Fun times at Ko'Olina

Yesterday Carlos and I went to Ko'Olina to spend some time with my Grandparents (Grandma Kathie and Poppa Tony) and my Aunt Angie and her cute family.  It was great seeing them!  We had lunch at one of the (many) restaurants there at the resort and then just spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and chatting. 

Carlos and Poppa did some bonding:

Here's my cousin Saige holding Carlos at lunch:

He wasn't too happy at that moment, but he was before I took the pic the stinker.

That evening we had dinner on the beach and watched the sun set.  It got really chilly too (thanks to being right next to the ocean and getting the breeze off of it). I wasn't very prepared for that so my poor kid wasn't as warm as he could have been :/  He's a trooper I tell ya (gotta be with a scatter-brain Mom like me ha ha)!

Then before the girls went to bed we played some Go Fish! Hawaii (aka the fish were Hawaiian and had their Hawaiian name on the card).  It was a way fun and cute game to play.

All in all I had a great day with some awesome people and I am excited to see them in Utah in a few weeks :)

~Nicole

Best Buddies in the making :)

On Monday, Carlos and I went over to my friend Erin's house for a couple hours.  Carlos got to chill with his buddy Ian and they were instantly pals for life :).  We got a couple good pics of them together.  Ian is just over a month older than Carlos.  I thought it was way cute how they kept grabbing onto each other's clothes haha.  I love how they both have lots of hair!  Such cuties :D

1 Month Old and Wedding Fun!

Has it really been a month already?  It feels like only yesterday that I was in labor and ready for Carlos' arrival!  He has grown so much since then!  Here are some things that we've been up to over the last week (and month):

He's been doing much better with tummy time.  He doesn't scream right away anymore which is good (takes about 5-10 min before he does that now ha ha).

I got my hair permed on the 21st (same day Carlos turned a month old) and that night we went to our friends' wedding.  The bride was absolutely stunning and the groom was very handsome :)  I'm so happy that we got to share their special day with them!

I finally got birth announcements made and will be sending them out hopefully by the end of this week.  They turned out really cute :)

Out of curiosity, what are some ways that you all have helped your baby sleep longer at night when they are a month old?  His longest stretch was 4 hours, but that was when Ernie was here helping us.  Since then the longest has been 3 hours.  I would love it if he would sleep for 3-4 hours at a time at night, but lately it's been 1-2 hours instead (if I'm lucky).  I've done the swaddling which has helped, but I want to see what else people have tried and it worked for them.  Any suggestions would be most welcome :)

We are going to be spending some time with Grandma Kathie and Poppa Tony this weekend while they are here on vacation along with my Aunt Angie and her family.  I'm excited to see them and spend some time with them!  I'll be seeing them again in June when we go to the reunion, but it will be neat to see them here too :)  I'm getting our tickets for the June trip on Tuesday and can't wait to see everyone!  Well, I need to go eat some dinner before the boy wakes up so talk to you later!

~Nicole

Getting bigger by the minuite!

I swear my little boy is growing bigger every second!  This last week has been good overall.  Besides sleep deprivation, Carlos and I are doing well :) (well I'm sleep deprived, Carlos on the other hand doesn't seem to be bothered by only taking 1-2 hr naps all day long)  He is spending more time in the day awake (and not screaming or eating constantly) which I find to be so fun.  I love watching him look around at things in wonder and amazement.  To see him be so curious about the world around him puts a smile on my face (especially if he's smiling himself).  He hasn't completely started smiling at me yet (still the gas smiles I'm afraid), but he does make purposeful eye contact with me sometimes which I love :) Last night we watched him stare at the animals on his swing with such intensity.  It was so cute!

Here's a few things we have done over the last week:

Luke loves to style Carlos' hair for him after we give him a bath so here's a couple pics from the last couple times we have given him one this week.

He also does not enjoy tummy time all that much (unless he's laying on one of our tummies).

He does however love to be bundled up, so I put him in his warm ducky jammies this week and he slept so so much better in them (babies love to be warm...go figure)

He turned 3 weeks old on the 12th so I took a couple pics of him that day.

Isn't he the cutest thing?? I love this little boy :D

We also went on a walk on Friday afternoon.  Of course, it put him right out...until we got home that is.

Then Saturday we went and watched Luke play hockey with the guys again.  While Luke was busy playing I decided to mess around with the manual feature on our camera and took some pics of the boy.  Here are some of them (the ones I like the most).

