Christmas Photos

we tried and tried to get a good picture in front of the tree and well, here ya go. i figured comedy was best and well, i just couldn't resist this one. we really don't strangle our children, but i thought this was pretty hilarious that we're both holding them in the same way! =) looks like Serif's little heads going to pop off! ha! oh well, we have more photos coming, but we have to get them first. if any of you have any good ones from Christmas, please email them to us and we'll post more for the book!

Dobbins tradition is christmas eve at Aunt Tina's in goodletsville. he did really well considering how many people he went through for the day. he even got chased through the house by his aunts wanting to hold him! We did have a really cute shirt to put on him when we got there, but when we tried to put it on him he had already outgrown it. we were sad because he never even got to wear it!

what the heck?

we've got a $5 starbucks gift card for the person with the best caption for this photo. e mail submissions are also accepted. have fun!

j&m&s

jeff@oneshotjuanita.com
michellegodby@comcast.net

sorry it's taken us so long to post the winner. the entries have been fun, but we can only have 1 winner. that being said, the winner is . . . COWPATTY!!!! congrats Caleb! we'll be seeing you in a couple weeks and we'll have your gift card ready for you! great quotes everyone - thanks for participating!

Traditions

Jeff's aunt Tina let us borrow this bassinet before Serif was born. she said that when she was a little girl she wanted a crib for her baby dolls so bad. her mom couldn't find one specifically for baby dolls, so she splurged and bought a real one for her. as years passed on this bassinet has held many babies, including Jeff and his brother Don. so the tradition was passed down and Serif was able to enjoy the same little sleeping quarters as his dad and many other family members. the blue and white blanket was made by another one of Jeff's aunts and given to his mom when Jeff's brother Don was born. both Don and Jeff were brought home from the hospital in this blanket. so here are a couple of photos full of tradition and memories.
now the truth of the matter is that Serif never really enjoyed sleeping on his back for the first few weeks and honestly never really used the bassinet. i couldn't bare handing it back to aunt Tina without him getting atleast one nap in it . . . and of course a photo too. so here he is napping at 7 weeks. Helmut (9) is once again checking up on him and seeing what he's up to.

capturing a smile

Serif: okay mom, you're really going to shoot that camera at me again?
Mom: yes i am, i want a picture of your cute little smile for the 7 week post. i've been trying to capture it since thursday, when you turned 7 weeks and i miss you every time!
Serif: okay, okay, i'll give you one. i'm feeling happy today anyways. ready? here it is!

Mom: YAY! thank you Serif! you're so dog-gone cute. i love you! heeheehee.

Serif: alright mom, seriously. that's enough. put the camera away.
Mom: okay, okay. thanks for letting me get a good one! (after taking tons of photos!)

Serif: hey! dad's home! i think i'll stay happy some more!
Mom: here dad take him. he keeps smiling!
Dad: give me my boy!
Serif: okay you can take more pictures. i'm cool with it for now. i'll even smile some more for you.
Mom: cool. you're the best boy ever! =)

7 week kisses

so Jeff and I were talking yesterday about how irresistible Serif is to kiss. you pick him up, you kiss him. you burb him, you kiss him. you play with him, you kiss him. you change him, you kiss him. you look at him, you kiss him. and so on and so on and so on . . .

day two in the hospital after having him, my co-workers came up to visit us. a good friend of mine, Ruby, looked at me and said, 'don't you just want to kiss him all over!'. i have to be honest and say that i really didn't at that point. i loved him, no doubt. it was certainly special and something i'd never experienced, but i wasn't to the point of that overwhelming feeling to just kiss every part of skin i could see. well, as time progresses I find myself in the position of this photo more times than not. funny how things work and how much this little guy can continue to grow on you.

happenings of week 6

this week has been fun. it's been kind of like seeing him come to life a little as his vision has sharpened. it's been really cool to see him start to focus on things and to watch him turn his head when he hears me talk or if he notices something in the room that catches his attention. up to this point he's really not been able to focus very well enough to really pay attention to much. from last thursday to today there's been big changes like this. the past couple of days he's been really noticing where he is. it's like he just studies the space and the surroundings trying to figure out, 'where am i?'.

