Christopher's First Tree

Now that Thanksgiving is over and Santa Claus showed up at the end of the Macy's parade, we can officially declare the Christmas season open! After I returned from braving the mall with Sierra today, Brian and I decided it was time to put up the tree while Kasey and Christopher stood watch. We spent hours and hours of manual labor putting all three pieces of our artificial tree together and stringing up the hundreds of lights... Actually, it only took about five minutes since we have a pre-lit tree. Good thing too because Christopher did not have much patience watching us put this thing together. I thought I might even get several minutes of non-fussiness so I could put up the ornaments but I was being a bit optimistic. In order to get the ornaments up without Christopher crying, I had to sing "You Are My Sunshine" repeatedly, at full blast because it is the only song that calms him down! When I was all done, I picked up our little man and we stood back to admire our hard work. Christopher is definitely fascinated by all the white lights and was attempting to have a conversation with the tree. I wonder what he thought when it didn't talk back. All that admiring made Chris a tired boy so he is asleep and Mommy and Daddy are drinking hot chocolate and admiring the tree ourselves... Anyway, our boy has been busy rolling over and practicing his arm strength by pushing his upper body up off the floor. It seems like he is getting stronger and stronger by the minute! Here is a full-length picture of our tree...

Movin' on up

We are pleased to announce that Christopher has officially moved up to Level 2 of his Exersaucer play center. Level 1 was just this little arch that had toys hanging from it and Chris would have to lay on the floor to play with it. Now, he has graduated to the next level which, as you can see from the picture above, is over-stimulation central! Instead of putting the Christmas tree together today, my project was assembling this crazy thing. But the cool part is that he can sit in the middle of all the fun and eventually put his feet on the bottom and bounce around. There are all kinds of things for him to look at, pull, spin, press, and play with and he was already trying to put everything in his mouth. He only sat in the Exersaucer today for about ten minutes before his appetite took over and he requested dinner... We hope everyone has recovered from turkey day and everyone returned safely from shopping today!

Too much turkey...

This is what happens when you eat on Thanksgiving and play with your puppy friends who come to visit with their humans! Kasey and the rest of us all ate way to much food on this Thanksgiving day, but isn't that what you're supposed to do on this day? Dan and Mary, who work for Hallmark, picked up Thanksgiving dinner from work yesterday and brought it over for mass consumption today. And mass consume we did! It was delicious and we hardly had to do anything. Mary and I were in charge of heating everything up while the big boys were in charge of the little boys. At the end of it all, we didn't even have room for pumpkin pie... at least not right after we finished dinner. Brian and I had our pieces later this evening and now we are going to officially explode! Looks like a ten miler tomorrow, at least. Christopher enjoyed his first turkey day very much. He actually wore the outfit I bought him to wear for Christmas because all of his other pajamas were in the laundry. Oh well, he'll probably grow out of it by the time we head back east anyway. Here is a picture of father and son...
All in all we had a very nice holiday and the weather was unbelievable too--60 degrees! We would also like to say that we are thankful for Christopher, Kasey and all our family and friends. Here are some more pictures of our day!

Christopher's Thankful List

Inspired by his cousin cousin, Liz, and her fun "Sain Nation" blog, Christopher wanted me to help him compose his list of things he is thankful for as we are approaching his very first Thanksgiving. Here is his top ten list, in order, from most important on...

1. Kasey
2. Mommy and Daddy
3. My extended East Coast family
4. Milk
5. The ladies
6. Things to chew on
7. My new jogging stroller
8. Diapers
9. Bath time
10. Baseball

On this lovely day before Thanksgiving, we passed the time by going to the Parkside Cafe for a playdate with some older children and their mommies. Christopher had a conversation with a grandma who was visiting from St. Louis and was entralled by a brother and sister (maybe 2 and 3 years old) who were having a conversation with us that I am still trying to figure out. The older brother showed Christopher how to go down the slide and our little man got a chance 3 times too! (I wish I had my camera!). Chris then napped during our visit to Babies R Us and Sonic and then visited with our neighbor Dave (who was mowing his lawn--it's 54 degrees here) when we got home. Christopher also took his first bottle from Mommy today which was very sweet...We are looking forward to our holiday tomorrow with Dan, Mary and Tristan (and their puppies) and would like to wish everyone who reads our blog (and those who don't) a very happy Thanksgiving!

