Westley's fourth month

Helping Daddy pick out some new headphones at Best Buy earlier this month. (We think he just liked the box.)

Recent notes about my four-month-old baby boy:

• Yes, Mommy and Daddy are still sleep-deprived. But Brian and I have worked out a routine in which he puts Westley to bed and then gets up with him in the wee hours of the morning. And then I take the mid-morning hours (4 a.m. or so) and am usually up with him for the day by 5:30 a.m. It allows both of us to get a solid four hours of uninterrupted sleep most nights.
  

• We pulled all of the newborn-sized clothing out of Westley's dresser. So tiny! I can't believe my growing boy was that little. It was a more emotional experience than I expected, moreso because of the reality that time -- and childhood -- is so fleeting and so, so precious.

• A few firsts we witnessed this month: sucking his thumb, pulling the cat's tail, inch-worming his way into the corner of the crib (and crying because he was stuck). He loves to grab my jewelry, which is why I rarely wear necklaces and earrings on evenings and weekends.

Westley and Mommy at Bradley Fair's Autumn & Art Fest earlier this month.

• He's starting to interact more with his toys. A couple of weeks ago, I bought him this musical stuffed seahorse that we named Sarah. It plays soft lullabies and put him to sleep on the first song. So worth $11!

He is growing so fast and amazing me every time I hold him. Doing my best to relish every minute.

September highlights

What a fun, wonderful month. In addition to all of the things I've posted about, here are some other highlights from the month:

Nine years!

On Sept. 1, Brian and I celebrated our nine-year wedding anniversary with dinner at Sabor. With little Westley in the picture, we're betting that this will be our best year yet. Cheers to that!


Here, kitty, kitty, kitty


Meow Meow (and Brian) weren't huge fans, but a pretty little orange boy kitty crashed in our garage a few nights earlier this month. When Meow Meow first spotted the kitten in our garage one evening, she started growling territorially. I could barely hear Westley fussing over Meow Meow's protests.

One morning, Dakota and Lilly scared "Butterscotch" up into our front silver maple tree. Recognizing the photo opp, I ran inside to grab my camera (see photo above). The neighbor saw us and asked if that was our new cat. Simultaneously, I said "Yes!" and Brian said, "No!"

The cat really started annoying Brian one day. We had left the garage door cracked so he could come and go as he pleased (and access the food and water we set out for him). One Sunday morning Brian called me and said, "This is why we can't have nice things." I looked in the garage, and a black-and-white kitty was perched on the roof of my car. Sigh. We joked that Butterscotch had brought a friend to the breakfast buffet. I'm happy to report that the skinny stray has a new home. I get occasional updates on him from a sweet little girl at the bus stop.

Workouts

I am so happy to be back on an exercise routine. Brian watches Westley for me on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for a bit so I can get to the YMCA. I often meet my friend Nicole there, but the chance to burn 300 or so calories and clear my mind for a little bit is so refreshing and rejuvenating.

11:11

I see 11:11 -- both in morning and at night -- all of the time. This may mean something. Or not.

Hail

We had one hail of a hail storm that dropped softball-sized hailstones on our side of town. Here's a hailstone that fell on our driveway. The storm damaged both of our cars, and I'm betting that I may need a new windshield. We're going to have an insurance adjuster come take a look at the wheels and the roof of the house.

Four generations

Westley is a blessed little boy to have lots of extended relatives, only few of whom he's met so far. We have some gatherings planned for this fall, which will be fun. Last week, West met one of my cousins, her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter. West and her two-year-old granddaughter are second cousins once removed, according to a Google search I conducted. They were passing through town Wednesday and had time for a quick dinner, so we met them at the downtown Spangles. It was cute because both babies happened to be wearing Winnie the Pooh clothes.

One of the neatest family connections bridges four generations of both sides of Brian's family. Westley has a great-grandma in Leavenworth (we plan to meet her in a few weeks) and a maternal great-grandma in Wichita.

This photo was taken the first time Brian's Grandma held her daughter's son's son when she met Westley James in the hospital.

But these next photos are my favorite that I've taken of the two together:



Here's the most recent photo of West and Great-Grandma. We met up at Orange Leaf for dessert on Sept. 19. (Notice his cute newspaper outfit.)


Click to see a photo of me and Grandma taken on my due date when I was still pregnant with West.

Baby dreams

"Look at you there, just like you're floating on a cloud up in the sky.
Look at you there, just like a whisper that keeps blooming in my mind.
But now the time has come for you to sleep now my love.
Keep falling, keep falling
To sleep now my love
Keep falling, keep falling back to sleep."

Westley's first blog post

Westley has been sitting on my lap while I've been working on my blog. He suddenly became very interested in the keyboard, so I asked him if he had anything on his mind he'd like to share with the world. And so, in the words of a four-month-old, is this:

x zx j 8kmjjjjjjjjjmm ,

There ya have it.

