Tucker Thorson - Baptized

On June 27th Tucker Thorson (his Christian name) received the Sacrament of Holy Baptism at St. Ann's Episcopal in Kennebunkport, ME. It was truly a very special day for our family. As we sat on the pew overlooking the ocean, prior to the service, I felt this overwhelming emotion of love and felt so fortunate to be able to share the special day with my parents, my brother (Tucker's Godfather), my friend Sarah (Tucker's godmother), Mrs. Fuller (a close family friend) and of course my husband. What also made the day special was that Tucker was being baptized by the same Reverend that had married Brandon and I and at the same church. Each occasion we were both blessed to be surrounded by so much love.


After the ceremony we thought that it was only fitting to go to The Wharf for a nice lunch. Fortunately Tucker fell asleep so we were able to eat in peace (:

Baptism

I missed Tucker while I was away...

So, even though I was gone for 24 hrs, I still missed my little baby! I thought about calling home the morning of the golf tournament but I knew that that would be a bad thing. So, when I arrived home, I just could not get enough of Tucker and thus I decided to take too many pictures of him. He has really started to take on a personality and it is just so much fun to watch.

Tucker Mid July

Webhannet Member Guest with Mom

Ok, so this is not just a Tucker Blog but also a family blog so I have decided to include a post about my 24 hr trip to Maine. I know I know, it was a short trip to make especially with a 4 month baby. But Brandon was so nice and watched Tucker while I flew up because there is tradition in playing in this tournament for me and I did not want to miss it. For the past 7 years my mom and I have played as a mother daughter team with one of her good friends and daughter. Keeping with the tradition we dress up according the the theme, hence why we are wearing lettuce and a radish (which you can't really see) on the back of our white hats. For me, it is a special day and one that I would NEVER miss!! Hopefully next year our schedules will align so we can all go up for a week or two. All in all, the weather was awesome and we all had a fun time together! Thanks Mom, for inviting me back to play. I Love you!!!


Mother Daughter


Our Team







Cute baby trying to catch the beetles

4 Months and Mom Still Takes TONS of Pictures

Today Tucker turned 4 months! Holy @#$^% where is the time going?? Each day we are blown away by the new things that Tucker does and that also includes the things that he does not do, like NAP!!

Yesterday we put him in his exercauser for the first time and while I think that he was a little overwhelmed at first, he definitely seemed to like all of the different activities. He even figured out how to rotate around in the seat. I am sure that this is going to be a favorite of his when he can fully comprehend all that it has to offer.


Some of the Tucker's new milestones:

- When he smiles he actually gives us an audible sound as well. Hearing him laugh is hysterical!

- LOVES babbling on and on, sometimes we think that he is actually answering us.

- Loves playing the airplane game, just another movement and form of exploration.

- Has figured out how to move around in his crib with a sleep positioner. Each night when we put him in bed we place him on his side in the positioner with foam inserts against his back to help him stay on his side. The other night, when I was getting ready for bed, I went to check on him and somehow he had flipped to his other side and the foam was still in place. When I went to check on him later, somehow he had moved so he was diagonal in his bed with the sleep positioner still in place around him. I was beyond perplexed! Or the other night when I was in our office I heard some bells and thought, oh no he is awake. Well I let some time pass and never heard a cry. So I decided to check on him. Well he was still holding onto his Pig toy.

- Sleeps through the night for the most part (occasionally we have to get up to turn him on his side or get him to suck his thumb but it is rare).

- Still does NOT like to take naps much to my dismay. It takes a lot of energy and patience to get him down and this is usually after a good amount of crying.

- Sucks on not only his entire fist but also his thumb on a regular basis.

- Will play with rattles and move them from hand to hand.

- Rolled over once from tummy to back but we feel that any day he will be doing it daily.

- His discovered the wonders of splashing in the tub.



My motherly revelation is that while some believe that Sippy Cups are for Chardonnay, I figured out that Burp cloths are for twisting off beer caps!



