The Mysterious Ways of a Baby

I've never been good at keeping a calendar or scheduling my own life, but I'm a firm believer in getting your baby on a schedule. As my sister Carolyn so eloquently put it, "some people think your baby knows best what he needs. But no, he doesn't, because he's a baby!!!" They need structure and consistency to keep them content, and I believe that, because I've seen it first-hand!
I am going to brag a little now, judge me as you may, but Austin is a really good-natured baby. He hardly even cried the first 2 months of his life. He'd put himself down for naps, and suck on his hands when he was hungry--it was great!
Then 3 months rolled around. It's a little more work now! I find that it's like a mystery you have to solve to figure out why they don't want to take more than a 10 minute nap, or why they wake up at 4 am after weeks of sleeping until 6 am consistently. You look at all these clues--is he eating enough? Is he eating too much? Is he getting over-stimulated? Does he just not need very long naps to rejuvenate? Does he hate his crib? Does he get distracted? Or, if all else fails, blame it on the mysterious 'growth spurt'?
It is all very satisfying when you think you've got it figured out. Currently, I think my careful scheduling of the nap routine may have just worked itself out. Austin went from 10 minute naps to an hour and a half nap today! Triumph! But then, as one kink is ironed out, you quickly learn as a mom that another pops right back up, and you've got a new set of clues to try and piece together, and then a new solution to apply to it. Being a mom is hard work sometimes!

Here They Are!

So here they are, pictures of The 4th of July, 2009, courtesy of Heidi! So much fun! Sorry Steve, they're mostly of the girls--I love it! Thanks, Snyders, for the fun get-together, I'm going to miss those times! But it is interesting to look back--last year at this time, little Greyson McLeod and Jack Schumers hadn't even arrived yet, and Jonnie at this age is the same age as Austin is now. Time flies, times change.

A Happy 4th of July

Well, this year's 4th of July celebration was a little different for us; Steve had an appendectomy the Tuesday before the weekend of the 4th, and instead of going out to watch the fireworks, I went out to get poor Steve some pain meds. So I took a walk down memory lane to last 4th of July, which was really great and a special one for us. We spent it surrounded by friends and basking in the warm water of the Atlantic ocean, while we watched the fireworks light up the sky above. I suddenly realized, though, that we don't have any pictures of that fun weekend! Please, Florida friends, can you send me some pictures of last year's festivities? I'd love to have a few to remember it by...