Playing Catch-up!

So the traveling and preparing for Carmel had the better of me (plus going through a "dark period" leading up to his current Wonder Week) will keep this post on the shorter side.

Some highlights:
Gigi came to visit two weeks ago. She played and walked a lot with Coleman plus watched him while Adam and I went to this month's Dinner Club (Mexican at the Ceballos-we brought the originator tithe Tequila Sunrise, made with Patron, fresh line juice with a dash of grenadine an orange blossom water!)

While on her trip, Gigi taught Coleman how to blow raspberries...well, she did most I the blowing and Coleman have her a big, gummy smile each time! It's now a trick for us to get him to smile at strangers :) And, Coleman is starting to try to blow them himself! It's currently more of a bubble blowing attempt with some occasional air escaping. Pretty darn cute!

Mommy ended up having to take Coleman to the doctor to check in his weight. He unfortunately dropped off his curve a bit, so Dr Miller told us we need to fatten him up! Mommy saw Marta at Methodist (hands down the most amazing lactation consultant in town!!) and went on a new supplement (Malunggay leaf), 3 times a day. Seems to be working as Coleman's weigh-in before we left for Carmel was 11#10.5 oz (up 11.5 oz from 2 weeks prior!!) Dr Neis was very impressed with the progress!

We tried introducing some formula to take some of the pressure off of mommy, but Coleman wanted NOTHING to do with that! In fact, Daddy got one of his best laughs since becoming a Daddy due to Coleman's facial expression while NOT drinking the contents of the bottle!! Oh well, The baby knows what he wants!!

Coleman helped Mommy and Valerie make challah for Rosh Hashana. Part of the fun for the day was playing in Dalia's Jumperoo for the first time, which was super super fun!! He has now played in the jungle Jumperoo at Valerie's, at home and in Carmel (little preview!)

So that's it for now...I can't seem to add photos from my phone, so photos will have to wait until we're back from Carmel in early October!!

Sending lots of California sunshine!! xoxo

Coleman's First Tailgate!

Rosh Hashanah

Coleman's trip to NY, the State Fair and the Museum!

Boy what a busy 2 weeks it's been (this is going to be a very, VERY long post)!  First, Daddy finished his internship at Ecolab.  They make him wait at least 4 weeks to find out if he's getting an offer.  Fingers crossed for good news in the next couple of weeks!  Next, we went to NY, both the Hamptons and the City, to introduce Coleman to his Grand Uncles John & Paul.  Finally, we hit the MN State Fair (2nd largest in the US to Texas) and the MN Science Museum for the "Real Pirates" exhibit.  Looking forward to a couple weeks of down time before the big trip to Carmel!

NY deserves it's own highlight block, as we had SO much fun and did so much while we were there!

• We flew in Friday night and Coleman had his own seat on the flight.  He flew in his car seat and was far too excited to sleep a wink.  He babbled (softly) the entire flight while Mommy and Daddy celebrated Shabbat with wine, challah and dinner on the plane (thanks to Rustica challah and Surdyk's food & wine).  Uncle John arranged a car to pick us up and drive us to the Hamptons.  Luckily the little guy slept since we didn't arrive until around 2:15am!!
• We slept in on Saturday and eventually went out for a garden tour.  We saw 3 different homes, including a 48 acre estate that was just beautiful.  The grass was so perfect that Mommy couldn't help but remove her shoes to walk around the property :)
• Saturday afternoon Nick and Jeri stopped by to meet Coleman.  He was in great spirits!
• Saturday night we had Karen and Ilene as well as Joe and Susan over for dinner.  Menu: yellow watermelon with chevre and balsamic salad, seared fluke, corn on the cob and roasted summer squash with peaches and yogurt for dessert.
• Karen is absolutely amazing with babies!  As soon as they walked in, she couldn't keep her hands off Coleman.  She held him, walked around the bluff and rocked in the rocking chair for an hour until a blow-out woke him up and signaled it was bedtime :)
• Susan is looking FANTASTIC after starting a new job as the President of Paule Ka, a French fashion house making their debut in the US market.  All I can say is I can't wait for us to have dual incomes (and probably a couple more stock grants!) so I can buy a few pieces.  They're an opening price point for the high-end designers (think dresses starting around $600, evening wear starting around $1000, skirts in the $500-$600 range).  Just beautiful stuff (and Susan said the designer understands women have hips!!).  Look for their winter collection at Nieman's starting this month with Saks following this fall (and hopefully Nordstrom sometime soon so we can get it up here in MN!!)
• Sunday was a relaxing day around the house with us hitting a few more markets to plan for dinner for 11 (turned into dinner for 8).  We also took Coleman to his first "real" (aka non-lake) beach and he dipped his toes in the Atlantic Ocean!  We had another great group over for dinner, including Nick and Jeri.  We just love Nick and Jeri as they are retired NYC public school principals and they're just fascinating to talk to about child rearing!  Menu: Ina's roasted chicken, a summer salad with sauteed peaches, radish and avocado, more roasted summer squash and an array of desserts (key lime pie, apple streusel & homemade zucchini bread)
• Monday was a tough day for C as the activity & new places caught up with him.  He pretty much  cried from noon until bedtime at 7pm.  It was trying, but at least we were around John and Paul who said they have a newfound understanding that sometimes babies "just cry" and the parents can't do anything about it!
• Tuesday we drove into NYC for a night on the town!  Nick and Jeri came over to John and Paul's to babysit and we hit a nearby Italian cured meat & cheese bar for a light bite before going to see Once, the Tony award-winner for best musical last year (and best actor).  It was just great. We came home immediately after the show and ordered in takeout (a first for us in NY!)
• Wednesday both John and Paul had to work, so we explored and spent most of the day in/around Central Park.  It was a perfect 79 degrees and sunny!  We also visited Laduree for a box of macaroons (YUM!) and grabbed lunch at Cafe Bouley, also delicious (and it was Restaurant Week, so we had a 3-course lunch for $27 each!).  
• The flight home on Wednesday night wasn't great as we got off to a bad start (including being 17th in line to take off at LaGuardia, which was a lot of sitting without movement/white noise to distract Coleman).  During that flight I overcame my "fear" of nursing in very tight quarters...at least I was covered!

