16 Weeks + 2 Days (and family time!)

We had a great visit with Mommo and Uncle Hiram.

We went all sorts of places that Bence just wasn't too sure about.

Our first excursion to the mall almost ended in disaster.

He screamed as soon as we put him in the car seat,

and then calmed down a little once we took his seat out of the car

...lulling mommy into a false sense of security.

Until we got into Nordstrom.

Then all hell broke loose.

I'm not sure what set him off.

Maybe he was upset that he wasn't wearing designer baby clothes like the ones on display...

But within less than a minute he was screaming so loudly my ears were ringing like a bomb had exploded.

I really hate being a public spectacle.

This was definitely one of those not-so-fun-I'm-totally-a-public-spectacle moments.

Luckily I found a bathroom with nice comfy seats 

(this was a classy mall, okay?)

Where i finally managed to calm little man down with some food.

He takes after me, what can I say?

We're just emotional eaters in this family I guess.

After that we were fine.

Auntie Emma and I switched modes of transport-

she used the strolled for Peter

and I used the mobi wrap for Bence.

The last week or so has brought lots of developmental changes too.

Bence drools all over me when I hold him and when I'm not he's trying to eat his pacifier.

(teething here we come!)

He has rolled over from tummy to back.

(maybe I mentioned that already?)

He's always sticking his tongue out, especially when you touch his lips.

He never wants to lean back or rest on you, the couch, a pillow, anything.

He's always trying to sit up and lean forward.

He does this to the point that his little face turns beet red and he makes lots of grunting and straining sounds. 

He has grown out of everything sized 3 months and is strictly in the sixers now. 

He laughs all the time and is starting to have ticklish spots (his ribs!)

He loves to smile and squeal.

He tolerates baths, but looks so quizzical and concerned I can't help but laugh every time I sit his cute naked butt in his baby tub.

and he puts away a bottle like a champ. (usually 7-8 oz. every 3-5 hours)

I could just squeeze this little man all day long! (and I usually do!)

My favorite Boys! <3

this one's a little blurry, but his face is just priceless

hangin' with his cousin peter

All the boys together
(It's impossible to get everyone to look the same way...)

The Babies!

oh shoot- I have to sneeze!

Fun times with Mommo...

I think he's done with tummy time....

Can you tell the flash on my camera is a little bright?

Bence's Baby Blessing

My little man is getting so big.

Last Sunday we finally brought him out of his cocoon into a scary, dangerous place....

...also known as church.

At least, that's how I see it...

after months and months of agonizing about germs and sickness and disease,

The idea of exposing my sweet baby to the world was slightly unnerving.

Especially the "church" world....I swear that's where I pick up every nasty bug and virus in the winter.

And I've found  you can't just turn off the "nervous mama" switch. 

(It's here to stay--for good)

But we did just fine.

And Bence did great.

I was really worried we wouldn't be able to hear the blessing over his screams...

or that those participating in the blessing would be spewed by projectile vomiting 

(a daily occurrence in this house.) 

but our luck held out!

He was mostly just curious.

and maybe a little confused.

He's not used to seeing so many people.

When I walked over to our ward building he was fast asleep, but not for long.

About ten minutes before the meeting started, he opened his eyes real wide

and he was wide awake for the next hour.

Sometimes I think he might give himself whip-lash from trying to look so many directions at once.

but he was an angel and charmed the pants off everyone we visited with.

It was (needless to say) a very memorable day.

Unfortunately, a family friend of ours was unable to make it to the blessing due to car troubles.

But it was because of him that Bence had such a cute outfit for his blessing.

Jason brought back a jumper (complete with matching tie) from his visit to Scotland over Christmas break.

We kept him well covered until the moment of the event!

Bence is so chubby he has no neck anymore...it was a challenge buttoning his shirt...which still didn't work out so well.
(In case you can't tell, the tie is patterned with Moose...
Meese?)

My two favorite boys!

What is going on?

you would think he was sick of me or something....

We had a great time.

At one point there were 25 people in our house.

It was so much fun to visit and catch up with everyone--to bad we can't (or don't get to) do this more often!

15 weeks + 1 day

This little boy isn't so little anymore.
He's growing like a weed.
A really chubby weed.

He's also starting to-dare I say?- sleep a little better.
I think he's going through another growth spurt.
He'll only stay up for two hours before getting cranky and tired.
Last night he slept from 12am to 7:40am.

Sometimes when this happens I wonder if I should phone the doctor.
(It's that rare of an occurrence)
But I have to say, it was wonderful beyond wonderful to get more than three consecutive hours of sleep.

Grandma O'Connor and uncle Hiram are here for the week. But we don't have any pictures to post yet.
Mostly because I have no storage space left on my ipad to take pictures.
So here's a few I haven't posted yet that are being relegated to the depths of daddy's external hard drive in a few short hours.

