11 months!

Health stats: No doc appointments this month but he has been doing really well!  Haven't had any more issues since the ear infection thank goodness.

Sleep: HALLELUJAH!  I can finally say something good in this category :)  My almost-one-year-old is finally sleeping through the night!  I actually feel comfortable saying that because it has been 2 or 3 weeks.  Napping is another story but at this point I'll just take the 12 hours at night and run with it.

Clothes: Still wearing some 6-12 but everything new I am buying him I am getting 12-18.

Milestones:  First Halloween!  We carved a pumpkin together and he wore 4 different costumes! (completely ridiculous I realize this)

A teddy bear on Halloween night (this is the costume that Chad wore when he was little).  This was also his first ride in the wagon which he loves.

Clown--this was Todd's baby costume.

Mickey Mouse…best photo I could get because he HATED having things on his hands and was freaking out.

Lion!  He went to Dad's work for a little Halloween event they do for families every year.

He went on his SECOND plane ride…this time home to Salem to see Nana and Granny and Poppy and aunt Janis and so I could go to my friend Jamie's "sprinkle" for her 2nd baby due in Dec.

Hanging out with Molly at Target

Meeting my friend Mary's little girl Cameron for the first time…love at first sight, obviously

Cuties!

Hanging out with poppy

Playing "this little piggy" with granny

First trip to the DipDog stand

He was awesome at the airport

and actually fell asleep on the last flight!  So rare for him to fall asleep like that I had to take a selfie.

We also got to go see my friend Lisa and her kids while we were home which was really fun.  We packed a lot into a few days!

He also met his great grandfather on Todd's side this month.

Likes: He loves cruising around the couch and coffee table, music, eating (he is eating 3 meals a day now), going for walks, hanging out with other babies at the library and baby class, books, being outside, chasing the doggies.  He is OBSESSED with devices, iPad, iPhone, remote control, baby monitor, TV, etc.  I still don't really let him have these things yet but if he spies one he is on it in 2 seconds and I can no longer watch the Today show because he will just stand at the coffee table and stare at the TV all morning.

He also enjoys pointing out how bad we are at baby proofing.

He is a pretty good eater but he is over being spoon fed and only wants things he can pick up or take bites out of.  I am giving him "smoothies" so I can sneak in some spinach and he will still eat pouches.  He eats yogurt, pears, bananas, apples, berries, sweet potatoes, carrots, english muffins, peanut butter, waffles, mandarin oranges, cheese sticks, some noodles, pouches, cheerios, avocados.  

Dislikes: napping, long rides in the car, having something covering his hands, putting toys away at clean up time.

Can't believe next post will be 1 year!!!!

10 months!

My child is 10 MONTHS OLD ALREADY.  I cannot believe I just typed that sentence.  I actually saw this picture the other day and totally freaked out…

What?  Time to figure out this birthday business.  Party? presents? what are we going to do about this whole my birthday is on christmas thing?  party in early december? party in early january? Any ideas, send them my way!  

Anyway…back to the 9th month of life for a little bit.  Lets not get ahead of ourselves here.  Month 9 was awesome!  B is doing all sorts of really cute stuff now and he is growing so fast.  

Health stats: We finally had our first case of sickness around here this month.  B had a fever for a couple of days in a row and it was pretty high (102.8) but he didn't have any other symptoms and he seemed fine.  I called the doctor and they said to just keep giving him Tylenol and Motrin.  Then on the 4th day (Sunday) he no longer had a fever but he was miserable.  He wasn't sleeping or eating and you could tell he didn't feel good.  So I finally took him in to the doc and they said he had an ear infection and possible strep throat :(  They prescribed antibiotics and we had a couple more rough days but pretty soon he was feeling much better.  I feel very blessed that we were able to make it so long without any illnesses.  I knew it was bound to happen eventually, especially since we have been getting so much more social.  We have been going to story time at the library on Mondays and they sing a bunch of songs and read a book and then they pull out this giant tub of infectious diseases (aka toys) and all the babies throw them on the floor and put them in their mouths.  I'm pretty sure thats where this little bug came from.

Sleep: Ha. ha. ha.  I keep things I want to write about when I do these posts written in the notes app on my phone.  But usually by the time I get around to writing it they are a month behind so I struggle with if I should write about what happened then or skip over it and write about what is going on right now. For example, I had this long detailed explanation of how we sleep trained him and dr. ferber is a god among men and it was the greatest thing ever and he was totally sleeping through the night yay! Which did actually happen, for about 4 days…which was right before he got an ear infection and strep throat.  So I guess I'll just say sleep training is still a work in progress.  

Milestones:  Well, as I mentioned, he slept through the night for about 5 minutes!

