Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Carson is 3 months old!

Carson is still such a great baby and has gotten so much fun! He’s smiling and laughing so much of the time and he’s a big flirt at the ladies, smiling at anyone who takes the time to make eye contact with him. He began smiling a bunch around 10 weeks and has gradually had more awake time over the last few weeks.

Collin was in school Tuesday through Thursday until last week and Carson would usually fall asleep on the way to school around 9:30/10 so I had the mornings to do facials, play tennis or run errands. I would usually wake him to feed him while I ate lunch before picking up Collin at 1:00 so we would be free to do things in the afternoon after Collin played on the playground at school. Collin will still only nap if in the car or the stroller at the right time. Though we all benefit from him napping most days he does not have a nap these days so we’d do some errands or meet up with friends in the afternoons and then Carson would usually be awake in the late afternoons and evenings since he’d been asleep much of the day. Most evenings he’d lay under his activity gym on the living room floor until I fed him and we went to bed around 11:30ish. Still waking just once at night to eat but often doesn’t want to go back in his pack-n-play when he’s done or sometimes I fall asleep while he’s eating. Just over the last week he’s started to not want to sleep much during the day and going to bed much earlier at night (9 or 10) but it’s hard to tell with recent travels and long car rides what his regular routine will be.
He is quite a big boy! Tall, Dark & Handsome I like to say. I know he's grown so much this month. At two months he was 25 inches long (95th percentile!), and weighed 13 pounds, 4 ounces (75% percentile). I can't believe how quickly he's growing! We see 5- and 6- month olds that don't even look as old or as big as he does. I know we're going to be growing out of the infant carrier in no time.

Caron is starting to show a little interest in toys and follows sound. He kicks his feet quite a lot and it starting the beginning of conversation with cooing and answering back. He is SUCH a JOY & I'm loving babyhood so much more this time! And I'm so thankful for the opportunity to stay home with him - I can't even imagine putting him in daycare every day.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Carson's Baptism

We decided to have Carson baptised in St. Louis during my cousin Caitlin's wedding and Memorial Day weekend, since all our family would be there. We were so blessed to have so many family members attend from both sides of the family! My mom's cousin's son is a Catholic priest so we had Father Tim perform the ceremony at my favorite church in St. Louis, St. Francis Xavier on the campus of St. Louis University. It is a beautiful cathedral-style church with a baptismal fountain in the back of the santuary. Mike's sister Laura & her husband Tim are Carson's godparents.

Click here to see Laura's great pictures of the Baptism weekend! And ">Mom's too.



Afterwards we had a BBQ picnic at a park in St. Louis and we got really lucky with the weather since it stormed both before & after the picnic. Carson wasn't his usual happy self during his special day since I couldn't locate his pacifier but it was so wonderful to have everyone together to celebrate this wonderful occasion!














We have Voegtle cousin pictures also from this day since Doris cooked brunch for the girls and us, as if preparing food for both sides of the family for a picnic wasn't enough! Memorial Day we had lunch with my parents & Rob, Kristen & Owen before they headed to the airport, then we went to the St. Louis zoo & then enjoyed another BBQ at Laura & Tim's with Mike's family. It was a great weekend!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Catilin & John's Wedding

My cousin Caitlin was the first baby I remember being around. She's 8 years younger than me & I remember her visiting us in San Antonio when she was just a few weeks oldthen I helped take care of her when we lived in the St. Louis area & her brothers were born. It's amazing how quickly time flies as Caitlin is a beautiful young women and Mike & I sat with her handsome brothers with my 3-month & 4-year-old boys.

Click to see albums shared by Charles, Pam, Mom

Caitlin asked Collin to be a ring bearer so we rented a REAL tux from Men's Warehouse and were invited to the rehearsal dinner. It was a very nice dinner and we got to sit with my Grandma, cousins & their lovely dates. Collin was in a good mood, but again stayed up WAY to late, which showed the next day.

Collin looked so cute in his tux! Carson wore the tux that Collin wore at Rob & Kristen's wedding when he was 5 weeks old (I'm not too surprised it fit him, given that Carson was bigger at his 2-mo. doctor's appointment than Collin was at his 4-mo. appointment). Doris offered to come to the wedding to take care of Carson, which I really didn't think was necessary but since she was going to be taking the boys during the evening reception I said OK. As expected, Carson was an angel and slept through the entire mass, but it was great to have Doris there to stay with Collin and Jon's nephew Patrick at the back of the church. She heard Collin ask Patrick "Are you scared?" Patrick said "yes" and Collin said "Me too!". Later he asked if he had to do that again and we said "No" and he said "Good". They didn't actually carry the rings but instead a small pillow that came in handy. As soon as Collin made it down the aisle he laid his head down on the small pillow and went to sleep for the entire service. It was the best thing that could have happened but it was too bad that he missed the formal pictures, wouldn't pose for one with Carson, and he was in a bad mood when we stopped by my cousin Matt's house.

In the several hours between the wedding & reception (a St. Louis Catholic wedding tradition) we saw Karen & Greg's new house for the first time and got to see our nieces. It's a really nice home in a BEAUTIFUL neighborhood and will be even nicer after they do their major renovations.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Collin rides his bike!

We have wonderful neighbors with a boy Charlie just a year older than Collin who shares many of his toys and clothes that he's outgrown with Collin. Our latest and greatest gift has been a bike for Collin to ride! He was so excited to ride it and it was a source of great enjoyment for mom & son while dad was in "Las Vegast."

(That's how Collin pronounces the city, despite our trying to tell him that it ends with the "s" sound as in snake. We were getting some strange looks in the grocery store the other day when Collin is singing "Viva Las Vegas....snake!" at the top of his lungs. You probably had to be there to enjoy the humor, but it was pretty funny.

So, I was a little concerned about Mike leaving the same week that school was over and what we were going to do together, but as usual, I enjoyed the time alone with Collin (now plus Carson). I'm even including a video of his first bike ride, which was taken at East Cobb park on the day we got his bike. The first day he asked for a two-wheeler and having the training wheels taken off but I told him he needed to practice some more. I had to run while pushing Carson in the stoller to keep up with him, which was a little hard to do in sandals. Today he actually asked for knee pads and elbow pads. I have no idea how he even knows about these things, but he is constantly amazing me where he comes up with these things.

I think he's going to enjoy riding his bike like his mom!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Visit from Raquel & kids

Just like Raquel was 5 hours south when we lived in Dallas and she in Houston, she's five hours south here too since she lives in Crestview, FL, about 45 minutes from Destin. She came to visit with the girls and we did several fun things in the afternoons. Tuesday we went to the zoo then met up with the guys for dinner. Wednesday they accompanied us to our regular East Cobb Park picnic outing to hear the concert. Collin unfortunately wasn't in the best mood for their trip but it was great to have them here!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mother's Day

What a great day! I woke up with Collin saying "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy!" unprompted for the first time. There's nothing that compares to this feeling of happiness for family and being a mom. You can't describe to someone that isn't a parent how all the sacrifices are worth it but they are! I am so thankful and blessed for my wonderful boys!
I came downstairs to a wooden flower arrangement that Collin made for me at Home Depot with his dad as you can see here with picture frame and had he made me at school.

We went to church at 11:30 since we had gotten used to it even though Collin’s last Sunday school for the year was last week. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and relaxing Sunday morning, then went to Lunch at Five Guys (I figured it wasn’t a very popular Mother’s Day outing) but they have GREAT burgers and we could sit outside.
We went for a hike at Sope Creek right by our house that afternoon. It was our second annual hike on Mother’s Day since last year we went up to the North Georgia mountains, but a great tradition!