Oops!

I guess I am getting kind of bad at posting updates! It just seems that every time there is a minute to sit down and write, there is always something else I should be doing instead, like laundry, dishes, etc. : ) Oh well! So, in the past few weeks, these are the things our lil' guy has begun to do: he has started giggling when we tickle him, which is the best sound in the entire world!! He has also started keeping his legs bent to his stomach when we change his diaper...such a little and insignificant thing, but something I definitely notice, hehe. He also learned how to shriek/scream...he doesn't do it all the time, but it is really funny...for now! : ) I know later on when he does it all the time, we won't view it that way, but for now, it's something to laugh at. He also started giggling at random times- he seems to really enjoy sitting in my lap while I play on the computer...I usually have music on, and I think he likes to look at the screen as I scroll down the web pages. Pretty cute! Also, my parents bought us a baby scale last week, so we can know how much he weighs at any time. Pretty great! We are going to start weighing him every Sunday. Today he weighs 15 lbs 11 oz. Big boy!! He is going to be 17 weeks old (4 months) this week! Wow!! This past Monday he started a 4 hour schedule where he is awake for 2 hours and sleeps 2 hours...the big change is he is taking an official morning nap and official afternoon nap. He has done pretty well on it! And then just a few days ago he moved from taking baths in his baby bathtub that sits on our bathroom counter to taking baths in our spa tub! For right now, I get in with him because it is much easier to bathe him that way than sitting bending over on my knees...he had to change tubs because he had gotten too long for his baby bathtub! He is going to be tall like his daddy, I think. :) When he can sit up on his own without any help, he can start taking baths in the kitchen sink...we are looking forward to that! He is still constantly sucking his thumb...he mostly does it while he is putting himself to sleep and sometimes while he is sleeping. He has an official first "blankie", which is a cloth diaper we use as a burp cloth, haha! He loves to hold it in one hand and suck his thumb with the other. It is really cute!

That's about all of his updates lately! Anytime he starts doing something new or something changes, I write it on my wall calendar. I think that is easier than writing it in his baby book, and it is more precise because then I know exactly what day it happened on as well. This Thursday, May 28, is mine and Cody's 4 year anniversary!! Also, this Wednesday is one year exactly to the day we found out we were going to have a baby! That was such an exciting moment. :) It is amazing to think one year has passed since then. We are very grateful for God's blessings!

Quality time at home!

We have spent a lot of quality time at home lately, due to this yucky swine flu outbreak. I am a HUGE hypochondriac and do not want to take any chances at all at exposing River...which also means I am not going anywhere, too...because if I caught it, there would be no way for River not to, also! I even called the doctor this past Monday and cancelled River's appointment to get some of his shots (we split up the shots he was supposed to get at 2 months into two different appointments- this was the second of those appt's. I didn't want to take him into a place where sick kids gather!) Soooo.........lots of time to hang out at the house and play!! I don't really get too (terribly much) tired of being at home because we are still taking walks every night, and that way we get to get out and see the neighborhood and get some fresh air and exercise. I love taking walks in the evenings with Cody, River and Mattie! River is now riding in his stroller without sitting in the car seat. We just lie him down and he rides around the neighborhood comfy and gets a great view of the sky...he loves it! He has also started really expressing himself through more and more cooing. When he is on his back on his Baby Einstein playmat, he does these really loud "gorilla coos" (we call them) that are a bunch of "Oh's" and "Oooo's" that last a long time and are loud....sooo cute! Let's see...he also started blowing bubbles with his spit and he is drooling a lot, too, haha. He is putting more things in his mouth, and sucking his thumb A LOT!! He has really begun to suck his thumb to help put himself to sleep, which we love. He also scoots around on his playmat some...he started doing this a few days ago, to where he will start out facing one way, and by the time I pick him up, he has turned around 180 degrees! He doesn't do this a lot, but I am excited about it being a sign of him becoming more mobile! Yesterday we got a Baby Einstein "exersaucer" from my sister and put River in it...he likes it, I think. He still doesn't fit in it too well, but can sit up in it and likes to look at the different things on it.