#1 Parents' Detective Agency

Being a parent sometimes reminds me of being a forensic scientist... you have to go through a mental list of clues and possibilities to nail down the answer to a "baby case." This is especially true when the baby in question has not yet mastered the English language. We all know that our dear Christopher has never really been a great sleeper. Many people will tell us that this is to be expected, considering the boy is only 4 months old. Well recently it seems as though Little Wogs has been waking up more frequently (gasp!) but with more frantic cries that seem to say "I'm really uncomfortable Mommy! Do something!" At first we thought our man was teething. While I still think this could be part of the problem, I also think that he has a bit of reflux that is just getting worse and worse. It's hard to say for sure so I took him to the doctor today to check. Dr. Kerry (one of the PA's) prescribed a reflux medicine so we are trying that tonight. In addition, we have Christopher's car seat in his crib where he is presently sleeping to keep him upright for a while. In addition (again!) we tried giving him rice cereal before bedtime. Hopefully one of these things will prove effective in keeping Chris full/comfortable/happy at least for a little while... Brief note: Mommy went shopping for her first pair of post-pregnancy jeans today. For someone who really doesn't like to shop to begin with, this started out being a bit depressing until I finally found something that fit at Banana Republic. I'm going to go ahead and think of these as my transition jeans until I train for my next marathon!

Hail to the Victors

We would like to say that the "victors" were, in fact, the Michigan Wolverines but as we expected, Ohio State walked all over us. Despite this outcome, Christopher maintained his team loyalty and wore his "M Go Blue" onesie even with the absolutely dismal performance. We had Dan, Mary, and Tristan and Matt, Jaime, and Olivia over to watch the game with us. Dan and Mary brought their two doggies over so Kasey was extremely happy to have a play date. She is now officially exhausted because we ran 3 1/2 miles this morning and then she bounded all over the place with Oliver and Coco. Here are some pics of the puppies...

We set up a "children's playland" in the open space next to the family room downstairs for Tristan, Olivia and Christopher. Tristan is getting so big and he was having a blast rolling the exercise ball. At the same time, Olivia was having a great time on Christopher's tummy time mat. She is getting to be such a big girl!...


Christopher had a lovely time hosting all his friends and got a kick out of all the doggies. He especially enjoyed Oliver and tried to put Oliver's long, floppy ears in his mouth. Kasey got some practice of what is to come in the future as Tristan sat on her paws and climbed all over her. It was a great time with our great friends despite the loss and we look forward to a rematch next year.

Look at me, I can be center field

No, our baby has not shrunk! He is actually sitting next to an extra large baseball sent to him by Aunt Sue and Uncle Geof. If this kid ends up not liking baseball, I will be shocked what with his parental history and outside influences. Christopher thinks this ball is extra cool because it has a rattle inside so when you shake it or bounce it, it makes a noise. Last night before bedtime, I was bouncing the ball and Chris was just cracking up--almost as much as he does with Kasey. Daddy tried tossing the ball to him, but he was not yet able to catch it. Ah, something to work on this weekend. Today's entry will be short because we are off to walk at the mall. (Even we have to draw the line at 10 degrees!) Chris has a date with Olivia!

