8 months old!

Ethan has always been great to have around, but the older he gets, the more fun he gets to play and interact with.  He has such a personality and would love to be in on every single conversation if only he knew how to talk, haha.  He is very stubborn, and likes to make himself known.  Our daycare lady says he has one volume - loud!  You still aren't saying words, but definitely love to babble and yell.  We love him so much!! 

Things that happened this month - 
Trip to Omaha to see cousin Grace, Aunt Maleia, Uncle Doug, and soon another cousin
Granny and Grandpa came to visit for their spring break
Awesome consignment sale finds
Visiting Kristin and Elisabeth in KC
Hanging out with mom for spring break
Hanging out in Lawrence with Brandy and Alex
Gage Park and lunch with Momma Morai


Weight: I haven't been in to have him weighed in a long time, but last night we weighed him on our scale at home and he was about 20 and 1/2 pounds. 

Clothes:  Same as last month, mostly 6-9's with a few 6 month and a few 12 month clothes....I still wish clothes were a common size.  It is still sad to me whenever he grows out of my favorite outfits!  He is wearing pampers size 3 diapers during the day, and pampers size 4 during the night.  He also wears target size 3 during the day, but babies r us had a huge sale on pampers the other day, we so stocked up on those!

Sleep:  Oh sleep...there were times this month where I was despising night times, because I had no idea what they would bring.  The one positive we have usually had is that after I nurse him in the evenings, he would fall asleep right away.  This didn't happen a few times this month, which just made the night wake ups even worse.  He has been up to eat about 2 times during the night this month, but luckily for the most part once he eats, he goes right back to sleep.  I have considered trying to get him to go back to sleep without eating, but this momma needs her sleep with working full time, and just simply feeding him is so much easier!  He usually goes to bed around 7 pm and a good morning is when he sleeps until I have to wake him up at 6:40 to get ready for the day. 

Eating:  Still going strong with breastfeeding and solids!!  He eats about 12-16 oz at daycare while I am at work and then 4 -5times with me at home.  He eats a meal of solids at lunch and dinner each about an hour after a bottle or nursing session to make sure he keeps up with the nursing.  I am having trouble keeping up with pumping at work, but luckily I have enough of a stash built up that we are ok for now.  One of the reasons I think he has been up so much at night is that he is so busy during the day it is a huge inconvenience for him to have to stop to drink a bottle.  We still want breastmilk to be his main nutrition, so we want to offer it before meals, not with meals.  If we let him, he would totally eat solids, he loves them!! 

Looks:   A little more blonde hair, and the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. 

Milestones:  He isn't crawling yet, but he is doing what I like to call the "worm" (he can get anywhere he wants, and fairly quickly as well).  He also can go from sitting to his stomach quite easily. 

Firsts: many new foods, playing in the grass

What we are looking forward to: family wedding this weekend and new baby cousin on the way

What we are dreading: still waiting for more teeth!

Favorite moment this month - watching him interact with all the people around him and be so aware of what is going on.  He is such a flirt with waitresses and loves kids!

Food that he eats - He loves food (which isn't shocking considering how much his parents love food, haha!)  He has eaten every thing we given him without much of a fight.  New foods this month have been oatmeal, peas, butternut squash, mango, plums, puffs, and yellow squash.  He is getting so much better at eating the puffs.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm tired of this shirt - haha!

7 months old!

Another month gone by - our baby is growing up so much, and we are having so much fun!!

Weight: He has really slowed down on the weight gain, but he is eating perfect amounts, he is just such an active baby! 

Clothes:  Pampers size 3's - Mostly 6-9's with a few 6 month and a few 12 month clothes....oh how I wish there was a common sizing for clothes!

Sleep:  This month was big as we moved Ethan down to his crib on February 4th.  He had been sleeping upstairs in our closet in the cradle then the pack and play, but we decided it was time to move him down to his own room and he does great!  Sleep is still inconsistent (he seems to change every week), but for the most part his bedtime routine is very consistent with pj's, sleep sack, nursing, and then laying in his crib and falling right to sleep.  He still naps decent at daycare and ok at home. 

Eating:  Still going strong with breastfeeding and now solids!!  He eats about 16 oz at daycare while I am at work and then 4 times with me at home.  He eats a meal of solids at lunch and dinner each about an hour after a bottle or nursing session to make sure he keeps up with the nursing.  I am having trouble keeping up with pumping at work, but luckily I have enough of a stash built up that we are ok for now.

Looks:   Blonde hair and awesome blue eyes - that is what people comment on the  most!

Milestones:  Sleeping in his crib in his own bedroom, getting up on all 4's and rocking (not crawling yet, but he really wants to), baths in his duck tub instead of the infant tub.

Firsts: First solid food, first time sleeping in his own bedroom, first valentine's day, first basketball game (we went to a game while we were visiting Granny and Grandpa in Bird City - it was way past his bedtime and he was very overwhelmed by all the sound!), first baby shower, first non family member babysitter (Jed and I went out for the evening and we had a college aged girl that we know babysit - he did great!)

What we are looking forward to: continuing to try new foods, spring break, and consignment sale!