Cody and I have gotten so much better at eating at home since we had River....we love eating at home now! Before River, we usually ate out or picked up food and brought it home six if not all seven nights of the week....and now, we hardly ever eat out or pick up food! Cody has gotten really good at making chicken alfredo and steaks. Those are two of my fav meals right now. Last night he made home-made lasagna and on Friday he made taco's with guacamole and cheese dip...yummmm!!!! We also usually eat either hot dogs, chili cheese dogs, or brawts or sausages on the grill once a week : ) Oh and we also are fans of pop-in-the-oven fish sticks, chicken strips or steak fingers, haha! River will definitely get to enjoy eating like a kid in our house, considering his parents still do!! ; ) I would say I am getting better at cooking, but in reality Cody is still the one who is doing most of it. He gets home at 5:00, which is the beginning of River's wake time (after eating at 4:30), so he starts dinner when he gets home while River and I hang out in the kitchen and watch/play.

I can't believe it is already May, River is going to be 14 weeks old this week, and summer is fast approaching! Time is flying! I keep thinking "I can't wait until River is crawling" or "I can't wait until he is sleeping for 12 hours at night", etc, but I am trying really hard to just stop and enjoy each day and each stage he is in. He honestly is a very easy baby and very laid back, which I am so thankful for. He is such a blessing and I am so in love with that little guy...and I really love this time right now, where we have a routine down and can just breathe and enjoy this time together. I know once he starts crawling, pretty soon he will be walking and it gets hectic! Life is great and things are wonderful with us...I couldn't ask for anything more right now! = - )

New things!

Writing time! Let's see...since I last wrote, River has started doing a few new (little) things. He has quit sucking his thumb and fists so much, and now has started sucking on his bottom lip a lot! Weird! It makes him look pretty funny when he is doing it and leaves slobber on under his mouth, haha. But there isn't really anything we can do about it, so if it provides him comfort, we are happy! He has also started rubbing his eyes with his fists at night when he gets sleepy...he looks SO adorable doing it, too! I love it. Isn't it funny how these teeny little things are so noticeable and adorable when it is your child doing them? : )

We have been putting him in his room to sleep all night in his crib for about 2 and a half weeks now...he does great! He goes to sleep at 11 and I go in and get him up at 7:15...some mornings when I go in to get him, he is asleep, and others times he is lying there watching his ceiling fan! He is such a happy and cuddly baby in the mornings...I love getting him up, feeding him and then just lying in bed with him and cuddling. He talks a lot in the mornings, too. I think he is telling me all about the dreams he had the night before! : )

Cody and I are getting a lot of exercise lately! Well...the lazy kind, I guess. River falls asleep anywhere between 6:00 and 6:15pm for a short nap, just long enough for us to eat a quick dinner. He sleeps for 30 minutes exactly, then wakes up and HAS to be held or right next to us until 7:30 when he eats next. So, we use this time to put him in the stroller and take him and Mattie for a walk if it is nice enough out. Lately it has been, so if you are in our neighborhood between 6:30 and 7:30 pm, you might see us pushing out lil guy around! I guess it is a sort of work out, b/c he gets heavier every day, and there are some hills we push him up! In any case, it is a fun way to get him through his fussy time of day.

He also got a new chair called a Bumbo seat last Friday. It helps him to learn to keep his neck up better and helps him with learning how to sit up. He enjoys sitting in it!!

We have been taking him out a bit more, too! We still love to go out to dinner or lunch with him during his nap time at either 12 or 6...he usually does pretty good at the restaurants. I've also been taking him to visit people during the weekdays, too. He went and visited with his great grandparents Mimi and Papa last week, and I took him up to Andy Woods! He has also been to see my parents and Cody's parents a few times, too. This past week he swung outside at my mom's house...his first time to swing. He loved it! So we brought a swing home and put it up in our backyard...fun times!! I look forward to taking him down to Bergfeld park to swing some too, and play.

Busy times!

