I Man isnt the baby on The Daddys side of the family anymore

Welcome to the World

Hunter Josiah

3/25/2010

Cousin Isaac, Uncle Nate, and Aunt Becky love you

and cant wait to meet you

Hes a Model

Recently I was approached and asked if I would let I Man participate in a photo shoot. I agreed and he is going to be on a website modeling Cloth Diapers. We are not a Cloth Diapering family but I couldn't pass up an opportunity like this, plus it helped out a friend. He did a fantastic job of course :) It was an outdoor shoot and I was a little worried about how the pictures would turn out because I left his sunglasses on ( because he can not handle the brightness of the sun) but I think they still turned out super cute. Hes sporting a cloth diaper, his super cool sunglasses, and his bone babylegs. ( they are basically leggings for babies..super cute, LOVE them!)





I dont have the link to the website at this moment, but once I get it I will post it!


We are still trying out new foods. I can stress enough how much this kid LOVES food! We tried Bananas and he was head over hills in love with them, sadly he wont be getting them for quite a while because they caused him some serious belly problems. Poor baby was up all night crying in pain. Ill try to reintroduce those in a few more months, hopefully then he will be able to handle them. We have also tried Peaches and those were a hit as well. He has started this new thing where he will say "MMMM" after every bite. When he see his bottle he also opens his mouth and says " AHH" yeah, he cracks me up!

We are working on trying to say DA-DA. hes Thisclose but not quite there yet. Hes makes the ah-ah sound, just have to get the sound of the D worked in there now. The Daddy will absolutely love that. Once he actually does it, the trick will be trying to catch it on video. lol

Hes slowly changing his sleep schedule on his own. He use to go to bed around 8, but it has slowly been moving backwards as he has been acting more tired earlier and earlier. Now hes usually changed,fed, and asleep by 7:20. Most nights he sleeps until 4 or 5, takes a bottle and then goes back to sleep. I hope that doesn't change for a long while, mommy NEEDS her sleep!

The days feel long, but they are passing. Each day we put a huge X on the calender which marks down one more day closer to The Daddys homecoming. We sure cant wait!

-The Mommy





We tried

Alot of Firsts in the world of the I-Man.

First up was his very first taste of a vegetable. As I mentioned before his belly is super sensitive so I have to be super careful about what he eats and exactly how much. I googled my little heart out to find out about what foods might cause issues and what ones should be ok. I settled with trying Peas first. I was excited to see how he would do, he on the other hand was not so excited about the adventure. He made a face at me like I was trying to kill him. He gagged and spit at me and kicked his little legs so hard I thought the tray of the highchair might come flying off. Im a mean mommy and continued to make him eat it. hehe Each bite got somewhat better but he was still not so much a fan. He started throwing a fit before he was even done. He started crying so hard I had no choice but to get him out. Continuing with the mean mommy theme I tried to give him a few more bites while I was holding him, and this time to my suprise he actually ate it with no problems. Can we say SPOILED. At 4 monhts old he definitely already knows how to get what he wants, but I think its cute..so for now ill play along. Good news to report though, is I tried again the following day and he ate them no problem. The Daddy loves peas, so maybe thats were he gets it from.

The second big first of the week is..He went to the babysitter for the first time in his entire life. Previously to this I had only been away from him for ONE hour in his entire little life. He was 2 months old and he stayed with my mom while I was getting a haircut, that was back when we were visiting in Indiana. I needed to get some things done and I just knew he wouldnt last through the entire list of errands. He tolerates his carseat for about 0.2 seconds and after that its an all out screaming fit ( once the warmer weather gets here, and stays put we are making the switch to a convertable carseat in hopes of making the little man happier). Through of series of people I find someone they all use and love, and she also happens to be a friend of mine, so I asked her if she could keep him for me for a few hours. I took him over yesterday morning, explained everything and took off before he woke up. I couldnt say goodbye to him, it would have broken me to pieces. Leaving him was the absolute hardest thing I have ever had to do. EVER! I have sent my husband away to war more than once, and this was harder than that. My child, my baby was being left with someone else. Hes been attached to me for the last 4 months. Every single second I have been in charge of him, being there when he cried or laughed or needed something. Overreacting much? Maybe, but it was the first time and man, was it hard. The good news to report though is he did fantastic. His showed his awesome little personality and babbled her ear off and flashed her a few gummy old man smiles. Gotta love that kid. He was asleep when I picked him up and didnt wake up until we got back home. He opened his adorable blue eyes, and when he saw me he smiled so big. Those are the moments that make my heart melt. He was so happy to see me, his Mommy :-)

