Merry Christmas!

I need to do an update or two, badly! But for now, from our family to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

William's Baptism

On Sunday, October 21st, William was baptized at our church, St. Andrew's by our wonderful priests and friends Father Mike and Mother Mary.

 We planned to have William baptized on this weekend as we also had a surprise 30th birthday party for my brother, and my sisters who live out of state were able to join us! This was especially important since Sister and her Mister are William's godparents, along with my brother.

David's parents and sister also joined us as well as my parents! Plus our friends Kate and Dustin, Chris and Kristen, David and Edith, Dan and Tee, and our sweet parish family.

I got William's invites done at Polka Dot Design in Ft. Worth. I've used them before and they were beautifully done and fast. We liked them so much, our Christmas cards are from them too!

After the service, we had a lovely brunch at Gather in Downtown McKinney, where we enjoyed great food like pecan crusted French toast and their mashed potato bar. Plus we enjoyed each other's company, and William got some cuddle time in with his family and friends.

We are so blessed to be members at a church we love, so thankful to have wonderful family and friends, and so excited to raise William as Christ's own forever!

Five Months!?! You Gotta Be Kidding!!!

I can hardly believe my sweet little baby turned five months old on Monday! He's changing so much every day and is such a joy to us. In his fifth month of life, he received the holy sacrament of baptism, celebrated his first Halloween and Thanksgiving, and even participated in his first 5k! Baby William sure gets around!

All about William's fifth month:

• He's wearing size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes 
• I need to weigh him to see how that's going, but my guess is he's around 20 lbs. now
• He moved out of his infant carrier and into his big boy car seat and is sitting in the big boy stroller seat. He loves it!
• He really likes riding in the seat in the cart at Target and Market Street. He's still working on his sitting skills, so sometimes he'll slowly start falling over and it's funny!
• He has the best smile and laugh. 
• He loves to practice sitting and is always trying to sit up if he's laying flat.
• He's starting to discover his feet and he finds them VERY interesting! 
• He drools like a crazy man, but no teeth yet! He's always in a bib though to keep his shirts dry. 
• He loves to be outside and we take walks around the neighborhood. 
• He is starting to notice the dogs, and smiles at them and tries to touch them. Sammy and Chewie don't seem to mind!
• He LOVES textures and is always feeling things. 
• When he gets upset, a good way to calm him down is to let him look at and feel the crosses by our front door. 

We just adore little William and can't wait to see what his sixth month brings. A post on his baptism and first Thanksgiving is in the works!

William lately

He likes swinging and sleeping!

He likes sleeping on Daddy!

He loves his Spider-Man ball from Aunt De Anne!

He's been sitting in his high chair while Mommy makes dinner! He loves the toy bar on it, it's tons of fun!

The exersaucer is tons of fun and it's helping with our head control.

That's about it in the world of William! He's at such a fun age right now and is so precious!

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated William's first Halloween in fairly low-key fashion. We met Mimi at the Cantina Laredo by her house after school (Grandaddy was away on business) and ate an early dinner.

Then, we went to Mimi's house and handed out candy to the last of the trick-or-treaters and William put on his puppy costume for some pictures. It lasted about ten minutes! Our little puppy kept pulling his ears, making the head piece fall in his eyes and that made him cry. Poor guy! We did get a couple good pictures before we turned the puppy back into our sweet baby boy and took him home for the night.

We hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! I think I'll get one more year of getting to dress William in something cute for my favorite holiday. Then I'm sure it will be ninjas, superheroes, and monsters with no input from Mommy! ;)

Happy Halloween from Lauren, David, and William!

Four Months Old!

William turned four months old on October 26th; David and I cannot BELIEVE how much our sweet little guy has grown! This month, William started going to daycare while Mommy and Daddy work, and he LOVES Ms. Karen's house. She takes wonderful care of our little boy and he is the darling of the group. She keeps three other little kids, the youngest of which is one and the oldest is three. They LOVE William, he's their little baby and help Mrs. Karen keep him happy and entertained!

William has also started teething. No actual teeth yet, but he drools like a crazy man and had a week of some serious diarrhea, making me think he had a stomach bug.  He was a little fussy at night that week, but overall (and so far) the teething hasn't changed our boy's sweet disposition. He loves to chew on an Elmo teething toy we got him and Rocky, a little raccoon blanket his Mimi got him. So far, he's really not interested in teething rings or any other teething toys. He does LOVE to gum Mommy's hand though!
We saw Dr. T on October 17th, and here are his four month stats!

