Coleman can't wait for 4th of July!

Just a short post to say that Coleman cannot wait for his first roadtrip next week to Kansas City!!  There are so many things to look forward to:

• Meet the great grandparents: Anna Lee, Grandma/Grandpa Carr, Billy, Deano/Ginny!  He's SO lucky to have so many great grandparents waiting to meet him :)
• Meet Uncle Michael (Reardon) & Aunt Anna (he's sad to miss Aunt Allison & Uncle Johnny on this trip)
• Meet a gaggle of great aunts, great uncles and other "aunts" and "uncles" of the non-family type!

See you all next week!

xoxo,

Coleman

Wow - I can't believe I'm 5 weeks old!

Here are Coleman's milestones for the week:

• Daddy started a new job and both Mommy and Coleman took Daddy to work and picked him up a few days!  All the way in St. Paul.  It was worth it for the extra hour+ together as a family each day.
• Mommy gave Coleman his first bath before meeting Abby (Ramirez) Andrietsch who came in town for a conference from Milwaukee
• Coleman really started cooing and finding his voice.  Mommy even got some of the noises on video along with a GREAT smile at the very end (see below)
• Coleman did what we think was his first giggle!  We were at the Bowens after a yummy dinner of turkey tacos and all of the sudden he gave us a big smile followed by what can only be described as giggling.
• Coleman saw his first rainbow - he is SUPER lucky as it was a double rainbow (on 6/20)
• Coleman listened to his first lullaby "rock" CD - lullaby renditions of Coldplay.  Mommy and Daddy found it more than mildly amusing.
• Coleman as of 6/25 weighs a whopping 9 pounds 7 ounces!  +8oz from last Monday, so right in-line with how he should be tracking.  Hooray!

Photo highlights from the week:

 Thank you, Abby, for waking up early so we could play on Tuesday!  It was great meeting you (and thank you for the delicious lunch at Barrio Edina!)

 Quality cuddle time with Daddy & Lola.  Lola has become very, very protective of Coleman.  Mommy took Lola and Coleman on a walk around Calhoun and Lola had a barking attack at anyone who came near us when we were lounging on one of the benches.  I think she's coming around to loving her little "brother"

A one-minute video of Coleman.  Watch the whole thing for his huge smile at the end :)

 Coleman's first rainbow - a Double Rainbow!

 Great picture of my two men :)

 Sleepy time with Daddy.  They both had a hard day "at work"

Now some photos from my one-month photo shoot!

I am getting SO big!!

Practicing the free throw follow-through to follow in my Mommy's footsteps to Duke!  Go Devils :)

 I will eat you...no, really, I will eat you Giraffy!

Giraffy, you're still my bud.  No hard feelings!

 You are never too young for dance parties.  I have them almost daily!

 Mr. Skinny Legs!  At least his thighs are starting to fatten up a bit.

 Seriously, how cute am I?!?

And now, here's some 5-week photos (yes, 2 photo shoots in a week!):

Coleman is 4 weeks old!

So I've always had a bit of the entrepreneurial bug but have been too risk averse to do anything about it.  This week we got word about the status of our job at Mills (I'm good...no risk to my job).  I had a little part of me that wished I would get the severance package so I could focus on my newest passion...trying to figure out how to slow down time!  Coleman is growing up WAY too fast.

As promised in the Father's Day post, here are some pictures of John Smith Ricco, aka JSR, holding little Coleman.  Adam has developed a habit of simply putting the baby in friends' arms.  He doesn't ask, he just sort of does it.  Makes me laugh and luckily our friends have ALL been great sports!  For those who don't know JSR, he was a Marketing Associate at General Mills (hired straight out of undergrad at Carlton).  I had the pleasure of working with him in Snacks during our first assignment and watched as he navigated the system with ease.  SUCH a fun guy (many fun nights at Jet Set!).  We hope Coleman can spend more time with him in the future as he brings so much fun to life.

 We've been working on wearing hats more often, especially in the house to help him regulate his temperature.  He has a big noggin' like his mommy & daddy, so we're already comfortably in the 3 & 6 month hats.  This adorable hat & outfit on the top are from Scott & Valerie (yay for monkey pirates!) and the bottom are from Sameer & Laura (and have Adam's favorite motif...cars!)

Coleman wouldn't be a "Watson" if he didn't have a little Polo of his own (thank you Uncle Chuck for the bibs & Dad/Hilary for the baby clothes...this onesie is themed "dogs playing rugby" - how VERY Polo of the designers!).  The little outfit on the right is simply too cute for words (thank you Great Aunt Denise & Great Grandma Ginny).  This was the first 3-piece outfit + matching socks AND hat that Coleman wore.  Cute for pictures, not so cute for diaper changes.

