4 months!

Today was Antonio's 4 month well child check up with 3 shots, 2 pokes and 1 oral. Of course they weighted and measured him.

His stats are as followed:

weight: 18lbs 6.5 oz - 95.57th percentile (down from 99th percentile for weight for his age)

length: 27" - 96.6th percentile (up from 84th)

head circum.: 16.6" - 45.2nd percentile

Big boy! However that means he is balancing out. Hooray! (As a tiny comparison, a friend of ours has a 9 month old and she is 18 lbs 3 oz and 27 3/4" long....AT 9 MONTHS!!!! They are practically the same size yet 5 months apart!)

As I mentioned he received 3 shots. The oral one wasn't to bad but it was obvious it didn't taste good as he "drooled" a lot of it out; the nurse said he seemed to get enough to qualify. The two pokes didn't go as well. The first one brought out the frown and bottom lip and before you knew it the 2nd shot was being given and he was screaming and crying, tears were rolling down his little cheeks (ok, big cheeks); more tears I had seen him produce! To top it all off he was looking me right in the eye; it broke my heart and before I knew it, tears were rolling down my cheeks.....it was aweful. :*( I know it could have gone so much worse but it was bad enough for me. Luckily last time Albert held him for the shots while I was in the waiting room. I so wished that was the way it was this time but he had to work. We survived it and Antonio was back to his smiles in about 5 min. afterwards. Last time he did well, not a whole lot of fussing the day of the shots. Well today was different. He has been really cranky and fussy. Barely had quality nap times so on top of crankiness from shots he is very sleepy. Poor guy. It's been a rough past few days. Tomorrow we are staying home and doing nothing. He deserves it! His next appt is January 11th; he'll be 6 months! CRAZY!!! - _-

Antonio has rolled over from his back to his tummy but still hasn't seemed to master it. He only seems to do it when Albert is around too. We think he is beginning to giggle. He has this funny little "hahahaha....". It sounds so funny and cute and we aren't sure if it is actually a giggle but it's cute regardless. He almost always does it when we change him on his changing table in his room. He looks up at the Snoopy border and lets out a little giggle. He has speratically slept through the night. He has done it 3 times in the past 7 nights. I am not sure what makes him sleep through and what doesn't, we just hope he will start to continuously do it! He only wakes up once in the night when he doesn't sleep through; usually around either 1:30 OR around 4. Again, not sure what makes him wake at one time or the other. We have finally found a nightly routine for getting him to bed that seems to work. Albert is the one that gets to do it; it is "their" time as is taking baths. I stay out of it and it's just him and Antonio.

Some things Antonio does/likes are:

- grabs at his toys

- puts just about anything he can grab into his mouth

- drooling like crazy (no, no teeth yet...)

- kicks and squeals when he gets excited

- loves to be carried over your shoulder so he can look around

- rolls over (but only if Albert is present)

- stares at the ceiling

- talks to who or what ever will listen ; )

- he is in 6 month clothes!!

- tickles Albert, granted Albert is very ticklish!

- he always finds the tv no matter where he is or what direction he is facing (yes, I know this is not something to be proud of!)

Portland!

We took our first "trip" with Antonio this weekend to see one of my best friend's son turn 1! Believe it or not, it was a success! Antonio did great! We drove down late morning Saturday and he slept the entire way! Well, he did slightly wake up, moan and then fall back asleep! By the time we got to my friends house he was about an hour and a half overdue for food! The first thing we did was take him inside and get him fed! However in the 5-10 before he got the food he didn't freak out! Impressive! Not only were we in a different place but there were all these people he didn't really know all around. EVERYTHING was different. I was worried he would be a fussy, cranky mess and sleep horribly since he slept practically all day too. However, he went down and stayed down like normal. All three of us stayed in the same room and it was so nice to be able to be right next to him all night again!

Today, Sunday, we got up fed him then went to the mall while my friends and their parents went to church. We borrowed their stroller for the mall since it was the same brand as ours, just a different color. Well since it was a different color it didn't match. So Albert decided to try to put Antonio in the stroller withOUT the car seat to see if he could sit (with a slight incline) in it without slouching over. We buckled him in and he sat in it just fine! He loved looking at everything. Usually he is in his car seat on the top of he stroller so he isn't really able to see out at all. He LOVED it until he got hungry then it all went down hill! : ) Regardless he sat in it just fine.

