Beach Bound

So in a few days we leave for our first family vacation. We are driving to Naples, Florida to visit some friends of ours who just had a baby girl in July. On the way down we are staying with our friends (they introduced us!) in Raleigh, NC and then on the way back we are going to stop to visit other friends at their beach house on Fripp Island, SC. Talk about a whirlwind vacation! I just realized yesterday how insane we sound to be driving to Florida with a baby, but we are looking forward to the idea of a road trip and seeing other friends along the way...not to mention that this was the more frugal option! :) We are planning to drive the first stretch of the trip overnight to see if that is better for Sam (i.e. he sleeps most of the time). This will be an interesting experiment to say the least. (Has anyone tried this one before and it worked?) So anyway, we are so excited to visit some friends, take Sam to the beach (where I am sure he will eat lots of sand) and most of all...to be together for 10+ days! Of course, I will have lots of pictures and stories to share when we return. See you all then!

Big Boy Bath

Last night was Sam's first time taking a bath in our bath tub. Until then I was still using the baby bathtub in the sink even though he was getting a bit too big for it. I was nervous to make the switch because he still falls over when he sits up and I had visions of him smacking his head off of the cast iron tub! We were also having some problems getting the tub to hold water...which was a huge project in itself. Anyway, he loved it and looked like such a big boy. He was really interested in playing with all of his bath toys that we dumped in there. Now, before you all complain about the hazards of using a bath ring let me say that I am completely aware of why they tell you not to use those. However, I sat there with my eyes on him the whole time and held onto the seat most of the time. That way if the seat moved or tipped (which it didn't at all) I would be right there to fix it. I figured using the seat was safer than just sitting him in there and him falling over constantly and banging his head. What did everyone else use in the big bath tub before they were ready to sit alone? I am open to safer suggestions :)

Park Fun in Pictures

Babbling Baby

Sam has really started to babble a lots these days. He has always been a vocal baby, lots of "ahs" and shrieks and grunts. Just recently though he began to make constanent sounds. I was in Old Navy shopping last week and heard from the stroller, "mamamama". I almost jumped up and down I was so excited. Now I know he wasn't saying mama...but it was amazing to hear him at the very beginning stages of learning to talk. I haven't hear much of mamama since, I mostly hear dadada. It just figures huh?! It makes me wonder if dada will be his first word after all. Sam is also into blowing very wet raspberries...his little chin is a puddle of spit. I love these pictures of him. I think he looks like me in the first picture and Luke in the second!

Party like it's...1998?!

Trisha and Rose...14 years of friendship

On Saturday, Luke and I went to my 10 year high school reunion. It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since I graduated from BHS! I think that everyone looked pretty much the same... which is good, right?! About half of the class I have known since Kindergarten and I realized that at one time or another I was friends with most of them. A couple of us sat around for almost an hour saying, "do you remember when we liked...and when we went... and this happened..." Hopefully we will get to do it all again in another 10 years!

Samuel loves to bounce

When Sam sits in his jumper I sing the bounce song to him, which goes:

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce
My Samuel loves to bounce
Bounce, Bounce, Bounce
All around the house

He thinks it is really funny and it makes him bounce around like crazy! What a funny boy he is. Sam has also finally made it through all of the stage 1 veggies and we have now moved on to fruits! He liked most of the veggies but I would probably say that his least favorite were carrots and green beans. I think most of that is due to the fact that I made them and they were maybe not the best consistency. Pretty soon he will be up to two solid food feedings a day, which is hard to believe. Sam is a very happy and laid-back baby. We have so much fun together and I really don't know what I did before I was his mommy.

P.S. Sam is wearing his Steeler sleeper in these pictures...

Goodbye Mullet!

So happy to be mullet free!

So Samuel has had a mullet ever since he was born. I always found it endearing and thought it was baby hair that would eventually fall out. Well, 6 months later he was still sporting the mullet. It did thin out a bit (which only made it look worse) and then I felt like I had to comb it to the side (a la Donald Trump) or it would stick straight out. Luke and others have been encouraging me to cut it but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Finally I broke down the other night and cut it off...after I informed Luke that this did NOT count as his first hair cut! :) So we are calling this post "goodbye mullet" instead of "Sam's first hair cut". I did keep the hair though...people still keep baby's hair right...or am I a weird Mom?

Before
(Sam is 1 month old in this pic and his mullet is thicker here than it was these past few months but this is the only picture I have of it...really, how many pictures do you take of the back of baby's head?!)

After