these are a couple of photos of bath time this past week. Serif is loving his baths! Helmuts not too fond of baths can you tell? =)

we went to the christmas service sunday night at church. it was nice to get out and attempt going to a service. unfortunately i missed the entire thing with the exception of the opening and closing words. the service hit at his feeding time and the bottle we took to give him was still cold. ya know when you pour yourself a glass of milk and it get warm really quick? well, this doesn't do that and there was no hot water in the church anywhere. because of his clearing vision he stayed distracted when i took him to the nursery to nurse and finally we found a coffee pot downstairs that made us hot water. by that time he had a messy diaper that needed changed and then the closing remarks from the pastor. oh well - we tried. atleast jeff got to enjoy it. look at how big he's getting! his cheeks are getting fuller, his second chin is getting bigger (ha!) and he's even starting to get those little creases at his wrists. he's obviously not skipping meals! he's already outgrowing his 0-3 month stuff! the pants he can still wear, but the tops are just getting pretty tight . . . same with the sleepers. the top in these photos are 3-6 months! yikes! but look how cute! =) some friends of ours got this for him from h&m in chicago. why doesn't nashville have one of these? thanks Chad & Jen!

Jeff and I even got to go to my works christmas party friday night. my sister and brother-in-law (Gerrie & Bubba) was gracious enough to come out to our house and watch him for us. it was really nice to see everyone from work again and have grown-up conversations! although i do enjoy talking with Serif and try to avoid a lot of 'baby' talk - although the voice pitch is tough to keep at a grown up level sometimes. =)

i also got to get out and do some christmas shopping on saturday. i wasn't rushing at all, but i was still back in time to feed him and Jeff didn't have to give him his bottle. i think i'm getting this timing down a little. Pops did end up giving him the bottle though since it was already thawed. i'll have to add that photo to the post - i think it's Jeff's iphone right now. so check back for that one.

santa comes to east nashville

so i was asked to give a little snippet of this photo . . . here it goes.

there's a cute little place on woodland street here in east nashville called 'I dream of weenie' - Jeff's favorite e.n. eats. well, right behind that is a place called Arthouse Gardens. it's basically a little landscaping lot and the owner of this place is who did our fence and landscaping at our house - really great guy. anyways, we happened to see a post on the east nashville listserv that said that Arthouse Gardens was selling christmas trees and that Santa was coming to east nashville this saturday! we haddened bought our tree yet and i couldn't resist getting Serif's first photo with Santa! so we went down there that afternoon, picked out a tree, got our family photo with Santa and even grabbed lunch at the weenie wagon! Serif did so well while we were out that we even went to smyrna afterwards to see family. ah - a good day.

my boy poops like a pigeon

i guess better on me than in the bath - which is where he was heading.

Coyote Christmas

We put our Christmas tree up today and this evening as Jeff was wrapping it in lights I decided to take Serif to the nursery and read him a book. I've read a lot of his books to him and was looking for something I haven't read to him yet. At the end of the top shelf was a Christmas book that seemed to catch my eye and it was titled 'Coyote Christmas'. We've had the book for years, but haven't really read it in . . . well I can't even remember. Somehow it managed to hang around with us move after move . . . all over Cincinnati to Tennessee. I remembered it being a gift, but that was about it. Well, as I opened the book to begin to read I saw a note hand written just inside the front cover. As I began to read it my eyes welted up with tears in both sadness and joy. Here's what is says,

12-25-96

Jeff,
I love this book! I love the story and I love the artwork. It's one that just sticks in my mind and I've read it over and over. I tried real hard to keep it but it kept saying "I'm Jeff's". I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have and read and re-read it every Christmas. If and when you have children, read it to them, remind them of the truths in here (and always let them know MiMi loves them very much!) I love you Jeff. Merry Christmas.
Love,
Your other mother,
Versal

For those of you who don't know who Versal is, it's my mom. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989 and died in 1998. She was a young 47 years old. Wow, that's been 10 years already! She had many up times as well as down times throughout those years. It would go away, then come back, then go away, etc. I don't remember what 1996 Christmas was like for her, whether it was an up time or down time, but it was Christmas and the time for giving and she gave up this wonderful little book with the most valuable message from her that we could never even imagine. Ya know, I don't know that we've always appreciated this book to the extent that we should have. I do remember reading it at Christmas, but probably not every one. However, now more than ever it hits a deeper part of us and makes us appreciate it that much more. i think it will be the first one off the shelf every Christmas for Serif.

