What color are they?

People always ask me what color Austin's eyes are and to be completely honest, I have no idea! Everyday they look a little different, mostly a mix of green and brown. Sometimes they look completely green and sometimes they look all brown. Here's a good close up picture of his eyes while we were outside today in the sunlight. What do y'all think?

Here kitty, kitty...

Austin has been noticing the kitties walking around the house for quite some time now, but unlike Lucy, they haven't been too into him just yet. Well today that all changed while Austin was sitting in his Bebe Pod watching a Baby Einstein DVD. I was on the sofa finishing one of Austin's photo albums and when I looked up, Dakota was walking by him and he had his hand out touching her! Normally I would expect Dakota to run away if Austin was trying to reach her but she kept walking by him while his arm was stretched out letting him pet her. Of course it wasn't too long before Austin had a handful of black hair in his hands and Dakota was bolting out of the room, but they had a few moments of good bonding time.

FYI- Dakota has no teeth so I wasn't worried about Austin getting bit if he was too rough.

"Are they twins?"

Austin and his "girlfriend" Sofia met up for lunch and some Babies R' Us shopping today. Everyone wanted to know if they were twins since they are so close to the same size (Sofia is only 1 week younger). Austin was very intersted in Sofia , typical boy, right? :)

Off to the outlets!

On Saturday, we made a trip up to Gaffney to visit the Prime outlets and do a little shopping. We mainly wanted to go because they have a Gymboree and Carter's outlet but we could have spent all day shopping through all the great stores.

Austin was finishing a bottle as we got there and since it was raining we made the quick run from the car into the stores once he was done. Well, apparently Austin's bottle wasn't quite settled yet and he threw up what looked like the entire thing right down the front of my shirt! I was covered in baby throw up and of course didn't have a change of clothes. We had driven 30 minutes to get there so going back home was out of the question. We ended up walking around until we found J.Crew and Ryan had to go inside and buy me a shirt to change into. Then we had to find a bathroom for me to change which was of course, at the other end of the shopping center. I got so many strange looks from the other shoppers but such is life with a little one! At least Austin didn't seem too upset about the incident and was happy to be strolled around all afternoon and people watch!

We found so many great deals at the outlet stores and bought Austin's entire summer wardrobe for only about $150!! I don't think we bought anything that wasn't at least 60% off. I even got some great new things which felt wonderful since I hadn't bought myself any new clothes since Austin was born. Funny how it's so easy to put yourself last when a new little baby comes around!

Austin's new summer wardrobe!

On the way home from the outlets, trying to drink from the bottle all by himself!

Random Picture Time!

"I can stand up all by myself...but mommy's hand is never far behind!"

"Do you like all my toys?"

The two finger soother

"Spit happens!"

This is real life...

This 'out of the ordinary' post isn't being written because today was a tougher than usual day, but it's something I've been trying to find the courage to write for sometime now (ok, so maybe having a rough day has finally gotten me in the right mood to divulge much of this, but it's not the only reason for it).

Recently I've taken notice that in the world of blogging, especially in the world of baby blogging, most posts tell of happy, exciting and funny moments. However, life itself is not always happy, exciting or funny - especially the life of a new mother. In fact at many times life can be scary, depressing and full of anxiety. These moments just don't always make enjoyable reading or people keep them hidden for fear that someone out there reading may realize that you don't actually have a perfect life.

Some may argue that most blogs are started as a means to only share good and exciting happenings in ones life with those you may not often see...and that was my intent when I began blogging at 4 weeks pregnant; but now I've realized that this blog has become a staple in the daily lives of many of my friends and family as well as people I hardly know and many I've never even met and it doesn't always accurately reflect my actual life or the life of a new mother.

Anyway, my blogging has led me to find the blogs of other people like myself who are doing the same thing I am doing...blogging about their wonderfully adorable little ones. Every now and then I would happen upon a blog that made me depressed because every post was about the great adventures of this little family and everyone was always smiling and having fun. How was it possible that 6 weeks post baby this mother was standing there with her hair and makeup perfect, not a bag or dark circle under her eyes, smiling away and talking about the past few amazing weeks of her life?? Ok, maybe she did have the perfect newborn, but I find it much more likely that the less than desirable details had been left out of the blog and the pictures of her at 3am trying to feed a screaming, hungry, wet baby with her eyes half open, dark circles unhidden by makeup and tears of helplessness and exhaustion rolling down her face...well...those were just left out.

