Rainy Weekend!!

Goodness, it has been yucky weather ever since Friday night! It rained and rained on Saturday, but that didn't stop us from watching GA Tech beat UGA for the first time in 7 years. I haven't seen Scott this happy since Whit was born, I don't think! He was just beside himself with excitement. Here is a picture of Scott and Whit in their "yellow jackets," cheering on their favorite yellow jackets! I hope each of you had a wonderful weekend!

Thanksgiving #1!!!

On Thursday morning, Scott decided that it would be a great idea to make mashed potatoes together and to make two apple pies-one for my family's meal, and one for his family's meal. Scott made the first one, and I made the second one, after watching Scott, aka the Master Baker, make his. I thought making pie crust was hard, but peeling a 10 pound bag of potatoes was back-breaking work, literally! I was exhausted before we even left our house! At 4pm, we arrived at my parents' house for our first of two Thanksgiving meals. In attendance for this feast were Mom, Dad, my sister, Hillary, Scott, Whit, me, Uncle Chip, Aunt Barbette, my cousins, Mariette and Michelle, my grandmother, my aunt Jill, my cousin, Rebecca, and her boyfriend, Brooks. At the last minute, my cousin, Jake, was unable to come because he came down with strep throat, unfortunately. We had a wonderful time, and Mariette and Michelle especially loved playing with Whit and watching him crawl around so fast everywhere. We had a yummy meal of turkey, stuffing, broccoli, cheese, and rice casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, squash casserole, green beans, sweet potato casserole, bread, and for dessert, apple pie, cherry pie, and chocolate cake. Yes, you read that correctly. There was no pumpkin pie at our table! As un-American as it sounds, no one in my family likes pumpkin pie, so it is never served. When Scott first learned this bit of information, he was shocked! He said he had never met any family who didn't serve pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. The food was so good, and Whit ate extremely well. He sure does love "big people food!" We all stayed until 9pm; however, Whit was sacked out at 7pm, so he slept in the pack-and-play until we were ready to leave. Gosh, I love spending quality time with my family and stuffing myself!! :) As always, it was a wonderful turkey day!

Thanksgiving #2!!

On Friday at noon, Scott, Whit, and I headed over to Scott's parents' house for Thanksgiving feast #2. For the past few years, Wes and Pam have been gracious enough to host their dinner on Friday so that Tom, Megan, Scott, and I don't have to eat two huge meals in one day. This way, Tom and Megan get to celebrate with Megan's family on Thursday, and Scott and I get to do the same with my family. It works out quite nicely! At this family gathering, there were Wes, Pam, Uncle Jim, Alexia, Whit, Rob, Scott's younger brother, Scott, Tom, Megan, and me in attendance. Pam had a yummy lunch of chicken salad sandwiches and pumpkin bread waiting for us, and we had a great time playing with the babies, talking, watching football, and just enjoying time together. I made macaroni and cheese and apple pie for dinner, and I must say, I was extremely proud of how they both turned out! Scott has always been the chef of our family, but now that I am staying home with Whit, I have decided that I need to be more domestic. I do usually cook dinner during the week at least, but they tend to be easy meals, such as chili, spaghetti with meat sauce, homemade pizza, etc. The macaroni and cheese was actually a fairly gourmet recipe, and the apple pie was quite hard to make! I had never really made a dessert before besides cookies, so making my own pie crust was quite a feat for me! Anyway, enough tooting my own horn about my culinary prowess. Sorry. I'm done now. Anyway, we also spent some time taking pictures for Pam and Wes's Christmas card, and the babies were in quite a smiley mood this time, thank goodness. That evening, we all ate so, so much, including Whit! He loved everything we put in front of him! We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cornbread casserole, green bean casserole, and bread. For dessert, we had apple pie and pumpkin pie. I think I am still full! What a great, family-filled fun day! Scott, Whit, and I sure are blessed to have two wonderful families! We love you all!

Silly Boy!

Last week, Scott and Whit were being so silly and having such a great time with some of Whit's toys, and it was really cute to watch! Whit just loved it when Scott would throw a foam circle on Whit's head like he was playing horseshoes; he just laughed and laughed. Whit has also been really into peek-a-boo lately, especially if we cover our faces with something and allow Whit to take it off of us.

