Murdoch at 4 Months

Murdoch was 4 months old on Friday, December 28th. It is amazing how much he has grown and changed! I wish I could make him stop growing so that he would stay my little baby forever. He is starting to turn over, he loves standing, and his balance when sitting is getting much better. I know he will be walking and talking soon. While that will be a happy and proud moment for me it will also be sad. I just read Ellen's post for Julia's 7 month video and it is really all so true. Andy and started dating almost 10 years ago and I couldn't ask for more in a husband - there are days when I wouldn't say that like when the dishes aren't done but overall that is true :) I get annoyed with him and I want to scream at him but that never happens with Murdoch. I love him so much no matter what he is doing - he is even cute when he is crying. I remember my old life before him - when getting up at 8 AM seemed really early - now that is getting more sleep that I can ever imagine, and being up at 3 AM was because I was getting home from a bar and now it is because Murdoch needs something. My favorite thing is when I am holding him and he burrows into my chest/armpit to block out the light and go to sleep. I wish he would do that forever! Now that he is getting a little older I know that he needs to learn to fall asleep in his own bed and on his own - I just wish I could hold him until he falls asleep forever.I could go on and on and I am sure it has all been said before. I just surprised that I have all of the cliche feelings about Murdoch. I will stop my chatter now. Enjoy the video - we are trying the video via dropshots at Ellen's suggestion, our videos have been a little weird lately so hopefully this one looks a little better than the couple of videos I have posted.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Christmas Photos

We took a lot of photos over Christmas. My Dad was finally able to make it to Boston and met Murdoch for the first time and I have to say that they got along well. We had Christmas at our house this year which was a little crazy because our third floor still isn't finished. It was nice that we were able to get together and spend some time relaxing. Here are the rest of the photos, enjoy!

4 Month Checkup

Murdoch had his four month check-up last Thursday. He was 3.7 months old, 27.5 inches long, and 16 pounds 3 ounces. He has dropped a big in the weight percentile but he is still up in the 99th percentile for height! He is already growing out of 9 month outfits because they don't close that well over this diaper. Hopefully he starts to plateau a little soon otherwise he will be bigger than us in just a few years! :) Mur also braved another round of vaccinations with only about 30 seconds of crying and then he was back to normal. He was rewarded with a Snoopy bandaid on each thigh. I think this next month will be a great one. He is pretty close to rolling over - he definitely has the strength now we just need to get the motion and coordination. He is also getting a lot better balance while trying to sit up so I am sure that isn't too far off either.

Merry Christmas

I know we couldn't all be together on Christmas so here is a quick video wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday!

My First Christmas Tree!

We all went out to get our Christmas tree last weekend. It was a little cold out so Murdoch stayed in his car seat but he helped us make the final decision. It was good we brought this tree in before it opened up - it barely fits in our apartment. It is one of the only decorations we have put up so I guess it is a good thing it is so big. Deucey loves the tree - she walks by and bits off pieces of the tree - it is making quite a mess! Here are the other pictures.

A Visit from Aunt Emily!

My sister came out for a visit starting last Sunday. She wanted to spend some quality time with Murdoch so I only took two days off on work while she was here and he didn't go to daycare the whole time. Honestly I thought we were going to have to do an 'emergency' drop-off at daycare at some point during the week but that never happened. Emily did an awesome job - not only with Murdoch, she made us dinner, gave us massages, and she would follow me around with a glass of water making sure that I was drinking enough water because I never do!

Emily had a great time with Murdoch and Murdoch was an angel the whole time - barely crying and letting Emily take some naps. We didn't take a ton of pictures while she was visiting but here they are.

Thank you Bob & Talli!

The kitchen in our new house is essentially a room with appliances - no cabinets or counter top space. This makes things very difficult to make dinner especially around the holidays when you are feeding a lot more people than just the two of us. For Christmas we asked Bob and Talli for a new butcher block/kitchen island. We got it a few weeks ago and it is really nice! It is much better than the card table that we were using - it is much better on your back when you are preparing food. Thanks a lot for the early Christmas present!

