aidan hall woodward arrives!

jenny was supposed to be induced on friday, but ended up going into labor on her own, and friday night aidan hall woodward was born! we went up to visit them today after they arrived home from the hospital.

he is adorable (of course). tons of black hair. he still has that newborn look about him, so i think it is too soon to say who he looks like, but i am leaning towards brett.

we ate a little lunch and hung out with the babies. sullivan played with some of aidan's toys and aidan slept and ate.

i can hardly remember the first day home from the hospital with sullivan. what did we do? i remember my sister and parents being here and being so incredibly helpful, but it is kind of a blur now. jenny seems to be handling everything very well, and brett looks like a pro baby holder. both grandmas were there and seemed to be playing nicely. :) they did consciously take turns holding him and joked about using a timer, which i thought was funny and also sweet.

look how big sullivan is compared to aidan! i can hardly believe that he was that small (smaller!) when he was born. and look at how far we have come. almost nine months have gone by in the blink of an eye.

carrots, anyone?

i forgot to include this incident in my posts about annie's wedding because we have no corresponding photos. this is very unfortunate because it was hilarious. imagine this:

we arrive at the hotel and sullivan is cranky because we had to stop an hour earlier so i could nurse him and then we had to put him back in his carseat. all he wants to do is crawl around the hotel room. we let him do this a little, but we are on a bit of a time crunch to get settled, see people and get ready for the party that evening, so we decide to feed sullivan lunch. we realize we have a bit of a problem. how do we do this exactly, with no high chair? we decide that ryan will hold sullivan on his lap and i will feed him. we get a bib on him and i make a mixture of oatmeal and carrots. CARROTS. i don't know what i was thinking when i packed carrots. the bright orange food that manages to stain everything it touches, including the bib and rubber spoon. as soon as i start feeding him i realize what a mistake this is. sullivan has no interest in sitting still, but he his hungry, so he looks at me, opens his mouth and i have a nanosecond to get a spoonful of carrots in there before he starts twisting and squirming. he grabs the spoon a few times, spilling carrots onto ryan's pants, my pants and the floor. okay, whatever, they are jeans, it won't be that noticeable and the floor isn't our floor.

he's actually eating a lot and i'm amazed at our success condsidering the circumstances. i shovel another spoonful in and wait for him to swallow. he's all over the place, twisting around on ryan's lap, looking at his new environment. he tilts his head all the way back to look at the ceiling.

and then he sneezes.

carrot mush shoots out of his mouth like he is an erupting volcano and i reflexively close my eyes as it hits me. i open my eyes, and i can feel and see mush in my eyelashes. i look at ryan across from me. he is wide-eyed and speckled in carrot. it is in his hair, his eyebrows, all over his shirt. he says, 'there is carrot up my nose.' we are both laughing, and sullivan, who looks like he has been spray painted, is laughing too. it is funny yet also really gross; i can feel the spit and mucous that came out with that sneeze on my face. everyone gets a complete outfit change and i rinse out the most tainted clothing in the sink.

i'd like to think that will be the last time that happens, but i know better. :)

annie's wedding part V: then and now

(then = eric's wedding)

then:
after the ceremony, we are the first people to the reception. we head straight to the bar and order a drink for each hand. it is an open bar, why not? we have spent the whole day relaxing, playing bocce, chatting over cards. we made sure to catch a ride so we don't have to worry about driving home. we find a table, sit back in our chairs and sip our drinks while we chat about the wedding and wait for everyone to arrive. we are carefree and relaxed, a fact which is apparent in every hair flip, every leg cross.

now: after the ceremony, we are the first people to the reception. we head straight to the balcony to feed the baby dinner. we have spent the whole day feeding, diapering, entertaining, watching. we drive so we have a place for the car seat and also because grandma needs a ride. we find a table and pull out an array of accessories for feeding the baby. we are (really i am) nervous and tense, a fact which is apparent in every glance at the clock, every question to the babysitter.

