Wow...it's been a really long time since I've updated the blog, hasn't it? In my defense, I've been very busy. I'm back at work and trying to balance motherhood with finishing my degree (yes, Patrick, one day I will graduate. One day.) Its been a pretty smooth transition back to work. I think that has been the biggest surprise. But it hasn't left time for much else, including the blog. I will try to post more frequently, but I make no promises.

Peyton goes to Mrs. Lauren's everyday and she takes very good care of him. Knowing that has made things a lot easier. I knew Lauren's husband, Chad, at LSU. We were biochemistry majors together. One day we actually realized that we were related, sort of. Chad's grandmother's sister is my grandmother's sister-in-law. We had lost touch after graduation but one day a few years ago, I looked up on the shuttle bus to school one day and saw Chad and we've kept in touch ever since. He's now a post-doc here at UNC. His wife, Lauren, worked at a daycare. They had a baby last September but Lauren initially went back to work and took Amelia with her. After some campaigning on our part, Lauren decided to stay home with Amelia and watch children in her home. So right now, its just Peyton and Amelia. Camden, the child of another grad student at UNC, will start at Mrs. Lauren's in another week. Lauren has lots of toys and games that the babies get to play with and she works on their motor skills and development. Peyton is already rolling over! I think he has a great time at her house.

At the end of each week, Lauren posts pictures of Peyton playing throughout the week and sends a journal home with a description of everything that Peyton has done that week and what he thinks about it all. (He dictates and she writes it down for him, obviously he can't write yet) Its been great to have such a personal touch to his daycare experience.
Here are pictures from last week:
August 1st pictures

I've taken a few pictures recently, too, and posted them on picasa. I think the ones posted on July 26th and August 6th are the ones that I hadn't posted on here previously. My mom, sister, and grandmother were all visiting recently, so a few pictures from their visit are there. Just in case anyone is interested in printing their own copies pf some pictures, you can order prints through Walgreens by choosing "Order prints" while viewing the album then choose walgreens as the printer.

Patrick has taken some really nice, professional quality pictures (like the one above) too, so when he finishes editing them, I'll post a link to those as well.

We went for Peyton's 4 month checkup yesterday. Other than a minor cold, he is doing really well. He weighs 19lbs, 10oz, which puts him above the 97th percentile on the growth chart. He's smiling, laughing, rolling over, and I think its just a matter of time before he starts crawling. He reaches out for things and puts everything in his mouth. Not everything can possible taste that good, but that doesn't seem to deter him. We got him a huge exersaucer to play with and he has he best time playing with everything on it. It keeps him quite entertained. Patrick and I have actually gotten to eat dinner together once or twice.