A good day for Green Day.

Dave and his buddy Paul have been huge Green Day fans for as long as I've known them. Shortly after we got married, Dave and Paul signed a contract to each other that they would go on a 10 day Green Day tour as soon as the next tour was announced. Knowing there was alcohol involved and that we were planning on having a family, I thought one or two shows was plenty. In Dave's clear mind, he agreed.

Finally, Green Day announced their upcoming tour. Dave was thrilled, but it was over our planned vacation week and I wasn't quite as excited about changing our plans. We were negotiating dates and options when their lead singer fell ill and ended up in rehab. Its a REALLY good thing we didn't change our plans for Green Day, because they were clearly not considering our schedule when they changed their tour dates ;).

In the end, the dates worked out well, Dave and Paul hit the road to Moline, IL last Friday morning. They had a great drive, spending most of it listening to every Green Day song ever recorded. The concert was really fun as well, and most importantly, they had a great time together (something that has happened less frequently since Sully's arrival). Dave made it home on Saturday afternoon with a spring in his step, with the heart of a reborn Green Day fan.

Sullivan and I are glad they had such a great time, and next year, Sullivan will go along with them ;).

Paul and Dave preconcert.

Green Day

The contract.

Sully showing his enthusiasm back at home.

Snuggles with Sully

The older Sully gets, the better he sleeps. Although we have not mastered consistently sleeping through the night, we have made vast improvements. He has been sleeping through about every other night, and the nights he wakes, he keeps it brief, usually a quick diaper change, feed, and back to sleep within about thirty minutes (unless its Dave's turn...Sully automatically associates him with play, so his shift takes a bit longer :)).

Sully had been spending the early morning hours in our bed when he was up more frequently in the night, which was less than conducive to my sleep, but the snuggles were priceless. There is nothing quite as cozy as the three of us snuggled in our warm bed. It brings me back to when I was young, Maggie and I loved to be near my parents (mom) every chance we got. Most of our nights were spent on sleeping bags on their floor. We would take turns, one of us on my mom's side, the other at the foot of the bed, and vice versa. My mom eventually bribed us out of their room by promising to give us back rubs each night before bed, which I still fondly remember. I remember her sometimes scratchy hands or nails from digging in the dirt all day and her apologizing for that. Or sick days home from school, her bed was always the treasured spot, so cozy and quite, with an occasional pop in from our personal nurse for the day. 

Dave recently mentioned how he missed Sully in our bed, and how nice it was to wake up to him snuggled in between us. He will often ask if he can bring him in if he wakes up in the early morning hours. I am not opposed to it, but it just has not happened. We try to soak up his snuggles when we are rocking him to sleep before a nap or bedtime, something we both really look forward to. In fact I sometimes feel like we fight to be the one who gets to do it.

We (I know I can speak for Dave on this) never knew we could have this much love for another human being. 

Midnight snuggles. 

Sleeping beauties.

Rocking with daddy.

Swimming like a Shrimp (?)

Sullivan started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and loves them. Not only is he the only boy baby in the whole class (among 6 lady babies), he also enjoys the quality time in a warm pool. The class (which is called 'Shrimp/Kipper') usually starts with a song, followed by a jump into the pool. Then the babies are floated around by their mommy or daddy, on their tummy first, then their back. After that, they bring out a giant bag full of little balls that float around the pool. Sullivan loves this part, he immediately swims (ok, ok, Im exaggerating, he leans) toward the balls, he snags one and what does he do with it? The same thing he does with everything else, straight to the mouth. After the ball fun, we sing another song and then spend the rest of the time floating around. The teacher frequently praises Sully for his laid back attitude. He rarely cries or fusses, he just relaxes and enjoys the water, he is even content during his one or two weekly dunks. We do try to get Sully into the water a few times a month at the Fitness Center, so I'm sure that has helped his easy going attitude. Sully also really likes the taste of the warm pool water (ick!). When we are floating him on his tummy, he likes to open his mouth and take a gulp...I wonder if we should bring a straw along to next week's class?

Here are few photos from last week's class.

Our String Bean

Sullivan had his 9 month appointment on Monday and we are happy to report only good things. Dave and I were sure that he had gained a ton of weight, but much to our surprise, he grew more length wise  than weight wise. He weighed in at 18lbs 5ounces (14 percentile) and 28.5inches (62 percentile).

