Father's Day

Today has been filled with golf, steak and potatoes, hugs, #1 dad facebook posts, and of course - beer. It's father's day. I know people say it all the time but I really do feel like I have the best dad ever. He is fiercely in love with my mom. he is THE MAN at fixing things. he is one of the biggest encouragers in my life, a super hard worker, majorly fun to hang out with and is one of the smartest people ever. I am so grateful to have him as my Papa. Add in the fact that my husband has proven himself to be an incredibly caring and sweet father to our son over the last five months (!), that makes father's day a pretty big deal around here.

Here's to the two amazing guys we celebrated today! Love you!

Mornings

Mornings. Josh rises early around 6:30 or 7 and takes Felix for a diaper change then snuggles him back in bed with me. his head by my breast and steely blue eyes peering up at my face. Little fingers clawing at my nose, lips and cheeks. baby feet kicking my tummy while I forcibly keep my eyes closed and lie to myself about getting another 10 minutes of sleep.

The smell of coffee wafts into the bedroom and the squirming little boy and quickly rising sun forces me me to succumb to the day. Felix is all smiles and I begin our waking up routine. Singing "Rise and Shine" and "Good Morning, Good Morning" while he shrieks and kicks with joy. I roll out of my bed. picking up my son and balancing him on my hip while he snuggles his face into my shoulder. I trod down to the kitchen and scrounge around to see what food there is for breakfast.

A couple of quick fried eggs, whole wheat toast with butter and a cup of joe with sugar and cream go down easy while Felix bounces in his exersaucer or relaxes in his bouncy chair. Josh works on side projects or begins some work from home. Felix laughs and talks to his toys while we chat and say goodbye before Josh heads off to work.

By 9:00 little boy is yawning and rubbing his eyes and it's time for his morning nap. Recent days mean the nap is just 30 minutes, so I either load the dishwasher, shower or catch up on a couple of emails or blogs. He wakes by 10:30 and I change him into his outfit for the day nurse him and we head into the rest of the day in smiles.

The mornings have a sweet rhythm. A family cohesiveness and predictable pattern of serving one another. Refilling each other's coffee. Sleepy hugs and good morning kisses. Taking turns holding the baby and moving slowly in a dance around the kitchen. The opening verse to our daily song. A soft cadence of unity and warmth.

Felix - 4 Months

Getting this update in just under the wire! He turns 5 months on Friday! 

I can't believe you are four months old already! This last month you have really gone from infant to baby in my eyes. You have so much head control and I hold you on my hip with one arm all the time now and you just grip onto my shirt/hair/braid look around and take everything in.

You are constantly grabbing for things around you and you get such a sweet inquisitive look on your face when you see something new. I know you are going to be super smart by the way you interact with the world around you. Anything with flashing lights is mesmerizing to you and nearly anything that is new to you will be pulled really close to your eyes and you will poke your lips out in a little duck face, study each object carefully and then promtly shove said item into your slobbery mouth.

Speaking of, you still drool. It's crazy. Daddy always says it's a miracle you aren't dehydrated all the time based on the amount you salivate all over everything. After you do tummy time there is always a puddle under you head and every shirt I wear inevitably is two-toned after I hold you because half of it is darkened with slime.

You are ticklish! Which is so cute! If I'm having a bad day my go to for cheering up is to softly stroke my nails on your bare belly and arms, poke your sides or wiggle my finger under your armpit. Most times I can get you to laugh till you can barely stand it. It always starts through your nose like you think something is kind of funny and then before you know it you are squealing and kicking your legs and twisting your body away from my fingers, but looking me in the eyes and smiling SO big.

You are getting more coordinated with your hands as well! Last month you could reach of things with both arms and most of the time bat at whatever you were reaching for. Now your little fingers open and close around items and you ALWAYS pull it to your mouth. Sometimes you get really frustrated if you can't quite reach something. I let you try for a while and hopefully start to learn how to overcome obstacles, but often times I cave and come help you reach whatever you are striving for.

You are getting too big for you bath! The water barely comes up to your belly button and your legs reach all the way across the bath. You constantly kick your legs sending water ALL over the bathroom and you gasp and chatter with excitement the whole time. You have started trying to see if you can grab the water that I pour over you. Obviously you aren't very successful but that doesn't stop you from trying nearly every time I pour water on you. Then your index finger and middle finger go right in your mouth and you suck off the moisture and go back for more with the next pour.

