Jack is 1 month old...already!!

Well Jack is one month. I can not believe it has already been a month since he entered our lives. He is doing great. I am sure he is over 9 lbs by now. We have a one month check up next Tuesday so we will know his weight then. Here are a couple pictures I took yesterday of him to remember the day he turned 1 month. It was tough to get many good ones since (1) he is a baby, (2) Isabella was unruly and (3) I am not a photographer.

He is really such a joy! He is sleeping great and I am enjoying having him in his own room now. Last night he went to sleep when Isabella did at 8:30 and he slept until 1:00 am and then again until 4:30 am and then again until 7:30 am. He eats really fast, like 20 minutes and then I am back in bed. I hope he keeps this up. I felt so good at 4:30 that I went downstairs and worked out! :)

Hope everyone enjoyed the pictures!!

Isabella goes to preschool!!

Isabella had her first day of preschool when Jack was 5 days old. I didn't get to go there to take her since I was trying to recover, but I couldn't resist coming to pick her up. She is going on Tuesday and Thursday from 9-12. Here are some pics from her first day of school. She has been going for 3 weeks now and on Thursday of this past week she went with no tears...what an accomplishment!! She wanted to take her mommy and baby giraffe with her and the preschool director said that was fine and she promised me she wouldn't cry if she could bring them and she was true to her word. They told me she is welcome to bring her "guys" anytime she wants. :)
Isabella's class is called the Tiny Turtles!This picture is just adorable so I wanted to post it. I went to Bruster's to get myself and ice cream cone the other day (after having a particularly difficult day trying to take the 2 kids to the aquarium) and Isabella spotted my cone and wanted it. I ate most of it and then gave her the last little bit while we were driving in the car. When we got home this is what she looked like and she handed me a napkin back. She loved it and made a total mess! :)

Catching up on the first couple days of Jack's life

Jack's First Bath (2 Days old in the hospital):Hanging out with my sister Kate. Jack was 3 days old when she had to leave to go home. I was so happy she was able to be here.

Jack's first bath at home at 6 days old:

All Clean!!Trying to camaflouge himself on his blanket....where did Jack go?3 Generations of De Angelo men. Jack is the first grandson on Nick's side of the family and actually the first great grandson on the De Angelo side.Pop-pop came to visit and met Jack for the first time at 9 days old.Almost 2 weeks old (one day shy):Aunt Julia (my sister) came to visit with her 4 month old daughter Josephine. We were so happy to see Josephine again. I hadn't seen her since she was a month old. She was so cute and looks a lot like her daddy in my opinion.Isabella liked taking a bath with Josephine.

So the first couple weeks have been really busy and exhausting. We had Nick's parents here the first week and then my parents and Julia came in the second week. We had our first day alone on Monday August 31st. It went well. I certainly have far less time to myself now, but I figure it will take a few months for things to calm down and Jack to find his schedule. I hope to keep blogging, but I think things might be slow. :) Oh, and as of Monday Jack was 8 lbs 4 oz...so nursing is going better this time around...he is back to birth weight!! Yippee!

Jack is born!

Jack was born August 14th, 2009 at 4:08 pm. He was 7 lbs, 14 oz and 20 inches long. His grandmothers were able to be there for the birth and his Aunt Kate. She took some awesom photos and just as soon as I get them all I will add some more here. These are some from when he was 2 and 3 days old. Can I just say it has gotten really difficult to find time to blog these days...I hope this gets better.

2 Days Old:
Isabella first meets Jack...

3 Days Old:

Animal Sounds...in sentences!!

Here is a video of Isabella telling me what animals say in short sentences. She started doing this with no prompting from me. I think she got it from her animal farm magnets. I find it super cute when she makes real sentences...which she is doing more and more these days!

Yellow River Game Ranch!!

**Added a couple videos at the bottom

We took a trip today to the Yellow River Game Ranch that is just east of Atlanta. We weren't sure exactly what to expect, but it was so fun!! I am going to post a bunch of videos because it was like nothing else we had ever experienced. You can just roam around with all this wildlife, most of which is free and uncaged and you can feed everything! It was a great time. We saw deer, bears, cougars, ducks, peacocks, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, bunnies and more.

I have to add a couple more videos. These are just too fun!

This one shows the bears eating. They were pretty lazy and wanted the food to be thrown right in their mouths. This shows them to be quite skilled at catching food.

30 years old and 37 weeks pregnant!!

Well I turned 30 this weekend on August 1st!
It turned out to be a more eventful weekend than planned. I had planned on having our friends Brad and Bridget and their son Nathan over for dinner on Saturday night and cake from Cold Stone Creamery, but Nick invited our good friends Ben and Lisa and their son Gabriel up from FL for the weekend as a surprise to me. I had absolutely no idea they were coming and at about 11pm on Friday night a car pulled in our driveway and I was a little concerned. I turned to Nick and said "a car just pulled up" and he said "Oh yeah that is Ben and Lisa. They came up for your birthday!" I said "But my pants aren't buttoned" (my pants had been feeling a little tight that evening) and he said "Well button them". What an exciting and unexpected surprise! I was so happy to see them and to have them here to celebrate my birthday! So our dinner on Saturday grew from 4 to 6 and we had the 3 little ones and it was a fabulous time. Nick made Shrimp and Grits and Fried Green Tomatoes (at my request) and we enjoyed the delicious cake. Nick also surprised me with a Garmin GPS which I love!! It is going to make exploring Atlanta so much easier for me. Next to the weather forecast, planning travel routes is my favorite thing to do, so I have had a fun time inputing everyone's address I know and figuring out how long it would take me to get there. Did you know we are only 11 hours from Dallas, TX? Who knew!!?? Now that I have my Garmin I may just show up unexpectedly on your doorstep.

Isabella helped me blow out my candles! It was fun to share my birthday with her.

Gabriel and Isabella had a great time together. Also, I am 37 weeks pregnant and so for the sake of posterity I took a couple pictures this weekend. Unfortunately I am starting to swell in my face some and all over, but my face bugs me the most...luckily there are only a few short weeks left...or maybe if God is so kind he will come sooner!