TGIF!

For the past two nights Murdoch has decided that he would like to go back to eating every three hours. For the past month or so he has been sleeping for about 5-6 hours at night which has been so nice especially now that we are both back to work. I know we have been lucky with his sleeping patterns so I shouldn't complain but after two nights of that I think I may need tea put into my body intraveniously. Luckily after today it is the weekend so naps can be taken. Maybe it is just a growth spurt that will pass in a few days.

Talli got out of the hospital on Wednesday and she is on the mend. She is still a little weak and tired so she is resting at our house and then they will start their drive back to Florida. Murdoch and Deucey love having them around for the extra love and attention so we are not in a hurry to have them leave.

Enjoy the weekend - picture and video posts are coming soon!

Boring isn't always bad...

I have been bad about posting. I like to add pictures to the posts which I can't do at work and at night sometimes I just don't have the energy to do it. I usually catch up over the weekend but because of the holiday our weekend was a little busy. Not pictures today but I thought I would give a little update.

Bob and Talli arrived from Florida on Wednesday night. Talli wasn't feeling that well on the drive up so they pushed through and arrived Wednesday instead of Thursday. We almost had the guest bathroom ready which was a big accomplishment for us. Andy had installed the shower rod and we had the shower curtain up. Then Andy installed the rest of the hardware in that bathroom along with the mirror later in the weekend. So good house progress was made!

Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving. There were seven of us - Bob, Talli, Hugh, Andy, Murdoch, Deucey, and me. I got a big turkey because the Sutherlands love leftovers and they food turned out pretty well. I cut my finger pretty badly while cutting up the bread for the stuffing so that caused a slight problem but everyone pitched in and everything was ready at almost the exact same time - not sure how that happened exactly.

Friday I worked and the rest of the group went out to Natick to visit with Andy's Aunt Sharon, Uncle Bob and his cousin Chandra. They hadn't met Murdoch or Deucey so it was a full car ride but everyone had a great time. Deucey got to play with Liam, their big German Shepard and everyone wanted to hold Murdoch so he got a lot of attention from everyone and I was told that he really didn't cry all day.

Saturday Andy and I ran some errands without Murdoch - Bob and Talli offered to watch him - so that was a big treat. I guess that sounds mean to say that being away from your son is a treat but if I have learned one thing since having him it is that errands are so much easier and faster without him. You don't have to get him in and out of the car and cut your errands short if he gets upset. So Andy and I ran some errands for the house and had some quiet time where it was just the two of us and Murdoch received excellent care at home.

Saturday night Hugh and Karen came over for dinner - we decided on some seafood after all of the heavy food we had eaten over the past couple of days. The dinner was good but Talli got sick after dinner. At first I thought it was the food but the reaction seemed a little to fast and drastic to be due to the food. She wasn't getting any better so Bob took her to the ER around midnight. After a full night of tests he returned home around 8 AM to say that Talli was doing better but that she would be in the hospital for a little while. The doctors said that she had colitis. Well Andy and I jumped onto webmd to find out more about colitis and what we found is that there are many different kinds and can be caused many different ways. Luckily the type that Talli has is not cronic and not transferable to other people. Talli is expected to get out of the hospital either today or tomorrow as long as things continue to improve. They will probably stay with us for a few more days to rest and recover and then start their drive back to Florida.

We have had a busy week between the holiday and Talli not feeling well. So sometimes when people ask you what is going on boring is not a bad thing because sometimes excitement is caused but something that wasn't exciting in a good way. So we will be excited when Talli is back out of the hospital leading a 'boring' life of watching Oprah and playing with Murdoch.

I will try to post the Thankgiving pictures in the next couple of days. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and you are all in good health!

Play Time

Now that Murdoch has gotten a little older and more interactive and responsive we have started to bring out his toys. So far he seems to love them although some of them he ignores. He absolutely loves his activity mat (thank you Susie and Raymond). His legs and arms are all over the place hitting the little pieces and grabbing on to the rings. He has even started to reach up for the toys like he is starting to practice sitting up. Before we know it he will be running around terrorizing Deucey.

Andy and Mur

So there are a few pictures that just melt my heart and this is one of them. I know Andy gets a little frustrated with Murdoch from time to time - Andy is a fixer, he likes to fix problems. Unfortunately you cannot fix all of Murdoch's problems, sometimes crying is just crying and you have to get through it.

