THE Book for Fetus's

To all new mama's, expectant mamas, and wanna be mamas (and to the dudes that make it happen)-Let me tell you about a book you NEED to read.  Why do you need to read it you ask?  Well, because first and foremost everyone needs to laugh and I promise you this book will provide you with laughter.  Cory and I had tears streaming down our face we were laughing so hard.  Secondly, if you are an expectant mama you are most likely well read on all the developmental milestones of your fetus baby at this point and your brain is overwhelmed with all sorts of crazy information about your baby once you get home--which means you have too much to think about already and that you need a break.  So take a step back because no baby is like the ones described in books and because you need to take a minute to laugh, its good for you and baby!

With an introduction from The Stork we learn of better times between 1776 and the Kennedy assassination when he delivered all babies.   You were either dropped down a chimney or if your parents paid a bit extra got dropped on the doorstep and this is how babies came to arrive in the arms of mommy and daddy.

The introduction alone had me hooked.  As the book progresses and the fetus works to educate his fellow fetus friends on what is happening to them and what in the world is happening outside the belly and to mommy and daddy I have no doubt that you will be thoroughly entertained.  The book also pays great respect to the marvelous Antonio Banderas

who doesn't love this guy?

The book goes on to answer various questions for your lovely fetus

• "My mother just took a sip of white wine.  Am I going to end up looking like some Chernobyl baby now?"
• "So far Mommy is spending most of her pregnancy in a state of stress, anxiety, and depression.  Which one should she focus on?"
• "I'm kicking as hard as I can, but Mom says it feels like 'butterflies fluttering.'  Am I doing something wrong?"
• "Why do my parents blast Mozart at me every night right when I'm trying to sleep?!?"
• "To the nearest hundred, how many people should Mommy invite to my birth?"

When all is said and done I have no doubt in my mind that you will love this book

9 Miles Ago

About this time last year I was able to run anywhere from 5-9 miles without any real issues.  I loved on spring afternoons or early mornings, leaving my apartment running down 15/501, hanging down 54 and then running back through the golf course and some hoity toity neighborhood to mi casa.  I was even contemplating taking a friends spot and running a half marathon with some friends that I hadn't even trained for.  I figured I could most likely run at least 9-10 miles, maybe walk a mile or two and then finish out the race.  Without any intentional training I would have been satisfied with that.  I wasn't in the best shape of my life, but I was pretty fit.  After about the 14th week of pregnancy running just felt weird and uncomfortable, so I stopped doing it and started doing more biking, elliptiscizing, and swimming.  I even got to the point where I could swim a mile.  It was pretty awesome.  Since Edmund I've made it to the gym several times and even hopped on my bike trainer and enjoyed riding to some "Criminal Minds".  Well yesterday morning the stars aligned (meaning I got myself going) and decided it was time to head down to the track with Edmund in tow and go for a run.  Needless to say that 9 miles from a year ago has become a distant thought.  One and a quarter miles later I was done.  I am proud of myself for running that far considering how long it has been--I just have a long-slow ways to go.

Edmund's going to pump you up!

Currently He is Drooling

As promised here are more pictures of Edmund in specially hand-crafted items.

The "W" is from Rachel and the "Somebody in Las Vegas loves me" is from Jessi--it should read "somebody in Arizona loves me!"  If you can't tell Jessi, he loves you too!

This is another Ari creation--since you are having a kid its about time you start a blog.

And these are just for fun-here he is riding a rubber inflateable...donkey?  He likes it!

My dear aunts, cousins, grandma, and parents--we cannot thank you enough for this swing!  You can't tell from the picture but there is a stream of drool running out of the corner of his mouth.

This is the highlight of most everyday for me.

Firsts in Life

In the last few weeks Edmund has had a series of firsts.

1.  He got to hang out with his first BSC friend Finley.  They had lots of fun wearing their matching sweaters and being all together awesomely cute

[side note-if you ever take a picture with Rachel wait until her photographer is done taking the picture if you want her to look at your camera]

2.  He met lots of family (see previous post)

3.  He had his first real bath (no picture because Cory is against naked baby pictures and they could be illegal)

4.  He visited six states in two days!

5.  He successfully put himself to sleep.  We put him down at 10:45 and went and laid down....we then woke up at 6:30 in the morning and he still hadn't made a peep!

