Today Chance was laying on his blanket and I was hanging toys over him. He was looking at them and following them around as I moved them he bats at them a little bit now. Last night I gave him a bath and this morning he has fuzzies all over him, I guess he wasn't completely dry when I wrapped him up in the blanket for bed. He didn't seem to notice though. He slept all night again last night going to bed about 8:30pm and waking around 6 am it is wonderful. He's awesome. He definitely has a distinct personality now. And being able to be home with him all the time I really get to learn him so the days are pretty smooth since I know when he is hungry and when he is cranky because he needs to sleep. He takes two good naps during the day and one half nap in the evening. The rest of the time he is awake and playing or eating and always looking around. Yesterday and today he looked at his hands and moved them back and forth. He is just staring at them and taking them in like he can't believe that they are attatched to him and he is slowly understanding that he can control them.

Guess whose figured out how to suck his thumb? I'll give you a hint...

We've just been hanging out the last couple of days. It's been beautiful outside. Scott is home for the week I know I said he would be gone for a month but his schedule changes all the time so he is home now and will be till Sunday. Chance is sleeping now. He slept all the way through the night day before yesterday and then yesterday he woke up a couple times but last night he went to sleep at 6pm and didn't wake up again till 5 am that is amazing. We sit outside on the balcony a lot now that the weather is nice. He loves looking around out there. Also today I think I caught him looking at his hands. Really looking at them it was pretty cool, it's a whole new level of self awareness that is really neat.

Tummy Time keeps getting better all the time. Chance is fickle about his tummy time. One day he will lift his head and play and skoot around for twenty or thirty minutes, the next day he is done with it within just a few minutes. Either way he keeps lifting his head higher and higher. He just started getting his chest into it. I finally got a good picture of him holding that head up. Plus he's giving me a look that says "hurry up take the picture" because this is like the tenth one I tried to take before I got this one that isn't blurry and has his head up (Thank God for digital cameras). He seemed like he was trying to help me out, each time he would lift his head and then hold it all the way up for just a second before crashing back down to the blanket.

Two months old today! That is just crazy. Well we went to the Doctor today. Chance fell alseep in the car on the way over and was awake and alert by the time the nurse took him in to check his height and weight. He weighs 12 pounds and 3 ounces, I was talking to the receptionist about our new insurrance while she checked his height and forgot to ask but I am going to call tomorrow to find out just because I would like to know and I will share it with you all then. We waited in the room only a minute when Dr. Morgan came in. She checked his eyes and ears and listened to his heart all of which were in good working order. She said he looked wonderful and healthy and like a happy baby. He even made a couple little smiley faces for her, he was really good and didn't cry through any of the exam. Then came the shots...he received three shots today for a total of five vacinations. 1. DTaP = Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) 2. Hepatitis B 3. Hib = Haemophilus Influenzae which is a disease which causes among other things very bad ear infections and which can lead to Meningitis 4. PCV7 = Pneumococcal Conjugate which can cause lots of horrible things to happen to you and can also lead to Meningitis 5. Polio We are getting all the vacinations that his Doctor recommends because most reactions are mild and compared to getting polio (for instance) they are nothing also if people stop getting the vacines for these diseases then they will come back. So there he was laying on the table all happy and looking around, I held his arms with his little hands grabbing onto my thumbs, I talked to him and told him they were going to give him a shot to keep him a healthy little baby as the Doctor held his leg and gave him one stick in his left leg. He looked right at me and cried and then he stopped almost as abruptly as it started it was as if he was saying it hurt for a minute but he was tough. Then the Doctor held his other leg and poked it quick two more times and that is when he let it all out. His face turned red and got all scrunchy and he cried. She put bandaids on his legs, as soon as I picked him up he began to calm down and by the time I got him strapped back in his carseat and out in the lobby he was calm, collected, sucking on his pacifier. His next appointment is April 20th for his four month check up and more shots. He slept the whole way home, He seems a little more cranky kind of like his legs hurt he doesn't want to sit or stand he just wants to lay over my shoulder in a burping position to let his feet dangle but he is not as yet running a fever at all. I did give him Tylenol right before they gave him the shots and then again at 4:30p because he seemed cranky but I didn't give him any at 8:30p and he is now asleep for the night so unless he wakes up really cranky he probably won't need any more medicine. He is just such a good baby. I have pictures to go with this but the picture upload isn't working right now check back soon I will add the pictures as soon as I can. UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!! Finally I got the pictures to work!

