Who is that handsome boy?

He has seen himself in the mirror before, but I guess he had never been this close before.

Too cute! Love the pudgy lil hands!

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

This free photo slideshow personalized with Smilebox

I love you, son!

7 months old

 

 

Dear Rickybear,

 

It’s Christmas morning and you have just turned 7 months old today.  You are at such a great age right now, even if you are still more interested in the ceiling fan than the twinkling Christmas lights we have decorated the house with.  We have not yet opened presents, but I know you will be a pro at unwrapping them and eating the wrapping paper. 

 

You have had a pretty exciting month.  You went to Bass Pro and visited Santa.  You didn’t cry, but you tugged on his beard.  You had another photo shoot.  You were such a champ even though mommy and daddy were both cranky.  You were fast asleep in the back seat when we saw a Christmas light show that coordinated with music, but afterwards I woke you up and carried you in the sling so we could visit the Messengers, a family who completely decorates their house and yard and welcome hundreds of people every night to come look at their displays.  It was super cold, but we had you wrapped up warmly in a blankie.  You did a great job at keeping mommy warm!  Finally, you made another trip up to work to visit all of the doting ladies.  You weren’t your usual animated self because you skipped your morning nap, but no one seemed to mind when you spit up on them or had a meltdown (or two or three…).  They still thought you were the most adorable lil man.

You are wearing size 6 month clothes.  You can wear 9s, but they are a little long on you. You still never wear shoes, but if you did, you would have on size 2s.  Your Maw Maw bought you the cutest pair of LSU shoes this month!

You wear size 2/3 diapers.  I think that the grandmothers have switched over to using Pampers as well.  You wear Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive during the day and Pampers Baby Dry overnight. 

You still have no teeth.  You seem to be teething because you gnaw on EVERYTHING right now, but I don’t feel any teeth under the gums.

Mommy and daddy are still working overtime so your daily routine is still the same.  Daddy made a "pajama song" that we sing to you ready for your nighttime routine.  We did add fish watching, reading a bedtime story, and singing a song or two to your regime.  We try to get you in bed no later than 9:30 pm.

You are mainly sleeping through the night now.  You occasionally wake up insisting on a bottle, but you can usually make it through.  Your biggest problem is that you scoot all the way up and smash your face into the side of the pack 'n play and then can't really move and you get irritated and start whining.  Or else you flip to your belly and start whining.  Usually I can talk to you and you drift back off to sleep, but sometime I have to adjust your position and lay you back down.

You are a ROLLY POLLY boy right now.  You flip back and forth and back and forth.  It’s too cute!  Except when we are trying to change your diaper and you roll all over…


You like to “talk” a lot now.  LOUDLY.The biggest change has been your eating habits this month since you started eating solids.   You have started having 3 meals a day and that means you aren’t drinking as much formula. You drink 5 oz bottles (on average) of Similac during the day and you take a bottle of Enfamil AR at night.  You are trying pretty hard to pull yourself to standing, but you still need my help to do it.

Making your baby food has been a success so far and I am really proud that I can do that for you.  So far you have tried avocado, oatmeal, green beans, sweet potato, yellow squash, butternut squash, banana, apple, and YoBaby Organic vanilla yogurt.  I have a bunch of fruits frozen in ice cubes just waiting for you to try!  Oh, and some carrots and peas, too.  I hope you like them better than you liked those green beans!  I want you to try everything!

Still no success with a sippy cup.

The cat tolerates you a little better now.  If mommy is nearby then she will sit close enough for you to touch her.  If I don’t help you pet her gently, you tend to yank out a big chunk of her hair and she runs away.  You scare her when you do your happy shriek and flap your arms.  She doesn’t know you do it because you are excited to see her.

You can push up on to all fours and rock back and forth.  No crawling yet, thank goodness.

I think that pretty much sums up your progress for now.  It’s time to go open presents at Maw Maw’s now.  I can’t wait until Christmas next year when you will have a better idea of what’s going on.  I can’t wait to see your excitement!

