Andi’s exciting life.

Falco and I are having a great day today. He is getting to be such a
big boy! After his morning nap and second breakfast, we went to
Target. He rode facing me in the Baby Bjorn for twenty minutes,
content to look around and not even needing his pacifier. He fell
asleep for a while and then woke up again still happy (yes, I spent
forever at Target). Next, we went to Trader Joe’s. Since he was
awake and happy, I put him facing out in the Bjorn. Before we even
made it into the store an older lady stopped us to say how cute he
was, and Falco gave her a big smile while she was talking to him.
Once we got inside, multiple people commented on his cuteness, not
surprising as you can see in the picture. He was happy without a
pacifier during our whole time there. Another elderly lady was
smitten with him in the checkout aisle and talked to him while he
smiled and cooed at her. He didn’t cry at all during all of the car
rides on our outing and was just an all around perfect baby.

Right now he is napping in his crib. We have made great strides on
the sleeping front in the past week. I was having to rock or bounce
him to sleep to get him to nap during the day and would have to go in
multiple times to get him back to sleep during each nap. Now, I can
swaddle him and put him in his crib awake and he usually falls asleep
on his own, maybe just needing me to give him his pacifier to help
him get to sleep. If he wakes up too early, a lot of times he fusses
for a couple of minutes and then goes back to sleep without needing
our help at all. At night, we have established a bedtime routine of
bath, lotion, PJs, story, and then to bed. He is doing really well
with this and Matt and I are very proud of him. He still needs to
eat once during the night, but the amount is getting smaller and
smaller. Hopefully he will soon give up that feeding all together
and sleep all night long.

Another sign of how much he has changed is that just yesterday he
held a rattle and put it in his mouth for the first time. It was so
strange to see my baby holding and playing with a toy! I bet in the
next couple of weeks he is going to become much more interested in
mouthing and playing with things. It is so fun to watch him grow and
develop, and it is amazing how fast it is happening.

Long before Falco was born, I planned to take him to the zoo once a week. Today I finally took him for the first time. It went pretty well, though we were only there for about 45 minutes. There is a lot of construction going on, so that made it less enjoyable than I expected. Also, Falco was in his stroller, and he doesn’t like that as much as being in the Baby Bjorn. He started fussing a little every now and then, but he quieted down when I talked to him. He stayed awake the whole time, which was impressive, and I’m sure he’ll like going more and more as he gets older. Next time I’ll take him in the Bjorn instead and see how that goes. It’s fun to be able to take him places now and have him actually stay awake!

I finally uploaded more photos for your viewing pleasure. Here are photos from his first month that I took with my phone, some while we were still in the hospital. Here are photos from January, including my mom’s visit. Enjoy!

Matt making birthday dinner.

Roses from mom.

Life of the party.

A feast!

Chocolate Oreo cake.

Delicious!

This is it. My twenties are over, and I am turning the ripe old age of 30 today. I’m not too broken up about it though. This is probably my best birthday ever because I get to spend it with my husband AND my son. This time last year I was wondering if I would ever get pregnant, and now Falco is here with us!

I’m writing this post on my birthday gift from Matt — my new MacBook! My old iBook was limping along, so this was an awesome gift. I also received 30 yellow roses from my mom and Mark this morning. I’m pretty sure that’s the most flowers I’ve ever gotten at one time. As for birthday festivities, Falco is taking a morning nap right now, and when he wakes up we’re going to have lunch at Mel’s Diner. I’m sure I mentioned here before that we were regulars there while I was pregnant, going multiple times every weekend, but this will be the first time for us to go since the boy was born. We probably won’t be able to play cards like we used to, but it should still be a good time.

I have had a sad realization in the past few days: I’m incredibly boring now. I was never all that exciting, but now that I spend all my time being a mom to a very young infant, I don’t ever have anything else to talk about besides that. That’s all well and good if I’m talking to Matt or a friend who also has a baby, but it makes me very uninteresting to my nonparent friends. I can totally understand why parents are really only friends with other parents; it’s hard to talk about anything else!

Last night Matt and I made buffalo burgers. I had never eaten buffalo before, and it’s not very often that I eat a whole new kind of meat. They were good, though they seemed to cause more splattering during cooking than any other kind of burger I’ve ever made. Matt cleaned the entire stovetop and surrounding area afterwards because of the mess they made. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have known it was buffalo had I not made it myself, but it was a good burger all the same.

I forgot to mention here that my mom and her husband, Mark, came to visit us in January. While they were here we took Falco to several restaurants, and he did great each time. Every time we take him out and he acts so good, it gives me more confidence that we can go out with him. In the beginning, I was always afraid when we went out that he would have a meltdown in the middle of a store or restaurant. Now, I know that his personality isn’t really like that and he doesn’t usually cry unless he’s hungry or over tired. Also, we know how to calm him down if he does get upset, so I don’t worry so much about it.

Also, while Mom and Mark were here we left Falco for the longest stretch that I have ever been away from him, about three hours. He stayed at home with them while Matt and I went to a doctor’s appointment and ran a couple errands afterwards. Even though I knew he was in good hands, I didn’t like being away from him. I’m sure the time will come that I will feel like I need a break and will want to go out without him, but I don’t feel that way yet. I waited so long for him to get here and love him so much that it’s my pleasure to have him with me 24/7!

Here’s a photo of the proud grandma holding baby Falco:

You can see to your right the link to Falco’s weekly journal. Since I wrote this by memory for his first nine weeks, I may have left out milestones that I don’t remember. I’ll start updating it weekly from now on so it will be more complete.

As for the unanswered questions, one of the biggest things I wondered about Falco before he was born was what color hair he would have. He is now 2-1/2 months old and I still don’t know! The hair he was born with is kind of a light brown and his eyebrows looked red. He has new hair coming in now, but depending on the light it can look dark brown or light brown or blonde. This child is going to be a year old before I know what his hair will look like! I always hoped that he would have red hair like Matt, but now that he looks so much like Matt in every other way, I won’t be disappointed if he has dark hair like me. His eyes are still a gorgeous light blue, but I guess it’s still too early to know if they will change. I had no idea I would still have so many questions about what my son would look like after he was born. One thing I’m sure of is that he got his daddy’s eyelashes. I took these photos to illustrate my point:

I got Falco’s monthly photos in his glider up. The link to the page is to your right (or here). Also, I think this might be my favorite picture I’ve taken of him so far: