Seven

7. Seven. Closer to 1 than birth.  7. Yes, I am still letting it sink in. Smush is now 7 months old.


Seven Months Feels Wiggly and Frustrating

Smush is trying so hard to be mobile. He is starting to see things that he wants then try his hardest to get to them.  This often finds him in all kinds of funny positions and sometime frustrated when he can't get out of them.  His body is quickly catching up to his mind and I have a feeling he will be crawling and successfully pulling up to standing in no time.



Seven Months Sounds Joyful
Nolan is babbling all the time. He has recently turned it up a notch from the dadadas to mamamas, nananas and even some bababas. He loves to laugh and giggle and we love it when he gets so excited that he just goes silent.  Sure smiles and giggles come from his big brother running around him, kisses on his cheeks and getting ice from the ice maker.  I know the last one is kinda weird but he loves it every time.

Seven Months Smells like Antibiotics

This last month has been a rough one on him. He started it out with an ear infection at his 6 month well check. I had seen a few signs so I wasn't suprized in the least bit. After one round of antibiotics the ear infection was still winning. On to round two of antibiotics. This time the antibiotics won! But after a few short days off all antibiotics a cough and mega congestion set in. When the wheezing started it was back to the doctor. This time RSV. So now he is doing breathing treatments and some more meds. The good news is through ALL that yuck our little Smush has remained in super sweet spirits. He had one really crummy I just want to sleep on momma all the time day, but after that it was back to playing. If he didn't have such an awful cough and constant stream of snot you'd never know he was sick.


Seven Months Tastes like Plastic or Wood or whatever else he can get those two little teeth on. EVERYTHING is in the mouth these days. Of course, most of the things he gets are designed for that kind of abuse.
His first tooth broke through right at Halloween and then he popped another one for Thanksgiving.  Maybe we will get a Christmas tooth too? Speaking of Thanksgiving, isn't he a cute lil turkey?

It also finally tastes like food! After weeks upon weeks of offering food everyday Nolan finally decided to give it a try. Once he opened his mouth he loved eveything he tried. Then came the sickness and now meals are a little hit and miss. In true Nolan fashion though he still loves his milks. Although, we have had more success this month with formula when mommy must be away.  He is still a big fan of whole foods like bananas, apples, sweet potato and eating through his strainer thing-a-ma-jig. 

Seven Months Looks Smushy 

You knew I was going to say that at some point, right? My littest man is one handsome Smush. His blondish brown hair is maxing out on the fluff. His dimple just gets deeper and his eyes are still an intoxicating blue. He is almost up to 20 pounds and I still haven't asked the doctor about his 6 months height. Oh well, we have yet another follow up appointment on Friday, so maybe I will remember to ask then.

FALLing

So fall is here. Well, it's been here. As usual I am late to the game. We have been so busy in real life that I have hardly had the time to keep up here in blog world. We've been busy and a little allergy ridden. Allergies mean early bed time for momma. So here is a catch up post of all the fun that we have been having since fall fell and I fell behind.



We visit the pumpkin patch, over and over again. G actually calls it the pumpkin farm and for a few weeks he asked if we could go every day.
It is such a fun place to take hay rides, play in the village of wooden cut outs, tractors and trailers, run through the pumpkin house, see a pig, a really old turtle and have a picnic lunch.



We are fortunate that a fabulous patch is really close to our house so we are able to visit often and even have picnic dinners there when Daddy gets home from work early.

Then came Halloween. We had a halloween play date with my beautiful college friends and all of their charming little ones.



It is always total madness when we all get together since there are a dozen little ones between us. So needless to say this was a good as it got when it came to a group shot.

We also went to several fall festivals where the boys got to try out their costumes, play games and G even got to ride a fun little train.
Please allow me to introduce you to the Fire Chief and his trusty Fire Rescue Dog.



G really loved his costume. Well, let me be clear... He loved being a fireman. He loved the hat. He loved his fire boots. He didn't really love wearing the pants or jacket. He wore it around the house like this for a week before halloween and is still loving playing in the parts of his costume.



I started writing this post on the 10th and here I am 12 days later finally pushing publish on my Falling Behind post. I guess not much has changed over the past 12 days. Still terribly behind...

6 and Fluffy

Days keep coming, like it or not, and my little babe is already 6 months old. It happened over a week ago and I am still not believing that he is really 1/2 a year old. Where did it go? All I know is that it happened quickly, very, very quickly.

Six months finds our little Smush sitting well on his own, cutting teeth, slobbering like mad, talking for hours on end like a teenage girl and still perfectly smushy.



