Sweet Home Alabama

Since Dr. was working the past three days, I thought it would be a great opportunity to take little man to see Mobile for the first time! We had a wonderful trip. He slept the whole way there and the whole way back and we did not have to stop for one bottle!

Chuck got to meet his other great grandmother and also visit Miss Penny and Mr. John. He hung out with his cousins and did a little swimming in their pool!

Sitting in the pool

( ATTN: do not use bumbo is water... it floats.... so that means the kid floats too!)

Being a good boy while mama drives.

Laney plays with cousin Chuck while Abby plays with cousin Chuck's

swing, which used to be hers... i think she wants it back!

Chuck is going to have a lot of babysitters!

Getting out of Jackson

We took Chuck on his first road trip! He got to drive through the great state of Louisiana and visit Arkansas! He did so great! I was worried how much screaming there would be but he really slept the whole way. The way there we had to stop twice to eat and the way back we stopped once ( because we were driving late night.) Chuck was very good about getting hungry when there was a place to stop. On the way back we had just been through a town and he started yelling for a bottle. Luckily, there was still a hospital that we could pull over in ( we were about to do 54 miles of trees and corn fields). Unfortunately, we must have also stopped in a mosquito nest because I got out to get into the diaper bag and by the time I got back in the car we had about 30 mosquitos in the car. So the 30 minutes it took to kill all of them added a little bit of time to our trip! I think the most entertaining thing I have ever seen is Dr. on a mission to kill insects that are 1 million times smaller than he is. I think I took the brunt of the mosquito contact. Here are some pics from our trip.

Stopping for Chuck's snack. Dr. was going on 24 hours with no sleep.

Chuck decided to drive us there!

We went to Fayetteville for the day to see if it was a place we would like to move. We went to eat at a place called Tim's Pizza.

Chuck loves to be rocked and Two Mommy said this is the first great grandchild that likes it. She's always wanted one she could rock.

Every morning we got up about 4 hours before everyone else so Chuck and I just sat on the screened in porch. One day we had a photo shoot!

Chuck loves spending time with his cousins!

Chuck swimming with daddy. Look at those little feet in the water. It was a little chilly but Chuckers had no complaints.

Psuedo First Day

Today was a big day for Chuckers, or it was supposed to be. Today was his first day of daycare! Apparently, daycare was closed for the fourth though! Earlier we had talked to the director and said that we would start in two weeks. We weren't looking at a calendar though so I guess she did not realize that Monday was the 5th. At least we got a practice run though. There is not a specific time that I have to drop him off. Today, I was on my way to drop him off at 9 and leave him for a few hours. I wasn't sad about it because I had a lot of errands to run since we had been out of town for a week ( no food in the house!). Turns out the little rug rat is with me today after all. He went to Kroger with me and an employee had to walk around and help me shop and unload my buggy and then load my car for me because Chuckman was crying. I think he got spoiled over the past week because we were out of routine and he pretty much had to be held the whole time since we couldn't take all of his different chairs with us! He did get to spend some time with children and he really enjoyed that. It was a great preparation for daycare.

First day of school!

(We will try again tomorrow!)

Children's Choice

Sitting here filling out the daycare papers, I thought you might want to see Chuck's school. It is nationwide and caters to medical professionals. Since this is a smaller city, we do not have overnight care or the sick room. He does have a curriculum and two teachers. I think he is really going to like it here.

Check it out by clicking here.

3 months old!

I just couldn't wait to show you! Today, Chuckers and I went to Akisha's house and got some pictures taken. She is the one that took pictures of Chuck when he was first born. She agreed with Chuck's crazy mama and took his 3 month old pictures. Here are a few of my favorites, and yes, I do have copies. I am going to pick them up tomorrow! Enjoy this cutie patootie.

Naptime

So we have got the night time ritual down. Not that Chuckers is sleeping through the night but we know exactly what is going to happen every night... how many times he will wake up, what times he is going to wake up, if he is going to eat when he wakes up or just want to cuddle, and how much he will want to eat. All of that just happened naturally. I stopped stressing about everything and just let him do what he wants.

Now that he developed his night time routine, he is slowly developing his nap routine on his own. When he falls asleep, I try and put him in the play pen. He only sleeps about 30 minutes in that. So the last two days, he has started fussing when he gets tired, so I rock him until he is almost asleep and then this morning I put him in his big boy swing. He took a 4 hour nap with a little intermission for a small bottle! Tonight, again, he started fussing and I rocked him a little and put him in his nap nanny and sure enough he is napping now. I am going to see how long this nap lasts because this nap (starting at 6:30) might turn into his bedtime if he is only going to nap once during the day. I am kind of expecting him to wake up about 8:00 and then we will play for about an hour then go to bed for the night. He is such a big boy making up his own routine! I am so glad he decided to do it so I wouldn't have to! I was worried he needed to sleep in his bed during nap time for daycare but they don't care!

Our big boy napping in his tractor outfit!

Yes, those cheeks are slowly developing a mind of their own!

Daycare

I have this really strong feeling of guilt about it all..... I am talking about daycare. We visited daycare on Wednesday to turn in Chuck's shot records so we would be one step closer to guaranteeing little man a spot. A spot just opened up but we have to take it within two weeks for it to be ours. So.... Chuckster will be "starting" daycare on July 5th. I put that in quotes because that is when we will start paying but I may not actually get up the nerve to drop him off for a few days. We can use daycare as much or as little as possible so for the remainder of the summer, I will just take him a couple of hours a day so I can run my errands in peace and go work out. I will add on hours as the weeks pass so that when I start school we will all be adjusted. ( him probably more than me)

We met Chuck's teachers, Ms. Laura and Ms. Kesha. They are too sweet. I was worried about napping schedules and that he wouldn't get enough snuggle time but they assured me that they would cater to his every need and he could nap in the swing and cuddle before a nap if he wanted. The paperwork I am filling out asks me things like "How does he liked to be burped?" "Does he like to be patted anywhere?" .... this can get very in depth.... Jeez la weez, I could write a book on every little crazy thing Chuck likes or doesn't like.

I mean what do I write...I can get specific...."When Chuck is tired, he likes to fall asleep on our shoulder. He will not fall asleep laying down in your arms. He likes constant movement, either rocking or swaying standing up. He loves to be patted on his bottom. Not too hard. Also not to fast or it keeps him a wake. He likes the speed of the patting to be somewhat similar to the rhythm of Yankee Doodle. He doesn't like the song Yankee Doodle though. His favorite songs are "We Are The World", "Lean On Me", and "I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus." He also loves the sound of running water so will fall asleep to that sometimes."

I am officially a crazy mama. I think my child (as a 3 month old) will secretly be heart broken inside because he thinks I don't love him because I am dropping him off at daycare. Ugh. I am a huge supporter of daycare but it just breaks my heart when I look into his precious little eyes ( those eyes get me every time, where did he get them from?) and think that I have to leave him with someone else..... even though I could SO use a nap in a quiet house!

Ahhhh, he's growing up. What to do....

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