Time Keeps on Ticking

As always, it's been a long time. But things have been busy at the Kempe house! I've been back at school full time, residency interviews are in process, and holiday events and travel are taking up the rest of our time. The little man turned 5 months old on December 10. I think this is my favorite stage so far. Shepherd's personality is really starting to show. He is such a happy baby. He loves to talk (more like yell) all of the time. He has discovered his feet and seems to have either hands or feet in his mouth at all times. He is sleeping through the night regularly unless there are unforeseen interruptions (pooping, peeing, traveling, being sick...) - which seem to be too frequent! He loves to spend time on his belly and rolls over immediately when we put him down. He is starting to eat some solid foods, but - surprise, surprise - he is not very interested in them! He eats rice cereal in the morning and a fruit or vegetable at dinner. He has made some pretty aweful faces when we've fed him bananas and peaches. He acts like we're giving him lemon juice or something! He is also starting to pay more attention to Bea although I can't say the reverse is true of Bea paying attention to him. Maybe some day they will be friends...

Well, here are some pics of what's been going on in the past month.

The first feeding

First time in the booster seat

Thanksgiving in New Jersey

First bites of sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving

First snow in New Jersey (I promise it was snowing - it's just hard to see it)

Breakfast with Santa at school. Our attempt to get a cousins picture with Santa. Ha!

Christmas tree shopping. Shep was thrilled!

Peaches!!

Merry Christmas from Bea. She got her present early: a very fancy dog bed from Costco!

Happy Halloween!

Since Shep is a little too young for trick-or-treating we decided to let Bea represent the family in the way of costumes. Shepherd is also somewhat dressed up if you count his New York Yankees PJs - thanks to our sweet friends the Sawyers! Tim just wishes we could be cheering the Yankees on in the World Series tonight. Maybe next year...

In other news, Shepherd is well on his way to being 4 months on November 10. He is learning to roll over from front to back and back to front. Since we found him on his belly one morning in his crib, we've had to let go of the beloved swaddle, but Shep has done great and continues to make it through most nights without having to wake up to eat. Here are some pics from the bouncy this morning. As you can see, it always brings tons of smiles!

Giggles

Shepherd got a big time case of the giggles today and we actually caught some of it on camera!

Firsts

Shepherd will be 3 months old this Sunday! It is amazing to see how much he has changed in such a short time. Over the past month he has experienced many "firsts." The last weekend of September we went to the Chicago area for Tim's cousin's wedding. Shep went on his first plane ride and did great! As you can see, he spent most of the time sleeping. Let me tell you, it is hard to get comfortable holding a baby in a tiny tiny airplane! He also had his first trip to Wheaton - our alma mater - where he met some of our friends, visited swim practice, and are at our old fave, Egglectic for breakfast (ok-he really just slept there).

Snoozing on the plane

Chicago-style pizza at Lou Malnati's

Breakfast at Egglectic with his new lamb - courtesy of Rob and Kate Noll!

Tim with his cinnamon roll french toast - breakfast of champions!

Shep's wedding outfit, a joint effort made by Gigi and me

Family shot at the wedding

Another big first was Shepherd's first day of daycare! Here he his in his first ever "first day of school" pic! He was very excited! Along with school came Shep's first cold. So sad, but he recovered pretty quickly and this will probably just be the first of many.


Lastly, here are just a couple cute pics for all of you who can't get enough!

Gearing up for fall in his awesome sweater made by Aunt Em

Tummy time

The post wouldn't be complete without a Bea update. She is struggling to adjust to the new cool temps by spending her mornings on this very small pillow on our couch. Just so you know, she has 3 beds around our house but insists on trying to fit onto this pillow. Must make her feel cozy to act like she's small...

Happenings

There have been several requests, so I'm finally giving in and posting an update of what's been going on with the Kempes! Shepherd turned 9 weeks on Saturday and had his 8 week doctor's appointment last week. Sadly, that meant his first shots. All in all he did very well, but the screaming after the shots and sore legs at home were so so sad! He weighed in at 12lb 5 oz and was 23.75 in long! He is around the 75th percentile for weight and height. He's already having to wear 6 month size onesies because his torso is so long! How he is growing so well beats me because he is definitely not an all star in the eating department, but we trust that he'll get better with time. As far as sleeping goes he has slept through the night about three times and is going 5-6 hours before waking up on most nights. Yay! He is getting stronger and stronger and can hold himself up pretty well during tummy time. Especially if there's something fun to look at, like a mirror! He can also roll over from front to back if he gets really ambitious! He is smiling a lot - it's amazing the things that 2 grown adults will do to get a baby to smile! We are loving time with our new little guy. He is certainly a blessing from the Lord!

Snuggle time with Bea

Sleeping on the bed (with supervision, of course!)

Bubble bath!

Couch time with Daddy

Loving his AmeriSpec onesie

Tummy time

Loving his activity center

So much fun stuff to play with!

Snuggled into the moby wrap

So necessary.

Smiles

Shepherd will be 7 weeks this Saturday! He started smiling about 2 weeks ago so here are some pics of his new skill and some others from the past couple weeks. It only took about 20 pictures to get one or two with a smile!

Bath time

Don't know where he gets those long legs!

One month!

Shepherd is 4 weeks old today! It doesn't seem like it's been a whole month since we went to the hospital to have him. Time is going quickly! Noteworthy happenings: Shepherd and I took a trip to Tim's work this week, Shepherd took his first bottle, and sadly, his hair seems to be falling out. Hopefully it will be quickly replaced. We're just waiting to see what color. It is still looking pretty brown and his eyes are still a dark navy color. Here some picture updates of the cute boy. He is looking bigger every day!