I took this picture I believe either before or after a bath and you can tell from the picture just how much Andy loves Murdoch - it just melts my heart. And it is true, men become so much more attractive with a cute baby in their arms that they clearly love and adore.

Talking to my feet

Murdoch has started to make a lot of new sounds in the past 2-3 weeks - new sounds besides crying :) A lot of time if you make the sound after he does he will make it again like he is talking with you. We just started using his Bumbo seat (thank you Matt & Leah) and Murdoch is fascinated with his feet while he is in the Bumbo seat. He has figured out how to put his hands in his mouth in the last week or so and now it is like he is talking to his feet asking them what they can do for him. Hopefully you can hear him 'talking' and not just me in the background. Enjoy!

Off to daycare

Now that is a little colder out Murdoch needs a little more on when we head out to daycare everyday. I took these pictures before daycare and I am posting them just because I thought he was so cute.

Nothing else new here. Murdoch is just happy to have his Dad back - so happy in fact that we had a little party in bed at 4 AM this morning - I don't know if that was the kind of homecoming Andy was expecting. Murdoch had a lot of fun though. There will probably be a group nap this afternoon.

Thank you Florence!

Our friends and family have been extremely generous with gifts for Murdoch. I know a lot of people don't necessarily get to see Murdoch either use or wear the gifts so I thought I would start to post pictures of him with his new toys or in the adorable outfits. If I miss you please let me know - I am a little scatter-brained these days. :)

This first one is a cute blue homemade sweater from Florence. I had lunch with Florence right before I went back to work and she brought along Murdoch's Christmas gift - I had mentioned how quickly he has been growing so Florence gave it to him a little early to make sure that it wouldn't be too small. It is a gorgeous color blue and looks great on Murdoch. He wore it out the other day when we ran some errand - he was nice and cozy in his car seat with the sweater on.

We Survived!

Andy left for the West Coast on Monday afternoon and got home today so Murdoch and I were all by ourselves this week and we made it through! I took Tuesday as a vacation day which made it a little easier and then I had to go into work later than normal Wednesday - Friday because of daycare but that was about the worst thing that happened.

Murdoch was on his best behavior which really made all of the difference. And it was very nice to see him again in the mornings - that is his best time. So we would spend a couple of hours together in the morning and then the evenings together chatting playing with toys and then lounging on the couch. I think Deucey was a little neglected this week so we are going to have to make up for that this weekend.

Murdoch's first piece of artwork

I know that there will be tons of pieces of artwork coming home from daycare and school throughout the years but I thought Murdoch's first piece of artwork deserved a post. I got this piece a little over a week ago after the Halloween parade at daycare. I know he had some help but I am still proud.

Pacifiers and Swings....

...These are a few of my favorite things!

When Murdoch was born he loved to suck on your pinky finger. For about 6 weeks or so that worked well. We didn't leave the house that often and it wasn't that big of a deal to sit around and hold him with one arm and use your pinky on the other hand. But as time went on our hands were not always clean and there wasn't always a way to wash them.

We had tried a pacifier a few times but he always spit them out. I know that pacifiers are very controversial but Murdoch is soothed so quickly by the pinky finger that we knew we needed some type of alternative if we wanted a little downtime so I thought that by pushing the pacifier then maybe we would get our hands back. Over the course of about 3 days I continued to push the pacifier and it finally took - at least a little bit. A lot of the time he just chews on it so it falls out and you have to put it back in - he hasn't figured out how to do that by myself. But gradually it is getting better so he is able to sooth himself with just the pacifier.

Then we introduced the swing which was borrowed just in case he didn't like it. Well he loves it! There is a mirror and a mobile on the swing and he loves to look at the little animals on the mobile as well as himself in the mobile. So he spends a decent amount of active play time in the swing and then drifts off to sleep.

So far he is able to sleep without the pacifier and without the swing so we are keeping our fingers crossed that we don't have a terror in the future when we have to take these things away. I guess either way you pay - either now with the constant use of my pinky finger or in the future when we have to take the pacifier away. Initially I thought it would be a great idea for Murdoch to be a pacifier-free baby. Well like many things that happen once you are a parent - there are things that sound good until you are faced with reality - if something isn't bad for you baby and you get a few free moments of quiet to get a few things done, usually you go with it - at least I do.

