Week 12 (11/4-11/11) - Rice's Homecoming

We went to Rice's homecoming game this weekend. We learned why we have never been to a Rice football game before -- let's just say it is not OSU. Below is the homecoming king, yes it was Hurricane Ike. I am not kidding. Check out the hot dude in his shades. Clint and I decided to bale the game and took Sawyer to his first bar. I promise we are good parents.

We took Sawyer to the doctor today to get his hemoglobin checked. His numbers are up! Things are looking good. He still has to take his iron supplements which means I still have to get him to eat his prune juice. UGH! He is getting so big. He isn't even three months yet and he weighed 15 lbs 14 oz. I know almost 16 lbs! He gained over 2 lbs in just 3 weeks. He is also sleeping through the night. I didn't want to jinx myself by talking about it early, but he has been sleeping through the night for about two weeks now. He goes down at 9:00, I wake him up at 5:00 am to feed him (that is when I am going to have to feed him when I go back to work), and then he sleeps until about 8:30. I moved him from his bassinet to his crib last night. He slept great, but I hardly slept at all. I had to keep checking on him. Hopefully I will get over that.

Since he is almost 3 months I thought I would post some fun moments of hanging out with the little guy:

• One day I came in to Clint screaming. Clint was changing his diaper and he pooped all over Clint, the couch, the floor, the coffee table, . . . I still don't know how it got everywhere.
• Last week I was letting him hang out naked after a diaper change (one of his favorite things to do). I had briefly turned my head but turned around to catch him peeing in his eye. Crazy.
• I was at hobby lobby the other day and I had his prune juice bottle with me. A lady stopped me to ask what I was feeding my baby. I told her. She thought it was coke. What kind of mom did she think I was, yes he has been to a bar, but he is way to young for coke.
• He smiles at everyone, but extra big for the waitresses at House of Pies.
• When I am breastfeeding him I get the evil eye until I start rubbing his head and telling him how wonderful he is. That is definitely a Clint trait.
• It seems every time I am walking out the door in a hurry he poops through his entire outfit and sometimes on mine as well.
• It is precious when he talks to us in his language of aahs.
• I love it when he sucks his thumb. Reminds me of my own childhood and early adolescents. . .

There have been many many more moments that have made me smile and laugh in the past 3 months. Actually I have smiled more in the past three months than ever before in my life. Below is another picture of my beloved boys in their matching red henleys.

Week 11 (10/28-11/3) – Halloween

Happy Halloween! Sawyer was Heidi (our dog) for his first Halloween. I modified an elephant costume to get the right effect – the giant ears. Clint, Sawyer, Heidi and I had a great time trick-or-treating on Friday night. Unfortunately with a two month old baby who was asleep the entire time it was obvious the candy was for Clint and me. We had so many kids come by (and adults too) that we had to turn out our lights early. We then enjoyed an evening roasting hot dogs over the chiminea. It was Sawyer’s first “camp fire” which was a momentous event because one of Clint’s favorite things to do is sit around a camp fire.

Week 10 (10/21-10/27) – New Truck

So we finally bit the dust and did it. We bought a new truck this week. We have been talking about it for years, like 7 years, and have known for a long time exactly what we wanted. So we brought home Negra Modelo. Yes we named her after a beer, but have been calling her NegMo or Mo for short. You may think we are crazy, but it is an Aichele tradition to name your vehicles. NegMo is a 2009 black, 4 door, 4WD, TRD, SR5, Toyota Tacoma. We are still hanging on to the old vehicles, NegMo is just to look at.

Other than the new truck, cowboy football, and our weekly Sunday drive and hike, it has been quiet around here. Sawyer is smiling and cooing more and more. It just makes a mother’s heart melt. In addition to his iron supplements we also have to give him prune juice to keep things moving. I keep telling him he has skipped about 70 years of his life. I can’t handle the stuff, be he doesn’t seem to know any better. Below are just some random photos I have taken this week.

