DiDi comes to town!

My mom (Dianne, or DiDi, pronounced die-die) and Stacy, my step-dad came to visit on Monday night. Stacy just stayed until Tuesday and my mom is here until tomorrow.  We have been busy playing with Austin, shopping, watching the leaves fall, and going out to lunch.  Today Austin weighed 11 lbs 11.7 oz at the baby weigh-in.  He gained about 3 oz in the past week.  Last night she babysat while I went to Bible study and she stayed with Austin this morning while I did a 6 mile run ALONE, sans-stroller and sans-dog.  What a treat!  David is has been out of town for work since Sunday morning and will meet us in Houston on Saturday.  My mom and I are flying to Houston tomorrow - Austin's first of many flights!  I am in the process of packing, and it is a process, especially with an infant.  There are so many more things to think about like diapers, the monitor, baby shampoo, etc, etc.  I will be sure to do a long post with lots of pictures about our trip to Houston to meet all of Austin's aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Here's a short video of Austin talking!

 

First road trip to mountains

Last weekend we hit the road to Steamboat Springs, which is 3 hours from Denver.  The plan was to leave Denver around 1pm on Friday.  I mentioned in my last post that Austin had his 2 month shots on Thursday.  I scheduled his appointment that day because I knew we would be eating in confined spaces with germs at restaurants in Steamboat since it is too cold to sit outside there.  Austin had other plans - he got sick.  He had some blood in his diaper on Friday morning, a small fever, and a stuffy nose.  I called the doctor as soon as I saw the blood and they wanted us to come in.  A fever is a fairly common side effect of the vaccinations but blood is not.  They could not see him until 3:15 which delayed our departure by 4 hours.  I am glad we took him to the doctor before leaving town - for my peace of mind.  His exam checked out fine and they took some blood samples, which turned out normal too.  He was healthy with the exception of a cold and small fever, which was gone by Saturday morning.  The doctor thinks the blood might have actually been a side effect of the rotavirus vaccine so he reported it to the agency that keeps track of that stuff.  We hit the road straight from the doctor's office.  It is amazing how much stuff there is haul along for such a little baby!

On Friday night we arrived in Steamboat around 8:30.  We quickly fed Austin and headed out to grab a bite to eat.  He slept the whole car ride and throughout dinner.  I was worried he wouldn't sleep that night in the pac 'n play since he had slept all day, but he proved me wrong.  He needed to sleep off his cold and fever.  The weather on Saturday was not so great - rain/snow all day and pretty cold.  Luckily we had a game to watch - a HORRIBLE game at that.  We watched most of the game (while Austin did nothing but sleep and eat) before heading out to get a late lunch in town.  That afternoon we just hung out at the "chalet" (they call it the "chipmunk chalet" on www.vrbo.com; not sure why).  It was a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house that we rented for a good price since it was definitely off-season up there.  Not summer, not ski season.  It was dead around the town and the ski village is completely closed down.  We definitely stood out in town as the tourists; we were surrounded by locals.  Later that night, we grabbed dinner at a local pizza restaurant.  Apparently it was the 4th annual mustache parade that night.  The parade stopped at the restaurant.  All of the locals had on fake mustaches and some crazy costumes.  I sadly did not get any pictures.

 Austin snoozed as the Horns got slaughtered

Where is Savannah?

On Sunday, we went to get breakfast at Freshies, a very yummy restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch.  Last time we were in Steamboat we went to Freshies for lunch.  David detected the teeny tiny onions (he has an onion radar and won't touch anything that has them) in the hamburger patty so he was hesitant to return.  This time he stuck with plain buttermilk pancakes and was pleased.   The sun came out around noon, and I went for a 5-mile run around the neighborhood.  Although I did not have to push the heavy stroller,  the hills were certainly a challenge.  Since we did not arrive until late on Friday night, we decided to stay an extra night until Monday morning.  That afternoon we went on a walk in the neighborhood and then headed to town to walk around and stop in a few of the shops.  We ate BBQ at the local smokehouse and headed back to the chalet to play with Austin since he was feeling much better that day.  If the weather had been better and Austin wasn't sick we probably would have gone on a hike.  Even though we didn't get to hike, it was just nice to get-away. 

 Sick boy trying to stay awake

 Just relaxing with my little man

 On our walk - the clouds returned

Feeling better!

View from porch

2 Months

On Sunday Austin turned two months old.  He welcomed that milestone with his first cold and first fever.  We think the fever was a side effect of his vaccinations on Thursday.  It was a small fever and it went away after about 24 hours.  He still has a stuffy nose today but is feeling much better.  Friday and most of Saturday he spent sleeping and eating.  It was obvious that he was not feeling 100% since he didn't want to play, make happy cooing noises, or really even interact with us at all.  He just wanted to rest and eat.  I guess that is what we want to do when we are feeling bad so I can't blame him.   At least he still had an appetite.  This past month has been full of changes.  Austin has been sleeping like a champ for the past 2 weeks.  We put him to sleep around 9:30 or 10 and he sleeps until around 7 every morning.  His pattern during the day after he wakes up is eat, play for about 45 min-1 hour, take a 1 hour nap in the stroller while I run, eat again, play for about 45 min, snooze again for about 1 hour, eat again, play, nap, eat, play, nap, etc.  He is currently eating 6 times a day with one bottle at the dinner time feeding.  He doesn't nap between the dinner time feeding and bed time so he is awake from about 7 til 10.  Yesterday his naps were shorter during the day.  I guess he wants to stay awake and hang out with me more!  He enjoys his activity mat with all the bright colors and toys to look at.  He hasn't gotten to the point where he reaches for the toys hanging yet, but his doctor said he will soon.  He likes his swing and we will start using it more now that his neck is much stronger (his head used to fall over in it).  He equates "quiet time" or nap time with the little lamb bouncy chair.  And he usually falls asleep when in the car seat in the stroller or in the car.  Although yesterday he was awake for most of our run in the carseat.  He likes the warm bath water.  He doesn't usually make noises in the bath, but if he is crying when we put him in the water, he quiets down immediately when he hits the water.  I tried to get a good picture of him next to the Savannah dog, but he wasn't really cooperating.  Here are a few below.  We did still go to Steamboat even though he was a little sick.  More on our trip in the next post.

 Check out that double chin and belly!

 Hands are fun!

 Enough already

 Really, stop taking pictures of me

Fine, I will squirm 

50/50/50

Austin is an average joe....except he's not.  He is a wonderful, cute baby; the cutest, in my opinion.  According to his stats yesterday at his 2 month appointment, he is 50th percentile for weight, at 11lbs 6 oz, 50th percentile for height at 23 inches, and 50th percentile for head circumference at 40 cm.  He is just right in the middle.  Dr. Schwartz was happy with all of his developments like eye movement and cooing.  We talked about how to keep his skin from drying out as that will be an ongoing issue here in Denver with dry, cold air.  He got his 2 month vaccinations.  That was NO FUN!  He screamed and I turned my head and cried.  I couldn't watch the needles go into his legs.  He quieted down quickly afterwards and then fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.  He slept from 6:15-9 when I woke him up for a bath and bedtime.  He then slept from 9:45-7am.  He even slept all through my Bible study that he attended with me last night.  Today we are headed to Steamboat where Austin will probably see his first snow!!  We will be sure to take lots of pictures in the mountains this weekend!

Tummy time

Game Day!