All we are sayin...is give peas a chance

Right after Nick's 4 month check up, we tried Nick on solid food starting with rice cereal. But Nick just wasn't ready for solid food yet, so we just stopped for a while. A few weeks ago Nick became enthralled watching anyone eat. We decided it was time to try again, and Nick was ready! He was woofing down rice cereal like he was in the hot dog eating contest on Coney Island.

So now we are beginning to try other foods that mommy has cooked and pureed for him. Of course the suspense is torture because the Dr. says you need to wait 3 to 5 days after each new food is introduced to isolate allergic reactions if they occur. So this Monday while we were at Deenie's for dinner with Nick's great Aunt Betty, Nick tried peas. He liked them OK but not as much as cereal. He ate plain peas again on Tuesday and then last night he had a pea and rice cereal swirl.

Today I am making him apple sauce with yummy gala apples. Hopefully I can put a list on the blog somewhere of all the foods he tries and his first reactions. Nick is almost as excited about eating as Mommy and Aunt Gaines are about cooking for him!

4 month Check Up

When Nick went for his four month check up, we had to move pediatricians from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham. We adore our new pediatrician, Dr. Levin, he is the father of one of Gaines' close high school friends. He said that Nick was healthy, happy, and perfect! (but we already knew all of those things) He also said if we want we could begin introducing cereals and solid to Nick between 4-6 months, but he said if he didn't want to eat yet don't force it. He said Nick is a really happy, content baby and it ain't broke don't fix it!

Nick was 25 inches and 13.5 lbs

Nobody puts baby in a corner but baby!

Despite my efforts to put him to sleep on his back each night, Nick now immediately flips over and begins to scoot himself towards the end of the crib his head is facing. He scoots all the way until his head is touching the slats of the crib at the end. But he doesn't stop there, he then turns himself slightly and proceeds to push his head all the way into a corner where his head is touching the slats on the side and front of the crib. After that he sleeps like a champ, but it is the funniest routine to watch. We are so lucky to have our video monitor to be able to watch closed circuit Nick TV!

Flippy Flopping

Around 4 months, Nick began rolling over. The first few times he managed to roll frightened him, but after a couple weeks he really got the hang of it. More importantly, Nick loves the added mobility to being on his stomach! He is by no means crawling, but you would be amazed how far he can get scooting and doing his baby yoga. When he is on his stomach he can do a mean cobra that would rival any yogi, of course he has some flexibility advantages. Oh and obviously he can do a mean Child's Pose ;) 

Now that he has gotten more confident on his tummy and rolling, he is a machine sometimes traveling 5+ feet rolling over and over and over and over. You can tell he really wants to crawl, his bottom half is constantly moving like he wants to, but his arms are no match yet for his giant head!

The Easter Incident

We hosted Nick's first Easter at our new house this year for Nick's great-great-Aunt Mary Nell, his cousins, Julie, Taylor, Beth, Brittany, and Eliot; his Aunt Kim and Uncle Brian; and of course his Deenie. We were all very excited because Nick was going to wear a smocked bunny suit that his Deenie had made seven years ago for his cousin Eliot (who was born in January, so he was about Nick's size). 

We had Nick bathed, all the food made, everything ready except getting Nick dressed. We waited all morning and at the last minute, we got Nick in his precious suit and put him in his bouncy seat.

A few minute later all of our guests started arriving. True to form, as soon as Aunt Kim arrived she whisked over to the bouncy to pick up Nick! To Kim's dismay, and quickly mine and Deenie's, Nick had...well we will call it an "accident"... a huge gigantic, explosive, all over the place, chair, suit, Aunt Kim, EVERYWHERE "accident." These shenanigans reeked havoc in the house for about 15 minutes as Kim and I tried to clean Nick (and her) and Deenie got the suit clean. We had a back up suit, but Deenie got him back in that Easter suit in no time!

Mother's Day Gift

Dad got a new job in Birmingham that was going to let everyone spend a lot more time together and move Nick closer to all of his grandparents. So at the end of March, we moved from our house in Northport (outside of Tuscaloosa) to our new home @ Ross Bridge, which is a community in Birmingham, specifically Hoover. We all LOVE it here! It is a very family friendly oriented neighborhood with lots of kid of all ages. We have been able to stroll and stroll on all the sidewalk meeting lots of new friends (both human and canine)! There are lots of bike trails which should come in handy since Nick gave me a co-pilot as his first Mother's Day gift to me. It is a little cart that goes behind my bike so that he can go on rides with us once he is fully sitting up. Hopefully very soon. Here is what it looks like! We'll let you know the first time we get to try it out!

It's been a while

So it has been a really, really, really long time since our last blog post. We have all been really busy. I will attempt to catch you up with Nick with several posts today. The first culprit for our extended delay would be the move back to Birmingham over Spring Break in March. After that delays in getting the internet set up in the correct spot with the correct router delayed the blog, enough excuses. First we will catch you up with Nick's watch me grow pictures.

Sunday Funday Celebrated on Saturday

Today Nick enjoyed his first Sunday Funday (celebrated on Saturday) at the Wheeler household. Unfortunately it was a little cold for Nick to enjoy the pool yet...he did however enjoy a nap in his friend Eva's crib and a spirited whiffle ball game in which Mommy's team beat Daddy's team. A great time was had by all.

Nick is also preparing to move to his new home in Birmingham. Aside from our entire world being in upheaval, things are going really well. Nick says as long as he has his bed, toys, Grady and food...he doesn't really care where we are. If we are able to fit it in with all the moving going on, Nick hopes to attend his first Birthday Party for his friend Eva tomorrow.