So I'm sitting there thinking all these things and I finally decide to take a look at my own blog. Just as I figured...I was the same as every other baby blogger out there. When Austin began sleeping through the night I posted about that and how wonderful it was, but not the weeks of sleepless nights that led up to it. When he had a terrible case of baby acne I didn't share my frustrations with the blogging world, but retouched all of his pictures before I posted them to hide the unsightly red marks. I didn't tell anyone that I was so terribly anxious the first few months of Austin's life that I started treatment for post-partum just so I could feel comfortable taking my eyes off of him for a few minutes to get some housework done.

So many people get caught up in this baby whirlwind, and why shouldn't they? Online it looks so fun with hilarious little tales and pictures of cute happy babies with their adoring parents going to sporting events, the zoo and playing in the back yard. It seems that baby blogging has given off this idea that parenting is always cute, fun, enjoyable and worst of all... easy!

Well, this may be the only post of its kind, but I would like to make an effort in the future to "tell it like it is" to all of you out there reading about our journey. Austin is an amazing child and I love him unconditionally and with every last piece of my heart. I am so blessed that he is here and he is mine and I wouldn't have it any other way, but being a mom is hard, frustrating and at many times very lonely. My life is not all smiles and giggles and fun. Some days I wish I could call in sick, but I can't. Sometimes I even wish I could go back to my pre-baby life (with my pre-baby body) where my biggest worry was what we were going to do next weekend....and then Austin looks at me and smiles and my heart melts and I wouldn't have things any other way!

When you're a mommy there are good days, there are great days, and there are also plenty of bad ones. You just learn to push through the bad days and pray for a better tomorrow. And speaking of a better tomorrow, it's almost midnight, and the first step in having a better tomorrow in mommy terms is to get as much sleep as possible while you can.

Until next time....
Jennifer, In real life

Peas and no thank you!

Austin's 1st attempt at eating peas...they look so appetizing, dont they!?

"YUCK!"

"Are you serious, Mom? Would you eat this stuff?!"

"Oh, not again!!"

"Really? You've got to be kidding me!"

"I refuse to take another bite."

"If you want me to take another bite you will have to force it in my mouth."

"I see you've taken off my bib, does that mean we're done?"

"Now that's something to smile about!"

As you can see, Austin was not fond of peas, the first and only food so far that he has refused to eat. I don't blame him though, the look, texture and smell of them even made me gag!

*Note about Austin's bib: As you may have noticed, Austin's bib says RAH. This was a gift and we believe they got his monogram wrong by mistake. His actual monogram is ARH. However, it's funny that the mix up actually spells a word like Rah so we just see it as a cheer for mealtime!

A Special Gift

Yesterday while at my parent's house, my mom handed over to me a very special gift. She cross-stitched this for me when I was a baby and I still remember seeing pictures of it hanging in my nursery. The poem is so sweet and I say it to myself every now and then when I get stressed out about cleaning the house. Right now I've decided to hang it in the living room by the rocking chair so I can see it when I'm rocking my baby. I can't wait to put it in Austin's room when we finally move him into his nursery and maybe he'll remember it the same way I did and I can tell him that his grandma made it for me when I was little!

Super Saturday!

Yesterday we packed up and headed down to Columbia to visit my parents and take my mom out for her birthday lunch. We all met at Miyo's for a yummy meal and Ryan and I realized how much we miss that place now that we're up in Greenville (P.F. Changs is a reasonable replacement though). After lunch, we headed to the Tot Trade at Jamil Temple and tried to find some great deals on some consignment baby clothes.

**Baby lesson #458: There is pretty much no need to buy that many baby clothes for retail in the first year of life. They outgrow them SO fast and it's like throwing money down the drain! We already have 2 trashbags FULL of Austin's clothes that he can't wear anymore and many of them still have tags or were only worn one time!

After Tot Trade we made a stop at Aunt Catherine's house to see how the remodeling was going and then headed back to my parents house to hang out until it was time to head back to the upstate and get the little man in his crib for bedtime. (Forgive the lack of pictures, I completely forgot I even had my camera until my mom told me that Austin and daddy cuddling would make a great photo!) Austin dozed off in no time once we made it home and Ryan started our family game night!

