I bet you can't guess who rolled over?

Yea, the little guy did it this past weekend. It was exciting b/c his mom & dad was actually off work and there to witness it. Better yet, he did it again twice during the next day at Aunt Stacey's and then again at home tonight and I was actually able to catch it on video. He's such the cooperative child already. We'll just see how long he keeps that up. Here are some photos from the precious moment of when our lives changed b/c we will no longer be able to leave him laying on the couch unattended. We'll have to be on top of things from here on.

1, 2, 3, 4

Manning officially hit the 4 month old mark!!! In celebration of this event we went for a visit to the pediatrician last week. Manning weighed in at 13 lbs. 7 oz. and measured a whooping 25 inches. Being his mom and completely bias, I got a little defensive when the good doc stated that his the size of his head was in the 7 percentile. I guess he has a smaller than average head, but I just don't see it. I, of course being the completely bias mom, thinks that his head is perfect for his body. It is no reason for concern, it just really makes me ponder how these doctors figure all this stuff out, or think they have it all figured out. Overall it was a good checkup and Manning was perfect as always. Interesting story from the peds office - During our visit with the good doc we were discussing how to introduce Manning to solid food. In mid sentence he drops his papers and brushes by me while patting me on the shoulder and saying that he needs to go next door to make sure that the kid in the room next to us doesn't hurt anyone. What???!!! After he leaves the room I hear the scuffling and banging in the room next to me. It sounds like someone elses visit to the peds office is not going so well - someone is not happy. I can hear the kid screaming and grunting. When the doc came back in he looked a little frazzled and said that in his effort to make sure that nobody got hurt he almost got cold clocked in the face! I guess the kid next door was a 5 1/2 year old who was the size of an average 9 year old, and obviously knew that he had the size on his side. Whew! It makes you very thankful for quiet polite children.

Lift the chorus ever onward, Crimson and the blue Hail to thee, our Alma Mater Hail to old KU.

Congratulations to my good friend, Melissa, who graduated from KU this weekend! Manning and I joined Melissa along with her family and friends on Sunday afternoon for a reception in her honor. It was a great time. Glad we could celebrate with you Mel!

Young lilttle Manning had a farm, E-I-E-I-O

Manning had a visit to the Neis family farm on Sunday afternoon where he visited the calves, puppies & pigs. He just kind of looked at them and coooed. We also went out to Grandpa Rod's farm on Saturday for Nick's high school graduation party. Grandpa Rod has calves also, but we didn't get to see them on Saturday. Between these two farms, Manning will have lots of opportunities to play with the farm animals when he grows up. Manning is pictured in this post with "Rocky" the pig and either "Snowflake" or "Rambo" (I'm not sure which calf is in the picture).

Just a swinging! Swinging!

"Swinging" by John Anderson

There's a little girl in our neighborhood
Her name is Charlotte Johnson and she's really looking good
I had to go and see her, so I called her on the phone
I walked over to her house, and this was going on
Her brother was on the sofa eating chocolate pie
Her momma was in the kitchen cutting chicken up to fry
Her daddy was in the backyard rolling up a garden hose

I was on the porch with Charlotte feeling love down to my toes

And we were swinging yes we were swinging
Little Charlotte she's as pretty as the angels when they sing
I can't believe I'm out here on the front porch in this swing
Just a-swinging

Yes we were swinging yes we were swinging
Little Charlotte she's as pretty as the angels when they sing
I can't believe I'm out here on the front porch in this swing
Just a-swinging

***If you've never heard John Anderson's "Swinging" you should check it out. It's a classic country song. I think of this song every time I see Manning swinging for hours upon hours. Why, do you ask. Well, the song has a really annoying chorus and every time I hear the song I spend the rest of the day walking around singing "Just a swinging!!!" all day long. So, I've decided this is his theme song for when he's a swinging. He loves his swing and it was the best investment I ever made. In the bottom picture he is finally big enough to reach out and grab the toy on the tray, but once he found it he never let go and was hanging on for dear life!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

It's my first Mother's Day and I feel truly blessed to be able to call myself a mom. I love being a mom and cannot imagine my life without the lil' guy. Manning is so special and is such a good natured and laid back little guy. I am very lucky. I want to wish every mom out there a Happy Mother's Day.

Baby steps!

No, little Manning is not walking yet, but he has taken some baby steps towards becoming more aware of his surroundings. Here are some "first" baby steps for the lil' guy.



His first step to becoming a man - First trip to "Best Buy" to do a little wishful thinking of which flat screen HD t.v. would look the best hanging on the wall in his bedroom. I'm sure this is the first of many trips that him and his dad will take to Best Buy together to drool over the big t.v.s, however Manning is the only one with an excuse for drooling.









Manning's first very own seat (thanks to Chava McKeel!). It's the latest & greatest thing in the world of babies - it's called the Bumbo. It's a little foam chair that allows them to sit up and start working those back muscles. He hated it at first, but has now come to tolerate it (I think just so his mom will quit nagging him about it).






