Happy Thanksgiving!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our place this year. We had nine guests total so we got to use the leaf in our new dining room table for the first time! In attendance were (from the Fix side) Papa John, Nana Kerry, Uncle Jason (unfortunately no fiance Heather!), and Aunt Susi. And from the Brockman side, Grandpa Rock, Grandma Melanie, and Aunt Zuni. Notice how I did not call either Susanna by her full name. I did not want to be accused of playing favorites! This was true even on their candle place cards. Instead of typical place cards, I printed everyone's name on vellum and wrapped them around a glass (tea light) candle holder in front of their places. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

I was also pleased with how our cheeseball turkey appetizer turned out. This recipe is from my old coworker Cheryl and it is AMAZING. And it tastes even better when it's shaped like a turkey. YUM! Speaking of yum, ALL of our food was incredibly delicious this year. Since we all contributed something, I think that everyone had the time to really make their part of the meal truly wonderful. It was the best Thanksgiving meal I've had in a really long time. Of course, we did miss being with our California family -- the Millers/Colemans/Rosencrantz' clan and Mrs. Miller's amazing wild rice. Alas, you can't have everything.

POP QUIZ - 2 Questions:

1) Who weighed more our turkey or Rock?

2) See if you can spy the difference between the two pictures below. (answers to the pop quiz are at the end of this blog)

1) Although Rock looks bigger than the turkey, he weighed exactly a pound less -- the turkey was 16 lbs. 4 oz. and Rock is 15 lbs. 4 oz.

2) In the second picture, Rock has joined us at the head of the table.

2 Months and growing!

At Rock's 2-month appointment (11/20/07), he was 15 lbs. and 4 oz. This puts him in the 97-99th percentile for weight and makes him the average size of a 4 1/2 month old! In order to be considered 'healthy' doctors like to see babies double their weight by 5 months of age. Since he was 8 lbs. 1 oz. when he was born, we were excited to see that he has almost accomplished this feat in 2 months. What an overachiever!
His head (which we thought was big) is actually only in the 25th percentile. I didn't get the exact measurement, but I had the doctor double check that he was reading the measurement correctly because we couldn't believe that his head is little!
His length was 24 inches. At two feet long, he is in the 70-95th percentile. Don't ask me why that range is so big. Anyway, all this is good news because it means three things:

1) The boy is growing strong and healthy!

2) The boy is growing at a slower rate (good for mom and dad's backs!). In his first month, he gained over 4 lbs. In this second month of life, he only gained 3 lbs!

3) He is on the right track to beat my cousin Tyler's record (in our family) of being 17 lbs. at his 3 month appointment!

Kilts are Fun for EVERYONE!

Uncle Jason is getting married on Dec. 29th. For his wedding, he and his best man (Fix) and his father are all wearing kilts. They had kilts made especially for this occasion in the Gillespie dress tartan. Last Tuesday, we met Uncle Jason and Papa John in Alexandria to get fitted for the jackets and other accessories that they will be renting to wear with their kilts. In the picture above, Jason is doing his best Rock-sad-face impersonation and Papa John snuck in the back of the picture!
Here are all the men getting ready to try on their jackets (by the way, I apologize if there is an official Scottish name for the jacket... I can't remember these things!).
The groom being fitted. It should also be noted that we got extra tartan material for me to sew (unofficial) kilts for Rock and his cousin Caleb to wear to the wedding. If anyone knows of a great kilt pattern for babies, send it my way!

Sleeping with my shoes on...

This picture was taken for two reasons:
1) It was Rock's first time wearing shoes!!!
2) I set him down in his Boppy because his dad was not at home (he was off getting approved for Ordination by the Potomac Presbytery -- which all went off without a hitch so he'll be being ordained this coming Sunday evening at 6:00 at our church. If you are in the area, you are invited! Come one, come all, it'll be a very special evening) and I needed to grab a few things in the other room. Rock did not want to be set down so he started screaming. I walked into the other room and he immediately went silent. Worried that maybe he had fallen off the couch or something, I rushed back into the living room. But when I came back in I saw that everything was okay and he had simply passed out completely in a matter of seconds. Poor tired boy!

Don't Worry -- It's only Water!

And I didn't drink any of it.

Rock and Clip

Everyone loves a good game of "Let's Compare the Babies!" Here Rock and Clip pose again while the adults took a million pictures.
Holding hands.
A close up. The crazy part is how they are almost the same size even though Rock is a month younger than Clip.
Fix you are not a baby. We will not compare you to the other babies.
Aiden and Sophie checking out the growing boys.

Fake Thanksgiving

For our November Monday Night Dinner with the Rabenhorsts, Hathaways, and Brockmans, we had a fake Thanksgiving. Because everyone loves the Thanksgiving meal so much, Annie suggested that we eat it twice this year. Of course we all agreed. Above is a pic of Rock with his favorite Aunt Susanna in Maryland.
Fix is doing his Clip impersonation. Clip has an adorable habit of sucking on his lower lip. It's so cute!
Sophie looking cute (if dazed) in her matching striped shirt and tights.
Jumping on Nana's lap.
Aiden does an awesome "Mater"(tow truck from the movie Cars) impersonation.