In the food department, Whit has recently become Mr. Independent Eater. He wants to feed himself EVERYTHING, with no help from Mommy, thankyouverymuch! He will usually allow me to feed him his Yo Baby yogurt in the mornings, but then he wants to feed himself his mini Eggo waffles or blueberry muffins, pieces of fruit, and sometimes an egg yoke. At lunch and dinner, we have been giving him cut up pieces of grilled chicken or turkey that he can pick up and eat himself, as well as peas and carrots, goldfish, cheese, and more fruit. As far as snacks go, while he still enjoys his Puffs, he also likes the Gerber Graduates zwieback toast, the biter biscuits, the Veggie dippers, and the puffed cheese sticks. He still nurses about 4 times a day as well. Watching him feed himself is so much fun. He looks like such a little boy when he does it. He has also mastered the art of drinking water out of his sippy cup. Also, when we went to playgroup last week, he drank juice from a straw (it was a juice box) for the first time and did a great job. I had to hold it, of course, because every time he tried to hold it, he would squeeze too hard, and more juice would go on his clothes than in his mouth!

The True Meaning of Being Thankful

Last year at this time, I remember feeling so thankful that God had blessed Scott and me with a baby boy who was due in January. Whit was an unexpected blessing for us, but as soon as we found out I was pregnant, we knew how fortunate we were to be able to conceive easily. All throughout my pregnancy, I felt thankful that everything went smoothly and that there were no complications, except for my horrible morning sickness that seemed to last forever! (I'm kidding...that is small potatoes, I know) However, until the doctor placed my precious, perfect baby boy in my arms after two LONG hours of pushing, I never truly understood the meaning of the word thankful. Now that Whit has been with us for ten and a half months, I finally know what it is like to thank God every single day for bringing this miracle into our lives. Whit has brought me more joy than I ever thought was possible, and during this Thanksgiving holiday season, every time I look into my son's eyes, see his beautiful smile, hear his infectious laughter, hold him in my arms, and nurse him to sleep, I will remember to feel thankful for these moments and cherish them forever. You will never know how much I love you, Whit. Thank you for making my life the best it has ever been. You are the light of my life!!

Brrr...

November in Alpharetta, Georgia is not usually as cold as it was last week with highs only reaching the upper 40s and lows in the 20s. Of course, last Wednesday was the day that our furnace decided to quit working. Poor Whit woke up at 3am on Wednesday morning, and when I went into his room, the thermometer read 53 degrees, despite the fact that the thermostat was set to 70. Scott called our heating/AC guy, and luckily, he was able to come out on Thursday, which was when Scott was off from work anyway. Unfortunately, they first sent a furnace salesperson, but apparently, he wasn't equipped with the knowledge to be able to tell whether we needed a new furnace or just needed our current one fixed. So then, they had to send out another guy, and after several long hours of waiting, he finally showed up and told us what we had already surmised: because our furnace was about 20 years old, (as old as our house) we definitely needed a new one. They came out on Saturday and put in a new furnace, thank goodness. Scott's parents only live about 5 minutes away from us, so we were able to stay with them from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday night. They were such gracious hosts, and we had a lovely time with them. Whit just loves Grandma and Grandpa V, so he had a ball! Our upstairs is now as toasty as can be, but our downstairs is still about 10 degrees colder than what our thermostat is set on, so I think the guys are going to have to come back out here. Boo! Hopefully, they will figure it out, and then our whole house will finally feel warm and cozy, just in time for the holidays!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

It is almost my absolute favorite time of year, Christmas season!!! I think this Christmas is going to be the best it has ever been, now that we have Whit with us. I love that he was born in January because he will be almost a year old by the time December 25th rolls around, so hopefully, he will enjoy most everything that goes along with this wonderful holiday. There are so many things I can't wait to do in the next month and a half...take Whit to sit on Santa's lap, (I hope he doesn't scream bloody murder like I did when I was a toddler!) take him to ride on the Pink Pig at Macy's, take him Christmas shopping about a million times, dress him in all of his Christmas clothing, watch him try to open his gifts on Christmas morning, visit with family members we don't get to see often, I could go on and on! I am getting so excited just writing this! The weather has been so cold lately that we have been dressing Whit in his fleece footy PJs at night, and today, he was wearing one of his Christmas pairs, so I just had to show a picture because they are too cute. When we were at the Mall of Georgia on Sunday with Krystal and Lauren, we noticed that the stores were already decked out in Christmas colors with holiday lights and Christmas trees everywhere. Just the sight of all that made me giddy! Every year on the day before Thanksgiving, Scott and I decorate our house for Christmas, and we are so excited to do that in only 8 days!! (yes, we are counting down!) We both have a slight obsession with Christmas, so we have enough decorations for about 10 houses. We also have our Christmas Spode china that I can't wait to start using!! We even eat off of it when we have simple meals like pizza because we love it so much. I also can't wait to get our Christmas tree. We usually get it the first Saturday in December, so I imagine that is when we will get it again. We got these adorable stockings and a tree skirt last year at Pottery Barn Kids, and I can't wait to have them on display again. In the past, we always had somewhat of a sad collection of ornaments, but I have bought quite a few, and we have been given many, so hopefully, our tree will look more festive this year. I always loved just white lights on trees, but Scott just loves colored lights, so since we have a child this year, there will be colored lights on our tree from now on. Plus, I think every kid prefers the bright colors.

