Johnny Jumper

We got a hand me down Johnny Jumper from some friends and tried it out this week for the first time. Pete loves it. It tires him out quickly right now though but he is all into sitting in it and playing with the toys in front of him. Just in the last week he has really learned how to reach out for things, hold things and grab things in front of him. Check it out.

Step Stool

Check out Pete's new step stool! I found it at a garage sale for $3 and my friend Kari painted it just for Pete. Isn't it perfect? She did such a great job. I am going to use it for my feet while sitting in Pete's rocking chair. Then someday Pete will use it in front of the bathroom sink or for whatever he might need a little lift for. I love it and Pete will too someday. Thanks Kari!

Baseball Game

We went to another local Whitecaps baseball game last night with some friends. It was a long game but really good. We left before it was over and I still don't know who won but it was Pete's bedtime and he, and we, were pretty tired. Pete is really an incredible baby. Most people have a hard time sitting through 3 hours of baseball, but not Pete. Not my boy. He is such a good baby and I feel so proud of him every day. P. says he takes after me but I am going to bet I wasn't this good of a baby. Wherever he got it from I am thankful and thankful we could see a fun game, spend time with good friends and eat good baseball game food. Here are some pictures from last night.

Week At The Cottage

Where have I been? We, and our friends, have been at a rental cottage in Shelby, MI for a week. It was another lovely time away that was filled fun, family and friends. We spent the week playing at the beach, fishing, touring a local dairy, reading, playing badminton (or birdie as the kids call it) and volleyball, eating, watching sunsets and sitting around the fire. I would write more but I don't have a lot of time right now. We are still trying to recover and unpack from our trip and with Katie leaving on Wed we have been busy seeing people, doing fun things and getting last minute errands done. But here are some pics that do a good job of telling our vacation story.

Some Pictures From This Week

The Girls

Remember those dogs I used to blog about all the time? My babies, my best friends, my first born Abby, my sweet Serra..........yeah, I know, I vaguely do too. Since Pete was born my dogs have gone from top dogs to bottom dwellers. From, can do no wrong to can do no right. Now my girls add stress, chaos and dirt to an already messy situation. The first problem is they are loud. If they see a squirrel, bird, ant, blade of grass move, they go charging outside, barking, sliding into each other, slamming through the doggie door and of course never catch what they are after so retreat back into the house through the doggie door only to watch for the next movement in the yard. It is the most annoying, agitating thing and if Pete is sleeping he isn't anymore. The second thing that has become increasingly bothersome is that if Pete is on the ground they will surely step or sit on him. That is just my girls though. They like to be close to you. One blessing is that the addition of Pete didn't really add any jealously issues regarding the girls so that's good. But in general you have to keep a close watch on the girls while Pete is hanging out on the floor, especially if they decide to go charging outside after something. And third they are hairy and dirty. It doesn't matter how often you vacuum, sweep or bathe them they are dogs and they are dirty. Ask me if I have time or energy to clean right now. Nope, no time or energy to clean. Today I might get the time and energy to give myself a bath, maybe. Lastly the dogs do not like visitors. If someone comes to the door, the mailman comes by, or someone walks a dog down our street in front of our house the dogs go nuts. Even if they are locked outside it is a loud, chaotic event that bothers me, wakes up Pete and makes life hard.

How do I feel about this? Bad. Sad. I wish it wasn't this way. I miss my dogs. And if the dogs seemed more affected by the whole thing I would feel worse. I remember when the noise and dirt didn't bother me a bit. I remember napping in the afternoons with both of them laying on me with not a care in the world. Nap, what is that? I remember when watching them charge outside after a leaf that turned over was funny. And now the guilt of not giving them the attention and love they are used to hurts me. I do make an effort to spend a little time with them each day, give them treats and P. still gets them out for a walk a couple times a week but overall it is a huge change for all of us. Babies are huge changes. But what can I do? Nothing. The girls are still my family and I still love them very much. Abby is still my girl and Serra is still a little sweetheart, they just spend a lot more time outside now. Since it is summer that is ok. Not sure what we are going to do when winter sets in. They might need to grow thicker coats.......

Oh and here's a funny picture I took last night. I did the hair thing again. Heehee.

Dr Pooper

Here's my little Dr Pooper.

LOL

Doesn't this just make you LOL? Sometimes I get bored while feeding Pete and I play with his hair. I pull pieces together and twist them between my fingers and he ends up looking like this. Hilarious! P. comes home and says, what have you done to my son?And here is a hat Katie and I found at a garage sale today. It says, "WAHHHH". It is mostly for the next baby but we thought we would try it on him. So funny. P. apologizes to Pete for what happens when he is gone. :)

Beach Day

P. took the day off on Tuesday and we went to the lake. It was a perfect day of swimming, volleyball and sun bathing. It was the first time since having Pete that I actually laid out and sun bathed. It felt so good to feel the sun on my face and relax in the sand. I missed it. Pete did great, as usual. He hung out on the blanket or in our laps. He took a nap. P. and the girls took him on a long walk down the beach as I laid in the sand. We took lunches and stopped for dinner and ice-cream on the way home. Pete didn't get sun burnt. I got a tan. It was a great day.

Good Times

Here are some recent pictures. This first one is of Pete and our friend Kari. She came over Friday, the day Pete figured out how to nap on his own. We had lunch plans but Pete slept so long we ended up having lunch around 2:30pm. I like this picture of Pete because his bottom lip is tucked under all cute like. This is us at O' Charleys for lunch.The dogs and Pete in his Bumpo chair. We went to a wedding in Davison, MI Saturday. P.'s cousin got married to a sweet girl named Jessica. Here is a picture of our family at the wedding.Pete over Omi's shoulder at the wedding. Pete and the bride Jessica.Me, Pete and the wedding cake. Pete hanging out on mom. P., Pete and Katie hanging out at the wedding.