During the birthday party Antonio was in awe of all the little kids (about 10 , all around 1 yr!) and was letting out random shrieks of excitement! When it was finally time to go we fed him and put him in his car seat and were on our way home. Again, he did great. He woke up about half way home hungry and fussy. We pulled over, fed him then got back on the road. He continued to fuss a bit but after about 10 min he was out again. We feel so lucky that he slept so well down and back! Once we got home it was time to eat again. While changing his diaper and after, he was looking all around; you could just see that all this time he and I have spent in that living room paid off. He KNEW he was home; he was smiling and even beginning to giggle! It was like he was going from thing to thing checking it off his list. We put him on the floor in his "box" and he was so happy! It just warmed our hearts! He knew that this was his home and he was happy to be back! : D

Next trip.....a plane ride to California! Yikes.....

What a difference a year makes....

I have been going through all my clothes and getting rid (giving to Goodwill) of anything that doesn't fit. No more keeping something because I hope to fit in it someday soon or what if I gain weight and may need the bigger "thing". No more. Only keeping what fits now; more reason to shop later! ; ) Well as I m going through it all I am trying it on to see how it fits because let me know tell you, this ol' body is no longer the same as it was pre-pregnancy. Even though I am within 10lbs of pre-pregnancy/pre-morning sickness weight those same clothes fit me different. When I put one of the pairs of jeans to check the fit I felt a "crinkle" in the back pocket. I thought, "oh, maybe some money!" Turns out it was just a receipt but not just any receipt, the receipt of something that changed it all! It was the receipt of the pregnancy test I had bought after waking up feeling, well nauseous and a bit dizzy/light headed.

Now to bring those of you that don't know the details (maybe a bit to much but oh well) up to date. I had pretty much ALWAYS been a "regular" girl when it came to my period. However, over the year or so Albert and I had been trying there was a couple times when I would be a week early or a week late and I would get my hopes up, then nothing. So in mid October I had started about 2 weeks early, I wondered for a moment but since I HAD started I thought nothing more of it. Then November came and I didn't start the same time as in October and instead of getting my hopes up I was just going to wait until the date of the past 3 months, July, August and September (minus October). Well that would have been the 28th; the day after Turkey day. I woke up the 22nd, a Saturday, feeling a bit nauseous and on and off light headed/dizzy. I thought maybe a weird case of PMS that I had never had before. However, in the back of my mind I thought "prego?!?!?". I headed out to the grocery store to get things we needed and continued to feel the weirdness. Before heading home I bought a pregnancy test from the drug store next to Albertsons. I had bought them before only to find it was negative so it wasn't that weird to buy one for me in that past year. I didn't take it until the next day. I took it and it was positive, so I tried the second one....positive again. I could NOT believe it!

That was the day when I DIDN'T realize that everything changed; I think it was the next day when I went to work feeling like I was going to throw up everywhere all day. The funny thing is that on the receipt there is the pregnancy test and extra strength midol! :) At that moment I had no idea what it was but I knew I wanted relief! It is so weird to think that this day a year ago Antonio was growing like crazy inside of me and I didn't even know it yet! Funny how your life can change so incredibly much in a year!

Happy Halloween!

Antonio's first Halloween has gone as expected for a 3.5 month old! We took him to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins and as excepted he was unamused but it did get him out in the fresh air! Luckily it wasn't really cold and rainy like it had been the past couple of days. It was pretty muddy though and with me still hobbling around we made a straight shot for the first row and luckily found a couple that would work pretty quickly! As we walked back up to pay for them we thought about how next year and every year after, will be so different! We may even take the hayride down to the pumpkins next year! : )

While Albert and I carved pumpkins he slept (yay!). I was a bit worried Antonio wouldn't let us carve the pumpkins; well at least not in one night but we got lucky!

We were given an hand me down bumble bee costume from my cousin to wear; thank goodness Halloween was now because it was barely long enough to snap! He was so cute in it; he didn't even fuss about it either! I wondered if he'd like the hat that goes with it or hate it but really it didn't even faze him! We took him out to our next door neighbors and the neighbor across the street to "trick or treat"! Albert enjoyed getting the candy for him and eating it too! : ) They were so excited to see him all dressed up and so big. We are really lucky; we have GREAT neighbors. They are all retired but not the old, old kind. I'd guess they were the age of my parents...approximately (so not SUPER old, ha ha ha!). Regardless, they loved it and Antonio was great! We got back home, inside, him changed and he was passed out within 10 min! It was a good 1st Halloween for him! Next year will be even more fun and so on!

We ran out of candy by about 7:30 and there were still plenty of trick or treaters! I guess thats good since it was time to get Antonio fed and into his jammies! I hope you all had a fun, safe and uneventful Halloween!