Happy Belated 10 Month Birthday, Whit!

I meant to post all day on Tuesday, but we had a very busy day, and yesterday, we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off, so I barely had time to take a breath, let alone update my blog. So....I apologize to my dear Whit for being late with my birthday wishes, but I did remember to wish him a happy 10 month birthday on the actual day, Nov. 11th, and I gave him lots of extra kisses as well! Before I became a mom, everyone told me that Whit's childhood was going to fly by and to really treasure the time as much as possible, and now I know how true those words are. In some ways, I am so excited about Whit growing up because he is already so much fun and such a joy to be around, and I know it is only going to get better. On the other hand, I feel a bit sad at times because I just love this baby stage so much! I love nursing him and holding him tight, especially in the mornings and at night, and I know that is going to come to an end in the near future. My goal was always to nurse Whit until he turned a year old...I just had no idea how soon that time would come! Who knows? Maybe I will continue to nurse for a little longer because we both enjoy it so much. Having that one-on-one cuddle time is the most special thing in the world. We got Whit's Christmas photos taken yesterday, so hopefully, they turned out well. We were supposed to have them done on Saturday so that Scott could be in the Christmas card picture as well, but Whit had just been diagnosed with an ear infection, so we postponed them. Now Whit will be the only one in our Christmas card photo, but he's much cuter than we are anyway! :)

Whit Loves Tunnels!!

Even though I was operating on very little sleep yesterday, Whit and I managed to have a super fun day together! We spent a lot of time crawling in and out of his new tunnel, and every time I would crawl in it, he would start laughing hysterically! Here are a few pics of our tunnel fun. We also read a lot of books yesterday, and Whit is becoming more and more interested in actually sitting in my lap and listening to most of the story. For the longest time, he would listen for about 2 minutes, and then he would crawl away to go exploring! I have always been an avid reader, so I really hope to instill a love of reading in Whit. For the first three months of his life, I did not take Whit out in public at all because he was born during cold and flu season, and I was afraid he would get sick if I took him anywhere. So, we literally stayed home or only went to the homes of friends and family. During that time, I think I read him about 200 different books. I know he was too young to understand any of it, but he still seemed to enjoy being read to.

On the health front, Whit seems to be feeling better with each passing day. He has now been on antibiotics since Friday evening, and he is definitely pulling on his ear much less, so I am taking that as a good sign. He has been waking up once in the middle of the night, which is not like him at all. That has been tough because it has been taking between 45 minutes to an hour and a half to get him back to sleep after giving him his Tylenol, nursing him, and rocking him. Hopefully, once he is feeling completely well again, he will be back to sleeping 11-12 straight hours at night! FINGERS CROSSED! :)

The Look On His Face Says it All!

Yesterday was Scott's dad's birthday, so we went over to his parents' house for a birthday dinner party at 4:30pm. The plan was to dress Whit and Alexia in Christmas-y clothes and take a photo of Pam and Wes holding the babies for their Christmas card. Well, Whit was in a very stoic frame of mind, which just further proves how poorly he was feeling at that time yesterday. Usually, he is a very happy, smiley baby. Pam always calls him a "quick smile," but not yesterday! Luckily, we are going to have "do over" pictures on Thanksgiving, and hopefully, Whit won't look like someone just ran over his dog. I also hope he will be completely recovered by then.

On a lighter note, happy birthday, Wes! Thanks for being such a wonderful father, father-in-law, and grandfather, and thank you for all you do for us. We love you!

Here We Go Again...

