Race Day

I ran the Lady Track Shack 5K this morning, and clocked in at 23:56, my second best time in this distance. I was pretty darn happy with my time because I started very far back (had to dodge people the first half mile) and I didn't have my ipod :-( Britt, Justin, Adam, and Cole came out to cheer me on, and of course all four got lots of attention from all of the ladies there, haha! No pics today, but hopefully some of Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow...

To celebrate, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I rewarded myself with pancakes and bacon, while Justin and Adam stuck to the egg beaters and turkey sausage. Britt and Cole celebrated too by sharing my pancakes, which (of course) were a big hit.

By the way, I wanted to note (since this is really the only place I write things down) that Britt is eating "baby food" for only one meal a day now. He's become much less picky when he feeds himself finger food, so that's what we're going with for now usually for lunch and dinner. He eats American cheese, whole wheat bagels, organic yogurt, potatoes, avocado, rice, tomatoes (diced from Chipotle are his favorite), turkey sausage, and he has a new love of carrots as of Thursday. I also started putting milk (bm that is) in his sippy cup this week, so he can really get used to it. He's been a pro at the sippy cup (with water) for a while, but I really would like to transition to whole milk in a cup and get rid of the bottle at one year. Since he only has a few bottles a week, I don't think this should be too big of a hassle. We'll see when the time comes!

Multi-Tasking

Here's Britt standing up and putting Dad's hat on and then trying to make a quick getaway!

FYI - The videos have had some trouble working lately through blogger, try again later if you can't view it now.

Double Digits!

Britt is 10 months old today. He celebrated by waking up twice in the middle of the night, eating some banana yogurt this morning, and is now taking the world's best morning nap (we're at 2 hours and counting), which means I'm super productive, if you count 1.5 hrs of work and playing around on the internet productivity.

We had a good visit with the Marshall clan yesterday, and Britt showed off his new found love of standing up without holding on to anything. He's not really taking any steps yet, but he can balance enough to give himself a round of applause. I think he'll be walking by the end of the week if I had to guess, but I've learned that this boy does what he wants when he wants!

Here's a few recent pics : one of him with his fraternity boy look and one of him checking his email on his blackberry in his "Pleasure Happy Smile" sweatshirt from Aunt Court and Uncle Keith in Japan. HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY UNCLE KEITH!!!



And he's awake...

From High To Low

We went quickly from a new high (new favorite food) to a new low (first fever) in a matter of about 12 hours (check out the video, he gives a big thumbs up). Britt is definitely taking after his dad's love of mac & cheese. Seeing how Justin is on his P90X kick, though, this was torture for him to sit and watch Britt love on it, haha! I got a kick out of this...



Britt slept from 8pm to 6am (yay!) on Tuesday night with just a little middle-of-the-night whining, but I quickly learned he was sick Wednesday morning when I went into feed him. He was burning up... we had our first official fever on our hands. We got him in to see the Ped without a problem, as I just wanted some reassurance that his ears and throat looked okay, which they did. This is just a seasonal viral thing that should pass quickly. After lots of snuggling on the couch and a decent night of sleep (although we were up for good at 5:15am), he seems to be feeling pretty much back to normal. I got him to eat a little for lunch and he's now down for a nap, so we're on the right track!

Also, his new favorite thing to do to get our attention is to "spit", which I managed to capture below. I'm starting to realize how much I love taking videos of him in the high chair...I promise he has lots of other funny moments, these just seem to be the easiest to get on video.



It's been a pretty calm week otherwise. Justin's Phoenix trip got canceled, so he worked from home Tuesday and Wednesday...yay! He ran a the Season's 52 race in Winter Park last Saturday and had a pretty good time (23:49 5k split, 24:34 5.2k finish time). He's on week #4 of p90X, and I'm on week 4 of hiding chocolate and bagels wherever I can. Here is the video below, Britt and I are the cheerleaders at the finish line. Adam comes in at about 1:20 into the video, and Justin comes in shortly after that. Britt was giving all of the ladies at the finish line quite a laugh with his cheering ability.

Britt at 9 Months

Britt has his 9 month check up last week, and he's doing great:

Height - 27 1/4 in - bottom 25th percentile
Weight - 19 lbs, 8 oz - 25th to 50th percentile

He walked with a walker at 8 months, which seems to be pretty early. He can stand on his own, but the confidence isn't there yet to do so for longer than a few seconds. All of his motor and verbal skills are developing, and he's got quite a personality. He's wearing 9 month clothing and is thoroughly enjoying all of his new Christmas toys.

He's also been doing much better as far as his stomach issues were going, no throwing up since the week after Thanksgiving....yay for that!

We're moving through baby food, of which he has gotten really picky, so I'm starting to give him yogurt (jury's still out on that one) and finger foods for dinner. He loves wheat bagels, american cheese, avocado, and water in his sippy cup. We're still on cereal for breakfast and usually fruit and baby puffs for lunch. All meals are quite interesting, I think he knows the bigger mess he makes, the more likely he is going to get a bath, which is his favorite thing to do. He would take three baths a day if he could! Also, I'm still nursing him a few times a day and (ugh!) at least once, usually twice a night. We just got through a really good week, though. He slept all night one night and then had a three night stretch of only being up once.

