Tasty new food

I went to Target this morning to get more diapers since Michael doesn't seem big enough yet to be in the size 3's I had bought a carton of. Then on a whim, I decided to buy some baby food and try out what we talked about at the La Leche League meeting the other week. I bought some rice cereal, and a couple of jars of pears and peaches. When we got home I pulled out the high chair and sat Michael in it. He looked bewildered at first (as you see). I got just a half tablespoon of the baby food pears, and then used the baby spoon to get the food out of the tablespoon (so I could save the rest of the jar for another time). Michael seemed very confused at first when I fed him a bit of the pears but then he swallowed it and seemed to like it! He kept opening his mouth for more so I ended up giving him a whole tablespoon. Then I let him play with the baby spoon itself. Success!

Welcome to the New Blog!

As Kim already posted at the old blog (http://lawlerfam.wordpress.com) we made a quick decision to transfer our blog over to this new site.

This one allows for more customization, for instance more horizontal space in our posts(which is more in tune with our writing styles) and a new header.

And I do have to defend the fact that I am not an HTML nerd, so changing over was easier than it looks. I can be of no help to anyone else who wants to make changes to their blog.

Some things to look forward to in the coming weeks:

• Video of Michael crawling! He is trying his hardest, but is not quite there yet. It's more akin to a fish flopping at this point
• Our recap of the insane dual graduation weekend of Kim's sister, Amanda, and my brother, Ryan, in two different cities!
• Kim's awesome review of the awesome new Star Trek movie!

Kim says: Ha ha.

Weekend update

Nice Sunday morning nap

It has been a really nice weekend here. On Friday night, I really wanted to get out of the house so Mike and I found a new (to us) restaurant to try in Garland, called Esteban's. The food was pretty tasty and Michael behaved himself so it was a great evening out. Yesterday, unfortunately Mike had to be at work all day, but I had a nice day hanging out with Michael. We went back to Penney's to exchange some shirts, in a successful trip, and later when the baby took a great two-hour nap in the afternoon, I suddenly found myself motivated to clean out and organize my entire closet and dresser. That warrants a (!) for me. There were still two bags of clothes in the closet I hadn't touched since we moved here (this had to do with my irrational fear that some bugs would be camping out in there . . . yes, I know that's dumb); my work wardrobe needed to be pruned since I now had some new shirts; and my dresser was overstuffed so it needed to be cleared out too. As with my friend Sarah :) there are quite a few things I own that I probably first acquired, oh, at the beginning of college, and yes, that's 10 years ago, and some of it could definitely afford to be given or thrown away. (Or so insisted Mike, anyway :) So I worked all afternoon and some in the evening, and everything looks great now! I'm all set to go back to work, wardrobe-wise, and my sock drawer can successfully be closed.

Last night, after Mike got home, Michael was suddenly off to the races. He got his bottom up in the air, did a little rocking back and forth, and then launched himself forward quickly several times in a row, all the way across the floor from his playmat to me. Then he grinned and did it several more times. That was fun to see, and sooner than we thought! So far I'm not chasing him yet, but now that he's got this down it will only be a matter of days :) Today we went out to the ND Club picnic and enjoyed walking around the park, eating barbecue pork, and visiting with friends in the club. Back at home, Mike mowed the backyard so it looks nice and tidy now, and I handled the unpleasant discovery of a dead rabbit in the front yard. I am such a citified person -- you should have seen me prod the rabbit and jump back about five times before I managed to pick it up and get it in a trash bag. Yick. Much happier to be back inside now and playing with the baby. Have a great week!

Fun at the ND Club Picnic

Favorite people

Michael has been a very normal baby developmentally so far, which is great. But the next stage, which seems to be starting on the early side, is separation anxiety. I have noticed this more in the last week. He will be fine playing by himself in the living room -- until he sees me pass through into the kitchen or remembers I am over on the couch, and then he immediately wants to be picked up. He is still pretty comfortable with other familiar people (like future Aunt Stefani, who was nice enough to watch Michael in mall after lunch yesterday while I got my hair cut :), including Mike, of course, but he now has started reaching out back to me and gets fussy faster if I leave the room. So, Amanda, looks like object permanence is happening on schedule. It is supposed to be a good thing that the baby is attached to his mother, but my mom and Amanda may be in for a tricky couple of days in a few weeks! (So will I...)

