All about Tristan - 5 months!

5 month bear pictures:

I'm getting really good at sitting in the "baby tripod" position with my hands out in front!

Well, Tristan it's been 5 whole months since you've been out in the real world and lots has changed for you!  You love to be part of the action and look around -  for a while now, nothing's been safe within your reach.  Especially when we meet dad out for lunch after the gym and there's a sandwich or a drink in front of you!  I almost lost my sandwich 5 times today, good thing Travis has fast reflexes because I'm just so shocked at how strong and quick you are that I forget you're about to dump my food/drink on the floor! 

You go in phases of rolling over, but you always like to roll onto your side.  I've gone into your room sometimes when you won't settle into your nap, only to find you rolled over on your tummy.  You go to bed between 8:30 - 9:30 and wake up around 5 or 5:30 to eat and then you go back to sleep until about 7. 

You love to put your hands and toes in your mouth (along with anything else so that you can get a feel for what it is)!  You also like to chew on mom and dad's fingers too! 

You get super frustrated that you can't sit up by yourself and that you can't stand by yourself.  I sort of blame myself for always pulling you up to a standing position or letting you "rest" on your jumperoo just to have a different view.  I try to tell you that you can't do it on your own, but that doesn't stop you from grunting and getting frustrated and pushing yourself up into an almost crab walk position (minus the arms) and trying!  And you haven't been safe in the bouncer seat for a while, you can pull yourself up and out plus you can roll out of it too!

Your legs are muy fuertes - you've been "standing" for a while now and you love the jumperoo.  You love to show off for people and smile and coo and giggle for a crowd, especially women!  Women are usally sillier than men anyway. 

You're starting to realize that if you cough or make a noise someone will look at you.  Not sure if we're ready for a little drama king at this point, lol.   Who, me?

You enjoy hanging out with your baby-sitter, Amy, while mom goes to school Mon/Tues and you are starting to enjoy the daycare at the gym too!  You're getting exposure to other babies and toddlers and you like to know you're not the only little person in the world! 

About a month ago your 2 top teeth really started bulging out at the top of your gums, but it only seems to bother you once in a while.  Teething can last a while and I don't think they are going to cut through the gums anytime soon, but we'll see!  You love the teethers that you put frozen grapes/fruit into bc you get to suck on it and get some juice!

You ate with a spoon and a bowl 2 weeks ago for the very first time!  You are a champ!  You even reached for the spoon to help it into your mouth!  And you didn't spill very much at all.  You ate some rice cereal and formula and we tried a little bit of oatmeal last weekend.  I can't wait to start making pureed veggies & fruits for you next month! 

We love you little baby T and we love watching you grow and change from day to day!  You're so much fun and you bring us so much joy.  We are truly blessed and so thankful!

Tristan's growth and his bear pics in review:

Newborn (was he ever that small???):

4 1/2 weeks:

2 months:

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:



Vimeo video

Tristan giggling! from Holly Riley on Vimeo.

Videos - Tristan giggles and jumps like crazy!

Giggling with Grandma Riley!

Dancing feet!!

Updates & Tristan turns the big 5 months!

Yikes!  I just noticed it's been a whole month since I updated the blog!  And I never put up Tristan's 4 month post or pics.  Well, as any mom will tell you, the days fly by sometimes and before you know it, your little baby is growing up fast right before your eyes! 

We had an awesome visit with Tristan's Riley grandparents, Rick & Karen this past weekend.  They booked a trip on short notice and we had a great time!  (And we took a lot of pics!)  So I promise not to post a bunch of pics, even though Tristan is quite the cutie pie!  We ended up going to the eye doctor bc I slept in my contacts on our anniversary night (3 years!) ON ACCIDENT, lol!  We went out to Firebird's for our traditional dinner and it was oh, so good!  Tristan really enjoyed playing with his Nana and Papa and he is so much more interactive.  We can't wait to see them again in a month!  Here they are below taking Tristan out while I taught my class online!

In non Tristan related news: Travis has been doing his "crit" races, criterium races.  It's kind of like an indy 500 race, but for cyclists.  That's how our baby-sitter put it and I think it's a good description.  He's been getting better at them and he really enjoys them.  He's also been working a lot more lately on big proposals for aerospace equipment, but he really enjoys his job and seems excited to talk about it.  He doesn't think he'll do any triathlons anytime soon, so that's a bit of a change.  Did I ever mention that one of my college professors said that Travis was "very attractive"?  Tell me about it!  I love this pic with him and Tristan, my precious baby boy and my sexy husband!

