Last Sunday we took Davis on his first outdoor adventure.  It was a gorgeous day so we decided to take him on a trip to Rut N Strut (our deer camp in Madison County) to fish.  Being the thoughtful and domestic mother that I am, I packed a picnic lunch.

 

I forgot about the ticks.  This place is crawling with them!  So the picnic vision was better in my head, but we did get to take Davis fishing for the first time.  We didn't actually land any fish and Davis seemed a little underwhelmed with fishing.  I'm chalking it up to that fact that a ten week old is just too young to take in "the fishing experience".  He's definitely going to love to fish.

After his nap we gave up on fishing and took some pictures.

 

 Obviously he is a much bigger fan of that experience at this point in his life.

WHAT HE'S DOING THESE DAYS:
Davis is such a strong little guy.  As his Paw Paw said this weekend "he's stout".  Since he was about four weeks old he has tried to stand in your lap and now he can really do it.  If I hold his arms he can stand all by himself.  He has no control and would fall on his face if I let go, but I am amazed at the strength in his legs.  This last week he started to try and hold his own bottle.

It's a little more of an interference right now than helpful, but we encourage it because we think its good for his hand eye coordination.  I experimented and found that if I place his hands just right he can hold it on his own for a couple of seconds...an impressive milestone for me in case I need to itch my nose or use both hands to open my jar of cocoa roast almonds.  He's also really mastering the push up position.

And just yesterday he started to try and roll from his back to his front.  I noticed him doing it again this morning.  I think the idea just popped into his head yesterday afternoon and now he's determined.  He has also discovered his hands and tongue.  His new favorite trick is to stick his tongue out.  I don't think he really knows what he's doing because he wont mimic you when you stick yours out at him but he sure thinks it is fun to roll his tongue around.

Funny too because right now his tongue looks like this.

See those black spots...they are mold.  Well not really mold just a little extra bacteria but I like to call him "ol' moldy tongue" anyway.  Aubrey said he's going to call him "Mildew two" because his dad used to call him "Mildew".  Maybe Aubrey had a moldy tongue.  Doctor said it's really common and no big deal.  He gave us some stuff to get rid of it.  And before you think you can just stick a washrag in there and wipe it off - we've tried.  Washrag, spoon, tongue suppressor....that's a seriously small mouth and evasive tongue when you are trying to scrape it off.

He sure gives us a lot of ammo for nicknames.
So now for our list of nicknames we have:
Man Cub
Bubby
Little D
Snorter
Sir Farts A Lot
Pooter
Ol' moldy tongue
Mildew Two

 

THIS WEEKEND:

Aubrey's parents spent the day with us on Saturday.  Davis has pretty much always slept all day every time they come, so we were glad he woke up and entertained everyone for a while. 

He is such a ham.  If you look at him and smile he can't help but smile back at you.  It's the cutest thing you've ever seen.  I swear it never gets old watching that baby laugh and smile.  Aubrey said he realized for the first time that Davis really knows the difference between us and other people because he smiles more for us.  It's cool to see the recognition in his face when you come into view.  Makes us feel good since we wipe his butt fourteen times a day and everything.

 So that's what they do when I'm not there.  Hmmm.

Some of my favorites that I sent to Aubrey from the last couple of weeks.

.

Davis had his two month check up on Thursday.  He weighed 12lbs and was 23 inches long.  Doctor Livingston said he was probably actually much longer and to be honest the nurse didn't even try to straighten his legs when she measured him.  Maybe she was going easy since he was due for shots.  When he was two weeks old he got his first shot and I discovered I was not prepared.  The nurse stuck him and he didn't make a peep.  I was amazed.  Then he looked up at me, his face was the color of a tomato, eyes clamped shut and mouth wide open.  Still no sound.  It took a couple of seconds for the sound to come, like when you get a really bad cut and all you see is white for a while before the blood starts gushing.  That's what it reminded me of.  Eventually the scream started gushing and it hit me like a ton of bricks -I cried.  There should be a rule that no one is allowed to make a child sound like that until the mother has exited the postpartum hormone roller coaster.  Good news is we learned what Davis' true hurt cry sounds like.  Really its more of a shriek than a cry.  Short bursts of extremely high pitched shrieks. 