Some other big news around here is Julie and Taylor are expecting! Mango (baby Faught) is coming the beginning on June. We are really excited especially considering Sawyer, Jackson, Savannah, and Mango will all be in the same grade at school. The beautiful couple got pictures taken this week before Julie starts showing.

Week 9 (10/14-10/20) Two month check-up

The “less hot” weather in Houston combined with the impressive OSU football season have caused Clint and I to be very nostalgic of OSU homecoming this past week. In fact we got so jealous that we bought tickets to Rice’s homecoming to try and make ourselves feel better. We went to the park on Saturday to get our minds off things. You can see Sawyer and I sporting our orange.

Monday was Heidi’s two year adoption birthday. I can’t believe we have had her two whole years. Our lives have gotten a lot more complicated since then. I realized that Cesar Milan would be very disappointed with our dog rearing. His motto is exercise, discipline, love. Our motto is love, love, love. But I guess that explains her behavior. For her birthday she got a can of Alpo with a candle in it. She was in puppy heaven.

On Monday we also took Sawyer to his two month check-up. He weighed 13lbs 12 oz and was 24 inches long! He was in the 25 percentile at two weeks, he is now in the 90 percentile. I don’t know what that boy is eating – oh wait, he eats what I eat. But on a more somber note, they retested his hemoglobin and it was very very low. Our doctor put him on iron and they are going to recheck it in a month. If it doesn’t improve this could be a serious situation, so please keep the little guy in your prayers. You can see him smiling at me, but remember no picture is flattering at this angle.

Week 8 - Pumpkin Patch (10/7-10/13)

Life is a lot different as new parents, like your hobbies change. As most of you know, Clint and I have always been way into food. This is just getting to be a bigger problem. We went to brunch on Saturday then went in search of Houston’s best donut. After trying a few, we found a delicious old fashioned donut. On Sunday we both had an insatiable craving for a Dairy Queen Blizzard. We started out in a nicer part of town, but eventually had the epiphany that some might consider DQ lower class. We decided to drive into “the hood” and wah-lah. So yes we drove around until we got a blizzard. Now it appears that I am blowing my diet, but surprisingly I have still been able to stick with it.

We also went to a harvest carnival/pumpkin patch to get some fall pictures with my friend Kelli and her little man Karsten. It was very very hot and Sawyer was super grumpy so it made things a little challenging, but we got a few cute pics.

It seems like going to pumpkin patches was popular this weekend. Below are my niece and nephews at a pumpkin patch. Unfortunately Sawyer does not have Aunt Dana to plan his wardrobe.
I am also trying to make bath time a happy time in our nightly routine. Sawyer is starting to enjoy his bath more and more. Aren’t his little thighs cute!

One last thing -- GO COWBOYS!!!

Sawyer's Best Friends

A lot of babies were born this month in my family. My oldest and closest friend, Amy Mann (we were raised like we were family) had Savannah Grace on September 8th.

My sister Dana had Jackson David on September 19th.

From now on the holidays are going to be absolutely wild!

Week 7 (9/30-10/6) - First Hike

Sawyer is 6 weeks old! This also means I get to start working out again! Since I am cutting back on hours I had to let my gym membership go, so instead I went to Ross’s and bought all kinds of workout videos. I have been having a lot of fun trying new things like tai-bo, kickboxing, and belly dancing. I am just missing Richard Simmons.

All along I have felt Sawyer is a little bitty thing, I guess because he was born so early. This week he got to meet two of his friends who are 9 weeks and 10 weeks. Sawyer was bigger than both of them! He looks fat compared to the other babies. So his newest nickname is “Chunk”, which works out ok because Clint wanted to name him “Chuck” went I shot down “Buck”.

Sawyer (6 weeks) and Karsten Poppenhagen (9 weeks)

Sawyer (6 weeks) and Kaden Beene (10 weeks)


On Sunday we went on a little back roads drive and did some hiking. This was Sawyer’s first hike and he did great. Clint and I also enjoyed getting out of the city for the day.