the cutest elf

Oh the digital age...

I think if our parents had digital cameras, there would be a lot more incriminating photos, like the ones I'm about to show you.  As it stands, my dad did a pretty good job taking more photos of us than any one family should have.  You can probably guess there were a lot of tears at those infamous Christmas card photo sessions.  I really can't imagine what it would have been like if there had been digital cameras around when we were children.   Or if Dad had one of these new, lightweight video cameras he could cart around, instead of that massive 16lb VCR/video recorder.  No one could ever say that man wasn't dedicated to capturing precious moments.

Well, as it turns out, I've got more than a little bit of my father in me.  (That may have been previously established, but this is just further proof.)  I cannot resist taking pictures of my baby...especially if I can create a theme and dress him up first!  Aaron is going to have these priceless treasures for years to come.  Just think, he can put them right next to the turkey suit shots.  I love it!

And now, for your viewing pleasure : our most recent holiday-themed photo shoot.

The cutest elf I've ever seen would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and a joyous New Year to you all!

(ps - you can click on the Picasa link on the right to see the photo shoot in it's entirety)

o christmas tree

Aaron's first Christmas is rapidly approaching! We went to get our Christmas tree last weekend with some friends of ours and their three kids. We went to a farm in Collegeville that allows you to cut down your own tree. They had all the trappings to make it a great experience. The horse drawn carriage to take you out to the trees, hot chocolate, and fresh Christmas trees. It was so much fun, we are considering making it an annual tradition to go out and cut our tree down. Surprisingly, Aaron was awake and pretty happy through it all. We were expecting him to sleep through it, which is how he experiences most of our activities, yet he was very interested to see what was going on (and probably a little chilly). I bet he'll like it even more next year ;)

Here's Daddy and Aaron at the barn before we went to chop down the tree.
Aaron eating his lunch - lumberjack baby style.

Here come the horses...

Ready to pick a tree!

Isaac (and our friends' kids) "chopping" down our tree.

Victory! Our family with our Christmas tree.

We put that tree in our living room on a side table since it's a whopping 4 feet tall. Aaron loves to lay on the couch, listening to Christmas music and staring at the tree lights. Honestly, anything bright and shiny is right up his alley these days, so it's a perfect timing for there to be lights everywhere.

Aaron also currently loves sitting up and standing. He obviously can't do these things by himself, but he sure is trying! He tries to pull himself into a sitting position anytime you lie him down.
Here he is sitting up to have an important conversation with Daddy.

Apparently lying down is for babies now and he has more important things to do! Like play in his bouncer.

He got a jumperoo from Tutu for Christmas (already!) in which he has spent a lot of time bouncing around like a crazy person.

He still needs a little help reaching the floor. He'll definitely grow into this one.

We are so grateful this Christmas to have Aaron and we can't wait to experience Christmas as a family. Only a few more days!

We'll leave you with some photos our friend Meghan took about a month ago. Aren't these fantastic?

Our favorite.

What a sweetie.
He is looking at me...wondering why I'm doing this to him...again.

This is the face he gives me when I go to pick him up out of his crib...it's like a half smile to say "hey, I know you!"

And, finally, proof that he does cry on occasion. But he's even cute then too! My guess is he didn't like the hat...he clearly doesn't know how cute he is wearing it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you!

"europe, the musical"

I was tagged by Meghan for this fun trip down memory lane.

Here's how it works...
Go to your sixth picture folder then pick your sixth picture.

Pray that you remember the details.

Post it on your blog.

Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged.

This is my sixth picture in my sixth album titled "Europe, the Musical"

(In the interest of full disclosure, I must mention that this is the sixth picture in that particular file with people in it. I didn't think anyone but Isaac would be interested in a picture of grapes.)

So here's my story...

