Christmas

Shocker -- I'm a little late in posting this.  Oh well.  We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too.  David Scott received way too many gifts, but who am I to deny him educational toys and gifts given from the heart.  I think it's pretty common for new parents to skimp on gifts for baby's first Christmas -- they don't know the difference anyway, right?!?  So I was rolling along, pre-Christmas, with zero gifts for my firstborn child.  Scotty, in starting David Scott off on the right foot financially, found an LSU football-shaped piggy bank, and that's the only present we had for our child as of December 23rd.  Don't get me wrong, we know that Christmas is about the little baby born in a manger many, many years ago and not about the presents we give and receive.  However, as the day wore on, and after much nudging from my baby daddy, I went to the store and purchased a few more small gifts for our child -- a hooded towel, plastic car keys (a must-have toy for kids), a rattle thingy, and a set of rubber frog bath toys. And although we didn't leave out any cookies and milk for Santa, he still stopped by and left a few things for DS -- pajamas, a mirror for his crib (to help with vision development), a mirror for my car so that he and I can look at one another, and another rattle thingy (to help with hand-eye coordination).  Oh looky here, it's one of Santa's elves sacked out after a long Christmas Day:

We spent the week surrounding Christmas in North LA traveling between Scotty's family in Monroe and my family in Ruston/Winnsboro.  David Scott adapted well to being in a variety of environments with different people and family passing him back and forth.  Scotty and I both have traditions with our families that we don't want to break away from.  My family has always spent several hours around lunchime on Christmas Eve down at Sue Sue's house; she raised all three of us Anders children, so she and her family are like family to us.  We traditionally have a semi-formal-ish (eating on our fine china) Christmas Day lunch with my family (this year it was at my sister's house).  Scotty's family has always had a fun get together Christmas Eve evening, which in recent years, has been at his mom's house.  On Christmas morning, the Wrights/Rainwaters have always had a pancake breakfast.  Food and fellowship -- why would we want to give up the opportunity to do either of these things!  So this year, it got me thinking about what traditions Scotty and I could start with our own children now that we have little David Scott.  For the forseeable future, we intend on continuing Christmas in North LA, but at some point, I'm sure we'll begin having our own Christmas at our own home.  The first year we were married, Scotty and I went to a Christmas tree farm near our house.  That was fun, but the thrill was kind of lost with it just being the two of us.  So for the last three Christmases, we've gotten our trees from Lowe's or Home Depot.  I think, however, that we will bring back the Christmas tree farm experience next year and let that be our little tradition for "our" family.  What Christmas traditions do you have?  My mom lamented this year that she wished we'd been taking an annual family Christmas pic.  So this year, we set the timer and captured DS' first Christmas in a picture, family style:

We also took several photos with Scotty's family, but I haven't received those yet from my mother-in-law.  I'll post those asap.  And, yes, my child IS making an awful face in the family photo.  However, I thought it would be hilarious to look back at these pics and see the look on his face.  PLUS, how do you get a newborn to smile at precisely the right moment when the photo is being taken with a timer...

Finally, David Scott is 6 weeks old today.  He's getting stronger and bigger with each day that passes.  We are thoroughly enjoying every day we spend with our little boy.  Here's a picture I took earlier today.  Enjoy!

Standing Tall!

I just thought I'd share this amazing feat of epic porportions. Look who's standing up already:

Yes -- it's 5-week-old David Scott standing on our couch...all by himself.   He'd been "jumping" up and down on Scotty and so he (Scotty) decided to see what would happen if he stood the baby up.  And he stayed long enough for me to capture it for posterity.  Shocked?  Yes!  So were we when he actually stayed standing up for 5-10 seconds.  Twice.  Yep.

Also, DS is being more awake during the day.  This is a relatively new development that's been taking place over the last week or so.  Yesterday, he managed to stay awake from about 5:30 until about midnight.  He drifted in and out of sleep for about an hour or so including part of the time when my friend Racheal was visiting with us.  He absolutely would not go to sleep and stay that way.  After the Saints game, about 11:00, I decided that we should take a bath as it typically relaxes him and I hoped would put him in an attitude of sleepiness.  What it did was make him poop.  In the tub.  While we were soaking.  Yuck!  Drain the tub.  Refill it.  And he pooped in it...again.  While we were soaking.  So we rinsed off and got out.  So much for our relaxing bath.  My end goal did work and David Scott finally drifted off to sleep just before midnight. 

