The Italian Stallion

My aunt Holly called Atticus the "Italian Stallion" once (because his middle name is Italian for Joseph) and I loved it so much!!  These pictures are not current, but here is what he looked like right when we brought him home from the hospital, until he was about one month old. 

I failed to mention in my previous post that the day before he was born my mom and I had a marathon cooking day!  We made all our favorite foods for Sunday dinner-maybe being on my feet all day the day before he came out helped put me into labor....I don't know!  But it was SO wicked!!!

Our menu:

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Salad de Maison

peasant bread

pretzel jello

zucchini casserole

cheesecake

                                            This picture of us was when he was 5 days old

             Gretel LOVES him!  She never gets enough, and kisses him every second! 
"Lemme see the baby!"  is the second most frequently uttered phrase. (the first is "let's play Tom and Jerry and the Giant!")

It was so nice having my mom here to cook tons for us, go to the grocery store, and take late shifts with the baby when he went several nights in a row being most fussy until 2:30 am.  Most of all, she was my "Laundress" which was SO helpful!  She is awesome at doing laundry, and says she really enjoys it!  It's so hard to keep up on normal laundry plus all the things that newborns are constantly "soiling!"  Go mom!

I'm glad I snapped a quick picture before his cord fell off-I think it fell off the next day.  It's always a little sad for me when this happens, because it feels like they're no longer a "newborn."

I just took some pictures of Gretel before we took her on our first outing...she spotted a snail.

                                                            After church one week...

My dad has said that he looks like his grandpa Walt, and that Atticus has a "grandpa face."  This makes me laugh whenever I think about it!  The nickname I call him the most is  "Little Man."  Now that's what Gretel calls him.   She'll yell dramatically, "Little Man's crying!"

                                    This is how Gretel gets downstairs-she loves sliding down!

I don't mind if she does it, but Johnny doesn't like her to do it.  She was worried one time when she was mid-slide and told my mom, "don't tell my daddy that I did that."  Another thing that I don't think I ever wrote down was something  she said to my mom when they were driving in the car when she was probably 2.  She was silent for a while before she sighed and said, "Mims, I wish people has tails..." in a wistful voice.  My mom loved it.  Gretel is such a character!

On Mother's Day, Johnny helped her make the cutest card for me.  I have it taped to my closet door now.  She wrote, "We love you mommy" and drew pictures of Johnny, myself, Gretel, Atticus and Gwen.  I just loved it so much!  She is really good at drawing all her letters; I'm so impressed!

On Mother's Day I was telling her that moms get to do whatever they want on this day.  She said, "Mommy, you can just watch Ellen and sleep!"  WOW!  She really does know my favorite things!!

Speaking of Ellen, while my mom was here, she and I were having a conversation about Ellen and I was  telling her about something funny on the show.  I used the word "she" at one point while referring to Ellen.  Gretel was right there and said, "I thought Ellen was a boy."  We started laughing of course, which got her so mad.  We asked her why she thought that, and she said "because she talks like a boy and wears boys' clothes."  My mom screamed which is something she does often when she thinks something is smart/entertaining, (which Gretel just hates)  and she ran out of the room crying.  She still remembers it and talks about it.  She'll say, "member how Mimi screamed and I started crying?  Isn't that sad?"

Gretel loves watching Tom and Jerry and playing lots of games on the ipad.  If I didn't limit her time on it, she'd do it all day long!  Also, I like how Atticus is almost as brown as the blanket!

I had to take one last picture of him wearing the bottoms of his "take me home suit"  because he looks just like "Frog and Toad are Friends" in them.  So high-waisted; I love it!

Cheryl's two friends made this awesome diaper cake for us!  I took a picture of both the front and back, because they'd attached so many cute things all around it!  I especially love the hat on top!!

I love when Cheryl comes to visit!  She always helps Johnny do a major overhaul on our yard.  Also, she is super organized, so she always helps me to declutter and get organized.  We gave the kitchen cabinets and pantry a makeover inside by clearing out all the platters and entertaining dishes and things I rarely use, and storing them in the garage so I have room for all the day-to-day stuff!  It was so fabulous!