Visits with Friends

Last weekend my friend Allison was home. She is on the State Farm catastrophe team, so she is deployed a lot. I miss her tons! She hadn't seen Aaron since he was like 1.5 months old. He had fun playing with her. He's a little tired in this picture from all the playing.

Then this past weekend we stopped by my friend Joie's house on the way back to Bloomington so I could meet her baby girl, and she could meet Aaron. Her daughter is 6 months old. I can't believe I hadn't met her baby yet! It was so sweet watching the babies play together. Aaron was really intrigued by her hair (we have a hair puller) and her pretty bow. I think he liked playing with someone his size.

Really wanting to pull that bow

Such a doll! Love those blue eyes!

Hey! We're the same size!

They had so much fun! 

Love these visits with dear friends!

Baby Shower

My "frousin" Kristen is due at the beginning of June. My mom and I, with the crafty help of Caitlin, put together a "Once Upon A Time" baby shower. We decorated in colors of yellow and grey which are the nursery colors. My girlfriend, Leslie, made the cake. It was AMAZING! She made the cake for one of my baby showers. She is so talented, so I knew I had to have her do the cake for this shower. Throughout the house you could find framed quotes from popular childhood stories, and books from mine and my mom's childhood. We tried to make it whimsical. I was very happy with how it turned out!

Love this girl...and that belly!

Kristen and the mommas

Kristen and Caitlin (the craft!)

Aaron loves his Auntie, K!

It was such a nice day celebrating Kristen and Baby Bosch. I can't wait for that baby to come into the world and join our big family. Then I can start buying some gender specific clothing!

7 months!

Aaron is now 7 months, and on the move! He is so curious. My father-in-law calls him Gladys Kravitz (the nosey neighbor in Bewitched). It's pretty fitting. He's always craning his neck to see what people are doing or talking about.

He started crawling around Easter, and now he is really moving around on his own. We have officially moved the Pack 'n Play to the living room so we can contain him when necessary. He also pulled himself up over the weekend. He was so determined to do it. Here's the play-by-play.....

He loves his fruits & veggies. I'm still making his food. So far he hasn't liked bananas and Puffs. I don't blame him for the banana thing - we all know they make mommy gag. I think he'll get used to the Puffs when he gets over the texture. We've only tried giving him one here and there to get him used to using his fingers to pick up foods. We tried plum with dinner tonight - he wasn't too sure about this one either.

He loves to grab cups and try to drink out of them....while we're holding them, of course. He knows how to use it, but he still needs lots of practice.

He has been saying "dadadada" a ton over the past week. I'm not sure he knows what it means yet, but he loves to say it. He also babbles other "words"....one sounds like "boobooobboob". It's fun talking to him.

He's still not sleeping through the night, but he's getting better. He goes down around 7 or 7:30, and usually wakes up around 9 or 9:30 fussing. He quickly goes back to sleep, though. And many nights he'll sleep until 6 or 6:15am when I have to wake him up to get ready. Other nights he'll get up again around 2 or 2:30am. I've been trying my best to ignore him on this wake-up. Ugh...so hard.

He really loves the "hotdog dance" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I love watching his face light up when that song comes on. He really doesn't care much for the whole episode before the song, just the very end when it comes on.

His "stranger danger" is getting better. He still gets a little nervous around people he doesn't know or doesn't see all the time. He'll look to me to make sure everything's ok, and then he's ok. I took him to the DR today because of his skin (it's just a little eczema). If you recall a recap from his 6 month appointment where he screamed the whole time.....well today he didn't cry at all. He was still a clinger, and kept looking to me for reassurance, but he was a big boy! He weighs 19 pounds now.

He loves when mommy & daddy make silly faces and silly sounds. And he loves when his mommy dances for him and with him. It makes him laugh. Hmmmm....maybe that's not a good sign. I'm pretty sure I don't resemble Elaine Benes when I dance.

We're so proud of him. Even though I want him to stay a baby forever, and stop growing up so fast, it makes me happy to see him learning and doing all of these things.

Happy Birthday, Bryan!

Today is Bryan's 31st birthday. It's crazy to think that last year I was pregnant (and sober) in Vegas celebrating his 30th.

We had a nice day today celebrating another year. Bryan & I left work a little early and got lunch together - rarely do we get to enjoy meals alone. Then we went and scoped out the grill I'm buying him - a charcoal/gas/smoker. It's pretty awesome - and huge. Tonight we ordered in, and spent a nice evening at home playing with our kiddo. I even baked again! What has gotten in to me? I've baked twice in one week. I think that means I'm good for the year. I cook, I don't typically bake.

Bryan loves eclairs, so I made this eclair cake - thanks, Pinterest! I don't really care for eclairs because of the pastry part, but the topping was delicious!

Happy Birthday to such a great husband, friend & daddy! We love you very much!!

Almost there....

He's getting up on his hands & knees and trying to go. He'll move like this for just a bit before he goes back to army crawling. Look at poor Charlie in the back. Charlie is Uncle Adam & Auntie Caitlin's golden retriever puppy. He's either sad nobody was paying attention to him, or he's making sure Aaron doesn't fall. While he's still a playful puppy, he's pretty cautious with Aaron. Now Aaron's toys, paci's and lotions - that's a different story. But we still love Charlie - said in my best "Charlie bit my finger" voice!

Happy Easter!

We had such a nice first Easter with our precious boy. He was pretty excited about his first Easter basket, as you can tell.

I have fond memories of Easter. We always put our Easter clothes at the dining room table next to our baskets so the Easter Bunny would know where to put our treats (I'm carrying on with this tradition for Aaron). We'd wake up in the morning so excited, run the 2 steps down the hall to the dining room and see what we got. My favorite has always been the chocolate bunnies. We would go to church and then usually to Grandma & Grandpa Bosch's house for an Easter egg hunt, our own hard-boiled egg with our name on it, and a yummy lunch. It was always a real treat when you found the eggs with loose change in them! Thanks, Grandpa! I can't wait to hide Easter eggs around my house & yard for Aaron when he gets older.

This Easter we had Bryan's family over for a nice dinner & visit Saturday evening. Then Sunday we went to Church and to my parents' for lunch. Aaron was such a good boy all weekend, even all throughout Church! He was really flirting with the ladies behind us.

And somehow throughout the chaos that is my life, I found time to make these bad boys - carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting adorned with carrot shavings & cinnamon. I KNOW! I was so proud of myself!

Overall, Aaron had a great first Easter filled with lots of family, love & Easter baskets!

6 month sneak peek!

Here are just a few of Aaron's 6 month pictures. His Auntie Caitlin did a great job capturing him and his sweet expressions. I love them all. Now the tough part - how will I ever choose the ones I want to frame and display on my picture wall?! Are 100 some odd 6 month pictures too many to have framed of your kid in your house?? Yes?? FINE! I'll work on narrowing it down. 

Look at the top right picture - it's like he's sitting on the bleachers at Wrigley chatting it up with an old friend. AND - Cubs won their home opener today - Hey Hey!!