CRAWLING!!

Well we knew the day would be here soon and this week Robert finally grasped crawling! So now when he isn't roaming our first floor in his walker he is on the go on the floor. Luckily we have all hard wood flooring in the house so his progress is slowed a little bit.

The making him cry at night to get used to sleeping through the night is still a work in progress. Last Sunday night he slept the whole night...7pm-7am and Eric and I woke up feeling so great and thinking that we finally got it right but weren't going to get too excited until it happened again. So for the next 6 nights we got up with him twice, listened to him cry 3 nights for 5-35 minutes and 1 more night of sleeping through. We're determined to get it right and we are hoping for more than 2 nights of full sleep this week!

Crawling for toys and food!

Other than that our week was pretty calm. On Monday Robert and I went with one of my friends from work to visit another co-worker/friend and see her new baby in the Faribault area. This was the 3rd baby born to our department this year (Robert being the first) and my assistant coach just added the 4th baby to the department on Friday. We have one more to go and I think my boss will be happy for this baby boom to be completed! Tuesday's swim lesson went well and Robert has learned to splash water by slapping his hand on the surface. On Saturday Nick and Mandie came over to see Robert's crawling and to hang out with us. It is always good to see them even if they are just using us to see their nephew.

Meet Andrew Hess!

Robert hanging out with my friend Nik's oldest child, Taylor

Working on crawling

Couldn't resist a close up of his baby buns in this outfit!

Robert gets pretty mad at us now if we don't let him eat at the same time as us. We had watermelon one night and he had to try it to. He did a pretty impressive job considering he only has 2 bottom teeth.

2nd Tooth, New Meals, and No Sleep

This week started off to a great start as Robert seems to be getting more used to the water and enjoyed his 2nd swim lesson. Then on Wednesday he was extremely fussy and we weren't sure why until I spotted his other bottom tooth starting to poke through. We were so impressed at how he handled his first tooth and thought all the teething stories were lies...we soon learned that teething is not all fun and games.

Along with this we've decided that sleep is much needed in our house and have resorted to the cry it out method for the past few nights. We've been told that he doesn't need his middle of the night feedings from our doctor and even though we didn't want him to cry no other methods were working. So far we are seeing an improvement, or rather shorter intervals of crying at night, and we hope that by next week's blog post we can report sleeping through the night. If that isn't the case then I apologize to all that I see in the coming week because listening to Robert cry every few hours is actually resulting in less productive sleep for me even though somehow Eric is sleeping great. Hmmm....

Other than that Eric has been wanting to try cooking some new meals and this week he experimented with some new things. The first night was catfish and red potatoes. He enjoyed it and I loved the potatoes but decided catfish isn't for me. The next night was steak, okay so not a new meal but it was marinated in a new sauce and was much better than the night before. His third meal of the week was Fish Stew (see pic below) and lets just leave it that Papa John's ended up serving us our meal that night. The best and final meal of the week was fried chicken, made with a Weight Watchers recipe so not only was it great but we also didn't feel guilty after eating it. I'm excited to see what this week brings but will be keeping pizza on speed dial for awhile!

Swimming Lesson Video #1

Swimming Lesson Video #2

Yummy Fish Stew

To enjoy our great weather this week I took Robert to a St. Kate's softball game on Saturday.

Above he is with his favorite Wildcat Softball Player (Kayla) who is also a swimmer and one of his many big sisters!

The double header interfered with nap time so he took a little snooze in the sun which I loved because it has been forever since he slept in my arms and wanted to cuddle!

Easter Celebrations!

Happy Easter Everyone!

This past weekend was filled with family, friends, and fun. We left Friday morning to go to Red Wing only to be greeted by a small chore my mom wanted help with. The small chore ended up taking a good portion of the afternoon as we put up a fence around a flower garden for her, surrounded the area with concrete edging and then filled in the garden with mulch...oh and did I forget the Menards run in there? I don't think she intended it to be so much work but we were glad to help her out even if our day of relaxing wasn't so much!

That night our good friends Abby and Mike came over with their daughter Lucy for burgers on the grill. Lucy is becoming Robert's holiday buddy as so far they've spent time together at Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter. It was fun to see the two interact and it is always nice to hang out with them to share in the joys of parenting!!!

