We had lots of fun celebrating Randy's first Father's Day. We enjoyed Mother's Day brunch at Z Tejas so much that we decided to make another visit for Father's Day. Blake wore his "My Dad Rocks" shirt all day until he spit up on it and we had to put on a new outfit. For his first Father's Day gift, I framed a little collage with a picture of Blake wearing the shirt in the middle and other pictures of him and Blake from the past 5 months all around it.

Daddy & Blake at Z Tejas


Opening Daddy's gift:

I think I've mentioned on here before how much we love Mrs. Rhonda, the lady that cares for Blake...well actually the whole family. Her oldest daughter is 18 and has babysat for us a couple of times. Blake loves her and she knows his personality and schedule and it's just worked out perfect. Well Rhonda's husband Dan built this awesome pergola with 2 swings, one for each of the babies, so they can be outside for a few minutes in the morning when it's not too hot. It's amazing how much they do for these babies that aren't even their own children! Here's a picture of Blake trying out the swing for the first time. He loved it!

Blake rolled over!

Blake rolled over last week! So I know that this is one of those things that no one but us, and possibly the grandparents, will care about, but this is his first real milestone! It's been so fun to watch him go from his back to his side, get so close to making it all the way to his tummy, then fall over to his back, then make it to his side again, and then over to his tummy, only to get hung up by his elbow stuck up underneath him, and then finally figure out how to get over that elbow and master the roll! This all happened over the course of a week and now he's done it! Now that he's figured it out he does it all the time. The only problem is that sometimes he gets stuck on his tummy and has to be rescued, but he's getting better every day.

Here's a video of his new trick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXIjeqC6j5g

Other firsts in Mister Blake's world: He went for his first swim. Blake's an observer in general so I think he's still taking in the whole pool environment before he really lets loose. For now he just enjoys hanging out and being in the water, kind of the same way he WAS in the tub....but no longer. Now he loves to kick and splash! Bath time has gotten messsssy. Soon it will be time to move him to the big tub!

He loved it when Randy would sway him from side to side in the water:

Not sure what to think of this fountain:

This is his second swim adventure. He's not asleep, this pic just caught him with his eyes closed:

This is also new, a constant stream of drool coming out of his mouth:

Also, Blake is no longer satisfied hanging out on our shoulder and seeing where he's been. He now wants to look forward and know where he's going and what we're doing. He's still too short and little to be a hip baby though so, ever the cuddler, he ends up resting his cheek against ours to take in the view.

We used to call this Blake's "spot"....

but it now runs a close second to this position:

Blake is 4 months old!

Blake is 4 months old! He's weighing in at 13 lbs, 15 oz and is 24" long. We are loving this time with him! He's so much fun now that he can interact with us. The past few weeks have been busy: Both sets of grandparents were in town for Blake's baptism, which couldn't have gone better. Blake hung out for the first part of the service and fell asleep after his baptism. Whew, sigh of relief. I was a little nervous about it. One of Randy's college friends, his wife, and their son Tanner, who is only 3 days younger than Blake, came in town and Blake went to his first wedding reception in Burnet. I also got to enjoy my first Mother's Day with brunch at Z Tejas and a relaxing afternoon at home. Check out my Mother's Day gift from Randy in the pictures link. It's pretty sweet. He and Blake had a little finger painting session while I was getting a facial. I love the book but would've also loved to have a video of the making of the book, which apparently took about an hour and half. :)

Here's what Blake is up to now:

• He's smiling and laughing in response to things more, like when we smile at him or lift him in the air or kiss his tummy. He's still talking lots. He loves his g's, j's, ah's, and eh's and he's figuring out all of the different pitches he can say them in. Here's a video of him talking to his mobile friends - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VeYg_S0d5Q
• Blake can roll from side to side from his back but can't quite get the rest of the way to his tummy. He's SO close, won't be long!
• He's reaching for things and grabbing them and bringing them to his mouth, although he doesn't know how to turn things to make them fit so I think it confuses him when some things don't fit. One thing he definitely knows how to fit is his bottle. When he sees it coming, he grabs it and puts it right in his mouth. He can even hold it if I let go. Strong boy!
• He LOVES to suck on his hands....loudly!
• He loves bath time, but not how you'd think. Instead of talking and laughing, he just has the most content look on his face like he's just so relaxed. He moves his body and kicks his legs but more in a mellow, chilled kind of way.
• He's really showing his personality more. He's kind of quiet around people he doesn't know or when he's in a new place.When we hold him in a sitting position, he has enough head control now to turn his head from side to side and look around.
• Blake loves to play in the jumper at daycare. We got him an exersaucer for at home but he's not quite ready for it.
• He's sleeping 10-12 hours at night without waking up to eat. Ah, finally, I can get a good night's sleep again!
  

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/4Months?feat=directlink

Back to work :(

It's day 2 of being back at work and I can't believe how much I miss the little guy! I hate thinking that I'm missing him grow up but I'm just trying to soak up every minute with him in the morning and evening. Luckily he's not too far away and, since I work from home, I can go see him him for a short period during the day if I need to, which I did yesterday but am restraining myself today. We were so fortunate to find Mrs. Rhonda, a sweet lady with empty nest syndrome who just wants to keep 2 babies. She's just a few neighborhoods over and loves to hug and cuddle Blake and the other little girl Mackenna, do storytime, tummy time, and take them on walks. She's already figured out that he loves to eat and be held. She is fantastic and it's so much easier for me to work knowing he's in her care and not at the daycare we had originally planned on.

