Thanksgiving 2012

This year, we spent the actual day of Thanksgiving in Buffalo and went to cousin Bobby's house for dinner.  Aunt Shannon made lots of food and even more desserts.  It was very nice to spend the evening eating and relaxing with family.

At cousin Bobby's house!

"Happy Thanksgiving!"

"These sweet potato puffs aren't exactly what I thought
Thanksgiving dinner would be..."

Of course, we all know Thanksgiving dinner is just a way to carb-up before Black Friday shopping (which started on Thursday this year?).  We are very grateful that Grandma stayed with Eli so we could go shopping for a few hours!!



BONUS:
Fruncle is taught how to play the cello, by cousin Bobby, in just 7 minutes ...

 

Eli loved every second of Fruncle Steve playing the cello .....

Eli is 2 months old!

Another month has flown by!

Eli turned two months old on February 24th!

2 months old
February 24, 2012

2 months old
February 24, 2012

2 months old
February 24, 2012

Height = 23.5" (about 75th percentile)
Weight = 10 lbs 15 oz (about 25th percentile)

Eli's life at 2 months:

• Eating: During this month, Eli has dramatically increased his food intake!  He still eats about 10 times a day (every two hours or so) and is now eating about 4 ounces per feeding.  He eats about 40 ounces of formula a day (way more than books say he "should" be eating!).  He is a champ and will eat from any type of bottle we give him and still doesn't care who it is feeding him, as long as he eats immediately!  Unfortunately, Eli had the last of the breastmilk at about 6 weeks old, but he is thriving on his formula (so I try not to be too upset about it!). 
• Sleeping:  Still doing pretty well, I think.  Just before 6 weeks, we moved Eli into his crib, and he sleeps great in there!  We have a whole bedtime routine of bath, bottle and bed.  We put him down even if he doesn't fall asleep with that last bottle and he just relaxes in the crib (all wrapped in his swaddlers) until he falls asleep.  We have a great video baby monitor and watch him as he kicks a bit and then falls asleep.  He is still on about a 3-hour schedule, but does tend to have one longer stint from 11pm (when we first put him down) until about 3:30 or 4am. 
• LIKES:
• Sleeping
• Eating
• Being held
• especially to look around and see new things
• Rattle Bear
• A few other toys
• Like his Bubba dog, his Little Einstein iPod, his bunny rattle and his fish board.  But he's not really into them totally yet.  And he still seems undecided about Mr Seahorse. 
• His Ikea Changing Table
• The ONLY item that we have paid full price for was this.  The SPOLING changing table from IKEA.  Our apartment has two floors and when we saw this foldable changing table, we thought it would be perfect for our lower level (and it was black, which went with our decor!).  I didn't want to walk up and down stairs for every diaper change or change him on the couch or floor all the time.  But I also wanted something that could easily be moved if we had a lot of company over.  I love this changing table, Ryan loves it, Eli loves it -- he will actually just lay in it for a while after being changed.  Totally worth the splurge!   
• His new chair
• For my birthday, Ryan bought Eli a new "chair" to relax in.  He picked up the Fisher Price Rock n' Play Soother Snuggabunny at Target (on sale, of course!).  As Eli really liked his changing table, we thought he'd like this hammock-y type chair, and he does.  It also folds up for easy storage or travel!  I love this and think we'll use it as his "bed" when we travel sometimes.  I would also recommend it to new parents instead of a bassinet.  It's pretty versatile and easy to move from room to room.   
• His swing/vibrating chair
• We looked around at swings and vibrating chairs and decide on the Fisher Price Luv U Zoo SpaceSaver Swing early on.  It was small and combined the swing and vibrating chair into one unit (perfect for a small NYC apartment!).  As we do, we waited until we found it on sale (half price and assembled -- an un-needed floor model!) and picked it up during a Buffalo visit last summer (about 18 weeks pregnant).  We love the small size and adorable colors and animals.  Eli loves the rocking/vibrating combo and is content to relax in it for hours!  It's one of his favorite nap places!    
• Bath time
• Though he looked traumatized after his first bath, Eli seems to really enjoy his brief baths now.  We put him in his Fisher Price Ocean Wonders tub and really just use the detachable shower head to rinse him down.  With it being winter, the water seems to get too cold to leave him sitting in a full tub.  He especially likes the fish or turtle towel that I get wet with warm water and drape over his belly while I soap him up.  He grabs it immediately and "snuggles" it.  It's usually a bit of a tug-o-war to get it from him when bath time is over!
• His "I Love Grandma" blanket
• Sandy (a nice lady that works with Grandma in Buffalo) made him a giant fleece blanket that has the cutest "I love grandma" with a teddy bear printed on one side and a bright green fleece on the other.  I immediately fell in love with it because of the green and the softness.  Eli fell in love with it too!  We fold it in half and put it on the floor and he just loves lying on it.  I was shocked when I put him on it and he actually fell asleep for a nap! 
• His cousin Bobby!
• DISLIKES:
• Waiting for food
• Seriously, he is STARVING and why can't we anticipate his need for food!? 
• Boppy pillow
• This moved from Likes to Dislikes this month.  I think the Boppy was a perfect cozy nook for him when he was tiny, but now that he is growing, he just doesn't seem to love it anymore. 
• It's hard to come up with much else for Dislikes!  Eli is such a happy kid!