On Saturday my brother Nick and sister-in-law Mandie came down and we had a delicious Easter dinner. Mandie and I love the cheesy potatoes that has become a family tradition when we eat ham and thought we were very generous to share with everyone else. Of course we both took some leftovers home and are keeping our husbands out of it! After we were all pleasantly stuffed we headed down to one of the local parks to walk, exercise our dogs, and check out their new state of the art playground. The weather was so beautiful this weekend and it was great to get outside after a LONG winter.

Walking the path by the river at the park.

Swinging at the new playground...the ground is all soft and squishy!

Sunday morning we went to the early service at church and Robert did really well. Only one poopy diaper and a couple of dinosaur shrieks during the service...not too bad! We think all the music helped keep him calm and he loved listening to his Grandma sing in the choir! After church we went back and started to pack up while Robert napped. After a quick lunch of leftovers we headed up to Farmington for our last celebration.

Eric's dad has been on a kick to try out new cooking ideas and this weekend he wanted to relive the 70s and so we fondued for Easter! It was a lot of fun and I'm still wanting more of the yummy cheese fondue he made...luckily he sent home some of the cheese with us so there is some in my near future. The Troesters (Eric's Uncle Tom, Cousin Kelly and her husband Shane, and son Tobias) were also able to join in the day and we had a great time watching the kids run around and play. Lyric did a great job and entertaining Robert and Tobias, whose 1 1/2 years old, but she sure was tired by the end of the day.

Lyric giving Robert his toy blocks

Tobias finding another Easter egg and eating more Jelly Beans!

This week should be a pretty quiet one for us. We have swimming lessons tomorrow night and I have to teach on Friday night but other than that we are looking forward to a restful week...now if we could only get Robert to sleep through the night we'd really get some rest!

Look I got an Easter Bunny Basket

Unwrapping my gifts

These are my gifts...don't touch!

Wearing Uncle Nick's shades before heading to the park

Another great idea my mom had...finger painting with a 7 month old!!!

Blue hands??? At least they matched his Easter outfit.

What's eater without some dyed eggs?

Robert & Lucy with an Easter Bunny that you can't see to well!

I thought it was hard to get one baby to look at the camera, two is impossible!

Why you taking so many pictures mom?

Earlier in the week at the Robbinsdale Dog Park

Robert and I watching the dogs run silly!

Swimming Lessons!!!

Today was Robert's first swim lesson and first time in the pool. For the last few nights he's adjusted his bedtime and been falling asleep between 6-7 so we were a little worried about the 6:30 lesson, especially when he fell asleep during the car ride to the pool. Luckily there were no tears but also no smiles.

For the majority of the class he was pretty serious (as you'll see in the pics below) and half asleep. At the very end of the class, after a little hokey pokey, he woke up and we finally got some smiles out of him. He also got pretty brave at the end and kept trying to put his mouth in the water. The class continues for 10 weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how he progresses!

Kicking on his back with Dad

A new way to do Tummy Time!

So Serious!!

Who needs to crawl?

~ Scooting ~

the real reason he is already getting

a bald spot on the back of his head

Here is one of him destroying his

fort in his desire to move about!

As you can see from the videos above Robert is on the move even without having mastered crawling. He is definitely keeping us on our toes as he tries to get into everything.

This week was pretty uneventful but our weekend made up for it. Friday night Robert entertained G'ma & G'pa Hempler while I was working and Eric was playing cards with friends. They said he was a perfect little boy, not that I would think any differently about him, and they really enjoyed their time with him.

On Saturday we started the day with me cleaning inside and Eric working outside on burning all the branches that had fallen off during the winter. Not an easy task to do when we only have a small decorative fire pit but Robert enjoyed watching and being outside with daddy! Later Nick and Mandie came over and we ended up playing some Guitar Hero.

Today was a day of more cleaning and laundry...so not the most fun. We are looking forward to this week, not only because of Easter but also because Robert starts swim lessons on Tuesday!!! I just hope that he enjoys the water and I don't become an annoying parent in the class thinking that I know more than the person teaching. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Tuesday brings. We hope you all have a great Easter!

Laughing at the boys playing!

So calm on the guitar!

So serious on the drums!

I think he could have stared at the fire for hours!

Loving being outside...even if it is cold!

Where does the time go?

Above pic at 6 1/2 months

Below pic at 1 month