THE Santa! And our DAY at the mall!

So, my brother in-law was telling us that one of the malls here in Dallas is supposed to have "THE SANTA." He wasn't sure which mall, but his friends come up to get their kids picture with THIS Santa. The "Coca-Cola Santa" they call him.
Well, he's at North Park mall. And Augie had his picture with him!!!


I will say, I'll do it differently next time! You can get a ticket starting at 9 am. Then pictures don't start until 11:30. We knew this, but I didn't want Gus to have to go early to get a ticket because his dad and Kathy were in town. I didn't go because I Augie was due to eat at 9:00.
So, we got there at 11:30. We took our ticket . . . #164!!! Time estimate: 5:30! At first we debated on not having his picture taken there and doing it some other time. I had a feeling it wouldn't happen though. And we didn't have any other plans. AND . . . we still had to find him a Christmas outfit. So, we duked it out. We stayed at the mall from 11:30 to 6:30. It was dark by the time we left!

We did find him a Christmas outfit though!
And a wonderful outfit for him to take his pic with THE Santa.
And I found tennis shoes - for when I can start to jog/run again (1 week, 1 day, and counting down!) - and I love them! (Happy Birthday to me from Gus!)

I will also say that Augie was quite the trooper! He slept a lot, ate good, woke up and enjoyed the scenery for awhile, and we thought he would even make it through the picture with Santa. We were wrong. Santa was late - supposed to be there at 5:30 after his break, got there at 5:45, and Augie fell asleep HARD at 5:40. He tried to stay up with us, but when he was done, he was DONE! SWEET, SWEET BOY!!!




MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL . . .

. . . AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

My Early Birthday Surprise!

So . . . a little something about my husband . . . if you don't already know . . . He's a financial man! Checkbook balancer! Money manager! Bargain hunter!
AND I LOVE HIM FOR IT!!!
He told me to watch for a package from his dad & Kathy - I assumed it was our Christmas gifts. Well, a couple days go by, and I received a package. It was not from them though . . .
Gus pulled it off - he surprised me! - Which is hard to do considering how clever I am! :)

I opened the door to the UPS delivery person, and they were holding a BIG box of flowers! Absolutely beautiful, full of color and life!!! Gus did good!

The part that I'll never forget though . . . I commented that he was a little early for my birthday (11 days to be exact) I expected him to say soomething about it having to be so that I wouldn't ruin the surprise . . . but instead he told me that "he had to so that he would get the free shipping promotion"!!!
He didn't even try to hide it !!!
Like I said, I love him for it!
We need every extra penny we can get - diapers are a constant need for our precious little man.

I LOVE MY FLOWERS AND MY BARGAIN HUNTING, SURPRISE GIVING HUSBAND!!!
YOU'RE THE BEST GUS!!!

Our 1 month old!!!

Augie turned one month on the 12th! What an exciting event. He himself wasn't phased by it, but Gus and I were thrilled to all be together on such a monumental day.
Our little man continues to grow VERY quickly! We decided to do our own measurements - we weighed me - and then we added Augie. The difference was 10 lbs.! It's not exact of course, but better than nothing.

He is really filling out. His 2nd chin has come in, and his tummy is definitely getting bigger. Gus is of course chearing him on and wants him to turn into the marshmallow man! (Not really - but he wants him to be really chunky because he thinks it's cute.) His little legs stretch to fill out his jammies now. His arms are so long that the sleeves come up just past his wrists. His torso is lengthening a little - but it's growing more in depth than length!!!



WE LOVE YOU AUGIE - HAPPY ONE MONTH BDAY!!!

Growing So Quickly!

Everyone always tells you how fast babies grow. They're not lying! You never realize how true it is, until it's your own child you're watching change before your eyes - every single day!
Augie will be a month old this Thursday! He's already grown and changed quite a bit. I can't keep up!

This is after his first bath - 5 days old! He fit into premie pajamas for the first week!

Our little Fall Blessing!

Our second family picture!

This is one of my all time favorites - he smiles in his sleep a lot (playing with the angels!), and we caught him! If you look really close, you can see the dimple that he has in his right cheek. It is precious!
He does look so much older in this picture, but really he was only 9 days old!


Our next challenge is to catch him smiling when he's awake!!! He's done it, but only a couple times.
Last night was classic though - and will be a memory to cherish forever. We had just gotten home from visiting my parents, were relaxing on the couch - the three of us. Gus and I were smiling at Augie and talking to him, and he (eyes open as big as could be) SMILED the most FULL SMILE, DIMPLE AND ALL, right at us. It gives me goose bumps thinking of how wonderful that moment was!!! Like I said, one to cherish forever!


WE LOVE YOU AUGIE!!!!

Our First Doctor's Appointment

I'm a little late on this one, but Augie had his two week appointment (1 week ago). He is doing GREAT! The doctor is wonderful. He is very personable and talks to you like a normal person - he explains everything that he thinks you don't understand . . . like what a tear duct is (which I knew, but I thought it was great that he went out of his way to explain - so I didn't interrupt). Why the tear duct? Because Augie's was clogged and oozing yellow puss in the corner. The doc said it was normal and we had to just keep it clean and it should go away. It did - He's looking all better now. No more eye boogers for our boy!

The rest of the visit went a little like this:
They measured our little man - he had grown a 1/2 inch!
They measured his head also - normal sized!
And of course - they weighed him . . . the doctor giggled at this one! On average, they expect babies to gain about an ounce a day. Well, let's just say Augie is a CHAMPION EATER! He almost doubled that!!! He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz.

Then came the hard part - he had to have a shot (Hep B) and get his heal stuck again (PKU). :(
It was probably the hardest thing I've had to do all year! I cried when she took the needle out (of the package - not Augie!) and couldn't stop. As soon as she gave him the shot, of course he was screaming. It was one of those horrible screams where it seems like they don't breathe for a whole minute straight! Quivering lip and all! So, I cried with him and told him it was ok. Then they stuck his heal, and he cried some more. I started to collect myself by this point, and he did too! Our kiddo is pretty tough!!! He caught his breath, took his pacifier, and tried to go to sleep. All that crying was exhausting!

I'm hoping to be more prepared next time - he has to get 3 shots when we go back! :(
Thank goodness that's not until January!!!

First Sponge Bath

At first, I was a little worried how this would go . . .
We tried using the little bath tub with the water hammock that was given to us . . . not such a great idea.
Towels on the counter . . . GREAT idea!

I think Augie was in shock at the beginning, but he then realized how much fun bath time can be!!! We did go through a couple of towels - and rounds of bathing - because of unannounced bathroom breaks, but we did make it though.
TOWEL #1

TOWEL #2

TOWEL #3

AND HE LOVES TO HAVE HIS HAIR WASHED! He just lays there and stares up at you - begging for more!


What a sweet boy we have!

I'M A MOMMY!

I am officially a MOMMY!

August Albert Staats IV
Born 11-12-09 at 4:40pm
6 lbs. 15 oz.
19" long

I went in on Wed. night to get my "medicine" to make the induction easier on Thursday. My contractions were strong! Everything seemed to be going well. I was 90-100% efaced and at a 5-6 by about 11:00am on Thursday. We thought I'd be pushing by lunch time and have little Augie shortly after.
By 3:30, nothing had changed. Augie wasn't turning his head to the right position. His head wasn't dropping into the proper position either. And the doctor told me she was 100% sure I'd be needing a C-Section.

We were guessing that he was too big - maybe not going to be able to fit - close to 8 lbs.
WE WERE WAY OFF!!!



But our bouncing baby boy is as beautiful as can be. The official Staats Pac is HERE!

And with a full head of hair: