Brought to you by the letter S.

Snow Day!  There's at least 8 inches out there.

Snow blower!  Awesome.

Shift switch!  I switched shifts because of the snow.  So I don't have to be to work until 1230.

Sesame Street!  We are currently watching a classic Sesame Street episode.  They are covering the letter Q, the number 10, and a duck with the case of the moo's.  It's mesmerizing and adorable to watch him watching.   So I will share.

He sat this way for several minutes. 

Solids.  We introduced Johnny to PEAS!  He's not thrilled but we are going to keep trying.  I mixed it with some milk and that made it slightly more appealing.  We have been putting rice cereal in his bottle, but giving a little bit each day with a spoon.  He halfheartedly eats with the spoon, but he's getting the hang of it.  Yesterday he was pretty enthusiastic...for 3 bites.  He has eaten 1 ounce with 1 tablespoon of cereal entirely with a spoon with a bottle of milk before and after.  If I'm home it's harder since he wants his milk from me.  We are going to try the peas again today.  Its so cute so see him covered from head to toe with food after 3 bites. 

Sleep.  We get some in spurts and turns.  I'm used to the lack of sleep and hoping the day will come soon where I can get more than 3 uninterrupted hours.  Yesterday he went to bed at 7, up at 9, up at 11, up at midnight, and then slept until 4, and up for good at 7.   Now that's a high number of wake-ups for him, but we are hoping it stays unusual for him to be up THAT much. 

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssooooooo We're starting to move in 19 days.  Our closing is at 10 AM and we are going to move over enough stuff to spend the night in our new house as well as some other items if we have time/energy.  We probably won't spend more than that one night, at first.  We need to paint Johnny's room and move over everything.  We have volunteers and we are going to just do a day or two here or there of moving big items.  Hopefully we will be in by early March.  I have NOOOO idea what we are going to do with the cats.  Probably leave them here until our bed is over at the new house.  Are we in a panic?  Not yet.  We have a wall of boxes in the basement, but we aren't even halfway there.

Recent Accomplishments

Our baby boy is growing up so fast!  It is unbelievable how quickly he seems to be advancing.

Rasberries - he has been blowing raspberries since there was 20 minutes left in 2010.  He has since blown a raspberry for anyone who will stick their tongue out at him.  Blow him a kiss, and you'll get a raspberry too.  Usually with a lot of drool and a huge smile.

Rolling - he has been rolling from tummy to back for months.  Probably a little under 2 months by now.  It's not always graceful, but he has been hating tummy time and flipping himself over.  He loves the reaction he gets.
Now, back to front, has done it a few times.  But today he REALLY got the hang of it.  He has been flipping all around on the floor back-to-front back over again, he hasn't accomplished a full 360 degree roll so he hasn't left the blanket.  He only rolls in the direction from whence he came.  That won't last long.

There is the first successful rolling video on Matt's youtube channel (recorded today)- See his handle at the bottom, but this won't let me upload it for some reason.

Standing - He has always loved standing on laps and being held in a generally standing position.  His new favorite is to stand beside the coffee table and hang on without you holding him.  He bangs on the table with gusto!  He can last a while before the wobbles get the best of him, so Matt or I are never far behind. 

Scooting - he is a successful scooter on his back.  He digs his heels into the floor, looks up, and pushes his feet, and he ends up a few inches away from where he began. If we don't pay REAL close attention, he will scoot the length of a room on the floor.  I found him about 2 weeks ago (when this was a new trick) after I laid him on his back on his play mat, threw some dishes in the sink, looked up and didn't see him on his play mat.  I saw him ramming his head into the couch as he was trying to continue to scoot, but had concurred maximum distance he could possibly go before being thwarted by the couch.  That time it was probably 3-4 feet, but he has since gone the length of the 8 foot carpet in the living room. 

Toys - he sees what he wants, grabs it, and puts it in his mouth.  Repeat scenario, over and over and over.  He is very active with his toys and even has favorites.  On his playmat there is a ball, a rattle seahorse, and a mirrored octopus.  The octopus is his absolute favorite and he will scoot to it.   There is a set of monkeys on a banana rattle he absolutely goes GAGA over whenever he sees them.  We can entertain him through an entire sermon in church with the monkey friends.