Wow! It has been awhile since I have written...we have had a busy past couple of days I guess. : )

Cody was off on Good Friday, and we ended up making the most of it. We started off the day taking our usual 8:30-10:00 nap, then took River over to my parents' house for a surprise visit. This was his third time to go to Granny and G-pa's house. We sat around and visited for awhile, then we met Cody's parent's for lunch at Jersey Mike's. We sat outside in the sun, which was fantastic...I even got a little sun on my shoulders and face! Good 'ole Vitamin D! After that, we took River home, fed him, played and then put him down for his 2:45 nap. Well then Austin called Cody and said he and Emily were taking their 3 dogs out to Greenbriar, which is Austin's family's lake house behind Lindsey Park. That is a really special place and we love going there. I hadn't been in a long time, and since it was such a nice afternoon, we just couldn't resist. This was probably a selfish thing for us to do, but we woke poor River up from his deep sleep, and put him in his carseat and took him out to Greenbriar about 3:15...he did NOT like being woke up after only sleeping 30 minutes. Poor guy. Once we got out to the lake (we took Mattie, too), we went down to the docks and lounged around, visiting with Emily and Austin. River was a bit fussy off and on, but I think he had a good time. We put down the big picnic blanket we got from Babies R Us as a shower gift and relaxed. Soon it was 4:30, which is River's feeding time...I had thought we would be home by that time, so I couldn't believe it when Cody came up to me and told me it was time for River to eat!! I had never fed him away from home before! However, it went just fine and now I am glad that his first time to eat away from home was there...pretty special memory! We left the lake about 5:30 and decided to go out to dinner after that, so we met up with Cody's parents again! We ate at Jucy's; yummy! Then, we left there about 6:50...right in the middle of River's fussy time. He was great at the restaurant but we knew he would get fussy if we just went home and tried to play with him, so instead, as soon as we got home, we plopped him in his stroller and walked around the neighborhood for 30 minutes, until 7:30, which is when he eats again! Whew!!! It was a long and tiring and wonderful day, one of which all three (four, if you count Mattie) were all exhausted from! Needless to say, we payed for it that night, when we were trying to get the babe to sleep for his 8:45-10:45 nap. Usually we rock Riv for a few minutes at this time and he gets settled down pretty easily. However, this time, he cried for a good 30 minutes before calming down! He had been way overstimulated...but, what a great day it was! We decided not to do that again until he was a bit older, but I am glad we did make the most of his rare day off. : )

Easter Sunday was a fun day with the fam. We spent the late morning/early afternoon at my sister and bro-n-law's house. My 2 1/2 yr. old nephew Ian loves getting to spend time with River. Ian is such a hoot and is always entertaining to watch. He is talking up a storm and you never know what he is going to say! He loved getting to sit on the couch and hold River. River took his first "official" nap that afternoon at her house (the kind were I actually went and laid him down in the back room...) and he did great! He slept the entire time! After lunch and feeding River, we went over to Cody's parent's house for the afternoon. Cody's brother Matt and his wife Sarah came in town from Austin with their 15 month old son Felix, and this was our first time to visit with them since River was 3 days old. Felix LOVED getting to be with River...he kept on going over to hug him and love on him...so sweet! River went down for his 3:00 nap and again slept the whole time! What a precious Easter gift for his parents...b/c I was worried all week about him not doing well being gone all day...Felix hunted Easter eggs outside and we had a very good Easter dinner- homemade fried chicken with peas, mashed potatoes and rolls....yummm!! I took River home that night at 8:15 and he went to sleep really easily for his last evening nap! It was a great ending to a fun Easter!!

Let's see...he has been cooing and talking more than ever this past week...even some "coo yells" that are pretty loud and expressive and reallllyy cute!! : ) He also finally found his thumb!! Easter night I was rocking him to sleep and I looked down, thinking he was again sucking on his fist like he has been a lot for the past few weeks. Anyways, he was sucking on his right thumb! And he has been doing it a lot the past two days since. So cute! :)