We can't wait until Austin is old enough to enjoy game nights with us since it's one of the many things we really enjoy doing together. Ryan and I played a game of Sorry and then Scrabble, both of which he won. However, he only beat me in Scrabble by 1 point!! We ended up taking a picture of our Scrabble board because one of the last words I was able to put together was very meaningful to us. Amazingly, I was able to put down the word 'nugget', which has always been Ryan's nickname for Austin! He added the 's' to make it nuggets, but to my knowledge, there is only 1 nugget for the time being and it will probably be that way for a few years! :)

Another milestone down!

As you can probably see from pictures on previous posts, Austin has learned to sit up on his own and he's now a pro at it! He can sit for several minutes at a time without toppling over and absolutely loves it! He even plays with his toys while he's sitting up and doesn't lose his balance. The only problem is that he spots his feet when he's upright and is absolutely fascinated with them. He bends over to play and grab at them and then gets stuck all bent over. I guess he doesn't have the strength to pull himself back up yet and he will get frustrated about it. All I have to do is lift him up though and he's back being a happy little sitter again! I still like to put the Boppy behind him just in case, but he hardly ever needs it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA SUSAN!!

Did someone say it's your birthday?

It is?! Yay! I love birthdays!

I loooove you Grandma!

Happy Birthday!

Love, Austin

Sunny days!

What's so funny?!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

5 month stats!

Here are Austin's measurements as of 5 months old. He is 19 pounds and 26.25 inches long. This puts him in the 90th percentile for weight and the 70th for height! He's truly growing right before our eyes. I imagine he will out grow me in no time!! My back is already starting to suffer pretty bad from toting my lil' butterball around.

Speaking of butterball, take a look at this picture of my little guy in the bath last night! I think he's outgrowing his tub already!!

Happy 5 months Austin!

Today, my precious boy, you are 5 months old and I can't believe how much you have changed in only 5 short months! Right now daddy is rocking you to sleep in the glider and you are making the cutest sounds trying to fight off the tiredness. You've been making so many new and different sounds lately, from squeals and squeaks to screams and yells! You've really discovered your voice lately and love to hear all the noises you can make. Me and daddy just laugh when you get into one of your 'talking spells' and really wish we knew what you were trying to tell us!

This past month you have no only become very vocal, but more social as well. You love to meet new people and give them one of your big gummy grins. Smiling is your favorite, and mine too! You also love to watch Lucy wander around the house and you always smile when you catch a glimpse of her. You also love to try and pet her and Lucy will tolerate it for a little while, but she still doesn't know what to think of you. I can't wait until you're old enough to play with her, y'all will be such good friends!!

This weekend daddy went to the beach with some of his friends and you and I had our very first weekend by ourselves. I enjoyed all of our time together and I know you did too, but we were both very glad to see daddy when he got home this afternoon. You immediately recognized him and smiled so big from behind the toy you were stuffing in your mouth. He was so glad to see you too and didn't want to put you down all night!

Well you are finally sleeping peacefully in your crib so I am going to say goodnight too. I love you so very much my sweet baby boy and I can't wait to wake up and see you in the morning!

Love, Mommy

Where are the pictures?

Ok, so I just looked at the blog and there are A LOT of words and no pictures of my sweet baby boy...so here are some just for the heck of it!

Squeals & Screams!

Austin has discovered his voice...and how much he likes to hear it! Everyday he is learning to make new sounds and I can't help but smile at the adorable noises. He's been "talking" for awhile now, but just this week he has started to squeal and make lots of high pitched sounds. It seems he's testing his range and loves to hear all the new noises he can make.

He has also learned to scream which seems to be his way of telling us he's tired or bored. Last night we went to one of our favorite places for dinner, Doc Chey's, and it was getting close to Austin's bedtime while we were there. Not 5 minutes after we sat down, he let his lungs go and just started screaming! It was cute to me and Ryan, and some people at the restaurant thought it was cute too, but we were worried he might be disturbing some others. I quickly put my finger to my lips and said "Shhhhhhhh!" and then realized that he's only 5 months old and has no idea what that means!

Ryan and I passed him back and forth trying our best to get him to quiet down, but he just kept getting louder and louder! Finally, I just laid him down in his carrier and pulled the sunshade forward to make it dark. To our surprise, he was out like a light in about a minute! Ahhh, quiet, finally!

Ryan and I finished enjoying our meal and got our sleepy little boy in bed as soon as we got home. I think we've learned not to take him out with us when it's getting close to bedtime from now on or everyone around us is going to get a show!

Photo Shoot #2

Austin will be 5 months old on Sunday (my how the time has flown), so I thought it was time for another photo shoot! Here are some of my favorite pictures from our photo fun this afternoon!