4 week party!

It's hard to believe this little guy has been with us for only four short weeks. This week, he finally lost his umbilical cord and took his first real bath. (I was beginning to give up on the umbilical cord ever going away.) He also started to make other cute little noises this week rather than just grunting and crying. Today he started following the lights on his activity mat and loves to lay on it during the morning (this might be a stretch...but he definitely doesn't mind it). We've also finally started doing tummy time without getting really upset. He seems to be staying awake for longer stretches now, especially in the morning.

 He loves his swing! He usually stares out the window with his eyes wide open.

 Tummy time isn't so bad anymore...still not his favorite, but he is doing a great job holding his head up!

 Goodbye umbilical cord!

 Officially a U.S. citizen...we have a social security number.

 Censored bath time (this is actually his second bath because he had a little accident in the first one)

 Sam with two puppets that I made him (part of a much larger Old McDonald set, but these were the easiest-he might have the entire set by the time he is 5).

 One month birthday presents

 One month birthday cupcakes

He slept through the last half of his party so he missed out on the cupcakes. Probably a good thing since I made pink cupcakes without thinking (these were pink lemonade cupcakes). I will make more manly cupcakes for month 2. The party must have been exhausting because he slept from about 8 until 3 in the morning, woke up to eat, and went back to sleep until 7:30. Great night for me! (He will officially be one month old on Thursday, but we thought it would be easier to celebrate on the weekend.)

We love this baby boy more and more every day! 

Weekend pictures

Happy late Father's Day! Here are some pictures from the weekend...

 Kyle and Sam at his two favorite weekend spots...Chik fil a and Costco.

My dad with Sam (at Mimi's for a great father's day dinner!)

first time to church (please ignore the fat lady holding the cute baby)

big stretch!



Here are some other cute pictures from my phone that I'm just now downloading.

Big smile (I'm sure everyone has seen this by now, but I had to post anyway)

My little helpers during the day 

First play date with Griffin (from a couple of weeks ago)

Happy third week birthday to Sam! I can't believe it's been three weeks already...time needs to stop! (He loves to furrow his brow!)

We also took some time yesterday to remember the original Sam, my grandfather. He would have loved baby Sam more than anything!

What we've been doing this week

Sam and I had a busy week of lunch dates, sleeping and eating. Right now, his favorite thing to do when he is awake is to look at your face. Here he is on his downstairs activity mat...not too interested in all of the lights and noises, but looking at me instead. Love this little guy!



This might be a complete coincidence, but he also likes to make faces back at me. If I stick my tongue out at him, he sticks his tongue back at me. He does it pretty much every time. His favorite time of day is first thing in the morning after his breakfast. He is usually wide awake for at least a couple of hours in the morning.

This week we went on lots of walks and Sam took his first trip to Anthropologie with me. He is a great shopping companion right now as he sleeps the instant we put him in his seat.

I think his #1 favorite thing to do is sleep. Here he is enjoying his favorite pastime.

A shout out to our four-legged friends....they really don't spend the whole day outside, but a lot more outside time than before because they kind of drive me crazy barking at squirrels during the day. Today they found some chipmunks to torment outside. I'm quite sure our neighbors hate us.

And a shout out to Mattie who is still enjoying his little vacay with Mother.



And here is my major accomplishment of the week...a throw pillow with a funny corner. That corner tripped me up for some reason.

Now we're ready to start Father's Day weekend!



Making his mark

The end of Sam's second week was a busy one. He got to meet lots of friends and family. Week 3 will be full of adventures as I am finally driving again (I guess this serves as a warning to all Memphis drivers that I'm back on the road) and we have a couple of lunches planned. I will be better at picture taking with a real camera this week!

On Wednesday, Suzanne brought baby Griffin over for a visit. They slept it up through their whole first play date, but I have a feeling that there will be more active play dates in the future. At least we got a chance to catch up! The picture must be on my phone so I will have to add that later! Griffin is so cute and has thick dark hair!

On Thursday, we went on his first official field trip outside of the house (besides walks around the block) to the pediatrician's office. Our outfit choice was a light blue bubble that was super cute on him, but hopefully didn't seem like we were trying too hard. Sam has officially gained his birth weight back plus three ounces. He was in the 25-50% percentile in height, weight, and height to weight ratio. He scored big on his noggin' size though...75% percentile in that category.

The aforementioned cute blue outfit lasted about fifteen minutes in the pediatrician's office so the doctor never actually got to see him in it. I had to change his diaper when we got there and he saved me another diaper by urinating all over the mirror behind the examination table. Luckily, my mom was there to help me out, but we were both laughing too hard to clean anything. We made it all the way through the rest of the appointment without any other incidents until we had to repeat the PKU test. He wasn't very happy about getting his heal pricked again and somehow went to the bathroom all over us again, but this time with his diaper and outfit on his body.

After the pediatrician's office, we went back home, changed, and set back out to Mellow Mushroom for lunch and Target. It was a big day...probably bigger for me than Sam. By bedtime that night, I was falling asleep.

This weekend Sam got to meet lots of family for the first time. I did a horrible job taking pictures but here are a few with his PopPop (Bob) who came to visit from Ocracoke, North Carolina, and the Erwin's who drove in from Knoxville. Sam snoozed through most of the visits, but everyone enjoyed meeting him.

I will post more pictures of Sam's first cookout at Mimi's once I download them from my phone!

PopPop and Sam

 Aunt Nicole and Cousin Audrey with Sam

Aunt Nicole brought us some great books from Knoxville. Here he is with Kyle as they read Old Bear. He loved this one! I think it was all of the contrasting colors on the page, but his eyes got really wide on certain pages!

Today is Sam's second week birthday! We had trouble taking a good picture this morning because it was sort of rainy looking again and I didn't have his full cooperation. Somehow this elephant snuck into the picture. How has it been two weeks since he was born?

 Jazz hands! (aka I'm getting really sick of these pictures and I'm about to throw a fit!)

More fun with toys!

We are having a great time with our new baby boy! I think he gets cuter every day! We are so blessed to have this perfect baby and for all of our family and friends that have supported us for the past two weeks. A special thanks to our moms for everything they have done!

Happy One Week Birthday to Sam!

Today is Sam's one week birthday! To celebrate, Sam decided to sleep and drink milk. Since we've been home, Sam's had many firsts. First sponge bath, first walk outside, first time to poo on Dad's hand (sorry, I didn't have the camera out for that one), and first swing (that was short-lived because the swing seemed a little out of control to me-maybe more swinging next week). Here are some pictures since we've been home.

Sam I am

On Memorial Day, we welcomed little Samuel McLean Kremser into the world. We went to the hospital around 12:30 that morning. I had been a little confused all day about whether I was in labor and had self-diagnosed myself with quite a few other illnesses before we finally decided it was labor. Thankfully, we had some really nice nurses at the hospital and they talked to the doctor into letting me stay so I got an epidural around 3:30 that morning. (I'm not sure how babies are born without epidurals now.) I spent most of the rest of labor asleep until we tried to start pushing around 10 and baby Sam's heart rate dropped to 60. I knew something was up when there were suddenly three doctors in the room. About ten or fifteen minutes after that, baby Sam arrived via emergency c-section.

Sam weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 inches long, and pretty much perfect! Besides having a little fun with us at the very end, it was not a horrible experience. All of the nurses at Germantown Methodist were wonderful and kept us calm through the whole scare. Dr. Martin from McDonald Murmann was also awesome and did a great job of explaining everything along the way. We are so blessed to have received such great treatment from everyone at the hospital.

Here are some pictures of our little guy from the hospital. (Ps- it's really hard to type with one hand!)