The Cow Says... Shazoooo

Today I had to put Christopher down next to me so I could have my hands free to open a package that came from UPS. I decided that he could do a little tummy time so I put him on a blanket and decided to bring in a toy for him to look at and play with. The toy was a foam cow given to Brian at work from someone at UBS a while back. The cow can be seen below...
Well, there is a button on the utter of the cow and if you press it, the cow says "moo." So I thought Christopher would find this very interesting. I pressed the button and he looked at the cow...looked at me...looked back at the cow...and started hysterically crying. I thought perhaps he was upset because he was in tummy time. He has been getting fussy while on his tummy recently because he is constantly trying to get his hands in his mouth and cannot figure out how to do that and hold himself up at the same time. Next I put him in his Bumbo seat and continued what I was doing. The cow was on his blanket and Christopher was looking at it and smiling. "Great!" I thought. He must like the cow now that he is sitting up. I decided to give the "mooing" another try. The cow mooed... the baby smiled. The cow mooed again... the baby lost it and broke down crying again. I felt so bad! I guess we've found the first thing Christopher is afraid of. Our boy needed to cool down so we bundled up and went for a walk in the jogging stroller. We had to use the all weather sheild because it's freezing and Chris was quite warm. Upon our return, he went down for a nap. As I was putting him down, I look into our bedroom and there is Kasey attacking the cow! As you can see from this picture, she was only trying to protect her little brother from the evil bovine...
The cow met an awful fate as Kasey decided to rearrange its face and then work on its backside. That was all before Mommy intervened and told Kasey she was a good girl but that the cow had enough. I suppose this is what you get for messing with Christopher...

Beefcake update

Yesterday was Christopher's 4 month well child appointment. The last time we visited the doctor was on Halloween because we thought our boy had a little bit of a cold. When they weighed him then, he was 15 pounds, 2 ounces. So in a month he had only put on about a pound. We figured he is finally starting to level off a bit in the weight department. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much more weight gain at this appointment... Well, our little beefcake proved me wrong again. Drum roll please... Christopher weighs 17 pounds! He has nearly doubled his birth weight at 4 months. He is also 26 inches long and his head is 16 3/4 inches around. (That must be due to his manly size brain!) The doctor also said Christopher seems to have strong abs (at least one of us does) so he wouldn't be surprised if little man sits up relatively early. Ah wouldn't that be nice! Christopher looks healthy and happy and the doctor remarked about how cute he is getting. It was a great visit!

Fun with Grammy

Christopher has had a blast over the past few days with his Grammy and I think it's safe to say she has had a blast with him as well! Mommy and Daddy also had a blast because they got a nice break over the weekend and were able to go out to eat. Although I have to say, maybe these dates aren't such a good idea--we usually end up eating a lot of not-so-healthy food and then getting ice cream to top it off. This is not helping either of our training programs! Anyway, Grammy sang songs with Chris, shared some nursery rhymes, entertained him, changed him, and had a magical way of burping him. (I needed to have a lesson in that department!). She also cooked us some yummy meals. I like it when both our moms visit because we usually end up with a stocked fridge and freezer for at least a week... Today, our dear boy turned 4 months old--can you believe it? His Daddy is expecting a cake in celebration of this big event (and also Daddy's half birthday is tomorrow), but I don't know where he is expecting this magical cake to come from. We have Christopher's four month appointment this afternoon after we bring Grammy to the airport so we'll let you know tomorrow how much our little man weighs. I'm also going to talk to his doctor about this whole teething situation because I have this motherly sense that a tooth is coming soon. Of course, I also had a "motherly" sense that Christopher was going to be a girl so that tells you a bit about my motherly senses... Here are some more pics from the weekend...

Michelle, My Belle

So last night, Christopher requested that we watch the "60 Minutes" interview of Barack Obama so he could learn exactly what our new president has in store for the future of our country. We couldn't help but oblige our little man and so we put on CBS in between the football games. Chris was trying to convey his own economic plan to the president-elect via the television with many "goos" and "gaas." When he realized that the man on the television was not paying attention to his ideas, our boy became quite fussy and frustrated. But just as he was about to lose total patience, another person appeared on the screen and captured him immediately. When Michelle Obama joined her husband for the rest of the interview, Christopher seemed to fall instantly in love. He stopped his fussing and began to smile and coo at the new first lady. It was almost as if he was flirting with her through the television screen! When she disappeared from the screen, Chris went right back to his fussing, but as soon as she reappeared he calmed down and smiled at her again. She totally distracted him from his economic plans and when the interview was over, he went happily upstairs to take his nightly bath.

