First Bismarck Trip

We took Gregory up to Bismarck last weekend for his Grandpa Mike's ordination as a deacon. We finally made it after our trip was delayed several hours by a bout of the stomach flu - apparently it has been going around - I suffered with it Friday and Dan and Coralie had it on Monday. Greg even threw up a couple times, but fortunately he didn't seem too upset by it and was otherwise fine. Anyway, Greg got to meet a LOT of Fix and Hogan family members including Aunt Kim and Grandpa Rod for the first time! Boy does he have a lot of 2nd cousins too!

We all had a great time and the ordination was wonderful. However, we did have a little scare at the rehearsal. Gregory tumbled right off a chair head first onto the marble floor of the Cathedral! I think I scooped him up before he actually hit the floor, as he did not have a bump or red mark, but we were both scared and he screamed for a couple minutes. I am sure it is the first of many falls, but it did come a little sooner than I expected I guess. I guess he is his father's son - Dan fell off a table when he was small and broke his arm! And then, one night at Grandpa Mike and Grandma Coralie's house, he rolled over from tummy to back about 5 times in a row, but when Grandma came to see, he got shy and wouldn't do it anymore! Between that and the chair incident, I think I'd better not leave him alone anywhere he could get into trouble from now on! Time to start baby-proofing!

He did a little better on the drive - he seems to be starting to learn that it is best to just sleep in the car. Hopefully this becomes a trend, but I'm not holding my breath for that. It was probably because he was still tired from that stomach bug...

Well I switched to a new photo website that doesn't cut off the pics in the slideshow. However, it does have a limit to how many pics can be in one slideshow, so if there are a lot, you get two! Enjoy!

3 months old!!

It is hard to believe Gregory's already 3 months old. The time is just flying, but it also seems like he has always been here! He has grown and developed so much in the last month.

It astounds us how much longer he is - I had to remove the newborn insert from his baby bathtub - now he loves to kick in the water. He is also surprisingly heavy when you lift him. People comment that he is small, but he is solid and his belly and thighs are as chubby as can be! I think maybe he just looks smaller because he doesn't carry his weight in his face.

He has also been working on his motor skills. He's now an expert at getting his hands into his mouth and has become rather fond of sucking his left thumb. He is holding toys better and gets them into his mouth most of the time too. He was working on rolling over from tummy to back this morning and *almost* did it! He did move himself across his blanket and got the toy he wanted. He's getting better at batting hanging toys with his hands too, in addition to kicking.

But the most fun thing he's doing now is having conversations! He is a very vocal boy, always sharing his feelings and thoughts about things. He loves to talk and will engage in witty banter with anyone willing to chat! Its pretty darn cute to exchange oohs and aahs with him.

He is generally very happy and smiles easily, even at strangers. His favorite person is Daddy, though - he always has a smile for Daddy! He still hates the car, though it seems he may be getting just a little better...we still don't know exactly what the problem is - we have no idea why he cries some times and not other times.

We have been doing a lot of traveling, as we always do in the fall, and aside from the car, Gregory is an easy traveller. Next weekend we're off to Bismarck, ND, for Grandpa Mike's ordination as a deacon...that will be the longest trip so far, but we'll get to introduce Gregory to the rest of the Fix clan for the first time, including Aunt Kim!!


3 mths

NEWBORN PICS ONLINE!!!

Our professional newborn pictures have been put online for your viewing and ordering pleasure. Go to http://www.amberandrobclients.com/mp_client/login.asp?eventid=32052&eventstatus=0&categories=no&keywords2=yes&groupid=0&bw=true&sep=false&ckw=true. The password for our file is "Gregory" - let me know if you have any trouble getting in. THE GALLERY WILL ONLY BE ONLINE UNTIL OCTOBER 6TH. You can order prints online as well. Just to let you know, we received the prints we ordered and they are absolutely beautiful in real life! They come enhanced, mounted and coated, and ready to pop into a frame of your choice.

Back to work...

Well I have started up again with both of my jobs. The RESPECT shows are no big deal because I don't have to be gone too long. We have some gracious friends who don't seem to mind looking after Gregory during those times, so I guess he'll just bounce between them when I'm scheduled. However, my biology class takes me away from home for about 5 hours, which Gregory does not seem to be too happy about. Tonight he only slept 30 minutes during that time, and only ate about 1 oz. He is apparently not very good at taking a bottle despite our attempts to introduce it to him at the right time. He was starving and exhausted when I got home - poor Dan was at his wit's end. Well we'll try a different kind of bottle nipple and hopefully that will solve the problem and the two of them can get into a better groove.

Otherwise the last week has been quite nice. It was my birthday last week and we went to a neat little restaurant. I am going to get Photoshop Elements for my birthday (just haven't ordered it yet) so I can perfect all of my digital photos and hopefully use it to make a scrapbook. I have ugly handwriting, so making one by hand is not really a great idea for me... Speaking of digital photos, of course we have more to share! The stupid Webshots cuts off the pictures so weird in the slideshow, but it takes up much less space than posting them individually. Lets have a vote - slideshow or individual - which do you prefer??

A couple notes on the pics: you'll see Gregory is already interested in the arts - studying Van Gogh quite intently. I got these famous painter books for him at the museum and they are the first books he really likes to look at! Also shown (though maybe cut off in the slideshow) is the new setup of the toy hanger - he just loves kicking those jingle bells - he'll go at it for an hour at a time! Lastly, he is getting much better at hand-to-mouth and is beginning to prefer his hand over his binki - I am somewhat relieved because I hate the binki, but I suppose you can't throw thumbs away!



10 wks