New Pictures & Thanksgiving

We finally have uploaded some new pictures to our gallery. Click on the slide show and it will take you to all of our pictures. Scroll down to the bottom for the most recent pictures. Our computer still isn't fixed, but Christopher posted them another way. We still have more pictures to post and hopefully we will get to that soon.

Thanksgiving for us ended up being a real bummer. We were going to go to Sacramento and see my mom's side of the family, but the day before we were going to leave (11/26) both Nathan and I were getting sick. That night Nathan was waking up every couple of hours and I was getting no sleep because of a horrible sore throat. The next morning I was out of commission, Nathan seemed to feeling really bad, and Christopher felt like he was getting sick. We decided that it would be best not to travel five hours away when we were all sick. Since our plans were scrapped we decided to have a small turkey dinner at home. Christopher did all of the cooking (I did a lot of sleeping) and the dinner turned out great! I did miss all of my family though!

Nathan had his very first cold and it was my first cold of the year. It really has not been fun. Nathan has been so stuffed up and congested and there isn't much that we can do. We try to get out the snot with one of those nose suction bulb things, but he hates it and will do all that he can to make sure we cannot get it in his nose. I am sure that he had a sore throat at one point and if it was anything like mine it was bad. He was not sleeping well for a few nights and we got a humidifier and that along with the cold getting weaker has gotten him down to only waking up twice a night, which is WONDERFUL! Both of us are getting better and I am looking forward to when Nathan is 100% again. I do have to say that colds come at a horrible time for me. The last time that I was really sick was last year when we were on a trip to Hawaii! The good part about being sick during a holiday is that Christopher was home the whole time to help me out which I really appreciated!

Here is Nathan for Halloween:


Nathan also turned 7 months old on 11/26. The time is really flying by!

-Heather

Still not able to upload pictures

I was waiting to do a new post in here once we were able to upload new pictures because I assume that most people want to see the pictures more than read the blog. We are still having issues with our "Drobo" (an external hard drive) so we cannot upload any pictures. Christopher is working with the company on trying to get it fixed and if it looks like it is going to take a lot more time he is going to work on an alternative way to get the pictures uploaded so that everyone can see them.

For Halloween Nathan was Tigger. He was swimming in the costume, but he looked really cute. We only went to our friend Rhonda's house to Trick-or-Treat. It was a pain in the butt to get the costume on and off so we only wanted to go to one place. He didn't cry when he had the costume on which was a first for him (the night before he cried a lot when we put it on him).

Nathan's new thing that he is doing is sticking out his tongue. It is really cute. I guess that everything, except for the crying, is cute to me :) He doesn't really care to be on his stomach, but we are putting him on it so that he can get some practice at making the movements that are a precursor to crawling. He will lift his butt up off the ground and lift his chest up and then he will push back with his hands which makes him scoot backwards. It is funny to watch, but he gets frustrated. Nathan is also great at moving around in his crib. We will put him facing in a certain direction and then when we aren't looking he manuvears around and ends up in a completely different position from what we had placed him in.

We think that Nathan is teething, but there doesn't look like there is any sign of a tooth coming. I think that we have been saying that he is teething for a couple months now :)

Everyone else in the household is doing well and we are looking forward to all of the holidays coming up!

-Heather

Nathan is 1/2 a year old!

It is very hard to believe that Nathan is already six months old. The time really flew by. We celebrated Nathan's 1/2 birthday by doing a 5K. It was Nathan's first one. We walked it and practically came in last place. I do have to say that there weren't that many people in the race and most of them were running :) Nathan seemed to enjoy the walk and like usual he fell asleep in the stroller half way through the walk.

We took Nathan in for his check-up and here are his stats:
Weight: 15 lbs 10 oz -- 10th-25th percentile
Height: 26" -- 25th-50th percentile
His head measurement is in the 10th percentile

Nathan is keeping on the same track for weight, height, and head gain and everything looks great. I did think that he would weigh more because of the extra food that he is getting, but I guess that he doesn't pack on the pounds very fast! Speaking of solid foods, he is now getting two meals a day and I have increased the amount. I am still making all of his food and soon I will be buying finger foods for him to try out. I am a little afraid of him choking on them, so I will see how that goes.

