Week 144

Nov 30-Dec 6

I can't believe it is December! Where did November go? Christmas is right around the corner and I am so excited! I start my new job in about 3 weeks so Ed and I decided to make a big list of things we needed to get done before I went back to work. You know those things you have to do when you are an adult? The things you just HATE doing? Yeah well we made a huge list and we have knocked out most of it.

Jack playing outside.

We moved here in July/August and then had a baby right away so we never had the chance to get new SC drivers licenses, license plates, and pay property taxes (which we did not have to do in FL so it sucks we have to do it now). I think you have like 90 days when you are military and since Ed technically didn't even get out of the military until October 15th we were in no hurry to pay for all of this. Our tags were due to expire the end of December so we figured we might as well.

Check out our cool Veterans tags!

I told him Merry Christmas to us! The first thing we paid was the taxes ($500+). Then we had to go to the DMV and get the cars registered, get new plates, and also get new licenses. That added about another $100 to the bill. Don't you love paying for things like this right before Christmas? Or anytime for that matter. I'm not even going to get into the whole DMV story because it will take forever to tell you all the details and will also probably piss me off just thinking about it. Long story short we had to make 2 trips, wait more than 2 hours, and then we finally got our stuff done. It was not the best day.

Jack playing at Grandma's house.

December 2nd was Ed's moms birthday. I think she turned 35? Something like that. Well we celebrated by meeting her, Big Harvin, Ryan, and Amanda in downtown Columbia at a restaurant called Garibaldi's. I had personally never been to it before and the food was delicious. If you are in the Columbia area you should check it out. Small though, so make reservations. :) I really liked the food and the atmosphere. It was nice to have a grown up dinner without kids. My mom and brother were kind enough to watch both kids. My first time leaving Abel and it went smoothly. He drank a bottle without issues and ended up sleeping most of the time we were gone. Then he slept 7 hours in a row for the first time so that was awesome.

Our homemade cake masterpiece!

Jack helping Daddy put on the candles.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

On Sunday we went over to Ed's moms house to watch the Steelers game. Jack and I baked her a cake since he didn't get to sing Happy Birthday to her. I must say it is my best decorated cake to date. For some reason cakes are hard for me. This time I made my own icing from scratch and it made a big difference. The store bought icing always runs for me, it's too soft. We had a nice afternoon. Jack played with his toys and Ed and his mom watched the game. The Steelers won so all in all the afternoon was a success! After the game we had dinner and then drove to see the Christmas lights at a park in Sumter. It was so neat! The city decorates this area you can pretty much drive through with your kids and they had everything in lights from Spider Man to Santa Claus, to huge Christmas scenes. Jack loved it.

Jack in his Steelers gear for the game. Even his Crocs are Steelers!

This week we had another thing to check off our list, which was to get Abel his shots. This has been delayed a bit because after we lost Ed's insurance we just got a plan that would cover us if we had a catastrophic event. I think the deductible is like $10,000 and it's not the type of insurance that covers well baby visits. I tried to figure out what we were going to do and we decided to take him to the Health Department. Apparently they used to do well baby visits andshots (for free). Now they just do the shots and you have to pay $13/shot. We didn't really care because we wanted him covered.

Poor baby!

Abel in his 12 month Steelers outfit. I think he might just play for them one day since he is so big!

As far as the well baby visit, I feel I am fully qualified to "examine" him. As nurse Elizabeth I will report that Baby Abel is very healthy. He meets all of his expected milestones and then some. He is still exclusively breastfed and weighs in at 16.5 lbs (>100th percentile), meaning he is off the charts for a 2.8 month old. He is sleeping in the night for 5 hours at a time, then he will wake up just to eat (maybe a diaper change if he needs one) and then go straight back to sleep.

Happy guy standing up with the help of Daddy!

He is very mellow and happy. Oftentimes I won't even hear him wake up, but will walk in his room to check on him and he will be patiently waiting for someone to get him. As soon as he makes eye contact he gives you a huge smile with his ginormous cheeks and you can see both of his deep set dimples. He has definitely mastered the social smile. Usually while he is smiling he will coo and gurgle at you if you talk to him. He can hold his head up for long periods of time. He does tummy time throughout the day, pretty soon he will be ready for the jumperoo and exersaucer. He loves taking a bath and will kick his legs the entire time. His favorite thing is to watch big brother Jack playing.

Jack and Hope in their Christmas attire.

Abel with his new Christmas bib from Grandma!

Candy cane from off the tree!