November Sneaks Up On Us...

And Nearly By Us (at the pace of my blogging), ha!

November so far has been an abundance of time at, and near, home. I am trying to enjoy as much of it as I can as I realize that January (and going back to work) is nearing. Austin seems to be growing at an amazing rate - both in size and developmentally. While he still doesn't love tummy time, he resists it less than he used to, and is pushing himself up so well that he looks like he may roll over any day now.


He has found his fingers and is starting to learn how to soothe himself with them, which I think is really cute. And he is also demonstrating interest and attachment to this adorable little monkey toy. So now it goes everywhere with us, and I am sure you will be seeing much more of him. The monkey's name is still up for debate - we are searching for a single syllable name, sort of like Calvin and Hobbes, but Austin and ____. Any suggestions?



As many of you know, Austin HATES his car seat, so in addition to the car being a nightmare, walks aren't fun either because the same seat goes into the stroller. So, I finally got fed up and put Austin in his stroller facing outwards and ladies and gentlemen... we have turned a corner! Walks are now fun, and running errands is tolerable. He just loves taking it all in!



The most exciting development has been seeing what a kick Austin gets out of his exer-saucer. It is a little on the early side for it, but he has such great head control and looked fascinated by it, so we gave it a try, and wow! Look at this face... does he love this thing, or what?



Chris and I had our first night out away from Austin so we could attend a Boston College night football game. I wanted to bring him, but it was so cold that it wasn't reasonable. Plus, his first football game really has to be at Penn State, accompanied by an awesome tailgate party. He had a great first night without us in the wonderful company of Aunt Heidi, Uncle Kenny, and Sofie.





Granny came to visit for a weekend (and I think Austin stole away a little more of her heart). While she was here, we all ran a 5K together - my first since Austin was born, and really the first I finished since getting pregnant with him. I pushed all 43 lbs of stroller + Austin and managed to run (jog) the entire race without stopping. According to the announcer, Austin was the first baby to cross the finish line awake! It felt great, and I now have renewed energy to get back into running races regularly.





Last month I mentioned that Austin is starting to get a kick out of seeing other children, well that interest has only grown. At my mommy group he loves looking around at the other babies and I think he has even been flirting with a little girl named Abby. I will have to bring my camera some week to get some pictures of all his new friends. We also got in several play dates with cousin Sofie, who is taking an increased interest in Austin (aka baby toes) and he got to meet my friend Kelley's little girl this month - he wasn't really sure what to make of her, ha!





Ok, well I feel accomplished in getting a few pictures uploaded. I hope you enjoy them. I promise there will be more to come after the holiday weekend.



Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Belated Halloween!

Trick or Treat... sorry these are so late!

We celebrated Halloween at Tim and Ingrid's. The whole WeRo crew strutted their stuff with the
Star Wars theme, note the dogs participated as well (Chewbacca and Yoda respectively).



And yes Austin is a mini-Vader version of daddy!



Scooby Doo and Shaggy kept us all well-fed on more than just scooby snacks



And this adorable bee didn't sting anybody, not even her dad who was a Sox pitcher in training ;-)

Where Does the Time Go?

When I started this blog, my goal was to post a picture a day, then it became to post at least once a week... now I feel like I am clinging to the hope of at least twice a month. I often find myself wondering what happened to all the time in just one day, and now I'm wondering where October went. It is wild enough when the time flies by in your own life, but knowing that Austin is 10 weeks already makes my head spin...

Austin had his two month check-up and is growing like a champ. He also got his first mega-round of vaccines (double-legged war bandages pictured below) and was completely wiped out after that experience. His big brother Camden knew just what to do and snuggled up with him all afternoon.



Camden really is the sweetest... and now that he knows it is okay to get close, he can't get enough of Austin.



When we came home from North Carolina, we were greeted with the wonderful news that Nolan Vaughn made his appearance into this world - also on his parent's anniversary. So, in sharing my enthusiasm for his arrival, I just had to re-post a photo of him to show off how cute he is! Austin cannot wait to meet him when we venture out west this winter. And we look forward to years and years of summer vacations together with the Vaughn family (*hint-hint Commander, let's make it happen).

After all of the initial travel surrounding Austin's first 8 weeks of life, we have spent the past two weeks enjoying being home. Puppy playdates, brunch with friends, football on the couch... it has been wonderful, but not especially exciting to photograph. Most of the pictures I've taken are just my infatuation with how adorable Austin looks just being next to me. Though he has recently learned that he has hands - and can grab stuff with them - which is so fun. It is amazing to watch his development unfold right in front of me!





We spent an afternoon with Alex, Aiden, and Chace - and Austin has definitely made a new friend in Aiden. He was entranced by this big kid who wanted to play with him. I can't wait to get them together again.

We also attended Sofie's 2nd birthday party and while the birthday girl partied herself out, Austin got to meet his great aunt Betsy and see Gigi and Gramps.



Oh, and how could I forget my favorite part of the last two weeks?! Lori came to visit and Austin got to meet another awesome "Auntie"! It was so good to spend some (long overdue) time with her. She was amazing with Austin - a true natural!



We can't wait to see her again - hopefully in December, along with a whole lot of other family and friends when we travel down to PA for the holidays. I will try to do better with posting between now and then...

OBX or Bust!

Everyone told me that I was crazy to take a 2 week old on vacation to Nantucket - and they were partially right. So when everyone again told me that I was crazy to drive a 6 week old from Boston to North Carolina, I probably should have at least given it a second thought... but the chance to spend a week with family could not be passed up, so off we went! Our first stop was New Hope so that Austin could wish his Gigi a happy birthday and meet family friends Denise and Liz. Then onto the Berg before our early morning departure for the Outer Banks.

Oh please mom... no more driving!

But then alas, we arrived and a meeting long overdue: Austin finally got to snuggle with his uncle Kevin for the first time, and later in the week - cousin Marielle too!

And of course he loved seeing his Granny and Grandpop, and Uncle Patrick and Aunt Steffay again. So many wonderful baby holders and bouncers, Austin was in heaven!





And the Bailey family also joined in the Daniel fun this year so Austin had even more people to play with all week long. Kirsten and Nicole, he is so bored this week without his cousins to keep him smiling constantly!

There were also lots of little firsts: more smiles for everyone in the family and lots of cooing. And Austin went swimming (and he got a kick out of it... literally!) and we tried facing out in our carrier (with extra mommy-assisted head support) so that he could really check out the beach. He loved it so much that he has been practicing holding his head up on his own ever since. And when his daddy arrived mid-week, he showed off all he had learned to do with his new activity mat jungle friends.







These days Camden always feels a little left out, but he definitely wasn't on this trip. Dog friendly houses, stores, and beaches made Duck the perfect destination for our family! He played so hard that he napped even more than Austin.



FAMILY PHOTO!
We've even got a sleeping Austin in the foreground, but where are Chris and Stephanie!?! :-(


*T-shirts are a Bailey original design (and thank you Morgan for taking such a great picture)

We may have vacationed too late in the year to catch our usual meteor shower show, but our final night sent us off with a beautiful sunset. Until next year Daniel family, until next year...