Halfway to a Year!

Ace,

You are a half of a year old. How did that happen? It seems like we just blinked our eyes and here we are a half of year as  your parents. Honestly, it has been the best six months of our lives.

This month was very very busy for you. On top of it being busy, Savannah has been experiencing record breaking heat! There have been days when you were just in your shirt sleeves and we have had to turn the air conditioning on. It has been so warm that even OG and Grampy are having a lack of snow at their house. So much for your snow suit!

During your sixth month we celebrated your very first Christmas. We made the long drive to Indiana/Michigan for the second time in your short life! We spent time with all of our great grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. You were such a good boy and enjoyed all of the attention. You and I spent an extra week in Michigan and you got to meet lots of my friends, too. You were asleep at midnight on New Year's Eve but enjoyed playing with your cousins that night before you went to bed. We had a great visit and Aunt Biz even came back to Georgia with us!

You got not one, not two, not three but FOUR of your top teeth in the same week while we were in Michigan. True to your sweet and laid back self, you never let out a peep. With all of these teeth you now require a tooth brush!  We have to get you off on the right foot with  your dental hygiene. You are also a big growing boy! At your sixth month appointment you weighed in at 21 pounds 13 ounces and were 28 inches long!

Daddy started a new job this month which will for sure make a huge impact on your life. Not only is it a big promotion for him but he will be home a lot more than he was before. This is awesome! Right before he started this new job he got really sick and Uncle Stu had to babysit  you so mommy could take Daddy to the hospital. You were a really great little buddy for your very first babysitter!

The highlight of this month for me that stands out above everything was your very first swim! We took you to the pool at our hotel on Christmas Eve and your LOVED it. It was as if you knew that all the time I was pregnant with you that we were swimming. We laid you on your back you were not even scared. I know this will be the start of a life long love of the water and that makes me so happy!

Can't wait to see what the second half of this year brings us!

Love,

Mommy

5 months!

Ace,

Time has gotten away from me! I have not had a chance to write about little you at five months and your sixth month birthday is creeping up on us! Luckily, I keep a journal all and write in it everyday to help me remember.

Your fifth month was quite an adventure! It included your very first Halloween (you were a duck), a visit from your Grandma Sharon, two Citadel football games, the Rock and Roll marathon in our neighborhood, the suprise arrival of Aunt Biz, a bad upper respitatory infection and the arrival of not one but TWO teeth!! You are are incredibly social and adaptable and so much enjoy conversation and spending time with people. It makes taking you places so easy and so much fun. At 5 months, you weigh 17lbs, 14oz. This means you have gained ten whole pounds since you were born! You can also roll from your belly to your back.

Your daily routine consists of waking up between 6-6:30. You are all smiles when I pick you up out of your bassinet. At five months, you were still sleeping in the bassinet in mommy and daddy's room. You take a bottle in the morning then hang out in your seat in the bathroom to get some steam to help your never ending conjestion and then play in your jump jump while mom gets ready. We leave for the Y around 8:00 or so and you always fall asleep as soon as we turn into Kensington Park. I carry you and your HEAVY seat into my office where you usually nap for about an hour. Next you head to your classroom for the day. I always come and spend some time with you right after lunch. We head home around 4:30 and just like our way in, you fall asleep as soon as we turn on DeRenne. You sleep in your carrier for about another hour in the evening while I clean your bottles and get chores done. You usually wake up around 6 or so to eat dinner which is cereal and a 6 oz. bottle. Dinner is followed by a bath, some play time, story time and cuddle time with mommy. Then as if you are a timer, you are sleeping by 7:00-7:30 at the very latest. I pick you up for a bottle around 10 but you stay sleeping all the way until the morning!

The night you got your first tooth is one for the record books. We were in Charleston at Dan and Stef's for Citadel homecoming. You were your normal self during the day and ate your dinner like a champ. I put you to bed with no difficulty and you were off to dreamland. When we got you up for your late night bottle, you fussed a lot before laying back down. You were up again at midnight. Daddy and I thought you were hungry so we fed you again. Then at 1:30, you were up again....screaming! Not knowing what was wrong, we tried a smaller bottle to see if that would pacify you. It worked until about 4 when you got up again! We prepared yet another bottle, you drank the whole thing but then just would not calm down. Finally, daddy put you in your seat and drove you around so you could sleep. It wasn't until we got home to Savannah and touched your gums that we realized we had mistaken hunger for a tooth!!

We enjoy your giggles, your smiles and your super sweet personality! You are such a happy baby and we so enjoy being your parents!

