Seventeen Weeks

Today Nick is seventeen weeks old! He has started blowing raspberries and squeals and "talks" a lot. He is also a drooler - he drools and drools, we have to keep a bib on him and a cloth diaper on our shoulder at all times!! :)

Last weekend was very fun! Saturday and Sunday dad was at MPCon, so mom and Nick were on their own. Saturday mom and Nick went to hang out with Lisa and Emily. We all went to Ann Arbor. Mom and Lisa had pizza at Cosi for lunch, while Nick and Emily had milk as usual :) Then we all walked around State Street. We found a nice baby changing station in the Panera by Angell Hall, and then we went and showed Nick and Emily the law quad. It was a lovely morning/afternoon with good friends! Then mom and Nick went to their second Connection Parenting meeting, where mom chatted with the other moms about cloth diapers, G diapers and what's the best way to clip a baby's fingernails. Then mom took Nick to EMU to see dad and his friends and colleagues at MPCon. Nick is a gaming legacy, so we figured he should see what's in store for him! Everyone thought he was so cute, and he seemed fascinated by all of the glowing computer monitors in the darkened student center.

Sunday was Nick's first (but definitely not his last!) messy party!! Everyone looked like they had a blast. Mom tried to get Nick's footprint with the pudding paint, but since it was straight out of the fridge, Nick did not enjoy that, so mom quickly gave up. There were so many things for the big kids to play with - shaving cream, whipped cream, flour, birdseed, cooked spaghetti, pudding paint and other edible paint, and a water table, pool and sprinkler. Everyone seemed to have a blast! We can't wait for Messy Party '10, when Nick will be over a year old and running around and playing with all the messy stuff too :)

This week was a little crazy. There is construction on M-14, so our usual schedule has been disturbed. Monday and Tuesday were normal days, although Tuesday night dad booked Nick's first plane ride - the family is going to visit Aunt Krystyn and Uncle Zack in Raleigh over Labor Day weekend! Wednesday mom picked Nick up from daycare, because dad was stuck in traffic, so mom got there first. Thursday dad took Nick to daycare for the very first time, and after work, mom bought Nick a high chair from Craig's List, so dad picked Nick up that day too.

Today we received very exciting news - Nick's Great-Grandma Radley flew in for a visit from Arizona! The family went to Grammie and Grandpa's for dinner and for Nick to meet Great-Grandma Radley. It was also the first time Nick saw his grandparents in over a month! Everyone commented on how big he's getting :)

Tomorrow we are going to our Connection Parenting meeting and to Jeff's Aunt Laura's brother's house for a 50th wedding anniversary party. Nick will get to meet Jeff's Uncle John and Aunt Laura and their kids for the very first time! Sunday is a day of cleaning and Craig's List item pick-ups. Monday we're all having dinner at Grammie and Grandpa's again, and then we're bringing everyone back to our house to have a look, since this is their first visit to Michigan since we moved in. This week nothing exciting is planned - but something exciting will happen - Nick turns four months old on Monday!! Four months have gone by, it's so hard to believe! Because of the M-14 construction, mom is still going to take Nick to daycare every day but she might also pick him up, too - mom and dad are going to keep in touch each day after work to see who will get to daycare first.

Nick is showing more and more of a little personality every day. He is chatty, smiley and laughs. He seems to be very observant, always looking around and taking things in. We love his babyhood but we are looking forward to what's next, too - crawling, talking, walking. Other people comment on how happy he seems, how little he cries and how quiet his cries are when he does cry, how big he's getting, how alert he is. Since we are first time parents, we don't know if he's "normal" or not - but we hope our second baby is just like him! :)