8.5 months

Little man has done some big things over the past month, here's the run down

-You are loving your new ability to move around and explore, you started officially crawling on all fours Friday evening, September 13th, and by the next morning, you couldn't be slowed down.   You love outlets, cords, knobs, shoes, strings and basically everything that is NOT a toy.

-You will turn a toy over and inspect every part of it while you play.
-If we hold you, you will push away with your legs, and climb up us as high as we will let you.  You also love to be upside down.

-You have had the two bottom teeth and in the past week your central/lateral incisors have come through on the top left, and looks like the other two on the opposite side are not far behind.
-You have been a champ through fevers, 3 rounds of antibiotics, and multiple ear infections and all of those teeth coming in since starting daycare in August...sleeping has been hit or miss, but snuggling more is always sweet.  Even at 2:00AM....once i am coherent
-You consistently squeal, cough, and say "buh-buh" and "dah-dah" and I heard "mah-mah" for the first time in awhile this evening.
-You have a great pincer grasp and love to feed yourself puffs, yogurt melts, and tiny pieces of bread/crackers.  you would probably love all table food, i am dicing bananas/avocados for you..we may try some other stuff this week

-You make the sweetest little pointer finger to point to pictures in books, makes my speech-path momma heart happy.
-You are so sweet and love to laugh...and also have this really strong personality when you have your mind set to something.  I'm honestly a little nervous about how exactly to handle all of this strong will!
-You had school pictures, and apparently you were not amused...

-You watch people and love to just take it all in, you still like some warm up time with most people, but occasionally you will just "take to" someone new, and go right to them.  It doesn't happen super often, but it's cute when it does!

-You get really excited and make the cutest noises when you get excited.
-You want to be free on the floor or in our arms, it's very offensive to you to be put into a container of any sort (car seat, high chair, pack-n-play, exersaucer, etc.).
-If you want don't want to go into your car seat, you can put up a good enough fight that I am sweating by the time you are buckled.  you have managed on several occasions to turn yourself completely over and attempted to crawl out.

keepin' it real. and proof to show you daddy, but he's experienced your car seat fit now though

(i feel myself becoming more humble by the second, especially as my 8 month old can throw a fit big enough to remove himself from the car seat in the parking lot of daycare...i have 30 years on him and over 100+ pounds..how is that possible?!?)

-you reach for us to pick you up and reach for us to get you if someone else is holding you, i love it.
-you will hold tight to my clothes if you don't want to be set down or handed to someone
-you love to be "scared" when we hide and jump out, you gasp and then laugh hysterically, you did not get this from me.
-i can not wear jewelry or you grab it so tightly i feel i will break it or hurt your hand to it loosen it, you actually grab for anything we have in our hands..even toothbrushes.

-you still have to be rocked to sleep, but have fallen asleep at daycare on your own a handful of times, i love rocking you, it's a sweet time

A typical work day/day care day:

6:30-7:00 cereal/fruit and 6-7 ounce bottle, we still sit in our rocking chair and cuddle for our morning bottle and look out the window while i drink my coffee...the best part of my day!  we also try to read some books and play in the floor a little before we head out for the day
8:00-8:30 daycare drop off, depends on the day
mid-morning nap (a good day is 1.5 hours..sometimes it's 20 minutes)
11:00 6 oz bottle
12:00-ish fruit/veggie
afternoon nap (a good day is 2 hours...most of the time, it's 30 minutes here and there)
3:00 6 oz bottle
3:30 snack - puffs/yogurt melts
6:00 dinner - veggies/fruits and usually a small 4 oz bottle
after dinner we play, take our bath, etc.
7:30-8:00 - 6 oz bottle and beddie-bye

You wear size 3 diapers, definitely filling out 9-12 month clothing!  At your last doctor's appointment you were 50% for height and down to 25% for weight (19 lbs), this was after being sick for 2 solid weeks beforehand, so our next appointment, I am sure you'll beef back up!  You are still holding strong with your 90% head circumference.

hurry up

I saw a link on facebook to a blogpost a mom had written about eliminating the "hurry up" phrase.  Through parenting her little "noticer of the world" she realized she was saying "hurry up" constantly...and basically hurrying her sweet girl through life.

I was really in a rush one morning a month or so ago, I couldn't find my car key, nothing was together, and I was dressing Brooks quickly and scraped the snap of his shirt across his forehead as I pulled it off of him.  He looked right up at me, opened his mouth wide and cried, and then I started crying too.  He stopped crying quicker than I did.  He was fine, but it just made me so sad that I was rushing around like that.  I don't want to be the "hurry up" mom...or the hurry up friend, aunt, wife....etc.

It made me thing of how I have even rushed my niece.  Just a few weekends ago Had and I were leaving the movie theater and we had just enough time to go grab dinner before I needed to be home.  As we were walking out she stopped to look at the movie poster on the wall and I almost said "hurry, so we can go get dinner" and instead I made myself just stop and stand there with her.  She studied the picture and she said "look ahmi, his reflection is different than his picture" and it was, and I sure wouldn't have noticed the double meaning of the poster.  Not that it was super important, but just goes to show how much you miss when you rush!

I know I will rush again, but when I can, I am going to slow down and take it all in more.

here's the link to the blog post, i think we should all read it:

http://www.handsfreemama.com/2013/07/16/the-day-i-stopped-saying-hurry-up/

our sweet summer & a hodge podge

happy fourth of july! 

 (i love the coordinating colors i got these two in...;)

6 months old!

we have hit six months old!  in the past couple of weeks we have introduced food.  we started with sweet potatoes and then added another food every 2-3 days including: pears, peas, carrots, avocado, and apples!  i have added "making baby food" to the list of things i never knew i would do.  we had some puffy eyes and redness after oatmeal, so we are holding off on eating that again.  

