Audrey's Blog

Life with Logan @ 12 Weeks

Well, as is to be expected, life in the Reed household in the last few weeks has centered on work and Logan. I'm really looking forward to unabashedly copy-catting Angie's new project to show you more about what a typical day & week looks like for us now. But, until I can figure out how to add that to-do to my already rather lengthy list, I'll just amuse you (and myself) with a few snapshots of what the little guy is up to.

The little man has decided that he loves to watch football. Our guess is that he likes the bold colors and almost constant motion of the beautiful HD picture. But, whatever the reason, it's absolutely adorable. Obviously, we usually try to watch our Aggies when they're televised, but when that isn't possible, he has expressed a distinct preference for watching the Cowboys. Sunday evening, I grabbed the camera to catch a few snaps of his amusement.

Go, Romo, Go!

 

Score!

Boo Redskins!

In the past couple of weeks, Logan has been all about checking out the world around him. When he's awake, he wants to be sitting up so that he can take it all in. So, we've been on a search for a front pack that will facilitate his new found curiosity. I think we finally found it with the Ultimate Baby Wrap.

(Yes, I do have a tank top on under the wrap!)

Of course, while Chris was snapping this picture, I heard a gurgling sound. With an instinct that I believe truly only comes with motherhood, I immediately reached out my hand to catch what I knew was coming up any second. I feel like this might be the day I truly joined the sisterhood that is motherhood. :-)

Eeeewww!

And, for quite possibly the most precious picture - at least in this post :-) … If Logan is awake when it's our dinner time, he doesn't much appreciate us putting him in his bouncer by himself. So, one of us will usually eat with him on our lap. One evening, Chris helped him say a blessing with us, and I couldn't resist grabbing the camera.

The funny part is that he has turned into such a ham that as soon as he sees the camera, he looks right at it. I guess that's what I get when for taking pictures of him on almost a daily basis.

And, last but certainly not least, his want to check out everything around him led us to propping him up on the couch with us from time to time. The funniest thing happened one evening when we looked over and realized that he had fallen asleep. What can I say??? He's already turned into our typical little man!

Other than him being absolutely adorable (if I do say so myself), he's basically a fat & happy baby who is already sleeping a consistent 8-9 hours each night with the occasional 10 hour night. At just over 2 months, I had to swap out a good number of his 0-3 month onesies for 3-6 month ones. We're using up the last few size 2 diapers. The next box I buy will be size 3. Does "growing like a weed" come to mind? After the rough start the little guy had, we both thank God for the blessing of such a wonderful & happy baby.

Mamo and Grandpa Visit

Logan had a big weekend - Mamo and Grandpa came for their first visit!
(Mamo - pronounced “ma-maw”.)

I picked them up at the airport on Friday night, and I think they were a little disappointed that I didn’t bring Logan to the airport with me but they obviously understood.  It was great to get to see their faces when they got to see Logan for the first time.  Of course, it was a little anticlimactic since the little man was fast asleep when they got here, but none the less, it was pretty cool.  They finally got to say hello to him when he woke up for his last bottle of the evening.

Saturday morning, they got to visit with him while he was a little more awake. 

 

The main highlight of the weekend was a photo shoot on Saturday afternoon.  With Mom & Dad here and Logan being just shy of 2 months, the timing was perfect.  We were incredibly lucky that Angie was able to come over and help us out by taking some amazing photos … especially since she was sick AND trying to pack for her honeymoon cruise that was departing the next day.  (Big, huge thanks, Girl!)  Like I said, the results of that shoot were simply amazing!  Here’s my favorite family shot:

These are a few of my other favorites, but there are so many more great ones to check out in the photo album. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the visit, Mamo & Grandpa!

Logan’s Two Month Update

I’ll probably think this every single time I sit down to write one of these, but HOLY COW … has it really been 2 months!?!! 

Our “little” man isn’t so little anymore.  At his two month checkup this morning, he weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs 7.1 oz!  That puts him in the 92% for weight.  How ‘bout another HOLY COW? He’s measuring at 23 ¼” tall (57%) and 16 ½” head circumference (87%).  He is seriously living up to my nickname for him - Pillsbury Dough Baby!  :-)

The good news from this morning’s visit is that the slight heart murmur that the doctor heard at his 1 month visit was undetectable today.  Phew!  We also had a few newbie parent concerns about some wheezing we had heard (just some normal congestion), his goopy eyes (clogged tear ducts which is very common), and some spit up issues (again, just normal baby reflux), but everything checked out just fine.  The pediatrician couldn’t say enough good things about how he is doing.

It’s absolutely incredible to me is how alert he’s gotten.  It seems like every day he’s just a little more alert to and interested in the things around him.  He tracks our movement and voices as we move around him.  He’s smiling and cooing a lot more regularly now.  In fact, he made what seemed to be a huge developmental leap forward while my parents were here this weekend.  He’d been smiling a little here and there, but it wasn’t very consistent.  But, apparently something about my Dad just really amused him.  Every time Daddy would hold him and make faces at him, he would respond by smiling and laughing.   Now we play the “where’s happy baby?” game and it’s not hard at all to get him to smile, giggle, & coo.  He seems to love a little tickle on the tummy.

Speaking of tummies … we’ve been doing a little more tummy time with him.  He doesn’t like being on the floor.  It seems to frustrate him.  So, we mostly do it with him on our chests, and it’s amazing how far and long he can hold his head up.  He seems so curious to see what’s around him.  He also totally digs sitting up on our laps (especially Dad’s).  That actually calms him down when he’s upset more so than sometimes than trying to rock him. 

