3 Months old - Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving our Noah was 3 months old and he got to have turkey, gravy, pie and all the trimmings ;-)



He has settled in some kind of routine now and is getting very predictable. The biggest advantage of this is that he cries a lot less and is a very happy baby. He is playing a lot and smiling all day.



Look at that cheeky smile!

Bath time is still one of his favourites and mommy and daddy have found a trick to make it even more enjoyable .... warm up the towel. If they figure out how to get him dressed without crying after drying off it would be perfect. Seems like he's just too happy to be naked. Even when he needs a change of clothes during the day because if a "little accident", he is very happily getting undressed and looks almost confused when we dress him again.


Hmmm, warm towel....

As it is Sunday today and the Dolphins a playing at home, he got ready for the game. There's also a hat, but that is still a little too big for him.



GO FINS!!

New ways to play

On the weekends, Noah gets lots of attention. He is pampered by his grandparents and visitors. At their home he has a nice little swing he hangs out in while the adults enjoy breakfast.

Now that he can hold his head up well, we started to place him on the Bumbo. He loves it! First time he sat on it he opened a big smile. This new "toy" has certaintly helped daddy as Noah sits on it and plays while Michael does needed things around the home during the day.

2 Months old

Looks like we are only giving monthly updates, sorry about that, but there's not much time for this especially when the German grandparents are here too.

So what happened in the last 4 weeks?

Noah went out a lot more. Luckily it was a bit cooler in the past weeks, so he ventured out into the wild Miami. Not only did he go to the park near home, but even made it to Lincoln Road on SoBe. Mommy wanted sushi, the grandparents were tired of the same old surroundings and the park and daddy quite fancied a bit of sunshine and fresh air himself.



Noah needs to read.



Also we spent a couple of days in Boca Raton again. There we found a big nest for a little man.



"Did you eat my lunch?!"



Somebody thought it was fun to have a bath

1 month old

Already 1 month old. They grow up so fast ;-)

What a month it has been - Tired? Sleepless? Stressed? A little bit of all the above, I guess. But that's expected and we are not complaining at all.

Thanks to everybody who came to visit and check in on us. We don't get out very much at the moment and don't want to lose the "grow-up-voice", since all day it's baby-babble at home.

Daddy clowning around Noah not impressed


Falling asleep after burping on Mummy

After a bath

Who's a handsome man????


So, what has little Noah been up to?
Well, he's been on a road trip to his grandparents in Boca. But don't ask him about the drive, he was sleeping door to door all the way. He liked it there a lot, there were more friendly faces to play with, more hands to fuzz about him and more helpers to change him.
Also he made his way to the supermarket once already. He needed more diapers and other baby things.
Next, we are waiting for the grandparents from Germany to arrive. They are up north at the moment and will get here on Thursday Oct 1. Then we'll have all new adventures to experience.

Noah's going home

On Saturday Rosie and Noah were cleared to go home, i.e. both were able to pee and poop ;-)

Getting all papers ready, signing important documents and strapping Noah in his car seat was all that was left do do.



Just like his mum, Noah seems to fall asleep easily in the car and is not bothered by noise and movement.

Noah's first days

Right from the beginning he was loved by many.

Rosie's parents stayed all day in the hospital with us and friends visited only hours after he was born.


(Pictures stolen from "auntie Ying's" facebook)


We even managed to set up a video call to his German grand parents, who were also very happy to see their American grand son.

Over the next couple of days more and more friends dropped in to meet Noah and we tried to make them pose with him...

Noah Sebastian

Born August 26 2009 at 9am. Weighing in at 3660g and 20 inches tall.

In the end he came out in a hurry ... The c-section was scheduled for 10.40am, but was pushed forward to 8am, when the other mum-to-be, who had that spot, didn't show up. I guess she wasn't ready ;-)
Because of the re-scheduled time I almost missed it, since I went back home to pick up the grand parents, after dropping off Rosie at the hospital at 6am. Just before 8am she called to hurry us up - she was going into the OR. So I raced over by myself again, made it to the waiting area, sat down for a couple of minutes, and was called in too.
The doctor was just waiting for me to sit down, so he could start. 15 minutes later we heard our baby boy cry for the first time and he was taken to be cleaned up, checked, weighted and wrapped up. This is the first glimpse we got of him.


Just minutes later, the doctor was still working on Rosie to close the incision, the nurse placed Noah on her chest. With tears in the eyes we could hold him for the first time. He was just perfect: ten toes, ten fingers and everything else accounted for. For good measure he also came with a generous amount of dark hair.

Another step towards "Home sweet Home"

Closets! Walk-in-closets to be more precise.
Since there was only one row of hanging shelves in all the closets, Rosie wanted better use of the space and of course needed a special rack for her shoes. After measuring our closets, off to the Container store we went. With the help of a clever little software and a "closet designer" (who might need to come out of his own closet), we created different layouts specifically for each closet. A basic design for baby's closet, a space saving design for the guest closet and a little more sophisticated for our master closet.
I was initially thinking to do the installation myself, but then I saw all the little pieces and decided to leave it to the professionals. Turns out that this was really the way to go. It took the guy almost 5 hours to install the 3 closets. Can you imagine how much time and aggravation this saved me? Priceless! And even better when the installation was 50% off.
So here we go.

