SIX Months!

Toots is SIX months old today!! I can't believe we were spending our first night with him six months ago today. A lot has changed since then and I'm not sad about any of it :)

I forgot when I posted last week that his doctor's appointment isn't until Thursday, so I will have to post his stats then. Here's some tidbits about him now:

He is sitting up by himself for long periods of time and can even lean to get something he wants without falling over. He very easily rolls from tummy to back, within about 1.5 seconds of being put on his stomach, but still won't roll back to tummy. When he is on his tummy, he kicks his legs out like he wants to move and holds himself up with his arms really easily. His favorite toys are his Sophie giraffe, Bright Starts lion with cellophane crinkly in the tummy, his stacking rings, and his rolly ball that rolls a little on its own, has stuff to push, and sings songs. He also loves this little guitar that plays music. He loves to talk allll the time and also recently LOVES to squeal/scream very shrilly and loudly. It's great fun at restaurants and when we're at people's houses :) He has also recently come to love standing up all the time. His exersaucer is also a big hit but he's not so into the jumper (at least, he won't jump in it. He just spins around). Oh, and he also very much likes strolling around in the stroller. That usually cheers him up if he is fussy and he often falls asleep in it.

No teeth, yet, but he loves to chew on EVERYTHING, especially fingers, and drools a bunch.

We are completely off of the pacifier and sound machine now, so he has no sleep aids whatsoever except a nightlite but I don't really consider that a sleep aid. We have a nighttime routine we have had in place since he was first able to take a bath after his umbilical cord fell off. Now it starts off with eating dinner, then a bath, get dressed for sleeping, eat a bottle while Daddy reads him a book, finish the bottle, kisses from Mommy and down to sleep. He rarely cries anymore when I put him down for sleep and usually falls asleep within 5 minutes. At nap time, he might cry for 5 or so minutes but then falls asleep. He takes three naps per day right now - one usually around 9:00 AM, one around 1:00 PM, and one around 3:30 or 4:00 PM. They range anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the nap and the day.

As far as food goes, well, he loves it! Every morning when he wakes up (he is allowed to get out of bed at 7:00 or later. Sometimes he wakes up as early as 6:15 but does a great job just entertaining himself until I go in at 7.) he gets a banana. He usually eats between 3 and 4 oz total of the banana and then drinks between 3 and 4 oz of a bottle. At lunch, he eats between 4 and 6 oz of food - usually two different kinds of vegetables and we also recently introduced chicken, and some applesauce or pears - and 5 oz of a bottle. At around 3:15, he gets just a bottle and drinks 8 oz. He eats dinner around 7:15, again a mix of fruit, chicken, and vegetables, and then eats between 7 and 8 oz of a bottle right before bed. He loveeeeess sweet potatoes and butternut squash for vegetables and likes carrots. He does not like green beans. He is okay with peas. He's still getting used to the chicken. He loves the applesauce and pears. Also, a couple times he has had some refried beans at a Mexican restaurant and thinks those are yummmmmy!

I can't think of anything else right now...I feel like there is more to say about him but that's all I can think of.

I'm 6 months old today!


Mom, I think it says we should eat this. Bear thinks so, too.

Oh.my.goodness. This cake is HUGE!

Close-up of the 1/2 birthday cake I made for him. He had a tiny taste of just the cake part and seemed to like it.

We went swinging for his 1/2 birthday as well. I thought his eyes looked pretty in this picture.

He was totally cracking up at Tim. Daddy is the funniest person he knows.

Toots also celebrated his very first 4th of July this week! We went to Trophy Club and met with a girl I recently met in our playgroup who has a seven month old and her husband. We really enjoyed hanging out with them and hope to get together again soon. There was a parade that we watched and a car honked loud and it scared him and he started crying. Harrison, his friend that was there too, got really upset by the firetruck sirens. I'm glad he's not the only one who is scared of loud noises!

When we first got there, we realized we forgot a stroller, so Tim offered to carry him in the carrier I had in the car. He's right at the weight limit for it but fit okay. He wouldn't look at the camera for the picture, though!

Then we left and went to Wal-Mart real quick and bought an umbrella stroller. I like this MUCH better, Mama!

I don't have any pictures of it (because I'm a horrible picture taker), but we went to visit my grandparents and mom and stepdad in east Texas Friday and Saturday, and Toots saw his first fireworks there. They were a little further away so they didn't make a loud noise that scared him and he liked them for a little while and then got bored. He was a trooper, though, and stayed up 3 hours past his normal bedtime and wasn't even fussy! Toots loves both sets of his great-grandparents and very much enjoys visiting them as well as sitting outside and swinging while we're there.

