Iain, Noah, and Christmas

So this is Iain and his friend Noah. Noah is about six weeks older than Iain and his mom Lauren and I have fun watching the two of them together. They sometimes ignore each other, but when they interact, it's adorable!

Anyway, here they are with Lauren while I was making lunch for us.
And playing on the floor - note Iain's ear-grabbing tactics!
And finally, the boys with their finished stockings. Iain's is a dancing penguin, and Noah's has a Santa head and reindeer head. Too cute!



We finally put the ornaments on the tree (it had been sitting there with lights and tinsel for a while). Iain watched attentively as the tree was trimmed. Note the look of intense concentration as he studied the ornament. :) (Grammy, do you recognize it?)


Hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Disney Trip

On Friday, Jeremy's aunt Gloria took Yaya (Jeremy's grandmother), Iain and I to Disney where she works at the Grand Floridian Hotel. We had a really delicious breakfast there, met some of the ladies she works with, got pictures of Iain with the characters, and shopped at some of the "cast members only" stores. It was a fun and busy day.

Iain didn't react at all to the characters, but it was fun to take his picture with them anyway. Note on the Pooh picture: Iain really wasn't about to fall off the table; it just looks that way. :)




In front of the Christmas tree in the hotel. Notice the crying Iain - ready for his meal!
A tired baby on the ride home:
And one more picture. Compare this with the other bath picture (in the post called "Bathtime, Etc") and see how much he's grown! He turned three months old on Thursday.

Fun Times with Iain

Iain is getting to be quite a fun fellow! He smiles, grabs for toys, laughs, and loves to talk. When he starts saying words, I don't know if he'll ever stop. :) Here are some pictures of fun times with the boy:

Playing "Ride a Little Pony" with Iain:
His cute Santa hat:
The Bumbo. Jeremy's aunt Gloria saw a baby ina restaurant in one of these and thought it was great. She got one for Iain; he's just now holding up his head enough to use it. He seems to like the new perspective on the world that it gives him. It's been fun to sit him on the table in it when we eat - he looks like a little chubby king on his throne.


And a preview for the next entry: My friend Lauren (see previous post "Bathtime, Etc.") and I have been working on Christmas stockings for "the boys." We finished today and wanted to take a picture, but Iain was napping. (Yes, napping! We're making progress!) So hopefully we'll be able to get a picture of them soon and you can see our amazing stocking-making skills. It was a fun project, though.

Happy Wednesday!

Still Working on Naptime!

The past few days have still been fussy ones. Iain is letting us know that he has opinions! Since about Thursday, I've been trying to get him to go down for naps at somewhat regular times - sometimes we have more success than other times. :) Right now, he's in his crib complaining but not crying... go to sleep, Iain!

Work on the house continues. This weekend, Mr Walter and Jeremy put in a new front door for us. Important because we couldn't pour slab on the side until we could get in the front. This week, we plan to choose a plumber and hopefully get that work started. Then the slab. Then the framing in and we'll be on our way.

Our only other news is that school is almost over for the year. We're looking forward to Christmas break, so we can regroup, catch up, and spend some time together. It's been a busy semester and we're ready for a break.

Fussy Days and Long Nights

That's been our week so far. Iain has decided that sleeping is for the birds and he'd just rather not. Catnaps during the day, a few hours at night, and he thinks he's good to go. Unfortunately, it (or something) is making his quite a fussy little fellow. Today we tried the swing, being outside on a blanket, the bouncy seat, taking a walk... he'd be distracted for a short time, but then he'd remember his fussiness and that would be the end of that. At night, he sleeps well for a few hours, and fitfully and with many wake-ups after that. Hopefully it's just a phase....?

Jeremy and Iain:

The Anatomy of a Roll

Step one: lie on belly with head held high, all the while, looking cute.
Step two: begin to lean to one side, making sure to look cute while doing so.
Step three: kick legs over, looking cute at the same time.
Step four: end on back, and add satisfied expression to original cute one.
Yes, last night, Iain rolled over for the first (and second, and third, and fourth) time. He was mighty pleased with himself and cooed and laughed after he made it onto his back. I think he's glad to know how to roll over because he never really liked "tummy time" to begin with - now he doesn't have to put up with it when he doesn't want to!

In other news,the red van died on I-4 (Iain and I had to hike back up the road to the nearest exit where my mom came and picked us up.). We were sad to see the faithful Monstro (my name for it, not Jeremy's, as he'd like me to make clear) go, but we're greatly enjoying our new van. We bought it used from some friends from my old church. It's a '97 and much nicer than any vehicle either of us has owned before!

And Iain has been enjoying his bouncy seat. It plays music and he kicks to make the toys dance. He smiles and has grabbed the toy once or twice. Usually, though, he just waves his arms and watches the toys move as he kicks.
Bundled up and smiling at Dad:

Four Generations

We've been doing quite a bit of travelling lately. Good thing Iain is a fairly happy little guy when we hit the road. We spent some time on Thursday and Saturday of last week in Satellite Beach with Jeremy's grandparents (and other members of his family). I think everyone enjoyed getting to hold and snuggle with Iain. One of the things we had really wanted to do on those trips was to get a picture of the four generations: Joe Sr. (Iain's great-grandfather), Joe Jr. (Iain's grandfather), Jeremy, and Iain. What a treasure for Iain to have later on.