Our weekend has been realtively uneventful except for the above-mentioned items.  Our Christmas shopping is done.  Scotty took Lee with him to the Saints/Cowboys game last night.  Our Saints have had a great season so far, last night just didn't go in our favor.  We didn't play well and the 'Boys defense brought their "A" game.  We cheered for our team til the end and will continue to pull for them.  Although I won't be able to go to the Superbowl if the Saints end up there, Scotty will get to go, so we're pulling for them.  He'll be excited when he can cross "watching the Saints play in the Superbowl" off his Bucket List.  And DS and I will again cheer them on from the comfort of our couch.  Maybe DS will have mastered the "touchdown" sign by then.  Perhaps we'll work on that move next week...

1 Month Old!

Today marks David Scott's 1 month birthday!  I cannot believe that this bundle of joy has been a part of our little family for a month already.  Part of my reason for doing a blog is to document DS' life for him to be able to look back on my printed out posts which I will keep in a baby book/scrapbook b/c who knows what the internet will look like or if it will even exist by the time he may be interested in this type of thing.  Here goes:

David Scott, you've changed so much in just 30 days.  Every single day, it seems like you're working on mastering some part of a "task." 

• You are now able to hold on (occasionally) to your paci (the pacifier), which you are indifferent to most of the time.  You want it when you want it and when you don't, you spit it out or throw it.  Obviously, you probably don't understand your actions at this point in your young life, but it's still funny to watch you do things. 
• Twice in the last two weeks we've seen you roll over.  TWICE! 
• You seem to be drawn to the color red and your eyes immeidately go towards our red roman shade on the back door or to the Christmas tree (not red, but pretty when its white lights are lit up) when you're with us in the living room. 
• You are very strong and have amazing head control as well as a strong grip when you hold on to our fingers. You like holding my finger when you nurse.  Speaking of which...
• You seem to have a pretty big appetite  -- eating for about 25 minutes every 3 or so hours during the day although you've gone up to 5 hours a few times at night.
• You can sleep through almost anything -- the vacuum cleaner, Lola barking, Daddy yelling at the tv when his team is playing -- although you do hear what's going on as evidenced by your reaction ("jumping") to a new sound.
• You hate having your diaper and your clothes changed.  I think it's because you don't like being vulnerable.  Don't worry about it -- nobody likes changing clothes in front of another person.  However...
• You love taking a bath.    It instantly chills you out if you're upset and generally seems to make you more relaxed.  I hope this means you'll like the water as you get older as there will be many opportunities for swimming and beach trips in the future.
• You are a very expressive and alert baby; again, you arrived that way.  I love watching your facial expressions as you drift off to sleep.  You go from a gummy, toothless smile, to furrowing your brow, to poking out your bottom lip and looking upset, then  back to smiling...you get the picture.  You've also smiled back at me when I've been smiling at you several times...I don't even care that it's probably caused by a gas bubble passing through your system -- I love your smiles whatever the reason.   I could look at you for hours.
• You are a good baby.  We've been running errands most of this week, including going to my office's Christmas party today, and you seem to be able to adjust to different surroundings whether it's a restaurant, store, or being passed around by my co-workers.  You typically cry b/c you're getting hungry, have a dirty diaper, or are tired.

Our lives are forever changed by you.  We love being your parents and are very much looking forward to watching you grow and learn. YOU are the best gift we've ever received!

Love,
Mama

P.S.  We went this week to have your very first picture with Santa.  You were an angel and slept through the event. 

YESSSSSS!!!!!!!

WE GOT IN!  To our first choice daycare, that is!  I found out on Friday that we got the last opening in the daycare for January.  I meant to post an update sooner, but you know how that goes.  Anyway, we are so excited that David Scott will be in this particular daycare.  As I've mentioned before, it is central to both of our offices as well as the pediatrician's office.  It's not close to where we live, but that's not a problem at all since there are very few things, besides a local grocery store, that we access on a regular basis that are close to our house.  It's even close enough to my office that I can pop in and feed him lunch if I'm able some days, so that's convenient.  I had faith that we would get in and I refused to let myself stress out about it, although I'll admit that I was starting to panic the slightest bit since we hadn't heard anything from them since our last update a month or two ago.

