Sweet Home Alabama?

We've been in Alabama two weeks now with three weeks to go.  Our living quarters are tight...basically an old studio type apartment.  We don't mind it though as it makes life pretty simple.  Mommy has been hanging out with Colin during the week and enjoying every second while Daddy completes a leadership type course.  One evening we did get to sneak off base for Broadway Under the Stars, a symphony concert in a beautiful park here in Montgomery.  Colin, of course, loved the music!  As for weekends, they've mostly been spent watching football.

The whole family got decked out for the VT game against Arkansas State.

We've also had some fun on the playground right next to our apartment:

 A little blurry since we were in motion. (Yes, we actually did go down the slide!)

Colin showed remembrance of September 11th by wearing a patriotic outfit:

Daddy has had a lot of early mornings and with Colin keeping him up half the night he gets a little tired! Catching some shut-eye with the little man.

We are hoping to take advantage of the civil rights history here over the next several weeks so stay tuned for some more pictures from good ol' Bama....

Colin's 2 Months Old!

Colin is now two months old!  He's been making so much progress, especially in the area of weight gain!  Colin went from being 25th percentile for weight at his one month appoint to 65th percentile just one month later.  (Not bad for a baby born three weeks early!) All that eating has finally caught up to him and he is now a whopping 12 pounds 6 ounces!  That's exactly double his discharge weight.  He also made gains in height. He went from the 40th percentile to the 55th percentile.

Another area where we have seen Colin grow this month is in his head control.  He loves to practice holding his head up.  Here he is on the Bumbo seat:

Our sweetie pie at 2 months:

 Take a look at those long legs!

 

Classic Colin look:

Tongue out! :P

We don't call him Mr. Wide-Eyed for nothing!

 

Smile?

Colin Catches a Cold

I guess you can't go gallivanting all along the eastern coast without the little babe getting sick.  Turns out we actually think he caught the cold from Daddy who also came down with something just a few days before Colin (Uncle Connor was a little under the weather too so he also might have been the culprit.)  Suffice to say, it was no fun taking care of a sick little one.  I felt so bad when there was little I could do to make it better.  All in all the cold lasted over 10 days.  The first few days Mommy was left at home in Charleston alone while Daddy was out of town for work.  The only way Colin would sleep was on my chest.  He had so much gunk that he couldn't sleep on his back and needed to be upright pretty much at all times. There were several sleepless nights, but it gave me lots of cuddle time which I will always cherish.

Since little infants can not be given medicine one of the only things we could do for Colin was the "steam treatment."  Each time I took a shower I brought him in the bathroom and make it nice and steamy.  I also did it several times throughout the day when it was really bad.  It looked something like this:

We are so thankful that the cold has finally gone away!  I gained I whole new respect for motherhood after taking care of a sick baby!

Colin's 1 Month Old!

I can't believe it but Colin is one month old!  He has been growing like a weed and is now 9 pounds!  That's almost 3 pounds from his discharge weight.  This makes him in the 25th percentile for weight.  The doctor thinks he will catch up since he was born so early.  He's also in the 40th percentile for length although he seems really long to us.  I think its those long legs!

He was a champ at his doctor's appointment.  He cried for about .2 seconds after his shot and then was as happy as can be.  So far Colin has been an extremely content baby.  We are so lucky to have such a sweet little guy. 

Taking the Northeast by Storm

Woah! What an awesome trip we had "up north."  Colin got to spend time with lots of friends and family along with surviving an earthquake, hurricane, crazy thunderstorms, and just barely missing historic flooding.  Not bad for not even being two months yet!

When we arrived to Mimi and Pappy's house Colin was still really sleepy (even though he slept all day in the car).  Mommy got her longest break from feeding (6 hours) and got to sleep while Mimi took care of Colin for most of the evening.  Oh the joys of being at grandma's house!  

During his middle of the night feeding that first night Colin was all smiles.  Mommy, of course, had her camera ready!  I thought all the sleeping made him wake up ready to finally smile, but as it turned out he just had a ton of gas!  We didn't get another smile the whole trip, much to Nana's dismay.