Funny story, The other day at the doctor we had to wait out in the waiting room for his shots. They were pretty backed up so there were quite a few people waiting, most were soldiers. We has been at the doctors office for a while at this point so I was concerned about the little man getting fussy. Once he gets overly tired, hes had enough and there is no making him happy from then on, so I was trying to do everything possible to keep that from happening. He was laying on my lap for a while being content, but then he decided he wanted to be restless. He was standing on my legs ( this happens pretty much all the time, that kid LOVES to stand) and looking around at everyone. The babbling started and he was trying to command all the attention in the room. Being men, and most of them were younger at that, they tried to just ignore him. My kid was NOT having that! He would bend over as far as he could, give them a deep stare, and babble louder and louder until they atleast looked up, and then he would flash them a huge smile. I tried to shhhhh him, but that was not happening. By the end of our wait, he had the entire room giving him attention, exactly what he wanted. Little stinker!

His little personlity amazes me. Already he is a people person. He loves to babble and smile at EVERYONE. This is definitely an adjustment for me since ive extremely shy and would rather not have everyone looking at me. With Isaac now, thats just not a possibility. Everywhere we go he gathers a crowd, seriously. Grocery store, if im wearing him everyone wants to stop me and tell me just how cuteeeeeeee he is. If hes in his carseat on the cart, people will literally stop my cart and strike up a conversation with me about him, and then baby talk with him. This is what happens pretty much everywhere. I cant get in and out of somewhere without atleast one person stopping me. Theres also the people that dont say anything but I can tell they still notice. They flash huge smiles at him and try to get his attention from across the room. Hes such a show off and loves the attention. Sounds crazy for a 4 month old, but its true. His bubbly, happy, little personality makes me smile, it also makes me happy that he can bring a smile to pretty much anyones face. You just cant have a bad day once he smiles at you. That little boy has my heart! I cant wait as he gets older to see even more how much his personality progresses. I can only imagine him doing something rotten and then flashing the famous little smile. How can I be mad at that, lol! I can only imagine whats going to happen once the Daddy gets home, hes going to have him wrapped around his little finger! Gotta love him!

He is trying SO hard to sit up. He can sit on his own if I sit him down, which apparently hes doing earlier than most babies his age? Thats what most people are telling me, they are shocked at how well he can sit up, hes been doing it since he was 3 months old, so thats all I have to base it on. Anyways, while laying on his back he tries to get up into the seated position. Hes not able to do it, which ends up leaving him flailing around in a V position, quite funny, until he gets mad. When he cant accomplish something, he gets extremely frustrated. I cant wait until the day when hes mobile, it will make my already happy baby even happier. Now when he goes in his bouncy seat (which isnt very often because all he tries to do now is sit up because he hates laying down) I have to actually strap him in. The other day I sat him down in there with a toy for a few minutes. Right away he started to try to pull himself forward to sit up. One strong push and he was up and out of the seat before I could even get to him. He propelled himself so hard forward that he ploped right out of the chair onto the floor, face first. Hes a rough and tumble kid though, I picked him up..and he just smiled at me. Goober. For now we are still working on rolling from his back onto his belly. He hates being on his belly, so its making it a difficult task. He learned at 2 months how to roll onto his back and has been content with that. He will get it eventually.

Thats all for now from our neck of the woods. Still counting down the days and missing The Daddy like crazy.


- The Mommy

The beginning

*For the safety of our little family, No pictures will be added. Also with some details about the Daddy as I plan to refer to him as, I have to keep them as broad as possible for OPSEC reasons!*

With us living out of state away from all of our family, I wanted an up to the minute way to keep everyone updated on Isaac.

Im a little slow at getting this started but better late than never I always say.

A brief recap-

Nov 12 1:18pm our little Man was welcomed into the world. He quickly became the center of Mommy and Daddys world. We spent two amazing weeks with The Daddy before sending him back off to war.

Dec 3rd( 3 wks)He slept in his very own bed, in his very own room.

Dec 10th(4 wks) He slept through the night!

Dec 31st(7 wks) Started smiling

Jan 10th ( 8wks) First trip back to Indiana. He did great on the Airplane and had an amazing time meeting his Mamaw and Papaw( mommys parents) and his Papaw Jack and Mamaw Joy( Daddys Dad and Step Mom). He also got to meet all of his cousins and almost all of his Aunts and Uncles and 2 of his great grandmas. Everyone was in love with him of course :)

Jan 14th (8 wks) Rolled over

Feb 12th( 3 mths) Started holding toys

Feb 18th ( 3 mths) Started rice cereal. He Loved it

March 1st ( 3 mths) Sat up unassisted

March 13th (4 mths) Tried fruit for the first time- pears. He absolutely loved them. He bounced up and down in his highchair and shook his head back in forth while giggling in between bites. If I was to slow at getting his next bite he would get annoyed and shove his fists into his mouth. Silly baby!