 In other news...houston, we have a thumb sucker!  Dr. Block said when she saw the ultrasounds that she thought the baby would be very oral and that is 100% accurate.  Coleman basically sucks on anything and everything he can find.  He was a hand/finger sucker, but this week he officially found his thumb again and again.

Adam is terrified of the thumb sucking (thanks to stories of Uncle Michael W's pallet expander as a child), so he's doing anything he can to break the habit.  Since then, Lu told us that the expander was only on for 3 months and B's braces were on half the time of mine.  Go figure!  The above photo (right) is Coleman with his "Wubanub"-  essentially a "soothie" paci with attached monkey.  The great thing about it is the monkey sort of keeps the paci in place and Coleman can find it to put it back in his mouth.  He still prefers the MAM paci, but the Wubanub will do!

Just had to re-post the Father's Day photo of the 3 of us.  What a fun day/weekend!

Finally, Coleman's 4 week photos:

 Aren't I cute and quiet.  

 Look how big I'm getting!!

 RAWR!!  I am learning to coo & talk and will do the same to my weekly sign animals.  RAWR!!!

I'm a little love bug.  I love my mommy, daddy, grandmas & grandpas, aunts & uncles.  xoxo

Coleman's Milestones for his 4th week:

• Celebrated Daddy's first Father's Day
• Took our first family "road trip" to Stillwater, MN (45 minutes)
• Coleman officially became a thumb sucker!
• Mommy weighed Coleman at Amma Parenting Center on Monday - he clocks in at a whopping 8 pounds 14.9 oz!  He will easily be 10 pounds by the time everyone sees him over the 4th of July :(
• Coleman outgrew his first outfit - the cute Margary Ellen footed onesie with the yellow teddy bears on it.  Mommy almost cried when folding it to put away in the "storage" drawer.
• Coleman met some very special friends: Blake H & Steve O from Carlson, Zoe Schwartz from GMI and John Smith Ricco

Happy Father's Day!

So it should be no shock that I'm a huge sucker for pretty much any holiday.  In the last 14 years, Adam has been able to wean me off of Valentine's Day a little, but I now have Father's Day to make a bigger deal over than in the past :)  So what did we do...a Father's Day weekend (vs. day!)

On Friday, we started the day with breakfast at Rustica, followed by several errands and yet another fabulous rooftop meet up with some of Adam's classmates.  Coleman was yet again a rockstar baby!

Yum, Rustica!  I can tell this place will be dangerous so close to the house while I'm on leave!

We quickly came home from the Carlson party at Brit's for a feeding and to celebrate Shabbat with the candles, Challah from Rustica and a wonderful Cabernet Franc from Carr Vineyard (thank you Uncle Ridge!).  We ended up at Burger Jones for a 9:15pm reservation, along with little C.  Who says eating out is not a possibility with an infant ;)

Saturday was more relaxed since Adam enjoyed his time so much on Friday.  We essentially stayed around the house and I prepared for Father's Day and our picnic.  I did make French Toast.  Found a great recipe on Epicurious that uses buttermilk instead of whole milk or 1/2 and 1/2, so I felt a little less guilty!  Mid-day we took a walk around Lake Calhoun and poor little C got overheated (not too warm, but man it was humid!!) so he was carried the last 1/2 mile or so.  Our evening errand was to the Four Firkins, which is a craft beer shop in St. Louis Park.  It was PACKED on the day before Father's Day, but we were able to pick up some great pairings for the picnic I planned on Sunday.

Sunday was the big day.  We started the morning with a breakfast sandwich (Adam's favorite).  I can proudly say I cooked the eggs well so they were just a little runny but didn't explode when you took your first bite!

After Breakfast, we celebrated with several cards & a small present (Adam's "big" present came in 2 boxes from Bonobos - some sassy colored shorts & "game day chinos").  Then I hit the kitchen to finish up the rest of our picnic foods - lemon tarragon chicken salad sandwiches (on croissants from Rustica), a not too creamy not too vinegary potato salad with dill and basil and my "risky" recipe - a tomato, watermelon & cucumber salad.

We finally got everything pulled together to head out to Stillwater for the Nature Valley Grand Prix final leg (Adam's request).  After the humidity on Saturday, it was quite a bit cooler and a tiny bit overcast with no rain in the daytime forecast, so we were golden...or so we thought.

We found a great place to park ourselves to watch the race - the exciting part of the track with the huge hill followed by tight turn at the bottom.  Racers supposedly get riding over 50mph on this section of the course!  I broke out the picnic after we took cover for some little raindrops that started to fall.  We made it through most of our sandwich and a couple of sips of some delicious Saison meets Golden ale before the big raindrops started to fall.  We quickly moved to cover up Coleman as much as possible and waited for it to pass.  It didn't.

