Christmas 2008 ~ Fenn's 2nd Christmas

Fenn's 2nd Christmas was tons of fun. It was also a very busy time and went by so fast. Dan and I were pretty much exhausted by the time Christmas actually arrived because it seems we were running behind schedule the entire month. It all started with Thanksgiving being a little later this year and us going out of town. Then the very next weekend was Fenn's birthday party. So unlike last year (when we had everything done ~ decorating, shopping, etc. ~ by December 10th when Fenn was born), we didn't even start decorating or shopping until AFTER Fenn's birthday. Actually, after Fenn's birthday weekend, we were all sick with some mystery bug that wouldn't go away. Plus, Dan was working on a deadline for a client. So by the time we were feeling well enough and had enough time to go out to get a Christmas tree, it was December 13th! We also did all of our shopping online this year because we just didn't have time to go shopping. And I was bound and determined I was going to do some baking this year. I had planned to make 4 different cookies this year. Yes, I managed to get them done, but I was still baking on Christmas day! Oh well... we'll do better next year. Regardless of how rushed and stressed we were this year, it was still a nice holiday and we feel so blessed to have Fenn. It was so much fun watching him, especially since he's walking now and is so curious about everything around him. Grami and Poppy (Dan's parents) arrived on Christmas Eve. We went out for our traditional Christmas Eve meal of mexican food {that was Fenn's first outing last year at only 2 weeks old.} and then went to Christmas Eve service at church. Once we got home, it was time to get Fenn into his new Christmas pajamas and off to bed. It's funny to think about how late we stayed up this year getting ready for Santa Claus and wrapping the rest of our presents, because we only had one toy to put together. But we were actually up until around 1:00 a.m. Christmas morning, Fenn actually slept until around 6:15. Dan got him up and went ahead and fed him... and kept him out of the den. Afterward, we took him back to his room and let him walk down the hall and into the den to see what Santa had brought for him. His two big gifts were the Cozy Convertible Coupe and a crawl Tunnel. After opening presents and taking lots of pictures, we had a late Christmas breakfast which included Granddad's Sweet Rolls {we made them using Dan's granddad Joe's recipe}. Later, we went for a Christmas day walk and Fenn rode in his new car. We had an early Christmas dinner of beef tenderloin, asparagus, and hash brown casserole. We decided we wanted something non-traditional this year. That's about it for our Christmas festivities. The rest of the weekend was spent working on a couple of small projects and just trying to rest. I actually started feeling bad late on the day after Christmas and was feeling horrible on Saturday. Now, we're back on our normal schedule this week and hoping we'll all be well for a while. Here are some photos from Christmas 2008...
Out shopping for a Christmas tree.Just having fun one night, a few nights before Christmas.Eating breakfast on Christmas morning. I just thought the expression on Fenn's face in this photo was kind of funny.

Fenn coming down the hall Christmas morning.Fenn in his new car.

That's daddy teasing Petey with one of his new toys from Santa.Strangely enough, Fenn was actually very interested in playing with Petey's new food bowls.

Fenn with Daddy on Christmas night.Fenn with Mommy on Christmas night.Fenn with Grami and Poppy.I just like this photo because he kind of looks like he's dancing.Bath time on Christmas night.Crawling through his new tunnel.

Fenn at Twelve Months Old

This is Fenn at Twelve Months. This is the twelfth (and final) installment in the "12-month" onesie" series. {Be sure to click on the "12-Month Onesie Photos" link over in the right-hand column underneath the heading "More Photos of Fenn" if you want to see all 12 photos together.} I normally post this right around the 10th of the month, but this time I waited until now so that I could include the information from Fenn's 12-month visit to the pediatrician this morning.

These are his stats at 54 weeks:
Weight: 23 lbs. 9 oz. (57th %)
Length: 30.75" (73rd %)
Head: 47 cm (64th %)

Compare this to his stats at 41 weeks old:
Weight: 21 lbs. 14 oz. (67th %)
Length: 28.25" (44th %)
Head: 46.4 cm (77th %)

It's funny that he actually dropped down from the 67th percentile to the 57th percentile for his weight, because everyone who sees him comments about what a big boy he is. He's not fat, he's just solid. At the same time, he had quite a growth spurt, jumping from the 44th percentile to the 73rd percentile! So it looks like he might be tall, or at least taller than mommy and daddy.

I was looking back at the post I did for his 12-month onesie photo when he was 9 months old. At that time, he had 5 teeth. In three months time, he got 7 more teeth. By the time he was 12 months old, he had the first 8 teeth and all 4 of his first molars. And Dr. Herron said the gums are thin for one of his upper canines to come in soon. We're worried that since he's been early for all of his teeth so far, he'll be cutting those 2nd molars about the time piperbean #2 comes along. That should be fun!

We're having lots of fun (and getting really exhausted) chasing Fenn around the house now. He's completely mobile and walks all over the house. In a matter of two or three weeks, he went from taking about 6 or 7 steps at a time to taking off and walking down the hall, turning around, coming back, walking around the island in the kitchen, and back into the den. One of his favorite things to do is open and close cabinet doors and bedroom or bathroom doors. Let me clarify... He doesn't really close the doors all the way (since he can't reach the doorknob), but he'll push it so that it's partially closed and then open it again. We are slowly getting the cabinets in the kitchen baby-proofed. We've had fun watching him try to open cabinets or drawers he was previously able to open. He'll stand there and keep jerking on the door or drawer and then finally give up and look for one he can still open. Then once he finds one, he starts pulling things out (like his Yogurt Melts, Fruit Snacks, or anything he can get his hands on). Over the weekend, before we baby-proofed the cabinet where the trash cans are kept, he managed to get in the trash and pull out a plastic applesauce container. He was so proud of himself walking around the kitchen with it. Something else he's able to do now is climb steps. One day recently, Dan was playing with him in the downstairs den. Before he knew it, Fenn had walked over to the stairs and was starting to climb them. Dan stayed behind him and let him do it just to see how far he could get. And he made it all the way up.

As for talking, I think we can safely say that Fenn's first word is ball. He also knows bath and bye-bye. Of course, all three of those words sound kind of similar. But he definitely knows the difference. If you mention anything about getting a bath, he starts repeating the word and looks toward the bathroom. He has finally learned how to wave (while saying "bye-bye") and how to blow a kiss. He still doesn't call us mommy and daddy (or ma-ma and da-da), but he makes the sounds. He just doesn't associate it directly with us yet by calling out for us. However if you say ma-ma or da-da, he'll look at whichever one you mentioned.

I'll finish up by telling one funny thing he did the other night when we were feeding him. I had cut up some grapes for him. He doesn't love grapes, but he'll eat some. Then I went and got some blackberries (which, by the way, are one of his favorite things). I was about to give him a piece of one, and then noticed he still had some grapes in his mouth. I told him to chew them up, but by this time, he had already spotted the blackberries. So he did what any smart toddler would do... he opened his mouth and let the half-chewed grapes fall out and leaned forward (with mouth wide open) to get a blackberry!

Fenn Meets Santa Claus... and it didn't go well!

Today, Fenn's daycare class had a Christmas party and Santa was there for photos. Because Dan and I have been so busy since Thanksgiving (getting ready for Fenn's birthday party, decorating and shopping for Christmas at the last minute, and Dan working on a deadline for a client), we had not had a chance to take Fenn to meet Santa yet. And we had not even had a chance to start prepping him for his first Santa sighting. So when I heard they were going to have Santa Claus at school today, I was a little worried but not really too worried. Fenn is so good natured and goes to anyone without any hesitation. He has never gone through the whole separation anxiety thing. He just seems to be comfortable in all situations. Well, that wasn't the case today. I had to take chicken nuggets for the party, and decided to deliver them while the kids were napping so that I wouldn't disturb Fenn's day. When I got there, Fenn's teachers told me how it went. At first, Fenn was all smiles when they were putting him on Santa's lap. Then Fenn turned around to look at him and he just started screaming. He was terrified! Then they said once they got back to their classroom, Fenn was still upset. He kept looking around the room as if he was looking to see if that man (or thing) was still there. They finally got him down for a nap... but only after he was completely traumatized by the whole thing. Of course, I felt horrible when they told me this. Dan and I had planned to take Fenn to see Santa sometime before Christmas and have him wear his cute green, smocked overalls for the photo. But we decided it best not to traumatize him any more. Maybe next year will be better.

Fenn... Already a Ladies Man at 1 Year Old

I promise I'm going to get a post out here from Fenn's birthday party in the next few days. I've just been so busy around here with work, house stuff, getting ready for Christmas, etc. Plus, I also have to do my monthly "12-Month Onesie" post... the very last one in the series. I really have to get caught up before Christmas, or I'll really be way behind. But in the meantime, I wanted to do this quick post. Apparently, our son is quite the ladies man at daycare. First of all, he had a thing going on with Sydney. They would follow each other all over the room and talk back and forth to each other. Now they're no longer an item because I'm told Sydney is being mean to him now. And they apparently had a little spat, because Fenn's teachers said that one day they were sitting on the floor facing each other just screaming back and forth. So, Fenn has moved on to his next love interest, Annabelle. The other day, Fenn was sitting on the floor and Annabelle toddled over, sat down in his lap, and Fenn planted a great big kiss right on her lips. Word is, they've been flirting with each other for several days now. That's Miss Ashley in the background. And Miss Bettina quickly pulled out her cell phone and snapped this photo. Oh, and all the kids have little titles on their baskets (where they put their blankets, etc.). Fenn's title is "Most Loveable" and Annabelle's title is "Best Hair". She's a pretty little thing, isn't she?

Fenn Celebrates His First Birthday!

The weekend of December 5th, we celebrated Fenn's first birthday. The weekend started off on Friday with Fenn's 12-month portrait session up in LaFollette, TN (about 45-50 minutes north of Knoxville). Rebekah, who has photographed Fenn since he was 7 days old, gave birth to her second child on Monday, so Rebekah's husband, Daniel, did this session. Their business has taken off so well, that Daniel started working with Rebekah several months ago. {Here are some of the proofs they posted on their blog.} We arrived and quickly got Fenn changed into his first outfit, a cute pair of bright green overalls with a smocked panel of red Santas across the chest. Immediately, Fenn was smiling and we were so excited because it seemed like this might be his best session yet. We did the first photos in front of their winter wonderland scene. They had another, more formal, Christmas scene, so we decided to get a couple of shots in front of that one, too. While Daniel was repositioning the lighting, I was holding Fenn. All of a sudden, Fenn proceeded to projectile vomit all over me. I have to say I was completely surprised and caught off guard by this because #1 ~ Fenn had shown absolutely no signs of feeling bad and #2 ~ he had never thrown up before. I just stood there, unable to move at first. I didn't want to spread the mess anywhere else. Well, then he did it again. It was all over his cute overalls, and all down the front AND back of my t-shirt. We cleaned up Fenn as best we could and got him changed (because we had plenty of clothing for him). But that wasn't the case for mommy. Keep in mind, we were almost an hour away from home and I had not even entertained the idea of taking a change of clothing for me. Luckily, Daniel had on a t-shirt and a long-sleeved shirt, so he told me to take his long-sleeved shirt. Otherwise, I would have been wearing a puke covered t-shirt until we could get home. Needless to say, we didn't get any more Christmas shots. We continued with the birthday part of the photo session and Fenn seemed to feel fine. He didn't react to the smash cake like we had hoped he would, so that was a little disappointing. Maybe we should have had some test sessions to get him acquainted with the concept of smashing the cake and rubbing it all over his face. But the photos still turned out cute. Toward the end of the session, we had him stand up for a few shots. He slipped, fell, and bumped his head on the floor pretty hard, so then he needed to be comforted by mommy. {When you see some of the photos from his birthday party later in this post, you'll probably notice the bruise on his forehead. Just one of many more to come, we're sure.} Of course, I had to pick him up and hug him... but he was covered in cake and frosting which, of course, got all over my borrowed shirt. So instead of wearing puke home, I wore a cake-covered shirt home. And let me say that after an hour of driving in the car, the smell of birthday cake starts getting old.
It's Saturday and it's time to party! It turned out to be a really fun day. And it snowed that morning as people were arriving for the party, but it didn't stick. Fenn was in a good mood (which is the norm for him) and was eating up all the attention he was getting from everyone. We were fortunate enough to have most of his immediate and extended family here, including both sets of grandparents, 3 uncles, 2 aunts, 3 cousins, a "friend" of my brother's, and of course, mommy, daddy, and Petey. Fenn's aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins who live in Texas weren't able to be here. But that would have been a really long way for them to come... not really a driving trip like it was for everyone else. And a few of Fenn's other cousins couldn't be here because of other commitments. They were all missed, but we understood why they couldn't be here. We decided to do a Lion theme for the party. {Fenn's daddy had a stuffed lion that he carried around as a little boy until he lost it in an airport somewhere in Europe.} I found all these cute things with lions on them (the invitation, the big mylar balloons, Fenn's birthday overalls, his Robeez shoes), and then we got a great cake made. The cake had a top "smash" layer of orange cake with a buttercream frosting, the middle layer was chocolate with buttercream frosting, and the bottom layer was strawberry with cream cheese frosting. For lunch, we served BBQ with baked beans from our favoite BBQ place, M&M BBQ. Fenn got lots of fun (and noisy) presents. {Thanks Todd and Angie... Dan and I can't stop singing the Mickey Mouse Club song now!} I think this is the case with most kids, but Fenn seemed most interested in the bows and wrapping paper at first. It was later that weekend when he really started playing with his new toys. That evening, we all sat around and watched the SEC Championship game. Because I'm so late in getting this post done (although I have it dated for the 8th, it is really late December that I'm working on it), I'm having a hard time remembering some of the details of the party. At this point, I'll just post a bunch of photos for everyone's enjoyment. Thanks so much to everyone who made the trip! It will mean so much to Fenn one day when he looks back at the photos and video. It meant a lot to mommy and daddy, too!
I just had to post this next series of photos. Many of them are blurry (because I haven't learned how to freeze motion using my camera yet), but they're really funny. Fenn started shaking his head back and forth (as if saying "No") and then because we were all laughing at him, he got tickled with himself and kept doing it. And this last one... I am just sick that it isn't in focus. Look at that sweet smile!

