Long walk, longer week

  

Last Saturday Conan and I decided to take a walk together instead of going to the gym. There's a path down the East River, so we thought we would try it out. It's a great view and there are all sorts of parks and sights to see along the way. The weather was perfect and the strolling rocked Christopher to sleep so we just kept walking. Once we got a ways down the path we kept seeing things we wanted to walk to and eventually got all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was neat to see the bridge from that angle and we got to see the waterfalls display up close. We also saw lots of people fishing, so I know what Conan will be bringing next time we go out there. It felt like we had gone a long way, (especially trying to catch up to Conan's pace) so we looked up the distance when we got home and it was 6 miles! I thought that would be a one time walk, but Conan's already planning on walking down to the tip of the island and going to Battery Park. I might need to negotiate for a cab home after that one.

That afternoon we went and watched Dax play BYU (Go Cowboys!). Christopher was wide awake during the whole thing since he had gotten such a long nap in the stroller. It was quite a task trying to distract him from the big screens that are on every wall. It's crazy how he just wants to stare at the screen- and that's the last thing I want my 3 month old doing. I figure we should wait until he's at least out of diapers before we let him watch football at the bar. He was pretty disappointed milk wasn't on tap that day. 

With all of the Wall Street craziness this week, Conan had to work super long hours. It was also really rainy and chilly at the end of the week, so it felt like this week went on forever. Christopher and I did go on one little adventure. Thursday after story time Christopher looked like he needed a nap, but I could tell he was going to fight it. I decided I would force nap him by walking him to sleep. I hadn't seen the empire state building yet, and I had a coupon for a free tasti d-lite ice cream there, so we headed over. The walk there is fun, since the building is massive you see it the whole time until you get there. We went inside to check it out (and get my free ice cream of course), but we waited to go up to the top until Conan's with us. I can't wait to see the view!

I really feel like the little guy is understanding everything much better. I sit down in front of him and talk and I feel like he's trying really hard to say words back. He loves to laugh with Dad. Conan rocks him and does this little dance that makes Christopher crack up every time. He threw his first big kid fit this week... He has a little cradle cap left so I put cream on his head and then a hat before he goes to sleep. When I went to put the hat on he was really tired and gave me a huge lower lip pout and then threw both of his legs down so hard multiple times- it made the whole bed shake. I couldn't help but laugh at the poor kiddo. I think that was just a little preview of what we have coming when he's a toddler: ).

Lesson Learned

Last Friday I was so caught up on watching reports on Ike (my family survived the storm fine, but still no electricity) that I didn't pay attention to the NY weather. I signed Christopher up for a free class at the Gymboree and we headed out that morning. It looked a little gloomy when we left, but I had my umbrella, so I figured we'd be fine. I didn't realize that by the time I walked  across the entire width of the island to get to the class it would be pouring on me. Christopher didn't get a drop on him because he was covered up in the stroller. I was another story. It was a good lesson to always check the weather reports here- I can't just jump in a car like I'm used to. Gymboree was fun. Little guy was upset at first- it was a lot of stimulation, but he started smiling more as the class went on. You could tell the it was very well thought out for mental development- there was singing, parachute time, bubbles, rhymes- an overall good time for mom and baby. We're not going to sign up for it because it's too far away and after we took the free class they told it would be $160 a month- ha ha- not an option. It was a good way to get some new ideas about how to entertain him at home though. 

With all of the craziness with the market, Conan thought he might get called in to work on Saturday, so we stayed home. It was okay, because Christopher entertained us all day and we had some fun family time. This week we've been doing our usual routine, except we added in a stroller group. When we went I thought it was going to be a nice walk around the neighborhood to meet other moms. Nope. It was probably the hardest workout I've done in a year. The leader had us running with the strollers, stepping up and down on park benches, lunges around the sidewalks. Luckily little guy slept through the whole thing, so he didn't have to see his poor mom suffer through the workout : ). I'm still sore! 

