Arden's 1st Halloween!

Today was Arden's first Halloween and I think it was a success! We had powerstroll class this morning at Pullen Park. Most of the babies came in costume, and our instructor Marybeth came dressed up too! Arden wore her pig costume, complete with her new pink chucks and a Halloween bib. The weather was great so we got a lot of good pictures, check out the Flickr page for more.

Then we had a picnic with Tricia & Jacob, and Ellen & Sutton. Then went home for a quick snooze, and wash of the costume (she spit up on it). And then we headed out to the post office and to the chiropractor in her pig costume. Everyone thought she was adorable.

She stayed in her costume and Mommmy got dressed up with her to hand candy out to the few trick-or-treaters that we got. All in all it was a good first Halloween!

Swim Class!

Arden went underwater for the first time! The company that I teach yoga for, also offers a Mom & Baby Swim class- think pseudo water aerobics to cheesy kids music. But it's fun to get her acclimated to the water and she seemed to enjoy it. Towards the end of class they have you dunk the babies underwater if you want to. You're supposed to blow in their faces right before you dunk them under so that they suck their breath in. Not sure if Arden did that or not, but she came up and her eyes were wide as saucers with confusion! But she didn't cry or cough or sputter. We even tried one more time and she seemed to like it. We also swam in the deep end with a noodle wrapped around us. And then afterward she took a 3 hour nap! I think we're going to take class more often!

I didn't have a picture from swim class, but here's a cute one from the other day! I could resist taking this one, I'm sure she'll hate me when she's a teenager for it!

Kids Costume & Pumpkin Carving Party

We decided to reinstate our annual Pumpkin Carving Party, but this year put a new spin on it and invite the munchkins so that they sould show off their costumes. It was a lot of fun, and the pumpkins actually got carved this year!

The kids kept their costumes on long enough for the respective parents to get pictures, and then most were out of them. This was the first "party" that Dave and I have thrown that we had an empty house by 7:30 pm, which was very different but kind of nice!

Arden's First Music Video!

So our friend Jackie came to visit awhile back and brought her son, Jackson's jumper with her. Since then we have gotten Arden one of her own and it has become the best thing we've bought her so far. She loves it and it is hours of entertainment for us. Not to mention gives her something to do while Mom can get stuff done too!

Just recently she's really learned how to navigate it and while I was playing music the other day I realized she looked she was dancing. So I put on a popular hip hop song (Timbaland's "The Way I Are") that Dave makes fun of me for listening to and she bounced away right on beat!

why i love being a stay at home mom...

let me just tell you about my last hour....

folding laundry, arden is in her jumper seat in the door frame. she's a bit too big for her jumper so we wrap towels around her so she doesn't bobble around in there. i look over, and notice her feet are kind of sliding around. upon further investigation realize she's sliding around in poo. this can't be good. so i go and unwrap the towels to realize that she's pooed through her diaper, down the leg of her shorts, onto the jumper, the towels, and onto the floor. nice. so i strip her down and put her directly into the bathtub and climb in with her to clean her off.

i get out of the tub with her and wrap her in a towel and put her on the couch will on run into the bedroom to get my bathrobe for me. i come back and she's peed on the couch.

need less to say, i went ahead and put her down for her afternoon nap a bit early. while i resolved the carpet, couch, and did yet another load of laundry.

no there is no picture for this post, i'll spare you the visual.

Another Trip to Maryland!

This time we headed up to my brother's place in Annapolis to see them and to go a friend's wedding on Saturday. She did good on the car ride up since we left around her bedtime anyway. Then we got to hang out with Aunt Amy on Saturday and took the our dog, Maggie and their dog, Casey to the dog beach. Maggie tried to pretend she wasn't 12 years old and tried to keep up with the younger dogs and could barely walk back to the car.

Justin's wedding was great and Brian & Amy watched Arden while we were gone, which was nice! See Brian's pictures from the weekend here The drive home kinda sucked since we hit traffic and it was the first time Arden has driven while she was awake for most of the trip. It took us 7 hours (normally a 5 hour drive). But it was a good weekend overall.

4 Month Check Up

Arden went in for her 4 month check up today and she weighs 12 lbs. 15 oz.- weighing in just under 13 lbs! That means she's gained almost 2 lbs in 2 months which the doctor was happy with. She got more shots this time, but Mom didn't cry like last time. I let Dave hold her while she got the shots which I think made a difference and then I just nursed her afterward to calm her down and she was fine within minutes.

Her biggest accomplishment lately is finding her foot. She loves to play with it, especially on the changing table. I think this is adorable especially considering it's a yoga pose appropriately named "happy baby".

She has become very social, "talking" to herself or anyone that will listen. I recorded a brief "talking" session that you can see below.

I've also uploaded some short videos to You Tube, including the above video,so here's the link to those.

Monday "Playgroup"

Can you call it a playgroup when the babies aren't really old enough to "play" with each other yet? 3 of my yoga friends have all had babies within 6 months of each other. Jenn was the first with Oscar (in the green with the bib), who is 3 months older then Arden. Then Erika has Killian (in the stripes), who is only 5 days older then Arden. Then Ellen has Sutton (in pink), who is 3 moths younger then Arden. We get together once a week on Mondays, and this Monday we went to Fletcher Park near downtown Raleigh. It's a great way to swap baby stories and ideas, and to be able to have some interaction with people that can speak in more the one syllable at a time!