As far as keeping up with videos go, we each have a youtube channel.
Mine is "TheRxDr"
Matt's is "MathewDW" note the one T. 

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Well, all the company is gone for a little while and we are on our own with our little son.  It's crazy how much time we spend feeding, burping, oohing, bouncing, changing, entertaining...then the day is gone and you haven't done anything you had wanted to do around the house.  I currently have a load of spit-up laundry calling my name, but I'm avoiding it any way possible.
Why haven't we posted?  Here's the abridged visitor list. 
Rachel and Christina the first weekend after he was born.  Shortly followed Grandma Brenda, Grandpa Mikee, Aunt Kayla, GG's Pat and Dean.  Then GGMa Twila.  Then for his baptism weekend we had GGMa Twila, Uncle David and Aunt Beth with cousins Alex and Nick, Tess and Jesse Carter, and Grandpa Mike and Grandma Sally.  Then GG's Bill and Thelma with family friend Delilah.  We have also seen our local family Steph, Jon, Luke and Emma, Aunt Connie and Uncle Frank.  And tons of time with Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Hattie at the office with Christy Pope (family friend and current office manager stand-in). 
This weekend is currently the first weekend we have had no visitors.  So what did we do?  We packed up baby Johnny Saturday morning and made the hour and a half trek to Germantown MD to see our good friends Chip and Amy Hogg and their kids Sophia and Robbie and we had the wonderful fortune to see Derek and Kristin Ng at the same time. 
Today we played hookie from church, said our prayers at home around the coffee table.  We had a bad night, not that that justifies skipping, but when church is 45 minutes away its a hard thing to face at 9 am after a near sleepless night.  It was near sleepless because Johnny confused night and day with constant feeding.  It didn't help that Johnny fell asleep at 530 as soon as we left the Hogg's and slept straight till Midnight.  We made some stops and didn't get home till 830, in bed by 10.  So that was only 2 hours of sleep for us but 6 for Johnny. 
We took advantage our our day and went for a beautiful walk around the neighborhood.  The weather is unseasonably warm and we broke our baby Bjorn in to carry him around.  What else have we done? I straightened the kitchen counter, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.  That's it as far as productivity goes.  We did have tummy time and exercise time with Johnny and we excitedly watched as he figured out how to push himself from his tummy to his back ... ROLLING ... if he can get his hands right.  He gets really angry if he can't get them to where he wants to roll over.  He does lay on his tummy and lift his head to look to the left and then to the right.  We each had a Johnny nap too. 
It is too much fun being parents to get the laundry done.  

I leave you with a beautiful Bjorn picture from our walk.

The First Month

Our little buddy is a month old now!  I weighed him unofficially on his one month birthday and he was 10.5 pounds.  As I am quickly writing this post he is happily swinging away after a very rough night with oral thrush and gas.  He is talking to the pictures on the wall and in doing so keeps dropping his pacifier, then begins to complain about not having it.

He is doing so wonderfully at the one month mark.  The only health issue is his oral thrush infection for which he and I both are receiving treatment so we don't pass it back and forth to each other.  It makes his already sloppy eating sloppier, but he is not suffering from lack of food and still eats like a champ.

He gets super excited about eating smiling real big and throwing his head from side to side and breathing loud and excitedly and grunting.  This was particularly embarrassing in church when we were giving him a bottle and he was making our family as well as the family behind us giggle.  

He loves to talk and babble and grunt.  He is the noisiest little baby I have ever met at a month old.  He will talk to anything including the walls of his crib as we are trying to sleep at night.  His unhappiness starts with grunting, then fake crying with his eyes open to see our reaction, then followed by a period of calm, then all out cry.  He's so darn cute. 

He loves to move and groove.  Forget a swaddle.  He hates it.  He loves laying on his back or stomach and kicking, holding up his head, and moving his arms.  He also loves to be bounced on your knee and he just looks around, talks, and throws his arms in the air in approval of the ride.

He loves to cuddle.  Especially with Daddy.  Daddy knows the way to make our little man feel comfortable if the problem is gas, boredom, sleepiness, etc.  Sometimes it's sprawled over one of Daddy's leg or an arm, or lying on Daddy's tummy face down, or laying on his back in his arm or about another dozen favorites.  

I knew Matt would be a great Dad....were my expectations low?...Matt has surpassed them all.