A good week so far

It has been a fun week so far. Fun, but laid back. : ) We took family pics down the street in our neighbors backyard Monday night. My parents and sister, brother n law and nephew were there, and Cody's parents, too. It went well and River did great but of course, he is only 2 months old! I think most 8 week old babies are pretty compliant most of the time, right? : ) It's when they turn 2 and think they run the world things will get a bit harder, hehe. Anyways, last night, Cody's great aunt Ann came in town to meet River so we all went out to eat at the new Bruno's. River does really well when he is outside, so we sat out on the patio and he was just fine! We got to enjoy our entire meal while he sat in his car seat listening to our conversation and watching the sky. I still rarely get out, so even something as simple as going to dinner and successfully making it through without River getting fussy is a huge thing to me! He has been working more on finding his thumb this week. I will turn on the monitor when he is napping and just watch him as he sucks on his hand during his sleep. So cute!! He is still sleeping about 5.5 hours at night, then waking up to eat, then sleeping til we get him up at 7:30. The other night when he slept for 7 hours still remains to be a fluke, but we are still hoping more nights like those aren't too much further around the corner!! He still sleeps swaddled at night, but during the day he is unswaddled for his naps and sleeps in a "sleep sack"...they are the coolest things! It is basically a sleeveless blanket that goes on over their onesie or gown or whatever they are wearing, and zips up on them and serves as a blanket. That way you don't have to cover them up with anything. It works great for River because he always kicked off any blanket we had on him. I think this weekend we will experiment with letting him sleep in that at night verses being swaddled, and see how that goes.

We took him to the doc on Monday for his 2 month checkup...he weighed 13 lbs 15 oz!!! Bigger than Cody and I had guessed. Apparently Breedlove baby boys are just big...Cody and his brother Matt were big babies, and River's cousin Felix is a big baby, too. We also found out the "dry skin" he had on his scalp, forehead and sides of his face are cradle cap. Apparently it is very common; 50% of all babes get it. So, I have to put hyrdocortisone cream on his face 3 times a day and use anti dandruff shampoo on him, until it goes away. The cream has already really helped his face, and with the shampoo, I think it should all go away in the next few weeks. It isn't harmful or bothersome to the baby at all (the cradle cap) but it just doesn't look great to peel like a lizard on your head and face. : )

A great weekend of visitors!

Hooray for the weekend's end! I had been absolutely dreading this weekend because Cody had to go to Houston to be in a good friend of our's wedding...and I hate staying alone in the house. In fact, I had only attempted it once and that was the worst night's sleep I had ever gotten, so I vowed never to do it again! However, now that I have River, it was just too much to take him and spend the night anywhere else, since everything of his is already here...so I decided I needed to toughen up and try it out again. And we survived!! It actually ended up being not a bad weekend...still would have been much better if Cody had been here, but the point is that I made it through! Friday night River and I just hung out at home, and my parents stopped by for a little bit. I treated myself to some chocolate chip cookies in the oven. :) I definitely had a restless night's sleep that night...it was so hard to go through all of the normal night-time routines that we do when putting River to sleep without Cody being here. Plus the fact that I am a little scaredy cat and even though I have Mattie, an alarm, and extra "defensive" protection, I still was scared witless the entire night. However, when the sun came up Saturday morning, we were alive and well so I was pretty proud of myself!

Saturday was a great day! After mine and River's morning nap, Michele came by to visit with us. Then my parents and grandparents came over and brought me lunch. The Azalea Trail is still going on, so although it was freezing outside most of Saturday, our neighbors still toughed the cold weather to have their homemade lemonade stand in their front yard, so my dad went over and bought some for us. Yummy! Then after everyone left River and I had some quiet time, and then my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Braxton and cousins Shelby and Austin stopped by, because they were in town from Dallas. So, more visitors, which was great! Then another bit of quiet time, and then my parents came back over and we all went to dinner at the Jalapeno Tree with my fam from Dallas and sis Heather, Keir and my nephew Ian. Ian is 2 1/2 and he loves his cousin River. He is constantly saying "Yuv you River" and "Hi River, howryou" (That's "Ian" for "How are you"). So cute!! River did pretty well at dinner. He got a little bit fussy but made it through when he finally quit fighting sleep and zonked out. He spent the weekend trying to find his thumb, so he has been sucking on his fist a lot! We are hopeful that he finds his thumb, b/c right now, he likes his pacifier, but it keeps falling out, of course. So if he finds his thumb, that is a way for him to soothe himself that WON'T fall off, hehe. : ) I know, I know- it makes it harder later to break him of it, but we can worry about that then. Anything now that helps him to not cry and does not require us to constantly hold him and walk him around the house...we are allllllll for!! : ) So after dinner last night, we came home and my best friend Cristie and her husband Chris came over to meet River for the very first time! They have lived in Amsterdam for the past 2 years and just moved back to Houston. River of course loves them already! Last night was hard again to spend the night by myself, but River made it much easier for me...he slept from 10:45 until 5:45 am!! 7 hours straight! And actually, I am pretty sure he would have slept for a bit longer, but I was in so much pain (from not having fed him for so long...the downside of nursing!) that as soon as he started grunting, I ran over to pick him up, thankful I was about to feel a bit lighter! hehe. I am not expecting him to do this on a nightly basis yet, but just knowing that he has done it now gives us much more hope that he will be sleeping through the night soon! And then today, my parents came over this morning and my mom (River's Granny) babysat him while my dad and I went to the grocery store, where I yet again filled up my cart for the second time ever! It is amazing what having a baby will do to a married couple....we never filled up our cart until River came around. In fact, we usually ate out almost every night of the week, either eating at a restaurant or bringing something home. But now we are desperately looking for easy recipes and frozen dinners that are good, that won't require us to leave the house for dinner. It is pretty fun to eat at home every night! We love eating on our backyard deck since the weather has been so nice.

