I thought for sure that Frank's first snow would be in Park City, but it snowed today in Dallas, so he got to experience his first snow right at home! Today is the perfect day to lounge around in comfy pants and drink hot chocolate. 
hanging with Uncle Tyler
BIG smile!
This week I have been home with my little buddy while Frank went back to work in Kansas. This was the first time I had been alone with Baby Frank without my mom or Frank here to help me, and while I was a little nervous, I was also excited to start getting on a schedule and to have some quality bonding time with my precious son. This week has been amazing! I can't believe how much Frank has already grown and changed. We started loosely following the Babywise schedule on Monday, and boy, what a difference that has made! I love that Frank is now taking consistent naps throughout the day so that I can count on having large chunks of time to get things done. And when he is awake, he has been so much fun! He is finally starting to really enjoy playing with some of the wonderful toys we have been given. He especially loves laying on his rainforest playmat and looking at himself in the mirror and batting the toys. He has been smiling more and more lately, and he also makes the cutest little cooing sounds, some of which sound almost like giggles. I absolutely love playing with him and reading to him! I decided to establish a bedtime routine which includes a bath, reading him several books, and putting him to sleep in his crib. I just started putting him in his crib on Monday, and he is doing very well with it. He is sleeping from about 8:45 at night to 6:45 in the morning, only waking up once during the night, around 2:00 a.m. to take a bottle and then go back to sleep. It makes for about 9 hours of sleep for me, which is HEAVEN! I hope he keeps this up and eventually drops the 2:00 am feeding and sleeps through the night. It makes the days so much nicer when I am not exhausted from a hard night. Frank is also getting so much bigger. He eats much more than what the baby books say is "normal" for his age--typically averaging about 35 ounces a day--and he seems to be almost growing out of his 0-3 clothes already. I finally got brave and started cutting his fingernails, so I have let him out of the mittens and he has started to suck on his hands. I bet that he will eventually be a thumb-sucker. Big Frank comes home tomorrow, and I know he is so excited to see our son. We (finally!!) downloaded and talked on Skype this week, and it was really neat for him to get to see the baby. It is amazing that we have been long distance in some form or other for so long and have never done this before. The only bad thing about it is that i have to make myself presentable before our chats. 
Yesterday, Frank rolled over from his tummy to his back twice! We have been trying to do tummy time at least once every day, and he usually likes it and does pretty well for about ten minutes or so until he gets really frustrated and I flip him over. While we were in Houston, my sister told me that she put him down on his tummy and that he rolled over, but that she thought it was a fluke because he was put down with his arms underneath him and flipped over almost immediately. Then yesterday I put him down on his tummy and he lifted his head all the way up, pushed himself up a little but with his arms, and rolled over! I had never seen him lift his head up so far before, it was shocking. I wanted to see if he would do it again, and so I put him back on his tummy and he did the same thing. I definitely have a strong and determined little boy on my hands!!! I put him back on his tummy this morning to see if he would do it again, and he pretty much just laid there for 10 minutes and then fell asleep. I will try again this afternoon to see if I can catch it on video!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We spent New Year's Eve in Houston with our little man. It was the first time in the last six years that we have not spent New Years Eve in Dallas with our friends. My parents watched Frankie on December 30th so that Frank and I could go out and have a date night. We went to a fantastic dinner at Cafe Alex. On NYE, my parents and grandma went out to dinner, so we stayed home and ordered chinese food and watched the NYE festivities on TV. We also had plenty of champagne of course! Frankie woke up just in time for midnight, and my parents also got home with about 15 minutes to spare. We all toasted to the new year together. 2010 was such a fantastic year for our family--we went on our dream vacation to South Africa, bungee jumped, found out we were expecting a baby, Frank got accepted to and began grad school, and we had our little miracle! I can only hope that 2011 will be just as exciting and rewarding.
Right at midnight--happy new year!!
While we were in Houston, my parents hosted a very informal open house sip & see for our Houston friends to come and meet Baby Frank. Although we were in town for a week, it was much easier on us to have everyone come and meet the baby at the same time. Even though it poured down rain all day, we had a great turnout with about 35 people coming out to see us and stop by and meet the baby. Baby Frank was very good for all of his admirers! He wore the sweet blue Ralph Lauren outfit that my dear friend Diana had given me at one of my baby showers, and he looked like a handsome little angel. A bunch of my friends, Frank's friends, and my parents' friends came, and a few of the guests brought their children. Two of our friends are pregnant with twins! I cannot even imagine having two babies to deal with. One is hard enough!! It was great to see everyone who made it out. My friends Jennifer and Erin were not able to make it to the sip and see, but they both stopped by over the next couple of days to meet Baby Frank and catch up. It was so good to see them!
Corey & Frankie
Aunt Allison
such a sweet boy
me & Daddy match
grandpa loves me
On December 27th I celebrated my 29th birthday. It was a very strange birthday. I woke up around 6:30 with Baby Frank, and he and I just chilled for a few hours upstairs in my parents' media room. He is the most alert and cute in the mornings, and I absolutely love spending this time with him. Around 8:00 I started to wonder why no one was awake yet, and then my brother told me that he, my mom, and my dad had been up all night throwing up with the stomach flu! Needless to say, none of them went into work, and they spent all day resting and keeping away from the rest of us. 
We were blessed to be able to spend our first Christmas as parents with our precious son and most of my family. We woke up early on Christmas morning and opened gifts with Frankie. Even though he does not know what Christmas is yet, I was very excited to share my favorite holiday with him and start the Christmas morning tradition at our house. After we opened gifts, we loaded up the Tahoe with everything imaginable and took off to Houston. I swear I don't know how we fit everything in! That truck was loaded to the brim. You would have thought we were moving in, not just going for a week-long visit. Baby Frank did well on the drive, sleeping for the first 3.5 hours and then waking up and fussing for the last 45 minutes. We did not want to stop to feed him on the way there, but it was just a little bit too long of a drive for him to stay happy. We learned that we need to make sure to stop and feed him next time!
opening presents with Mommy
Christmas morning
Christmas outfit #2
Santa baby
mommy & me
meeting great grandma Mammy
four generations!
me, Frankie, and uncle Tyler
