Our Little Inchworm

Look who is on the move!!!

Happiness is...

A stroller ride on a beautiful day.

 Play time in the exersaucer.



A full belly in my high chair.

Dinner out at Pei Wei.

It's the simple things in life.  



Future Beethoven?

6 Months: Happy half birthday!

Mr. Man, you are six months old! I cannot believe we have had you for an entire half year already! This month was equally challenging and FUN. Let's start with the fun - it's gotten relatively easy to get you to laugh, and it is just the sweetest sound in the whole world. You are now a major smiler and a rolling machine and immediately go from back to tummy when we put you down. You do the cutest little hands and knees move where you get up on all fours and rock. Sometimes you even launch forward, so I think we are going to have a crawler on our hands VERY soon! You love all things musical...toys, radio, singing, Nick Jr shows. You have started responding to your name and you light up when we call for you.

On the challenging front, you had bright blue tubes put in your little ears on October 14 after four consecutive ear infections. :( That was a really rough day and weekend for both you and us, but you seem to be having no ear pain anymore! Yay! You also sprouted two teeth earlier this month! They are so cute, but I can never seem to capture them in pictures.

The real challenge we've had this month is your eating and sleeping, which still seem to go hand in hand. Your acid reflux seems to really be bothering you more than ever, so you've been fighting bottles with all your might for a few weeks and have been drinking less and less formula. You still love your solids, but without the good formula nutrition in your little belly, you wake frequently at night hungry. Fortunately, Dr. Newton switched you from Zantac to Prevacid yesterday, and we are already seeing good things in just the past 24 hours, so fingers crossed!

At our six-month appointment yesterday, you weighed 19 pounds, 0 ounces (75th percentile) and your length was 27.5 inches (90th percentile). You are still a big, big boy! Right now, you are wearing 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. Keep on growing big boy - we love you!



Love at First Solids

Well, we are officially a three solid meals a day baby! As of about two weeks ago, Carter, you began eating breakfast (cereal and fruit), lunch (vegetable), and dinner (more cereal and a fruit or veggie).

We actually had no intention of starting you on all this solid food yet, but little stinker, you are stubborn as all get out and are O-V-E-R your formula. (Daddy says he knows where that stubborness came from...I deny it.) It takes quite a bit of convincing (and sometimes singing) to get you to eat your bottles, so Dr. Uncle Rob suggested we move you to three meals a day of food to keep you growing well. You can't get enough food!

The only thing you've really turned your nose up at so far is peaches...other foods you've enjoyed are rice cereal, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, pears, squash, green beans, peas, prunes, and oatmeal. We plan to try yogurt and some meats in the next month. I'm hoping that on Thanksgiving, we can give you your own version of turkey, sweet potatoes, and green beans. It's just so festive and fun to have you eating real food with us! We go see the pediatrician tomorrow morning for your 6-month appointment, so I'll be back tomorrow with your official stats. I'm estimating at least 75th percentile for everything..you are a BIG BIG boy!

He Rolls!

5 Months

You are 5 months old, sweet boy! I know I say it every month, but I can't get over it...TIME. IS. FLYING! This month was sort of rough for us...you endured yet another ear infection (hello tubes!), decided drinking out of a bottle wasn't cool anymore, and are cutting your first two bottom teeth, so eating and sleeping haven't been going super smoothly lately.

Let's talk food. On a positive note, you seem to really enjoy your two daily bowls of rice cereal and fruit, though, so that's been a plus! We tried sweet potatoes for the first time tonight...you gagged and made a face like you wanted to puke. Hmmm. We'll try again tomorrow and see what you think. On the formula front, you attempt to drink 6-7 ounces every 3.5-4 hours during the day. Sometimes you take it all with ease...other times you fight like mad and just take an ounce or two here and there. I'm hoping this is a phase and that once your teeth finally pop through you'll go back to normal. One tooth is definitely through the gum and the other is still working, so we'll see.

On the sleeping side of things, you are...inconsistent. You completely have the ability to sleep 11-13 hours at night without waking up and choose to do this whenever you feel well and ate well during the day. However, because you now fight your bottles and are in pain from your ears and teeth, you've started waking up either a few hours into sleeping (10ish) or early early morning (5ish) to eat. Fortunately, you always go back down quickly, but it's still no fun for mommy or daddy. We are in the process of scheduling tubes for you, so hopefully once those are in, you will return to your glory days of 12 hours at night. We miss those!

What else...you've found your feet! You now proudly hold your feet for me while I change your diapers and love to grab onto them when you play on your mat. You are also showing big time signs that you want to crawl...when we lay you on your tummy, you kick and flail like crazy and have started pulling your knees up underneath you. Once you get the arm strength to support your upper body, I think you'll figure it out. You have started smiling with your mouth shut (see above picture) and you have the sweetest laugh in the whole world. We can't wait to see what month six brings!

Well, that about sums it up! You are still a BIG BIG boy and are wearing either 6 month or 6-9 month clothing and size 3 diapers. We think you weigh around 17.5 pounds, but that was a very unscientific measurement. :) We love you baby boy!