More Cute Photos of Fenn

I have said pretty much everything I can think of in my other recent posts. So I don't have anything to say here. I just wanted to post these photos. In the first picture, no... he's not participating in a wet t-shirt contest. I took one picture and then he proceeded to spit up all over himself. I wiped him off and then took this picture (which was better than the first one, despite the wet shirt). Sweet smile, huh? Look at those blue eyes in the last photo! If I didn't know better, I would say he must be the postman's child. But that wouldn't make sense either because our postman, Carlos, is from Miami and is of Cuban descent. :)

Giggle Box

I just had to include these pictures from Friday night. Dan was playing with Fenn on the floor and had him sitting on his stomach ~ Dan would lean Fenn back against his legs and then when he would pull Fenn forward, Dan would raise his head off the floor. Fenn would just cackle every time. That's the first time we have heard him laugh out loud like that. It was the cutest thing. Thank goodness I grabbed the camera. But unfortunately, by the time I thought about grabbing the video camera, the mood had passed. Oh well... I'm sure we'll have another opportunity to video him laughing like that.

Like Father, Like Son

Fenn is SO much like his Daddy. He already seems to be able to sleep anywhere and falls asleep very quickly. In one instant, he can be thrashing about trying to fight sleep and 2 seconds later he'll be out! With Dan I can be talking to him at night and he'll even respond to me... and then just a few seconds later he'll be snoring. I RARELY fall asleep that quickly. Fenn really enjoys his Baby Bjorn carrier and almost always falls asleep in it. Last Wednesday night, I was at the pre-sale for a HUGE semi-annual consignment sale held here in Knoxville. "First Time Mom's" get a special invitation to shop the night before the public sale begins. (It's great, because I get the invitation for the first year... which means I'll get to shop early again in October.) Obviously, Dan was working (because it's THAT time of year) so I had to take Fenn with me. He was in his Baby Bjorn and did so great. We stood in line to get in the door for about 30 minutes, and then we were there for 2 hours (about an hour and 20 minutes of shopping and then the rest was spent standing in line to check out). Fenn slept through most of the chaos... picture a room the size of a grocery store, filled with children's clothes, toys, high chairs, strollers, AND 300+ new or expectant mom's AND most of them had a baby with them and/or a spouse or grandparent. It's a complete zoo, but very much worth the effort because you can find some great deals.

Fenn at Four Months Old

This is Fenn at Four Months. This is the fourth installment in the "12-month onesie" series. There have been a lot of changes in the last month. His personality continues to develop. He is quite the charmer, and seems to already enjoy flirting with pretty girls. He reaches for or grabs everything now. Before, he would just bat at things. But now he specifically reaches for them. This morning I was getting him dressed. When I was pulling his t-shirt over his head, he grabbed onto the sleeve and wouldn't let go. Get this... I said "Drop it, drop it." Proof that I've spent way too much time with my dogs over the last 10 years because that's what I say to Petey to get him to let go of things (his frisbee, ball, or whatever). Another funny thing that happened this morning... I was feeding Fenn his bottle. Keep in mind that he had not eaten in about 4 1/2 hours. He was gulping the bottle so fast that it came out of his mouth and then leaked formula all over his chin. I pulled the bottle out of his mouth to wipe it off and he grabbed onto the bottle's nipple, screamed out, and was not letting go! I couldn't help but laugh. The boy was hungry and taking full advantage of his new skill. Funny how he seems to know the difference in when I remove the bottle "mid-stream" and when the bottle is empty.
Another new thing is that he looks for us now. One of my favorite things he does now is when he is sitting in my lap leaning against my chest... he'll turn his head to look back and up at me. That is just about the sweetest thing I've ever seen. It's like he's just checking to make sure I'm still there.

