Crossing the halfway mark....

We have passed the halfway mark for Brock’s first year and life couldn’t be better. While we have good days and challenging days but we are really enjoying the ride. Brock is growing by the second. At six months he is rolling over constantly and scooting around on his tummy. He isn’t crawling yet but he will get where he wants to go. He is really into standing constantly. He doesn’t want to sit down for very long. He can hold onto something and stand by himself for about a minute or so. He sits by himself really well now.

Brock loves to ‘talk’ and is extremely verbal. He has two bottom teeth coming in and loves to show them off with his big smiles. Zeke and him are best buddies and Brock loves to watch Zeke’s every move.

Loves: Bath time , swimming and anything water related, fruits especially sweet potatoes, apples and blueberries, playing peek a boo game, singing songs especially ‘The Wheels on the Bus’, and ‘ Here comes Peter Cottontail’, going for walk’s in the baby bjorn ( facing outward), flying around in daddies arms, visiting new places and seeing new people

Dislikes: Being in his car seat over a couple hours, Solid food with too much texture, putting on his PJ’s after the bath

Appearance, Brock is just one chunky monkey at the moment. We keep waiting for a growth spurt to hit but right now he is short and chubby. He has the bluest eyes we have ever seen that people stop and stare at. His hair is coming in super white so he looks bald in most pictures. He loves to curl his toes and smiles constantly. He has long fingers and loves to wrinkle his nose at you.

This month we did our annual beach trip to Anna Maria Island with Matt’s family ( sister and family and parents). We had a wonderful house that had an elevator to bring our stuff up (best thing ever!), a nice pool with hot tub and a short walk to the beach. We had a great time swimming, going for walks on the beach and watching fireworks. It was a great trip. We plan to head to the beach a couple more times this season. We are also hoping to plan a trip to New England in the fall to see the leaves change.

 Hope everyone has a wonderful summer.

All the best,

Christy

Update on the little man ....

Brock is now 5 months old. Time has flown by so quickly, I really am blown away that we are almost halfway through his first year of his life. Life with Brock has really rocked. We just adore him, we love watching his grow and learn new things everyday.

Life has been busy, exciting, exhausting and new. Here is an update on Brock's progress.....

Size: The last time we went to the doctor Brock was about 14pds but we know he has gained a few pounds since that point. He has transitioned from our long and lean little boy to our chunky monkey! He has full on cankles and a double chin. We love it! At 4 months Brock was in the 50th percentile for height and weight and 75th for head.

Feeding: Brock is still eating 8 times a day. He will not go longer than a maximum of 3 hours without eating. He is very much into eating! We starting feeding him solids at 4 1/2 months. He seemed really ready to eat and after giving him one bite, I knew he was. He loooooves to eat! So far we eat rice, sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini, green beans and carrots. I try to feed him rice, one green vegetable and one yellow. He eats a full plate of food every night! Every single bite! We defiantly have a eater on our hands. We are trying to grow a lot of what Brock is eating and then I make homemade baby food and store it in the freezer. Its so much fun to make and I know he is getting such great nutrition. What I can't grow, I buy and then make into baby food.

Sleeping: Brock is pretty solidly sleeping 7-8 hours, nursing then sleeping 2 more hours. He does randomly get up some times but that is usually the result of us getting off his schedule.

Personality: Brock is such a happy, smiley, little boy. He is constant flirt when we are running errands, people are constantly coming up to him and he hams it up with everyone. He is very social, loves to be out and about and constantly doing new things. He is easy going, naps pretty easily wherever we are and falls asleep even when its loud. This has been really helpful for us because we don't feel like we are a prisoner to his schedule. We just let him fit into whatever we plan to do that day. I know not all babies are like this and everyone tells us we are lucky to have such an easy going baby. However, when Brock is hungry, he is relentless! He will scream bloody murder until you feed him!

Fun Changes: Brock started rolling over a day before he turned three months old. Now he rolls and rolls and rolls! He also stands up really strong on his legs and is constantly looking around and laughing at Zeke. He LOVES Zeke! And Zeke loves him. They are so cute playing on playmate together. Tummy time for both of them! Plus, Brock loves going for long strolls and we try to go on a couple family walks in the evening. Its a nice time for all of us and we really enjoy that time.