3 months and one week

We ventured out into the real world after three months of quarantine.
It was more or less successful.

Well...at least we managed to make it to the car before little buddy had a total meltdown.

We went to TJ Maxx so mommy could get some new pants. (Nothing pre-pregnancy is even close to fitting - everything moved to different places, I swear)

And then we went to winco (a grocery store) to stock up on some food storage.
Henry also successfully changed a wet diaper in the front seat of the car. (Not an easy feat- this child's legs move 100 miles a minute)

We are also planning Bence's baby blessing. We'll have a bunch of family coming to visit including Mommo and Uncle Hiram. Bence will finally get to meet his cousin Peter who's only two months older than him. We'll be taking lots of pictures so stay tuned!

These pictures are just a few we've taken over the last couple weeks. We finally tried on the snow suit that nana bought little buddy, but it's a wee bit big. (His arms only reach the elbows and legs!)

11 weeks

We've had an (almost) sleepless couple weeks.
Last week it was because Bence was really mad all the time.
We aren't sure why.
But for whatever reason, he screamed and cried into the wee hours of the morning almost everyday.

This week he's slept just as much(or little, rather) but now he's pretty chipper.
Again, were not sure why the sudden attitude change.
He's been waking up to eat around six in the morning full of smiles and other cute baby noises.
He just doesn't want to sleep.
Ever

But believe me, after a week of screaming, crying miserably shrill baby, I'll totally take happy, smiley sort-of-sweet baby any day.

I suppose baby Bence is just like daddy; hates wasting time, and hates wasting time by sleeping or taking naps even more!

He's starting to "play" with some of the toys he got for Christmas (in that he smiles or laughs when you use finger puppets of squeaky toys) and he responds to me smiling or making funny faces (if he's in a good mood anyway) if you try pulling a face to get him to smile and he's tired, hungry, or irritated he'll just give you a look that says he's thoroughly unimpressed. Or he'll scream. Either way works for him.

He's always always ALWAYS busy! I should have expected this from Henry's child, but when he's awake he never stops moving. I think I mentioned this before, but it makes burping him an impossible task. I'll try to hold him up over my shoulder and his little head bobs back and forth a s he tries to look around while his little arms and legs flail and grab onto anything within reach. (I.e. hair, clothes, face, etc.)

I love Tina Fey's "Mothers prayer," which in some places may be slightly inappropriate, but fitting nonetheless.

"And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord. That I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 a.m., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck.
“My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental note to call me. And she will forget.

But I will know, be because I peeped with your God eyes. Amen."

Is that appropriate or what?

Post Christmas Post

With family coming and going we haven't spent much time updating.
I did manage to take a few pictures.
But as per usual, I didn't think to take many overall.

Life in the O'Connor household has been busy.
Henry is getting ready for a new semester and so am I.
Little buddy is still gaining weight and eating well.
I think we must be near fourteen pounds by now.
His not-so-little head crushes my arm when he eats
And I keep finding that I can't stand and hold him as long as I used to- he's just dead weight.

He's also starting to smile a lot more.
If you poke his little nose
Or make funny faces
(When he's in the right mood anyway)
He'll laugh and smile.

If he's not in a good mood he'll just scream.

He loves being held and hates when we set him down.
He has some sort of extra-sensory ability to wake up from a sound sleep the minute he isn't being cuddled.
We aren't sure how this works.

Bence is also one of the busiest babies I've ever held.
When he's awake (which is most of the time) he kicks his chubby little legs and flails his arms all over the place.
It's makes burping a difficult task- he doesn't like to hold still at all.

We set him in his boppi pillow the other day (laying with his belly against it)
And he held his head up nice and straight so he could look around the living room.
Albeit, he did flop around a little bit, but he did really well on his own for a few minutes.

Bence also got to meet the rest of the family (at least on my side) during the Christmas holiday.
Aunt Callie couldn't wait to snuggle him.
She did find however, that not all babies are complacent and sweet and calm.
I tried to tell her not to take it personally that Bence would scream at the top of his lungs whenever she held him.
I told her that he does that to me on a nightly basis for hours on end.
Needless to say, she was disappointed.

We also took Bence out of the house for the first time last weekend.
We haven't quite reached the three month mark where we can break out of quarantine, but we figured it was close enough to make a trip to the grandma hotel out inn tooele.

Little man did great.

In fact, he was so exhausted from his outing that he slept from one feeding at 6pm to the next at 2 in the morning.

I told Henry that maybe we should visit grandma more often.

Anyway, here are some of the few pictures I took over the last few weeks. I think the app for my ipad will post the pictures are the beginning of this post instead of the end, but oh well! Enjoy!