11 Months Update

 

My Little Man is 11 months. I can't believe we are so close to his birthday. My tiny baby is gone, and replaced by this little person who decides what he wants and when. 

 Size: I haven't weighed him lately, but he has out grown his infant car seat and upgraded to the Big Boy one. Also most of his 12 months clothing are getting tight. He isn't a very chunky baby, but long, and so the onesies are getting short.

Food: He has started to eat more and more solid foods. He really is  not a huge fan of any "baby foods" anymore. He just realized how to eat out of those squeeze packets and that is the only way I can get him to eat baby food. Otherwise he will have about 5 bites and be done. I have found that Big Lots sells them for as low as $0.33 each (You have to catch them when they have them in stock. Sometimes they only have one flavor of something so I buy it out and go back the next week for whatever they have that time),which is much better than almost $2 that Dillon's has them for. He has a bottle at 7am, 11am, 4pm and 7pm, sometimes there is one more in there depending on when we get naps in. He also has blueberries and bananas for breakfast, and lunch we usually have grains and black beans or peas. Dinner is usually something off of our plate. He still hasn't had any meat and we don't give him any dairy except for occasional yogurt and if he's teething a bit of ice cream. I'm excited to be able to introduce strawberries and peanut butter after his birthday.
Activity: He is getting so fast at crawling. If he sees the dog food bowl, the dishwasher door down, the fridge door open, well basically anything we don't like him playing with, he books it over there. I have to admit there have been more than a handful of times that we have to pull dog food out of his mouth because we don't get the bowl on top of the counter fast enough. Apparently it doesn't taste bad enough to teach him a lesson. 

He is cruising everywhere, but has yet to let go of the couch to stand on his own. He still has that "fear face" when he thinks he's going to fall so he's not risking it just yet, but I know it's coming.

He loves playing with other kids and thinks that he is big enough to play too. One of my favorite things is driving and hearing his cracking up laughing at the other baby in his mirror. He finds it so funny and it makes me so happy.

Now that I'm no longer working as many hours I have been really trying to focus on sign language. He signs "more" by clapping and "all-done" by swinging his arms around. He recognizes if I sign "milk" and "eat" but he won't do it himself. The next word I'm working on is please.

Sleep:He takes a nap from 9:30-11:30 and another from 2:00-4:00 usually. He gets a bottle and goes to bed between 7 and 7:30pm and sleeps a full 12 hours.

He has been teething lately (he has 6 teeth total) but sleeping is actually really good for him and he sleeps more on the worst of the teething days.

Favorite Toys: Bingo (lovie) is still his favorite, he loves to cuddle with him. He has started to pay more attention to the dogs lately and aside from getting their hair pulled and sometimes hit on the head, they are very good at putting up with him. When they have had their fill they just walk away.

He has also really gotten into bubbles. He will see the bottle and grunt, when I ask him if he wants bubbles he says "bu bu".

10 Months Update

Size: He hasn't grown much this month. Our home scale says he weighs the same, and he is right in between 28-29 inches.
Food: Apparently Little Man loves all things that start with the letter B. His newest favorite foods are Black Beans (drained from a can and  rinsed), Blueberries (cut in half), and Bananas. He loves to feed himself and gets so excited.
Activity: He is getting faster and faster crawling around the house. He prefers to stand whenever possible so he crawls to something and pulls up immediately. A few times he has let go for a few second, but I wouldn't say he is standing alone yet. But I know it is just around the corner.
 Little Man learned to clap this month. Its so cute. He is so proud of himself. Whenever he is happy about something, he starts clapping. I am also trying to teach him sign language and when I sign more he does some form of the sign and clapping.
He as also become a Daddy's boy lately. He gets so excited when Daddy gets home and the other day he said "Dada" and crawled right to him. I have mixed emotions, I'm so happy to see them together and love each one more, but I want my Mommy's Boy back.
Sleep: He is still a great sleeper. He is taking 2-3 naps a day ranging from 45mins-2hours. He still sleeps 12 hours at night as well. We really are lucky to have such a great sleeper.
Favorite Toys: He loves Bingo (his dog lovie) whenever he sleeps, but we can substitute another blankie if he needs washing or something. He also loves electronics. He is always trying to grab our phones, the remotes, the Xbox controllers, etc. Oh and Kleenex. We keep some on the coffee table and he tries to pull as many out of the box as he can before I notice.

He wasn't very happy in our photo shoot yesterday so we quickly popped the pacifier in got a shot and went back inside.

9 Months Update

So I have been terribly busy this month. I'll save you the sob story but long story short, I have started a new job (more on that later) and we started looking for a house (postponed that-more on that later). So I am just now getting to my monthly update of Little Man, only 2 1/2 weeks late.

Size: We had another checkup at the doctor, everything looks great. He is 20.8 pounds and 28 inches. That puts him in the 45th percentile pretty much all the way around. Well except for his head, apparently he has a rather large head at the 60h percentile, but that just means he has a big brain right? 

Food: We have started to venture out into more solid foods lately. Christmas he had a few potatoes, rolls and a couple other thing from our plates. Kix are one of his new favorites, which is pretty cool since that was my favorite when I was his age. 