Autumn & Art

Brian and my dad spent some time fishing this weekend, and we now have 18 pounds of bass in our freezer. In exchange for watching Westley while he had his guy time, I got to choose how we spent some weekend downtime.


I opted to check out the first Autumn & Art festival at Bradley Fair on Saturday. We stopped there while running errands, walked, looked at lots of lovely art and had a fun lakeside picnic. We ran into some friends who joined us for a meal.






The pumpkins and coffee at the festival made me ready for fall, but the 90-something temperature made me really yearn for a change of season.

While we were out running errands, we ran out of diapers and had to stop at Walgreens just for a new pack. Fail. Someday soon hopefully we'll learn that lesson.

Mudbuggin'!

Last Sunday, Brian, Westley and I went to Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Riverside to hear our favorite cajun band, the Mudbugs. It was a gorgeous afternoon (too hot for September, though). We ate cookies (to help the church raise money for its youth group!) and chatted with friends.

The baby:


The band:


The boys:


Katie and her baby Lillian were there. I think that made Westley very, very happy. Here the babies are reaping the adoration of the mommies:


And here's Westley, well, being a boy, I guess. I thought he would be older than four months before I caught him peeking down a girl's dress! Brian said he was equally appalled and proud of our son's advances. Westley James ...

(Fabulous photo by Katie Grover)

Fun and fare at the fair

Brian, Westley and I spent a day at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, and my parents joined us for the afternoon.


We visited with vendors and browsed their assortment of items for sale. Westley got to feel a soft beaver felt at one booth:


We dined on chips on a stick, a Pronto Pup, a lamb gyro (I had to pay extra for the delicious feta), friend green tomatoes (YUM!) and freshly squeezed (and extremely sweet) lemonade.


Westley fell asleep in his Baby Bjorn on the midway:


We laughed at funny signs, including this one:


Our favorite part, though, was having a caricature drawn of us, something Brian and I have always wanted to do. We thought Westley's first trip with us to any kind of outdoor fair or festival was the perfect occasion:





Click to see additional photos in my fair gallery.

First picnic in the park!

On a gorgeous day earlier this month, Gigi joined Brian and me for Westley's first picnic. We shared sandwiches, strawberries and other treats at Sedgwick County Park. Brian did a little bit of fishing, and Mom and I admired dragonflies, puffy white clouds and our little troublemaker. There were ants, but we agreed that the uninvited guests made the experience quintessential.




The photo above reminds me of another one I shot earlier this summer of Westley with Brian playing softball in the background. I love to compare the two and see how much West has grown since then. (I'm also thinking that the baby in foreground/daddy in background could be a fun photo theme to continue.)

Click to view additional photos from the picnic.

Added: See the beautiful quilt in the above photos? It was a wonderful gift from the Bee-Attitudes, a quilting bee at Aldersgate UMC that Mom and I were involved in years ago. I was humbled and honored by the thoughtful gift.

Westley's baptism

On Sunday, Aug. 29, Westley was baptized. It was a wonderful and emotional day. I was reminded of the great responsibility Brian and I have to instill good values and beliefs into our son's life.

Our little lamb wore a white Onesie with a cross embroidered on the front, white corduroy pants and white sheep booties that say on the soles:

'"The LORD is my shepherd ..." Psalm 23


Westley had been in a wonderful mood that morning. Brian and I told him that he could be a holy terror every hour of that day except for 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. He seemed to be agreeable to the idea and started dozing off right before the baptism. I think his sleepy state made the sprinkle of water a surprise, and he started to cry:


Pastors Butch and Kim quickly soothed him, and our little boy was a very talkative little angel for the remainder of the service. (It seemed, in fact, that he thought his new place in the church granted him access to help Butch with his sermon. Westley babbled all the way through it.)




Eric, my brother-in-law, and Amanda, my sister, stood up for Westley as his Godparents.

Brian surprised me with flowers for the altar and a beautiful corsage to wear that morning. Earlier in the week, we had looked through some baby pictures of mine. Brian, handing me the corsage when we were just about ready to head to the church, told me that he and Westley had noticed that Gigi (my mom) had a corsage to wear for my baptism and thought it was only fitting that I have one, too. It was a special token because my baptism had been Mom's first corsage.

Mom also crocheted the beautiful white blanket that we made part of the day:


We were blessed to be surrounded by friends and family from three states. They attended the service and ceremony and a luncheon afterward. The group included four generations of Brian's family and three generations of mine.



My sister Jen made a beautiful checkerboard cake for the event. It was part of a delicious spread that included homemade chicken salad, Caprese and fruit salads and more.



We drove home from the event with full hearts and tummies and our souls full of grace.