Fenn's First Thanksgiving

I'm going to keep my writing kind of short on this one and mostly just post a bunch of photos from the holiday weekend. We drove down to Lanett, Alabama to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. We went down on Wednesday afternoon and came back on Saturday. This was going to be the first time we've had our entire family together in several years. It's pretty much a major miracle when we're actually able to get together. Everyone wasn't able to make it on Thursday, so we had our Thanksgiving on Friday instead. One brother lives in Rincon, GA (near Savannah) along with his wife and 2 kids. Another brother lives in Birmingham, AL along with his 3 kids. And Dan and I are up in Knoxville, TN. So we're really kind of spread out. On top of that, we all have very busy lives. Todd, Angie and his family have a horse farm that has kept them busy for the last year and a half. They bought the place, built a fence and pastures, and built a big barn. I look forward to going to see it. And they want Fenn to come sometimes during the summers to stay for a week and soak up the farm life. In addition to the farm, Todd has a pretty demanding full-time job. Angie and Seth are in charge of running the horse farm on a daily basis. And Jesse is in his first year of college, where he plays baseball. Greg is an orthodontist in B'ham. In addition to his job, he is a very involved dad and is always coaching one or more of his kids' teams. And Tucker, Griffin, and Audrey are all really athletic. Their sport of choice: Basketball. Plus Audrey, of course, likes the girly stuff (i.e., princesses). As for us, Dan is really busy with his accounting firm. And our "fixer upper, money pit" of a house has kept us busy for the last three years. And then along came Fenn... and you know that story. And we're about to get even busier when Bean #2 comes along in May.
That's me with my big brothers, Greg and Todd. OK... keep in mind that I am 15 weeks pregnant in these photos! The waistline has already started expanding.I'll wrap this up by saying what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who is my best friend. I'm thankful for my beautiful baby boy, Fenn. I'm thankful for this pregnancy and looking forward to meeting this special little one in May... and praying for another healthy child. I'm thankful for my entire family (immediate, in-laws, and extended family). I'm thankful for our sweet little puppy dog, Petey. I'm thankful for all of my great friends. And I'm thankful we were able to get together for Thanksgiving this year.Audrey and Griffin were really sweet playing with Fenn the whole afternoon.That's Seth in his really cool hat.The grandparents with all of their grandkids... except for the one on the way in May.More of Griffin, Audrey, and Fenn hanging out.All the grandkids. Griffin did a great job holding Fenn... but I think he was tired by the time I was done taking pictures. Fenn weighs about 23.5 lbs. That's Seth on the back row, then Jesse and Tucker, then Audrey and Griffin, and of course Fenn.Granddad with Fenn.That's Jesse with Fenn.

That's Seth with Fenn... oldest grandchild with the youngest grandchild.

A cute pic of Griffin with Fenn.

Griffin was trying to tie Fenn's shoe... but finally gave up when Fenn wouldn't be still.