He jibber jabbers so much that most of the pictures from our little 6 month photo shoot look like this with his mouth wide open dadadadain away.

Here is a little more proof and evidence of his adorable squeals and razzes too.



His growth is evening out and slowing down a bit on the charts. He is now between the 80th and 90th percentile for height, weight and his head measurement. His head is going up and his height and weight are slowing down making him a perfectly proportioned little Smush. He weighed in at 18 pounds 11 ounces at his well check, but I some how failed to get his length.

His hair just keeps growing too and following a very similar pattern to G's. He has definitely entered one of my favorite stages, The Fluff. It is lightening up and getting those red undertones like G's did too.



He has proven this month that he definitely prefers breast milk to every other possible form of food including fruits, vegetables and formula. Really saying prefers is putting it nicely since most other encounters are flat out refusals, but we are working on it. Our best successes are coming from whole pieces of skinned fruit or well cooked chunks of vegetables that he can safely gnaw on.

As for sleep, he is still waking once, typically in the early morning hours. He often finds his way into our bed around this feeding and stays cozied up next to mom and dad until morning comes. It is such a hard habit to break me him of when you get to wake up to this sweet face smiling at you.



It is hopeless! I adore him like crazy. Only six months in and he has already gained control. Between him and his brother, they have me smitten and completely wrapped around those dimpled little fingers.

I know the next 6 months are going to fly by equally as fast and will hold just as many changes for our little Smush. I will just be here soaking up snuggles, still trying to slow things down and enjoying this beautiful ride.

Brothers

My hope is that these two grow into a deep and sweet understanding of what it means to have a brother. An understanding that they live out through out their lives. I know that they will fight hard and play rough, but my hope is that we can model for them how to also love deeply.

They are already off to such a good start.







I love this outtake because it their faces are funny and what in the world was G doing with his leg? But also because you can see their hands. When they are near they are often holding hands. Nolan is in that grabbing stage where he is always looking for something to hold onto or chew on and his brother's hand seems like a good choice. G also reaches for Nolan too. When we are laying on the floor reading books or snuggling up on the couch he takes hold. Heart Melt. Every time.

Sous Chef

I have one darling little chef in training. Almost every night he accompanies me on the counter as we make dinner. He tastes as we go ensuring all of the ingredients are to his liking.



Since he loves to help cook we often find ourselves baking in the afternoons too. You know, if the sweet tooth starts aching. He has already figured out how to clean the mixer by tasting.

Funny thing is that these were all taken on different days, but his wardrobe or lack-there-of is the same.



I have to be careful when cooking broccoli because it often sneaks away. He loves raw broccoli. Not sure if it's because he loves the taste or just thinks it's fun to eat.

My hope is that he loves being my little sous chef for years to come!

5.

My whole hand, I now have to use my whole hand to count my little Smushers age in months.



The transition between four and five months seems to have been a big one.
What's new? Well, Nolan is now rolling over from both his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy. He started rolling very stealth-like. He had been stuck on his shoulder for months, but all of the sudden he figured it out and if you looked away for one second he would roll. It took several days of knowing he could do it before anyone actually saw it happen. Now he is our little Rollin' Nolan constantly flopping back and forth to while paying on the floor or in bed.



In just the last few days, he is even sitting up unassisted for a few seconds at a time. What a whole new world this opens up!



He has pretty much given up sucking his thumb, but loves to chew on his fingers and can often be found gnawing on his right foot. Yep, he definitely prefers the right foot over the left.



He is wearing mostly 12 month clothing and at a very estimated weighing on the home scale weighed in at 18.5 pounds. He is trying to catch up to his big brother and has even started sporting outfits G wore when he was already walking.



We had to get in our picture in Daddy's outfit before Nolan grew out of it. Here he is at 5 months, G at 7 months and I am not sure about Matt. We will have to ask Nonnie.



