Sarah's Saga

So, Nate has had lots of firsts... he had his first bottle feeding, he had his first smiles in response to us and not just gas, he attended his first birthday party, he attended his first baby shower with momma, he had his first video chat with soon to be Uncle La-La (Lawrance) in Taiwan, and he'll have his first trip to Nonny and Poppy's house in a few days so we can attend Aunt Minda's bridal shower!

Nate did wonderful with his first bottle, daddy gave it to him right before dad had to go to work. We are so proud of how well he did and has had no problems switching back and forth! What a brillant baby! He also has been giving us a bunch of smiles! We LOVE IT! His whole face lights up, and all problems dissapear with such a heart melting beautiful smile! I tried to take some good pictures but they are so hard to catch, as the camera would go too slow to catch it in time, but we got a few and they are below! :)

Nonny, Poppy, and Aunt Minda came for a visit! We got to spend some good quality time with Amanda while she is here from Taiwan! We even got to join in on one of her video chat sessions with her fiance, Lawarance. Lawrance will be here at the end of the month and Nate will get to meet him for the first time, well we all will meet him for the first time. Then at the end of next month they will marry here in the states!

Today, Nate did super well while the roofers were here giving us a new roof! I had no idea how loud roofers could be! I jumped probably 5 times or more when they'd drop stuff on the roof since it was so loud and startled me... and Nate did great! So far we've lost 4 light bulbs, one teddy bear fell off Nate's shelf, had to move glass items off shelves in the dining room since they were about to shake off, and have numerous wall hangings so crooked!! We have at least another day of them beating and banging away at our roof and more than likely 2 more days worth! I just thought the horrible hail storm that caused the damage in the first place was loud... little did I know the roofers would sound like our whole house is about to cave in. But, it's worth it and needed, so we'll sit by patiently.



Daddy giving Nate his first bottle ever!!



Still doing great with his first bottle!




Kevin checking Nate out:


Kevin's friend, Cameron holding Nate-Nate.


Here's the birthday boy! Happy 2nd Birthday Kevin!


Poppy holding Nate-Nate!


Mommy and Aunt Minda giving Nate a bath:



Nate's PRECIOUS SMILE!!!!! (some photos have bad lighting due to the flash :( boo!)


Another GREAT smile!


Right after a great smile!


SMILE!


Daddy tickles him, and he smiles!!


More tickling him and more smiles!!


And here's two videos of us catching a few smiles, sorry about the lighting the flash doesn't work when the camera is on video record setting... so they're dark... but you can still see the BEAUTIFUL smiles!!

2nd one:

So, Chad had to go back to work... Nathan and I miss him like crazy, but we knew we'd have to get back into the swing of normal things and have a routine in real life again... well semi normal - I still have about 3 weeks till I go back to work - then it will really be real life again. We took some pictures before daddy had to go, and yes Nate is wearing his F.B.I. onesie - it stands for Fat, Bald, Innocent... which he is. And he feels like he has gained even more weight since his last Pedi appt. But, even though he is growing he still wears his newborn sized clothes and newborn diapers... but the newborn diapers look like this will be our last package to use and then onto size 1. I even tried on his premie shorts we had to buy him since the newborn size was swallowing him at first. They go on, but are too short... they look so silly, so no more premie sizes - hahaha! So my baby is growing, but not too much since he still fits in his newborn clothes!

Here's a picture of daddy getting ready to go back to work, we made sure he was armed with a photo of Nathan to show off! Nate and I followed daddy to work so we could go in and show Nate around. I got a lot of comments that he looks like me! Yay, cause so far everyone thinks he looks more like daddy. I say some days he looks like dad and other days he looks like me.


Another pic of dad and Nate:


Here's Nate in his dressed-up onesie, I love the tie on it, he's all dolled up! It looks better with his little navy pants on, but I didn't get the pic quick enough...


And here's a photo of Nate when he was supposed to be sleeping... but NO he was wide eyed and wanting me to hold him... one great thing about Nate is he loves to cuddle, so I can cuddle him all day as long as I want and he loves it!

So Nate turns 6 weeks old today! I can't believe how FAST time has flown by and how much he has grown since he was born. Daddy goes back to work tomorrow for his first day back to work... Nate and I are so sad! I cry everytime I think about it, even now just typing it up... this time has been so special and we have had such a blast bonding and being a new family!

Nathan's Great Grandma Smith came to visit with Nonny, Aunt Minda, and Uncle Sam. This was Nate's first time to meet his Great Grandma Smith! Below is a photo of Nate with me (his mommy), Nonny, and Great Grandma - so four generations in one pic:


Here are four generations of hands in one photo, I love this picture!


Here's a pic of Nate growing up, he was playing with mommy here on the boppy:


I love this picture as it shows his chubby cheeks, man I kiss those things a million times a day!! But one day, well actually yesterday, I was playing with him and kissing those sweet cheeks when he spit up, and let's just say my mouth was a little too close and became the target for the spit up... ewwwww! Just one of the many wonderful things I've learned while being a new mommy - spit up happens at any time!


Nate and daddy playing again:


I put Nate's wrist rattles and foot rattles on him, while he was moving all around on his back... he was making pretty noises!


Nate in his swim trunks and matching shirt, he was getting ready to go out on the boat for the first time! Thanks Auntie Heather for the outfit!


Here's Nate on the boat, he did this the whole time - sleep!



