6 Months and Mobile!

I had grand ideas for this post. I wrote down John's 6 month milestones to talk about. That list is ALL THE WAY across the house. Will I go get it? No. Lazy.

My labor went from manageable to bad in this here gelato shop line 6 months ago! When I considered biting Zach in the shoulder, we decided it was time to go. 3 hours later...baby born!

Someone is pulling himself up on the side of the Pack and Play...

Then suddenly, if we put him in standing up, he could stay that way! (Now he can also pull himself up if he has a low enough hand hold.)

6 months old

I put him on the mat...and went to get the camera...and came back to this.

He's getting chunky!

"Hug me Mommy!"

I think these pictures pretty much sum up our now mobile (but not quite crawling) boy. He has found his voice (again) and while he is not talking as much as he was in early January, he is definitely voicing his displeasure regarding...everything.  Boy really has his whine on lately.  Cannot play very long independently before he whines to be held. And not just held. Held and walked around the house. (No sitting!) I'm not sure what is up with him - maybe just getting hungry/tired earlier than we think...still trying to work out the right time for naps and get better at sleeping through the night.  He takes 2-3 naps depending on what time he wakes up but that isn't too consistent either so...plus church and bible study throw off 2 days a week as well.

He can give kisses if he wants to...he sits up well...still loves going outside (the only satisfactory alternative to being held when whiney) and is enjoying starting on solids for the most part.

I have more pictures to share in another post when I'll catch up on whatever is missing from  my list. Then I'm also going to have a non-baby tutorial soon! :)

Oops, forgot the hyperlinks

Spicy Sausage Pasta
Maple Bourbon Glazed Salmon
Parmesan Sage Pork Chops

Recipe Recommendations!

In an attempt to cook more, I've been trying to find some newer recipes to make things interesting. That, and I don't want to sift through my old ones because it will take way too long! Although I do intend to do that soon.

Here are 3 recipes I highly recommend.  The first two aren't the original blog I got them from, but appear to be identical.

1) Spicy Sausage Pasta (A one-skillet wonder! Yay for easy! The original poster I read recommended Butterball Turkey Sausage, but I can't find that anywhere. We used our Aidell's chicken and apple sausages.)

2) Maple-Bourbon Glazed Salmon.  Really easy, really yummy. The hardest part was Zach finding travel sized bourbon at the liquor store.

3) Parmesan Sage Pork Chops. We've made these twice now and loved every bit of them, served with rice or better yet - Trader Joe's cous cous.  These are a bit more work but we love breaded meat, so, we endure it.

In small fry eating land, someone has puked up a bunch of rice cereal (I guess we'll wait a little longer on that), enjoyed apple and pear juice from a meshy eating toy, and smashed avocado all over his high chair (I think some went into his mouth?) Then I handed him a large apple chunk to gnaw on, of which he gummed off a tiny piece, choked on it, and proved that yes, he does have the gag reflex fully in place to not choke on food. And threw up all his milk. And then tried to shove his bib into his mouth to get it back. GROSS. It is really funny, though, when he does have a bit apple hunk and can't pick it up, he gets it on his bib then lifts his bib to his mouth to chew it. Where do kids come up with this stuff?

And since I have no pictures of him eating (too messy) these will have to do:

A trip to Petco - I mean - the fancy aquarium!!!

More reading, with the boppy as an excellent lap pillow. (When did he explode with the sitting up??!!)

Trying to get a selfie to send to my sister...pardon the goofy look on my face, focus on the adorable outfit she bought him that he is wearing. 

He Sits! He Stands! He...falls...

Happy boy on his tummy...

Who loves standing!!!

Hey, is he sitting up by himself?

Well, not too well, I think he is tipping over.

Yep. That happened.

Pretty happy about giving it a second try with some support though!

Official 5 month shot.

Not about the baby

Just kidding. What else does my life revolve around lately?  Ok, I have had other thoughts about what to blog but I've forgotten most of them. However...

Meal Planning.  I want to get back into this. When I have a solid block of time to organize my recipes and sort them. I intend to capture our top 20-30 meals and make "weekly" plans of 4-5 meals (accounting for leftovers, etc).  That way I can just rotate through the "weeks" and we can eat mostly whatever is scheduled for that week. One fish, 2 chicken, 1 red meat or pork meal - etc. I'm OK with repeating our biggest favorites so I would imagine I could get perhaps 10 weeks out of this strategy.

Babysitters. LOVE IT when you get the right ones. I stole mine from the other moms at church. She grocery shops for me during nap time. Then she comes home and does whatever food prep I might need. LOVE HER. The other day we had a date and John was nursing when she came in. He immediately popped off and smiled at her, kept leaning back (horrible nursing behavior) and smiling some more. That was the end of that meal.

Nursing. Sucks. I want to quit so often. But, its close to free, so, I carry on. Lately John has been a bit of a pill and I'm hoping its just a phase. In my mind, everything will suddenly be perfect when we "start on solids" like everyone seems to suggest will solve everything.  I know this will not be the case, but I'm excited to start anyway. Like maybe I snuck a teaspoon of cereal in some milk today and gave it to him. Maybe he loved it.  Maybe.

BSF. Bible Study Fellowship.  I love the women in my group. Its hard to make "friends" at BSF but studying the bible together really is great. They have shown me SO much love through tons of prayer and even recently, meals as I continue to get over this infection I've had for several months.  (Nothing to worry about, Grandpa! I'll be fine!!!!!!)

