Christmas Festivities and 13 weeks!

I love Christmas!  I love my Christmas tree and getting to decorate the house with anything red and green.  I love my cinnamon candle that I light at only this time of year.  I love neighbors decorating their houses and front yards with twinkling lights and inflatables.  I love the anticipation of watching people open the gifts you picked out for them (even though over half the time they already know what is in the package before they open it!).  I love how everyone is off work this time of year so you get to hang out with your loved ones stress free.  I love attending Christmas Eve service and how it reminds you of exactly why we are all gathered together and to forget about all of the craziness of crowded malls, traffic, and the ton of cardboard boxes junking up my house after the UPS man graced us with his presence everyday since Black Friday. 

I'm now extremely excited we have a little one to share the magic of Christmas.  It's like Drew and I can go back to the time when we were little and couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve because we were listening for the sounds of Santa's sleigh and because we were so excited to see what Santa left in the living room!  We can share all of our favorite things with him - decorating the tree, Christmas lights, Christmas cookies.  Oh, too much fun.

This Christmas, Chase was still a little too young to know what was going on, but we still made the most of it.  We started our Christmas festivies the morning of Christmas Eve.  We all went to my parents house, ate sausage balls (yum!), and exchanged presents.  This is a new tradition for us and I thought it was really fun.  I really enjoyed getting to see my nephews open their presents and have some quality time with my immediate family.  Chase received a ton of presents - here's an activity table Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Patrick gave Chase (excuse my exposed brazier in the picture!).

Here's Chase cuddling with his GiGi on Christmas Eve and then taking a short little nap to recoup from all the excitement!

Later that night we went to Christmas Eve service at BUMC and Chase was a perfect angel.  He was awake for the first half of the service and enjoyed looking around at the folks surrounding our pew and listening to the Christmas hymns.  Sometime around Joy to the World, Chase fell asleep for the remainder of the service.  I may need to keep that song in my arsenal when I need help putting him to sleep at night!  After the service, we had our annual Christmas Eve celebration with my side of the family.

On Christmas morning, we woke up around 7 and got ready to go to Nini and Papa's house!  He got to play around with Aunt Mel and Papa.

He checked out the penguin that sings "Blue Christmas" with Nini.

Chase got counting lessons from Uncle Trey.

And check out this awesome gift from Uncle Trey and Aunt Angela.  This carrier lets me carry Chase, eat a sausage pinwheel, and drink a Diet Coke all at the same time.  Amazing!!

After Papa and Nini's house we went to my grandmother's for Christmas lunch and then home for a much needed Christmas nap.  All these festivities made for a sleepy, fussy baby!  Once we recouped from the days activites, we opened up our gifts to each other that night and opened up Chase's stocking from Santa.  He got some bibs, pacifiers, and these oh so cute stuffed animals.

So today Chase turned 13 weeks old (3 whole months!).  He's getting so big.  Next Monday is his first day in daycare and my first day back at work.  I'm very sad about this, but I know he will be in great hands, just not my hands...boo hoo!!  Anyway, on to the pictures...

And one final picture for the week - this is one of my favorite faces of Chase.  He always has this face when passed out in my arms.  I can never resist giving him little kisses on those oh so cute lips!

12 weeks!

With Drew off work for Christmas break, we've all had a busy past few days together.  It's been a lot of fun.  I'm even more eager to one day soon win the lottery and be able to all stay home together (Santa - are you listening? I've been really good this year!)

First last Friday, we went to see Starry Nights.  It was very similar to the old Starry Nights, but with a few new fun additions.  We loved the "Under the Sea" section and the growing tree.  Drew and I also played a game throughout Starry Nights called "What's That?".  There were a few lighted animal creatures that we were confused by.  See the Christmas cockroach as an example below.

On Sunday, we had a family Christmas get together with Drew's extended family.  We all had a lot of fun playing with all of the newest additions to the family.  Two of the cousins were 7 months old, so I loved getting to see what Chase would be like in just 4 short months!  See below a few cute pictures of all the kids together.  Chase is so tiny that he had to sit on the couch all by himself!  In the second picture, sweet little Roston was checking out/comforting our tired, crying baby!

Also this week, we took some family pictures in front of the Christmas tree.  I can't wait to do this every year going forward.  Chase was a little tired when taking the pictures...poor thing.