Besides the NY trip, we visited the MN State Fair, which was fun, although we stayed away from the animals due to an outbreak of swine flu at the fair this year.  Mommy also convinced Daddy to take her to the Real Pirates exhibit at the MN Science Museum on its last day.  I have a feeling we'll be spending a LOT more time at that museum once Coleman is a bit older.  It's a fantastic setup for kids.

Now onto all of the fantastic photos!

Telling Daddy that he is a SUPERMAN ahead of his big Ecolab final presentation!

 Flying in class with my airplane jammie (thank you Gigi!) and sitting in the Delta Skylounge waiting for our flight (thank you AmEx!)

The setting for our beautiful dinners in the Hamptons!

 In Mommy's favorite 2-person chaise overlooking the water

 Retaking photos in the City - Coleman was SO happy!

 Always with a hand or paci in his mouth - we're worried he might be teething (already)

Cruising Central Park in my Vista

 Garden touring in the Hamptons!

 Oysters (and "Chowdah") at the Chowder and Clam Shack in Montauk

 Popped collar (in a monogrammed Polo, no less!) and a pout - perfect for the Hamptons crowd (well, not the crowd we hang with, but you get the picture)

Barney Greengrass

 Bussing it to the State Fair...yummm....cheese curds!

First time in the "seat" adaptor for the Vista!

Pirates exhibit...arrrr...

Not sure of the dinosaurs at the Science Museum!

And now Coleman's 15-week photo shoot:

"I am Captain Adorable of the S.S. Cutie!!"

Coleman Week 13 (a little late)

Some highlights from the week:

• Zantac seems to be working, although we didn't see any weight loss (in fact we saw him go from 10#14oz to 10#12oz, although it was on a different scale and he hadn't pooped in 4 days at the prior weigh-in and had gone 3 times in 24 hours at the week 13 weigh-in!)
• Coleman rolled from his back to his tummy overnight on Saturday night (8/18) - we planned on no more arms-in swaddle for him, but after some sleep regression, we're back to it for at least a period of the night.
• He's starting to get much more interested in his little feet.  Week 13 was more of an exploratory week, but by now, he's full-on grabbing them and holding them for long periods of time.  I have a feeling they'll be making it to his mouth in the next couple of weeks :)

And how cute is Coleman's "God-sister" Lillian (Hosty) - each night she says a prayer for "the zoo, the farmstead and Baby Coleman."  I can't wait until both Lillian and Coleman are old enough to become friends (or maybe more...but only when she's 32 and he's 30!!) ;)

And onto a quick story of why this post is so late...dear Adam was so excited to put a Lemur on the 13 week sign that he forgot to change the sign from 12 weeks to 13 weeks.  Big thanks to Aunt Abby, who is a student at the KC Art Institute for helping with her fantastic Photoshop skills.  You can't even tell the photos have been doctored :)

 Sucking in his bottom lip - both Adam and I find this far too cute!

 My little blondie!  It's pretty much all on the top of his head right now, so it looks like a platinum mohawk!  Hopefully this is the only one of those he ever has.

Let's not forget it was his 3-month birthday this week!  Here are some highlights from that photo shoot: