Watch Out Michael Phelps!!!

Well our boy Blaze continues to grow in leaps and bounds. Each day we are amazed at how he is changing and turning from a once small fragile newborn baby to our "little man." He now is a whopping 12 lbs, which means that he doubled his birth weight in just 11 weeks.

Lately, when Gerry is home for his stretch of 4 days off after working his 48 hour shift at the firehouse, he has been taking his boy for a few short outings around town. These outings include quite a few trips to the local mall for some window shopping (a favorite of Gerry's) . The proud Dad reports that Blaze really enjoys getting out, especially visiting the pet store and of course the toy store.

Gerry and his Father-in-Law recently rolled up their sleeves for a bit of work and washed all of the windows of our house inside and out including washing the sun screens. Even though my Dad is retired, he hasn't lost his touch when it comes to doing windows. He owned and operated his own window washing business for over 40 years.

We are both missing our Frankie girl so very much. With Christmas just around the corner, this will be our first Christmas without her in many, many years, and it will definitely be sad, but on the other hand it will be our first Christmas with Blaze and a time to celebrate. Life sure is full of ups and downs. This past weekend we took Blaze to see Santa and he was great, no tears and he waited in line patiently with all of the other children. He loves all of the bright and flashing Christmas lights, so Daddy is VERY excited to get the house decorated for his little boy.

Blaze just LOVES television, especially animated movies and NFL football. He sure watches them intently.

From the very first time we put Blaze in the tub for a bath, he just loved it. He continues to enjoy himself so much in the bath, kicking wildly and making lots of noises. We both definitely believe that we are going to have a great little swimmer on our hands. Check out the video and see what you think.

WARNING the following video contains some nudity and goofy Mommy voices...

Well, I am officially out of Quarantine...thank heaven for Grandparents and N95 respiratory masks. I started coming down with 'something,' early last week and decided to get myself to the Doctor right away. I am not taking any chances with our little guy. The Doc said it wasn't contagious but we didn't want to take any chances and so I wore my N95 mask around the house and Grandma and Papa came to stay while Daddy was off at the firehouse for his 48 hour shift. Just yesterday this pesky cough wouldn't go away and I was still feeling very tired, so I went and got a chest x-ray and low and behold, I have pneumonia! I was never so happy to have an abnormal test result as I just want to get better and find out what was wrong. So I rushed back to the Doc after work to get a shot of Rocephin in my butt to kick start my feeling better and then I will start a course of 10 days on oral antibiotics tomorrow. WHEW! It's been a long, tiring week. I can't wait to be all better soon!!!

Playing with Papa

Snuggling with Grandma

There is another round of amazing parents welcoming or soon to be welcoming their little ones into the world with the awesome clinic Surrogacy India...Jackie and hubby, Joy and Kelly (any day now) and so many more (Stan and his wife, Todd and Alper, Rob and Greg, Johnny and Darren, and I am sure I am missing a few more) to come over the next months. We have been a part of each of their journey's (and so many others) from the beginning and also have been in contact over the past year. It is so great to know first hand of their abundant joy and excitement. We couldn't be happier for these wonderful people, so deserving of parenthood.

So for you photo junkies, here is our boy...

The MANY faces of Blaze:

Tummy time makes me tired!

In A Blink Of An Eye .................

That describes how we feel our beautiful baby boy is changing.  Each and every day seems to bring on something new that we notice, a new facial expression, a new little sound, a great big ear to ear smile, so many new and incredible things.

 Even a 'What now?' look

Blaze seems to also be growing in leaps and bounds.  He has moved up to size 1 diapers, and is wearing size 0 -3 onsies and sleepers and even some size 3 months.  He also has outgrown some of the shoes we had bought and now he is into size 1 shoes.  So every now and then, we continue to feed Rhonda's addiction to buying our son clothing.  He really does look adorable in everything!

Daddy teaching Blaze to swim

Having Rhonda's Mom and Dad here in Arizona for the winter is so great.  Seeing them interacting with Blaze is just incredible. This has been something that Rhonda has looked forward to for a very long time. Their weekly schedule is pretty packed with lots and lots of golf, playing Pegs and Jokers and Aggravation, shuffleboard, swimming, and just plain relaxing.  They are retired you know!  So we had to make sure that we had one day set aside just for us and therefore Saturdays are reserved for us to all spend time together. Well, on Tuesday, both Rhonda and I were off, so we decided to go over and have a quick visit and a swim, and we got an added surprise, a fantastic home cooked meal.  This unexpected visit sure made Grandma happy, and us too! 

Our nanny is working out fantastic.  She is such a natural with Blaze and already has begun to bond with him.  It is so hard to find someone to take care of your child, we are so very thankful that we were able to find her.

We took the doctors advice and added a teaspoon of rice cereal to Blaze's nighttime and morning bottle, and I must say that it is really going well.  He is sleeping longer and longer each night.  Just last night we fed him and put him in his crib at 9:15 pm and he slept until 5:15 am.  Count it .......... that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 hours, WOW!

Well on Saturday, it was Halloween and our boy just couldn't be left out.  So he actually had 2 costumes, nothing fancy but nonetheless adorable.  One was a cute little bear and the other, an even cuter little monkey, which is Rhonda's pet name for our little guy.

Grandma and Papa got to see him dressed up and we also went and paid a visit to our neighbors house who have 6 boys, who just found him so neat.

This coming week I will be getting the H1N1 injection at work, due in a large part to the fact that since I am a firefighter, I come in contact with a lot of sick people and I definitely don't want to pass anything on to my newborn son.  Rhonda on the other hand, is uncertain about getting the injection.  Even though she is a nurse, she works at a facility that mostly takes care of the elderly and the risk is much lower.  So this is our dilemma, I feel that she should get the injection, but I also know that it is a personal choice and can't force her.  I am certain that there are so many others facing this decision as well.

The stores are all getting decked out for Christmas now that Halloween is over.  We are really looking forward to celebrating Blaze's first Christmas, even though it is hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it is sunny and 90 degrees and no chance of snow whatsoever, but we will definitely try.