Yellow and Orange Foods (Mar 8)

Jonathan started eating yellow and orange vegetables this evening. Based on Connie's recommendation, his first vegetable for us to try with him was sweet potatoes. He wasn't too sure of the sweet potatoes in the first couple of bites, but then he decided that he liked the flavor and texture and was all albout getting more of them. Here is the link to the first of the eight pictures of his first experience eating vegetables. (picture) He did make a little bit of a mess, but what can you expect for a 6 month old.

Drama at Daycare (Feb 19th)

We had our first "incident" at school today.

One of the older children, Jeremiah, was reading a book to BudBud and showing him the pictures when the book fell and hit BudBud in the face. When the book fell, he ended up with a little bruise on the left side of his mouth and a couple of superficial scratches under the lower left side of his mouth (link to picture) BudBud was fine and was just smiling and looking around, but Jeremiah was so upset that he had hurt BudBud that he threw the book in the trash. Connie, the teacher, said that it took about an hour and a half for Jeremiah to calm down from the incident. It probably did not help that Drew got mad at Jeremiah because he thought that he hurt BudBud on purpose and would not talk to him for awhile. Drew is 4 1/2 years old and loves BudBud and is so excited when he sees him.

Luckily Connie was able to rescue the book that had been the cause of all of this drama.

Parents are not as much fun as Pre-Schoolers

BudBud has been going to 'school' (our word for his daycare) for three weeks now and we could not be more pleased. There are nine other children at the school, one of the nine is another baby and the other eight are under kindergarten age.

Since he has been going to school, it seems that mom and dad are not energetic enough to keep him entertained throughout the day on the weekend and the recent holidays. I guess that two forty plus year olds do not provide the visual and mental stimulation that eight children between the ages of one to six do.

The children love enteracting with the babies. The primary teacher allows the kids to help feed the babies once the baby is over five months old and she has a sign-up sheet for the children to sign-up to take turns helping feed the babies. From the reports we have been given, they are patiently waiting till BudBud turns five months so they can help feed him, but they have another month and a half to wait.

He is learning 'Baby Sign' at school so we are getting the same books for home so we can work with him also and reinforce what he is learning there and so we will understand what he is 'saying' when he signs to us when he gets a little older. He also enjoys sitting with the other children during art and singing circles and really likes listening signing by the teachers and the other children.

We consider ourselves truly blessed to have found his school.

God is good.

First Christmas

Last week, we took BudBud to the mall and had his pictures taken with Santa. He did very good and did not cry when we sat him on Santa's lap. Of course, he is too small to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas but it was one of those things that mom wanted done.

Throughout this week, mom dressed him in all of the somewhat mandatory "baby's first Christmas" clothes. The logic was that he had to get them worn this week because he would never have his first Christmas again. There will be pictures posted in all of his various outfits. He looked very cute in all of his outfits but I think he got a little tired of modeling for us.

We had a wonderful first Christmas with BudBud. We know that he won't remember his first Christmas when he grows up, but we enjoyed making the memories that we will be able to tell him about when he gets older.

BudBud gave daddy a small scrapbook that he made (with a little help from mom). The scrapbook had "Father" as a cut out for the cover and it contained pictures of daddy and baby, a couple of three generation photos of baby, daddy and grandpa and then some pictures of BudBud. Daddy was very touched with the gift.

Over the years I have notice that it is funny how gifts that require assembly or have to be untangled from all of the packing that them come in, automatically go to dad after getting opened for dad's "magic touch" to make them available for the child to play with. Daddy got this privlege this year to assemble the jumperoo, and to unpack the toys that BudBud received.

No matter what we received under the tree, the best gift we received this year is the blessing that God gave us in this wonderful child. We have truly been blessed with him becoming part of our lives and look forward to many more years and many more Christmas' with him.

God is good.

3 Months Old Today

Well, it's been a while since I've added anything to this blog. There has been quite a few things happen.

The most recent is that BudBud is exactly 3 months old today. We cannot believe it. Mom had a little breakdown this morning because she wanted to spend today with him. We both have to work, so that was out of the question. She survived.

He's slept through the night 3 out of the last 4 nights. It was very nice. We try to get him into bed about 8, but it ends up being somewhere around 9. He starts making little cooing noises about 5am. We don't jump up and grab him, we let him coo for a while. When he can't stand it anymore, he'll start crying. Dad gets up and changes him while mom prepares to nurse. I hand him off to mom and I jump in the shower. We're getting a routine going.

The other milestone we had this past was that mom went back to work. It was a rough Wednesday last week. We found a wonderful daycare that is more than just a daycare. It's a Montessori type of daycare. The lady has 10 kids that her and her husband take care of. There are only 2 babies and the others are up to Kindergarten age. She's been doing it for 29 years and she has children of children that she's taken care of. We are truly blessed to find her.

I need to post more pictures and I hope to have them up before the week is up.

'Til then,
God is Good.

Two Months old today.

We cannot believe it’s been two months since our little bundle of joy was born. We cannot believe the way he’s changed, how he’s grown and the personality that is starting to emerge. He rolled over a few weeks ago (November 1, 2008, to be exact). He’s smiling at mom and dad. He smiled at me yesterday when I was tickling his feet.

Speaking of yesterday, I’ve learned we (mom and dad) need to keep an extra set of clothes for ourselves in the truck along with Bud-Bud’s extra clothes. It’s amazing how much that little guy can expel when he has a mind to it.

Since it’s his 2-month birthday, we need to get some more shots of him. We want to have one of those picture frames that have the 12 cutouts. Normally, it’s used for school pictures, but I want one for each month of his first year. Then we’ll do the whole school picture thing. Which makes me wonder; is there something that has 19 or 20 openings? From Birth to Graduation?? Hmm… Maybe I’ll make one. :)

God is Good,

Don’t use your kids as an alarm clock.

So, last week Bud-Bud’s feeding schedule was to be at 2am and 6am. Just before 6am he made a large pseudo-cry. I got up to get the morning going but he was still fast asleep. I decided to lie back down. About 5 minutes later I hear movement and sound coming from his crib. I hold off on getting up because we don’t want him to get into the habit of making just the smallest of peeps and we come running. So, I’m thinking that since his feeding is at 6, he’ll start yelling for his food any minute and then I’d get up, change him and pass him off to mom so I can get ready for work. Well I fell back to sleep, woke up and looked at the clock. It was 7:15. I usually LEAVE the house by 7. Oops. I jump up, get him changed and hand him off to mom. Now, I have to see how quickly I can get ready for work. Needless to say, I was late.

God Is Good,