First Day of "School"

Monday was Neil's first day of "school." He's going to Fort Johnson Baptist Church on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 to noon. So far, he's LOVING it! They send a report home everyday with him and it's so nice to see when he ate, drank, had wet diapers, napped, etc. It's almost like I was there with him the whole time. Brian Lynch's little boy, Tucker, is in Neil's class - he's 5 months old - so cute!

This picture is so bad that it makes me laugh every time I see it - I had to put it on here. He is going to KILL me when he gets old enough to read this blog!!!! Happy First Day of School Neil. HA HA.

Cute little Tucker Lynch!

Real food - FINALLY!

So I finally stopped pumping and feeding Neil breast milk exclusively almost 1 month ago. It was a change for all of us, but with him eating more and more real food, I felt that I could save myself the two hours per day I spent pumping because I wasn't able to produce enough to feed him just breast milk anyway. Sorry if that was TMI for some of you! With all that being said, Neil ate "finger food" for the first time today in addition to the pureed food I make for him.

I've been making his food forever, but now it's time for him to learn to eat independently. Today I threw small pieces of cheese and small pieces of turkey on his plate for lunch. He did really well - much better than I expected. We went to Jody and Shannon's tonight for dinner and I fed him green beans and baked beans and he ate them right up! It's like he's been doing it forever. That is the thing about kids that blows me away - they pick something up one day and it's like they have been doing it forever! I know that one day soon I'm going to turn around and he's going to be walking towards me - like it's no big deal.

Neil starts "school" on Monday. Rodney and I went to visit the school on Wednesday night for the orientation, then visited the classroom with Neil on Thursday morning. Neil seriously acted like Rodney and I weren't even in the room - he loved it! It seems like most of the kids in his class are around his same age, so it's going to be good for him to learn to share!

We learned in the classroom that they take a nap from 10 am till 11 am. Since Neil definitely isn't on that schedule, Rodney and I thought we should get Neil adapted to more of a routine. He is actually doing SO WELL! We are putting him to bed at 8, no matter what, and waking him up at 7 (even on the weekends!). And we tried today to put him down for a nap at 10:00 and he went straight to sleep, didn't even fuss. I was SHOCKED! We came home in time for him to go down at 8:15 tonight and he seriously cried for 4 minutes - last night it was 17 minutes, tonight it was 4!!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am about this schedule. We were so good on the schedule until he cut those 2 teeth, since then it's been survival mode.

I think I'm going to try Cheerios tomorrow for a snack for Neil - I love the new food experience!

First party, first accident

Neil and I attended his first birthday party this weekend. His friend Colton (my friend Piper's son) turned one last week and they had his 1st birthday party on Saturday. We had the best time playing with all the little boys and girls that were there. Neil was WORN OUT on Saturday night! Colton wasn't participating in the cake smashing - he would stick one finger in the cake and then pull it back and look at it - SO CUTE! And Piper made that cake - impressive huh?

Went to Hartsville on the 7th for a wine and cheese for Caroline. I have to share these two pictures because they are absolutely hilarious! Emily went to sit down with me and Caroline and my mom snapped the picture below. We laughed about this picture for an hour!

Neil is definitely pulling up and climbing on EVERYTHING. It's crazy how one day your child is laying peaceful in a crib for 14 hours a day and the next he's into absolutely everything and wants to touch anything that is within an arms length. We had to take the toy in this picture away from him for a week or so - we had a very traumatic event occur last week. Neil was playing, just as he is in this picture, when he fell down - catching the toy with his chin on the way down. I calmly picked him up and gave him a little hug and Rodney came over to see what had happened. I had Neil close to my chest loving on him and Rodney said, "Ashley, he's bleeding - really bleeding." Well, come to find out, Neil had used his two teeth to practically bite through his little tongue. It was TERRIBLE! He was a great sport about it and didn't cry too too much, but it was VERY bloody. I freaked, not as bad as you may imagine, but definitely freaked. We got the bleeding under control after two calls to the doctor. Only the first of many accidents, I'm sure.

One big happy family. I had to take this picture - couldn't resist the family photo (minus me taking the pic)! Neil has been ending up in the bed with us lately - not good, I know. He wakes up around 3 in the morning and instead of fighting it and letting him cry it out, I've been giving in and putting him in the bed with us. Last night was terrible - he was up from midnight till 3:30! I really think he's cutting a top tooth. Let's all collectively pray it's a top tooth!!

New toys

I've recently discovered that Neil LOVES blocks. When I went to Wal-Mart late last week, I wanted to get Neil something fun that he could play with on the ground now that he's crawling and pulling up. I found wooden blocks, but they said 3 yrs. and up. Well, I bought them anyway and Neil absolutely loves them. Check him out! We have the best time with them.

Hilton and Chris Yates came to visit over the weekend. He and Neil are going to be 2 peas in a pod when they get older. Hilton is in the climbing stage (15 months) and we literally turned around to find him climbing into the bouncer with Neil. Neil loved it!

I think Neil looks so innocent in these pictures. What a little love bug! And check out his fast crawling. Can't help but be a proud mom!

We spent most of the weekend cleaning out our house - we couldn't even clean up until we cleaned out - we had a mess on our hands. But, we fought through it and really got rid of a lot of junk. Much more to do, but we did rearrange the den to fit Neil's needs better. Wide open space now! We still have to move some pictures and things, but you can get the idea.

Crawling

So Neil has been crawling for about 2 weeks! Michelle Swain is a great friend of mine who is WONDERFUL and let's Neil borrow Stuart's clothes because Stuart is about 4 months older than Neil - these are some pictures of the boys together. Neil had his first "cookie" at Stuart's house. We just won't talk about how he threw it all up about 5 minutes after this picture was taken. I didn't realize that I have to "fish" out the small pieces or he'll get them lodged in his throat and basically throw up in order not to choke. Lesson learned!

Neil LOVES to play with Daisy's paws. Check out the video too.

Isn't it so funny that he sticks his tongue out - he's CONCENTRATING! You can really see it in the video. Ha ha.

Time is really flying by. Neil starts "school" this month and will be going Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 - noon. Nancy will pick him up on Monday's and also keep him on Tuesday's and Thursday's. I will pick him up from school on Wednesday's and Fridays - I'm really looking forward to such a set schedule. I honestly don't know what we'd do without Nancy - she's absolutely wonderful.