Happy Mardi Gras everybody! Chance and I went to see REX today, it is warm and muggy here but there is a breeze so it was a wonderful Mardi Gras day. We caught lots of beads, some cups and some doubloons. Once again he was a little angel. We didn't have great costumes because during the time when most people are planning and making their costumes I was having a baby then learning how to keep him alive. So I wore just some fancy stuff from the closet and I put Chance in this cute little onesie I got at Target. We got some food then headed out to the parade, about half way there I looked down and he was sound sleep. That's one good thing about rough sidewalks. On the way to Canal Street and back I snapped a lot of pictures so you all can see a little of what goes on here at Mardi Gras. Really it is indescribable, I can only say it is a ton of fun and highly recommended to everyone. I uploaded all the photos I took to a new album titled "Mardi Gras 2007" on Yahoo I also uploaded all the photos of Chance I have taken in the past couple weeks. Check them out by following the link at the right of this page. Tomorrow is Chance's two month check up I am already dreading the shots he is going to get I feel bad for him. I will definitely update tomorrow to let everyone know how it went.

I snapped this picture just the other day of Scott and Chance. They are great together. Scott has been in town for the past week, it has been great. As Chance gets more of a routine Scott and I get more time together which is wonderful. Scott left today for New Jersey (sorry about the cold) and will not be back home for a month. It is going to be a long month. When Chance takes a nap sometimes we wrap him up in his Winnie-The-Pooh blanket that my Mom made, after this nap Scott brought him in the living room still wrapped up. This is what we like to call Baby Battering Ram. It looks a little weird in the picture but in person it is too cute.

8 weeks old today! Chance is 8 weeks old today. He is growing everyday he doesn't seem much taller but he is getting chubbier all the time. His hands are a little chubby now but the rest of him is still not really chubby compared to other babies because he is still so tall. He fits in his 3 - 6 month onesies from neck to buttons but he still has lots of fabric around the middle. He is still sleeping well and he is starting to look at toys when I dangle them in front of him. I want to get him on of those little gym mats with the toys that dangle from a little arch I think I will really like that. Somehow he gets fuzzies between his fingers and toes all the time and he also has dirt under his fingernails so sometimes I look at his hands and he looks so dirty but really he isn't. Scott and I also think his hair does have some red in it that is starting to show. He can hold his head up really well now and when we put him on his tummy he holds his head and chest up high for a few seconds. I felt so bad last time I gave him a bath, I let his face touch the water for a second and he cried but he was completely fine. Hopefully he doesn't hate baths now. It was freezing here tonight (literally) so we decided not to go to the parades. We are going out to parades tomorrow.
His next Doctor's appointment is next week on the 21st that is when he will get his first set of shots and when we find out his actual weight. However yesterday I figured out his weight from subtracting mine on the regular scale and he weighs 12 pounds now. That seems crazy to me, I can feel that he weighs more but 12 pounds sounds like so much compared to the 7.9 pounds when he was born but we will find out the truth next week.
He smiles more now and once in a while we will hear these other little sounds that I think are the beginnings of cooing. Sometimes he also makes these happy little sounds when he smiles and those are so cute.

We have been going to parades for days now. All together we have been to six parades so far and are planning on going to at least one per day every day between now and Mardi Gras (next Tuesday). Chance has been really good, we walk down to the parade route in the stroller, he usually falls asleep on the way and then sleeps the whole time if he does wake up it is just for a second and then he goes right back to sleep. It has ben kind of cold here so I have him really bindled up. Tara gave us this great cover for the carseat as a baby shower gift. It keeps him all roasty toasty inside his own little cave. I want to get pictures of him at some of the parades but I haven't wanted to take him out of his cave in the cold just for a picture. Hopefully it will be warm for some of the parades between now and Tuesday and I will be able to get a good picture. For now though these are some before and after pictures. The first one is us just before we left for the parades and the second one is right after we got back with some of the beads and throws we caught at the parade.

I have tried giving Chance a bath in three different places. So far we have tried his little bathtub, the big regular bathtub and the sink. The big bathtub is hard to give him a bath in because I have to bend over and it is so big, his little bathtub is big for him and kind of a pain to fill up and clean out every time so the winner is the kitchen sink. About every other day Chance gets a bath in the sink. He doesn't mind the baths at all. He sits down in the water and as long as I don't get it in his eyes he likes the experience. He even gave me a little smile while in the bath last time. After his bath I have these little hooded towels with different animals on the hood part. Then I wrap him all up in the towel part and cuddle him till he is warm then we dress for bed then he just goes off to sleep. These are some pictures of him in his hoody towel right after his last bath.
Look at the tongue in the last one. He is so cute.