Here's an example of me sitting up. I like to hang out without clothes as much as possible :)

Mommy, WHY are you always sticking this thing in front of me?! What is it? I think I will try and eat it.

I finally took some pictures of the house even though we still don't have all the pictures hung. I will post those tomorrow and I will also bring back Skinny Tuesday (on Wednesday) tomorrow. I noticed I have lost A LOT of readers (based on the hits I get per day on the sitmeter) over the past couple weeks. I guess I am boring :( Thanks to those of you who still read and I hope y'all had a great weekend!

Happy 6 Months, Toots!

Letter To Yourself

Jill at Baby Rabies participated in a blog idea to write a letter to yourself at a previous age. The direct link to that post is here. I want to participate in this idea and plan on doing so when I have more time to write (Toots just "woke up" from a non-nap), but I wanted to copy and paste a portion of Jill's letter to her 25 year old self because I thought it was great. I think I would've written this to myself at the beginning of law school or the beginning of Practice Court (Age 21 or 23), but I still think it applies.

Your confidence is shaky these days. You worry if you’re living up to what others expect of you. You wonder if you’ll ever “be” somebody. What I’m about to tell you is going to blow your freaking mind. When you become a mother soon (yes,soon), that tiny little person will do more for you than a 4 year college degree ever did. He will help you find yourself. Your confidence will grow, not because you will be a perfect mother (you really won’t even be able to figure out how to pee without putting him down the first month), but because you will be amazed at your own strength. Your priorities will fall in line, and you’ll know that happiness isn’t about becoming who you wanted to be when you were 17, but about allowing yourself to give up a little control and seeing where life takes you.

You’re going to learn to truly appreciate the moment you’re in, instead of constantly yearning for the next big thing. It will continually be a battle to live in the moment, but you’ll work harder to stay there. Success won’t be measured by the size of your paycheck or the make and model of your car, but by the number of nights you get your infant to sleep longer than 5 hours and by the joy that fills your heart the first time he belly laughs at you. Sure, that may sound like a drag now, but I promise it’s a ton of fun… most of the time.

I actually cried when I read that part of her letter because it is exactly what I would like to tell myself when I started law school. I'm kind of embarassed to say this, but it's the truth, so I will...About a month before I found out I was pregnant with Toots, which would have been right about the time I actually had just gotten pregnant, I was finishing my first quarter of Practice Court and would soon be starting my final quarter of law school. Right before our last final, several of us were talking in a classroom and one of my friends said something about how she wasn't going to have kids anytime soon, so she was depending upon her friends to start having kids that she could play with. She and a few of the guys we were talking with all looked over at me (I was the only one married in the bunch talking) and I said "ohhhh no, not me! I'm WAY too close to finishing school and starting my career to have a baby now. At the beginning of law school, I would've thought about it, but definitely not now!" And, little did I know, there was a baby growing in my belly at that exact moment and my life would change forever literally a month from then. Of course I was totally excited when I found out I was pregnant, but it did change that "plan" Tim and I had about me working for three years before I got pregnant and it did virtually end my very quickly upcoming career as a prosecutor for at least the next several years, but it turned out wonderful and I couldn't ask for anything else.

The point of all this is, I found some insight in Jill's letter to herself and it reached out to me and would be something I would've also liked to say to myself at the beginning of law school, at my 21 year old point in my life. A baby changed all my priorities and all my plans, but it was already God's plan and it turned out to be the best plan He could've had for me.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

It's been raining here since yesterday afternoon. It finally stopped about 2:00 and the sun came out, so Toots and I went for a walk. It was HOT after that sun came out, though! I was planning to take him to the pool after he woke up from his nap, but he's napping longer than usual, so we'll probably just hang out here until Tim gets home and then it's off to Rosa's for Taco Tuesday! If you don't know what Taco Tuesday is, there is this Mexican restaurant called Rosa's Tortilla Factory and on Tuesdays they have taco plates for $3.66 (or something like that, it used to be $3.33 and they just raised the price). You get three tacos, rice, beans, and two tortillas for that price! It's a good deal and we go EVERY Tuesday - it's a family tradition :)

This past week, we went to Waco on Thursday to surprise my dad for his birthday. I thought he was going to be out of town on his birthday, so we hadn't planned on going there but when I talked to him to tell him "Happy Birthday" on Thursday morning, I found out he was in Waco so I quickly called Tim and told him we needed to plan on going there. My dad was surprised and we had a great time. Before we left, we had our first playdate with several kids the same age as Toots. There was a little girl born January 3, a little boy born January 8, a little boy who was 7 months old, and an 11 month old little boy. It was really fun to see two other kids almost exactly the same age as Toots. I really liked the moms as well and hope to get to hang out with them more and make some friends.

