Christmas Morning

I think that Christmas morning is more fun for me as an adult watching my children open their presents. Shea was a lot of fun this year, and had a great time opening gifts. Her big gift was her Bitty Baby doll and accessories for it. She also got some practical items disguised as gifts such as pajamas, clothes, blankets, etc. We didn't have anywhere for her to sleep when we had company, and now her princess sofa that folds into a bed will be great for that. Nash got a push walker, basketball hoop, and some teething toys. Jon got his big Christmas gift back in November, but I made sure he had some little things under the tree. I got him some Starbuck's peppermint mocha frappaccinos, socks, undershirts, and a Homer Simpson ornament.




Shea enjoyed reading to her doll, and Nash loved his push walker.

Jon surprised me with a new camera! I LOVE to take pictures,

and I'm really going to enjoy learning how to use my camera!

Shea named her baby doll Katie, and she had a great time feeding her. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for Katie's high chair!
This little girls loves to change diapers. If only she could do the real thing! :)

Now, Shea can sing along to Rock Band with her own microphone!
Jon was very excited about his Christmas ornament.
Nash-ee-boo playing with his new rattle.

My mom always made breakfast cake for us on Christmas morning. We actually make it the night before, let the dough rise overnight, and stick it in the oven on Christmas morning. I couldn't find my recipe this year, so I was calling Mom about 11pm or midnight Christmas Eve to get it. No worries, I knew that she was still up wrapping presents too. I apparently called about 30 minutes after my brother had called for the same recipe.

Shea insisted on putting on her Ariel pajamas and princess house shoes that she got for Christmas.

Nash enjoyed chewing on his new toys.

Jon was excited about the USC polo his parents sent for him.

December Pictures

We got our tree on an incredibly cold night the week after Thanksgiving.

Ten days after we put the tree up, it finally had all the lights and ornaments up on it.

Nash puts absolutely EVERYTHING in his mouth. Despite our best efforts, he pooped pine needles many times during the month of December.

Say CHEEEEEESE!

Jon with his baby boy!


They really love each other!

Nash: 7 months

Nash is seven months old now. He's sitting up, rolling around, and attempting to crawl. He really just scoots around on his belly, but I expect that he'll be crawling soon. He's cutting his first tooth. He's weighing in at 22 lbs, 12 oz. To those of you who think he's overfed (you know who you are, hehe), Nash is still primarily breastfed, but he is getting some baby food. He only eats about 6 or 7 bites of solids each day, so that's about 1/2 a jar of food each day. He normally doesn't eat any more than that. He's just a healthy size. :)

He really is a joy. He's gotten very expressive, and we can really tell when he's happy and excited. He recognizes people now, and he gets excited to see people he knows. He is crazy about his big sister. Shea still "reads" to him almost daily, and she's always trying to hug and hold him. It melts my heart to watch them interact.

Like Father, Like Son

No words are needed here.

Nash - Six Months

Nash is six months old now. He's pretty sturdy sitting up these days, and he LOVES his sister. Shea is crazy about him too. She's a great big sister. Nash lights up at people he recognizes when they enter the room, and he's rolling and scooting all over the place.

Oh, and by the way, he's HUGE! He's 22 pounds, and he's 29 inches long. He's in the 97th percentile in height and weight, and he's wearing size 12 month clothes. Shea lasted 11 months in her infant car seat, but Nash has already outgrown it. Yikes!

I'm happy to say that I'm still breastfeeding him. No formula for this little guy. He's not doing well with bottles at daycare (normally takes 1 to 3 oz. of each of his 3 bottles), but as you can see, he's not starving. That's because he's making up for it at night. He is still waking up at least twice during the night to eat. We started him on some solids. He doesn't eat much of them yet, but that's fine because I still want breastmilk to be his primary source of nutrition. We're just getting him used to some new textures and flavors and using solids as complementary feeding.

It's gameday!

College football season is here! Let the good times begin! We rooted for Baylor on Thursday night. She loves hollering "Sic 'em Bears!" Sadly, Baylor didn't play as well as we hoped. We really do love college football around our house, and here's some pictures of us enjoying the first Saturday of games. Sic em Bears and Go Trojans!

Shea and Nash weren't really interested in College Gameday.



They were interested in cuddling with Mommy. :)



Do we have enough USC spirit around our house?

Daddy with his son. I hope for Jon's sake that he'll someday be a Trojan. :)

"Nash Pulled My Hair"

Babies are notorious hair-pullers, and Nash is no exception. His big sister has yet to grasp the reality that he's a hair-puller by nature and can do nothing about it yet. Yesterday, we had our first major hair-pulling incident with the two kids.

I was sitting on the couch holding Nash, and Shea was cuddling up next to me. Shea was giving Nash kisses and getting in face to make him laugh. It was super cute. In the midst of this play, however, some of Shea's hair managed to wrap itself really nicely around some of Nash's fingers. as Shea pulled away, she screamed because it hurt. Instead of waiting for mom to help untangle her hair from Nash's fingers, she panicked and pulled away even harder. (There's some spiritual lesson in there.) The hair was so tightly wound around Nash's fingers that it hurt him and he started to cry. Shea pulled so hard that a chunk, and I mean a large chunk, of her hair was pulled out from the roots and left in Nash's hand. It was a lot of hair, and I know that had to hurt pretty badly. Now I have two crying children in my lap. Shea sees the large chunk of hair and wails, "My hair. It's broken!"

