Audrey's Blog

My Gorgeous Little Man

I'm not sure I can say this enough ... I am incredibly lucky to have a best girlfriend who is so darn talented with a camera.  I'm good at grabbing my little elph to capture cute snapshots of Logan, but she's the best when it comes to getting blow 'em-up-big-to-hang-on-the-wall photos. 

Case in point - her wonderful hubby Jim and stepdaughter Veronica offered to watch Logan so that we could have a playdate last Saturday.  We emerged for lunch to find Jim & Logan hangin' in Jim's recliner.  Angie grabbed her camera and captured this amazing image

 

Angie has started a wonderful new blog featuring her photographic finesse and creativity.  Check it out at www.pointandpray.com. 

My Christmas Q&A

Because apparently I am a mindless lemming who will follow Angie & Jim off of the nearest cliff if in the right mood, here are the answers to my Christmas Q&A:

01. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I’m lazy and terrible at wrapping – gift bags.

02. Real tree or Artificial?
Always artificial – too much mess and too many allergies to deal with real.

03. When do you put up the tree?
Family tradition is the day after Thanksgiving although with a little one we’ll probably have to do it in stages – put up the tree this weekend and decorate next Friday.

05. Do you like eggnog?
Love it in limited quantities – especially when it’s really “nogged”!  :-)

06. Favorite gift received as a child?
I have very few memories of specific gifts as a child except that the animals tended to give me parts of big gifts – i.e., one Christmas Mom & Dad got me a new stereo for my room.  I think the dog gave me headphones & the cat gave me a cassette tape. 

07. Hardest person to buy for?
It used to be my grandparents (God rest their souls).  Now I’d say Chris since both of our tastes are pretty expensive.

08. Easiest person to buy for?
Angie – she always has a great wish list to pick from.

09. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes.  My Nano (grandmother) did ceramics so I have a handmade ceramic nativity that I put out every year.  It’s actually still in the original packing - paper towels wrapping each piece and neatly laid into a shallow cardboard beer box (the kind that holds 4 – 6 packs) and lidded with another cardboard beer box.  Classy, huh?
 
10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail.  For several years, Angie & I had Christmas card making weekends.  We’ve gotten away from it in favor of family photo shoots so that we have current photos to send to everyone.  I usually take the photo and use Sam’s card templates and then include a family update letter.  Not sure if we’ll do the letter this year or not. 

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
A couple of times, I’ve gotten clothes from well meaning folks that were at least a size or 2 too small.  I keep telling myself that it’s a complement that I don’t *look* my size, but it still made me feel fat.  :-)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I have 2 …  for adults only – Badder Santa (the unrated version of Bad Santa with Billy Bob Thorton).  To watch with the kids – A Christmas Story.  The funny thing is that I haven’t seen it start to finish in years.  I always watch it in bits & pieces during the TNT marathon presentation of it. 

13. When do you start shopping?
I like to get everything done before Thanksgiving, but last year it just didn’t happen (all-day-morning sickness laid me out most of November) and this year isn’t looking much better.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Same as Angie – I’ve recycled White Elephant gifts.  One year I actually wrapped up the gift again before I put it away with the Christmas stuff.  When I pulled it out the next year, I had no memory of what it was.  I just took it to the party and was as surprised as the person who opened it. 

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Chili & tamales.  Strange, huh?  It’s a family tradition to have chili & tamales on Christmas Eve.

16. Lights on the tree?
A tree without lights???  That’s just wrong.
                                                                        
17. Favorite Christmas song?
I’m sure it should be some beautiful song celebrating the birth of our Lord & Savior, but honestly I LOVE Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song.  Am I going to hell?

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Ever since we’ve had our own house, we’ve tried to spend the holiday’s here.  Especially now that we have Logan, I don’t have any plans to travel for the holidays anytime soon.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?
Not without cheating and leaving what Angie put.  Hah!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Angel. I would prefer a star, but the Angel is a tradition in Chris’ family.
                                                                                                
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
We used to open presents with my Dad’s parents on Christmas Eve and then with my Mom’s family on Christmas morning.  When Chris and I started dating, we did Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas morning with his Dad’s family and Christmas afternoon with his mom’s family.   It was exhausting!  Now, we’re down to just Christmas morning. 