Here are a bunch of pictures of Murdoch with his pacifier, swing, and a combo of the two.

Happy Halloween

Murdoch is asleep in his swing (thank you Aimee for loaning that to us!) so I thought I would take a few minutes to try and catch up on all of my blog postings. I thought I would start with Halloween first off because it has already been over a week since Halloween and because I think Murdoch is very cute in his costume.

There was a Halloween parade at Murdoch's daycare that I attended. It was about 10 minutes of walking around the neighborhood after about 30 minutes of getting all of the kids coordinated. I guess that is pretty good considering there were probably over 50 kids to get together. The weather was very nice and Murdoch didn't cry once while he was in the stroller so I was a very happy and proud mother. I have to say that this was the first time that I kind of felt like a Mom. I got there to dress him up, put him in the stroller, I was there with my camera and video camera following him around documenting the whole thing, and then I stayed to sing some songs after the parade. I still felt out of place with the other parents - it seemed like they were more seasoned veterans compared to me but I am sure that will come with time as Murdoch gets older.

On the Saturday after Halloween we had our 6th annual Halloween party which I think will be our last one. It was a fun time but I think from now on we are going to stick with something like a BBQ in the middle of the day that is easier to do with kids. I didn't take that many pictures at the party so I am missing one of the whole family dressed up and one of Deucey in her matching lobster outfit but other people have pictures so when they send them I will add them to the link.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will try to do a few more posts this weekend on my breaks.

Back to work...

I went back to work this week on Tuesday. I will be taking about one vacation day a week until the end of the year just to help out with the transition but so far it has been pretty good and not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I let for work on Tuesday early - before Andy or Murdoch got up - which I think helped because if they were awake I think it would have made it harder to leave. Right now I just get up as quietly as possible and try to leave without waking anyone up. That means that I don't even kiss Murdoch or Andy goodbye but if I wake Murdoch up at that point it could create a bad morning for Andy.

So far I am happy to be back at work. It is nice to be back on a schedule - showering every day and going back to the gym which I love! Time at the gym is the only time during that day that is mine - I have about 45 minutes where I can watch Food Network in peace with no interruptions and I feel revived when I get back to my desk. The evenings are rough - just making something for dinner and maybe doing one or two small things around the house is a major accomplishment so I am going to have to be more productive over the weekends. But anyone who has children already knows this - the reality is just starting to hit us. I know it will be a daily battle to keep everything together and there will always be obstacles to overcome but hopefully we can stick to our routine and things will be as smooth as possible.

Andy has dropped Murdoch off at daycare the past three days and it has gone relatively smoothly. There was a poop incident on Tuesday which caused Andy to have to take Murdoch into the shower but besides that it seems like we are falling into a nice routine. :)

I have to say that going back to work and trying to balance everything and get a schedule down was the thing that scared me the most - much more so than any sleep deprivation or caring for Murdoch. Thankfully Murdoch has been a very easy and happy baby so that made my leave very pleasant and now I think that is helping with my return to work. Ellen, Andy's cousin, was also a big help while I was on leave. I was a little bored at the beginning and I felt like I just wanted to go back to work because I wasn't really accomplishing anything - except caring for Murdoch. :) After talking with Ellen about it and getting used to the idea that getting Murdoch through the day was enough I really started to enjoy my leave and my time with him and I would not change a single thing about it except that I would have liked to have had some more time with him because the couple of hours in the evening just aren't enough. Maybe if we decide to have another child I will be able to take off a little more time but for now this works for us.

I have a lot of pictures and videos to post but it is much harder to update the blog with those now that I am back to work. As soon as I have a chance to download all of those onto my laptop at home and post them, I will - especially the Halloween pictures because they are so cute!

I just want to say a big thank you for everyone for all of the help we received when Murdoch was born and throughout my leave. I am sure we will continue to receive a lot of help going forward but I just wanted to let you know that we really appreciate everything that our friends and family helped out with during the first two months!

Lauren as a Rooster

This is the the daughter of my best friend Susie who lives in Phoenix with her husband Raymond. Lauren is just about 1 year old and I thought these pictures were so cute that I had to post them! I can't believe how big she is and I still have never met her! I think a trip to Phoenix this winter is a must!

Here are the rest of her Halloween pictures.