Family Visits - and a Toofers update

The weekend was preceded by some more 3:30am wakeup calls for teething. The second tooth on the bottom has cut through, and now we just need to sleep through the night! Mommy and Daddy are busy taking naps whenever possible to catch up. Samuel likes to spit out his tongue to feel his new teefers.

We also set up foam floor mats in the breakfast area (which we don't use for anything else). This will be Samuel's play area when we're cooking or in the kitchen - which of course is always! He already loves it! He still loves his jumper and playing catch. He's now starting to put his forefinger and thumb together in the "pincer" grasp. ... This means finger foods are coming! His first one will either be tofu or scrambled egg yolk. Speaking of food, Samuel's new food last week was tahini. This week, we're going to re-try mango. It bombed in one of the first few weeks, so we'll see!

Guess who came to visit this weekend!? Grandmama and Grandpa Kevin!!! (Guess we missed a pic of Kevin...)

Grandmama brought Samuel some fun new toys - including this cool car. Samuel has already pulled off the trunk and figured out the gears.

We also had a surprise visit from Uncle Leroy. He brought Sam some more Disney movies - Beauty and the Beast and Bambi!! Leroy promised some gangster movies later in Samuel's life. ;-)

It was fun to hang out with everyone.!!



Enjoy Me

Samuel likes to multitask when he has his milk. Sometimes he will scratch his head, or grab my mouth, or yank on my shirt, or pull on his pantleg. Often, he'll grab his little piggies and pull them up high. Today, I was feeding him, and I was trying to read something on my phone when this little (or big!) foot was right in front of my face. I stopped and looked at it - so small but so much larger than the 5-day-old footprints on the wall. It was like that foot was saying, "Stop. Enjoy Me. I will only be this size for today."

Favorite Chew Toy

Guess what Samuel's favorite chew toy is??

Yeah.

Last Thursday, after posting my blog entries (especially touting that Samuel sleeps through the night), Samuel woke up yelling in pain. At least Brad was smartly asleep; I hadn't even gone to bed yet! We were up until almost 3:30 Friday morning trying to console the little teether. We had night-wakings the next couple of nights, too, and a growth spurt on top of that! But, we finally have a payoff for the missed sleep - a tooth has broken the great gummy barrier! It's the bottom-right tooth, which is a complete surprise because we have not been able to feel anything on the bottom. But now, if you rub your finger over the gums, it feels like a little piece of glass is lodged in there. I always wonder what Samuel is thinking; he must be especially confused about this little tooth jutting out.

I've decided I'm not so fond of being his chew toy anymore. That little tooth is quite sharp!

System Failure!

Brad and I had an epiphany the other day: WE CANNOT DO THINGS THE WAY WE USED TO. Uh... yeah, we're a little slow! Before Samuel (B.S.! OK... let's not use that abbreviation ;-), if something needed done around the house or an errand needed run, most likely we would just wait until Saturday and try to get it done then.

We realized early on that using Saturday as the random-task day was not going to work, but we really didn't come up with anything that worked better. So at random times, (like 10pm at night, say), and when our energy was already sapped and expectations were not clear, I might say, "I'm going to clean." Now, Brad knows me, and he knows that means that I expect him to clean, too. Guess what happens next? Frustration, crankiness, word-slinging, tempers, bitterness, and on and on the crazy cycle goes! 100% of the time it ends in my being all huffy wanting to get something, anything, accomplished and Brad thinking I'm a crazy person who should just go to bed.

Finally, though, we decided we actually needed systems in place for all those things that used to just fall to Saturday task-day. So, we're trying some of these systems out, such as cleaning the house on Wednesday night and rotating tasks, checkbook upkeep/budget-checking on Mondays and Thursdays. Saturday is the only day of the week our family has together, so that's family fun day, but it's also understood that if I need to get some baby food made or something cooked to freeze - or anything else that needs my undivided attention for a bit - I can usually get an hour or so to do that Saturday afternoon while "the boys" play. We are so relieved to have a plan finally. It's already taken a lot of burden off of the mental to-do list. Now, we'll see how our little systems pan out. I'll try to update in a future post. In the meantime, have you ever found systems important to set up in your home (like with roommates, singles? Or with spouses, marrieds? Or with kiddos, parents?). If so, what has worked best for your family that I could steal and try?

In the meantime, here's a goody:

Go Big Red!

