More New Babies....

We have been meeting babies galore this year and we are LOVING IT!!! It is sooo much fun for Braden to have so many fun friends to play with this coming year. The babies started arriving in May and they have not stopped!! HA!! We have friends having babies through next July...so I bet he ends up with about 25 new friends by then!! SO FUN!! :) God is so good to bless Braden with all of these wonderful friends so early in his life. :)

Our friends, Mark and Dawn had a sweet baby girl in October-Samantha. :) A few of the ladies met yesterday at Central Market and I got to meet that precious little bundle. YAY!! :) Good job Dawn!! :)

Tomorrow we get to go and meet another new arrival...Haylee. :) Our good friends Joseph and Dori had their little bundle of joy today around 1 pm. I am so stoked to meet her too!! Love that Braden also has lots of good girlfriend potential! HA! :)

Valerie and Braden just hanging out....and it must have been time for a nap by the way he is yawning. :) Sweet mom and daughter.......
Awww...Dawn and Samantha... :)

Sunday Church Fun and Lunches Around Austin...

Braden is really getting used to church on Sunday mornings and then brunch or lunch (depending on what service we go to). :) If we go to the 9:15 service then he tends to nap through the entire thing...so we can keep him in the santuary with us. If we go to the 11 am service then we usually have to take him out after the singing to eat, etc. :)

He has been going to church for about 7 weeks now and he really seems to like it. He loves the music at the beginning...and I think he also loves that there is always a fun restaurant to go to afterward!! HA!! So do Chris and I! :)

Some pics from this past Sunday.. :)

To Like Or Not Like Rice Cereal...That Is The Question...

At Braden's 4 month well check, the pediatrician told us that we could start rice cereal if we wanted. She did tell us that the earlier you introduce foods, the sooner they could have allergies or excema. She said she preferred if parents waited until at least 5 months for the cereal on a regular basis.... but some babies did not want to wait that long. So it was up to us on when we decided to start feeding it to him.

So we thought we would just try it and see how he did...and if he completely hated it then we would just put it away until the next month. We were fine with waiting if we needed to..but just thought we would give a try to see how it went. :)

Well...he HATED it!! HA!! I am not sure what he hated most-the taste, the texture, some random spoon in his mouth, etc. It was hysterical though!! He made some really weird faces and then just spit it all back out. He was not having any of that. LOL!! I am not even sure if he ended up swallowing any. :) Then he decided he was really upset and he just started crying. We gave him his bottle to wash it all down and he quickly forgot about the cereal. :)

Guess we will try again around month 5 or so and see how he does. :)

Just hanging out in my Bumbo before that awful stuff is introduced to me... :)
Not sure I like this stuff..
Still trying to decide but it does not look promising..."NO WAY!! Get this out of my mouth!! Ick!!" :(

Go Gingerbread Houses!!

One of the new things that we did this year to get us in the Christmas spirit was to make a gingerbread house. :) We had fun with this and Chris turned out to be quite the architect. :)

Looks like we might need to make one every year to carry on the tradition. :)

4 Months Old Today!!!

First of all let me thank all of my sweet friends and family for sending me words of encouragement about Braden's 4 month craziness!! I am sooooo glad to know that he is normal and that this is just the way things go around this age. :) Thanks for the calls, emails, and Facebook posts helping me out!! I have been reading a lot more about this "4 month wakeful sleeping" and it has given me some good insight. It is just crazy how one weird night of sleep can mess up so many other things in Braden's schedule...especially his daytime naps! And this could not come at a crazier time since he is starting daycare in just 2 1/2 weeks. I will have to apologize in advance to those ladies up there! LOL! :) Things are getting a little better in the nighttime sleep area then when I last posted...so that is good. :) We don't see 4 am anymore...it has lengthened to at last 6-7 am now. So that is a little more tolerable! :)

Today is a BIG day!! Braden is 4 months old today!! WHOOP!!! I love it!! He is so fun!! We went to his 4 month visit today and got lots of good info. He weighed in at 15 lbs and 6 oz and was 25 1/4 inches long. :) We are pretty sure the nurse did not measure his length right b.c she did not even stretch out his leg all the way. So we re-measured him when we got home and we got 26 1/4 inches. :) That seems much more realistic based on how his current pants are fitting! HA!! He is in the 75th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight. :) And his head has gone from the 10th percentile when he was born to the 50th percentile. My little man. :) He is growing up right before our very eyes. :)

