Happy 5th Birthday to my Big Boy!

Birthday Boy

This is a belated post (I am in a lazy funk) but the birthday itself was not!  

Happy 5th Birthday Aaron!  You're my big boy now!!  It's so exciting to watch you grow and become older.  While Josh and I are always nostalgic for our chubba baby boy, we're also proud and happy to watch you grow and learn!

Aaron wanted a dinosaur themed party and Aaron gets what he wants for his birthday!  Since Josh had to work on Aaron's actual birthday it worked out to Aaron's advantage because he got a full birthday weekend instead of just one day.  On Friday at school it was kind of a party day anyway since it was the last day before Christmas vacation and they had an easy day watching The Polar Express.  They made Aaron a birthday crown and sang him Happy Birthday and I brought mini cupcakes for his class.  On Saturday he had a special day with his grandparents and tia Eva all by himself.  They took him to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time and then to Leatherby's for some yummy ice cream dessert where the entire restaurant sang him Happy Birthday and a young lady who shared a birthday with him bought him a Leatherby's t-shirt!  

Birthday Ice Cream!

On Sunday Aaron had a movie date with just Josh and I.  We took him to see Walking with Dinosaurs in 3D and he loved it!  

Notice the dino t-shirt too?

While we were out watching the movie, the rest of my family was at our house setting up a surprise party.  When we got back Aaron was greeted with a big surprise of family, balloons, streamers, presents and a dino cake!  

Freeport Bakery does the best cakes!

He was super excited and a bit overwhelmed I think but he loved all the gifts and ate part of his cake (he was too excited about the gifts and had to go back to playing with all his new toys, abandoning his cake!).  

So much dino fun!

Josh and I try super hard to make Aaron's birthday stand out since it's so close to Christmas (that's why it's always themed) and even though this year was kind of thrown together at the last minute I think it worked out really well and we all made him feel special.  Thanks so much to my parents, sister and cousin Susie who helped with all the birthday activities.  

Happy Birthday Buddy!  We all love you!  
 
 

Whooooo had a lovely baby shower?

My Adorable Owl Cake

I had a lovely baby shower recently hosted by my friend Stephanie at her home.  It was a small party, but still perfectly lovely and the food, decorations and cake were fantastic!  Of course the gifts weren't bad either!  

With both friends and family to celebrate with me, I had a great afternoon.  See for yourself (on FLICKR)!

Baby girl got some clothes, gear and all of her bedding.  And I got my diaper bag!  Woot!  Or should I say, Hoot!  

With Aaron being born in Seattle and us living near the water in Ballard, choosing a theme for Aaron was easy.  I knew it had to involve water so we went for a kind of pirate/ocean/sea life theme.  For baby girl, we're in Sacramento and land locked.  Ok, there's a river or two, but basically..... land.  And trees.  And land.  So, I decided to go with more of a "land" theme and I've been digging on the whole owl theme ever since I saw a friend of mine and her baby's owl quilt.  So for my baby girl, she's getting an owl/woodland creature/forest theme.  It's pretty adorable.  

Josh got the nursery painted and the crib up so now we just have to wait for other furniture and accessories.  Once everything is in, I promise to take pictures.

I also had my 32 week check up and baby girl is doing well and head down!  So exciting!  The end is almost here.  I've got so many pregnancy complaints, but right now I'm just trying to ignore every single one of them.  Taking things day by day and hopefully will be able to work another month.  

And in case you're wondering, YES, I do have a name picked out.  If you REALLY want to know, just ask.  

In another few weeks I'll start going to the doctor every week so I'll probably be updating more often.  We're in the final countdown people!  

Happy Birthday Aaron!!

One year ago, on December 21 at 10:15 pm Aaron Howard Herring was born. Yes, my Chubbs is a year old!

My sweet little angel babycakes! (sigh) I can't believe it.

Well, Aaron had his birthday party on Saturday at his great aunt & uncle's house. The entire Herring clan was there and a few close friends who were kind enough to sit through a 1 year old's birthday party! Aaron had an Elmo themed birthday party and got his own mini birthday cake. He opened up a few of his own gifts and mostly liked the wrapping (LOL) but loved the Mickey Mouse card he got from my friends Sara & Tom and he loved Grandpa & Grandma's rocker/tricycle toy they got him. When he got home, we took out a few more toys and he really likes the puppy on a string that his aunties Calena & Melanie got him too! He pulls it towards him and laughs!

Aaron will have his 1 year doctor's appointment sometime next week, so I can only guess his weight is around 28 lbs. He has 8 full teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom) and his bottom 2 molars are halfway out and they top eye teeth are just starting to poke out. He always seems to get several teeth at once! Lucky us!!

