Bobblehead

This video cracks me up. When we burp Ashton he endures some pretty solid, repetitive slaps (as taught by the hospital nurses) and he does not mind at all. He just sits there and in this particular instance he is like our own little bobblehead doll. Love him.

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Ashton's first beach days, pool time, and hurricane!

Well it's Sunday afternoon and we are housebound due to Hurricane Irene. It's actually not that bad out, the rain has been fairly constant with some big wind gusts, but we are lucky that nothing substantial has happened here. For the first time since I've lived in Boston, they shut down all public transportation and when we left Long Island yesterday, they were beginning evacuations. Speaking of Long Island, Ashton had some big firsts while we were there the past few days! We went to the beach on Thursday for an hour or so, it was really windy so we had to prop the umbrella in order to protect Ashton (who, incidentally, didn't leave his carseat or  even open his eyes to see the ocean, but no matter):

Friday was much better, we stayed all afternoon and Ashton was cozy in his travel bed, which was under a tent, which was under an umbrella. Quite the setup!

With me

The water was rough because of the impending storm but no match for Jason...

After the beach, Ashton changed into his bathing suit and went in the pool (where the temp = 85 degrees so it was nice and warm)

The pool actually did make him a little upset/fussy despite how warm it was. But we gave him his second bath last night in his little tub and he LOVED it. He was so calm and you could tell that having the warm water run on his body made him very relaxed and happy, it was really cute. He will learn to love the pool too ;)

Well the rain has stopped but it's still windy out, what to do with the rest of this hurricane afternoon...tbd!

ps I have not fully learned the best way to optimize getting pictures up on this blog (moving from the camera, to iPhoto, then exporting, then uploading...) but you can click or doubleclick on the photos and they will open to their full size and are much clearer. If you didn't already know, I just figured that out!

My three new favorite words and two boring videos (to everyone but me haha)

I've had a very busy couple of days and am completely exhausted! Yesterday I officially took my first "me time", without Jason, Tate or Ashton, and went and got my hair done downtown. At least now I don't look as tired as I feel! How funny though, I actually felt guilty for taking 3 hours off. I missed nothing (Ashton slept the whole time I was gone) but from the minute I left I was anxious to get back so it was hard to even enjoy being out. I'm sure I will learn. And then last night I took Tate and Ashton to Katie's house in Wellesley for dinner, which would have been lovely had it not been a complete d.i.s.a.s.t.e.r. Tate was barking, trying to lick the oven (while it was on! Pretty sure he burned his tongue), ate Norm's food, scratched at the couch, and in general was a nuisance. Ashton aired his first episode of "I have no idea what I want so I'm going to cry and fuss endlessly." I have been awaiting the premiere of this show and it finally arrived - the timing was excellent as it started pretty much five minutes after we got there. By the time I loaded everyone in the car to go home I was pretty much in tears. We all fell asleep, totally wiped, around 11:30 pm. Jason got home from work around 2 am, just as Ashton was beginning to fuss and wake up to be fed. I noticed his stirring first and before I could even lift my head off my pillow, Jason was there and said, "I'll get him." And those, dear readers, are my three new favorite words anytime between 12 am and 6 am. Even though I've heard them before, I have a whole new appreciation after such a difficult evening and am making it official ("I love you" still has the other 18 hours of the day). Jason gave him the bottle I had left, and I didn't have to get up until 5 am and the next feeding. Best thing ever, I love my husband.

So today is a much needed day at home to regroup and get ready to for our Long Island trip (we have an 8 pm ferry tonight and come back on Saturday morning). I'm praying for some nice beach weather, Ashton has a tent, a travel bed, and the cutest little bathing suit with a built in diaper so even if we make it there for 15 minutes I will consider it a success.

Back to today - Ashton is back to his usual cute self, just sitting up in his little chair, blinking and looking around. I put him on his playmat and he is finally starting to focus on the shapes, the noise, and the colors of all the dangling "treetop friends". Here is a video, in which absolutely nothing happens so you've been warned :) About half way through he sees me and starts to focus on that rather than the owl, etc. Looks like we might have a new ham in the family (which he most definitely gets from his dad!). 

And then I flipped him over for some tummy time to help him develop his neck muscles. It's truly amazing how much time I spent just watching him bob around and occasionally lift his head. So amazing, in fact, that I'm not going to tell you how much. 

That's all for today. I have a lot to pack up this afternoon and if there's one thing I have learned, it's to estimate how much time my to-do list will take and then multiply that by 1,000. I better get going!

p.s. do these videos look different than the other ones that were posted through YouTube? I'd love some feedback- better? worse?

Sunday Funday

Boy time flies... Today we had a couple of firsts for Ashton:
First bath!




Nice shot, looks like I'm cleaning a chicken ;)




Scrub-a-dub:




Huh, this feels nice:




Nice do: his hair dried into a blowout, which A doesn't seem to happy about




First trip down to the garden:
Yeah he borrowed my hat...
Ha! so little :)




Ki, Ash & Tater:




Full bloom tomato season!
Those tomatoes are bigger then his head:)




Our bounty:




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Happy Saturday Morning!

