Getting the Right Shot

It is getting harder to get the right monthly shot of Philip with his stuffed giraffe.  He is so interactive now and just won't leave the giraffe alone.  Here are some of his outtakes from this month.

6 Months Old

It is hard to believe that it has already been six months since Philip burst into our lives, changing life as we know it forever!  He sent out five months with a bang.  In the week before his half birthday, he started eating solids, got his first tooth, and began sitting up on his own. 

He discovered his feet this and often plays with them while getting changed.  He got over his dislike of the car and even lets us push him around in his stroller without crying if he is in the right mood.  He no longer cries when we try to change him and sometimes he even giggles because he has gotten ticklish. 

I forgot to mention last month that he has started to pet the cat. 

He loves his cat and gets a big smile on his face anytime he catches sight of him.  Herbie has been doing really well with Philip.  He has been patient as we try to teach Philip that you pet a cat with open palm, not by grabbing his fur and pulling up.  It will be awhile before he retains that lesson!

Watch out kitty!

We took our first road trip with Philip for Christmas and he did great.  He met lots of family for the first time and got to see others that he had met before.  Unfortunately, stranger anxiety hit at the same time.  He loves to look at and smile at people, he just doesn't want them to get too close.  The other week we were at a store standing in line and noticed that Philip was happily smiling at an advertisement of a life-size woman.  That poster kept his attention for a long time.

Not so sure if he likes being held by his uncle

The sleep situation has been rough.  He started waking up after every sleep cycle (45 minutes to an hour).  We thought it may have been because we were trying to transition him out of the bassinet in our room and into the crib in his own room.  We were so happy to see a tooth pop through and even happier to have a reason to give him some tylenol at night!

Here comes a tooth!

We went out for ice cream to celebrate his half birthday and reminisced about all the good times and changes we have had since Philip was born.  He is truly a blessing and has brought so much happiness into our lives.  We love our little guy!

Here are some of my favorite pics from the past month:

I know his eyes are closed, but I think this is a cute pic anyway!

He loved Grandpa's Kindle

Keeping him occupied while I'm on a conference call

We took him out in the snow for the first time this month

Getting ready for his first solid meal

I think he liked it!

Good times with Daddy the day he learned to sit up on his own

Almost ready to roll over - watch out world!

Our Christmas

Once again, I am falling behind here, but I hope to be back up to normal postings in the next week or so.

We had a great Christmas this year.  We settled on our house on December 16 and moved that Saturday.  We then had about four days to try to get partially settled before leaving to visit family for the holidays.  It was a crazy time, but it has been so fun to set up our first house.  (A house post is coming soon.)

It was definitely different traveling with Philip. This was his first major road trip and luckily he was just starting to get better about riding in the car (he used to cry and scream when we put him in the car - even if he just saw the carseat).  We left two hours later than we had planned that Thursday and ended up in major traffic trying to get out of DC.  It was the worst traffic jam we had been in and we have been in some bad ones trying to leave the city.  It is never a good sign when you have to make your first rest stop before you even leave the metro area.  Speaking of, we learned that rest stops take a lot longer with a baby - about 45 minutes  to one hour on average.  It doesn't seem like it takes that long, but by the time you get gas, feed and change the baby, and take a break yourself, almost an hour has passed you by.

We stopped in Raleigh to spend the night with our brother and sister-in-law.  We had hoped to be there in time to eat dinner together, but instead we got there at 10:00 pm.  We didn't want to miss our sister-in-law's good cooking, so we had dinner around 10:30 that night.  This was the first time we were able to introduce Philip to my sister-in-law's mother and we were so happy that she got to see him.  The next morning, we had breakfast and enjoyed some time with the family before hitting the road again.

We arrived at my parent's house late afternoon Christmas Eve.  It was our first time bringing Philip to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and it was so much fun!  We hung out and had a nice dinner and then called it a night.  On Christmas, we went to Mass - this was the first time I've gone to Mass on Christmas day that I can remember.  Then we came home to open presents.  Philip was a great age for Christmas.  He is getting into everything, so he helped open his presents and was playing with his toys in no time.  It was also so much fun watching him explore the Christmas tree.  We had a great time with my parents and the days went by much too fast before we had to leave to visit the second set of grandparents. 

We hit the road for Atlanta and had dinner that night with Andy's parents and another sister and brother-in-law.  This was the first time Philip met his aunt and uncle and the evening passed by way too quickly!  We stayed in Atlanta through New Year's and had lots of fun introducing Philip to his aunts, uncles, and cousins.  While in Atlanta, we had lunch at a brother and sister-in-law's house where we saw a slideshow of their trip to Israel, enjoyed "adult night" at another sibling's house (Philip was invited of course), had a lunch out with some family, had brunch with Andy's friends from high school, and enjoyed the traditional New Year's Eve family games night.  We were hoping to stay in town for longer so that we could visit with college friends as well, but it didn't work out this year.  Hopefully next year we will be in a better position to spend more time in Georgia over the holidays.  Amazingly, I took no pictures while in Atlanta, hence the lack of pics below.  If anyone has some, please pass them along!

On our way back home, we stopped in Raleigh again and spent the night with some friends who had just moved from Boston to North Carolina.  We had met them up here in Maryland and it was so good to have a little time to catch up with them and their beautiful/fun family. 

We made it back home on January 3rd and have been busy unpacking, working, and taking care of Philip.  My parents spent a week up here helping us with the house and it was so much fun.  More details in another post.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas.

5 Months

Hello Folks!

Philip turned 5 months in December!  He is changing so fast, it is hard to keep up. 

Last month he started laughing. 

He always smiles at people when they talk to him, but he doesn't like to go to anyone but Mom and Dad. 

I started getting a lot of comments about Philip's mohawk.  I hadn't really noticed, but he lost a lot of hair around his sides, while the hair on the top of his head is long and full.  I guess since he never lost all his hair and since I always see him up close and personal, I didn't get the full effect. One day when Andy was holding him I realized what everyone was talking about! 

He is always chomping on and sucking his hands.  We hope he cuts a tooth soon and starts to sleep better as his sleep habits have regressed. 

No teeth yet!

This month he also started getting more interested in his toys and he always trys to grab anything I am holding in my hands. 

He celebrated his first Thanksgiving and got to meet another aunt and uncle and three of his cousins.

Just before he turned five months, we closed on our house and moved in.  This is what we bought to keep him entertained while we packed.  He loves to jump around and since he was crawling out of his bouncer, swing, and Bumbo, we needed something to keep him entertained.

We went to my office's Christmas party, which put me in the Christmas spirit.  I pulled out this sleeper for him to wear that night.