Little Kasey Moe

Yesterday, Christopher and I made a trip to the airport to pick up Grammy as she arrived from beautiful Newark, NJ. As she came off the plane, she was carrying a little furry friend for Christopher, as seen in the picture above. This little doggie is aptly named "Little Kasey Moe" and Grammy adopted her from Build-a-Bear. Apparently, you can record your voice on some of these stuffed animals so Grammy put a little message on Little K.M. so that Chris can hear her voice whenever you push the puppy's hand. Of course our little man is in love with this dog. Almost as much as the original Kasey (almost!)... Christopher has been having fun with his Grammy and impressing her with his drooling abilities. Here is a picture of them hanging out together...
Who knows what fun he has in store for her tomorrow, as Mommy and Daddy get to go out on yet another date (two weeks in a row!!!). I'm sure he will keep her thoroughly entertained. We are really enjoying having her here and she is cooking for us and doing laundry too. (We are letting her relax a little as well.) Anyway, this is the first time we've had company that Christopher has been napping well. Notice I didn't say sleeping well, just napping well... Last night Grammy got to see Christopher take a bath. Our little man is so proud of himself when he is naked! He sticks out his chest and flexes his arms as he gets ready to head into the tub. This kid is all boy. He knows there are lots of ladies (and especially his "big sister" Julia) out there to impress so he requested that I put some PG pictures of bath time up on the blog. Enjoy!

Awww...He found his thumb

As Christopher was taking a nap today, I saw him stirring on the monitor so I went in thinking I would have to replace his pacifier. As I entered the nursery, I saw him sucking away on his thumb, something we've actually been hoping he would start doing. (I know I'll regret those words later when we are trying to get him to stop sucking his thumb but for now he needs to learn to soothe himself!). It was so cute that I had to take a stealth picture, so as not to disturb the sleeping baby. If you're wondering if that is a three ring binder under Christopher's little mattress, you would be correct. With this whole teething situation, it seems to make him more comfortable to have his head elevated a bit and so this is our attempt at parental creativity... We went to a cafe this morning to meet up with a mom from Mothers and More who used to teach in NYC. She is just returning to teaching and wanted to know about Kansas schools so I shared some of what I know. It was fun reminiscing about the east coast, joking about how Kansas Citians complain about "traffic" and talking about the real city. Meanwhile, Christopher was busy watching all the older kids playing (there was a children's area) and plotting how he could get in on the action. He smiled at this little 1 1/2 year old girl with blond curly hair--he's always going for the older women! Anyway, we are excited for Grammy's visit this weekend and our little cutie is resting up for all the playing he is going to do. Bye for now!

Musings

An update on the jogging stroller... Yesterday the rain cleared up enough for us to take the new stroller for a walk around the block. Let me tell you, I felt very cool pushing that thing with cute baby and cute dog in tow. The sun canopy is awesome and comes out far enough to keep the elements off Christopher, even without the weather shield. Good thing too because as we were walking it started misting a bit. Chris was fine. Kasey and Mommy, on the other hand, had to walk between the drops (as Grandpa used to say)... Speaking of Grandpa, some people are saying that Christopher resembles Grandpa Sain. I can definitely see that, but I would like other opinions if anyone cares to share them. To me Chris is such a good mix of certain family members that it is hard to say he looks like either Brian or me... It appears as though Christopher is teething. This is such a lovely experience for all involved (read sarcasm) but we are doing our best to make our little boy as comfortable as possible. Maybe his first tooth will arrive when Grammy does this weekend!... We have a postpartum doula who comes once a week to give me a break and she was here today. She and Chris hung out while I went for a run sans dog and child. I have to say I am starting to feel like my old self in the running department. I went on the neighborhood loop (3.4 miles) and did it in exactly thirty minutes. It was exhilirating! But I would like to know--why is it that on a route that is a perfect rectangle, the wind is always blowing in my face? I know I'm not running fast enought for that to happen. Why can't the wind always blow at my back? Oh well, I am happy to be complaining about these types of things again.