• Height:  27 inches, which puts him in the 99.61 %
• Weight: 18.58 lbs, which puts him in the 97.275
• Head circumference: 16.5 inches, which puts him in the 70.84%

At four months, William:

•  Is still in 9 month sizes and size 3 pampers swaddlers. I just finished washing his 12 month stuff though, the 9 month pjs are getting a little tight!
• Goes to bed for the night around 10pm, when he has his last bottle. He is falling asleep around 8:30 but needs that last bottle to sleep through the night. 
• He will sleep until 8am, or during the work week until we wake him up at 6am. He rarely wakes up in the middle of the night and starting teething doesn't seem to have affected his sleep so far! 
• We have retired his bouncy seat, but he still loves his jungle gym. His swing might be getting retired soon too. 
• We brought out the exersaucer and he loves it too! It's really helping him keeping his head up and practicing putting some weight on his legs. 
• His favorite toys are Rocky, his raccoon blankie thing, Elmo, his teething toy, and a Spider-Man ball thing.
• He is starting to notice Sammy and Chewie more and watches them!
• He laughs, babbles, smiles, and squeals now. Daddy is the BEST at getting him to laugh!
• When he wants to sleep, Mommy can get him to fall asleep in about five seconds. 
• He still loves to cuddle!
• He tries to put EVERYTHING in his mouth right now, I know this is just the beginning too! 
• He still loves bath time but he is getting so big that he gets water everywhere! I think his days on the kitchen counter in the whale tub are numbered. 
• His days in the infant car seat are also numbered, he's about an inch away from being too tall and both his parents are TIRED of lugging the big guy around!

 David and I are so blessed to have such a happy, healthy baby boy! We love him more and more everyday and thank God that he has given us such a wonderful gift.

Mommy and William go to the pumpkin patch

On Monday September 24, William and I had a Mommy-son date to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina. We had a blast! For $8 we got feed for the cows, goats, and sheep, a pumpkin out of the patch, hay rides and a hay maze! And to add to the fun, William and I were the ONLY people there and we had the farm to ourselves! We had a great time looking at the animals, playing in the hay maze, and strolling through the pumpkin patch.

We enjoyed a bottle under the picnic area and laughed at the silly goats that kept head-butting each other. It was a great visit to the pumpkin farm! I can't wait until next fall when William can run around and play and choose his own pumpkin. :)

William was sad to leave! We're going to try to go back with Daddy before the farm closes for the year.

I might be biased....

But I think I might have the cutest baby ever. Or at least one of the cutest!

Annnnd here's one more, W in his baptism bonnet. Notice he's not nearly as excited about the bonnet as he is the aviator hat. Such a boy!

Can you tell he went shopping with Mommy and Mimi today? Poor little fella! ;)

Our little three month old!

I cannot BELIEVE that my sweet baby is three months old! The time sure has flown by and I think David would agree that we love William more and more every day. His little personality is really starting to come through. He babbles to the animals on his play mat, the birds on his swing, the fan, and his parents!

He is sleeping from about 10pm to 8am, which is AMAZING and I am so thankful that he is a good sleeper! He loves to eat and pretty much the only time he fusses is when he's hungry and when he's trying to settle himself to go to sleep. Other than that, he is just full of smiles and coos and does a great job playing and interacting with his world.

Three Month Stats & Skills:

• Weight: 17.5 pounds (We don't go back to Dr. T until the end of the month for his four month checkup but I did weigh him!)
• Diaper size: 3! Swaddlers in a size 3 are hard to find, y'all! 
• Clothes: He's moved into 9 month sizes in Carter's and can still wear some Gap  and Gymboree 3-6 months.
• He's holding his head up pretty well but is still floppy from time to time
• He hasn't rolled over yet! I think his tummy might be in the way. :) 
• He tries to sit up a lot!
• He has found his hands and sometimes tries to bring his mouth to his hand instead of the other way around. It's pretty funny! 
• He drools like crazy but I think we missed the dreaded spit up! I'll take drool any day. 
• He loves to lick my shoulder and hands. I'm not sure what that's about? :)
• He tracks sounds, people, and objects with his eyes and looks for me and David if he can hear us but can't see us. 
• He can lift himself up to a 45 degree angle on his tummy, but he is not the biggest fan of tummy time!
• He LOVES his jungle gym and swing. The bouncy seat is not so great anymore and it might be about to get put up in the attic. 
• I've tried to put him in the excersaucer but he's just not quite there. Soon though! 