Fenn and Friends

One recent development is that Fenn seems to be responding to his stuffed animals now. He really seems to like them and has started playing with them.... well, I guess you could call it playing. He mostly just brings them straight up to his mouth to chew on them! Or he shakes them vigorously! And sometimes he just hugs them tight. Very sweet! Regardless of how he plays, it has been a lot of fun seeing how he interacts with them. To tell you a little about the "friends" in the pictures... The big lion is from his Grammy. She bought it for him because Dan had one as a child that he carried around everywhere. I wish I could have seen that! You should see Fenn wrestle with big lion (no name yet). Hysterical! We'll put the lion on his belly and he'll wrap his legs around him and grab onto his mane of hair.
The whole time he's grunting at him like he's really wrestling. Then there's Piper the Pony (yep, that's the actual name that was on the tag!). He likes that one because it is so colorful. The others you see are Pooh, Tigger, Lil' Lion, and Chunky Monkey.

Jumping Bean

Fenn got a Jumpy seat a couple of weeks ago. He seems to like it so far, even though he's still not quite sure of what to do in it. These photos are from the second time we put him in it. He is pretty good at making it turn around. And he will occasionally make it bounce. When I swing him, he will usually put his feet down and stop it. I don't think it's because he doesn't like swinging (because he likes his swing). I think maybe he just doesn't know what to do with his feet. Over the last couple of weeks, he has gotten more comfortable being in it. But he's still not quite to the point of really making it jump! I'm sure as he becomes a more vigorous jumper, we'll post some more photos.

Just 146 More Days...

The countdown begins... Just 146 more days until college football is back on Saturday, August 30th. War Eagle! and Go Dawgs! Auburn plays Louisiana-Monroe in Auburn, and Georgia plays Georgia Southern in Athens. To those Georgia fans... Fenn will have on some Georgia attire for the next countdown entry. He just happened to have this AU outfit in the size he is currently wearing.

Welcome to Bean Town

No, not Boston. In this case, Bean Town equals Fenn's nursery. For those of you who don't know, when I was pregnant with Fenn, we called him our little bean. ('be' from Beth and 'an' from Dan). I thought I would share some pictures of Fenn's nursery since most people won't ever actually see it in person. I don't know if I would call it "finished" yet, but it's close. I originally wanted to either paint some stripes around the room or on one accent wall, but I ran out of time due to dealing with Cole's sickness and death. I just recently finished the artwork that is hanging above his crib a few weeks ago. I had planned to do it before his birth... even bought the paints and wooden name letters... but things came up and I never got it done. I'm definitely no artist, but I kind of like how it turned out. We really like the nursery because it has bright, fun colors. Fenn seems to like it, too. And we intentionally made it gender neutral so we can use it for the next baby. The two main colors are turquoise and green. One fabric is green with turquoise polka dots, one is a solid turquoise, and my favorite is the multi-colored stripe. The stripe is made up of 2 shades of blue, yellow, orange, red, bright green, and even pink. The bumpers are trimmed in a double cording of a black & white gingham check and the multi-colored stripe. I bought extra fabrics and had the window treatments custom made so I could feature more of the striped fabric (because I love it so much). I covered the lamp shade in the striped fabric myself. And we found the perfect multi-colored polka dot rug online. We got our furniture from Dan's sister, Debbie. I had the cushions for the glider-rocker recovered in a turquoise and lime green striped chenille fabric I found in the clearance room at Forsyth Fabrics in Atlanta. If baby #2 is a girl, we might add some pink accents to the room. (Since the multi-color striped fabric has a pink stripe in it, it would work.) We figured Fenn can have his "all boy" room when he moves out of the nursery... maybe we'll do an airplane theme. We found this cute reproduction aviation advertising sign for Piper Aircraft Co. (Hint to those still a little new to the internet: Click on the blue highlighted, underlined words to see a picture of the sign.) Cute, huh?

