4 month checkup - Ouch!

Skyler had his 4 month check up on May 1, 2008. Here are his stats:
He weighed 15lb 7oz - 50th percentile
He was 25 3/4in long - 75th percentile

Patty was anxious to hear if we could start giving the baby food and water, b/c she wants him to try new things and she thinks it will be more fun to feed him that way.... Dr says yes! The doctor gave us information on starting solid foods and said that we can start between now and 6 months (but thinks we should wait until closer to 6 months). We are really excited about that new adventure, but there is no rush for us right now b/c bottle feeding is a lot simpler. He is just starting to really eye our food and show an interest in what we are putting in our mouth (although he shows that same interest when Jack comes over to him - so either we have a dog eater on our hands or he is just getting more involved in what is going on around him)! It is really cute! The doctor said water is a go whenever we want (as long as it doesn't supplement feedings)! Of course Patty gave him his first bottle .... at this time he isn't that interested in it.

Of course by the end of the appointment the inevitable happened ... SHOTS! He had one oral immunization and 4 shots!!! By the time the first shot went in, the pacifier was gone, the face was red and there was no noise coming out of the quivering, open mouthed lips!!! The last three shots were horrible to have to watch. He's such a good baby that by the time we had him dressed, he had already calmed down.

I think the best part of the appointment was still to come ... an inevitable fact that we were going to have to face eventually ... Skyler is an ambiguous name! When the doctor came in and Skyler was only in his diaper (which I think looks like a girl diaper - the huggies ones with minnie and mickey), he called him a girl ... that is until he opened the diaper :) Then when the nurse came in to give the shots she did the same thing!!! That is until I picked him up after the shots and called him buddy! We all had a good laugh after that. That's what I get for switching from the supreme brand with winnie the pooh to the regular brand with minnie mouse! We never had any problems before .... this is just what I am telling myself b/c I don't think we can face the hard, cold fact that he will be dealing with things like that throughout his life (at least he is getting a little practice now).

I am including a picture of his sore little legs which were taken a few days later and also a picture of him in just his diaper ... that way you can determine for yourself if it is the name or the diaper! Personally, I think that he looks like an old man so who could really make that mistake?!?!

Visit with Pops and Mimi

Pops and Mimi came for a visit and Skyler had a blast (these are Uncle Adam's parents)! Skyler had met them once before and fallen in love, so this was a welcomed reunion :) Skyler could not get enough of Pops, but we are not really sure who had more fun! We joke that Pops is the baby whisperer b/c he can certainly turn Skyler's frown :( upside down :) Mimi has such a tender heart and Skyler loved being held in her arms. This trip Skyler got a treat that I think he has become a little addicted to ... a puppy dog blanket. It is the softest thing ever and he loves to hold it and pull it to his mouth. It settles him down at bedtime and he cuddles it before he goes to sleep . . . way to go Mimi and Pops!!! We even caught a video of how much Skyler laughs when he is with Pops.

Enjoy the show ...
So I have to update you about the video ... After over 30 minutes of searching my computer, watching every video that was not labeled (there are quite a few), and then watching my computer crash twice I gave up on uploading the video for now and just put the slide show on the blog. I came back to the daunting task of finding the video earlier this evening only to realize after the same routine as previously listed that the video is on my sister's computer ... So we will have to wait patiently for her to send me the video ... Sorry :(

Tax Time

So Brendan and I thought that this would be appropriate during this season ...






Not only has Skyler been a welcomed Tax Deduction, but he has also helped us increase our tax rebate!!! Since Skyler is just like his father, I believe if he could talk he would be saying "free money!" If he were like his mother he would have said, "I just made you money!" Anyways, love the onesie I got from Aunt Bridgette as it made for the perfect tax time outfit :)

UT FAN ?!?!?

So we have some very disturbing news!!! We aren't sure that Skyler is a Gator Fan after all, you decide ...

Patty's Fiance Adam is a big time UT fan, so he is always filling Skyler's head with garbage UT chatter!!! So when Adam's father, Pops, came in town he vowed to send a UT onesie to Skyler and Brendan even promised that he would have Skyler wear it.

Well when the onesie came, we held to our promise and here is the video of what followed . . .



... When we got home (Skyler still in his UT onesie) we saw something that gives us hope that he might still be a UF fan ... He had pooped through the diaper and all over the onesie!!!! The stains of that diaper explosion are still on the onesie, never to be worn again!!!

Maybe there still is hope after all :)

GO GATORS !!!