First thing we did the next day was finally meet Nana.  She was so happy that Colin was still so little when she could hold him for the first time:

GG was so excited to get her hands on her 11th great grand child!

Aunt Jayne, GG's sister/partner in crime, was also excited:

When Grandpa got home from work he got to meet Colin and spend some quality cuddle time together:

Relaxing during his first night at Nana and Grandpa's house:

Mommy was thrilled that one of her former students, Jordan, could meet Colin. (Mom's friends, Sara and Ann came for a visit too but we forgot to snap a shot!)

Colin loved being held by Jordan:

Back at Mimi and Pappy's house, Colin got to spend lots of time with Uncle Connor.  He was especially helpful with taking care of Colin whenever Mommy was taking a shower!

Colin even got to spend some time on Skype with Uncle Hunter who is living in Munich, Germany.  Here he is pretending to hold Colin.  Can't wait till we can make that happen for real!

While taking a break from packing up for her freshman year of college, Aunt Jen got lots of snuggle time too:

Enjoying his first crab feast experience:

On our first weekend home we headed up to Philadelphia to go to Mommy's friend Michelle's baby shower.  It was so much fun and great for Colin to meet some more friends.  We cannot wait for Baby Girl B to get here so she and Colin can begin growing up together. 

Taking a bottle from Miss Casey:

With Christina - can't wait for Colin to meet her boys Luke and Eli!

With the guest of honor...Colin and Baby Girl B together for the first time:

Our next stop in Philadelphia was a long anticipated one.  Colin was finally going to meet his Derry cousins! Liam was so excited to "old baby Colin."

Joergen, Liam, and Colin...I can't even imagine the trouble these boys will be getting into when they get older!

I couldn't believe how much my godson Joergen had grown in only the two months since I last saw him. I thought his brother Liam was the happiest kid alive when he was little, but Joergen may have him beat!  He is certainly all smiles! Such a ham and I absolutely love it!

Colin and Joergen "hanging out" together:

Before we left town we stopped by the church carnival with the Derry Family.  Colin enjoyed the whole thing while blissfully asleep:

It was so great to meet one half of the cousins and we can't wait to meet the other half at Christmas.  Sarah will be so excited to hold cousin Colin and I can't wait for Pierre and Augustin to get here so the whole basketball team of boys can be together.

We returned back to Mimi and Pappy's for a few days of rest where Colin had many visits from Mimi's friends.  Miss Terri, Miss Donna, Miss Loretta, Miss Ann, Mr. Steve and Miss Sally all stopped by.

The Liss family also came over before Corey headed off to college.  Jess got lots of cuddle time:

Alas, after a few days of recovery, we were off again.  This time we headed down to Northern Virginia to meet the Emerick family for the first time.

Colin was all dressed up to meet his great aunt and uncle.  Love this shirt but as you'll see in the pictures it didn't last too long!

This picture makes me happy.  With Great Uncle Ron and Uncle Thomas for the first time:

Since Uncle Ron is a professional keyboardist he was very excited to have Colin try out the piano.  Colin on the other hand wasn't quite as excited about the whole thing:

Great Aunt Grace couldn't have been happier:

Uncle Thomas showing us all how it's done:

After an awesome Italian meal, Grandma Phyllis enjoyed time with her son's great nephew:

During our visit we also stopped by my friend Lindsay's house.  I couldn't believe how big Jack had gotten!  He was the size of Colin the last time we got together.

Jack was too cute and kept giving Colin "hugs."

We spent the first 10 days in PA by ourselves and the second 10 days with....DADDY!

After 3 long weeks, Colin was back in Daddy's arms:

The first thing on our agenda was to attend Daddy's cousin Greg's wedding. As usual, Colin was the perfect baby throughout the whole day.  Here he is at the reception with Daddy's cousin and godmother, Anne. (wish I had a better camera with me besides the iphone!)