Activity: Little Man has officially joined the 4 inch high club!! What I mean is that he crawls with his belly off the floor :)

Now that he is mobile he is able to be a lot more independent. He doesn't really mind playing on the floor now because he knows that if he's upset he can come find me. 

Sleep: He really is a great sleeper. He goes to bed at 7:30 wakes up around 7. We usually put him down for a nap around 9 and he sleeps for about 2 hours. Then he takes 2 more naps during the day lasting around 45 mins. At Grandma's house though he gets spoiled because she holds him during his nap time. 

Favorite Toys: He is finally liking his Johnny Jumper (doorway swing) now that he can hold himself up. He also likes to find toys that are unconventional ie. water bottles, spatulas, yarn.

 As you can see he likes to get himself in very interesting positions.

7 Month Update

 He really enjoyed playing with the leaves as we were taking picture, he poked himself in the face a few times with the pine needles until I took it away from him. And look at these adorable "big boy" jammies! I can't believe how he is quickly changing into looking more like a toddler and less like my little baby.



Size:18 pounds 26.5 inches (measured at home so not very accurate)

Activity:He loves to ramble and put different sounds together. He says "bababa" and "mamama", blows bubbles, and just started this throaty "ggghhkk" sound (much like when you say Baklava). I'm not sure where he came up with this sound, but it is pretty funny to hear.  He loves sitting up by himself, and rolling over. He still hasn't figured out crawling, but I'm not worried because that means I'll be chasing him around the house all day. As much as this kids loves to stand I wouldn't be surprised if he skipped crawling all together. We put him in a walker the other day and immediately he started to move in it.

Foods:  He is refusing to nurse now, I think he was frustrated by the flow compared to a bottle. We are now doing all formula, about 5 6-8oz bottles during the day. He also has cereal and a fruit for breakfast, about an hour after his morning bottle. And he also has cereal and a veggie for dinner. He now eats Gerber Puffs, which he loves but he can't figure out how to get them into his mouth so the dogs get to eat most of them.  He now gets very frustrated when we are eating and not feeding him, so for the times when he as eaten his dinner before us I give him a teething biscuit that I make (recipe here) and he loves it. Rather than crumbling, the bread just gets mushy and dissolves. He has yet to finish one, he mostly knaws on both ends till its slippery then it falls on the floor and the dogs claim it.

Sleep: He is still a pretty good sleeper. Day light savings had us all thrown for over a week. He was wanting to wake up at 6am instead of his usual 8am. We are now finally back on a schedule of 7:30pm-7am, with the occasional wake up at 5:30, but we put a pacifier in his mouth and hes back to sleep. He is taking 2-3 naps a day averaging about an hour and a half. The 3rd nap is usually a cat nap around 4 or 5 just to hold him out until bed time.

Favorite toys: That jumparoo is still #1, in fact we have purchased a secondary one for Grandma's house because it's too big to lug around from house to house. He also loves to chew on stuffed animals (well anything he can bring to his mouth instantly becomes a chew toy). We have started bath time without the infant seat and he loves to splash and play with his bath toys.

He dumped out all of his toys from the box and was so proud of himself

 Bath time fun video, my favorite part is at 0:30

He is such a little Ham, and loves showing off to people. So far we don't have any issues with others holding him, he will pretty much go to anybody and give them a huge grin. And who could resist that face??? I am just so lucky that I get to wake up to it every morning, even if it is at 5:30am.

6 Month Update

Sorry I took the photo with my iPhone so the quality isn't great

Updates this month:

Size: 17 pounds and 26 inches (he was 7.14 pounds and 19 inches at birth)

Activity: He is "talking" more, he says "Mama" but we aren't sure he knows exactly what it means because he looks at everyone and says mama when he wants something. He also can sit up all by himself. He gets lazy sometimes and just tips over but he is getting much better each day. He is scooting on the floor but I don't think he is realizing he is moving since it's so slow. It looks more like a wiggle than a crawl. 

Foods: I got sick a few weeks ago and lost a lot of my production so we now only nurse before bed and in the morning after he wakes up. He has 6-8oz bottles during the day. We still do cereal and a fruit (banana, peaches, pears, or apples) in the morning and cereal and a veggie for dinner. We have also introduced puffs which he loves but hasn't figured out how to feed himself. 

Sleep: he can sleep all night!!! It's amazing but he just stopped waking up one night and since then sleeps from about 7:30pm to 7:45-8:15am. He takes a nap around 10am and 2pm each about an hour and a half. Sometimes he takes a short 30 min nap around 5 if he's really fussy. He is so easy to put down, we just rock him for a couple of mins, give him his pacifier, turn on his music and his lovey and he puts himself to bed within mins. 

Favorite toys: still the baby Einstein jumper, he will entertain himself for over an hour, which is really helpful so I can get things done and know where he is and he's safe. He is also now into playing with other toys, he loves anyone of them that sings or has lights. Now that he can sit up we just place 3 or 4 toys in front of him and he just plays with them by himself. 

I'm both excited and nervous for when he gets more mobile. I have a feeling that very soon we will be chasing him around the house.