Date Changes on Posts

I thought it was kind of weird to have a baby shower post come after the one about Skyler being born, so I have back dated all of my posts to fit he right time frames. So if you are visiting for the first time be sure to check all of the blogs from November '07 on to get info on baby Skyler :) Love, Ally

Brendan as a New Father

Check this out ... This was Brendan when Skyler was born :)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG6orPtnhdY

Skyler and his best friend Kayden :)

Skyler has a great friend, Kayden, that he spends most of his days with. Kayden was born 6 months before Skyler and is just the cutest baby, well next to Skyler!!! It is so funny to see the two of the next to each other. Right now they are so far apart from each other in their developmental stages, but in a few years there will be minimal difference! So crazy when you think about it!!! Anyways here are some pictures of them together.

More Recent Slideshow -

Older pictures of them -

Love, Ally

video of Kayden and Skyler

New Blog

Well it is now about to be my 5th wedding aniversay and I am just now getting back to blogging (better late then never right)! A lot has changed in our lives over the last few years. We have been blessed to have our family grow. On 10/31/06 we got a wonderful puppy named Jack Bauer (if you can't tell we are big time 24 fans). -

Then on December 26, 2007 we had a wonderful baby boy named Skyler Bateman Fletcher :) He is the cutest baby and we are so blessed that he is a part of our lives. Parenting is certainly challenging, but could not be more rewarding.

I have decided to try and be better at blogging so that I can have a place to document Skyler's life :) So for those of you that are visiting this blog for the first time, ignore the posts about tobacco ... I started this blog while I was in college for my Tobacco 101 class. I am excited to keep in contact with all of our other friends and family members who also blog!!! Send me ideas if you see anything I can do to make mine better b/c I am somewhat new at this :)

Love, Ally

More to come soon about baby Skyler Fletcher :)

SPORTS!

Well I think it is time to explain a little about the household in which I live. My husband is a sports FREAK! He loves to watch, play and work in the sports arena. He is currently looking for a job in sports compliance (so if anyone reading has a job for him ... let us know). When there is no college football (which is by far his favorite) he will watch anything else sports, including re-run gator games (from the days when Spurrier played!!) and I have even found him watching the little league world series.

All of this is just setting the background for a movie clip that I am going to attach, so be patient:)

When I was pregnant with Skyler we joked that he was his father cloned. I no longer wanted/could eat desserts, I craved Big Macs (eww!), Skyler's second toe was longer then his big toe (just like Brendan's) in the sonogram pictures. When we had Skyler ... nothing had changed ... He looks just like Brendan!!!

Since Skyler's birth, Skyler has hated his carseat. He screams when he is in it and let me tell you how fun car rides are with him!!! There have been many a days when I have had to pull over and cuddle him in random parking lots just to get him to calm down!!! I am sure there are some people who think I am abusing my son when they hear him screaming at the traffic light!!

So we had a unique night the other day for sure ... If nothing else it sealed the belief that Skyler is a clone of his father. I brought my son in from the car screaming and placed the carseat on the floor. Brendan was sitting in the chair watching sports on the TV at the time. I asked Brendan to take care of the baby while I went and collected Bauer from outside. When I walked back inside I found the carseat turned towards the TV and both of my boys sitting there watching a game ... the baby as peaceful as can be!!! What else can I say ... I am living in a house full of sports fanatics :)



Since the video is so dark, here are some pictures that I took too:

San Francisco Trip - 3/13/08

During Brendan's Spring Break from law school this year we decided to take a trip to San Francisco. It was a great trip and we got to see lots of friends and family members. We left for San Fran on 3/13/08 and came home on 3/19/08. The whole Fletcher Family was there, except for Tessa and her Crew as she was only days from delivering her 4th child :)

When we got to San Fran we met up with our good friends Jared and Sara who currently live in Salt Lake. We then drove from San Fran to Bear Valley and took a mini ski trip. We had a good time except for the car ride . . . again I remind you that my son does not like car rides, especially 4-5 hour car rides!!! Uncle Eric helped watch Skyler for us on one of the days so that I could ski with Brendan. The first trip we made to the slope the baby slept the whole time. But when he woke up from his nap apparently he showed Uncle Eric (and the rest of the lodge) just how well his lungs work!!! When we got back he told the story of how an older woman who worked at the ski lodge came over and bounced Skyler for him to try and calm the baby ... all the while telling Skyler "it's ok, Daddy's here," referring to Eric ... I'm not sure who was more terrified by that label, Skyler or Eric! We were so grateful for Eric's generosity and willingness to help out with the baby :)

When we got back to San Fran we got to visit Brendan's parent's church and meet a lot of neat people. We then got to tour San Francisco with his father and Jared and Sara. We had a good time and got to see the Golden Gate Bridge, China Town, Union Square, some beautiful parks and Danielle Steel's home.