Before heading to the wedding, the Derry family came to Nana and Grandpa's in York since their house in the Philadelphia area was expected to be hit really hard by the hurricane.  This gave Colin a lot of extra time with his cousins.  Liam was great at holding Colin!

The next morning Colin was all big eyes even though he hardly slept a wink!

 More fun with cousin Liam...

 Daddy was thankful for some cuddle time with his godson, Joergen.  He hadn't gotten to see him since the baptism when he was only 3 weeks old.

We headed back down to Mimi's house for a few days while Nana started her first week of school.  We couldn't resist snapping this shot of Colin on our walk.  Oh good ol' New Freedom.

We started to walk on the "rail trail" but had to turn back due to all the debris on the ground from Hurricane Irene - it made for an awfully bumpy trip for Colin!

On our last day with Mimi and Pappy, Colin began making lots of eye contact and becoming even more alert.  Check him out staring at his Mimi:

Taking a good look at Pappy too:

Side note: "Dude, your girlfriend keeps checking me out."  (Thanks for the sweet shirt Uncle Connor!)

Guess where we headed next?

That's right to Aunt Jen's college, University of Delaware.  She was so happy to see her nephew one last time before we headed home.
Colin was decked out in the proper gear for the occasion:

And it wouldn't be a visit with Aunt Jen if it didn't include tummy-time.  Look how good he is getting holding that head up!

We rushed back from Delaware to grab dinner with Tess and her boyfriend, Ryan.  Tess was glad that Colin gave her his approval.

On to our next adventure!  Daddy being the U2 fan that he is was totally into all the press about the Broadway show Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark, for which Bono and The Edge wrote the music and lyrics.  Mommy really wanted to make a trip to New York happen so Daddy could see the show, especially since he missed U2's concert series this summer due to his flying upgrade.  So off we were to the Big Apple...

Along the way we stopped to see Daddy's friend, Ajay, who has spent nearly the past two years in India doing research for his PhD.  It was great for Daddy to finally catch up with him in person.

We made it to NYC...Colin and Daddy on the streets of the big city:

One of Mommy's best friend's, Kevin, lives in the upper east side and agreed to babysit Colin while we went to the show.  After a nice dinner at a French bistro we brought Colin back to Kevin's apartment and hailed a taxi to Times Square.

Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark at Foxwoods Theater on 42nd St:

On our first post-baby date night!

The whole night couldn't have happened without Kevin and his totally awesome friend Patrick who took such great care of Colin while we were gone.  Kevin was also super gracious to let us stay the night at his place.

Thank you Kevin!

Lilly missed us while we were gone and loved cuddling with Mommy after we returned to Nana and Grandpa's house:

Cooking out French-style with the raclette machine that same evening.

Mr. Wide-Eyed:

So alert with Grandpa:

Later that night, Daddy's friends Ryan and Paul came over to hang out over some beers.

As usual, Colin was dressed appropriately for the occasion: "Party at My Crib 3 AM"

Recovering the next morning:

Mommy was tired too and enjoyed more cuddle time with Lilly:

Later that day, we stopped by GG's for lunch and she got to hold Colin some more.

Close-up during a burp session at GG's:

Handsome like Daddy!

We also stopped by to see Great Uncle Jimmy at work.  He was totally in awe of holding his new nephew!

Alas, it was our final day in Pennsylvania. We spent the day celebrating Labor Day with a barbeque.

Enjoying time with the my baby boy:

Three generations of Goodwillies:

Labor Day outfit provided by Aunt Sis:

Snuggle time with Nana on the deck:

Feeling the grass for the first time with Grandpa. He wasn't sure about it but did seem to enjoy exploring his sense of touch.

The Goodwillie Gang:

After three great weeks, it was time to say goodbye to our families and little Lilly.  We are heading to Alabama for Air Force training where she is not allowed in the dorms with us.  It was tough leaving her but we know she is in good hands with both sets of grandparents who will be looking after her.

We had such a good time with our family and friends and we're so thankful that he had this opportunity to introduce our son to everyone.  While Colin will certainly not remember it, we know that each person who got to spend those precious moments holding him will and for that we are forever grateful.