First of all, this picture makes me giggle. It was our first week of a month long European backpacking adventure. We were in Bordeaux, France, on a vineyard bus tour, which is another story for another time. At this particular vineyard, they kept llamas as lawn mowers. Every so often, they'd let the llamas out of their pens to cut the grass by grazing. As this was our third stop on the vineyard tour, it seemed a lot funnier to us at the time than it does now. This is our dear friend Andrew, hanging out with the grass-cutting llamas. For his part, the French llama looks a bit confused as to why the crazy Americans are taking his picture.

I couldn't think of 5 people who have blogs that haven't been tagged yet, so I added a few that can do their posting on their facebook wall.

So, I tag Jess, Dana, Jenny, Vicky and Pam.

So there you have it. I think I'm going to have to spend a few minutes (or an hour) going back through our "Europe, the Musical" folder to relive our more carefree days. And for the record, the trip was titled "Europe, the Musical" because I have a deep seated desire for my life to be like a musical. For this one sweet month, I made my companions break into random song and dance with me at every available opportunity. Thanks guys, I really appreciated it.

three months

Happy 1/4 birthday Aaron!

Today is Aaron's 3 month birthday. I can't believe it! It seems like such a short amount of time (think about how quickly summer flies by each year) and yet I can barely remember what our life was like before this little guy.

Aaron is still a very sweet baby - it seems that his personality is easy going and pleasant, which we are very grateful for. We are very aware that it's not a reflection of our parenting skills (which are still in the very early stages of development) but more a reflection of God's goodness to give us such a sweet and easy baby.

A few highlights of the past month:

-Aaron started sleeping through the night! It's not 100% consistent (people have told me that I will never be able to count on a full night of sleep ever again, which is awesome) but he does a pretty good job most nights of at least 7 hour stretches.

-Aaron has started being very smiley and laughing a ton! We love it. We will do anything to get a laugh from this guy. He is especially happy first thing in the morning and right after any meal. He sure does LOVE to eat.

-Aaron has also found his fingers...and boy does he love those guys. He spends a lot of time licking, chomping and chewing on his hands, once he can catch them of course. We've heard all the pros and cons of having a thumb sucker but we can't really tell yet whether he will be. Right now, he just mainly likes to gnaw on all parts of his own hands...or anyone elses that get too close to his mouth.

-Aaron weighed in at a whopping 13 lbs 7 oz at his 2 month old visit. That was a month ago, so who knows how big he is now?! Let's just say, he doesn't miss any meals and his tummy is rounding out quite nicely. A shout out to Miss Emily, who won the contest to guess his weight. She hit it right on the nose. For an 8 year old, she certainly knows her baby stuff.

-On Friday, November 21st, we woke up to a winter wonderland. Aaron's first snowfall! He wasn't too sure what was going on, but we were plenty excited for him.

Daddy and Aaron enjoying the early morning snow


Mommy and Aaron on the porch watching the snow fall

-Aaron's first Thanksgiving was a huge success. He met a lot of my family for the first time and charmed them all. He also had the opportunity to dress as a turkey again, which I think he was really excited about ;)

Here is a glimpse of our "turkey"dinner.

And a close up of our (extremely patient) little turkey.

This one was from right after the photo shoot. I guess it's exhausting to be so adorable.

And later in the day, we were able to get a family picture.

We are really looking forward to Christmas when Aaron will get to meet Isaac's family and friends in Chapel Hill.

-We tried and tried for the past month to catch Aaron's smiles and laughter on camera and video. I got a few blurry versions (and quite a few videos that highlight our parental desperation to make this kid smile) but finally this morning, to celebrate his 3 month birthday, I got the best shot yet! Here it is.

Click on the Picasa link on the sidebar if you want to see a lot of the outtakes from the past month. I've picked a few to post here, but there were so many cute ones to choose from! I am slightly biased, but I know a few grandparents or great-grandparents (Hi Grandma!) who would feel the same way.

And, we were also able to get a video of his smile this morning! After many failed attempts at this also, Aaron rose to the occasion this morning. He usually clams up the instant he sees the camera, but this morning he could not be deterred from the enjoyment of his goofy father.

