Bag Tag

I've been tagged with the "Bag Tag" to show the contents of my purse. Let me warn- I have a million things, but it is only because my purse doubles as my diaper bag right now (I cannot haul around a purse and a diaper bag), plus, I have to shove in little odds and ends for Chloe as well. My bag is kind of like Mary Poppins' bag- all sorts of things are in there and you'd be amazed and surprised as to what they are and how it all fits in there! Here goes:

1. Diapers
2. Wet Wipes
3. Kleenex
4. Notebook
5. Coupon/Receipt booklet
6. Extra outfit for Mitchell
7. Onesie
8. Burp cloth
9. Water bottle
10. Piece of Chocolate (for sanity reasons)
11. Fruit snacks
12. Antibacterial Hand sanitizer
13. Infant gas drops
14. Baby toy
15. Baby book
16. Checkbook
17. Wallet
18. Chapstick
19. Pen
20. Gum
21. Cell Phone
22. ABC flash cards
23. Reader's Digest magazine
24. Ipod earphones (and usually my Ipod)

I must admit I didn't list quite everything- this was a good excuse to clean out my bag- things I didn't picture or put on my list was lots of garbage and wrappers, and a few papers and hair bows of Chloe. I haul around a lot of stuff, thanks to my kids! In high school, college and when I was first married, I didn't even have a purse- I just had "a wallet on a string" which was literally what it was- a thin, thin, little bag (not even big enough to be called a bag), a wallet in all reality, that only held credit/debit cards, my checkbook, drivers license and maybe a pen. I loved it. Oh how things have changed.....

I now tag: Megan, Meredith, Camille & Tara.

St. Patrick's Day Funny

My mom sent a cute St. Patrick's Day card for Chloe yesterday, but we didn't get the mail until after she was in bed for the night, so she didn't get to open the card until today. Inside the card was 2, crisp $1 bills. Chloe was so excited and, upon opening the card and finding the money, said, "Oh wow, 200 bucks!!" She has been really into money lately and is just starting to understand the concept of it, although I think the main reason she likes it is because Mom and Dad have it and if we have it, it must be pretty neat. She also knows that "cash" is a fantastic thing in our house because Ben and I rarely have it (we just don't carry it very often), so when either of us have some, we are so excited about it. Lately, she has been on "cash hunts" and has been getting into my and Ben's wallets when we aren't around to find any bills that we might have. Anyway, seeing that Grandma and Papa had sent money, she said this morning, "Now I have 2 cashes!" She then turned to me and happily pronounced, "Now I won't have to get into yours, Mom!" Who knew that $2 would make a 3 year-old's day? Thanks Grandma and Papa- Chloe loved it, and Ben and I loved it too- now we don't have to worry about our cash getting stolen! :)

One Pup, Two Pups, Three Pups, Twelve Pups

Daisy had her pups! We knew it was coming any day, and Sunday was the BIG day. And when I saw big, I mean big..... Ben knew Saturday night that she was getting close, so he checked on her early Sunday morning around 4:00 a.m. and no pups yet. The next time he went down to check on her at 8:00 a.m. she had already had 3 pups! To make a long story short, we had 10 pups by the end of the afternoon. We thought for sure that she was done and went inside to eat dinner. We went back out a few hours later and one of our friends' kids, who was over, said, "Hey, look, another one is coming!" Sure enough, she had another pup, which we thought was #11. Ben did a quick head count only to discover that there were 12 pups in the box! We had entirely missed one of the pups being born! So, all in all, she had 12 pups, all healthy and all very, very cute. 7 of them are black, the other 5 chocolate. 4 males and 8 females. For those of you who live close enough to visit, feel free to stop by anytime! We have pups for your (and your kids') enjoyment! :)

Here is Daisy with her 12 new babies- what a trooper! (I'm so glad I don't have 12 kids at a time. Then again, it may be worth it if I were only pregnant for 60 days, like dogs, instead of 9 months).

Chloe was Ben's big helper- she was there for the whole labor and delivery! Here she is, in the birthing box, with the first 3 pups that were born. She loved every minute of it!

