3 Months Old!

It seems like a big milestone. . . That's when the books transition from calling your baby a "newborn" to an "infant". And I think he's definitely ready for that title! Here's his official monthly "bear shot" (if you go to this post, you'll see him at 1 week, 1 month, and 2 months old) :

Love that expression! So, what's our little guy up to right now:

-First off, he's not that little anymore! He was 12.8 lbs on the pediatrician's scale today. Granted, that was with his diaper and onesie on, but I'm betting he's right around 12 lbs buck naked. He's up almost 3 lbs from one month ago. . .

-He's also very aware of his surroundings and loves looking around. One of his favorite spots is being held up so he can look over my shoulder.

-He definitely knows and loves his Mommy and Daddy!

-He flashes smiles frequently. My favorite is when he does it from the crib after he wakes up in the morning.

-Has found his voice and is very "talkative".

-Sleeps at least 6 hours straight at night, well, most nights. Hopefully our trend keeps improving!

Happy 3 months, Hayden!

Maximum Cuteness

Rich asked a few weeks ago if I thought Hayden was at his "maximum cuteness" phase. I said "no way, he'll be adorable for a long, long time." Well, now I'm starting to think he's reached it. Can he get any cuter than this?

3 months seems to be an ideal age. He's sleeping pretty well--well enough, at least, that I almost feel like a normal human being. He flashes smiles all the time. And he looks so sweet and peaceful as he's sleeping in my arms before I put him down to bed. I know there will come a day, not too far from now, where he won't want to be held and rocked.

He's also starting to show some personality. I had a function at my office on Friday and as we mingled with my coworkers, Hayden would flash a big smile, then turn his head and bury his face in my shoulder. He was being shy! It was adorable! He's also been getting scared. I was holding Hayden the other day and yelled Rich's name (he was in another room). My loud voice made his face crumple and he started crying. I felt so bad! I've got to be careful not to yell at the dog if I'm holding Hayden and she starts barking, because that upsets him, too!

He's also been really into his hands lately. He discovered them several weeks ago, and we often see him sitting with his hands clasped together. Well, last week, he discovered that his hands--fingers, specifically--are even better when they're in his mouth. He's been experimenting with different combinations of fingers, but these two seem to be the favorite so far. . .

Big Kid Ride

This morning Hayden had a new ride--he got to sit like a big kid in his stroller on our walk through the neighborhood. Rather than put him in the carseat, then clip that into the stroller (like we've been doing), he sat facing forward with a view of the world! He holds his head up so well and he loves to look around when I have him in the Baby Bjorn, so I thought we'd give this a try. He loved it!

Camping Trip

We were gone for 55 hours. . . 12 of which were spent in a car and about 16 of which were spent on a leaking air mattress. Was it fun? Well. . . yes. I think “educational” describes it better. What I learned:

- Make sure your air mattress does not have a leak before you go.
- 43 degrees feels a lot colder when you have to get out of your sleeping bag to change a diaper in the middle of the night.
- A Subaru Outback really isn't all that big. And we only have 1 kid. No wonder SUV's are so popular.
- A teething toddler doesn't enjoy a 250 mile trip in the car or spending the night in a tent (we love you Sarah, and you were quite a trooper. . . we all felt your pain and we know that it is no fun to be getting several teeth at the same time!). Is it too much for me to wish that Hayden will remain toothless?

Hayden and I rode with Brent, Erin, and Sarah and arrived around 7 p.m. Rich had to teach a late afternoon class so he didn't get to the campsite until almost 11 p.m. After unpacking and snuggling into our sleeping bags, Rich said "we should have stayed in a hotel"! I disagreed. About 2 a.m. when my butt was no longer cushioned by air I started to think that maybe he was right. He was still smiling on Saturday morning, though:

After breakfast, the boys went off to mountain bike while the Moms and kids hung around the campsite. Janelle and Lucas, who are seasoned campers (Lucas has been at it since he was about 6 weeks old) gave us some pointers!

The morning was a bit chillier than we planned, but we all stayed bundled up and warm. Hayden wasn't even deterred from swatting at his toys despite the bulky snowsuit!

Hayden really liked the tent. He snuggled up with Mom in her sleeping bag at night and was fascinated with the cool design on the top of the tent

Once the boys finished their ride, we enjoyed the sun coming out and relaxing around camp. Erin and I even took our bikes for a ride while the Dads watched the kids!

And Hayden enjoyed some more playtime, this time unencumbered by be-mittened hands!

And one of the best parts about camping is sitting around the campfire making smores. It almost makes up for sleeping on a flat air mattress!

