Mommy's First Mother's Day

Well, finally I'm a mommy and get to participate in this member's only club. This was my first Mother's Day... and I'm turning 40 tomorrow. (I was actually born on Mother's Day.) Boy, what a day! Daddy let mommy sleep in ~ which he usually does on the weekends anyway because he's an early riser and mommy is not. I awoke to Daddy and Fenn bringing apple cinnamon muffins and coffee to me in bed. Before I could even get out of bed to pee, brush my teeth, wash my face, or even comb my hair, they were giving me presents and taking pictures! I can't believe I'm putting this picture on here, but once I looked at it I decided it wasn't really that bad. At least I didn't have a big crease across my face from sleeping on my pillow. Oh, but notice the strategic placement of Fenn and the present! I got some great presents... a new gown and matching robe from Boden catalog (one of my favorite clothing catalogs), and a 'pink delight' Butterfly Bush for our front landscape. Pretty good for a first Mother's Day. Of course the best gift of all is Fenn. Can I just say again how blessed we are to have such a beautiful child? He is always so happy and easy. We keep wondering what we ever did to deserve such a wonderful child. After opening presents and finishing breakfast, we got ready for Church. And after that, we went out for a Mother's Day brunch. Fenn slept through most of the sermon and, of course, charmed the staff at the restaurant. Once we got home, we took photos beside the Sugar Maple I received last year for Mother's Day (since I was pregnant with Fenn at the time). We decided we would start a traditon of taking photos of the kids beside this tree every year so we can see how much the kids and the tree grow each year. Check out that close up of Fenn drooling... I thought it was kind of cute. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house (I know... I shouldn't have been working since it was Mother's Day) because some friends were coming into town on Wednesday night and we are hosting a neighborhood lawn social (Front Yard Fridays) on Friday night. We finished off the evening watching Desperate Housewives. The last photo is kind of funny. We had the camera on a tripod; Dan set the timer and quickly got in place for the photo. It was really windy that day, so the camera fell over and the photo snapped at about the time that Dan was getting there to pick up the camera.

We interrupt this Broadcast...

...for a Roll Over Alert! Fenn rolled over from his tummy to his back on his 5-month birthday. He did it twice in a row, and I just happened to catch the 2nd time with my camera. Of course, Daddy was in the shower after a long day of working in the yard and missed it. Afterward, Fenn wouldn't do it again. He was tired from being in the yard with us all day.

Fenn at Five Months Old

This is Fenn at Five Months. This is the fifth installment in the "12-month onesie" series. I can hardly believe he is 5-months old now. Still no big events or milestones to tell about. He seems to enjoy his "tummy time" a lot more now because he's so much stronger. When his pediatrician put him on his tummy, he arched his back and held his head up high. She said he was right on schedule with where he should be. When he's on his tummy, he talks a lot and he moves his feet like he's climbing. He needs to work on his upper body strength before he's ready to get in the crawling position. He is SO close to sitting up all by himself. We know it is just a matter of time until he does. Also, we think he must be teething... at least it is beginning. He drools a lot, puts everything in his mouth, gnaws on our fingers, sometimes runs a low-grade fever, and has even started having some loose poopy diapers. (Sorry if that's too much information! Seems like we talk about poopy a lot now that we're parents.) One thing we're loving is that he doesn't seem to spit up as much now. Some days he spits up a lot, and some days he spits up just a little. Fenn eats rice cereal in the early evening now and is getting better and better at eating from a spoon. A lot of it ends up on his chin, but I just scrape it off and put it back in his mouth. I think it's time to buy one of those mats you put under their highchair! And he LOVES his bathtime. We now have his bathtub in the guest bath and bathe him in there (instead of at the kitchen sink). He sits up and kicks his feet in the water. We just dump the water over his head and he never complains. Maybe he'll be a swimmer.... he has the perfect name, Fenn.

4-Month Visit to the Pediatrician

On the day we got home from our road trip (04/29), Fenn had to go see his pediatrician for his 4-month check-up. On this visit, he got his 2nd round of immunization shots. Once again, he was a real trooper. He cried out briefly and then quickly settled down.

These are his stats at 20 weeks old:
Weight: 16 lbs. 14 oz. (73rd %)
Length: 25.25" (45th %)
Head: 42.5 cm (43rd %)

Compare this to his stats at 9 weeks old:

Weight: 13 lbs. (76th %)
Length: 23" (51st %)
Head: 39.5 cm (38th %)

These are some cute recent photos of Fenn. I think the first one is a great photo of Dan and Fenn together. They look so handsome. For the second photo, I think the outfit is really cute on him. I put him down inside a canvas storage bin and the photo turned out really great. For the last photo, I like the t-shirt because of the dogs. The one chasing the fire truck looks like Cole... Fenn's guardian angel. Hard to believe he's been gone for over 6 months now.

