Andrew's Week 7

I know this post is a week late! I hope to get this past week's post up later tonight or tomorrow.

Last Monday marked Andy's seventh week. Here he is at seven weeks old:

Happy baby enjoying some time outside

Baby brother on a blanket in the foreground, big brother on the swingset in the background

Tummy time with toes in the grass

The previous week was my first days with both boys by myself, although with the Labor Day holiday on Monday and my parents' arrival on Thursday it wasn't a very long week. (The next week, with Jon back to work all five days, was the real test!) Andy and Matt accompanied me to my postpartum check-up, to a meetup at a local coffeehouse with my moms' club, baby storytime at the library (Andy's first storytime, which he slept through), an indoor play space, and the grocery store. Then Andy met his grandmother and grandfather, but he didn't help out with all sorts of chores anywhere near as much as Matt did. With nicer weather we were able to spend the rest of the weekend and the start of the week outside.

Andy discovered "standing" when he turned 6 weeks old and is determined to master it.

Hanging out with Dada

Taking a seat

Petting the stuffed dog

Napping in his bassinet

Making silly faces and hand gestures

Smiles!

Snoozing under the cat's concerned eye

Trying to hold my attention while brother plays behind him

Swing time

Playmat fun time

More play mat playtime

Taking a quiet moment

And here are some photos my mom took while they were here:

Looking out the window

Mama and baby

Andrew's Week 6

Today Andrew is 6 weeks old.

In triceratops pajamas - "Little Stomper"

In a Patriots onesie, which looks like he will outgrow it by the end of the day, if not certainly by the Patriots' first game

Andy continues getting bigger and more alert. He is sleeping slightly longer stretches at night; he has moved up from 3-4 hours straight to 5-6 hours straight, although after that he tends to wake up fairly often. (That said, he isn't doing that every night yet, and of course he doesn't let us know ahead of time which it will be!) We have confirmed he also likes being outside in the fresh air, although if we go out in the morning he almost always sleeps through the whole excursion. Andy is still wearing 3-6 month outfits, although I realized I had been putting him in 6-month outifits, too, and they weren't exactly huge on him. (And he's wearing 6-9-month sizes in Gerber, which, thanks to Matt, we already knew was a brand that thinks babies are skinny and short.)

 

Awake and ready to interact

Relaxing in his rocker, which he discovered a couple of weeks ago he can make move by kicking his feet

Watching big brother play with dinosaurs

Quick snooze

Happy baby

Ready for more

Dinosaur State Park

Today we took a big road trip to Dinosaur State Park in the next state over. The park itself was very neat, but the trip was perhaps longer than we were ready for. (Andy especially was done with all of that being strapped in a car.)

The park, which is relatively small compared to similar ones out west, centers around a large set of dinosaur tracks unearthed 50 years ago. The tracks themselves are impressive, although certain toddlers would have preferred to see more bones and especially actual dinosaurs. The main museum isn't bad, but its kids' discovery room was a real find, with drawers full of fossils, rocks, and related materials; boxes of fossils and rocks to be handled and examined with magnifying glasses; stuffed dinosaurs and dinosaur figures to play with; puzzles and crafts to do; and a live snake and skink to watch. During the summer months visitors can cast their own dinosaur prints, and it turns out they meant make actual full-sized plaster casts (and the prints were casts of the prints from the site). The surrounding arboretum had some nice nature trails, which we explored while we waited for our cast to set enough to take home.

Comparing foot sizes with a dinosaur

Comparing hand sizes with the Eubrontes footprints found at the site

Posing with the T Rex footprint

Looking at all of the dinosaur tracks

Examining some rocks and minerals

Examining some fossils

Playing with a parasaurolophus

Preparing the dinosaur track for its cast

The final product

Looking at some mushrooms on a rotting log along the nature trail

After that we stopped for a late lunch.

Both boys after lunch

We ended up stopping at a playground on the way home to give everyone some time out of the car.

Andy was much happier once he got out of his car seat and got some food.

Matt mastered climbing up the tunnel, thanks to some tips from Dada. 

Sliding down