Miller's newborn pictures

When Jessie and Amy were in town a few weeks ago, Amy was nice enough to bring her "studio" with her in order to do Miller's newborn pictures. I will admit, it's quite handy when the baby's godmother is a professional photographer, but you too can have great pics like these. Amy has quit her other job, and is now a full-time photographer/wife/mother. You can go to her website, which is www.amycasas.com to contact her, especially those of you in or near the Bryan/College Station area.

So, I normally try to do a Friday post with pictures from the week and a run-down of our week's activities. With all the pictures we have though, I decided just to post those. I have to warn you, there were over 300 shots in this album, and that doesn't count the other 200+ pictures she sent me of Miller and McKason together and just general shots of the weekend. Here's a few pictures, to give you a general idea though! All commentary dictated by Miller, and typed by his Mommy.

This is just a normal shot of me. My eyes look really dark here, but they're still quite blue.

This is my "sweet man" face. Who wouldn't want to kiss these cheeks?

This is my shot for all the ladies out there. I'm quite the stud, don't you think?

Hey! I'm down here!!

Here we are in my room. Lexi's playing guard dog. She loves looking out that window.

I was going for my nose, but I missed.

Maybe Mommy and Daddy should try putting me to sleep in my dresser instead of my crib.

Hey, Aunt Amy, why are you so far away?

That's better, but come a little closer.

Closer...

Aaah! Close enough!

My mommy says I'm such a cutie when I sleep.

Aww, shucks Mom, you say the sweetest things about me.

Yawning stage 1.

Stage 2.

Stage 3.

I finished my yawn, so I'll stick out my tongue now.

Hey Dad, which one is the football and which one is Miller?

Dad, I'm over here!

I can't believe you got that wrong!

I guess I'll forgive you this time. Just don't try to spike me again, OK?

Lexi wanted some more camera time...

This is just a funny face I made.

Nonna says this is my Yoda look.

Gig 'Em Aggies!

Hmm, this stuff is interesting. What are all these things around me?

Rose petals? WHAT?!?!?!

What can I do to make this a more manly shot?

I know! I'll show off my ninja moves that Tia Adriana taught me!

HI YAH! Look, I'm even blocking.

This is a shot Mommy put in, to show off I'm not always the sweet guy people think I am.

Here I am, lounging with, or on, Lexi.

Lexi finally escaped me.

But I found her!

Then I decided to pose like her!

OK, enough of Miller's commentary. These last two are my favorite of the bunch.

I think this one is just a gorgeous shot. Is it biased to think it could fit in hanging up in a gallery somewhere?

Then, this one just takes my breath away. My baby boy with those big, beautiful blue eyes.

OK, those were just a few out of hundreds. I'll try to post pictures from this week sometime this weekend, plus I've still got two more albums to go through that Amy sent!

Oh my gosh I think I'm addicted.

So, for those of you who saw my facebook status, I wanted to get into the world of digital scrapbooking. After being intimidate by photoshop first thing this morning, I had to consult with my good friend Amy B. She's the master at this stuff. ;-) After she taught me a few things, and I started downloading everything I could get my hands on, here's my first ever page. I know it's not fancy, but I'm just learning the software. I can't wait to start using this stuff to make my photbooks. Although I think I'm going to be spending WAY too much time doing this.

Weekend fun

I know I just posted on Friday, but, I like to post as often as possible, and when John's home, I have more free time to do that. :-) Saturday morning we took a stroll down to Nonna and Pop's, which Miller enjoyed. Along the way we saw a few of the neighbors who stopped to see Miller for the first time. Then, later on that afternoon, Amy B. and her mom, Mrs. Jan stopped by. It was Amy's first time to see Miller in person. She was so funny, just soaking up his smell. :-) We still didn't make it to Olive Garden that evening. We got there before 5 on Saturday evening, but it was still a wait, so we ended up going to Ruby Tuesdays instead, which was SO good.

Today, I went to my cousin's baby shower. She's not my first cousin, I think we figured out she's actually my fifth cousin. So, our kids will be seventh cousins? Strange, right?

John set up another one of Miller's toys that I'm sure he'll enjoy. He hasn't gotten to the age where he's really started playing with toys yet. In fact, for "tummy time" he decided to nap instead.


Here's Miller with his Auntie Amy.

This morning we tried again, and he did grab the ring on his own!