This weekend, we mostly just hung out. Tim went and watched the soccer game on Saturday with some friends. He wanted me to come with Toots but I didn't feel comfortable bringing Toots to the bar they were going to (I felt like it was weird to bring a baby unless it was a restaurant/bar and this place isn't really like that). I was glad we ended up not going because he texted me when he got there and told me he was having to stand to watch the game. Holding a 20 pound baby for two hours while standing would not have been fun!

Sunday, we tried out a church closer to our new house. Well, it is closer in number of miles but almost took us the same amount of time to get there. It was a nice church and the people seemed friendly, but I didn't like it as much as our current church. We are going to try another one that is only 7 miles from our house and see what we think about it. I'm having a hard time wanting to switch because I love our church so much, but when it takes 20-30 minutes to get there, it's easy to decide not to go and we don't want to do that. Toots has started being quite loud in church and we actually had to take turns alternating going outside with him this Sunday. I think we're going to have to check out the nurseries at the churches and consider leaving him in there if we're going to go to church. That makes me nervous, but we'll check them out and see.

Nothing much else is going on. We went to the mall today and walked around for about an hour because I was going stir crazy in this house with Toots since it was raining. I am having a hard time lately because he is awake for a lot more time now (2 - 2.5 hours at a time) and I quickly run out of ways to entertain him! Because his attention span is pretty short, it seems like we can play with all his toys and read some books and it has still only been 45 minutes. I try taking him on walks, to swing, or to the pool when it's nice outside but since it hasn't been yesterday afternoon and today, I was not sure of how the heck I was going to find things to do with him. If any of you moms have any suggestions of things to do, please let me know! I'm not sure if I need to buy some more toys or what. He doesn't really like his playmat anymore. Actually, I take that back. He still likes the playmat and is on it right now. I think he just doesn't like to be on it multiple times a day anymore. We use the exersaucer and jumper some and I also play with blocks and some other toys with him. I might get him some light-up drums because I've heard from some moms on The Bump that their kids really like them.

Next Thursday (not this coming one, but the next) we have his 6 month appointment. I can't believe he's going to be 6 months old in one week! He's such a big boy - in size and otherwise now - and it's crazy it's been a half year since he was first born. Sometimes, it felt like it had been years and years but now that he's sleeping, it goes by fast ;)

We LOVE our new video monitor we got! I don't know how I survived without it and it would be a HUGE recommendation on my part to any new moms. I originally read that people didn't like them because they would stare at the baby the whole night and that's why I didn't register for one, but I definitely wish I had because it really helps to not have to jump up everytime I hear him make a noise and be able to know he's fine when he is crying. I got a funny picture of him sleeping the other day on it:

He konked out with his hand over his eye!


Me and Toots. This is, not kidding, the first picture I have of him and me (by ourselves) since he was about a month old or less. I told Tim we have to start taking more pictures of me and him - I'm usually the one behind the camera.

He and Daddy were sitting on the porch the other afternoon and I snuck a picture of them through the window. I just thought it was cute.

He loves his baseball toy his Nana got him before he was born. It makes cute noises that he likes, but he mostly loves chewing on the ball and on the tee right now!

Look what I can do now! Last week, I reported he sat up on his own for about 30 seconds. Now, he does it for minutes at a time. It's amazing the difference a week makes in a baby!

Daddy's home! Yay! (His shirt says "My Dad Rocks")

We tried the duck tub again last night since he sits up better. He can sit up in it, but he prefers to sink down so the water is all over him, which leads to tilting and getting close to falling out. We'll keep trying :)

Uh, oh! She caught me!

Playing in his exersaucer. He is soooo good at controlling everything on it now and turning around to play with everything.