The house has been baby-proofed, and we've only had a few tumbles and boo-boos and one scare when he, out of nowhere, decided that he could climb the steps (thank goodness Justin was standing right there). Keeping up with a very active nine month old and trying to work from home is definitely one the the most challenging things I've ever attempted. Luckily, Justin's travel schedule has been minimal lately, so we have lots of family time. We try to take walks almost every day (one of the perks of living in Florida in January) and get some play time in after dinner.

Here's a video (especially for Aunt Courtney and Uncle Keith) of his latest favorite pastime - rearranging the pantry. I quickly learned to move the questionable stuff up a shelf when I found him trying to eat Tostitos the other night :-)

Five Min Summary of the last 3 Weeks...

Ok, so I have two resolutions for the new year : to floss (I'm an excellent brusher but have always lacked the passion for flossing) and to post more frequently to the blog. I realize that many of you keep up with us through this thing, so I PROMISE to do a better job. I think half the problem is that I always want to upload a video, and they take forever, so I usually end up giving up and not posting!

So here's what went on over the last three weeks :

1. First Christmas in our house : Now that we've officially been in the house for THREE Christmases, we decided that having a child would be a grounding factor, and that we would go full force with a tree, stocking, and decorations...the whole shebang. After realizing how much moola one can drop on decorations, I've decided to add a few things per year instead of everything at once. So, this year we went with a new tablescape (like the choice of vocab?) and family stockings. Both turned out great, and I'm hoping the place I ordered the stockings from keeps them around for a few more years for when baby #2 comes (let's not get ahead of ourselves though, as I can barely keep my head screwed on with one at the moment).

I now realize why Christmas morning takes FOREVER when you have kids. We had to take a break after only a few gifts so that the B Man could re-focus. He got a wagon from ZZ and Big Daddy, and he's absolutely in love it with. Good thing we held off on furniture for the front room because it's now become his playground with that thing (we just took a 20 min ride doing circles around and around so that I could make a work call). He also uses it as his "fort" to throw all of his toys into. I got a Flip from Justin that I'm in love with, and Justin got a Titans jersey (along with a matching one for Britt). Of course we had to go with #18 Kenny Britt, so they could both sport that sweet name on their backs! We got some priceless pics and videos of present-opening.




2. Britt got baptized : This is obviously more important than just a bullet point on our blog, and we were excited that our families could be here (minus Big Daddy and Zac due to horrific work schedules). The week of Christmas, we met with our Associate Pastor (who happens to share the name Britt), and we talked through the importance of such and even and how the day would go. Britt fully cooperated, everyone had a great time, and it gave us yet another excuse to eat more than necessary. He wore a cute white "salorish" outfit and had my white baby blanket that my mom had saved. I'm very happy that we have found such a great church to become members of this year, First Methodist Orlando. They offer so many wonderful things that I'm hoping to get involved in, some church related and some parent/child related. It was a very special day!




3. We rang in 2010 in a very relaxed style : We had just the Foxworthys and Eric Sharp over for a day of football and BBQ. I, of course, was asleep on the den floor at 11:30, but I woke up in for about 30 seconds to ring in the new year. These nights of two feedings are really doing me in right now, so I'm lucky I even made it that late, haha! I'm sure part of it was the fact that the Volunteers gave us a poor showing in the Peach Bowl. Guess they took some bad advice from GT after last year's showing. UT, GT, and bowl games just are NOT a good mix these days. We're left with a hole in our hearts for the next nine months....



We're now back into the swing of things for the new year, Justin is on his new diet (P90X), and I'm attempting to clean out the pantry by eating every last darn twizzler, cookie, M&M and cookie I can find. I expect to be done this coming week and then move onto the weird things Courtney and Keith sent us from Japan :-)

Hope y'all had as fantastic of a close to 2009 and opening of 2010 as the Marshall clan did!

On The Move

Sunday was quite a big day in Marshall house. Britt got a new walker to practice, as we had noticed he was getting a little frustrated not having something to push around. There's only so much entertainment the couch can provide, he really looked like he wanted to be more mobile. The Foxworthy's had this exact walker, and Britt seemed to like it at their house, so we picked one up today at Target. It took only one or two tries to get him going all the way across our big front room. He's even getting better at turning it to move around the furniture in the den. I can't believe how fast he's picking up new things!

First Trip to the Park

We walked up to the park in the neighborhood yesterday to give it a try, and it was a success! Of course, an 8 month old's attention span lasts less than 5 minutes, but we tried out the swing and the slides. Britt seemed to like them, or at least he didn't hate them. We've noticed he is very observant in new surroundings, he just likes to take it all in.

I think we'll be back for more!

New Function for Suction Bulb

This video is from late October (a football Saturday) when we discovered a much better use for the suction bulb. It's now a great bath toy too!