Travel Woes

We have not had a good week or so of travel. It started last week. Andy was due to fly back from Montreal on Thursday night. We got a pretty big snow storm on Thursday so he couldn't get a flight home until Friday. That screwed me up because I was now in charge of dropping off Murdoch at daycare. I got into work around 9 AM which is very late for me. The dog walker canceled because of the weather but that was fine because Andy was supposed to be home around noon. I called him a little after 12 to make sure that he had gotten in okay. He was still in Montreal because there was a fire on his plane so he was rebooked on the next flight that wouldn't get in until about 3:30. Well that was way too long for Deucey to be in her crate so I ended up leaving work around 12:30 to go home and take care of her. I called Andy on my way home to let him know that I was able to leave work so we should be all set. He then asked me why I wasn't more concerned about a fire on his plane. Now in my defense I thought he had never left the gate, and there was either a fire on the plane that was coming in so they needed another plane or it happened while they were just sitting there. And keep in mind that I was talking to him on the phone so I knew he was okay. Well it turns out that he was actually up in the air, the cabin filled with smoke, and they had to turn back around and make an emergency landing at Montreal. Andy and his co-workers had a good laugh at the fact that I never even asked if he was okay. I think my mind had already moved onto how we were going to get everyone home that day so the fact that he was talking to me meant that obviously he was doing just fine and other things needed to be taken care of. I guess I need to slow down in the future.

My sister was schedule to get in around 4 PM on Sunday - yet again we have another storm. I randomly checked her flight on Saturday and they had already canceled it - in fact they canceled all of the direct flights from St. Louis to Boston. They put her on a flight through Chicago, who is also having bad weather, and she now wasn't getting in until after midnight and because at this point the storm hadn't even started I was thinking that she wouldn't make it in at all. Because of this I am yet again stressed out because I pulled Murdoch out of daycare while Emily was visiting, Andy was flying to Toronto on Monday AM so if Emily didn't make it in then I had yet another scheduling issue with the two babies and I needed to figure out how to get Emily from the airport. Luckily Emily made it in okay, she was a trooper dealing with all of those delays without a single complaint, and everything worked out okay, except for the fact that Emily didn't get much sleep. We had a great week together and then we had another snow fall on Thursday when she was scheduled to leave. She ended up getting home okay but was delayed for over 2 hours. And now my Mom is flying in today and she is delayed an hour! My Dad is scheduled to fly in on Sunday - it is supposed to rain that day. We are crossing my fingers that it is an uneventful flight.

I have to say that so far the most stressful thing I find about being a Mom is the scheduling and the unexpected things that happen that throw it all off! Sorry for the complaining but I just wanted to get that all out so I could move on, happier posts coming soon. I will go back to monitoring my Mom's flight and hope that she lands okay and with only a small delay.

Bath Time

I was looking at Julia's three month video the other day and it just amazes me that Murdoch is doing the exact same thing Julia was doing in the bath. If you haven't seen the video it is a clip of her in the bath and she is kicking all around. I took a bath video of Murdoch near his 3 month birthday because it is so funny how much he nows kicks and really enjoys the bath. It is like they are twins a few months apart. I am sure a lot of babies do the same thing but as a new parent I just found this fascinating. Here is the video!

Just Hanging Out

Murdoch and I were hanging out in the evening together while Andy was in Seattle for a few days so I thought we would do a little photo shoot. Murdoch is sporting his velor jogging suit, thank you Mr. and Mrs. Shahood, this evening. I think the blue looks nice with the red hair. I feel like I need to go out and get a Juicy Couture one for myself so I can be in the picture next time! :)

Mr. Giggles

Murdoch and I were hanging out last week and he randomly started laughing/giggling for the first time. Luckily Andy had just gotten home from soccer so he ran and got the video camera and we captured Murdoch's first laughs on camera. I was laughing so hard during it that I started crying. We haven't had a ton of laughing since but I am sure it will show up more and more just like his smiles. He is the cutest guy ever!

Get Better Soon Gam!

Andy's Grandmother had knee surgery on Friday. We are all thinking of her and hoping her recovery is quick and without too much pain. Hopefully the PT isn't too bad. We are wishing her the best! Murdoch sends love and kisses from his bed to hers!

Three Months Old

Murdoch turned 3 months old on November 28th. A lot has changed in a month. He is now trying to sit-up, he can push to a standing position all by himself, he smiles all of the time, he will follow you around the room, and he is making little bubbles with his mouth. Enjoy the video!

Snow Day

Our first snow fall of the year! It started snowing last night and we probably ended up with somewhere between one and two inches. Not a lot but it was still nice. I woke up this morning for work and the house was nice and quiet. I wanted to just curl up on the couch and look at the snow while I was drinking my tea. When the snow hasn't been touched by cars or people, it makes everything look so clean and peaceful. The cold sucks in New England but I love the snow so I will deal with the cold and windy weather as long as the snow continues to come back each year.

Posts with pictures and videos coming soon!

Happy Thanksgiving

Bob and Talli came up from Florida for Thanksgiving and it was Murdoch's first Thanksgiving so it was quite an important event. We had dinner at our house - small dinner which was nice and relaxing. And then the crew, minus me because I had to work, went out to Natick to visit Chandra, Buzz, and Sharon.

Here is the link to the rest of the pictures.

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!