Really crawling and a tooth!

Well, it has been a really eventful week so far! Andrew arrived home on an earlier than scheduled flight on Sunday, and Johnny and I went to meet him there. It was Johnny's first trip to the airport, and he commemorated it by taking a nap in the parking lot. He woke up after a little while, and so he and I went on in and met Andrew at the baggage claim, and saw Brian and Dan, as well. Andrew was tired, but doing pretty good and happy to be home!

He stayed awake long enough for us to get home and feed Johnny, and then we went through the drive thru at Smithfields. That seems to be the traditional returning-home meal for Andrew when he gets back from Malaysia. Then, both Andrew and Johnny took about a 2-hour nap! I graded some lab notebooks while they slept. Andrew had a hard time waking up (I woke him up when Johnny woke up), so we went for a walk and on a picnic down at the Springs park. I thought it would be a good activity to keep Andrew awake until a reasonable bedtime. It was fun, although there were more mosquitos than we had really bargained for! Johnny went on to bed around 7, and Andrew at 8.

Oh! Friday Johnny had crawled a "step" or two, but Sunday when I told Andrew that he was doing pretty good with it, I put the phone down about 6 feet away from him on the floor in our bedroom and made it light up, and he crawled all the way there without stopping to sit up! It was pretty slow and measured, but he made it!

So - it is definitely time to do some baby-proofing! Last night we were in his room reading, and then I started sorting through some of his clothes, and he crawled all the way out to the bathroom and went straight for the trash can - remarkable! Andrew stayed home on Monday to spend some quality time with Johnny, and got some good footage of him crawling.

Also, he has been "playing" with his bottom gums with his tongue for about a week now, and has been a little more fussy and really chewing on things, and this afternoon when I went to pick him up at Elsie's, she and Johnny and Marquel (a 2-year old) were out on the swing having a tickle session. Elsie said she was sure he had a tooth coming through, and sure enough, you could see a little white spot! I had been looking for days, but it's so hard to get a look because he covers up with his tongue every time I would try to look! I will try to get a picture in the next few days as it really comes through. He had a hard time settling to sleep, and we ended up giving him some tylenol.

Andrew is slowly getting adjusted to the opposite time zone - I think he should be fully adjusted by the end of the week. He did wake up at 4 am this morning, but was able to fall right back asleep.

Looking forward to this weekend! I have a faculty meeting tomorrow evening, and I'm planning to run some errands after that. Hopefully Friday night Andrew and I can relax and have pizza and a movie night! Saturday my friend Colleen is coming to visit and see Johnny. And that afternoon, we are going to bring Johnny to his first Wolfpack football game! It looks like the weather will be nice - not too hot, and it is a 3 PM game. We are probably crazy, but the plan is that I will take him up after he wakes up from his nap (no tailgating), and then stay until he starts crashing! I have a new carrier - an Ergo - that can handle his weight and hopefully will be pretty comfortable for him and me. I am going to drive separately and take his PJs with me! Hopefully the crowd noise won't be too much for him. We'll see!

New pictures and some video footage:

September 23 - 7 months, 2 weeks

Andrew's in the US and coming home early!

Andrew called this morning a little after 7, and he made it safe and sound from Hong Kong to Vancouver to JFK! They found that they could catch an earlier flight from JFK, so he'll be getting home around 10! Johnny and I are getting ready to leave for the airport!

September 19th

Andrew is on his way home! I talked to him last night, and he had a pretty good last day, although I don't think he got to catch up on his sleep. I got an e-mail from him from Hong Kong, and he had gotten to go into a comfy lounge at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, and gotten bumped up to first class on the way from KL to Hong Kong!

Johnny and I had a good night last night, played for a little while, and then he had his dinner and his bath. He was pretty tired, but he toughed it out until Andrew called around 6:30 or so, and he went on to sleep a little bit before 7. I got some work done last night before I went to sleep.

We both slept well, except that at 5 AM the CO detector batteries ran out, apparently! I heard this extremely loud, but intermittent beeping sound, and thought it was one of the smoke detectors at first! I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, though, so I shut Johnny's door, and then managed to figure out that it was coming from the CO detector, and ripped the batteries out, and went back to bed! I can't believe it didn't wake Johnny up! I didn't fall back asleep, though, so I got on up and did some work.

Johnny woke up around 6, and we did the morning routine, and then he played for a while on his own while I wrote up the weekly lab e-mail for the lab instructors. He started getting a little fussy, so we went ahead and had his cereal. We played for a little while after that, and I tried to work a little bit more, but he was getting tired, so we walked around outside a little bit, and then he took his morning nap. He took a while to fall asleep because he kept sitting up and working on pulling up! Eventually, he fell asleep. I worked while he slept, but he only slept for about an hour!