Here's a pic of our little boy.  This was taken after he'd had a bath due to a couple of wat we'll refer to as simultaneous excretory explosions.  He was pretty well-behaved as we were bathing him, but then he got kind of quiet afterward.  Take a look -- it's almost like he's pouting:

That was on Saturday. Later that day, we decided it would be cute to take a few candid shots of DS in one of his Christmas outfits. Here's a teaser from those -- we'll have more to post once it gets closer to Christmas:

He's not too sure about what's on his head.

It's 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.  I've already taken a shower, brushed my teeth, put on a little make-up, blow-dried my hair, eaten breakfast, AND just put my second load of clothes in the washer.  This is a huge improvement from yesterday since I was unable to get anything done before noon.  Truth be told, because of feeding times, baby sleeping (or not since he tends to be awake most of the day), changing diapers and clothes, I was a little tired yesterday and chose to sleep an hour or so after the 6 a.m. feeding instead of taking care of my own health and beauty needs.  NOTE TO SELF:  It is much easier to get a few things done earlier in the day than it is to find the time during the day to do it.  I can catch up on my sleep during the day...assuming my child takes a nap.  I don't have nearly as much "free time" as I thought I would.  Thank goodness for my iPhone.  Although I don't have the chance to get on the actual laptop to do anything, I am able to at least check the news headlines and such occasionally while I'm feeding the baby.  Yes, I know, I'm supposed to be paying attention to him during that special time.  And I do.  I tell him what the headlines and articles say.  He needs to be informed, too.  :)

Two Weeks Old and The First Holiday

Well, as you've probably figured out by now, we've been a little busy this past week.  Feeding, napping, changing diapers, washing clothes...you know the drill.  Fortunately, we've had help from both of David Scott's grandmothers since we got home.  Last Thursday was DS' first holiday -- Thanksgiving -- quite appropriate as Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  This year, we have so much to be thankful for.  Specifically, we are thankful for our newborn son who is such a joy and blessing to our family.  Have I told you that we hit the jackpot with this kid?!?  Seriously, he is a happy, good-natured, easy-going baby and we love him so much.  Anyway, we had a great day with each other as well as my mom, step-father, and sister.  Here's a pic of our little family on Thanksgiving Day:

Yes, I know his smile is probably the result of a passing gas bubble in his system, but I don't care.  He smiles at us all the time.  And although we haven't captured it (or even tried to yet), he is really holding his head up well considering he's only two weeks old.  It's so amazing to watch him change, grow, and learn new things every day.  I guess we all take for granted that we know how certain things work -- simple things -- arm control, head/neck control and strength.  But to really watch our son learn these things on a day-to-day basis is so cool.  For instance, David Scott is "grabbing" at Scotty's face and trying to "move" it so that he can suck on his daddy's nose.  It's pretty funny to watch.  And last Thursday/Friday, DS finally got latching on.  Thank you, Lord!  Success!  I was so glad that he finally grasped this concept, and just before my mom left, too.  She was a big help for me with this whole nursing thing, and overall of course.  Scotty's mom was too.  She came in on Saturday and left today, heading back up to North LA.  So now we're on our own.  Within the next few days, I expect us to fall even more into our own little routine.  We've been on somewhat of a 3-hour schedule throughout the day since we came home from the hospital.  Last night was the first night that DS went 4 hours in between feedings where I had to actually wake him up.  He's pretty alert throughout most of the day, which I love.  This way we get plenty of face time with one another with the added bonus of a little more sleep at night for me.  Well, last night anyway.  I'm hoping that continues. 

We went for his 2-week check-up with Dr. K yesterday.  DS gained another 2 oz on his frame and is now weighing in at a hefty 6 lbs, 10 oz!  He's still 20 inches long, but what did I expect, a huge increase in height in just a week?  Nah.  Now we don't have to go back to the pediatrician until he's 2 months old.  Yay! 

Today, our little boy is two weeks old.  I can't believe it's already been two weeks.  Time is already flying by.  I want it to slow down a little...