Well, before Friday afternoon, we were having a GREAT week! On Monday, Pam took Whit and me to lunch at the yummy restaurant, The Patio, and then she baby-sat Whit for the afternoon while I took a nice nap and did a few things around the house. Later, we had dinner with Pam and Wes as well. On Tuesday, Scott was off for Election Day, so we voted and then headed up to the outlets to do some shopping. We found adorable clothing for Whit at Gap, Gymboree, and Osh Kosh, and Scott found a couple of things at Williams-Sonoma, too. On Wednesday, I took Whit to his Play and Learn class, and he had the best time crawling in and out all of the tunnels that were set up, so I went and bought him a Baby Einstein tunnel, and he just loves it! Later that afternoon, we went to The Forum to enjoy the beautiful weather and to buy Whit some new books. He loves the lift the flap books by Karen Katz, so we bought a few of those and some of the DK Peekaboo books as well. On Thursday, we went down to Buckhead and met Erin and Amanda for lunch and shopping at Lenox Mall. Amanda was only in town for the day for a job interview, and it was SO great to see her! I can't believe we haven't seen each other since April. I sure have missed her!! On Friday, we met Michele and Wills up at North Point Mall for lunch and shopping, but for the first time all week, Whit did not seem like himself at all. He did not have much of an appetite, and when I tried to recline him back in his stroller, he screamed bloody murder. Michele noticed that he had a bit of dried blood in his left ear from where he had been messing with it, so I immediately called the pediatrician's office to schedule an appointment for that afternoon b/c I was pretty sure he had an ear infection. Sure enough, I was correct. He has an ear infection in his left ear, and this is now the third infection in less than 2 months. Unfortunately, that means we have to go see an Ear, Nose, and Throat Pediatric Specialist to see if he needs tubes in his ears. Of course, I was beside myself because I don't want my baby to have to go under general anesthesia. That is so scary to think about! Both Scott and I had to have tubes in our ears twice b/c we both had so many ear infections, and the doctor said that this is typically a genetic thing. We have our ENT appt. on November 20th b/c the doctor wanted Whit to be finished with his antibiotics before he sees him. For the most part, Whit has been in great spirits this weekend, but there are definitely times when it is quite apparent that he is in a lot of pain, which just kills me. Please pray that he recovers from this latest infection quickly and that the ENT appt. goes smoothly.

Halloween Weekend!!!

The Vasey family had a wonderful Halloween this year, thanks to our little caterpillar! Whit was so much fun, and I can't wait to take him out for true trick-or-treating next year. On Friday, my mom's club met at this great park in Woodstock for play time and a picnic lunch. The only problem was the yellow jackets; they were everywhere!!! Besides that, the kids had a great time. Whit really loves swinging on the infant swings and watching all the big kids go down the slide and swing on the monkey bars. After our play group ended, we went over to my mom's house for the afternoon. My mom lives only 5 minutes from the park we were at, so it was very convenient. Whit was dressed for Halloween fun on Friday, and Grammy just loved it! I put him in a pumpkin shirt, denim overalls, Halloween socks, his pumpkin Robeez, an orange zip-up jacket, and his pumpkin hat. We headed back home in the late afternoon and hung out with Scott and Hillary, who came over after work. Then, we went over to Scott's parents' house for Halloween pictures and to get Whit's special Halloween goody bag. Pam filled it with 4 pairs of Gymboree socks and an adorable Thanksgiving bib. After pictures, we headed home for our trick-or-treaters and to bathe our little caterpillar and put him to bed. Since Whit had no use for his costume anymore, Scott decided to put our dog, Tilly, in the caterpillar gear, and she looked so funny, I had to share a photo of her! Later on, while answering the door and handing out candy, Scott, Hillary, and I ordered in Mexican and watched a movie called "Duel." On Saturday morning, we went to our usual bagel joint and then went back home to lounge around and play with Whit. In the afternoon, we watched GA Tech beat Florida State, which hasn't happened since 1975, so Scott was unbelievably excited, to say the least! On Saturday night, we watched some football, ordered pizza, and watched a few episodes of The Office. On Sunday, Scott had to tutor from 10-4, so Whit and I went over to Grammy and Poppy's house and had a great time visiting with them. Mom made her famous chicken fajitas for lunch, and then we went across the street to the Vincents' house. Tom and Mary Ellen Vincent are two of the sweetest people I know, and my parents have become very close to them ever since they both built their houses in the same neighborhood 4 years ago. After our nice visit, Whit and I went home to spend a little QT with Scott. The night before, Scott put together a new toy for Whit, so we spent the afternoon/evening playing with it with Whit. It is one of those push along cars that doubles as a car to ride on. Whit wasn't so keen on actually pushing the car around, but he did enjoy looking under the "hood" of the car and playing with the other cool things on the car. After we put Whit to bed, we watched our favorite show, "Dexter" and went to sleep. At about 12:30am, we got GREAT news! My friend, Lizzie, and her husband, Mitch, welcomed their little girl into the world at 10:05pm last night! Her name is Olivia Jaye Haber, and she was 7lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches long. Congratulations to Lizzie and Mitch! We are so happy and excited for them. Lizzie will take 3 months of maternity leave, and then I will be taking care of baby Olivia from mid February until the end of May, when Lizzie gets out of school for the summer. I can't wait to meet precious little Olivia very soon!