Our little monkey

So this past weekend we had some birthday celebrations... They involved sushi, a wine party, and generally a bunch of things I wasn't allowed to do while I was pregnant. I had some delicious cupcakes (see below) and the best gift EVER from my loving hubby. He handed me a couple of earplugs, turned off the baby monitor, and tucked me in before marching out to sleep on the couch and listen for baby nighttime needs. A night of full uninterrupted sleep... Something I never thought I was going to be so desparate for. It was amazing. He must truly love me.
My little man had a birthday gift for me too, albiet a little belated. Not to jinx it, but last night he slept from 7 pm until 5:15 am all on his own. No parental involvement whatsoever. I hope this continues - but who knows.

In other news, we're all ready for Halloween here. Our little guy is going to properly represent as a little monkey. I think he's about as adorable as they come in his little outfit, but you be the judge. He's even got a banana. Which he really does chew on. Yum. Cloth banana.

Interesting - N is about the same size as his stuffed monkey. They look eerily similar when he's all suited up.

Even E agrees that this is a fabulous costume - and he's not typically all that into costumes and whatnot. But check out that face. He's awesome! (Also note that he's a tiny clone of E. E is super handsome, so that's totally fine with me.)

Tah-dah!

Immediately after this I walked out of the room to get ready to leave. E swears that he rolled back the other way (for real, without help) while I was out of the room. We'll have to get a video of that later - this one alone took weeks to capture!

N does cereal!

Yum!

After N's four month checkup they cleared us to try rice cereal. The little man can't totally decide what he thinks of it, but at least he's a pretty willing participant. Here's one of our first attempts at filling him with what looks to me like dry ground up cardboard mixed in lots of milk. I'm quite sure I wouldn't love it, so who can blame him? I'm pretty sure he'll like it better when he gets to try more interesting things - like peaches, avocados, and bananas. These were apparently favorites of mine, so maybe he'll feel the same way.

I'm still trying to get a video of him rolling over. He can be rolling and rolling, but as soon as the video comes out he stops doing much of anything and stares at the camera. He's a ham, what can I say?

Baby care stats

Duration of parenthood = approximately 4 months (or 13 months, depending on if you count the pregnancy or not)
Baby colds contracted = 2 for A, 0 for E, 3 for N
Breastfeeding problems dealt with = 2 for A, N/A for E, 0 for N
Diapers changed = approximately 5 million (divided evenly between A and E, 0 for N)
Ear infections = 1 for N (0 for A and E)
Toes discovered = 10 for N (0 for A and E - we already knew where they were)
Smiles bestowed = Enough to make us fall in love a billion times

And the latest and greatest...

Pinkeye problems = 1 for A, 0 for E and N

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Pinkeye? Really? I thought I had at least until first grade to wait for this. But nope. Apparently a kid in N's school has pinkeye, and through the magic of breastmilk protection he's immune somehow. But he's like a carrier monkey. Brought it on home and poked it right in my little eye. Now I can't spy much of anything with it, short of puffy eyelids and reddish sclera. Good thing I like this little guy. Also good that I've already experienced the chicken pox.

Family time in Fairfield

We'll start with a picture for Auntie M - we're cheering for TCU. E always does, N and I do when the Aggies aren't playing. Anyway, here's N being a super sports fan. It's that time again - we all love football season.
This weekend we all headed to Fairfield to visit the family. All the grandparents (and great-grandparents) were super excited to visit N and C. Here are the boys decked out in Cowboys gear. Go Cowboys!

Here are all the men - even the tiniest ones. They were pretty patient through this whole process.

C and I have a picture like this with our cousins from nearly 10 years ago. We decided to recreate it with our own children, so I posed with N and C posed with C. Interesting fact - C and C have the exact same initials. Not so with E and N (clearly).

Lastly, J and I took a little time when the boys went to sleep. Wine and baby monitors - very exciting. We enjoyed our time off.

Austin trip!

This weekend we headed to Austin to visit the paternal side of my family. More accurately, to let N hang out with his cousin C and to show off both of the boys to everyone else. They're both starting to get super fun. Here they are hanging out between appearances.

It's amazing what 4 pounds looks like when you're that small. N is currently 4 pounds heavier than C, but you'd think you were looking at a sumo wrestler instead of a baby. I love his cheeks anyway.

I thought we were going to make it all weekend with us just telling everyone that N could roll over and never having him show anything, but right before we left he did it a couple of times for everyone. Remember that he can only go from back to front. Shortly after this trip, C discovered rolling from belly to back. Maybe next time they get together we can have them exchange notes!

Battered and deep fried

E and I moved to Texas (one of the fatter states in the union) from Colorado (the absolute leanest state there is) approximately a year and a half ago. (It's true, check out the survey here.) We rationalized that the increase in girth could be solved mathematically. Our original hypothesis was:

chubbiness = (crushing heat) x (delicious cheesy smorgasbord of Mexican food) / (available mountains to climb)

I can see it. It makes sense. More heat, more Mexican food, less mountains... It works out beautifully. This is why people in Texas are chubbier, I'm thinking.

But today I realized that was not, in fact, the right equation. The right equation, it turns out, is simply:

chubbiness = (fried butter)

Any group of people who celebrate fried food as much as Texans were bound to find a way to make the absolute worst possible food of all time. Fried butter. Seriously. I think it would be better if we poured a bunch of ranch dressing over it.