After he woke up he played for a little while, and then I fed him a bit of solid food and packed him up in the stroller to head downtown for lunch and errands! I ate at Melvin's and fed Johnny his bottle. Then I loaded him into the baby carrier and we went to the bakery, library, and Belk's. By that time, he was pretty pooped and so we headed on back to the house. I'm surprised he didn't fall asleep, but he held out and took about an hour nap when we got back to the house. He still seemed tired when he woke up, but wouldn't fall back asleep.

We played some after the nap, and he played in the exersaucer while I got ready, and we went to the grocery store. He really seemed to enjoy that, and didn't even try to "eat" the grocery cart! He was acting pretty tired, though, so I put him in his crib while I was unloading the groceries to see if he would fall asleep. He did eventually! Tonight it's dinner and bottle and bath, and hopefully he'll sleep well. He may go to bed a little later since he will have had such a late afternoon nap. Not sure.

I'm planning on grading some lab reports and lab notebooks tonight and working on my seminar class grading and posts some. Trying to get as much as I can done today, so I can just hang out with Andrew and Johnny tomorrow afternoon! Just a few pictures from today:

September 19th

September 18th

Has it really been 3 days since I posted? So sad. I gave an exam on Wednesday and have been grading that and trying to keep up with all the other things. Mimi and Gramps came mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and kept Johnny yesterday and this morning. This afternoon, he will go back to Elsie's until I can get him after work.

He has had a good couple of days, and really has had a lot of fun with Mimi and Gramps! He still has a bit of eczema on his face, so we are still doing no oats for a little while, and then we can try those again in a month or so to see if he can tolerate them. His tummy seems a little more settled, though.

He really is loving his bath these days, and seems to be starting to teethe. He "works" on his bottom gum with his tounge alot! He is getting really close to crawling now. He can sort of do one "step" and then sit up, and then another "step" and then sit up.

Yesterday Mimi, Gramps, and Johnny all came down to Campbell to inspect the new labs and have lunch. He charmed Kim and Judy, two women that I work with, at lunch :). That was a lot of fun. Feeding him with out a high chair was a little tricky, though!

Well, I just wanted to write because it's been so long, but I need to get to work. Only 2 more days until Andrew gets home! I talked to him last night and this morning, but he didn't get to see Johnny because I accidentally left my laptop which has the webcam software in it at work - shoot! So, I'll have to remember to bring it home tonight, so Andrew can see him before he departs from Malaysia tonight!

Sorry - no pictures today :( I'll try to post some tonight if I get a chance.

September 15th

It was an 8 AM lab morning, and I didn't want to be late, so there was no time for any photos this morning, or even a book after the bottle! Had a good day at work, although it was sort of long for no apparent reason. I still have to finish writing the exam I'm giving tomorrow, and I hope to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

I back-tracked on calling the Dr. - Johnny held everything down last night, and I called Elsie at lunchtime, and she said he was doing fine and hadn't been sick again. I put him back on rice cereal instead of oatmeal, although I did send him some peas for lunch, but he's had those many times now, so I don't suspect that. We'll try a few oatmeal-free days and see how things are and then try it again. Not sure if it could be the oatmeal since we started that on Saturday, or if it was a stomach bug.

Had a pretty good evening, although it was short. Johnny played with his reflection in the big mirror in our bedroom while I changed clothes after work. Then we went and got the mail and sat outside for a little while. He really wanted the mail! He seems to have the object permanance thing down, because he started trying to climb over me to get to it!

Then we came inside and I fed him some sweet potatoes, which went over pretty well, and then Andrew called, so we talked to him for a while on the webcam, which was great! Today they're having a team building event that Andrew put together. So hopefully that will go well.

Then it was time for bath and bedtime, because he was pooped. This is the 3rd day in a row of no morning nap, and I think it's starting to wear on him. I changed my office hour on Wednesday to noon so that I can stay home in the morning with him and he can get his morning nap mid-week. Hopefully that will help him make it through the week! He seems to really like the bath now and he started wiggling in anticipation when I turned on the water!

So, I leave you with no photos today, just some bath video:

September 15th

Forgot

I think that putting Johnny to bed closer to 7 is helping. He is pretty much "sleeping in" until at least 6 these days, and this morning slept until 6:30! That was a really good thing, because I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, and I was able to get a shower before he was up!