Thanks to those of you who commented on my "Blocking Spree" post. Jess and Lara, I unblocked you - sorry I didn't realize who it was! I hope everyone has a great 4th of July! We're taking Toots to see some fireworks for the first time. We'll see how that goes since he's scared of loud noises. I'll post next Tuesday after his doctor's appointment for sure and possibly before then.

Patty Cake

I forgot to mention a few other fun things about Toots in my post last week. He LOVES Tucker (our Yorkie) and thinks he is just the funniest thing ever. I have a really cute video of him laughing when we say "Tucker" to him but I can't figure out how to get the videos off of my camera and onto the computer. When I connect my camera to my computer, the videos don't show up for me to upload them :(

Also, he has recently discovered sucking on his feet and reallllly likes to have his right big toe in his mouth if at all possible. He's also very into patting things. He likes to pat one of my hands while he's eating, pat the couch, pat the table, etc. And he loves his Faith Newman/Sophie more than ever. He is very good at being able to get any part of her body in his mouth and pretty much chews on her all day.

He is still sleeping fantastic, yay! Yesterday, he was on his back and was pushing himself backwards with his feet. We turned him over on his stomach and Tim put his hands against Toots' feet and Toots pushed himself along to a toy I had just out of his reach. It was cute. Too bad we can't get him to roll from back to tummy to begin getting ready to crawl! He's sitting up well. This week, he sat up without be a tripod (hands down to balance himself), for about 10 seconds. I know that may not seem like a lot, but it was a pretty big deal :)

As for me and Tim, we are very much enjoying the extra sleep we are getting. I no longer dread when it's getting night time. We recently got a Netflix account and have been enjoying watching some movies and also started watching TrueBlood this season. Tim has been really excited about the World Cup being on and spent most of his Father's Day watching that. Toots and I go on a walk/run every morning after he wakes up (except this morning because I actually slept in as well instead of getting up right after I fed him at 6:00) and sometimes we stop and swing at the playground during our journey. STILL haven't gotten any pictures hung in the house but I think we will accomplish that the rest of this week. I'm ready to get it done so we will be finished getting the house ready.

I haven't been doing as well on my diet and have gained a couple pounds. I decided to quit Weight Watchers to save money and I also had to quit Stroller Strides because, in addition to it costing $50/month (which we could afford), because of the location of it, it was costing us an extra $150-$200 in gas for me to drive there everyday, which made it unaffordable. I was reallllly sad to have to quit because I love the workout and the women I met there and I think that's the main reason I've gained a couple pounds because I haven't been getting a good workout. I am trying to be diligent about the walking/running in the mornings and sometimes in the afternoon as well and I think I'm going to start getting up early in the mornings and doing P90x workout. I'm just ready to get rid of these last 10 pounds but I am NOT good about my eating habits!

I guess that's about all going on right now! Here's some pictures

I posted this on facebook, but for those of you that aren't friends with me on there, I had to post it on here for all to see! He's a ladies man, what can I say...
First time ever on the swing

Hanging out on the couch in his cool overalls

It's a little harder to see in this picture than it was on my camera, but look how read his hair looks! All the pictures I took of him in the overalls, he had really red hair

Father's Day! His shirt says "Dad's My Allstar"

Swinging with Daddy for the first time. This isn't the same day as the above pictures in the overalls...I just put him in them a lot since it is hot :)

Hope everyone has had a good week! Sorry there aren't anymore pictures...I haven't been good about taking them this week!

Happy Happy

Happy First Father's Day to my amazing husband and Toot's super awesome Daddy!

And Happy Father's Day to my super awesome Daddy :)

My really great Step-Dad

My fabulous Papa

And my sweet, sweet Pappaw!

Hope everyone has a great day and an especially great Father's Day!

Chronicles of Crying It Out

As wrote in my post last Monday, Toots has been sleeping horrendously. His sleep was getting worse and worse as time went on, to the point that week before last, he was waking up 6 to 8 times from 1 AM to 6 AM and not sleeping well for his naps, either. I was exhausted and unable to get much of anything done because of him not sleeping during the day or at night and Tim was also extremely tired at work.

I had always been pretty against Crying It Out for Toots. Just seeing how he cried during the day when something was wrong, I thought it would be WAY too traumatic to let him cry himself to sleep. As mentioned last Monday, I had tried letting him cry it out for his morning nap. He cried for 40 minutes with me going in every 10 minutes and it took me at least 10 minutes to calm him down when I picked him up and then he finally passed out. I told Tim if we were going to do this crying it out thing at night, I was probably going to have to sleep upstairs or sleep somewhere else for the night because I couldn't bear hearing him cry for a long time. The next day, I tried it again for his morning nap and let him cry for 30 minutes, with me going in every 5 minutes. Same result as the day before. At his afternoon nap, I decided to be a little harder on him and I let him cry for an hour, only going in once at 20 minutes. He still never fell asleep and after an hour it was time for him to eat, so I just got him up and he never took an afternoon nap.