She loves holding the pups too and wanted to hold a new one every few minutes. Good thing she has 12 to choose from!

Chloe is very sweet with the pups and tries to be a good second mom to them. She thinks she knows just what they need and when they need it!

I was pregnant with Mitchell last time we had pups, so this was his first experience with them. As you can see, he is very at ease with them and shows no hostility or envy towards them!

Here he is, imitating a puppy face....

I know what he's thinking here...."Mom, can I keep him?"

And to that I say, "Yes, for 8 weeks."

First Food!

Last night, Mitch has his taste of real food for the first time. According to his weight, we should have fed him a big juicy steak and a side of potatoes and veggies, but we played it safe and went with rice cereal. At his 4 month doctor's visit on Monday, our pediatrician asked us if we'd started solid foods yet and I told him no. He said most babies are OK to wait until 6 months to start, but he said with a baby Mitchell's size, he (meaning Mitchell) probably wouldn't want to wait that long. He gave us the go ahead to start right away. Before the appointment, I was totally OK with waiting until 5 or 6 months to start solids, and I'm sure we would have been just fine to wait anyways, but Mitch is a big guy and loves to eat. I had a friend ask me today, after seeing how big Mitchell is and finding out much he weighs, "Does he just constantly nurse/eat?" He does eat often and a lot, so we decided to give solids a try.

Here he is, before the big meal, mentally preparing himself for the event, spoon in hand, All-Star bib on.

And.....game on. He leaned forward and gobbled every bite.

I think this picture describes the whole event- he LOVED it! He was open mouthed, tongue out, leaning forward and loving every bite. He couldn't get enough.

Chloe was begging for a turn, and after all her practice at my parent's house last week of "pretending" to feed him, we thought we'd let her give it a shot. After all, she did get Mitchell used to using a spoon and he did great with it tonight. Notice Chloe's open mouth- when I used to feed Chloe as a baby, I would, not noticing, open my mouth with every bite she would take. I see other adults do it, and apparently, kids do it too!

Chloe did a great job feeding him and Mitchell loved it- whenever she is around, he hangs on her every word, turns and follows her with his head and can't get enough of her.

We started off with the suggested "first time feeding amount" on the box- 1 Tablespoon. But he gobbled that up in no time and kept eating and eating. This is a very serious shot of him- food is a serious business in the Andros home. No messing around.

If this picture doesn't show a full, satisfied baby, I don't know what does!

So- Solids were a hit! I had forgotten what it was like to feed a small baby. It is so much fun! It is a lot more work and a lot messier than just sitting down and nursing or bottle feeding a baby, but so worth it. He loved every minute of it and so did we. There's no looking back now- he's tasted the good life. My boy is the size of most one year olds, so he deserves a hearty meal!

Chunky Monkey

We took Mitchell in for his 4 month appointment yesterday and here are his stats:

Weight: 20 lbs 5 oz (97th + percentile, or as the doc said: "Off the charts")

Height: 26 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

Head: 44 cm (90th percentile)

We have a very healthy little BIG man. Just to break it down for you, at birth he weighed just a few ounces shy of 9 pounds, by 2 months he was up to 14 1/2 pounds, by Christmas (less than 2 weeks later) he had shot up to 15 lbs 12 oz! And now we are at 20 pounds and then some. So he has more than doubled his birth weight by 4 months. I don't know what it is about my and Ben's genes, but we make BIG BABIES!! I must make heavy, chocolate whipping cream instead of milk.... A preemie would never stand a chance with us- we'd have an under weight baby whipped into shape and chubby as could be in 2 weeks flat. We love our little man (he may be big but he's still my little baby) and we love every pound on him! As Ben says, any fisherman would consider Mitchell a fine catch!

Warning: Holding him is not for the faint of heart, but if you ever want to snuggle with the sweetest little baby around, Mitch is your man.

And I had to post this picture for Grandma Blakeslee- she bought Chloe this darling little jacket last week and I had to show her how darling Chloe looked in it. Thanks Grandma- we love it!!