I hate that Serif misses out on her but I still think about Jeff's earlier post of the possible thought of them meeting before. I'd like to think that could be a very real possibilty. This brings me to one other thought. My cousin Tresie told me about a dream that her mother, Fallie, had right around the the time Serif was born. She said that she dreamt of Versal and she was so happy and jumping up and down and hollering and was SO excited! She said she'd never seen her so excited before, but she was ecstatic about something! She said it was so real and such a happy dream. Could it be that Fallie was seeing my moms reaction to the birth of our son? Do you think she was watching down on us and rejoicing with us even though we can no longer see her? I don't know the real answer of course, but it's fun to think about and I don't think there's harm in entertaining the idea.

Boy I miss her.
-Michelle

Giddy Up!

what a classic photo! Serif is an expressionist and has made this face since day one. we don't know what it means, but we've always loved it! now despite Helmut's face, he really does seem to like Serif a lot. he sleeps in the room next to his when he takes naps and even at night. he follows me in the room to check on him and sniffs his bed like he wants to make sure he's okay. sometimes he'll even go in there on his own like he's making sure he's okay. he did this a lot when we first started putting him in his crib. i think he was unsure why we were leaving him. Helmut also comes up to Serif during awake time and sniffs his little face ever so gently. he's so sweet with him.
when i was pregnant i worried a lot about how Helmut would take to a little one around the house. weimaraners have a tendancy to get depressed easily so it scared me that this would happen to him. he doesn't eat well when we leave him for vacations and his stomach always gets upset. helmuts been our baby for 9 years and so we just didn't know how he'd take having a sibling! i'm very proud of him though for taking to him so well. we've paid special attention to him too so he'd know he wasn't being replaced. we're just a happy little family.

A New Mobile

just this past week (week 4) we noticed Serif beginning to track things with his eyes. until now he's stared at the hatch posters above our couch, i guess because of the high contrast. it's been interesting to see him all of a sudden notice things or focus on something and watch his head stay still to focus as you move about. pretty cool stuff. we hadn't purchased a mobile up to this point because we couldn't find one we really liked. well, this one turned out pretty great. it has interchangeable cards that are black and white and high contrast colors of different graphic images. since babies can only see black and white to begin with this seemed very smart to us. anyways. he's not paid too much attention to it yet, but it will be interesting to see him discover it. this photo is one of his afternoon naps.

a quick update (12.9.08): week 5 has been a great progression with the mobile. he's really starting to notice it and it keeps him quite content in his crib. it's been so cool seeing his progression with his vision. i'm sure it's only going to get that much more exciting. it's cool to see him focus in on an image or follow you when you move. it's nice to know he notices us visually and not just auditory. although that's cool too.

5 Weeks Today

so today marks 5 weeks that Serif's been around. i can't believe it. he hit a growth spurt this past week and outgrew several outfits. i went to put the star outfit (from previous post) on him on tuesday and well . . . i put his feet in . . . then went to put his arms in and it was way too small! the neck of the sleeper was atleast an inch away from his neck and it was so funny because he was looking sort of contorted as i tried to figure out what i was doing wrong. well, i wasn't doing anything wrong except trying to squeeze a growing boy in to an outfit that was way too small. it sort of made me sad but i had to laugh.

today was our first day going out, just the two of us . . . mom & Serif. although i would have prefered to have had a shower, i took a morning nap instead. we did really well with the outing though. we went to the vet to get bingo (the bird) more food, then hit the target to see if we could find more pants for the growing boy. we avoided buying many clothes while i was pregnant since we didn't know if it was a boy or girl so we ended up with a lot of sleepers. since the growth spurt this week he was finally able to fit in to these really great band onesies that Justin (a friend from work) made for him. this is just one from a set of 5 that he did that have our favorite bands on them - they're just awesome! doesn't he look good in them? heeheehee. the pants we picked because they looked like dad. anyways, we made it back home just in time for his feeding so i was proud that it went so well.

another marker for today is that Jeff gave him his first bottle. he took to it like a champ with no hesitations. that part was really great. however, i don't think he got completely full and was hungry within an hour. when he came back to me i think he got confused and was having a hard time getting the rhythm back down to get much grub and we both became quite frustrated. after 2 hours of that he's finally in his crib settling in for the night. so . . . i think we may wait a few more days before trying that again.