This round of shots I came prepared for the shrieking and crying.  I really thought it would be much worse considering he was getting three shots.  Those nurses have it down though.  He had one nurse on each leg and I don't even think the whole process took more than a second.  He did shriek a bit, but after a couple of seconds he was back to smiling and laughing.  He actually seemed kinda proud of his little blue band-aided legs.  I was proud when Dr. Livingston said that developmentally, Davis is "way ahead of the ballgame".  Obviously we think he is the smartest, strongest kid in the world but it was nice to have a little validation on that. 

 

Aubrey picked out his St. Patties day onsie.  The best part was EVERYTHING in that room was green. After the nurses left we heard one say loud enough for the whole clinic to hear, "that was sure a green baby!"  I wish she would have been close enough for me to comment that he was only slightly greener than the walls.

Thursday also happened to be my first day working out of the house since Davis was born.  It was a good day.  I felt a little out of my element but I'm sure it will all come back to me.  I kind of felt like no one really remembered me though.  Or maybe they just didn't notice I ever left?  It's also possible since I got pregnant literally the day after I took the job that no one recognizes me without my impossibly large pregnant belly.

I think its so cool that Aubrey gets to keep Davis while I'm at work.  I can just imagine all the manly father son outings they will come up with.  He is such a good dad.  This morning he fed Davis before he went to work and I got to sleep in.  Sleeping in until seven thirty doesn't sound like much but it sure felt good!  When Aubrey came to kiss me goodbye I told him thank you for feeding Davis and you know what he said?  "Sure.  It was fun".  Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard?  I am one lucky girl. 

I was a little late taking Davis' two month pictures.  So I guess they are his two and a half month pics.  But here they are.  These are also the pictures I sent Aubrey at work today.

So....I'm blogging

Okay. Here I go.  I have literally been meaning to create a blog for over a year now.  It went something like this.  January 2010-I should start a blog.  May 2010-Now that I'm pregnant I should start that blog so that people can follow my pregnancy journey.  December 2010-Wow, can't believe Davis is almost here.  I should really get my blog going.  January 2011-New Years resolutions....lose 50 lbs and finally start my blog.  Since I'm on Maternity leave I'll have plenty of time to write.  February 2010 and every day since then-Crap.  If only I had started my blog I could write about this amazing day that I had with Davis.  March 16, 2011-Check "start blog" off my to do list! 

Mostly, this is for me.  A journal to look back and remember how I am blessed.  Everyday. 
I plan to write the way I speak, with strange punctuation and misspellings (Aubrey and Mom, you will eventually get used to all the grammatical errors)

TODAY.
Today was beautiful.  So beautiful that I have tears running down my face thinking about it right now.  Nothing special happened, just an average day in my beautiful, blessed life.  Today Davis is nine weeks old and, like everyday, I went into his room at 6:00am and pulled a gorgeous grinning baby out of his crib.  He must be a morning person like his momma because every single day he smiles and coos at me when I wake him up like he just knows this is gonna be the best day yet....and it usually is.  He slept eight and a half hours straight last night.  A personal record, yes, but he usually sleeps at least seven.  How Aubrey and I come together to form this perfect angel I will never know.  I know the hard part is coming, but if he turned into a holy terror tomorrow I would still look back and be amazed at our good fortune the first two months. 

I work for an amazing company that let me go back to work part time until May when I will go back full time.  Today was a day off so Davis and I got to play all day.  My how the day flies by when everything your baby does is interesting.  Aubrey is at work and since he works 24 hour shifts I send him pictures of Davis so he doesn't feel like he is missing out.  Here are today's

Tomorrow will be my first day working away from the house all day.  I THINK I'm ready.