FREE Dance Class

Check out this FREE dance class opportunity for kids 5+. So fun!

http://vanderlindenclan.blogspot.com/2009/04/free-dance-saturdays.html

Has it been 3 months already?

Today, Stockton is 3 months old. To celebrate we went and had his pictures taken at JC Penneys and went to Target to buy him some warm weather clothes that actually fit him right now since he is still a little shrimp. :) In an effort to be better at journaling his life so far I wanted to document some of Stockton's favorite things and some of my favorite things about him so far. I realize that this will probably turn into a long post so feel free to stop reading at anytime if you get bored.

Stockton's favorite things:

#1: His Mother. No really, I am. That's the way it really should be, right? It is a feeling I cant even describe to have someone love you more than anyone else for no other reason than just being "Mom". All I have to do is look at him and he smiles at me. It melts my heart every time.
#2: Napping on Daddy's chest. Mom might be his #1, but Daddy definitely comes in right behind me.

#3: His glow worm: Thank you to Bekah for bringing this to him. He lights up every time he sees it and just starts talking and squealing. #4: His blanky. That boy is already a fene for his blanky. He falls asleep every night rubbing his blanket under his nose. It is so adorable.
#5: People/world watching. He loves for me to carry him around so he can see what is going on in front of him. He just gets wide eyed and stares at everything around him.

My favorite things about Stockton:

#1: His facial expressions. Of course he steals my heart every time he gives me that crooked smile. How could I resist that? But I also love the way he looks so serious alot of the time too. He kind of scowls like he is thinking really hard about something. And my personal favorite, the Classic Stockton face, aka deer in the headlights look. I love how his eyes look so big like they are about to pop out. It cracks me up everytime. Maybe the real reason that I like that face is because my Mom always tells me that he looks like me when he does that because I was the same way when I was a baby.
#2: Our mornings. I love spending every day with him but our morning playtime after he finally wakes up for the day is my favorite part. After he wakes up to eat I will bring him into our bed and he will go back to sleep. I love sleeping with him and he always wakes up smiling. It is the perfect way to start the day. He is always the most playful and gives away the most of his smiles for the day. I really treasure this time everyday.

#3: His sleep schedule. He definitely got Troy's sleep gene. This kid LOVES to sleep. Well, I take that back, he loves to sleep at night. He really only cat naps during the day, but he is getting better at that. I would much rather have him sleeping at night than during the day though, I love my sleep way too much. He goes to bed at 9pm on the dot every night. If it is after 9 he knows it and he is ready for you to leave him alone and let him go to sleep. He wakes up once around 6-630am, eats, and goes right back to sleep until around 830 or so. Could there be a more perfect baby than that?

#4: Watching him fall asleep. Not only does he sleep all night, but this kid will fall asleep ANYWHERE as long as he has his pacy and blanky. Just give them to him and lay him down and he puts himself right to sleep. Sometimes this makes me sad because there are times i want to hold and cuddle him until he goes to sleep but it normally just makes him mad. So I will just lay down with him on the bed and watch him shake his head from side to side while he nuzzles his blanky on his face, listening to him grunting the entire time. It is so funny to watch. Too bad he has a bald spot on the back of his head because of it. :(

#5 Everything. There isnt a single thing this kid does that I dont love. Never in my life have I felt so complete. Him and Troy combined just make my life worthwhile. I am so lucky to get to spend every day with him just hanging out and being best friends. I can't wait to discover many more reasons to love him.

A blessing or a curse?

I was under the impression that having a baby that sleeps is supposed to be a blessing, but after this morning I'm just not sure. Stockton went to bed last night at 8:45 pm, woke up around 7 am to eat, went back to sleep and this is him as I am typing at 10:35 am. I got off work around 9:30 am when Troy left for work and I have been afraid to get in the shower or start any "projects" because I know he is going to be waking up any minute to eat. The longer he sleeps the more frustrated I get because in this amount of time, I could have showered, fixed my hair, done my makeup, gotten dressed, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, and folded the piles of laundry on the floor. But instead all I have done is tinkered around waiting for him to wake up. What a little stinker.

Stockton's camera face

Stockton really is a smiley baby, I promise. We have managed to get a few pictures of him that resemble a smile, but for some reason anytime he sees the camera the only face he knows how to make is this...

Easter Sunday

Stockton did a pretty good job at making his first Easter pretty memorable even though he wasnt old enough to hunt eggs with the other kids. I dressed him in his white blessing outfit so he could wear his cute hat again, but I bought a cute orange vest to put over his shirt to make him look "springy". I told him that if got anything on his white clothes, i was going to spank his bottom. Of course right in the middle of church he has the biggest explosion ever in his pants and gets poop on everything possible, and before I had taken his picture nonetheless. I didnt spank him because lets face it, I knew it was bound to happen. He still ended up looking pretty cute, but not like his mother wanted. I guess I should get used to that, huh?

Our bath time baby...

Stockton has always been good during his bathtime. I normally want to do them as fast as possible because I am paranoid about him being too cold so he never really gets a chance to enjoy them. But the other night we steamed up the bathroom so it was nice and toasty and we just put him in the bath to play for a bit before scrubbing him down. He really liked it. Of course, as soon as we got the camera out, he stopped smiling and put on his "camera face", but I still think he is pretty darn cute. :)

Growing so fast...

Compared to most of the babies that have been born in our family so far, Stockton is kind of a shrimp. He falls into the 50th percentile in both height and weight. Unfortunately, in an effort to be prepared and "save" money we had bought alot of clothes for him before he was born and since we were expecting him to be a bigger baby, we over estimated on our sizes. However, last week just for kicks, I put an outfit on him that I just knew would swallow him, and guess what? It fit...

Update on Stockton's head

I talked to the plastic surgeon's office last week about a date for Stockton's surgery and they informed me that the doctor who was going to be doing the surgery is moving to Phoenix in 2 weeks. I know, you would think he would give them more notice, but whatever, right? So now we are going to be going to the other surgeon who is actually the senior partner and has been doing this for over 20 years. Well, according to the girl I spoke with on the phone, he wont even do the surgery until Stockton is at least 9 months old. We are kind of bummed out about that because we were hoping to get it over with and done as soon as possible so we dont have to worry about it anymore. But on the bright side, we do get to go to the more experienced surgeon which is good thing, right? We have an appt with him on April 29th and will get to ask all of our questions about why we have to wait and all that. I will keep everyone updated as we find out more info.

Troy, Jr.

If this isn't a spitting image of his Daddy then I dont know what is...

Stockton's Baby Blessing

We had Stockton's baby blessing at church this past Sunday and everything turned out great! Troy did an awesome job and we had so much fun with our family and friends! Thank you to everyone that was able to celebrate with us. :)