I signed up for the "face of fitness" contest (you can vote for me at that link through April 17th) since my mom sent me that email and I thought, why not?  I also have been training for the Seattle marathon, which I am now officially registered for!  For some reason, post baby, I seem to be running a lot faster.  I ran my 13 miler at an average of 8:31, which came out to ~1:51 and that's only a couple minutes slower than my half marathon time I did 5 years ago.  I am working really hard to try and finish my portfolio papers this semester, so I can defend my portfolio, then I would start my thesis prospectus this summer, defend that at the beginning of the fall and then collect my data (pre and post tests) in the fall semester, transcribe and polish everything in the spring semester and then receive my master's in applied linguistics and be DONE!  I am looking to head back into the job market in January 2012 and I'm super excited about it!  The 'ol saying, you don't know what you've got till it's gone is true.  If you are tired of work, go back to school to remember that you didn't really enjoy school that much and you miss the job culture (yes, we all enjoy some parts of school, but it gets old when you have a family). 

We're getting better at balancing things out.  We still need to work on having a date night out, but without family around, you get caught up in pricing it out:  well, it's X dollars for a sitter, X dollars for dinner, X dollars for this, etc. etc. and before you know it, you talked yourself out of it and decide to redbox the evening, lol.  But we are loving every minute with Tristan.  I'll get his 5 month post up soon, so you can all read about what he's doing (besides rolling over in his crib like crazy!). 

Grandma B comes down for a weekend!

Hi everyone - I will get the 4 month old post up soon, but here are some pics from this weekend.  We had fun seeing my mom and Travis and I did the Great Urban Race with the help of Cooper and Rick and my mom.  So here are some pics!

The only child debate!

We have an adorable (almost 4 month old) baby boy that is getting better at sitting up (and smiling for the camera):

And well, for some reason we were just hypothesizing into the future about when/if we would have another baby.  Well, my grandparents raised me and I was an only child and I turned out A-okay, right? 

So we decided that the positives for having an only child are:

1. no sibling rivalry/unnecessary competitiveness (where's mine syndrome that some people never seem to outgrow)

2.  being able to focus all of our time/effort on one child (not having to juggle events or see one child's activity/recital, etc.)

3.  the financial aspect (not as big of a deal, money's only money in the end)

4. the whole "only child" snobby/bossy/spoiled brat syndrome isn't really true anymore, since more and more parents end up either spoiling both children or the baby of the family (research it)  and

5. only being pregnant once (yes selfish, I wasn't the biggest fan and I didn't even have a hard pregnancy, labor was a whole different story, but I guess the second time would have to be better than my first experience)

On the other hand, looking back on my childhood, I liked being an only child, but even though I had a lot of friends growing up and I played in lots of sports and socialized a lot, I still didn't have anyone to play pranks on or play around with late at night on a consistent basis or someone to team up with or someone just to think of fun things to do around the house.  Or on vacations, it was just me sometimes, but my parents would usually let me bring a friend.  Travis definitely wants Tristan to have a sibling and I am trying to get used to the idea that one day we would have another baby again.  It's a lot to be in school, teach, attempt to get your research done for your thesis, keep up the house and get groceries and be a mom at the same time, so there won't be a second baby anytime soon.  But I do want Tristan to have someone else to play with, someone else to bond with and hopefully make memories with throughout his childhood.  And just like being around a baby was new for both of us as neither of us ever grew up around babies, so will adjusting to life with another baby, but hey, we can do anything :)  Especially with God being as good as He is. 

p.s. I know we can't plan out everything obsessively and I'm working on "letting go" of always wanting life planned out 100%, so please bear with me :)

Tristan un niñito charlatán (a very talkative little guy)

Tristan has been pretty sick for the last 2 weeks, but I think this cold is finally ending soon.  His cough is still pretty bad, but not as often.  However, he did lose his voice last week for 2 days.  He sounded like a poor little kitten meowing or trying to meow.  It was so sad I had to pick him up as soon as he started crying because it just broke my heart to see his sad face all scrunched up and then a little pathetic meow sound to come out of his mouth.

Anyway, ever since he got his voice back he's been "talking" up a storm.  He had started before he got sick, but now we are in full blown talking mode.  This morning he played in his crib for 20 minutes just saying "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" every other second for 10 minutes straight and kicking around and everything.  He does it at night too after we put him to bed and of course we have to have the monitor on, so Travis and I just sit there and kind of laugh and then get a little bit annoyed when it's been 15 minutes of that.  It's cute, but when you're tired, it gets a little less cute sometimes, LOL.  And with Travis sick (he's on antibiotics, so he should be better soon, but last night he was like, "come on, dude, it's bedtime!"  Pretty funny.  So, here's a video of him "talking" and him playing.  I know I commentate everything, lol, but he really is either camera shy or camera mesmorized.  As soon as he sees a camera or a phone he stops and just stares. 

This one is dark, but he was sleeping before and I didn't want to turn on the light:


Tristan "talking" from Holly Riley on Vimeo.

And here is one of him just playing:


Tristan playing from Holly Riley on Vimeo.