I Have Adult ADD

I just had to write about what I did yesterday morning. I was getting ready to get a shower. I gathered my clothing and went into the bathroom. I remembered that I needed a new can of shave gel, so I walked out of the bathroom and down the hall to the linen closet. I got the can of shave gel, walked back down the hall and into our bedroom. While walking into the room, I noticed a Baby Gap bag on the floor that had been sitting there for about 9 days (remember... we have a newborn in the house, so don't judge!). I picked up the bag and took it over to the bed. I put the shave gel on the bed, too. I pulled everything out and spread it out on the bed to admire the new things I had bought for Fenn. I walked into the bathroom, started the shower, and got in. When I got to the point of needing my shave gel, I reached for it but it wasn't there. Hmmm... what did I do with it? I looked outside the shower curtain to see if I had put it on the sink. Nope, not there! Hmmm.... I know I went to get it. Hmmmm.... I decided to get out of the shower (dripping water everywhere) and look in the bedroom. Hmmm.... I still didn't see it sitting on the dresser, side table, or any other obvious location. Hmmmm...... I walked over to the bed where I had spread out Fenn's new clothes. I picked up one of the items and there it was. I swear, I was already bad about doing that kind of thing before Fenn was born. I would be cleaning one room of the house and think of something I needed in another room. Then while in that room, I would see something that needed to be done. You know the drill.... you finally get back to the original task at hand after a couple of hours of being distracted by other things. Anyway, my adult ADD seems to be even worse since becoming a Mom.

Fenn's First Easter

Fenn had a really busy Easter holiday weekend. On Saturday morning, we went to his first Easter egg hunt at the park ~ the 2nd annual neighborhood hunt. Daddy helped him find some eggs, and then Fenn met the Easter bunny. Is it my imagination, or is the Easter bunny a little creepy looking? After the Easter egg hunt, Daddy had to go back to work for a little while. When Daddy got home, we all went for a walk... Asha and Petey, too. This wasn't just any old walk... it was Fenn's first walk sitting upright in his stroller. Instead of just looking up at Mommy and the sky, he got to look around. Of course, he seemed to focus mostly on the dogs' rear-ends! Maybe it was their tails that got his attention. Whew! What a day. After all of that excitement, Fenn was all tuckered out. Easter morning, we got all dressed up in our Easter clothes and went to Church. Afterward, we went out for brunch. It was great because Daddy took the whole day off from work. After several weeks of working 7 days a week, Daddy was able to spend the whole day with us.

Fenn's Luck 'O the Irish

Fenn says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!" He's our little good luck charm.

My Friend, Gabe

Fenn met his friend, Gabe, over the weekend. Gabe is the 16-month old son of our friends, Kama and Jim. They got along great, and we can't wait until they're able to play together. I'm sure we'll have some fun stories to tell. Funny... Gabe had a little bit of a reaction when he saw his Mommy holding another baby! But he was actually really good about it. We had a great time over the weekend, and look forward to more family get-togethers in the future.

Fenn at Three Months Old

This is Fenn at Three Months. This is the third installment in the "12-month onesie" series. I'm so glad I saw this idea on Martha Stewart one morning shortly after Fenn was born. It is amazing to see how much he changes each month. By the time we get to 12 months, I think this onesie is going to be a little tight! We may have to break out the crotch extenders.

We're not due to go back to the pediatrician until April 29th, so he hasn't been weighed since his two-month checkup. But we think he weighs approximately 15 pounds now. He's still not sleeping completely through the night, but he's close. He'll wake himself up once or twice during the night ~ not sure if he's having baby dreams or what. What do babies dream about anyway??? When he wakes up, I usually hear him pretty quickly. Guess who usually sleeps right through it??? When I walk in there, he'll have his blanket kicked off, so I'll re-swaddle him and give him his pacifier. It usually works, but sometimes he just has a restless night. We're still trying to figure out what causes that. We're getting tempted to start putting rice cereal in his bottle at night to see if that will help him sleep more soundly. All in all, we consider ourselves very fortunate that he's such a good baby.

Babies, Babies, Babies

Fenn met his first girlfriend, Audrey, on March 6th. She was just 3 days old. Audrey was out for a stroll with her Mommy and big brother, Miles. They live right next door to us. We also ran into our across the street neighbor, Heather. She is expecting her first child, a boy, in June. There's something in the air in our neighborhood. Keep in mind this is a 1950's neighborhood where (probably) the majority of its residents are retired and the original owners of their homes. But there are a lot of young families moving in... for many reasons: location, size of lot, schools, quality of life, and safety. Another family just down the street had their 2nd child, a girl, in August. And then another who live around the corner had their second child, also a girl, in late September. And, there's another family down the street expecting their first baby sometime this year. That's 6 new babies within a 12 month time period ~ 5 of them on the same street.

More Faces of Fenn