David's First Christmas

David made his second trip to S.C. this past week. We traveled without Trey (scary!) because he doesn't get the nice teacher vacations like I do. This trip was to see the Teal side of the family. The picture above is of David, Dee Dee (my mom), and Daddy T (my dad). David did lots of shopping, hung out with the Martin's (my mom's family), ate at Groucho's, saw his cousin Bayler perform in a Christmas program, and saw his cousin Bridges crawl for the first time. I'll leave out all the details about being locked in the car (see entry below if you're interested). It was quite an exciting trip! We had a wonderful time and were sad to say goodbye to all of the family. We made it back on Wednesday night after two delayed flights (yuck!) to find a very happy daddy. I think Trey missed David a ton while we were gone. Dee Dee and Daddy T sent us back with a suitcase full of presents to open since we will be celebrating in Texas this year. We are spending Christmas Eve here tonight and then travel back to S.C. in the morning to visit the Kelly's. We want to wish all of our family a very Merry Christmas. We miss you!

A picture of "The Gang", minus Trey. This is David with his Aunt "B" (Brittany), Uncle Rob, Aunt Risha, Bayler and Bridges.

Bayler was so sweet to "Davin", which is what he calls David. He gave lots of kisses and even helped Daddy T give David a bottle. Bayler is 3 years old today (Dec.24th). Happy Birthday Bayler!!!

David and his Aunt "B".

Aunt Risha, David, and Uncle Rob.

Bayler stole the show in his Christmas program at church. We are so glad we got to see this little sheep sing!

David and his cousin Claudia were all tuckered out at the Martin's Christmas party!

David and "The Girls". This is Jordan, Olivia, and Molly Love.

David and my friend Jennifer Clark. This was David's first trip to Columbia and the 5 Points Groucho's!

Bridges, Bayler and David in their matching outfits! It was very fun to dress them alike, but taking the picture is a different story. I never knew it was so hard to get 3 kids to look in the same direction, much less smile at the same time!

Confessions of a New Mom

For all new moms out there, I post this message to make you feel better about those "little things" that happen along the way in motherhood. You know, those things that make you feel like the worst mom in the world. Well, next time you think you are the worst mom in the world remind yourself of this story...
While I was in S.C. this past week I locked my 4 month old son in the car. Yes, you read correctly, I locked David and the keys in the car with no spare key around. My beautiful sister and I were about to make a trip to our favorite lunch spot (Groucho's) and we were running a little late. Apparently, she handed me the keys and I tossed them into the front seat because it takes two hands to do the car seat if you don't have a base to snap it into. Anyway, I had no idea the rest of the car was still locked so when I shut the door to go around I heard the car alarm set and all the doors lock. I immediately froze in shock. Surely I had not just done what I new I had done! My first thought was, hurry and break the window so I can get to my baby. But instead of picking up the closest rock, I went to tell my sister who happened to be on the phone with my mom at the time. To make a long story short, mom called the police and we were stuck waiting. I had to walk away because I couldn't sit there and listen to my child cry. He was crying because he wanted his paci to go to sleep. And he was stuck without it and I couldn't help him, plus I was the reason he was trapped in there in the first place! Being the sweet baby boy that he is, he only cried for a few minutes and then drifted off to a deep sleep. He was so asleep that when an old friend of mine popped open the lock on the door (yes the cops came but they did nothing to help, she didn't have the "right tool") the alarm began blowing and David didn't even wake up. Needless to say, my family did not and will never let me live this one down! I certainly learned my lesson about locking doors and keeping the keys with me at all times. Hope his makes all new moms feel great about themselves today :)!

David at 4 Months

David had his well check-up with Dr. Magie yesterday. He now weighs 14.1 lbs. and is 26 inches long! Yes, he is certainly a long lean baby. He is in the 50%tile in weight and 90%tile in length (surprise, surprise). It looks like he might have his daddy height, thank goodness. Everything looks great. We are starting cereal, but had a rough go at it this morning. He just kept looking at me like "this is too much work, mom!" "Where's the bottle?!" But I hear it takes a few feedings for them to get used to the texture and eating from a spoon. David also got 4 shots yesterday. He seems to handle them well, almost better than me. This time was a little harder because now I have to help hold him down since he is moving all over the place. But he has never had any side effects from the shots so far! We are beginning our holiday travel mayham today. We leave at 5:10 for Columbia and will spend the next 6 days in Bishopville with my family! Please pray for safe travel and we'll have lots of new pictures when we return. Happy Holidays!

David's Visit with Santa

David has been quite busy the last few days! He had his first Christmas party, stayed with a babysitter at night for the first time, accompanied me to a clothing line premire for String of Pearls, and... went to see Santa. I have to say the visit to Santa was very uneventful. The good news is he didn't cry, but the bad news is he wouldn't smile either. There was just too much to stare at and take in for him to smile. Plus he had fallen asleep, like always, while we were traveling to the mall and stayed asleep in his stroller until it was his turn to visit with Santa. The picture we purchased was worse than this one! He pretty much just has the expression of "what are you doing to me now people?" in all the shots we took. Oh well, I guess we have next year!

Proof that the baby boy does have a sweet smile, just not with Santa!

We love the weekends! Trey and I both spend as much time as possible with David on our days off. He still loves this bouncy seat, but now he tries to sit up further in it. He uses the animals rings to pull himself up. How strong!

David is wearing Trey's winter hat. Believe it or not we've had some pretty cold weather out here in Texas! This is also a great shot of David eating his hand, which is pretty much a constant thing now.

The hat doesn't quite fit yet!

He keeps growing...

David continues to amaze us everyday, mostly because he is growing up so quickly. He will be 4 months old on December 11th and is learning lots of new things. David is getting so strong he often tries to stand instead of sit in your lap. He is holding his head up so well, we decided to try the exersaucer when we returned home from Thanksgiving break and he LOVES it! If I have him sitting on the couch with me and he sees it, he longingly looks at the toy with an expression of "please mom put me in that fun thing"! This picture shows one of our favorite new developments. He is learning to sleep so that his arms hold in his pacifier, YEAH! All new parents out there know this is huge! I rarely have to make the trek to his room in the middle of the night anymore to plug it back in his mouth.

David also developed his first cold over the weekend. I'm not sure it was as tramatic for him as it was for us! I recently had a struggle with some kidney stones (ouch!) and the pain I felt from the stones (yes I feel like a 70 year old man) was nothing compared to the pain I felt watching my baby boy stuggle to breath out of his nose while he ate. We did all the helpful things "they" say to do: humidifier, elevate his head, use nose drops to clear out all the gunk. He got over it quickly and seems to be back to normal today. We are so thankful it was quick and somewhat painless! Here are a few action shots from the past week. We plan to go see Santa soon, so hopefully we'll have more to share by the weekend.

David loves to watch T.V. (surprise, surprise)! He doesn't sit like this often, but I had to take a snap shot of our little couch potato. Doesn't he look like he is just soaking it all in?

David in his exersaucer. His legs are strong enough to turn him around and around. He loves it!

More play time!