One thing Michael really does seem to like is when Mike says the alphabet to him. He laughs and smiles and talks back. So that is cool :)

New videos

Here is Michael talking up a storm to his farm animals in the exersaucer:


And here he is attacking various toys and, in the process, launching himself forward a few times. I really am thinking he might be scooting efficiently by the time I go back to work now!

Moms' day out

The other week Michael the baby and I went to a La Leche League meeting to meet some other mothers and babies, and learn a bit about the topic of that class (weaning).  I'm not planning to wean Michael for a while yet if I can help it, but it's good to know a bit more about it.  The meeting was at a Lutheran church in Plano and it was very nice.  The best thing was that usually, I try to nurse Michael before we go out and hope he'll be all right for awhile when we're out, but here everyone was feeding their babies off and on, so no one minded!  :)   I should have gone to these sooner, instead of right before I go back to work, but what can you do.  I did meet some nice women around my age with babies of various ages and we decided to get together for lunch, which we did today.

I was running late this morning but I did make it out -- we met at Panera in north/west Plano, which isn't that close to me but seemed to be in the middle of Frisco, east Plano, Richardson, and Allen.  Dallas really is huge!  It was so nice to get out for a little while (88 degrees today, but the shade was perfect) and meet other mothers (and their cute babies).  We already made plans to get together again next week.  I hope I can stay in touch once I am back at work.

I'm not looking forward to going back at this point :(  I took Michael to JC Penney yesterday to get a few new shirts for my work wardrobe.  (Michael seemed bemused to be in the stroller in the store, instead of outside in our neighborhood like normal.)  The shirts are cute, and I did get two pairs of pants (less than $20 each on sale, good deal) that are one size up from my normal, since these last 10 pounds are sticking around still.  I can button my normal size suit pants, but they might be a bit too tight for the office :)  (Also the tops are tighter in front, but that's for a different reason!  Ha.)  So I caved temporarily.  But I'm not giving up yet!

Springtime walks

Michael the baby and I are loving this great Texas weather and our walks around the neighborhood.  We've been going two or three miles a day, usually with one walk during the day and the other after dinner.  He is pretty calm when you put him in the stroller and he likes looking around, although it's only yesterday that I knew for certain he was noticing the ducks by the creek.  (The ducklings, which there are a lot of right now and which are adorable, probably are too small and blend into the grass for him to notice.)  Here are a few pictures from the last few days of beautiful spring weather.

Happy Easter!

Hope you are having a great Easter season.  Last weekend since Mike had Good Friday off we took Michael to see another group of extended family, this time in San Antonio.  It was Mike's and my first drive through Texas since we moved here (my first trip to San Antonio since Amy's wedding in 2002, too) and Michael the baby's first long car trip.  For some reason, even though I know this part of the state is more populated, I thought there would be more rural spaces along the drive, but there really weren't many.  And we got stuck in at least 45 minutes' worth of traffic through Austin.  Other than getting pretty fussy at the end of that drive and the way home, though, Michael did pretty well with the trip.  Only a few diaper change/fresh air stops each way!

Michael really enjoyed seeing Great-Grandma Garza and meeting more of his Garza relatives, including Uncle Marty and Aunt Susie, Aunt Roni and Uncle Duane, Aunt Geri and Uncle Tom, Uncle Phil and Aunt Nanci, and lots of cousins.  Aunt T was there too!

Pat-a-cake at Uncle Marty's house

Aunt Geri holding little cousin Addison

With Grandma Garza

He also liked Uncle Marty's animals, both the stuffed ones and little dog Eddie (who, at 14 pounds, was just Michael's size).  Michael hadn't been around little dogs before but he let Eddie lick his cheeks and toes, and at one point on Friday night he just laughed and laughed at the dog every time it would run into his field of vision.  It was cute.  By the way, Uncle Marty's venison sausage was awesome.

