Keeping Up with the Taylor Tots: May 2012

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Weekend Getaway

We recently traveled back to Delaware to celebrate our third wedding anniversary and Mother’s Day. As usual, it was a great, but quick trip.

Friday night, Jeff and I drove down to the beach to celebrate our anniversary. I will admit that I was a little apprehensive about leaving Ashton overnight but I’m pleased to report that we both did great, in fact, better than great! A huge thanks to Grammy for making the trip possible by agreeing to watch the little man. Jeff and I had a wonderful time and managed to cram quite a bit into our 24 hour journey. We enjoyed a nice dinner together, checked out all that Dogfish had on tap (and I do mean ALL!), listened to some live music, visited my favorite crepe shack, stuffed ourselves silly with Thrashers fries/Grottos pizza/Dolly’s saltwater taffy, walked off our gluttony with a nice stroll on the beach and hit the infamous Peppers hot sauce mecca on the way home. While I missed the little man for sure, it was nice to be able to spend time as a twosome. On our way home, I suggested to Jeff that we try to do a similar ‘Just Us’ trip once a year…he responded, ‘At least once!’. Guess he had fun too! :)

The fun continued on Saturday night as my Aunt Donna and cousin Claire offered their babysitting services while we went to go eat crabs. YUM! Given that we have no regular babysitter options in CLE, we had to take them up on their offer! They reported back that Ashton did very well – woo hoo. Good thing – we don’t want to scare away our babysitters!

On Sunday, we celebrated Mother’s Day at Longwood Gardens. It was a perfectly beautiful day! We had a great time – just the gals plus Ashton, of course! Becoming a mother myself this past year has made me that much more appreciative of my own mother. To our moms and grandmas, a big thanks – we are truly blessed to be surrounded and supported by such wonderful ladies.

Happy 3rd Anniversary, JT!

Dogfish Head - we had fun drinking our way through this list!

Gorgeous spring weather

Morning stroll on the beach

World famous Peppers - insane hot sauce store. Jeff was in heaven!

A big thanks to our newest babysitter, Claire

Ashton and Aunt Erin - Longwood Gardens

Such a wonderful way to spend Mother's Day!

Ashton with Grammy, Great Grandma and Mommy

It was hot! Note Ashton's little red cheeks. :)

Thank you, Ashton, for making me feel like the luckiest mama in the world!

Love,
K & J

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Four Months of Fun

Ashton had his 4 month check up recently. Our little man is long and lean. He's 26 inches long, which puts him in the 90th percentile for length and he's 13lbs, which lands him in the 25th percentile for weight. Cutest little stringbean (said the somewhat biased mama :D)!

He's gotten so much more interactive over the past month, which has been fun. He tries to eat pretty much everything and anything that he comes across, including his favorite standby, his hands. The funny thing is that he doesn't suck his thumb or a particular finger but instead tries to eat his ENTIRE fist. It's comical! He has recently settled on his index and middle fingers since his fist strategy wasn't working.

He's also starting rolling over - back to front. Apparently, this is somewhat unsual as babies typically roll over stomach to back first but given Ashton's aversion to tummy time, I'm not surprised. He is also seeming much more comfortable on his tummy now, which is great. Since he's rolling over back to front though, we've had to stop swaddling him since I have found him face first in the crib as he tests out his new tricks at night. Scary!

He still loves music and when we sing songs to him. We recently introduced him to the Bumbo, which he also seems to enjoy. He's facing outward now in his Baby Bjorn when we take our nightly walk, which has opened a whole new world of flowers, trees, houses, bikes, etc to him.

Sleep-wise, things are okay. He was doing great, sleeping through the night on a pretty regular basis. He now usually gets up once around 3-4am and then again when I'm up and getting ready for work. From a gal who used to need a solid 9 hours of sleep to feel refreshed, I'm adjusting surpringly well to the lack of sleep.

My return to work has gone very well. Working from home a couple days of weeks has been so nice. Things with Andrea, Ashton's nanny, are also great. They spend lots of time reading together, taking walks, playing outside and doing all sorts of other fun stuff. We're so lucky to have found her!

Happy boy!

Ashton's first meeting with his GREAT grandparents

Snoozing with his namesake, PopPop Trex

First pair of jeans!

Stretching out!

First time in the bumbo

Water fun in the bumbo

Tummy time with Aloysius

Love these tootsies!

First time at one of our local favs, Buckeye Beer Engine

Love,

K & J

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Christened

On April 15th, Ashton was christened. We had quite a few family members travel to Cleveland to celebrate the occasion with us. It was a wonderful day and we were so happy to formally welcome Ashton to the world. His godparents are my sister, Erin, and Jeff's brother, Chris - what a lucky boy! Ashton wore the same christening gown that Jeff wore when he was baptized. Even more special, the gown was handmade by Jeff's great grandmother. The service was very nice and Ashton did well, which was quite a feat given that it lasted a solid hour and a half. ;) He did cry a bit when the water hit his head, but who could blame him? That water was cold!

Following the service, we had a nice brunch complete with bloody marys and mimosas. We especially enjoyed the mustache straws that were served with our 'Cowboy Bloody Marys'. Ashton snoozed for most of the brunch but joined in our mustache fun. :)

Thank you again to our family for making the trip to Ohio and making the day special for our little man. We had a great weekend!