Memorial Day Weekend in Millen

We spent Memorial Day Weekend in Millen, GA to celebrate both Shamus Jr's birth and mine and Shamus' one year anniversary.

In Millen, our family gathered for a baby shower at the Williams Farm. There were lots of aunts and cousins to love on Jr. We had a great time seeing everyone and showing off Jr!

Shamus and I were brave and left Jr. with Gammy and Papa for Memorial Day while we drove to Savannah and Tybee Island to celebrate our one year anniversary! Man, it's hard to believe it's already been a year. We enjoyed relaxing on the beach and eating seafood overlooking the marsh. Shamus Jr. did a great job staying with his grandparents for the day and we were excited that he didn't drink up all his milk before we returned home!

We settled back at home in Smyrna before we left again on Wednesday for a free trip to Nashville, thanks to Shamus' hobby with maxima.org. He won a Maxima enthusiast contest which gave us a few nights stay at the Gaylord Opryland hotel and Shamus got to tour the Nissan plant and drive the 2009 Maxima - while Jr. and I toured the massive hotel and layed by the pool. It was a great ending to our week!

Motherlore Finale!

Today was Mommy and Shamus, Jr's last day of Motherlore class. We enjoyed hanging out with the other Mommies and Babies and learning infant massage from Monette. Jr. was either sleeping or eating most of the class but Mom enjoyed learning by watching the other Moms.

These past few days have been eventful for Shamus and Jana - we were able to entertain Shamus, Jr. enough to have him smile at us. He did it for the first time on Saturday and then again on Sunday. It was very exciting!! He has dimples like his Mom and Dad! :-)

First Blog Ever!

Hi Friends and Family - this is my first blog of hopefully many more to come. I envision this to become my documentary of my family, health and fitness research, and business developments.

The pic is of Shamus Jr. at his very first party! It was Katy and Andy's baby shower on April 19 - he was only two weeks old!

Since my life right now is spent taking care of Shamus, Jr. then my first blog will have to be a tribute to him! There's so much I want to capture in words about the daily fun adventures with Shamus Jr. but for now (since it's midnight and he's asleep for just a few hours) I'll give the highlights of today...

Today we had planned a visit to OIE at GA Tech to visit my previous coworkers...so as soon as I woke up, I was preparing for our trip downtown. After a few feedings, a poop spray on the changing table, and Mom calling Dad to learn how to reassemble the car seat pad, we were off to visit friends despite the rain. We were only 30 minutes late for our lunch date - not too bad considering! Of course, everyone loved him and thought he looked just like his Dad - I agree! We enjoyed the visit - the whole gang was crowded around Sheila's desk enjoying watching Shamus Jr. sleep.

Back at home, Shamus Jr. went down for a nap so I decided to give the manual pump another try since I have a hair appt. tomorrow. I was amazed - much more successful on the second attempt - I got 2 ounces, even with feeding him at the same time!

Shamus got home and we played with Jr. for a bit since he was in a very playful mood after his nap and feeding. Since Saturday, Shamus Jr. has been able to focus on our hand and follow it from side to side...so that along with Pattycake and conversations in Parentese are the gist of our playtime. We're still working on the smiles - for now they're just spontaneous.

The highlight of my day was coming home from a quick trip to the grocery to find Shamus holding a very content baby. To my surprise, Shamus had fed him the pumped milk from a bottle - this was a first!! I wanted to see it but was so proud of Shamus for taking the initiative and figuring it out for himself. He warmed the milk and tested it on his wrist "as he'd seen on T.V." and Shamus Jr. drank it down fast!

So tomorrow brings another busy day...but as I told Shamus in the hospital after Shamus Jr. was born, I have finally found my calling and it feels great!

Happy Birthday Shamus Jr. - today you're six weeks old!