Worth bragging about

Matt cleaned out and organized the pantry yesterday.



Not worth bragging about: Our Christmas tree is still up and decorated.



Matt was holding Robbie in his lap and noticed him checking out his monkey feet:



Matt making Robbie smile:

Robbie is 3 months old!

Where has the time gone? I feel like Robbie is more than 3 months old, but not in a bad way (like the time is just dragging on). I think it's because we have been so busy since his birth day with the holidays and traveling.

Robbie loves to smile and he's become quite the talker lately. It's very cute! I think he's trying to laugh, too. He still has fun on his play mat, but he doesn't like the swing or bouncy seat any more. Robbie is really looking around and taking in his surroundings now. As I said in the last post, he slept 7 hours at my parent's house. That has yet to be repeated, but it's only been a few days!! We're still up twice at night, though my dad said that when his second feeding is at 6 am that doesn't count as night any more. It does to me because I go back to bed!

This morning was the first time I saw him look like Matt. Pretty much everyone has said that he looks at Matt and I never saw it, but just the way he had his head turned I knew he was Matt's baby (not that there was ever any doubt!).

We go next month for his next appointment, so we'll get his weight and height then. Robbie is still wearing 0-3 month clothes, but there are fewer and fewer that he can fit into. I've got the 3-6 month clothes out, but I feel like they are so big. The true 3 month clothes are the best, but we don't have very many of them.

Here's a video I took of him watching his mobile. You can tell he's really watching the animals.

A Rice Wedding

Matt's cousin, Brian, got married to his long time girlfriend, Jamie, this past weekend. Matt's brother, Patrick, and his family came down for the wedding and Matt was a groomsman, so we headed down Thursday to visit with family and go to the wedding.

Thursday we drove to Matt's dad's house. Pat, Mariruth and Caitlin were there as well. We caught up with them after lunch. It was their first time meeting Robbie. Caitlin had fun playing with Robbie on his play mat as well as playing on it herself! We all went to Bonefish for dinner. Yum! Then Matt and I went to my parents house for the night.

Friday morning we got dressed up for a family photo shoot at Sears. Matt's mom wanted to get everyone together while Patrick, Mariruth and Caitlin were in town. Mimi and Gramps joined us as well. Our photographer was great with the kids! Of course, it's hard to get a great picture with 7 adults and 2 kids, but I think she did pretty good. The kids were getting restless at the end, but they gave us some good smiles. I'm very excited about our family picture.

After we took the pictures we walked around the mall for a little while so the photographers could get the pictures together. Pictures were ordered, a CD was made and we headed over to Chick-fil-a for lunch. Caitlin had fun in the playground after lunch and Robbie enjoyed being out of his car seat and held by family. We had to leave everyone because Matt had to pick up his groomsman outfit before the rehearsal. We left Robbie with my parents for the evening. They had my grandma over for dinner. It was only her 2nd time seeing him. The rehearsal went well and then we went to Sea Sea Riders for dinner. The restaurant had a special menu for dinner and everyone liked what they had. I had the Jamaican Jerk Chicken and Matt had the top sirloin. For dessert I got the chocolate tort, but I got to try a bite of Monett's peanut butter pie. Both were great! We left early to get home to Robbie.

Saturday was a nice, relaxing day. We didn't have anything planned, other than the wedding. Matt and I went shopping at Kohl's to use gift cards we got as Christmas gifts. I didn't find anything, but Matt got several new polo shirts. We also ran into Target to get insulating curtains for Robbie's room. Mom ordered Greek food for lunch and we picked it up on our way home. YUM! Robbie needed a bath because someone was too slow putting a diaper on him. Mom knew what Robbie had done when she heard me laughing at Matt. We just bathed him in my parent's sink. Mom said it looked like we were thawing a turkey!



Matt had to leave shortly after that excitement. Mom and I thought we could get Publix gift cards for donating blood, but we walked away with just t-shirts. I got ready for the wedding and mom helped get Robbie ready, but, of course, as soon as we were ready to leave Robbie decided to fill up his diaper! Luckily it all stayed in his diaper so we didn't have to do a full outfit change. We were late for the wedding, but it was so cold outside it was nice to just be inside for the reception. Robbie did great being passed around at the reception. Neither Matt nor I held him much. I left with Robbie around 8:15 so I could get him fed and ready for bed. Matt stayed so he could take his mom home and didn't get back to my parent's until after 10. Robbie must have partied hardy at the reception because he slept for a full 7 hours! I had to double check the clock when I finally did hear him. I hope it's something that he will continue to do!

Sunday we had breakfast at my parent's house before heading to Mimi and Gramps' for a short visit. Barbara and Uncle Mark were there as well. We left there to have lunch with Jim and Jean. After lunch it was time for Robbie's lunch so we changed plans and went back to their house so we didn't have to feed Robbie on the road. We left later than planned, but it was nice to see everyone one last time.