After a few days in San Fran we hit the road again and traveled to Monteray Bay to visit with Uncle Ben and Aunt Kim who are stationed there for the next for months. We had a blast in Monteray!!! We got to go to the famous aquarium and Skyler loved it. He stared at the fish tanks like they were huge TV's!!! He liked it so much that we are getting a season pass for the aquarium in Tampa so that he can continue to enjoy it ... much more educational then the TV! We also played Black Light Mini Golf ... there is such a thing. Skyler hated the experience and I had to bail before the 18 holes were finished. The winner of the game was ... Brendan of course!!! We also got to play their wii while we were there ... such a cool gaming system :)

We then drove back up to San Fran to visit to Oakland Temple and have a Birthday Dinner for Brendan before we left San Fran. Brendan's parents were so wonderful and it was great to spend some time with family.

Skyler did pretty good with the plane rides, all except for the one from San Fran to LA! He cried the whole way as the plane ride was only an hour, making his ears pop the whole ride. The best flight was from Atlanta to San Fran We got a whole row to ourselves, so we could put Skyler down on the seat and he slept most of the way! On the flight from LA to Tampa a guy came to sit next to us and stated as he was sitting down "I hope you brought enough food for him b/c I was hoping to sleep during this flight b/c I have an important business meeting tomorrow!" If there were any time that I wanted my son to cry, this was the time. I thought for sure this guy had no children ... boy was I wrong, he had two young children! Anyways, Skyler decided to sleep from take off to landing ... his best airplane sleep! Lucky for that guy!!! The only problem was that I had to hold him the whole trip b/c there was no seat to lie him in. After awhile I put down the tray table and had him lie in that to give my arms a break, but I was still watching him to make sure he didn't fall. The next day was misery b/c he was wide awake and ready to play and I was dead mom walking ...

Thought I would include a slideshow with some pictures of the trip ... Enjoy :)

Patty's Disaster

So the other day Aunt Patty came to our house and stating that she was so sick to her stomach. She was supposed to be heading to the airport to get mom and pops, but she was feeling really sick. I listened to her symptoms and gave her my anti nauseau, gas, acid indigestion cocktail that I took while I was pregnant. I even gave her some of Skyler's gas drops.

She has never been able to refuse Skyler's cute face so she picked him up to play with him. If you have ever met Skyler you know that the only real way to calm him down or get him to really laugh at you is to have him jump (which makes for jello arms after awhile)!

So Patty started to have Skyler jump up and down and boy did he LIKE IT!!! He was laughing and smiling the whole time until he threw up on her ... which isn't even the best part of this story, believe it or not!!!

Here is the video of them playing together ...



The story goes on ...

Patty and Adam were having an engagement dinner with my family and his family that evening, but Patty called a few hours before and cancelled b/c she was still in pain. She talked with my father and gave her symptoms and again it didn't sound very serious so he told her to take it easy and take some gas medicine. WELL ... Around 1 am I got a text message that said that Patty was going to the hospital due to the pain that she was in and b/c she was getting dehydrated from throwing up. I got another text message later that morning stating that Patty had an Appendicitis!!!! She had it removed immediately and it almost burst upon removal!!!

So Skyler can now say that he was the last person to jump on her appendix before it came out!!!

Now you know how cute Skyler really is, b/c only the cutest baby would make someone ignore that one of the internal organs was going to burst in their stomach!!!

Love, Ally

2 month check up - Ouch!

Skyler had his two month check up on February 28, 2008. Here are his stats:
12lb 3 oz - 50th percentile
23 1/4 inches - 75th percentile

Skyler was given a good bill of health. He was on target for all of his developmental skills. Overall it was a good doctor's appointment until ... SHOTS! He had 1 oral immunization and 4 shots. He tolerated them ok, except for the initial screaming that you can't hear! Once he got home he slept for a few hours and then ... He woke up screaming. Never will I wait it out to see if he needs the Tylenol again. From now on I am going to give him the Tylenol right before he gets the shots. It was so sad to see him crying like that from a dead sleep. After I gave him the Tylenol he was fine, except for a few tears here and there over the next few days. The worst part about it was the fact that he had a nodule on his fat little thigh for about a month! I thought it would be too depressing to put up pictures of my sad little baby, and somewhat cruel for me to take pictures of him like that ... So instead I will put up pictures of him happy :)

January 2008 portraits

Skyler and I went to the photo studio with Brie and Kayden when Skyler was only a few weeks old (1/18/08). As if it weren't torture enough for him to sit through one photo shoot, I got the fabulous idea to take him the next day as well, with Grandma and Daddy. Here are the results of the fabulous photo shoot ... Thanks to the great workers at portrait innovations we got some really nice photos :) Hope you enjoy ...