Brock is also sitting up on his own now. He falls sometimes but he looking so cute trying to stay up.

Brock also is also a big giggler, he laughs so loud, people stop and laugh at him. Which of course, makes him laugh more.

Swimming... I am a big advocate of teaching kids to swim at a early age and just getting them comfortable  in the water. From the day Brock came home, I have had him in the big jacuzzi bath swimming around, floating of his back etc. A few weeks ago, we started bringing him to the pool and he loves it! We put him on the ledge and count to three, he smiles so big and jumps in. So much fun!

Ok, thats it for now. Life is great. We love being parents. We are doing a good job of making time to leave him with a sitter and taking time to ourselves also. We try to have a date night once a week or every other week. We have fun plans this evening to see a musical at the Hippodrome and dinner at the Paramount with friends.

Hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather upon us! We are so ready for plenty of beach time this summer and some relaxation around home.

Love,
Christy

Update on us...

Ok, so I know I have done a terrible job at keeping this blog updated but in my defense I rarely have my two hands to myself. If I am not working, exercising, cooking, nursing or sleeping, I am spending time with my little boy. There is very little downtime for me lately but luckily we have a long weekend upon us and I am hoping to get caught up on quite a few things. Plus, I really enjoy being busy so motherhood has nothin’ on me!

So to recap what we have been up to these days…. We are truly weekend warriors. We live for our weekends. We have been super busy traveling the past two months and are now looking forward to some quiet time at home over the summer.  

Over Easter, we celebrated a much needed first family vacation with a trip to California. Matt and I truly adore wine; we love the process of making it, visiting wineries and farms and tasting all the varieties of wine. We try to get out to San Francisco and Napa and Sonoma Valley once a year, normally in the fall. 

We postponed the trip this year, until I had Brock so I could enjoy it a bit more. I think most people thought it was nuts that we were taking him on such a long flight at 3 months but honestly we figured it is never too early for him to experience our love of traveling and for us to get used to traveling with kids. I was shocked by how well Brock did traveling.

We drove to Orlando to take the only direct flight to San Fran from Florida. It was a long but direct six hour trip. There was not one open seat on the plane! Brock sat in my lap and enjoyed looking out the window, playing with his toys and flirting with all the passengers. He never fussed one time on the flight.What a blessing! I just knew we were going to be ‘those people’ with the annoying infant crying but we weren’t! Hoorah! We spent the next five days in wine country eating delicious food, trying new wines, enjoying some spa time and lots of walking! It was a blast. We even got to catch up with our buddy, Sarah Schmidt, who we met in Greece on our 5 year wedding anniversary. Sarah is living in Palo Alto right now (she is a traveling nurse) and was able to come spend a day with her. It’s random but we have been able to meet up with Sarah and Amanda (another Greece buddy) multiple times over the past year and a half in random cities.


Our buddy Sarah and Brock 

Some highlights from the trip:

-       Craftsman Inn B&B, where we have stayed many times before, but this time was even more special with Brock. They had an Easter basket for him on Sunday morning with a My First Easter onsie. So incredibly sweet! We rented three of their five rooms and it really felt like we had the place to ourselves.

-       Matt and his dad went to a sunrise service in Calistoga where they watched the geyser go off as hot air balloons rose from the ground. He said it was amazing.

-     Wondering spa afternoon at the Lavender Hill Spa, Matt and I treated my mom to a bath   treatment  and  massages for her birthday and my birthday. I had a Thai bath that was too die for.

     -         Cave tour of Schaumberg ‘champagne’ or sparkling wine. Such an amazing process to learn.

-       Taking Brock around in the baby Bjorn and meeting lots of new people with him. It’s so amazing to experience events with your child. Much more fulfilling than doing it on your own.


Family Shot: 

 Love this kid!

 Easter morning

 My Easter onsie

 Such a ham..

 Wiped out!

 Group Shot :)

 I got my own seat on the way home !