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
The fact that I saw the first Christmas commercial (for WalMart) the day after Halloween.  That’s just wrong.  Christmas season starts that day after Thanksgiving.  I don’t care when Thanksgiving is or how bad the economy.  That’s just how it’s supposed to be.  (sorry for the rant)

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
My tree doesn’t have a theme other than there are no generic ball ornaments on my tree.  They all have some kind of meaning.  Lots of them are handmade, there is a crazy assortment of Hallmark ornaments, many of them were gifts.  I love my tree!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Again – Chili & tamales.  I’m not a big turkey fan.  I’d rather have honey baked spiral sliced ham if I’m having a “traditional” meal. 

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I honestly haven’t thought about it too much.  There are some little things I want, but I’m thinking that I want to do some decorating of my house so maybe stuff along those lines. 

Hmmm ... do I feel more in the holiday spirit?  Ask me next Friday! (see #22)  ;-)

Logan's 4 Month Update

Even though Logan still hasn’t completely adjusted to the time change and is waking up any time between 6:30 & 7:00 (instead of what *was* his normal time of 7:30), he almost always is in an incredibly good mood when he wakes up and after his breakfast.  This morning was no exception.

At 4 months, he’s almost 18 pounds.  He’s still not a fan of tummy time, but he’s getting a little stronger and would prefer to be helped so that he can “stand” up.  When he is on his tummy, he’s like a little inch worm.  He works his legs until they push him forward.  Usually he ends up face planting into the floor, but I’m sure he’ll get the hang of arm/leg cooperation necessary for crawling way before we’re ready!

He talks a ton (Chris says he gets that from me?) and has the most adorable laugh.  He has started spending a lot of his waking time in his activity center and has really gotten the hang of the noise making toys on it (just my luck, right?).  

He mostly sleeps through the night although in the last month, we’ve struggled with several nighttime issues that were waking him up like wet diapers (thank God for Huggies Overnights!), a stuffy nose (a humidifier and Vicks on his feet solved that problem), and getting too cold (oops - we sleep with it pretty cool in the house).  It seems like we’re back on track with him only fussing maybe once during the night and then going back to sleep. 

He’s completely given up a pacifier and now thinks his hands are the yummiest things around.  He sucks his thumb every so often but hasn’t learned to make a fist when he does it, so his fingers end up in his eyes.  His finger nails are like talons no matter how closely trimmed we keep them.  So, about once a week, we find a new, fresh gash on his face where he’s been sucking on his hand or thumb and scratched himself.  He’s drooling like a beast now, and it seems like he’s starting to teethe just a little.  If you put something in his mouth, instead of sucking on it, he tries to gnaw on it.  We’ve given him a teething ring a couple of times, and the face he makes when he gums it is pretty funny.  Luckily, he doesn’t seem to be in any pain yet, but I’m sure it’s coming. 

Our big challenge right now is learning how to help him go to sleep without getting really, really upset.  During the day, it seems that he’ll lie down and fall asleep very peacefully.  Sometimes he passes out wherever he happens to be at the time …

… whether it’s the couch …

(Jester was just checking on him.)

… or his activity center …

It’s quite obvious that he inherited his father’s sleep gene! 

But when bedtime comes, he seems to fight it … A LOT.  Our theory is that we’re letting him get too tired and grumpy before we put him down and that if we laid him down a little earlier he might drift off more peacefully like he does during the day.  We tried it last night, and it worked!  We're keeping our fingers crossed that we've figured it out.  It's hard to see & hear him so upset.

Overall, he still qualifies as a fat & happy baby.  And, CPS hasn’t taken him away from us yet so I guess we still qualify as okay parents.  Yea!

In honor of his 4 month birthday, I thought I’d share a little bit of happy baby with you today.  I can 99.9% guarantee that’ll you won’t be able to keep yourself from smiling if you watch this.  Enjoy!

Logan’s 1st Halloween

Logan's 1st Halloween was pretty low key.  We didn't think that trick-or-treating was really something a not-quite-4-month-old could get into, so we decided to hang out on our front porch with our little pumpkin and a couple of adult beverages and hand out candy to the neighborhood kids.  Apparently, Chris’ costume was that of beach bum.  :-)