For this post it is an older picture of Nathan because all of the newer ones have not been downloaded to our computer. Christopher did something to our computer and it isn't working properly so we can't download any pictures :( I am hoping that this weekend the computer will be fixed and we will be able to have new pictures up. There should be some of Nathan in his Halloween outfit!

-Heather

Solids

Nathan started eating solid foods once he turned five months old (almost a month ago!). We started him off on rice and oatmeal cereal and then have gone on to sweet potatoes, peaches, and pears. This coming week we are going to try avocados. Nathan will give the first bite a funny look but after that he loves eating the food. He gets so excited when we put him in the highchair because he loves eating solids. We are following the book Super Baby Food and I am making all of his food. We are getting what we can at our local Farmer's market that is organic. I am anxious to see how Nathan is going to react to veggies and if he will like them as much as he does the fruit. The best part about the solids is that Nathan's poop is now more solid (I am joking about this!). His poop and farts now stink which is something new that I could have done without. The one good thing is that his poops are more solid and he isn't having the explosive poops that are coming out of his diapers and getting all over him, his clothes, and me...enough about the poop talk.






-Nathan has to put anything and everything into his mouth. His feet are now one of his favorite things to get into his mouth. He can hold his bottle and a sippy cup, but hasn't quite figured out that they need to be tilted far back to get anything out of them. He doesn't mind being on his stomach like he used to and he is getting really good at holding up his upper body. He hasn't started making any movements like he wants to start crawling or scooting so I don't know when that will happen. He has been "talking" a lot these days, but his vocabulary hasn't changed. I am still waiting to hear "dada" or "mama" from him, but he doesn't say too many consonants.

Christopher and Sandra went to the Grand Canyon the weekend of 10/11 so my parents came down to help me out with Nathan. It was so nice to have them both in town. The help was what I needed and it gave them some time to bond with Nathan. I think that Nathan really enjoyed their company. We will get to see them again next month for Thanksgiving and we are really looking forward to that. Christopher and I are so excited that Halloween is almost here. We love this holiday and are looking forward to experiencing it with Nathan. We already have a costume for him, curtousy of our friend Jen. We are going to a pumpkin patch next week and will be putting up some decorations and carving some pumpkins too.

Lastly, I know that we have told some people but we are already looking into a school for Nathan. We found a Waldorf school that is located less than a mile away from us that we wanted to check into. Since the school is small not everyone gets accepted in and we wanted to make sure that if we liked the school we could get Nathan in early. We took a tour of the school and learned about all the grades especially the Preschool and Kindergarten.

Sorry that I have written another book. I really need to update this more frequently :)

-Heather

Nathan sleeps just like his mom

He actually sleeps with his eyes open a little bit. It is funny to see him sleeping this way and the picture that we will add is him doing so. He doesn't do it all of the time, but it is nice to see that he has some weird trait from me!

It has been a couple of weeks and Nathan has been doing some more new things. About a week ago his vocabulary changed from the "aahs and oohs" to razzing noises and it seems like he has added some consonants. He has not said dada or mama yet, but we are looking forward to when he does. Since he has discovered how he can make razzing noises with his tongue he has also started sticking out his tongue. He seems to have a very long tongue! It is so cute seeing him with his tongue always out. Along with his tongue always sticking out he seems to be drooling a lot more than usual. I think that this has to do with him teething, but we will see if he gets a tooth anytime soon.

Nathan has been working on his sitting. Whenever someone is holding him he will lean his body forward so that he is in a sitting up position instead of being reclined. He is able to pull himself up good. With support he sits really well. Without support he can sit, at the most, for a minute without toppling over. He is getting good at holding out an arm to keep his balance. Christopher and I think that in a week he will be able to sit without support for a longer period of time. We went on a walk with Nathan over the weekend and during the walk he was holding his head up for most of it and not leaning it back against the stroller which was a first for him.

We will be starting Nathan on solid foods (rice cereal) next week and we are excited! I think that Nathan is ready to eat more food and we are excited to get started on this new process. We will definitely be posting new pictures of him eating his first foods.

Everyone else in the Aedo household is doing well. Christopher will be going to New York this coming up weekend for business and it will be the first time that Nathan and I will be without Christopher for a few days. Christopher is going to really be missed by all of us!

Lastly, I am very excited that Fall is here. I am ready for this hot weather to be over with and I love the Fall.