"Holy cow, am I doing that?" Grandma Linda bought him this blue phone rattle and this night was the first time that we could see the confidence and gleam in his eyes that said "I am holding this rattle and have complete control right now. What do I do now?" Up to this point I had been placing it in his hand and his little arms would just start moving all about, but without any rythym or control. I'm not even sure that he knew it was there, but as you can see from the expression on his face in the picture - he finally figured it out!

"Yeah, that's right - I had my first taste of chocolate milk. It was mighty tasty. I even saved some of it on my cheeks for later." Daddy gave him a special treat last Sunday by dipping the pacifier into a little bit of chocolate milk before giving it to him. Nothing can compare to seeing a baby's eyes light up from the first sugar rush of chocolate milk. Pretty funny and pretty darn cool to think that every experience for him is the first.

Whistle while you work!

Last weekend Doug and I started re-siding our house. Manning was the supervisor, making all of the calls on when breaks were - when to eat, bathroom breaks, etc. We got most of the back side of the house done. It was a very productive weekend. Honestly, there actually wasn't a whole lot of whistling while we worked, but instead there was a lot of Doug telling me what I could do next and me asking "What? How am I supposed to do that?" Somehow I was able to finally get the hang of things enough to actually start helping out instead of adding to the problem. Manning had his first experience working side by side with his daddy in the "Man's World of Construction." He doesn't have a tool belt yet, but he does have the next best thing - his very own "Stanley tools" outfits (courtesy of Bob and Lois Scherting). For his first supervisory construction job & first official business trip to Home Depot he wanted to wear his "My favorite tools" onsie. In the last picture Manning is expressing how we all felt by Sunday evening - all tuckered out.

Future NIKE sponsored athlete

He wears it well. However, we're always keeping our options open for other sponsors who are willing to pay the big $$$$ to have this adorable face represent them!

Chocolate cake anyone???

Our dog Duce has an unbelievable sense of smell, and last weekend sniffed out a box with leftover birthday cake in it that my neighbors had set out in their driveway. While I'm standing out in my yard talking with my other neighbor the "Cake" neighbor came running around the corner of my house to apologize for leaving the cake out on their driveway instead of putting it in the trash where it should be. After laughing hysterically at the green frosting covered dog walking my way, I apologized for my dog helping himself to the leftover birthday cake. I was not happy, but could not help but laugh. Picture of the dog is after he had rolled around in the grass and rubbed off most of the frosting, but I was able to get a picture of the green frosting eyeshadow he had left on him.

Green means go!

Daddy was very excited to take lil' Manning out to the track for the first time. Manning met a lot of people that day. In the future Manning will probably be spending a lot of his days out at the racetrack. Doug's family has a long history of racing, and if Manning follows in his daddy's footsteps he'll too be a racer. Manning has 2 cousins who currently race quarter midget cars every weekend with the Topeka Quarter Midget club, so he'll have lots of chances to begin working on his techniques.

He took a few laps around the track, with the help of his cousin Mackenzie,to get a good feel for it.

He also took some time out of his socializing to check out the set up in the car. He was checking to make sure that daddy and Uncle Mike had it set up to run the quickest way.

The rest of the pictures are just fun shots from the track.

What does 32 look like???

Doug had his very first birthday as a father. Doug got to celebrate with family and friends and had a good time. Manning had a great time celebrating with his daddy.

Airplane is the name of the game

Manning loves it when his daddy flies him around. He loves the aerial view. He just smiles and giggles when they play this game. We're thinking that we might have free plane tickets for life b/c as much as he likes to fly he's bound to be a pilot.

Working 9 to 5

I headed back to work Tuesday of this week. I really did enjoy my time off with Manning, but knew that it unfortunately had to come to an end sometime. It was probably a little easier to go back b/c Manning is going to daycare at his Aunt Stacey's house, and there is the comfort of having him with family each day. We are very fortunate to have this situation b/c not everyone is so lucky. He had at great first day at daycare and came home completely tuckered out. I think there must have been more action at daycare than our usual routine of watching the dogs sleep and flipping through hundreds of channels of bad daytime t.v. Anyways, he was entertained all day and came home and slept all night. I took some pictures of his first day. I think mom was probably more sad than he was. I think I was partly sad about having to actually do some work for the paycheck.

I feel so loved "be-cousin"...

Pic 1- Shelly's neice, Courtney; Pic 2- Shelly's neice Makayla; Pic 3 - Shelly's neices' Christal & Kate; Pic 4 - Doug's nephews Macray & Calvin; Pic 5 - Doug's neice Madison; Pic 6 - Doug's neice, Mackenzie

So, Manning gets lots of love from all of his cousins. There are even more cousins than all of the above, but these are the only ones that we have pictures of so far. Pictures of more cousins to come.