Nate and Lindsey

5 months old!

Today Spencer is 5 months old!

Nate and I have both in the last week commented on how much older he looks. He is definitely longer and getting some chunk to him. He is starting to fit into his 6 month clothes and I think he has officially grown out of his last 3 month outfit.

We have started feeding him some rice cereal as the doctor said it would help with his reflux, he doesn't mind it but doesn't seem very interested either so we just give it here and there, nothing consistent.
The other night at dinner he was being cranky (have I mentioned we gave up on trying to get him to take a binky?) I had just packed them all away when we got a sample in the mail, I knew he wouldn't take it so i just gave him the whole thing, package and all to play with. He LOVED it and was having a great time until he started devouring the cardboard package and I took it away. It made him sad so Nate opened it up and gave him the pacifier to play with. He wasn't really happy about that so Nate dipped the binky in some jello salad we were having with dinner and Spencer loved that! He would suck it all off and then spit the binky out waiting for Nate to dip it in the jello again, then suck it all off and spit it out. They repeated this about 3 or 4 times until I finally made them stop. Our kid is never going to eat vegetables. So far he has tried; chocolate frosting, jello, ice cream, cool whip and probably more I don't even know about.

Spencer loves to go for walks and we often walk to the library or the post office. But since the weather's warmed up my new favorite thing is to walk to a little park about 15 minutes from our house. I lay Spencer on a blanket on the grass under a tree and I read my book while he plays. He seems to like being outside.

He is still a stinker when it comes to sleeping alone. He still sleeps in bed next to me and as soon as I move away or try to move him he is wide awake! Needless to say i get about nothing done during his naps. But I do enjoy cuddling with him because when he is awake he sure isn't cuddly.

All the youth at church love him. Every Sunday and Wednesday he gets passed around to all the young women and he smiles and giggles for them. Even some of the young men love to come up and play with him and get him to smile.

He has some really long hairs on top of his head, at least an inch and a half long, but they're still so blonde you can only see them in the right light. And sometimes he looks like he's getting just a hint of red in his hair, guess we'll just have to wait and see!

He still really loved the bathtub and has just figured out how to splash with his hands. The bathroom is drenched when he's done. He has a few bath toys that he loves to reach for which causes him to faceplant so we have to be super careful with that.

He is still practicing rolling over, he can do it but doesn't really like to. He does like to just scoot in circles when on his belly. He is going to be mobile before we know it, his upper body is sooooo strong! He can also sit up for about 3 seconds.

We sure love this baby! He is so fun and pretty cute too!

DC Cherry Blossom Festival.

On Friday, April 11 we had a wedding reception in DC to go to and since it happened to be the week of the cherry blossom festival we decided to just go ahead and spend the day down there.
The weather was perfect and the blossoms were gorgeous!
It was a perfect trip!

Story: as Nate was walking back toward me after taking this picture we both notices an older asian couple taking a picture of Nate and Spencer and not Abe. Nate stopped and smiled for them and then they kept taking more pictures and walking up to him. They were smiling and speaking their language (didn't speak a lick of english) clearly talking about Spence. So they walked right up and started grabbing his hands and touching him which wasn't my most favorite thing but Spencer was being very cute and smiley back so we let them interact. Then the lady just reaches out and grabs Spencer out of Nate's arms! I just got really bug eyed at Nate. The lady just hugged him and smiled and played with him. Her husband took a picture of them and then she handed him back and I think tried to say "thank you". It was the weirdest thing. At first I wasn't sure what to think. I was a little bit annoyed that she just grabbed my baby! But then I realized, no harm came from it, Spencer was happy to smile and interact with her. And after Nate telling me his fist was balled ready to punch them if they tried to run off (ha) I just hope that it made their day to get to hold my little baby because clearly she was loving him.

on the steps of the Lincoln where Spencer and I almost got trampled by a group of 5th graders and once they realized I was there, all yelled out to the kids behind them "WATCH OUT FOR LADY WITH A BABY!"

the best picture we could get of us and the blossoms.

Heat's visit- DC day 2.

Thursday March 27

We still needed to see all the monuments in DC and the weather was thankfully much more cooperative this day! Nate decided to ride his bike to work so we could leave earlier and have a full day of sightseeing. We again parked and rode the metro into town.
We started out walking to all the monuments which ended up being about a 5 mile walk and taking longer than anticipated but it was fun. Afterward we tried going to the zoo but it was too cold, none of the animals were out and we were exhausted so we left.
On our way back there was a very long escalator down to the metro stop. And wouldn't you know it but it was out of service with no elevator to be found. The next closest metro was at least another 5 miles from the direction we had just come. What a nightmare that was. I put Spencer in my sling and then ever so slowly with Heaton holding the front of the stroller and me holding the back we bounced down ever. single. escalator. step. I was sweating by the end trying to hold my baby with one hand and a stroller with another while going down a very steep incline. How obnoxious that TWO up escalators were still working just fine?? We even overheard people going up commenting, 'oh my gosh, look at them!' 'take a picture!' And we were not the only ones with issues, there was an older couple slowly making there way down as well. I am just glad we only had to do that once. I'd be fine to never have that experience again.

the White House.

not the last time we were mistaken for a cute little family!

Washington monument.

Heaton photobombed this couple taking their selfie pic. at the WWII memorial.

WWII memorial.

Vietnam memorial.

can you spot Heat?

Lincoln memorial.

very busy at the Lincoln memorial!

Korean War memorial.

Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.

Roosevelt memorial.

Jefferson memorial.

at the zoo.

another Cassowary in honor of Nate.

We had a fun time and were glad he got/wanted to come hang out with us!

Heaton's flight out of DC left at 7:30am which meant we needed to leave home by 5am to get to the airport on time. Nate had an interview the same morning at 10am. I gave him the option of taking Heaton to the airport or staying with Spencer, he picked staying with Spence. Heat and I got up and got ready and Nate and Spencer were both asleep. A half hour into the drive Nate text me saying 'as soon as the door closed behind you he started crying and hasn't stopped since.' And apparently he cried the whole time I was gone...that rotten baby! Because as soon as I got home it was cease crying and straight back to sleep (nursing of course).

That same morning I had to be to the church at 11am to help set up for the Women's broadcast at the next day. My friend asked if I was sad that my brother left and although I was a little sad, I was also a bit relieved, it was hard work just going and going and going everyday and especially the days where it was just me taking care of Spence. I was definitely glad for a day to just sit and home and recoup!

Heat's visit- Amish country.

Wednesday March 25

Nate had to be to work at noon so we had most of the day to do hat we wanted again. We still had things we wanted to see in DC but the weather still wasn't great, it quite snowing but was SOOO windy!
We debated what to do and ended up driving to Lancaster County to see the Amish country.

We walked around some of the shops and bought some treats but it was very chilly with the wind and my baby got grumpy so we didn't last too long. We drove around and saw some of the covered bridges and lots of Amish horses and buggies, we even tried to go to the underground railroad museum which I was really looking forward to, but it didn't exist! At least it wasn't where the address said it was, that was a bummer.

Heaton could not believe this place was ACTUALLY named Intercourse.

He was a good sport about pulling into a random parking lot for 20 minutes so I could feed the screaming baby.

Heats visit- DC day 1

Tuesday March 24

Tuesday we planned to head to DC and spend the day there. We parked in Bethesda and rode the metro into downtown since we knew parking would be a nightmare. Going up and down the escalators with a baby and a stroller was sure a fun adventure.
The weather ended up being cold and snowy and just crappy so we didn't get to do everything we had hoped, instead we spent all day at the Smithsonian museums which worked out fine since they alone took all day and we were still exhausted by the end!