about two or three weeks now, but this weekend, he finally erupted in giggles. Maybe he wanted to show off for Grandmonty, who was visiting. Whatever the reason, the boy is laughing up a storm. It just warms my heart to hear it.

He was a good boy for Grandmonty, who babysat for almost an entire day while I worked then joined Brian at his law review banquet. It was fun to get out, but I enjoyed lounging around the house Friday with mom and Will (Brian was here too, but he was diligent in studying in his office most of the day). Saturday, we got out for awhile, but the dreary weather and my sinuses made us head home early. We ate great all weekend, of course. Mom brought crawfish Wed., then Friday she cooked steak while I made the sides. Saturday night I cooked chicken picatta with pasta and asparagus, and Sunday mom made a great Easter lunch of ham, dressing, butterbeans, and rolls. Now I’m stuffed and am contemplating an afternoon nap while Will is down. He’s napped great today in his pack n’ play, and I’m thinking he must be tired from the extra excitement of mom’s visit, me being home, and all the laughing and silliness.

I have Monday off of work also (inclement weather day never used), so I look forward to having yet another day at home with Brian and Will. Mom left today to beat the bad weather that is headed our way tomorrow, so I’ll probably catch up on housework and get lots of playtime with Willie- Bug (our new nickname for him). We might even watch another movie. Lately, we’ve seen some good ones: Marley & Me, Grand Torino, Seven Pounds, and Slum Dog Millionaire to name a few. I’ll also continue our new late afternoon routine of feeding Will in his highchair. I am laying off the veggies until Will gets good at eating rice cereal. He is starting to understand that he opens his mouth with the spoon comes near, but he doesn’t understand that he’s supposed to swallow it. I know it’ll come with time, so we’ll keep trying until he gets the hang of it.
Here are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!

Doctor's Visit

Will went to the doctor today. All is well! Our little man is a little over 14 pounds and just under 26 inches long. Those stats. put him about 75% in height and 50% in weight. He's over double his birth weight and almost half a foot taller. In other exciting news, we can try solid foods now. This week, we'll introduce a few veggies (one at a time) and rice cereal first. I gave Will carrots tonight. It was pretty funny! He looked at me like I was crazy. It was like he was thinking, "What in the world are you putting by my mouth, and whoa, this doesn't taste anything like my bottle!" I'm sure in no time, he'll get the hang of opening his mouth for the spoon, but until then, it may be extra EXTRA messy. Here are a few pictures from the big milestone.

3 month pictures - proofs are up!

http://www.jessicaparrisphotography.com/Clients/Pages/Noble.html
Will's 3 month old picture proofs are up. We'll be ordering the ones where he is in the cream blanket for framing, plus some others just to have. Our favorite is the last one where he is smiling. That's the one we'll put on the wall somewhere in the house. Hope you like them!

4 months old!

Will is now 4 months old (4 months at 4:40 on 4/4/09). Since it fell on a Saturday, we had a nice day at home, filled with lots of chatter and cuddles. We celebrated getting through another work week without any trouble, although it is still really hard. Some days are ok, but some are still just as hard as the first day. One day he was so smiley and cute when I woke him up (ok, so he’s always smiley and cute to me, but he was especially so this morning, really hamming it up). I hated to drop him off. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want him to be upset when I leave him. But it’s hard knowing he’s in such a great mood that I won’t get to see all day. Anyhow, we survived and talked about how we only have seven weeks left now. It was a tough week of state testing, and I was formally observed (an unannounced visit by my principal) on Friday. Everything went extremely well, but I was so glad when Friday afternoon rolled around. Will is growing so fast. We just switched to size 9 month pajamas! He's so long that he seems to wear a size larger in pjs vs. onesies in pants. He can still wear 6 month pjs, but the leg room is getting a little cramped. His 3 month onesies are getting a little snug, so I washed his 6 month ones over the weekend. I pulled out some of his newborn stuff yesterday, and I couldn't get over how tiny it was. And to think, it was HUGE on him at first. He wore premie diapers in the hospital and would have fit in premie clothing if I had bought any. Time flies. I can't believe a third of his first year has already past.

Back to Saturday – Will supervised while Brian and I cleaned the house. Together we covered most everything, so it’s nice to have a relatively clean house again. After hanging out with Will and straightening all day, we got ready for our first night out together since we had Will. Our wonderful friends Krislyn and Scott, who are both in law school with Brian, came over to keep our little man. They are truly awesome people, and we are so thankful for their help. We never really went out to celebrate our anniversary back in March, so Brian had arranged for us to go to our favorite special-occasion restaurant, Ruth Chris, and see the musical, Wicked. It was amazing! The music, the costumes, the set, the message … it was all wonderful. It’s my favorite musical out of all of the ones I’ve seen (which is only about five, but still … this one blew me away). Brian had read the book last summer, so he was excited to see how it compared to the novel.  Krislyn and Scott reported that Will was fun and that they pretty much held him the entire time until they put him to bed.


We have an exciting week ahead. Mom is coming Wednesday, and she is babysitting Will Thursday while I’m at work, and again Thursday night while we’re at a law review banquet. Friday, I’m taking off work so we can visit and get out and about. I also have Monday off of work since we never used the day for bad weather. I’m so excited to have a super long weekend and for mom to get to see how much Will has grown since she last saw him in early February.
Speaking of Will growing up, here are a few pictures taken this weekend. You can see that he’s liking tummy time better, and he can stand up with my help. He loves standing and can do it pretty well as long as we help him keep his balance. Also, I included a picture for comparison purposes that is almost the same scale as earlier pictures in the bouncy seat. Enjoy!

Will, several days old vs. two months vs. four months!

Notice the paci size - since it's the same paci, you can see how the face has grown.