christmas and chapel hill

This is a catch up post, so please try to pretend that you aren't reading about Christmas in February. I'm going to make it mostly photojournalistic - 1) because most people would rather see photos of Aaron than read my thoughts and 2) because I can't really remember a whole lot of details by this point.

Aaron's first Christmas was delightful. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in PA with my family, then we traveled down to Chapel Hill, NC to visit Isaac's family for a week. It was a great holiday and we loved spending so much time with our families.

This is Christmas morning at my mom's house. I call this one - Why Am I Up So Early?

Of course, he got more presents than anyone else. As you can see from the photo, he was thrilled.

So thrilled, in fact, he fell asleep amidst all of the wrapping paper. Oh well, there's always next year.

On Christmas Day, Aaron got to hang out with my grandfather, Gpop. He's a pretty cool guy and a really big fan of Aaron. We love him a lot.


Then we traveled to North Carolina where Aaron met a lot of new family, including his great grandmother.

Aaron wore his moose outfit this day especially for Grandma. Grandma and DeeDee are Aaron's moose suppliers, which we love.


Hanging out with the family.
Aaron and DeeDee


Aaron and Uncle Matthew

Aaron and Aunt Sarah

Aaron and Uncle David

Aaron's aunt and uncles all thought he was pretty cool.
The feeling was mutual. Aaron is a lucky guy.
Hanging out with Daddy.


Note: We didn't do such a great job of taking a lot of photos in North Carolina, so many of these pictures are "borrowed" from Grandma, who does a much better job of picture taking. Thanks Grandma!

Next up...video of Aaron's new tricks, plus his first solid foods.

four months...plus some

Eek.  It's been way too long since our last blog post.  Aaron is practically a different kid since I posted last month!  Although, much to our dismay, that seems to be the case from day to day.  He is learning and changing so much these days, it's hard to keep up!

Since our last post, Aaron has been working hard on some new skills - mainly rolling over, sitting up, babbling and drooling.  Lots and lots of drooling.  That's his favorite.

He started rolling from tummy to back right after the holidays but it's not a regular occurance yet.  We've noticed that he's not a terribly picky kid, so he doesn't have a lot of determination to get off of his stomach, unless the mood strikes him.  But when it does, watch out!  He's a rolling fool!  We captured some of his rolling on video, which we'll post in the next few days.  (We gotta keep our avid readers coming back for more!)

Sitting up is more of a work in progress.  Aaron can sit up, tripod style, on his own.  Again, it's whether he chooses to or not.  Sometimes, it seems like it's too much work to sit up unassisted, so he just lays his head down...on his own feet.  He'll stay that way, without complaint, until I move him.  I felt bad at first, but then, one day, I realized that he knows how to lift himself back up, which he does when he wants to.  So basically, he's just kinda lazy and he doesn't always feel the need to hold his own head up.  Hey, whatever floats his boat!  We also have a cute video of his sitting up which we'll post in the big video post to come.  (Also more encouragement to keep your eyes focused on our blog!)

Aaron has also started talking up a storm.  He usually wakes up from his naps ready to tell me all about his dreams.  His babbling doesn't sound like traditional baby cooing.  He prefers to shout or kind of moan.  It's not sad or angry, it's just his preferred mode of communication.  We've noticed some other tendencies towards the dramatic, so I'm guessing this goes along with that as well.  I'll try to catch him chatting on video before the big video post.

And the drooling...it's constant and plentiful.  At his four month well visit (more on that later), the doctor said she saw some bumps that could be possible emerging teeth.  We are blaming that for his copious amounts of drool, but quite frankly, it also has a lot to do with his obsession with his hands.  Aaron's hands are his favorite toy, by far.  He can play for hours with his hands alone.  In fact, I often find him sitting in his bumbo, with all of his toys fallen off the tray, but completely content, because he has his hands to chew on.  And boy, does he chew on them.  He can really chow down.  Truth be told, I'm surprised he still has all 10 fingers.  When he catches a hold of my finger to gnaw on, it kinda of hurts.  The kid has quite a bite.  Don't worry, I'll keep you posted on the finger count after those pesky teeth finally arrive.

Aaron also had his four month well visit this past month.  He clocked in at a whopping 15 lbs 7 oz and 25.5 inches long.  Actually, he's in the 65-70% in both height and weight, so although we think he's a big boy, it seems that there are 30-35% of bigger babies out there.  

Unfortunately, the doctor found that he had an ear infection at his visit, so we had to postpone his vaccines until they rechecked his ears after a round of antibiotics.  Ah, Amoxicillin.  I distinctly remember the lovely pink medicine from my own childhood and Aaron clearly inherited my deep love for it.  By the end of the ten day treatment, he would get happy and excited when we came towards him with the medicine dropper, then he would happily suck down all of the medicine, lick his lips, and pout a little when it was over.  It seems to have primed him for a lifetime of enjoying medicine.  The doctor laughed at his recheck appointment when he eagerly ate his liquid vaccine.  He cried for a few seconds after his shots, but when I pulled out the Tylenol, he was a happy dude again.  Anything that goes in his mouth makes him very happy indeed.  I think this boy will be VERY ready to eat when the time comes.

And come, it shall.  We think tomorrow morning will be the day that Aaron is greatly looking forward to!  Not only was the medicine a clue that Aaron was ready to eat, but he was starting to stare people down if they dared to eat in front of him.  It was actually kind of awkward at the Cheesecake Factory when the nice ladies next to us were being harassed by the intense glare of our little man.  For about five minutes, he watched one of them eat each bite of her dinner - following the fork, plate to mouth, plate to mouth.  She kept smiling and kind of politely laughing, but let's be honest, she was weirded out.  He is now progressing from interest in other's food to being visibly offended that he doesn't have any of his own, so I think it's definitely time.  The doctor gave us the okay at the second appointment to go ahead with the solid foods...so any day now.  I bought the rice cereal and Isaac put together his high chair last night.  Tomorrow morning, I am guessing we will have a very happy man on our hands.

Not like we don't anyway.  Aaron has maintained his sweet disposition and easy going attitude.  We heard many stories from people about babies that were quiet and easy until three months, then BAM.  We were prefacing every comment about his demeanor with a "so far" to hedge our bets.  But it still seems like Aaron is going to be a pretty laid back little guy.  And happy.  Oh so happy.  He loves to smile and laugh.  And we love every second of those smiles and laughs.  It truly is the best sound in the whole word to hear him laugh.  We are hoping he stays so joyful.

To conclude, I'll give you a few photos from the last few weeks.  But I don't want to ruin the surprise for any future posts.  Here's a list of things I'm promising you for the future.  Hold me to it!

1.  A video post with proof of his rolling, sitting, babbling and drooling

2.  Christmas pictures post (complete with details about our visit to Chapel Hill)

3.  Pictures and possibly video from Aaron's first taste of solid food

Gosh, I'm finally done talking and you can see what you actually came here for!  The pictures!

Here he is wearing his Christmas present from Uncle Joshy and Aunt Trice and looking mighty cute, if I do so say so myself.  (That's his dear friend Ellie the Elephant on his chest...he loves to chew on Ellie's ears while riding in the car)

The happy man in motion

Hanging out in his Bumbo

Getting kisses from Mommy

Sleeping on the couch 

...which he's just about done doing now, so I gotta run.  I promise to follow through with the new posts ASAP!

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!