Grandparents visit

Here's the best picture of all the ones I took (you can click on them for a larger view). I had to sacrifice Allison in this one, everyone else looked so good. But down below is one of the other takes, with Allison looking a bit more composed. I forgot how funny babies can be when they're that tiny!

Un-baby related

But I wanted to post a couple of my woodburnings...

We're Mobile!

Wow...once he picked up crawling, he really learned fast! He follows me wherever I go now - down the hallway, into the kitchen, into the bathroom. There's no escaping now! (Not that I would want to).

On Saturday, he got to spend the day with his grandad, two grandmas, an aunt and two cousins. It was a houseful! For the most part it went really good. He didn't get great naps in, but I expected that. I think he had a lot of fun watching everyone and getting spoiled, though.

He kept up his drinking strike through Sunday afternoon, but the worst seems to be over now. He's taking bottles again, plus now can drink from a cup a little bit (we had a lot of practice over the weekend when he wouldn't take a bottle at all). It's messy business, that cup...but I'm sure it will get better with practice. His other new game - well, I shouldn't say new, we'll call it improved - is to see how far he can fling baby food when I'm feeding him. I call my new living room look "strained peas a la window". Or "sweet potatoes a la recliner". It could have a thousand names. I don't mind cleaning it up, but it's the ones I can't find that pose a problem!

And of course, I jinxed it last week. My butterfly has crashed and burned. He's back to waking twice during the night since he's not drinking much during the day. Of course, yesterday he drank normally and STILL got up twice. So maybe I'm out of theories on that one. All I know is that I think I'd rather not get used to sleeping through the night - it just makes the relapses that much harder.

That's all the news for now! I just can't stress how adorable his little crawling self is. It's all I can do not to eat him up :)

Forward progress

It seems a certain little guy managed to do some crawling this morning! Of course I was in the shower, and when we tried to recreate it, he just looked at us all mischevious and acted like he'd never heard of such an idea. Oh well, even that was cute. I'm sure I'll see plenty of it soon enough!

And...
I don't want to jinx it...
But...
Three nights in a row! He slept all night again :) I feel like there should be something on the local news, maybe a special news bulletin? Can you tell I'm just a bit excited?! But I feel like I've got a beautiful butterfly in my palm, and if I hold it too close it will crush it. So I try to just admire it, knowing that any momment it may flitter away into the shadows.

Don't worry about me....that's just a year of sleep deprivation talking :)

I'm hoping to have some more pictures soon! Stay tuned!

I don't want to jinx it....

But that baby has slept through the night twice in a row! And last night I only got up twice to check on him, which I thought was pretty good. One night we ran the air conditioning, and last night was a little cooler outside, so maybe that helped. Plus he's been going to bed a little later, around 7 or 7:30, so that gives me more time to get some dinner in him. Sometimes he is so tired he skips it and just wants his bottle before bed, but he obviously does better when he'll take the time to eat.

Oh! And he pulled himself up all on his own yesterday at day care. The teacher was so upset because her back was turned and she missed him doing it. He's been strong enough for some time, but just lacked the coordination yet. But now they'll be no stopping him. He almost has the hang of crawling forward now too...maybe a couple more days. He still morphs into a belly flop after a knee or two, but he's getting there. So...I guess things are going to get exciting for him (and me!) now :)

Eating healthy

Well, the title for today's post stems from VAGdad's (ahem...I know who you are) comment about Brent starting out on french fries. Little did he know that his grandson had already spent the weekend dining on potatoes and baby carrots that his mother painstakingly cooked in the crockpot on a 95 degree day along with other nutritious things like tofu, mushrooms and beef to seal in the nutrients. He loved the carrots! I'm not sure the potatoes ever got into his mouth, but he probably would have liked them, too. So far, he will still only eat vegetables mostly. So far his favorite jar foods are sweet potatoes, carrots, turkey & rice, chicken noodle, etc. Actually, he'll eat most any kind of food I give him, as long as it's not too sweet, like apples (or most fruit).

So...though he does like the french fries, they are definitely going to be a rare treat. And I do take VAGdad up on his offer to bring fresh vegetables up here. I never pass them up!

Overall, he had a great weekend. He took good naps, slept good at night, and didn't put up a fight for the meals. He was such a sweetie all weekend, even with the heat. We took a couple trips to the grocery store to cool off. He loves riding around in the cart (I think it's just that he loves all the people coo-ing over him whenver we go out!).