I Survived a Japanese Game Show

Thank you Aunt Court for providing many hours of entertainment! FYI, this is supposed to be a cat toy, but as you can see, Macey is far from amused. Britt's "new trick" is to give his toys "kisses" too!

Clap, Clap, Clap

Britt's latest accomplishment, he loves to give himself a round of applause!

Balloon Time Fun

Here's a video of the funniest thing I've seen in quite a while. Britt has taken his bouncer entertainment to a whole new level. Who knew that a balloon would be the best birthday gift ever??!!

Da da!

6 Month Checkup

Britt had his 6 month old check up at the end of last week (I know, I'm behind again on posting!), and he's doing great. He's 17lbs 2oz and 25 1/2 inches long. That officially makes the gap between weight (50th percentile) and height (20th percentile) even larger. I guess those Marshall genes are going to kick in later, but for right now he's dealing with the Burger curse! He finished up the last dose of the major vaccines, and they made him very grumpy for a day or two, but he was back to normal fairly quickly.

The ped said it's excellent that he's scooting and sitting very independently. In fact, the scoot looks very similar to a combat crawl (Uncle Keith would be proud!) with a breaststroke kick (Aunt Ash would be proud!), and he can get himself across our big front room very quickly, especially when Macey is involved in the chase. As of today he can get back into a sitting position from his hands and knees. I predict he'll be full-on crawling next week and playing golf by next month.

Above is a pic from Atlanta. He was wedding dress shopping (like a champ!) but also supporting his Vols and making many girlfriends.

Britton Loves Millie!

It isn't the right time for us to get a dog anytime soon, but Britton has really found himself a good friend in Atlanta. Here he is with Millie at Ashley's house.

Happy Half Birthday!

I'm a day late posting, but I can't believe Britt is 6 months old. He's sitting very easily now (it started around the second week of September), and he's very close to crawling too. He can get up on all fours but does not quite know what to do from there. He can really scoot himself all over the place now, it's amazing how far he can get in just a short amount of time. He's also eating like a big boy (green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, bananas and peaches), and he loves his sippy cup!

We've been doing a lot lately...GT football game, wedding shopping with Ashley, playing frisbee with Millie (the Atlanta weather is amazing!), and seeing lots of friends. We just had a great dinner tonight with Ashley W, Jenny, and Laura, and Britt turned on his charm for the ladies. He just can't resist a pretty face!

I have quite a few videos to post but have had a hard time getting them to upload without errors. Check back soon, I won't let a month get away from me again without a post.

I'm 5 Months Old!

I can't believe how fast these months are flying by! Britt is 5 months old today and well on his way to genius. He was 15 lbs, 9 oz last Wednesday at the doctor, so we know the boy can eat! We're looking forward to kicking off college football season this week, it's long overdue (and I can finally enjoy a good bloody mary this year). Now the only problem is that the Jackets and Vols play at the same time, so we'll need to flip a coin to see which team colors he'll sport first. The good (or bad) news is, I'm sure he'll have pooped his way out of outfit #1 by halftime, so we can make the switch to the other team colors. Watch out world, another Jacket (or Vol) is ready to go!

Bouncy, Bouncy!

Britton is finally getting the hang of his bouncy seat after a few weeks. He's finally tall/heavy enough for both feet to touch the ground, and both he and I have realized this thing could be seriously entertaining for quite some time. I'm sure when he learns that he can spin himself around in it, the entertainment (and my sanity!) will be even more prolonged! Here's a funny video from last night.

PS-He's also responding to his name most of the time now, which is really exciting!

Over the River...

We are back from a very successful trip to Vermont and upstate New York . Britton was awesome on the plane, which was a huge relief. We were in Battleboro, VT for two days for a work trip, which was my first time in the Green State. We drove into Saratoga Springs for a night, which is probably my favorite place north of the Mason Dixon line! We hit the tracks for the races and placed a few (losing) bets and ate some fried dough. From there, we headed into St. J'ville for a few days at Uncle John's house and to spend some time with Justin's grandmother. I always love that place because it runs at such a different pace than Orlando, which is a nice break for both Justin and I. We drove up to Old Forge for a night with friends, which was a great time as well. Unfortunately the weather didn't really cooperate to go on the lake, but we had a great time anyways. All together, it was a great trip, and very encouraging for future travel with the Man.

4 Months Old!

Britton turned 4 months old on Saturday, and it's been an eventful weekend. Friday was his checkup, and he weighed 14 lbs, 7 oz (40th percentile) and was 24 in long (30th percentile). He didn't cry much at all when he got his shots, but it's made him pretty cranky all weekend.
The doctor gave us the okay to start cereal as well, so we tried that today for the first time. I thought for sure he'd love it, but it was a bit of a challenge! I think he got about 3 swallows down, most of it just came right back out and ended up smeared all over him. I don't know if he didn't like the taste, or it's just a little too much to handle all together, but we're going to keep trying each evening. I've posted a video, and one more to come soon!