Bumpo

I tried out Pete's Bumpo chair for the first time today. He liked it....for about 5 minutes. The thing is pretty incredible. I told P. that I was going to try it today and he said he thought it was too early. It sat Pete upright with no problems and Pete's head was actually really stable. He was so cute sitting there looking around figuring out this new sitting sensation. We looked at some toys and took some pictures before he was ready to get down and move. He is a mover. I can see I am going to have my hands full once he starts crawling. He just wants to go. His legs and arms are always moving and he is always trying to get out of his bouncer, Boppy or anything he is strapped into that restricts full movement. I hope he will enjoy the Bumpo at some point. I think it is pretty neat and could be a lot of fun for us. Here are some pictures.And here is Pete happier on the floor......
Oh, and my week long efforts of trying to get Pete to nap have worked. Well, I guess I better not get ahead of myself because yesterday I was in tears because I felt nothing was working. My friend Rachel gave Pete this Pooh thing that you hang in the crib and it plays music and shines pictures on the ceiling. I tried it for the first time this morning and it worked! It ran for 15 minutes and at the end of the first round I could see he was getting sleep, heavy eyes, rubbing his head, etc. It automatically shut off and it startled Pete. He was like, uh, what happened? So I quickly turned it back on and he went back to watching the lights and listening to the music. His eyes got heavy, he started whimpering a little then rolled over onto his tummy and fell asleep all before the second round finished. It was a very exciting thing to watch for a tired, discouraged mom who thought it would never happen. But it did. He put himself to sleep. No rocking, walking, singing. No putting him down and him waking up half way to the mattress. No tip-toeing away and hoping the wood floors wouldn't creak and wake him up. It was amazing. And now, 40 minutes later he is still asleep. What a wonderful day. What a wonderful turn of events. This will change my life. Totally. I will keep you updated. Off to try to get something done. I was so excited about the new milestone that I had to blog about it and call my husband, best friend and Rachel since it was her gift that made this all possible. Oh, Pete is waking up.......

Camping

We went camping again this weekend. Usually we go to the lake but this time we went north to Cadillac, MI. It is about half way between us and my in-laws so it worked out great for both parties. We stayed at a nice campground with a pool, petting zoo, fishing, nice grass and trees and close enough to town for us to check out the local Goodwill and arcade when it was raining Sat. P. caught a nice 18" Pike in the small fishing pond they had there. It was exciting for everyone to see that thing bite. See picture.

It rained again. I think it rains about 3-4 days a week. It wasn't a huge deal but it still puts a damper on things. And it brings out the mosquitoes, more than they already are. But we still had another great weekend. My in-laws cook wonderful meals while camping. I don't have to do a thing, it is really nice. I am not just talking hot dogs and hamburgers but Flat Iron steak, spareribs, pot roast and potatoes, pork roast. We eat well. Thanks again Omi and Opa for taking us camping and feeding us so well. Here are my pictures from the weekend. Katie is up at Omi and Opa's this week. There are lots of great things for her to do up there like driving the golf cart, spending the day at her uncle's lake, fishing, riding on the pontoon boat, etc. I think they are going to a water park up north this week too. I will work on getting Pete to nap longer than a half hour. I have some new ideas including blacking out his windows in his room, putting him down after only an hour of being awake and using a fan for background noise. We will see what happens. Pray for me. Wish me luck. Have a great week.

Hello

Now whenever I lay Pete down on his back he rolls over to his tummy. Here is a picture of him this morning hanging out in his new favorite position. It's a continuous cycle now of laying him down on his back, he rolls over, hangs out until he gets tired, gets fussy and I roll him back over. He rolls over, hangs out, gets tired, gets fussy, I roll him back over. I can feel his desire to move more. He is stronger and more squirmy like he wants to get down and walk. I don't think I am ready for this change. I like the content little boy who just wants to lay in mommy's arms all day. But I like this too. I am proud of him and can't wait to see what he does next. Today I was showing him an emery board and laid it in his hands. He tried to put it in his mouth. He hasn't actually grabbed something or tried to grab for something on his own yet but I am thinking that is the next thing he will do. Well, better try to get something done while he is down for his half hour nap. Pete never naps longer than 30 minutes, unless I am holding him. Not sure what it is but he wakes up after a half hour every time I put him down. I have tried everything to get him to nap longer. No noise, more noise, cooler, warmer, swaddle, no swaddle, couch, floor, crib, our bed, after feeding, before feeding, when he is awake, when he is tired, music, pacifier, no pacifier, everything. No matter what I do I get a half hour. Gotta go. Much love!

Check It Out!

Pete Rolls Over

Pete rolled over by himself for the first time today! At 14 weeks our baby boy is rolling over, and over and over. He loves his new skill and wants nothing to do with just laying on his back anymore. He wants to roll over, and over......

I was washing dishes while Pete was laying under his "entertainment system" when I saw him starting to flip over onto his side. But that wasn't it, he kept trying to go further and further and I thought, I better go get the camera, I think he is going to roll over. And he did. And I got pictures of it! His first roll. No one saw it but me, but soon I called Katie in from playing outside and her and her friend Allison saw it. Then we were dropping Allison off by the Coash's house and I had to stop in and show them. Then daddy got home from work and we showed him. It's amazing. It's like he has done it all his life. And he does it every time now, but then doesn't know what he is going to do now that he is on his tummy. But tonight, for dad, he rolled back onto his back, another first, and dad was so proud.

Here are my pictures. Another milestone for Pete. Our baby boy is growing up so fast.
Big congrats from sissy.