Here's a picture of my cousin Kelly, Miller, and I. She's due September 15th. She's having a baby girl, and the shower had the cutest ladybug theme!

Soaking up every possible minute with the little guy

As I'm sure you can tell by the pictures, Miller is starting to wake up more and more, and he's actually starting to take notice of his surroundings. That's making things more fun for John and I. As much as I love being around the little guy, I get a little stir-crazy sitting in the house all day, so we had a good time finding different ways to keep us busy this week. Our favorite thing to do is walk down the road to Mimi and Paw-paw's or Nonna and Pops'. We look like a little parade. Lexi tied to the side of the stroller (because she wouldn't forgive me if I went for a walk and didn't take her), and me pushing Miller. He loves to be outside and he loves anytime he's in his carrier that it's moving. It usually puts him right to sleep. We helped Pops unload hay bales this week (His first farm chore!). Well, I helped, and Miller would demand to be rocked...got to keep that carrier moving.

Wednesday, Pops took us to lunch, and we did some errands around town. Thursday was a pretty exciting day for me. My mom and dad treated me to a haircut and highlights. So, I packed up Miller and Mimi and we went off to the hairdresser's. Of course, when I warned everyone that this was his wide awake time and that he'd probably be a little toot, he slept through the whole visit. I maintain he did that just to spite me. You can guarantee if I hadn't brought Mimi with me to watch him, he would have screamed his head off, but he was happy as could be in his carrier. After lunch, we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond so I could get some collage frames to start filling up with pictures of my handsome man. Thursday evening, my friend from work, Adriana came to see Miller and catch me up on all the goings on at the lab...kind of made me want to extend my maternity leave to permanent. :-P John was holding Miller at one point during the evening while Adriana and I were talking, and this is what we hear from John, "Quit hitting yourself. Quit hitting yourself." Not exactly what you want to hear your husband say to your five week-old. I guess Miller liked it because he would put his hand in John's hand. As soon as John would hold it, he would pull his hand out, and hit himself in the face. I guess my boys are already getting rough with each other.

Friday wasn't too interesting. A quick trip to Nonna and Pops' to pick up wrapping paper and gifts that needed to be wrapped for my cousin's baby shower tomorrow. John and I attempted to go to Olive Garden, but when we got there at 5:45, it was already so crowded that you couldn't even see the desk to put your name down. We decided to skip that and came home to Bertolli's and a cheap bottle of wine. I think we'll attempt it again tonight, but we'll probably be there no later than 5 o'clock. I'm not a big fan of waiting. :-)

My main goal for this weekend is to finish up Miller's announcements. My friend Amy B., designed them for me, http://design139.blogspot.com/ and I feel like I've been working on them for weeks. As soon as they're all mailed, I'll post the image...it's super cute, but I don't want to ruin the surprise for those who are lucky enough to get one in the mail. ;-)

We were on the go so much this week that I have some cute pictures of Miller in outfits. Plaid is my favorite thing to put him in. He's just so stinking cute!! So, here's some of the pictures for the week:


Amy B. and Mrs. Jan will be so pleased to see this one! Elephants! He's such a great little poser. Look at those wide eyes and the bent knee. His hair looks so red in pictures. I don't think it's that red in person.

His favorite thing...OUTSIDE. So, when he can't be outside, I try to put him close to the windows or at least open up the blinds so he can look out there. He must have picked up on this from McKason. Not even two months old, and they're already rubbing off on each other.

This one is kind of out of focus, but I just couldn't help myself. He's smiling, laying there on Daddy's chest.

Again, my cute little man in plaid. I just love it!

I feel a need to explain this one because it does look like John is off to bury our baby. John's usual routine when he gets home from work is to fill in any recent holes with the dog poop in the yard. This serves two purposes, it keeps our yard looking clean, and it keeps the dogs from digging in thise holes. They just make new ones instead. I think Miller was being fussy this evening, so John took him outside because he loves it out there. He was completely relaxed, and John took advantage if the time to do his chore. This is the picture I got:

I feel like I'm never in pictures with Miller since I'm always taking them. So, after I got my hair done, I made John take a picture of us. Not Miler's finest...