And, although I know Brock won’t remember the trip, we have LOTS of pictures to show him of his first vacation.

Besides our big trip to California we have spent time at the beach, visiting the farm house in Greenville, seeing family and friends in Tallahassee and Bradenton.

Matt and I also had a wonderful weekend away at the Casa Monica in St Augustine to celebrate our good friend, Lindsay’s wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding and we were so happy to get to go. I couldn’t we happier for her and her new husband Zach. We also spent 4 days in Las Vegas for a President’s Club trip for Matt over Mother’s Day weekend. My mom was gracious enough to watch Brock the whole time and he spent some special one on one time with his Gigi and Poppy at the farm. They spent time riding around on the tractor, looking at the pine trees and gardening. He also went into Tallahassee to visit his Gramma Elaine and his Aunt Kay Kay. He loves them so much. I was sad not to see him on Mother’s Day but I know we will have so many more together and he was loved on by everyone around him. Four days was a long time to miss him but I know that I need my time away and he was very happy to visit everyone.

We have some fun trips planned later in the summer. We will be heading to a beach house on Anna Maria the week of July 4^th to enjoy some rest and relaxation. We are looking forward for Brock to meet his Aunt Meredith, Uncle Fritz and cousin’s William and Chase for the first time. Brock will also turn 6 months old that week! So crazy how fast the year is going. We are also looking to take a trip with just the three of us in October to New England for a week. We want to rent a car and drive along the coast of Maine etc. We plan to stop in Nantucket, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. We had talked about visiting Chile and Argentina but decided that we wanted to plan something we could take Brock on with us. We will miss Zeke but he really hates flying so he will probably have a staycation at home while we are away.

This weekend we plan to head to the pool, have a couple BBQ’s, head to Crescent Beach on Sunday with friends and enjoy Memorial Day together. I will update the next blog this weekend with Brock’s development.

Love to all. Happy Memorial weekend!

XOXO,

Christy  

Back to the salt mines I go....

This past week marked the first week back to work for me. Its kinda weird because I have felt so up and down about the whole thing. I completely love having a job and I didn't want to give that up but I was defiantly not ready to go back to work. But the thing is I have no maternity leave, besides my little bit of short term disability and I kinda felt like if I was going to go back, I should probably just do it. We are blessed to have a wonderful situation with Brock's caregiver and with me being guaranteed flexibly I decided to go ahead and dive it.

The first day sucked. That's the best way to describe it. As I drove to work I wanted to cry. I really didn't want to leave Brock and I hared ending such a nice period of time with him. You grow so attached to this little person and I really hated ended that special time. Over the past week, our schedule is this...

- 5:30- 6am - Brock usually wakes up after a nice 7-8 hour sleep to nurse. Thank goodness!
- 6-7am- We cuddle in my bed and I watch him snooze a little bit. I love this time and I couldn't care less that he's not in his crib.
-7:30- I nurse him one more time before I jet off to work. Mrs Teri comes in at this time and we drink a cup of tea before I leave. Then I had him over and she washes, dresses and plays with him.
- 12:30 - I try to make it home for lunch with him. It makes my day so much better to see him half way through it.
- 4:30-5pm - Matt gets home and hangs out with Brock till I make it home.
- 5:30- I get home and feed Brock then we hang out till dinner time.
- 9 pm - Bubble bath time. He loves the bath so much. He flips around, floats on his bath and relaxes. By far, my favorite time of the day.
-930pm- I feed Brock and put him to bed

We have a great schedule going but somehow I have to figure out how to fit in working out. I love going to the gym but so far I have only made it a couple times this week. I want to spend all my free time with him so I either have to try in do it super early, run in the evenings with him or something. That's my next big adjustment.

So far work is going okay. I enjoy seeing everyone and being in the office. My job has changed a ton since I went on leave and I am really busy figuring out what that role is, what my territory is going to look like this year and how I am going to make some real money! That is yet to be determined. Matt's job is going great. He found out he made Presidents Club and we have a nice trip planned to celebrate in May.