He fully crawls now, pulls himself up on his own, walks from one piece of furniture to the next on his own by holding on to them, and he still loves foooooood. Right now he's drinking about 3 bottles a day and 2 solid meals. He loves Cheerios and has recently been introduced to Ritz Crackers (which bring a smile to his face) and plain pasta noodles. He still LOVES his YoBaby yogurt too.

Right now we're not buying anything smaller than 18 months in clothing for him and the Nowali moccasins are still the best things for his feet!

We saved a few gifts from his birthday party to open on his actual birthday so tonight, while watching Chicka on Sprout wish happy birthday to the viewers (we sent his name in!) we're going to open a few more gifts.

A few days ago he got his first professional haircut at this place that specializes in infant/kid hair and he did great! But now with his new haircut he looks even more like a little boy and less and less like little baby! I can't believe he's ONE!

The next celebration is obviously Christmas. That will be a post (or two) on it's own!

But here's my little angel babycakes today-- ONE YEAR OLD. Happy Birthday Sweetness. Mommy and daddy love you more than anything, ever. :)

(That his chocolate frosting all over his face and harms and MY hands from his birthday cake!)

11 months old!

My Chubbs is 11 months old! Can you believe it? The countdown to 1 has begun! I'm already thinking of scheduling a 1 year photo and what theme his party will be. He loves Elmo and Mickey Mouse so that's pretty narrowed down. :)

I've gotten a few inquires already (I'm guessing since the bday and Christmas are coming up) on his sizes and likes. So here it goes:

Aaron is currently in 18-22 month year old clothing. He runs warm like me so keep that in mind. He can't fit shoes because he's feet are too fat so he wears socks or I've found these Nowali moccasins that work perfectly in size 12 months (or 21-22 in Swedish sizes).

He wears size 5 in Pampers diapers (he gets a weird skin rash if we use another brand) and he's really into Mickey and Elmo. He can always use pants (elastic waist is best) because he seems to outgrow those first.

He has TONS of blankets so he doesn't need those. As far as toys go, we'd love for him to have a lot of toys, but we just don't have the room right now, especially for the big stuff. What would really be nice actually is a toy chest. Something softer or made of plastic so that if he bumps his head on it, the injury won't be that bad!

Aaron is pulling himself up now, standing with only one hand gripping onto something, crawling, army crawling and occasionally, still rolling. He's learned to shriek now, which is awesome (not) but he's totally cute so I guess I'll over look it. He still loves his bath time (if you'd like to see a bath time video and you're on You Tube, let me know) and he still uses the bouncer occasionally.

I'm planning on having a small birthday for him at aunt Kathy's but I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures, of course!

I hope you're all doing well and that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Aaron's pics from Thanksgiving are up on my Flickr site!

Aaron is one popular dude

Hey there!

Well, Aaron has had a very busy couple of weeks. Many visitors and many new places! A few weekends ago our cousins from Sacramento came up to visit us and Aaron had his first visit to Pike's Place Market! There was LOTS of things to see and do there.

The weekend before last, his auntie Melanie came to visit him and she got to spend all day hanging out with him. We all went to the Ballard Seafood Fest and had fun looking at and smelling all the food. Aaron got himself a new onesie with the Seattle skyline on it!

He also had a visit from his cousin Jodi who came and sat with him for awhile while Josh was at at appointment. Aaron's very first time being "babysat" by a youngin' and by youngin', I mean someone who hasn't been a parent yet. ;)

Then last weekend he has his tia Natalie come visit him. Natalie hadn't seen Aaron since he was born, so this was a wonderful reunion! After Aaron got used to Natalie, he took to her very well and they had their own little connection. Yay for awesome family!

And as some of you might have heard, the last 2 weeks in Seattle was like living in an OVEN. Oh sure, you Californian cousins laugh because you say 90 degrees isn't that hot. Well HELLO folks. Seattle DOES NOT HAVE AC. Seriously. At one point I was calling around to ask restaurants if they had AC and I wasn't the only one! Last Thursday was actually the hottest day in Seattle, ever. 102 degrees.

Aaron had developed a heat rash earlier in the week because of all the heat so we had been keeping him in his diaper only, giving him cool baths and feeding him popsicles. But Thursday we gave in and headed to the mall for some much needed AC. Of course, everyone and their mother was there, literally, so it wasn't as cool as it normally is because of all the bodies! But it was still better than being outside. Aaron's heat rash is all gone now though and he's feeling much better. Well, actually, I'm not sure he ever felt that bad about it. I think I felt worse about the heat rash than he did!

