A Moment

Holden is definitely making eye contact now. He has been doing it off and on for a while, but I was not sure if it officially qualified as “eye contact” or if it was just coincidence. Today, though was different… we had a “moment” and it was deliberate.

Holden also seemed impressed with himself when he smacked one of the dangly toys on his play mat with one his spontaneous baby slaps. When he heard the bell in the toy ring and saw it swinging he paused for a moment and had this look like, “did I do that with MY hand?”

-Carmen

Heartbreaker

A couple of weeks ago while rocking my angel it occurred to me that I absolutely could not stand the idea of Holden being in a childcare environment where he would be lying in a crib all day. I want someone to hold him, rock him, and talk to him. It is already killing me that I cannot stay home with him. I cried and prayed and cried some more.

Rowdy put the word out and found someone. We met with her this evening. It went great! I think we found childcare and we aren’t compromising the kind of care we consider important for our son and our situation. She held him and rocked him while we chatted and Holden seemed thrilled and that made me so incredibly happy.

Holden was very pleasant through our meeting. When we got home he let loose for a second when his daddy extracted his paci for a picture. It turned out to be the cutest picture.

-Carmen

Thappy Birdhay

I was organizing some of our photos and have to share this pic. I took this picture of dad, mom, sister, and brother-in-law at the ICE! exhibit. It was our surprise birthday present to mom. I told everyone to huddle together and act like they were really cold which wasn’t a stretch since it was literally freezing in there. I guess dad is the only one that heard me. We had a good time. I think mom eventually had a very “thappy birdhay” (mysteriously appeared on one of her birthday cakes several years ago)… though I won’t surprise her ever, again. She hates surprises and she let us know it. Love ya, mom!

-Carmen

New Shoes Dance

Yesterday was a great day. Holden was feeling better and was in an excellent mood.

I bought new shoes and some new things for baby. My hubby gave me a gift card for shoes to be used when my feet finally deflated after the pregnancy. It was fun looking for shoes. It has been a long time since my body has resembled “normal.”

After shoe shopping, we had dinner at Nana and Rowdy’s house. Right before we left their house Holden had a bottle, and then fell asleep in the car so we were able to put him right to bed when we got home. My husband and I actually watched an entire hour-long show on our DVR.

We are going to try really hard this week to get on a schedule so that things go smoothly when we both go back to work. We got off to a bad start already … mom and dad slept late.

-Carmen

Giggle and Coo

On a much happier note....... Holden started cooing yesterday! He says "GUUHHH" loudly and smiles.

While daddy was exercising Holden's little legs this morning he tickled him and Holden shrugged his shoulders up, pushed his hands together, looked at his dad and smiled really big. That was the first time he has had a big reaction to being tickled. Our son may be a genius ... tee hee hee.

Tummy Trouble

It appears that Holden has an upset stomach. Poor baby did not feel good last night and still doesn't feel well today. Last night was pretty rough. He finally cried himself to sleep. It is hard to see your baby cry in misery and there isn't anything you can do about it. We tried and have continued to try today to exercise his little legs and massage his tummy. Last night's session ended with a late night warm bath. Alas, he still does not feel well.

Day at the doc's

Today we had a doctor’s appointment and visited MiMi and her friends at work.

Holden now weighs 7 pounds and 12 ounces and he is 21 inches long. We really like his doctor. She loaded us with lots of baby literature to read “in our spare time.” The doctor was impressed with his luxurious locks and said he looked like Jack Nicholson (Holden was sporting a mohawk), his big hands and feet, and his neck “babies don’t usually have necks!”

After visiting with MiMi it was “tummy time.” We put Holden on his belly occasionally to help prevent a flat head, but his doctor suggested more. Unfortunately, Holden is not a fan so we do not look forward to this. We put him on his belly and as expected he started wailing and flipped himself over on his back. We rolled him back to his tummy and he again turned over to his back. Should he be able to do that already? He’s been holding his head up, or at least trying very hard to hold his head up on his own since he arrived. Must be that baby neck!

When he screams, he looks like Yoda. “Care for tummy time I do not.”

Photo Preview

Isn't he cute! Check out those lips.

Picture Day

Holden is here! He has been such a joy and an incredible blessing. We cannot imagine life without him.

Today, Jennifer of Sugar Photography sugar-photography.com, graced us with her presence and one of her special photo sessions. We had a great time. Holden hardly made a fuss which is pretty amazing since he was in the buff almost the entire time and he HATES to be naked. We can't wait to see Jennifer's photos.

The large portion of Holden's umbilical cord fell off a few days ago, the remaining "raisin" fell out during the photo session today. Hopefully it will stop bothering him soon.

We are all doing well... tired, but that is a "given."