Bumbo Seat

Today Nick got a bumbo seat! It is a miracle, he has so much control neck, we just didn't know until we got him this great seat to show us how well he can hold his head up...

Nick is also preparing to move to Birmingham next week. He cannot wait to be closer to all his friends and family. He is sleeping really well, both during nap time and at night. He also loves doing pilates with mom!

O yeah new pictures at this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kupton924/3rdMonth?authkey=Gv1sRgCPW4v92Ru6fRJQ#

Watch me grow

Here I am at two months! At his checkup he was 22 inches long and 10lbs, 10 oz

Also new pics are up at the following link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kupton924/2ndMonth?authkey=Gv1sRgCLX1yPyY5NH3UA#

Monkey See Monkey Do

Watching a child's mind evolve has to be one of the most fascinating things I have ever witnessed. Everyday it seems Nick is able to put together more and more of what is going on around him. His baby babble seems to make more and more sense (at least to him if not to us). One of the neatest things he has begun doing of late is mimicking whatever someone else is doing. If you stick your tongue out at him, he will stick his back out at you. If you babble at his, he babbles back. Needless to say it can keep us both entertained for hours :)

Maestro Nick

This weekend we began pushing the musical button on Nick's swing which plays an assortment of classical music. His new favorite thing to do is to have someone grab both his hands and use them to direct the orchestra (imaginary of course) through all of the various crescendo and staccato portions. He actually squeals in delight as he leads the choruses!

BIG BOY

This week Nick turns two months old! This last week has been a week of firsts! Nick reached out to grab the monkey on his bouncy seat. Most excitingly for mom, Nick slept through the night for the first time. Although when I woke up to realize that he hadn't woken me up in the last seven hours I was panicked something was wrong, but fortunately he was just growing up to be a big boy who sleeps through the night.

The past few days have been very eventful for the Upton clan, in spite of Daddy being sick, Nick and Mommy have had a great time. Last Friday Nick's Aunt Kait braved the continuously bad winter weather to come down and hang out with the little dude. We had a great time and even went to Mellow Mushroom, which was bumping since it was a Friday night in Ttown. Saturday all the Upton's went to Kobe for lunch with Mark and Amanda before watch the Crimson Tide beat down Tennessee in basketball. Nick has definitely been a good luck charm for the Alabama Basketball team!

Sunday Nick attending church for the first time. The sanctuary of our church is under construction, so Nick, Mommy, and Deenie got to sit on a sofa in the parlor. Next time Nick will get to meet the amazing ladies in the nursery. Nick spent most of Sunday afternoon at Deenie's house with his cousin Olivia, Aunt Gaines, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Glo! He was his usual precious expressive self. We left Deenie's and went straight to a Super Bowl Party at Donnie and Melynda's house where Nick got to hang out with Eva and Luke. Eva was very intrigued by Nick as he was with her, unfortunately for them both he is not quite big enough to really "play" yet.

Tuesday Nick went for his two month check up. Aside from getting 6 shots (thankfully he won't remember that), his check up went really well. He weighed in at 10lbs 10oz, up about 4lbs from when we left the hospital and had grown almost 3 inches to 22.5 in.

Check back later this week for Nick's two month watch me grow picture!

Our Little Reader

Nick loves to read! It is in the running as one of his favorite things to do, along with tummy time, passing gas, and bath time... His current favorite books are Goodnight Moon, a classic and his first Christmas present from the Cornett's and Dr. Seuss' ABC's An Amazing Alphabet Book! My only concern is that he will only know the alphabet through the letter U, because he has yet to make it through the end of the book, he is simply no match for his nursery glider. The glider wins every time as Nick drifts into dream sleep. Neither Nick or myself has made it through Horton Hears a Who. That is a long stinking book. In other news, Monday we have an appointment with the Blink Lady to have our first set of pictures done. We can't wait to share them with all of you when we get them back.

Watch me grow

Here Nick is at one month. He is getting very long and is almost 10 lbs. He might be taking more after daddy than mommy!

Camden

Yesterday Nick and I went to Camden and had the best time! We got to meet almost all of our Camden cousins! We had a delicious lunch at Gainesridge, but Nick had the most fun just playing on Big Mimi's floor. The pictures at the new link below begin the second month pictures. Most of them were taken on the aforementioned floor. He loved it. There are also some addition pictures at the old link that rounds out our first month photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=kupton924&target=ALBUM&id=5563277809821468865&authkey=Gv1sRgCLX1yPyY5NH3UA&feat=email

Sleepy Monkey!

Last night Nick slept for a full 5 and a half hours. It was a major accomplishment for our little man, but an even bigger accomplishment for mom! We are trying the Babywise system to hopefully have him sleeping through the night at 7-8 weeks, it is an ambitious goal, but I actually have friend's children who have hit this milestone. We are setting up his awesome video monitor from Aunt Kim, Uncle Brian, and Eliot next week so hopefully Nick can begin to transition into his room in his second month. Nick really enjoyed his first Bama game vs Michigan State last Saturday. I must say he was good luck for the team, had they played like that all year I am not sure if any team could have beaten us!

Watch me grow

My sister, Aunt Kim, did something really cool when my Nephew Eliot was a baby. She took a picture of him throughout his first year with the same stuffed animal. The cuddly monkey in his case was a point of reference to watch how he grew throughout his first year. I have decided to do the same thing with Nick. BElow is the picture of him at one week (I am a little behind posting it, but I am a first time mom...so cut me some slack). Check back next Wednesday for his one month Birthday picture.

New Pictures

There are new picture of Nick! Follow the Link!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=kupton924&target=ALBUM&id=5552155820187608145&authkey=Gv1sRgCKmgubn857b6-gE&feat=email