We also went on our first roadtrip to Marshall to visit my family and Dubach to visit Randy's family. He did pretty well but we're still trying to get him used to the carseat. I couldn't really blame him for crying at times because Randy's 4Runner is about as bumpy as a kiddie rollercoaster and even I was annoyed. Most of all though he really just wanted to be held. I sat in the back with him some of the time and now that he can make eye contact it breaks my heart to see him stare at me with tears streaming down his face wondering why I won't pick him up.

Little B will be 3 months old this week. Crazy, just crazy! Here are some things he's doing now:

• He's found his hands, although he's not crazy about putting them in his mouth all the time. Seems like he knows they could be used for something good but hasn't totally figured it out yet.
• He's smiling and cooing a lot now which is lots of fun. I find it especially funny when he gets mad and every consonant he can work up comes stuttering out of his little mouth. He'll really let me have it!
• He LOVES to kick! Laying in his crib with the music and mobile turned on and kicking in is one of his favorite things. The other day he laid on the couch with us and kicked and talked for a whole hour!
• The biggest news is that he's finally enjoying tummy time! Maybe enjoying is a strong word. Tolerating is probably more fitting but we're getting about 5 minutes out of him now. For now, he enjoys it more on the Boppy than on a mat on the floor but we're making progress.
• We also introduced him to the Bumbo seat this week. He seemed to really like having a different viewpoint than either on his back or on our shoulder. He looks like a little old man enjoying his recliner. :)
• He made it through his first church service without crying. He fell asleep (in my arms of course) and remained that way the whole time.
• He's going up to 7.5 hours at night between feedings. He has his last bottle and goes down by 9 and then makes it until 3:30-4:30. Granted this has only happened the past 2 nights but I'm optimistic that it's going to continue.

Here's some pics taken over the past few weeks.
http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/12Weeks?feat=directlink

Making progress...

Some big things happening at the Smith household right now:First and most important, Blake has started going 6 hours between feedings on some nights, from 10PM-4AM! He's waking up again at 7 to eat but this means that I'm now only getting up once in the middle of the night! Let's hope this trend continues!

Secondly, Blake has started napping in his crib! This is the first step in transitioning him out of our room and into the crib at night and so far it's going well. Now that I can recognize his sleepy cues and know about when naptime is, I can swaddle him, get him to sleep, and lay him down in his crib rather than napping in the bouncer or, worse, on me all the time!

And lastly, we've come out of hibernation! We've been hermits for the last 2 months but just this week Blake and I ventured out to Babies R Us (what better place to take a baby out for the first time?) and Randy, Blake, and I went out to dinner for the first time. Randy and I had a talk beforehand and agreed that we weren't going to get too excited about it as it might not go well and we might have to pack our food up and leave in the middle of dinner but that, no matter what, we weren't going to get discouraged and we would go out to dinner again even if this didn't go well. We chose a loud Mexican restaurant, were sat immediately, and had just decided to get the check when Blake decided to do some crying. To his credit, I felt his little hands and legs and I think he was just hot but we still went and head and left. Hey at least we got to eat and we considered the first night out to be a success!

Blake is 8 weeks old now! I can't believe how quickly time is passing! Here's a few recent pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/8Weeks?feat=directlink

Blake Smiles!

Blake smiled! And it was on purpose, not one of those sleep smiles! I was changing his diaper one morning and got right up in his face to tell him good morning. He stayed focused on me for longer than normal and more intensely and then showed me a big smile! He's always happiest in the morning, definitely not a trait he gets from me, but it's such a great way for me to start the day! He's also starting to coo more and likes to lay on his back and kick his legs and flail his arms around. If he had it his way though he'd spend every minute of his day with his head resting on our shoulder. He's such a good little snuggler! Every day he shows a little more of his personality....affectionate, strong-willed, and loves to eat! Here's a video of him smiling. I didn't grab the flip in time to catch the best ones but this still gives an idea of his happy face!

4 Weeks and Counting....

Well maybe I jinxed things by commenting in my last post that Baby Blake doesn't cry very much. Let's just say he's become more vocal, both when asleep and awake. Actually the pediatrician said that babies are typically fussier in the evenings between weeks 3-6ish so that explains some of it. He grunts and stretches a lot when both asleep and awake and can really belt it out when not being held. He loves to be held with his little chin resting on your shoulder so he can chew on it if he feels like it or lay his head down if he gets tired. Put him down though and he is not a happy camper. We want and love to hold him and give him the attention he needs but it's really hard to get anything done when you're always holding a baby. For some reason I didn't buy any type of sling or carrier before he was born. It just didn't seem like a necessity to me. But now it is! I'm now trying out multiple carriers and slings and hope one works out for us. Our other problem was that he hated bathtime. Turns out we didn't have enough water in the tub and the water we did have was too cold. We were so afraid of scalding him that the little guy was freezing! Now we have a thermometer and the last bath was much more successful:

People keep asking how Cooper is doing....he's handling things as well as can be expected. He usually gets moody when its colder and overcast or rainy like it has been though so it's hard to tell. He's not acting out, just pouting more than usual. I think he's come to the realization that this new little person is here to stay. He doesn't bother Baby Blake but he likes to check on him every now and then, walking up to wherever he is and sniffing around him and then he goes on his way. I can't wait until the weather is nicer and we can all go on walks.

Yesterday was our 1 month dr appointment! Baby Blake now weighs 8 lbs 5 oz! She said you really start seeing those longer stretches of sleep (4-5) hours at 10 pounds so the goal is to fatten him up!

Here's some more pictures, including Blake's first Superbowl - how fitting that the Saints went this year and won!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amandajrsmith/4Weeks?feat=directlink