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Monday, January 20, 2014

Chapman's First Christmas

Last year at Christmas, we had just found out we were going to have a baby. It's crazy how fast the year went by and we were celebrating Chapman's first Christmas. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, but this year it was even more special. I still got excited to decorate, and buy gifts, and do all of the other Christmasy stuff we usually do. But I was also excited to just sit back and take everything in as we focused on the true meaning of Christmas and Chapman.

As usual it was a busy time for us. Thankfully Britt had one last Christmas break from school so we could fit everything in and not feel too rushed. We kicked of the Christmas season by getting our Christmas tree. We usually go to a tree lot and pick out the perfect tree--at least that's what we did in Birmingham. Tree prices in Birmingham were reasonable, but as is everything else in Atlanta {compared to Birmingham}, the trees were outrageous at the tree stand we went to. So we ended up finding a perfectly great tree at Home Depot for a price we could actually afford. Chapman was none the wiser that our tree didn't come from a tree lot, and he enjoyed looking at the pretty lights and ornaments once it was all decorated!
Chapman had his first visit with Santa Claus. Did you fellow Atlantians know that you have to make an appointment to see Santa at Phipps--in SEPTEMBER?? I sure did not! Thankfully, we called and got someone's cancellation one random Thursday afternoon. It was so nice not having to stand in a long line waiting to see Santa. Chapman did great; I'm not sure he was old enough to be scared of Santa yet. He smiled the whole time he was sitting in his lap...next year could be a different story. How cute is he?
We spent a few days before Christmas in Birmingham. We drove over on the Saturday before Christmas and celebrated with my mom and Jamie, Ashton and Brooks, Kasey and Matt, Deason and Rozy, Bunny {Jamie's mom}, and my Nanny--it was a crowd! Chapman was so exhausted from traveling that he slept most of the night. He did love looking at his Grandmommy's tree, though!
We spent Sunday and Monday visiting with other friends and family. We celebrated with my dad and Ashton and Brooks on Christmas Eve. We had brunch with them {maybe a new tradition?!}, then drove back to Atlanta. Christmas Eve is also Britt's birthday...so that night we had dinner at Debbie and Al's to celebrate my dear husband's birth!
Happy 27th Birthday Britt! 
We got home sort of late on Christmas Even and then Santa came!! Christmas morning we woke up and celebrated with just the three of us. We had sausage balls and let Chapman see what all Santa brought him. We went to Britt's parents' for brunch. My mom and Jamie came to Atlanta so they could be with us on Christmas so they joined us for brunch as well! We hung out there all day and then ordered Chinese for dinner...it has become a tradition since nothing else is open.
It's tradition to celebrate with Britt's mom's side of the family the day after Christmas. It's great because we get to catch up with everyone we only see once or twice a year. It's really gotten fun in the last 4 years--between all the grandkids, we've added 6 great grandchildren and another one is on the way in March! Here they are in all of their cutness {minus Foster who was only 1 week old}!!
And that's it. Christmas came in went in the blink of an eye as it usually does. We are thankful that we were able to spend the holidays with all of our family. I know next year will be even more fun! I'll leave you with some bonus photos :)
Chapman had so many of these cute Mudpie Christmas socks!
These were Chapman's "official" Christmas jammies!
 Santa's coming to visit ME?!?
We made Chapman's very first craft...a salt dough ornament :)
Aunt Nee sent this precious nativity to Chapman. We can't wait to use it to teach him the Christmas story.
Chapman's first Christmas ornaments.
Happy {belated} New Year to you and yours! 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Chapman is FOUR months old!

What?? I know it was just yesterday that I was writing about you turning three months old. Anyhow, a month has passed, and you are now 4 months old. We went to the doctor this past week, and you got a perfect report. Dr. Koenig said you sure know how to grow! You are certainly not a little baby anymore. You weigh 15 lbs. 7 oz. {you've almost doubled your birth weight}, and you are 25 3/4 inches long {you've grown 5 inches since you were born--that's crazy to me}. You got two shots while were at the doctor and you did not, I repeat, did NOT like them. You screamed bloody murder--your little face was redder than I have ever seen it before. After they were over, and Mommy picked you up, you were all better though. We are thankful that you are growing and healthy. Keep it up, kiddo!