That's about it in my little William's world! Here he is falling over after sitting up and taking Mr. Elephant down with him! :) 

Daddy Day at the Arboretum!

Last Tuesday David took the day off to spend a week day with me and William. After much deliberation, we decided to make the trek down south to Dallas to visit the Arboretum since we were actually having some fall-like weather.
 We started the morning with a breakfast treat: The Pioneer Woman's Baked French Toast. It was fantastic!

Next, we had a quiet morning enjoying the sweet baby and having fun with Daddy at home. Of course, David got to sleep in.  :)
Then, we loaded up the car and drove to the Arboretum. They have just started to build the Pumpkin Village so we didn't get to explore it, but we did get some pictures and watched them build little cottages out of pumpkins. 

After the pumpkin village, we looked at the artist's cottages. They have made little play houses inspired by famous artists and landscaped them too. I think I might have enjoyed these cottages as much as the little kids playing in them. This one belongs to Monet:

We strolled through the gardens enjoying the nice weather and William enjoyed a bottle under a tree on a park bench. William really seemed to have a blast being out in the fresh air and looking at the trees, flowers, and plants. He really likes being under tree cover and looking at the sky through the leaves. They still have the Chihuly glass sculptures installed all over the gardens but for some reason I didn't get a single picture! We had a great time and were so thrilled to have Daddy join us! Next time I want to bring a picnic lunch.

William has been getting adjusted to wearing his sunglasses when it's bright outside, and makes this face a LOT! I think he's trying to get away from them. :)

He's a silly little guy!

To wrap up our evening, we met some friends at Cantina Laredo for a fundraiser for David's school. They have a set of twins who will be two in December and a baby girl who was born about a week after William. William already has his eye on her! ;)

We have done a couple more fun outings in the past few weeks; check back for William's adventures at the Plano Balloon Festival!

Sweet Family!

I love our little family!

Maternity Leave

My little movie date! He slept through the Odd Life of Timothy Green. Literally the entire movie he was OUT!

I've been blessed by the opportunity to stay home from work for the first six weeks of school to spend some extra bonding time with Mr. William and I am absolutely loving every second. Before I never thought I would like to be a stay at home mom. I always thought I needed to interact with adults or almost adult high schoolers, that I wasn't sure how much I really liked babies, and that I would find myself bored or without purpose.

My cutie pie ready to go!

That is SO not the case! I made a promise to myself and to William that we would get out and do something fun together every weekday while I'm home, and that's what we have been doing! I found a wonderful playgroup on Meetup that has us included in fun activities like story time at the library, mommy and me movies, brunches and playgroups. We've been able to play with our sweet friends Kate, Nora, and Asher and Kelly and Claire, and Sarah, Ethan, and Tyler.

William and I with some new friends at the IKEA!

The house is the cleanest I think it's ever been, laundry gets done, folded, and put away, dinner is ready to go when David gets home from work, and at night when I go to sleep every day has been great! My mom even told me she thinks this is the happiest I have ever been. Who would have thought! So, I'm looking for sponsors so I can stay at home. Are there any takers? ;) I looked for grants for SAH mommies, but I haven't found anything yet! I know we'll be fine when I go back to work but I sure am dreading October 1st!

William really enjoys naps in the car

Two Months!

I can't believe my sweet baby is already two months old! He turned two months on August 26th but we went to see his pediatrician the week before. Here are his stats:

Height: 25 inches or 92%
Weight 13 1/2 lbs. 92%
Head circumference 15 1/2 80%

 Dr. T said that he looks great, is super healthy, and is just a big guy that's perfectly proportioned! She was also amazed that he is really close to rolling over and is holding his head up really well. David and I have really enjoyed the past month, watching his little personality develop, his hair grow, and the rolls on his thighs get bigger and bigger! He's been chattering more and more and becoming increasingly more in control of his hands.

He loves the birds on his bouncy seat and swing, ceiling fans, and his mobiles above his crib and changing table. He doesn't love waiting on a bottle, having to wait for more food while he burps, and if mom or dad are slow to get the bottle in his mouth! I bet you can see a trend: the kid loves to eat! He's taking a pacifier (we call them boppies) but has also getting really good at spitting it out!

We just love him to pieces and are excited to see what his third month will hold. :)

Mr. Elephant is at it again! He's trying to steal the spotlight from the birthday boy. :)