Probably the most common question I get these days is how long is he sleeping at night?  The answer - 7 ½ to 8 hours!  Not having any experience (obviously), I didn’t realize how lucky we were until I started answering that question and people’s jaws were dropping.  Then the misery filled stories of babies not sleeping through the night for a year (or more!) helped me to understand that we are so incredibly fortunate.  Our very good friends and next door neighbors, Matt & Aimee, have 4 (yes, 4!) beautiful children, and they told us from the beginning that getting Logan on a schedule would be the savior of our sanity.  Oh, such wisdom from experience!  They were sooooo right!  It took a few tough days right around 5 weeks to get him on that schedule, but it has paid off big time.  Of course, there is another side to that story.  When he gets off his schedule, he’s a very cranky camper.  So, we do everything we can to maintain that schedule.  It’s a little bit of a sacrifice for us every now and then but well worth the nights of sleep and the days of a happy baby. 

I’ll sign off on our precious Logan’s 2 month update by sharing this gorgeous picture that Angie took of him this past weekend:

 

Oh, I can't resist ... here's another one:

Mommy Goes Back to Work & Logan Starts Childcare

Last Monday was a momentous day - I went back to work full time (I’ve been working with several clients on an as needed basis), and Logan spent his first day with his new nanny.  OMG!  To make matters even freakier, I not only went back to work I left town on Sunday to attend Keller Williams Mega Agent Camp, a 2 day conference in Austin. 

Leaving town was a double edged sword - on one side, it was a great way to get me re-motivated as I get back into the swing of my business.  On the other side, it was really tough being away from Logan for the first time for more than a few hours (and it’s always hard being away from Chris).  Lots of people asked how I handled it.  The truth is that I handled it pretty okay.  I stayed pretty busy, as is the usual case for these kinds of events.  And, Sunday and Monday night - with the help of my roomie, Cindy P - I had a few drinks to help me relax about the whole situation.  :-)

So, Chris was in charge of dropping Logan off with Crystal, the nanny, on Monday & Tuesday morning.  I was tickled that the conference wrapped up early enough on Tuesday that I got home in time to pick him up and love on him for the rest of the evening! 

Interestingly, Wednesday was actually much harder than being gone Monday & Tuesday.  You see, Logan isn’t in a day care … he’s right next door at my neighbor’s house!!!  A little explanation is probably necessary - We are really fortunate that our neighbor had worked out an agreement with Crystal at the beginning of the summer such that she actually comes to their house to watch their kids.  During the summer, all 4 of their kiddos were at home, but 2 of them went back to school last Monday which left a vacancy that Logan was able to fill.  It doesn’t get much more convenient than that, does it?  Except that on Wednesday I had a huge struggle.  Since I work from home, I had to deal with the fact that my little man was right next door.  In theory, I could have popped over at any time to love on him.  Of course, that would have defeated the purpose of having him in childcare, wouldn’t it?  Ugh!

I said from the beginning that what I wanted when I put the little man in childcare was to be able to look forward to the time when I get to pick him up and spend the evening with him and Chris.  Well, I got my wish!  Now, I work like a mad woman to get everything done before 5:25 when I head over to pick him up so that when I bring him home, all we have to do is hang out together. 

The only thing I still have to get over is this completely irrational fear that he’s going to start thinking Crystal is his Mommy.  That probably won’t happen until I actually hear him call me “mommy”.  Oh, well.  That’s my own psychosis to deal with.  In the meantime, I know he’s well cared for and that’s what counts, right?

Anatomy of a Labor Day Weekend

In the grand scheme of weekends, I’d dub this one pretty close to perfect -

Saturday was the “labor” part of the weekend.  We spent the day taking care of chores around the  house and running a few errands.  Nothing glamorous, but it was good to spend the day together.

Sunday afternoon was spent catching up on some seriously neglected projects in my studio with Angie.  She brought her camera over and snapped a great photo of Logan while she was here.   Jim and Veronica joined us for dinner and an evening of hanging out.

Monday was generally a lazy day - as is amply demonstrated by this shot of Chris and Logan just kickin’ it on the couch:

I spent some more time sorting photos in an effort to not get too far behind on Logan’s baby album and then I actually finished my latest book (Acheron). 

Based on this weekend, I’m thoroughly convinced that we need to get to a 4 day work week so that every weekend is a 3 day weekend.  What do you think?

Tall, Frosty Fridays

A new tradition has come to being in the Reed household.  We like to call it Tall, Frosty Fridays.  Over the last several weeks, we’ve found ourselves more often than not heading next door after work on Friday afternoons for “Cocktail Hour” at the Nylecs.  The best part of it is that it’s truly a family outing with all of the Reeds having their own version of a tall, frosty beverage. I know … I know … You’re probably wondering what tall, frosty beverage might interest an infant.  Well, here’s a glimpse of what Tall, Frost Fridays look like:

 

Yes, our little man makes no fuss over a bottle taken directly from the fridge.  Hallelujah!  No having to heat up bottles and worry about burning his little mouth. 

Does the smile on my face need any more explanation?!?!?  I thought not!  :-)

Today's Silly Onesie - Mommy's New Man

Courtesy of Aunt Angie & Uncle Jim’s visit yesterday, Logan was sporting a new silly onesie today declaring him as “Mommy’s New Man”.  All together now … awwww!

And, I can't resist posting the other couple of snapshots:

Even though he looks at me like I'm crazy, I love the fact that he's focusing on the camera.