3 Months!

 Aiden loves sitting up, but in the past, when we've put him in his bumbo seat he SCREAMS. This week he finally sat in it pleasantly for about 5 minutes. Progress!

Again, he loves standing but this another toy where he hasn't quite found the full joy. Maybe it's because his feet don't touch the floor yet :P

It's been pretty cold here so I've been pushing Aiden around the house in his umbrella stroller, which may not be boring for him, but I'm over it. So, I found a great place for my iPad and a way to entertain myself while making 20 laps through the kitchen. I watch Netflix, check email and browse Pinterest.

 Aiden is still getting swaddled at night but during the day I've been trying to get him to sleep without it, mostly successfully. Sometime it takes a little extra convincing but other times he falls asleep with barely a single fuss.

 He's constantly working those leg muscles with his dad. 

 A rare moment when Aiden isn't standing, sitting or sleeping... he's just relaxing with Andrew. Of course he's working on eating his fist, eating that dog's ear and then settling down with his binky.

 Cheering for IU together! 

(Aiden really hates tummy time lately, this is about as close as he gets.)

Playing on his mat...

(he's been working hard on grabbing things as you can see in lots of the pics)

Standing and hiccuping...

It has been three months since our little guy's birth day. Yes, it is hard to believe. In some ways it has gone very quickly (because I can barely remember the first month or so) and in other ways it seems to pass by slowly (like when you count the day by number of feedings, or it starts at 4am and doesn't end until 11pm). I would agree with what we've heard from other people, that the first 3 months are the hardest. In just the past couple weeks certain things have greatly improved. We've been getting out of the house a lot more. In fact, I'm pretty sure we left the house every day this week. We visited Emily, Debbie, Gabe and Nina. We toured several day cares, went to the grocery which always feels like a risky task with Aiden in tow, went to the mall and even had dinner out Sunday evening. All these adventures might explain why Aiden sleeps so well at night. And I even went back to Combat Conditioning for the first time on Thursday (I felt that workout for two days afterwards). I'd been doing some workouts at home using the Kinect and Nike Fitness which have been good, but it was very exciting to do something out of the house that was for me.

Aiden is officially registered to begin day care in March. We debated between day care and a nanny, initially we thought nanny. We even interviewed a couple of nannies, but decided that day care actually seemed like a better situation for us. We need care for about 6.5 hrs a day during the week because Andrew and I work slightly different schedules. With a nanny we would have been really tied to that time frame because of the hourly pay and not wanting to blow our budget. With day care we pay a flat weekly rate for full time care (10hrs) and although we have no intention of keeping him there any longer than necessary it would give us flexibility in our schedule to get an errand done or go to the gym without stressing about extra cost or another individual's schedule, not to mention the added stress and effort it would take to be employers if we hired a nanny (that's a lot of number crunching and we wouldn't want the IRS after us if we messed up). I am glad we didn't try to figure out child care before he was born. We would have had no concept of the realities of what to look for or consider. Also, seeing some of his personality has helped our decision and shown us that he would probably do well in a day care setting. Of course, we did discuss me staying home with him full time, but before I was pregnant, while I was pregnant and even after Aiden was born I have not pictured myself a stay at home mom. For several reasons it could easily make sense to go that route and be a great decision, and I know it will be tough to trust someone else to care for him, but for now I think we've made the best choice for our family.

12 Weeks

Aiden has really started to enjoy toys hanging above him. He's been swatting at them, grabbing and talking to them. It's nice because he entertains himself more now. 

He even fell asleep on his own while playing, no swaddling, no fussing. It was amazing!

We've been taking walks around the house in his umbrella stroller. If I sit him in front of the window afterwards it's just like we went on a real walk, right?

Aiden gets lots of daddy time in the evenings. 

Trying to use his words...

He's still working on that hand eye coordination thing...

Andrew and I reached a huge milestone in our book! We both slept in our room at the same time ALL NIGHT this past weekend (totally jinxing us by putting this out here). Aiden has been sleeping long enough CONSISTENTLY at night and going back to sleep with hardly any help from us, so we no longer felt it necessary to stay in his room. I also get more quality sleep in our room because the baby monitor doesn't transmit all the tiny noises he makes throughout the night, so I am only waking up when needed. He typically goes 5 or 6 hours after eating around 9/10pm then another 3/4 hours, so I'm really only getting up once in the night to feed him. This also means, for the most part, Andrew does not have to get up in the night which is better for him being back at work. Of course, this routine may regress when teething begins or during growth spurts, but we'll take what we can get for now. Speaking of growth spurts, we're pretty certain he went through one on Wednesday and Thursday. He was eating constantly, every hour or two, and never seeming full. Those days home alone were awful because he was always fussy and I could barely do anything for myself... like eat. It was torture, I felt like we were back at week 3.

11 Weeks

 Chillin' on the couch after a hard day's work. 

 Getting lots of tummy time (and spitting up constantly).

 Aiden loves flying with his dad (and drooling on him).

 He's been practicing sitting up and standing.

Clearly the best of friends...

 Despite that cozy cat bed and futon Elly can't resist a good plastic bag.

 Hanging out with Mr. Mike... so comfy.

 

Talking to his dad...

Baby Push Ups...

It was a very low key week. We returned home Monday from Indiana and our flight back was much less dramatic than our trip there. We got home early Monday and Andrew went back to work on Tuesday. I wasn't sure how recovering from our travels would go, but by Wednesday night Aiden started going 5 hours between feedings again and he didn't seem too bored with just me around. We did visit my office on Friday to say hi and get out of the house. I had an obnoxious cold all weekend which Aiden showed some minor signs of but quickly faded (yay breastfeeding). Andrew spent lots of time with Aiden during the weekend to make sure I could rest and recover quickly.

Indiana (Part 2)

Let the Red Neck Games begin!!! 

 "Won't you come play with me sister bear"

 Andrew debated standing but thought better of it and you have to watch out for those neighborhood cars.  

Also, if you wipe out you get snow in your beard.

Four generations!

Talking with Papo...

Modeling one of his Christmas presents. 

 Floor time with Dzia Dzia

 Meeting Aunt Sarah and Tamas

 Meeting Adam and Nikki

 Good times with good friends...

 Yum... time to eat! Aiden's favorite thing ;)

 Playing with MeMe.

 Playing with Great Granny. 

 

Aiden's in his Christmas outfit and ready to party.

 Sarah and I getting Christmas dinner ready.

Aiden had his first play date with Samuel next door. Unfortunately when one was awake the other was asleep. :)

Practicing sitting up with his dad (the NCIS dialogue in the background in my favorite).