3 Months

Our sweet baby turned three months old yesterday, which sadly meant it was time for me to go back to work as well.  It is crazy for me to think that exactly three months ago I was leaving work and heading to the hospital to meet our sweetie. P and Grayson had good day yesterday without me (they even ran an errand for mommy while I worked!) and when I got home, we had a little three month photo shoot.  I decided to keep him on his changing table since it is one of his all time favorite places to be at the moment. 

Elephant Friends

 At 3 months old, Grayson is:
-wearing 0-3 month onesies
-now fitting in most 0-3 month pants
-in size 2 diapers (although they are just starting to fit properly)
-smiling at random things
-cooing and gurgling
-loving lights and ceiling fans still
-getting fussy when he is tired.  We are trying to do better about implementing nap times when this starts to
 occur.
-focusing more on toys like mobiles and rattles.  
-going 6-9 hours between eating at night!
-about 12.5-13 pounds

Besties

I thought it was too cute how little he was in his nursery area.  Although he is looking so big and has developed so much already, it is good to see that is still a tiny baby!

Waaaah

I don't want to go back to work!  Today is my last day home with our sweet baby, and the only thing that makes it better is the fact that I only have to go back for three days before I get another week off with him for the holidays.  (Perks of working for a University!)  I am very thankful that I was able to stay home with Grayson for the first three months of his life.  We didn't quite get to a true schedule while I was home, but in the last couple of weeks we have determined that it is best to get Grayson to bed around 8-9 and he will usually sleep 7-9 hours for the first stretch.  I sure can't complain about that.  He also is usually awake for about two to three hours in the morning before he is ready for a nap.  In the afternoon, we usually got out of the house and ran an errand or two before coming back and hanging out at home for the rest of the day and evening.  

I sure am going to miss this little guy tomorrow when I am back in the office again. 
The other piece of good news is that Gray's Daddy is going to be home with him for the next three days, so we aren't leaving him with strangers or daycare until the new year starts.  I know that P can do it, but he is a bit nervous about it.  Say a little prayer for him if you think to do so over the next three days.  The last time I left P and Gray alone this is what happened:

Maybe we should say a prayer for Gray instead....
Just Kidding!  I have all of the confidence in the world in P. 

Christmas Party

Last week we went to the Hubs' annual work Christmas dinner.  I wasn't going to go this year since we had the wee babe, but my sister-in-law suggested that we use one of her friends from college who lives pretty close to us.  She was available, so we decided that it would be a good event to have our first babysitting experience.  I wasn't too nervous about it, but we probably told the poor girl too much information about caring for Gray before we got out the door. 
We made sure that she knew where a bottle was, where the extra milk was just in case, where the toys were, where the diaper changing station was, how to swaddle Gray, how to comfort him if he is crying, etc. etc.  
We were at the dinner for a couple of hours and had a great time.  It turns out there are 4 other pregnant people in P's department, so that gave us all something to talk about.  When we got home, the babysitter was feeding Grayson his first bottle and said he had dozed on her for a while before waking up and wanting his food. 
I think that our first experience went pretty well, and it must not have been too terrible for our sitter because she offered to come again if we needed. 

He is still our happy little baby!

Baby Smiles

It is hard for me to get Grayson smiling on camera, but I have found a little more success when I take video instead. 

Grayson loves time on his changing table, and it is really where we get most of his smiles.  We think he must be looking at the elephants and letters on the wall.  We just melt when he squeals and smiles!  I'll keep working on getting better video of it.   

G-bug was enjoying his time on his activity mat the other night and I caught some smiles there, too.

Christmas Cookies

The Hubs and I decided to make some Christmas cookies a week or two back because when we were decorating the house for Christmas, it was still 70 degrees outside and didn't feel like Christmas.  We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we didn't opt for fancy cookies that we would have to spend time decorating, like gingerbread men.  We went with a cookie that I just started making about a year ago, the Russian Tea Cake.

P helped me roll the dough into balls for baking.  He did a fantastic job!  He is much more patient with that sort of thing than I am, his attention to detail is really good.

We just used a recipe that I found online, which turned out wonderfully.

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

-Heat oven to 400ºF.
-Mix butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl. Stir in flour, nuts and salt until dough   
  holds together.  
-Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
-Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not brown. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool slightly on wire rack.
-Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar; cool on wire rack. Roll in powdered sugar again.   

Wordless Wednesday

Baylor gets a Heisman!

We are super excited about the Heisman in this household!  Thank you, RG3!

Its beginning to feel a bit like Christmas...

No thanks to the weather around here!  I think we may have had freezing weather once in the last week, but other than that I still have not had to pull out my heavy coat.  The hubs likes to point out that this is because I have only gone out in the middle of the day, but still, I don't think it has really felt like Christmas outside!  We put our Christmas tree up last weekend and today we made our first trip to see Santa.  After a little research on my part, we ended up going to the Bass Pro Shop in Pearland for Gray's inaugural visit to the jolly man in red.  When we got there, I didn't realize at first that they were handing out passes for different 30 minute time slots, so when I came back in with Grayson and P, we got a pass for 1 o'clock (it was 11:30).  Luckily, they have a restaurant in the shop, so we were able to sit and have some lunch while we waited.  Grayson was as fantastic as we could have asked for while we waited and had lunch.  He had a bottle while we waited for a table and then sat on one of our lap's while we ate.

