Baby's First Christmas

It's Christmas time!  And we are excited!  Growing up, Jason and I both had special Christmas traditions we observed each year with our family.  This year, we are getting to think about what traditions we will establish with our family!  We're considering this a "practice" year because Amos is so young that he won't remember anything!  However, Grammie has already taken care of his first ornament!

One tradition we definitely are making part of Christmas is the observation of advent!  I have advent candles set out and created this advent calendar (patterns can be found here) for our family!  The idea came out of Noel Piper's Treasuring God in your Traditions.  Each day as a family, we read a new segment of the Christmas story and add a character to the scene!  It is very repetitive so once Amos gets older, we can memorize scripture along with it!

We decided to carry on my families tradition of picking out a live Christmas tree for our home!  Jason and I decorated it this year, but I think we'll have a little helper next year!  Amos is already mesmerized by it!

Amos' favorite thing to do with his ornament was chew on it!  That shouldn't surprise me!

                     

 

This year we are going to spend with our families, but next year, I think we will spend Christmas morning at home and start some more new traditions!

Drum roll please.....

21 Weeks of Fun!

New Things this week:

He’s a rollin'!!  7 weeks ago, Amos learned how to roll from his stomach to his back.  Although fun, this roll interrupted his precious sleep, and Mom had to rig up a silly way to keep him on his tummy.  However, Saturday, he successfully rolled back to tummy and I literally did a happy dance.  I felt like I should reward him with something, but he’s a baby and wouldn’t get it, so I just gave him a big hug!  I’m sure he didn’t know why I was freaking out so much!!!!

He is really starting to reach!  He’s been semi-reaching for his toys for a while now, but now it is a definite, “Mom, I want that toy, now” reach!!!  Also, he’s reaching for people.  When in someone’s arms, he’ll extend both of his to try to get someone else!  He’s really starting to use those arms - which may be part of the reason for the rolling success!

He is also using his legs to bounce up and down.  He's not getting any air, but it looks like a work out!  I think my legs would be sore if I tried!

He’s got a new noise.  Really hard to explain, but come over sometime and I’m sure you’ll hear it. 

He was loved on by tons of family during Thanksgiving break!  And we got so use to having Dad home, that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves Monday without him!!  Thanks Dad, for working so hard!

He loves the Christmas tree and looking at it all lit up!  We’re hoping that he takes after his parents’ love of winter and Christmas music!  He’s not going to fit in too well if he’s one of those beach lovers!

Ready for the road trip!

"Are we there yet?"

We got to see all kinds of family!

Josie and Amos

We got the cousins together over thanksgiving!  Enough said!

Somebody's turning 20!

What's fun about Amos at this age is that he's comfortable in anyone's arms, but he knows when he is in Mom's.  I love this look because to me it says, "Oh, its you Mom!"

New things this week:

Amos and I have worked hard this week.  He’s been a little under the weather, and not his normal self!  I keep trying to blame it on a tooth, but nothings been popping up!  I’ve been told babies can teethe for months.  So this may be the new normal and I had better get used to it!  He’s chewing on EVERYTHING.  Here’s his new favorite thing to chew on…

...his lip!

He’s moving into the phase where sometimes his crying isn’t actual crying and is more of a whine!  That happens when he gets overly tired, or is somewhat scared!  When he doesn’t know if he should smile or cry, we get a look like this one.

Amos has been working out this week.  Working out his abdominal muscles.  The length of time he sits with out help depends on how long Mom can entertain him with a toy or silly faces before he realizes he's working too hard! He seems to like sitting, and he doesn't mind falling over either!

Also new this week is his high chair!  I busted the thing out because, in my head, I’ve been tossing around the idea of when to start food and thought it wouldn’t hurt to get him use to it.  Last night he enjoyed watching us eat dinner while in it.  And he even took a few swigs of water in his grown up big boy chair!

"Of course I love my chair,  I've got a toy in both hands!" - Amos

We’re excited for this upcoming week, as we will have Dad with us for 5 days straight!  And we get to see some new family members that we haven’t even met yet!  Wish us luck as we travel!

We have so much to be thankful for!

Twinkies

We’ve decided whom Amos takes after!  Grandpa is just sad that Amos got his hair back!

Grandma and Grandpa Vance and Great-Grandma Hubbard came for a visit this weekend!  They couldn’t believe how much Amos has changed in just a couple of weeks.  He, of course, showed off all of his new tricks by sitting and talking up a storm!  We thought they were going to get to see the first roll from back to front, but he didn’t quite make it!  It’s coming soon!

In other news, Grandma and Grandpa helped us pick out Amos’ first Christmas tree!  By the time when decided on one, he was already in the car warming up, so we’ll have to wait to get a picture of him with it when we decorate!

Look who's in the kitchen...

       After a long and tiring week of "I don't know what" - either a cold, a tooth, or both, Amos and I wanted to make a treat for our visitors this weekend!  I looked to see what I had on hand, and in the back of the freezer were three very ripened bananas!  I don't know how long they have been in there, but they were perfect for banana bread!
      As I used the beaters, Amos just stared at me.  I had to give him some BIG smiles just so he knew that there was nothing to be afraid of!  He still wasn't too sure!  Then, when I went to taste the batter, he broke out the ol' smile!  I've noticed that he seems a lot more interested in what I'm eating these days.  He even started smacking his lips! No joke!  Hopefully that's a sign that we'll have a good little eater on our hands when the time comes!