Not sure what to make of the aoudad

On Easter Sunday we went to church with Uncle Marty and then had lunch at Aunt Geri's.  It was great to see everyone and we look forward to getting together again soon.

Family picture

Obama situation gets worse

Arizona State isn't going to give the President an honorary degree at their commencement this because they don't think he's done enough yet in his career.  But Notre Dame is conferring a law degree when the only things he *has* done as President in a legal capacity are things pretty much antithetical to Catholic principles?  (Unless spending $2 trillion dollars is such a pro-Catholic thing somehow it negates the federal funding for abortion groups and embryonic stem cell research -- how, I'm not sure.)  I have more here and here.

Active baby

Here is Michael rolling around in his crib from this morning.  He was having fun :)  I think he is starting to scoot also (backwards, when he pushes out his arms), which means crawling is ever closer.

New stages

Friday, I was starting to feel too tired from Michael keeping me up at night (probably because he wasn't sleeping enough during the day, ironically), and I read in the Focus on the Family book that if babies don't learn by six months to sleep on their own, you lose the opportunity to effectively teach them until a year.  So, with thanks to Sarah and Patricia on the method (and encouragement!), I did what I had to do: a modified cry-it-out at naptime on Friday.

I had bought a great mobile at Walmart the day before (on clearance -- only $15 instead of $40!), so I fed and changed Michael, walked him down a bit till he was drowsy, then put on the mobile and put Michael in his crib and let him cry a bit.  I resolved to try this for an hour.  I went in every 5-8 minutes and picked him up and calmed him down, then laid him back down.  Then after a half an hour I called my mom because *I* felt like crying.  He just sounded so betrayed!  :(  But by the time I got off the phone to check on him again . . . he had fallen asleep.  Yay!  Slept for 45 minutes (then dozed through a feeding for another hour or so).  That night I also moved him from the bassinet in our room, where he has been sleeping since he was born, to the crib for overnight.  He still woke up a few times, but went back to sleep after I fed him each time.  On Saturday, he only cried for 10 minutes before his nap.  And then on Saturday night, he slept 5 1/2 hours until 5:30 and then again until 8:45.  Yay again!  That was the best night's sleep I've had in three or four weeks!  And Mike said the baby seems happier in the evenings too.

[caption id="attachment_777" align="aligncenter" width="199" caption="Monkeys are cool"][/caption]

So now I'm committed to the nap routine.  It worked yesterday and this afternoon and I think it's good for him.  He is a smart cookie though.  On Saturday morning when we put him in his crib for a few minutes (with the lights on and everything -- we were just getting dressed) he got very anxious and started crying because of its instant new associations :(  So I'm putting him in the crib at random times (like around changing times) too for a couple of minutes so he doesn't just associate it with abandonment or anything.  I hate hearing him make that you-betrayed-me wail.  But then again, I may just be more emotional about him this week anyway because of all the nanny interviews.  On which, more as it develops . . .  In the meantime, a few pictures of a happy baby in his strollers.  This kid loves our neighborhood walks!

[caption id="attachment_773" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="So cute!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_772" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mama must be hi-LAR-ious"][/caption]

Thoughtful

Good news/bad news

Good news: Michael knows who I am!  I know he knows me as his milk delivery system, but otherwise I sometimes have no idea if he knows me specifically at all or if I'm just another random person.

Bad news: We proved this fact when I went to UND night yesterday for a few hours by myself (probably longer than I have left him with anyone, even Dad, before, I now realize).  While he was happy with Mike for two and a half hours and some bottles, he wailed inconsolably for the next 45 minutes until I could make it home, whereupon he nursed  for 5 minutes to calm down, and then bounced up and talked and played for the next hour.  What a little bum!

[caption id="attachment_763" align="aligncenter" width="230" caption="Yes, you"][/caption]

April Fool's!

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