We celebrated Christopher's three month birthday on Tuesday. The picture is me posing with him and his birthday cupcakes (for mom and dad of course). He was sleeping peacefully in his bassinet and I decided we had to have a picture of him. He woke up to a camera flash from his dad and his mom holding a cupcake in his face. Poor kid- I can't imagine what he was thinking.

Christopher is doing great. We've started to notice that he's figuring out the things that he does to get a reaction from us. Like when he smiles or laughs or coos we do it back at him. He's also figuring out what he needs to do to get picked up. When I cook dinner I put him in the bouncy seat right outside of the kitchen so we can see each other. He now has this distinct cry he makes and when you pick him up he stops immediately- nothing is wrong, he just wants to be held. Normally this cry is right when the water is boiling over, something is burning in the oven and I'm holding raw meat. He also likes to do it right when we sit down to eat. We've gotten very good at holding him with one arm and eating with another. That's why the poor kid has food stains on his onsies even though he won't be eating for another three months. He's also started letting me read to him again. For a while he would get really restless about three pages in, but now we can get through a couple of books at a time. Our current favorites are Baby Corduroy and the Hug book. He's gotten really good at tummy time all of a sudden and actually smiles during it sometimes- that's a nice change. His hands are now in his mouth at all times. He sucks his thumb and keeps his other hand by his mouth like he's protecting it in case someone tries to take it out. We can see his personality come out more ever day- he's the best. 

Pictures

I meant to post these last week... The first picture is Christopher hitting the toy on his activity gym. He's definitely hitting with more purpose now, but he hasn't been able to grab on to the toy without my help yet. There's a musical sun that he makes go off sometimes, but I don't think he knows how it happens. It keeps him very entertained. The next is one of his baby outfits I tried to put on him the other day. I couldn't stop laughing at the poor guy when I realized the pajamas that used to be too big on him now come up to his knees. I have a whole bag of clothes that my baby has outgrown now! I can't believe how big he's gotten. The next pictures are just him being cute. The last one was one evening after Conan had worked a really long day. I had been making dinner in kitchen and walked out to find my two cuties passed out. I'll post what we've been up to these past couple of weeks later today. 

Trip to the Beach

Conan didn't have to work on Sunday because the stock market was closed on Labor Day, so we thought we'd take a little day trip. It seemed like a great day for the beach. Since you aren't supposed to put sunscreen on babies less than 6 months, we got a baby tent that was supposed to have UV protection and a sun proof hat for the little guy. After our hour long train ride and a diaper change in the grass outside of Burger King (I can't believe how few public places have changing stations!) we got to the beach. We walked onto the sand and set up the tent. After a brief inspection by the paranoid first time parents, we realized we didn't trust it to protect our baby at all. We got a quick picture of him on his first beach trip and then we left immediately. We were literally on the beach for less than 5 minutes. There was a couple who were expecting beside us and I think they got a good laugh (their time is coming :-) ). It wasn't a total loss- the train ride was pretty fun and now we know how to get there for next summer. I just wish we hadn't wasted money on that dumb tent.

Conan's brother, Dax started in his first Wyoming football game on Saturday. After much exploration of the bars in our neighborhood last week (I'm sure I was quite the sight with the little guy), I found a place that would play the game for us. We went to the Blind Pig and had a great time. Hopefully people understood why we had a baby in a bar after we told them all that Dax was the quarterback. We had the whole place cheering for him. They won 21-20, we were so excited! Christopher slept through most of it- I think we'll probably withhold the details of that little trip to him until he's much older : ). 

Little guy has gotten so much bigger in the past couple of weeks! I put an outfit on him that was huge when he was first born and the pants came up to his knees. All of the onsies I had been putting him in look like muscle shirts. On Monday we were walking back from the store and I peeked in the stroller and he was sleeping with his thumb in his mouth, it was so cute! And... last night he laughed for the first time! It was the best thing ever. I had him propped up on my legs and he started doing a big grin. I laughed and then he started making a cute little happy sound. When I laughed more he did it again- it took me a little while to realize that was his adorable laugh. Dad made him laugh a lot more when he got home. He's so entertaining now!