By John:

I can't believe already a month has passed since Miller was born. It's just been flying by. Especially those first two weeks. I was still taking summer classes those first two weeks. So, besides having a newborn at home for Michelle to deal with, she also had to deal with me not being home till 10:00 p.m. two nights of the week. Poor girl had to deal with Miller all day and most of the night all by herself. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you a little bit about everything that has happened in the first Month of Miller's life. Some of the stuff may be repeated from things Michelle has posted.
Labor and the hospital: Michelle was induced Monday, July 29th, and 5:00 a.m. I think the labor for both Michelle and I was easier than we thought it would be. Not to say it was easy for Michelle, just easier than she had originally thought. And shorter too. We assumed that Miller wouldn't be born till late that afternoon, but he popped out at 2:18 p.m. If I described the rest of the time we spent in the hospital, I could do it in one word: waiting. Due to shift changes and miscommunication, we had to wait 7 hours on the first day to move to the postpartum room, and we waited around 9 hours on the last day to be discharged. I'd hate to have to go the the hospital during a shift change, because nothing gets done for at least an hour before, and after a shift change. Anyway, we finally did make it home and all in good health.
1-2 Weeks old: As I said before, I still had summer classes during the first two weeks, and I also went back to work after the first week. So, poor Michelle was home alone alot with the newborn. It definitely wasn't fun for her. Miller and her had trouble breastfeeding, and it was very frustrating and painful for her. She eventually met with a lady from the La Leche League, a group who specialize in helping mothers breastfeed. After her help showing Michelle some tricks and the correct latch on, things eventually got easier and now Miller and Michelle are pros. Also at this time, we found out the Miller does not like sleeping on his back very much. He gets congested when he lays on his back (which the doctor says is normal) and so he breathes harder, and wakes himself up. The doctor told us to try "Little Noses" nasal spray, and it seems to clear him up, but he hates it and usually cries after giving it to him. So, that doesn't really help him sleep either. so, we have tried alot of different approaches to get him to sleep in his crib. Having him sleep in his carrier, on his side, in his bouncer, in his swing...all work for about 1-1.5 hours and then he is up. He sleeps best on his stomach, but we can't leave him in the crib on his stomach. So, a typical night is putting him down till he wakes up and then trying to put him down again till we are too tired and eventually give up. Then we lay down in the recliner and let him sleep on our chests. That's his favorite was to sleep.
2-4 Weeks (1 month): Miller is still keeping the same sleeping patterns. However; he'll surprise us by sometimes sleeping in his crib for up to 3 hours. These times are random and far between, but so appreciated when they happen. You can definitely see more of his personality coming out. He smiles more and has even given us some laughs. He's really good at keeping his head up already, and can push himself off our chests easily when we are holding him, or he's laying on our chests. He doesn't do it so well during tummy time, but he doesn't really try during tummy time, because I still don't think he knows what tummy time is. He's becoming more aware of his surroundings and is curious of everything around him. He loves to be outside and loves to sit in his bouncer and watch everything outside through the windows. He's growing super fast. He's taking a bottle now from me, so I can help ease some of the stress off of Michelle. Also, he's started taking pacifiers now, so that has helped some of his stress too. Well, that's about it for now. I'll probably post another blog in another month.

At least I'll be entertained by the George Lopez marathon tonight...

We're attempting to let Miller get used to sleeping in his crib at night, so that eventually he will sleep through the night in his crib. As it is, he has slept five to six hours on my chest, but I'm still up after four hours because, unfortunately, my body has gotten used to disjointed sleep. That's just depressing. So, tonight, John put him in his crib, and went to bed, and I've been sitting up for a few minutes to see if it really takes. It sounds like it's not, so I might have to finish this blog tomorrow. :-)

It's so nice having John home at night. I'm glad he has a nice, long break between semesters. He finnished off his summer classes with a 4.0, and Miller and I are so proud if him. Good job daddy! On Saturday, John and I had our first date night since Miller was born. We went to see the new Transformers movie, and then we went out to eat at Ristorante Giuseppe, which is my favorite restaurant. We had a wonderful time, but it's definitely different now that we've got the little guy. I think he had a perfectly good time with Nonna and Pops. I know they did.

Yesterday, John's mom, sister, and step-niece came over to visit. I know they wished they lived closer so that they could spend more time with Miller, but it was a great visit, and Miller loved all the rocking.

Here's some pictures:

This one is just for Uncle Jessie. I think he was trying to brainwash him because he did this Friday evening, right after they left.

He's so strong. Look at him pushing off his daddy's chest.

Here's another one of him pushing off. I just love his expression in this one.

He's really stretching in this one.

Here's a picture of Alisha, holding Miller. So cute!