Mom's New Toy

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Mommy's new toy arrived in the mail not three days after she ordered it! That's right, the jogging stroller is here. Just in time for... winter. Actually, I thought ahead on that one and ordered an all-weather shield for the stroller too. Christopher is not afraid to tackle the elements and we are both prepared to do so. The stroller you're looking at above is the Kelty Speedster Deluxe and compared to our everyday stroller it is definitely speedier. Well, it at least looks that way. We haven't actually tested it out yet. I did test Christopher in the stroller and as soon as I put him in it, he started cracking up. Hopefully he'll feel the same way when we actually use it. Especially for all those long runs! We (well at least Mommy) is so excited to try out the stroller and might even do it this weekend when Grammy comes to visit. Here are some more pics of our happy boy in his new jogger...

Man in the Mirror

Who's that fine looking kid in the mirror? What? What's that you say? Oh, it's Christopher J. Woglom! While running our errands yesterday at Bed Bath and your...ehem... Beyond, we picked up a door mirror for our little man because he just loves checking out his reflection. For weeks now we've been stopping in the bathroom so he could see our reflections and he just laughs and smiles. Now we've put this mirror on the floor for when he does tummy time and he thinks it's just a barrel of laughs. He especially enjoys when Kasey walks behind him and he sees her reflection. Anyway, our living room is starting to look like an advertisement for Fisher Price, what with all the colorful baby toys laying around... Today, Mommy and Daddy are going on a date while Christopher has a date of his own. He is going to hang out with Maddy and her parents Randa and Rich while we go out to a late lunch where Mommy is planning on having (dare I say it) a full glass of wine. If this full glass of wine leads to a full night sleep for our boy, I might need to stock up at Gomer's with a case of Zinfendel and let it work it's magic! (Again, please don't call the authorities). We are looking forward to our afternoon out and tremendously appreciate our friends watching our little man!

Not forgotten

Lest anyone think we are neglecting our dog... I believe this photo serves as evidence that when Christopher is taking a nap, we remember who the original baby is in this family. We know our little guy would approve because he is Kasey's biggest fan. Whenever he is fussy or is getting tired of an activity, all we have to do is get Kasey to come over and sit in front of him and he is completely happy. Of course, she is not exactly over-excited to be Christopher's little plaything but she puts up with it all the same. Now that he is getting a little better with his hands, he reaches out and tries to touch her. Today, he had his hand in his mouth (so it got all soaked) and then he reached out, grabbed Kasey's fur and ended up with a handful of dog hair. Luckily I intervened before the hand went back in his mouth! Anyway, I don't get overly concerned about dog hair or doggie germs with Christopher. In fact it's probably good for him. He's had hair on his pacifier, in his own hair, and in his diaper. (Please don't call the authorities!) But at least we know he's not allergic. Maybe our ultimate sleep solution would be to have Kasey sleep in his crib with him. We'll write a book and call it "The No-Cry Kasey Sleep Solution." Step one: place baby in crib. Step two: place dog in crib. Step three: watch as cuddly dog curls up next to baby and magically places him in a deep sleep. Step four: enjoy a deep sleep yourself! Ahh, we can dream can't we?

Our Little Baseball Player

Does this kid look like he's ready to play ball or what?

November?