Adam finally went to get the car to drive down to the course while I held Coleman trying to keep him warm and as dry as possible.  Here's a picture of us celebrating our first Father's Day with Coleman in the back seat of the silver 4Runner.  At least we had fun!

We drove back home and ended up meeting up with Sarah Dworkin and John Smith Ricco for a few minutes.  JSR was in town for his 5-year reunion at Carlton.  Everyone was pretty tired, so we called it early and came home to make up dinner.  (Hoping to post a couple of cute pictures of JSR holding Coleman - he was a natural!)

Dinner was comprised of yet another delicious grilled ribeye (thank you Costco for carrying USDA Prime beef!!).  We ate it with the potato salad and tomato salad we didn't eat during the rainstorm.  For dessert, we had the ONLY specific request Adam had for the weekend - strawberry shortcake.  Thank you Bisquick 0g trans fat (only available at Costco) for the delicious and SUPER EASY recipe :)

All in all, the weekend didn't have much of a plan, but definitely left us with a bunch of memories we will not soon forget.  Happy Father's Day to my best friend, husband and the best Daddy imaginable to my little Coleman.  XOXO

Coleman is 3 weeks old!

Lots of activity this past week, including a GREAT visit by Gigi and Papa J (ie. Gina and John) who helped a ton around the house (plus made some pretty fantastic food for us as well!)

Some highlights from the week:

• Gina cooked...a lot.  For the siblings, be jealous!  She made her chicken enchiladas, red quinoa salad and both strawberry AND raspberry pies!!!  YUM!
• John couldn't stay away from Coleman, so made a last-minute drive to town, passing up on a hair cut (but don't worry, Coleman didn't mind the extra length!)
• AMAZING weather continued - we took our first walk up to Isles Bun & Coffee for puppy dog tails and some delicious mixed berry coffee cake followed by a walk around Lake of the Isles.  
• Meg took her first solo walk around Calhoun with both Lola and Coleman - Lola was a champ and did fairly well being tethered to the stroller.
• We had two 90+ degree days and the AC unit didn't quit on us!!  Adam sheepishly admit that it could have something to do with the cooler temp we had it set to (72) instead of letting it get up to 75, which historically ended in indoor temps of 80+ and a compressor that continued to shut off.  Hoping this trick continues since it's a bit harder to not only tote the dog to a friend's for a cool place to crash, but we now have Coleman to take with us.
• Coleman went to his first Happy Hour to celebrate Sarah D's birthday (thank you to the Dworkins & the Thomas for the lovely evening!).  At said happy hour (beautiful evening on the roof top at Joe's Garage), Adam gave Coleman his first bottle!!  Coleman took it like a champ and didn't seem to know the difference.  YAY!
• Coleman also went to his first Dinner Club (aka DC) event on Saturday night.  The Thomas hosted a "trailer trash murder mystery" dinner.  
• The environment was set with Christmas lights, "beware of dog" signs, a kiddie pool and lots of tires.  
• Food theme was "trailer" inspired.  I made Nancy Thiessen's cheese fondue, which I renamed "crack dip" (or eye-talian fonduuuu) as well as Pioneer Woman's tortilla roll-ups, which I renamed trailer sushi.  
• Finally, there were fantastic costumes involved.  Adam's character, Jamie Moon, was a hippie with a guitar (played by our very own Coleman!).  My character was a bit more interesting...Mel/Melanie Winters, Mel-a writer at the newspaper by day and Melanie-an exotic dancer at the town club at night.  Gotta say it was TERRIFYING to try and dress as an exotic dancer less than 3 weeks post partum!!  
• We got back the photos from Shelly Mosman.  Some of our favorites are posted below!
• Coleman is getting too big...makes me sad already and he's only 3 weeks old.  He's super long and is fattening up.  I already want time to slow down...

Enjoy the photos!

Love,

Meg, Adam & Coleman

Baby Adam at 1 month!

Gina's Strawberry Pie - YUM!!!

First Shot at the Dr (Hep B) - At least it's a fun bandaid!

Papa J with C wearing his first pair of socks :)

First Bottle at Joe's Garage!

 Sights from Meg, Lola and Coleman's first trip around Calhoun (on Saturday).  Baby ducks & characters in some sort of eastern arts drum circle.

Just Chillaxing!

With his favorite Blankie - thank you Gammy Lulu!

SO excited I'm 3 weeks old!

Maybe I am growing up too fast...

"Baby Wearing" - Thank you Aunt Beth for the Moby!

And now some of our favorite photos from our baby shoot...and don't ask about our "serious faces" with the black background.  We do as we're told!