Stats:

• Weighing around 18 lbs, 24" long and 50th percentiles for height/weight
• 90th percentile for head circumference- holding steady with this
• cut two teeth just a couple of weeks before your 6 month birthday
• started sitting on your own for about 10-15 seconds a little before 6 months, and recently able to hold it for a long time, especially if concentrating on a toy
• still love your feet and holding on to them both, and you are great at rolling
• you love to wiggle yourself sideways and reach for the light on the wall and for the wall itself while on the changing table.  it is ridiculous how much you reach and stretch, and i crack up every time
• you love books and kick your legs and talk to us while we read
• you cough for attention, we love it
• you grab at everything now, so i have started clearing a space around you while at a table, i learned my lesson the fourth of july when you dumped an entire drink all over us both
• still love bath time!
• lots of vowel sounds and grunting/growling sounds, we say you sound like your grandad
• you are pleasant and very happy until you are tired, and you pretty much flip like a switch
• we are becoming better nappers and sleeping on our tummy for naps is helping

this little bad boy is awesome:

 sweet potatoes were a hit!

we've visited family!

 brooks and his great-grandmother Ma

 brooks and his great uncle, doing what all guys do..checking out the bear rug!

 aunt deb!

 my sweet, sweet, sweet Hadleigh

 Brooks, Granny, Papa, Wyatt and Had!

 LOVE this picture & especially wyatt's arms up!

 grandad and june bug

talking 

 we tried for a family picture 

mamaw! 

enjoying this great summer weather in the yard!  really brooks and i were enjoying it and we talked daddy into a few minutes with us!  brooks and i are way more the "laying on a blanket in the grass" type than daddy.  we are working on him!

charleston weekend trip & picture overload!

we left our little fella for the first time (well, my first time to leave him....) over night to head to charleston for my sweet and beautiful friend tiffany's wedding!  tiffany and i met randomly in our dorm my freshmen year of college.  we lived on the same floor, and she would pace up and down the hallway talking on her phone, and some how we became friends.  we spent a lot of time hanging out in my room eating snack mix and talking!  we were opposite in so many ways but have always had this special friendship.

over the past 12 years of our friendship, we have seen each other through good days and bad days, and have both said and loved how our friendship has felt so consistent.  since we have been long distant best friends for a long time now we have a code, one phone call means i just want to chat, two phone calls back to back, means...answer!  we have used the double call rule only a handful of times and it works...i love it!

tiffany and her new hubby frank have become extended family to us, and we were so excited to spend the weekend celebrating their love for each other!  we arrived friday night and went straight to their house, they saved us dinner (we were late) and then gave us a late night tour of their neighborhood and daniel island!  i can NOT wait to go back!  i have to add this part, i was searching for a special wedding gift for them, and ordered them a nice serving platter.  it was simple, white, and i LOVED it.  when we got to their house, tiffany said they had gotten it and was so excited that it would match her place settings that she had picked out....we looked and i had ordered the serving platter to the dishes she had picked, and i had no idea!  out of all the dishes in all the world, we picked the same pattern.

saturday morning we woke up and headed to a welcome brunch.  chicken and waffles were involved, and so i began my eating marathon.  after brunch we had a row of pedicabs lined up for us to do a downtown charleston scavenger hunt.  bryan and i were teamed with frank's son and nephew and we had a great time filling out the sheet and taking pictures!  and they were two of the most polite young men i have ever met, i complimented both of their parents on raising such gentlemen.  here's hoping we are raising one as well!

saturday evening we went to a rehearsal dinner on the water and met chef robert carter.  he cooked for us that evening and then again for the wedding meal.  when i say eating marathon...i mean it.  he brought our first course out in a small blue le creuset baking dish and started describing it with phrases like "potatoes that were dug yesterday" and "fish caught this morning.." and i was LOVING it.  after the meal he brought the baking dishes back out to us and they were signed by him with an assortment of chocolates inside.  i think i might have squealed and clapped.  all the fanciness of it was almost too much for me to take.  and if i was leaving my baby, might as well be surrounded by some of my favorite people eating grown-up food!







sunday was wedding day so we had the morning free.  bryan and i went to high cotton for brunch and i randomly ran into a friend that i also met my freshmen year of college at ASU who was there eating brunch with his wife.  such a small world!  i then spent the afternoon getting my hair and makeup done at the Thomas Bennett house with the bride, her mother and her soon to be step-daughter sofia!  tiffany's mother and i cried our eyes out pretty much off and on all day long.  it was just so much happiness and sweetness wrapped up into one weekend, my heart was SO full.




they had some showers sunday afternoon but the skies cleared and we enjoyed a beautiful outdoor wedding and dinner outside.  we enjoyed 8 courses (i lost count and had to ask how many we had...) along with dessert and gelato!  we all took turns saying a little something about the bride and groom, and i am not a good speaker, but couldn't pass up my chance to tell them how much we love them.  i shared the verse from song of solomon and a few other words i don't even remember, and know that tiff and frank have definitely "found the one their soul loves."



dinner in the garden & chandeliers in tree's....again...i did some clapping!


such a gorgeous and happy couple!



funny story, right after this picture I sat back down, and tiff and i heard this "slap" and i looked down and a pretty good size black lizard had landed on her arm & i immediately slapped it right off of her!  i wasn't sure the proper etiquette for lizard removal at dinner, but i just did what came naturally.  and we pretty much laughed harder than i have laughed in a long time.


probably one of my favorite pictures of the fun with the "gullah singing group" that surprised us towards the end of dinner!



and the bride and groom are off!

farewell brunch monday morning!  love and miss this girl.