Eli is changing so much each month!!!


And some "outtakes" for you!

Daddy goes shopping

We sent daddy out for a container of formula and a pack of diapers ....

The Nursery!

Here it is!  Baby Wynne's nursery!

Thanks to Nana & Pop-pop Wynne for the crib
and Grandma & Grandpa Snekser for the dresser!!
(Already the grandparents are spoiling Baby Wynne!)

 

While we live in an apartment near NYC, we're lucky that we have a spare room!
We converted this corner into the "nursery" while the rest of the room remains "guest room".
You can sort of see the bookshelf of toys and books to the right, and in front of that we still have a double bed for all of you to come and visit!  :)



It's Fisher Price Ocean Wonders bedding.



We painted the walls this green color when we moved in, but Ryan decided we needed an "ocean" to put our sea creature clings on, so we painted a two-tone blue border around the crib corner.
(Here, you can see the Octopus' Garden (in the shade)!)



And my favorite, purple whale!  :)

Surely, no one is surprised by the nursery.  I mean:
(1) It's green!
(2) It's ocean creatures!
(3) It's "gender neutral"!
(4) It's cute!
(5) It was on sale!

I will be honest .... and surely I will write more about this later ... Ryan and I like DEALS!  And this baby bedding was a great deal.  Of course, I bought it last July.  No, not July 2011.  July 2010.  Before we were pregnant.  Before we were married!

Honestly, we both really liked this baby bedding.  Ryan and I had spent some time at Babies R Us because some friends were having babies (as always!) and I mentioned that I would obviously like fish bedding for whenever we had a baby.  After looking at the four ocean themed beddings, we both liked the Ocean Wonders the best.  I liked the purple whale and that it didn't look too boy-ish with all the blue and Ryan liked the vibrant colors and the cartoon-like animals.  Then ... something terrible happened ... I went in to a Babies R Us again (for yet another baby shower gift) and it was gone!  I found out that Fisher Price was discontinuing the bedding and it was all on clearance.  I may have then called every Babies R Us in New York State to find one that actually still had it in stock!  Luckily, I found one!  :)  And we got the bedding for $35 (sheet, bedskirt, bumpers and quilt).  Anyone who has bought a crib bedding set lately knows they can run from about $100-$250!!  To get the one we wanted for a quarter of the price ... How could we say no?  :)

The fact that we already knew our nursery theme also contributed to the timing of setting it up.  Everyone is impressed that we have the nursery done "early" (some people may be cringing at the thought of having it done so many weeks before the baby is expected).  There's lots of reasons we wanted to get it done early.  If we waited "till the end" it would be December ... which for us means the craziness of giving finals, ending the semester, Christmas, and snow.  None of these sounded like a good time to set up a nursery.  Plus, I am already having enough trouble lifting and moving things.  What would it be like at 8 1/2 months pregnant?  It just seemed to make sense to us to get it mostly organized now.  Besides ... we're more than half way along!

OH -- And I want to point out that Ryan put the dresser together all by himself!  He is amazing and surprised me with it when I got home from work!  He is already the best dad (and an awesome husband in every way!)! 


We hope you enjoy the nursery!!!!!  And we hope Baby Wynne likes it too!