Click photo for more fun pictures

Tucker 4 Months

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

We would all like to wish everyone a Happy (belated) 4th of July. Some may ask, where is Tuckers flag? Well, after going to every supermarket, party store, craft store and random other store in a 10 mile radius we could not find a simple flag that we could hold. We couldn't even find little flags to put in cupcakes that Brandon made. Either this means that we live in an unpatriotic area or the stores actually sold out of the flags. The cynical part of me (and yes I could go on an entire diatribe here but I will save my political opinions for another day) says that it was a combination of both because I sure did not see a lot of "extra" flags being displayed around our area. Shame on those unpatriotic people!! At least we were all wearing some color combination of the flag yesterday and we are proud to have an American flag flying outside our front door!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!
God Bless America


Love BB&T

New Album 7/5/08 7:56 PM

Tucker's First Beach Vacation

We just returned from Tucker's FIRST trip to the ocean. The trip in itself was monumental in that it was his first time to the ocean, it was also his first overnight away from the comforts of his crib, first time in a car longer than 45 min, first time vacationing with Brandon's parents, sister and cousins, first time playing in a swimming pool, first time rolling over unassisted, and first time that Brandon and I were able to go out to dinner by ourselves!! Of course we ended up discussing Tucker half the time but it was nice to have our own mini date night.

While the ocean was way too rough to take him near, we did take him to the kiddie pool and he seemed to have a blast. That or he just liked his crab outfit (: On the second day we tried very hard to make it a beach day but the weather got in the way. After walking from the condo to the beach we found out that the beach was closed due to thunder and lightening and they would re-evaluate the situation shortly. We waited and they ended up opening the beach pretty quickly. We scouted out our area, cognizant of high tide, put up Tuckers beach tent and Brandon started to feed him. Twenty minutes into it all the thunder started to rumble and then wham, downpour and thunder rumbles turned in to loud cracks. Thankfully the feeding was almost done but we all had to scramble to take everything down and run for cover. The lifeguards tried to make us leave it all up but no way. Needless to say we got wet and Tucker was pretty much oblivious to it all. We did not go back to the beach that day. On our final day the wind off the ocean was pretty strong and Tucker just could not find his groove so our day at the beach was very brief. Oh well.

All in all Tucker got to hang out with his Grandparents, his cousins Will and Kate and Brandon's sister Aunt Robin.

Oh the other highlight of the trip was the fact that he rolled over from his stomach to his back for the first time. That was very exciting!!! He has not done it again but I feel like any day now it will become a daily event!

Click the photo for more pictures.

Beach Trip June 2008

MRE Playgroup

Tucker ventured out for his first real playgroup this past week. He was definitely overwhelmed with all of the action at first and but then he found his kicking let me just babble away "groove". His friend Eloise (who never seems to cry and is the perfect sleeper) was there to help keep him in line and the ducky definitely was the highlight of his morning. His friend Finn and Charlie from walking and coffee were there to take the edge off as well. Plus he got to meet some other baby friends. Thank you Jamie for hosting!!!

Click on the photo for more pictures.

Tucker Playgroup

3 MONTHS AND GOING STRONG

The 4th trimester is over according to Dr. Karp and boy have the last 3 months been LONG. But we are making some headway. The duration of his crying has decreased but he still has trouble taking naps and just falling asleep. Which means I have little time to clean the house because if I do put him down for a nap it requires being nearby for a bit in order to keep plugging him when his binky falls out. Which really means, I spend more time on Facebook now... But back to Tucker, my theory is is that he really just wants to see the world and is afraid that he is going to miss something. Every time I take him out to meet up with other moms and their babies, or even just to walk around, he perks up and is an active looker and talker. So while it is frustrating that he does not want to settle down for naps, it is fun watching him take it all in.

As for milestones, he is making the FUNNIEST sounds and blows bubbles in his mouth, loves to droll and have me wipe his mouth, LOVES grabbing onto things especially a few favorite toys (never enough), is doing very well with tummy time and is sitting up very well in his Bebepod. You can see it in his eyes that he is ready to get on his knees and explore.

All in all, family life is awesome and Tucker is a daily reminder of how fortunate we are.

Click on the photo for more cute Tucker pictures.

Tucker 3 months

Auntie Sarah comes to visit

And the visitors keep on coming... To many she is known as "Goff" or "Sarah" but to Tucker, she is known as Auntie Sarah. Last week Sarah came down from Boston for a visit. While Brandon was gone, Breck got some Goff time and Tucker got some Auntie time. She swept in and stole Tuckers heart, it was Love at first site for him. He had seen pictures and heard stories but now it was the real person. It really was a special 4 days of bonding for all of us!!!


