Thanksgiving in Kansas

We were lucky to have time to go back to Kansas this Thanksgiving. I have tons of photos (thanks to an early Christmas present from my parents, the Canon S110, which I am loving) and will be putting up multiple posts about our trip. Let's begin with the big holiday, Thanksgiving. 

On the day we all went to my Grandmother's, Cedric's great grandmother's house in Kingman, Kansas.  Cedric went through a few outfits, first out of the gate was his fancy sweater vest. It was in the 60's, so a little too warm for the outfit. 

Outfit two was the very popular "Turkey Butt", given to us by his Grandma. I should clarify, Grandma is his father's mother Michaelyn and Grammy is my mother Linda. 

My Grandma pulled out all of the stops, making the full turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. This, of course, made the house very warm and so we spent some quality time out back in the afternoon. 

Cedric always has the best faces and I'm excited to capture them all with my awesome new camera. Here he is with his Great Grandma Mason. We were lucky to go visit Kingman twice, more photos to follow. 

And here is Cedric with his Grandpa and cousin Danny in the background. 

On Friday we drove to KC to be with Bob's family. First thing we did was head over to his Great Grandma Damhorst, in the "Turkey Butt" outfit of course.

We joked that Anne has been replaced as the "baby" in the family. Here she is attempting to soothe a cranky Cedric. Man I love my new camera, hooray fast shutter speed!

November Nor'easter

A week after Cedric's first hurricane we had Cedric's first Nor'easter. I'm still a bit confused about the Nor'easter. It was a winter storm that came from the sea, bringing snow/rain and colder temps. I guess it doesn't count as a regular winter storm because the temperature is back up in the 50's and the snow melted very quickly. 

We only went out for a few minutes but I couldn't pass up the chance to take Cedric's photo in the snow. Though you can't see it, snow is falling on Cedric's face. He tried to catch the flakes on his tongue, it was very cute. 

Siena hadn't seen snow in 4 years and was a little confused at first. It took her a few minutes before she would walk on it and then longer to decide if it was okay to pee on. Silly dog. 

I'm very interested to see how the winter goes. Apparently this was just a "light dusting" of snow, says my new mom friend Tracy. It did end up sticking to the pavement but luckily it melted the next day. I'm not looking forward to shoveling snow! Hopefully it will be another mild winter!

Week 11?

I'm starting to lose track of time. Is Cedric 11 weeks or 12? I counted back and he was 11 last Friday, 12 weeks this week and 3 months the following one. I'm starting to think I should be counting by months?

Cedric is such a sweet baby. He is generally very content and will smile at us frequently. He is sleeping more consistently, usually 5-6 hours (technically "through the night") and then another 2-4 hours. I love it when he only wakes up once a night!

This past week Cedric and I were in a bit of a pickle. It was Halloween and we needed to go out for some candy but the car battery had died the day before. I realized the day had come for baby's first trip on the T!

Two stops away there is a grocery store. We were very careful not to touch anything! 

Hurricane Sandy came and went without incident here. Bob had a hard time working from home and it was hard to stay inside all day. There were a few downed trees but we never lost power. Siena enjoyed the beautiful weather that followed the storm. Here she is at her favorite place: Cold Spring Dog Park. 

This past week was Cedric's last New Beginnings (aka my new mom's) class. We've signed up for the Next Step class, for babies 3-5 months old. 

As a new mom I really have no idea what I'm doing or what comes next. This class has been a great way to learn activities for Cedric and I to do together and games to play. It is also a nice place to talk to other moms and ask questions. Cedric was really getting into story time last week, I need to buy some more books!

Here is a photo of his class, minus one, like last week but in normal clothes. We are hoping to keep our group together!

PS. I'm getting frustrated with myself. I keep taking photos with my iPhone, uploading them and finding they are blurry. I need a real camera and I'm so mad that I didn't do it before I had him. It was even on my to do list. :( 

Happy Halloween!

For his first Halloween Cedric was a Jack-o-lantern. It was a costume given to him by Janice at my baby shower. If I knew he was going to get so many opportunities to wear a costume I'd probably have purchased a few more!

Here Cedric is with his friends from the new mom group. He fell asleep right before photo time, oh well!

 

Here are more photos of Cedric carving his first pumpkin with Grandma and Grandpa Podany. We tried to match the pumpkin with his outfit. 

We will finish with another photo of the babies at class in their costumes. Cute babies - Happy Halloween!

Rolling Over

Today Hurricane Sandy is hitting the East Coast. The city of Boston is shutting down all public transportation, causing Bob to have to come home early from work. Somehow this "perfect storm" has motivated our young Cedric to roll over from front to back! I think it must be the extra wind and lower pressure, giving him that little extra push with a little less resistance. :) 

I've taken video of it on my iPhone but I'm too computer illiterate to post it here. Seriously, can anyone give me some pointers? 

Here is a photo of him after he rolled over. Doesn't he look pleased with himself? More like, "Come on Mom, it wasn't that big of a deal - are you really taking a photo of this?". Last Wednesday I went bought the foam mat he is on for Operation Roll Over. I decided that he needed a soft place to practice. He rolled over for Bob on Saturday (I only saw part of it) and then 4 times for me this morning. 10 weeks old and rolling over, where has the time gone? In all seriousness, he is only rolling to his back because he doesn't like tummy time. I'm sure I will be looking for ways to keep him on his tummy and keep him from rolling over!

In other development news, he laughed at Bob twice this weekend. He has been on the brink of it, breathing out while smiling but this was an audible ha ha ha. Again, I didn't see it but I heard it from across the room. Bob was making some silly faces and noises, just being a funny dad!

(So far this hurricane has been pretty mild, just like a regular windy/rainy day in Kansas).

New Mom Class

I have been going to a new moms class at Isis Parenting. It is an eight week course with 8 other new moms where we talk about all of the ups and downs, twists and turns of being a first time mom. It is very overwhelming at times and it is nice to have a weekly debrief with other mom that are going through the same thing. 

This week the little guys had their first group story time and let me tell you, it was cute. Super cute. 

It was amazing how they didn't cry and seemed to pay attention. Well, the ones that weren't already crying or eating and could be put down on the mat. 

Cedric is in the center, wearing his smart elephant sleeper from Lindsay. It was all the rage at class as it closes with magnets instead of snaps or zips. It is funny the little things that get new moms really excited.

More to come from my new mom's class. So far these are the only women I know (that are my age and not from the dog park) and we are planning lots of events with our little ones. We had a Halloween party last week which I'll post soon! 

Grandma and Grandpa Podany

This past weekend Cedric finally met his Grandma and Grandpa Podany. They were only in town for the weekend so we had to cram a lot of fun into a few days. 

On Saturday we went to a farm stand to purchase pumpkins for Cedric's first pumpkin carving. Bill was the lucky baby holder at the stand. 

We dressed Cedric in his halloween costume and Bob attempted to carve a pumpkin to match. 

Cedric was interested during the carving but was not as amused with the photo call. He turned 9 weeks last Friday and really seems more alert and awake. 

Siena got jealous of our new model and tried to jump into the picture. 

Bob and I were able to go to see War Horse on Saturday (Grandma and Grandpa babysat) and then we all went to Atlantic Fish for Sunday brunch. 

Doesn't Cedric look smart in his little outfit? It was his first trip to Boston and he did very well. He was quiet at Brunch, sleeping most of the meal and as we walked around the Prudential Center. The little man is growing up so fast!