Some of Sullivan's current favorite things include: tubbys, swimming with daddy, moving in all directions, playing with daddy's sound system, blueray player, and amazing collection of dvds :), saying mmmmm, bababababa, and facetiming with Anna and Isaac. He is a pretty great napper, he gets two per day and they each last about 1.5 hours, he goes down like a champ. Sleeping at night is much improved, too. He generally goes down around 7pm and sleeps til 7:30am waking up once during the night. Yes, it would be great if he would sleep through, but after a difficult couple of weeks of weaning and routine flubbing, I am thrilled with his current schedule (especially when it is Dave's night :)).

I am happy to report that he is pretty much happy all of the time. What a little life changer. Last night Dave and I were laying in bed getting ready to turn out the light and before saying goodnight, Dave kind of smirked and said "Oh, Sullivan," then pulled out his phone and looked through a few photos. He is an addictive little guy.

Here are a couple of photos from this week.

Mama gets a shipment, Sullivan gets a toy (box), and loves it. 

Tubby time.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Helen!

We celebrated Helen's Birthday with a lasagna party. We had done something very similar last year and knew we would make it a tradition. We took over one of the family rooms at All Saints and enjoyed the company of family and friends. As always, Helen was gracious and grateful.

Our group included Helen, Sullivan, Lauren, Elliot, Kyle, Amy, Kirsten, my mom, Dave, John, Vicky and John's son, Aaron and his girlfriend Chelsea. Due to Sullivan's early bedtime, the two of us turned in a bit early, but the rest of the group stayed later to celebrate Helen. We know she had a great time, and the three of us really appreciate everyone for taking the time to give Helen a little extra attention on her Birthday.

Birthday Girl

Kyle and Elliot.

Lauren, Sully, me and Amy

Dave, Sully, me and Helen. She loved the photo gift from Sully. 

We are already looking forward to celebrating lucky number 84 with her next year!

Finally...forward!

Sully has been on the verge of crawling for weeks. We spend lots of time on the floor encouraging movement. He has mastered moving backward, sideways, planks, and finding his way from his tummy to his bottom, then back to his tummy again. Moving forward proved to be the most difficult move, but it is safe to say, he has accomplished it. He makes his way everywhere. We spend most of our time in the basement and he manages to find the components to the tv/sound system without fail. This was no surprise to me, however, it makes Dave's skin crawl. "Uh oh, Sully, thats the volume...and that is way too loud! Sully, you shouldn't open and close the blueray player!" These are a couple of Dave's common phrases. Sully just grins and when we move him away, he goes right back, true (almost) toddler form. We have one baby gate installed and intend on doing the others in the near future.

Sullivan is 9 months old and goes in for his appointment on Monday. I cant believe our baby has already been with us for almost a year already...its going so fast!

On the move! 

Hi mama! 

Just before I pushed the 'publish' button, Sully was playing in a pile of Dave's DVDs and I was letting him be as he was occupied and happy. Dave came down the stairs and said, "Sully, you have a million toys, but all you want to do is play mine!" Uh oh :)!

A side of avocado, please.

We started Sully on solid foods shortly after his 6 month birthday. We were excited at the new phase in his life, but sad that it meant he was actually growing up. We dove in, rice cereal first; we failed miserably. He hated it, we hated the mess. But we hung in there, I dug out my baby food maker and started, our freezer was full of veggies and fruits. My weekend ritual became steaming (and accidentally steaming off the finish of one of my cabinets, but Im saving so much money by making my own food... you get where I'm going with this) and processing baby food. Carrots, green beans, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, cantaloupe, peas, etc. I was on a roll, however, Sully hated everything we put into his mouth. Mealtime was a nightmare, Dave and I would divvy it up, not allowing the other to have to endure the tears more than once per day. I was insistent that Sully at lease sit in his chair for meals, three times per day, he needed to at least get the routine down. Some days we would manage a spoon tip full, other days (like his first intro to peaches) he would suck the spoon dry. Much to our dismay, the excitement of new food quickly wore off and the tears would come back.

One afternoon, I was pulling out more frozen foods (to basically waste after failed feeding attempts) and I saw an avocado hiding behind the peas and green beans. I thought, what the heck, maybe he will like it. I remembered reading about an avocado/banana concoction that babies sometimes liked, so I gave it a whirl. Im still excited by what followed. Sully ate and ate and ate. I had been so accustomed to him not eating and not wanting to waste, that his portion sizes were miniscule. I went back to the kitchen numerous times to get more.  He loved it. I started to mix avocado with everything, and it worked. Avocado/apple, avocado/squash, avocado/carrot, etc. We have finally started to wean him from avocado and get him to eat plain foods, but in my opinion, its a miracle food, and will definitely be a Sully staple.

Mmmm, more avocado, please! 

Post meal, pre tubby. 

Is there something on my face?