Leaving mom and dad's:



Mimi and Robbie:



Of course, after any trip there's laundry to do. Luckily Robbie is there to help me fold it all:



Ok, he's not much help! :)

Robbie tells a story

Robbie is becoming quite the talker. I had just been taking pictures of him smiling, so I had the camera ready to catch him talking. When he was talking for a while I started taking a video of it. Sorry you have to hear me! The music in the background is his play mat. (Polly, you should recognize it...or you will soon!) He likes the music and the lights. After I took the video I watched it again and Robbie didn't like hearing another baby!



When I started uploading the video, Juliet started meowing. I'm guessing she was by the garage door wanting to go out even though the cats aren't supposed to go in the garage. Robbie started whining, so I took a video of the two of them. We have been told that Robbie sounds like a cat, so maybe he was just acting like one! :)



Here are the pictures I was taking of Robbie smiling.

House Fire

I finally got around to taking "after" pictures of the house that caught fire. It isn't pretty, but luckily everyone got out. I just got a flyer in our mailbox for a clothing and gift card drive for the family. There is nothing left of the house but the walls. You can literally see through the house to the back yard. We heard from the news that the husband was using gasoline or lighter fluid to light a fire in the fireplace, he caught on fire and then caught the house on fire. He was taken to Shands Gainesville Medical Center.

Here are the pictures:

I've also been asked how close the house is to our house. Here is a picture of the house taken just outside of our front door:



I zoomed in from the same spot in front of the house:

Happy New Year!

We had a busy New Year weekend! We decided to head down to see family that weren't able to make the trip up to see us. Matt had Monday off, so we were able to make it a long weekend. Matt got off work early Friday so we made it to his dad's house for dinner. We stayed up until 11:20 when Robbie woke up to eat, so while we didn't see the ball drop, we were up at midnight. We heard fireworks going off, but they didn't bother Robbie.

After breakfast Saturday morning we drove to see my grandma. Robbie is her 10th great grandchild! We walked around a bit and met some of her friends. We saw the puzzle Jill had made of her daughter, Ryan. I think it's the best picture puzzle I have seen and was a great Christmas gift. We left when Grandma was ready to go to lunch.

We had plans to eat lunch at Matt's grandparent's house. All of Matt's mom's family came. We were there early, so Robbie was able to spend time alone with Mimi and Gramps. Matt's mom arrived shortly after us. Matt's aunts and uncles Mark and Brigette and Gary and Monett and cousins Brian and fiancé Jamie and Kim and boyfriend Adam were also there. We stayed after everyone else left so Mimi and Gramps could have a little more time with Robbie. We left and went to his mom's house where we spent the night.

Sunday morning we headed to my parent's house. My sister, Lisa, was there with her family. Of course Kayleigh asked to hold Robbie right away. They weren't there long because they were going to visit Erik's Granny and Aunt. We had some time with my parents. After lunch my cousin, Jill, came by with her daughter to meet Robbie. Ryan is 8 months old and Kayleigh still wanted to hold her! Jill said she wanted to see Robbie do a trick, so he rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time! He hasn't done it again. That evening my aunt Barbara and uncle Jack and brother Jonathan and his family came for dinner. Mia and Kayleigh play well together. Nathan wasn't feeling well earlier and was content to watch Curious George by himself. I'm glad my parents had everyone over.

Monday morning Lisa and I took Robbie and Kayleigh to our friend Polly's house. Polly just had baby #3, Wes, less than 2 weeks ago. Of course we wanted to see them! Our friend Jana was in town with her son Carson. Alison was there with her second son, Josh, too. The kids all played well together. Robbie slept most of the time, but one day he'll join the fun! I still can't believe Polly was up to having so many people at her house so soon after giving birth, but I'm glad she did!

Matt and I grabbed lunch on the road and headed home. Robbie was considerate enough to wake up to be fed just before a rest stop, so we were able to pull over and get out for a while. I think he was glad to get out of his car seat for a while and we let him stretch out on a blanket before getting back in the car. It took us longer to get home than it used to, but we expected that.

Unfortunately our weekend did not end on a high note. We put Robbie to sleep around 9:30. A little after 10 we heard 4-6 pops. Matt thought it was fireworks and headed to the front window to check it out. I thought it was gun fire and I was about to tell him to stay away from the windows when he said "Valerie, a house is on fire! Call 911!!" We ran outside and there were already a bunch of neighbors around ready to help. Luckily 911 had already been called and the fire department was there shortly. I know the family was a young couple with a baby girl. The mom and baby got away with minor injuries, but I heard that the husband sustained some pretty bad burns and was in critical condition. I read online that the Christmas tree caught fire and there was a car explosion. We will be checking our fire alarms tonight and getting new fire extinguishers! It was great to see so many people willing to help and know that if anything happened here we could count on them as well.

Let's end on a happy note. Here is the look Robbie gave me after filling up his diaper this morning:



I know it's dark and blurry, but it's hard to catch his smile on camera!