At 5 months our Smushers still has that Jackpot Baby disposition, even strangers comment on his sweet temperament. You laugh so easily and it is a favorite past time of the whole family to get your belly laughs going. All it takes is a kiss on the cheek or G jumping up and down and then we melt at that sweet sound.
Somehow that sweetness seems to disappear when you are away from momma. You don't always have the easiest time in the church nursery or when left with family. It makes it rough to leave you.
Your a good sleeper and can nap when we are on the go. You still wake during the night to eat but I enjoy the sweet snuggles while the world is quiet.
You have had tastes of food but still prefer milk to solids for the time being. You watch us eat like a hawk but when it comes to purees you aren't sold quite yet. I think you just want to wait for teeth so you can skip to steak.
Speaking of teeth those two little buds on the bottom seem to be getting bigger by the day. I bet that we see some pearly white soon!
You are reaching for anything and everything but especially love to reach for faces. G is always saying "Nolan got me!" because every time he leans in you grab him. It just gets sweeter and sweeter seeing the two of you interact.
It is hard for me to believe that in a few short weeks you will be 6 months old, half way to one. How did it go by so fast? I wish we could just stall every time my heart gets that flutter so I could always remember exactly the way you are at that very moment. Yet I know we can't so I will take hundreds of pictures and videos and try to be in the moment in all of the little moments that we have.

BOYS

I absolutely love having boys.



With boys catching frogs in double underwear is just a typical Saturday afternoon.

Out of the Sand

While in Galveston we spent much time on the beach but some of my favorite moments were just conversations in the car, silly or cuddly moments in our condo and a few of the sand-free tourist stops.







We had a blast touring the rain forest at Moody Gardens, especially the butterfly exhibit.



G could have stayed there for hours just trying to catch one.

The animals were amazing, terrifying, interesting and beautiful all at the same time.



Since it was a week day and school is back in session, we were one of the only families there that day. We got lots of attention from the staff. It was neat to learn fun facts about the animals and to have someone point out some of the harder to spot creatures. After a lesson on bats, G decided he wanted to try doing things upside down for a while.



He kept assuming this position and announcing, "I'm a bat!". Funny kid!

We even got to see a Dora movie in 4-D! It was a new experience for all of us and I think we were all caught off guard at the first blast of mist in our faces as Dora flew her plane under a waterfall.





G also took his first swing at Putt-Putt Golf in Galveston.



Yep, Hole-in-One on his first swing! He's a natural!

After playing one round he asked to "Play Putt-Putt right now?" repeatedly. Even at 8 am the next morning he was asking me if we could go play putt-putt. The last night of vacation we obliged with a trip to another one of the local putt-putt courses. Although there was no hole-in-one that night, we still had lots of fun.



Yep, that is the best the lady at the course could do.
Yep, I played putt-putt like that.
Yep, G has started saying yep. He draws is out. It's hilarious.

It was memorable family vacation. A week together, uninterrupted is a beautiful thing. We are all looking forward to future family vacations, possibly even back to (as G calls it) our little yellow Galveston house.

The Beach

We did it! We timidly ventured out on our first family vacation. Turns out there was nothing to be timid about because we had a blast!

We made the 6 or so hour drive to Galveston to play amongst the waves and soak up the last few official days of summer. Since having G we hadn't really ventured out, unless it was to visit family, so we weren't really sure what to expect or if we would regret the whole thing.

6 days of vacation later, we have no regrets, tons of memories and far too many pictures to show for it. So many pictures in fact that I am going to have to break this up to share it all.

The Beach:
Introducing G to the beach was fabulous. I have long been a lover of the beach or any place near water and I hoped that he would too. We had been talking it up for weeks and although he had no idea what he was in for her was excited none the less. Upon actually seeing the beach and putting his toes in the sand, well, we was a little timid at first, but he embraced it quickly.

He now loves to build sandcastles, search out seashells, jump over and run from waves, and to just sit and let the water wash over him.





Nolan took to the beach quickly too. He felt so at home there that he spent most of the time sleeping. He did wake up long enough to get his toes wet a couple of times and to join us at the tail end of our last night dinner picnic in the sand.





More of our fun away from the sand to come...

Challenge

I dare you to watch these videos and not smile! Think you can do it?



How this? If you make it through all 3 videos without cracking a grin I'll buy you a coke. Better yet, I 'll buy you a pawscable.



Now that I think about it, if you watched and didn't smile then you certainly have no heart, therefore you have no life to sustain with pawscables or cokes.



Sounds like a win, win since you are most certainly smiling and I won't go broke on cokes or pawscables.

School Days

Our little G started school this year! He has gone for 2 days a week for 3 weeks now and is absolutely loving it, like I knew he would.



He has such a social personality, just like his dad, and I am pretty sure that when I say "school" he actually hears "friends". This kid loves him some friends! To him a friend is anyone even remotely near his age. Including the little girl who was probably 8 at the play ground the other day. As she approached with her mom, G got so excited he exclaimed "Look Mommy a friend!". And no we had never met her before.

He adores his teacher and has even started including her in the things that he is thankful for at night. Melts my heart!

