Colden Meets Cousin Chaya

Apparently, this is the year for babies in our family!  Colden was born on April 2, 2010 and his two second-cousins, Chaya (daughter of Shana and James) and Julian (son of Craig and Lauren) were both born on May 25, 2010.  

While driving up from dad and Ilona's lake house Memorial Day weekend, we swung by my cousin Shana's house for a visit:

Here, two-month-old Colden is being introduced to his six-day-old cousin, Chaya.  (Could my Aunt Merri look any more proud of her new granddaughter?)

Both Colden and Chaya were born at almost the same weight and length - look at how much they grow in just 8 weeks!  When I held Chaya, I couldn't believe that Colden was ever that small.  He looks like a giant sitting next to her!

The four cousins.  Shana and I are first cousins.  Colden and Chaya are second cousins.  And yes, we played "baby switcharoo" in this picture.

 The new family - Shana, James and Chaya.

I adore this picture.  Shana and her beautiful daughter, Chaya. 

Welcome to the family, Chaya!  We can't wait to meet Julian in a few months!

Memorial Day Weekend

Ever since my dad and Ilona bought a lake house four years ago, it has become an annual tradition for us to go down to visit them at the lake Memorial Day weekend. Depending on traffic, it has taken us anywhere between 7.5 and 10 hours to drive down from our house (just north of Philly) to the lake house (in Virginia, about an hour north of Raleigh, NC). This being our first trip with Colden, we were a little nervous about how he was going to handle being cooped up in the car for so long. Would you believe that he didn't wake up once?!?!? We actually woke him up half way through the trip when we had to pull over to stretch.

We always have such a great time when we are there.

As usual, the weekend was relaxing...

With lots of good laughs... 

(ready for fun in the sun)

(Pete meeting Colden for the first time)

Yummy food...

(The dogs, Josie and Miles, supervising dad and Mike on the grill)

(Ilona feeding Colden for the first time)

Great weather...

(am I mean to think that this picture of my crying son is adorable?)

(and this one is just great because of his facial expression)

(Colden is dressed for the lake...let the summer begin!)

spectacular views...

(Colden's view every morning from his crib)

(Colden and Mike enjoying a sunrise together)

and all around nice family bonding time...

(Colden playing with his Saba)

Needless to say, we are already thinking about our next trip down!

Mobile Magic

A quick re-read of the "Binkies and Bumbos" post will remind you that Mike and I were reluctant to cave into the world of pacifiers.  Well, we caved...

and now Colden is a pro.  (Yes, he is using his left hand.  We hope he grows out of it.)

I digress.

Colden has discovered the magic of mobiles and hanging toys.  The other day I put him in his swing and saw him staring up at the mobile (which I put on once or twice in the past, but he never paid any attention to it).  That day, he was paying attention, so I turned it on:

And he stared...

And he stared...

And he smiled! 

(I was just a little too late in snapping the picture)

So then I thought, if he liked watching hanging toys - maybe he would like playing with hanging toys:

He reached...

And he started hitting the toys!

And he gave us another little hint of a smile.

I think he liked it.

Binkies and Bumbos

Binkies

During the day, Colden can fall asleep...

wherever...

whenever...

however.

But for some reason, at night he always has to suck on his fingers in order to fall asleep. Mike and I were hesitant to give him a pacifier because we were afraid of the weening process and of having a child who still needed a pacifier in college. Besides, as you can see in this video, Colden is pretty good at finding his thumb:

Unfortunately, he still lacks the gross motor skills to keep his thumb IN his mouth - making falling asleep at night not only difficult for him, but for us as well.

Possible solutions?
1. help him find his own fingers (over and over again)
2. let him suck on one of our fingers
3. figure out something else that will soothe him

The other night I chose option #3.   I was rocking him to sleep when he found my arm.  He stopped crying, so I thought - "what's the harm"?

See below for the harm:

Using a pacifier suddenly didn't seem like such a bad idea...

He fell asleep within seconds of getting the pacifier.  To date, we've only had to resort to using the pacifier twice.  Lessons learned: arm does not equal pacifier and maybe the pacifier isn't such a bad thing after all.

And Bumbos

Now that Colden can support his own head, we decided to try him in the Bumbo seat:

He loved sitting in it and looking around. We just have to work on his posture! :-)

1st Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day as a mom!!  And what a GREAT day it was!  We went to my mom's house to celebrate:

Colden got me a Mother's Day card (it was so much fun to get a card this year).

And my wonderful husband got me this gorgeous Mother's Ring, which has all of our birthstones.  Mike is the emerald, I am the ruby and Colden is the diamond (thanks Colden, for being born in April)  :-)

If you're wondering about the lovely bedhead that mom and I are sporting...that's because we got treated to breakfast in bed!!  Yum, yum!

This was the first time that Adam met Colden.  (I can't believe Adam is now "Uncle Adam")

Adam was great with his nephew and gave him lots of kisses.

Mom with her baaaby, and me with mine.

What a great Mother's Day!

Smile!

This picture deserves a blog entry of its own:

This is the first smile I was able to catch on camera.  He has been giving us little smiles here and there, but every time I brought out the camera, he brought out his serious face again.  This time I got it!  We still can't get him to smile (although that doesn't stop us from trying), but you can't tell me that this ear-to-ear grin is because of gas.  We are getting close to the real deal - I can feel it. 

Crib Crawl

Our watchful eyes are going to have to be a lot more focused now that Colden is no longer a "newborn blob".

 ...Start position

...End position

Colden is still sleeping in the crib next to our bed.  I used to be able to tell when he was waking up for his night feedings because he would start to suck his fingers, or make little grunting noises.  The other night I woke up to him kicking the side of the crib.  How on earth did he get to the side of the crib?!?

Our boy is "mobile"!

1 Month Old

It's hard to believe that yesterday was Colden's 1 month birthday!  He just had his
1 month checkup at the doctor's office:

Weight:  10 pounds, 10 ounces

Length:  21 inches

Needless to say, he is a healthy growing boy!

Has it really been a month since we took him home from the hospital?

Look at how big he has gotten!

(3 days old)

                         

 (1 month old)

He may be bigger now, but he definitely had more hair back then!  A couple of days ago, Colden lost all of the hair on the top of his head - just the top, he still has hair on the sides and back of his head.  Apparently the male pattern baldness is completely normal.  Poor little guy - but hey, at least we know what he might look like in 40 years!  :-)

 

Not only can he hold his head up (now without the aid of the Boppy pillow)...

..but he can also push up with his legs.  He may not be ready for his first steps yet, but if you hold him in the standing position, you can definitely feel him "stand".

He's also gotten a lot smarter.  He already knows which baseball team is the best!

Mike fed Colden his first bottle today.  The doctor told us to start feeding Colden a bottle a day so that he got used to feeding from the bottle.  It only took Colden a couple of seconds to take to the bottle.  Mike and I both claim this occasion as a victory;  Mike - because now he can enjoy that bonding time with Colden that up until now, only I have been able to enjoy.  And me - because this marks the beginning of my FREEDOM!!!  :-)

We thought it would be fun to plant a tree in our backyard in honor of Colden.  We planted a birch tree sapling so that we could watch it grow as Colden grows.

Awe - little Colden next to his little tree.

Happy 1 month birthday, little man!