I think Hayden will definitely be up for a night in the tent again, but maybe we'll wait until it gets a little warmer! Here's a glimpse of some classic Fruita scenery with that amazing single-track running along the river. . . maybe next year I'll get a little more riding time, but for now I was happy to spend it with my baby instead.

TGIF

I am ready for the weekend! Who would have thought that working 15 little hours would make my life so hectic? I hope as we get used to our new routine and I get back into the habit of going to work, things will calm down a bit. I felt like I was running around like a crazy woman all week!

So, are we taking the weekend to relax and catch up on house projects? In typical Shertzer fashion, the answer is no. We're headed to western Colorado for a weekend of camping and mountain biking. Perhaps having a trip to pack for, a camping trip no less, with a 2 1/2 month old, is what has made my week feel so stressful. . .

The trip should be great, though. We went last year with some people that Rich works with and had a great time. Fruita, CO is high desert country, very different from where we live on the Eastern slope of the Rockies. I guess the high desert got under our skin after living at Edwards AFB for 3 1/2 years, because we love the desert-backed-by-mountain scenery. This year's trip will be quite a bit different because we now have an extra person in our tent--and it will be his first camping experience! Thankfully, Erin and Sarah are coming along, too, so we'll have friends to hang out with while the boys are out biking. I'm hoping to get in a little riding myself, but we'll see how it goes. Our Chariot is great, but not for single track! Check back next week for a recap of our trip.

And because I can't have a post without photos, here is Hayden, happily getting ready to go for a run with Mom this morning (in his Chariot). What a great way to start the weekend!

And a self-snapped shot of Mom giving her main man a smooch! I love this little guy!

Workin' 9 to 5

Well, not technically, but that Dolly Parton song runs through my head almost every morning when I walk from the parking lot into my office building. And after 11 weeks off, I was doing that walk again this week. Instead of "9 to 5", though, I'm working "8 to noon" and it's only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. My company was great about letting me cut back my hours, so I decided to stick with it.

It was very hard to leave my little guy on Monday morning, but he is in very capable and loving hands! He's spending the mornings with Erin and Sarah until they move (I'm so sad!), then he'll hang out at the Peterson AFB Child Development Center while Mom is at work.

Since I only work mornings, he and I have all afternoon to play! On Tuesday afternoon, I put him in his crib then stepped out of the room for a minute. When I came back, I saw that he had discovered the ring on his mirror toy. He couldn't get enough!

Another popular game of late is "where's the baby?" He "hides" under a blanket, I enthusiastically ask "where's the baby!," then I find him. It draws huge smiles (of course I didn't manange to capture those smiles on camera. . .) and I think he'd be happy to play all day!

The upside of me having a schedule to stick to, is that Hayden has a schedule to stick to. Up until now, I'd say we had a routine, but not really a schedule. Our days revolved around when Hayden would get hungry. When I did put him down in his crib for the night, he'd sleep for maybe 3, maybe 4, or even 6 hours and we'd start our daily routine all over again. Starting Sunday night, though, bedtime has been 10:15 p.m. The first night, he got up at 2:30 a.m. After a snack, he went back to sleep and woke up again at 6:15. Which happened to be exactly when I needed him to wake up! I was soooo thankful that the timing for our first workday happened so well. The next night, the first time he woke up was 4 a.m. After going back to sleep, he got up for the day at 6:30. And last night he made it all the way through the night, not waking up until 6:45 a.m.! I think that's a record for his longest sleep to date. . . 8 1/2 hours! So, I'm hoping that he's figured out that the time to wake up in the morning is around 6:30.

I've learned that with a baby, you can't really plan on anything, though, so I'm not holding my breath for a repeat performance tonight. Of course, I'd be thrilled if he did do it again!

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Oh My! After our gray snowy day Friday, we had warm, sunny, beautiful blue skies on Saturday. Brent, Erin, and Sarah invited us to go to the zoo and we couldn't turn down the chance to enjoy an afternoon outside with friends.

In all the years that we've lived in Colorado Springs, Rich and I had never been to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It certainly won't be our last visit! Nestled right against the mountains, you can't beat the scenery. We had a great time checking out all of the animals. Here's a sampling of what we saw:

Orangutans

Pythons

Meerkats

Sarah enjoyed this gorilla. . .

And we had a fondness for this little guy. . . he was born on the same day as Hayden! Actually, the zookeepers think it's a girl, but they haven't confirmed it. Momma gorilla has been holding onto that baby since he/she was born, so the staff hasn't had a chance to give her/him an exam. At least Hayden is content in arms other than Mom's!

(notice his little hand clinging tight to mom!)

And what did Hayden think of all these animals?