It's amazing to see how fast the little man is growing. Yesterday, he held his head up very well for quite a while! I didn't get a picture of that, but here is one from a week or so ago - just imagine him holding his head up even higher.


One of our new favorite pastimes when the weather is nice is to go outside with a blanket. Iain enjoys watching the leaves in the tree above him and the dancing light patterns that filter through. He'll lay there quite contentedly for a half hour sometimes and then eventually be lulled to sleep. It's fun to see him enjoying nature, seeing things for the first time, and wondering at creation.


Grammy (Jeremy's mom) made a bunch of cute little burp cloths for Iain before he was born, out of cloth diapers with ribbon trim and eyelet. They serve their purpose well, but this morning, Iain decided they needed to serve another purpose. How cute!


I don't think I've ever taken so many pictures in my life! My mom should be proud.:) This one is a bit blurry, but I love the expression.

The Superman Pose


And some very exciting news... Iain really likes being swaddled. REALLY likes it. But he's getting so big that the receiving blankets I used to wrap him in weren't doing the job anymore. He'd kick his feet out and the blanket would pop off his chest and arms, and then his arms would be free to wave around... and wake him up. Fine for nap time, but he couldn't sleep more than a few hours at night, though I knew he should be able to, since he really wasn't all that hungry sometimes at night. So I used a gift card and bought a baby gadget - even though I am usually anti-baby gadgets. It's called a Swaddler, and it's a little blanket pouch with velcro to keep it closed. He looks like a little pea pod. But it works! The first night I tried Iain in it (last Tuesday), he slept six hours - and he has every night since. It's so nice to have him (and me) getting better sleep at night.

Tallahassee, Etc

Last weekend, we took Iain to Tallahassee so he could visit his aunt Jenna and meet our friends from college days. On Saturday, we took him to the Wesley Foundation to see all our old haunts. He slept through most of the visit, but we enjoyed walking around the property again, seeing what had changed, and talking to friends.

These are the porch steps where Jeremy proposed to me.





Then that afternoon, we had an open house so people could drop by and visit. It was fun to see everyone again!









And that evening, we went to a Greek Festival - great food, fun music, and a magnificent church.








In other news: work on the house continues. The repair part is finished except we still need a new front door as ours is now inoperable, and there are cracks to be patched and painted. Now we're on to the addition. First we need to tear up the concrete in the carport and front walkway. Then the plumber will come and tie into the existing water line. After that, we pour the new foundation and then finally start building!

Thanks to those of you who prayed for Iain's "bubble" to resolve itself. It has! We were told any symptoms would begin to appear when he was 4-6 weeks old, and we haven't seen any signs of trouble. In fact, he's growing like a weed!

We had a day or so of cool weather last week - perfect for walking! Iain enjoyed being bundled in his duck jacket.





And a few more miscellaneous pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Smiles!

Catching Up

Here is a smattering of news from the Brannnon household:

October 5-6: Cedar Key
We really enjoyed the two days we spent at Cedar Key. We rented a nice little cottage that was right on the water - lovely view and very peaceful. We spent the time walking around the town (and stopping so Iain could be admired by passersby), eating at a local seafood restaurant, and going on a boat ride around the keys. Iain was very well behaved on the boat! We learned about the interesting wildlife on the unpeopled keys; for example, on one key, the water moccasin population has changed into non-water snakes, as they have no fresh water on the island. Instead, they are foragers, eating only the fish dropped by the egrets as they feed their babies. The snakes and the birds are not enemies at all as they birds feed the snakes, and the snakes scare other predators away from the birds. Interesting. We also visited a scrub habitat, for those of you who remember those from the days of field trips and contests. No scrub jays, but we did see a few skinks and a toad.

Here's a picture of our little beach baby after the boat ride, one in the scrub, and one of us on one of the keys.




October 7: Open House and Baby Celebration
We had a lovely open house at my mom's, planned by Mrs. Icardi. Friends from church stopped by to meet Iain and to visit. It was good to see everyone, and to catch up.




State of the Sinking House
It's no longer sinking! The work crew came by last week and jacked it up on steel pilings. I was inside the house when it was raised and it was very interesting to see it move and hear it creaking! There are still holes outside our house and the front door no longer opens, but at least we're not in danger any longer of falling into the earth. And, thankfully and remarkably, none of the tiles in the dining room or kitchen cracked.

October 14: Iain is One Month Old
Celebrated with a visit from Jeremy's parents (Grammy and Papa), as well as with a candle in a scone (how very British of us), Iain turned one month old. It's amazing to think it's only been a month - seems like he's always been here with us. And on the other hand, a month seems very old.

Miscellaneous Cuteness