-Heather

Lots of Milestones

 

Once again we have failed at updating this blog on a weekly basis. Since the last time we blogged was almost a month ago a lot has happened.

-Nathan turned 4 months! It is really hard to believe that four months have already passed by. The time is going so quickly. He is also getting more fun as the days go on. At his four month check-up he was 13lbs 5 oz and was 25" long. I was so excited that he was at 13lbs 5 oz because that meant that he gained almost 3lbs since the last visit which was more than the pound a month he was gaining. He is still on the smaller side for babies his age, but he is doing really well.

-Nathan finally figured out tummy time and how to hold his head up! One day it just clicked in his little brain and he knew what he was supposed to do when he was on his stomach. He is almost a little pro at it now. He lifts his head and chest up pretty well. We put a toy mirror in front of him and he will start cooing away at the mirror. It is really cute to see. He still does have a little hatred for being on his stomach because he can only last for about five minutes and then he wants to be in a different position. Speaking of mirrors, Nathan loves to look at a mirror and talk to himself. We realize that Nathan doesn't know that the baby he is looking at his him, but he loves to see himself and will get a huge smile and then start "talking."

-Nathan started reaching and grabbing for things. Around the same time that he finally figured out how to lift his head off the ground he started reaching for stuff. We have one of those baby gyms with the toys hanging from it and he would start reaching for those. He would also reach for toys that were within his distance. He has gotten really good at grabbing things now. The other day when I was eating breakfast and was holding Nathan he reached out and grabbed my cereal bowl and was pulling it towards him. He loves to get his hands on anything. If he can't get a good grip on something he will start screaming because he is frustrated. One thing that he loves to hold is my cell phone! Also, anything that Nathan holds he has to try and put it in his mouth. That seems to be his ultimate goal these days. Again, we don't know if he is teething or if he just wants to put everything in his mouth.

-Nathan found his feet. In some of the new pictures that we posted you will see that Nathan is grabbing his feet in a lot of them. He found them one day and is now obsessed with holding them. He hasn't figured out how to put them in his mouth yet, but I am sure that that day is right around the corner.

-Nathan has rolled over! He just did it tonight for the first time. He has been trying for the past week and he would almost get his whole body rolled over, but he couldn't get his left arm and shoulder to roll with him. When he did roll over tonight he was all the way over, but his arm was under his body and he hasn't figured out how to move it in front of him so that he can lift up on his arms to lift himself up. I think that within a week he should have the rolling (at least from back to front) figured out.

-For the longest time Nathan was going poop almost after every feeding. He now seems to be saving them up for one big poop during the day. Because of this there have been a few times that poop has leaked out of his diaper onto his clothes. I have heard of this happening with other babies, but Nathan had been so good at not doing this that I thought that I wouldn't have to deal with it. It is pretty disgusting, but I have to clean it up. I think that I do a really good job at cleaning up his clothes because you cannot tell at all after I have washed them that they were covered with poop! I have also successfully managed to get the poopy clothes off of Nathan without getting poop all over him.

-Nathan and I had our last Mommy & Me class. The classes were fun, but we will not be continuing on with them. We met some cool moms and babies and we hope that we will be staying in touch with them. I have already been going on walks with some of the moms on Tuesday nights. It is nice to get out of the house and go for a walk. The only part that sucks is that it is still really hot here in LA and I am just waiting for it to cool down!

-Christopher and I went to a Jack Johnson concert the other night while Rhonda babysat Nathan. The concert was a lot of fun (we LOVE Jack!). We did miss Nathan and I even requested that we leave the concert a little early so that we could get back to Nathan. It was our second time being away from Nathan for a long period of time and I think that we all did good. Rhonda said that Nathan was really well behaved!

-We are trying to get Nathan on a sleeping schedule, but I think that he has this figured out because he now does not want to go to bed when we want him to (which is still late). I heard that babies that are four months and older need to start going to bed from 7:30-8:30 because they need more sleep and they get tired sooner. We would try putting him to bed in this time frame, but he would just be wide awake and not want to sleep. We decided that we would go with another method that our pediatrician recommended to us. We are putting him to bed when we normally do and then every day to couple of days we will put him to bed 15 minutes earlier than the night before. We are hoping that this will work. Nathan is also only sleeping for five hours straight before he wakes up hungry. I am hoping that one of these days he will sleep for at least 8 hours straight. I would even take 6 hours, like he used to do.