Cody got up extra early this morning and got home around 12, so we ate lunch outside and then his parents (Nanny and Papa) came by to visit, so we hung out in the front yard w/ the babe and watched all the people walking by to look at the flowers. Phew! I think we are taking it easy tonight and getting in some good quality fam time....I'm just so happy the weekend is over and Cody is home! It was a great weekend!

River's evening out!

Tuesday was a great and perfect day! River slept through all of his naps, not waking up even once! (He sometimes wakes up and fusses then goes back to sleep). Then, about 5:45 pm, we took River on a little outing. We don't go out much for a few reasons: one, it is still flu season and we are being the overly protective and cautious first-time parents :) and two, he has a great schedule right now and it is still fairly new, so we are working hard to keep it implemented, for his benefit and ours...so we try not to do things that will deviate from it. Anyhow, we took him out during his wake and nap time and it worked great! First, River went to meet Cody's grandfather (River will call him Big Daddy). He is at a great retirement home called Park Place that has an atrium, sky lights and a big fish tank. River loved being held by Big Daddy and he got to watch the fish and birds with his Papa (Cody's dad). Afterwards, Cody and I went out to eat out for our first family dinner, just the three of us. We were super anxious probably the entire time because this was only River's second time out to eat at a public place and we just didn't know what to expect. But, thank God, it went great! We went to Jucy's and River sat in his car seat next to me the entire time, just looking around while we enjoyed super yummy burgers and extra greasy onion rings. : ) Success!! I think we will probably try that again soon (the going out to eat at dinner time again, not burgers and onion rings). Then, we had about 30 minutes left before I had to be home to feed him, so we decided to make a surprise visit at my parents house, who live not too far from Jucy's. River had never been over there before. So, we surprised my parents and River got to hang out with Granny and G-Pa for a bit...and then we went home, fed him, had a little bit of wake time and put him down for his last evening nap. It was a great day and night!

I really can't remember much of what went on yesterday...haha. Usually my days are pretty uneventful right now- just River and I hanging out around the house, going from one nap time to the next and waiting for Daddy to come home! :) I don't mind it at all because I know it won't be like this forever. Oh, I do remember River was extra smiley yesterday. He woke up yesterday morning smiling away after his first feeding of the day and kept on smiling all the way til Daddy came home. So that was fun. I got my first picture of one of his smiles I am going to post on here...he had already almost finished smiling but I caught the end of it. He was lying on his changing table, kicking and cooing and having a great time.

Today Cody came home from lunch so I put some pizza in the oven for us to eat. I was rushing to get it out and was distracted by something, and so when I pulled the cooking stone out of the oven, I forget to put on an ovenmit. Yep. I burned three of the fingers on my right hand, on the tips. It hurt pretty bad for a while, and I have kept the fingers in a glass of ice water for the past few hours. They are just now starting to feel better. Stupid me!!! The rest of the day will hopefully go smoother. We are doing cheese dogs and brawts (spelling?) on the grill for dinner and watching Lost on dvr. Thank goodnes for dvd these days!!

Okey dokey- time for me to jump in the shower before the rug rat wakes up. : )