Is it really November? I mean, it's been at least 70 degrees outside here in Kansas for a week now! Here is Christopher yesterday out in the backyard on his tummy time mat. It was so nice that we stayed outside for a couple hours just hanging in the fresh air. I know it's going to start getting cold soon but I'll take this weather while I can... Today Christopher and I went to a baby playgroup with our mom's group. There were only two other moms there but, small world, the hostess was from New Jersey and the other mom had taken Bradley classes with our same teacher. So needless to say we all had a lot to talk about! Chris had fun watching the older baby who was there and tried to get in on the conversation with the moms. It was definitely a nice outing for him!

"I Voted"

On this historic Election Day, Christopher J. Woglom accompanied me to the polls and helped cast a vote for someone original, with fresh ideas, young and of a new generation, a candidate with a great sense of style--a true maverick. This candidate doesn't just kiss babies, she licks them! That's right, we cast our votes together for Kasey Moe Woglom. I had been leaning toward Obama but at the last second, Chris convinced me to write in everyone's favorite dog for president of this great nation... I don't know what everyone else's voting experience was like, but I was one of two people at the polls today at 11:30AM. I saw all these pictures on the internet of lines wrapping around the block all over the country, but not for us. Thank goodness too because I had visions of waiting in line with Christopher for like 2 hours and having to feed him standing up! He smiled at the poll workers when we got to the school (my school where I taught last year) and the lady we checked out with gave him his own "I Voted in Johnson County" sticker. He wore it with pride and then showed it off to the ladies in the office. Of course, since it was all women working in the office, Christopher put on his best smile and charmed them all. We visited with my principal, the school nurse and several other teachers I worked with last year. He was so excited to see the art teacher that he spit up on the floor in the hallway! Note to self: always travel with burp cloths. Then we spent time with Rebecca, the only kindergarten teacher left from last year. All that flirting made Chris a sleepy boy and he has been asleep since we left school, only waking up to eat. Even our furry presidential candidate couldn't wake him up with her campaign barking!

Breaking News

Chris just rolled over 2 times! Yay!!!

Run, run, run

In honor of the New York City Marathon being run today, Christopher wore his "I Love NY" onesie. We were all able to watch the national coverage of the marathon and Chris actually watched the entire thing with us. He was fascinated by the runners he saw on television and started cooing and gooing as Paula Radcliff kicked it to the finish line. He was so excited, he even exploded a couple times in his diaper. Based on his interest in what he saw on TV, I would say that Christopher was born into the right family! I told Chris all about when I ran the marathon 6 years ago today and how I remembered watching the coverage as a kid and always wanting to run it myself... We also had lunch with Dan, Mary, and Tristan today at Ruby Tuesday's. Chris napped for the first half of lunch but then decided he wanted to try some of my burger so he got up to see what he was missing. When I hold him on my lap now, he reaches out to grab my plate as I eat so we are entering the phase of having to watch what he grabs. Anyway, it was a good day for us all and it was especially fun to see Christopher watch his first NYC Marathon. Hopefully he will find it as exciting as I did when I was a kid!

At the pet store

Today was Christopher's first trip to the pet store. We went over to Petland so Brian could get some new fish since his really mean algae eater has been feasting on many of the fish in the big tank. I have to admit, I felt a little guilty leaving Kasey home for this trip but we just don't have enough hands for both baby and dog! Chris was still awake when we got to the store so I just carried him in. While Daddy was browsing the fish section, Christopher and I headed straight for the puppies. Now let me tell you, I feel awful for those pet store puppies who are confined to those tiny cages with metal wire flooring. Today, however, they served the important purpose of entertaining our baby. There was one dog in particular--a French Bulldog--who captured our little guy's attention right away. He was chewing on plastic keys (the dog, not the baby) and Chris just thought this was the funniest thing. He started smiling and laughing at the little frenchie. I'm pretty sure we have a dog-loving child on our hands because he seemed to care less about the kittens we saw (sorry Otis). Next we moved onto the fish section where Chris was introduced to an activity his dad has enjoyed since childhood... going to Petland to check out the fish! All of the excitement there put him right to sleep in my arms. It was a lovely outing for our man.