You are so much more talkative this month! You kind of seems very sincere when you talk to your stuffed animals. You get this furrowed brow like you are discussing important ideas and need them to take you very seriously. Then other times you just gasp and scream with excitement or continue on sounding like you say "hi" or "Ok".

We like spending time outside. If the house starts to feel small we will grab a blanket and willow and go outside in the shade of a big tree behind our house. we just sit out there. I let you put your feet and hands in the grass and we listen to the birds and the breeze. It's lovely.

You are infatuated with your toes as of late. You grab them when you are in your bouncy seat and lean forward so far that sometimes i'm afraid you are going to fall out! You also really love it when I make all the different animal noises or sing songs to you with hand motions. You really love inspecting my hands and me counting to 5 with my fingers never seems to grow old.

We have spent several days out and about in the moby wrap. You like being carried as often as possible and have really found a happy place with the baby carrier. I wish we had a better one, but I used the Moby at the Franklin Art crawl at the beginning of May and it worked out great! you chewed on the side of it and peeked out over the edge at all the art, strangers and music. Several people said you were the best art they had seen all night. Then the other day we ventured out just you and I to Barnes and Noble and I stuck you in the moby. We looked at toys and then when you got sleepy you rested your head on my chest and I swayed and read a book standing up for about 30 mins. It was sweet.

Speaking of sleep, the 7 hour night was a fluke. (ha!) You regressed back to about 2-3 hour stretches and I have been so sleepy because of it! I think it is because you are more aware of your surroundings so when you wake up it's a bit overwhelming to you. However, you do go to sleep faster nowadays. A few rocks. A few shushes and a kiss on the nose is typically all you need to calm down and doze off in the evenings. Not as much of a fight in you at that point of the day.

You started this funny thing of snapping my tank top strap, stroking down my chest methodically and throwing your leg over my shoulder when nursing. At night when you are especially happy you will suck and sigh repeatedly and grab at my nose and mouth till you drift off to sleep. It melts my heart.

You had your 4 month Dr. appointment and you were 26.5 Inches long and 16 lbs 1 oz (95th and 90th percentile respectively). Dr. Swarr said you were the perfect model of a healthy 4 month old boy! yay!

Happy four month little moose. I loveth you.

A New Trick!

Look at this kid! He is growing up before my eyes! He is nearly 5 month's old and is always trying to wiggle his way away from me, he grabs everything (glasses, hair, food, drinks!) and his legs are constantly kicking. While we were on vacation in Michigan he started rolling over from back to front! I'm so proud of him!

We Went to Michigan!

So it turns out the state north of Ohio isn't as bad as I thought. Holland had some really beautiful beaches and a super cute downtown area that rivals Franklin, TN (our hometown). Unfortunately it rained quite a bit while we were there, but we made the most of it!

We drank a lot of yummy coffee. We shopped. We played Aquire. We discovered a couple of cute bakeries and restaurants around town. Josh and I took our 2nd date post-baby. We even got to spend a bit of time on sunny days at the beach. Felix LOVED the sound of the waves and putting his toes in the sand. He kept looking at me like "Have you done this before?!"

We enjoyed stein night at New Holland brewery. We Flew a kite. We climed dunes. And in Michael family fashion, we took way too many pictures in every combination of people possible.

While we were there we bought an Ergo baby carrier. So far it has totally been worth the $100! I've used it at the grocery, walking at the beach. Shopping around downtown Holland and even while making some guacamole! I feel like he is so much more comfortable in the Ergo than he ever was in the Moby. Not to mention it's MUCH simpler to put on and I haven't had any back pain from it (which I did with the Moby when I first used it because I didn't have it on right.)

We took the trip up in 2 days with an overnight stop in Indy to see Natalie and Ryan and make the drive a bit easier on Felix. He slept horribly so we ended up leaving their house at 4:45 am and driving up to Michigan early Sunday morning. On the way back, either a miracle happened or we have an amazing kid, but he didn't cry at all and we pushed through the whole 9.5 hour trip with just 2 stops!

We came home to chaos in our house as they are still doing repairs from the fire/smoke damage, but at least we had a full day to ourselves to unwind before jumping into a busy week with contractors, painters and cleaners in and out all week.