Click on the photo for more pictures

Goff Visit

Crabs with Vermonters

Tucker has been busy meeting family members this past month. Tony and Joanne (Uncle and Aunt) came down from Waterbury, VT (yes for all of you home of the Ben and Jerry's factory) over Memorial Day weekend to visit Ame and Ian (cousin and boyfriend) who are living in DC. On Saturday of that weekend they decided to take a road trip to Annapolis to meet Tucker as well as to "get down and dirty" with some Maryland Crabs. We took them to a local establishment where we got to sit on picnic bench's on the water and watch these Vermonter's attack the crabs. Brandon and I opted for something less messy. One of the more memorable moments, besides seeing family members and me having her first summer ale (Sam Summer and oh did it taste sooo good) in over 11 months, was a line from our waitress regarding Tarter Sauce. I had ordered a fried haddock sandwich and wanted Tarter sauce. After asking for it 3 times and saying that they had just brought me mayonnaise the waitress came out and said "here I brought this sour cream out to show you that that is tarter sauce, you can tell by the color." Not the finest moment for our waitress.

Click photo for more pictures

VT Beards

Play Time - New Fun

I fell in love with a toy from K's Toys (I am the Boss) before Tucker was born and was determined to either get it or try to make something like it. I opted to try to make something somewhat similar (maybe someday I will break out the sewing machine and get creative with fabric) with and old sheet and box from a stroller. One of my friends told me where I could buy the balls (Toys R Us) and presto. Overall the concept is somewhat the same, sans the animal, and best part much cheaper. For now we put the bebePod in the box to help him sit up and from time to time add some of his toys that he likes to play with. The result, Tucker likes sitting in the box surrounded by all of the balls!!

Another thing that Tucker LOVES is his Musical Elephant when he is in the pack n play changing table. This is actually the second Elephant as we broke the string on the first because we kept pulling it when he was younger. At first, he did not like the changing table and just CRIED!! Now, he does not mind the changing table as long as there is some music. Brandon and I even like listening to the elephant!

Next time I will have to post some pictures of Tucker on his real changing table in his nursery. There is a print above it that he ABSOLUTELY adores. He can stay on his pad for a long time and just kick around and talk as he not only amuses himself but us.

All in all, when Tucker is with his toys, he is having a great time and we LOVE watching him play with them!!

Click Photo for more photos

Play time may

Happy Birthday Day!

Tucker wanted to say Happy Birthday to dad (May 21st) and mom has been slow to post this on the website for Tucker. While we did not get a birthday dinner in yet (fondue night will be soon) Tucker was able to present dad with a cake from Maggie Moos .

Click photo for more photos

Happy Birthday Dad

Family Visit

Tucker is a popular little man, as his Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle came to for separate visits. They really just wanted to pinch his adorable cheeks. First, Mimi and Poppop (Breck's parents) came for a night on their way North to Maine. They met Tucker the day he was born but had not seen him since. How he has grown and immediately they were welcomed with TONS of smiles. Hopefully by the time they seem him again in a couple of months he will be laughing! Unfortunately, I could not convince either of them to change a diaper. They both claimed that they had enough 30 or so years ago with twins. Hmmm....

A couple of days later Uncle Drew (Breck's brother but she refers to him as Ru Ru to Tucker because there is no way Tucker is ever going to be able to pronounce Drew) and Aunt Ashely came down from CT to visit. This was a first visit not only to Annapolis but also to meet Tucker. After 6 hrs in the car they finally arrived around 11:30 pm. Blood shot eyes and all, Drew was very eager to meet Tucker. Of course, Tucker gave both of them a knockout smile (yes he was still awake much to our dismay). While we had a slow start on Saturday (Tucker decided to be a little fussy in the morning) we showed them a bit of Historic Annapolis and The Naval Academy. Drew even got some baby parenting tips. However, we could not convince him to change a diaper either. We figured that this would be great practice for the arrival of their baby in September. Oh well, maybe next time.

All in all, it was wonderful to see family and for them to meet Tucker!



click the photo for more pictures

Drew Visit May 2008

New Places to Sleep

So Tucker has discovered that sleeping does not just occur in the his crib or in the infant carrier. The first time he fell asleep on Kojo the Croc we thought it was cute but figured it was a one time occurrence. The second time, I thought he was looking at himself in a mirror but was relieved to find him asleep so I could take a nap (listening to the advice from everyone that when the baby naps, you nap). Now, the third time maybe he really does have a new friend and likes to sleep on Kojo. Our concern of course is that he likes to sleep on his belly!!!

Click photo for more pictures

Kojo May

2 Months - Time is Flying!!!

The 2 month milestone and we are still kicking away. Maybe not as sleep deprived as we were a month ago but Tucker still picks inopportune times to be awake (night and usually up just for a binky). It really is amazing, the simplest things can really bring the greatest joy.

Yesterday Tucker had his 2 month visit to the Dr. and he weights 13 lbs and is 24". We do not need weights around here. When we want an arm workout we can do arm curls with him and soon we will be able to bench press him (: Ha!


So here are some updated pictures. I had to stick the Dodger one in for the proud father. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Mets fan all the way and would not get caught in anything that has to do with the Dodgers! Since I have known Brandon, the Mets have of course been the better team. He is too scared to make season bets on who the better team will be because he knows that I will win.

No milestone lessons today...if we have not learned some of the basics by now we are in TROUBLE.

Oh...he did have a diaper that weighed 7 oz's this morning and it was all Pee!!!

Enjoy!

2 months

Just Because...

Ok, so I am becoming one of those camera happy people who feels the need to capture all cute Tucker moments.

DOGS GALORE

Ok, some will ask, why all of the dogs? Well, this is what happens when mommy sits for 45 min every 2-3 hours feeding Tucker without anything to do but stare around the room and think about random things. No, I have not started watching Soaps or the Morning Talk shows (not even the Today show). However, I should start watching Ellen so I can pick up on some dance moves. They might come in handy on a rainy day when I have to find new ways to entertain Tucker!! Nonetheless, the latest result of my boredom, seeing how many stuffed dog animals we have in the house (yes a couple are my own) and then thinking what a cute picture this would be with Tucker. Presto!! As you can tell, we like dogs but do not have one YET. In retrospect, as much as we wanted one, a very wise move.

To our amazement, Tucker is growing FAST! We keep saying that we need to make a t-shirt that says "Mom's Diner, 5 star rating from Zagat's" as he is definitely gaining weight and, as a sign of a full baby, always takes a 5 min cat nap after feeding. He is one happy Patron and comes back for more.

Milestones - Tucker graces us with smiles and coo's and loves to let his eyes explore his surroundings. Of course one would think that this added activity would tire the Master out but no, quite the opposite. He can't get enough and as a result fights going to sleep, much to our dismay. I hope that he has not inherited my inability to sit still! He needs some of his dad's peaceful calm. He even had a visit from Sherri and much to our amazement, he slept!! She definitely has/had the motherly touch and he can't wait for her to come back for some more play and sleep time!



Happy April!

Click Photo for more fun Tucker Pictures

April

1 Month Old

Tucker is officially 1 Month Old TODAY! How time flies. Now he is just getting ready to watch The Masters with Mommy this week. He is just as excited as I am to listen to the music.


Lets see...milestones; what we have learned as new parents:

1. Sometimes you have to resort to midnight drives
2. If you are helping to change a diaper, NEVER stand at the end of babies feet...
3. Gripe Water works
4. No matter how bad your voice is, still sing
5. My Brest Friend is Awesome (nursing pillow)!!

Click photo for updates

1 month

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EASTER BUNNY!

Easter

Tucker wanted to wish everybody a Happy Easter!

He is looking forward to his first Easter Egg hunt next year!

Welcome Tucker

The waiting game ended on Friday March 7, 2008 at 2:38 am as Tucker Thorson was born 10 days early. He was 8 lbs and 20.6 inches and is very healthy. We are all doing very well and after 4 days in the hospital, are happy to be home and settling into our new lifestyle. Needless to say, sleep is a luxury but we are enjoying every minute of our time with Tucker.

These are some of the top 5 lessons we learned in the first few days (of course most have to do with diapers and changing):

1. ALWAYS pack at least 1 extra outfit, even when you are going home from the hospital.
2. When changing the baby, pull all clean clothing away from the bottom area.
3. Always have the wipes ready and to do not pour water over the baby when trying to wet the dry wipes (this is when you are using the nice wipes provided by the hospital).
4. When changing the baby, hold feet and hands so they do not find their way into areas that you are trying to clean up.
5. When in doubt, USE a pacifier!!!

Of course if you are sleep deprived you will always forget one of these rules so we have to add another lesson;

6. When you do not learn from #1, go home and immediately pack an extra outfit in each diaper bag!!!



Check out some early hospital and home pictures.

March