I will leave you with a few favorites from the past few weeks. Who can resist a few gratuitous baby photos?! Not I!

This one is blurry, but it illustrates Aaron's new found love for licking.

This is Aaron's sneezing face. I don't know why I find his sneezes so cute, but they really are. His chubbiness is equally as cute in my book and very apparent in this photo :) I really wish this one wasn't blurry. It completely captures how joyful our baby is. I love it!

This one melts my heart. I dare you to try to resist this chubby little man.

Here is a good smile. It's blurry because I caught him having a very entertaining conversation with his fishy friends. I wish I knew what they all chat about. He was obviously very excited about whatever he was saying to them.

That's about it from us. Thanks to a brand new camera from Isaac for my birthday, the next post will hopefully have some better pictures. Until then, you should check out this absolutely gorgeous photo our friend Meghan took of Aaron.

Happy Holidays from the Greenslades!

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two months old

So, I definitely fell down on the job. Sorry about that! Isaac went back to work and I sort of forgot about keeping up on blog posts. I'll try to be better about that in the future.

It's been a month since we last updated and boy, have things changed. Isaac went back to work in mid-October. Aaron and I were very sad to see him go. We really enjoyed six weeks of family time and we recognize that we were very blessed to have had all that time together.

Here's what we've been up to since the last blog entry...

A week or so before Isaac went back to work, our good friend Meghan came over to take some professional pictures of Aaron. We think she did a tremendous job. Here are a few of her photos from that session:

Everyone says they leave the newborn stage so quickly, so we are very grateful that we got some great shots to treasure. We are looking forward to the next shoot.

Thanks Meg!

A couple of days after Isaac went back to work, we had a busy weekend of visitors. Isaac's mom, Diane, and my aunt, Shelley, came in for the weekend to meet Aaron and spend time with the family. It was so fun to introduce Aaron to his family members. We are really looking forward to the holidays when he will meet the rest of Isaac's family.

Anyone who knows Aunt Shelley might be wondering if poor Aaron survived the shopping...he did! He did brilliantly. What a trooper - he shopped (read: slept) all through the Limerick outlets. What can I say, I have a great baby!

Here are some photos from the weekend:

This is Aaron's DeeDee (Isaac's mom).

Not to be confused with TuTu (my mom). Poor kid, we aren't making it easy for him.

And here's Aaron with Aunt Shelley.

Judging from the look on his face, maybe he didn't escape the shopping as unscathed as we thought.

We didn't get many pictures from the weekend - which just means that we'll have to see both of you again soon!

The following weekend, my college roommates were in town for Villanova's homecoming weekend. It was great to catch up with the Kates (all 3!) and for them to meet Aaron.

Here's Kate (helpful, I know) with Aaron.

Again, we didn't do so great with the photo taking, so you guys will have to come back to see Aaron again soon! Or else we'll see you in fall 2010 ;)

Aaron celebrated Halloween this year as...

a turkey!!!

I fell in love with this costume before Aaron was even born and I knew he had to have it. Little did I know my son would be a butterball - making this a perfect choice. My vision is that he will also wear this outfit on Thanksgiving, which I think is entirely appropriate. His father thinks there is something odd about dressing your child up as the food you will eat. Especially when his Aunt Trice makes references to him being cute enough to eat on a regular basis. Let's hope Aaron also sees the humor in this when the photos inevitably surface when he's sixteen...

As you can see from the photos, Aaron really got the hang of the trick or treating thing. He was holding onto that pumpkin bucket for dear life. Too bad it only held two pieces of candy at a time...it really cramped his style. Better luck next year buddy! (and maybe next year, you can actually EAT the candy...maybe...)

A word to the wise, stay tuned to future blog posts for more turkey suit photos ;)

Other than these adventures, Aaron and I are slowly finding a routine and rhythm to our daily schedule. I am so grateful that I get to spend everyday with him - I can spend hours just staring at him sleep or watching him make funny faces. He sleeps well and eats well, which you can probably tell from his photos! We have our next doctor's appointment this week, so we'll find out how much weight our little butterball has gained.