Love,
Mommy

You know I just love pictures of my baby sleeping....

Peek-a-boo!

My commentary is unrelated to the picture, but I just had to post it.  He's too fun!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

On Tuesday night I had to cook some steaks I had thawed out or toss them in the trash, so after working overtime, I ran come and threw together a casserole and started heating the charcoal for the grill.  Then I had to go pick up the lil bear while the food cooked and the coals were getting hot.  We got home and I had to put the steaks on, so Rickybear was just going to have to play by himself for awhile.  He is not good at playing by himself.  He likes to be in our sight at all times.  The upside of having our parents keep him every day is that he gets all the attention he could ever need; the downside is that he is never alone and he doesn't like to play by himself. 

*sigh*

Thank goodness we have been practicing some solitary playtime because I had to set him up in the pack ‘n play with some musical toys and stuffed animals and head back outside.  I had the grill on the back patio and pulled the blinds up all the way so I could still see him.  OMG he played for nearly half an hour before he got fussy... SUCCESS!  I was pretty proud of him for being so good.

And since I know you are dying to know how the steaks turned out… they were good DESPITE the fact that I cooked them.  Apparently I didn’t have enough coals because they lost heat really fast and I had to cook them for what seemed like forever, but they weren’t too dry.  Hey, I stopped grilling when I started dating my husband.  And it was dark outside.  And… yeah, I am just not that good at grilling.  What can I say? 

Now this is more like it!

Rickybear.. you look a little different!

Nana walked in an saw this lil darling in the highchair the other morning.
She suspects he wanted some yummy pureed sweet potatoes...

I love watching this kid grow and learn.  He surprises me every day.  Since Richard and I both work overtime right now, Rickybear is spending more time with his grandparents during the week and less time with us.  He is still receiving tons of love and attention, but we sure do miss him during the day.  We cherish every second we have with him when he is with us.  Even though the laundry might need to be folded or the pans might need to be washed when we get home, I always make sure that we spend plenty of quality time with him.

Richard usually has play time with the baby while I cook dinner, but while Richard eats it’s my turn.  Last night we were sitting on the floor and I was trying to feed him some avocado, but he was more interested in playing.  Whereas it used to be a struggle to get him to open his mouth for the spoon, he has gotten the hang of it now.  I know it’s such a basic thing, but it makes me so proud. 

When he was finished eating, we practiced standing up.  Well, even if I am not a willing participant, he will yank on me and try to pull up on my shirt by himself.  But I place my hands out in front of me with my palms up and he will latch on and pull up to standing, then we do the “boogie dance” until his legs get tired and he sits back down.  He rests for barely 30 seconds then he is good to go again, shrieking and dancing and giggling.  So fun!  He just needs me to anchor him- I don’t have to help pull him up or anything.

After we are all finished playing, he gets “nighttime ready”, but we have recently added watching the fish swim and reading a short story into the mix.  We are reading a book with 365 short stories that my mother gave me that she used to me when I was a baby.  I want to start a routine he can look forward to and rely on.  Also, it’s a nice time for Richard and I to spend some quality time together instead of just watching tv or doing chores until I head to bed.

Gimme my toy!

We are getting close!  He tries his hardest to crawl and pull up to standing, but he just can't quite get it.  He struggles until he is out of breath.  He is one determined little boy!

Like most babies, my child is more perceptive than I give him credit. 

For example: I can leave him sitting on top of the bed with the remote control several feet away from him, but by the time I come back to the room, he has it in his hand!  And he is still sitting where I left him!  SNEAKY!  He certainly is his daddy’s child- he has become very skilled at changing the channel for us (well, as skilled as a 6 month old can be since he can’t read the buttons and only hits or chews on them because some of them light up…).  It’s a wonder he can get much practice because daddy never lets the remote out of his hand!  =)   (Love you, honey!)