Overall we are all adjusting well to me being back at work. Brock is doing GREAT. He is such a happy baby, he is sleeping really well, he is laughing at us so much and is picking his head up more and more. Zeke loves having all the attention all day long with Mrs Teri here and gives Brock the occasional kiss on the forehead.

This past weekend we had family and friends over and went on the Jr League Tour of Kitchens. This is an event we look forward to all year long. What's not to love? Trying tons of food, drink and getting ideas on how to decorate your home? For us HGTV junkies, we love it. This year was so exception. We had a three car caravan of friends that went to each of the house and we had a blast. We pulled Brock in and out of the car all day and he did soooooo well! I was shocked, he is easy going but I was surprised he stayed so happy all day. Hopefully he is exactly the same way in wine country.

We are heading to Napa and Sonoma valley in 3 weeks and we are so excited. This will be Brock's first of many flights and we are crossing our fingers that he does well. We are flying direct from Orlando to San Francisco so hopefully that will limit the germs and excitement. Zeke is staying home with Grandma Teri. We will miss him but he hates planes so he won't miss it too much.

OK, so our baby boy is now 2 months old. Here are his statistics and some pictures.

Statistics:
Height: 24 inches ( 75+%)
Weight: 11pds 2 oz ( 50%)
Head: 41  ( 75%)

Basically, he is long and lean. Not super lean, but defiantly not a chunky baby.

 Brock and his buddies at our BBQ last Sunday ...

A look back to month one photo shoot!

Talk to me GiGi!

Life as we know it...

Life as we know it before Brock has changed forever. It will forever be more wonderful because we have our lives to share with someone and its just more amazing to have a little one that loves us unconditionally and looks to you to learn everything. Every day has gone by so extremely fast and Tuesday marks 7 weeks of age and its just unreal to us that our baby boy is growing up so incredibly fast. I just want to freeze time. I do wish for more sleep, more time to myself, less fussiness, less spit up etc but one little smile and you just don't want time to move on.

So here's our life over the past month...

Looks: Brock is growing like a little bean; long and lean. He is around 11 pounds 10 ounces. His hair looks more red at times and blonder at times so who knows what color it will end up. His eyes have started to lighten up a beautiful bright blue color like his mommies. Overall his looks are looking more and more like his daddy but with his mommies coloring.

my spiky hair...

Personality: We have good days and we have fussy days. I wouldn't say Brock is a super easy or super difficult baby. He wants constant attention, never too content in any of his gadgets for too long. He likes to stay busy ( go figure!). He actually really enjoys moving around a ton so taking him out for errands actually makes him happy. He like to see new people and things. He has a sweet little laid back personality at times then he gets super fiery and starts screaming his head off, all in about one minute. It makes for a busy day that breezes by.

Schedule: I started Brock on the babywise schedule around 3 weeks old and he really adjusted very well. I know know everyone is a huge fan of it but it really works for us. It makes me much happier knowing we have a plan for the day and a feeding schedule. I adjust it as I need to but we stay on a feed- walk/play- nap  ,  2.5 hour schedule all day. Brock adjusted well and seems to know when it is nap time and defiantly when it is time to eat! It was really important to me to put him on some form of schedule before I went back to work and we are doing a good job on it. I am also so happy to report that starting at 7 weeks he is now sleeping in his crib in his room and sleeping for longer periods of time so I am hoping by the time I go back to work, he will be sleeping for a steady 6-7 hours straight. And I guess that brings me to work...

Work: Starting a couple weeks ago I started to get super anxious about work. I wasn't ready to leave Brock and I felt very uneasy about the whole thing. Matt and I talked about it and decided that after I met with my boss, if I still felt the same way I would take another 4 weeks off since thats the maximum I could still take, even if it was unpaid and then see how I felt at that point. Well, from that point I schedule a meeting with my boss, who happens to be a new person that just took over right when I went on maternity leave ( perfect timing, hun?). I met with John this week and we had a great meeting, he reorganized our entire sales team and I have a fantastic territory basically from North Carolina up through DC and part the North East. I feel very good about it and he is always VERY much wanting me to come back to work. He thought I was coming in to tell him I wasn't coming back so he was really happy to know I wanted to and said that I could have a flexible schedule when I wanted it, basically meaning when I want to go home and hang out with Brock for a couple hours, just because, I can. I like knowing that I have this flexibility, regardless of how much I actually use it. It felt really good to see everyone at the office. Brock totally was pulling heart strings all around and everyone loved him. So since everyone is now wondering... what about Brock? ... so since they won't let me bring him to work everyday...