He has also started to smile a lot more now and even laugh sometimes. I've only been able to catch the smile on my cell phone camera - he's a sly little bugger and he wipes the smile right off his face when he sees the camera come out. I'll keep trying to capture it so I can post it for everyone to see. It brings us so much joy to watch him. The pictures really don't do him justice.

Aaron also loves the fish on his crib bedding and in his mobile. Sometimes I go into his room and find him just cracking up with the fishies. Apparently, his fish are hilarious. Isaac is hoping his love of fish is a good sign for his fly fishing future. Personally, I'm a little worried that he currently has a better relationship with those fish than he does with his parents. We practically stand on our heads trying to get a laugh out of him and those fish get one every time!

Until the next post, I'll leave you with a few more gratuitous baby pics. Hopefully you'll be reading more from us sooner rather than later.

This is a classic Aaron face (sorry it's so blurry)

Daddy and Aaron

My personal favorite - I entitled this one:

What's wrong with this picture?

Apparently Daddy was sleeping on the job. Good thing someone was awake.

Normal Life?

So, week 4 is just about over, and we are starting to wonder if life will ever be "normal" again. I'm sure it doesn't help that neither of us have had anywhere to be or anything to do for the last 4 weeks, but at the same time, I shudder to think what we would have done if we did!

I know people's lives go on after they have kids, but at this point, this whole parenting thing still seems pretty all-consuming. It is wonderfully all-consuming. I wouldn't want anyone to think that we aren't happy. But between the erratic feeding schedule, non-stop diaper changing, and trying to sleep, it starts to feel like you will never be able to do anything requiring you to be away from home for more than 2 hours again. Nevertheless, we are doing our best to regain some sense of normalcy.

We've been trying to take short trips around town just to get out of the house, and reconnect with the outside world. One of our first family outings was a trip to Linvilla Orchards. Fall means pumpkins at Linvilla, and Aaron certainly got his fair share of pumpkins.

I can't say that he was a big fan, but really anything that interrupts his sleep is not received with much enthusiasm. He takes after his old man in that respect.

Our next big trip was to Mrs. Marty's Deli with Tutu, uncle Josh and aunt Trice. This was a little more ambitious, as it required being in a confined public space for an extended period of time.

Surprisingly, Aaron stayed awake for most of the time, and was very well behaved. I saw him eyeing up my hash browns a couple of the times, but all in all he played it pretty cool.

Our final outing in these last few weeks was to Ridley Creek State Park. We've been enjoying some beautiful early fall weather, so we decided to take advantage of it and go for an extended walk.

As with most everything we do, Aaron enjoyed it by sleeping.

We did our best to wake him up so he could enjoy the scenery, but he seemed to prefer the back of his eyelids.

So little by little, we do what we can to reclaim our lives and try to figure out what normal life looks like with this crazy little man.

Back at home, Aaron is starting to explore the vast array of colorful, musical, and all around overwhelming toys that he has received over the last few months. Here are a couple of shots of his first encounter with his jungle floor gym.

He responded how you would expect anyone to respond if you were plopped down in the middle of a fluorescent, polyester jungle, filled with exotic animal noises and a stuffed monkey bigger than your head. Not to mention the fact that you don't have control of your body parts, and you can't move. I would say that he pooped himself, but that wouldn't really be anything out of the ordinary.

He does seems to be enjoying it more and more every day, and pretty soon I'm sure he'll be showing that monkey who's boss.

Aside from a few minutes of jungle exploration each day, the main way we spend our time is sleeping. Aaron's favorite place to sleep is on Mommy's chest (Mommy doesn't seem to mind it much either).

So that's about it for now. Hopefully my next post will find us feeling a little more settled in, but with only two weeks of paternity leave left, real life is coming whether we are ready or not.

I leave you with this last picture. It's one of Sarah's favorites. What kind of parents would we be if we didn't take advantage of our child's goofy faces for our own amusement and entertainment?