Baby's got a new pair of shoes!

when i was 9 months pregnant, Abby (a friend from work) said to me, ' i hope it's a girl, cause i found these really cute red and white shoes that would be so perfect!'. well, we obviously didn't have a girl . . . and these aren't red and white. i got this package delivered to me yesterday and it was from Abby. well, i be darn if she didn't have the lady do a custom pair of green and orange shoes especially for Serif. how CUTE are these shoes!?! we feel so special and so blessed to have such great friends that think so much us. thanks Abby!!

First Date

Saturday was my 36th birthday. Jeff got me a spa gift certificate for a massage (of which I had been longing for since Serif was born - he's taken a toll on the tension in my neck and shoulders!) and then set up and evening out to take me to the Omni Hut for dinner (our favorite place). So this was our first date since Serif and also Serif's first time left to babysitting. We left him with my sister and her husband and they had a great time. It was nice to get out, just us, but even in the short 2 hours we were gone, we couldn't help but think about him.

Here are a few photos of his first babysitting session. Can't you see how much he's loved? =)

The Day & the Life of Serif Godby (@ 3 weeks)

feeding time!

done feeding.

playtime.

nap time.

repeat. . .
repeat . . .
repeat . . .
um - yeah - repeat . . .


dad's home! tv time with dad.

playtime with dad before bed.

The Darnedest Thing

okay. so you're probably wondering what on earth am i doing with my baby on top of the dryer. no - actually i wasn't doing laundry but rather trying to sooth an upset tummy. yeah right weird huh?

Serif got fussy and i tried everything and nothing was working. he seemed to maybe have an upset stomach so i called my sister and asked her about this gas medicine and wondering if he was too young to be given this for an upset stomach. i hated the idea of medicine this early, but hey whatever works at this point right? she suggested not giving the medicine, but to put him on a blanket on top of the dryer and turn it on for about 10 minutes. apparently the sound, vibration and warmth of the dryer will help sooth the tummy. well . . . you see the result. immediate relief and a sleeping baby.

who knew. thanks sis!

Tummy Time

Venturing Out

So this was the big weekend that we all 3 got out of the house without it being for a doctor's appointment. Saturday was a big day. We went to Target and Babies R Us. Wow! 2 places! He did great. He started to fuss a little in Target when we first got there, but as long as he was being pushed, he was fine, then we never heard a winper after that. He went right to sleep. Babies R Us was quick because it was getting close to wake up time and feeding time so we wanted to make it home before pushing it too late.

Not to stop at the 2 shopping ventures, we then made it out to my sisters house for my neices (Serif's cousin - Lindsay) 20th birthday party in Smyrna. Yeah - I can't believe she's 20! It's taken her 20 years of life for us to decide we have this little fella. Weird. Anyways. He did great there as well. He didn't stay awake too long, but atleast a few people got to hold him and everyone got to see him. It actually felt god to get out and about and see people.

Today (Sunday), we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Now this we have done before, but he just looked so cute all bundled up in the hat that I had to post the photo. The sleeper was our latest purchase from Target and I think my favorite outfit yet. Why don't they make more cool clothes like this for boys? Anyways, that's a whole seperate post in itself. I won't go there now. I'll spare you.

All for now. He's waking up and will be hungry! We're doing great and enjoying every day with him. He's sure growing fast!

The First Bath

Yet another fully satisfied baby

So I guess we're doing something right when our baby shows all the signs from breastfeeding class. =) rock on!

2 week dr. visit

We just got back from Serif's 2 week appointment. He was late with his feeding so we just caught up and he's zonked out. Everything checked out well today. He's still 22" long and his weight has gone up to 8lb 7oz (was as 7lb 14oz at 1 week visit). The doctor also listened to his heart for a good length of time and could no longer hear the murmur - thank you Lord! We'll see how the cardiologist appointment goes in May to really get confirmation that it has healed up. We basically asked tons of questions at today's visit and it was nice to hear all is normal and we're doing well with everything. He goes back December 30th for his 2 month check up.

I miss you Dad!

This is Dad's first day back to work. I think he was ready to be back, but missing me a little.
-Serif

Daddy's arms