I posted on Facebook about the trouble I was having and had a friend suggest not going in there at all when he was crying. She said they tried over and over with her little girl to get her to go to sleep, going in every 5, 10, or 15 minutes and they weren't making any progress. Her sister-in-law suggested not going in there at all. She said her little girl cried for 43 minutes the first night, 21 minutes the second night, 8 the third night, and then none at all. I really wasn't sure if I could do that, but she mentioned that they had purchased a video monitor so they could watch the little girl and make sure nothing was actually wrong with her and that she was just crying. I called Tim at work and told him about it and he told me to go ahead and go buy a video monitor. I went to Target right then and bought one.

Tuesday night, we set it all up and put him in bed to cry for as long as it took (unless, of course, it became obvious something was wrong). He cried for 15 minutes and fell asleep! I couldn't believe it! Then, he slept the ENTIRE night (NINE hours and 20 minutes straight!), woke up and ate, and went back to sleep for another hour. At his naptimes on Wednesday, he cried for about 20 minutes each and then fell asleep. Wednesday night, he cried for approximately 2 minutes and then fell asleep! He did wake up once at around 12:30 and cried for a couple minutes but he slept an extra 45 minutes before waking up for his first bottle. He only went back to sleep that day for about 30 minutes, I didn't mind when he had slept so well the night before.

Thursday for his naps, he was completely asleep for one of them (fell asleep eating his bottle), so there was no crying, and minimal crying for the other one. Thursday night, he did not cry for even one second! He played in his crib for about 5 or 10 minutes and then fell asleep and slept the entire night again. Friday was the same result. Saturday morning, he didn't want to go back to sleep at all after his first bottle at 6:30 (why do they always do that on the weekends? :)) but we managed to get him back to sleep with us for about 45 minutes before we got up. He cried a little longer for his naps yesterday, one time about 20 minutes before going to sleep and last night he cried for about 5 minutes after he was put in bed.

But, last night, he sleep from 8:45 to 6:30, ate a bottle, back asleep by 6:45, and slept until 9:25! That was, by far, the best night we've ever had. Today, he cried for about 5 or so minutes when I put him down for his first nap, but now he's fast asleep.

I wanted to chronicle these crying it out adventures so that I would remember how they went for the next kid and so other people could see how it can work. Like I said, I was very against it originally and I definitely didn't think I could ever, ever let him just cry without going in there, but I've learned as a parent so far that we end up doing lots of things we thought we would never do. And, it worked. Like magic. I can't even believe all the sleep I'm getting now. I'm able to get up at 6:00 when Tim gets up for work so I can be completely dressed and usually have the house straightened up before Toots gets up. One day last week I was even able to get 30 minutes of work done before he got up. If he somehow continues the trend of what he did last night, I would be able to get lots of work done before he gets up. I feel better than I have since about a month before Toots was born!

So, if you're a parent now having sleep issues or if you become a parent in the future and have sleep issues, never say 'never' and consider all options :)

Blocking Spree

Ok, guys, I'm about to go on a blocking spree. This means, if you have recently started following my blog and have never commented before, I need you to comment no later than next Friday (June 25) or I am blocking you. I'm realllllly trying hard not to take this blog private because I enjoy knowing anyone can read it who might want to know about the happenings of a new mom, but when I have a new follower nearly everday and I have no idea who you are, I don't know why the heck you're reading if you never comment. If you have a profile or your own blog, I'm a little less weary because I can find out about you through your profile, picture, or blog. But, if you have a cartoon for a picture, no picture at all, no profile, and no blog, I can't help but to be a little suspicious of you.

So please comment and let me know you are a real person and not a crazy weirdo. I'm specifically talking to you Elif Gokmen, argos 2793, sharath banuka, Helen Gargan, JessB, Lara, renaria rodrigues, stephen, nasus_ale, Shay, leenieemt13, lucyinthesky89, and marinegurl6.

I really appreciate all y'all reading this and being interested but, like I've said before, I've gotta know who you people are! :)