Our little family is having a somewhat lazy Saturday morning, despite that last night was probably the best we've had yet. Ashton wakes up every three hours, almost on the dot, to be fed and changed. After he is full and dry, we swaddle him and put him back to sleep in his bassinet next to our bed. It is usually a battle to get him to fall back asleep. He struggles against the blanket until he gets his arms out, and then he cries, we re-swaddle him and give him a pacifier. This buys about five minutes and the cycle repeats. Last night though he was a champ! He went right down all three times after being fed, no whining! It was really nice. Of course I don't expect that to be the new standard but at least now I know it CAN happen.

Also good news yesterday - we went to the pediatrician and A has cracked 8 pounds (8 pounds 3 oz to be exact). It had been 12 days since our last appointment and he weighed 7 lbs 6 oz, so the weight gain made me feel good because ALL I do is feed him! His little arms and legs are starting to bulk up - he has lots of tiny rolls and it's so cute.

Speaking of cute...here are some latest pics!

In his swing (his rabbit went for the ride as well as Ashton only takes up half the seat!)

Playing bocce with Dad

With Aunt Lizzie

In the most amazing stroller ever:

And yesterday, sound asleep on my shoulder :)

I think for me the funniest part is that Ashton has so many faces and expressions that he looks like a different baby in pretty much every picture. 

Off to start the day...Oh just one last quick note. My sister pointed out to me yesterday that in order to post on this blog, you have to hit Preview first and then hit Post. Not sure why that is, if anyone has had trouble posting - if you just hit Post, it will keep refreshing the page and nothing happens. So please try hitting Preview first and see if that works. 

Happy weekend! :) xo

Some new pictures

So Ashton is currently asleep, which is great for the Kristen who wants to get a few things done around the house, catch up on some correspondence, and take a shower. Not great for the Kristen about an hour from now who will be ready to go to bed and Ashton will be wide awake. I swear, when he's asleep I think he should be awake, and when he's awake I sometimes wish he was asleep. It's been a long two weeks, I feel like Ashton should be three months old by now.

Anyway, not much to report. We had a great trip to Long Island to visit Jason's parents. It was such a nice couple of days, I had a house full of people who couldn't wait to hold Ashton, change him, play with him...it was a welcome break for me and I was so appreciative.

As you can imagine I have no fewer than 2,339 new pictures and videos that I could post (and I will in the next couple days, as well as remind Jason it's his turn to make an entry!) so for everyone out there that reads this and checks in, stay tuned :)

5 times longer

I have always been a very punctual person. When I have somewhere to be I actually obsess about being on time and generally have a good sense as to how long most things will take me. With Ashton's arrival I am recalibrating everything I know as everything takes five times longer to do! Yesterday Jason left for work around 11:30 am and I planned to be right behind him to go out and do errands. It took me 90 minutes to get out of the house. Why? First I got dressed. Then Ashton fussed so I went over and pushed the little rocker chair he was in for a few minutes. Then I did my hair. Ashton fussed, more rocking. Then I did my makeup. Ashton fussed and after rocking him realized I didn't know where his pacifier went. Checked the kitchen, nursery, found Tate happily licking away at it in the living room. Sigh (it's the only one A likes). Put water on to boil it and kill germs. Ashton fussed again, time to feed him. 20 minutes later he is full and burped. Dropped the pacifier in the water. Checked my diaper bag and refilled supplies. See that Ashton has spit up, changed his outfit. Turned off burner, cooled pacifier and gave it to him. Gather up everything I need for errands, returns, etc. Take Tate out. Check Ashtons diaper, of course it is now dirty. Change him, fasten him into his carseat. Takes two trips to get everything downstairs to the car. Annnnnd I'm off, finally. 1:03 pm. Good thing I didn't have plans.

Currently waiting at the New London ferry and heading to Long Island til Tuesday. First time our entire family of four has traveled together (Tate stayed home when we went to VT), Ashton and Tate are curled up in the back seat and sleeping on this rainy Sunday morning. With jasons help we were only five minutes late leaving this morning. Life is good :)


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Mac Daddy

Hi I'm Ashton and I sleep like the Mac Daddy :)



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Baby sneezes

Sorry for posting this but to me this is the cutest thing ever. I know photos and videos don't do Ashton justice because you can't actually tell how tiny he is, but still - couldn't resist.

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One week down...

We celebrated Ashton's one week birthday yesterday - already!! I am happy to report that things have settled a little around here, I have not cried in two days and little A seems to be adjusting to the big world :)  Traveling to Vermont was a huge success, we were only there one night but it helped my spirit so much to be out and about. We are headed to Long Island on Sunday for a few days as well. I think as long as I keep things on the calendar I won't feel so overwhelmed. Jason has had the past 2.5 days off and will be leaving in about 3 hours to go into work - I hope this passes without incident for me. It's of course so much easier to have him home, for the help and the companionship (Ashton and Tate are both cute but not exactly conversationalists).

In other good news, Ashton slept in his bassinet last night and woke up twice to be fed. Both times I rocked him and put him back down and he fell back asleep. This is completely amazing (and I hope not a one-time thing) as up until last night he has been in our bed (or slept on jason's chest) at least once a night because he was fussing. Regardless of whether it's a faulty sense, I feel like I am beginning to get it and that alone makes me feel more and more like myself again. Don't get me wrong, I still haven't straightened my hair in a week and I pretty much have zero clothes that fit, but the "I feel like a mess" factor goes down a little every day. For today and at this moment, I am good :)

Jason's due to post here pretty soon too, he's taken about 6,334 pictures and videos so I'm sure he'll have some good stuff to share.

Love to everyone
xo
KN