*sigh* how times have changed! this was our first experience (well, really second if you count brett's wedding, but brett's wedding was such a blur and my only goal was survival. we aren't counting that one.) with sullivan at a big event. our plan was to get to the reception early so we could feed him and hopefully get him to sleep as soon as possible. a million things were running through my head as ryan was feeding him his peas and brown rice. what time is it? is it too early? is it too late? will he be too full to nurse? will he be too distracted for nurse? who are these babysitters? where is sullivan going to sleep? is he even going to be able to sleep? people are probably going to be going in and out of that room. it looked like there were a lot of purses in there. what about the phone, what if it rings and wakes him up? what about the dj? how loud will that be? is there only one pack and play? what about the other babies? where will they sleep? what if they fall asleep first? where will sullivan sleep? what if he wakes up and no one hears and he cries and cries and cries? you get the idea. i was a ball of tension and stress. ryan practically forced me downstairs to get a drink to try and help me relax. i brought us back some drinks, tried to relax a little and listen to the mariachi band. i knew that as soon as sullivan was asleep i would be able to relax because most of my worries had to do with getting him down, so i was antsy to get him into his pajamas and sleep mode. as we were sitting on the patio, eric came out with oliver singing a song with lyrics that went something like "parties are no fun with baaaaaaabies, baaaaaabies make parties no fun!" he totally hit the nail on the head and it made me feel so much better that we weren't the only people in the baby boat. and actually, there were a lot of people there dealing with kids and babies, and they were all handling it just fine so i needed to suck it up, accept the situation for what it was, relax a little and enjoy myself as much as i could. after that, i stopped worrying about what could potentially happen and just concerned myself with what i could control. we put sullivan down, and it was a little difficult, but he fell asleep and stayed asleep, and ryan and i had a great time. i took the below picture right when eric came out singing his song. we are in babyland now, and it isn't so bad. :)

annie's wedding part IV: all dressed up in our wedding finery

sullivan was so good during the wedding. he let out a few pterodactyl screeches, but other than that, he played with his toys and giggled with gavin (a boy he sometimes sees at the mom's group) in the pew behind us. thankfully the service was short and we were out of there in under an hour. here he is on the grass after the ceremony.

he had a great time standing on the pew and laughing and smiling with the people behind us. he did fling some spit on johann, gavin's dad, but he didn't seem to mind as i'm sure he is used to gavin's spit and gavin doing similar things to others.

here i am with my lame 'camera smile.'

here is our wedding family portrait. my hair looks windblown because it is; we were sitting close to a door for an easy baby escape and it created quite a wind tunnel. and my outfit was a baby playground. it is hard to see here, but my dress is covered in squares of pink tulle which are the perfect size for tiny little hands to grab. and the floating pearl necklace is just begging to be yanked. i don't know why, but for whatever reason, sullivan left all these things alone. AND i did not get spit up on. most of this is because ryan took over baby duty for the majority of the ceremony. he did a great job. also note ryan's shirt. or lack of shirt....you can barely see a hint of blue. yeah....ryan forgot a dress shirt and had to borrow one from his dad. all he had was a hawaiian shirt. it ended up looking better than i thought it would, and he was definitely more comfortable than he would have been in a shirt and tie. all the other men were a little jealous.

annie's wedding part III: quality father and son time

i think i have posted quite a few pictures like this, but i don't care, they are too cute not to add.

i love this last picture.

annie's wedding part II: breakfast with the cousins

saturday morning we headed down to the lobby for breakfast. we ate and fed sullivan breakfast, and it is a good thing we fed sully so quickly because shortly after he finished oliver and iris came down and he was completely fascinated by them. i do go to a mom's group occasionally, but beyond that sullivan hasn't really interacted with many kids, so it was so funny to see them together. oliver was equally intrigued by sullivan, and the rest of the weekend he would say 'baby! baby!' whenever he saw him.

it seems like quite a big age difference (9 months) now, but soon they will be running around together. these photos provide a vision of things to come.

annie's wedding part I: to the pool!

this weekend was annie and nate's wedding. we arrived on friday afternoon, and after a long day in the car i thought a trip to the pool would cure everyone's crankiness. sullivan did really well on the drive up, but we had to stop and feed him and then put him back in his car seat for another hour and he was not very happy about that. so once we arrived, i decked him out in his swim gear and we headed down to the pool.

he was NOT crazy about the actual pool; too cold. he did really like the hot tub though, and he splashed around with ryan and flirted with all the ladies. and what lady could resist a guy in a hat like that?

lunch with grandma and pappy

the other excursion we did when my parents were here was go out to lunch. we went to a little place in del mar that ryan and i love. it is on the main drag with an outside patio and great view of the street and ocean. and they have a killer french toast.

we don't go out with sullivan a lot because it is such an ordeal, especially now that he is eating solid food. now we have to bring: jar food, finger food, a spoon, a bowl, a bib and a sippy cup in addition to the usual stuff. and it is always a juggling act of getting him fed and us eating before our food gets cold. luckily, pappy took over feeding so i could eat and did a much better job than i was doing. thanks dad!