So what else is fun to play with that a baby shouldn’t have?  The cell phones, of course!  But they light up and make cool noises and sometimes my mommy/daddy/grandparents’ voices come out of them and talk to him even though he can’t see them in the room with him!  How cool is that?!

So yeah, I thought a two year old would be into these things, but not my sweet, angelic 6 month old. 

Dear Santa, please give my child his own remote control and/or cell phone for Christmas…

And yes, he is texting here…

Maw Maw told me that Rickybear drank some water from a sippy cup while eating at her house yesterday.  I nearly fell out!  We have tried 3 different types of cups so far and he just can't seem to do it.  =)  We have plenty of time before he really needs to be weaned from the bottle, but I like to give him lots of practice.  We just switched to fast flow nipples on his bottles to help him adjust.

Well kudos to you, little boy, if you will drink from a sippy cup at your Maw Maw's house.  Maybe one day you will do it for Mommy, too.  I'll believe it when I see it myself!

It's time to eat!

I love that I can make all of my baby’s food.  I don’t know why it’s so surprising to people when I tell them that I waiting until 6 months to start Rickybear on solids and that I make all of his food.  What did people do before they had jarred food?  It’s not much of a burden.  It doesn’t require a lot of time. I can take an hour on Sunday night and make enough food to last the entire week.  I feel like I am doing something special for him.

Last night one of my Babyfit friends posted that they had made over 200 ice cubes worth of baby food!  She had to have spent hours doing it, but that’s enough food to last for weeks!  I usually just make enough to last him a week (he only eats about 2 cubes a day), but one day I might be that adventurous.  Anyway, her post motivated me to get up and prepare his food for the week, so now he has carrots and yellow squash to try.

So far he loves bananas and sweet potatoes, likes avocado, tolerates oatmeal, and doesn’t like green beans.

We have tried Gerber Graduate puffs, but he hasn’t gotten the hang of them.  He has gotten better at picking them up, but once they go in his mouth, they just sit on his tongue and massive amounts of drool pour out while the puffs dissolve.  LOL!  He still needs to work on that!

Every day with him is an adventure.  I love being a mom!

That would be sweet potatoes... yummy...

Mmm... tastes like chicken!

Family means everything...

On Monday I met a woman in the grocery store checkout line that really left an impression upon me.  She was cheerful and upbeat, but she shared with me that she had recently lost her husband.  Last year, she also lost three other relatives, including a parent.  She told me that it’s the little things that she misses the most about having a partner- having someone to help bring in the groceries from her car, change a light bulb, or reach something off of the top shelf for her.  She was shocked at how hard it is to live by herself.

A widow at 60 years old.

She misses the companionship.  She went directly from living with her parents as a young girl to being married and living with her husband.  She has never been alone before and her children have no time for her.  Her son lives out of state and her daughter lives nearby, but has the grandchildren in so many extracurricular activities that there is no time for visits from grandma.  She wanted to imprint upon my heart that life and family are precious, and to always appreciate them.

I get so dragged down sometimes by the day to day tasks in life.  It seems impossible to balance everything and still feel fulfilled myself.  Working full time with a commute.  Maintaining a home.  Cooking all the meals.  Being a good wife.  Being an attentive mother.  It feels so hard sometimes. 

Sometimes I feel like I do it all myself, but honestly, I know I take my husband for granted.  One day I will wake up and he will no longer be here.  I know that my life is better for having him in it… and without him, I wouldn’t have my beautiful-wiggly-smiley baby boy!

I am thankful for the life I have and the special people who share it with me.

Put me in, coach!

I'm ready to play!



In the spirit of Christmas...

On Sunday morning we took our Christmas pictures. Getting up at 5:30am on a Sunday was worth it because the pictures turned out great! Well, at least the baby looked great, lol!

After his 6 month well check-up appointment, Rickybear had no fever whatsoever, so I scheduled to take him back on Thursday to see the nurse. We were in and out within 10 minutes. He was such a champ. He cried when he actually got the shots, but as soon as we scooped him up, he began to smile. He ran a small fever after the shots, but he was trying to jump right away, so his lil legs couldn‘t have been too sore. Aside from taking a 3 hour nap that afternoon, he was just like his usual self!