Love,

Mom

i love you stinky face

have you read the book, "i love you stinky face"? my mom gave me the book after ace was born and we brought it back to savannah and stuck it on the book shelf. the other night i found it buried back behind a few other  books and remembered that we had not read it yet. the book is about a little boy and his mom. as the mom is putting the little guy to bed at night, he is asking her all kinds of "what if i were a..." questions. for each question she has a sweet and loving response to reassure him that no matter who is or what he is, she will always love him and take care of him. such a wonderful message. needless to say, it is my new favorite book and i have read it to ace for the last few nights straight.

see here is the thing, being a parent will rock your world. there are so many ups and downs in a twenty four hour period that sometimes your head feels twenty steps behind your body. ace is a buddy of many personalities. he laughs, he screams, he laughs, he doesn't want to be put down, he laughs. etc. but, in any of those scenarios, i love his stinky face so much. i love him so much it isn't even funny. i love him so much it scares me. afterall, he is the only person in this whole world who knows what my heart beat sounds like from the inside. i would do anything for him. comb the snarls out of his hair, build a house by a swamp if he turned into a swamp creature, give him a bath and brush his teeth if he were a smelly skunk. i love his stinky face so much!

being a parent rocks my face off! it is the the most awesome rollercoaster that i was afraid to ride but now that i am on it, i never want to get off. i can't thank God enough for Ace and all of my blessings. i find myself completely overwhelmed to the point of tears when i think about all of my blessings and the amazing things in my life. how did Aaron and I get so lucky?

4 months

Ace,

As I sit here trying to remember all of the wonderful highlights of your fourth month, I can hardly come to terms with the fact that four months of time have passed since you entered our lives. You continue to amaze me everyday with your evolving little personality.

Sadly, you have been sick for most of your fourth month of life. You had a cold and we thought it went away. Then, you got sent home from daycare because your eyes were a total mess and you were extra fussy. I took you to see Dr. Stone and he determined that you had a sinus infection. We got you some meds and you started to get better. Then, the meds caused you to have thursh so we went back to Dr. Stone. You also got new symptoms of a new cold! More medicine! I have to say though, you remained quite happy through the whole process and being sick didn't really seem to bother you.

Ashley, Lyla and Neil came to visit us at the house one afternoon. You loved all of the attention! You also started a new daycare at the Y with mommy this month. Now you come to work with me everyday and your little classroom is right down the hall. This last week was the first week that room was open and you LOVE it! You came home so tired every night and were in bed before 6:15! Your teachers, Miss Krista and Miss Andrea are great and I am so happy that you are in the building! I even rocked you to sleep one afternoon and then went back to working on my reports. We are really blessed.

You are still nursing and taking a bottle at most feedings. Your bottles are 6oz now though! You are a very hungry little boy and you are not afraid to tell us! You are even beginning to try to hold your bottle on your own. Your sleep schedule is AMAZING. We put you down around 7:00 pm each night and you sleep straight through to the morning with just a little wakeup for a late night bottle.

Daddy and I bought you a jump jump this month and you LOVE it. You love to jump up and down and get quite excited when the music plays. I noticied the other day that you are now noticing how the different toys on the jump jump operate too! You also love your play mat and play very nicely on your own for quite awhile when we put you down to play. You can grab toys and shake them too!

Ace, this was the month that you started to laugh out loud and what a joy that brought to Mommy and Daddy. You laugh at yourself in the mirror, at the funny faces mommy and daddy make and often times at nothing! You are such a happy little boy! Everyone at the Y comments on how social you are too! Daddy and I call you the Mayor of the Y. Dad thinks you are going to be a politician because you like to give little speeches to anyone who will listen to you talk.

This month you have been in LOVE with your hands. They are always in your mouth and you are always chewing on them. You love love love your hands. Your feet are also becoming a favorite. One night in the bath tub you were sitting leaning forward trying your hardest to figure out exactly what your feet were. So cute! You can roll from your back to your side but are not quite rolling over yet. Ace, you still really hate tummy time but we do our best to get some in everyday. Your teachers at daycare have been working on it with you too. Sometimes we fly you around the house like an airplane and do tummy time that way.  You blow raspberries and bubbles and are generally happy all day long.

You are learning and changing more and more everyday. I love to watch the world through your eyes because you are seeing so many things for the very first time. I feel so lucky to be your mom and thank God for you every night before I close my eyes.

I love you little buddy!

Love,

Mommy

3 months = 1 year

Ace,

You are three months old! I can't even believe it. I feel like I just blinked my eyes and time flew by. You are getting bigger and bigger by the day. Putting you down to sleep at night I find myself wondering if you will look different in the morning.

At three months old you are more talkative then ever. You spend a lot of  your time awake talking away. Sometimes the sounds are more like cooing and sometimes they have definite meaning and purpose to you. Robert at my office has a granddaughter who is two months older then you. He has a video on his cell phone of her talking in her crib and when he plays it for you, you talk back! I guess you get the drift of what she is saying.

You are a very social little person. I can hand you off to anyone at work and you don't cry or fuss. You especially love Susan and she spends a lot of time talking  with you. I suspect this social behavior comes as a result of your time at daycare. I want you to be aware of strangers but not be afraid of other people and we seem to be headed in the right direction on this.