New Year's Party :)

On New Year's Eve we went over to my parent's house. We had a great time as we celebrated with Aunt KatFish, Granmommy and Grandaddy. As the night went on we had New Years toast and then Aunt Patty, Uncle Adam and Uncle David called to send their best wishes for the New Year ... They were at a beach party (Skyler was just a little too young to go)! As the ball dropped we celebrated the start of a New Year with the blessing of a beautiful new life :) (I also celebrated the fact that I wasn't in the hospital having Skyler as 12/31 was his due date . . . he he!) We tried to take a family New Year's picture, but it didn't work out just like we had planned. Either Brendan was on the phone, Bauer was cut out, Someone wasn't looking, or ... Skyler made a poopy explosion! That's right, Skyler decided to hold out until the New Year to treat us with a dirty diaper ... You could hear it from across the room and you can certainly see the shock on my face in the family photo :) That just prepared me for the next few weeks where he saved all his poop for one diaper explosion at a time ... Which made for lots of clothes washing :)
Here is a slide show that documents the wonderful evening ...

Welcome Baby Skyler

Here is a slide show of Labor and Delivery . . . We had lots of friends and family that came for a visit with the beautiful baby! I will write a blog about the Labor and Delivery later.

Baby Shower's and Thanks You's

We are so blessed to have so many generous friends and family members. We had TWO baby showers for Skyler. One was hosted by my boss and great friends at work, Karen and Jenica, and the other was hosted by my awesome sister Patty and her friend/neighbor Maureen.

Karen and Jenica threw a baby shower at work on November 13, 2007. We had the shower in the lunch room and every one brought food. Karen and Jenica did a Noah's Ark theme and they even got the cake people to draw the design of the plates/napkins/cups onto the cake!!! The cake was awesome and they got the cake lady to put pineapple in the middle (since I had been craving that throughout my pregnancy)! We played guess how many candies were in the bottle and Klarimarie won the game as she had at the previous baby shower for another co-worker. I remember talking to Karen on the phone when she was counting the candies out ... very tedious work Skyler, so you can tell how much she cared about you already!!! So many of my wonderful co-workers blessed us with a so many wonderful gifts ... I thought I would be opening gifts for days :) Karen and Jenica put three balloons behind my chair and the whole time I was opening the gifts my hair would stick straight up to the balloons :) When Karen was packing up the gifts to put in my car she put all the confetti in the bags and I am still finding it in the house, 5 months later!!! Jenica and Karen did some hard work to bless me with such a wonderful shower and I can't wait for my opportunity to return to favor to them :) Here is a slide show of the baby shower :

On November 17, 2007, Patty hosted a baby shower for Skyler at our neighbor Maureen's house. The baby shower was great and so many friends and family members came :) We had a Honey Baked Ham and lots of other treats, including the awesome party favors that Patty had special made for Skyler. She went to Alessi Bakery and had them make blue cookies with his name on them. They were great and reminded me of my UF graduation cake b/c they turned every bodies mouth blue. Patty was supposed to be taking pictures of the gifts while I was opening them, but instead she got pictures of my fat, swollen feet. So I decided to include one of them in the slideshow for you :) We played don't say baby and guess how big my stomach is! Amanda won the stomach guessing exactly!!! Lauren and Lindsay found some very clever ways of getting people to loose their Don't Say Baby clips. All of Skyler's favorite non-related Aunties were there : Brie, Karen, Jenica, Mist. Skyler's real Aunties were there : Katherine and Patty. Other friends and Family included Aunt Doris, Sheryl, Amanda, and Yvonne, Anne Marie, Lauren and Lindsay, Maureen, Maggie and Rory, Diana, and Krista and Kayla!!! Kayden even came and celebrated your upcoming arrival :) I also included a slide show of this great party :

Thanks again to all of our friends and family members who were able to make it to the baby showers and to all of those who were unable to attend but sent your best wishes!! Skyler has been so blessed to be born into a world where he is loved so much already. Brendan and I are grateful for your generosity and we have loved using our baby gifts with Skyler ... so many of them have been life savers :) The Thank You's and Announcements are slowly, but surely making their way out to you so keep your eyes peeled!!!

Love to All,
Ally

Our engagement photo in April 2004!

Brendan & Allyson Fletcher