He is also pulling up on EVERYTHING.  Here he is playing with his favorite toy.  He is also really into the dogs all of a sudden and laughs and points at them all day and tries to chase them around.

He is eating a lot more foods now…this is spinach.  

Gram moved to SC!  

Here we are at her birthday brunch.

Now that he is pulling up I borrowed this little walking push toy from my friend which he loves.

Also now that he is pulling up nap time is an absolute nightmare.  Why would you lay down and go to sleep when you can do laps around the crib and chew on the sides like a little woodchuck?!

And of course we had to do the pumpkin patch!  We didn't actually get tix and go in to see the animals and all that.  We stuck to the free activities this time but next year I'm sure he will love it!

He can also wave at people and give high fives.  He is very discriminating about when he chooses to wave though.  For example, I try to get him to wave bye bye to dad every morning and rarely will he do it but the other day we had a plumber come over to fix something and he waved like crazy every time this random guy came in and out of the house.  He is also making choices now…when we are reading books I will hold up 2 different books and he will point to the one that he wants.  Also at mealtime if we have a couple of different things I will let him choose.  

"walking"

a new favorite activity

no big deal, just driving my school bus

Happy Anniversary!

Todd and I celebrated our 4th anniversary this week!  We went out for drinks at Salt and then tried out the Obstinate Daughter on Sullivan's Island.  It was really good and we had a great night out!  We should have Brooks in this picture but he was already in bed.

At the end of dinner a guy was leaving the restaurant and right behind us he fell out on the floor and had some kind of seizure.  They called EMS and everything.  It was really scary and I got nervous and knocked my glass of red wine all over us.  That's what I get for wearing white pants after Labor Day.

I realized as I was writing this that I never posted about our 3rd anniversary.  

We went to a really yummy Italian restaurant downtown called Pane E Vino.  Clearly I had no vino, but the food was really good!

Just for fun, here is year 1.  

We don't have a pic from year 2 which I really regret but I was not feeling well at all then so I was not camera ready!

9 months!

These pictures are getting almost impossible to take.  He is all over the place and all of a sudden very interested in the bear.  Too funny!  The 8th month was a busy one around here!  We had a lot going on and he is growing so fast!

Heath stats: 

This is from our nine month appointment.  The Dr. said he is growing great, and he is long and skinny.  As my old friend Ms. Lee used to say "He didn't steal nothin".  She also informed me that he absolutely does not need to eat at night anymore and if I ever want to sleep through the night I need to stop nursing him to sleep.  So that is something we will be tackling in the coming month.  Mama's tired!  He didn't have to get any shots this time and I opted out of the flu shot because really I just wanted one appt where we did not have to go through that!

Sleep:  I sort of covered this earlier.  It's not good.  But I have hope for the future ;)  He is waking up 2, 3, sometimes 4 times a night and I go in and nurse him and he goes back to sleep.  Unfortunately the pattern is trending towards worse and not better so I know we need to change up our routine.

Clothes: 6-12/12mos stuff right now.  

Milestones: 

He watched his first Hokies game!

He also watched the first Skins game of the season and got initiated into the joy of being a Redskins fan . Sorry kid.

We have been exploring a lot of new toys and new areas of the house to play in.  We started taking advantage of some other things around town and have been going to story times at the library and Kindermusik class.  He loves it!

He is pulling up on everything!

This is pretty much what my house looks like on a daily basis.  His favorite game is "wreck the living room".

He started pulling off his hats so I am on the hunt for one that will stay on this winter.  I think this one might do the trick!

He went to his first birthday party!  Chanel came to visit and it was her 30th so we did a little celebration.  He was pretty interested in the cake and candles and I promise he was way more excited than he looks in this pic!

We went on our first airplane ride! This was on the way to the airport.

First time on the the airplane!  I had a hard time getting pics because I was by myself.  We had a great first flight, he was in a good mood and we had a whole row to ourselves because the flight was not full.

Hanging out with cousin Chase.  When they picked us up from the airport Chase said "You're going to love the Smith house!"

He had a lot of fun hanging out with his cousins and playing with all of Chase's toys!  I don't have any pics from the plane ride back because it was a little more stressful.  He hadn't taken an afternoon nap so he was very tired on the plane and then when we got home around 6:30 it took forever to get our bags and somehow the carseat didn't make it on the plane.  So we waited an hour in baggage claim and finally had to take home a loaner carseat.  Total nightmare but overall it was a good trip!

He is also pulling up independently (9/17) and drinking from a straw cup now.  Todd also taught him how to give high fives (9/6).  Here comes October--I really want to try the baby in a pumpkin photo ;) Stay tuned for that...