24 Hours of Toe Touching Goodness

The past 24 hours have been great! We have done lots of both fun and relaxing stuff. Last night we went to visit my Step-Mom and saw my Aunt Louise and cousin Timmy who were spending the night. We had a delicious meal of homemade quiche, fresh fruits and veggies, and tiny toasts with delicious cheese spread. I even allowed myself to have a few sips of wine, which immediately warmed all my insides upon ingestion. After dinner we watched Lady and the Tramp, which my parents had gotten Meo for Christmas but had never seen. Sue LOVES dogs, so I knew she would adore this movie. I am really glad we got to watch it all together. One of their dogs, Harley, was very interested in all the barking and howling going on in the movie, so he watched it too. He was so cute! What a lovely way to spend an evening: snuggled up with family, eating ice cream, with a babe nursing and sleeping at my breast, a bunch of cute dogs and a heart-warming movie!

Aunt Louise and Meo

Harley watching "Lady and the Tramp"

Today was just as lovely. Robbie decided to work from home because his throat was a bit scratchy. Even though he is busy working while he is home, I still enjoy his presence in the house. Also, my Mom came over to visit. We decided it would be good practice for her and Meo if she tried giving him a bottle and putting him down for a nap. She did great! Meo still didn't really like to have his bottle, but he at least drank some of it (1.5 ounces out of 2 ounces). Then she got him to fall asleep on her lap while she rocked in the rocking chair and he slept for a good hour and 45 minutes! We were so pleased. I was able to take a shower, pump some breast milk, have a snuggle session with my cat and brush his teeth, and do a WHOLE HOUR session of yoga while mom held him. I was in heaven! It's been so long since I've gotten to do that much yoga! How wonderful to stretch, to go upside down, to relax, to touch my toes! Afterwards, Mom, Meo and I took a fabulous walk in the snow. Meo loved watching the snow fall.

My mom giving Meo a bottle

Napping with Grammy

A walk in the snow

Snow falling on Meo

Speaking of toes, Mattimeo has found his! Just in the last 24 hours he has noticed his cute little feet and can't get enough (when he sitting at least). He likes to pull off his socks, and tonight he was attempting to eat his feet. What a cutie!

Mattimeo found his feet (4 months old)

A Few Firsts

My little creature has had a few firsts this week that I'd like to share:

First time grabbing a toy all on his own (6 weeks):

Mattimeo's grammy bought him this awesome playgym that has a cute treetop them which goes along with the treetop/Maine theme I have in his nursery. So far Mattimeo loves it! This is the first time I have been able to set him down on the ground for any extended period of time without him crying. In fact, he is actually really happy when he's on it and will "goo", "coo", smile and wiggle around excitedly. He even enjoys tummy time more now, perhaps because the gym came with a cute little pillow that makes it more comfortable to be on his tummy. The toys that dangle over him are adorable: there is an owl that rattles, a bird that has a different rattle sound, a cute bird that tweets and has crinkly wings, and a squirrel that has cute patterns on his underside. The ring that hangs from one of the birds is easy for Meo to reach and became the first toy he held all on his own.

Enjoying the play gym his grammy bought him

Peeking into the mirror

Enjoying tummy time

Here are some pictures of the night he held a toy for the first time all on his own:

Holding a toy on his own for the first time (6 weeks)

One afternoon since that day, he had a funny little episode. I had him happily on his play gym in the living room and had just laid on it with him to read him a story while my lunch was heating up in the microwave. I left for less than thirty seconds to go grab my lunch in the kitchen, and while I was gone he managed not only to grab hold of the ring, but somehow hooked his arm into it and was dangling on his side from his armpit! I was in shock when I came in the room of course, and quickly pulled him out of it. Fortunately he wasn't stressed out by the whole ordeal; he just had big surprised eyes that said, "Mommy, why am I like this?" I think in the future I will have to be more careful with leaving him unsupervised when I prop him up on his pillow (the pillow allowed him to reach high enough to hook his arm then roll off of the pillow and get stuck).

First Bottle (5 weeks):

Since the midwives gave me the okay to start doing more strenuous exercise, I started jogging again. The first time I went jogging, I pumped a bottle of milk just in case Meo got hungry while I was out. When I got back, Meo had just started fussing for food, and Robbie really wanted to try giving him a bottle. So I went and did some yoga while Robbie gave Mattimeo his first bottle (although I did sneak in for a peak and to take a picture). Mattimeo did really well with the bottle and Robbie enjoyed giving it to him.

Mattimeo's first bottle (5 weeks)

First bath and shower with Mommy and Daddy (6 and 7 weeks):

Last week (6 weeks) I really wanted to take a bath because the midwife told me it would help with the healing process and I was feeling a bit sore one day. Mattimeo still needed his bath for the day (as part of our daily routine I give him a bath each night in the evening because he enjoys it so much and is very relaxed afterwards) so I decided to see how he liked taking a bath with me. He loved it and it was so much fun. At first he had wide eyes because he was surprised by all that was happening, but eventually he relaxed and really seemed to enjoy himself. Robbie joined us to and was a brat because he kept using little rubber duckies to squirt water at Mattimeo and I. So much for a relaxing bath! Oh well, at least it was fun.

Last night (7 weeks) Robbie came home from playing raquetball in the evening and was really sweaty. Our friend Rob was coming over soon to play the Game of Thrones card game with us and eat some pizza, so Robbie wanted to take a quick shower. But Mattimeo still needed his evening bath because I had just gotten back from taking him for a walk and feeding him and hadn't had a chance to give him one yet. But since we were having company over I knew he really needed to have his bath so he would be happy and calm for the rest of the night. Robbie thought it would be fun to try taking his first shower with him. So we got Mattimeo undressed and I held naked baby while Robbie hopped into the shower to rinse off before I handed him over. Unfortunately while we were waiting, Mr. Mattimeo decided to pee all over Mommy. So now Mommy had to take a shower too! Thus all three of us hopped in and took a shower together and Mattimeo enjoyed it. I think the power of the shower surprised him at first, but he was content the whole time and eventually relaxed so much he was almost taking a nap. Robbie finished washing up first so he took Meo out so he could give him a quick massage before company came so I could finish washing. While they were both naked in the nursery however, the doorbell rang (the pizza guy was fast) and chaos ensued. We were both laughing as Robbie ran around trying to get a diaper on Mattimeo and some clothes on himself so he could answer the door while I quickly hopped out of the shower and dried off. We thought the whole thing was really funny, and Robbie thought it was exciting to have tried to plan so many different things for one night since it had been a while since we've dared to do that.


First time eating in a restaurant (7 weeks):

Yesterday I had an optometrist appointment, and my mom came with me just in case I was going to have my eyes dilated and wouldn't be able to drive home. After my appointment, she was starving and took Meo and I out to eat at Ruby Tuesdays. I was a little bit nervous about taking him into a restaurant since we had never done that before. It was 2:30 in the afternoon though so the restaurant was pretty empty. We went to Ruby Tuesdays and sat in a booth in a quiet corner of the restaurant. Mattimeo was great! He took turns sitting on our laps and looked around with big eyes. At one point he started looking a little overwhelmed and was quivering so I decided to nurse him to help him calm down. It wasn't as scary as I thought to nurse him in the restaurant. Admittedly this was probably because there wasn't any people around, but I think that experience will give me more confidence in the future to take him with us if Robbie and I want to go out to eat.

Mattimeo's first time in a restaurant (7 weeks)