What we are dreading:  this 3rd tooth that is trying to come in - he is drooling every where!  Also the separation anxiety that is starting - he is starting to realize when I leave the room, and he doesn't like it!

Favorite moment this month - Watching him interact with the workbench that his grandparents gave him - he is so smart!

Food that he eats - First month of purees went great - he liked almost everything, and tolerated everything.  He had sweet potato, avocado (which is his favorite), banana, zucchini (the food he tolerates, he will only really eat it if it is mixed with something), rice cereal, rice crackers, carrots, apples, and green beans.  Next up are peas and pears.

Enjoy the pictures

Avocado in the mesh feeder - yum!

Mother-son love

7 month photo shoot was quite difficult as he wouldn't quit playing with the sign!

Up on all 4's and rocking - wanting to crawl so bad!

Playing with his work bench and Granny and Grandpa's

Hammering away!

6 months old - the month of many changes!

My oh my, Ethan has definitely changed a lot this month.  He went from only sitting up tripod style last month to sitting up without assistance this month.  He also went from a gummy smile to a 2 toothed smile!  I can't believe that Ethan has been with us for 1/2 a year already!!  We love him so much and can't wait for all the other changes that are to come. 

Weight: He lost a little bit of weight when he was sick, but he has definitely made up for it.  He has gained just over a pound this month, and most of that came this past week!  He weighed 17 lbs 12 oz when I took him to the clinic this morning.  He gained 14 oz in the past 2 weeks - I'd say we hit a growth spurt!  Considering how big of a baby he was at birth, he has grown to be very average size, which I'm perfectly fine with! He weighed 18 lbs 6 oz at his 6 month Dr's appointment on Feb 7.

Length: 27 inches at his 6 month dr appointment

Head:  His head circumference was 38 cm at his first appt, 39.5 cm at 1 month, 42 cm at 2 months, at home estimate of 43.5 cm for 3 months, at home estimate of 44 cm at 4 months, an at home estimate of 45 cm at 5 months, and 45 cm at his 6 month dr appointment.

Clothes:  Pampers and CostCo size 3's - almost thinking about moving to size 4's.....not sure though....He is in quite a few of his 3-6 month clothes, but is slowly growing out of them.  He has grown out of almost all of his 3-6 month sleepers, so we had to buy a few 9 month sleepers. We also stopped using the swaddle sleep sacks and have moved him just to regular sleep sacks.

Sleep:  Ughh.....don't get me started on this topic....the first two weeks of this month were ok, nothing special, then 2 weeks ago he decided to start waking up two times a night.  At the time I thought that wasn't fun, but little did I know that this past week he would start waking up 3-4 times a night....I am hoping it is a growth spurt and teeth coming in thing and that this phase will end soon.  He is starting to phase out his evening nap, and still doesn't nap very well for us, but does nap well at daycare.

Eating:  Still going strong with breastfeeding - this month has been a little trying, but hopefully we can continue for another 3-6 months.  Today we started solids - more on that later!. 

Looks:  More blonde hair and beautiful dark blue eyes!  No clue who he looks like, but he sure is cute!

Milestones:  Two teeth came in (Jan 20 and Jan 23) - both bottom central incisors, sitting up unassisted, starting solids, turning in a circle while on his belly, doing a little more scooting around on his belly, and rolling over from back to belly for the first time on Jan 8 - now he rarely stays on his back!

Firsts: First time of rolling over back to belly, first teeth, first time of eating solid foods (sweet potatoes on his 6 month birthday), first sleep over at mamma morai's (Jed took me to KC for a romantic night away, Ethan did great without us!), first time of sleeping on his stomach at night (now that he rolls over constantly, he rolls over in his sleep, the first few nights it wasn't good because he kept waking himself up, but now he likes to sleep that way), first play date with other babies, first ear infection (a miserable time, let me tell you), and first time to sit in high chair at home and in a restaurant!

What we are looking forward to: Experimenting with solids

What we are dreading:  Any more rough sleep nights....

Favorite moment this month - All the times that Ethan laughs - he is a giggly boy, and his dad is really good at getting him to laugh!

Food that he eats -Ethan had his first taste of actual food today - we tried sweet potatoes for lunch and dinner.  He didn't absolutely hate it, but definitely wasn't a huge fan, haha.  I was hoping that eating solids would help him sleep longer at night, but he didn't swallow enough today to make any difference, haha.  We will just keep trying and see how it goes - up next....bananas, then cereal, then avacado, then apples, then zucchini! 

Ethan is the greatest thing that could have ever happened to us.  I can't imagine my life without him now.  Parenthood is always a roller coaster, but it's definitely one that I don't want to get off!

Enjoy the pictures...we really slacked on taking pictures this month...

Sleeping with mom - that's the only way he would sleep when he was sick at the beginning of the month

Fun shopping with mom!

Hanging out with dad!

First time sitting in the high chair!

First bite of solid food - sweet potatoe

Maybe this is going to be ok....

I'm still not sure about it, haha

I think more of the food ended up on his face!

Really mom...

Playing in the food!

I am totally done with this!!

6 month photo shoot

Ethan and his favorite toy - Mr. Ladybug

Look at that big boy sitting up!

Reading his book!

First time sitting in a restaurant high chair!

First play date!