Matt and I were pretty adamant about not wanting to put Brock in daycare so young. I know that it works great for people but we just feel like he is too young and really want to him to have 1:1 attention right now.   If we didn't have a choice, I know he would be fine in daycare but we had already decided that if we couldn't find the right nanny for him, one of us would just have to stay home until he turned a year old. From the time Brock was born we have been so extremely blessed with so many people loving on him and so many people have offered to watch him but finding the right person full time is completely different. We have a wonderful friend, neighbor and someone we consider family that lives in the same neighborhood as us over the past 6 years that we have gotten so close to. She is a wonderful woman, retired nurse, that has traveled the world with the military, spent a large portion of her childhood in Japan and now has retired in Gainesville. Mrs Teri has been telling us from the day Brock was born that she wanted to watch him full time. After my meeting with work, our next stop was 'Grandma Teri's' house. We had a great lunch and discussed her being Brock's nanny. She was so incredibly excited about. She talked about how she wanted to take him to the park, walk's, library etc. She had done a lot of thinking about it and we couldn't be happier about the situation. We know Brock will be extremely loved and well cared for when we aren't there. Plus, there are quite a few neighbors that are retired that are so excited to see Brock during the week while we are gone. I have also looked into joining a preschool program that has Art, Music, etc classes that Teri and Brock can go to during the week together. It will be a great way for him to learn and interact with other kids. We really couldn't feel any better about leaving him than we do. It will be an adjustment but we are defiantly setting up a village to raise him!

Grandma Teri

On top of Grandma Teri, my mom, aka GiGi, has spent the better part of the past 8 weeks with us, has gotten extremely attached to Brock and he just loves her so she has decided that she will be planning to come and watch Brock one week out of every month. This will give Teri a break and time to do other things and will give Brock special time with his GiGi. We don't think she will actually get through 3 weeks without him, we expect to see her popping in all the time!

Couple time: While we haven't had a ton of time to ourselves, we have done a good job of having date nights and making time to get out. Brock has spent some time with his GiGi while we have gone to dinner and some time with his Grandma Teri while we have went to special events. We went to the Heart Ball a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful time seeing our friends. Tonight we have a dinner party planned with some friends and Brock is getting some special time with his Auntie Holly and Uncle Frank.

First date night

Trips: While we have enjoyed spending a lot of time around Gainesville, as everyone know, we LOVE to travel so we are ready for Brock to get his vaccinations, passport etc so we can hop on a plane.We have made two overnight trips with Brock since he was born, one to the beach at Anna Maria and one to the farm to visit my parents. We have some trips planned this year, some with Brock and some without. In April we are taking him to California with our parents. I know people think we are crazy to do this but we are so excited. Its been over a year since we have been in wine country and we are ready to be back!

Anna Maria Island...

 So exhausting...

Hello everyone! 

In May we have a wedding in St Augustine to go to. Brock will most likely stay with one of his grandparents then in May, Matt and I are going to Vegas for a President Club ( so proud of him!) trip he won. We are really excited about it and Brock will be staying with his GiGi and Poppy while we are gone. Matt and I are also planning to do some trip for our wedding anniversary in September. We have talked about South America, Paris and Turks and Caicos so who knows yet!

So as you can see, we have had a lot going on the past month. Some days with an infant are rough and some are great but thats how it goes. Regardless of the no sleep, I am not ready for Brock to grow. I want him to stay a baby forever. Oh well.

Next week brings a lot of change for all of us, I know its not going to be super easy, regardless of how nice it sounds on paper but our little hiatus from the real world has ended and its time for us to get on with our life. Its going to be difficult to balance our career's, babyhood, travel, exercise, Zeke, etc but I think we are up for the challenge. TBD

Thanks for reading,
Christy