Adventures in Ohio

While Jen and I travel around northern Ohio seeing family we haven't had much time to provide an update. But this was just too good of a photo not to share. The three of us had a little time to spend before meeting my old friend Jeff and found a Starbucks in Fort Wayne, Indiana to hang out for a while. Here are Jen and Atti enjoying their Starbucks time.

Talk soon,
Greg

Adventures

This past Thursday was Greg's last law school final of the semester. To celebrate the end of the semester and several birthdays (Sandra, Carl and myself) a big group of us all went out to dinner at Benihana. Atticus was a trooper. He didn't want to sit in his car seat - but there were plenty of people willing to play "pass the baby" so that everyone could eat. And eat eat eat we did! I seriously felt like Michael Phelps that night with the amount of food that was served. Sushi, miso soup, salad, shrimp -- all that and we hadn't even hit the main courses!! Add in some chicken, steak, veggies and fried rice... oh, and then maybe for kicks orange sherbert and strawberry fried ice cream. Thank my lucky stars for the benefits of nursing!

Friday night, we went to the Trail of Lights. That proved to be more of an adventure than we were looking for! Sandra, Michael and Raija all came to our house and then we loaded up in the Expedition. We made it downtown to the shuttle pick-up, bought our shuttle tickets and boarded the bus. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. The traffic was INSANE! It took us over an hour to go a few miles to the entrance to the Trail. Thank goodness Atticus actually napped on the bus. I was really worried. Our plans to stroll the Trail and make it home by bed time were out the window. The lights were great - and would have been even better if we hadn't been rushing through to get home. I feel a bit like our friends got the short end of the stick by riding with us and having to hurry through because of Atti.

There were a few other outings over the weekend to get in some last minute holiday shopping... but nothing too noteworthy. The most exciting part of the weekend was "teaching" Atti how to crawl. Greg and I spent alot of time on the floor over the weekend encouraging and helping the little man inch his way across the floor. Tonight, I held Atticus up under his arms and he "walked" to Greg. I think my son is a genius. :-) Really, he may skip the the whole crawling stage and go straight to walking.

Well, it's after 10 pm and it's time for bed. I'll post more tomorrow about Atti's first two nights of Hanukkah! There are some new pictures posted to the Baden Family Photos, with more to come.

He Who Smelt It

Dude. For still being a generally small person... this kid can produce some STINK! I'm a little frightened for the plane ride. All those poor people with recirculated stinky air!! No joke, on the car ride home from Dallas last week I actually had to roll down the windows while driving on the highway. Yeozers. (I'm sure Atti will love me 15 years from now for sharing this detail...)

One the upside, we've started giving Atticus Mylicon drops which seem to be doing wonders. I also picked up some Hyland's Teething Tablets which are giving him some relief as well. The timing for the teething isn't the best - but what can you do? I've given Atticus the tablets before his nap and before bed and it really seems to be helping a ton. Actually, last night... you ready for this? He slept all on his own from 9 pm - 6 am.

Pausing for the gasps and the ooooohs and aaaaaaahs.

I know. It gets better. I then fed him and woke up Greg and asked Greg to entertain him while I went back to bed for another hour. It was absolutely delightful.

The Sweetest Sound

I was able to get Atticus to laugh last night. It was awesome. It started with a little giggle, then, everytime I leaned in to tickle his belly he kept giggling and laughing.

I love it.

Don't Agitate the Momma

We were just discussing how the steam cycle works on those new-fangled washing machines, hence the title of the post... for those items that shouldn't be agitated. :-) I think I fall into that category!

It's late. I've barely begun to pack. I'm tired. I'm sure I'm going to forget something tomorrow. I don't yet have my gift for the company holiday get together. I'm afraid my son is going to starve while I'm in Dallas since I don't have much reserves. I've got a million things on my mind and it's a bit exhausting.

I'm going to try and get some sleep.

One Step Back

Two steps forward, one step back. Atticus is now smiling and talking and rolling over like a champ. He is also reverting back to waking up multiple times in the night. I'm not sure what's going on. We've decided it could be any of the following:

- Teething
- Change in the weather
- We need to move the humidifier to his room
- He's pissed at us because he's now sleeping in his room
- Growth spurt and he's just hungry

Regardless. I'm ready for him to return to sleeping in 7 to 8 hour stretches. Seriously. Momma needs some sleep too. A stressed out Greg (finals are starting next week) and a fidgety and awake baby and a sleep deprived Momma do not make for a happy house! And, just when I think our routine is returning to normal ... we'll be headed to Dallas. It will be a great trip - and who knows, maybe it'll be calm enough there for the routine to get back into place?

Well, lunch break is almost over. Till the next update....

Oh Dreidel

Received this from my Aunt Debi... and thought I'd spread a little holiday cheer to my friends and family:

Pictures Posted

I've finally updated the November folder on Picasa. Use the link on the right side of the page labeled Baden Family Photos. It's still missing some photos from Thanksgiving -- but there are plenty new pictures to thrill and amuse you in the meantime. We're even starting to get the majority of the photos with Atti smiling. :-)

Cooing

Ok, maybe I'm a little bit biased. I admit it.

But seriously people - Atti has started "talking" more and more and he has the cutest voice EVER. I'm in my office/bedroom working on exciting work stuff and I can just hear this little tinkling voice drifting in from the other room.

I want to go run in there and scoop him up.