5 Months. 14 pounds. Sitting up assisted, but would prefer to stand. Would greatly prefer to bounce. Won't bother rolling over unless the toy is REALLY worth it.  Talked up a storm over Christmas and now is mostly silent as a mouse except when we really get him laughing. 6 month clothing. (After taking 3 months to even get INTO 3 month clothes, here we are out of them 2 months later.) Loves bathtime. Sleeping 6:30p-7a +/- 60 minutes.  Mom and Dad are loving having nights to ourselves again. Although eating, baths, and bedtime by 6:30 seems really early - I'm barely off work by 5! I've been doing a dream feed around 10 and he is still waking up at least one extra time to eat...until last night when I let him cry it out for 10 minutes and he fell back asleep at minute 9. You can bet we're trying that again tonight now that he's proven he can do it! Yay.

And, pictures...

All dressed up for GG's 90th Bday Party. Snazzy!

Parent Fail: My kid has his own iPad mini apps. Only used when he wakes up before 6:30 though. Or if he is really whiney and I need to delay bedtime a little bit. He has this Twinkle Twinkle app and an aquarium display app.

New closed mouth/chewing on lip face he makes ALL.THE.TIME. Usually accompanied by some spitting.

High quality nursing moves. Thats his head under the blanket, if you're wondering. He'd rather eat blankets than nurse most of the time.

We've been going on a lot of walks in a new stroller someone gave us - so much to see!

We start early with Cribbage on my side of the family.

Entertaining our child while waiting for some food...

Favorite toy: Jumperoo.

Learning how to stand up in his Pack and Play...great...and more closed mouth smirks!

I am so behind!!!!

Ack. So behind on pictures.  So this post will be mostly pictures and I can go back to boring drudgery next time.  I will say, however, that Baby Things in the household have greatly improved. Although I feel like every day is a complicated struggle to figure out when to wake, sleep, eat, how long a nap should be, why is my baby still spitting up...when I read back a post or two and remind myself where we were in November...we are in a better place now.  John naps in his bed and as of Friday has a very early bedtime. (And early wakeup time, ugh.) Anyhow.  I have far too much sleep training information on the brain that no one needs to read. Onto pictures.

Christmas with Mommy and Daddy: Playing with paper

He opened one gift, a moose. (This was a shower gift he hadn't played with yet. Parent shaming.)

T-shirt says, "Mom's Favorite Gift"

Christmas Travel - think he is outgrowing the travel bed?

No really...outgrowing the bed, seriously!

Home from travels and helping Mom and Dad clean out the car.

Refusing to nap. Took his pants off himself! 

Boy in a box! Perfect solution to enable him to sit up after eating so I can make my breakfast. (3 weeks later, he has outgrown box :( )

Putting together John's crib - John gets a ride on Daddy's back in a flagrant misuse of the Baby Bjorn carrier. He survived.

First night in crib...no sure what to think.

Pretty sure he isn't going to nap in this crib thing. (This is taken through the crack in the door. Zoom in if you can. I love the look on his face.)

Table Training: John sits at the table with us during dinner (This is day 2; day 1 lasted only 2 minutes)

He gets an apple slice in this food feeder meshy thing. He is at dinner, after all!

Favorite picture currently (ok, top 5). This was taken via iPad as John was watching himself in the front facing camera (aka mirror.) I guess he cracks himself up.

Thrift store had a sock monkey outfit...couldn't resist!

Quick Post

We've been seeing a LOT more of this lately: This is John asleep himself for a nap. I cannot emphasize how amazing this is, and how relieved I am that this has finally happened.  He will flip himself over (or I'll just put him down on his tummy if he is really tired) and he will bunch up his sheet protector (to spit and drool all over the sheet instead…) so that he has something by his face and then…passes out. Glorious. We are starting to work on CIO during the nighttime too. Its been easier at Grandma and Grandpa's house because the pack and play is right by the bed…I can snooze while he wails (yes, I can!) in relative warmth and comfort…not sitting by his bed or pacing the cold hallways of our home.  We'll see how this progresses when we get home. I'd really like to drop the feeding that occurs somewhere between 12 and 3 soon…

 Haven't uploaded much from Christmas yet (barely took any pictures) but John got a cute outfit from his great Grandma Betty and rocked it like a cute Santa all day.  Here he is with Auntie Amy and then Grandma Loni. I didn't take these…I was napping. I got 2 naps on Christmas. Merry Christmas to me!

In other topics (still related to John) his eyelashes have really grown. I am excited about this because they were STUBBY when he was born. I was worried. But they are pretty long and thick now.  He is getting more hair back too. After 3 months of taking his sweet time getting into 3mo size clothes, I'm not sure he will be in actual 3 mo size for much longer. His torso is long (like Daddy) so he may be in 6m tops soon.  He still has tiny legs though so I think we can wear our pants a bit longer. One pieces are getting tight really fast though…too fast!!!

John got a V-Tech light up ball for Christmas and LOVES the thing. It has a bunch of light up buttons and rolls around a bit.  He is already rolling around to chase it…great…I see some baby fence purchases in our future!

It was a really fun first Christmas with John (even though he slept through most of presents with his first …da dum…2 hour daytime nap in his bed!)  I will post more pictures when I get them, including his 4 month portraits!