It's the little things

Yesterday I took Brent out to lunch with my friend. We went to Arby's, and he got to sit in his first restaurant high chair while he munched on some fries. Everyone was just staring at him...he was so happy! He kept dancing and laughing. It was great :)

We had a long, loud thunderstorm last night, and I had to keep his window shut for awhile so the rain didn't get in. He wasn't going to sleep anyways (it was much more fun to see what things he could reach to pull into the crib - clothes, blankets) so I let him come out into the living room with us for a few minutes to cool off before I tried bedtime again. It was so nice, just those few extra minutes with him. He was so happy and content. He even sat on my lap for awhile instead of wanting to get down and play. I know it'll probably spoil his routine and such (so everyone says)...but those few moments were so precious. I hate to think what I miss out on when I get caught up in the routine that I don't take time to really enjoy the little presents that pop up from time to time. Most of the time it's for the best - keeps him from getting overtired or hungry or whatnot. I guess that's half the battle - knowing when to give in.

Funny...

I just saw this cartoon this morning. Just thought it was funny since I just took those pictures the other day.

A Better Day...

Well, it seems Brent's little mood swing over the weekend has petered out. He is finally my lovely little boy again. When he woke up this morning I went in there and started snapping my fingers and dancing (he always loves that...he startes bouncing around) and he just kept laughing and flapping around.

Last night it seemed he was almost getting the hang of crawling forward! He almost gets there, and then stretches out just a little too far and ends up on collapsing on his belly. But he knows what to do now. And it's so cute to watch him planning and concentrating on it. What a sweet guy :)

Well, I don't know how much to write today. That boy was a little grumpy bear all weekend. I know his teeth are probably coming in, but WHEW he was a pistol. He also went on some sort of eating strike, too. Any food that tried to come close to his mouth resulted in tantrums and flinging of the spoon with amazing accuracy. He would even fool me and let me get it close to his face before snapping his arms up and knocking it (rather forcefully) away. The other half of the time he just planted his nose on the tray and cried pitifully. So anyways...I gave up sometime yesterday and just let him have his bottle. He would at least drink some of that here and there, even though it was still a fight.

But, at least I got some laundry done :)

Sleepy morning pictures

Hectic morning...

Well, we made it this morning...barely. They had traffic on I-95 shut down both ways because of a chemical spill. Unfortunately, this morning he decided to get hungry right as we were walking out the door. Unlike what a better mother would do, I just figured he'd be okay for the 20 minute trip to daycare, because he really likes having cereal there, and I thought it would be better to keep him on schedule. Then as soon as I'm pulling out the driveway, Andy calls and tells me about the accident. So I head for the alternate route...not realizing that too is backed up beyond belief. And I was partly right...he did make it 20 minutes with no problem, but after 30, then 45, then an hour passed by, he was NOT a happy camper.

So I detoured a long long way out of the way, but on a road that was moving. And I called my aunt at work to see if they had a microwave. Luckily, they did, and by the time I pulled in the tears were really starting to come out. Although when I warmed up his bottle and sat in the nearest chair to feed him, he seemed pretty slow about things. He was kinda confused about the surroundings, I think. But we managed to get most of it in him, and back on the road we went. Of course, it was smooth sailing after that, and we finally got a smiling happy boy to school.

Mom got him the cutest little outfit. I hope to get some pictures of him in it tonight. He just looks so precious!

And...I forgot to mention. The other night, he slept through the night! A 12 hour stretch at that! I wish I could do that...I still wake up every 3 or 4 hours to go check on him. Does that ever completely go away, I wonder? I just can't go back to sleep unless I go check and make sure he's still covered up, or not having his head jammed up against the crib rails, or a thousand other reasons that would keep sleep away until I saw him. And then when I check on him, even if he is perfectly fine, I still have to something small like rearrange his blanket so I can hear him let out a big sigh and go back to sleep. It's such a peaceful contented sound he makes. And then I can head back and fall asleep knowing just how lucky I am.

And my favorite of the morning. I don't think anyone could smile any bigger :)

Handing me one of his favorite toys. How sweet is this boy?!

My little Angel

9 mo checkup

The doctors appointment went great today! He's as healthy as can be...I couldn't ask for anything more. Weighed in at 24 lbs! And everyone just loved his chubby legs (who can resist). He's on track for his development and everything is just perfect. Well, from a mom's point of view anyhow...he might disagree since he had to get some more vaccinations. But the bandaids were pretty, and he recovered quickly. I still hate to see those tears well up, but he was just so brave!

It was nice to have a little time with him this morning. I get to see him so little during the week, and when I do, he's usually getting tired and a bit on the cranky side. But I love the morning smiles and laughs. And I couldn't help but get some pictures, which I'll go post now.