6.  He has slept like a champion more times than not (see note above) (knock on wood)

7.  He rolled over--three times in one night!  We are working on getting this on video to show you how awesome he is.

8.  He has begun to reach at things and he really loves hitting this bee and making it play music

[thanks uncles Tony, Jordan, Andy & Aunt Jennie!]

9.  He provides his mama with a plethora of feel good moments by smiling....a lot. Here are just two images of this amazing feel-goodie-ness.

 

10. He has gotten pretty good at holding his head up for extended periods of time

11.  He became a circus baby for a brief moment--this makes Mommy a bit nervous so she doesn't let Daddy do it too much

[yep, he is wearing baby leg warmers....all his pants were in the laundry and it was cold!][cory says his legs look like robot legs or as if they are interchangeable-like Mr. Potato Head]

12.  He held hands with a girl & went on a walk with her too--granted they slept through it the whole time, but it was precious.

[this is as close as we could get at grabbing a picture of them holding hands]

[aren't they precious]

13. While on that walk he visited his mommy's old school and a very historic site (the puddle incident)

14. Each day I become more and more thrilled to have married Cory & been blessed enough to have a child with him.  Look at them-aren't they priceless together

[I love this picture because it shows how similar my two boys are already and if this picture isn't confirmation enough just know that they both display great smiles after passing gas of some kind]

Blogging Vacation

I took an unexpected vacation from blogging these past two weeks-my apologies to my five or six fans out there.  Cory had two weeks off for Spring Break (yay private schools!) so we ventured to Kansas to let Edmund meet the rest of the family or maybe let the rest of the family meet Edmund.

The drive was once again epic in its own right.  Not because it was bad, but just horribly long.  But what is nice about driving is we could take whatever we wanted and didn't have to pay and extra fee for it.  The last time we drove the fear was how many times we'd have to stop for me to go pee since little Edmund was at the time utilizing my bladder as a trampoline.  The unknown fear this time was how many times we'd need to stop to feed, change, or simply free Edmund from the car seat.  All in all I think we stopped less for him than we did for me.

Once again we got the pleasure of stopping in St. Louis and chillin' with my friend Courtney.  She is a wonderful host and I will again say 'St. Louis is better than you think'.

As a side note, this cute little thermal onesie that Edmund is wearing fit on this day, but one week later the legs looked like shorts opposed to pants.  Growing boy!

A bonus stop on the way out came in Kansas City when my wonderful friend Rhonda met us at one of my favorite burger joints, Winsteads.  Two unfortunate things happened here.  1.  We failed to get a picture with Rhonda and 2.  Since she doesn't eat meat she didn't get to enjoy a great Winsteads burger and since she isn't drinking soda she missed out on the best Cherry Limeade ever!  All in all it made for a great stop.

Then we got to Wichita, to my grandma's to be specific in which the entire family was having a party for the KU-KSU basketball game.  Some people watched the game, and some people watched Edmund.  I enjoyed some great Kansas bbq (east coast bbq is nasty) and finally got to watch the last five minutes of a game.  

Lots of people got to meet our little bundle of joy--here are some pictures to prove it:

The great-grandmothers

For Grandma "Tiger" this is great grandchild #9 (and probably the most handsome)

The proud cousins

Izzy loves his little toes..

Uncles & Aunts

There is a lot more family that got to meet Edmund and I am pretty sure my madre has pictures of them all.

The other special person Edmund got to meet is his new bff Harper.  Here is a little tease to another blog post coming your way of these two cute little kiddos that had two dates together and are only one week apart!

One Month of Joy

This past week Edmund celebrated his 1 month birthday.  How did we celebrate you ask--well in two ways (one was nice and one was mean).  The nice way was by going out to eat at Sakura, a Japanese steakhouse.  Man did he find that entertaining.  The mean way was by going to the doctor for his 1 month check up and a shot.  Neither Edmund or mommy enjoyed the shot part.  It was heartbreaking.  But he is a brave boy and recovered well.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 10lbs 3oz
Height: 23.5 in
Intelligence: off the chart

Okay, so they don't really test intelligence....yet.

Another high point for Edmund is his sleeping ability.  Last night I put him in his crib at 9:45 pm.  I unswaddled him at 6:10 am and he ate at 6:15 am.  The man is a champion.

Here is a photo-scroll of my two favorite boys.

I call this one "Conversations with Daddy"

And because sometimes Edmund likes to be alone...

 

We also think its really funny that he crosses his legs a lot.