Daniel Had a Great Week!!

Holly here - Daniel had a great week at daycare. All the ladies love him b/c he is the only boy baby at a brand new facility. He gets lots of attention and likes playing with the 2 other girl babies (one of whom he held hands with already!). He gives smiles to everyone and has learned to take naps in the crib.

I miss him terribly during the day and just want to spend the whole evening playing with him and cuddling him! He is such a sweetheart and is rolling all over the place now. Plus he likes when I play peek-a-boo with him (I got a lot of laughs tonight). After his bath he looks like such an angel. Of course he spit up on Michael when he picked him up from daycare today :)

I am still working on the morning routine b/c it seems to take two hours to get me and Daniel ready and then we head off to daycare. So I am a little sleep deprived, but it feels good to be contributing at work again.

Daniel is already 15 weeks old and he keeps growing like a week. I am heading off for a girls night out tomorrow so Michael is in charge (with lots of help from friends). It will be great to see my sorority sisters, but I now realize how precious the weekends will be with my little sweet pea.

I took some great shots of Daniel in his "I love football onesie". Not that anyone is trying to influence him at all. Especially since football will be an all day Saturday event tomorrow.

Daniel Getting Ready for Winter

Thankful for Daniel

Holly here - on a final note about Thanksgiving when Daniel turned 14 weeks old. Michael gave a beautiful blessing before our meal and a big part of our thanks were for Daniel. We thank God every night for bringing Daniel into our lives and making him part of our family. It was wonderful to celebrate this occasion with our family who all love Daniel so much. We also give thanks for Daniel's birth mother and how much she loves Daniel and for selecting us to be his parents. We love Daniel more and more every day. This was really a blessed Thanksgiving.

More Pictures from Thanksgiving

Holly here - well I took so many pics at Thanksgiving that I needed a new post. As you can see Scott and Erica had a great spread for all of us to eat! And Scott makes deep fried turkey which is the best ever (at least the way he makes it).

Scott snuck in a picture of Daniel wearing the Syracuse Orange shirt and Pop-pop even got Daniel to wear his Penn State hat. So far we have only received VT and Ravens wear but there might be some new additions at Christmas! Michael will have to keep an eye on these developments.

Daniel had so much fun this Thanksgiving and we had more fun as a family because of our little angel (who is definitely not so little anymore)! Daniel especially enjoyed "funny" Uncle Scott.

Baby's First Thanksgiving

Holly here - Daniel really enjoyed his first Thanksgiving in Texas at Uncle Scott (my brother) and Aunt Erica's! Scott is an amazing chef so we all have wonderful food for 4 days and I especially enjoyed Scott's deep fried turkey and apple pie and yams in orange cups from Erica. (Mike - yup, that deep-fried turkey of Scott's was AWESOME!!! As was the pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes and crab soup!) Gram and Pop-pop were also there to spoil Daniel! Erica's mom joined us for all the festivities as well. Daniel got a new playmat and really enjoyed the sqeaky banana. Scott and Erica got lots of smiles from their nephew.

Pop-pop was trying to coax Daniel to roll over from his back to his front the whole time on Thanksgiving day and he got very close. After Gram helped me to get Daniel ready for sleep, he did roll over from his back to his front for the first time on Thanksgiving night! What an amazing boy at only 14 weeks old. (Mike - Yes, and for his next act, he will write his first concerto. Not that we're putting too much pressure on him...) I was the only one to witness the event (Mike - if a Daniel rolls over in a forest and no one is around to hear...) so Daniel will have to do some repeat performances at Christmas. As it turns out Daniel turned over again on Sunday and Michael saw the results.

Daniel also had his first experience with doggies this holiday. Jackson (Erica and Scott's border collie) and Kirby (Gram and Pop-pop's wired hair fox terrier) both gave Daniel kisses. Daniel just looked at the dogs and they really did not seem to phase him at all except when Jackson barked loudly in his face. Kirby on the other hand was nuts and just wanted to be with Daniel all the time and lick him. He was fascinated with the baby and Pop-pop had to hold him so that he would not jump all over Daniel. I am sure Daniel will enjoy playing with both dogs when he gets a little older and can chase them around!

We went to Galveston to visit the location of Scott and Erica's future beach house and Daniel got his first look at the beach and the ocean (it was too cold to hang out on the beach so Erica just took a picture). We did some shopping in the Strand on Black Friday and had lunch at a cute cafe b/c Daniel needed a bottle right away!

Getting through the airport with Daniel and his new suitcase (OK - so I indulged and bought him his own red rollerbag) plus all our luggage was a challenge even with the stroller (he does weigh 16 lbs. after all). Daniel was an angel on both flights and slept most of the time. He did so well with this trip and everyone loved his smiles and coos. He is really talking a lot now and I am just wondering what he is trying to tell us. (Mike - No kidding, he was talking for up to 30 min at a time!) I think he is going to be a storyteller like his daddy.

I am happy to report that VA Tech beat Virginia on Saturday so Michael was very happy (even if Daniel did spit up on both VA Tech bibs after the game) (Mike - It's OK, it was a demonstration of his excitement of the big win!) Fortunately we were still in Houston so Michael could watch the whole game before heading to the airport. Daniel slept through the whole game but I still know he loves football b/c he tried to sneak looks at the games on TV over the holiday.

I am back to work tomorrow full time which is going to be very hard for me. I will miss Daniel so much! At least I know that his daycare is fabulous and they already love him b/c he smiles at all the ladies and is the only baby boy at their new facility. Plus he already held hands with a 4 month old girl (he is a charmer). As all experienced Moms have told me the first 6 weeks back are really rough (on the Mommy - the babies do fine). Fortunately I will be very busy at work and already have 2 cute pictures of Daniel on my desk. He is going to get a lot of kisses from me in the morning and the evening all week!

Pics to follow later . . .

First Date Night

Holly here - Michael and I had our first "Date Night" last night when we headed into D.C. for Holly's company party (we have it in November so it does not conflict with other holiday parties in December). Nana and Grandpa enjoyed babysitting for Daniel and even came early. Daniel of course loved all the attention!

Michael and I had a lot of fun catching up with my work colleagues and dancing! We will have to keep doing "Date Night" every couple weeks. Daniel even slept through the night and then got upset when Nana and Grandpa were leaving on Sunday morning with his Daddy to go see the Raven's Game (a very weird ending and not in the Raven's favor).

Daniel and I went to church and Melissa loved watching him in the nursery. Then we went to a baptism reception and Daniel slept the whole time. He was happy to get home to play with me and to eat of course. Our little angel is so big already - sometimes I just want to freeze time and kiss those cheeks all day.I managed to catch a few pictures of Daniel doing tummy time.

5 Little Boys Jumping in Our House

Holly here - you might have read the book, "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" which is one of Daniel's favorites. We had something similar at our house this evening! Patricia and Eric came to visit with their boys Joshua (5) and Daniel (1.5) all the way from PA. We were thrilled that they could visit. Nancy, Arthur, Brandon (4) and Tyler (2) also joined us for dinner. It was pretty much mass chaos in our house! But it was so much fun as well. Daniel managed to take a nap in his swing with the other boys running around. We got some great pictures of everyone. The first picture is of both Daniels with me and Patricia.

Daniel turned 3 months old today which seems impossible to me. How the times flies by so quickly. He even took a nap at home in his crib for an hour this afternoon. We played and sang songs as well. We are going to my office party tomorrow so Nana and Grandpa are babysitting!