Thursday, June 24, 2010

Seven Months!

Holy Crap! You've been growing like a weed and making huge strides toward some HUGE milestones. You roll all the time. From one end of the living room to another and when you want to change directions, you arch your back, pivot on your head, and when the direction seems right, you'll lay flat, look around, and get back to rolling. You love being on your belly more and more. Its so cute, even when you roll over during diaper changing time. You'll grab the diaper cream, diaper, wipes box, towel, whatever is near by and start to play with it while I'm trying to wipe you off (poop and all if its a dirty diaper!) and you refuse to be on your back for very long. You've also grown to love "no diaper" time. I'll loosely pin a cloth diaper on you just so you don't spray all over should you let fly and let you roll around and play for a bit. Then you fight the diaper! You still freak out over a dirty diaper. Just today, you made a nasty dirty diaper and when I went to pick you up (not knowing yet that it was really dirty and all), I got it all over myself! I had to clean you up, clean up the poopy mess, and change my clothes before putting you back in a diaper. What a mess! That's ok, though. Anything for my handsome prince!
You are eating like a champ again. Over vacation, you had so many distractions that you were starting to eat much less and taking much longer. Now we are back to eating fairly quickly and almost all that's in your bowl. We did Oatmeal with Banana mixed with carrots along with your peaches and rice (all out of rice cereal and you were still hungry!) and you LOVED the oatmeal with bananas! I love watching you eat so well. You also eat so much better in a high chair compared to the bumbo, but your high chair got recalled (and the repair kit won't fix the cracked plastic, besides the legs and all the other things wrong with it), so we will have to go back to the bumbo for a little while until your new high chair comes in the mail.
You traveled like a champ for vacation! You did so well for having your poor little butt in that car seat for 16 hours. You slept a lot of the time, but you also watched your movies and played relatively quietly while everyone else worked on us getting to Colorado so you could meet your Grandma Sheryl and that side of the family. You took to everyone there so well! You cried a little when we saw Great Grammy and Great Poppy, but you quickly warmed up to them, Grammy first, then Poppy after a few minutes. You seem to really love your Aunty Antonette. She sure loves you to pieces too! Grandpa Mark sang to you a few times too. You couldn't be bothered to eat, sleep, play, or do ANYTHING while he was singing, you were hypnotized! And when Sheila Dog walked by? Lordy be, you wanted to play with that hair and pull those ears. You actually did pull her ears and she snapped at you, but that HARDLY stopped you from wanting to do it again. You also warmed up to Dirk, Cindy, Mary, and PJ. You didn't get to meet Steven, as he's currently teaching in Denver (so proud!) but you seemed to like everyone. During photos with them, you stole the remote and started messing with the channels, language, and volume. You also almost set a parental password on them, but they managed to distract you enough to get the remote away. Too funny, little man!
You didn't want to be very quiet for church. Wasn't too bad when they were singing and during the times when some people would jump up to say AMEN! and all that, but during the prayers, you were jabbering away. And you weren't even noticing another baby (Braylynn, I think her name is) was staring you down. She really liked the toys we were using to keep you entertained. We ended up having to move to the hallway and then into the cry room, but you quieted down after we nursed you a little. You also were AMAZING going to the top of Pikes Peak! You barely fussed at all! Only about the last 20 minutes of the ride (90 mins each way!) to the top and the first 20 mins heading back down. You slept a lot of the time. You also charmed a Belgian couple. They took a few photos of you because of your blue eyes and promised me that they wouldn't end up on Facebook. You charmed everyone on there too! I think a lot of people were expecting you to cry the whole way up and the whole way back down, but were so happy that you didn't. You also got your first taste of my sandwich too. I had just unwrapped the sub and put on the pickle and tomato and was bringing it to my mouth, when you (in your bjorn, on my chest) reached out faster than a snake and grabbed my sub, pulled out the tomato, put it in your mouth, and kept the other hand firmly holding the remainder of my sandwich. All the while, I hear my phone ringing in my purse! All I could think the whole time was "Wow, when it rains, it pours. And I'm friggin HUNGRY!" But Papa got the tomato out of your mouth and we got your hands out of my sub (which wasn't mangled too badly) and we decided playing musical baby would be better for us to all eat.
You gained a BIG love for restaurant menus. Oh man, you have to play with it, chomp on it, wing it around, slap it, slobber it up, you name it. If its taken away or you drop it, you FREAK! You also demolished a Long John Silvers hat after slapping it in my face a few times. You get really possessive of things that you really shouldn't have!
You taking your baths out there was so cute too! We didn't have a baby tub, so Grandma Sheryl came out with a 3 gallon bucket that had flimsy sides and handles. You loved it! You figured out how to get one foot up and noticed how everyone laughed at that. That encouraged you to get the other foot up on the rim also and the water level came up to your lips! You loved it, gave me a heart attack. Grandma gave you a cup, which you filled with the bath water and tried to drink. You got SO mad when I took it away, dumped it out, and gave you an empty cup. you didn't like that one bit! You are too smart for your own good. You also got the chance to drink from a straw. You're a natural at that! Slurped down the water like you had been doing it for ages. You also went swimming in the pool there and loved the waterfall. You couldn't get enough, until you had had enough and wanted to eat and take a nap. You ended up snuggling into Grandma after you ate. She carried you around and loved the dickens out of you the whole time! You two were just so cute together! You two got your snuggling on while your Papa and I got to play around in the pool before we had to get on the road and come back home. We did have a big problem with someone making bottles for you too often and you got more used to that than nursing, but you are back on track again, now.
Grandpa Mark tried pretty hard to teach you to crawl. You wanted to, but didn't really get the whole concept together. You'll be crawling soon though, and we can send the video of you doing that when it happens.
You've been cranky since we came back (all that spoiling!), and now you have a low grade fever on top of it. Papa and I are hoping that it means you'll be getting teeth soon. We also hope that you get your teeth in multiples, not just one at a time. You are sleeping pretty well too. You like to sleep on your side, and most of all your belly. Papa gets nervous about you sleeping like this, but to make him happy I'll stick a nuk in your mouth so he doesn't freak out. Hoping this fever stops soon. We've been keeping you on tylenol, but I'd like to get back to life as usual, happy baby and all. Right now, you just refuse to be put down for long. You liked it a lot when we got home from vacation and we put you in your entertainer. You stayed up extra late playing, laughing, and smiling. We didn't have the heart to take you out until you started rubbing your eyes.
Momma is going to head to bed now, my love. I'll be posting on here at least once a month and trying to keep up with all the new things you do. I love you to the moon and back endlessly.
Love,
Momma