September 13 & 14

Well, after an exciting weekend of firsts, it was back to work and day care this morning. Johnny and I lowered his crib mattress yesterday morning, and had an outing to Home Depot to get better wingnuts and Staples to get a web cam to talk to Daddy! He took a pretty good nap in the afternoon and woke up in a really good mood (see caterpillar picture). Late in the afternoon we took a walk, and he fell asleep towards the end. We walked to the park and I got him out of the stroller to play a little bit and to watch the traffic. He wasn't into eating last night, and I'm afraid the chicken Annette and I made Saturday will NOT be a hit! I'll keep trying it out, though.

I talked to Andrew on the webcam yesterday evening and some yesterday morning, which was great. Everything seems to be going well on the trip. He got to go kayaking, and has been playing basketball and such!

This morning I found that Johnny had thrown up at some point in the night. :( I didn't realize the extent, though, until I saw it this evening with the overhead lights on in the room. He seemed OK though, and not fussy this morning. Elsie said he ate his oatmeal fine this morning, but didn't want his peas at lunch. I didn't get to pick him up until after 5, so he was pretty pooped already by the time I got there. We did a little reading and playing, though, and talked to Daddy on the Webcam! That was pretty cool.

I had a pretty good day at work - got my ordering for lab done for a few weeks, anyway, and some other things done with that. Got some work done on the lab, and the seminar class and the lecture. I have to write a test for Wednesday and get ready for lab tomorrow, but I'm hanging in there!

Johnny was NOT interested in eating dinner tonight, and threw up again. Soo.... I think I will call the dr. in the morning. He seemed OK in general, though, once he threw up. He didn't have a fever. He seems like he might be refluxy again, although not in pain with it, really. I probably shouldn't have given him anything else, but I gave him just a few ounces of formula before bed, and he seemed very interested. I'm going to check on him some tonight to make sure he's doing OK.

Pictures from yesterday and today, a couple turned out well, I thought! Enjoy:

September 13th & 14th

Pulling up!

Johnny never would fall asleep for his morning nap, he just was sitting up and playing. Finally, after almost an hour (he wasn't upset), I looked at the video monitor and saw him pulling himself up! ACK!

I just finished lowering the mattress springs on the crib - off to Home Depot to buy some less flimsy wing nuts! I managed to break the wings off of 2 of them trying to get them off the screws, and so I'm going to replace all of them!

No church today! Photographic evidence - Very pleased: :0!

Pulling up!

September 12th

Today was a banner day - I talked to Andrew twice (once after he made it to Club Med when he called on the cell phone - this morning for me), and then I finally installed Skype, and he was online and I talked to him tonight! He seems to be doing well, and is definitely enjoying having internet access in his room! He has today (Sunday) off, so he was looking forward to some R&R.

Grammy came up yesterday afternoon, and she watched Johnny while I ran all kinds of errands this morning. Johnny took a pretty good nap this morning while I was gone. After I got home, I mowed the grass and then we all had lunch! Johnny took another nap after lunch, and then I baked the cookies Grammy had made dough for, and then we made the chicken pot pie I was going to bring to Dana.

We had some extra chicken, so I cooked all of it, and we pureed and froze some of it for Johnny. It smelled terrible! But, I hope he likes it, because I made plenty of it! This was after the sticker shock of finding that the tiny jars of baby meats were $1 each! I made at least 10 or 12 jars worth and spent well less than $10 on the chicken. Definitely worthwhile. He had oatmeal this morning for breakfast, and really seemed to like it. That's his new food for a few days.

Grammy left as Johnny and I were heading up to see Dana - she was a huge help yesterday and today! Johnny and I had a good visit with Dana and Gavin and all the other Schillmollers. They all seemed to be doing really well, and Gavin seems like a laid back little fella, which is good with the two girls to also look after! We had a really nice visit, and Johnny fell asleep on the ride home, and went straight to bed - good thing I changed him into his PJs before we left Dana's!

So - the real reason it was a banner day is that Johnny started really waving today, AND sat up by himself! :) Time to lower the crib mattress and baby proof! A few pictures and a video from today:

September 12th

September 10 & 11

Didn't write yesterday because I was tired, and because I talked to Andrew on the phone! He seems to be doing great and the meetings are going well. He is enjoying lots of great seafood and getting sun burnt in the equatorial sun :). Putting Johnny to bed later the past two nights hasn't seemed to help much, although he is getting up a little later, but it is still before 6 AM :(. I am going to keep trying it for a few more nights and see how it goes.

I had tried doing some baby yoga with Johnny Thursday night, but that didn't go over well. But, that was probably because it was before dinner and he was just hungry :0! I tried some of it again tonight after dinner, and he LOVED it! So, we'll definitely have to do some more of that.

