FFF (early): Belly Button

Well hello again!  Sorry all of you blog readers have been slightly famished for the past few weeks!!  We've been busy with life, and I haven't had many spare moments to sit and write.  :(   But, I did snag a few cute naked-baby pics last week that I've been dying to share, so here's a quick post just for their cuteness...

I should also note that, as the title of this post indicates, one certain belly button is the focus of the photos.  You see, although Enoch has been able to identify his belly for months now, I think he just realized a few weeks ago that he has this unusual hole in the center of it.  ;)  ... maybe this is because his tummy is so round that he can't really see the bottom side of it unless he searches (see below)... 

Anyway, now that he has found his belly button, he is slightly obsessed with it (this could be an understatement).  He is always pulling up his shirt to find it (just to be sure it's still there), and once it's found, he just loves sticking his finger in it... 

Sometimes two fingers even find their way inside that cute little button..

It's pretty adorable/hilarious.  ;)  As you can imagine (with this happening all day), his shirt is never pulled down anymore!   (And as a side note, we were already having enough issues as it is with keeping his shirt pulled down because his tummy is just so round these days... so before his shirt was down maybe 30-50% of the time... Now it's more like 10-15% of the time.  haha!  But at least it's warm down here all year, so it's really not that bad if he shows off his tummy all day, everyday.)  ;)

Back to you guys being famished, I do have a few videos to upload and more updates on little guy, so check back later (hopefully it'll only take me a few days, not weeks to get them on here!!), and thanks for all the patience!!   And here's just one more cute one for all of those grandparents who are missing their chubby big boy love.

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FFF: Snow in Mississippi

Just a quick FFF post to showcase the Mississippi snow we received yesterday..  I know, crazy!  We probably ended up receiving 2-4" on Thursday morning (and it just kept coming down, much longer than expected), but by Thursday afternoon, the Mississippi sun had melted most of it away.  The roads never got bad, but everyone's yards were so pretty.  That's just the way this little southern girl likes her snow.. here for a while, gone by the afternoon, and never an inconvenience.  :)

Enoch and I went out to play in it around 8 am while it was still coming down pretty heavy, but he wasn't a huge fan, so we didn't stay too long.  Here are some photos I took though:

Barking at the dogs across the street (have I mentioned yet that he kind of likes dogs??)

Sitting in the snow

Our back deck, covered!

This poor little guy wasn't sure what to do with all the white powder...

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Teething Molars

Enoch is working in 3 molars right now, which will make 4 molars total and 12 teeth filling up that sweet smile.  With these back teeth, he really doesn't like teething toys though.  Instead, he usually goes for chewing on his hand or munching on some Cheerios for relief...  although I'm pretty sure the Cheerios are just a good distraction.  ;)

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FFF: Our World Lately

Just a quick post to say that we are still alive and kicking... even if we are kicking a little slower than usual!  {I started typing this post on Monday and am just now finishing it...}  

Hugh was gone for a few days last week, and Enoch and I were so happy to bring him home from the airport!  

Can you tell how excited Enoch was to see Hugh at the airport?  And yes, their shirts do match.  ;)

In other news, we are in the midst of unpacking the never-ending stack of boxes at our new house.  Hugh has begun teaching his Spring semester class already, and has been such a big handyman around the house (more on that later)!  Little guy is doing well and is loving all of the dogs in our new neighborhood (anytime he hears one barking, he stops what he is doing -even if he's nursing- and says "woof woof".. which is pretty cute!).   He's also been being a big helper with all of the unpacking/cleaning/shopping I've been doing lately, which is a huge blessing to mommy!   :)

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Baby #2 Gender Announcement!!

We are so excited to announce that we now know the gender of our next small bundle of joy!  Our ultrasound went well today (although we weren't able to discuss the results with a doctor yet), and the sonographer was pretty confident that she saw no signs of boy...  which means that...

we are having a baby girl!!!

And we couldn't be more excited!  (Well, I guess Enoch could have been more excited in this photo, but bless his heart it was late in the day and he was hungry for dinner...)

We haven't picked out a name for little miss yet, but we intend to do so as quickly as possible, and when we do I'll be sure to share that too! 

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FFF: Kisses at Dinner

Well, as predicted, we've been really busy this week with packing & preparing our new home to move into!  And to be honest, I had nothing for the FFF post this week... until dinner time.  :)  BUT Enoch must have known that the FFF post was lacking because after dinner tonight he totally had a video-worthy moment...

After we had said "all done" and cleaned off his hands and face, he was in the best mood.  Out of the blue, he looked over at Hugh, puckered his lips (which he's never done before), and made his kissing sound ("mmm..") like he was just waiting for Hugh to give him a kiss. (This is what we do to him sometimes, so I think it's hilarious that he picked it up and started doing it to us!!)  And then he did it to me.  And then he repeated about 20 times.  It was precious!  So, of course, I caught a few seconds of it on camera and thought I'd share.  Hope you guys enjoy!

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FFF: A Few Firsts

Well, this has been a big week for our small family!  Let me tell you the 3 things that were firsts for us:

First up on the "firsts" list from this week... WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!   I haven't posted anything on here during the month-long process of buying because there were a few long shots and hurdles that we had to come through before we could close on this house.  I hope to do a detailed post at some point about the process of buying this for sale by owner home as well as some details about the home itself.  For now, I'll sum it up by saying we love this house because: it has enough space for our family to grow into (4 bedrooms, 2 baths); it is close to campus; and it will allow us to "host" international students because of the layout (this has been a goal of ours for a few years now).  However, before we can move in, we need to clean, paint, repair, and probably clean some more.  :)  So, I am going to go ahead and just say that for the next 2 weeks or so, blog posts will probably be sparse.  Sorry!  I'm going to try and keep up with the FFF posts and the Reading Together posts for sure because they're both so fun, but if they show up a day late or are really short... you'll know why.

The second "first" for us this week was Enoch taking his first independent steps!  Hugh has been practicing standing and walking with him every evening (and usually every morning too) for the past few weeks, and it has really given Enoch the help he needed in figuring out how to coordinate his feet. At this point, Enoch can take 5-6 steps toward Hugh, but he still falls a lot, and he doesn't have very much incentive/confidence to do it on his own when Hugh's not practicing with him.   It's also really hard to get it on video because he think falling toward Hugh is a game, and so he'll fall 3 times for every 1 time he'll walk.  So, this video is from a few nights ago when he was just learning how to coordinate 2-3 steps at a time (I didn't get a video of the 6 steps he took from tonight).

And the third "first" from this week is also in the video below... Enoch has officially said his first word (with an attached meaning) - "Dada."  He says it non-stop when Hugh gets home from work in the evening, and if Hugh doesn't immediately pick him up and carry him everywhere he goes until dinner time, Enoch pouts...  It's pretty cute.  :)

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