This week his grandpa Howard and tia Eva are visiting so he'll be busy still!

Aaron also got a wonderful gift from some neighbors of his great aunt Kathy and great uncle Henry. They gave him a Johnny Jumper! He LOVES that thing! All you have to do is say "bouncy bouncy bouncy" and he's off! :) I've even got video!

Aaron still isn't crawling but he's rolling around all over the place, even in his sleep! That kind of freaked me out at first, but I think he's old enough I don't have to worry about it much. He can sit on his own and he likes to stretch out his legs a lot and if you hold him very lightly, he can almost stand on his own! He's starting to verbalize much more and we're pretty sure he's on his way to saying "mama". Right now it's more like "ma ma ma ma ma"! LOL.

I've got so many pictures and now even video of Aaron (on You Tube!) that I posted the link to my Flickr account on the blog side bar. I might do the same for You Tube if I get more video. So please enjoy and feel free to comment! I'd love to hear what you all think!

Hugs & Kisses from all 4 of us! (That's Ulrich - being the 4th! Don't forget about the four-legged family!)

First Shower

Today Aaron took his very first shower with me! I was kind of nervous, worried about holding his slippery little body standing in the shower but it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Of course keeping his bath chair in the shower with us helped considerably!

Aaron is doing much better with his gas and reflux, though it does still effect him some. I think he'll grow out of it by 6 months like everyone says.

He is definitely doing a lot more laughing and giggling, which is just wonderful. It's so heartwarming to hear him laugh. The first time I got him laughing by kissing his neck, he would laugh and then I would laugh because it was SO cute that he was laughing and then we'd do it all over again! I can tickle him sometimes and just get him in a giggle fit! It's adorable.

This past weekend my BFF Stephanie from Sacramento came to visit us and she was so sweet. She took him right up and shared all the baby responsibilities - of course she has 2 children of her own! She also bought him a Light & Sound Aquarium for his crib and she bought some bowls and spoons so she could help me try and feed him oatmeal for the first time. He's still young, and I'm not planning on supplementing the cereal for formula just yet but I do want him to get used to eating. So Steph made a small amount for him and at first he kind of just held it in his mouth and looked at us but as soon as he figured out it was food, he took right to it! So now every once in awhile I will feed him a bit of baby cereal before I give him is bottle.

He also recently got a swing from his Aunt Kathy and he does like the glider motion of it. Unfortunately the stupid thing stops on the glider motion even though the motor is on, so we're going to have to see if we can exchange it.

Other than that, he's growing and growing. I can't believe the difference 3 months makes! I'll keep my camera clicking for you all!

Best. Picture. Ever.

This is my new favorite picture of Aaron! Isn't he the cutest? What a silly boy, laughing with his daddy!
Aaron is now 10 weeks old! I can't believe it! Time is going by quickly when it comes to Aaron. He is growing and growing and even though he's only 2 months, he's fitting into his 3-6 month clothing. I'm sure he's around 15 lbs now, but I'll know for sure later this week when he goes in for his 2 month check up.

Aaron is still dealing with reflux and gas, but I ended up switching the bottles back to the original Born Free bottles and now we're buying the formula for fussiness and gassy babies. It's seemed to help with the gas some. The medicine that he's taking for his reflux helps, but it hasn't made the symptoms go away completely. So, overall he is doing better, but still has some issues. He's awake more often during the day and he usually goes to bed around midnight and lets me sleep until the morning. He can wake me up anywhere from 7 am to 8:30 am.

This past week Josh, Aaron and I were at my parents house to watch the dogs while they were in California. Aaron got to spend some time with Ulrich and Bailey which is good. He's totally oblivious to them most of the time, but there was a few times when Ulrich was close enough to his face, that Aaron noticed him and actually looked at him. Ulrich is his normal spazzy self and he was just excited to get close to Aaron. He gave Aaron kisses all over whenever he got close, but sometimes he was more interested in getting my attention that in getting Aaron's and I'd have to watch that he wouldn't step on or over Aaron. Bailey is just a big wuss so she wouldn't come to close to Aaron ---- she'd come just a few inches away and put her nose in the air to sniff.

This week I also have a HOA meeting so I am hoping Aaron will be in a good mood so I can take him for the first 5 minutes to introduce him to all my neighbors. Then Josh can take him back home.

Everything else is going well -- he's received gifts from his Grandma & Grandpa Herring and they also bought him a jumbo box of diapers and wipes. He also got a box of clothes from his Great Grandma White in Vermont! Thanks to everyone for thinking of him and sending gifts and help! We so appreciative of your gifts!

Until next time!