Hair

Toupee or comb-over? That is the question.

I'm smiling 'cause I slept through the night...

After playing with Aunt Valeta and Uncle Bob, Rock fell asleep on the way home around 9:45pm. When we got to our place he was still snoozing away so we left him in his carseat in his room and went to bed. When we woke up at 7:00am the next morning we couldn't believe that Rock had slept through the whole night! I took the picture above the next morning at church when Rock was sleeping (again in his carseat!). His adorable outfit is from Stephen and Carrie, Rock's favorite people in North Hills, CA.

Aunt Valeta and Uncle Bob Come to Town!

My Uncle Bob and Aunt Valeta came all the way from North Canton Ohio to celebrate Veteran's Day weekend with Rock. We had a lot of fun having them over for brunch at our place on Saturday morning. Then, Saturday night we gathered at my parents house for dinner...

Yay for Brockmans!
Rock's having fun with his favorite Grandma in Maryland. His adorable chick nightshirt was a gift from our sweet new neighbors Misty and John.

Bottle... hmmm... not so much.

So, the night before the picture above was taken, Fix and I went out on a date while Mommarama watched Rock. We left a bottle of breastmilk in case he woke up and freaked out from being hungry. He didn't wake up. Since the milk was already thawed, we decided to try a bottle the next day when he was hungry. Rock HATED it. So I did half a feeding the usual way and then we tried to get him to take the bottle again. He didn't really like it, but he finally settled into eating from it... Or so I thought. When I tipped the bottle up after a few minutes of 'feeding' it was still just as full as when I started. We tried for a few more minutes but Rock never figured out the whole 'sucking on the bottle to get the milk out of it' thing. Needless to say, we are taking baby steps (pun intended) in the direction of bottle feeding. I guess we won't be planning any baby-free vacations in the near future!

Hail to the Redskins!

Rock can't take his eyes off of his favorite Nana from Virginia. Why? Because she gave him such a great Redskins outfit! You'll see more shots of it in the next blog...

Swingin' Single and Lovin It!

Thanks again to Lorelei for this awesome onesie!

Bounce it up!

Rock loves his bouncer seat which was given to us by a sweet family from church.
Fix loves that Rock loves his new bouncer.
Mom loves that when he's in his bouncer she can take care of other things...
Like laundry for example.

Keeping the Boy Happy

So, last week was a rough week. Rock was a grumpy boy. As we saw in my last post, he didn't enjoy trying on hats time. He didn't really enjoy much of anything. On Wednesday when he was extra fussy we decided (again) that we needed to simply get out of the house. Rock and I suited up in the Baby Bjorn and walked over to the strip mall right by our house. We spent an hour or so browsing and bought some cute new shoes for Rock's mom and a few groceries for everyone.
This made him very happy and eventually he fell asleep. The adorable outfit he is wearing is from my mom's CBS friends. It was a hit with the employees at TJMaxx.

Hunt for Hats

Rock has a pretty big head for his size (actually he has a pretty big SIZE for his size, but anyway...) so the other day I realized that I needed to try on some of his hats and make sure he wasn't going to outgrow them before he had a chance to wear them. As Rock's face can attest, we were all a little weirded out by this hunting hat hand-me-down from Dave and Erin. Even weirder, it has matching booties with little deer heads on them.
So I tried on the Pooh hat from Aunt Sarah (favorite aunt in Dallas) and Uncle Ron.
At this point (yes, just two hats in to "let's try on hats" time) he was done with trying on hats.
But to be fair, Rock was having a bad day. When trying on hat time went so sour so quickly, I decided he had just had enough of looking at our townhouse and my face all day. Thus, we left the hat on and went for a walk to the library. That calmed him down enough to fall asleep and take a sleeping picture with dad when we got back. (So, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ron, don't develop a complex, he liked your hat just fine!)

Two Mondays Ago...

I know! It's been awhile since I've posted anything... but here are some shots from two Monday's ago. Rock had a very exciting day. Not only did he scratch his nose pretty badly....
But he also rode in his carseat all around the Washington, DC area. He got to eat a fish and chips lunch with Aunt Susanna (his favorite aunt who works in Old Town Alexandria) at Eamonn's (a wonderful chipper where Uncle Jason and future Aunt Heather got engaged). Then we saw Uncle Jason and future Aunt Heather at the bakery where they are having their cake made for their AWESOME wedding that is coming up soon.
He also got to see Aunt Susi for dinner! We went to her house to pick up some of Fix's old toys and we ate at Noodles & Co. which mom is still deciding if she likes or not. Of course, did mom remember to take a picture of Rock with his uncle or any of his aunts? NOPE! So here are shots of him alone. Hope you don't mind.

Afternoon Nap

Take a look at the size of this kid! Rock really really loves to push up on his legs and wiggle around. Thus it was hard to get focused pictures of him before his afternoon nap.
Fix and Rock like to look over their shoulders.
Here we are getting ready to settle in for a long nap.... Well, one of us is sleeping...