Baby Blessing :o)

Steven was blessed on Sunday and it was such an awesome experience! TJ gave an amazing blessing and Steven was so good the whole time. He didn't cry at all!

TJ had wanted to get a little baby tux for him to be blessed in. He had found some online, but put off buying one so we had to find one in a store. Unfortunately, the only tux we found was to big. We ended up getting this little outfit instead. I thought it was adorable :)

It was so great to have my parents, TJ's dad, TJ's brother, Steven, and TJ's sister, Lyndsay, all there at the blessing. Steven is obviously well loved.

Uncle Steve brought some presents for baby Steven - a little Broncos football and 3 Penn State onesies that he'll fit into just in time for football season!
It's so cute how much Lyndsay's kids love Steven. They always want to look at him and hold him. I love it!

TJ loves playing with the kids. He took them for rides around a living room until there was a little accident that ended in tears...
After that he told them he wasn't going to do it anymore because it wasn't safe. Yet, all four of them tried their hardest to convince him, even Madison who had gotten hurt a couple minutes earlier.

Steven loves hanging out with Daddy... and napping with him

Steven not only has a Mario outfit, but has a Luigi outfit too!

Steven got to spend some quality time with Papa

Nana always made him feel better

Random Stuff all rolled into one...

Steven is still having a lot of problems keeping his food down and his tummy hurts a lot. When we took him to the doctor's on tuesday, she gave us some more recommendations for things to do for him, including increasing the dosage of his medicine, giving his some probiotics, and limiting his eating time. He wasn't so interested in what she was saying, so he decided to take a little nap and rolled over onto his side all by himself!

We got a swing hoping it might help, especially with the acid reflux because he would be able to nap at more of an upright angle. We ordered the swing online and were so excited when we got it! He seems to like it...

This week Steven got his first piece of mail too!! As you can tell, he was very anxious to open it.

It turned out to be his social security card, which he thought was very exciting.
He loves hanging out with his friend, Pounder...
...and his new friend, Monkey, that he got from America's mom, Silvia Ruggieri

We are also so impressed with how strong his neck is! He loves just staring up at the wedding pictures we have on our wall.

He does a really good job getting his head up, but can't control it quite as well on the way down. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten a bloody lip or anything from smashing his face into our shoulders!

"Don't look at me like that, Dad!" or possibly, "Is that all the facial hair you can grow?"

We also got to go and visit Lyndsay and her family again
...and he met Grandpa for the first time!
He had lots of fun looking and David's baby book with him. Hopefully I can make one that cool for him!

It's been a good week so far, though still pretty rough with all the spitting up he's been doing, which seems to be more consistent. I just feel so bad for him because he always seems to be in so much pain! I felt just a little less bad for him this morning, though, when he decided it would be fun to poop all over me and our bed. It was pretty disgusting. He redeemed himself a little, however, by finally peeing on Dad! He's peed on me multiple times, and now pooped on me too, but this was the first time getting TJ. Go Steven!

Rough Night

So I was amazed at first at how well Steven was doing. He slept really well and could even put himself back to sleep with no problem and he hardly ever cried! That, however, has slowly gone downhill. Last night I think I finally hit my limit. He hadn't slept well all day and hadn't been eating very well either. Then, he threw up after two feedings, kept waking up even when it wasn't time for him to eat, and wouldn't stop crying or take his pacifier. I was very frustrated and tired. Luckily, my mom was here to save the day. She woke up to all the crying, told me to go back to sleep, and took Steven. It was amazing and I was actually able to sleep for a solid 2 hours until she woke me up to feed him. My mom is so great :) Needless to say, we were all a little tired today (and having 8 am church didn't help with that....) and so we all took naps! I think these two looked the cutest doing it.

We also have gone on a couple walks this week. We tried using the carrier that Jill and Randy got us, but he didn't seem to be a big fan of that, at least not yet. He did, however, love this one that my mom brought, and he falls asleep in it every time. TJ's not so excited that he prefers this one. I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the pattern on it...

We also took some pictures today for the Peper family letter. We tried to take them when Steven was awake, and I think he did great!

So even though it was a rough night last night, and I'm sure there are many more of those to come, I'm still so grateful for my wonderful family :)

A lot happens in a week!

So I never thought I would have so much to write about in just a week, so I'll try and keep the narrative down to a minimum...

I dressed Steven up one day in a green shirt and overalls and one of TJ's friends commented that he looked like Luigi. Unfortunately, before I could get a picture of his cuteness, he had a blowout, so I had to change his clothes. So, to make up for it, we decided to dress him up like Mario the next day... We thought that David would especially like this

Also, we gave Steven his first bath! I was a little frustrated because TJ was too busy taking pictures and recording videos to really help me, so it didn't go as smoothly as it could have. As you can tell, Steven didn't like it very much. I'm happy to report, however, that my mom and I gave him another one today and it went much smoother.

He did look really cute in his towel and robe afterwards though

TJ had a busy week last week full of all sorts of concerts. After his percussion ensemble concert, there was a little get together for all the percussion students at Ron Brough's (the head of the percussion department) house. While we were there, Steven had his first experience with a musical instrument and his Daddy couldn't have been more proud. His first note was a G, quickly followed by an F...

Then, this weekend, my mom and I went to Rexburg for my friend Andi's wedding reception. It was so much fun and I not only got to see her, but also some other friends from the social work program. I also got to show Steven off to all of them

Best of all, though, we stayed the night with my best friend Jen and went to church with her family on Sunday. It was so good seeing her and Sam and Lizzy!! I think it's obvious that Steven and Lizzy are going to be best friends when they get older. Either that or Lizzy's going to beat up on him all the time... ;) Either way, they were adorable together.

Lizzy even gave Steven a hug!!

Last of all, we took Steven into the Doctors today, we thought, just to get him circumcised. We were supposed to go back in tomorrow for his two week check-up, but they decided to just get everything done today. SO, as of today, Steven weighs 9.02 lbs (62nd percentile) and is 21.6 inches long (85th percentile). So he's doing great! We can't believe how much weight he's gained!! We're so grateful we have such a healthy boy :)