Guest closet


Baby closet


Master closet

Ray of Hope, Hidden Sea Glass, Summer Dragonfly

Can you guess what these are? Here's a hint.



These were the colours (yes, correct spelling) we used to give our new home a fresh new look. the baby room is glowing in a beautiful yellow (Ray of Hope) that radiated into the hall, when the sun came through the window, and has a split accent wall with yellow at bottom and blue (Summer Dragonfly) at the top half. In the master bedroom we only painted a blue accent wall behind the bed. In the office/guest bedroom the change is immediately noticeable, but the Hidden Sea Glass (green) is very subtle. So much so, that we were guessing if we painted all walls and corners.
Our thanks go out to Chad and Ying who came and helped painting as well as Rinaldo who fixed lights in the entrance hall and kitchen.

First, and well deserved beer, on the balcony after a hard day's work.

Quantum - New apartment - Pictures

Yesterday we went to the new apartment to take measurement for blinds etc. and make a list of things to do before moving in. As promised I took the chance to snap a few pictures

Quantum - New apartment

Have a look. I am sure you all like it.

A Quantum of Solace?

What does that mean anyway?
007 would like the location for his adventures and "adventures". But we are just going to life there.
Today was the closing and all went smoothly, which is a bit of a surprise, because it's the first time there were no issues. A couple of offices to visit, a few documents to read, a few more to sign - Thank you very much. Here's your key.
After 2 year we will say good-bye to our first little place and move to a bigger apartment with room for the baby. (Remember? Baby shower invitations have gone out and due date is Sept. 3)
Unfortunately Rosie's last week of vacations just passed and so I (together with Rinaldo) will be schlepping the furniture, boxes etc. to the moving truck. Help will most likely come from Sancho and Panza (or whatever there names might be - George, Paco, Julio...).
Before we can move, though, there will be a few things to do in the apartment: paint, lights, window dressings (a fancy word for blinds I have learned) and so on. We have enough time for this and won't get rushed. The moving date is not yet fixed, but I plan with the last week in June.

Photos of the apartment will follow soon, so stay tuned!!

A new home

Some of you might have heard that we are expecting a little bundle of joy in September. This means, that our current 2 bedroom apartment will get a little cramped. So a while back we started looking for something bigger - a house, a condo, anything with 3 bedrooms and enough space.
We looked at many different styles in several neighbourhood (yes, that's how you spell it), but couldn't find "the one". Enter Rinaldo. After making back some of the money lost in the market he decided to look into buying a condo in Miami. Something they might "downsize" to later and we would rent now. So a whole new round of viewings started and Miami has some spectacular condominiums to look at. Quite breathtaking.

After long deliberation we narrowed it down to 3:

1. Quantum on the Bay - www.quantumcondos.com
2. Brickell on the River - www.brickellontheriver.com
3. The Cité Condo - www.citemiami.org

All have their pros and cons - price, size, location, parking etc. What would you do? Have a look at the apartments and floor plans and let us know.

Without a doubt!

For all you who didn't believe it's a boy .... there could be no better prove.



With Rosie's belly growing every day we are counting down the weeks now.

The baby belly is out

Since Rosie put her belly up on facebook, I thought I could steal the picture and post it here too.

Here you go ... as requested ... by popular demand ... and without further ado .... I bring you ... the BELLY!



22nd week, so there is still quite a lot of growing expected. Stay tuned.

Something completely different

The Jersey Boys!
Trying to make to most of our last months of freedom (and full nights of sleep), we went to see a musical. Our friend Ying, who seems to be an avid fan, steered us towards Ft. Lauderdale and the Jersey Boys.
Totally unaware about the history and music of the Jersey Boys, we were quite surprised to know a lot of the songs. Who does not remember the chorus to "Walk like a man" or "Big girls don't cry"? On a few occasions I had to remind our friend, that this was not a sing-along show and with performances of "Bye bye baby" and the "Can't take my eyes off you" the audience clapped, sang and even danced (probably alcohol fueled).
A very enjoyable 2 and a half hours of music, laughther and little known facts later, we had had a nice time.
I hope we can have similar outings in the future, as Miami has more to offer than just SoBe and sunshine.

Guessing is over - It's a BOY!

And about 50% of you were right...... ;-0

Today's ultra sound proved it. Well kind of. You be the judge. I can't see "the little difference", he obviously doesn't take after his dad.

Now the dilemma is still the name. We sort of decided on a girl's name, but are still unsure about a boy's.




The rest of the story is easily told. All is fine. The measured the head, arms, legs and stomach and we listened to the little racing heard - 140bpm.

So next time we see the little bugger, it will be in person. Maybe he can tell us his name then....