I stayed home this morning for a little while and took him for a walk after feeding him his milk and reading to him, and then I fed him some cereal as part of his breakfast. He really seemed to like that! He also jumped in his jumper some this morning and was loving that. He went to Elsie's and had a good day there, apparently, but had a shorter than usual nap. Grammy picked him up for me, and they had a good afternoon here at the house. When I got home he ate some cereal, and a little banana and some carrots - he really seemed to enjoy that and enjoyed playing with his sippy cup :). Still not really getting the hang of that quite yet, but he likes it alot. After that we did a little playing and yoga stuff on the floor. Then Grammy gave him his bath and did the bedtime routine while I went grocery shopping and to pick up dinner (Pizza from Daniel's :). All in all a good day and night.

I had a good day at work - got a decent amount done for the lab, and re-worked some of my lecture stuff and caught up on some paperwork. I also had a good lunch at the dining hall. There aren't as many pictures from today and yesterday - I promise more pictures and video on the weekend :)

September 10 & 11

September 9th

Happy 7 months to Johnny! He had a good day overall today - woke up a little early (before 6) and went to Mrs. Elsie's around 7:20 or so. I picked him up around 4:30, and when we got home I took him on a stroller ride to the park. He seemed to enjoy that, although he seemed a little tired. When we got home he played some, and I opened the mail. Then it was time for dinner! He seemed to like peaches, actually, at least when he had them before the rice cereal :). I guess the rice cereal is sweet because of the formula, because he didn't make a sour face until he had some after some rice cereal. Hmmm.. At least we have another fruit he'll eat!

We read for a while after dinner - the color book. He was doing great turning the pages, and he really seemed to get that when he turned the page, I would say the color name! That was really cool. He would go back and forth, and then turn to a new page.

Then he seemed to be reaching for his toys in the bin, so I set him down and he was pulling books out of the book bin and toys out of the toy bin and moving all over the place! I couldn't resist posting some video of him in action. I hope they come through OK. Then it was bath, bottle, book and bedtime! He really enjoyed his bath. He was trying to "grab" the water as it came out of the faucet and seemed really fascinated by it! I didn't put him in bed until 7, as an experiment to see if he'll sleep a little later in the morning. Otherwise, I may have to start taking my shower at night!

I had a good, but busy day. Classes went well today, and the first of the nano presentations happened. They were actually pretty good overall! Getting my wish list together for things to buy, and trying to keep all the balls for classes and labs in the air!

September 9th

September 8th

I can't believe Johnny will be 7 months old tomorrow! He is really ready to be moving. The evening time seems to be the time for blowing raspberries!

He slept until almost 6 this morning, but he made it through the whole night! Even through another alarm episode with the noise machine. It was like what happened at the beach with the radio alarm coming on at midnight, but this time it was the actual alarm. It was so loud, I thought the fire alarm was going off or something! I ran to try to figure out what the noise was and got to his room and turned it off. I swear I don't think it woke him up, though! Or, if it did, he went right on back to sleep. I guess that the button had been hit in transport back from Marion at some point.

He spent the morning with Mimi, had a stroller ride, and played with his big teddy bear. He took a good morning nap, and Mimi took him to Elsie's mid morning. She said he had a good day there, and took a good afternoon nap. When I picked him up after work, he was very wiggly, and pretty ready for his dinner. We couldn't get the sweet potatoes and rice cereal in him fast enough, and he enjoyed his bottle. He played a little bit, but he was pretty tired. He really enjoyed his bath, though!

I had a good, but busy day. Had lots to do at work, and got a good bit done, but not quite everything that I had hoped for. I've still got a lot that I need to do tonight. I'm really glad that there aren't any labs this week! Sunny helped me work last night - we'll see if she helps me again. Mom and I had a great dinner - eggplant Parmesan and green beans! Well, better go get to work finally!

September 8th

September 7th

It was a great night of sleep for Johnny! He slept straight through and didn't wake up until after 6 AM! Yeah! Mom and I spent most of the morning getting everything packed and into the car and getting ready to leave. Andrew called around 8 AM and I got to talk to him for a while, which was so great! It was great to hear his voice and to hear what all was happening there. It sounds like the trip is going really well so far. I guess it will probably get really busy in the next days as they have more meetings. Dad went out to the Y swimming, and Mom, Johnny and I left around the time he was ready for his first nap. He slept pretty well in the car for a little while, but then a big bump in the road jarred him awake, and he didn't fall back asleep :(. But, he was pretty happy, and we drove until we got to Greensboro and stopped for lunch. Johnny enjoyed some peas and a bottle, and I enjoyed some hash brown casserole and fried okra! Mom had her veggie plate. We got back on the road and Johnny slept hard for about 30 -45 minutes, but then woke up again. I think he sleeps way better in his crib now than he does in the car seat! He was starting to get a little fussy as we got close to Apex, so we stopped at Target for a little shopping and fresh air. He seemed to like being in the baby Bjorn when we were there.