And, finally....our 12 week picture.  I feel that Chase has grown so much this week.  I swear for the past two or three mornings, he wakes up looking like a totally different child!  This past week, Chase has really bonded with his daddy.  Chase thinks Drew is the most hilarious person in the world.  He laughs and kicks his legs as soon as he sees Drew.  He doesn't do that with me.  I think his stomach just grumbles for food when he sees me.

I think we are on the verge of meeting some pretty big milestones for Chase.  He's getting a bit more coordinated with his hands.  He's just beginning to swat at some toys and reaching out and grasping our hands.  I'm so excited about this!

I've also attached a picture of what I like to call "Behind the Scenes" of our weekly pictures.  Note that usually in these little photoshoots, Drew is in Chase's face being silly.  Also note the tissue in Drew's hand for the endless drool that always shows up.

Our favorite milestone yet!

Chase turned 11 weeks old last night.  For his 11 week birthday, HE gave US a present.  He slept 9 continuous hours last night!!!!!  I have a couple of people to thank for this achievement.

First - Chase.  Thanks!  Last night was awesome.  Keep it up!  Especially when your daddy will be home with us for the next two weeks.  He needs the sleep.

Second - Dr. Karp.  He's the author of Happiest Baby on the Block, and he has made our lives a lot easier since last Friday.  I haven't actually read his book, but I did see the highlights on a YouTube video.  :)  He talks about the 5 S's to calm a baby to help them go to sleep - swaddling, side position, shushing, swinging, and sucking.  We had pretty much been doing all of the steps all along except for the swaddling.  Chase initially hates the swaddle, but the following 4 S's calm him down and now his flailing arms don't wake him up anymore.  Dr. Karp says that when you follow these steps you can buy yourself an additional 1 to 3 hours of sleep.  I'm a believer!!  Since beginning this on Friday, he takes only 10 or so minutes to put down at night and he's been sleeping at least 5 to 6 hours in a row.

Third - My sister Sherrie for buying us the awesome SwaddleMe that we are currently using! 

Now, on to the pictures...

And a couple of cute faces...

Melt my heart...

Still trying to get a Christmas card picture...

We still couldn't get a "perfect" Christmas themed Christmas card picture, but here are some of the outtakes.  Look for our first ever Christmas card in a mailbox near you sometime the week of Christmas!

Random Wednesday Cuteness

This morning I packed Chase up to go to Aunt Sherrie's house so she could watch him while I had to go to the dentist.  After I put him in the carseat and put on his precious little hat, I had to stop and find my camera to capture the cuteness.  He was, of course, hating it, but I couldn't help it!!

Growing older isn't easy

On Monday night, Chase turned 10 weeks old.  We're into the double digits!  We don't think Chase was very thrilled about getting older though because he was extremely fussy that entire day.  Luckily, we were able to get a few smiling pictures for our weekly photoshoot. 

In an attempt to come up with a potential Christmas card picture we tried to pose him in front of the Christmas tree.  Those pictures didn't turn out good enough for a Christmas card, but they are cute nonetheless.

Here's a little example of the fussiness from Monday night!  We put the camera down shortly after this picture was taken!

2 Month Checkup and 9 Weeks Old

Today, Chase turned 9 weeks old.  We also met with his pediatrician, Dr. Owen, for his 2 month check up and...dum, dum, dum...first round of immunizations!

2 Month Stats:
Weight:  11 lb 10 oz (50th percentile) - up 2 lb 14 oz from 2 week checkup
Length: 23.5" (75th percentile) - 2.5" longer than week 2
Head: 39cm (25th percentile) - 2cm bigger than week 2

He had 3 shots and one oral vaccination.  He screamed the entire time and his head turned various shades of red, however it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be (I was expecting to be in tears too...I'm proud to report that I didn't cry).  He quit crying just a few minutes after the shots.  Dr. Owen said Chase looked terrific and that we are doing a great job (whew!).

Now on to the pictures from today...



Battlescars from the doctor visit...bless his heart!

Here are a couple of other pictures from the week.  We tried to make him laugh with one of his stuffed animals and a cute little photoshoot followed.  Here are a couple of our favorites.

And another one just because I think it's cute!

Chase Laughing

8 Weeks!

Last night at 5pm, Chase turned 8 weeks old.  Where has the time gone?

In this series of pictures, Chase has locked eyes with Weezie.  Grandmas, don't worry.  There was no mouth-to-mouth contact. :)

Timber!!