Time really does go by fast. Chance is 7 weeks old today. He is holding his head up better by himself and just before I snapped this first picture he was holding his head up really high off the blanket but I couldn't get the camera in time to caught it. We hung out at the house all morning and then we went to the eye doctor as I had an appointment. He was really good for most of the doctor's visit just a little cranky at the end. Then we went on to buy some groceries and get the mail, Chance was really good for both things. We stocked up on some groceries because the parades start tomorrow and go all weekend so I don't plan on being able to get out of the Quarter till Monday. I've been trying to get Chance to pay attention to a toy but be doesn't seem very interested in toys yet. When we were in the grocery store he had his eyes wide open and was taking in all of his surroundings. It is cool to watch him seeing all these things for the first time. I have started giving him one bottle of Formula at night, he seems to sleep longer with that and then he is taking breastmilk the rest of the time. I understand why they say feeding time is bonding time, it doesn't matter if he is eating from bottle or breast he still looks up at me with those big eyes the same way.

It is said that it was a woman's face which was the Face That Launched A Thousand Ships but I now believe that face could be the face of a baby boy. Just look at him. I took these yesterday while Chance was sleeping. I went to my 6 week post-partum checkup today and all is well. Chance was very good while we were there and everyone thought he was just the cutest. We didn't get to see Dr. Reitan because she was off delivering another baby but I will bring him with me for my next appointment so she can see him then.

Mardi Gras is here! Yesterday was a very big day for all of us. We started the day with a good night sleep (Chance only woke up at 3am and 7:30am). Then, we met a friend for Lunch at 1pm to talk about a stay-at-home job for me entering items on his website. We walked directly from the restaurant to the car and we all three started driving to Baton Rouge. It is about an hour and a half drive, not too long. Chance was wonderful, I think he slept the whole way. We went to the Baton Rouge Airport to pick up a rental car for Scott, he left today on a week long tour of some of the stations that BitCentral installed last year. He is doing follow-ups with these stations, mostly for customer service purposes, he will be in Georgia and North Carolina then back home. Chance and I stopped at a gas station before heading back home. I changed and fed him then filled the car with gas and grabbed a drink for myself and then we were off. Scott in his rental car and Chance and I in our car back toward New Orleans. Chance, played a little in the back seat before falling asleep again. The first Mardi Gras parade rolled last night through the Quarter just half a block from our house. It started at 7pm, we arrived back home at 6pm and had a Hell of a time finding parking (in hindsight we should have started for Baton Rouge earlier). Finally we did find parking however and made the long walk to the apartment. I changed and fed Chance again, we met up with Dan and we were off again. With Chance in the sling we walked down to the coffee shop to watch the parade. We met up with some of Dan's friends and had a drink. This parade is the best parade of the season. It is called Krew Du Veiux and is the only traditional Mardi Gras parade still rolling. All the floats are pulled by man power or horses no motors allowed. They threw beads and cup and stickers and all different things of course but we didn't really try for anything we were just enjoying being out with friends and showing Chance his first Mardi Gras parade. He didn't participate much, mostly he just slept but next year I think he will like it and the years after that he will probably really enjoy the parades. He was very good though, there were bands going by and people yelling and clapping and we were right in the middle of it, they don't rope anything off for this parade so you can literally walk right with the people in the parade, we were very close to all the noise and Chance never flinched. After the parade we came back home, I fed him and played with him a little and off to sleep he went and didn't wake up till 3:30am. He is such a good baby.

Chance is six weeks old today! He is growing, everyday I look at a different part of him and think how much bigger it is. The other day I was looking at his feet and thinking how much they have grown and then today I was looking at his hands and thinking how much they have grown. He is just perfect. He seems to be going through a littlw growth spurt now too, he wants to eat all the time. I have given him a little formula because it seems to fill him up a little better than breastmilk. He has gotten into a routine now (for the most part), he still sleeps a lot and for the most part sleeps well at night. He will lay in his crib for a while before he goes to sleep and usually for a while before he cries after he wakes up and look around at all the animals on his crib bumper or up at his mobile. He really likes when I turn the mobile on he will sometimes just listen to the music but usually he looks at the animals there too. He will turn his head toward voices now. In the morning when I am putting on makeup and putting in my contacts I will put him in this little bounce chair from the pictures and put him on the floor in the bathroom. He will just sit there looking around and following me around the room. I also put him in this chair when I am working in the kitchen and he will sit there and following me around while I talk about what I am doing. He holds his head up better now and makes some cooing noises. I was sick for a couple days this past week and Scott was great, he got up everytime with Chance so I could sleep. Which helped the cold pass much quicker. Scott did not get sick and Chance has shown no signs of getting sick, so far. All these pictures were taken today so these are him at 6 weeks. He is just bigger all the way around. Any time I worry he is not eating enough I just look at his chubby cheeks and know he is doing just fine. These two pictures kind of look like he is doing a little dance.