At his two month appt ( Jan 26th 2010) he weighed 12 lbs and was 23 inches long. Absolutely perfect and in thee 50 Percentile. He got his shots and was not a happy camper about them. The next few weeks were packed full of horrible belly issues. I tried absolutely everything I could think of and nothing was working. Poor baby is cursed with his mommys belly. Thats about the only thing he got from me. He looks just like his Daddy...all the way down to his toenails. lol In the very end I found out that it was the water making him so sick. Once we made the switch to baby safe bottled water, hes been much better since. He still have an extremely sensitive stomach and I have to be extremely careful with what and how much I feed him. Its difficult at times, but nothing we cant handle!

On the 12th of March we has his 4 mth appt. He is now 14.4 lbs and they say he hasnt grown length wise. I dont exactly believe that as hes growing length wise out of his clothes, the doctor agrees and said the machine is know to be off. Either way hes still perfect! Hes above and beyond with most of his developmental milestones and its 90% of the time an extremely happy baby. Much to my surpise I also found out that the teething process has begun. He has two teeth under the surface that are getting ready to break through. They are on the top one on the front left and the back right. So far hes handling it like a trooper, just drooling ALOT! Hopefully as the process continues he doesnt get to uncomfortable. His favorite thing to do right now is stand. He hates being on his back and laying down. He loves his jumperoo and goes crazy while hes in it. He has a huge smile and its the cutest thing I have ever seen. He will look at me with those big blue eyes and give me a big huge smile and it melts my heart. While he i usually extremely happy, when he gets mad he is just MAD!

He sleeps in his own room, and between 7:30 and 8 is his bedtime. He sleeps until 4-5 wakes up for a bottle, and then goes back to sleep until 7-8. We recently cut out a midnight waking that was full of nothing but screaming, hopefully we have kicked that habit for good! We also made the step to stop swaddling him. We have been swaddling him since birth and it worked extremely well for him, but its time to stop as hes beginning to start the process of rolling from his back to his belly and it would potentially start to cause a safety risk. The first night was horrible. Up every hour all night long. I was discouraged but the Daddy pushed me to keep going. Im glad he did and im glad I stuck with it because hes doing so much better with it.
Right now hes very attached to his blue blanket..which we call blue blankey. He can be in the middle of a throwing fit and if you hand him blankey he instantly starts smiling. He kneeds it between his hands to go to sleep and he sucks on it while hes awake. We dont go anywhere without it!

He not a fan of the bouncy seat, and likes the swing but only to put him to sleep. He listens to the Beatles (baby edition) at night to fall asleep, and hes finally getting over hating his car seat. He loves when I wear him in his carrier, and loves the new sunglasses I just bought for him. I recently bought him a few pairs of flip flops for summer but they are still to big. He has teeny tiny feet and doesnt even fit into size 1 shoes yet, hes still wearing newborn size socks. Hes in 0-3 mth clothing and we are slowing making the transition to 3-6, some things fit but most are still too big for now. Just last week we made the transition to size 2 diapers. The 1's still fit him size wise but hes a super wetter so we had to move up to 2's to contain the mess. lol He loves bathtime. He recently got a new bath seat that makes it able for him to sit up and he thinks its the coolest. He splashes and moves his tiny little baby legs all over.

Hes very much a schedule baby and eats 6 ozs every 3 hrs (except over night) Hes becoming very interested in the tv and computer and when he sees either he starts babbling like crazy. We recently had a video conference with The Daddy and Isaac was very talktive. He does a hushed yell that makes him sound like an old man whos losing his voice. Its funny. His loves his Daddys voice and will stop crying when he hears it( we have his voice recorded in his Daddy doll, and we also have a video that The Daddy made for him). Im am determined to make sure that Isaac knows who he is, so when he comes home it will hopefully make the transition a little less stressful. Hes got a wide variety of nicknames at the moment. Mr. Man which hes had since birth, I-man, Bug or buggie, and Boogie.

For now our days are spent playing and enjoying the wonderful NC weather, and counting down the days until the Daddy is with us again. Only a few more months, we can finally count on one hand! YAY!

Until Next time
-The Mommy

Check Back often as I plan to try to update as much as possible :)