And there you have it!  We love this little man and can't imagine our lives without him!  I can't believe that he'll be a month old this coming Friday!!  The time has just flown right by!  I'm trying to treasure each moment with him because before I know it he'll be all grown up.

2 weeks old and doing great!

We had Carlos' 2 week checkup today and he's doing great!  He's weighing in at 8 lbs 1 oz and is 20 3/4 in long!  His head circumference is 14 1/2 in.  That puts him at 43% for weight, 66% for height and 68% for his head :)  I'm so glad that he's doing well!  Now if he can just adjust to sleeping longer at night we will be set!  The doc said that he should start doing this soon (it normally happens around the 2 week mark).  His next appt will be in 6 weeks or so and it's gonna be a rough one (for me anyway) because he'll be getting 4 or 5 different shots :(  oh well, better to get him vaccinated now than to see him suffer from some illness later right?  Plus he won't remember the pain of shots this early anyway..it's when he gets older that we'll have more issues I'm sure.  Anyway, I better go get me some lunch now so ttyl!

~Nicole

Goodbye for now...

We had to take Ernie to the airport last night so I took a couple pics of her and Carlos before we left. 

We miss her already!  Carlos was up every 2 hrs all night last night (unlike his usual 4-5 hr sleep and then he's up every 1 1/2-2 hrs after that...).  I think he misses his cuddle buddy.  I'm really glad that Luke is working nights so that when he comes home he can stay up with him while I get some sleep.  His office was talking about putting him on 12 hr shifts/7days a week and that was supposed to start tomorrow at midnight, but they called him today and told him that wasn't gonna happen anymore (THANK GOODNESS!!!) so he just has to go in at the normal time.  They wanted him to do that shift for 30 days in a row!!  That would have been awful for us since he would have been on the midnight to noon shift and that's when Carlos has trouble sleeping the most.  Luke's been feeling under the weather the last couple days too, so he was given yesterday and today off (mostly in prep for going on that ridiculous shift), but I think he's doing much better today compared to him having a fever yesterday and all.  And did I mention that I'm really really glad the crazy shift isn't happening anymore?  Cuz I am.  Well, that's all I have for now.  I need to go find something to eat for dinner before Carlos wakes up.  Later!

~Nicole

Go Daddy, Go!

Yesterday Ernie, Carlos and I went and watched Luke play some field hockey with a few of the guys from work for a couple hours.  As usual, Carlos spent most of the time sleeping or eating while we were there but I was still able to get a few good shots of Luke playing.

He didn't like being in his carseat, but once I took him out he was happy :)

Here's a couple shots of the helicopters that we saw on Wheeler AB (that's where Luke was playing hockey at)

Here's a pic of one of the many smiles I got from him this morning.  oh gas :)

and here's a pic of his hair in a mohawk :)

Well, he's being fussy now so I better go.  Have a good one!

~Nicole

Fun little outings :)

Over the last couple days we have been going on little outings which has been so nice.  We went for a short walk on Wednesday which was great.

passed out after our walk

being cute in his bouncer chair

Then yesterday Ernie, Carlos and I went to Hale'iwa for some ice cream and then we went up to Pipeline to see if we could watch some waves (there weren't any though..bummer).  We got sprinkled on at the beach though so we weren't there for too long.

after he woke up Thursday morning

at Pipeline with Grandma Ernie

Carlos and I at Pipeline

Then today Luke and I decided to take Ernie out to dinner at Red Lobster to say thank you for coming out to help us and as an early Mother's Day gift to her since she won't be here next weekend when it actually is Mother's Day.

at Red Lobster

After dinner we walked over to the Hale Koa Hotel and stopped by the beach there.  We didn't stay too long since it was getting hot and starting to get late (didn't want to be stuck in traffic for too long, but since it was furlough friday there was very little traffic today, thank goodness!).

 at the Hale Koa Hotel beach

my favorite pic :)

Tomorrow we are going to watch Luke play some field hockey at an outdoor basketball court on Wheeler AB so that should be fun.  Carlos has been doing much better as far as sleeping and eating go and keeps improving with each passing day.  We're trying to get him to sleep longer at night and not so long during the day.  Today has been going well so far since he's only taking 1-2 hr naps at a time instead of 4 hr naps in the day and then maybe 1-2 hr long ones at night.  Hopefully by the time Ernie leaves on Monday he will be sleeping longer at night and not really need long naps in the day time.  He's getting bigger each day too!  Luke weighed him last night and said that he now weighs 7.6 lbs so he's passed his birth weight already which is good :)  Well, I need to go wake him up to feed him now before he sleeps for too long.  Have a good one!

~Nicole