I'll take a warm milk, shaken, not stirred.

He fell asleep after we were done eating, so we just waited around at our table until it was time to get in line.  We were not successful in getting a smile out of him when he was sitting on the big guy's lap, but I was just happy that tears were not involved!

We had a nice shopper offer to take a family photo...

And seeing as the Heisman winner is going to be announced tonight, when P saw that there was a stuffed bear in the store...he had to get this picture in!

Now...if only I could get some gifts purchased before I have to go back to work....

House Cleaning

I had to set Grayson up in the kitchen last night if the kitchen had any hope of getting cleaned.  P had gone back up to the lab after dinner and G was not too keen on hanging out in the living room without his mommy or daddy.  Baby Love :)

2 Months

Grayson turned two months old while we were in Dallas for the Thanksgiving break.  I remembered to bring the stuffed bear and his 2 month old onsie so that I could take his pictures while we were there.  It has taken me a long time go get this posted...but without further a do... our 2 month old:

Loving those baby smiles!

 At 2 months old, Grayson is:
-wearing 0-3 month onesies
-still too small for most 0-3 month pants
-in size 1 diapers
-smiling at random things
-cooing
-loving lights and ceiling fans
-mostly just cranky when hungry
-great in the car if it is sunny outside and he can stare out the window
-going 5-7 hours between eating at night
-about 11 pounds

Sic'em Bears!

GO BEARS, GO BEARS, GO BEARS, GO BEARS GO!!  Last non-bowl game of an awesome season.  That's right....we're headed to another bowl game this year.  It has been a crazy last couple of years to be a Baylor football fan!

Our first trip

We went to Austin this past weekend to see some family and go to Wurstfest in New Braunfels.  We packed everything but the kitchen sink and made the 3 1/2 hour drive.  Grayson slept for the first couple of hours and we had to stop about an hour outside of Austin to feed him, then he was quite fussy for the remainder of the car ride.  I am beginning to think that Gray just doesn't like to be in the car when it is dark.  He has been fussy too many times in the dark for it to be a coincidence. 
My dad got Grayson a lederhosen onsie for Wurstfest.  Unfortunately, we had a diaper blowout before we could get too many pictures.  This is the only one I got...

So cute!

G with his grandparents in the Grand Dance Hall

 I realized a few weeks ago that we didn't have any pictures our our little family of three, so I made sure to get a couple while we were in Austin!

It was a great, fast trip!  It was also great to have a short trip with Gray to see what we may have forgotten to bring for a trip away from home. 

I love fall...

Yummy!!

7 Week Doctor Visit

We went to the pediatrician today for Gray's 2 month appointment.  I scheduled it a few weeks before he turned 2 months because we will be pretty busy for the next few weeks, and, the sooner he gets his first round of shots, the better P and I feel about taking him out of the house more often.  (I am really suffering from cabin fever!)
We are so excited that Grayson weighed in at 10.98 pounds and is 22.75 inches long!  That puts him in the 50th percentile for weight and 63rd percentile for length.  That is a far cry from the 5th-10th percentile he was in at his two week appointment.  It is nice to know that he is getting enough food and growing like he is supposed to.
It wouldn't be a trip to the pediatrician's office for us without some bad news to go with it.  The Doctor thinks that she heard a heart murmur when she was listening to his heart and lungs this morning.  She has referred us to the pediatric cardiologist at Texas Children's for an Echo.  We are praying that it is small and that it will fix itself, but we will know more once they can see it.  The Doctor also thinks that Gray may have torticollis, which is a tightening in his neck.  We have noticed that Grayson prefers to face one direction (to his right) while sleeping or hanging out in the SARD.  If he does have torticollis, we think that it is a very mild case, but we are to monitor it and make sure to turn his head in the other direction whenever we can in order to avoid a flat spot on his head.  Aaaand, after talking about Grayson's crying lately, she seems to think that we may have a colicky baby on our hands as well.  She suggested a book for us to read and some soothing techniques to use with him.
I think we'll stay away from the Doctor's office for a while...too much bad news!  Juuuust kidding!  

This picture has nothing to do with this post - it is just cute :)

Our babies

Buttermilk Pie

Last week the hubs told me that he would bake with me on Sunday if we could find some time.  This was clever on his part, since he knew that would mean baked goods for himself and a happy wifer - a twofer!  Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I've been thinking about desserts, pies mainly, that I can bake for our feast.  I had been thinking about trying to make a buttermilk pie for a few weeks, and since P had never had it before, that made up my mind.  I searched the interwebs for a recipe and found one on the tasty kitchen website that looked like all of the other ones I was seeing. 

P added the wet ingredients

While I prepared the crust

It was nice to get 30 minutes alone while Grayson was napping and spend it baking with the hubs.

Final Product

This turned out nicely, and it will most likely make the list for Thanksgiving!