Here he is with mommy, and still fast asleep, I don't think he even knew we weren't on land anymore.


Here we are testing out his life jacket at home to make sure it really worked... of course this is the only place he actually used it, we weren't about to put him in the lake this early... we were just making sure it worked "in case".


We loved being able to go out to the lake with him, that we went for a "sunrise cruise" the next morning at 5 am, we wanted to beat the sun and the heat! Nate got to go in his pajama's and he slept the whole time again!


Here's daddy and Nate, with Nate still in his pj's!


The water was so smooth this time of day! We wish it were always this smooth, that makes the best tubing water!

So, I absolutely love the 4th of July! I love the fireworks, I love red, white & blue, I love the American Flags everywhere, I love the beautiful summer day it falls on, I love the grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, I love the lake, and I love all the wonderful memories of all the great past 4th of July's! Normally my big extended family gathers together in Arkansas for a huge family reunion and we stay at a beautiful lodge on the lake and enjoy tons of swimming, boating, fireworks, and cook outs... but this year we have a newborn and didn't get to go :( . So, in a way we were sad and missed the fellowship of sweet family, but at the same time we are so excited and blessed to share Nate's 1st Fourth of July with him!

We started off the 4th of July evening activities by heading out to the Big League Dreams baseball fields for the Rockin' 4th of July Festivities. They had live music, family fun, bounce houses, a carnival, a tribute to our active military and veterans, restaurants with A/C (very important when you have a newborn!)and of course FIREWORKS!!! We were armed with all our gear - tons of baby stuff, stroller, our fold up chairs (and in holiday spirit they had the American flag design on them), camcorder, cameras and so on. We got to eat the all American grilled hot dog and nachos inside the cold restaurant while we waited for the sun to set some and the hot July air to cool off. Thankfully once we did go outside there was a lovely breeze which felt super once the sun went down. When the sun did go down we picked out the perfect spot in the middle of all the baseball fields on the pretty green grass. It was such a beautiful night and the weather was perfect, even the grass smelt good! We had the perfect spot to watch the fireworks! When they began to go off Nate was all snuggled up and close to me fast asleep, he had been wide eyed right before just cooing and looking all sweet and adorable in his red, white & blue 4th outfit that Nonny gave him! Nate even sported an USA-All American Boy hat to match! But he was so comfy he fell asleep by the time the real fun started. We were worried the pops and bangs of the fireworks would scare him, but he didn't budge and slept through it all! We were so close we had the ashes of the fireworks blow and land on us. One burning ember came twisting, turning and blowing in the wind right towards us, I told Chad to look out and he moved to the side, the ember went right over his shoulder and on the toddler on the blanket behind us, his mommy had to use her hand to smash it out and get it off the poor little thing. I’ve never been so close to fireworks before that the ashes and embers fall on us. We had Nate Nate covered up in a blanky so he didn’t get any on him, he didn’t mind as he was in deep sleep. Anyway, all that rambling on just to say the fireworks were amazing, I just think they are FABULOUS! And either I still have a bunch of hormone changes going on after giving birth or I’m just a sucker for fireworks, but I cried, well more so teared up during the finale since the fireworks were so amazing and represent so many different things! It didn’t help my crying that they were playing The Star Spangled Banner during the finale – I always tear up during that - so couple it with an amazing firework finale and I’m all teary-eyed. They definitely went out with a BIG BANG!

Going out tonight we sure got a lot of people pointing fingers at us along with “Awww look”, and tons of “baby” in a high pitched voices, and “how cute”, and “oh he’s so small”, and “how old is he”. I didn’t realize having a newborn was such an invitation to have so many strangers talk to you, stare at you, and point at you… I’m not used to so much attention, but I guess that’s what you get with such a PRECIOUS and cute baby! Also, I was thinking he was growing and getting so big and here are all these others saying how tiny he looks. Speaking of his size we went to his 1 month check – up this week and he has grown to 10lbs 8ozs and 21.5 inches! Wow he’s such a big boy, the Pediatrician was so pleased with his growth and said he’s right where he should be and doing great!

Okay now on to the reason you came to my blog - pictures… below are Nate’s 1st fourth of July photos and some others I added.

Also, if you want to check out Nathan’s 1 month portraits from JC Penny’s (they are super ADORABLE!!) click here www.smilesbywire.com and you will have to enter my first and last name -make sure to put a space after my first name and to use my married last name-then this access code LTPP0686104069JCP (it may be easiest to copy and paste the access code) the pictures are up and running and are available there now.

Here's Daddy & Nate in the cold A/C'd resturant for the 4th:


Here's Nate in his "Baby's 1st Fourth" outfit, thanks Nonny!


Mommy & Nate waiting to see the fireworks:


Still waiting, this is when Nate was still awake:


Still awake here, and waiting some more:


Daddy tried to get a photo of all the people... but this is only like an eighth of them all, there were thousands of people!


Okay, Nate's getting sleepy waiting:


YAY here they are!!!!! WHOOOHOOOO:


And more (I took way too many photos to put them all on here of the fireworks... hahaha)



And now for some photos of the past week:

Here's Nate sleeping in his swing... he normally throws an arm or 2 up, it looks like he's ready for a roller coaster ride, it's so funny to see him with his arms up, it's hard to see here, but the swing is more like a seat so he's elevated - so his arm is up in the air not just by his head as if he were laying down and sleeping, although he sleeps that way too when he's laying down on his back...