I couldn't resist the title what with Football season here and so much Huskers attire in the 7 month photos. =D

Big updates from this month so far: SAMUEL FINALLY SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! Ahhhhhh!!!! It's so wonderful! And yet I still stay up late trying to get things done, like baby food making, posting on our blog (heehee), laundry, cleaning, bills, work.

Samuel loves eating, no big surprise there. Right now, his food choices are: bananas (favorite!), rice cereal, oatmeal, egg yolks, papaya, apples, pears, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, yogurt, and avocado (loves!).

Samuel started sitting up this month, and loves to play "catch" with mommy while seated. He also started pushing up when on his tummy. You know what that means!

He is teething hardcore, and it will be any day now for the first tooth to pop through.

He finally started giving us some good ham pictures for the camera, so I have a lot of favorites from this month so far:

We took a trip to Seguin for the first time with Samuel. Here's a pic with Uncle Ryan and Naunie and Grandpa Pete.


Playing with daddy and mommy.

Loves the bouncer Grandmama got him!!

My blue-eyed boy!

"Catch"

Pics from our trip to Houston for Ryan and Melissa's Housewarming...

Until next time!!

Worst Mother IN.THE.WORLD.

Ha! Don't all moms think this at some point? The title is indicative of the type of morning we had. I was going to try attending a bible study at the church that planted our church. After dropping Samuel off in an unfamiliar place for the first time, I felt very uneasy. People were talking to me, but I wasn't hearing. I was saying things, but I don't know what. Finally, Becky Moore looked at me and asked, "Do you need to go to the bathroom and cry?" "Yes." That's exactly what I needed to do. I felt a little better. About 30 minutes later, the little childcare pager buzzed and read, "PLEASE COME." I RAN I tell you. Samuel was beyond upset. He was so upset that I didn't recognize his exhausted where-in-the-world-is-mommy cry. He was shuddering for at least an hour afterwards. I choked up and tried not to lose it as I gathered his things and got him home. He was fine the rest of the day, but anytime I left his sight, he started to cry or whimper. A very anxious day for my little man.

Since I haven't posted on the blog in...forever...I thought I'd just post a few pictures and highlights from Samuel's life so far.

1 MONTH OLD - lots of visitors and love and milk and sleep!

With Naunie...

And Grandmama...

And Daddy in my first snow!

2 MONTHS OLD - still lots of milk and visitors! This was the lots-of-crying and impossible-to-get-to-sleep stage. That stage continued for a while... Started smiling at week 5 and 6. That was awesome!

Easter basket from Naunie and Grandpa Pete!


Easter with Grandpa Pete...
Too cute... his eyes were always this wide - trying to take in everything around him. It reminded me that to him, everything is brand new.

3 MONTHS OLD - Still impossible-to-get-to-sleep. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. seemed to work. And everyone had lots of suggestions, haha! Growth spurts seemed to come every other week. We enjoyed every minute (other than going to sleep time) with him.

Being dedicated to the Lord...

Getting started early on the important stuff...
Hangin' with my little man!


4 MONTHS OLD - As you can see, growing by leaps and bounds. Started breaking out of the swaddle at night, so we got rid of it and started sleeping like a big boy. No sleeping through the night yet, though. He wore 6 month sizes at this age and sat in his bumbo when we were hanging out.

Daddy bought him a pool, and he LOVED it!

A rare pic of all three of us - this is at Hula Hut.

Just chillin'...

5 MONTHS OLD - For July 4, we went on a road trip to Houston. Samuel got to meet his uncle Tony and his Great Aunt Dawn and second cousins Austin, Caraline, and Gabby. He slept over at Uncle Ryan and Aunt Melissa's house! At the end of the month, he had another growth spurt. He would be desperately hungry all the time, so we decided our not-so-little man needed FOOD.

With Ryan and Melissa at their new house!

Great Aunt Dawn and the second cousins...

With Uncle Tony...

Avocado!!!

Loves bath time. :)

6 MONTHS OLD - For Samuel's half birthday, we took a family staycation. We went to Sea World with Jenn and Steve and Hudson (a year older than Sam) Garcia. Samuel had a great time and loved looking at the ceiling and napping during the Shamu show. ;-) Samuel also got to meet Grandpa Capasso. We survived without Brad while he was in India for 10 days. Mom came to help me on the weekends (thanks mom!).

Sea World...

Grandpa Capasso! Can you tell we were all up early?

Almost sitting up...

I'll post some pics from this month in another post.