I manage to get them both calmed down again. Shea's head is just a little bit sore at this point, and she wants some justice. She tells me, "Nash pulled my hair. He need time out." She then points to Nash and says again, "Time out!" I chuckle and wonder how I should handle this one. Shea thinks that Nash has done something wrong. She doesn't get that as a four-month-old, he has no idea that pulling hair causes pain and that time-out will serve no purpose with him. Now, I could attempt to explain this to her, and she wouldn't get it either. I could ignore her, and she'd feel like Nash got away with something. I don't think that would be wrong, but I chose the easiest route. We were about to leave anyway. I put Nash in his car seat and placed him in the corner and said that he was in time out. Shea felt vindicated. Nash was experiencing some punishment for hurting her.

Just then, Jon walked through the front door, and Shea ran to him and tattled, "Nash pull my hair. Nash in time out." She then went to find her hair to show to Jon. We left for daycare, and I thought all had been forgotten. Shea, however, was still talking about it during the evening. She again recounted the story to her Daddy about how Nash pulled her hair and got sent to time out. She again looked for her broken hair to show to her Daddy.

Later that evening, Nash was in his exersaucer, and Shea was making faces at him as he squealed with glee. She then got really serious. She leaned over and got in his face and sternly told him, "Nash, don't pull my hair, okay?" Despite her Daddy's attempt to explain that when we forgive somebody, we don't constantly bring up what he did to hurt us , she will be talking about the hair pulling incident for a long time.

My Big Butterball is Four Months Old

Last Friday, I took Nash in for his four-month check-up. My big butterball weighed in at 18 lbs. 13 oz, and he is 27 inches long. Seriously, the boy is huge. He's wearing 9 month clothes already. Jon wants to start him on rice cereal, but I'd like to wait a little while longer. He doesn't need it, and he's doing great with just breast milk. He's gotten better about going back and forth between the bottle and breast, which is a huge relief. Nevertheless, there are still days when he won't take much from his bottle at daycare and wants to nurse all night. As you can tell, it wouldn't hurt him to miss a feeding here or there. :)

Nash is really interacting with us now. It's so much fun to get him to smile and laugh. Nash loves playing in his exersaucer, and he puts all the toys that he can in his mouth. We go through many bibs a day due to his excessive drooling, but no teeth are poking through yet.

Shea is such a great big sister too. She enjoys brushing the small amount of hair that he has, and she'll get in his face and giggle with him. She'll also occasionally instruct me to give Nash to Daddy so I can hold her instead. They're both gowing up so quickly! I'm trying to treasure the time that I have with them because I know that I'll blink and they'll be grown up.

SLEEP! YEAH!

My lovely little boy, Nash, does not miss a meal. Since he was born, he's eaten at least every three hours. His sister, Shea, slept for eight hours a night when she was three months old, and she slept twelve hours a night when she was four months old. Nash does not. Three hours is the norm, and he'll go an occassional four if we're lucky. We'd gotten to a pretty good routine, but I was still getting up with him at least twice every night. He didn't fuss too much. He was fine if I fed him, and he'd go right back to sleep. However, after four months of interrupted sleep, I'm utterly exhausted. Now there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Last night, Nash slept for five consecutive hours! I'm hoping that it wasn't a fluke. It was wonderful! Of course, I still woke up at 12:30am and 3:30am, but Nash slept from 10:30pm to 4:30am.

All of you who are moms (and maybe some dads) may know the drill. The baby makes some noise. He grunts a little and begins moving, but doesn't really wake up. You sit up and watch. You might make sure he's comfortable, not too hot and not too cold. You wonder whether you should try to go back to sleep or just wait for the baby to wake up. You know that it's so disheartening to be awakened just after you drifted back into dreamland. Nevertheless, if you've ever done it before, you have learned never to wake a sleeping baby during the night. After some time passes with the absence of grunts and stirring, you feel it's safe to let yourself fall back asleep. Time for feeding number two comes around. Again, some noise and movement, but no wakefulness. A double blessing! You can get some more rest! Sleep has never been sweeter! If that happens for a few nights in a row, you know that you will soon be able to have some restful sleep. Life will begin to return to normal.

Dressing Alike

In California, it's normal for a guy to wear a Hawaiian shirt. In Tennessee, it's not so normal. My husband, a native Californian, has a few Hawaiian shirts, but he never wears them anymore now that he's in Tennessee. Well, Sunday morning, he decided to wear one. His parents had just been to Hawaii and had sent some very nice "Hawaiian" outfits for the kids. I thought it would be great to dress the kids in those outfits the same day that Jon wore his Hawaiian shirt. I dressed Nash, and he looked so cute. I went to show him off to Jon. Jon, however, was not very happy with me. He apparently didn't like matching with his kids. What I thought was very cute was very uncool to him. After some pleading, I convinced him not to change clothes. He said that people would make fun of him because he matched his kids. I told him that he could blame it all on me, and he said not to worry that he would. We made it to church and there were plenty of comments about the kids matching, but I didn't hear any about Jon matching the kids. It was alright.

Weekend Fun

This past weekend, we were able to hang out with some of our old friends in Memphis. We all used to attend the same ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship). We had a great time at the sprinkler park.

















Ella and Shea are just about as rough as boys! They kept trying to run while holding hands. Then they'd fall down and roll around. It was really cute but dangerous, so after getting some pics, we had to put a stop to it.