I love our conversations after school and trying to decipher what he learned or did during the day. It is a puzzle to put together and leads to some funny quotes.

Our latest exchange went something like this...
Mom: G, did you color this picture (showing him the picture of Noah and the ark that he colored)
G: Yep
Mom: Who is this? (pointing to Noah)
G: God
Mom: Really? What is he doing?
G: Saying Ho! Ho! Ho!

So we obviously have a long way to go if he thinks that he colors pictures of God and that Noah or God is Santa. Hopefully we can get that sorted out!

It's so sweet to see him continue to develop into his own person. A person that is independent from me. The first day of school was strange. For the past two years I have known what he was doing almost every moment and then he went to school. And he ate lunch at table with other kids. And someone else took him potty. And someone else read him a book. And he made friends. And he sang songs. And I kept checking his daily schedule to try and envision what he was doing at that moment. And he survived. And he thrived with out me.

His teacher must have known about my seperation anxiety because she sent pictures of what they were doing that first day. I was thankful to have the opportunity to see what that fly on the wall was seeing.

What I love so much about the school dynamic is that he is super excited to go on the mornings he goes, leaves me with a kiss good-bye and no tears yet, but as soon as it's time to go he is ready to go home too. He thanks his teacher, waves good-bye and is just as eager to be back at home with mom.

I am so thrilled to see what this year has in store for him, especially his first Christmas pageant!

Silly Side Note: In the picture he was trying on his back pack that I made him. He was super excited about it and loved wearing it around the house before school started. On the first day when it was loaded up with supplies he strapped in on, only to proclaim "Too Heavy!" and take it right back off. He hasn't worn the thing since, although it doesn't house any supplies any more, only a change of clothes and lunch. Maybe he needs some motivation from Dora.

Hiccups

Wait for it....



I feel it coming....



There it is!



HICCUP!




They are so much fun sometimes you have to fake them.

Four

This is going too fast! Didn't I just post a 3 month update?



Like it or not, Smush went and turned 4 months old. He is the same sweet, happy, smushy baby he has always been just gaining new skills everyday.

I adore how he wakes up this happy each and every morning! It's a treat to see him in the morning.



He still isn't rolling quite yet. That blasted broad shoulder just gets in the way. Instead he has opted for baby break dancing, as I like to call it. He just spins on his back, twisting and turning his way across the floor.



He is starting to reach out for things and loving toys like tag blankets and his Texas teether. Speaking of teeth, his bottom gums are getting awfully thin and showing two little bumps. The drool has picked up to a bib wearing pace and he has traded that sweet little thumb for a full fist most of the time.

His stats at 4 months are 16 lbs 10 ounces and 26 inches long. Still hanging out in between the 90th and 100th percentile. Remember how I was going to take a picture of him in the same onesie for his monthly pictures? Yep, thats a 12 month onesie he is wearing! If he keeps up this pace he will outgrow it long before he gets to 12 months.

He still falls asleep holding on and surely loves his momma best of all. He gives us smiles and giggles all the time! I can not get enough!

All the Muches

In one of my outpourings of "I love you so much, much, much, much, much!" to the boys this summer my mom's sweet teenage neighbor said "My mom used to tell us I love you all the muches in the world". I thought it was so sweet, so I made this for my boys today.



I'm going to hang it somewhere as a sweet reminder that Momma loves you ALL the muches in the world!

Not for the Faint of Heart

Here it is people. You see, I am a Stay-at-Home Mom, Domestic Engineer, Mistress of My Domain, Child Developement Director, whatever you want to call it, but something new has been added to my job title (if there ever really was one). With two small changes I have officially become a HAZMAT Specialist.

Change #1 was the addition of this little Smush.


Change #2 was G leading the way to being potty trained.


These two things upped my contact with HAZMAT liquids exponentially. In all seriousness, this is not a job for the weak of stomach or faint of heart. Just ask Matt. On any given day, I make contact with up to 7 types of bodily fluids from 2 different little boys. I won't list them out because talking about stuff like this makes my stomach turn, but cleaning it off my floors, that I can do. It's business. You just GET. IT. DONE.

G is doing a great job with potty training and I won't go into details because this is a blog and I am sure he wouldn't want me posting about his business sometime down the road. I will say that I have learned a lot, including that my life is at a point where progress in potty training makes me want to do back flips and call every one I know. Sad, right?

Good thing that at the end of the day sweet baby coos and an adorable toddler hiney in big boy undies erase all images of HAZMAT encounters.