Tooth Correction

Last week, Sam posted that Andrew was cutting his third tooth.  Well, Sam was wrong.  Andrew wasn't cutting his third tooth . . . . he was cutting his third AND fourth.  Our sweet little angel has been a bit trying lately and now we know why.  I've tried to get a picture of his new chompers, but he has other ideas.

Apparently, growing teeth is really hard work.  Andrew was playing on the floor this morning and just fell asleep.  He RARELY falls asleep any place other than his crib and car seat these days, so Sam hurried to take a photo just in case it didn't last.

It lasted.  Andrew napped on the floor for almost ten minutes before Sam carried him upstairs and put him in his crib.  He continued to nap for another hour and half.  Sometimes it's hard work being a baby.

Another new tooth!

Andrew is getting his third tooth!  He already has the front bottom middle two teeth.  Now there is one coming in on the upper gum.

I'm standing on my own....

Andrew is now able to stand and hold himself up.  He can't stand himself up, but if we put him in place, he can hold himself there.  Things are moving along here!

Disney Cruise!

On November 15, we embarked on our first cruise along with Andrew.  We went with two friends of ours who have twins, so all in all, it was four adults and three babies.  Quite a handful!  Four adults and three babies in a single minivan from Atlanta to Florida and back!  The friend we went with works for Delta Airlines, and they get some ridiculous deals on travel.  This whole trip for the three of us cost a fraction off what it would normally cost for one of us to do it, and almost everything was included.  We even got an oceanview room with a balcony so we could sit outside.

We went on the Disney Dream, a fairly new cruise ship which is simply unreal.  It's amazing what they can do on boats nowadays, and how BIG they are.  This one had three swimming pools, a water-tube slide that went out over the side of the ship, numerous restaurants and clubs, a full-size theater with some incredible productions, and the best part: a nursery where you can drop the kids off for a few hours and they will feed them, change them, play with them, and put them down for naps.  This gives the adults a little free time.

We boarded on Thursday the 15th and spent the day checking out the ship, eating, and meeting characters as we sailed to Nassau.  On Friday morning, we were in Nassau.  We only got off the ship long enough to say that we got off the ship, walked around for about 30 minutes, then got back on.  We spent the day playing at the pool, and most importantly, the Nemo's Reef splash pad.  Andrew LOVED the splash pad, as you will see in some photos below.  It was constant smiles, laughter, and squeals. 

That night was pirate night, and everyone on the ship was dressed in pirate's attire, and there were pirate themed shows and even fireworks out in the ocean.  We thought Andrew would be terrified of the fireworks since loud noises tend to freak him out, but he seemed to enjoy them.

Andrew watching the fireworks.

Ready for Pirate Night.

That evening we sailed to Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, where we arrived Saturday morning. We all got off the boat to take the babies to the beach, but it rained all morning.  We were hoping to get Andrew into the ocean, but it was just cold and dreary.  By late morning, we had nursery time booked so that the adults could hit the beach for some relaxation.  

Andrew's first visit to the beach.

Relaxing in a hammock.

After a fun day at the beach, we started sailing again back to Florida.

Each night on the cruise, we went to a big show in the theater (it's amazing the kind of production they can do on a boat!) followed by dinner.  The kids usually went to the nursery for dinner time so that the adults could enjoy dinner two-handed.

Andrew fell asleep in the theater often
after long, fun days!

Dinners are pre-arranged, so they knew we
had children with us (even though we didn't
bring them to dinner).  Each kid had a
personalized cup waiting for them each night.

Andrew was popular in the nursery.
He even won an award!!

The balcony of our room was enclosed
so that Andrew could play out there safely.
This was taken at sunrise as we sailed into Nassau.

Disney World!

We recently got home from a trip to Disney World and a three-day Disney Cruise with Andrew and some friends.

On the first day of the trip, we visited the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT and Andrew got to meet a bunch of Disney characters.  While he's obviously too young to really know what's going on, he was all smiles during the day.  All of the sounds and fuzzy friends made him very happy!

The day went much better than any of us could have expected.  We figured that after a few hours at the park, babies would start getting cranky, and we'd have to head home around lunchtime for naps.  Instead, the babies cooperated most of the day, took unexpected naps in their strollers, and we were at the park from about 9am until almost 7pm.  Very fun day!

Andrew was enthralled by some of the rides.

A little time spent in Mexico at EPCOT.

And, then there were the characters.  Andrew was extremely popular, especially since he had each of the characters stickered on his helmet.

Our First Family Vacation

The Remberts are going on vacation!  We're heading to Florida in the morning and will spend a day at Disney World before boarding our Disney cruise.  We're all very excited!  We even decorated Andrew's helmet with Mickey and friends for the occasion.  This trip will hold a lot of firsts for all of us - Sam and my first real cruise, Andrew's first trip to the beach, and his first set of mouse ears!  We'll be sure to take lots of photos and update when we get back!

Seven-month photos!

Andrew is already seven months old!!  Boy, time flies!!

This is Andrew's "I'm a model" shot.

Some family history

When Sam's Dad and step-mother came to visit a couple of weeks ago, they brought a photo showing Sam's grandfather as a baby, with his father and grandfather (my great grandfather and great-great grandfather) looking at him.  Sam wanted a similar photo, so we decided to take one ourselves.  Sam wanted to get as close to the original as possible, but without some planning, that was difficult.  So anyway, here are the photos....six generations of Rembert men.

Andrew's Head Progress

We went and saw Dr. Karl again today to see how Andrew's head shape is progressing.  Today he got a new scan, so that we could visually see the results.  His head is rounding out very nicely, and faster than we expected.

The results are in the scan shown above.  The dark pink outline is the original shape, while the dark blue outline is the shape today.  As you can see, it has grown out quite a bit.  In the results to the right, you see a "Diff" of 13mm originally and 8.3mm now.  That means that before, the difference between the diagonal measurements on one side of his head and the other was 13mm, over half an inch.  Now, we are down to 8.3mm...so doing much better.  They want to see below 6mm.

We have another appointment in three weeks to see how we are progressing then.  Updates to follow!

Some funny new videos

Just a couple of funny videos.

One is of Andrew SO sleepy that he keeps nodding out in his highchair.  He is NEVER this tired.  He rarely ever even starts to nod off outside of his crib or carseat.

The next is another one of him watching Baby Einstein.  There was a video last month of one video that consistently made him laugh.  Now there is a new one.
EDIT:  Hmmm...it uploaded without sound.  I'll have to figure that out.

Some new friends!

This week, Andrew took a trip with Mom and Dad to Charlotte, NC.  Mom and Dad were visiting friends, and Andrew made some new ones.

His first new friends were our friend Chloe's dogs, Dorie and Rudy.  Andrew loved the dogs and the dogs were so gentle with him.  There were a few very sweet moments that we didn't get a photo of, because the camera didn't turn on fast enough.  But one was Dorie (the white dog) sitting, and Andrew sitting up beside her with his arm around her and his hand on her back.

We also took Andrew to the Renaissance Festival, and Emily made him a costume to match one of our favorite acts, the acrobatic trio Barely Balanced.  The leader of the act fell in love with Andrew and gave us a free DVD because of him.  He also said he had to hold Andrew any time he saw him because he thought Andrew was so awesome.

Andrew playing with Dorie and Rudy.

Andrew gets a kiss from Dorie

Andrew eating his new DVD from Cameron
of Barely Balanced.

Cameron from Barely Balanced even picked Andrew
up (on stilts!) to show him to the audience.
The audience gave a big "Awwwwwwwww!!!!"