the end.

I go back to work tomorrow from maternity leave.  It tears me apart knowing that I have to leave my little one. In one way, I feel like I'm abandoning him - in another, I know there are bills to pay and that he'll be in the care of his grandmothers who will love and spoil him.

I've learned a lot over the last twelve weeks - about myself, my relationship with Chris, and my precious baby boy.  I've experienced some wonderful moments: first smile, first laugh, watching him learn that he has hands, discovering and re-discovering his toes, having him look for me and lock eyes in a room of people.  Of course, there have been the days where no amount of kisses and hugs will calm him and where nap time is beyond our grasp...but I wouldn't trade that for anything.  I feel incredibly blessed to have spent this time learning how to be a new mommy and learning all that I can about little Nathan.

May the weekdays go by quickly and may our weekend time together last and last ...

aquarium.

I've been trying to go to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for about a year and a half now. First, it was too cold, then too hot, then I broke my ankle, then cold, then pregnant, then being a brand new mommy. But finally, FINALLY we went! It was all for the best, because little Nathan got to go, as well. Here goes a very picture heavy account of our day!

Yesterday's aquarium cast was as follows: me, Chris, Nathan, Courtney, Lauren and Matt, with Danny and Camille joining us for lunch.

One of the first things that we did was see the dolphin show, which was very cute.  Not on par with SeaWorld, but still very neat:

Nathan slept during the show, so Chris fashioned a hat/turban out of the burp cloth :)

We took a little break after the show - we re-hydrated, got a snack and took turns taking picture with little man:

After exploring an exhibit about jellyfish, we stumbled upon the kiddie area that had costumes and a puppet show set up - so we had to play!

All of the playing made us work up an appetite, so we headed outside to the inner harbor to have some lunch.  We ended up at a place called Dick's Last Resort (www.dickslastresort.com/) where the servers live up to the restaurant's name.  Suffice to say, it was an interesting experience but I don't think I'd like to go there again.  It was good to see Danny and Camille, though!

After lunch, we walked around the harbor for a bit and the girls rented a paddle boat for a while before going back to the aquarium. Here are some pictures of all the neat animals we saw. What a great day!

seahorse.

In my pregnant, pre-anatomy scan days before we knew the sex of the baby, I started calling him Seahorse. After all, the early ultrasounds resembled one of the little creatures.  The name stuck and I referred to Nathan as Seahorse throughout the rest of my pregnancy and, to be truthful, during the first week of his life.

Now I get a little giddy when come across Seahorse related baby paraphernalia, so I thought I would share.  Here's Nathan in a onesie from my friends:

I also came across a seahorse pacifier in the store the other day.  I made a little squeak and scared the poor lady looking at bottles beside me.  Granted, Nathan does not really like pacifiers, but I am trying my hardest to get him to take to them.  Here's an action shot of him and his new paci - see how his cheeks are puffed up in preparation to shoot it out? :)

pumpkin patch.

After today's impromptu trip to the pumpkin patch, I just had to post a few pictures of little Nate.  He had no idea what was going on, but was a good sport when we stuck him in different places for pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites:

fall jubilee.

We took Nathan to the Fall Jubilee in Old Town Manassas a few weekends ago.  Chris and I really enjoyed seeing all of the vendors and events.  Nathan, however, slept through the whole thing ...

Nate wore his JMU jacket (which is still a bit too big) and complete strangers kept walking up to us and moving Nathan's hood from over his little eyes ... which he did NOT like because it was such a bright, sunny day.  

Chris loves posing with costume characters - if there's one out there, he always gets me to take a quick shot.  Looks like Nate will be joining him in this tradition.  Here's the baby's first character picture:

Chris also got his fair food fix.  Poor Nate had little pieces of onion stuck on his back and sleeves from the steak and cheese sandwich - though Chris did a good job of juggling his smorgasbord.

Nathan finally woke up at the end of the day, long enough to wear his fireman hat for a few minutes.

This weekend's outing will be a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium!

two months.

It's that time again! We took Nathan's two month picture a few days ago.

In this month's picture: he is more awake and alert, sitting up (okay, propped up) in a more comfortable position, holding his head up much better, and has lost a lot of hair.  Nathan hates napping during the day but sleeps well at night, coos and "talks", smiles and tries to laugh, makes eye contact, and he'll watch you very intently when you move around the room.

Nathan had his two month check-up today where he got three shots and one oral medicine, peed on the nurse who weighed and measured him, and was overall was a really good kid.  His month two stats are as follows:

Weight: 14 lbs, 2 oz. (95th percentile for his age)
Height: 24 inches (90th percentile for his age)
Head Circumference: 39 cm (25th percentile for his age)

Here is Nate before the shots, and after peeing on the nurse:

And after the shots ...