We made it home around 2:30 and unpacked the car, and then fed Johnny his afternoon bottle and put him down for a 3rd nap, since his other two hadn't been good. He fought it a little bit, but then he slept for over an hour, and was in a much better mood afterwards! He had some time in the exersaucer, and Mom fed him a dinner of rice cereal and sweet potatoes. Then we worked on his room for a while - putting things away. He was in a really good mood in there - that's when we took the video. He was moving all around and talking up a storm! Next it was bath time, then bottle, and then time for reading and bed. He rolled right over and went on to sleep a little after 6:30.

All in all a great day, and a way better trip than the last time we came back from Marion! Mom and I have been unpacking and such. I need to get some work done tonight, too. I think Mom is going to stay through Wednesday morning. Andrew, I hope you slept well last night! Here are today's pictures!

September 7th

Andrew's There!

I finally heard from Andrew! He made it just fine and on time, and didn't have any trouble getting to the resort from the airport yesterday. Apparently the only internet access is in the lobby, though, and he had meetings and dinners and such as soon as he got there yesterday, so didn't have a chance to write. It's just good to know that he got there safe and sound!

September 6th

After a good morning of playing and eating bananas, Johnny took a good nap, and then he got all dressed up in his fancy blue and white outfit and we went to church. Thomas, Bryan, and Christy were there, too! Johnny did pretty good, and flirted with a lot of the ladies there. We had to leave for a little while to get a bottle started, but then he was good again for a while. He even went up to take communion with me!

Then we all went to lunch at Jalapenos! That was really good. Johnny had some sweet potatoes, and enjoyed them, but he wasn't too hungry, because he had already had his bottle. He enjoyed watching everyone in the restaurant and playing with his dolphin and rattle. He learned how to twist completely around in his high chair! We left a little early, because he was getting really tired, and he fell asleep on the way home, but went back to sleep pretty quickly once I got him in the crib. Hopefull he'll take a nice long nap.

Still no word from Andrew as to whether he made it to KL or Langkawi. I'm hoping everything went OK, just that they were so tired they went straight to sleep when they finally made it. I sent a message to Dan's wife, Erin, to see if she had heard from him. Dan and Andrew were on the same flights. I heard back from her that they had made it OK, so that is good news, anyway.

We had a good afternoon, and Myla Harwood came to visit, and Bryan and Christy hung out and worked on getting their boat ready. Johnny was so tired, he ended up taking a 3rd nap. He enjoyed some green beans and rice cereal for dinner, and then had a bath, and went on to sleep a little bit before 7. Hopefully he'll sleep well! I'm going to try and get some work done this evening, even though I don't really feel like it!

Here are a few pictures from today!

September 6th

Good night!

Johnny slept all the way until 5 AM, and then he was "stuck" on the edge of his crib, so I scooted him over so he would have room to roll over. He was also pretty congested, so I gave him a squirt of saline, and gave him his paci and lovie and he rolled over and went back to sleep and slept until a little after 7 AM! I don't remember the last time he slept that late!

I didn't have an e-mail from Andrew this morning, so I'm hoping that he made it to Langkawi OK. That was the leg of the trip he was worried about. Here is the place they are staying: Berjaya Langkawi Beach & Spa Resort

July and August Picture updates

In July and August, Johnny progressed from sitting for very short periods, with some help from his hands, to really sitting up well by the end of August! He also started babbling more and more and sleeping better during the day. He is so much fun these days, and when he is upset, we usually know why!

More pictures from the beach trip to come!

July 2009

August 2009 and Baptism

September 5th

Today was a great day - spent it with Mimi and Gramps, and had a visitor - Mrs. Nancy! We also went to dinner with Uncle Bryan, Cousin Thomas and Aunt Christy at Aunt Christy's parent's house.

Slept in a little bit this morning (6:30), had a good morning playing, ate some bananas, took a nice long nap, played with Mrs. Nancy, Mimi, and Gramps. Then, we had a lunch of green beans - he ate them all! Later on, Mimi and Gramps took him on a walk and then it was naptime again! More playtime, and then out to have dinner with Christy's family. He enjoyed some rice cereal and a bottle. He was jealous of our roast beef, potatoes and salad. He fell asleep on the way home, despite Mimi's best efforts to keep him awake!

Pictures and videos from today:

September 5th

September 5th Videos