Wow, I think that I wrote a ton in here. I guess that is what happens when you don't keep up on your blog. Everyone else in the Aedo family is doing good. Lucy starts with her dog classes next Monday and we know that she is going to be thrilled to be the center of attention for a little while.

-Heather

What we have been up to

 

I just realized that it has been ages since we last wrote anything in here. I will try to remember all that we have been up to. I think that it may end up being a book :).

1-Everything has finally come full circle for us. Nathan attended his first book club! Had it not been for this book club Christopher and I would never have met and Nathan would not be here. Nathan did alright at the book club, but he was a little fussy. Rhonda, Denise, Keo, and Valesca were all there. Christopher couldn't make it and it was too bad because it would have been fun to have him there for Nathan's first book club. The books that we talked about were This is a Bust and The Omnivore's Dilemma. I am sure that there will be plenty more book clubs that we all go to (the picture for this blog is Nathan at the book club).

2-Nathan turned 3 months old! In just a couple of weeks he will be 4 months old. The time is going by so quickly. He is getting bigger and more fun every day. He has started putting his hands in his mouth constantly and has become a drool factory. We aren't sure if he is teething or if he just has an extreme fascination with his hands. He is also holding his head up really well these days. He was having problems with that, but we have been practicing a lot more and he seems to hate every second of being put on his stomach, but he needs to practice :). He has also been talking up a storm. At the Mommy & Me class he was cooing for about an hour straight. It is a lot of fun to hear him "talk." As you know, Nathan started laughing. For awhile it was only Christopher that could get a laugh out of Nathan, but I managed to one day! He still doesn't laugh all of the time, but we think that he is on the verge.

3-Nathan has taken his first two big trips. The first one was a trip up to Sacramento, CA to see my relatives. It was about a 400 mile drive and we all did pretty well. We had to stop a couple of times to feed Nathan and the stops only added about an hour to our drive. We were happy that Nathan did so well in the car. He slept most of the way which made it nice for us! Once we got to Sacramento all of my family said that Nathan looks like a mini Christopher. We have gotten that comment a lot. It is amazing how much they do look alike. Nathan's second big trip was camping in the Sequoias with Christopher's family. This trip was a lot tougher for us because we were camping with Lucy (our dog) and Bill (Christopher's dad). It is tough camping when you have three people to watch out for. Plus, I was terrified of the bears and mountain lions and couldn't sleep! I will tell more about this trip a little later.

4-VISITORS, VISITORS, AND MORE VISITORS!!!! We have had a lot of visitors lately. Christopher's dad has been staying with us for the past few weeks because his brother and sister-in-law are vacationing in Costa Rica. It has been nice having Bill around. He has been keeping me company and with him here we have been eating much better (he can't have lots of carbs or sugar). Then Karen, Bob, Danielle, Matt, Natalie, Charlie, Belinda, and Ben all came to stay with us (Christopher's sister's family and his cousin's family). They were vacationing for a week in California and they were starting their trip out with staying with us. It was a lot of fun having them all around. The house was super busy. On their first afternoon in town Christopher chartered a sailboat and took everyone out on the ocean for the day where they were joined by a pod of dolphins (check out the video)! The kids stayed overnight on the boat with Christopher and Sandra. The next day they had rented an RV and were going up to the Sequoias and we were going to do that first part of the trip with them. Sandra, Nathan, and I all rode in the RV which was a very pleasant ride. Christopher drove our car with his dad and Lucy. Like I mentioned above the camping trip for us was a little hectic. We think that it might have been a little easier if Lucy didn't come or if Nathan was a bit older. I don't think that we will be camping for awhile:) We then left camping with the family after a day to get back home because my friends from Australia were coming to our house to visit. Crystal, Sam, and Ziah were making a stop at our place for a couple of days before heading back to Australia. It was really nice having them here! Ziah is getting so big and it was fun to see how much she has changed. Hopefully, the next time we see them will be when we visit them in Australia.

I believe that the above is all that has happened since the last post, but I am tired and could have left out some stuff. Like always if you click on the slide show you will find all of our pictures of Nathan.

-Heather