He has not started rolling yet but he shows some interest in it. Once he can get that head over..his whole body will follow. HA! The doc said that rolling is actually a milestone that is falling off many developmental milestones these days-that it is not that important if he rolls or not...but more than likely he will sometime in the 4th month (when you least expect it). :) He is MUCH more interested in sitting up. So much so that he really does not even want to be under his play gym anymore. He wants to be sitting up in the bumbo seat or something like that so he can look all around. I would not be surprised if he sat up on his own before he rolled. HA! :) He loves it! :)

He can also hold your gaze for what seems like forever when you are talking to him...and he tries to imitate the sounds that you make. Too cute. He is still into his baths and they tend to calm him down...but he is not into the hair washing...and he is NOT into getting out! LOL! :) He likes to talk, talk, talk and is finding his voice more and more each day (mainly with squealing). :) He seems like a totally different baby then he was the first month. He is so much more interactive which makes the days so much more rewarding.

Here are some pics from this past week.........

Love the Baby Bjorn even more now b.c facing forward rocks, and I can hold my own head up really well. :)
"Mmmm..I love it in here!" :) So cozy!
Chris made Braden a little hat out of a coffee filter. LOL! :)
Sitting up tall playing with my toys......

More Christmas Fun..

We have really been having fun with Braden's first Christmas...if you have not been able to tell by all the pics!! LOL!! :) He is just cracking us up, and he is such a good sport....so we have to take advantage of it! :)

Hope you all are really enjoying a wonderful holiday season so far! :) 8 days until Christmas!! :) WHOOP!! :)

Braden LOVES his new Christmas pillow from Mimi... :)
Could not resist....it was just too easy and he was so smiley!!! He likes nude Santa!! LOL! :)
See...he REALLY likes it! :)
But I don't think he likes being a reindeer too much!! HA! :)

High Maintenance Man...

So it looks like our precious, blonde hair, blue eyed boy is turning into quite the high maintenance man these days. I am not sure what in the world has happened to our sweet little boy that ate and slept almost perfectly since birth...but I want him back!! HA!!

A lot of friends that I have talked to, and books that I have read have said that when you get around the 4 month mark that the babies schedules start to change somewhat...and it can often be VERY frustrating. Well they could not be more right about that!! Sheesh! :(

Basically Braden has been a great eater since he was born, so we have been very blessed in that area. However, around 3 1/2 months he decided that he wanted to scream bloody murder any time the bottle was removed from his mouth, or anytime his meal was actually over. He works himself up so much that he cannot even burp in the middle of his feedings anymore. We have assumed that he loves his food so much that he does not want to be disturbed...but all good things must come to an end little man (even food). So after dealing with that for about 2-3 weeks, we learned some tricks to try and nip that in the bud. That was just not working out for us at all, and my nerves were frazzled every time it was time for him to eat b.c I did not want to go through that again. :( So just as we have started to rectify that whole issue, the main one we are having now is sleeping. Why? :(

Braden started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks....and by that I mean he would go down between 8-9 pm and wake up between 8-9 am. It was pure bliss!! We thought we were the luckiest parents on earth....until about a week ago. :( So about a week ago he thought it would be fun to start getting up for good in the mornings around 6-6:30. And nothing was making him go back to sleep-rocking, soothing, music, diaper changes, etc. He was having none of it-he was up and ready to start the day!! :( So that led to his naps being all off and trying to figure out how to make those work again. Then this week after we got home from Dallas, he has decided that his new favorite time to wake up is actually 4 am. You have got to be kidding me!! What in the world has happened to my child? Please bring him back!

So it takes a LOT of effort when he gets up at 4 am to get him back to sleep until 8. He usually ends up in the swing in his room from about 5-8 am just in order to get him to sleep (and for us to get some sleep). I really have no idea what has caused all of this out of the blue, as I am not a sleep expert by any means. But I know that we are already over it.

So with the blink of an eye, our son has turned into someone that is incredibly high maintenance, and we are left scratching our heads on how that is possible. For all of my friends out there that have had this issue at about 4 months, please keep sharing your wonderful secrets with me, and I will keep trying them!! HA!! Hopefully we can lick this in the next week or so before my sanity runs out!! :)

I just have to keep remembering what a wise friend once told me..."The days might seem long but the years fly by." I need to enjoy every moment with Braden...even if it is at 4 am b.c I won't get this time with him again!