Family Road Trip

Over the weekend, we took Fenn on his first road trip. Oh..... my..... goodness!! You need an enormous amount of stuff when traveling with an infant!...as anyone with kids already knows all too well. Take a look at our car! Baby... check! Pack 'n Play... check! Formula, bottles... check! Diapers and wipes... check! Toys and books... check! Lots of other unnecessary, "just in case" things.... check! It's Friday morning, and we're finally ready to head out. Initially, we thought we would be doing pretty good if we could get on the road by 10:00 a.m. (although we really wanted to be on the road earlier). Well, in reality it was 11:12 a.m. when we were pulling out of the driveway. Lesson #1 when traveling with a child: Pick an estimated departure time, then assume it will be at least an hour later. Right off the bat, Fenn fell asleep in the car. Our first stop was to pick up some lunch for Dan and me. We stopped in Athens, TN at Steak n' Shake and then ate in the car because Fenn was asleep. Next up was Fenn's lunch time, so we stopped at the Georgia rest area. I wish we had gotten a picture of Fenn in front of the Welcome to Georgia sign, but the photo at the rest area will have to do. While Dan was feeding Fenn, I decided it was a good time for a potty break. After Fenn finished his bottle, it was Dan's turn for a potty break. We walked from our picnic table, past our car, to the welcome center building. Once inside, in true "new mom" fashion, it suddenly dawned on me that we might just need to change Fenn's diaper. So Dan stayed with Fenn and I walked back to the car to get my diaper bag. Poor little guy! But it turned out to be a good thing that we didn't think of it earlier. Fenn had a big 'ole poopy while sitting there with daddy. If that poopy had happened a little later in the car, we would have had a mess! It was baaaaaad. So in one stop, Fenn filled his belly and we all got a potty break. And it was smooth sailing after that. We made it through Atlanta pretty quickly. We made one more potty break stop (for mommy) in LaGrange. Then before going to my parents' house, we stopped off at Charter Bank in West Point to see some of my friends ~ 4 of the 6 Cabin Divas: Donna, Phyllis, Barbara, and Amanda. (If you don't know, I used to work with all of them. The 6th diva is Linda, who works in the Auburn, AL office. Every year, we go on our cabin trip to Waynesville and Balsam Mtn., NC. Donna's family has a cabin on Balsam Mtn. and she has invited us all there every year for the past 10 years. We shop, eat, drink, shop some more, eat some more, and sometimes we even walk the mountain. It's something I look forward to for months in advance.) Anyway, we stopped because both Donna and Phyllis were going to be out of town for the weekend, and this was the only opportunity we had for them to meet Fenn. Afterward, we headed to my parents' house. Fenn had not seen his G-ma since he was 2 weeks old. And he had not met his G-dad yet. Needless to say, they were very excited to see Fenn, and I know Fenn was glad to see them, too. I'm going to speed this story along now. We visited for a while, and then headed to our favorite mexican restaurant, El Rio Grande, for dinner with some old friends from high school: Gina, Kelli, and Wendy. It was really great to see all of them along with spouses and some of their kids. (Keep in mind they all have teenaged kids!...not infants like me.) On Saturday, we visited with the G-parents some more. We also had lunch at Cabin Diva Barbara's house. And on Saturday night, we had dinner with some more friends. Dan's longtime friends, Julie and Skip, had us over for dinner. We got to see our friends, Kama and Jim, and also some old friends of Dan's, James and Wendy. On Sunday morning, we met the G-parents for breakfast at Cracker Barrel before heading out. By the way, many thanks to Sharon for letting us stay at her house while she was out of town. We wish Fenn could have met you! But he enjoyed meeting your cats. It's Sunday afternoon, and we finally made it to Dan's parents' house in Sautee, GA. It had been only a couple of months since they had seen Fenn, but they were equally as excited and eager to see Fenn. This part of our trip was a lot more quiet and relaxing because there are no old friends or family to visit in Sautee. So we spent most of our time just hanging out and relaxing. For some reason, whenever we visit them, we both become very lethargic. Must be something about those north Georgia mountains. We headed out early on Tuesday morning because Fenn had his 4-month checkup later that day. The trip home was good... once again Fenn slept most of the way. So we can say our first family road trip was a success. My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures! But, we were kinda busy.

Just 130 More Days...

OK, let the countdown to college football season continue! This countdown post is for all the Georgia fans in our family, including Daddy. Don't worry.... I'm not going to do the countdown posts every two weeks until August. I'll spread them out more over the next few months. Fenn wore this outfit for the first time the other day, so we (of course) had to take his picture in it. For those who might not know... Daddy graduataed from the University of Georgia, and Mommy graduated from Auburn University. We think he looks good in both school's colors. I think we'll be heartbroken if he grows up and decides to go to the University of Tennessee. (No offense to our UT friends, because it's a great school. Our loyalties naturally lie with our alma maters.) But something tells us that his friends will have a huge influence on him and he may just become a Vols fan.

Tax Deduction Baby

Hooray! It's finally April 15th... which means tax season is almost over and Fenn and I will get to see more of Daddy. This year was much harder to deal with than the past 2 years because of having a baby in the house. But we managed and it is just about over. I did pretty good this year because I actually cooked 3 meals for Dan's office. It was a good excuse to get to see him and eat dinner with him. Plus, I like to do something nice for them since they're having to work such long hours. I figure they at least need some home cooked meals versus junky fast food. I started 2 years ago with one meal, then 2 meals last year. I think I have been dubbed their personal office chef. Tonight is the office after-party beginning around 4:00 p.m.... at least we hope. It has been a tough year for Dan's office and they're running behind. Hopefully they won't have to cancel the celebration. It's been a tradition for a long time. We have a babysitter lined up for tonight and are ready to get out for a few hours.

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?