Guess what? I sprained my wrist this week. At first I attributed my wrist pain to my flu shot, which had made my entire arm ache. By Thursday the pain was unbearable (since my job consists of typing on a keyboard for 8 hours day!), so after Rickybear’s shots I decided to stay home and rest it. I had NO CLUE as to what I did to hurt it… until Thursday night. I went to get Ricky bear a bottle at 4am and stumbled into a doorway in my zombie state and nearly hit the floor… then it came back to me. Yep, I think I fell the night before. Getting up from a dead sleep to tend to the baby can be dangerous!! I also took the next day off of work and now my wrist is feeling much better. Thank goodness! I can’t tell you how hard it is to diaper change and dress a squirmy baby with one hand!

As a reward for being such a good boy, I decided to take Rickybear to see Santa for the first time!! Bass Pro has free pictures, so the neighbor and I packed up our babies and headed out on Friday night. Alyce has a 13mo little girl named Avery, and she has another one on the way. The line was a bit long, but moved pretty quickly. My lil man was a pro up there! He even pulled on Santa’s beard just to make sure it was real (it was!). The picture is so stinkin cute! Boogie has been a very good boy this year so I think Santa will be very good to him!

Yay!

I have been blogging about my wonderful little man for over a month now!  I can't believe it's been that long already.  He has grown and changed so much in just that one quick month!

Oh, if sleep could only come this easily...

6 month doctor visit

Rickybear had his 6 month appointment on Monday.  It was sooo hot in the waiting room and he was a bit hungry and fussy when finally made it to the exam room.  By the time they got around to taking his temperature he was a screaming, crying mess.  They did the forehead scan twice and it was 101.5 both times.  The pedi was concerned because it also looked like he had hives on his chest and face.  I had just thought that his eczema was acting up, but apparently his eczema had flared and he had hives in addition to that. 

Since it didn't happen right after we tried solids, the doctor said it wasn't a reaction from that.  She was worried it was the early stages of strep, so they swabbed him, but he was negative.  They took his temp again and it was 99.0 a few minutes later.  I think it had gotten high because it was so hot in there and he was also upset about the exam.  Either way, the doctor didn't feel comfortable giving him his shots if he wasn't feeling well, so I will have to come back after 3 days of no temperature.  Mommy ended up getting her flu shot there and baby got away with none!

I want to have them recheck his length when we go back because he is measuring so so tiny.  His weight is 15lb 10oz (16th %), his length is 24.5 in (2%), and his head circ is 17.25 in (49%).  I did several growth calculators online and each gave a slightly different percentage, but overall these percentages seem pretty accurate.  I can't believe he is that small, though.  I feed him nutritious formula and let him eat till his little heart is content.  We didn't really discuss his numbers since she was more concerned with him possibly being sick, but I want to make sure everything is on track.


Oh!  We discovered something when filling out the developmental checklist at the doctor's office as well.  We had to wave a napkin in front of the baby to get his attention and once he was looking at it we dropped it.  I thought he would just keep looking at my hand, but to my surprise he looked down to see where it went.  I didn't expect that at all!  He apparently developed a sense of object permanence when I wasn't looking!  Overall, she said he was advanced as far as development is concerned.  I am so proud of my lil man!


I was given a prescription for some medicated lotion for his skin and for baby vitamins.  I also got a new... um... tushie thermometer since it seems to be more accurate than the forehead scan ones.  I was supposed to monitor him closely last night but when I checked he was cool and his temp was 97.9 degrees.  I added the lotion and the vitamins to his nighttime routine and he did fine. He had some avocado, finished off a bottle, and passed out.  He woke at midnight but I turned on his seahorse and drifted right back off to sleep without a feeding.  Sweet boy.


I hope he feels better today!