Last time I checked in, you were trying to get the hang of sleeping through the night on a regular basis. For some reason unknown to us, you still wake up around 4:30 every morning. I continue to let you cry yourself back to sleep in hopes you will get the clue that you are not supposed to be waking up that early! Once you go back to sleep you sleep until about 7:00; I can handle that.  In the past month you have become quite the napper--that's a big change from last month.  You now take less naps, but they are more solid. You usually take 2 two hour naps and a short nap in the early evening. Your awake time is so much longer these days, and I love it! I almost forgot--we weaned you from your swaddle!! I was extremely worried that you would not take well to having your little arms free while you sleep, but you surprised us. We let you sleep with one arm out during naps for a couple of days, then basically went cold turkey at night. Everyone told us we would have sleepless nights for a week or two, but you proved everyone wrong. Thankfully you were able to transition from swaddle to no swaddle very easily.

Eating...mhmmm. You were doing great eating. You were eating close to 6 oz. at each feeding. Then something happened. The last week or so, you have been fighting eating. We consider it a success if you to eat 3-4 oz. at a time right now! This does not seem to bother you, though. You are still happy and do not act like you're starving. I am hoping it is just a faze and you will start eating better again soon. We introduced you to rice cereal right before your 4 month birthday. You don't seem to know what to do with it. You open your mouth for more, but you can't quite grasp how to swallow it yet! I'm sure with more practice, you will become great at eating solid food. You come by a love of food naturally--if you don't like to eat, I'm not sure you are ours!

You have finally grown out of some of my favorite little sleepers. They were mostly 0-3 months. Now you are in 6 month clothes. I can still squeeze you into a few 3 month clothes, but you really need 6 months these days.  And it's a good thing, too, because we bought you a lot of cute winter 6 month clothes after you were born. I am so glad you can finally wear all of it! You are still in size 2 diapers; you've only got about 2 more pounds before you're in size 3 though...slow down, little boy!

You continue to learn and change daily. You still love your play mat, but you have also started playing in your jumperoo. You play with your toys while you're sitting in your Bumbo seat. It's hard to get in much tummy time these days, because as soon as I put you on your tummy you roll over. I can't seem to stop you! I get on the floor with you in hopes of keeping you entertained while you're on your tummy, but you roll over anyway.  You've really started to laugh this month. Daddy can get you laugh easier than I can. You laugh when I tickle you, but you really laugh at Daddy when he's talking to you. When we have story time you are very interested in the books. You put your hands on the pages and it looks like you are helping me turn them...I like to think you really know what you are doing, but I know you are just exploring! You put anything and everything in your mouth. Your hands are never not in your mouth. It makes for a lot of drool! You finally don't mind being in your car seat, which makes it A LOT easier to run errands--I'm not constantly in fear that you're going to have a meltdown because you want out.  You're such a good baby--I know I am biased, but you're very predictable and happy. You  only cry if you're hungry or tired {mostly tired, because we usually feed you before you are "starving"!}. Thank you for being such a happy baby! You make this parenting thing seem pretty easy most days.

You celebrated your first Christmas this past month! We went to see Santa, and he must have thought you've been a good boy because he brought you some fun toys. I'm know you did not know what was going on for Christmas this year, but we sure had fun celebrating with you!

You had another first this month...Mommy and Daddy left you for 5 days. We went to California for the National Championship game {that's a whole other blog}, and you had LOTS of great caretakers while we were gone {ie, Mrs. Cynthia and Hodges and their girls, Grandmommy and Granddaddy, Becky and Randy, and Mrs. Corky}! We were sad to leave you, but you got so much loving while we were away; everyone spoiled you rotten. I missed you so much while we were gone. Everyone was so kind to send pictures and videos of you; thank goodness for technology! I don't think we will be leaving you for an extended period of time anytime soon...

I'm so thankful for the digital age...I would not have near the amount of pictures of you if we still used film, I'm sure! {If I did, there'd be a lot of blurry ones!}
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sometimes, you get tired of me taking your picture!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We love you to the moon and back, baby boy!