You have a little yellow blanket that you have grown very fond of. You love to pull it up to your face and then pull it back down over and over again. It is the only "toy" that you are playing with. Your eye and hand coordination are really starting to develop now and I don't think it will be long before you are shaking toys and holding on to things. In the morning before we leave you do like to grab on to my hair and my clothing while you are laying on your changing table.

Sleep is one thing that you are very good at and we could not be happier. We have you on a pretty good sleep schedule and I think that helps. You go down for the night every evening between 7:30 and 8:00. Most mornings I have to wake you up between 5:45-6:00 and I usually have to go in and wake you up. The only time you don't like to sleep is during the day. We struggle with you to to take naps but the teachers at day care get you to sleep for close to 3 hours most days. You really are a puzzling little person.

You got sick for the very first time this month too. We took you to the doctor for a checkup on your neck and you were running a little fever. That was on a Thursday and then over the weekend you developed a cough. The cough was terrible and when you cough it effects your whole little body. It has been about three weeks since the cough first started and it is just now starting to get better. You were a little trooper through the whole illness which  Dr. Stone said was just a little cold.

Ace, you  had a really great third month. Spencer and Aunt Stef came down from Charleston for a sleepover. You went over to Lila and Duke's for a cookout. We watched the 10 year anniversary of the September 11th attacks on television. I hope you never have to experience something like that in your lifetime. We went on walks because the temperature is finally starting to cool down. And, you spend a lot time smiling.

My favorite part of your third month was the smiles.When you smile, you smile with your entire face. You open you mouth really wide and even smile with your eyes. I find you smiling in the morning when I go to get you out of your bed. I find you smiling when I check on you after I get out of the shower. You smile when I pick you up from daycare, change your diaper, and put you in your car seat. You are such a happy baby!

We celebrated your three month birthday with a little birthday party. We adopted and adapted a Korean tradition to celebrate because you are not technically a year old. I can't believe that a year ago you were the size of a grain of rice and growing quietly in my tummy. We took three envelopes and put money, ribbon and paper each in an envelope. We let you choose with your little hands and the envelope you picked had a ribbon in it. This represents a long life. What more could a mama ask for!

I love you so much, Ace! Here we go to month 4!

Love,

Mom

my little guy

my little guy is so sweet! this morning i got him out of the car when we got to the Y and he was sound asleep. i took him inside to his little classroom and he was still sleeping. i handed off his bottles, diapers, bag, paci and instructions for the day. i looked down at him and he was staring up at me and smiling. MELTING MY HEART!

two months old.

ace,

time is getting away from mama so quickly. it seems like i blinked my eyes and here you are, 10 weeks old. your second month of life was so much fun and i want to make sure that we take a second to remember all of the little things about two month old you.

you are an all business baby. from smiles to serious faces, you change in the blink of an eye. you really started to smile while we were on our trip home to Michigan and Indiana. I can't think of a better time for you to have started with your extreme cuteness. you greet mommy in the morning with a face full of smiles but are all business when it is time to eat or hang out in your swing.

we spent two weeks up north when you were five and six weeks old. you were such a trooper! the car ride was your favorite part and you travelled over 2500 miles in a two week time period. mountain pressure change didn't even bother your little ears. you slept the majority of the trip waking only to eat or have your diaper changed. you were so lucky to spend time with all of your great grandparents, hang out with lots of aunts and uncles, meet your GRAMPY and aunt biz, take a big over night trip to Mackinac Island and have two parties that were all about you. daddy and i decided that we will try hard to take you home every summer because summer time in the Midwest is the place to be!

it was when we were home that you started sleeping through the night too. you take a bottle and nurse around 9:00 pm and then sleep all the way until 6:00 am! the parents of your other little buddies are jealous. you are such a good sleeper! you are still sleeping in your little bassinet but i think you will be heading to your crib soon. i am just not ready to let you go yet!

one of the biggest adventures of your second month was going to work with mommy! after eight weeks of mama and ace time, we had to venture out and rejoin the real world again. you go to mother's morning out in the morning from 8-1 and then hang out with mommy in the afternoon. you have been such a trooper! you hardly ever cry and are very social. two to three days a week i have been taking you to full day day care at the west chatham ymca. i miss you terribly while you are away but you seem to be adjusting well. you were to tired the first few days i took you out there that you could barely stay awake to eat at 6:00!

we went to your two month appointment last week with Dr. Stone. you now weight 12 pounds 10 ounces and are 24 inches long! Dr. Stone said you are very healthy and growing nicely. You are in the 66% percentile for weight and the 80% percentile for height. When Nurse Lynn came to give you your shots you were just talking away. As soon as she jabbed you with the first needle you let out a huge scream but she was quick. As soon as she finished, I picked you up and you were all done crying. So brave!  I think it might be from the orange socks I put on you to give you super powers.

ace, you are such a joy! daddy and i love you more and more and more each day. we are eating up everything little thing you do. you get more and more independent every day but you still love to snuggle and love on us whenever we want!

month three will surely be packed full of great adventures!

i love you!

mommy