dog beach with grandma and pappy

my parents recently came out to visit for a long weekend. we didn't do anything terribly exciting; i figured that they really just wanted to spend time with sullivan, so we could have spent two days in a windowless room and as long as sullivan was present and there was bathroom access, no one would have minded. we did do a few things though, one of which was take blue dog to the beach.

the past two or three months blue has not been himself. he gets spooked at the slightest sharp noise and turns into a shivering, cowering mess when we go for walks near the baseball field. i don't know how or when these fears developed, but i feel terribly guilty about it because i am sure it has to do with something we did, or something that happened when we weren't around. some of it has to do with the fourth of july this past year, but it seems to run deeper than that.

anyway, blue LOVES dog beach. the water, the other dogs, the people, the running...it is all his favorite things in one place. we had not been in a while, so i was wondering if blue would still love it or if he would dissolve into a shaking little puppy velcro-ed to my legs.

blue loved it. he chased his kong down the beach and swam into the waves when ryan threw it into the water. he ran around with other dogs and went up to people with his tail wagging and tongue lolling out of his mouth. my dad said it was so great to see 'the old blue,' the blue we know, the blue that is friendly and fearless and carefree. blue was so happy, and it made me really happy to see him at ease in his element.

sully seemed to enjoy himself as well. he always likes going new places and looking at new things, and he loves being out side and feeling the wind on his face. every time a breeze came along he squinted and lit up with a big, gummy smile.

he chewed on the string of that hoodie until it was sopping. blech.

i was trying to capture blue in action, and i was imaging a shot with him mid-stride, all stretched out with all four paws off the ground. i didn't quite get that, but this is kind of a cool picture too, and i think it looks like he is smiling.

an original 'iris' to add to the collection

sullivan's cousin iris (or, second cousin? i'm not really sure what the exact relation is, but 'cousin' will suffice) sent sullivan some pretty impressive art. as ryan says, 'her art has really come along!' iris will be 5 in august. as i am sure we will also experience with sullivan, it is crazy to have seen her as this teeny tiny baby, and then see her now, this beautiful little girl with likes and dislikes and a fondness for art. life trods along in a perfectly predictable and linear way, but the fact that it does this at all is so miraculous and profound to me. like, sullivan was born and now he's crawling, and soon he'll be walking AND talking! i hear you saying, um, yes dear, that is what happens. that is what babies DO. but to witness these things first hand, to actually see him learning and exploring and understanding, is so crazy.

nursing as an olympic sport

i don't know that these photos really do it justice, but nursing sullivan has reached a whole new level of difficulty. he is so squirmy and bendy; i almost feel like i am trying to cradle a big, motorized slinky. these photos are from today at the restaurant. the squirmy-ness was exacerbated by my having to use the nursing cover--i think it gets a little hot and stuffy in there.



here, he is trying to escape the cover. notice how his leg is in the crook of my arm. i pinned it there, because if i don't......

it ends up on my shoulder, or kicking up and down between my shoulder and my elbow. he has also grabbed hold of the cover, inadvertently flashing diners innocently eating their salads and clam chowder.

ahh, it looks like i won and he is finally resigned to eating. don't i look kind of smug? wait for it...

sully was just lulling me into submission. i should have seen it coming!

breakfast can be SO exhausting

we woke up at our normal time, around 6 a.m., and ryan took sully to eat breakfast while i slept a little longer. when finally got up about 45 minutes later and made my way to the kitchen, this is what i found:

who knows why he was so tired this early in the morning, but he took a nice little nap in his high chair. ryan says he fell asleep between bites of yogurt. ♥

jailbird

back when sullivan was first born, if i had to go to the bathroom, get the mail, etc., i could put him down in the pack and play, or his crib, or strapped into his swing and not have to worry about where i might find him or what he might be doing when i returned.

gone are the days of the sleepy, floppy little newborn. now we have entered the era of the mobile, inquisitive baby. the below photos are what i came upon after having been in the bathroom for, literally 20 seconds.

i guess it is time to lower the mattress in his crib.

he knows how to work it

sullivan wanted to model his 767 shirt, and instead of just sitting and grinning like he normally does, decided to mix it up a little. i think it looks like he is singing some guns n roses.

there's my happy baby!

and i had to get a picture of him in his sunglasses. they didn't stay on for too long; he is getting into that phase where he isn't into things on his head, no matter how much i distract him.

♥

ryan has been a little stressed with work this week, so it was great to see him relax a little and smile while spending some quality time with his baby.