The Snowy Day

I thought April showers were supposed to be rain showers, not snow showers. We didn't have quite the blizzard that was in the forecast, but it was definitely not a spring day outside. Temps were in the 20’s and although it wasn’t really sticking to the roads, there certainly was snow falling.

So, how did we spend our snowy spring day? We did a little reading. . . appropriately, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. It was one of my favorites as a kid and Hayden seemed to enjoy it.

We also spent some time playing. Hayden has recently started to love his “aqua lounger,” sharing some adorable grins with the bubbles and sea creatures.

We also try to get in some tummy time everyday. He’s not really a fan, but we persist none the less.

And no snowy day would be complete without some warm, fresh-baked cookies! While Hayden snoozed in the baby bjorn, I rolled and cut some sugar cookies. The only problem is that I got slightly distracted looking at my friends’ blogs and ended up with a “well-done” batch .

Thanks for all the get-well wishes! Hayden has taken them to heart and is really doing much better. He had no idea he was sick in the first place, but at least now he can breathe while he's eating. He'll still be taking his sweet pink treat for 10 more days, just to be sure those nasty little bacteria are gone though. I'll let you know once he's made a full recovery!

Sicky Poo

We've had our first dose of sick baby. . . it started out last week as a congested, but very runny nose. After a night of sleeping in the rocking chair, holding Hayden upright so he could breathe, we went to visit the doctor. The diagnosis was that he had a cold and it would just need to run its course. Use saline drops and the "snot sucker," as Rich likes to call it, and it should be cleared up by the weekend. Well, yesterday--10 days later--with a nose that's still congested and a wicked cough we went back to the pediatrician. The diagnosis this time was a sinus infection.

So, he's on amoxycilin for 2 weeks. As soon as I opened the bottle, that thick, pink, bubble gum-scented medicine took me be back to my childhood. We filled the tiny syringe and gave Hayden his first dose. He loved it! Nothing like candy-flavored medicine. Rich said he looked like a drag queen! (look close and you'll see that hot pink goo glistening on his upper lip!)

There were no warning labels that the medicine may cause drowsiness, but within half an hour of his first dose, he just couldn't even hold his head up anymore! And once he went to bed for the night, he slept from 11:15 p.m. to 6:45 a.m.!

On a different note. . . last week, Erin did another round of beautiful pictures, this time in Hayden's nursery. Click HERE to go to her photography website and see his 2 month photos!

Busy Easter

Busy, busy, busy, that's what this Easter weekend was! We hip-hopped along from church to friends to more friends homes for lots of yummy food and fellowship. And all while the weather outside looked more appropriate to be celebrating Jesus's birth, not His resurrection. The temps were in the 20's, a dusting of snow covered the ground, and ice turned every tree branch and limb white. Luckily, we were inside for all of the festivities!

We were so busy in the days leading up to Easter and on Easter Sunday that we didn't even manage to dye eggs. I hard-boiled them, but they are still sitting in the refrigerator, white as the day they were layed! I also didn't get a chance to take any great pictures of Hayden looking festive. I did snap a few pictures of him in his adorable Easter outfit (courtesy of Grandma F!), but I was hoping for some with his Easter basket or colored eggs (plastic, not real. . . as I said, our real eggs are still white!). Maybe I'll stage a photo shoot for him later this week. . . better late than never! Here's what I do have to offer for now:

Must See TV

It started out so innocently. . . Hayden was enjoying some time on his playmat. I quickly realized he wasn't looking in the mirror or at his favorite colorful monkey, he was gazing at the television. And for good reason--it was the NCAA Championship basketball game and the Florida Gators were beating up on Ohio State.

Since he was so into the game, I decided to let him have an even better view and set him up in his Bumbo chair. He was ready to root those Gators to victory!

Okay, so I think this is wrong on so many levels. . . my 2 month old son watching TV! My son. . . being a couch potato can't even be in his DNA. Shouldn't he be out running or skiing or biking or hiking?! Too much TV, too many video games, too much junk food, childhood obesity, attention deficit. . . that can't possibly happen to my son. Yet at 2 months old, he's been gazing at the TV a little too much for my liking. Don't worry, I won't be propping him up for any more front row viewings for a long time (I just had to get him set up for a photo op this one time!).

On a completely different note, we had a surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa last night. They were on their way home from Australia and due to some flight delays found themselves re-routed through Denver. Grandma said there was no way she was coming through Denver and not seeing her grand baby, so they delayed there connection by a day, rented a car, and drove down for a visit. They got to the house around 11 p.m. Wednesday night and had to leave at 1 p.m. on Thursday, but they got in plenty of hugs and cuddles!