Friday, June 4, 2010

Six months!

Dear Anthony,
WOW. you are half a year old! I can't believe how fast you have grown and the things you have learned to do. Just last night, you were showing off all the things you know how to do now. You were rolling all over the floor back to belly to back and you were spinning to change directions. You went after me, Papa, toys, the box of wipes, your bumbo, you name it. It was beyond cool to see you do all this. I even laid down behind you and let you push your feet against my hand. You went flying forward a few inches. I could tell that you liked that idea and wanted to do it on your own, but you couldn't get up on your arms and knees enough to get going like that. You've done it before (at Holly and Chad's house), but you couldn't get your arms to cooperate with your legs to move forward. I can tell that with enough tummy time and playing on the floor, you will be crawling toward Grandma Sheryl when we are out there. I'm sure she will LOVE that! She's so excited to meet you. She always asks me to give you a huge hug and a kiss for her. She came out about a week before you were born, but you just weren't ready for this big old world yet. There are many other people out in Colorado who are excited to meet you too. I can't believe that's next week!
In other news, you are eating like such a little piggy! You chow down on about 4 ounces of solid foods twice a day. You don't like green beans (the ones you tried had NO flavor) but you like everything else so far. You've had pears, bananas (fresh and out of the jar), sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, and apples (applesauce). So far you have liked it all, but the beans. I'll be trying again with the fresh kind at a later date to see if you like fresh instead. I can't wait until more veggies and fruits come into season so we can really go hog wild with all the possibilities!
You've taken to growling at everything lately too! Last night, you were laying on the floor while Papa was making dinner and you were growling at your toys and the tv and anything else around. You are so funny when you growl. You don't make a face, you just let out the sound. Right now you are in your entertainer just growling at the toys you have in your hand. Another thing you like to do while in the entertainer is stuffing as many toys as you possibly can in between your belly and the edge of the seat. Makes it hard for you to lean forward and play with the other toys, but you seem to like it. We have the entertainer set on the highest setting for height and you are just about perfect/maybe on the taller side for it. You really get going and bouncing in that thing too. Its so funny. You'll even stomp (while paired with the kicking and heel slamming when you lay on the floor, I'm sure the people downstairs LOVE it) and it seems to shake the whole floor pretty good. You also seem to be getting close to saying "Mamamamamama". almost a Mama! I can't wait. Your grandma Tammie had it her way, you'd be saying Grandma first. I'm pretty sure its going to be Mama first.
You've also moved out of the baby tub days and we have moved you into the big boy tub (turning your baby tub into a bathseat, of course!) and you LOVE getting to play in all that water! We have to be careful with how much water we put in because the other day, you tried to drink a bunch of it up and ended up putting your whole face in the water, bent over the front of the seat. Luckily your momma was paying close attention and got you sitting up and put a washcloth in your hands. You love sucking all the water out of washcloths. And sploosh balls. and anything else that holds water. We got you a few bath toys and you LOVE the wind up ones. Every time they come by you, you SLAP!! them into oblivion. Its pretty funny. You also like to chew on the squirty toys. And you can't get enough of me using my hand to make a fountain. You love it when the water goes up high and comes down over your head. You can't get enough of it.
Moving along, you are such a nut anymore, its too cute. You laugh ALL.THE.TIME. Blowing on your belly, "chewing" on your sides, eating toes and fingers, laughing at you, looking in the mirror, waking up, someone coming home, realizing you have accomplished another feat, you name it. I can even look over at you and smile, then make you giggle in delight. And in goofier news, you will ALWAYS stop what ever you are doing when the Hometown Happenings come on. You hear that music and your head WHIPS around and stares at the tv. You can be mid tantrum and when they come on, you are INSTANTLY silenced. It took a while for me to make the connection, but its there. Not really sure why, but its the cutest thing ever!
I've got to go pick you up out of your entertainer now, dearest love. Your arms are a-wavin and that usually means one of two things. Either you've pooed your diaper, or you really just want to snuggle. Here's to hoping you just want to snuggle and you save the poo for papa! I love you little man. You've made my life so complete!
Love always!
Momma!