A Breath of Fresh Air

Grammy gave Holden a carseat cover as an early Christmas present so we can walk when its chilly. We tried it out this afternoon and he loved it. Bonus is tired mom doesn't have to wrangle him into a zillion layers of clothes...just zip up and ta-da, instant cocoon.

Thrilled to be going shopping again with Mom & Grammy yesterday.

Finally some boy time after shopping all day.

He outgrew the bunny!

Special Delivery

Holden received this very special letter in the mail today from sweet cousin Molly. Only a few more weeks until they will actually meet in person...Holden can't wait. Thank you, Molly! It's been filed away with his other keepsakes.

PS - Holden wanted to say how impressed he is with your beautiful writing!

A couple pictures from yesterday...

I thought he looked pretty cute in this outfit...apparently he didn't.

Enjoying his "alone time" - a new activity this week. I thought when he was fussy he wanted to be snuggled. Turns out he just wants to be left alone for a bit. Rob said he takes after his daddy.

One Month Already

Hard to believe Holden is a month old! We've noticed some big changes especially in the last few days...he's staying awake/alert for longer periods, holding up his head, and has started shedding real tears (of which we've seen an abundance of recently due to some evening fussiness or I should say full outright crying marathons). But we all seem to do better on the days we leave the house so my mission is to get out the door on a daily basis. Plus I think the couch can use a break from our lazy bones laying on it all day.
Hello World! Please excuse my baby acne and scratches...they're much better now.

Me and my cousins

Grammy asking if I have enough nuts stored in my cheeks to get me through the winter

I love my Grammy! And I can't wait to meet Grandma M and Aunt Karen in 2 weeks!!

Another Week of Firsts

First "play date" - Riley came over to meet Holden. As you can see they hit it off immediately and even linked arms. She is 8 weeks older than Holden and was sharing words of wisdom with him on what to expect in the next 2 months. Hopefully they both decided sleeping through the night is a good idea.

First time in jeans though we still have some growing to do before they really fit. Thanks to Anderson for the cute clothes!

First trip to Grammy's house! He was quite happy to snuggle up with her.First official mail...He got his SS card today. I realized his full name and address were visible on this picture after I posted and I'm not blog savy enough to figure out how to remove the picture so I just condensed it. Better safe than sorry.

And other pictures from the week...

3 Weeks!

Finally...a picture with his eyes open! Holden seems to have come out of his sleep coma a bit and is spending more time awake during the day. Unfortunately he decided to spend more time awake at night too this week, but he seems to be back to his usual every 3 hour routine. But with more awake time comes more fussy time. Thankfully we've found a solution and I would personally like to thank the makers of the Soothie paci - the new love of his (and our) lives. We tried a few other binkys but he wasn't interested so we thought he just wasn't a binky baby. We were left pacing the room with him, rocking, singing and doing just about anything we could think of to console him. I randomly tried the Soothie as a last binky attempt and bingo...instant calm happy baby and parents. We'll see if the love and luck continue.The beloved Soothie

Playing with the big kids...cousins Colin and Olivia came over for a quick visit on Monday. Holden loves having them so close.

First walk in the Bjorn. Having suffered way too many sunburns myself, I was worried I was going to fry him but luckily that didn't happen. Maybe he'll be lucky and have Rob's complexion and escape the cheap Irish skin from me.

Meeting the Bruners. We were spoiled with Christina's baked ziti and brownies and a Target gift card Friday night. Holden immediately redeemed it for the Sound Spa Lullaby machine which not only plays music and nature sounds, but has a cool projection feature for the ceiling. Right now mom and dad are a little more interested in it than Holden is, but that should change soon.

Lounging around with Mom

Sporting shoes for the first time. A very thoughtful gift from cousins Molly & Lindsey. He also loves his wrist rattle and activity bar for the carseat, along with all the beautiful pictures they drew for him. What a lucky boy to have such thoughtful and talented cousins!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub...

Holden's in the Tub! He graduated from sponge baths to the tub and we decided to take the plunge on Saturday. He enjoyed it for the most part but seeing that it was our first time giving him a tub bath, I think we'll all enjoy it a little more with some practice.

Checking himself out in the mirror

Enjoying Mommy's tasty hand

All clean!!

7 lbs, 12 oz...

That's what our growing boy weighed at his 2 week check up on Wednesday...almost a full pound heavier than his birth weight. He also grew an inch since his last appt at 5 days old. He goes back Nov 24 for his 2 month appt...he'll get 3 shots and an oral vaccine. I'm already dreading it!! Afterwards, Grammy took us shopping as part of our first big outting. Holden did great considering he was in his carseat for 5 hours.
Tuesday we went for a long walk in the neighborhood and then headed out to pick pumpkins and get into the Halloween spirit. We ended up with 3 pumpkins, one for each of us. Here's Holden posing with our selection.

Ready for the walk using "the wheels" from Paula

And finally this week Holden got to meet Ernie. He was out of town when Holden was born then returned with a nasty cold, so the meeting had to be delayed. Holden looks forward to spending lots of fun times with Ernie at the river, and learning all of Ernie's handyman skills!

Oh, and here's Holden's 2 week shot. Has he changed much since week 1?

Week One in the Books

We've survived one full week at home as a family of three. Honestly, it's been easier than I thought (although I'm sure I will eat those words later). Holden is such a great baby and is so easy going. He doesn't mind getting his diaper changed, or getting a bath, or living with two crazy barking dogs. He just goes with the flow. He is nursing every 2-3 hours and if he's not eating, he's sleeping. He seems to come alive in the evenings for some quiet alert time then dozes back off to dream land. He is going longer periods at night too. Last night he had a 4 hour stretch between 2-6 AM. Because I said that, I'm sure he will be up every 2 hours tonight, but even that isn't so bad because he drifts right back to sleep after he eats. Most importantly we are happy and healthy and that's all that matters. Here's hoping that week 2 is as much of a success.

First Doctor Appointment

Holden had his first Dr. appt on Monday and he got a clean bill of health. He weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz (only 1 oz shy of his birth weight) and was 20.5 inches long (half inch shy of his original length). We attribute the half inch shrinkage to the cone head which has now disappeared. We go back for another check up on Oct 8.

Bundled up and ready to go

Not too happy about getting weighedOr measured...

Resting up after a busy day