5 Months Update

Updates this month:
Size: He doesn't go back to the doctor for another month but I measured him at home and he was weighing in at 15 pounds and 25.5 inches.
Activity: He can now roll over both front to back and back to front. He can sit assisted by his boppy, but not quite all alone. He loves to be a big boy and stand with assistance. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes straight to walking and skips crawling.
Foods: Still breastfeeding and substituting 6 oz bottles when Mommy is not there. He has a bowl of cereal and smashed banana for breakfast, and cereal and a veggie (either green beans, peas, squash, carrots or sweet potatoes) for dinner.
Sleep: We are in the process of sleep training. He now only wakes up once a night to eat. He typically sleeps from 7:30am until 7-8am (eating around 1am) then takes a nap from 9:30-12, another from 2-4 and sometimes a short cat nap around 5:30 or 6 if he is fussy.
Favorite Toys: Baby Einstein Jumper is still his favorite. He also is now enjoying tummy time (finally) and he can scoot his legs but doesn't use his arms yet to move so his face just scoots across the floor.

4 Months Update

My little guy is 4 months. Well actually this post is almost 2 weeks late, but I'm finally getting around to posting it.

Look at that adorable face. How could you not love it??

Updates this month:
Size: He weighs in at 14 pounds and 24.5 inches. In the 30th percentile on all accounts.
Activity: He can reach for his toys and is getting better hand eye coordination               everyday. He smiles when he sees Mommy or Daddy walk into the room and pouts when they are no longer in his line of sight.
Foods: Still breastfeeding and substituting 6 oz bottles when Mommy is not there. We tried our first bowl of rice cereal this month. He likes it but we are still working on figuring out our tongue.
Sleep: We are in the process of sleep training. He still wakes up a couple of times a night to eat so we are trying to ween him off of midnight feedings since the doctor says he no longer needs them.
Favorite Toys: Baby Einstein Jumper is his favorite currently. He loves to bounce up and down play with the little toys attached.


I had to include this blooper photo from the shoot because it was so cute.

3 Months Old Today

My Little Man is 3 months old today. I can't believe how much he has grown and I love the little personality that is showing through. He is so much fun now and everyday I find something new about him.
My favorite thing he does now is blow spit bubbles. He has realized that he can blow on his lips and it makes a fun sound. So all day long I hear "bbbbbbb" and I'm constantly wiping his face, but its adorable so I forgive him :)

This month we have done a lot of swimming, had a few play-dates, took a road trip to see Hubby at camp and recently he has found his hands and they are constantly in his mouth.

Here's our month in instagrams:

 

Fell asleep after the pool/4th of July baby

 

Best S'more EVER

 

Fussy baby/Little Man's first day at the lake

Clothing optional this summer

Getting ready for the lake/Chewing on his fingers

Little Man is 2 Months Old

Everyday I fight the thoughts of wishing Little Man would slow down and stop growing so fast, and wishing he was older so I could do fun things like play at the park and run around with him.
I know that every minute with him is precious and I am trying to savor them. This blog is my way of making time stand still so I can remember how sweet he is. When he is in his terrible two's or terrible teen's I can look at this blog and see that tiny little face and remember what it was like to hold this little bundle of joy.
I am however looking forward to him being more interactive and showing him all of the amazing things God made in this world.


Here is our little 2 month old:

This month we took a trip to Kansas City to go to a Royals game (he slept the entire time), we went to the zoo (again slept), he has learned to laugh out loud (its an adorable squeal sound), went swimming for the first time, went to a day care (I'm in a bible study and there is free day care, it was much harder for me than for him), and started sleeping for 4-6 hours at a time at night.

Here's our month in Instagrams:

 At Riverfest, Hubby carrying the baby while eating a turkey leg and corn, Talent? I think so/How cute is that face?

 Hubby and Baby sleeping, adorable/At Botanica playing in the fountain

 Good morning smiles/First Royals game, wearing Hubby's hat

 Someone finally found his hands/First zoo trip

 Sleepy baby after shots/One proud Mama

First time swimming, he is definitely a water baby

Can It Be...One Month Already???

I can't believe it, my Little Man turned one month old Saturday. It is bittersweet, because I know that each day I am loosing my tiny baby, but I'm also excited for him to grow and begin to blabber and crawl and all the other fun things growing babies do.

I have decided to continue the chalkboard growth tracker, so we can watch how Little Man grows each month. I posted the first one in Carsen's debut post, in that picture he was a week old.

Little Man is 1 month old:

Little Man loves going on walks with Daddy in the Baby Bjorn, laughs and smiles, loves staring at lights, and enjoys being outside. My favorite time of the day is after the first feeding in the morning, he is so happy and smiles at me and loves cuddling. We usually get a small nap in before he is ready for play time for the rest of the morning.

Here is a photo-recap of the last month.

 Last date night pre-baby/Mommy and Baby in the hospital/Bringing home baby

Chillin' in the sun/Cuddling with Sissy/First bath at home

 Big smiles/"Schadegg, Carsen Schadegg" Aunt Jessie dressed him in a bow tie for church/First playdate with cousin Atticus